Constantine commissioned the New Testament Canon
"Eusebius knew that the Christians were a nation,
and a victorious nation at that; and that their history
could not be told except within the framework
of the Church in which they lived. Furthermore,
he was well aware that the Christian nation
was what it was by virtue of its being both
the oldest and the newest nation of the world."
---- Arnaldo Momigliano (1908-1987)
"It was", thought the Emperor Julian c.362 CE,
"expedient to set forth to all mankind
the reasons by which he was convinced that
the fabrication of the Christians
was a fiction of men composed by wickedness".
THESIS: Constantine Invented Christianity in the Fourth Century. (pdf format; Sept 2007)
Referee Report (JHL): Journal of Hellenic Studies (Oct 2007)
ABSTRACT: Outlining of the argument used in the thesis, the scope of the evidence, and brief
abstract.
HISTORICAL REVISIONISM: What is Historical Revisionism? What is Historical Integrity?
EUSEBIAN FICTION POSTULATE: Draft Specifications by Authors of Antiquity (2008)
Introductory Articles
Authors of Antiquity
Authors of Antiquity: Tracking "the tribe of christians" or lack thereof.
Ascetics,
Ammianus Marcellinus,
Apollonius of Tyana,
Arius of Alexandria,
Augustine of Hippo,
Authors of "Lists of Forbidden Books",
Barnabas,
Clement of Alexandria,
Clement of Rome,
Constantine (Dear Arius letter),
Cyril of Alexandria (against Nestorius),
Cyril of Alexandria (nephew of "Theophilus",
Epiphanius of Salamis,
Hans Eusebius Anderson,
Hermas,
Hermes (to Asclepius),
Hermes (On the 8th & 9th),
Hilary of Poitiers (De Synodis),
Iamblichus (Pythagorean aphorisms),
Ignatius Bishop of Antioch,
Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons,
Emperor Julian (Against the Galilaeans),
Emperor Julian (Caesares aka Symposium aka Kronia),
Flavius Josephus,
Justin Martyr,
Lucian of Samosata,
Leucius Charinus (author of the five Leucian Acts),
Marcellus of Ancyra,
Marcion,
Marcus Aurelius,
Moderatus of Gades,
Nestorius Archbishop of Constantinople,
Nicomachus of Gerasa,
Numenius of Apamea,
Origen,
Pachomius,
Papias,
Plotinus,
Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna,
Porphyry,
Suetonius (Twelve Caesars),
Tacitus,
Tertullian Bishop of Carthage,
The Desert Fathers,
Theodosian Codex (Imperial Laws 313 to 452 CE),
Therapeutae of Asclepius.
312 CE: The Liberation of Rome - Did Constantine then Invent Christianity?
312-324 CE: Imperially sponsored Scriptoria of Eusebius
Literature Interpolations and Forgeries Index:
Josephus Flavius - The Testimonium Flavianum,
Antiquity of the Jews
Tacitus - Annals 15:44, 15th Century Forgery of Poggio Bracciolini
Suetonius - Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Nero, 16.
Pliny the Younger - Plinius, Ep 10:97; a letter to the Roman Emperor Trajan
Emperor Trajan - Dear Pliny (a rescript)
Marcus Aurelius -
The "christian" reference at Meditations 11:3
Hegesippus - The "shadowy Hegesippus" according to Momigliano
Celsus: Fourth Century Eusebian forgery of anti-christian writings
Julius Africanus - Chronologer used by Eusebius, whom Eusebius "corrects" by 300 years.
Lucian of Samosata - Life of Peregrine, Alexander the Prophet
The Vienne/Lyon Martyrs' Letter - Independent analysis of Eusebian forgery.
Origen - Ascetic pythagorean academic; specialist of the (LXX) Hebrew Bible (alone).
Porphyry - Ascetic pythagorean academic; Eusebian forgery of anti-christian writings.
Interpolated Christian Inscriptions?: Yes, there's evidence for these too.
324/325 CE - Absolute Military Supremacy:
Blueprints of Intolerance, Persecution and Fraud
The Military Supremacist "Council" of Antioch
This is where "The Boss" (Constantine) shoots himself in the foot:
"Our people have compared the chronologies with great accuracy,
and the 'age' of the Sibyl's verses excludes the view
that they are a post-christian fake."
- Constantine's Oration, Antioch, 325 CE,
- to the (captive and non-christian) Saints
The Military Supremacist "Council" of Nicaea
The Nicene Creed is better described as an Oath binding the signatories
to Constantine,
and against the words of Arius, which allude to historical and political fiction
There was time when He was not.
Before He was born He was not.
