Josephus

Jesus in Josephus

Published on April 22, 2004 By Shulamite In History

My brother sent me this email he wrote. I'm helping him with his final :

: senior collegiate English paper. I thought I'd pass it on for whatever worth it may be to anyone. I didn't change anything about the email so it's in informal email style. Enjoy!

in my research for my paper thats um due in uh 19 hours lol... i found
this good quote from Josephus, a secular jewish historian that wasn't a
christian and was highly respected even by roman emperors such as titus
and vespasian... this is taken from the Antiquities of the Jews Book
XVIII Chapter III Verse 3.

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 wonderful works, a teacher of such
men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of
the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when
Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst 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.

Comments

greywar

on Apr 23, 2004

Yes Josephus is one of the very few historical references to Jesus outside of the later canonical texts.

Wahkonta Anathema

on Apr 23, 2004

As with Herodotus, one has to have Josephus to gain insight into the state of civilization and its passage to the modern age. Thanks for pointing out this portion of his works. It shows objective evidence of Jesus' life outside the 'Holy Bible'. There are some questions of his work I won't go into now. Another incident you will want to read concerns the siege of Jews that occured at that time. He speaks of a mother sitting and eating her own baby, unable to feed it, and offering a portion to another. It is a moving incident that goes to one's soul to resolve, and leaves one a different person. Yes, Josephus is quite a read, and again I thank you for bringing attention to him in this way.

Shulamite

on Apr 23, 2004

Greywar -- one of the few?? what's your source? And what do you mean by "later?" They were written pretty contemporarily.

Yes, Jesus predicted the fall of Jerusalem that happened in about 70AD. Wahkonta, yes, it is very sad about the conditions of humanity. We are capable of so much more evil than we'd imagine. We're not nearly as noble as we think we are. Thanks for your comments. I recall how the romans would expose their babies to "abort" them. Did you know our nation practices a very similar thing? We're grusome beings...

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