I blogged recently about Joseph Atwill’s research, which asserts that Jesus was a Roman invention. Now that his PR launch (disguised as a conference) is history, I decided to post an update of some reviews of Atwill’s work.
- Joel Watts asked, “Was Jesus a Roman Invention?” over at the Huff Post
- Robert Price (who doesn’t think Jesus existed) debunks the book (This review alone, coming as it does from someone sympathetic to at least the idea that Jesus never existed, should tell you how poor Atwill’s work is)
- Historian Tom Verenna writes, “No, Joe Atwill: Rome Did Not Invent Jesus“
- James McGrath echoes my own sentiment with his title, “As Bad as Mythicism: Jesus as Caesar“
All these pet theories about Romans and Caesar are “monkey cabbage.”
Who is qualified to refute this work?
Well, just about anyone capable of putting things in chronological order and reading in English.
The two books in question are the Gospel stores (New Testament) and the War of the Jews by a nom de plume called Josephus.
There are no other books so history professors can bow out.
The hypothesis is that the events in these two works ascribed to Jesus and Titus are in fact similar in location, content and order.
That’s it.
So if you don’t have numeracy problems and you are literate in English go ahead and criticize this work.
Tim