Arguments of Celsus, Porphyry, and the Emperor Julian, Against the Christians / Also Extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and Tacitus, Relating to the Jews, Together with an Appendix

by active 180 Celsus; Siculus Diodorus; Flavius Josephus; Emperor of Rome Julian; Porphyry; Cornelius Tacitus

EXTRACTS FROM BINGHAM'S ANTIQUITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH*,

OF THE NAMES OF REPROACH WHICH THE JEWS, INFIDELS, AND HERETICS CAST UPON THE CHRISTIANS.

"Besides the names already spoken of, there were some other reproachful names cast upon them by their adversaries, which it will not be improper here to mention. The first of these was Nazarens, a

* The edition from which these Extracts are taken it in one
vol. 8vo, London, 1708, and begins at p. 13.

name of reproach given them first by the Jews, by whom they are styled the sect of the Nazarens, Acts xxiv. 5. There was indeed a particular heresy, who called themselves [—Greek—]: and Epiphanius* thinks the Jews had a more especial spite at them, because they were a sort of Jewish apostates, who kept circumcision and the Mosaical rites together with the Christian religion: and therefore, he says, they were used to curse and anathematize them three times a day, morning, noon, and evening, when they met in their synagogues to pray, in this direful form of execration,' [—Greek—], 'Send thy curse, O God, upon the Nazarens.' But St. Jerome** says this was levelled at Christians in general, whom they thus anathematized under the name of Nazarens. And this seems most probable, because both as St. Jerome*** and Epiphanius himself**** observe, the Jews termed all Christians by way of reproach, Nazarens. And the Gentiles took it from the Jews, as appears from that of

* Epiphan. Haer. 29. n. 9.
** Hieron. Com. in Esa. xlix. t 5. p. 178. Ter per tingulos
dies sub nomine Nazaienorum maledicunt in synagogis suis.
*** Id. de loc. Hebr. t. 3. p. 289. Nos apnd veterei» quasi
opprobrio Nazaraei dicebamur, quos nunc Christianos vocant.
**** Epiphan. ibid.

Datianus the praetor in Prudentius*, where speaking to the Christians he gives them the name of Nazarens. Some** think the Christians at first were very free to own this name, and esteemed it no reproach, till such time as the heresy of the Nazarens broke out, and then in detestation of that heresy they forsook that name, and called themselves Christians. Acts xi. 26. But whether this be said according to the exact rules of chronology, I leave those that are better skilled to determine.

Another name of reproach was that of Galilæans, which was Julian's ordinary style, whenever he spake of Christ or Christians. Thus in his Dialogue with old Maris a blind Christian bishop, mentioned by Sozomen***, he told him by way of scoff, "Thy Galilæan God will not cure thee." And again, in his epistle**** to Arsacius high-priest of Galatia, "The Galilæans maintain their own poor and ours also." The like may be observed in Socrates(v), Theodoret (vi),

* Prudent. ————-]. Carm. 5. de S. Vincent.
Vos Nazareni assistite,
Rudemque ritum spernite.
Id. Hymno 9. de Rom. Mart.
** Junius, Parallel, lib. 1. c. 8. Godwyn, Jew.
Rites, lib. 1. c. 8.
*** Sozom. lib. 5. c. 4.
**** A p. Sozom. lib. 5. c. 16.
(v) Socrat. lib. 3. c. 12.
(vi) Theodor. lib. 3. c 7. & 31.

Chrysostom*, and Gregory Nazianzen**, who adds, that he not only called them Galilæans himself, but made a law that no one should call them by any other name; thinking thereby to abolish the name of Christians.

They also called them Atheists, and their religion the Atheism or Impiety, because they derided the worship of the heathen gods. Dio*** says, Acilius

Glabrio was put to death for atheism, meaning the Christian religion. And the Christian apologists, Athenagoras**** Justin Martyr(v), Arnobius(vi), and others, reckon this among the crimes which the heathens usually lay to their charge. Eusebius says(vii) the name was become so common, that when the persecuting magistrates would oblige a Christian to renounce his religion, they bade him abjure it in this form, by saying among other things, [—Greek—] 'Confusion to the atheists, Away with the impious,' meaning the Christians.

