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Caesar's Messiah
CHAPTER 14
Building Jesus
The authors of the Gospels constructed Jesus from the lives of sev-
eral prophets in the Jewish canon. Thus, since Elijah and Elisha had
raised children from the dead, Jesus would do the same. Whenever
possible, Jesus' miracles would be greater than the ones they were
based upon. For example, Elisha satisfied a hundred men with
twenty loaves and had bread to spare. 183 So Jesus would feed five
thousand men with five loaves and two fishes, and have twelve bas-
ketsful to spare. Since Jesus was to be the prophet envisioned by
Daniel, Jesus' life would also include episodes that fulfilled Daniel's
prophecies. However, though many of the extraordinary accomplish-
ments of Jesus' ministry were taken from the lives of prior prophets,
the character he was primarily based upon was Moses. Moses was
chosen as the basic prototype for Jesus because he had been the
founder of the religion Christianity would replace. The founder of
the new religion was to be seen as the new Moses. This is already
widely recognized in New Testament scholarship.
The fact that Jesus was based on Moses is easy to demonstrate,
because the authors of the Gospels went out of their way to make
sure the converts to Christianity understood this. For example, the
story of Jesus' childhood in Matthew is based on the childhood of
Moses. The outline is the same in both cases — the birth of a child
causes distress to the rulers, followed by a consultation with wise
men, a massacre of children, and a miraculous rescue, with Egypt as
the land of rescue.
In addition to creating parallels between the lives of the founders
of the two religions, the authors of the Gospels also borrowed events
278
Building Jesus 279
from the story of Exodus to create the impression that Christianity,
like Judaism, was of divine origin. The best-known of these are the
parallels that the Gospels use to set up Jesus as a "Passover lamb,"
establishing him as the "deliverer" of the religion that was to replace
Judaism.
All four Gospels show, as does Paul, that Passover, and Judaism
itself, are obsolete. Jesus' sacrifice of himself creates a new Passover
and a new religion. It is important to recognize how literally early
Christianity saw itself as a replacement for Judaism, even to the
extent that the early church fathers claimed that the ancient Hebrews
were Christians and not Jews. Eusebius wrote:
That the Hebrew nation is not new, but is universally hon-
ored on account of its antiquity, is known to all. The books
and writings of this people contain accounts of ancient
men, rare indeed and few in number, but nevertheless dis-
tinguished for piety and righteousness and every other
virtue. Of these, some excellent men lived before the flood,
others of the sons and descendants of Noah lived after it,
among them Abraham, whom the Hebrews celebrate as
their own founder and forefather.
If any one should assert that all those who have
enjoyed the testimony of righteousness, from Abraham
himself back to the first man, were Christians in fact if not
in name, he would not go beyond the truth. 184
Jesus introduces the idea that Christianity will replace Judaism
by stating that his "living flesh" would be a replacement for the
manna the Israelites were given by God during their wandering in
the wilderness.
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
This is the living bread which comes down from heaven.
That one may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If
anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and the bread
that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of
the world.
280 Caesar's Messiah
To demonstrate that Christianity's divine origin parallels
Judaism's, the authors of Christianity took the events from the story
of the original Exodus that had numbers associated with them and
inserted those numbers into their story of the birth of Christianity.
In other words, since God gave the law to Moses fifty days after the
first Passover, Christianity would give the "new" law 50 days after
its Passover, the crucifixion of Jesus.
On the day that the law of Moses was given, 3,000 died for wor-
shipping the golden calf. 185 On the day the "spirit" was given to the
disciples of Christ, 3,000 were added into Christ and received life, 186
signifying that the improved covenant with God brought life.
These parallels were obviously created to establish Christianity
as the new Judaism. The Gospels and the writings of Josephus work
together to this end. The New Testament records the birth of the
new Judaism while the history of Josephus records the "death" of
Second Temple Judaism.
All the parallels I have given above, between Christianity and
Judaism and between Jesus and Moses, are well known. In addition,
the authors of the Gospels also established something else hereto-
fore unknown. By mirroring the sequence found in the story of Exo-
dus and by establishing Jesus' crucifiction as a new Passover, they
established a continuum, one that mirrored the story of the Israelites
leaving Egypt and "wandering" until they were permitted to enter
the promised land forty years after the first Passover. As with the
time sequence for the fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel, once
the continuum of the "new Exodus" had begun, there could be no
stopping until all had come to pass.
What is the conclusion to the forty years of wandering in the
New Testament? Since the Gospels end shortly after Jesus' death,
where is the conclusion to Christianity's forty year Exodus recorded?
The answer is found within War of the Jews.
To conclude Christianity's forty-year cycle, Josephus links the
date of Jesus' crucifixion to the date he established for the destruc-
tion of Masada. Josephus "records" that the year the stronghold was
destroyed was 73 C.E. Scholars, citing archeological evidence, often
date the fall of Masada to 74, not 73 C.E. They may well be correct,
but Josephus was interested not in recording history but in creating
Building Jesus 281
mythology. He therefore entitled the chapter that contains the pas-
sage describing Masada's destruction as follows:
Concerning the interval of about three years: from the taking of
Jerusalem by Titus to the sedition of the Jews at Cyrene. 187
Josephus does not need to be any more precise than he is in the
phrase "about three years." If his time span is inaccurate, and it
surely is, who had been there to point out his error? Josephus is only
interested in using "history" to convey his message. In this instance,
he wishes the reader to believe that Masada fell three and a half years
after the destruction of the temple, that is, in 73 C.E.
