VOLUME XXII  February 14, 1999        Number 6

SICK LIST:  Tammy Moss; Callie Kilgore; Doran Deal; Bertha Johnson; Ernest Brackin; Lola King; Mary Elmore; Alberta Roney; Ruby Merriman; Grace Straight;  Keith Killingsworth (scheduled for outpatient surgery Friday at SAMC); Dennis Taylor (scheduled for eye surgery Wednesday);  Tory Beaver (Tim's sister, had surgery last Wednesday in Jonesboro, AR and is recovering at home);  Lee Allums; Kacy Berrier.

SYMPATHY:  Saturday, February 6, 1999 brother Charles Sheraden was involved in an automobile accident in Tennessee, suffering fatal injuries.  He was from the congregation in which I was raised and worked for many years with my grandfather in the painting business. He was a man whom I loved and respected for his godliness and love for the truth.  News of his passing brought me great sadness, as this world needs as many godly men as it can get, and we certainly lost one such man in his passing.  Our sympathy is extended to his family, he will be greatly missed.

MONTHLY MEAL:  The monthly meal for February is scheduled for February 21 after the evening worship.  We encourage all who will to stay and enjoy the time to mingle and fellowship.

WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?  Hear the Gospel (Romans 10:17), Believe the Gospel (Hebrews 11:6), Repent of Sins (Acts 2:38), Confess Faith in Christ (Acts 8:37), be baptized (Acts 22:16), and remain faithful, even to the point of death (Revelation 2:10).  May we assist you in becoming a faithful Christian?

JOSEPHUS AND THE BIBLE  Installment #2 of 4

In Acts 5 we read of the imprisonment of Peter and the other apostles for their preaching of the Gospel.  They were making their defense when a man named Gamaliel, "a doctor of the law", highly thought of by the people, stood and said, "Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.  For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves:  who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.  After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him:  he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed" (Acts 5:35-37).  Who were these men, Judas and Theudas?  What taxing was this?  Little is known in the biblical record apart from what is mentioned here, but Josephus touches the subjects, shedding a little light on the historical background of Luke.  It has been suggested occasionally that Luke drew from Josephus in compiling his history of Jesus (The Gospel of Luke) and of the apostles (The Acts), but there is no evidence whatsoever that Luke ever knew of the writings of Josephus, and certainly not that he copied from them.  That being true, what can we learn from an historian who was contemporary with Luke?  That the information is sketchy and incomplete we readily admit and recognize, but I think it is as least interesting and worth our while to look to the information available, for in so doing we will see that the claims that the contentions of the Bible are unbelievable and far-fetched fall under the weight of the evidence afforded in secular history.  Sacred history stands on its own, and it is not dependent upon extra confirmation; but when there is extra confirmation let us consider it and learn what we can from it.  In WARS OF THE JEWS, Book 2, chapter VIII, Josephus tells us about the sedition of Judas:  "And now Archelaus's part of Judea was reduced into a province, and Coponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as a procurator, having the power of [life and] death put into his hands by Cæsar.  Under his administration it was that a certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, prevailed with his countrymen to revolt; and said they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans, and would, after God, submit to mortal men as their lords.  This man was a teacher of a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those leaders."  He again speaks of this Judas in ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS, Book 18, chapter I:  "Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into Syria, with a few others, being sent by Cæsar to be a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance:  Coponius also, a man of the equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews.  Moreover, Cyrenius came himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus's money; but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any further opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son of Boethus, and high priest.  So they, being over-persuaded by Joazar's words, gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it; yet there was one Judas, a Gaulonite, of a city whose name was Gamala, who taking with him Sadduc, a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a revolt, who said that this taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty; as if they could procure them happiness and security for what they possessed, and an assured enjoyment of a still greater good, which was that of the honour and glory they would thereby acquire for magnanimity.  They also said that God would not otherwise be assisting to them, than upon their joining with one another in such counsels as might be successful, and for their own advantage; and this especially, if they would set about great exploits, and not grow weary in executing the same; so men received what they said with pleasure, and this bold attempt proceeded to a great height.  All sorts of misfortunes also sprang from these men, and the nation was infected with this doctrine to an incredible degree; one violent war came upon us after another, and we lost our friends, who used to alleviate our pain; there were also very great robberies and murders of our principal men.  This was done in pretence indeed for the public welfare, but in reality for the hopes of gain to themselves; whence arose seditions, and from them murders of men, which sometimes fell on those of their own people, (by the madness of these men towards one another, while their desire was that none of the adverse party might be left,) and sometimes on their enemies; a famine also coming upon us, reduced us to the last degree of despair, as did also the taking and demolishing of cities; nay, the sedition at last increased so high, that the very temple of God was burnt down by their enemy's fire.  Such were the consequences of this, that the customs of our fathers were altered, and such a change was made, as added a mighty weight toward bringing all to destruction, which these men occasioned by thus conspiring together; for Judas and Sadduc, who excited a fourth philosophic sect among us, and had a great many followers therein, filled our civil government with tumults at present, and laid the foundation of our future miseries, by this system of philosophy, which we were before unacquainted withal; concerning which I shall discourse a little, and this the rather, because the infection which spread thence among the younger sort, who were zealous for it, brought the public to destruction."  It is highly probable that the Judas of Luke is the same Judas of Josephus, and what we have is a parallel account, written by two different men in two different places and at two different times about one and the same event.  Gamaliel tells only generally of the revolt, that Judas led many away over a dispute about Roman taxation and that he and his followers were killed.  Josephus tells us in a little more detail, but it is not the information with which we are concerned.  What we get from this is an account by a man unsympathetic to Christianity which verifies the Christian account.  Certainly Josephus did not intend to verify Luke, not being a Christian himself, but he did so nonetheless.

