Translations and Transformations: Testimonium Flavianum
The Testimonium Flavianum is a famous and contested passage from Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3:
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be 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] Christ.
Translated by William Whiston, 1737
The authenticity of the passage was questioned as early as 1592 by Lucas Osiander in Epitomes Historiae Ecclesiasticae. Today, scholars continue to debate the extent to which the text has been interpolated by an unknown Christian author. The Testimonium Flavianum appears in Latin at the top of folio clxx recto in this 1519 edition of selections of the work of Josephus.
Christian theologians were interested in Josephus as a historical source on Jesus Christ and revered him as an exemplary writer and learned man. William Charles Price and Ebenezer Thompson translated from the original Greek for their two-volume publication titled, The works of Flavius Josephus (1777). One frontispiece in this work depicts Josephus seated with a quill in hand, observing an idealized and symbolic figure. The text reads:
Free from the heart the warm impression flows,
In lines unstdy’d, holy truths to tell. --
Let every Christian, while his bosom glows,
Think of our pious Jew; -- and live as well.
