Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus:Flavian Signature Edition
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THEOPHRASTUS - Greek philosopher and botanist. Died in 287 B.C.E. Was chosen by Aristotle to succeed him in running the Lyceum. Several of his unique botanical words were used by the first-century C.E. Romans, probably by the botanist Pedanius Dioscorides, to create aspects of the Flavian satire.
VESPASIAN - Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus (9–79 C.E.). Born the son of a tax collector, he commanded a legion during the invasion of Britain and developed expertise in siege warfare. This was why he was asked by Nero to lead the force to put down the revolt in Judea. On Nero’s death the army united behind Vespasian to support him as emperor. He became emperor in December 69 C.E. and is presented by historians as a fair and hard-working administrator. From 71 C.E. until his death in 79 C.E. he governed with the assistance of his son Titus, who succeeded him as emperor.
WILLIAM WHISTON - English clergyman, mathe-matician and classical scholar (1667–1752). Succeeded Newton as Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge. Translated the works of Josephus into English. Concluded that the various prophetic fulfillments in Josephus proved that Jesus was the Messiah.
ZACHARIAS - The son of Baruch. A minor character in Wars of the Jews parodied in Matthew 23:35 as Zechari’ah, son of Barachi’ah, who dies in a similar fashion.
ZACCHAI - Rabbi Yohanan ben Zacchai, described in the Talmud as leaving Jerusalem at the time of the siege in a coffin, and standing up to acclaim Vespasian, who awarded him the town of Jamnia, or Yavneh, in order to establish Rabbinical Judaism. Supposedly he applied the “star prophecy,” or world-ruler prophecy, to Vespasian exactly as Josephus also did.
ZEALOTS - Originally a Maccabean group, they organized against Herod the Great (74–73 B.C.E.), and again under Judas of Galilee c. 6 C.E. to resist a Roman census. After the destruction of the temple, the Zealots retreated to Masada where, according to Josephus, many committed suicide to avoid capture.
A Timeline of Jesus’ and Titus’ Lives
LIFE OF JESUS
1 C.E. Purported birth of Jesus.
30 C.E. Ministry begins.
• At the Lake of Galilee Jesus begins his ministry by calling followers to become “fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19 and parallels).
• At Gadara, Jesus expels 2,000 demons from a man. The demons migrate into pigs that then jump off a cliff into the river (Mark 5:1–20).
33 C.E. Jesus goes to Jerusalem (Luke 19:28 and parallels).
• A naked young man escapes at the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:51–52).
• Jesus predicts that Jerusalem will be surrounded by a wall (Luke 19:43).
• Three men are crucified at the Hill of the Skulls (Golgotha), one man is taken down from the cross by Joseph(us) (ben) AriMathea, and later appears alive (Matt. 27:33, 27:57–58 and parallels).
• At the end of the last Gospel, Jesus declares that John (the beloved disciple) will live, but that Simon (Peter) will be bound and taken where he does not want to go, to be killed (John 21:18).
LIFE OF TITUS
39 C.E. Titus Flavius Vespasianus (hereafter Titus) is born.
66 C.E. His father, Vespasian, is appointed to put down the revolt in Judea, and takes Titus with him.
67 C.E. Roman campaign begins in Galilee.
• At the Lake of Galilee Titus begins his campaign with a battle in which Jews fall into the water and are fished out (Wars 3,10,5–9).
68 C.E. Emperor Nero dies.
• At Gadara, rebels are forced to rush like beasts into the river (Wars 4,7,1–6).
69 C.E. In July, the army in Judea, Egypt, and Syria backs Vespasian for emperor.
• Vespasian arrives in Rome, quells civil war, and is made emperor, leaving Titus to complete the war in Judea.
70 C.E. Titus goes to Jerusalem.
• Titus, “naked”—without his armor—escapes attack at the Garden of Gethsemane (Wars 5,12).
• Titus builds a siege wall around Jerusalem (Wars 5,12). Titus pitches camp at Jerusalem exactly forty years from the start of Jesus’ ministry.
• Three men are crucified at the Village of the Inquiring Mind (Thecoe/a). One man is taken down from the cross by Josephus ben Matthias and miraculously survives (Josephus Life, 75, 420-421).
• John is captured but allowed to live (Wars 6,9,4) but Simon is seized and is taken to Rome to die (Wars 7,2,1).
