ergo, Josephus was a Justin Bieber fan

[arnoldo]

Well, don't blame Jerome 'cuz apparently he didn't want anything to do with altering Josephus or Polycarp's writings.

The rumor that the works of Josephus and Papian and Polycarp have been translated by me is false. I have neither the leisure nor the strength to render his writings into another tongue with the same elegance

[DCHindley]

Tacitus Annals 44.4

Therefore, first those were seized who admitted their faith, and then, using the information they provided, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much for the crime of burning the city, but for hatred of the human race. And perishing they were additionally made into sports: they were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps

DCH

I don't know if readers on this board have any Jewish friends or acquaintances but even readers of books from antiquity will hear this charge associated with the Jews - 'hatred of the human race.' I think it appears for the first time in the Acts of the Alexandrian Martyrs but it resurfaces time and again.

[andrewcriddle]

See also Tacitus Histories Book 5

This worship, however introduced, is upheld by its antiquity; all their other customs, which are at once perverse and disgusting, owe their strength to their very badness. The most degraded out of other races, scorning their national beliefs, brought to them their contributions and presents. This augmented the wealth of the Jews, as also did the fact, that among themselves they are inflexibly honest and ever ready to shew compassion, though they regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies. They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though, as a nation, they are singularly prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; among themselves nothing is unlawful. Circumcision was adopted by them as a mark of difference from other men. Those who come over to their religion adopt the practice, and have this lesson first instilled into them, to despise all gods, to disown their country, and set at nought parents, children, and brethren.

Andrew Criddle