The Mystery of Jesus

An investigation of the historical figure of Jesus and his esoteric teachings

Guest article by John Temple

In his final article on the Search for Truth, John Temple examines the evidence for the existence of the historical figure of Jesus and the occult truths concealed in the Sermon on the Mount.

Introduction

In this series of twelve articles I have shown my readers that much of the Christian religion has been borrowed from the Wisdom Teachings and Mythos of ancient Egypt. In this final article I investigate what is known of the life and training of the historical figure of Jesus and examine some of his esoteric teachings. These teachings, which have come down to us cloaked in the narratives and parables of the New Testament Gospels, find their most perfect and beautiful expression in the Sermon on the Mount, which forms the subject of my afterword.

I said 'final article' just now, for I do not intend to write any more. The work I began nearly six years ago is finished. This is not to say that I have nothing more to say to my loyal and appreciative readers, many of whom have sent me the kindest expressions of gratitude over the years. But there comes a point in any endeavour when one must call a halt once the goal has been attained. That goal has been to reveal the many links between Religion and the Ancient Mysteries, focusing especially on the hidden Wisdom in the Bible and tracing the source of that Wisdom back to ancient Egypt. I don't think anyone can say that I have not done so thoroughly and honestly in the time and space available to me. One could, of course, fill several books with the subjects I have discussed in these twelve articles, and still not cover all the ground. But as I reach my ninth decade this year and have no desire or expectation to live long enough to complete such a book, what has been accomplished must suffice, incomplete and flawed as it is.

If I have the inclination, time and energy I may write further articles for the website—but that is not a promise. The editors are rather keen I carry on—well, they would be——all the less work for them! They have very generously said I may choose any subject I like. "Any subject?" I asked. "Yes," they replied. I think this was a big mistake on their part. What if I were to take them up on their kind offer and wax lyrical about Psittacus erithacus? That's the 'posh' term for African Grey parrots for those who are interested in exotic birds. My faithful African Grey 'John' (no relation) is still hale and hearty, having reached the ripe old age of 37. Some live to be sixty, so the talkative old chap may yet outlive me! You may be wondering what sort of things he talks about, and whether he knows any really rude words to embarrass unwanted visitors into leaving sooner rather than later. Well, you'll just have to go on speculating, as my lips are sealed!

I could choose to write about growing tomatoes outdoors, not an easy thing to do in the unpredictable and often inclement climate we 'enjoy' in these islands. Global warming? I hear you ask. Not a chance of it in these parts, despite the hot weather we enjoyed in June and July last year. It was considerably warmer in 1990, and also in 1976, when the temperature reached 35 degrees centigrade for five consecutive days in July (that's 95 degrees for my American readers). The summer of 1959 was another scorcher in England. I remember it especially well as it was the year my youngest daughter entered this world on a day when the thermometer hit 33 degrees. Unsurprisingly, she has been a sun-worshipper ever since. This has a double meaning which will not be lost on some of my readers. But I digress. I'm supposed to be writing about The Mystery of Jesus, not parrots, tomatoes or climate change, so had better make a start or I will still be at it long after my loyal readers have expired from boredom. Do I hear cries of 'never!' and 'perish the thought'? It would be nice to think so, but one doesn't like to count one's parrots!

The early life and education of Jesus

As I have discussed in my previous articles, the Bible is replete with parables, sayings and narratives which are almost identical to those to be found in the Wisdom Literature of ancient Egypt. This is especially true of the four canonical gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. From this it follows that if everything attributed to Jesus in these gospels is true, their compilers must have been acquainted with the Egyptian Mystery Teachings, however fragmentary those teachings were at the time these four books were compiled. Gerald Massey, whose writings I have referred to in several previous articles, distinguished these teachings with the appellation 'the logia—or words—of the Lord', which have their origin in such papyri as the Teaching of Ptah-Hetep, the Teaching of Amen-em-apt and the Egyptian Book of the Dead. We find confirmation of this in the Sefer Toledot Yeshu, which, together with many other sources, such as the Gospel of Thomas, tells us that Jesus was educated in Egypt and passed his infancy and youth with the Brotherhoods of the Essenes and other mystic communities.

