Product Description

“Whether you conclude that this book is the most alarming heresy of the millennium or the mother of all revelations, The Jesus Mysteries deserves to be read.”
-- Fort Worth Star -Telegram

What if . . .
* there were absolutely no evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus?
* for thousands of years Pagans had also followed a Son of God?
* this Pagan savior was also born of a virgin on the twenty-fifth of December before three shepherds, turned water into wine at a wedding, died and was resurrected, and offered his body and blood as a Holy Communion?
* these Pagan myths had been rewritten as the gospel of Jesus Christ?
* the earliest Gnostic Christians knew that the Jesus story was a myth?
* Christianity turned out to be a continuation of Paganism by another name?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124158 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-25
• Released on: 2001-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

From Library Journal
Freke (a philospher and author of books on spirituality) and Gandy (who is studying classical civilization) believe that first century Jewish mystics adapted the potent symbolism of the Osiris-Dionysus myths into a myth of their own, the hero of which was the Jewish dying and resurrecting godman Jesus. Therefore, the story of Jesus is a consciously crafted vehicle for encoded spiritual teachings created by Jewish Gnostics. We are unaware of this, they claim, because the Roman Catholic Church destroyed evidence of the connection between Christianity and the pagan mysteries. They make their case by offering an examination of mystery religions, especially Greek, pointing out the many parallels between them and what they see as the Gospels! message about Jesus. Freke and Gandy are familiar with a significant amount of recent biblical scholarship, though they rely mostly on Elaine Pagels!s work on the Gnostics. This book will obviously be controversial, but the authors are quite informed, as demonstrated by their extensive notes and bibliography. A list of related web sites, a Who!s Who, and an index add to the book!s usefulness. Recommended as an important book in the debate on the historical Jesus."David Bourquin, California State Univ., San Bernardino
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Professor G A Wells, author of The Jesus Myth.
'The parallels between paganism and Christianity that Freke and Gandy advance are impressive'

Professor Alvar Ellegard, author of Jesus - One Hundred Years Before Christ.
‘Scholars will appreciate the thorough documentation, specified in hundreds of footnotes.’

Customer Reviews

Must Read!
Everyone should read this book. The information explains so much about the foundations of Christianity. Most will be surprised to learn the origins of their belief systems, i.e., plagiarized stories and fables.

save your time, save your money
The authors offer nothing new. Rather, they spend a lot of time congratulating themselves on what a great job they have done and reciting the list of other books they have written that they think are just super and that you should also buy. They also seem to resent the amount of money other others (lesser authors, in their opinion) have made writing about the same subject. - It is not funny. It is not now. It's not much of anything. So save your time and save your money.

Whether you agree or not...the arguments and material presented is solid.
Some like to argue the sources for this book are older and not well known. Well compare this to Strobels, Case for Christ who's only written source is the New Testament.

The arguements, claims, and opinions are made based on the best material available in the Jesus Mysteries.

It seems they do take a harder line than necessary at times to prove that Jesus didn't exist.

HOWEVER, this is so much factual historical evidence...it should help anyone make a decision on their own.

Great read. Started with a chapter a day until Chapter 4...then couldn't put it down.

I'm a non-christian but still spent time recently reading the Case FOR Christ, watching the DVD, and still read the New Testament.

I mention that...because reading any topics in this area...one needs to have an open mind.

This is a great read and I will be reading more of their books.