# Contra Celsum *Origen's eight-book reply, written around 248, to* The True Word *(Logos Alēthēs), the attack on Christianity by the pagan philosopher Celsus some seventy years earlier. Origen quotes Celsus a passage at a time and answers each one. Celsus's book is lost, so this reply is also how we know most of what the first full critic of Christianity said.* > **What I read.** The public-domain English translation by Frederick Crombie (Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 4, 1885), as posted by New Advent. I skimmed all eight books chapter by chapter and read in full the passages quoted below. Quotations are Crombie's wording. References give book and chapter in the Ante-Nicene Fathers numbering (so 3.55 is Book III, chapter 55). Henry Chadwick's 1953 Cambridge translation is the standard modern one; I did not see it, so no quotation here is Chadwick's. Related in this vault: - [[Book Summaries/Holland, Tom/Dominion - Tom Holland|Dominion]] by Tom Holland, and Nietzsche's [[Book Summaries/Nietzsche, Friedrich/The Antichrist - Friedrich Nietzsche|The Antichrist]] and [[Book Summaries/Nietzsche, Friedrich/Beyond Good and Evil - Friedrich Nietzsche|Beyond Good and Evil]], all cited in the same video. Celsus's sneer at a faith of slaves, women and children is the ancient form of the charge Nietzsche later turned into his "slave revolt in morals". - [[Book Summaries/Optatus of Milevis/Against the Donatists - Optatus of Milevis|Against the Donatists]], another patristic work in this collection, about a century later. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Κατὰ Κέλσου* (*Kata Kelsou*); Latin *Contra Celsum*; English *Against Celsus* | | Author | Origen of Alexandria (c. 185 – c. 253) | | Written | About 248, at Caesarea in Palestine, at the request of his patron Ambrose ("my pious Ambrosius", Preface 1). Eusebius says Origen was "over sixty years old" at the time and lists the work as "eight books in answer to that entitled True Discourse, which had been written against us by Celsus the Epicurean" (*Church History* 6.36) | | The book it answers | Celsus, *The True Word* (*Logos Alēthēs*), usually dated about 170–180. It survives only in Origen's quotations. Origen calls it "A True Discourse" | | Structure | Preface and eight books. Books I–II answer Celsus's imaginary Jew; Books III–VIII answer Celsus speaking in his own voice | | Text | Complete Greek text survives in one 13th-century manuscript, *Vaticanus graecus* 386. Excerpts are also in the 4th-century *Philokalia* and a 7th-century papyrus found at Tura in 1941 (Wikipedia, citing Marcovich 2001) | | First printing | Latin translation by Bessarion, printed 1481 (Wikipedia, citing Trigg) | | English translations | **James Bellamy** (London, 1660; reissued 1710). **Frederick Crombie**, Ante-Nicene Christian Library / Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 4 (1872; American edition Buffalo 1885). Public domain. **Henry Chadwick**, Cambridge University Press 1953 (531 pp.; corrected pb 1980, ISBN 0-521-29576-9, hc 0-521-05866-X, LCCN 80495226) | | Critical editions | Paul Koetschau, GCS 2–3 (Leipzig, 1899). Marcel Borret, Sources Chrétiennes 132, 136, 147, 150, 227 (Paris, 1967–76; French). Miroslav Marcovich, Brill 2001 (ISBN 90-04-11976-0) | | Cover | [Open Library cover](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/5815983-L.jpg) | **Where it came up.** - Video: Nils Glenn, ["Our Understanding of Jesus Just Changed"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs). - At [18:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs&t=1112s) Glenn introduces Celsus as the author of "the first full-length attack on Christianity, around the year 175 AD", and reads his complaint that Christians can persuade "only the foolish, the lowborn, and the senseless, slaves, little women, and little children", and that wool-workers and fullers tell children not to listen to their fathers. - At [19:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs&t=1145s) the screen shows the source as "Origen, Against Celsus 3.55". - At [19:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs&t=1176s) he sets it against 1 Corinthians 1:26–28: "Celsus thought it was an insult, but Paul kind of thought that it was the whole point." - Requested by Video Summaries on 2026-11-07. - Vault note: [[Video Summaries/Nils Glenn/Our Understanding of Jesus Just Changed]]. ## 2. Book resources **Reference and catalog pages** - Open Library: work [OL133556W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL133556W) (27 editions); Chadwick, Cambridge 1980 [OL4215600M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4215600M); Chadwick 1953 [OL18752009M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL18752009M); Marcovich, Brill 2001 [OL18351017M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL18351017M). - Google Books: [search](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=Origen+Contra+Celsum). - WorldCat: [search](https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=ti%3A%22contra+celsum%22+au%3Aorigen). - Publisher page (Chadwick): [Cambridge University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/9780521295765). - [Wikipedia, *Against Celsus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_Celsum). **Free (legal; the work and the Crombie translation are in the public domain)** - New Advent, Crombie translation by book: [index](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0416.htm); Books [I](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04161.htm), [II](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04162.htm), [III](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04163.htm), [IV](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04164.htm), [V](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04165.htm), [VI](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04166.htm), [VII](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04167.htm), [VIII](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04168.htm) (the text used here). - Christian Classics Ethereal Library, same translation: [ANF vol. 4, *Origen Against Celsus*](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.ix.html). - Internet Archive, free to read: [Bellamy translation, London 1660](https://archive.org/details/origenagainstcel00orig); [Latin, *Contra Celsum libri octo* with the *Philocalia*, 1658](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DSQTAAAAYAAJ). - Internet Archive lending (borrow with a free account): [Chadwick, Cambridge 1953](https://archive.org/details/contracelsum0000orig). - LibriVox, free audio (Crombie translation, read by David Ronald), Books I–VII as of this note; I found no Book VIII recording: [I](https://librivox.org/against-celsus-book-1-by-origen-of-alexandria/) (3 h 09 min), [II](https://librivox.org/against-celsus-book-2-by-origen-of-alexandria/) (3 h 26 min), [III](https://librivox.org/against-celsus-book-3-by-origen-of-alexandria/) (2 h 58 min), [IV](https://librivox.org/against-celsus-bk4-by-origen/) (4 h 19 min), [V](https://librivox.org/against-celsus-book-5-by-origen/) (2 h 49 min), [VI](https://librivox.org/against-celsus-bk6-by-origen/) (3 h 39 min), [VII](https://librivox.org/against-celsus7-origen-of-alexandria/) (2 h 36 min). - Project Gutenberg: no standalone edition found. - Libby/OverDrive: nothing found in the Los Angeles Public Library catalog search for "Against Celsus". Hoopla: not checked; [search Hoopla](https://www.hoopladigital.com/search?q=against%20celsus). **Paid** - Amazon print: [Chadwick translation, Cambridge pb 0521295769](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521295769). Other print copies are reprints of the public-domain Crombie text. - Kindle: many cheap or free Ante-Nicene Fathers and Crombie reprints; [Kindle search](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=origen+against+celsus&i=digital-text). The Chadwick translation does not appear to be on Kindle (not confirmed). - Audible: the only full audiobook found is [an "AI-assisted" new translation read by Amazon's computer-generated Virtual Voice](https://www.audible.com/pd/Against-Celsus-Audiobook/B0FQ393YC9) (Appian Way Press). There is no human-narrated commercial recording; the LibriVox readings above are better. ## 3. Author biography Origen was born in Alexandria about 185. His father, Leonides, was a Christian teacher who was martyred when Origen was a teenager, according to Eusebius. Origen studied in Alexandria, including under the Platonist Ammonius Saccas, and as a young man ran the city's Christian school. Eusebius reports that he castrated himself in youth; modern scholars treat the story with caution. A wealthy convert, Ambrose, paid for secretaries, stenographers and copyists, and the output was enormous: the *Hexapla* (a six-column edition of the Hebrew Bible and its Greek versions), *On First Principles*, and commentaries and sermons on most of the Bible. After a long quarrel with Bishop Demetrius of Alexandria, Origen moved in the 230s to Caesarea in Palestine. There he founded a school and wrote this book, late in life. In the persecution under Emperor Decius in 250 he was imprisoned and tortured. He died about three years later, probably at Tyre. His speculative ideas, such as the pre-existence of souls and the hope that all might be saved, made him controversial after his death. Justinian condemned him in 543, and the Second Council of Constantinople (553) may have anathematized him or only certain "Origenist" teachings. He remains one of the most influential early Christian theologians. Sources: [Wikipedia, "Origen"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origen) (citing McGuckin, Trigg and others); Eusebius, *Church History* Book 6 ([New Advent](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm)). ## 4. Author interviews and talks Origen left no recordings, of course. Below are his own framing of the book, plus modern talks and readings that are about it: - **Origen's Preface (§§1–6) and closing (8.76).