Post date: Feb 21, 2021 7:34:31 PM
"A rank forgery and a very stupid one too…" It is mentioned in the Church History, that this was the word of the very dishonest bishop Eusebius... The Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the forged passages were not known to Origen and earlier church writers... ~ Bishop Warburton~
Another authority, Bishop Warburton, called the TF a “rank forgery, and a very stupid one, too.” Remsburg further related the words of the “Rev. Dr. Giles, of the Established Church of England,” who stated:
“Those who are best acquainted with the character of Josephus, and the style of his writings, have no hesitation in condemning this passage as a forgery, interpolated in the text during the third century by some pious Christian, who was scandalized that so famous a writer as Josephus should have taken no notice of the gospels, or of Christ, their subject….”
In addition, the Rev. S. Baring-Gould remarked:
“This passage is first quoted by Eusebius (fl. A.D. 315) in two places (Hist. Eccl., lib. I, c. xi; Demonst. Evang., lib. iii); but it was unknown to Justin Martyr (fl. A.D. 140), Clement of Alexandria (fl. A.D. 192), Tertullian (fl. A.D. 193), and Origen (fl. A.D. 230). Such a testimony would certainly have been produced by Justin in his apology or in his controversy with Trypho the Jew, had it existed in the copies of Josephus at his time. The silence of Origen is still more significant. Celsus, in his book against Christianity, introduces a Jew. Origen attacks the argument of Celsus and his Jew. He could not have failed to quote the words of Josephus, whose writings he knew, had the passage existed in the genuine text. He, indeed, distinctly affirms that Josephus did not believe in Christ (Contr. Cels. I).”
Remsburg also recounts:
“Cannon Farrar, who has written an ablest Christian life of Christ yet penned, repudiates it. He says: ‘The single passage in which he [Josephus] alludes to him is interpolated, if not wholly spurious’ (Life of Christ, Vol. I, p. 46).
“The following, from Dr. Farrar’s pen, is to be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica: ‘That Josephus wrote the whole passage as it now stands no sane critic can believe."
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