The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?
The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?
by Tim Freke, Peter Gandy
3.98 · Rating details · 1,595 ratings · 91 reviews
“Whether you conclude that this book is the most alarming heresy of the millennium or the mother of all revelations, The Jesus Mysteries deserves to be read.”
-- Fort Worth Star -Telegram
What if . . .
* there were absolutely no evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus?
* for thousands of years Pagans had also followed a Son of God?
* this Pagan savior was also born of a virgin on the twenty-fifth of December before three shepherds, turned water into wine at a wedding, died and was resurrected, and offered his body and blood as a Holy Communion?
* these Pagan myths had been rewritten as the gospel of Jesus Christ?
* the earliest Gnostic Christians knew that the Jesus story was a myth?
* Christianity turned out to be a continuation of Paganism by another name? (less)
======
Alejandro
Jul 11, 2013Alejandro rated it really liked it
Shelves: religion, reference-book
Insightful reading.
TO THE CHRIST IN YOU
The chosen title for this first section of my review, To the Christ in You , it's the dedication that the authors used for this particular book.
I knew that I made the right decision to read it.
I am Catholic, I have a strong faith in God, but also I have no problem to know about the earthly origins of the foundation of the Christian-Catholic Church.
Some people can see this book like a blasphemy and if so, well, I respect their position, but in my case, I can separate my spiritual faith in a higher power from the humane history of the religion.
So, I think that there is enough space between Earth and Heaven to fit our own each particular image of Jesus and that Christ in your hearts.
RELIGION & FAITH
In a novel that I read many years ago, Virgin by Mary Elizabeth Murphy, there is a quote that stuck in my memory...
God made faith to unite us, people made religion to separate us. ...
...and I live pretty much by it.
I am still a practicing Catholic. I guess that some people who knows me, they didn't realize how religious I really am.
You don't have to say the name of God or Jesus on each sentence or being every Sunday in a concrete building to believe in God and to have faith.
God is everywhere and in everything, when you believe that, you get gnosis and you see things in a different way.
THEN WHY NOT A 5-STAR RATING?
So, why 4 stars instead of 5?
Simple, sadly, well sadly to my rating of the book anyway, I have read before a lot about the subject, and even recently I read the novel, The Secret Magdalene by Ki Longfellow (amazing book, one of my favorites now), and I now got many about that kind of info that I already knew previously and I got it in more amusing and entertaining ways.
I found the narrative in this book like a cold reading information text. And any related to religious faith should be told with passion, at least that's my thinking about the matter.
However, this is still a great book if you don't much about the topic, or if you want to refresh about what you read before of the godman myth that almost every culture in the planet developed in their own way and in their own terms.
I hardly losing respect of the Catholic Church, since I am always been amazed of how smart the founders of this religion were and how they acomplished such big task that convert to this faith a third of the people in this planet.
You have to be clear that the churches on Earth are managed by human beings subject to failures and sins, so you don't have to be so rude when they do some wrong if it's for a greater good.
Of course, if it isn't for a greater good but for personal avarice or lust, you should be brave enough and tell it, but don't judge the whole Church (any church) for the evil ones, but judge it for the faithful ones.
Also, you have to be clear that any doing of the earthly churches is separate of the spirituality that you have in your mind and your heart about a higher power that you may call God or whatever you wish.
It's YOUR faith and you have the right of defining it for yourself.
Nothing can be between you and your God.
Believe in your God. Do the right thing. And being able to see yourself into the mirror each day. Anything else can be solved on the way.
flag74 likes · Like · 18 comments · see review
Margitte
Dec 11, 2016Margitte rated it it was amazing
Shelves: nonfiction, 2016-read
Christianity turned out to be a continuation of Paganism by another name
Controversial.
Well researched.
Informative.
Theoretical.
Blasphemous to billions.
A religious mystery worthy of The Da Vinci Code.
Based on a bestselling book The Pagan Christ, by an Anglican priest, Tom Harper: ordained for more than forty years, a Rhodes scholar, a professor of the New Testament and Greek studies.
