Introduction
Around the world over the centuries, much has been written about religion,
its meaning, its relevance and contribution to humanity. In the West
particularly, sizable tomes have been composed speculating upon the nature
and historical background of the main character of Western religions, Jesus
Christ. Many have tried to dig into the precious few clues as to Jesus's
identity and come up with a biographical sketch that either bolsters faith
or reveals a more human side of this godman to which we can all relate.
Obviously, considering the time and energy spent on them, the subjects of
Christianity and its legendary founder are very important to the Western
mind and culture.
Back to Contents
The Controversy
Despite all of this literature continuously being cranked out and the
significance of the issue, in the public at large there is a serious lack of
formal and broad education regarding religion and mythology, and most
individuals are highly uninformed in this area. Concerning the issue of
Christianity, for example, the majority of people are taught in most schools
and churches that Jesus Christ was an actual historical figure and that the
only controversy regarding him is that some people accept him as the Son of
God and the Messiah, while others do not. However, whereas this is the
raging debate most evident in this field today, it is not the most
important. Shocking as it may seem to the general populace, the most
enduring and profound controversy in this subject is whether or not a person
named Jesus Christ ever really existed.
Although this debate may not be evident from publications readily found in
popular bookstores
1, when one examines this issue closely, one will find a
tremendous volume of literature that demonstrates, logically and
intelligently, time and again that Jesus Christ is a mythological character
along the same lines as the Greek, Roman, Egyptian,
Sumerian, Phoenician,
Indian or other godmen, who are all presently accepted as myths rather than
historical figures
2.
Delving deeply into this large body of work, one
uncovers evidence that the Jesus character is based upon much older myths
and heroes from around the globe. One discovers that this story is not,
therefore, a historical representation of a Jewish rebel carpenter who had
physical incarnation in the Levant 2,000 years ago. In other words, it has
been demonstrated continually for centuries that this character, Jesus
Christ, was invented and did not depict a real person who was either the
"son of God" or was "evemeristically" made into a superhuman by enthusiastic
followers
3.
Back to Contents
History and Positions of the Debate
This controversy has existed from the very beginning, and the writings of
the "Church Fathers" themselves reveal that they were constantly forced by
the pagan intelligentsia to defend what the non-Christians and other
Christians ("heretics")
4 alike saw as a preposterous and
fabricated yarn
with absolutely no evidence of it ever having taken place in history. As
Rev. Robert Taylor says,
"And from the apostolic age downwards, in a never
interrupted succession, but never so strongly and emphatically as in the
most primitive times, was the existence of Christ as a man most strenuously
denied."
5
Emperor Julian, who, coming after the reign of the fanatical and
murderous "good Christian" Constantine, returned rights to pagan
worshippers, stated,
"If anyone should wish to know the truth with respect
to you Christians, he will find your impiety to be made up partly of the
Jewish audacity, and partly of the indifference and confusion of the
Gentiles, and that you have put together not the best, but the worst
characteristics of them both."
6
According to these learned dissenters, the
New Testament could rightly be called, "Gospel Fictions."
7
A century ago, mythicist Albert Churchward said,
"The canonical gospels can
be shown to be a collection of sayings from the Egyptian Mythos and
Eschatology."
8
In Forgery in Christianity, Joseph Wheless states,
"The
gospels are all priestly forgeries over a century after their pretended
dates."
9
Those who concocted some of the hundreds of "alternative" gospels
and epistles that were being kicked about during the first several centuries C.E. have even admitted that they had forged the documents.10 Forgery during
the first centuries of the Church's existence was admittedly rampant, so
common in fact that a new phrase was coined to describe it: "pious fraud."
11
Such prevarication is confessed to repeatedly in the Catholic
Encyclopedia.12 Some of the "great" church fathers, such as
Eusebius
13, were
determined by their own peers to be unbelievable liars who regularly wrote
their own fictions of what "the Lord" said and did during "his" alleged
sojourn upon the earth.14
Back to Contents
The Proof
The assertion that Jesus Christ is a myth can be proved not only through the
works of dissenters and "pagans" who knew the truth - and who were viciously
refuted or murdered for their battle against the Christian priests and
"Church Fathers" fooling the masses with their fictions - but also through
the very statements of the Christians themselves, who continuously disclose
that they knew Jesus Christ was a myth founded upon more ancient deities
located throughout the known ancient world. In fact, Pope Leo X, privy to
the truth because of his high rank, made this curious declaration,
"What
profit has not that fable of Christ brought us!"15 (Emphasis added.)
As
Wheless says, "The proofs of my indictment are
marvelously easy."