He was made out of nothing existing.
He is/was from another subsistence/substance.
He is subject to alteration or change.
324-348 CE - Fleeing the Civilisation controlled by Constantine:
The Dispossessed Pagan Ascetics - establishment of Desert Monasticism
Pachomius as a Non Christian ascetic
In a dream Pachomius is counselled to make places in the deserts of Egypt for an
expected flood of ascetic pagan priests. They have nowhere to go. Constantine has
destroyed many temples, particularly those of the Healing god Asclepius. He has
executed the chief priests of these temples as public examples. He has prohibited
the continuation of the ancient (pagan) temple services. They are dispossessed
of their heritage and homes. (DRAFT)
The Desert Fathers (male and female)
A chronology of the monastic movement of Egypt and Syria for the fourth and fifth
centuries. The influence and the corruption of the bishops, such as Theophilus, and
the beginnings of the Origenist controversies. The "Tall Brothers". (DRAFT)
Ascetic Practices in antiquity
A collation of information and data relating to asceticism in antiquity. (DRAFT)
324-333 CE: Political Resistance against Constantine.
Arius of Alexandria - the non christian ascetic priest
who "reproaches, grieves, wounds and pains the Church".
Constantine's "Dear Arius" Letter: A
political analysis of a letter composed about 333 CE by Constantine, addressed to
Arius and the Arians. Constantine would very much like to publically execute Arius,
but he does not know exactly where Arius is - perhaps Syria. Arius is revealed as
someone who had previously been conspicuous by his silence and unobtrusive character.
He is described in the manner of an ascetic priest. Constantine is stung by the
anti-christian polemic in the writings of Arius; Arius is the focus of belief in
unbelief of Constantine's new political and religious initiatives. Constantine
reveals that Arius "reproaches, grieves, wounds and pains the Church".
A very nasty letter by a very nasty despot. Eventually Constantine manages
to poison Arius, but before that time when Arius was no longer, he had composed
a number of texts against the Pontifex Maximus' preferred and sponsored cult.
These heretical writings were sought out by the orthodox.
ANALYSIS OF THIS LETTER An analysis
of this letter discloses a great deal of information about what Constantine thought
about Arius of Alexandria.
Who was Arius of Alexandria?: The author
of stinging impious profane tractates at variance with the orthodoxy. Banned and
damned eternally by Constantine and all who followed in his footsteps.
Who was Leucius Charinus?: The author
of the five Leucian Acts is certainly a very shady character. He and his works
are mentioned in a great range of very colorful language. Perhaps the most illustrious
of descriptions is provided by Photius, who writes:
In a word, his books contain a vast amount of
childish,
incredible,
ill-devised,
lying,
silly,
self-contradictory,
impious, and
ungodly statements,
so that one would not be far wrong in calling them
the source and mother of all heresy.
THESIS: Leucius Charinus and Arius of Alexandria are One Person:
We examine the questions what doe we really know about Arius of Alexandria amd what do we really know about the author who
is called Leucius Charinus. We postulate that these two authors could be one and the same person in Arius of Alexandria.
An examination of the Three Acts of Pilate: is also relevant to the above (Jesus heals via the Hellenistic Asclepius)
325 to 370 CE: Non-Canonical Acts of the Apostles as anti-christian polemic.
Political parodies against the New canonical Constantinian Testament.
The Apocrypha at a Glance: A compilation of
commentary concerning the nature of the entire set of new testament non canonical
literature. Much (but not all) of the New Testament Apocryphal corpus is essentially a Homerization of the Canon, and was authored
in the aftermath of the Council of Nicaea. It mimics the canon. A clever and studiously inventive author of
Hellenistic romance narratives took a leaf out of Constantine's Bible.
The Apocrypha Masterlist:
Listings of the entire New Testament Apocryphal literature
(1) according to the mainstream chronological estimates, and
(2) according to the type (ie: Acts, Gospels, etc).
The Non Canonical "Leucian Acts":
Analysis of a number of the standard translations of the non canonical
"Acts of the Apostles" reveals a distinct signature of anti-christian
polemic. This article examines an index of these non canonical "Acts"
which appear to be easily explained as being written in opposition to
the Constantine Bible, and the authority, authenticity and aptitude of
Constantine's top-down emperor cult "christianity" with respect
to the ministry of spiritual knowledge (gnosis), and of the role
and tradition of healing. The authors appear as ascetic priests,
with knowledge of discourse on the embodied soul, the ascetic path
and the ministry of healing previously extant in the empire
under a number of ancient gods, perhaps the most popular being
Asclepius.
