JOHN FRUM MOVEMENT PROTOTYPE

"'E look like you. 'E got white face. 'E tall man. 'E live long ago in America." These are the descriptions a follower of Cargo cult gave in an interview with David Attenborough, an English Anthropologist working with BBC Natural History Unit, about a divinity of the religion circle. A literal white American service man known as John 'Frum' is venerated as a Deity among the people in Vanuatu, an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. It is generally believed among the adherents that John appeared to elders in the late 1930s, though some claim the movement started 30 years earlier putting John Frum appearance to 1910s.

As posted on Smithsonian Magazine , Paul Raffaele on his journey to Island of Tanna, he met with Chief Isaac Wan Nikiau, the chief priest of the movement who gave detailed information about the cult belief system. “John Frum came to help us get back our traditional customs, our kava drinking, our dancing, because the missionaries and colonial government were deliberately destroying our culture.”
“He promised he’ll bring planeloads and shiploads of cargo containing Radios, TVs, trucks, boats, watches, iceboxes, medicine, Coca-Cola, canned meat, candies and many other wonderful things to us from America if we pray to him.”

Raffaele pondered; “but if John Frum, an American, is going to bring you modern goods, how does that sit with his wish that you lead a kastom life?”

Chief Isaac answered; “John is a spirit. He knows everything. He is powerful.”

Raffaele: “Have you ever seen him?”

Chief Isaac: “Yes, John comes very often from Yasur to advise me, or I go there to speak with John.”

Raffaele: “What does he look like?”

Chief Isaac: “An American!”

Raffaele: “Then why does he live in Yasur?”

Chief Isaac: “John moves from America to Yasur and back, going down through the volcano and under the sea.”

No one knows who Frum is. There is no physical evidence he existed. However, some anthropologists concluded that the natives may have heard stories of such an English man or at least met an English service man cladded in US Army uniform who claimed he is "John From (somewhere)". The high tech equipments in possession of the 'Yankee Messiah' dazzled the natives who made a religion out of their experiences. This provided us with blueprint of how religion is decisively or indecisively framed from experiences or agenda, around fabulous fabrications like apocalypse, vision, miracle, martyrdom, divinities, etc.

HISTORICITY OF JESUS CHRIST

Turning away from the near past, few thousands adherents religion movement in the Pacific, we are confronted with the world greatest religion, Christianity, centred on a messianic figure known as Jesus. Born of virgin, he is an enigmatic inoffensive love preacher believed by his followers will bring eternal peaceful government through faith to humanity. This belief system originates from the ancient Roman empire two thousands year ago.

The new testament, a canonised gospels and epistles, have us believe Jesus literary walked the surface of the earth in the first century. These claims lack evidential substances. The account of Jesus from the gospel and patristic writings contain a wholesale discrepancies, historical inconsistencies, misinformation about the politics, geography, culture and law of the first century Judea and it environments.

A glimpse into the gospel, the birth of Jesus is presented as historic, having been infused with historical personalities and events; Reign and death of Herod the Great, Emperor Augustus' censuses, and Quirinius' taxation census. On this note from Matthew 2; Luke 1, the church and antiquity scholars agree that Jesus was born in 4 BC. However, a careful look into this account pointed out discrepancies and inconsistencies with historical records.

I. Josephus is an historian from the first century. In his books, Antiquities of the Jew (AJ) and Jewish War (JW), he recorded that Herod the Great reigned for 37 years from the time of his appointment in 40BC and 34 years from his conquest of Jerusalem in 37BC (AJ 17.8.1, JW 1.33.8 ). Counting between these two points both arrive at 4BC.

Dio Cassius, another historian writes in his book titled 'Roman history' that Archelaus, Herod's son and successor was deposed in 6 AD by Ceasar on his tenth year of reign. Roman History 55.27.6. Counting back, Herod could only have left his seat by death in 4 BC.

Josephus informed us that Herod died between a fast and passover, and that on the night of the fast there was a lunar eclipse (AJ 17.9.3; JW 2.1.3). Astrological data from NASA corrobates this claim. A Lunar Eclipse occured in Judea on March 13, 4BC, the same day they held the Fast of Esther, a fast commonly held before Purim (The day Queen Esther approached the king. She instructed Israelites to hold a fast a day before the Purim) on March 12–13, 4BC. So there was an eclipse and a fast on March 12–13, 4BC, one month before Passover.

II. The Deeds of the Divine Augustus is the funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments. In paragraph 8, Emperor Augustus noted that he decreed censuses in 28BC, 8BC, and 14AD.

III. According to Josephus AJ 18.1.1, The census of Quirinius was called because Rome had taken Judea under the direct rule of Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, Roman governor of Syria after Archelaus had been deposed in 6 AD. Under Herod and Archelaus, the population of Judea do not pay taxes directly to Rome, but now the empire needed to know what tax it would expect to collect.

With the historical facts established above, it is difficult to punctuate the birth of Jesus according to the bible.

1. There is a gap of ten years between when Herod died and census of Quirinius was imposed. Jesus couldn't have been born both in 4BC and 6AD.

2. Emperor Augustus didn't conduct universal census. The Romans were only counted in his censuses.

3. Quirinius census took place in Judea, excluding Galilee which is under autonomous rule of Herod Antipas. A census in Judea have no bearing on Joseph and Mary who lived in Galilee.

4. Quirinius census aimed at direct taxation in order to make an assessment of the property of the Jews. Populace of Judea are not expected to leave where they make their earnings.

5. Men are only counted.

6. There is no record of innocuous massacre by Herod in history.

7. Quirinius did not become governor of Syria until well after Herod's death.

8. The designation 'Tax Collector' was ascribed to Herod during his reign for collecting tax directly from Judeans.


The above conflicts between the gospel and history established that;

a. The New testament is errant, not factually accurate, and significantly unreliable.

b. The authors of the gospel are reasonably confused, not presenting facts but conjecture and fabrication which only tells they are writing fictions.

c. Jesus existence cannot be established on faulty grounds, hence we can conclude he doesn't exist at all.

QUESTIONING THE GOSPEL AUTHORS INTENTION

Having established that the authors of the Gospel have only been documenting alternative facts, identifying them or when they wrote the Gospels is not of importance, but we really need to question their intention, why they distorted historical facts, their motivations, and what they intended us to know.

The Census of Quirinius, imposed primarily for the assessment of Jew properties in Judea sparked a revolt led by Judas the Galilean and Saddouk, is the event seized on as well by the author of Luke to fix the date of Jesus’ birth. This, of course, makes the birth of Jesus coincident with the birth of sectarian strife generally – in particular, what Josephus is calling the birth of the ‘Zealot’ Movement and what we would call the ‘Messianic Movement’ from the Luke approach. Josephus in AJ 18.1.1 uses the Uprising led by Judas the Galilean as the springboard to describe the Jewish sects, Zealotism, a supposedly fourth philosophy of the first century Jewish nation. Luke personalized Zealot Movement, or the splinter cell called Sicarii, by presenting it to us as Messianic Movement and what we know today as Jesus. Although, the point of Luke’s deflecting approach is to get Jesus to Bethlehem to be born, corroborating with Micah 5:2. Mentioning the Quirinius census and Judas the Galilean revolt in Acts 5:37 gave him away.