Back to Contents
The Gnostics
From their own admissions, the early Christians were incessantly under
criticism by scholars of great repute who were impugned as "heathens" by
their Christian adversaries. This group included many Gnostics, who
strenuously objected to the carnalization of their deity, as the Christians
can be shown to have taken many of the characteristics of their god and godman from the
Gnostics, meaning "Ones who know," a loose designation
applied to members of a variety of esoteric schools and brotherhoods. The
refutations of the Christians against the Gnostics reveal that the Christian
godman was an insult to the Gnostics, who held that their god could never
take human form.16
Back to Contents
Biblical Sources
It is very telling that the earliest Christian documents, the Epistles
attributed to "Paul," never discuss a historical background of
Jesus but
deal exclusively with a spiritual being who was known to all gnostic sects
for hundreds to thousands of years. The few "historical" references to an
actual life of Jesus cited in the Epistles are demonstrably
interpolations
and forgeries, as are, according to Wheless, the Epistles themselves, as
they were not written by "Paul."17
Aside from the brief reference to
Pontius
Pilate at 1 Timothy 6:13, an epistle dated ben Yehoshua to 144 CE and thus
not written by Paul, the Pauline literature (as pointed out by Edouard
Dujardin) "does not refer to Pilate
18, or the Romans, or
Caiaphas, or the
Sanhedrin, or Herod
19, or
Judas, or the holy women, or any person in the
gospel account of the Passion, and that it also never makes any allusion to
them; lastly, that it mentions absolutely none of the events of the Passion,
either directly or by way of allusion."20
Dujardin additionally relates that
other early "Christian" writings such as Revelation do not mention any
historical details or drama.21
Mangasarian notes that Paul also never quotes
from Jesus's purported sermons and speeches, parables and prayers, nor does
he mention Jesus's supernatural birth or any of his alleged wonders and
miracles, all which one would presume would be very important to his
followers, had such exploits and sayings been known prior to "Paul."22
Turning to the gospels themselves, which were composed between 170-180
C.E.
22a, their pretended authors, the apostles, give sparse histories and
genealogies of Jesus that contradict each other and themselves in numerous
places. The birthdate of Jesus is depicted as having taken place at
different times. His birth and childhood are not mentioned in "Mark," and
although he is claimed in "Matthew" and "Luke" to have been "born of a
virgin," his lineage is traced to the House of David through Joseph, such
that he may "fulfill prophecy."23
He is said in the first three (Synoptic)
gospels to have taught for one year before he died, while in "John" the
number is three years. "Matthew" relates that Jesus delivered
"The Sermon on
the Mount"
24 before "the multitudes," while "Luke" says it was a private
talk given only to the disciples. The accounts of his Passion and
Resurrection differ utterly from each other, and no one states how old he
was when he died.
25
Wheless says,
"The so-called 'canonical' books of the
New Testament, as of the Old, are a mess of contradictions and confusions of
text, to the present estimate of 150,000 and more 'variant readings,' as is
well known and admitted."26
In addition, of the dozens of gospels, ones that
were once considered canonical or genuine were later rejected as
"apocryphal" or spurious, and vice versa. So much for the
"infallible Word
of God" and "infallible" Church!
The confusion exists because the Christian
plagiarists over the centuries were attempting to amalgamate and fuse
practically every myth, fairytale, legend, doctrine or bit of wisdom they
could pilfer from the innumerable different mystery religions and
philosophies that existed at the time. In doing so, they forged,
interpolated, mutilated, changed, and rewrote these texts for centuries.27
Back to Contents
Non-Biblical Sources
Basically, there are no non-biblical references to a historical
Jesus by any
known historian of the time during and after Jesus's purported advent.
Walker says, "No literate person of his own time mentioned him in any known
writing." Eminent Hellenistic Jewish historian and philosopher Philo (20 B.C.E.-50 C.E.), alive at the purported time of
Jesus, makes no mention of
him. Nor do any of the some 40 other historians who wrote during the first
one to two centuries of the Common Era.
"Enough of the writings of [these]
authors . . . remain to form a library. Yet in this mass of Jewish and Pagan
literature, aside from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author,
and two disputed passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be
found no mention of Jesus Christ."28
Their silence is deafening testimony
against the historicizers.
In the entire works of the Jewish historian Josephus, which constitute many
volumes, there are only two paragraphs that purport to refer to Jesus.
Although much has been made of these "references," they have been dismissed
by all scholars and even by Christian apologists as forgeries, as have been
those referring to John the Baptist and James, "brother" of
Jesus. Bishop
Warburton labeled the Josephus interpolation regarding Jesus as "a rank
forgery, and a very stupid one, too."
29
Wheless notes that,
"The first
mention ever made of this passage, and its text, are in the Church History
of that 'very dishonest writer,' Bishop Eusebius, in the fourth century. . .
CE [Catholic Encyclopedia] admits . . . the above cited passage was not
known to Origen and the earlier patristic writers."
Wheless, a lawyer, and
Taylor, a minister, agree that it was Eusebius himself who forged the
passage.
Regarding the letter to Trajan supposedly written by Pliny the Younger,
which is one of the pitifully few "references" to Jesus or Christianity held
up by Christians as evidence of the existence of Jesus, there is but one
word that is applicable - "Christian" - and that has been demonstrated to be
spurious, as is also suspected of the entire letter. Concerning the passage
in the works of the historian Tacitus, who did not live during the purported
time of Jesus but was born two decades after his purported death, this is
also considered by competent scholars as an interpolation and forgery.30
Christian defenders also like to hold up the passage in Suetonius that
refers to someone named "Chrestus" or "Chresto" as reference to their
Savior; however, while some have speculated that there was a Roman man of
that name at that time, the name "Chrestus" or "Chrestos," meaning "useful,"
was frequently held by freed slaves. Others opine that this passage is also
an interpolation.
