The Characters

We have seen that there is no evidence for the historicity of the Christian founder, that the earliest Christian proponents were as a whole either utterly credulous or astoundingly deceitful, and that said “defenders of the faith” were compelled under incessant charges of fraud to admit that Christianity was a rehash of older religions. It has also been demonstrated that the world into which Christianity was born was filled with assorted gods and goddesses, as opposed to a monotheistic vacuum. In fact, in their fabulous exploits and wondrous powers many of these gods and goddesses are virtually the same as the Christ character, as attested to by the Christian apologists themselves. In further inspecting this issue we discover that “Jesus Christ” is in fact a compilation of these various gods, who were worshipped and whose dramas were regularly played out by ancient peoples long before the Christian era.

Although many people have the impression that the ancient world consisted of unconnected nations and tribes, the truth is that during the era Jesus allegedly lived there was a trade and brotherhood network that stretched from Europe to China.

This information network included the library at Alexandria and had access to numerous oral traditions and manuscripts that told the same narrative portrayed in the New Testament with different place names and ethnicity for the characters. In actuality, the legend of Jesus nearly identically parallels the story of Krishna, for example, even in detail, with the Indian myth dating to at least as far back as 1400 BCE. Even greater antiquity can be attributed to the well-woven Horus myth of Egypt, which also is practically identical to the Christian version but which preceded it by thousands of years.

The Jesus story incorporated elements from the tales of other deities recorded in this widespread area of the ancient world, including several of the following world saviors, most or all of whom predate the Christian myth. It is not suggested that all of these characters were used in the creation of the Christian myth, as some of them are found in parts of the world purportedly unknown at the time; however, it is certain that a fair number of these deities were utilized. Thus, we find the same tales around the world about a variety of godmen and sons of God, a number of whom also had virgin births or were of divine origin; were born on or near December 25^th in a cave or underground; were baptized; worked miracles and marvels; held high morals, were compassionate, toiled for humanity and healed the sick; were the basis of soul- salvation and/or were called “Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer”; had Eucharists;

vanquished darkness; were hung on trees or crucified; and were resurrected and returned to heaven, whence they came. The list of these saviors and sons of God includes the following:

• Adad and Marduk of Assyria, who was considered “the Word” (Logos)

•

Adonis, Aesclepius, Apollo (who was resurrected at the vernal

equinox as the lamb), Dionysus, Heracles (Hercules) and Zeus of Greece

•

Alcides of Thebes, divine redeemer born of a virgin around 1200

BCE^ccxxxix

•

Attis of Phrygia

•

Baal or Bel of Babylon/Phoenicia

•

Balder and Frey of Scandinavia

•

Bali of Afghanistan

•

Beddru of Japan

•

Buddha and Krishna of India

•

Chu Chulainn of Ireland

•

Codom and Deva Tat of Siam

•

Crite of Chaldea

•

Dahzbog of the Slavs

•

Dumuzi of Sumeria

•

Fo-hi, Lao-Kiun, Tien, and Chang-Ti of China, whose birth was attended by heavenly music, angels and shepherds

^ccxl

•

Hermes of Egypt/Greece, who was born of the Virgin Maia and called

“the Logos” because he was the Messenger or Word of the Heavenly Father, Zeus.

•

Hesus of the Druids and Gauls

•

Horus, Osiris and Serapis of Egypt

•

Indra of Tibet/India

•

Ieo of China, who was “the great prophet, lawgiver and savior” with 70 disciples

^ccxli

•

Issa/Isa of Arabia, who was born of the Virgin Mary and was the

“Divine Word” of the ancient Arabian Nasara/ Nazarenes around 400

BCE^ccxlii

•

Jao of Nepal

•

Jupiter/Jove of Rome

•

Mithra of Persia/India

•

Odin/Wodin/Woden/Wotan of the Scandinavians, who was

“wounded with a spear.”

^ccxliii

•

Prometheus of Caucasus/Greece

•

Quetzalcoatl of Mexico

•

Quirinius of Rome

•

Salivahana of southern India, who was a “divine child, born of a virgin, and was the son of a carpenter,” himself also being called “the Carpenter,” and whose name or title means “cross-borne”

(“Salvation”)

^ccxliv

•

Tammuz of Syria, the savior god worshipped in Jerusalem

•

Thor of the Gauls

•

Universal Monarch of the Sibyls

•

Wittoba of the Bilingonese/Telingonese

•

Zalmoxis of Thrace, the savior who “promised eternal life to guests at his sacramental Last Supper. Then he went into the underworld, and rose again on the third day”

^ccxlv

•

Zarathustra/Zoroaster of Persia

• Zoar of the Bonzes

This list does not pretend to be complete, nor is there adequate room here to go into detail of all these mythological characters. It should be noted that, as with Jesus, a number of these characters have been thought of in the past as being historical persons, but today almost none of them are considered as such.

