DAY 233
CHALLENGE
“Jesus never existed. The passage where Josephus refers to him is fake.”
DEFENSE
The passage in question is not a fake.
Most manuscripts of Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews, written around A.D. 93, contain this passage:
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 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 (18:3:3).
This speaks of Jesus the way a Christian might, but Josephus was not a Christian, so scholars have concluded the passage did not appear in this form in his original writings. However, that doesn’t mean it’s fake. It means it was edited by a later Christian.
There is a broad consensus among scholars that Antiquities originally contained a version of this passage, but certain phrases were added by a Christian editor. When the phrases indicating a Christian editor are removed, the original passage may be reconstructed along these lines:
At that time there appeared Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. 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. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians (named after him) has not died out (John Meier, A Marginal Jew, 1:61).
In addition, there is a later passage (Antiquities 20:9:1) that refers back to Jesus, further indicating that Josephus originally included a version of this passage (see Day 147).
TIP
For further discussion, see Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus, 235–42.