The Sefer Toledot Yeshu is a rabbinical text thought to have been composed in the second century of our era which has received little attention from either Jewish or Christian scholars. This is not surprising as it bears the unmistakable stamp of having been composed by one or more writers familiar with the teachings of the Pagan Mystery Schools, which were and remain, anathema to both Judaism and Christianity alike. The title of the text is usually translated as The Book of the generations, history and life of Jesus, and gives the following account of his birth and early education. "Mary having become the mother of a Son, named Jehosuah, and the boy growing up, she entrusted him to the care of the Rabbi Elhanan, and the child progressed in knowledge, for he was well gifted with spirit and understanding. Rabbi Joshua, son of Perahiah, continued the education of Jehosuah (Jesus) after Elhanan, and initiated him in the secret knowledge. But the King, Janneus, having given orders to slay all the initiates, Joshua Ben Perahiah, fled to Alexandria, in Egypt, taking the boy with him."

"While in Alexandria," the story continues, "they were received in the house of a rich and learned lady (a concealed reference to the Wisdom Teachings of Egypt). Young Jesus found her beautiful, notwithstanding 'a defect in her eyes,' and declared so to his master. Upon hearing this, the latter became so angry that his pupil should find in the land of bondage anything good, that he cursed him and drove the young man from his presence." There then follows a series of adventures told in allegorical language, which show that Jesus supplemented his initiation in the Jewish Kabala with the acquisition of the secret wisdom of Egypt. When the persecution ceased, he and his teacher returned to Judea. The 'defect in her eyes' mentioned in the gospel has puzzled many scholars, who not being occultists, were unable to make head nor tale of this enigmatical statement. The solution to the mystery is a simple one and therefore not obvious.

Egypt, at the time Jesus visited it, if he did, which is very possible, was not the Egypt of the initiated pharaohs of old. The emperor Augustus conquered it in 30 B.C., after which it became a province of Rome until the partition of the Roman Empire at the close of the third century A.D. Prior to that Egypt had been ruled by the Persians and the Ptolemies, who although they rebuilt many of the temples, did nothing to maintain the Egyptian Mystery Schools, the last of which had closed it doors more than a thousand years before Augustus set foot on the sacred soil of Egypt. What little remained of the Higher Mysteries once taught in these schools was now so overlaid with superstition and the inclusion of Persian, Greek and Roman ideas that Jesus, intuitively recognizing these corrupting influences, found the teachings imparted to him defective in the Wisdom he sought. Yet enough of that Wisdom remained for him to find it 'beautiful', just as I find it beautiful and many of my readers do too.

This was not a view shared by Jesus' Jewish teacher—the rabbi Joshua Ben Perahiah—who as we read, became 'angry' and 'cursed' him. Why he did so is too complex a subject to discuss in this article, but those of you who have studied the Pentateuch can probably hazard a good guess! For what we read in these first five books of the Bible, especially Genesis, has clearly been borrowed from ancient Egypt and Chaldea, to name but two sources from which the Jews derived their cosmogony and eschatology. Neither should we forget that Moses was said to be "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds" (Acts 7:22). Meaning he was an adept in the Occult Sciences and Magic. No one likes to be caught out in an imposture, and since we may be tolerably sure that the good rabbi was familiar with the history of Moses and well aware of the source from which he drew his 'wisdom', his anger is easily explained. Incidentally, all the best sources tell us that Joshua Ben Perahiah flourished in the second century B.C., which rather puts an inconvenient historical cat among the theological pigeons so far as the birth of Jesus is concerned which most scholars think was around 5 B.C.!

The first Christians were well aware of the Jewish stories about Jesus. The pagan philosopher Celsus, who was famous for his opposition to the early Church, referred to the Sefer Toledot Yeshu as sufficient proof that Jesus went to Egypt where he was instructed in the Occult Sciences. The 3rd century Church Father, Origen, vehemently disagreed, and argued fiercely against Celsus in his book Contra Celsum (Against Celsus), despite the fact that according to the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt with the baby Jesus to escape the massacre of the innocents ordered by King Herod. The fanatical Church Father Tertullian, writing in the 2nd century, in a fiery diatribe against the Jews, leaves us in no doubt that he shared Origen's views.

The divinity and mission of Jesus

It may surprise some readers to learn that Jesus never claimed to be THE Son of God. Nor did he desire to be worshipped as a god. We are all sons and daughters of God—let no one persuade you otherwise! James, the 'Brother of the Lord,' never calls Jesus the "Son of God." Once only, speaking of Jesus, he calls him the "Lord of Glory," but so do the Nazarenes when writing about John the Baptist. Their favourite expressions about their prophet are the same as those used by James when speaking of Jesus. A man "of the seed of a man," "Messenger of Life," and "of light", "my Lord Apostle," "King sprung of Light," and so on and so forth. These same or similar titles were given to every holy messenger from God to man, of which Jesus was one among many.