To this they added the name of Greeks and Impostors. Which is noted by St. Jerome(viii) who says

* Chrys. Horn. 63. torn. 5.
** Naz. i. Invectiv.
*** Dio in Domitian.
**** Athen. Legat. pro Christ.
(v) Just. Apol. i. p. 47.
(vi) Arnob. lib. i.
(vii) Euseb. lib. iv. c. 15.
(viii) Hieron. Ep. 10. ad Furiara. Ubicunque viderint

wheresoever they saw a Christian, they would presently cry out, '[—Greek—], 'Behold a Grecian impostor.' This was the character which the Jews gave our Saviour, [—Greek—]' that deceiver*, Matt, xxvii. 63. And Justin Martyr** says, they endeavoured to propagate it to posterity, sending their apostles or emissaries from Jerusalem to all the synagogues in the world, to bid them beware of a certain impious, lawless sect, lately risen up under one Jesus, a Galilæan impostor. Hence Lucian*** took occasion in his blasphemous raillery to style him The crucified sophister. And Celsus**** commonly gives him and his followers the name of [—Greek—] 'deceivers.' So Asclepiades the judge in Prudentius**** compliments them with the appellation of sophisters; and Ulpian(v) proscribes them in a law by the name of impostors.

The reason why they added the name of Greeks

* Christianum, statim illud de Trivio, [—Greek—] vocant
Impostorem.
** Justin. Dial. c. Tryph. p. 335.
*** Lucian. Peregrin.
**** Cels. ap. Orig. lib. i. et lib. 6.
(v) Prudent. [—Greek—]. Carm. 9. de Romano Marty. Quis hos
Sophistas error invexit novus, &c.
(vi) Digest, lib. 50. tit. 13. c 1. Si incantavit, si in-
precatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo Impostoruxn utar) si
exorcisavit

to that of impostors, was (as learned men* conjecture) because many of the Christian philosophers took upon them the Grecian or philosophic habit, which was the [—Greek—] or pallium: whence the Greeks were called Pallitati, as the Romans were called Togati, or Gens togata, from their proper habit, which was the toga. Now it being some offence to the Romans to see the Christians quit the Roman gown, to wear the Grecian cloak; they thence took occasion, to mock and deride them with the scurrilous names of Greeks, and Grecian impostors. Tertullian s book de Pallio was written to show the spiteful malice of this foolish objection.

But the heathens went one step further in their malice; and because our Saviour and his followers did many miracles, which they imputed to evil arts and the power of magic, they therefore generally declaimed against them as magicians, and under that character exposed them to the fury of the vulgar. Celsus** and others pretended that our Saviour studied magic in Egypt: and St. Austin*** says, it was generally believed among the heathens, that he

* Kortholt de Morib. Christian, c. 3. p. 23. Baron an.
56. n. 11.
** Origen. cont. Cels. lib. 2. Arrobius, lib. 1. p. 36.
*** Aug. de Consensu Evang. lib. 1. c. 9.

wrote some books about magic too, which he delivered to Peter and Paul for the use of his disciples. Hence it was that Suetonius* speaking in the language of his party, calls the Christians Genus hominum superstionis maleficae, 'the men of the magical superstition.' As Asclepiades the judge in Prudentius** styles St. Romanus the martyr, Arch-magician.

And St. Ambrose observes in the Passion of St. Agnes*** how the people cried out against her, 'Away with the sorceress! Away with the enchanter! 'Nothing being more common than to term all Christians, especially such as wrought miracles, by the odious name of sorcerers and magicians.'

