Lactantius — Divine Institutes 4.15
Since we have spoken of the second birth, by which he showed himself to humans in flesh, let us come to those wondrous works which, though they were signs of heavenly power, the Jews thought magical. When he first began to grow up, he was dipped by the prophet John in the Jordan river, that by a spiritual washing he might abolish not his own sins—which he assuredly did not have—but those of the flesh he was bearing, so that just as he would save the Jews by the circumcision he undertook, so also he would save the nations by baptism, that is by the pouring of purifying dew. Then a voice was heard from heaven: “You are my Son; today I have begotten you,” which voice is found predicted in David. And the Spirit of God descended upon him, formed in the appearance of a white dove.
From then he began to work the greatest powers—not by magical tricks, which show nothing true and solid, but by heavenly force and power, which had long been sung by the announcing prophets. The works are so many that one book is not enough to cover them all. I will therefore recount them briefly and by kinds, without naming persons and places, so that I may reach the account of his passion and cross. Wherever he went he restored the sick and weak and those laboring under every kind of disease to health in one word and one moment—so that those seized in all their limbs, suddenly strengthened, themselves carried back the beds on which they had a little earlier been brought. To the lame he gave not only walking but even running. He restored to their former sight eyes that had been in deepest darkness. He loosed the tongues of the mute into speech, opened hearing for the deaf, and cleansed those polluted and sprinkled with spots. And he did all this not by hands or some remedy, but by word and command—as the Sibyl also had predicted—nor is it any wonder that he did wonders by a word, when he himself was the Word of God.
He also stilled winds by a word and walked the raging sea; he raised the dead and from one basket there was bread enough for men—as other Sibylline lines also say. Some, leaving these testimonies, usually flee to this: that those songs are not Sibylline but invented and composed by our people. Anyone who has read Cicero and Varro and other ancients who mention the Erythraean Sibyl and the rest will not think that; those authors died before Christ was born according to the flesh. But I do not doubt that those songs were held for delirium in earlier times, when no one understood them: they denounced monstrous miracles whose reason, time, and author were not marked. So they lay through many ages; afterward they were noticed, when the birth of Christ and the passion opened the secrets—just as also the voices of the prophets, which though read by the people of the Jews for a thousand five hundred years and more were not understood until Christ interpreted them by word and works. For the prophets had announced him, and what they spoke could in no way be understood unless the whole had been fulfilled.
Latin
Quoniam de secunda natiuitate diximus, qua se hominibus in carne monstrauit, ueniamus ad opera illa miranda, quae cum essent caelestis indicia uirtutis, magum Iudaei putauerunt. cum primum coepit adolescere, tinctus est ab Iohanne propheta in Iordane flumine, ut lauacro spiritali peccata non sua, quae utique non habebat, sed carnis quam gerebat aboleret, ut quemadmodum Iudaeos suscepta circumcisione, sic etiam gentes baptismo id est purifici roris perfusione saluaret. tum uox audita de caelo est: filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te. quae uox aput Dauid praedicta inuenitur. et descendit super eum spiritus dei formatus in specie columbae candidae. exinde maximas uirtutes coepit operari, non praestrigiis magicis, quae nihil ueri ac solidi ostentant, sed ui ac potestate caelesti: quae iam pridem prophetis nuntiantibus canebantur. quae opera tam multa sunt, ut unus liber ad conplectenda omnia satis non sit. enumerabo igitur illa breuiter atque generatim sine ulla personarum ac locorum designatione, ut ad exponendam passionis eius crucisque rationem possim peruenire, quo iam dudum festinat oratio. uirtutes eius fuerunt quas Apollo portentificas appellauit, quod quacumque iter faciebat, aegros ac debiles et omni morborum genere laborantes uno uerbo unoque momento reddebat incolumes, adeo ut membris omnibus capti receptis repente uiribus roborati ipsi lectulos suos reportarent, in quibus fuerant paulo ante delati. claudis uero ac pedum uitio adflictis non modo gradiendi, sed etiam currendi dabat facultatem. tum quorum caeca lumina in altissimis tenebris erant, eorum oculos in pristinum restituebat aspectum. mutorum quoque linguas in eloquium sermonemque soluebat item surdorum patefactis auribus insinuabat auditum, pollutos et aspersos maculis repurgabat. et haec omnia non manibus aut aliqua medella, sed uerbo ac iussione faciebat, sicut etiam Sibylla praedixerat: πάντα λόγῳ πράσσων πᾶσάν τε νόσον θεραπεύων nec utique mirum quod uerbo faceret mirabilia, cum ipse esset dei uerbum caelesti uirtute ac potestate subnixum. nec satis fuit quod uires inbecillis redderet, quod debilibus integritatem, quod aegris et languentibus sanitatem, nisi etiam mortuos suscitaret uelut e somno solutos ad uitamque reuocaret. quae uidentes tunc Iudaei daemonica potentia fieri arguebant, cum omnia sic futura ut facta sunt arcanae illorum litterae continerent. legebant quippe cum aliorum prophetarum tum Esaiae uerba dicentis: confortamini, manus resolutae, et genua debilia, consolamini. qui estis pusilli animi, nolite timere, nolite metuere. deus noster iudicium retribuet, ipse ueniet et saluos faciet nos. tunc aperientur oculi caecorum et aures surdorum audient: tunc saliet clodus sicut cernus et plana erit lingua mutorum, quia rupta est in deserto aqua et riuus in terra sitienti. sed et Sibylla eadem cecinit his uersibus: νεκρῶν δὲ ἀνάστασις ἔσται καὶ χωλῶν δρόμος ὠκύτατος καὶ κωφὸς ἀκούσει καὶ τυφλοὶ βλέψουσι, λαλήσουσ᾽ οὐ λαλέοντες. νεϰρω̃ν 8\' ὲπανάστασις eatat xat xwXoiv δρόμος ὼϰύτατος ϰαὶ ϰωϕός axoucet xat tuaXot βλέψουσι, λαλήσουσ\' OJ λαλέοντες. ob has eius uirtutes et opera diuina cum magna illum multitudo sequeretur uel debilium uel aegrorum uel eorum qui curandos suos offerre cupiebant, ascendit in montem quendam desertum, ut ibi adoraret. ubi cum triduo moratus esset. ac fame populus laboraret, uocauit discipulos suos quaerens quantos secum cibos gestarent. at illi quinque panes et duos pisces in para se habere dixerunt.
