Ok, here’s a quiz for you: what tastes like a dry piece of matzo and cheap wine?
If you answered a dead Jewish Man-god, you’re partially right.
In 1Corinthians Jesus is purported to have said:
11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
Christians refer to this practice as the consumption of the Eucharist. Hey, that Jesus, what an original guy!! I mean leave it to him to come up with this unique and singularly Christian way of remembering him and internalizing, if you will, Jesus as ones savior.
WHOA, not so fast!! It seems Jesus, or more precisely, the writers of the Jesus myth borrowed this lovely practice of symbolic cannibalism from ancient pagan religions. Yep, that’s right. The religious practice is called theophagy, literally “god-eating.”
In the book The Golden Bough by Sir James G. Frazer the many pagan religions who symbolically gobbled up their gods are covered in great detail. Of notable gods who required this practice was the Greek god Dionysus, son of the supreme god Zeus. Grain and wine were substitues for his body and consumed by his worshipers as part of their religious rites.
Interestingly, Dionysus was the son of Zeus, and a human woman, Zeus having impregnated her…Hmmmm. He wandered Asia teaching people how to cultivate vineyards. There are other similarities between him and the Jesus story. Indeed, there are a number of scholars, among them Rudolph Bultman, and more recently Barry B. Powell, who attribute Jesus’ turning of water into wine to Dionysian legend. [Oh … btw… Bultman was Lutheran, a professor of theology, and New Testament scholar.] But I digress…
That symbolic cannibalizing of ones favored god was incorporated into Christianity, along with so many other pagan practices (i.e. All Saints Day/ Celtic Halloween; Easter/ celebration of the Spring equinox; Christmas / celebration of the winter solstice; the concept of Trinity / Hinduism; etc.) shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone … well except to Christians to whom knowledge of such things are best left unlearned.
So Christians, eat up your Jesus cookie with a sip of Chianti. It’s a meal fit for the worshipping clowns of a pagan man-god, or a very unoriginal King of the Jews.
If you answered a dead Jewish Man-god, you’re partially right.
In 1Corinthians Jesus is purported to have said:
11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
Christians refer to this practice as the consumption of the Eucharist. Hey, that Jesus, what an original guy!! I mean leave it to him to come up with this unique and singularly Christian way of remembering him and internalizing, if you will, Jesus as ones savior.
WHOA, not so fast!! It seems Jesus, or more precisely, the writers of the Jesus myth borrowed this lovely practice of symbolic cannibalism from ancient pagan religions. Yep, that’s right. The religious practice is called theophagy, literally “god-eating.”
In the book The Golden Bough by Sir James G. Frazer the many pagan religions who symbolically gobbled up their gods are covered in great detail. Of notable gods who required this practice was the Greek god Dionysus, son of the supreme god Zeus. Grain and wine were substitues for his body and consumed by his worshipers as part of their religious rites.
Interestingly, Dionysus was the son of Zeus, and a human woman, Zeus having impregnated her…Hmmmm. He wandered Asia teaching people how to cultivate vineyards. There are other similarities between him and the Jesus story. Indeed, there are a number of scholars, among them Rudolph Bultman, and more recently Barry B. Powell, who attribute Jesus’ turning of water into wine to Dionysian legend. [Oh … btw… Bultman was Lutheran, a professor of theology, and New Testament scholar.] But I digress…
That symbolic cannibalizing of ones favored god was incorporated into Christianity, along with so many other pagan practices (i.e. All Saints Day/ Celtic Halloween; Easter/ celebration of the Spring equinox; Christmas / celebration of the winter solstice; the concept of Trinity / Hinduism; etc.) shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone … well except to Christians to whom knowledge of such things are best left unlearned.
So Christians, eat up your Jesus cookie with a sip of Chianti. It’s a meal fit for the worshipping clowns of a pagan man-god, or a very unoriginal King of the Jews.