There is, after all, a great deal of unsubstantiated nonsense written about the 'real' Jesus, so any revolutionary theory should be approached with a healthy dose of scepticism. But although this book makes extraordinary claims, it is not just entertaining fantasy or sensational speculation. It is firmly based upon the available historical sources and the latest scholarly research. Whilst we hope to have made it accessible to the general reader, we have also included copious notes giving sources, references and greater detail for those who wish to analyse our arguments more thoroughly.
In sociology there is a concept of religion that fits right in with the gist of this book. All religions lead to God. The different religions build different bridges to God and in the end the bridges, instead of God, are worshiped by the different groups. The biggest wars in the world resulted from this intolerance for each other's bridges.
This 'bridge'-concept is basically proven in this book. It leads to a much broader understanding of history and our own modern lives and can be recommended for those interested in a wider scope on civilizations since the beginning of time. The information has been known for several thousand years, and more recently, hundreds of years. The authors managed to write an easy-to-read text, sharing outstanding scholarly research spanning over many years. It is not the first time the information is shared, but it certainly is an entertaining, highly informative addition to history.
There is so much to be said, shared and syncopated about the fascinating information in this book. It will take up too much time and space to lay it out here in a review.
I am adding a long spoiler to allow this book, The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God? and the authors, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, to speak for themselves.
(view spoiler)
The book was well worth the read. In fact, I will have to read it again and again to remember more detail.
This Youtube video actually inspired me to read the book. In fact, I strongly recommend it. Different viewpoints and evidence are provided of the discoveries.
https://youtu.be/xxH1QdmDnpM (less)
flag40 likes · Like · 15 comments · see review
Nat
Apr 01, 2008Nat rated it it was amazing
An interesting thesis, easily accepted by serious students of comparative religion, but probably highly irritating and/or distasteful to fundamentalist sects. If you're truly interested in the history of religion, I highly recommend it. (less)
flag19 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Evanston Public Library
Aug 06, 2010Evanston Public Library added it
Have you: 1) Ever heard that not a single contemporary first-hand account of the Jesus of Nazareth exists? And wondered why? 2) Ever taken a shot at understanding the very strange 2nd-4th century Gnostic Gospels (discovered in an Egyptian cave in 1948), but found them too bizarre to wrap your arms around? 3) Ever heard of the Egyptian, Persian, and Pagan man-Gods, worshiped during the 1st-5th centuries B.C., who were born of a virgin, died on a cross/tree, buried in a cave, descended into hell, and rose again on the third day? In The Jesus Mysteries, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy not only document the once-prevalent belief in these ancient Man-gods, but link them directly to the Gnostic Gospels and Jesus of Nazareth, who—according to the authors—was merely a mythical Jewish adaptation from the Pagan Man-god “Mysteries” religion of Rome. Although released in 2000, the recent surge of public interest in books by the likes of Christopher Hitchins and Richard Dawkins makes The Jesus Mysteries a fascinating read with a controversial thesis. (Russ K., Ref.) (less)
flag8 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Tepintzin
May 23, 2012Tepintzin rated it liked it
Shelves: pagan
Read it, didn't buy the theory. The authors didn't know the difference between Mithra (Persian deity) and Mithras (god of the Roman legions) to start with, and that's a pretty critical distinction. They also didn't talk enough about the story of Dionysus to get a real feel for any comparisons between Dionysus and Jesus, and there are some. Nonetheless, a "mystery religion" lens for viewing the Jesus narrative is useful for mining more significance out of it when the usual way of reading it runs dry. There are also some very nice colour photos. (less)
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
Erica Zahn
Dec 11, 2020Erica Zahn rated it liked it
Shelves: christianity, classical-history
[Please note that I wrote this review many months after my original reading, so it does not consist of my original thoughts from the time.]
The subject of this book is certainly highly provocative, and the authors certainly capitalise on that within the text, but I nevertheless felt they were fair in their assessment of the main topic of the book, i.e. whether the portrayals of Jesus we see in our texts might have been influenced by pagan traditions, which have several figures that bear similarities with Jesus. Some of this is explicit in the historical context already, such as Mithras’ birthday being borrowed for the birth of Christ (though their confusion of the Roman Mithras with Mithra, the Persian deity, betrays that they are not really experts on this subject!); others are implicit, but widely accepted by scholars; other points are more dubious, such as claiming that it was common for pagan gods to be ‘born of a virgin’, though they often have unusual births.
