Tag: Josephus

Outgrowing God – 2 – But Is It True?

Chapter 2 of the book Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins is titled But Is It True? and is entirely about the Bible, and what isn’t in the Bible, so concentrates on Christianity. I have only read a few chapters, but the list of contents seems to indicate that he does not give the same treatment to other religions.

He quotes “Chinese Whispers” as showing that a story changes with the telling from one person to another, so that it becomes unrecognizable after a few tellings. Because the Gospels are all written after the death of Jesus, he therefore calls their accuracy into question. He makes a big thing about the way that even to this day, erroneous and untrue stories make the rounds.

He mentions that it wasn’t finally decided what books go into the Bible until centuries later. He then makes a big thing about books which aren’t in the Bible – the gospel of Judas Iscariot and a book about the early life of Jesus. He did this just to heap on the ridicule. It may make a good read, but doesn’t add anything. The Christian answer is that the people deciding on which works belonged in the canon were guided by God. He goes on about historical accuracy, but I think excludes some important points.

He questions the authorship of the gospels, including Luke’s. But I think it worth examining this. Luke wrote two books of the Bible – The Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel that bears his name. There is little doubt that they are by the same person. The Acts starts with the aftermath of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, then Paul’s conversion and then Paul’s activity and travels. Much of it is written in the first person – the word “we” frequently appears – because Luke travelled with Paul and Paul mentions him in one of his letters. Paul also knew Jesus’s disciples, so Luke would have heard from him the details of what they did after Jesus’s death. We can therefore be very confident about the accuracy of The Acts of the Apostles and, of course, Paul’s letters.

Luke’s Gospel is of course after the fact, but his stated intention is to write as accurate a history as he can. My own view of the New Testament is that it may not be 100% accurate but that it is 100% true in its revelation of God. You can quibble about the genealogy of Jesus, but does it really matter?

The chapter includes a quote from Josephus, the first century Jewish historian. It is likely that the reference to Jesus being the Messiah is a later modification or insertion, but what he wrote about the death of John the Baptist is slightly different from the Bible account, and so is less likely to be a forgery, and he records the execution of Jesus’s brother James, which isn’t in the Bible so there was clearly no alteration of Josephus manuscript.

Dawkins does condescendingly agree that there was indeed a preacher called Yeshua who was executed, but that is about as far as it goes. So I will end with a quote from Acts 5 v 34-39:

“But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honoured by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: ‘Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.’”

It stands up to Dawkins too.

Flavius Josephus

Flavius Josephus was, amongst other things a Jewish historian of the first century AD. He wrote a couple of significant works of Jewish history, namely “The Antiquities Of The Jews” and “The Wars of the Jews”. The Antiquities Of The Jews covers history from the Creation until the first century AD. It is a long work of 20 volumes that I am not about to read from beginning to end, but it is interesting to Christians in that it covers the time of Jesus and gives us a different perspective on some of the people mentioned in the Bible.

The full text of the book is on Project Gutenberg. I did a search and found the following interesting passages concerning John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and Jesus’s brother James:

John The Baptist

“Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing with water would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not only for the remission of sins, but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when many others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God’s displeasure to him.”

Jesus Christ

“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. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned 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 these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

James Brother Of Jesus

“Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity to exercise his authority. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned:”

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When writing about Jesus, Josephus says “And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day”. And still going strong after 2,000 years!

Josephus himself lived from c.37 to c.100 AD, so he was born just after these events took place, so he would have had to rely on verbal testimony and any available documentation. During his lifetime, there would have been many who were witnesses to the events. Although not exactly contemporary accounts, they do confirm that these were historical people and not some religious fantasy, as some would want you to believe.

The paragraph about John the Baptist is revealing because it indicates that Herod was the instigator of the execution of John the Baptist, instead of being beguiled and tricked into it. Either way, he is culpable and it is interesting that Jews viewed the destruction of his army as God’s punishment. Jesus’s brother James was prominent in the early Christian church and his death, and the manner of it, are not recorded in the Bible. Other passages of the book are quite interesting about Pontius Pilate and the other people prominent in Jesus’s time.

Josephus was an observant Jew and not a Christian, and so was recording history as he knew it. He wrote Antiquities Of The Jews in c.94 AD, so about 60 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Clearly at that time, and throughout the life of Josephus, there was wide knowledge and presumably discussion of Jesus and the origins of Christianity so that he needed to make mention of John the Baptist, of Jesus Christ and of his brother James. James is believed to have been killed in 62-69 AD, so Josephus was an adult at the time and probably knew of it first hand.

Addendum 10/07/2024

I have looked into this subject a bit more, having been told that Josephus’s original text had been “edited” subsequently by Christians.

A strong argument to support the theory that it was edited is that it is highly improbable that Josephus, an observant Jew, would refer to Jesus as the Christ. The word “Christ” derives form the Greek “Christos” which means anointed, as is also the meaning of the word Messiah.

It is more plausible that he wrote something like Jesus was thought (by some) to be the Christ. The thing is that all extent texts derive from a version from Eusebius, a 4th century Christian theologian.

What is in less doubt is that Josephus’s writing is one more piece of evidence that Jesus really did live and that he was crucified. As also stated above, Josephus mentions John the Baptist and James, brother of Jesus, who was killed in his living memory. It is unlikely that those mentions are additions, because if one were intent on doctoring the Josephus text to such an extent to support Bible records, one would include more and different topics.

So I am inclined to think that later Christians probably did make alterations to the text, but I also think they were probably limited to identifying Jesus as the Christ.

It is not implausible for Josephus to have said that followers of Jesus were known as Christians “to this day” (i.e. the time Josephus wrote). It is worthy of note because there were other sects at the time