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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)