What's So Special About Jesus?

Nothing. Everything supposedly attributed to Jesus and everything that Christians tout as special and unique about him had already been done many times before.

He rose from the dead big deal, so had others before him.
He performed miracles nothing new in that, it had already been done by many others.
He raised people from the dead so what, so had some of the Old Testament prophets.
He healed that's old news and had been accomplished by so many others.
He was said to be the "Son of God" just like so many others claimed to be.
He was "born of a virgin" just like so many others.
He was reported crucified just like so many others.

What makes Jesus stand out from the crowd of other godmen, saviours and messiahs? Many have claimed to be the savior but if this one really was the "one and only" where are the concrete, testable proofs that substantiate his credentials? Christian assertions, wishful thinking and subjective experiences prove nothing unless you wish to believe. Anyone can claim to be the Messiah, and many have.

Jesus said little that was new or worthwhile. He introduced no new concepts to ethics apart from hell. He instituted no social programmes although if, as many of his followers believe, he was the "Son of God" or "God made flesh" and not just an invented character, he would have known much more about science, biology or medicine, but he appeared ignorant of such things.

"When we say that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter." Apology 21 by Justin Martyr

He did not leave behind any writings, nor did any of his contemporaries. All claims of Jesus derive from hearsay accounts and there is no physical evidence to support the claim of a historical Jesus; no artifacts or self written documents.

There are no contemporary Roman records to prove that Pontius Pilate executed a man named Jesus. Unfortunately for the Christian faith there is not even a single contemporary writing that mentions Jesus.

All the documents pertaining to him were written at least 30 years the death of the alleged Jesus and are from either unknown authors, people who had never met the earthly Jesus, or from fraudulent, mythical or allegorical writings. Many have been proven to be outright fabrications, pious frauds or interpolations derived from hearsay accounts and can not possibly serve as reliable evidence for a historical Jesus

. Even the sparse and contradictory histories and genealogies of Jesus contradict each other and themselves in many places.

The birth of Jesus is depicted as having taken place at different times.
Mark does not mention his birth or childhood.
Matthew and Luke claim that he was "born of a virgin," his lineage is traced to the House of David through Joseph, such that he may "fulfill prophecy", but the genealogies in Mark and Luke contradict each other.
He is said in the first three gospels to have taught for one year before his death, while John says three years.
Matthew reports that "The Sermon on the Mount" was given by Jesus to "the multitudes". Luke contradicts this by saying that it was a private talk given only to the disciples.
The accounts of his Passion and Resurrection differ utterly from each other, and no one states how old he was when he died.
Paul never knew Jesus and has almost nothing to say about the historical Jesus he's all about the risen Christ.
Paul fails to mention Jesus' sayings and doings even when doing so would boost his arguments
Most Gospel stories are copied from Pagan myths and are standard for aspiring god-men.
Virgin birth, resurrection, changing water into wine, healing the sick, raising the dead, etc. pre-date Christianity by centuries.

You would think that such an important event as the birth of "The Messiah", "The Son of God", "The Saviour of Mankind", etc. would be recorded in exacting detail with his life and times noted with meticulous detail.

Could it be that the confusion exists because over the centuries Christians plagiarists were attempting to boost the importance of their beliefs by combining practically every myth, fairytale, legend, or bit of wisdom they could steal from innumerable different mystery religions that were competing for converts? In the process they stole, adapted, re-interpreted, changed, amalgamated, forged, interpolated, mutilated and rewrote these texts for centuries.

There are no first hand non-biblical references to Jesus.

Flavius Josephus's Antiquities is a favourite source that many Christians quote to prove the historical existance of Jesus because in his Antiquities there are two references to Jesus.

He was only reporting the second hand myths and legends as told by Christians. There are no original manuscripts of Josepheus' writings remaining. The copies that do remain were made by Christian monks. Perhaps they were offended because there was no mention of Jesus and decided to add the references in order to validate their belief.

