Bar-Hebraeus identified Ahasuerus explicitly as Artaxerxes II ; however, the names are not necessarily equivalent: Hebrew has a form of the name Artaxerxes distinct from Ahasuerus, and a direct Greek rendering of Ahasuerus is used by both Josephus and the Septuagint for occurrences of the name outside the Book of Esther.

The names are indeed unattested in Persian texts as gods, however the Talmud ( Sanhedrin 61b ) and Rashi both record a practice of deifying Haman and Josephus speaks of him being worshipped.

The 36 AD date of the conflict with Aretas IV mentioned by Josephus is, however, consistent ( and shortly after ) the approximate date of the marriage of Herod Antipas and Herodias estimated by other historical methods.

As is common with ancient texts, however, there are no surviving extant manuscripts of Josephus ' works that can be dated before the 11th century, and the oldest of these are all Greek minuscules, copied by Christian monks.

There is considerable evidence, however, that attests to the existence of the references to Jesus in Josephus well before then, including a number of ad hoc copies of Josephus ' work preserved in quotation from the works of Christian writers.

The Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus states that three of the seven lamps were allowed to burn during the day also ; however, according to the Talmud ( Rashi, Tractate Shabbat 22b ), only the center lamp was left burning all day, into which as much oil was put as into the others.

The neutrality of Josephus ' writings has come into question however as he was heavily indebted to the Flavians.

Josephus himself, however, dates this event in the days of Alexander the Great, and though there is a notorious confusion in Josephus at this point, he may be right about the Gerizim temple dating from 332, and that may have been the date of the copying of their Pentateuch.

There is, however, good reason to doubt this account by Josephus.

Had the native history of Berossus survived, this may not have been the case ; all that is known of the Chaldaean historian's work, however, is derived from quotations in Josephus, Ptolemy, Eusebius, Jerome and George Syncellus.

The 1st-century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, however, understood this to mean that Jephthah burned his daughter on Yahweh's altar, whilst pseudo-Philo, late first century CE, wrote that Jephthah offered his daughter as a burnt offering because he could find no sage in Israel who would cancel his vow.

According to Josephus however, it was Antonia, the mother of Livilla, who finally alerted Tiberius to the growing threat Sejanus posed ( possibly with information provided by Satrius Secundus ), in a letter she dispatched to Capri in the care of her freedman Pallas.

Most of the Talmudic rabbis, and Josephus, following the belief that Urim meant lights, argued that divination by Urim and Thummim involved questions being answered by great rays of light shining out of certain jewels on the breastplate ; each jewel was taken to represent different letters, and the sequence of lighting thus would spell out an answer ( though there were 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and only 12 jewels on the breastplate ); two Talmudic rabbis, however, argued that the jewels themselves moved in a way that made them stand out from the rest, or even moved themselves into groups to form words.

" Another argument is that the author of the Book of Acts used Josephus as a source and made a mistake in a reading the text, taking a later reference to the execution of the " sons of Judas the Galilean " after the rebellion of Theudas as saying that the rebellion of Judas was later ; however there is disagreement as to whether the author ( s ) of Luke used Josephus.

During the beginning of Jesus's ministry, James did not believe Jesus was the Messiah ; however, there was some great catalyst that changed his mind, for he became the leader of the Nazaraean community in Jerusalem and produced the Epistle of James written before 61 C. E., when he was stoned by the Sanhedrin under the authority of Ananus, the son or grandson of Annas who had been responsible for bringing Jesus to trial ( Josephus, Antiquities 20. 9. 200 )

According to Josephus, however, when the Romans entered the fortress they discovered that its 960 inhabitants had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and had committed mass suicide.

One of them, Josephus ' allusion in The Antiquities of the Jews ( c. 94 ) to the death of James, describes James as " the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ ", provides alleged attestation independent of the early Christian community ; however several scholars have pointed out the end of the passage seems to identify this Jesus as the son of Damneus and that he was made high priest.

Josephus fortified Meron in the 1st century CE and called the town Mero or Meroth ; however, Negev writes that Meroth, another ancient town, was located further north, possibly at the site of Marun as-Ras.

The only ruler to whom the narrative can properly refer is Ptolemy V Epiphanes ( 205-182 ), who in 193 BCE married Cleopatra, the daughter of Antiochus III In that case, however, Joseph could not have farmed the Egyptian taxes, since Cœle-Syria was then under Syrian, and not under Egyptian, suzerainty, while the assertion that the two powers had divided the revenues of the country is merely an attempt on the part of Josephus to evade the difficulty.

The Aesculapian Snake was first described by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768, the scientific name of this species is Zamenis longissimus, Zamenis is of unknown origin however longissimus comes from Latin and means " longest ;" this snake is one of the longest over its range.

