Twice Born Dionysus is called twice born because of the unusual manner in which he grew: not only in a womb, but also in a thigh.
Let me first give a quick background history of Dionysus’s Life, according to Greek tradition. Dionysus (Roman Bacchus) was worshiped in Greece, starting in the 6th Century BC. He was the god of wine and vegetation. Temples and theatres were built for him and worshipers had his major festival around March-April. The most influential representatives of the state were involved in the opening religious ceremonies. For example, before the tragedy performances, the tribute of the Athenian empire was brought into the theatre. At the same time they led in upon the stage the sons of those who had lost their lives in war. They were paraded in military uniform. There was an introduction of the whole personnel active in the contests (poets, choregoi [citizens responsible for expenses], actors, musicians, chorus members).
A contest of 10 dithyrambs (choruses in honor of Dionysus) was carried out on the first day of the festival. Each chorus of men or boys represented a “tribe”. 5 Comedies were presented, then 3 tetralogies (one each day). A tetralogy consisted of 3 tragedies and 1 satyr play. They competed against each other. A final assembly was held, at which prizes and awards were distributed. Ritual wine-drinking in the name of Dionysus was the privilege of Greek males, while ritual maenadism was practiced exclusively by women. Public festivals in honor of Dionysus included both sexes. The Greek Maenad myth is enacted in Euripides’ “Bacchant Women” (410BC; it only premiered posthumously at the City Dionysia festival of 405 BC, where it won first prize).
The worship of Dionysus was endowed with wild ecstasy and blood-thirsty violence, in which, women went to the woods and turned into a destructive mob, who at the height of their frenzy climbed mountains, tore apart animals or even human beings, and devoured the raw flesh of their victims. The Roman historian Livy (60BC – 17AD) describes outrageous actions connected with Bacchic orgies in Rome, the Bacchanalia. In 186 BC the Roman Senate decreed the destruction of most Bacchic shrines and the strict control of all Bacchic worship in Italy. The worship of Dionysus was centered in duality (gentleness and brutality), the nature of wine.
In Orphic Mystery tradition (6th Century BC), Dionysus (Zagreus) was born firstly by the god Zeus and virgin goddess Persephone (Queen of the Underworld). Zeus gives Dionysus the right to become his successor (as the 5th ruler on the throne in heaven over the entire universe). The jealous Hera (wife of Zeus) has the Titans rip the boy in shreds and eat him, but the heart is saved by goddess Athena. Dionysus tried to elude their attacks by transforming into Zeus, Chronos, a young man, a lion, a horse, a serpent and finally a bull, the form in which he was torn apart. Zeus then hurls a lightning bolt at the Titans, and destroys them.
Out of the ashes, humans are created with dual nature (one part from wicked sons of the earth, the Titans – and the other part, a soul that is divine through the Titans’ eating the son of a god, Dionysus). Thus, when we find that followers of Dionysus follow the cult ritual of dividing up a bull and eating its raw flesh, and drinking wine in thanksgiving and remembrance of their god, it is not a stretch to argue that they believed they were eating the body and blood of their savior Dionysus, in order to reach a spiritual communion (compare to 1 Corinthians 11).
Dionysus was then born again from a mortal woman, Princess Semele, Daughter of the King of Thebes (Cadmus) and Zeus. Hera planted seeds of doubt in Semele’s mind that she had actually been impregnated by Zeus, so Semele demanded that Zeus make an oath on the River Styx that he reveal himself in all his glory. However, as no mortal can stand the sight of Zeus without dying, she was burnt up by his firebolts. Zeus rescued the child Dionysus from her womb and sewed him up in his thigh until he was ready to be born. Through this, he is called ‘THE TWICE-BORN’, being killed once, resurrected and born a second time, which spilled over to identify the initiates into the Dionysian cult, as they were said to be ‘BORN AGAIN.’
Dionysus then grows up traveling, sharing his knowledge about how to grow vineyards and wine-making. Dionysus was a wanderer and wanted worship to be outside in the forest. He did not want a temple where people worshiped indoors. He also sets out to avenge his mother Semele, since her sister, Agave, spread the rumor that Semele was put to death by Zeus for telling everyone that she was impregnated by him. In his old age, King Cadmus grants his grandson (and Dionysus’s cousin) Pentheus the throne, who bans the worship of Dionysus. He sends guards to arrest him, and when they find him, Dionysus willingly offers himself to be arrested. Once there in front of Pentheus, he is put through a trial of sorts and asked by Pentheus about his cult and his power, to which, Dionysus refuses to answer him directly and antagonizes Pentheus.
Dionysus is put in prison for this, but easily breaks free and then razes his palace prison to the ground through fire and an earthquake. Dionysus assures Pentheus that he will not escape, but tells Pentheus not to kick against the goads (pricks) since he is a mortal fighting against a god (Bacchae 396)…
Any of this sound familiar? (Compare to Acts 16:16-40 and Acts 26:14-15).
Many of the women in Thebes decided to follow Dionysus after the earthquake. Pentheus still doesn’t believe Dionysus is a god but falls into a trance. Dionysus tells him that he needs to dress like a woman and go see the Dionysus rituals for himself, since his mother Agave is taking part in them.
Pentheus goes to watch in a tree but is seen and is torn to pieces by these crazed women. His very mother, Agave is the one who tore his head off and brought it to Cadmus. When Cadmus weeps, her trance is broken and she realizes what she has done (tore off the head of her own son). They finally understand the powers of the god Dionysus, whom that family had so vilely offended by their disbelief in his divinity. Many others felt his wrath for not recognizing he was a god and the son of god (son of Zeus) as well. Is this not similar to Jesus reprimanding the Jews for not recognizing him as the Messiah and the “son of god”? (Matthew 16:13-17 ; John 3:16-17 ; John 10:33-36 ; John 12:37-49).
Dionysus goes into the underworld and saves his mother Semele, bringing her back to life (compare to 1 Peter 3:19-20). By bribing Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, with a sprig of myrtle to gain admittance, and then by standing up to Thanatos, the Greek god of Death, Dionysus secured Semele’s release. He then escorted her back to live on Mount Olympus (Heaven). Although Semele had to change her name and live in an apartment, so that her presence among them would not be scandalous, even Hera was willing to accept her presence there.
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DIONYSUS : BRINGING THE COUNTERPART TO BREAD! HIS BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE GRAPE, LIGHTENS THE BURDEN OF OUR MORTAL MISERIES
The story of Dionysus was written in slightly different variations, by a few Greek poets, but the first was a poet named Orpheus in the 6th century BC, and the second was Euripides in the 5th Century BC. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar.
The Christians (as many of the ANE [Ancient Near East] religions, were notorious for copying each other) used the story of Dionysus as the blueprint for Jesus in many ways. The very first “miracle of Christ” was turning “water into WINE”, for example (clearly a clue to “Dionysus, the God of Wine”).
Read “The Bacchae” by Euripides’ (Greek Poet from 5th Century BC) which is all about the demigod Dionysus, written in 410 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia Festival in 405 BC. The trial Dionysus has before King Pentheus is very reminiscent of the trial Jesus supposedly had before Pilate. The earthquake scene that allows Dionysus to walk free from prison, is very reminiscent of what happened when Paul and Silas were praying in the jail cell at midnight in the book of Acts chapter 16, before an earthquake strikes and sets them free.
Dionysus was called THE TWICE-BORN, because according to the Orphic tradition (Orpheus was a Greek Poet, who supposedly existed before the 6th Century BC, and Orphism is traced back to the 5th Century BC) he was first born from Virgin Goddess Persephone (having sex with Zeus), then was killed by the Titans, the heart was saved by Zeus and then put into a mortal female’s womb (Princess Semele’ of Thebes). While he was still in Princess Semele’s womb, she was struck with lightning by beholding Zeus in all of his glory (no one could look at Zeus and survive). Then Zeus sewed Dionysus up in his thigh, until he was ready to be born, hence the moniker ‘TWICE-BORN’ (Two mothers – One mother a VIRGIN the other mother a MORTAL. He was born once, died, resurrected and born again, which is very similar to Jesus proclaiming that one must be BORN AGAIN or BORN A SECOND TIME).
The basic plot-line of the story goes like this, Zeus impregnates the VIRGIN GODDESS Persephone. Dionysus is born but Hera (jealous wife of Zeus) gets revenge by sending the Titans to devour Dionysus. The Goddess Athena saves Dionysus’ heart, and Zeus strikes the Titans with a lightning-bolt, which, out of the ashes, creates humans (part divine with a soul through the ashes of Dionysus – who was a SON OF GOD and the other part – carnal flesh – through the ashes of the Titans). He was then crowned by Zeus with a crown of snakes (similar to crown of thorns). The whole plot-line of the Dionysus story is that after traveling the world teaching people his Dionysian mysteries and teaching people how to grow vineyards and make wine, he is now back in Thebes to enact vengeance upon his extended family for spreading the rumor that his mother lied about being impregnated by Zeus and mostly for not believing that he (Dionysus) was indeed, THE SON OF GOD (Son of Zeus).
“Young man, two are the forces most precious to mankind. The first is Demeter, the Goddess. She is the Earth — or any name you wish to call her — and she sustains humanity with solid food. Next came Dionysus, the son of the virgin, bringing the counterpart to bread: wine and the blessings of life’s flowing juices. His blood, the blood of the grape, lightens the burden of our mortal misery. Though himself a God, it is his blood we pour out to offer thanks to the Gods. And through him, we are blessed.”
― Quote by Euripides, The Bacchae Dionysus with satyrs. Interior of a cup painted by the Brygos Painter, Cabinet des Médailles.
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SYNOPSIS OF DIONYSUS
As a recap, Dionysus was a product of Zeus and the Virgin Goddess Persephone. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Goddess Demeter (the goddess of all agriculture). Demeter presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. In Homer’s “Odyssey” and “Iliad” (both written c. 800 BC) she is the blond-haired goddess who separates the chaff from the wheat. She presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. Zeus and Demeter were brother and sister, yet Zeus (Sky) impregnates (in other words, sends rain upon) Demeter (mother goddess of the earth) and she brings forth their beautiful daughter Persephone (Queen of Underworld and all vegetation).
According to the personal mythology of Robert Graves, Persephone is not only the younger self of Demeter, she is in turn also one of three guises of the Triple Goddess – Kore (the youngest, the maiden, signifying green young grain), Persephone (in the middle, the nymph, signifying the ripe grain waiting to be harvested), and Hecate (the eldest of the three, the crone, the harvested grain), which to a certain extent reduces the name and role of Demeter to that of group name. Before her abduction, she is called Kore; and once taken by Hades she becomes Persephone (‘she who brings destruction’).
Persephone was abducted to the underworld by Hades (King of Underworld). Demeter searched for her ceaselessly. The seasons halted; living things ceased their growth, then began to die. Zeus sent his messenger Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back. Hades agreed to release her if she had eaten nothing while in his realm, but Persephone had eaten a small number of pomegranate seeds (food of the dead). This bound her to the underworld for certain months of every year, either the dry Mediterranean summer, when plant life is threatened by drought, or the autumn and winter. Persephone’s time in the underworld corresponds with the unfruitful seasons of the ancient Greek calendar, and her return to the upper world with springtime.
Zeus and Demeter were brother and sister, yet Zeus (Sky God) impregnates (in other words, sends rain upon) Demeter (mother goddess of the earth) and she brings forth their beautiful daughter Persephone (vegetation). The supreme God Zeus then impregnates his virgin daughter Persephone who has Dionysus (Grape vine). Zeus had intended Zagreus (Dionysus) to be his heir, but a jealous Hera (wife of Zeus) persuaded the Titans to kill the child.
Zeus, discovering the crime, hurled a thunderbolt at the Titans, turning them to ashes, but Athena managed to recover Zagreus’ heart. From the ashes of the Titans (being evil deities), mixed with the divine flesh (Son of God ; Dionysus) they had eaten, came humankind, which is supposed to personify the mix of good and evil in humans, the story goes, for humans possess both a trace of divinity as well as the Titans’ maliciousness and wickedness.
Zeus takes the heart of Dionysus and puts it into the womb of a mortal woman who is a Princess (of Thebes) named Semele. Hera tricks Semele into making Zeus reveal himself to her, but when she sees Zeus in all his glory, she is instantly burnt to a crisp. Zeus saves Dionysus inside her womb and sews him up in his thigh, until Dionysus is ready to be born. Through this, Dionysus was known as the ‘Twice-Born’, being killed once, resurrecting and then being born again. Dionysus then grows up traveling, sharing his knowledge about how to grow vineyards and wine-making. Dionysus was a wanderer and wanted worship to be outside in the forest. He did not want a temple where people worshiped indoors.
Dionysus was primarily known as the God of the Vine. Demeter and Dionysus were worshiped as the supreme deities over the earth. Unlike the immortal gods, who were often hostile toward human beings, Dionysus and Demeter were benevolent toward mankind. Dionysus was the last god to enter Mount Olympus (personification of Heaven) and he was the only god to have a human parent (half divine / half human – The child of the Supreme God Zeus and a mortal female named Semele). He was born of fire and nursed by rain. His birth corresponds to the development of grapes, heat ripens the fruit and water keeps it alive.
DEMETER AND ZEUS BEGET PERSEPHONE
Zeus and Demeter were brother and sister, yet Zeus (Sky) impregnates (in other words, sends rain upon) Demeter (mother goddess of the earth) and she brings forth their beautiful daughter Persephone (all vegetation). As I’ve already shown, Zeus impregnated his virgin daughter Persephone who has Dionysus (Grape vine). Hades (king of underworld, basically means he personifies death), captures Persephone and makes her marry him (she ate a pomegranate seed(s) – food of the dead – so she is relegated to the underworld forever). Her mother Demeter is worried about her so she goes to the god Helios (Sun) who tells her that Zeus allowed her daughter to be taken by Hades.
Zeus sends Rhea (his mother) to the underworld to work out a deal with Hades, which is accepted. Half the year Persephone gets to spend with her mother and half the year she spends with Hades. This whole story was to explain the seasons. Part of the year around end of fall through winter, Persephone is in the realm of the dead (her husband Hades personifies death, and he has her during the part of the year when vegetation is dry and dead), the other half, starting in Spring when vegetation is springing to life again upon Earth, she is with her mother (Demeter – Goddess of Mother Earth). So you see, they created a mythological story with mythological gods and goddesses to merely explain the changing of the seasons.
Zeus (the God of the sky) impregnates Persephone (Virgin Goddess of the Underworld / Hades) and from her, brings forth Dionysus (the god of wine / grapes). It’s an analogy about the rain from the sky (Zeus) falling on the ground and sinking into the depths of the soil / earth (Demeter – mother goddess of earth and her daughter Persephone – who personifies vegetation – seed and stalk) and from that, springs forth the grape vine (Dionysus).
Hera was angered that Zeus cheated on her so she sent the Titans to devour her. They devour Goddess Persephone, and for this, out of anger, Zeus throws a lightning bolt to devour the Titans. Through the ashes of the Titans, humans were created (one part divine from the ashes of the son of god, Dionysus [a soul], and one part the flesh from the Titans). In essence, this is an analogy of man being created from the dust of the earth. They created mythological stories with mythological characters to explain ‘Natural Phenomenon.’
These Greco-Roman mythologists had clearly copied these explanations for things from the Egyptians. The rulers and governors then took these myths and mythological characters further and created laws for their own advantage, by terrifying the public about the judgments these invisible gods were said to inflict upon them if they didn’t act piously. These mythological deities and demi-gods were sort of ‘brought to life’ in order to appease and control the populace, which was never the true intention of these stories, myths and fables.
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DIONYSUS AND JESUS BOTH GO ON TRIALBEFORE A RULER
Dionysus’ trial before King Pentheus vs. Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate (governor over the Roman Province of Judaea during the reign of Emperor Tiberius Caesar). The account of Dionysus on trial before King Pentheus is taken from the Greek Poet, Euripides, who won first prize in the Dionysia Festival in 405 BC (he had written it 5 years beforehand, in 410 BC).
Both Dionysus and Jesus give themselves up willingly to be captured, without a fight. (BTW, King Pentheus does not realize that this is Dionysus himself, he just thinks this is one of the followers of Dionysus). In the gospel accounts, the disciples fled from the scene and were not captured along with Jesus. In the Euripides account of Dionysus, the servant tells King Pentheus that when he tried to capture the followers of Dionysus, the cage doors flew open on their own and the chains from their hands and feet broke off by some divine power, to which these followers fled into the meadows. The Disciples of Jesus also escape and flee (Mark 14:50).
King Pentheus starts the trial by telling this man (who he doesn’t realize is Dionysus) all about how he (this man he doesn’t realize is Dionysus) has used his handsome charm to win over the women of Thebes. He then asks Dionysus what his race/ethnicity is. Dionysus responds in a mocking manner by saying that maybe he has heard of the King of Lydia, named King Tmolus, which Dionysus is alluding to where he is natively from (Lydia). Compare to the start of Jesus’ trial, Pilate asks Jesus if he is the King of the ‘Jews’. Jesus said it is as he had said (Matthew 27:11). Pilate also asks Jesus where he came from (what region he is from or what race he is), to which Jesus gives no reply (John 19:8-9).
Penthesus asks Dionysus why he has brought these mysteries to Hellas (the Greek name for Hellenes, so in essence, Pentheus is asking why Dionysus has brought these mysteries to all of Greece). Dionysus (acting like he is just a follower of Dionysus) said that he was initiated by Dionysus himself, who is the son of Zeus, born from a mortal female, Princess Semele. Pentheus asks if he had seen the god Dionysus in the day time or at night. Dionysus (acting like he was just a follower of Dionysus) said that he had seen Dionysus face to face, to which Pantheus asks to prove this somehow. Dionysus says that this is a secret kept hidden away from anyone not initiated into the Dionysian rites.
Pontius Pilate asks Jesus what he has done to be brought before him. Jesus replies by telling him that his kingdom is not of this world and he has come to testify to the truth, to which everyone who listens to him hears the truth. In other words, Jesus said that only those who are initiated into the Kingdom of Christ through believing in Him, can hear the truth (also see Matthew 13), which is similar to Dionysus saying that his mysteries are kept hidden and secret from anyone who is not initiated into it through Dionysian Rites, which can only be experienced by drinking wine [Dionysus’ blood] to a state of drunkenness.
Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?’ to which he receives no answer (John 18:38). Similarly, King Pentheus asks what profit and benefits the followers of Dionysus will receive, to which Dionysus says that he cannot tell him since it is an abomination to tell the rites of a god, to a man living a godless life such as Pentheus. Pentheus says, “Another clever twist and turn of thine, without a word of answer.” Dionysus responds with, “He were a fool, methinks, who would utter wisdom to a fool.”
At the end of the ‘trial’, King Pentheus tells Dionysus that he is going to bind him up and put him in a horses stall. Dionysus says to Pentheus that the god (Dionysus) is with him watching how he is being treated and that he (Pentheus) is a godless man, which is why he cannot see the god Dionysus with his eyes (in other words, Pentheus doesn’t realize that he is looking at Dionysus in the flesh). This is similar to when the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus in John 8 and John 10, to which Jesus said that they do not know him or his father, since he and his father are one (John 10:30). The Jews did not recognize that the Father God was there in the flesh face to face with them, similar to how Pentheus could not see that a god (Dionysus) was standing before him in the flesh.
At the end of the trial before Pilate, when Jesus refuses to answer his question, Pilate tells Jesus to realize that he has the power to crucify him or set him free. Jesus responds by saying, “You have no power over me except that which is given to you from God above.”
COMPARE TO :
At the end of the trial before Pentheus, Dionysus tells Pentheus : “I will go bound into the horse’s stall; for that which fate forbids, can never befall me….”
Similarly, Jesus’ tells Pilate that he has no power over him unless it be given to him from above (through the will of God the Father). Dionysus is likewise telling King Pentheus that nothing can happen to him, unless it is willed by fate [of the gods] above.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells them that whatever anyone has done to the least of His brethren, they have done unto Jesus Himself (Jesus is making himself ONE with his followers). This is similar to Dionysus speaking in third person before Pentheus, as if he’s a mere follower of Dionysus, yet, it really is Dionysus (making himself ONE with his followers).
Dionysus (acting as if he’s a mere follower of Dionysus) ends the trial before King Pentheus by saying, “For your mockery Pentheus, be sure that Dionysus will exact a recompense of thee! Even the god whose existence thou deniest; for thou are actually injuring him by haling me to prison.”
In other words, he is making it known to King Pentheus, (Pentheus thinks he’s putting a mere follower of Dionysus in prison), that he’s actually injuring the god Dionysus himself, by putting him in prison! In essence, Dionysus is making himself ONE with his followers, just like Jesus made himself ONE with his followers, and whatever they do to their followers, it’s as if they are doing it to Jesus and Dionysus themselves.
Dionysus said this to King Pentheus : “For your mockery Pentheus, be sure that Dionysus will exact a recompense of thee! Even the god whose existence thou deniest; for thou are actually injuring him by haling me to prison.”
COMPARE TO :
Matthew 25:37-40 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
The whole Dionysus story (which remember, this is Greek Poet Euripides’, version, who wrote it in 410BC) was based on Dionysus getting vengeance on his extended family, for spreading the rumor that his mother [Princess Semele] had lied about being impregnated by Zeus. So now, Dionysus is punishing his entire family for not believing that he (Dionysus) is in fact, the son of god [Zeus]. They denied his divinity, and they are being punished for it, similarly to Jesus, punishing the Jews for not believing in his divinity (denying he was the son of god – See John 3:18)
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DIONYSUS’ EARTHQUAKE JAILBREAK VS. PAUL / SILAS EARTHQUAKE JAILBREAK
I shared how Dionysus’s trial standing before King Pentheus was similar to Jesus standing trial before Pontius Pilate. But there was another similarity I noticed. King Pentheus wanted to stop the Bacchic festivities, which included getting drunk, being loud, eating wild animals in the wilderness, etc.. He sets out to stop it by imprisoning anyone engaging in these activities (similar to Jesus apostles all being imprisoned at some point in their ministries : See Acts 12 for an example). The guards try to capture them, but the chains, shackles and bonds fall from their feet and hands, and the prison doors fly open on their own, allowing them to run free , except for one who is Dionysus himself, but Pentheus just thinks this is a follower of Dionysus.
1. King Pentheus puts this man (who is really Dionysus) in prison, inside of Pentheus’s own palace walls. While in prison, Dionysus begins “singing songs” to which his followers can hear the songs within themselves. He asks them to hear his song and then starts telling the earth to shake (causing an earthquake).
COMPARE TO :
In the book of Acts chapter 16:25-34, it says that Paul and Silas were thrown in prison and at midnight, they both began “singing songs and all the prisoners heard them”. Both have elements of singing songs while in prison, while others hear the songs being sung (the followers of Dionysus hear the songs within and the prisoners hear Paul and Silas singing songs to God in the prison).
2. A huge earthquake destroys King Pentheus’s palace and the prison within. Pentheus feared that the prisoner (Dionysus) had escaped, so he drew his sword and started stabbing what he thought was the man, but it was really a phantom. He drops his sword in exhaustion, and walks out of the rubble of the palace to find himself astonished that the man (Dionysus) was standing there peacefully. Dionysus tells him that they (his followers) will wait for him (in the wilderness) and will not flee.
COMPARE TO :
After the earthquake destroys the prison in Acts 16, the prison guard also draws his sword thinking that the prisoners will escape. But Paul and Silas assure him that no one will flee. Both instances, a sword was drawn, no harm was done and in both cases, assured that no one would flee.
3. Afterwards, Dionysus asks Pentheus to come into the wilderness with him to see how the followers of Dionysus behave (this includes Pentheus’s own mother, Agave). He is told by Dionysus that he will have to dress like a Bacchic woman, so he is not seen or recognized, otherwise the women will tear him to pieces. They go into the wilderness together and Agave, the mother of Pentheus sees him, thinking he is a lion, tears him to pieces and brings the head back to Thebes to show everyone. When Cadmus (the father of Pentheus and husband of Agave) reveals what she has done, as her drunken state wears off, she weeps. They then realize that Dionysus really is who he says he is (The Son of Zeus and a mortal princess female Semele).
Dionysus then reprimands them for not believing in his divinity and for their ill treatment of his mother Semele. He tells them that they had learned too late and that their abuse of him would warrant harsh punishments upon them. Here are the lines from ‘The Bacchae’ with Dionysus speaking to them about their fate below :
DIONYSUS SPEAKING
Yes, I am Dionysus, son of Zeus.
You see me now before you as a god.
You Thebans learned about my powers too late.
Dishonouring me, you earn the penalty.
You refused my rites. Now you must leave—
abandon your city for barbarian lands.
Agave, too, that polluted creature,
must go into perpetual banishment.
And Cadmus, you too must endure your lot.]
Your form will change, so you become a dragon. 1700 [1330]
Your wife, Harmonia, Ares’ daughter,
whom you, though mortal, took in marriage,
will be transformed, changing to a snake.
As Zeus’ oracle declares, you and she
will drive a chariot drawn by heifers.
You’ll rule barbarians. With your armies,
too large to count, you’ll raze many cities.
Once they despoil Apollo’s oracle,
they’ll have a painful journey back again.
But Ares will guard you and Harmonia. 1710
In lands of the blessed he’ll transform your lives.
That’s what I proclaim—I, Dionysus, [1340]
born from no mortal father, but from Zeus.
If you had understood how to behave
as you should have when you were unwilling,
you’d now be fortunate, with Zeus’ child
among your allies.
CADMUS SPEAKING
O Dionysus, we implore you—we’ve not acted justly.
DIONYSUS SPEAKING
You learn too late. You were ignorant
when you should have known.
CADMUS SPEAKING
Now we understand. Your actions against us are too severe.
DIONYSUS SPEAKING
I was born a god, and you insulted me.
CADMUS SPEAKING
Angry gods should not act just like humans.
DIONYSUS SPEAKING
My father Zeus willed all this long ago.
AGAVE SPEAKING
Alas, old man, then this must be our fate, a miserable exile.
DIONYSUS SPEAKING
Why then delay? Why postpone what necessity requires?
Compare what Dionysus issues as punishments upon his extended family above, to what Jesus says in Matthew 23 and Luke 19:41-45 and the punishments that would come upon the Jews (who were his “kin” or “extended family”). Jesus is approaching Jerusalem, and begins weeping over it. He says that only if they had known that this day (the day when He came to them) would bring them peace (similarly, Dionysus tells his extended family that if they had recognized who he was, as the SON OF GOD and had behaved themselves accordingly, he would’ve been their friend and ally), but instead, they did not recognize the day of God’s visitation because they were purposely blinded by God to it, as Jesus references Isaiah in John 12:38-41 (similar to Dionysus blinding his extended family from realizing who he truly was, which he says was willed by the god Zeus from long ago).
And because of this, in Luke 19:41-45, their enemies would surround Jerusalem on every side and destroy them and their children (similar to all the punishments that Dionysus said would befall his family for their ill treatment of him and that they had learned too late).
There are many similar elements here. Too many to ignore. There are many more areas in the Bible which were borrowed and plagiarized from the Ancient Greco-Roman Poets, which you can see in the link below.
READ MORE ABOUT HOW THE ANCIENT POETS / TRAGEDIANS COPIED EACH OTHER :
IT’S TISHA B’AV (AUG. 6-7, 2022) SO LET’S TALK ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWISH TEMPLE (70AD) – WHORE OF BABYLON 1ST CENTURY ISRAEL (SCARLET, PURPLE, BLUE AND GOLD WORN BY JEWISH PRIESTS)
REMINDER : The prophecies in the New Testament were so accurate, because they were written using a deceptive Literary Tactic known as “Vaticinium Ex Eventu”. Look into that phrase to understand. The Preterists are paradoxically RIGHT and WRONG at the same time.
In the Old Testament, the Abrahamic God “married” himself to Israel, but Israel played the WHORE (Harlot, Prostitute).
See the imagery below in these three verses, two from Jeremiah 3 and one from Exodus 28
1. Jeremiah 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come, yet you (Israel) have the FOREHEAD of a harlot because you refuse to be ashamed.
2. Jeremiah 3:8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries and playing the harlot. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear. She also went out and became a harlot.
3. Exodus 28 << Their god told the Jewish priests to wear clothing of PURPLE, SCARLET, BLUE, AND GOLD, and to attach to their turbans (FOREHEADS) a GOLD PLATE which read, ‘HOLY TO THE LORD.’
COMPARE TO :
Josephus (Jewish Historian for Rome in First Century) in “War of the Jews” 5.5.4, he says that the Temple (before it was destroyed in 70AD) was divided into two parts with huge golden doors, but before these doors was a huge ‘BABYLONIAN’ curtain (veil) embroidered with BLUE, FINE LINEN, SCARLET, AND PURPLE. These were the exact colors given in the book of Revelation that were adorning the “Whore of Babylon”.
(Whore of “Babylon” and a “Babylonian” Curtain inside Jewish Temple, get it? Also, the Jewish Priests had same colors – Purple, Scarlet, Blue, Gold, etc.. attached to their Turbans or FOREHEADS, saying HOLY TO THE LORD, given in Revelation 17. But the Jews were the exact opposite, spiritually one would see MOTHER OF ALL PROSTITUTES instead of HOLY TO THE LORD. Holy means sanctified, which is “set apart for a specific purpose.” They were the chosen “wife” of the Abrahamic God, yet they chose to play the WHORE instead. So you see the imagery given here, they were the MOTHER of all Whores [the ULTIMATE WHORE] because the Abrahamic god married himself to Israel, but she committed adultery against him, as it says there in Jeremiah 3:3 that Israel had the FOREHEAD OF A HARLOT.)
Revelation 17-18 says this whore of Babylon was riding on a beast. She was decked out in purple, scarlet, jewels, gold, precious stones, pearls, etc.. When she was destroyed by fire, it says the kings, sea captains, merchants, etc.. were weeping because they could not do trade with her anymore. According to Jewish Historian Josephus (writing about a speech given by Roman General Titus ; Josephus ‘Wars 6.6.2’), 1st Century Jerusalem had become the richest city in the entire Roman Empire, even more wealthy than ROME ITSELF!
This is why you see the whore (Israel) being decked out with all those expensive ornaments and luxuries. Revelation 11:8 says that the city [1st Century Jerusalem] was also figuratively called “Sodom” and “Egypt” (the 1st Century Jews specifically in and around Jerusalem had become the very type of evil nations that god had destroyed before and had delivered the Israelites from [Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, etc..] god was now putting the Jews in the same category, hence, Revelation refers to 1st Century Jerusalem as Egypt, Sodom and Whore of Babylon). How do we know it’s 1st Century Jerusalem? Revelation 18 identifies this Babylon FIVE TIMES as that “Great City.”
In Revelation 11, the “Great City” is identified as the city “where also our Lord was crucified.” Notice John is initially told that this “Great City” is spiritually called “Sodom and Egypt.” In the Bible, there is only ONE city that is ever spiritually designated as “Sodom” (Isaiah 1, Ezekiel 16, Ezekiel 23). In Deuteronomy 32:32, Yahweh said that in Israel’s Last Days, she would become the VINE OF SODOM and in Galatians 4:22, Paul identifies Old Covenant Jerusalem as Hagar who was the EGYPTIAN Bondwoman in Genesis 21:9-10 (so you see the “Egypt and Sodom” metaphor here for Israel).
