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97-614: The first and most extensive reference to Jesus in the Antiquities , found in Book 18 , states that Jesus was the Messiah and a wise teacher who was crucified by Pontius Pilate . It is commonly called the Testimonium Flavianum . Nearly all modern scholars reject the authenticity of this passage in its present form, though most nevertheless hold that it contains an authentic nucleus referencing

194-568: A "tribe" would not have made sense to a Christian writer. The paraphrase model , advanced by G. J. Goldberg in 2022, is based on the observation that Josephus wrote most of the Jewish Antiquities by paraphrasing Greek and Hebrew sources. Goldberg proposes that the Jesus passage in the Antiquities is also a paraphrase in the same manner. Josephus's methods of revising his sources have been well established and can be used to objectively test whether

291-524: A 10th-century Arabic version of the Testimonium from the chronicle of Agapius of Hierapolis was brought to light by Shlomo Pines , who also discovered a 12th-century Syriac version of the Testimonium in the chronicle of Michael the Syrian . These additional manuscript sources of the Testimonium have furnished additional ways to evaluate Josephus' mention of Jesus in the Antiquities , principally through

388-672: A Christian forger. Setzer argues that the Testimonium indicates that Josephus had heard of Jesus and the basic elements surrounding his death, and that he saw Jesus as primarily a miracle worker. Van Voorst also states that calling Christians a "tribe" would have been very out of character for a Christian scribe, while Josephus has used it to refer both to Jewish and Christian groups. Lester L. Grabbe notes that in two works ( Commentary on Matthew 10.17 and Contra Celsum 1.47; see § Early references ) Origen had actually complained that Josephus had mentioned Jesus, while not recognizing Jesus as

485-639: A book written by a chronicler in the Middle Ages describing historical events in a country, or the lives of a nobleman or a clergyman, although it is also applied to a record of public events. The earliest medieval chronicle to combine both retrospective ( dead ) and contemporary ( live ) entries, is the Chronicle of Ireland , which spans the years 431 to 911. Chronicles are the predecessors of modern " time lines " rather than analytical histories. They represent accounts, in prose or verse, of local or distant events over

582-437: A chronicle with information not available to the original chronicler. Determining the reliability of particular chronicles is important to historians . Many newspapers and other periodical literature have adopted "chronicle" as part of their name. "It is well known that history, in the form of Chronicles, was a favourite portion of the literature of the middle ages. The annals of a country were usually kept according to

679-552: A close textual comparison between the Arabic, Syriac and Greek versions to the Testimonium . There are subtle yet key differences between the Greek manuscripts and these texts. For instance, the Arabic version does not blame the Jews for the death of Jesus. The key phrase "at the suggestion of the principal men among us" reads instead "Pilate condemned him to be crucified". Instead of "he was Christ",

776-440: A comparison of the Greek manuscripts with the Arabic quotation discovered by Shlomo Pines in the 1970s provides an indication of the original Josephan text. Köstenberger states that many modern scholars believe that the Arabic version reflects the state of Josephus' original text before it was subject to Christian interpolation. Steve Mason has argued for partial authenticity for the "Testimonium" because no other parts of any of

873-401: A considerable period of time, both the lifetime of the individual chronicler and often those of several subsequent continuators . If the chronicles deal with events year by year, they are often called annals . Unlike the modern historian, most chroniclers tended to take their information as they found it, and made little attempt to separate fact from legend. The point of view of most chroniclers

970-454: A cordial relationship between Christians and Jews in Rome at the end of the first century. The Testimonium has been the subject of a great deal of research and debate among scholars, being one of the most discussed passages among all antiquities. Louis Feldman has stated that in the period from 1937 to 1980 at least 87 articles had appeared on the topic, the overwhelming majority of which questioned

1067-406: A form of journalism or non-professional historical documentation. Before the development of modern journalism and the systematization of chronicles as a journalistic genre, cronista were tasked with narrating chronological events considered worthy of remembrance that were recorded year by year. Unlike writers who created epic poems regarding living figures, cronista recorded historical events in

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1164-450: A neutral tone toward Jesus and did not contain elements that would have been useful to Christian apologetics, since it did not recognize him as the Messiah, nor did it speak about his resurrection; it was, therefore, not a useful instrument in their polemics with Pagan writers. Some scholars also point to the silence of Photios as late as the 9th century, and the fact that he does not mention

