CHRIST IN HISTORY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18722, 19 June 1926, Page 2

CHRIST IN HISTORY.

NEW VERSION OF JOSEPHUS. (frosi oce owh cobbespondekt.) LONDON, April 16. ' The first number of the Diocese of Liverpool Review contains an article of much wider than diocesan interest. This is Dr. V. Buret's article on a recant discovery (to which little attention has so far been paid) of a ver- | sion of. Josephus's-"Jewish War" in Old Slavonic. This version appears to represent the lost Aramaic, original which Josephus wrote for his Jewish, readers, and not the current Greek version which he prepared (with reservations and tonings-do.wn) for his Rom a ° public. It is.common knowledge that Josephus's references to Jesus Christ are none too explicit in the current text- and such 'as they are they have been" held to. bo not free from interpolation. In the newly discovered | Slavonic version they ■ appear, accord-. | ine to Dr: Burch, -to be much fuller.-' "Josephus," he says, "tells us (a) that he knows'all about the trial ot Jesus before Pilate; (b) that m the time of the Emperor Claudius, and or | the procurators Cuspius Fadus and Tibbrius Alexander,- many were the 'slaves' of the wonder-worker, Jesus; (c) that these' preached that their 'Rabbi', who had died was risen from the dead, and as well they taught the New Law whichis in opposition to the old Jewish law; (d) that these very early, messengers of Jesus were teaching'others who and what He was and is by the help of the primitive .'documentary' mode which He had inspired, and all His first messengers had used. Documentary jaesources. Continuing* Dr.'Burch writes:— "It means very much =that Josephus knew 1 about the trial of Jesus; it means even much more that he should touch on facts and beliefs concerning.Hun as risen frpm: the dead. It is, .however, of surpassing value that he should indicate the 'documentary' resources ot the preaching of these; 'slaves or Christ. For we are only just beginning to understand how these lestimonia sprang from the, Lord's pwn way of explaining Himself- to simple men and women, and became the one mode of teaching Him both to Jews and Greeks and Romans so that the old worlds-they belonged to were turned upside down." Dr. Burch does not say where, or when "the pile of: manuscripts" was found, "written w the .ancient: 'language of the Slavs,, whichjcontained a translation of the writings of; Josephus"; but".he.states, that the,-new work is now in the process of being edited. He expresses surprise, which others will share, at the small notice which the discovery has received from those who . have already had knowledge of it. ..... • The ' editor, of the "Review," - the Bishop of in .speaking of : the aims of the new publication, says.— ,*«We "shall -endeavour; to 'place 'before, our readers the views of fhose 'who know their subject, and in each number to maintain a balance between topics of national arid local importance.";. ''■<■'..

Scholars at Work. .„.'. -According to a. Liverpool correspondent, Dr. Burch.says that his mo;iith is for>the present closed 'on tho subject, he'canse he has given an \undeitaking, 1 tfjbkh he is- bound in honour-to. carry out/to make the, Diocese ; of.Liverpool Review the medium of his second, s as oil his first, disclosure.- . ; .-. •; f«'l understand," says the correspondent, "that- the Old' Slavonic MSS. are in his possession, and that it is he himself who is engaged in- preparing a full edition of the new text of Josephus in English; which publication; when it is made, will bring the whole truth to lig_ht. I gathered, further ; thate atthis momen.t Dr. ,Burch is himself not able to assess exactly the full value and extent of his discovery, because. ultimate conclusions'must depend upon, extensive literary work,, such as comparison and collation of .sources, in several ancient languages, which'is as yet only in process' of be'ing done. Dr. Burch.adds that criticism, of the value of any testimony attributed to Josephus is bound to ,be forthcoming, and even cphtroversy also; indeed, it exists already. • . ,*'Dr, Burch informed me that German scholars have already been at work on the slavonio Josephus. He. does riot think that the time or the opportunity has yet come for him to reveal the •immediate provenance of the manuscripts. He holds that the world of scholarship has somehow and almost unawountably overlooked the. importance of a discovery made some years - is the only lay Doctor teachinS at an E *&&