Lay it to Heart

Can the Historian Josephus be Trusted?

Josephus is completely unreliable. If you quote Josephus as a source you are putting yourself into a position where you are acting ignorantly or lying. Bear in mind, if you belong to God, it is not honest to refuse or ignore your need to get an education. Josephus is one of the serious dilutions accepted by the church today helping to pollute God's word. Nothing Josephus teaches can be relied upon, and hence, an educated honest scholar will not use him. God takes his word seriously and we should, too. It's time for Christians to stop pulling their punches.

Josephus’ motive for writing appeared to be to show the Greeks that the Romans were an unworthy nation without roots in antiquity and to make the Hebrew nation look as old as possible. Understand that the Josephus we have recorded and available to us today is not necessarily the same Josephus as originally written.

Josephus makes critical errors in several areas:

Josephus is Wrong About Chronology
Josephus contradicts the word of God concerning chronology.
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Josephus is Wrong About Facts and Events
Josephus contradicts the word of God concerning various facts, events or background information. Josephus shows that he cannot be trusted to portray an accurate version of what the life and times of antiquity were like.
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Josephus Disagrees with Nature
Josephus contradicts nature. Without the Bible, without other historical texts, we would still know Josephus made mistakes.
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Josephus Uses False Logic
Josephus uses false logic. He cannot even handle the basics.
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Josephus Even Disagrees with Himself
Josephus contradicts himself. Josephus can't even get his own story right. The Josephus of the Antiquities makes the Josephus of the Wars of the Jews or Against Apion out to be a liar.
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Josephus Makes God out to be a Liar
Josephus makes God and Moses out to be liars. It is almost unbelievable that any educated scholar would use Josephus to try and bolster the Bible when Josephus displays such vile contempt for God. We can only assume that they really have not studied what they are talking about.
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Josephus Teaches a False Gospel
Josephus teaches a different gospel. Galatians 1:8 says, " But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."
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Conclusion
Proverbs 14:5 says, "A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies." Isaiah 8:20 says, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Josephus clearly shows himself to be a false witness. Josephus may contain some truths but there is no way of knowing which is truth and which is lie.