Moreso in Matthew, we are presented with an improper application of a prophesy, intended for the whole Israelites, as been singlehandedly fulfilled by Jesus. Matthew has Mary, Joseph and Jesus fleeing to Egypt to escape Herod, and says that the return of Jesus from Egypt was in fulfillment of prophecy. However, Matthew quotes only the second half of Hosea 11:1. The first half of the verse makes it very clear that the verse refers to God calling the Israelites out of Egypt in the exodus led by Moses, and has nothing to do with Jesus. The prophetic gloss of Matthew 2:15 is later developed into the adulthood of Jesus who on Mount of Olive wept over Jerusalem and laid a curse on it. From this same Mount of Olive, he made a triumphant entry, riding on a colt or donkey, and was been joyfully praised by his disciples. On this mount also, he had the olivet discussion, and on that same week was betrayed.

The above-mentioned prophetic gloss and later developments echoes Josephus account in JW 2.13.5 about the disturbances which were raised by a Sicarii, miraculous man known as the Magicians, and a self-proclaimed prophet known simply as The Egyptian. The Egyptian was a messianic Jewish revolt leader. His uprising was quelled by the Roman procurator of Judea, Antonius Felix (ruled 52–60AD). Josephus accounted that he got together thirty thousand men that were deluded by him: these he led round about from the wilderness to the mount which was called the Mount of Olives, where he intended and succeeded by breaking the Roman garrison, promising miracles and liberation from all misery, and is praised by his disciple as the king of the Jew. Felix subsequently thwarted his reign and have his followers killed. Acts 21:38 deliberately makes an allusion to this person. It is therefore not farfetched where the 'out-of-Egypt' prophetic gloss is coming from. It is also easy to identify that Jesus missions especially those weaved around Mount Olive are fabrications of The Egyptian's account in Jewish War. The intention of the author of Matthew is spelled out that, the prophetic gloss is not erroneous but a deliberate attempt of describing Jesus, a personification of messianic movement, fashioned out of Zealots revolutionary uprisings in the first century.

MESSIANISM AND CHRISTOLOGY IN THE FIRST CENTURY AND GOSPEL

The word and idea of Christ has a long history beyond Christianity itself. Christ comes from christos, a Greek word meaning 'anointed.' It is the equivalent of the word mashiach, or Messiah, in Hebrew. So, to be the Christ, or Messiah, is to be 'the anointed one of God.' To be anointed, literally, is to have sacred oil poured on one’s head, because God has chosen the person for a special task. Priests and kings were anointed, and occasionally prophets. Cyrus, a non-Jewish king was anointed. However, Christ took a new shape in the first century Jewish community. The Jew cherished a messianic expectation from the lineage of David who will liberate the people and lead them in the way of Righteousness. The expectation lasted till and long beyond the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Solomon second temple. A fourth-century church historian Eusebius in his book titled 'The History of the Church' 3.20.1-8, recorded how the grandchildren of Jude, a supposed brother of Jesus according to the flesh, professed unto Emperor Domitian, son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, that Christ and his expected kingdom is not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly and angelic one, which would appear at the end of the world. Upon hearing this, Emperor Domitian considered the Jew who held unto Davidic messianism as deluded charlatans, just as David Attenborough described the Cargo cult. This goes to show that the Jew until 96AD expected an angelic and celestial Christ (Messiah), who would liberate them from the Roman Colonialism.

Contrary to the confession of the grandchildren of jude, the christ of the Christian age is a rehashed, presented with bags of flesh and forced back to early first century; copiously fashioned from the legion of Jesuses in Josephus account. It is important to note that Jesus Christ of the gospel parralel majorly Jesus ben Saphat, Jesus ben Ananias and only on some occasions Jesus ben Damneus from the voluminous books written by Flavius Josephus.

Conclusively, the Gospel authors could only have written the account of Jesus to decisively suppress the truth that the expected Messiah and the revolt in the first century is a colossal failure. While it is established that Jesus was an historical invention, we are going to take new turn toward addressing the questions on identifying the person(s) who came with the idea of Jesus, why they bothered cropping out the idea, and how they did it.

WHAT COMPELLED THE GOSPEL AUTHORS 1

There are tons of Christian texts that do not make it into the cannon. Reason been that, the church consider them as non-inspiring, or lacking the consensual nature of Christ, or believed not to have been writing by the authorities ascribe to them, or considered heresy, which in modern term can be classified as unorthodox. Even those that made it into the cannons, the church ascribe these writings to Apostles and Evangelists, who they supposedly think wrote them, but wiithout any shred of evidence.

Irenaeus, writing in the late 2nd century, explained how the written gospels were a continuation of the apostles' teaching. According to him, Matthew and John, belonging to the chosen twelves, wrote the gospel of Matthew and John respectively; while Gospel of Mark and Luke were supposedly written by companions of both Peter and Paul. The Epistles, except some few books associated with James the Just, Jude the brother of Jesus and Apostle Peter, the remaining majority is assigned to Paul according to the church.

Scholarly findings however reveal contrary facts. Many early Christian writings are “pseudonymous,” going under an unnamed or falsely ascribed writers. The authors of some of the books of the New Testament were not who they claimed to be or who they have been supposed to be. In some instances that is because an anonymous writing, in which an author did not indicate who he was, was later named after someone who did not in fact write it. Overtime, the gospel have been reworked with alot of insertion and ommision by Church leaders in the second century and beyond. Some were pious fraudulent works used to attack and counterattack proto-christian communities. The gospel of Luke is largely reworked by Marcion; Gospel of John chapter 21 has been discovered as forgery; the 'we' document of the second half Acts of Apostles is also a later insertion; and many of the Epistles and pastoral letters are known forgeries. With the unravelled anomalies in the New Testament, it is difficult to know or ascertain who wrote these books. However, a thorough reading of the gospels (both the canonized and non-cannonized) can help us know what compelled the writers to pen these documents.

Firstly, the gospel according to Thomas, one of the documents unearthed in Nag Hammadi in 1945, explicitly address James the Just as the destined leader of the mother church.
Gospel of Thomas, logion 12:
The disciples asked: We know that you will go away; who will lead us?
Jesus answered: You will turn to James, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being"

Homilies, one of the three letters contained in the dead sea scroll, a collection of the Qumran sect, contain letters addressed to James the Just by both Peter and Clement, both regarding James as the predestined and ordained Bishop of the whole churches.

i. Epistle of Peter to James: Peter to James, the lord and bishop of the holy Church, under the Father of all, through Jesus Christ, wishes peace always.

ii. Epistle of Clement to James: Clement to James, the lord, and the bishop of bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the holy church of the Hebrews, and the churches everywhere excellently rounded by the providence of God...

The canonized new testament has a contrary view. In it, James the Just is not only downplayed, his papacy seat is decisively hijacked and taken to Rome where Peter was seated. "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church" (Matthew 16:18). Feed my sheep” (John 21:17). The whole canonized gospels was masterfully crafted to recognise Simon Peter as the Bishop, contrary to the idea of Nag Hammadi and Qumran community.

From the Nag Hammadi documents and Qumran Dead sea scroll, it is evident that in these communities, James the Just is highly regarded, not just as the Lord of the church or assembly, but as the bishop of the whole holy churches. James is addressed as Bishop of Bishops, a title that is a direct challenge
to the primacy of the Roman church coming from Clement, the first Pope (sic) apart from Peter.

FOLYKAZE:
...This provided us with blueprint of how religion is decisively or indecisively framed from experiences or agenda, around fabulous fabrications like apocalypse, vision, miracle, martyrdom, divinities, etc.

WHAT COMPELLED THE GOSPEL AUTHORS 2

The antisemitic and pro Roman theme of the new testament informed us how the authors were heavily influenced by the establishment.