In support of this argument we have Jesus' own testimony regarding John. "What went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:9-11). We should remember that it was the Roman Church who changed Mary, the mother of Jesus, into a goddess. In the eyes of the early Christians she was merely a woman. The inescapable conclusion is that Jesus confessed John greater than himself. Further confirmation of this is found in the language employed by the Angel Gabriel when addressing Mary: "Blessed art thou among women." These words are unequivocal. He does not adore her as the Mother of God, nor does he call her goddess; he does not even address her as "Virgin," but he calls her simply woman, and only distinguishes her above other women as having had better fortune, through her purity.

Those of you who have read The Book of Sa-Heti, published on this website, will know that the mythical birth and life of Jesus are a faithful copy of those of the Hindu Saviour, Krishna, while his historical character of a religious reformer mirrors the work of Gautama Buddha in India. In more than one respect their great resemblance in philanthropic and spiritual aspirations, as well as external circumstances is truly striking. Like Jesus, the Buddha felt dissatisfied with the dogmatic spirit of the religion of his country, the intolerance and hypocrisy of the priesthood, their outward show of devotion, and their useless ceremonials and prayers. As the Buddha broke away from the traditional laws and rules of the Brahmans, so did Jesus declare war against the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Each aimed at a social as well as at a religious reform; and giving a death-blow to the old religions of their respective countries, each became the founder of a new one.

If we carefully compare the prophecies respecting Krishna to be found in the sacred texts of Hinduism with the passages in the Bible concerning the birth of the Saviour, we find some remarkable correspondences, of which the following are just a few examples, Hindu text first. "He (the Redeemer) shall come, crowned with lights, the pure fluid issuing from the great soul. . .dispersing darkness" (Atharvaveda). "The people of Galilee of the Gentiles which sat in darkness saw great light" (Matthew 4:16; Isaiah 9:6-7). "In the early part of the Kali-Yuga shall be born the son of the Virgin" (Vishnu Purana). "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son" (Isaiah 7:13-14; Matthew 1:23). "He shall come, and life will defy death. . .and he shall revivify the blood of all beings" (Atharvaveda). "And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish" (John 10:28). "Happy the blest womb that shall bear him" (Vishnu Purana). "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Luke 1:42). "And God shall manifest His glory, and make His power resound, and shall reconcile Himself with His creatures" (Vishnu Purana). "God manifested forth His glory" (John 2:11.)

Apollonius of Tyana was a contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth, and, like him, an enthusiastic founder of a new spiritual school. Perhaps less metaphysical and more practical than Jesus, less tender and perfect in his nature, he nevertheless inculcated the same quintessence of spirituality, and the same high moral truths. His great mistake was to confine them too closely to the higher classes of society. While to the poor and the humble Jesus preached "Peace on earth and good will to men," Apollonius was the friend of kings, and moved with the aristocracy. He was born among the latter, and was himself a man of great wealth, while the "Son of man," representing the people, "had not where to lay his head," as the Bible tells us. Nevertheless, the two 'miracle-workers' exhibited striking similarity of purpose. Like the Buddha and Jesus, Apollonius was the uncompromising enemy of all outward show of piety, all display of useless religious ceremonies and hypocrisy. If, like the Christian Saviour, the sage of Tyana had by preference sought the companionship of the poor and humble; and if instead of dying comfortably, at over one hundred years of age, he had been a voluntary martyr, proclaiming divine Truth from a cross, his blood might have proved as efficacious for the subsequent dissemination of spiritual doctrines as that of the Christian Messiah.

The Nazarenes

As I discussed in my previous article on the facts and fictions of the Church, all the historical sources affirm that the earliest Christians were either Nazarenes like John the Baptist; or Ebionites, among whom were many of the relatives of Jesus; or Essenes, of which the Nazaria were a branch. All these various sects, which only in the days of the early Church Fathers began to be considered heretical, were more or less Kabbalistic. They believed in the expulsion of demons by magical incantations, prophecy, and healed the sick by the laying on of hands.

The Jewish Talmud indiscriminately calls all the Christians Nozari, meaning Nazarenes. The real meaning of the word nazar signifies to vow or consecrate one's self to the service of God. As a noun it is a diadem or emblem of such consecration, a head so consecrated. In common with other initiatic sects the Nazarenes were strongly opposed to the idolatrous and exoteric practices of the dead letter of religion. This accounts for the hatred of the later Nazarenes for the orthodox Jews—followers of the exoteric Mosaic Law.

