We Invented Jesus Christ

[Necro]

American Biblical scholar Joseph Atwill will be appearing before the British public for the first time in London on the 19th of October to present a controversial new discovery: ancient confessions recently uncovered now prove, according to Atwill, that the New Testament was written by first-century Roman aristocrats and that they fabricated the entire story of Jesus Christ. His presentation will be part of a one-day symposium entitled “Covert Messiah” at Conway Hall in Holborn.

Although to many scholars his theory seems outlandish, and is sure to upset some believers, Atwill regards his evidence as conclusive and is confident its acceptance is only a matter of time. “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.”

Atwill asserts that Christianity did not really begin as a religion, but a sophisticated government project, a kind of propaganda exercise used to pacify the subjects of the Roman Empire. “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 explains. “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.”

Was Jesus based on a real person from history? “The short answer is no,” Atwill insists, “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.”

Atwill’s most intriguing discovery came to him while he was studying “Wars of the Jews” by Josephus [the only surviving first-person historical account of first-century Judea] alongside the New Testament. “I started to notice a sequence of parallels between the two texts,” he recounts.

“Although it’s been recognised 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.”

How could this go unnoticed in the most scrutinised books of all time? “Many of the parallels are conceptual or poetic, so they aren’t all immediately obvious. After all, the authors did not want the average believer to see what they were doing, but they did want the alert reader to see it. An educated Roman in the ruling class would probably have recognised the literary game being played.” Atwill maintains he can demonstrate that “the Roman Caesars left us a kind of puzzle literature that was meant to be solved by future generations, and the solution to that puzzle is ‘We invented Jesus Christ, and we’re proud of it.'”

Is this the beginning of the end of Christianity? “Probably not,” grants Atwill, “but what my work has done is give permission to many of those ready to leave the religion to make a clean break. We’ve got the evidence now to show exactly where the story of Jesus came from. Although Christianity can be a comfort to some, it can also be very damaging and repressive, an insidious form of mind control that has led to blind acceptance of serfdom, poverty, and war throughout history. To this day, especially in the United States, it is used to create support for war in the Middle East.”

Atwill encourages skeptics to challenge him at Conway Hall, where after the presentations there is likely to be a lively Q&A session. Joining Mr.Atwill will be fellow scholar Kenneth Humphreys, author of the book “Jesus Never Existed.”

http://www.corespirit.com/ancient-confe ... us-christ/

[Nomaster]

Very likely made up of a composite of various religions and their saviours.

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."

[averagejoe]

Joseph Atwill should go to Glastonbury England first before his seminar....

Did Jesus visit Glastonbury England?

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=55732

[averagejoe]

How do you explain the travels of the 12 apostles?

[Necro]

Very likely made up of a composite of various religions and their saviours.

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."

Borrowing religious stories is so old, that the original flood story was not about Noah, but about Gilgamesh. The Jews borrowed the story from the Babylonians. The story was written as homework practice by Babylonian children long before the Hebrews wrote it in the Torah. Many Hebrew children were schooled in Babylon, so they would have had to copy that story in their homework.

Crossing oneself and praying to the Virgin Mary were borrowed from the Egyptian Goddess Isis. Before 1,000 B.C. we have the following gods or demigods born on December 25: Horus, Osiris, and Attis. Before 200 B.C. we have Mithra, Heracles, Dionysus, Tammuz, Adonis, and others . Some were also born to virgins.

Two thousand years before Christ, the virgin Egyptian queen Mut-em-ua gave birth to Pharaoh Amenkept III. Mut-em-ua had been told she was with child by the god Taht, and the god Kneph impregnated her by holding a cross, the symbol of life, to her mouth. Amenkept’s birth was celebrated by the gods and by three kings, who offered him gifts.

The Persian god Mithra was made the “Protector of the Empire” by the Romans in 307 AD, right before Christianity was declared the official religion. Some versions of Mithra’s story, predating Christianity, make him the son of a human virgin. His birth, on December 25, was seen by shepherds and Magi, who brought gifts to a cave, the place of his birth.

Horus was one of the many Egyptian Gods.

