Historical Perspective

• Discover a new theory regarding the origins of Christianity by navigating through the buttons at the left, or download a free journal paper (button near the bottom). Study each page to learn how Roman authority manipulated religious forces in Judea to soften the resistance of the Jewish people, resulting in the birth of Christianity. The theory investigates the historical aspects of Christianity rather than the traditional theological views of its origin.
• Written documentation suggests Christianity began early in the first century ACE in Judea:
  • Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 - 117 ACE) wrote in "The Annals of Imperial Rome, XV.42":

    To suppress this rumour [suspicions on the burning of Rome in 64 ACE], Nero fabricated scapegoats - and punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians (as they were popularly called). Their originator, Christ, had been executed in Tiberius' reign by the governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilatus. But in spite of this temporary setback the deadly superstition had broken out afresh, not only in Judaea (where the mischief had started) but even in Rome.

  • Luke 3:1 states that John the Baptist started his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar (29 ACE)
• Rome occupied Judea as one of its provinces
  • Collected taxes
  • Enlisted men to serve in its fielded armies
• The Jewish people considered Israel to be land promised to them by God (Old Testament books of Genesis and Exodus)
• The Jewish people felt they were God's chosen people (Exodus 3:7, Deuteronomy 7:6-24, 2 Samuel 7:8-16 23-24)
• According to many Jews the mere Roman presence was a defilement to their Holy Land and their Holy Covenant with God
• There was no love lost between the Jews and the Roman occupiers: 
  • In 63 BCE Jerusalem fell to the Romans.
  • In 54 BCE Marcus Licinius Crassus stole the Jewish temple treasury.
  • Around 28 ACE Pontius Pilate stole the Jewish temple treasury to pay for an aqueduct. When the Jewish people protested, Roman soldiers beat many in the crowd to death.
  • Jewish Zealots offered violent resistance to the Roman occupation.
  • Jewish sects were convinced God would throw off Roman rule through the power of their faith and obedience to God. As one example, from PBS Frontline "Apocalypticism Explained" the Essenes had a War Scroll prophesizing a final battle of the sons of light against the sons of darkness. In the first Jewish revolt against Rome (66-70 ACE), the Essenes, following this battle plan, literally marched out to war against Roman soldiers and were annihilated. As we see in the War Scroll, the Essenes expected a final battle led by the forces of God to bring a triumph soon.
  • In 70 ACE Rome brutally crushed the four-year Jewish rebellion. The Roman general Titus burned the Jewish temple and laid Jerusalem in ruins.
  • In 73 ACE Roman governor Flavius Silva laid siege to Masada. Approximately 1,000 Jewish men, women, and children chose mass suicide rather than submit to Roman capture.
  • In 132 ACE the Jews recaptured Jerusalem.
  • In 135 ACE Emperor Hadrian crushed the Jewish revolt, attempted to annihilate the Jewish presence in Jerusalem, and renamed Judea to Palestine.
• A primary source of the fervent Jewish resistance to the Roman occupation was their religion (religious culture, established beliefs, and loose ethnic unity based on the religion).
• Christianity started amidst the conflict between Rome and the Jewish people. The New Testament writings are not considered in the classical sense “historical.”  However, if they were written from people of that time and period, then they can be used to hypothesize real human events and attitudes representative of the movement.

Christianity in the Roman Empire - Alternate History