(2855)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:27                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 0
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:f159 1f1c6360
The following posts contain the www essay "The Virgin Birth and 
Childhood 
Mysteries of Jesus" by James Still. It is reposted here with his 
permission. He can be reached via internet email at 
still@ix.netcom.com and 
he has a www page at http://www.umn.edu/nlhome/g369/stil0037/ which 
includes a handfull of similar excellent essays. I will be posting 
it in 
multiple parts leaving the html formatting in place. If you have a 
web 
browser, save all the parts into a single file, stripping off the 
fido mail 
header and footer and you can use your browser to read and jump to 
the 
endnotes referenced within it.


 Larry Sites <LGSites@connectnet.com> JC's Fireman: Luke 12:49 
 Freq FORGERY.ZIP, Falisfy Fundi father fakery
___
 * WR 1.31 # 398 * I'd be a Christian-if it wasn't for Christians. 
- M Ghand
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(2856)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:30                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 1
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@EID:3198 1f1c63c0
<!doctype html public "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>The Virgin Birth and Childhood Mysteries of Jesus</TITLE>

<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Internet Assistant for Word 0.95">
<META NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT="James Still">
</HEAD>

<BODY>

<H2>The Virgin Birth and Childhood Mysteries of Jesus</H2>

<P>
Biblical scholars have long ago dismissed the literal interpretation
of the miraculous virgin-birth of Jesus. Also, many liberal Christian
denominations have either quietly purged the curious piece of
teaching from their body of philosophy, or conveniently ignore
the issue altogether. Despite this, the allure of such an intriguing
concept is still very powerful and Jesus' virgin birth continues
to enjoy the unquestioning belief of millions of people. The purpose
of this essay is to explore the mythological connections between
prodigal children in history with an emphasis on the meaning and
symbology of virgin birth as it particularly relates to Jesus.
In this way Jesus' virgin birth and the mysteries surrounding
it will be fully explored in the mythological context from which
it derives.
<P>
We know very little about the desert nomads and goddess worshippers
who settled the fertile Tigris-Euphrates river valley. Mesopotamia,
situated as it was between the ancient lands of Ur and Sumer,
was almost constantly at war in the three millennia preceding
the Common Era. What we do know comes down to us through the 
Ashurbanipal
library. King Ashurbanipal (fl. 620 BCE) of Nineveh ruled the
Assyrian empire just prior to its decline. His brutal accomplishments
on the battlefield were tempered only by a driving passion for
letters and learning so that, over time his spoils included the
religious texts and history books of all of his conquered neighbors
including the Mesopotamians. After his death, his empire collapsed
and in a few short years Nineveh itself was utterly destroyed
by Persian invaders. The invaders were only interested in destroying
Nineveh's military might; they ruined the city's walls, but 
completely
ignored the Ashurbanipal's library, perhaps considering it a mere
whimsical endeavor. The library was soon swallowed up by the shifting
sands of the desert. Finally in 1845 British archaeologists 
rediscovered
Nineveh and the wealth of books which lay buried there.
<P>
The pre-civilized world of ancient Mesopotamia, consisted of small
farming settlements whose people worshipped Ishtar, a fertile,
mother goddess. Ishtar caused the rains to fall and the crops
to grow in a continuous cycle of birth, life, and death. Over
time, Ishtar-worship began to wane as the warlike male gods of
neighboring tribes emerged in positions of prominence. The 
warrior-kings
of neighboring desert tribes continually invaded the fertile lands
of Mesopotamia, eventually seizing the land and incorporating
it into their own rising and falling empires. One of the first
warrior-kings to rise up among these early peoples was Sargon
of Akkad, who established his kingdom in 2200 BCE. Ishtar was
by now fully absorbed into the stronger cults of the patriarchal
deities and she became a lesser deity who was subservient to the
new male gods of the warrior-kings.
<P>
Sargon is perhaps the first Babylonian king who was said to have
a larger-than-life birth and childhood. He was born in secret
to a mother of lowly birth and a father who was a mountain god.
In a motif which would later be borrowed and attributed to Horus
and Moses, Sargon's mother placed the child in a basket of rushes
and sent him down a river to protect him from the god's enemies.
The babe was rescued downstream by simple folk and the goddess
Ishtar loved and guided Sargon through his early childhood and
to his final destiny: the ascension of the throne. Sargon's biography
started a &quot;tall tale&quot; tradition that subsequent kings
felt the need to match. The attribute of divine birth and 
predestination
became an important vehicle whereby a mortal king was said to
be god-favored; gaining recognition and power during his life
which often continued into posterity long after death.
<P>
By 1000 BCE, we find this tradition improved upon so that the
biography of kings and important men insist that they were not
only divinely born, but said to have transcended death to become
gods themselves. Zoroaster, the Persian prophet and patriarch
who lived and preached in ancient Babylon, was said to have been
God-begotten and virgin born. Virgin-birth was the responsibility
of the Ishtar priestesses, who conducted fertility rites, prophesied
and performed elaborate rituals in the temples throughout Babylon.
The priestesses who administered the temples also managed a lucrative
prostitution business that provided a steady stream of financial
support for temple activities. Upon their return to Palestine,
Hebrews of the Babylonian captivity brought back to the Mediterranean
peoples wondrous tales of the priestesses and their blasphemous
sexual ministries to the men who visited them. The role of the
Ishtar priestess was to act as both mother to the prospective
man's child and minister to the child's divine needs:
<P>
&quot;<A NAME="Holy">Holy</A> Virgin&quot; was the title of 
harlot-priestesses
of Ishtar (and) Asherah. The title didn't mean physical virginity;
it meant simply &quot;unmarried.&quot; The function of such 
&quot;holy
virgins&quot; was to dispense the Mother's grace through sexual
worship; to heal; to prophesy; to perform sacred dances; to wail
for the dead; and to become Brides of God.&quot;<A 
HREF="#Walker">[1]</A>
<P>


