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Creating Chistianity: A Weapon Of Ancient Rome
A profound and controversial investigation of a complex theme - the war that led to the fall of Jerusalem and the creation of the Christian religion. The religious and political battle between the people of Judea and the Jewish and Roman aristocracies is presented in an unconventional narrative, which investigates ancient evidence, quotes from the work of respected authorities on the subject, and states controversial opinions openly. Its main conclusion is that the New Testament (the new law) was created by a powerful senatorial family called the Calpurnius Pisos, who had the full support of their relatives, the Herodian royal family (the family of ‘Herod the Great’), and the Flavian emperors, with the Piso family hiding their name within the Koine Greek scriptures. The result is a book that is both provocative and compelling. Henry Davis explains why the supposed Jewish Historian, Flavius Josephus, never existed, how the Book of Revelation presents the name of the Piso family member who oversaw the creation of the Christian scripture, and the reason the number 666 was changed to 616. Davis also explains the facts behind the personal and political reasons that led to the Roman and Jewish royal families creating a new religion, and how the Piso family used the literary techniques of the aristocracy to insert their names into the scriptures.
365 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 10, 2018
180 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Henry Davis
1 book3 followersHenry Davis is a historian with an Honours degree in Classical Studies from the Open University. Having struggled with anxiety all his life, he is proud to be a best selling author and is fully aware some his work will be seen as very controversial in certain areas of academia. His focus and passion is ancient history and he is currently investigating the aristocracies of Rome and Judea and unravelling their involvement in creating Christianity. His first book is available to be reviewed by UK academics in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament and he is currently busy finishing his next one.
If you haven't read his first book yet, it can be found in the Institute of Classical Studies library and on Amazon (US) (UK)
If you haven't read his first book yet, it can be found in the Institute of Classical Studies library and on Amazon (US) (UK)
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 4, 2021
Very logical, very well researched, and extremely compelling.
I like books that are thought-provoking and have the ability to change perspectives. A lot of books (too many to name) have attempted to uncover the reason Christianity grew, the most recent example I can think of is Bart D. Ehrman's book The Triumph of Christianity. Before I read this book, and I almost didn’t, my understanding of the early history of this religion came from the work of mainstream historians/scholars, including, Tom Holland, Bart Ehrman, Candida Moss, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, to name a few. My understanding was that the Christian disciples set about spreading the word of this new religion in the cities of the Empire, all the while enduring persecutions, the greatest of which being by Emperor Nero.
The information in this book turns that understanding on its head. The evidence the author examines and explains is incredibly logical, but also very controversial. The first part of the book investigates the claimed parallels between the Gospels and The Wars of the Jews. The second part makes the controversial claim that the historian known as Flavius Josephus did not exist. Most people I know have no idea who Flavius Josephus was, even the many Christians I know have no idea, which I have always considered odd, as I know that this individual is the only independent source to attest to the existence and fate of Jesus. Although his accounts cannot be read as providing accurate details about Jesus and the early Christians, his work 'Jewish Antiquities' provides intriguing snippets of how Jesus and some of those around him were viewed by an author who was writing around the same time as the creators of the Gospels – a very important point which becomes controversial in the second part of this book.
The author explains why the Roman-Jewish War took place, and gives information about how the Roman and Jewish aristocracies are related, with emphasis put on the Flavian and Calpurnius Pisos relationship to the Herodians.
In my opinion, this is a hugely controversial book, almost a rewrite of history if you will, that provides a logical explanation for the success of a religion which has little proof of its claims.
I like books that are thought-provoking and have the ability to change perspectives. A lot of books (too many to name) have attempted to uncover the reason Christianity grew, the most recent example I can think of is Bart D. Ehrman's book The Triumph of Christianity. Before I read this book, and I almost didn’t, my understanding of the early history of this religion came from the work of mainstream historians/scholars, including, Tom Holland, Bart Ehrman, Candida Moss, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, to name a few. My understanding was that the Christian disciples set about spreading the word of this new religion in the cities of the Empire, all the while enduring persecutions, the greatest of which being by Emperor Nero.