Great post. I love learning of another part of the one true god that was copied. God was going to put "do not plagiarize" as his 11 commandment. Being omniscient god knew he was totally made up, so he stopped at 10. :) Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe short answer is no, xtians have no originality. Everything about the entire Abrahamic pantheon is a bastardization of the pantheons that came before it. The interesting thing about communion - the protestants believe the bread and wine to be symbolic of body and blood. The catholics believe in this concept known as transubstantiation - that is, they believe that when the priest consecrates the bread and wine, it magically converts into physical flesh and blood. Odd thing is that they don't view it as ritual cannibalism.
ReplyDeleteOreo
Thanks, guys..;.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking: of all the gods the ritual eating of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would probably be the best.
Pasta, Meatballs, and marinara sauce... tastey, filling, and oh so "divine". His will be done!!
rAmen
DeleteHow odd you say that. My daughter fixed spaghetti for us yesterday. She noticed we had meat, sauce, cheese and noodles and decided that His Noodly Goodness would be pleased that we consumed a dish in His likeness. RA-MEN! I'm going to enjoy leftovers tonight on my special FSM plate.
ReplyDeleteOreo
rAmen
DeleteAh...you have been Touched by His Noodley Goodness on the inside and out.
ReplyDeleteRamen!
I prefer my god blood to be of the pinot noir variety. mmmm...gody.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun site. Gotta come back when I havemore time.
ReplyDeleteInsightful as always.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I just noticed the book. I might have to pick myself up a copy of that. Very jealous, I've always wanted to write a book.
This was an interesting little tid bit to find. I discuss similar topics in my book and am always eager to find new information. I spend an entire chapter in my book going over the many barrowed practices found in Christmas alone and show how it’s not Biblical. Thanks for the blog!
ReplyDeleteUniversal...Mmm..you have good tatse in man-god blood!
ReplyDeleteVigilante.. thanks, please come back often. glad you like it.
Brandon... Book should be out in two weeks. Keep an eye on my book site via the link on t my home page. It will announce when its in stock. Thanks as always.
Dauson... Thanks. Yeah..I try and find some little know religious nuttiness now and then. Spo few theists even know about them.
Feel free to post the name of your book, and a link here if you wish.
Regards,
Hump
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9LCIiGdV6I&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2Fvideosearch%3Fsourceid%3Dnavclient%26rlz%3D1T4GWYA%5FenUS311US311%26q%3Dravi%2520zacharias%2520atheism%26um%3D1%26ie%3DUTF%2D8%26sa%3DN%26&feature=player_embedded
ReplyDeleteHump Enjoy the link. I think it may be a great starting point for ya.
ReplyDeleteIn Him,
Krutch
Krutches...
ReplyDeleteLOL!! Ravi??! Ole Ravi Zacharias again???
Is this what you think will prompt freethinkers to suddenly abandon intellect and reason and adopt ignorance, superstition and myth? The illogic and pathetic apologetics of a professional Christian apologist?
Krutches, you really need to stop spending all your spare time reading Christian apologetics sites/ blogs. They are giving you childlike and hacknyed direction.
Please, for Christ sake, read a real book! Educate yourself. I know you distain acedemia/ knowledge unfiltered by religious thinking, but give it a try...it's the 21st century.
"Starting point"!! LOL. Can you imagine my giving you a link to Richard Dawkin's site or one of his Youtube videos and sayng "Here's a starting point for you."? As though it would miraculously give you an impedus to accept reality over superstition? Seriously, are you that shallow?
The very fact that you offer Ravi to me as a starting point, as though I am unfamiliar with his rhetoric and foolishness, is indicative of your complete and total lack of respect for thinking, modernity, reality, intellect, and my education in religion, psychology, history and science.
That you hold Ravi up as some kind of icon who's self-induced belief in supernaturalism supplants reasoning, science, lack of supernatual evidence, the diminishment of the "god did it/ god of the gaps" explanations over 300 years, scientific evidence of ancient universe and old earth and evolution, etc. etc. etc. is not only patheticly childlike, but frankly damn scary.
