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Introduction
Chockfull of controversial, nerve-jarring themes, in 2007 the hit viral movie phenomenon “ZEITGEIST” was zinging around the internet at break-neck speed, receiving upwards of a million views per month.
Needless to say, these various controversial themes, focusing on religious, political and financial conspiracies aimed at the common people, have become the subject of a great deal of debate.
In fact, Part 1, which deals with religious conspiracy, indicting Christianity in particular of being a remake of ancient pre-Christian religions and myths, has caused a tremendous amount of furor in many forums. Naturally, as one of the sources of the material in Part 1, my work too has received interest by those intrigued by the suggestion that important motifs found in our “modern” religions have been around a very long time and have been incorporated into these religions, rather than the latter constituting unique, “divine revelation.”
Over the centuries, in fact, it has been the contention of numerous scholars and researchers of comparative religion and mythology that one of the major influences on the Christian religion was that of ancient Egypt, as highlighted in ZEITGEIST. Because of this fact of ZEITGEIST emphasizing the Egyptian religion, in this Companion Guide, I will deal almost exclusively with some of the evident parallels between the Egyptian and Christian myths and rituals.
A fuller treatment of the other aspects of ZEITGEIST, Part 1, may be found in a forthcoming longer work on the subject. In the meantime, interested parties should consult The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold and Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled.
One need only look to the story of
notorious pharaoh Amenhotep, aka Akhenaten, for an example of how
sincerely the Egyptians and their priesthoods upheld their religion.
Indeed, the Egyptians—and especially their priests—were as devout in
their own religion as are the most pious among us today.
As the Greek historian Herodotus wrote over 2,500 years ago, the Egyptians were “religious to excess, beyond any other nation in the world.”1
Over its vast life of several millennia, many millions of people engaged in the Egyptian religion, with its major themes and motifs well known and highly respected. Hence, any competing faith would be hard-pressed to overturn this deep and abiding reverence for the Egyptian religion and its gods, and would need to incorporate as much of the Egyptian mythos and ritual into itself as was possible. The fact is that such devoutly religious people do not easily and readily abandon their religion and god(s)—do fervent Christians, for instance, give up their god without a fight?
This behavior is certainly unbecoming and unwarranted, in light of what we know about the Egyptian religion, which, because of these prejudicial efforts, was almost lost to us forever. Fortunately, a number of individuals over the centuries were able to overcome these prejudices to see for themselves what the Egyptian religion truly represented—and they did so often at great risk, as there was a concerted effort by the Church to censor this information from coming out.
This type of abuse continues to this day, with those who dare to suggest that Christianity is not original but largely constitutes a reworking of old faiths subjected to all sorts of derision and ridicule, as well as irrational and impossible demands for evidence of an obvious fact, when, in upholding their own religious beliefs, these same detractors require little or no evidence at all.
These hallowed Egyptian motifs included the sacredness of the cross, the virgin mother who gave birth to the divine son, a godman who taught on Earth and who was murdered, buried and resurrected, etc. Again, these concepts were widely known and in the minds of millions by the time the Christian mythos and ritual appeared in the same areas of the Mediterranean.
Therefore, noting the obvious parallels between the Egyptian religion and Christianity, it would seem not only disingenuous but also dishonest to suggest that Christianity represents a “unique, divine revelation” to a small group of people in the tiny area of Palestine/Judea.
Instead of thus denying the clear connection between the two religions as brought up in ZEITGEIST, we will explore it here, using as many relevant and quality sources as is possible.
1
Herodotus, 2:37; de Selincourt, 99.
In discussing the translations of these hieroglyphics, it should be kept in mind that, while some antiquated “religious” language is frequently used, there is in general not as much room for interpretation as some might aver, and the common renderings by older scholars such as Sir E.A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934), a professed Christian and the Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, and Catholic scholar Sir Peter Le Page Renouf (1822-1897), the previous Keeper at the British Museum, tend to be surprisingly faithful and accurate.1
We know this assertion concerning interpretation to be true in part because these scholars were using the keys provided by the Rosetta Stone, which included not only the Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic scripts but also the Greek, the main language along with Coptic that allowed for the Egyptian to be translated at last. The Greek language is word-based, very specific and readily translated into English generally with little interpretation necessary.
Hence, we can be relatively certain that the English renderings of the Greek translations of the Egyptian hieroglyphics are reasonably specific and likewise generally require little interpretation, although at times some is necessary. Moreover, the painstaking work of the French translator of the Rosetta Stone, Jean-François Champollion, and others to establish an accurate understanding of the Egyptian religion has been successful enough for us to reconstruct a reliable picture of what the Egyptians believed about this world and the next.
Regarding the ability of modern scholars to read the Egyptian hieroglyphics, professor of Egyptology at Brown University Dr. James P. Allen concludes:
Thus, we can be reasonably assured when reading the various translations that we are faced with the essential intention of the writers of the original texts.
God, Man or Myth?
Was Osiris ever a “real person?”
Even in ancient times the story of Osiris included his advent on what seems to be Earth, and, as related by historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus centuries prior to the common era, many people have believed Osiris was a real person, as they have with numerous other gods and goddesses worldwide for thousands of years.
1 I am aware of the debate concerning Dr. Budge’s work, a controversy that some have suggested represents a form of rivalry not uncommon in the academic world or in the world at large. I personally have found nothing egregious about his discussion of the Egyptian religion in English, although I cannot vouch for everything in his hieroglyphic dictionaries, for instance, which are considered “outdated” in their system of transliteration but which nevertheless appear to be sound overall. (Allen, J., TAEPT, 13)
Nor can Budge be criticized for venturing what turned out to be certain flawed dates of pharaohs and texts; in consideration of the more limited knowledge of those particular subjects at the time, in general Budge did extremely well in his estimations. The fact remains that Budge was extremely talented linguistically, as well as extraordinarily well educated and experienced as to Egyptian antiquities, culture, religion and language.
He also knew his own Christian faith very well, as evidenced by his remarks thereupon. In this present work, I have used the translations of not only Budge but also others, such as Renouf, Mercer, Faulkner, Parker and Allen. I also provide Budge’s assessment of Egyptian religion, including some linguistic interpretation, but no subject that would become “obsolete” within the past decades since his passing. Moreover, in comparing the older and newer editions of Egyptian texts, I am not at all convinced that the latter are superior purely in terms of translation. Perhaps Budge is unpalatable to some because he states that an investigation of the Egyptian religion’s influences upon Christianity would fill “a comparatively large volume!” (TGE, I, xvi)
2 Allen,
J., ME, 9.
The same phenomenon may be claimed as concerns the tales of other gods and goddesses having supposedly walked the Earth, extending to the story of Jesus Christ.
In his criticisms, Plutarch harshly remarked:
As we can see, Plutarch accused Euhemerus of spreading “atheism over the whole inhabited earth.” Plutarch’s sentiment is well founded that reducing to human exploits the glorious cosmic dramas of the Egyptian gods and others constitutes a degradation of “things divine to the human level.”
In this regard, no such tendencies will appear in this present work, as we are convinced that these deities represent mythical and fabulous entities, and that, if there were any human beings named Osiris, Isis and Horus, it is not their story being told within Egyptian religion. The same contention may be made of individuals who happened to have been named “Yeshua,” “Joshua” or “Jesus” during the first century of the common era—they may indeed have been real people and historical individuals, but it is not their story being told in the gospels.
In fact, the most scientific and valid evidence points to an origin for Jesus Christ as mythical and fabulous as that of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman gods of the same general era and area. In this short companion guide to Part 1 of the movie ZEITGEIST, we will not be exploring the various arguments against the historicity of Jesus Christ in depth. For those who are interested, much more on that particular subject can be found in The Christ Conspiracy, Suns of God and Who Was Jesus?
1 The term “cult” is often used in a derogatory manner. Here it is meant in its first, anthropological meaning of “a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.”
2
Plutarch, ch. 23; Babbitt, 56-57. (Emph. added.)
This monumental development allowed for the exposure to light of the fascinating Egyptian culture and religion, meaning that before that time no one could adequately read the Egyptian texts, which Massey ended up spending a considerable portion of his life studying and interpreting, and relatively little was known about the religion, for which Massey possessed a keen sense of comprehension.
For example, Massey also utilized the work of Sir J. Norman Lockyer, the famous royal English astronomer who was friends with Budge and knew Egypt well, and of Dr. Charles Piazzi Smyth, royal Scottish astronomer and professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. Massey further studied the work of Reverend Archibald Sayce, professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford, as well as that of famous mythologist Sir James Frazer, although he did not agree with their conclusions.
He likewise cited the work of Francois Lenormant, professor of Archaeology at the National Library of France, as well as that of noted philologist and comparative theologian Oxford professor Dr. Max Müller. Massey was very influenced by the work of Dr. Samuel Birch (1813-1885), famous archaeologist, Egyptologist and Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum.
Dr. Birch also was the founder of the very prestigious and influential Society of Biblical Archaeology, to which belonged many other notables in the fields of archaeology, Assyriology, Egyptology, etc. Much of this eye-opening work on comparative religion, in fact, emanated from this august body of erudite and credentialed individuals. Birch held many other titles and honors, including from Cambridge and Oxford Universities. His numerous works on Egypt are cited to this day in scholarly publications.
Dr. Richard Pietschmann was a noted professor of Egyptology at the University of Goettingen, an impressive “peer reviewer” for one of Massey’s early works on Egypt. By verifying his “fundamental facts” with Dr. Birch, Massey appears to be saying that his work was also reviewed by Birch.
In his scholarly works on Egypt, Gerald Massey demonstrates his knowledge of numerous works from the Greek and Latin world as well, including both the Classical writers and Christian fathers such as Church historian Eusebius.
1
Massey, TNG, viii.
Massey was not only skilled at interpreting the Egyptian data in a highly intelligent and unusual manner, but, having been raised a Protestant Christian compelled to memorize whole sections of the Bible, he was also quite knowledgeable about the Bible and was able to see the numerous and profound correlations between the Christian and Egyptian religions, or the “mythos and ritual,” as he styled them.
Gerald Massey appeared to possess an understanding of the spirituality and astrotheology being conveyed by the Egyptians more profound than most who have worked on the subject. As was the case with the Egyptian masses, no doubt, the astronomical or astrotheological meanings behind Christianity have been lost on the majority of its adherents. The case demonstrating that astrotheology—the reverence for the sun, moon, stars, planets and other natural phenomena—has been in reality the main motivating factor behind major religious myths and rituals the world over can be found in Suns of God.
This fact of an astrotheological foundation for major religious and spiritual concepts—so brilliantly discerned by Gerald Massey, who was far ahead of his time—is being demonstrated on a regular basis by numerous archaeological discoveries around the world. Although Dr. Budge also has been the subject of certain unwarranted criticism, perhaps because he too found many parallels between Christianity and the Egyptian religion, he also had a fine grasp of the spirituality within said faith, and expressed it in spiritual terms usually reserved—in a culturally biased move—for the Bible.
Dr. James P. Allen also possesses an exceptional understanding of the Egyptian spirituality and astrotheology, remarking upon it throughout his important works on the Pyramid Texts and Egyptian language.
Regarding Egyptian nature worship, Dr. Allen states:
Over the decades, much has been made about the numerous correlations determined by Gerald Massey between Horus and Jesus as well as other characters in the Egyptian and Christian religions. In Origin and Evolution of Religion, one of Massey’s students, Dr. Albert Churchward, repeated many of these correspondences, and in The Christ Conspiracy, I too reiterated some of the more germane comparisons—out of hundreds—between Jesus and Horus.
These parallels eventually found their
way into ZEITGEIST and have been seen by millions. Naturally, these
numerous parallels draw the wrath and intense scrutiny of Christian
apologists and other detractors, as has been the case since they
were first published. 1 This title of “Ritual” was originally given to the Book of the Dead by Champollion. However, Renouf (xviii) objects that the Book does not constitute a “ritual” per se. Rather, it is, according to the British Museum’s T.G.H. James, a “compilation of spells, prayers and incantations.” In any event, this term “Ritual” will be used here interchangeably with “the Book of the Dead.”
2 The
term “Christian era” is misleading, as such a time varied widely
depending on the area. For example, the country of Lithuania did not
become Christian until the 14th century; hence, the “Christian era”
did not occur there until then.
Independently of Massey, however, many
others also noted these numerous and profound correlations between
the Egyptian and Christian religions, with Budge, for example,
definitively stating that a treatise on the Egyptian religion’s
influence on Christianity would fill a “comparatively large volume.”1
A professed Christian, Budge was so convinced of the important
correspondences between the two faiths that he believed the Egyptian
religion had been fulfilled in Christianity. In 1877, William R. Cooper (1843-1878), a young lawyer and Egyptologist who was the Secretary of Dr. Birch’s influential Society of Biblical Archaeology, as well as a Fellow and Member of the Royal Astronomical Society, published a work entitled The Horus Myth in Its Relation to Christianity, in which he highlighted many germane correspondences between the myth of the Egyptian god Horus and Christianity. So many were these correspondences, including in numerous physical artifacts, that Cooper termed them “the Horus Christian class.”2
From his constant apologies and declarations of devotion to the Christian faith, it is evident that Mr. Cooper was disturbed by his findings and hoped not to run afoul of the authorities who might censure him or worse. Indeed, at that time “blasphemy” laws in England were not only on the books—as they still are—but they were actually being used, ensnaring Rev. Dr. Robert Taylor, for example, who was imprisoned twice in Britain a half century previously for revealing Christianity to be a rehash based on previous religions and mythologies.
Unfortunately, William Cooper died at the young age of 35, but his several valuable works on Egypt—and its relationship to the Bible and Christianity—were issued years before Gerald Massey published his famous writings on the same subject. Thus, the claim of correspondences between the Egyptian and Christian religions did not originate with Gerald Massey at all, and a significant number of the previous writers on the subject were well respected Christians.
1 Budge,
TGE, I, xvi
This information, of course, is not amenable to Christian claims of veracity and uniqueness; hence, fervent believers and especially their leaders do not enjoy knowing or hearing about it. Regardless of what details may have been lacking in total accuracy, the facts will remain that major aspects of the Christian myth and ritual can be found in the preceding pre-Christian religions and mythologies found in the “known world” of the time.
Moreover, the preceding characters such as Horus, Osiris, Isis, Hercules, Krishna and many other gods and goddesses cannot be deemed any more mythical or any less historical than Jesus, as the evidences for their existence on Earth are as, if not more, abundant and convincing than those of Jesus Christ.
Although we do not find the severe criticisms regarding Gerald Massey—many of which are driven by a desire to make the gospel story historical no matter how much truth and facts are bent—to possess merit, this present analysis of the claims made in ZEITGEIST is not dependent on Massey’s work for the most part. Only a small portion of his exegesis will be cited, in places where extrapolation of the texts has been necessary in order to find the correspondences hinted at by Budge and other experts on the Egyptian religion.
Once this conclusion is reached, someone with a passion may go on a quest such as Massey’s to find these correspondences between the Egyptian and Christian religions, as well as the true astrotheological underpinnings of Christianity.
Furthermore, many of Gerald Massey’s most important contentions can be verified and demonstrated utilizing the primary sources of Egyptian texts and monuments—in other words, the parallels are real and significant.
It also needs to be kept in mind that the information concerning these previous myths, rituals and symbols was not written down in one neat, ancient encyclopedia but is found widespread around the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Many of the elements of the tale, however, could have been found within the walls of the massive Library of Alexandria, where undoubtedly much of the most serious work in creating Christianity, the gospel story and the character of Jesus Christ was committed.
Indeed, it is my contention and that of others deemed “Jesus mythicists” that the creators of the gospel tale picked various themes and motifs from pre-Christian religions and myths, including and especially the Egyptian, and wove them together, using also the Jewish scriptures, to produce a unique version of the “mythos and ritual.” In other words, the creators of the Christ myth did not simply take an already formed story, scratch out the name of Osiris or Horus and replace it with Jesus.
They chose their motifs carefully, out of the most popular religious symbols, myths and rituals, making sure they fit to some degree with the Jewish “messianic scriptures,” as they are termed, and created a new story that hundreds of millions since have been led to believe really and truly took place in history. Over the centuries, those who have clearly seen this development have asserted that this history is a fallacy imposed upon long pre-existing myths and rituals that have been reworked to result in the gospel story. In other words, we are convinced that “Jesus Christ” is a fictional character created out of older myths, rituals and symbols.
While reading this companion guide, it is important also to recall these various caveats and points, including that what we ourselves are attempting to convey is that to the ancients these diverse themes and motifs shared by the pre-Christian and Christian religions were all important and very much in the front of their minds, such that they could not be overlooked or ignored when priests went about to create a new, empire-unifying religion that came to be called Christianity.
1 Plutarch/Babbitt, 129.
Many of the important and fascinating points made in ZEITGEIST, Part 1, revolve around the Egyptian religion, in particular the highly important god Horus, son of the famed god Osiris and goddess Isis.
A number of these assertions regarding the myths of Horus and others shockingly resemble characteristics and events attributed to Jesus Christ, indicating that the gospel story is therefore neither original nor historical. As may have been expected, these parallels are not widely and neatly found in encyclopedia entries and textbooks, so they have often been dismissed without adequate study and with extreme prejudice.
The claims made about Horus in ZEITGEIST appear mostly in the following paragraphs from the movie’s “Interactive Transcript,” which can be found at the website ZEITGEISTmovie.com, where they have been carefully footnoted. Here we will investigate more closely some of the most obvious parallels with the better-known aspects of the gospel story.
Space in this ebook does not permit for
a fuller treatment of all the parallels, the bulk of which may be
found in a forthcoming longer study of “Christ in Egypt.” The pertinent part of ZEITGEIST regarding Horus to be addressed in the complete Companion Guide goes as follows:
Broadly speaking, the story of Horus is as follows: Horus was born on December 25th of the virgin Isis-Meri. His birth was accompanied by a star in the east, which in turn, three kings followed to locate and adorn the new-born savior. At the age of 12, he was a prodigal child teacher, and at the age of 30 he was baptized by a figure known as Anup and thus began his ministry.
Horus had 12 disciples he traveled about with, performing miracles such as healing the sick and walking on water. Horus was known by many gestural names such as The Truth, The Light, God’s Anointed Son, The Good Shepherd, The Lamb of God, and many others. After being betrayed by Typhon [Set], Horus was “crucified,” buried for 3 days, and thus, resurrected.
Again, one does not find this tale as above outlined in an ancient Egyptian encyclopedia, such that the creators of the Christ myth merely scratched out the Egyptian names and inserted the Christian ones. Those who have been attempting to explain the creation of the Christ myth have been compelled to back-engineer the story in order to analyze its components. In other words, in explaining the various mythical motifs used in the gospel story, some have retold the tale utilizing the original god or gods, in a gospel-like manner in order to express those components.
