Vultures eat bodies left on crucifix

[patrick457]

The source I found was in the “Jewish Wars” attributed to the writings of Josephus, describing Jesus as the Messiah, detailing the crucifixion, affirming the stories later told of the Resurrection, and mentioning the Rabbinical Council of Egypt after Rome destroyed Jerusalem and finally reduced Masada. Don’t know which version of “Antiquities” you have, but the one I got in English was from the Library of Congress, on loan (which I obviously couldn’t keep!) and was simply titled “Jewish Wars and Antiquities” and did detail quite a lot about Jesus, as Josephus had been asked to write some more detail (or so he stated in the text) about Jesus and how the new Christian movement started. It was obviously written at about or after 70 AD, since Jerusalem had been destroyed by then. It had a lot of other things included, but was mainly concerned with the period from about 30 AD to 75 or 80 AD.

Now I’m getting really suspicious.

The ‘standard’ version of Josephus’ Wars and Antiquities are mainly based on Greek and Latin manuscripts from the Middle Ages. This version doesn’t refer to Jesus at all in Wars, and only in those two instances in Antiquities. There is a Slavonic version of Wars which does refer in some length to Jesus, but here’s the catch - the Jesus material probably isn’t original but are later Christian interpolations. We know that Christian scribes did tamper with Josephus: the Testimonium Flavianum (Antiquities 18.63) in its present form declares Jesus as the Messiah and adds references to His resurrection, something which Josephus is unlikely to have written himself.

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.

The exact status of the passage is controversial: some scholars think that the whole passage referring to Jesus was an interpolation and that Josephus probably did not write about Jesus at all. But many others think that the passage was simply edited and that Josephus did at least write something about Jesus. If we remove the ‘Christian’ elements from the passage we would come up with this:

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man …] For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. …] And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. …] And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.

And no, AFAIK Josephus doesn’t refer to a ‘rabbinical council of Egypt’ either - or for that matter any other work from the time period.

 

[atassina]

Wow, wow, wow! I feel humbled by such erudition in response to my simple question. To me, it looks like:

-Yes Jesus was buried on Good Friday.
-Yes other bodies before and after Jesus were left on the crucifixes and eaten by vultures and carnivorous birds.
-Yes others crucified were thrown into pits or holes and eaten by wild animals.
-Yes this was shameful, repulsive and vile to the Jews and most likely the general non-Jewish population.
-Yes this served at least as fear tactic.

No wonder the Apostles ran. I would have also, alas. Coward that I am.

Thanks,
atassina