Greek Version
Josephus, Antiquities 18.63, probably in a
Christian redaction Tr. I. H.
Feldman, Loeb
Classical Library, vol. 9, pp. 49ff.
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise
man if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was
one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such
people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews
and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah.
When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of
the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be
crucified, those who had in the first place come to
love him did not cease. On the third day he
appeared to them restored to life. For the
prophets of God had prophesied these and myriads of
other marvellous things about him. And the
tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has
still up to now, not disappeared.
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Arabic Version
Arabic summary, presumably of Antiquities
18.63. From Agapios' Kitab al-'Unwan ("Book of
the Title," 10th c.).
The translation belongs to Shlomo Pines.
See also James H. Charlesworth, Jesus Within
Judaism.
Similarly Josephus the Hebrew. For he says in the treatises
that he has written on the governance of the Jews:
At this time there was a wise man who was
called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and he was
known to be virtuous. And many people from among
the Jews and the other nations became his
disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and
to die. And those who had become his disciples did not
abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had
appeared to themafter his crucifixion and that he was
alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the
Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted
wonders.
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R. Eisler's Reconstruction
Same text, in a less complementary modern scholarly
reconstruction. R. Eisler,
The Messiah Jesus, (tr. A. H. Krappe),
1931, p. 61. Quoted from the Loeb Classical Library
, vol. 9, p. 48.
Now about this time arose an occasion for new disturbances,
a certain Jesus, a wizard of a man, if indeed he may be
called a man, who was the most monstrous of men, whom his
disciples call a son of God, as having done wonders such as no
man has ever done.... He was in fact a teacher of
astonishing tricks to such men as accept the abnormal with
delight.... And he seduced many Jews and many also of the
Greek nation, and was regarded by them as the
Messiah.... And when, on the indictment of the principal
men among us, Pilate had sentenced him to the cross, still
those who before had admired him did not cease to rave.
For it seemed to them that having been dead for three days, he
had appeared to them alive again, as the divinely-inspired
prophets had foretold -- these and ten thousand other
wonderful things -- concerning him. And even now the race
of those who are called 'Messianists' after him is not
extinct.
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