DR. EISLER'S LIFE OF CHRIST.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20171, 25 February 1931, Page 13

DR. EISLER'S LIFE OF CHRIST.

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somewhere about 79 A.D. There are so referencesto Christianity rathe' ordin--ary editions -of this work. The most popular translation of these works in Englishes that usually' known as Whiston Josephus, from which your correspondent 'quotes. Thereare-- also extant a number of <MBS. ofa Slavonic -or old Btissian trstasJation'of the-war. shese contain no' less than eight different, references to John- the Baptist, Jeans, and the first' Christians, The Slavonic translations were made about the tenth and have obviously been rendered from an original Greek. In 1906 they were made accessible in German translation by A. JBerendts. , Naturally t£ey caused much discus-sion,-which was on the whole unfavourable- to their authenticity.. Howeyer, two of the most authoritative critics came to the conclusion "that the writer worked on Jewish;general popnl .*' oral sources.'' Ih ; 1024 Dr. Robert Eisler, who had long been interested in the dispute over the witUess of Josephus to Jesus, gave" a' lecture 1 , at the . Jews' College, Ifondon, / stating it as his' ; belief that the famous" pas* jsage on Jesus in .the "Antiquities" is not a Christian xorgery but a Christian falsification,"' and that the-original eanjbe read tuldor.the Palimpsest. Simi-larly-he considers the Slavonic texts of thef'Hebrew"War" have just as obviously been * overworked; and that by removing the 'tendentious references, the Jewish originals can be recovered. Dr. Eisler has evidently'been working out' thistheaia. ; Perhaps Ithis .brief explanation will ,make your rather, confused cable more intelligible, But, you may ask, what is the valuOjOf'JDr. Eisler's cpntributi'on to the problem! am who is not a ,clqse student of the-first two centuries .has the, right to -an/opinion. Be requires some'.knowledge, director indirect, of Greeks Byzantine, Slavonic, and Arabic tfextij, with a., further acquaintanceship" >ypjih -What is known of Aramaic; and he insight?, into the ,work-r ings of-the human mind/ Dr., Eisler is fta a"ble,m«i arid an -jty; but £uthori^ies J differ, and for'thfe "we' mustf leave'it.'' at • that.— W .?» *• /. <■-&/' . * '?. :