'The Jesus Mysteries', Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy
James C. Rocks
There is no doubt in my mind that Freke & Gandy's book (or thesis) is a worldview-shattering concept ... at least to a Catholic born atheist who has, for most of his life, accepted the existence of a man called Jesus Christ as actual (but not, I stress, his claimed supernatural aspects). I had envisaged such a man as some kind of, then, Jewish leader (perhaps terrorist, perhaps "freedom-fighter", perhaps wise, perhaps soft-spoken) and the kind of man around which legends are built ... a kind of early-day Robin Hood if you like. Prior to reading Freke & Gandy's book I had read some of Frank R. Zindler's work at the American Atheists site and I had begun to consider the possibility of a world in which there had never been a Jesus as a literal historical individual. To an atheist who, because of his religious upbringing, is more active against fundamentalist Christian claims this is a key consideration, the foundation of the claims of modern Christianity are built upon this. If there was no literal Jesus Christ then everything every Christian cult has claimed since 1000CE or earlier is built upon a lie (or at least a mistaken claim).
In their book, the authors reveal the mystery religions, whose various dying & resurrecting godmen they refer to as "Osiris-Dionysus", as showing a great degree of similarity in their multi-level teachings that were interpreted more literally by the uninitiated and allegorically by the initiated. Core to this belief system was the concept that "self" comprised of two components, the lower being or eidolon, and the upper, spiritual being, or daemon. Initiation into these religions involved the initiated dying to one's old self and resurrecting as one (the eidolon & daemon united) and, interestingly, the Greek word for "resurrect" also means "awaken."
So, are the claims made by Christianity are based on lie or error? Perhaps modern-day Christianity is more the result of political power plays & human corruption than it is a real attempt to discern some kind of spiritual truth?
Viewed in this light Freke & Gandy's book makes a number of quite extraordinary claims that revolve around the central concept that Jesus Christ did not literally exist but was, instead, a composite character created to represent a higher spiritual being that we all have within ourselves (the Christ within). So, was the Jesus we all know (and either hate, love or ignore) a Pagan God?
According to Freke & Gandy, Christianity makes a number of claims:
Discussion
Core to those who believe in Christianity is the crucifixion & resurrection of their Jesus Christ whose father is the one true god and whose mother was a virgin. According to the authors Christianity is not unique in these claims and has not only been copied but, it seems, pre-dated (by several hundred years) by similar pagan beliefs, the so-called "mystery religions". The Egyptian Osiris, the Greek Dionysus, the Syrian Adonis, the Italian Bacchus & the Persian Mithras all show an uncanny similarity to the central claims made by Christianity. Yet all of these pagan beliefs are regarded as myth or fable by theist & historians alike and no such charge is levied against Christianity. Why?

- Jesus was the saviour of mankind.
- Jesus was God made man (a Godman).
- The Son of God equates to the Father.
- Jesus is born of a virgin who, after her death, is honoured in heaven as divine.
- Jesus is born in a cave on either 25th December or 6th January).
- A star heralds Jesus' birth.
- Jesus is portrayed as a quiet man long hair and a beard.
- At a wedding, Jesus turns water into wine.
- Jesus' divinity is only later recognised by his disciples.
- Jesus has 12 disciples.
- Jesus rides triumphantly on a donkey with crowds waving branches.
- Jesus is a just man who is accused of heresy and the introduction of a new religion.
- Jesus is hung on a tree or crucified.
- Jesus dies as a sacrifice to redeem the sins of the world.
- Jesus' corpse is wrapped in linen and anointed with myrrh.
- Jesus dies, descends to hell, resurrects before his disciples and ascends into heaven where he is enthroned by God and waits until judgment day to appear as the divine judge.
- Jesus' empty tomb is visited by three women followers.
- Jesus offers his disciples the chance to be born again.
- Jesus is visited by three wise men or Magi.
- The Magi bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
- Jesus is baptized.
- Jesus' disciples symbolically eat bread and drink wine to commune with him.
- Jesus offers his followers elemental baptisms of water, air and fire.
- Jesus heals the sick.
- Jesus exorcises demons.
- Jesus provides miraculous meals.
- Jesus helps fishermen to miraculous catches of fish.
- Jesus calms storms.
- Jesus is a wandering wonder-worker who is not honoured in his home town.
- Jesus attacks hypocrites.
- Jesus stands up to tyranny.
- Jesus goes to his death predicting he will rise again.
- Christian history is not an accurate reflection of real history.
- Christianity was not revolutionary as it claimed even today but grew out of pre-existing pagan religions and, in its original form, differed in relatively minor ways from them.
- Like the followers of other pagan or "Mystery" religions early Christians were Gnostics whose scriptures were allegorical encodings of initiation rites & teachings acting at multiple levels for the uninitiated & initiated.
- Early Christian initiates knew that their teachings were not literal.
- Christian Gnostics believed that Jesus represented one's ability to die to your old self and be reborn at one with the universe and in this respect were more-or-less identical with pre-existing & and co-existing pagan religions.
- Circumstances (revolving around the Roman dominance of Israel & brutal reprisals against uprisings) conspired to split non-initiated & initiated allowing unscrupulous individuals acting in the name of the non-initiated to dominate the religion.
- In the 4th century CE the Roman Emperor Constantine legalised Christianity beliefs in order to use its core message of "One Kingdom, One God" to justify his parallel desire for "One Empire, One Emperor" and, by doing so, formed the basis for the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
- All of the other Christian cults derive from Catholicism.
References
- "The Jesus Mysteries: Was Jesus A Pagan God?" Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy
- "Did Jesus Exist?" Frank R. Zindler
- "Review: Jesus, man or myth," David Allan Dodson
- "Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy's 'The Jesus Mysteries'," Anthony Campbell.
- "Was The 'Original Jesus' A Pagan God?" Tom Paine
- "Don't be fooled by this Jesus Freke," Geoff Robson
- "Tweedledee and Tweedledum on the Christian Faith," Venerable Bede
- "'The Jesus Mysteries' opens a controversial can of worms," CNN Editorial
- "Pagan Jesus?" Jenny Chisholm
- "Historical Jesus," Austin Cline
- "The Jesus Puzzle: Was There No Historical Jesus?" Earl Doherty