On Christian Origins
Subtitle: A New Thesis
Publisher: Vivid Publishing
Published: Jun 10, 2020
Place of publication: Perth, Australia
Format: paperback
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9781922409188
Copyright date: 2020
First sentence: The religion of Christianity began as a Jewish cult.
Description: More than two years have passed since the publication of Jesus of the
Books. Since then I have been studying coursework at a local university
in Roman and Greek history, Greek mythology and New Testament Greek
language. This study has not diminished my enthusiasm for the basic premise
— that the Roman-Jewish War was the catalyst that launched Christianity. If
anything, I am now more confident. Thinking about and discussing my ideas
with others has refined my opinions on a few points and has suggested some
new ones. The result is this edition, which is more extensive, more consistent
and I dare to assert, as far as the evidence will allow, even closer to the truth.
I would like to thank all those who took a punt on an unknown author
and a radical idea and bought the first book upon which this one is based. After
publishing I discovered that I was not the first to propose the idea that the year
70 was the critical date in the institution of Christianity. It was suggested by
Whittaker in 1904.1 However as he failed to provide any evidence, his thesis was
not taken up. Now, more than a hundred years later great strides in information
technology have enabled me in a relatively short space of time to find and make
public the evidence that Whitaker’s proposal lacked.
Notes: This book is an update of the book "Jesus of the Books."
Table of contents: label: PART 1; label: CHAPTER ONE; label: The baptism of Jesus
title: 7; label: No good evidence
title: 9; label: How religions arise
title: 10; label: How religions are defended
title: 11; label: CHAPTER TWO; label: The official church historian Eusebius
title: 15; label: The earliest evidence
title: 16; label: The absence of evidence
title: 19; label: The big three: Philo, Seneca and Josephus
title: 20; label: Other writers
title: 21; label: Crematius Cordus and Ancient Censorship
title: 23; label: Other sources that fail to mention Jesus or Christians
title: 24; label: Artefacts
title: 25; label: Archaeology
title: 28; label: The testimony of the Emperor Julian
title: 29; label: CHAPTER THREE; label: The Jewish legacy
title: 31; label: The Temple
title: 32; label: How was a Jew to live?
title: 34; label: The critical event
title: 35; label: CHAPTER FOUR; label: The causes of the War
title: 42; label: Anti-Jewish sentiment
title: 45; label: The scale of the War
title: 46; label: Deaths
title: 47; label: Transfer of wealth
title: 48; label: Slaves
title: 49; label: Economic benefits lost
title: 50; label: Implications for the diaspora Jews
title: 50; label: The human cost
title: 51; label: The end of Temple Judaism
title: 52; label: CHAPTER FIVE; label: God’s punishment
title: 54; label: The Jewish War as trauma
title: 58; label: The Jewish War and mental disorder
title: 60; label: Psychotrauma in the New Testament
title: 61; label: Cures conducted by World War 1 therapists
title: 64; label: CHAPTER SIX; label: Human pattern seeking strategy
title: 67; label: Finding Jesus on toast
title: 68; label: Magical thinking
title: 69; label: Illusory pattern perception and lack of control
title: 70; label: Worshipping in high places
title: 70; label: The sensed presence
title: 72; label: The auditory verbal hallucination
title: 74; label: Imagining a saviour
title: 75; label: Morale boosting stories
title: 76; label: Rationalizing beliefs
title: 78; label: The persistence of false beliefs
title: 79; label: CHAPTER SEVEN; label: The spontaneous belief
title: 80; label: How the catastrophic event helped religious recruitment
title: 80; label: A contest of opinions
title: 81; label: Early Christian practices mimic the Roman army
title: 82; label: Symbols and Power
title: 86; label: Prisoners for God
title: 87; label: Who was attracted to the new faith?