As these references and their constant regurgitation by Christian
apologists, Dr. Alvin Boyd Kuhn says:
"The average Christian minister who has not read outside the pale of
accredited Church authorities will impart to any parishioner making the
inquiry the information that no event in history is better attested by
witness than the occurrences in the Gospel narrative of Christ's life. He
will go over the usual citation of the historians who mention Jesus and the
letters claiming to have been written about him. When the credulous
questioner, putting trust in the intelligence and good faith of his pastor,
gets this answer, he goes away assured on the point of the veracity of the
Gospel story. The pastor does not qualify his data with the information that
the practice of forgery, fictionizing and fable
was rampant in the early
Church. In the simple interest of truth, then, it is important to examine
the body of alleged testimony from secular history and see what credibility
and authority it possess.
"First, as to the historians whose works record the existence of
Jesus, the
list comprises but four. They are Pliny, Tacitus,
Suetonius and Josephus.
There are short paragraphs in the works of each of these, two in Josephus.
The total quantity of this material is given by Harry Elmer Barnes in
The
Twilight of Christianity as some twenty-four lines. It may total a little
more, perhaps twice that amount. This meager testimony constitutes the body
or mass of the evidence of 'one of the best attested events in history.'
Even if it could be accepted as indisputably authentic and reliable, it
would be faltering support for an event that has dominated the thought of
half the world for eighteen centuries.
"But what is the standing of this witness? Not even Catholic scholars of
importance have dissented from a general agreement of academic investigators
that these passages, one and all, must by put down as forgeries and
interpolations by partisan Christian scribes who wished zealously to array
the authority of these historians behind the historicity of the Gospel life
of Jesus. A sum total of forty or fifty lines from secular history
supporting the existence of Jesus of Nazareth, and they completely
discredited!"
30a
Of these "references,"
Dujardin says,
"But even if they are authentic, and
were derived from earlier sources, they would not carry us back earlier than
the period in which the gospel legend took form, and so could attest only
the legend of Jesus, and not his historicity."
In any case, these scarce and
brief "references" to a man who supposedly shook up the world can hardly be
held up as proof of his existence, and it is absurd that the purported
historicity of the entire Christian religion is founded upon them.31 As it
is said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof"; yet, no proof
of any kind for the historicity of Jesus has ever existed or is forthcoming.
Back to Contents
The Characters
It is evident that there was no single historical person upon whom the
Christian religion was founded, and that "Jesus Christ" is a
compilation of
legends, heroes, gods and godmen. There is not adequate room here to go into
detail about each god or godman that contributed to the formation of the
Jewish Jesus character; suffice it to say that there is plenty of
documentation to show that this issue is not a question of "faith" or
"belief."
The truth is that during the era this character supposedly lived
there was an extensive library at Alexandria and an incredibly nimble
brotherhood network that stretched from Europe to China, and this
information network had access to numerous manuscripts that told the same
narrative portrayed in the New Testament with different place names and
ethnicity for the characters. In actuality, the legend of Jesus nearly
identically parallels the story of Krishna, for example, even in detail, as
was presented by noted mythologist and scholar Gerald Massey over 100 years
ago, as well as by Rev. Robert Taylor 160 years ago, among others.32
The
Krishna tale as told in the Hindu Vedas has been dated to at least as far
back as 1400 B.C.E.33 The same can be said of the well-woven
Horus mythos,
which also is practically identical, in detail, to the Jesus story, but
which predates the Christian version by thousands of years.
The Jesus story incorporated elements from the tales of other deities
recorded in this widespread area, such as many of the following world
saviors and "sons of God," most or all of whom predate the Christian myth,
and a number of whom were crucified or executed.
33a
-
Adad of Assyria
-
Adonis, Apollo, Heracles ("Hercules") and Zeus of Greece
-
Alcides of Thebes
-
Attis of Phrygia
-
Baal of Phoenicia
-
Bali of Afghanistan
-
Beddru of Japan
-
Buddha of India
-
Crite of Chaldea
-
Deva Tat of Siam
-
Hesus of the Druids
-
Horus, Osiris, and Serapis of Egypt, whose long-haired, bearded appearance
was adopted for the Christ character
34
-
Indra of Tibet/India
-
Jao of Nepal
-
Krishna of India
-
Mikado of the Sintoos
Mithra of Persia
-
Odin of the Scandinavians
-
Prometheus of Caucasus/Greece
-
Quetzalcoatl of Mexico
-
Salivahana of Bermuda
-
Tammuz of Syria (who was, in a typical mythmaking move, later turned into
the disciple Thomas
35)
-
Thor of the Gauls
-
Universal Monarch of the Sibyls
36
-
Wittoba of the Bilingonese
-
Xamolxis of Thrace
-
Zarathustra/Zoroaster of Persia
-
Zoar of the Bonzes
Back to Contents
The Major Players
Buddha
Although most people think of
Buddha as being one person who lived around
500 B.C.E., the character commonly portrayed as Buddha can also be
demonstrated to be a compilation of godmen, legends and sayings of various
holy men both preceding and succeeding the period attributed to the
Buddha.37
The Buddha character has the following in common with the
Christ figure:38
Buddha was born of the virgin
Maya, who was considered the "Queen of
Heaven."38aa
He was of royal descent. He crushed a serpent's head.
