Customer Reviews

The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors

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

 

 

I had high hopes for this book, but I was greviously disappointed. The parallels between Christ and pagan saviors (especially the Persian god Mithras) are infinitely fascinating to me. I looked forward to discovering more credible information that I could add to my mental databank. Unfortunately, I found the author making wild claims with little or no substantiation. At one point, Graves even admits that many of his claims are overblown and that many of the examples he cites don't fit his theories, but he excuses this because of the overriding importance of the book's rhetorical purpose! This is inexcusable. This book contains unsubstantiated arguments and lacks appropriate source citations to original research. For all I know, Graves made up half the stuff in it. If he didn't, he doesn't tell us where to find his original sources. I'd excuse this as a relic of the time period when he was writing, except that Edward Gibbon lived even earlier and it seems to me he did a much better job of documenting his source material. I was very disappointed in this book.

While I agree with other reviewers that Graves goes over the edge fairly often throughout the book, the information contained in this book is very thought provoking and not really available elsewhere in one work. Some of the comparisons are pretty loose, and the book might better have been titled '10 crucified saviors', but still, the work attempts and succeeds at showing a prominent religious thread throughout history.
The writing style, while modern enough to be an easy read, IS from 1875 and lacks the modern understanding of a 'scholarly' approach. Having read MANY works on this subject, I can attest that most of the information is indeed correct, but his style is often inflammatory and somewhat obnoxious. He Really had a problem with Christianity and much of the book is devoted to this topic. This is probably great if you avidly detest Christians as well, but ocassionally annoying if your just trying to extract the relevant info from the book.
All in all, this IS a worthwhile read, but can be challenging because of the above considerations.

I read the book as well as the book intitled THE BOOK YOUR CHURCH DOES'NT WANT YOU TO READ and THE CHRIST CONSPIRACY and all of these books chalanged my pre-concieved beliefs in the faith of my upbringing and for that I am thankful . It was horrifying at first but the truth is setting me free . I now see the universe and all that is around me in a much bigger perspective than I once did and it is wonderful !

I like this book but I have to say the author makes many vague references to individuals using nothing other than their name (Mr. Jones said..") It left me wondering just who these people were and how reliable their info was. After reading it I did a little research on my own as he mentions a man named Polycarp who claimed that the Christ he knew lived to about 50 and died of natural causes. This is interesting because the Polycarp I read about was considered a saint and a early founder and supporter of the christain faith. Anyhoo, I still liked the book though the wording was odd. It is one of several I have read that simply reaffirms that the christian faith is a rip off of prior pagan and mythological beliefs.

I bought this book at a time in my life when I was quite anti-Christian, but once I got into the book I found myself defending Christianity from an author who obviously hated the Christian faith and just wanted to discredit it. Some of the things said in this book are out right ridiculous. Also the title is a bit misleading sincee most of the book is about Christ and Krishna and their similarities. Yes the book does actually mention sixteen saviors but a few of them are a bit ...loose. I don't know when this book was written but the sentence structure is really awkward. That being said most of the actual fact stated are trtue as far as I can tell. In short, read it if you can, but don't pay money for it.

The author compares all the essential doctrines, principles and precepts of Christianity with pre-Christian branches of Religion, always finding numerous and detailed parallels, by all means excluding coincidences. The information provided is challenging and may be used to enlighten the evolution of Religion leading to Christianity and sibling and cousin branches. That's why I give some stars. However, subtractions have to be made.

The book is polemically anti-Christian, in that certain 19th century style of lacking diplomacy, but not short of any amount of blunt naïveté from today's perspective. The author's reasoning throughout the entire some 300 pages comes down to the following quintessence: If there is more than one savior, that concept is void. If the Christian savior is mythologically derived from "heathenism", then Christianity is invalid. One may answer that every age an savior is offered to. The savior's second coming maybe the realization that there is no separation between the individual and the savior (mysticism). The author has taken over the definition and valuation of "heathenism" from his chosen adversary, the Church. That wouldn't be necessary (and neither advisable) in transmitting the information of this book.

