We live in an age where often one hears that Jesus did not exist and that there is no historical proof that Jesus existed. This is a blatant lie, as this article will proceed to demonstrate.
Newsroom (11/02/2022 2:15 PM Gaudium Press) Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37 – c. 100) was a Jewish historian born in Jerusalem four years after the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth in the same city. Because of this proximity to Jesus in terms of time and place, his writings have a near-eyewitness quality as they relate to the entire cultural background of the New Testament era. Their scope is much broader than this, also encompassing the world of the Old Testament. His two most significant works are Jewish Antiquities, unveiling Hebrew history from the Creation to the start of the great war with Rome in A.D. 66, and his Jewish War. Though written first, it bears the record on the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of Masada in A.D. 73.
Josephus was born Joseph ben Mattathias in 37 C.E. to a priestly and royal family of Jerusalem. He excelled in his studies of Jewish law and studied with the Sadducees, Essenes, and Pharisees, eventually aligning himself with the latter. In 62 C.E., he went to Rome to free some imprisoned priests. After accomplishing this mission through the intercession of Nero’s wife, Poppaea, he returned to Jerusalem in 65 C.E. to find the country in revolt against Rome.
Although Josephus had deep misgivings about the revolt, it became inevitable, due to reasons he discusses in his history, primarily the abuses of the Romans; this spurred the growth of fanatical Messianic Jewish movements believing that the world was coming to an end shortly. In 66 C.E., Masada was seized by the Zealots, and the Romans were on the march; Josephus was appointed the commander of Galilee. He had to fight a defensive war against overwhelming forces while refereeing internecine squabbles in the Jewish ranks. In 67 C.E. Josephus and other rebels were cornered in a cave during the siege of Jotapata and took a suicide pact. However, Josephus survived and was taken hostage by the Romans, led by Vespasian.
Josephus is the most comprehensive primary source on Jewish history that has survived from antiquity and done so virtually intact despite its voluminous nature (the equivalent of 12 volumes). Because of imperial patronage by the Flavian emperors in Rome —Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian —Josephus could generate incredible detail in his records, a luxury denied the Gospel writers. Josephus has always been deemed a crucial extra biblical resource. His writings correlate well with the Old and New Testaments providing additional evidence on such personalities as Herod the Great and his dynasty, John the Baptist, Jesus’ half-brother James, the high priests Annas and Caiaphas and their clan, Pontius Pilate, and others.
He would refer to Jesus of Nazareth, and he does—twice in fact. In Antiquities 18:63—in the middle of information on Pontius Pilate (A.D., 26-36)—Josephus provides the longest secular reference to Jesus in any first-century source. Later, when he reports events from the administration of the Roman governor Albinus (A.D. 62-64) in Antiquities 20:200, he again mentions Jesus in connection with the death of Jesus’ half-brother, James the Just of Jerusalem. These passages, along with other non-biblical, non-Christian references to Jesus in secular first-century sources—among them Tacitus (Annals 15:44), Suetonius (Claudius 25), and Pliny the Younger (Letter to Trajan)—prove conclusively that any denial of Jesus’ historicity is sensationalism by the uninformed and/or the dishonest.
Due to the voluminous nature of his books, we shall focus on a few people from the New Testament in his works.
John the Baptist
Antiquities 18. 5. 2 – Josephus says that John commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, that is, righteousness toward one another and piety toward God. Many crowds, according to Josephus, came to listen to his words. Josephus seems to indicate that John’s followers were very dedicated to him. According to Josephus, Herod had John sent to prison in Macherus [on the east side of the Dead Sea], and there had him put to death. Herod Antipas feared John because he thought that with the people following him, John might lead a rebellion. Herod wanted to put him to death on the grounds of suspicion.
Jesus and Pilate
Antiquities 18. 3 . 3 and 20. 9. 1, here we quote directly from the author: “At this time, there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But 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, whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day.”
Antiquities 20:200
This is a crucial passage since it has so many stunning parallels to what took place on Good Friday, and yet it seems to be largely ignored by historical revisionists. It tells of the death of Jesus’ half-brother, James the Just of Jerusalem, under the high priest Ananus, son of the former high priest Annas and brother-in-law to Caiaphas, both well-known from the Gospels. Josephus’s text reads as follows: “Having such a character [“rash and daring” in the context], Ananus thought that he would have the proper opportunity with Festus dead and Albinus still on the way. Convening the judges of the Sanhedrin, he brought before them the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, whose name was James, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned. But those of the city residents who were deemed the most fair-minded and who were strict in observing the law were offended at this. Accordingly, they secretly contacted the king [Herod Agrippa II], urging him to order Ananus to desist from any more such actions, for he had not been justified in what he had already done. Some of them even went to meet Albinus, who was on his way from Alexandria, and informed him that Ananus had no authority to convene the Sanhedrin without his consent. Convinced by these words, Albinus wrote in anger to Ananus, threatening him with punishment. And King Agrippa, because of this, deposed him from the high priesthood, in which he had ruled for three months.”
In the Antiquities of the Jews (Book 20) Josephus refers to the stoning of “James the brother of Jesus” (James the Just) by order of Ananus ben Ananus, a Herodian-era High Priest. The James referred to in the aforementioned passage is most likely the James to whom the Epistle of James has been attributed.
The context of the passage is the period following the death of Porcius Festus and the journey to Alexandria by Lucceius Albinus, the new RomanProcurator of Judea. They held that position from 62 A.D. to 64 A.D. Because Albinus’ trip to Alexandria had to have concluded no later than the summer of 62 A.D., the date of James’ death can be assigned with some certainty to around that year. The 2nd-century chronicler Hegesippus also left an account of the death of James, and while the details he provides diverge from those of Josephus, the two versions share similar elements.
Modern scholarship has almost universally acknowledged the authenticity of the reference to “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James.” (τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰησοῦ τοῦ λεγομένου Χριστοῦ, Ἰάκωβος ὄνομα αὐτῷ)
Early references
In the 3rd century, Origen of Alexandria was the first ancient writer to have a comprehensive reference to Josephus. However, some other authors had made smaller, general references to Josephus before, among them, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus in the second century, followed by Clement.
The 4th-century writings of Eusebius of Caesarea refer to Josephus’ account of James, John and Jesus. In his Church History (Book I, Chapter XI), Eusebius discusses the Josephus reference to how Herod Antipas killed John the Baptist and mentioned the marriage to Herodias in items 1 to 6. In the same Book, I chapter, in items 7 and 8, Eusebius also discusses the Josephus reference to the crucifixion of Jesus by Pontius Pilate. This connection is present in all surviving Eusebius manuscripts.
Compiled by Raju Hasmukh