In the OT, their god married himself to Israel. But they played the harlot (whore) even back then (Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 31:32; Hosea 2, Ezekiel 23), which is KEY to understanding why Israel was Mystery Babylon – “The Mother of all Prostitutes” (which God said was written on her FOREHEAD – Revelation 17:5). The Jewish Priests’ turbans (on their FOREHEAD) said “HOLY TO THE LORD” but spiritually they were NOT Holy to their Husband (the Lord), they were the “Mother of All Prostitutes”. They were the ULTIMATE Prostitute (Whore / Harlot) because they committed adultery on the God of all gods (get the imagery here?)
Josephus “Wars 5.13.6” [Josephus says here that the first century Jews were more wicked than the people of Noah’s day, more wicked than the Jews who rebelled in the wilderness under Moses and even more wicked than the people of “Sodom”] below :
“…I suppose that had the Romans made any longer delay in coming against these villains, that the city [Jerusalem] would either have been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been overflowed by water; or else been destroyed by such thunder, as the country of Sodom perished by. For it had brought forth a generation of men much more atheistical than were those that suffered such punishments. For by their madness it was that all the people came to be destroyed.”
This quote from Josephus above was mimicked by Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 10, he sends out his disciples in groups of twos. He tells them that his second coming would occur before they had gone through all the cities of Israel.
Matthew 10 and Matthew 11, he also denounces all the Israeli cities who had seen all of his miracles first-hand, but did not repent. In Matthew 10:15 ; Matthew 11:23-24 and Luke 10:12, he says that if he were to have done miracles in “SODOM” as they were done for these 1st Century Israel cities, then Sodom would’ve still been standing up to that day. He goes further and says that it would be worse for them on the day of their Judgment than “SODOM AND GOMORRAH”.
This is reminiscent of what Josephus said in the quote above, implying that the 1st Century Jews were worse than the Jews who rebelled in the wilderness against Moses, worse than those who died during Noah’s Flood and worse than those in Sodom.
Ezekiel and Jeremiah had said similar in the Old Testament about Israel as well.
Jeremiah 23:14“…And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”
Ezekiel 16:48 “…As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.”
So you see, in the OT, the Abrahamic God married himself to Israel, but they played the WHORE (Harlot ; Prostitute) by worshiping other deities and disobeying his commands. The culmination of them playing the whore and disobeying him occurs (according to this “Story” which was all fiction) when they murder “the Son” of God, Jesus. That’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back (read the “Vineyard Owner” parable in Matthew 21 to understand). So in the end, the Abrahamic god “divorces” his WHORE wife (Israel) who committed adultery and destroys her.
The Abrahamic god mocked the Israelites for their worship of (and sacrifices to) false gods (Ezekiel 20), and also, for Israel’s dependence upon powerful nations. Their god saw this as Israel cheating on him, since he married Himself to Israel. In Ezekiel 23, he likens both houses of Israel to two “Egyptian Whores“. The Abrahamic God then says He was going to turn all of Israel’s lovers against Israel (such as Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar). This same illustration is applied to Israel and Rome during the 1st Century. Israel depended on Rome (John 19:15), and so in proper context, the Abrahamic god turned Rome against Israel in the end (Roman Siege ; 66-73AD).In the Old Testament what was the punishment for a woman caught in adultery? When a woman or man was caught in the act of “adultery” they were “stoned to death” in (Leviticus 20:10). Therefore this was God’s judgment upon Israel (His adulteress wife).
One of the judgments was found in Revelation 16:21 which says “Great hailstones from heaven fell upon men. Every hailstone was the weight of a talent (75 lbs).”
Hail is “white” in color, right?
Josephus writes in “Wars of the Jews 5.6.3” (about Romans “stoning” the Jews and Jerusalem) below :
“The engines [i.e., catapults], that all the legions had ready prepared for them, were admirably contrived; but still more extraordinary ones belonged to the tenth legion: those that threw darts and those that threw stones, were more forcible and larger than the rest, by which they not only repelled the excursions of the Jews, but drove those away that were upon the walls also. Now, the stones that were cast, were of the WEIGHT OF A TALENT [75 lbs], and were carried two furlongs and further. The blow they gave was no way to be sustained, not only by those that stood first in the way, but by those that were beyond them for a great space. As for the Jews, they at first watched the coming of the stone, for it was a WHITE COLOR.”
*MATTHEW 23*
Jesus is in the temple reaming out the pharisees, calling them every pejorative in the Thesaurus. He ends by telling them that because they would kill him (Jesus) and his disciples, that they (1st Century Jews) would be held responsible for the murder of EVERY RIGHTEOUS PERSON WHO HAD EVER LIVED from Abel to Zechariah. Wouldn’t that be quite the Hefty Judgment? Of course! It would be the ULTIMATE JUDGMENT! He said that judgment would come before their own generation passed away in verse 36. This is the same thing Jesus says in the very next chapter 24:34.
In Matthew 23:32 Jesus says to the people of Jerusalem, “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.” The guilt of their fathers is the guilt of having killed the prophets (Matthew 23:35-37). The blood of these martyred saints is depicted in the cup full of the blood of the saints held in the hand of the Whore of Babylon in Revelation 17:4-6:
The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.
The fact that Jesus tells Jerusalem to “[f]ill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers” is thus a reference to Jerusalem filling her cup with the blood of the saints depicted in Revelation 17.
In Matthew 23:27 Jesus attributes the deaths of the prophets to the people of Jerusalem: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you[.]” In this same chapter, Jesus says that it will also be the people of Jerusalem who will kill the Christian saints and that these murderers would be punished in their generation:
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.” (Matthew 23:33-36.)
Jerusalem is the Whore of Babylon. The fact that Jerusalem, the Whore of Babylon, was responsible for the deaths of the saints and that she was punished in that generation for their deaths in fulfillment of Matthew 23:33-36 is stated in Revelation 19:2, “He has condemned the great prostitute [Jerusalem] who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her [Jerusalem] the blood of his servants.” Jerusalem was to be punished in that generation (Mt 23:33-36) for having killed the martyrs under the altar (Rev 6:9-11, Mt 23:27-36) to avenge the deaths of those martyrs (Rev 19:2). Thus the “full number” of martyrs mentioned under the altar (Rev 6:9-11) are only those saints killed in or around Jerusalem. Of course, Jerusalem is not responsible for the deaths of the martyrs in Rome or anywhere else after A.D. 70 so the full number of martyrs of Rev 6:9-11 must have been avenged in the fall of the city responsible for killing them. In confirmation of this idea, recall that it was rich Jews of Jerusalem who killed Jesus and His people so as to avoid a financially disastrous war with Rome.
To Summarize :
Revelation 6:10, 16:6, 17:6, 18:24, 19:2, 20:4 speaks to the avenging of righteous blood.
This was prophesied in Deuteronomy 32:43, and would occur in Israel’s “END” (Deuteronomy 32:20) in their “Latter end” (Deuteronomy 32:29).
Matthew 23:34-36 very clearly says Jerusalem was guilty of spilling the blood of the prophets and all the righteous who had ever lived, and their judgment would be fulfilled in their own generation.
It just doesn’t get any simpler than that!
P.S. as I said, the reason all these prophecies were so accurate is because they were written AFTER THE FACT (after the Roman siege on Israel from 66-73AD and destruction of Jewish Temple in 70AD). This was a deceptive Literary Tactic used long before Christianity called “Vatcinium Ex Eventu”.
Mainstream Christianity’s interpretation of Biblical Eschatology is everything that’s wrong with the religious crowd. They don’t even understand their own book. The proper exegesis of Biblical Eschatology is PRETERISM (yet the Preterists didn’t go far enough, they also needed to also research “VATICINIUM EX EVENTU”). But these Futurists who believe all this madness and bad stuff needs to happen are essentially stating that the Elites are doing GOD’S WORK to fulfill prophecy. This is exactly what the Elites want, using the faulty interpretation of the Last Days – End Times to get Christians (hundreds of millions of them) to stand down to the AGENDA, thinking this is a fulfillment of their Scriptures. Most Christians today believe this FUTURIST garbage, and it’s one of the biggest problems we face.
P.S.S. There’s no doubt that they’re tryin to create an “ENCORE” of Biblical Prophecy, but the actual eschatological references are explicitly talking about Israel, and in particular, 1st Century Israel. Read the VINEYARD OWNER PARABLE in Matthew 21 and see who realizes that this parable is about THEM (not people living thousands of years into the future) and read Matthew 23 Jesus reaming out the Sanhedrin in the Temple, he says that because they would kill him (the Sun of God) and his apostles, that THEY (not people thousands years into the future) would be held responsible for the MURDER OF EVERY RIGHTEOUS PERSON WHO HAD EVER LIVED from Abel to Zechariah. That’s quite the hefty Judgment right? THE ULTIMATE ONE, and that’s what the 2nd Coming was in reference to, the judgment upon 1st Century Israel by the hands of the Romans (66-73AD the 7 year Tribulation and destruction of Herodian Jewish Temple in 70AD).
BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY 101 (SEE “PRETERISM” AND “VATICINIUM EX EVENTU”)
1. Matthew 10:23 Jesus said he’d come back before his disciples had gone through the cities of Israel (how can this be for today? Modern evangelists have gone through the cities of Israel)
2. Matthew 16:27-28 Jesus said he’d come in his kingdom, with his angels, before some of those standing there with him tasted physical death
3. Matthew 24:34 Jesus said all those things (including his second coming) would occur before their generation passed away.
4. Matthew 26:64 Jesus told the Sanhedrin that they would see him at the right hand of god, riding on the clouds (THEY would see it, not people thousands of years into the future)
He was clearly referencing things that would occur in THEIR OWN GENERATION (not a generation thousands of years into the future). It was referring to the Roman siege on Jerusalem from 66-73AD – the 7 year Tribulation. This was all written utilizing a deceptive Literary Tactic known as “Vaticinium Ex Eventu”, since the events happened before they were authored in the NT (not one book in the NT was written until after 70AD).
CHAPTERS LEADING UP TO OLIVET DISCOURSE / OLIVET PROPHECY GIVE “CONTEXT’
1. MATTHEW 21 about the Vineyard Owner. He leaves tenants behind to tend the vineyard. He sends servants back to check on them and the tenants kill them all. He then sends his SON and they kill him too. He asks what they expect the Vineyard Owner to do when he COMES BACK (2nd coming). They all said that he’d destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to those who would properly tend it. Go see who knew this parable was about THEM (not people living thousands of years into the future). It was the murder of the SON that broke the camel’s back.
2. MATTHEW 23 Jesus is in the temple reaming out the pharisees and Sanhedrin, calling them every pejorative in the Thesaurus. He ends by saying that because they would persecute and kill his disciples and kill him (Jesus the SON) that THEY would be held responsible for the murder of EVERY RIGHTEOUS person that had ever lived from Abel to Zechariah. That’s quite the HEFTY JUDGMENT isn’t it? THE ULTIMATE ONE, and that’s what his 2nd coming was all about. Jesus coming in judgment upon 1st Century Israel for persecuting and killing him and his disciples.
The very next chapter (Matthew 24) is where he gives the Olivet Prophecy about the details of what madness and tribulation would occur with the climax being his 2nd Coming in judgment upon 1st century Israel (Jesus ends by saying that their generation would not pass until all those things be fulfilled). Matthew 24:36 he didn’t know the exact DAY OR HOUR, but he told them that they could be sure it would happen in THEIR LIFETIME (Matthew 24:34 ; 16:27-28 ; 10:23).
Again, all of this was a Deceptive Literary Tactic known as “Vaticinium Ex Eventu”
MORE ON PRETERISM AND VATICINIUM EX EVENTU BELOW :
It’s come to my attention the last year or so that Sports are all rigged using Gematria (practice of encoding words behind numbers). One example was this year’s MLB World Series between the Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros. Halloween was the date for Game 5 of that series, and the final score was 9-5 in favor of the Houston Astros.
First you need to understand why Halloween is significant to the number “95”. On Halloween of 1517, Martin Luther posted his “95 Point Theses” against the Catholic Church. It’s my persuasion that the Order of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus or IHS — The Christogram IHS is a monogram symbolizing Jesus Christ or “Iesus Hominum Salvator”) are the main culprits behind these “scripted” outcomes of games, to fulfill their religious rituals. BTW, the IHS logo has those three letters inside of a “sun”. The Jesuits are obsessed with the “sun” hence their Hoax Pandemic “corona” virus (corona symbolizing the crown rays of the “sun”).
The Jesuits are also important here, because their Jesuit Order was created to counter Martin Luther’s “95 Theses” and the Protestant Reformation in general. The “95” gematria riddle doesn’t stop there for this game. The score was also emblematic of when the Atlanta Braves won their last World Series, on October 28th in the year 19“95” and there are also “95”00 (9,500) days between October 28th, 1995 and October 31, 2021.
They win Game 5 by a score of “9-5” on Halloween 2021 corresponding to Luther’s “95” Theses on Halloween 1517 “9500” days after their last World Series win in “1995”
It’s my contention that they are using Quantum Supercomputers to make these number rituals so precise. If you want to understand how this is possible, look up the “Sentient World Simulation” (SWS).
There are also ritual sacrifices of players that correspond to the teams playing. Yesterday (December 9th), Demaryius Thomas died at age “33”. His death comes “33” Months, “3” Weeks and “3” days after his car wreck on February 16, 2019. Thomas was born on Christmas (supposedly the day Jesus was born) and Jesus also supposedly died at age “33”. The number “33” is also highly symbolic of the Freemasons, since there are “33” degrees or levels in Scottish Rite Freemasonry. The Denver Broncos won Super Bowl “33” between the Broncos vs. Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta is the city on the “33rd” parallel north. When you write out “Demaryius Thomas dead at 33” it comes to be “88” in FR Gematria, see below
Then you have the color of the Minnesota Vikings, which is “Purple” and that equals “88”. And the name “Demaryius Thomas”, also equals “88” as well.
There is also a “22” connection, which is clearly another calling card of the Jesuits (aka “Society of Jesus”), since the name “Jesuits” = “22” as you can see below :
Demaryius died near “Atlanta” and his death comes just about a month after the “Atlanta” Braves won the World Series. Also, earlier this year, Hank Aaron (a former Braves star) died on the “22nd” day of the year (January 22nd, 2021) and Demaryius Thomas dies on December 9th, 2021 which leaves “22” days left in the year. Both last names “Aaron” and “Thomas” equal “22”. Thomas was also the “22nd” pick in the 2010 NFL Draft on 4/22 (April “22nd”).
Last night’s game between the Steelers vs. Vikings, was on Thursday Night Prime Time Football. Thursday equals “35”, Super Bowl equals “35”, Football equals “35” and Catholic equals “35”. Demaryius Thomas died “350” days after his birthday.
Last night’s game was also a rematch of SUPER BOWL “9” (Last night’s game and Demaryius’s death was on the “9th”). The score was of Super Bowl 9 was “16-6” (which equals “22” and Thomas = “22”). Interestingly, Demaryius Thomas’s last TD catch came when he was playing for the New York Jets vs. Miami Dolphins to make the score “16-6”. In 1974 during that Super Bowl 9 run, the Steelers also had one “tie” on their record like they have a “tie” this year against the Detroit Lions. The “tie” in 1974 was against ….. THE DENVER BRONCOS in Week “2” on September “22nd” and the score was “35-35”.
But back to the the number 33, which has come up a ton in the last few days. A rapper named “Slim 400” was shot and killed on Dec. 8th, 2021 at age “33”. Then you have the TV personality Josh Duggar, who was convicted of Child Pornography on December 9th, 2021, and he is “33” years old, born on 3/3 (March 3rd). Both Josh Duggar and Slim 400 were born in 1988 and Demaryius Thomas wore #88.
There just so happened to be a game last night (December 9th, 2021) between the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Minnesota Vikings where the RB Dalvin Cook for the Minnesota Vikings (who wears #33) had the 2nd best game of his career with 205 yards on 22 Attempts, falling just 1 yard shy of his best game from 2020 against the Detroit Lions.
The Detroit Lions are significant because both teams tonight (Vikings and Steelers) have failed to beat them this year, the Lions have not won any other games outside of tying the Steelers or beating the Vikings.
The Vikings lost last week to the Lions, to give the Lions their first win of the season. The score was 29-27 (which when you combine those or add them together, it is “56”). In Gematria (FR) “Society of Jesus” = 56.
The Steelers didn’t lose to the Lions, they actually tied them and the score was 16-16. Demaryius Thomas wore #88 and 8+8=16. Demaryius Thomas also died “16” days before his birthday (December 25th on Christmas, more “Society of Jesus” / Jesuit fingerprints — they love to leave their “Calling Card” at the scene of the crime, don’t they?). This game was the “9th” game of the season for both teams. The last game the Denver Broncos played was against the Kansas City Chiefs, where the Broncos only scored “9” points to the Chiefs “22” points, which we already noted why “22” was significant (there are “22” players on the field at all times), but the RB for the Steelers, Najee Harris, who wears “#22” got his “9th” career TD in this game, and the TDs came within 2:22(2 minutes and :22 seconds) of each other. Demaryius Thomas died “2 weeks and 2 days” before his birthday Christmas.
Demaryius Thomas’s last season in the NFL was with the New York Jets in “2019” right before the Coronavirus-19 outbreak. The “New York Jets” … as in, the JET-liners that flew into the Trade towers in NEW YORK.
Demaryius Thomas played for 3 teams. 9 years with the Denver Broncos — 1 year with the Houston Texans — 1 year with the New York Jets = 9-1-1 — And Thomas means “Twin”
Demaryius Thomas’s most memorable game was between the Denver Broncos vs. Pittsburgh Steelers in the First Round of the 2012 AFC Playoffs, in which Demaryius Thomas made history by catching a TD pass from Mr. Perfect “Christian” himself, Tim Tebow (more “Society of Jesus” fingerprints on the game) in OT, and this was the VERY FIRST non-sudden death OT win in NFL history, after they changed the overtime rules. BTW, this game was on 1/8 (January 8th) of 2012 and 1+8 = 9 and 3×3 = “9” and Demaryius Thomas played for the Broncos for “9” seasons. Also, Demaryius Thomas had 727 total touches (receiving and rushing) in his career, and 727 is the “129th” Prime Number. He died on “12/9”.
The Steelers vs. Vikings game (December 9th = same day as Thomas’s death), ended 36 – 28 in favor of the Vikings. The total for that score is “64” and “Denver Broncos” = “64”.
Denver Broncos = “64”
Score last night between Steelers vs. Vikings was 36-28 and when added together “64”
Thomas’s number is 88 and 8×8= “64”
At halftime, you had Terry Bradshaw outright saying the game looked “scripted”. See 1 Minute video below
There is also a Von Miller connection. Von Miller was traded to the L.A. Rams at the start of November 2021, with “9” games left in the year. The Broncos are paying Miller the “$9” million of his remaining $9.7m on his contract. The Broncos received “2” Draft picks in the “2022” NFL Draft for him. The LA Rams just traded for the ex-Lions QB, Matt Stafford (another Lions connection), and he is also “33” years old born in 1988.
“Lions” =“66”
All three teams involved in this script (the Vikings, Steelers and Broncos) are stuck on 6 wins and 6 losses (6-6, with the Steelers fulfilling this “66” ritual through tying the Lions to now become 6-6-1, instead of 7-5 or 5-7 at this juncture in the season). The number “66” is an obvious Jesuit / Society of Jesus fingerprint, since there are “66” books in the Protestant Bible.
Guess who the Denver Broncos play this weekend! That’s right, the Detroit Lions! Perfectly scripted. And this game (Dec. 12, 2021) comes “13” days before Demaryius Thomas’s birthday, right after the Broncos lost to the Chiefs last week by “13”. All of this was very meticulously calculated and scripted by the Elite Jesuits and Freemasons. It has all the elements of Gematria and “Human Sacrifice” (parallel to the sacrifice of Jesus).
UPDATE : DENVER BRONCOS BEAT DETROIT LIONS 38-10 ON DECEMBER 12, 2021
The number “38” is an “888” ritual, since it can be written as “Three 8s” or “888”. They also win by “28” which can be written as “Two 8s” or “88”. The number “38” is associated with Colorado since it is the “38th” state admitted to the Union. Also, in Gematria, both “Death” and “Murder” equal “38” with Murder also equaling the inverse “83”.
At the beginning of the game, the Denver Broncos received the ball first, and to pay tribute to Demaryius Thomas, they had one player stay off the field, with only 10 players on offense. They took a Delay of Game penalty and then they resumed. The player who stayed off the field was #14 WR, Courtland Sutton. At the end of the game he ended up with 1 catch for “9” yards (to honor Demaryius Thomas dying on the “9th”). The last drive of the game for the Broncos went “88” yards to score a TD that would lead to “38” points, with “1:52” left on the clock (1+5+2=8).
That 88 yard drive was capped off by a TD catch from former Iowa Hawkeyes TE, Noah Fant. Like I said, the game started with “10” men on the field for the Broncos. All of that is significant because Iowa just lost in a ritual to Michigan Wolverines in the “Big 10” Championship last week, “8” days before this game between Lions and Broncos. Detroit (Lions) is obviously in Michigan.
The former Big 10 Running Back for the Wisconsin Badgers, Melvin Gordon, ended up with “111” yards rushing for the Broncos. This loss for the Lions leaves them “1-11-1” (could also be two 2s when combined together, to honor DT passing “22” days before the year 20“22” begins). Melvin Gordon’s number is #25 to represent Demaryius Thomas’s birthday on the “25th” of December, Christmas.
The “Big 10” riddle, with Michigan as the centerpiece of this script wouldn’t be complete without the venerated G.O.A.T., Tom Brady, who played for Michigan Wolverines. Today, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Buffalo Bills with “33” points, “33” weeks before Tom Brady’s next birthday, August 3, 2022, to honor Demaryius Thomas who died at age “33”. Tom Brady won the game with his “700th” career Touchdown Pass to #16, WR Breshad Perriman for “58” yards (5+8=13 and it’s “13” days before Christmas, Demaryius Thomas’s birthday).
“Sixteen” (16) = 33 “Tom” = 33
The play was a “3rd and 3” and it was a simple cross route from left to right, just like the infamous Tim Tebow to Demaryius Thomas play that helped them win against the Steelers in the AFC Championship game in 2012. Tom Brady is also now 33-3 against the Buffalo Bills. Tom’s number is #12 and he wins on 12/12 (December 12), which is also “1+2=3 / 1+2=3” or “33”. A Span of 132 days after Tom Brady’s birthday, he picks up his 132nd Home win all-time.
“700th Touchdown” = 63 “Overtime Win” = 63 “Greatest of All Time” = 63 “December 12, 2021” = 63 “Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.” = 163
6, three times, is “666” (or three 6s).
Tom’s real name is “Thomas” just like Demaryius’s last name “Thomas”. The name “Thomas” means “Twins” and we know that anything with “Twins” in it, is the Elite’s CALLING CARD, such as Twin Towers, Twin Pillars of Solomon’s temple (Boaz and Jachin), Twin Cities (George Floyd dying in Twin Cities, Minnesota), Twin-Demic (Flu and COVID season), etc.. etc..
Tom Brady always seems to be part of these rituals. Look over his career and see how rigged it’s been. For example, in Super Bowl LI (51), the game was played on “2/5” (February 5th) of 2017 between the New England Patriots vs. Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons gave up a “25” point lead and lost by 6.
Then you look at this year in 2021, he wins his “7th” Super Bowl Ring on 2/7/21, which comes “7077” days after his first career start on September 24, 2001.
He also, ended up having only 68 yards left to become the all-time passing leader, as he was going into playing his old team, the New England Patriots on October 3, 2021 in Week 4, which he indeed did.
Back to the this particular game between the Lions vs. Broncos, in the 4th Quarter, #31 Justin Simmons, intercepts the ball at the 12 yard line (leaving “88” yards to go for the offense) with “31” points for Broncos at that time. This game was played on December 12, 2021, leaving “13” days until Christmas (birthday of Demaryius Thomas). Justin Simmons then honors the Demaryius Thomas “88” Logo on the sideline . The Lions hiked the ball with “13” seconds left on Play Clock.
UPDATE DECEMBER 16, 2021 :
Another update, this also seems to tie into Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, as well as the New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves. We saw the connection between the Minnesota Vikings, and obviously Minneapolis is part of the “Twin” Cities, so it makes sense that Minnesota is heavily involved with this ritual and of course, New York where the “Twin” Towers attack happened on 9/11. It will be easy to see how all of this seems to connect with Demaryius Thomas.
Steph Curry was born in 19″88” and he just broke the record for most three pointers EVER in the NBA on December 14, 2021 and he did against the NEW YORK KNICKS in Madison Square Garden. In Gematria, “New York” equals “33” (Steph is the King of the “3” pointers) and “Madison Square Garden” = “88” which was obviously Demaryius Thomas’s number during his career with the Broncos.
There also seems to be a “22” connection here, as Demaryius Thomas died “22” days before “2022”. Let’s break down all the “22’s” with Steph Curry and the Warriors the night he broke the 3 point record :
1. Steph Curry Tied Ray Allen when the score was “2-2” vs. New York Knicks 2. Steph Curry broke the record with 4 extra threes (“2+2″=4) 3. Steph Curry ended up with “22” Points in the game. 4. Steph Curry’s record breaking three-pointer made the score 12-10 and that equals “22” 5. Steph came into the game needing “2” threes to break the record 6. “#22” Wiggins hits the last shot of the game and it’s a three pointer. 7. “Knicks” = “22” 8. “Steph” = “22” (His name Wardell = “30” just like his jersey # and Stephen = “33“)
Another thing about #22 Andrew Wiggins was that he held out in getting the COVID Vaccine 💉 and the media made a huge stir on it. He was traded to the Golden State Warriors from the Minnesota Timberwolves (Minneapolis and St. Paul are the “TWIN” cities).
BTW, Ray Allen’s birthday is July 20th, and July 20 is the “201st” day of the year. So as you can see, Steph Curry broke the record for Threes, in NEW YORK and now has “2977” career 3‘s. We know 9/11 happened in NEW YORK where “2977” people died. His record “2977” threes in NEW YORK, was a clear connection to 9/11 (and 2977 deaths that day) and he broke the record 7400 days after 9/11. As additional information, the score was 12-10 when Curry broke the record, this is the death date of Wilt Chamberlain (Dec. 12th), who died 8100 days before Curry broke the record, it’s all a perfect ritual !
Another thing about #22 Andrew Wiggins was that he held out on getting the COVID Vaccine 💉 and the media made a huge stir on it. He was traded to the Golden State Warriors from the Minnesota Timberwolves (Minneapolis and St. Paul are the “TWIN” cities). Wiggins was born 2/23 (Feb. 23rd), and “Golden Gate Bridge California” sums to 223 and so does “Golden Gate Bridge”.
223 is the 48th prime and a very important number to this ritual. Israel was established in year ’48, and Michael Jordan is born on the 48th day of the year. Jordan is named like the river Jordan who is located in Israel. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river which is also an important part of the ritual since the original Golden Gate resides on the East side of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and it is said in Christian tradition that Jesus entered Jerusalem as the king through the Golden Gate.
I forgot to mention that Andrew “Wiggins” last name has a whole ala carte of relevant numbers, including “88” (EO) and “22” (Chaldean)
The Jesuit (Society of Jesus) ritualistic numbers and themes are everywhere in these rituals. Notice that a lot of these stars are either Christian or have Names that correspond to the Bible somehow. Like Lebron James (King James), Zion Williamson, Michael Jordan, Tim Tebow (Mr. perfect Jesus Christian himself), Steph Curry (went to Christian school), etc… The Jesuits (Society of Jesus) leave their fingerprints everywhere.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are also connected here, just like the Minnesota Vikings were (as I showed above). BTW, George H.W. Bush was also a Gemini (Twins), who has “Twin” daughters, Jenna and Barbara. On 9/11/1990, Bush gave the “Towards a New World Order” speech. The Secret Service gave him the code-name “TIMBERWOLF.”
The same date that Curry broke the 3 Point record in New York against the Knicks is the same date (12/14 – December 14th) that Kobe Bryant passes Michael Jordan on the All-Time scoring list against the MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES.
Also, during the 2009 NBA Draft, the Timberwolves had two, back to back, 1st Round picks (#5 and #6). Of course “56” is the number for the “Society of Jesus” too I might add. The Timberwolves passed Curry on both of them, and was then drafted by the Warriors at #7.
Notice the New York Knicks were next in line in the draft at #8. Steph Curry even admitted he wanted to play for the Knicks at one point.
BTW, the Final Score was 96-105 which equals “201“, and this is notable in multiple ways, but the first is because he signed a new contract with the Warriors in 2017 for “$201” million dollars. when you write out “Steph Curry Breaks the Three Point Record” it comes out to be “201” in Single Reduction and to add to the “2s” theme, it comes out to be “222” in Reverse Single Reduction :
One more major point to mention, though not much more detail I can give, yet, is that George Washington’s birthday was on February 22nd (2/22) and he died on December 14th (Just like Curry broke the record on December 14th).
When you write out “Order of Illuminati” it comes out to be “201”. It also has many other pertinent numbers in Gematria to this particular ritual as you can see below :
DECEMBER 14TH DECODE
1. December 14, 2012=“Sandy” Hook Shooting took place in “Connecticut”
2. December 14, 2020 = First person to take COVID vaccine, “Sandra (Sandy)” Lindsay
3. December 14, 2021= Steph Curry breaks Three Point Shot Record (surpassing Ray Allen from “Connecticut”, born on the “201st” day of the year July 20, 1975). Curry does so in “New York City at Madison Square Garden” against the New York Knicks and at the end of that game, he ends up with the very amount of Three Pointers as people who died on 9/11 in the Twin Towers attack, “2,977”. The Final Score of that game was 105-96 which equals “201”. – In 1996, Ray Allen taken in 1st Round / 5th Pick (1 and 5 or “15”). Final Score of Steph Curry 3 point Record game “105 – 96” — 105 collapsed is “15” — and 9+6 = “15”
4. December 14, 2021= SAME DAY, the NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio tells everyone to go get their 3rd Covid Shot. (“3rd”Shot /“3”Point Shot, get it?)
…….Covid “SHOT” / Three Point “SHOT” / School “SHOOTING”
Just before the Golden State Warriors were leaving Indianapolis after playing the Pacers, they reportedly had mechanical issues with their “plane”. More “plane” symbology to add to the ‘script’ of them going to New York to play the Knicks, which would correspond to a ‘9/11’ ritual.
After their win over the New York Knicks, they became “9-3” in AWAY Games. Remember, Flight “93” that crashed in Pennsylvania? In Gematria, the name Minnesota Timberwolves = “93“.
And the Warriors had “flight” problems before leaving Indianapolis, and the name Indianapolis also equals “201“.
