Has anyone here read either of these books. I am reading Jesus and The Lost Goddess -- fascinating stuff!!!
Pretty strong statements being made about Jesus and the entire foundation of Christianity...
Any takers?
The Jesus Mysteries / Jesus and The Lost Goddess by Freke and Gandy
by EyeDrEvil 7 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
-
DevonMcBride
I haven't read those books but I did read The Christ Conspiracy, The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Acharya S. I agree it is fascinating.
Devon
-
peacefulpete
Yes I've read their books. They are correct in associating the Jesus story with it's contemporary mythologies, however the question lingers in scholarly debate whether Christianity began as a Mystery cult and adopted Jewish overlay in Palestine or the other way around. Was a preexisting cult attatched to a historical figure or was the entire Jesus/Joshua persona a later historization of a purely mythical character???? Efforts to separate the "Historical Jesus" from the NT depictions have reenegized the Myth Only position because so much of the legend is patent paganism. Hellenized Jewish philosophers had come a long way toward wholesale adoption of Greek terminology and vision so the fine distinction will likely be debated forever. There is a Yahoo Jesus Mysteries discussion group easily found doing a word search. It often has interesting bits of little discussed info about the topic.
-
hooberus
Re: "The Christ Conspiracy, The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Acharya S."
http://www.risenjesus.com/articles/index.asp?pagea=acharya-s&pagea2=website
-
hooberus
Here is my thread "The Crucifixion in History" giving evidence for the historicity of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as well as a discussion of so-called "crucified pagan godmen" speculations
-
peacefulpete
Hooberus is correct to the extent that that 19th century critics of Christianity often exaggearated the parallels of NT stories and Pagan ones. The fad was to derail everything as a "borrowing" or "plagerism" when in fact it would be more acurate to call it emulation. Just as a modern writer tends to unconsciously or by design immitate successful author's style and formula, the writers and editors of the Jesus stories natuarally drew from the religious culture they were immersed in. Archaya has made too many unsupportable (though peripheral to the topic) assertions using 19th/early 20th century authors as sources. Hooberus has not read Freke and Gandy's books so as to recognize the style is very different. The historically dishonest apologetic site he often links us to makes it's case based upon personal attacks of Archaya and slitting hairs about wording. The fact is that some of the more popular web sites and Archaya's book have made the mistake of oversimplifying a complex process of evolving tradition and emulation. Robert Price and Earl Doherty have excellent sites that are very scholarly and much more cautious about wording. And as I mentioned before the Jesus Mysteries Yahoo discussion group attracts some very impressive scholars to the discussion. It is my opinion that Christianity is the result of 3 hundred years of forcing multiple cults into one. At least one was a Jewish apocalyptic Joshua cult another was a Mithra styled Christ cult. Paul seems to have been the first to attempt the melding in a public way.
-
JCanon
This is an interesting anti-messianic posture, of course. But it doesn't work now that so many critical prophesies relating to the Jews, Jehovah's witnesses and the second coming Christ are being fulfilled for those involved. So it's just a nonsensical assertion of those out of the loop at this point.
Because of the common Flood and the common tie with Noah and what he passed on, there are some legitimate comparisons between pagans, the mysteries and the esoteric spiritual world belong to the modern-day Christ cult. That is, while the Sumerians might have been the ones to have their zodiac assignments adopted by everyone in the Western and Mid-East cultures, they didn't invent the stars. What they did was develop a good observation of the natural. So whether there is actual influence of one culture on another or simply a reflection on some common theme is always up for debate.
Since the physical universe was created BASED upon what was already in heaven, of course there are going to be some parallels; it doesn't mean everything started out as a myth.
But if you actually don't believe there is a god or anything in the Bible is really real, then academically what choice is there but to presume "myth"?
JC
-
zen nudist
This is an interesting anti-messianic posture, of course. But it doesn't work now that so many critical prophesies relating to the Jews, Jehovah's witnesses and the second coming Christ are being fulfilled for those involved. So it's just a nonsensical assertion of those out of the loop at this point.
Poeple have always been able to read their life times into existant prophecies, that has little to do with them actually being fulfilled. Every and I do mean EVERY generation since it was written has been able to read itself into the book of revelations... just look at studies in the scriptures by russell who saw his day, prior to 1914 fulfilling so many critical prophecies, not to mention Miller in 1840s and many others before that.
the fact is that so many bible prophecies are out of context and partial statements which have nothing do to with Jesus or now.