The information in this book turns that understanding on its head. The evidence the author examines and explains is incredibly logical, but also very controversial. The first part of the book investigates the claimed parallels between the Gospels and The Wars of the Jews. The second part makes the controversial claim that the historian known as Flavius Josephus did not exist. Most people I know have no idea who Flavius Josephus was, even the many Christians I know have no idea, which I have always considered odd, as I know that this individual is the only independent source to attest to the existence and fate of Jesus. Although his accounts cannot be read as providing accurate details about Jesus and the early Christians, his work 'Jewish Antiquities' provides intriguing snippets of how Jesus and some of those around him were viewed by an author who was writing around the same time as the creators of the Gospels – a very important point which becomes controversial in the second part of this book.
The author explains why the Roman-Jewish War took place, and gives information about how the Roman and Jewish aristocracies are related, with emphasis put on the Flavian and Calpurnius Pisos relationship to the Herodians.
In my opinion, this is a hugely controversial book, almost a rewrite of history if you will, that provides a logical explanation for the success of a religion which has little proof of its claims.
September 9, 2024
Incredible (!).
What is good about this book is that the author engages with a wide range of historical texts. He is also self-aware enough to recognise that some readers will dismiss the book as just a conspiracy theory.
What is problematic about the book is that it does indeed replicate many of the features of typical conspiracy theories. There are long and convoluted analyses of words and names and texts. It looks on the surface as if it is scholarly, but it is analysis with a view to generating evidence to fit a preconceived narrative (for which there is no other independent evidence). That is not scholarship. It is the manipulation of evidence of confirmation bias. Scholars have shown that you can find secret messages and prophetic predictions in almost any evidence base, as long as it is large enough and as long as there are complicated enough algorithms (which is essentially what occurs here). What prevents reputable scholars from falling into those kind of traps is that they take a periodic step back and get their work peer reviewed, to make sure that they are not accidentally driving themselves down a rabbit hole.
The word and text analyses in the book were very imaginative, but they lacked independent corroboration. They also included some bizarre claims. Apparently, we can see evidence that someone called Piso wrote the new Testament because his name appears in the text (if it is analysed in the author’s preferred way). But why would a forger and a faker of a religion put their name into the text, so that someone like the author can come along and debunk it? That does not make any sense.
We are also told of amazing similarities between the life and words of historical figures and biblical figures. Pliny is really St Paul because they happened to travel to similar places. That is like saying that Trump and Biden are the same person because they have both been to the same cities.
We also hear that Josephus and the New Testament share similarities at the textual level. But that similarity seems to consist largely of words. Isolated words do not readily show relationships of dependence. What shows firmer evidence of dependence is similarity at the level of phrases. But there was no significant evidence of that provided.
And the examples of comparisons raised more questions than they answered. For example, someone called Mary ate her baby in the siege of Jerusalem. And this is supposed to be some cunning analogy with Christian eucharistic ideas and somehow feed into the narrative that Christianity is invented. Really? We know that the name Mary was very widespread at that time. And we also know that eating babies frequently crops up in stories of sieges. It occurred in the 1099 Siege of Jerusalem. Maybe we should take that as evidence that Islam invented Christianity? Or maybe we should just abandon those kinds of spurious comparisons and stop trying to force evidence to fit a preconceived narrative (!).
The details cited for the conspiracy theory in the book also repeated other conspiracy theories. Thus, we are told that the Council of Nicaea invented the bible. Oh dear, not that old tired and frequently debunked conspiracy theory again. Needless to say that there is absolutely no evidence to support that claim, other than an allegation written by someone 500 years after the supposed event.
And then there are bizarre stores in the text, which are just randomly asserted with no evidence. Apparently Christians struggled to get people to attend their churches so they set up sex clubs in their churches. Really? Really? Where on earth is there genuine evidence for that astonishing idea?
