Prof. Wasserstein's Excerpts from Josephus
Mention Christ Passage, Shown as Interpolation
Josephus, the First Cen-
tury historian who chronicled
the events during the Roman-
Jewish wars, is inevitably
referred to and quoted when-
ever there is need to recount
the history of that era.
Selections from the writings
of Josephus are of immense
value for students of Jewish
history during the Roman
!period. Much value therefore
emanates from "Flavius
Josephus: Selections From
His Works" by Prof. Abra-
ham Wasserstein of the He-
brew University, a Viking
volume with an explanatory
introduction and annotations
by the selector of the mate-
rial incorporated in this book.
Prof. Wasserstein's back-
ground material on Josephus,
provided in the introductory
essay, takes into account the
charges of treason leveled at
Josephus for his fraterniza-
tion with the Romans. He
makes his observation:
"Josephus claims to be
impartial, he boasts of his
accuracy, for which he cites
Vespasian, Titus and Agrippa
as witnesses; and he con-
trasts his own impartiality
and reliability with the in-
accuracy and bias of other
historians; he claims that it
is his aim to correct and bal-
ance the inaccuracies and
partial accounts of his rivals
and predecessors among the
historians of the Jewish
War."
Another paint advanced by
the compiler of the Josephus
excerpts is:
"The framework within
which Josephus set his story
determined the sources on
which he relied: the Bible
and its traditional interpreta-
tion, Midrash (both rabbini-
cal and Alexandrian), apo-
cryphal works, and Philo,
the Jewish-Hellenistic !phil-
osopher in whose works we
owe the greater part of our
knowledge of Jewish exegeti-
cal activity outside the main-
stream of Jewish tradition."
A further point made by
Prof. Wasserstein about Jose-
phus is:
"While it is true that in
recounting certain less-than-
honorable episodes in his life
he tries to embellish them
and occasionally even to in-
vest them with divine sanc-
tion, he does report them. It
is important to understand
that ancient conceptions of
loyalty and honor may well
have been different from
ours. Josephus was not only
the ancient politician who,
after having been prominent
in his country's affairs, lived
out his life in exile under th6
protection of the enemies of
his country."
Dr. Wasserstein devotes a
chapter in his book to the
life of Josephus and the se-
lections he has made include
the Josephus refutation of
anti - Semitism in "Against
Apion," excerpts from "The
Jewish War" and "The An-
tiquities of the Jews."
Of interest, in the section
in "The Antiquities," is the
following:
"The following is the fam-
ous testimonium de Christo.
Its authenticity has 1 o n g
been doubted but it may well
be that though at least part
of it owes its origin to
Christian interpolation, there
was some mention of Jesus
in Josephus's text.
"Now there was about this
time Jesus, a wise man, if it
be lawful to call him a man,
for he was a doer of wonder-
ful works—a teacher of such
men as receive the truth with
pleasure. He drew over to
him both many of the Jews
and many of the Gentiles. He
was the Messiah; and when
Pilate, on the accusation of
the leaders amongst us, had
condemned him to the cross,
those that loved him from
the first did not forsake him,
for he appeared to them alive
again the third day, as the
divine prophets had foretold
these and ten thousand other
wonderful things concerning
him; and the tribe of Chris-
tians, so named after him,
are not extinct to this day.
"Many, though not all,
scholars regard the follow-
ing passage about John the
Baptist as authentic.
"Now some of the Jews
'thought that the destruction
of Herod's (Herod, Tet-
rarch of Galilee, not to be
confused with Herod the
Great) army came from God.,
and that very justly, as a
punishment for what he did
against John, who was called
the Baptist; for Herod slew
him, though he was a good
man who commanded the
Jews to exercise virtue —
both righteousness towards
one another and piety to-
wards God — and so come to
'baptism; the washing with
water would be acceptable
to him, if they made use of it
not in order to put away
sins but to purify the body;
he believed that the soul was
thoroughly purified before-
hand by righteousness. Now
when others came in crowds
to him, for they were greatly
moved at hearing his words,
Herod, who feared lest John's
great influence over the peo-
ple might put them under
his power and inclination to
raise a rebellion (for they
seemed ready to do anything
he would advise), thought it
best to put him to death so
as to prevent any mischief
he might cause; Herod would
thus not bring himself into
difficulties by sparing a man
who might make him repent
of it after it was too late.
Accordingly John was sent
as a prisoner, as a result of
Herod's suspicious nature, to
Macherus, the castle, and
was there put to death."
Prof. Solomon Zeitlin, the
leading authority in the world
on the Second Common-
Two Jewish Student
Papers Are Started
NEW YORK (JTA) — Two
more Jewish student publi-
cations have been started,
one by students in San Diego,
"L'Chayim," and the other
by students at the University
of Minnesota, "Nivim."
A front page editorial in the
first issue of L' Chayim de-
scribed it as "a Jewish stu-
dent periodical which af-
firms the age-old passion of
Jews for the creative life of
our people" adding that "its
purpose is to stimulate and
provoke meaningful thought
on issues that confront Amer-
ican Jews and to provide an
open forum for Jewish ex-
pression and information."
wealth and therefore also a
top authority on Josephus,
has consistently, in his ex
tensive writings, exposed the
Christ passage in Josephus
as a forgery and an inter-
polation.
The forgeries were exposed
by Dr. Zeitlin as early as
1928 in his essay in the Jew-
ish Quarterly Review, and
later in his expose of the
"Josippon" forgery.
In his thorough study of
the claims about the refer-
ence to Christ the Messiah
in Josephus, Zeitlin wrote:
"As a matter of fact, Jose-
phus was not a believer in
the messianic doctrine. He
believed that the Jewish de-
liverance from the yoke of
the Gentiles would be by God
Himself. He pictured the
Jewish state as a theocracy;
namely, that God is the only
authority and ruler, and the
priest is the principal media-
tor between God and the
Jews . . ." —P.S.
Red Cross and
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NEW YORK — Seven new
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the commission on Jewish
chaplaincy of the National
Jewish Welfare Board,
The new chaplains, who
have been recruited and en-
dorsed by the JWB's com-
mission on Jewish chap-
laincy, will serve Jewish mili-
tary personnel and their
families a n d hospitalized
veterans at bases overseas
and throughout the U. S.
More than 250 civilian rabbis
serve as parttime chaplains.
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