The original name of Jesus, (the deity of the New Testament) would have been known in Hebrew as Yeshua ben Yosef, (literally Joshua, son of Joseph). The name subsequently underwent a number of transliterations through Latin, Greek (Iesous), and finally the English version that is “Jesus”. To avoid confusion, I will refer to the aforementioned henceforth simply as “Jesus”. But who exactly was Jesus?
The genealogy of Jesus is described in two passages of the Gospels: Luke 3:23–38 and Matthew 1:1–17. Matthew's genealogy commences with Abraham and then from King David's son Solomon follows the legal line of the kings through Jeconiah, the king whose descendants were cursed, to Joseph, legal father of Jesus. Luke gives a different genealogy going back to Adam, through a minor son of David, Nathan and apparently again to Joseph. Why two distinctly different genealogies?
But then it gets even more confusing. Both gospels state that Jesus was begotten not by Joseph, but by God, being "born", or entering Mary through a virgin birth.
Virgin Birth
Even when it comes to being born of a virgin, Jesus is a mere copycat of many deities before him.
In ancient Egyptology, which precedes the biblical myth by thousands of years, there is reference to a virgin birth, namely that of Horus. Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth, a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, who wanted Osiris' throne. Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from her father. This spell gave her time to become pregnant by Osiris before he again died. Isis later gave birth to Horus. As such, since Horus was born after Osiris' resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set.
Many of the attributes of Isis, the God-mother, the mother of Horus; and of Neith, the goddess of Sais are identical with those of Mary the Mother of Christ. Early Christian stories in the Apocryphal Gospels, which record the wanderings of the Virgin and Child in Egypt, are similar to stories found on the Metternich Stela texts about the life of Isis. Also, the pictures and sculptures of Isis suckling her child Horus are the foundation for Christian figurines and paintings of the Madonna and Child.
Dionysus, the Greek deity (worshipped between 1500 – 1100 BC), was born of a mortal woman, Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes, while his father was Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus' wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant. Appearing as an old crone (in other stories a nurse), Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood.
Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he agreed. Therefore he came to her wreathed in bolts of lightning; mortals, however, could not look upon an undisguised god without dying, and she perished in the ensuing blaze. Zeus rescued the fetal Dionysus by sewing him into his thigh. A few months later, Dionysus was born on Mount Pramnos in the island of Ikaria, where Zeus went to release the now-fully-grown baby from his thigh. In this version, Dionysus is born by two "mothers" (Semele and Zeus) before his birth, hence the epithet dimetor (of two mothers) associated with his being "twice-born."
Event after event, one can construct the supposed biography of Jesus from mythic motifs previously relating to either Osiris or Dionysus:
· They were both (Osiris/Dionysus) born of a male god and a mortal mother.
· They were born in a cave or humble cowshed on 25 December, before three shepherds.
· They offer their followers the chance to be born again through the rites of baptism.
· One of them miraculously turns water into wine at a wedding ceremony.
· One of them dies at Easter time as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
· Their followers await their return as the judge during the Last Days.
· Their death and resurrection are celebrated by a ritual meal of bread and wine, symbolizing their bodies and blood.
Why are the pagan origins of Jesus not common knowledge? The Early Roman church did everything in its power to prevent us from perceiving them. They systematically destroyed pagan sacred literature, a task they did with such fervor that today Paganism is considered a ‘dead’ religion.
Josephus, the Roman historian, mentions a number of Jesus’ in his “The Antiquities of the Jews / Book XX” e.g. in Chapter 9, 4:
And now Jesus, the son of Gamaliel, became the successor of Jesus, the son of Damneus, in the high priesthood…
And in Chapter 10, 1:
But after the term of seventy years' captivity under the Babylonians, Cyrus, king of Persia, sent the Jews from Babylon to their own land again, and gave them leave to rebuild their temple; at which time Jesus, the son of Josadek, took the high priesthood over the captives when they were returned home.
Josephus also mentions two others: Jesus, the son of Fabus and Jesus, the son of Sic;
And of course, there is also Jesus, the son of Joseph.
Any sane, rational person would know that it is impossible to conceive a child immaculately as it is a biological impossibility for a baby to be born without the need for a spermatozoa and an ovum to be joined.
To be continued …
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