Testimonium-Luke Comparison Table

    The table presents parallel comparison of the Testimonium Flavianum, the description of Jesus appearing in Josephus' Jewish Antiquities, with Luke's description of Jesus found in the Emmaus narrative of Chapter 24. The flashback at 24:22-24 is dropped from this exhibit.

    In both cases, the exact order of the Greek text is maintained. The table merely adds in line breaks to clarify the relationship between clauses. This demonstrates the consistent presence and order of  the themes in the two texts. Also, correspondences of Greek words with the same root are shown in boldface.
    For details on the significance of the individual parallels, see The Josephus-Luke Connection.
    For a statistical analysis of the degree to such a correspondence is unusual, see the Statistical Analysis of Jesus Texts.
 

Josephus - Testimonium Flavianum   Jewish Antiquities  18.3.3  Sec. 63-64	Gospel of Luke  24:18-21, 25-27
Jesus wise man	Jesus the Nazarene who was a man prophet
Iesous sophos aner	Iesou tou Nazoraiou hos egeneto aner profetes

 

if a man one can call him indeed	(no match)
eige andra auton legein cre

 
 

for he was of amazing deeds a worker	mighty in deed
en gar paradoxon ergon poietes	dunatos en ergoi

 

a teacher	and word
didaskalos	kai logoi

 

of people who with pleasure the truth received	before God
anthropon ton hedone taleth decomenon,	enantion tou Theou

 

and many of the Jews and many of the Greeks were won over  kai pollous men 'Ioudaious, pollous de kai tou Hellenikou epegageto.

and all the people  kai pantos tou laou

 

The christ [or messiah] he was.	(no match)
ho christos houtos en.

 

and him an indictment	how they handed him over
kai auton endeixei	hopos te paredokan auton

 

by the principal men	the chief priests and leaders
ton proton andron	hoi archiereis kai hoi archontes

 

among us	of us
par' hemin	hemon

 

to a cross condemned by Pilate	to a judgment of death and crucified him.
stauroi epitetimhkotos Pilatou	eis krima thanatou kai estaurosan auton.

 

did not stop the first followers.	But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel
ouk epausanto hoi to proton agapesantes.	hemeis de helpizomen hoti autos estin o mellon lutrousthai ton Israel

 

(no match)	but besides with all these things
	alla ge syn pasin toutois

 

For appearing to them	(no match)
ephane gar autois

 

a third day having	this third day spending
triten echon hemeran	triten tauten hemeran agei

 

again alive	today since these things happened. [...] And he said to them, "Oh, fools and slow of heart to believe
palin zon	hemeron aph' ou tauta egeneto.[...]kai autos eipen pros autous, O anoetoi kai bradeis tei kardiai tou pisteuein epi

 

the divine prophets these things	all that the prophets have spoken. Were not these things necessary
ton theion propheton tauta	pasin hois elalesan hoi prophetai. ouchi tauta edei

 

(no match)	to suffer the christ
	pathein ton christon

 

and thousands other wonders about him foretold.	and to enter into his glory. Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
te kai alla myria peri autou thaumasia eirekoton.	kai eiselthein eis ten doxan autou; kai arxamenos apo Mouseos kai apo panton ton propheton diermeneusen autois en pasais tais graphais ta peri eautou.

 

And to now the tribe of the Christians, named after him, has not disappeared.   eis eti te nun ton Christianon apo toude onomasmenon ouk epelipe to phylon.

(no match)