Paul's Agon

This blog post is based upon a chapter of my new book entitled “Coded Messages in the Pastorals”. This chapter is one of the key chapters that describes a specific mnemonic devise that was apparently used in Rome starting from the first century AD, most likely, into the second century. This blog post is a shortened version of the chapter of this book which can be found on Amazon at   https://amzn.to/2vdLyOF There is a famous palindrome called the Sator Square that points to how the Romans used mnemonic devices to solidify certain concepts in the minds of Roman soldiers, plebeians and slaves. These devices could also be used to guide the writing process of propagandistic materials intended to accomplish a particular (social) goal. A person trained in using these devices could be counted upon to stay “on script” and, in a sense, they are the precursors of what we call today “talking points”.  The Sator square is thought by some to have merely been a mind game, but I think it was a t

This blog post showcases one section from my book Behind the Ritual Mask. These and other materials have also been recently published in the shorter book Contra Religion - Excerpts from the book Behind the Ritual Mask.  The Suffering Savior Sources The Suffering Savior and its related concepts in mythology represent a broad spectrum of ancient cultural institutions and messages. The penis, the pillar (or the two pillars), the mountain of god, the magic mountain, the bull, etc., are only a few of the more primitive concepts that relate to the Suffering Savior paradigm. The early forms of this paradigm generally refer to male power, rising up in life, touching god (as with Prometheus), and later vanity, Prometheus fallen, punished and crucified for arrogance. Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Atlas, Hercules, Samson, Christ and a host of other suffering gods are related to this concept. Indeed, this is one of the most powerful paradigms because of its early (now forgotten) association

Many people are missing the significance of the Dolphin and Anchor motif that became a common Christian symbol. In my 2007 research, and in my books, Unkilling Jesus and The Mark of Titus , I discussed how this symbol had become associated with the Flavians because it had been an early family symbol connected to or borrowed from early Roman symbology. The fact that it appeared on Flavian era coins is proof that the Flavians saw it as central to their family. That the same symbol became associated with Christianity is a telltale clue to the fact that the original models for Christ were the two Flavian generals who tried to have themselves accepted as the Messiah of the Jews (Josephus was the first to recognize this). This was a propaganda ploy intended to tie the Flavian symbol with the effort to usurp Jewish prophesies. The Romans used similar symbology to create the symbol for the Roman Pax, the Roman peace, which attempted to associate Roman imagery with peace and other Roman value