1261-495: A proposed candidate source could have been adapted in the same way for the Jesus passage. In a phrase-by-phrase study, Goldberg finds that the Jesus account can be derived from Luke's Emmaus narrative using transformations Josephus is demonstrated to have employed in paraphrasing known sources for the Antiquities . He finds these paraphrase precedents in word adoption, word and phrase substitution, content order preservation and content modification. As these stylistic pairings are unlike

1358-478: A reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate which was then subject to interpolation . James Dunn states that there is "broad consensus" among scholars regarding the nature of an authentic reference to Jesus in the Testimonium and what the passage would look like without the interpolations. Among other things, the authenticity of this passage would help make sense of the later reference in Josephus' Antiquities of

1455-451: A senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like Rome resisted monarchy. Thus, in an attempt to make the Jewish history more palatable to his Greco-Roman audience, the great figures of the biblical stories are presented as ideal philosopher-leaders . In another example, apparently due to his concern with pagan antisemitism, Josephus omitted the entire episode of the golden calf from his account of

1552-620: A short account of his personal life, Vita , as an appendix to the Judean Antiquities . Antiquities of the Jews contains a good deal of valuable, sometimes unique, historical material. This applies, for example, to the history of the Hellenistic states, Parthia , Armenia , the Nabatean kingdom , and the Roman Empire . In the Middle Ages and up to modern times the book was considered one of

1649-518: A teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And

1746-468: A tyrant. The extant copies of this work contain two passages about Jesus and James the Just . The long one has come to be known as the Testimonium Flavianum . Scholars usually agree on the authenticity of the second passage, while the first one is considered to be authentic, but to have been subjected to Christian interpolation . The earliest Greek manuscript of Books 11–20 of the Antiquities dates from

1843-462: A wise man" and that it stated "he was the so-called Christ". Van Voorst states that most scholars support a neutral reconstruction which states "Around this time lived Jesus, a wise man" and includes no reference to "he was the Christ". Van Voorst states that if the original references to Jesus had had a negative tone, the Christian scribes would have likely deleted it entirely. Van Voorst also states that

1940-437: A wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and many of Greek origin. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. The Antiquities of

2037-529: Is a term for a historical chronicler, a role that held historical significance in the European Middle Ages . Until the European Enlightenment , the occupation was largely equivalent to that of a historian, describing events chronologically that were of note in a given country or region. As such, it was often an official governmental position rather than an independent practice. The appointment of

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2134-494: Is common with ancient texts, however, there are no known manuscripts of Josephus' works that can be dated before the 11th century, and the oldest which do survive were copied by Christian monks. Jews are not known to have preserved the writings of Josephus perhaps because he was considered a traitor, and/or because his works circulated in Greek, the use of which declined among Jews shortly after Josephus' era. There are about 120 extant Greek manuscripts of Josephus, of which 33 predate

2231-423: Is hardly tenable given the presence of the passage in all extant Greek manuscripts; thus a large majority of modern scholars accept the third alternative, i.e., partial authenticity. Baras adds that the third position is more plausible because it accepts parts of the passage as genuine, but discounts other parts as interpolations. Craig Evans (and separately Robert Van Voorst ) state that most modern scholars accept

2328-573: Is highly localised, to the extent that many anonymous chroniclers can be sited in individual abbeys . It is impossible to say how many chronicles exist, as the many ambiguities in the definition of the genre make it impossible to draw clear distinctions of what should or should not be included. However, the Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle lists some 2,500 items written between 300 and 1500 AD. Entries in chronicles are often cited using

2425-404: Is not until Jerome 's De Viris Illustribus ( c.  AD 392 ) that the passage from Josephus is referenced again, even though the Testimonium' s reference to Jesus would seem appropriate in the works of many intervening patristic authors. However, Bart D. Ehrman and John P. Meier have argued that this silence is mainly due to the fact that the original Testimonium probably had

2522-427: Is one where the author assembles a list of events up to the time of their writing, but does not record further events as they occur. A live chronicle is where one or more authors add to a chronicle in a regular fashion, recording contemporary events shortly after they occur. Because of the immediacy of the information, historians tend to value live chronicles, such as annals , over dead ones. The term often refers to