The New Superstition was another name of reproach for the Christian religion. Suetonius gives it that title****, and Pliny and Tacitus add to it(v) the opprobrious terms of wicked and unreasonable

* Sueton. Neron. c. 16.
** Prudent. Hymn. 9. de S. Romano. Quousque tandem
su m m us hic nobis Magus illudit.
*** Ambr. Serm. 90. in S. Agnen. Tolle Magam! Tolle
Maleticam!
**** See Kortholt de Morib. Christ, c. 4.
(v) Sueton. Nero. c. 16.
(vi) Plin. lib. 10. ep. 97. Nihil aliud inveni, quam
superstitionem pravam et immodicara. Tacit. Annal. 15. c.
44. Exitiabilis superstitio.

superstition. By which name also Nero triumphed over it in his trophies which he set up at Rome, when he had harassed the Christians with a most severe persecution. He gloried that he had purged the country of robbers, and those that obtruded and inculcated the new superstition* upon mankind. By this, there can be no doubt he meant the Christians, whose religion is called the superstition in other inscriptions of the like nature. See that of Diocletian cited in Baronius, Ann. 304. from Occo. "Superstitione Christianorum ubique deleta," &c.

Not much unlike this was that other name which Porphyry** and some others give it, when they call it the barbarous, new, and strange religion. In the acts of the famous martyrs of Lyons, who suffered under Antoninus Pius, the heathens scornfully insult it with this character. For having burnt the martyrs to ashes, and scattered their remains into the river Rhone, they said, they did it 'to cut off their hopes of a resurrection, upon the

* Inscript. Antiq. ad Calcem Sueton. Oxon. NERONI. CLAUD.
CAIS. AUG. PONT. MAX. OB. PROVING. LATRONIB. ET. HIS. QUI.
NOVAM. GENERI. HUM. SUPERSTITION. INCULCAB. PURGAT.
** Ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl, lib* 6, c 19, [—Greek—]

strength of which they sought to obtrude* the new and strange religion upon mankind. But now let us see whether they will rise again, and whether their God can help and deliver them out of our hands.'

Celsus gives them the name of Sibyllists**, because the Christians in their disputes with the heathens sometimes made use of the authority of Sibylla their own prophetess against them; whose writing they urged with so much advantage to the Christian cause, and prejudice to the heathen, that Justin Martyr*** says, the Roman governors made it death for any one to read them, or Hystaspes, or the writings of the prophets.

They also reproached them with the appellation of [—Greek—], 'self-murderers,' because they readily offered themselves up to martyrdom, and cheerfully underwent any violent death, which the heathens could inflict upon them. With what eagerness they courted death, we learn not only from the Christian writers**** themselves, but from the testimonies

* Act. Mart. Lugd. ap. Euseb. lib. 5. c. 1. [—Greek—]
** Origen. c. Cels. lib. 5. p. 272.
*** Just Apol. 2. p. 82.
**** See these collected in Pearson, Vind. Ignat. Par. 2. c.
9. p. 384.

of the heathens* concerning them. Lucian** says they not only despised death, but many of them voluntarily offered themselves to it, out of a persuasion that they should be made immortal and live forever. This he reckons folly, and therefore gives them the name of [—Greek—], 'The miserable wretches, that threw away their lives,' In which sense Porphyry*** also styles, the Christian religion, [—Greek—] the barbarous boldness.' As Arrjus Antoninus**** terms the professors of it, [—Greek—], The stupid wretches, that had such a mind to die; and the heathen in Minucius(v), homines deploratae ac desperate factionis, 'the men of the forlorn and desperate faction.' All which agrees with the name Biothanati, or Biaeothanati, as Baronius(vi) understands it* Though it may signify not only self-murderers, but (as a learned critic(xii) notes) men that expect to live after death. In which sense the heathens probably might use it likewise to ridicule the Christian doctrine of the resurrection; on which, they

* Arrius Antonin. ap. Tertul. ad Scap. c. 4. Tiberias, in
Joh. Malela Chronic.
** Lucian. de Mort Peregrin.
*** Porphyr. ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl. 1. 6. c 19.
**** Tertul. ibid.
(v) Minuc. Octav. p. 25.
(vi) Baron, an. 138. n. 5.
(vii) Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast 1.1. p. 690.

knew, all their fearless and undaunted courage was founded. For so the same heathen in Minucius endeavours to expose at once both their resolution and their belief: "O strange folly, and incredible madness!" says he; "they despise all present torments, and yet fear those that are future and uncertain: they are afraid of dying after death, but in the mean time do not fear to die. So vainly do they flatter themselves, and allay their fears, with the hopes of some reviving comforts after death." For one of these reasons then they gave them the name of Biothanati,

which word expressly occurs in some of the acts of the ancient martyrs. Baronius observes* out of Bede's Martyrology, that when the seven sons of Symphorosa were martyred under Hadrian, their bodies were all cast into one pit together, which the temple-priests named from them, Ad Septem Biothanatos, 'The grave of the seven Biothanati.'

