THE MATTHEW CIPHER
The Christian movement emerged in the historical context of Rome’s relatively recent adoption of the ancient practice of the deification of certain rulers in the imperial cult, epitomized in Julius Caesar. Caesar Augustus, anointed the Son of God by adoption to Julius Caesar, established the homogenizing program of Pax Romana to secure peace to a sprawling empire. To channel the assimilation of conquered peoples, the military spread the seeds of Mithraism, a new and innovative mystery cult patterned on the ancient mysteries and reflective of Rome’s diversity. Roman Mithraism, the composite mystery of the Roman military, syncretized mystery stereotypes from all of the surrounding cultures east of Rome to foster cohesion and legitimize the Roman emperors as the peak of the celestial order on Earth. Mithraism appropriated mystery figures from temple cultures and reframed them in the ubiquitous language of astronomy and its association with the recurrent life cycles of immortals and agriculture. Both men and women performed roles of salvation and exaltation in the mysteries. Theosis was accomplished through celestial ordinances or the opening of astronomical seals in ascending order of significance. The culminating seal was the marriage of the divines, prefiguring the marriages of mortal men and women.
In the ancient mind, as it happened above in the night sky, so it happened below. Celestial communication was a key to events in the terrestrial world. The main event of the astronomical seals- the ascension of the married son or daughter to the throne of the king or queen was a cosmically significant ordinance, particularly in the east, that turned such a man or woman into a god. This astronomical sign, which occurs every year at the summer solstice when the Sun comes home to the constellation Leo, was applied to the ascension of Titus to Vespasian’s throne. Before that could happen, Titus’ right to ascension was substantiated by his violent and conclusive military victory:
Caesarea was, however, the scene of some bloody preliminaries to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. At that time, Caesarea was a polyglot city of Jews, Christians, Samaritans, and gentiles, Greeks and Syrians, each group living in separate city districts. A disagreement between the Jews and Greeks over access to a synagogue in a gentile district of Caesarea led to open conflict and the subsequent desecration of the synagogue. Besides their frequent conflict with Roman subjects resident in Caesarea, Jews were often subject to Roman persecution.
The Jews found themselves increasingly at odds with their Roman rulers. Soon after the conflict over the desecration of the synagogue, word leaked out that soldiers of the Caesarean garrison, attempting to put down a Jewish insurrection in Jerusalem had plundered the temple treasury. The Jews of Caesarea attacked Roman troops garrisoned in the city. The troops responded, killing 20,000 Caesarea Jews. This atrocity catalyzed the First Jewish Revolt (66-70AD), which ended in the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the burning of the city. Vespasian, who directed the suppression of the revolt until he became emperor, made his headquarters and supply base at Caesarea. Titus, operating with supplies from Caesarea, completed the job left unfinished by Vespasian and after five months captured Jerusalem. Titus returned to Caesarea with Jewish captives. During the festivals and games held at Caesarea to celebrate his victory, 2,500 Jews lost their lives in gladiatorial sports in the Caesarea amphitheater” (Bull, Robert J., director of the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima from 1971-1996, Caesarea Maritima: The Search for Herod’s City, Biblos Foundation).
This historic event was recorded favorably in the gospels. The cipher encoding this linkage between propaganda of the Flavian Roman government and the gospel of Jesus Christ is the Great Wedding Feast in Matthew:
And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king (Leo/Vespasian, savior of the Roman Empire), which made a marriage (Cancer/Berenice) for his son (Orion/Titus), and sent forth his servants (Gemini/The army) to call them that were bidden (Aries/The Jews)to the wedding: and they would not come.
Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen (Taurus/the white bull- Mithraic tauroctony) and my fatlings (Aries/Jesus-The Paschal Lamb) are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king (Vespasian) heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers (The Jews), and burned up their city (Jerusalem).
Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways (The Milky Way/The Roman highways), and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests (Mithraic Feast of Sol and Mithras). And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment (Hydra/James the Just, Brother of Jesus, due to James’ lifelong Luciferian doctrine of celibacy, the Mosaic purity laws, and his leadership of the Jewish-nationalist anti-Roman resistance. James the Brother of Jesus may be the devil in the desert that Jesus was tempted to join): and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment (Orion garment)? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen (The martyrdom of James the Just: He is cast down from the Temple wall and then beaten with a fuller’s stick until dead)
-Matthew 22: 1-14, emphasis and parenthesis added.
The building of a New Jerusalem and a new temple was a central motif of the Caesarean Christian movement. The New Jerusalem Temple built without hands over and above the ruins of the Jerusalem Temple was a spiritual edifice coming down from heaven to replace the defiled earthly one. The New Jerusalem was not based on the mortal Jesus, but the resurrected Christ: a holy pacifist and composite savior of the remnant Jews. As such, the savior Jesus was a complimentary counterpart to Vespasian, the Roman savior and miracle worker of humble birth. The gentile Christians created the New Testament gospel atop the ruins of Jerusalem’s messianic Judaism as an altogether new religion for a new age to dominate Jerusalem Christianity. The war-wearied Vespasian’s last words, which have been variously translated to range from sincere to mocking, were “Vae, puto deus fio” (“Woe is me. I think I am turning into a god.”)
One contributor to an anthology of essays called, “Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success in Caesarea Maritima,” proposes that the mithraeum built from an arched warehouse at the Caesarea seaside might be the first of all of the many hundreds of mithraeums that would be built over the next several centuries. It may have been the prototype, even though it was the only mithraeum ever built in Judea. “The question of the origins of Mithraic beliefs is difficult if not impossible to answer; understanding the beliefs of the cult in its full-blown expression is complex enough. But understanding the avenues of transmission may eventually help in understanding both the beliefs and their origins. The evidence… suggests that Caesarea, as the headquarters for an extensive Roman military operation, might have played a key role in the transmission of the religion from its Anatolian origins to the wider Roman Empire” (Painter, R. Jackson, The Origins and Social Context of Mithraism at Caesarea Maritima).
From there, every mithraeum and tauroctony scene was incredibly faithful to the founding astronomical motifs in the form of sculptures and frescoes, but the periphery of each was customized slightly to assimilate to the local culture. Likewise, each mithraeum had a variety of lesser altars dedicated to the worship of local deities. Thus, one mithraeum could hint at parallels to Perseus and his winged Pegasus (per David Ulansey), and another could bear motifs glorifying Prometheus (per Reza Jorjani), and yet another, Phaeton and Europa, etc.
“Of course, to pursue such questions is to encounter a dilemma of a kind commonly experienced by scholars who specialize in the study of antiquity. On the one hand, we know enough about Caesarea Maritima to be able to formulate a whole array of intriguing and stimulating questions about the religious dimensions of civic life. On the other, our ability to generate such questions tends to exceed the ability of the surviving evidence to answer them to the extent we might wish. Still, the very act of posing the question often serves to reveal new aspects of the evidence itself, suggesting connections and implications that might otherwise have gone unobserved. The dilemma, then, is a creative one” (Article: Donaldson, Terrence L., Editor, Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success in Caesarea Maritima: Concluding Reflections).
The origins of Christianity may be far more complex than some may have previously contemplated. Figures once cast as purely good, or irredeemably evil may be hopelessly and confusingly intermeshed. The Word of God would appear to be the work of all kinds of authors. The internal contradictions of Christian genesis are nowhere more demonstrative than the intersecting destinies of Balbillus, Titus, and Jesus, epitomizing the explosively creative harmony of tension in opposition that produced the Christian gospel.
KAMRON COLEMAN ART 