Published in , Graves' thesis was among the most divisive of its time. Already rocked by the newly-published theory of evolutionary science, which directly contradicted the Biblical telling of man's creation, the Christian church found itself further assailed by skeptics who doubted the very existence of Jesus Christ. Kelsey Graves authored the most comprehensive criticism of the time, compiling from existing chronicles this thesis: that the genesis of Christianity existed before Christ himself.
The central notion put forth in this book is that there were a total of sixteen crucified individuals from a variety of different ancient belief systems, all of whom provided a model for Jesus Christ. Their birth dates, events in their lives, sentiments which they voiced, miracles which they performed, and of course the circumstances of their death bear great resemblance to the Jesus Christ of the Christian gospels.
Thus, Christ as we know him was a heavily derivative product of millennia of religious thought, rather than a credible and distinct figure in his own right. Although not without flaws - Graves is patchy in citing the dates and publication details of his sources - The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviours is an effective summary and expansion of investigations which had ensued on the subject of God-men prophets offering salvation. Formerly a minister himself, Graves' disillusion with Christian doctrine led him to pursue free thought, wherein he promoted an atheistic view based upon gathered, credible evidence.
The tone of this book is frequently impassioned. Although the subjects are scholarly and even obscure in places, the conviction and liveliness with which Graves approaches this subject serve to make passionate what might otherwise be difficult or arduous reading. Download The World S Sixteen Crucified Saviors Or Christianity Before Christ books , This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world , and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. So is the need for a deathless hero who saves humanity part of the deep structure of our brain?
Is religion simply filling a psychological need which is part of being human? This book may be picked apart in its details; however, it was one of the first to explore this 'big' question, an answer to which is as pressing today as it was then. The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors raised a host of questions, few of which have yet been adequately answered, over a century later.
There are serious flaws in this book. Graves was apparently not working from original sources, with the exception of the Bible; he seems to have relied on books such as Higgins' Anacalypsis, without necessarily citing them. He muddles Vaishnava Hinduism and Buddhism, two belief systems with fundamental differences.
That said, the traditional narratives of Krishna and Buddha do contain motifs in common with the NT stories of Jesus. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world , and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity individual or corporate has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. And the chapters comprising 'The Philosophical View,' and 'The Physiological View,' were afterward pronounced specimens of profound and unanswerable logical reasoning. There is scarcely a tenet of religious faith now propagated to the world by the professed disciples of Christ but that, if subjected to a rigid test in the ordeal of modern science would be found to contain more or less error.
Vast acquisitions have been made in the fields of science and history within the last half century, the moral lessons of which have done much to undermine and unsettle our popular system of religious faith, and to bring into disrepute or effectually change many of its long-cherished dogmas.
The scientific and historical facts thus brought before the intelligent public, have served as keys for explaining many of the doctrines comprised in the popular creed. They have poured a flood of light upon our whole system of religion as now taught by its popular representatives, which have had the effect to reveal many of its errors to those who have had the temerity, or the curiosity, to investigate it upon these grounds.
Many of the doctrines and miraculous events which have always been assigned a divine emanation by the disciples of the Christian faith, are, by these scientific and historical disclosures, shown to be explainable upon natural grounds, and to have exclusively a natural basis.
Some of them are shown to be solvable by recently developed spiritual laws, while others are proven to be founded wholly in error. The intelligent community are now acquainted with many of these important facts, so that no man of science can be found in this enlightened age who can popularly be termed a Christian. No man can be found in any Christian country who has the established reputation of being a man of science, or who has made any proficiency in the whole curriculum of the sciences, whose creed, when examined by an orthodox committee, would not be pronounced unsound.
It is true that many of the scientific class, not possessing the conviction that duty imposes the moral necessity of making living martyrs of themselves, have refrained from fully avowing or disclosing to the public their real convictions of the popular faith. The changes and improvements in religious ideas now observant in the most intelligent portion of the community, are due in part to the rapid progress of scientific discovery and the dissemination of scientific knowledge in Christian countries.
The explorer in the field of religious history, however, comes in here for his meed of praise. New stores of historic facts and data may be reckoned among the recent acquisitions of the laborious archeologist; new fountains of religious history have recently been unsealed, which have had the effect to reveal many errors and false claims set up for the current religion of Christendom—a religion long regarded as settled and stereotyped.
Hesiod had also used the word desmos to describe what bound Prometheus Theogony , An especially fine example of this is the sculpture of Prometheus being freed, from the first-century AD Sebasteion of Aphrodisias,44 but several other examples could be mentioned. No Cross, Yet Still Cruciform? Sometimes his hands are bound above his head, as in the elegant Etruscan gem from the fifth century BC, now in the British Museum Weir Smyth.
Ludwig Reichert Verlag, , tafel pl. See also LIMC 7. Occasionally indeed his arms are outstretched, thus rendering his body more or less cruciform.
One very beautiful example of this is a fourth century, BC, red-figure vase at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin A very similar example of this motif can be seen at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptotek, Munich But to admit this is certainly not to suggest that the idea of a crucified Jesus itself ultimately derived from such images.
For one thing, they did not really portray a crucified Prometheus. Getting Prometheus Unstuck. This is a prominent feature in the various ancient retellings of the myth,56 with the result that 50 E. A third related image is a mosaic floor form the Domus della Fortuna Annonaria which shows Prometheus chained not to a stone arch but to what look like two rock pillars that lean inward but do not join at the top LIMC suppl.
Prometheus Most often, when Heracles is included, he is seen in the process of shooting the eagle,57 although in the first-century AD sculpture from the Sebasteion of Aphrodisias discussed earlier we see the eagle already lying dead and Heracles actually helping Prometheus out of his bonds.
Similarly an Etruscan engraved hand-mirror from Bolsena early 3rd cent. BC, National Cruciform? Well, it comes from the simple fact that Lucian intentionally adopts the 57 Eg. Also, L. Geiben, , The first two appear in the New Testament,59 the third does not. The use of these words does not mean, however, that Lucian was expecting his readers to imagine that Prometheus had been crucified on a traditional cross, to say nothing of his ever having existed at all, he only uses the language analogically, and he does so in such a way as to leave his readers no room to suppose that he, in his second-century AD retelling of the already centuries old myth, was departing from its traditional form in any essentials.
And again as in the earlier versions we have Prometheus first placed in desma ch. All the other details in Lucian echo the traditional myth. There is, again, no question of his actually dying. Midwestern Journal of Theology Prometheus is crucified are the three traditional ones: First, he had tricked Zeus into taking the inferior part of a sacrifice by wrapping bones in gleaming fat,62 second, he created humans and especially women, 63 and third, he stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans ch.
In fact no one did prior to Related Papers. Kersey Gravess Sixteen Crucified Saviors. By Ronald V Huggins. By George L Scheper. By Alexander C Loney. Visualising creation in ancient Greece. By Emma Stafford. Icono 14, volumen 15 1 , pp. Download pdf. Log in with Facebook Log in with Google.
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