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 The cover of The Jesus Mysteries features a gem of Dionysus/Orpheus.[1] | |
| Author | Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Three Rivers Press |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Hardback |
| ISBN | 978-0609807989 |
The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God? is a 1999 book by British authors Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy,[2] which advances the argument that early Christianity originated as a Greco-Roman mystery cult and that Jesus was invented by early Christians based on an alleged pagan cult of a dying and rising "godman" known as Osiris-Dionysus, whose worship the authors claim was manifested in the cults of Osiris, Dionysus, Attis, and Mithras.
The authors propose that Jesus did not literally exist as an historically identifiable individual, but was instead a syncretic re-interpretation of the fundamental pagan "godman" by the Gnostics, who the authors assert were the original sect of Christianity. Freke and Gandy argue that orthodox Christianity was not the predecessor to Gnosticism, but a later outgrowth that rewrote history in order to make literal Christianity appear to predate the Gnostics. They describe their theory as the "Jesus Mysteries thesis".
- ^ Guthrie, William Keith Chambers (1952). Orpheus and Greek Religion. London: Methuen. p. 278.
- ^ Maurice Casey Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? T&T Clark 2014 FREKE, N.T. and GANDY, L.P. p.17