The Legion of Jesuses in Josephus

[davidlau17]

Tal Ilan, in Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity, Part I, Palestine 330 BCE-200 CE (2002) 56, 126-33, 449 documented 103 men named Joshua, the sixth most popular male name in this collection.

I'm familiar with that work - but if you mean to indicate that roughly 103/449 Jewish men in Palestine were named Jesus/Joshua, that's incorrect. There were 449 documented names. But 2,625 documented instances. Joshua was 1 out of the 449 documented names. Instances of the name Joshua were found 103 times among these 2,625 men. In other words, roughly 3.9% of all Palestine Jews from 330 BCE-200 CE were named Joshua.

I should also probably mention Tal Ilan used the works of Josephus in that study. Thus, the Jesuses I mentioned in the OP are 10 of those 103 men.

I believe the 449 in his post is a page number; he is referring to the mention of יהושע on the first page of the Addendum to Part 1, which is page 449.

ETA: Also, on page 54 (table 1) I am seeing a total of 721 male names, not 449.

Yeah, it looks like I misinterpreted the use of the number 449.

Nevertheless, it's the occurences of names, rather than the names used, that are of interest here. And on that point, I think the numbers I posted are correct - though they're based on a replication of Tal Ilan's study done by Richard Bauckham in 2006. I posted some details on that one in another thread here actually: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5179#p99104

[davidlau17]

Where is the 'Jesus brother of James' personage text of 1. Jesus brother of James in the works of Josephus?

It's just the inverse of "the brother of Jesus called Christ, whose name was James" from Anitquities (20.9.1). Of course, it would be mistaken for anyone to assume that this Jesus was actually alive during that time (~62 CE) - but I just noted that his name was relevant that year, enough so for Josephus to identify James by it. In fact, one might get the impression James was being stoned on account of his relation to this brother named Jesus.

[Ben C. Smith]

Tal Ilan, in Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity, Part I, Palestine 330 BCE-200 CE (2002) 56, 126-33, 449 documented 103 men named Joshua, the sixth most popular male name in this collection.

I'm familiar with that work - but if you mean to indicate that roughly 103/449 Jewish men in Palestine were named Jesus/Joshua, that's incorrect. There were 449 documented names. But 2,625 documented instances. Joshua was 1 out of the 449 documented names. Instances of the name Joshua were found 103 times among these 2,625 men. In other words, roughly 3.9% of all Palestine Jews from 330 BCE-200 CE were named Joshua.

I should also probably mention Tal Ilan used the works of Josephus in that study. Thus, the Jesuses I mentioned in the OP are 10 of those 103 men.

I believe the 449 in his post is a page number; he is referring to the mention of יהושע on the first page of the Addendum to Part 1, which is page 449.

ETA: Also, on page 54 (table 1) I am seeing a total of 721 male names, not 449.

Yeah, it looks like I misinterpreted the use of the number 449.

Nevertheless, it's the occurences of names, rather than the names used, that are of interest here. And on that point, I think the numbers I posted are correct - though they're based on a replication of Tal Ilan's study done by Richard Bauckham in 2006. I posted some details on that one in another thread here actually: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5179#p99104

Ah, that explains it. The 449 came from Bauckham, then, and not from Ilan. Bauckham explains at the very beginning of his chapter on names how (and why) he has modified Ilan's numbers. It is probably best just to stick with one set of numbers or the other. The 103 men named Jesus, for example, come from Ilan; Bauckham has 99.

Bauckham summarizes Ilan's overall numbers thus: "2826 persons (2509 male, 317 female) bearing 831 different names (721 male, 110 female)." And he summarizes his own in this way: "2953 occurrences of 521 names, comprising 2625 occurrences of 447 male names and 328 occurrences of 74 female names."

[davidlau17]

Damneus may be a case of "damnatio memoriae" to replace a previous name. Something as "Bar Kosiba" in the place of "Bar Kokhba".

This may be the case. As an explanation, for me anyway, it leaves a bit to be desired - begging the question of what that previous name was. Still, good point.

[davidlau17]

Ah, that explains it. The 449 came from Bauckham, then, and not from Ilan. Bauckham explains at the very beginning of his chapter on names how (and why) he has modified Ilan's numbers. It is probably best just to stick with one set of numbers or the other. The 103 men named Jesus, for example, come from Ilan; Bauckham has 99.

