book Josephus and Jesus

[mikesw]

A book came out in June 2025 called Josephus and Jesus. The focus is on the Testimonium Flavianum. Its authenticity has been questioned over the years due to the apparent unlikely endorsement of Jesus by Josephus. The scholar studied the words composing this passage of Josephus and shows that the Greek actually reflects a questionable and even negative treatment of Jesus. As such, the text does not represent Christian wording as if Christians snuck in words about Jesus into Josephus' writings.
T C Schmidt examines the meaning of key words in the testimony -- such as the Greek word behind "miracles" -- to show these are not spoken as if clearly in a positive sense.
The link for the free pdf of the book is #Josephus and Jesus. This is one of the interviews with the author:

 

[mikesw]

I figure most people here would recognize that Josephus would not be expected to describe Jesus in a clearly positive fashion since Josephus never was shown to be a follower of Christ Jesus. The translation to English (and maybe a biased reading of the Greek) would suggest a positive description of Jesus. However, when the proper translation can be seen as ambiguous and representative not of Josephus' view of Jesus but rather the view by the followers, the text becomes stronger evidence of the reputation of Jesus and his followers. The documentation of these facts by an adverse party provides all the greater evidence of the views held by Christians -- and especially as the earliest recognition of the resurrection of Jesus.