(94)
Maxwell, Graham, Taylor, Jacolliot. Jacolliot traces the
original to the Indian Manou: "This name of Manou, or Manes . . . is not a
substantive, applying to an individual man; its Sanscrit signification is
the man, par excellence, the legislator. It is a title aspired to by
all the leaders of men in antiquity." He also says, "We shall presently see
Egypt, Judea, Greece, Rome, all antiquity, in fact, copy Brahminical Society in
its castes, its theories, its religious opinions; and adopt its Brahmins, its
priests, its levities, as they had already adopted the language, legislation and
philosophy of that ancient Vedic Society whence their ancestors had departed
through the world to disseminate the grand ideas of primitive revelation."
(95)
The Mahabharata.
(96)
The BAR article seeks to prove that the Exodus is
historical. Massey: "The Exodus or 'Coming out of Egypt' first celebrated by the
festival of Passover or the transit at the vernal equinox, occurred in the
heavens before it was made historical as the migration of the Jews. The 600,000
men who came up out of Egypt as Hebrew warriors in the Book of Exodus are
600,000 inhabitants of Israel in the heavens according to Jewish Kabalah, and
the same scenes, events, and personages that appear as mundane in the Pentateuch
are celestial in the Book of Enoch." Mead: ". . . Bishop Colenso's . . .
mathematical arguments that an army of 600,000 men could not very well have been
mobilized in a single night, that three millions of people with their flocks and
herds could not very well have drawn water from a single well, and hundreds of
other equally ludicrous inaccuracies of a similar nature, were popular points
which even the most unlearned could appreciate, and therefore especially roused
the ire of apologists and conservatives."
(97)
See Walker, Maxwell, et al.
(98)
There have been floods and deluge stories in many
different parts of the world, including but not limited to the Middle East. The
so-called Flood of Noah may refer to the annual flooding of the Nile - an event
that was incorporated in Egyptian mythology. However, it is also yet another
part of ancient mythology. As Walker says, "The biblical flood story, the
'deluge,' was a late offshoot of a cycle of flood myths known everywhere in the
ancient world. Thousands of years before the Bible was written, an ark was built
by the Sumerian Ziusudra. In Akkad, the flood hero's name was Atrakhasis. In
Babylon, he was Uta-Napishtim, the only mortal to become immortal. In Greece he
was Deucalion, who repopulated the earth after the waters subsided [and after
the ark landed on Mt. Parnassos] . . . In Armenia, the hero was Xisuthros - a
corruption of Sumerian Ziusudra - whose ark landed on Mount Ararat. . . .
According to the original Chaldean account, the flood hero was told by his god,
'Build a vessel and finish it. By a deluge I will destroy substance and life.
Cause thou to go up into the vessel the substance of all that has life."
(99)
Walker, et al., and The Encyclopedia of
Religions.
(100)
Indeed, although professing to contain the history of
the universe, the supposedly all-knowing "Word of God" barely mentions the many
thousands of years on this planet that the Goddess was recognized and worshipped
and only does so in order to disparage her and convert her followers. At Acts
19:27, the author does admit the existence and popularity of the "great goddess
Artemis . . . she whom all Asia and the world worship." In addition, despite all
efforts to erase from history the memory of the Goddess in the Old Testament,
the truth of her existence slipped by the redactor's pen at 1 Kings 11:5, where
Solomon "went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Simonians." Regardless of the
presence of these few passages and any others concerning the Goddess, the
compilers of the Bible certainly did not wish to acknowledge how powerful and
widespread was the belief in and reverence for the divine feminine principle. In
addition, Wheless has this to say about the books of the Old Testament: "It may
stated with assurance that not one of them bears the name of its true author;
that every one of them is a composite work of many hands 'interpolating' the
most anachronistic and contradictory matters into the original writings, and
often reciting as accomplished facts things which occurred many centuries after
the time of the supposed writer . . . " Indeed, we would add that the bulk of
the Old Testament is as mythical as the entire New Testament.
(101)
Taylor, pp. 21-22.
