Francesco Carotta
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Francesco Carotta (b. 1946 in Ca’Zen, Lusia (Polesine), Veneto, Italy) is an Italian engineer[1] and author.
Carotta is known for his theory that the historical Jesus was Julius Caesar. This thesis was first released in two publications in the author's Kore publishing house (1988, 1989) and two newspaper articles in the Stadtzeitung (City Newspaper) of Freiburg (April 1989) and die tageszeitung, Berlin (December 23, 1991). Then after more than ten years of study Carotta published the results of his investigation in the German book Was Jesus Caesar? (1999). Dutch (2002) and English translations are available, Jesus was Caesar. On the Julian Origin of Christianity (2005).
Carotta came to the conclusion that Jesus is Divus Iulius, the deified Julius Caesar, as he has been transmitted through history, after a detailed comparison of the accounts on Julius Caesar and the Roman civil war in Suetonius, Appian, Cassius Dio and Plutarchus with the Greek Gospel of Mark. Using the tools of linguistics, philology and textual criticism as well as numismatical, iconographic, and archaeological evidence, Carotta argues that the Gospel of Mark is a corrupted retelling of the Roman civil war from Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon to his assassination and funeral (apotheosis); Jesus from the Jordan to his crucifixion and resurrection. This mutation and delocalization came about by a long process of copying, mistranslating, misinterpreting, adaptation and redaction in a different cultural context. The metamorphosis was sanctioned under Vespasian and his historian Flavius Josephus who is also known as the apostle Paul. Jesus is the Divus Iulius of the Flavians.
Notes
External links
- Carotta's website including extensive excerpts from his book
- Documentary feature film about Carotta's theory
- Interview at metafysiko.org
Published articles
- F. Carotta, "Il Cesare incognito — Da Divo Giulio a Gesù", in: L. Canfora (ed.), Quaderni di Storia, No. 57, Milan 2003
- F. Carotta, "The Gospels as a Diegetic Transposition: A Possible Solution to the Aporia 'Did Jesus Exist?'", in: A. Piñero (ed.), ¿Existió Jesús realmente?, Madrid 2009 (English translation)
- F. Carotta, "Orpheos Bakkikos: The Missing Cross", Écija/Madrid/Kirchzarten/Berlin 2009 (English translation).