 Larry Sites <LGSites@connectnet.com> JC's Fireman: Luke 12:49 
 Freq FORGERY.ZIP, Falisfy Fundi father fakery
___
 * WR 1.31 # 398 * Pan Dionysus Osiris Jesus Bran Krishna Shiva Ra 
Cernunno
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(2857)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:32                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:30d8 1f1c6400
The Hebrews called the children of these priestesses <I>bathur</I>,
which meant literally &quot;virgin-born&quot; as in those children
who were born of the holy harlot-priestesses of the temple. The
Hellenic world had no equivalent to the bizarre rituals of Ishtar,
and mistranslated and misunderstood the literal Hebrew's 
<I>bathur</I>
as <I>parthenioi</I>, also &quot;virgin-born&quot; but in the
sense of physical, not spiritual, virginity.
<P>
The Zoroastrian cosmology told of the world lasting for twelve
thousand years in four, three-thousand year blocks of time. The
last block of time began with the divine birth of the prophet
and would end by ushering in the apocalyptic end of the world
and the restoration of good over evil:
<P>
[Zoraster's] birth and teaching in the world marked the opening
of the final three thousand of the world span of twelve thousand
yearsat the end of which term his spritual sons Saoshyant, &quot;the
Coming Savior,&quot; the World Messiah, would appear, to culminate
the victory of Truth over the Lie and establish forever the 
restoration
of the pristine creation of God.
<P>
As the <A NAME="legend">legend</A> tells, the birthplace of Zoroaster
. . . was beside the river Daiti, in the central land of the seven
lands of the earth, Eran Vej. . . . Angra Mainyu [Demon of the
Lie] rushed from the regions of the north, crying to his horde,
&quot;Annihilate him!&quot; But the holy babe chanted aloud .
. . and the demons were dispersed.<A HREF="#Campbell">[2]</A>
<P>
In the Hellenic empire carved out by Alexander the Great during
the third century BCE, these eastern beliefs and myths mingled
with those of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Semitic peoples. Alexander
was anxious to connect the Mediterranean world with the strange
ways and customs of the Orient and sought to connect his two empires
culturally as well as politically. The Greeks had already devised
well-developed concepts of divine impregnation. The savior-god
Dionysus was said to have been born after Zeus visited Persephone
in the form of a serpent. The Persian contribution to these Hellenic
myths was to bring the fascinating idea of the virgin (parthenioi)
birth to the old Dionysus and Herakles stories. Eventually the
pagan mysteries had fully incorporated the virgin-birth ceremonies
of the Ishtar priestesses into their own beliefs and religions
as each savior-god took on the divine attribute themselves.
<P>
The Greeks related that Persephone was hidden in a cave by her
mother, the goddess Demeter. While there, Persephone began weaving
a great tapestry of the universe out of aweb of wool. Zeus learned
of her presence and approached Persephone in the guise of a serpent.
She conceived a son for Zeus and named him Dionysus, whom she
cared for and nurtured in the cave to protect the young child
from other jealous wives of Zeus. Eventually Herakles, whom the
Romans would rename to Hercules, was said to have been born of
a god as well. In due time Perseus, Minos, Asclepius, Miletus,
and many others, were all reputably born of a specially selected
mortal woman and a god in the manner of the Ishtar virgin 
priestesses.
Often the god would impregnate the woman as a spirit in special
ceremonies. <A NAME="Zeus">Zeus</A> was said to have impregnated
Danae by visiting her as a ray of sunlight and the dove, sacred
to Ishtar, manifests itself as a Holy Ghost to impregnate Mary
and announce Jesus as the son of God.<A HREF="#sky">[3]</A>
<P>
<A NAME="One">One</A> result of the Persian-Hellenic blend of
myths was Mithras. Mithras was a Persian deity, but other than
his name used &quot;to give itself an exotic oriental 
flavor,&quot;[<A 
HREF="#Ulansey">4</A>]
Hellenic Mithraism was distinctly pagan. Mithraism began and 
flourished
at the same time as did Christianity. The cult gained enormous
popularity and by the third century hundreds of mithraeumunderground
temples where Mithras was worshippedwere spread out across Asia
Minor, Africa, Italy, Greece, and the German and Scottish frontiers
where Roman soldiers were stationed. Mithras is the most recognizable
of the Mediterranean gods that was said to have been physically
virgin-born; a flattering imitation of the Ishtar priestesses
of Babylon. Mithras was depicted as a &quot;bull-slayer&quot;
and stone-carved reliefs display a tauroctony where Mithras plunges
a knife into the neck of a great bull, while the blood spills
down to the ground. The bull-slaying scene always takes place
inside of a cave, symbolically represented by the mithraeum's
locations in caves and underground grottos. To understand this
symbolic bull-slaying, we must first look briefly at the Greco-Roman
world's understanding of the universe.
<P>


