ll the elders who, in Asia, assembled with
John, the disciple of the Lord, testify; and as John himself
had taught them_. And he (John?) remained with them till the
time of Trajan. And some of them saw not only John but other
Apostles, _and heard the same thing from them, and bear the
same testimony to this revelation_."

The escape of this passage from the destroyers can be accounted for only
in the same way as the passage of Minucius Felix (quoted in Chapter XX.)
concerning the Pagans worshiping a crucifix. These two passages escaped
from among, probably, hundreds destroyed, of which we know nothing,
under the decrees of the emperors, yet remaining, by which they were
ordered to be destroyed.

In John viii. 56, Jesus is made to say to the Jews: "Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad." Then said the Jews
unto him: "Thou art not yet _fifty_ years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham?"

If Jesus was then but about _thirty_ years of age, the Jews would
evidently have said: "thou art not yet _forty_ years old," and would not
have been likely to say: "thou art not yet _fifty_ years old," unless he
was past forty.

There was a tradition current among the early Christians, that _Annas_
was high-priest when Jesus was crucified. This is evident from the
_Acts_.[516:1] Now, Annas, or Ananias, _was not high-priest until about
the year 48 A. D._;[516:2] therefore, if Jesus was crucified at that
time he must have been about _fifty_ years of age;[516:3] but, as we
remarked elsewhere, there exists, outside of the New Testament, no
evidence whatever, in book, inscription, or monument, that Jesus of
Nazareth was either scourged or crucified under Pontius Pilate.
Josephus, Tacitus, Plinius, Philo, nor any of their contemporaries, ever
refer to the fact of this crucifixion, or express any belief
thereon.[516:4] In the Talmud--the book containing Jewish
traditions--Jesus is not referred to as the "crucified one," but as the
"hanged one,"[516:5] while elsewhere it is narrated he was _stoned_ to
death; so that it is evident they were ignorant of the manner of death
which he suffered.[516:6]

In _Sanhedr. 43 a_, Jesus it said to have had five disciples, among
whom were Mattheaus and Thaddeus. He is called "That Man," "The
Nazarine," "The Fool," and "The Hung." Thus Aben Ezra says that
Constantine put on his _labarum_ "a figure of the hung;" and, according
to R. Bechai, the Christian