John of Gamala

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John of Gamala is a fictional character who features in a nineteenth century novel called "For the Temple" by G. A. Henty. The book depicts him as a heroic figure who fought the Romans especially when they made plain their plans to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem (70 A.D.). Later in the novel he becomes a follower of Jesus. Henty states in the preface to the book that John of Gamala is his own creation.

Recently a book, "The Fable of Christ" by Luigi Cascioli, an Italian ex-seminarist, now an atheist, has claimed that the Catholic Church deliberately conflated John of Gamala with Jesus to build up their religion. Cascioli claims that his book is a decisive collection of proof demonstrating that Jesus is the result of manipulation and falsification of documents which in reality refer to a certain John of Gamala, son of Jude the Galilean and grandson of the rabbi Ezechia, a direct descendant of the Hasmonean dynasty founded by Simon, son of Mattathias the Maccabean.

On January 21, 2006, Cascioli won his battle to take his case to court. Cascioli alleged that Rev. Enrico Righi's assertion that Christ existed constituted two crimes under Italian law: so-called "abuse of popular belief," in which someone fraudulently deceives people; and "impersonation," in which someone gains by attributing a false name to a person. Cascioli's attorney, Mauro Fonzois, assured the court that the purpose of the trial was not to establish whether Jesus existed or not, but if there is a question of possible fraud.

The judge dismissed Cascioli's case on February 24, 2006, and suggested that prosecutors consider prosecuting Cascioli for slandering Rev. Righi. Cascioli said in an interview that he was considering taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights.