Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In the 2nd century, Celsus, a Greek philosopher, wrote that Jesus's father was a Roman soldier named Panthera. The views of Celsus drew responses from Origen, who considered it a fabricated story. Celsus' claim is only known from Origen's reply. Origen writes:
However, Celsus's harshest criticism was reserved for Christians, who "wall themselves off and break away from the rest of mankind". [6] Celsus initiated a critical attack on Christianity, ridiculing many of its dogmas. He wrote that some Jews said Jesus's father was actually a Roman soldier named Pantera. Origen considered this a fabricated story.
In his Against Celsus [A.D. 248], Origen provides an idea of the caliber of the insults: Jesus, illegitimate son of Panthera, a Roman legionary, was a charlatan and a magician killed by the Jews; after His death, marvels were invented by His disciples concerning Him. Other tales of a still lower grade circulated, in which Jesus figured as a ...
The Platonistic philosopher Celsus, writing circa 150 to 200 CE, wrote a narrative describing a Jew who discounts the story of the Virgin Birth of Jesus. [115] Scholars have remarked on the parallels (adultery, father's name "Panthera", return from Egypt, magical powers) between Celsus' account and the Talmudic narratives.
Celsus in his discourse The True Word gives the name as Panthera in Greek. [27] This name is not known from any graves or inscriptions, but the surname Pantera (a Latin rendering) is known from the 1st-century tombstone of Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera. [28]
Celsus stated that Jesus was the bastard child of the Roman soldier Panthera or Pantera. [85] These charges of illegitimacy are the earliest datable statement of the Jewish charge that Jesus was conceived as the result of adultery (see Jesus in the Talmud) and that his true father was a Roman soldier named Panthera. Panthera was a common name ...
Celsus was a very common name, and Origen, perhaps as innuendo, expresses uncertainty about whether Celsus is the same person as Celsus the Epicurean. This may have been an attempt to discredit Celsus, since Epicureanism was disreputable, and in any case Celsus's philosophical writings are Platonist and incompatible with Epicureanism.
In the 2nd century, as part of his anti-Christian polemic The True Word, the pagan philosopher Celsus contended that Jesus was actually the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier named Panthera. [258] The Church Father Origen dismissed this assertion as a complete fabrication in his apologetic treatise Against Celsus. [259]