this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Attack the argument and not the person.
Well, that's pretty easy, but discussing the person and the reasons to be skeptical because of their past behavior is still quite relevant. And you have two links in the past comment on that point.
As for the article's points, let's take a look at just one that Carrier puts forward, that the bit about James brother of Jesus was about the high priest.
Look closer at Josephus:
See how Josephus introduces a Jesus twice?
The problem with Carrier's theory is that Josephus doesn't once introduce someone's father after mentioning them before (with one small exception that actually makes the case here even worse). So even if the 'called Christ' was added in later on, mentioning an ambiguous 'Jesus' before identifying the one that's the high priest would be the only time someone is introduced in the text after being mentioned. Or else it would be the only time two people by the same name aren't distinguished from each other.
A number of months back I actually tried to argue Carrier's point on this issue with one of his critics, and in the course of that went over every single introduction in all of Antiquities trying to find another exception.
There aren't any.
Carrier's case here isn't strong at all and necessitates this mention being the only one of all the introductions that breaks Josephus's convention.