User:Arne Eickenberg/Caesarian origin of Christianity

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Francesco Carotta (born 1946 in Veneto, Italy) is an Italian industrial engineer, interpreter, translator and philosopher as well as a former IT entrepreneur and publisher, who now works as a historian, archaeologist and Biblical researcher. Carotta is a co-founder of the German newspaper die tageszeitung. As a scientific author he is best known for his controversial theory that the historical Jesus was Julius Caesar. After a few preliminary releases Carotta's research report was first published in 1999 in the German book War Jesus Caesar?, which was later translated into Dutch and English.

Summary
At the core of Francesco Carotta's research lies a detailed philological synoptical comparison of the ancient sources on Julius Caesar's final years during the Great Roman Civil War with the Gospel narrative, especially with the oldest Gospel of Mark, augmented by comparisons based on archaeological sources, ritualistic and liturgical traditions as well as on iconography. Carotta came to the conclusion that the multiple parallels and similarities between the lives and cults of Caesar and Christ and between the respective primary sources can best be explained by formulating the theory that Jesus Christ is Divus Iulius, the deified Julius Caesar, as he has been transmitted through history. Carotta argues that a cultic and scriptural transformation from ancient Rome to Jerusalem took place, and that the Gospel narrative, its geography, dramatic structure and characters were neither enhanced with an antithetically mimetic Caesarian approximation nor fabricated as a purely mythological amalgam, but had formed as a directly dependent, albeit corrupted retelling of the Great Roman Civil War—from Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon to his assassination, funeral and apotheosis, paralleled by Jesus' ministry from the Jordan to his capture, crucifixion and resurrection. Following Gérard Genette Carotta maintains that the textual mutation and delocalization came about by diegetic transposition, an error-prone process of copying mistakes, false translations, misreadings, misinterpretations, adaptations and redactions in different cultural contexts for distinct political purposes, which produced the vast amount of divergent early Christian literature, among them the canonical gospels. He further argues that the final metamorphosis of the new religion, which was to reinterpret the Julian imperial founding cult according to the new Flavian theopolitical ideology with special regard to ancient Roman Palestine, was induced under emperor Vespasian and his historian Flavius Josephus, whose vita provided the groundwork for the hagiography of the Apostle Paul in Acts II. According to Carotta Jesus Christ is therefore the Divus Iulius of the Flavians, and Jesus had a historical Proto-Christian existence as Julius Caesar.

Reception before 2002
Initial reactions to the first German edition of War Jesus Caesar? were mixed. Based on Carotta's past as a part-time satirical artist some feuilleton critics assumed that his book was meant as a science parody, while other journalists praised the book, calling it "provoking", "astounding" and "meticulous". Archaeologist Erika Simon wrote that Carotta's research ties with preexisting publications on the tight interconnections between Christianity and the Roman world empire, but "goes further and reveals new connections which have never been seen that way." She hoped that Carotta's book will contribute "that we remain open to questions concerning early Christianity". Except for few statements other scholars and clerics remained silent, which only changed with the English and Dutch translation, the latter spawning a broad and often heated controversy in academic and journalistic circles of the Netherlands.

The Dutch controversy
The Dutch debate, which lasted for several years to this day, was characterized by a strong partisan rift between journalists and between scholars, with one faction at times resorting to hostile vilification and libel, and the other partially indulging in excessive eulogies. Former academic history lecturer Anton van Hooff attempted to show that Carotta's book contained severe methodological flaws and factual errors, and accused its author of being a pseudoscientist, whereas Peter Veldhuisen attested scientificity and verifiability. Even the editor of the university magazine De Academische Boekengids lost neutrality in the controversy and refused to host a scholarly debate for Carotta and his Dutch colleagues. Columnist and philosopher Paul Cliteur had already refuted van Hooff's earlier arguments and wrote that Carotta presents an "overwhelming amount of material […] to support his thesis", which for him is the "key to unlocking a lot of mysteries on the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire". On the television program Buitenhof Cliteur exulted that Carotta's "report is of the same order of importance as the scientific discoveries of Darwin and Galileo" and that "his discovery will turn the entire history of civilization upside down." Philosopher Andreas Kinneging stated the "extreme importance" of Was Jezus Caesar?, which "provides [for] a new opening to the research on the accounts of Jesus' life", a view that was shared by many commentators: Political publicist and architectural historian Thomas von der Dunk applauded Carotta's "thoroughly researched and documented study", while Willem Dijkhuis emphasized the compelling nature of the resulting perspective on the European heritage. Professor of Future Studies Wim J. de Ridder stated that Carotta "participates in the development of normative future models which the elite of church and state considers undesirable", but which for the "average citizen" will be "experienced as inspirational". The release of The Gospel of Caesar, a documentary feature film about Carotta's research, partially reignited the original controversy. While scholars and clerics had found a more moderate tone with regard to the theory, Anton van Hooff harshly criticized classicist Gerard Janssen and his students for participating in the film and publicly debating Carotta's "superstition".