Bauckham summarizes Ilan's overall numbers thus: "2826 persons (2509 male, 317 female) bearing 831 different names (721 male, 110 female)." And he summarizes his own in this way: "2953 occurrences of 521 names, comprising 2625 occurrences of 447 male names and 328 occurrences of 74 female names."

Thanks, this clarifies things.

Admittedly, calculating the percentage of individuals named 'Jesus' by using Ilan's number of Jesuses and Bauckham's total occurences of names was an error on my part.

Using each study's actual numbers we can specificy:
Ilan: 103/ 2509 = 4.11% of males were named Jesus/Joshua
Bauckham: 99/2625= 3.77% of males were named Jesus/Joshua

Either way, it appears that roughly 4% of Jewish males living in the Palestine area from 320 BCE - 230 CE were named Jesus.

[Trees of Life]

Where is the 'Jesus brother of James' personage text of 1. Jesus brother of James in the works of Josephus?

It's just the inverse of "the brother of Jesus called Christ, whose name was James" from Anitquities (20.9.1). Of course, it would be mistaken for anyone to assume that this Jesus was actually alive during that time (~62 CE) - but I just noted that his name was relevant that year, enough so for Josephus to identify James by it. In fact, one might get the impression James was being stoned on account of his relation to this brother named Jesus.

Your names below of 2 to 6 were public figures and identified by Josephus.

2. Jesus son of Ananias ("woe to Jerusalem" omen, 62-66 CE)
3. Jesus son of Damneus (high priest, 63-64 CE)
4. Jesus son of Gamala (high priest, 64-65 CE)
5. Jesus son of Sapphias (a high priest, c. 66 CE)
6. Jesus son of Shaphat (leader of bandits, c. 66 CE)

Your '1. Jesus brother of James' was not a public figure identified by Josephus and doesn't belong unqualified with your other five Josephus' Jesus identities.

[davidlau17]

Using DCHindley's list of occurences of the name 'Jesus' in Josephus, I came up with at least 15 individuals named Jesus that could be identified. I only list the individual's first appearance in each of his works.

War
2:566 Jesus, son of Sapphias – Governor of Tiberias. (10)
3:450 Jesus, son of Shapat – Principal head of a band of robbers controlling Tiberias. (11)
4:160 Jesus, son of Gamala – One of the most esteemed high priests. (12)
4:238 Jesus, no patronym – Eldest priest after Artanus. (12?)
6:114 Jesus, no patronym – High priest, deserts to Vespasian. (15)
6:300 Jesus, son of Ananus – Common man prophesied destruction of the temple. (13)
6:387 Jesus, son of Thebuthus – One of the priests, deserts to Titus. (14)

Antiquities
3.04.9 Jesus [Joshua] son of Nun (successor of Moses). (1)
11:299 Jesus, [son of Eliashib] – slain by brother John, the High priest. (2)
20:234 Jesus, son of Josadek – High priest. (3)
12:238 Jesus, brother of Onias III – Deposed as High priest in favor of Onias/Menelaus. (4)
12:239 Jesus, younger brother of Onias/Menelaus – High priest. (5)
15:322 Jesus, son of Phabes – High priest. (6)
17:341 Jesus, the son of Sie – High priest. (7)
18:063 Jesus, no patronym – Condemned to cross by Pilate. He was [the] Christ. (8)
20:203 Jesus, son of Damneus – High priest. (9)
20:213 Jesus, son of Gamaliel – High priest. (12?)

Life
1:066 Jesus, son of Sapphias – Governor of Tiberias. (10)
1:105 Jesus, no patronym – Captain of robbers in Ptolemais.(11?)
1:178 Jesus, no patronym – Brother of Justus of Tiberias. (10?)
1:193 Jesus, son of Gamala – High priest & Josephus’ friend. (12)
1:200 Jesus, no patronym – Galilean at head of a band of 600 men, sent to depose Josephus. (11?)
1:246 Jesus, no patronym – Owned a castle. Governor of Tiberias? (10?)

Thus, I tentatively have it at 15 men named Jesus in Josephus. I realize a number of these cross-identifications are debatable; it's possible that up to 19 men have the name of Jesus. Alternatively, the "Jesus, no patronym – high priest, deserts to Vespasian" (#15) might be one of the other Jesuses - dropping the number of occurences to 14.

