Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

(This is not really a reply to you, Ben.) ... Doubtless, therefore, Stephan means Clement of Alexandria, concerning whom Eusebius reports as follows in History of the Church 6.14.2: Και την προς Εβραιους δε επιστολην Παυλου μεν ειναι φησιν, γεγραφθαι δε Εβραιοις Εβραικη φωνη, Λουκαν δε φιλοτιμως αυ...

We can be certain that Celsus instances the cases of Aesclepius, Aristeas, and Cleomedes... it seems probable that Origen is right about this being Celsus' own opinion (that he lived and did deeds)... but mostly because there is no basis on which to argue otherwise. ... In the quote of Celsus 'inst...

As to whether Celsus held the opinion that Jesus "was seen indeed, but only as a shadow", and he brings against us an additional charge [προσκατηγορεῖ, from προσκατηγορέω, A. accuse besides , accuse one also of ...], as if we said [καὶ ὡς λεγόντων] that "He was seen indeed, but was on...

Maybe I am just missing your point ... Could the pagan critic Celsus be suggesting the possibility that "Jesus" had no real existence (as man or as god) but appeared only as a "shadow," a mirage, false visions of a non-existent deity, leading people to create fictions and myths ...

Origen clearly did not treat the text of Celsus' book in order, but jumped about quite a bit, almost thematically. To really get one's head about it, one would have to go through every alleged quote or summary of Celsus' arguments, identify points being made, and evidence presented, and eliminate AL...

If it is of interest, I wrote about the identity of Celsus and the Jewish character and Asclepius in a publication now online, searchable: "Celsus of Pergamum: Locating a Critic of Early Christianity," Ch. 30 in The Archaeology of Difference: Gender, Ethnicity, Class and the "Other&q...

I don't really doubt that Celsus had heard something or other regarding Jewish views of Jesus. I am here interested on feedback regarding the interpretation I offered, of the section quoted from book 3 of the Against Celsus. That Celsus was arguing that a divine body could not be physical? Book thr...

Many people are familiar with the first two books of the "Contra Celsum," where Origen takes up the task of refuting the "Jew" of Celsus, who maintains that Jesus was born of Mary and a soldier named Panthera (thus, a human birth), learned sorcery in Egypt, and came back to dece...

Let's not forget that the whole story of Jesus the son of the Roman soldier Pantera, his mother being turned out by her husband, the period in Egypt learning magic, and such, is found pretty much as Celsus describes it in the Medieval Jewish Toledot Jeschu. My guess would be that this story cycle wa...

FWIW, my introduction to Stylometry was A Q Morton's Paul, The Man and the Myth (1966) which concentrated on "sentence length" (measured in the number of words between commonly accepted punctuation marks known as full stops, which he called "spons"). The problem is that punctuati...