The Major Players

Attis of Phrygia

The story of Attis, the crucified and resurrected Phrygian son of God, predates the Christian savior by centuries, in the same area as the gospel tale. Attis shares the following characteristics with Jesus:

• Attis was born on December 25^th of the Virgin Nana.

•

He was considered the savior who was slain for the salvation of mankind.

•

His body as bread was eaten by his worshippers.

•

His priests were “eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.”

•

He was both the Divine Son and the Father.

•

On “Black Friday,” he was crucified on a tree, from which his holy blood ran down to redeem the earth.

•

He descended into the underworld.

• After three days, Attis was resurrected on March 25^th (as tradition held of Jesus) as the “Most High God.”

Doane provides detail of the Attis drama, which was a recurring blood atonement:

Attys, who was called the “Only-Begotten Son” and “Saviour” was worshiped by the Phrygians (who were regarded as one of the oldest races of Asia Minor). He was represented by them as a man tied to a tree, at the foot of which was a lamb, and, without doubt also as a man nailed to the tree, or stake, for we find Lactantius making . . . Apollo of Miletus . . . say that: “He was a mortal according to the flesh;

wise in miraculous works; but, being arrested by an armed force by command of the Chaldean judges, he suffered a death made bitter with nails and stakes.”^ccxlvi

And in Christianity Before Christ Jackson relates:

In the Attis festival a pine tree was felled on the 22^nd of March and an effigy of the god was affixed to it, thus being slain and hanged on a tree. . . . At night the priests found the tomb illuminated from within but empty, since on the third day Attis had arisen from the grave.^ccxlvii

The drama or passion of Attis took place in what was to become Galatia, and it was the followers of Attis to whom Paul addressed his Epistle to the Galatians at 3:1: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” Since the Galatians presumably were not in Jerusalem when Christ was purportedly crucified, we may sensibly ask just who this was “publicly portrayed as crucified” before their eyes? This “portrayal”

certainly suggests the recurring passion of the cult of Attis.

Again, in addressing the Galatians, Paul brings up what is obviously a recurring event: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us—

for it is written, ‘Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree.’” (Gal. 3:13) As followers of Attis, the addressees would understand the part about “every one who hangs on a tree,” since they, like other biblical peoples, annually or periodically hung a proxy or effigy of the god on a tree. As is the case in the Old Testament with ritualistic hangings, this “cursing” is in fact a blessing or consecration.

Attis was popular not only in Phrygia/Galatia but also in Rome, where he and Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods, had a temple on Vatican Hill for six centuries.^ccxlviii So similar was the Attis myth to the Christian story that the

Christians were forced to resort to their specious argument that the devil had created the Attis cult first to fool Christ’s followers.

Buddha

Although most people think of Buddha as being one person who lived around 500 BCE, the character commonly portrayed as Buddha can also be demonstrated to be a compilation of godmen, legends and sayings of various holy men both preceding and succeeding the period attributed to the Buddha (Gautama/ Gotama), as was demonstrated by Robertson:

. . . Gotama was only one of a long series of Buddhas who arise at intervals and who all teach the same doctrine. The names of twenty-four of such Buddhas who appeared before Gotama have been recorded. . . . It was held that after the death of each Buddha, his religion flourishes for a time and then decays. After it is forgotten, a new Buddha emerges and preaches the lost Dhamma, or Truth. . . .

It seems quite probable in the light of these facts that any number of teachings attributed to

“the Buddha” may have been in existence either before or at the time when Gotama was believed to have lived. . . .

The name Gotama is a common one; it is also full of mythological associations. There was admittedly another Gotama known to the early Buddhists, who founded an order. So what proof is there that the sayings and doings of different Gotamas may not have been ascribed to one person? . . .^ccxlix

Because of this non-historicity and of the following characteristics of the Buddha myth, which are not widely known but which have their hoary roots in the mists of time, we can safely assume that Buddha is yet another personification of the ancient, universal mythos being revealed herein.

The Buddha character has the following in common with the Christ figure:

• Buddha was born on December 25^thccl of the virgin Maya, and his birth was attended by a “Star of Announcement,”^ccli wise men^cclii and angels singing heavenly songs.^ccliii

•

At his birth, he was pronounced ruler of the world and presented with

“costly jewels and precious substances.”

^ccliv

•

His life was threatened by a king “who was advised to destroy the child, as he was liable to overthrow him.”

^cclv

•

Buddha was of royal lineage.

•

He taught in the temple at 12.

^cclvi

•

He crushed a serpent’s head (as was traditionally said of Jesus) and was tempted by Mara, the “Evil One,” when fasting.

•

Buddha was baptized in water, with the “Spirit of God” or “Holy Ghost” present.

^cclvii

•

He performed miracles and wonders, healed the sick, fed 500 men

from a “small basket of cakes,” and walked on water.

