Tuesday, January 29, 2019

The Testimonium Flavianum

The Testimonium Flavianum is stock item in Christian apologetics. To my knowledge, the general view of scholars is that it's contains some Christian scribal interpolations, but it has an authentic core. The interpolations are distinguishable from the authentic core. As such, this is hostile testimony. A 1C witness to the existence of Jesus by the Jewish historian Josephus. 

If we reconstruct the original, what does it say? Here is John Meier's translation, with a line through the interpolated phrases:

About this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one should call him a man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. He was the Messiah. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. For he appeared to them on the third day, living again, just as the divine prophets had spoken of these and countless other wondrous things about him. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out.

Richard Carrier has attempted to discredit the Testimonium Flavianum as entirely spurious. Here's one assessment:

1 comment:

  1. The version that survives thru Agapius' citation in Arabic might be the original before interpolations:

    https://twitter.com/BibleHats/status/1018113645425725440

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