In Chapter 28 of Book I of Contra Celsus, Origen gets all huffy because Celsus states:
Now, what is particularly interesting about this is the dating. Celsus wrote in the late 2d century. Origen "answered" in the 3d. But the Talmud, which contains some stories about various jesus-type characters was not more or less completed until around 500. So it would appear that these stories were in circulation - and being ripped by Greco-Roman writers - long before the Jews got their act together.
Quote:Chap. 28
...[Celsus] accuses [Jesus] of having "invented his birth from a virgin," and upbraids Him with being "born in a certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country, who gained her subsistence by spinning, and who 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."...
Now, what is particularly interesting about this is the dating. Celsus wrote in the late 2d century. Origen "answered" in the 3d. But the Talmud, which contains some stories about various jesus-type characters was not more or less completed until around 500. So it would appear that these stories were in circulation - and being ripped by Greco-Roman writers - long before the Jews got their act together.
