Middle-Platonic philosopher Celsus is well known for his strict opposition to Christianity. His attitude to the Jewish and Christian Holy Scriptures was entirely rejecting, which is clearly expressed in his rating of the Bible as “utter trash”.
Celsus is also well known for his notion of True Account, the universal truth of the reality. According to Celsus, Judaism and Christianity are in conflict with his True Doctrine.
Only few studies have been made of Celsus’ own philosophy and theology. In my present study, I am going to reconstruct Celsus’ argument against the truth of the Bible.
There are four crucial points in his argument. The first is the origin of the Jewish people and Christian faith. Celsus presents them as a descendants of the rebellion against ancient people (most commonly Egyptians), who held and practiced the ancient, true doctrine. Because of this rebellion, their originality is questionable.
The second argument is the susceptibility of the biblical writers. As being descendants of the rebels (or rebels themselves), their doctrine must be wrong. This is because in Celsus’ view the doctrine (logos) and the way of living (nomos) are in an equivalent relation – a change in the one affects also the other.
Thirdly, Celsus points out that Judaism and Christianity are in conflict with the true doctrine. This is not because of their particular teaching but of their claim for universality, which, according to Celsus, has no universal basis. As Jews and Christians take only their scriptures and holy men into account, their faith is not universal but particular.
And fourthly, because the irrelibiality of the Bible concerning the universal truth is now proofed, Celsus argues there is no divine inspiration in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Therefore they cannot be interpreted allegorically, which was also a crucial method in the proof of the Christian doctrines.
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