https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

I suppose that I am NOT surprised that there is still debate on this subject and most popular interpretations are NOT the version below from Wikipedia. Strange.

Read Josephus "The Jewish War" yourself.
Read the "Slavonic Josephus" English translation for an even greater understanding of the history -- the "raw news, legal fact, way-it-was" story of history.

Josephus attributes the Jewish Uprising in 66 A.D. specifically to the stoning of "James the Just" in 62 A.D.  This was James, brother of Jesus, who is most likely to be the same person as St. James the  ascribed author of the Epistle of James.  James was a priest in the Temple at Jerusalem AND the head of the organization of the followers of Jesus for over thirty years until his death.

At the time of "The Jewish War", Josephus was an officer in the Jewish Army.  During the war he was one of the first officers captured by the Roman Army.  He later wrote the book "The Jewish War" and "The Antiquities of the Jews" to preserve the memory of his people and as a favor for the Emperor.  The books were very popular in the Roman Empire, until the mass book burning episodes organized by the Christian Church in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D.   Not a single written work of the entire legacy of Greece and Rome survived these burnings (in the entire area covered by the Roman Empire).  The only works that survived to this present day were preserved outside the boarders of the Roman Empire and were reintroduced into European culture during the Renaissance.  This book in particular "The Jewish War" was among the first and most popular of the ancient texts that was re-introduced in the late 1300's.


 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

 "1) Josephus refers to the stoning of "James the brother of Jesus" (James the Just) by order of Ananus ben Ananus, a Herodian-era High Priest.[24][25] The James referred to in this passage is most likely the James to whom the Epistle of James has been attributed.[25][26][27] The translations of Josephus' writing into other languages have at times included passages that are not found in the Greek texts, raising the possibility of interpolation, but this passage on James is found in all manuscripts, including the Greek texts.[25] The context of the passage is the period following the death of Porcius Festus, and the journey to Alexandria by Lucceius Albinus, the new Roman Procurator of Judea, who held that position from 62 AD to 64 AD.[25] Because Albinus' journey to Alexandria had to have concluded no later than the summer of 62 AD, the date of James' death can be assigned with some certainty to around that year.[25][28][24] The 2nd century chronicler Hegesippus also left an account of the death of James, and while the details he provides diverge from those of Josephus, the two accounts share similar elements.[29][14][28]"