So we have a lot of “Twins” (Twin numbers, Twin Towers, etc..) symbology and also “wolf” iconography, which was heavily utilized by the Nazis, who were influenced by the Ancient Romans. The Nazis even openly considered themselves the “New Rome”. Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus who were raised by a she-wolf. These twins were born from a Vestal VIRGIN (Rhea Silvia) and the god Mars (making them half-human / half-god, born from a VIRGIN). That is a major twin-wolf connection. It is also related to Sirius the Dog Star also called the Wolf Star which is depicted shining above the twin pillars in Freemason iconography.
In the Hebrew Bible we also have a “wolf” connection. In Genesis 49, Jacob (Israel) blesses his 12 sons, and his youngest was named Benjamin, whom he referred to as a “Ravenous Wolf“. Benjamin’s descendants were ravenous in the events recorded in Judges chapters 19-20. Also, Jacob, his father, was a “Twin” of Esau.
So a “Twin”(Jacob) established Israel, just like a “Twin” (Romulus) established Rome, with the other “Twin” cursed or cutoff (Esau) or killed (Remus) in both stories.
Also, consider the Denver Airport Murals (Denver known for its unique “Airport” which is more symbology for the Twin Towers attack with Airplanes), it looks like symbology for WAR. In Revelation 6, with the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the WHITE HORSE rider was given a bow and a crown (corona). The Denver Bronco is a WHITE HORSE. We had the crown (corona) virus, now maybe this was a ritual sacrifice to usher in “war” for the year “22”?
(EDIT : That “war” prediction came true for 2022 between Russia and Ukraine)
Trump’s text line was “88022”.
When Trump made his “CALM BEFORE THE STORM” comment on October 5th, 2017, he was standing there with all the MILITARY GENERALS.
That “Calm Before the Storm” comment came “888” days before W.H.O. declared Global Pandemic on March 11, 2020.
And from 9/11/2001 up to the day WHO declared Global Pandemic (March 11, 2020) there are “222” Months in between .
Demaryius Thomas has the same initials as Donald Trump (D.T.).
Another friend of mine mentioned these points below, as we know “88” and “888” are numbers that seem to reference Donald Trump.
LOTS OF “88” RITUALS AND THEY TIE BACK TO TRUMP
1. We have 8+88+888=984
2. Pope Francis and Bill Gates are 984 weeks apart
3. Donald trump and Bill Gates are 489 weeks apart
4. 2023 will be 489 years since the jesuits were founded (1534)
5. Four eighty nine=666 in two ciphers.
6. Also the obvious, Trump=88 Beast=88 The alpha and the omega=88 The auspicious one=88 The founding fathers=88
7. Next election will be the 33rd election since Grover Cleveland had his comeback win.
8. It will also be the 88th Inauguration since they switched to 1-20 (Jan. 20th).
9. Donald J Trump in Sumerian is “888”
10. Trump’s “CALM BEFORE THE STORM” comment on October 5th, 2017 comes “888” days before W.H.O. declared Global Pandemic on March 11, 2020
11. Donald Trump’s initials are D.T. (just like Demaryius Thomas / DT)
12. Trump also lost the red state of Georgia in 2020 and the Georgia Bulldogs just lost to Alabama, which is the “22nd” state ratified to the Union.
13. Trump’s text line was “88022” (Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-lago is raided on 8-8-22 August 8, 2022 which looks like 88022)
14. “Triple Eights” = 888 (Sumerian)
15. “Time Traveler” = 888 (Sumerian)
16. “The New Normal” = 888 (Sumerian)
17. “The Lion of Judah” = 888 (Sumerian)
18. 888+888 = 1776
19. In 1988, Trump sponsored Wrestle-Mania IV at his Atlantic City Casino Convention Hall, in New Jersey, with “19,199” people in attendance. Notice what Hulk Hogan says here in this 1 Minute clip (Double H name is “88” because “H” is the “8th” letter).
Let me add something to what he said above 👆. The Broncos won the Super Bowl in 2015-16 season which was predicted in “Back to the Future” (remember the clocks ⏰ at the start of the movie and one had a DENVER BRONCOS LOGO?). The movie was made in 1985 and doc went 30 years into the future which would be 2015 , when the Broncos would win the Super Bowl in real life.
BTTF 2 was all about going to 2015 and Marty McFly getting the Sports Almanac and the older Biff picked it up from the trash to give to younger Biff. And we know Biff was based on Donald Trump.
Also, the Super Bowl win connects to Trump because Von Miller wears #58 and he was Super Bowl MVP. Trump connects to both 88 and 58. The 58 references to Trump are too long to list!
All these “88” and “58” rituals do seem to tie back to Trump somehow. I believe Trump even went to Game 4 of this year’s MLB World Series between Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros.
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I also wanted to add that Klay Thompson returned to the Golden State Warriors (after being hurt for 2 1/2 years) on January 9th, 2022, which was the same day that Bob Saget died, and Bob Saget was a main character in “Full House” which was filmed in San Francisco, so naturally, Saget was a huge Warriors’ fan. There’s an episode where Jesse, Joey and Stephanie got the chicken pox (one of the side effect of the COVID Vaccine is Shingles, which is one of the Herpes’ viruses, and Chickenpox is also a Herpes Virus). Danny had a Warriors game for work in this same episode and DJ was going to a sleepover but had to cancel to watch Michelle.
The odds of Bob Saget dying the same day that the Warriors get one of their superstars back (Klay Thompson) wasn’t by accident. Watch at 2 Minute mark in video link below, Saget joked that…, “FULLEST HOUSE WOULD HAVE HIM AS AN “URN” BY THE WINDOW.”
The Final Score between the Warriors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers was “96-82” which equals “178”. The day leaving 178 days left in the year is July 6th, which was the day that the Georgia Guidestones came down (July 6, 2022).
Klay Thompson had “17” points and they would eventually go to the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. The Celtics have “17” NBA Championship Titles, and that’s where they stayed when they lost to the Warriors in 2022 NBA Finals.
P.S. Klay’s last game (Game 6 of 2019 NBA Finals vs. Toronto Raptors) when he got injured, was June 13, 2019, which is the same day as the OLSEN TWINS’ **33RD** BIRTHDAY.
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You can see more about all this in the video posted below by Zach Hubbard “Gematria Effect News” :
GNOSTIC CHRISTIAN CREATION STORY – CHRIST / LOGOS COMES TO REAWAKEN SOPHIA WITHIN MANKIND – CHRIST WAS THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN FREEING MAN FROM THE FALSE GOD YALDABAOTH
Within the last 60 to 70 years, we’ve found two sets of amazing discoveries (Nag Hammadi Library in Egypt and Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran Caves of Israel). You notice that Christians don’t use them in arguments (even though they were excited at first), because they found many Christian and Gnostic Christian texts that counter-act and share entirely different narratives than the Bibles they have today.
Before these discoveries around 1947, we could only reconstruct the Gnostic Christian texts from early Christian apologist opponents such as Irenaeus and Tertullian who wrote books refuting these Gnostic Christians and Pagans. The reason we didn’t have any original copies of the Gnostic Christian texts, is because the Roman Catholic Church was burning entire libraries and even burning pagans and Gnostics at the stake (Jesus said that the Jews’ forefathers were murderers, the same could be said of the Catholics and Protestants of today – i.e. their Catholic and Protestant forefathers killing pagans, Gnostics and even each other, starting in 4th Century, then the Crusades, Inquisition, etc..), but now, we have entire books that were preserved wholly for us to read.
Many verses in the Bible you hold, have gnostic allusions as well. The Kingdom of heaven does not come with physical observation, for the kingdom of heaven is within YOU (Luke 17). It says in Matthew 13:1-23 ; Mark 4:34 that Jesus spoke to them using nothing but ‘METAPHORS / ANALOGIES’. The baptismal rituals (Matthew 3:11 ; water and fire) and the Passover ritual of drinking the blood (wine) and eating the flesh (unleavened bread or crackers) was very Shamanic in nature (Matt 26:26-28 ; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). And it was this very allusive metaphor that Jesus used in John 6, which caused many of his disciples to leave and stop following him because they thought he had gone crazy.
The RCC obviously had something to hide when they destroyed their Gnostic rivals’ books, and now these books have ‘risen from the dead’, just before the internet age, to give us an inside look at why the Catholics and Protestants were so adamant about getting rid of them. The Nag Hammadi and Dead Sea Scrolls put a wrench in the gears of this form of mainline Christianity we have on the earth today. Here is an introduction to some of the mainstream Gnostic Christian beliefs :
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PART 1 : GNOSTIC CHRISTIAN CREATION INTRO.
There were tons of differing Gnostic Christian sects in early Christianity (Valentinians, Priscillians, Basilideans, Sethians, Mandaeans, Naassenes, Ophites, Simonians, Cainites, Carpocratians, Borborites, Docetists, Marcionists and Serpentarians, just to name a few). All of them had slightly different flavors of beliefs, but they all had a common idea about the creation of the world. You can read all about this in the “Apocrypha of John” (which is found in the Nag Hammadi). As I unravel their story, things may ‘click’ for you when you look around the world today. Whether this is mythology or not, is to be determined by YOU, the reader, but it does give good possible answers to why the world is the way it is.
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PART 2 : GNOSTIC CREATION – GODHEAD BYTHOS AND FEMININE DARKNESS SURROUNDING HIM, NAMED SIGE
They believe there is one invisible spirit known as Bythos. He is pure, holy and immaculate. This ineffable “One” emanating pure, immeasurable light. He is indestructible and eternal. Jesus reveals Him in the New Testament as the First Aeon and God. Surrounding him is the darkness known as Sige (Feminine counterpart). Through the power of his ‘thought’ he brings forth (or EMANATES) a feminine spirit named Barbelo. You’ll see that as the emanations go down in gradations, that they are always in pairs of male-female, until the last one.
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PART 3 : GNOSTIC CREATION – BARBELO AND THE AUTOGENES – THE AEON OF CHRIST
Pure light radiates between the Bythos and Barbelo. A spark ignites from this light, resulting in yet another pale light. This is the “only begotten child”, named Autogenes, the aeon Christ, the Anointed One. This is how the Gnostic Trinity is born. There is the Father, Mother and Son. Each is a perfect aeon. Barbēlō is described as “the first power, the glory, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation”. All subsequent acts of creation within the divine sphere occurs through her coaction with God. The Autogenes is androgynous, like his Father and Mother. Despite their masculine and feminine names (Father, Mother), each Perfect aeon is a dyad of gender. The text describes Barbelo as thus:
“This is the first thought, his image; she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father, the first man (Anthropos), the holy Spirit, the thrice-male, the thrice-powerful, the thrice-named androgynous one, and the eternal aeon among the invisible ones, and the first to come forth.”
Barbēlō is found in other Nag Hammadi writings:
1. Allogenes makes reference to a Triple Powerful Invisible Spirit, a masculine female virgin, who is the Barbēlō.
2. The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit refers to a divine emanation called ‘Mother’, who is also identified as the Barbēlō.
3. The Gospel of Judas – Judas Iscariot says to Jesus that he knows that Jesus is from the immortal realm of Barbēlō.
4. Marsanes – several places.
5. Melchizedek – twice, the second time in a prayer of Melchizedek: “Holy are you, Holy are you, Holy are you, Mother of the aeons, Barbelo, for ever and ever, Amen.”
6. The Three Steles of Seth offers a description of “the first aeon, male virginal Barbelo, the first glory of the invisible Father, she who is called ‘perfect’.”
7. Trimorphic Protennoia (‘First Thought in Three Forms’), even in the first person: “He perpetuated the Father of all Aeons, who am I, the Thought of the Father, Protennoia, that is, Barbelo, the perfect Glory, and the immeasurable Invisible One who is hidden. I am the Image of the Invisible Spirit, and it is through me that the All took shape, and (I am) the Mother (as well as) the Light which she appointed as Virgin, she who is called ‘Meirothea’, the incomprehensible Womb, the unrestrainable and immeasurable Voice.”
8. Zostrianos – the aeon Barbēlō is referred to in many places.
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PART 4 : GNOSTIC CREATION – THE EMANATIONS FROM BARBELO AND BYTHOS TO THE LOWEST EMANATIONS
Together with his Father, Autogenes produces four more aeons named Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithai and Eleleth. The four aeons are helpers for Autogenes. Each of the four aeon helpers creates three more aeons. Harmozel emanates Grace, Truth and Form. Oroiael emanates Conception, Perception and Memory. Daveithai emanates Understanding, Love and Idea. Eleleth emanates Perfection, Peace and Wisdom – also named Sophia.
All four light aeons and their three serve Autogenes. These are the original aeons, the angels. In addition, four other beings dwelt with the luminaries (the aeons/angels). Pigera (or Adamas, the perfect being or Cosmic Man) lived with Harmozel. Seth (the son of Adamas) lived with Oroiael. Posterity of Seth (the souls of holy people – the Sethian Gnostic sect, revered Seth, the son of Adam and Eve) lived with Daveithai. Finally, the Souls (those that have yet to attain gnosis) lived with Eleleth.
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PART 5 : GNOSTIC CREATION – SOPHIA SETS IN MOTION THE CREATION OF THE MATERIAL WORLD INDIRECTLY THROUGH HER EMANATION NAMED YALDABAOTH
Sophia (Wisdom ; Afterthought – since she was the youngest emanation from Bythos) should not be confused with Barbelo who is Forethought. Here we see the text is influenced with these names (Forethought / Afterthought), which can be found in Greek mythology, where the Titan Prometheus was known as Forethought of Zeus and hero of mankind. Prometheus was different from his brother Epimetheus who was Afterthought, and who married Pandora (the first woman who brought suffering to mankind), ending the Golden Age.
Sophia decides to emulate the Father Bythos by procreating an emanation of herself, by herself. This is out of balance, as she is not procreating or emanating with her male counterpart The Logos (Word). This creates an ugly creation they call Yaldabaoth (Samael and Saklas), a lion-faced serpent with eyes of fire. Sophia casts Yaldabaoth out of the pleroma (heavenly realm) and hides him in a cloud, but he somehow manages to steal her power and puts his mother Sophia in the cloud. He creates the material world and then creates archons (demon like beings) to help him manage what he created.
In his arrogance, Yaldabaoth boasted to the other archons that:
“I am God and there is no other God beside me!” – The Apocryphon of John (II 11:20)
Yaldabaoth was weak and ignorant, because he didn’t realize there were powers greater than him. He thought he was the First. Yaldabaoth had sinned for saying these words, which was why he was called Samael – “the blind god”. He has another name – Saklas, a name usually assigned to Satan. According to The Hypostasis of the Archons and On the Origin of the World, it was Sophia, who rebuked him and gave him this name, Samael.
“You are mistaken, Samael” – The Hypostasis of the Archons (II 87:2)
According to The Hypostasis of the Archons, after this boast, he challenged the voice:
“If any other thing exists before me, let it be shown forth to me!” – The Hypostasis of the Archons (II 94:25)
So Sophia stretch forth her finger and brought limitless light into matter and the region of chaos. The chief archon trembled in fear. When Yaldabaoth and the other archons heard the voice. They sought this voice and traced the voice to the abyss, where the chief archon saw the reflection of his mother in the water. They want take hold of the image but could not. They were ignorant and weak, because they didn’t understand that the image was reflected from above.
“I am a jealous God, and there is no other God beside me.” – The Apocryphon of John (II 13:9-12)
But by announcing this he indicated to the angels who attended him that there exists another God. For if there were no other one, of whom would he be jealous? It was at this point that Sophia realized what she had done, and repented. She prayed to her Father for her deliverance, and the restoration of the power that her son (Yaldabaoth) had stolen from her. Her light was diminishing, since the theft of her power. She was moving about, back and forth. It was at this point that the voice of the invisible Spirit was heard, rebuking Yaldabaoth and the archons. They trembled in fear, and saw reflected on the water, the image of God (Spirit), in human form.
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PART 6 : GNOSTIC CREATION – YALDABOATH (A.K.A. THE DEMIURGE) CREATES ADAM AND EVE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD HE HAD SEEN WHILE STARING IN THE WATER
The Arrogant One (Yaldabaoth aka Demiurge) wanted to recreate the image of God (Spirit) from the reflection of the water, and many archons and angels were involved in the creation of this image. Yaldabaoth tried to create a being in the likeness of the First Man, whom he called Adam or Adama, so he could steal the light (spirit). But his creation was lifeless and without a soul. To regain her power, Sophia asked the Spirit Bythos and Barbelo to aid her. They come up with a plan to regain all the ‘divine sparks’ that Yaldabaoth had stolen from his mother Sophia. They all counsel Yaldabaoth to blow the spirit into the face of Adama, so that the body would waken. Yaldabaoth ignorantly blew on the face, so that the spirit and the power of his mother (Sophia) left Yaldabaoth’s own body and entered into the body he had created: Adam became alive. (Though, according to the The Hypostasis of the Archons and On the Origin of the World, Yaldabaoth blew and blew, and blew his breath into the body, but the body wouldn’t rise. The purpose was to put the image (soul) of God into physical body so that they can capture it.)
Yaldabaoth immediately became jealous, because his creation was more powerful and intelligent than him and the other archons. When they brought all sort of animals to Adam, he was able to name each species by their proper names. When they saw that Adam was also luminous and free of evil, they cast him into the lowest plane of existence (Earth). But Barbelo sent Adam a helper, Epinoia, who was also known as Life (Zoe), so that Epinoia can help Sophia regain her power and place. Eponoia was hidden within Adam’s body. Epinoia secretly gave him the knowledge of how he was created, and taught Adam of how to ascend back to the Pleroma, or the true home of the light (human spirit).
The archons want to confine Adam, so they imprisoned his soul in flesh, and the material body was made mortal. They placed Adam in the earthly paradise (the Garden of Eden), and bound Adam in sleep and place the bond of forgetfulness upon him. In Adam’s sleep, Yaldabaoth tried to bring Epinoia out of Adam’s body from the rib. However, Epinoia escaped, and the chief archon created another body from the image of the likeness of Epinoia. The new body was a woman (she didn’t come from Adam’s rib bone like in the book of Genesis). Epinoia enter the newly created body. The woman woke first, and saw Adam lying beside her. She spoke with the voice of power “Arise, Adam.”, and Adam woke. Since Yaldabaoth had placed spell of ignorant upon Adam when he was sleeping, so that he would not know the gnosis. The moment Adam woke from the unnatural slumber, he thought that the woman had given him life; he said to the woman:
“It is you who have given me life; you will be called ‘mother of the living’.” – The Hypostasis of the Archons
When Adam woke from his sleep, he saw the woman; he thought. Her real name was Zoe, which means “Life”, but as we all know her in the Genesis, Adam called her Eve.
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PART 7 : GNOSTIC CREATION – ADAM AND EVE EAT THE FRUIT AND ARE MADE AWARE THAT YALDABOATH WAS THE FALSE GOD
The chief archon wanted Adam and Eve to remain ignorant, putting them in the false paradise, hoping to keep them as his slaves and worship him. So Yaldabaoth told Adam that he may eat any fruit in the garden, but warning him not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Yaldabaoth’s plan was thwarted. The fruit of knowledge would allow them to see the truth Jesus told John (Son of Zebedee, who is writing the Apocryphon of John), that it was he (Jesus) who told them to eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, through entering the serpent. The archons placed a curse upon the snake, as well as on Adam and Eve for disobeying them.
Angry with their disobedience, Yaldabaoth put them out of the Garden of Eden. Yaldabaoth saw that Epinoia was within Eve, so that she was luminous. When Yaldabaoth saw that Eve was faithful to Adam, the archon snatched Eve. But Epinoia escaped again, leaving Eve’s physical body before Yaldabaoth raped Eve, and begot two sons upon her. The sons of Yaldabaoth and Eve were named Eloim and Yave, whom we know by their names as Cain and Abel. But in the other Gnostic texts, only Cain was Yaldabaoth’s son, while Abel was Adam’s. The results of the rape, Yaldabaoth planted sexual desire into the human race, so that he would have more people to have his counterfeit spirit, who were susceptible to his blandishment and fall into sins and wickedness.
According to the The Hypostasis of the Archons, Yaldabaoth had raped Eve, before Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. When Epinoia left Eve’s body before ravishment, the spirit (Epinoia) entered the snake, who encouraged Eve and Adam to eat the forbidden fruits. Like in the Genesis, Cain killed his brother Abel, and God cursed Cain for the murderous deed. Adam’s real son was Seth, the son of man. Eve said, :
“I have borne another man through God, in place of Abel.” – The Hypostasis of the Archons
It is from Seth’s descendants who would possess the gnosis. The Apocryphon of John went on to say, Sophia prepared a place for the souls in heaven, where Jesus, the incarnation of the aeon Christ would disclose the true knowledge of how to return to their true home in with the Spirit (in pleroma), where they would ascend past the rulers (archons) and be healed of all deficiency and become holy and faultless. In some Gnostic literature, Seth played a major role. Here, The Apocryphon of John ended, but The Hypostasis of the Archons continued. The Hypostasis of the Archons is actually quite different in detail, and can be supplemented with another longer text, known as On the Origin of the World.
Norea
Seth was a son of Adam and Eve, and he would be ancestor of holy men, before the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Seth was a good man, and faithful follower of the gnosis. Seth has a sister, named Norea, who was even wiser than him. At Norea’s birth, Eve said, :
“He has begotten on me a virgin as an assistance for many generations of mankind.” – The Hypostasis of the Archons
After generations have passed, the archons decided to destroy mankind with the deluge, but save only Noah. Noah was instructed to build an ark. When Norea arrived, Noah refused to allow Norea aboard his ark. Norea blew on the ark, and the flame destroyed the vessel. Noah was forced to build a second ark. The archons seeing her power decided to use Norea. Norea, however, defiantly rebuked them, when they claimed that her mother belong to him, as she would be too. Norea claimed that he (Yaldabaoth) was not her God, but a creature of darkness. In anger, Yaldabaoth would have rape her, but she cried out to the True God for help. The evil archons withdrew when the angel (aeon) Eleleth appeared before her.
Eleleth told her that he was here not only to save her, but to teach her about her origin, and the nature of the Enemy (Yaldabaoth). Eleleth told her that she actually has more power than Yaldabaoth. He also described Yaldabaoth’s origin, which is slightly different in details from what I wrote in Sophia and the Demiurge. Again, he boasted before his offspring that he was the god of entirety. This time, it was Zoe (Life), daughter of Sophia, who rebuked the chief archon. Zoe called him Sakla, and she breathed on him. The breath became a fiery angel, who bound Yaldabaoth and hurled him into Tartarus, which is below the abyss. One of Yaldabaoth’s offspring witnessed the power of the aeon, repented and changed allegiance. His name was Sabaoth. Sophia and Zoe rewarded Sabaoth, by making ruler of the seventh heaven. On his throne, Zoe sat on his right, to teach Sabaoth about the eighth heaven. On his left, sat the angel of wrath.
Ialdaboth seeing the splendour that his son was given, and the chief archon envy Sabaoth. Ialdaboth was the first to create envy, and from envy he created death. Death engendered countless other offspring. Yaldabaoth placed these beings to rule his seven heavens of chaos. It is Yaldabaoth who brought death to mankind. Eleleth also prophesied when mankind is release from the hold of the archons, and the spirits of men will return to its true home (pleroma). It would happen at the time of the true man (Jesus), who will reveal the word of truth (gnosis).
P.S. One of the most interesting things about the Gnostic texts is the roles of feminine principles and women, particularly Barbelo and Sophia, and then Eve, Norea, the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. Eve played a far more important role than Adam in the Gnostic creation.
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PART 8 : GNOSTIC CREATION – IT’S ALL A LOVE STORY BETWEEN THE LOGOS / THE CHRIST AND HIS BRIDE OR TWIN FLAME SOPHIA (WISDOM) – HE COMES TO SAVE AND GATHER HER REMNANTS OF DIVINITY WITHIN EACH HUMAN AND BRING IT BACK TO THE PLEROMA
From Bythos, came syzygy (female-male pairs) emanations, all the way down to the lowest of the aeons, The Logos and Sophia. Through Sophia came the Demiurge who captured sparks of her divinity and ultimately trapped them inside the human body. She made a mistake and Christ / Logos comes to correct the mistake by awakening Adam and Eve first who they are by entering the serpent and telling them to eat from the knowledge of good and evil. They eat and immediately realize that the Yaldabaoth God is a false one, and there is a supreme God above him. He makes them drink of ignorance and forgetfulness so they don’t know who they are.
Christ still loves Sophia and wants her to return to the fullness and brightness of her true divine self as his bride. But he doesn’t just whisk her away or take those pieces out of humanity and simply reconstruct Sophia, instead, he gives her (each person’s consciousness is a divine spark of Sophia’s divinity) light power to rise above the chaos and become more conscious of who she is in her own power. The sparks of Sophia’s divinity within each person, can remain ignorant or they can awaken and remember who they are. Those who awaken will form to become the ‘Bride of Christ’ as they are reintegrated into the wholeness of Sophia’s divinity.
We find these same allusions in the NT those who were infused with the Holy Spirit constituted the body of God. In the “Gospel According to the Hebrews” Jesus calls the Holy Spirit His mother, and in the “Gospel of Thomas” Saying 22, He said the righteous will enter the kingdom when the female and male merged back into each other as one, this condition was called Perfection (cf. 1 Cor. 13:10) and brings Eve back into Adam reconstituting the original Androgynous man. Notice too that the body of believers were called the bride of Christ, but were also called His body. Prophecy and other charismata were considered female, so when the female and male re-immerge into each other, the Charismata ends, that is what’s behind Paul’s teaching in that passage.
Gospel of Thomas Saying 22:27 Jesus saw some children who were taking the breast: he said to his disciples: “These little ones who suck are like those who enter the Kingdom.” They said to him: “If we are little, shall we enter the Kingdom?” Jesus says to them: “When you make the two <become> one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the upper like the lower! And if you make the male and female one, so that the male is no longer male and the female no longer female, and when you put eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, and an image in the place of an image, then you will enter [the Kingdom!”]
COMMENTARY ON THIS SAYING : R. McL. Wilson writes: “The idea that only the childlike can enter the Kingdom of God is, of course, familiar from the canonical Gospels. It may be added that this saying is one of the few which have anything in the nature of a narrative setting, although whether the words which introduce the saying derive from genuine tradition or were constructed for the purpose is matter for debate. Certainly all that follows the disciples’ question is far removed from the canonical portrait of Jesus. Yet even here there is a basis in the New Testament: as Grant and Freedman note, listing passages cited by Doresse, the unity of believers in the body of Christ is based on New Testament teaching. They also quote Paul’s words in Galatians iii.8: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Such a passage as this must serve to confirm the view that one element at least in the development of Gnosticism is a re-interpretation of Christian teaching.” – (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, p. 31)
F. F. Bruce writes: “This is an expansion of the canonical saying: ‘whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it’ (Luke 18.17; cf. Matthew 18.3). But the expansion suggests the abolition of sex distinction (cf. Sayings 4, 11, 106): as infants are devoid of sex awareness or shame, so should the disciples be. In the Gospel according to the Egyptians words like these are spoken by Jesus to Salome. We may recognize a Gnostic interpretation of Paul’s words: ‘there can be no male and female’ (Galatians 3.28). The replacement of physical eyes, hand and foot by corresponding spiritual members is probably a gloss on the saying in Mark 9.43-48 (cf. Matthew 5.29 f.; 18.8 f.), which similarly follows words about children.” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 123-124)
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PART 9 : GNOSTIC CREATION – AS ABOVE SO BELOW … AS CHRIST AND SOPHIA WERE TEMPLATES OF TWIN SOULS OR TWIN FLAMES – SO TOO – WE ALSO HAVE TWIN FLAME / TWIN SOULS (ACCORDING TO THE MYTH)
The emanations from the All Powerful God Bythos, came down in female-male pairs of ‘twin flame souls’. There is a Platonic theory that the Demiurge aka Yaldaboath does not want the twin souls to unite on earth because they are too powerful as one. Originally, it was believed that men were created with 2 faces, 4 arms and 4 legs, but fearing their power, the false god separated them. The Twin Flame Souls are given a fair chance at being introduced to each other but he (and his evil archon forces) will cause one twin to run from the other. Then, just as Christ could only remind ‘Sophia’ (the sparks within each of us) who we are and give her the light back home to the Pleroma, so too, the enlightened Twin Soul can only sit back and allow the other Twin Soul (who doesn’t remember who they are) to grow on their own, until the frequencies match and they can come together and ascend back to the pleroma (heavenly realm) again.
The inner alchemy happens for both along the way, while the one twin is waiting for the other to raise their awareness, so the separation period is necessary before the sacred union can occur. This whole process of reunifying the twin souls on earth is so that the Logos can enter the aspects of Sophia buried deep within us as individuals first, and then, as a magnet, attract the other half of our syzygy twin soul, and return home.
P.S. you’ll notice reading most all the Gnostic Christian narratives (including the Gnostic sect known as the Marcionists – headed by the first Christian to put a New Testament Canon together in 140AD – Marcion) that they denounced the Old Testament god as a crazy, cruel and blind deity who thought he was the only god, not realizing there was an even more supreme god above him. Marcion wanted nothing to do with the Jewish God so he completely detached the first New Testament Canon (which only had a portion of Luke and 10 Pauline Epistles) from the Old Testament completely. This sentiment was shared by most all Gnostic sects and it’s undoubtedly where Christians afterwards adopted an antisemitic undertone.
In Matthew 23 (Luke 13), Jesus is in the Temple, reaming out the Sanhedrin and Pharisees for their hypocrisy, calling them every pejorative in the Thesaurus. He ends by saying this in Matthew 23:37-38,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! Look, your house (Temple) is left to you desolate.”
The temple would’ve clearly still been standing in Matthew 23, yet, here Jesus is telling them to behold their ‘desolate temple’. When you dig deeper, you find out that much of what was written about Jesus was actually referring to Roman General Titus who was sent by his FATHER (Emperor Vespasian) to besiege Jerusalem and the Temple. Titus being the son, sent by the Father is another allusion to Jesus and his ‘father in heaven’.
And in Matthew 24, the very first thing Jesus tells his disciples is that the temple would not have one stone standing upon another (it would be destroyed). There was a deceptive Literary Tactic (already being used by authors, poets, tragedians, etc. long before Christianity came on the scene) called “VATICINIUM EX EVENTU” or “POST-EVENTUM” which is where they wrote prophecies about events that had already occurred, as if they were being prophesied about BEFOREHAND. This is clearly what was going on here with the destruction of the Temple. They made it seem as if Jesus was prophesying about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple before it happened, when really, it was written after the Roman Siege on Jerusalem (66-73AD).
Also, there was another literary tactic known as “Euhemerism” which posits that myths were based on real historical personages or events that were then exaggerated, embellished and amplified in their re-telling. In a nutshell, it was real people and/or events that were then wrapped in mythology. That scene in Matthew 23, where Jesus is telling them how much he wished to gather them like chicks under a hens wings, but they were unwilling and then to behold their temple (house) being desolate, etc.. is a euhemeristic tactic, speaking of Titus (being cloaked as Jesus in the New Testament).
