The Gospel Narrative is Based on the Vita of Julius Caesar

PRNewswire

UTRECHT, The Netherlands October 29

With the documentary feature film 'The Gospel of Caesar' Dutch public
broadcast television VARA and producer/director Jan van Friesland
present a new solution to the origin of Christianity. The documentary
will be screened at film festivals in Leiden, Leeds and Luton in early
November 2008.

UTRECHT, The Netherlands, October 29 /PRNewswire/ -- With the

documentary feature film 'The Gospel of Caesar' Dutch public
broadcast television VARA and producer/director Jan van Friesland
present a new solution to the origin of Christianity. The documentary
will be screened at film festivals in Leiden, Leeds and Luton in early
November 2008.

'The Gospel of Caesar' documents the revolutionary research of the

Italian linguist Francesco Carotta, who concluded after a decade-long
investigation that the Gospel narrative of the New Testament
completely originated from the ancient sources on the life of Julius
Caesar.

'Everything in the story of Jesus can be found in the biography of

Caesar. The Gospel appears to be the history of the Roman civil war, a
mistelling of the life of Caesar-from the Rubicon to his assassination-
mutated into the narrative of Jesus, from the Jordan to his crucifixion.
Jesus is a true historical figure: He lived as Gaius Iulius Caesar and
resurrected as Divus Iulius, who was later transformed into Jesus.'
(Francesco Carotta)

Intrigued by the discovery that Caesar could be the historical Christ,

the Spanish priest Pedro García González joins him on his journey all
across Europe to search for traces of the deified Caesar in old Christian
rituals and traditions, written sources, church art and archaeological
finds. To verify the theory they use the Roman sources to reconstruct
the pivotal funeral ceremony of Caesar, which could have been the
historical incident behind the later story of the crucifixion of Christ.
They resuscitate this ancient historical event with young people from
the priest's parish and reveal the image of the first Savior on the
Cross, who had been forgotten for almost 2000 years.
'The death and deification of Caesar is the essence and origin of
Christianity, which happened on the Forum Romanum in Rome.' (Pedro
García González)

For more than four years the documentary filmmaker Jan van Friesland
accompanied the linguist and the priest on their collaborative search
for the traces of the historical Christ.

Scholars, clerics and journalists have noted and praised Carotta's

research and findings about the origin of Christianity.

'I received it as a shock. This is a shift of paradigm in the history of

religion.'

- Fotis A. Kavoukopoulos, Ph.D., linguist (Athens)

'The author draws parallels between the religious founder Jesus and
the Roman commander Julius Caesar, whose name was given to all
succeeding emperors.'

- Erika Simon, Ph.D., archaeologist (Würzburg)

'Does the passion story have its origins in a misunderstood version of

a Vita Caesaris on the last days of this dictator and high priest of
Rome, who was also known for his clemency and who was celebrated
as a benefactor of the people? That sounds like an absolute nonsense.
However, Carotta substantiates this theory with numerous proofs.'

- Thomas von der Dunk, Ph.D., historian (Amsterdam)

'It is highly notable-St Mark's gospel as corrupt retelling of the Roman

civil war.'

- Sir Peter Stothard, classics editor, Times Literary Supplement

(London)

'When Francesco Carotta asks if Julius Caesar and Jesus Christ are the
same person, a question which is rhetorical to him, he participates in
the development of normative future models which the elite of Church
and state considers undesirable, but for the average citizen, who wants
to explore his own future himself, this is experienced as inspirational.'

- W. J. de Ridder, Ph.D., Future Studies (Twente)

'Caesar is no longer the shadow of Christ, but Christ the shadow of
Caesar.'

- Maria Wyke, Professor of Latin (London)

'As a working hypothesis it is very important, especially because it fills

a gap, something that-from the point of view of the investigation-was
never made heuristically.'

- Francisco Rodríguez Pascual, Ph.D., ethnologist (Salamanca)

'...a new opening to the research on the accounts of Jesus' life, an

extremely important one...'

- Andreas Kinneging, Ph.D., philosopher (Leiden)

'... a perspective on the European heritage that will remain indelibly

printed in your memory.'

- Willem Dijkhuis, Het Financieele Dagblad (Amsterdam)

'Even if one cannot or will not follow the author's conclusions, one
learns much about Roman religiousness, which became the basis of
the development of the Christian faith in the European cultural
environment.'

- Rev. Stephan Ch. Kessler SJ, Dr. theol., (Frankfurt am Main, Vienna)

'I try to explain this theory to my students at school and give

arguments for its plausibility, and they react with lots of enthusiasm.'

- Gerard Janssen, MA, classisist, (Leeuwarden)

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