The expected Messiah was supposed to be Pro-Judea revolutionary, who would militarily destroy the Roman establishment, liberate Jewish nation and justly rule them peaceful. However New testament portrays the Jew in bad lights.

The Jews are eternally guilty for the death of Christ according to Matthew 27:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16. In John 8:44, the Jew were linked with the Devil. The heap of curses placed on the Jewish leaders in Matthew 23 and John 19:15; 9:40-41, and In John 8:37-39; 44–47 they are associated with darkness and Devil. Mark depicts all of the Jewish groups united in their opposition to Jesus. The singular verse from Matthew 27:25 has haunted western civilization ever since, 'His blood be upon us and on our children’; propelling Christian antisemitism which played a role in the Nazi Third Reich, World War II and the Holocaust.

According to Jewish turncoat Josephus, the Romans in Palestine were a merciless colonialist force. Their portrayal in the Gospels and Acts as good-hearted moderators of the excesses of the pharisees can be seen as a fiction designed to appeal to the Roman audience. Jesus was in support of the establishment; encouraging payment of tax and frolicking with 'sinners' and prostitutes. He is portrayed as a lily-liver pacifist who urges his followers to respect the establishment, love their enemies and turn cheek when slapped. The gospel writers go to every conceivable length to absolve the Romans in general, and Pilate in particular who became a Saint, of Jesus' crucifixion and to blame it on the Jews. In the Epistle, Apostle Paul recognised and saluted the Saint in the household of Ceasar (Nero). The antisemitic and pro-rome theme of the new testament justifies the sayings that victor tell the tale, and the gospel writers were greatly influenced by the Roman establishment.

WHAT COMPELLED THE GOSPEL AUTHORS 3

Josephus exemplified how political hierarchies: Felix and his brother Pallas, manipulate the establishment to draw out legal instruments from the office of Emperor Nero; creating ideological, legal and customary collision between the Jew and Syrian in Ceasera. Antoninus Felix is a Roman procurator of Judea who supposedly interrogated and detained Apostle Paul according to Acts 24. Tacitus, a Roman senator and historian, wrote in his book History (5.9), about how Felix indulged in all kinds of cruelty and lust, exercising regal power with the disposition of a slave. Though he is determined to ensure peace reign in Judea, his means of managing the spontaneous uprisings and check-mating his opponents were too brutal. Having a grudge against Jonathan, the high-priest, he made use of Doras, an intimate friend of Jonathan, in order to get him assassinated by a gang of villains, a group of maniacs whom Josephus described as Robbers/Sicarii. Getting that Job done, he heavily axed Sicarii leader known simply as Egyptian, killing and enslaving more than 600,000 of his followers.

That legal instruments is an epistle written by Nero Greek secretary Barrhus, which disannuled Jewish privileges both on legal and temple rights. That epistle threw open the door of the temple to the Greeks and Syrians, allowing them to participate in pagan ritual and sacrifice in the Holy temple. At this time, the issue of foreigners in the Temple and foreign Sacrifices was a big thing in Jerusalem. It overtime inflamed the passions and incited Jew to crime, sparkling into revolt in 66AD, after Felix had left office, and degenerated into the first Roman-Jewish war.

While we can never conclude the epistle is part of the new testament, we can deduce that it permitted the Greeks, Syrians and their sacrifices into the Temple, contrary to the Jewish law.
Ezekiel 44: 7-9
7 in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations.
8 And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary.
9 “Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary.

There is also the Deuteronomic King Law (also quoted in the Dead Sea Scroll): "You shall not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother".

However, the least among the Apostles, Paul; and his subordinates who believe the last shall be the first, not only rule out the lawful prohibition of foreigners and the uncircumcised into the holy sanctuary, they desecrated the holies of holies, and yoked the unclean and clean together.

Apostle Paul also known as Saul, is identified by Josephus as Saulus whose kinsman is Costobarus, and also known as the Spouter of Lies in Dead sea scroll.

Acts 21:29 tells us that Paul, during the reign of Felix, started a riot by going into the Temple. He is accused of bringing in Greeks and "Polluting this Holy Place".

In tne Habakkuk pesher, a Qumran literature, reading through chapter 2 :1-2; Paul is identified as the Sprouter of lies, a villian antagonist of the Righteousness Teacher.

Moreso, the authors of the gospels, following the patterns of Pauline soteriology which eliminate the circumcision clause of the law, extends salvation unto the uncircumcised Gentiles; yoke the clean and unclean together; tactfully benching the law and work with an overriding grace and faith.

CONCLUSION: WHAT COMPELLED THE GOSPEL AUTHORS

Josephus clearly says a false history was written at the time of the Acts of Apostles. Many scholars of the antiquity concluded that the author of Acts of Apostles has in his possession of Josephus publication and also copied directly from it. In Josephus own words, responding to false writings in circulation:
"Romans was the greatest of our time, greater too, perhaps than any recorded
struggle whether between cities or nations. Yet persons with no first-hand knowledge, accepting baseless and
inconsistent stories on hearsay, have written garbled accounts of it; while those of eyewitnesses have been falsified
either to flatter the Romans or to vilify the Jews – eulogy or abuse being substituted for accurate historical record.

Conclusively, evidences from the disparaging view of Central powerhouse between Qumran sect and Pauline sects indicates that what we have today as new testament has pro Roman undertone which only indicates that the Roman government through political influences compelled the authors of the new testament to write Gospels.

The Gospels according to Mark, Matthew, Luke and John are from the Roman circle, a highly hellenized community of political hierarchies, who not only recognised the Primacy of Peter but elevated his office to Pontifex maximus, having religious authority all through the Empire. This goes to show that the author of canonized Gospels were compelled by the Roman Elite class. The Roman government and political class indeed influenced the authors of the new testament bible.

LONG HISTORY OF JEWISH REVOLUTION STRUGGLES 1

The Persian Ruler, Cyrus, enacted a chartered human right to religion, thought and consciousness freedom; a privilege enjoyed across the Persian empire, inclusive of Palestine. In 336 BC, when Philip II of Macedon was assassinated, his son Alexander became king of Macedonia and ruler of Greece. The universal freedom soon came to an end when Alexander took charge of the Palestinian province. Two years after his ascension, Alexander launched an invasive campaign into the Persian Empire, fought and won three major battles against the Persian King Darius III, the last of Achaemenid dynasty. He thereafter made a triumphant entry into Egypt, the outlying Persian province, through Palestine. The Jews and the population of the surrounding region submitted peacefully to Alexander as he marched through Palestine on his way to Egypt. Leaving the administration of the entire Palestine unperturbed, hellenism creep and spread into Judea after Alexander the Great conquered the area in 333 BC.

Alexander died in 323 BC, 10 years after he successfully defeated and annexed Persian territories. His death however plunged his new empire into a civil war that lasted for another 20 years. Eventually, his empire was divided among his various generals, the two most important being Seleucus and Ptolemy. Seleucid kingdom comprises of Asia Minor, Levant, and Mesopotamia. Ptolemy reigned in Egypt, which became known as the Ptolemaic kingdom. Judea was however located right between the Seleucids to the north and the Ptolemies to the south. During most of the 3rd century B.C., it was under the rule of the Ptolemies. During most of the 2nd century B.C., the Seleucids gained control over the region; Judea was therefore under the rule of the Seleucids. Antiochus IV became the Seleucid ruler of Judea in 169 BC. His ascension marks the beginning of Judea's biggest nightmare, overshadowing the long religious and cultural freedom with hellenistic ideologies.