^cclviii

•

Buddha abolished idolatry, was a “sower of the word,” and preached “the establishment of a kingdom of righteousness.”

^cclix

•

His followers were obliged to take vows of poverty and to renounce the world.

^cclx

•

He was transfigured on a mount, when it was said that his face “shone as the brightness of the sun and moon.”

^cclxi

•

In some traditions, he died on a cross.

^cclxii

•

He was resurrected, as his coverings were unrolled from his body and his tomb was opened by supernatural powers.

^cclxiii

•

Buddha ascended bodily to Nirvana or “heaven.”

•

He was called “Lord,” “Master,” the “Light of the World,” “God of Gods,” “Father of the World,” “Almighty and All-knowing Ruler,”

“Redeemer of All,” “Holy One,” the “Author of Happiness,”

“Possessor of All,” the “Omnipotent,” the “Supreme Being,” the

“Eternal One.”

^cclxiv

•

He was considered the “Sin Bearer,” “Good Shepherd,”

^cclxv

the

“Carpenter,”

^cclxvi

the “Infinite and Everlasting,”

^cclxvii

and the “Alpha and Omega.”

^cclxviii

•

He came to fulfill, not destroy, the law.

^cclxix

• Buddha is to return “in the latter days” to restore order and to judge the dead.”^cclxx

In addition to the characteristics of the “teaching/savior god” as outlined above, the Buddhistic influence in Christianity includes: Renouncing the world and its riches, including sex and family; the brotherhood of man; the virtue of charity and turning the cheek; and conversion. That Buddhism preceded Christianity is undeniable, as is its influence in the world long prior to the beginning of the Christian era. As Walker relates:

Established 500 years before Christianity and widely publicized throughout the Middle East, Buddhism exerted more influence on early Christianity than church fathers liked to admit, since they viewed Oriental religions in general as devil worship. . . . Stories of the Buddha and his many incarnations circulated incessantly throughout the ancient world, especially since Buddhist monks traveled to Egypt, Greece, and Asia Minor four centuries before Christ, to spread their doctrines. . . . Many scholars have pointed out that the basic tenets of Christianity were basic tenets of Buddhism first; but it is also true that the ceremonies and trappings of both religions were more similar than either has wanted to acknowledge.^cclxxi

As to Buddhistic influence in the specific area where the Christ drama purportedly took place, Larson states:

Buddhist missionaries penetrated every portion of the then known world, including Greece, Egypt, Baktria, Asia Minor, and the Second Persian Empire. Palestine must have been permeated by Buddhist ideology during the first century. . . . The literature of India proves that Jesus drew heavily upon Buddhism, directly or indirectly, to obtain not simply the content of His ethics, but the very form in which it was delivered. Both Gautama and Jesus found parable effective.^cclxxii

Indeed, it seems that a number of Jesus’s parables were direct lifts from Buddhism; for example, that of the prodigal son.^cclxxiii

The existence of Buddhism in the Middle East during the Christian era is acknowledged by Christian apologists themselves such as Cyril and Clement of Alexandria, who said the Samaneans or Buddhists were priests of Persia.^cclxxiv

Furthermore, a number of scholars have pushed back the origins of Buddhism many thousands of years prior to the alleged advent of Gautama Buddha. Albert Churchward also traces the Buddha myth originally to Egypt:

The first Buddha was called Hermias, and can be traced back to Set of the Egyptians;

he originated in the Stellar Cult. Later, however, the Solar Cult was carried to India, and the Buddha is there the representative of Ptah of the Egyptians. . . Sakya-Muni or Gautama, whose life and history were evolved from the pre-extant mythos, the true Buddha, . . . could become no more historical than the Christ of the gnosis. If Buddhism could but explicate its own origins, it would become apparent that it is both natural and scientific, i.e. the old Stellar Cult of Egypt. But the blind attempt to make the Buddha historical in one person will place it ultimately at the bottom of a dark hole.^cclxxv

Higgins also evinced that true “Buddhism” is much more ancient than the legends of the Buddha, since in ancient Indian temples long predating the era of

“Gautama” are depictions of the Buddha as a black man, not only in color but in feature.^cclxxvi In Higgins’s opinion, Buddhism has been the most widespread religion on the planet, also found in England, where it was the religion of the Druids. He also states that the “Hermes of Egypt, or Buddha, was well known to the ancient Canaanites,” i.e., the people who preceded and in large part became the Israelites.

Therefore, Buddhism was no doubt an early influence on Hebrew thought and religion.

