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CELSUS (c. A.D. 178)
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See also:CELSUS (c. A.D. 178) , a 2nd-See also:century opponent of See also:Christianity, known to us mainly through the reputation of his See also:literary See also:work, The True Word (or See also:Account; &X170rts Xoyos), published by See also:Origen in 248, seventy years after its See also:composition. In that See also:year, though the See also: His assertion of See also:argument. divine dignity is disproved by his poverty and his See also:miser- able end. Christians have no See also: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 saviour from See also:Heaven had come, the former still looked for his coming. However, the Jews have the See also:advantage of being an See also:ancient nation with an ancient faith. The See also:idea of an Incarnation of See also:God is absurd; why should the human See also:race think itself so See also: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 See also:Jew? The Christian idea of a See also:special See also:providence is nonsense, an insult to the deity. Christians are like a See also:council of frogs in a See also:marsh or a See also:synod of See also:worms on a dunghill, croaking and squeaking, " For our sakes was the world created." It is much more reasonable to believe that each See also:part of the world has its own special deity; prophets and supernatural messengers had forsooth appeared in more. places than one. Besides being See also:bad See also:philosophy based on fictitious See also:history, Christianity is not respectable. Celsus does not indeed repeat the Thyestean charges so frequently brought against Christians by their calumniators, but he says the Christian teachers who are mainly weavers and cobblers have no See also:power over men of See also:education. The qualifications for See also:conversion are See also:ignorance and childish timidity. Like all quacks they gather a See also:crowd of slaves, See also:children, See also:women and idlers. " I speak bitterly about this," says Celsus, " because I feel bitterly. When we are invited to the Mysteries the masters use another See also:tone. They say, ' Come to us ye who are of clean hands and pure speech, ye who are unstained by See also:crime, who have a See also:good See also:conscience towards God, who have done justly and lived uprightly.' The Jews say, ' Come to us ye who are sinners, ye who are See also:fools or children, ye who are miserable, and ye shall enter into the See also:kingdom of Heaven.' The See also:rogue, the thief, the burglar, the poisoner, the spoiler of temples and tombs, these are their proselytes. Jesus, they say, was sent to See also:save sinners; was he not sent to help those who have kept themselves See also:free from See also:sin? They pretend that God will save the unjust See also:man if he repents and humbles himself. The just man who has held steady from the See also:cradle in the ways of virtue He will not look upon." He pours scorn upon the exorcists—who were clearly in See also:league with the demons themselves—and upon the' excesses of the itinerant and undisciplined " prophets " who roam through cities and camps and commit to See also:everlasting See also:fire cities and lands and their inhabitants. Above all Christians are disloyal, and every church is an illicit collegium, an insinuation deadly at any See also:time, but especially so under Marcus Aurelius. Why cannot Christians attach themselves to the great philosophic and See also: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. Celsus and See also:Porphyry (q.v.) are the two See also:early literary opponents of Christianity who have most claim to See also:consideration, and it is The See also:worth noticing that, while they agree alike in high See also:philo- aims, in skilful address and in devoted toil, their sophy of religious standpoints are widely dissimilar. Porphyry Celsus. is above all a pure philosopher, but also a man of deep religious feeling, whose quest and See also:goal are the knowledge of God; Celsus, the friend of See also:Lucian, though sometimes called Epicurean and sometimes Platonist, is not a professed philosopher at all, but a man of the world, really at See also:heart an agnostic, like See also:Caecilius in Minucius See also:Felix (q.v.), whose See also:religion is nothing more or less than the Empire. He is keen, See also:positive, logical; combining with curious dashes of See also:scepticism many genuine moral convictions and a good knowledge of the various See also:national religions and mythologies whose relative value he is able to appreciate. " His manner of thought is under the overpowering See also:influence of the eclectic See also:Platonism of the time, and not of the See also:doctrine of the Epicurean school. He is a man of the world, of philosophi:: culture, who accepts much of the influential Platonism of the time but has absorbed little of its positive religious sentiment. In his antipathy to Christianity, which appears to him barbaric. and superstitious, he gives himself up to the scepticism and See also:satire of a man of the world through which he comes in contact with Epicurean tendencies." He quotes approvingly from the See also:Timaeus of See also:Plato: " It is a hard thing to find out the Maker and See also:Father of this universe, and after having found him it is impossible to make him known to all." Philosophy can at best impart to the See also:fit some notion of him which the elect soul must itself develop. The Christian on the contrary maintained that God is known to us as far as need be in See also:Christ, and He is accessible to all. Another See also:sharp