The Identity of Jesus

I like the hypothesis that the man remembered as Jesus was actually Herod the Great's first-born son, Antipater II. Herod promised his kingdom to Antipater who perhaps told everyone what he planned to do as king, outraging the Judean hierarchy and threatening his father's reign. Perhaps Rome gave Herod the choice of having his son executed or losing his kingdom. The painful illness that drove Herod to commit suicide seems to be not being able to live with having made such a ghastly choice.

This hypothesis makes the story of Jesus plausible. It explains why the story was momentous enough to remember, and why it was mythologized in such a way. It explains the authority Jesus had even as a child, and it provides a reasonable basis for the Davidic claim. It also explains the information gap in the life of Jesus between childhood and adulthood, (Antipater with his mother, Doris, were banished from Herod's court for most of his life).

Perhaps the man remembered as John the Baptist was actually Costobar, the husband of Salome.