The Secret Life of Jesus the Essene

The Secret Life of Jesus the Essene
Author: Raymond W. Bernard
Publisher: Health Research Books
Total Pages: 74
Release: 1997-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9780787312107

A remarkable revelation concerning the true character, life and crucifixion of Jesus by eye-witnesses who knew him, based on the Safed & Alexandrian Essene Scrolls.

The Gospels Behind the Gospels

The Gospels Behind the Gospels
Author: Robert M. Price
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2023-02-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1634312392

What if we have been missing a whole stage of how the canonical gospels came to be? What if there were a whole raft of prior Jesus narratives, whether written or oral, the fragmentary vestiges of which now appear in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? This would explain why these gospels seem over-crowded with incompatible understandings of Jesus ("Christologies")? In The Gospels Behind the Gospels, innovative biblical scholar Robert M. Price attempts to reassemble the puzzle pieces, disclosing several earlier gospels of communities who imagined Jesus as the predicted return of the prophet Elijah, the Samaritan Taheb (a second Moses), a resurrected John the Baptist, a theophany of Yahweh, a Gnostic Revealer, a Zealot revolutionary, etc. As these various sects shrank and collapsed, their remaining followers would have come together, just as modern churches and denominations seek to survive by merging and consolidating. Our canonical gospels might be the result. Similarly, Price explores the possibility that Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ (listed as if on a par in 1 Corinthians 1:12) were originally figureheads of rival sects who eventually merged in much the same way. You will never read the gospels the same way again!

The Unknown Life of Christ: Apollonius of Tyana, Who Was Replaced by Jesus of Nazareth - the Greatest Fraud in History

The Unknown Life of Christ: Apollonius of Tyana, Who Was Replaced by Jesus of Nazareth - the Greatest Fraud in History
Author: Raymond Bernard
Publisher:
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2018-01-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781981946372

The Essene Teacher of Righteousness was Apollonius of Tyana, who in the year 325 A.D., at the Council of Nicea, was replaced by a fictitious messiah called Jesus Christ: the greatest fraud in history. Here, Raymond Bernard, Ph.D. has discovered several sources that supposedly tell the true stories about Jesus and his family, as members of the Essene Jewish sect. The story of his life is commingled with tales of his alleged traveling to India and Japan. Jesus appears to be a person whose life and story were developed by the Essenes. His imaginary crucifixion was further developed by the so-called Holy Roman Empire, who used the Christian religion as a political tool to control the masses.

The Resurrection Of Christ

The Resurrection Of Christ
Author: Gerd Ludemann
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2010-06-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1615925155

Although the resurrection is the keystone dogma of Christian belief, and Sunday churchgoers rarely if ever think to question it, scholarly research shows with the utmost clarity that from a historical standpoint Jesus was not raised from the dead. In fact, it is almost universally recognized among scholars of New Testament textual criticism that the gospel narratives describing the resurrection appearances are not reliable eyewitness accounts, but expressions of faith written by the first Christian believers long after the death of Jesus.In this thorough exegesis of the primary texts dealing with the resurrection of Jesus, New Testament expert Gerd Lüdemann (University of Göttingen) presents compelling evidence that shows the resurrection was not a historical event and further argues that this development leaves little, if any, basis for Christian faith as presently defined.Beginning with Paul's testimony in 1 Cor. 15: 3-8, in which the apostle declares that Jesus has been raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, Lüdemann systematically evaluates every reference to Jesus' resurrection in the New Testament, as well as apocryphal literature. He examines the purpose of the text writers, the ways in which they reworked tradition, and the historical value of each account. Through this approach, he offers a reconstruction of the probable course of events as well as the circumstances surrounding Jesus' death on the cross, the burial of his body, his reported resurrection on the third day, and subsequent appearances to various disciples.Since the historical evidence leads to the firm conclusion that Jesus' body was not raised from the dead, Lüdemann argues that the origin of the Easter faith must be sought in the visionary experiences of Christianity's two leading apostles. From a modern perspective this leads to the inescapable conclusion that both primary witnesses to Jesus' resurrection, Peter and Paul, were victims of self-deception.In conclusion, he asks whether in light of the nonhistoricity of Jesus' resurrection, thinking people today can legitimately and in good conscience still call themselves Christians.Gerd Lüdemann is a professor of the history and literature of early Christianity at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Professor Lüdemann's published conclusions about Christianity aroused great controversy in his native Germany, where the Confederation of Protestant Churches in Lower Saxony demanded his immediate dismissal from the theological faculty of his university. Despite this threat to his academic freedom, he has retained his post at the university, although the chair he holds was renamed to disassociate him from the training program of German pastors. Lüdemann is also the author of Jesus After 2000 Years, Paul: The Founder of Christianity, and The Resurrection of Christ: A Historical Inquiry.

