http://www.tektonics.org/lp/pisocake.html
On the "Roman Piso" theory
Many years back when I used to pick up copies of The Humanist for
entertainment, I recall seeing a small advertisement among the back-
matter ads that claimed to provide undeniable, irrefutable proof that
Josephus had authored the NT. The offerer was the "Abelard Reuchlin
Foundation." Well, these fellows are still around.
It would be an overstatement to say that no one takes this group --
whose overall thesis is that the NT was authored by members of an
aristocratic Roman family to keep slaves under control and submissive
-- seriously. In fact I can find only one writer who has even bothered
to address their claims in any detail, and that ironically enough was
racist Christ-myther Revilo P. Oliver. All Oliver did was address a
couple of technical claims they made (apparently their thesis ignores
that the Romans used very few of what we would call "first names"); as
for the rest, he didn't consider it worth his time.
What few other challenges to these ideas I have found have been to
merely describe the theory in one word or less as nonsense. I also
found a message board, with a message from a member of a Classics
Department at Calvin College, which said that he had not looked at the
Piso site on
angelfire.com, but did say:
...I often use "
angelfire.com" sites to illustrate to my students the
danger and indeed the absurdity of using websites indiscriminately
when they write their term papers. Some of the pages there are real
doozies.
And another classics scholar from Penn said:
THere's been a lively run of this on the sci.classics newsgroup. The
short form of this is that the Piso family is responsible for all
secular and sacred Greco-Roman-Christian history, all part of a vast
goof performed by them on unsuspecting modern scholars. It reads like
a huge collaborative parody of Leo Strauss composed by Borges,
Nabokov, and Eco, all under the influence of something they got from
Hunter Thompson.
That's about as seriously as the scholars seem to take it. Skeptics of
a more rational bent may also find this analysis by a Skeptic
interesting. Their summary: "This is one of the most obviously
laughable 'theories' I have seen on the web."
Well, that's enough generality. Shall we back that up with
particulars? Here are thematic statements from one favoring site:
We Jews and Church Leaders have known since the beginning of
Christianity that it was synthesized by the Roman Piso family for the
purpose of maintaining control over the masses and to placate slaves.
And, this is why we Jews are the "Chosen People" and why we have
endured so much for so many years; we are witnesses to the lie.
The New Testament, the Church, and Christianity, were all the creation
of the Calpurnius Piso (pronounced Peso w/ long "E") family (a), who
were Roman aristocrats. The New Testament and all the characters in
it--Jesus, all the Josephs, all the Marys, all the disciples,
apostles, Paul, and John the Baptist--are all fictional.
Judaism's ethics and morality were incompatible with the hallowed
Roman institution of slavery on which the aristocracy fed, lived and
ruled. They feared that Judaism would become the chief religion of the
empire...Repeatedly, religious-minded Judaean zealots were staging
insurrections against the Herodian rulers of Judaea who were Piso's
wife's relations. Piso wished to strengthen his wife's family's
control of the Judaeans. The Pisos searched for a solution to the two
problems. They found it in the Jewish holy books, which were the
foundation both for the rapid spread of the religion and for the
zealot's refusal to be governed by Rome's puppets. The Pisos mocked,
but marveled at, the Jewish belief in their holy books. Therefore,
they felt a new "Jewish" book would be the ideal method to pacify the
Judaeans and strengthen their in-laws' control of the country.
That's actually enough for most people to dismiss these theorists out
of hand, but for completeness we'd like to put together a miscellany
of claims from this group and check them out. The following claims are
derived from various websites supporting this theory. Let's start with
a foundational claim from these folks:
The member of the Piso family who started it all was Arrius Calpurnius
Piso. He was the Roman general who captured the city of Jerusalem for
Rome in 66 CE (Common Era), and who, collaborating with Titus (a
relative) destroyed the temple there in 70 CE. In fact, both Zela
(religious center of Pontus) and Jerusalem were the sites of temples
that were destroyed: Julius Caesar destroyed the one in Zela in 47
BCE.
From here is is noted that this "Arrius" is none other than Flavius
Josephus himself, and it goes from there. But let's pause for a
moment, shall we? It seems rather curious that a Net search of the
name "Arrius Calpurnius Piso" turns up nothing but websites that
promote or support this theory. The name turns up nowhere on any site
dedicated to Roman history, Latin studies, or anywhere having to do
with serious scholarship. This is fairly telling, because the
existence of this fellow seems to be a root for many facets of this
theory:
Revelation 1:8 says "I am the Alpha and the Omega; the beginning and
the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to
come, the Almighty." The name Arrius Calpurnius Piso begins with Alpha
and ends with Omega. Could this be another way of Jesus (the Lord)
saying "I am Arrius Piso."? A general rule is that you can substitute
"Arrius Piso" wherever the "Lord" is referred to in the NT.
Revelation 13:18 says "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding
count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his
number is Six hundred threescore and six." The number is 600+(3*20)+6,
or 666. The "man" is both Jesus Christ and Arrius Calpurnius Piso!
