Editor’s note: Those American racialists who feel uncomfortable tipping their hats to the ideas of an English translation of Eduardo Velasco’s essay on Judea vs. Rome, the “masthead” of The West’s Darkest Hour, because the author is a Spaniard, should at least read a book on the same subject but written by an American of pure Nordid blood.
Below, selected quotes from the third chapter of Adam Green’s 2026 book The Jesus Deception: A Mystical Midrashic Myth (bold type and underlined words in the original Kindle edition):
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Christianity arose within a volatile and deeply divided Second Temple Jewish society. Apocalyptic expectations, political oppression, and theological creativity created fertile ground for reinterpretations of prophecy and scripture. What emerged was a new religion, based not on historical events, but on a mythologized spiritual triumph…
…crushed by defeat after defeat and staring down the colossal war machine of Rome, would recognize that the dream of a conquering messiah was no longer a realistic hope but a near impossibility. As Dr. Richard Carrier in The Historicity of Jesus explains,
The traditional messianic hope (of a conclusive military victory over all of Israel’s neighbors) was a doomed hope, and that would have been obvious to at least some Jews.
Out of this despair grew a new vision: a messiah who would be spiritually victorious over Satan and the Gentiles.
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood… but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. – Ephesians 6:12
This messiah did not need to raise an army or rule from Jerusalem. His triumph took place in a heavenly celestial realm that could not be disproven or verified…
The framework for a Messiah who conquers not with armies or weapons, but with words and teachings, was already present in the Jewish scriptures. A likely source of inspiration for the Christian reimagining of the Messiah as one who “rule the nations with word of his mouth” occurs in the pre-Christian Greek Text, Psalms of Solomon:
Behold, O Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, at the time which you chose, O God, to rule over Israel your servant. And gird him with strength, to shatter unrighteous rulers, and to purge Jerusalem from nations that trample her down to destruction. To drive out sinners from the inheritance in wisdom and righteousness, to rule over the nations with the word of his mouth… He will be pure from sin, in order to rule a great people, to rebuke rulers, and to break sinners by the strength of his word. He will not rely on horse, rider, or bow, and he will not multiply for himself gold and silver for war, nor will he collect hopes for battle in a multitude of people. – Psalms of Solomon 17:23-25, 32-33
Dr. Carrier summarizes,
Though the Psalms describe this messiah in the manner of a military conqueror (e.g. 17.21- 26), it is still somewhat circumspect, saying ‘he shall destroy the godless nations with the word of his mouth’ (17.24, 17.35-36) and that he will use no weapons or armies (17.33)… like all Jews, proto-Christians would have been searching this scripture (and others) for secret messages about the messiah… It’s certainly not improbable to see in the Psalms of Solomon a prediction of a metaphorically victorious messiah, who uses no armies or weapons but conquers solely through the power of his words (in other words, his teachings)…
Text like these provided the perfect template for inventing a messiah who triumphed not by armies and swords, but by words, scripture, and theology. Rome destroyed Jerusalem with earthly weapons, but Jerusalem was victorious with a spiritual weapon [Editor’s Note: This is the essence of Eduardo Velasco’s essay].
Pacifism as Strategy, Survival of Fittest
Christianity’s nonviolence was not merely a moral principle. It was a calculated strategy for survival. Jewish militant groups like the Zealots and Sicarii provoked Roman wrath and were inevitably crushed by its military dominance. A messianic movement that presented a conquering king would have posed an obvious threat and been destroyed without hesitation. But a peaceful, pacifist, hidden messiah who reigned in visions and revelations and triumphed in the heavens rather than on the battlefield would fly under the radar of Roman authorities.
As Richard Carrier observes, this strategic pacifism gave the movement a survival advantage over more militant sects:
By avoiding mass territorial action (and focusing instead on spiritual combat), they avoided armed conflict and thus survived, by gaining more converts over a wider area than were lost to sporadic persecutions. This may have been a lesson learned from observing the fate of other movements. But natural selection alone would determine it: agitative cults would be wiped out, leaving more pacifist cults to dominate the market… A non-existent messiah (whose lordship and victory were known only spiritually and thus never a worldly militaristic threat) would thus have an enormous competitive advantage at these earliest stages.
Messianic movements that provoked Rome were crushed while Christianity adapted and spread. It offered a savior who could not be killed and a kingdom not of this world. Unlike the rebels who took up arms, this movement promoted obedience and submission and appeared harmless. Its scriptures command, “Submit yourselves to the emperor,” “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” and instruct believers to be compliant, obedient “slaves.” Over time, this approach led to a far more enduring conquest transforming the spiritual and ideological foundations of the empire itself. It was not through violence or rebellion, but through a religious warfare strategy, that the Jesus movement sought to overcome Rome. Jesus effectively Judaized the minds of Rome implanting the God of Israel and His messiah within the Empire.
Pagan Rome once conquered Judea, its emperors defiling Jewish temples with their idols. Yet in time the tables turned: the pagan temples were eventually emptied of their gods and rededicated to the messiah of Judah. The empire that had enslaved the Jews became an unwitting vessel propagating Jewish theology, its heart and soul penetrated by the very faith it once sought to suppress.
While some Jews expected the messiah to crush Rome through military force and acts of divine judgment, what ultimately succeeded was something far different, a theological creation that spiritually conquered the empire. Rome eventually bowed in reverence to the God of Israel, accomplishing the prophetic vision. The pen turned out to be mightier than the sword.
