In the name of Allāh,
the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Peace and Blessings of Allāh on Mohammad.
DEDICATED TO
Allāh–the Glorious and the High,
Lord of the worlds
AND TO
Mohammad–who brought the world
to our feet and eternity to our arms.
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JESUS–PAGAN PASSION PLAY
Like the Son of God being of pagan heritage, the Passion Play of Jesus is a blueprint of the Passion Play of the pagan god, Bēl (Baal), who preceded Jesus by centuries. Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din notes in his revealing work The (pagan) Sources Of Christianity (pp. 44-49, Emphasis added)):
“The passion play of Baal, the Babylonian Sun-God, was in existence centuries before the birth of Jesus. It was acted as a popular mystery drama. The Jews were taken as prisoners by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon, where they remained for generations. They saw the mystery drama acted every year in the beginning of spring on Easter Day. The captives, on their return, brought with them many traditions of sun-worship which one can easily trace in Jewish literature….The main features of the play have recently been deciphered from some tablets disco-vered from Babylonian ruins. There are two Babylonian tablets, says the Quest, belonging to the cuneiform docu-ments which were discovered by the German excavators in 1903-1904 at Kalah Shargat, the site of the ancient Assur. They belonged to the library of Assur, formed in the ninth century B.C. or even earlier…The tablets dis-close astounding facts…The two are one and the same. It therefore not only deprives the evangelical records of the claim to be genuine; it makes them complete plagiarism.”
Quoting from the “January 1922 issue of the Quest,” Khwaja lists, side by side, fourteen (14) features of Jesus’ passion that are identical with the passion of Baal. (The following is a brief entry of these fourteen features, in revised format):
1. Baal is taken prisoner
Jesus is taken prisoner.
2. Baal is tried.
Jesus is tried.
3. Baal is wounded.
Jesus is scourged.
4. Baal is led away to the Mount.
Jesus is led away to Golgotha.
5. Along with Baal two malefactors are charged–one is executed, the other is set free.
Along with Jesus, two malefactors are put to death, and one, Barabbas, is set free.
6. After Baal is gone to the Mount, the city breaks out into tumult, and fighting takes place in it.
At the death of Jesus, there is destruction in the city. (Temple’s veil is rent, graves are opened etc; Matt. 27:50-52).
7. Baal’s clothes are carried away.
Jesus’ robe is divided among the soldiers (Matt. 27:35; John cp. Psalm 22:18).
8. Baal is wounded by a weapon. Woman wipes away the heart’s blood.
Jesus is wounded by a lance (John 19:34). Mary Magdalene and two other women wash Jesus for embalming (Mark and Luke).
9. Baal goes down into the Mount away from sun and light, disappears from life, and is held fast in the Mount as in a prison.
Jesus, in the grave, in the rock tomb (Matt. 27:60), goes down into the realm of the dead (1 Peter 3:19; Matt. 12:40; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:17, “descent into hell” dogma).
10. Baal is watched over by guards.
Jesus is watched over by guards (Matt. 27:64-66).
11. A goddess sits with Baal; she comes to tend him. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sit before Jesus’ tomb (Matt. 28:1).
12. People seek for Baal at the Mount. In particular a weeping woman seeks him at the “Gate of Burial.” When Baal is being carried away she lamented “O my brother! O, my brother.”
In the case of Jesus. Women, in particular Mary Magdalene came to the tomb to seek for Jesus where he is behind the door of the tomb. Mary stands weeping before the empty tomb because they have taken her Lord away. (John 20:15-16).
13. Baal is again brought back to life (as the sun
of spring), he comes again out of the Mount.
Jesus is restored to life, rising from the grave (on a Sunday morning).
14. Baal’s chief feast, the Babylonian New Year’s festival in March at the time of the spring equinox, is celebrated also as his triumph over the powers of darkness (cp. The creation hymn “Once when on high” as the New Year’s festival hymn.
Jesus’ festival, approximately at the spring equinox, is also celebrated as his triumph over the powers of darkness.