Here's why: The number was expressed as Greek characters in the Greek
text of the New Testament. Ancient Greek had no "cypher" numbers (0-9)
as we have today. Instead, numbers were expressed using characters
from the Greek alphabet. The Ancient Greek Numbers that were used to
express the number 666 were Chi Xi Stigma. Chi stands for 600, Xi for
60 and Stigma for 6. Chi historically stood for "Christ", both because
of the sound of it, and because it appeared as a Greek cross. Could
the numbers 600 and 66, put together, mean "Christ is Arrius Piso."?
Is it an accident that the initials JC stand for Jesus Christ and
Julius Caesar? Is it an accident that the name given to Jerusalem by
Arrius Piso in 66 CE was Jupiter Capitolanum? Another JC.
Another promoting site says, "...Vitellius took control over the
empire as emperor. He was killed soon afterwards, by Arrius Calpurnius
Piso."
Really? Not according to Suetonius, who in The Twelve Caesars records
that Vitellius was killed by a group of soldiers who performed various
atrocities on him before throwing his body in the Tiber. No "Arrius"
makes as much as a bow.
This "Arrius" is also said to have to have headed Roman forces, and
along with Titus, "layed seige upon the Temple in Jerusalem in the
year 70 C.E." Yet Josephus makes no mention of such an Arrius (though
we'd guess that's because he was Arrius and was trying to hide it?).
We'd like the reader to note that there is no cite or source given for
this information, which is apparently typical for this consortium.
People are invented from this Piso family based on no more than a whim
and perhaps a presumption of an embedded code in the NT and other
documents. To put it simply, there is no evidence outside the theory
that "Arrius Piso" actually existed.
Here's another one of those types of claims:
Around the end of the reign of Hadrian (after 135 CE) Julius
Calpurnius Piso, the son of Arrius Piso, made a big mistake. He had
just conquered the Jews at Masada, after which the Jews scattered to
all corners of the earth. This was the infamous Diaspora. It was a
stunning (if brutal) victory, and Julius wanted to make the most of
it. He asked Hadrian to make his son successor to the Emperor, knowing
full well that if Hadrian refused, Julius would be obliged to commit
suicide. Hadrian refused.
There's quite the confusion here, since Masada was a last stand for
the Jews in 73 AD, not in the time of Hadrian, and the "Diaspora"
refers to Jews scattered among the nations even long before 70 AD. Not
that it matters, because this "Julius" seems to be another invention
of the theory. There was indeed a "Julius Piso" who was mentioned in a
letter of Pliny (see here) but he had nothing to do with the Jewish
War. The Roman commander at Masada was named Silva (Josephus, War
7.8). We are told that this Julius also wrote the book of Revelation.
Like Arrius, though, he is a phantom.
Also part of this package: numerology.
[Julius] Caesar was an in-law of the Piso family. His wife, Calpurnia,
was a Piso! He had married her to cement an alliance with Pontus. When
he went from the bed of Cleopatra to Pontus in 47 he betrayed that
alliance. It was perceived by the Pisos as the act of a traitor, and
they swore their revenge.
Three years later, in 44 BCE, on the 15th day of the 3rd month, Julius
Caesar was stabbed 23 times by conspirators who included Piso family
members. The assassination of Julius Caesar is full of clues. His
given name, Julius, was written IVLIV in the Latin of his day. Make
note of the fact that the number 4 is IV in Roman numerals. Thus the
number 44 can be seen to be contained in his very name.
In case you're wondering how this was arranged: it seems to be part of
the plan that the Pisos also orchestrated our system of reckoning
years and numbering them BC and AD.
The 15th day of the 3rd month contains another clue. If you divide 15
by 3 you get three 5's. The Roman numeral for 5 is V. Thus the day of
Caesar's death contains three V's, referring to his phrase VENI VIDI
VICI.
Caesar was stabbed 23 times. There were exactly 23 letters in the
Latin alphabet of his day. This indicates that we are to use old Latin
as a cypher.
Apparently any number is fair game here; and any way it can be
associated is fair game as well. Julius Caesar is a real important
person for this thesis; here's another example. Noting his famous
"Veni vidi vici" phrase, they write:
The infamous number 666, for example, is simply VIVIVI, which refers
to VenI VidI VicI. Get it? Oh yes, you will say that 666 is really
DCLXVI. Yes, it is, but it also can cleverly be represented as VIVIVI,
and the Pisos were very clever. They knew people would throw
themselves off the track by their need to be literal.
That's the answer when the data doesn't cooperate: It was actually a
"very clever" way of hiding things from people not in on the joke.
Here's more:
The number 666 can also be expressed as VI VI VI. If you take the
three V's and form a triangle, and then take the three I's and form
another triangle, and then overlap the two "against" each other you
will form a Star of David. This is yet another way that the number 666
points to the Jews.
You can also rearrange all the pieces, but wouldn't three V's make two
triangles plus one line, without the Is? That makes three total.