The apparently admirable comments of Josephus concerning Jesus are so out of character with the rest his writings and it seems quite obvious from from the general tone of the rest of his work that he was not a Christian, and had little or no sympathy for the Christian world view.

Many serious scholars hold the opinion that Josepheus's writings have been embellished to boost the Christians claims about Jesus, leading some scholars to question whether this passage from Josepheus was totally fabricated by the copyists.

It seems very odd that an event of such significence and so important to the destiny of mankind was not recorded by any of the writers living during the time it supposedly occurred.

There is nothing in any of the works of the writers that were around at the time, or just after, Jesus allegedly was born, preached, was crucified and resurrected.

It seems very odd that an event of such significence and so important to the destiny of mankind was not recorded by a single writer living during the time it occurred.

None of these writers made any reference to Jesus
Josephus	Persius	Lucanus	Arrian
Pompon Mela	Phaedrus	Philo-Judaeus	Plutarch
Epictetus	Petronius	Quintius Curtius
Damis	Seneca	Justus of Tiberius	Silius
Italicus	Dion Pruseus	Lucian	Auls Gellius
Pliny the Elder	Apollonius	Pliny the Younger	Paterculus
Columella	Suetonius	Ptolemy	Appian
Statius	Valerius Flaccus	Dio Chrysostom	Juvenal
Tacitus	Hermogones	Martial	Florus Lucius
Lysias	Quintilian	Valerius Maximus	Phlegon

Some Of The Many Virgin Births Preceeding Jesus
Ra	Apis	Jove
Jason	Horus	Osiris
Hercules	Dionysos	Amenkemp

The person regarded as Jesus of the New Testament gospels is an adaptation of many mythical godman found under many different names in many ancient pagan mystery religions: Osiris, Dionysus, Attis, Adonis, Bacchus, Mithras, et al.

Jesus is an amalgamation made from various elements of other deities, godmen or mythical figures. Many of the following "world saviors" and "sons of God" predate the Christian myth, and a number of whom were said to have been born of a virgin, crucified or executed and then resurrected.

OTHER MYTHOLOGICAL SAVIORS AND "SONS OF GOD"
Adad of Assyria, Adonis	Apollo, Heracles, Zeus of Greece	Alcides of Thebes
Attis of Phrygia	Baal of Phoenicia	Bali of Afghanistan
Beddru of Japan	Buddha of India	Crite of Chaldea
Deva Tat of Siam	Hesus of the Druids	Horus, Osiris, and Serapis of Egypt
Indra of Tibet/India	Jao of Nepal	Krishna of India
Mikado of the Sintoos	Mithra of Persia	Odin of the Scandinavians
Prometheus of Caucasus/Greece	Quetzalcoatl of Mexico	Salivahana of Bermuda
Tammuz of Syria	Thor of the Gauls	Universal Monarch of the Sibyls
Wittoba of the Bilingonese	Xamolxis of Thrace	Zarathustra/Zoroaster of Persia

Buddha circa 500 BCE

The Buddha shares the following with Christ:

Buddha was born of the virgin Maya, who was considered the "Queen of Heaven."
He was of royal descent.
He crushed a serpent's head.
He had 12 disciples.
He performed miracles and wonders, healed the sick, fed 500 men from a "small basket of cakes," and walked on water.
He abolished idolatry, was a "sower of the word," and preached "the establishment of a kingdom of righteousness."
He taught chastity, temperance, tolerance, compassion, love, and the equality of all.
He was transfigured on a mount.
Sakya Buddha was crucified in a sin-atonement, suffered for three days in hell, and was resurrected.
He ascended to Nirvana or "heaven."
Buddha was considered the "Good Shepherd"the "Carpenter", the "Infinite and Everlasting."
He was called the "Savior of the World" and the "Light of the World."
The impact of his teachings was felt throughout northeastern India, where they were spread verbally through his interaction with the people.
From numerous scriptures available today, it can be surmised that he often expounded his teachings in response to the people's questions.

