by designs 11 Replies latest watchtower bible
Here's one to critique. The Flavian family- Vespasian, Titus, Domitian had the Jesus character invented, which could account for the many errors on Judaism in the Gospels. It was an answer to the Jewish Revolt in that it developed a pacifist group who relied on superstition- this is why the Gospels appear after the Jewish Roman war.. Flavius Josephus= Arrius Calpurnius Piso
Book by Joseph Atwill- Ceasar's Messiah
It's an interesting take. It sounds like it could be a great inspiration for a screenplay. I wonder if it would stir Christians up to violence if it were ever a movie.
That is interesting. I remember the WTS publications saying that there was more proof that Jesus Christ existed than there was that [insert name of other historical figure] existed. If the Romans invented him that could be why there's so much proof.
Why would the Romans want to agitate the Jews further? Under Julian the Apostate—who collaborated with Jews against the Christians—Rome faced the biggest engineering project ever in attempting to rebuild the Jewish temple. Doesn't make a lot of sense. The Jews fought endlessly with the Romans over Christianity. They were the most active revolutionaries in Rome at the time.
The conspiracy would have to be vast. So vast as to be impossible. The idea does not make sense when compared to the gospel message. Christianity was hostile to Roman authority at it's core. While it taught to be obedient to Roman rule, it also taught that God would overrule it. If it was a Roman invention one would expect to see a far greater love for Roman authority commanded in the gospels. Jesus message was a message of HIS Kingdom and not the Roman Kingdom. Rebel Jews would never approve of Jesus in the first place. Why would the Romans care to start a new religion when they had already beaten them on the battlefield?
There is too much that just wouldn't fit in to this hypothesis. Why would Titus be involved in this? Tacitus places the origins of Christianity and the Romans reaction to it almost a decade BEFORE Titus' victory. Pliny also wrote a letter to Trajan asking what they should do about the Christian movement. Why would Domitian persecute Christians forgetting that his own relatives had created it in the first place?
As far as I have been able to tell, Atwill is completely alone in his hypothesis. Roman history just doesn't fit in with this "conspiracy theory". It seems that he took a few points (i.e be obedient to authority, and Jesus' statements that His kingdom was not going to take over Rome at that time), and he ran with it. It seems that people are so intent on disproving the gospels, they will latch on to anything. This has conspiracy theory written all over it and seems to be similar to modern conspiracy theories.
Designs, are you saying that the Romans co-opted Bible prophecy when Titus fulfilled Matthew 24? It's one thing to say that the Romans co-opted Christianity, but to say that they created Jesus is difficult to accept. The Romans would had to have collaborated with the Jews in order to fulfill over 300 Messianic prophecies. Then you would have to concede that the Jews also created Christianity, which makes things even more difficult.
There are theories floating around the internet that Christianity is a Jewish front. But you will find that the theorists have no clue about the differences between the two. They see Christian Zionism (dispensationalism) and automatically assume all of Christianity is like that.
There are also theories that you can predict WW3 by reading individual characters in the bible vertically or diagonally.
Words can be discovered that way, and then put together at random to make strange sentences.
Why would Emperor Constantine abolished crucifixion
in 337 AD out of veneration for Jesus?
Yeah, Torah Codes, Gematria, Kabbalism. It's all just a bunch of magic. Worse yet, there are many Christians that get taken in by it all. I mean, you could find predictions in TV Guide if you really wanted to.
One theory claims that paul was a roman agent. He is the instigator who kick started the writing of the nt.
The jewish roman war that you refer to, is it 70 ce? If so, then the books thoery falls down, cuz the earliest writings of the nt have been reliably dated to around 30.
S
