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The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus provides external information on some people and events found in the New Testament. The extant manuscripts of Josephus' book Antiquities of the Jews, written around AD 93–94, contain two references to Jesus of Nazareth and one reference to John the Baptist.
Flavius Josephus or Yosef ben Mattityahu was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing The Jewish War, he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.
Titus Caesar Vespasianus was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor to succeed his biological father.
The Pharisees were a Jewish social movement and a school of thought in the Levant during the time of Second Temple Judaism. Following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, Pharisaic beliefs became the foundational, liturgical, and ritualistic basis for Rabbinic Judaism. Although the group does not exist anymore, their traditions are considered important among all various Jewish religious movements.
Berenice of Cilicia, also known as Julia Berenice and sometimes spelled Bernice, was a Jewish client queen of the Roman Empire during the second half of the 1st century. Berenice was a member of the Herodian Dynasty that ruled the Roman province of Judaea between 39 BC and 92 AD. She was the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I and Cypros and a sister of King Herod Agrippa II.
The Hasmonean dynasty was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during the Hellenistic times of the Second Temple period, from c. 140 BCE to 37 BCE. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously in the Seleucid Empire, and from roughly 110 BCE, with the empire disintegrating, Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea, Samaria, Idumea, Galilee, and Iturea. The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus ("king") as the kingdom became a regional power for several decades. Forces of the Roman Republic intervened in the Hasmonean Civil War in 63 BCE and made it into a client state, marking the decline of Hasmonean dynasty; Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client-ruler in 37 BCE.
The Sadducees were a sect of Jews active in Judea during the Second Temple period, from the second century BCE to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Sadducees are described in contemporary literary sources in contrast to the two other major sects at the time, the Pharisees and the Essenes.
The First Jewish–Roman War, sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt or the Jewish War, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire fought in the province of Judaea, resulting in the destruction of Jewish towns, the displacement of its people, and the appropriation of land for Roman military use, as well as the destruction of the Jewish Temple and polity.
Emmaus is a town mentioned in the Gospel of Luke of the New Testament. Luke reports that Jesus appeared, after his death and resurrection, before two of his disciples while they were walking on the road to Emmaus.
Judas of Galilee, or Judas of Gamala, was a Jewish leader who led resistance to the census imposed for Roman tax purposes by Quirinius in the Judaea Province in 6 CE. He encouraged Jews not to register, and those that did were targeted by his followers. He is credited with beginning the "fourth philosophy" which Josephus blames for the war with the Romans in 66–73. These events are discussed by Josephus in The Jewish War and in Antiquities of the Jews and mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.
The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War, in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Judaea. Following a five-month siege, the Romans destroyed the city, including the Second Jewish Temple.
Gessius Florus was the 7th Roman procurator of Judea from 64 until 66.
The fiscus Iudaicus or fiscus Judaicus was a tax imposed on Jews in the Roman Empire after the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in AD 70.
Lucceius Albinus was the 6th Roman Procurator of Judea from 62 until 64 and the governor of Mauretania Tingitana from 64 until 69.
Ananus ben Ananus was a Herodian-era High Priest of Israel in Jerusalem, Judea Province. He was the High Priest who ordered the execution by stoning of James, the brother of Jesus, according to the Antiquities of the Jews of Josephus. A delegation sent by citizens upset over the perceived breach of justice met Lucceius Albinus before he reached Judea, and Albinus responded with a letter informing Ananus that it was illegal to convene the Sanhedrin without Albinus' permission and threatening to punish the priest. Ananus was therefore deposed by King Herod Agrippa II before Albinus's arrival and replaced with Jesus ben Damneus.
Jesus son of Damneus was a Herodian-era High Priest of Judaea in Jerusalem, Iudaea Province.
Ananias son of Nedebeus was a high priest who according to the Acts of the Apostles presided during the trials of the apostle Paul at Jerusalem and Caesarea. Josephus calls him "Ananias ben Nebedeus". He officiated as high priest from about 47 to 58.
The siege of Jerusalem occurred during Pompey the Great's campaigns in the East, shortly after his successful conclusion of the Third Mithridatic War. Pompey had been asked to intervene in a dispute over inheritance to the throne of the Hasmonean Kingdom, which turned into a war between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. His conquest of Jerusalem spelled the end of an independent Jewish state, and thus the incorporation of Judea as a client kingdom of the Roman Republic and later as a province of the Roman Empire.
Acts 23 is the twenty-third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the period of Paul's imprisonment in Jerusalem and then in Caesarea. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.
Caesar's Messiah is a 2005 book by Joseph Atwill that argues that the New Testament Gospels were written by a group of individuals connected to the Flavian family of Roman emperors: Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The authors were mainly Flavius Josephus, Berenice, and Tiberius Julius Alexander, with contributions from Pliny the Elder. Although Vespasian and Titus had defeated Jewish nationalist Zealots in the First Jewish–Roman War of 70 AD, the emperors wanted to control the spread of Judaism and moderate its political virulence and continuing militancy against Rome. Christianity, a pacifist and pro-Roman authority religion, was their solution.
References
- ↑ The Wars Of The Jews Or The History Of The Destruction Of Jerusalem Book VI, chapter 5, paragraph 3
- ↑ 1957 Journal of Biblical Literature, Volumes 76-77 Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis pg 104
