(2) It is wholly interpolated by a Christian hand. Bekker (in his ed. of Jos., 1855), Hase (1865 and
1876), Keim (1867), Schürer (1874).
(3) It is partly genuine, partly interpolated. Josephus probably wrote Ξριστὸς οὖτος ἐλέγετο(as in
the passage on James), but not ἧνand all other Christian sentences were added by a transcriber
before Eusebius, for apologetic purposes. So Paulus, Heinichen, Gieseler (I. § 24, p. 81, 4th
Germ. ed.), Weizsäcker, Renan, Farrar. In the introduction to his Vie de Jésus (p. xii.), Renan
says: "Je crois le passage sur Jésus authentique. Il est parfaitement dans le goût de Joseph, et
si cet historian a fait mention de Jésus, c’est bien comme cela qu’il a dû en parler. On sent
seulement qu’une main chrétienne a retouché le morceau, y a ajouté quelques mots sans lesquels
il eút été presque blasphématoire, a peut-étre retranché ou modifié quelques expressions."
(4) It is radically changed from a Jewish calumny into its present Christian form. Josephus originally
described Jesus as a pseudo-Messiah, a magician, and seducer of the people, who was justly
crucified. So Paret and Ewald (Gesch. Christus’, p. 183, 3d ed.).
It is difficult to resist the conclusion that Josephus must have taken some notice of the greatest
event in Jewish history (as he certainly did of John the Baptist and of James), but that his
statement—whether non-committal or hostile—was skillfully enlarged or altered by a Christian
hand, and thereby deprived of its historical value.
In other respects, the writings of Josephus contain, indirectly, much valuable testimony, to the truth
of the gospel history. His History of the Jewish War is undesignedly a striking commentary on
the predictions of our Saviour concerning the destruction of the city and the temple of Jerusalem;
the great distress and affliction of the Jewish people at that time; the famine, pestilence, and
earthquake; the rise of false prophets and impostors, and the flight of his disciples at the
approach of these calamities. All these coincidences have been traced out in full by the learned
Dr. Lardner, in his Collection of Ancient Jewish and Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of the
Christian Religion, first published 1764–’67, also in vol. vi. of his Works, ed. by Kippis, Lond.
1838.
V. Heathen testimonies are few and meagre. This fact must be accounted for by the mysterious
origin, the short duration and the unworldly character of the life and work of Christ, which was
exclusively devoted to the kingdom of heaven, and, was enacted in a retired country and among
a people despised by the proud Greeks and Romans.
The oldest heathen testimony is probably in the Syriac letter of Mara, a philosopher, to his son
Serapion, about a.d. 74, first published by Cureton, in Spicilegium Syriacum, Lond. 1855, and
translated by Pratten in the "Ante-Nicene Library," Edinb. vol. xxiv. (1872), 104–114. Here
Christ is compared to Socrates and Pythagoras, and called "the wise king of the Jews," who
were justly punished for murdering him. Ewald (l.c. p. 180) calls this testimony "very remarkable
for its simplicity and originality as well as its antiquity."
Roman authors of the 1st and 2d centuries make only brief and incidental mention of Christ as the
founder of the Christian religion, and of his crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, in the reign of
Tiberius. Tacitus, Annales, I. xv. cap. 44, notices him in connection with his account of the
conflagration at Rome and the Neronian persecution, in the words: "Auctor nominis ejus
[Christiani] Christus Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus
erat," and calls the Christian religion an exitiabilis superstitio.Comp. his equally contemptuous
misrepresentation of the Jews in Hist., v. c. 3–5. Other notices are found in Suetonius: VitaA.D. 1-100.