Zucco

Are there any well-researched books on ancient myths like Horus, Mithra, Dionysus/Bacchus, and their similarities to Jesus? Some of the stuff I've read on the Internet has blown my socks off, but I've also seen sites disputing the resumes of these pre-christian man gods. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Godless Wonder

There's "The book your church doesn't want you to read", but I don't know if I'd call it "well researched." It seems to be a collection of essays, more than a book. Some are better than others, naturally. It's kind of spotty, I'd say, but interesting.

The Bible Unearthed is pretty interesting, although it doesn't really go into the mythology, it's more concerned with archaeological findings.

Karen Armstrong's "This History of God, The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam" gets recommnended around here a lot. The author is a former nun, so the perspective appears to be that of a theist trying very hard to be objective, though I can't say for sure what the author's leanings are. Theists appear to find this book more palatable than things written from a more plainly atheist perspective, or so it seems to me.

Pensee

The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy.

Couldn't recommend it any higher. It's what convinced me that Jesus is a myth.

Basically, they say that during those ancient times, there was this godman prototype. It was the same being called different names in different regions. Osiris in Egypt, Dionysus in Greece, Baccus in Italy, Mithras in Persia, Adonis in Syria, Attis in Asia Minor. They're all the same god. It was well known. There are actual coins from that time made with Dionysus on one side and Osiris on the other. The details of these gods may differ from region-to-region according to the culture, but their essential story line is all the same.

He's God made flesh, born of a virgin before 3 shephards to take away the sins of the world. Performed miracles including turning water into wine, raising the dead, healing the sick, and calming the seas. Had 12 disciples. Needed to die to redeem mankind. Crucified, went to hell, and rose again 3 days later. His followers perfom rites like baptism and taking communion which represents his blood and his body. His followers wait in anticipation for his return at judgment day.

Eventually, the Jewish people adapted this same god and called him Jesus. His story line is the same as the others.

It's quite intriguing. If you're at all interested in the pagan history of Christianity, you must read this book.

Heurismus

Whoa there, just before you start bringing in non related 'divinities.' I suggest you start logically with a few books on Homer and Greek mythology. Start at one place only. Then, you can expand geographically, both in space and time.

Have you read any Herodotus? If not then you will not get a solid anchor on other re-themed myths. I can help, but such research, depending on your amount of time might be long, and it requires dedication. Send me a message, and I'll do all I can to help.

But others may help you with other aspects as I do not have the time. Cheers H

Biff the unclean

Zucco is right on the money as to where to look for sources of Jesus. JC is mostly a combination of Dionysos & Mithra.

An excellent book to read is Joseph Campbell's Occidental Mythology from his The Masks of God series. Campbell never comes out and says that Jesus is a copy. Frankly he doesn't have to. Once you know the older myths there is no other conclusion you can honestly reach.

beowulf_king

To go with's Heurismus comment on reading some classical greek works, this site has online copies of many greek and roman myths including Herodotus' The Histories:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/p...man.html#text1

MysteryProf

If you can stomach original literature, I'd recommend reading some of Celsus' critiques of Christianity. He was a pagan who basically pointed out that Christianity didn't propose anything new.

Justin Martyr also has some classic passages where he attempts to defend Christianity by accusing pagan religions of "diabolical mimicry." (Basically, Martyr's claim was that the devil had told distorted tales about Jesus in advance so that the heathens would be deceived. Gives you historical perspective on modern Christian arguments, eh?)

~MysteryProf

NeoApostate

I did some searching on google and was able to come up with this site:

Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth

I haven't read it all yet, so I can vouch for it being either good or accurate, but it does take a lot of the similar gods and put them in one place.

Marduk

�Are there any well-researched books on ancient myths like Horus, Mithra, Dionysus/Bacchus, and their similarities to Jesus?�

The best thing to do would be to read a book about ancient myths written by someone with an expertise in a particular culture who is not trying to draw comparisons, and then make your own conclusions. Many of these �comparisons to Jesus myths� are tenuous at best. The whole Jesus/Mythra comparison sounds good when written by say a journalist, but ask an expert on Mythraism and he may just laugh out loud.
The problem with many of these �the Jesus myth is just like X� books is that they our written by folks who are neither an expert in Christianity or the Pagan culture they are comparing to. Many of the dying/rising gods are seasonal occurrences from agrarian societies celebrating a harvest and have nothing to do with the Jesus/Jewish tradition of atonement etc.
I enjoyed reading �The book your church doesn�t want you to read� the essays are interesting and entertaining, but as far as historical research goes it is pretty lame.

NeoApostate

Yeah, that's what I'd like to do, but sadly it seems harder to find stuff like that than it does the kind of pop-researched books like the others mentioned.

Any recommendations on where to start?