Josephus then gives the day and month of the conclusion to the
siege at Masada.
They then chose ten men by lot out of them to slay all the
rest; every one of whom laid himself down by his wife and
children on the ground, and threw his arms about them,
and they offered their necks to the stroke of those who by
lot executed that melancholy office; and when these ten
had, without fear, slain them all, they made the same rule
for casting lots for themselves, that he whose lot it was
should first kill the other nine, and after all should kill him-
self. . . . Those others were nine hundred and sixty in num-
ber, the women and children being withal included in that
computation. This calamitous slaughter was made on the
fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan]. 188
Josephus records that the fourteenth of Nisan is the day when
the Jews celebrated Passover. The Gospel of John states that Jesus
was crucified on the thirteenth of Nisan and arose on the fifteenth.
The fifteenth of Nisan, 73 C.E., is forty years to the day after Christ's
resurrection. Only readers of both the Gospels and Josephus would
be aware of this exact forty-year time span.
In other words, the Gospel of John establishes the date of Jesus'
resurrection as the fifteenth of Nisan, 33 C.E., and Josephus estab-
lishes the date of the end of the Jewish war as the fifteenth of Nisan,
73 C.E. It is only when the two works are read together that readers
are able to understand that it was, just as Jesus had predicted, exactly
forty years between the two events. Again, either Josephus inadver-
282 Caesar's Messiah
tently recorded something truly supernatural, or the two works had
been aligned to create this effect.
The authors of the New Testament and Josephus thus created a
parallel between the first forty years of Judaism, during which the
Israelites wandered in the wilderness, and the first forty years of
Christianity These forty years of wandering for Christianity date
from Christ's resurrection on the 15th of Nisan, 33 C.E., until the
end of the Jewish rebellion, which is marked by the destruction of
the Sicarii, the movement that Christianity replaced, on the 15th of
Nisan, 73 C.E.
The parallel forty years of wandering by the two religions is, of
course, a continuation of the parallels between Jesus and Moses,
which were designed to create the impression that the origin of
Christianity parallels the divine origin of Judaism. The forty years of
wandering for Christianity was inspired by the following passage
from Joshua, which describes what happened to the Israelites after
the original Passover.
The passage makes clear the logic behind the New Testament
authors' decision to establish the precise forty-year interval between
Jesus' death and the destruction of Masada. They wished to show
not only that Christianity's origin paralleled Judaism's, which proved
it had replaced Judaism's special relationship with God, but also that
the 70 C.E. destruction of Jerusalem had been divinely ordained.
The "men of war were consumed because they obeyed not the voice
of the Lord" — exactly as had happened after the original Passover.
For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilder-
ness, till all the people that were men of war, which came
out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the
voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would
not shew them the land, which the Lord sware unto their
fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk
and honey. 189
Forty years is the traditional period of penance for the Israelites
as well as the length of a generation. This tradition stems, of course,
from the original forty years of wandering. By giving Christianity a
forty-year cycle, the Romans were "proving" that their conquest of
Building Jesus 283
Judea was merely another case of God's wrath for Jewish wicked-
ness, as had often been recorded by the Jews' own religious literature.
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the
Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the
Philistines forty years. 190
I want to underline how important this forty-year period after
Jesus' death is for the theory of there being a single source for the
New Testament and the works of Josephus. In the Gospel of John,
Jesus' ministry is described as having encompassed three Passovers.
These three Passovers are not mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels.
The author of John consciously establishes the date of Christ's death
as occurring in the year 33 C.E. He does this because this is the only
way possible, arithmetically, to create the correct alignment with the
prophecies of Daniel and also to create a forty-year cycle between
Jesus' resurrection and the end of the Jewish war.
The works of Josephus have been deliberately configured to
demonstrate that the prophecies of Daniel culminate in the 70 C.E.
destruction of Jerusalem — an understanding he shared with the
writers of the Gospels.
In order to prove that Rome had God's divine providence, the
creators of Christianity provided "evidence" that the 70 C.E. sack-
ing of Jerusalem was foreseen by Daniel, the evidence being the "his-
tories" of Josephus. In this way, all the important dates of Jesus' life
were back-calculated to be in alignment with the destruction of
Jerusalem. This is completely clear with regard to the beginning of
his ministry and his resurrection. My conjecture is that Jesus' birth
was also established at exactly seventy years before the siege of
Jerusalem. Though scholars have given a number of explanations of
how the year of Christ's birth was exactly seventy years from the
destruction of Jerusalem, my analysis suggests that it was done to
mimic the seventy years "in the desolations of Jerusalem" described
in the Book of Daniel.