 Larry Sites <LGSites@connectnet.com> JC's Fireman: Luke 12:49 
 Freq FORGERY.ZIP, Falisfy Fundi father fakery
___
 * WR 1.31 # 398 * ... truth shall make you free. John 8:32
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(2858)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:33                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:f019 1f1c6420
The <A NAME="ancients">ancients</A> believed that the sun, the
moon, &quot;wandering&quot; stars (planets), comets, and other
celestial bodies were heavenly gods who were in motion about a
stationary earth. Since the sun (Sol invictus) seemed to be the
most influential of the celestial gods, it was especially worshipped
and regarded as annually &quot;reborn&quot; at its lowest point
in the sky during the winter solstice of December 25.[<A 
HREF="#December">5</A>]
Since the plane of the eclipticthe path that the sun travels in
the skytraces out the band of the twelve star-patterns that make
up the zodiac, the sun was considered a god that gave 
&quot;birth&quot;
to, or was a father of, the twelve zodiacal gods. The Greek 
astronomer
Hipparchus made the astounding discovery in 128 BCE that the zodiac
of constellations slowly drifted backward over time so that they
appeared, with respect to the suns position at winter solstice,
in a new location in the heavens. Every 25 thousand years these
constellations slowly moved; a phenomenon we know today to be
the precession of the equinoxes which is caused by the 
&quot;wobble&quot;
of the earth on its axis. To the ancients, it was a frightening
and astounding event:
<P>
Hipparchus, who assumed that the earth was immovable and at the
center of the cosmos, could only understand the precession as
a movement of the entire cosmic sphere. In other words, Hipparchus's
discovery amounted to the revelation that the entire universe
was moving in a way that no one had ever been <A 
NAME="aware">aware</A>
of before. . . . [The precession] had profound religious 
implications.
A new force had been detected capable of shifting the cosmic sphere:
Was it not likely that this new force was a sign of the activity
of a new god, a god so powerful that he was capable of moving
the entire universe?[<A HREF="#David">6</A>]
<P>
At the time Hipparchus made his discovery, the spring equinox,
which signaled the resurrection of the sun-god, appeared in the
constellation of Aries the Ram. Before Aries, it was seen that
the equinox fell on Taurus the Bull. This celestial movement taking
place among the heavenly gods and the &quot;death&quot; of Taurus
the Bull made a tremendous impact. Mithras became that celestial
force who was strong enough to slay the bull and was able to command
the very heavens to do his bidding.
<P>
In Mithraism, just as in Christianity and Zoroastrianism before
them, the world was a constant battleground of good and evil;
a bitter dualistic struggle between the hosts of demons and the
elect who serve God. Spirituality warred against the physical,
and darkness imperiled the good fortune of light. Mithras represented
the divine son of the sun-god and the savior of good against darkness
in the universe who battled against the minions of evil to save
mankind.
<P>
Because Mithras could move the celestial sphere at will, he was
seen as outside of the universe. Carvings of Mithras reflect his
birth as a naked child bursting from an egg-shaped petra genetrix,
or &quot;Generative Rock.&quot; The rock caves where the mithraeum
were located symbolize the &quot;womb&quot; from which Mithras
emerged. His escape from the confines of the rock, attest to his
extra-universal power to escape the celestial sphere and command
the heavens:
<P>
[Mithras'] <A NAME="birth">birth</A> is said to have been brought
about <I>solo aestu libidinis</I>, &quot;by the sole heat of 
libido....&quot;
The earth has given birtha virgin birthto the archetypal Man.[<A 
HREF="#Joseph">7</A>]
<P>
<A NAME="Mithras">Mithras</A> was born on December 25th, the eve
of the winter solstice when the sun is at its lowest point in
the sky. With the dawn of light on Mithras' birth &quot;the priest
emerged from the temple to announce triumphantly: The God is 
born!&quot;[<A 
HREF="#Larson">8</A>]
<P>
When Christianity gained power in the fifth century, Mithraism
was declared heretical and ruthlessly scourged. Before that time,
Christianity and Mithraism coexisted and were undoubtedly influencial
upon each other. This mingling and influence are apparent in the
manner with which Christianity overtook Mithraism. The former
had no trouble incorporating Mithraism's followers into its own
ranks and many former mithraeums were converted to churches. Many
Roman churches today, the Church of San Clemente in Rome most
notably, still contain well-preserved mithraeums in their vaulted
burial crypts. The lines that divided Mithraism from Christianity
were understandably blurred due to this slow and steady absorption
of Mithraism by Christianity during the centuries that the two
existed side-by-side. This process led to the similarities that
we now see shared between the two religions:
<P>
[Mithras] was said to have been sent by a father-god to vanquish
darkness and evil in the world. Born of a virgin (a birth witnessed
only by shepherds), Mithras was described variously as the Way,
the Truth, the Light, the Word, the Son of God, and the Good Shepherd
and was often depicted carrying a lamb upon his shoulders. Followers
of Mithras celebrated December 25 (the winter solstice) by ringing
bells, singing hymns, lighting candles, giving gifts, and 
administering
a sacrament of bread and water. Between December 25 and the spring
equinox (Easter, from the Latin for earth goddess) came the 40
days' search for <A NAME="Osiris">Osiris</A>, a god of justice
and love. The cult also observed Black Friday, commemorating Mithras'
sacrificial bull-slaying which fructified the earth. Worn out
by the battle, Mithras is symbolically represented as a corpse
and is placed in a sacred rock tomb from which he is removed after
three days in a festival of rejoicing.[<A HREF="#Temple">9</A>]
<P>


