Our friend Josephus

I mentioned in my last post that we would look a little deeper into what sources outside of the New Testament have to say about Jesus.

Let's look at what we can dig up in the works of the Jewish historian Josephus. Much of what we know about Jewish history in the first century is only found in the books he has written.

Josephus is the most significant witness to Jesus. He wrote a number of works on Jewish history during the latter half of the first century. Before we look at the crucial passage on Jesus Christ, let's examine a couple of supporting passages that supply some important background support to the main passage. The two persons that Josephus mentions are John the Baptist and James the brother of Jesus.

Josephus mentions John the Baptist (cf. Mt. 14:1-12; Mk. 6:14-29; Lk. 9:7-9) in the following passage in The Antiquities. No scholar doubts the authenticity of this passage (Ant. 18.116-19).

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, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. 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. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him.

There are some minor differences between this account and that in the Gospels, but note that Josephus mentions important points paralleled in the Gospel accounts, such as the baptism performed by John, the forgiveness of sins associated with this baptism, John’s preaching, popularity and influence with the crowds, John’s imprisonment, Herod’s murder of John, and that Herod killed him unjustly. Thus we have undisputed corroboration for significant facts regarding what the Gospels have to say about John the Baptist.

Now let us look at what Josephus has to say about a member of Jesus' family. The Gospels mention the brothers and sisters of Jesus (Mt. 13:55; Mk. 3:21), and state that they did not believe that he was the Christ (Jn. 7:5). However, James, Jesus’ younger brother, converted after seeing Jesus risen from the dead (1 Cor. 15:7) and later became the head of the church in Jerusalem around A.D. 50 (Acts 15:19-23). Josephus describes how the high priest Ananus organized a mob to stone James in A.D. 62 as follows (Ant. 20:200):

But this younger Ananus…assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa], desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more.

Few scholars question the authenticity of this passage. There are just no good reasons to doubt it. The mention of James is purely incidental, since the point of the passage being to explain why Ananus lost his post as high priest. Note also that the passage refers to James as “the brother of Jesus” which contrasts with the Christian practice of referring to him as “the brother of the Lord (cf. Gal. 1:19).

So we have two passages in Josephus regarded as historically sound that coincide well with the Gospel accounts of two important contemporaries of Jesus, John the Baptist and James the brother of Jesus. Next posting I will look at the main passage by Josephus that talks about Jesus Christ.