Elsewhere it is said:
Notice that the phrase "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye
shall see him, and they [also] which pierced him." contains VENI VIDI
VICI! He came. They saw. They pierced (conquered) him. It describes
what happened at Zela in 47 BCE, and the assassination that followed
three years later. They saw him coming with his troops, and they
pierced him 23 times as a result of it.
"Pierced" = "conquered"? And it took place over three years? More more
undocumented creativity follows:
When a Roman needed to attend to nature he or she would say something
like "Time to turn water into wine." This was a joke, of course, for
the act of urination was something like transforming water magically
into a kind of 'wine' - urine. Knowing this, can you ever again think
that Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding at Capurnaum was a
"miracle?" It was written into the New Testament by the Romans so that
everyone in Rome, except the slaves of course, would get a belly
laugh.
You won't find any documentation of such a phrase used by Romans, but
we wonder whether the priests of Dionysus would have caught on. More
yet:
In Latin the word "pistor" (baker) was, like the word "ippos", used by
the Piso family to refer to themselves. Could it be that when we read
in the Lord's Prayer "Give us this day our daily bread." we are
actually reading a request for more "bread" from the Piso family
bakery that cooked up the Jesus story?
Yes, and "Piso" is like "pistis" or the faith we are to have in Jesus.
Isn't it useful how the Greek and Latin languages evolved so
conveniently for this scheme?
Some other ideas by this thesis: Emperor Trajan wrote as Plutarch;
Pliny wrote the Pastoral letters (and actually died in a battle
against the Jews in 116 AD, fighting under a different name); a son of
Arrius (Josephus) wrote the Gospel of John and wrote as Justin Martyr.
But wait, there's more:
Is it a coincidence that the Piso family originated in Pontus, and
there is a character in the NT named Pontius Pilate? Pontus was an
ancient country that was located on the southern coast of the Black
Sea, province of Cappadocia. The Latin name of the Black Sea was
Pontus Euxinus. Did you ever wonder where the name Pontius Pilate came
from? Perhaps it was to commemorate the origins of the Piso family.
One of the Piso family ancestors was named Pilatus.
Not a shred of documentation if offered for any of these claims, and
if you wonder whether they care that Pontius (not Pontus) Pilate is
regarded as a real person by Tacitus, we should note that Tacitus was
thought to be in on this conspiracy as well. More: The English
language is in on the conspiracy, too --
I'm not sure if this means anything, but the word fool is used exactly
66 times in the King James Bible: 57 times in the Old Testament. The
writers of the NT would have had to make up 9 uses of the word "fool"
to make it come out to 66.
The problem here is that the KJV translates a few different words as
"fool" (nabal, cakal, 'eviyl, keciyl to name four in the Hebrew, and
aphron and moros to name two in the Greek). But maybe the KJV
translators were Pisos also? In fact, we'll see something like this
suggested by the lead theorist below.
Curious Jesus. They inter-changed the words that they use when they
say 'Lord'. Sometimes using 'despotes' (despot), but mostly using
'curie'/'curios' meaning not only 'Lord', but also 'curious',
'strange', or 'mysterious'. This is a big hint at what they were
doing, especially when mentioned in conjunction with statements such
as "the mystery of the Gospels." They take they Latin word 'curia' and
then turn it into its masculine form in Greek to get 'curios'. Julius
Piso hints at what they were doing in 'Revelations' 18:8, "... for
strongly curious is the God that judgeth her." And Julius even ends
'Revelations' snidely, saying in Rev. 22:20; "Yes, come, curious
(Lord) Jesus!" Rev. 22:21; "Saints!, praise the Revelations of John!"
And that, of course, made them want to exclude 'Revelations' from the
canon.
"Kurios" (Lord) in Greek matched with "curious" in English? Not
hardly. We have been advised that "curious" comes from a word
curiosus, which means "conscientious" and has no linguistic derivation
from the Greek "kurios".
The 'Abba' issue. In the New Testament, Jesus, dying on the cross,
calls out to God using the word 'abba' - 'father'. And lo, and behold,
we find Josephus using this same word while describing something
similar in Chapter 8, verse 7, of 'Wars of the Jews'.
The proper title is actually "The Jewish War," and there are 7 books
that have a chapter 8 in them. Not one describes anything
"similar" (well - similar to what?) and we might add that Jesus did
not use the word "Abba" on the cross.
We find 'the Egyptian' mentioned in Acts 21:38, and also in Josephus!
The 'Egyptian' referred to was Arrius Piso/Josephus, because Arrius
Piso was also 'Philo of Alexandria' (in Egypt), and he is descended
from the 'Ptolemies' of Egypt, and because he is of Idumean (Edomite,
i.e., 'Egyptian') descent. Not to mention the fact that being a
descendant of King David, he has the blood of the Egyptian Pharaohes
in him, because King Solomon (David's son), was married to a Pharaoh's
daughter!
Solomon had hundreds of foreign wives -- how do we conclude this
descent? You will be relieved to know as well, "In the N.T., Jesus is
tempted to jump from the Temple in the exact same place that we find
described in Josephus!" Described in Josephus...where? It isn't said.
