Page:Selections. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray (1919).djvu/195

 historian's character and language in the light of the other evidence.

The theory of partial interpolation, held by those who reject the obviously Christian phrases but believe that Josephus made some statement about Christ, is unsatisfactory. In so far as it is supported by any solid arguments, it is based partly on the few phrases for which parallels can be found in his writings, partly on the assumption that the other mention of "Jesus who was called Christ" (Ant. XX. 200) implies a fuller statement elsewhere. But the elimination of all that is suggestive of Christian origin leaves practically nothing behind. We may well follow Norden in declining to discuss what he calls the "transcendental" question whether the interpolation may have ousted a genuine statement of the historian about Christ, now lost beyond recovery; merely adding that the argument that the paragraph interrupts the sequence of the narrative is an argument for its spuriousness as a whole.

In connexion with the passage in Ant., the very curious additional matter in the Slavonic version of the ''Jewish War (edited with a German translation by Berendts, v. supra'') must be briefly mentioned.

Of the eight passages the first three relate to the Baptist. (1) A description of "the savage" (Wilder) and his baptism, of his being brought before Archelaus and how Simon the Essene disputed with him; (2) his interpretation of a dream of Herod Philip; (3) his rebuke of Herod (Antipas) for marrying Herodias his brother Philip's wife after the latter's death ("for thou dost not raise up seed to thy brother, but gratifyest thy fleshly lusts and committest adultery, since he has left four children"), and his abstinence, even from unleavened bread at the Passover season. Then follows (4) a