From my independent reading, not the WT, Josephus was a Jewish writer. A Christian writer of his time would prob. recite ancient creeds of belief. I do know that he is not considered a reliable source. He did something unscrupulous during his career. If he is the only source, it becomes problematic.
Did Josephus believe in Jesus as The Christ?
by opusdei1972 14 Replies latest watchtower bible
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HowTheBibleWasCreated
The referance to John the Baptist as well breaks his line of thought and his comment of Herod's palace in the paragraph CONTRADICTS the previous statements of Herod only a few paragraphs earlier... John the Baptist too is a forgery
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opusdei1972
The main problem, as far as I know, is that the writings of Josephus were mainly in hands of Christians. I think that Jews were not interested in them, because he was regarded as a traitor.
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Designer Stubble
Josephus was born in the year 37. So, he never really met Jesus - that is an easy to establish FACT.
Generally that paragraph is thought to be forged - Josephus was in a sense misquoted, something as we know not uncommon in religion.
But then even if he did write that, refer back to point one - they never met, so everything was hearsay.
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RichardHaley
As a Jewish general (or something like that) Josephus convinced his fellow military leaders to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Roman army. He himself however faked it and lived. From there he brown-nosed his way into the powerful Roman family the Flavians, even being adopted by them. From then on he wrote from the Roman view of things, a traitor and a con man supreme. A "Joseph Goebbels" of sorts, writing Roman propaganda. As a historian I wonder if he can even be trusted.