New Claim: Romans Invented Jesus Christ

[BG45]

Ancient Confession Found: 'We Invented Jesus Christ'

 

American Biblical scholar Joseph Atwill will be appearing before the British public for the first time in London on the 19th of October to present a controversial new discovery: ancient confessions recently uncovered now prove, according to Atwill, that the New Testament was written by first-century Roman aristocrats and that they fabricated the entire story of Jesus Christ. His presentation will be part of a one-day symposium entitled "Covert Messiah" at Conway Hall in Holborn (full details can be found athttp://www.covertmessiah.com).

 

Although to many scholars his theory seems outlandish, and is sure to upset some believers, Atwill regards his evidence as conclusive and is confident its acceptance is only a matter of time. "I present my work with some ambivalence, as I do not want to directly cause Christians any harm," he acknowledges, "but this is important for our culture. Alert citizens need to know the truth about our past so we can understand how and why governments create false histories and false gods. They often do it to obtain a social order that is against the best interests of the common people."

 

Atwill asserts that Christianity did not really begin as a religion, but a sophisticated government project, a kind of propaganda exercise used to pacify the subjects of the Roman Empire. "Jewish sects in Palestine at the time, who were waiting for a prophesied warrior Messiah, were a constant source of violent insurrection during the first century," he explains. "When the Romans had exhausted conventional means of quashing rebellion, they switched to psychological warfare. They surmised that the way to stop the spread of zealous Jewish missionary activity was to create a competing belief system. That's when the 'peaceful' Messiah story was invented. Instead of inspiring warfare, this Messiah urged turn-the-other-cheek pacifism and encouraged Jews to 'give onto Caesar' and pay their taxes to Rome."

Was Jesus based on a real person from history? "The short answer is no," Atwill insists, "in fact he may be the only fictional character in literature whose entire life story can be traced to other sources. Once those sources are all laid bare, there's simply nothing left."

 

Atwill's most intriguing discovery came to him while he was studying "Wars of the Jews" by Josephus [the only surviving first-person historical account of first-century Judea] alongside the New Testament. "I started to notice a sequence of parallels between the two texts," he recounts. "Although it's been recognised by Christian scholars for centuries that the prophesies of Jesus appear to be fulfilled by what Josephus wrote about in the First Jewish-Roman war, I was seeing dozens more. What seems to have eluded many scholars is that the sequence of events and locations of Jesus ministry are more or less the same as the sequence of events and locations of the military campaign of [Emperor] Titus Flavius as described by Josephus. This is clear evidence of a deliberately constructed pattern. The biography of Jesus is actually constructed, tip to stern, on prior stories, but especially on the biography of a Roman Caesar."

 

How could this go unnoticed in the most scrutinised books of all time? "Many of the parallels are conceptual or poetic, so they aren't all immediately obvious. After all, the authors did not want the average believer to see what they were doing, but they did want the alert reader to see it. An educated Roman in the ruling class would probably have recognised the literary game being played." Atwill maintains he can demonstrate that "the Roman Caesars left us a kind of puzzle literature that was meant to be solved by future generations, and the solution to that puzzle is 'We invented Jesus Christ, and we're proud of it.'"

 

Is this the beginning of the end of Christianity? "Probably not," grants Atwill, "but what my work has done is give permission to many of those ready to leave the religion to make a clean break. We've got the evidence now to show exactly where the story of Jesus came from. Although Christianity can be a comfort to some, it can also be very damaging and repressive, an insidious form of mind control that has led to blind acceptance of serfdom, poverty, and war throughout history. To this day, especially in the United States, it is used to create support for war in the Middle East."

 

Atwill encourages skeptics to challenge him at Conway Hall, where after the presentations there is likely to be a lively Q&A session. Joining Mr.Atwill will be fellow scholar Kenneth Humphreys, author of the book "Jesus Never Existed."

 

Further information can be found at http://www.covertmessiah.com.

About Joseph Atwill: Joseph Atwill is the author of the best-selling book "Caesar's Messiah" and its upcoming sequel "The Single Strand."

 

 

 

Joseph Atwill, "Biblical scholar" has yet another new sensationalist claim (as a man who is known for them).  With a plotline blatantly ripped off from the ripoffs of Dan Brown novels, he's claiming to have discovered evidence that Roman aristocrats invented Jesus Christ as a method of pacifying the occupied Jews.  Apparently, if you're Atwill, Josephus and Celus were both liars.  I anticipate though, that people will jump on this the same way they did the "wife of Jesus" scrap papyrus, because if something contradicts 99.99% of everything else on a subject, it's automatically true (a phenomenon that only seems to occur when Atheists examine the Bible, but is considered a bad research precept anywhere else).

[Era Might]

"...and is sure to upset some believers..."

 

lol really? Who?

[The Bus Station]

Yawn.

[BG45]

It's almost like Atwill didn't think about the whole line of thought asking why ,the Romans, if they wanted to come up with a religion to pacify the population, would invent a religion that was hostile to every other religion in the empire and as such seriously disruptive to the established social order? And then persecute it?  Especially one with egalitarian overtones like Christianity, and its exclusive monotheism.

 

[John Ryan]

Does Atwill actually have any "ancient Roman confessions" or are they "hints" that have to be decoded? I also love how he claims not to be anti-Christian in the beginning and then later on says that he wants to free people from Christianity and its mind-control.

Edited October 10, 2013 by John Ryan

[CatherineM]

Dude's been smoking banana peels.

[CrossCuT]

I invented bread and fire, sorry guys.

[Basilisa Marie]

 

 

"I started to notice a sequence of parallels between the two texts," he recounts. "Although it's been recognised by Christian scholars for centuries that the prophesies of Jesus appear to be fulfilled by what Josephus wrote about in the First Jewish-Roman war, I was seeing dozens more.

 

And they say Millenials are the only ones with "Special Snowflake" syndrome.   :hehe2:

[r2Dtoo]

I find it interesting that a "scholar" would claim that the Romans gave up on war to pacify the Jews.  Roman warriors expelled the Jews from Palestine in 70 AD eliminating the existence of the Jewish homeland until it was re-established in 1948.  I don't see why they would have needed to come up with an elaborate Messiah hoax. 

 

This is just preying on the idea that if it's entertaining it must be true.  It's nothing but popcorn for the mindless.

Edited October 10, 2013 by r2Dtoo

[John Ryan]

The Jesus Never Existed "historians" need to let it go. No real academic historians take them seriously. The Jesus-myth theory is merely a wet dream for atheists. 

[BG45]

I invented bread and fire, sorry guys.

 

Darn, I really enjoyed the illusion of toast.

[CrossCuT]

Darn, I really enjoyed the illusion of toast.

The toast is a lie!

[BG45]

The toast is a lie!

 

At least the cake is true.

[r2Dtoo]

At least the cake is true.

Yeah, but I ate it.

[Luigi]

The Romans were culturally incapable of creating the Jesus story. They were builders, not creators. Hell, they were culturally incapable of creating their OWN religion - they had to borrow it from the Greeks and re-name the gods for ease of pronunciation.