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CELSUS THE EPICUREAN? THE INTERPRETATION OF AN ARGUMENT IN ORIGEN, CONTRA CELSUM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2001

Silke-Petra Bergijan
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich

Abstract

Since the early eighteenth century it has been established that Celsus was not an Epicurean despite the arguments in Origen's Contra Celsum. Rather, Celsus has been recognized as a Middle Platonist. Against the long scholarly tradition based on Origen's writings,Johann Lorenz von Mosheim mentions: Caesar Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, tom. 2 (Rome: Congregations Oratorij apud S. Mariam in Vallicella, 1594), ad A.D. 132, § XVI–XIX, 89; Gulielmus Spencerus, Annotationes ad Origenis octo libros contra Celsum (Cambridge: J. Hayes/G. Morden, 1677) 2–3; Henric Dodwell, Dissertationes in Irenaeum: Accedit fragmentum Philippi Sidetae hactenus ineditum de Catechistarum Alexandrinorum successione cum notis (Oxford: E. Theatro Scheldoniano, 1689) 499–501; Joannes Jonsius; De scriptoribus Historiae Philososophicae lib. IV (Frankfurt: Th. M. Götzius, 1659) 332; Samuel Basnagius, Annales Politico-Ecclesiastici, tom. II (Rotterdam: R. Leers, 1706), ad A.D. 137, 80; Henricus Valesius, Annotationes in Historiam Ecclesiasticam Eusebii Caesariensis, attached to Historiae Ecclesiasticae scriptores Graecae (Amsterdam: H. Wetstenius, 1695) 115; Jo. Albertus Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graecae (Hamburg: Chr. Liebezeit/Th. Chr. Felginer, 1718), lib. III, cap. 33, 809 (Celsus appears in his Catalogus Epicureorum); Jo. Franciscus Buddeus, Isagoge Historico-Theologica ad Theologiam Universam (Leipzig: B. Thom. Fritschius, 1730), with further references. which identified Celsus as an Epicurean, Johann Lorenz von Mosheim stands out as an exception.Earlier than von Mosheim a similar argument is found in detail in Petrus Wesseling, Probabilium: Liber singularis in quo praeter alia insunt vindiciae verborum Joannis et deus erat verbum (Franecker: W. Bleck, 1735) cap. 23, 187–95. Identified as a Stoic, Celsus is mentioned by Georg Horn, Historiae philosophicae libri septem: De origine, successione, sectis & vita Philosophorum ab orbe condita ad nostram aetatem agitur (Leiden: J. Elsevires, 1655) 271.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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