Celsus
Celsus (/ˈsɛlsəs/; Hellenistic Greek: Κέλσος, Kélsos; fl. AD 175–177) was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity.[1][2][3] His literary work, The True Word (also Account, Doctrine or Discourse; Greek: Hellenistic Greek: Λόγος Ἀληθής),[4][5] survives exclusively in quotations from it in Contra Celsum, a refutation written in 248 by Origen of Alexandria.[3] The True Word is the earliest known comprehensive criticism of Christianity.[3]
For other people named Celsus, see Celsus (disambiguation).
Celsus
Hanegraaff[6] has argued that it was written shortly after the death of Justin Martyr (who was possibly the first Christian apologist), and was probably a response to his work.[6] Origen stated that Celsus was from the first half of the 2nd century AD, although the majority of modern scholars have come to a general consensus that Celsus probably wrote around AD 170 to 180.[7][8]
Philosophy[edit]
All that is known about Celsus personally is what comes from the surviving text of his book and from what Origen says about him.[9] Although Origen initially refers to Celsus as an Epicurean,[10][11][12] his arguments reflect ideas of the Platonic tradition, rather than Epicureanism.[10][13][12] Origen attributes this to Celsus's inconsistency,[10] but modern historians see it instead as evidence that Celsus was not an Epicurean at all.[10][11] Joseph Wilson Trigg states that Origen probably confused Celsus, the author of The True Word, with a different Celsus, who was an Epicurean philosopher and a friend of the Syrian satirist Lucian.[11] Celsus the Epicurean must have lived around the same time as the author of The True Word and he is mentioned by Lucian in his treatise On Magic.[11] Both Celsus the friend of Lucian and Celsus the author of The True Word evidently shared a passionate zeal against superstitio, making it even easier to see how Origen could have concluded that they were the same person.[11]
Stephen Thomas states that Celsus may not have been a Platonist per se,[10] but that he was clearly familiar with Plato.[10] Celsus's actual philosophy appears to be a blend of elements derived from Platonism, Aristotelianism, Pythagoreanism, and Stoicism.[10] Wilken likewise concludes that Celsus was a philosophical eclectic, whose views reflect a variety of ideas popular to a number of different schools.[14] Wilken classifies Celsus as "a conservative intellectual", noting that "he supports traditional values and defends accepted beliefs".[14] Theologian Robert M. Grant notes that Origen and Celsus actually agree on many points:[15] "Both are opposed to anthropomorphism, to idolatry, and to any crudely literal theology."[15] Celsus also writes as a loyal citizen of the Roman Empire and a devoted believer in the ancient Greek religion and the religion in ancient Rome, distrustful of Christianity as new and foreign.[16]
Thomas remarks that Celsus "is no genius as a philosopher".[10] Nonetheless, most scholars, including Thomas, agree that Origen's quotations from The True Word reveal that the work was well-researched.[17][18][13][16] Celsus demonstrates extensive knowledge of both the Old and New Testaments[10][13][16] and of both Jewish and Christian history.[13][16] Celsus was also closely familiar with the literary features of ancient polemics.[16] Celsus seems to have read at least one work by one of the second-century Christian apologists, possibly Justin Martyr or Aristides of Athens.[19][20] From this reading, Celsus seems to have known which kinds of arguments Christians would be most vulnerable to.[20] He also mentions the Ophites and Simonians, two Gnostic sects that had almost completely vanished by Origen's time.[19] One of Celsus's main sources for Books I–II of The True Word was an earlier anti-Christian polemic written by an unknown Jewish author,[16][10] whom Origen refers to as the "Jew of Celsus".[10] This Jewish source also provides well-researched criticism of Christianity[16] and, although Celsus was also hostile to Judaism,[16] he occasionally relies on this Jewish author's arguments.[16]
