Peter Kirby has recently been uploading some excellent and fascinating posts in his blog. Recently his attention has turned to the Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews. These posts will be of interest to many readers who want to know more about early Christian history and the development of traditions within it.

Josephus was a first-century C.E., Jewish historian. He was a complex character. Having sided with the Romans during the Jewish Wars, he nevertheless wrote (often sympathetically) about the Jewish people, explaining to the Romans their history, traditions and practices. Josephus is extremely significant to historians as his writings provide us with important non-biblical sources for both Jewish and early Christian traditions.

1. A Conjectural Corruption of Josephus – This addresses a possible corruption of the text referring to Herod and Herodias (18.112).
2. The Greek Table of Contents to Antiquities 18 – Examines the often overlooked issue of contents tables in works of antiquity; their purpose, who wrote them, their place within the manuscript tradition etc.
3. Jesus, John, and James and the Latin Table of Contents in Josephus – develops the previous post and Peter looks at the appearance of Jesus, John (Baptist) and James within the Latin version of the table of contents for the Antiquities.