Was the first Gospel Roman propaganda?

Let’s begin by considering the historical setting.

2,085 years ago Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus besieged Jerusalem and made Judea a client kingdom of Rome
2,071 years ago Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and made Rome a dictatorship
– During these 119 years many Messianic cults cropped up, most violent and violently opposed to paying tribute to Rome –
1,952 years ago Vespasian Caesar had Jerusalem besieged and laid waste the Second Temple *(and stole all the holy texts)
1,952 years ago A mysterious “gospel” later attributed to “Mark” shows up

Now… seeing as we have basically no writings about the life and times (and certainly not any sayings) of this “Jesus the Messiah Christ, the Son of God” from before Vespasian Caesar laid the temple to waste and stole all the holy books…

… how fishy does it seem to you that in the story made popular in the time when for the first time Rome was undisputed master of Judea, God shows up (“as foreshadowed in the ancient texts of old” – the game, note, that had inspired 119 years of revolting) to tell the people of Judea the following?

  • Lay down your weapons
  • Follow local laws
  • Pay taxes unto Caesar
  • Love even your enemies

This, it would seem to me, should be considered suspicious in the highest degree.

There is one “prophesy” (I claim that it was a case of vaticinium ex eventu) that we’ve all probably talked about on here with someone at some time… usually it’s the Christians who bring it up… today I’d like to.

From the inerrantist Christian perspective, Daniel was a prophet who lived 2,609 years ago during the Siege of Jerusalem… yes, that’s three separate sieges of Jerusalem (nor were they the only)!

… and there’s a rather famous passage from the book which bears Daniel’s name and the ninth chapter thereof contains something like this (this is the most recent King James’ Version):

21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Now… why is it that the Romans invented a dude from “1AD” to “35AD” in “70AD”? The scare quotes are, of course, because these date assignments were not made until 450 years after Vespasian’s destruction of the second temple…

The point I’d really like to stress in this OP is that in “70AD” (i.e. 1,952 years ago) the Romans invented a SEVENTY YEAR BACKSTORY…

Why SEVENTY years? Why did Jesus die *(in the STORY) precisely halfway through this period?

Suspicious, no? Perhaps you’re not seeing what I’m seeing…

Daniel, again:

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease”

And what happens at the END of the week? Could a “prophetic week” represent 70 years? Could half of that “week” get you to 35 years?

Well… this makes it seem, you see, to anybody looking back, that Vespasian Caesar’s actions in Jerusalem were predicted by Daniel…

And… didn’t the Roman Imperial Cult capitalize on that, eh!?

I invite you all to read the full chapter 13 of the “Gospel of Mark” here (it’s not that long) with all this context in mind…

Is the Gospel of Mark not simply INVENTING a Jesus to magically fit the “prediction” of Gabriel related by Daniel (if you believe that lot of nonsense) and basically hinting that Vespasian Caesar is the second coming of the Son of Man?

Bear in mind one key verse from that Chapter 13:

30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done

Why, as well, IF Lord Jesus sayeth those words, do they come to us in the second official language of the Roman Empire? If there were a real boy called Jesus who said some things, wouldn’t He have said them in Aramaic?

A final thought for y’all: why should anybody believe either this first “Gospel” or any of the others that evolved over the following generations were somehow accurate depictions of what a real boy called Jesus once said and did? Aren’t the LATER ones even LESS plausible than the first as “historical documents”?