Apparently God is going to hell! In Matthew 5:22 Jesus says: "but
whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." And
in Luke 12:20 "But God said unto him, [Thou] fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee." In other words, Jesus says that he who
says "thou fool" shall be in danger of hell fire, and then God says
"Thou fool"! So, God is in danger of hell fire!...This is either a
joke, or an egregious error.
However, the former "fool" is a moros and the latter (and 1 Cor.
15:36) is an aphron.
These folks also claim all manner of sexual jokes behind the NT text;
for example, "that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die"
is said to have sexual innuendos. Likewise, such phrases as "he arose,
took up his bed and went" (Mark 2:12), "many knew him" (Mark 6:33),
and "having eyes, see ye not?" (Mark 8:18), "eyes" being a codeword
known only to Roman aristocratic sorts for another part of the body,
one that is active when you sit down, if you get my drift.
Acts, we are told, was written to advertise locations of Roman
brothels. I'll just let you think about all of that. One of their
sources for this sort of thinking is one James Hannay -- a British
chemist of the 19th century known for an experiment in which he
artificially produced minute quantities of diamond. In other words,
this is someone who as had no business drawing the conclusions he did.
It is interesting to note that "Abelard" was a saint supposedly
castrated for his tendency to lasciviousness.
A reader wrote to one of these folks and got some interesting
information. As we have noted in several points here Christianity was
a social movement top-heavy by proportion with members of the middle
and upper class, and less heavy than would be expected with the lower
class and slaves; we have also noted numerous social factors that made
Christianity unpopular with Rome. The Piso Family thesis has an answer
for this:
...why does it seem that the Romans hated Christianity? After all,
didn't they "throw the Christians to the lions" in the Coliseum? The
last thing the Roman rulers wanted was for the slaves to catch on to
the fact that the Romans wrote the New Testament. If they had said
"Here, slaves, is a religion made just for you, and we endorse it."
the slaves would have done anything but become Christians. Isn't that
obvious?
And our reader was told of "The facade of Roman dislike of
Christianity":
They had to create the illusion that they were not involved in
creating it, so they would not be suspected. Thus, they had to play
the part of not knowing anything about it (as Pliny the Younger does),
and/or being indifferent to it or disliking it hence the writings
about (false) persecutions
Other "facades" include:
The facade of "What the War Was About." Since the Romans were really
the "bad guys," they could not let that fact be known. If the public
knew the true nature of the war, they would have revolted against Rome
just as the Jews did.
The facade of the idea of "Foreigners." There could hardly have been
any real foreigners in the way that we are led to believe because of
the cooperation of all major rulers in many different lands and the
genealogical data that allows us to see how these rulers were related
to each other and/or had the same common ancestors, and knew this.
This latter "facade" is especially in opposition to what we know about
ancient social networks and ideas of collectivist "in-groups" -- see
link above.
The facade of Dynasties. They had to create the illusion that there
were dynasties so that the public would never know of the perpetual
rule by the same family. Most, if not all, of these rulers were very
cruel and extremely harmful to the public. If the public knew that if
this were the true case, they would not have stood for it. Illusions
were created to make the public think that if, for example, someone
could rise in rank in the military, he stood a chance to become
Emperor! This was a very powerful idea for people enduring so much
misery.
The facade of authors speaking forthrightly and honestly. Ancient
authors were royals, and yet they could not say so. By necessity, they
had to lie about who they were and about much of what they said in
their writings. They tried not to lie when they did not have to
because they made use of devices such as disclaimers and said truthful
things - in deceptive ways! For many hundreds of years, the general
public has believed these ancient authors to be who they claimed to be
and as if they wrote in an honest fashion.
The facade of many different people writing. Since only the royals
were doing the writing and recording of history as well as Biblical
texts, it was necessary that they made it appear that more people
wrote than actually were...Thus, the authors played many parts and
wrote using alias names to accomplish this. Arrius Piso, for example,
wrote as Flavius Josephus, as well as Philo of Alexandria in addition
to writing Biblical texts!
The conspiracy, obviously, is quite vast. I think it enough to state
that all of this is merely assumed for the sake of the theory, not
shown by evidence. But don't dare tell them that. Our reader sent us a
record of a conversation between a somewhat more rational atheist and
the lead theorist in the Piso camp. This atheist stated:
The Piso theory contends numbered scrolls existed in the first
century. No such scroll have been found. No secondary documentation
even exists that alludes to such scrolls. The destruction of Pompeii
and Herculean in the first century AD froze a period in time. The
private libraries of at least one on the members of the inner circle
was preserved. It had no numbered text. This proved to be an
embarrassment to those who claimed they existed. They know have to
concoct wild scenarios where the scrolls are removed to another
location, and loved ones are left behind.
Now we cannot vouch for the accuracy of this person's statements, but
we do wish to note the leader's answer:
What we had said about numbered scrolls (chapter and verse) is that
the Pisos had their OWN private copies that were numbered. And of
course, the chances that those scrolls will be found is nearly zero.