This process of summarization did in fact occur to some extent with the Egyptian myths, as they were congealed and formalized over a period of centuries to millennia.
Regarding the myths of Osiris and Horus, renowned professor of Classics and Egyptology Dr. J. Gwyn Griffiths states:
Some 1500 or so years later we find the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 482-425 BCE) making reference to Osiris and Isis, who, during his time, were “worshipped by everyone throughout Egypt,” demonstrating the continued massive popularity of these deities.3 Herodotus further relates that the Egyptians equated Osiris with the Greek god Dionysus, stating, “The only deities to whom the Egyptians consider it proper to sacrifice pigs are Dionysus and the Moon.”
Regarding these deities, Herodotus’s editor Marincola notes:
Herodotus also identifies Horus as the Greek sun god Apollo.5 Beyond these mentions in his long treatise on Egypt, however, Herodotus does not spell out any comprehensive myths of Osiris, Isis and Horus. Nevertheless, in book 2, chapter 61, Herodotus appears to imply that there are mysteries of Osiris that he cannot relate,6 which may refer to assorted myths, motifs and rituals not readily disclosed to the masses.
In his histories, Manetho styled the gods by their Greek names, also equating Horus with Apollo, for example.8 During the first century BCE, the Greek writer Diodorus Siculus (c. 90-27 BCE) also related that Osiris was the sun and Isis the moon, remarking that Osiris was called “many-eyed” because of his rays.
In book 1, chapter 11, Siculus further remarks,
Diodorus also addresses the five intercalary days added to the end of the old 360-day calendar and identified as the birthdays of the gods “Osiris and Isis, Typhon [Set], Apollo [Horus], and Aphrodite [Nephthys].”10 Siculus further associates Isis with the Greek goddess Demeter or Ceres, the virgin earth mother who gave birth to Persephone or Kore.11
Lending greater antiquity to Diodorus’s assertions, the Catholic Church history Eusebius indicated that in chapters 11-13 Siculus was essentially summarizing the work of Manetho.12
1
Griffiths, 14. Dates for the Egyptian texts are difficult to
ascertain. The Pyramid Texts, for example, are said to be the basis
for what became the Book of the Dead. Yet, parts of the Book of the
Dead have been dated to at least 6,000 years ago. Giving credence to Herodotus’s inference about Egyptian mysteries, Diodorus (1:20, 23) also refers several times to “sacred rites,” “mysteries” and “mystical rites” in association with Egyptian gods, including and especially Osiris and Isis.1
In fact, after describing inscriptions on two ancient stelae in “Nysa of Arabia” that supposedly marked the deities’ graves, Diodorus remarks:
In many places, the penalty for
divulging the mysteries was death, so it is obvious why the Egyptian
priests and initiates would shy away from doing so. While the
mysteries changed from place to place and era to era, it is likely
that some of the characteristics, myths, motifs, symbols and rituals
discussed here constituted Egyptian mysteries not to be revealed to
the vulgar masses, which is one reason they are not neatly laid out
in an ancient encyclopedia. In creating his famous treatise on “Isis and Osiris,” in which he told the composite myth of the most popular Egyptian gods of the time, the Greek historian Plutarch himself was evidently compelled to pull together characteristics from numerous sources, including papyri and inscriptions, from a wide era.
Thus, prior to Plutarch’s time too it appears there were few comprehensive sources for the various myths surrounding these deities. Because Christianity was unknown to Plutarch, he naturally would not have factored it into his analysis by couching his recap of the myth in Christian terms.
We, however, are very aware of the gospel story, as well as the assertion that it too was based largely on the Egyptian mythos and ritual. Hence, in our comparisons we will summarize the Egyptian influence on Christianity in terms of how its successor and borrower—the Christian myth—itself reworked the Egyptian myths and rituals into a composite tale.
However, as noted, the fact of Horus himself symbolizing the sun was understood beginning at least five centuries prior to the common era by several ancient Greek writers who equated him with the sun god Apollo. Indeed, in ancient Egyptian documents such as the Pyramid Texts, Horus’s role as a sun god or aspect of the sun itself is repeatedly emphasized, although this singularly pertinent fact is seldom found in encyclopedias and textbooks, leaving us to wonder why he would be thus diminished.
1
Siculus/Murphy, 25, 28.
Horus therefore represents the sun as the governor of nature, the “Lord of lords,” as it were. The “Akhet” is the “region between the day and night skies,” into which the sun sets and rises, before and after entering the Duat,2 or the nightly “netherworld.”
As can be seen, Horus at the dawn is so important as to make “all life possible.” Further revealing Horus’s solar aspects, in the Pyramid Texts also appear many other epithets of the sun as Horus, such as: “He Whose Face is Seen,” “He Whose Hair is Parted” and “He Whose Two Plumes are Long.”3 Horus’s solar role was also expressed in the adoption of the important “Horus names” by various pharaohs.
As Cooper states:
The solar imagery throughout the Book of the Dead/Ritual is equally clear and pervasive, as the deceased in his efforts to attain resurrection and immortality is continuously likened to the sun in his daily battle with the darkness of night. In this regard, Sir Renouf remarks that “all the forms assumed in the Book of the Dead by the deceased are well known forms of the Sun-god.” 5
As an example of how much Egypt’s spirituality was tied into the sun, chapter 15 of the Ritual constitutes a long prayer or hymn to the divine sun, said in the voice of the deceased to ensure his passage into the afterlife as an immortal soul. One of the main copies of the Book of the Dead is the Papyrus of Ani, designed to facilitate the passage of the deceased scribe Ani, and estimated to have been composed around 1250 BCE.
The profound reverence for the sun is highly evident in chapter 15, in which the speaker repeatedly addresses the sun or “Re,” also transliterated as “Ra,” including in several rubrics or titles of different sections, such as:
1 Allen,
J., ME, 44.
In another section of chapter 15 appears the following expression of veneration for the sun, Re/Ra:
The “Osiris Ani” is the deceased, who is identified with Osiris, the “Lord of Eternity,” as well as the “Lord of Resurrections,” two epithets very much the same as those of the much later Lord Jesus.
Horakhty is “Horus of the Two Horizons,” referring to the sunrise and sunset. He is also the “beetle” Khepri, who reproduces himself at dawn. As we can tell by the ebullience of the speaker, the sun was the epitome of divinity to the average Egyptian, who may have heard such words as found in the funereal/mortuary literature that comprised the Book of the Dead many instances during their lifetimes.
Regarding the Egyptian religion, Sir Lockyer concludes:
Indeed, in the sacred literature of Egypt, the sun is all-important, repeatedly invoked, beseeched and prayed to as facilitating the beneficent passage of the soul into the afterlife. In fact, it is evident from these texts that there is no greater purifying power than the sun, and its role in Egyptian religion was supreme. As Allen further comments:
Concerning the sun’s path, Allen also states:
Importantly, this rebirth of the sun was associated with the desired state of human immortality, as Allen further says:
1 Faulkner, pl. 20.
Again we see how singularly significant was the sun that its own cycles were closely tied in with the salvation of the human soul, thousands of years before the Christian era.
In his Guide to the Egyptian rooms at the British Museum, Dr. Budge summarizes the Egyptian solar mythology:
As the sun progresses through the day and night, “he” becomes a number of characters—or changes his epithets and characteristics, as it were—beginning with the rising sun, Horus, who at noon becomes Ra, who at sunset becomes Tmu or Atum, who at midnight becomes Osiris, who becomes Horus at sunrise, and so on. In the end, these gods are all one—as are their enemies, recounted here as “Set.”
Thus, Osiris was both solar and lunar, as well as the god of the star Sirius, of the river Nile, of water in general, of fertility, and of the resurrection and afterlife, these latter two precisely as was said of the later, Jewish version of the myth, Jesus Christ. In addition, like Jesus, who is identified in the biblical book of Revelation (22:16) as the “morning star”—one of many astrotheological themes in Christianity—so too in the Pyramid Texts is “Horus of the Duat” called the “morning star.”2
In the Book of the Dead (ch. 109), the speaker says:
Here Renouf translates the hieroglyph for “Horakhty” as “Horus of the Solar Mount,” who is the “sun-calf,” as well as the “Star of Dawn” or morning star. These “powers of the east” constitute the “Souls of the Easterners.”4 Moreover, many of these gods fuse together in the Egyptian pantheon in the syncretism spoken of by Dr. James Allen, for the reason that the Egyptian mysteries long ago taught monotheism, with one overarching god whose numerous “members”—assorted gods and goddesses—expanded, contracted and merged with each other.
Hence, in the Egyptian texts we find prayers to one god or goddess that include the names or epithets of many other gods or goddesses. For example, there is the sun god Amen—“the hidden god”—and the sun god Ra, but they are also combined as Amen-Ra, and so on.
Regarding this fusion and confusion, Dr. Allen further remarks:
Thus, as is the case in other religions
and mythologies, such as the Indian, the Egyptian represents a sort
of “polytheistic monotheism” that ascribes divinity to a vast
proportion of creation, while maintaining the cosmos to be one.
1 Budge,
AGFSR, 2-3.
In addition, when analyzing myths, it is important to realize that, because they are myths, there will often be different versions of any particular story or motif. Such is the case with the myths surrounding Osiris, Isis and Horus. Moreover, there were various Horuses or Horus epithets, two of whom, for instance, were named as the son(s) of Osiris and Isis, and all of whom have been confounded in both ancient and modern times.
