Abstract

It is well known that Josephus was not at all a dispassionate historian. There are biases and heavy interests modeling his accounts. Nevertheless, the claim that Judas the Galilean and the Fourth Philosophy are nothing but Josephus’ fabrication is an exceedingly bold contention. In this article it is argued that the initial skepticism towards that contention is fully justified. On the basis of a whole set of arguments it is concluded that the traditional view, according to which the core of Josephus’ account is trustworthy, is by far the most plausible one. Even if we should not credulously believe every point of Josephus’ presentation, his accounts of Judas and the Fourth Philosophy seem to be reliable.