 Larry Sites <LGSites@connectnet.com> JC's Fireman: Luke 12:49 
 Freq FORGERY.ZIP, Falisfy Fundi father fakery
___
 * WR 1.31 # 398 * ICR: Ignorant Creationist Rantings.
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(2859)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:34                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 4
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:3258 1f1c6440
Jesus' virgin-birth was probably attributed to him during this
time. Matthew and Luke write that Jesus was born of a virgin in
<A HREF="http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Matthew + 
1:18">1:18-25</A>,
and <A HREF="http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Luke + 
1:26">1:26-35</A>,
respectively. Mark, the earliest of the synoptics, makes no such
claim and the Gospel of John would never think of reducing Jesus,
the divine Logos, to mere flesh and blood. The Gospel of Mark
aligns itself closely with the earlier Q--the forty or so oral
tradition sayings that are believed to be derived from Jesus'
teachings directly--and does not think to concern itself with
the biography of Jesus prior to his baptism by John. To early
Christians, the childhood or place and manner of the birth of
Jesus was irrelevant. The Kingdom of God was at hand and Jesus
the messenger had warned them of that fact and that they should
prepare for the new heaven and earth that was to come in their
lifetimes. Given Jesus' apoclyptic message and instructions to
repent and prepare for the Lord, a posterity-driven biography
would seem absurd. If the Kingdom of God was at hand, as Jesus
taught, then there would be no future generations to read anything
that was codified in the present. Thus, the oral tradition preserved
Jesus' teachings in short, concise pericopes, or sayings, and
Jesus' followers gave little thought to writing them down at first
because of the very nature of the apocalyptic movement that had
sprung up around them.
<P>
As time went by it could be seen that the Kingdom of God was delayed.
Among the Hellenized Jews and the Greek pagans who were considering
conversion to Christianity, this delay posed more questions than
answers. Additionally, Greek pagans, from which Christianity was
to draw its converts and eventually thrive, were naturally skeptical
of any new savior and the heavenly rewards they might promise.
These Greeks had to pick and choose among the dozens of mystery
cults and gods that had sprung up, each promising riches and eternal
bliss in a heavenly afterlife. Jesus had little to offer these
Greeks. He was, by all accounts, a mortal Jewish messiah, speaking
only to the sons of Abraham and telling them to prepare the way
of the Lord who would build a new Jerusalem especially for his
chosen people. The Marcan Jesus that was known to his followers
during the middle-to-late first-century (before the gospels of
Matthew, Luke, and John) shared none of the attributes of the
time-honored moral-savior deities of Dionysus or Herakles. Jesus'
later-added attribute of virgin-birth necessary if Jesus was to
be made acceptable to the pagans of the Hellenized world.
<P>
<A NAME="Hebrew">Hebrew</A> teachings do not specify that the
Messiah would be born of a virgin; the very idea is alien to Jewish
expectations of who the Messiah would be. Quite contrary to the
Hellenized Jesus &quot;[t]here is nothing in the Jewish sacred
books to suggest that the Messiah or anyone else was, or was to
be, born of a virgin.&quot;[<A HREF="#Wells">10</A>] Jesus had
been thoroughly rejected by the Jews who had decided that he was
not the messiah that would usher in the new Kingdom. Early Christians
had no choice but to turn away from Palestine and introduce Jesus
to the Gentiles.
<P>
The Gospel of Mark begins with the Baptist in the River Jordan
and the baptism of Jesus there. Early versions of Matthew and
Luke, which were circulated among Greek Christians, began with
the Baptist as well. At some point, these Christians felt the
need to tailor their savior after the Greek savior-gods that they
were familiar with and felt that it would be necessary to write
a biography of Jesus to fill that need and make him as powerful
and honorable as the pagan gods. The Gospel of Mark (circa 68
CE) was already too well known and circulated, but the Gospels
of Matthew and Luke were perfect for inserting the childhood 
biography
of Jesus:
<P>
The first <A NAME="two">two</A> chapters of Matthew and the first
three chapters of Luke were added in the second century by 
Hellenizers
who would accept only a divinely born savior-god like those of
the pagan mystery-cults. . . .&quot;[<A HREF="#Martin">11</A>]
<P>
By the close of the first century it became necessary to codify
the origins of Jesus so as to defend him from the pagan critics
who hesitated at following a new god when their current ones,
like Herakles and Perseus, were well known to have been born by
the union of a god and a virgin mother. Writing independently
of each other, the authors or interpolators of Matthew and Luke
proceeded to elevate Jesus to the status of the Greek savior-gods
by inserting at the front of their gospels, the birth narrative
of Jesus. The end result however created another problem:
<P>
<A NAME="Although">Although</A> Matthew and Luke, who deal with
the Virgin Birth story, are considered &quot;inspired&quot; writers
. . . they yet disagree on minor details. It was to Joseph that
the angel appeared to according to Matthew; it was to Mary according
to Luke. And the Annunciation (the angel Gabriel's announcement
of the Incarnation) took place before Mary's conception, if Luke
is the authority; and after, if Matthew is the authority.[<A 
HREF="#Cutner">12</A>]
<P>


