Customer Reviews

Jesus Mysteries

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is not an attack on Christ, it is rather an exaltation of the universal Christ principle.

I found that everything that ever disturbed me, or rang false, about the gospels was washed away by the authors' Jesus Mysteries Thesis. I also realised why I have been so strongly drawn to Gnosticism over the years- it was the original faith, a faith hyjacked and perverted by an authoritarian, worldly, imperial, bureaucracy.

There have been many Christs in many cultures: Osiris, Dionysis, Attis, Adonis, Bacchus, Mithras.... The central theme to all their stories was a son of God coming to earth, to learn, teach, and grow before being crucified on a cross of matter, and returning to the place from whence he came. This was also the central mystery in all cases: we are to realise that we too descended from another place and that we are to learn, grow and teach before we return there. This is the great truth to the Christ principle.

How could this truth be a threat to anyone with a spark of spiritual insight?

At first I feared this would be another book in the Michael Baigent or Barbara Thiering mold. But the fact that John Shelby Spong, George Wells and Alvar Ellegard were all willing to say nice things about it convinced me to give it a go. I'm glad I did.

Christianity developed, according to the thesis, as a Jewish adaptation of the mystery religions that were common in the First Century. Jesus was a mythical figure with no solid historical existence. Gnostic Christianity was truest to this original understanding, but the growing literalist tradition ultimately supplanted it.

Sound a bit hairy? The case is put strongly, and builds on the work of scholars like Elaine Pagels. While the authors are not specialists in the field of Historical Jesus/Early Church studies, they have produced a well documented and tightly argued case that can't be dismissed too lightly. This book will reach an audience not usually exposed to concepts like these, and it seems to mesh in several essentials with earlier studies. After completing it I had the same mixture of astonishment and conviction that I felt after reading Ellegard's Jesus - One Hundred Years Before Christ. If you want a swift kick in your Christian comfort zone, this is the place to start.

This is a scary book for Christians who believe in the uniqueness of the Christian message or the inerrancy of the Bible.

The book shows quite conclusively that most of the events in Jesus' life, from the virgin conception to his resurrection and ascention are copied from prior mythical "godmen" who were worshiped by surrounding Pagan cultures.

Yeshua of Nazareth is simply the Jewish equivalent to Egypt's Osiris, Greece's Dionysus, Italy's Bacchus, Persia's Mythra, etc.

Still, by identifying which parts of the Gospels are pure Pagan myth, we can strip them away and get closer to the historical Jesus.

I thought this was going to be another rehash of the sort of Holy Blood Holy Grail thing but I was wrong. I really enjoyed this book both from an educational point of view and from a religious one as well. I had always believedthere was something fundamentally wrong with Christianity and this book explianed why I had never really been able to make sense of something that generated the Spanish Inquisition amongst other forms of horror and torture. A good read from cover to cover. I was hel spell bound and enthralled, mesmerized and fascinated. It must have taken consideable research and effort and the hard work shows. A good book that deserves to be read by all those who try to convince us they are right - you know who I mean. Anyone reading this book will surely need to get a life now if they are still believing claptrap.It was sensationalised or too dramatic - just the right balance of truth, facts and plain common sense. Good book indeed.

Freke and Gandy have done a spectacular job in writing a succinct, well-argued, credible history of the origins of christianity. Their extensive survey and reasoned analysis of comtemporary scholarship leads them to reject as implausible the idea of a literal, historical christ. This stance will undoubtedly upset some readers. However, to get stuck with the issue of whether or not they are right about this - and it seems likely to me that they are - is to miss the bigger (and better) picture. For if there was no Christ, then the question has to be: What was all the fuss about? In addressing this question, they open a door of understanding onto what they have called, "The Jesus Mysteries." With integrity and insight, they have begun an exploration into the true meaning of Christ and Christianity. It is compelling stuff. I can only hope they continue. And I for one look forward to reading another book.

The evidence these guys present looks pretty solid to me - every point they made was backed up by not one but several references to experts in this field.

It is clear the evidence points to a big hole in the heart of "Literalist" Christianity, and it is ruthlessly exposed, but Freke & Gandy never once attack the truth of the spirit behind it all.

No wonder the authorities the authors refer to have kept their heads down over this.

As an open-minded Christian, I was rocked and then uplifted by the revelations held here. There are many other Christians who require the certainty of the outer forms - and an authentic history - for their belief. They'll have to either ignore The Jesus Mysteries completely, or do the "Please Close Your Mind Before Opening This Book" trick.

This is a well written, easily read book that every thoughtful, spiritually-inclined Christian will read.

It is a book that every Christian should read!

I bought this book out of curiosity, and was astounded by it's content. Although I do not agree with the conclusion (that Jesus did not exist as a person).I still give the book 5 stars, because of the astounding amount of research and scholarship which went into proving this book. Unlike many other controvertial books on similar subjects, it does provide solid concrete evidence on which the book is based. After attending a book review I was also impressed by the author's ability to confortable and logically answer the questions thrown at them.

A Warning though, ignorance is bliss and if you don't want to upset your bliss, stay ignorant. (i.e. don't read this book)

I must agree with the reviewers who precede me that this is an entertaining and enlightening book, and it was based partly on their reviews, plus a high recommendation from friends in Avignon (when not in Cambridge), who are responsible for my reading it.

Just where did Christianity come from? From the Gnostics. And did they give credit to their forebears? No, they condemned them.

I still do not agree with Freke and Gandy's position concerning Paul, though I do agree that he borrowed heavily from the Mystery Schools and was acquainted with them well before he began following Christ's teachings. However, Paul was too much an oppotunist not to have taken advantage of certain rites of the Gnostic mysteries and amalgamating them into his own methods in order to more easily convert followers. I think the authors miss the point why Paul was in contention with John, James and Peter, and that he was first to break with Judaism, having never been a Jew himself.

Also, Messrs. Freke and Gandy miss the point that Luke was a late-comer, perhaps the only "educated" apostle (having been a Greek doctor) who also had been familiar with the mystery schools and Gnosticism before he joined with the apostles.

Further, I am surprised that these authors don't cite "Gnosis, The Nature & History of Gnosticism" by Kurt Rudolph, a leading world authority on how some Christian Gnostics broke away to became the Roman Church. At least it does not appear in their bibliography. However, Professor Rudolph made it quite clear how Christianity arose from the Gnostic sects. His book was published in English in 1980 and was given very good reviews by James M. Robinson and Elaine Pagels.

Nonetheless, I do recommend The Jesus Mysteries to those with ears to hear and eyes to see.

I have found that this book is very indepth, descriptional, and informative in the aspect of the historically placed writings regarding The Jesus Mysteries. When the etymology of the word origins and the availability of ancient writings (Pagan origins and other historical writings)were written and compared with the writings of the later addition of the New Testament in the Christian Bible, I personally found these writings surprisely similar. The authors, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, have done their homework in the age old mysteries by acting as "Sherlock Holmes" detectives in removing the layers of clues to reveal the hidden treasure that have kept the reader spellbound. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to really reach deeper in finding the Truth. Thank you.

The facts are o.k., but some of the inferences are a bit tenuous. Like a lot of writers in this genre' they have part of the truth or 'big picture' Those of us who seek the truth, who want to understand our world and society, come to understand that there are spiritual mysteries that are real.
Sadly major institutions like the church, have hidden these things, through misunderstanding, ignorance, and lies. It can be hard to overcome the apriori beliefs that are conditioned into our minds from birth onwards. I suggest you read this book, but also look further into the origins of the christian religion.