Josephus's Record of Jesus

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1914

Josephus's Record of Jesus

FOR some time the testimony borne of Christ by Josephus in his “Antiquities of the Jews,” has been in dispute. Some eminent teachers, including Professor Harnack of Berlin, claimed that Josephus never wrote this statement credited to him. The Continent of Jan. 22, 1914, says regarding this matter:—

But the weight of authority on the question has been suddenly shifted by the appearance of an article in a German review, where Professor Harnack of Berlin, turning against his own former judgment, declares that the Jesus paragraph in the “Antiquities” is most probably (he is not quite willing to say certainly) a genuine part of the writings of Josephus himself, and so an authentic outside testimony to the truth of the Gospels. On early gospel history no other scholar in the world today has so great a name as Harnack, and with Harnack to back him, any Bible teacher without apology may bring in Josephus as a witness to the faith.