Stephen,
I have not rewritten history. I was referring to information I had been taught - and so I have gone back to find my sources. I note a couple of things.
It was not Josephus who indicated what I mentioned. I was speaking from memory and I was wrong. However, I knew there was a connection to Josephus although it was only his translator, William Whiston, note b in Josephus War of the Jews , 2:19:6, p. 631-2.
Secondly, I have added a link from Wikapedia - for whatever it is worth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_to_Pella, which notes that I am not making it up or attempting to lie. This link however expresses that there is significant debate about its validity. It does however reveal that I am NOT trying to rewrite history - but was rather using information I had been provided from a couple of different sources. It is also true that Eusebius referred to it in his works: “The whole body, however, of the church at Jerusalem, having been commanded by a divine revelation, given to men of approved piety there before the war, removed from the city, and dwelt at a certain town beyond the Jordan, called Pella.”
Ecclesiastical History, tr. C. F. Crusè, 3d ed., in
Greek Ecclesiastical Historians, 6 vols. (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1842), p. 110 (3:5).
Also the following from the early years of the church made similar claims.
Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis (315 – 403 AD)
“The Nazoraean sect exists in Beroea near Coele Syria, in the Decapolis near the region of Pella, and in Bashan in the place called Cocaba, which in Hebrew is called Chochabe. That is where the sect began, when all the disciples were living in Pella after they moved from Jerusalem, since Christ told them to leave Jerusalem and withdraw because it was about to be besieged” (Panarion 29:7:7-8).
“Their sect began after the capture of Jerusalem. For when all those who believed in Christ settled at that time for the most part in Peraea, in a city called Pella belonging to the Decapolis mentioned in the gospel, which is next to Batanaea and the land of Bashan, then they moved there and stayed” (Panarion 30:2:7).
Remigius, Bishop of Reims (437 – 533 AD)
[1] “[F]or on the approach of the Roman army, all the Christians in the province, warned, as ecclesiastical history tells us, miraculously from heaven, withdrew, and passing the Jordan, took refuge in the city of Pella; and under the protection of that King Agrippa, of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles, they continued some time; but Agrippa himself, with the Jews whom he governed, was subjected to the dominion of the Romans” [Thomas Aquinas (1841). Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels; Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew. (J. H. Newman, Ed.) (Vol. 1, p. 799-816)].
I don't care that you don't believe it is true about the Christians fleeing to Pella from Jerusalem. What I do care about is that you continue to spout lies that I am making stuff and changing history. These people are not me. This tradition has been around for many years before I was born.
