Holford's list of 7 "signs"

Interplanner

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OK, OK, if you need signs and wonders about the magnitude of events in the DofJ as recorded by Josephus, here you go:


Our Lord proceeded, "And fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven." [6]- Josephus has collected the chief of these portents together, and introduces his account by a reflection on the strangeness of that infatuation, which could induce his countrymen to give credit to impostors, and unfounded reports, whilst they disregarded the divine admonitions, confirmed, as he asserts they Were, by the following extraordinary signs : 1. "A meteor, resembling a sword, [7] hung over Jerusalem during one whole year." This could not be a comet, for it was stationary, and was visible for twelve successive months. A sword too, though a fit emblem for destruction, but ill represents a comet.
2. "On the eighth of the month Zanthicus, (before the feast of unleavened bread) at the ninth hour of the night, there shone round about the altar, and the circumjacent buildings of the temple, a light equal to the brightness of the day, which continued for the space of half an hour." This could not be the effect of lightning, nor of a vivid aurora borealis, for it was confined to a particular spoil and the light shone unintermittedly thirty minutes.
3. "As the High Priest were leading a heifer to the altar to be sacrificed, she brought forth a lamb, in the midst of the temple." Such is the strange account given by the historian. Some may regard it as a "Grecian fable," while others may think that they discern in this prodigy a miraculous rebuke of Jewish infidelity and impiety, for rejecting the ANTITYPICAL Lamb, who had offered Up Himself as an atonement, "once for all," and who, by thus completely fulfilling their design, had virtually abrogated the Levitical sacrifices. However this may be, the circumstances of the prodigy are remarkable. It did not occur in an obscure part of the city, but in the temple ; not at an ordinary time, but at the passover, the season of our LORD'S crucifixion in the presence, not of the vulgar merely, but of the High Priests and their attendants, and when they were leading the sacrifice to the altar.
4. "' About the sixth hour of the night, the eastern gate of the temple was seen to open without human assistance." When the guards informed the Curator of this event, he sent men to assist them in shutting it, who with great difficulty succeeded. -- This gate, as hath been observed already, 'Was of solid brass, and required twenty men to close it every evening. It could not have been opened by a "strong gust of wind," or a slight earthquake;" for Josephus says, it was secured by iron bolts And bars, which were let down into a large threshold; consisting of one entire stone." [8]
5. "Soon after the feast of the Passover, in various parts of the country, before the Setting of the sun, chariots and armed men were seen in the air, passing round about Jerusalem. " Neither could this portentous spectacle be occasioned by the aurora borealis, for it occurred before the setting of the sun ; or merely the fancy of a few villagers, gazing at the heavens, for it was seen in various parts of the country.
6. "At the subsequent feast of Pentecost, while the priests were going, by night, into the inner, temple to perform their customary ministrations, they first felt, as they said, a shaking, accompanied by an indistinct murmuring, and afterwards voices as of a multitude, saying, in a distinct and earnest manner, "LET US DEPART HENCE." This gradation will remind the reader of that awful transaction, which the feast of Pentecost *as principally instituted to commemorate. First, a shaking was heard ; this would naturally induce the priests to listen : an unintelligible murmur succeeds; this would more powerfully arrest their attention, and while it was thus awakened arid fixed, they heard, says Josephus, the voices as of a multitude, distinctly pronouncing the words "LET US DEPART HENCE." -- And accordingly, before the period for celebrating this feast returned, the Jewish war had commenced, and in the space of three years afterwards, Jerusalem was surrounded by the Roman army, the temple converted into a citadel, and its sacred courts streaming with the blood of human victims.
7. As the last and most fearful omen, Josephus relates that one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a rustic of the lower class, during the Feast of Tabernacles, suddenly exclaimed in the temple, "A voice from the east a voice from the west -- a voice from the four winds- a voice against Jerusalem and the temple -- a voice against bridegrooms and brides -- a voice against the whole people !" These words he incessantly proclaimed aloud both day and night, through all the streets of Jerusalem, for seven years and five months together, commencing at a time (A. D. 62) when the city was in a state of peace, and overflowing with prosperity, and terminating amidst the horrors of the siege. This disturber, having excited the attention of the magistracy, was brought before Albinus the Roman governor, who commanded that he should be scourged. But the severest stripes drew from him neither tears nor supplications. As he never thanked those who relieved, so neither did he complain of the injustice of those who struck him. And no other answer could the governor obtain to his interrogatories, but his usual denunciation of "Woe, woe to Jerusalem !" which he still continued to proclaim through the city, but especially during the festivals, when his manner became more earnest, and the tone of his voice louder. At length, on the commencement of the siege, he ascended the walls, and, in a more powerful voice than ever, exclaimed, "Woe, woe to this city, this temple, and this people !" And then, with a presentment of his own death, added," Woe, woe to myself "' he had scarcely uttered these words when a stone from one of the Roman engines killed him on the spot.
Such are the prodigies related by Josephus, and which, excepting the first, he places in the Year immediately preceding the Jewish war. Several of them are recorded also by Tacitus. Nevertheless, it ought to be observed, -that they are received by Christian writers cautiously, and with various degrees of credit. Those, however, who are most skeptical, and who resolve them into natural causes, allow the "superintendence of GOD to awaken his people by some of these means." Whatever the fact, in this respect, may be, it is clear that they correspond to our LORD'S prediction of "fearful sights, and great signs from heaven;" and ought to be deemed a sufficient answer to the objector, who demands whether any such appearances are respectably recorded.