title: 90; label: A Christian conspiracy theory
title: 92; label: The gospel forgeries—a reinterpretation of events
title: 94; label: Accommodating the change psychologically
title: 95; label: Saving the world
title: 96; label: CHAPTER EIGHT; label: Essenes, Jewish Christians and Ebionites
title: 98; label: The name Ebion
title: 99; label: James the leader of the Jewish Christians
title: 100; label: The Essene connection
title: 101; label: Essenes lived in Jerusalem
title: 102; label: Doctrines of the Ebionites
title: 105; label: Jewish Christianity was forged in the Jewish War
title: 105; label: Making virtues out of necessity
title: 106; label: CHAPTER NINE; label: The Messiah King
title: 109; label: The mission of Jesus
title: 110; label: The nondescript slave
title: 111; label: A brief life of Paul (c.48–c.83)
title: 112; label: Paul and the War
title: 118; label: Hillel and Shammai
title: 118; label: CHAPTER TEN; label: What is faith?
title: 120; label: Paul’s bare Messiah
title: 121; label: The secret Messiah
title: 122; label: The deliberately hidden message
title: 123; label: Paul’s mystery gospel
title: 124; label: —if you are a true saveman then you must hide yourself
title: 125; label: The Messiah came but no one noticed
title: 125; label: Where was the evidence?
title: 126; label: The modern equivalent of an unwitnessed death and resurrection
title: 126; label: The invisible saviour
title: 127; label: The legacy of the origins of Christianity in Catholic doctrine
title: 129; label: CHAPTER ELEVEN; label: The death of Jesus as atonement
title: 130; label: The purpose of the statute
title: 131; label: The basic rite
title: 131; label: Exemplars from the time of the Maccabean revolt
title: 131; label: The Atonement in early Christianity
title: 133; label: The two goats, Jesus and Barabbas
title: 135; label: The triumphal entry into Jerusalem
title: 136; label: The origin of the Lord’s Supper
title: 137; label: Jesus in Hades
title: 139; label: A refrigerium?
title: 140; label: The supper of the gods
title: 141; label: CHAPTER TWELVE; label: Rome
title: 145; label: Isis
title: 146; label: A Roman prophecy
title: 151; label: The good news comes to Rome
title: 152; label: Clement, bishop of Rome
title: 153; label: The Jewish Christians in Rome
title: 154; label: Christian “unity” means Gentile Christian “unity”
title: 158; label: Paul the lawless one
title: 159; label: The parable of the wedding banquet
title: 159; label: Paul’s revelation
title: 161; label: The failed prediction
title: 162; label: CHAPTER THIRTEEN; label: The Gospels
title: 165; label: The Christians in Rome
title: 166; label: When were the gospels written
title: 167; label: The order of writing
title: 168; label: Matthew, originally a Jewish Christian gospel
title: 169; label: Jesus, the good man who meets the worst fate
title: 169; label: Jesus as the new Moses
title: 170; label: Where was the Jewish version of Matthew written?
title: 171; label: When was the Jewish Matthew written?
title: 172; label: The illusion of age
title: 172; label: Not from Judea
title: 174; label: Koine Greek
title: 175; label: Hebraism in the gospel of Matthew
title: 175; label: Paul and the Jewish version of Matthew
title: 177; label: The impetus for publication of the Gentile version
title: 177; label: Appropriation of the Jewish Matthew
title: 179; label: Why the legends surrounding the deaths of Peter and Paul are important
title: 180; label: Peter the symbol of unity
title: 180; label: CHAPTER FOURTEEN; label: Luke and Josephus
title: 182; label: The impetus for the writing of Luke-Acts
title: 186; label: John the Baptist in the gospels
title: 187; label: Luke’s other sources
title: 188; label: Augustus and Jesus
title: 189; label: Rabbinic parables
title: 190; label: The sermon on the mount
title: 191; label: Moral precepts from Cicero
title: 192; label: Mark
title: 195; label: CHAPTER FIFTEEN; label: The early history of the gospels
title: 198; label: How the literature was used
title: 199; label: Persecution
title: 199; label: The noble lie