2619-473: Is simply a paraphrased quotation from the Syriac Church History , and not a direct quotation of Josephus himself. Michael's text, in contrast, she concludes is much closer to what Josephus actually wrote. One of the key prongs in her argument is that Agapius' and Michael's Testimonia share the unique peculiarity that they both explicitly state that Jesus died after being condemned to the cross, while

2716-512: Is unlikely to have been due to a Christian scribe familiar with the New Testament accounts, and is hence unlikely to be an interpolation. Claudia Setzer holds that while "tribe is an odd way to describe Christians," it does not necessarily have negative connotations. Setzer argues for the existence of an authentic kernel because "the style and vocabulary are Josephan" and specific parts (e.g. the use of "wise man") are not what one would expect from

2813-633: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , started under the patronage of King Alfred in the 9th century and continued until the 12th century, and the Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577–87) by Raphael Holinshed and other writers; the latter documents were important sources of materials for Elizabethan drama. Later 16th century Scottish chronicles, written after the Reformation , shape history according to Catholic or Protestant viewpoints. A cronista

2910-485: The Antiquities and the Wars . This volume amounted to over 800 pages. The first printed edition of Antiquities of the Jews in Greek appeared in 1544. Other publications followed—1553 ( Antwerp ), 1611 and 1634 ( Cologne ), 1687 ( Oxford ), 1691 ( Leipzig ), 1700 (Oxford), 1726 ( Leiden ), and so on. Already in the 15th–16th centuries, Jewish Antiquities was translated into Dutch, French, Italian, German and Spanish. The book

3007-568: The Antiquities do not appear in any other versions of Josephus' The Jewish War except for a Slavonic version of the Testimonium Flavianum (at times called Testimonium Slavonium ) which surfaced in the west at the beginning of the 20th century, after its discovery in Russia at the end of the 19th century. Although originally hailed as authentic (notably by Robert Eisler ), it is now almost universally acknowledged by scholars to have been

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3104-399: The Testimonium a "veritable tour de force" in which Josephus plays the role of a neutral witness. Andreas Köstenberger argues that the Testimonium includes vocabulary that is typically Josephan, and the style is consistent with that of Josephus. Köstenberger (and separately Van Voorst) state that the Josephus' reference to the large number of followers of Jesus during his public ministry

3201-708: The Testimonium at all in his broad review of Josephus. However, Photios argues in his Bibliotheca that Josephus's works mention the Massacre of the Innocents and the virgin birth of Jesus (which no works of Josephus make any reference to), leading many scholars to think that he actually had a scant knowledge of the writings he was reviewing or that the documents he was working on were grossly interpolated. Also, Photios had clearly read Eusebius's Church History and Jerome's De Viris Illustribus , since he lists them both in his Bibliotheca . A separate argument from silence against

3298-548: The Testimonium shares common features with Jerome's Latin translation. Most importantly for her, instead of " he was the Messiah ", as in the Greek Testimonium , Jerome's and Michael's versions both read, " he was thought to be the Messiah ". She considers it likely, therefore, that the Latin and Arabic translations go back to an original Greek version with the same reading. Since they otherwise have no substantial disagreement from

3395-466: The Testimonium . For instance, Jesus is called "a wise man" (and Josephus described others like Solomon, Daniel, and John the Baptist in the same fashion), which would not have been a common Christian label for Christ at the time. He referred to Jesus merely as "a worker of amazing deeds" and nothing more, again disagreeing with how Christians viewed Christ. Referring to Jesus as "a teacher of people who accept

3492-429: The early Christian period . Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews is a vital source for the history of the intertestamental period and the Jewish war against Rome. Antiquities of the Jews is separated into twenty volumes: In the preface of Antiquities of the Jews , Josephus provides his motivation for composing such a large work. He writes: Now I have undertaken the present work, as thinking it will appear to all

3589-616: The " Song of the Sea " sung by Moses and the people of Israel after their deliverance at the Red Sea is completely omitted in Josephus's text. He does mention, however, that Moses composed a song to God in hexameter —a rather unusual (and Greek) metrical scheme for an ancient Hebrew. Josephus also writes that Abraham taught science to the Egyptians , who in turn taught the Greeks , and that Moses set up

3686-637: The 14th century, with two thirds from the Komnenos period. The earliest surviving Greek manuscript that contains the Testimonium is the 11th century Ambrosianus 370 (F 128), preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which includes almost all of the second half of the Antiquities . There are about 170 extant Latin translations of Josephus, some of which go back to the sixth century. According to Louis Feldman these have proven very useful in reconstructing

