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Caesar's Messiah
CHAPTER 10
The Typological Method
In creating the parallels between the "ministry" of Jesus and Titus'
campaign, the authors of the New Testament were using a technique
they were quite familiar with. They were experts at what scholars
today call the Typological Method. In the Introduction, I presented
examples showing that Moses is the "type" of Jesus. To achieve this
effect, the authors of the Gospels used conceptual parallels and parallel sequences of events.
Another example of the way the authors of the New Testament
use "types" is found in the story of Judas' punishment for his
betrayal of Jesus. To create the story, the authors weave together a
number of texts from the Hebrew Bible, primarily from Zechariah
and Jeremiah. From Zechariah they take the thirty pieces of silver,
the casting into the treasury, and the potter. 147 From Jeremiah they
lake the purchasing of a field. They then claim that Judas' fate has
"fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet." 148
Having used literary parallels to link the characters in the
Gospels to the Hebrew Bible, the authors then use the same motif to
link Jesus to Titus in the future. In this way they create a seamless
continuum from the Hebrew prophets to Jesus and then on to Titus,
the real Christ. The parallels between Jesus' ministry and Titus' campaign simply confirm what Josephus plainly states; that Judaism's
world-ruler prophecies envisioned Caesar. Jesus was not the Mes-
siah but his messenger.
Behold I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way
before Me. And the Lord, who you seek, will suddenly come
to his Temple . . . But who can endure the day of his com-
219
220 Caesar's Messiah
ing? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a
refiners fire and like launderers soap. 149
I found interesting the thought that the authors of the New Testament and War of the Jews may have created the same outline 2,000
years ago, as they began their construction of the two works. See the
chart on page 221.
The first savior of Israel was used as the "type" for Jesus, the
second savior of Israel, who was then used as the "type" for Titus,
the final savior of Israel. Though cleverly hidden, the relationship
between the Gospels and War of the Jews is simply an extension of
the typology used throughout Hebraic literature and the Gospels.
For example, Dockery writes:
Typological exegesis seeks to discover a correspondence
between people and events of the past and of the present or
future . . . Typological exegesis then is based on the conviction that certain events in the history of Israel prefigure a
future time when God's purposes will be revealed in their
fullness. 150
As they had with the parallels between Jesus and Moses
described in the Introduction, the authors of the Gospels and War of
the Jews create a series of typologically related events that occur in
the same sequence. This is the proof they left us that the ministry of
Jesus was the "type" for the campaign of Titus, a fact they wished
posterity to understand. For example, the "three crucified and one
survives" passage recorded by Josephus is clearly noted as occurring
after the captures on the Mount of Olives but before the condemning
of Simon and sparing of John, so as to mirror the sequence of those
events in the New Testament. Likewise, in the New Testament the
description of the naked young man's escape on the Mount of Olives
is given before its description of Jesus' capture; the events occur in
the same sequence in Josephus' twin "Mount of Olives assaults."
Though in the "cannibal Mary" passage, which is actually presented in the chapter following the capture of Eleazar on the Mount
of Olives, the specific time when it occurs is not given, Josephus
does make it clear that it occurs during the siege of Jerusalem — that
is, following the "demons of Gadara" incident but before the "three
The Typological Method 221
JESUS' MINISTRY TITUS' CAMPAIGN
(The Forerunner) (The Messiah)
Start of ministry in Galilee: Jesus
begins ministry at Gennesareth and
says "Follow me" and be "fishers of
men"
Start of campaign in Galilee: Titus
has his "onset" at Gennesareth
where his soldiers follow him and
"fish" for men
At Gadara, encounters legion of
demons inside one man
At Gadara encounters "Legion"
possessed with wicked spirit
coming from one man
"Swine" run wildly and 2,000
drown
At Gadara, 2,000 of the "demons"
do not drown
At Jerusalem, the "Son of Mary" of-
fers his flesh to be eaten
At Jerusalem, the son's flesh is
eaten by Mary
Jesus envisions "signs" occurring
before the temple's destruction
Josephus records "signs" that
occurred before the temple's
destruction
An escape by a naked individual at
Jerusalem's northeast corner
An escape by a "naked" individual
at Jerusalem's northeast corner
Messiah captured on the Mount of
Olives
Messiah captured on the Mount of
Olives
Simon's denials
Simon's denials
Three are crucified; one survives
Three are crucified, one survives
Joseph "Arimathea" takes survivor
down from the cross
Joseph bar Matthias takes survivor
down from cross
Simon is the rock upon which the
new Church is to be built
Simon is the "rock" upon which
the new "Church" will be built
Jesus sends Simon to a martyr's
death at Rome but spares John at
conclusion of ministry
Titus sends Simon to martyr's death
at Rome but spares John at conclu-
sion of campaign
Judas falsely accuses Jesus, and
spills his guts (in the Book of Acts)
Catullus falsely accuses against
Josephus, Bernice and Alexander,
and spills his guts
222 Caesar's Messiah
crucified and one survives" passage, which occurs following the
siege. The same approach is also used with the parallel "signs before
the destruction of the Temple" given by Jesus and Josephus.
The twin sequences are difficult to explain away. As I have
noted above, while it is at least possible to argue that the satirical
parallels between Jesus' ministry and Titus' campaign occur by
chance, if that were the case these accidents would occur in a random pattern. However, the sequences — "fishing for men at the Sea
of Galilee," an individual filled with a "legion of wickedness," the
drowning of the those possessed by the legion of wickedness, the
twin assaults on the Mount of Olives (with first a "naked" man
escaping and then the capture of a Messiah), Simon's denials, an
episode where three are crucified but one survives, Joseph of "Arimathea" taking the survivor down from his cross, Simon con-
demned, John spared, and a false accusation against the founder of
a messianic religion by a "gut spiller" — all are concretely the same
in both works. Further, the parallel "cannibal Mary" and "signs
before the destruction of Jerusalem" passages both occur after the
Gadara passages, but before the crucifixion passages, and thereby do
not contradict the parallel sequences within the ministry of Jesus
and Titus' campaign.
