The thesis of the author is that Christianity started after the 70 CE (Paul and Hebrews being late forgeries), when, under the strong expectation of the Messiah (''Christ''), an artificial hybrid was created deliberately from the memories of the violent Jesus son of Saphat and the memories of the apocalyptic (but innocent) Jesus son of Ananias.
The invented hybrid - Jesus the Christ - was placed under Pilate, just at the time of the founder of the Fourth Philosophy (Judas the Galilean) and the Samaritan Prophet, working as antithesis against them (and their message of violence).
In the words of Bertin:
(my bold)The Messianic enthusiasm hailed chiefly from Galilee,
and was the source of great crimes and much evil to the
state. A passage from Gibbon will at this stage be
appropriate: — “At the distance of sixty years, it was the
duty of the annalist [He is referring to Cornelius Tacitus]
to adopt the narratives of contemporaries; but it was
natural for the philosopher to indulge himself in a
description of the origin, the progress, and the character
of the new sect, not so much according to the knowledge
or the prejudices of the age of Nero, as according to those
of the time of Hadrian. Tacitus very frequently trusts to
the curiosity or reflection of his readers to supply those
intermediate circumstances and ideas which, in his
extreme conciseness, he has thought proper to suppress.
We may, therefore, presume to imagine some probable
cause which could direct the cruelty of Nero against the
Christians of Rome, whose obscurity as well as
innocence should have shielded them from his
indignation, and even from his notice. The Jews, who
were numerous in the capital [There were about 8,000]
and oppressed in their own country, were a much fitter
object for the suspicions of the Emperor and of the
people; nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquished nation,
who already discovered their abhorrence of the Roman
yoke, might have recourse to the most atrocious means of
gratifying their implacable revenge. But the Jews
possessed very powerful advocates in the palace, and
even in the heart of the tyrant, his wife and mistress, the
beautiful Poppaea, and a favourite player of the race of
Abraham, who had already employed their intercession
in behalf of the obnoxious people. In their room it was
necessary to offer some other victims, and it might easily
be suggested that, although the genuine followers of
Moses were innocent of the fire of Rome, there had
arisen among them a new and pernicious sect of
Galileans, which was capable of the most horrid crimes.
Under the appellation of Galileans two distinctions of
men were confounded, the most opposite to each other in
their manner and principles — the disciples who had
embraced the faith of Jesus of Nazareth, and the zealots
who had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite.
The former were the friends, the latter were the enemies
of humankind, and the only resemblance between them
consisted in the same inflexible constancy, which in the
defense of their cause rendered them insensible of death
and tortures" (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
Vol I. chap. 16)
This testimony is of great weight, justifying, as it does,
the condemnatory judgment we have pronounced on the
Galilean Jesus and his associates, whose character and
principles were so diametrically opposed to those of the
meek Jesus and his followers. The former were the
enemies of mankind, and the latter were the friends, and
the friendly and unfriendly principles of both are sought
to be united into one by the four Greek writers. And the
incongruity of the amalgam must be as obvious to the
philosopher as to the historian. The friendship
exemplified was of a beautiful type, full of selfabnegation
and charity, and the meekness evinced a piety
and devotion the very opposite of what proceeds from
enmity.
The author says that Jesus son of Ananias would be the true ''historical Jesus'''.
"A voice
from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the
four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house,
a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a
voice against this whole people." (Book of the Wars,
book VI.)
Revelation 7:1-3, "And after these things I saw four
angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding
the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow
on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw
another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of
the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four
angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the
sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the
trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their
foreheads."