--G. Holford, summarizing Josephus on the DofJ, 1805, London

Holford presented his material to counter the deep skepticism of the likes of Paine etc. The whole presentation is another thread here.
 

Interplanner

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Let's all strive for intellectual growth and vitality. Ie, it would be idiotic not to comment on the content of what is said there. Holford wrote this material to defend Christianity from the attacks of Williams and Paine in 1805, to show that Christianity had its roots in highly objective proof.

People who want to call that a dead thread are exactly why our culture is degenerating.
 
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riverrat

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Let's all strive for intellectual growth and vitality. Ie, it would be idiotic not to comment on the content of what is said there. Holford wrote this material to defend Christianity from the attacks of Williams and Paine in 1805, to show that Christianity had its roots in highly objective proof.

People who want to call that a dead thread are exactly why our culture is degenerating.

ner: You don't read very well.
Wow, according to you there are a lot of idiots here!
 
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B1inHim

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Unlike the willingness to battle over "end times' evidence with writings of others who were not here, today.

I offer this.

Instead of an attempt to proliferate a teaching that was not included in the Holy Bible, I ask this.

Was Josephus a Christian?

If so provide the proof of him being saved and the subsequent baptism of water or the evidence of Holy Spirit infilling.

If not, there is absolutely no reason to cite a teaching that is not included in the Word of God.

We live in perilous times.
A time where the teaching of men can be made so that even the very elect will be deceived.

We are not instructed to look for signs, for we, the Children of God will not have that time come upon us like the unsaved or the deceived.

Salvation is a gift, as is this time that we enjoy known as the "grace" of God.
Time, thanks to the saved of God has been shortened and therefore can be fleeting.
If there is a more perfect way of spending our time as a Child of the Most High God, today, it would not be debating a teaching of someone who was not inspired by God, but by debate.

Shalom
 
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Interplanner

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No, he was not a Christian, he was trained as a priest. In fact he has a scant 12 lines about Christ, and that makes him valuable, because he is not on the "inside" of Christianity trying to make it believed. He is objective. He reports 7 signs in and around Jerusalem in that final year of the DofJ that are seen by way too many people to doubt. He was not otherwise given to including or explaining away things that were supernatural.
 
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Shocker

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Unlike the willingness to battle over "end times' evidence with writings of others who were not here, today.

I offer this.

Instead of an attempt to proliferate a teaching that was not included in the Holy Bible, I ask this.

Was Josephus a Christian?

If so provide the proof of him being saved and the subsequent baptism of water or the evidence of Holy Spirit infilling.

If not, there is absolutely no reason to cite a teaching that is not included in the Word of God.

We live in perilous times.
A time where the teaching of men can be made so that even the very elect will be deceived.

We are not instructed to look for signs, for we, the Children of God will not have that time come upon us like the unsaved or the deceived.

Salvation is a gift, as is this time that we enjoy known as the "grace" of God.
Time, thanks to the saved of God has been shortened and therefore can be fleeting.
If there is a more perfect way of spending our time as a Child of the Most High God, today, it would not be debating a teaching of someone who was not inspired by God, but by debate.

Shalom

Josephus is valuable in that he writes about Christ, and details the fact that Rome's records are true involving Israel.


Other than that, he doesn't have any real objective times for us to use to match to prophetic fulfillment.

He was a historian, certainly not a "holy man" by any standards in Christianity.
 
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Interplanner

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Josephus, like Caiaphas, were trained in their Judaism to know that the 490 years was ending. They wondered if there was any way to save Israel from what it said was going to happen shortly. Caiaphas even thought that the execution of Christ would help prove subordination to Rome (Jn 11, 18). Josephus knew a rebellion was coming that would be terrible and terminal.
 
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Shocker

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Josephus, like Caiaphas, were trained in their Judaism to know that the 490 years was ending. They wondered if there was any way to save Israel from what it said was going to happen shortly. Caiaphas even thought that the execution of Christ would help prove subordination to Rome (Jn 11, 18). Josephus knew a rebellion was coming that would be terrible and terminal.

Then Josephus would have written a commentary for Daniels prophecy..

In which, he didn't...
 
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