Notice that there is no historical, logical, or theological reason
for these satirically related events to have been recorded in the same
sequence. Jesus was free to have concluded and not begun his ministry with the phrase "fishers of men." The authors of the New Tes-
tament were not forced to put the strange tale of Jesus condemning
Simon while sparing John at the very end of the Gospels. Josephus
was not required to have included the tale concerning the cannibal
Mary in his description of the siege of Jerusalem, any more than it was
required for Jesus to be at Jerusalem when he offered up his flesh.
Further, the linking of the two specific events that form each
parallel, which in turn becomes a link in the sequence of parallels,
is self-evident. In other words, of the eleven events from Josephus'
works cited above, the only possible episode from the Gospels that
can be linked with his description of the fate of the rebel leaders is
the passage in which Jesus condemns Simon and spares John. Likewise, Josephus' episode in which "three were crucified but one sur-
The Typological Method 223
vived" can only relate to Jesus' crucifixion, and not to any other element from his ministry.
Therefore, since no outside factor seems to be responsible for
the sequence of parallels, I can calculate the odds on whether they
could have occurred by chance. To do this, I start by simply assigning to each of the eleven New Testament events cited above the
number in which it appears chronologically. Thus, 1 would number
the "fishers of men" episode one, the individual filled with a "legion
of wickedness" two, and so forth. If I then apply the same numbering system to the eleven episodes cited above from the works of
Josephus, the probability that I would assign the "fishing for men"
episode the same number — one — that I gave its parallel episode in
the New Testament would be only one in eleven.
I then have a choice of which technique to use in continuing the
process of calculating the odds on whether the sequence could have
occurred by chance. The most conservative approach would be to
assume that once one of the eleven episodes has been used, it cannot be used again. Using this approach, the probability would be calculated by a factorial of eleven, or 11x10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 —
which would equal one chance in 39,916,800.
Another approach would be to assign truly random possibilities
for each of the events. In other words, any episode could occur at
any time and would not be excluded from the calculation by occurring before. The odds of two streams of eleven random episodes
occurring in the same order would be eleven to the eleventh power,
or one chance in 285,31 1,670,61 1.
This type of calculation is the conventional way that probability
analysis is applied to determine the likelihood that two sets of items
were arranged in the same sequence by chance. For the purpose of
the calculation, it is hypothetically assumed that an author has been
given a set of eleven episodes to arrange. Once the author has
arranged them, I discover that the same sequence can be found in
another document. I then assess the probability that this feat was
achieved by chance.
Note that the calculation holds mathematically true regardless
of the method the author uses to create his sequence. The author
could have discovered the eleven items in an archive or could simply have been given the items and instructed to arrange them. The
probability is the same, regardless. The probability level relates only
to the likelihood that the sequence the author created would be
identical to another sequence and does not presuppose anything
about how the ordering was done.
Notice also that each of these probabilities would be into the
billions if I add to the chain of events the chance that the parallel
"cannibal Mary" and "signs before the destruction of Jerusalem"
passages would each occur after Gadara but before the crucifixions.
It is not necessary to do this, however, since even the most conservative approach demonstrates that Jesus' ministry and Titus' cam-
paign were deliberately linked.
By using the factorial approach mentioned above, it is 99.999997
percent certain that one account influenced the other. In other
words, the likelihood that these parallel sequences occurred by
chance is virtually zero, less than 0.000003 percent.
The calculation does not, of course, indicate the direction of
causality. However, since there is no plausible reason why the writings of Josephus should have been created based on events in the
Gospels, the presumed direction of the causality is that Titus' war
record was created first, and Jesus' ministry was then created as a
satire of militant Judaism, based on the events of Titus' campaign.
Moreover, many of the parallels are too conceptually exact, in
and of themselves, to be accounted for by random chance to be a
serious explanation for their existence. For example, the "son of
Mary" passage in War of the Jews contains the "coming to pass" of two
of the hidden prophecies within the New Testament — Mary's heart
being "pierced through" and her "fine portion" not being taken away.
Also supporting the conclusion that the parallels were deliberately
created is the fact that the locations for the specific events in them
are the same. The "fishing for men" at Gennesareth, the encounter
with "demons" at Gadara, Mary's son whose flesh was eaten at
Jerusalem, the escape of the "naked" young men and the capture of
the Messiah on the Mount of Olives, and finally Rome, where Josephus' Simon and the Christian Simon "both" met their fate.
The comic structure of the parallels is also telling. Jesus appears
to be speaking in a spiritual sense when he uses phrases like "fishers
The Typological Method 225
of men," "eat of my flesh," "resurrection," "the stone that crushes,"
"the temple that will be destroyed," "demons," and "follow me." In
War of the Jews we learn that Jesus' words were not references to
something spiritual. In fact, Jesus is speaking literally throughout
the New Testament and those who see spiritual meaning in his
words are being played for a fool.
I believe that the Romans, with their use of comedy, were con-
sistently ridiculing those who see symbolic meaning where there is
none. In the Dead Sea Scrolls there are many allegorical interpretations of passages from the Pentateuch. 151 This way of interpreting
scripture no doubt helped form the theology of a "coming" Messiah
that inspired the first-century Jewish rebels. The point I think the
creators of Christianity were making with their use of comedy is that
there are unlimited ways to interpret scripture and it is easy for the
uneducated to see symbolic meaning where there is none. They
made this point by creating the New Testament as an example.
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