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Those who assert this passage is a Christian interpolation insist Josephus,
a Jew who did not believe the gospel, cannot possibly have written the
words, "He was [the] Christ." There is, however, nothing in the
world more common than for writers summarizing the beliefs of a sect or
a party to slip into natural diction, and express these beliefs in declarative
sentences about the world. For instance, Epiphanius, the orthodox Christian
bishop of Salamis, says,
"Leucippus the Milesian -- though some say that he was an Elean --
was also a controversialist. He too said that everything is in the infinite,
and that all events take place in imagination and appearance. There are
no real events; they are apparent, like an oar in the water." (Epiphanius,
Panarion, De Fide VII, 9, 17, p. 647, Frank Williams translation).
Gasp -- can this orthodox bishop really have believed that "there
are no real events; they are apparent, like an oar in the water"?
Presumably Epiphanius is evoking the broken appearance of the oar in water,
though the oar is not broken. Can Bishop Berkeley really have that long
a pedigree? Not very likely, because Epiphanius can hardly keep track of
all the philosophical sects among the Greeks, much less does he wish to
espouse the cause of one of them: "For who can count the variety of
this world? How many other sects have not grown up among the Greeks after
the four most famous ones which we have mentioned -- and further, after
those sects and the ones after them, how many individuals and ideas keep
arising of themselves, with seeming 'youth,' in accordance with the opinion
of each?" (Epiphanius, Panarion, De Fide VII, 9, 2, p. 646, Frank
Williams translation). The section in which he explains Leucippus' view
is prefaced with the modest ambition, "Since I have learned of many
I shall give their names and their opinions in order below, but this is
a fraction of the ones in the world." (Epiphanius, Panarion, De Fide
VII, 9, 3, p. 646, Frank Williams translation). Just because he does not
remember to say, "they say" or "they believe" in front
of every clause, is no reason to saddle him with the views he is summarizing.
It gets even worse:
"Zeno of Citieum, the Stoic, said that we must not build temples for
gods but keep the Godhead in our minds alone -- or rather, regard the mind
as God, for it is immortal. We should throw the dead to wild beasts or
consign them to fire. We may indulge in pederasty without restraint."
(Epiphanius, Panarion, De Fide VII, 9, 40, p. 650, Frank Williams translation).
Gasp -- a bishop who proposes to "indulge in pederasty without restraint"!
Sue him! Or perhaps it is an 'interpolation' perpetrated by those devious
Stoics. Or perhaps, like a cop who forgets to insert 'allegedly' before
every single clause, he just forgot to say 'they say.'
A contemporary example, from an author described on the book jacket as
a professor at "Reformed Theological Seminary:" "At each stage of its
descent, the soul lost more of its original heavenly characteristics and
acquired more defects associated with the sphere of the body." (Ronald H.
Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks, p. 145). Wow, so 'Reformed' folks believe
in the descent of the soul through the celestial spheres? No, he is
talking about Mithraism, as the prior sentence makes clear: "Mithraism
taught that the human soul has fallen or descended from its original home
in heaven through seven layers of reality, each identified with one of the
seven known planets." The next sentence continues the exposition of what
those people believed, not what 'Reformed' people believe; the author
finds it time-consuming, redundant and unnecessary to keep repeating, 'they believe,
they believe.' (No doubt he does not expect to be read by 'scholars'!) This tendency is so common there is no difficulty
finding examples: the author begins the exposition of the beliefs of a
named sect with 'they believe,' then continues with simple, declarative
statements of fact which, however, continue to be understood by the
discerning reader as the beliefs of the sect under examination, not the
author's own beliefs.
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