For the same reasons they gave them the names of Parabolarii and Desperati, 'The bold and desperate men.' The Parabolarii, or Parabolani among the Romans were those bold adventurous men, who hired out themselves to fight with wild beasts upon the stage or amphitheatre, whence they had also the name of Bestiarii, and Confectores. Now because the

* Baron, an. 138. n. 5.

Christians were put to fight for their lives in the same manner, and they rather chose to do it than deny their religion, they therefore got the name of Paraboli and Parabolani: which, though it was intended as a name of reproach and mockery, yet the Christians were not unwilling to take to themselves, being one of the truest characters that the heathens ever gave them. And therefore they sometimes gave themselves this name by way of allusion to the Roman Paraboli. As in the Passion of Abdo and Senne* in the time of Valerian, the martyrs who were exposed to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, are said to enter, 'ut audacissimi Parabolani,' as most resolute champions, that despised their own lives for their religion's sake. But the other name of Desperati they rejected as a calumny, retorting it back upon their adversaries, who more justly deserved it. "Those," says Lactantius***, "who set a value upon their faith, and will not deny their God, they first torment and butcher with all their might, and then call them desperados, because they will not spare their bodies: as if any thing could be more desperate, than to torture and tear in pieces those whom you cannot but know to be innocent."

* Acta Abdon. et Sennes ap. Suicer.
** Lact. Instil, lib. 5. c. 9. Desperates vocant, quia
corpori suo minime parcunt, &c.

Tertullian mentions another name, which was likewise occasioned by their sufferings. The martyrs which were burnt alive, were usually tied to a board or stake of about six foot long, which the Romans called semaxis; and then they were surrounded or covered with faggots of small wood, which they called sarmenia. From this their punishment, the heathens, who turned every thing into mockery, gave all Christians the despiteful name of Sarmentitii and Semaxii*.

The heathen in Minucius*** takes occasion also to reproach them under the name of the sculking generation, or the men that loved to prate in corners and the dark. The ground of which scurrilous reflection was only this, that they were forced to hold their religious assemblies in the night to avoid the fury of the persecutions. Which Celsus**** himself owns, though otherwise prone enough to load them with hard names and odious reflections.

The same heathen in Minucius gives them one

* Tertul. Apol. t, 50. Licet nunc Sarmentitios et Semaxios
appelletis, quia ad stipitem dimidii axis re-vincti,
sarmentorum ambitu exurimur.
** Minuc. Octav. p. 25. Latebrosa et lucifugax natio, in
publicum muta, in angulis garrula.
*** Origen. c. Cel. lib. 1. p. 5.

scurrilous name more, which it is not very easy to guess the meaning of. He calls them Plautinians*,—homines Plautinæ prosapiæ. Rigaltius** takes it for a ridicule upon the poverty and simplicity of the Christians, whom the heathens commonly represented as a company of poor ignorant mechanics, bakers, tailors, and the like; men of the same quality with Plautus, who, as St. Jerome*** observes, was so poor, that at a time of famine he was forced to hire out himself to a baker to grind at his mill, during which time he wrote three of his Plays in the intervals of his labour. Such sort of men Coecilius says the Christians were; and therefore he styles Octavius in the dialogue, homo Plautinæ prosapiæ et pistorum præcipuus, 'a Plautinian, a chief man among the illiterate bakers,' but no philosopher. The same reflection is often made by Celsus. "You shall see," says he****, "weavers, tailors,fullers, and the most illiterate and rustic fellows, who dare not speak a word before wise men, when they can get a company of children and silly women together, set up to teach strange paradoxes amongst

* Minuc. p. 37. Quid ad hæc audet Octavius homo Plautinæ
Prosapiæ, ut Pistorum præcipuus ita postremus
Philosophorum?
** Rigalt. in loc.
*** Hieron. Chronic, an. 1. Olymp. 145.
**** Origen. c Cels. lib. 3. p. 144.

them." "This is one of their rules," says he again*,—"Let no man that is learned, wise, or prudent come among us; but if any be unlearned, or a child, or an ideot, let him freely come. So they openly declare, that none but fools and sots, and such as want sense, slaves, women, and children, are fit disciples for the God they worship***."