In the historical annals of Josephus, “War of the Jews”, Titus goes on a long spiel in a speech to the Jews during the Roman-Jewish War (66-73) about how benevolent, gracious and kind the Romans had been to the Jews, yet the Jews were unwilling to cooperate with the Romans and even fought against them, so in the end, the Romans destroyed their beloved city Jerusalem and their Holy Jewish Temple in 70AD. It was Titus beholding the ‘desolation’ of the Temple, yet the authors of the New Testament used euhemerism to cloak Titus as Jesus and then used vaticinium ex eventu to make it seem as if Jesus was prophesying the destruction of the temple (and Jerusalem) beforehand, when there were no gospels written until after the Roman Siege on Israel from 66-73AD.
As a matter of fact, Roman General Titus (and his father Vespasian) were cloaked as Jesus many times. Also, in other instances, Josephus (Jewish Historian who defected to Rome during the War, and wrote about the events that took place between the Jews and Romans) is cloaked as the Apostle Paul (as well as other writers in the NT). SEE BELOW :
ROMAN GENERAL TITUS CLOAKED AS JESUS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Matthew 23:37-38 Jesus says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.” (Notice : Jesus says their house (Jewish Temple) had been left desolate even though it was still supposedly standing when Jesus was alive. It’s supposed to be a ‘hint’ of who is really speaking here, not Jesus, but Titus in Josephus ‘Wars’ CLOAKED as Jesus in the Bible, as it was Titus standing there beholding the city and Jewish Temple completely destroyed in 70AD)
COMPARE TO TITUS SPEAKING BELOW
Josephus ‘Wars’ 6.6.2 and 6.6.3 “I then came to this city [Jerusalem], as unwillingly sent by my father [Vespasian] and received melancholy injunctions from him. When I heard that the people were disposed to peace, I rejoiced at it. I exhorted you to leave off these proceedings before I began this war. I spared you, even when you had fought against me a great while. I gave my right hand, as security to the deserters. I observed what I had promised faithfully. When they fled to me, I had compassion on many of those I had taken captive. I tortured those that were eager for war, in order to restrain them. It was unwillingly that I brought my engines of war against your walls. I always prohibited my soldiers when they were set upon your slaughter, from their severity against you. After every victory I persuaded you to peace: as though I had been my self conquered. When I came near your temple, I again departed from the laws of war, and exhorted you to spare your own sanctuary, and to preserve your holy house to yourselves.
I allowed you a quiet exit out of it: and security for your preservation. Nay, if you had a mind, I gave you leave to fight in another place. Yet have you still despised every one of my proposals: and have set fire to your holy house with your own hands. And now, vile wretches, do you desire to treat with me by word of mouth? To what purpose is it that you would save such an holy house as this was, which is now destroyed? What preservation can you now desire, after the destruction of your temple? Yet do you stand still at this very time in your armour. Nor can you bring yourselves so much as to pretend to be supplicants, even in this your utmost extremity. O miserable creatures! what is it you depend on? Are not your people dead? Is not your holy house gone? Is not your city in my power? And are not your own very lives in my hands? And do you still deem it a part of valour to die?
However, I will not imitate your madness. If you throw down your arms, and deliver up your bodies to me, I grant you your lives. And I will act like a mild master of a family: what cannot be healed shall be punished: and the rest I will preserve for my own use. To that offer of Titus’s they made this reply: that,
“They could not accept of it, because they had sworn never to do so. But they desired they might have leave to go through the wall that had been made about them, with their wives, and children. For that they would go into the desert, and leave the city to him.”
At this Titus had great indignation: that when they were in the case of men already taken captives, they should pretend to make their own terms with him, as if they had been conquerors. So he ordered this proclamation to be made to them: that,
“They should no more come out to him as deserters, nor hope for any farther security. For that he would henceforth spare no body: but fight them with his whole army: and that they must save themselves as well as they could. For that he would from henceforth treat them according to the laws of war.” So he gave orders to the soldiers both to burn, and to plunder the city. Who did nothing indeed that day: but on the next day they set fire to the repository of the archives, to Acra, to the council house, and to the place called Ophlas: at which time the fire proceeded as far as the palace of queen Helena, which was in the middle of Acra. The lanes also were burnt down; as were also those houses that were full of the dead bodies of such as were destroyed by famine.”
(Josephus ‘Wars’ 6.6.2 and 6.6.3 compared to Matthew 23:37-38)
Clearly, Matthew 23:37-38 with Jesus’s plea to the Jews about how benevolent and eager he and his father in heaven were to care and protect them like a mother hen over her chicks, was Euhemerism being employed here by the author of Matthew, which was an embellished re-telling of Roman General Titus extending his hand of ‘grace’ to the Jews and wishing to spare they and their city and their temple. Yet they fought and destroyed / murdered many of the Roman soldiers (just as Jesus says there that Jerusalem had destroyed / murdered all the prophets that had been sent to them). The Biblical Authors were taking real events from the Roman Jewish War and used “vaticinium ex eventu” and “euhemerism”, wrapping the real events and real historical people, in MYTHOLOGY. There are other instances of Euhemerism which I’m going to show you below.
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JOSEPHUS (JEWISH HISTORIAN ; 37-100AD) CLOAKED AS APOSTLE PAUL AND ROMAN GENERAL (LATER EMPEROR) TITUS CLOAKED AS JESUS
During the Roman-Jewish War (66-73AD) Josephus pleads with the Jews (with weeping for his people the Jews, just like Paul wrote his letters with tears to the churches – 2 Cor 12:4), Josephus ends his long spiel in ‘Wars 5.9.4’ by saying, “…take my own blood, as a reward, if it may but procure your preservation. For I am ready to die; in case you [Jews] will but return to a sound mind after my death.”
COMPARE WHAT JOSEPHUS SAID ABOVE TO WHAT PAUL SAID BELOW :
Apostle Paul said in Romans 9:3, “…for I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race [Jews],…
P.S. It should also be noted that Paul was supposedly born in Rome, yet he is a Jew, making him a Jew and also a Roman citizen, which seems to be a cloaked reference to Josephus, who was a Jew and defected to Rome during the war, becoming a Roman citizen.
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JESUS AND ROMAN GENERAL TITUS = THE TWO HOUDINI NINJAS
Many places in the gospels, the Sanhedrin is trying to corner Jesus and kill him, yet time and time again he walks through the midst of them somehow like a ninja (Luke 4:29-30 ; also see John 7:30 ; John 8:59 ; John 10:39).
COMPARE BELOW :
Josephus (Jewish Historian) wrote about Roman General Titus during the Roman Jewish war of 66-73AD below in ‘Wars 5.2.2’ :
“Now so long as he rode along the straight road which led to the wall of the city, no body appeared out of the gates. But when he went out of that road, and declined towards the tower Psephinos and led the band of horsemen obliquely; an immense number of the Jews leaped out suddenly… They intercepted Titus also, with a few others…, and to return back to his own men he saw it was also impossible; by reason of the multitude of the enemies [Jews] that lay between them. So he [Titus] perceived that his preservation must be wholly owing to his own courage, and turned his horse about, and cried out aloud to those that were about him to follow him; and ran with violence into the midst of his enemies; in order to force his way through them to his own men…
And hence we may principally learn that both the success of wars, and the dangers that kings are in, are under the providence of God. For while such a number of darts were thrown at Titus, when he had neither his head-piece on, nor his breast-plate: (for, as I told you, he went out not to fight, but to view the city:) none of the darts touched his body, but went aside without hurting him. As if all of them missed him on purpose; and only made a noise as they passed by him. So he diverted those perpetually with his sword that came on his side, and overturned many of those that directly met him; and made his horse ride over those that were overthrown.” (end quote)
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JOSEPHUS’S WRITINGS CLOAKED IN JAMES AND 1ST JOHN
James 5:16 and 1 John 1:9 say that if you confess your sins you will be healed and forgiven.
COMPARE TO JOSEPHUS ‘WARS 5.9.4’ BELOW (JOSEPHUS SPEAKING)
“However, there is a place left for your preservation, if you be willing to accept of it: and God is easily reconciled to those that confess their faults, and repent of them.”
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JOSEPHUS CLOAKED AS APOSTLE PAUL
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 that there was a type of sin reported among them not even reported among the gentiles and that they are proud of this instead of feeling shame and mourning.
COMPARE TO JOSEPHUS ‘WARS 5.9.4’ BELOW
“For you shew your transgressions after a pompous manner; and contend one with another which of you shall be more wicked than another: and you make a publick demonstration of your injustice; as if it were virtue.”
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HERE’S ONE WITH PLATO (380BC)
Excerpt from Plato’s Dialogue known as ‘Phaedo’ (c. 380BC) says : “Whence come wars, and fightings, and factions? Whence but from the body and the lusts of the body? Wars are occasioned by the love of money, and money has to be acquired for the sake and in the service of the body.”
COMPARE TO :
James 4:1-2 “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain.”
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HERE’S ANOTHER
Tiberius Gracchus (150BC; Roman Politician) said this : “The wild beasts that roam over Italy have their dens and holes to lurk in, but the men who fight and die for our country enjoy the common air and light and nothing else. It is their lot to wander with their wives and children, houseless and homeless, over the face of the earth….”
COMPARE BELOW :
Matthew 8:20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
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*CRUCIFIXION OF 3 MEN WITH ONE RECOVERING*
We all know the crucifixion narrative of Jesus in the middle with two thieves on either side (Matt 27 and Luke 23)
COMPARE TO “LIFE OF JOSEPHUS, 76” BELOW
“And when I was sent by Titus Caesar with Cerealins, and a thousand horsemen, to a certain village called Thecoa, in order to know whether it were a place fit for a camp, as I came back, I saw many captives crucified, and remembered three of them as my former acquaintance. I was very sorry at this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him of them; so he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of them, in order to their recovery; yet two of them died under the physician’s hands, while the third recovered.”
So you see here, during the Roman-Jewish War (66-73AD) Josephus wrote about three of his friends being crucified and asks Titus to spare them, he takes them all down, two die and one RECOVERS (sound familiar?). And remember, not one book in the NT was written until AFTER the Roman-Jewish War from 66-73AD.
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*BTW, There’s also what’s known as “CENTO POETRY” where you would rearrange lines from the poetry of Greek Poet Homer (800 BC) and create a new piece of poetry. Christians all over were doing this with Homer’s works as well turning them into ‘gospels’ about Jesus. All of this research brought me back to the writings of Josephus especially and I noticed that there were quotes in his writings that were basically word for word verbatim of verses in the New Testament. These are only a few of the places where the Biblical authors were borrowing from. And keep in mind, the Romans were notorious for stealing other religions and implementing or incorporating them into their own. They stole the entire Greek Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses and gave them ROMAN NAMES (except for Janus, who they claimed was uniquely a Roman God). With that in mind, it wouldn’t be a stretch for them to steal the Jewish religion and create a Romanized version of it (i.e. Christianity).*
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ISCARIOT WAS AN ANAGRAM OF THE SICARII (DAGGER-MEN) WHO WERE THE JEWISH REBELS DURING WAR AGAINST ROME (66-73AD).
JUDAS ISCARIOT was a composite character, made up of Jonathan (Sicarii rebel) and Catullus (Governor of Rome – who had his bowels / entrails fall out due to guilt for falsely accusing and killing innocent rich Jews).
The fate of Judas is shared by a character detailed in War of the Jews by Josephus… published at roughly the same time as the Evangelion of Mark. After you read this excerpt from ‘War of the Jews’ by Josephus (73AD is when Josephus completed this historical annal about the Roman-Jewish War), I will explain how this all fits together and give a summary of the context about what this passage from Josephus was talking about (Catullus and Jonathan were falsely accusing and killing innocent Jews – you’ll immediately see parallels to the Judas Iscariot and Jesus betrayal scene).
[Josephus War of the Jews Book 7 Chapter 11 Para 4]
“But as to Catullus, the emperors Were so gentle to him, that he underwent no severe condemnation at this time; yet was it not long before he fell into a complicated and almost incurable distemper, and died miserably. He was not only afflicted in body, but the distemper in his mind was more heavy upon him than the other; for he was terribly disturbed, and continually cried out that he saw the ghosts of those whom he had slain standing before him. Whereupon he was not able to contain himself, but leaped out of his bed, as if both torments and fire were brought to him. This his distemper grew still a great deal worse and worse continually, and his very entrails were so corroded, that they fell out of his body, and in that condition he died…” (end)
Joseph Atwill (author of ‘Caesar’s Messiah’) observes, and I agree, that Josephus creates a puzzle that uses the name-switching technique found in the Decius Mundus puzzle to identify the creators of Christianity. They are the individuals who were falsely accused by Catullus (these three being Josephus, Bernice, and Alexander, of which, only Josephus survived).
There is clearly an anagram found between Iscariot and the Sicarii which I will detail in a second, but first, let me give you the context of what Josephus was talking about from the excerpt above in ‘War of the Jews’. After the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, the rebels called Sicarii (“dagger-men”) did not stop their activities. Jonathan was a seditious rebel leader of the Sicarii and he was leading people into the desert making them believe he would show them signs and apparitions. Catullus was a governor in the region of Cyrene and he heard about this, so he sent horsemen to slaughter these deceived men, but brought Jonathan to him alive. Catullus used Jonathan to bring false allegations against rich INNOCENT Jews and have them slaughtered (around 3,000 of them), in order to confiscate their Jewish wealth and bring it into the revenues of Caesar.
Vespasian (Emperor of Rome at that time) found out what was happening and had Jonathan burnt at the stake. They were easy on Governor Catullus, but shortly thereafter, he started seeing the ‘ghosts’ of these INNOCENT Jews (mainly in Alexandria and he had falsely accused and put to death, so he end up having his entrails (bowels) fall out of himself (maybe because of so much guilt and stress?), which is obviously similar to Judas Iscariot who was used by the Chief Priests to betray the INNOCENT JEW JESUS, in order to bring ‘false accusations’ against Jesus and put him to death, the same way that Jonathan (Sicarii rebel) was used by the Chief Governor of that region to bring ‘false allegations’ against INNOCENT rich Jews and put them to death. Judas, just like Catullus, was feeling so much guilt for betraying an INNOCENT MAN (Jesus) that he hung himself and it says that his entrails (bowels) fell out, just as happened to Catullus who felt so much guilt for putting to death INNOCENT RICH JEWS, that his bowels (entrails) fell out, in real life.
So as I said many times in the past, that the Poets and Tragedians (including the Biblical authors) were using fictional and NON-FICTIONAL characters, weaving them in like a spiderweb (irony in this case, Josephus wrote that Jonathan the Sicarii rebel – was a WEAVER) to form their entire narratives. The writers would slightly alter, embellish and sometimes even invert the new characters in their literature (in this case, it looks like the New Testament authors weaved real life people, Jonathan the Sicarii rebel and mixed him with Catullus and created the fictional character of Judas Iscariot in the Bible. See how that worked?). I’ve also shown before how during the Roman-Jewish War of 66-73AD that Josephus spoke of the main Jewish rebel leaders, whose names were Simon (like Simon Peter in the Bible) and John. They were eventually caught in a cave and killed. But the New Testament authors took those two Jewish rebel leaders and INVERTED them into CHRISTIAN HEROES of the New Testament. John was the disciple whom Jesus loved and Simon Peter was the one who he said he would build his church upon. These were nonfictional characters, but were taken and INVERTED into a fictional story.
Point to consider :
Scholars have commented on the possibility that “Iscariot,” the last name of Judas, is somehow related to “Sicarii,” the word Josephus uses to describe the messianic rebels. As Robert Eisenman notes, the only difference between the two Greek words the switching of the iota, or “I,” with the sigma, or “s.” I concur, and will show below that it is simply one of the many puns that the author(s) of Josephus and the New Testament use in challenging the reader to discover that the two works describe the same characters.
Here is a link with NT parallels to the works of Josephus :
The more you study ANE myths and history, you realize that the Bible was just a blend of myths, fables, religions and even plagiarized non-fictional sources that predate Judeo-Christianity. The New Testament writers seem to be aware that the OT was a pastiche of ANE and Egyptian myths, which gave the NT writers comfort in doing the same thing when writing the NT. They also were familiar with the Greco-Roman cultures, who Hellenized many of the ANE / Egyptian myths and mythological characters. For example, Hades, Zeus and Poseidon all cast lots (cleromancy) to become the gods of the sky (Zeus), Water (Poseidon) and underworld (Hades), which was a Hellenized version of the Mesopotamian ANE myth which has Anu, Enlil and Enki casting lots for those positions (Anu became ruler of sky, Enki ruler over water and Enlil ruler over Earth).
Here are some examples from a friend’s book entitled, ‘The Mirror Code’ by Paul Amatucci below :
The Roman Caesars/Emperors, were killing the (Sicarii dagger wielders) and Zealous 4th philosophy Jews for decades. These Jewish Zealots were actually the first messianic Christians because they followed men they believed to be “Christs”.
Christ (/kraɪst/; ancient Greek: Χριστός, Christós), meaning “anointed” is a
translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ
(Māšîaḥ) and the Syriac ܡܫܝܚܐ
(M’shiha), the Messiah, and
is used as a title for Jesus in
the New Testament. -Wikipedia
Modern Christian scholars quickly gloss over the Josephus 60+ year mystery gap and late attempt by the Romans to create a convenient paper trail for their new messiah just near the end of the 1st century. The Romans in co-operation with the client Kings of Judea, the Herodian dynasty started Hellenizing (Greek influencing) the Jewish population in 37 BC. The violent uprisings of the Jewish Zealots almost tore the Roman empire and it’s surrogate provinces apart!
The Greek written New Testament documents came from a Greco/Roman pagan tradition that was very eclectic, drawing from various sources. This unique blend of Greek, Roman and Jewish philosophies were merged and fused together to create a new (Hybrid religion) called Christianity.It appears to me the Roman Imperial palace was the source and foundation of Josephus writings along with these New Testament scriptures and newly imposed Christian history, with it’s new pro-Roman messiah, sacraments and dogmas!
The Romans could have easily confiscated and destroyed all the New Testament books, like they were doing for centuries destroying and suppressing other sacred books to protect their monopoly. Christian Bible Scholars frequently quote the Roman controlled Church fathers and historians like Pliny the elder and younger Suetonius, Tacitus, Eusebius and of course Flavius Josephus who was the 1st writer “outside” the New Testament books to mention Jesus the Christ.
Josephus previous writings reflect no such activity of the Christians turning the world upside down while he was growing up. Josephus’ short suspicious and most likely FORGED reference written in his next to last book near the end of his life in 94 AD, about Jesus and the Christian tribe is way too little, way too late to be taken seriously by honest thinking people!?
The long void or gap of no written references by any (officially known) historians or writers about Jesus Christ or any Christian person from 30 AD, to 94 AD, is an extremely suspicious amount of time for such miraculous people and events!
The word – (Apostle) is derived from the secret Mystery religions of the ancient Mediterranean.
Acts 18:18 says the Apostle Paul cut his hair because he made a vow!?
Most Christians don’t believe in taking vows or swearing oaths and have never understood this verse and simply overlook it as a glitch or something, however an alert researcher would know that in the city of Cenchreae where Paul made the vow, there was a temple of the
Isis Mystery Religion where the sailors would cut their hair and dedicate it as an offering to Isis for a safe voyage.
If Paul wasn’t a member of The secret Mystery Religion, he wouldn’t have cut off his hair!
The Mystery Religions, in many forms, were the predominant religion in Tarsus.
In 1st Corinthians 4:1- Paul says he is a “Steward of Mysteries.”
The Mystery Religions, like all secret societies, had its own secret vocabulary.
Paul’s letters contain a lot of these secret Mystery Religion words that most Christians wouldn’t understand.
Here is a list of a few words:
• Gnosis – knowledge of the divine;
• Sophia – wisdom;
• Pneuma – spirit;
• Eudolon – image or ego;
• Logos – the guide on the path to attaining Sophia or Gnosis;
• Teleoi – Initiated;
• Hylic – one who identifies with the material body, the outer self;
• Psychic – first stage Initiate, identified with the soul or psyche;
• Pneumatic – second stage Initiate, taught the inner teachings of the Spirit and
Consciousness;
• Steward – Mystery Religion Priest.
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Simon the “rock” Peter cut off the ear of the High priests servant John 18:10
Simon the son of Gioras was the leader of the sicarii dagger wielders!! Simon was being mirrored in the New Testament to Simon the”Rock” Peter the leader of the Christians.
Simon the son of Gioras was the leader of the Sicarii dagger wielders, the most violent faction of religious terrorism the ancient Roman world had ever faced.
Simon denied Titus Caesar 3 times, when asked to surrender and come out of the tombs with the rock-cutters during the siege of Jerusalem.
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Titus killed Simon by taking him where he didn’t want to go (cf. John 21:18 19, …”but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” his He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God”. Simon suffered a fate said to be worse than death!? Simon was Chucked off The Tarpeian Rock!
Peter means “Rock”Jesus gave us another clue to Peters identity, when he referred to Simon Peter as (Simon son of Jonah) Matthew 16:17
The Old Testament prophet named”Jonah” was thrown off a ship to end a violent storm.
Simon bar Gioras was thrown from the Tarpeian rock as a symbolicending to the storm of the
4th philosophy of Judaism! Simon was living in the catacombs/tombs at the end of the siege with one of his most hated enemies the Anti-Titus/Christ himself John of Giscala!
They were working together with the stone-cutter masons trying to escape from underneath the city, but they failed and surrendered to the Romans and later suffered the most extreme humiliation and torture before the Roman people. Jesus Christ concludes his Gospel ministry in John chapter 21,
by predicting that Simon Peter will be taken to Rome
and killed, but his beloved John
will be spared from execution!?
And as expected from the mirror code patterns, at the conclusion of Titus Flavius’ Gospel war ministry, the rebel Sicarii and Zealot leaders
Simon the son of Gioras
and
John of Giscala the son of Levi
are taken alive after surrendering and coming out of the tombs.
Simon the son of Gioras-(mirrored to Simon Peter) is taken to Rome and martyred, but John of Giscala
(mirrored to John the beloved disciple) is spared by Titus, tortured and given a life sentence in prison.
Each one of these parallels is unusual enough to raise the question of whether it was a contrived plan, but
the fact the parallels occur in the same sequential order
lays the matter to rest,
because such a complex sequence of similar characters and events wouldn’t occur by accident.
P.S. One more point to add is that when Paul (my friend who wrote the Mirror Code) put his book together, he goes in depth on many of these INVERSIONS from the writings of Josephus juxtaposed to the New Testament. He didn’t know me and I didn’t know him when we both figured out the usage of intertextuality and inversion independently of each other. I found the inversions from Greco-Roman myths, he found the inversions from the Roman-Jewish War and my friend Ryan found them in the ancient Sumerian texts. I should also make note of how DETAILED these fictional tales were. Such as the Odyssey written by Greek Poet Homer in 700BC. The small intricacies and how the Poets wrote. Using each other’s material (intertextuality) and the hyper-text being embellished, altered or extended based on a hypo-text. Whoever put the NT gospels and book of Acts together was highly educated on how the ancient Poets wrote their tales and stories. Also Paul was allegedly from Tarsus, which was the epicenter of the Mithraic Mysteries, which themselves were a nigh cosmopolitan syncretist religion. Paul was also a Jewish citizen of ROME (wink wink – hint hint) .
Here is another example. Look at these parallels between Julius Caesar and Christ. Julius Caesar was born 100 years before Christ (100BC – 44BC)
1. Both Julius Caesar and Jesus start their rising careers in neighboring states in the north: Gallia and Galilee.
2. Both have to cross a fateful river: the Rubicon and the Jordan. Once across the rivers, they both come across a patron/rival: Pompeius and John the Baptist, and their first followers: Antonius and Curio on the one hand and Peter and Andrew on the other.
3. Both are continually on the move, finally arriving at the capital, Rome and Jerusalem, where they at first triumph, yet subsequently undergo their passion.
4. Both have good relationships with women and have a special relationship with one particular woman, Caesar with Cleopatra and Jesus with Magdalene.
5. Both have encounters at night, Caesar with Nicomedes of Bithynia, Jesus with Nicodemus of Bethany.
6. Both have an affinity to ordinary people-and both run afoul of the highest authorities: Caesar with the Senate, Jesus with the Sanhedrin.
7. Both are contentious characters, but show praiseworthy clemency as well: the clementia Caesaris and Jesus’ Love-thy-enemy.
8. Both have a traitor: Brutus and Judas. And an assassin who at first gets away: the other Brutus and Barabbas. And one who washes his hands of it: Lepidus and Pilate.
9. Both are accused of making themselves kings: King of the Romans and King of the Jews. That’s the very reason the Senate wanted to kill Julius, because they thought he was trying to become King, instead of allowing Rome to be a Democratic Republic. Jesus was accused by the Sanhedrin of wanting to become King and that’s why they wanted him crucified. Both are dressed in red royal robes and wear a crown on their heads: a laurel wreath and a crown of thorns.
10. Both get killed: Caesar is stabbed with daggers, Jesus is crucified, but with a stab wound in his side.
11. Jesus as well as Caesar hang on a cross. On Friday, 17 March 44 BC, the day of the Liberalia, the festival of Liber Pater (Bacchus/Dionysus), Julius Caesar received his state funeral and was announced as being resurrected a god by the will of the people. A wax effigy of his slain body was presented, raised above a bier, at the exact spot where a cruciform tropaeum stood, and was then rotated for the attending crowd. Essentially, it was supposed to be his dead body, hanging on a cross, and was rotated 360 degrees for all the crowd to see.
12. Both die on the same respective dates of the year: Caesar on the Ides (15th) of March, Jesus on the 15th of Nisan.
13. Both are deified posthumously: as Divus Iulius and as Jesus Christ.
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JULIUS CAESAR’S MOST FAMOUS QUOTATIONS ARE FOUND IN THE GOSPELS – IN STRUCTURALLY SIGNIFICANT PLACES :
Most quotes are word for word, sometimes with insignificant differences:
1. Julius Caesar said, “He who does not take sides is on my side.”
Compare :
Jesus said, “For he that is not against us is for us.”
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2. Julius Caesar said, “I am not King, I am Caesar”
Compare to what the Jews said in John 19:15 below :
“We have no king but Caesar.”
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3. Caesar said, “The best death is sudden death.”
Compare :
Jesus said to Judas, “What you are going to do (lead me to death), do quickly!”
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4. Julius Caesar’s Clementia Caesaris (after the Civil War with Pompey in 49BC, he had mercy on Pompey and several others, and even gave them their positions back as statesmen under Julius’s ranks). Julius said, “Did I save them, that they might destroy me?
Compare :
In Matthew 27, the Jews all cried out to Jesus on the cross, “He saved others; he cannot save himself!”
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5. Julius Caesar said “Veni vidi viciI” which was Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered”
Compare to :
In John 9:7, Jesus told the blind man to go wash in the pool of Siloam, to which the blind man came back saying, “I came, I washed and I saw!”
A comet (or star) was seen shining brightly shortly after Julius Caesar’s death, which his adopted son (nephew) Octavian Augustus Caesar used as religious propaganda to mean that Julius had been deified in heaven as a star, thus making Augustus the ‘Son of a God’. Caesar’s Comet was known to ancient writers as the Sidus Iulium (“Julian Star”) or Caesaris astrum (“Star of Caesar”). The bright, daylight-visible comet appeared suddenly during the festival known as the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris – for which the 44 BC iteration was long considered to have been held in the month of September (a conclusion drawn by Sir Edmund Halley). The dating has recently been revised to a July occurrence in the same year, some four months after the assassination of Julius Caesar, as well as Caesar’s own birth month. According to Suetonius, as celebrations were getting underway, “a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh hour, and was believed to be the soul of Caesar.”
The Comet became a powerful symbol in the political propaganda that launched the career of Caesar’s great-nephew (and adoptive son) Augustus. The Temple of Divus Iulius (Temple of the Deified Julius) was built (42 BC) and dedicated (29 BC) by Augustus for purposes of fostering a “cult of the comet”. (It was also known as the “Temple of the Comet Star”. At the back of the temple a huge image of Caesar was erected and, according to Ovid (Roman Poet ; 43BC-19AD), a flaming comet was affixed to its forehead:
“To make that soul a star that burns forever. Above the Forum and the gates of Rome.”
It is The Roman Poet Ovid, who makes the final assertion of the comet’s role in Julius Caesar’s deification. Ovid describes the deification of Caesar in Metamorphoses (8 AD):
Then Jupiter, the Father, spoke…”Take up Caesar’s spirit from his murdered corpse, and change it into a star, so that the deified Julius may always look down from his high temple on our Capitol and forum.” He had barely finished, when gentle Venus stood in the midst of the Senate, seen by no one, and took up the newly freed spirit of her Caesar from his body, and preventing it from vanishing into the air, carried it towards the glorious stars. As she carried it, she felt it glow and take fire, and loosed it from her breast: it climbed higher than the moon, and drawing behind it a fiery tail, shone as a star.”
It has been argued recently that the idea of Augustus’s use of the comet for his political aims largely stems from this passage above. Dio preserves an unconvincing tale that echoes one told of Alexander the Great’s mother and was no doubt designed to encourage a divine comparison. When Julius Caesar decided to make Octavian his heir, he was influenced by “Atia’s [Augustus’s mother] emphatic declaration that the youth (Augustus) had been engendered by Apollo, for while sleeping in his temple, she said, she thought she had intercourse with a serpent, and it was this that caused her at the need of her pregnancy to bear a son.”
On the day of Octavian’s birth, Atia dreamed that her intestines were raised up into the sky and spread out all over the earth, and during the same night her husband, Octavius, thought that the sun rose from her womb. The following day the elder Octavius came across a learned expert on divination, Publius Nigidius Figulus, and explained what had happened. Figulus replied, “You have begotten a master over us!”
As Plutarch describes, the night before the consummation of their marriage, Olympias dreamed that a thunderbolt fell upon her womb and a great fire was kindled, its flames dispersed all about and then were extinguished. King Philip, who claimed to be a descendant of Zeus’s son Heracles (Hercules in Roman mythology), also had a revelation about his son. According to Plutarch, after they were married, “Philip dreamt that he was pressing a seal on his wife’s womb, and that the emblem on the seal was the figure of a lion.”
Virgil (Roman Poet ; 70-19 BC) wrote in his Fourth Eclogue,
“The firstborn of the New Ages is already on his way from high heaven down to earth. With him, the Iron Age shall end and Golden Man inherit all the world. Smile on the Baby’s birth, immaculate Lucina [goddess of childbirth]; your own Apollo is enthroned a last.”
But there is more. Everyone is familiar with the famous “star of Bethlehem.” But Augustus had a star first. The star (or comet) became a symbol of Augustus early on and can be seen on these coins from 17 B.C.E. This star is an appeal to the comet that appeared during the games Augustus held in honor of Caesar (in July 44 B.C.E.) and was thought to mark the ascent of Caesar to the divine abode (unlike the star of Bethlehem, we know this 44BCE comet to be real – it is documented by Chinese astronomers). Just as the “Star of Bethlehem” purportedly emphasized Jesus’ divine origins, so the Star of Augustus emphasized his – but again, Augustus was there first.