My main criticism is that much of what they have written is stated with confidence when it should be highly speculative (this is what I mean about the provocative tone), when it would have been better to explore it in a more speculative fashion. It also seems to ignore a lot of the pretexts for Jesus’ qualities and behaviours in the Jewish tradition, and in particular how the role of ‘Messiah’ was characterised both in prophecy and in the purported Messiahs roaming around Judaea in his own time, when a more accurate reading should put both traditions alongside one another to assess the influence in each (since it is at least clear that they both to some extent influenced the portrayal of Christ). I read this mainly for the discussion of communion, which related to my research at the time, and I thought it covered the potential pagan influences well but did not compare it at all with, for instance, the Judaic Didache. On the other hand, this was one of the more convincing parallels (though of course I am biased by my own interest in the subject).
As you can see, there is a lot to criticise about this book (in my view), but I am giving it a middling rating because it is at least brought up some interesting passages and ideas and made me give them a second look. I also respect them for tackling this subject without making an outright attack on Christianity. To anyone offended by the content, it is worth remembering how C. S. Lewis treated pagan beliefs in his work — despite wanting to spread a Christian message, he intertwined pagan elements with those themes, and saw no contradiction in doing so. I would go so far as to say that his fellow Christians, likewise, should not find any inherent conflict in realising the elements that Christ and some pagan deities have in common. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Lesley
Sep 26, 2010Lesley rated it liked it
Shelves: religion
Most non fundamentalist Christians accept that aspects of the traditional gospel narratives were likely drawn from the myths of other cultures. Gandy and Freke's premise is radically different: that the "historic" Jesus may not have existed at all, but is a complete amalgam of Osiris, Dionysus,etc filtered through a 1st century Jewish mystery tradition.Like other mystery religions, what we now read as the "true" gospel story may never have been intended to be read literally, but served as an "outer" mystery for new initiates. Only later was this reinterpreted as fact, forming the literalist Christian narrative. Provocative, well-argued and thoroughly documented, a worthy read for Christians and non-Christians alike. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Mike
Jan 24, 2010Mike rated it it was amazing
I always imagined that during the first century there were many, many versions of what happened to Jesus of Nazareth.. Out of that primordial soup of belief emerged orthodox Christianity and Gnostic Christianity, and afterward it was one long process of natural selection which eventually produced the religion we know today. It was survival of the fittest, and Paul’s interpretation of the life and death of Jesus won, driving all other versions into extinction. This book posits a radically different theory. The Gnostics were first! Heavily influenced by Greek culture, the Gnostics, like the Greeks, relied on myth as a means of accessing the divine that dwells within us all. Like the Greeks, like the Egyptians, like the Persians, the Gnostics seized upon the dying / resurrecting godman as a beacon to the transcendent. Over time, however, there were those who insisted on looking at the gospel through the lens of history rather than mythology, and thus the great struggle between the literalists and the Gnostics began. The literalists labeled the Gnostics heretics. They co-opted the message of Paul. (The authors make a very convincing case that Paul was a Gnostic sage.) To quote the book: “They… created a religion that required blind faith in historical events from what was originally a spiritual path through which each initiate could experience mystical knowledge or gnosis.” The literalists eventually won, and history, as we all know, is written by the victors. The theory rings true to me. Draining the life out of our stories, our ideas—it’s what we do. Kentucky Fried Chicken wants us to march to the beat of a different drumstick. Snoopy goes from iconoclast to insurance company mascot. And Christianity hardens into history. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Erik Graff
Jul 05, 2019Erik Graff rated it it was ok
Recommends it for: Christians
Recommended to Erik by: Michael Miley
Shelves: religion
The authors of this book are, according to their brief biographies, amateur readers of the bible. Freke holds a degree in philosophy, Gandy a master's in classical civilization. What they do, constructively speaking, is to show many of the formal similarities between early Christian texts and traditions and those of other, earlier and contemporary cults on the ancient Mediterranean world. In other words, they correctly illustrate how the figure of Jesus relates to other figures.
Where they are mistaken is in taking this problem to the extreme of denying the historicity of Jesus. It is one thing to say that the 'quest for the historical Jesus' is ever uncertain, it is quite another to claim that the quest has no subject. Jesus, however shadowed, remains one of the most well attested figures of antiquity.
