Re: The Identity of Celsus and His "Jew"
Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 6:04 am
Secret Alias wrote:So for the reasons stated above why don't we use Goranson's paper as a launching position to reinvigorate this discussion by asking the ultimate question - what year do we imagine Celsus to have written? I think that the evidence is pretty strong that Celsus somehow lived 'after' Marcellina the Harpocratian (later 'Carpocratian' through some sort of transmission corruption) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellina_%28gnostic%29. This is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the dating of Celsus IMO. I also agree with those who argue that Epiphanius is consistently citing verbatim passages from Hegesippus's Hypomnemata which seem to deal with Church History especially in Jerusalem (probably a romance or forgery written c. 150 CE) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegesippus ... onicler%29 I think the Roman episcopal succession list as Brent calls it was tacked on to the Hypomnemata at some point after the main text was completed and is reflected in Irenaeus's succession list in Book 3 of Adv Haer. The presence of this list mentioned Marcellina and led people to believe that Hegesippus settled in Rome later. The reality is then that because Hegesippus knew this added succession list he was probably writing from Rome and c. 177 - 180 CE.
Given that I think that Celsus's reference Marcellina the Harpocratian is not from personal experience but from a book and similarly his contact with Justin Martyr was through books rather than personal contact Goranson's claims about Pergamum stand unaffected. The other piece of evidence (i.e. writing while there were two Emperors) further narrows the time frame to the reign of Marcus Aurelius basically. I tend to support the time when Commodus and he sat on the throne (177 - 180 CE) mostly because I think Christians were persecuted in this period (and thus the theme of Christian persecution reflected throughout the document).
Beyond that I don't see any compelling evidence for ANY specific locale other than Rome (though I don't think it's by any means decisive). I just think Celsus knew Justin and Irenaeus and while such books could have been anywhere, Rome is the most likely place.