This confounding is not necessarily a mistake but may be deliberate since, as stated, the myths and characteristics of gods and goddesses frequently blend into and overlap each other. The interchangeability of Osiris and Horus, for example, becomes evident on a daily basis, as the night sun Osiris at dawn becomes Horus.
Regarding Osiris’s transformation into Horus, Dr. Allen states:
1 Allen, J., TAEPT, 9. (Emph. added.)
Therefore, for the purpose of easily and quickly describing important aspects of the Egyptian religion—especially as they concern correspondences with Christianity—certain sources have combined at times the various Horuses with each other and with Osiris, and related the data in a story-like manner.
We further contend that this very same confounding was done by the creators of Christianity when they took over elements of the Egyptian religion and rolled them into one encompassing myth called the gospel story. In essence, when studying this situation, the scenario that reveals itself is that the creators of the gospel story in large part appear to have been scouring the vast Library of Alexandria in Egypt and elsewhere, such as Antioch and Rome, and picking out various attributes of the pre-Christian religion to be used in their creation of a cohesive Christian mythical tale that was later fallaciously set into history and presented to the gullible masses as a “true story.”
If the parallels between Horus and Jesus outlined in ZEITGEIST and elsewhere are real and accurate to a sufficient extent, meaning the claims are true of Budge and many others that there is significant Egyptian influence on Christianity, it is reasonable and scientific to suggest that the story of Jesus Christ—which is highly implausible as “history”—ranks largely as a rehash of the myth of the ancient, exceedingly revered sun god.
Despite the misconception that the ancients were primitive, many cultures of old were in reality highly sophisticated, as evidenced not only by their impressive architectural accomplishments such as the massive ruins around the world, but also by other artifacts such as political organization, language development and philosophical achievement.
One of these advanced cultures was that of Egypt, which created along with its magnificent edifices such as the Great Pyramid and the Temple complex at Karnak both a sophisticated cosmology and an elegant writing system in which to express it.
When we examine the religious and mythological beliefs of the Egyptians, in fact, we discover there is little theological they did not consider and incorporate into their faith that we possess in modern religions today. In other words, the Egyptians in particular not only were highly spiritual but also either originated or developed many of the cosmological and theological concepts found in current popular religions, such as the afterlife, immortality, heaven, deity and so on.
One of the main religions in which we find the most apparent Egyptian influence is Christianity, in both its myths and rituals.
Like many other faiths, the Egyptian and Christian religions share a strong overall theme of good versus evil and light versus dark. In the case of the Egyptian religion, good and evil were manifested in several gods, including and especially Horus and Set, while their Christian counterparts are Jesus and Satan. As we explore the original Egyptian mythos and ritual upon which much of Christianity was evidently founded, it needs to be kept in mind that the gods Osiris and Horus in particular were frequently interchangeable and combined, as in “I and the Father are one.” (Jn 10:30)
In fact, as part of the mythos, Osiris was “re-born under the form of Horus,” as we have seen. This particular development exists in significant part because these figures are largely sun gods, and when one sun god “dies,” as is the case with Osiris daily, monthly and annually, another replaces him and becomes him, as happens with Horus taking the place of his father.
Like Osiris’s many followers, whose prayers included a request to become “the Osiris” in the afterlife, so too does Horus become his father upon Osiris’s demise, which is caused by these sun gods’ enemy, the serpent of the night and Prince of Darkness, Set.
In the version by Plutarch, Osiris’s wife-sister, Isis, finds most of the pieces, except Osiris’s phallus, and eventually Osiris is resurrected and returns from the “other world” to instruct his son Horus to battle and defeat “Typhon,” the Greek name for the god Set.
The Pyramid Texts, in fact, contain another, older version of Osiris’s death, in which he was said to have been drowned by Set, or Seth.3 According to a later magical papyrus, this drowning took place in the “water of the underworld.” This aspect of the myth is interesting in light of the fact that in Greek mythology the sun god Helios was said to have been drowned in the river Eridanus or “Jordan,” in which Jesus was likewise said to have been baptized or dunked.4
The earliest versions of Osiris’s passion5 depict Set simply as slaying the god, without the ark and the dismemberment, while later sources attach 72 villainous helpers to assist in Set’s murderous crime against Osiris.6 The story of Osiris being entombed in a tree and found by Isis at the city of Byblos in Phoenicia, also related by Plutarch, is later than the one in which his parts are simply tossed around Egypt.7
The Byblos tale may have been added by the Egyptians after 1500 BCE in order to explain the similar myth of the dying-and-rising god Adonis-Tammuz in that part of the Near East.8
1 Diodorus relates that the pieces numbered 26. However, Murphy notes that, as the god became more popular, so too did his parts, eventually numbering 42 for each of the Egyptian nomes. This increase occurred as each priesthood wished to claim a relic for its own “tomb of Osiris,” reflection of the enormous relics industry that continues to this day with countless bogus artifacts of the Christian faith. (For more, see The Christ Conspiracy, Suns of God and Who Was Jesus?)
2 Budge, LEG, xlix.
As Plutarch relates, Osiris was entombed in the ark on the 17th day of the month of Athyr, “when the sun passes through Scorpion [sic],” and in the 28th year of either his reign or his life.1 Coincidentally, the 17th of Athyr is equivalent to the same day that the equally mythical biblical character Noah was said to have been shut up in his ark, the patriarch too having been identified as a sun god or solar hero.
The notion that Osiris was 28 when he suffered his passion is also interesting, in light of the fact that Jesus was likewise said to have been around 28-30 when he began his ministry, depending on the source. Indeed, one early Christian tradition also places Christ’s passion at when he was “only twenty eight, and one-quarter years of life,”2 quite possibly in imitation of the Osiris myth.
As Plutarch remarks,
Plutarch further explains the astrotheological meaning of the Osiris myth:
Regarding this tale, astronomer Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, remarks:
The 14 pieces of the body of Osiris sound like the 14 days of the waning, or “dying” moon, and on the main ceiling of the Dendera temple are inscriptions and pictorial reliefs that leave no doubt. In one panel, an eye, installed in a disk, is transported in a boat. The eye, we know, was a symbol of the sun or moon.
Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe god of wisdom and knowledge, pilots the barge. Thoth was closely associated with the moon and counted the days and seasons. The text for this panel refers to the period after the full moon, and 14 gods accompany the eye in the disk.5
In addition, the 72 “co-conspirators” in the later version of the tale likewise possess astrotheological meaning, representing the 72 dodecans, or divisions of the circle of the zodiac into 5 degrees each.
1 Plutarch, ch. 13; Babbitt, 37.
Interestingly, in the gospel story Jesus is depicted with either 70 or 72 “disciples,” the number 70 often symbolizing the dodecans as well. Also, the drowning of Osiris in the “river” Eridanus evidently signifies the god’s passage through the well-known constellation of the same name. It is likely that the Jordan river, biblical site of so many purported miracles, was named after its apparent stellar counterpart, with said “miracles” also taking place not on Earth but in the heavens.
Some of these particulars signify astrotheological elements added as the science of astronomy became more sophisticated. For example, Horus’s battle with Set depicted in the inscriptions at the relatively late site of Edfu includes him slaying Set’s monsters, the crocodile and hippopotamus, which symbolize two of the “circumpolar stars” that are “washed out” or removed from sight when the sun’s rays appear on the horizon.4
With or without the details, of course, the contention between Horus and Set ultimately represents the battle of good versus evil and light versus dark. Who is Set?
As the one,
Regarding Set’s role, Lewis Spence remarks,
Hence, Set is a thief in the night who robs Osiris/Horus of his strength and life. As the monster that prevents the sun from shining, Set also symbolizes storm clouds:
Prior to this identification of Set with the monster Apophis, enemy of the sun god Ra, Set was not always considered “evil” but was worshipped as a divine being, evidenced by the pharaonic choice of the name “Seti.”
1 Plutarch, ch. 18; Babbitt, 45.
At a certain point, however, Set is demonized:
It has also been claimed that, like the monstrous Tiamat, Set himself was originally a Semitic god imported into Egypt,2 an interesting assertion in light of the contention that Set is equivalent to Satan, the word “Satan” being related to the Hebrew or Semitic term shaytan, meaning “adversary,” and later adopted into Christianity. Regarding Set/Seth, James Bonwick remarks:
Concerning the “children of Seth” at Numbers 24:17, Samuel Sharpe remarks, “Seth is an Egyptian name for Satan, and by the children of Seth, the Samaritans seem meant.”4
Moreover, Louis Gray calls Seth “the general patron of Asiatics and of warriors,”5 and Prof. A.H. Sayce writes:
Therefore, it would appear that the Egyptian god Set was originally one of the Semitic Elohim, the plural gods worshipped by the Israelites.7 As we have seen, the villain in the myth revolving around the sun god Ra is named Apophis, Apop, Apap, Apep or Apepi, all variants of the same word. Like the myth of Horus versus Set, Ra battles on a daily basis the great serpent of the night sky, Apap, defeating him at dawn.
