triffidfood

Sorry if this seems a random question, but in relation to Antiquities 20.9.1, what exactly is the word used by Josephus (or interpolated from the margins?) where the english is given as:

[Ananus] assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus who was called Christ, James was his name, and some others.

.... is it "Christ" (Mashiach) or "the Christ" (Ha Mashiach)?>

If it's the former, doesn't that strongly imply that what's being referred to, is (yet another) messianic claimant .. in the strictly Jewish, entirely human, non divine, militant sense?

(Also I guess, that this isn't some marginal note which then became incorporated into the text... since wouldn't a Christian scribe have written "the messiah", as opposed to simply "messiah"? )

Incidentally, I found the Greek for this passage on another topic but can't translate it, but it was given there as:

Καθιζει συνεδριον κριτων και παραγαγων εις αυτο τον αδελφον Ιησου του λεγομενου Χριστου, Ιακωβος ονομα αυτω, και τινας ετερους....

show_no_mercy

The Greek doesn't have the "the" in it before "Christ", so on its face the relevant part looks like it says "[...] his brother Jesus who was called Christ, named Jacob [i.e. James] and some others..."

I think Josephus wrote "Antiquities" in Greek so he didn't use the Hebrew term "moshiach" in his writings. Though I haven't read all of Josephus' writings so don't quote me on that.

There's some argument that the Jesus mentioned here is Jesus son of Damneus mentioned at the end of this paragraph and that the word(s) "the Christ" were inserted either on purpose or by mistake by a Christian who assumed that if there's a mention of a Jesus and a James then that Jesus must be "the Christ".

Toto

τον αδελφον Ιησου του λεγομενου Χριστου

literally word by word from my limited Greek

the brother of Jesus the called Christ

spin has written on the awkward construction of this phrase here but the construction called name is common:

triffidfood

Thanks for both the above... :thumbs:

Maybe I'm tripping up on the two different languages (Greek & Hebrew) here, but if the text HAD originally been written in Hebrew, wouldn't it have seemed odd that Josephus talks about someone being "called Christ" (Mashiac) half way through an explanation of why another Jesus went on to be appointed High Priest of the Jerusalem Temple ... that is, appointed the Christ (Ha Mashiac)?

What I mean is, would that problem - or at least, potential confusion - between the two Jesus (the) Christs disappear if the text was actually written in Greek.... would Greek speaking Jews not have used the term Xristos to refer to High Priests (annointed ones), or not even have been aware of this designation? :huh:

DCHindley

τον (the) αδελφον (brother) Ιησου (of Jesus) του (the) λεγομενου ((one) being said) Χριστου ("christ" as a name or title, or literally "anointed (one)").

"the brother of Jesus the (one) called Christ."

"the brother of Jesus the (one) so-called Christ."

"the brother of Jesus the (one) called "anointed"."

"the brother of Jesus the (one) so-called "anointed"."

Some say "Christ" is a translation of the Hebrew word "Messiah," but as far as I know nowhere else in any of Josephus' works (except the "testimonium") does he use the Greek term "christos" in that sense, even when speaking of Cyrus the Great who IS called "messiah" in the Hebrew OT and the Greek LXX translation of it. So ...

"the brother of Jesus the (one) called "messiah"."

"the brother of Jesus the (one) so-called "messiah"."

The point of mentioning "anointed" above is that the high priest was ALSO an anointed position, and is likely what is meant by "messiah" in the prophesy of the 70 weeks in Daniel 9.

DCH