Religion

Editorial

The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus Christ

Part1- The Ishaputra of The Ancients

[The discovery of Gnostic Gospels in Egypt as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls have challenged
the very tenets of the orthodox Christian Church as well as the historicity of Christ. In this
part we shall see how closely Christ resembles the ancient archetypal God-Son or Ishaputra
and how his legend developed. In subsequent instalments we shall briefly survey these
gospels and see how they were suppressed by the Church, the history of the early Christian
church and how the present New Testament was created. In these discussions the word
Church (with capital C) refers to the Orthodox Roman Catholic Church]

The One is incomprehensible The Gnostic gospels do not refer to these

Perfectly free from corruption four. But before we look into them we have to
Not “perfect” first discuss how they were discovered. We
Not “blessed” also have to know something about the
Not “divine” history of the Christian church during the
But superior to such concepts. first few centuries after the supposed birth
Neither physical nor unphysical and death of Christ as well as the historicity
Neither immense nor infinitesimal of Christ himself.

Passage from an Upanishad? No, it is from the Discovery

Secret Book of John, a ‘Gnostic’ gospel! The Doubts about the historical existence of Jesus
word gnosis will not appear to be unfamiliar to emerged after Renaissance when critical
an Indian reader and quite rightly so. It will study of the Gospels developed in the 18th
immediately remind him of the root word 'dyna' century, and some English scholars towards
of Sanskrit which has given rise to dynana in the end of that century are said to have
Sanskrit, gnosis in Greek, znate in Russian and believed that no historical Jesus existed.
knowledge in English. Its literal meaning in Attacks by the early Church on heretic
Greek connotes "knowledge" or the "act of writings lead to a suspicion that alternate
knowing". Gnosticism is the teaching based on gospels also existed in the early days. The
Gnosis, the knowledge of transcendence arrived first of these emerged in 1769, when a
at by way of interior, intuitive means. It will Scottish tourist named James Bruce bought a
immediately be apparent that here it refers to Coptic manuscript near Thebes (modern
'pradnya' or intuitive spiritual knowledge. Luxor) in Upper Egypt. Published only in
1892, it claims to record conversations of
But the reader will certainly wonder in which Jesus with his disciplesa group that here
context this word is mentioned with the Gospels includes both men and women. In 1773 a
of the Bible. As is well known the four gospels of collector found in a London bookshop an
the Bible- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, form ancient text, also in Coptic, that contained a
the first part of the New Testament in the Bible. dialogue on "mysteries" between Jesus and
The first three of these are called the 'synoptic' his disciples. In 1896 a German Egyptologist,
gospels since their content and style is more or alerted by the previous publications, bought
less similar and are believed to have originated in Cairo a manuscript that, to his amazement,
from an unknown common source called Q. The contained the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene)
organization and content of John is quite and three other texts which was published
different from the other three. All four describe only in 1955. Some fragments of other texts
the life of Jesus and his resurrection. like The Gospel of Peter were also

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Editorial

discovered Several statements in the New Testament can

But it was on a December day in the year of be traced to these scrolls.
1945, near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper
Egypt, that the course of Gnostic studies was The discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts and
radically renewed and forever changed. An Arab the Dead Sea Scrolls have fundamentally
peasant, digging around a boulder in search of revised our understanding of both
fertilizer for his fields, happened upon an old, Gnosticism and the early Christian church.
rather large red earthenware jar. Hoping to have But before we take a look at them it will be
found a buried treasure, he smashed the jar open. important to make a brief survey of Christ's
Inside he discovered no treasure and no genie, historicity and the history of the earlier
but instead books- more than a dozen old codices Church which came into conflict with these
bound in golden brown leather. Little did he writings
realize that he had found an extraordinary
collection of ancient texts, manuscripts hidden a Who was Jesus Christ? Did he at all exist?
millennium and a half before -- probably by
monks from the nearby monastery of St. What does the orthodox Christian doctrine
Pachomius seeking to preserve them from a say? It states (i) that the man called Jesus
destruction ordered by the Church as part of its Christ was born of Immaculate Conception to
violent expunging of heterodoxy and heresy. Mary, wife of Joseph; (ii) that he was
How the Nag Hammadi manuscripts eventually therefore the only Son of God; (iii) that he
passed into scholarly hands is a fascinating story died on the cross to redeem mankind from
too lengthy to relate here. But today, now over sin; (iv) that he was resurrected and that he
fifty years since being unearthed and more than ascended bodily to heaven. More
two decades after final translation and importantly, (v) anyone accepting Christ as
publication in English as The Nag Hammadi the sole saviour would attain eternal
Library (http://www.gnosis.org/), their salvation - anyone not doing so, especially
importance has become astoundingly clear: idol worshippers (pagans or heathens like
These thirteen papyrus codices containing fifty- Hindus), will eternally fry in Hell. We shall
two sacred texts are representatives of the long further discuss these tenets later in our survey
lost "Gnostic Gospels", which the Church of the New Testament.
perceived to be its most dangerous and insidious
challenge. Subsequently a few other gospels like We now have to see how far all this is true and
the Gospel of Judas (yes, Judas!) have been historical. He could have been a historical
discovered elsewhere. figure who was actually crucified but who
then rose from his grave, gave darshan to his
A discovery of equal importance was made also followers and ascended to heaven. On the
almost simultaneously in 1947. These were other hand he could have been a purely
ancient scrolls termed as the Dead Sea Scrolls mythical figure created during a very
which were discovered in the Qumran caves at turbulent phase of Jewish history in which
the north end of the Dead Sea. Initially they were they were defeated and expelled from their
cornered by the Church who did not allow others homeland.
to access them. Eventually after a few decades
the Church hegemony was broken and it now To determine which of this is more likely, we
appears that they are records of Jews hidden in will have to investigate the social and
these caves during the turbulent times when they political conditions of the region extending
agitated against the Roman rule. Scholars see in from Rome to Iran. Before 670 BCE Egypt
these texts evidences of the apocalyptic, had been a closed country, but in this year she
messianic foment from which Christianity arose. opened her borders and one of the first

