Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t launched by a PR team or a marketing campaign. He was a Jewish preacher executed around AD 30 under Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor that historians outside the Bible mention ...

A life and times of the very interesting, and ever controversial Flavius Josephus. Raphael discusses Josephus within the framework of his times, and there’s much useful material here for the student ...

Recently we began looking at claims that the Jewish historian Josephus (A.D. 37-c. 100) said that his people believed in reincarnation. This is not true. As we’ve already seen, there were two general ...

Did hundreds of Jews really commit suicide at Masada? Historian Shaye Cohen compares Josephus' account with recent archaeological evidence. From "Masada: Literary Tradition, Archaeological Remains, ...

The author of The Jewish War—our sole account of the 70 CE destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans—has always been one of the Ancient World’s most controversial figures. Born Joseph ben ...

Alternately hailed as the grand chronicler of the Jewish war with the Romans and reviled as a traitorous propagandist for the Roman emperor, the Jewish historian Josephus (37–c. 100 C.E.) captured ...