The Christ Conspiracy
The Greatest Story Ever Sold
REVISED EDITION
D.M. Murdock
a.k.a. Acharya S
StellarHousePublishing.com
Ashland, Oregon
THE CHRIST CONSPIRACY:
THE GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD
REVISED EDITION
Copyright 2020 by D.M. Murdock (a.k.a. Acharya S)
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoeverelectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout written permission except for brief quotations in articles and reviews. For more information: Stellar House Publishing, 1467 Siskiyou Blvd. #236, Ashland, OR 97520; stellarhousepublishing.com
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Murdock, D.M./Acharya S
The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold Revised Edition
1. Jesus ChristHistoricity 2. ChristianityOrigin 3. Comparative Religion
ISBN13: 978-0-9908885-1-2
ISBN-10: 0-9908885-1-7
Original design and layout by D.M. Murdock (a.k.a. Acharya S); 2nd edition typeset by Michaels & Michaels Creative, LLC. The cover image is a ninth-century reproduction of the zodiac by Claudius Ptolemy (c. ad 90c. 168) from his work Tetrabiblos with Helios (the sun) at the center, identified as the Christ by the cross; twelve female figures representing the hours; and twelve apostles representing the twelve months, all surrounded by the twelve zodiac signs. Held today by the Vatican (Vaticanus graecus 1291).
ALSO BY D.M. MURDOCK (A.K.A. ACHARYA S)
Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha, and Christ Unveiled
Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of the Christ
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection
The Gospel According to Acharya S
Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Israelite Lawgiver
The Astrotheology Calendar Series
Reviews of the Original Edition (1999)
Few books present so smooth a blend of clarity and erudition as The Christ Conspiracy . This is a well-crafted, thought-provoking work that belongs in the library of every thinking individual. It should be read by every person concerned about the moral, ethical, and spiritual aspects of our culture; it should be read particularly by those who profess belief in any of the numerous varieties of Christianity. It is a book of true enlightenment.
Barbara G. Walker, Author of The Womans Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets , The Crone , Amazon , The Womans Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects , Womens Rituals , Feminist Fairytales , and The Skeptical Feminist
For two millennia, a spurious tale has enslaved the human mind and spirit. It still does. Acharya Ss The Christ Conspiracy may well be the most dangerous and important book of our time, for it reveals beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is not a historical figure but simply a mythological toehold by which powermongers provide the dope of hope to the needy, malleable and violent masses.
Adam Parfrey, Author of Cult Rapture and Editor of Apocalypse Culture
The further one goes into this book, the more one recognizes how vast is the mythological background of the ancient world that the modern era has completely lost sight of. Those who imagine that the Gospel story represents singular historical events are in for a shock when they realize the degree to which the Christian myth of Jesus of Nazareth was a reflection of mythical motifs and traditions which saturated ancient and even prehistoric cultures. There is barely an original or virgin bone in Christs body, and Christians in the early centuries were regularly assailed by pagan detractors who accused them of reworking old ideas and copying from a host of predecessors.
The other thing the reader comes to recognize is that Acharya S has done a superb job in bringing together this rich panoply of ancient world mythology and culture, and presenting it in a comprehensive and compelling fashion. Moreover, she grabs the reader from the first page and doesnt let go. Her style is colorful, bold, occasionally (and justifiably) indignant, even a touch reckless at times, but never off the tracka little like an exciting roller coaster ride. It may take a fair amount of concentration to absorb all this material, but even if you dont integrate everything on first reading, the broader strokes will leave you convinced that the story of Jesus is simply an imaginative refashioning of the mythological heritage of centuries and that no such man ever existed.
Earl Doherty, Author of Jesus: Neither God nor Man
Table of Contents
Editorial Preface by Dr. Robert M. Price
Several years ago, I wrote a harsh review of a book called The Christ Conspiracy by one Acharya S. The book set forth the Christ myth theory, of which I am also an adherent, but it took a very different approach. I felt the need to distance myself from her work lest I be painted with the same broad brush that tarred her in many quartersand still does. This review, I am sorry to say, caused Acharya considerable sorrow and trouble.
A few years later, I happened to get in contact with her via an e-mail we both received from a mutual acquaintance. Actually, Acharya contacted me, commenting that she was surprised I seemed somewhat open to changing my mind on a certain point that had also come up in my review of her book. I took advantage of this friendly feeler to join in conversation with her, to clear up a couple of misunderstandings, and, most of all, to apologize for the anguish I had caused her. I did not retract any critical judgments I had made of her work, but I was very sorry to have caused her such pain. Acharya was quite forgiving, and we became good friends. Since that time, a number of people, some of whom hold critical opinions closer to mine, have expressed astonishment, even anger, that I removed my review of her The Christ Conspiracy from my website. I withdrew from the chorus of denunciations of my new friend. Why? And have I come to recant my criticisms?
I disliked what I deemed the militantly anti-Christian tone of the book and considered it a sign of adolescent, village atheist behavior (not that my own writings are always without it!). Now I think such things are utterly beside the point. It is the content that matters. I neither chafe at the reverent piety of biblical critics like Joachim Jeremias nor bristle at the sarcasm of atheist polymath Frank Zindler. Besides, she soon put such understandable rage behind her.
There were a number of issues she mentioned in a kind of too-encyclopedic survey approach, speculations about the Masons, ancient civilizations ( la Colin Wilson, whom I also knew and much respected), and the like. I still think these matters did not belong in the same book with her Christ myth arguments. They are entirely unrelated questions, and I have no expertise at all in evaluating them. Still dont. I should have ignored them in my review. All such issues are absent from her subsequent, much more tightly focused books such as Suns of God and Christ in Egypt . And now they are conspicuous by their absence from the pages of this new version of The Christ Conspiracy .
Astrotheology of the Ancients
To me, the most interesting aspect of Acharyas work is her pursuit of old, now ignored theories by comparative religionists and mythologists suggesting that Christianity embodies a perennial theology of the heavenly bodies, their motions, and the common reflection of this astrotheology in the myths of all nations. The implications of this theory led its advocates to draw parallels between New Testament mythemes and those gathered from much farther afield (e.g., Hindu, Mexican, Egyptian and Chinese religion). This was the approach taken by the Christ mythicists of past generations, including James M. Robertson, Arthur Drews, and Kersey Graves. I feel that such multiplication of supposed parallels reaped from so wide a field tends to deflate the value of closer, more easily demonstrable parallels between Christianity and historically, geographically adjacent phenomenon like Gnosticism and the Mystery Religions. Acharyas approach seems to me to make everything tantamount to everything else. I still have this hesitancy and prefer to argue from within a narrower framework. But this isnt much of a criticism. And if it is, let me mitigate my criticism in two ways.