I will now analyze in depth the link between Jesus’ statement concerning the “abomination of desolation” and Josephus’ passage describing the end of the “daily sacrifice.”
Early Christian scholars were aware of the three-way link between Jesus’ statements in Matthew 24, the Book of Daniel, and Wars of the Jews. St. Augustine, for example, understood that Jesus had claimed that Daniel’s prophecies “came to pass” within the first century. In the passage below, notice that Augustine is clear about what period Jesus’ prophecies referred to—the 70 C.E. destruction of Jerusalem.
Luke recalls these words of the Lord in the same context: When you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army, then know that the desolation thereof is at hand. For Luke very clearly bears witness that the prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled when Jerusalem was overthrown.
Eusebius shared this understanding. In the following passage, notice that he actually points out that the works of Josephus are the basis for his belief.
—all these things, as well as the many great sieges which were carried on against the cities of Judea, and the excessive sufferings endured by those that fled to Jerusalem itself, as to a city of perfect safety, and finally the general course of the whole war, as well as its particular occurrences in detail, and how at last the abomination of desolation, proclaimed by the prophets, stood in the very temple of God, so celebrated of old, the temple which was now awaiting its total and final destruction by fire,—all these things any one that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus.177
Matthew 24:15 is interesting because it is only there that Jesus explicitly shares a vision of the future with another prophet; it is also the only place in the New Testament where the reader is directly addressed.
“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place (whoever reads let him understand)” – 178
In the passage from the Book of Daniel that Jesus is referring to, the “abomination of desolation” is to begin with the end of the “daily sacrifice.” Notice that the time span Daniel describes is three and a half years.
And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.179
When Jesus’ statement above is read with the passage from Wars of the Jews that describes the end of the daily sacrifice, they provide an example, par excellence, of the prophetic linkage between Wars of the Jews and the New Testament.
Note that Josephus does not use the same expression from the Book of Daniel that Jesus uses above, the “abomination of desolation,” but rather used Daniel’s other expression, the “daily sacrifice”—leaving it to the reader to “understand” that one must lead to the other. I believe that the use of different but complementary terms from Daniel in the New Testament and the passage from Josephus was intentional—a “sleight of hand” aimed at convincing early Christians that the New Testament and Wars of the Jews were written independently of one another.
AND now Titus gave orders to his soldiers that were with him to dig up the foundations of the tower of Antonia, and make him a ready passage for his army to come up;
while he himself had Josephus brought to him, (for he had been informed that on that very day, which was the seventeenth day of Panemus [Tammuz], the sacrifice called “The Daily Sacrifice” had failed, and had not been offered to God, for want of men to offer it …180
In the Section from Jewish Antiquities below, Josephus again states his understanding that the destruction of Jerusalem was the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecies. I have included Josephus’ self-serving argument that fulfilled prophecies prove the existence of God. This argument is interesting historically in that it may reveal the reasoning that Christian “missionaries” would have used with first-century slaves and peasants. In other words, the fulfillment of prophecies, which, of course, the combination of the New Testament and the works of Josephus represented, not only “proved” that God existed but that his providence was with the Romans. It also suggests the era’s obsession with prophecy, showing why it was made such an important part of Jesus’ ministry.
And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel’s vision, and what he wrote many years before they came to pass. In the very same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them.
All these things did this man leave in writing, as God had showed them to him, insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honor wherewith God honored Daniel; and may thence discover how the Epicureans are in an error,
who cast Providence out of human life, and do not believe that God takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the universe is governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature, but say that the world is carried along of its own accord, without a ruler and a curator;
which, were it destitute of a guide to conduct it, as they imagine, it would be like ships without pilots, which we see drowned by the winds, or like chariots without drivers, which are overturned; so would the world be dashed to pieces by its being carried without a Providence, and so perish, and come to naught.
So that, by the aforementioned predictions of Daniel, those men seem to me very much to err from the truth, who determine that God exercises no providence over human affairs; for if that were the case, that the world went on by mechanical necessity, we should not see that all things would come to pass according to his prophecy.181
Josephus’ argument above, that Daniel’s prophecies give evidence to the idea that “these men err … who determine that God exercises no providence over human affairs,” is the one that I suspect was used with the original converts of Christianity. In other words, since Wars of the Jews reveals that Jesus’ prophecies have “come to pass,” it demonstrates Jesus’ divinity. This “proof” of Jesus’ divinity would have made it impossible to deny the New Testament’s and Josephus’ other claims—that the Jews are wicked, that slaves should obey, etc. Who can argue with what the fulfillment of prophecy has proven to be the “word of God”?
Further, when the New Testament has Jesus predict the “abomination of desolation,” how could the reader “understand” what he was referring to? Nothing in the New Testament enables its readers to know that the complex prophecy sequence that Daniel used to predict the “Abomination of Desolation,” would “come to pass” during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Only one book has given the information the reader needs to arrive at this interpretation: Wars of the Jews. Therefore, the “reader” that Jesus referred to must also have been aware that Josephus recorded the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecies as occurring in the first century. Without Josephus, Christ’s words are meaningless.
Notice that Jesus is providing support for Josephus’ contention that Daniel’s prophecies were coming to pass. The logic runs in reverse. Jesus’ use of Daniel’s vocabulary identified him as Daniel’s Messiah. If Jesus was Daniel’s Messiah, then the destruction of Jerusalem must be the one Daniel envisioned, because it was on the same time line. The New Testament and the works of Josephus are completely entwined and mutually supportive.
Finally, Jesus and Josephus both “recommend” only one prophet to their readers. They each recommend Daniel. Josephus writes:
… yet if any one be so very desirous of knowing truth, as not to waive such points of curiosity, and cannot curb his inclination for understanding the uncertainties of futurity, and whether they will happen or not, let him be diligent in reading the book of Daniel, which he will find among the sacred writings.182
Both the authors of the New Testament and Josephus attempted to have their readers come to the same mistaken conclusion about the prophecies of Daniel, that they came to pass within the first century. This fact suggests that the same person or group pro
duced both works, because two independent authors would not have, by chance, come to such a conclusion.
CHAPTER 14
Building Jesus
The authors of the Gospels constructed Jesus from the lives of several prophets in the Jewish canon. Thus, since Elijah and Elisha had raised children from the dead, Jesus would do the same. Whenever possible, Jesus’ miracles would be greater than the ones they were based upon. For example, Elisha satisfied a hundred men with twenty loaves and had bread to spare.183 So Jesus would feed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes, and have twelve basketfuls to spare. Since Jesus was to be the prophet envisioned by Daniel, Jesus’ life would also include episodes that fulfilled Daniel’s prophecies. However, though many of the extraordinary accomplishments of Jesus’ ministry were taken from the lives of prior prophets, the character he was primarily based upon was Moses. Moses was chosen as the basic prototype for Jesus because he had been the founder of the religion Christianity would replace. The founder of the new religion was to be seen as the new Moses. This is already widely recognized in New Testament scholarship.
The fact that Jesus was based on Moses is easy to demonstrate, because the authors of the Gospels went out of their way to make sure the converts to Christianity understood this. For example, the story of Jesus’ childhood in Matthew is based on the childhood of Moses. The outline is the same in both cases—the birth of a child causes distress to the rulers, followed by a consultation with wise men, a massacre of children, and a miraculous rescue, with Egypt as the land of rescue.
In addition to creating parallels between the lives of the founders of the two religions, the authors of the Gospels also borrowed events from the story of Exodus to create the impression that Christianity, like Judaism, was of divine origin. The best-known of these are the parallels that the Gospels use to set up Jesus as a “Passover lamb,” establishing him as the “deliverer” of the religion that was to replace Judaism.
All four Gospels show, as does Paul, that Passover, and Judaism itself, are obsolete. Jesus’ sacrifice of himself creates a new Passover and a new religion. It is important to recognize how literally early Christianity saw itself as a replacement for Judaism, even to the extent that the early church fathers claimed that the ancient Hebrews were Christians and not Jews. Eusebius wrote:
That the Hebrew nation is not new, but is universally honored on account of its antiquity, is known to all. The books and writings of this people contain accounts of ancient men, rare indeed and few in number, but nevertheless distinguished for piety and righteousness and every other virtue. Of these, some excellent men lived before the flood, others of the sons and descendants of Noah lived after it, among them Abraham, whom the Hebrews celebrate as their own founder and forefather.
If any one should assert that all those who have enjoyed the testimony of righteousness, from Abraham himself back to the first man, were Christians in fact if not in name, he would not go beyond the truth.184
Jesus introduces the idea that Christianity will replace Judaism by stating that his “living flesh” would be a replacement for the manna the Israelites were given by God during their wandering in the wilderness.
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
This is the living bread which comes down from heaven. That one may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.