The authors further posit that something they call 'Gnosticism' antedates the original Jesus movement. The term being a modern, not an ancient, rubric, they would have a point were they to be referring instead to something like a perennial esoteric tradition, a mysticism, detectable throughout Western antiquity. As it is, however, those texts commonly so classed are late, third and fourth century productions, much later than many certifiable holographs of the canon. The texts are also so, often floridly, variant as to define 'gnosticism' as essentially, radically eclectic.
This book might be recommended to naif readers of the bible as another antidote to fundamentalism. To others, not familiar with the canon(s) of Christianity, it would be misleading.
(less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Hayden
Dec 29, 2010Hayden rated it did not like it
Shelves: history
The Jesus Myth thesis is a very controversial one of late, particularly after the string of new atheists and controversial publishings; but I'm afraid to say that the thesis is ultimately the epitome of misconstrued articles on gnosticism, paganism, and Christianity. Now, let me make it perfectly clear, there is obviously history in their [Freke and Gandy] product, but rather than assuming that all of their citations and references to other "historians" are reliable, actually read a Greek, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, or even a Christian text that is written by a scholar with credibility and experience (Or, even read the actual reference, because they often quote mine). For example, when online bloggers make connections between Osiris, Dionysus, Buddha (wtf?), and other religious icons to Jesus they tend to blur the line on what historians actually know about such mythologies and what they say about them. The most heavily distorted is obviously, if I remember correctly, their comparisons of Siddhartha to Jesus Christ. I'll concede one point in jest: that they both probably wore sandals in the Middle-East.
Before reading this text, read actual documentation of the varying beliefs that receive mention in The Jesus Mysteries. Also, afterwards, read the critiques of Freke and Gandy's work; the most accessible critique is Gary Habermas' The Historical Jesus, which confronts the many allegations on this topic. However, DO NOT READ LEE STROBEL. PLEASE!! HE'S AN IDIOT! Haha, thank you for your time. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · 3 comments · see review
Steve Werner
Aug 31, 2015Steve Werner rated it really liked it
I learned a lot from this book. My biggest gripe is that the authors come across as snarky, and are extremely liberal with their exclamation marks. People tend to say that showing some myth or story to be symbolic, or highly similar to other myths, disproves any sort of literalist interpretation of that story. For instance, in The Jesus Mysteries they make a very convincing argument that the stories of Jesus from the gospels are rehashes of older allegories from other traditions (Osiris, Mythras, Adonis etc...). I can see why people come to this conclusion, but I don't think things are so black and white. It's possible that there was a real Jesus, whom many of his contemporary jews considered the messiah. There are other instances of this happening in the history of Judaism. Perhaps the man Jesus (if he existed) purposely was trying to mimic these allegories, or fulfill these prophecies that were written of in the older texts. Or perhaps the Church of Rome took the original stories of Jesus and doctored them to match these pagan(ish) dying god myths. Still, the similarities with these 'dying god' myths or most certainly there, and I learned a great deal about these various traditions as well as early Christianity from this book. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
Bruce Morton
Sep 05, 2011Bruce Morton rated it did not like it
Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy have produced a book with copious research. Their study is saturated with ancient testimony and much thought. This is not a superficial look at the area of Theosophy. However, the flaw in their study comes as they acknowledge that much of their thesis depends on Paul's writings. They argue that the apostle Paul was one of the earliest Christian writers. And they are convinced he was one of the earliest Gnostics (the true Christians). Freke and Gandy are convinced that Jesus was not flesh-and-blood, but only a myth -- a Gnostic myth. Colossians 1:22 clarifies what Paul believed and leaves Freke and Gandy with nothing to say. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review
David Sarkies
Jul 23, 2011David Sarkies rated it did not like it
Recommends it for: Nobody, it's rubbish
Recommended to David by: It looked interesting
Shelves: christian
Is Christianity a Mystery Cult
28 October 2011
I recently had a look at my review of this book and must admit that I was very disappointed in that I gave it just a brief glance and then threw it on my shelf and forgot about it. I have kept my original review below but after reading the book that I am reading now (Orpheus and Greek Religion) I felt that this particular book requires another look.