In the first year of his reign Daniel understood by books the
number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy
years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 191
284 Caesar's Messiah
The dates of Jesus' life were simply more "pieces" of Judaism
chosen by the creators of Christianity to meet its logical and theo-
logical requirements. The central events of Christianity — the birth
of Christ, the beginning of his ministry, and his death, are 1 C.E., 30
C.E., and 33 C.E. All these dates were calculated backward from the
destruction of Jerusalem. They were chosen to fit into a pattern that
combined the prophecies of Daniel and the life of Moses.
The beginning of Jesus' ministry in 30 C.E. was calculated to be
exactly forty years from the day that the Romans under Titus pitched
camp outside Jerusalem, the "Second Coming." This dating system
is not based upon the birth of a world-historical religious leader, but
orients itself from the destruction of a city.
Thus, the theological chronology created by the inventors of
Christianity ran in a forty-year cycle between Jesus' resurrection and
the fall of Masada. While this forty-year cycle was in motion, the
other template for Christianity, the prophecies of Daniel, ran con-
currently.
In fact, Christianity's version of the prophecies of Daniel was
heading for its conclusion on the same day as its forty-year cycle of
wandering.
In the following passage, notice that the day the Romans pitched
camp at Jerusalem was the fourteenth of Nisan. Josephus is falsify-
ing history once again to create both a parallel between Jesus' min-
istry and Titus' campaign and a point of orientation for the prophe-
cies of Daniel.
The date Josephus gives for when the Romans first pitched
camp outside Jerusalem was exactly forty years from the first of the
three Passovers used by John to date Jesus' ministry — the day that
Jesus first came to Jerusalem. 192 Josephus wishes us to believe that
Jesus came to Jerusalem forty years before Titus began his siege of
Jerusalem, a siege that Jesus predicted would occur before his gen-
eration had passed away. He also wishes us to believe that Masada
fell forty years to the day from Jesus' resurrection. These two perfect
forty-year cycles are, of course, absurd and, in and of themselves,
show the planned relationship between the New Testament and War
of the Jews.
Building Jesus 285
I have included the entire passage, because it shows the brutal-
ity of the destruction. Notice the use of the word "repent" in con-
junction with the Jewish rebels.
And, indeed, why do I relate these particular calamities?
While Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus
at this very time, and told him that there had been carried
out through that one gate, which was intrusted to his care,
no fewer than a hundred and fifteen thousand eight hun-
dred and eighty dead bodies, in the interval between the
fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan], when the
Romans pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of
the month Panemus [Tammuz]. This was itself a prodigious
multitude; and though this man was not himself set as a
governor at that gate, yet was he appointed to pay the pub-
lic stipend for carrying these bodies out, and so was obliged
of necessity to number them, while the rest were buried by
their relations; though all their burial was but this, to bring
them away, and cast them out of the city. After this man
there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens, and
told him the entire number of the poor that were dead, and
that no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at
the gates, though still the number of the rest could not be
discovered; and they told him further, that when they were
no longer able to carry out the dead bodies of the poor, they
laid their corpses on heaps in very large houses, and shut
them up therein; as also that a medimnus of wheat was sold
for a talent; and that when, a while afterward, it was not
possible to gather herbs, by reason the city was all walled
about, some persons were driven to that terrible distress as
to search the common sewers and/old dunghills of cattle,
and to eat the dung which they got there; and what they of
old could not endure so much as to see they now used for
food. When the Romans barely heard all this, they commis-
erated their case; while the seditious, who saw it also, did
not repent, but suffered the same distress to come upon
themselves; for they were blinded by that fate which was
already coming upon the city, and upon themselves also. 193
286 Caesar's Messiah
It is important to bear in mind that because Josephus' time
sequences are fiction, there is no real way to know when Jerusalem
was destroyed or when Masada fell. In fact, if we conclude that all
the dates in Josephus are untrustworthy we lose our entire chrono-
logical understanding of the first century. But this is beside the point
with regard to this work. All we need to know is whether Josephus
was intentionally creating the impression that it was seven years
from the beginning of the war until the fall of Masada. And of this
we can be certain, because the precise alignment of the dates
required to "prove" that Daniel's prophecies were coming to pass
could only have been evidence of God's hand on earth or have been
created intentionally.
In fact, all the dates Josephus mentions that are in alignment
with the New Testament are to be expected. Once Josephus has linked
events from the war to Daniel's prophecies, he cannot stop until the
conclusion of the "week" — that is, three and a half years from when
the "daily sacrifice" ended. Just as, once the New Testament began
the forty-year cycle of the Exodus with the establishment of its
Passover Lamb, there could be no stopping until the "men of war
were consumed because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord."
The Book of Daniel states
Then he shall confirm a covenant for one week; but in the
middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and
offering, and on the wing of one abomination shall be the
one who makes desolate . . . 194
Once Josephus has shown that the end of the daily sacrifice
occurs exactly three and a half years from the beginning of the
"week," that is, from the beginning of the war, he must stay within
the confines of Daniel's prophecies in order to prove that they have
"come to pass." He must conclude the seven-year "week" three and
a half years from the date he gives for the end of the daily sacrifice.