John 6:49-52
To demonstrate that Christianity’s divine origin parallels Judaism’s, the authors of Christianity took the events from the story of the original Exodus that had numbers associated with them and inserted those numbers into their story of the birth of Christianity. In other words, since God gave the law to Moses fifty days after the first Passover, Christianity would give the “new” law 50 days after its Passover, the crucifixion of Jesus.
On the day that the law of Moses was given, 3,000 died for worshipping the golden calf.185 On the day the “spirit” was given to the disciples of Christ, 3,000 were added into Christ and received life,186 signifying that the improved covenant with God brought life.
These parallels were obviously created to establish Christianity as the new Judaism. The Gospels and the writings of Josephus work together to this end. The New Testament records the birth of the new Judaism while the history of Josephus records the “death” of Second Temple Judaism.
All the parallels I have given above, between Christianity and Judaism and between Jesus and Moses, are well known. In addition, the authors of the Gospels also established something else heretofore unknown. By mirroring the sequence found in the story of Exodus and by establishing Jesus’ “cruci-fiction” as a new Passover, they established a continuum, one that mirrored the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt and “wandering” until they were permitted to enter the promised land forty years after the first Passover. As with the time sequence for the fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel, once the continuum of the “new Exodus” had begun, there could be no stopping until all had come to pass.
What is the conclusion to the forty years of wandering in the New Testament? Since the Gospels end shortly after Jesus’ death, where is the conclusion to Christianity’s forty year Exodus recorded? The answer is found within Wars of the Jews.
To conclude Christianity’s forty-year cycle, Josephus links the date of Jesus’ crucifixion to the date he established for the destruction of the Judean fortress Masada. Josephus “records” that the year the stronghold was destroyed was 73 C.E. Scholars, citing archeological evidence, often date the fall of Masada to 74, not 73 C.E. They may well be correct, but Josephus was interested not in recording history but in creating mythology. He therefore entitled the chapter that contains the passage describing Masada’s destruction as follows:
BOOK 7 – CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ABOUT THREE YEARS. FROM THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS, TO THE SEDITION OF THE JEWS AT CYRENE. 187
Josephus does not need to be any more precise than he is in the phrase “about three years.” If his time span is inaccurate, and it surely is, who had been there to point out his error? Josephus is only interested in using “history” to convey his message. In this instance, he wishes the reader to believe that Masada fell three and a half years after the destruction of the temple, that is, in 73 C.E.
Josephus then gives the day and month of the conclusion to the siege at Masada.
They then chose ten men by lot out of them to slay all the rest; every one of whom laid himself down by his wife and children on the ground, and threw his arms about them, and they offered their necks to the stroke of those who by lot executed that melancholy office;
and when these ten had, without fear, slain them all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves, that he whose lot it was should first kill the other nine, and after all should kill himself …
Those others were nine hundred and sixty in number, the women and children being withal included in that computation.
This calamitous slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan].188
Josephus records that the fourteenth of Nisan is the day when the Jews celebrated Passover. The Gospel of John states that Jesus was crucified on the thirteenth of Nisan and arose on the fifteenth. The fifteenth of Nisan, 73 C.E., is forty years to the day after Christ’s resurrection. Only readers of both the Gospels and Josephus would be aware of this exact forty-year time span.
In other words, the Gospel of John establishes the date of Jesus’ resurrection as the fifteenth of Nisan, 33 C.E., and Josephus establishes the date of the end of the Jewish war as the fifteenth of Nisan, 73 C.E. It is only when the two works are read together that readers are able to understand that it was, just as Jesus had predicted, exactly forty years between the two events. Again, either Josephus inadvertently recorded something truly supernatural, or the t
wo works had been aligned to create this effect.
The authors of the New Testament and Josephus thus created a parallel between the first forty years of Judaism, during which the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, and the purported first forty years of Christianity, from the supposed time of Jesus’ “death” until the Romans completed the conquering of Israel. These forty years, which can be called the “wandering” for Christianity, date from Christ’s resurrection on the 15th of Nisan, 33 C.E., until the end of the Jewish rebellion, which is marked by the destruction of the Sicarii, the movement that Christianity replaced, on the 15th of Nisan, 73 C.E.
The parallel forty years of wandering by the two religions is, of course, a continuation of the parallels between Jesus and Moses, which were designed to create the impression that the origin of Christianity parallels the divine origin of Judaism. The forty years of “wandering” for Christianity was inspired by the following passage from Joshua, which describes what happened to the Israelites after the original Passover.
Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus:Flavian Signature Edition Page 38