** He says he would rather have answered with silence, as Jesus did before his accusers, and wrote only because Ambrose insisted. He ends by leaving it to "the readers of his discourse and of my reply to judge which of the two breathes most of the Spirit of the true God". - **Eusebius, *Church History* 6.36** ([New Advent](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm)). The earliest account of when and why the book was written. - **[*The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast*, Episode 99, "Total War: Polemical Esotericism in the *Contra Celsum*"](https://shwep.net/podcast/total-war-polemical-esotericism-in-the-contra-celsum/)** (2 September 2020). An academic podcast on how Celsus and Origen each accuse the other of being a bad reader of hidden meanings. The show notes give passage references. - **Mentor New York's podcast readings**, one podcast per book in roughly ten-chapter episodes (for example [Book 1](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/against-celsus-book-1-by-origen-of-alexandria/id1698443992) and [Book 6](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-celsus-book-6-by-origen-of-alexandria/id1698444231)). These are readings, not commentary. Who reads them is not shown on the listing (unverified). - **Henry Chadwick's introduction** to the Cambridge translation (1953). The standard modern framing. I did not see it. ## 5. Summary ### Thesis Celsus had argued that Christianity was a revolt against both Judaism and the ancestral religion of the Empire. In his account, Jesus was a sorcerer of shameful birth, and the faith was a secret, irrational cult that could recruit only the ignorant. Origen answers that the faith is rational and that its success is its proof. He argues that it is more consistent with the best of Greek philosophy than paganism is, and that its morals and worship are purer. Origen does not ask outsiders simply to trust him. The Gospel has "a demonstration of its own, more divine than any established by Grecian dialectics", which Paul calls "the manifestation of the Spirit and of power" (1.2). For Origen that means fulfilled prophecy, miracles, and the changed lives of ordinary believers. He writes, he says, not for the faithful but for those still weighing the faith. ### Outline **Preface (§§1–6).** Jesus kept silent before false witnesses, and Christians might do the same. Origen writes only at Ambrose's request and fears a written defence may weaken the defence "which rests on facts". He added the preface after reaching the place where Celsus brings in his Jew, and says the book is written not "for those who are thorough believers" but for outsiders and for those "weak in the faith" (Preface 6). **Book I (71 chapters): Celsus's charges, then his "Jew" on the birth and childhood of Jesus.** - 1.1–8: Christians form illegal secret associations; their teaching is "barbarian" in origin and practised in secret; they work wonders by naming demons. Origen calls Celsus an Epicurean in disguise (1.8). - 1.9–13: Christians say "Do not examine, but believe!" and "Your faith will save you!" (1.9). Origen replies that most people have no leisure for philosophy and that the Greek schools also run on trust in their founders. - 1.14–27: Is Moses older and wiser than the Greek sages? Celsus says the Jews were goatherds and shepherds who invented one God. Origen defends Moses' antiquity and the Jewish name of God, and points to Jesus's unlikely success (1.27, 1.30). - 1.28–39: Celsus's Jew: Jesus was born of a poor woman put away for adultery, by a soldier named Panthera, and learned magic in Egypt (1.28, 1.32). Origen calls the story an invention meant to explain away the virgin birth, and turns to prophecy (Isaiah 7:14). - 1.40–55: The baptism, the dove and the voice from heaven; Origen cites Josephus on John the Baptist and James (1.47). The Bethlehem prophecy (1.51) and the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 (1.54–55). - 1.56–71: The Magi and the star; the flight into Egypt; the apostles as "tax-gatherers and sailors" (1.62–63). Celsus confuses the Church with heretical sects (1.69). **Book II (79 chapters): the Jew addresses Jewish converts, about the Passion and Resurrection.** - 2.1–12: Why have you left the law of your fathers? Origen argues that Jewish believers keep it in its spiritual sense. - 2.13–37: Jesus could not even foresee betrayal by his own followers; a god would not suffer. Origen appeals to prophecy, and to Phlegon's *Chronicles* for Jesus's predictions (2.14) and for the darkness and earthquake at the crucifixion (2.33). - 2.38–55: The vinegar and gall; why no rescue from the cross; the stories of heroes returning from Hades as "juggling impositions". Who saw the risen Jesus? "A half-frantic woman, as you state" (2.55). - 2.56–79: Why did the risen Jesus appear only to his own followers and not to his judges? Origen answers that the disciples could not bear his presence all the time (2.65). The Jew's conclusion (2.79): "He was therefore a man". **Book III (81 chapters): Celsus in his own voice on Christian origins and recruitment.