Page "Josephus on Jesus" Paragraph 74

According to Robert E. Van Voorst the overwhelming majority of scholars consider both the reference to " the brother of Jesus called Christ " and the entire passage that includes it as authentic.

Van Voorst states that the James passage fits well in the context in the Antiquities and an indication for its authenticity is the lack of the laudatory language that a Christian interpolator would have used to refer to Jesus as " the Lord ", or a similar term.

Van Voorst also states that the use of a neutral term " called Christ " which neither denies nor affirms Jesus as the Messiah points to authenticity, and indicates that Josephus used it to distinguish Jesus from the many other people called Jesus at the time, in the same way that James is distinguished, given that it was also a common name.