gmatthews said
Are you saying Jesus was Antigonus?

Of course not. As one of the headings on the chart indicates, I view the gospel Jesus figure as a composite figure. (Consider James Bond  –  ** you do not have permission to see this link **  –  and the number of historical people reflected in that literary composite figure.)

 I took the time to read through your table,

Thank you for that  –  again, apologies for the state of the chart re formatting.

but all I see are cherry-picked incidents in history that can only be loosely associated with the Gospels.

I’m more than happy for anyone to create a different chart using historical figures and using relevant gospel details.

 Where’s the smoking gun?  “Philip…also advanced the village of Bethsaida” vis-a-vis four disciples came from Bethsaida.  That’s not a parallel.  That’s an apple and an orange that have a city in common.

The ‘smoking gun’  –  if there is such  –  is the number of associations between the history in the chart and the gospel story. Perhaps another historical chart placed alongside the gospel story might turn up more associations  – I’m OK with that. My point is that the gospel story reflects Jewish history. In other words; the gospel story reflects Jewish history  –  it is not itself history.

As for Bethsaida and Philip the Tetrarch: Yes, the gospel story tells us that a number of disciples came from there. It also tells us that it was in the territory of Philip, around the villages of Casearea Philippi, that the gospel Jesus asked his disciples who he was. Philip, as the quote from Josephus indicates, spend time travelling around his territory with a few chosen friends. And yet the gospel story has no mention of Jesus or his disciples encountering this famous ruler in their own travels in his territory? 

An interesting point re Bethsaida is that Philip renamed it Bethsaida Julius  –  a detail not mentioned in the gospel story. And yet this renaming of Bethsaida would have occurred during the Lukan time-frame  –  i.e. Philip was active in Bethsaida Julius at the time of the gospel story. (Lukan chronology)

** you do not have permission to see this link **

Titre du document / Document title

The Foundation of Bethsaida-Julias by Philip the Tetrarch

Auteur(s) / Author(s)

** you do not have permission to see this link ** ⁽¹⁾ ;

Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)

⁽¹⁾ University College London, ROYAUME-UNI

Résumé / Abstract

Josephus (Ant. 18.27) explicitly names Julia ‘the daughter’ of Augustus, distinguished from Livia/Julia ‘the wife’, as the person to whom the town of Bethsaida was dedicated. This must have taken place by 2 BCE when Julia was banished, denounced for multiple adulteries. The numismatist A. Kindler suggested that Josephus may be wrong and that Livia/Julia the wife would lie behind this dedication dated to 30/31 CE. Following Kindler, the archaeologists and theologians currently operating at etTell-identified by them as the site of Bethsaida-Julias-have produced many papers accusing Josephus of error. Reviewing the evidence, it is clear that the original suggestion should have never been made. By taking this opportunity, a problem of wider significance is underlined: the difference between the titles ‘Augusta’ and ‘Sebaste’ in west and east. Many documents attributed a priori to Livia, based only on the presence of her adopted name, could belong to Julia.

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Herod paid Antony to have Antigonus killed vis-a-vis Judas and the 30 pieces of silver.  Again, not a parallel.  People get paid to kill or betray other people all the time.

Indeed. But how many Jewish Kings and High Priests were so executed by a hired assassin?

The only one of your points that I found of interest was the biting off of the ear of Hyrcanus.

Yes, interesting little point  –  depriving Hyrcanus of ever being High Priest. Whether it was the ear or some other disfigurement can’t, of course, be confirmed simply because Josephus says so….Point is though that Hyrcanus, even after returning from Babylon, was never again appointed High Priest.

When I first starting researching the gospel story via historical figures, Philip the Tetrarch was the first historical figure that jumped out at me. Simple really  –  I looked for historical figures that died around the time of the Lukan chronology. Josephus has Philip’s death in the 20th year of Tiberius  – around 34 c.e.  Philip died at Bethsaida Julius  –  the city from which disciples came. Antigonus was executed in Antioch  –  the city where Christians were first called by that name. Are we really to think that these two cities important to the NT story are just incidental and have no actual historical relevance to that story?

Perhaps its a case of what is not said  –  that the dog did not bark  –  that indicates these two cities have their own historical story to tell. Historical stories that are relevant to the gospel story.