title: 201; label: The gospels and the ostrich effect
title: 202; label: How to lie effectively
title: 202; label: The Great Apostasy
title: 203; label: Heresies
title: 204; label: The gospel of John
title: 205; label: Bringing the sacred ideas to Rome
title: 205; label: The Timeline
title: 208; label: PART 2; label: The Late Appearance of Christianity
title: 217; label: Evidence from church fathers; label: 1 Jesus living into his fifties
title: 218; label: 2 The list of Jerusalem bishops
title: 219; label: 3 The unbelievable longevity of some early Christian leaders
title: 219; label: 4 Polycarp is instructed by the apostles
title: 220; label: 5 The testimony of Quadratus
title: 221; label: 6 The Temple destroyed FIRST
title: 221; label: 7 Jerusalem falls, then Christians appear first in the ‘Decapolis’
title: 222; label: 8 Those “raised” by Jesus alive after 117
title: 223; label: 9 Aphrahat: “from the time the new...was abolished”
title: 223; label: 10 Clement of Rome
title: 224; label: 11 The evidence of Jerome
title: 225; label: 12 Heresies mentioned by Paul
title: 226; label: 13 The first persecution of Christians
title: 227; label: 14 Daniel, Tertullian and the coming of the “Leader”
title: 229; label: Evidence from astronomy; label: 15 The sign of a star
title: 232; label: 16 The sign of the sword
title: 233; label: Evidence from the New Testament; label: 17 Paul wrote after the Jews were punished
title: 235; label: 18 Paul wrote after the Temple was destroyed
title: 236; label: 19 Paul and the prominent Gospel character, John the Baptist
title: 238; label: 20 The witness of James as recorded in Acts
title: 239; label: 21 The parable of the widow and the unjust judge
title: 239; label: 22 Save us from the Romans
title: 240; label: 23 The gate of Nain
title: 242; label: 24 Jesus reports the murder of Zechariah which occurred in 69
title: 243; label: 25 Jesus and familial division
title: 243; label: 26 Baptised by fire
title: 245; label: 27 Poverty in Palestine
title: 247; label: 28 Taking the kingdom by force
title: 247; label: 29 I will destroy this temple
title: 248; label: 30 The consolation of Israel
title: 248; label: 31 The Acts of the Apostles is out of sync with its literary setting
title: 249; label: 32 Paul quotes from a text that was written after 70
title: 249; label: 33 Christ is “born” when Titus reign
title: 250; label: Evidence from extracanonical works; label: 34 The Epistle of Barnabas written after 70
title: 252; label: 35 Peter comes after Simon Magus
title: 253; label: 36 Jesus died in 59
title: 254; label: Numismatic evidence; label: 37 For the redemption of Jerusalem
title: 256; label: 38 Mary gives birth to Jesus under a date palm
title: 257; label: Jewish evidence; label: 39 The witness of the Jewish Aggadah, Part 1
title: 260; label: 40 The witness of the Jewish Aggadah, Part 2
title: 261; label: 41 The Evangelium: “since the day that you were exiled from your land”
title: 262; label: 42 The witness of Maimonides
title: 263; label: Evidence from Roman historians; label: 43 Messianic hopes were highest just prior to 66
title: 264; label: 44 Titus, the destruction of the Temple, Judaism and Christianity
title: 265; label: 45 Paul, circumcision and the poll tax
title: 265; label: Evidence from Josephus; label: 46 A new Roman religion predicted by the high priest Ananus in 69 CE
title: 268; label: 47 Praying for those in authority
title: 268; label: 48 There is no mention of Paul (or Christians) in Josephus’ histories
title: 269; label: 49 The Father and the Son
title: 270; label: Arguments from theology; label: 50 Domitian hates the shedding of sacrificial blood
title: 273; label: 51 Paul wrote after the law was ended
title: 274; label: 52 The believers are the spiritual stones of a new Temple
title: 275; label: 53 The destruction of the temple in 70 CE left a prophetic vacuum
title: 276; label: 54 The punishment of Jews not delayed
title: 277; label: 55 The Jerusalem survivors are called by God
title: 277; label: 56 The Way
title: 278; label: Conclusion
title: 280; label: Afterword, The Story of Moses Al-Dar’i
title: 283