Josephus - News, Updates, Images & Quotes

Paul of Tarsus (10BC-67AD) - Agent of the Atonists. Author Ralph Ellis believes Paul and the historian Josephus Piso to have been one and the same person. Ellis maintains that Saul-Paul-Josephus wielded enormous power in Judea. He was probably not only the creator of Christianity, as we know it today, but, according to Ellis, he was also the compiler of the Talmud. He was, therefore, responsible for the type of Judaism known today. Paul also had the power to sequester or destroy any historical works and accounts that contradicted his own literary concoctions. He had the power and ability to invent historians and historical accounts out of thin air. Author Tony Bushby believes Paul was the pen-name of an unknown author. Bushby emphasizes that the name Paul, or Paulus, is the Latinized version of Apollonius, and that the biography of Apollonius of Tyana was plagiarized by the scribe known as Paul.

— Michael Tsarion; The Irish Origins of Civilization, Volume 2 view

Joseph ben Mattatiah, the priest, or, to use the name he adopted in honour of the Flavian House, Flavius Josephus, was born 37-38 A.D. and survived till at least 100 A.D. His father Matthias was a member of one of the high priestly families, was learned in the Law and held in high repute in Jerusalem.

— G. R. S. Meade; Did Jesus Live 100 BC? (quoted by Michael Tsarion) view

Josephus' writings, in this regard, cannot be considered a true and accurate account of Christianity's history. Moreover, this Josephus was in the employ of the Flavian Caesars and was devoted to maintaining their power in Judea. The Flavians, and other Roman patricians (such as the Pisos, Aemili, Claudia, Julia, Manlia, Cornelii, Fabii, Scipiones, Gracchi, etc), despised the religion of the Jews but were clever enough to indulge it for the sake of order. They installed a non-Jewish dynasty to rule the region - the Herodian - and cultivated profitable political affiliations with the powerful and wealthy Sadducees. Their main opposition came from lower class Jews and from the families considered those from whom the famous "Messiah" would arise. The most illustrious of these rebel families was the Maccabees. They were annihilated and basically disappeared from the world stage after the time of Emperor Vespasian.

— Michael Tsarion view

The celebrated passage in Josephus concerning Christ being set aside as an acknowledged forgery, what remains of external evidence as to his existence? Absolutely nothing.

— J. P. Mendum; Revelations of the Anti-Christ (quoted by Michael Tsarion) view

It is true that we have that famous passage in his “Antiquities “(xviii. iii. 3) which amply and doctrinally confirms the Gospel tradition; but how a so transparent forgery could have escaped detection in even the most uncritical age is a marvel.

— G. R. S. Meade; Did Jesus Live 100 BC? (quoted by Michael Tsarion) view

...this celebrated Testimonium Flavianum (The Testimony of Flavius), which characterized Jesus as a man of miracles and a successful teacher, was certainly not written by Josephus.

— Elmar R. Gruber and Holger Kersten; The Original Jesus (quoted by Michael Tsarion) view

To the horror and consternation of Christians all over the world, this passage [Book Eighteen, Chapter Four, of Josephus] was, during the sixteenth century, proven to be a blatant forgery. It was worthy of doubt since no contemporary historian, or any coming after who knew Josephus' works, mentioned this passage. This omission was especially startling in the case of the Church Father Origen who wrote many hundred books and covered every aspect of Christian history. In Origen's voluminous work there is no mention of Jesus as a man and no quote from, or reference to, Book Eighteen, Chapter Four, of Josephus.The spurious passage (like another in Book Twenty) was an interpolation and had been inserted into the works of Josephus by a later unnamed "editor" or compiler, no doubt some monk who decided to edit history in order to give Christians "proof" for their Jesus. The passage also mentions that Jesus was accepted as the so-called "Christ." This is also patently spurious since most Jews did not accept Paul's version of Jesus as the "Christ." This concept meant something only to pagans. Additionally, the Romans (like the Egyptians) were already familiar with the term "Chrestus" (meaning "anointed") used for their own gods and emperors. Thus the term "Christ" would not have denoted anything particularly unusual and would actually have offended both the orthodox Jews of Jerusalem and the Nazarene Church (those said to have known the physical rabbi Jesus).

— Michael Tsarion; The Irish Origins of Civilization, Volume 2 view

Flavius Josephus Piso (whom author Ralph Ellis believes to have been St. Paul of Tarsus).

— Michael Tsarion; The Irish Origins of Civilization, Volume 2 view

If the silence on Jesus in the earlier works of both Tacitus and Josephus casts doubt on the authenticity of their later references, then we have truly lost every clear non-Christian reference to Jesus as a human being before the latter half of the second century.

— Earl Doherty; The Jesus Puzzle (quoted by Michael Tsarion) view

One of the most striking and wonderful things about an "historian" like Josephus is that he knows almost nothing about "the past" that we ourselves do not already know from other sources. When an account he gives of a supposed event of two centuries earlier "confirms" something we can read in other works, it is only because he has copied or paraphrased it. Josephus has been well described as a person one wouldn't buy a used car from

— Thomas L. Thompson; The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel (quoted by Michael Tsarion) view

But the fact is, that with the exception of this one incongruous forged passage...the wonder-mongering Josephus makes not the slightest mention of his wonder-working fellow-countryman, Jesus the Christ...though some score of other Joshuas, or Jesuses, are recorded by him, nor does he mention any of his transcendent wonders...none of the Fathers, before Eusebius (about 324), knew or could find a word in the works of Josephus, of this momentous testimony to Jesus, over a century after Origen

— Joseph Wheless; Forgery in Christianity (quoted by Michael Tsarion) view

Josephus is thus quoted as bearing witness to John the Baptist, not as the Heaven-sent forerunner of the Christ, but simply as a Jewish religious teacher and baptizer on his own account; and not a word by Josephus about the Christ, in whom it is admitted that he did not believe as such, nor even mentions as the most illustrious of those baptized by John

— Joseph Wheless; Forgery in Christianity (quoted by Michael Tsarion) view

And when we take on board the interesting theory of author Ralph Ellis, who believes that St. Paul was none other than Josephus Piso, the Jewish-Roman historian[...]

— Michael Tsarion; The Irish Origins of Civilization, Volume 1 view

We are told that the first century Jewish historian Josephus wrote about Jesus. He actually wrote about thirteen different Jesus'

We now know that this quote was added in the Middle Ages by the Church. No Orthodox Jew like Josephus would penned these words!

— Jordan Maxwell; http://jordanmaxwell.com/articles/religion/religion4.html view