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The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?
 
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The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God? (Paperback)

by Timothy Freke (Author), Peter Gandy (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
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.

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Customer Reviews

41 Reviews
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3 star:
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2 star:
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 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (41 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but..., 31 Oct 2005
By J. Goddard "Jim Goddard" (Shipley) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Make no mistake, this is an important book. It is well researched and provides compelling detail on the origins of Christianity. I've been searching for a book like this for years and I'm glad I've found it. My only quibbles are that it does tend to overstate its case at times (there really is no need; the evidence is clear enough on its own) and the style is a bit sensationalist. The irritating and wholely excessive use of exclamation marks encapsulates both of these faults. However, those are essentially surface points. The meat is in the arguments and evidence. Here, the copious footnotes are invaluable. Ironically, a little less missionary zeal on the part of the authors (and a little less of the occasional speculation presented as fact) would have made their underlying analysis even stronger. Still, if you want a serious, solid analysis of this difficult subject, here it is.
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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a brilliant and well researched work, 9 May 2000
By denlegal@hotmail.com (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Jesus Mysteries : Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God? (Hardcover)
This book might be aimed at different types of reader. It succeeds on several levels. If it is aimed at the newcomer to critical review of the canonical sources then it is an excellent work to start with. If it is aimed at more experienced person, then it succeeds even more. I am well familiar with critical evaluation of the gospels, Paul's letters, Acts, etc. together with the Apocrypha, the early Church Fathers and all the ancient sources. Likewise I am familiar with the ancient religious rituals and myths. No one who has studied Frazer's Golden Bough and Graves' The White Goddess or his Greek Myths will find too much here that is horrifying. The authors themselves modestly and honestly point out that there is nothing much here that is new. Their revelation of the Osiris/Dionysus cults' similarity with the story of Jesus reminds me of when I read Joel Carmichael's the Death of Jesus when I was at college many years ago. He compares the Mithras cult with that of Christianity and, like messrs. Freke and Gandy, he is not surprised that the 'new' religion took hold in the mediterranean world.

But even an old hand like myself is impressed by the clarity of these authors. They set out all the arguments in a way that is of great use in discussion. I might have known much of the stuff from different sources but Freke and Gandy set them out in a way that relieves me of the need to refer to a number of works. They may have set out to produce a 'popular' type work to bring the arguments to 'the masses' but I feel quite at home with them on a scholarly level as I do with EP Sanders, Geza Vermes etc.

To be honest, like Sanders, Vermes, A.N. Wilson, Carmichael, Brandon and Winter, I am of opinion that there was an historical Jesus of Nazareth and I applaud their laudable efforts to produce such a personage. But I do agree with Freke and Gandy that, even as strongly as I hold this view, I cannot gainsay anyone who asserts that Jesus never existed; and this is another example of the value of this book. The authors succinctly set out the arguments that show that there is no evidence that this person ever existed. That is not the main argument of this book but it is one of the many gems which are but side issues to the argument.

This book should be required reading from secondary schools up.

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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Good in parts, 10 Dec 2001
By A Customer
The book begins with a very interesting demonstration of the parallels between Christianity and pagan religions such as the worship of Mithras. The idea that Christianity is a combination, by Paul, of pagan workship with a Jewish preacher seems quite plausible. It then becomes a lot less convincing as instead of simply doing a demolition job, they attempt to establish some kind of true Christianity. Be sceptical, but its a fun read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking
Posited as a thesis, the authors move skillfully through a series of questions and answers (supported by references) to a convincing conclusion. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Rory Anderson

1.0 out of 5 stars Highly outdated and heavily biased thesis
The basic idea behind the Jesus Mysteries is that tired old story that Jesus never existed and was a product of various pagan myths. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Ms. J. Kirby

3.0 out of 5 stars Popularisation of historical scholarship on the origins of Christianity
...and slightly annoying in that way that popularisations sometimes are. Much of what's in here is indisputable to proper scholars; some of it is Freke's own hypothesis about the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Jezza

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a scholarly work, this poor evidence wouldn't stand in court.
Whilst I found this book interesting and of some value, I can't get over the fundamental mistakes that the authors make in this book. Read more
Published 15 months ago by internetmaster

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm converted.........
The authors Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy have got it just right and they have researched their subject brilliantly. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Agent Ajax

5.0 out of 5 stars An evolving polemic
Since this book came out, Christian scholars - true believers like US Professor Elaine Pagels have produced works that represent partial vindications of this book... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2006 by Sarakani

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Because it is very evident that the authors did an awful lot of painstaking research and have provided the most comprehensive of references I feel a bit guilty giving this book... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2006 by P. McDONALD

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking
I found this book quite thought provoking and it challenges modern Christianity. I think everyone should read this book -whether you believe it or not- but then you can make your... Read more
Published on 13 Aug 2006 by Bentley

2.0 out of 5 stars cod scholarship
The authors have lots of books on their shelves - the book contains 89 pages of footnotes and seven pages of bibliography. Read more
Published on 10 Jul 2006 by P. Chadwick

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Of Major Importance In The History Of Spirituality
First I have to say that this book is NOT recommended for Christians who are content in their beliefs. It is not the business of Gnostics to "knock" the faith of others. Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2006 by Capt I. McRae

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