Reddit mentions of The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?

I agree with the choices to avoid.

I would personally pick up The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?

Misquoting Jesus doesn't throw enough doubt for my taste.

I was brought up in an evangelical environment, and I had the same question for many years: What's the relation between astrology and Christianity? Do they exclude each other?

I found the answer in this book: "The Jesus Mysteries" by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy. It really set my mind free - even though it is more about Christianity than astrology.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Mysteries-Was-Original-Pagan/dp/0609807986

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jesus_Mysteries

I have a copy of this but haven't read it. We used this in a religion class. It's really just an overview but it may be a good jumping off point (lots of references to chase). There may be a more readable ancient near east book. This to cover zoroaster.

You can get the original Gilgamesh translation or Enuma Elish free from Gutenberg. There have probably been half a dozen books written on each one so just look those up.

I think that, even if you have books and a ton of references in hand, it's not going to settle the matter for very many theists. Most people's belief doesn't come from thoroughly convincing evidence. That god exists is, to them, an absolute. But, you know, it's fun stuff to read about.

> Paul wasn't a contemporary of Christ. He's not like Peter or James.

But Paul's writings were composed well before anyone claiming to be Peter or James put pen to paper. If there were oral or written traditions that spoke of Jesus' life, background, ministry, and/or miracles prior to Paul, then why the silence on such things in the Epistles? It doesn't matter whether Paul was a witness or not. Would you not expect even some of the basic preachings of Jesus attested in his writings, a word or two, an example of his life? Paul's silence on such matters is nearly deafening.

> I would be interested to know what writings show this. Even the gnostic gospels are more or less the basic same life story.

You can check out The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, Earl Doherty, or others on the Jesus Myth theory.

Great book on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0609807986?pc_redir=1410434314&robot_redir=1

>>Much of the theology that got layered on top was similar to 'mystery cults'

I'm reading a pretty fascinating book about this right now, The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" A Pagan God? It gets into all the ways the Jesus story is a recreation of Dionysus.

This idea is not very new.
This book documents how the origin of jesus is identical to a handful of pagan gods. Also here is the Wikipedia page

There is a great book on this topic called The Jesus Mysteries

I am still very new to the concepts, but I was introduced to Gnosticism by reading The Jesus Mysteries and Jesus and The Lost Goddess. The writing style is very digestible for a beginner IMHO. There is a third book i have yet to read, but I’ve enjoyed the first two so far. I’m not sure how much these relate to other gnostic resources, but they were a nice starting point. YMMV!

I read a book about this called The Jesus Mysteries. It is among dozens of books that were influential in liberating me from the Bible, which ultimately liberated me from the JWs. This book really spoke volumes because having been taught so strongly all my life that paganism = BAD, wow, it was quite a slap to realize that Christianity itself was wholly a retread of... drum roll: that very same PAGANISM!

Unfortunately, Witnesses aren't encouraged to read books and here's a prime example of why. When you know too much, you see Christianity - and hence the JWs - in a different light. That's an existential problem for them. They fight it, you might say, in an almost cult-like manner.