Dear Sin City Milla, the book you mentioned, The Christ Conspiracy, sounds very interesting. It seems to be based on a lot of factual truth, but it might be going out on a limb when it comes to imputing intention. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, Christianity developed from the Therapeutic sect of Jews. My understanding is that the Therapeutic sect was established a century or two earlier by Jews who studied Buddhism, the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Orphic Mysteries, Plato and whatever else they could find at the Library of Alexandria. The Therapeuts saw in the book of Job and in the Psalms the elements of a mystery religion already created by God, so they went about making a mystery religion based on these Jewish Scriptures, while incorporating as much as they could of Buddhism and Platonism into their mystery religion, while remaining 100% faithful to Judaism. This synthesis was the Therapeutic sect. Then Christianity adopted its tenets plus the doctrine of the Incarnation (Jesus Christ as the Logos made flesh) plus the Eucharist. I cannot dispute that Christianity is the queen of the mystery religions and that Christianity has displaced all the other mystery religions, simply because it is better.
A summary of The Christ Conspiracy at politics-prose.com says, “The Christ Conspiracy posits that Jesus is neither unique nor original, but a reinterpretation of an ancient body of knowledge that revolved around celestial bodies and natural forces. The result of this myth making has been ‘The Greatest Conspiracy Ever Sold.’ Murdock offers startling evidence that Christianity and the story of Jesus Christ were created by members of various secret societies, mystery schools and religions.” If you separate Christianity into its components, you can find all of them somewhere else, so, in this sense, the religion is not unique. Judaism in turn has its roots in the religion of King Akhenaten, which has its roots in the worship of celestial bodies. Aristotle was deep into knowledge of natural forces. A revision to the estimated duration of the precession of the equinoxes was the latest scientific advance at the time. What gives Christianity its uniqueness is its focus on history–the miracle of the Resurrection, in particular, as a historical fact. (Jesus Christ is a unique person, of course, as is everyone, but this is not what the reviewer means by “unique.”) Mystery religions were all the rage at the time, and every mystery religion is a secret society. Their contribution to Christianity is undeniable. In general, I cannot dispute what the reviewer has just said about Murdock’s thesis.
The reviewer goes on to say that Murdock contends that the Gospel was created “in order to unify the Roman Empire under one state religion.” I doubt that this was any man’s intention–or even God’s intention, which seems to have been to perfect Judaism in order to make a divine religion not just for the Roman Empire but for the whole world. The Pagan Romans had no desire to change their religion, and the conquered peoples, including the Jews, had no desire to unify the Roman Empire.
Nearly all Jews wanted the opposite–the disunity of the Roman Empire. The reviewer continues, “In fabricating Christianity, a multinational cabal drew upon older myths and rituals.” Substitute “the Therapeutic sect” in place of “Christianity,” and this is precisely what the Therapeuts did, but they were Jews, and they had no intention of uniting the Roman Empire. The reviewer goes on to say, “and continued to rework them for centuries into the religion we know today.” I cannot dispute that Christianity has morphed over the millennia. It has.
The reviewer goes on, “The Jesus character is a composite of many gods and personalities, including the popular deities Mithras, Heracles/Hercules, Dionysos and others. The story of Jesus in the Gospels is nearly identical to the stories of the earlier savior-gods, Krishna and Horus.” Every mystery religion involves an ennead, including a triad. By “triad” here I mean three gods or demigods or divinities of some sort–not the Christian concept of the Trinity that the three are one. The original Egyptian ennead is Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys. In the Orphic mystery religion, the triad is Isis, Osiris and Horus, which would mean identifying Horus with one of the other nine. The Messiah in the Therapeutic mystery religion corresponds to Horus and also to Dionysos and to Demeter in certain other mystery religions. The Hindu Trimurti or triad is Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva. Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu. I don’t know if there was a Hindu mystery religion, but if there was, the same element of the ennead would correspond to Vishnu.
There were so many mystery religions, it would not shock me if some included Mithras or Hercules. You cannot dispute the facts. The intention is a little dicier. –Angelshare Lastcall
[The above comments I thought were so learned that I felt they deserved to be published. –Sin City Milla]
