Mythological continuity

Anthropologists and religious historians estimate that in the last 150,000 years, since Neanderthal times, there have been at least 100,000 distinctly different religious traditions. Religions do not just pop into existence. They are a spin off from preceding cultures and they borrow, steal and plagiarize from the preceding culture and reuse the material to suit their own purposes. For instance, scholars know today that the Old Testament names of the Hebrew patriarchs had been around for 1000 years prior to Hebrew Old Testament times. Scholars know today that nothing in the Gospels is historical or biographical but is legend and folklore and a perfect example of mythological diffusion or mythological continuity. None of the writers of the Gospels knew Jesus personally. No biblical scholar in any major university would deny this.

As Carl Jung writes: “the Osiris myth was clearly superseded by the Christ myth. This is one of the finest examples of mythological continuity.” The Osiris myth, in the beautiful trinity of Isis and Horus, lasted for 4500 years in Egypt. Even 500 years after the death of Jesus, Christians used to worship in Alexandria before statues of the virgin mother Isis suckling her divine child in a stable.

One good example: the genealogical table of Christ in the book of Matthew (1:1-17) consists of 3 X 14 names. The greatest festival in Egypt was the Heb-Sed celebration to reaffirm the Pharaoh as God’s son. In the processional, statues of 14 of the Pharaoh’s ancestors were carried before him. There had to be 14. Celebrated every 3 years, it had to be 3 X 14, or exactly the same mythological formula found in the book of Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus.
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Easter clichés and platitudes

Easter is just around the corner and coming up fast. Dr. Paul Scherer, a distinguished Lutheran and Professor of Homiletics (preaching) at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, as well as at Princeton in the late 1960′s, made the observation that most Easter sermons as given by most ministers in most churches left him with exactly the same feeling as if he had just been fed a five pound box of chocolates all at one sitting.

He wrote: “preachers with their cliches and platitudes…overload religion and Christianity at Easter.”

I know what he is saying. Many seem to think that life after death and resurrection originated with Jesus. They think that is what Easter is all about. Easter sermons are terribly over preached with ministers trying to give you a dozen ‘proofs’ about Jesus “rising” and what is going to happen to you as a result of all of this hyper activity.

In your more rational moments, assuming you have some, here are some considerations.
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The real Jesus

A popular hymn in Christian churches is “Fairest Lord Jesus”. I have wondered if the author of that hymn ever read the life of Jesus in the Gospels. Assuming they are even half way correct there is certainly no fairest Jesus presented as “fairer than the meadows…fairer than the moonlight…fairer than the twinkling stars”. You almost choke over the perfumed sweetness of it all. I say again, assuming the Gospels are even half way correct, there is no “fairest of the fair” there, no spine-less wishy-washy trying to be everyone’s friend. You would never hear Jesus singing “smile and the world smiles with you”…or hear him say; “you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

He would never have taken a Dale Carnegie course on “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” He would never have been voted “Man of the Year” by the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce.

To the Pharisees he said…”you vipers…you hypocrites…you are full of extortion and rapacity…You are like whitewashed tombs…you are full of dead men’s bones and inquity”…To the religiously pious and self righteous he said: “The prostitutes will go into the Kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31) You don’t hear many sermons on that text by those who play church.
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