So, the Romans invented Jesus, eh? That means they also had to invent:
- Peter, John & Paul, too, right?
- Clement of Rome (because he is mentioned in the NT and knew Peter and Paul)
- Ignatius of Antioch (who knew Peter and John)
- Polycarp of Smyrna (because he was a disciple of John)
- Irenaeus of Lyons (because he was a disciple of Polycarp and heard him speak of the Apostles)
Irenaeus died around AD 200, so when did Roman fiction end and real believers take up the story of Christianity? Because Ireneus listed all of the Bishops of Rome from Peter down to his own day:
“3The blessed Apostles [Peter and Paul], having founded and built up the Church [of Rome], they handed over the office of the episcopate to Linus. Paul makes mention of this Linus in the Epistle to Timothy. To him succeeded Anencletus; and after him, in the third place from the Apostles, Clement was chosen from the episcopate. He had seen the blessed Apostles and was acquainted with them. It might be said that He still heard the echoes of the preaching of the Apostles, and had their traditions before his eyes. And not only he, for there were many still remaining who had been instructed by the Apostles. In the time of Clement, no small dissension having arisen among the brethren in Corinth, the Church in Rome sent a very strong letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to peace and renewing their faith. To this Clement, Evaristus succeeded; and Alexander succeeded Evaristus. Then, sixth after the Apostles, Sixtus was appointed; after him, Telesphorus, who also was gloriously martyred. Then Hyginus; after him, Pius; and after him, Anicetus. Soter succeeded Anicetus, and now, in the twelfth place after the Apostles, the lot of the episcopate has fallen to Eleutherus. In this order, and by the teaching of the Apostles handed down in the Church, the preaching of the truth has come down to us.” (Against Heresies 3.3.3, [A.D. 180])
“4Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time” (Against Heresies 3:3:4 [A.D. 189]).
Since all of the men listed by Irenaeus were known by others who were still living, wouldn’t it have been fairly easy for the early Church to “out” a fictional character by simply asking, “Gee, does anyone remember this guy?”
And given the fact that the first 31 popes were martyred, either they were fictional characters or all of them were betrayed by the Romans who killed them after they had pretended to be the Bishop of Rome. Who would agree to do that?
And since the Roman empire not only converted to Christianity after the Edict of Milan in AD 313 (though not all at once, of course), this plot, if true, would have been one of the greatest miscalculation in the history of mankind. The Roman Empire is gone, but their Jesus Myth lives on? What are the odds of that happening?
