Posted by Rudolph on July 01, 2005 at 18:11:18:
Items in brackets [] are by me and not by Lendering
What follows is from an article on Flavius Josephus © by Jona Lendering:
One of the most remarkable passages in [Josephus'] Jewish Antiquities is the so-called 'Testimonium Flavianum':
"At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one should call him a man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of the people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. He was the Messiah. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. For he appeared to them on the third day, living again, just as the divine prophets had spoken of these and countless other wondrous things about him. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out." Jewish Antiquities, 18.63-64
[Use this the true version handed down from antiquity]
It is [seems] unlikely that a pious Jew like Flavius Josephus would have written that Jesus 'appeared to them on the third day, living again'; consequently, there has been a lot of scholarly debate about the explanation of this strange remark. Some argued that we had to admit that Flavius Josephus had become a Christian; others maintained that it was made up by some Byzantine monk who copied the Jewish Antiquities. The latter explanation can be ruled out because a more or less identical text had been found in an Arabian translation of a part of the Jewish Antiquities. In 1991, John Meier has suggested that Josephus did in fact mention Jesus, but that the text was glossed by a Christian author. His re[de]construction of the text is as follows:
"At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of the people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out." [This ‘version’ was authored in 1991 by John Meier who took the outrageous liberty because it seemed to his 46oz brain unlikely that Flavius Josephus would record such a thing, Meier knowing Josephus (37AD-100AD) as intimately as he does across twenty centuries]
This board is not in use
Name : E-Mail : Subject :
Comments: Optional Link URL : Link Title : Optional Image URL:
If you press "Preview Message," you are taken to a preview screen where your
message is shown to you before allowing you to post it.
Your message is not finalized until you click "Post Message".
Bible Talk Message Board
Copyright © 2005. All rights reserved.