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The Jewish historian Josephus wrote a history called Antiquities of the Jews, which includes a passage called the Testamonium Flavianum, which is believed to be authentic, although probably altered in the following centuries by pious Christians. One of the surviving versions of the Testamonium Flavianum says:

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.

To what extent this reflects Josephus' original writing, it should be remembered that Josephus remained a pious Jew, who could scarcely have written this version of the Testamonium Flavianum as it now stands. The most we can probably say is that he was not antagonistic to the Christians and that he probably viewed Jesus to have been a man worthy of respect.

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Q: What did the Jewish historian Josephus think of Jesus?
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