He performed miracles and wonders, healed the sick, fed 500 men from a
"small basket of cakes," and walked on water.38a
He abolished idolatry, was a "sower of the word," and preached "the
establishment of a kingdom of righteousness."38b
He taught chastity, temperance, tolerance, compassion, love, and the
equality of all. He was transfigured on a mount. Sakya Buddha was crucified in a sin-atonement, suffered for three days in
hell, and was resurrected.38c
He ascended to Nirvana or "heaven."
Buddha was considered the "Good Shepherd"
39, the "Carpenter"
40, the
"Infinite and Everlasting."
40a He was called the "Savior of the World" and the "Light of the World."
Back to Contents
Horus of Egypt
The stories of Jesus and Horus are very similar, with
Horus even
contributing the name of Jesus Christ. Horus and his once-and-future Father,
Osiris, are frequently interchangeable in the mythos ("I and my Father are
one").41 The legends of
Horus go back thousands of years, and he shares the
following in common with Jesus:
Horus was born of the virgin
Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave/manger
42,
with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three
wise men.43
He was a child teacher in the Temple and was baptized when he was 30 years
old.44
Horus was also baptized by "Anup the Baptizer," who becomes "John the
Baptist." He had 12 disciples. He performed miracles and raised one man,
El-Azar-us, from the dead. He walked on water. Horus was transfigured on the Mount.
He was crucified, buried in a tomb and resurrected.
He was also the "Way, the Truth, the Light, the Messiah, God's Anointed Son,
the Son of Man, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Word" etc. He was "the Fisher," and was associated with the Lamb, Lion and Fish
("Ichthys").45
Horus's personal epithet was "Iusa," the "ever-becoming son" of "Ptah," the
"Father."46
Horus was called "the KRST," or "Anointed One," long before the Christians
duplicated the story.47
In fact, in the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the
baby Horus being held
by the virgin mother Isis - the original "Madonna and Child"
48 - and the
Vatican itself is built upon the papacy of Mithra
49, who shares many
qualities with Jesus and who existed as a deity long before
the Jesus
character was formalized. The Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the
Mithraic version it replaced
50. Virtually all of the elements of the
Catholic ritual, from miter to wafer to water to altar to doxology, are
directly taken from earlier pagan mystery religions.51
Back to Contents
Mithra, Sungod of Persia
The story of
Mithra precedes the Christian fable by at least 600 years.
According to Wheless, the cult of Mithra was, shortly before the Christian
era, "the most popular and widely spread 'Pagan' religion of the times."
Mithra has the following in common with the Christ character:
Mithra was born of a virgin on December 25th.
He was considered a great traveling teacher and master. He had 12 companions or disciples.
He performed miracles. He was buried in a tomb. After three days he rose again.
His resurrection was celebrated every year. Mithra was called "the Good Shepherd."
He was considered "the Way, the Truth and the Light, the Redeemer, the
Savior, the Messiah." He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the
appearance of Christ. Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter, at
which time he was resurrected. His religion had a Eucharist or "Lord's Supper."
52
Back to Contents
Krishna of India
The similarities between the Christian character and the Indian messiah are
many. Indeed, Massey finds over 100 similarities between the Hindu and
Christian saviors, and Graves, who includes the various noncanonical gospels
in his analysis, lists over 300 likenesses. It should be noted that a common
earlier English spelling of Krishna was "Christna," which reveals its
relation to '"Christ." It should also be noted that, like the Jewish
godman,
many people have believed in a historical, carnalized Krishna.53
Krishna was born of the Virgin Devaki ("Divine One")
53a
His father was a carpenter.54
His birth was attended by angels, wise men and shepherds, and he was
presented with gold, frankincense and myrrh.54a
He was persecuted by a tyrant who ordered the slaughter of thousands of
infants.55
He was of royal descent. He was baptized in the River Ganges.55a
He worked miracles and wonders. He raised the dead and healed lepers, the deaf and the blind.
Krishna used parables to teach the people about charity and love.