He had 12 disciples.
One was born of a virgin in a cave.
Like Jesus, his birth was announced via a star.
And three wise men showed up!
He was baptized when he was 30 by Anup the Baptizer.
He rose a guy from the dead and walked on water.
Lastly, he was crucified, buried like Jesus in a tomb, and resurrected.

I think it is a bit early to say for certain that the New Testament was all fiction, but there's evidence, certainly, which points in that direction.

[cliffy1]

People who believe have invested a lot of time, emotion and energy to convince themselves that what they believe is true. They have filtered out tons of contradictory evidence to justify their beliefs. They are very adept at using these filters so any attempt to bring truth and logic to the subject is automatically dismissed as heresy. There is no way to reason with someone who has made up their mind.

[averagejoe]

Horus was one of the many Egyptian Gods.

He had 12 disciples.
One was born of a virgin in a cave.
Like Jesus, his birth was announced via a star.
And three wise men showed up!
He was baptized when he was 30 by Anup the Baptizer.
He rose a guy from the dead and walked on water.
Lastly, he was crucified, buried like Jesus in a tomb, and resurrected.

Ending the Myth of Horus

https://stupidevilbastard.com/2005/01/e ... _of_horus/

Horus Manure: Debunking the Jesus/Horus Connection

http://www.strangenotions.com/horus-manure/

[averagejoe]

Borrowing religious stories is so old, that the original flood story was not about Noah, but about Gilgamesh. The Jews borrowed the story from the Babylonians. The story was written as homework practice by Babylonian children long before the Hebrews wrote it in the Torah. Many Hebrew children were schooled in Babylon, so they would have had to copy that story in their homework. Source please...

It's not a cross. But an ancient Eygptian symbol of life...Don't mislead people.

Necro wrote:
The god Kneph impregnated her by holding a cross, the symbol of life.



http://www.egyptianmyths.net/ankh.htm

[averagejoe]

People who believe have invested a lot of time, emotion and energy to convince themselves that what they believe is true. They have filtered out tons of contradictory evidence to justify their beliefs. They are very adept at using these filters so any attempt to bring truth and logic to the subject is automatically dismissed as heresy. There is no way to reason with someone who has made up their mind.

LOL this guy Necro sounds like you trying to make people think the Roman Empire started Christianity.....

I'm still waiting for my answers from you......

[Necro]

http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/d ... inkel.aspx

[Glacier]

Ending the Myth of Horus

https://stupidevilbastard.com/2005/01/e ... _of_horus/

Horus Manure: Debunking the Jesus/Horus Connection

http://www.strangenotions.com/horus-manure/

It's not a lie if an atheist does it though. The ends justify the means with these folks.

[OREZ]

Yep. This theory has been debunked many, many times and I've personally wasted more time than I should have responding to it on here and elsewhere. The resulting "discussion" just ends up being a series of "my website links are better than yours" posts so I think I'll take a pass on this one.

[Necro]

Nowhere in my post did I make any claim that Horus was Jesus.

Christians choosing to remain willfully ignorant to the similarities are free to do so.

I for one am excited to hear what Joseph Atwill has to say.

[Glacier]

Nowhere in my post did I make any claim that Horus was Jesus.

Christians choosing to remain willfully ignorant to the similarities are free to do so.

LOL! Here's what you said:

He had 12 disciples.
One was born of a virgin in a cave.
Like Jesus, his birth was announced via a star.
And three wise men showed up!
He was baptized when he was 30 by Anup the Baptizer.
He rose a guy from the dead and walked on water.
Lastly, he was crucified, buried like Jesus in a tomb, and resurrected.

You are spreading conspiracy theory lies by posting that. If you believe even half of these you're either willfully ignorant or under the spell of someone who is. There is not a single historical Egyptian or Greek source anywhere that corroborates any of those.

[crybabycry]

Nowhere in my post did I make any claim that Horus was Jesus.

I for one am excited to hear what Joseph Atwill has to say.

This may be a dumb question then but why did you post the article and why is it that you are excited about what Joseph Atwill has to say?