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Bar Matthias: A Tale of the Christ: Did the Romans and Josephus write the New Testament?
The year in 73 C.E and the Emperor’s son, Titus, has a problem. For seven years Rome has fought to crush a Jewish Rebellion. Titus has seen how faith in a prophesied messiah, a saviour, who will be sent by God to drive the foreigners from Judea, has inspired the Jewish zealots to sacrifice their own lives against all odds and reason.
Titus is not averse to defeating his enemy in the field of war. Jerusalem has been destroyed, the Temple lies in ruins, its sacred contents plundered or burnt, hundreds of thousands have been killed. Yet Titus is a Roman, schooled in the art of co-opting the gods of defeated enemies into the service of Rome. He seeks a more long lasting solution.
Create a new Jewish messiah, one who preaches obedience to Rome, who teaches spiritual re-birth not armed resistance.
Fortuna favours Titus. A unique alignment. He has at his disposal all that he needs to write this New Testament. Titus The Jewish scripture scrolls looted from the Temple, the ideal source for the prophesies that will prove the new messiah’s authenticity.Josephus Bar Matthias, the captured rebel general now adopted into the ruling Flavian family. Josephus aspires to be a writer and to please the Flavians any way he can.His father, Vespasian, the most unlikely Emperor, from non-Patrician ancestors. He has used Serapis and Isis from Egypt to bolster his fragile Flavian rule. He has kept Josephus alive because Josephus told him that Vespasian was the fulfilment of Jewish prophesy, that a messiah would arise in Judea and become ruler of the world.Epaphroditus, wily and ruthless Imperial freedman. Twenty years before he led the first Roman mission to subvert the warlike messiah message that was being spread by zealots across the Jewish diaspora in the prelude to rebellion. Now he is ready to finish the job.Paul, whose vision told him that the messiah had already lived and given his own life, so that all may access the God of Abraham through Faith alone and not through observance of Jewish ritual. Paul has a theology but he has no humanising life-story for his messiah, with which to attract more followers. This is about to change.Princess Bernice, sister of King Agrippa, Titus’ lover. A woman too Jewish to be accepted by Rome as Titus’ wife and too Roman to be accepted by the Jews. She will make an impassioned plea that the new messiah reaches out to sinners and tax collectors such as she.The infrastructure of Roman scribes, Roman messengers, the pliable Imperial cult operating in every major region of the empire, everything needed to spread the testament the Flavians create.And Titus also has his jealous younger brother, Domitian, who watches resentfully as his father and brother endlessly shove their glorious shared victory in Judea, into his face. His time of vengeance against his brother’s work will come and the Flavian origins of the Christ cult will be forgotten.
Until now.
Titus is not averse to defeating his enemy in the field of war. Jerusalem has been destroyed, the Temple lies in ruins, its sacred contents plundered or burnt, hundreds of thousands have been killed. Yet Titus is a Roman, schooled in the art of co-opting the gods of defeated enemies into the service of Rome. He seeks a more long lasting solution.
Create a new Jewish messiah, one who preaches obedience to Rome, who teaches spiritual re-birth not armed resistance.
Fortuna favours Titus. A unique alignment. He has at his disposal all that he needs to write this New Testament. Titus The Jewish scripture scrolls looted from the Temple, the ideal source for the prophesies that will prove the new messiah’s authenticity.Josephus Bar Matthias, the captured rebel general now adopted into the ruling Flavian family. Josephus aspires to be a writer and to please the Flavians any way he can.His father, Vespasian, the most unlikely Emperor, from non-Patrician ancestors. He has used Serapis and Isis from Egypt to bolster his fragile Flavian rule. He has kept Josephus alive because Josephus told him that Vespasian was the fulfilment of Jewish prophesy, that a messiah would arise in Judea and become ruler of the world.Epaphroditus, wily and ruthless Imperial freedman. Twenty years before he led the first Roman mission to subvert the warlike messiah message that was being spread by zealots across the Jewish diaspora in the prelude to rebellion. Now he is ready to finish the job.Paul, whose vision told him that the messiah had already lived and given his own life, so that all may access the God of Abraham through Faith alone and not through observance of Jewish ritual. Paul has a theology but he has no humanising life-story for his messiah, with which to attract more followers. This is about to change.Princess Bernice, sister of King Agrippa, Titus’ lover. A woman too Jewish to be accepted by Rome as Titus’ wife and too Roman to be accepted by the Jews. She will make an impassioned plea that the new messiah reaches out to sinners and tax collectors such as she.The infrastructure of Roman scribes, Roman messengers, the pliable Imperial cult operating in every major region of the empire, everything needed to spread the testament the Flavians create.And Titus also has his jealous younger brother, Domitian, who watches resentfully as his father and brother endlessly shove their glorious shared victory in Judea, into his face. His time of vengeance against his brother’s work will come and the Flavian origins of the Christ cult will be forgotten.
Until now.
291 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 20, 2024
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