** - 3.1–16: Jews and Christians quarrel over "the shadow of an ass" (3.4, from Greek proverb). Christians began as rebels against Judaism, as the Jews were rebels from Egypt; once numerous, they split into factions (3.10). Origen says that every serious school has divisions. - 3.17–43: Egyptian animal-worship and its mysteries; Christians mock the Dioscuri, Heracles and Asclepius but worship a crucified man. Origen compares Jesus with Asclepius, Aristeas of Proconnesus, Cleomedes and the deified Antinous (3.22–38). Zeus's tomb on Crete (3.43). - 3.44–58: The recruitment charge quoted in the video. Christians call only "the silly, and the mean, and the stupid, with women and children" (3.44), and behave like market-place conjurers (3.52). "In private houses workers in wool and leather, and fullers" whisper to children and women that they "ought not to give heed to their father and to their teachers" (3.55). Origen replies that Christians call the wise too and admit the sinful in order to change them. - 3.59–81: "What is this preference of sinners over others?" (3.64). Origen cites Socrates' reform of Phaedo and Xenocrates' of Polemon. The teacher as a drunken man accusing drunkards (3.76). He closes by defending his own use of the philosophers (3.81). **Book IV (99 chapters): the descent of God, Jewish history and the place of humanity.** - 4.1–22: Why would God come down, and why so late? Does God change for the worse? Origen: the Logos takes the form each person can receive, and was always guiding humankind (4.16). - 4.23–35: Jews and Christians as "a flight of bats", "a swarm of ants", "frogs holding council in a marsh", "worms crawling together in the corner of a dunghill", each claiming God's special care (4.23). - 4.36–53: Genesis mocked: the creation of man, the serpent, the flood, Lot's daughters, Jacob and Esau. Origen: Celsus ignores Philo, Aristobulus and Numenius and reads allegory only where it suits him (4.49–52). - 4.54–75: Is the body God's work? Is evil a fixed quantity in the world (4.62–70)? The wrath of God (4.71–73). - 4.74–99: Was the world made for humans? Celsus says animals are wiser and more pious than humans: bees have cities and wars, birds give augury (4.81–98). "All things, accordingly, were not made for man, any more than they were made for lions" (4.99). Origen defends the special place of reason. **Book V (65 chapters): angels, stars and the national laws of the Jews.** - 5.1–24: If angels come down, why not worship them and the heavens? Christians refuse to worship the sun and stars. The coming fire and the resurrection of the body (5.14–24); Origen gives a spiritual-body reading (Paul's "seed"). - 5.25–50: Celsus allows the Jews their ancestral laws, as every nation has its customs (5.25; 5.34, citing Herodotus; 5.40, Pindar's "law is king of all things"). He objects that Christians have left their own. Origen replies that there is a law of nature above city laws (5.37). - 5.51–65: The angel who rolled away the stone (5.58); the many Christian sects Celsus lists (5.61–64). Origen insists the Church is not responsible for them. **Book VI (81 chapters): Plato and the Christians.** - 6.1–20: Celsus claims the best Christian ideas are Plato's, misunderstood. Origen: Moses and the prophets are older than Plato, and Plato's wisdom never reached the crowd. He contrasts human and divine wisdom (6.13) and gives the camel and the needle (6.16). - 6.21–41: The Persian mysteries of Mithras and the "Ophite diagram" of circles that Celsus attributes to Christians (6.22–38). Origen traces the diagram to "a very insignificant sect called Ophites" (6.24), not the Church. - 6.42–65: Satan as a misreading of Greek myth; Genesis and the six days (6.49–61); God's "repentance". - 6.66–81: Can God be known? "Words of darkness" (6.67). The virgin birth again (6.73). Why one incarnation in one corner of the world (6.78–81). **Book VII (70 chapters): prophecy, morals, and where Christians hope to go.** - 7.1–26: Pagan oracles (Delphi, Dodona, Claros) against the Jewish prophets. Old and New Testament ethics compared: Moses promised dominion; Jesus said to turn the other cheek (7.18–25). - 7.27–45: Where do Christians hope to go after death? Celsus cites Plato's *Phaedo* and the soul's journey (7.28–31). God is not in a place (7.34). Plato's line that the Maker is hard to find and impossible to declare to all (7.42–43). - 7.46–70: Origen concedes good arguments wherever they come from (7.46). Images and temples: "lame and mutilated in soul" are those who think a made thing is sacred (7.52). What did Jesus say under suffering to match Epictetus or Socrates (7.53–55)? Non-retaliation was already in Plato's *Crito* (7.58–61). **Book VIII (76 chapters): worship, demons and the duties of citizens.