You can even find similarities between Octavia (Augustus) Caesar and Christ. John Dominic Crossan (New Testament Scholar) said this :
“Within that matrix, there was a human being in the very beginning of the first century AD, who was called ‘Divine’, ‘Son of God’, ‘God’, and ‘God from God.’ He was given the titles, ‘Lord’, ‘Redeemer’, ‘Liberator’, and ‘Savior of the World.’ Christians probably think that these titles and labels were about Jesus Christ. But before Jesus ever existed (if he existed at all), all those terms applied to Augustus (Octavian) Caesar!” (end quote)
In 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was killed by Brutus and the other senators. In 42 B.C. Gaius Julius Octavius (who would become Caesar Augustus) declared that Julius Caesar (who was Augustus’s adopted father), was ‘God.’ Thus, he became and declared himself “the son of god” and that is what he put on the Roman coins.
In 9 B.C. Augustus Caesar’s subject had an inscription on a government building in Priene, Turkey. The Priene Inscription had the term “gospel” which was referring to Augustus Caesar. It is called the Priene “Calendar” Inscription because it refers to the birthday of Augustus Caesar as the beginning of an era – the beginning of the gospel announcing his kingdom that heralded peace and salvation for his people – and a Roman decree to start a new calendar system based on the year of Augustus Caesar’s birth was published.Calendar dating of history around a ruler is the principle upon which the Julian calendar and Gregorian calendars are based. READ BELOW :
“The most divine Caesar . . . we should consider equal to the Beginning of all things . . . for when everything was falling [into disorder] and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave the whole world a new aura; Caesar . . . the common good Fortune of all . . . The beginning of life and vitality . . . All the cities unanimously adopt the birthday of the divine Caesar as the new beginning of the year . . . Whereas the Providence which has regulated our whole existence . . . has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving to us (the emperor) Augustus . . .who being sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and [whereas,] having become [god] manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times . . . the birthday of the god [Augustus] has been for the whole world the beginning of good news concerning him.”
Matthew 27:5 and Acts 1:18 contradict each other. We also find in the Gospel of Judas (c. 2nd Century AD) it shows Judas being stoned by the other disciples. And Papias of Hierapolis (60-130AD), whose writings became implemented into the canonical gospels, wrote that Judas walked all over the world, until his body swelled up, and could not pass where chariots could pass. According to Papias, Judas was crushed by a chariot and his bowels gushed out.
Even if we take out the last two (non-canonical gospel of Judas account and the account of Papias – though this plays into what I’ve been teaching, that the poets and writers would slightly ALTER each other’s poetic literature) there is still a contradiction between Matthew 27 and Acts 1:18. In Matthew it says that Judas returned the 30 pieces of silver and threw it into the temple at the feet of the chief priests. The Chief Priests were the ones who bought the field with the money, not Judas, yet in Acts 1:18 it says that JUDAS bought the field. BLATANT CONTRADICTION!
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PART 1 : FORGERIES IN THE GOSPELS – ROMANS BECOME ‘FISHERS OF MEN’ DURING THE ROMAN-JEWISH WAR 66-73AD
I’ve shown in the past that the gospels (which, the earliest copies we have, come from the 2nd Century, with most of it coming from 3rd and 4th Centuries) were clearly plagiarizing, not only from Josephus, but also, from other fictional and nonfictional sources. For now, I’m only showing the parallels between Josephus and the Gospels, because it then correlates to the parallels between Paul and Josephus. Here is an example below of the Romans becoming ‘Fishers of Men’ during the Roman-Jewish War 66-73AD :
Luke 3:21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. ….And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ Now Jesus … began his ministry. … “ (Luke 5) “ … Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,… all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken … Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’ So they … followed him.”
Matt. 11:21 Jesus prophesied “Woe to you, Chorazain (small town off northwestern coast of Sea of Galilee aka Lake of Gennesaret).”
Compare those to Josephus, Wars 3.10 below
Vespasian sends his son Titus to rout out a group of rebel Jews who were led by a man named ‘Jesus’, yes, you heard that right. And in later chapters of Josephus (Wars 5.6) we see that there are two other groups of rebel Jews led by two men named John and Simon (sound familiar? It’s very likely that whoever wrote the New Testament and Gospels, took real historical characters from the Roman-Jewish war, such as Jesus, Simon (Peter) and John and inverted them into mythological, Christian heroes – this was a literary phenomena already employed by the Poets and Tragedians, long before Christianity came on the scene. I’ll get into that more later). Titus makes a ‘Braveheart speech’ to his troops and then he goes into battle first and disperses Jesus and his rebel armies. After Titus routs them out in the city, many of them flee into boats and sail far out on the Lake of Galilee (Gennesaret). Titus sends word back to his father Vespasian about the ‘good news’ of his military victory, which pleases his father (the word ‘Gospel’ actually means “The good news of a military victory”), but wants more help with those who sailed out to sea. Vespasian went to the lake. [A long digression follows, describing the lake; the name Gennesareth is repeated 3x.] “Some have thought it (Sea of Galilee ; Gennesaret) to be a vein of the Nile, because it produces the Coracin fish as well as that lake does which is near to Alexandria.” [Vespasian’s vessels destroyed the rebels’ ships, leaving the rebels] “drowning at sea, killed by darts, had either their heads or their hands cut off, or…, ‘CAUGHT LIKE FISH INTO THE ROMAN VESSELS.’ (end)
The somewhat distinctive shared elements between the New Testament and Josephus passages are: Titus was a son (of God, no less) sent into battle by his father, where he ends up ‘fishing for men’; the location (Genessereth); and the involvement of a character named Jesus (which was, however, apparently a very common Judean name at the time, judging from the sheer number of possibly distinct Jesus characters mentioned in Josephus’s text.)
However, if we recognize that the Josephus passage contains an enigma, the situation becomes more interesting. He says: “Some have thought it [the lake of Genessereth] to be a vein of the Nile, because it produces the Coracin fish as well as that lake does which is near to Alexandria.” It’s obviously ridiculous that anyone would think that the Sea of Galilee (Genessereth) is a vein of the Nile: the ancients for millennia before Josephus knew their geography better than that. And, there is no lake anywhere near Alexandria, Egypt, because it’s in the Nile delta, where any body of water would be more akin to a swamp. Such absurdities should surely be a clue that Josephus’s warped sense of humor is coming into play. This is a lampoon (satirical mockery).
The answer to the riddle is that these rebel Jews were like fish, and that Hellenized Jews are found in great numbers in Alexandria, just as they are in the area near the Sea of Galilee. The “Coracin Fish” seems to be a pun on the name of the town “Chorazain”, which Jesus curses in the passage from Matthew. In Josephus’s narrative, we find that Titus is slaughtering or catching these “fish” (rebel Jews) by the thousands, which is inverted in the gospel accounts as saving these “fish” through preaching the ‘Gospel’. To make the point clear, Josephus ends the story with his all too graphic description of the Romans killing men with darts, drowning them, cutting their limbs off, or catching ‘men’ like a fisherman would catch fish, in their rout of the Jewish rebels at sea.
This warrior’s metaphor of “fishing for men” is a well-known literary trope; see these for example:
Homer’s ‘Odyssey 10.119-124’ : “…the mighty Laestrygonians [Giants] came thronging from all sides…. at once there rose throughout the ships a dreadful din, alike from men that were dying and from ships that were being crushed. And spearing them like fishes they bore them home, a loathly meal.”
‘Odyssey 12:245-255’ : “…but meanwhile Scylla seized from out the hollow ship six of my comrades who were the best in strength and in might. Turning my eyes to the swift ship and to the company of my men, even then I noted above me their feet and hands as they were raised aloft. To me they cried aloud, calling upon me by name for that last time in anguish of heart. And as a fisher on a jutting rock, when he casts in his baits as a snare to the little fishes, with his long pole lets down into the sea the horn of an ox of the steading, and then as he catches a fish flings it writhing ashore, even so were they drawn writhing up towards the cliffs. Then at her doors she devoured them shrieking and stretching out their hands toward me in their awful death-struggle. Most piteous did mine eyes behold that thing of all that I bore while I explored the paths of the sea.” ‘Odyssey 22:381-389’ : “…
And Odysseus too gazed about all through his house to see if any man yet lived, and was hiding there, seeking to avoid black fate. But he found them one and all fallen in the blood and dust–all the host of them, like fishes that fishermen have drawn forth in the meshes of their net from the grey sea upon the curving beach, and they all lie heaped upon the sand, longing for the waves of the sea, and the bright sun takes away their life; even so now the wooers lay heaped upon each other.”
Speaking of Giants, in Greek Mythology, the Greek Warrior Giant named Ajax was the grandson of Aeacus, who was the son of god Zeus and Aegina (daughter of the river god Asopus), making Ajax of divine lineage. Clearly this was only mythology, yet, the Greek Traveler and Geographer of the 2nd Century named Pausanias claimed that they found a giant skeleton and a kneecap the size of discus which is around 5 to 6 inches across, on Sigeion near the Trojan Coast. They claimed this skeleton was that of Ajax from Homer’s Odyssey. This is just another reference to how the ancients actually believed the myths given by the poets, even though these myths were just that, nothing more than fable stories that weren’t true, or they were exaggerating actual events such as wars and wrapping them in mythology, as I’ve explained elsewhere that this literary tactic was known as euhemerism. Also, it’s very similar to Theseus whose ship was supposedly docked in the Athenian Harbor, yet, he too was only a mythological character. The Ancient Greeks and Romans for that matter, tried hard to give tangible evidence to the existence of their mythological gods and their demigod heroes, just like the Christians and Jews try to do the same for their Hebrew mythological characters.
But back on point here, the ancient readers of the New Testament, who learned their Homer in grammar school, might have been pleased to find that the Gospel authors appear to have inverted and ennobled this barbaric trope. However, in the final analysis, the joke is on the Christians, since Josephus’s humorous point is that the “Coracin fish” in the lake are the Jewish rebels that are being “fished” by the Romans. The New Testament passage is tightly coupled to the Josephus enigma by this distinctive concept of “Fishing for Men” as well as by the various less distinctive elements. Jesus’s spiritual gathering of his followers and his call for them to be “fishing for men” grimly foreshadow Titus’s actual slaughter of the Jews, occurring at the same location at Genessareth, allegedly forty years later.
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PART 2 : FORGERIES IN GOSPELS – JOSEPHUS DESCRIBES ROMANS FIGHTING ‘BEASTLY – DEMONIAC JEWS’ AT GADARA WHO JUMP INTO JORDAN RIVER – SAME PLACE **LAND OF GADARENES** JESUS CAST OUT LEGION OF DEMONS INTO ‘SWINE’ WHO JUMP INTO SEA AND DROWN
In Josephus (Wars 4.7) we meet the rebel leader John, who was “beginning to tyrannize” in the countryside. He attracted a following among the rebels, who “thought they should be safer themselves, if the causes of their past insolent actions should now be reduced to one head, and not to a great many.” Josephus explained that “as it is in a human body, if the principal part be inflamed, all the members are subject to the same distemper; so, by means of the sedition and disorder that was in the metropolis … had the wicked men that were in the country opportunity to ravage the same.” Men “joined in the conspiracy by parties, too small for an army, and too many for a gang of thieves … Nor was there now any part of Judea that was not in a miserable condition, as well as its most eminent city also.” Getting word of the threat, Vespasian “marched against Gadara”… the Jews were quickly surrounded by the Roman forces “and, like the wildest of wild beasts, rushed upon the point of others’ swords; so some of them were destroyed… and others were dispersed … But Placidus … slew all that he overtook, as far as Jordan; and when he had driven the whole multitude to the riverside … the number of those that were unwillingly forced to leap into Jordan was prodigious. There were besides two thousand and two hundred taken prisoners. A mighty prey was taken also, consisting of asses, and sheep, and camels, and oxen. … ”
In other words, Josephus is expounding a theory which likens the spread of “sedition” to a disease, in which the “distemper” of “one head” infects the multitude, who seek to abandon their free will and responsibility to that one individual. The rebels then become like wild beasts, fit to be destroyed. Elsewhere, Josephus explains his view that “Demons … are no other than the spirits of wicked men” (Wars 7.6.185), so by that definition, the Jewish rebel leader John and his followers may all be seen as demons.
Compare that to the Gospel account given in Mark 5 below
In Mark 5:1-20 (also Luke 8:26-39) Jesus has come to the “land of the Gadarenes.” He met a man (the demoniac) who was possessed “with an unclean spirit” who was always “crying, and cutting himself with stones.” Jesus asked the demoniac, “What is thy name?” The demoniac replied, “My name is Legion: for we are many. …. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding…. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine; and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea (they were about two thousand), and were choked in the sea.” The demoniac was healed, and “began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him.” The version of the story in Matthew (8:28-33) has Jesus meet two demon-possessed men, who accuse Jesus of “tormenting us before the time”.
There are several peculiar and enigmatic aspects to this pericope. Why should one man be possessed by a legion of demons? Why are swine being herded in such huge numbers, in an area where pork is taboo? Why does Matthew mention two demon possessed men, where Mark and Luke see only one demon possessed man? The enigma is solved by recognizing that Josephus’s description of the Jewish rebel leader John is an anti-type to the demoniac, just as the biblical Jesus meets a man who is possessed by demons, who are sent into wild beasts [pigs] and destroyed, so also John is like a demon who infects a multitude of Jewish radicals, and they become like animals to be destroyed. Within this conceptual framework, there are many specific verbal parallels: the location near Gadara ; the size of the parties “too small for an army, and too large for a gang of thieves” (which is a good definition of the size of a legion); wild beasts rushing; Jewish rebels (like the swine) forced into the sea; and the number “about two thousand” (or in Josephus, to be exact, “two thousand two hundred”) — although oddly, the two thousand biblical swine are destroyed, while the 2200 rebels in Josephus are captured. In Josephus, the Romans also capture a “mighty prey” of livestock, but no swine, presumably because the swine have been drowned. Get it?
It’s suggested that perhaps the 2nd demoniac in Matthew’s version represents John’s brother Simon in Josephus, and that they are being tormented “before the time” because the time of their torment belongs later in the typological sequence in War of the Jews. Later on in Josephus’s account, the two leaders of the rebel Jews, John and Simon, are caught coming out of underground caverns or tombs. Josephus specifically states that Simon brought with him ‘stone-cutters’ to dig under the ground to find a safe passage out of Jerusalem (the demoniac was cutting himself with ‘sharp stones’ in Mark 5). The parallels of the ‘swine’ as well as the ‘stone-cutting’ or ‘stone-cutters’ between the Bible and Josephus, seem to be just a few of many. The demoniac supposedly had a ‘legion’ of devils inside of him and he is in the cemetery or tombs. This could be a play on the ‘ghosts’ of the dead in the cemetery, as a trope of Simon and John in Josephus, who brought what could be considered a ‘legion’ of Jews (two thousand and two hundred) underground with them to dig a way out of the city as though they were demons under the ground (the living dead, under the ground in caverns or tombs). According to Josephus in Wars 7.6.3, demons were nothing more than the ghosts of evil men. Then we find a mixture of elements from other parts of the gospels here as well. It seems many parts of Josephus’s Wars, were rearranged and slightly modified and even inverted in the gospels.
The Jews digging, hit a dead-end and Simon decides to put on a white frock and a royal purple cloak (Wars 7.2 ; also see Wars 6.9), and ascend out from the ground, as if he were a Judean King, where the temple had been (after it had just been destroyed). The Romans were astonished at the sight of Simon at first as if they’d just seen a ghost or a man (or a king of the Jews *wink wink* ; see Matt 27:37 ; Mark 15:26 ; Luke 23:38 ; John 19:19) rise from the dead from the place where the Temple was destroyed, but Simon asks for their commander and gives himself up willingly. This sounds very similar to Jesus giving himself up willingly to be crucified and at his crucifixion, the temple was rent in two by an earthquake, with dead Jews coming out of their ‘tombs’, to walk the city of Jerusalem and many were astonished when they saw them (Luke 22-23 ; Mark 15 ; Matthew 27), as well as similar to Jesus rising from the dead.
The Roman Centurion at Jesus’s crucifixion is also astonished and declares that Jesus was a just man. The “Jews coming out of the Tombs” reference is a lampoon of Simon and John, along with the 2,200 Jews who dug themselves underground and were caught, forcing them to come out of the cavern (like coming out of a tomb one could say) and go into bondage or death. They specifically come up from the place where the Temple had been destroyed and the gospel of Matthew seems to tie the temple being rent in two and the dead Jewish ‘zombies’ coming out of their cemetery, together, hinting at this real scenario in Josephus with Simon, John and the 2,200 Jews coming out of the caverns underground, near where the Temple had just been destroyed. They were astonished to see Simon at first because he wore a purple cloak, rising out of the ground near the temple, which could be seen as Jesus having the purple robe or cloak put upon him, and after his crucifixion the dead Jews rising out of their graves.
This is also another contradiction we find, as Jesus was supposedly wearing a scarlet (dark red) robe in Matthew 27, but in John 19 and Mark 15, he’s wearing a purple robe. We seem to find the answer to this discrepancy in Josephus Wars 6.8.3 where Titus allows the Treasurer of the Temple named Phineas and a Jewish priests named ‘Jesus’, to bring certain ornaments and items out from the holy temple to him. They bring out vials, cisterns, tables, and other relics made of gold and silver as well as veils and garments worn by the priests, which some were “scarlet” and some were “purple.”
I also want to add some more areas that mirror each other, from Josephus juxtaposed to the New Testament. Jesus said that he and his father were one (John 10:30). It seems that Vespasian (the father) and Titus (his son) were represented here, as there were scenes that Titus represented Jesus in the gospels and there were scenes where Vespasian was represented as Jesus in the gospels. Titus is specifically sent to Jerusalem by his father Vespasian, which is similar to Jesus being sent by his father [in heaven] to Israel. Titus finds himself in danger, surrounded by a multitude of Jews, as he is viewing the city of Jerusalem, but, seemingly like a magician escaping chains, Josephus says that Titus takes off on his horse through the midst of them (without shield or armor) and no matter how many darts were thrown at him, they all miraculously miss (Wars 5.2.2), which is similar to Luke 4:29-30 where the Jews had pushed Jesus out of the city to a cliff where they purposed to throw him off and it says that Jesus nonchalantly walks through the midst of them and is unharmed. (also see John 7:30 ; John 8:59 ; John 10:39).
Titus also seems to represent the Disciples in the scene prior to the Olivet Discourse in Matt 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, where they were telling Jesus how magnificent the buildings were, as well as the precious stones and gifts adorned upon the Temple, but Jesus tells them not to marvel because all those buildings and the temple itself would not have one stone standing upon another (implying they’d all be destroyed). We see Titus admiring the vastness and strength of the temple, the towers and the buildings round-bout it in Wars 6.9.1, which reads, “Now when Titus was come into this [upper] city, he admired not only some other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong towers which the tyrants, in their mad conduct, had relinquished. For when he [Titus] saw their solid altitude, and the largeness of their several stones, and the exactness of their joints; as also how great was their breadth, and how extensive their length, he expressed himself after the manner following: “We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war: and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications. For what could the hands of men, or any machines, do towards overthrowing these towers?” At which time he had many such discourses to his friends.”
Titus tries to reason with the Jews, sending Josephus to reason with them first (Wars 5.9.3 ; 5.9.4 ; 6.2.1 ; 6.2.2 ; 6.7.2), where Josephus goes on a tangent similar to that of Peter in Acts 2 and Stephen in Acts 7, recalling all the things the Old Testament said in regard to what their god had done for the Hebrew nation.
Josephus exhorts them to repent and to peacefully submit to Rome, when he says, ” …there is a place left for your preservation, if you be willing to accept of it: and God is easily reconciled to those that confess their faults, and repent of them…”, which sounds very reminiscent of James 5:16.
Josephus then says, “…hearken to me, that you may be informed, how you fight, not only against the Romans, but against God himself…”, which is essentially what God told Paul, when Paul was knocked from his horse on the road to Damascus, where he tells Paul that he kicks against the pricks by murdering Christians in Acts 9.
Josephus ends his long spiel by saying, “…take my own blood, as a reward, if it may but procure your preservation. For I am ready to die; in case you will but return to a sound mind after my death.”, which is identical to what Paul said in Romans 9:3, where Paul says with sorrow, “…for I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race [Jews],”. It should also be noted that Paul was supposedly born in Rome, yet he is a Jew, making him a Jew and also a Roman citizen, which seems to be a cloaked reference to Josephus, who was a Jew and defected to Rome during the war, becoming a Roman citizen.
Titus even extends his hand of mercy several times to them (Wars 5.6.2 ; 5.7.4 ; 5.8.1 ; 5.9.1) and even felt sorrowful at the sight of how the famine had killed many Jews in the city and raised his hands to heaven and declared to God that this was not his doing (Wars 5.12.4). Titus reminds them of how the Romans had allowed the Jews to live in peace and would allow them to give donations to their holy house without taking account of the treasury [even when they were enemies of Rome], causing the Jews to become even more wealthy than Rome (Wars 6.6.2). He declared that he unwillingly came to fight Jerusalem on the orders of his father Vespasian, while he and his father Vespasian were in Egypt, and was excited to hear [before the war] that many of the Jews wanted peace, but he eventually finds out that this report is untrue. Titus and the Romans even seemed to have more respect for their Jewish holy temple than the Jews did, which Josephus relates (Wars 6.2.4 ; 6.4), that Titus was asking why they [Jews] were polluting their holy temple with the dead bodies of not only foreigners but also of Jews, and says that if they will repent and give up their fight, he will preserve their holy house and their lives, but they would not, so Titus continues onward in his fight against them.
Titus finally destroys the entire city and sends the Jewish rebel leader John to Rome, where he was imprisoned for life and could have presumably been the one the Romans forced to published the gospel of John (or it was simply written and ‘published’ in his name), just as the biblical demon possessed man, who was freed from the demons in Mark 5, took the opportunity to publish what Jesus had done for him, in Decapolis. Simon the Tyrant was either thrown from Tarpeian Rock or was decapitated.
Titus then holds a tribunal, where each man who was obedient and faithful in valiant warfare, would receive certain rewards and gifts for how well they fought. Josephus Wars 7.1.3 says, “Hereupon Titus ordered those, whose business it was, to read the list of all that had performed great exploits in this war. Whom he called to him by their names, and commended them before the company; and rejoiced in them in the same manner as a man would have rejoiced in his own exploits. He also put on their heads crowns of gold, and golden ornaments about their necks, and gave them long spears of gold, and ensigns that were made of silver, and removed every one of them to an higher rank. And besides this, he plentifully distributed among them, out of the spoils, and the other prey they had taken, silver, and gold, and garments. So when they had all these honours bestowed on them, according to his own appointment made to every one, and he had wished all sorts of happiness to the whole army,…”
Jesus had very similar sentiments in the gospels, he extended his hand of mercy to them, he healed them, and on one occasion coming into the city (Luke 19) and another occasion in the temple (Matt 23), he weeps over it, knowing that the enemies [Romans] would set up embankments on their walls and barricade them in on all sides, and expresses how he wished to protect them as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings (Luke 13), but they would not repent of all their sins, manslaughter and even murdering righteous Jews in the temple courts, so their holy house would be destroyed and left desolate. In Matthew 22 and Luke 19 also correspond to Titus, as it gives a couple parables by Jesus about a king who is punishing those who would not obey him or not let them be ruled by him. Titus extends his hand for the Jews to allow themselves to be ruled by his authority and he would grant them peace, but they continually refuse (except for a few who flee to Titus and are spared or ‘saved’ by Titus). Jesus rewards his obedient followers, who submit to him until the end, no matter what distresses, trials or tribulations [even death] they had to face during the siege on Jerusalem and were given gifts and crowns (James 1:12 ; 2 Corinthians 5:10 ; 2 Timothy 4:7-8 ; 1 Peter 5:4 ; Revelation 2:10 ; Revelation 3:11 ; Revelation 22:12). There’s a clear mirroring effect from Titus in Josephus to Jesus.
Vespasian, too, heralded similarities in Josephus’s ‘Wars’ to Jesus of the Bible. As I’ve shown in another place, he and his son Titus were regarded by Josephus, Suetonius and Tacitus as the one to fulfill the prophecies in the Old Testament (Numbers 24:17-19 Balaam’s prophecy) about men coming from Judea who would rule the world or habitable earth. Joseph Atwill, author of ‘Caesar’s Messiah’, also asserts that there was satire in the New Testament in regard to the New Root and Branch (Romans 11:17-24 ; also see Isaiah 11:1-2 ; Zechariah 3:8 ; Revelation 5:5 ; Revelation 22:16). Atwill wrote: “The purpose of this particular satire is to document that the ‘root’ and ‘branch’ of the Judaic messianic lineage has been destroyed and that a Roman lineage has been ‘grafted on’ in its place.” This could certainly have been added as a way to cause those prophecies to come to pass through Romans, rather than one from the lineage of the Jews. Joseph Atwill also sees more satire in the gospels and Josephus, in regard to the Testimonium Flavianum and Jesus’s death and resurrection.
Atwill argues that the Testimonium Flavianum (Josephus’s Antiquities 18.3) is genuine because he sees it as the introduction to a literary triptych (a work of art divided into three parts that can be folded up or displayed wide open). Immediately following the Testimonium Flavianum is the story of Decius Mundus, who pretends to be the god Anubis (Egyptian god of death and mummification), to trick a woman named Paulina into having sex. Atwill sees Decius’ name as a pun on Publius Decius Mus (340 BC ; Roman Official who sacrificed his life to allow his army to win a war). As the story continues, Paulina’s husband Saturninus agrees that it would be no sin for Paulina to have sex with a god. So Paulina and Decius Mundus sleep together, but Mundus returns on the third day to boast that he is not a god. Atwill argues that Mundus’ return is a parody of Jesus’ resurrection, and that his worshippers Paulina and Saturninus have obviously been swindled. Albert Bell, in his paper “Josephus the Satirist?”, speculated that the satirical nature of the Decius Mundus story was understood in the 4th century. According to Bell, the author of pseudo-Hegesippus may have elaborated on the joke by making Paulina become possibly pregnant by Anubis, thus making her parody of the Virgin Mary.
But as to Vespasian, again, he was the fourth of four emperors during the year 69AD. Rome was on the verge of civil war and disorder after Nero’s death and it was finally Vespasian that they voted on to become Emperor and bring order back. He was in Alexandria, Egypt when he was chosen and the people were awaiting his triumphant return to the city of Rome. While in Alexandria he had performed two supposed miracles, one spitting in the eyes of a blind man and healing a lame man, in the temple of Serapis. This is right before his return to Rome, the people were anticipating his return and desiring it so much that it was as if he had already come back within their minds, because they wished to see their new ‘savior’.
As he is entering the city, Josephus writes this in Wars 7.4.1,
“…his coming was much desired by all the Italian cities; and that Rome especially received him with great alacrity and splendor, betook himself to rejoicing and pleasures, to a great degree; as now freed from the sollicitude he had been under, after the most agreeable manner. For all men that were in Italy shewed their respects to him in their minds, before he came thither; as if he were already come: as esteeming the very expectation they had of him to be his real presence, on account of the great desires they had to see him; and because the good will they bore him was intirely free and unconstrained. For it was a desirable thing to the senate, who well remembered the calamities they had undergone in the late changes of their governors, to receive a governor who was adorned with the gravity of old age, and with the highest skill in the actions of war, whose advancement would be, as they knew, for nothing else but for the preservation of those that were to be governed. Moreover, the people had been so harassed by their civil miseries, that they were still more earnest for his coming immediately: as supposing they should then be firmly delivered from their calamities, and believed they should then recover their secure tranquillity and prosperity. And for the soldiery, they had the principal regard to him; for they were chiefly apprized of his great exploits in war. And since they had experienced the want of skill, and want of courage in other commanders, they were very desirous to be freed from that great shame they had undergone by their means; and heartily wished to receive such a prince, as might be a security and an ornament to them. And as this good will to Vespasian was universal, those that enjoyed any remarkable dignities could not have patience enough to stay in Rome, but made haste to meet him at a very great distance from it. Nay indeed, none of the rest could endure the delay of seeing him; but did all pour out of the city in such crowds, and were so universally possessed with the opinion that it was easier and better for them to go out than to stay there, that this was the very first time that the city joyfully perceived itself almost empty of its citizens. For those that stayed within were fewer than those that went out. But as soon as the news was come that he was hard by, and those that had met him at first related with what good humour he received every one that came to him; then it was that the whole multitude that had remained in the city, with their wives and children, came into the road, and waited for him there. And for those whom he passed by they made all sorts of acclamations, on account of the joy they had to see him, and the pleasantness of his countenance; and styled him their benefactor, and saviour; and the only person who was worthy to be ruler of the city of Rome. And now the city was like a temple, full of garlands, and sweet odors. Nor was it easy for him to come to the royal palace, for the multitude of the people that stood about him, where yet at last he performed his sacrifices of thanksgiving to his household gods, for his safe return to the city.”
So we see here that the people had anticipated his coming so much that when he was afar off on his horse, the multitudes greeted him in the streets with praise as their benefactor and savior, they lay garlands (wreaths of flowers) all over the ground and the whole city smelled like a temple filled with sweet odor. So we see the chronology of events here, as him being chosen as Emperor while in Egypt, where he goes to the temple of Serapis to ask the god on the matters of state affairs after healing two men. He then rides into the city of Rome where he is praised by the multitudes of people who lay wreaths of flowers in the streets at his coming on his horse and declare that he is their ‘Savior.’
This is clearly masked in Matthew 21 and Luke 19, where Jesus is riding into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey (after performing all those miracles) and the people praise him, spreading their cloaks on the road as well as cut branches. They declare him as the king and in Luke 19 specifically, they shout loud to god in praise for all the miracles that Jesus had done.
Also, Jesus had warned that men’s hearts would fail them for fear of the things coming (Luke 21:26). We see in Wars 7.4.4 that Domitian (the other son of Vespasian) hears of the revolt of the Germans, he goes out to fight them. Josephus says this about what took place when they [Germans] heard Domitian was coming, “For as soon as ever the news of their revolt was come to Rome, and Cæsar Domitian was made acquainted with it, he made no delay, even at that his age, when he was exceeding young; but undertook this weighty affair. He had a courageous mind from his father, and had made greater improvements than belonged to such an age. Accordingly he marched against the barbarians immediately. Whereupon their hearts failed them at the very rumour of his approach: and they submitted themselves to him with fear.”
Here are a few others I found while reading through Josephus.
