On the eve of Passover Jesus was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favor let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favor, he was hanged on the eve of Passover. Ulla retorted: Do you suppose he was one for whom a defense could be made? Was he not a mesith (enticer), concerning whom Scripture says, "Neither shall thou spare nor shall thou conceal him?" With Jesus, however, it was different, for he was connected with the government. (Sanhedrin 43a)
In the archives of Rome there is a physical description of Jesus contained in a report written during Jesus’ lifetime by a Roman, Publius Lentulus, to the Emperor Tiberias. It reads as follows:
‘There has appeared in Palestine a man who is still living and whose power is extraordinary. He has the title given him of Great Prophet; his disciples call him the Son of God. He raises the dead and heals all sorts of diseases.
He is a tall, well-proportioned man, and there is an air of severity in his countenance which at once attracts the love and reverence of those who see him. His hair is the color of new wine from the roots to the ears, and thence to the shoulders it is curled and falls down to the lowest part of them. Upon the forehead, it parts in two after the manner of Nazarenes.
His forehead is flat and fair, his face without blemish or defect, and adorned with a graceful expression. His nose and mouth are very well proportioned, his beard is thick and the color of his hair. His eyes are grey and extremely lively.
In his reproofs, he is terrible, but in his exhortations and instructions, amiable and courteous. There is something wonderfully charming in this face with a mixture of gravity. He is never seen to laugh, but has been observed to weep. He is very straight in stature, his hands large and spreading, his arms are very beautiful. He talks little, but with a great quality, and is the handsomest man in the world.’
The Testimonium is quite obviously altered, at the least. It’s a shame that some unscrupulous people went and did that, because it casts doubt on whatever might have been mentioned about Christ in the text before the alterations.
In the introduction to the Gospel According to Luke, the writer says:
The writings of the early Christians are also valid testimonies to the existence of Jesus Christ as well as the things He taught and did. The books that make up the New Testament in the Bible were all written during the first century and, had they been contrived or invented, those that were eyewitnesses to what Luke and the others tell would have been disputed also in that first century. Jesus, His Apostles and disciples had plenty of enemies (the Jewish religious leaders and the Romans) and they were perfectly capable of writing rebuttals to whatever was told had they been false. I think that the absence of these kinds of writings - or their scarcity - is also a good testimony for the existence of Jesus.
That book was translated into Syriac, and that particular passage was basically untouched for hundreds of years. The differences are striking, such as it saying “he was perhaps the Messiah”.
Bookmarked.