How new research defends Josephus’s words on Jesus
Tuesday’s election results and their implications continue to dominate the headlines today, but a different story caught my eye as I was preparing for this morning’s article. To be honest, I’m glad it did. I was not really looking forward to more politics as we head into the weekend, and the chance to explore some new evidence that speaks to yet another reason why it’s reasonable to believe that Jesus is who the Bible says he is has been a far more enjoyable and encouraging way to spend that time. My prayer is that the same will be true for you as well.
The story goes back to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus and one of the most controversial passages in his extensive Antiquities of the Jews. Specifically, it refers to a mere ninety words that are significant enough to earn their own moniker: Testimonium Flavianum.
In this section, Josephus writes:
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 to this day. (Antiquities 18.3.3)
Given that Josephus was not a Christian and had no reason to lie in support of Jesus, his account has been treated as one of the earliest extra-biblical pieces of evidence for the veracity of the gospel. However, that’s also why many in modern scholarship doubt the words are really his. And that’s where our story for today comes in.
A personal connection
- C. Schmidt is an associate professor of religious studies at Fairfield University. In his book, Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ, he examines parts of this passage before ultimately demonstrating how it’s reasonable to believe that Josephus really was the one who wrote these words.
My degree is in church history, and I will readily admit that stories like this might be of more interest to me than to most. As such, I won’t go into detail on Schmidt’s arguments here, though I’d highly recommend John Dickson’s article for The Gospel Coalition if you’d like the more detailed version.
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What stuck out to me most, though, had less to do with the words in Josephus’s text—which are less definitive than most translations today, but still demonstrate what early Christians believed about Christ—than what Schmidt was able to find about where Josephus got his information.
For the better part of two thousand years, people were content to leave the question of the historian’s sources unknown. However, Schmidt found that Josephus was directly connected to the priestly dynasty that presided over Christ’s trial and likely obtained a firsthand account of what happened when Jesus was brought before Annas and Caiaphas in the hours leading up to his crucifixion (John 18).
As Dickson describes, “The upshot of this complicated discussion of priestly family connections is that when Josephus wrote in the Testimonium Flavianum that Jesus had been accused by ‘the first men among us,’ he was plausibly drawing not on Christian rumor but on the recollections of Jerusalem leaders he knew personally.”
And that personal connection is what I found particularly helpful for my walk with God today.
A father’s prayer
My favorite verse in the Bible is in Mark 9, when the father of a demon-possessed boy with seizures cries out to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Whether it was in times of fear and uncertainty, like when I had cancer, or more mundane moments when the idea that there’s a God—much less one willing to send his Son to die for my sins—simply seems difficult to believe, that father’s prayer has been the best I could offer the Lord more times than I can count.
And just like in Mark 9, it’s usually been enough.
Fortunately, the moments of doubt are less frequent now than they used to be, but there are still times when I have to go back over the various reasons why I believe all of this God stuff is true. Stories like Schmidt’s study of Josephus are helpful reminders that it’s not unreasonable to come to that conclusion. And I really appreciate that we serve a God who is not only okay with our doubts but goes above and beyond to leave evidence behind to help us combat them (Romans 1:20). After all, he didn’t have to do that.
It was well within God’s right to demand our obedience and faith simply because he is God. If you look at most other religions across human history, that’s what their gods did. But our Lord is different. He’s willing to risk our disobedience and rejection in order to leave room for genuine trust and faith.
So, the next time you or someone you know starts to stray down the path toward disbelief, take a moment to reflect on why doing so is even an option. Our capacity to doubt is an integral part of our capacity to believe. And while we have more than enough evidence to conclude that placing our trust in the God of the Bible is the reasonable thing to do, it’s still a choice he leaves with us.
If you’ve chosen to believe, take some time today to thoughtfully and prayerfully reflect on why.
William Barclay once wrote that “There is nothing worse than a situation in which people are orthodox because they are too lazy to think for themselves.” God wants more from us than that, and he’s more than willing to walk with us through any doubts or moments of disbelief that emerge along the way.
Are you?
Quote of the day:
“Faith is reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God.” —John Stott
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