Flavius Josephus

Jewish Historian of the Second Temple Period

c. AD 37–c. 100
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Flavius Josephus was a first-century Jewish priest, military commander, historian, and interpreter of Jewish history. His writings are among the most important surviving sources for understanding the world of Second Temple Judaism, the Jewish revolt against Rome, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and the political and religious setting of the New Testament.

Josephus was born in Jerusalem around AD 37 under the name Joseph ben Matthias. According to his own account, he came from a priestly family and was connected through his mother to the Hasmonean royal line. He received a thorough Jewish education and studied several major Jewish groups of his time, including the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. He ultimately identified himself with the Pharisaic tradition.

As a young man, Josephus traveled to Rome to seek the release of Jewish priests who had been imprisoned by the imperial authorities. This experience gave him firsthand knowledge of Roman power and court politics. When the Jewish revolt against Rome began in AD 66, Josephus was appointed commander of Jewish forces in Galilee.

In AD 67 Roman troops under the general Vespasian captured the fortified city of Jotapata. Josephus survived the siege and surrendered. He later claimed that he had predicted Vespasian would become emperor. When that prediction appeared to be fulfilled in AD 69, Josephus was released and became associated with the Flavian imperial household. He adopted the family name “Flavius” and accompanied the Romans during the final stages of the war. He witnessed the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. (British Museum)

Josephus eventually settled in Rome, received Roman citizenship, and devoted himself to writing. His first major work, The Jewish War, recounts the causes and course of the revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem. His largest work, Jewish Antiquities, retells Jewish history from creation to the outbreak of the revolt. He also wrote Against Apion, a defense of the antiquity and dignity of the Jewish people, and Life, an autobiographical account written partly to defend his own conduct. (Encyclopedia.com)

Josephus is invaluable, but he must be read critically. He wrote under Roman patronage and often defended his own decisions. His descriptions of speeches, motives, numbers, and political events may reflect literary shaping or personal apologetic concerns. He was viewed by many Jews as a collaborator or traitor because he surrendered and later lived under imperial protection. Yet without his works, modern readers would know far less about the Herodian dynasty, Jewish sects, Roman administration, the Jewish revolt, and the destruction of the temple.

Josephus also mentions several figures familiar from the New Testament, including Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, John the Baptist, James the brother of Jesus, and Jesus himself. The passage about Jesus, commonly called the Testimonium Flavianum, has probably been altered by later Christian copyists, although many scholars believe it preserves an authentic reference beneath the later additions. His references to John the Baptist and James are generally regarded as especially valuable historical testimony.

As a conversation partner, Josephus is not primarily a theologian but a historical witness. He helps readers reconstruct the political, social, and religious environment in which Jesus, the apostles, and the earliest churches lived. His writings illuminate the temple, Jewish leadership, popular expectations, Roman oppression, sectarian disputes, and the catastrophe of AD 70.

Josephus should therefore be used neither uncritically nor dismissively. His testimony is partial, interested, and sometimes defensive, yet indispensable. When carefully compared with Scripture, archaeology, Roman sources, and other Jewish writings, he provides an extraordinary window into the world of the New Testament.

“Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations.”
—Deuteronomy 32:7