Abaris’s arrow and Jesus taken up in glory
If this is so, is it not reasonable to think of Jesus, who has been able to establish so much, that no ordinary divinity was in him, but no longer reasonable to think so of Aristeas of Proconnesus, even if Apollo wishes to assign him a place among the gods, nor of those whom Celsus lists when he says, “No one thinks Abaris the Hyperborean a god, who had such power that he was carried along on an arrow”? For with what purpose did the divinity that let Abaris the Hyperborean be carried along on an arrow bestow so great a gift on him? So that the human race might be helped in some way? Or what did he himself gain by being carried along on an arrow? And this is even granting that these things are by no means fictions but came about through the cooperation of some demon.
But if my Jesus is said to have been taken up “in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16), I see the plan in it: the God who brought this about was commending the teacher to those who saw it, so that, as men contending not for human teachings but for divine teaching, they might devote themselves with all their strength to the God over all and do everything to please him, as those who would receive at the divine judgment seat, according to their deserts, whatever they had done in this life, whether good or evil (compare 2 Corinthians 5:10).
Greek
Εἰ δὲ ταῦθ᾿ οὕτως ἔχει, πῶς οὐκ εὔλογον μὲν νομίζειν περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, τοσαῦτα συστῆσαι δεδυνημένου, ὅτι οὐχ ἡ τυχοῦσα θειότης ἦν ἐν αὐτῷ, οὐκέτι δὲ οὔτε ἐν τῷ Προκοννησίῳ Ἀριστέᾳ. κἂν ὁ Ἀπόλλων αὐτὸν βούληται ἐν θεῶν μοίρᾳ νέμειν, οὔτ᾿ ἐν οἷς ἐξαριθμεῖται ὁ Κέλσος λέγων ὅτι οὐδεὶς νομίζει θεὸν Ἄβαριν τὸν Ὑπερβόρειον, ὃς δύναμιν εἶχε τοσήνδε, ὥστε ὀϊστῷ [βέλει] συμφέρεσθαι; τί γὰρ βουλομένη ἡ χαρισαμένη θειότης τῷ Ὑπερβορείῳ Ἀβάριδι ὀϊστῷ συμφέρεσθαι τὸ τηλικοῦτον αὐτῷ ἐδωρεῖτο: ἵνα τι ὠφεληθῇ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος; ἢ αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος τί ὤνατο ὀϊστῷ συμφέρεσθαι; ἵνα καὶ συγχωρηθῇ ταῦτα μηδαμῶς εἶναι πλάσματα ἀλλὰ κατά τινα δαιμονίου συνεργίαν γεγονέναι. ἐὰν δὲ ὁ ἐμὸς Ἰησοῦς ἀναλαμβάνεσθαι „ἐν δόξῃ“ λέγηται, ὁρῶ τὴν οἰκονομίαν, ὅτι τοῖς θεωρήσασι συνίστη τὸν διδάσκαλον ὁ τοῦτ᾿ ἐνεργήσας γενέσθαι θεός· ἵν᾿ ὡς οὐχ ὑπὲρ ἀνθρωπίνων μαθημάτων ἀλλὰ θείας διδασκαλίας ἀγωνιζόμενοι ὅση δύναμις ἑαυτοὺς ἀναθῶσι τῷ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεῷ καὶ πάντα πράττωσιν ὑπὲρ τῆς πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἀρεσκείας, ὡς ἀποληψόμενοι κατ᾿ ἀξίαν ἐν θείῳ δικαστηρίῳ ἅπερ ἐν τῷ βίῳ τούτῳ εὖ ἢ κακῶς πεποιήκασιν.