Josephus, James, & Jesus || Interview with Dr. Steve Mason

2023-11-27

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...

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 - Intro
3:00 - Setting Expectations
4:30 - Who is Josephus?
9:40 - Josephus' Context
18:50 - Was Josephus Pro-Roman?
26:20 - Historical methodology
46:10 - Textual criticism
1:00:11 - Privilege process over positions
1:02:30 - Context of Antiquities 20 (The James Passage)
1:14:00 - Ant. 20, the James Part
1:22:00 - Ananus is removed
1:25:50 - Common Mythicist Objections
1:26:00 - Why would people be upset that a Christian was executed?
1:32:12 - "Jesus, known as Christ" is not a problem
1:40:00 - Interpolation by later scribes
1:48:35 - Summary
1:51:00 - Audience questions
2:01:50 - Outro