You are probably familiar with the phrase, "According to Josephus . . . ." The writings of this first-century Jewish historian are sometimes cited as extra-biblical proof that Jesus was the Messiah. Before examining that claim and then seeing what it has to do with the Christian life today, let's take a very brief look at the life and work of Josephus.

Joseph ben Matthias, to use his original name, was born in Jerusalem in about the year 37 or 38 CE to a noble and priestly family. He was related on his mother's side to the Hasmonean dynasty of rulers, which included Herod the Great. Joseph showed himself to be very studious as a child. According to one source, when he was only fourteen, rabbis came the young man to consult about Jewish law and history. As a youth, Joseph studied the three main national sects of the Jews, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. He then spent three years of monastic life in the desert. When Joseph returned to Jerusalem at age 19, he attached himself to the Pharisees.

In the year 64, Joseph went on a two-year mission to Rome to negotiate successfully the release of some priests held as prisoners there. The visit impressed on the young man a sense of the invincible might of Rome. On his return to Judea in 66, Joseph found his countrymen smarting under the harsh rule of the last of the Roman procurators and heading toward revolt. Joseph tried to pacify the war party, warning that the Romans had vast military superiority over the Jewish people of Palestine.

In spite of Joseph's efforts, continued problems with Roman rule resulted in the outbreak of armed rebellion in the year 66. Presumably owing to his social status and political experience, Joseph played a leadership role in the uprising's early stages. While serving as supreme commander of the rebel forces in the Galilee region, he led an unsuccessful defense of the fortified town of Jotapata. When some of the defenders called on all of their comrades to participate in ritual suicide, Joseph demurred, opting instead to surrender to the Roman General Vespasian.

After a two-year imprisonment, Vespasian, by then emperor, set Joseph free. The young man followed the new Roman ruler to Egypt, then accompanied Vespasian's son, Titus, back to Judea. In the ensuing siege of Jerusalem, Joseph served as mediator by going round the walls counseling submission. At length, the Romans took the city and destroyed the Temple. Soon afterward, there occurred the inspiring but hopeless defense of the fortress of Masada high above the western shore of the Dead Sea. Joseph witnessed the siege from within the lines of the Roman encampment.

Joseph then accompanied the conquerors back to Rome. There he was given a Latin name, Flavius Josephus, and commissioned to write the history of the Roman triumph over his countrymen. For accomplishing this task, he was awarded Roman citizenship, a lodging in Vespasian's former villa, and a generous pension.

Sometime after the death of Emperor Titus (who had succeeded his father), Josephus attempted to reclaim his ethnic heritage by becoming the historian and apologist for the Jewish people. He died in Rome early in the second century. Most Jews of the time (and many afterward) never forgave Josephus for deserting, as they saw it, to the Romans, during the great revolt. It was Rome that perpetuated his memory. A statue of Josephus was erected in the imperial capital, and his works were placed in a library there.

Josephus' fame rests on the contents of those writings. It is from them that the Western world knows most of what it knows about Jewish history outside the Bible, including the important events of the first century CE, when Jesus was alive, when the Christian religion had begun to spread, and when the terrible War with Rome devastated and almost destroyed the Jewish people.

Josephus' works include the seven-volume History of the Jewish War, the twenty-volume Antiquities of the Jews, a one-volume Autobiography, and a two-volume work called Against Apion, which was a defense of Judaism and the Jewish people against attacks by the Greco-Roman world's anti-Semites.

What about Josephus and Jesus? It is in the Antiquities that one finds reference to Jesus of Nazareth, especially in the 18th Book. There appears in some manuscripts a passage that has come to be known in Christian history as the testimonium Flavianum. It reads, in one form at least, as follows:

About this time lived Jesus, a man full of wisdom, if indeed one may call him a man. For he was the doer of incredible things, and a teacher of such as gladly received the truth. He thus attracted to himself many Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. On the accusation of the leading men of our people, Pilate condemned him to death upon the cross; nevertheless those who had previously loved him still remained faithful to him. For on the third day he again appeared to them living, just as, in addition to a thousand other marvellous things, prophets sent by God had foretold. And to the present day the race of those who call themselves Christians after him has not ceased.

This seems to be the testimony of a famous Jewish historian (who had once been a priest of the Jewish religion) that Jesus was the promised Messiah and that he rose from the dead, as the New Testament states in several places. From the time of Eusebius, a Church Father of the fourth century, until about the sixteenth century, this text was accepted as an accurate rendering of what Josephus had written.

During the past several hundred years, many scholars, some of them Christian, some not, have expressed doubt that Josephus wrote those words exactly as given above. They point out that Origen, a Church Father of the early part of the third century, stated more than once that Josephus rejected the notion that Jesus was the Messiah. Also, before the fourth century, there is no mention of this passage in the surviving Christian literature. One would think that Christian apologists from the first century on would have often referred to such welcome testimony to Jesus being the Messiah and rising from the dead. Such is not the case. Those who doubt the authenticity of the testimonium Flavianum explain the wording as either a revision by a later Christian writer or as the result of some sort of censorship.

Here are some phrases from a tenth-century Arabic version of the passage: "And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders." This is not the genuine text of Josephus, but may be truer to the original than the version that has come down to us.

What does all of this have to do with Christians today? It is that those who believe that Jesus is indeed the Christ and have committed themselves to him should not fall back on the phrase "according to Josephus" when seeking historical evidence to authenticate Jesus' existence. Josephus surely knew some of the stories about Jesus and the early Church. He doubtless was acquainted with some Christians--especially Christian Jews, some of whom participated in the Jewish war against Rome. But what little he says about Jesus and the early Christians seems to be second-hand.

Where, then, should we look for evidence of the truth of Christianity? Of course we should--and do--look to the Holy Scriptures. But that authoritative source, alone, is not enough. We all love the children's hymn of testimony, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." But is that the only way or the best way that we know that Jesus is God and that God loves you and me?

Ultimately, our proof of these matters lies not in the words of a book, important as they are, but in the testimony of God's Spirit in our own lives and in the lives of our Christian brothers and sisters. We can answer with them the question in the gospel song, "You ask me how I know he lives?" with the answer, "He lives within my heart."

We are all familiar with the famous Old Testament meaning of the verb to know, with its sexual connotation. In the New Testament. the Apostle Paul spiritualized that idea of knowledge as personal experience and relationship when he wrote in Philippians 3:10, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection . . . ." In that sense, we can--and should--seek to know Jesus intimately as well as intellectually. May we pray?

God, we give thanks for all of the ways that you make yourself real to us, as parent, savior, counselor, friend, even as the lover of our souls. Help us to live this and of all our days in the light of our imperfect but exciting and personal knowledge of your reality.
AMEN.

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