** - 8.1–16: Celsus says Christians worship a second god, so they are not monotheists. Origen on worship of the Father through the Son (8.12–13). - 8.17–33: No altars, images or temples; feasts and holy days (8.22); food sacrificed to idols and why Christians refuse it (8.24–33). - 8.34–66: Should Christians honour daemons who oversee each part of the world? Egyptian lore that assigns the body's thirty-six parts to thirty-six demons (8.58). The emperor's "genius" and oaths by it (8.65). Origen: worship belongs to "One... the Most High God" (8.64). - 8.67–76: The political appeal. If all Romans did as the Christians do, the Empire would be overrun (8.68–69). Origen: if all Romans prayed, they would win, or would not need to fight (8.70). Celsus urges Christians to fight for the emperor and take public office (8.73, 8.75). Origen: pagan priests too are kept from bloodshed, and "you never enlist the priests in the army"; Christians help the emperor by prayer, as "priests" of God (8.73), and serve in the Church instead of the civic offices (8.75). Conclusion (8.76): Origen notes that Celsus had promised a sequel giving practical rules of living. ### Key ideas - **A point-by-point reply.** Origen quotes his opponent at length and answers each passage. This is why so much of Celsus survives. - **Faith that can give reasons.** Simple believers need not argue, but the faith can answer a philosopher (1.9–13, 3.44–58). - **Proof by results.** The spread of the faith among the uneducated, and the moral change in converts, count as evidence of divine power (1.27, 1.30, 3.64–69). - **Allegory on both sides.** Celsus allegorizes Homer and Hesiod but forbids Christians to allegorize Moses. Origen calls this a double standard (4.38–52). - **The Logos and Greek philosophy.** Where Plato is right, the Logos taught him too. The Bible is older and better. - **Providence and history.** God placed the incarnation in the age of one Roman peace, "that they might be under one prince, the king of the Romans" (2.30). - **Against ancestral religion.** Custom is no proof of truth (5.25–41, 5.34). Worship is spiritual, without temples or images (8.17–20). - **Christians as priests, not soldiers.** Prayer for the emperor instead of military service and office (8.73–75). - **The "half-frantic woman" and the Panthera story.** Two of the earliest recorded outsider accounts of the Resurrection and the birth of Jesus (2.55, 1.32). ## 6. Fact-check Most of the book is argument. The checkable claims are about its date and text, the historical sources Origen cites, and the video's use of it. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | The video's quotation ("only the foolish, the lowborn, and the senseless, slaves, little women, and little children"; wool-workers and fullers) comes from Origen's quotations of Celsus | **Supported, with a citation slip** | The wool-workers and fullers passage is 3.55, as shown on screen. The "foolish… women and children" line is 3.44 ("only the silly, and the mean, and the stupid, with women and children", Crombie). Glenn's wording follows a modern translation (probably Chadwick's; not checked) | | *The True Word* was written "around the year 175 AD" (video) | **Supported as a scholarly estimate** | Usually dated c. 170–180, under Marcus Aurelius; Wilken suggests c. 170 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_Celsum), citing Thomas 2004 and Wilken 2003). No firm date exists | | Celsus's was "the first full-length attack on Christianity" (video) | **Plausible, not verified here** | It is the earliest such treatise whose contents survive in substance. Whether earlier works existed (only fragments or reports survive) was not checked | | Written about 248, when Origen was over sixty | **Supported** | Eusebius, *Church History* 6.36 ([New Advent](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm)); modern dating c. 248 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_Celsum), citing Gregerman, McGuckin, Trigg) | | Celsus was an Epicurean (1.8; also Eusebius) | **Disputed** | Celsus argues as an eclectic Platonist. Modern scholars think Origen confused him with Lucian's Epicurean friend Celsus ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_Celsum), citing Trigg 1983 and Thomas 2004). Origen himself stops calling him an Epicurean partway through | | Josephus said Jerusalem fell as punishment for the death of James the Just (1.47) | **Disputed** | Josephus records the stoning of James, "the brother of Jesus who was called Christ" (*Antiquities* 20.200), but no surviving manuscript of Josephus links it to the fall of Jerusalem. Origen may be misremembering or using Hegesippus. (I recall *Antiquities* 20.200 from general knowledge and did not open it here; **verify** at [Perseus](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0526,001:20:200)) | | Josephus