Replies

> Didn't Josephus describe him in detail in "The Jewish War"?

Nope. From "Antiquities of the Jews:"
"At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon their loyalty to him. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. Accordingly they believed that he was the Messiah, concerning whom the Prophets have recounted wonders."

That's not a whole lot of detail. That's also more like someone accurately recording the beliefs of another group. It should be noted that Josephus himself was *not* a Christian but a Jew; thus he was obviously not convinced that Jesus was the Messiah (or otherwise... he'd be a Christian).

As to whether Josephus was unreliable... seems unlikely. However, it's true that he neither recounted great detail unavailable from the first four books of the NT, and neither was the information available to *him* sufficient to cause him to believe.

Consider: assume a group of people who believed in Alien Superfriends In Shiny Gold UFO's (Asisgufoians) came to your town. The local paper described them and their beliefs in factual terms. Let's say their belief was that John Wayne was sent to Earth as the only begotton son of the Galactic Overlord. Now, if the local paper reported that "the Asisgufoians believe that John Wayne was sent to Earth as the only begotton son of the Galactic Overlord," does that lend credence to their belief? Or does that simply describe what their belief is?

That there were Christians in 93 AD is not exactly a shocking revelation.