Antiochus openly express disdain towards Judaism, and wanted to modernize Jewish religion and culture. He installed high priests who were only supportive of his policies. When a rebellion against Hellenization broke out in 168 BC, Antiochus ordered his army to attack Jerusalem. 2 Maccabees (5:14) records the number of Jews slain in the battle as 40,000, with another 40,000 taken captive and enslaved. Antiochus emptied the temple of its treasury, violated the holy of holies, and intensified his policy of Hellenization. He ordered the observances of the Hebrew cult be replaced with Hellenistic worship. He banned circumcision and sacrifice, instituted a monthly observance of his birthday, and placed a statue of Zeus on the Temple Mount (2 Maccabees 6:2), an act known as the 'abomination of desolation'.

In 167 BC, the Maccabees, a family of religiously zealous Jews, led a revolution against Antiochus' imposition of Hellenistic customs and religions. The Maccabean revolt led by Judas Maccabeus, son of priest Mattathias, sought to restore to power the religion that they believed was mandated by God in his holy land. After decades of struggle, the Maccabees eventually prevailed against the Seleucids; establishing a hereditary dynasty, known as the Hasmonean for their ancestor Hasmoneus; becoming the reigning political power of the Jewish world in the late second century BC. To quote 1 Maccabees, "the yoke of the Gentiles was removed from Israel" (13:41).

LONG HISTORY OF JEWISH REVOLUTION STRUGGLES 2

Though the Maccabees went on to rule Israel for more than a century, their kingdom was never secured. The Seleucid threat to the
region was replaced by an even greater one from Rome. Roman expansionism and Hellenistic culture constantly threatened to engulf the religious state that the Maccabees had established. In 65 BC, a civil war broke out between two Maccabean rivals for the throne. It was at this time that Antipater the Edomite, the wily father of Herod, appeared on the scene. Antipater helped bring about a Roman intervention in the civil war, and when Pompey sent his legate Scaurus into Judea with a Roman army, it marked the beginning of the end of the Maccabean theocratic state. For the next 30 years (65-37 BC), Judea suffered through one war after another. In 40 BC, the Herodian family was firmly established as Rome's surrogate in the region and, with Roman support, defeated Mattathias Antigonus, the last Maccabean ruler, and his army and gained control of Judea. The era of Maccabees was eventually closed.

Following the destruction of the Maccabean state, the Sicarii, a new movement against Roman and Herodian control crop up. This was a movement of lower-class Jews, originally called Zealots, who continued the Maccabees' religious struggle against the control of Judea by outsiders and sought to restore "Eretz Israel." Though Rome was able to thwart the revolt, they still faced a potential threat. Many Jews continued to believe that God would send a Messiah, a son of David, who would lead them in the frontline against the enemies of Judea. Josephus records that what had "most elated" the Sicarii to fight against Rome was their belief that God would send a Messiah to Israel who would lead his faithful to military victory.

The Roman Government through Herod the Great, son of Antipater the Edomite, decisively shot down all possible threats of the Zealots, primarily ignited by Judas the Galilean. Judas was captured and crucified, the ideology however lived on within the Jewish populace, sparkling the jew into a full blown war in 66 AD which threatened Roman sovereignty. Josephus claims that ‘the thing that most moved the people to revolt against Rome was an ambiguous prophecy from
their Scripture that one from their country should rule the entire world’. Furthermore he evaluated in Jewish War 6.312–14 that Israel had only themselves to blame for what ensued, because they interpreted this oracle ‘to suit themselves and went so mad because of it’.

Herod the Great was known for consolidating Roman rule over and advancing the Hellenization of Judea. Ethnically, he is an Arabian. He is raised as a Judaic, belonging to the Maccabean dynasty, to which he was related by marriage. The Jew considered him half-jew and 'too Roman' despite converting to Judaism. Israel became his subjects but the populace perceive his kingship as illegitimate. Several attempts to change the general view of the people were futile. He pleaded the cause of the Jews of the Diaspora to Emperor Augustus, reduced tax, built port city Ceasera, and rebuilt the second temple. No doubt his greatest achievement was the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, to replace the destroyed Temple of Solomon, yet the Jewish populace do not recognise Herod as the legitimate king. The little support Herod could garner is from the Hellenized and upper class jew, the majority opposes his rulership and are hell bent at instigating several uprisings which hopefully will put an end to Herod government. The Herodians mentioned in the Gospels (Mark 3:6; 12:13) were Hellenistic Jewish supporters of the Herodian dynasty, who favored the stability and status quo brought by Roman authority.

From the military standpoint, Israel is not a match to Rome Empire. However, the herd of sheep led by Lion can be dangerous; having succeeded in defeating the Seleucids, and establishing a new government and new dynasty that governed the Jewish state for more than a century, the Roman Government cannot overlook potential threat to their sovereignty. Judea was effectively on the frontier with the greatest known threat to Rome at the time. It took a full blown war in 66 AD before Rome concluded that the lion leading from the frontline isn't a person in flesh and blood, but an ideology. Alot of revolutionary instigators were executed but these moves didn't stop the uprisings until the ideology was decisively overwritten. The only known uprising after the lion has been tamed is Bar Kokhb Jewish revolt in 132 AD during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, the revolt was thwarted without much sweat because the frontline leader has been neutralised.

In Josephus own words: For they found the fighting men of the Jews to be not at all mollified among such their sore afflictions; while they had themselves perpetually less and less hopes of success; and their banks were forced to yield to the stratagems of the enemy; their engines to the firmness of their wall; and their closest fights to the boldness of their attacks. And, what was their greatest discouragement of all, they found the Jews courageous souls to be superior to the multitude of the miseries they were under by their sedition, their famine, and the war itself. Insomuch that they were ready to imagine, that the violence of their attacks was invincible; and that the alacrity they shewed would not be discouraged by their calamities.

The statement above only implies that the Roman were surprised by the motivation and supreme courage the Jewish populace exhibited despite been heavily dealth with. Having deploying their best weaponry and savage soldiers who engage in wholesale massacre, crucifixion and starvation, the Roman war commanders noted that the movement wasn't spearheaded by a person but an idea. It is however important that this idea must be contained. This idea, deducting from Josephus evaluation, therefore is a Messiah from the line of 'Aaron and Israel' who would in a celestial warfare destroy the agent of darkness and also in a physical battle crush all established enemies of the nation of Israel. This supposed Messiah is going to rule the entire world from Judea. In so doing, the Jew were so optimistic and strongly hope that this Messiah would fight their battle. The temple was destroyed, the resistance was subdued, the provisional government was ended, and these ill actions were justified; all these was possible by inventing Jesus - an anti-temple, anti-judaism (blaming Jerusalem siege on Jewish rejection of his teaching), and Pro Roman pacifism Messiah.

Credit:
[url=https://k9jq1uomqg.pdcdn2.top/dl2.phpid=156673315&h=0bea405037970d2df302e5dd768cf9d9&u=cache&ext=pdf&n=Caesars%20messiah%20the%20roman%20conspiracy%20to%20invent%20jesus]Ceaser Messiah written by Atwell[/url]

Palestine - From Alexander the Great to Herod

FOLYKAZE:
...To quote 1 Maccabees, "the yoke of the Gentiles was removed

IDEOLOGICAL WARFARE: THE ROMAN MASTERSTROKE

In the modern world, United State of America is perceived as the world most powerful nation, having the deadliest and most lethal weapons, yet couldn't completely eliminate cluster mushroom terror organizations across the world. The huge military budgeting, financing and researching provided the State with some successes, only limited to killing and capturing targeted ranks of these terror groups, however the bigger enemy is rather left unruffled. Washington Institute, an organisation advancing a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East, concluded that, "it has become clear that America is at war with a larger enemy: the extremist ideology that fuels and supports Islamist violence. Unfortunately, the United States is not well equipped to fight on this ideological battleground, and U.S. efforts to confront the ideology worldwide have not kept pace with more successful military targeting of high-level terror leaders. The true task at hand lies therefore in fighting ideology with ideology".