Josephus Wars 5.8.2 : “…For God had blinded their [Jews] minds for the transgressions they had been guilty of;”
Compare to
Romans 1:28-32 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
2nd Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Josephus Wars 5.9.3 “…Besides, men may well enough grudge at the dishonour of owning ignoble masters over them: but ought not to do so to those who have all things under their command. For what part of the world is there that hath escaped the Romans, unless it be such as are of no use for violent heat, or for violent cold? And evident it is that fortune is on all hands gone over to them: and that God, when he had gone round the nations with this dominion, is now settled in Italy. That moreover it is a strong and fixed law, even among brute beasts, as well as among men, to yield to those that are too strong for them: and to suffer those to have the dominion, who are too hard for the rest in war. For which reason it was, that their forefathers, who were far superior to them both in their souls, and bodies, and other advantages, did yet submit to the Romans. Which they would not have suffered, had they not known that God was with them.”
Compare to :
Romans 13:1-2 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
The parallels are so transparent that it boggles the mind that one could read these writings by Josephus, side by side with the Bible, and not understand the euphemisms and anti-types between them. There are many more and the puzzle pieces are scattered to the wind, so it’s a hard task to find them all and put it together. But these shown thus far should be enough to make you question the veracity and reliability of the Bible.
Josephus Wars Book 5, Chapter 8, Verse 2 : “…For God had blinded their minds for the transgressions they had been guilty of;”
Compare to
Romans 1:28-32 and 2nd Corinthians 4:4
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Josephus Wars Book 5, Chapter 9, Verse 3 “…Besides, men may well enough grudge at the dishonour of owning ignoble masters over them: but ought not to do so to those who have all things under their command. For what part of the world is there that hath escaped the Romans, unless it be such as are of no use for violent heat, or for violent cold? And evident it is that fortune is on all hands gone over to them: and that God, when he had gone round the nations with this dominion, is now settled in Italy. That moreover it is a strong and fixed law, even among brute beasts, as well as among men, to yield to those that are too strong for them: and to suffer those to have the dominion, who are too hard for the rest in war. For which reason it was, that their forefathers, who were far superior to them both in their souls, and bodies, and other advantages, did yet submit to the Romans. Which they would not have suffered, had they not known that God was with them.”
Compare to Romans 13
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In Josephus Wars 5.13.5 it is referring to the Syrians and some of the Roman soldiers who had been ‘piercing’ and cutting open the Jews, to extract the gold from their bowels. Titus threatened anyone doing this with death. Here is the full passage from Josephus below : “Titus then threatened, that he would put such men to death, if any of them were discovered to be so insolent as to do so again. Moreover, he gave it in charge to the legions, that they should make a search after such as were suspected, and should bring them to him. But it appeared that the love of money was too hard for all their dread of punishment; and a vehement desire of gain is natural to men, and no passion is so venturesome as covetousness. Otherwise such passions have certain bounds, and are subordinate to fear. But in reality it was God who condemned the whole nation, and turned every course that was taken for their preservation to their destruction.”
Compare to :
1st Timothy 6:9-10 “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Notice it says they have ‘pierced themselves’ with many griefs, which seems to be in jest of how the Syrians and Romans were ‘piercing’ the Jews to cut them open and extract the gold from their bellies, yet, their ‘love of wealth’ put them in danger because Titus would destroy anyone caught doing this, so their lust for greed and how it put them in danger seems to be mirrored in Paul’s letter to Timothy.
P.S. One more point to add is that when Paul (my friend who wrote the Mirror Code) put his book together, he goes in depth on many of these INVERSIONS from the writings of Josephus juxtaposed to the New Testament. He didn’t know me and I didn’t know him when we both figured out the usage of intertextuality and inversion independently of each other. I found the inversions from Greco-Roman myths, he found the inversions from the Roman-Jewish War and my friend Ryan found them in the ancient Sumerian texts. I should also make note of how DETAILED these fictional tales were. Such as the Odyssey written by Greek Poet Homer in 700BC. The small intricacies and how the Poets wrote. Using each other’s material (intertextuality) and the hyper-text being embellished, altered or extended based on a hypo-text. Whoever put the NT gospels and book of Acts together was highly educated on how the ancient Poets wrote their tales and stories. Also Paul was allegedly from Tarsus, which was the epicenter of the Mithraic Mysteries, which themselves were a nigh cosmopolitan syncretist religion. Paul was also a Jewish citizen of ROME (wink wink – hint hint) .
*HERE ARE EXTRAS FROM A CONVO I HAD WITH A “CHRISTIAN”*
The Bible contradicts itself in many areas especially the 4 Gospels and in KEY AREAS to boot!*
There were tons of ‘gospels’ floating around in the late 1st into early 2nd century (including the Gnostic Christian Gospels). It was until Nicea when the Roman Emperor Constantine favored Bishop Alexander over Arius (Arianism was then outlawed in favor of Homoousian Theology), and St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate was the ‘official canon’, which had 76 books. The Catholics then reduced it to 73 books and then the Protestants reduced it to 66 books. But both the Catholic and Protestant Bibles are founded in St. Jerome’s Vulgate, just with fewer books. But even in these books alone, we find tons of contradictions including the key areas of Christ’s birth narrative and in Christ’s resurrection narratives.
CONTRADICTIONS ABOUT THE BIRTH OF JESUS IN THE GOSPELS
In Luke chapter 1, it says that a Census went out into all the world under Caesar Augustus, and was taken by the Roman Governor of Syria named Quirinius. This Census took place in 6AD. That seems to be a precise date, but in Luke 2, it says that Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod The Great (King of Judea), who died in 4 BC. This means the gospel writer of Luke is not consistent with the actual historical evidence! Luke 2:1-7 is not realistic. Also, the Census would not cause anyone to move from one place to another, in order to be registered for tax purposes. It would be the tax officials who would travel, to link property to it’s owners. So Joseph (and Mary) as residents of Nazareth, (Galilee) rather than Bethlehem (Judea), wouldn’t have been affected by this census in the first place!
Another contradiction is between Matthew and Luke. Matthew said that Mary and Joseph lived in Bethlehem, fled to Egypt, then returned to Bethlehem and finally, fled to Galilee. According to Luke on the other hand, said that they lived in Galilee, went to Bethlehem only because of the Census, and returned immediately to Nazareth to be presented at the temple a month later (40 days later to be exact) for the Jewish ceremony of purification, which they all did for the redemption of the firstborn son (Leviticus 12 ; Exodus 13). Here they meet Simeon (a just man) and the prophetess Anna. Luke makes no mention of a flight to Egypt, nor was there even a need to flee in his account. The only thing Luke and Matthew agree on is that he was born in Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecy found in Micah 5:2.
RESURRECTION CONTRADICTIONS BELOW
Matthew’s account of Resurrection = 3 at the tomb (Mary Magdalene, other Mary and angel sitting atop the rolled away stone)
Mark’s account of Resurrection = 4 at the tomb (Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of Jesus, Salome and a young man wearing white sitting inside tomb)
Luke’s account of Resurrection = 5 at the tomb (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary mother of James and 2 men in shining white apparel. The only disciple to return to tomb was Peter).
John’s account of Resurrection = 1 at the tomb (Mary Magdalene, who sees nothing but an empty tomb. She then brings Peter and John back, where they see two angels shining brightly, one at the head of where Jesus had lain and one at his feet where Jesus had lain).
In essence, they worship that book, even though it’s been heavily redacted thousands of times, with errors, contradictions, anachronisms, discrepancies, insertions, omissions, etc.. This proves that there is no real inner working or relationship of (or to) a spiritual deity. It’s all dependent upon what ‘MEN’ have put inside of their book. The supposed ‘spirit’ (and their ‘PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP’ with that spirit), is not leading these people to discern FACT FROM FICTION. If it’s a real relationship with a true spiritual entity, then that spiritual entity should be telling these people when they are seeing error, especially when it’s in their own book. But that’s just not the case many times, proving there is no real spiritual component to their relationship with a real entity, it’s merely a relationship with a book (and a book that most Christians don’t even understand!).
it was another 40+ years after the Council of Nicea (325AD), before they started working on the canon. The earliest extant list of the books of the NT, in exactly the number and order in which we presently have them, is written by St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in his Festal letter #39 of 367AD
382AD = Council of Rome at which Pope Damasus started the process of defining a universal canon for the Church. The New Testament books are listed in their present number and order. Pope Damasus commissions St. Jerome to translate the canon into Latin which became the Latin Vulgate
393AD = The Council of Hippo, which began “arguing it out.” Canon proposed by St. Athanasius.
397AD = The Council of Carthage, which refined the canon for the Western Church, sending it back to Pope Innocent for ratification. In the East, the canonical process was hampered by a number of schisms (esp. within the Church of Antioch).
1545AD = Council of Trent, Accepting the canon currently used by the Catholic Church was made mandatory at this council. Prior to that it was up to the individual whether you accepted the Deuterocanonicals (seven books : Baruch, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Sirach, Tobit and Wisdom ; also certain additions to Esther and Daniel), as part of the Bible or not. Even at Trent there was a lot of disagreement. (end)
So the fact that there has never been any consensus or consistency as to what books are ‘divinely inspired’, is a HUGE RED FLAG that none of this was handed down by a Supernatural Being.
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EARLIEST FRAGMENT
You’re right about the earliest fragment of the New Testament* You’re right that all authors of the gospels (and Acts) are anonymous (with given names by later Christian authors). And there is nothing in the entire Bible that is extant, meaning everything is a copy. THE ENTIRE BIBLE, NOT ONE ORIGINAL COPY. But the earliest fragment we have is from the 2nd century. It’s from the book of John and it’s the “Rylands Library Papyrus P52”. But really, you can play on THEIR FIELD, THEIR RULES, THEIR REFS AND THEIR MOVING GOAL-POSTS and still whip their Azz. Use their own book against them. Their Master said that they would not only do what he did but even GREATER things shall they do (John 14:12-14). Extraordinary Claims require Extraordinary Evidence. Jesus also sent them out with the Great Commission in Mark 16 and in the latter half of that chapter it says that the disciples were not only preaching the ‘word’ but they had SIGNS AND MIRACLES to confirm what they were preaching about. Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 that the faith of a mustard seed (implying the smallest amount of faith) can move mountains.
In Acts chapter 5, the Apostles were out doing so many miracles in the STREETS (not behind closed doors where it was FAKE) that people caught wind of it and people from OTHER CITIES / TOWNS were bringing their sick, maimed, injured, etc.. into the streets of Jerusalem to be healed by the apostles as well (again, not behind close doors where they can FAKE IT like Benny Hinn). Where do you see this type of faith in today’s Christian circles? Where are they clearing out hospitals like the Apostles did in Acts 5? According to their own book, and their own standards, do these Christians even have faith themselves? They want us to believe in something that they themselves don’t believe in! Their ACTIONS BETRAY THEIR SPEECH!
And here’s the one that seals the deal. In John chapter 17, Jesus prays an epic prayer that not only would his 12 be one as he and his father were one, but that all those who believe on their message, that they too would become one as they are all one. Jesus’s own prayer was not answered!! From the beginning of Christendom, there has never been a time when all the believers in Christ were ‘ONE’. There have always been many factions and divisions and denominations. If this god didn’t even answer the prayer of his only begotten son, why pray to him at all?! He’s clearly not going to hear it or answer it.
And Jesus also said that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there in the midst of them and if any 2 people should agree as in touching one thing on earth (in his name), it shall be done (Matthew 18:19-20). This is proven FALSE every single day when whole groups of people pray together and it is not answered. They have blind faith in a sky-daddy / sky-wizard that does not come through on his promises. Sounds a bit like the political world where people worship these BIG DADDY Politicians who sell them lies, and give them slogans that they will never follow through on or fulfill, but the people still worship these politicians no matter how much they deceive their constituents.
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*NO CONTEMPORARY WRITERS WROTE ABOUT JESUS OR DISCIPLES*
You’ll clearly hear this from Bart Ehrmann and he is correct. And there were several authors in the first century who would’ve surely noticed Jesus and wrote about him. Many NT texts even state that Jesus’ fame went far and wide. And who wouldn’t notice all the miracles that he (and his disciples / apostles) were doing?! John 20:30 and John 21:25 << in these two passages it basically says that Jesus did so many miracles that if you were to write them all down, the world couldn’t contain all the books written about them. How would no other contemporary author write about any of this?!
THE SILENCE THAT SCREAMS! The only citation we supposedly have of Jesus in the first century was from Josephus (37-100AD ; Jewish General / Leader who defected from Israel to Rome during the Roman-Jewish War 66-73AD and became the personal historian of the Flavian Caesars). It was known as the “Testimonium Flavianum”. But this was clearly a fabrication by a later Christian author (most likely Eusebius, the Christian historian for Emperor Constantine), because none of the Christian Fathers from the 1st to 3rd Centuries cited it (and some of them pored over the writings of Josephus, yet never once mention the Testimonium Flavianum), it wasn’t ‘discovered’ until Eusebius in the 4th Century.
And BTW, there were tons of other forgeries being written around this same time period as well, such as the Epistle of Seneca [the Younger]. Seneca The Younger lived during the first century and was the tutor for Nero Caesar. Some Christian author in the 4th century fabricated 14 letters being written back and forth between Seneca and the Apostle Paul, yet nowhere else do you find that Paul or Seneca knew each other. And many statements made by Christians such as Tertullian, made it clear that Seneca had never been introduced to the gospel of Christ and that had he known about the gospel message, he surely would’ve been a Christian.
You’ll also find that they also slip in the ‘Christians being tortured, lit as candles in Caesar’s gardens, thrown to lions, etc..’ into the letter, and the only other place you’ll find this (which is highly suspicious) are in the writings of Roman Historian Tacitus from the 2nd Century. No other Historian wrote about Nero throwing Christians to lions, being burnt as candles in his gardens, tortured, etc.. and surely, Josephus and another Roman Historian named Suetonius would’ve said that Nero blamed Christians for the fire at Rome (and subsequently chastised by Nero for this), but they never do. They place the blame squarely on Nero. So this portion of the historical narrative about Christians being targeted and tortured by Nero as punishment for the fire at Rome, also seems to be a later Christian interpolation into the historical annals.
Dennis MacDonald (I highly recommend a vid series based on his books entitled, “EXCAVATING THE EMPTY TOMB” by TruthSurge on YT)
Joseph Atwill (Caesar’s Messiah)
Francesco Carotta (Jesus was Caesar)
Dorothy Milne Murdock (better known by her pen names Acharya S and D. M. Murdock)
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SUPPOSED WRITINGS, TO AND FROM PONTIUS PILATE
The “Acts of Pilate” was a forgery written by later Christian authors. There were no actual extant versions from Pilate at all. All they had were copies from many centuries later. The oldest versions that Scholars estimate were from the 5th or 6th centuries, although earlier dates from the 2nd–4th centuries are possible as well; in particular, a compelling hypothesis is that the Acts were first written in the early 4th century as a counterattack to a rival pagan Acts of Pilate. The “Acts of Pilate” it had over 500 ancient manuscripts that survived in a variety of languages and versions, indicating it was translated, copied, and modified many times across Christendom. This was typical in the ANE (Ancient Near East) for the poets and tragedians to copy and MODIFY each other’s poetry. It also had many surviving copies of the Latin translation. It is by far the most popular and well-read of Pilate-related apocrypha, being compiled in the Gospel of Nicodemus (Evangelium Nicodemi) in the 9th century, which was a popular work among medieval European Christians. There are two main versions, usually referred to as A and B.
The Anaphora Pilati or “Report of Pontius Pilate” is a report purportedly written by Pilate to Emperor Tiberius describing Jesus’s execution and its aftermath. The text is estimated to more likely originate from the late 4th century or the 5th century. The oldest versions that survive are Greek versions from the 6th century, and Arabic and Karshuni versions from the 10th and 13th century.
The “Letter of Pilate to Herod” is a work purportedly written by Pontius Pilate to Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee. Greek and Syriac versions exist, although Greek is considered the original language of the letter. A Syriac document from the 5th or 6th century is the oldest version available to us today, however, and is seemingly incomplete in parts. The work is hypothesized to have originally been written in the 3rd or 4th century. It bears a number of similarities to the Paradosis Pilati, notably in its respect to Pilate and his wife converting. Unlike the Paradosis Pilati, it is not overtly anti-Jewish in its message. Despite the title, it is not part of a correspondence with the Letter of Herod to Pilate; it is a separate work, although the two letters would later be included in the same manuscripts.
The “Letter of Pilate to Tiberius” is a short letter that Pilate purportedly wrote Emperor Tiberius. It is a comparatively late text, as late as the Renaissance (15th to 16th century AD). It was originally written in Latin.
The “Letter of Tiberius to Pilate” is a Greek text purportedly from Emperor Tiberius to Pilate. Its date of authorship is unknown. It is hypothesized to be from comparatively late during medieval Christianity, around the 11th century at the earliest. Despite being written in Greek, it evinces later Western attitudes toward Pilate, considering him a criminal. The writer may have been familiar with the Acts of Pilate. While the letter alludes to an earlier letter from Pilate to Tiberius, this earlier letter does not appear to be the Anaphora Pilati, the Renaissance Letter of Pilate to Tiberius above, or any other extant similar work; it is unknown if this other letter was a mere rhetorical flourish, or a lost work.
The Mors Pilati or “The Death of Pilate Who Condemned Jesus” is a late medieval work written in Latin. Similar to the Letter of Tiberius to Pilate, it has a hostile attitude toward Pilate. It is an anonymous work that does not identify its author. While the modern form is from the 14th century, a version appears in the Golden Legend of the 1250s; this work may have been inspired by an excerpt from a work called the Historia Apocrypha from the 11th and 12th centuries, which itself might have been inspired by the Vindicta Salvatoris of the 8th and 9th centuries.
The Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea is a medieval legend written in Greek, purportedly by Joseph of Arimathea, the man who requested Jesus’s body to bury it. It chronicles the passion of Jesus as well as some of Jesus’s activities with Joseph after his resurrection. While Pilate is a minor player, it is usually included in the Pilate cycle due to its emphasis on Jesus’s trial and execution. The date it is written is unknown; the earliest manuscripts surviving are from the 12th century. The author of the work seems to be familiar with the letters of Herod to Pilate and the Acts of Pilate (Gospel of Nicodemus), so any time after the Acts of Pilate was written (approximately the 5th century) to the 12th century is possible for the date of the composition of the work. The work has an anti-Jewish agenda and betrays colossal ignorance of Jewish customs.
The “Paradosis Pilati” or “The Handing Over of Pilate” is an account of Pilate being brought to Rome for judgment before Emperor Tiberius for his execution of Jesus. It is written in Greek. The earliest surviving manuscripts are from the 12th century, but the work is hypothesized to be from the 4th or 5th century, similar to the Anaphora Pilati. The account may have been one of the earliest to name Pontius Pilate’s wife as “Procla”. It also describes Procla as being an earlier convert to Christianity than Pilate himself. Its very high regard for Pilate suggests an origin in Eastern Christianity. The more famous Acts of Pilate was possibly influenced by the Paradosis Pilati, or the same traditions that inspired it. Some scholars suggest that the Paradosis Pilati may have been a sequel of sorts to the Anaphora Pilati, describing Tiberius’s response; however, as the Paradosis Pilati does not describe an author, other scholars such as Ehrman.
The Vindicta Salvatoris or “The Vengeance of the Savior” is a medieval legend written in Latin. It is an anonymous work that does not identify its author. The oldest text found is the Saint-Omer manuscript of the 9th century, although scholars have argued the text likely originates from the 8th century. An Anglo-Saxon language (Old English) version exists from the 11th century as well that was used as an ancient source before the Saint-Omer version was discovered; Latin is still believed to be the original language of composition, with the Anglo-Saxon version a translation. Despite Pilate only featuring in a minor role, it is generally grouped with other works of the Pilate cycle, due to it including the legend of Veronica and Tiberius that features in other Pilate literature.
The work is deeply anti-Jewish, and is a revenge fantasy wherein the Jews suffer horrifically for their collective crime of killing the Messiah. Pilate is portrayed negatively as in the Western tradition, and has a terrible fate befall him as vengeance as well. The author of the work is quite ignorant of the geography of the province of Judea and the Roman Empire of the era. For example, the work writes that Titus was a client ruler of “Libiae” (rather than a Roman Emperor who would reign decades later); includes Herod the Great, Tiberius, Titus, and Vespasian as contemporaries (their lives and reigns were separated by decades); and incorrectly believes Auster to be the north wind (it is the southern wind). “Libiae” may mean either Libya (Roman North Africa) or Albi (in Gallia Aquitania), neither of which would be described as north of Judea. These errors suggest the late date of composition in a place far removed from the Eastern Mediterranean. The work is also an expansion of the Cura sanitatis Tiberii legend from the 6th and 7th centuries, wherein Saint Veronica cures Tiberius. The story possibly builds on traditions from the Aquitaine region, as the story associates Titus with Burdigala (Roman-era Bourdeaux) in what may be a nod toward including the author’s readers in the story.
Eusebius, in his work Church History, refers to a “Pagan Acts of Pilate” that was promoted during the reign of Emperor Maximinus Daza (310–313 AD), but it is a lost work that was not preserved. The document was distributed to towns and cities to be read as part of a government campaign against Christianity. Eusebius denounces it as a forgery, due to a chronological inconsistency between it and the timeline described in Josephus’s histories; its claimed date was before Pilate was appointed governor. Eusebius writes it was “full of every kind of blasphemy against Christ”;[presumably, it recorded that Jesus was a common criminal who had no special authority or power. As it was part of a propaganda campaign aimed at common people, it was likely short and simple: a list of charges against Jesus and an account of his trial, perhaps. It is possible that the Christian Acts of Pilate were written precisely as a counter to the pagan Acts of Pilate: a Christian author, angry at the pagan forgery, decided to record what “really” happened and produce a competing Acts of Pilate.
The “Gospel of Peter” is an apocryphal gospel that was not canonized by the early Church after accusations that it promoted docetism. It only exists in fragmentary form from a single surviving copy discovered in Egypt in 1886. One notable facet is that Jewish King Herod Antipas is given the responsibility for Jesus’s execution; Pilate washes his hands of the matter, but Herod and the Jewish judges refuse to do so. This is similar to how various works in the Pilate cycle seek to adjust blame for Jesus’s death from Pilate to the Jews.
The “Gospel of Gamaliel” is a hypothetical book speculated to exist by some scholars. While no ancient sources directly refer to such a gospel, Paulin Ladeuze and Carl Anton Baumstark first proposed that such a book existed in 1906. Scholars who believe such a book once existed have reconstructed it from a homily, the “Lament of Mary” (Laha Maryam) by a bishop named Cyriacus. They believe Laha Maryam extensively quotes the Gospel of Gamaliel; the Lament includes a section that leads with “I, Gamaliel” which caused the speculation that these sections were actually quoting an existing gospel. Other scholars believe that such inference is unwarranted, and these sections are simply written by Cyriacus from the perspective of Gamaliel. Reasonably complete manuscripts of Laha Maryam exist in both Ethiopian and Karshuni (Arabic). Regardless of whether Laha Maryam is quoting a lost gospel or is simply building on extant legends, it keeps to the Coptic and Ethiopian traditions in painting Pilate in an extremely positive light.
Christians were forging other letters too such as the Epistle of Seneca (The Younger). It has ton of anachronisms and errors. They were supposedly 14 letters written back and forth between Seneca and Apostle Paul. Study the early history of the Church, they were all liars and deceivers, interpolating and even adding and/or omitting tons from the Bible itself. Also look up Cento Poetry.
And BTW, the 9th Century is also when the FAKE FORGERY known as the “Donation of Constantine” was compiled as well as the Pseudo-Isidore Decretals. Over 500 years later, the Latin Writer named Lorenzo Valla exposed the Donation of Constantine and two Catholic Cardinals (John of Torquemada and Nicholas of Cusa) exposed the Isidore Decretals, which were over 100 supposed letters from Pope Clement in the first century all the way to Pope Gregory II in the 9th Century. Go do some research before you spout off this nonsense. It doesn’t help your case for High IQ people such as myself.
P.S. I did all the hard work for you with my other reference above about the Pseudo-Isidore Decretals and the “Donation of Constantine” forgeries by Christians around the 9th century, see below
The Gnostics and the Gnostic Christians (who were actually the original Christians) believed that this 3D realm was created by an evil deity known as the Demiurge (Yaldabaoth ; Samael ; Saklas). The first Christian Bible was compiled by Marcion (around c. 140AD) and his Bible only consisted of 2/3rds the book of Luke and Ten Pauline Epistles (there was no OT and no other NT books). Marcion was a Docetist / Marcionist Gnostic who believed the god of the Old Testament was this Demiurge figure. He (and many early Christians like him) believed that the serpent in the garden was actually CHRIST who was trying to free mankind from being ignorant, and free them from control of the Demiurge deity in the Old Testament.
And the way to ‘salvation’ was not through believing in Jesus dying on the cross, but rather, it was through ‘gnosis’ or a knowledge of who you are (remembering that you are a fragment of Goddess Sophia). Sophia was the mother of the Demiurge who ’emanated’ or procreated on her own, without her male counterpart (who was the Logos or the Christ). That’s why the Demiurge was so messed up. She tried to reprimand him for believing that he was the only god and the god above all other gods. So the Demiurge locked her up and took his mothers divinity. He then created human beings and put fragments of her divinity within each human being (in a rib-CAGE << caging his mother metaphor).
They believed that procreation was evil, since you were just bounding Sophia’s consciousness (divine soul) up inside another human and their only was out was to remember who they were, as a small piece of Sophia’s Divinity. Once you had this ‘gnosis’ or knowledge of who you were (which is what the Logos or Christ was sent to remind us of), then you can ascend back to the Pleroma (gnostic term for ‘Heaven’). The point here is that many early spiritualists and even Christians believed that the god of this world (the one who created it) was an evil force.
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*THE MIRACLES OF JESUS, SOME WERE COPIED FROM MYTHS AND SOME FROM HISTORICAL CLAIMS SURROUNDING EMPERORS*
In Suetonius’s “Lives of the Twelve Caesars” he writes about a couple miracles supposedly done by Emperor Vespasian when he was in Egypt. Vespasian goes to the Temple of Serapis where he is met by two men, one was lame and the other blind. These two men were told in a dream that Vespasian would be there to heal them and he does so. The way he healed the blind man is by spitting on his hands and rubbing it in his eyes and for the lame man, he touches his heel. The healing of the blind man is the exact miracle we find about Jesus in Mark 8 and John 9.
The first supposed miracle of Jesus was him turning water into wine. This was clearly an occultic ‘hint’ at the god Dionysus from Greek Mythology who was the god of wine. And if you read the stories of Dionysus (particularly in the story written by Greek Poet Euripides called “The Bacchae” which won the Dionysus Festival in 405BC) you’ll find that there are many narratives surrounding Dionysus that not only fit Jesus, but also fit Paul. Dionysus comes to Thebes and his cousin King Pentheus is in charge. Pentheus puts Dionysus in prison for trying to proselytize himself onto the people there. The way the people were given to the spirit of Dionysus was to get drunk on wine (this is very similar to Christians being in the holy ghost or holy spirit, and they speak in other tongues or dance around in a frenzy). Pentheus does not know that he has arrested Dionysus, he just thinks this is a mere follower of Dionysus, and before he’s put in jail, Dionysus (in disguise) says that AS MUCH AS YOU ARE DOING THIS TO ME, YOU ARE ALSO DOING THIS TO DIONYSUS HIMSELF.
This plays into two Christian motifs, Jesus said that he is the vine and his disciples are the branches (implying they are one through him), which is also another referential ‘hint’ at where this notion is coming from, since Dionysus was the god of the ‘vine’ and ‘wine’ (John 15). Another is in Matthew 25, where Jesus judges two sets of people. One set helped Jesus when he was poor, hungry, thirsty, in jail, etc.. and the other did not. They ask Jesus when they saw him and did (or did not) do those things for him. Jesus says that AS MUCH AS YE HAVE DONE THIS TO THE LEAST OF THESE MY BRETHREN, YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME. This notion of being ONE with his disciples, was copied or plagiarized from the poetic myths of Dionysus who made himself ONE with his disciples.
Dionysus causes a huge earthquake to happen which allows himself to go free from the prison cell. This is clearly where the Biblical author for Acts was drawing from in Acts chapter 16 when Paul and Silas were thrown in prison and a huge earthquake happens that releases them and all the other prisoners.
Also, Dionysus was known as the TWICE BORN (Born Again Motif). In Orphic Mystery tradition (6th Century BC), Dionysus (Zagreus) was born firstly by the god Zeus and virgin goddess Persephone (Queen of the Underworld). Zeus gives Dionysus the right to become his successor (as the 5th ruler on the throne in heaven over the entire universe). The jealous Hera (wife of Zeus) has the Titans rip the boy in shreds and eat him, but the heart is saved by goddess Athena.
Dionysus tried to elude their attacks by transforming into Zeus, Chronos, a young man, a lion, a horse, a serpent and finally a bull, the form in which he was torn apart. Zeus then hurls a lightning bolt at the Titans, and destroys them. Out of the ashes, humans are created with dual nature (one part from wicked sons of the earth – the Titans and the other part, a soul that is divine through the Titans’ eating the son of a god – Dionysus). Thus, when we find that followers of Dionysus follow the cult ritual of dividing up a bull and eating its raw flesh, and drinking wine in thanksgiving and remembrance of their god, it is not a stretch to argue that they believed they were eating the body and blood of their savior in order to reach a spiritual communion.
Dionysus was then born again from a mortal woman, Princess Semele, Daughter of the King of Thebes (Cadmus) and Zeus. Hera planted seeds of doubt in Semele’s mind that she had actually been impregnated by Zeus, so Semele demanded that Zeus make an oath on the River Styx that he reveal himself in all his glory. However, as no mortal can stand the sight of Zeus without dying, she was burnt up by his firebolts. Zeus rescued the child Dionysus from her womb and sewed him up in his thigh until he was ready to be born. Through this, he is called ‘THE TWICE-BORN’, being killed once, resurrected and born a second time, which spilled over to identify the initiates into the Dionysian cult, as they were said to be ‘BORN AGAIN.’
The Christians (as many of the ANE [Ancient Near East] religions, were notorious for copying each other) used the story of Dionysus as the blueprint for Jesus in many ways. Read “The Bacchae” by Euripides’ (Greek Poet from 5th Century BC) which is all about the demigod Dionysus, written in 410 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia Festival in 405 BC. The trial Dionysus has before King Pentheus is very reminiscent of the trial Jesus supposedly had before Pilate. The earthquake scene that allows Dionysus to walk free from prison, is very reminiscent of what happened when Paul and Silas were praying in the jail cell at midnight in the book of Acts chapter 16.
Dionysus was called THE TWICE-BORN, because according to the Orphic tradition (Orpheus was a Greek Poet, who supposedly existed before the 6th Century BC, and Orphism is traced back to the 5th Century BC) he was first born from Virgin Goddess Persephone (having sex with Zeus), then was killed by the Titans, the heart was saved by Zeus and then put into a mortal female’s womb (Princess Semele’ of Thebes). While he was still in Princess Semele’s womb, she was struck with lightning by beholding Zeus in all of his glory (no one could look at Zeus and survive). Then Zeus sewed Dionysus up in his thigh, until he was ready to be born, hence the moniker ‘TWICE-BORN’ (Two mothers – One mother a VIRGIN the other mother a MORTAL. He was born once, died, resurrected and born again, which is very similar to Jesus proclaiming that one must be BORN AGAIN or BORN A SECOND TIME).