Sample analyses of anti-christian polemic and parody include the following texts:
325-590 CE: Knowledge Burning by the (new) Christian regime
Christian persecution of Non-Christians: A summary by Vlasis Rassias (Demolish Them!)
The source material for much of this is Book 16, Codex Theodosius.
Knowledge Burning in the 4th Century: A tabulation of citations evidencing the destruction of libraries, or the destruction of temples
(within which many non-christian libraries were associated), or the destruction
of specific books, and works of authors and/or groups, some of which were
sought out to be burnt. The Nag Hammadi codices discovered 1948 are in
fact conjectured to be books which were hidden in order to enhance their preservation.
Did the Index Librorum Prohibitorum commence in the fourth century?: Most sources
maintain that the "List of Forbidden Books" were published by the Papacy from the fifteenth century, however there are
a number of documentary sources which themselves suggest that Constantine and Eusebius already had a catalogue of books
which were "forbidden under punishment of death". We find out in the next century that some of these books
had been authored by the son of the devil. These needed special treatment by the orthodoxy.
Hellenism as a Fourth Century Heresy: According the Panarion ("Against Heresies") of
Epiphanius of Salamis, bishop of the later fourth century, the first seven heresies (in a compendium of eighty) were as follows:
(1) Barbarism,
(2) Scythianism,
(3) Hellenism,
(4) Judaism,
(5) Stoicism,
(6) Platonism, and
(7) Pythagoreanism.
348 CE: The Nag Hammadi Codices (Carbon Dated)
Nag Hammadi Index: Index of the 13 ancient books, containing 52 texts.
The Sixth Codex
NHC 6.1: The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
The sixth codex is intriguing, since it contains, as indicated above,
treatises by Hermes, the spiritual master of the scribes. The sixth book
contains reference to Asclepius, and with the exception of the very first
text within it, the other (seven) texts of Book Six at Nag Hammadi are very
much heavy duty non-christian. At first glance, the first text in the
book (NHC 6.1) appears by name to be christian. But is it indeed Christian?
The text centers upon the
character of a mysterious Pearl Man called Lithargoel, who expounds the
allegorical story of the Road to the City of the Pearl, which
city Lithargoel tells us is named Nine Gates. The text may
be entitled The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles, but the story
is focussed upon this mysterious physician and healer Lithargoel.
In fact, the apostles are presented as inept, continually seeking food and shelter,
lacking in basic cognitive skills, lacking in healing skills, lacking in ascetic
discipline, lacking in basic memory skills, and even
in basic counting skills, since the number of apostles in the story is
presented variously as either eleven (in the text) or thirteen (in
the subject title) but nowhere twelve, as per the Canonical Acts.
In this series of articles, TAOPATTA is explicated as an allegorical
story of the ascetic path and the related skills of the ascetic physican
and healer, the citizen of the city of "Nine Gates" (the human body).
However, TAOPATTA is also a consistent parody highlighting the inauthenticity
of the christian apostles in the spiritual ministry.
NHC 6.5: A gnostic and purposeful misrepresentation of Plato's Republic
NHC 6.6: Preserving Hermes: Hermes - to the father of the universe
NHC 6.8: Hermes to Asclepius
: Hermes - to the father of modern medicine, Asclepius
325-336 CE: The Heresey of the Nicaean priest - Marcellus of Ancyra
Fragments of the Heresey of Marcellus of Ancyra :
Marcellus was one of the bishops present at the Councils of Nicaea,
and who, a few years after this Council, wrote a book against Asterius,
a prominent figure in the party which supported Arius.
In this work (only fragments of which survive), he was accused
of maintaining one or more heresies. The fragmentary nature
of his surviving work makes reconstructing difficult.
We know he was accused and condemned by a council of his enemies.
What does Marcellus reveal?
325-490 CE: Anathematising Public Opinion about Jesus Christ
Anathemas of Church Councils as representative of public opinion:
A collation of the anathemas and heresies registered by the christian ecclesiastical
councils from Nicaea through to the Decretum Gelasianum of c.491 CE. We have been
provided a lavish history by the christian victors in which the pagan side of the story
has not been presented. An examination of the anathemas and heresies which were variously
registered by the christian bishops allows an objective assessment of how the opinion
of the pagan populace concerning the new god Jesus, and his new religion christianity,
were being received in the empire.
