Bible Scholar Claims Ancient ‘Confessions’ Prove Story of Jesus Christ Was Fabricated by Romans

An American scholar claims to have discovered that the
entire story of Jesus was made up by Roman aristocrats.
Joseph Atwill asserts that Christianity did not start as a
religion, but was instead created as propaganda tool to
pacify subjects of the Roman Empire. He says he noticed a
pattern forming when he was studying the only surviving
account of first-century Judea, which he claims contains
dozens of parallels between the life of a Roman emperor
and that of Jesus in the New Testament.
Mr Atwill argues that these ancient 'confessions' provide
'clear evidence' that the biography of Jesus is 'actually
constructed on prior stories, especially on the biography of
a Roman Caesar'.
But bible academic Professor James Crossley, from the
University of Sheffield, compared Mr Atwill's theory to a
Dan Brown fiction book. He told Daily Mail: 'These types
of theories are very common outside the academic world
and are usually reserved for sensationalist literature. 'People
do debate about how much we can know about Jesus, but
the idea that Romans invented stories about Jesus is outside
of the academic world.'
Atwill, however, insists that the story of Jesus was
fabricated as a way of creating peace. He explained, 'Jewish
sects in Palestine at the time, who were waiting for a
prophesied warrior Messiah, were a constant source of
violent insurrection during the first century. When the
Romans had exhausted conventional means of quashing
rebellion, they switched to psychological warfare. They
surmised that the way to stop the spread of zealous Jewish
missionary activity was to create a competing belief system.
That's when the "peaceful" Messiah story was invented.
Instead of inspiring warfare, this Messiah urged turn-the-
other-cheek pacifism and encouraged Jews to "give onto
Caesar" and pay their taxes to Rome.'