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Some Of Christianity's Pious Frauds

Flavius Josephus ~ Jewish historian Antiquities 18:3:3

Christians are fond of quoting this as a favourite passage to prove the historical existence of Jesus because, in his Antiquities of the Jews, there are two references to Jesus. In the third paragraph of the third chapter of the eighteenth volume is the following passage:

Antiquities 18:3:3

At that time lived Jesus, a holy man,if a man he may be called, for he performed wonderful works, and taught men and they joyfully received the truth. And he was followed by many Jews and many Greeks. He was the messiah. And our leaders denounced him. When Pilate caused him to be crucified, those who loved him before did not deny him. For he appeared to them after having risen from death on the third day. The holy prophets had, moreover, predicted of him these and many other wonders.The race of Christians takes its name from him, and still exists at the present time.

Based on all his extant writings, Josephus, was obviously not a Christian. From his own Autobiography we know that Josephus was trained as a Pharisee. The phrases underlined are certainly those which no Jew would have made.

No sensible scholar today accepts the authenticity of the passage as it stands. Some have claimed however, that by taking away the underlined portions, which they admit must have been added by an overzealous early Christian copyist, we can actually come to the original passage as written by Josephus.

However a more probable solution exist as to the authenticity of the whole passage. The passage is the third paragraph of the third chapter. As it stands today this chapter consists of five numbered paragraphs.

The first paragraph deals with the trouble between the Jews and Pontius Pilate over his exhibition of the images of Caeser in Jerusalem which the natives considered sacrilegious. In the second paragraph, Josephus describes another row between Pilate and the Jews. Pilate had apportioned some money from the Temple to pay for the building of an aqueduct. The Jews again protested. This time, unlike the first incident when Pilate let them off, he had the Jews massacred. And Josephus concludes the second paragraph with: "And thus was put an end to this sedition."

It was here that the third paragraph with its allusion to Jesus follows. Immediately after this third paragraph, the fourth paragraph starts with:

"At about the same time, another sad calamity put the Jews into disorder..."

An obvious question arises: what does Josephus mean, in the context of the arrangement of the paragraphs, by another sad calamity? In its present location the fourth paragraph follows the paragraph about Jesus. Was Jesus the sad calamity? Or was it his being risen from the dead? Or was the continued existence of Christians at the date of writing the "sad calamity"? In short, the sentence in the fourth paragraph does not make sense following the third. It only makes sense if it follows immediately after the second paragraph. Here the wholesale massacre of the Jews was the sad calamity Josephus was referring to.

Further support for doubting the authenticity of the third paragraph from the fact that while Josephus's works was known to the earlier church fathers, there are no reference to the above passage in support of Jesus' historicity until the time of Eusebius, well into the fourth century. In fact we even find the church father Origen (c185-253) telling us that Josephus did not believe that Jesus was the messiah. An unlikely statement, if the passage above existed during Origen's time.

These considerations, when coupled with the obviously Christian wordings of the third paragraph, shows conclusively that the passage Antiquities 18:3:3 is an early Christian insertion. In short, pious forgery.

The other passage concerning Jesus in Josephus book is given Antiquities 20:9:1. It relates the death of James which the passage refers to as: "the brother of Jesus called Christ". Some commentators have argued for the authenticity of this passage by stating that this statement is of the sort the non-Christian Josephus would have made.

Actually the statement is exactly the way a Christian would write it, this is, in fact the way the gospel of Matthew described Jesus.

Matthew 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

In view of the previous passage, the balance of evidence seems to show that this too is an early Christian interpolation into Antiquities.

Thus there is no reference whatsoever to Jesus from this contempory Jewish source.

For a detailed examination of Jewish and Roman references about Jesus have a look at Rejection of Pascal's Wager.

The Jesus Seminar places various important Christian events at:

John the Baptist's death at circa 27 CE. So if anybody tries to tell you that the books that bear his name were written by him, the onus is on them to provide some pretty good documentation.

Jesus' death, circa 30 CE.

Saul of Tarsus, chief founder of gentile Christianity lived 30-60 CE., and wrote his epistles 50-60 CE.

The Gospel of Q (first edition, about 50-60 CE.)

The Gospel of Thomas (first edition, about 50-60 CE.)

The Gospel of Mark; the first narrative gospel (first edition about 70 CE.)

Gospel of Matthew, incorporating Mark and Q, about 85 CE.

Gospel of Luke, incorporating Mark and Q, about 90 CE.

Gospel of Peter (first edition, probably 50-100 CE.)

Egerton Gospel (probably 50-100 CE.)

Gospel of John, incorporating the Gospel of Signs (60-70 CE.), about 90 CE.

Gospel of Mark, canonical edition (about 100 CE.)

Gospel of John, third edition (insertions and additions), 100-150 CE.

Emergence of four "recognized gospels," 150-325 CE.

First surviving copies of "Bibles," about 300-350 CE.)

Dating The Bible

Mark is the second Gospel in the New Testament of the Bible. It is the earliest and the shortest of the four Gospels. Papias, an early church father, ascribed this Gospel to Mark, an interpreter of Peter who is often identified with Mark, the cousin of Saint Barnabas and companion of Barnabas and Saint Paul on their first missionary journey. Irenaeus said that Mark wrote this Gospel after Peter and Paul had died. Most scholars today, therefore, date the book AD 65-70. ~ Grolier's Encyclopedia.

Matthew and Luke were written later still, using Mark (and perhaps Q) as a reference. John was written even later; you can clearly see that xtianity had evolved considerably by the time it was written.

The fates of the 12-1/2 apostles Draw your own conclusions.
Judas Iscariot:	Died mysteriously, definitely not martyred.
Thomas:	Either lived out his life peacefully in Parthia, or was martyred in India -- no confirming evidence either way.
Peter (Simon):	Possibly martyred in Rome -- evidence is slight
Matthew:	Unknown.
John:	Unknown.
Thaddaeus (Jude):	Unknown.
Bartholomew:	Unknown
Philip:	Unknown.
Simon:	Unknown.
Andrew:	Traditionally martyred -- no backing evidence
Matthias:	Unknown.
James (greater):	Martyred (according to bible and legend, anyway)
James (lesser):	Stoned, according to Josephus