The basic plot-line of the story goes like this, Zeus impregnates the VIRGIN GODDESS Persephone. Dionysus is born but Hera (jealous wife of Zeus) gets revenge by sending the Titans to devour Dionysus. The Goddess Athena saves Dionysus’ heart, and Zeus strikes the Titans with a lightning-bolt, which, out of the ashes, creates humans (part divine with a soul through the ashes of Dionysus – who was a SON OF GOD and the other part – part carnal flesh – through the ashes of the Titans). He was then crowned by Zeus with a crown of snakes (similar to crown of thorns). The whole plot-line of the Dionysus story is that after traveling the world teaching people his Dionysian mysteries and teaching people how to grow vineyards and make wine, he is now back in Thebes to enact (exact) vengeance upon his extended family for spreading the rumor that his mother lied about being impregnated by Zeus and mostly for not believing that he (Dionysus) was indeed, THE SON OF GOD (Son of Zeus).
“Young man, two are the forces most precious to mankind. The first is Demeter, the Goddess. She is the Earth — or any name you wish to call her — and she sustains humanity with solid food. Next came Dionysus, the son of the virgin, bringing the counterpart to bread: wine and the blessings of life’s flowing juices. His blood, the blood of the grape, lightens the burden of our mortal misery. Though himself a God, it is his blood we pour out to offer thanks to the Gods. And through him, we are blessed.” ― Quote by Euripides, The Bacchae Dionysus with satyrs. Interior of a cup painted by the Brygos Painter, Cabinet des Médailles.
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BTW, I forgot to mention that you should also look into the god “Serapis” who was a main blue-print for the composite character “Jesus” in the gospels. Also ties in to Vespasian doing MIRACLES in the temple of Serapis during his campaign in Egypt. Serapis himself was also a composite deity and each part of him, is very similar to the pieces that make up Jesus. After Alexander the Great died, the Greek Empire was split into 4 parts. Ptolemy I Soter was in charge of the region encompassing Egypt (especially Alexandria). He now had Greeks and Egyptians under his auspices. He created Serapis as a way to unify the Greeks and Egyptians under one god and one set of laws. This is similar to the Biblical reference of how Jesus became the god of the Jews and Gentiles (you’ll see this concept all throughout the book of Ephesians). Serapis was a syncretic composite god character of Greek gods and Egyptian gods. See below :
EGYPTIAN GODS
Osiris (God of resurrection ; God of the dead ; Judge in the Afterlife ; Jesus is the ‘resurrection’ and the judge of the dead)
Apis (Sacrificial Bull Deity just like Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb; this was the divine bull of the Egyptian capital Memphis, a manifestation of the god Ptah. Statuette of an Apis bull. Already in the most ancient times, the Egyptians venerated bulls, animals that represented fertility. “Strong bull” was a common title for creator gods and kings.)
GREEK GODS
Zeus (Father god above all gods ; Jesus said he and his father are ONE)
Helios (the Sun God ; Jesus was the Sun of God)
Asclepius (he was the god of healing and medicine ; this is where the miracle healings aspect comes from)
Dionysus (God of the Vine and Wine ; Jesus was the vine and turned water into wine as his first miracle).
Hades (God of the Underworld)
So you see here, all these composite characters not only comprise the characteristics of Serapis but also of Jesus. Ptolemy I Soter lived in the 4th Century BC. He took it further and declared that he himself was this Serapis god IN THE FLESH (via being the Pharaoh), and gave himself the title “Soter” which in Greek meant “Savior.” (Any of this sound familiar?) The goal? Ptolemy wanted to unify the Greeks and Egyptians under one god (himself via Serapis) and under one set of laws through this ‘made-up / fake’ god called Serapis. Just like he used Serapis to unify the Greeks and Egyptians, this is the very same blueprint that the Romans used in creating Jesus Christ to unify the Jews and Gentiles under one god and one set of laws. Catch it yet?
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The Romans and Greeks adorned and worshiped ‘phallus deities’ as well
The pen!s represented fertility and was a sign of good luck. The longest running superstition is that of the EVIL EYE, where if someone is looking at you with contempt or even envy, it can have power to disrupt your life, so the way to combat this was to use an evil eye emblem or relic around your neck (Khamsa / Hamsa and the other was a Nazar). The other ways to ward of this ‘evil’ was to wear a flying pen!s amulet which represented the god known as Fascinus or Fascinum. They specifically put flying pen!s amulets around the necks of babies and children who they believed were the most susceptible to the EVIL EYE.
Other phallic gods were also used to ward off evil such as Priapus (they put statues of Priapus in gardens as a way to garner a lucky harvest). The Romans would actually wheel a large Fascinus Pen!s around the countryside during harvest time to bring an abundant harvest season to their fields. Another the Tinntinabulum, which was a wind chime or assemblage of bells. A tintinnabulum often took the form of a bronze ithyphallic figure or of a fascinum, a magico-religious phallus thought to ward off the evil eye and bring good fortune and prosperity.
There was another which was a Phallic Marriage Deity known as Mutunus Tutunus. They had a statue of him during weddings and the new bride would straddle him and ride him as a way to prepare herself for intercourse with her husband. But the point here is that they were using these charms, medallions, relics, etc.. (in the shape of pen!s deities) to ward off ‘evil’ similar to the way Christians use the Cross (looks like a pen!s and two balls) to ward off ‘evil’
Pausanias claimed to find the kneecap of the Giant Ajax who was a Greek Hero in the Mythical Trojan War Pausanias (Greek Traveler and Historian ; 2nd Century AD) believed the Greek mythologies were legit, including creatures such as griffins, giants and satyrs, but he made practical interpretations of organic remains, arguing that the skeletons of supposed giants he encountered had belonged to mortals, not deities. Pausanias once interviewed a man who lived along the banks of the Hellespont, in what is now Dardanelles, Turkey, and who had seen what he believed to be the giant skeleton of the Greek champion Ajax. Pausanias recounted the man’s description of the hero’s kneecap as “exactly the size of a discus for the boy’s pentathlon.” Considering discuses thrown by adult athletes range from 6.5 to 9 inches, this would put the size of Ajax’s kneecap at 5 to 6 inches across. Two things about this description are important. One is that it’s about the same size as the patella of a Miocene mastodon or rhinoceros. The other is that it’s not exactly the estimate you would make for a hero’s kneecap if you were trying to impress with hyperbole.
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*CHRISTIAN SAID I WALKED AWAY FROM CHRIST BECAUSE I NEVER HAD ANY FAITH – THESE CHRISTIANS ARE TRYING TO GET OTHERS TO BELIEVE IN SOMETHING THAT THEY THEMSELVES DON’T EVEN BELIEVE = THEIR ACTIONS BETRAY THEIR SPEECH*
I never had ‘faith’ you say?! Think hard about yourself and all your Christian buddies and pals. Who of you has literally left everything (house, job, family, etc.) to live with a pastor and then literally preach and teach homeless on the streets? Which of you or your Christian buddies have even attempted to go do what your Master taught by trying to raise the dead, heal the sick, make the blind see, make the lame walk, etc.?
I’ve done all these things ( in accordance with Matthew 6:19-34 and Luke 12:22-34 as well as Matthew 19:16-30 ; Mark 10:17-31 and Luke 18:18-30) just as Jesus told the rich young ruler that if he gave up all his wealth, gave to the poor and followed him, he would be made ‘perfect’. I took that Christian thing to the limit, no one could do anything but MATCH. So if I had NO FAITH, then what does that say about YOURS? Because I know you dammn sure haven’t gone as far as I did.
You Christians are trying to get others to believe in something that you yourselves don’t even believe in!!!!!
Faith without works is DEAD (that’s what your book says). Your master said that you would do what he did and even GREATER THINGS shall ye do (John 14:12-14). In Mark 16 your master sent them out to preach the word and then it says that there were signs and miracles to CONFIRM the words they were preaching. Your master said the faith of a Mustard Seed (smallest amount of faith) could move mountains. According to that standard, do you Christians have ANY FAITH AT ALL?!
In Acts chapter 5, the apostles were doing so many miracles in the STREETS (not behind closed doors where it’s faked like Benny Hinn), that people from other towns were bringing their sick, maimed, injured, etc. into the STREETS to be healed too. Essentially, the Disciples in Acts 5 were CLEARING OUT HOSPITALS (not only in their own town but other towns as well). Why are you not out there doing these things like your Book and Master teaches?!
Your master would be right here asking you to get the beam out of your own eye before you reprimand anyone else (especially a dude like ME who has taken that Christian thing farther than you EVER WILL) about not having any faith. He’d ask you WHY DO YOU CALL ME LORD LORD AND NOT DO WHAT I SAID?! You have no faith!
You have no faith, you read words in a book that you yourselves don’t even understand. That’s why you’ve always had tons of denominations and you’ve always had division. You have a relationship with a book and it’s dependent upon your own flaky and flimsy interpretation of that book. There’s no real spiritual communication at all with any supernatural being. You can’t prove anything you preach or teach. Not even to YOURSELVES!
You can’t even heal your own self of the common cold, let alone go heal the sick and raise the dead like your master said you would be doing. Extraordinary claims require Extraordinary evidence. Christians have actually deceived their own selves into thinking that they really believe in that book, when all their ACTIONS prove otherwise. They have no more faith in that book than an atheist. Their ACTIONS prove it! So until you yourself have any faith in that book to go do even HALF of what I attempted, come holla at me.
*CHRISTIANS ARE NO BETTER THAN THE NWO TYRANTS – WE TRIED A CHRISTIAN WORLD ORDER FOR 1500+ YEARS*
Christians are part and parcel, in league with the N W O Tyrants. They don’t understand their own book, so they make these flimsy predictions about the ‘end times’ (when those clearly already took place as I’ve mentioned in a previous comment). So not only are they anticipating and expecting all these bad things to happen (based on faulty exegesis / interpretations of the eschatological portions of their Bibles), but they are actually HOPING it gets worse, thinking it will cause their sky-wizard to crack the clouds and come save them. And what’s crazy is, they have major cognitive dissonance, so on one hand, they say all this is supposed to happen and the Lord is allowing it to happen to fulfill prophecy and then they turn right around and say it’s evil and we must stop it !
They don’t know whether they’re coming or going! They are allowing all of this mischief and outright destruction to occur, thinking this is God at work. And look at all of the laws they’d wish to foist upon society. We already tried that CHRISTIAN WORLD ORDER for 1500+ years, with folk being tortured down in Castle Dungeons, drowning of witches (who were nothing more than Herbal Healers or Midwives), and burning people (and books) at the stake for petty crimes like Denying the Trinity. And you can be assured that if these Christians had the opportunity, they would do all these things again! They are Mini-Tyrants just like the N W O. They don’t truly believe in ‘freedom’. They want their draconian, ‘spiritually based’ Laws imposed on the world with an iron fist. They’ve already proven that! And their acquiescence to everything happening (as if it’s God’s doing) shows that they are just as much an enemy to the cause of freedom as anyone (or anything) else.
GOVERNMENT HAS A LONG LIST OF USING UNWITTING TEST SUBJECTS FOR THEIR EXPERIMENTS INCLUDING SOME WITHIN THE MK-ULTRA PROGRAM
1. OPERATION MIDNIGHT CLIMAX – This was one of the MK-Ultra sub-projects. The CIA set up unsuspecting / unwitting men by luring them into safehouses (and brothels) where they dosed them (without their knowledge) with drugs such as LSD to see what would happen to them. A few of the men died from this.
– Another off-shoot program of MK-Ultra was undertaken by Dr. Jose Delgado. Dr. Jose Delgado, ex-top Neuroscientist at Yale, wrote and published a book in ***1969***, entitled, “Physical Control of the Mind : Toward a Psycho-Civilized Society.”
He says this in the book, in regard to EMF Mind Control Technology :
“Autonomic and Somatic functions, individual and social behaviors, emotional and mental reactions may be evoked, maintained, modified, or inhibited, both in animals and humans, via electrical stimulation of specific cerebral structures. Physical control of many brain functions is a demonstrated FACT. It is even possible to follow intentions, the development of thoughts and even visual experiences.”
Inside the first page of the book, on the sleeve, it says this
“He shows how, by electrical stimulation of specific cerebral structures, movements can be induced by radio command, hostility may appear or disappear, social hierarchy can be modified, sexual behavior may be changed, and memory, emotions, and the thinking process may be influenced by remote control.” – Dr. Jose Delgado ; 1969
“Some day, armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain. – Quote by Dr. Jose Delgado (Yale MK-Ultra Neuroscientist), Congressional Record No. 262E, Vol. 118, 1974
“…Jose Delgado also invented implantable “chemotrodes” that could release precise amounts of drugs directly into the brain. In 1952, Delgado co-authored what he claims is the first peer-reviewed paper describing deep brain stimulation of humans. Over the next two decades, he implanted electrodes in some 25 subjects.
NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE FROM 1973 “PUTTING CHEMOTRODES INTO THE BRAIN THAT RELEASES DRUGS” BELOW
The MK-Ultra Program also experimented turning random people into Mind Controlled, Mass Shooter Assassins. They succeeded in having a woman (who was afraid of firearms) in a hypnotic state, to pick up a pistol, aim it at another person and pull the trigger.
2. TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT – The Tuskegee Experiment lasted from 1932 to 1972 where impoverished black airmen were UNAWARE they were being experimented on with syphilis to see what would happen to them. For 40 whole years they were in the dark about this! By 1947, penicillin was available but the doctors (numerous doctors everywhere they went) were denied this drug to treat their syphilis, because they wanted to see how syphilis progressed. They ended up infecting their wives and children as well. All test subjects were unaware they were being tested on. Also, from 1950 to 1972, disabled children in New York and Pennsylvania were infected purposely with viral hepatitis. The parents of these children were tricked by signing a consent form to give their disabled children simple ‘vacc!nes’. They lied and gave them hepatitis instead by feeding them a feces extract from those who were infected with hepatitis. Also in 1952, prisoners at the Ohio Penitentiary and even 300 healthy women were injected with Live Cancer Cells (HeLa Cells) without their knowledge or consent.
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3. OPERATION SEA-SPRAY – During a 1950s Navy Experiment, they sprayed two bacteria (Serratia Marcescens and Bacillus Globigii) into the fog just off the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area. They concluded that it was just enough for all 800,000 residents to breathe in the two bacteria. People started reporting U.T.I.s and a few of them died from the UTI. Cases of pneumonia increased. Doctors also wondered if this was in connection with the heart-valve infection outbreak at the same time. Declassified that the military never told the populace of San Francisco about this experiment beforehand.
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4. OPERATION LAC (LARGE AREA COVERAGE) & DORSET BIOLOGICAL WARFARE EXPERIMENTS – This leads to the next experiment where the governments of the UK and US were spraying the skies with various chemicals and bacteria from 1953 to 1975. They used agents, chemicals, stimulants and bacteria ranging from Zinc Cadmium Sulfide (cancer-causing agent) to phenol to anthrax. In one experiment, they sprayed zinc cadmium sulfide over Minnesota to see how far it would go, and it reached 1,000 miles away to New York! During the DICE Trials from 1971-1975, they found that just ONE PLANE could spray enough to reach a target 100 miles away, and cover 10,000 square miles of air with biological chemical spraying. Operation LAC was used to test the geographical range and dispersal patterns of biological and/or chemical weapons in the atmosphere. Again, none of the people they were testing on, had any idea what was happening.
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5. GUATEMALA SYPHILIS EXPERIMENTS 1946-1948 – Led by Doctor John Charles Cutler (who also participated in the Tuskegee Experiment), doctors from the US and Guatemala working with the US, infected prostitutes, soldiers, mental patients and prisoners with syphilis as well as other STDs such as gonorrhea. Doctors (CONSPIRING with each other) not only withheld information about their illnesses, but they also withheld the treatments which would have cured them. In one incident, Dr. Cutler used a female psychiatric patient named Berta, where he not only injected syphilis into her arm, but also gonorrheal pus from an infected male into Berta’s eyes, rectum and urethra. She ended up bleeding from her urethra and dying. All of this came out to the public in 2010, where Barak Obama ‘apologized’ for the unethical treatment of unwitting test subjects in Guatemala. Since then, lawsuits have been filed against certain agencies who helped with these experiments such as the Rockefeller Foundation and Johns Hopkins University.
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6. OPERATION BIG ITCH (OPERATIONS BIG BUZZ, DROP KICK & MAYDAY) – In the 1950s, the government used uninfected and infected (yellow fever) mosquitoes over urban populated areas. They dropped the mosquitoes out of airplanes as EW (Entomological Weapons) to see how insects (in this case, mosquitoes) would interrupt supply lines by damaging crops or direct harm by biting human civilians as well as combatants and enemies. Again, the people in these areas they dropped the mosquitoes over, such as big cities in Georgia, did not know, nor did they consent to having this done to them.
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7. PROJECT SHAD (SHIPBOARD HAZARD AND DEFENSE) – From 1963 to 1969, the government sprayed chemical and biological agents upon Military Ships, while thousands of soldiers were aboard the ships. They were dosed with VX and Sarin (both deadly nerve gases) as well as Zinc Cadmium Sulfide and Sulfur Dioxide (and a variety of other biological agents). Again, none of the soldiers were forewarned this was happening and none of them were given any protective clothing.
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8. MANHATTAN PROJECT & RADIATION EXPERIMENTS – During the Manhattan Project after WW2, they did major tests with unwitting subjects and conscientious objectors with radiation. The experiments included,
(a) feeding radioactive materials to babies and mentally disabled children, as well as orphans being fed irradiated milk
(b) administering radioactive iron to impoverished pregnant women (keyword, IMPOVERISHED, similar to the Tuskegee experiments, they tested the lowest of people, so don’t think…, ‘Why me? Who am I? I’m nobody! etc…’)
(c) exposing soldiers and prisoners to high levels of radiation
(d) irradiating testicles of prisoners, which caused severe health defects
(e) exhuming bodies from graveyards to test them for radiation (without the consent of the families of the deceased)
In 1994, Bill Clinton apologized for these unethical radiation tests upon unwitting ‘guinea pigs’. These experiments were funded by the United States Department of Defense (DOD), United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and United States Public Health Services.
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9. COINTELPRO FBI STALKING PROGRAM (1950s-1970s)
COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program), conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1956 to 1971 to discredit and neutralize organizations considered subversive to U.S. political stability. It was covert and often used extralegal means to criminalize various forms of political struggle and derail several social movements, such as those for Civil Rights and Puerto Rican independence. The stated goals of COINTELPRO were to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” those persons or organizations that the FBI decided were “Enemies of the State.”
Tactics included these below :
(a) Intense surveillance
(b) Organizational infiltration
(c) Anonymous mailings
(d) Police harassment
(e) Fake Propaganda
(f) Smear Campaigns
(g) Violent Attacks by Agents
(h) Destroy Anti-War movements and keep tabs on Activists
The FBI even financed, armed, and controlled an extreme right-wing group of former members of the Minutemen anti-communist paramilitary organization, transforming it into a group called the Secret Army Organization that targeted groups, activists, and leaders involved in the Anti-War Movement, using both intimidation and violent acts.
COINTELPRO was exposed by activists in 1971, when they raided the FBI and stole documents on all of their stalking and harassment tactics.
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10. ZERSETZUNG – EAST GERMAN STALKING PROGRAM (1950s-1990s)
The FBI learned everything they knew for their COINTELPRO stalking program, from East Germany’s “Zersetzung” program (1950s-1980s). Tactics for Zersetzung included these below
(a) Disruption and Surveillance of the Target’s private and family life (i.e. destroying relationships, career, etc.)
(b) Psychological attacks such as breaking into homes and subtly manipulating contents to gaslight the target
(c) Moving furniture, altering timing of alarms, removing pictures from walls or replacing a variety of tea with another
(d) Property Damage
(e) Sabotage of cars (i.e. cutting brakes or slashing tires for example)
(f) Purposely misdiagnosing a person with a disease so they would receive incorrect medical treatment
(g) Smear Campaigns
(h) Wiretapping
(i) Bugging
(j) Mysterious Phone Calls and Unnecessary Deliveries
SUMMARY – To deny and/or make light of the fact that the government has been testing on non-consenting test subjects (including the ‘nobodies’ of society) is very naive and this mindset can ONLY come from a lazy thinker or someone with an agenda. This is just a short-list, the cases of your governments (especially the American government) doing shady sh!t like this, even on THEIR OWN PEOPLE is as long and tall as the Statue of Liberty! If they were willing to do all of this then, why is it any different now?
The government is constantly being caught red-handed doing similar things today. They have no problem lying and staging events to take us to war, where they drop thousands of bombs every month on millions of impoverished people (men, women and babies) in the Middle East and Northern Africa. For anyone in the 21st Century to trust their government (especially the American one) with the internet at their fingertips to do a quick 10 minute google search of all their DECLASSIFIED and DOCUMENTED Crimes…, well…, these are the mentally ill people of society and you are the ones who need medicine for outright denying FACTS placed right before your face.
10. OPERATION TRAIL-DUST (“OPERATION RANCH-HAND” AND “OPERATION POPEYE”) – The term Operation Ranch-hand was the military code name for the spraying of herbicides from U.S. Air Force aircraft in Southeast Asia from 1962 through 1971. Ranch-hand sprayed about 19 million gallons of herbicide, 11 million of which consisted of Agent Orange. The spray fell mostly on the forest of South Vietnam, but some was used in Laos, and some killed crops to derive Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops of food. The military purpose for using herbicides on non-cropland was to remove the vegetation cover used by Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces for concealment.
Operation Popeye took place within the same period, from 1967 to 1972, to extend the monsoon season over Laos, specifically areas of the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. The operation seeded clouds with silver iodide, resulting in the targeted areas seeing an extension of the monsoon period an average of 30 to 45 days to wash out roads and food growing areas. As the continuous rainfall slowed down the truck traffic, it was considered relatively successful.
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OTHER CONSPIRACIES THAT TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE BELOW
We know things like MK-Ultra torture, mind control experiments or COINTELPRO – targeting activists and minorities, or HAVANA SYNDROME – Diplomats being targeted with DEWs Directed Energy Weapons, etc.. existed, these are more well-known but there’s a laundry list below of many you’ve not heard of)
PART 1 : FORGERIES IN THE GOSPELS – ROMANS BECOME ‘FISHERS OF MEN’ DURING THE ROMAN-JEWISH WAR 66-73AD
I’ve shown in the past that the gospels (which, the earliest copies we have, come from the 2nd Century, with most of it coming from 3rd and 4th Centuries) were clearly plagiarizing, not only from Josephus, but also, from other fictional and nonfictional sources. For now, I’m only showing the parallels between Josephus and the Gospels, because it then correlates to the parallels between Paul and Josephus. Here is an example below of the Romans becoming ‘Fishers of Men’ during the Roman-Jewish War 66-73AD :
Luke 3:21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. ….And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ Now Jesus … began his ministry. … “ (Luke 5) “ … Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,… all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken … Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’ So they … followed him.”
Matt. 11:21 Jesus prophesied “Woe to you, Chorazain (small town off northwestern coast of Sea of Galilee aka Lake of Gennesaret).”
Compare those to
Josephus, Wars 3.10 below
“Vespasian sends his son Titus to rout out a group of rebel Jews who were led by a man named ‘Jesus’, yes, you heard that right. And in later chapters of Josephus (Wars 5.6) we see that there are two other groups of rebel Jews led by two men named John and Simon (sound familiar? It’s very likely that whoever wrote the New Testament and Gospels, took real historical characters from the Roman-Jewish war, such as Jesus, Simon (Peter) and John and inverted them into mythological, Christian heroes – this was a literary phenomena already employed by the Poets and Tragedians, long before Christianity came on the scene. I’ll get into that more later). Titus makes a ‘Braveheart speech’ to his troops and then he goes into battle first and disperses Jesus and his rebel armies. After Titus routs them out in the city, many of them flee into boats and sail far out on the Lake of Galilee (Gennesaret). Titus sends word back to his father Vespasian about the ‘good news’ of his military victory, which pleases his father (the word ‘Gospel’ actually means “The good news of a military victory”), but wants more help with those who sailed out to sea. Vespasian went to the lake. [A long digression follows, describing the lake; the name Gennesareth is repeated 3x.] “Some have thought it (Sea of Galilee ; Gennesaret) to be a vein of the Nile, because it produces the Coracin fish as well as that lake does which is near to Alexandria.” [Vespasian’s vessels destroyed the rebels’ ships, leaving the rebels] “drowning at sea, killed by darts, had either their heads or their hands cut off, or…, ‘CAUGHT LIKE FISH INTO THE ROMAN VESSELS.'” (end)
The somewhat distinctive shared elements between the New Testament and Josephus passages are: Titus was a son (of God, no less) sent into battle by his father, where he ends up ‘fishing for men’; the location (Genessereth); and the involvement of a character named Jesus (which was, however, apparently a very common Judean name at the time, judging from the sheer number of possibly distinct Jesus characters mentioned in Josephus’s text.)
However, if we recognize that the Josephus passage contains an enigma, the situation becomes more interesting. He says: “Some have thought it [the lake of Genessereth] to be a vein of the Nile, because it produces the Coracin fish as well as that lake does which is near to Alexandria.” It’s obviously ridiculous that anyone would think that the Sea of Galilee (Genessereth) is a vein of the Nile: the ancients for millennia before Josephus knew their geography better than that. And, there is no lake anywhere near Alexandria, Egypt, because it’s in the Nile delta, where any body of water would be more akin to a swamp. Such absurdities should surely be a clue that Josephus’s warped sense of humor is coming into play. This is a lampoon (satirical mockery).
The answer to the riddle is that these rebel Jews were like fish, and that Hellenized Jews are found in great numbers in Alexandria, just as they are in the area near the Sea of Galilee. The “Coracin Fish” seems to be a pun on the name of the town “Chorazain”, which Jesus curses in the passage from Matthew. In Josephus’s narrative, we find that Titus is slaughtering or catching these “fish” (rebel Jews) by the thousands, which is inverted in the gospel accounts as saving these “fish” through preaching the ‘Gospel’. To make the point clear, Josephus ends the story with his all too graphic description of the Romans killing men with darts, drowning them, cutting their limbs off, or catching ‘men’ like a fisherman would catch fish, in their rout of the Jewish rebels at sea.
This warrior’s metaphor of “fishing for men” is a well-known literary trope; see these for example:
Homer’s ‘Odyssey 10.119-124’ : “…the mighty Laestrygonians [Giants] came thronging from all sides…. at once there rose throughout the ships a dreadful din, alike from men that were dying and from ships that were being crushed. And spearing them like fishes they bore them home, a loathly meal.”
‘Odyssey 12:245-255’ : “…but meanwhile Scylla seized from out the hollow ship six of my comrades who were the best in strength and in might. Turning my eyes to the swift ship and to the company of my men, even then I noted above me their feet and hands as they were raised aloft. To me they cried aloud, calling upon me by name for that last time in anguish of heart. And as a fisher on a jutting rock, when he casts in his baits as a snare to the little fishes, with his long pole lets down into the sea the horn of an ox of the steading, and then as he catches a fish flings it writhing ashore, even so were they drawn writhing up towards the cliffs. Then at her doors she devoured them shrieking and stretching out their hands toward me in their awful death-struggle. Most piteous did mine eyes behold that thing of all that I bore while I explored the paths of the sea.”
‘Odyssey 22:381-389’ : “…And Odysseus too gazed about all through his house to see if any man yet lived, and was hiding there, seeking to avoid black fate. But he found them one and all fallen in the blood and dust–all the host of them, like fishes that fishermen have drawn forth in the meshes of their net from the grey sea upon the curving beach, and they all lie heaped upon the sand, longing for the waves of the sea, and the bright sun takes away their life; even so now the wooers lay heaped upon each other.”
Speaking of Giants, in Greek Mythology, the Greek Warrior Giant named Ajax was the grandson of Aeacus, who was the son of god Zeus and Aegina (daughter of the river god Asopus), making Ajax of divine lineage. Clearly this was only mythology, yet, the Greek Traveler and Geographer of the 2nd Century named Pausanias claimed that they found a giant skeleton and a kneecap the size of discus which is around 5 to 6 inches across, on Sigeion near the Trojan Coast. They claimed this skeleton was that of Ajax from Homer’s Odyssey. This is just another reference to how the ancients actually believed the myths given by the poets, even though these myths were just that, nothing more than fable stories that weren’t true, or they were exaggerating actual events such as wars and wrapping them in mythology, as I’ve explained elsewhere that this literary tactic was known as euhemerism. Also, it’s very similar to Theseus whose ship was supposedly docked in the Athenian Harbor, yet, he too was only a mythological character. The Ancient Greeks and Romans for that matter, tried hard to give tangible evidence to the existence of their mythological gods and their demigod heroes, just like the Christians and Jews try to do the same for their Hebrew mythological characters.
But back on point here, the ancient readers of the New Testament, who learned their Homer in grammar school, might have been pleased to find that the Gospel authors appear to have inverted and ennobled this barbaric trope. However, in the final analysis, the joke is on the Christians, since Josephus’s humorous point is that the “Coracin fish” in the lake are the Jewish rebels that are being “fished” by the Romans. The New Testament passage is tightly coupled to the Josephus enigma by this distinctive concept of “Fishing for Men” as well as by the various less distinctive elements. Jesus’s spiritual gathering of his followers and his call for them to be “fishing for men” grimly foreshadow Titus’s actual slaughter of the Jews, occurring at the same location at Genessareth, allegedly forty years later.
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PART 2 : FORGERIES IN GOSPELS – JOSEPHUS DESCRIBES ROMANS FIGHTING ‘BEASTLY – DEMONIAC JEWS’ AT GADARA WHO JUMP INTO JORDAN RIVER – SAME PLACE “LAND OF GADARENES” JESUS CAST OUT LEGION OF DEMONS INTO ‘SWINE’
In Josephus (Wars 4.7) we meet the rebel leader John, who was “beginning to tyrannize” in the countryside. He attracted a following among the rebels, who “thought they should be safer themselves, if the causes of their past insolent actions should now be reduced to one head, and not to a great many.” Josephus explained that “as it is in a human body, if the principal part be inflamed, all the members are subject to the same distemper; so, by means of the sedition and disorder that was in the metropolis … had the wicked men that were in the country opportunity to ravage the same.” Men “joined in the conspiracy by parties, too small for an army, and too many for a gang of thieves … Nor was there now any part of Judea that was not in a miserable condition, as well as its most eminent city also.” Getting word of the threat, Vespasian “marched against Gadara”… the Jews were quickly surrounded by the Roman forces “and, like the wildest of wild beasts, rushed upon the point of others’ swords; so some of them were destroyed… and others were dispersed … But Placidus … slew all that he overtook, as far as Jordan; and when he had driven the whole multitude to the riverside … the number of those that were unwillingly forced to leap into Jordan was prodigious. There were besides two thousand and two hundred taken prisoners. A mighty prey was taken also, consisting of asses, and sheep, and camels, and oxen. … ”
In other words, Josephus is expounding a theory which likens the spread of “sedition” to a disease, in which the “distemper” of “one head” infects the multitude, who seek to abandon their free will and responsibility to that one individual. The rebels then become like wild beasts, fit to be destroyed. Elsewhere, Josephus explains his view that “Demons … are no other than the spirits of wicked men” (Wars 7.6.185), so by that definition, the Jewish rebel leader John and his followers may all be seen as demons.
