NOTE D. LETTER OF LENTULUS. THE following letter is not quoted by any early Christian writer. The fact that it is attributed to a heathen implies that it is not of later date than the fourth century. Possibly it belongs to the third. Its origin and object may be seen by recurring to Ch. III. § 14. The text of its Latin copies or translations differ from each other. One of these, a translation from the Persian, will be found in Fabricius, Cod. Apoc. Nov. Test. pp. 301, 301*, 302. He mentions another, substantially the same, but different in phraseology, as existing in the Orthodoxographa. It will be found in the Biblical Repository, Vol. 2, pp. 373–375, in an article by Professor E. Robinson, who has also given in footnotes the readings of different manuscripts. The letter must have had but little curcency or it would have been quoted by some early writer. Of the two versions here subjoined, one is from Calmet's Dictionary, made from De Dieu's Latin version of a Persian copy,1 which was perhaps a modern translation from the Latin. Another, in the second column, is my own from the text of the Orthodoxographa as given by Robinson. 66 LENTULUS, PREFECT OF JERUSA- In the present age a highly endowed man has appeared who is yet with us, named Jesus Christ, who by Gentiles is styled 1 In the sixteenth century Francis Xavier, during his missionary work in Asia, published a church history in Persian, in which the abovementioned Persian copy of the letter from Lentulus is found. The supposition is reasonably certain that he supervised a translation of it from the Latin. Xavier, at command of the Persian Emperor Acabar, composed, as it seems, this history in the Portuguese language, lingua Lusitanica, in Agra, the principal city of the whole kingdom; and his teacher Abdel Lenarin Kasen, originally from Lahore, translated it into Persian." Walch, Bibliotheca Theolog. Vol. 3, p. 405. 2 The heading is taken from the Jena MS. No. 2. given to him of the Great Prophet; his disciples call him the Son of God. He RAISES THE DEAD, and HEALS all sorts of DISEASES. He is a tall, well-proportioned man; there is an air of serenity in his countenance, which attracts at once the love and reverence of those who see him. His hair is of the color of new wine from the roots to his ears, and from thence to the shoulders it is curled, and falls down to the lowest part of them. Upon the forehead it parts in two, after the manner of the Nazarenes. His forehead is flat and fair, his face without any defect, and adorned with a very graceful vermilion ; his air is majestic and agreeable. His nose and his mouth are very well proportioned, and his beard is thick and forked, of the color of his hair; his eyes are gray and extremely lively; in his reproofs he is terrible, but in his exhortations and instructions amiable and courteous; there is something wonderfully charming in his face, with a mixture of gravity. He is never seen to laugh, but he has been observed to weep. He is very straight in stature; his hands are large and spreading, and his arms very beautiful. He talks little, but with great gravity, and is the handsomest man in the world. 8 Prophet of Truth, or of the Truth. This term occurs in the Clementine Homilies 2, 5, 6, ; 3, 11, as also the term True Prophet, 1, 19, 21; 3, 11. All copies save this read "erect." See Biblical Repository, 2, p. 375, note 13. 5 Ps. 45, 2. NOTE E. INTERPOLATIONS OF JOSEPHUS. § 1. Concerning Christ. THERE are three passages in Josephus which have been regarded as interpolated, namely, Antiq. 18, 3, 3; 18, 5, 2, 20, 9, 1. One of these, a passage concerning Jesus, is probably a fraud by some Christian. Whether the same can be said of the other two is doubtful. The passage concerning Jesus stands between narratives of two events which Josephus classes together as calamities. "But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem, and did it with the sacred money. Myriads of the people got together, and made a clamor against him. He bid the Jews himself go away; but they, boldly casting reproaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed on; who laid upon them much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them. . . . And thus an end was put to this sedition. "[Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.] "About the same time also another sad calamity put the Jews into disorder, and certain shameful practices happened about the temple of Isis that was at Rome." 1 1 Antiq. 18, 3, 2-4; Whiston's trans. This other calamity of which Josephus treats occurred in A. D. 19 at Rome (see Judaism, p. 188) about eleven years before Jesus entered on his ministry. § 2. Concerning John the Baptist. The passage in the works of Josephus concerning John the Baptist is probably due to some disciple of John, or to some adherent of the popular party, rather than to any Christian. Even if correct, it does not, at first sight, accord with the Gospel narrative, nor does it refer in any way to Christ or Christianity. Whether it be an intentional interpolation or a marginal comment innocently copied into the text may admit question. 2 Aretas, the king of Arabia Petræa, and Herod had a quarrel. .. Herod the tetrarch had married the daughter of Aretas. . . However, he fell in love with Herodias. . Aretas made this the first occasion of his enmity between him and Herod, who had also some quarrel with him about their limits at the country of Gemalitis. So they raised armies on both sides. . . . All Herod's army was destroyed. . . . Herod wrote about these affairs to Tiberius, who being very angry at the attempt made by Aretas, wrote to Vitellius to make war upon him, and either to take him alive, and bring him to him in bonds, or to kill him, and send him his head [?]. This was the charge [?] that Tiberius gave to the president of Syria. ... 2 According to Matthew (14, 3) and Mark (6, 17) the cause of John's imprisonment was his statement that Herod ought not to marry his brother's wife. According to Luke (3, 19, 20) it was for this and other causes. That John, who spoke with equal boldness of prince and people, should be arrested by Herod is comprehensible enough. If, how ever, Herod, as Mark tells us (6, 20) "feared John and did many things as he told him and listened to him readily," Herod must for a time have striven to gain John over to his side, that he might use his influence with the people. Failing in this, the request by a daughter of Herodias, for the head of John, as also the king's previous oath, may have been preconcerted by himself to lessen the odium of what he intended doing, or by his wife and the aristocracy as a means of pushing him to a decision at which he hesitated. The date of John's death must have been in A. D. 31, while the aristocracy at Rome (see Judaism, pp. 522-531) were preparing for the rebellion, which broke out in October. In the spring of A. D. 32, when this rebellion had been suppressed, Pilate and Herod (Luke 23, 12) were reconciled, which not improbably means that Herod had previously sympathized with the aristocracy and Pilate with Tiberius, from whom he held his office. 8 Josephus repeatedly falsifies history with the object of favoring the Roman and Jewish aristocracy. The above is doubtless one of his fic tions. See remarks near the close of the section. "[Now, some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist, for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as regarded justice towards one another, and practical recognition towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away, [or the remission] of some sins [only,] but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. Accordingly, he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion, that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment on Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him.] "So Vitellius prepared to make war with Aretas, having with him two legions of armed men. . . . Leading his army through Judea, the principal men met him, and desired that he would not thus march through their land for that the laws of their country would not permit them to overlook those images which were brought into it. . . . Whereupon he ordered the army to march along the great plain, while he himself, with Herod the tetrarch, and his friends, went up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, an ancient festival of the Jews being then just approaching; and when he had been there, and been honorably entertained by the multitude of the Jews, he made a stay there for three days, within which time he deprived Jonathan of the high-priesthood, and gave it to his brother Theophilus. But when, on the fourth day, letters came to him, which informed him of the death of Tiberius, he obliged the multitude to take an oath of fidelity to Caius; he also recalled his army, and made them every one go home, and take their winter-quarters there, since, upon the devolution of the empire upon Caius, he had not the like authority of making the war which he had before." 4 4 Josephus, Antiq. 18, 5, 1–3; Whiston's trans. altered. The chronology of the passage is somewhat as follows: Herod's substitution of |