The First Century Void

[Minimalist]

The conspiracy theory that you are proposing, is that Eusebius need a source that he didn't have, so he forged one into Josephus, cited it, and then no one noticed (or was silent concerning it) and he somehow got rid of all other copies. My tin foil hat is currently in the wash... but you will need to make a better case, to convince me of this tale.

It did not exist before Eusebius and then it did.  Cui Bono, as the lawyers say "who benefits."  It is not as if Eusebius has any reputation for integrity.  He was an early church propagandist.  Sort of the Kellyanne Conway of his day.

But as I said earlier there is no convincing you because you desperately do not want to be convinced.  As the saying goes, "you can lead a jackass to water but you can't make him drink."

Eusebius' talent for lying extends to the so-called epistles of Ignatius of Antioch.  Back in 2007, Herr Von Popenfuhrer, taking a break from diddling little boys, I imagine, stood in front of a crowd and said:

Eusebius writes: "The Report says that he [Ignatius] was sent from Syria to Rome, and became food for wild beasts on account of his testimony to Christ. And as he made the journey through Asia under the strictest military surveillance" (he called the guards "ten leopards" in his Letter to the Romans, 5:1), "he fortified the parishes in the various cities where he stopped by homilies and exhortations, and warned them above all to be especially on their guard against the heresies that were then beginning to prevail, and exhorted them to hold fast to the tradition of the Apostles".

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/b1...hrch32.htm

So here is a guy who is being sent all the way from fucking Turkey to Rome to be executed - hint, the Romans were not that inefficient - under "strictest military surveillance" but those guards still allowed him to write and speak to other groups of (supposedly) illegal xtians?  The problem with someone like you, RR, is that you will look at that and say "yup, that's what the holy horseshitters said so it must be true...praise jebus." without a critical thought ever being allowed to form in your fucking head.  The situation described by "Eusebius" and later enshrined by the Panzer Pope is so utterly absurd as to be beyond belief.  But idiot jesus freaks fall for it hook, line and sinker.