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| Chapter XLVII
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Chapter
XLVII.
I would like to say to Celsus, who represents the
Jew as accepting somehow John as a Baptist, who baptized Jesus, that
the existence of John the Baptist, baptizing for the remission of sins,
is related by one who lived no great length of time after John and
Jesus. For in the 18th book of his Antiquities3146
| 3146 [ἀρχαιολογίας. S.] Cf. Joseph., Antiq., book xviii. c. v. sec.
2. | of the Jews, Josephus bears witness
to John as having been a Baptist, and as promising purification to
those who underwent the rite. Now this writer, although not
believing in Jesus as the Christ, in seeking after the cause of the
fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, whereas he ought
to have said that the conspiracy against Jesus was the cause of these
calamities befalling the people, since they put to death Christ, who
was a prophet, says nevertheless—being, although against his
will, not far from the truth—that these disasters happened to the
Jews as a punishment for the death of James the Just, who was a brother
of Jesus (called Christ),—the Jews having put him to death,
although he was a man most distinguished for his justice.3147
| 3147 [Ibid., b. xx.
c. ix. § 1. S.] | Paul, a genuine disciple of Jesus,
says that he regarded this James as a brother of the Lord, not so much
on account of their relationship by blood, or of their being brought up
together, as because of his virtue and doctrine.3148
If, then, he says that it was on
account of James that the desolation of Jerusalem was made to overtake
the Jews, how should it not be more in accordance with reason to say
that it happened on account (of the death) of Jesus Christ, of whose
divinity so many Churches are witnesses, composed of those who have
been convened from a flood of sins, and who have joined themselves to
the Creator, and who refer all their actions to His good
pleasure.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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