mountainman

Making fruit salad of the Testimonium Flavianum (TF)

Modern scholarship and historical scholarship have asked many questions in respect of the TF.
Some of these include:
Is the TF a faithful copy? (Is the TF an apple?)
Is the TF an unfaithful copy? (Is the TF a lemon?)
Is the TF a forgery?
Is the TF an interpolation?
Is the TF a partial interpolation?
Is the TF a partial forgery?
What is the difference between the TF as an interpolation and the TF as a partial interpolation?
What is the difference between the TF as an interpolation and the TF as a forgery?
What is the difference between the TF a partial interpolation and the TF as a partial forgery?

These weighty questions have generated hundreds of publications
and thousands of comments on the authenticity or otherwise of the TF.

If you have never heard of this issue before , start by looking at the background issues related to the Testimonium Flavianum.

The metaphor that the TF is an apple follows the phrase "the apple of one's eye" -- some sweet fruit. If the TF were true it would be "The Apple" of early christian evidence for the existence of the historical Jesus, since the passage in dispute makes mention of Jesus in glowing terms. If the TF is genuine, then it represents a faithful copy of Josephus. All is apples!

The metaphor that the TF is a lemon follows the phrase "As sour as a lemon" -- some sour tasting fruit. If the TF were a common forgery, as has been asserted since the 17th century, then as far as ancient historical evidence is concerned with respect to the existence of an historical jesus, then the TF is a "lemon". If the TF is fraudulent, the it represents a very unfaithful copy of Josephus, and someone slipped a lemon into the apple cart.

The metaphor that the TF is an orange is reserved for the arguments utilised by the modern apologists' defence attorneys. They claim that the TF might represent a "partial interpolation". They claim we are not looking at an apple, neither are we looking at a lemon, but rather we are looking at an orange.