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The Bible says Jesus was crucified, rose from the dead on the third day and appeared to his followers nearly 2,000 years ago.
asserted
Jesus → read → followers
Now, a researcher has identified wording in an ancient text that he argues may preserve a first-century written account of Jesus' resurrection.
uncertain
he → identify → resurrection
The disputed passage is attributed to a historian who was not Christian.
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who → dispute → historian
Known as the Testimonium Flavianum, the passage appears in Jewish Antiquities, a history of the Jewish people that Flavius Josephus wrote around AD 93 to 94 and that was translated into several languages.
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that → know → languages
Independent researcher Jesús Fernández-Pedrera Correa from Spain compared Greek, Latin, Arabic and Syriac versions to investigate which elements may have survived from the original account.
uncertain
elements → compare → account
The Latin, Arabic and Syriac versions all describe Jesus appearing alive to his followers after his crucifixion.
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Jesus → describe → crucifixion
The surviving Greek account states that Jesus appeared alive on the third day and links the event to biblical prophecy, while the Latin states that ‘he appeared to them the third day alive.’
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he → survive → them
The Arabic account specifically presents the appearance as something the disciples reported.
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disciples → present → something
Fernández-Pedrera Correa suggests that wording could preserve an earlier passage in which Josephus recorded what Jesus’s followers said they had seen.
uncertain
they → suggest → what
The Testimonium Flavianum is a passage about Jesus in Jewish Antiquities, a history of the Jewish people that Josephus wrote around AD 93 to 94
The preprint study compares four versions of the passage, preserved in Greek, Latin, Arabic and Syriac through centuries of copying, quotation and retelling.
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study → write → copying
The Latin account dates to the late fourth century, while the Arabic and Syriac accounts come from the tenth and twelfth centuries.
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accounts → date → centuries
The study examines later copies and retellings of Josephus’s work, rather than a surviving manuscript from his lifetime.
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study → examine → lifetime
Comparing them gives researchers clues to how the passage changed as it was copied and retold.
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it → compare → clues
Fernández-Pedrera Correa's new analysis revisited the translated versions and argued that their differences offer clues to the passage's earlier form.
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differences → revisit → form
One clue, the researcher argued, is wording that sounds more like Christian preaching than a non-Christian historian’s account.
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that → argue → account
The surviving Greek version states: ‘He appeared to them alive again on the third day, the divine prophets having foretold these and countless other wonders about him.’
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prophets → survive → him
Fernández-Pedrera Correa singles out the reference to fulfilled prophecy as particularly Christian language, raising questions about whether Josephus would have written the sentence in that form.
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Josephus → single → form
Now, a researcher has identified wording in an ancient text that he argues may preserve a first-century written account of Jesus rising from the dead
Elsewhere, Josephus recorded the beliefs and reports of Jewish religious groups without necessarily accepting them himself.
uncertain
Josephus → identify → them
Fernández-Pedrera Correa argued that he could have treated the experiences similarly described by Jesus’s followers, recording their reports of seeing him alive after his crucifixion.
uncertain
him → argue → crucifixion
Later Christian copying may have expanded that report into a direct statement that Jesus rose from the dead and fulfilled biblical prophecy.
However, the researcher considered this reconstruction plausible rather than established.
uncertain
reconstruction → expand → prophecy
The surviving versions cannot determine exactly how much of the resurrection reference Josephus originally wrote.
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Josephus → survive → reference
Scholars have long questioned other statements in the passage that appear to express Christian beliefs, raising suspicions that they were added after Josephus wrote.
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Josephus → question → suspicions
The clearest case concerns the declaration that Jesus 'was the Christ.'
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Jesus → concern → declaration
The Latin describes Jesus as having been believed to be the Messiah, the Syriac says he was thought to be the Messiah and the Arabic cautiously suggests he was ‘perhaps’ the Messiah.
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he → describe → Jesus
The researcher also pointed to Origen, an early Christian writer who said Josephus did not accept Jesus as the Messiah.
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Josephus → point → Messiah
Together, he argued, those clues provide the strongest evidence that the direct declaration was not the passage's original wording.
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declaration → argue → evidence
Another disputed phrase questions whether Jesus should even be called a man, implying he was more than human.
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he → dispute → ?
It is absent from the Arabic account but survives in the Latin and Syriac versions.
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It → survive → versions
The researcher argued that its absence could reflect Agapius shortening the passage, leaving less direct evidence that the phrase was a later addition.
uncertain
phrase → argue → evidence
Fernández-Pedrera Correa is more confident about the closing statement that Jesus's followers continued to exist in the historian's own day.
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followers → continue → day
Its wording and subject fit Josephus's writing habits, he argued, and the versions show no comparable disagreement at that point.
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versions → fit → point
The Aporia