(102)
" . . . the holy Saint Josaphat, under which name and
due to an odd slip of inerrant inspiration, the great Lord Buddha, 'The Light of
Asia,' was duly certified a Saint in the Roman Martyrology." (Wheless) Walker:
"Medieval saintmakers adapted the story of Buddha's early life to their own
fictions, calling the father of St. Josaphat 'an Indian king' who kept the young
saint confined to prevent him from becoming a Christian. He was converted
anyway, and produced the usual assortment of miracles, some of them copied from
incidents in the life story of Buddha. St. Josaphat enjoyed great popularity in
the Middle Ages, an ironical development in a Europe that abhorred Buddhism as
the work of the devil."
(103)
In Antiquities Unveiled, JM Roberts, Esq.,
reiterates that Christ drama represents " . . . the passage of the Sun, in its
annual course through the constellations of the Zodiac; having his birth in the
sign of the Goat, the Augean stable of the Greeks; his baptism in Aquarius, the
John the Baptist in the heavens; his triumph when he becomes the Lamb of God in
Aries; his greatest exaltation on St. John's, the beloved disciple's day, on the
21st of June, in the Sign of the Twins, the emblem of double power; his
tribulation in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the sign of the rural Virgo; his
betrayal in the sign of Scorpio, the malignant emblem of his approaching death
in the stormy and adverse sign, Sagittarius, and his resurrection or renewed
birth on the twenty-fifth of December in the same sign of the celestial Goat . .
." Walker states, "Medieval monks tried to Christianize the zodiac as they
Christianized everything else, by renaming it the Corona seu Circulus
Sanctorum Apostolorum: the Crown of the Circle of the Holy Apostles. They
placed John the Baptist at the position of Aquarius, to finish off the
circle."
(104)
Walker, p. 787: "The myth of St. Peter was the slender
thread from which hung the whole weighty structure of the Roman papacy. . . .
Unfortunately for papal credibility, the so-called Petrine passage was a
forgery. It was deliberately inserted into the scripture about the 3rd century
A.D. as a political ploy, to uphold the primacy of the Roman see against rival
churches in the east. Various Christian bishropics were engaged in a power
struggle in which the chief weapons were bribery, forgery, and intrigue, with
elaborate fictions and hoaxes written into sacred books, and the ruthless
competition between rival parties for the lucrative position of God's elite. . .
. Most early churches put forth spurious claims to foundation by apostles, even
though the apostles themselves were no more than the mandatory 'zodiacal twelve'
attached to the figure of the sacred king."
(105)
"The Naked Truth" video series by IRES.
Antiquities Unveiled, above.
(106)
Massey, MC.
(107)
Ibid. "The lion is Matthew's symbol, and that is the
zodiacal sign of the month of Taht-Matiu (Thoth), in the fixed year. Tradition
makes Matthew to have been the eighth of the apostles; and the eighth
(Esmen) is a title of Taht-Matiu. Moreover, it is Matthias, upon whom the lot
fell, who was chosen to fill the place of the Typhonian traitor Judas. So was it
in the mythos when Matiu (Taht) succeeded Sut [Set], and occupied his place
after the betrayal of Osiris. . . . It is to the Gnostics that we must turn for
the missing link between the oral and the written word; between the Egyptian
Ritual and the canonical gospels; between the Matthew who wrote the
Hebrew or Aramaic gospel of the sayings, and Taht-Mati, who wrote the
Ritual, the Hermetic, which means inspired writings, that are
said to have been inscribed in hieroglyphics by the very finger of Mati
himself."
(108)
Deceptions and Myths of the Bible by Graham;
Apollonius the Nazarene by Raymond Bernard, PhD. Like Bernard, et al.,
Hotema also claims the "historical" details later added to the sungod mythos
were those from the life of Apollonius of Tyana, who was also called "Pol."
According to this theory, "Pol" then serves as a model for both the Christ
character and the apostle Paul. It is said that Apollonius brought the New
Testament from India, and that he had certain yogic powers which allowed him to
do miracles. This theory is, to our mind, unsatisfactorily reconciled at this
time. While it may be true that the historicizers, looking back in time, decided
they needed to pluck up a quasi-historical character who was still in memory
upon which to base their fictions, they would not have needed to add much to the
extant sungod mythos and ritual, merely a few "historical" details.