71 C.E. Titus and Vespasian have a joint triumph in Rome. Titus is given various honors and begins sharing control of the administration.
73 C.E. The massacre at Masada occurs exactly forty years from Jesus’ resurrection.
79 C.E. Josephus writes the authorized history Wars of the Jews, which is dedicated to Titus.
71-79 CE Gospels are probably written.
79 C.E. Following Vespasian’s death, Titus becomes emperor.
80 C.E. Titus establishes an imperial cult to worship Vespasian as a god.
81 C.E. Titus dies in September, and an imperial cult is created to worship him as a god. Arch of Titus is constructed posthumously in Rome, acclaiming him as “the son of a god.”
• His younger brother Domitian becomes the third Flavian emperor.
94 C.E. Josephus publishes his Jewish Antiquities in twenty volumes, written in Greek and containing the “Testimonium Flavianum,” which supposedly testifies independently to the historic existence of Jesus.
Endnotes
1. Michael Goulder, Type and History in Acts, William Clowes and Sons, .London, 1963, pp 2–4
2. Eusebius Pamphilius, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Ch. 7:7
3. Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, V, xii, 499 (William Whiston)
4. Josephus, Wars VII, i, 1
5. Daniel 7:13
6. Josephus, Wars V, ix, 395-396
7. Josephus, Wars Preface II, 5
8. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII, i, 23
9. 4QD 17 6–9
10. Matthew 15:30
11. Josephus, Wars VI, v, 312-313
12. 4Q547
13. Damascus Covenant (CD) 19.5–13, 32–20.1
14. Targum, Pseudo-Jonathan on Gen 49:10–12
15. 1 Clem Prologue:1
16. Cyprian, ed. Princeps, 66, 8, 3
17. Josephus, Wars III, viii, 400-402
18. Josephus, Wars III, viii, 354
19. Brian Jones, The Emperor Titus, St. Martin’s Press, 1984, p 152
20. Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Titus paragraph. 4
21. Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Titus paragraph. 3
22. Tacitus, The Histories, Book IV
23. Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum—Divus Vespasianus, XXIII
24. Pliny, Pan 11.1
25. Juvenal, Satire VI, 155
26. Juvenal, Satire X, 365
27. Juvenal, Satire XIII
28. Juvenal, Satire VI. The haybox was used to keep food warm for the Sabbath, to avoid cooking. The reference to the tree is uncertain but possibly a reference to the menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum.
