An ancient letter from Flavius Josephus serves as evidence of the historical existence of Jesus

Summary:

• Jesus of Nazareth was a real man supported by non-Biblical historians like Tacitus and Josephus.

• Flavius Josephus, an independent Jewish historian, mentions Jesus as a real person in his historical works.

• Josephus provides valuable historical evidence of Jesus’ existence and influence, debunking claims of “zero evidence.”

Jesus of Nazareth was not a product of a slick PR team. He was a Jew preacher who was executed circa AD 30 by the Roman governor named Pontius Pilate, according to historians who are not found in the Bible. He is mentioned by Roman authors such as Tacitus and Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote in the first century. You can debate divinity. Erasing the man? That’s harder than it sounds.

 

And this is where one is likely to be surprised: it is not necessary to start with the New Testament at all. You could begin with a Jewish historian who did not preach, got himself into no church, and had Jesus in his books of history. Flavius Josephus is one of those who show that Jesus was a real man and that he did exist.

 

The argument asserting “zero evidence” is fundamentally flawed

When the person mentions that they have no evidence of Jesus other than the Bible, what they are actually implying is that they have not encountered anything that resembles a modern blog. The history of the ancient world does not do this. You do not get bylines or headshots in 30 AD. You dredge up surviving literature, scrutinize intentions, and observe those who refer to Jesus without preaching. That is what Roman and Jewish authors did. They were individuals who were citing a real man to real things.

 

Flavius Josephus lived near the time of Jesus

Josephus was born circa 37 or 38 AD in Jerusalem, which means he is one generation too late to have known those who could remember Jesus. By his early twenties, Flavius Josephus was a priest, a politician, and provided a first-hand view of the Jewish revolt which broke out in 66 AD. He gave up, changed his patrons, and continued writing. About 93 AD, during his middle 50s, he completedAntiquities of the Jews.

 

Josephus was not propagandizing his history as a Christian

AD 71, Josephus had established herself at Rome under the nose of Vespasian and wrote to the Romans who were interested in power, order, and what can be done when leadership is deficient. The dropping of names by Josephus is not praise, but a token of culture. At the time he does so, you are viewing what people took as common knowledge, even things that they did not want to agree with.

 

Josephus mentions Jesus

The greatest Josephan allusion is found in Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 of the Antiquities, in which Josephus is speaking of the high priest Ananus or of his convening the Sanhedrin and sentencing James. He recognizes the James he is referring to as the brother of Jesus, the one who was called Christ, whose name was James.

Josephus doesn’t preach. He does not even bother to make you believe that Jesus existed. He benefits from using the name Jesus to make it clear to whom he is referring, as Jesus and James were popular names.

 

Power also works in the James story in the year AD 62 in Jerusalem

Josephus dates the death of James between the death of Porcius Festus and the arrival of Lucceius Albinus to replace him in military service, which allows Ananus to operate prior to Rome tightening the screws. Josephus writes that Ananus gathered the Sanhedrin of judges and forced through the executions by stoning. People complained. They contacted the king. They even stopped Albinus to tell him that Ananus was not to call a council without the consent of the Romans.

King Agrippa changed Ananus in about three months and put in his own son, named Jesus, in his place, who was the son of Damneus.

 

The Testimonium Flavianum

The passage frequently referred to as the Testimonium Flavianum also talks about Jesus according to Josephus in Book 18 of the Antiquities. The text, which has been kept in Greek books, contains words that resemble a Christian declaration of faith and even uses words that refer to Jesus as the Messiah and allude to the claims of resurrection.

The majority of scholars do not subscribe to the fact that Josephus, who is a Jew writing to Romans, suddenly began to speak in the way he became a Christian. Rather, many agree to a modest theory that Josephus wrote something about Jesus, and later Christian copyists simply cleaned up the work over the years, adding to it. Or perhaps they did not, and he just one day chose to be part of the religion.

 

Even taking away the praise, Josephus still speaks about Jesus

After you clear them off that sound more like worship, what is left there to be like the shape that Josephus writes: Jesus as a teacher, a familiar figure, under Pontius Pilate, and there was a movement that continued. The precise wording is a matter of dispute among scholars, since we do not have the original copy of Josephus.

The reconstruction by James D. G. Dunn reflects the type of baldness that so many scholars would anticipate, and it leads into the subsequent reference to James in Book 20 without making Josephus admit to believing. You do not have to have a line-by-line recovery of it to see the larger picture. Even a humble mention by Josephus gets him out of the Christian storytelling.

 

The manuscript trail explains why individuals struggle with wording

Surviving manuscripts of Josephus do not exist from the first century. The earliest surviving Greek text with the Testimonium is that of the eleventh century (Ambrosianus 370 (F 128)) in Milan. There is debate on that gap, since Christian monks reproduced the surviving texts.

Nevertheless, there is no need to stress and dump everything. Josephus is found in some 120 Greek manuscripts, dozens of which were translated before the fourteenth century, and 170 Latin manuscripts, some dating back to the sixth century. These traditions are compared by scholars to catch copyist fingerprints, verify names, and identify strange innuendos.

 

One of the non-Christian writers (Flavius Josephus) discusses Jesus

Josephus is not going to provide a contemporary lab report of miracles or resurrection. That will not do in ancient history. Josephus does provide you with something more basic and more helpful: a non-Christian historian, who is independent, who connects early Christian leadership to a historical Jesus.

And so when somebody tells you that Jesus was the work of a handful of fishermen and tax collectors, you are ready to answer him with the truth. Jesus existed. History says so. And here lies all the evidence you want.