Quote Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] (,Sep. 01 2003 @ 14:53)]Just been reading about RTW, and from what it said the game will finish in AD14. At the time of Augustas death. I think Ive got my facts right. I wonder if Jesus will turn up somewhere .

Well, that would make Jesus around 19 or 20...All we know about him before he turned 30 are his birth and being left at the temple when he was 13. You might get reports of Magi from the East visiting Judeah around 3 BC. More likely would be the news of Herods slaughter of all kids under the age of 2 (and if you think that story is far fetched, you need to read up on Herod - the guy was a psycho)

My wife got me a book last Christmas which I’d not got round to reading – “Josephus. A unique witness” by David Bentley Taylor. This thread inspired me to dig it out and start reading it. Very, very interesting. He certainly led an interesting life I don’t know anyone who’s had so many near scrapes with death from shipwrecks, murder by his political enemies, his own troops for wanting to surrender (when the Romans had broken into the city of Jotapata after a 47 day siege) and then the future Emperor Vespasian as a POW. He prophecied that Vespasian would one day be Emperor, possibly to save his own skin, but he turned out to be right sooner rather than later.

He had also opposed the Jewish uprising as he felt that the Jews had no chance against 3 legions of the mighty Roman army (points at sig). Nevertheless, he was a general of the Jewish army and seemingly quite a competent one, trying to train his men in the manner of the Roman army. After Jerusalem fell he moved to Rome, became Vespasians best mate and wrote his histories.

BTW, Judean Prince, my book says that he wrote The Wars of the Jews in Aramaic (not Hebrew) originally, then had to learn Greek before he could translate it. Personally I wouldn’t have thought he would have written it in Hebrew cos Aramaic was spoken in Judeah at that time. But then again I can’t believe that such a well brought up and intelligent man would have to learn Greek in his middle age as Greek was the English of its day. I dunno

SeljukSinan – in all he wrote 4 books, The Wars of the Jews, The Antiquities of the Jews (the story of the OT), Life, and Against Apion. Altogether they are just a little bit shorter than the bible, so there’s a lot to read Whilst in Rome he had access to the diaries of Vespasian, Titus and King Agrippa, so he had pretty good sources for a lot of his material Having read the 1st 2 chapters of my book (on his life and then the story of Herod) which quote extensively from his works, he certainly seems an entertaining writer with an interesting story to tell. He certainly casts light on all kinds of issues. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the 2 chapters I’ve read so far

Finally I wouldn’t call him a secular writer Just a cursory glance at some of his writings makes it quite clear that he had a very strong belief in God and regarded holyness and righteous living as very important. “God is the beginning, middle and end of all things. All men ought to follow Him and worship Him in the practise of virtue.” He is our primary non-biblical source on Jesus Christ, and the early Christians and Christian church. He also sheds much more detailed light on over 20 NT characters from King Herod to Felix and Festus, greatly enhancing our understanding of the people and society in the NT. Its also worth pointing out that our knowledge about the early 1st century AD from contempary sources is patchy to say the least about *everything*, not just Jesus Christ, with just a handful of fragments of info here and there.