Did Josephus ascribe the fall of Jerusalem to the murder of James, brother of Jesus?

A Christian tradition connects the destruction of Jerusalem to the murder of James the Just, brother of Jesus. One of its earliest and most explicit occurrences is found in Origen, on no fewer than three occasions. Origen ascribes this tradition to Josephus. In this paper, I explore the possibility that Origen may have paraphrased an authentic passage of Josephus, which is no longer extant. A close reading of the evidence in Origen shows that, contrary to some scholars' opinion, Origen did provide references to Josephus when dealing with this passage. The passage in question would have made sense in the logic of Josephus' Antiquities. Moreover, other passages in the Antiquities closely parallel the contested paraphrase, which suggests that it may well have belonged to this work. By way of conclusion, it can be said that if patristic testimonies on early Judaism and Christianity should always be read critically, they should not be systematically rejected either.