29. The Catholic Encylopedia, “Clement”
30. Jerome, De viris illustr, x
31. Tertullian, De Praesor. Haer, c. xxxii
32. G.A.Wells, The Jesus Legend, Open Court Publishing, 1996, p 228
33. G.A.Wells, The Jesus Legend, p 228
34. The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Flavia Domitilla”
35. Babylonian Talmud, Gitt. 56b–57a
36. The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Flavia Domitilla”
37. Josephus, Life of Flavius Josephus, 65, 363
38. Josephus, Ant. XIV, x, ii
39. Josephus, Wars III, x, 463, 466-467, 526-527
40. Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires, 4
41. Josephus, Wars III, x, 516, 520
42. Josephus, Wars III, x, 483-484
43. Josephus, Wars III, x, 487
44. Josephus, Wars III, x, 497
45. Josephus, Wars III, ix, 446
46. Josephus, Wars III, x, 484
47. Josephus, Wars VI, iii, 199-200
48. Josephus, Wars VI, i
ii, 201-212
49. Exodus 12:21-22
50. Exodus 12:9
51. Strong’s Concordance 1223
52. Strong’s Concordance 1330
53. Strong’s Concordance 5590
54. Matthew 27:25
55. Josephus, Wars VI, ix, 420-421
56. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History V, xxvi
57. Josephus, Wars VI, iii, 215-219
58. Mark 5:1–20
59. Josephus, Wars IV, vii, 389, 391, 399-401, 406-408, 410, 413-415, 420-425, 431, 433, 435-437
60. Josephus, Wars VII, viii, 263
61. The term can refer either to a Roman or non-Roman armed force.
62. Matthew 8:29
63. 4Q560
64. Matthew 12:43–45
65. Numbers 32:13
66. The following quote from Bruce Chilton is an example:
“Some have sought to get around the force of this text by saying that the word generation here really means race, and that Jesus was simply saying that the Jewish race would not die out until all these things took place. Is that true? I challenge you: Get out your concordance and look up every New Testament occurrence of the word generation (in Greek, genea) and see if it ever means ‘race’ in any other context. Here are all the references for the Gospels: Matthew 1:17; 11:16; 12:39, 41, 42, 45; 16:4; 17:17; 23:36; 24:34; Mark 8:12, 38; 9:19; 13:30; Luke 1:48, 50; 7:31; 9:41; 11:29, 30, 31, 32, 50, 51; 18:8; 17:25; 21:32. Not one of these references is speaking of the entire Jewish race over thousands of years; all use the word in its normal sense of the sum total of those living at the same time. It always refers to contemporaries. In fact, those who say it means ‘race’ tend to acknowledge this fact, but explain that the word suddenly changes its meaning when Jesus uses it in Matthew 24!” Bruce Chilton, What Happened in AD70? Kingdom Publications, 1997, p 89
67. The 1599 Geneva Bible
68. Josephus, Wars V, xiii, 566
69. Josephus, Wars VI, viii, 407-408
70. Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth, George Allen & Unwin LTD, 1925, p 266
71. Josephus, Wars VII, vi, 185
72. Josephus, Wars VII, ix, 389
73. Josephus, Wars V, x, 442
74. Josephus, Wars VI, ix, 429-431
75. Mark 5:5
76. Josephus, Wars VII, ii, 26
77. Mark 5:15, 20
78. Josephus, Wars VI, ix, 433-434
79. Josephus, Wars VII, v, 154
80. The identification of John as the “Beloved Disciple” is the only straightforward reading of the text and was also the tradition maintained by Irenaeus, in the Muratorian Fragment and in the Latin Anti-Marcionite Prologue. Nevertheless, certain scholars have disputed whether the Beloved Disciple really was “John,” though they are unable to agree on who he might have been. The relevant point for our purposes is not when this chapter was inserted into the Gospels, or if it was composed by someone with the name of “John,” but only that the author’s intent was to use the identification of “John” as the Beloved Disciple as part of the system of prophecy between Jesus and Titus.
81. Josephus, Wars VII, ii, 29
82. 1QH v1, 24–27
83. Josephus, Wars VI, vi, 325-327, 345, 350-351
84. Strong’s Concordance, 3136, 3137
85. Mark 5:20
86. John 21:24
87. Luke 12:52–53
88. Josephus, Wars V, iii, 98-105
89. John, 6:54
90. Strong’s Concordance 4991
91. Strong’s Concordance 4990
92. Josephus, Wars VI, v, 312-313
93. Josephus, Ant. VIII, ii, 46-48
94. Josephus, Wars VII, vi, 178-180, 185
95. Josephus, Wars VII, vi, 194-200
96. Josephus, Wars VII, vi, 201-206
97. John 12:10
98. Josephus, Wars VI, ii, 157-158, 161-163
99. David Noel Freedman, The Unity of the Hebrew Bible, 1991, p 57
100. Mary Douglas, Leviticus as Literature, 1999, pp 236–37
101. Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, 1981; Yairah Amit, Reading Biblical Narratives, 2001
102. Theophratus, Enquiry Into Plants and Minor Works on Odors and Weather Signs, Loeb edition, 1916; and HP2.7.6–Passs.Id CPI.18.9
103. Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth, p 330
104. Targum, pseudo-Jonathan on Gen. 49:10–12
105. Matthew 26:39
106. Josephus, Wars VI, iii, 209, 212
107. Hosea vi, ii, P.W. Schmiede, Encyclopedia Biblica, Black, 1901
108. Strong’s Concordance 4404
109. Strong’s Concordance 901
110. Strong’s Concordance 3029
111. Of note is the fact that the word the author uses for this handkerchief, “soudarion,” is one of the few words in the New Testament that is neither Hebrew nor Greek, being of Latin origin.
112. John 20:1–5
113. Strong’s Concordance 4578
114. I am not the first to posit that there was more than one “Mary Magdalene.” Eusebius also noticed the contradictions between the various versions of the first visit to the empty tomb and attempted to “harmonize” the four versions by claiming that there must have been more than one “Mary Magdalene.”