Is not the Biblical story a recast of the story of Bēl (Baal)? Apart from the similarity of the details, the very occurrence of the crucifixion in the way narrated in the Bible seems now to be fictitious. The Qur’an denies the event in the clearest terms. It would, indeed, seem to lack independent evidence. We owe all our knowledge of Jesus to the Bible, before the revelation of the Holy Qur’an; there are, however, two other pieces of evidence: first, a reference to the crucifixion in the history of Josephus, a contemporary of Jesus; and secondly, a letter alleged to have been written by Pilate to the Roman Emperor, speaking of the crucifixion. This letter exists in the archives of the Vatican, but both these testimonies seem to be inadmissible. The original MS. of Josephus does not contain the page referring to Jesus, which is admitted to be a subsequent insertion; the letter of Pilate, with the signature on it as well, is now considered a pious fraud. Thus we are left no other course than to rely on the Bible and the Holy Qur’an. The last Book of God totally denies the event, and the Bible story is only a remoulding of the Babylonian legend, which is decidedly a myth of the Sun-worship. Apart from the verdict of the Holy Qur’an, could any person accept the Gospel story as original, in the name of honesty and truth, after reading the contents of the said tablet? Besides, the multiplicity of the various events recorded to complete the Gospel story, makes it a physical impossibility. From the Last Supper, up to the Crucifixion, all events have been recorded in one night –the agony in the Garden, the betrayal by Judas, Jesus brought before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, and then to the Hall of Judgment, the intermediate visit to Herod and coming again to Pilate, who speaks and washes his hands; the scourging, the mocking of Jesus arrayed in purple, and the crown of thorns, the preparation of a cross, and the painful journey to Golgotha.
Events with characters coming out of the “green room” or on the film, may receive their full development within a few hours, but when they actually occur they must take some reasonable time; and it is a matter of surprise, as Edward Carpenter thinks, to find the trial of Jesus in the middle of the night, as courts do not generally sit to try malefactors at that hour of the night. But if the story was taken from the Babylonian mystery play, the multiplicity of the events within the short space of night, and the time of night chosen for their occurrence, afford us an explanation. The date of the crucifixion is another stumbling block. in the way of a seeker after truth, because he finds the date of Good Friday to correspond closely with the dates of the Passions of the various deities, and so it is with the time of the resurrection. No doubt we find its mention in the Gospel as occurring near the date of the Passover Feast. But it was a time-honoured date in the Pagan world.
The movable nature of the Church Easter, occurring as it does in March or April, according to the moon phases, makes it still more doubtful. The date, had it any connection with such a remarkable event as the Resurrection, must have been fixed. But if the festival arose from the rise of the vegetation depending upon certain phases and seasons of the luminaries –as both the Sun and the Moon play great part in this phenomenon– the reasons for the festival occurring on changing dates is obvious. It must occur after the full Moon.
Easter (Anglo-Saxon, Eostre, O.H.G. Ostera) was the goddess of Light and Spring in whose honour the festival was celebrated everywhere at the said dates. Hot cross-buns and eggs were distributed and eaten in Egypt and Ireland, in the same way as it is done now in Christendom, at the time of Easter, This, again, shows the descent of the Church Easter from the olden days, The whole of Nature is risen again at Easter time, and a new life is coming to humanity. Do we not find the same story in the Church-covering –Easter Sunday being the resurrection of the Lord that brought new life to the human race? Some of the Western writers are of opinion that the Passover Feast of the Jews besides being held to commemorate the crossing of the Red Sea, was taken from the Sun-worship festival celebrated on the day when the sun crosses the Equator.
The presumption becomes stronger, when many other things in the Jewish traditions are traced to Sun-worship.
The sun was the Dying God of the ancient world. After his birth on December 25th the young deity increases every day in his power and strength, and defies the demon of darkness in the struggle, till the final week in the March comes, when his progress is retarded and he becomes stationary. The struggle between the two seems to have come to a climax, and the devil appears to be going to have the better of the conflict. Therefore it is a time of great anxiety and apprehension –a day of mourning and weeping for the maidens of Adonis; the suffering God undergoing his last ordeal; Hercules gone into Hades; Attis nailed down to a pine trunk– in short, the dead God is interred in the tomb, but two days after, all sorrow and weeping change into merriment, the Sun-God overcoming the forces of darkness (the Rubicon, i.e the Equator, passed); Hercules ascending from the underworld; their respective tombs. The date of the Dying God and that of the Rising God, therefore, become great events, and are attended respectively with mourning and rejoicing –just as find on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.” (pp. (For more on this see Christianity-is paganism).
Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din also lists forty-eight (48) similarities –including virgin birth, deliverer, ascension and return to restore “order and happiness”– between Jesus and Buddha. And Buddha, it is to be noted, preceded Jesus by five hundred years. Who copied from whom? (See also Jesus-the three wise men; Jesus-redundant no ransom).
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