Was the Jesus mythos partially based on the Canaanite fertility deity Laḫmu?

First of all, I don't wish to insult anyone's religious beliefs, but to me it seems that the ancient Romans went straight from worshipping a plurality of gods to a single Christian religion that was the result of a merge of many of Rome's existing religions. And, in this post I will point at the merge of the Jesus character with the Canaanite fertility deity, Laḫmu.



One can only speculate the political motives that the Romans had for merging all its religions into one religion, but an obvious reason is political control of the masses through an institutionalized state religion. One should remember that Rome was going though great upheaval at that time, which eventually led to its fall, and religious state control may have been one of the attempted solutions to Rome's problems.

Laḫmu, Lakhmu, or Lache is a deity from Akkadian mythology and is an ancient Mesopotamian religion. Laḫmu is depicted in art from the time as a bearded man with a red sash -usually with three strands- and four to six curls on his head. Those familiar with the symbols in Christian art, will know that this is how Jesus has been depicted by Christians ; bearded, with curls, and wearing a red sash.

Now here's where it gets really interesting. "So what", you may say, "a deity that look like Jesus, history is full of them". True, but did you know that Bethlehem (where Jesus was born) can be translated as House of Lehem? Weird, huh? Some scholars, such as William F. Albright, have speculated that the name of Bethlehem ("house of lehem") originally referred to a Canaanite fertility deity cognate with Laḫmu and Laḫamu, rather than to the Canaanite word lehem, "bread". Just another coincident in addition to Laḫmu looking the same way as Jesus? You decide for yourself.

-MM

Religious beliefs are in line with the person that controls or wants to control your behavioral and thoughts. All politicians and mega preachers capitalize on this. Only a person that has suffered from doing wrong in life and leads a new life and decides to "preach" or talk about it and lives by it, is a person at peace with itself.

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

There are many ancient religions that have similar stories and characters as the Bible and the Christian religion. The Bible even tells us that some early Christians tried to combine Christianity with their old pagan traditions. The question we need to ask ourselves is, which religions have stood the test of time and why?

As it stands now, Christianity has almost double the number of Islam believers, even though both have survived for over 1,000+ years. Much of what was written in the Bible was reworded to create the Qu'ran. I would even say that both the Bible and the Qu'ran prophesy about the future and final showdown between the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), they just have different endings! With the way things are in the Middle East, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the rest of prophesy to be fulfilled!

a reply to: musicismagic

The thread is about the development of religions and how they transform over time, changing into or encouraging the development of new ones.

Wether or not religions are a control system is not relevant. The use of symbols and themes between different faiths and the interpretations we draw from this is

The whole Jesus mythos borrows a great deal of it's imagery and symbolism from previous cults and religions - Orpheus, Tammuz and Mithras are just three gods whose qualities were used for Jesus. Hearing about a new one is always fascinating.


Nice one OP

Actually the modern depictions of Jesus are carbon copies of Charlemagne and various Frankish kings.

Google image search "Frankish kings".

Though I do agree in a very loose sense that Lahmu operates as a thematic cognate, I don't think it was a major direct inspiration. This one is more indirect.

Don't forget Horus, Apollo, Helios, Dionysus, etc had a very strong influence as well as some of the ones skalla listed.

Really
Really
Do you know what you are talking about
Really, reworded to create Islam

Do you know what you are talkin about because you don't know what you are saying

If you only spent as much time trying to understand what you think you know you are writing about, you might just figure it out

a reply to: Deetermined

a reply to: muzzleflash

To me at least, it seem that the Jesus mythos was a result of a Roman religious conglomerate (or Smörgåsbord if you will) of many gods, deities, and holy men - all being merged into a single state religion, Christianty. Q: "What! I can't worship Saturn anymore, you say? He's been my family god for decades!" A: "Oh, he's called Jesus now, same god with a brand new name, buddy!..." There was also an economic incentive for the poor Roman State, by introducing a state religion it would get the offerings that before went to the different temples. Roman official: "Hey, let's increase our taxes by telling people their "god" commands that they donate 10% of their income to the temple, mu-ha-ha-hah!!"...

-MM

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

Generally speaking, almost every city or village had it's own patron deities and even every household had it's own ancestral deities (of whose statuary or iconography would be placed on the fireplace - hearth where sacrifices and cooking took place).

So there were thousands of traditions and we only know about the most prevalent ones that enjoyed wide success (as the wealthy people could afford to invest in prominent displays or festivals etc).