Thanks,
Hump
PS: Krutches..tell me. Was the theme of this blog posting...God-eating, lost on you?
ReplyDeleteIs your reference to Ravi your retort to the fact that christianity adopted god eating from many pre-christian pagan man-god myths?
I mean, is the rite and it's history totally lost on you, or do you just cover your eyes and shout "Nyah nYah Nyah!!" so reality and learning can't seep in?
anon,
ReplyDeleteyoure an idiot.
Excellent blog post, Hump!
ReplyDeleteMay I bring your attention to another wonderful book worth reading?
The Jesus Mysteries ("Was The Original Jesus A Pagan God?"
by Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy.
These two gentlemen wrote a fantastic sequel to it called The Laughing Jesus ("Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom") which I can't recommend highly enough. They are well-rounded and practical researchers of the religious realm of thought. They won't assault your eyes and brain by spewing dogmatic mumbo jumbo at you, promise. Just the facts of how truly screwed up the Abrahamic religions are and where they got their material. Why they did it in the first place is also discussed.
PS. I swear that I'm almost done commenting on your bazillion blog posts. I know this must have become somewhat annoying for you the past few days seeing so many comments from me. Just trying to get caught up on all that I've missed. Thanks for your patience with me. I think commenting on blog posts constitutes active participation and I like to be engaged in good conversations. You have a lot of good points to make and I enjoy reading them.
Have a laugh all. After all, it's easy to debase religion as religion is man made and thus always imperfect. As you have your fun, you will probably throw away the notion of God because after all, if religion is flawed, so must be God, right ?
ReplyDeleteYou can have your fun. After all, at the end, it is the very humanistic concepts taught by the imperfect religions (love and acceptance towards fellow man, forgiveness of errors, etc) that will form the basis of the ones who will provide for you at your old age...
wow..this must have been brewing for a while, considering the age of this article. But I allowed it to be posted just to expose your ignorance.
ReplyDeletebiblical precepts have nothing to do with civilized behavior, human empathy, or social dictates.
Morality preceeded Xtianity, and Judaism, as did laws against murder, rape, stealing et al. Code of Hammurabi (sp), Egyptian laws, ancient greeks, et al. Of course, you wouldn't know about that, what with your being Christian-centric.
Morality evolves, it's progressing as we speak no thanks to your God's endorsment of obscene immoral behavior (i.e. child rape, slavery, genocide)
Of course, in Africa today the resurgence of good old Christian values has been making it's impact felt..witch burnings running rampant.
In Rhode Island, the Christian values of threat, intimidation, and bullying those who reject their precepts is being exhibited by the good Xtians there against a n16 byr old girl who dared challenge (and win) their mindless school prayer.
Social Security, Medicare, my financial investments, my wife and sons are not dictated by judeo-Xtian morality (a veritible oxymoron at face)or law. I'll depend on them in my old age, not some assinine book of human sacrifce, rape, genocide, dead Jews rising, and hidous laws and behavior invented by man and attributed to their three headed god.
religion is flawed, because it is man made. Your God/gods are flawed because they are made by man in his image...only more so. Fuck'em both.
Love and acceptance towards fellow man? Forgiveness? The god of the bible and Quran don't under any circumstances preach universal love and acceptance. Rather they teach hate and intolerance to those who are not like minded or accept conversion. God-eating is proof that almost everything you hold dear came from some other religion and debunks the very being of your so called faith. Polytheistic societies very rarely went to war over religion, merely conquest of land or resources. But since the idea of "one true god" there has been only murder, rape, pillage, and war in his name. It's like saying a rapist is still a good person because he donates to the homeless. Morality is not based in religion. But instead, warped senses of morality come from religion allowing good men to do evil. And the hack job to which you've posted, is about as intelligent as a bag of hammers.
