While I was getting some reading in in the sun yesterday, on a bench alongside a cliffside pathway overlooking the ocean, a pretty little girl came by, with her mother, and offered me a bud of clover that she had just picked from the grass of the park behind us, asking politely if I would like “a flower”. Taking it, I said, “Oh, how nice. Thank you;” to which she replied, sweetly, “You’re welcome.” And they walked on by, her mother and I sharing a warm smile.
Why do I mention this? Because, in these transitional days, there is a lot of evil in the world. Which needs to be brought to a halt. Especially the evil being perpetrated on children. Who have a right to experience their childhood innocently.
To all those who would think to violate that innocence - that precious space in the life experience - I say, very clearly:
Hands. Off.
And I realize that that may sound a lot like the biblical admonition about millstones, necks and seas, and that perhaps I fancy myself as The Christ returned to His flock, but am in ’fact’ one of those other characters to be warned about, i.e., anti-Christs. A word to that subject.
I don’t believe in the Christian ‘thing’. My research into such matters has led me to information that brings into question the whole ‘New Testament’ business. A summary of that alternate viewpoint.
The story begins with a Jewish general named Josephus who had been appointed governor of Galilee by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem to lead the fight in that area against the Roman legions at the time of the great Jewish Revolt in the late 60s CE. Being defeated in the city of Jotapata, he hid with some of his men in a cistern; but facing disclosure, and certain death - at the least, potentially by the hand of the last of the two of them who had survived a drawing of lots, to kill themselves rather than fall ingloriously into the hands of their enemy - he hit on a plan to save himself, and came out and asked (rather daringly, considering the circumstances) to see Vespasian, the overall commander of the Roman attempt to put down the Revolt. Being granted his request, he made his case to the august Roman general; starting with telling him that he had had a dream that Vespasian would become emperor, and he, Josephus, could help him in that ambition (for it was known that Vespasian did, indeed, harbor such an ambition). Vespasian, already aware that there had been other ‘omens’ of his good fortune, was not unduly impressed, and asked Josephus, in effect, ‘Is that all that you have to offer for your life?’ Indeed it was not; for Josephus a) knew that a if not the major stumbling block for Vespasian in the matter was that he was broke, and b) could offer something of great value to the august general, and replied, in a word: ‘Wealth.’ Vespasian, undoubtedly arching an eyebrow, said words to the effect, ‘I’m listening.’ And what he heard was Josephus’s key to saving his own skin.
For, not only was Josephus a general and governor (and a very learned man, being able to read and write and speak Greek; a factor in this whole story, to come out later). But he was of the priestly family lineage, and in addition was of Jewish royal blood, being related, through his mother, to the Hasmoneans. What this all boiled down to, at that critical moment in his life, was that he had access to the treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem. Which treasures had mostly disappeared before Vespasian’s son, Titus, after his siege and sacking of that great city, broke into and destroyed said Temple. However it transpired, the golden menorah, for example, from the Temple was brought back in triumph to Rome by the conquering heroes (commemorated in a sculpture). And with said conquering heroes came Josephus, along with a few of his priestly-line friends (and their families) whom he had managed to bring along with him, as adopted members of the Flavian household. Which particularly as a consequence of the victories over the Jews became the imperial household.
And Titus became the Son of Man, as ‘predicted’ in the Jewish holy scriptures. Under the artful hands of Josephus (and very possibly others, well-educated patricians, of said imperial household). Who - as part of the deal that saved his skin - concocted a tale about a Jewish messianic figure back at the beginning of that generation (a generation being forty years, as considered at that time) who counseled the Jews to ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,’ and to obey authority over them. Their belief in a militaristic Messiah who would come and save them from their enemies being the major factor in their constant rebellions against the yoke of Rome.
And Josephus seeing that there is more than one way to skin a cat. With him and his priestly-line friends becoming the nucleus of a new religion, that exalted Roman authority.(1) Josephus having seen the writing on the wall.
And speaking of writing: Who also wrote himself into his fable. In the form of a leader of the new religion; a man - a character - by the name of Saul, become Paul.
As he, Josephus, had become someone else. By another name. A little ‘inside’ touch, there. By this clever Jewish general-cum-governor, who then became an historian as well. And dropped bread crumbs in his writings in that capacity, to lead one to see the truth of things. If one were clever enough.
Like, how the public ministry of the character in (primarily) Josephus’s story named Jesus ‘amazingly’ paralleled the ‘later’ military campaign of Titus in Judea. Down even to a particularly clever touch involving ’fishers of men’ in the Sea of Galilee…
I have referred before in these pages to the major literary works that I have come across that deal with this whole amazing story.(2) Here, let me conclude this particular blog with one simple comment:
Question everything.
P.S. I spoke about the ability of Josephus in the Greek language - the language of the learned of the day. The point being that the earliest known copies of the so-called New Testament (all dating to after the 70 CE destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple) are in Greek. Not Aramaic. And actually, there is no evidence that any of it was written by the names attributed to the ‘books’. And actually, there is no evidence - real, solid evidence - that any Christians existed prior to the siege and sacking of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple there by Titus. All the business about ’Nero feeding the Christians to the lions’ only resting on the assumption that there were Christians at that time, because of the dating of the so-called gospels. Being their own ‘proof’ of the whole story.
A good bit of advice that I came across whilst researching the assassination of JFK - another subject of considerable interest to truthseekers (or that at least should be) - is along the same lines as the above concluding note. To wit:
Check your premises.
As I, too, continue to do.
In everything. Including my own assumptions, that I have hit rock-bottom certainty in my own personal search for, and journey into
Truth.
The whole Truth.
And nothing but.
And while on that subject; to say, to a pet peeve of mine:
Those who engage in lying, chicanery and deceit need to be called on it, and severely.
All of that sort of thing is coming due, in any event.
And not before time.
And while on that subject; to say, to a pet peeve of mine:
Those who engage in lying, chicanery and deceit need to be called on it, and severely.
All of that sort of thing is coming due, in any event.
And not before time.
—
footnotes:
(1) And which priestly-line of Jews became the leading bishops, and even popes, of said new religion. And also the great landowning families of Europe. And the royal households.
All. Because one man saw a way to save his skin.
And was clever enough to bring it about.
(2) ‘Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus’ by Joseph Atwill
‘Jesus, King of Edessa’ by Ralph Ellis (and some books leading thereinto)
‘The Secret Society of Moses: The Mosaic Bloodline and a Conspiracy Spanning Three Millennia’ by Flavio Barbiero
A series of books detailing the ancient belief systems leading to the Jesus figure: by D.M. Murdock (aka Acharya S)
A good book involving all this: ‘Man Made God’ by Barbara G. Walker
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