A Critical Look at Tom Harpur's "The Pagan Christ"

James Patrick Holding

Our friends in Canada had now and then asked me about a journalist up their way named Tom Harpur, who writes all manner of squishy New Agish columns for the Toronto Star. Harpur's work doesn't get down here to the States easily; in fact his book of interest here, The Pagan Christ [Thomas Allen, 2004] I could not find in local bookstores and it could not be had via Amazon's American site until more recently (I ordered it via the Canadian one). Perhaps that may have had something to do with laws against importing foreign toxic waste. If that seems hard, it's not. Harpur's book is merely a regurgitation of the absolute worst in "pagan copycat" theories, and serves as an example of material you'll be able to avoid once you use the hints I give on using sources critically. Start with the bibliography, and it reads like a Rogue's Gallery of Scholastic Incompetence: Freke and Gandy, Acharya S, Tim Leedom, T. W. Doane, Earl Doherty, Helen Ellerbe, Kersey Graves, John Shelby Spong, Godfrey Higgins, Gerald Massey, Alvin Boyd Kuhn. These last three (in reverse order) are Harpur's most favored sources; throughout Harpur expresses bewilderment that these three "scholars" (the word he applies liberally to just about anyone, regardless of credentials), especially Kuhn, have been so vastly ignored. The very idea that they have been ignored because of their incompetence and inability somehow never manages to cross Harpur's uncritical mind.

Some critical work backing this up was done for us by W. Ward Gasque, a Canadian Biblical scholar, who reports that he emailed 20 Egyptologists to get their view of these last three writers. Of the 10 who responded to Gasque, only one had ever heard of any of them. I think it worth reporting much of what Gasque reports, in full:

Harpur refers to Kuhn, Massey and Higgins as 'Egyptologists'; but he does not quote any contemporary Egyptologist or recognized academic authority on world religions, nor does he appeal to any of the standard reference books, such as the magisterial three volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (2001) or any primary sources.

He is especially dependent on Kuhn, whom he describes as "one of the single greatest geniuses of the 20th century" -- [one who] "towers above all others of recent memory in intellect and his understanding of the world's religions." Further, "Kuhn has more to offer the Church than all the scholars of the Jesus Seminar together. More than John Spong, C. S. Lewis, Joseph Campbell or Matthew Fox." Harpur declares himself "stunned at the silence with which [Kuhn's] writings have been greeted by scholars."

As it turns out, Kuhn was a high school language teacher who earned a PhD from Columbia University by writing a dissertation on Theosophy; his only other link with an institution of higher learning was a short stint as secretary to the president of a small college. Though he was a prodigious author, most of his works were self-published.

I emailed 20 leading international Egyptologists, regarding the contributions made to the field by Kuhn, Higgins and Massey. I also asked their opinion of the following claims by Kuhn (and hence Harpur):

* That the name of Jesus was derived from the Egyptian Iusa, which means "the coming divine Son who heals or saves."

* That the god Horus is "an Egyptian Christos, or Christ . . . He and his mother, Isis, were the forerunners of the Christian Madonna and Child, and together they constituted a leading image in Egyptian religion for millennia prior to the Gospels."

* That Horus also "had a virgin birth, and that in one of his roles, he was 'a fisher of men with 12 followers.'"

* That "the letters KRST appear on Egyptian mummy coffins many centuries BCE, and . . . this word, when the vowels are filled in . . . is really Karast or Krist, signifying Christ."

* That the doctrine of the incarnation "is in fact the oldest, most universal mythos known to religion. It was current in the Osirian religion in Egypt at least 4,000 years BCE."

Only one of the 10 experts who responded to my questions had ever heard of Kuhn, Higgins or Massey! Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen of the University of Liverpool pointed out that not one of these men is mentioned in M.L. Bierbrier's Who Was Who in Egyptology (3rd ed, 1995); nor are any of their works listed in Ida B. Pratt's very extensive bibliography on Ancient Egypt (1925/1942).

Since he died in 1834, Kitchen noted, "nothing by Higgins could be of any value whatsoever, because decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs was still being finalized, very few texts were translated, and certainly not the vast mass of first-hand religious data."

Another scholar responded: "Egyptology has the unenviable distinction of being one of those disciplines that almost anyone can lay claim to, and the unfortunate distinction of being probably the one most beleaguered by false prophets." He dismissed Kuhn's work as "fringe nonsense."