With respect to Theudas, the other object of Gamaliel's speech, Josephus also mentions a man by that name.  Before hearing what Josephus tells us about "Theudas", it should be noted that this is not the same Theudas mentioned by Luke, as the one in Luke's record acted before Judas (appx. A.D. 7) and the one in Josephus after (c. A.D. 45 or 46).  Nonetheless, we are able to see that such occurrences as mentioned by Luke were common in that time.  Of this latter Theudas Josephus wrote, in ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS, Book 20, chapter V, 1:  "Now it came to pass, that while Fadus was procurator of Judea, that a certain magician, whose name was Theudas, persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with them, and follow him to the river Jordan; for he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide the river, and afford them an easy passage over it; and many were deluded by his words.  However, Fadus did not permit them to make any advantage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of horsemen out against them; who falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them, and took many of them alive.  They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his head, and carried it to Jerusalem.  This was what befell the Jews in the time of Cuspius Fadus's government."   We know that there were many other men by the name of Theudas, and Judas for that matter, and further that in about A.D. 4 there were particularly numerous revolts such as described by Gamaliel.  In ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS, Book 17, chapter X, 4, we read:  "Now, at this time there were ten thousand other disorders in Judea, which were like tumults, because a great number put themselves into a warlike posture, either out of hopes of gain to themselves, or out of enmity to the Jews.  In particular, two thousand of Herod's old soldiers, who had been already disbanded, got together in Judea itself, and fought against the king's troops, although Achiabus, Herod's first cousin, opposed them:  but as he was driven out of the plains into the mountainous parts by the military skill of those men, he kept himself in the fastnesses that were there, and saved what he could."  Though we have no way of knowing for sure, it just may be that Gamaliel's "Theudas" lived and revolted in this time, or shortly thereafter.

In Acts 11:27-28 we read, "And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.  And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world:  which came to pass in the days of Claudius Cæsar."  Luke goes on to tell in the next 2 verses that the Christians determined to send relief to the church in Judea and carried out their plans by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.   Josephus tells of similar relief being carried by a woman named Helena, in ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS, Book 20, 5:  "But as to Helena, the king's mother, when she saw that the affairs of Izates's kingdom were in peace, and that her son was a happy man, and admired among all men, and even among foreigners, by the means of God's providence over him, she had a mind to go to the city of Jerusalem, in order to worship at that temple of God which was so very famous among all men, and to offer her thank-offerings there.  So she desired her son to give her leave to go thither:  upon which he gave his consent to what she desired very willingly, and made great preparations for her dismission, and gave her a great deal of money, and she went down to the city Jerusalem, her son conducting her on her journey a great way.  Now her coming was of very great advantage to the people of Jerusalem; for whereas a famine did oppress them at that time, and many people died for want of what was necessary to procure food withal, queen Helena sent some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of corn, and others of them to Cyprus, to bring a cargo of dried figs; and as soon as they were come back, and had brought those provisions, which was done very quickly, she distributed food to those that were in want of it, and left a most excellent memorial behind her of this benefaction, which she bestowed on our whole nation; and when her son Izates was informed of this famine, he sent a great sum of money to the principal men in Jerusalem."  In this we have a parallel account of the famine of Agabus' prophecy by two different men in two different places who wrote without consultation.  Luke's reliability does not depend upon Josephus, but it is supported by his account.  This account indicates that the famine did indeed occur at the time and to the extent Luke said that it did.  This is an example of an uninspired secular history giving credence to the record of God. (We shall leave these thoughts for this week and take them up again next week).

TIM SMITH,  1272 Enon Road, Webb, AL 36376  (334) 899-8131

ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN?

Have you heard and believed the gospel of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 11:6, Romans 10:17), turned from all sin in repentance (Acts 2:38, Luke 13:3), confessed faith in Christ before men (Acts 8:37-38, Romans 10:10), and been baptized to wash away sins and be saved (Acts 22:16, I Peter 3:21)?  Are you being faithful in all things (Revelation 2:10), attending regularly the assemblies of the saints (Hebrews 10:25), seeking first the kingdom (Matthew 6:33), and studying the Bible (II Timothy 2:15, I Peter 3:15)?  If not, please call on us.