(109)
"Another popular delusion most ignorantly cherished
is, that there was a golden age of primitive Christianity, which
followed the preaching of the Founder and the practice of his apostles;
and that there was a falling away from this paradisiacal state of primordial
perfection when the Catholic Church in Rome lapsed into idolatry, Paganised and
perverted the original religion, and poisoned the springs of the faith at the
very fountain-head of their flowing purity. Such is the pious opinion of those
orthodox Protestants who are always clamouring to get back beyond the
Roman Church to that ideal of primitive perfection supposed to be found in the
simple teachings of Jesus, and the lives of his personal followers, as recorded
in the four canonical gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles. But when we do
penetrate far enough into the past to see somewhat clearly through and beyond
the cloud of dust that was the cause of a great obscuration in the first two
centuries of our era, we find that there was no such new beginning, that the
earliest days of the purest Christianity were pre-historic, and that the real
golden age of knowledge and simple morality preceded, and did not follow, the
Apostolic Roman Church, or the Deification of its Founder, or the humanising of
the 'Lamb of God' . . ." (Massey, G&HC) "It sounds strange to hear persons
in these days express a desire for a 'return to primitive Christianithy, when
all was peace and love.' There never was such a time." (Keeler)
(110)
Indeed, Jesus's character and many of his actions were
utterly contrary to the notion of him being a great Essene healer. "A poor
Canaanitish woman comes to him from a long distance and beseeches him to cure
her daughter who is grievously obsessed. 'Have mercy on me, O Lord,' she pleads.
But he answered her not a word. The disciples, brutes as they were, if the scene
were real, besought him to send her away because she cried after them. Jesus
answered, and said: 'I was only sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.'
She worships him, he calls her one of the dogs." (Massey, G&HC) We might add
that if Jesus only came for the 'lost sheep of the House of Israel,' then we may
ignore him, for we are not lost sheep, nor are we of the House of Israel.
(111)
This is another aspect of the Christian character that
is conflicted. While Jesus is busy swearing unto, he also exhorts his followers
to "swear not at all." (Matt. 5:34; James 5:12) These are Essenic/Therapeutan
dictates that would be appropriate for a spiritual community, such that they
were no doubt useful to the Christian copyists in their attempts at making the
drama appear to be historical. It is an intricately, if clumsily, woven tale,
utilizing everything possible at hand, which is the only explanation for the
glaring contradictions.
(112)
Massey, Gnostic and Historic Christianity.
Graves provides numerous examples of Essenic doctrine, such as the Essene writer
Philo's pronouncement, "It is our first duty to seek the kingdom of God and his
righteousness." (Matt. 6:33; Lk. 12:31) It would seem that, in order to give the
sungod mythos the appearance of a historical man heading a spiritual movement,
the NT compilers also drew heavily on the Essene spiritual community. (See
below.)
(113)
Taylor: ". . . Eusebius has attested, that the
Therapeutan monks were Christians, many ages before the period assigned to the
birth of Christ; and that the Diegesis and Gnomologue, from which the
Evangelists compiled their gospels, were writings which had for ages constituted
the sacred scriptures of those Egyptian visionaries." While this
Therapeut/Essene origins of the autograph or original "gospel" texts would seem
to contradict what Massey says about "Jesus" not being an Essene, it is the
Essenes of Josephus to whom he refers, rather than the Alexandrian/Egyptian
Therapeuts. Of the two differing groups of "healers," historian Philo opined
that the communities in Palestine and Arabia "did not soar to such a lofty
height of philosophic and mystic endeavour as the members of the community near
Alexandria. . . " (Mead, DJL) In our opinion, the Essenes of Palestine, i.e.,
those who may or may not have lived near the Dead Sea, were much simpler and
more contemplative than the worldly Therapeuts, who were profoundly engaged in
the mystery religions, initiations and rituals. Clearly, while both were called
"healers," these are two different sects, although they were probably connected.
