In 2005, Joseph Atwill published Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus. As a follow-up work, in 2014, Atwill published Shakespeare’s Secret Messiah.

The main thesis of Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus is that the Gospels were created by a group of Roman Caesars, the Flavians, and that the character of Jesus is a fictional, mythological character, like Hercules. In the two works, Atwill shows that the Gospels were created because Rome had been engaged in a decades-long battle against a Jewish Messianic movement, and the new Flavian dynasty wanted to create an alternative pacifistic version of Judaism that would cooperate with the Roman Empire.

For those who have already read one or both of Atwill’s books, or, those who have not yet read either work, the aim of The Second Rosetta Stone is to provide additional historical context and other information about the Messianic movement (over and above what Atwill covers) that the Greco-Romans faced in Judea in the first century, and the century before that, to lend further support, proof and validation of Atwill’s thesis.

In support of Atwill’s thesis, the work also shows some of the interesting source material that the Roman’s likely co-opted from Jewish sources to construct the Gospels’ story line, and also shows how the literary significance of at least three well-known names in the Gospels (Matthew, Judas and Jesus) including that of Josephus himself, have become “lost in translation,” thus diluting the name’s original meaning and satirical significance to the story.

The Second Rosetta Stone, shows not only the significance of Atwill’s discovery, which Dr. Clearsky feels is as significant and important a find as the the Egyptian Rosetta Stone,, the work also provides additional information and context (over and above what Atwill covers) that will hopefully help readers come to see and appreciate the absolute literary MASTERPIECE that is the “combined intertextual works of the Gospels and The Wars of the Jews.

A masterpiece filled with clever wordplay and puns; a masterpiece filled with name and character identification puzzles; a masterpiece that puts the reader’s memory to the test, and a masterpiece that is chocked full of lampoons and black humor. A masterpiece that Atwill’s Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Invention to Invent Jesus, has helped reveal and decipher in all its masterful splendor.