(so Burkitt and Harnack)1 without having to eliminate it (all or part) as Christian addition. Josephus’s own belief on the subject of the Messiah appears in War, bk. vi. ch. v. § 4, where he refers to ‘an ambiguous oracle in their sacred writings’ which had deceived many of their wise men into thinking that the Messiah belonged to the Jews alone. Josephus pointedly says: ‘Now this oracle denoted the government of Vespasian who was appointed emperor in Judea.’ Crude as this view appears, one must