"He lived poor and he loved the poor."56
He was transfigured in front of his disciples.57
In some traditions he died on a tree or was crucified between two thieves.58
He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. Krishna is called the "Shepherd God" and "Lord of lords," and was considered
"the Redeemer, Firstborn, Sin Bearer, Liberator, Universal Word."59
He is the second person of the Trinity,60 and proclaimed himself the
"Resurrection" and the "way to the Father."60a
He was considered the "Beginning, the Middle and the End," ("Alpha and
Omega"), as well as being omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. His disciples bestowed upon him the title "Jezeus," meaning "pure
essence."61
Krishna is to return to do battle with the "Prince of Evil," who will
desolate the earth.62
Back to Contents
Prometheus of Greece The Greek god
Prometheus has been claimed to have come from Egypt, but his
drama took place in the Caucasus mountains. Prometheus shares a number of
striking similarities with the Christ character.
Prometheus descended from heaven as God incarnate as man, to save mankind.
He was crucified, suffered and rose from the dead. He was called the Logos or Word.62a
Five centuries before the Christian era, esteemed Greek poet
Aeschylus wrote
Prometheus Bound, which, according to Taylor, was presented in the theater
in Athens. Taylor claims that in the play Prometheus is crucified "on a
fatal tree" and the sky goes dark:
"The darkness which closed the scene on the suffering
Prometheus, was easily
exhibited on the stage, by putting out the lamps; but when the tragedy was
to become history, and the fiction to be turned into fact, the lamp of day
could not be so easily disposed of. Nor can it be denied that the miraculous
darkness which the Evangelists so solemnly declare to have attended the
crucifixion of Christ, labours under precisely the same fatality of an
absolute and total want of evidence."63
Tradition holds that Prometheus was crucified on a rock, yet some sources
have opined that legend also held he was crucified on a tree and that
Christians muddled the story and/or mutilated the text, as they did with the
works of so many ancient authors. In any case, the sun hiding in darkness
parallels the Christian fable of the darkness descending when Jesus was
crucified. This remarkable occurrence is not recorded in history but is only
explainable within the Mythos and as part of a recurring play.
Back to Contents
The Creation of a Myth
The Christians went on a censorship rampage that led to the virtual
illiteracy of the ancient world and ensured that their secret would be
hidden from the masses
64, but the scholars of other schools/sects never gave
up their arguments against the historicizing of a very ancient mythological
creature. We have lost the arguments of these learned dissenters because the
Christians destroyed any traces of their works. Nonetheless, the Christians
preserved the contentions of their detractors through the Christians' own
refutations.
For example, early Church Father Tertullian (@ 160-220 C.E.), an "ex-Pagan"
and Bishop of Carthage, ironically admits the true origins of the Christ
story and of all other such godmen by stating in refutation of his critics,
"You say we worship the sun; so do you."65 Interestingly, a previously
strident believer and defender of the faith, Tertullian later renounced
Christianity
66.
Back to Contents
The "Son" of God is the "Sun" of God
67
The reason why all these narratives are so similar, with a godman who is
crucified and resurrected, who does miracles and has 12 disciples, is that
these stories were based on the movements of the sun through the heavens, an
astrotheological development that can be found throughout the planet because
the sun and the 12 zodiac signs can be observed around the globe. In other
words, Jesus Christ and all the others upon whom this character is
predicated are personifications of the sun, and the Gospel fable is merely a
rehash of a mythological formula (the "Mythos," as mentioned above)
revolving around the movements of the sun through the heavens.68
For instance, many of the world's crucified godmen have their traditional
birthday on December 25th ("Christmas"
69). This is because the ancients
recognized that (from an earthcentric perspective) the sun makes an annual
descent southward until December 21st or 22nd, the winter solstice, when it
stops moving southerly for three days and then starts to move northward
again. During this time, the ancients declared that "God's sun" had "died"
for three days and was "born again" on December 25th.
The ancients realized
quite abundantly that they needed the sun to return every day and that they
would be in big trouble if the sun continued to move southward and did not
stop and reverse its direction. Thus, these many different cultures
celebrated the "sun of God's" birthday on December 25th.70 The following are
the characteristics of the "sun of God":
The sun "dies" for three days on December 22nd, the winter solstice, when it
stops in its movement south, to be born again or resurrected on December
25th, when it resumes its movement north. In some areas, the calendar originally began in the constellation of Virgo,
and the sun would therefore be "born of a Virgin." The sun is the
"Light of the World."
The sun "cometh on clouds, and every eye shall see him."
The sun rising in the morning is the "Savior of mankind."
The sun wears a corona, "crown of thorns" or halo.71 The sun
"walks on water."
The sun's "followers," "helpers" or "disciples" are the 12 months and the 12
signs of the zodiac or constellations, through which the sun must pass. The sun at 12 noon is in the house or temple of the "Most High"; thus, "he"
begins "his Father's work" at "age" 12. The sun enters into each sign of the zodiac at 30°; hence, the "Sun of God"
begins his ministry at "age" 30. The sun is hung on a cross or "crucified," which represents its passing
through the equinoxes, the vernal equinox being Easter, at which time it is
then resurrected.72
Contrary to popular belief, the ancients were not an ignorant and
superstitious lot who actually believed their deities to be literal
characters. Indeed, this slanderous propaganda has been part of the
conspiracy to make the ancients appear as if they were truly the dark and
dumb rabble that was in need of the "light of Jesus."