adferri ea iussit ac multitudinem per quinquagenos distributam discumbere. quod dum discipuli faciunt, frangebat ipse panem minutatim carnemque piscium comminuebat: et utraque in manibus eius augebantur. et cum adponere illa populo discipulis imperasset, saturata sunt quinque milia hominum et insuper duodecim cophini de residuis fragminibus inpleti. quid aut dici aut fieri potest mirabilius? at id futurum Sibylla cecinerat olim, cuius uersus tales feruntur: ἐκ τ\' ἄρτων ἅμα πέντε καὶ ἰχθύος εἰναλίοιο ἀνδρῶν χιλιάδας ἐν ἐρήμῳ πέντε κορέσσει καὶ τὰ περισσεύοντα λαβὼν μετὰ κλάσματα πάντα, δώδεκα πληρώσει κοφίνους εἰς ἐλπίδα λαῶν. I* t\' aptwv άμα πέντε ϰαὶ ἰχθύος εἰναλίοιο ἀνδρω̃ν χιλιάδας ev wevte ϰορέσσει xai xa ρερισσεύοντα λαβὼν μετὰ ϰλάσματα πάντα δώδεϰα πληρώσει ϰοϕίνους et ὲλπίδα λαω̃ν. quaero igitur quid hic potuerit ars magica moliri, cuius peritia nihil aliut quam ad circumscribendos oculos ualet. idem secessurus orandi gratia, sicut solebat, in montem praecepit discipulis, ut nauiculam sumerent seque praecederent. atque illi urguente iam uespera profecti contrario uento laborare coeperunt. cumque iam medium fretum tenerent, tum pedibus mare ingressus consecutus est eos tamquam in solido gradiens, non ut poetae Orionem mentiuntur in pelago incedentem, qui demersa corporis parte umero supereminet undas. et rursus cum obdormisset in naui ac uentus usque ad extremum periculum saeuire coepisset, excitatus e somno silere uentum protinus iussit et fluctus qui maximi ferebantur conquiescere: statimque sub uerbo eius tranquillitas insecuta est. mentiuntur fortasse litterae sanctae docentes tantam fuisse in eo potestatem, ut imperio suo cogeret uentos obsequi, maria seruire, morbos cedere, inferos oboedire. quid quod eadem Sibyllae carminibus suis ante docuerunt? quarum una, cuius supra fecimus mentionem, sic ait.: τοὺς ἀνέμους παύσειε λόγῳ, στρώσει δὲ θάλασσαν μαινομένην ποσὶν εἰρήνης πίστει τε πατήσας. et rursus alia, quae dicit: κύματα πεζεύσει, νόσον ἀνθρώπων ἀπολύσει, στήσει τεθνηῶτας, ἀπώσεται ἄλγεα πολλὰ, ἐκ δὲ μιῆς πήρης ἄρτου κόρος ἔσσεται ἀνδρῶν. his testimoniis quidam relicti solent eo confugere, ut aiant non esse illa carmina Sibyllina, sed a nostris ficta atque conposita. quod profecto non putabit qui Ciceronem Varronemque legerit aliosque ueteres, qui Erythraeam Sibyllam ceterasque commemorant, quarum ex libris ista exempla proferimus: qui auctores ante obierunt quam Christus secundum carnem nasceretur. uerum non dubito quin illa carmina prioribus temporibus pro deliramentis habita sint, cum ea nemo intellegeret, denuntiabant enim monstruosa quaedam miracula, quorum nec ratio nec tempus nec auctor designabatur. denique Erythraea fore ait ut diceretur insana et mendax. ait enim: φήσουσι Σιβλλην μαινομένην, ψευστείραν· ἐπὰν δὲ γένηται ἅπαντα, τηνίκα μου μνήμην ποιήσετε κοὐκέτι μ᾽ οὐδεὶς μαινομένην φήσειε, θεοῦ μεγάλοιο προφῆτιν. iacuerunt igitur multis saeculis, postea uero animaduersa sunt quam natiuitas Christi et passio patefecit arcana, sicut etiam uoces prophetarum. quae cum per annos mille quingentos et eo amplius lectae fuissent a populo Iudaeorum, nec tamen intellectae (sunt) nisi postquam illas Christus et uerbo et operibus interpretatus est — illum enim prophetae adnuntiauerant — nec ullo modo poterant quae illi loquebantur intellegi, nisi fuissent uniuersa conpleta.