My friend Victoria at Raynotbradbury challenged me to post about an author or philosopher of the ancient world, and I have chosen Josephus. Here are Vic’s rules for the challenge: 1) Choose an author or philosopher from Ancient times. Country of origin doesn’t matter. 2) Share 3 of that individual’s quotes and any other info about him or her you care to provide. 3) Challenge 3 to 6 additional Bloggers.
Flavius Josephus, 37 CE – 100 CE, lived in Jerusalem during Rome’s occupation of Judea and commanded Jewish troops against the Romans during the first Jewish War. After surrendering in 67 CE, he became a slave under Emperor Vespasian and was eventually granted his freedom. While scholars continue to debate the authenticity and accuracy of his published works, he is for the most part acknowledged by the scholarly community as a reliable source of historical information about 1st-century Palestine.
Josephus is one of the very few extra-biblical sources of information about Jesus Christ, which is why I chose him for this challenge. The history of religion, especially of Christianity, is one of my major areas of interest, and I have spent a significant portion of my adult life reading about and studying the subject. I am not a scholar myself but am fairly well-versed in the range of modern scholarly debate & opinions about early Christian history.
I relinquished my faith years ago and am an Agnostic. Although most days I don’t believe in the existence of a God or gods, I do believe there was a historical Jesus who was called Messiah by some and whose life is the basis for the stories about him in the Christian New Testament. I present this information simply to share it, not in an attempt to sway anyone’s opinion about the subject.
The quotes I have chosen are the three passages from The Antiquities of the Jews that are most often provided as reliable statements about the historical Jesus and early Christian history.
1) from Book 20, Chapter 9, 1: “But this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of the judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”
2) from Book 18, Chapter 5, 2: “Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man… Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion… Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death.”
3) from Book 18, Chapter 3, 3: “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 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 the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.”
Having no other sources to hand, I’ve relied upon Wikipedia for my information. The quotes and info I’m sharing here are located at:
If you’re interested in learning more about Josephus, those two pages are a good starting point, and they include extensive lists of works cited.
Finally, I challenge three of my most recent followers:
M. A. Young at AnnotherVoice
Esoterica at Existential Ergonomics
Nathi at A Wayward Scribbles
I hope y’all will take a few minutes to visit their blogs and see what they have to say. And feel free to chime in below on any aspect of my post.