THE WORLD’S SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS

Christianity before Christ

Kersey Graves

COMPLETE WORKS 2

contents

Preface — 11

Preface to the second edition — 15

Explanation — 17

Address to the clergy — 25

CHAPTER I. Rival claims of the Saviors — 35

CHAPTER II. Messianic prophecies — 43

CHAPTER III. Prophecies by the figure of a serpent — 46

CHAPTER IV. Miraculous and immaculate conceptions of the Gods — 52

Immaculate conception and miraculous birth of the Christian Savior — 59

CHAPTER V. Virgin mothers and virgin-born Gods — 63

CHAPTER VI. Stars point out the time and the Saviors’ birth-place — 69

CHAPTER VII. Angels, shepherds and Magi visit the infant Saviors — 74

CHAPTER VIII. The twenty-fifth of December, the birthday of the Gods — 80

CHAPTER IX. Titles of the Saviors — 85

Origin of the terms Mediator, Intercessor, etc. — 88

CHAPTER X. The Saviors of royal descent, but humble birth — 90

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CHAPTER XI. Christ’s genealogy — 93

CHAPTER XII. The world’s Saviors saved from destruction in infancy — 96

Incredibility of the story of the massacre of the Hebrew infants — 104

CHAPTER XIII. The Saviors exhibit early proofs of divinity — 106

CHAPTER XIV. The Saviors; kingdoms not of this world, retirement and forty days’ fasting — 109

CHAPTER XV. The Saviors were real personages — 112

CHAPTER XVI. Sixteen Saviors crucified — 118

Chrishna of India, 1200 BC • Hindoo Sakia, 600 BC • Thammuz of Syria, 1160 BC • Wittoba of The Telingoness, 552 BC • Iao of Nepaul, 622 BC • Hesus of the Celtic Druids, 834 BC • Quexalcote of Mexico, 587 BC • Quirinus of Rome, 506 BC • Æschylus Prometheus, 547 BC • Thulis of Egypt, 1700 BC • Indra of Thibet, 725 BC • Alcestos of Euripides, 600 BC • Atys of Phrygia, 1170 BC • Crite of Chaldea, 1200 BC • Bali of Orissa, 725 BC • Mithra of Persia, 600 BC Origin of the belief of the crucifixion of Gods — 152

CHAPTER XVII. The Aphanasia, or darkness at the crucifixion — 153

Origin of the story of the Aphanasia at the crucifixion — 159

CHAPTER XVIII. Descent of the Saviors into Hell — 161

CHAPTER XIX. Resurrection of the Saviors — 165

Resurrection of Jesus Christ — 167

CHAPTER XX. Reappearance and ascension of the Saviors — 174

Astronomical version of the story — 176 Ascension of the Christian Savior — 176

CHAPTER XXI. The Atonement, its oriental or heathen origin — 178

CHAPTER XXII. The Holy Ghost of oriental origin — 188

Origin of the Holy Ghost superstition — 198 The unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost — 201

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CHAPTER XXIII. The divine ‘Word’ of oriental origin, the Word as Creator, as second person of the Trinity and its pre-existence — 203

The Word of oriental origin — 203 The Word as creator — 204 Pre-existence of the Word — 205 The dual or two-fold name of the Word — 206 The Word as a second member of the Trinity — 207 The Word as a biblical title — 208 Origin of the Word as creator — 208

CHAPTER XXIV. The Trinity very anciently a current heathen doctrine — 210

CHAPTER XXV. Absolution and the confession of sins, of heathen origin — 215

CHAPTER XXVI. Origin of baptism by water, fire, blood and the Holy Ghost — 218

Baptism by Water — 218 The dove descending at baptism — 219 Baptism by sprinkling — 222 Baptism by fire — 223 Baptism by the Holy Ghost — 224 Baptism of, or for the dead — 225

CHAPTER XXVII. The sacrament or Eucharist of heathen origin — 227

CHAPTER XXVIII. Anoiting with oil of oriental origin — 231

CHAPTER XXIX. How men, including Jesus Christ, came to be worshipped as Gods — 233

Jesus Christ a demigod, according to Christian writers — 233 Motives to incarnation, or the cause of men being worshiped as Gods — 236 God must come down to suffer and sympathize with the people • The people must and would have an external God they could see, hear, and talk to • Men deified on account of mental and moral superiority • God comes down and is incarnated to fight and conquer the devil

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CHAPTER XXX. Sacred Cycles explaining the advent of the Gods. The master-key to the divinity of Jesus Christ — 255

Extraordinary revelations in history and science — 255

CHAPTER XXXI. Christianity derived from heathen and oriental systems — 266

A parallel exhibition of the precepts and practical lives of Christ and the Essenes — 267

CHAPTER XXXII. Three hundred and forty-six striking analogies between Christ and Chrishna — 290

Their Miraculous history and leading principles • Doctrines • Bibles and Holy scriptures • Spirituality of the two religions • The doctrine of faith or belief • The doctrine and practice of prayer • Treatment of enemies • The millennium • Miracles • Precepts • Miscellaneous analogies

