Flavius Josephus was, amongst other things a Jewish historian of the first century AD. He wrote a couple of significant works of Jewish history, namely “The Antiquities Of The Jews” and “The Wars of the Jews”. The Antiquities Of The Jews covers history from the Creation until the first century AD. It is a long work of 20 volumes that I am not about to read from beginning to end, but it is interesting to Christians in that it covers the time of Jesus and gives us a different perspective on some of the people mentioned in the Bible.
The full text of the book is on Project Gutenberg. I did a search and found the following interesting passages concerning John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and Jesus’s brother James:
John The Baptist
“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 only for the remission of sins, 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 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, 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.”
Jesus Christ
“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.”
James Brother Of Jesus
“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 to exercise his authority. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of 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:”
___________________
When writing about Jesus, Josephus says “And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day”. And still going strong after 2,000 years!
Josephus himself lived from c.37 to c.100 AD, so he was born just after these events took place, so he would have had to rely on verbal testimony and any available documentation. During his lifetime, there would have been many who were witnesses to the events. Although not exactly contemporary accounts, they do confirm that these were historical people and not some religious fantasy, as some would want you to believe.
The paragraph about John the Baptist is revealing because it indicates that Herod was the instigator of the execution of John the Baptist, instead of being beguiled and tricked into it. Either way, he is culpable and it is interesting that Jews viewed the destruction of his army as God’s punishment. Jesus’s brother James was prominent in the early Christian church and his death, and the manner of it, are not recorded in the Bible. Other passages of the book are quite interesting about Pontius Pilate and the other people prominent in Jesus’s time.
Josephus was an observant Jew and not a Christian, and so was recording history as he knew it. He wrote Antiquities Of The Jews in c.94 AD, so about 60 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Clearly at that time, and throughout the life of Josephus, there was wide knowledge and presumably discussion of Jesus and the origins of Christianity so that he needed to make mention of John the Baptist, of Jesus Christ and of his brother James. James is believed to have been killed in 62-69 AD, so Josephus was an adult at the time and probably knew of it first hand.
Addendum 10/07/2024
I have looked into this subject a bit more, having been told that Josephus’s original text had been “edited” subsequently by Christians.
A strong argument to support the theory that it was edited is that it is highly improbable that Josephus, an observant Jew, would refer to Jesus as the Christ. The word “Christ” derives form the Greek “Christos” which means anointed, as is also the meaning of the word Messiah.
It is more plausible that he wrote something like Jesus was thought (by some) to be the Christ. The thing is that all extent texts derive from a version from Eusebius, a 4th century Christian theologian.
What is in less doubt is that Josephus’s writing is one more piece of evidence that Jesus really did live and that he was crucified. As also stated above, Josephus mentions John the Baptist and James, brother of Jesus, who was killed in his living memory. It is unlikely that those mentions are additions, because if one were intent on doctoring the Josephus text to such an extent to support Bible records, one would include more and different topics.
So I am inclined to think that later Christians probably did make alterations to the text, but I also think they were probably limited to identifying Jesus as the Christ.
It is not implausible for Josephus to have said that followers of Jesus were known as Christians “to this day” (i.e. the time Josephus wrote). It is worthy of note because there were other sects at the time