Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum, 2017-08, Vol.21 (2), p.201-242
2017
Details
- Autor(en) / Beteiligte
- Titel
- The Jew of Celsus and adversus Judaeos literature
- Ist Teil von
- Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum, 2017-08, Vol.21 (2), p.201-242
- Ort / Verlag
- De Gruyter
- Erscheinungsjahr
- 2017
- Link zum Volltext
- Quelle
- Alma/SFX Local Collection
- Beschreibungen/Notizen
- The appearance in Celsus’ work, , 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 in extant pagan literature about Christianity (as is itself), and that and other observations can be used to support the authenticity of Celsus’ Jew. Interestingly, the nature of his attack upon Jesus is not directly reflected in the Christian 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 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.