Bethlehem means "the house of bread", although practically desert. Bread is life in the desert, especially for the Essenes during the famine. Essenes were pledged to poverty for the purpose of being untaxable. Acts 23:8 Sadducees teach no resurrection (sad-you-see), while from Bethlehem, Joseph, the father of Jesus, teaches the Egyptian theology of Eternal life and Hall of Judgement, signified by the Star of Bethlehem, the unmovable compass of the Northern Star, pointed out by the pyramids of Egypt and Jerusalem, the graves of the Essenes, and Daniel's fingers which write upon the wall, "you have been weighed and found wanting." My three book covers therefore depict three visions of heaven, the Roman Catholic, the Roman Elysian fields and the Pyramids, for Jews only had a "record" of a good life (2 Sam 23:8-9) in my opinion misinterpreted in Reveleations as "the Book of Life". The War of Jesus was more than metaphor. Jerusalem means "the city of peace" although its founder, King David, was a warrior. Melchizedek was the king of Salem after whom David styled Psalm 110, justifying his and his children's non-Levitical priesthood forever, eating the shewbread, retrieving the ark, wearing the ephod and sacrificing. After the descent of the Spirit, paralleling Roman adult adoption (i.e. Josephus, the author), our gospels claim both Jesus' descent from David and kingship of Jerusalem: Jesus tells the story of the nobleman going away [to Rome] to receive his kingdom before returning to deal with those who would not submit (Lk 19:12-28). Jesus then triumphantly enters into Jerusalem over palms strewn in his path (37 Gaius, Philo), while on a donkey and the foal of a donkey (per a probably misinterpreted Zech 9:9), crowned with thorns, and crucified with a sign noting "King of the Jews", gaining at least Stoic immortality (Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind). Rome then killed everyone. A hundred thousand were taken as slaves to build the canal at Corinth and twenty thousand to build the coliseum at Rome. Theologians gloated over the genocide. Paul's Plan for Peace was probably for his Herodian Brood of Snakes (Ch 2), but the main battle was between Rome and Parthia who had previously battled back and forth over Armenia while Rome simultaneously fought England and Germany (Tacitus). After Gaius Cassius Longinus took over Antioch, Paul fled Antioch and several chapters of Tacitus were 'los&tgrave;, when presumably the Cassians, who hate foreigners (like Cleopatra), made Israeli taxation intolerable. Paul struggled to keep the peace by allowing Romans (Greeks) into the temple, however in my opinion Parthia managed to secretly supply the Sadducees to encourage a proxy war. Vespassian was Rome's general, who departed upon Caesar's death to Antioch and Alexandria gathering legions for his return to Rome to be named Caesar. Meanwhile other generals were busily sacrificing legions in Italy fighting with each other. Afterwards Vespasian Caesar had a vested interest in telling the greatness of his conquests, justifying the destruction of Israel, supplanting zealot Sadducean Judaism, and silencing Parthia.
