Nancy, thanks for the note. (1) The people who study the historical documents relating to Jesus, like this passage of Josephus, and the people who teach evolution are completely different groups. Those who study Josephus are, for the most parts, historians and classicists and theologians; those who teach evolution are biologists, physical anthropologists, etc. I have never met any scholar who would claim expertise in both fields. And while I feel confident about my ability to discuss Josephus, I doubt if I could hold an intelligent conversation about evolution. So it is important not to let your scepticism about evolution affect your judgements about a specific problem in the text of Josephus.
(2) Few scholars (not evolutionary scientists!) will in fact accept 'the huge book of Josephus'. Textually it is very problematic, in fact, the text of Josephus is the most corrupt single document we have from the ancient world. (By this I mean that its text, which exists in hundreds of manuscripts, shows the highest level of errors of omission and interpolation: that is, one manuscript will say one thing, another another.) These particular lines concerning Jesus are merely the most blatant interpolation.
(3) Yes Paul was a Pharisee. But he became a Christian. Josephus was not a Christian, yet this passage calls Jesus the Messiah and accepts the resurrection. This seems to me good grounds to suspect tampering: these are not opinions that non-Christians can hold.
(4) Your faith is in the Bible because you believe it is the word of God. You don't believe that Josephus' work is the word of God, do you? Why use the imperfect to support what you believe to be perfect? |
