James S. Valliant

Tolo lege

Tolle Lege is Latin for the command “take up and read” that St. Augustine heard from a mysterious voice during his conversion to Christianity which he took to mean, pick up the NT and read it.

An excellent book that should be widely read. While the author quotes sources, the author is not a professional academic, but you shouldn't let that put you off. The evidence is not stretched but fairly obvious once you drop the Christian propaganda you've been fed all your life. For example, why is the NT pro-Roman and overtly anti-Semitic? Why does St. Paul in Philippians 4:22 say, 'All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household' WTF. Why are people at the top of the Roman Empire saying hi to Christians? Especially so early? Paul was supposedly in the process of introducing the world to his gospel and had never been to Rome, yet there is an established non-Pauline church there. Philippians is considered one of Paul's 7 authentic epistles which BTW was written during Nero's reign.

Although all this has been presented by dissident scholars before, church sycophants have suppressed the story - who wants to put themselves out of a job or undermine their desperate narcissistic need to have their life have some transcendental meaning? All the references are there to refer to. For Roman coins, find a copy of 'Roman Coins and their values', Vol 1, by David Sear. The edition I have was printed in London in 2000. On pages 464, 466, you can see an example of gold aureus and silver dinarius with the anchor and dolphin symbol on the obverse. I have the book because I collect Roman coins. Of course that doesn't prove anything, but it does show the author is not making up evidence. Read the NT yourself as well as Josephus' The Jewish War and you'll see for yourself the connections the author makes. If you're familiar with the NT, you'll be surprised by the verses that you overlooked. The book is well researched and will make you look at the NT in a new way.

If you find the book troubling or are into this subject, you might want to pick up copies of the books the author quotes and find the references for yourself. Most libraries have copies of the ancient Latin literature like Josephus, Tacitus, etc or they're relatively cheap to buy. At least before you pooh pooh the book and fall back into the BS you've been fed by the Christian propaganda machine or hear your pastor engage in what about-ism, give the book a chance and check out the evidence for yourself. You don't need to be an expert in the field to understand the point the author is making. It is evidence that demands a verdict.… (más)