ว THE GENUINE WORKS O F FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. TRANSLATED FROM The ORIGINAL GREEK, according to HAVER CAMP'S CONTAINING IV. An Extract out of JOSEPHUS's Exhortation to the I. Twenty Books of the JEWISH | III. Two Books against APION. GREEKS concerning HADES, and the TOGETHER WITH Large NOTES, proper OBSERVATIONS, and an INDEX. TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED, THREE DISSERTATIONS. CONCERNING 1. The Teftimonies of JOSEPHUS | III.TACITUS's Accounts of the Or vindicated. II. GOD's command to Abraham to igin of the JEWISH NATION, With a TABLE of the Jewish Coins, Weights, and Measures. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. I. BY WILLIAM WHISTON, A. M. PRINTED at WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, Sold at his Bookstore in Worcester. Sold alfo by faid THOMAS, and The TESTIMONIES of JOSEPHUS concerning JESUS CHRIST, JOHN the Baptift, and JAMES the Juft, vindicated. SINCE we meet with feveral important teftimonies in Jofephus, the Jewish hiftorian, concerning JOHN the Baptift, the forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth, concerning, JESUS of Nazareth himself, and concerning JAMES the Juft, the brother of Jefus of Nazareth; and fince the principal teftimony, which is that concerning Jefus of Nazareth himself, has of late been greatly queftioned by many, and rejected by fome of the learned as fpurious, it will be fit for me, who have ever declared my firm belief that thefe teftimonies were genuine, to fet down fairly fome of the original evidence and citations I have met with in the first fifteen centuries concerning them, and then to make proper obfervations upon that evidence, for the reader's more complete fatisfaction. But before I produce the citations themselves out of Jofephus, give me leave to prepare the reader's attention, by fetting down the fentiments of perhaps the moft learned perfon, and the most competent judge that ever was, as to the authority of Jofephus, I mean of Jofeph Scaliger, in the Prolegomena to his book, De Emendatione Temporum, p. 17. "" Jofephus is the most diligent and the greatest lover of truth of all writers: Nor are we afraid to affirm of him, that it is more fafe to believe him, not only as to the affairs of the Jews, but also as to thofe that are foreign to them, than all the Greek and Latin writers, and this, because his fidelity and his compafs of learning are every where confpicuous," The The ancient CITATIONS of the Teftimonies of JOSEPHUS from his own time till the end of the fifteenth century. About A. D. 110. Tacitus Annal. lib. xv. cap. 44. NERO, in order to ftifle the rumour, [as if he had himself fet Rome on fire,] afcribed it to thofe people who were hated for their wicked practices, and called by the vulgar Chriftians: Thefe he punished exquifitely. The author of this name was Chrift, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was brought to punishment by Pontius Pilate the procurator. About A. D. 147. Juft. Mart. Dialog. cum Trypho. p. 234. You [Jews] knew that Jefus was rifen from the dead, and afcended into heaven, as the prophecies did foretel was to happen. About A. D. 230. Origen. Comment. in Matth. p. 230. THIS James was of fo fhining a character among the people, on account of his righteoufnefs, that Flavius Jofephus, when, in his twentieth book of the Jewish Antiquities, he had a mind to fet down what was the caufe why the people fuffered fuch miferies, till the very holy houfe was demolifhed, he faid, that these things befel them by the anger of God, on account of what they had dared to do to James, the brother of Jefus, who was called Chrift: And wonderful it is, that, while he did not receive Jefus for Chrift, he did neverthelefs bear witness that James was fo rightcous a man. He fays farther, that the people thought that they fuffered these things for the fake of James. About A. D. 250. Contr. Celf. lib. i. p. 35, 36. I WOULD fay to Celfus, who perfonates a Jew, that admitted of John the Baptift, and how he baptized Je-. fus, that one who lived but a little while after John and Jefus, wrote, how that John was a baptizer unto the remiffion of fins: For Jofephus teftifies in the eighteenth book of Jewish Antiquities, that John was the baptift, and that he promised purification to thofe that were baptized. The fame Jofephus alfo, although he did not believe in Jefus as Chrift, when he was enquiring after the cause of the deftruction of Jerufalem, and of the demolition of the temple, and ought to have faid, that their machinations against Jefus were the caufe of those miseries coming on the people, because they had flain that Chrift, who was foretold by the prophets, he, though as it were unwillingly, and yet as one not remote from the truth, fays, "These miseries befel the Jews by way of revenge for James the Juft, who was the brother of Jefus, that was called Chrift, because they had flain him who was a moft righteous. perfon." Now this James was he whom that genuine difciple of Jefus, Paul, faid he had feen as the Lord's brother [Gal. i. 19.] which relation implies not fo much nearnefs of blood, or the fameness of education, as it does the agreement of manners and preaching. If therefore he fays the defolation of Jerufalem befel the Jews for the fake of James, With how much greater reafon might he have faid, that it happened for the fake of Jefus ? &c.. About A. D. 324. Eufeb. Demonftr. Evan. lib. iii. p. 124.. CERTAINLY the atteftation of those I have already produced concerning our Saviour may be fufficient. However, it may not be amifs if, over and above, we make ufe of Jofephus the Jew for a farther witness ; who, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, when he was writing the hiftory of what happened under Pilate, makes mention of our Saviour in these words: Now there was about this time Jefus, a wife man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of fuch men as had a veneration for truth; he drew overto him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles: He was the Chrift. And when Pilate, at the fuggeftion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the crofs, thofe that loved him at firft did not forfake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had fpoken of thefe, and ten thoufand other wonderful things concerning him; whence the tribe of Chriftians, fo named from him, are not extinct at this day. If therefore we have this hiftorian's teftimony, that he not only brought over to himself the twelve a poftles, with the feventy difciples, but many of the Jews, many of the Gentiles alfo, he muft manifeftly have had fomewhat in him extraordinary above the rest of 1 A 2 mankind; and |