 Larry Sites <LGSites@connectnet.com> JC's Fireman: Luke 12:49 
 Freq FORGERY.ZIP, Falisfy Fundi father fakery
___
 * WR 1.31 # 398 * Ask & receive, Seek & find, knock & enter. Matt 
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(2860)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:39                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:f299 1f1c64e0
At the time of Matthew and Luke's interpolation, Christianity
deeply rooted itself in the Graeco-Roman world and had completely
separated itself from its mother religion Judaism. Former pagans
were converting en masse and brought their religious beliefs with
them to the new religion.
<P>
Even the Hebrew's Tanakh was forgotten, having been replaced by
the Greek Septuagint which translated the Old Testament books
into Greek terms and concepts that often were misleading, innacurate,
or mistranslated from the Hebrew texts. The Greek-speaking author
of Matthew, relying on the faulty translation of the Septuagint,
rendered the Hebrew word <I>almah</I> (young woman) into Greek
<I>parthenos</I> (virgin) when he wrote:
<P>
<A NAME="Behold">Behold</A>, a virgin (<I>parthenos</I>) will
conceive a child and she will give birth to a son, and they will
name his Emmanuel (which means &quot;God with us&quot;).[<A 
HREF="#Matthew">13</A>]
<P>
The Septuagint had retained the Ishtar-worshipping virgin-temple
practices in part by insisting on the physical virgin-birth of
Isaiah's prophetic Emmanuel in verses 7:14. The later writers
of Matthew and Luke relied on the Septuagint for their references.
After reading this passage in Isaiah, Matthew sought to find a
way to fit Jesus into the virgin-birth role that Isaiah spoke
of, thus achieving a prophecy in Jesus' own birth. The impetus
for the idea and the motivation which would eventually permanently
seal it into the canon, came from the huge numbers of pagan converts.
These converts didn't want to leave behind Mithras and Perseus,
who were both virgin-born, in exchange for a Jewish Messiah who
was not.
<P>
The text in Isaiah <A 
HREF="http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Isaiah + 
7:14">7:14</A>,
properly rendered from the Hebrew <I>Nevi'im</I> reads:
<P>
Assuredly, my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look,
the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son.
Let her name him Immanuel.
<P>
This &quot;young woman&quot; may perhaps be unmarried or a physical
virgin, but she should not be confused with the role of the Holy
Virgins of the pagan temples of <A NAME="Ishtar">Ishtar</A> whose
job it was to bear savior-gods. This passage could not refer to
anything other than a direct sign of Yahweh concerning the events
of Isaiah's time. Isaiah specifically refers to the time and place
in which the prophet is speaking to King Ahaz and reassuring him
that Syria and Ephraim will not go to war with Judah.[<A 
HREF="#G">14</A>]
Isaiah &quot;is simply saying to <A NAME="Ahaz">Ahaz</A> that
a lady who is now a virgin will shortly fall pregnant and bear
a son, and that by the time this has happened the political dangers
will have been averted.&quot;[<A HREF="#pp">15</A>] Matthew, 
straining
to provide some kind of scriptural basis for the virgin-birth
of Jesus, takes Isaiah out of context in order to support a prophecy
fulfillment through Jesus' virgin birth. We see the context-dropping
in 8:3-4 where Isaiah's prophecy is said to have come true in
that &quot;the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria&quot;
shall be plundered by Assyria while the child is yet an infant.
These invasions and the resultant booty did occur in the seventh
century BCE. How did such a doctrine ever become promulgated?
<P>
What actually happened is obvious enough: at an early date, Judaizers
interpolated passages designed to make Jesus the Messiah who would
establish a Jewish empire at His <A NAME="Parousia">Parousia</A>;
but then, about 115-125 (CE), since it had become impossible to
remove these interpolations, certain Hellenizers simply superimposed
Matt. 1:18-25 and Luke 1 upon them, which provided Jesus with
a Virgin Birth and made of Him a savior generically similar to
Dionysus and therefore acceptable in the pagan world.[<A 
HREF="#Story">16</A>]
<P>
By the time pagan philosophers like Celsus (fl. 180 CE) were 
denouncing
the virgin-birth mythology, it was too late. The doctrine was
already imbedded in the collective minds and manuscripts of the
early Christians. Celsus anticipated the motive behind the virgin
birth narrative and accused Christians of attributing the virgin
birth to Jesus in order to imitate the pagan savior-gods:
<P>
Many of the nations of the world hold doctrines similar to those
espoused by the Christians.... The Galactophagi of <A 
NAME="Homer">Homer</A>,
the Druids of Gaul, and even the Getae (for example) believe 
doctrines
very close to (the historicity of Christianity and Judaism) ...
Linus, Musaeus, Orpheus, Pherecydes, Zoroaster the Persian, and
Pythagoras understood these doctrines .... What absurdity! Clearly
the Christians have used the myths of the Danae and the Melanippe,
or of the Auge and the Antiope in fabricating the story of Jesus'
virgin birth.[<A HREF="#Celsus">17</A>]
<P>


