Steve Mason, Josephus and the New Testament, second edition (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003), 293.
I cannot prove beyond doubt that Luke knew the writings of Josephus. If he did not, however, we have a nearly incredible series of coincidences, which require that Luke new something that closely approximated Josephus’s narrative in several distinct ways. This source (or these sources) spoke of: Agrippa’s death after his robes shone; the extramarital affairs of both Felix and Agrippa II; the harshness of the Sadducees toward Christianity; the census under Quirinius as a watershed event in Palestine; Judas the Galilean as an arch rebel at the time of the census; Judah, Theudas, and the unnamed “Egyptian” as three rebels in the Jerusalem area worthy of special mention among a host of others; Theudas and Judas in the same piece of narrative; Judaism as a philosophical system; the Pharisees and Sadducees as philosophical schools; and the Pharisees as the most precise of the schools. We know of no other work that even remotely approximated Josephus’s presentation on such a wide range of issues. I find it easier to believe that Luke knew something of Josephus’s work than that he independently arrived at these points of agreement. Nevertheless, further study may provide alternatives.
The Amateur Exegete 