Giuseppe wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:16 amIn addition, it doesn't seem that Josephus was enemy
a priori against the magicians. If I remember well, he doesn't attack the figure of "Simon called Atomos", i.e. the guy identified by Detering with Simon Magus (more magician than him!
)
Josephus's Simon was a Jew, not a Samaritan. So they may not have been the same person. Even so, Josephus wrote that Simon was someone who "pretended" to be a magician and tried to split a wife from her husband:
While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her; for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was Simon (13) one of his friends; a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician, and endeavored to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry him
What about actual rebels like the Egyptian and Theudas? They were magicians and self-proclaimed prophets and miracle workers. First the Egyptian:
These works, that were done by the robbers, filled the city with all sorts of impiety. And now these impostors and deceivers persuaded the multitude to follow them into the wilderness, and pretended that they would exhibit manifest wonders and signs, that should be performed by the providence of God. And many that were prevailed on by them suffered the punishments of their folly; for Felix brought them back, and then punished them.
Moreover, there came out of Egypt (20) about this time to Jerusalem one that said he was a prophet [the Egyptian], and advised the multitude of the common people to go along with him to the Mount of Olives, as it was called, which lay over against the city, and at the distance of five furlongs. He said further, that he would show them from hence how, at his command, the walls of Jerusalem would fall down; and he promised them that he would procure them an entrance into the city through those walls, when they were fallen down.
Then Theudas:
Now it came to pass, while Fadus was procurator of Judea, that a certain magician, whose name was Theudas, (9) persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with them, and follow him to the river Jordan; for he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide the river, and afford them an easy passage over it; and many were deluded by his words.
That's the backdrop for life in those times for prophets and magicians. If the TF had started with a negative spin, I'd suggest that it would have presented Jesus as a similar kind of figure.