He orients the reader to this time structure with the title he creates for
the chapter of War of the Jews that describes the destruction of Masada:
Concerning the interval of about three years: from the taking
of Jerusalem by Titus to the sedition of the Jews at Cyrene.
Building Jesus 287
Notice that this chapter's title uses the same device that the
author used to orient the fall of Masada to the forty-year cycle. The
two streams of theological support for Christianity, Moses and
Daniel, have been fused. They are heading for a simultaneous con-
clusion at Masada on the day Christianity replaces Judaism.
Josephus outlines the symbolic landscape of his theological
coup by recording that the leader of the Jewish rebels at Masada was
another Eleazar — who, as noted above, was a descendant of Judas
the Galilean, and, like his ancestor, a leader of the Sicarii.
The New Testament and Josephus work together to create a sub-
tle but clear relationship between the families of Judas the Galilean,
their Sicarii followers, and Jesus and his family and followers.
This relationship has three central points. First, the New Testa-
ment records that Jesus' family agreed to pay the Roman tax by
going to Bethlehem to register in the census of Quirinus. This places
Jesus' family in direct opposition to Judas the Galilean because Jose-
phus records that
a certain Galilean named Judas prevailed with his country-
men to revolt; and said they were cowards if they would
endure to pay a tax to the Romans and submit to mortal
men as their lords. . . 195
Second, the New Testament records that Judas the Iscariot
(Sicarii), son of Simon the Iscariot, was responsible for Jesus' cruci-
fixion, thereby showing that the Sicarii are responsible for Jesus' death.
He alluded to Judas, the son of Simon the Iscariot. For he it
was who, though one of the Twelve, was afterwards to
betray Him.
John 6:71
While supper was proceeding, the Devil having by this time
suggested to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, the thought
of betraying Him . . .
John 13:2
Finally, Josephus records that Eleazar, Judas the Galilean's descen-
dant, and his Sicarii followers destroyed themselves at Masada forty
288 Caesar's Messiah
years to the day from Jesus' resurrection. This perfectly identifies the
Sicarii as members of the "wicked generation" who Jesus warned
would be destroyed before the generation passed away.
Masada brings an end to what Josephus describes as the "fourth
philosophy," a synonym for the Sicarii, the messianic movement
founded by Judas the Galilean. The suicide of the Sicarii on this date
was meant to represent "atonement" for their role in crucifying Jesus
forty years ago. By simultaneously concluding Christianity's forty
years of wandering and the end of the "fourth philosophy," the mes-
sianic movement Christianity replaced, Josephus is making the
point that the future belongs to Christianity.
And he was correct of course: the future did belong to Chris-
tianity. By the midpoint of the second century C.E., Judaism had
been driven from its homeland and would never again be a signifi-
cant threat to Rome.
Josephus' recording of the fall of Masada contains many telling
points:
He reiterates that John, the Sicarii leader who was lampooned as
the Apostle John, like the man from Gadara with the unclean spirit
in the New Testament, filled the countryside with wickedness.
Yet did John demonstrate by his actions that these Sicarii
were more moderate than he was himself, for he not only
slew all such as gave him good counsel to do what was right,
but treated them worst of all, as the most bitter enemies
that he had among all the Citizens; nay, he filled his entire
country with ten thousand instances of wickedness . . .
Josephus records Eleazar's belief that God has condemned the
Jewish nation. The unspoken point, since God has condemned
Judaism, is that Christianity is its replacement.
It had been proper indeed for us to have conjectured at the
purpose of God much sooner, and at the very first, when we
were so desirous of defending our liberty, and when we
received such sore treatment from one another, and worse
treatment from our enemies, and to have been sensible
that the same God, who had of old taken the Jewish nation
into his favor, had now condemned them to destruction . . .
Building Jesus 289
Josephus makes Eleazar repeat time and again that God has
turned against the Jews.
". . . we are openly deprived by God himself of all hope of
deliverance; for that fire which was driven upon our ene-
mies did not of its own accord turn back upon the wall
which we had built; this was the effect of God's anger
against us for our manifold sins, which we have been guilty
of in a most insolent and extravagant manner with regard to
our own countrymen; the punishments of which let us not
receive from the Romans, but from God himself. . .
. . . however, the circumstances we are now in ought to
be an inducement to us to bear such calamity coura-
geously, since it is by the wilt of God, and by necessity, that
we are to die; for it now appears that God hath made such
a decree against the whole Jewish nation, that we are to be
deprived of this life which [he knew] we would not make a
due use of.
This it is that our laws command us to do this; it is that
our wives and children crave at our hands; nay, God himself
hath brought this necessity upon us; while the Romans
desire the contrary, and are afraid lest any of us should die
before we are taken. Let us therefore make haste, and
instead of affording them so much pleasure, as they hope
for in getting us under their power, let us leave them an
example which shall at once cause their astonishment at
our death, and their admiration of our hardiness therein." 196
The suspicion scholars have regarding the accuracy of Eleazar's
speech is well-founded. They should also question Josephus' dates
for the siege and the fall of Masada, which are no more historical
than his descriptions of either the siege or Eleazar's speech. The
dates have been invented to provide support for Christianity. Read-
ers who wish to confirm my findings for themselves may simply take
the dates of Jesus' ministry and crucifixion as found in the Gospel of
John and compare them with the dates Josephus gives for the events
of the war and his use of phrases from the Book of Daniel. The truth
will be visible.
