Complete Works XVIII: Against Celsus I-IV (Lommatzsch)

[...regarding] Celsus and the Bataneote who followed him. For they did not speak against those who came after them. Augustine, in his book On Heresies, Volume VIII, page 3, commemorates a certain Celsus who had completed the opinions of all philosophers up to his own time in six not-insignificant volumes. But there is no argument by which it can be proven that he is the very same person whom our Origen refutes.

2. As for the eight books of Origen against Celsus, it is clear from Book III, number 14, that they were written at a time when the Church had been enjoying profound peace for many years, even though there was great disturbance in the empire at that time. "That not even the external fear holds our community in check is evident from this fact: that, by the will of God, it has now ceased for a longer time. And it is likely that the fearlessness which has developed in believers regarding this life will also cease, whenever those who defame the Word in every way suppose that the cause of the present dissension among the multitude of believers lies in the fact that they are not being fought against by the rulers as they were in former times." Baronius, in his notes for the year of Christ 243, thinks it highly likely that such a distinguished, laborious, and much-studied work could have been begun in the time of Gordian and brought to completion under the reign of Philip. But since the persecution of Maximin, which caused the greatest slaughter especially in the East, preceded the reign of Gordian, how could Origen have written under Gordian that the Church had already been enjoying tranquil peace for many years? It would be better, therefore, to refer the writing of the books against Celsus to the end of the reign of Alexander, were it not for the authority of Eusebius, who in Ecclesiastical History, Book VI, Chapter 36, explicitly states that they were written under Gordian's successor, Philip: "In this time he also composes eight books against the one who wrote against us, Celsus the Epicurean, in his True Discourse." Indeed, in the year of Christ 249, which was the last year of the Emperor Philip, the persecution of Maximin had already ceased for twelve years.