The anti-Roman movement in Palestine in the first century can be likened to anti-zionist movement in Palestine of twentieth century. James the just had a position like Yasser Arafat had in the 90s, leading various resistance groups. Arafat was the leader of one group out of many, but loosely controlled the whole resistance movement in Palestine. Surviving several assassination attacks, the Israeli and US government succeeded in having him dead on 11st November 2004, most likely through poisoning. However, his death neither ended the anti-zionist movement in Palestine nor stopped the eruptions of anti western imperialism across the middle east and Islamic world. The major world power in the first century, Rome, left no stone unturned. After Judas the Galilean, the ringleader of Zealot, was captured and cruxified; the Roman Government made moves to checkmate all possible threats and blocked all channels breathing life into the resistance struggles. The Jewish War had proven that the Jews could not simply be ignored as part of the melting pot, but Christianity is an instrument, after Rome had robbed the Jews of their land, sought to rob them of their heritage as well. This makes the Establishment finally acknowledge that unlike physical army invasion which can be resisted, ideological warfare is unconstrained and effects could last longer; hence, a Pacifist and Pro-Roman Christ must be invented, and a unifying Christiandom must be established in Rome.

IDEOLOGICAL WARFARE: ATTACKING THE BULLDOG

Inventing an entirely new branch, and a new religious system or divinity isn't a new thing in the ancient world. The Romans had to look on the not too distant Ptolemy I who invented and introduced Serapis worship in Egypt. Serapis worship is rooted in political expediency. Not forgetting, Ptolemy I Soter is one of the generals who took over the Greek Empire after Alexander’s death, ruled Egypt from 323 BC to 282 BC. Wanting to unite the Egyptian and Greek segments of the populace under his rule, and legitimise his government, Ptolemy created a new deity that combined elements of Egyptian and Greek culture. He made up Graeco-Egyptian god that is portrayed as Greek in appearance, but with Egyptian accessories, representing both wealth and resurrection. The result was Serapis, a god with long hair and a full beard who was the god of the afterlife, healing, and fertility. The cult of Serapis was institutionalized in Egypt and it later spread to other parts of the Roman Empire, where Serapis was also known as the patron god of sailors, the sun god, and even a replacement for Zeus, the chief god. This intentional founding of the worship of Serapis as a new imaginary religion in the third century BC followed the Greek conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, and aimed to provide a belief system that would be acceptable to both Egyptians and Greeks. It also serves also as a rightful model for the invention of Jesus Christ in Rome in the second century AD.

The revolutionary campaign against Rome was orchestrated by the Zealots and the splinter cell Sicarii, whom Josephus called brigand of robbers. However, the underdog and organising propellant of the disturbance is Ebionites, generally known as Qumran sect, the Essenes of Philo and Josephus, the Ossaeans of Epiphanius, and the disciples of John the Baptist. Ebionites are the 'Jerusalemer Urgemeinde', an apocalyptic-gnostic Judaism community or church. Jerusalemer Urgemeinde (The Jerusalem original community) is considered the first community of early Christianity. Believing in a gnostic form of Christ, it apocalyptic return, and subsequent end of the world; this group essentially provided spiritual and financial support to the anti-Roman movement and restoration of Israel as a sovereign nation. The Ebionites were, then, a Jewish-Christian sect, first mentioned by Irenaeus ca. 175 AD, which flourished during the first to early fourth centuries. In the New Testament there are mentions of Jewish Christians, who believed in Christ but also observed
the Mosiac Law (Acts 15; 21:21; Gal 2). This was the community at Jerusalem, headed by St. James, the Just. In the discredited Testimonium Flavianum, "Jamesian reference" in Josephus' Antiquities 20.9 tells us precisely who James is — the brother of Jesus bar Damneus. He is also identified as the pillars of the Christian community Galatians 2:9. 2nd century Christian historian, Hegesippus, identified him as 'The Just One' - Head/Bishop of the Jerusalem Church. For this reason, James has been described by more contemporary as the 'Pope' of Ebionite.

The Essenes or Ebionites is a dissident group of priests and a few good men who broke with the Temple hierarchy during the Maccabean reign in 135 BC. They retreated to the desert to “prepare the Way of  the Lord” for the expected apocalypse. Qumran is in the vicinity of the spot in Transjordan where the Ebionites lived. They remained a powerful opposition force to the priestly hierarchy who were imposed by the Roman Government until their demise in 68 AD. The Qumran sect unarguably is Ebionite because they are mentioned in the Peser on Habakkuk as 'ebyontm' (12:3,6). The community is otherwise known as 'The Way’, ‘The Poor’, and the ‘Church of God'. Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, often called merely the Pseudoclementines are the Ebionites literatures, contain five documents: (a) the Epistle of Peter to James; (b) Diamarturia or Contestatio, the "oath"; (c) Epistle of Clement to James; (d) Homiliai, 20 books of the Homilies; (e) Anagnorismoi,10 books of the Recognitions. This collections enlisted the tenet and practises of Ebionites community as a strict adherent of Jewish law for Jews only, and a tendency to interpret the Person of Christ through docetism; a form of gnosticize christology, and hated Apostle Paul.

Been the conveyor of spiritual influence to the opposition movement, the Roman Government deemed it necessary to completely stamp out, put an end to the awkward, obstinate, monotheistic Jewish cult once and for ever. This move resulted in the establishment of a parralel Gentile Christian community which held pre-existing nature of Christ with God and in physical plain, admit the virgin birth of Jesus and the immaculate conception. This new community headed by Apostle Paul is known as Nazoraioi (meaning 'Branch'). Justin (Dial, cum Try ph. 47; 48) distinguished two sorts of Christian communities, those who observe the Mosaic Law but do not require its observance of all others (Nazoraioi), and those who maintain that this observance is necessary for salvation (Ebionites). After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and again during the Bar Kobbha rebellion when Hadrian destroyed Jerusalem in 132 AD, Jewish Christianity, Ebionites, lost its standing in Jerusalem and the church there was controlled by a Gentile bishops. Nazoraioi aka Nazarene became part and parcel of the Gentile Church which relegated and hijacked the Papal seat in Jerusalem to Rome.

IDEOLOGICAL WARFARE: THE INSTRUMENTAL PROVOCATEUR

Building up his biography, Paul came from Tarsus in Celicia. As recorded in the bible, he is a Jew, belonging to the Pharisaic sect, a Roman citizen by birth, and most often claims to come from the tribe of Benjamin. In his profile also, he is a student of Gamaliel; and a kinsman of Herod. Paul from the historical angle is identified as Saul/Saulus, an Idumean closely related to Herod’s descendants who were puppet kings for the Romans. Josephus mentioned that Paul and Costabarus were asking for Roman troops to help subdue the rebellion. These two, Saulus and Costobarus, in Josephus own words "use violence with the people and plunder those weaker than themselves", started the riot in Jerusalem, which very much resembles the riot led by Paul in Acts and riot in Pseudo Clementine "Recognitions" which ends up in Paul casting the Righteous Teacher - James head-long down the Temple steps and James breaking his leg. The corrupt establishment that killed the Righteous Teacher is also described in the Dead Sea Scrolls for "using violence" and "plundering the weak"; Paul admitted to this bullish and violent behaviour early in his career 1 Corinthians 15:9 and Galatians 1:13.

