Dictionary Article

Josephus was born into an aristocratic priestly family in Jerusalem. Through his mother he was related to the Hasmoneans. In his youth he was noted for his memory and ease in learning. As a teenager he attached himself to a member of an ascetic sect. Then he became a Pharisee.

In AD 64 Josephus was a member of an official party sent to Rome to secure the release of some priests. The empire’s capital made an indelible impression on him. After his return to Jerusalem, the first Jewish revolt erupted (AD 66). The Sanhedrin (the Jewish governing council) appointed Josephus commander of Galilee. He organized the province well but incurred the opposition of John of Gischala, Galilee’s former leader. Conflict between the two men’s forces continued until the arrival of the Roman general Vespasian in the spring of 67.

Josephus and the Galileans entrenched themselves at Jotapata. After a siege of six weeks, the Roman army captured and destroyed the city, but Josephus and 40 soldiers escaped to a cave. Josephus, whose life was assured by the Romans through a friend’s intervention, persuaded his fellow soldiers to kill each other rather than be captured. When only he and one other remained alive, he surrendered to the Romans.

When Josephus appeared before Vespasian and prophesied that Vespasian would become emperor, his life was spared. Nonetheless, Josephus was held prisoner. Vespasian was proclaimed emperor in the year 69 and Josephus was set free. He then adopted Vespasian’s family name, Flavius. In 70, when Vespasian’s son Titus marched on Jerusalem, Josephus accompanied him. Several times Josephus tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Jews to surrender.

After Titus’s destruction of Jerusalem, Josephus went to Rome, where Vespasian favored him with Roman citizenship and a pension. Free to write, Josephus produced a number of books of considerable historical value. In The Jewish War (AD 77–78) Josephus described the Roman-Jewish conflict from the time of Antiochus Ephiphanes to slightly beyond the fall of Jerusalem. Perhaps Josephus’s greatest work was Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94). A 20-volume work designed to glorify the Jews and eliminate gentile hostility, it traces Jewish history from the Creation to the outbreak of war with Rome in 66. His autobiography, Life, was primarily a vindication of his activities as governor of Galilee. Josephus wrote Against Apion to counteract claims of anti-Semites; in this work he used logical arguments as well as derision.

As a historian, Josephus sometimes distorted facts in favor of his patrons. However, he was witness to many of the events about which he wrote. His works illumine the period in which the church came into existence, especially concerning the religion, politics, geography, and prominent persons of the early Christian era. Of particular interest to Christians are his references to John the Baptist, Jesus, and James the Just (Jesus’ brother).

Josephus’s Words about Jesus

In his volume Antiquities of the Jews (18.2), Josephus said this about 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 Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among 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.

Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary