The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Or Christianity Before Christ (Paperback)

~ Kersey Graves (Author, Preface), Paul Tice (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

First published in 1875, this is a popular discussion of the Saviors, Messiahs, or Sons of God preceding the Christian era, and the rituals and religious which surrounded them. It is a vigorous criticism of the orthodox Christian position...This book has been a clandestine best seller for nearly a century. -- Leslie Shepard

Is the Bible true? Ever since Tom Paines daring Age of Reason at the end of the eighteenth century, Freethinkers have sought a rational, non-mystical view of the universe, and their arguments against dogmatic Christianity have often been reinforced by appeals to pagan religions which contain myths paralleling the New Testament stories and throwing doubt on their priority or historicity. Freethinkers aggressive attacks on dogma. Nowadays the cause of literary freedom and tolerance demands that the Freethought case be properly heard. THE WORLDS SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS is a Freethought classic. It is a popular discussion of the Saviors, Messiahs, or Sons of God preceding the Christian era, and the rituals and religions which surrounded them. It is a vigorous criticism of the orthodox Christian position. -- Leslie Shepard, London, 1970

Startling and extraordinary revelations in religious history, which disclose the oriental origin of all the doctrines, principles, percepts, and the miracles of the Christian new Testament and furnishing a key for unlocking many of its sacred mysteries, besides comprising the history of 16 Heathen Crucified Gods. -- Publisher --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Known to be a masterpiece of freethought literature, The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors has been out of print but sought after for many years. A small part of it was reprinted in The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read in 1994, thereby causing renewed interest. Many people are unaware that before Christianity there were 15 other religions that also had a savior who died for their sins, then arose from the dead. Graves gives all the details inside, plus much more found in common like the immaculate conception of the gods, virgin born gods, magi, shepherds and angels who visit the infant saviors, the birthday of the gods being December 25th, plus an explanation as to how Jesus began to be worshipped as a God. Some scholars are suggesting that Jesus had spent time in India. One chapter in this book discusses 346 striking analogies between Christ and Chrishna, the Hindu god. Could this same story have travelled from India rather than the man himself? Could this everpresent story, "the greatest story ever told," be the common link between all early religions? Has the purpose of religion, in general, been designed to provide all of mankind with a common set of beliefs, to keep us from learning the real truth for ourselves? It is difficult to answer these questions, and it probably always will be, but this book offers us a small step closer to the answers. It shows that Christianity is not alone and special in its beliefs, and may cause us to explore further into the origins of religion.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Book Tree; Revised and Enl edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585090182
• ISBN-13: 978-1585090181
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,595,090 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre Scholarship, March 29, 2000

By	H. F. Gibbard "Noir Guy" (Dark City, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors (Paperback)

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.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, November 26, 2002

By	TheHighlander (Richfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews

A very interesting book from a historical and a religions perspective. But let me warn you, this book is not for everyone. The book looks at the 16 religious saviors that were crucified in their persepctive religions, all before the advent of Christianity. There are many chapters covering the similarities of the different religions and their saviors.

One of the most intriguing chapters is the one comparing the Hindoo savior Krishna's similarities with Jesus. The chapter lists 346 similarities from the teachings of the perspective religions as written in the Bible and the Baghavat Gita (Hindoo Bible). It is quite startling, considering Krishna lived thousands of years before Jesus.

The book is more or less a basher of Christianity, not the faith itself but the belief that Jesus was the only savior ever to come to earth based on the writings in the Bible. It shows that other religious writing previous to the Bible in other religions listed their own crucified saviors. Kind of a religious mans "Age of Reason" if you will.

The book is interesting but seems to lack some proof in a few areas when listing older saviors. But he also lists sources and historical documents for many of them. I feel he would have been better off listing 10 or 12 instead of 16. But overall it is worth the read for anyone with an open mind or who is curious about ancient religions. I have read both better and worse but this book is not a waste of time.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely astounding, January 19, 2000

By A Customer

After reading this book, my belief system was thrown into complete chaos. Never had I read such a treatise that tears into fundamenalist's oft-repeated arguments about their one true savior and renders them impotent- and this book was written over 100 years ago! Most striking is when the author points out errors in the Bible that call to question the accuracy of it and in the process, puts a challenge to the entire Bible (for example: How did the wise men come from the east if they were following a star in the east?). I can only think of two things wrong with this book. One, since it is over 100 years old, some of the spellings are incorrect (such as Mohammad-Mahomet and Quetzalcoatl-Quetxacote). Also, the author believed that with his book, fundamentalist Christianity would cease to exist. Unfortunately, this did not come true. This book is well written and calmly written, unlike other books that attack Christianity, which engage in wild theories and are usually written by people who have a prior agenda against Christian fundamentalists (such as homosexuals and atheists) Highly recommended for anyone who wants to be challenged or challenge ignorance.