Which Jewish source described Josephus as a man captured by Romans who became a historian who mentioned Jesus about 60 years after his death?

Which Jewish source described Josephus as a man captured by Romans who became a historian who mentioned Jesus about 60 years after his death?

• A. Philo
• B. Pliny the Elder
• C. Josephus
• D. Tacitus

Answer: (C)

This question tests your ability to identify the source that narrates Josephus’s own life path—his capture by the Romans and his later role as a historian who writes about Jesus roughly sixty years after Jesus’s death. The correct source is Josephus himself, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. In his works, especially Antiquities of the Jews, he describes being captured during the Jewish War and his subsequent position as a historian under Roman rule, and he provides an account of Jesus within that historical framework about six decades after Jesus’s death. The other options are not Jewish sources that recount Josephus’s life in this way: Philo is a different Jewish writer, while Pliny the Elder and Tacitus are Roman authors who mention Jesus but do not describe Josephus’s life and career.

This question tests your ability to identify the source that narrates Josephus’s own life path—his capture by the Romans and his later role as a historian who writes about Jesus roughly sixty years after Jesus’s death. The correct source is Josephus himself, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. In his works, especially Antiquities of the Jews, he describes being captured during the Jewish War and his subsequent position as a historian under Roman rule, and he provides an account of Jesus within that historical framework about six decades after Jesus’s death. The other options are not Jewish sources that recount Josephus’s life in this way: Philo is a different Jewish writer, while Pliny the Elder and Tacitus are Roman authors who mention Jesus but do not describe Josephus’s life and career.