They were not meant for the public to see/find. They were kept in
private family archives for as long as they needed them to be. The
numbered copies that were produced for the King James Bible made use
of those original ancient numbers which were pulled out of the
original ancient texts, because it was SAFE to do so after all of
those hundreds of years. And the fact that others had made the attempt
to number the biblical texts just prior to the KJV, is just red-
herrings so that one could make arguments regarding the claims of
anyone such as ourselves. The plan was probably made right from the
start as to just when or if numbered texts should ever be made
available to the public. What you need to understand is that we are
dealing with those of extreme genius. It is necessary to think as they
did in order to understand how they made this all work.
Do you get that? This is a work of conspiratorial genius. And if you
disagree? The leader has the answer:
You need to educate yourself to a higher level so as to be able to
understand these things. As I had said before, you are operating under
illusions. You need to get beyond being trapped by those facades.
When one realizes that those who were writing and producing ancient
history were in complete control of ALL that would be left to us in
terms of evidence, then the threshold in terms of WHAT evidence is,
changes. And that is what you have yet to understand. WE are not in
any way in control of what evidence there is. We are entirely
dependent upon what evidence was deliberately left by the perpetrators
themselves. Understand? That, is the true nature of what we are
dealing with in the study of ancient history.
This is a broad and extremely complicated subject. It requires genius
level thought, and sage dedication to understand fully. It is nothing
that can be acheived by amateurs who do not have the ability to know
when they are being deceived by ancient authors by any method or
means.
I think this all speaks for itself in terms of illustory suppositions
of grandeur. One final word from the lead theorist:
Our work, ultimately, is the ONLY way in which humanity has any real
hope of ever gaining sanity. It is the only way in which real security
for all will ever be achieved, as it effects so many other things. As
I can, I have been trying to reveal this to you all for some time now
in the form of various articles and subject matter. And I will
continue to do so. But I think it is also important that you know just
what the ultimate goal is. It is to enable future generations to think
clearly, to learn how to learn, and to know how their own minds work.
These very simple things are necessary for any person to be sane. So,
our goal, via exposing the truth, is to change an insane world into a
sane one. And, that is the truth.
The reality of the situation was that I was a sane person living in a
world that was comprised mostly of insane people. Now, how is that for
a shocker! What a huge thing to realize. I had already known that
nearly everyone was very different that I, in that they were not
actively seeking the truth about life and the world in which we all
live. They, for the most part, simply accepted the illusion of reality
which they saw around them. And I knew that. Which, in and of itself,
was indeed alarming, but at that point, I had not yet fully understood
the great impact of this, nor had I realized that this phenomenon was
actually worldwide. I did, however, realize that even people of the
highest rank in our society were taken in by those illusions.
It's not necessary to say much more about this theory. It seems to be
the sort of thing that one derives from supermarkey tabloids -- only
far more creative. In any event, it amounts to this: The Piso theory
is based not on evidence of any kind, but on exceptionally creative re-
readings of evidence.
Reply from the Piso Family Theorist
When I told a classical scholar of our acquaintance of the Roman Piso
theorem, his response was a "WHAT?" with enough question marks
attached to go off screen, and a remark that such people were not
worth responding to. I slightly disagree, assuming one seeks a certain
entertainment value, and this is about what we got from the lead
theorist (whose name we cannot discern, so we shall just call him "the
leader") of the Piso theory.
The leader caps-titles his response, "A REPLY BY THE NEW CLASSICAL
SCHOLARSHIP (N.C.S.) REGARDING THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE NEW TESTAMENT BY
THE ROMAN PISO FAMILY." To begin (and throughout his response) he
seems particularly and petulantly offended that (he thinks) we did not
know that he calls his school of thought, "THE NEW CLASSICAL
SCHOLARSHIP".
We did know that he uses this name, and it is of no moment. Give me 20
minutes and I will start a cost-free website advertising "THE NEW
QUANTUM PHYSICS" revealing that all of quantum physics as we
understand it as wrong, and that atoms actually spell out secretly-
coded messages laying out a new theory of physics.
The leader is far off base in supposing that the designation is in any
sense meaningful, or that there is actually anything from his self-
designated school that supposedly overturns the "old" classical
scholarship. Well then, I designate myself the author of the NEWER,
EVEN BETTER CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP.
Don't expect the leader to have more than this to offer. With
reference to my note from Oliver, the leader assures us that his "NEW
CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP" takes care of that, and that it has
"discovered" so much the old scholarship doesn't know, namely, that
the Romans were very good at creating facades, but we still don't get
any actual proof of this, just the same old begged question that a
conspiracy is at work.
Oliver's note about the use of Roman names is not actually addressed.
Rather, we are treated to a story about how the royal Romans made use
of aliases, how they had conclaves with each other to plot against the
common people -- and so on, with not one scintilla of proof offered
other than the samed begged question that a conspiracy is afoot.