290 Caesar's Messiah
When Josephus ends the war on the day following Passover in
73 C.E., he unifies the two "principles" that Christianity was based
on — Exodus and the Book of Daniel. Only the day Josephus records
for the conclusion of the siege of Masada would simultaneously
complete the seven-year week that concludes the prophecies of
Daniel and the end of the symbolic forty-year "wandering" of Chris-
tianity after the resurrection of Jesus. Such a miraculous occurrence
could not happen by chance and supports the theory that Josephus
has falsified history to show that Christianity was God's replacement
for Judaism. Notice that the technique the authors of Christianity
used is consistent throughout. Simon and John are transformed into
Christian Apostles. The story of the Passover and Exodus becomes
the first forty years of Christianity. Titus becomes the Messiah.
One must admire the craftsmanship of the intellectuals who
produced the works of Josephus and the New Testament. Though
the method they used, the fusing of Daniel's prophecies with a new
forty-year Exodus, was utterly preposterous from both a historical
and a theological perspective, with it they were able to neatly
remove from history a religious movement that opposed them mili-
tarily and replace it with one aligned to their interests. In doing so,
they were able to conform history to theology to such an extent that
one movement ended and the other came forth on the same day.
It is interesting that the creators of Christianity did not pass
along this theological fusion to the early Church fathers. There is no
evidence that any of the early church fathers, with the possible
exception of Eusebius, understood that the destruction of Masada
represented the simultaneous conclusion of Christianity's forty-year
wandering and the prophecies of Daniel. The intellectuals who pro-
duced Christianity were not to have their work appreciated for
2,000 years.
This disconnect between the creators of Christianity and its
implementers is fascinating because it suggests that its first bishops
did not need to understand a key element of Christianity. This may
have some bearing on a subject of interest but one that I will not
cover in this work — this being, at what point did Christianity lose
the memory of its Roman origins? The first church scholars' lack of
awareness of this key theological element perhaps suggests that this
Building Jesus 291
disconnect may have occurred very early. An example of an early
Christian scholar who did not understand the New Testament's orig-
inal intent was Origen, who was troubled by the name "Jesus Barab-
bas." On the other hand, Cesare Borgia, a fifteenth century Roman
Catholic cardinal and a son of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia)
was quoted as saying, "It has served us well, this myth of Jesus."
The reader may find it interesting to see how Christianity's
forty-year cycle of wandering was achieved. The Gospel of John was
created, among other reasons, to provide the necessary point of ori-
entation to begin the forty-year cycle. The date was determined by
calculating backward.
Josephus records that the destruction of Masada occurred on
the fifteenth of Xanthicus.
This calamitous slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of
the month Xanthicus . . . 197
Xanthicus is the Syrian word for Nisan. A typical sleight of hand
by Josephus, not to be too obvious. Josephus also records that the
Jewish Passover was celebrated on the forteenth of Xanthicus/Nisan.
When God revealed that with one more plague he would
compel the Egyptians to let the Hebrews go, he commanded
Moses to tell the people they should have a sacrifice ready
and should prepare themselves on the tenth day of the
month Xanthicus in readiness for the fourteenth (this is the
month that is called Pharmuthi by the Egyptians, and Nisan
by the Hebrews, but the Macedonians call it Xanthicus), and
he should then lead away the Hebrews with all they had. 198
The Gospel of John differs from the Synoptics in its dating
because John describes three Passovers and thus gives Jesus' min-
istry a three-year span. The Synoptics describe only one Passover
and thus do not reveal the year in which Jesus was crucified.
The Gospel of John is also different from the Synoptics in that
it describes Jesus' crucifixion as occurring on the day before Pass-
over, whereas in the Synoptics Jesus is crucified on Passover itself.
Jesus was to be the Passover lamb of the new Judaism; therefore, this
central image of Christianity was promoted in all the Gospels — in
292 Caesar's Messiah
contrast to Rabbinical Judaism, which merely edited out or replaced
all the features of Second Temple Judaism that could not be per-
formed without the temple. However, the Synoptics make an "error"
in that they record Jesus' crucifixion as being on the day of Passover.
In the Gospel of John Jesus is "slaughtered" on the day before
Passover, which is when the paschal lambs were actually killed.
John's date is more symbolically correct because it makes Jesus the
true "lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." 199
The differences between the dates of Jesus' crucifixion have
always been attributed to the fact that each Gospel has a separate
tradition. I, of course, would disagree and reiterate that while the
four Gospels may have been produced by different individual schol-
ars, they were under the control of a single editor who edited them
where he saw fit. This is demonstrated by my analysis of the puzzle
of the empty tomb (Chapter 6).
Therefore, the differences in the dates of Jesus' crucifixion are
by design. That is, they show that there was more than one "Jesus,"
because no one can be crucified twice.
