Josephus's brief notice of Jesus as a teacher and wonder-worker condemned under Pilate, the most famous non-Christian reference to Jesus, and the most debated: most scholars judge the wording was edited or embellished by later Christian copyists, so it is read as a partly-altered text, not as Josephus's own Christian testimony.
Josephus on the New Testament world
Josephus on Jesus: the Testimonium Flavianum
Antiquities of the Jews
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 amongst 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.
William Whiston's 1737 translation (Public Domain, Project Gutenberg #2848)
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- undefined 27:22bsb
“What then should I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify Him!”
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