The Jesus Mysteries Quotes

“The traditional version of history bequeathed to us by the authorities of the Roman Church is that Christianity developed from the teachings of a Jewish Messiah and that Gnosticism was a later deviation. What would happen, we wondered, if the picture were reversed and Gnosticism viewed as the authentic Christianity, just as the Gnostics themselves claimed? Could it be that orthodox Christianity was a later deviation from Gnosticism and that Gnosticism was a synthesis of Judaism and the Pagan Mystery religion?”
― Timothy Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?

“The Apocalypse of Peter, the risen Jesus calls Literalist Christianity an 'imitation church' in place of the true Christian brotherhood of the Gnostics. From the Gnostics' point of view, it was the Literalists who had distorted true Christianity.”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?

“We have kept the form, but lost the meaning.”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?

“Of course this will never be accepted by fundamentalists, but if Christianity bows to reactionary pressure to return to its authoritarian past it will be consigning itself to the dustbin of history. The modern world is simply too sophisticated to fall for the 'it must be true because it says so in the Bible' routine.”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?

“Taking the Jesus myth as history led Literalists to abandon the Gnostic doctrine of reincarnation. Because Literalists believed that the godman had died and resurrected once only in time, they also conceived of a human life as a once-only event. Afterlife reward or punishment was, therefore, for all time, not a temporary precursor to another human life. This left them with what the Pagan Celsus calls the 'offensive doctrine' that a good God could countenance abandoning those who didn't make the grade to an eternity of suffering.[15]”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?

“Like countless scholars who have made this quest before us, we have found that looking for an historical Jesus is futile.”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?

“There is nothing more negative than the result of the critical study of the life of Jesus. The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the kingdom of God, who founded the kingdom of heaven upon earth, and died to give his work its final consecration, never had any existence. This image has not been destroyed from without, it has fallen to pieces, cleft and disintegrated by the concrete historical problems which came to the surface one after another.[1] Albert Schweitzer”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?

“The Christians say that God has hands, a mouth, and a voice; they are always proclaiming that 'God said this' or 'God spoke'. 'The heavens declare the work of his hands,' they say. I can only comment that such a God is no God at all, for God has neither hands, mouth nor voice, nor any characteristics of which we know. Their absurd doctrines even contain reference to God walking about in the garden he created for man; and they speak of him being angry, jealous, moved to repentance, sorry, sleepy — in short as being in every respect more a man than a God.[112] Further, for all their exclusiveness about the highest God, do not the Jews also worship angels?[”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?

“It is equally silly of these Christians to suppose that when their god applies the fire (like a common cook!) all the rest of mankind will be thoroughly roasted, and that they alone will escape unscorched — not just those alive at the time, mind you, but they say those long since dead will rise up from the earth possessing the same bodies as they did before. I ask you: Is this not the hope of worms? For what sort of human soul is it that has any use for a rotted corpse of a body? The very fact that some Jews and even some Christians reject this teaching about rising corpses shows just how repulsive it is; it is nothing less than nauseating and impossible. I mean, what sort of body is it that could return to its original nature or become the same as it was before it rotted away? And of course they have no reply for this one, and as in most cases where there is no reply they take cover by saying 'Nothing is impossible with God.'[”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?

“Eusebius was employed by the Roman Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the state religion of the Empire and gave Literalist Christianity the power it needed to begin the final eradication of Paganism and Gnosticism. Constantine wanted 'one God, one religion' to consolidate his claim of 'one Empire, one Emperor'. He oversaw the creation of the Nicene creed — the article of faith repeated in churches to this day — and Christians who refused to assent to this creed were banished from the Empire or otherwise silenced.”
― Tim Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?