Celsus on the true doctrine. On the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians 2022-10-28
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Celsus was a Greek philosopher and writer who lived in the second century AD. He is best known for his work "On the True Doctrine," which was a critique of Christianity. In this work, Celsus sought to refute the claims of Christianity and to argue that it was a superstitious and irrational belief system.
Celsus began his critique by attacking the credibility of the Gospels, the primary texts of Christianity. He argued that the Gospels were written many years after the events they describe and were based on hearsay and legends rather than on eyewitness accounts. He also pointed out inconsistencies and contradictions within the Gospels, arguing that they could not be trusted as reliable sources of historical information.
Celsus also took issue with the idea of the divinity of Jesus, arguing that it was absurd to believe that a mere mortal could be the son of God. He argued that the concept of the trinity, which holds that God is one being in three persons, was confusing and contradictory. Celsus maintained that the true doctrine, as he saw it, was one that was based on reason and evidence, and that Christianity failed to meet these standards.
Despite Celsus' criticisms, Christianity continued to spread and thrive in the centuries following the publication of "On the True Doctrine." Today, it remains one of the largest and most influential religions in the world, with billions of followers worldwide.
Despite the enduring popularity of Christianity, Celsus' critique remains relevant and thought-provoking. His arguments and questioning of the historical reliability of the Gospels continue to be debated by scholars and theologians to this day. Celsus' work serves as a reminder that all belief systems, including Christianity, should be subject to critical examination and scrutiny in order to fully understand and appreciate their true nature and significance.
Celsus: On the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians: Joseph Hoffman: 9780195041514
We must observe the laws because it is a duty to protect what has been enacted; because of the superintendents distributed among the different parts of the earth, what is done among each nation is rightly done. When she was pregnant she was turned out of doors by the carpenter to whom she had been betrothed, as having been convicted as guilty of adultery, and she bore a child to a certain soldier named Panthera. If men, however, fall in with these, they think that they have gained a wonderful possession. The ants set apart in a place by themselves those grains which sprout forth, that they may not swell into bud, but may continue throughout the year as their food, evidence of the existence of reason among ants. But their writings are incapable of admitting an allegorical meaning; on the contrary they are commonplace and exceedingly silly inventions, and those who give them an allegorical interpretation do violence to the meaning of the writers. Thus they admit that God partakes of form or color; they think he even partakes of motion.
They do this to some purpose, seeing they escape the penalty of death which is imminent; similar dangers were encountered by such men as Socrates for the sake of philosophy. Why instead do you, the son of God, wander about in so mean a condition, hiding yourself through fear, and leading a miserable life up and down? Being compelled by the force of truth, Jesus at the same time both exposed the doings of others, and convicted himself of the same. Glasgow ROGER GREEN Interestingly Hoffmann's next work of this kind, his 'Porphyry' failed to be mentioned in AnPh. However, they will admit that these images, whether they are like or not, are made and dedicated to the honor of certain beings; but they will hold that the beings to whom they are dedicated are not gods, but demons, and that a worshipper of God ought not to worship demons. The representation is of the following nature: There is a ladder with lofty gates, and on the top of it an eighth gate.
On the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians
For the night is created for them in order that they may rest, and the day that they may see and resume their work. As if it were possible, that all the inhabitants of Asia, Europe, and Libya, Greeks and Barbarians, all to the uttermost ends of the earth, were to come under one law! Instead of being masters of the whole world, the jews today have no home of any kind. Do they not report that his soul frequently quitted his body, and flitted about in an incorporeal form? The works of many early critics of the Christian church were burned by ruling emperors or otherwise destroyed in the second and third centuries, but the writings of the Greek pagan philosopher, Celsus, have survived indirectly through his eloquent opponent Origen of Alexandria. But Celsus is not discussing the veracity of the bible: he presumes it records the words of the disciples accurately, and accuses the latter of lying as they report Jesus words and actions. . .
