The Testimonium Flavianum: what did the passage about Jesus in Antiquities 18 originally say?

Flavius Josephus, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

The position in brief

A notice was written. The confessional phrases as they now stand — he was the Christ, he appeared restored to life on the third day — are not the words of a man who remained a Jew and said so.12

Sources

  1. 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, 9 those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; 10 as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.
    Antiquities of the Jews
  2. But they threw themselves upon the ground, and laid their necks bare, and said they would take their death very willingly, rather than the wisdom of their laws should be transgressed; upon which Pilate was deeply affected with their firm resolution to keep their laws inviolable, and presently commanded the images to be carried back from Jerusalem to Caesarea. 2.
    Antiquities of the Jews

Where the argument is made

  • Antiquities 18.63–64 (the Testimonium) and 20.200 (the death of James, "the brother of Jesus who was called Christ")
  • Antiquities 18.116–119 on John the Baptist

How the argument was received

The single most disputed passage in ancient historiography, and the one where a witness is most often made to say what the reader wants.