By Russell Pizer
This Bookworm Report is
regarding a paperback reprint dated 2007 from an original book dated
1875. Whereas it might be intriguing for Humanists, it would probably
be shocking for Christians.
The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors was
written by Kersey Graves who was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania on
November 12, 1813. The rear cover states: “His parents were Quakers. As a
young man he accepted the observances of his parents then later, moved
to a different wing of Quakerism. He was disowned by his Quaker meeting
group due to his neglect of attendance and also setting up a rival
group.”
That disownment was, no doubt, also a result of the many ideas
he must have acquired through a book titled: The Anacalypsis by Sir
Godfrey Higgins dated 1833. Mr. Graves used much of that book’s contents
for the basis of his 1875 publication.
I
have read many books about what would be called “anti-Jesus literature”
but this was incredible. I thought I knew a lot of the incongruities
that exist in The Bible, however, this is full of additional and
surprising revelations.
Beginning
on page 33, Graves begins: “The following considerations exhibit some
of the numerous absurdities involved in the story of the miraculous
birth of Jesus . . .” He then gives, by actual number, 17 items. Here
are the first three:
“1. The evangelical narratives show that Christ
himself did not claim to have a miraculous birth. He did not once
allude to such an event; while if, as Christians claim, it is the
principal evidence of his deityship, he certainly would have done so. . .
2. His parental genealogy, as made out by Matthew and Luke, completely
disproves the story of his miraculous conception by a virgin. . . . 3.
[H]is own disciple (Philip) declared him to be the son of Joseph . . .
[This] is still further confirmation of the conclusion [that he did not
come to earth via a virgin birth] . . . ”
The
next excerpt begins on page 39. “There is much evidence that the
Christian Savior was a black man, or at least a dark man . . . And that
evidence is the testimony of his disciples who had nearly as good an
opportunity of knowing what his complexion was as the evangelists who
omit to say anything about it. In the picturers and portraits of Jesus
by the early Christians, he is uniformly represented as being black. . .
[T]he only text in the Christian bible quoted by orthodox Christians,
as describing his complexion, represents it as being black. Solomon’s
declaration, “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem. . .
.” (Sol. I.5) . . .”
Mr.
Graves goes on to speculate . . . “Let us suppose that, at some future
time, he makes his second advent to the earth, as some Christians
anticipate he will do, and that he goes to . . . one of our fashionable
churches . . . Would the [usher] show him to a seat? . . .”
This
next except is especially amusing. It appears on page 46. “. . .
observe the absurdity in Matthew’s story, which teaches that the wise
men followed the star in the east, when they, coming from the east,
were, as a matter of course, traveling westward, which would placed the
star at their backs. . . .”
Chapter
XXXII is titled: “Three Hundred and Forty-Six Striking Analogies
Between Christ and Krishna.” (Krishna’s birth is given as 3228 B.C.E.)
This shows, if the book’s contents are true, those ghost writers of
Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, borrowed almost all of their material
for the story of the man the Christians call Jesus of Nazarus from the
life and teachings of The Lord Krishna of India.
Needless to say, there are some vociferous criticisms of this book to be found on the Internet.
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