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) |