Antiquities 20.9.4:
"Costobarus also, and Saulus, did themselves get together a multitude of wicked wretches, and this because they were of the royal family; and so they obtained favour among them, because of their kindred to Agrippa; but still they used violence with the people, and were very ready to plunder those that were weaker than themselves.”

The Wars Of The Jews 3.17:
"So the men of power perceiving that the sedition was too hard for them to subdue, and that the danger which would arise from the Romans would come upon them first of all, endeavored to save themselves, and sent ambassadors, some to Florus, the chief of which was Simon the son of Ananias; and others to Agrippa, among whom the most eminent were Saul, and Antipas, and Costobarus, who were of the king's kindred; and they desired of them both that they would come with an army to the city, and cut off the seditious before it should be too hard to be subdued."

Corroborating with Acts of the Apostles, Paul not only alleges Roman citizenship; he is sent under escort of 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen to Antipatris. Been watched by 470 foot soldiers, it is glaring Paul isn't just a Jew or common Roman citizen. He has a wide connections among the political class. Moreso, he is not just a relation but identified and classified himself with hierarchies (Romans 16:11), positing that he is part and parcel of the establishment. He sends greetings to "the Saints" in "The Household of Caesar" and mentions his close collaborator Epaphroditus, Nero's Secretary for Greek Letters. Epaphroditus also served Emperor Domitian and was also Josephus' Publisher. According to Acts, Paul had a relative in Jerusalem who was able to put a word in for him with the Romans. This is one Julius Archelaus, known in the Epistle to Romans as 'Junius' along with Aristobulus and Herodion as Paul's kinsman. This Julius is the younger brother of one Antipas, an associate of Paul and a Temple Treasurer, who was killed by the Zealots along with Ananus, Zachariah ben Bariscaeus and Niger of Perea. This Ananus, known in Pseudo-clementine as the wicked priest', chaired the death sentencing of Jame the Just. It is therefore not far fetched on whose side Paul is, who he is working for, and his primary agenda. Niger of Perea, a backsliding revolutionary identified as Simeon Niger, is mentioned in Acts 13:1 as being one of the 'prophets and teachers' in the church of Antioch. Niger is Paul's associate and foster brother of Herod The Tetrarch. This goes to show that the early 'Christian' community constitute of Herodians, anti-jew groups.

Another possible way to unravel is identity and mission is his claims of been a Jew, Roman citizen, Pharisee, and belonging to the Tribe of Benjamin. These are contradictory. Rome do not just ditch out citizenship especially to the Jew. Roman citizenship could only have been obtained by a Jew in one of three ways: (1) As a member of Herod’s family, (2) Service in the Roman military, (3) Purchasing Roman citizenship. This rules out (2) and (3), so Paul must have obtained his Roman citizenship as a descendant of Herod.

Moreso, Saul's hometown, Idumea (from Edom, south of Judah) is another link that connects Paul to Herod.
Antiquities of the Jews 14.1.3:
But there was a certain friend of Hyrcanus, an Idumean, called Antipater, who was very rich, and in his nature an active and a seditious man; who was at enmity with Aristobulus, and had differences with him on account of his good-will to Hyrcanus. It is true that Nicolatls of Damascus says, that Antipater was of the stock of the principal Jews who came out of Babylon into Judea; but that assertion of his was to gratify Herod, who was his son, and who, by certain revolutions of fortune, came afterward to be king of the Jews, whose history we shall give you in its proper place hereafter.

* The assertion by Nicolatls that Antipater is a principal Jew is wrong, and he only made that statement to gratify Herod, Antipater heir. A pointer that Paul like Herod could claim to be Jew but such assertion could be wrong.

Reading through the War Scroll, a collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls, shows that many converts to Judaism and non-principal Jews refer to themselves as "Benjaminites". This is because the Benjamin tribe was all but wiped out in the Battle of Gibeah, and let alive remaining to become mixed-bloods instead of pure blood Hebrews. It is therefore fair to say that by the time of the Second Temple, the "Tribe of Benjamin" had ceased to exist as an entity within Judaism. In addition, the Patriarch Jacob (Israel) spoke a word of prophesy over his son Benjamin in Genesis 49:27 — Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey, and at evening dividing the spoil" (Gen. 49:27). These words became fulfilled in the life of King Saul who kept the spoils of war when he was commanded by the Lord to destroy it all. When he realized he had lost his kingdom as a result of his disobedience, he became a ravenous wolf with a single purpose - to kill King David. Therefore, "Benjamin" was a pejorative used by fundamentalist Zealots in the Dead Sea Scrolls to refer to people who are non-original, mixed blood Jew and the converts.

His claims of belonging to Pharisee sect and been a student of Gamaliel is questionable as the Pharisees, under Gamaliel, were friendly to the Jerusalem Church (Acts 5). Not only that, Pharisee families are unknown in Tarsus. Paul's tutor, Gamaliel, according to his profile on [Wikipedia] is Herod butt-licker

Gamaliel's authority on questions of religious law is suggested by two Mishnaic anecdotes in which "the king and queen" ask for his advice about rituals.[8] The identity of the king and queen in question is not given, but is generally thought to either be King Herod Agrippa I and his wife Cypris, or King Herod Agrippa II and his sister Berenice.

Conclusively, Saulus is the son of Alexandra, a member of the royal family, who married a wealthy diaspora Jew, Timiud, a wealthy merchant from Cyprus, which was closely tied commercially to Tarsus where Saul was supposedly born. He is an employee of the Roman-appointed high priest, playing a police and undercover provocateur role in suppressing movements regarded as a threat to the Roman occupation. When he becomes Paul, his role becomes covert, pretending to have converted to The Way and whilst roaming the Levant supposedly gathering support for the insurrectionists, actually recruiting his own Greco-Roman/Chrestian following. From the general tenor of his missionary activities in Acts, Paul's philosophy is a vivid pro-Roman and by extension pro-Herodian political idea commissioned at establishing a unified Roman religion, subverting Jesus’ teachings, discrediting Judaism and creating a series of new understandings of the ancient mysteries for billion gullibles.

THE ACTS 1

The character, James the Just, though a prominent figure in the early 30s through 60s first century, is adversely downplayed in the new testament. However, the earliest church writers acknowledge his prominence and wrote extensively about it. He is the Zaddik (Righteous One) who is allowed into the Holies of Holies on Yom Kippur; to pray for and preaches through scripturally-based arguments to the entire population of Jerusalem. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in his publication titled Panarion, noted that "To James alone, it was allowed to enter once a year into the Holy of Holies, because he was a Nazirite and connected to the Priesthood. Hence Mary was related in two ways to Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, and James was a distinguished member of the Priesthood, because the two tribes alone were linked to one another, the royal tribe to the priestly". This character, performing a parallel duty of the establishment high priest, poses a potential threat to the priesthood and Herod establishment. With such a clear enemy and opposition High Priest marked, it becomes priority for the whole establishment to uproot him through religious and legal medium without offending the wrath of the general populace. The man deployed to do the Job is Saul/Saulus otherwise known as Apostle Paul.

