The True Word
One of the more interesting books I have read in recent years is a slim volume called On the True Doctrine - slim, yet even so most of it is taken up with the translator's commentary on the book and explanation of its background.
The author was a Greek philosopher named Celsus , probably from Alexandria, who lived around AD 177 and who wrote a scathing work against Christianity. The Greek title of his work is actually The True Word, which uses the Greek word Logos and may indicate that he was familiar with the Christian use of that term.
Unfortunately, Celsus' master work is lost, but around AD 248 the Christian philosopher Origen was given a copy of it and invited to respond in writing. This he did by quoting extensively from Celsus book and then giving his reply to whatever it was that Celsus said. Origen's work has survived and as a result we are able to recreate large portions - if not the whole - of what Celsus said.
It is also unfortunate that in ancient times there were no marks of quotation, so it is not always clear where Celsus' diatribe ends and Origen's reply begins. Despite this, several attempts have been made to reconstruct the text of Celsus' attack on Christianity. Origen's quotes have been not only extracted but arranged to make what the editor believes is a coherent argument.
The tone of the book begins with the very first sentence that has come down to us.
The cult of Christ is a secret society whose members huddle together in corners for fear of being brought to trial and punishment.
Throughout his work, Celsus shows that he is superficially acquainted with the life of Jesus and the teachings of Christianity. In the former regard, he mixes what we would regard as facts with the most amazing and scurrilous tales. Take, for example, his reference to the Roman soldier Panthera.
Let us imagine what a Jew - let alone a philosopher - might put to Jesus:
"Is it not true, good sir, that you fabricated the story of your birth from a virgin to quieten rumours about the true and unsavory circumstances of your origins? Is it not the case that far from being born in royal David's city of Bethlehem, you were born in a poor country town and of a woman who earned her living by spinning? Is it not the case that when her deceit was discovered - to wit, that she was pregnant by a Roman soldier named Panthera - she was driven away by her husband, the capenter, and convicted of adultery?"
What absurdity! Clearly the Christians have used the myths of the Danae and the Melanippe, or of the Augue and the Antiope in fabricating the story of Jesus' virgin birth. A beautiful woman must his mother have been, that this Most High God should want to have intercourse with her!
It is amusing the Celsus falls into the same trap he claims the Christians fell into, for Greek legend was full of tales of the gods falling in love with mortal women - Zeus was particularly partial, apparently. Celsus appears to think that Christians were claiming just that sort of relationship between their God and the Virgin Mary, whereas in fact the gospel story makes it explicit that no form of sexual intercourse was involved and gives no reason - let alone Mary's beauty - for her choice to be the Mother of God.
However it is interesting that Celsus does find parallels between Greek myth and Christianty, for the early church fathers were well aware of such comparisons and some actually claimed that the Greek sages and philosophers were a sort of prophet to the pagan world, revealing some of the mystery of Christianity. For example, Clement of Alexandria declared:
Philosophy has been given to the Greeks as their own kind of Covenant, their foundation for the philosophy of Christ... the philosophy of the Greeks... contains the basic elements of that genuine and perfect knowledge which is higher than human... even upon those spiritual objects.
Miscellanies 6. 8
Celsus appears to base his knowledge of Christianity on his acquaintance with some rather dubious characters in Palestine. He says:
Of this I have first-hand knowledge, knowing the people of that region as I do and knowing the several types of prophecy. For example, there are countless in that region who will "prophesy" at the drop of a hat, in or out of the temples. Others go about begging and claim to be oracles of God, plying their trade in the cities or in military outposts.
They make a show of being "inspired" to utter their predictions. These habitually claim to be more than prophets, and say such things as "I am God" or "I am a son of God" or even "I am the Holy Spirit" and "I have come to bring life, for the world is coming to an end as I speak. The wicked will perish in the fire for their sins. I shall save you: you will yet see me, for I am coming again armed with heavenly powers." ...
This sort of thing is heard all over Judaea by these most trivial of prophets ...I have talked with any number of these prophets after hearing them and questioned them closely. On careful questioning, after gaining their confidene, they admitted to me that they were nothing but frauds and that they concocted their words to suit their audiences and deliberately made them obscure."
It is possible, I suppose, that there were false prophets who claimed to be Christian or who in some way based themselves on Christianity. The legend of Simon Magus points in that direction, as does the story in the book of Acts of the "seven sons of Sceva" who attempted to use the name of "Jesus Whom Paul preaches" in an exorcism and got beaten up by the man they were supposed to be delivering!
As well as reasoned argument, Celsus also resorts to sarcasm and mockery and he has a fine line in both. Take for example what he says after noting that the majority of Christians come from the lower classes - the poor, freed slaves, and such like.
Not surprisingly, they emphasise the virtue of huility, which in their case is to make a virtue of necessity!
On reading the book one reaches the conclusion that Celsus was a pagan philosopher who simply could not get his head round something so radical and new as Christianity. Once you realise the poor man's bewilderment, you can even have a certain sympathy of his struggle - and failure - to make sense of the Christian message which was so different to every other religion and philosophy of his time.
I think anyone may see that the summons to join the other mysteries is rather different, however. It runs: "Come forward, whoever has a pure heart and wise tongue, or else whoever is free of sin and whose soul is pure; you who are righteous and good, come forward." In the mystery religions, such talk is typical, as is the promise that membership brings about a sort of purificaiton from sins.
But the call to memembership in the cult of Christ is this: "Whoever is a sinner, whoever is unwise, whoever is childish, yea, whoever is a wretch, his is the kingdom of God." And so they invite into membership those who by their own account are sinners - the dishonest, thieves, burglars, poisoners, blasphemers of all descriptions, grave robbers. I mean, what other cult actually invites robbers to become members!
Their excuse for all of it is that their god was sent to call sinners, well, fair enough. But what about the righteous? How to they account of the fact that their appeal is to the lowest sort of person? Why was their Christ not sent to those who had not sinned - is it any disgrace not to have sinned?
For a Christian, the fact that Jesus is willing to receive - and transform - the worst of men is one of the glories of the religion. For Celsus it was simply a matter for puzzlement, something he simply couldn't relate to.
Unfortunately, many of the criticisms levelled against Christianity by prominent atheists in our own day show a similar mix of credulity and outright ignorance - hardly surprising, given the lack of Christian education. A recent survey showed that an astonishing number of children thought that Christmas was the birthday of Santa Claus and looked blank when asked who Jesus was!
It is interesting to read Celsus' magnum opus, if for no other reason than to see the growth of Christianity through the eyes of those it was trying to convert. Quite apart from the supposedly scurrilous origins of Christianity, Celsus also comes up with what he regards as a devastating argument against Christian exclusivity, which may explain why the Roman government was so determined to stamp on the new religion.
The Christians think that in abstaining from things sacrificed to the gods they are preserving their sanctity. But to think in such a way is to cheapen the very idea of god, who belongs not to the Christians but to all men and who, as he is perfectly good, needs no sacrifices anyway, as Plato somewhere says. Such a god is not jealous for the devotion of partiular people, necessity is foriegn to his nature, and the homage people pay has to do with their zeal, not his requirements.
Understood in this way, there is nothing to prevent these Christians prom participating in the public festivals in the spirit of social intercourse and as a sign of their fealty to the state. If, as they maintain, the idols are nothing, then there is nothing top prevent them from participating in public-minded duties such as the festival. On the other hand, if the idols are existent beings, daemons of some sort, then they must belong to god himself, as he created all that exists - and if they occuy this position, it is a Christian's duty to pay them homage, to believe in them, sacrifice to them and pray to them for the general good of the people!
In my book Corinthian Boy I have the philosopher-teacher make precisely this point; if the gods are nothing, why not go through the motion of bowing down to them, for it can do no harm? If, on the other hand, the gods are real, then they must be created and appointed by God and if He is pleased to place them so, then it is impiety to refuse to worship them! No wonder the Roman administrators, many of whom may well have entertained private doubts about the reality of the gods, grew suspicious when Christians refused to perform their civic duty and sprinkle a bit of incense on the altar. As there was no logical reason to refuse, it must be that they were secretly conspiring against the state!