351 CE: A Register of Popular Public Opinion about Jesus Christ
Hilary of Poitiers' De Synodis:
Promoted to Bishop in 350 CE, Hilary of Poitiers preserves a list of twenty-seven
anathemas agreed upon by the Council of Sirmium c.351 CE. This list of twenty seven
issues represented the troublesome public opinion faced by the authority of the
orthodoxy in the Eastern empire, and as such, highlights the public opinion
at this time in the fourth century. Conspicuous by its presence at the primary
position in the list, are the words of Arius, present in the first two opinions:
01: The Son is sprung from things non-existent,
or from another substance and not from God,
and that there was a time or age
when He was not.
02: The Father and the Son are two Gods.
To an independent political observer, public opinion about Jesus
is not at all positive and orthodox, and reflects a position that
he certainly is not to be regarded as coming from God, but rather
has sprung from nothing existing. A new God has been invented. The
literature of the new God (of Constantine) is fiction.
359-363 CE: The Arraignment of the Emperor Julian against Christianity
Against the Galilaeans:
The very first independent political comment concerning the new State Religion
of Christianity was formalised c.362 CE by the Emperor Julian who wrote that he thought
that it was expedient that he write his convictions to all mankind.
Julian's invectives 362 are re-examined in a new light:
Julian's Saturnalia Party: Satire written 362 CE in which Constantine finds Jesus while living a life of pleasure and incontinence.
Julian places the following words into the mouth of Jesus, and finally has
Constantine and his sons punished by avenging deities for their impiety,
and utter irreligiousness:
"He that is a seducer, he that is a murderer,
he that is sacrilegious and infamous,
let him approach without fear!
For with this water will I wash him
and will straightway make him clean.
And though he should be guilty
of those same sins a second time,
let him but smite his breast and beat his head
and I will make him clean again."
The Fabrication of the Galilaeans:
The emperor Julian never called "christians" by that name, and instead in all
his dealings, used the term "Galilaeans". He referred therefore to the
new testament literature as "the fabrication of the Galilaeans". He was
convinced that it was a fiction of men composed by wickedness. This article
explores this thing that Julian termed "the fabrication of the Galilaeans".
Presented is the specification of the package of fiction, fraud, interpolation,
and the fraudulent misrepresentation of ancient history, by Constantine, in the
fourth century.
363-364 CE: The Council of Laodicea - Prescriptions against the Heretics and the Apocrypha
The records from The Council of Laodicea indicate that
the reading of the New Testament Apocryphal tractates, were forbidden ....
Canon 59: Let no private psalms nor any uncanonical books be read in church,
but only the canonical ones of the New and Old Testament.
Canon 33: No one shall join in prayers with heretics or schismatics.
Canon 36:
They who are of the priesthood, or of the clergy,
shall not be magicians, enchanters, mathematicians, or astrologers;
nor shall they make what are called amulets, which are chains for their own souls.
And those who wear such, we command to be cast out of the Church.
364-450 CE: Censorship of Julian, and Knowledge of Fiction
Cyril of Alexandria: The role of the Tax-Exempt Bishop in the political censorship of Julian's writings. Before
the time of Cyril, people referred to the Nicene "Fathers" as the fathers of the
new state church. However, Cyril started the practice of referring to the
"fathers of the church" as the Pre-Nicene Eccesiastical writers, whom Eusebius
introduces in his Historia Eccesiastica. Cyril is very appropriately
called "The Seal of the Fathers". He is also involved with Nestorius. Cyril
writes that he is compelled to refute "the lies of Julian" and goes
about the business in many books.
but none as went far as Julian,
who damaged the prestige of the Empire
by refusing to recognize Christ,
dispenser of royalty and power.
he composed three books against the holy gospels
and against the very pure Christian religion,
he used them to shake many spirits
and to cause them uncommon wrongs.
353-390 CE: The History of Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus, a greek in the Roman army, wrote in Latin
a series of thirty-one books setting out a history from 92 to c.390 CE.
The initial thirteen books are alas lost, and Book 14 commences in
the year 353 CE. The obituary to Constantine, written by Ammianus
would have made very interesting reading. But who knows? It may yet
turn up in some new discovery, perhaps in the Syriac or Arabic or Coptic.
Some extracts of the work are presented, as follows:
Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Books 14-31)
Karnack Obelisk: A story about the Obelisk of Karnak.
Constantius: Obituary of Constantius; reference to Apollonius of Tyana
Julian Obituary of Julian
420-450 CE: Censorship of Nestorius, and Knowledge of Fiction
Nestorius, Ex-ArchBishop of Constantinople:
Wrote a summary of all the various heretics mid-fifth century, and his writings were
targetted for burning by edict. By some miraculous means, assisted by writing under
the pseudonym of Heracleides, a Syriac translation survived. The English translation
of these presumed destroyed writings of Nestorius became available, and reveals that
certain groups of heretics in the mid-fifth century still believed that Jesus was
fictitous; moreover that these beliefs were insisted to be based on ancient truth.
