Alice Whealey And The Testimonium Flavianum

[Roger Viklund]

This is a timeline I have prepared a couple of years ago.

[Giuseppe]

I would do to start the "James additions" with Origen himself, as "called Christ" is a typical Christian construct even, and especially, when it is put on the mouth of a not-Christian as Pilate (or as Josephus) or as the Samaritan woman.

[Roger Viklund]

I would do to start the "James additions" with Origen himself, as "called Christ" is a typical Christian construct even, and especially, when it is put on the mouth of a not-Christian as Pilate (or as Josephus) or as the Samaritan woman.

Yes, that could be the case. This is more of an overview I made in 2010. There are several possibilities.

[rakovsky]

How do you think this could factor in the issue Peter Kirby has theorized where Hegessippus has been called Josephus?

[rakovsky]

Jerome complained about another Jewish historian, who was from Tiberius and was a rival of Josephus, that he never talked about Jesus of Nazareth or his miracles.
The complaint by Jerome about him suggests to me that Jerome was suggesting that some other historian(s) from the period like Josephus had mentioned Jesus's miracles (eg. resurrection).

[rakovsky]

*The skeptical, even cynical, sense of the TF may however not be limited
to the report "he was believed/supposed to be the Christ".
For in his use of the aorist "ephane"("to appear"), Josephus speaks of
reputedly divine appearances where he questions the validity of the
appearance (28). And indeed we would expect Josephus, or any non-
Christian Jew, to employ skeptical language when alluding to the
resurrection of Jesus.

....
28."Contra Apion" 1.289.
Whealey in "Josephus und das Neue Testament" p.96.

What is the passage exactly in Contra Apion that says this?
I only found the work with a different numbering, no 289.

Here is one copy:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2849/2849.txt

[MrMacSon]

Jerome complained about another Jewish historian, who was from Tiberius and was a rival of Josephus, that he never talked about Jesus of Nazareth or his miracles. The complaint by Jerome about him suggests to me that Jerome was suggesting that some other historian(s) from the period like Josephus had mentioned Jesus's miracles (eg. resurrection).

You're almost certainly referring to Justus of Tiberias. It's a little hard to discern much about him as, is often the case, what we know is via an adversary.

The Jewish encyclopedia narrates the account based on Jospehus's Vita

By his oratorical ability he prevailed on the Tiberians, who felt themselves slighted by the favor which Agrippa II. and Rome had shown at their expense to the people of Sepphoris, to revolt. An unnamed brother helped him in this task. With his followers Justus burned the villages that belonged to Gadara and Hippos (Josephus, "Vita", § 9), whose people had always been ill-disposed toward the Jews. Soon afterward Josephus came as governor to Galilee, and he persuaded the chief people of Tiberias, among them Justus, to demolish the palace of Herod the Tetrarch because it was ornamented with figures of animals. Josephus himself says he had to force the people to it (ib. § 12). From this it follows conclusively that the actual rebellion in Galilee was instigated mainly by Josephus rather than by Justus. Later, out of fear of the Romans, neither historian wished to admit in his writings his part in the matter; and each blamed the other. Even at the beginning of the war the Tiberians, and especially Justus and his father, Pistus, wished to break with Josephus and to attach themselves to John of Giscala, but Josephus frustrated the plan (ib. § 17).

[eta3] At one time Josephus caused the Tiberians who had been arrested, among them Justus and Pistus, to be taken out of prison; and while eating with them he suggested that it would be wiser for them to surrender to the Romans at a suitable opportunity. He reminded Justus that before he (Josephus) had entered on his office, the brother of Justus had had his hands cut off by the Galileans, who claimed that he had forged letters, and that furthermore Jesus, Justus' sister's husband, had had to suffer from anarchy. The next day he let Justus and his followers go free (ib. § 35). Jesus and the sister of Justus were killed in Gamala (ib. § 37). Still Justus continued to agitate against Josephus (ib. § 54).

