Josephus, who was born A. D. 37 or 38, and died after A. D. 100, is the one Jewish writer who might be expected to tell about Jesus; for he spent his early life in Jerusalem, where he must have known the Christians; and his greatest historical work, "Jewish Antiquities," tells the story of his nation from its beginning to the outbreak of the rebellion against the Romans, in A. D. 66, thus including the period when Jesus labored and died. But we must bear in mind two facts about Josephus-he wrote after the fall of Jerusalem, when the feeling of the Jews against the Christians was bitter, and he wrote to laud his nation to the Romans, who considered the Christians a despicable and pestilential sect. There was little likelihood, therefore, that he would mention Jesus, if he could avoid it, or say anything good of him if he did mention him.

In this connection it is instructive to notice what Josephus has to say about John the Baptist (Ant. 18:5:2):

"Herod slew him [John] who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness toward one another, and piety toward God, and so to come to baptism, for that the baptism would be acceptable to him if they made use of it, not in order to put away some sins, but for the purification of the body-supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now, when others came in crowds about him, for they were

greatly moved 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 a rebellion-for they seemed to act in all things according to his advice thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause.”

The omission of the fact that John preached the immediate coming of the Messiah leaves the excitement caused by his preaching wholly unexplained. Possibly Josephus omitted it because any allusion to Messianic expectations would arouse Roman suspicions; but more probably he felt that by mentioning it he would be put in the same dilemma in which the chief priests were put by Jesus when he questioned them about John (Matt. 21: 25).

In Ant. 20:9:1 Josephus tells how Ananus, the high-priest, about the year A. D. 62, caused several persons to be stoned to death, one of whom was James, "the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ." This mention of Jesus and his claims, if genuine (and the argument to the contrary is not strong), is the more emphatic because it is purely incidental. Almost in spite of himself Josephus has brought Jesus into his narrative.

The fullest notice of Jesus is in Ant. 18:33, as follows:

"Now about this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one should call him a man; for he was a worker

of miracles, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with joy. And he drew to himself many of the Jews, and also many of the Greeks. This was the Christ. And when at the instigation of our chief men Pilate had sentenced him to the cross, those who had loved him at the first did not fall away. For he appeared unto them alive again on the third day, as the holy prophets had declared these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And even now the race of Christians called after him is not extinct."

If this passage were genuine, Josephus would be a most clear witness to Christ; but unquestionably it is not genuine-no Jew who rejected Jesus could write it. It is found in all existing manuscripts, but none of these are early; and Origen, who died about A. D. 253, evidently did not have it in his manuscript, for he says expressly that Josephus did not believe that Jesus was the Christ. How the passage originated, we can only surmise. Josephus was a favorite author in Christian circles in early days as well as later. It is possible therefore, that when they found in his book no account of Christ, they inserted this passage to supply the deficiency. Or it is possible that Josephus did give some slurring account of Christ, which Christian copyists changed, as they certainly would, to a favorable one. In support of this latter possibility we notice that in the section immediately following, Josephus tells a story that has no connection whatever with his narrative,

unless he had cast a slur on the divine birth of Christ, and wished to suggest a parallel to it. But whatever the origin of this famous passage, it is of no value as contemporaneous Jewish testimony.

One more Jewish work should be examined, and that is the Talmud. The name means a "teaching" or "inference," and is the general term for a huge collection of works upon the traditional law, i. e., the law which was developed by the scribes and handed down orally, as distinguished from the written law found in the Old Testament. It consists of two main divisions -the Mishna, containing these traditional laws, and the Gemara, containing discussions, interpretations, illustrations, etc., of the Mishna. It is a vast storehouse of all sorts of things, ranging from sayings that remind us of teachings of Jesus down to those that are the dreariest of rubbish. Edersheim says: "If we imagine something combining law reports, a Rabbinical Hansard, and notes of a theological debating club, -all thoroughly Oriental, full of digressions, anecdotes, quaint sayings, fancies, legends, and too often of what, from its profanity, superstition, and even obscenity could scarcely be quoted—we may form some general idea of what the Talmud is." ("Life of Jesus,” 1: 13.) The Talmud is the product of centuries; and the Mishna probably was not put into writing until at least the end of the second Christian century, while the Gemara, of which we have two forms (the Jerusa

lem and the Babylon), is two and three centuries later.

In the Talmud are only a few allusions to Christ, and these exhibit great prejudice and hatred. According to them, Jesus was born of adultery, learned magic in Egypt, led the people into sin, was entrapped by witnesses, tried, kept for forty days that a witness might appear in his favor, and then-when none appearedwas stoned and afterward hanged, and in Gehenna was plunged in boiling filth. Evidently the Talmud is worthless as a source for the life of Christ; and its statements are valuable only as showing the later feeling of the Jews toward the founder of the hated Christian sect.