As an interesting note - Google "Alistair Crowley LAM". Lam was the alien spirit he supposedly met, and as Kenneth Grant speculates Lam is equivalent to Aiwass - it's plausible that this is what inspired Crowley to concoct Thelema.

Lam is also Tibetan for "the Way" and Lama is "He who goes the Way".

Wouldn't be surprising since Christianity is just a wild mishmash of various earlier religions and stories.
Noah and the flood is just the Epic of Gilgamesh with different names.
The garden of Eden with its magical life-giving fruit is just the garden of Iðunn with its magical life-giving fruit.
Christmas is just the continued December 25th celebration of various earlier Gods where pine trees were gathered and decorated. There is no scriptural basis for believing Jesus was born on December 25th; in fact, the bible alludes to Jesus being born in late spring (if he even existed in the first place, which there is practically no evidence of).
Easter is literally named after the goddess Eostre, who was celebrated with rabbits and colored eggs. I mean ffs, Christians are celebrating a holiday literally named after a pagan goddess... If that doesn't open their eyes, nothing will.

The list goes on and on. Christianity isn't a legitimate religion, it's just a collection of random earlier religions thrown together to create what was and is essentially a cult for the sake of glorifying and empowering a small group of people... who just so happen to be "God's chosen people" whom you are to always respect and support and give your money to.

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

Also we have the Arabic letter Lam, Greek Lambda, Hebrew Lamed.

It is the modern letter L which represents the Crook or Shepards Staff, the Goad. It was used to guide livestock and also as a weapon. Modern bishops have a crozier which is the same symbol.

A crook of course is a criminal now in our language and to goad someone is to prod, impel, pressure, inspire, urge, provoke, incite, or motivate someone towards sonething....

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

Also we have "The Lamb" which is Jesus.

In Orthodox Liturgy Lamb is a cube of bread.
Which is funny because Bethlehem is the house of bread, which is where Jesus was born.

So in other words your OP is dead on correct. Good work!

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

Flagged your thread.

One more thing to connect with Lam or L is El and Baal.

Oh yeah and a capital L is the right angle, so I'd say you're looking at this thing from the right angle, literally.

a reply to: muzzleflash

I've head of Crowley before, you know he killed thousands of kids in ritual sacrifice, right? He basically admitted to ritualistic child sacrifice in the book "Magick":

So, if one of the other names Crowley used for himself was Frater Perdurabo read this quote below and it will become clear. From The Magick, in Paris, France:

"...it was the theory of the ancient magicians that any living being is a storehouse of energy varying in quantity according to the size and health of the animal , and in quality according to its mental and moral character. At the death of the animal this energy is liberated suddenly. The animal should therefore be killed within the Circle, or Triangle, as the case may be, so that its energy cannot escape...For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim."

(Magick, by Master Therion, published in 1929 by the Lecram Press, Paris, France)

A footnote on p. 95 says: "(4) It appears from the Magical Records of Frater Perdurabo that he made this particular sacrifice on an average about 150 times every year between 1912 and 1928.

He gained some traction by the Hippie movement in the 60's and 70's, but people seem to forget that he basically admitted that he was a horrible mass murderer of children.

-MM

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

And the Greek name Jesus is primarily derived from Iaso, the Goddess of Healing and daughter of Asclepius.

Jesus is thematically the Healer and the equivalent name Jason actually means "The Healer".

Look into connections between Iaso and Jesus / Jason.

Also look up the debate between Yashua Yeshua (Joshua Jason).

Jesus is a lot of...Gods.

Hell, alot of his feats are common place amongst a vast amount of pantheons, with a lot themes an attirbutes. Resurrection a big one, Odin being a hanged man, Hercules, son of a God,an the "12" labours, Osiris, and when they regained their life, they became even larger then life I guess.

What really been bugging me lately, is that I believe a huge part of Jesus design, is based on Anceint dragon lore an beleives. A big one for me, is the anceint beleives and inspiration of Dragon Worship which widely wide spread. One book explains this is due to ether similar environmental circumstances where gods talking or just great minds think a like here, to and or Anceint proto religion that's long been since forgotten.

Long story short, a Sun warrior/ Dragon Slayer slays a Moon Beast or child that will devour the world with a spear a big one.

The origin an construction of Jesus is ether very poor or very well thought out, it a mix an match, memory game to me, that would give anyone a slitting head ache.

The story of Jesus youth even more interesting due to him being extremely rowdy. They should of called Jesus an the 12 disciplines. The church being the whore, and imagination, dreams, or just plain crazy, is the dragon, and Jesus, being the ultimate nice guy, telling us to shot him out of mercy...because humanity is that stupid.

