The Hope of the Believer . . .

RECOGNITION OF THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS (2)

W. Carl Ketcherside  

Josephus was born in A. D. 37. He was about thirty years of age when the insurrection of the Jews which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem broke out. Re was sent to a command post in Galilee, when his headquarters at Jotapata, fell into the hands of the Romans on July 1, A. D. 67, after a siege of forty-seven days. After Jerusalem fell, Josephus returned to Rome with Titus, where he was furnished a special apartment by the emperor Vespasian, who also made him a citizen of Rome, and allotted him a pension. It was in Rome that Josephus wrote his "History of the Jewish War" in seven books. This history was approved by Vespasian and Titus, the latter affixing his personal signature to it, to show his endorsement. King Agrippa, who was still living, wrote sixty-two letters commenting on various phases of the history, and the author appended two of them as documentation of his work. We will insert but one quotation from the voluminous work in which Josephus seeks to account for the Jewish uprising.

"But now, what did most elevate them in undertaking this war was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, how, about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth. The Jews took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular; and many of the wise men were deceived in their determination. Now, this oracle certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judea." (Wars of the Jews, 6-5-4).

Here one must distinguish between Josephus as a chronicler of fact on the one hand, and as an interpretive politician seeking to ingratiate himself with his imperial patron on the other. The facts are clear. There was an ambiguous article, based upon the sacred scriptures of the Jews, which predicted that "about that time" one who was born in Judea was destined to become a universal ruler. This was accepted so generally that "many wise men" attached great importance to it.

This oracle was known by the Romans and is given specific mention by the historians Tacitus and Suetonius. Both of these men were eminent statesmen and authors and both lived while the apostle John was yet alive. Both were friends of Pliny the Younger, who was appointed governor of Bithynia by the emperor Trajan. He proofread their writings. Their testimony indicates that the pagan world was also in a state of expectancy, and the indication is that it arose from the circulation of the Jewish scriptures. It was no doubt the influence of this almost universal belief which caused the poet Virgil, to write his Fourth Eclogue, about the time of Herod the Great,  

"The last age, decreed by Fate, is come;  
And a new frame of all things does begin,  
A holy progeny from heaven descends,  
Auspicious be his birth, which puts an end  
To the iron age! and from whence shall rise  
A golden state far glorious through the earth." 

The fact that he applied this to Salaninus, the son of the Consul Pollio, who had just been born does not affect the point that we are making, that the entire world was laboring under the conviction that a holy progeny from heaven could usher in the last age of time. We can summarize by saying that the Jews by interpreting the "time prophecies" of their sacred scriptures, had concluded that a world ruler would be born about this time, and the Gentile world accepted this because of various forces occurring to stimulate such hope.

Matthew adds undesigned confirmation to this by recording the visit to Jerusalem and Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus of certain Persian Magi, or Arabian sages. These men knew for whom they were looking. "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him." Upon hearing this question Herod summoned the official interpreters of Judaism and asked them where the Messiah was to be born. Without hesitancy they designated Bethlehem as the place and quoted the prophecy which stated that from this city "shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel."