The identity of the Celsus who wrote the treatise Alêthês Logos, or the True Word, is blurred, among other things because his text is only known from Origen’s Contra Celsum, and because there were other famous persons by the name Celsus who have been confused with the author of Alêthês Logos.

In Cels. 1.8, Origen says that he has heard about two Epicurean philosophers called Celsus. The first allegedly lived at the …