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Feb. 23, 2010 Titus Flavius Josephus (c. 37-100 AD) was the Jewish historian who authored Antiquities of the Jews, a voluminous work that outlines Jewish history from Egyptian times up to the first century. The book, which appeared in 93 AD, was written in Greek. The earliest surviving manuscripts date from the eleventh century. However, its most famous paragraph, known as the Testimonium Flavianum (Flavian Testimony) was quoted in 324 AD by Eusebius of Caesarea (263-339 AD). This paragraph has been used for centuries as evidence for the existence of an historical Jesus. 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. The quotation from Eusebius makes it appear that Josephus did acknowledge that Jesus was the Christ, that is, the Messiah, that his coming was prophesied, that he was a doer of wonderful things, and that he was resurrected after death, exactly as Christians have always maintained. These comments, coming from the mouth of a Jew, who ordinarily would have been antagonistic, were seen as all the more convincing on that account. However, Origen (c.185-254 AD), reviewing Antiquities of the Jews, said that he regretted that Josephus had not believed in Jesus Christ and did not accept Jesus as Christ, whereas Eusebius’ quotation, some 84 years later, seems to make it clear that Josephus did accept and believe in Jesus as Christ. How is it then that Origen could have stated just the opposite? One explanation could be that Eusebius forged the laudatory paragraph and interpolated it into the text of Antiquities of the Jews. Even the Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the passage, as it stands, is highly improbable. However, since Origen is supposed to have deplored that Josephus rejected Jesus, there must have been some kind of paragraph, albeit derogatory, in the original manuscript of Antiquities of the Jews. A number of “reconstructions” have been invented to fill the need, the idea being to save the Testimonium Flavianum for its evidentiary value, while graciously allowing the Jewish historian to talk like a Jew about Jesus. So what does the Testimonium Flavianum come down to? It turns out that the Testimonium Flavianum, then, is the highly problematic prototype of a number of fanciful reconstructions, and that is was written 60 or 65 years after the supposed time of the crucifixion by a man born several years after Jesus, if there was such a person, died. If you filed a suit in a modern courtroom to claim the title to land that belonged to your family three generations ago, and the only evidence you had was some little scrap of paper with an obviously doctored text, your case would be dismissed immediately. But equally flimsy evidence serves as absolute proof if it alleges that Jesus was the Messiah. This “testimony” is actually the best of several scraps that Christians have preserved as extra-Biblical proofs of the historicity of Jesus. If you think this one is lame, you should see the others. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! 
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