ReplyDeleteperhaps you should read the bible and understand brfore criticise ing and judging God or Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Yes their is a very logical reason for taking the body and drinking the cup of the new testament. I hope you do read and your blind eyes will be opened. You really must have a deep love for God and Jesus because your spirit is crying for help by publishing your blind false belief. God Bless You!
ReplyDeleteDear Anon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input..as defiecient and ill-reasoned as it is.
I'm thinking my in depth study of religion over the past 45 yrs, and having read both the KJV and NIV of the bible pretty much qualifies me to speak on your absurd doctrines, dogma and rituals.
Indeed drinking blood and eating flesh was part and parcel toa number of pagan god rituals..nothing new to Xtianity. In fact, Xtianity steals most of their delusion and fable from pre-Xtian pagan mystery religions. Of course, you wouldn't know this as your education likely stops at the edge of your favored apologetics site, and maybe Pat Robertson's 700 club.
Meanwhile, your grammar is disgraceful, and speaks volumes of your lack of education. No doubt this is due to your deep love for Satan, who obviously guides your hand ...both in terms of your hideous spelling, and your genital self pleasuring obsession.
Finally, in response to the typical passive aggressive "God bless you", which is presumably designed to make my head explode; permit me to return the favor: May Moloch take your first born into his warming arms and bring you victory in war and good crops in exchange.
I'll prey for you. :)
Ok, I am a believer and this is not an attempt to convert anyone. If you don't believe in God or the bible, more power to you. The English translations of the bible are filled with errors and bad translations. That is why people who want to study the true bible have to go back to the original texts in Hebrew and Greek to understand what was actually written down. The biggest problem with English translations of Scripture is while they may get the words correctly, often, they totally do not express the meanings. What is more important, what the words say or what the words mean?
ReplyDeleteIt is one thing to attack the bible, but this gentlman, as all atheists, is nowhere near qualified to comment on anything in the bible due to the blatant fact that he has no understanding or knowledge of what the bible really teaches. In order to begine to understand the bible, the Jewish culture, religion, use of words, customs, history, etc, has to be learned first, which will never happen here.
At the least, you should know where in the bible something is found. It is not 1Cor, it can be found in John, chapter 6. Since you are unlearned in anything biblical, all you know is you don't believe it, you would not understand that the way Jesus spoke was metaphorical, as much of scripture is. To the Jews, eating or drinking of the truth was a common means of expression. Jesus, or the Jews in general rarely spoke in a concrete, direct way that Westerners do. Of course, you dont know any of this. Another trick used by false teachers and unbelievers is to seperate and isolate verses and take them out of context. If you don't know the proper context of words, you cannot know what the words mean. Since you don't even know where in the bible Jesus spoke his words, I am positive that you have never even read any part of the passage. If you had bothered to read down to John 6:63, you would see that Jesus said, " the words I speak to you are spirit." Since you are woefully uninformed, you would not know that the pagan Catholic Church is the organization that started and teaches that the bread and wine actually turn into the literal flesh and blood of Jesus. They got the idea from the pagans. True believers know what Jesus actually taught.
Do you know that anything people want to believe can be found in tons of information in books, movies, articles and all over the net. But, when people want to believe something, as soon as they find the "reasearch," "facts," and "history" that validates their personal belief, they are satisfied that they have the truth. Yet, they cannot know if their " experts" actually reasearched anything instead of just repeating what others have already said. I realize that you good people all believe that Christianty simply plagiarized the old pagan religions. And, I have seen "all" of the "evidence" on the net. In reality, the things that you pagans say Christanty "stole" are actually a result of revisionist history, added to the original pagan religions to make it look like Christianty stole things from the pagan religions.
I tealize that what I have written will be attacked here, and I dont care! I usually don't respond to these ignorant sites, but I felt the urge. So, good luck to all of you atheists and pagans. If you want to read something interesting fron a book you despise and don't believe in, read Romans 1:18-32, if you dare.