Reception since 2005
The theologian and priest Jerome Murphy-O'Connor superficially criticized Carotta for avoiding explanations of his theory and also expressed doubt concerning the parallels between Jesus' and Caesar's life. Based on information gathered from Carotta's website Maria Wyke, professor of Latin, considered the parallels between Caesar and Jesus demonstrated by Carotta as "sweeping and often superficial", despite their being "detailed and justified at book length". She summarized that "Caesar is no longer the shadow of Christ, but Christ the shadow of Caesar." Commentating on Wyke's book, classical reviewer Peter Stothard called Carotta's interpretation of Mark's gospel as a corrupt retelling of the Roman civil war "highly notable" in the reception theory form of historical scholarship. Historian and classical philologian Luciano Canfora called Jesus was Caesar an "original book" and added another argument to Carotta's framework by showing that both Caesar and Christ only narrowly escaped the desecration of their bodies. Carotta's conclusions were fully endorsed by classical philologian Fotis Kavoukopoulos, who called them "a paradigm shift in the history of religion". Anthropologist Francisco Rodríguez Pascual stated that Carotta's theory is a very important working hypothesis, which closes a gap that has never been heuristically investigated from this angle. Theologian Antonio Piñero stated that a diegetic transposition was "almost impossible" due to the severe cultural differences displayed in the Roman and Biblical sources, and that Carotta's theory would create "uncertainty". He later wrote that the theory of the Gospel as a diegetic transposition was one of the most remarkable and ingenious exercises he had read about the problem of Jesus' historicity, but also noted its complexity as a possible problem.

Related research and similar theories
For more than a century the close ties between early Christianity and the Roman imperial cult have been a recurring theme in scientific publications, beginning with books by Alexander del Mar and Gustav Adolf Deissmann. However, only few authors like Bruno Bauer proposed a Roman origin of Christianity, and even fewer actually noted direct similarities between Christ and Julius Caesar beyond Victor Hugo's remark that both god-men share the same the initials. Later researchers showed that even core elements of Christian scripture and theology, e.g. the Savior as Son of God, were directly copied from the imperial cult, which forced historians and theologians to find suitable explanations for these correlative phenomena, the most common being that early Christians chose to mimic the Roman cults including their terminology as a form of antithetical ideological protest against the worldly empire of Caesar as god.

The Latin Ur-Gospel
The early Christian Church often maintained that the original Gospel of Mark had been written at Rome in Latin ten (or alternatively twelve) years after the death of Christ. This corresponds to Carotta's claim that the Latin Ur-Gospel is the Historiae by Asinius Pollio, the Caesarian parts of which would have been published exactly ten to twelve years after Caesar's death and resurrection, since the work's redaction began at the earliest in 35 BC, followed by a consecutive serial publication until approximately 30 BC. In the 1920s Paul-Louis Couchoud, an adherent of the mythical school of Jesus' historicity, demonstrated in a widely unnoticed philological essay that the original Greek Gospel of Mark was already a translation based on a Latin Ur-Gospel.

Ethelbert Stauffer
Before Carotta it was the German Protestant theologian Ethelbert Stauffer, who produced the most substantial research into the accordances between Caesar and Christ and their religions respectively. Stauffer focused primarily on Caesar's divine grace and forgiveness (Clementia Caesaris) and on the ritual content of his funeral.

Improperia
During Caesar's funeral an uncustomary laudatio funebris was delivered by Mark Antony, who was the designated flamen Divi Iulii, highpriest of the deified Caesar. His oration included lamentation over the deceased Roman savior and lord, praise for his divine deeds, but also accusations and reproach against his enemies. He was answered by dirges from choirs among the crowd. During the funeral lament the voice of an invisible Caesar—possibly belonging to an archimimus—resounded and uttered a verse by Pacuvius from The Arms of Achilles: "Oh! Have I saved them that they might murder me?", to which the choirs replied with verses from Electra by Sophocles. It has been shown that the general structure of this ritual is mirrored by the Good Friday improperia, which contain lamentation, praise for divine deeds, and probrum ("reproach", "disgrace"), furthermore also a dialog between the priest and a Latin-Greek double choir, as well as similarly structured songs like the Popule meus: "My people! What have I done to you? How have I offended you?"