The Therapeuts seems to have been a solid part of the brotherhood network that
stretched from Egypt to India and up into Europe, while the Dead Sea Essenes -
for want of a better term - were isolationists.
(114)
Massey, MC.
(115)
Taylor: "The first draft of the mystical adventures of
Chrishna, as brought from India into Egypt, was The Diegesis; the first version
of the Diegesis was the Gospel according to the Egyptians; the first renderings
out of the language of Egypt into that of Greece, for the purpose of imposing on
the nations of Europe, were the apocryphal gospels; the correct,
castigated, and authorised versions of these apocryphal compilations
were the gospels of our [sic] four evangelists." There is, however,
a legend about the Egyptian god Osiris traveling to India in very ancient times
and establishing his religion there. This brings up
again the "out-of-India" v. "out-of-Egypt" debate. It may very well be that an
extremely ancient culture from Africa/Egypt migrated many thousands of years ago
to India. In this theory, India would still remain the cradle of Western/Middle
Eastern culture, with subsequent migrations back to the west, carrying the
mutated Proto-Egyptian/Indian language and the refined Mythos, which would be
further refined or change by Egyptians. What cannot be disputed is that India
and Egypt have both have a profound impact on Western/Middle Eastern culture and
that the original Mythos and Ritual were well developed by both nations.
(116)
Massey says, "In the Book of Enoch one form
of the Messiah is the 'Son of Woman'; this was Enoch or Enos, the
Egyptian Sut-Anush [Set], who had been twin with Horus but was superseded by
him." (MC) Wheless: "The Book of Enoch, forged in the name of the
grandson of Adam, is the fragmentary remains of a whole literature which
circulated under the pretended authorship of that mythical Patriarch. . . . This
work is a composite of at least five unknown Jewish writers, and was composed
during the last two centuries B.C. . . .In this Book we first find the lofty
titles: 'Christ' or 'the Anointed One, 'Son of Man,' the Righteous One,' 'the
Elect One,' - all of which were boldly plagiarized by the later Christians and
bestowed upon Jesus of Nazareth. . . . It abounds in such 'Christian' doctrines
as the Messianic Kingdom, Hell, the Resurrection, and Demonology, the Seven
Heavens, and the Millennium, all of which have here their apocryphal Jewish
promulgation, after being plagiarized bodily from the Persian and Babylonian
myths and superstitions, as we have seen confessed. There are numerous
quotations, phrases, clauses, or thoughts derived from Enoch, or of closest of
kin with it, in several of the New Testament Gospels and Epistles. . ."
(117)
Wheless, pp. 85-87.
(118)
In yet another attempt to produce a history for this
mythical character, Bible translators have taken to rendering the title "Jesus
the Nazarene" as "Jesus of Nazareth," a village that many scholars opine did not
yet exist at the time of Jesus's purported birth. "There is no such place as
Nazareth in the Old Testament or in Josephus' works, or on early maps of the
Holy Land. The name was apparently a later Christian invention." (Holley) As
Dujardin states, "It is universally admitted that Jesus the Nazarene does not
mean Jesus of Nazareth." Massey and Churchward point out that the title
"Nazarene" is part of the Mythos, with Horus/Jesus being considered "the plant,
the shoot, the natzar. . . . the true vine." (Churchward)
(119)
"There is another proof that the Gospels were not
written by Jews. Traditionally, Jesus and all the 'Apostles' were Jews; all
their associates and the people of their country with whom they came into
contact, were Jews. But throughout the Gospels, scores of times, 'the Jews' are
spoken of, always as a distinct and alien people away from the writers, and
mostly with a sense of racial hatred and contempt." (Wheless)
(120)
The date of Hadrian's reign (117-138) precedes the
period we have ascribed to the appearance of the canonical gospels. However, we
are proposing that the texts composed by the Alexandrian Therapeuts were
autographs, or originals, upon which the Christian gospels were based.
This would mean that these originals were nonhistorical, gnostic texts composed
to commit the Mythos and Ritual in its totality to writing. These texts then
were transported to Rome, where they were worked upon by historicizers and
eventually changed into the Christian gospels.
Sources:
÷ 1998 Acharya S (acharya_s@yahoo.com)
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