Some Say Jesus Christ Never Existed

Was the story of Jesus' life concocted under the Flavian Dynasty in the 1st century as a propaganda piece to tamp down Jewish uprisings in the territories these Roman emperors occupied.

That's what Joseph Atwill is claiming in his book & video documentary entitled "Caesar's Messiah".

Although his book has been around since 2005, this is the first I heard of it. My first reaction to this hypothesis was to dismiss this guy as crackpot. Now I'm not so sure.

Folks in England will have a opportunity to debate all of this with him on Saturday, October 19th @ Conway Hall in London.


However before someone confronts him it might be wise to bone up a bit. Let me begin with Judaism's view of Jesus. According to 'Wikipedia', "Judaism generally views Jesus as one of a number of false messiahs who have appeared throughout history... mainstream Jewish belief is that the Messiah has not yet come... Judaism has never accepted any of the claimed fulfillments of prophecy that Christianity attributes to Jesus... since Jews believe that none of these events occurred during the lifetime of Jesus (nor have they occurred afterwards, except for the return of many Jews to their homeland in Israel), he is not a candidate for messiah.".

A goodly portion of his hypothesis draws on the parallels between the old testament and how it appears the Flavians used those previous events which occurred many centuries before. Then combined them into the short life of Jesus of Nazareth.

Before one dismisses this as a absurd possibly one needs to read up a little about these Flavians. Under their time in power they were known to use propaganda to justify their rule.

The Flavians, according to Wikipedia, "... controlled public opinion through literature. Vespasian approved histories written under his reign, assuring biases against him were removed..."

The clip below expands on this. The film goes so far as to say the first Christian saints to be named were Roman rulers during their reign of power.

A Clip From "Caesar's Messiah": The Son Of Man And The Flavians


FINAL THOUGHTS

I can neither say with complete certainty whether Jesus did or did not exist. I never met the guy. It does seem rational however to suppose it was possible to create a character that didn't exist since Roman rulers controlled the media of it's day. There were no TVs nor cameras that could verify nor deny the miracles claimed in the new testament. When any government controls everything it's peoples see, hear or what gets written it becomes a basis for all that follows after. It should also be kept in mind, nearly no one could read or write in those days. The few who could were called 'Scribes'. Who do you think paid the 'Scribes'? And if a Scribe should go astray what do you think would happen to them under Roman rule?

Lacking solid evidence I think it's impossible to draw a conclusion either way. There's no way to prove Jesus existed. Neither is there evidence to prove he did not. So we are left only with our doubts, personal beliefs or some sort of combination between the two.

All of this reminds me of this paradoxical Koan. "Everything that comes out of my mouth is a lie. True or false?" Either you believe or you don't. There's no proof either way. You only have some else's word that what they are telling you is true. Or is it?