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Editorial

Greeks who travelled there in search of ancient  He is surrounded by 12 disciples

wisdom was Pythagoras. He spent 22 years in the (corresponding to the twelve signs of zodiac)
temples of Egypt, becoming an initiate of the He dies at Easter time (hanged or crucified)
ancient Egyptian Mysteries. He is also believed as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
to have visited India. After his return to Greece After his death he descends to hell, then on
his disciples created a Greek Mystery religion the third day he rises from the dead and
modelled on the Egyptian Mysteries. They took ascends to heaven in glory.
the indigenous wine god Dionysus (and later His followers await his return as the judge
Bacchus), who was a minor deity and during the Last Days.
transformed him into a Greek version of the
His death and resurrection are celebrated
mighty Egyptian Osiris, godman of the
by a ritual meal of bread and wine which
Mysteries. This initiated a religious and cultural
symbolize his body and blood.
revolution that was to transform Athens into the
centre of the civilized world. Other
Mediterranean cultures which adopted the
Mystery religion also transformed one of their
indigenous deities into the dying and
resurrecting Mystery godman. So, the deity who
was known as Osiris in Egypt and became
Dionysus in Greece was called Attis in Asia
Minor, Adonis in Syria, Bacchus in Italy,
Mithras in Iran, and so on. Hindus neither
conceived nor followed this concept since they
already had the concept of avatara i.e. Vishnu or
another God directly descending on earth in an
appropriate form in order to accomplish a
specific mission.

His forms were many, but essentially he was the

same perennial figure, whose collective identity
we may term as Ishaputra or Son of God. And all
of them followed the archetypal pattern below

