hs, and Brahmans were promiscuously
placed in one pile as Indian idolaters. How should the differences which
distinguished the Christian from the Jew, and the Jewish Christian from
the heathen Christian, have been understood at that time in Rome? To us,
naturally, the step which Paul and his associates took appears an enormous
one--one of world-wide import; but of what interest could these things be
outside of Palestine? That the Jews who looked upon themselves as a
peculiar people, who would admit no strangers, and tolerate no marriages
between Jew and Gentile, who, in spite of all their disappointments and
defeats, energetically clung to their faith in a deliverer, in an earthly
Messiah, and in the coming glory of their nation; that they should
suddenly declare clean what they had always considered unclean; that they
should transform their national spirit into a universal sympathy; yes,
that they should recognise their Messiah in a crucified malefactor,
indicate a complete revolution in their history; but the race itself was
and continued to be, in the eyes of the world, if not beneath notice, at
least an object of contempt. It should not, therefore, surprise us that no
classical writer has given us a really historical account of the Christian
religion, or has even with one word referred to the wonderful events
which, had they actually taken place as described in the Gospels, would
have stirred the uttermost corners of the earth. Celsus is the only writer
of the second century who, being neither Christian nor Jew, was not only
acquainted with representatives of Christianity and Judaism, but had also,
it would seem, carefully read portions of the Old and New Testaments. He
even boasts of having a better knowledge of these religions than many of
their adherents (II, 12). That such a man considered this new Christian
sect of sufficient importance to subject it to a searching investigation,
is proof of his deep insight, and at the same time of the increasing power
of Christianity as a religion independent of Judaism. Who this Celsus
really was, it is not easy to discover. Even his adversary, Origen, seems
to know but little of him; at any rate he tells us nothing of him,--indeed,
we are even still in doubt about his date. It has been thought that he is
the Celsus to whom Lucian (120-200 A.D.) dedicated his work on the false
Alexander. This is possible; but Celsus is a very common name, and Origen
speaks of two men of this na