Josephus Prophet and Historian

The Prophet and Historian Josephus accepted Jesus as Messiah.

The Jewish Historian Josephus was born in Jerusalem in a.d.37. He was on the scene and chronicled the cataclysmic events that coincided with the fall of the city.  Though he never met Jesus, or any of his apostles, he was an eyewitness to the fulfillment of their prophecies of the destruction of the temple in a.d.70. Near the end of his life, in A.D.93-94, he published Antiquities of the Jews. In that work, the Prophet stated that he had reached the conclusion that Jesus was the Messiah.

Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it is lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, at the suggestion of the leaders in Jerusalem, had condemned him to be executed, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. Paraphrase, Jos. Ant. B.18, 3:3, p. 379.

Josephus was a High Priest, a Prophet of God, a Commanding General of the Army, and the Governor of Galilee. He was the greatest Jewish historian ever to put pen to paper, and an eyewitness to the destruction of the temple and fall of Jerusalem. Those credentials make his declaration that Jesus was the Messiah both authoritative and definitive. His chronology of the destruction of the temple and fall of Jerusalem in AD70, is equally compelling. You can read a small portion of that history on the Discovery link.

Josephus as High Priest and Prophet of God
Some have questioned my position that Josephus was a High Priest and Prophet of God. In his autobiography, The Life of Flavius Josephus 15, he clearly states that, as a priest, he was entitled to receive the tithes offered to the members of the priesthood:

…..and as to what presents were offered me, I despised them, as not standing in need of them. Nor indeed would I take those tithes, which were due to me as a priest, from those that brought them. The Life of Flavius Josephus 15.

I affirm that on other occasions he reported living in the quarters of the High Priests. Only members of the High Priesthood could dwell with the High Priests.

Right before the leaders in Jerusalem sent Josephus to be the Governor of Galilee, to escape the violence of the rebels in Jerusalem, he was living with the “High Priests and Chief of the Pharisees.”

 ….I was then afraid, lest, by inculcating these things so often, I should incur their [the seditious tyrants in Jerusalem] hatred and their suspicions, as if I were of our enemies’ party, and should run into the danger of being seized by them, and slain; since they were already possessed of Antonia, which was the citadel; so I retired into the inner court of the temple. Yet did I go out of the temple again, after Manahem and the principal of the band of robbers were put to death, when I abode among the high priests and the chief of the Pharisees….. The Life of Flavius Josephus, 5.

I repeat; only priests who were members of the Order of High Priests could dwell among the High Priests. Josephus was not The High Priest who officiated at ceremonies in the Temple of God; however, he was a member of the Order of High Priests. That position allowed him to receive Tithes and dwell among the High Priests in Jerusalem.

It is also true that Josephus was a Prophet of the Living God.

And now, as Nicanor lay hard at Josephus to comply, and he understood how the multitude of the enemies threatened him, he called to mind the dreams which he had dreamed in the night time, whereby God had signified to him beforehand both the future calamities of the Jews, and the events that concerned the Roman emperors. Now Josephus was able to give shrewd conjectures about the interpretation of such dreams as have been ambiguously delivered by God. Moreover, he was not unacquainted with the prophecies contained in the sacred books, as being a priest himself, and of the posterity of priests: and just then was he in an ecstasy; and setting before him the tremendous images of the dreams he had lately had, he put up a secret prayer to God, and said, “Since it pleaseth thee, who hast created the Jewish nation, to depress the same, and since all their good fortune is gone over to the Romans, and since thou hast made choice of this soul of mine to foretell what is to come to pass hereafter, I willingly give them my hands, and am content to live. And I protest openly that I do not go over to the Romans as a deserter of the Jews, but as a minister from thee.”  Josephus, The War of the Jews, B3, 8:1-7..

Our modern biblical religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ignore Josephus, because his chronologies record the end of God’s interaction with humanity. Jewish theologians even go so far as to declare him a traitor. They claim that his relationship with Titus and ominous prophecies of the destruction of the temple were traitorous. On the contrary, in the first desolation of Jerusalem, Jeremiah prophesied that the city would be taken by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon. When his prophecy was fulfilled, Jeremiah was honored as a prophet and protected by King Nebuchadnezzar.[1] That was also true with Josephus and the Romans. I ask those who would slander the Prophet Josephus as a traitor; was Jeremiah a traitor?

In the dark ages that followed the destruction of the temple and fall of Jerusalem, theologians began choosing portions of the history of ancient Israel they deemed suitable to fabricate their particular religion. Judaism utilized the Old Covenant, but banned the entire New Covenant, the books of Enoch and Adam and Eve, and the Chronologies of Josephus. Christianity included the Old and New Covenants, but banned the books of Enoch, Adam and Eve, and Josephus. Islam used portions of the Old and New Covenants in the Koran but rejected Josephus.

It’s time to face The Awful Truth, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are modern pretenders to an ancient reality, and Atheism is a reactionary ideological cult. To solve the mystery of human existence we must utilize all of the chronologies of ancient Israel and correlate them with the archeological evidence of the collapse of the ancient world.

I challenge anyone to read Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews and War of the Jews and tell me he was not a Prophet of God guided by the Holy Spirit. He chronicled the entire five thousand, five-hundred-year history of God’s interaction with humanity; from Adam and Eve in Eden to the destruction of the temple and desolation of Jerusalem in a.d.70. That is not the product of a human intellect.

[1] Jer. 39:1-14.

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