The Ishaputra is God made flesh and the

Saviour
His father is God himself and his mother is a
mortal virgin.
He is born in a cave or humble cowshed on 25
December (winter solstice) before three
shepherds. Source: Cover page 'The Jesus Mysteries’
He offers his followers the chance to be born by Freke and Gandy
again through the rites of baptism.
He miraculously turns water into wine at a Has not Jesus himself followed this pattern?
marriage ceremony. Only names differ but all incidents in his
He heals the sick, exorcises demons, provides lifetime are substantially the same. There is
miraculous meals, helps fishermen make also nothing unique about the cross. The
miraculous catches of fish and calms the water cross, a figure probably derived from
for his disciples swastika, was a sacred symbol to the
ancients. A drawing of a third-century CE
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amulet shows a crucified figure which most and Pagan cultures occurred in the Greek city
people would immediately recognize as of Jesus. of Alexandria in Egypt. It is thought that up to
Yet the inscribed Greek words name the figure half of the original population of Alexandria
'Orpheus Bacchus', one of the Greek version of were Jews. It is also widely known that there
Ishaputra. The four arms of the cross were several Hindu/Buddhist centres in
represented the four elements of the physical Alexandria and other regions. A large
world - earth, water, air and fire. The fifth numbers of Jews chose to break with their
element, spirit, was bound to materiality by these traditions and attempted to integrate
four elements. The figure of a man nailed to a themselves into Pagan society. In a
four-armed cross would, therefore, naturally remarkably short period, several Jews
have signified the predicament of the initiate as a abandoned their own tongue and adopted the
soul bound to a physical body. Plato refers to the universal Greek language.
desires of the body as nails (kleshas) that one by
one fasten the soul to the body. The nails used to In order to make the Mysteries easily
crucify Ishaputra through the hands and feet accessible to Jews what was needed was an
would have been symbolic of our sensual desires indigenous mythological figure which could
which attach the soul to this world of the four be transformed into a Jewish Ishaputra.
elements. It is also a remarkable fact that we There was only one
have no representations of the crucified Jesus Jewish mythological figure who could
before the fifth century CE. possibly be transformed, the Messiah. The
Hebrew word 'Messiah' means 'Anointed',
Jesus, the Jew Ishaputra? which in Greek is translated as 'Christos' i.e.
Christ in English (it is interesting to note that
If we however accept that the Jews had modelled in the ancient Greek dialect Sri Krishna is
their Saviour or Messiah using this template we also referred to as 'Christos'). The term was
will have to explain what made them do so. The originally used to designate kings and high
Jews strictly adhered to the rigid Law laid down priests, who were ritually anointed with oil.
by Abraham and Moses and there should have In later years, when the Jews were a
been compelling reasons for them to deviate conquered and defeated people, it came to
from it. signify a future redeemer who would come to
free them from their oppressors and restore
The history of the ancient Jews is one of repeated the Jewish state under a king of the line of
conquest by other nations: in 922 BCE by the their great King David.
Egyptians; in 700 BCE by the Assyrians; in 586
BCE by the Babylonians; in 332 BCE by the The construction of the Jesus story suggests
Greeks under Alexander the Great; in 198 BCE that the creators of the Jewish Mysteries took
by the Syrians; and finally in 63 BCE by the this only option available to them and
Romans, who completely destroyed the state of synthesized the dying and resurrecting
Judea in 112 CE. As a result of these invasions, godman of the Mysteries with the Jewish
integration between Jewish and Pagan culture Messiah. Jesus is claimed to be born in
had been going on for centuries. These conquests Bethlehem from the line of David - just as the
inevitably led to the Jewish people coming under Messiah must be. The name Jesus is just a
the cultural influence of their conquerors as well Greek rendering of his probable Hebrew
as Jews becoming dispersed throughout the name 'Yehoshua” i.e. 'Yahweh delivers' or
Mediterranean as slaves, forming the so-called 'the one that will bring victory', something
'Diaspora'. Jews of the Diaspora integrated similar to our 'Yashodhan'. Yet Jesus the
Pagan spirituality with their own religious Messiah is actually only a thin veil
traditions and even adopted the Pagan concealing the quite different figure of Jesus
Mysteries. The greatest integration of Jewish
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the dying and resurrecting godman. He is a To help Jews over the major hurdle of Jesus'
synthesis of two pre-existing mythical figures- ignominious death and obvious lack of
pagan Ishaputra and Jewish Messiah. military triumph against their oppressors,
Jesus was now portrayed as claiming that he
It is clear from the Gospels that the architect of will return again. He promises an imminent
the present Christian Church was Paul, probably Second Coming when he will return in glory
the only historical figure in the New Testament to smite his enemies and fulfil the
and the most influential Christian of all times. expectations of the Jewish Messiah. Yet Jesus
Hence it will be important to check his could not be said to have existed in the
background. He was a Roman citizen and born distant past like the Pagan Mystery godman,
in a prosperous Jewish family. It is quite likely because such a Messiah could not bring
that he would have been recruited by the Roman political salvation to his people now. He
authorities to split the Jew society when its would have to be portrayed as coming in the
opposition to them became difficult to repress. recent past, as this alone would make him
We have seen sufficient examples of such tactics relevant. Portraying the Jesus story as a
in our own history. This Paul did quite record of actual events would, therefore,
successfully by first joining the Church and later have to be fitted into the general style of
claiming that he had a vision of Christ on his way Jewish scriptures.
to Damascus. He thus adopted the Jew Ishaputra
symbol to his own needs and propagated this Moreover, once the myth had become
mystic version in his several yatras (54-64 AD) historicized, the new cult of Christianity had
not only among Jews but also among pagans. For the added appeal that it made a genuinely
this he de-linked the symbol from Jews by revolutionary claim - that the Ishaputra had
insisting on Faith rather on Law. It should actually walked the Earth in the recent past.
however be noted that even he did not regard Gradually Jesus was now no longer portrayed
Jesus as a historical figure. as coming to save only the Jews, but as
coming to save the whole of humanity; not to
By 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed merely remain a Jewish Messiah but to
Jerusalem, many Jews felt completely betrayed become a universal Saviour. Since all
by their god Jehovah, who had clearly failed to relevant records of this period have been
protect them from their enemies. It was at some either destroyed or tampered with by the
point after these disastrous events that the Jesus Church we will never know what actually
myth was first put into an historical context by happened. We only know that in all
the Gospel of Mark. Hellenized Jews looked for probability the Jesus of the New Testament is
some way of boosting the morale of their a concocted figure.
compatriots streaming out of Judea as refugees. A. P. Joshi

‘Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever
infected the world’.
— Voltaire (French Philosopher, 1694-1778)
‘Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity,
have been burnt, tortured, find, imprisoned: yet we have not advanced one inch towards
humanity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools, and
the other half hypocrites. To support error and roguery all over the earth’
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

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