|
Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians by Timothy Freke |
by Timothy Freke
|
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart D. Ehrman |
101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History by Gary Greenberg |
by Timothy Freke; Peter Gandy
|
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links(What is this?) |
Product Description
For anyone who is not familiar with historical and biblical scholarship of the last half century or so, The Jesus Mysteries will come as something of a shock. Believing Christians will find it disturbing; Evangelicals will be horrified by it; Fundamentalists will no doubt ascribe it to the devil. And yet much in the book will be familiar to scholars.
Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy demonstrate clearly and unambiguously that much of Christian belief and practice, rather than being (as the Church has always claimed) a vast contrast with the Pagan ideas of Greece and the Middle East 2,000 years ago, actually draws on those traditions. It's not just virgin births that were two-a-penny in pre- Christian religions, but baptism, communion, and the very concept of a dying and rising God–man. December 25th was the birthday of Mithras long before Jesus came along. Other gods turned water into wine, stilled stormy waters, healed the sick and raised the dead. Even the teachings of Jesus on love, moral purity, humility and poverty were not wholly original; while Christian beliefs on heaven and hell (and the Catholic Church's purgatory) owe far more to Paganism than they do to the Judaism from which Christianity grew.
All of this, to a greater or lesser extent, has been known for decades; much of it, for example, can be found in a 1920s book called Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning. Where Freke and Gandy develop their theory, though, is more contentious. They conclude that the Christian religion was actually designed as another version of the Pagan religion, that Jesus was simply another variant on Osiris, Dionysius, Mithras and other earlier gods, invented for the Jewish people. This controversial thesis will be dismissed by many readers, but the meticulous footnoting of sources, both ancient and modern, will cause others to wonder if this book ought to be taken more seriously than many recent rewritings of history. --David V. Barrett
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Synopsis
The myth of Dionysus bears some resemblances to the the story of Jesus Christ. It compares with the biblical story in the following ways: Dionysus is God made flesh and is hailed as the "Saviour of Mankind" and the "Son of God"; his father is God and and his mother is a mortal virgin who afterwards becomes worshipped as the "Mother of God"; he is born in a cowshed; he drives out demons, turns water into wine and and raises people from the dead; and he rides triumphantly into town while people wave palms to honour him. The date revered by the first Christians as Jesus' birthday was originally that of Dionysus, also the three day Spring Festival of Dionysus celebrating his death and resurrection coincides with the Christian festival of Easter. The last Supper and the Eucharist also parallel Dionysian rites.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
83% buy the item featured on this page: The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God? £5.99 |
 |
5% buy Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians £14.95 |
 |
4% buy The Laughing Jesus £6.99 |
 |
4% buy Lucid Living £5.99 |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
Beta (What's this?)|
This product's forum
(0 discussions)
Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Active discussions in related forums
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
Health & Beauty at Amazon.co.uk |
Beauty without the Beast |
Treat Someone
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). |
||||||||
| |||||
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
You have no recently viewed items or searches.
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session. |
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
| ||||
Amazon Home | |
| International Sites: United States | Germany | France | Japan | Canada | China | |
| Business Programs: Sell on Amazon | Fulfilment by Amazon | Join Associates | Join Advantage | |
| Customer Service | Help | View Basket | Your Account | |
| About Amazon.co.uk | Careers at Amazon | |
| Conditions of Use & Sale | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates |