These are the times of Christ
“Then, leaving Cleopatra on the throne of Egypt (a little later she had a son by him whom the Alexandrians called Caesarion), he (Julius Caesar) set out for Syria”. - The Parallel Lives by Plutarch published in Vol. VII of the Loeb Classical Library, 1919 edition
Before we continue I think a short recap of the history just before the work and life of Jesus Christ would be helpful.
On January 10, 49 BC, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River leading an army of a popular uprising which would take Rome by force. June 23, 47 BC Caesarion was born, the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. February 44 BC, Julius Caesar was appointed dictator in perpetuity, and was promptly assassinated on the 15th of March 44 BC. After the death of Caesar, a battle for control of the empire culminates with Mark Anthony and Cleopatra combining forces. In 34 BC, Caesarian, the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, then thirteen years of age, was formally made " King of Kings'' by Antony and Cleopatra. 32 BC, the Roman Senate declared war against Cleopatra. The battle of Actium is lost in 31 BC, Mark Antony takes his life and then Cleopatra commits suicide on August 12, 30 BC.
As head of the victorious Roman army, and as the adoptive son of Julius Caesar, Octavian will claim the title of Divi Filius (Son of a God), and rename himself to Augustus "first citizen" Caesar. Yet, there is left the question, where is the true “Son of God” the legitimate son of Julius Caesar, and Egyptian Pharaoh Cleopatra, the thirteen year old boy Caesarian.
The Egyptian priests and Pharisees of the Israelites have new masters, and they are Roman. The Pharisees will once again serve who is in power. A new religion will be given to the Egyptian slaves as well as to the common Greek and Roman subjects of the empire. The Pharaoh is dead and will not return, he has become Augustus Caesar, Pontifex Maximus.
Extraordinary times for the birth of a carpenter that will put into place a belief that will persist for more than 2000 years. A work of words, a Logos that will first oppose Rome, and later be adopted by Rome in 325 AD by Constantine as the new religion of conquest.
Lets return to the son of two Gods
I am not saying that Caesarion was Christ, nor do I think it is important today, but I do think he was important to the people of his time. As he was considered as the "Son of God," if you were to create a religion for the Romans of the new empire, a secret attachment to their God Caesar would certainly be useful.
Consider the following...
1. Why would the lost years of Jesus Christ match so well with a Caesarion period of exile. In the time of Christ, people who knew, would have taken notice of those lost years. They would wonder if the missing Caesarion had escaped and not been killed by Rome.
2. Why no real name when a name is how you denote who you are, where you come from, and who your family is. You may get away with believing in Jesus Christ... but it would be a problem if you were to tell people Caesarion or Caesar was still alive. The name Jesus Christ is not how people were named, Jesus is “Yeshua” which translates to English as Joshua, and Christ is a title that signifies savior or redeemer, whereas Caesarion is a nickname for a real name, Ptolemy Caesar Philopator Philometor.
3. The New Testament conflict in Palestine is between the Pharisees and Jesus. His anger at the temple and his concerns with money and wealth, is an economic message. The Pharisees are a problem because they side with the Roman governance of Judea. The message of Jesus can be seen as a political-economic plan to eliminate the power of the Pharisees.
4. Considering how important the calendar and dates were for the Romans and Egyptians, why are there so few historical dates.
5. Christ comes to the poor and the disadvantaged. It is the carpenters and fishermen that feed and house the people, this is where the real power of humanity is, in its economic production. The rich do not produce, they supply nothing, and disproportionately consume. The meek will one day inherit the earth, and the truth is what will set man free. This is the economic, and social lesson which is the Logos of the Christian religion, a beautiful concept that can never be when your "Ekklesia" is a tyranny.
6. The apostle Paul would be able to rally many followers because influential people know the political realities, and understand that religion governs the masses. They may have known Christ as Caesarian, the Pharaoh, son of Caesar. Especially for the Greek populations that Paul was speaking to, the restoration of Greek rule would have been an important cause. For the Greeks that believed great hero's came from the Gods, like Hercules or Agamemnon, born from Gods…this story would be the greatest Greek heroic myth of all. This is the son of Isis, the human incarnation of Horus, his mother Cleopatra, who was the Greek incarnation of Isis.
If we view Christianity as a revolutionary movement, its effectiveness becomes clear. Rome tolerated various religions but persecuted Christians, notably under Nero, who blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome. Nero, the last Julian Caesar, saw Christianity facilitate the Flavians' rise to power, replacing the Julian dynasty as the new Caesars. In 325 AD, the Neo-Flavian Caesar Constantine established the Catholic Church and founded Constantinople, effectively shifting Rome's center to the East. By 410 AD, the Visigoths, Arian Christians, sacked Rome. This history highlights Christianity's utility as a revolutionary force, or as Constantine described it, a religion for conquerors.
7. In the New Testament, Jesus asks his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" This question appears in Matthew 16:15, Mark 8:29, and Luke 9:20, in slightly different forms.
Jesus asks this question to prompt his disciples to declare their understanding of his identity. Often referred to as the "Confession of Peter," as Peter responds by saying, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16,).
Especially at this time in Palestine, the living Gods would be Cleopatra and Caesar. If the message was coming from Caesarion, it would be crucial for nobody to know who he was, they would be sure to never actually say who. If he were the son of Caesar, that would get you killed. Most would never know who he really was, and if Rome knew they would re-kill him.
“Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.” (Matthew 16:20) Other than to say he was the Son of God, Christ never actually says who he is.
In addition this is a strange and cryptic question, Christ had been baptized by John the Baptist, at that point he was declared the Son of God, then in John 4:25–26 he tells a woman he is the Messiah. So why keep asking this question when the fact that he is the Son of God and the Messiah is common knowledge.
8. He knows more than the Pharisees. If he was Caesarion, he would have been very well taught in all the mysteries and religions, especially his own.
9. Caesarion's parents were killed over money and power. Wealth is not the way to salvation, rather, it is absurd and opposes salvation, every good Platonist, Stoic, and Cynic knows this.
It does beg the question, why has Caesarion been omitted from our common history, since it is so fitting to the history of Christ. In Church we are never told of the geopolitical elements of the period, this is similar to telling a story about Winston Churchill without mentioning Hitler, or a World War.
Consider the political thinking within the early first century Roman empire. Julius Caesar had been killed, Cleopatra, and the Greek Macedonian Ptolemaic Pharaohs were also dead, Caesar Augustus had made Egypt his personal property, and taken control of Israel. He had installed Herod Antipas as Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, and Israel would become a client state of the Romans. As before, Herod rules through the Pharisees, the priest class would control the population for the ruling power as was done for the Greek Macedonian rulers, and before that of the Persians, and before that for the Egyptians.
What is obvious if you read the Old Testament, is that Abraham and his men are mercenaries, and that Israel is a military institution that will defend whosoever is in power. We will see Israel fight for Greek interests until it turns sides in favor of Rome, supporting the new line of Caesars, the Flavians. Today Israel remains in support of Rome, rather a Roman Catholic Secret Western Corporate Alliance.
These three truths can explain much about the military purpose of Israel, and may explain why the Jews are so central to the Roman Catholic message …
1. If God gives land to the Jews, then Egypt, or the Empire of the day must permit the transfer. .
2. Unless Israel is supported by a larger outside economy, Egypt will dominate over Israel.
3. Israel is an ideally located military defensive position to protect the wealth generated by the Nile River valley, and today to control the wealth generated by the oil in the Middle East .
Since most people don't read, and history is a story told by those in power, it is not difficult to obscure important facts.
In the conflict between Greek and Roman rule, the child Caesarean, with his dual Roman /Greek parentage would be the most logical historical person to fill the shoes of Christ. After all, in the eyes of many people within the empire, he is the "son of god," regardless if Christ was, or was not the son of God, Caesarean was the son of two gods, Caesar and Cleopatra, at least people of that time would surely think so. If people were looking for a ruler, a divine ruler, that would bring back the Greek status quo to the entire region, this boy would have been their first choice. Nonetheless, Caesarean is not mentioned in history, at least not the history we are told today.
Today the message we hear in Church omits this monumental Greek/Roman conflict. But to the known world at the time of Christ this conflict would have been most important to everyone. Also take into account that in the ancient world everything is viewed and understood through a religious or theological point of view.
