This post is not about
the mythical Jesus of Nazareth. There is another myth recorded by
Josephus, a renowned historian who has much of his writings
preserved. I have been reading Richard Carrier's new
book On the Historicity of Jesus. The data in that book sheds some
illumination of a vast variety of confusions that people might have
about this region and its people during the time when Christianity
evolved. As a partial aside Carrier did not think that Jesus came
from Nazareth even if it were logically possible for that to happen.
His view is that the first Christians were a cult called Nazarenes,
which had nothing to do with Nazareth. The Greek word that was later
presumed to refer to Nazareth was a form that normally would have
nothing to do with a town called Nazareth. The mythical person
called, Jesus of Nazareth, would supposedly been killed in about
30CE.
The Jesus of the
current post is likewise part of a mythical story. We would think
this because this myth has a number of magical events such as “a
star resembling a sword, which stood over the city” and “chariots
and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among
the clouds.” It is a different Jesus because the death of this Jesus
would be closer the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70CE and this
Jesus was “the son of Ananus.” Besides being roughly four
decades after the crucifixion of Christ there is no reference to any
divinity or relationship with God. This Jesus is just determined in
the story to be a madman. The astonishing fact is that researchers
have found over 20 elements of commonality between this myth and thee
classical Christian myth. Carrier suggests that “this story
inspired the general outline of Mark's entire Passover Narrative.”
The complete text from
a translation of the Josephus text in “The Wars of the Jews or
History of the Destruction of Jerusalem” is included below.
3. Thus were the
miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God
himself; while they did not attend nor give credit to the signs that
were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their future desolation,
but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see or minds to
consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them.
Thus there was a star (20) resembling a sword, which stood over the
city, and a comet, that continued a whole year. Thus also before the
Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war,
when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened
bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, (21) [Nisan,] and at
the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar
and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which
lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the
unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to
portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same
festival also, a heifer, as she was led by the high priest to be
sacrificed, brought forth a lamb
in the midst of the
temple. Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner (22) [court of the]
temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with
difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with
iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was
there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own
accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch
in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and
told him of it; who then came up thither, and not without great
difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the
vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them
the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that
the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and
that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these
publicly declared that the signal foreshowed the desolation that was
coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the
one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain
prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account
of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw
it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a
nature as to
deserve such signals;
for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their
armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of
cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the
priests were going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as
their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said
that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great
noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude,
saying, "Let us remove hence." But, what is still more
terrible, there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a
husbandman, who, four years before the war began, and at a time when
the city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast
whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in
the temple, (23) began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from
the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice
against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms
and
the brides, and a voice
against this whole people!" This was his cry, as he went about
by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city. However, certain
of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this
dire cry of his, and took up the man, and gave him a great number of
severe stripes; yet did not he either say any thing for himself, or
any thing peculiar to those that chastised him, but still went on
with the same words which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers,
supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine
fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was
whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any
supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice
to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his
answer was, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" And when Albinus (for
he was then our procurator) asked him, Who he was? and whence he
came? and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of reply to
what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till
Albinus took him to be a madman, and
dismissed him. Now,
during all the time that passed before the war began, this man did
not go near any of the citizens, nor was seen by them while he said
so; but he every day uttered these lamentable words, as if it were
his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" Nor did he
give ill words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good
words to those that gave him food; but this was his reply to all men,
and indeed no other than a melancholy presage of what was to come.
This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals; and he continued
this ditty for seven years and five months, without growing hoarse,
or being tired therewith, until the very time that he saw his presage
in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased; for as he was
going round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, "Woe,
woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!"
And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also!"
there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and
killed him immediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages
he gave up the ghost.
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