I must disagree. Josephus might be pro-Roman, but not the Bible. I can't find anywhere in this interview, his interview with Gnostic Warrior (
) or in Caesar's Messiah where the bible is really discussed when promoting this idea. I can't deconstruct the whole thing, but I want to point out a few things which seem to be at the heart of the claims that the Romans invented Christianity. I will build on the claim made in the documentary that the dead sea scrolls are untainted by Roman rulers. This causes a lot of problems for the documentary.
However, the dead sea scrolls also contain Jewish writers who used the prophecy of Daniel to date the coming of Messiah (or Christ in Greek, meaning the anointed one) to somewhere around the time Jesus came (
http://harvardhouse.com/Gabriel-to-Daniel_Einstein_Method.htm). If the Romans dated Jesus to 40 years before the destruction of the Temple, it just so happened to agree with the date the book of Daniel contained in the dead sea scrolls. The same prophecy in Daniel states that after the anointed one dies, the Temple will be destroyed by the enemies of the Jewish people. If the Flavians designed this, then they got REALLY lucky on the date, and painted themselves as the bad guys based on the same prophecy. :D
The idea of a second coming wasn't new to Judaism either. There was a long standing Jewish tradition (also in the dead sea scrolls) that there would be two Messiahs, because some prophecies about the Messiah portrayed him as a military leader, and others as a suffering servant (
http://www.techofheart.co/2006/01/2-messiah-prophesized-in-dead-sea.html). Jesus claimed to be the "Son of Man" and to be coming back. He did not point to the coming of a different Messiah as reported in the documentary. In either case, this would have to be at best, an adaptation on the part of the Romans, and not a crafting of the story.
The lack of archeological evidence for Jesus is a non-issue. Alexander the Great died about 323 BCE, but the first writing about him don't show up until the first century AD. What little archeology supports the story of Alexander the Great isn't specific to such a man existing. If a man who concurred most of the known world is hard to prove with archeology, why would you demand such evidence of a poor Jewish rabbi who was executed with no possessions? I believe it has to do with the claims being made. The claims about Alexander aren't challenged b/c they don't make claims about what your life should look like, while the stories of Jesus do.
The claim is made that Atheist and Christian scholars admit that the Bible is pro-Roman. I can't find that anywhere, so I'm not if that's true or a mis-representation. In the previous episode with Jay Dyer, John Dawkins is mis-represented too. The claim was made that he used junk DNA as the greatest evidence for evolution. I encourage anyone to look up his videos or the video making fun of him that Jay Dyer mentions. He consistently uses the phylogenetic tree as the greatest evidence for evolution, not junk DNA. I'm not fan of Dawkins, but let's not invent accusations against people!
If you listen to the interviews and the documentary, pay attention to how many times they reach certain conclusions and state them as obvious. They are not obvious conclusions to me. I find it interesting that the claim is made that Jesus was invented b/c you see similar stories from other traditions. Even the mention of the Golden Rule came up. Well, last time I checked, the Golden Rule is being taught by NDE survivors too, and I believe them! Does that mean they copied it? Obviously not! I see confirmation bias all over the place in these discussions and in the documentary while at the same time recognizing my own.
My Biases:
I'm also not one to believe the Bible as it stands today is identical to when it was first written, nor do I see it as being perfect in every way possible. I'm skeptical of Matthew's report that Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Egypt or of John's report that many people came out of their graves when Jesus died. Having an exhaustive list of the teachings about hell from the Bible, I don't hold to the exclusivity of Christianity in the Bible either. I'm a bit of a rogue Christian. I don't know about the teachings of miracles mentioned in the various works, but I also know I was healed in the name of Jesus when I expected not to be. I also know similar miracles happen in other traditions.