[squirt]

Josephus was a first century historian who's well known among scholars but whose name is unfamiliar to most people today, he was a very important Jewish historian, he was born in AD 37, and he wrote most of his four works toward the end of the first century, in his autobiography, he defended his behavior in the Jewish-Roman war, which took place from AD 66-74, he had surrendered to the Roman general Vespasian during the siege of Jotapata, even though many of his colleagues committed suicide rather than give up, Josephus decided it wasn't God's will for him to commit suicide, he then became a defender of the Romans, he was a priest, a Pharisee, and he was somewhat egotistical, his most ambitious work was called The Antiquities, which was a history of the Jewish people from Creation until his time, he probably completed it in about AD 93, as you can imagine from his collaboration with the hated Romans, Josephus was extremely disliked by his fellow Jews, but he became very popular among Christians, because in his writings he refers to James, the brother of Jesus, and to Jesus himself, in The Antiquities he describes how a high priest named Ananias took advantage of the death of Roman governor, Festus - who is also mentioned in the New Testament - in order to have James killed, he convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man called James, the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, and certain others, he accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them to be stoned, there has been no scholar who has successfully disputed this passage, so here you have a reference to the brother of Jesus - who had apparently been converted by the appearance of the risen Christ, if you compare John 7:5 and 1 Corinthians 15:7 - and corroboration of the fact that some people considered Jesus to be the Christ, which means "the Anointed One" or "Messiah" ...

Edwin M. Yamauchi PH.D.