In an attempt to silence James, the ringleader of the Ebionites, Saul was recruited by the Royal family to eliminate through proxy. Been assigned under the supervision of High Priest Caiaphas, Saul was well furnished with legal instruments permitting him to thoroughly persecute and kill James and members of the Ebion community. According to the Recognitions of Clement book 1 chapter 70, James was preaching in the Temple when an "Enemy", a man referred to as SAULUS in a marginal note in the Syriac copy of the Recognitions, incites a riot in the Temple courtyard with several of his followers, a bunch of bullish thugs inflicting bloodshed, injuries and deaths among all the people gathered. The ‘enemy’ taunts James’ listeners and drowns out his words with noise, then proceeds to inflame the crowd, with reviling and abuse, and, like a madman, to excite everyone to murder, saying, What do ye? Why do ye hesitate? Oh, sluggish and inert, why do we not lay hands upon them, and pull all these fellows to pieces?… Much blood is shed; there is a confused flight, in the midst of which that enemy attacked James, and threw him headlong from the Pinnacle; and supposing him to be dead, he cared not to inflict further violence upon him.

In the first attempt at executing this mission, Saul only succeeded in breaking the legs of James but erroneously failed at killing him. Further in chapter 71 of the Recognitions, James' associates and supporters who were both more numerous and more powerful than the others; preferring to suffer themselves to be killed by an inferior force, than they would kill others; finding that he wasn't dead lifted him up, took him to his house, and in the following morning took him with the company of 5000 men to Jericho. The mission became a failure, and James went completely underground.

With the Principal Target still alive and become hard to reach, the option left is to infiltrate the community, covertly become a member, break the ranks, and lure him back to Jerusalem. On the occasions when the Teacher of Righteousness and the men of his council suffered iniquity at the hands of the Wicked Priest, Caiaphas, who continued to furnish Saul with legal commission to pursue James and his followers in Damascus. This according to 1QpHab 11:4–8, on Habakkuk 2:15 was when "the Wicked Priest pursued after the Teacher of Righteousness to swallow him up in his hot fury, even to his place of exile, to swallow and make him stumble. However, Damascus was not under Herod Royal domain at the time but was in fact a place of refuge for the persecuted Ebionites. Moreso, the diplomatic relationship between Damascus royal court and Herodian court ended when Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee and Perea, divorced Damascus king Aretas' daughter, Phasaelis. Finding that he is outside the kinship Government territory, Saul changes into covert misson, sneaking in and out of Damascus (2 Corinthians 11:32-33) , with the primary agenda of luring James the Just out into Jerusalem. His undercover identity hence changes to Paul.

THE ACTS 2

The character, James the Just, though a prominent figure in the early 30s through 60s first century, is adversely downplayed in the new testament. However, the earliest church writers acknowledge his prominence and wrote extensively about it. He is the Zaddik (Righteous One) who is allowed into the Holies of Holies on Yom Kippur; to pray for and preaches through scripturally-based arguments to the entire population of Jerusalem. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in his publication titled Panarion, noted that "To James alone, it was allowed to enter once a year into the Holy of Holies, because he was a Nazirite and connected to the Priesthood. Hence Mary was related in two ways to Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, and James was a distinguished member of the Priesthood, because the two tribes alone were linked to one another, the royal tribe to the priestly". This character, performing a parallel duty of the establishment high priest, poses a potential threat to the priesthood and Herod establishment. With such a clear enemy and opposition High Priest marked, it becomes priority for the whole establishment to uproot him through religious and legal medium without offending the wrath of the general populace. The man deployed to do the Job is Saul/Saulus otherwise known as Apostle Paul.

In an attempt to silence James, the ringleader of the Ebionites, Saul was recruited by the Royal family to eliminate through proxy. Been assigned under the supervision of High Priest Caiaphas, Saul was well furnished with legal instruments permitting him to thoroughly persecute and kill James and members of the Ebion community. According to the Recognitions of Clement book 1 chapter 70, James was preaching in the Temple when an "Enemy", a man referred to as SAULUS in a marginal note in the Syriac copy of the Recognitions, incites a riot in the Temple courtyard with several of his followers, a bunch of bullish thugs inflicting bloodshed, injuries and deaths among all the people gathered. The ‘enemy’ taunts James’ listeners and drowns out his words with noise, then proceeds to inflame the crowd, with reviling and abuse, and, like a madman, to excite everyone to murder, saying, What do ye? Why do ye hesitate? Oh, sluggish and inert, why do we not lay hands upon them, and pull all these fellows to pieces?… Much blood is shed; there is a confused flight, in the midst of which that enemy attacked James, and threw him headlong from the Pinnacle; and supposing him to be dead, he cared not to inflict further violence upon him.

In the first attempt at executing this mission, Saul only succeeded in breaking the legs of James but erroneously failed at killing him. Further in chapter 71 of the Recognitions, James' associates and supporters who were both more numerous and more powerful than the others; preferring to suffer themselves to be killed by an inferior force, than they would kill others; finding that he wasn't dead lifted him up, took him to his house, and in the following morning took him with the company of 5000 men to Jericho. The mission became a failure, and James went completely underground.

With the Principal Target still alive and become hard to reach, the option left is to infiltrate the community, covertly become a member, break the ranks, and lure him back to Jerusalem. On the occasions when the Teacher of Righteousness and the men of his council suffered iniquity at the hands of the Wicked Priest, Caiaphas, who continued to furnish Saul with legal commission to pursue James and his followers in Damascus. This according to 1QpHab 11:4–8, on Habakkuk 2:15 was when "the Wicked Priest pursued after the Teacher of Righteousness to swallow him up in his hot fury, even to his place of exile, to swallow and make him stumble. However, Damascus was not under Herod Royal domain at the time but was in fact a place of refuge for the persecuted Ebionites. Moreso, the diplomatic relationship between Damascus royal court and Herodian court ended when Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee and Perea, divorced Damascus king Aretas' daughter, Phasaelis. Finding that he is outside the kinship Government territory, Saul changes into covert misson, sneaking in and out of Damascus (2 Corinthians 11:32-33) , with the primary agenda of luring James the Just out into Jerusalem. His undercover identity hence changes to Paul.

THE ACTS 3

Soon afterwards Caiaphas was deposed, and Jonathan set up in his stead. Within 36AD to 58AD, Paul unrelenting wrote series of letters and treaties to subtle attack the theological idea of Ebionites community, disparage the Principals of the the community, and effectively court large followership for himself. Without having much success at eliminating James the Just, Ananus and Herodian King Agrippa II took it upon themselves to kill James. They waited for the ripe time, 61AD immediately after Procurator Festus was dead, and his office was in a vacuum. Although, Emperor Nero sent Albinus as the immediate successor to Festus. But before he could arrive in Jerusalem, Ananus, been emboldened from the behind by Agrippa II, quickly assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them James. Herein, James was accused of breaking some laws. This murder was seen by many people as leading to the Jewish War and the resulting destruction of Jerusalem. (Josephus states this and Origen and Eusebius confirm it). The role of Paul/Saul did not go un-noticed. It is easy to unravel Saul backdoor role in the killing of James when one realign the historical fantasy in the Acts of Apostle. Been that, the author of Acts of Apostle deliberately altered James name to Stephen. In Acts, nothing is known about his previous life. However, the speech Stephen presented before the Sanhedrim, the mode of his execution (stoning), the prayer and vision he had before he died, and place of execution all Parallels with James' in Pseudoclementine.