115. Palimpsest in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai: Evangelion da-Mepharreshe.
F.C. Burkitt, ed. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1904
Monastery at Koridethi in the Caucasus: “The Text of the Gospels and the Koridethi Text,” Harvard Theological Review 16:1923, pp 267–86; and “Codex 1 of the Gospels and its Allies,” Texts and Studies 7(3): 1902
116. The Complete Gospels. Robert J. Miller editor, Sonoma, Polebridge Press, 1992
117. Josephus, Wars VII, x, 417-419
118. Josephus, Wars III, ix & x
119. Juvenal, Satire XIV, 96
120. 4Q252
121. 4Q285
122. Josephus, Ant. VIII, ii, 45
123. Josephus, Wars VI, ii, 157-158, 161-163
124. Josephus, Wars VII, ii, 25
125. Josephus, Wars VII, vi, 178-185
126. Josephus, Wars VII, vi, 199-206, 209
127. Josephus, Ant. VIII, ii, 46-48 — Note: some editions misprint “foot” instead of “Root”
128. Josephus, Wars VI, v, 271-315
129. Matthew 24:1–44
130. Robert Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus, Penquin, 1999, p 358
131. Josephus, preface to Wars, 12
132. Josephus, Wars IV, v, 334-335, 341-343
133. Josephus, Wars IV, v, 335 footnote
134. Matthew 23:35
135. William Whiston was an 18th-century mathematician, theologian and linguist. He was appointed assistant to Sir Isaac Newton in 1701 and published an edition of Euclid for student use at that time. In 1703 he succeeded Newton as Lucasian professor. He fell out with Newton over their different interpretations of the Bible. Whiston’s cosmology conflicted with Newton’s in that he believed that God directly intervened in the lives of men, an understanding that he obtained from his readings of Josephus, whose works he translated. His English translation of Josephus is still in print and is the translation used throughout this work.
136. R. Brown, Christ’s Second Coming, Will it be Pre-millennial? 1858,
p 435
137. Josephus, Wars V, vi, 269-274
138. Josephus, Wars V, vi, 272 footnote
139. Josephus, Wars VI, v, 309
140. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History III, vii
141. Josephus, Wars VII, x, 420-425
142. Josephus, Wars VII, vii, 216-217
143. Josephus, Wars VII, xi, 437-453
144. Acts 4:6, 25:13
145. Acts 1:18
146. Josephus, Wars VII, xi, 454-455
152. Josephus, Ant. XVIII, iii, 63-84
153. Mary Douglas, Leviticus as Literature, 2000, pp 234–40
154. Josephus, Wars VII, v, 123-124
155. Livy, The History of Rome VIII, ix
<
br /> 156. Acts 21:27–28, 30-32, 35, Acts 25:25
157. For a discussion see Albert A Bell, “Josephus the Satirist? A Clue to the Original Form of the Testimonium Flavianum,” Jewish Quarterly Review, 67,1976, pp 16–22
158. Josephus, Wars V, iii, 98-99
159. Josephus, Ant. XVIII, iii, 55-62
160. Josephus, Wars II, xvii, 425
161. Josephus, Wars Preface, XII, 30
162. Josephus, Wars V, vii – footnote to vs. 272, “THE SON COMETH”
163. 2 Cor 7:6-7
164. Brian Jones,The Emperor Titus, St. Martin’s Press, 1984, p 152
165. Josephus, Wars V, I, 45-46
166. Josephus, Wars VII, x, 419
167. St. Augustine, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers III,VII
168. Josephus, Ant. X, xi, 276-277
169. Josephus, Wars I, i, 31-32
170. Brian Jones,The Emperor Titus, St. Martin’s Press, 1984, p 45
171. Suetonius, Vesp. 5
172. Daniel 9:24
173. Daniel 9:25
174. Daniel 9:26
175. Daniel 9:27
176. Josephus, Wars VI, ii, 93-102
177. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History III, v
178. Matthew 24:15
179. Daniel 12:11
180. Josephus, Wars VI, ii, 93-94
181. Josephus, Ant. X, xi, 276-280
182. Josephus, Ant. X, x, 210
183. 4 Kings, 4:1–37, 42–44
184. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History I, iv
185. Exodus 32:28; & II Cor. 3:16–18
186. Acts 2:41
187. Josephus, Wars VII
188. Josephus, Wars VII, ix, 395-396, 400-401
189. Joshua 5:6
190. Judges 13:1