On the True Doctrine: A Discourse against Christians (Celsus) : Celsus : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
The more modest among the Jewish and Christian writers endeavor somehow to give these stories an allegorical signification, taking refuge in allegory because they are ashamed of these things. And so he is not the only one who is recorded to have visited the human race, as even those who, under pretext of teaching in the name of Jesus, have apostatized from the Creator as an inferior being, and have given in their adherence to one who is a superior God and father of him who visited the world, assert that before him certain beings came from the Creator to visit the human race. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MacDonald 3 October 1996. Those who support the cause of Christ by a reference to the writings of the prophets can give no proper answer in regard to statements in them which attribute to God that which is wicked, shameful, or impure: statements which describe God as doing the most shameless deeds, or suffering the most shameless sufferings. .
Celsus' discourse shows him to be an eclectic philosopher--a dabbler in various schools of thought, including Platonism and Stoicism, and a student of the history and religious customs of many nations. Their converts were deceived; this doctrine is vulgar, and on account of its vulgarity and its want of reasoning power, obtained a hold only over the ignorant. Through this treatise, Celsus has come to represent the detached pagan voice of the ages. Here's Origen Chadwick pp. The more just opinion is that demons desire nothing and need nothing, but that they take pleasure in those who discharge towards them offices of piety. Either Jesus nor Moses has taught falsely; according to the teaching of Christ, no wise man could come to the Father.
What need is there to collect all the oracular responses, which have been delivered with a divine voice by priests and priestesses, as well as by others, whether men or women, who were under a divine influence? Such wranglings would be more endurable amongst worms and frogs than betwixt Jews and Christians who quarrel with one another! Hoffmann has Celsus say: "The Christians claim to get some sort of power by pronouncing the names of demons or saying certain incantations, always incorporating the name of Jesus and a short story about him into the formula" p. . Martyrdom Let us examine the enthusiasm with which men will contend unto death rather than abjure Christianity. The two parties of Christians introduce two sons of God, one the son of the Creator, and the other the son of an alien God; two sons to engage in single combat! They regard this Jesus, who was but a mortal body, displaying all the infirmities and impurities belonging to the flesh, as a god, and suppose that they act piously in so doing. You were hanging high in the ether of clouds. Let grace be with me, O father, let grace be with me.
Now it is worthy of examination, which of the two is more firmly established as true; for both parties contend with equal assurance that the truth is on their side. And was not the great God, who had already sent two angels on your account, able to keep you, his only son, there in safety? The Greeks consider those things as ancient, because, owing to the deluges and conflagrations, they have not beheld or received any memorials of older events. The Christians become less than men pigs when they listen to those who charm to deceive Sirens, Circe , just as Odysseus' men did. Thus they are won over through vain hopes. If, then, others were sent, it is manifest that he also came from the same God.
Celsus, on the True Doctrine: a Discourse Against the...
Let grace be with me; yea, O father, let it be with me. Neither did he make man his image; for God is not such an one, nor like any other species of visible being. Nevertheless the use which they make of them may be overturned. So why do they not worship demons? Why art thou afraid when thou hast gone so far on the way? Why does he pass without notice a wicked creator who was counter-working his purposes? Celsus was a very common name, and Origen, perhaps as innuendo, expresses uncertainty about whether Celsus is the same person as Celsus the Epicurean. If, however, men entertain lofty notions because of their possessing the power of sorcery, yet even in that respect are serpents and eagles their superiors in wisdom; for they are acquainted with many prophylactics against poisons and diseases, and also with the virtues of certain stones which help to preserve their young.
It is not probable that the Jews are in great favor with God, or are regarded by him with more affection than others; for we may see both the people themselves, and the country of which they were deemed worthy. The Christians make statements additional to this. There is something better in man than the earthly part of his nature, which is akin to God. Le traducteur américain cite dans sa bibliographie quelques importants travaux allemands et français, notamment le Logos und Nomos de C. There shall be one lord, one king, who will inflict deserved punishment upon you. One prophet has predicted the advent of Christ; where, then, is he, that we may see him and believe upon him? What other persons would a man invite if he were issuing a proclamation for an assembly of robbers? The allegorical explanations which have been devised are much more shameful and absurd than the fables themselves, inasmuch as they endeavor to unite with marvellous and altogether insensate folly things which cannot at all be made to harmonize. For the soul, indeed, God might be able to provide an everlasting life; while, on the contrary, Heraclitus observes that dead bodies are to be cast out as more worthless than dung.