And so on. And so on. There is barely a page of the book where thoughtful readers will not find themselves perplexed by the bizarre construal of claims.
It is too easy to get lost in the detail of the book, so it is worth readers reminding themselves regularly what the central thesis of the book is. The big idea is that the Romans invented Christianity to distract the Jews into behaving themselves, as Jewish revolts and wars were a problem for the Romans.
But that is a highly implausible scenario. The Romans had much bigger problems with Parthians in the East and Germanic tribes in the North. If the Romans were going to go to the trouble of inventing a religion (which we have no evidence that they ever did) then surely they would have invented a religion to address their bigger problems?
And the whole idea that the New Testament is faked by a small group of Romans is highly implausible. Modern computers can detect common authorship. This is why they are used to detect plagiarism. If the author’s thesis was correct, ie that a small group of Romans wrote the New Testament, then it would show up immediately in statistical analysis of the biblical texts. But the evidence shows the opposite, casting doubt for example upon the idea that all 13 of the Pauline epistles were written by the same person.
And if the Romans really were inventing Christianity, why on earth would they write 4 Gospels. That was such a big issue for the Early Christians that Tatian’s Diatessaron merged all 4 back into a single document for the greater convenience of Christians. And what about all the odd details in the Gospels? Crucifying the leader of your religion doesn’t really work so well in a Roman context. Stoning Jesus to death would have made much more sense for the invented religion. And what about the date discrepancy surrounding Jesus’ birth and the Quirinius who is named in Luke’s Gospel? If the rulers of Rome were writing the gospel, with access to official government documents, why would they make mistakes like that?
And if the Romans were inventing a religion to deal with Judaism, then why make the religion illegal? And why execute its followers? Surely, they would have done the opposite, executing the Jews throughout the empire and trying to compel them into their newly invented Roman religion of Christianity…
Overall, this is not a book to be recommended.
What is good about this book is that the author engages with a wide range of historical texts. He is also self-aware enough to recognise that some readers will dismiss the book as just a conspiracy theory.
What is problematic about the book is that it does indeed replicate many of the features of typical conspiracy theories. There are long and convoluted analyses of words and names and texts. It looks on the surface as if it is scholarly, but it is analysis with a view to generating evidence to fit a preconceived narrative (for which there is no other independent evidence). That is not scholarship. It is the manipulation of evidence of confirmation bias. Scholars have shown that you can find secret messages and prophetic predictions in almost any evidence base, as long as it is large enough and as long as there are complicated enough algorithms (which is essentially what occurs here). What prevents reputable scholars from falling into those kind of traps is that they take a periodic step back and get their work peer reviewed, to make sure that they are not accidentally driving themselves down a rabbit hole.
The word and text analyses in the book were very imaginative, but they lacked independent corroboration. They also included some bizarre claims. Apparently, we can see evidence that someone called Piso wrote the new Testament because his name appears in the text (if it is analysed in the author’s preferred way). But why would a forger and a faker of a religion put their name into the text, so that someone like the author can come along and debunk it? That does not make any sense.
We are also told of amazing similarities between the life and words of historical figures and biblical figures. Pliny is really St Paul because they happened to travel to similar places. That is like saying that Trump and Biden are the same person because they have both been to the same cities.
We also hear that Josephus and the New Testament share similarities at the textual level. But that similarity seems to consist largely of words. Isolated words do not readily show relationships of dependence. What shows firmer evidence of dependence is similarity at the level of phrases. But there was no significant evidence of that provided.
And the examples of comparisons raised more questions than they answered. For example, someone called Mary ate her baby in the siege of Jerusalem. And this is supposed to be some cunning analogy with Christian eucharistic ideas and somehow feed into the narrative that Christianity is invented. Really? We know that the name Mary was very widespread at that time. And we also know that eating babies frequently crops up in stories of sieges. It occurred in the 1099 Siege of Jerusalem. Maybe we should take that as evidence that Islam invented Christianity? Or maybe we should just abandon those kinds of spurious comparisons and stop trying to force evidence to fit a preconceived narrative (!).
