Read Two Ground-Breaking Books

THE LOST GOSPEL

2011 – New York: Overlook Press; Toronto: HarperCollins; French, Portuguese, Japanese and other language editions in preparation.

Co-authored with Simcha Jacobovici, Producer, Naked Archeologist; Lost Tomb of Jesus; Decoding the Exodus; and many other fine documentaries on biblical topics.

Lurking in the British Museum is an ancient Syriac manuscript dating from the 6^th century but translated from much earlier Greek writing. Scholars have known about it for almost 200 years but have not known what to make of it. No translation exists based on the Syriac text. We provide a first-ever translation from the Syriac.

Helios riding a chariot, surrounded by the Zodiac. Beit Alpha Synagogue, Israel.

More importantly we use decoding techniques employed by early Christians themselves as they sought to understand biblical writings. They saw scripture differently than we do. An ancient Syriac introduction to manuscript – never before translated – tells us that the writing we examine contains an embedded meaning.

As we let this ancient writing speak for itself, it opens up a fascinating, hitherto unknown world. The results are startling:

The full humanity of Jesus and what it means for understanding his family life and sexuality.
Roman politics and why Jesus had to fear for his life, constantly on the move to avoid Herod Antipas who successfully caught and executed John the Baptist.
Pontius Pilate and his connections to the Roman Emperor Tiberius and to the real power behind the imperial throne, Sejanus.
A different theology of redemption than the more familiar one promoted by Paul (as a sacrificial atonement for sin).
A new early Christian movement alongside the ones led by Paul, by James and by the Gnostics.
Strange archeological depictions of Sun Gods and Zodiacs that have hitherto defied analysis.

More than any other writing, this manuscript places Jesus on the world stage, as a major player within the Roman Empire. This book will be tied into an episode on a 7-part History Channel documentary series, "Secrets of Christianity," to air likely early 2011.

Syriac, along with Greek and later Latin, was one of the three major languages of ancient Christianity. It is a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, his disciples, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene and Mary Mother of Jesus. It is written, as Hebrew and Aramaic are, from right to left, but using a different script. Syriac Christianity preserves traditions forgotten or ignored by the West.

Barrie Wilson Ph.D.

HOW JESUS BECAME CHRISTIAN

2008 – NY: St. Martin’s Press; Toronto, Random House; London, Orion

From Jewish rabbi and messiah-claimant to a Gentile God-human, in only 100 years! Explore how this happened.

Meet the members of the Jesus Movement under Jesus' brother, James, in Jerusalem. These first followers of Jesus looked upon their rabbi as a teacher and possible messiah. He had announced the coming Kingdom of God that would bring about the messianic era. Gone would be the occupying colonists, the Romans. The righteous would be rewarded. The dead would be resurrected. It would be a time of universal peace and the worship of the one God. Jesus said that would happen soon.

Enter Paul, the developer of the Christ Movement. Paul never met the Jesus of history and rarely quotes him. His religion is founded on a vision, a mystical encounter with the Christ, the God who emptied himself and took on the form of a human. The focus of Paul’s new religion was on the suffering and death of Christ, the hope being that just as he was raised from the dead, so, too, would we be.

Paul's religion was different in origin, beliefs and practices than the religion of Jesus. Explore just how different!

How Jesus Became Christian shows how Paul's religion replaced that of Jesus'. It also investigates the real basis for Christian anti-Semitism as decade by decade, early Christianity separated from Judaism in a hostile fashion.

Barrie speaks about his book

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