Healing and prophecy do not prove a god
Even if I grant that a certain demon who is a physician, the one called Asclepius, heals bodies, I would say to those who marvel at such a thing, or at the prophecy of Apollo: if the healing of bodies is a morally indifferent thing, something that falls to the lot not only of the good but also of the wicked, and if foreknowledge of the future is also indifferent (for the one who foreknows does not necessarily display goodness), then show how those who heal or foreknow are in no way wicked, but are proved by every means to be good, and not far from being thought gods. But they will not be able to prove that those who heal or foreknow are good, since many are said to be healed who are unworthy even to live, whom the wise man, were he a physician, would never have wished to heal, since they live as they ought not.
In the oracles of the Pythian god, too, you would find some commands that are not reasonable. I shall set out two of them for the present. He ordered that Cleomedes, the boxer, I think, be honoured with honours equal to a god's. I do not know what he saw that was so venerable in his boxing; yet he did not honour Pythagoras or Socrates with the honours of the boxer. Again, by calling Archilochus a "servant of the Muses", a man who displayed his poetic art on the vilest and most licentious subject matter and showed a licentious and impure character, he proclaimed him a pious man, in so far as he was a "servant of the Muses", who are reputed to be gods. I do not know whether even an ordinary person would say that the pious man is not adorned with every kind of moderation and virtue, or whether a decent man would say the sort of things contained in the unseemly iambics of Archilochus.
If nothing divine shows itself on its face in the medicine of Asclepius and the prophecy of Apollo, how could anyone reasonably worship them as gods, as pure beings, even if I grant that these things are so? Above all when, through the Pythian vent, the prophetic spirit, Apollo, the one pure of an earthly body, steals into the so-called prophetess through her female parts as she sits over it? We hold no such opinion about Jesus and his power. For the body born of the virgin was made up of human matter, open to human wounds and to death.
Greek
Ἵνα δὲ καὶ δῶ ἰατρόν τινα δαίμονα θεραπεύειν σώματα τὸν καλούμενον Ἀσκληπιὸν, εἴποιμ᾿ ἂν πρὸς τοὺς θαυμάζοντας τὸ τοιοῦτο ἢ τὴν Ἀπόλλωνος μαντείαν ὅτι. εἴπερ μέσον ἐστὶν ἡ τῶν σωμάτων ἰατρικὴ καὶ πρᾶγμα πίπτον οὐκ εἰς ἀστείους μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ φαύλους. μέσον δὲ καὶ ἡ περὶ τῶν μελλόντων πρόγνωσις (οὐ γὰρ πάντως ἐμφαίνει τὸ ἀστεῖον ὁ προγινώσκων), παραστήσατε πῶς οὐδαμῶς μέν εἰσι φαῦλοι οἱ θεραπεύοντες ἢ οἱ προγινώσκοντες παντὶ δὲ τρόπῳ ἀποδείκνυνται ἀστεῖοί τινες καὶ οὐ μακρὰν τοῦ ὑποληφθῆναι εἶναι θεοί. ἀλλ᾿ οὐ δυνήσονται ἀστείους ἀποδεῖξαι τοὺς θεραπεύοντας ἢ τοὺς προγινώσκοντας. πολλῶν καὶ ἀναξίων τοῦ ζῆν θεραπεύεσθαι λεγομένων, οὓς οὐκ ἂν οὐδ᾿ ὁ σοφὸς ἰατρὸς ὢν θεραπεῦσαι ἠθέλησεν ἀκαθηκόντως ζῶντας. καὶ ἐν τοῖς χρησμοῖς δὲ τοῦ Πυθίου εὕροις ἂν προστασσόμενά τινα οὐκ εὔλογα. ὧν δύο ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος παραθήσομαι, ὅτι Κλεομήδην μὲν, οἶμαι τὸν πύκτην, ἰσοθέοις τιμαῖς ἐκέλευε τιμᾶσθαι. οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅ τι ποτὲ σεμνὸν ἰδὼν ἐν τῇ πυκτικῇ αὐτοῦ, οὔτε δὲ Πυθαγόραν οὔτε Σωκράτην ἐτίμησε ταῖς τιμαῖς τοῦ πύκτου. ἀλλὰ καὶ „Μουσῶν θεράποντα“ εἰπὼν τὸν Ἀρχίλοχον. ἄνδρα ἐν κακίστῃ καὶ ἀσελγεστάτῃ ὑποθέσει ἐπιδειξάμενον τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ποιητικὴν καὶ ἦθος ἀσελγὲς καὶ ἀκάθαρτον παραστήσαντα. ὅσον ἐπὶ τῷ „θεράποντα“ εἶναι „Μουσῶν,“ νομιζομένων εἶναι θεῶν. εὐσεβῆ τινα ἀνηγόρευσεν. οὐκ οἶδα δὲ εἰ καὶ ὁ τυχὼν τὸν εὐσεβῆ φήσει μὴ πάσῃ κεκοσμῆσθαι μετριότητι καὶ ἀρετῇ, καὶ κόσμιος τοιαῦτα λέγοι ἂν, ὁποῖα περιέχουσιν οἱ μὴ σεμνοὶ τοῦ Ἀρχιλόχου ἴαμβοι. εἰ δὲ μηδὲν θεῖον αὐτόθεν ἐμφαίνεται ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀσκληπιοῦ ἰατρικῆς καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος μαντικῆς, πῶς εὐλόγως ἄν τις. ἵνα καὶ δῶ ταῦθ᾿ οὕτως ἔχειν. ὡς θεοὺς αὐτοὺς σέβοι ἂν καθαρούς τινας; καὶ μάλισθ᾿ ὅτε διὰ τοῦ Πυθίου στομίου περικαθεζομένῃ τῇ καλουμένῃ προφήτιδι πνεῦμα διὰ τῶν γυναικείων ὑπεισέρχεται τὸ μαντικὸν, ὁ Ἀπόλλων, τὸ καθαρὸν ἀπὸ γηΐνου σώματος. οὐδὲν δὲ τοιοῦτον ἡμεῖς περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ δοξάζομεν. τὸ γὰρ γεγεννημένον ἀπὸ τῆς παρθένου σῶμα ἦν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ὕλης συνεστηκὸς, δεκτικὸν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων τραυμάτων καὶ θανάτου.