On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
of the narrative ? Or , may it not at least answer in some degree the purpose for which it is now produced , to tempt the reader to pause before he too dogmatically coucludes the utter ignorance of all the apostles of an event happily recorded by two of the four evangelists . AN APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN .
Untitled Article
time , and with the same view , sent thither the Apostle Paul—namely , to be tried before Caesar - Josephus , at the risk of his life and fortune , followed his friends to the capital ; and ,
having- by his address and influence effected their deliverance , he returned to take an active part in the affairs of his country , where the flames of war had already broken out .
'4 . In the '' twentieth book of his Jewish Antiquities , Josephus has given a very long and very interesting account of the conversion of the royal family of the Adiabenes to the Jewish religion ; and his narrative contains
decisive evidence that the religion of which he speaks is the same with that which was disseminated by Paul . The person who effected the conversion of that family was Ananias : and we are left to infer that this Ananias was no
other than he who is mentioned in the Acts as the friend of that apostle ; fcyr " he taught Izates 9 the young prince who had now succeeded to the throne , that , in embracing the religion of the Jews , it was not necessary to submit to the rite of circumcision in order to
worship God with acceptance . This was the doctrine of a Christian Jeu % and of a Christian Jew only . A still more remarkable and characteristic circumstance is interwoven with the history . Paul and his brethren , in disseminating the gospel , were followed to every place by emissaries of the Gnostics or antichristian teachers
at Jerusalem . Ananias encountered the same opposition on the conversion of Izates ; for Eleazar , who affected to be a man of superior wisdom and skill in the law of Moses , obtained admission to the court , assailed tlie prince with tremendous curses , unless he submitted to the rite of
circumcision ; and thus he effected his purpose , contrary to the advice of Ananias . — The characters of Helen and Izates , as drawn by the pen of Josephus , are the finest on record $ and the object of the historian is to illustrate the happy influence of Christianity on the lives of those who embraced it among the Gentiles .
5 . Josephus is the historian and apologist of the Jewish Christians under the name of JEssenes * From the days of Moses to John the Baptist , that people formed an order of men distinguished , not as a separate reli-
Untitled Article
Dr . J : Jones ' s further Proofs of Josephus being a Christian Advocate * 85
Untitled Article
Dr . J . Jones ' s further Proofs of Josephus being' a Christian Advocate .
\ . TO my last paper [ XIX . 722—JL 725 J I have proved that the Judaism which Josephus defends in his immortal work against Apion , is the Judaism of the New Testament .
It follows , therefore , that he must mean the Judaism of the New Testament wherever he speaks of Judaism in other parts of his works . Now , Josephus speaks of the religion of the Jews in connexion with great events at Jerusalem , Caesarea , Alexandria ,
Antioch , Damascus , Rome , &c ; and in these places there is independent evidence that , on each occasion , he means what we now call Christianity , or , as the Jewish believers
considered and designated it , the religion of Moses and the prophets improved and perfected by Jesus Christ . In other words , there is abundant evidence to prove that Josephus , in many parts of his Jewish Antiquities and his Jewish War , is the historian and apologist of the gospel .
2 . Whenever the writings of Josep hus shall , as they ought , be studied in connexion with the existing circumstances of that age , there will appear sufficient grounds for believing that he had the gospel always
before him ; and , well knowing that its records were before the public , he took every fair opportunity , without notifying his intention , to state facts calculated to illustrate or to verify them .
o . rrom the Memoirs which Josephus gives of his own life—one of the most important and interesting * pieces of biography extant—we may infer that he early classed himself with the followers of Jesus , and finished his education under a Christian minister .
in the twenty-sixth year of his age , some of the priests who had become converts to the gospel , were sent to Home by Felix , who , about the same
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 85, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/21/
-