Caligula: Ghost of Christ and the Caesars

If we really want to understand the chronology of Christianity, we cannot begin with Paul, whose avowed foolishness and nonsense divorces itself from both wisdom and history. All the dating of Christianity and the origins of both Christ and Caesar can be traced to Philo, Marcion, and Irenaeus, with Josephus who throws a Julius shaped wrench into all of it. Incredibly, it realigns Christ and Caesar into a single lifetime.

We can start with Marcion, who first published Paul’s letters along with a gospel which is rejected by New Testament canon. Marcion says “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Jesus came down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee and was teaching on the sabbath days” (Marcion 1.1-3). These verses also exhibit an interpolated reference to Pontius Pilate, who will later provide the key to this puzzle.

In our official timeline, Julius Caesar died in 44 BC, Augustus became Emperor in 27 BC and died in 14 AD, Tiberius ruled from 14 to 37 AD, and Caligula from 37 to 41 AD. Thus Marcion dates Christ’s ministry to 29-30 AD when he says “fifteenth year of Tiberius”. But Josephus provides a different chronology of the first three Caesars, adding over 14 years to the reign of Augustus compared to Philo. According to Josephus, Marcion’s gospel of Christ would have begun in 46 AD instead of 29!

Josephus’ Mirrored Caesar

Josephus writes: “the Roman empire was translated to Tiberius, the son of Julia, upon the death of Augustus, who had reigned fifty-seven years, six months, and two days” (Wars 2.9.1). Compared to official dates, this places the death of Augustus in July of 31 AD instead of August of 14 AD. The death of Tiberius would then fall in January of 54 AD instead of March of 37: “Tiberius died, after he had reigned twenty-two years, six months, and three days” (Wars 2.9.5). And Josephus says Gaius (Caligula) “had reigned three years and eight months, and had been slain by treachery” (Wars 2.11.1). Thus Caligula would have died in late 57 instead of January 41.

So why is Josephus almost exactly 17 years off from the official timeline? The letters of Philo which comment on the Caesars are Flaccus and Embassy to Gaius. In Philo’s original “Flaccus”, the Jews besieged by Romans are in Alexandria, not Jerusalem, and there is no talk of chronology. Meanwhile, the original part of “Embassy to Gaius” appears to be its last section, which styles itself as Flaccus’s letter to Gaius Caesar (Caligula). Read these letters to better understand the origins of Christianity.

Dates are offered in the early part of Embassy, which gives the reign of Augustus as “three and forty years” and says Tiberius “enjoyed the supreme power by land and sea for three and twenty years”. This chronology almost matches the official timeline, but Augustus’ reign is still 3 years too long. Officially, he reigned from 27 BC to 14 AD, just over 40 years, not 43. Meanwhile, the reign of Augustus in Josephus is 14 years, 6 months, plus 2 days longer than described by Philo, and the reign of Tiberius is six months, minus 3 days shorter. Thus Josephus has shortened Caligula’s implied rule of Rome in Philo by 13 years and all but one day! The 3 additional years in Philo and almost 14 in Josephus account for the 17 year discrepancy.

A crucial aspect of Josephus’s Wars may explain the full gap as well as offer a smoking gun for the falsity of Julius Caesar. It seems an interpolator of Wars of the Jews has cloned Gaius Caesar (Caligula) and moved him up a chapter to stand in the “great” Caesar himself. The double dip is obvious, using the same language and the same dates. Furthermore, Caligula appears throughout Wars but “great” Caesar only appears once, making it obvious which one has been copied and placed out of context.

Josephus says about Gaius Caesar (Caligula): “when Caius had reigned three years and eight months, and had been slain by treachery, Claudius was hurried away by the armies that were at Rome to take the government upon him” (Wars 2.11.1). Earlier, Josephus said about the “great” Caesar, without calling him Julius: “There, was at this time a mighty war raised among the Romans upon the sudden and treacherous slaughter of Caesar by Cassius and Brutus, after he had held the government for three years and seven months” (Wars 1.11.1).

The reigns of both [Julius] Caesar and Caligula given by Josephus at less than four years agrees exactly with Eusebius about Christ’s ministry. After calculating the reigns of high priests at the time, Eusebius writes “the whole of this interval does not even give us four years” and “the whole time of our Savior’s ministry is proved not to embrace four entire years” (Ecclesiastical History X). Eusebius agrees with Marcion by saying that Jesus began preaching in the 15th year of Tiberius, adding “our lord and Savior Jesus Christ was in his thirtieth year”. Eusebius thus ignores claims from the gospel of John and Irenaeus that Jesus was older than 40 when he died.

Eusebius says Jesus was born “the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus” (Ecclesiastical History V) and agrees with Josephus that Augustus reigned 57 years. Here again we see the contradiction, with Philo who gives the entire reign of Augustus as 43 years, and official dates gives 40 years. If BC 1 was the 42nd year of Augustus, then Augustus had reigned since about 43 BC, which is wrong, unless you are counting almost the entire time from the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Perhaps now would be a good time to mention that before he became Augustus, “Octavian”, as he is known, changed his name to match his divine uncle’s, becoming another Julius Caesar? Perhaps Julius Caesar was never assassinated at all?