In terms of using a cost-free website as a medium -- as opposed to
peer-reviewed journals -- we are told that this is "being adverse to
those who are not spending money just to have a website. It is saying
that because a person or group has not paid out money for a website
that immediately we must ASSUME that their information is invalid or
untrue."
No, it runs deeper than that, and actually has nothing to do with the
money. Persons with free websites who promote ideas that run
completely contrary to accepted ("old" -- i.e., with a proven track
record) scholarship, who refuse to be open about their own
credentials, who use an alias while refusing to be open about their
identity even privately (the leader makes the claim that "religious
zealots" may try to harm or kill him, and that "paid" websites suggest
backing by special interests), are immediately suspicious and mark
themselves as unworthy sources.
As I often told people in Internet classes, give me 10 minutes in a
public library and I will have a site up selling cancer cures, and
people will buy it, and I'll be out of town with a lot of money before
the police can come. If the Piso theory has a worthy word to say then
why isn't anything he says recorded in The Journal of Roman Studies?
Calling such venues representative of "OLD" scholarship is not an
answer. Calling them "biased" is not an answer. Calling it "valuable
information" begs the question.
After likewise designating the scholar from Penn as "ignorant" and
biased, and after designating the member of that Skeptical list as
like one "putting your head in the sand", and claiming that his NEW
scholarship will "replace the idea of history" as we know it -- bear
in mind how easy it would be to do the same promoting a NEW QUANTUM
PHYSICS -- we get to where I spoke of some particulars, and offered
some thematic statements from a site sympathetic to the theory.
We're told yet again that we just don't understand, and it is said,
"Real scholars do not laugh at new ideas. They investigate them and
try to understand them."
Indeed? So if I go to MIT right now and give them the "new idea" that
atoms actually spell out secret messages, I suppose they should
"investigate and try to understand" that rather than call security to
kick me off the campus. The leader goes on for several sentences about
how his critics are lazy, ignorant, irresponsible, and so on --
verbiage which can be easily reproduced by anyone in place of getting
actual evidence to the fore.
Now we get to where I quoted a Piso-sympathetic website about Arrius
Calpurnius Piso as a Roman general who captured Jerusalem. The leader
immediately distances himself from the quotel, saying it is from a
place that is "NOT an official New Classical Scholarship site".
Oh? My article was a profile of people using this entire family of
claims; "official" (one free website) or "unofficial" (some other free
website) made no difference to me in context. Not that it matters --
by his own logic, since when does the leader have the right to dismiss
such people? We may say: Why don't you instead be a "real scholar" and
"try to investigate and understand" this variation on the theory? Why
can't the other fellow say (as the leader does), "Well, he's just
IGNORANT and BIASED. He needs to address the EVEN NEWER CLASSICAL
SCHOLARSHIP that supersedes the NEW CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP." Is it
becoming clear what little foundation this thesis has?
The leader likewise distances himself from the other site's statement
that Arrius was actually Josephus, and issues a vague retort that, "I
have explained to several people just this week that it is not
reasonable to expect to find enough information at this point in time
on the Internet about this subject as in order for that to happen
there first have to be several books out on the subject so that people
can quote from them and post that information!"
All right, so -- when can we have these books? He says, "The books
will be out in the coming years and so that information will not find
its way to the Internet for a few years from now."
Really? It is now 2009; the leader wrote this in 2003 -- and still no
sign of these books. In fact, the site responding to me has articles
that have not been updated in ten years or more.
The leader is apparently is online with the idea of affirming an
Arrius Piso; to my note that this name appears nowhere on sites
devoted to Latin history and such, he agrees and says, "So what? The
author was simply looking in the wrong place."
Really? So where's the "right place"? What ancient Roman work of
history? What inscription mentioning Arrius Piso as a real person?
There is no such thing. There wouldn't be, the leader tells us,
because after all, this was something that the "Old Classical
Scholarship" doesn't get because they can't read between the lines and
see how these Roman "royals" were fooling n everyone, and if Arrius
was actually mentioned clearly somewhere, that would defeat the
purpose. It's like the painting of the cow eating grass. But it's
blank, you say. A white canvas. Well, the cow ate the grass, the
leader replies. But there's no cow, you say. Well, the leader retorts,
you didn't expect the cow to stick around if there was no grass, did
you? Don't you understand the NEW METHOD OF REALISTIC PAINTING?
The leader does assure us, though, that Arrius Piso's name was given
in literary works; it was just "given in the ONLY way in which he
could give it - in a way in which it could be hidden and not obvious."
How? "...not all together as one name." I.e., an Arrius over here on
page 4, a Piso here on page 72.
All right then. Using that method in 2003, I can decode a secret world
ruler named Saddam Blair Bush from the daily newspaper. Just in case,
we are assured that the leader has some evidence up his sleeve which
he hasn't made public yet. It's all very convenient. Thus when I noted
that Suetonius didn't say anything about Arrius Piso killing
Vitellius, we are assured:
Yes, he does! Suetonius DOES say that Arrius Piso killed Vitellius.