73 The reality is that
the ancients were no less advanced in their morals and spiritual practices,
and in many cases were far more advanced, than the Christians in their own
supposed morality and ideology, which, in its very attempt at historicity,
is in actuality a degradation of the ancient Mythos.
Indeed, unlike the
"superior" Christians, the true intelligentsia amongst the ancients were
well aware that their gods were astronomical and atmospheric in nature.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
74 surely knew that
Zeus, the sky god father
figure who migrated to Greece from India and/or Egypt, was never a real
person, despite the fact that the Greeks have designated on Crete both a
birth cave and a death cave of Zeus. In addition, all over the world are to
be found sites where this god or that allegedly was born, walked, suffered,
died, etc., a common and unremarkable occurrence that is not monopolized by,
and did not originate with, Christianity.74a
Back to Contents
Etymology Tells the Story
Zeus, aka "Zeus Pateras," who we now automatically believe to be a myth and
not a historical figure, takes his name from the Indian version, "Dyaus
Pitar." Dyaus Pitar in turn is related to the Egyptian "Ptah," and from both
Pitar and Ptah comes the word "pater," or "father." "Zeus" equals "Dyaus,"
which became "Deos," "Deus" and "Dios" - "God." "Zeus Pateras," like
Dyaus
Pitar, means, "God the Father," a very ancient concept that in no way
originated with "Jesus" and Christianity.
There is no question of Zeus being
a historical character. Dyaus Pitar becomes "Jupiter" in Roman mythology,
and likewise is not representative of an actual, historical character. In
Egyptian mythology, Ptah, the Father, is the unseen god-force, and the sun
was viewed as Ptah's visible proxy who brings everlasting life to the earth;
hence, the "son of God" is really the "sun of God." Indeed, according to
Hotema, the very name "Christ" comes from the Hindi word "Kris" (as in
Krishna), which is a name for the sun.75
Furthermore, since Horus was called "Iusa/Iao/Iesu"
76 the "KRST," and
Krishna/Christna was called "Jezeus," centuries before any Jewish character
similarly named, it would be safe to assume that Jesus Christ is just a
repeat of Horus and Krishna, among the rest. According to
Rev. Taylor, the
title "Christ" in its Hebraic form meaning "Anointed" ("Masiah"
77) was
held
by all kings of Israel, as well as being "so commonly assumed by all sorts
of impostors, conjurers, and pretenders to supernatural communications, that
the very claim to it is in the gospel itself considered as an indication of
imposture . . ."78
Hotema states that the name "Jesus Christ" was not
formally adopted in its present form until after the first Council of Nicea,
i.e., in 325 C.E.79
In actuality, even the place names and the appellations of many other
characters in the New Testament can be revealed to be Hebraicized renderings
of the Egyptian texts.
As an example, in the fable of "Lazarus," the mummy raised from the dead by
Jesus, the Christian copyists did not change his name much, "El-Azar-us"
being the Egyptian mummy raised from the dead by Horus possibly 1,000 years
or more before the Jewish version.80 This story is allegory for the sun
reviving its old, dying self, or father, as in "El-Osiris."
81 It is not a
true story.
Horus's principal enemy - originally Horus's other face or "dark" aspect -
was "Set" or "Sata," whence comes "Satan."
82
Horus struggles with Set in the
exact manner that Jesus battles with Satan, with 40 days in the wilderness,
among other similarities.83 This is because this myth
represents the triumph
of light over dark, or the sun's return to relieve the terror of the night.
"Jerusalem" simply means "City of Peace," and the actual city in Israel was
named after the holy city of peace in the Egyptian sacred texts that already
existed at the time the city was founded. Likewise, "Bethany," site of the
famous multiplying of the loaves, means "House of God," and is allegory for
the "multiplication of the many out of the One."84 Any town of that
designation was named for the allegorical place in the texts that existed
before the town's foundation. The Egyptian predecessor and counterpart is
"Bethanu."85
Back to Contents
The Book of Revelation is Egyptian and Zoroastrian
One can find certain allegorical place names such as "Jerusalem" and
"Israel" in the Book of Revelation. Massey has stated that
Revelation,
rather than having been written by any apostle called John during the 1st
Century C.E., is a very ancient text that dates to the beginning of this era
of history, i.e. possibly as early as 4,000 years ago.
86
Massey asserts that
Revelation relates the Mithraic legend of Zarathustra/Zoroaster.
87
Hotema
says of this mysterious book, which has baffled mankind for centuries:
"It
is expressed in terms of creative phenomena; its hero is not Jesus but the
Sun of the Universe, its heroine is the Moon; and all its other characters
are Planets, Stars and Constellations; while its stage-setting comprises the
Sky, the Earth, the Rivers and the Sea."
The common form of this text has
been attributed by Churchward to Horus's scribe, Aan, whose name has been
passed down to us as "John."88
The word Israel itself, far from being a Jewish appellation, probably comes
from the combination of three different reigning deities: Isis, the Earth
Mother Goddess revered throughout the ancient world; Ra, the Egyptian sungod; and El, the Semitic deity passed down in form as Saturn.
