Caesar's Messiah

Caesar's Messiah
AuthorJoseph Atwill
Publication date
2005

Caesar's Messiah is a 2005 book by Joseph Atwill that argues that the New Testament Gospels were written by a group of individuals connected to the Flavian family of Roman emperors: Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The authors were mainly Flavius Josephus, Berenice, and Tiberius Julius Alexander,[1] with contributions from Pliny the Elder.[2] Although Vespasian and Titus had defeated Jewish nationalist Zealots in the First Jewish–Roman War of 70 AD, the emperors wanted to control the spread of Judaism and moderate its political virulence and continuing militancy against Rome. Christianity, a pacifist and pro-Roman authority religion, was their solution.

Atwill's Jesus mythicist theory contradicts the mainstream scholarly view[3] that while the Gospels include many mythical or legendary elements, these are religious elaborations added to the biography of a historical Jesus who did live in the 1st-century Roman province of Judea,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.[11][12][13] Moreover, the work has been thoroughly rejected even by the minority of historians who support mythicist positions, such as Richard C. Carrier.

  1. ^ Atwill, Joseph (2011). Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus: Flavian Signature Edition (electronic ed.). Charleston, SC: CreateSpace. p. 24, Chapter 10. ISBN 9780983382300. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  2. ^ Atwill, Joseph (2011). Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus: Flavian Signature Edition (electronic ed.). Charleston, SC: CreateSpace. p. 11, Appendix. ISBN 9780983382300. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  3. ^ "Was Jesus Real? Joseph Atwill's Covert Messiah Symposium Aims To Settle The Non-Debate". International Business Times. 2013-10-17. Retrieved 2017-10-02. Atwill's critics -- and there are plenty of them -- say it's Atwill who is the fake...the question of whether Jesus was an actual person is not hotly debated among historians
  4. ^ James D. G. Dunn "Paul's understanding of the death of Jesus" in Sacrifice and Redemption edited by S. W. Sykes (Dec 3, 2007) Cambridge University Press ISBN 052104460X pages 35-36
  5. ^ Jesus Now and Then by Richard A. Burridge and Graham Gould (Apr 1, 2004) ISBN 0802809774 page 34
  6. ^ Jesus by Michael Grant 2004 ISBN 1898799881 page 200
  7. ^ The Gospels and Jesus by Graham Stanton, 1989 ISBN 0192132415 Oxford University Press, page 145
  8. ^ Robert E. Van Voorst Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence Eerdmans Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-8028-4368-9 page 16
  9. ^ Ehrman, Bart (2012). Did Jesus Exist?:The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth. HarperCollins, USA. ISBN 978-0-06-220460-8.
  10. ^ B. Ehrman, 2011 Forged : writing in the name of God ISBN 978-0-06-207863-6. page 285
  11. ^ Jesus Remembered by James D. G. Dunn 2003 ISBN 0-8028-3931-2 page 339 states of baptism and crucifixion that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent".
  12. ^ Prophet and Teacher: An Introduction to the Historical Jesus by William R. Herzog (4 Jul 2005) ISBN 0664225284 pages 1-6
  13. ^ Crossan, John Dominic (1995). Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne. p. 145. ISBN 0-06-061662-8. That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus...agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact.