However, today most scholars regard Photius as inaccurate and recognize that Herod Agrippa II probably died before 93 CE. (99) This means that the works of Josephus may well have been composed before 95 CE. If this is correct, then the Epaphroditus of Nero and Domitian would have been alive when Josephus dedicated his works to him.
Considering the interest that Epaphroditus devoted to the work of both Paul and Josephus, it is likely that he was Jewish himself, at least by birth. This would also shed light on why his execution is associated with that of Flavius Clemens, who was executed, according to Cassius Dio, for “adopting Jewish ways.”
Epaphroditus would not have been the only person at Nero’s court interested in things Jewish. From suggestions by Josephus, it may be possible to infer that Nero’s second wife, Poppea, was a “God fearer,” the term given to “soft” converts to Judaism who did not follow strict Jewish practice. (100) Josephus himself reports that Poppea was sympathetic and helpful to him during his own mission to Rome in his youth before he would become the Flavian historian. (Poppea was later kicked to death by Nero while she was pregnant.)
Poppea Sabina
The main objection by scholars to this three-way identification of Paul, Josephus and the historians’ Epaphroditus has always been the mere incredulity that Christian connections could reach so high at this foundational stage of the Church. And yet, as we have so often seen now, when all of the evidence is simply taken at face value, the position most supported is that all of these Epaphrodituses are the same person, who, by himself, joins the roots of Christianity to imperial Rome and the Flavian dynasty itself.
Scattered throughout the New Testament are many references to prominent political figures from the Roman Empire of the 1st Century, and many of these mentions do not involve any controversial identification. Princess Bernice, for example, the mistress of an emperor who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, and her brother, the last prince from a house of Jewish kings, are both recalled positively in the New Testament, as are all Roman governors, state officials, and even Paul’s jailer. One of the consistent thematic concerns of both the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles is depicting the relationship of the first Christians to the Roman state positively.
It is now time to focus on the most famous Jewish figure in the inner circle of Emperor Titus: the seminal historian, Titus Flavius Josephus.
II.
Josephus and the New Testament
As we have previously noted, the historian commonly known as Josephus was a self-described priest from an ancient line of Jewish priests. He also boasted of royal connections as a descendant of the Hasmonean family that had achieved both the crown and the high priesthood. (1)
After starting out as a conflicted and reluctant rebel general in Galilee whose doubts constantly irritated his countrymen, Josephus tells us that he switched over to the Roman side after the city he was defending, Jotapata, fell to the Romans. Thereafter, Josephus informs us, he enjoyed official favor as a writer and historian at the Flavian court who would not only earn his freedom but also Roman citizenship, as well as valuable estates.
Josephus tells us that he was with Vespasian at Alexandria, where the new emperor performed his healing miracles that exactly mirror Jesus Christ’s. Perhaps the reason we don’t have Josephus’s own account of these miracles is that they happened at the pagan temple of Serapis. Josephus does attest to have been present with Titus during the Siege of Jerusalem, along with all of Titus’s other New Testament friends. Of that momentous event he provides us with a vividly detailed account. (2)
Titus Flavius Josephus
During Vespasian’s reign Josephus produced a history of the Jewish revolt, with official Roman approval, entitled Wars of the Jews. About 20 years later, he finished his comprehensive history of the Hebrews from the Creation to the eve of the Jewish War entitled Antiquities of the Jews, which he dedicated to Epaphroditus. This monumental work was a more detailed, parallel account of the legendary history found in the Old Testament itself, supplemented by subsequent history.
In addition, Josephus wrote Against Apion, his defense of Jewish history and culture against the attacks of one “Apion” and other anti-Semitic writers (whose works no longer exist), which he also dedicated to Epaphroditus, and, finally, he penned his own autobiography.
Today, there is near consensus among scholars that the Gospels (and the Book of Acts), or the material comprising them, were largely composed between the time of the Jewish War and the end of the 1st Century (although some place the completion of the more theologically sophisticated Gospel of John in the early 2nd Century). These texts underwent further editing and redaction, but this dating for the basic material has become widely accepted. This means that most of the New Testament was written during the same time that Josephus wrote his books, while the Flavians were in power.
The Gospels were composed in Greek, rather than Aramaic or Hebrew, as were the works of Josephus, who was learned in all three.
In his theology and political outlook, Josephus is remarkably Christian to a degree that is not generally acknowledged. Although nominally “Jewish,” the works of Josephus were preserved only by Christians. Understandably, he was regarded as a traitor by his fellow Jews. His military and political betrayal of the rebellion is only the first basis for Josephus’s popularity among Christians and his infamy among his own people.
As Josephus describes it, his change of heart was not a sudden matter. He had long predicted that the Romans would inevitably win any conflict with the Jews. He claims that from the start he had repeatedly urged peace among the rebels. (3) In response, he tells us, his countrymen denounced him and literally flung excrement at him.
So, like Jesus, Josephus advocated an unpopular peace to the Jews. Josephus also believed in “loving thine enemy.” He reminds us in his autobiography that Jewish law prohibited Jews from despoiling “even of their enemies,” (4) and, in Apion, he asserts that to treat one’s enemies well is God’s own command. (5). Josephus criticizes Herod the Great for not showing “mercy” on those whom he “hated” (6), and he tells us that the virtue that the crazed Zealot rebels entirely lacked was “mercy” (clementia). (7)
Apparently, like both Paul and the author of the epistle of Peter, Josephus even believed that the Roman authorities were appointed by God. (8) He tells the rebels themselves at one point that they are fighting against not only the Romans, but against God himself. (9) If hearing this doctrine expressed by Paul is somewhat more surprising than reading it in the works of the Flavian apologist Flavius Josephus, the two men, nevertheless, share exactly the same political doctrine—one that endorses the legitimacy of Roman rule with the Jewish God’s own favor during an age of religious war.