cross... and so it goes.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FAWn0oocL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpghttp://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Explosive-Ancient-Mystery-Religions/dp/1571746072/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277670283&sr=8-2This review is from: Jesus: The Explosive Story of the 30 Lost Years and the Ancient Mystery Religions (Paperback)
I could not put the book down. Ms McCannon writes clearly and keeps you interested. I particularly liked the heavy footnoting which made the book more meaningful. If you are interested in seeing Jesus as the man he was and why he was so learned in the ancient mystery religions, this is the book. If you become hooked with the topic there are many citations to keep you searching. Everywhere I look now I see the symbolism which is the foundation for much of Christianity today, including the "beehive" hat the Pope wears to the "fish" symbol that appears so ubiquitously on the back of automobiles and the origin of the "cross", which was already an important ancient religious symbol before Christ.
Rather than travel to the Holy Land, I suggest go to the Isle of Avalon in Gastonbury England where Jesus lived and his followers, lead by Joseph of Aramethia, went to start the first Christian church. You will find out that Jesus also traveled extensively in India and was well grounded in the ancient teachings of the Egyptians, from which he may have learned about resurrection. The raising of the Eucharist during the Catholic mass is a symbol for the Sun, based on the Egyptian god of the Sun, Ra, whose "eye" is the derivation of the "fish" symbol. All this and more is explored by this wonderful book that places our current Western religious practice and the life of Jesus in in a modern perspective.
This review is from: Jesus: The Explosive Story of the 30 Lost Years and the Ancient Mystery Religions (Paperback)
Tricia McCannon not only writes a scholarly book of the birth, life and death of Jesus, she writes in a clear and easy to understand way that make this book as suspenseful as any work of fiction. She brings Jesus the man to life. She shows that Jesus was human, that he worked at his knowledge visiting Egypt, England, India and Tibet, learning from the greatest minds of his time. That he didn't just come into this world knowing all things, though he was one of the four great Kumaras, the solar lords, the eternally young sons of God who 'realized the truth of self', he did his homework.
McCannon's view of Jesus, heavily researched, is a thousand times more interesting than the whitewashed version of Jesus that portrays him as the son of God who was born of a virgin, knew everything, could do no wrong, and was killed for our sins. Instead we see a human being who studied and earned his powers showing us the way to the promised land.
Filled with illustrations, footnotes from works found in the Vatican that not many people get to see, oral traditions, and so many other books that I don't see how it was humanly possible to read, McCannon not only offers us an incredible look at Jesus, she backs it up. Simply an amazing work.