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virtue / ' Now my position is , that the Epaphroditus here spoken of is one aud the same person : for he had the same name , was at the same time , was in the same place , and was marked by such peculiarities of character as are sufficient to prove his identity .
The epinion of learned men is , that Josephus had published all his Works before the death of Domitian : but Photius , Biblioth . Cod . 33 , has the following passage respecting Justus of Tiberias , the rival of Josephus . " Justus begins his history from Moses , and
closes at the death of A grip pa , the seventh that ruled in the family of Herod , and the last that reigned over the Jews , who received his dominion under Claudius , had it augmented by Nero , and still more amply by Vespasian : he died in the third year of
Trajan , where his history terminates /' Josephus notices this history of Justus in his Life , and if it were not published before the third of Trajan , the remaining Works of Josephus ,
namely , his books against Appian must have been written at a later period . These books are dedicated to Epaphroditus , who , if the Secretary of Nero was put to death the fifteenth of Domitian , must have been another of
the same name , contemporary with Trajan . Influenced by this reasoning , Grotius supposes that the Epaphroditus here meant was a procurator under Trajan . But history is quite
silent respecting such a person , and his existence is a mere assumption to meet the dates given by Photius j which dates are set aside as false by Josephus himself .
The Life of Josephus was originally a part of the Antiquities , being an Appendix to it , and composed and published at the same time w \ th it . At the close of it , he bespeaks the indulgence of his readers for introducing a short Memoir of his own Life , and
expressly states , that he concludes his Antiquities in the 13 th of the reign of Domitian . In Section 65 he thus accosts Justus : " If you are confident that you have related these things
better than any other writer , how came you not to bring your narrative before the public , while Vespasian and Titus , the generals-in-chief of the war , and while Agrippa and his kindred , men extensively acquainted with the literature of Greece , were yet among
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the living , for you withheld your History above twenty years , thus declining the testimony of all those who from their own knowledge , were able to sanction its truth . But now , they being no more with us , you have
ventured to publish it , as' no longer liable to refutation / 1 From this passage , connected with the date previously given by himself , it is evident , that in the 13 th year of Domitian , Agrippa not
was among the living , though it be evident also , that he survived the event of the Jewish War about twenty years . He must , therefore , have died about the middle of the reign of Domitian .
The books against Appian were composed after the Antiquities , and , as it appears , immediatel y so . And the interval between the 13 th of Domitian and the close of his reign , namely , the space of three years was assuredly sufficient for their production . For
learned beyond example as that work is , it required only the arrangement of the materials which the author had amassed while composing his Antiquities . Josephus spent about twenty years in the composition of the works dedicated to Epaphroditus ; and he expressly declares , that he undertook
that performance by the advice of his friend and patron . At that period , Epaphroditus was already distinguished by learning , integrity and political wisdom , and this testimony necessarily refers him to the reign of Nero , in whose court , as Suetonius asserts , he flourished as a Secretary of
State . From Suetonius and Dion Casstus it seems probable that Epap hroditus was a believer : for both these join his death with that of Clement , who suffered for his conversion . From
Josephus we might also conclude that he was a convert to the Jewish itistitutions , as the gospel was then called . The Heathens who rejected Christianity , rejected also , with affected contempt , the true history of the Jews , and adopted with avidity the falsehoods propagated by Appian and
others respecting their origin . Nor can we find a criterion by which we can ascertain with more probability the feelings of a Heathen respectija g Christ , than the part he took wit * regard to the history of the Jews . AH the enemies of Jesus adop ted tbe
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728 Biblical Criticism . —Mr . Jones on Epaphroditus .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 728, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/32/
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