"Un uomo buono": Giovanni Battista in Flavio Giuseppe e nel materiale speciale di Luca

The article deals with Josephus' reference to John the Baptist in Book 18, 116-119 of his Antiquities of the Jews, which is the only non-Christian account on John's ministry. The authenticity of this testimony has been questioned, but the philological analysis of the passage reveals that it is compatible with Josephus's style and fits well in the broader context of the last part of the Antiquities. The second part of the article focuses on the similarities between Josephus' account and the Baptist's ethical preaching as recorded in the so-called 'Lucan special material': some shared details could suggest that the author of the Third Gospel knew Josephus' account, or possibly they shared a common tradition.