The oldest Nazarenes, whose last prominent leader was John the Baptist, although never very orthodox in the sight of the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem were, nevertheless, respected and left unmolested. Even Herod "feared the multitude" because they regarded John as a prophet (Matthew 14:5). But the followers of Jesus were primarily Essenes—a Nazarene sect which became a still more exasperating thorn in their side. It appeared as a heresy within another heresy; for while the nazars of the past were Chaldean Kabbalists, the adepts of the new dissenting sect of the Essenes were religious reformers and innovators from the first, so it is not surprising that Jesus should have become their pupil, but whether he remained so is open to question, for he taught openly whereas the Essenes did not. Nor does he appear to have practised the strict asceticism of his teachers, as the Bible tells us: "The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!" (Luke 7:34).

What is not in doubt is that Jesus preached the same philosophy as the Buddha. Both attempted to benefit humanity by instigating a religious reform which should give it a religion of pure ethics and rules of conduct. For until Jesus' began his mission, the true knowledge of God and the eternal spiritual laws of the Universe were solely in the hands of the esoteric sects and their adepts. As Jesus used oil and the Essenes never used anything but pure water in their rites, he cannot be called a strict Essene. And yet he was an Essene and Nazarene, for we not only find him sending a message to Herod, to say that he was one of those who cast out demons, and who performed cures, but also called himself a prophet, equal to the other prophets.

Gustave Doré — The Sermon on the Mount — wood engraving coloured by occult-mysteries

Who was the real Jesus?

When I was first ordained as a minister in the Anglican Church I accepted the canonical gospels as containing a faithful and accurate record of the birth, life and ministry of Jesus. When I later learnt that there was a historical teacher called Yeshu (or Joshua) ben Pandera, who lived around 100 B.C., mentioned in the Talmud, I made the common mistake of supposing that he and the Jesus portrayed in the gospels were one and the same historical personage. But after weighing up all the evidence and much soul-searching over many years I changed my mind. The reasons for my change of heart were many. Firstly, this date does not agree with the generally accepted time of the birth of Jesus. Secondly, if Jesus was Joshua ben Pandera, and he lived around 100 B.C., why did it take more than a century for a following to gather around him? But the most compelling reason was the inescapable fact that the parables and narratives of the gospels bear too close a resemblance to the Wisdom Teachings of Egypt, the life and teachings of Krishna, (who antedated Jesus by some 3,000 years), and the mythical Messiah of all times and peoples, to be dismissed as 'coincidences'.

Let us also get away from the pious awe with which the name 'Yeshu' is now bandied about by those who know little of the real history of Christianity and less about the ancient Egyptian Mythos. 'Yeshu' or 'Yeshua' is simply a variant of Jehoshua, Yehoshua and Joshua. There is nothing 'magical' or 'holy' in the name, which was a very common one in Biblical times, much like 'John' is today. Our word 'Jesus' is derived from Iēsous, which is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua or Joshua. We must also take into account that the identification of Jesus with Joshua ben Pandera presents further problems. The Apostle Paul makes reference to a rival teacher preaching 'another Jesus' in 2 Corinthians 11:4, while the author of Ecclesiasticus is given as Yeshua ben Sira, or Jesus, the son of Sirach. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, mentions no less than nineteen different persons named Yeshua who lived between the reign of Herod the Great (74 B.C.- ca. 4 A.D.) and the fall of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Here we may have something of interest, for this period coincides with the advent of the 'Teacher of Righteousness' mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran near the Dead Sea in 1947. Was that teacher the historical Jesus? Possibly, even probably, and if this is correct then he cannot have been Joshua ben Pandera. I may discuss this interesting possibility in a future article, but, as I said in my introduction—that is not a promise!

Gerald Massey was convinced that Jesus and Joshua ben Pandira, or Jehoshua Ben-Pandira, as he calls him in his books, were one and the same person. His arguments are quite compelling, but I remain sceptical for the reasons given above. So, you may take your pick of the many 'Yeshuas' who flourished around the times Jesus is thought to have lived, but I doubt that the identity of the man himself will ever be firmly established. Nor does it matter a great deal, except to Biblical scholars and pedantic Christian theologians. What matters, or should matter to those of us in search of Truth and nothing but the Truth, are the teachings attributed to the Jesus of the gospels. All too many seekers are so obsessed with 'authorities' and personalities that they entirely lose sight of the fact that it is what is spoken that matters, not who said it.

