without almost any confiderable Variations whatfoever. Nor do we difcover that any ancient Author, from the Days of Jofephus, to those of Gifanius, pretended that he knew of any Copies in any Language without it, nor give us the leaft Reafon to fuppofe they fufpected it, or esteemed it as any otherwise than an Authority truly certain and undeniable. To which must be added, the exact Agreement of its Style to that of Jofephus; the high Probability there is, from the undifputed Teftimonies about John the Baptift and James the Just, that Jofephus must have given us fome fuch Teftimony concerning Christ; and the very great Probability there is, that Jofephus's own private Opinion was that of the Nazarene or Ebionite Jewish Chriftians: To which Character it very well agrees in every Circumftance. N. B. I having received fince I first wrote thefe Obfervations, certain Information from Bishop Chandler, that Dr. Richardson, Mafter of St. Peter's College in Cambridge, had informed Bishop Hare, that he had seen a MS. of Jofephus with the famous Testimony concerning Chrift dislocated, and in a wrong Place, I defired a Friend of mine, formerly of that College, to procure me an Account of that Matter from their Mafter. The Answer to which Requeft was this: "According to your "Defire, I waited upon our Master, and made "fuch Enquiries concerning the Manuscript "of Jofephus as Mr. Whifton Requests to be "refolved in. The Mafter at firft made fome 66 Apology for his great Age and Infirmities; "but upon Recollection, told me, that he "had feen fuch a Manuscript as Bishop Hare "mentioned; and that the Paffage concern❝ing our Saviour was not in the Text, but in "the Margin: And to the best of his Me "mory, 66 mory, in the fame Hand with that of the "Text. As to its Age, he cannot with the "leaft Certainty here determine; having left "what he had of that Kind at Eton. The Manufcript, when he faw it, was in Ifaac Voffius's Library at Windfor: Which has "fince been fent into Holland: And where any Part of it may be now feen he knows 99 not. Hereupon, by the Means of Mr. Waffe, I procured the following Answers from Holland relating to the fame Matter:- En reSponfum quod ab celeb. Burmanno accepi, cum eum confuluiffem de loco Jofephi. Vidi duos Jofephi Codices, ex Voffiana buc delatos, primus, qui latinam modo verfionem continebat, locum illum celebrem de J. Chrifto exhibebat; fed verfionem cum aliis conferendi occafio non erat: Ab illa quæ in Havercampii eft editione verbis non fenfu diferepabat. Alter erat Græcus, fed recentioris ævi; & quem editor nuperus etiam contulit: Qui ad verbum exhibebat locum ut in editione illa; nifi quod in ultimis erat tranfpofitio quædam unius alteriufque vocabuli, qualis & in notis fuit obfer vata. What follows is from Mr. D'Orville, Profeffor in Amfterdam. Scias me infpexiffe Venetiis in Bib. D. Marci Codicem Antiquitatum Jofephi Seculi XI. in cujus ultima pagina perfcriptum erat teftimonium illud de fervatore noftro. Separatim erat fcriptum: Sed tamen eâdem plane manu. Eft in armario 3. notatus. 3. 3.13. This is all that I have yet learnt concerning this Matter. And fince there is not the leaft Hint of any Addition or Interpolation by Hands later than those of the original Transcribers, nor any Notes of Doubt or Uncertainty, I am not fatisfied of any other Mystery here, than of fome Inadvertency of the Scribes, or perhaps of a marginal or feparate Tranfcribing to make the the Paffage more remarkable, and more diftinctly obfervable to the Readers. Since therefore this is all no other than the true State of this Caufe, I think every upright Judge that confiders it, muft declare, that this Teftimony is not only evidently and undeniably genuine; but upon the whole, more evidently and more undeniably genuine than any other Claufes or Sections in Jofephus's Works now extant whatsoever. N. B. It will be here but reasonable to vindicate our Author Jofephus, in a Point wherein feveral of the Moderns have dealt very hardly with him I mean when they accufe him as flattering Vefpafian with being the true Meffiab of the Jews. Take the two Paffages upon which this Accufation is built in Jofephus's own Words. The former Paffage is in his Book De Bello, VI. 5. 