New Testament Parallels to the Works of Josephus
The New Testament makes references to rulers, priests, religious factions, and politics that would be completely mysterious to modern readers if it were not for the works of Josephus. When one reads discussions about the historical Jesus and the early days of Christianity, most of the Judean social background and the dating of events derive from his books.
In this article I present a list of these New Testament references and place them next to extracts from the works of Josephus on the same subject. To these I have added my own comments, which I hope the reader will find useful.
Interested readers will want to study Josephus themselves for fuller extracts. They will also want to read some of the many scholarly works on this subject. An excellent place to start is Steve Mason's Josephus and the New Testament, which discusses more fully the parallels and provides many original observations and analyses...Continued (opens in new window):
New Testament Parallels to the Works of Josephus
Well, what do you think?
