Jesus' Crucifixion According to Flavius Josephus

Evidence ID: HIS-EV64

Evidence: Jesus' Crucifixion According to Flavius Josephus

Summary: Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian that specialized in Jewish-Roman history of the first century. As such, his accounts provide important evidence of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Description: Flavius Josephus (ca. 37-97 AD) was a Jewish historians and scholar that specialize in Roman-Jewish history. Josephus was born into a family of priestly and royal descent and was well educated. While in Jerusalem, he became a Pharisee at age 19.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, he defected and moved to Rome to serve as an interpreter and eventually the court historians for Emperor Vespasian. He was later granted Roman citizenship by Vespasian and assume Vespasian's name "Flavious".

In Josephus' greatest historical work, Antiquities of the Jews (ca. 90-95 AD), he makes two references to Jesus.

In the second reference found in Antiquities (18.63-64), Jesus' life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection are described.

"Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonders, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew many after him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. When Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him, and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."

Since Josephus was a Jew and a Roman citizen loyal to the Emperor Vespasian, it is unlikely he would be written this favorably about Jesus. This debated text is regarded by many scholars as having been embellished by Christians in the church during transcription. The popular position held by scholars today is that this passage was written by Josephus with some words added, deleted or embellished. In A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, John Meier argues that the text above in BLUE was added by Christian transcribers to align the original text with the Bible [REF-JME01].

Professor Schlomo Pines from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem interpreted Josephus' 18.3.3 passage from Arabic from the tenth century. His interpretation is remarkably similar to the Latin interpretation above without the added text.

"At this time there was wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders." [REF-AWH01]

In this Arabic interpretation there is a notable exclusion of the "principal men among us" which implicates the Jewish Sanhedrin. These and other excluded embellishments make the Arabic interpretation credible, and therefore more accurate.

From the first passage and the Arabic interpretation of the second passage, we learn several facts about Christians and Jesus:

This list of extra-biblical facts from Josephus regarding Jesus' death and resurrection represent the heart of the Gospel message. These facts are consistent with the biblical account of Jesus' life, death and resurrection as recorded in the Gospels. The correspondence between these facts and the biblical accounts are provided above.

(The Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895)

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