 Larry Sites <LGSites@connectnet.com> JC's Fireman: Luke 12:49 
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___
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(2861)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:40                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 6
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:f3d9 1f1c6500
Celsus' bitter criticism necessitated a Christian apology that
never quite overcame the defensive posture that it was forced
to take. Early Church fathers like Eusebius and Augustine compare
and contrast Jesus heavily against his pagan contemporaries, claiming
that if Jesus is false, then so is Mithras and Herakles. During
this period, the early Christians were still tied to their pagan
roots and had not yet stated a clear case for why their god should
not be considered an equal of Mithras, Dionysus, and other Greek
and Roman gods. Roman critics and neoplatonic philosophers who
argued against Christianity from a conservative status quo position,
couldn't understand why Christians would want to so closely fashion
their god after those of the standard repertoire of state-endorsed
gods.
<P>
The pagan idea of a savior-god being virgin-born was very persistent:
<P>
&quot;[A] factor making for the survival of such tales (virgin
birth) in religious cults is stressed by Gilbert Murray. He notes
that it is the saviour gods of paganism who are often reputed
virgin-born. The father-god supplies the human race with a saviour,
his son, by impregnating a goddess or a mortal. He must, however,
not be regarded as actuated by lust. His purpose is the birth
of a great saviour of mankind, and so the impregnation has to
be effected without carnal intercourse. Hence <A NAME="Io">Io</A>
was made pregnant by the laying on of the divine hand, Danae by
the golden sunlight.&quot;[<A HREF="#A">18</A>]
<P>
Nowhere is virgin birth so stressed as in the Graeco-Roman world
where the synoptic interpolators were deeply rooted:
<P>
&quot;[T]he <A NAME="doctrine">doctrine</A> of the Virgin Birth,
without which no prophet or savior-god could be a divine incarnation,
was so common among ancient cults that it was impossible for any
religious founder to achieve acceptance without it.&quot;[<A 
HREF="#Ibid">19</A>]
<P>
The virgin-birth story which is attributed to Jesus, is a later
pagan addition interpolated for the sole purpose of adding support
for the Christian savior. Not having been based upon a solid textual
foundation like the Jews, early Christians needed to attribute
the characteristics and events of existing gods to their savior
in order to legitimize him as a god worthy of worship. Jesus 
represents
a crossover from Messianic Judaism and Graeco-Roman paganism;
an embodiment of the best of both worlds.
<P>
Clues from the apocryphaltexts not included in the canonthat account
for the persistence of Jesus' virgin-birth may be from the Gospel
of Thomas, which dates to perhaps 50 CE. Jesus is preaching in
the desert using parables and saying that &quot;he who has ears,
let him hear.&quot; A woman calls out saying &quot;[b]lessed are
the womb which bore you and the breasts which nourished you&quot;
to which Jesus replies:
<P>
<A NAME="Blessed">Blessed</A> are those who have heard the word
of the father and have truly kept it. For there will be days when
you will say, `Blessed are the womb which has not conceived and
the breasts which have not given milk.'[<A HREF="#Robinson">20</A>]
<P>
Jesus is referring to the hard times that may befall those who
choose to serve God for the path to the Kingdom of God is narrow
indeed. Often Jesus is depicted in the gospels as being taken
literally (e.g., Nicodemus' &quot;born from above&quot; narrative)
when he meant to use figurative speech, so this may be just such
a case. Also, in the same <A NAME="gospel">gospel</A> Jesus tells
his disciples that when they &quot;go into any land&quot; and
&quot;see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves
on your faces and worship him.&quot;[<A HREF="#NH">21</A>] Thomas'
Jesus constantly plays on words and tells his disciples that only
by searching for the beginning will they find the end of their
journey. Aside from the Buddhist overtones of this statement,
it is possible that later Christians decided that the 
&quot;beginning&quot;
(Jesus) must have been one not born of woman since no mention
is made of such beings after the disciples traveled and preached.
<P>
The Gospel of Mark, the earliest of the gospels, relates that
Jesus is a Jewish Messiah, and so born quite naturally in the
manner expected of the Davidic Messiah. The Jewish ascetic sects
who were expecting a son of David to arrive who would invoke the
Parousia and regain the throne, said that he would be born in
Bethlehem. The earliest references, upon which Mark's gospel is
based, insist that Jesus was instead born in Galilee at Nazareth.
The last two synoptics, Matthew and Luke, attempt to correct Mark's
error by again placing Jesus' birth back in Bethlehem. The Gospel
of John, which is totally unconcerned with any notion of Jewish
expectations of the Messiah, places Jesus back at Nazareth merely
for the sake of argument ascribing the conflict as a &quot;division
among the people over him&quot; (Jn. 7:43). The conflict would
be a minor one if it weren't for the fact that there was no such
town in Galilee named Nazareth during Jesus' birth. In a humorous
self-fulfilling prophecy, the Galilean town was established in
the third century after news of Jesus' birthplace had become famous.
This curious insistence on associating Jesus with Nazareth may
predate the Christian oral traditions and told among apocalyptic
groups like the Essenes, who practiced a form of sun worship.
Early Christians may have considered Jesus a sun-god. Nazareth
is very closely worded to Nazaroth which in Hebrew is &quot;the
twelve signs (of the <A NAME="zodiac">zodiac</A>).&quot; The root
verb nazar means to &quot;surround&quot; as in the twelve 
constellations
of the zodiac which pass overhead each night, thus surrounding
the earth.[<A HREF="#Herbert">22</A>] Job is reminded of his human
limitations and the celestial astrological power of Yahweh, when
the latter speaks to him from a raging desert whirlwind:
<P>
<A NAME="Canst">Canst</A> thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,
or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Nazaroth in
his season?[<A HREF="#Job">23</A>]
<P>


