The Narnia 3 Book Review Blog

Steve Mason. Josephus and the New Testament (2nd edition). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003. Paper, xviii + 318pp. $16.95.

One of the most important and interesting personalities in extra-biblical history of the New Testament era is that of Flavius Josephus (c.a. A.D.37-100). This work is a new and expanded edition of the author’s 1992 work under the same title. The author brings significant academic credentials to this undertaking. He is widely regarded as one of the leading Josephan scholars alive today and is the general editor of the multi-volume Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary (Brill, 2000-) a new English edition of the works of Josephus.

This new edition is well designed and includes a new series of charts and maps that are quite helpful in sorting out the various personalities and groups, particularly the House of Herod (151) and especially the Hasmonean Dynasty (201). He has written an overview and introduction that is lucid and detailed dealing with quite a complicated corpus of work from a singularly unique individual. As the author notes, “Although Josephus is widely known, he writings seem bewildering and impenetrable on a first approach” (297). This work is well indexed (particularly the index of Josephus’ works cited) and provides excellent bibliographic references.

The author has several excellent sections, particularly his discussion of the relationship between Luke-Acts and Josephus (251-95). The author holds out the possibility that Luke used Jospehus as one of his sources for information, although of course this would put the writing of Luke-Acts into the era of A.D. 90. It is interesting that the author does not even consider that the converse is possibly true, that Josephus used Luke-Acts as a source. Other important sections are the discussions of Josephan references to New Testament personalities and his detailed discussion of the testimonian flavianum, the testimony of Josephus to the person of Christ (Ant. 18.63-64; pp. 225-36 in this text). His chapter on “Who’s Who in the New Testament World” (147-211) is also a thorough and well-conceived overview.

The major flaw in this work from an epistemological viewpoint is that the author regards the works of Josephus to be on an equal historical value and reliability as the Scriptures and seemingly he often seems to regard Josephus as perhaps even more reliable. This, of course, will be a distraction to those who are committed to an inspired and inerrant Scripture; however, that should not dissuade any serious student of the New Testament from acquiring and using this excellent introduction to great profit.