Now, the idea that the authors proposed, after thinking about it for a bit and considering the elements of the Greek Mystery religions, the concept of Christianity being a mystery religion isn't something to simply write off. However, the arguments that the authors base their thesis upon is wrong. The reason I say this is because they open their thesis with the argument that Jesus did not exist. Now, granted, my position as a Christian is biased in that regard, but taking that bias out of the equation I still believe there was an historical Jesus. There is just too much evidence supporting his existence, and the author's arguments against this are spurious at best.
However, let us consider the elements of what we know of the mystery religions (remembering that our knowledge of them is limited at best considering that the whole concept of the mystery cult is that outsiders did not know what went on inside, and when Christianity rose to become the dominant religion of Europe, many of the other mystery cults vanished). The main aspect is that they seem to have a focus on a dying and resurrecting God-man. Jesus was not the only figure to die and then come back to life. Others included Orpheus (who descended into hell to rescue his wife), Odysseus (who descended into hell to obtain information on how to return home), Dionysius and Osiris, just to name a few (this was something that scholars refer to as the katabasis or the descent below). The second element is that these religions have an initiation rite: with Christianity that is baptism.
However there are a few differences, one being that with mystery religions the knowledge available to the initiates is not available to those outside of the religion. With Christianity (at least the one that Christ set up) prides itself on its transparency. However, while Christianity desires to propogate itself, and to tell others about the benefits of the religion, there are concepts within Christianity (such as the doctrine of the Trinity and Salvation by Grace) which many of the young adherents simply do no understand, let alone non-believers. Another element is a phrase that I read in my current book, and that that is that 'life is a veil of tears where death is the only release.' That statement is Christianity through and through. The Christian life is a life of suffering as we make our way through to the glory that is awaiting for us beyond death (and this makes me question why Christians simply don't kill themselves, but that is an argument for another time, and is also addressed by many of the ancient writers).
It is true that many of the ancient anti-Christian writers (such as Celsus) point out that Christianity is little more than a mystery cult, and it is interesting that many of the ancient adherents disputed this, though Paul was not necessarily one of them (in which he refers to the mysteries of Christ a few times in his letters). It is also interesting to note that the more fundamentalist a Christian sect becomes then more elements of a mystery cult that it takes on, with baptism always being present as a form of initiation. Now, I'm evangelical Anglican, which means that our take on baptism is that it is a public declaration of our faith in Christ, and while there is nothing magical or mystical about the act, many evangelical Christians will baulk at the idea of being baptised more than once. Once you have been baptised that is it, you do not do it again. Sounds very much like an initiation to me.
Mystery religions actually became quite popular during the Imperial Roman age, where Christianity was not the only 'new' religion that arose. We also had Mithraism and a following of the Egyptian God Isis. However what we need to note is that Christianity survived. It is interesting to note that Constantine, the emperor who made Christianity the state religion of Rome, was a sun worshipper himself (and it is said that Orpheus received his knowledge from Apollo, another Sun god) and was himself very resistant to becoming baptised. However, that is beside the point because the question that I raise is 'why did Christianity take the form of a mystery cult?'.
A Biased Load of Rubbish
(18 July 2010)
To be honest, this book is rubbish. It is biased, biggotted, based on flimsy facts and mistranslations. Basically it is guilty of everything it accuses us Christians of doing. Personally, I don't think we're the best bunch of people on the earth, but considering the rubbish that these jokers were propagating, I personally prefer Christianity by a long shot. There are parts that I do agree with, and parts that helped me understand my faith better, such as the myths of the dying god-man (which I see as the pagan myths being fulfilled in Jesus Christ), and the overtly spiritual nature of Paul's letters. However, the thesis, I don't buy it. (less)
flag1 like · Like · 1 comment · see review
Joel Adamson
Apr 16, 2019Joel Adamson rated it liked it
Somewhere between whacked-out conspiracy theory and scholarly history, this book presents an interesting theory about the origins of Christianity and contains a lot of untold history of the ancient Mediterranean.