The Book of Wisdom of Apollonius of Tyana

The Book of Wisdom of Apollonius of Tyana
Author: Ioannis Marathakis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2020-02-28
Genre:
ISBN: 9781096658764

The Book of Wisdom is a short Greek magical text that survives in eight manuscripts, the earliest of which date to the 15th century. Although spuriously attributed to the Neopythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana and dated by many scholars to the 5th, 4th or even 3rd century, it was probably composed in Constantinople in the late 12th century CE. Its sources include the Testament of Adam (an Old Testament pseudepigraph) and traditions about the telesmata of Apollonius preserved by various Byzantine chroniclers; also possibly the Picatrix, the Book of Enoch and a lost work of the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus on Chaldean theurgy.The Book of Wisdom lists the magical names of the four seasons and the twenty-four hours; also, the different names of the sun the moon, heaven, earth and the four quarters during each season. It is said that through the power of these names one could enchant and control natural phenomena, plants, animals and even human beings, causing love or discord. Unfortunately, the descriptions of the various apotelesmata (talismans) did not survive in the Greek text, with the exception of a short fragment. But, to an extent, they can be traced in its Latin and Arabic renditions. These talismans were usually metallic statuettes with the form of the creature one seeks to control.The text first appeared in Western Europe in the early 13th century, after the sacking of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, when parts of it were paraphrased in Latin as De Viginti Quattuor Horis, De Imaginibus Diei et Noctis and De Discretione Operis Differencia. These paraphrases later became the source of many other magical books, such as the Liber Lunae, the Book of Raziel, the Heptameron, the Steganographia of Trithemius and the Ars Paulina. The Book of Wisdom was also a source of the Arabic Great Book of Talismans.A fragment of the Book of Wisdom was published by the Christian Cabbalist Gilbert Gaulmin as early as 1615. It is interesting that this fragment later fell into the hands of Eliphas Levi, who used it ceremonially, in order to evoke the spirit of Apollonius. Levi included the Greek text as a supplement to the Rituel de la Haute Magie, together with an imaginative "translation".The present publication contains a detailed introduction, comparative translations of the two versions of the Book of Wisdom, a translation of the Great Book of Talismans from Paris BNF Ar. 2250 and appendices with parallel texts, including a translation of a Latin paraphrase. The manuscript page on the frontispiece is artwork created by the author.

How Greek Science Passed On To The Arabs

How Greek Science Passed On To The Arabs
Author: Delacy O'Leary
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317847482

First published in 2002. The history of science is one of knowledge being passed from community to community over thousands of years, and this is the classic account of the most influential of these movements -how Hellenistic science passed to the Arabs where it took on a new life and led to the development of Arab astronomy and medicine which flourished in the courts of the Muslim world, later passing on to medieval Europe. Starting with the rise of Hellenism in Asia in the wake of the campaigns of Alexander the Great, O'Leary deals with the Greek legacy of science, philosophy, mathematics and medicine and follows it as it travels across the Near East propelled by religion, trade and conquest. Dealing in depth with Christianity as a Hellenizing force, the influence of the Nestorians and the Monophysites; Indian influences by land and sea and the rise of Buddhism, O'Leary then focuses on the development of science during the Baghdad Khalifate, the translation of Greek scientific material into Arabic, and the effect for all those interested in the history of medicine and science, and of historical geography as well as the history of the Arab world.