Horus of Egypt

The stories of Jesus and Horus are very similar and the legends of Horus go back thousands of years and he shares the following in common with Jesus:

Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave/manger, with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.
He was a child teacher in the Temple and was baptized when he was 30 years old.
Horus was also baptized by "Anup the Baptizer," who becomes "John the Baptist."
He had 12 disciples.
He performed miracles and raised one man, El-Azar-us, from the dead.
He walked on water.
Horus was transfigured on the Mount.
He was crucified, buried in a tomb and resurrected.
He was also the "Way, the Truth, the Light, the Messiah, God's Anointed Son, the Son of Man, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Word" etc.
He was "the Fisher," and was associated with the Lamb, Lion and Fish ("Ichthys").
Horus's personal epithet was "Iusa," the "ever-becoming son" of "Ptah," the "Father."
Horus was called "the KRST," or "Anointed One," long before the Christians duplicated the story.
In fact, in the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis - the original "Madonna and Child"

Mithra, Sungod of Persia

The Vatican itself is built upon the papacy of Mithra, who shares many qualities with Jesus. He was regarded as a deity long before the upstart Jesus arrived on the scene. The Christian hierarchy is a vitual copy of the Mithraic version it replaced. Virtually all of the elements of the Catholic ritual, from miter to wafer to water to altar to doxology, are directly lifted from earlier pagan mystery religions.

The story of Mithra precedes the Christian fable by at least 600 years and has the following in common with the Christ character:

Mithra was born on December 25th.
He was considered a great teacher and master.
He had 12 companions or disciples.
He is said to have performed miracles.
He was buried in a tomb.
After three days he rose again.
His resurrection was celebrated every year.
Mithra was called "the Good Shepherd."
He was considered "the Way, the Truth and the Light, the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah."
He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter, at which time he was resurrected.
His religion had a Eucharist or "Lord's Supper."

Krishna of India

There are many striking similarities between the Christian Jesus and the Indian Krishna an a common earlier English spelling of Krishna was "Christna," which reveals its relation to '"Christ."

Also, like the Jewish version, many people have believed in a historical Krishna.

Krishna was born of the Virgin Devaki ("Divine One")
His father was a carpenter.
His birth was attended by angels, wise men and shepherds, and he was presented with gold, frankincense and myrrh.
He was persecuted by a tyrant who ordered the slaughter of thousands of infants.
He was of royal descent.
He was baptized in the River Ganges.
He worked miracles and wonders.
He raised the dead and healed lepers, the deaf and the blind.
Krishna used parables to teach the people about charity and love.
He lived poor and he loved the poor."
He was transfigured in front of his disciples. In some traditions he died on a tree or was crucified between two thieves.
He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.
Krishna is called the "Shepherd God" and "Lord of lords," and was considered "the Redeemer, Firstborn, Sin Bearer, Liberator, Universal Word."
He is the second person of the Trinity, and proclaimed himself the "Resurrection" and the "way to the Father.
He was considered the "Beginning, the Middle and the End," "Alpha and Omega", as well as being omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.
His disciples bestowed upon him the title "Jezeus," meaning "pure essence."
Krishna is to return to do battle with the "Prince of Evil," who will desolate the earth.

Prometheus of Greece

The Greek god Prometheus has been claimed to have come from Egypt, but his story took place in the Caucasus mountains. Prometheus, just like Krishna, shares a number of striking similarities with Jesus.
Prometheus descended from heaven as God incarnate as a man, to save mankind.
He was crucified, suffered and rose from the dead.
He was called the Logos or Word.
Five centuries before the Christian era, esteemed Greek poet Aeschylus wrote Prometheus Bound, which, according to Taylor, was presented in the theatre in Athens.
Tradition holds that Prometheus was crucified on a rock, another legend states he was crucified on a tree and that Christians muddled the story or mutilated the text, as they did with the works of so many ancient authors. The sun hiding in darkness parallels the Christian fable of the darkness descending when Jesus was crucified.

For more details on the subject visit Sixteen Crucified Saviors. Another very detailed site can be found at Truth Be Known.