Dionysus/Bacchus

Dionysus or Bacchus is thought of as being Greek, but he is a remake of the Egyptian god Osiris, whose cult extended throughout a large part of the ancient world for thousands of years. Dionysus’s religion was well-developed in Thrace, northeast of Greece, and Phrygia, which became Galatia, where Attis also later reigned. Although Dionysus is best remembered for the rowdy celebrations in his name, which was Latinized as Bacchus, he had many other functions and contributed several aspects to the Jesus character:

• Dionysus was born of a virgin on December 25^thcclxxvii and, as the Holy Child, was placed in a manger.

•

He was a traveling teacher who performed miracles.

•

He “rode in a triumphal procession on an ass.”

^cclxxviii

•

He was a sacred king killed and eaten in an eucharistic ritual for fecundity and purification.

•

Dionysus rose from the dead on March 25

^th

.

•

He was the God of the Vine, and turned water into wine.

•

He was called “King of Kings” and “God of Gods.”

•

He was considered the “Only Begotten Son,” “Savior,” “Redeemer,”

“Sin Bearer,” “Anointed One,” and the “Alpha and Omega.”

^cclxxix

•

He was identified with the Ram or Lamb.

^cclxxx

• His sacrificial title of “Dendrites” or “Young Man of the Tree” intimates he was hung on a tree or crucified.^cclxxxi

As Walker says, Dionysus was “a prototype of Christ with a cult center at Jerusalem,” where during the 1^st century BCE he was worshipped by Jews, as noted.

Dionysus/Bacchus’s symbol was “IHS” or “IES,” which became “Iesus” or “Jesus.”

The “IHS” is used to this day in Catholic liturgy and iconography. As Roberts relates:

“IES,” the Phoenician name of the god Bacchus or the Sun personified; the etymological meaning of that title being, “I” the one and “es” the fire or light; or taken as one word “ies” the one light. This is none other than the light of St. John’s gospel;

and this name is to be found everywhere on Christian altars, both Protestant and Catholic, thus clearly showing that the Christian religion is but a modification of Oriental Sun Worship, attributed to Zoroaster. The same letters IHS, which are in the Greek text, are read by Christians “Jes,” and the Roman Christian priesthood added the terminus “us”. . .

And Larson states:

Dionysus became the universal savior-god of the ancient world. And there has never been another like unto him: the first to whom his attributes were accredited, we call Osiris; with the death of paganism, his central characteristics were assumed by Jesus Christ.^cclxxxii

Like Jesus the Nazarene, Dionysus is the “true Vine,” and the grape imagery is important to both cults. As Walker says:

[The grapevine] was preeminently an incarnation of Dionysus, or Bacchus, in his role of sacrificial savior. His immolation was likened to the pruning of the vine, necessary to its seasonal rebirth. . . . In Syria and Babylon the vine was a sacred tree of life. Old Testament writers adopted it as an emblem of the chosen people, and New Testament writers made it an emblem of Christ (John 15:1, 5). When accompanied by wheat sheaves in sacred art, the vine signified the blood (wine) and body (bread) of the savior: an iconography that began in paganism and was soon adopted by early Christianity.^cclxxxiii

On Crete, Dionysus was called Iasius,^cclxxxiv a title also of the godman of the Orphic mysteries of Samothrace, who has been identified with Dionysus and who was promulgated by the “apostle” Orpheus in his missionary work as he took the same route later purportedly traveled by Paul. Iasius, Iesius or Jason is in fact equivalent to Jesus.

Hercules/Heracles

Heracles, or Hercules, is well-known for his 12 labors, which correspond to the 12 signs of the zodiac and are demonstrations of his role as “Savior.” Born of a virgin, he was also known as the “Only Begotten” and “Universal Word.”^cclxxxv The virgin mother of Heracles/Hercules was called Alcmene, whose name in Hebrew was

“almah,” the “moon-woman,” who, as Walker says, “mothered sacred kings in the Jerusalem cult, and whose title was bestowed upon the virgin Mary. Parallels between earlier myths of Alcmene and later myths of Mary were too numerous to be coincidental. Alcmene’s husband refrained from sexual relations with her until her god-begotten child was born.”^cclxxxvi

Walker also recounts the story of Hercules and its relationship to the Christian tale:

His Twelve Labors symbolized the sun’s passage through the twelve houses of the zodiac . . . After his course was finished, he was clothed in the scarlet robe of the sacred king and killed, to be resurrected as his own divine father, to ascend to heaven . . . The influence of Heracles’s cult on early Christianity can hardly be overestimated.

St. Paul’s home town of Tarsus regularly reenacted the sacred drama of Heracles’s death by fire, which is why Paul assumed there was great saving virtue in giving one’s body to be burned, like the Heracles-martyrs (1 Corinthians 13:3). Heracles was called Prince of Peace, Sun of Righteousness, Light of the World. He was the same sun greeted daily by the Persians and Essenes with the ritual phrase, “He is risen.”

The same formula announced Jesus’s return from the underworld (Mark 16:6). He was sacrificed at the spring equinox (Easter), the New Year festival by the old