Weekend Economists Pull the Easter Rabbit Out of the Hat April 18-20, 2014

[Demeter]

2. THE BOOK PREVIEW CONTINUES

...The Gospel-writers, who write during the immediately following generations, actually represent Paul, not Jesus. However, some elements of truth have to be embodied in their accounts of "Jesus," because, even as late as they're writing, widespread accounts still exist of some things that simply cannot be denied without losing all credibility, such as Jesus's claim to have been "king of the Jews" -- a claim which, even in their time, is widely recognized to have been seditious against Rome's authority.

A scientific understanding of the start of Christianity can be achieved only if the motives of the individual actors are documented and are truthfully presented. Until the present work, no one has known how this could even be done. But now it's done, and the result is a gripping narrative in which Paul not only removes most of Jesus/James's followers and brings them over into the entirely new religion which Paul created in the year 49 or 50.

But Paul designs his new faith precisely to serve the needs of the Emperor -- ironically the successor to the very same man, Tiberius, whose soldiers had executed Jesus for sedition against Roman rule. Paul designs his religion to make it appeal to the emperors, because Paul understands that they possess the power ultimately to impose Christianity throughout their realm. He knows that this won't happen in one generation, but he's confident that it will happen -- and it does, three hundred years later!

Paul wins. Jesus and his brother James lose. And the result is a new religion which serves perfectly the needs of the Emperors, such as by saying (Romans 13:1-7) that people are obligated to follow the laws which the Emperor commands, and not the laws which the Jewish God commands.

Paul makes Rome's Emperor God's agent to create and enforce all laws. He supplies to the Emperors a Roman Catholic -- or universal Roman -- God to authorize their power. Prior to Paul, the Emperors could rely only on local Roman deities who possess no moral authority outside Rome. Emperors know that they need a universal God to authorize the laws which the Emperors issue, and Paul (and his followers who write the four canonical Gospel accounts of "Christ&quot design and create precisely that.