The Life of Flavius Josephus is in an autobiography that originally appeared as an appendix to his famous work, The Antiquities. This autobiography is often referred to in the Latin as Vita. Josephus was a Jewish historian.
You may read the entire Life of Flavius Josephus by clicking here. When you arrive there, to find Josephus's account about his crucified friend who survived that ordeal, cursor down to paragraph number 75. The account is covered in the last two lengthy sentences of that paragraph. You may also wish to search the web for other translations, in order to satisfy yourself of the authenticity. You may read about Flavius Josephus by clicking here, at the Catholic Encyclopedia or at other online sites.
[On another note, Josephus has become the center of a hot debate between Christian and non-Christian scholars. It surrounds the following quote that is found in his famous work, Jewish Antiquities:
| "At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one should call him a man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of the people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. He was the Messiah. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. For he appeared to them on the third day, living again, just as the divine prophets had spoken of these and countless other wondrous things about him. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out. (Jewish Antiquities, 18.63-64)" |
An article by Jona Lendering states:
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"It is unlikely that a pious Jew like Flavius Josephus would have written that Jesus 'appeared to them on the third day, living again'; consequently, there has been a lot of scholarly debate about the explanation of this strange remark. Some argued that we had to admit that Flavius Josephus had become a Christian; others maintained that it was made up by some Byzantine monk who copied the Jewish Antiquities. The latter explanation can be ruled out because a more or less identical text had been found in an Arabian translation of a part of the Jewish Antiquities. In 1991, John Meier has suggested that Josephus did in fact mention Jesus, but that the text was glossed by a Christian author. His reconstruction of the text is as follows:
"Even in this reconstruction, this text is of monumental importance. Not only is Flavius Josephus the only first century non-Christian writer who makes reference to Jesus' life, teachings and death and is his statement independent of the gospels, but he also suggests that Jesus was innocent. A straightforward report would have told that Pilate executed the man from Nazareth because he was considered to be the king of the Jews. But instead of naming the accusation, the Jewish historian names the accusers. Since he usually delights in writing about the deserved punishment of rebels and pretenders, the fact that he does not inform us of the charge, means that he thought that Jesus was innocent." |