Har Har, it is to laugh you sick BASTARDS!



O yea I forgot to add, why is Jesus a pieces that spins in circles into Pandemonium, like endless war of yin an yang, when his sign is a Capricorn, Marduks Dragula, after all the Goat is the Devil's pet for some VERY apparent reason.

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

There is a religious charter mentioned in the Bible that plays a big part in describing the Christian faith .

Reference between the messhiac and Melchizedek appears in subsequent biblical verses: Genesis 14:18-20; I Samuel 13 Psalm 110:1-10 Matthew 22:44; 26:26-28 Luke 22:19; Mark 14:22 John 6:53 Acts 2:34 I Corinthians 11:23-25 Hebrews 4:14-15; 5:6; 5:10; 6:19-20; 7:1-21. Revelation 1:6.

It might be a good comparison to look at Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic . The RC would seemed to have rolled a lot up into their Christian faith but the EO did not .

Textto me it seems that the ancient Romans went straight from worshipping a plurality of gods to a single Christian religion that was the result of a merge of many of Rome's existing religions.

I think Paul preached in Athens where he mentions the many statues to their gods . Paul says that he chose the statue of the unknown god they had to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to . Its mentioned many times that when the Gospel was preached the new believers left their older beliefs ...It happened in Ephesus and caused a big uproar from the people making money off the old religion . eta The Bible is clear on the fact of other gods and if you study it you become aware that these lesser gods played a important role influencing our world .

originally posted by: Raggedyman
Really
Really
Do you know what you are talking about
Really, reworded to create Islam

Do you know what you are talkin about because you don't know what you are saying

If you only spent as much time trying to understand what you think you know you are writing about, you might just figure it out

a reply to: Deetermined

I think it’s pretty well known that Islam derived from the abrahamic teachings. They just added a slight bit more child rape and a few more reasons to murder people they don’t like.

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

Cliff notes of ancient babylon. As the city grew, the number of gods being worshiped was growing and the infighting among those who followed different rules/laws/gods made civility difficult to keep up with. Enter Marduk. The god of gods. A conglomeration of many gods, but it is written that he battled all of the competing gods and won the right to be the first among the gods of the city. Thereby his rules were to be followed and enforced by the king and his authorities.

I find many parallels when compared to rome and the emergence of Christianity. Jesus won because rome/constantine made it the official religion and eventually forced everyone to take on the mantle. It has been spread by threat of death ever since. At first by the threat of sword and then later (and still to this day) by the threat of eternal death of the soul.

a reply to: Woodcarver

I find many parallels when compared to rome and the emergence of Christianity. Jesus won because rome/constantine made it the official religion and eventually forced everyone to take on the mantle. It has been spread by threat of death ever since. At first by the threat of sword and then later (and still to this day) by the threat of eternal death of the soul.

Thank you. It isn't a secret how Rome came to adopt Christianity. It is actually a fascinating story. Not just Constantine's elevation to Emperor, but his mother's devotion to Christianity and her search for relics and artifacts. When one gets into his (and her) possible connection to the Lost Tribes and British Israel, it's even more intriguing.

I also find it curious that parallels between religions are automatically dismissed as theft rather than examining the many correlations and similarities between faiths as one foundation for all religions. For example, perhaps the Hebrews did not steal the Epic of Gilgamesh, but actually shared that legacy... but one came to be known by one name and the other came to be known by another name. Much like "Easter" is said to be named for the goddess "Eostre," but really both came from the same root word (Teutonic, if I remember correctly) for the "east," used as a symbol for rebirth and fertility, as the sun rises in the sky in the east as it approaches the summer solstice.

Me thinks we could learn much about history, culture and religion if we looked for the similarities and constants, rather than trying to divide and conquer each other.

originally posted by: muzzleflash
Actually the modern depictions of Jesus are carbon copies of Charlemagne and various Frankish kings.

Google image search "Frankish kings".

Though I do agree in a very loose sense that Lahmu operates as a thematic cognate, I don't think it was a major direct inspiration. This one is more indirect.

Don't forget Horus, Apollo, Helios, Dionysus, etc had a very strong influence as well as some of the ones skalla listed.

Cesare Borgia


While Charlemagne and Frankish kings predate Borgia, his image was heavily circulated during the middle ages as a spitting image of Christ.

Of course, there's a reason for his image in particular. He was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI ( Rodrigo Borgia ) and a spoiled brat basically. His family was incredibly wealthy but of no royal blood.

So what's the next best thing for a spoiled young man that wants to be a prince? Have your image be the face of Christ.