Sometime around 175 A.D. a little-known Greek philosopher named Celsus decided to write what would turn out to be the earliest-known, comprehensive criticism of Christianity, ironically entitled, The True Word.

Seventy-five years later, a third-century Christian theologian named Origen decided to write a refutation of Celsus’ popular treatise, aptly entitled, Against Celsus. In it, Origen quotes directly from Celsus’ The True Word and refutes many of his claims regarding the birth and life of Jesus. Without Origen’s quotations from Celsus’ treatise, it would have been lost to us entirely.

According to Origen, Celsus asserted that Jesus invented the story of his virgin birth in order to cover the truth that Mary “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.”

Clearly this quotation of Celsus stands in stark contrast to the teachings of the Gospel writers that were accepted by successive generations of Christians up to the time of Celsus and beyond, but on one thing both Celsus and the Bible do agree—that a man named Jesus lived!

Celsus views him as a charlatan, but in his attempt to counter the Bible’s assertions about Jesus, Celsus unwittingly provided early proof for the historicity of Jesus outside the Bible, acknowledging that early Christians believed that he was born of a virgin, that Joseph had early concerns about Mary’s fidelity, that Jesus performed miracles and that he claimed to be divine—just as the Bible says.

—Daniel McCabe