Nor was it only the heathens that thus reviled them, but commonly every perverse sect among the Christians had some reproachful name to cast upon them. The Novatian party called them Cornelieans*** because they communicated with Cornelius bishop of Rome, rather than with Novatianus his antagonist. They also termed them Apostates, Capitolins, Synedrians, because**** they charitably decreed in their synods to receive apostates, and such as went to the Capitol to sacrifice, into their communion again upon their sincere repentance. The Nestorians(v) termed the orthodox Cyrillians; and the Arians(vi) called them Eustathians and

* Origen. c. Cels. lib. 3. p. 137. f See the preceding
translation of Celsus, p. 19. f Eulog. ap. Phot. Cod. 280. §
Facian. Ep. 2. ad Sympronian. || Ep. Legat. Schismat ad suos
in Epheso in Act. Con. Ephes. Con. t S. p. 746. f Sozora,
lib, 6. c. 21.

Paulinions, from Eustathius and Paulin us bishops of Antioch. As also Homousians, because they kept to the doctrine of the [—Greek—], which declared the Son of God to be of the same substance with the Father. The author of the Opus Imperfection on St. Matthew, under the name of Chrysostom*, styles them expressly, Hæresis Homoousianorum,' the heresy of the Homoousians.' And so Serapion in his conflict with Arnobius** calls them Homousianates,which the printed copy reads corruptly Homuncionates, which was a name for the Nestorians.

The Cataphrygians or Montanists commonly called the orthodox [—Greek—], 'carnal'; because they rejected the prophecies and pretexted inspirations of Montanus, and would not receive his rigid laws about fasting, nor abstain from second marriages, and observe four Lents in a year, &c. This was Tertullian's ordinary compliment to the Christians in all his books** written after he was fallen into the errors of Montanus. He calls his own party the spiritual, and the orthodox the carnal: and

* Opus Imperf. Horn. 48.
** Conflict. Arnob. et Serap. ad cakem Irenæi, p. 519.
*** Tertul. adv. Prax. c. 1. Nos quidem agnitio Paracleti
disjunxit à Psychicis. Id. de Monogam. c. 1. Haeretici
nuptias auferunt, Psychici ingerunt. See also c. 11. and 16.

some of his books* are expressly entitled, Adversus Psychicos. Clemens Alexandrinus** observes, the same reproach was also used by other heretics beside the Montanists. And it appears from Irenæus, that this was an ancient calumny of the Valentînîans, who styled themselves the spiritual and the perfect, and the orthodox the secular and carnal***, who had need of abstinence and good works, which were not necessary for them that were perfect.

The Millenaries styled them Allegorists, because they expounded the prophecy of the saints reigning a thousand years with Christ, (Rev. xx. 4.) to a mystical and allegorical sense. Whence Euseubius**** observes of Nepos the Egyptian bishop, who wrote for the Millenium, that he entitled his book, [—Greek—], 'A confutation of the Allegorists.'

Aetius the Arian gives them the abusive name of [—Greek—]; by which he seems to intimate, that their religion was but temporary, and would

* De Jejuniis adv. Psychicos. De Pudicitia, &c.
** Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. 4. p. 511.
*** Iren. lib. 1. c 1. p. 29. Nobis quidem, quos Psychicos
vocant, et de sæculo esse dicunt, necessarian) con-
tinentiam, &c.
**** Euseb. lib. 7. c. 24.

shortly have an end; whereas the character was much more applicable to the Arians themselves, whose faith was so lately sprung up in the world; as the author of the dialogues de Trinitate, under the name of Athanasius, who confutes Aetius *, justly retorts upon him.

