Ancient Account of Jesus Challenges Centuries of Scholarly Doubt: ‘Totally Authentic’
A scholar believes a nearly 2,000-year-old account of Jesus may be more historically reliable than previously thought, challenging longstanding doubts about one of the earliest non-Christian accounts of his life.
T.C. Schmidt, an associate professor of religious studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut, is the author of a 2025 book titled “Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ,” examining a long-disputed passage about Jesus written by the ancient Jewish historian Josephus.
Josephus lived from roughly 37 to 100 A.D. and wrote about Jesus in his work “Antiquities of the Jews,” providing one of the few surviving non-Christian accounts of his life.
In the passage, Josephus described Jesus as a wise man who attracted followers and was sentenced to crucifixion under Pontius Pilate. The text also referred to reports that Jesus appeared alive again after his death.
For centuries, scholars have debated whether Christian scribes altered the passage, which contains statements about Jesus that some historians believe would have been unusual for a non-Christian Jewish writer. (Read more from “Ancient Account of Jesus Challenges Centuries of Scholarly Doubt: ‘Totally Authentic’” HERE)