3783-531: The Greek original does not include this detail. According to Whealey, the differences between the two Testimonia are simply due to the fact that Agapius' chronicle more freely paraphrases and abbreviates its sources, whereas Michael's version is probably a verbatim copy. The implication of this argument, if valid, is that Agapius' abbreviated Testimonium cannot be an earlier version of the passage than what we find in extant manuscripts of Josephus' Antiquities . Whealey furthermore notices that Michael's version of

3880-400: The Greek version we possess, and since that sole variant is sufficient to explain the most powerful objections to the Testimonium ' s integrity, she concludes that it is "the only major alteration" that has been made to what Josephus originally wrote. About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was

3977-665: The Greeks worthy of their study; for it will contain all our antiquities, and the constitution of our government, as interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures. Josephan scholar Louis Feldman highlights several of the misconceptions about the Jewish people that were being circulated in Josephus's time. In particular, the Jews were thought to lack great historical figures and a credible history of their people. They were also accused of harboring hostility toward non-Jews, and were thought to be generally lacking in loyalty, respect for authority, and charity. With these harsh accusations against

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4074-684: The Israelites at Mount Sinai. It has been suggested that he was afraid that the biblical account might be employed by Alexandrian antisemites to lend credence to their allegation that the Jews worshiped an ass's head in the Temple (cf. Apion 2:80, 114, 120; Tacitus, Histories 5:4). He also stated that the Ancient Egyptians forced the Jewish slaves to build the pyramids, writing "They [the Egyptian taskmasters] set them also to build pyramids." Josephus also adds

4171-505: The Jews Antiquities of the Jews ( Latin : Antiquitates Iudaicae ; Greek : Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία , Ioudaikē archaiologia ) is a 20-volume historiographical work, written in Greek , by historian Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of Roman emperor Domitian , which was 94 CE . The book contains an account of the history of the Jewish people for Josephus's gentile patrons. In

4268-452: The Jews Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 where Josephus refers to the stoning of "James the brother of Jesus". Paul L. Maier and Zvi Baras state that there are three possible perspectives on the authenticity of the Testimonium : Paul Maier states that the first case is generally seen as hopeless given that as a Jew, Josephus would not have claimed Jesus as the Messiah, and that the second option

4365-451: The Jews fluttering about the Roman empire, Josephus, set out to provide a Hellenized version of the Jewish history. Such a work is often called an " apologia ," as it pleads the case of a group of people or set of beliefs to a larger audience. In order to accomplish this goal, Josephus omitted certain accounts in the Jewish narrative and even added a Hellenistic "glaze" to his work. For example,

4462-689: The Jews" circulated widely, mainly in Latin translation (e.g Antiquities of the Jews from 1466 in the National Library of Poland ). This work of Joseph Flavius was translated into Old Bulgarian at the Preslav Literary School in the beginning of the 10th century during the time of Simeon the Great . In the 9th–10th centuries, the so-called " Josippon ", written in Hebrew , appeared in Italy. It described

4559-481: The Josephus passages are not interpolations, since a Christian interpolator would likely have made them correspond to the New Testament accounts, not differ from them. Scholars have provided explanations for their inclusion in Josephus' later works. Josephus wrote all of his surviving works after his establishment in Rome ( c.  AD 71 ) under the patronage of the Flavian Emperor Vespasian . As

4656-467: The Josephus texts through comparisons with the Greek manuscripts, confirming proper names and filling in gaps. One of the reasons the works of Josephus were copied and maintained by Christians was that his writings provided a good deal of information about a number of figures mentioned in the New Testament, and the background to events such as the death of James during a gap in Roman governing authority. The three references found in Book 18 and Book 20 of

4753-427: The Messiah. This forms a key external argument against the total authenticity of the Testimonium in that Josephus, as a Jew, would not have claimed Jesus as the Messiah, and the reference to "he was the Christ" in the Testimonium must be a Christian interpolation. Based on this observation alone, Paul L. Maier calls the case for the total authenticity of the Testimonium "hopeless". Almost all modern scholars reject

