Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 4) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Conclude Book I of Origen against Celsus.
My summary
Today we finish reading the first book of Origen's rebuttal of the work of Celsus.
Origen defends the person of Jesus as described in the Scriptures, including Christ's:
(i) poverty;
(ii) virgin conception;
(iii) fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies;
(iv) miracles;
(v) baptism (with the appearance of the Holy Spirit as a dove);
(vi) birth;
(vii) death and sufferings;
(viii) apostles.
What grabbed me
It was interesting to read the lies spread about Jesus in the early church: 'And since, in imitation of a rhetorician training a pupil, he [Celsus] introduces a Jew, who enters into a personal discussion with Jesus, and speaks in a very childish manner, altogether unworthy of the grey hairs of a philosopher, let me endeavour, to the best of my ability, to examine his statements, and show that he does not maintain, throughout the discussion, the consistency due to the character of a Jew. For he represents him disputing with Jesus, and confuting Him, as he thinks, on many points; and in the first place, he accuses Him of having "invented his birth from a virgin," and upbraids Him with being "born in a certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country, who gained her subsistence by spinning, and who was turned out of doors by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because she was convicted of adultery; that after being driven away by her husband, and wandering about for a time, she disgracefully gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child, who having hired himself out as a servant in Egypt on account of his poverty, and having there acquired some miraculous powers, on which the Egyptians greatly pride themselves, returned to his own country, highly elated on account of them, and by means of these proclaimed himself a God." Now, as I cannot allow anything said by unbelievers to remain unexamined, but must investigate everything from the beginning, I give it as my opinion that all these things worthily harmonize with the predictions that Jesus is the Son of God.'
Slander against our Lord is nothing new.
Next week's reading
Commence Book II of Origen against Celsus by reading up to Chapter XXXVII.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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