JOSEPHUS' DELIBERATE DECEPTION

"JOSEPHUS' DELIBERATE DECEPTION" 06-20-98
(This article is keyed to Whiston's translation of Josephus)

It appears that it cannot be stated enough that Josephus was most deliberatein his works and that he makes statements all through his works that serve(at least in his own mind) to absolve or excuse himself for misleading andmaking misleading statements and outright lies.

In other words, he makes a practice of placing what amount to 'disclaimers'throughout his works under the guise of making them when the subject matteris apparently dealing with some other subject or "non-subject," sometimes,even as if just 'off the cuff." These things are just "tacked on" here and thereso that he IS saying what he is doing (i.e. making the admission), but he placesthese deliberately "out of context" to their true meaning so that he can justkeep right on going full in the knowledge that whether or not the readerrealizes it, he has in fact stated just what he is doing - and therefore, to HISmind, he is telling the "TRUTH."

One example is this statement; "and where it must be reproachful to writelies, when they must be known by the reader to be such." Notice that hesays "READER," not the writer!!! (pg. 428) (Wars of the J., Preface, 5)

Also, "Yet were there fictitious stories added to what was really done..."(pg. 517) (Wars of the J., B. III, Ch. IX, 5)

Josephus deliberately tries to confuse by

(1) Writing about personages outof their chronological order. Example: Speaking of King Solomon, thenVespasian (pg. 173) (Ant. of the Jews, B. VIII, Ch. II, 5).

(2) Misspelling names.Example: He even spells his own name in places "Josepos" and to see this,you will need to find the Loeb Classical Library editions of Josephus whichhave the Greek words spelled as they are in the earliest texts. He says;"Josepos said thus..." (pg. 569) (Wars, B. VII, Ch. II, 1). Also, see page 574(Wars of the Jews, B. V, Ch. XIII, 3).

(3) Deliberately misleads with 'half-truths'.Example: "He (King Herod) was by birth a Jew." This is a half-truth andJosephus knew it. (Ref. pg. 422) (Ant. B. XX, Ch. VIII, 7).

(4) He deliberately perpetuates and invents superstitious notions, ideas and beliefs;

(A) He speaks of the "skill" of expelling demons. (pg. 125, 173)(Ant. B. VI, Ch. II, 1; Ant. B. VIII, Ch. II, 5)

(B) He is the first to speak of a "laser root," which in later mythology becomesthe "mandrake root." (pg. 42, 595-596)(Ant. B. I, Ch. XIX, 8; Wars of Jews., Book. VII, Ch. VI, 3)

(C) He perpetuates the idea of "signs" and omens. See the omen of the 'owl'.(pg. 386) (Ant. B. XVIII, Ch. VI, 7) And also; (pg. 412) (Ant. B. XIX, Ch. VIII, 2)

(D) The idea of "Ghosts." (pg. 112, 266)(Ant. B. V, Ch. II, 8; Ant. B. XII, Ch. XI, 2)

(E) The idea of "Angels." (pg. 119) (Antiquities of the Jews, B. V, Ch. VIII, 3)

(F) "Evil Spirits and Demons." (pg. 136) (Ant. B. VI, Ch. XI, 2)

(G) Fortune Tellers and "Mediums" (pg. 143) (Ant. B. VI, Ch. XIV, 2)

(H) Prophets telling the future and showing "signs", wonders and miracles.(pg. 184, 429) (Ant. B. VIII, Ch. VIII, 5; Wars of the Jews, Preface, 11)

(I) The idea of "Witches." (pg. 202) (Ant. B. VIII, Ch. VI, 3)

(J) He invented the saying of "Grace." (pg. 250) (Ant. B. XII, Ch. II, 12)

(K) The idea of "Royal Birthright," which we no longer believe in today.(pg. 348) (Ant. B. XVI, Ch. VIII, 1)

(L) An eclipse of the moon as a "sign," a "sign" that could be predicted withaccuracy by the astronomers and High Priests of the day (pg. 365)(Ant. B. XVII, Ch. VI, 4)

(M) "Some Supernatural Providence" (pg. 432) Providence (Supernatural),ordained, divine (pg. 466) (W. of J, B. I, Ch. III, 6; W. B. II, Ch. XXXI, 3)

(N) Promoted the phrase "God Forbid." (pg. 528) (W. B. IV, Ch. III, 10)

(O) Other "signs," such as a star resembling a sword and a comet thatcontinued a whole year. Check on this! We should be able to tell by whatwe know about astronomy today if this is really a true statement. (pg. 582)Note that he speaks of these 'signs' as appearing before the destruction ofJerusalem. (Wars, B. VI, Ch. V, 3)

(P) He writes of religion as being (for those who can "see" it) as the mostprofitable "business," saying, "... to make the altar every day fat withsacrifices of great value." (pg. 205) (Ant. B. IX, Ch. VIII, 2)

And it was a very profitable business! (and still IS!) It was huge. The tithes and sacrifices were "divvied up" by percent to the High Priests who in turnsent the majority of it to the King of the locale (in Judea, King Herod, etc.),who in turn, sent tribute to the emperor of Rome. They knew by recordsjust about how much to expect to come in to them in the form of tithes.

They had this down to a 'science'. They asked for 10% in tithes, and alsoreceived revenue of like amount from all citizens from taxes. They weremilking the populace of great wealth on a constant and ongoing basis. Andwhen the "zealots" (Pharisees) had disrupted this system, they (the rulers andaristocrats) felt as if "they" were being 'robbed' of the loot that 'they' hadbeen robbing the citizens of!!! And so, they called the sicarii or zealots"robbers" to make them appear to be the "bad guys." The royals andaristocrats were mad with greed. Even to the point of really pushing the ideaof "Daily Sacrifices." (pg. 574) (Wars of the J., B. VI, Ch. II, 1)

The works of Josephus, step by step, shows us just how "they" accomplishedthe "grand facade" ("they" meaning Josephus and his fellow writers of theday, as well as the royals and aristocrats). There is usually only one or twoexamples of each little part of the items that they used to pull it all off with.

Another thing that we discovered was the use of words in both their "male"and "female" forms for the purpose of hiding true meanings. More andbetter examples of this are available elsewhere, but for our purpose here, weuse this one which is found only as an example in the works of Josephus.(pg. 449) (Wars, B. I, Ch. XVIII, 2)

This is shows an example of calling a male by a female name. But that issufficient to show that they had this as a general idea of interpolating orusing names and words in either male or female forms in order to givehidden meanings and/or to mislead.

Here we have some "Fantastic Statements" by Josephus;
"... a great deal of fictitious blood was shed," (pg. 400) (Ant. B. XIX, Ch. I, 13)
"Oh, Josephus, art thou still fond of life; and canst thou bear to see "the light"(i.e. "Jesus" as the representative in the story of "royalty", who saw themselvesas 'the light' - in other words, those being in possession of wisdom and greatknowledge as opposed to the common person), in a state of slavery?" (pg. 515,Wars, B. III, Ch. VIII, 4) What is being said in a disguised way is "Josephus(aka Arrius Piso), you are fond of life (the 'good life') and you cannot bear tosee this turned around so that the Royals are in a state of slavery - as that iswhat it would be like for the royals if slavery were abolished." It would be asif the royals were slaves to the common person, as they would lose theirpower over them and become subject to the masses. In effect, royalty, for allintents and purposes would cease to exist excepting for family lineage. And so,this is why it was of the utmost importance to Josephus (Arrius Piso) and theroyals that he accomplish his 'task' with Jesus and the New Testament, aswell as with his other works and that of the rest of his family and relatives.

"Yet were there fictitious stories added to what was really done." (pg. 517)(Wars of the Jews, B. III, Ch. IX, 5)

He deliberately misspells the word "stone" as "son" to infer "the Son (of God),"i.e. "Jesus" is coming!!! You will need to see this in Greek in the Loeb ClassicalLibrary edition. But the place in Whiston's is given here. (pg. 557)(Wars of the Jews, B. V, Ch. VI, 3)

It is Josephus who is saying to take his blood (like "Jesus") as your preservationor 'salvation'! (pg. 564) (Wars of the Jews, B. V, Ch. IX, 4)

"The Divine Spirit" ("Holy Ghost," as spoken of in the NT) (pg. 127)
"Some of them betook themselves to the writing of fabulous narrations." (pg. 608)(Against Apion, B. I, 5) For him to say this is absolutely amazing, especially whenyou read the things that HE had written. See HIS story of the "Laser Root"! Inother words the "mandrake root." (pg. 595-596)

And this should be quite enough for anyone to take pause at and to think upon.-----------