In any event, the chronology in John has Jesus being crucified
on the thirteenth of Nisan, the day before Passover. Therefore he
would have "arisen" on the fifteenth of Nisan — the third day. Jose-
phus must therefore date the mass suicide at Masada, the "calami-
tous slaughter" that ended the Jewish rebellion, to the fifteenth of
Nisan. Only with this date can he align Christianity "correctly."
Eusebius, who quotes Josephus more often than any of his con-
temporaries, was aware of the forty-year cycle of penance that Jose-
phus recorded between Christ's crucifixion and the destruction at
Masada.
Concerning those calamities, then, that befell the whole
Jewish nation after the Saviour's passion and after the
words which the multitude of the Jews uttered, when they
begged the release of the robber and murderer, but
besought that the Prince of Life should be taken from their
midst, it is not necessary to add anything to the account of
the historian (Josephus).
But it may be proper to mention also those events
which exhibited the graciousness of that all-good Provi-
Building Jesus 293
dence which held back their destruction full forty years after
their crime against Christ — during which time many of the
Apostles and disciples, and James himself the first bishop
there, the one who is called the brother of the Lord, were still
alive, and dwelling in Jerusalem itself, remained the surest
bulwark of the place. Divine Providence thus still proved
itself long-suffering toward them in order to see whether by
repentance for what they had done they might obtain par-
don and salvation; and in addition to such long-suffering,
Providence also furnished wonderful signs of the things
which were about to happen to them if they did not repent. 200
As I have shown, numerous events in Josephus are dated in a
way that gives the reader the impression that they were foreseen by
Daniel. The most important is the end of the "daily sacrifice" and the
"abominations of desolation" described above. One might argue that
Josephus did this for a reason other than providing a historical con-
text for Jesus. Perhaps he simply wished to make the Jews believe God
had been responsible for their destruction. He therefore overlaid
Daniel's prophecies onto the events of 70 C.E. to create this effect.
He was unaware of the similar claims found in the New Testament.
It was just chance that the parallel came to exist. While I would
regard this argument as improbable, it should at least be considered.
However, such an argument cannot be made for Josephus' estab-
lishing dates that align with Christianity's mimicry of the forty-year
cycle of Exodus. If the New Testament and War of the Jews were writ-
ten independently, it would have been improbable that their authors
each recorded events demonstrating that the prophecies of Daniel
were coming to pass in the first century. However, for both authors to
have accidentally recorded events that link the precise time sequences
of the prophecies of Daniel with the precise time sequences of Exo-
dus borders on the impossible.
Either the New Testament and the works of Josephus both
recorded a supernatural phenomenon (the unique blend of Moses
and Daniel) or they both deliberately falsified history to provide
support for Christianity's replacement of Judaism.
I have suggested above that the outline of Jesus' childhood was
fictitious, copied from the life of Moses.
294 Caesar's Messiah
There is another example of Jesus' fictitious childhood. In Luke's
version of Jesus' childhood, Joseph takes his family out of Galilee to
Bethlehem to register for the census.
And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from
Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
This census first took place while Quirinius was gov-
erning Syria.
So all went to be registered everyone to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of
Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of Bethlehem, because he
was of the house and lineage of David. 201
The census of Quirinius was imposed on the area around
Jerusalem, which was under Roman rule, and not on Galilee, which
was part of the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas. At no time during the life
of Jesus did the Romans raise tribute in Galilee. Why then would
Joseph voluntarily travel to Bethlehem with a pregnant wife to reg-
ister for a tax he was not required to pay?
The passage also claims that Joseph went to Bethlehem because
this was where the house of David registered. Scholars have long
understood that this claim is untrue, both because the genealogy is
unknowable and because Augustus' decree would have been logisti-
cally impossible to implement. As E. E Sanders wrote,
According to Luke's own genealogy David had lived 42
generations before Joseph. Why should Joseph have had to
register in the town of one of his ancestors 42 generations
earlier? What was Augustus — the most rational of the Cae-
sars — thinking of? The entirety of the Roman Empire would
have been uprooted by such a decree. Besides, how would
any given man know where to go? No one could trace his
genealogy for 42 generations, but if he could, he would find
that he had millions of ancestors (one million is passed at
the twentieth generation). Further, David doubtless had
tens of thousands of descendants who were alive at the
time. Could they all identify themselves? If so, how would
they all register in a little village?
Building Jesus 295
We can be certain that the pragmatic Augustus would not have
given a decree that would both uproot the entire Roman Empire and
be impossible to implement. Why then did the author of this Gospel
include these false details? The reason is subtle and easy to miss. By
traveling to Bethlehem, Joseph is agreeing to pay Roman taxes. I
suggest that this detail occurs in the New Testament to ensure that
the reader understands that the Messiah came from a family of loyal
taxpayers. This also establishes Jesus the Galilean as a mirror oppo-
site of Judas the Galilean, the inventor of the mysterious "fourth
philosophy of the Jews," the sect that rebelled against Rome. Of
course, to understand this point the reader must turn to Josephus.
