The Jew of Celsus and adversus Judaeos literature
The appearance in Celsus’ work, The True Word, of a Jew who speaks out against Jesus and his followers, has elicited much discussion, not least concerning the genuineness of this character. Celsus’ decision to exploit Jewish opinion about Jesus for polemical purposes is a novum in extant pagan liter...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2017
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
Year: 2017, Volume: 21, Issue: 2, Pages: 201-242 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Celsus, Philosophus, Fragmenta
/ Christianity
/ Jews
/ Polemics
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| IxTheo Classification: | BH Judaism CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity |
| Further subjects: | B
Celsus
Polemics
Jew
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| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | The appearance in Celsus’ work, The True Word, of a Jew who speaks out against Jesus and his followers, has elicited much discussion, not least concerning the genuineness of this character. Celsus’ decision to exploit Jewish opinion about Jesus for polemical purposes is a novum in extant pagan literature about Christianity (as is The True Word itself), and that and other observations can be used to support the authenticity of Celsus’ Jew. Interestingly, the ad hominem nature of his attack upon Jesus is not directly reflected in the Christian adversus Judaeos literature, which concerns itself mainly with scripture (in this respect exclusively with what Christians called the Old Testament), a subject only superficially touched upon by Celsus’ Jew, who is concerned mainly to attack aspects of Jesus’ life. Why might this be the case? Various theories are discussed, and a plea made to remember the importance of what might be termed counter-narrative arguments (as opposed to arguments from scripture), and by extension the importance of Celsus’ Jew, in any consideration of the history of ancient Jewish-Christian disputation. |
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| ISSN: | 1612-961X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zac-2017-0015 |