Celsus (Greek: Κέλσος) was a 2nd century Greek philosopher and opponent of Christianity. He is known to us mainly through the reputation of his literary work, The True Word (Account, Doctrine or Discourse) (Λόγος Ἀληθής), almost entirely reproduced in excerpts by Origen in his counter-polemic Contra Celsum of 248, 70 or 80 years after Celsus wrote.
Background
A polemical writer against Christianity, Celsus flourished towards the end of the second century. Very little is known about his personal history except that he lived during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, that his literary activity falls between the years 175 and 180, and that he wrote his The True Word against the Christian religion. He is one of several writers named "Celsus" who appeared as opponents of Christianity in the second century; he is probably the Celsus who was known as a friend of Lucian. Some doubt this identification, however, because Origen writes that Lucian's friend was a follower of Epicurus, and the author of The True Word shows himself to follow Plato and perhaps Philo.[1]
It is generally supposed that Celsus was a Greek or Roman. However, his acquaintance with Judaism[citation needed] and his knowledge of Egyptian ideas and customs incline some historians to think he belonged to the Eastern portion of the empire. Those who believe him to have been a Roman explain his knowledge of Jewish and Egyptian matters by assuming that he acquired that knowledge either by travelling, or by mingling with the foreign population of Rome.
Celsus wrote his work The True Word as a polemic against the Christians in approximately AD 178, or generally between AD 170 and 180. Celsus divided the work into two sections, the one in which objections are put in the mouth of a Jewish interlocutor and the other in which Celsus speaks as the pagan philosopher that he is. Celsus ridiculed Christians for what he perceived to be an advocacy of blind faith instead of reason. About 60 years after it was first published, the book written by Celsus inspired a massive refutation by Origen in Contra Celsum, which is our source of knowledge for Celsus, who was later condemned along with other critics such as Porphyry.
Political environment in which Origen wrote
In 248, although the Church was under no widespread persecution, owing to the inertia or implicit toleration of the emperor Philip the Arab, the atmosphere was full of conflict. Rome was celebrating the 1000th anniversary of its founding, and imperial aspirations and ideas were naturally prominent. The state and the worship of the Caesar, however, were contrasted by Origen with the Christian ideal of a rule and a citizenship beyond this world, to which a thousand years were but as a day. Pride in his faith was blended with a natural anxiety stemming from Celsus' attacks on Christianity, and it was at this point that Origen brought to light again a book written in the days of Marcus Aurelius. Sometimes quoting, sometimes paraphrasing, sometimes merely referring, Origen reproduces and replies to Celsus' arguments. The ones Origen preserves in his own words. His work shows many signs of haste, but he more than compensates for this by the way in which he thus preserves a singularly interesting memorial of the 2nd century.
Nature of Celsus' attacks
Celsus opens the way for his own attack by restating the arguments leveled at the Christians by the Jews. They are: Jesus was born in adultery and nurtured on the wisdom of Egypt. His assertion of divine dignity is disproved by his poverty and his miserable end. Christians have no standing in the Old Testament prophecies and their talk of a resurrection that was only revealed to some of their own adherents is foolishness. Celsus indeed says that the Jews are almost as ridiculous as the foes they attack; the latter said the savior from Heaven had come, the former still looked for his coming. However, the Jews have the advantage of being an ancient nation with an ancient faith.
The idea of an incarnation of God is absurd; why should the human race think itself so superior to bees, ants and elephants as to be put in this unique relation to its maker? And why should God choose to come to men as a Jew? The Christian idea of a special providence is nonsense, an insult to the deity. Christians are like a council of frogs in a marsh or a synod of worms on a dunghill, croaking and squeaking, "For our sakes was the world created."
To Celsus, it was much more reasonable to believe that each part of the world has its own special deity; prophets and supernatural messengers had appeared in more places than one. Besides being bad philosophy based on fictitious history, Christianity is not respectable. Celsus does not indeed repeat the Thyestean charges[clarification needed] so frequently brought against Christians, but he says the Christian teachers who are mainly weavers and cobblers have no power over men of education. The qualifications for conversion are ignorance and childish timidity.
He writes:
"Like all quacks they gather a crowd of slaves, children, women and idlers. I speak bitterly about this because I feel bitterly. When we are invited to the Mysteries the masters use another tone. They say, Come to us you who are of clean hands and pure speech, you who are unstained by crime, who have a good conscience towards God, who have done justly and lived uprightly. The Christians say, Come to us you who are sinners, you who are fools or children, you who are miserable, and you shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven: the rogue, the thief, the burglar, the poisoner, the despoiler of temples and tombs, these are their proselytes.
