The earliest known extant work which claims that the Testimonium Flavianum is not the work of Josephus is Lucas Osiander Epitomes Historiae Ecclesiasticae Centuria I. II. III. (1592)Testimonium vero Iosephi de Christo ego omnino supposititium esse credo et ab aliquo sciolo ipsius libris interru. Si enim Iosephus ita de Christo sensisset, vt Testimonium illud prae se fert, Iosephus fuisset Christianus, cum tamen in omnibus eius scriptis nihil prorus, quod salterm Christianismum redoleat, reperiri queat.
But the testimony of Josephus concerning Christ I believe to be entirely spurious, and to be interpolated by some scoundrel in his books. For if Josephus had felt in such a manner about Christ as that Testimonium manifests, Josephus would have been a Christian, when in fact in all his writings, there is nothing at all that savors in the least of Christianity to be found.
[Osiander, Epitomes, Century I, Book II, Chapter VII, p. 17 (p. 30 of the PDF)]
That's interesting but doesn't change my view that Josephus (or any Jew) could have believed that Jesus was the Messiah while identifying as Jewish. I don't think the TF is genuine though, but even if it was, I don't buy the "a Jew couldn't have written it" argument.
Statistics: Posted by John2 — Wed Mar 06, 2024 2:17 pm