Obviously, Kersey Graves was a believer of Atheism, basically saying anybody who believes in something else (including Agnostics) are stupid people or at least conditioned beyond hope. He judges religious morals as errors and of all there are he picks the "Turn the other cheek!" as an example. Referring to branches of Religion he writes of "Numerous Evils and Absurdities" in a headline. In other words, he is using religous concepts ("evil") to debunk Religion. How absurd! He is also using amplifications himself, which are criticized as non-sense, when done by the Bible. ("...more than a hundred millions of Christian professors can now be found...")

It is also obvious that his knowledge on Religion is that of a lay person. Yes, as such, he is entitled to challenge the institutions. Readers should be aware that they rather cross-check any information in this book before quoting or believing it. The basic thesis of non-originality of Christianity is true, however, the author lacks any overstanding of mysticism. Which should have been necessary, before attempting to debunk Religion at large. Specific religious messages, which get ridiculed in this book like "My kingdom is not of this world", cannot get sighted, and questions like how is it possible that God could have been a helpless baby, not even able to walk, or more specifically, how can God possibly be anyone or anything else but himself, would not be asked merely rhethorically. You don't have to know/believe in mysticism, yet, it should be considered when challenging Religion and averring such notions would represent "philosophical impossibilities".

There may be certain fluent borders, yet to use Buddhism and Hinduism as synonyms is a bit misleading, I may offer. To call Islam "Mohamedanism" is a grave blunder and is usually the first thing taught about this branch of Religion. There are other oddities, e.g. that proofs of Mesoamerican parallels to Christianity are "engraved upon steel and metal plates". Which would be very unusual, considering that metal was virtually unknown before any missionaries' influence.

The approach to comparing the religious parallels is prone to include some constructs, leaving the feeling of uncertainty, which ones are real: The details are taken by themselves, dissected from the rest of the branches of Religion, and are processed in separate chapters. This way, the reader gets quickly confused of how much parallel the respective branches really are in the overall picture, while the overall impression of parallelism as a thesis as such is underscored. Only few branches get compared entirely. Which only includes the parallels, not any shred of the inconsistencies. I am not writing this to dismiss the information, just to put the picture in perspective of usability for further purposes. Some of the 16 crucified saviors turn out not to be such a match afterall. Quirinus "was put to death by wicked hands". That is supposed to mean crucifixion. Not much more is said about this savior. Some saviors are Greek philosophers, I had no clue of getting considered religiously as sons of God. Graves himself says that his 16 saviors from the title page may be 13 or actually 19, relativizing three and offering three more. The reader is supposed to pick, with some saviors mentioned in a single paragraph only.

I was shocked by blatant racism. Graves is revealing that Jesus and most of the previous saviors are described as black skinned. But then he goes on what the reaction of the n*****-hating Christians would be, when such a "sable Messiah" (using skin color as a synonym for "satanic" in the popular definition) would appear in the literal second coming. He clearly goes beyond description after that with an insult towards African( American)s I refrain from repeating (p. 53), otherwise I would gravely insult myself.

As for the presentation of the book: It seems that at some point the 19th century font was changed into a modern one - by manual copying. A lot of typos slipped in, including "there" changing into "their". Which is in contrast to the sophisticated vocabulary of the author. I have to confess that I didn't know a couple of dozens of words and I am in good company: In several cases, neither does my dictionary of 1,700 pages! Thanks to the age of the internet with its dictionaries of unlimited space was I able to overstand the text completely. (I read the 2007 print of NuVision Publications of the 6th revised and enlarged print of 1875. The first edition is of 1875, too.) The involuntary copy changes proof the point of Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus), which elaborates that under the millennia the Bible is a copyists' nightmare of word errors, sometimes leading to very different messages. Also, Let There Be Light: The Seven Keys and 101 Myths of the Bible may be of interest in the comparison of this reviewed book's Bible quotes to the original messages before getting attacked. Of course, the author of 1875 didn't know about these and critizised a bit blinded at times. On the other hand, these books elaborate - and that more scientifically - the origins/source texts of Christianity/the Bible.