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/artic ... f-tiberias

There is an account of Justus and what he supposedly wrote in Photius, Bibliotheca, provided by Roger Pearse: -

XXIII. Read the Chronicle of Justus of Tiberias, entitled A Chronicle of the Kings of the Jews in the form of a genealogy, by Justus of Tiberias. He came from Tiberias in Galilee, from which he took his name. He begins his history with Moses and carries it down to the death of the seventh Agrippa of the family of Herod and the last of the Kings of the Jews. His kingdom, which was bestowed upon him by Claudius, was extended by Nero, and still more by Vespasian. He died in the third year of Trajan, when the history ends. Justus' style is very concise and he omits a great deal that is of utmost importance. Suffering from the common fault of the Jews, to which race he belonged, he does not even mention the coming of Christ, the events of his life, or the miracles performed by Him. His father was a Jew named Pistus; Justus himself, according to Josephus, was one of the most abandoned of men, a slave to vice and greed. He was a political opponent of Josephus, against whom he is said to have concocted several plots; but Josephus, although on several occasions he had his enemy in his power, only chastised him with words and let him go free. It is said that the history which he wrote is in great part fictitious, especially where he describes the Judaeo-Roman war and the capture of Jerusalem.

From: J.H.Freese, The Library of Photius, vol. I, SPCK, London (1920). This includes an English version of codices 1-165 only; vol. II was never made, and there is no complete version in English. Now Online Here.

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/justus.htm

eta:-

Justus wrote a history of the war in which he blamed Josephus for the troubles of Galilee. He also portrayed his former master Agrippa in an unfavourable light, but did not publish the work until after Agrippa's death. Justus also wrote a chronicle of the Jewish people from Moses to Agrippa II. Both his works only survive in fragments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_of_Tiberias

eta2: -

... Justus, a devoted Tiberian concerned for the welfare of his native city, did everything in his power to ensure Agrippa's continued rule in Tiberias. This brought him into conflict with Josephus, who arrived in Galilee on behalf of the revolutionary government in Jerusalem and strove to extend his influence over the whole province. In an attempt to crush the opposition against him, Josephus imprisoned many of the city notables, including Justus and his father. Justus, however, succeeded in escaping from his prison in Tarichaeae to Berytus, and henceforth had no further direct contact with the events of the war. It was after his escape that he was appointed Agrippa's private secretary, which gave him good opportunity of hearing at first hand about the conduct of the war in Galilee, and especially about the questionable role played by Josephus. He embodied this information in a book about the war, which was for the most part an extensive account of events in Galilee before the arrival of Vespasian, and dealt particularly with the misdeeds of Josephus in Tiberias. Since Josephus published his own history of the war after 75 C.E. and Justus suppressed his reply for some 20 years (Vita, 360), it may be concluded that Justus' work was published only after the death of Domitian (96 C.E.) when Nerva ascended the throne. From the fact that Josephus begins his Life with a detailed description of his distinguished descent from the Hasmoneans, it may be assumed that Justus tried to derogate not only him but also his family. Justus' main purpose in writing the book was apparently to wreak belated vengeance on his rival, which he could not exact under the Flavian emperors.

It is generally believed that Justus also wrote a second book, a chronicle of the kings of Israel. Although a list which was in the possession of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, between 858 and 868, seemed to make the description of the war merely part of the chronicle, the detailed nature of the description of the events in Galilee (as evidenced in Josephus) presupposes a separate work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Schuerer, Gesch, index; A. Baerwald, Flavius Josephus in Galilaea (Ger., 1877); Niese, in: Historische Zeitschrift, 76 (1896), 227ff.; H. Luther, Josephus und Justus von Tiberias (1910); R. Laqueur, Der juedische Historiker Flavius Josephus (1920), 6ff.; H. Drexler, in: Klio, 19 (1925), 293ff.; A. Schalit, ibid., 26 (1933), 66–95; M. Stein, Ḥayyei Yosef (19393), introd., 5–16, and notes; A. Pelletier, Flavius Josèphe, Autobiographie (1959), xivff.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/justus-of-tiberias

eta4 -

His Chronicle.
[eta5] ... Justus was the author of Ξρονικόν Ιουδαίων Βασιλέων τῶν ἐν τοῖς Στέμμασιν, a chronicle of the Jewish people from Moses to the death of Agrippa II. Photius ("Bibl." Cod. 33) describes it as being written in a very curtailed form. Use was probably made of this work by Sextus Julius Africanus, from whom Eusebius in his chronicle and the Byzantine historian Syncellus draw material. Certain notes in later historians which are not to be found in Josephus probably came from the chronicle of Justus through the excerpts of Africanus (e.g., Syncellus, ed. Dindorf, i. 588). It has been supposed that the account of the heathen-Philistine origin of the Herodian house, related by Africanus, came originally from Justus ("R. E. J." xlv. 45).

