Schmidt, Josephus and Jesus (OUP, open access)

NEW OPEN-ACCESS BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Josephus and Jesus

New Evidence for the One Called Christ

T. C. Schmidt

£99.00

Hardback
Published: 03 June 2025
336 Pages | 14 Illustrations
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780192866783

Also Available As:
E-book Open Access

Description

This book brings to light an extraordinary connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the Jewish historian Josephus. Writing in 93/94 CE, Josephus composed an account of Jesus known as the Testimonium Flavianum. Despite this being the oldest description of Jesus by a non-Christian, scholars have long doubted its authenticity due to the alleged pro-Christian claims it contains. This book, however, authenticates Josephus' authorship of the Testimonium Flavianum and reveals a startling observation: Josephus was directly familiar with those who put Jesus on trial. Consequently, Josephus would have had access to highly reliable information about the man from Nazareth. The book concludes by describing what Josephus tells us about the Jesus of history, his miracles, and his resurrection.

An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

Roger Pearse has already posted some preliminary comments on the book and the problem it addresses: T. C. Schmidt, “Josephus & Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ”

T. C. Schmidt has bravely added to the bibliography on the so-called Testimonium Flavianum in Josephus, with a new book through Oxford University Press, titled: “Josephus & Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ.” The author makes the case that this much-discussed passage is “substantially authentic.” In doing so he responds to recent scholarship on the subject, some of which has been unduly sceptical. ...

The most recent substantial work on the Testimonium Flavianum of which I was aware before this was by Ken Olsen, who argued that it was composed entirelyby Eusebius. Now T. C. Schmidt argues that it is "substantially authentic." And others have argued for many possibilities in between.

My own working hypothesis has become that we haven't a clue how much, if any, of the paragraph is genuine. And, barring welcome but unlikely new manuscript discoveries, we probably never will know.

PRE-POSTING UPDATE: I understand from a note from reader Stephen Goranson that, in a new commentary on Antiquities 18-20, Daniel R. Schwartz takes a intermediate position, finding some Christian interpolations in the paragraph. I'm really busy now, but I will noted Schwartz's book in more detail when I get a chance.

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