 Larry Sites <LGSites@connectnet.com> JC's Fireman: Luke 12:49 
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
(2862)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:41                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 7
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:3318 1f1c6520
This theory is supported by the evidence that the inhabitants
of Qumran by the Dead Sea, who Pliny referred to as Essenes, used
a solar-based calendar, rather than the traditional lunar-based
Judaic calendar. Pliny the Younger reported in a letter to the
emperor Trajan in 112 CE that &quot;Christians appear to be harmless
people who meet at daybreak and sign hymns to the honor of the
Christo <I>quasi deo</I> (the Christ as if he were a god).&quot;
<P>
Matthew and Luke sought to fill in the missing genealogy for Jesus.
Jewish Messiah's were considered important only in the capacity
that they fulfilled the role of a &quot;Son of man&quot; and told
their people the message of God who had appointed them. The Messiah
himself was unimportant compared to the mission which he was elected
to perform. But when Matthew and Luke wrote, Jesus had taken on
a greater meaning to the Christians than just a fulfiller of 
Messianic
duties. Understandably, many early Christians wanted to know more
about Jesus than the earlier texts and the forty Sayings Sources
had shown. Writing independently of each other, Matthew and Luke
wrote conflicting genealogies based on OT scripture and numerology.
<P>
Matthew's genealogy is an attempt to invoke credibility through
powerful numerological magic. He bases Jesus' lineage on watershed
events in history in three sets of fourteen:
<P>
&quot;In <A NAME="sum">sum</A>, the generations from Abraham to
David come to fourteen, those from David to the Babylonian exile
number fourteen, and those from the Babylonian exile to the Anointed
(Christ) amount to fourteen also.&quot;[<A HREF="#Reference">24</A>]
<P>
Since &quot;seven&quot; is the Hebrew magical number we find a
strong desire to tailor Jesus' genealogy in groups that are divisible
by seven, and in groupings that denote historical events of which
Jesus' birth is as important as the &quot;carrying away into 
Babylon&quot;
and King David himself. Wells [1973] illustrates the genealogy.
<P>
Here are the six sets of seven names each that Matthew derives:
<PRE>
<TT>Abraham Aminadab | Solomon Joatham | Jechonias Achim</TT> 
<TT>Isaac Naasson | Roboam Achaz | Salathiel Eliud</TT> 
<TT>Jacob Salmon | Abia Ezekias | Zorobabel Eleazar</TT> 
<TT>Judas Booz | Asa Manasses | Abiud Matthan</TT> 
<TT>Phares Obed | Josaphat Amon | Eliakim Jacob</TT> 
<TT>Esrom Jesse | Joram Josias | Azor Joseph</TT> 
<TT>Aram David | Ozias Jechonias | Sadoc Jesus</TT> 
<TT>-------------------+---------------------+--------------------</T
T> 
<TT>Formation of | Babylonian | Jesus as Messiah</TT> 
<TT>Israel | Captivity |</TT> 
</PRE>

<P>
Matthew omits Joash, Amaziah, and Azoriah from the genealogy in
1 Chronicles 3 and mistakenly counts Jechonias twice in order
to achieve the perfect three sets of fourteen which when halved
invoke the magical properties of the number seven. Jesus can be
said according to Matthew's genealogy as being the &quot;seventh
son thrice and one&quot; of King David himself. Also King David's
name is numbered at fourteen. An impressive lineage indeed and
one which testifies to the powerful influences astrology and 
numerology
had on the ancient world and the early Christians in particular.
Pagan critics accused Christians of practicing chicanery and magic
learned from the Masters in Egypt. Matthew and Luke's birth 
narratives
also show astrological magic in practice by having Jesus born
when the stars are correct in the heavens. These myth-making elements
liven up the gospels, but should not be taken literally. Again,
we can safely assume that these accretions which attach magical
properties and visiting magicians to Jesus' birth are stories
designed to Hellenize Jesus for the pagan converts sake.


