THE GOSPEL: The Good News According To Josephus

It takes place in the year 95 C.E. (A.D.) at the home of Flavia Sabena - a cousin to
Emperor Domitian - on the last night of the Festival of Saturnalia. The hostess has
invited eminent Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, as guest of honor, to give
readings from his works while they wait up all night in their annual solar vigil celebrating
the mid-Winter Solstice. Among the guests are P. Cornelius Tacitus, the leading voice
among Roman historians, and Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus the biographer of the Caesars.
Opening with the "Star & Scepter" prophecy and a fl ashback to Isaiah, the action shifts to
Josephus, who explains that what encouraged the zealot bandits who fomented this war,
was an ambiguous oracle of a world ruler coming out of their country that was supported
by their scriptural writings. But as it turned out, the oracle foretold the elevation of
Vespasian, who was proclaimed Roman Emperor while he was in Judea.