The Manichees, as they gave themselves the most glorious names of Electi, Macarii, Catharistæ, mentioned by St. Austin**; so they reproached the Catholics with the most contemptible name of Simplices, 'ideots,' which is the term that Manichæus himself used in his dispute*** with Archelaus, the Mesopotamian bishop, styling the Christian teachers, Simpliciorum magistri, 'guides of the simple;' because they could not relish his execrable doctrine concerning two principles of good and evil.

The Apollinarians were no less injurious to the Catholics, in fixing on them the odious name of Anthropolatræ, 'man-worshippers'; because they maintained that Christ was a perfect man, and had a reasonable soul and body, of the same nature with ours; which Apollinarius denied. Gregory

* Athan. Dial. 2. de Trinit. t. 2. p. 193.
** Aug. de Hær. c. 46.
*** Archel. Disp. adv. Manichaeum adcalcem Sozomen. Ed.
Vales, p. 197.

Nazianzen* takes notice of this abuse, and sharply replies to it; telling the Apollinarians, that they themselves much better deserved the name of Sarcolatræ, 'flesh-worshippers': for if Christ had no human soul, they must be concluded to worship his flesh only.

The Origenians, who denied the truth of the resurrection, and asserted that men should have only aerial and spiritual bodies in the next world, made jests upon the Catholics, because they maintained the contrary, that our bodies should be the same individual bodies, and of the same nature that they are now, with flesh and bones, and all the members in the same form and structure, only altered in quality, not in substance. For this they gave them the opprobrious names of Simplices and Philosarcæ**, 'ideots' and 'lovers of the flesh'; Carnei, Animales, Jumenta, 'carnal, sensual, animals'; Lutei, 'earthy', Pilosiotæ***, which Erasmus's edition reads

* Naz. Ep. 1. ad Cledon.
** Hieron. Ep. 61. ad Pammach. t. 2. p. 171. Nos Simplices
et Philosarcas dicere, quod eadem ossa, et sanguis, et caro,
id est, vultus et membra, totiusque compago corporis
resurgat in novissima die.
*** Id. Ep. 65, ad Pam. et Ocean, de Error. Orig. p. 192.
Pelusiotas (leg. Pilosiotas) nos appellant, et Luteos,
Animalesque, et Cameos, quod non recipiamus ea quae Spiritus
sunt.

corruptly Pelusiotæ, instead of Pilonotæ; which seems to be a name formed from pili, (hair); because the Catholics asserted, that the body would rise perfect in all its parts, even with the hair itself to beautify and adorn it.

But of all others the Luciferians gave the church the rudest language; styling her the brothel-house, and synagogue of Antichrist and Satan; because she allowed those bishops to retain their honour and places, who were cajoled by the Arians to subscribe the fraudulent confession of the Council of Ariminum. The Luciferian in St. Jerome runs out in this manner against the church; and St. Jerome says, he spake but the sense of the whole party, for this was the ordinary style and language of all the rest.—Hieron. Dial. adv. Lucifer, t. ii. p. 135."

Thus far Bingham: to whose extracts may appropriately be added, what the Emperor Julian says reproachfully of the Christians, in the fragments which Cyril has preserved of his Treatise against them. "You do not take notice (says he) whether any mention is made by the Jews of holiness; but you emulate their rage and their bitterness, overturning temples and altars, and cutting the throats, not only of those who remain firm in paternal

institutes, but also of those heretics who are equally erroneous with yourselves, and who do not lament a dead body [i. e. the body of Christ] in the same manner as you do*. For neither Jesus nor Paul exhorted you to act in this manner. But the reason is, that neither did they expect that you would ever arrive at the power which you have obtained. For they were satisfied if they could deceive maidservants and slaves, and through these married women, and such men as Cornelius and Sergius; among whom if you can mention one that was at that time an illustrious character, (and these things were transacted under the reign of Tiberius or Claudius) believe that I am a liar in all things**."

* Julian here alludes to the contests between the Arians and
Trinitarians.
** Vid. Cyril, apud Spanh.

THE END.