4850-612: The Syriac translation of the Church History written by Eusebius , which in turn quotes the Testimonium . Whealey notes that Michael's Syriac Testimonium shares several peculiar choices of vocabulary with the version found in the Syriac translation of the Church History . These words and phrases are not shared by an independent Syriac translation of the Testimonium from Eusebius' book Theophania , strongly indicating that Agapius's text

4947-476: The Syriac version has the phrase "he was believed to be Christ". Drawing on these textual variations, scholars have suggested that these versions of the Testimonium more closely reflect what a non-Christian Jew might have written. In 2008, however, Alice Whealey published an article arguing that Agapius' and Michael's versions of the Testimonium are not independent witnesses to the original text of Josephus' Antiquities . Rather, they both ultimately derive from

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5044-444: The Testimonium passage that Origen had seen in the third century was likely to have been neutral or skeptical on Jesus without Christian interpolation and this may have looked unsatisfactory to a Christian editor. Origen's statement in his Commentary on Matthew ( Book X, Chapter 17 ) that Josephus "did not accept Jesus as Christ", is usually seen as a confirmation of the generally accepted fact that Josephus did not believe Jesus to be

5141-530: The Works of Josephus and the Biblical canon also exists. Chronicle A chronicle ( Latin : chronica , from Greek χρονικά chroniká , from χρόνος , chrónos – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline . Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from

5238-489: The abbreviation s.a. , meaning sub anno (under the year), according to the year under which they are listed. For example, " ASC MS A, s.a. 855" means the entry for the year 855 in manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . The same event may be recorded under a different year in another manuscript of the chronicle, and may be cited for example as " ASC MS D, s.a. 857". The most important English chronicles are

5335-401: The authentic kernel, and scholars such as Geza Vermes have argued that the overall characterizations of Jesus in the Testimonium are in accord with the style and approach of Josephus. Until the rise of modern criticism, many scholars believed the Testimonium was nearly or completely authentic with little or no Christian interpolations. Some of these arguments relied on the language used in

5432-528: The authenticity of Testimonium based on the fact that it has no parallel in the Jewish War , which includes a discussion of Pontius Pilate at about the same level of detail. Zvi Baras believes that the Testimonium was subject to interpolation before Eusebius wrote. Baras believes that Origen had seen the original Testimonium but that the Testimonium seen by Origen had no negative reference to Jesus, else Origen would have reacted against it. Baras states that

5529-536: The eleventh century, the Ambrosianus 370 (F 128); preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan . However, the manuscript tradition is complex and many manuscripts are incomplete. The works of Josephus Flavius were popular in late antiquity. Then appeared the translation of "Antiquities of the Jews" into Latin . It is attributed to either Jerome or his contemporary Tyrannius Rufinus . In medieval Europe, "Antiquities of

5626-410: The end of the first century. Geza Vermes concurs, arguing that if the Testimonium had been the work of a Christian forger, it would have placed blame on the Jewish leaders, but as is it is "perfectly in line" with the attitude of Josephus towards Pilate. Vermes also states that the detached depiction of the followers of Jesus is not the work of a Christian interpolator. Vermes calls the Jesus notice in

5723-450: The end-to-end consistency of a paraphrase relationship with the Emmaus text. The more plausible explanation is rather the reverse: an original Christian document was edited by Josephus by applying his usual revision method for the Antiquities . The historical implications of the model, Goldberg argues, include the following. First, it shows Jesus was a historical figure and not a myth, based on

5820-632: The events of world and Jewish history from the time of the construction of the Tower of Babel to the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. Essentially, this chronicle was an abbreviated translation of Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War , but Joseph ben Gorion was named the author. Josippon gained no less popularity than Antiquities of the Jews. With the advent of printing, it was published even before this major work of Josephus Flavius in 1476. In 1602, Thomas Lodge published an English translation of both

5917-575: The first ten volumes, Josephus follows the events of the Hebrew Bible beginning with the creation of Adam and Eve . The second ten volumes continues the history of the Jewish people beyond the biblical text and up to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE). This work, along with Josephus's other major work, The Jewish War ( De Bello Iudaico ), provides valuable background material for historians wishing to understand 1st-century CE Judaism and

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6014-534: The general acceptance of the authenticity of the James passage lends support to the partial authenticity of the Testimonium in that the brief reference to "Jesus, who was called Christ" in Antiquities XX, 9, 1 "clearly implies a prior reference" and that "in all probability the Testimonium is that prior reference". Paul L. Maier concurs with the analysis of Chilton and Evans and states that Josephus' first reference