"Jesus, they say, was sent to save sinners; was he not sent to help those who have kept themselves free from sin? They pretend that God will save the unjust man if he repents and humbles himself. The just man who has held steady from the cradle in the ways of virtue He will not look upon. He pours scorn upon the exorcists; who were clearly in league with the demons themselves – and upon the excesses of the itinerant and undisciplined prophets who roam through cities and camps and commit to everlasting fire cities and lands and their inhabitants.
"Above all Christians are disloyal, and every church is an illicit collegium, an insinuation deadly at any time, but especially so under Marcus Aurelius. Why cannot Christians attach themselves to the great philosophic and political authorities of the world? A properly understood worship of gods and demons is quite compatible with a purified monotheism, and they might as well give up the mad idea of winning the authorities over to their faith, or of hoping to attain anything like universal agreement on divine things."
An interesting feature of Celsus' writing is that he refers to Jesus' father by name as Panthera. It is taken by Celsus as given that Jesus was the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier of this name. There is a tomb of a Roman soldier named Pantera who was stationed in Palestine around the time of Christ's birth. The tomb was found in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.[1]
Viewpoint of Celsus
Celsus and Porphyry are the two early literary opponents of Christianity who have the most claim to consideration, and it is worth noticing that, while they agree alike in high aims, skillful address and devoted toil, their religious standpoints are widely dissimilar. Porphyry is mainly a pure philosopher but also a man of deep religious feeling, whose quest and goal are the knowledge of God; Celsus, the friend of Lucian, though sometimes called Epicurean and sometimes Platonist, is not a professed philosopher at all, but a man of the world. He was really an agnostic at heart, like Caecilius in Minucius Felix, whose religion is nothing more or less than the Empire. He is keen, positive, logical; combining with curious dashes of scepticism many genuine moral convictions and a good knowledge of the various national religions and mythologies whose relative value he is able to appreciate. His manner of thought is under the overpowering influence of the eclectic Platonism of the time, and not of the doctrine of the Epicurean school. He is a man of the world, of philosophical culture, who accepts much of the influential Platonism of the time but has absorbed little of its religious sentiment.
In his antipathy to Christianity, which appears to him barbaric and superstitious, he gives himself up to the scepticism and satire of a man of the world through which he comes in contact with Epicurean tendencies. He quotes approvingly from the Timaeus of Plato: It is a hard thing to find out the Maker and Father of this universe, and after having found him it is impossible to make him known to all. Philosophy can at best impart some notion of God which the soul must itself develop. The Christian on the contrary maintained that God is known to us as far as need be in Christ, and He is accessible to all. Another sharp antithesis was the problem of evil. Celsus saw evil as a constant of the material world. Hence his scorn of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body held then in a very crude form, and his ridicule of any attempt to raise the vulgar masses from their degradation. The real root of the difficulty to Platonist as to Gnostic was his sharp antithesis of form as good and matter as evil.
Location and date of Celsus' writings
Opinion at one time inclined to the view that The True Word was written in Rome, but the evidence (wholly internal) points much more decisively to an Alexandrian origin. Not only do the many intimate references to Egyptian history and customs support this position, but it is clear that the Jews of Celsus are not Western or Roman Jews, but belong to the Orient, and especially to that circle of Judaism which had received and assimilated the idea of the Logos.
The date also is clearly defined. Besides the general indication that the Empire was passing through a military crisis, which points to the long struggle waged by Marcus Aurelius against the Marcomanni and other Germanic tribes, there is a reference (Contra Celsum, viii.69) to the rescript of that emperor impressing on governors and magistrates the duty of keeping a strict watch on extravagances in religion. This edict dates from 176‑177, and inaugurated the persecution which lasted from that time till the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180. During these years Commodus was associated in the imperium, and Celsus has a reference to this joint rule (viii.71).
Subjects of Celsus' writings
Celsus shows himself familiar with the story of Jewish origins.[citation needed] Any pagan who wished to intimately understand and criticize Christianity had to begin by learning from the Jews, and this accounts for the opening chapters of his argument. He has a good knowledge of Genesis and of the Book of Enoch (v. 52), but does not make much use of the Prophets or the Psalter. Regarding the books with which he was familiar his position is similar to that reflected in the contemporary Acts of the Martyrs of Scili. He speaks of a Christian collection of writings, and knew some parts of the synoptic gospels, but was influenced less by the Gospel of John. There is more evidence of Pauline ideas than of Pauline letters.