90
El was
one of the earliest names for the god of the ancient Hebrews (whence Emmanu-El,
Micha-El, Gabri-El, Samu-El, etc.), and his worship is reflected
in the fact that the Jews still consider Saturday as "God's Day."
91
Indeed, that the Christians worship on Sunday betrays the genuine origins of
their god and godman. Their "savior" is actually the sun, which is the
"Light of the world that every eye can see." The sun has been viewed
consistently throughout history as the savior of mankind for reasons that
are obvious. Without the sun, the planet would scarcely last one day. So
important was the sun to the ancients that they composed a "Sun Book," or
"Helio Biblia," which became the "Holy Bible."
91a
Back to Contents
The "Patriarchs" and "Saints" are the Gods of Other Cultures
When one studies mythmaking, one can readily discern and delineate a pattern
that is repeated throughout history. Whenever an invading culture takes over
its predecessors, it either vilifies the preceding deities or makes them
into lesser gods, "patriarchs" or, in the case of Christianity, "saints."
This process is exemplified in the adoption of the Hindu god Brahma as the
Hebrew patriarch Abraham.92
Another school of thought proposes that the
patriarch Joshua was based on Horus as "Iusa," since the cult of
Horus had
migrated by this period to the Levant. In this theory, the cult of Joshua,
which was situated in exactly the area where the Christ drama allegedly took
place, then mutated into the Christian story, with Joshua becoming
Jesus.93
As Robertson says,
"The Book of Joshua leads us to think that he had several
attributes of the Sun-god, and that, like Samson and Moses, he was an
ancient deity reduced to human status."
Indeed, the legend of Moses, rather than being that of a historical Hebrew
character, is found around the ancient Middle and Far East, with the
character having different names and races, depending on the locale: "Manou"
is the Indian legislator; "Nemo the lawgiver," who brought down the tablets
from the Mountain of God, hails from Babylon; "Mises" is found in Syria and
Egypt, where also "Manes the lawgiver" takes the stage; "Minos" is the
Cretan reformer; and the Ten Commandments are simply a repetition of the
Babylonian Code of Hammurabi and the Hindu Vedas, among others.94
Like
Moses, Krishna was placed by his mother in a reed boat and set adrift in a
river to be discovered by another woman.95 A century ago,
Massey outlined,
and Graham recently reiterated, that even the Exodus itself
is not a
historical event. That the historicity of the Exodus has been questioned is
echoed by the lack of any archaeological record, as is reported in Biblical
Archaeology Review ("BAR"), September/October 1994.96
Like many biblical characters, Noah is also a myth
97, long ago appropriated
from the Egyptians, the Sumerians and others, as any sophisticated scholar
could demonstrate, and yet we find all sorts of books - some even presumably
"channeling" the "ultimate truth" from a mystical, omniscient, omnipresent
and eternal being such as Jesus himself - prattling on about a genuine,
historical Noah, his extraordinary adventures, and the "Great Flood!"
98
Additionally, the "Esther" of the Old Testament Book of Esther is a remake
of the Goddess Ishtar, Astarte, Astoreth or
Isis, from whom comes "Easter"
99
and about whose long and ubiquitous reign little is said in "God's
infallible Word."
100 The
Virgin Mother/Goddess/Queen of Heaven motif is
found around the globe, long before the Christian era, with Isis, for
instance, also being called "Mata-Meri" ("Mother Mary").
As
Walker says,
"Mari" was the "basic name of the Goddess known to the
Chaldeans as Marratu,
to the Jews as Marah, to the Persians as
Mariham, to the Christians as Mary... Semites worshipped an androgynous combination of Goddess and God
called Mari-El (Mary-God), corresponding to the Egyptian
Meri-Ra, which
combined the feminine principle of water with the masculine principle of the
sun."
Even the Hebraic name of God, "Yahweh," was taken from the Egyptian
"IAO."101
In one of the most notorious of Christian deceptions, in order to convert
followers of "Lord Buddha," the Church canonized him as "St. Josaphat,"
which represented a Christian corruption of the buddhistic title,
"Bodhisat."102
Back to Contents
The "Disciples" are the Signs of the Zodiac
Moreover, it is no accident that there are 12 patriarchs and 12 disciples,
12 being the number of the astrological signs, or months. Indeed, like the
12 Herculean tasks and the 12 "helpers" of Horus,
Jesus's 12 disciples are
symbolic for the zodiacal signs and do not depict any literal figures who
played out a drama upon the earth circa 30 C.E. The disciples can be shown
to have been an earlier deity/folkloric hero/constellation.
103
Peter is
easily revealed to be a mythological character
104, while
Judas has been said
to represent Scorpio, "the backbiter," the time of year when the sun's rays
are weakening and the sun appears to be dying.
105
James, "brother of Jesus"
and "brother of the Lord," is equivalent to Amset, brother of
Osiris and
brother of the Lord.