Christ Reflects Caligula Too

Josephus’ Wars makes no mention of Jesus Christ or Paul, but it does cite and rely upon Philo, who aside from Paul, reveals the oldest roots of Christianity. Josephus obviously relies on Philo’s Flaccus (and his Embassy to Gaius, which appears to be a mostly interpolated recapitulation of Flaccus). Flaccus provides all the elements of Caesarean divinity offending the Jews, which became the story of Pilate in Embassy, which became the story of Pilate in Josephus and then the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Church father Irenaeus, first to name the gospels, is also on a Josephan timeline, placing the birth of Christ in the year we now think of as 15 AD: “our Lord was born about the forty-first year of the reign of Augustus” (Against Heresies 3.21.3). Irenaeus furthermore argued that Christ was almost 50 years old when he died, citing the gospel of John: “‘You are not yet fifty years old,’ they said to [Jesus], ‘and you have seen Abraham!’” (John 8:56).

Thus officially speaking, with the Roman Empire beginning in January of 27 BC, Irenaeus puts the birth of Christ around 14 AD, and his death before 64 AD. If we subtract the ~14 year discrepancy of Josephus, we get 1 BC up to 50 AD, right on target! Irenaeus also says Jesus was baptized at age 30, which would 44 AD by Josephus’s dating. Meanwhile, Caligula’s birth officially dates to 12 AD, and his death to 41. But the official history of Rome ignores the fact that Josephus shortened Caligula’s reign by almost 14 years to make room for [Julius] Caesar. Thus, the official birthday of Caligula should be perhaps Yule of 3 BC.

Compare to the lifespan of Jesus, which according to official approximation is 5 BC to 30 AD. The official deaths of Christ and Caligula are separated by 11 years. But age 30 is actually the date Jesus started his ministry, according to Marcion and Irenaeus. If we assume his birth on Yule of 3 BC (as suggested above), then Jesus/Caligula would have started his ministry on Yule of 28 AD at the earliest. If we add the 14 year regnal length reduced by Josephus, plus the admitted length of his ministry (less than four years, accoring to Eusebius) we get 46 AD for the death of Jesus Christ, at the age of 47. This concurs well with Irenaeus and John.

In other words, Jesus should have more years on the end of his life, and Caligula more years on the beginning of his life, because they are actually the same person. We should be using the birthday of Christ and the death day of Caligula, with his career beginning some time in 28 AD. On the official historical timeline this is 5 BC to 41 AD, or 45 years. If his birth is relocated to the ideal divine birthdate (Yule, 1 BC) then he would have died in 45 AD.

Thus, the Christ described by Irenaeus and the assassinated Gaius Caesar described by Josephus are the same person, and they are both Caligula. Josephus shortened the life of Caligula by 13 years and all but one day and added it to the reign of Augustus. This allowed him to add 17.66 years to the beginning of the timeline of the Caesars. This take us back to the official date of Julius Caesar’s assassination, March 15, 44 BC. Augustus became emperor on January 16, 27 BC. This is a difference of 16 years and 9 months. This one year error is likely due to erroneous counting of the “year” 0, the same reason Julius Caesar’s birthday is in 100 BC instead of 101 BC.

And What About Gallio?

Archaeology offers a tantalizing piece of evidence. This is the Delphi Inscription in Athens from Claudius Caesar to Gallio. The text invites Gallio, a “friend and proconsul” of the emperor Claudius, to invite prominent imperial citizens to Athens to restore its glory. This text shows undeniable connections to both Acts and Paul.

Possibly the oldest explicitly Christian document, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, officially dates to 51 AD according to the Book of Acts. David Lertis Matson writes:

“Since Paul founded the Thessalonian community just prior to coming to Corinth in AD 50, one can estimate, based on certain chronological data, that Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians some seventeen years after his conversion when he was already a seasoned missionary and mature theologian.”

-What Paul Preached at Thessalonica and Why It Matters

There’s our 17 year Josephan time warp again! Since the book of Acts is an obvious pastiche of other literature, and the works of Josephus in particular, the connection is no surprise. In fact, Paul’s trial by Gallio in Acts is a remake of Christ’s trial by Pilate:

“When Gallio was proconsul of Achaea, Paul the Apostle was brought in front of him by the Jews of Corinth with the accusation of having violated Mosaic Law. Gallio, however, was indifferent towards religious disputes between the Jews and Jewish Christians; therefore, he dismissed the charges against Paul (denegatio actionis) and had both him and the Jews removed from the Court.”

-wikipedia [Acts 18:12-17)]

According to Tacitus, Gallio, brother of the Senecas, was attacked in the Senate by Clemens, who accused him of being a "parricide and public enemy". The Senate tells Clemens to cool it, but when another one of Gallio’s brothers kills himself, Gallio is suspected of doing the same. Wikipedia says “Gallio seems to have committed suicide, perhaps under instruction in 65 AD.^” Gallio’s death in 65 AD exactly matches the year of Christ’s death using Irenaeus by way of Josephus.

And great, now Caligula could be Socrates too.

But remembering that the official timeline has had 14 years added to it by Josephus, the death of Gallio falls right into place with Caesar and Christ. Acts is a liar; if anything, Gallio was on trial circa 50 AD. His name just clues us in all the more: Jesus comes from Galilee and Julius from Gallia, and Paul also wrote his second rhapsody to the Galatians, or Kelts. The other Julius Caesar (son of Constantine) was killed after getting a little too frisky with the Kelts.

Kaligula, as we better call him, could literally be the “little Kelt” and not the little boot.

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