It has been a baffling subject from the beginning, when the apostles of Jesus were accused of making the whole story up. The story of Jesus’ life was, in all appearances, a mere modification of older legends about pagan fertility gods like Osiris, Mithra, Attis And Dionysus, leading many to believe that Jesus was an invented character designed to deceive the masses.
Jesus’ words and deed do in fact have dozens of uncanny matches with ancient myths about the Savior God of the Mystery Religions – a heroic figure that was supposedly sacrificed for the redemption of humanity. So many similarities can be found that the subject, which is currently discussed on thousands of web sites and multiple documentaries, is causing an ever growing number of people to wonder if Jesus ever existed at all.
The mystery, one of the most controversial in the world, has never been solved.
What if for the first time in history, a new perspective could show how Jesus actually used the myths of his time in order to establish his revolutionary religion? What if it could be shown that he did it intentionally, as a brilliant expert in world mythology, manipulating events and creating a story and persona which would make him irresistible to as many people as possible?
Why did Jesus have a last supper like the Persian god Mithra?
Why was he nailed to a tree like the Roman legends of Attis?
Why did he turn water into wine like the Greek god Dionysus?
You must understand that Jesus came at a period where the overwhelming majority of people were illiterate, completely unfamiliar with distant lands and their beliefs/customs, and had a very unique culture onto themselves. There were no radios, no internet, no TV. Jesus knew that it would take generations before his message would reach other nations in numbers, and that it would be a foreign person describing a story from a long time ago, speaking to a people who had their own expectations about what the savior would do and say. If Jesus’ message was to be successful in this outreach, he would have to devise a very, very interesting plan.
The critics are charging that the apostles and the early Christian leaders founded their religion based on older legends of a fictitious hero figure but fail to explain how the most influential figure in human history could be a myth. They blame the Christians of burning down the Library of Alexandria to destroy the competing pagan records about the Mystery Hero.
The Christians have historically retorted by pointing to the fact that Jesus name can be found in ancient books, but have never found an answer for the inexplicable parallels
with the mythological exploits of Osiris, Mithra, Attis and Dionysus. Some early Christians went as far as blaming the devil himself for the strange phenomenon.
Sarmast argues that Jesus heretofore unrecognized strategy was a product of such sheer genius, designed as it were to swing the whole pagan world to his new and radically different religion in one check- mate move, that no one has understood it until now.