One of the Christian euphemisms for fiction is Docetism, in which the heretics
are descibed as not believing in the physical body of Jesus, only that "it seemed"
to have existence, but in reality, did not in fact have existence. Nestorius writes
a systematic classification of heresies, and states the following:
I see many who strongly insist
on these [theories of fiction]
as something [based] on
the truth and ancient opinion.
Our position is that these groups included the Greek academics
of the East
who shared Julian's conviction that the new testament
was a fiction of men.
429 CE: Cyril's Censorship of the Heresies Nestorius
Blasphemies and Heresies of Nestorius according to Cyril:
An examination of the five books composed in 429 CE by the orthodox tax-exempt murderer
and christian Bishop of Alexandria Cyril, against the "blasphemies and heresies" of Nestorius.
"I will speak the words too of offence.
Of His own Flesh was the Lord Christ discoursing to them;
Except ye eat, He says, the Flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His Blood, ye have no Life in you:
the hearers endured not the loftiness of what was said,
they imagined of their unlearning
that He was bringing in cannibalism."
Nestorius is today seen as a systematic reported of what he sees and hears
around him in the world, but Cyril does not want any of these things written.
Nestorius reports that some of the people imagined Jesus to be bringing in
cannibalism. The clever pagan priests were polemicists and seditionists against
the agenda of the Constantinian Canonical writings. One of them even went as
far to write an entire tractate, entitled
The Acts of Andrew and Matthias (Matthew) (from "The Apocryphal New Testament"
M.R. James-Translation and Notes, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924) in which Matthew
is sent to preach into the Land of the Cannibals:
"At that time all the apostles were gathered together
and divided the countries among themselves, casting lots.
And it fell to Matthias to go to the land of the anthropophagi. (cannibals)
Now the men of that city ate no bread nor drank wine,
but ate the flesh and drank the blood of men;
and every stranger who landed there they took, and put out his eyes,
and gave him a magic drink which took away his understanding.
"
491 CE: Censorship Masterlist - The Decretum Gelasianum
The Decretum Gelasianum
is a listing of the canonical texts of the new testament and a
list of the apocrypha, which is substantial in it length, and
attracts the wrath of the late fifth century Papal Council. It is
usually acknowledged that some of these works may have been
listed a century earlier, by Pope Dasius. This is a far more
expansive list than that recorded by Eusebius.
It makes explicit reference, for example, to .... all the books
which Leucius the disciple of the devil made (This refers to a
series of about 5 of the non canonical texts).
This of course also represents a Hit-List of officially heretical books,
and as such is recognised as a forerunner of the Vatican's Librorum Prohibitorum
(Index of Vatican Banned and Prohibited Books) which operated continuously from the
sixteenth (following the invention of the printing press) to the twentieth centuries.
In the mid twentieth century, the index of banned books had included over four thousand
six hundred books, one of which was Edward Gibbon's monumental work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
The precedent for the preparation of a Hit-List for Censorship
(destruction by fire, etc) of heretical books (and authors) commenced
with Constantine in the year 325 CE. The Decretum Gelasianum
thus represents a pre-Gutenburg proto-type of the Librorum Prohibitorum,
and additionally, an extension of the political hit-lists of Constantine.
(See for example here and especially here.)
030-324 CE: Where is the archeological evidence for pre-Nicene christianity?
000-324 CE: What then existed if Christianity did not?
The Therapeutae of Asclepius Which temples did Constantine target for destruction (Aegae, +, ...)?
Which priests did Constantine target for execution (Aegae, +, ...)?
Which ascetic priests wrote parodies against the ineptitude
of the fourth century christian "ministry" of "healing"
and of "embodied ascetic wisdom"? (Arius? Pachomius?) Ancient Healers
of the Lineage of Hippocrates and Galen, therapeutae (physicians; "sons of the elder",
"sons of the monk") of Asclepius: an ascetic ministry and physicians of souls. They
are described by Philo, as distinct from the Palestinian Essenes, living in Egypt,
and in Greece. Philo remarks they are ubiquitous in the empire c.20CE. The
therepeutae were ascetics (Egyptian and Hellenic). The signature of Buddhist
influence is unmistakable. The most popular Egypto-Graeco-Romon hero of the first
three centuries -- by the archaeological evidence -- is the Healer Asclepius, his
"asclepia" (healing centers), and associated gymnasiums, their
associated libraries, and their hierarchy of attendants and priests -
the therapeutae of Asclepius.
Ancient Pearls of Wisdom
Further related articles
