perfectpawn

Anyone here familiar with the works of James Morgan Pryse? Writing in the early 20th Century (he did in the 1940s), he published several books which "exposed" the Hellenistic Mystery Religion origins of Christianity.

For those who are interested, I've reviewed his books "Apocalypse Unsealed," "Magical Message According to Ioannes," and "The Restored New Testament" (volumes 1 and 2) under the name "buttergun" at amazon.com.

I've also found those three books online:

Apocalypse Unsealed:
http://books.google.com/books?id=VKM...BIXy6gKa3_HLBw

Magical Message:
http://books.google.com/books?id=r6Q...Epvy6wLt5MXOBw

Restored New Testament:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Hxw...CZCg6wKlmqzQBw

Of the three, I think "Apocalypse" is the best, as in 200 pages Pryse goes about proving that the so-called "Revelation of St. John" is in reality a gnostic treatise on a soul's progress through multiple incarnations towards gnosis. He does this by relating the hidden chart encoded via gemmatria in the text itself.

The Restored New Testament is by far the longest. Published in a 1-volume edition of nearly 1,000 pages in the 1920s, it was later broken up into two volumes and is comparable to Robert Graves' "Nazarene Gospel Restored" in that it goes about viciously proving its point. Only Pryse's book proves a different point to Graves' theory of Jesus as a devout Jew whose teachings were stolen and mutilated by Gentiles -- Pryse's contention is that Christianity was a Hellenistic Jew Mystery Religion. The second half of the Restored New Testament (aka Volume 2) is probably my favorite thing Pryse ever wrote -- the Synoptic Gospels translated, with commentary after each section, Pryse showing how the Jewish portions have been added to the text (and proving easily how they are later additions by "scholars" who had no understanding of Judaism or the "Old Testament" itself).

Today the books of Freke and Gandy ("Jesus Mysteries," etc) and others who theorize on the ahistoricy of Jesus are well-known, but Pryse has been forgotten. He actually stands above these latter-day scholars, as he was a one-man research clinic -- fluent in ancient languages, able to translate on his own, knowledgeable of ancient religions, astrology, and mysticism in general. I'd say one of his few detriments is that he wrote too early -- dying before the Nag Hammadi scrolls were even discovered.

Just curious if anyone else has read his work, and has any opinions on him.