The details cited for the conspiracy theory in the book also repeated other conspiracy theories. Thus, we are told that the Council of Nicaea invented the bible. Oh dear, not that old tired and frequently debunked conspiracy theory again. Needless to say that there is absolutely no evidence to support that claim, other than an allegation written by someone 500 years after the supposed event.
And then there are bizarre stores in the text, which are just randomly asserted with no evidence. Apparently Christians struggled to get people to attend their churches so they set up sex clubs in their churches. Really? Really? Where on earth is there genuine evidence for that astonishing idea?
And so on. And so on. There is barely a page of the book where thoughtful readers will not find themselves perplexed by the bizarre construal of claims.
It is too easy to get lost in the detail of the book, so it is worth readers reminding themselves regularly what the central thesis of the book is. The big idea is that the Romans invented Christianity to distract the Jews into behaving themselves, as Jewish revolts and wars were a problem for the Romans.
But that is a highly implausible scenario. The Romans had much bigger problems with Parthians in the East and Germanic tribes in the North. If the Romans were going to go to the trouble of inventing a religion (which we have no evidence that they ever did) then surely they would have invented a religion to address their bigger problems?
And the whole idea that the New Testament is faked by a small group of Romans is highly implausible. Modern computers can detect common authorship. This is why they are used to detect plagiarism. If the author’s thesis was correct, ie that a small group of Romans wrote the New Testament, then it would show up immediately in statistical analysis of the biblical texts. But the evidence shows the opposite, casting doubt for example upon the idea that all 13 of the Pauline epistles were written by the same person.
And if the Romans really were inventing Christianity, why on earth would they write 4 Gospels. That was such a big issue for the Early Christians that Tatian’s Diatessaron merged all 4 back into a single document for the greater convenience of Christians. And what about all the odd details in the Gospels? Crucifying the leader of your religion doesn’t really work so well in a Roman context. Stoning Jesus to death would have made much more sense for the invented religion. And what about the date discrepancy surrounding Jesus’ birth and the Quirinius who is named in Luke’s Gospel? If the rulers of Rome were writing the gospel, with access to official government documents, why would they make mistakes like that?
And if the Romans were inventing a religion to deal with Judaism, then why make the religion illegal? And why execute its followers? Surely, they would have done the opposite, executing the Jews throughout the empire and trying to compel them into their newly invented Roman religion of Christianity…
Overall, this is not a book to be recommended.
May 16, 2022
I have always wondered!
What an interesting theory and GREAT RESEARCH done! Thank you for this perspective! It makes so much more sense others I have learned about recently.
What an interesting theory and GREAT RESEARCH done! Thank you for this perspective! It makes so much more sense others I have learned about recently.
May 29, 2023
good info
Good info, but reading it was a bit of a slog. Author supports his points well, but a footnote/endnote format should’ve been used to increase readability.
Good info, but reading it was a bit of a slog. Author supports his points well, but a footnote/endnote format should’ve been used to increase readability.
January 16, 2024
I have been looking for this book for many decades. It was forever clear to me that other writers of significant ability and knowledge were alive and active during the "Jesus Period". I kept wondering, 'where's the supporting documents which will give credence to and validate the Bible teachings that I grew up with.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, here it is. Yes, they were alive and well and writing regularly but they failed to notice that one clown was nailed to a cross (always the highest one in the middle, gimme a break) and upon his death a few lightweights were capable of rolling a stone (always a multi-ton rock which no human could move alone) and out popped Hey-Suse, AKA Jesus. Holy mac-dougle, these brilliant writers of that period missed the whole thing. Again, gimme a break.
I have concluded, decades ago, that all of my upbringing, all the way to just over a year in a Bible College, were filled with pure bull bleep.