In another passage Celsus reveals the reason why St Paul wrote the longest chapter in the New Testament in defense of the resurrection of the dead.
It is equally silly of these Christians to suppsoe that when their God applies the fire (like a common cook!) all the rest of mankind will be thoroughtly roasted and that they alone will escape unscorched - not just those alive at the time, mind you, but (they say) those long since dead will rise up from the earth, possessing the same bodies as they did before! I ask you, is this not the hope of worms?
What sort of a human soul is it that has any use for a rotted corpse of a body. The very fact that some Jews and even some Christians reject this teaching about rising corpses shows just how utterly repulsive it is: it is nothing less than nauseating and impossible. I mean, what sort of body is it that could return to its original nature or become the same as was before it rotted away?
St Paul's answer, of course, was that the resurrected body is a "spiritual body" - though he carefully leaves undefined exactly what a "spiritual body" is. The nearest he comes is when he uses the analogy of sown wheat; the original grain dies but rises again in the new blade and new head.
I am not sure that Celsus had ever read Paul - or, indeed, any of the Christian writings - and it would be interesting to know what his reaction might have been. Would he have been persuaded, or would he have preferred the irrefutable findings of contemporary science (which is what the Greeks called the speculations and theories of their philosophers.
Another reason to read Celsus is to compare his work, the finest anti-Christian polemic which has come down to us, with the various apologia by Christan authors. I freely admit that as a Christian myself, I am probably prejudiced, but to my mind the Dialogue with Trypho of Justin Martyr displays not only greater logic but greater learning, giving the lie to Celsus' claim that Christians despise learning and reject knowledge.
Celsus: On the True Doctrine, translated and introduced by R. Joseph Hoffmann. Oxford University Press, 1987
You can find the complete text of Origen's rebuttal of Celsus on the internet.
Celsus Not to be confused with the builder of the elegant Library of Celsus in Ephesus. That Celsus lived half a century before Celsus the anti-Christian polemicist. Return
from Alexandria Celsus shows acquaintance with and interest in Egyptian magic, which has led people to assume that he was either an Egyptian himself or at least lived in Egypt. He also refers to the Logos, a concept pioneered by Philo of Alexandria, which is why that city is picked on as his home town. It seems slim enough evidence on which to hang any conclusion whatsoever! Return
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| The tombstone of Tiberias Julius Abdes Panthera in Bad Kreuznach museum, Germany |
Panthera No one knows where Celsus dreamed up this name, which was a relatively common one in the Roman legions. For all we know, it may have been the equivalent of "Tommy" for a British soldier. It is interesting to note that the Jerusalem Talmud and other Jewish writings also refer to Jesus as the "son of Pandera", but whether they derived the name from Celsus, or both from some common source, we do not know.
Some have claimed that "Panthera" is a sort of play on the Christian claim of the Virgin Birth, where the Greek word for "virgin" is "Parthenos". It seems a somewhat laboured pun to me.
Of even less merit is the claim that a tombstone found in Bingerbrück, Germany, in 1859 is of this very soldier. It certainly commemorates "Here lies Tiberias Iulius Abdes Pantera from Sidon, aged 62 years, served 40 years, former standard bearer of the first cohort of archers." The name Tiberias may indicate that he lived during the reign of Tiberias Caeasar and we know that there was a Roman cohort which served first in Judea and then in Bingen, Germany.
Someone called James Tabor wrote a book, The Jesus Dynasty in which he claimed that this particular Panthera was the actual soldier named by Celsus - which seems to me on a par with Queen Helena finding relics wherever she looked on her trip to the Holy Land. Certainly Tabor's theory does not seem to have gained much credence, though I suppose it sold a few of his books and thus served its purpose. Return
their philosophers After all, if a man can tell you that on such a date the sun will be eclipsed - and it is - then surely you can trust him to tell you that the cosmos is made up of differing proportions of earth, air, fire and water! Return
© Kendall K. Down 2014
