The Jesus Mysteries, Chapter 1
The Jesus Mysteries, by Freke and Gandy, is one of the best books I have ever read. It literally changed my life and altered the way I view spirituality and the universe. I finally have been typing up my notes. You may or may not be interested.I can assure you... this book has the capability of blowing one's mind. Are you ready for that?
Think carfully before you select -- will you choose the blue pill or the red one?
Mithraic inscription: “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.”
The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy © 1999. Harmony Books, NY
Chapter 1: The Unthinkable Thought
p. 1
On the site where the Vatican now stands there once stood a Pagan temple. Here Pagan priests observed sacred ceremonies...
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.
...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
Mithraic inscription: “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.” 1
p. 2
We have become convinced that the story of Jesus is not the biography of a historical Messiah, but a myth based on perennial Pagan stories.
The Jesus Mysteries Thesis: Christianity actually a Jewish adaptation of an ancient Pagan Mystery religion.
...there is...a great deal of unsubstantiated nonsense written about the “real” Jesus
As long ago as the Renaissance, mystics and scholars saw the origins of Christianity in the ancient Egyptian religion.
For 2000 years the West has been dominated by the idea that Christianity is sacred and unique while Paganism is primitive and the work of the Devil. To even consider that they could be parts of the same tradition has been simply unthinkable.
The Pagan Mysteries
p. 3
Pagan spirituality was actually the sophisticated product of a highly developed culture. The state religions, such as the Greek worship of the Olympian gods, were little more than outer pomp and ceremony. The real spirituality of the people expressed itself through the vibrant and mystical “Mystery religions.”
...greatest minds in the Pagan world...regarded them as the very source of civilization...
Each Mystery tradition had exoteric Outer Mysteries, consisting of myths, which were common knowledge, and rituals, which were open to anyone who wanted to participate. There were also esoteric Inner Mysteries, which were a sacred secret known only to those who had undergone a powerful process of initiation.
p. 4
The philosophers of the ancient world were the spiritual masters of the Inner Mysteries.
At the heart of the Mysteries were myths concerning a dying and resurrecting godman, who was known by many different names.
Egypt = Osiris
Greece = Dionysus
Asia Minor = Attis
Syria = Adonis
Italy = Bacchus
Persia = Mithras
As was the practice from the 3rd cent. BCE (within a generation of the death of Alexander, Hecateus of Abdera, in Aegyptiaca, and Leon of Pella were using the composite name Osiris-Dionysus2) , in this book we will use the combined name of Osiris-Dionysus to denote his universal and composite nature.
p. 5
mythic motifs of Osiris-Dionysus:
- Osiris-Dionysus is God made flesh, the savior and “Son of God.”
- His father is God and his mother is a mortal virgin.
- He is born in a cave or a humble cowshed on December 25 before 3 shepherds.
- He offers his followers the chance to be born again thru the rites of baptism.
- He miraculously turns water into wine at a marriage ceremony.
- He rides triumphantly into town on a donkey while people wave palm leaves to honor him.
- He dies at Eastertime as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
- After his death he descends into hell, then on the 3rd day he rises from the dead and ascends to heaven in glory.
- His followers await his return as the judge during the Last Days.
- His death and resurrection are celebrated by a ritual meal of bread and wine, which symbolize his body and blood.
Why are these remarkable similarities not common knowledge?
- the early Roman Church did everything in its power to prevent us perceiving them
- systematically destroyed Pagan sacred literature
Pagan critics of Christianity, such as the satirist Celsus, complained that this recent religion was nothing more than a pale reflection of their own ancient teachings.
diabolical mimicry
- early Church fathers - Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Irenaeus
- accused the Devil of “plagiarism by anticipation”
p. 6
nothing other than cultural prejudice to make us see the Jesus story as the literal culmination of its many mythical precursors
The obvious explanation is that as early Christianity became the dominant power in the previously Pagan world, popular motifs from Pagan mythology became grafted onto the biography of Jesus.
We had collated such a comprehensive body of similarities that there remained hardly any significant elements in the biography of Jesus that we did not find prefigured by the Mysteries.
even Jesus’ teachings were not original
p. 7
The Gnostics
The Gnostics truly were “psychonauts” who boldly explored the final frontiers of inner space, searching for the origins and meanings of life. These people were mystics and creative free-thinkers.
p. 8
Literalists3 painted Gnostics as Christians who had “gone native.” They claimed they had become contaminated by the Pagan that surrounded them
Gnostics saw themselves as the authentic Christian tradition and the orthodox bishops as an “imitation church.”4
Gnostics means “Knowers,” a name they acquired because, like the initiates of the Pagan Mysteries, they believed that their secret teachings had the power to impart Gnosis - direct experiential “Knowledge of God.” Just as the goal of the Pagan initiate was to become a god, so for the Gnostic the goal of Christian initiate was to become a Christ.
