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Is God Dead?
In our investigation of non-Christian sources that speak of Jesus and His crucifixion, we have thus far looked at the writings of Cornelius Tacitus. We also began investigating what the ancient historian Josephus had to say about Jesus. This week, we continue to look at his writings. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus mentions Jesus in a work dated AD 93 titled Antiquities of the Jews. This passage, known as the Testimonium Flavianum, reads: “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day, he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.”
This passage is perhaps the most thorough, non-biblical account of the crucifixion of Jesus. It confirms Jesus as a real person in history and substantiates the biblical account of Jesus as a teacher and miracle worker who Pilate crucified. As in the case of Josephus’s writing in James, the brother of Jesus, it is vital to consider the inherent accountability associated with writing of an event when there are still living eyewitnesses of the event.