The gnostic sects and their writings were well known to him (viii.15 and vi.25), and so was the work of Marcion. There are indications, too, of an acquaintance with Justin Martyr and the Sibylline literature (vii. 53, cp. v.61). He is perfectly aware of the internal differences among Christians, and he is familiar with the various stages of development in the history of their religion. These are cleverly employed in order to heighten the impression of its instability. He plays off the various sects, against the primitive age against the present, Christ against the apostles, the various revisions of the Bible against the trustworthiness of the text and so forth, though he admits that everything was not really so bad at first as it is at present.
Influence of Celsus
The True Word had very little influence either on the mutual relations of Church and State, or on classical literature. Echoes of it are found in Tertullian and in Minucius Felix, and then it lay forgotten until Origen gave it new life. A good deal of the neo‑Platonic polemic naturally went back to Celsus, and both the ideas and phrases of The True Word are found in Porphyry and Julian, though the closing of the New Testament canon in the meantime somewhat changed the method of attack for these writers.
Of more importance than these matters is the light which the book sheds on the strength of Christianity about the year 180. He saw the Christianity of his life time to be simply a number of warring sects (mostly Gnostic), and so seeing only a mark of weakness. Yet there is all through an undercurrent which runs against his surface verdicts, and here and there comes to expression. He admits that Christianity has been stated reasonably; against the moral teaching of Jesus he only brings the charge of plagiarism; and with the Christian assertion that the Logos is the Son of God he completely accords.
Most suggestive, however, is his closing appeal to the Christians: "Come", he says, "don't hold aloof from the common regime. Take your place by the emperor's side. Don't claim for yourselves another empire, or any special position. It is an overture for peace. If all were to follow your example and abstain from politics, the affairs of the world would fall into the hands of wild and lawless barbarians (viii.68)."
Conceding that Christians are not without success in business (infructuosi in negotiis), he wants them to be good citizens, to retain their own belief but conform to the state religion. It is an earnest and striking appeal on behalf of the Empire, and shows the terms offered to the Christian sects, as well as the importance of the various sects at the time. Numerically, Christians formed perhaps a tenth of the population, i.e. in Alexandria there would be 50,000-60,000. It is unlikely their influence was greater than what the physical evidence reveals throughout AD 100-400.[2]
External links
References
- ^ "Celsus". Jewish Encyclopedia. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=290&letter=C. Retrieved 2007-05-18.
- ^ Ramsay MacMullen Christianizing the Roman Empire: AD 100-400, Yale University Press 1989.
- Theodor Keim, Gegen die Christen. (1873) [Celsus' wahres Wort], Reprint Matthes & Seitz, München 1991 (ISBN 3-88221-350-7)
- Pélagaud, Etude sur Celse (1878)
- K. J. Neumann's edition in Scriptores Graeci qui Christianam impugnaverunt religionem
- article in Hauck-Herzog's Realencyk. für prot. Theol. where a very full bibliography is given
- W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, i.169 ff.
- Adolf Harnack, Expansion of Christianity, ii. 129 if.
- J. A. Froude, Short Studies, iv.
- Des Origenes: Acht Bücher gegen Celsus. Übersetzt von Paul Koetschau. Josef Kösel Verlag. München. 1927.
- Celsus: Gegen die Christen. Übersetzt von Th. Keim (1873) [Celsus' wahres Wort], Reprint Matthes & Seitz, München 1991 (ISBN 3-88221-350-7)
- Die »Wahre Lehre« des Kelsos. Übersetzt und erklärt von Horacio E. Lona. Reihe: Kommentar zu frühchristlichen Apologeten (KfA, Suppl.-Vol. 1), hrsg. v. N. Brox, K. Niederwimmer, H. E. Lona, F. R. Prostmeier, J. Ulrich. Verlag Herder, Freiburg u.a. 2005 (ISBN 3-451-28599-1)
- Celsus the Platonist - Catholic Encyclopedia article
- Dr. B.A. Zuiddam, Old Critics and Modern Theology. 1995; Dutch Reformed Theological Journal (South Africa), part xxxvi, number 2, June 1995.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
