Conspiracy theories attract a lot of attention. Many people are suspicious of the official version of what is happening in our time and may believe that the whole truth is not being told to them.

This might not be a big surprise, as the 20th century saw a huge increase in the use of Orwellian idiom. For example, we learned of many self-described democracies that were anything but democracies and were certainly not ruled by the people, but were actually Marxist-Leninist oligarchies who used words in a sense diametrically opposite to what we might have expected.

And politics is not the only area in which words do not always mean what we would suppose.

But conspiracy theories are not recent inventions. The earliest theories saw the light of day at least two thousand years ago, if not earlier. The early Christians already had to grapple with views that sought to undermine their faith in their Redeemer.

The following five conspiracy theories are basically very old, but we still find them, especially on internet forums:

# 1. Christ did not rise from the dead

Almost from the beginning of his ministry, detractors claimed that Jesus was not what he claimed to be. They questioned his credentials and refused to believe him. This culminated in His death and resurrection, which they doubted, claiming instead that His disciples had stolen the body. This rumor probably had a long life, as the apostle Paul had to address it in his first letter to the Corinthians that he wrote about two decades after the resurrection, noting that many eyewitnesses of the risen Christ were still alive.

# 2. Jesus predicted the coming of the Islamic prophet Muhammad

In teaching his disciples in John 14 and 16, Jesus prophesied the coming of the Counselor, by which he referred to the Holy Spirit. The Greek word is parachlear, but some Muslim scholars suggest that it is a corruption of periplutos, or ‘the one worthy of praise’, who is assumed to be the prophet Muhammad.

We must bear in mind that the first manuscripts of the New Testament are more than 500 years older than the Qur’an and, without exception, they all use the word paracleitos. There There is no way this can be understood as a reference to Muhammad.

# 3. Christianity borrowed important concepts like the Trinity from other religions.

This is a favorite of Bible skeptics, but it is based on a lack of knowledge. While the Bible clearly says that God is one, it also says that he sent his Son to redeem mankind from their sin. Furthermore, the New Testament calls Jesus Lord (Kyrios), the word that was only used for God in early Christianity, and even God (in John 20:28, for example). The Holy Spirit appears as a person, not as an impersonal force, as some groups might believe.

# 4. Emperor Constantine put together the New Testament

There is no truth behind this claim. The leaders of the early church had very strict criteria for choosing books in the New Testament. For example, they had to be written by the apostles or by people close to them and be factually correct and theologically sound. Church councils simply confirmed the books that already had the hallmarks of Scripture.

# 5. Jesus was not born of a virgin

Some skeptics would again see the influence of Middle Eastern religions on the concept of the virgin birth, but the idea can already be found in the Protevangelium in Genesis 3:15, which names the seed of the woman (and not of a man, as we might have thought). Isaiah 7:14, written 700 years before Christ, mentions that a virgin will give birth to a son. While the Hebrew wordalmah It can also refer to a young woman, it does not nullify the Gospel accounts of the virgin birth of Jesus.