1875 makes the pride over the contemporary science seem ossified. It is used against any possibility of being religious. The author didn't know about the relativity theory yet, neither about quantum physics. Both are seen today as a cause IN FAVOR of religion, yet maybe in a variated way from the Bible. Read e.g. From Science to God: A Physicist's Journey into the Mystery of Consciousness and (not read yet) Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (including Albert Einstein).

No less advancements have been made in the knowledge about the Religion branches. One of the supposed branches prior to Christianity elaborated on in this book is Essenism, suggesting that Christianity is directly the successor of Essenism. Today, unorthodox scientists suggest that the name Essenism is in direct reference to Jesus, i.e. that the mythological Jesus of Christianity has a very historic match much prior to popular thought. Prior to Buddha and even Krishna. In other words, if you are open to unorthodox science, as you are most likely, if you read books like this one, then you should consider the possibility that the savior of Christianity is the original after all and that all the some 16 other branches of Religion mentioning such a savior are derived from the same one as well. How about that? If you want to debunk Religion, it has to be done another way than under the botched-down-originality argument. For more of that issue read Jesus in the House of the Pharaohs: The Essene Revelations on the Historical Jesus.

Of course, if authenticated, the information in "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors" may be used for other purposes - ironically for spiritual/religious knowledge...

I love the way the author tells it like it is. Blind believers will definitely hate this book. It is virtually based solely on astronomy & astrology thru-out the entire book. The blind believers will love to deny this. Another few books to look towards are: Suns of God, The Faith Healers, The Dark Side of Christian History. Of course, this goes for all religions world-wide. Past, present & future.

I found the sylized writing charming in a late 1800's kind of way. The points made by Kersey Graves abolish all credibility that Chrisianity is an "oringianl religion." It further establishes solid proof by example, that Religious "Faith" in general, not just Jesus and Christianity, is a bogus dysfunctional lifestyle choice from the past.

Yet, people love to indulge in a Savior Fetish... Pick One. They are all the same.

I've been longing to read a book like this and I'm really glad coming across this title. It is really very interesting, educating, full of information, historical and unknown facts. It is very enlightening and an eye opener. The book should be read objectively without taking into consideration one's religion or belief. It is a mature title that requires mature minds for a mature comprehension.

In some chapters, the author tends to identify Jesus as the founder of Christianity and the Gospel writers as Christ's biographers. Such is not all that correct because Christ never founded any religion and He knows nothing of the so-called New Testament.

This notwithstanding, this is a book anybody wanting to improve and widen his or her religious knowledge should read.

First off every reader who says graves doesn't have his sources is wrong. You can find each of the stories in the Hindu as well as the Buddhist Holy books. Ask the representatives of these faiths and they'll tell you. Something else readers should know about the links between 3 of these saviors.

Krishna was born 1200 B.C

Buddah was born 600 B.C

Christ was born in the year 0.


This is a 600 hundred year time span between each of these saviors. If you think this is by accident, you either have blind faith or you don't care that your running yourself into a brick wall. There was a history and what I like to call a Mithory to each of these people. The History of each story presents the accurate social situatians of each savior and the people Historically in a certain area. The Mithory says that each savior had a virgin birth, was threatened to be killed at birth, had 3 temptations, walked on water and in the end was crucified. Let me say here that Jesus was a real person but like many others was deified after his death. This was not an uncommon thing, because of you look at Alexander the Great, son of Phillip, after his death he became son of Zues. Also Siddartha Guatama(Buddah) was a real person because he fought against social class systems. This was something going on in India during his days and still today. Any serious reader interested in reading on the Sudras, and Untouchables, a class discriminated against by the Bhramins(Whites) and overall Hinduism because they were black, read a scholar's scholar Dr. Ivan Van Sertima and Runoko Rashidi in "Africans in Early Asia."

In the End Kersey Graves wrote a good for his time. To verify if these stories are true, try to preach Christiany to any follower of the Buddah or Krishna(Hindu deity) and they will tell you,"I already have this."

Free your mind!