These scholars were unanimous in dismissing the suggested etymologies for 'Jesus' and 'Christ.'

Peter F. Dorman of the University of Chicago commented: "It is often tempting to suggest simplistic etymologies between Egyptian and Greek (or other languages), but similar sequences of consonants and/or vowels are insufficient to demonstrate any convincing connection."

Ron Leprohan, of the University of Toronto, pointed out that while sa means 'son' in ancient Egyptian and iu means 'to come,' Kuhn and Harpur have the syntax all wrong. In any event, the name Iusa simply does not exist in Egyptian. The name 'Jesus' is Greek, derived from a universally recognized Semitic name (Jeshu'a) borne by many people in the first century.

While all the scholars agreed that the image of the baby Horus and Isis has influenced the Christian iconography of Madonna and Child, this is where the similarity stops. The image of Mary and Jesus is not one of the earliest Christian images -- and, at any rate, there is no evidence for the idea that Horus was virgin born. Further, the New Testament Mary was certainly not a goddess, like Isis.

There is no evidence for the idea that Horus was 'a fisher of men' -- or that his followers, the king's officials, were ever 12 in number.

KRST is the word for 'burial' ('coffin' is written 'KRSW'); but there is no evidence whatsoever to link this with the Greek title 'Christos,' or Hebrew 'Mashiah.'

There is no mention of Osiris in Egyptian texts until about 2350 BCE, so Harpur's reference to the origins of Osirian religion is off by more than a millennium and a half. Elsewhere, Harpur refers to "Jesus in Egyptian lore as early as 18,000 BCE"; and he quotes Kuhn as claiming that "the Jesus who stands as the founder of Christianity was at least 10,000 years of age." In fact, the earliest extant writing that we have dates from about 3200 BCE.)

Kuhn's redefinition of 'incarnation' and his attempt to root this in Egyptian religion is regarded as bogus by the Egyptologists I consulted. According to one: "Only the pharaoh was believed to have a divine aspect, the divine power of kingship, incarnated in the human being currently serving as the king. No other Egyptians ever believed they possessed even 'a little bit of the divine'."

Virtually none of the alleged evidence in The Pagan Christ is documented by reference to original sources. The notes -- which refer mainly to Kuhn, Higgins, Massey or various long-out-of-date works -- abound with errors and omissions. Many quotations are taken out of context and clearly misinterpreted.

The book is chock full of questionable claims, such as: that "Christianity began as a cult with almost wholly Pagan origins and motivations in the first century"; that nearly all of the most creative leaders of the earliest church were pronounced heretics and reviled by "those who had swept in and grabbed control of [church] policies"; that "apart from the four Gospels . . . and the Epistles, there is no hard, historical evidence for Jesus' existence coming out of the first century at all."

Harpur claims that "the greatest cover-up of all time" was perpetrated at the beginning of the fourth century; and that thousands of Christian scholars have a vested interest in maintaining the myth that there was an actual Jesus who lived in history.

Presumably, the Jewish, Unitarian, secular and very liberal Christians who happen to be recognized scholars have no axes to grind regarding whether or not Jesus actually lived, or whether most of the ideas found in the Bible stem from Egyptian or other Near Eastern religions. It would be unlikely that you could find more than a handful who believe that Jesus of Nazareth did not live and walk the dusty roads of Palestine.

Harpur's book is based on the work of self-appointed 'scholars' who seek to excavate literary and archaeological resources of the ancient world the way a crossword puzzle enthusiast mines dictionaries and lists of words -- rather than by primary scholarship.

While this was an extensive quote to use, it corresponds with what will be shown further: Harpur, though once a minor Biblical scholar himself, has clearly hoist his integrity upon the petard of gullibility. Even the few real scholars he uses (Crossan, Borg, Funk, Pagels, etc) are used sparingly, would powerfully disagree with his sources like Massey and Kuhn, and themselves are considered to variable extents "fringe" by the mainstream. There is not a hint of any knowledge of specific evangelical scholarly responses (just vague references to angry "conservative" respondents). In this book and in his columns, Harpur merely uncritically follows preferred sources and pretends that contrary material either does not exist, or is just sponsored by fundamentalists. Not surprisingly, Harpur reacts like a spoiled child when called on his errors; you can see this below with Gasque. Willful and gullible misinformers should never be permitted any leave to get away with anything, and that includes Harpur. We will also be responding to his common retort that his critics simply need to read the works of his sources and appreciate their genius, by indeed looking at these sources and exposing their nuttiness. Here is what we have:

  • Alvin Boyd Kuhn -- includes a look at one of his works on a marginally related topic, The Esoteric Structure of the Alphabet. The insanity of this work alone should put intelligent readers off Kuhn for a lifetime.
  • Gerald Massey -- three items here, two from work done prior to out work on Harpur.
  • Godfrey Higgins -- his work is hard to come by, but we managed it.