4. which is this: "If any one "confider these things, fays Jofephus, he will "find, that God exercifes a Providence over "Mankind, and by all Manner of Ways dif covers to them beforehand what is for their "Preservation: But that they perifh by their "own Folly, and their Misfortunes are volun"tary. For the Jews made the Temple 66 Foursquare, by the Demolition of the Tower "of Antonia, while they had it written in "their own Oracles, that their City and the 66 boly Houfe fhould then be taken when the "Temple should become Foursquare. But what "moft of all excited them to the War, was "an ambiguous Oracle, which was alfo found "in the Holy Scriptures, that a certain Per"fon, to arise about that Time out of their Countrey, fhould have the Dominion over "the World. This they took to belong to themselves: And many of the wife Men deceived by that Determination : "While the Oracle defigned the Dominion ❝ were " of "of Vefpafian, who was proclaimed Emperor Things. For if I had not been fent of God, "I knew the Jewish Law; and how it be"came a General of Armies to die. Doft thou "fend me to Nero? For why? Do the Suc"ceffors of Nero unto thee ftill remain? Thou, "Vefpafian, art Cæfar, and Emperor: Thou and this thy Son: Bind me now fafter, and "keep me for thyfelf. For thou, O Cæfar, art "Lord, not of me only, but of Sea and "Land, and of the whole Race of Mankind. "But truly I am worthy of an harfher Pri"fon, in order to be punished, if I rafhly "affirm this of God.". Now in all this we have not one Word of those Predictions relating to the Meffiah; which Jofephus, in his famous Teftimony concerning Chrift, declares to be a vaft Number; but of one only, concerning the taking of Jerufalem and the holy Houfe when the Temple fhould become Foursquare; and one only, which foretold that about that Time a very great Potentate fhould arife out of Judæa, Which laft Prediction the other wife Men then interpreted as one of Jewish Extraction: But Jofephus of Vespafian, who was firft proclaimed Emperor when he was in Judæa: Without the leaft Intimation that he thought him to be the Jews Meffiab. All the Jews, with one Confent, ever expected that their Meffiab was not only to arife in Judea, and that of Jewish Parents in general, but to be of the Seed of Da See De Bello IV. 10. 7. vid; and of the Town of Bethlehem where David was; and to be a great Prophet like unto Moses; and to come peculiarly for the Salvation, not for the Destruction of Ifrael: With a great Number of other Characters, entirely inconfiftent with Vespafian. Which were thofe two particular Oracles or Predictions Jofephus had here in his Eye, is hard to determine; fince he does not name them. I fuppofe with Reland, that the first of them might be Dan. ix. 26, 27. as then read and interpreted by the Jews: As alfo that the fecond was no other than the famous Prophecy of Balaam, that a Star fhould arife out of Jacob, and a Scepter out of Ifrael, &c. Numb. xxiv. 17, 18, 19. Jofephus ever looking on Balaam as a true Prophet. N. B. It will alfo be here but reasonable to vindicate the fame Jofephus from another imputation, which has been lately laid upon him, viz. that when, in his fecond Book against Apion, § 16. he makes a Comparison between Mofes the Jewish Legiflator, and Minos, with other old Heathen Legiflators, he flily infinuates, that though Mofes artfully pretended to a Divine Revelation, for the Laws he gave the Ifraelites; as did the other as to their own Laws; yet that this was only in the way of a pious Fraud: And that he did not himself believe that any fuch Divine Revelation was made to him. This is, I fuppofe, a New Hypothefis entirely; that our Jofephus, after all his Zeal for Mofes, and for the Mofaick Laws, fhould ftill believe him to be no better than a direct Cheat and Impoftor. And as I fuppose this Hypothefis to be entirely New; fo do I venture to affirm, and that upon no fmall Acquaintance with Jofephus's Writings, that the Hypothefis is entirely Falfe, and entirely contrary to the whole Drift and Tenor of Fofephus in all bis Works. Jofephus begins his Antiquities |