The Jew of Celsus: Mary, Panthera and Egypt
AuthenticityKnown through a quotation
The pagan philosopher Celsus (about 175-180), drawing on Jewish arguments against Christianity, attacked Jesus fiercely, and his attack shows what even opponents did not deny. Celsus' Jew does not say Jesus never lived, or that he did no wonders. He says Jesus "hired himself out as a servant in Egypt" and acquired "miraculous powers" there, explaining the wonders as magic. He also concedes that Jesus' birth was out of the ordinary, explaining it as adultery. Because Celsus drew on Jewish polemic, this is a second, Jewish voice alongside his own, and both treat Jesus' wonder-working reputation as a fact to be explained away.
Known through a quotation. Celsus' True Word is lost, but Origen quotes it at length in Against Celsus, and his quotations are generally regarded as reliable. Hostile witnesses here concede that Jesus' birth was irregular and that he did wonders, explained as magic. That matches what other evidence already shows about his reputation. The Panthera story itself is polemic.
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Celsus' Jew charges that Jesus was born "of a poor woman of the country" turned out by her carpenter husband for adultery, and that "she bore a child to a certain soldier named Panthera". He explains the resurrection appearances by "a half-frantic woman" and others. Whether the Panthera story arose before or after Matthew's account of the virgin birth is debated, so it may be a reply to the Christian story rather than separate information about Jesus. Celsus wrote nearly a century and a half after Jesus.