106
Massey says "Taht-Matiu was the scribe of the gods,
and in Christian art Matthew is depicted as the scribe of the gods, with an
angel standing near him, to dictate the gospel."
107 Even the apostle
Paul is
a compilation of several characters: The Old Testament Saul, Apollonius of Tyana and the Greek demigod
Orpheus.108
Back to Contents
Was Jesus an Essene Master?
109
As regards Jesus being an Essene according to "secret"
Dead Sea Scrolls,
even before the discovery of the scrolls, over the centuries there has been
much speculation to this effect, but Massey skillfully argued that many of
Jesus's presumed teachings were either in contradiction to or were
non-existent in Essene philosophy.110
The
Essenes did not believe in
corporeal resurrection, nor did they believe in a carnalized messiah. They
did not accept the historicity of Jesus. They were not followers of the
Hebrew Bible, or its prophets, or the concept of the original fall that must
produce a savior. Massey further points out that the Essenes were
teetotalers and ate to live rather than the other way around. Compared to
this, the assumed Essene Jesus appears to be a glutton and drunkard.
Also,
whereas according to Josephus the Essenes abhorred the swearing of oaths,
Jesus was fond of "swearing unto" his disciples.
111 While many
Essenic
doctrines are included in the New Testament, the list of disparities between
the Dead Sea Scroll Essenes and their alleged great master Jesus goes on.112
Back to Contents
Qumran is Not an Essene Community
It should also be noted that there is another debate as to whether or not
Qumran, the site traditionally associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls, was an
Essene community. In BAR, previously cited, it is reported that
archaeological finds indicate Qumran was not an Essene community but was
possibly a waystation for travelers and merchants crossing the Dead Sea.
In BAR, it has also been hypothesized that the fervent tone and warrior-stance
of some of the scrolls unearthed near Qumran belie any Essene origin and
indicate a possible attribution to Jewish Zealots instead. In Who Wrote the
Dead Sea Scrolls, Norman Golb makes a very good case that the
Dead Sea
Scrolls were not written by any Essene scribes but were a collection of
tomes from various libraries that were secreted in caves throughout eastern
Israel by Jews fleeing the Roman armies during the First Revolt of 70 A.D.
Golb also hypothesizes that Qumran itself was a fortress, not a monastery.
In any case, it is impossible to equate the "Teacher of Righteousness"
found
in any scrolls with Jesus Christ.
Back to Contents
Was the New Testament Composed by Therapeuts?
In 1829 Rev. Taylor adeptly made the case that the entire Gospel story was
already in existence long before the beginning of the Common Era and was
probably composed by the monks at Alexandria called "Therapeuts" in Greek
and "Essenes" in Egyptian, both names meaning "healers."113 This theory has
stemmed in part from the statement of early church father Eusebius, who, in
a rare moment of seeming honesty,
"admitted . . . that the canonical
Christian gospels and epistles were the ancient writings of the Essenes or
Therapeutae reproduced in the name of Jesus."114
Taylor also opines that
"the traveling Egyptian Therapeuts brought the whole story from India to
their monasteries in Egypt, where, some time after the commencement of the
Roman monarchy, it was transmuted in Christianity."115
In addition, Wheless
evinces that one can find much of the fable of "Jesus Christ" in the
Book of
Enoch
116, which predated the supposed advent of the Jewish master by
hundreds of years.117 According to
Massey, it was the "pagan" Gnostics - who
included members of the Essene/Therapeut and Nazarene
118 brotherhoods, among
others - who actually carried to Rome the esoteric (gnostic) texts
containing the Mythos, upon which the numerous gospels, including the
canonical four, were based. Wheless says,
"Obviously, the Gospels and other
New Testament booklets, written in Greek and quoting 300 times the Greek
Septuagint, and several Greek Pagan authors, as Aratus, and Cleanthes, were
written, not by illiterate Jewish peasants, but by Greek-speaking ex-Pagan
Fathers and priests far from the Holy Land of the Jews."119
Mead averred,
"We thus conclude that the autographs of our four Gospels were most probably
written in Egypt, in the reign of Hadrian."120
Back to Contents
Conclusion
As Walker said,
"Scholars' efforts to
eliminate paganism from the Gospels in
order to find a historical Jesus have proved as hopeless as searching for a
core in an onion."
The "gospel" story of
Jesus is not a factual portrayal of
a historical "master" who walked the earth 2,000 years ago.
It is a myth
built upon other myths and godmen, who in turn were personifications of the
ubiquitous sungod mythos.
The Christ of the gospels is in no sense an historical personage or a
supreme model of humanity, a hero who strove, and suffered, and failed to
save the world by his death. It is impossible to establish the existence of
an historical character even as an impostor.
For such an one the two
witnesses, astronomical mythology and gnosticism, completely prove an alibi.
The Christ is a popular lay-figure that never lived, and a lay-figure of
Pagan origin; a lay-figure that was once the Ram and afterwards the Fish; a
lay-figure that in human form was the portrait and image of a dozen
different gods.
Gerald Massey
Back to Contents |
Read book excerpts
"click"
image |
|