Apophis is the “devourer” and the “fiend of darkness.”8
Regarding the serpent motif, Stuart states:
1 Gray, 392.
Another transliterated Egyptian title
for the destructive and fiendish serpent is “Sata,” as found in
Wilson’s translation of the Papyrus of Nu, which reads:
The “land of the dead” and “other world” also signify the “cave,” “tomb” or “underworld” of the nightly terrain through which Osiris (or Ra) must pass daily, to be born again at sunrise as his son, Horus.4
This journey is described in the ancient Egyptian book “Am Tuat,” as summarized by Budge:
Thus, Apophis/Sata is the same as the monster Typhon/Set battled every day by Horus. In other words, all of these names—Apap, Apep, Apepi, Apop, Apophis, Seth, Set, Sut, Sutu, Sata—represent epithets for the same god or phenomenon: Both “the Arch-Enemy of Osiris, and the personification of Evil,”6 as well as “the Arch-fiend and great Enemy of Ra.”7
Thus, it can be truthfully stated that Set is Satan, and the battle between Jesus and Satan—Light v. Darkness—represents a formulaic rehash of the far more ancient contention between Horus and Set. Indeed, if Set is Satan, then Osiris/Horus is Jesus, as has been maintained for centuries for this and many other reasons.
Yet, Set is also a separate entity who becomes locked in an eternal struggle with his alter ego and enemy, Horus, and, again, at a certain point the “old thunder-god” Set became “the representative of all evil” and “a real Satan.”9
1 Wilson, 73.
Like Satan, Set/Seth too had his devoted followers—the “sons of Seth,” possibly as recorded in the Old Testament and generally thought to refer to the descendants of Adam’s third son Seth. Like Adam’s other son Cain, who kills his brother Abel, Seth/Set is depicted as murdering his brother Osiris. And like other characters in the Old Testament, such as Abraham and Moses, in the “patriarch” Seth we seem to have yet another instance of an ancient tribal god demoted to human status.
Like Satan, who has a forked tail, Set too is depicted with a forked tail.
In fact, Set’s portrayal with bizarre ears and an anteater-like snout makes him appear creepy and demonic:
Set is the serpent of the night, the Prince of Darkness and other qualities in line with Satan, while Horus is the “sun of righteousness” and the Prince of Light, much like Christ. As we have seen and will continue to see, there are many such correspondences between the myth of Osiris/Horus and that of Jesus.
In the end, the tale of Jesus versus Satan, we contend, is equally astrotheological and mythical as the prototypical epic drama of Osiris/Horus versus Set.
Although many people remain unaware of the real meaning behind “Christmas,” one of the better known correspondences between pre-Christian religion and Christianity has been the celebration of the god’s birth on the 25th of December.
Nevertheless, it has been argued that this comparison is erroneous because Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th, an assertion in itself that would come as a surprise to many, since up until just a few years ago only a miniscule percentage of people knew such a fact. In any event, this argument constitutes a logical fallacy, because over the centuries since the holiday was implemented by Christian authorities, hundreds of millions of people have celebrated Jesus’s birthday on December 25th, or Christmas, so named after Christ.
Moreover, hundreds of millions continue to celebrate the 25th of December as the birth of Jesus Christ, completely oblivious to the notion that this date does not represent the “real” birthday of the Jewish son of God.1 In actuality, it would be highly refreshing for the facts regarding the true meaning of Christmas to be known around the world: To wit, “Christmas”—or the winter solstice—represents the birth of the sun god dating back millennia.
1 In
2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 847, officially
declaring December 25th to be the birthday of the Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ: “Whereas on December 25 of each calendar year,
American Christians observe Christmas, the holiday celebrating the
birth of their savior, Jesus Christ…” In the fourth century, Chrysostom… says:
As we can see from these revealing remarks, the birth of Christ at the winter solstice has been asserted since as early as the 3rd century. Moreover, the reason for this birthdate is clearly given: This date represents “the birthday of the Sun!”
Thus, Christ’s birth at the winter solstice was not formalized until the fourth century—and this fact demonstrates a deliberate contrivance by Christian officials to usurp other religions, as we contend the entire Christian religion was specifically created to do. Prior to its celebration as the birthday of Jesus Christ, the 25th of December/winter solstice was claimed as the birthday for a number of other gods and godmen, including the Perso-Roman god Mithra and the Greek god Dionysus.3
So too, apparently, do we find this annual celebration in Egypt concerning the sun god, which represents the “birth” of the “new sun” after the “old sun” “dies” around December 21st (in the northern hemisphere), lying in his “tomb” or “cave” for three days and on December 25th being “born again.” There appears to be frequent confusion regarding the dates of December 21st, 22nd and 25th.
The fact is that all of them represent the time of the winter solstice, which begins at midnight on the 21st—equivalent to the morning of the 22nd—and ends at midnight on the 24th, which is the morning of December 25th. To summarize, in the solar myth the “death” of the “old sun” occurs as the days decrease in length towards the winter solstice, the word “solstice” meaning “sun stands still,” as for three days the sun appears not to be moving south or north.
Hence, it was considered “dead” and did not “return to life” until three days later, at midnight on December 24th, when it began its northerly journey again. Therefore, the ancients said the sun was born on December 25th.
A couple of centuries after Plutarch, in his Saturnalia (I, XVIII:10), ancient Latin writer of the fourth century Macrobius also reported on this annual Egyptian “Christmas” celebration:
1 CE, “Christmas.”
Thus, according to Schmidt the birth of Harpocrates at the winter solstice apparently dates back to almost 2,000 years prior to the Christian era, a tradition evidently verified by Plutarch.
Budge thus verifies that this particular Horus name was indeed popular in the dynasty in question. Intriguingly, according to Budge the Egyptian word for winter solstice is nen, which would make a Horus name of “Nen-mestu” equivalent to “born of the winter solstice.”
Also according to Budge, citing German Egyptologist Professor Heinrich Brugsch, the hieroglyphic for the winter solstice reveals two deities holding the sun with its rays extending down over an ankh,3 the symbol of life. If these two deities surrounding the sun being given life are indeed Osiris and Isis, as they appear to be, this hieroglyph would represent a clear indication that their child, Horus, was in fact born at the winter solstice.
In any case, this Horus name “repeaters of births” as a reflection of the sun god’s birth, whether daily, annually or both, dates back thousands of years in Egypt, and the significance of the winter solstice in Egypt, as well as its perception as the birth of the sun god, seems evident.
On the subject of Plutarch and Harpocrates, Budge remarks:
Budge never seems to return to this “curious legend,” apparently coming from chapter 19 of Plutarch, which omits the pertinent part about Harpocrates representing the weak or “lame” sun of the winter solstice, as in chapter 65.
Concerning the Osirian myth presented in Plutarch, in Egyptian Ideas of the Future, Budge remarks:
1 Schmidt, 19.
Budge proceeds to name many of the most significant details from Plutarch as having been verified by hieroglyphics, including texts, inscriptions, papyri, etc. The passage from Plutarch quoted here by Budge is also from chapter 19 and, again, although mentioning the birth of Harpocrates, lacks the pertinent part about the winter solstice found in chapter 65.
In neither book, in fact, does Budge describe the assertion in chapter 65. Perhaps as a professed Christian, Budge did not wish to reproduce these significant remarks concerning the “Christmas” birth of the Egyptian sun god. From comments by various writers of the time, it appears there was indeed a debate as to whether or not to accept the “opinions of the Greek” with regard to Harpocrates’s nature as the sun born at the winter solstice.
One must therefore ask whether or not this debate about the “correctness” of the ancient Greeks in their assertions regarding this figure—a debate continued by apologists today—has been based on scientific reasoning or religious prejudice, representing an intentional suppression and censorship of pertinent data.
Indeed, according to Budge the solstices were personified as gods. In fact, Budge claims that the personification of the winter solstice is the god “Ap-uat,”1 while Renouf says Apuat is “identical with Osiris.”2
Thus, Osiris would represent the winter solstice, making this time of year highly significant to the Egyptians.
This life-giving time of year was so important to the Egyptians that at periods over the millennia they opened the new year with the summer inundation of the Nile.
1 Budge, TGE, 264.
In Horae Aegyptiacae: Or, the Chronology of Ancient Egypt, Discovered from Astronomical and Hieroglyphic Records Upon Its Monuments, Egyptologist and professor of Archaeology Dr. Reginald Stuart Poole, another Keeper at the British Museum, states:
Thus we find that the true period of the commencement of “the Season of the Inundation” was one month before the autumnal equinox; and the end, at the winter solstice; and, consequently, that the Tropical Year anciently in use among the Egyptians commenced at the winter solstice, when all things in Egypt begin anew.1
Obviously, the Egyptians were well aware of the winter solstice, which they evidently identified with Osiris and other gods at some point and which during certain eras or in various places opened with Egyptian year.
Lockyer next describes a number of astronomical alignments of various monuments and buildings in Egypt, beginning with the temple enclosure at Karnak. Calling the temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak the “finest Egyptian solar temple” and “the most majestic ruin in the world,”3 Lockyer dated its foundation to 3700 BCE, using astronomical measurements.4
Encompassing twice the area covered by St. Peter’s in Rome, the complex comprised,
Concerning the smaller temple, Lockyer states:
Lockyer then discusses the colossal statues of Amenhetep III on the plain of Thebes, which were oriented to watch “for the rising of the sun at the winter solstice.”7
The Temple of Amun-Ra at Abu Simbel, built by Ramses II, ranks as another edifice aligned with sunrise at the winter solstice.9 In the Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (“EAAE”) appears a discussion of the small temple at Aghurmi in the Siwa Oasis.
1 Poole, 4-5.
This temple possesses a window in the west wall of the sanctuary that connects with an opposite window opposite, producing a lightshaft which illuminates the “god’s barge naos in the center of the sanctuary.”
