Roman Piso

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The '''Roman Piso''' theory is a [[pseudohistory|pseudohistorical]] theory of the origins of [[Christianity]]. It states that a [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy]] of well-educated [[Roman Empire|Romans]] &mdash; the Piso family &mdash; wrote the [[New Testament]], particularly the [[Gospels]], as a social control mechanism. Its advocates call it "The New Classical Scholarship". Nobody else takes it seriously. (Not even [[Acharya S]] bought into it.<ref>http://freethoughtnation.com/contributing-writers/63-acharya-s/729-a-conversation-on-the-caesars-messiah-thesis.html</ref>)

The theory originated in Bruno Bauer's ''Christus und Caesaren'' (''Christ and the Caesars'') from 1877, which claimed that the Romans had authored the New Testament and that [[Josephus|Josephus Flavius]] was the inventor of [[Jesus]].<ref>''[http://sidneyrigdon.com/vern/1879BaurEng.htm Christ and the Caesars]'', English translation plus original German text</ref>

The Pisos are also claimed to have invented the Christian calendar,<ref>[http://www.fargonasphere.com/piso/ The True Authorship of the New Testament] (2006) ''Fargonasphere.com'' (archived from July 2, 2017).</ref> rather than it having been proposed around 525 and adopted in the 800s.<ref>http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/97jul/zero.htm</ref>

Joseph Atwill, an [[Shakespeare authorship|anti-Stratfordian]], in ''Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus'',<ref>[http://caesarsmessiah.com/blog/ The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus] by Joe Atwill</ref> claims that the events of Jesus' ministry in the Gospels parallel the military campaigns of Titus Flavius in Josephus' ''Wars of the Jews''.<ref>''Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus'' by Joseph Atwill (2011) CreateSpace. ISBN 1461096405.</ref> Atwill's theory is based on [[The Bible Code|Bible Code]]-style [[pareidolia]] applied to the four canonical Gospels (ignoring the forty-plus others) and apparently only in English translation (his claimed puns don't work in the original Greek). [[Conspiracy]] connoisseurs will delight at Atwill's explanation:<ref>[http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11201273.htm Ancient Confession Found: 'We Invented Jesus Christ'] by Ryan Gilmore (8 October 2013) ''PRWeb''.</ref>

{{quotebox|How could this go unnoticed in the most scrutinised books of all time? "Many of the parallels are conceptual or poetic, so they aren't all immediately obvious. After all, the authors did not want the average believer to see what they were doing, but they did want the alert reader to see it. An educated Roman in the ruling class would probably have recognised the literary game being played."}}

Other proponents include Abelard Reuchlin (the "Abelard Reuchlin Foundation" used to sell his 1979 pamphlet ''The True Authorship of the New Testament'' on the subject in the newspaper's small ads; he invented the supposed kingpin of the conspiracy, Arrius Calpurnius Piso), James Ballantyne Hannay and Jay Gallus, and an author who writes as "Roman Piso" (John Duran, who used to advocate this theory on [[Usenet]]).<ref>''Piso Christ: A Book of the New Classical Scholarship'' by Roman Piso with Jay Gallus (2010) Trafford Publishing. ISBN 142692996X.</ref>

A decent takedown of this nonsense is here,<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20080917150400/http://www.errantyears.com/1998/feb98/000498.html The Piso Page (was Re: Origins of Christianity)] by Greg, Nancy, and James Todd (8 Feb 1998 16:36:24 -0500; archived from September 17, 2008).</ref> a longer one  here,<ref>[http://www.tektonics.org/lp/pisocake.html On the "Roman Piso" Theory] by JPH. Tekton Aplogetics.</ref> and [[Richard Carrier]] knocks it out of the park here.<ref>[http://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/4664 Atwill's Cranked-up Jesus] by Richard Carrier on (October 9, 2013) ''Richard Carrier Blogs''.</ref>

==In real life==
{{wpl|Gaius Calpurnius Piso (conspirator)|Gaius Calpurnius Piso}} was a 1<sup>st</sup>-century Roman senator who gave his name to the ''actual'' {{wpl|Pisonian conspiracy||,}} a plot to usurp [[Roman emperor#Nero (54–68)|Nero]]. This had nothing to do with religious works over in Judea.

==See also==
*''[[Zeitgeist]]''
==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Bible woo]]

Categories: Pseudohistory, Conspiracy theories, Bible woo