Flavius Josephus - 2025 ACF Winter

Question

A 2025 book by Tom Schmidt contends that this author’s namesake Testimonium was entirely genuine, rather than containing a Christian interpolation. For 10 points each:

[10m] Name this Jewish historian who briefly discussed Jesus, John the Baptist, and James the Just in his Antiquities of the Jews.

ANSWER: Flavius Josephus [or Yosef ben Mattityahu; or Yoseph bar Mattityahu] (The book is Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ.)

[10h] Schmidt dismisses that possibility since this historian “refrains from making… changes to texts, even when they contradict the Bible” in works like his Onomasticon. This early Christian historian included a description of the Council of Nicaea in a near-hagiographic biography of Constantine the Great.

ANSWER: Eusebius of Caesarea [or Eusebius Pamphilius; or Eusébios tês Kaisareías; reject “Pamphilius”]

[10e] The Testimonium Flavianum appears in book XX of Antiquities of the Jews, the second chapter of which discusses a “great famine” in this city. Josephus described “a terrible battle” in this holy city, the capital of Judea.

ANSWER: Jerusalem [or Yerushaláyim; or al-Quds]

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Summary


California	Main	Y	4	17.50	100%	50%	25%
Canada	Main	Y	6	18.33	100%	67%	17%
Florida	Main	Y	10	18.00	100%	60%	20%
Great Lakes	Main	Y	1	20.00	100%	100%	0%
Overflow	Main	Y	1	20.00	100%	100%	0%
Pacific Northwest	Main	Y	9	15.56	89%	56%	11%
South Central	Main	Y	4	17.50	100%	75%	0%
UK	Main	Y	4	22.50	100%	100%	25%
Upper Mid-Atlantic	Main	Y	6	13.33	100%	33%	0%
Upstate NY	Main	Y	7	15.71	100%	57%	0%
2025 ACF Nationals	2025-08-09	Y	8	16.25	100%	63%	0%

Data


Berkeley E	Berkeley A	0	0	10	10
Stanford A	Berkeley B	10	0	10	20
Berkeley C	Stanford B	0	0	10	10
Stanford C	Berkeley D	10	10	10	30
Claremont Scripps	UCI	10	0	10	20
USC	UCLA B	10	0	10	20
UCLA C	UCSB	0	0	10	10
UCLA A	UCSD Two Running Violet V Forms	10	10	10	30
UCLA D	UCSD Vices and Virtues	0	0	10	10
Claremont Pitzer	UCSD What Hath God Wrought	10	0	10	20
McGill A	Toronto H	10	0	10	20
Carleton	McMaster A	10	10	10	30
Guelph A	McMaster B	0	0	10	10
Toronto C	McMaster C	0	0	10	10
Toronto A	McGill C	10	10	10	30
Toronto B	Toronto I	10	0	10	20
McGill B	Toronto D	10	0	10	20
Waterloo	Toronto J	0	0	10	10
Ottawa	Toronto K	10	0	10	20
Western Ontario	Toronto Metropolitan	0	0	10	10
UCF A	UCF B	10	0	10	20
Chicago B	Purdue C	0	0	10	10
Missouri A	WashU A	10	0	10	20
Notre Dame D	Illinois B	10	10	0	20
Louisville A	Chicago D	10	0	10	20
Louisville B	Notre Dame C	10	0	10	20
Notre Dame A	Michigan A	0	0	10	10
Indiana A	Notre Dame B	10	0	10	20
Kentucky	Purdue A	10	0	10	20
Illinois C	Purdue B	0	0	10	10
St. Thomas	Macalester A	10	0	10	20
Carleton	Macalester B	10	0	10	20
Minnesota A	Minnesota B	0	0	10	10
Iowa State	Wisconsin	10	0	10	20
Alberta	British Columbia B	10	0	10	20
British Columbia C	British Columbia A	10	0	10	20
Washington A	British Columbia D	10	10	10	30
Simon Fraser	Washington B	10	0	10	20
McGill D	Arizona State A	10	0	10	20
Northwestern A	Northwestern B	0	0	10	10
Ohio	Rose State	0	0	10	10
Texas A	Texas B	0	0	10	10
Alberta B	UCO	0	0	10	10
UTD A	UTD B	10	0	10	20
Michigan B	Chicago C	0	0	10	10
Alabama B	UAB A	0	0	10	10
Auburn A	Georgia Tech D	0	0	10	10
Bruin A	Vanderbilt A	10	0	10	20
Georgia Tech A	Georgia Tech B	10	0	10	20
Vanderbilt B	Georgia Tech C	0	0	10	10
Huntsville A	Huntsville B	10	0	10	20
Alabama A	Mississippi State A	10	0	10	20
Imperial A	Sheffield B	10	0	10	20
Imperial B	LSE A	0	0	10	10
Oxford A	Southampton A	10	0	10	20
Oxford B	Southampton B	0	0	10	10
Bristol B	Cambridge C	0	0	10	10
Cambridge B	City St George's A	10	0	10	20
Manchester A	Durham B	10	0	10	20
Sheffield A	Durham A	10	0	10	20