The antiquities of the Jews, written by Flavius Josephus, contain two rare, non-biblical, non-Christian

references to Jesus. As historians and people who listen to a lot of historical podcasts,

we know that more sources for something is pretty much always a good thing, but do these references

in particular strengthen the case for the historicity of Jesus,

or are they merely records of hearsay?

And what does Josephus actually record, and are these two accounts even original to his writing?

We'll be getting into all of that, and so much more on today's misquoting Jesus.

Welcome to Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.

The only show, where a six-time New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned Bible scholar,

uncovers the many fascinating, little-known facts about the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity.

I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin.

The work of Flavius Josephus is an invaluable source for ancient historians,

including scholars of the New Testament and early Christianity.

They include two references to Jesus,

one of which is surprisingly messianic, given that Josephus was a Jew.

Exactly what is going on here.

And can these references provide more information on the historical Jesus than the New Testament alone?

Before all of that, but how are you doing this week?

Yeah, I'm brain dead, thanks.

Almost everybody has a job that's hard and hard in different ways. And academic jobs are hard in ways that some aren't, some aren't. But I mean, when you're doing like serious academic work, it's just brain draining and it's emotionally exhausting. It's like, yeah, I've done a lot of jobs in my life. But I mean, man, so yeah, I'm brain dead. I've been doing a lot today. I could do like thinking. I was going to say, even though it's the summer, you've been very over-scheduled, I feel. Well, yeah, but I'm just, I'm following your model. It's not a good model to be following. It's not something I recommend. Yeah, I know, I know. So how are you this week? Yeah, good. Not as brain dead as you, I suspect, because I'm taking a stand and refusing to do any academic anything during the summer, apart from talking to you, obviously, because I just, with the children home, it's just not going to happen. Well, plus, I mean, you're dealing with children.

I've got to tell you, that's exhausting too.

Yes.

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