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10 results

  • 33 - Pagans and the Bible
  • from Part V - The Reception of the Bible in the Post-New Testament Period
  • Edited by James Carleton Paget, University of Cambridge, Joachim Schaper, University of Aberdeen
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of the Bible
  • Published online: 05 May 2013
  • Print publication: 09 May 2013, pp 752-774
  • View extract

    Summary

    The generally clumsy style of the Greek and Old Latin versions of the Old Testament and the Gospels was a constant source of criticism in Antiquity. There are many Christian writings dealing with difficulties in understanding the Bible. From the second half of the second century onward, pagan intellectuals composed writings specifically dedicated to the Bible and to Christianity, although many of them are entirely lost. The Christians were never accused of having suppressed apocryphal books which ought to have been in the canon. Apart from the book of Genesis, Celsus had little interest in the Old Testament. Porphyry pointed out the contradictions between the introductions of the Gospel texts. Porphyry appears to have been the most thorough student of the biblical text, whereas in Julian's work Platonist cosmogony and cosmology are described at length as an alternative to the Judaeo-Christian account of creation.