Today we're talking to historian Dr. Steve Mason who will be sharing his expertise on Josephus, the Jewish historian to the Romans in the 1st Century CE. Josephus has been mined as a source by everyone from Christians arguing for Jesus' divinity to mythicist atheists such as Godless Engineer or Richard Carrier who argue that he never existed.

We're going to try to take a broader view. We'll be asking questions like: Who is Josephus? How do historians view him? What is his historical context? Finally, armed with some better context, we'll examine one of the passages most relevant to the mythicism discussion: Josephus reference to James, the brother of Jesus who was called Christ in Antiquities 20.

Ant. 20 passage: http://sites.utoronto.ca/religion/323/r_jos_ant_20_200.htm

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Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro3:00 - Setting Expectations4:30 - Who is Josephus?9:40 - Josephus' Context18:50 - Was Josephus Pro-Roman?26:20 - Historical methodology46:10 - Textual criticism1:00:11 - Privilege process over positions1:02:30 - Context of Antiquities 20 (The James Passage)1:14:00 - Ant. 20, the James Part1:22:00 - Ananus is removed1:25:50 - Common Mythicist Objections1:26:00 - Why would people be upset that a Christian was executed?1:32:12 - "Jesus, known as Christ" is not a problem1:40:00 - Interpolation by later scribes1:48:35 - Summary1:51:00 - Audience questions2:01:50 - Outro

#history #christianity #josephus #mythicism