Tomorrow, Joseph Atwill and Kenneth Humphreys will present his historical findings in London that show evidence that Jesus and corresponding biblical attributes are nothing more than first century Roman aristocrat fabrications as part of a psychological warfare operation during the Jewish-Roman war. The one day symposium will exhibit the controversial findings that question everything one of the biggest religions is based upon.

 

Was Jesus based on a real person from history? “The short answer is no,” Atwill claims, “in fact he may be the only fictional character in literature whose entire life story can be traced to other sources. Once those sources are all laid bare, there’s simply nothing left.” The symposium will include confessions and historical accounts that hold parallel to the new testament, but as a plan rather than record. Atwill explains, “Although it’s been recognized by Christian scholars for centuries that the prophesies of Jesus appear to be fulfilled by what Josephus wrote about in the First Jewish-Roman war, I was seeing dozens more. What seems to have eluded many scholars is that the sequence of events and locations of Jesus ministry are more or less the same as the sequence of events and locations of the military campaign of [Emperor] Titus Flavius as described by Josephus. This is clear evidence of a deliberately constructed pattern. The biography of Jesus is actually constructed, tip to stern, on prior stories, but especially on the biography of a Roman Caesar.”

Atwill explains that Christianity was not intended initially as a religion, but rather a sophisticated form of propaganda used as an opiate for the masses. “Jewish sects in Palestine at the time, who were waiting for a prophesied warrior Messiah, were a constant source of violent insurrection during the first century,” he claims. “When the Romans had exhausted conventional means of quashing rebellion, they switched to psychological warfare. They surmised that the way to stop the spread of zealous Jewish missionary activity was to create a competing belief system. That’s when the ‘peaceful’ Messiah story was invented. Instead of inspiring warfare, this Messiah urged turn-the-other-cheek pacifism and encouraged Jews to ‘give onto Caesar’ and pay their taxes to Rome.”

If there is anything for certain, it’s that the purpose of this symposium is to educate, rather than rattle the foundations of Christianity. “I present my work with some ambivalence, as I do not want to directly cause Christians any harm,” he acknowledges, “but this is important for our culture. Alert citizens need to know the truth about our past so we can understand how and why governments create false histories and false gods. They often do it to obtain a social order that is against the best interests of the common people.”

If a spontaneous trip to London were ever so warranted, to explore the spiritual becomings from a political maneuver may be just good enough of an excuse.