The Gospel of Mark and Plutarch's Caesar
(Detlev Dormeyer)

Heretic Christian origins of Islam
similar theories by Lüling, Luxenberg

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Related Articles
 * Historical Jesus
 * Gaius Iulius Caesar
 * Julius Caesar's funeral
 * Roman imperial cult
 * Divus Iulius
 * Jesus Christ

Bibliography

Books and articles on Carotta's research and its reception

 * T. Hendriks, "Was Jezus Caesar? Receptie vann een historische These", in: De Zwarte Hand 1, Soesterberg 2004, pp. 119–157
 * M. Wyke, Caesar: A Life in Western Culture, London 2007
 * A. P. J. Hendriks, J. van Friesland, G. W. J. Janssen & P. Pierik, "Wetenschappelijke verbeeldingskracht", in: De Academische Boekengids 69, Amsterdam 2008
 * and F. de Boer, "Criticism of A. van Hooff, Was Jesus Really Caesar?", Utrecht 2008
 * replicas against A. van Hooff, Was Jezus eigenlijk Caesar?, in: De Academische Boekengids 67, Amsterdam 2008

Books and articles partially using Carotta's research

 * G. W. J. Janssen (ed.), Plutarchus: Biografieën. Deel I: Demosthenes, Cicero, Alexander de Grote, Caesar, Leeuwarden 2006
 * P. García González, "Contexto histórico y entendimiento entre confesiones religiosas", Rascafría 2006
 * O. Augustsson, "The Quest for Chrest — an e-llumination", Institute for Higher Critical Studies, 2008
 * T. Hendriks, Rouw en razernij om Caesar. De wraak van het volk voor een politieke moord zonder weerga, Soesterberg 2008
 * J. Beaufort, "Arius und Ali. Über die iranischen Wurzeln des Christentums und die christlichen Wurzeln des Islam", 2008 (republished by H. Detering at Radikalkritik, Berlin 2009)
 * P. García González, "Intereses, competencias y niveles de realidad. Diferentes lecturas de las historias de vida", Rascafría 2009

External Links
 * Carotta's website
 * Excerpts from the English edition of his book
 * Reviews of his book including notes
 * Interview at metafysiko.org

Works

Books

 * F. Carotta, War Jesus Caesar? 2000 Jahre Anbetung einer Kopie, Munich 1999, ISBN 3442150515
 * = Was Jezus Caesar? Over de Romeinse oorsprong van het christendom, Soesterberg 2002 ISBN 9059110692
 * F. Carotta, Jesus was Caesar. On the Julian Origins of Christianity, Soesterberg 2005 (extended English edition), ISBN 9059113969
 * F. Carotta, War Jesus Caesar? Eine Suche nach dem römischen Ursprung des Christentums, Kiel 2009 (revised second edition; upcoming), ISBN 9783937719634

Academic

 * F. Carotta, "Il Cesare incognito — Da Divo Giulio a Gesù", in: L. Canfora (ed.), Quaderni di Storia 57, Milan 2003
 * F. Carotta, "Los evangelios como transposición diegética: una posible solución a la aporía ¿Existió Jesús?", in: A. Piñero (ed.), ¿Existió Jesús realmente?, Madrid 2008 (English translation)
 * F. Carotta & A. Eickenberg, "Orfeo Báquico: La Cruz Desaparecida", in: Isidorianum 35, Sevilla 2009 (English translation).

Reviews

 * F. Carotta, "Christus ein Mythos?", review of G. Courtney (1992), Et tu, Judas? Then fall Jesus, Kirchzarten 2002 (English translation)

General

 * F. Carotta, "Verkündigung: Caesars Kreuzigung — Das Evangelium nach Kleopatra", in: Cam (ed.), Memoria 2090 — Kalenden und Iden, Freiburg 1989
 * Various self-published works and newspaper articles

Other
Filmography

Notable appearances

 * Hessenstudio Live, interview (Germany, H3, 12-29-1999)
 * N3 Kulturjournal, report (Germany, N3, 03-01-2000)
 * Ontbijt Televisie, report (The Netherlands, KRO, 04-01-2002)
 * Hein Hansen, Jezus van Nazareth was Julius Caesar, feature (The Netherlands, Nova TV, 12-23-2002)
 * Jan van Friesland, The Gospel of Caesar, a documentary feature film about Carotta's research (2007/2008)
 * The Gospel of Caesar at the Internet Movie Database
 * XYZ, interview (United Kingdom, History Channel/Channel 4, XYZ)

Writing credits

 * Jan van Friesland, The Gospel of Caesar (2008)