While Josephus argued that the
era of prophecy was over with Artaxerxes (ca. 465 BCE, cf. Ag. Apion 1.40–41),
he still recognized that the Holy Spirit empowered prophetic speech and that
there was a way of knowing when it was false (Ant. 8.408). While
recognizing the inspiration of the Jewish prophetic scriptures, he thought that
he too was “inspired” (War 3.351–53). He claims this in his ability to
prophesy Vespasian’s ascent to become Roman Emperor (War 3.399–408).
Although believing that the prophetic voice was largely gone in Israel,
Josephus shows awareness that occasionally some still claimed prophetic status,
as in the case of Theudas who apparently believed that he was a prophet and led
some 400 Jews to the Jordan River, but he and his followers were killed by the
Roman soldiers (see Josephus, Ant. 20:97–98a; cf. Acts 5:34–37; See also
War 6.286). While Josephus never claims that he is a prophet, he does
claim prophetic-like actions for himself (see War 3.400–402), and refers
to a divine “voice” that gave clarity and vision to one named Jesus who
proclaimed a voice predicting the destruction of Jerusalem (War 6.300–309).
(Lee Martin McDonald, The
Formation of the Biblical Canon, 2 vols. [London: T&T Clark, 2017], 1:182)