Naturally, as with all such critics, Harpur is challenged to provide actual answers to these points made. We very much doubt we will see any.

  • [3] The usual ploy is offered on the "Dark Ages" as some sort of negative result of Christianity. Not one specific is offered, and Harpur is merely uncritically repeating a mantra that has been refuted for decades. In contrast, our associate Venerable Bede reports here:

That the first myth I wish to dispose of even needs to be refuted will surprise the vast majority of readers but several anti-Christians seem to be labouring under the impression that Christianity actually caused or prolonged the Dark Ages. Most of us know that the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west had nothing to do with religion. Instead, it was the result of the hordes of barbarian invaders and the Empire's inability to cope with them after centuries of stagnation. The last of the invaders were the Vikings who subsided in the eleventh century although their descendants, the Normans, kept the tradition up for a while longer. Gradually the barbarians converted to Christianity but it was many generations before they lost much of their pagan culture and way of life. We should also note that the Dark Ages were not actually that gloomy at all and historians now prefer to use the less judgemental phrase of 'early Middle Ages'. The period was one of dynamic technical advance, with inventions like the horse collar and stirup; great art, like the Sutton Hoe treasure; and great literature too, such as Beowulf and the work of Bede himself.

There was a Renaissance of sorts around 800 AD under Charlemagne and by the eleventh century a recognisable Western European culture was firmly established. Christians had always looked back to the Roman Empire as a lost ideal while pagan authors like Cicero and Virgil were popular. Christianity had grown up in a pagan culture and was usually quite comfortable with its literary achievements. There was no attempt to suppress classical works by the church and the losses of the dark ages were caused simply by the fact that only a tiny number of people were now literate and hence valued the decaying manuscripts. It was the church that kept the candle of learning alive and the preservative all Latin literature that has come down to us is a direct result of the efforts of Christian scribes who laboured to copy out old manuscripts. True, they were more concerned to preserve what was important to them and that meant Christian writing - but to accuse them of not being interested in exactly what we are interested in is small minded and churlish when we owe them so much.

No better words might be used to describe Harpur!

  • [5] Harpur's first note about "Iusa"; see above by Gasque. In a column Harpur claims, "The name of Jesus (Iusu) occurs in Egyptian texts before 10,000 B.C.E.," a rather bold claim inasmuch as our oldest known text of any sort dates from c. 2300 BC. Perhaps Harpur needs to inform professional Egyptologists about his stunning discovery.

The claim made apparently derives directly from Massey, who provided not a shred of documentation for this claim. If Harpur wishes to have any semblance of credibility, here or elsewhere, let him cite the exact work that this "Iusa" figure appears in.