But he was using one of Arrius Piso's alias names to do so. And this,
is what the author does not understand. Suetonius says, "The officer
(official) who dispatched (killed) him was one Antonius Primus, a
native of Toulouse, and his boyhood nickname had been Becco
('rooster's beak')." Ref. Suetonius, 'The Twelve Caesars', Vitellius,
the last paragraph. Of course, the average person would not know this
or how to tell that Arrius Piso used that alias name let alone the
many other alias names he used. He used so many alias names in fact,
that we have yet to discover them all. Where did he get these alias
names?
So it's all a secret code using one of the many convenient aliases
that this non-existent Arrius Piso used. Well, why not come up with
something for the EVEN BETTER CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP?
"Primus" is a secret code not for Arrius Piso, but for a fellow named
"Optimus Primus" who owned a Roman chariot consortium. He wanted
Vitellus dead because he wouldn't renew the Roman military chariot
contract.
What, leader? It's a new idea, don't laugh at it, investigate it. The
only reason you don't agree is because you lack discipline and ability
to see it.
When it gets down to where we are told that we're just too "average"
to grasp all these secret codes whether in Suetonius or the Bible,
when we are told that recognizing all this secret material takes
"discipline" and "ability" that only the leader possesses, that there
was a conspiracy by unevidenced Roman royals that has fooled all
classical scholars today; that these same royals "anticipated" that
future atheists and non-Christians would not take the the NT seriously
and so put secret codes in it to prove that Christianity was a hoax;
and that the "whole reality of history" is changed by someone with no
reported credentials and a free website...it's past time to take this
seriously.
The leader also distances himself from the sympathetic site's bit
about Julius Piso and Hadrian, and offers a replacement from the
Reuchlin route:
"Jesus, as a hen gathering her chickens in Matt. 23:37… And the term
Gollus, for the dispersion (Diaspora) which he ultimately caused. It
was only after the second destruction that the Jewish literature
referred to both dispersions (Diaspora) as Gollus" (Ref. 'The True
Authorship of the New Testament', Abelard Reuchlin, pg. 11-12).
What this has to do with anything isn't said. I didn't say a word
about a Gollus or a Diaspora under Hadrian, so even if this is true
(for what it may be worth) it makes has no affect on what I have
written. Then we are told:
This leads us to the verge of discussing just HOW the authors of that
time could refer to Arrius Piso without mentioning his real name; he
was alluded to by using his many alias names which had their origin in
his ancestry. He is referred to as "Gallus" or Gollus, because of his
ancestral name of "Pollo/Pollio," which means "chicken." However, to
explain this so that the reader will understand it as I do would take
many cross-references to illustrate and is not possible without all of
the related material; and that would require not just one book, but
several.
So Arrius Piso conveniently had yet another alias to add to the list
(how many is that now?); and there's a linguistic connection between
"Gallus" and "Pollio" that it would take several books to explain. We
don't doubt it; the linguistic convolutions required to get there
would no doubt take years of writing to make clear.
We are then told, "Let it suffice here to make mention only of this
with regards to Arrius Piso being 'Gallus'; the second Diaspora was
called 'Gollus' by the Jews (I have also seen it referred to as "the
Galuth"), because it was caused by Mr. Gallus - Arrius Piso."
The leader has this much right: the terms "galus" (one "L") and
"galuth" are used for Jews living outside Israel -- as in, in exile
and as a punishment. And it's related to a Hebrew word galah. So this
mysterious "Arrius Piso", whose name conveniently is unattested in any
source except by "disciplined" research, has yet another alias, also
likewise found only by "disciplined" research. I see.
Among the further assurances we have are that this Arrius Piso (still
yet proven to exist) has "ancestors on the Flavian side of his family"
who "derive from a family whose name was 'Pollo' or 'Pollio,' which is
'chicken.'"
And the evidence for these persons existing is? Not given. Arrius we
are told also had another couple of aliases, "Cestius Gallus" and the
"Antonius Primus" who killed Vitellius. Proof? Why, it's simple.
Here's what Suetonius says:
Vitellius died at the age of fifty-six; nor did his brother and son
outlive him. The omen of the rooster at Vienne (noted above) had been
interpreted as meaning that a Gaul would kill him - gallus is both a
'cock' and a 'Gaul'. This proved correct: the officer (official) who
dispatched (killed) him was one Antonius Primus, a native of Toulouse,
and his boyhood nickname had been Becco ('rooster's beak').
So, we are told, Suetonius, referring to Antonius Primus as a "Gallus"
is the secret codeword identifying Arrius Piso.
The Hebrew word galal was also inserted in the OT by the Romans, I
suspect. So 2 Samuel 15:19 proves that chickens were given refuge in
ancient Israel, for it actually says, in secret code, "Then said the
king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return
to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and
also a chicken."
And why not an allusion to gala, the Greek word for milk? So Peter
actually says, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere chicken of the
word, that ye may grow thereby..."
But wait. "Pollo" sounds like the Greek polus, meaning "many", but in
the NT is a secret code indicating that Jesus was a chicken farmer.
