Two separate news items reporting fresh analyses of something called the Testamonium Flavianum caught my eye in the past week. The Testamonium Flavianum (TF) is a paragraph in Flavius Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities (Book 18, Chapter 3, paragraph 3) that talks about Jesus the Christ. Josephus was a Jewish historian, writing in the 90’s AD, well within a century of Jesus. His documentation of Jesus is one of the earliest of a handful of non-Christian witnesses for the historicity of Jesus. This particular paragraph has generated a lot of study and controversy! over the centuries, as it contains some fairly specific claims about Jesus that align with the Biblical account.
Here is the common English translation.
And in this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man, for he was a doer of miraculous deeds, a teacher of men who receive truth with pleasure. And he led many from among the Jews and many from among the Greeks. [He was the Christ.] And, when Pilate had condemned him to the cross at the accusation of the first men among us, those who at first loved him did not cease to do so, for [he appeared to them alive again on the third day] given that the divine prophets had spoken such things and thousands of other wonderful things about him. And up till now the tribe of the Christians, who were named from him, has not disappeared.
Historically, the scholarly consensus has been that this paragraph was heavily edited by Christian scribes to align with the Biblical material. Josephus was not known to have embraced Christianity (confirmed by Origen), so it is not likely he would have made the claims in brackets. Hence, since it cannot be attributed in its entirety to Josephus, the provenance and veracity of TF is in doubt, and cannot be relied upon to attest to the historicity of Jesus as the Christ, nor to his resurrection. That consensus is now changing.
T.C. Schmidt, a Christian scholar and professor at Fairfield University, published a book last year documenting his research into the authenticity of the TF using stylometric tools (quantitative, statistical study of writing style to analyze linguistic patterns), and research into Josephus’ known contemporaries, the likely sources for his material about Jesus. The book was reviewed at TGC, and published by Oxford University Press, which means it was peer-reviewed, and seems to be gaining acceptance among other Jesus scholars.
Based on his findings, Dr. Schmidt believes the TF is entirely authentic to Josephus, and proposes the following translation from his comparison of 4 extant translations (Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Arabic):
And in this time, there was a certain Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man, for he was a doer of incredible deeds, a teacher of men who receive truisms with pleasure. And he brought over many from among the Jews and many from among the Greeks. He was [thought to be] the Christ. And, when Pilate had condemned him to the cross at the accusation of the first men among us, those who at first were devoted to him did not cease to be so, for on the third day it seemed to them that he was alive again given that the divine prophets had spoken such things and thousands of other wonderful things about him. And up till now the tribe of the Christians, who were named from him, has not disappeared.
Assuming this work authenticates Josephus as the author, unadulterated by scribes, there remains the issue of why Josephus, a Jew who apparently never became a Christian, would have claimed Jesus was the Christ, resurrected on the third day. The Latin, Syriac, and Arabic translations all attest to the more passive translation above that these were beliefs held by His followers, not that Josephus held those beliefs himself. This seems problematic, until we realize that Josephus, as an ostensibly unbiased primary witness to the beliefs of the primary witnesses to the life and work of Christ, actually provides a STRONGER witness to the historicity of Jesus than we had before.
A second study, which was actually the impetus for my descent into this rabbit hole, was reported in the Daily Mail, as well as in the New York Post, although I think The New York Post was merely reporting on The Daily Mail entry. Neither newsmag scores high on accuracy on the Ad Fontes Media Bias chart. At any rate, this study is documented in a preprint published by Jesus Fernandez-Pedrera Correa, a Spanish researcher, about whom I can find few credentials. All that to say, I’m not sure how reliable this source is. The author states that he used manual (vs. Computer-assisted) textual analysis to come to similar translational conclusions as Dr. Schmidt. So there’s that.
But why should any of this matter? I’m just a theology nerd who already believes. Jesus told Doubting Thomas that those who believe merely on the evidence of things not seen, e.g. the Biblical record, will have a special blessing (John 20:29). So perhaps we ought not to care so much that the TF has now been shown to be a stronger witness to the historicity of Jesus. We believe merely because the Bible says it’s so. But this overlooks the fact that Jesus responded to Thomas’ doubt by appearing before him, and letting him touch the scars on his hands, the scar on his side. His goal was to convince Thomas by any means necessary so that he could be saved. Should we not also demonstrate a similar level of care for the salvation of those who doubt? I rather think since the primary goal is salvation, it shouldn’t matter so much the lengths to which we go to try to persuade others of the historicity of Jesus. What do you think?
Sources
– I Might Owe My Students An Apology About Josephus, John Dickson, The Gospel Coalition, January 19, 2026.
– The New Complete Works of Josephus, translated by William Whiston, commentary by Paul L. Maier, Kregel Publications, 1999.
– Josephus & Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ, T.C. Schmidt, Oxford University Press, 2025.
– The Testamonium Flavianum in Four Transmission Lines: Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Syriac, Jesus Fernandez-Pedrera Correa, August 2026.
– Written account of Jesus rising from the dead identified in 2,000-year-old manuscript, study suggests, Stacy Liberatore, US Science & Technology Editor, Daily Mail, October 29, 2026.
– Jesus’ resurrection account may have gotten a biblical makeover, researcher claims, Marissa Matozzo, New York Post, October 29, 2026.
Note: AI was not used in the creation of this blogpost.
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