In response to the question of how many times a man should
forgive his brother, Jesus responded by saying, "until seventy times
seven." This is, of course, a reference to the amount of time that
would pass before the destruction of Jerusalem and the "abomina-
tions of desolation" that both Jesus and Daniel predicted. Jesus'
response has often been mistakenly cited as an example of his
patience. Jesus would have known that this generation would be
destroyed. Jesus is saying that God's patience with the "wicked gen-
eration" is over. The end is nigh.
This comment by Jesus also shows that he is claiming to be the
Messiah that Daniel had envisioned, the "son of God." It is easy to
imagine how such dialogue was created. Once it was determined
that the prophecies of Daniel were to be used as the basis for the
Messiah, it was simple enough to have Jesus recite quotes from
Scripture that indicated his ability to see the future. In spite of Jesus'
reputation for original thought, there is very little among his sayings
that does not paraphrase earlier prophets and philosophers.
Jesus placed great stress on the negative effects of wealth and
luxury. The theme is firmly embedded in the narrative of Jesus'
909 ?frt
birth, in John the Baptist's advice about how to live, in Jesus'
keynote address in Luke's version of the beatitudes (6:20-26), 204 in
much of the Lucan material, 205 and in the claim in Acts that the
church practiced a "community of goods." 206
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus is portrayed as struggling
against a privileged establishment, whose representatives are both
296 Caesar's Messiah
"lovers of money" and highly trained in intellectual matters, like
the syllogists and rhetoricians denounced by the Stoic philosophers
Seneca and Epictetus. Jesus' attacks on wealth and hypocrisy are
generally reminiscent of the Stoic philosophy that was popular in
Rome at this time.
The Stoic philosopher Seneca (though immensely wealthy him-
self) summarized his teaching as follows:
We talk much about despising money, and we give advice
on this subject in the lengthiest of speeches, that mankind
may believe true riches to exist in the mind and not in one's
bank account, and that the man who adapts himself to his
slender means and makes himself wealthy on a little sum,
is the truly rich man . . .
Persius' description of the "benefits" of Stoic philosophy make
it clear who really benefitted from the underclass's acceptance of it —
the ruling class. Persius wrote:
O poor wretches, learn, and come to know the causes of
things, what we are, for what life we are born, what the
assigned order is, where the turning point of the course is
to be rounded gently, what limit to set on money, for what it
is right to pray, what is the use of hard cash, how much you
ought to spend on your country and on those near and dear
to you, what kind of man God ordered you to be and where
as a man you are placed.
In the following passage Jesus advocates a position close to Sto-
icism. Of particular interest is Luke 3:14, where Jesus advises sol-
diers to be content with their wages. This is not a subject that comes
to mind as essential for the son of God to touch upon during his
brief stay on earth, but is obviously something always in the minds
of the imperial family.
And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?
He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two
coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that
hath meat, let him do likewise.
Building Jesus 297
Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto
him, Master, what shall we do?
And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which
is appointed you.
And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying,
And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence
to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with
your wages.
Luke 3:10-14
The relationship between Stoicism and slavery is interesting.
For a master of slaves, Stoicism seems the ideal philosophy because
it advocates acceptance of "what kind of man God ordered you to be
and where as a man you are placed." Jesus' advocacy of principles
similar to those of the Stoics led Bruno Bauer in the nineteenth cen-
tury to conclude that Christianity was simply an attempt by the
imperial family to implement Stoicism on a large scale.
Bauer's suspicion regarding Christianity seems especially logical
when one considers the degree to which the Roman Empire relied
upon slavery in the first century C.E., where perhaps 40 percent of
the population were slaves.
Slavery was also prevalent in Judea throughout the first century.
No records survive to enable us to know exactly what percentage of
the Judean population were slaves, but judging from the number of
references to slavery within Hebraic literature from the period, it
was clearly quite common. 208 Klausner wrote that slaves were
an important factor in the political and spiritual upheavals
in the time of Jesus. Without them we cannot account for
the frequent rebellions and the many religious movements
from the time of Pompey till after the time of Pilate . . . 209
There were two types of slaves in Judea during the time of Jesus,
Hebrew and "Canaanitish slaves." The Hebrew slave had the better
lot. Though a true slave, who did not have right to change his mas-
ter or choose his work, the Hebrew was only retained as a slave for
six years and his or her body was not to be used sexually.
The Canaanitish, or non-Hebrew, slaves were treated like cattle.
They were branded, so that they could be recognized in case they
298 Caesar's Messiah
escaped, or a bell was hung on them with a chain. They were inex-
pensive to buy, costing as little as a single gold dinar. 210 The Nid-
dad 211 records that "masters performed the most private actions in
front of them." The masters and their sons used these slaves for sex-
ual pleasure. 212 A slave's master was permitted to beat his slaves to
the point of death without consequence. It needs to be noted, how-
ever, that if the slave died from his wounds, then the master would
be put to death.
