• Josephus—Historian Well-suited to His Subject
    Awake!—1980 | August 8

    • Our knowledge of events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman armies in the year 70 C.E. is dependent to a considerable extent on the writings of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. In his book The Wars of the Jews he reports on events foretold by Jesus, although there is no evidence that Josephus was himself a Christian, or even that he was familiar with Jesus’ prophecies.

      Josephus tells us, for example, that the Roman general Titus built a fortification of pointed stakes to hasten the arrival of famine conditions in besieged Jerusalem, just as Jesus had predicted. (Jesus said: “Your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side.”)