If I divide this number (15) by the total number of Jewish men (345 according to Bauckham) mentioned by Josephus, I end up with .0432 - meaning that 4.32% of the population of men in the works by Josephus are named Jesus. This is approximately the same percentage as the total number of Jewish males in Palestine who had that name in that time period (4.11% according to Ilan; 3.77% according to Bauckham).

So basically, it looks like I jumped the gun in assuming that the number of men named Jesus was abnormal in Josephus. The lack of Jesuses mentioned in the NT is probably the odder phenomenon - but it is an easily explainable one. Since the Christ's name was Jesus, those who may have shared his name might have been labeled otherwise in the NT.

[Ben C. Smith]

So basically, it looks like I jumped the gun in assuming that the number of men named Jesus was abnormal in Josephus. The lack of Jesuses mentioned in the NT is probably the odder phenomenon - but it is an easily explainable one. Since the Christ's name was Jesus, those who may have shared his name might have been labeled otherwise in the NT.

Bravo. Perfect attitude and approach. I love to see such fairmindedness in action.

[davidlau17]

So basically, it looks like I jumped the gun in assuming that the number of men named Jesus was abnormal in Josephus. The lack of Jesuses mentioned in the NT is probably the odder phenomenon - but it is an easily explainable one. Since the Christ's name was Jesus, those who may have shared his name might have been labeled otherwise in the NT.

Bravo. Perfect attitude and approach. I love to see such fairmindedness in action.

[DCHindley]

davidlau17,

I cane up with 17,* but a couple could be the same person.

FWIW, the vast number of mentions of the name "Jesus" in Josephus' works referred to Joshua son of Nun in the books of the Antiquities (67 times).

Jesus/(Joshua) son of Nun is mentioned only once in War.

Josephus' autobiography, Life, was not concerned with Joshua son of Nun, but fellow Judean Justas of Tiberias' charges against Josephus' actions as a General for the Provisional Revolutionary Government in Galilee during the Judean Revolt.

Surprisingly, Josephus does not mention Jesus/(Joshua) son of Nun in his Against Apion at all. Apion had apparently attacked Judean foundation traditions as lies, laying out an alternative "Egyptian" story that casts the Israelites in a very negative manner. That work mentions Moses 22 times, though.

I think the reason he did not mention Joshua son of Nun in Against Apion was because in Judean tradition Joshua was a powerful general in charge of the Israelite armies who conquered the peoples of Canaan, who in Judean tradition did not legitimately rule that region. No sense in bringing that up to the Romans now that they had just recently crushed Judean aspirations to topple Roman rule.

* The name Jesus [= Hebrew Joshua or Jehoshua]

01. Jesus, son of Phabes – High priest. Ant 15.322
02. Jesus, son of Ananus – Common man prophesied destruction of the temple. War 6.300
03. Jesus, or Jason – High priest. Ant 12.239
04. Jesus, son of Sapphias – Governor of Tiberias. War 2.566, War 2.599; Life 1.066, Life 1.134
05. Jesus, brother of Onias – High priest. Ant 12.237, Ant 12.238, Ant 12.239
06. Jesus, son of Gamaliel – High priest. Ant 20.213, Ant 20.223
07. Jesus, no patronym – Eldest high priest after Ananus. War 4.238, War 4.316, War 4.325
08. Jesus, son of Damneus – High priest. Ant 20.203
09. Jesus, son of Gamala – High priest & Josephus’ friend. War 4.160; Life 1.193, Life 1.204
10. Jesus, [or Joshua] son of Nun – Successor to Moses. Ant 03.049, Ant 03.308; Ant 4.459, & numerous other times.
11. Jesus, son of Shapat – Principal head of a band of robbers controlling Tiberias, sallies against Vespasian's messenger Valerian. War 3.450
16. Jesus, no patronym – Captain of those robbers who were in the confines of Ptolemais, allies with Josephus. Life 1.105
12. Jesus, son of Thebuthus – One of the priests, delivers to Titus precious things deposited in the temple. War 6.387
13. Jesus, son of Josadek – High priest. Ant 20.231, Ant 20.234
14. Jesus, no patronym – Galilean at head of a band of 600 followers, sent by Ananus & Jesus to depose Josephus. Life 1.200
15. Jesus, no patronym – Condemned to cross by Pilate. He was [the] Christ. Ant 18.063
17. Jesus, brother of Jacob – Called the Christ. Ant 20.200