Klausner wrote: "Canaanitish slavery was then a horrible plague
affecting the national body of Israel as it was also the case of other
nations in those early days." 213
Someone addressing the common people in Judea during the
first century C.E., as Jesus did, would have been speaking to groups
that contained slaves. Josephus specifically states that the Jewish
rebels who were inspired by the hope of a militaristic Messiah were
"slaves" and "scum." This was the historical context, according to
the New Testament, within which Jesus was able to make numerous
converts by preaching acceptance of one's master.
In any event, Jesus' advocacy of accepting one's plight, and of
pacifism, were certainly principles that the Flavians would wish to
have taught within rebellious Judea. If one separates from the words
of Jesus the advice that was in the interest of the imperial family, all
that remains are truisms, widely known philosophies, and snippets
from previous Judaic writing.
My analysis suggests that what has been seen as most original
about Jesus — his instruction to love one's enemy — was the aspect of
his ministry that was most evil. Volumes have been written about
the possible meaning of Jesus' last comment particularly, but accord-
ing to my analysis the correct interpretation is that, since the
authors of the New Testament considered God and Caesar one and
the same, Jesus is, in effect, saying give everything to Caesar.
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls were found fragments of a work
entitled The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs — a work that had
been previously known to scholars only in Greek, Latin, or Ethiopic
translations, and had been assumed to be an apocryphal early Chris-
tian text. Its discovery among the Scrolls poses problems for Chris-
tianity, especially in light of the fact that whoever wrote the Pauline
Building Jesus 299
Epistles had clearly used it as a source. There are over seventy words
common to the Testaments and the Pauline Epistles that are not found
in the rest of the New Testament, a fact discovered by Dr. R. H.
Charles and noted in his edition of the Testaments. The implication
is, of course, that the authors of the Pauline Epistles were using ear-
lier Jewish source material to create their work.
The most important parallel is between Matthew 25:35-36 and
the passage from the Testament of Joseph 1:5-6. It appears that
either the former is a copy of the latter or that both were derived
from a common source. In the Testaments, the order of the common
words is hunger, alone, sick, prison and in Matthew hunger, a stranger,
sick, prison.
I was sold into slavery, and the Lord of all made me free:
I was taken into captivity and His strong hand succored
me.
I was beset with hunger, and the Lord himself nour-
ished me.
I was alone and God comforted me:
I was sick, and the Lord visited me:
I was in prison, and the Lord showed favor to me:
In bonds, and he released me.
Testament of Joseph 1 :5-6
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you clothed me,
I was sick and you visited me,
I was in prison, and you came to me . . .
Matt. 25: 35-36
In the version in the Testaments, the Lord releases the person
praying after he is sold into slavery, taken into captivity, and placed
in bonds. The version in Matthew does not include these words but
adds thirsty and naked. In other words, the prayer in Matthew is a
version of the passage in Testament of Joseph but does not include
the ideas that Rome would not have wanted. Matthew's version is
completely compatible with the teachings of the pacifist Messiah
300 Caesar's Messiah
who urges his followers to turn the other cheek and to avoid even
anger, let alone murder.
If literature found among the Dead Sea Scrolls was actually the
inspirational theology for Judas the Galilean and his rebel move-
ment, when we compare the differences between the two works
above we are actually witnessing the Roman transformation of
Judaic theology into Christianity. We are seeing the transformation
word by word.
I would also point out the moral issue involved in the editing of
the passages above. Not to include the prayers of slaves beseeching
God to release them from their bonds is to remove from the religion
its humanity.
Another example of the authors borrowing theology found with
the Dead Sea Scrolls is in their description of the Messiah.
In Luke 1:32-35 we read a description of the Messiah.
. . . Shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most
High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his
father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end ... He
shall be called holy, the Son of God.
The scrolls found at Qumran also describe a Messiah.
. . . Son of God he will be called and Son of the Most High
they will name him ... His kingdom will be an everlasting
kingdom ... he will judge the earth in truth . . . The Great
God . . . will give people into his hand and all of them will
cast down before him. His sovereignty is everlasting sover-
eignty. 21 ' 1
In the passage from the New Testament, Luke seems to have
borrowed his description of the Messiah from the depiction of the
Messiah found at Qumran. However, he did not borrow the mili-
taristic, son of David nature of that Messiah. The Jesus in the New
Testament is a tax-paying pacifist. As the Messiah was defined in the
New Testament he was a savior with Roman values, not the values
of the followers of the militant Judaism found in the scrolls.
Building Jesus 301
Christianity was created to be an alternative to the type of rebel-
lious Judaism that swept across Judea in the first century C.E. It is
important to try to identify the individuals who were converting to
the militaristic Judaism and for whom Christianity was to be an
alternative. We are fortunate that Josephus has actually provided a
description of these individuals. Notice he identifies them as the
"wicked generation."
... nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in
wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world
. . . They confessed what was true, that they were the
slaves, the scum, and the spurious and abortive offspring of
our nation . . . 215
Josephus describes the Jewish rebels as slaves and scum. Chris-
tianity was developed to compete with militaristic Judaism for the
faith of these people, to prevent the militant brand of messianic
Judaism from spreading to them. It is clear, therefore, that the reli-
gion that was the basis of Western morality was invented for the
pacification of slaves.
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