Chrishna as a God—additinal facts — 330

CHAPTER XXXIII. Gods; Apollonius, Osiris, Magus, etc. — 338

Miraculous achievements of other Gods and demi-Gods of antiquity — 338 The miracles recorded of Alcides, Osiris, and other Gods of Egypt — 339 Miracles performed by Pythagoras and other Gods of Greece — 339 Miracles of the Roman Gods Quirinus and Prometheus — 341 Miracles and religion of Apollonius of Tyana — 342 Miracles and claims for Simon Magus BC — 346 Confucius of China, born 551 BC — 348

CHAPTER XXXIV. The three pillars of the Christian faith: miracles, prophecies and precepts — 350

I. Miracles the first pillar of the Christian faith — 351 Catholic miracles • Satanic miracles • Christ’s miracles not his own, but wrought through him and not by him • Christ’s miracles did not convince the people • Christ’s miracles not designed to convince the people • All history ignores him • How Christ’s incredible legends got into his history • Posthumous histories alone deified men • Christ’s miracles reconstructed from former miracles • Christ’s miracles manufactured from prophecies • Strict veracity not required or observed II. Prophecy, the second pillar of the Christian faith, proves as much for heathenism and spiritualism — 381 III. Moral precepts the third pillar of the Christian faith — 387

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CHAPTER XXXV. Logical or common sense view of the doctrine of divine incarnation — 394

CHAPTER XXXVI. Philosophical absurdities of the doctrine of the divine incarnation — 403

CHAPTER XXXVII. Physiological absurdities of the doctrine of the divine incarnation — 407

CHAPTER XXXVIII. A historical view of the divinity of Jesus Christ — 412

CHAPTER XXXIX. The scriptural view of Christ’s divinity — 418

CHAPTER XL. A metonymic view of the divinity of Jesus Christ — 433

CHAPTER XLI. The precepts and practical life of Jesus Christ; his two hundred errors — 436

Moral and religious errors — 437 The scientific errors of Christ — 446 Christ as a man and Christ as a sectarian — 452

CHAPTER XLII. Christ as a spiritual medium — 455

CHAPTER XLIII. Conversion, repentance and “getting religion” of heathen origin, their numerous evils and absurdities — 458

Its historical errors • The logical absurdities of the doctrine of conversion • Scientific errors, and scientific explanations of conversion • Repentance

CHAPTER XLIV. The moral lessons of religious history — 470

CHAPTER XLV. Conclusion and review — 473

Notes — 481

Note of explanation — 481 Note to Chapter XXIII — 482 Note to Chapter XXXIV — 483

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Preface

Inversely to the remoteness of time has been man’s ascent toward the temple of knowledge. Truth has made its ingress into the human mind in the ratio by which man has attained the capacity to receive and appreciate it Hence, as we tread back the meandering pathway of human history, every step in the receding process brings us to a lower plane of intelligence and a state of mind more thoroughly encrusted with ignorance and superstition. It is, therefore, no source of surprise to learn, when we take a survey of the world two or three thousand years in the past, that every religious writer of that era committed errors on every subject which employed his pen, involving a scientific principle. Hence, the bible, or sacred book, to which he was a contributor, is now found to bear the marks of human imperfection. For the temple of knowledge was but partially reared, and its chambers but dimly lighted up. The intellectual brain was in a dark, feeble and dormant condition. Hence, the moral and religious feelings were drifted about without a pilot on the turbulent waves of superstition, and finally stranded on the shoals of bigotry. The Christian bible, like other bibles, having been written in an age when science was but budding into life, and philosophy had attained but a feeble growth, should be expected to teach many things incompatible with the principles of modern science. And accordingly it is found to contain, like other bibles, numerous statements so obviously at war with present established scientific truths that almost any school-boy, at the present day, can demonstrate their falsity. Let the unbiased

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reader examine and compare the oriental and Christian bibles together, and he will note the following facts, viz:— 1. That the cardinal religious conceptions of all bibles are essentially the same—all running in parable grooves. 2. That every chapter of every bible is but a transcript of the mental chart of the writer. 3. That no bible, pagan or Christian, contains anything surpassing the natural, mental and moral capacity of the writer to originate.

And hence no divine aid or inspiration was necessary for its production. 4. That the moral and religious teachings of no bible reach a higher altitude than the intelligence and mental development of the age and country which produced it. 5. That the Christian bible, in some respects, is superior to some of the other bibles, but only to the extent to which the age in which it was written was superior in intelligence and natural mental capacity to the era in which the older bibles were penned; and that this superiority consists not its more exalted religious conceptions, but only in the fact that, being of more modern origin, the progress of mind had worn away some of the legendary rubbish of the past.

Being written in a later and more enlightened age, it is consequently a little less encrusted with mythological tradition and oriental imagery. Though not free from these elements, it possesses them in less degree. And by comparing Christ’s history with those of the oriental Gods, it will be found:— 1. That he taught no new doctrine or moral precept.

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2. That he inculcated the same religion and morality, which he elaborated, as other moral teachers, to great extremes. 3. That Christ differs so little in his character, preaching, and practical life from some of the oriental Gods, that no person whose mind is not deplorably warped and biased by early training can call one divine while he considers the other human. 4. That if Christ was a God, then all were Gods.

The Author

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