First things first; a little disclosure. D.N Boswell is a mate of mine, so I am here promoting the work of a friend. We have never met in person, but have been friends online for a good 8 years or so. Furthermore, Boswell has been somewhat of a mentor to me in my own writing, and in my methodology. The reason we became friends was I became aware of the work that he was doing that has now culminated in a free eBook “The Perennial Gospel”[i] (TPG hereafter), previously titled “The Amen Creed”, before it was taken offline and updated[ii]. I was aware from the beginning of the extraordinary quality, clarity and relevance of Boswell’s work. Hence, I got in touch with him and we have kept in touch since. So, whilst I am here plugging a mate’s book, the very reason we are mates is because of the exceptional work that he does.
Having made all this quite clear, I want to recommend that anyone with any interest in Christian origins absolutely must read his book (linked above), and I also highly recommend his blog[iii]. There is a great treasure-trove of knowledge contained in TPG that is not otherwise published anywhere else in a way that is easily accessible and readable for laymen.
The field of Jesus mythicism[iv] has long been criticised as being almost entirely the realm of amateurs rather than serious academics. Christian apologists and a significant number of outspoken mainstream scholars (such as Bart Ehrman and James McGrath) tend to dismiss Jesus mythicism as mere Internet conspiracy theories, with no real credibility or substance.
Certainly, it is indeed true that the field has until recent times been lacking serious, rigorous scholarship, and that the methodology of many of its major proponents has been rather “loose”. Many of the major names in the field have indeed made significant mistakes, have stretched evidence and have made grand claims without providing proper references. There is one particular modern book which I read a number of times, only to be quite disappointed that the references to original material as cited in the endnotes turned out to be largely vapour[v].
In (relatively) recent times Dr. Robert M. Price, Earl Doherty and Thomas L Brodie have shown that a proper methodology can be applied to Jesus mythicism, without watering down the primary conclusions of earlier writers. In 2014 along came Richard Carrier’s much awaited work, “On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt”[vi]. For anyone unfamiliar with the work, I highly recommend you purchase a copy, as it is a major game-changer, as a comprehensive, peer-reviewed scholarly work published by an academic press. Carrier certainly raised the bar and set a challenge to historicists (both secular and religious), which many of us feel has not been met (by historicists).
TPG is not specifically a rigorous presentation of a case for mythicism (or non-historicity as I sometime call it), but rather a rigorous presentation of a case for pagan parallels. For anyone unfamiliar, the study of pagan parallels is the examination of similarities between the mythology of various classical nations (the Middle East, Egypt, Greece, Rome etc.) and Christianity (i.e. The New Testament and the Christian creeds). Certainly there is significant continuity between Judaism and Christianity (but also areas of diversion as well), and no credible mythicist argues against this. Credible mythicists do not argue that Jesus was specifically a copy of only pagan gods, but rather that the figure of Jesus (and Christianity as a whole) emerged through syncretism between messianic Judaism and various streams of what we call “pagan”[vii] religion and mythology, in particular the Mystery religions of the Greek-Roman world. In fact, many mythicists have argued that large parts of the Gospel narrative were affectively re-written Jewish myths, derived directly from the pages of the Hebrew scriptures[viii].
So, TPG is a work that deals solely with the topic of pagan parallels, and is almost certainly the most rigorous work to date on the topic. Boswell may not have formal university qualifications, but he understands scholarship and has referenced a large number of scholarly works, provided direct citations, illustrations and extensive footnotes. However, it is not simply a cold, dense academic work (though it certainly still is dense). Rather, Boswell has a certain skill for satire, and the entire work is clothed in humour. From the first pages, TPG presents itself as the work of an apologist of the ancient Egyptian religion, writing to refute the “heathens” who deny the ancient creed of Osiris.