Gnostics were not concerned with the historical Jesus - saw his story as an allegory that encoded secret mystical teachings
The Jesus Mysteries Thesis
What if Gnostics viewed as the authentic Christians, just as the Gnostics claimed they were? What if orthodox Christianity was a later derivation from Gnostisicm and Gnostisicm was a synthesis of Judaism and the Pagan Mystery religion?
p. 9
If this was so, then the Jesus story was not a biography at all but a consciously crafted vehicle for encoded spiritual teachings created by Jewish Gnostics...initiation in the Inner Mysteries would reveal the myth’s allegorical meaning.
Why should we consider the stories of Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, Mithras, and other Pagan Mystery saviors as fables, yet come across essentially the same story told in a Jewish context and believe it to be the biography of a carpenter from Bethlehem?
We were in effect saying that Jesus was a Pagan god and that Christianity was a heretical product of Paganism
p. 10
Isn’t there indisputable historical evidence for the existence of Jesus the man?
The Great Cover-Up
when we critically examined what genuine evidence remained, we found that the history of Christianity bequeathed to us by the Roman Church was a gross distortion of the truth.
p. 11
Eusebius (beginning of 4th cent. CE)
- compiled from legends, fabrications and his own imagination the only early history of Christianity that still exists today
- employed by the Roman Emperor Constantine
- Constantine wanted “one God, one religion” to consolidate his claim of “one Empire, one Emperor”
- oversaw the creation of the Nicene Creed
p. 13
Recovering Mystical Christianity
book cover: 3rd cent. CE amulet - shows a crucified figure which most people would immediately recognize as Jesus. Yet the Greek words name the figure Orpheus Bacchus, one of the pseudonyms of Osiris-Dionysus.
...our interest is not in further division, but in acknowledging the unity that lies at the heart of all spiritual traditions...Early literal Christianity mistakenly believed that the Jesus story was different from other stories of Osiris-Dionysus because Jesus alone had been a historical rather than a mythical figure. This has left Christians feeling that their faith is in opposition to all others, which it is not.
...we do not see it as undermining the Christian faith, but as suggesting that Christianity is in fact richer than we previously imagined. The Jesus story is a perennial myth with the power to impart the saving gnosis, which can transform each one of us into a Christ...
Belief in the Jesus story was originally the first step in Christian spirituality - the Outer Mysteries. Its significance was to be explained by an enlightened teacher when the seeker was spiritually ripe. The Inner Mysteries imparted a mystical Knowledge of God beyond mere belief in dogmas
As a culture we have inherited only the Outer Mysteries of Christianity. We have kept the form, but lost the inner meaning.
=======================================================================
Footnotes
1. quoted in Godwin, J., Mystery Religions of the Ancient World, (1981), p. 28
2. Taylor, L.R., The Divinity of the Roman Emperor, (1931), p. 27
3. Literalists refers to orthodox Christianity, i.e., Roman Catholic Church
4. Robinson, J.M., The Nag Hammadi Library (1978), p. 362, quoting The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, 60, p. 20
Think carfully before you select -- will you choose the blue pill or the red one?
Mithraic inscription: “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.”
The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy © 1999. Harmony Books, NY
Chapter 1: The Unthinkable Thought
p. 1
On the site where the Vatican now stands there once stood a Pagan temple. Here Pagan priests observed sacred ceremonies...
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.
...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
Mithraic inscription: “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.” 1
p. 2
We have become convinced that the story of Jesus is not the biography of a historical Messiah, but a myth based on perennial Pagan stories.
The Jesus Mysteries Thesis: Christianity actually a Jewish adaptation of an ancient Pagan Mystery religion.
...there is...a great deal of unsubstantiated nonsense written about the “real” Jesus
As long ago as the Renaissance, mystics and scholars saw the origins of Christianity in the ancient Egyptian religion.
For 2000 years the West has been dominated by the idea that Christianity is sacred and unique while Paganism is primitive and the work of the Devil. To even consider that they could be parts of the same tradition has been simply unthinkable.
The Pagan Mysteries
p. 3
Pagan spirituality was actually the sophisticated product of a highly developed culture. The state religions, such as the Greek worship of the Olympian gods, were little more than outer pomp and ceremony. The real spirituality of the people expressed itself through the vibrant and mystical “Mystery religions.”
...greatest minds in the Pagan world...regarded them as the very source of civilization...
Each Mystery tradition had exoteric Outer Mysteries, consisting of myths, which were common knowledge, and rituals, which were open to anyone who wanted to participate. There were also esoteric Inner Mysteries, which were a sacred secret known only to those who had undergone a powerful process of initiation.
p. 4
The philosophers of the ancient world were the spiritual masters of the Inner Mysteries.
At the heart of the Mysteries were myths concerning a dying and resurrecting godman, who was known by many different names.
Egypt = Osiris
Greece = Dionysus
Asia Minor = Attis
Syria = Adonis
Italy = Bacchus
Persia = Mithras
As was the practice from the 3rd cent. BCE (within a generation of the death of Alexander, Hecateus of Abdera, in Aegyptiaca, and Leon of Pella were using the composite name Osiris-Dionysus2) , in this book we will use the combined name of Osiris-Dionysus to denote his universal and composite nature.
p. 5
mythic motifs of Osiris-Dionysus:
- Osiris-Dionysus is God made flesh, the savior and “Son of God.”
- His father is God and his mother is a mortal virgin.