EAAE then states:
Indeed, that the Egyptians were keen measurers of time may be seen in an inscription from the tomb of the Karnak clock’s creator, a “certain official” named Amenemhet who was buried “near the top of the hill of Sheikh Abd el-Gurna in Western Thebes.” This very ancient inscription describes the measurements of the “longest night of wintertime” and the “shortest night of summertime,” the former of which, of course, would be the winter solstice and the latter, the summer.
This inscription also refers to Egyptian sacred literature as “the books of the divine word,”3 demonstrating the reverence with which these texts were held, no less than the holy books of today.
The official in question dedicated his clock to Amenhotep I, who reigned in the 18th Dynasty, during the 16th century BCE.
Dr. Clagett also describes an Egyptian sundial from Luxor that apparently dates to the “Greco-Roman period” and that possesses marks to measure, among other things, the winter solstice.5
As another example of Egyptian astronomical knowledge and the particular importance of the winter solstice, in 46 BCE famed Alexandria astronomer Sosigenes created a new solar calendar for Julius Caesar, called the Julian Calendar:
1 EAAE, 742.
In The Sacred Tradition in Ancient Egypt, Rosemary Clark describes another festival that purportedly took place on the winter solstice:
The djed-pillar is a very ancient “cult icon of Osiris” that was “erected in a rite symbolizing Osiris’s revivification after death.”2 The raising of the djed-pillar at Busiris is mentioned in chapter 18 of the Book of the Dead. The month of Choiach/Khoiak/Koiak corresponding to December comes from the Coptic calendar and is presumably an accurate rendering of an ancient Egyptian dating system.
In Calendrical Calculations, Professors Dershowitz and Reingold state:
Dershowitz and Reingold further say that “the Copts celebrate Christmas on Koiak 29 (which is always either December 25 or 26 on the Julian calendar)...”4 Modern Egyptians also still celebrate a festival around the vernal equinox called “Sham el-Nessim,” or “Shamo,” which traditionally occurs in April and closely resembles the Western celebration of Easter. Since this spring festival is estimated to date to at least 4,500 years ago, it would be reasonable to assert that comparable winter-solstice celebrations may approach that age in Egypt as well.
If Macrobius is correct in his assertions that the Egyptians brought out an image of the baby sun at the winter solstice, we have no credible, scientific reason to dismiss Plutarch’s statement regarding Harpocrates/Horus being this baby sun born at the winter solstice, especially since many of his contentions can be verified by the hieroglyphics, as stated by Budge.
1 Clark, 131.
Although here Plutarch discusses Osiris’s water aspect, logic would indicate that the god’s solar nature was also being sought at the winter solstice, when the sun is viewed as “weakening,” “dying” or otherwise diminishing, in line with the shortening days of the years.
Furthermore, the “Seeking of Osiris” at the solstice is confirmed by the conservative Encyclopedia Britannica as one of the Egyptians’ “most characteristic celebrations”:
The discovery of Osiris’s remains at the winter solstice means that he was “born again” at that time, since he was thereafter resuscitated. Because Horus and Osiris were one and interchangeable, the new sun replacing the old, it could be truthfully stated that the “rebirth” of Osiris at the winter solstice represents the “new birth” of Horus. Hence, again we find Horus being born on December 25th.
Again, when we hear the clamor for “primary sources,” we are reminded of this heinous destruction of ancient culture, often by religious fanatics trying to prevent the truth from becoming known.
In the same vein as Plutarch, and quite possibly discussing the same records or text, in his treatise on the dual birthdays of Horus—one at the vernal equinox and the other at the winter solstice—Massey refers to “the Egyptian Book of the Divine Birth”:
The text Massey is referring to was also mentioned by Austrian professor Dr. J. Krall, quoted by Lockyer:
This solstice that is celebrated on the 6th of Pachons is that of the summer, once again demonstrating the significance of that time of year. The “Uza-eye” being filled apparently refers to the Eye of the Sun (Ra and/or Horus) approaching its culminating strength at the summer solstice.
1 EB, 221.
2 Massey, AE, 572.
In chapter 43 of “Isis and Osiris,” Plutarch also remarks upon a festival that falls on the new moon in the month of Phamenoth called “Osiris’s coming to the Moon,” which the historian says “marks the beginning of spring.”1
However, Krall clarifies these festivals as being “connected with the celebration of the Winter Solstice, and the filling of the Uza-eye...”
He then continues:
As we have seen on the very good authority of Dr. Poole, the Egyptian year at one point apparently began with the winter solstice. Adding to this notion is the suggestion that this period preceded the adjustment of the Egyptian 360-calendar with the addition of the five intercalary or epagomenal days.
The god Ptah is the very ancient Father-Creator figure who, in “suspending the sky,” resembles other Egyptian deities such as Isis and Horus with arms outstretched in the vault of heaven, as well as the Greek god Atlas supporting the world on his shoulders, and various renderings of the Christian Father and Son depicted as holding up the heavens.
As another version of the solar hero, the Greek god Dionysus too was asserted to have been born at the winter solstice, when his followers held a wild celebration in his and the sun god Apollo’s honor.4
This winter-solstice birth may also have come with Dionysus’s identification with Osiris, since, as Plutarch states (35), “Osiris is identical with Dionysus.”5
1 Plutarch/Babbitt, 105-106. Concerning winter solstice “Feasts and Festivals,” the Encyclopedia Britannica further reports:
The EB also names several other cultures as having winter celebrations, including the Mexicans and Peruvians. Of course, the Romans were famed for their lengthy winter festival of Saturnalia, which encompassed the solstice. Even the lunar Jews had their winter holiday, or “Feast of the Dedication,” as mentioned in John 10:22.
As we can see, the celebration at the winter solstice represents an ancient tradition.2
Christian Sun Worship?
In Ad Nationes (I, 13), Tertullian writes:
Once more, in his Apology (16), Tertullian addresses what appears to be a widespread insight that he surprisingly asserts comes from those with “more information” and “greater verisimilitude” or truth:
Adding to the suggestion of sun worship, the orientation of Christian churches towards solar alignments is well known, as explained by Sir Lockyer:
1 EB, 220. 3 For more on the subject of Christianity and sun worship, see The Christ Conspiracy and Suns of God.
Certainly in the early centuries the churches were all oriented to the sun, so the light fell on the altar through the eastern doors at sunrise.1 There are in reality numerous astrotheological characteristics within Christianity, many of which can be found in The Christ Conspiracy and Suns of God.
It is likely that anyone who wished to turn the popular and powerful sun god into a Jewish messiah, as we contend was done, would not immediately attach anything so obvious as the most popular solar festival—the birth of the sun god himself—to the myth they were attempting to propagate as “history.”
The fact that this celebration eventually was added to the expanding Christian mythology indicates:
Indeed, the December 25th date is in reality one of many birthdays for Christ proposed by the various Church fathers and Christian authorities over the centuries.2
If Jesus Christ were a historical figure, it is perplexing that no one knew his real birthday and that there were so many suggestions, a number of which also possessed astronomical or astrotheological meaning. In the end, the December 25th birthday represents the birth not of the Jewish messiah but of the sun.
1 Lockyer, TDA, 95-96.
The Virgin Isis-Mery
Over the centuries, a number of individuals have brought to attention the obvious correspondences between the Christian Madonna and Child and the images of the great goddess Isis holding and suckling her babe, Horus.
There are many pre-Christian images of Isis and Horus in this “Madonna and Child” pose, and it has been asserted by not a few people, quite logically, that the Christian iconography is directly based upon this extremely popular Egyptian image. Furthermore, it has been claimed repeatedly that, like her Christian counterpart, the Egyptian Mother of God was deemed an “immaculate virgin.”1
In addition, it has been evinced that the two Divine Mothers even shared the same name, with Jesus’s mother named “Mary,” of course, while Horus’s mother possessed the epithet of “Meri” or “Mery,” as the Egyptian word is transliterated by several authors including famed Egyptologist Dr. W.M. Flinders Petrie.2
In addition to the fact that there have been pre-Christian goddesses named “Mari,” such as on the Greek island of Cyprus,3 this epithet “Meri” or “Mery” in Egyptian simply means “beloved” or “delight,” and we would thus expect it to have been applied many times to Isis at some point in the history of her long reverence by millions of people around the Mediterranean.
1 Cf. Acharya/Murdock, SOG, 200-201.
Some of these royal epithets represent “Horus names,” while Horus himself is called “beloved”—i.e., meri—in the Book of the Dead.1 Indeed, one of Horus’s common titles is Se-meri-f: “the Beloved Son.”2
The famous pharaoh Ramses II’s wife, Nefertari, was also named Mery Mut,3 “Beloved Mother” or “ Mother Mary,” so to speak, long before the Christian era. Another queen was named “Merneith,” a compound of mery with the goddess name Neith.4
Hence, in consideration of the fact that Neith was a virgin mother,5 in this name we possess the concept of a “virgin Mery” long prior to the Christian era. Obviously, the Egyptian name was not in English; nor was the “Virgin Mary” called as much in the ancient Greek texts in which her story was originally told. The point is that the Egyptians who would later become Christians were already familiar with a virgin mother of God named Mery.6
Several gods in addition to Horus, such as Ra and Amen, also had the epithet meri/mery attached to their names: Ra-Meri or Meri-Ra and Amen-Meri or Meri-Amen, meaning “beloved of Ra” or “beloved Ra” and “beloved of Amen” or “beloved Amen.” The god Ptah was likewise deemed “beloved,” as in “Ptah-Meri.”7 Even Egypt itself is called Ta-Meri—“beloved land.”8
For example, in the chapter of the “Deification of the Members” from the Ritual (Papyrus of Ani), we find the following:
Thus, it could be said that Meri-Ra is equivalent to both Horus and Isis.
