Jesus Christ’s Birth and the Comet of Julius Caesar
Is the Star of Bethlehem Actually the Star of Julius Caesar Reimagined?
“a star appeared in the daytime, and Augustus persuaded people to believe it was Caesar”.
- Virgil, The Aeneid
Religious history is a tricky subject that seems to conflate mythological, theological, and actual historical events into a politically expedient consensus due to concoctions of overlapping realities. All merged to create new narratives and lore. One of the most powerful and significant events of the ancient world was the assassination of Julius Caesar. The shock-waves his death caused around the empire would have been akin to the assassination of JFK and the 9-11 attacks combined.
So traumatized were the Romans, that the only way they could find acceptance within their consciousness—that Caesar was no more—was to elevate the murdered emperor to that of a god. Mark Antony’s ability to restore control in Rome following the assassination of Julius Caesar was as much due to him deifying the murdered emperor, as it was pardoning the assassins in an act of forgiveness. Mark Antony opportunistically portrayed himself as a prince of peace and forgiveness. He then rebuilt his reputation upon this. Is this starting to sound familiar?
In the spring of 44 BC, an incredibly bright comet appeared above Asia Minor and Europe. This was instantly interpreted as a sign of the deification of Julius Caesar. Caesar’s adopted son Octavian, (later Emperor Augustus) made much of the comet. Turning it into a symbol of Julius Caesar’s new status as a god. Incredibly, the comet burned in the sky during the funerary games held in Caesar’s memory. This was taken by all as a sign that Julius Caesar had indeed been reborn as a god. The apotheosis of Julius Caesar was now complete in the minds of all.
This concept that Julius Caesar was now reborn as a comet—seen all across the empire from the Middle East to Britain—became something of a cult within the Roman psyche. So much so, that Augustus had the event stuck on a denarius coin. Which became one of the most popular—as well as distributed—Roman coins and also a personal magical talisman used as part of the cult of Julius Caesar within the Empire.
Centuries later, Constantine the Great had many archetypes and mythologies to draw up after his vision at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. The alleged event that created Christianity and the start of the Jesus Christ mythology as we know it today.
Another cryptic passage that appears in the Synoptic Gosples makes possibly an interesting connection:
Matthew 22:15-21
The Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap Jesus in what he said. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, to say, ‘Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way, and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you. 17 Tell us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ 18 But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied, ‘You hypocrites! Why do you set this trap for me? 19 Let me see the money you pay the tax with.’ They handed him a denarius, 20 and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ 21 ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. He then said to them, ‘Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.’
JC - staring us in the face.
Seems a likely proposition. I would like to say that it was easier to fool people thousands of years ago when there were few written works or little access to reliable information... however as we see, it is still easy for the elite to fool people.