See also:antithesis was the problem of evil. Celsus made evil See also:constant in amount as being the correlative of See also:matter. Hence his scorn of the doctrine of the resurrection of the See also:body held then in a very crude See also:form, and his ridicule of any See also:attempt to raise the vulgar masses from their degradation. The real See also:root of the difficulty to Platonist as to Gnostic was his sharp antithesis of form as good and matter as evil. See also:Opinion at one time inclined to the view that the True Word was written in See also:Rome, but the See also:evidence (wholly See also:internal) points much more decisively to an See also:Egyptian, and in particular See also:place d an Alexandrian origin. Not only do the many intimate date. references to Egyptian history and customs support this position, but it is clear that the Jews of Celsus are not Western or See also:Roman Jews, but belong to the Orient, and especially to that circle of Judaism which had received and assimilated the idea of the See also:Logos. The date also is clearly defined. Besides the See also:general indication that the Empire was passing through a military crisis, which points to the See also:long struggle waged by Marcus Aurelius against the See also:Marcomanni and other*Germanic tribes, there is a reference (Contra Celsum, viii. 69) to the rescript of that emperor impressing on See also:governors and magistrates the See also:duty of keeping a strict See also:watch on extravagances in religion. This See also:edict See also:dates from 176-i77, and inaugurated the persecution which lasted from that time till the See also:death of Marcus Aurelius in 180. During these years See also:Commodus was associated with Marcus in the imperium, and Celsus has a reference to this See also:joint rule (viii. 71). Celsus shows himself See also:familiar with the See also:story of Jewish origins, Any See also:pagan who wished to understand and criticize Christianity intimately had to begin by learning from the Jews, Value In and this accounts for the opening chapters of his argu- the history went. He has a good knowledge of See also:Genesis and of chrta-See also:Exodus, refers to the stories of See also:Jonah, See also:Daniel (vii. 53) tlantty. and See also:Enoch (v. 52), but does not make much use of the Prophets or the Psalter. As regards the New Testament his position is closely in agreement with that reflected in the See also:con-temporary Acts of the Martyrs of Scili. He speaks of a Christian collection of writings, and knew and used the gospels, but was influenced less by the See also:fourth than by the Synoptics. 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 Manion. There are indications, too, of an acquaintance with See also:Justin See also:Martyr and the Sibylline literature (vii. 53, cp. V. 61). " He is perfectly aware of the internal See also:differences between Christians, and he is familiar with the various stages of development in the history of their religion. These are cleverly employed in See also:order to heighten the impression of its instability. He plays off the sects against the See also:Catholic Church, the See also:primitive See also:age against the See also:present, Christ against the apostles, the various revisions of the See also: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." 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 See also:Tertullian and in Minucius Felix, and then it See also:lay forgotten until Origen gave it new See also:life. A good See also: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 See also:Julian, though the closing of the New Testament See also: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 the Church about the year 180. It is of course easy to see that Celsus had no See also:apprehension of the spiritual needs even of his own day which it was the Christian purpose ,to satisfy, that he could not grasp anything of the new life enjoyed by the poor in spirit, and that he underrated the significance of the Church, regarding it simply as one of a number of warring sections (mostly Gnostic), and so seeing only a See also:mark of weakness. And yet, there is all through an undercurrent which runs hard against his See also:surface verdicts, and here and there comes to expression. He is See also:bound to admit that Christianity has been stated reasonably; against the moral teaching of Jesus he can only bring the lame See also:charge of See also:plagiarism, and with the Christian assertion that the Logos is the Son of God he completely accords. Most suggestive, however, is his closing See also:appeal to the Christians. " Come," he says, " See also:don't hold aloof from the See also:common regime. Take your place by the emperor's See also:side. Don't claim for yourselves another empire, or any special position." It is an See also:overture for See also:peace. " If all were to follow your example and abstain from politics, the affairs of the world would fall into the hands of See also:wild and lawless barbarians " (viii. 68). Forced to admit that Christians are not infructuosi in negotiis, he wants them to be good citizens, to retain their own belief but conform to the state religion. It is an See also:earnest and striking appeal on behalf of the Empire, which was clearly in great danger, and it shows the terms offered to the Church, as well as the strength of the Church at the time. Numerically, Christians may have formed perhaps a tenth of the See also:population, i.e. in See also:Alexandria there would be fifty or sixty thousand, but their power in a community was out of all See also:pro-portion to their See also:mere See also:numbers. 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