In the period between the close of the Old Testament and the opening of the New, Josephus tells us that Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, was proud of the world-wide celebrated library at Alexandria. Demetrius Phalerius, Library Keeper, approached the King:- "He had been informed that there were many books of the law among the Jews worthy of inquiring after, and worthy of the king's library, but which, being written in characters and in a dialect of their own, will cause no small pains in getting them translated into the Greek tongue."—Antiquities, B. XII., C. II.
The King thereupon took up the idea warmly, and wrote a letter to Eleazar, the High Priest at Jerusalem, saying, "I am desirous to do what will be grateful to the Jews in my country, and to all other Jews in the habitable earth. I have determined to procure an interpretation of your law, and to have it translated out of Hebrew into Greek, and to be deposited in my library. Thou wilt therefore do well to choose out and send men of a good character, who are now elders in age, and six in number of every tribe. These, by their age, must be skilful in the laws, and of abilities to make an accurate interpretation of them; and when this shall be finished I shall think that I have done a work glorious to myself."—Antiquities, B. XII., C. II.
This translation was made in B.C. 284-247 by these seventy-two elders from the twelve tribes of Israel, hence its name Septuagint, usually expressed by "LXX." Greek being the great language of commerce at that time, it can be manifestly, seen that, though a heathen king sought to take the glory to himself, it was indeed God's overruling hand that prepared this wonderful vehicle for the spread of the Gospel in the days to come. It was this translation of the Scripture our Lord quoted from again and again.
We come now to New Testament times. Our first inquiry is as to what reference Josephus made to our Lord. We read, "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 wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him many, of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive on the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."—Antiquities, B. XVIII., C. III.
This allusion to our Lord has been questioned as an interpolation, and therefore' rejected by some as spurious. It is a statement, as it stands, that goes a long way. It suggests that our Lord was more than a man. It states that He was the Christ. His resurrection is not questioned. The prophecies of the Old Testament relating to our Lord are referred to as real prophecies with actual fulfillment. Lastly it speaks of the Christians being named after our Lord, as is mentioned in Acts 11:2626And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. (Acts 11:26).
No wonder the enemies of the Bible were furious. It was one thing to refuse to believe the testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul; but here was a well-known man, a great historian, and how could they refuse to believe him? The only way out of the difficulty was to question that Josephus ever wrote such words, and condemn them as spurious. It will thus be seen how wonderful it is that such a history was written in times so near to those when our Lord lived and died and rose again, when there were many alive, who were witnesses to the facts stated, and abundant testimony to them was available, as the Apostle Paul drew attention to when he stated that five hundred brethren at one time had seen the risen Christ, of whom the greater part still lived (1 Cor. 15:66After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:6)).
But on what foundation is the charge made that this quotation concerning our Lord from the writings of Josephus is spurious? This quotation is given word for word by Eusebius, Jerome, Rufinus, Isodore of Pelusium, Sozomen, Cassidorus, Nicephorus and by other authors, Greeks, Syrians and Egyptians, all of whom had access to manuscripts of considerable antiquity. Not one of these writers ever questioned the genuineness of this quotation.
Eusebius, one of the early fathers, writing about A.D. 324 says, " Certainly the attestation of those I have already produced concerning our Savior may be sufficient. However, it may not be amiss, if, over and above, we make use of Josephus. the Jew, for a further witness; who in the eighteenth Book of his Antiquities, when he was writing the history of what happened under Pilate, makes mention of our Savior in these words."—Eusebius Demonstr. Evan, LIB. III, p. 124.
He then proceeded to quote the passage we have just given word for word. The same writer about A.D. 330, quoting the same passage word for word, ended up with the remark, " And since this writer [Josephus], sprung from the Hebrews themselves, hath delivered these things above in his own work, concerning John the Baptist, and OUR Savior, what room is there for FARTHER EVASION?"—Id. Hist. Eccles. LIB. I. II.
An interval of six years lies between the writing of the first testimony of Eusebius, and the second. The closing words of the latter are most significant. We gather from his remarks that an attempt had been made to dispute the genuineness of the testimony given by Josephus to our Lord, and to prove it spurious, and that the attempt had failed.
This all goes to show how valuable these writings are, inasmuch as they throw corroborative light on Bible incidents. The very fury and venom, with which it was sought to discredit this tribute by Josephus to our Lord, only proves how damaging it was considered to be by the enemies of our Lord, and likewise by the Jewish nation, which had been guilty of the murder of their long-promised. Messiah, the Son of God.
It would seem strange indeed that Josephus should have recorded the death of John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord, and also the martyrdom of James, the brother of our Lord, and yet have remained silent as to our Lord Himself. 'Certainly any attempt at this late hour to treat the allusion to our Lord in the writings of Josephus as spurious would seem to be an example of the proverb, " The wish is father to the thought."