... In Diogenes Laertius (ii. 5, § 41) is a quotation from Justus' chronicle in the form of an anecdote concerning Plato at the trial of Socrates. It would seem, then, that Photius had seen only an extract from the chronicle. If Justus arranged his book in the form of a royal genealogy (ἐν τοῖς στέμμασιν), he may have written objectionably of the Herodians. His remark about Plato seems to show that he shared the Hellenistic belief that Greek wisdom was borrowed from the Jews. Schlatter believes that even Josephus made use of Justus' work in his "Antiquities." Jerome (l.c.) mentions a third work by Justus, a short commentary on the Scriptures; but nothing further is known of it.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/artic ... f-tiberias

[Tod Stites]

*The skeptical, even cynical, sense of the TF may however not be limited
to the report "he was believed/supposed to be the Christ".
For in his use of the aorist "ephane"("to appear"), Josephus speaks of
reputedly divine appearances where he questions the validity of the
appearance (28). And indeed we would expect Josephus, or any non-
Christian Jew, to employ skeptical language when alluding to the
resurrection of Jesus.

....
28."Contra Apion" 1.289.
Whealey in "Josephus und das Neue Testament" p.96.

What is the passage exactly in Contra Apion that says this?
I only found the work with a different numbering, no 289.

TS:Whiston Translation:"The goddess Isis appeared to Amenophis
in his sleep.."("Contra Apion 1.32.289).









Here is one copy:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2849/2849.txt

[DCHindley]

*The skeptical, even cynical, sense of the TF may however not be limited
to the report "he was believed/supposed to be the Christ".
For in his use of the aorist "ephane"("to appear"), Josephus speaks of
reputedly divine appearances where he questions the validity of the
appearance (28). And indeed we would expect Josephus, or any non-
Christian Jew, to employ skeptical language when alluding to the
resurrection of Jesus.

....
28."Contra Apion" 1.289.
Whealey in "Josephus und das Neue Testament" p.96.

What is the passage exactly in Contra Apion that says this?
I only found the work with a different numbering, no 289.

Here is one copy:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2849/2849.txt

It is the numbering system of the 1890 Niese edition, and is the numbering system of choice in modern scholarly work on Josephus. It will be so numbered there, although in Whiston it will be in chapter 32 of book I.

Whiston's translation of Josephus, Against Apion 1:289 says: "The goddess Isis appeared to Amenophis in his sleep, and blamed him that her temple had been demolished in the war; but that Phritiphantes, the sacred scribe, said to him, that, in case he would purge Egypt of the men that had pollutions upon them, he should be no longer troubled with such frightful apparitions."

φησὶν ὅτι κατὰ τοὺς ὕπνους ἡ Ἶσις ἐφάνη τῷ Ἀμενώφει μεμφομένη αὐτόν ὅτι τὸ ἱερὸν αὐτῆς ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ κατέσκαπται Φριτιβαύτην δὲ ἱερογραμματέα φάναι ἐὰν τῶν τοὺς μολυσμοὺς ἐχόντων ἀνδρῶν καθάρῃ τὴν Αἴγυπτον παύσεσθαι τῆς πτοίας αὐτόν

DCH

[Ken Olson]

I have a bibliographic question for anyone on the forum who has followed the scholarly literature on this issue. Can anyone cite a scholar who, in a published academic work, accepts Whealey's contention that the agreement between Jerome's Latin and Michael's Syriac versions of the Testimonium in the reading "He was thought to be the Christ" (Credebatur/Mistabra) is original and, with this allowed, the Testimonium is a fully authentic work of Josephus. I'm not asking about scholars who agree with Whealey on other issues or people who agree with her in online discussions or non-academic/apologetic/self-published books. Conservative/Evangelical scholars published in conservative journals or by conservative publishing houses would count though.

On a related issue, can anyone cite a scholar (with the same qualifiers as above) who agrees with G.J. Goldberg that the correspondences between the Testimonium and the Emmaus narrative in Luke 24 constitute proof of a literary relationship and proves at least the partial authenticity of Testimonium? Here, I'm aware Richard Carrier accepts the first part of Goldber's case, but not the second. There's also Susan Sorek, in Ancient Historians: A Student Handbook (2012) p. 122, but her very brief discussion of the Testimonium appears to be taken entirely from Goldberg's web page. So I'm not sure either of those would actually qualify.

Thanks.

Ken