This semester I teach a course on Early Christianity at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. It’s the same faculty I got my Ph.D. from. My (I guess: ex) mentor is on a sabbatical so he asked me to replace him which I gladly accepted. This week we talked about the Roman persecutions of Christians and the perspective of pagan authors toward Christianity. It’s a big topic that I plan to expand into two or three posts. Each one will be dedicated to one pagan author who criticized Christianity. This one is about Celsus who first attempted to debunk Christianity systematically while displaying great knowledge of the new religion.
Celsus was a nice guy. I’m kidding. I have no idea what kind of guy he was in his private life. But what we do know is that he was an upper-class Graeco-Roman intellectual and a Platonist who lived in the later part of the 2nd century. Around 180 CE, Celsus wrote “True Doctrine” – a work where he extensively scrutinized Christianity. To be more precise, Celsus was familiar with various streams of Christianity (Marcionites, Gnostics, etc.), but he directed his critique to a group he called the Great Church which obviously was the “proto-orthodox” Church. Unfortunately, his work is lost (no wonder that Christian scribes didn’t copy it), but we have his quotations preserved in Origen’s work Against Celsus. Origen was a great Church theologian who tried to respond to Celsus’ criticism. Fortunately, in doing that he extensively cites Celsus’ magnum opus. By looking at those quotations, we get a glimpse of Christianity through the eyes of pagan intellectuals during the time when Christianity was still a minority religion in an era of polytheism. We can divide Celsus’ critique into several different (but still connected) categories:
The Intellectual Level: How stupid can you be?
Some [Christians] do not even want to give or receive a reason for what they believe and use such expressions as ‘Do not ask questions, just believe’ and ‘Your faith will save you. For Celsus, Christianity is made up of a bunch of idiots who believe in inconceivable things. First and foremost, they promote the oddest idea ever – that there is only one God. My students find it hard to get their minds around the fact that monotheism (something we take for granted) was absolutely the least possible idea for 95 % of the population in the Roman Empire. It was presupposed that there were countless different divinities. One God? What’s wrong with you? In Celsus’ mind, the exclusiveness of Christianity was to be rejected! The idea that one should only worship Christian God was absurd. For him, the natural thing to do would be to worship both Jesus (if that’s what you really want) and other pagan gods. To insist on exclusivity was to illustrate ignorance and narrow-mindedness.
Moreover, Celsus harshly criticized one specific aspect of Christianity: belief in the resurrection of the body! As he writes:
- It is foolish also of them to suppose that, when God applies the fire (like a cook!), all the rest of mankind will be thoroughly burnt up, and that they alone will survive, not merely those who are alive at the time, but also those long dead who will rise up from earth possessing the same bodies as before. This is simply the hope of worms. For what sorts of human soul would have any further desire for a body that has rotted? (5.14.)
- As a good Platonist, Celsus can’t understand why would someone believe in such a crazy idea as the resurrection of the body. Souls are immortal! Bodies are not. They are corrupt. How can a perishable thing live forever? Didn’t Plato teach us that bodies are meant to decay and disappear?
The Social Level: How dangerous can you be?
We take for granted the idea of the separation of religion and state. It is unimaginable, for example, that a bishop could be the prime minister. However, in the ancient world, those two were tightly intertwined. The Roman Emperor Augustus held, just to cite one example, the position of the high priest (pontifex maximus). Romans believed that the proper worship of the gods is the reason why their empire is so strong and prosperous. Even more, they believed that gods could enrich people’s lives by ensuring the health, good crops, and political stability. In turn, they only seek respect via worship (prayers, offering sacrifices, etc.). Proper respect equals Pax deorum (Peace of the Gods)!
A lack of respect for gods could (or should I say: would) result in disaster: famine, earthquakes, floods, foreign enemies, political instability, civil wars, etc. By refusing to worship pagan Gods, Christians struck into the heart of Roman society. They were, in the eyes of Romans, putting the whole empire in danger! Thus, Celsus attack Christians for their anti-social behavior that threatened the very stability of the empire. That is the reason why he asserts that Christians suffer from the disease of sedition. Furthermore, Celsus launched another attack from the sociological level. He argues that Christianity is such an absurd religion that only women, kids, and uneducated people could be attracted to it. As he states, Christians are ignorant, stupid, and bucolic yokels.
The Historical Level: How mistaken can you be?
The most impressive line of his thought is related to the history of the Christian religion. While most other pagan critics tend to focus on the Christians themselves, Celsus demonstrates knowledge of the Gospel accounts. As a matter of fact, he was the first to criticize Jesus’ life from a “historical” point of view! Among other things, Celsus attacks the historicity of various events in the life of Jesus. For example, he rejects the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus because, in his opinion, there is not enough evidence to support such claims. Celsus also mentions the discrepancies and contradictions in the Gospels’ accounts to prove their worthiness. Interestingly enough, Origen responds by allegorizing those problematic passages which prove that he was aware of the contradictions as well. Even the miracles of Jesus do not illustrate his divine identity. In Celsus’ opinion, Jesus used magic to trick people. Where did Jesus learn to do magic? Celsus claims: he was poor he hired himself out as a workman in Egypt, and there tried his hand at certain magical powers on which the Egyptians pride themselves; he returned full of conceit because of these powers, and on account of them gave himself the title of God. So, according to Celsus, Jesus was a con man who learned his magic during his stay in Egypt. Interesting! Regarding the virgin birth, Celsus accuses Jesus of having invented it. In his opinion, Jesus was naturally born in a certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country… who was turned out of doors by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because she was convicted of adultery…she disgracefully gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child. In a nutshell, Jesus was born out of wedlock. Later, he became a successful con man who, with the help of magic, tricked his followers into believing that he is the Son of God.
Wait… What about the Mythical Jesus?
Celsus lived c. 100 years after Jesus’ apostles. He understood Christianity from the inside out. He obviously read the Gospel accounts and got familiar with the basic elements of the Christian faith. Moreover, Celsus personally knew other Christians and the social makeup of their faith. He noticed the popularity of Christianity among women – a historical fact indeed! He attacked the Gospels for their contradictions and historical unreliability. These contradictions were, for Celsus, the decisive proof that Jesus wasn’t the Son of God. To quote from an infamous movie: Not even his nephew! Moreover, Celsus asserted the lack of evidence for the major events of Jesus’ life such as the virgin birth and resurrection. In other words, he subjected the Gospels to “historical” scrutiny. Something that will reappear again 1600 years later with the work of H. Reimarus (1694 – 1768 AD). But he never, in any possible way, claimed that Jesus didn’t exist. Celsus was quite harsh on Jesus and his life (Remember: He claimed that Jesus was the result of Mary’s adulterous relationship), but nowhere did he imply that Jesus was a fictional figure. As a matter of fact, not a single critic of Christianity from the ancient world supported such an absurd idea. Mythicism was a “bastard” of the Enlightenment. A stupid idea that has never attracted much attention among experts. An idea you can only find on fanatical (atheistic) corners of the internet or in books written by strange individuals who want to make money selling conspiracy theories. Wait a second… Selling crazy books and making money! It isn’t such a bad idea…
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