Josephus' Potential Sources On Jesus

What's quoted below is from Tom Schmidt's recent book on Jesus in Josephus. This is an overview of Josephus' potential sources from whom he got his information about Jesus. The cumulative effect is especially significant. How likely is it that somebody would live where Josephus lived, have the parents Josephus had, know the other people Josephus knew, etc., yet not learn anything about Jesus from any of those non-Christian sources or only receive information that was false or unreliable? It seems very likely that Josephus got reliable information about Jesus from multiple non-Christian sources on multiple occasions. Schmidt writes:

But there is another reason to conclude that Josephus knew some who attended the trial of Jesus. This is because the individuals mentioned above can all be placed at the same time and general location of the trial itself. This is clear from Jewish law, which stipulated that on the evening of Passover—when Jesus was put on trial—faithful Jews were to gather in Jerusalem in the house of their familial patriarch. The conclusion from these things is that Ananus II, Josephus’ future commander, would have been celebrating Passover in the house of his father at the precise time the New Testament says Jesus was brought to his father’s house for interrogation. It means too that Simon, Josephus’ fellow Pharisee, would have been with his father Gamaliel when Gamaliel was called to the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus. And much the same can be said for the other of Josephus’ acquaintances as they celebrated Passover with their illustrious families, each family undoubtedly having many members among the Sanhedrin or the chief priests who, according to the Gospels, all attended the trial of Jesus.

I should not fail to emphasize that the Passover timing of such an event would have given Josephus’ contacts an extraordinary opportunity to have learned what occurred at the trial of Jesus, probably even allowing some to participate. And from this experience they each could have apprised Josephus about many things pertaining to Jesus of Nazareth. Indeed, Josephus is so well connected to Jesus that he is only one degree of separation removed from each of the four Jewish leaders whom the Gospel authors describe as participating in Jesus’ trial: Ananus I, Caiaphas, Herod Antipas, and Gamaliel....

Aside from these persons, there are also any number of other individuals whom Josephus may have met during his years in Galilee or his decades in Jerusalem whom he could have heard speak of Jesus. These include a great range of people, from various chief priests, to the scions of the Herodian dynasty, to the leaders of the Sanhedrin, to the common folk of Jerusalem and Galilee, to even Josephus’ own father and mother. After all, his parents were living in Jerusalem during the public crucifixion of Jesus in 30/33 CE, when his father was an esteemed priest and his mother was at least a teenager. They both would have been able to recount to him many things about Jesus. And this is not to forget that Josephus also knew several Jewish leaders who supervised the trials of the apostles James, Paul, and likely Peter and John. All told then, Josephus clearly had an impressive roster of informants able to tell him about the man from Nazareth....

But what is important for our purposes is that, aside from chronological technicalities, the Great Sanhedrin appears to have been following their own legal requirements when trying Jesus. And given this, the conclusion should reasonably be made that the Great Sanhedrin would have in all likelihood recorded the proceedings against Jesus and then published the verdict abroad, just as their same legal provisions actually recommended them to do. Corroborating this are the Gospel accounts which depict ‘scribes’ at the trial. The Babylonian Talmud also mentions the publicity surrounding Jesus’ trial when it says that a crier went forth publicly announcing the accusation against Jesus of Nazareth and soliciting evidence.

The logical inference from the above is that Sanhedrin records of Jesus’ trial probably existed. Therefore, as far as concerns Josephus’ acquaintances (who were discussed in Chapter 6), it is not too much to say that some of them may well have been privy to these documents regarding Jesus. This is particularly likely for Josephus’ fellow Pharisee, Simon son of Gamaliel, who was prince of the Sanhedrin in the 60s CE. At this time Simon could have consulted Sanhedrin documents pertaining to the trial of Jesus, or he may have seen them in the decades previous when he would have been a junior member of the Sanhedrin, or even when his father Gamaliel was prince of the Sanhedrin in the early 30s CE. This is especially likely since both Simon and his father Gamaliel are known for publishing official edicts to Jews throughout the land. So in all likelihood Simon had access to Sanhedrin documents. These would have given Simon an extraordinary knowledge of Jesus’ trial. Moreover, Simon would have had great motive to consult these documents in 62 CE when James, the brother of Jesus, was executed by the Sanhedrin right about when Simon was leading the Sanhedrin.

But Simon aside, Josephus also knew as many as five High Priests, each of whom were probably also privy to the Sanhedrin archive, especially since the Sanhedrin gave them permission to preside as judge in trials. Ananus II would be the most likely of these High Priests to access such documents since he was the one who convened the Sanhedrin that executed James the brother of Jesus. And of course, even if none of Josephus’ contacts actually read Jesus’ court documents directly, they could have learned of their contents through any number of secretaries or intermediaries who undoubtedly were employed by their own religious apparatuses.

Yet this is not all. It is also possible that Josephus’ contacts could have had access to Sanhedrin documents concerning Jesus’ early followers. This possibility comes by reason of the fact that the book of Acts describes the Great Sanhedrin as holding court over Peter, John, Stephen, Paul, James, and the eleven apostles. If this is so, then at each of these trials it is plausible that documents were produced since Sanhedrin requirements stipulated doing so. As such, Josephus’ acquaintances could have read these and passed their information on to Josephus, or Josephus could have learned of their contents through the social circles he and his acquaintances shared.

The possibility should even be considered that Josephus himself read such Sanhedrin documents given that he was, after all, an eminent and well-connected Pharisee who was interested in historical matters. He even requested that Emperor Titus allow him to gather sacred books from Jerusalem before its destruction. So his interest in consulting documents is evident.

(Josephus And Jesus [New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2025], 200-201, 261-63)