The letters say that Paul knew of and had met important figures in Jesus's ministry, including the apostles Peter and John, as well as James the brother of Jesus, who is also allegedly mentioned in Josephus.

Bible scholars have viewed this as a corruption of " Nabonidus " which if correct may be taken either as confusion on the part of Josephus or a corroboration of the interpretation of the younger " Labynetos " of Herodotus as Belshazzar.

Josephus refers to the queen at the time ( corresponding to the Nitocris of Herodotus ) as the grandmother of Belshazzar which corroborates the alternative view that the younger " Labynetos " ( son of Nitocris ) is Nabonidus.

Dunn states that Josephus positions John as a righteous preacher ( dikaiosyne ) who encourages his followers to practice " righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God " and that Mark 6: 20 similarly calls John " a righteous ( dikaios ) and holy man ".

Dunn states that Antipas likely saw John as a figure whose asceic lifestyle and calls for moral reform could give rise to a poplar uprising on moral grounds, as both Josephus and the New Testament suggest.

Vermes calls the Jesus notice in the Testimonium a " veritable tour de force " in which Josephus plays the role of a neutral witness.

Author Joseph Raymond calls Josephus " the Jewish Benedict Arnold " for betraying his own troops at Jotapata.

Josephus calls it Akre.

Josephus calls him a ' bastard ' ( νόθος ), though in a derogative sense. A late extra-Biblical tradition, recorded by Nachmanides, maintains that the Amalekites were not descended from the grandson of Esau but from a man named Amalek, from whom the grandson took his name.

The Roman historian Josephus calls her Nicaule.

The Roman historian Josephus calls her Nicaule.

According to Josephus, the head-dress of the Jewish High Priests ' was modeled upon the capsule of the Hyoscyamus flower, which he calls " Saccharus ".

However, according to Josephus, in Antiquities, Book 7, Chapter 1, Joab had forgiven Abner for the death of his brother, Asahel, the reason being that Abner had slain Asahel honorably in combat after he had first warned Asahel and had no other choice but to kill him out of self defense.

The name Ahasuerus is equivalent to Xerxes, both deriving from the Persian Khshayārsha, thus Ahasuerus is usually identified as Xerxes I ( 486-465 BCE ), though Ahasuerus is identified as Artaxerxes in the later Greek version of Esther ( as well as by Josephus, the Jewish commentary Esther Rabbah, the Ethiopic translation and the Christian theologian Bar-Hebraeus who identified him more precisely as Artaxerxes II ).

According to Josephus, power made Caligula incredibly conceited and led him to think he was a god.

John Painter states that phrase " who was called Christ " is used by Josephus in this passage " by way of distinguishing him from others of the same name such as the high priest Jesus son of Damneus, or Jesus son of Gamaliel " both having been mentioned by Josephus in this context.

( Jews did not preserve the writings of Josephus because they considered him to be a traitor.

And again in his Commentary on Matthew ( Book X, Chapter 17 ) Origen refers to Josephus ' Antiquities of the Jews by name and that Josephus had stated that the death of James had brought a wrath upon those who had killed him.

In item 20 of that chapter Eusebius then mentions Josephus ' reference to the death of James and the sufferings that befell those who killed him.

A comparative argument made against the authenticity of the James passage by scholars such as Tessa Rajak is that the passage has a negative tone regarding the High Priest Ananus, presenting him as impulsive while in the Jewish Wars Josephus presents a positive view of Ananus and portrays him as prudent.

An issue that is subject to more debate is that in Commentary on Matthew ( Book X, Chapter 17 ), Origen cites Josephus as stating the death of James had brought a wrath upon those who had killed him, and that his death was the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem.

In Book II, Chapter 23. 20 of his Church History, Eusebius mentions Josephus ' reference to the death of James and the sufferings that befell those who killed him.

For the Jews slew him, although he was a most just man .” However, this statement does not appear in the extant manuscripts of Josephus.

According to Van Voorst, the statement " those that loved him at the first did not forsake him " has the characteristics of Josephus ' writing and points to the continuation of Christianity.

Craig Blomberg states that if the three elements " lawful to call him a man ", " he was the Christ " and the reference to the resurrection are removed from the Testimonium the rest of the passage flows smoothly within the context, fits the style of Josephus and is likely to be authentic.

Vermes states that the Testomonium provides Josephus ' authentic portrayal of Jesus, depicting him as a wise teacher and miracle worker with an enthusiastic group of followers who remained faithful to him after his crucifixion by Pilate, up to the time of Josephus.

Josephus wrote that his revelation had taught him three things: that God, the creator of the Jewish people, had decided to " punish " them, that " fortune " had been given to the Romans, and that God had chosen him " to announce the things that are to come ".

Vespasian arranged for the widower Josephus to marry a captured Jewish woman, who ultimately left him.