 Larry Sites <LGSites@connectnet.com> JC's Fireman: Luke 12:49 
 Freq FORGERY.ZIP, Falisfy Fundi father fakery
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
(2863)   Mon 28 Aug 95 12:42                             
By: LARRY SITES
To: ALL
Re: Virgin birth 8
----------------------------------------------------------------------
@EID:3758 1f1c6540
<H3>Endnotes:</H3>

<H3><A NAME="Walker">Walker</A>, Barbara G. <I>The Woman's 
Encyclopedia
of Myths and Secrets</I>. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1983.
pp. 1048-1051. <A HREF="#Holy"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" 
ALIGN="BOTTOM"></A>
</H3>

<OL>
<LI><A NAME="Campbell">Campbell</A>, Joseph. <I>The Masks of God:
Occidental Mythology</I>. New York: Arkana, 1991. p. 210. <A 
HREF="#legend">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>&quot;[T]he <A NAME="sky">sky</A> opened up and the holy spirit
came down on him in bodily form like a dove . . .&quot; (<A 
HREF="http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Luke + 3:21">Lk. 
3:21-22</A>)
<A HREF="#Zeus"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Ulansey">Ulansey</A>, David. &quot;Solving the Mithraic
Mysteries.&quot; <I>Biblical Archaeology Review</I> Sep/Oct 1994:
p. 41. <A HREF="#One"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" 
ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="December">December</A> 25th was the winter solstice
on the pre-Gregorian Julian calendar. <A HREF="#ancients"><IMG 
SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Ulansey, <A NAME="David">David</A>, <I>Ibid</I>. p. 50. <A 
HREF="#aware">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Campbell, <A NAME="Joseph">Joseph</A>. <I>Ibid</I>. pp. 260-261.
<A HREF="#birth"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Larson">Larson</A>, Martin. <I>The</I> <I>Story of
Christian Origins</I>. New York: Joseph J. Binns/New Republic,
1977. p. 184. <A HREF="#Mithras"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" 
ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Temple">Temple</A>, Kerry. &quot;Who Do Men Say That
I Am?&quot; <I>The Humanist</I> May/June 1991: p. 4. <A 
HREF="#Osiris">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Osiris" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Wells">Wells</A>, G.A. <I>The Jesus of the Early
Christians</I>. London: Pemberton Books, 1971. p. 30. <A 
HREF="#Hebrew">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Larson, <A NAME="Martin">Martin</A>. <I>The Essene-Christian
Faith</I>. New York: Philosophical Library, 1980. p. 175. <A 
HREF="#two">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Cutner">Cutner</A>, Herbert. <I>Jesus: God, Man or
Myth?</I> New York: Truth Seeker, 1950. p. 13. <A HREF="#Although">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Matthew">Matthew</A> 1:23. (Reference <A 
HREF="http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Matthew + 
1:23">on-line</A>)
<A HREF="#Behold"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Wells, <A NAME="G">G</A>.A. <I>Ibid</I>. p. 29. <A 
HREF="#Ishtar">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Wells, G.A. <I>Ibid</I>. <A NAME="pp">pp</A>. 29-31. <A 
HREF="#Ahaz">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Larson, Martin. <I><A NAME="Story">Story</A></I>. Ibid. p.
470. <A HREF="#Parousia"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" 
ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Celsus">Celsus</A>. <I>On the True Doctrine</I>.
London: Oxford University Press. pp. 55-56. <A HREF="#Homer">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Wells, G.<A NAME="A">A</A>. <I>Ibid</I>. p. 30. <A HREF="#Io">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Larson, Martin. <I>Story</I>. <A NAME="Ibid">Ibid</A>. p.
154. <A HREF="#doctrine"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" 
ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Robinson">Robinson</A>, James, ed. <I>Nag Hammadi
Library in English</I>. New York: Harper &amp; Row, 1988. <I>Gospel
of Thomas</I>, II, 2, (79). <A HREF="#Blessed"><IMG SRC="left.gif" 
ALT="Go 
Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="NH"><I>NH</I></A> Ibid. (15). <A HREF="#gospel">
<IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Cutner, <A NAME="Herbert">Herbert</A>. <I>Ibid</I>. p. 15.
<A HREF="#zodiac"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI><A NAME="Job">Job</A> 38:1-32. (Reference <A 
HREF="http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Job + 38:1">on-line</A>)
The Authorized Version renders <I>Mazzaroth</I>, which is an 
acceptable
translation since Hebrew uses the letter m and n interchangeably.
<A HREF="#Canst"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
<LI>Matthew 1:17. (<A NAME="Reference">Reference</A> <A 
HREF="http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Matthew + 
1:17">on-line</A>)
<A HREF="#sum"><IMG SRC="left.gif" ALT="Go Back" ALIGN="TOP"></A>
</OL>

<P>

</BODY>

</HTML>


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