The Lost and Hostile Gospels: An Essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of Which Fragments RemainBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
The Lost and Hostile Gospels: An Essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of Which Fragments Remain
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Apocryphal Gospels
It is curious to note the use made of the interpolation now found in the
text. Eusebius, after quoting it, says, “When such testimony as this is
transmitted to us by an historian who sprang from the Hebrews themselves,
respecting John the Baptist and the Saviour, what subterfuge can be left
them to prevent them from being covered with confusion?”(21)
There is one other mention of Christ in the “Antiquities” (lib. xx. c. 9):
“Ananus, the younger, of whom I have related that he had obtained
the office of high‐priest, was of a rash and daring character; he
belonged to the sect of the Sadducees, which, as I have already
remarked, exhibited especial severity in the discharge of justice.
Being of such a character, Ananus thought the time when Festus was
dead, and Albinus was yet upon the road, a fit opportunity for
calling a council of judges, and for bringing before them James,
the brother of him who is called Christ, and some others: he
accused them as transgressors of the law, and had them stoned to
death. But the most moderate men of the city, who also were
reckoned most learned in the law, were offended at this
proceeding. They therefore sent privately to the king (Agrippa
II.), entreating him to send orders to Ananus not to attempt such
a thing again, for he had no right to do it. And some went to meet
Albinus, then coming from Alexandria, and put him in mind that
Ananus was not justified, without his consent, in assembling a
court of justice. Albinus, approving what they said, angrily wrote
to Ananus, and threatened him with punishment; and king Agrippa
took from him his office of high‐priest, and gave it to Jesus, the
son of Donnæus.”
This passage is also open to objection.
According to Hegesippus, a Jewish Christian, who wrote a History of the
Church about the year A.D. 170, of which fragments have been preserved by
Eusebius, St. James was killed in a tumult, and not by sentence of a
court. He relates that James, the brother of Jesus, was thrown down from a
wing of the temple, stoned, and finally despatched with a fuller’s club.
Clement of Alexandria confirms this, and is quoted by Eusebius
accordingly.
Eusebius quotes the passage from Josephus, without noticing that the two
accounts do not agree. According to the statement of Hegesippus, St. James
suffered alone; according to that of Josephus, several other victims to
the anger or zeal of Ananus perished with him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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