Jesus Christ: a myth and his life a metaphor?

Authors of The Jesus Mysteries:
Jesus Christ is a myth
and his life is a metaphor
1 2

23Jul2003 - Email this article.
The Dutch in the original article has been translated into English by Marienella Meulensteen.
Last night during the repeat on TV The Son of God by Roel Oostra in the series The Myths of Mankind*. Speaking are the authors of the book The Jesus Mysteries who say that the story about Jesus Christ as we all know it, is identical in the smallest detail to all kinds of old myths, like those about Mithras, Attis, Osiris and Dionysus. 'Undoubtedly those who have believed the history handed down to them about the origins of Christianity will be shocked to discover that they have been deliberately lied to', the authors stated in an interview.
*Part of it can be seen online. The Dutch voice over by Oostra has been replaced by a German one. In English: watch part one of Zeitgeist. That first part (on YouTube it is devided in three parts) covers to a large extent the subject that is central to this article.

'On the site where the Vatican now stands there once stood a Pagan temple. [...] Where today the gathered faithful revere their Lord Jesus Christ, the ancients worshipped another godman who, like Jesus, had been miraculously born on December 25 before three shepherds. In this ancient sanctuary, Pagan congregations once glorified a Pagan redeemer who, like Jesus, was said to have ascended to heaven and to have promised to come again at the end of time to judge the quick and the dead. On the same spot where the Pope celebrates the Catholic mass, Pagan priests also celebrated a symbolic meal of bread and wine in memory of their savior who, just like Jesus, had declared: He who will not eat of my body and drink of my blood, so that he will be made one with me and I with him, the same shall not know salvation', so write Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy in their book The Jesus Mysteries. '[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', writes Amazon.co.uk

The story about Christ resembles the story about Dionysus
Just compare the story of Dionysus with that 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', writes Freke.

The story about Christ contains hidden messages
According to Freke and Gandy, 'the story of Jesus [...] a consciously crafted vehicle for encoded spiritual teachings created by Jewish Gnostics. We are unaware of this, [the authors] claim, because the Roman Catholic Church destroyed evidence of the connection between Christianity and the pagan mysteries. They make their case by offering an examination of mystery religions, especially Greek, pointing out the many parallels between them [...]', writes David Bourquin of California State University. Freke and Gandy are of the opinion that Christ never existed: 'We can argue in the dark about whether it was based on a living man, but the fact is that if all that remains are these mythic archetypes that predated the Jesus story and have been laid onto somebody, then still what we have is a myth', they state to CNN.

Life of Christ is a metaphor
'The supernatural story of Jesus is not the history of a miraculous Messiah, but a carefully crafted spiritual allegory designed to guide initiates on a journey of mystical discovery', writes CNN in summary. In the documentary The Son of God, Freke and Gandy say that the story of Christ is a metaphor for personal transformation, as already mentioned by Plato, who indicated that you have to turn around to see that the shadows on the wall of the cave are not reality. Through initiation you can turn yourself around and reach transformation. That is the inner mystical experience of outer mysticism, as is reflected in the life of Jesus, who transforms by dying. Just like Dionysus who transforms to a god.

Today Christianity is about form instead of content
With the belief in the person of Jesus Christ this world has gone wrong, according to the authors. It is about form instead of content. The content, which should be most important, is the inner transformation. '[...] once you understand it as a myth, everyone can have their version of Jesus because it's about finding a relationship with a mythic archetype, not arguing over history", says Freke in an interview with CNN. 'Organized religion is often concerned only with upholding and justifying the status quo. This is ironic as religions are often begun by mystics who are vehement critics of institutional religion. As we chronicle in The Jesus Mysteries, the original message of Christianity was one of personal liberation and salvation. [...] Original Christianity was not about being a ‘Christian' but becoming a ‘Christ' through understanding the secret teachings encoded in the Jesus myth. [...] But when Christianity was adopted as the one religion of the Roman Empire it was turned into a message of terror and intimidation', the authors state in a different interesting interview.

The purpose of the book is to make clear:
Christianity must be about content instead of form
In that same interview: 'To us, all forms of spirituality are different paths up the same mountain of Truth. What prevents many Christians seeing this is that they believe that Jesus was an historical figure who was the one and only Son of God. Our hope is that, if Christians can see that the Jesus story is actually another version of a perennial myth, they may be able to stop viewing their spiritual tradition as in opposition to Paganism and indeed all other forms of spirituality'. In short, more ways lead to Rome, and especially away from it. It is therefore not surprising that Timothy Freke wrote several books about different forms of spirituality in his search for content. A search that DaanSpeak sympathizes with.

Critique on the book in this review by CNN.
A sampling from the book.
Reviews selected by the publisher.
In the Netherlands, the program The Son of God in the series The Myths of Mankind was aired by Teleac. It is not known to Teleac when the series will be repeated.

DaanSpeak
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