1 Renouf, 150. In fact, Caesar Augustus’s cartouche likewise contained the epithet “Ptah Auset-Meri” or “Ptah and Isis Beloved.”1 Also, Isis was apparently called “his beloved one,” or Meri-f-u, the “his” referring to Horus.2 In an article in The Contemporary Review under the entry for “Miriam”—the Jewish name for Mary—Dr. W. Robertson Smith ventures a derivation from “probably the Egyptian Meri-(t),” meaning, “beloved, a woman’s name...”3
Since the name Miriam in Hebrew is said to mean “rebellion,” this last point is debatable, as is frequently the case within the field of etymology.
Nevertheless, the same logical association of Meri and Mary is posited by Rev. Henry Tompkins in Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute:
In any event, the assertion that Horus’s mother was called “Mery” is a sound and important one, as is the claim that, like Jesus’s, his mother was a virgin.
Indeed, verifying this Egyptian claim to a virgin birth, Bonwick relates:
The “Chronicle of Alexandria” or Chronicum Alexandrinum is also called the “Paschal Chronicle” or Chronicon Paschale, a Christian work begun in the 3rd century and finished in the 7th century.6
In The Origin of All Religious Worship, French Abbé Charles Dupuis relates the same information:
Also verifying these assertions, Arthur D. Thomson states:
The part about Ptolemy and the mysteries is important, for a couple of reasons:
We do, however, possess this curious passage from the Christian text the Chronicon Paschale.
1 Budge, CH, 211.
Citing the Chronicum Alexandrinum (366) as his source, Thompson provides the original Greek, which does indeed say what it is alleged to relate, the pertinent word here being parthenos or “virgin.”1 The assertion that Horus’s mother was a virgin can also be found in the Book of the Dead, chapter 66, in which the deceased identifies himself as Horus and says:
Budge’s translation of the same passage from ch. 66 is as follows:
Sechit or Sekhet is the wife of Ptah and mother of the god Atum, representing the “second personage of the Memphis triad,”4 one of the Egyptian “holy trinities.” Identified with the goddess Hathor,5 who in turn is identified with Isis, Sekhet represents another form of the Dawn goddess.6 Not surprisingly, in the mythology of other cultures, such as the Indian and Greek, appears the same theme of the personified and deified Dawn giving birth to the sun—the inviolable or virgin mother.7
In addition, in this ancient text we possess an identification of the mother of Horus as the goddess Neith, who is by all accounts a virgin mother from thousands of years prior to the Christian era. In fact, some scholarship provides for estimates of the pre-historic Neith’s worship dating back some 7,000 years.8
Regarding the important and ancient goddess Neith, from whom Horus is said to have been born, Budge states:
1 "Εως νυν Αιγυπτιοι θεοποιουσιν
Παρθενου λοχον και ΒρεΦος εν Φατνη τιθεντες προσκυνουσιν.
ΚαιΠτολεμαιω τω Βασιλει την αιτιαν πυνθανομενω ελεγον, οτι παραδοτον
εστι μυστηριον υπο οσιου Προφητου τοις πατρασιν ημων παραδοθεν."
This citation appears to refer to a version published in the 17th
century.
Moreover, in a startling series of admissions concerning Isis, sincere Christian Budge further remarks:
Essentially Budge is indicating that much of the Christian religion and tradition is related to the Egyptian religion, including direct lifts of attributes from Egyptian goddesses later ascribed to the Virgin Mary. Budge states definitively that “partheno-genesis”—virgin birth—was known in Egypt centuries prior to the Christian era, specifically as concerns the goddess Neith.
Again, Budge states,
In his History of the Egyptian Religion, Dr. Cornelius P. Tiele (1830-1902), a professor of the History of Religions at the University of Leiden, likewise commented on the virginity of Neith:
In Religious Systems of the World, Dr. Tiele also refers to “Isis the virgin.”5 As Neith gives birth to the sun god Ra (and Horus), so too does Isis give birth to the sun god Horus. In reality, Isis is a later form of Neith, the two combined as “Isis-Neith” or “Neith-Isis.” Budge also states that Neith was “identified with Hathor and Isis.”
Budge further discloses that,
According to Plutarch (ch. 9),
1 Budge, TGE, II, 220. (Emph. added.) As noted, this inscription at Sais finished with the sentence, “The fruit I have produced is the sun.”
In his Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, Greek neoplatonist Proclus (c. 412-485 AD/CE) also discusses the city of Sais, the founding goddess of which is Neith, whom he likewise says the Egyptians equate with the Greek goddess Athena.2
Proclus’s rendition in Greek of the inscription at Sais is as follows: τα οντα και τα εσομενα και τα γεγονοτα εγω ειμι. τον εμον χιτωνα ουδεις απεκαλυψεν. ον εγω καρπον ετεκον, ηλιος εγενετο.3
My very literal translation of this inscription is as follows:
Regarding the meaning of the statement concerning no one uncovering Neith’s garment, William Coleman remarks:
The general interpretation of this inscription is that Neith, one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon, is not only the “Alpha and Omega,” so to speak, but also the inviolate begetter of the sun, the Immaculate Virgin and Great Mother. The fact of her association with the Greek goddess Athena—herself a chaste and pristine virgin, as indicated by the name of her temple at Athens, the Parthenon—confirms Neith’s esteemed virginal status.
Also, that the perpetual virginity of the goddess was a mystery is indicated by both Plutarch and Budge, the former of whom further identifies the virginal goddess at Sais as Isis.
The suggestion that Neith—who gives
birth to the sun—is also the winter solstice lends credence to the
assertion that Horus was born on the winter solstice, especially
since in the Book of the Dead Horus says he is born of Neith,
further validating the inscription at Sais.
1 Thomson, 468-469.
Royal astronomer Sir J. Norman Lockyer concurs.
Interestingly, Budge names Neith and Isis as among the goddesses who are “names of the Sky, especially at sun-rise and sunset.” (AGFSER, 2) That fact would make of Neith also a dawn goddess, and once again the identification of Neith with Isis is made.
It is erroneously claimed that, because in one version of the myth Isis impregnates herself with Osiris’s severed phallus, she cannot be considered a “virgin.” In the first place, we are discussing myths, not set-in-stone biographies of real people with the relevant body parts. In addition, there is at least one other version of the myth in which Isis merely hovers above Osiris’s body in order to become pregnant with Horus, as illustrated in an image from Denderah,4 and the fact will remain that Isis was considered by many of her ardent worshippers to be chaste and virginal regardless of the manner in which she was impregnated.
Says Budge:
The identification of Isis with the Virgin is further made in an ancient Greek text called The Katasterismoi, or Catasterismi, allegedly written by the astronomer Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE), who was for some 50 years the head librarian of the massive Library of Alexandria.7
Although the original of this text has been lost, an “epitome” credited to Eratosthenes in ancient times has been attributed by modern scholars to an anonymous “Pseudo-Eratosthenes” of the 1st to 2nd centuries AD/CE.8 In this book, the title of which translates as “Placing Among the Stars,” appear discussions of the signs of the zodiac.
In his essay on the zodiacal sign of Virgo (ch. 9), under the heading of “Parthenos,” the author includes the goddess Isis among others such as Demeter, Atagartis and Tyche, as identified with and as the constellation of the Virgin.9
1 Budge, EBD, cxiv.
In Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans, Dr. Theony Condos translates the pertinent passage from the chapter “Virgo” by Pseudo-Eratosthenes thus:
The headlessness of the goddess/constellation is interesting in consideration of the story that Isis too was at some point decapitated.2 Thus, Isis was associated with the constellation of Virgo, the Virgin. In fact, as we know well, much of the myth surrounding Osiris, Isis and Horus is indeed astrological or astrotheological. Hence, in the myth of Isis and Horus appears the theme of the constellation of the Virgin giving birth to the baby sun at the winter solstice, long before the Christian era and undoubtedly serving as the germ for the Nativity story of Jesus Christ.
In Heroes and Heroines of Fiction, William Shepard Walsh states:
As we have seen, it has been contended that the Greek earth mother Demeter/Ceres, who gave birth to the season-goddess Persephone/Kore, was said to be a virgin, equated with Virgo by Pseudo-Eratosthenes, for one.
Regarding the virginal status of Demeter, the authoritative Christian publication The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, in its entry on the “Virgin Birth,” reports:
Not only does this passage validate the claim that there were other, pre-Christian virgin births, but it also supports the notion that this motif of parthenogenesis constituted a mystery. Thus, this motif represented part of the famous Eleusinian Mysteries, which, we contend, is one of the reasons the virgin birth is not widely known, including in the myth of Isis, who also had her mysteries, evidently including her own perpetual virginity.
