Was the original Jesus a Pagan god?

Question

respect others answers please...

Answer 1

All of the aspects that went into the creation of the fictional character known as Jesus were taken from older myths, just as many aspects of christianity were. It's quite common for old ideas to be repackaged. It makes the new ones more palatable.

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Did a historical Jesus exist?
http://www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm
[Excerpt]

ALL CLAIMS OF JESUS DERIVE FROM HEARSAY ACCOUNTS

No one has the slightest physical evidence to support a historical Jesus; no artifacts, dwelling, works of carpentry, or self-written manuscripts. All claims about Jesus derive from writings of other people. There occurs no contemporary Roman record that shows Pontius Pilate executing a man named Jesus. Devastating to historians, there occurs not a single contemporary writing that mentions Jesus. All documents about Jesus got written well after the life of the alleged Jesus from either: unknown authors, people who had never met an earthly Jesus, or from fraudulent, mythical or allegorical writings. Although one can argue that many of these writings come from fraud or interpolations, I will use the information and dates to show that even if these sources did not come from interpolations, they could still not serve as reliable evidence for a historical Jesus, simply because all sources derive from hearsay accounts.

Hearsay means information derived from other people rather than on a witness' own knowledge.

Courts of law do not generally allow hearsay as testimony, and nor does honest modern scholarship. Hearsay provides no proof or good evidence, and therefore, we should dismiss it.

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The Myth of the Historical Jesus
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html

Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?
http://www.ffrf.org/about/bybarker/rise.php

Pagan origins of Jesus:
http://www.medmalexperts.com/POCM/index.html
http://geocities.com/christprise/
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html
http://www.rationalresponders.com/a_silence_that_screams_no_contemporary_historical_accounts_for_jesus
http://www.truthbeknown.com/origins.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/pcc/pcc09.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa3.htm
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/lecture.html
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/virgin.html
http://www.harrington-sites.com/motif.htm
http://altreligion.about.com/library/weekly/aa052902a.htm
http://www.apollonius.net/bernard1e.html

Answer 2

Ray's answer is interesting and has a little merit but I respectfully submit that the following is even more valid.

I think Jesus started as a pagan/Jewish mix and was transformed into the modern version by Roman mythology.

During the century or so before Jesus there were scores, perhaps hundreds, of messiah claims and cults. Many practiced baptism and had human sacrifice themes. One of the biggest was the cult of the Magna Mater. In this, the goddesses son, nature, died every late winter and was reborn a few days later as spring. The cult baptised in ox blood (thank G-d, so to speak, that didn't catch on!)

I think the early Jesus cult was one of these groups mixing Jewish teaching with area pagan beliefs. This happened to be the one, however, that was believed by the wife of a roman emperor and round-about became the religion of rome.

Note that Judaism teaches that there is one G-d who is all energy and thought. Satan is merely an angel G-d occassionally sends to test people but can not act independently of G-d. Only humans are capable of free will like G-d is. There is no hell. If you look at any other mythology you would call any being who can act supernaturally and independently of G-d a god. That's what a god is. Apollo, Gnisha, Pluto, whoever. Keeping our lexicon consistent we must acknowledge the Christian version of Satan as a second god, a god of evil. This plural god idea has roots in Zoroastrianism but would have been comfortable to Romans, who had been raised with a pantheon.

-Glenn O.

Answer 3

The word "Pagan" is a reference to an ancient city in Burma. It's another example of West meeting and eastern culture and not understanding anything they see... so they called the monks and their beliefs pagan.

John the Baptist was a monk... and Jesus called him the "greatest man born of a woman." So, when in comes to the monastic life and what they are doing??? I don't think anyone can say for sure if it is related to what was going on in Burma or not.

But just from my own point of view, I don't look at Jesus as a Pagan god.

Answer 4

There were many preachers at that time advocating all sorts of variations of Judaism. Many had similar ideas with certain variations. The ideas of the New Testament is similar to a lot of Pagan ideas. Yesu(?) might have been a preacher who advocated non-violence and this might have caught on. When Christianity was developing they needed a figure head and this name sounded good.

Answer 5

there is no credible evidence that jesus existed, despite the fact that there were historians and commentators in the area at the time. how is it possible that none of them noticed the multitudes following this man? there was a galilleean rebel movement at the time opposing the roman emporer, who claimed to be a god. it makes much more sense that these rebels created a god to rival the emporer, especially considering how heavily they borrowed from other religions.

Answer 6

Jesus is the son of god he is the truth the way and the light and you can't get to the father (god) (hevan) without going through him first. Plus even if you don't belive that Jesus belived in a monothestic ( 1 god) religon Judasim and started the other monothestic religon Christanity and Pagan belifs are all polyothestic

Answer 7

No, Jesus was a real person... non-religious studies have proven that a man named Jesus, son of John actually lived and died in that time period. Now whether there's any truth to his deity is still under quite a bit of debate.

Answer 8

The story of Jesus came from older religions yes.

Answer 9

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Christ IS the original, the only Son of man and Son of God.

With all due respect, saying Christ is pagan blasphemey.

Blessings.

Answer 10

According to the Bible, Jesus was a man born alive to a real woman. Gods were not born, they were created in man's mind.