(November 25, 2016 at 8:20 pm)Minimalist Wrote: So I suspect that what we have here is more of the customary xtian circular reasoning. "Paul" HAD to live in the first century AD therefore he must have been referring to Aretas IV who we know died in 40 AD. Therefore the Romans "MUST" have given the city to Aretas IV because FUCKING ST PAUL could never be wrong." It's bullshit, of course, with nothing except the ravings of jesus freak maniacs to back it up.
I am certainly not claiming that Paul was accurate in everything that he wrote; however, the scholarly consensus is that Josephus referenced Jesus explicitly, Christian interpolations notwithstanding:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus