What we hold against the Jews
After this the Jew says to us further: “Is this, then, what you charge against us, most faithful ones: that we do not regard this man as a god, and do not agree with you that he endured these things for the benefit of men, so that we too might scorn punishments?”
To this too we shall say that we charge the Jews, who were brought up in the law and the prophets that announced Christ beforehand, with this: they neither refute the proofs we bring them that this man is the Christ, and so make the refutation their defence for not believing; nor, since they cannot refute them, do they believe in the one who was foretold. He showed plainly, in those who became his disciples, even after the time when he was in the body, that he endured these things for the benefit of men. The aim of his first coming was not to judge human affairs and, before teaching and bearing witness about what must be done, to punish the wicked and save the good. It was rather to sow his own word in a wonderful way, and with a power more divine, in the whole human race, as the prophets had also shown.
We also charge them because, when he displayed the power that was his, they did not believe him, but said that he cast the demons out of human souls “by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons” (Matthew 12:24; Luke 11:15). And we charge them that they slander even his love for humanity. He did not overlook a single city, nor even a single village, of Judea, so that he might proclaim the kingdom of God everywhere (Matthew 9:35; Luke 8:1); yet they slander this as vagrancy, and accuse him of wandering and roaming about in an ignoble body. But a body that endured so many labours for the benefit of those everywhere who could hear is not ignoble.
Greek
Μετὰ ταῦτά φησιν ἔτι πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὁ Ἰουδαῖος· ταῦτ᾿ ουν ἡμῖν ἐγκαλεῖτε, ὦ πιστότατοι, διότι τοῦτον οὐ νομίζομεν θεὸν οὐδὲ συντιθέμεθα ὑμῖν ὅτι ἐπ᾿ ἀνθρώπων ὠφελείᾳ ταῦτα ὑπέμεινεν, ἵνα καὶ ἡμεῖς κολάσεων καταφρονῶμεν; καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα δὲ φήσομεν ὅτι ἐγκαλοῦμεν Ἰουδαίοις, ἐντραφεῖσι νόμῳ καὶ προφήταις τοῖς Χριστὸν προκαταγγέλλουσιν, ἐπεὶ μήτε τὰ προσαγόμενα αὐτοῖς ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν εἰς ἀπόδειξιν περὶ τοῦ τοῦτον εἶναι τὸν Χριστὸν λύουσιν. ἀπολογίαν ποριζόμενοι τοῦ μὴ πιστεύειν τὴν λύσιν, μήτε ὡς μὴ λύοντες πιστεύουσι τῷ προφητευθέντι, ἐναργῶς παραστήσαντι ἐν τοῖς μαθητεύσασιν αὐτῷ καὶ μετὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆς ἐνσωματώσεως ἑαυτοῦ ὅτι ἐπ᾿ ἀνθρώπων ὠφελείᾳ ταῦθ᾿ ὑπέμεινε. σκοπὸν ἔχων τῆς πρώτης ἐπιδημίας οὐχὶ κρίνειν τὰ ἀνθρώπων καὶ πρὸ τοῦ διδάξαι καὶ μαρτύρασθαι περὶ τῶν πρακτέων καὶ μὴ τοὺς μὲν πονηροὺς κολάζειν τοὺς δ᾿ ἀγαθοὺς σῴζειν. ἀλλὰ σπεῖραι παραδόξως τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λόγον καὶ μετά τινος δυνάμεως θειοτέρας παντὶ τῷ ἀνθρώπων γένει, ὡς οἱ προφῆται καὶ ταῦτα παρέστησαν. ἔτι δ᾿ ἐγκαλοῦμεν αὐτοῖς, ἐπεὶ τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν δύναμιν ἐπιδεικνυμένῳ οὐκ ἐπίστευσαν ἀλλ᾿ „ἐν Βεελζεβοὺλ, τῷ ἄρχοντι τῶν δαιμονίων.“ εἰρήκασι τοὺς δαίμονας αὐτὸν ἀποβεβληκέναι τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ψυχῆς. ἐγκαλοῦμεν δ᾿ ὅτι καὶ τὸ φιλάνθρωπον αὐτοῦ, μὴ ὑπερορῶντος οὐ μόνον πόλιν ἀλλ᾿ οὐδὲ κώμην τινὰ τῆς Ἰουδαίας, ἵνα πανταχοῦ ἀπαγγείλῃ τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ, διαβάλλοντες πλάνην κατηγοροῦσιν αὐτοῦ ὡς ἀλωμένου καὶ ἀλύοντος ἐν ἀγεννεῖ σώματι· οὐ γὰρ ἀγεννὲς τὸ τοσούτους ὑπομεῖναν ὑπὲρ ὠφελείας τῶν πανταχοῦ ἀκούειν δυναμένων πόνους.