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Lefki Sarantinou
Apr 01, 2021Lefki Sarantinou rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: historical, occultism, religion
Έργο που αποκαλύπτει πόσο μεγάλη είναι η σχέση του παγανισμού με τον χριστιανισμό και μελετάει διεξοδικά όλες τις πτυχές του, από τον ρόλο του Αποστόλου Παύλου, τη σωκρατική διδασκαλία της αγάπης, τους γνωστικούς και τους άλλους παγανιστές Θεούς που κρεμάστηκαν επί ξύλου όπως και ο Χριστός. Κάθε χριστιανός που σέβεται τον εαυτό του θα έπρεπε να το διαβάσει για ν ερευνήσει τις καταβολές της θρησκείας του, αλλά και να κατανοήσει πόσο μπορεί να παραχαράξει την αλήθεια το ανθρώπινο χέρι.
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Pete daPixie
Mar 01, 2011Pete daPixie rated it it was amazing
Shelves: historical-jesus
'The Jesus Mysteries' was a Sunday Times bestseller and The Daily Telegraph's Book of the Year, when published back in 1999. As it states on the book's cover, 'drawing on the cutting edge of modern scholarship, this astonishing book will change everything you ever thought you knew about Christianity.' Amen to that.
The book's two authors, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy have dumped an enormous amount of research between it's covers. If I have one teeny weeny criticism it's the fact that hardly a paragraph goes by without having to refer to the hundreds of listed notes at the end of the book. However in the end it's all well worth it. The notes refer to everyone from Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Celsus, Origen all the way to modern day writers like Gibbon, Bultmann, Wrede, to the excellent Elaine Pagels and everyone in between.
Plato...'We beheld the beatific visions and were initiated into the Mystery which may be truly called blessed, celebrated by us in a state of innocence. We beheld calm,happy,simple,eternal visions, resplendent in pure light.
The Gnostics called those who identified with their body 'Hylics',because they were so utterly dead to spiritual things that they were like unconscious matter, or 'hyle'. Those who identified with their personality,or 'psyche',were known as 'Psychics'. Those who identified with their Spirit were known as 'Pneumatics',which means 'Spirituals'. Those who completely ceased to identify with any level of their seperate identity and realised their true identity as the Christ or Universal Daemon, experienced Gnosis.
In both Paganism and Christianity these levels of awareness were symbolically linked with the four elements, earth,water,fire and air. The initiations leading from one level to the next were symbolized by elemental baptisms. Baptism by water symbolizes the transformation of the Hylic person who identifies solely with the body,into a Psychic initiate who identifies with the personality or psyche. Baptism by air symolizes the transformation of the Psychic initiate into a Pneumatic initiate who identifies with their higher self. Baptism by fire represents the final initiation which reveals to Pneumatic initiates their true identity as the Universal Daemon, the Logos, the Christ within, the Light-power. Such an initiate has reached Gnosis.
Psychic Christians had experienced the first baptism by water and been initiated into the Outer Mysteries of Christianity. They understood the story of Jesus as an historical account of a person who literally returned from the dead.
Pneumatic Christians had experienced the second baptism of air (holy breath or holy spirit) and been initiated into the secret Inner Mysteries of Christianity. They understood the Jesus story as an allegorical myth encoding teachings about the spiritual path travelled by each initiate.
Gnostics had experienced the final baptism of fire and realized their identity as the Christ (the Logos or Universal Daemon).
Then, along came the Roman church. (less)
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Mike
Dec 14, 2007Mike rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: Christians, skeptics, Pagans
Shelves: everything-you-know-is-wrong
This is the best book I've found that explains Christianity's place in the pantheon of world religions. The authors start with the question of whether it's possible that Jesus was not, in fact, the true son of God. They examine the evidence of numerous god-men that preceded Jesus, each living pretty much the exact same life: virgin birth, miracles, water to wine, feeding thousands with a few fish, crucifixion, resurrection. They go on to explore the role of the New Testament as a handbook for the latest (at the time) in a series of mystery religions.
They explore the eventual corruption of the Jesus myth, from its combination with the Jewish messiah prophecy (and adoption of the Old Testament) to the rise of a strict literal interpretation as the one true Christianity. The section about its early history is interesting, though a bit brief. In the end, the authors condemn the early Christians for launching "a cultural revolution that laid waste the ancient wonders and achievements of Paganism, setting Western civilization back 1,000 years." (less)
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