(Read: "When he was come down from the mountain, chicken multitudes
followed him.")
Such is the Piso theory: Agrand circle of word-sound association, with
no concern for etymology, with "proofs" constituted not by evidence
but by bald and undocumented assertion, suspicion and conspiracy,
secret codes behind any and every word. And the leader admits to our
suggestion that Tacitus was in on this conspiracy, yes: "...ALL of the
authors of that time were royals who were pretending to be other
people by using alias identities; and yes, this includes Tacitus.
Tacitus was actually Neratius Priscus." I probably should not have
said anything as I may have just expanded the theory.
The leader again creates distance between himself and the sympathetic
site -- though he objects that some translations of Josephus use the
title "Wars of the Jews" (or variants like "History of the Jewish War
Against the Romans" -- he claims the latter is the correct title, but
no, it's a little hard to get all of that out of just Bellum Iudaicum)
then in response to my implied requesr for more precise evidence on
things like Arrius being Philo and descended from Pharaohs, we're told
that the "information can be found elsewhere and eventually in
upcoming books on the subject." Which still do not seem to be out here
in 2009, however.
Then we are told just how far back this really goes:
But the fact of the matter is that the Bible was composed by ancient
royals and the family line of those royals extended back to the author
of Genesis. And that author, was a Pharaoh. He was Arrius Piso's
ancestor.
And further, in answer to my question re:
"In the N.T., Jesus is tempted to jump from the Temple in the exact
same place that we find described in Josephus!" Described in
Josephus...where? It isn't said. Just take their word for it, it's in
there.
The leader assures us, "As for the place where 'Jesus' is tempted (in
the story) to jump from the Temple (Matt. 4:5; Luke 4:9), that may be
found in the Whiston translation of the works of Flavius Josephus
(Book V, Chap. V, paragraph 5 & 6), pg. 555)."
All right, I have that right here. It's there, all right -- as part of
a huge, chapter-long description of the Temple complex. Josephus
spends the whole chapter describing the Temple complex in loving and
complete detail, right down to the sharp points on the roof made to
keep birds from landing and making messes all over the place. Jesus
could have jumped from the front porch and "the exact same place"
would be there, too.
I noted that:
Acts, we are told, was written to advertise locations of Roman
brothels. I'll just let you think about all of that. (One of their
sources for this sort of thinking is one James Hannay -- a British
chemist of the 19th century known for an experiment in which he
artificially produced minute quantities of diamond. In other words,
this is someone who as usual had no business drawing the conclusions
he did.
I think the leader's reply here is worth quoting in full:
Now the author continues to show his sloppy work again. He has found a
different James Hannay and thinks that it is the same one which was
referred to! He has not bothered to find a book by James Ballantyne
Hannay; but again appears to only rely upon a quick websearch for his
information. The author has by now demonstrated time and time again
that he actually possesses only a cursory knowledge of ancient Roman
history and research methodology, among other things.
Did I do a websearch? Yes, I did. I have web access to OCLC, the
Online Catalog of the Library of Congress. And true, there is more
than one James Hannay -- three of them -- but only ONE is a J. B.
Hannay, he was born in 1855, and he is the author of books with these
sorts of titles: Sex symbolism in religion on one hand, and On the
action of chloride upon iodine on the other.
Not the same Hannay? False. This, again, was a man who had no business
doing what he was doing.
Most of the rest of the article the leader decides to ignore. We now
get to where we looked at the leader's correspondence with a rational
atheist, who noted that the Piso theorists have to "concoct wild
scenarios where the scrolls are removed to another location, and loved
ones are left behind." As expected the leader has his conspiracy of
faith -- "All of the manuscripts have not yet been recovered, and this
does not take into account of the fact that many of the documents
which were in the Library of the Pisos did NOT even survive," and by
the way, "it does not take a genius to realize that whatever
manuscripts were in that library which could ruin the plans that the
Roman Piso family had worked so hard to create were most likely
snapped up as soon as they could get to them...It would be completely
stupid to think that as smart as these people were that they were
going to leave behind evidence that could destroy everything that they
had been worked so long and hard to produce if there were any way to
retrieve that evidence."
Yes, it's a cow eating grass scenario; and without the leader's
expertise, you will never be able to see that cow as it runs away.
And last, we're also told that "Pliny the Younger records the attempts
at retrieval from the Villa of the Pisos by his uncle Pliny the Elder"
but don't expect to see this in Pliny's actual works; it has to be
read between the lines, we assume, of Pliny the Younger's actual
report that Pliny the Elder went over out of scientific curiosity and
to rescue someone's wife, and ended up visiting not the Piso villa at
all, by the record, but the bathhouse. The leader closes with more
assurances that it will take "several books" before he will have
enough out there to see that he really is the genius he thinks he is,
declares that he has "spent far too much time" replying to our
"gibberish," and takes his leave.
And that is all from the leader. What more needs be said? Sober
scholarship is obviously not on the docket here.
-JPH