6111-407: The hands of the Roman authorities. The Testimonium is probably the most discussed passage in Josephus. The earliest secure reference to this passage is found in the writings of the fourth-century Christian apologist and historian Eusebius , who used Josephus' works extensively as a source for his own Historia Ecclesiastica . Writing no later than 324, Eusebius quotes the passage in essentially

6208-509: The interpolation in the Testimonium took place between Origen and Eusebius. Paul L. Maier states that a comparison of Eusebius' reference with the 10th-century Arabic version of the Testimonium due to Agapius of Hierapolis indicates that the Christian interpolation present in the Testimonium must have come early, before Eusebius. Robert E. Van Voorst also states that the interpolation likely took place some time between Origen and Eusebius. Craig Evans states that an argument in favor of

6305-454: The key internal arguments against the complete authenticity of the Testimonium is that the clear inclusion of Christian phraseology strongly indicates the presence of some interpolations. For instance, the phrases "if it be lawful to call him a man" suggests that Jesus was more than human and is likely a Christian interpolation. Some scholars have attempted to reconstruct the original Testimonium , but others contend that attempts to discriminate

6402-413: The life and execution of Jesus by Pilate, which was then subjected to Christian interpolation and alteration. However, the exact nature and extent of the original statement remains unclear. Modern scholarship has largely acknowledged the authenticity of the second reference to Jesus in the Antiquities , found in Book 20, Chapter 9 , which mentions "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name

6499-499: The matches were random, that the Testimonium was a Christian interpolation based on Luke, or that both the Testimonium and Luke were based on the same sources. In a later work, published in 2022, Goldberg investigated Josephus's paraphrase style and concluded only the last of these possibilities could explain why the Emmaus-Testimonium language relationships were end-to-end consistent with Josephus's methods of revision. One of

6596-466: The matching of the text of the Testimonium with the Gospel of Luke performed by Gary Goldberg in 1995. Goldberg found some partial matches between the Testimonium and Luke 24:19–21, 26–27 stating "the Emmaus narrative more closely resembles the Testimonium in its phrase-by-phrase outline of content and order than any other known text of comparable age." Goldberg's analyses suggested three possibilities: that

6693-419: The messiah, and this provided an early independent support of the partial Testimonium in a more neutral form. Zvi Baras argues from this that Origen had seen a version of the Testimonium that included no interpolations. Baras asserts that a Testimonium seen by Origen must have had a neutral tone, and included no derogatory references towards Christians, and hence required no reaction from Origen. He claims that

6790-696: The most important sources in ancient Roman history, along with the works of Titus Livius , Tacitus , Suetonius , and Jerome . Because of this, Josephus is sometimes called the "Titus Livius of the Greeks". The Jewish Encyclopedia speculates that much of Josephus's writings on Herod the Great and his sons draw from the work of Nicolaus of Damascus , a personal friend of Herod's, whose writings remain largely missing; once Nicolaus's narrative on Herod Archelaus ends, Josephus's narrative becomes less detailed. Josephus admitted being familiar with Nicolaus's work but also rebuked Nicolaus for exaggerating Herod's royal claims and benevolence, where Josephus treated Herod as

6887-471: The neutral reconstruction fits better with the Arabic Testimonium discovered by Pines in the 1970s. Van Voorst states that the neutral reconstruction is supported by the majority of scholars because it involves far less conjectural wording and fits better with the style of Josephus. Craig Blomberg states that if the three elements "lawful to call him a man", "he was the Christ" and the reference to

6984-439: The neutral tone of the Testimonium was then modified between the time of Origen and Eusebius. John P. Meier similarly argues that the fact that Origen complains that Josephus had not recognized Jesus as the Messiah points to the fact that Origen had read the original version of the Testimonium , since such a clear statement could not have simply arisen from the "James, brother of Jesus" passage. Andreas Köstenberger argues that

7081-438: The official chronicler often favored individuals who had distinguished themselves by their efforts to study, investigate and disseminate population -related issues. The position was granted on a local level based on the mutual agreements of a city council in plenary meetings. Often, the occupation was honorary, unpaid, and stationed for life. In modern usage, the term usually refers to a type of journalist who writes chronicles as

