Steven Carr

Why did Josephus write about Christians in his Antiquities of the Jews?

Christianity was not one of the schools of thought that Josephus said Judaism was split into.

So why write about Christians?

mountainman

Perhaps more specifically why did he write about the "tribe" or "nation" of Christians?


[ I think the academy or school of "christians"
can be ruled out on account of people like Papias ]

Toto

I assume the point of this is that Josephus did not in fact write about Christians - unless the Essenes were actually Christians, or proto-Christians. If so, does this cause more problems than it solves?

ynquirer

According to Josephus, Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes were the three sects that were among the Jews. In contrast, he says that the Christians were a tribe.

Thus, Christians are put on the same footing as the twelve traditional tribes of Israel. This seems indication that the Christians were a sort of outcasts in the Jewish society of the first century.

While a Levite that belonged in the Pharisees was still a Levite, a Naphthalite that become a Sadducee was still a Naphthalite, and a Benjamite could join the Essenes without ceasing to be a Benjamite, for instance, a Levite, a Naphthalite, and a Benjamite that converted to the Christian faith no longer were a Levite, a Naphthalite, and a Benjamite, but simply “Christians.”

angelo

Hold on there! Wasn't the paragraph attributed to Josephus in his work Antiquities an interpolation by the later christians?

aa5874

The passage, the "TF" in AJ 18.3.3, that contains the word "christians" is a forgery or at least questionable.

It is therefore of very little consequence to make claims about "christians" as found in Josephus.

And further, in the NT and virtually all the church writings before the 4th century or before Eusebius, "christians" were not even described as a tribe.

The use of the word "tribe" in the TF may be an indication of the origin of the forgery.

This is the "TF", AJ 18.3.3 See www.earlyjewishwritings.com


It should be noted that the word "christians" is found only once in all the writings of Josephus and that he did not mention any christian by name, did not write about the doctine of christians or their manner of living.

On the other hand, Josephus wrote the names of persons who were Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes and was able to give details of the doctrine and manner of living of the three sects in "Wars of the Jews", "Antiquities of the Jews" and "The Life of Flavius Josephus".

There is no indication at all that Josephus knew a christian or had ever heard of or saw a christian in all of his writings.

James Brown

The bookstore where I work carries "The Complete Works of Josephus" in the Christian Reference section. Shouldn't it be in the Judaica section? Or perhaps Ancient History?

I wonder if Orthodox Jews cling to Josephus as much as evangelical Christians?

storytime

A Levite and Benjamite who followed the teaching of the Jewish Christ remained Jewish. Paul was a Benjamite and a Jew. (Netanyahu is said to be a Benjamite and a Jew) Paul maintained his traditional customs of sacrifice and temple observance, feast days at Jerusalem, et. He didn't "convert" to a non-Jewish religion, nor did Jesus recruit disciples into anything other than Judaism. Jesus pointed out, "Salvation is of the Jews."

The Jesus Christians were always Jewish. The way, truth and life of Jesus the Jew was his Judaism. There's no indication that Jesus was promoting a Roman religion or a Roman god.

Pharisees, Sadducees, Elders, and Herod, are those that Jesus said enabled false doctrine[leaven]. "Ye teach for doctrine the commandments of men". I suppose this meant that they made up their own laws or erred in the interpretation of laws. Whatever, Jesus the Jew and those Jews who were in argument over Jewish things, did not invalidate Jesus or his jewish disciples of being Jewish. They just killed them and declared their Jesus doctrine as invalid.

squiz

What do you think the use of the work tribe might indicate about the origin of the forgery?

show_no_mercy

Josephus (or his interpolator) never seems to use the word "christ" other than the two times describing Jesus. That alone should be grounds for suspicion... especially since Josephus thought that Vespasian was the actual christ.