ll here is no
contradiction of our story; no other or different story set up against
it: but so far a confirmation of it as that, in the general points on
which the heathen account touches, it agrees with that which we find in
our own books.

The same may be observed of the very few Jewish writers of that and the
adjoining period, which have come down to us. Whatever they omit, or
whatever difficulties we may find in explaining the omission, they
advance no other history of the transaction than that which we
acknowledge. Josephus, who wrote his Antiquities, or History of the
Jews, about sixty years after the commencement of Christianity, in a
passage generally admitted as genuine, makes mention of John under the
name of John the Baptist; that he was a preacher of virtue; that he
baptized his proselytes; that he was well received by the people; that
he was imprisoned and put to death by Herod; and that Herod lived in a
criminal cohabitation with Herodias, his brother's wife. (Antiq. I.
xviii. cap. v. sect. 1, 2.) In another passage allowed by many, although
not without considerable question being moved about it, we hear of
"James, the brother of him who was called Jesus, and of his being put to
death." (Antiq. I. xx. cap. ix. sect. 1.) In a third passage, extant in
every copy that remains of Josephus's history, but the authenticity of
which has nevertheless been long disputed, we have an explicit testimony
to the substance of our history in these words:--"At that time lived
Jesus, a wise man, if he may be called a man, for he performed many
wonderful works. He was a teacher of such men as received the truth with
pleasure. He drew over to him many Jews and Gentiles. This was the
Christ; and when Pilate, at the instigation of the chief men among us
had condemned him to the cross, they who before had conceived an
affection for him did not cease to adhere to him; for, on the third day,
he appeared to them alive again, the divine prophets having foretold
these and many wonderful things concerning him. And the sect of the
Christians, so called from him, subsists to this time." (Antiq. I.
xviii. cap. iii. sect 3.) Whatever become of the controversy concerning
the genuineness of this passage; whether Josephus go the whole length of
our history, which, if the passage be sincere, he does; or whether he
proceed only a very little way with us, which, if the passage be
rejected, we confess to be the case; still what we asserted is tr