To Andrew: Concerning Josephus

[Dawid]

I believe you Andrew. I mean, Josephus knew Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic perfectly. In a society where something like ninety percent of the population was illiterate that makes him a genius, so its perfectly feasible that he "coded" his beliefs in his writings (using his mastery Hebrew) for future generations to discover. That description of the bright light, that is no "sword"...that's a cross! I know Josephus wasn't the Bishop (Nasi) of Jerusalem obviously, I was thinking maybe that he hinted that he was an informal leader like you said. Thanks for communicating this research here to me, very interesting. Should I look in the "Antiquities" for most of the clues?

If it was a cross, why didn't Josephus say so? With the number of executions by cross that were done in those days it would have been no kind of give-away. Not to mention that Roman swords did not have the dramatic hilts of later Medieval swords, and so a Roman sword would not resemble a cross very much at all. This calls to mind more the "Messiah" Bar-Kochba than Rabbeynu Yeshua HaMashicah.
He could have coded his works. True. But I thought that Netzarim weren't supposed to disguise our beliefs.
Knowing multiple languages didn't make him a genius. It made him a member of the privileged elite, and what's more it made him looked down upon among his people, who despised Greek learning. He had opportunity to learn Greek, not a special ability.