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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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A f liaUe ^ es ; and one circumstance is mentioned by him , which demp ? i $ trates that Josephus meant that spiritual Judaism which was taught by Jesus . For Ananias , the preacher of it , separated it from
the rites of the law , having apprized Izates vi the inutility of circumcision , a doctrine most abhorrent to the Jews , and never taught by any but hy Christ and his apostles , These facts are staled at large in Eccles . Res . p . 229 , 247 .
TertuLlian , in a well known passage , intimates that there were Christians at Rome before the dea-th of Tiberius . His language is adopted and enforced by Euse .
bius . Orosius in the fifth century goes farther , and asserts ^ in direct terms , that the senate expelled the Christians from the city . These writers must have meant - Jews
converted to Christianity ; for as yjet the gospel was hardly proclaimed to the gentiles * Now , T ^ ilo and Josephus have recorded
the calamity respecting their country arjen to which the above fathers refer . The fathers , moreover , <^ ay that Tiberius defended the Cjiristians , that is , the Jetos , and
# ent to thq provinces an edict in tfeeir favour . This very edict is Jtyentioned by Philo ; and we see the happy tffepts of it in the rest yffrich the church enjoyed , as recorded in Acts ix 31 We have
, . . therefore , the authority of Tertulli ^ n , Eusebius , and Orosius that ^ hilo and Jese phus are in this instance , historians of the
Christians under the name of Jews ^ the letter calling the gospel , or the religion professed by those Jews , the wisdom of the Mosaic law . Eccles . IUs 24 $ —26 & 10 . Joaephus is , iu thestrictest
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sense , a Christian vyriter , bee au&& he has given a short history <* f Jesus Christ , asserting his miracles and his resurrection , and omitting onlv his miraculous birth . This
passage indeed has been generally thought spurious ; but it is genuine for the followi ng reasons : —1 . No manuscript or version of the Jewish Antiquities , whether in the pos « session of Jews or Christians * ever
existed without the testimonygiven to our Lord by Josephus . It was in the copy which Josippon had in tlie tenth century , who in his edition published in the very place
a passage against Jesus and his followers . —2- The style and in an * ner of this passage is in exac £ uni * son with the writings of Josephus — 3 . The objections t ^ this testi r-
mony fall to ihe groiund , because it appears from other parts of his works , that Josepbus was a believer in Jesus , as he repeatedly calls his gospel the law of God , the philosoph y ^ or the wisdom pi
the Mosaic law , and describes it £ prevalence among the gentiles ^!—4 . Josephus published the work in which this passage stands under the auspices of Epaphroditus * the friend and coadjutor of the apostl ^ e
PauL—5 . The writer of the disu puted paragraph was not abelievqr in the story of our Lord ' s miraculous birth , having omitted it ii * his account of Jesus ; and he intimates , as we shall see in the context , that it originated with certaja
false teachers of Cbristiaijjjty -in Rome . This fact , when proved , places for ever the authenticity © t the testimony which Josephus has given of Jesus Christ beyond the reach ofcontradiction . Eccle ^ Res , p . 288—316-lO- In hi $ VV « swer to Apipn ^ Josepfeu ^ is 3 t ? ictly a Christian
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5 © t RtiBAfty ^ i&onMfU ^ fa
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1814, page 50, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2436/page/50/
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