Was Josephus the only man to write a story about Jesus?

Question

or was there others who wrote the story of Jesus?
Just curious to know

Answer 1

There were many authors of stories about Jesus, not the least being the authors of the four gospels in the New Testament. These were -not- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John but anonymous authors who put these men's names on their work (this is called pseudepigraphy). There were many other gospels that were not included in the canon.

Josephus was a Jewish military man who fought a battle against the Romans and lost, but he was brought to Rome and 'adopted' by a family there. Because he was Jewish and somewhat of an expert on Jewish history, he wrote a multi-volume book on the history of the Jews. This book was very popular and was reprinted (re-copied, actually) for centuries. For a long time the oldest version we had was from the 8th century (not sure but about that late). It had one single paragraph about Jesus, but it was important to Christians because it was the only 'contemporary' mention of Jesus. It was called the 'Testimonium Flavianum' because Josephus was adopted by the Flavius family and changed his name to Josephus Flavius. All the other writings we have about Jesus, including the Gospels, are at least 70-80 years after Jesus lived.

-edit-

I am correcting my answer. What I said before was wrong, that an older version of Josephus's book had been discovered calling his testimony about Jesus in error. But the 'Testimonium Flavianum' -is- very controversial and for a couple of centuries now it has been disputed. You can read about the controversy here (very interesting! Worth your time!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testimonium_Flavianum

I've read a lot about this stuff in the last few years and it sort of gets confused in my head. My sincere apologies! I didn't mean to mislead anyone, I'm just a know-it-all.

Answer 2

Flavius Josephus never wrote a story about Jesus .

For about 200 years most scholars agree that the writings about Jesus in the Book of Antiquities are nothing but an interpolation. The passage in question - Book of Antiquities, Chapter 3, Paragraph 3 was written from a Christian point of view. Josephus was a Jew and a Roman citizen. It is inconceivable that he would write about Jesus from a Christian stand point.

‘ He was the Christ ‘ – this is a blatant lie. Josephus did not and could not have written this. As a roman citizen , the Emperor of Rome was the Son of God and as a Jew he was still waiting for the Messiah.

Book of Antiquities, Chapter 3, Paragraph 3 is just typical of the lies and deception told and still being told by Christians to pull the wool over the eyes of innocent people. The paragraph is discontinuous from paragraphs either before it and after it . It is so obviously a Christian forgery.

Other things to bare in mind is that the writings were written well after the alleged death of Jesus. Josephus lived from about 37 to 101 CE. The documents themselves are from Christian sources scribed in about the 9th century , having been copied from earlier Greek texts.

I find it sad that even after 200 years since it was disproved , that Christians , like yourself , still use Josephus as evidence that Jesus existed. It is this type of propagation of lies that make me lose respect for Christians.

It is highly unlikely that Jesus Ever existed . The Jews never heard of him despite the fantastic events of the time - Bodies coming out of the Ground upon Jesus' Death , the Jewish supreme High council meeting on passover eve ( etc etc ).

Over 40 Historians , writers , biographers and journalists of the time fail to mention either Christianity or Jesus. The few writings that mention a ' Christ ' do not corrolate with any of the Biblical Gospels and can in no way be attributed to Jesus Christ .

Answer 3

The Gospels themselves are contemporary accounts. Mr. Know-it-all is mistaken if he thinks the gospels were written 70-80 years after the fact. Contemporary scholars place all of the gospels being written before 90 AD which is less than 60 years after the fact. We know this because we know that John is the last gospel and we have found a manuscript of John in Egypt written in Coptic from around 90 AD so the story had to be written down, translated and transported to Egypt first. To put the time line in perspective for historical figures, Alexander the Great's first biography is 200 years after the fact and it is still considered accurate so a mere 60 years is remarkable. As to Josephus and others, the writings are there and yes they have been added to, but the main main story is still there and linguists and scholars have determined what Josephus actually said and it still gives the basic story of Christ. Pliny the Younger also talks about him when he writes a letter to Rome about the Christians in his area.

Answer 4

Josephus didn't write about Jesus; the portions of his work pertaining to Jesus were proven long ago to have been added by the early Church.

To my knowledge, there's no one who wrote about Jesus who we would consider an independent, secular scholar or historian who was a contemporary of Jesus.

Answer 5

Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and a few others made some mention about Jesus (or "Christus," as they called him), but they weren't very detailed in their accounts. And most of Josephus' writing about Jesus is considered to have been added in at a later date by Christians.

Answer 6

The Bible fundamentalists believe that people in the Bible are the only ones but I believe God does not love just one side of the world. It is certain that he professed in others sides and that other people (non-Jews i.e. other Israelites) wrote about the wonders and life of Jesus.

I believe in the Bible but I also believe that God is never changing. if he continue to send people his message through prophets, I believe he is still doing it now. So there is a possibility, that there is more to the Bible.

"11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: "
-- Ephesians 4

Answer 7

Many have wriitn a bunch of BS about Jesus, like Mohamid.

Answer 8

No several Roman scholars that hated the jews wrote about jesus also.

Answer 9

You mean, besides Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? As far as I know, there aren't any other contemporaneous accounts.

Answer 10

I can write a story bout jesus right now

Once upon a time Jesus died... then came back to life... then died again.

The end