The creators of the Roman church had literally used the Sicarii leader as the rock upon which they built the church that would worship their pacifistic, tax-paying Messiah.By appropriating the real Simons name and position of authority, they were able to graft the Apostle Simon onto the history of Christianity. (page 98)
Further, knowing that the rebel leaders were transformed into the Christian Apostles clarifies the intent the Romans had for their religion.The Romans wished to not merely destroy the militant brand of messianic Judaism that spawned the rebellion, but to rewrite its history in such a way as to make both its Messiah and its leaders become the founders of Christianity.In this manner, the Romans intended to make the history of the Sicarii movement disappear by having its beliefs and key figures become the history of their new religion. (page 101)
In spite of the fact that Vespasians concecratowould have been of great importance to Titus, it did not occur until six months after his death.This interval between the death of an emperor and his consecrato164was an unusually long time.I believe that it was during this time that the New Testament was created.The length of the interval was due to the fact that during this period Titus created not one but two religions that worshipped his father as a god, as well as the New Testaments companion piece,Wars of the Jews.
As Jesus prophecies came to pass during the Jewish war, they proved that God had sanctioned the events he foresaw.This is exactly what Titus would have been attempting to demonstrate to the Roman senate that the events of this fathers life, certainly including his conquest of Judea, proved that he was divine and that he deserved to be decreed a diuus.Viewed from this perspective, the similarities between Christianity and the cult of Vespasian are obvious.
When Titus arranged to have his father declared a god, he deified the events of Vespasians life.Thus, all of Jesus prophecies regarding Gods coming wrath upon Judea, flow without contradiction into the cult of Vespasian.In fact, the Gospels could have been presented to the Roman senate as proof of the absurd premise that Vespasians life had been that of a god.
To see this more clearly, simply subtract Judaism and Judea from the New Testament.What if Titus, in trying to convince the Roman senate that certain events of his fathers life proved that he was divine, had claimed that a prophet had wandered about Italyin 30 C.E. predicting that two Romangods, a father and a son, would one day destroy a wicked generation of Jews who rebelled against Rome and along with them the temple of Jerusalem?Every member of the senate would have understood that the gods this Italianprophet had forseen were Vespasian and Titus.Of course, no Roman senator would have been so gullible as to believe the story.Locating the prophet in Judea does not make such prophecies any more plausible, but Christianity was not created for a sophisticated audience.
The New Testament and Wars of the Jewsboth make the case that the destruction of Judea was an act of a god the same absurd premise as that made by the cult of Vespasian.
When we align the New Testament with Wars of the Jewsa clear picture emerges.Jesus predicted that a Son of Man would encircle Jerusalem with a wall and destroy its temple and bring tribulation onto the wicked generation that rebelled against Rome.In fact, one man actually had these precise characteristics.A man who was a son of god and whose followers fished for men at Gennesareth.A man who encircled Jerusalem with a wall and destroyed the temple of Jerusalem.A man who brought the tribulation that Jesus had foreseen unto the wicked generation and then ended his ministry by condemning Simon and sparing John.The man was Titus Flavius.
Only one man at that point in history had the power to establish a religion.At the same time that the first real evidence of Christianity emerges, one man is known to have established a religion that, like Christianity, held that the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple was the work of a god.The man was Titus Flavius.
Bear in mind that no one had a stronger motivation than Titus for finding a cost-effective method of containing militant Judaism, which was so expensive for Rome to control.
Finally, only one family other than Jesus is associated with the origin of Christianity.It is the family of Titus Flavius.Even if one discounts the tradition that regards Flavius Clemens as the first pope, as well as all the other Flavian traditions connected with Christianitys origins, the inscription naming Flavia Domitilla as the founder of the oldest burial ground for Christians in Rome still exists today.If one ignores even this, the works of Flavius Josephus would be sufficient to confirm the Flavian connection with the origins of Christianity.Josephus works deliberately falsified history to provide support for Christian dogma.And whoever or whatever he was, Josephus wasan adopted Flavian.
Concerning the question of who knew Judaism well enough to create Christianity, this information was in abundant supply, even within the small circle of Titus known confidants.Titus mistress Bernice, though a Herodian, had Maccabean ancestors and claimed to have been a Jew.Though the Jews of the messianic movement would not have seen her religious perspective as Jewish, she would clearly have known much about the Judaism of her day and would have been able to contribute to the creation of the Gospels.
Tiberius Alexander was another individual within Titus innermost circle who knew of Judaism well enough to oversee the production of the New Testament.Tiberius was the nephew of the famous Jewish philosopher Philo, and Vespasian held him in such regard that he made Tiberius chief of staff to Titus during the siege of Jerusalem. (pages 306-308)
I suspect that Christianity, as the parodic version of the imperial cult, was first inserted into the areas surrounding Judea to serve as a theological barrier to the spread of militaristic Judaism.The religion flourished and in the fourth century Flavius Constantine saw a larger potential for it and decreed it the state religion.The religion thus became a prophylactic for all the potentially rebellious populations throughout the empire.[prophylactic- acting to defend against or prevent something]
To make the cult as efficient as possible in promoting their interests, its inventors had their satiric Messiah advocate both pacifism and stoicism, whereby Christians would learn to subdue their rebelliousness and find holiness in subservience.This combination of Christian theology and Roman imperial might was so effective that it kept European civilization frozen in place for over 1,000 years, throughout the Dark Ages.
A Roman bureaucracy called the Commune Asiae, an organization that administered the imperial cult in Asia, would probably have overseen the original implementation of Christianity.Notably, all the seven churches of Asia mentioned in Revelation 1:11 were known to have agencies of the Communelocated within them.Five of these seven cities were sites of the imperial cults festival, which was held once every five years.In these cities it would have been possible to oversee two versions of the imperial cult, one for Roman citizens and the other for the slaves and scum seen as susceptible to the lure of the Messiah.[susceptible- easily influenced]
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