At the heat of the war that erupted after the death of James the Just, Vespasian eventually became the Emperor of Rome, after Nero had deceased. However, since Vespasian was not from the Roman aristocracy he relied heavily on propaganda programs to justify his aspirations to replace Nero and subsequent short-lived rulers. Roman historians, especially Tacitus, inform us that while Vespasian was waiting at Alexandria. . . many marvels occurred to mark the favour of heaven and a certain partiality of the gods toward him (Hist. IV. 81). Vespasian went to Mt. Carmel in Judea to meet priests in 69AD. He specifically discussed creating a hybrid religion that would unite Hellenistic Judaism and Paganism. This meeting in Israel was documented by leading historians Tacitus and Seutonius, but does not mention Jesus, who one would have thought would have deserved a mention in this context. Instead, there is nothing. This meeting resulted in the deliberate invention of a pacifist Jesus, from Serapis worship in Alexander Egypt, who is pro Roman and encourages payment of tax to Ceasar. Emperor Hadrian, writing early in the second century when Christianity was well established, said in Historia Augusta, Vol. III, pp. 399-406

[i]From Hadrian Augustus to Servianus the consul, greeting.

The land of Egypt, the praises of which you have been recounting to me, my dear Servianus, I have found to be wholly light-minded, unstable, and blown about by every breath of rumour. There those who worship Serapis are, in fact, Christians, and those who call themselves bishops of Christ are, in fact, devotees of Serapis.

There is no chief of the Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no Christian presbyter, who is not an astrologer, a soothsayer, or an anointer. Even the Patriarch himself [refers to the Patriarch of Tiberias, head of the Jewish religion after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE], when he comes to Egypt, is forced by some to worship Serapis, by others to worship Christ.

They are a folk most seditious, most deceitful, most given to injury; but their city is prosperous, rich, and fruitful, and in it no one is idle. Some are blowers of glass, others makers of paper, all are at least weavers of linen or seem to belong to one craft or another; the lame have their occupations, the eunuchs have theirs, the blind have theirs, and not even those whose hands are crippled are idle.

Their only god is money, and this the Christians, the Jews, and, in fact, all nations adore. And would that this city had a better character, for indeed it is worthy by reason of its richness and by reason of its size to hold the chief place in the whole of Egypt. [/b]

Vespasian is regarded in the East as a ruler who usurped messianic expectations, created peace by subduing the Jews, and legitimize his rulership through loud and vigorous propaganda rooted on miraculous healings, signs and wonders. The most popular of Vespasian miracles is the healing of a blind man, Demetrius of Phaleron, an Athenian politician. The propaganda of the blind man healing successfully aided Vespasian the needed empire-wide view that he is 'divi filius' (Son of God), and the Royal figure favoured by Serapis and Ammon. The propaganda withered after Vespasian ascended the throne, and the Serapis cult dwindled. However, from the shadow of the dwindled cult rose into what we know today as Christianity. In the late first century, the Christianity of this period whom Tacitus refers to as “deadly superstition,” and Suetonius called “class of persons given to a new and mischievous superstition, are the same as Serapis. The Roman Emperors, starting from Vespasian, saw it necessary to employ a unifying social and religious institution to unite a divided empire. Ptolemy I and Vespasian employed Serapis in Alexandra Egypt and Rome respectively. Constantine and Theodosius I employed pacifist Jesus and Christianity.

FOLYKAZE:


alfredilly

sonmvayina:
The worshippers of Serapis where called Christians...

The worshippers of Jesus where called catholics...

Make no mistake.

FOLYKAZE:
@hupernikao

I am really glad you took your time to glance through the thread. It is however disappointing that you do not digest the contents. The issues discussed in the OP is huge, I read and still reading many scholars thesis and publications, yet I have make the points comprehensive and easy to understand. You could have taken your time to study it.


4. Take your time to read the OP. There is a long expectancy of a revolutionary Christ (anointed one) whom the Jewish populace believe would emancipate the Jewish nation from Roman colonialism. The OP established that this personality should be a militant who would raze down Rome and rule the entire world. However our known Jesus isn't a militant but a pacifist. This Jesus cannot be the Christ. And whatever is in the bible today is a mere invention.

5. I will advice you to take your time to read through your Bible and critically weigh it with history. You would only find that the Old testament is wholesale moonlight tale and the New testament is simply an historical fiction.

here is a long expectancy of a revolutionary Christ (anointed one) whom the Jewish populace believe would emancipate the Jewish nation from Roman colonialism. The OP established that this personality should be a militant who would raze down Rome and rule the entire world. However our known Jesus isn't a militant but a pacifist. This Jesus cannot be the Christ. And whatever is in the bible today is a mere invention.

FOLYKAZE:
@hupernikao

I am really glad you took your time to glance through the thread. It is however disappointing that you do not digest the contents. The issues discussed in the OP is huge, I read and still reading many scholars thesis and publications, yet I have make the points comprehensive and easy to understand. You could have taken your time to study it.

2.The author of the New Testament are unknown. Moreso, the largesse of the New Testament are heavily altered and forged. The people who allegedly wrote them did not meet, see, converse or walk with the so called Lord.

3. John 1:1 is a later gnostic bullcrap. I could have asked why Paul insists that there is only one 'gospel of Christ' (Galatians 1:7), and why did later Christians accept as 'Scripture' four written and contradictory gospels? Note Arianism and Docetism.

FOLYKAZE:
@hupernikao

I am really glad you took your time to glance through the thread. It is however disappointing that you do not digest the contents. The issues discussed in the OP is huge, I read and still reading many scholars thesis and publications, yet I have make the points comprehensive and easy to understand. You could have taken your time to study it.

1. The historicity of the personalities like Peter, James and Paul are enormous. These people can be identified by contemporary writers like Josephus who wrote extensively about the Rome - Jewish war in the 66AD. However, the account about them or their missions in the new testament are gigantic fictional and highly twisted. The OP used historical information like Quirinius census to debunk the historicity of the New testament. Therefore, just because New testament mentioned historical personalities like Pilate, Herod, Agrippa, and James the Apostle doesn't make the narration objective truth. Much like Sherlock Holmes stories cannot be true just because it mentioned and described Victorian London.

FOLYKAZE:
@hupernikao

Was Jesus created in the beginning or not... Homoousian?

Was his crucifixion an illusion... Docetism?

What is the root of gnosticism in Christianity? The dice is cast hupernikao, lets play

hupernikao:



Firstly, You made so much assumptions in your response.

I will start from the theology you presented in your point 4.





I am definitely sure you know this is a doctrine help by the Jews and not just a contemporary stuff. Hence you should know that the basis of such assertion was taken from how they interpreted the scriptures.

If you affirm this, it clearly showed to that you have affirm the authority of the OT writers and its prophecies.

This also pose a question now to you, is that what the scriptures truly says.


The answer to this will be from a honest study of the OT itself to know what the prophets explained.
But hold this tight. From Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel and other prophets in the OT who saw the heart of God, they clearly stated a messiah who will suffer then reign, not one who will rule as a military agent. Even David's life already showed you that a messiah (anointed) can suffer before he reigns. That is a narrative of Christ in OT shown in the life of David.

Jesus said same in Luke 24:25
Ought not Christ (anointed, messiah) to have suffered this things and enter into his glory.

He was reading the OT to say this. A Jew will never agree with this even though such anomalies was seen in David and he cant fault it.


I will leave you to do a better study for yourself than do an hearsay as this is not the focus of this write up. I i will advise you do a diligent study of the promised messiah from the OT and know whether he is a military ruler, enforcer or one who will suffer even in his anointing as spoken by the Jewish, OT books.

hupernikao:


Your points 2 & 3 are just full of assumptions and hearsay, so i wont respond to it. I will deal on issues that arent rolled on emotions.

hupernikao:

On Paul, i wont respond also since its an obvious misinterpretation of the scriptures. I dont do verse lifting explanation. The author wrote a book, that is how you should read it and not turn to a millennial students who dont appreciate proper contextual study.