More than two years have passed since the publication of Jesus of the
Books. Since then I have been studying coursework at a local university
in Roman and Greek history, Greek mythology and New Testament Greek
language. This study has not diminished my enthusiasm for the basic premise
— that the Roman-Jewish War was the catalyst that launched Christianity. If
anything, I am now more confident. Thinking about and discussing my ideas
with others has refined my opinions on a few points and has suggested some
new ones. The result is this edition, which is more extensive, more consistent
and I dare to assert, as far as the evidence will allow, even closer to the truth.
I would like to thank all those who took a punt on an unknown author
and a radical idea and bought the first book upon which this one is based. After
publishing I discovered that I was not the first to propose the idea that the year
70 was the critical date in the institution of Christianity. It was suggested by
Whittaker in 1904.1 However as he failed to provide any evidence, his thesis was
not taken up. Now, more than a hundred years later great strides in information
technology have enabled me in a relatively short space of time to find and make
public the evidence that Whitaker’s proposal lacked.