Although little is known of Jesus Christ in the first century, the Apostle Paul, and a rising Christian movement will definitely make Christ a key figure for this period of history.
In light of how useful religion is to tie an empire together, here are three possibilities for the story of Jesus...
1. It is exactly true as written in the Bible. Three wise men, Magi , (Persian Zoroastrian Priests) who foretell, through astronomical events, or astrological omens the birth of Christ, the king of the Jews. Christ was the virgin birth son of God, and was God. He was the son of a carpenter and was self taught. He became the teacher for a non-violent political movement that ended with its leader's crucifixion, and the destruction of the Jewish Temple, this is an account that must be accepted by faith. Matthew 2:1-12
2. It never happened and was invented by Paul and other co-conspirators. Invented to effect change in these troubled times. Paul was a Roman citizen, a Jew, and from Tarsus. He would have had cause to do this. As a Roman citizen the new political changes would mean that the populations that were once the Hellenistic and Aramaic world of Egypt, Persia, and Greece would now be under the Latin control of Rome. Paul as a Roman would have had good reason to formulate a Jewish centered religion for the new empire, a religion that would incorporate the Greek Platonic concept of an unknowable God, the Soul, and the Trinity.
These words describe the Platonic concept of the "ONE," the unknowable God, and certainly do not agree with Genesis:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17
The Jews of his time had been in a long war against the Romans. St. Paul's home of Tarsus, where Anthony and Cleopatra had come together to fight for the control of Rome, had also been conquered by the Romans. Nero was the last Caesar of the Julian family, and tradition holds that St. Paul's death was perhaps part of the executions of Christians ordered by the Roman emperor Nero following the great fire in the city in 64 CE. The dynasty that comes after Nero are the Flavians who like St. Paul would have had cause to produce anti-Nero propaganda. It is also curious that Constantine who consolidated Christianity in 325 AD would take the mantle of Neo-Flavian, suggesting that the acceptance of Christianity in 325 AD had a connection to the Flavian Caesars of the first century.
A unique aspect of the Jesus Logos, is that it is very similar to that of Zoroastrianism, the religion of St. Paul's birthplace, Tarsus. This is the same religion of the Persian, Cirus the Great ,who was the first messiah of the Jews. As in Christianity, Zoroastrianism consists of one God Ahura Mazda, an evil Satan figure named Angra Mainyu, a Pleroma of angels, an end time battle between good and evil, and with Mithra, a Christ like figure, as the mediator. The cult of Mithra, a Zoroastrian sect, will become the dominant mystery religion of first century Roman soldiers and bureaucrats.
3. It is the return of the child of Caesar and Cleopatra. The actual son of God, in fact the son of two Gods... Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, the son of God, and God, if you will. Cleopatra was the personification of Isis and her son was that of Horus, so he would have been Horus to the Egyptians, Sophia to the Greek Platonists, Caesar to the Romans, and Christ the Messiah to the Jews.
He returns to teach others to love their enemies, and rebuilds his kingdom based on love of neighbor. A God incarnate, who has renounced his wealth, and comes to love the oppressed. Comes to teach and rebuild the soul of man... to set mankind free... to tell all the truth. He professes that people must know the truth, for if they do, the world will change and will bring forth a new era. This could be the explanation for the Q source , and the "Teacher of Righteousness" spoken of in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Power is maintained through the alliances of families and their children, and it would stand to reason that the royal family of Cleopatra would have intermarried with the Jewish Kings to maintain alliances. This child would also be a descendant of King David. That would make his mother Jewish and he would be Jewish as well.
When Herod Antipas became king of Judea in 4 BC, Caesarian would have been 51 years old, just entering into his wisdom. If Caesarian was sent to India as ordered by his mother, he would have been a teenager living at the far end of the old Persian empire, Persians who believed in one God.
The Persian faith, Zoroastrianism, was a monotheistic religion with a single creator God, featuring a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology predicting the ultimate destruction of evil in a final battle. This concept later influenced the Book of Revelation, which was included in the New Testament canon by the Council of Hippo in 393 AD and the Council of Carthage in 397 AD.