- He is born in a cave or a humble cowshed on December 25 before 3 shepherds.
- He offers his followers the chance to be born again thru the rites of baptism.
- He miraculously turns water into wine at a marriage ceremony.
- He rides triumphantly into town on a donkey while people wave palm leaves to honor him.
- He dies at Eastertime as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
- After his death he descends into hell, then on the 3rd day he rises from the dead and ascends to heaven in glory.
- His followers await his return as the judge during the Last Days.
- His death and resurrection are celebrated by a ritual meal of bread and wine, which symbolize his body and blood.
Why are these remarkable similarities not common knowledge?
- the early Roman Church did everything in its power to prevent us perceiving them
- systematically destroyed Pagan sacred literature
Pagan critics of Christianity, such as the satirist Celsus, complained that this recent religion was nothing more than a pale reflection of their own ancient teachings.
diabolical mimicry
- early Church fathers - Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Irenaeus
- accused the Devil of “plagiarism by anticipation”
p. 6
nothing other than cultural prejudice to make us see the Jesus story as the literal culmination of its many mythical precursors
The obvious explanation is that as early Christianity became the dominant power in the previously Pagan world, popular motifs from Pagan mythology became grafted onto the biography of Jesus.
We had collated such a comprehensive body of similarities that there remained hardly any significant elements in the biography of Jesus that we did not find prefigured by the Mysteries.
even Jesus’ teachings were not original
p. 7
The Gnostics
The Gnostics truly were “psychonauts” who boldly explored the final frontiers of inner space, searching for the origins and meanings of life. These people were mystics and creative free-thinkers.
p. 8
Literalists3 painted Gnostics as Christians who had “gone native.” They claimed they had become contaminated by the Pagan that surrounded them
Gnostics saw themselves as the authentic Christian tradition and the orthodox bishops as an “imitation church.”4
Gnostics means “Knowers,” a name they acquired because, like the initiates of the Pagan Mysteries, they believed that their secret teachings had the power to impart Gnosis - direct experiential “Knowledge of God.” Just as the goal of the Pagan initiate was to become a god, so for the Gnostic the goal of Christian initiate was to become a Christ.
Gnostics were not concerned with the historical Jesus - saw his story as an allegory that encoded secret mystical teachings
The Jesus Mysteries Thesis
What if Gnostics viewed as the authentic Christians, just as the Gnostics claimed they were? What if orthodox Christianity was a later derivation from Gnostisicm and Gnostisicm was a synthesis of Judaism and the Pagan Mystery religion?
p. 9
If this was so, then the Jesus story was not a biography at all but a consciously crafted vehicle for encoded spiritual teachings created by Jewish Gnostics...initiation in the Inner Mysteries would reveal the myth’s allegorical meaning.
Why should we consider the stories of Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, Mithras, and other Pagan Mystery saviors as fables, yet come across essentially the same story told in a Jewish context and believe it to be the biography of a carpenter from Bethlehem?
We were in effect saying that Jesus was a Pagan god and that Christianity was a heretical product of Paganism
p. 10
Isn’t there indisputable historical evidence for the existence of Jesus the man?
The Great Cover-Up
when we critically examined what genuine evidence remained, we found that the history of Christianity bequeathed to us by the Roman Church was a gross distortion of the truth.
p. 11
Eusebius (beginning of 4th cent. CE)
- compiled from legends, fabrications and his own imagination the only early history of Christianity that still exists today
- employed by the Roman Emperor Constantine
- Constantine wanted “one God, one religion” to consolidate his claim of “one Empire, one Emperor”
- oversaw the creation of the Nicene Creed
p. 13
Recovering Mystical Christianity
book cover: 3rd cent. CE amulet - shows a crucified figure which most people would immediately recognize as Jesus. Yet the Greek words name the figure Orpheus Bacchus, one of the pseudonyms of Osiris-Dionysus.
...our interest is not in further division, but in acknowledging the unity that lies at the heart of all spiritual traditions...Early literal Christianity mistakenly believed that the Jesus story was different from other stories of Osiris-Dionysus because Jesus alone had been a historical rather than a mythical figure. This has left Christians feeling that their faith is in opposition to all others, which it is not.
...we do not see it as undermining the Christian faith, but as suggesting that Christianity is in fact richer than we previously imagined. The Jesus story is a perennial myth with the power to impart the saving gnosis, which can transform each one of us into a Christ...
Belief in the Jesus story was originally the first step in Christian spirituality - the Outer Mysteries. Its significance was to be explained by an enlightened teacher when the seeker was spiritually ripe. The Inner Mysteries imparted a mystical Knowledge of God beyond mere belief in dogmas
As a culture we have inherited only the Outer Mysteries of Christianity. We have kept the form, but lost the inner meaning.
=======================================================================
Footnotes
1. quoted in Godwin, J., Mystery Religions of the Ancient World, (1981), p. 28
2. Taylor, L.R., The Divinity of the Roman Emperor, (1931), p. 27
3. Literalists refers to orthodox Christianity, i.e., Roman Catholic Church
4. Robinson, J.M., The Nag Hammadi Library (1978), p. 362, quoting The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, 60, p. 20