But it is fit to give an account of what this man did, which is most admirable to hear; for he was so happy as to have strange revelations made to him, and those as to one of the greatest of the prophets, insomuch, that while he was alive he had the esteem and applause both of the kings and of the multitude; and now he is dead, he retains a remembrance that will never fail, for the various books that he wrote and left behind him are still read by us till this time; and from them we believe that Daniel conversed with God; for he did not only prophesy of future events, as did the other prophets, but he also determined the time of their accomplishment; and while prophets used to foretell misfortunes, and on that account were disagreeable both to the kings and to the multitude, Daniel was to them a prophet of good things, and this to such a degree, that, by the agreeable nature of his predictions, he procured the goodwill of all men; and by the accomplishment of them, he procured the belief of their truth, and the opinion of [a sort of] divinity (θειοτητος) for himself among the multitude. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 10:266-68)
Let us then no longer doubt, we who are the disciples of Moses, how man conceived an idea of God who is destitute of all figure, for he was taught the reason of this by the divine oracle, and afterwards he explained it to us. And he spoke as follows:-- "He said that the Creator made no soul in any body capable of seeing its Creator by its own intrinsic powers. But having considered that the knowledge of the Creator and the proper understanding of the work of Creation, would be of great advantage to the creature (for such knowledge is the boundary of happiness and blessedness), he breathed into him from above something of his own divine nature. And his divine nature (θειοτητος) stamped her own impression in an invisible manner on the invisible soul, in order that even the earth might not be destitute of the image of God. (Philo, The Worse attacks the Better, 1:86)
The Greek term translated as "divinity"/"divine nature" in the above texts from Josephus and Philo is is θειοτητος, the same word one finds in Col 2:9 (discussed here). The term clearly does not refer to the Trinitarian understanding of "divinity." Here is how BDAG defines the term:
• θειότης, ητος, ἡ (s. prec. entry; of a divinity: the term in such description is not tautologous but usually refers to performance that one might properly associate w. a divinity: Plut., Mor. 398a; 665a; Lucian, Calumn. 17; Herm. Wr. 9, 1c; SIG 867, 31 of Artemis, who made Ephesus famous διὰ τῆς ἰδίας θειότητος, i.e. through manifestations of her power, s. ln. 35; POxy 1381, 165 πληρωθεὶς τ. σῆς [Imouthes-Asclepius] θειότητος namely manifestations of healing; PGM 7, 691; Wsd 18:9; EpArist 95; ApcSed 14:8; 15:2; Philo, Op. M. 172 v.l.; Just., D. 3:5.—Of persons who stand in close relation to a divinity: Heraclit. Sto. 76 p. 102, 4 Homer; Jos., Ant. 10, 268 Daniel; ins, pap, princes and emperors. So of Augustus, e.g. SEG XXVI, 1392, 31 [18-19 AD].—Of the Christian proclamation θ. τοῦ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν λόγου Theoph. Ant. 3, 29 [p. 264, 16]) the quality or characteristic(s) pert. to deity, divinity, divine nature, divineness Ro 1:20.—HNash, θειότης-θεότης Ro 1:20, Col 2:9: JBL 18, 1899, 1-34.—New Docs 3, 68. DELG s.v. θεός. Lampe s.v. M-M. TW. Sv.
The term θειοτητος, as used in Koine Greek literature and even Col 2:9 does not lend support for Trinitarian Christology.
