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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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which excluded the possibility t ) f conjecture or coincidence . Jesus caused this prediction to be inserted Hi his gospel , though , little consistent with its genius as good news to mankind . His object by this was , that this prophecy should be known to the whole world years before the object of it was accomplished . The fulfilment of it was intended to be the last seal
which God put , in a supernatural manner , to the divine mission of Jesus , and Josephus was the honoured agent whom Providence had employed in fixing it . A belief in supernatural
beings was very general among Jews and Gentiles : many things , therefore , might be deemed supernatural without the necessity of concluding that the immediate author came from the only true God . It was allowed that no
man could foretell events yet in futurity without the universal acknowledgment that God was with him . Magicians might , it was thought , be aided by demons ; but the true prophet was , beyond contradiction , inspired by the wisdom of God ,
Josephus could not but be aware of this , and he knew that , in writing his Jew- * ish War , he was publishing to the world , and transmitting to posterity , the last decisive proof to the truth of the gospel . In doing this , he was actuated by the same consummate wisdom which dictated all his works .
In order to shew that he had no sinister end in writing , that he had no design beyond the recording of facts which had taken place within his own observation , he confines himself solely and exclusively to his province as an
historian ; and though his narrative supplies complete evidence to the inspiration of Jesus , he has left the application to the reader . Throughout the whole , he keeps the prophecy and even the name of Jesus out of
sight , and by that means he sinks in the historian the advocate of the gospel , and secures from his readers that confidence which is due to his veracity as a witness and recorder of facts . Yet , though he has done this , he is thought by modern critics not to have been a believer in Christ , and I am ridiculed for maintaining that he was .
10 . Daniel had been held in high estimation by the ancient Jews ; but , since the days of our Saviour , his * ' <* untrymen attempted to degrade him
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below the character of a prophet , not only because he foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the advent of the Messiah > but fixed the very time in which the Messiah was to appear . Josephus , as a believer in Jesus , was
led to an opposite conclusion , and he extols Daniel as surpassing all the other prophets , because he not only predicted the Christ , but even the exact time of his appearance . — - See A . J . lib . x . ch . 17 , 11 .
11 . The Jews of Josephus ' s days , and afterwards , hated him as an apostate from their religion ; while the Greek and Latin fathers considered him as one of those whom they branded under the name of Ebionites . Passages might be adduced to prove the above statements : and I shall have
occasion to produce some hereafter . But I cannot conclude , without observing , that those Jews who rejected the claims of Jesus , expected a temporal king , and disbelieved , or affected
to disbelieve , the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple ; while those who believed in him , looked forward with absolute certainty to that event . This was a broad line of distinction
which divided the friends and enemies of Christ : and there is abundant evidence in his writings , that Josephus was not one of those Jews who expected a temporal deliverer , but on the contrary , was one of those who looked forward to the destruction of the
Jewish state . To this effect is the following ( J . W . lib . vi . c . 5 , 6 , ) : " What chiefly instigated them ( the Jews ) to engage in this war , was an ambiguous prophecy found in their sacred writings , that some one of that country
would govern the world . The Jews applied this prediction to themselves ; and many of their wise men were hence deceived in their judgment . But the oracle respected the government of Vespasian , who was appointed chief commander in Judea . But it is
impossible for meil to escape the punishment that is fore-ordained , though placed before hand before their eyes . For the Jews wantonly perverted some and derided others of the warnings given them , until the capture of the
city and their own ruin evinced their madness " Observe what Josephus here says , " Many of their wise men expected some one of that country to govern the world , and were mistaken
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Dr . J . Jones ' s further Pr&ofs of Josephs being a Christian " Advocate . 87
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/23/
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