Compare that to the Gospel account given in Mark 5 below
In Mark 5:1-20 (also Luke 8:26-39) Jesus has come to the “land of the Gadarenes.” He met a man (the demoniac) who was possessed “with an unclean spirit” who was always “crying, and cutting himself with stones.” Jesus asked the demoniac, “What is thy name?” The demoniac replied, “My name is Legion: for we are many. …. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding…. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine; and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea (they were about two thousand), and were choked in the sea.” The demoniac was healed, and “began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him.” The version of the story in Matthew (8:28-33) has Jesus meet two demon-possessed men, who accuse Jesus of “tormenting us before the time”.
There are several peculiar and enigmatic aspects to this pericope. Why should one man be possessed by a legion of demons? Why are swine being herded in such huge numbers, in an area where pork is taboo? Why does Matthew mention two demon possessed men, where Mark and Luke see only one demon possessed man? The enigma is solved by recognizing that Josephus’s description of the Jewish rebel leader John is an anti-type to the demoniac, just as the biblical Jesus meets a man who is possessed by demons, who are sent into wild beasts [pigs] and destroyed, so also John is like a demon who infects a multitude of Jewish radicals, and they become like animals to be destroyed. Within this conceptual framework, there are many specific verbal parallels: the location near Gadara ; the size of the parties “too small for an army, and too large for a gang of thieves” (which is a good definition of the size of a legion); wild beasts rushing; Jewish rebels (like the swine) forced into the sea; and the number “about two thousand” (or in Josephus, to be exact, “two thousand two hundred”) — although oddly, the two thousand biblical swine are destroyed, while the 2200 rebels in Josephus are captured. In Josephus, the Romans also capture a “mighty prey” of livestock, but no swine, presumably because the swine have been drowned. Get it?
It’s suggested that perhaps the 2nd demoniac in Matthew’s version represents John’s brother Simon in Josephus, and that they are being tormented “before the time” because the time of their torment belongs later in the typological sequence in War of the Jews. Later on in Josephus’s account, the two leaders of the rebel Jews, John and Simon, are caught coming out of underground caverns or tombs. Josephus specifically states that Simon brought with him ‘stone-cutters’ to dig under the ground to find a safe passage out of Jerusalem (the demoniac was cutting himself with ‘sharp stones’ in Mark 5). The parallels of the ‘swine’ as well as the ‘stone-cutting’ or ‘stone-cutters’ between the Bible and Josephus, seem to be just a few of many. The demoniac supposedly had a ‘legion’ of devils inside of him and he is in the cemetery or tombs. This could be a play on the ‘ghosts’ of the dead in the cemetery, as a trope of Simon and John in Josephus, who brought what could be considered a ‘legion’ of Jews (two thousand and two hundred) underground with them to dig a way out of the city as though they were demons under the ground (the living dead, under the ground in caverns or tombs). According to Josephus in Wars 7.6.3, demons were nothing more than the ghosts of evil men. Then we find a mixture of elements from other parts of the gospels here as well. It seems many parts of Josephus’s Wars, were rearranged and slightly modified and even inverted in the gospels.
The Jews digging, hit a dead-end and Simon decides to put on a white frock and a royal purple cloak (Wars 7.2 ; also see Wars 6.9), and ascend out from the ground, as if he were a Judean King, where the temple had been (after it had just been destroyed). The Romans were astonished at the sight of Simon at first as if they’d just seen a ghost or a man (or a king of the Jews wink wink ; see Matt 27:37 ; Mark 15:26 ; Luke 23:38 ; John 19:19) rise from the dead from the place where the Temple was destroyed, but Simon asks for their commander and gives himself up willingly. This sounds very similar to Jesus giving himself up willingly to be crucified and at his crucifixion, the temple was rent in two by an earthquake, with dead Jews coming out of their ‘tombs’, to walk the city of Jerusalem and many were astonished when they saw them (Luke 22-23 ; Mark 15 ; Matthew 27), as well as similar to Jesus rising from the dead.
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P.S. – PART 2 CONTINUED
The Roman Centurion at Jesus’s crucifixion is also astonished and declares that Jesus was a just man. The “Jews coming out of the Tombs” reference is a lampoon of Simon and John, along with the 2,200 Jews who dug themselves underground and were caught, forcing them to come out of the cavern (like coming out of a tomb one could say) and go into bondage or death. They specifically come up from the place where the Temple had been destroyed and the gospel of Matthew seems to tie the temple being rent in two and the dead Jewish ‘zombies’ coming out of their cemetery, together, hinting at this real scenario in Josephus with Simon, John and the 2,200 Jews coming out of the caverns underground, near where the Temple had just been destroyed. They were astonished to see Simon at first because he wore a purple cloak, rising out of the ground near the temple, which could be seen as Jesus having the purple robe or cloak put upon him, and after his crucifixion the dead Jews rising out of their graves.
This is also another contradiction we find, as Jesus was supposedly wearing a scarlet (dark red) robe in Matthew 27, but in John 19 and Mark 15, he’s wearing a purple robe. We seem to find the answer to this discrepancy in Josephus Wars 6.8.3 where Titus allows the Treasurer of the Temple named Phineas and a Jewish priests named ‘Jesus’, to bring certain ornaments and items out from the holy temple to him. They bring out vials, cisterns, tables, and other relics made of gold and silver as well as veils and garments worn by the priests, which some were “scarlet” and some were “purple.”
I also want to add some more areas that mirror each other, from Josephus juxtaposed to the New Testament. Jesus said that he and his father were one (John 10:30). It seems that Vespasian (the father) and Titus (his son) were represented here, as there were scenes that Titus represented Jesus in the gospels and there were scenes where Vespasian was represented as Jesus in the gospels. Titus is specifically sent to Jerusalem by his father Vespasian, which is similar to Jesus being sent by his father [in heaven] to Israel. Titus finds himself in danger, surrounded by a multitude of Jews, as he is viewing the city of Jerusalem, but, seemingly like a magician escaping chains, Josephus says that Titus takes off on his horse through the midst of them (without shield or armor) and no matter how many darts were thrown at him, they all miraculously miss (Wars 5.2.2), which is similar to Luke 4:29-30 where the Jews had pushed Jesus out of the city to a cliff where they purposed to throw him off and it says that Jesus nonchalantly walks through the midst of them and is unharmed. (also see John 7:30 ; John 8:59 ; John 10:39).
Titus also seems to represent the Disciples in the scene prior to the Olivet Discourse in Matt 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, where they were telling Jesus how magnificent the buildings were, as well as the precious stones and gifts adorned upon the Temple, but Jesus tells them not to marvel because all those buildings and the temple itself would not have one stone standing upon another (implying they’d all be destroyed). We see Titus admiring the vastness and strength of the temple, the towers and the buildings round-bout it in Wars 6.9.1, which reads, “Now when Titus was come into this [upper] city, he admired not only some other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong towers which the tyrants, in their mad conduct, had relinquished. For when he [Titus] saw their solid altitude, and the largeness of their several stones, and the exactness of their joints; as also how great was their breadth, and how extensive their length, he expressed himself after the manner following: “We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war: and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications. For what could the hands of men, or any machines, do towards overthrowing these towers?” At which time he had many such discourses to his friends.”
Titus tries to reason with the Jews, sending Josephus to reason with them first (Wars 5.9.3 ; 5.9.4 ; 6.2.1 ; 6.2.2 ; 6.7.2), where Josephus goes on a tangent similar to that of Peter in Acts 2 and Stephen in Acts 7, recalling all the things the Old Testament said in regard to what their god had done for the Hebrew nation.
Josephus exhorts them to repent and to peacefully submit to Rome, when he says, ” …there is a place left for your preservation, if you be willing to accept of it: and God is easily reconciled to those that confess their faults, and repent of them…”, which sounds very reminiscent of James 5:16.
Josephus then says, “…hearken to me, that you may be informed, how you fight, not only against the Romans, but against God himself…”, which is essentially what God told Paul, when Paul was knocked from his horse on the road to Damascus, where he tells Paul that he kicks against the pricks by murdering Christians in Acts 9.
Josephus ends his long spiel by saying, “…take my own blood, as a reward, if it may but procure your preservation. For I am ready to die; in case you will but return to a sound mind after my death.”, which is identical to what Paul said in Romans 9:3, where Paul says with sorrow, “…for I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race [Jews],”. It should also be noted that Paul was supposedly born in Rome, yet he is a Jew, making him a Jew and also a Roman citizen, which seems to be a cloaked reference to Josephus, who was a Jew and defected to Rome during the war, becoming a Roman citizen.
Titus even extends his hand of mercy several times to them (Wars 5.6.2 ; 5.7.4 ; 5.8.1 ; 5.9.1) and even felt sorrowful at the sight of how the famine had killed many Jews in the city and raised his hands to heaven and declared to God that this was not his doing (Wars 5.12.4). Titus reminds them of how the Romans had allowed the Jews to live in peace and would allow them to give donations to their holy house without taking account of the treasury [even when they were enemies of Rome], causing the Jews to become even more wealthy than Rome (Wars 6.6.2). He declared that he unwillingly came to fight Jerusalem on the orders of his father Vespasian, while he and his father Vespasian were in Egypt, and was excited to hear [before the war] that many of the Jews wanted peace, but he eventually finds out that this report is untrue. Titus and the Romans even seemed to have more respect for their Jewish holy temple than the Jews did, which Josephus relates (Wars 6.2.4 ; 6.4), that Titus was asking why they [Jews] were polluting their holy temple with the dead bodies of not only foreigners but also of Jews, and says that if they will repent and give up their fight, he will preserve their holy house and their lives, but they would not, so Titus continues onward in his fight against them.
Titus finally destroys the entire city and sends the Jewish rebel leader John to Rome, where he was imprisoned for life and could have presumably been the one the Romans forced to published the gospel of John (or it was simply written and ‘published’ in his name), just as the biblical demon possessed man, who was freed from the demons in Mark 5, took the opportunity to publish what Jesus had done for him, in Decapolis. Simon the Tyrant was either thrown from Tarpeian Rock or was decapitated. Titus then holds a tribunal, where each man who was obedient and faithful in valiant warfare, would receive certain rewards and gifts for how well they fought.
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P.S.S. – PART 2 CONTINUED
Josephus Wars 7.1.3 says, “Hereupon Titus ordered those, whose business it was, to read the list of all that had performed great exploits in this war. Whom he called to him by their names, and commended them before the company; and rejoiced in them in the same manner as a man would have rejoiced in his own exploits. He also put on their heads crowns of gold, and golden ornaments about their necks, and gave them long spears of gold, and ensigns that were made of silver, and removed every one of them to an higher rank. And besides this, he plentifully distributed among them, out of the spoils, and the other prey they had taken, silver, and gold, and garments. So when they had all these honours bestowed on them, according to his own appointment made to every one, and he had wished all sorts of happiness to the whole army,…”
Jesus had very similar sentiments in the gospels, he extended his hand of mercy to them, he healed them, and on one occasion coming into the city (Luke 19) and another occasion in the temple (Matt 23), he weeps over it, knowing that the enemies [Romans] would set up embankments on their walls and barricade them in on all sides, and expresses how he wished to protect them as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings (Luke 13), but they would not repent of all their sins, manslaughter and even murdering righteous Jews in the temple courts, so their holy house would be destroyed and left desolate. In Matthew 22 and Luke 19 also correspond to Titus, as it gives a couple parables by Jesus about a king who is punishing those who would not obey him or not let them be ruled by him. Titus extends his hand for the Jews to allow themselves to be ruled by his authority and he would grant them peace, but they continually refuse (except for a few who flee to Titus and are spared or ‘saved’ by Titus). Jesus rewards his obedient followers, who submit to him until the end, no matter what distresses, trials or tribulations [even death] they had to face during the siege on Jerusalem and were given gifts and crowns (James 1:12 ; 2 Corinthians 5:10 ; 2 Timothy 4:7-8 ; 1 Peter 5:4 ; Revelation 2:10 ; Revelation 3:11 ; Revelation 22:12). There’s a clear mirroring effect from Titus in Josephus to Jesus.
Vespasian, too, heralded similarities in Josephus’s ‘Wars’ to Jesus of the Bible. As I’ve shown in another place, he and his son Titus were regarded by Josephus, Suetonius and Tacitus as the one to fulfill the prophecies in the Old Testament (Numbers 24:17-19 Balaam’s prophecy) about men coming from Judea who would rule the world or habitable earth. Joseph Atwill, author of ‘Caesar’s Messiah’, also asserts that there was satire in the New Testament in regard to the New Root and Branch (Romans 11:17-24 ; also see Isaiah 11:1-2 ; Zechariah 3:8 ; Revelation 5:5 ; Revelation 22:16).
Atwill wrote: “The purpose of this particular satire is to document that the ‘root’ and ‘branch’ of the Judaic messianic lineage has been destroyed and that a Roman lineage has been ‘grafted on’ in its place.” This could certainly have been added as a way to cause those prophecies to come to pass through Romans, rather than one from the lineage of the Jews. Joseph Atwill also sees more satire in the gospels and Josephus, in regard to the Testimonium Flavianum and Jesus’s death and resurrection.
Atwill argues that the Testimonium Flavianum (Josephus’s Antiquities 18.3) is genuine because he sees it as the introduction to a literary triptych (a work of art divided into three parts that can be folded up or displayed wide open). Immediately following the Testimonium Flavianum is the story of Decius Mundus, who pretends to be the god Anubis (Egyptian god of death and mummification), to trick a woman named Paulina into having sex. Atwill sees Decius’ name as a pun on Publius Decius Mus (340 BC ; Roman Official who sacrificed his life to allow his army to win a war). As the story continues, Paulina’s husband Saturninus agrees that it would be no sin for Paulina to have sex with a god. So Paulina and Decius Mundus sleep together, but Mundus returns on the third day to boast that he is not a god. Atwill argues that Mundus’ return is a parody of Jesus’ resurrection, and that his worshippers Paulina and Saturninus have obviously been swindled. Albert Bell, in his paper “Josephus the Satirist?”, speculated that the satirical nature of the Decius Mundus story was understood in the 4th century. According to Bell, the author of pseudo-Hegesippus may have elaborated on the joke by making Paulina become possibly pregnant by Anubis, thus making her parody of the Virgin Mary.
But as to Vespasian, again, he was the fourth of four emperors during the year 69AD. Rome was on the verge of civil war and disorder after Nero’s death and it was finally Vespasian that they voted on to become Emperor and bring order back. He was in Alexandria, Egypt when he was chosen and the people were awaiting his triumphant return to the city of Rome. While in Alexandria he had performed two supposed miracles, one spitting in the eyes of a blind man and healing a lame man, in the temple of Serapis. This is right before his return to Rome, the people were anticipating his return and desiring it so much that it was as if he had already come back within their minds, because they wished to see their new ‘savior’.
As he is entering the city, Josephus writes this in Wars 7.4.1,
“…his coming was much desired by all the Italian cities; and that Rome especially received him with great alacrity and splendor, betook himself to rejoicing and pleasures, to a great degree; as now freed from the sollicitude he had been under, after the most agreeable manner. For all men that were in Italy shewed their respects to him in their minds, before he came thither; as if he were already come: as esteeming the very expectation they had of him to be his real presence, on account of the great desires they had to see him; and because the good will they bore him was intirely free and unconstrained. For it was a desirable thing to the senate, who well remembered the calamities they had undergone in the late changes of their governors, to receive a governor who was adorned with the gravity of old age, and with the highest skill in the actions of war, whose advancement would be, as they knew, for nothing else but for the preservation of those that were to be governed. Moreover, the people had been so harassed by their civil miseries, that they were still more earnest for his coming immediately: as supposing they should then be firmly delivered from their calamities, and believed they should then recover their secure tranquillity and prosperity. And for the soldiery, they had the principal regard to him; for they were chiefly apprized of his great exploits in war. And since they had experienced the want of skill, and want of courage in other commanders, they were very desirous to be freed from that great shame they had undergone by their means; and heartily wished to receive such a prince, as might be a security and an ornament to them. And as this good will to Vespasian was universal, those that enjoyed any remarkable dignities could not have patience enough to stay in Rome, but made haste to meet him at a very great distance from it. Nay indeed, none of the rest could endure the delay of seeing him; but did all pour out of the city in such crowds, and were so universally possessed with the opinion that it was easier and better for them to go out than to stay there, that this was the very first time that the city joyfully perceived itself almost empty of its citizens. For those that stayed within were fewer than those that went out. But as soon as the news was come that he was hard by, and those that had met him at first related with what good humour he received every one that came to him; then it was that the whole multitude that had remained in the city, with their wives and children, came into the road, and waited for him there. And for those whom he passed by they made all sorts of acclamations, on account of the joy they had to see him, and the pleasantness of his countenance; and styled him their benefactor, and saviour; and the only person who was worthy to be ruler of the city of Rome. And now the city was like a temple, full of garlands, and sweet odors. Nor was it easy for him to come to the royal palace, for the multitude of the people that stood about him, where yet at last he performed his sacrifices of thanksgiving to his household gods, for his safe return to the city.”
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P.S.S.S. – PART 2 CONTINUED
So we see here that the people had anticipated his coming so much that when he was afar off on his horse, the multitudes greeted him in the streets with praise as their benefactor and savior, they lay garlands (wreaths of flowers) all over the ground and the whole city smelled like a temple filled with sweet odor. So we see the chronology of events here, as him being chosen as Emperor while in Egypt, where he goes to the temple of Serapis to ask the god on the matters of state affairs after healing two men. He then rides into the city of Rome where he is praised by the multitudes of people who lay wreaths of flowers in the streets at his coming on his horse and declare that he is their ‘Savior.’
This is clearly masked in Matthew 21 and Luke 19, where Jesus is riding into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey (after performing all those miracles) and the people praise him, spreading their cloaks on the road as well as cut branches. They declare him as the king and in Luke 19 specifically, they shout loud to god in praise for all the miracles that Jesus had done.
Also, Jesus had warned that men’s hearts would fail them for fear of the things coming (Luke 21:26). We see in Wars 7.4.4 that Domitian (the other son of Vespasian) hears of the revolt of the Germans, he goes out to fight them. Josephus says this about what took place when they [Germans] heard Domitian was coming, “For as soon as ever the news of their revolt was come to Rome, and Cæsar Domitian was made acquainted with it, he made no delay, even at that his age, when he was exceeding young; but undertook this weighty affair. He had a courageous mind from his father, and had made greater improvements than belonged to such an age. Accordingly he marched against the barbarians immediately. Whereupon their hearts failed them at the very rumour of his approach: and they submitted themselves to him with fear.”
Here are a few others I found while reading through Josephus.
Josephus Wars 5.8.2 : “…For God had blinded their [Jews] minds for the transgressions they had been guilty of;”
Compare to
Romans 1:28-32 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
2nd Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Josephus Wars 5.9.3 “…Besides, men may well enough grudge at the dishonour of owning ignoble masters over them: but ought not to do so to those who have all things under their command. For what part of the world is there that hath escaped the Romans, unless it be such as are of no use for violent heat, or for violent cold? And evident it is that fortune is on all hands gone over to them: and that God, when he had gone round the nations with this dominion, is now settled in Italy. That moreover it is a strong and fixed law, even among brute beasts, as well as among men, to yield to those that are too strong for them: and to suffer those to have the dominion, who are too hard for the rest in war. For which reason it was, that their forefathers, who were far superior to them both in their souls, and bodies, and other advantages, did yet submit to the Romans. Which they would not have suffered, had they not known that God was with them.”
Compare to :
Romans 13:1-2 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
In Josephus Wars 5.13.5 it is referring to the Syrians and some of the Roman soldiers who had been ‘piercing’ and cutting open the Jews, to extract the gold from their bowels. Titus threatened anyone doing this with death. Here is the full passage from Josephus below :
“Titus then threatened, that he would put such men to death, if any of them were discovered to be so insolent as to do so again. Moreover, he gave it in charge to the legions, that they should make a search after such as were suspected, and should bring them to him. But it appeared that the love of money was too hard for all their dread of punishment; and a vehement desire of gain is natural to men, and no passion is so venturesome as covetousness. Otherwise such passions have certain bounds, and are subordinate to fear. But in reality it was God who condemned the whole nation, and turned every course that was taken for their preservation to their destruction.”
Compare to :
1st Timothy 6:9-10 “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Notice it says they have ‘pierced themselves’ with many griefs, which seems to be in jest of how the Syrians and Romans were ‘piercing’ the Jews to cut them open and extract the gold from their bellies, yet, their ‘love of wealth’ put them in danger because Titus would destroy anyone caught doing this, so their lust for greed and how it put them in danger seems to be mirrored in Paul’s letter to Timothy.
The parallels are so transparent that it boggles the mind that one could read these writings by Josephus, side by side with the Bible, and not understand the euphemisms and anti-types between them. There are many more and the puzzle pieces are scattered to the wind, so it’s a hard task to find them all and put it together. But these shown thus far should be enough to make you question the veracity and reliability of the Bible.
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*ADDENDUM TO SIMON AND JOHN COMING FORTH FROM THE TOMBS ~ PRIOR TO JULIUS CAESAR’S DEATH, THE SUN GOES DARK, EARTHQUAKES, TRUMPETS IN THE SKY, BLOOD DRIPPING CLOUDS AND GHOSTS WANDERED THE STREETS OF ROME*
This story I’m about to relay, was the blue-print for the Jewish Temple being split in two, after Jesus gave up the ghost on the cross, with earthquakes, the sky turning black, and dead Jews coming out of their graves (tombs/caverns) and walking into the city. This also corresponds to what took place in the poetry of Ovid in his work “Metamorphoses” (finished 8 CE) concerning the death and ascension of Julius Caesar as well as the divinity of Augustus Octavian Caesar (15.745-870), that before Julius’s death, there were trumpets heard blasting in the sky, weapons of war were clashing in the air (reminiscent of Josephus and Titus speaking of angels in glittering armor fighting in the clouds above Jerusalem), with blood dripping from black clouds, the sun was darkened (or dimmed), the moon was spattered with blood, random Ivory statues began to weep and cry, the ghosts of the dead wandered around Rome and earthquakes moved the city (sound familiar?).
Read the full excerpt from Ovid below : “Venus [Aphrodite] foresaw what was going to happen to her descendent Julius, and she cried throughout heaven. The Gods were moved, but nothing could alter Fate (15.779-81). Still, the Gods gave sure signs of the grief to come on earth. People heard trumpets in the sky and weapons clashed in black clouds. The sad image of the sun offered only a lurid light to the worried lands (785-6). Drops of blood fell among the clouds; the Morning Star was spattered with darkness; the Moon was spattered with blood; ivory statues cried in a thousand places (788-92). “They say that ghosts of the silent dead wandered around and that the city was moved by earthquakes” (797-8, umbrasque silentum erravisse ferunt motamque tremoribus urbem). Yet the forewarnings of the Gods could not stop the treachery or fated events. Venus tried to hide Julius in a cloud, but Jove read her the fates and explained that Julius had completed the time and finished the years he owed to the earth (816-7, hic sua conplevit … tempora, perfectis, quos terrae debuit, annis). Venus and Julius’ son Augustus will make it so that Julius will accede to heaven and be worshiped in temples (818-19, ut deus accedat caelo templisque colatur, tu facies natusque suus). “Meanwhile, make this spirit, taken from its murdered body, into the heavenly brightness (iubar) of a star, so that from his exalted dwelling place the divine Julius may always look down upon our Capitol and Forum” (840-2, ‘hanc animam interea caeso de corpore raptam / fac iubar, ut semper Capitolia nostra forumque / divus ab excelsa prospectet Iulius aede!’). And immediately Venus came to earth unseen and took Julius’ spirit from his body and bore him aloft to the celestial stars. He rose as a comet and shone as a star (843-850).”
Anyone familiar with the various Christian passion narratives (and the evolution of the story from Mark and Q-source through Matthew and Luke) knows that Matthew alone added to Mark’s account such elements about the earthquakes and dead Jews roaming the city of Jerusalem (Matt. 27:50-53). It is hard not to think such stories were influenced by earlier stories of Julius Caesar’s death. However, either way the savior in question is symbolic of nature, vegetation, the sun, and all of life.
I’ve shown in times past how the poets and authors in the ancient world would use deceptive literary tactics. In this case, they used the tactic of “inversion”. When Roman General Titus was encouraging his men to ascend upon a tower erected by the Jews during the Roman-Jewish War (66-73AD), Jewish Historian Josephus records what he said, in his historical annals below
So according to Titus, the way to become immortal and placed in ‘heaven’ was through dying in battle. This was his “Gospel” (Good News) message to his troops. Those who lived an ordinary life, even if they were perfect in every way (being clean of all defilements and spots of this world) they would still, according to Titus, have their soul and body perish in the grave.
COMPARE TO THE BIBLE BELOW
It seems the Biblical authors inverted this notion, stating that it was a spiritual war (2nd Corinthians 10) instead of a physical battle, and the way to eternal life was actually through becoming pure, blameless, spotless and not being defiled with worldly things (whereas Titus says that those are meaningless unless you also die in physical warfare).
𝟮 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝟭𝟬:𝟯-𝟰 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. — 𝗛𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝟲:𝟰-𝟲 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame — 𝗛𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝟭𝟬:𝟮𝟲-𝟮𝟳 If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all [his] adversaries. — 𝟮 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭:𝟭𝟬-𝟭𝟭 Therefore, brothers, strive to make your calling and election sure. For if you practice these things you will never stumble, and you will receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. — 𝟮 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟮:𝟮𝟬-𝟮𝟭 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. — 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝟭:𝟮𝟳 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. — 𝗘𝗽𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝟱:𝟮𝟳 …so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Joseph of Arimathea (Joseph Ben Arimathea) is similar to Josephus Ben Matthias (Yosef ben Matityahu) or simply, Josephus (who was the Jewish Historian during the Roman-Jewish War of 66-73AD). In all 4 gospel accounts, Joseph of Arimathea was the one who took Christ’s body off the cross (Jesus was one of three crucified, with the two thieves on either side of Jesus, yet Jesus was the only one to ‘recover’ or resurrect, right?) and offered the new tomb for him.
COMPARE THAT TO THIS BELOW
𝗜𝗻 𝗝𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗵𝘂𝘀’𝘀 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆, “𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗝𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗵𝘂𝘀, 𝟳𝟲” 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 : “And when I was sent by Titus Caesar with Cerealius, and a thousand horsemen, to a certain village called Thecoa, in order to know whether it were a place fit for a camp, as I came back, I saw many captives crucified, and remembered three of them as my former acquaintance. I was very sorry at this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him of them; so he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of them, in order to their recovery; yet two of them died under the physician’s hands, while the third recovered. But when Titus had composed the troubles in Judea, and conjectured that the lands which I had in Judea would bring me no profit, because a garrison to guard the country was afterward to pitch there, he gave me another country in the plain.” (end) — The similarity in the names of the main protagonist is also considerable. Also, in the same work, Josephus elucidated his distinguished ancestry. His grandfather, also named Joseph, begot Matthias his father in the tenth year of the reign of Archelaus (6AD). In the Greek text (the language Josephus wrote in) Joseph begot Matthias is rendered as Josepou Matthias. In Mark’s gospel, Joseph of Arimathea is written in Greek as Joseph apo Arimathias, the similarity is curious.
During the Roman-Jewish War (66-73AD) Josephus was a Jewish General fighting against Rome, but he eventually defects to Rome and becomes the personal historian for the Flavian Caesars (Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian) and wrote “War of the Jews”, which is an account of what took place during the war. Josephus then pleads with the Jews to surrender (with weeping for his people the Jews, just like Paul wrote his letters with tears to the churches – 2 Cor 12:4). Josephus ends his long spiel in ‘Wars 5.9.4’ by saying,
P.S. It should also be noted that Paul was supposedly born in Rome, yet he is a Jew, making him a Jew and also a Roman citizen, which seems to be a cloaked reference to Josephus, who was a Jew and defected to Rome during the war, becoming a Roman citizen.
Matthew 23:37-38 Jesus says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.”
“I then came to this city, as unwillingly sent by my father [Vespasian] and received melancholy injunctions from him. When I heard that the people were disposed to peace, I rejoiced at it. I exhorted you to leave off these proceedings before I began this war. I spared you, even when you had fought against me a great while. I gave my right hand, as security to the deserters. I observed what I had promised faithfully. When they fled to me, I had compassion on many of those I had taken captive. I tortured those that were eager for war, in order to restrain them. It was unwillingly that I brought my engines of war against your walls. I always prohibited my soldiers when they were set upon your slaughter, from their severity against you. After every victory I persuaded you to peace: as though I had been my self conquered.
When I came near your temple, I again departed from the laws of war, and exhorted you to spare your own sanctuary, and to preserve your holy house to yourselves. I allowed you a quiet exit out of it: and security for your preservation. Nay, if you had a mind, I gave you leave to fight in another place. Yet have you still despised every one of my proposals: and have set fire to your holy house with your own hands. And now, vile wretches, do you desire to treat with me by word of mouth? To what purpose is it that you would save such an holy house as this was, which is now destroyed? What preservation can you now desire, after the destruction of your temple?
Yet do you stand still at this very time in your armour. Nor can you bring yourselves so much as to pretend to be supplicants, even in this your utmost extremity. O miserable creatures! what is it you depend on? Are not your people dead? Is not your holy house gone? Is not your city in my power? And are not your own very lives in my hands? And do you still deem it a part of valour to die? However, I will not imitate your madness. If you throw down your arms, and deliver up your bodies to me, I grant you your lives. And I will act like a mild master of a family: what cannot be healed shall be punished: and the rest I will preserve for my own use.
To that offer of Titus’s they made this reply: that “They could not accept of it, because they had sworn never to do so. But they desired they might have leave to go through the wall that had been made about them, with their wives, and children. For that they would go into the desert, and leave the city to him.” At this Titus had great indignation: that when they were in the case of men already taken captives, they should pretend to make their own terms with him, as if they had been conquerors. So he ordered this proclamation to be made to them that,
“They should no more come out to him as deserters, nor hope for any farther security. For that he would henceforth spare no body: but fight them with his whole army: and that they must save themselves as well as they could. For that he would from henceforth treat them according to the laws of war.”So he gave orders to the soldiers both to burn, and to plunder the city. Who did nothing indeed that day: but on the next day they set fire to the repository of the archives, to Acra, to the council house, and to the place called Ophlas: at which time the fire proceeded as far as the palace of queen Helena, which was in the middle of Acra. The lanes also were burnt down; as were also those houses that were full of the dead bodies of such as were destroyed by famine.”
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