Joseph Atwill

Oh good: someone has already thoroughly debunked Atwill:

[link to www.tektonics.org]

I knew there were going to be serious flaws in his logics. For one thing, there is no mention of the priest class that communicate w demon spirits and guide the govt.s of the world (which would explain any similarities between Roman military campaigns and the story of Christ.).

For another thing: Christ taught love for God and each other. Why would an empire that relies on blood-letting and butchery want to encourage that kind of mentality in its citizens?

This is likely why the bible was translated in over 400 languages a few hundred years after the Resurrection, but within a few hundred years after Rome co-opted Christianity and paganized it the best they could, it was only allowed to be printed in Latin and people who tried to do otherwise were tortured and/or killed.

:)