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JOSEPHUS ON JESUS: THE TESTIMONIUM FLAVIANUM CONTROVERSY FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TO MODERN TIMES. By ALICE WHEALEY. New York: Peter Lang (Studies in Biblical Literature 36). 2003. Pp. xviii, 231.
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS' PARAGRAPH on Jesus of Nazareth (AJ 18.63-64), the so-called Testimonium Flavianum, seems to have been the most frequently cited passage from this firstcentury author-the most widely read Greek historian-throughout the Middle Ages. In spite of extensive and ongoing discussion of the paragraph's authenticity in modern times,1 however, we have until now lacked a critical history of its reception. That fundamental need is admirably met in this revised dissertation.
Whealey's study, while challenging these assumptions at every point, proceeds constructively through five chapters, framed by a brief introduction and conclusion. Chapter One ("The Testimonium Flavianum in Antiquity," 1-52) surveys in situ every ancient Christian author who mentions Josephus, seeking to understand better the audience and context of each, and therefore his motivation in using or not using the testimonium. Two significant results of this analysis are that Josephus' work was not well known among second-century Christians and that, because he had such a poor standing among Jews, he would not have been an obvious source for Christian authors who sought to prove to them that Jesus was Messiah. Much early Christian silence about the testimonium Whealey attributes to these causes. More importantly, she demonstrates that Eusebius, the first to quote the testimonium, did not even comment upon the line, "He was the Christos," much less use it as outside proof for Jews of Jesus' messianic status. One must therefore wonder whether he indeed knew (i.e., read in Josephus and so wrote) that sentence in this form.
The possibility that Eusebius, following Josephus, actually wrote something more tentative, to the effect that Jesus "was believed to be the Christos," would explain his use of the testimonium without comment on the key sentence. This possibility is rendered likely, Whealey argues, by other patristic evidence that attenuates any claim on the part of Josephus about Jesus' being Christ-without any obvious motive for diluting a more emphatic statement. Rather...