The Jew of Celsus and Adversus Judaeos literature

Abstract

The appearance in Celsus’ work, $\textit{The True Word}$, of a Jew who speaks out against Jesus and his followers, has elicited much discussion, not least as to the genuineness of this character. Celsus’ decision to exploit Jewish opinion about Jesus for polemical purposes is a $\textit{novum}$ in extant pagan literature about Christianity (as is $\textit{The True Word}$ itself), and that and other observations can be used to support the authenticity of Celsus’ Jew. Interestingly, the $\textit{ad hominem}$ nature of his attack upon Jesus is not directly reflected in the Christian $\textit{adversus Judaeos}$ literature, which concerns itself mainly with scripture (and almost exclusively with what Christians called the Old Testament), a subject barely touched upon by Celsus’ Jew, rather than with an explicit defence of Jesus’ life. Why might this be the case? Various theories are discussed, and a plea made to remember the importance of counter-narrative arguments (as opposed to arguments from scripture), and by extension the importance of Celsus’ Jew, in any consideration of the history of Jewish-Christian relations.