Certain philosophers once asked the elders at Rome, "If your God has no pleasure in idolatry, why does He not destroy the objects of it?" "And so He would," was the reply, "if only such objects were worshiped as the world does not stand in need of; but you idolaters will worship the sun and moon, the stars and the constellations. Should He destroy the world because of the fools there are in it? No! The world goes on as it has done all the same, but they who abuse it will have to answer for their conduct. On your philosophy, when one steals a measure of wheat and sows it in his field it should by rights produce no crop; nevertheless the world goes on as if no wrong had been done, and they who abuse it will one day smart for it."
Antoninus Caesar asked Rabbi (the Holy), "Why does the sun rise in the east and set in the west?" "Thou wouldst have asked," answered the Rabbi, "the same question if the order had been reversed." "What I mean," remarked Antoninus, "is this, is there any special reason why he sets in the west?" "Yes," replied Rabbi, "to salute his Creator (who is in the east), for it is said (Neh. ix. 6), 'And the host of heaven worship Thee.'"
Caesar once said to Rabbi Tanchum, "Come, now, let us be one people." "Very well," said Rabbi Tanchum, "only we, being circumcised, cannot possibly become like you; if, however, ye become circumcised we shall be alike in that regard anyhow, and so be as one people." The Emperor said, "Thou hast reasonably answered, but the Roman law is, that he who nonpluses his ruler and puts him to silence shall be cast to the lions." The word was no sooner uttered than the Rabbi was thrown into the den, but the lions stood aloof and did not even touch him. A Sadducee, who looked on, remarked, "The lions do not devour him because they are not hungry," but, when at the royal command, the Sadducee himself was thrown in, he had scarcely reached the lions before they fell upon him and began to tear his flesh and devour him.
A certain Sadducee asked Rabbi Abhu, "Since your God is a priest, as it is written (Exod. xxv. 2), 'That they bring Me an offering,' in what did He bathe Himself after He was polluted by the burial (Num. xix. 11, 18) of the dead body of Moses? It could not be in the water, for it is written (Isa. xl. 12), 'Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?' which therefore are insufficient for Him to bathe in." The Rabbi replied, "He bathed in fire, as it is written (Isa. lxvi. 15), 'For behold the Lord will come with fire.'"