Greg Doudna really is coming up with different scenarios.....Giuseppe wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 12:11 am This is the source of that different interpretation:
I also have considered a different interpretation of the Ant. 20 James “brother of Jesus called Christ” passage than heretofore (to my knowledge) considered. That passage, understood to tell of the death of James, is dated by Josephus at about the very same time as, independently, the trial of Jesus b. Ananias, i.e. ca. 62 or 63 Albinus. (The exact absolute date of Albinus’s start as governor is not quite certain, due to uncertainty concerning the end date of predecessor governor Festus–the dates found in standard discussions for those are reconstructed with various reasonings, but fall short of hard evidence in perhaps a ca. 1-2 yr. range of uncertainty there.) I have considered that what underlay the story of Ant 20 may have been James, “brother of Jesus”–perhaps the very Jesus who had just been tried and released?–accusing those who had been responsible for charging Jesus and unsuccessfully attempting to have him executed by the Roman governor. That is, James of Ant 20 is brought forward as the accusing witness, and it is the “others” (not James) who were the unspecified lawbreakers delivered up to be judicially stoned by high priest Ananias, on the basis of testimony leveled by witness James. James himself, in this conjectured alternative interpretation (even if the Greek text of Ant. differs or is unclear in wording on this), would not be executed in 62 ce. It is the “others” who were stoned, due to charges testified to by prosecution witness James, “brother of Jesus”. (Clan payback for the trial of Jesus?) And Josephus himself, as a further passing note, may have been absent in Rome in his trip by ship to Rome at that time, lacking personal familiar knowledge of the events and specifics transpiring in Jerusalem in his absence.
https://vridar.org/2020/12/10/another-p ... ent-125272 (my bold)
Hence, if the construct 'called Christ' is genuine, then it could refer the Jesus ben Ananias (mentioned previously as released by Albinus) or the Jesus of the Christians... ...or both!
So, to join the party - here is another one.
Hasmonean history | Chronology | Josephus |
37 b.c. Antigonus executed | 100 years | 63 c.e. James stoned |
30 b.c. Hyrancus executed | * | 70 c.e. unnamed man crucified |
7 year end of Hasmoneans | * | 7 year time frame to 70 c.e. |
Now, one can argue the toss as to what Josephus is doing here - but to do so without taking into account his chronological context could be a futile endeavor.