''Caballo de Troya'' (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

for

Trojan Horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...

) is a novel (the first of a series of nine so far) written in 1984 by

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, writer and

ufologist Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and ...

Juan José Benítez. It has reached considerable success in most Spanish-speaking countries as well as in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The first volume, ''Trojan Horse: Jerusalem'', has been translated into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

by LS Thomas; the copyright for this translation was submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office on May 31, 2012. It was also translated into

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, French and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. The plot of the book unveils the last period in the life of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

as revealed through the first-hand experience of two pilots (or rather "timenauts"), members of a

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

top-secret military experimental project on time travel codenamed "Operation Trojan Horse", who in 1973 supposedly succeeded in travelling back in time to the land of

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

in the year 30 A.d. Jerusalen: Caballo de Troya 1 (Trojan Horse: Jerusalem 1), the original work by J.J. Benitez, was translated from Spanish to English by Margaret Sayers Peden. In 2007 Jerusalen: Caballo de Troya 1 (Trojan Horse: Jerusalem 1) work was registered with the US Copyright Office. The English translation was scheduled to be released in 2013.

Plot summary

The book is narrated as if it is a true report (The author of the book stated that the journal is actually real and it is left for the readers interpretation) of how the author was approached by an unnamed retired

pilot, referred to as "The Major" throughout the book (Jasón in later books), who in an elaborated indirect way tells the author how to find classified documents telling the story of the Operation Trojan Horse, in which The Major took part as a time traveller sent to witness the last weeks of Jesus's life through a time-travelling device sent back in time by the US military in an Israel base in 1973. A lengthy, detailed "technical" description of the time travel process ("inversion of

quantum In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantizati ...

swivel A swivel is a connection that allows the connected object, such as a gun, chair, swivel caster, or an anchor rode to rotate horizontally or vertically. Swivel designs A common design for a swivel is a cylindrical rod that can turn freely wi ...

s") is provided. The time-traveller and the time-travelling vehicle are said to have been wrapped by an artificial skin to avoid biological contamination. The Major, who becomes the narrator of the story, is codenamed "Jasón" during the mission, and has to learn fluent

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

as a necessary skill to interact with people of this era and place during the mission, as well as other extensive training. It is "revealed" that many of the amazing stories of

eclipses An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...

earthquakes An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

after Jesus's death and his transfiguration were linked to extraterrestrial influences. Jesus's physical appearance is described as tall, with "liquid honey" colored eyes and he is sometimes called "The Giant" metaphorically in the book due to his height being above the average Jewish man of that time. Besides, the author expresses how he perceives the greatness of Jesus.

Background

Even as the 1970s UFO mania has lost traction in Spanish-speaking countries, Benítez has retained solid sales and certain celebrity on the basis of his book series. The following 8 sequels expand on the issued and reveal more detail. ''Caballo de Troya 9, Caná'' was published in Spain in 2011. He wrote in his website that he first became interested in the "real" life of Jesus around that time, when a team of researchers said that the

Shroud of Turin The Shroud of Turin ( it, Sindone di Torino), also known as the Holy Shroud ( it, Sacra Sindone, links=no or ), is a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image of a man. Some describe the image as depicting Jesus of Nazareth and bel ...

showed traces of Jesus' body. These claims have later come under scrutiny, but the fact has not stopped the flow of new Caballo de Troya books. The author has claimed the time-travel part of Caballo de Troya is

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

, but that it contains "more truth than people think" suggesting, given he purports to be "a UFO researcher", that he might be claiming

alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

contact. The author insists that most, if not all, events in his novels are real.

List of volumes in "Caballo de Troya" series

* ''Caballo de Troya 1: Jerusalén'' (1984) * ''Caballo de Troya 2: Masada'' (1986) * ''Caballo de Troya 3: Saidan'' (1987) * ''Caballo de Troya 4: Nazaret'' (1989) * ''Caballo de Troya 5: Cesarea'' (1996) * ''Caballo de Troya 6: Hermón'' (1999) * ''Caballo de Troya 7: Nahum'' (2005) * ''Caballo de Troya 8: Jordán'' (2006) * '' Caballo de Troya 9: Caná'' (2011) * ''El día del relampago (The day of the lightning)'' (2013) * ''El diario de Eliseo - confesiones del segundo piloto (Elisha's diary - the second pilot's confessions)'' (2019)

Influences

*There have been accusations of plagiarism for a previous novel of his called '' La Rebelión de Lucifer'' (''Lucifer's insurrection''). In that novel, the male main character (Sinuhé), who is a member of a secret society, learns and then teaches several revelations to the female protagonist. These revelations bear a lot of resemblance to those portrayed in ''

The Urantia Book ''The Urantia Book'' (sometimes called ''The Urantia Papers'' or ''The Fifth Epochal Revelation'') is a Spirituality, spiritual, Philosophy, philosophical, and Religion, religious book that originated in Chicago sometime between 1924 and 1955. Th ...

''. Later on, these two characters participate in an adventure in which the material from ''The Urantia Book'' becomes merely the location where the action takes place. Therefore, the novel itself is not plagiarized, but instead the material described in the revelations forms a foundation from which the plot of the novel develops.

References

External links