7178-411: The partial authenticity of the Testimonium is that the passage does not stress the role played by the Jewish leaders in the death of Jesus. According to Evans, if the passage had been an interpolation after the emergence of conflicts between Jews and Christians, it would have had a more accusatory tone, but in its current form reads as one would expect it to read for a passage composed by Josephus towards

7275-440: The passage into Josephan and non-Josephan elements are inherently circular. Another example of the textual arguments against the Testimonium is that it uses the Greek term poietes to mean "doer" (as part of the phrase "doer of wonderful works"), but elsewhere in his works Josephus only uses the term poietes to mean "poet", whereas this use of "poietes" seems consistent with the Greek of Eusebius. According to Wataru Mizugaki,

7372-414: The passage with the rest of Josephus' work; and external arguments, that consider the wider cultural and historical context. Some of the external arguments are "arguments from silence" that question the authenticity of the entire passage not for what it says, but due to lack of references to it among other ancient sources. The external analyses of the Testimonium have even used computer-based methods, e.g.

7469-788: The perspective of the chronicler . A chronicle which traces world history is a universal chronicle . This is in contrast to a narrative or history , in which an author chooses events to interpret and analyze and excludes those the author does not consider important or relevant. The information sources for chronicles vary. Some are written from the chronicler's direct knowledge, others from witnesses or participants in events, still others are accounts passed down from generation to generation by oral tradition . Some used written material, such as charters , letters , and earlier chronicles. Still others are tales of unknown origin that have mythical status. Copyists also changed chronicles in creative copying, making corrections or in updating or continuing

7566-470: The position that the Testimonium is partially authentic, had a kernel with an authentic reference to Jesus, and that the analysis of its content and style support this conclusion. While before the advent of literary criticism most scholars considered the Testimonium entirely authentic, thereafter the number of supporters of full authenticity declined. However, most scholars now accept partial authenticity and many attempt to reconstruct their own version of

7663-558: The product of an 11th-century creation as part of a larger ideological struggle against the Khazars . As a result, it has little place in the ongoing debate over the authenticity and nature of the references to Jesus in the Antiquities. Craig A. Evans states that although some scholars had in the past supported the Slavonic Josephus , "to my knowledge no one today believes that they contain anything of value for Jesus research". In 1971,

7760-417: The questions that researchers have raised about the passage, shedding light on the origin of specific difficult phrases and accounting for its brevity and its mixture of Josephan language with a Christian creedal structure. While many had previously suspected that an original Josephus passage had been edited by a later Christian to give the creedal appearance, the paraphrase model argues such edits cannot explain

7857-399: The reasoning that Josephus's treatment of his source indicates he thought it reliable; it must have conformed with what he knew of events under Pilate. The model also provides unique evidence about the dating of at least one passage of Luke's Gospel. And as the paraphrase shows Josephus had obtained a Christian source and treated it with a degree of respect, it provides an unexpected window into

7954-430: The relationships found among any other ancient Jesus texts, Goldberg proposes the most plausible explanation of these findings is that the Jesus passage in the Antiquities is indeed Josephus's paraphrase of a Christian text very much like, if not identical to, Luke's Emmaus narrative (Luke 24:18–24). This paraphrase model, Goldberg argues, is not only a natural application of Josephus's writing processes but also resolves

8051-405: The removal of some elements from the Testimonium produces a passage that is likely to be an authentic reference to the death of Jesus. In the estimation of James Dunn , there is "broad consensus" among scholars regarding what the Testimonium would look like without the interpolations. According to Dunn's reconstruction, the original passage likely read: Now there was about this time Jesus,

8148-460: The resurrection are removed from the Testimonium the rest of the passage flows smoothly within the context, fits the style of Josephus and is likely to be authentic. Blomberg adds that after the removal of these three elements (which are likely interpolations) from the Greek versions the remaining passage fits well with the Arabic version and supports the authenticity of the reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate. Joel B. Green also states that

8245-425: The same form as that preserved in extant manuscripts. It has therefore been suggested by a minority of scholars that part or all of the passage may have been Eusebius' own invention, in order to provide an outside Jewish authority for the life of Christ. Some argue that the wording in the Testimonium differs from Josephus' usual writing style, and that a traditional Jew would not have proclaimed ὁ χριστὸς οὗτος ἦν ("he