So, TPG is a satirical but scholarly work focussing on the extensive parallels between the figure of Christ (and the religion built around him) and Osiris – and his son Horus – (and again, the cult/s built around them), along with the host of Greek, Roman (and other) gods that were syncretic with Osiris. TPG absolutely shows without any possibility of doubt that the figure of Jesus Christ fits the bill as yet another syncretic version of Osiris. In particular, TPG was written to show the original source evidence first hand that validates many of the more extreme pagan parallel claims. In fact, some of the evidence presented within is clearly unknown to the vast majority of academics who specialise in Christian origins. There are some major revelations contained within that are otherwise certainly completely unknown to both historicists (again, both secular and religious) and mythicists.
There have been many works beforehand that have made the case for a causal relationship between Osiris or Horus and Christ, and general relationships between Egyptian religion and Christianity. However, previous works have been of a largely amateur standard, in which legitimate arguments are presented side-by-side and intertwined with various mistakes, false claims and over-extensions. More to the point, there were some arguments and claims made in such works that previously have been dismissed as baseless – even by reputable mythicists such as Richard Carrier (and certainly by historicists) – that now can be verified and validated.
In recent times many people became familiar with this case through the relevant portion[ix] of the Internet movie sensation “Zeitgeist (1)”[x], along with the writings of the late D.M. Murdock (aka Acharya S)[xi]. It must be said straight up that the presentation of the case in Zeitgeist was poor for a number of reasons, and many current mythicists have been quite outspoken about it (as have both secular historicists and religious apologists). The original source material for the relevant section of Zeitgeist was the work of D.M. Murdock, and she did herself present the work in a superior form to that featured in the movie. However, Murdock’s work was itself not without major flaws, and although the quality of her work improved significantly over the course of her career, justice was never done to the truth of the matter through previous works.
This is where D.N. Boswell comes in. Whereas secular historians, religious apologists and even reputable mythicists (such as Richard Carrier) have almost uniformly rejected the Zeitgeist thesis as pure garbage, there are significant parts of the Zeitgeist thesis that can indeed be validated by primary source material. Hence, TPG should be a game-changer in relation to the relationship between the ancient Egyptian religion and Christianity. There is material contained here that is truly ground breaking. Given that scholars specialising in Christian origins seem to have been largely unaware of much of this material, it seems that there hasn’t been adequate interaction and communication between specialists on the various relevant subjects.
Beware though, satire aside, it is a long and dense book. It will take some time to read, and read properly. Having said this, it is well worthwhile. Furthermore, for anyone seriously interested in Christian origins, this should be essential reading, hence why I have written today. I do plan on writing a proper review of TPG at some point in the future, where I will highlight some of the very significant evidence it presents. However, for the time being, I am simply recommending any of my readers with an interest in the topic follow the link in the endnotes and read it themselves.
Peace
[i] https://www.scribd.com/doc/217853241/Pagan-Parallels-The-Ultimate-Source-Guide. The link to the Ebook itself (as above) is also found on the following from Boswell’s blog. The link works, but for some reason I had trouble with it in Word when I was typing this article: https://mythodoxy.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/gospel/.
[ii] I was only recently aware that it had been re-uploaded.
[iii] https://mythodoxy.wordpress.com.
[iv] That being, the study of Christian origins with the contention that Christianity began without a historical Jesus.
[v] “The Jesus Mysteries”, by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy. I actually quite liked the book, and still think it has merit (unlike Richard Carrier, who has openly told his readers to avoid it at all cost). Despite the poor methodology, I would argue that many (but not all) of its conclusions are still correct, and can be supported by proper methodology. Likewise, I still would argue that there are significant contributions made to the overall topic in this work. I personally suggest read, but with caution.
[vi] https://www.amazon.com/Historicity-Jesus-Might-Reason-Doubt/dp/1909697494
[vii] I don’t really like the term for a number of reasons, but I use it simply because it is easy and familiar.
[viii] See the following: http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/art_midrash1.htm
[ix] The rest of the movie was about 911 and banking conspiracy theories.
[x] If you’ve never seen it, you can currently find it on YouTube here (and some other places), but watch with caution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNXTEMnpmb8. It appears that the official site has removed it’s link for the time being.
[xi] I posted the following after her death: https://jameshiscoxblogs.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/my-thoughts-on-the-passing-of-d-m-murdock-aka-archaya-s/
jameshiscoxblogs 