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Greatest story ever garbled: a critique of "The Greatest Story Ever Told"--Part I of the Internet film Zeitgeist.

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PERHAPS THE WORST ASPECT OF "THE Greatest Story Ever Told," Part I of Peter Joseph's Internet film, Zeitgeist, is that some of what it asserts is true. Unfortunately, this material is liberally--and sloppily--mixed with material that is only partially true, and much that is plainly and simply bogus. Joseph's main argument is that Jesus never existed and that he is in fact a mythical character based on earlier sun gods. He sees all the motifs and characters of the New Testament as coded astrological or solar references. The argument that Jesus was a mythical construct has been made before--for example by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy in their 1999 book, The Jesus Mysteries, though Freke and Gandy made their argument with a far greater level of scholarship. In reducing Jesus to a sun god, Joseph ignores--as Freke and Gandy did before him--the powerful current of messianic apocalypticism prevalent in first century Judea. The fact that there are actually references to earlier dying and rising gods in the Christ myth can lend an air of spurious scholarship to Zeitgeist, but only as long as one ignores the equally important messianic myth and the fact that there is a viable basis for an actual historical Jesus. Joseph totally ignores the messianic/apocalyptic aspects of the New Testament writings and erroneously asserts that there is no evidence for a historical Jesus. I will return to this issue later. For now, let us consider the solar deity argument.

The Solar Cross and Sloppy Solar Symbolism

The first assertion made in Zeitgeist is that the cross is a solar symbol and not a representation of the instrument of Jesus' execution. That's true enough, as far as it goes, which isn't very far. What Jesus was crucified on probably looked more like a capital "T," the crossbeam to which Jesus' wrists were nailed being hoisted to rest atop an already anchored upright post. It was then probably secured in place by a spike. The Christian cross probably represents a melding of this "T" shape with the solar cross as a bit of religious syncretism. This can be seen if one considers that many Christian crosses are shown enclosed by or intersecting a circle, as in the Celtic cross. The cross is also a symbol of the four cardinal directions and the four winds. However, the solar associations of the cross, while adding solar connotations to the Christ myth, do not militate against it also being a symbol of the Crucifixion.

Joseph next asserts that the gods Horus, Krishna, Mithra, and Attys all paralleled Jesus. Again, there is some truth to this, but Joseph mingles so much falsehood with whatever truths he reveals as to give ample ammunition to evangelical Christians who might want to shoot holes in his thesis. First of all, he says that the Egyptian god Horns was adored by three kings, had twelve disciples and was crucified. He says much the same thing about Mithra, as well as noting that they were born on December 25. Almost none of this is true.

When it comes to Egyptian sources of the Christ myth, Joseph seems to have conflated Horus with his father, Osiris. The Osiris/Horus myth, in much simplified terms, goes as follows: Set, the evil brother of the good Osiris, murders that god and cuts his body into 14 pieces. Isis, the wife of Osiris collects and reassembles the pieces, but has to substitute a wooden phallus for that part of the dead god's anatomy. She copulates with the dead god in the form of a bird, conceives Horns and gives birth to him in secret, raising him on an island in the Nile amidst thereeds. She also raises Osiris from the dead, although thisvery physical resurrection isin the underworld. When Horns comes of age he does battle with his uncle Set. Set tears out the eye of Horus, while Horus rips off Set's genitals. Eventually, peace is made between the two, both are healed, and they divide the rule of the year by seasons of life and death.

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The physical resurrection of Osiris, even though it is in the underworld, is a significant precursor to Jesus as a dying and rising god, as is the physical resurrection of the Greek god Dionysus, after he is killed, dismembered and partially eaten by the Titans. Surprisingly, Joseph fails to mention this bit of classical mythology. Horns being born and nursed in the rushes of an island in the Nile is an important parallel...

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