Jesus and the mythical Messiah

As I have shown in my previous articles, the historical figure of Jesus depicted in the gospels is a faithful amalgam of the type of the mythical Messiah who was Horus (the Saviour) in the Osirian mythos at Abydos; Khonsu (the Light of the World) in that of Amen-Ra at Thebes; and Iu-em-hetep (the Prince of Peace) in the cult of Ptah at Memphis. I said earlier that the word 'Jesus' is derived from Iēsous, which is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua or Joshua. Now, 'iu' is the root of the name Iuasus in Egyptian, which means 'to come.' Iu-em-hetep, the son of Ptah, was the 'Ever-Coming One,' who is always portrayed in the Egyptian mythos as the marching youngster, in the act and attitude of coming, while 'hetep' means Peace. Hence, the entire name means and signifies 'he who comes with peace', as the foremost or first of the peacemakers, the Sons of God, as the Sermon on the Mount which I discuss in my afterword, tells us.

This is the identical character in which Jesus is announced by the angels. And when Jesus comes to his disciples after the resurrection it is as the bringer of peace. "Learn of me and ye shall find rest," says the Christ. Khonsu-Nefer-Hetep, the 'beautiful one of Peace' fulfilled the same role and function as Jesus does in the gospels in the cult of Amen-Ra. The Egyptian Jesus, Iu-em-Hetep, was the second Atum; Paul's Jesus is the second Adam. In one rendition of John's gospel, instead of the 'only-begotten Son of God,' a variant reading gives the 'only-begotten God,' which some scholars have declared an impossible rendering. But when we learn that the 'only-begotten God' was an especial type in Egyptian mythology, and that the fifth century Egyptian priest of Isis, Horapollo says, "to denote the only-begotten or a father, the Egyptians delineate a Scarabeus," the variant makes perfect sense. Horapollo adds: "By this they symbolise an only-begotten, because the creature (scarab beetle) is self-produced, being unconceived by a female."

Now, the youthful manifestor of the beetle-god was Iu-em-hetep, the Egyptian Jesus. The phraseology of John faithfully echoes the inscriptions found on the Egyptian monuments, which relate how the Universe arose in the beginning. The Scarabeus was the zootype of Khephera or Khepri, who was the Beginner of Becoming from the first, and who made all things, but who himself was not made. Not only was the beetle-god continued in the doctrine of the 'only-begotten God' of Christianity; the scarab-beetle was also adopted as a symbol of the Christ. Ambrose and Augustine, amongst the early Christian Fathers, identified Jesus with, and as, the 'good Scarabeus,' which further identifies the Jesus of John's gospel with the Jesus of Egypt, who was the Ever-Coming Son and Prince of Peace from the earliest times.

From the descent of the Holy Ghost to overshadow Mary, through the parables of Jesus, to the ascension of the risen Christ on the third day after his crucifixion, the subject-matter, the characters, occurrences, events, acts, and sayings of the gospels bear the unmistakable stamp of the Sacred Egyptian Mysteries and the dramas enacted within them which told the story of the mythical Messiah and the trials of initiation. Every time a Christian turns to the East to make his obeisance to the Christ, it is a confession that the cult is solar, the admission being all the more telling because it is unconscious. Every picture of the Christ, with the halo of glory around his head, of the infant Jesus in the arms of the Mother of All, of his depiction as a lamb, as a shepherd feeding his flock, as the fisher of men, and as the Prince of Peace and Ever-coming Son are sure and certain proofs of his origin in the mythical Solar Messiah of Egypt, who was Horus in one phase of the Mythos and Osiris, Khonsu and Iu-em-hetep in others.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is my firm conviction that the Christian religion is nothing more nor less than the ancient Egyptian religion with the Egyptian wisdom taken OUT. It has taught men to believe that the vilest spirit may be washed white in the atoning blood of the purest, offered up as a bribe to an avenging God. It has divinised a figure of helpless human suffering, and a face of pitiful pain. It has reared its dogmas on the lie of 'original sin' and the need for a human scapegoat to atone for the wickedness and impiety of men. But a time will come when the fable of this fictitious fall of man, and the false redemption by the cloud-begotten angry and jealous 'god' of the Old Testament shall have passed away like a shadow in the night of man's idolatry and blindness. Then men will awaken to learn that there is a God of Love and Light and that we—not priests, or a blood-soaked scapegoat hanging on the cross of wooden ignorance—are the arbiters of our own salvation or damnation.

If this, and the previous articles in this investigation, have opened the eyes of even one of my readers to the Ageless Truths I have endeavoured to put before them and shown them something of the beauty, grandeur and wisdom to be found in the Bible and other sacred texts, my labours will be amply repaid.

© Copyright John Temple & occult-mysteries.org. Article added 21 April 2019.