And the virgin birth? Ackkk! ... Plus, an all knowing, all powerful, human loving gawd was sending about 98% of us all to burn for E-friggin-ternity in a blazing pit of fire. Gimme a break!!! But he loves us. (Thank You George. Carlin)
This author solves many riddles for me and I am not certain that was his point, although I guess it had to be a huge purpose in writing this amazing book. If you wonder, as I do, how so many are taken to the cleaners, emotionally, spiritually and very much financially, do get this book and enjoy it to the fullest.
It is not an easy read, or was not for me, but the topic and the resources are undeniably important if you too were brought up in Bull Bleep land. I love the story of the Noah's arc (ark>) somewhere in the South which sprung a leak recently. No, nothing of that sort is found in this book, but it makes me laugh every time I think about it. Get it, enjoy it, that's not quite an order, but it's darn close!!
Well, ladies and gentlemen, here it is. Yes, they were alive and well and writing regularly but they failed to notice that one clown was nailed to a cross (always the highest one in the middle, gimme a break) and upon his death a few lightweights were capable of rolling a stone (always a multi-ton rock which no human could move alone) and out popped Hey-Suse, AKA Jesus. Holy mac-dougle, these brilliant writers of that period missed the whole thing. Again, gimme a break.
I have concluded, decades ago, that all of my upbringing, all the way to just over a year in a Bible College, were filled with pure bull bleep.
And the virgin birth? Ackkk! ... Plus, an all knowing, all powerful, human loving gawd was sending about 98% of us all to burn for E-friggin-ternity in a blazing pit of fire. Gimme a break!!! But he loves us. (Thank You George. Carlin)
This author solves many riddles for me and I am not certain that was his point, although I guess it had to be a huge purpose in writing this amazing book. If you wonder, as I do, how so many are taken to the cleaners, emotionally, spiritually and very much financially, do get this book and enjoy it to the fullest.
It is not an easy read, or was not for me, but the topic and the resources are undeniably important if you too were brought up in Bull Bleep land. I love the story of the Noah's arc (ark>) somewhere in the South which sprung a leak recently. No, nothing of that sort is found in this book, but it makes me laugh every time I think about it. Get it, enjoy it, that's not quite an order, but it's darn close!!
April 15, 2025
Very hard to put down.
Very easy to follow, especially if other books of this nature like Joseph Atwill's "Caesar's Messiah". In fact two thirds of this book follows Atwill's book. Henry Davis has a different view on the book of " Revelations " which may make more sense to many. It is good to see so many books now available concerning this and this may be one of the best books. It's not as shocking and disturbing as Roman Piso's book, even if Roman Piso is 100% correct on his view of
Very easy to follow, especially if other books of this nature like Joseph Atwill's "Caesar's Messiah". In fact two thirds of this book follows Atwill's book. Henry Davis has a different view on the book of " Revelations " which may make more sense to many. It is good to see so many books now available concerning this and this may be one of the best books. It's not as shocking and disturbing as Roman Piso's book, even if Roman Piso is 100% correct on his view of
December 18, 2021
Who knows?
Interesting book. Makes as much sense as others I've read. The premise that Romans had good reasons to create Christianity is easy to understand. Proving it through so many convoluted studies leads you back to "who knows" .
Interesting book. Makes as much sense as others I've read. The premise that Romans had good reasons to create Christianity is easy to understand. Proving it through so many convoluted studies leads you back to "who knows" .
June 12, 2025
Very complicated explanation but believable especially at this time in history with the internet. Information can be manipulated but also there is much more feedback. Still the investigation makes a lot of sense and fits the historical records.
August 17, 2023
A must read
This book will keep you interested. You will not be bored. The author makes a very strong case for his point.
This book will keep you interested. You will not be bored. The author makes a very strong case for his point.
December 11, 2023
Ridiculous
This is absurd. As a serious student of all things spiritual, this book is on my list of drivel. I can't imagine what ked him on such a tangent. it is beyond ridiculous.
This is absurd. As a serious student of all things spiritual, this book is on my list of drivel. I can't imagine what ked him on such a tangent. it is beyond ridiculous.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews