(October 10, 2010 at 1:42 pm)dave4shmups Wrote: What about Christian apologists who mention the writings of Josephus?? Was he reliable??
Would you excuse me for a moment...
...OK, I'm back. Sorry but I have to chuckle every time some Christian apologist with a straight face tries to use Josephus as a witness for Jesus.
The Testimonium Flavianum is a rank forgery, as admitted to by the Christian apologists themselves. These words, "rank forgery" come from an 18th century Bishop who apparently couldn't use it in good conscience as evidence for his own religion. In this paragraph, suspiciously rammed between two completely unrelated paragraphs, contains apparent ravings by Josephus as he praises Jesus as the messiah (something a Jew wouldn't do) and in almost rapid-fire format, rattles off every bullet point in Christian theology.
Confronted with this reality, even the most notoriously sleazy apologists like Lee Strobel and Josh McDowell will not try to claim that the TF is completely authentic. Forced to admit that it seems to be "tampered with", they try to argue that this is the accidental result of zealous Christian scribes. They then try to remove the blatant un-Jewish aspects of the TF and act like they've discovered some sort of unadulterated version of what Josephus "probably" wrote. In reality, there is zero evidence that any of it was authentic.
The so-called "Jamesian reference" seems more likely to have been written by a Jew but we must remember that "Jesus" was a common name and Josephus later tells us he's speaking of Jesus Bar Damneus. Additionally, the phrase that supposedly refers to Jesus Christ is an introduction of James as "brother of Jesus, James" which seems odd since, if this is a reference to Jesus Christ, Josephus hasn't told us who he is. If this is not a reference to Bar Damneus, than the reader would have asked "brother of WHO"?
Josephus, you're excused from the witness stand.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