Mary is Mery Redux? The similarities between the Egyptian and Christian mothers of God do not end with their names or perpetual virginity. Like the Virgin Mary turned away from an inn while with child, the pregnant Isis too is refused a “night’s lodging.”5
1 Condos, 205. Also like Mary, who flees with the baby Jesus into Egypt to escape the tyrant Herod, Isis must flee with the baby Horus to another part of Egypt to escape the tyrant Set.1 Like Jesus, Isis is imbued with the ability to raise the dead, first resurrecting Osiris, and then, after Set as a scorpion stings the baby Horus to death, resurrecting her son as well.2 Isis is also depicted as the healing deity, likewise saving the life of the sun god Ra, when he too was poisoned.3
Of Isis’s healing abilities, Budge remarks,
Thus, Isis’s magical blood is like that of Christ. In addition, as Christians do with the Virgin Mary, Isis’s female worshippers petitioned her to make them fertile and able to conceive. 5 Isis’s titles were many, including: “Divine Lady,” “Greatest of gods and goddesses,” “Queen of the gods,” “Lady of heaven,” “Holy one of heaven,” “Great goddess of the Other World,” “Mother of Horus,” “Mother of the God,” “Lady of Life,” “Lady of joy and gladness” and “Queen of heaven.”6
By the time of the common era, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Isis was the most important deity of the Roman Empire, and, as such, her influence cannot be overstated. Her millions of worshippers would no more simply forget her than would the devotees of the Virgin Mary today, without a very powerful and concerted effort to usurp her worship by setting up a competing cult, which is precisely what happened with Christianity.
As Budge points out, the powerful gods of the Isian cult became widespread around the Mediterranean, including and especially in Greece, four to five centuries before the Christian era, with Isis one of the most popular gods at Rome by the first century BCE.7
From Rome, the cult of Isis spread throughout other parts of the Roman Empire, including Europe and Libya.
At this point, these many worshippers of Isis all around the vast territory of the Empire perceived reality in the following manner:
1 Budge, LOLM, liii-liiii.
Again, Budge remarks on the takeover of the Egyptian religion by Christianity:
Once more Budge says,
Of this apparent development and transparent usurpation of the Egyptian religion by Christians, Budge concludes:
With all these facts in mind, the insistence that Christianity sprang up in a vacuum as a unique and new “divine revelation” appears completely ludicrous and unsustainable. Nevertheless, Budge, a pious Christian, attempts to delineate the two cults, based on the allegation that Mary was not a goddess but a “real person.” However, we think the apologist does protest too much and that it is obvious the Christian myth was designed to take over the Egyptian one, with the mythical Virgin Mary composed in order to overthrow the highly popular Isis.
Budge persists with the parallels:
1 Budge, TGE, 220-221. (Emph. added.)
At this point, Budge tries again to differentiate the two stories, all the while assuming the Judeo-Christian tale to be “historical.”
In reality, the differences are slim and to be expected if Jewish priests were merely weaving Egyptian myths together with their own scriptures, which is precisely what we contend was done in the creation of the Christ and Virgin Mary characters, as well as Christianity as a whole.
These peculiar attributes of Mary related by Budge that are not found in the canonical gospels, it should be noted, come from the apocryphal or “hidden” texts concerning her alleged life.
Concerning this booklet, Budge remarks,
Just like the Ritual, this Christian book was written on strips of linen and wrapped around dead bodies. Thus, we possess an apparently cut-and-dry case of Christians copying the Egyptian religion, texts and rituals, which, again, we assert was done with the gospel story itself and many other aspects of Christianity.
In fact, if we were we to include the apocryphal and Gnostic texts in our investigation, we would develop a much longer list of parallels between the Egyptian and Christian religions. This significant situation regarding the virgin mother of the god serves as a perfect example of how myths are made, as in the Ritual we possess not a story of Horus being born of the virgin mother Neith but the “deceased” (through his living representative) making statements that “I am Horus” and “I am born of Neith.”
Thus, when we say that Horus was born of a virgin, we are not claiming this fact is laid out in a concise story but, rather, that it was indeed a characteristic of Horus long prior to the Christian era. And again, the virgin birth motif appears to have been one of the major mysteries, not to be divulged to the “vulgar masses.” Hence, it was not readily written down and made publicly available. In the end, rolling all of these qualities and myths into one, we can honestly say that the Egyptian son of God Horus was born on December 25th of the Virgin Mother Isis-Mery.
From all the evidence so far presented, it may further be truthfully asserted that this same statement regarding Jesus and Mary represents a mythical construct based in large part on the Egyptian religion.
Conclusion
When analyzing the Egyptian religion and its evident influence upon Christianity, it is necessary to recall a number of important facts.
First of all, it should be kept in mind that the Egyptians took their religion very seriously and did not readily accept blasphemy against it, being every bit as pious about their faith as Christians are today. Hence, this matter is not to be taken lightly, with culturally biased dismissals disparaging the Egyptians as mere “heathens” and “pagans,” while Christians hold up their own religion as “truth” and “divine revelation.”
Secondly, although thus portrayed as “unique divine revelation,” Christianity was in fact neither “new nor strange” but had existed “from the beginning,” as declared by Church fathers Eusebius and Augustine in a moment of inspired candor that likely revealed more than they intended.
These comments by the Church fathers were apparently meant to demonstrate the eternal nature of the Christian faith but which, in reality, explained why, if Christianity was “unique revelation,” so many of its tenets could already be found widespread around the known world for centuries to millennia. Indeed, as we can see from the numerous correspondences, if Christianity is to be considered “divine revelation,” then so too must be the important Egyptian religion upon which much of it was palpably founded.
As demonstrated in this present work, there exists good reason to assert that, rather than representing a new revelation, Christianity is in actuality a rehash of older religions, including and especially the Egyptian. In this regard, we have thus far explored only a small number of instances where the Egyptian and Christian religions converge, but there are many more parallels equally as profound and sustainable.
Even the great Dr. E.A. Wallis Budge demurred on this exceptional effort, declaring:
1 Budge, TGE, I, xvi. (Emph. added.)
Such statements should have spurred an entire field of study, but, as we know too well, vested interests clamped down and rendered this worthy endeavor nearly impossible. We are finally at a time, however, when implausible pabulum will be scrutinized scientifically and revealed as such, so that we may remove the delusion preventing further evolution.
As but one example of casuistry attempting to pass itself off as truth, although Christianity attempts to set itself apart by claiming its story to have truly taken place in history, the Egyptian religion too was supposedly rooted in history, which would make it true as well. Moreover, since it preceded Christianity by millennia, the Egyptian religion could lay claims to being the original “divine revelation,” closer to the truth and less corrupted.
As we know from ancient writers, the important Egyptian god Osiris was also believed to have been a real man who walked the earth and who was responsible for the civilizing and salvation of mankind. In fact, Osiris is depicted as traveling far and wide in his quest to bring goodness and light to humanity, making him one of the best-known gods of all time.
Not only were the deities Osiris, Isis and Horus highly popular, but their relics, including numerous tombs, could be found throughout Egypt and elsewhere, wherever there was a vested priesthood. Thus, again, to insist that only the Christian drama and its characters are “true” and represent “divine revelation” can been viewed as a manifestation of cultural bias, rather than reality.
Some of these Egypto-Christian artifacts are quite astonishing, as reported by the very devout Christian Egyptologist William R. Cooper, who provided examples of what he called the “Horus Christian class,” such as:
Following his list of artifacts demonstrating Egypto-Christian themes, the pious Cooper concludes:
1 Cooper, THM, 43, citing Denon’s
Egypte, vol. II, plate 36.
Cooper believed that by bringing forth these proofs of the merging of the Egyptian and Christian religions he was somehow presenting a defense of the Christian faith, and he was extremely disappointed by the weak reaction he received from the elite scholars and clergy to whom he circulated his ground-breaking work. Unfortunately, Cooper passed away “in exile,” as he put it, shortly after presenting his startling findings to England’s finest, with flaccid results.
Thus, he did not live to see his work attain to fruition, and these significant correlations continued to be suppressed by the mainstream, although gaining momentum with such diligent and courageous individuals as Gerald Massey. Those who have ventured into the field of comparative religion and mythology, and have dared to include Christianity in their analysis, have frequently been subjected to ridicule or worse.
The illogical implication is that the Jewish culture from which Christianity largely sprang, according to believers, possessed no mythology whatsoever, as virtually the only culture of significance to make such an unlikely claim.
From the experiences of William Cooper and many others, it is obvious that society’s elite—including numerous churchmen—have known about the research demonstrating the Egyptian parallels in Christianity, but that this information has been rigorously censored.
One could search high and low in the New Testament for evidence that Jesus Christ was born at the winter solstice, or December 25th, for instance, and one wouldn’t find it. Does that fact mean that Christmas doesn’t exist?
Rather than simply denying these many corresponding religious and spiritual motifs, honest assessors will recognize that they existed, that they were revered in the ancient world, particularly by the priesthoods that created such myths, and that anyone wishing to enter the profitable religion business would need to incorporate them into their myths, as we contend was done with the gospel story.
In reality, it is obvious from comments by ancient and modern writers alike that various of the correspondences between the Egyptian and Christian religions constituted what are known as “the mysteries,” such as the perpetual virginity of the goddess and the birth of her son at the winter solstice, hinted at in a number of places and brought to light here. If we were to explore the numerous other parallels between the Christian and Egyptian religions using the same “forensic” methodology, we would find much of the same veracity behind them as well.
As mysteries, these characteristics were not necessarily spelled out overtly in texts or inscriptions—although, as we have seen, they are certainly strongly indicated in a number of places. Other correlations, however, have been right before our eyes, covered over in delusion and mendacity, to be exposed here and now through great struggle and the passage of thousands of years.
We are, in fact, privileged to exist at a time when these mysteries are at last revealed, and humanity can progress to a greater level of enlightenment.
by
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