Who is This King of Glory?

Who is This King of Glory?
Author: Alvin Boyd Kuhn
Publisher: Book Tree
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2007-09
Genre:
ISBN: 1585093181

This book reveals that much of Christianity and its beliefs had originated in ancient Egypt rather than the Middle East. The author presents us with how, where and why many spiritual Egyptian beliefs were adopted into Christian form and accepted as "history", as opposed to being carried over in their original mythological form. Kuhn states, "The gospels are not and never were histories. They are now proven to have been cryptic dramas of the spiritual evolution of humanity and of the history of the human soul in its earthly tabernacle of flesh." For Christianity to be expressed in the way it was first intended, as experienced during the first two centuries of its existence, one must first acknowledge its pagan roots. This is too much of a leap for most people, but they have not read this book. The author reveals how things were altered in the third century by the existing priesthood and why.

The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of his Existence

The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of his Existence
Author: John Eleazer Remsburg
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Total Pages: 614
Release:
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1465554319

The reader who accepts as divine the prevailing religion of our land may consider this criticism on “The Christ” irreverent and unjust. And yet for man’s true saviors I have no lack of reverence. For him who lives and labors to uplift his fellow men I have the deepest reverence and respect, and at the grave of him who upon the altar of immortal truth has sacrificed his life I would gladly pay the sincere tribute of a mourner’s tears. It is not against the man Jesus that I write, but against the Christ Jesus of theology; a being in whose name an Atlantic of innocent blood has been shed; a being in whose name the whole black catalogue of crime has been exhausted; a being in whose name five hundred thousand priests are now enlisted to keep “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.” Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus of humanity, the pathetic story of whose humble life and tragic death has awakened the sympathies of millions, is a possible character and may have existed; but the Jesus of Bethlehem, the Christ of Christianity, is an impossible character and does not exist. From the beginning to the end of this Christ’s earthly career he is represented by his alleged biographers as a supernatural being endowed with superhuman powers. He is conceived without a natural father: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. i, 18). His ministry is a succession of miracles. With a few loaves and fishes he feeds a multitude: “And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men” (Mark vi, 41–44). He walks for miles upon the waters of the sea: “And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray; and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea” (Matt. xiv, 22–25). He bids a raging tempest cease and it obeys him: “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.... And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark, iv, 37–39). He withers with a curse the barren fig tree: “And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee, henceforth, forever. And presently the fig tree withered away” (Matt. xxi, 19).

Shadow of the Third Century

Shadow of the Third Century
Author: Alvin Boyd Kuhn
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 928
Release: 2019-01-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1789123445

Shadow of the Third Century: A Revaluation of Christianity, first published in 1949, begins with the assertions that a true history of Christianity has never before been written and that the roots of the Christian religion lie in earlier religions and philosophies of the ancient world. The author, Alvin Boyd Kuhn, asserts that Christianity as we know it took the form it did due to a degeneration of knowledge rather than to an energization produced by a new release of light and truth into the world. In the ancient world, knowledge was commonly passed down by esoteric traditions, its inner meaning known only to the initiated. The Gospels, according to Kuhn, should therefore be understood as symbolic narratives rather than as history. Sacred scriptures are always written in a language of myth and symbol, and the Christian religion threw away and lost their true meaning when it mistranslated this language into alleged history instead of reading it as spiritual allegory. This literalism necessarily led to a religion antagonistic toward philosophy. Moreover, it produced a religion that failed to recognize its continuity with, and debt to, earlier esoteric schools. As evidence of this, Kuhn finds that many of the gospel stories and sayings have parallels in earlier works, in particular those of Egypt and Greece. The transformation of Jesus’ followers into Pauline Christians drew on these sources. Moreover, the misunderstanding of true Christianity led to the excesses of misguided asceticism. Overall, the book seeks to serve as a “clarion call to the modern world to return to the primitive Christianity which the founder of Christian theology, Augustine, proclaimed had been the true religion of all humanity.” With its many citations from earlier works, Shadow of the Third Century also serves as a bibliographic introduction to alternative histories of Christianity.