Roman Complains About Weird New "Christians" and "Jesus" Son of Panthera (177 AD) True Word, Celsus
522,160
Published 2022-01-30
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Extracts taken from:
Celsus, as quote by Origen:
www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/celsus.html
Music from Epidemic Sound and Artlist
Stock footage from Videoblocks and Artgrid
Image Credits:
Jupiter Biser Todorov, CC BY 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Lector Priest By Djehouty - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85789152
Qumran Scroll By Shai Halevi on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority - Enlargement of image at Wikimedia-Commonsupload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/1039-1…, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87731788
Sol By I, Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14797121
Plato By Zde - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=97089963Pu… Feast By User:MatthiasKabel - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6737712
Apollo By Livioandronico2013 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36412498
Roman mosaic By Jerzystrzelecki - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23726316
Mosaic Virgil By Giorces - Self-photographed, CC BY 2.5, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2266859
All Comments (21)
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"yeah well my gods could totally beat up your gods" - Most Roman thing ever
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The way you are able to capture the emotions of a writer who's been dead for centuries with your inflection is really remarkable. Another brilliant production.
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So the Romans basically were just like "Yeah he was probably just a perfectly ordinary sorcerer with delusions of grandeur"
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"It's no big deal jesus we have all seen Egyptian magic before" 😂
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"the most notorious of persons, tax gatherers.....and FISHERMEN!"
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I like the "how could there be days before the sun even existed?" question
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When they call Jesus a "demon" they are probably referring to him as a demos which is just a Greek name for a supernatural being and doesn't have a negative connotation
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It’s interesting how the Roman writing has some of the same criticisms of Jesus as the Pharisees did, like when he calls out how Jesus kept “bad company” like tax collectors and fishermen.
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"Jesus having gathered around him... the very wickedest of tax gatherers and fishermen..." this made me laugh.
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This is so incredibly interesting. I’ve never heard a direct account on early Christianity from an outside perspective before. Would love to hear more like this
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The Roman’s were the definition of confidence and arrogance all at once. I always get a chuckle out of how their “diplomats” practiced diplomacy. There’s a well known story of one diplomat drawing a circle around a foreign king with his staff. and telling him to have a decision made by the time he steps out of the circle. 😂
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I love how one of his main arguments basically boils down to poor people being gross and so they wouldn’t or shouldn’t be favored by a deity.
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The casual mention of his belief that Egyptians could perform miracles shows that elites from rich countries have been looking at even more ancient cultures as sources of mysterious knowledge or enlightenment for thousands of years before us.
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This actually a pretty good example of how the Romans expected Gods to act like Gods. Powerful . Tireless. Awe inspiring. Its also interesting that he is ecumenical in his way, regarding all the polytheists as worshiping the same gods regardless of their name.
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We have these transcripts from Celsus due to the work of Origen, a Christian interested in refuting the peculiarities of pagan perspectives. Wonderful to read as an account from without and within the burgeoning faith.
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Wild! It's as though this guy was writing the script for a character in Monty Python's "The Life of Brian."
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I love it how you can almost hear the eye roll at Jesus learning miracles in Egypt, then returning to Israel and proclaiming He's God. Like everyone could do that back then, and it was just another Tuesday.
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Rome, 177 AD - Who are these silly Christians? Rome, 380 AD - Christianity is our official religion.
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"I'm not gonna argue, debate or question christians because I already know all about then" Yup, that roman got that reddit energy.
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The logic being applied is actually quiet astounding. It's mixed with his own understanding of the world, but the line of questioning and trying to explore with reason is very impressive.