8342-413: The tone of the original reference and while some scholars believe that it had a negative tone which was softened by Christian interpolators, others believe that it had a neutral tone, in keeping with the style and approach of Josephus regarding the issue. According to Van Voorst, scholars who support the negative reconstruction contend that the reference read something like "source of further trouble in Jesus

8439-494: The total authenticity of the Testimonium , while the majority of scholars still hold that it includes an authentic kernel. A different set of external arguments against the authenticity of the Testimonium (either partial or total) are " arguments from silence ", e.g. that although twelve Christian authors refer to Josephus before Eusebius in AD ;324, none mentions the Testimonium . Even after Eusebius' AD 324 reference, it

8536-530: The total or partial authenticity of the Testimonium is that a 5th- or 6th-century table of contents of Josephus (albeit selective) makes no mention of it. Andreas Köstenberger argues that the fact that the 10th-century Arabic version of the Testimonium (discovered in the 1970s) lacks distinct Christian terminology while sharing the essential elements of the passage indicates that the Greek Testimonium has been subject to interpolation. A final argument from silence relates to Josephus' own writings and questions

8633-403: The total or partial authenticity of the Testimonium . While early scholars considered the Testimonium to be a total forgery, the majority of modern scholars consider it partially authentic, despite some clear Christian interpolations in the text. The arguments surrounding the authenticity of the Testimonium fall into two categories: internal arguments that rely on textual analysis and compare

8730-467: The tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared. Flavius Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews , Book 18, Chapter 3, 3 For Greek text see [2] The Testimonium Flavianum (meaning the testimony of Flavius Josephus ) is a passage found in Book 18, Chapter 3, 3 (or see Greek text ) of the Antiquities which describes the condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus at

8827-438: The truth with pleasure", where "pleasure" (ἡδονή) connotes hedonistic value, is not in line with how Christians saw the point of Jesus' teachings. Claiming that Jesus won over "both Jews and Greeks" is a misunderstanding that a Christian scribe would not likely have made, knowing that Jesus mainly ministered to Jews. Also, the phrase "Those who had first loved him did not cease doing so" is Josephan in style, and calling Christians

8924-567: The works of Josephus have been contested to have had scribal tempering, Christian copyists were usually conservative when transmitting texts in general, and seeing that the works of Philo were unaltered by Christian scribes through the centuries strongly support that it is very unlikely that the passage was invented out of thin air by a Christian scribe. Philo often wrote in a way that was favorable to Christian ideas and yet no Christian scribes took advantage of that to insert Jesus or Christian beliefs into Philo's text. Chilton and Evans state that

9021-511: The years of the sovereign's power, and not those of the Christian æra. The Chronicles compiled in large cities were arranged in like manner, with the years reckoned according to the annual succession of chief magistrates." – John Gough Nichols , critical edition foreword to Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London (1852) Scholars categorize the genre of chronicle into two subgroups: live chronicles, and dead chronicles. A dead chronicle

9118-473: Was James." Almost all modern scholars consider the reference in Book 18, Chapter 5 of the Antiquities to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist also to be authentic and not a Christian interpolation . A number of differences exist between the statements by Josephus regarding the death of John the Baptist and the New Testament accounts. Scholars generally view these variations as indications that

9215-540: Was published both in modern languages and in Latin. The first Russian translation of Jewish Antiquities appeared in 1781. First Italian translation dates to 1549 in Venice. One of the best known translations of this work was provided by William Whiston in 1737, which has been in print continuously since then. The Loeb Classical Library published a 1926 translation by Henry St. John Thackeray and Ralph Marcus, normally preferred academically. A cross-reference apparatus for

9312-423: Was the Testimonium . Geza Vermes also considers the "who was called Christ" reference in the James passage as the second reference to Jesus in the Antiquities and states that the first reference is likely to be the Testimonium . Robert Van Voorst states that most modern scholars believe that the Testimonium is partially authentic, and has a reference to Jesus. However, he states that scholars are divided on

9409-486: Was the Christ," at Josephus' time simply meaning "Messiah.") See also the arguments for authenticity in the sections below. Of the three passages found in Josephus' Antiquities, this passage, if authentic, would offer the most direct support for the crucifixion of Jesus. It is broadly agreed that while the Testimonium Flavianum cannot be authentic in its entirety, it originally consisted of an authentic nucleus with

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