Josephus
The only historian who we might expect to mention Jesus is Josephus, a Jew who wrote a history of his people up to 66AD, which is called 'Jewish Antiquities'. In fact, Josephus does mention Jesustwice and so Jesus Mythologists have to devote a lot of attention to attacking the relevant passages.Their job is made easier because Josephus, a Pharisee, probably felt nothing but contempt for Jesuswhich meant later Christians tried to 'correct' his negative wording.The majority opinion on Josephus is that the parts of the passage from book 18 of 'JewishAntiquities' which are inredbelow are the additions of a Christian scribe trying to make Jesusappear in a better light. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.Hewas the Christ.And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, hadcondemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him;for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold theseand ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.And the tribe of Christians,so named from him, are not extinct at this day.Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 18, 3, 3To support this idea we can look at the works of the Christian father Origen who was writing in themid-third century. This was while Christianity was still a minor cult with no power or influence. Itwas generally ignored by the authorities as long as it kept its head down. Therefore there is no waythat Christians this early could have either knobbled Josephus so that no undoctored copies wereavailable or got away with quoting something from Josephus that was not there. We have no reasonto suppose that a bright chap like Origen would even have tried and so can be sure that the copy of Josephus he read and quoted from was unamended by earlier Christians. We can be doubly sure of this because Origen flatly contradicts the modern version of Josephus where the Jewish historian ismade to say Jesus was the Messiah. Origen makes clear he said no such thing.What use would the early fathers have had for a passage in Josephus saying Jesus was not theMessiah? An educated Jew saying this would not be helpful in an apologetic sense as it woulddemonstrate that the prophecies in the Old Testament were not nearly as clear cut as earlyChristians would have liked to have believed. And because no one ever challenged Jesus' existence,they never had reason to point to a critical Jewish source to prove he did. Hence Josephus was notquoted by the few earlier Christian writers.So what exactly did Origen say? Here are two passages which say basically the same thing andwhich reinforce each other:And to so great a reputation among the people for righteousness did this James rise,that Flavius Josephus, who wrote the "Antiquities of the Jews" in twenty books, whenwishing to exhibit the cause why the people suffered so great misfortunes that even thetemple was razed to the ground, said, that these things happened to them in accordancewith the wrath of God in consequence of the things which they had dared to do againstJames the brother of Jesus who is called Christ. And the wonderful thing is, that,though he did not accept Jesus as Christ, he yet gave testimony that the righteousnessof James was so great; and he says that the people thought that they had suffered thesethings because of James.Origen - Matthew X, XVIIFor in the 18th book of his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus bears witness to John ashaving been a Baptist, and as promising purification to those who underwent the rite. Now this writer, although not believing in Jesus as the Christ, in seeking after the causeof the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, whereas he ought to havesaid that the conspiracy against Jesus was the cause of these calamities befalling the people, since they put to death Christ, who was a prophet, says nevertheless-being,although against his will, not far from the truth - that these disasters happened to theJews as a punishment for the death of James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus(called Christ) - the Jews having put him to death, although he was a man most
Refuting the Jesus Mythhttp://www.bede.org.uk/jesusmyth.ht2 of 609-May-09 1:45 PM
Leave a Comment