did "not believe in Jesus as the Christ" (1.47) | **Supported as Origen's report** | This is one reason many scholars think the surviving *Testimonium Flavianum* ("he was the Christ", *Antiquities* 18.63) was altered by Christians after Origen's time. That reading is widely held, but the extent of the alteration is debated (**unverified** here) | | Phlegon's *Chronicles* recorded the eclipse and earthquakes at the time of the crucifixion (2.33) | **Disputed** | Phlegon's lost *Olympiads* is known to have reported a great eclipse and an earthquake in Bithynia in Olympiad 202 (AD 29–32). Whether he connected them with Jesus is doubted, and a solar eclipse cannot happen at Passover full moon. (From general knowledge, not checked against the fragments for this note: **unverified**) | | A story that Jesus's father was a soldier named Panthera (1.32) was circulating in Celsus's day | **Supported** | Origen quotes it from Celsus's Jew. Later rabbinic texts (Tosefta *Hullin* 2.22–24) mention "Yeshu ben Pantiri/Pandera" (from general knowledge; **verify**). That the story existed is supported; it is not evidence of Jesus's parentage | | Celsus called the witness to the Resurrection "a half-frantic woman" (2.55) | **Supported (as a quotation)** | Crombie 2.55. It is Celsus's Jew speaking, as quoted by Origen | | Christians did not serve as soldiers or hold office (8.73–75) | **Disputed as a description of all Christians** | Origen states a principle. Other evidence shows Christian soldiers by about 200 (Tertullian's *On the Crown*, a soldier refusing a laurel wreath; general knowledge, **verify**) | | Celsus's text can be rebuilt from Origen's quotations | **Disputed** | Many scholars think most of it survives. Bader judged reconstruction illusory, and Andresen claimed Origen quoted selectively; most later scholars defend Origen's fairness ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_Celsum), citing Somos 2015) | | The Greek text survives complete in a single manuscript (Vat. gr. 386) | **Supported** | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_Celsum), citing Marcovich 2001 | ## 7. Citations and references **Works and figures the book engages** (references are to passages where they appear) - Celsus, *The True Word*, throughout; his imaginary Jew in Books I–II. - Hebrew Bible: Genesis and Moses (1.14–27, 4.36–53, 6.49–61), Isaiah 7:14 and 53 (1.34–35, 1.54–55). - New Testament: the Gospels, especially the birth and passion narratives; Paul (1 Corinthians 2:4 at 1.2). - Josephus, *Antiquities* 18 and 20 (1.47); Phlegon, *Chronicles* (2.14, 2.33). - Plato (*Phaedo*, *Timaeus*, *Crito*, *Letters*, Books VI–VII); Heraclitus; Herodotus and Pindar (5.34); Homer and Hesiod (Book IV, VI). - Numenius of Apamea, Philo and Aristobulus as allegorists (1.15, 4.51). - Pagan oracles: Delphi, Dodona, Claros; Asclepius, Aristeas, Antinous (Book III, VII). - Gnostic and Ophite sects (Book V–VI). **Secondary sources** - Henry Chadwick, *Origen: Contra Celsum* (Cambridge, 1953; 1980), introduction and notes (title known; not consulted). - Joseph W. Trigg, *Origen* (1983); John A. McGuckin, ed., *The Westminster Handbook to Origen* (2004); Robert L. Wilken, *The Christians as the Romans Saw Them* (2003); Stephen Thomas, "Celsus" (2004); Adam Gregerman (2016); Mátyás Somos (2015). All are cited via Wikipedia; I did not read them. - Miroslav Marcovich, ed., *Origenes: Contra Celsum libri VIII* (Brill, 2001). **Links used in this note** - https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0416.htm ; https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04161.htm to https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04168.htm - https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm - https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.ix.html - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_Celsum ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origen - https://openlibrary.org/works/OL133556W ; https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4215600M ; https://openlibrary.org/books/OL18752009M ; https://openlibrary.org/books/OL18351017M - https://archive.org/details/origenagainstcel00orig ; https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DSQTAAAAYAAJ ; https://archive.org/details/contracelsum0000orig - https://librivox.org/against-celsus-book-1-by-origen-of-alexandria/ (and Books II–VII as linked above) - https://shwep.net/podcast/total-war-polemical-esotericism-in-the-contra-celsum/ - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/against-celsus-book-1-by-origen-of-alexandria/id1698443992 ; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-celsus-book-6-by-origen-of-alexandria/id1698444231 - https://www.audible.com/pd/Against-Celsus-Audiobook/B0FQ393YC9 - https://www.cambridge.org/9780521295765 - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0526,001:20:200 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs