The charge of magic learned in Egypt
Next he takes the account written in the Gospel according to Matthew of Jesus' journey into Egypt (Matthew 2:13–15). He does not believe the miraculous part of it, either that an angel gave the command for it, or whether Jesus' leaving Judea and staying in Egypt hinted at some hidden meaning. Instead he has made up another story. In a way he grants the miraculous works that Jesus did, by which he persuaded the many to follow him as Christ; but he wants to slander them as done by magic and not by divine power. For he says that “he was brought up in obscurity, went to Egypt to work for hire, tried his hand there at certain powers, and came back from there proclaiming himself God on the strength of those powers.”
For my part, I do not know how a magician would have laboured to teach a doctrine that persuades people to do everything in the belief that God will judge each person for all that he has done, and that shapes in this way his own disciples, whom he meant to use as ministers of his teaching. Did they too, having been taught in this way to work miracles, win over those who heard them, or did they not work miracles at all? To say that they worked no miracles at all, but that, once they believed, they gave themselves to teaching a new doctrine to whomever they came among, without any skill in speech comparable to the dialectical wisdom of the Greeks, is wholly unreasonable. For in what did they trust when they taught the doctrine and brought in something new? But if they too performed miracles, what likelihood is there that magicians would have exposed themselves to such great dangers for a teaching that forbids magic?
Greek
Ἔτι δὲ λαβὼν ἀπὸ τῆς γεγραμμένης ἐν τῷ κατὰ Ματθαῖον εὐαγγελίῳ ἱστορίας περὶ τοῦ εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἀποδεδημηκέναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν τοῖς μὲν παραδόξοις εἰς τοῦτο οὐκ ἐπίστευσεν, οὔθ᾿ ὅτι ἄγγελος τοῦτο ἔχρησεν, οὔτε εἴ τι ᾐνίσσετο ὁ καταλιπὼν τὴν Ἰουδαίαν Ἰησοῦς καὶ Αἰγύπτῳ ἐπιδημῶν· ἀνέπλασε δέ τι ἕτερον. συγκατατιθέμενος μέν πως ταῖς παραδόξοις δυνάμεσιν, ἃς Ἰησοῦς ἐποίησεν, ἐν αἷς τοὺς πολλοὺς ἔπεισεν ἀκολουθεῖν αὐτῷ ὡς Χριστῷ, διαβάλλειν δ᾿ αὐτὰς βουλόμενος ὡς ἀπὸ μαγείας καὶ οὐ θείᾳ δυνάμει γεγενημένας· φησὶ γὰρ αὐτὸν σκότιον τραφέντα, μισθαρνήσαντα εἰς Αἴγυπτον, δυνάμεών τινων πειραθέντα ἐκεῖθεν ἐπανελθεῖν, θεὸν δι᾿ ἐκείνας τὰς δυνάμεις ἑαυτὸν ἀναγορεύοντα. ἐγὼ δ᾿ οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅπως ἂν μάγος ἠγωνίσατο διδάξαι λόγον, πείθοντα πάντα πράττειν, ὡς θεοῦ κρίνοντος ἕκαστον ἐπὶ πᾶσι τοῖς πεπραγμένοις, καὶ ουτω διατιθέντα τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μαθητὰς, οἷς ἔμελλε χρήσασθαι διακόνοις τῆς ἑαυτοῦ διδασκαλίας. ἆρα γὰρ κἀκεῖνοι οὕτω διδαχθέντες ποιεῖν δυνάμεις ᾕρουν τοὺς ἀκούοντας ἢ οὐδὲ δυνάμεις ἐποίουν; τὸ μὲν οὖν λέγειν ὅτι οὐδαμῶς δυνάμεις ἐποίουν ἀλλὰ πιστεύσαντες οὐδεμιᾷ λόγων ἱκανότητι παραπλησίως τῇ ἐν διαλεκτικῇ Ἑλλήνων σοφίᾳ ἐπέδωκαν ἑαυτοὺς τῷ καινὸν διδάσκειν λόγον οἷς ἂν ἐπιδημήσωσι πάνυ ἐστὶν ἄλογον· τίνι γὰρ θαῤῥοῦντες ἐδίδασκον τὸν λόγον καὶ ἐκαινοτόμουν; εἰ δὲ δυνάμεις ἐτέλουν κἀκεῖνοι, τίνα ἔχει πιθανότητα τὸ μάγους τοσούτοις κινδύνοις ἑαυτοὺς παραβεβληκέναι (διὰ) διδασκαλίαν μαγείας ἀπαγορεύουσαν;