Ken Olson wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 5:50 pm
I think we have to assume that Josephus, who was resident in Judea, was better informed about events in Judea than Tacitus was. If he knew that the man put to death by the High Priest Ananus in Ant 20.200 was the brother of Jesus called Chrestos, it seems he would have to have known that the Christians were claiming Jesus was the Christ foretold in the Jewish scriptures.
I can take or leave the TF, but it does say that Jesus being called Christ, his crucifixion, being seen by his followers three days later and "ten thousand other wonderful things" about him were foretold by "the divine prophets."
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 at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again 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.
Jesus is also described as a "wise man" in the TF, the same word Josephus used in his previous book to describe Jews who believed that "one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth."
But now, what did the most elevate them in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, how, about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth. The Jews took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination.
Didn't Jesus and his followers likewise believe that "about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth" and that it was predicted in the OT? And weren't they likewise "deceived in their determination"? While I'm inclined to think the TF has been tampered with, even as it is, I think it fits what Josephus had said about the "ambiguous oracle."