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 [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among 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.
Josephus’ short paragraph on Jesus in Antiquities 18 is the most debated passage in ancient literature about him. As it stands in the manuscripts, a Jewish historian calls Jesus the Christ and affirms his resurrection, which few scholars think Josephus wrote. Most hold a middle position: Josephus wrote a neutral notice that a Christian copyist later embellished.
Two early Christian writers help frame the question. Eusebius, in the early fourth century, quotes the passage in a form close to our manuscripts, so the full text existed by his time. About a century earlier, Origen, who knew Josephus well, states that Josephus did not believe Jesus was the Christ, which suggests his copy read differently.
- Eusebius’ quotation (a translation of his Greek) matches the manuscript text point for point, including “He was the Christ”, so any interpolation predates him.
- Origen says outright that Josephus did not believe in Jesus as the Christ, which is hard to square with the sentence “He was [the] Christ” as it now stands.
- The phrases most often suspected are “if it be lawful to call him a man”, “He was [the] Christ”, and the appearance on the third day; the rest reads naturally as Josephus’ own.
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After relating these things concerning John, he makes mention of our Saviour in the same work, in the following words: "And there lived at that time Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be proper to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works, and a teacher of such men as receive the truth in gladness. And he attached to himself many of the Jews, and many also of the Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, on the accusation of our principal men, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him in the beginning did not cease loving him. For he appeared unto them again alive on the third day, the divine prophets having told these and countless other wonderful things concerning him. Moreover, the race of Christians, named after him, continues down to the present day."
I would like to say to Celsus, who represents the Jew as accepting somehow John as a Baptist, who baptized Jesus, that the existence of John the Baptist, baptizing for the remission of sins, is related by one who lived no great length of time after John and Jesus. For in the 18th book of his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus bears witness to John as having been a Baptist, and as promising purification to those who underwent the rite. Now this writer, although not believing in Jesus as the Christ, in seeking after the cause of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, whereas he ought to have said that the conspiracy against Jesus was the cause of these calamities befalling the people, since they put to death Christ, who was a prophet, says nevertheless--being, although against his will, not far from the truth--that these disasters happened to the Jews as a punishment for the death of James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus (called Christ),