  • Why and how it was "news" to Harpur that "Moses" as a name was Egyptian -- like Thutmose -- is hard to grasp. This is standard and what we would expect had Moses been adopted into an Egyptian family.
  • [6] Harpur's first note of KRST; see Gasque above. On "El-Asar" and Lazarus, see here, page 98 reference.
  • [7] Harpur's paranoia leads him to the conclusion that "fear, vested Church interests, and the belief that some things should not be left to the hoi polloi to discuss" have been the reason for the "virtual public silence" about these ideas of genius he finds from Kuhn, Massey, et al. If so, let him prove this by showing that, for example, lectures and books by these men were suppressed; that scholars once gave them credence, before being harrassed; or some other such actual data proving such a conspiracy. Let him prove this over and against the more likely idea that the "silence" comes of the virtual incompetence of these writers in their fields.
  • [8] Harpur naively quotes Richard Holloway -- he who was found red-handed, so to speak, visiting a business of ill-repute -- as saying that the "end of Christianity" is coming. Someone should perhaps inform Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and author of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. His credentials as a historian certainly exceed those of a wayward professor of divinity with no peer-reviewed credit in the subject.
  • [11] Harpur claims that the "chi rho" or Greek monogram using the first two letters of the word for "Christ" "was also pre-existent to Christianity" and "appears on the coins of the Ptolemies and even those of King Herod the Great" forty years before Jesus' time. Naturally not one shred of documentation is provided for this assertion, but Harpur is right on his fact while in gross error on his interpretation. An explanation is found from a point here by a collector of such coins, that a mint is abbreviated with the first two letters of the city name. The Catholic Encyclopedia reports here that the Greek letters XP combined in a monogram occur on pre-Christian coins (e. g. the Attic tetradrachma and some coins of the Ptolemies), and in some Greek manuscripts of the Christian period they are employed as an abbreviation of certain words. In other words, Harpur misses the very essential point that a monogram, made up of one or two letters, can have far more than one meaning. Thus the chi-rho monogram on the coin would refer not to Christ, but to an ancient mint in a city that began with the letters Chr- or else the name of the person who made the coin. Without this realization, what Harpur offers is like arguing that the American Dental Association is the same thing as the Americans with Disabilities Act, because both are referred to by the monogram ADA! (Hurtado, Earliest Christian Artifacts, 137, offers several examples of Greek words that were abbreviated with the chi rho combination, inclduing as an abbreviation for a word that indicated a passage was useful for excerpting.)
  • [19] Harpur quotes Origen as saying, " It is allowed, by all who have any knowledge of the scriptures that everything there is conveyed enigmatically, i.e., esoterically." As usual, no source is given for this alleged quote from Origen; such a line is attributed to Origen in Contra Celsus by Kuhn in Who is this King of Glory? An online copy of that work here, reveals no such quote. It is also said that when the church "turned to literalism and an exoteric, bottom-line rendering of the faith," Origen's works were banned. This ignores the plain historical fact that literalism was a fundamental method of reading before Origen, and by Origen himself. As reported here, Origen did make recourse to an allegorical method more than others did, but he did so only when "it would entail anything impossible, absurd, or unworthy of God" -- he did not interpret the entirety of the scriptures allegorically as Harpur would wish to imply. As the article also makes clear, whether indeed Origen's works were banned is far from clear, and it was not due to "literalism vs. allegorism." Finally, Harpur charges that the church forgot or ignored "the fact that St. Paul himself used the esoteric, allegorical approach: but carefully hides in a footnote the single reference to Paul allegedly doing this in Gal. 4:24-5 -- hardly enough to establish a normal methodology, even if true; however, the Jews did not reject allegory as a means of interpretation, and what Paul does here is not what Harpur does in his "allegorizing" (e.g., making the story of the prodigal son some metaphor for primordial matter!), but a case of historical appeal to type and antitype from what he regards as real history (see description here).
  • [22] For a review of the names of pagan deities Harpur appeals to, see series here. His collapsing down of all of these figures to an "ideal man" is nonsensical and could just as well render "ideal men" ranging from Lincoln to Augustine into the realm of myth.
  • [28] The idea that Augustine got the idea of the Trinity from Plotinus is absurd; for an account of the true origins of the doctrine in pre-Christian Jewish Wisdom theology, see here. Augustine did count Plotinus as an influence in his life, but the Trinity doctrine was formulated and secure well before this time.
  • [28] Harpur badly abuses a quote from Eusebius to the effect that Christianity was "neither new nor strange." Contextually, Eusebius says this not to establish genetic similarity between Christianity and paganism, as Harpur tries to do, but is answering the Greco-Roman objection against that which was new (see here, point 4). Moreover, Eusebius in tracing beliefs back to "the beginning of the world" clearly works within the paradigm of the OT as a historical record and thus again has nothing to do with paganism. Beyond this Harpur's quote of Eusebius appears to be a badly mangled version of what we find here in Chapter IV. It is clear from here that Harpur's mangled quote comes from Kuhn, who in turn got it from Lardner. Conspicuously missing from the original work is the "implanted in man's minds" phrase that Harpur finds so appealing that he italicizes it and calls it "crucial" to his thesis.
  • [28] Harpur quotes Eusebius as saying, "These ancient Theraputae were Christians and their writings are our Gospels and Epistles." From this he concludes that the NT books were really "the old dramatic books of the Essenes, from pre-Christian days." But here are actual quotes from the alleged sources, Book 2, Ch. 17 of Eusy's Ecclesiastical History:

It is also said that Philo in the reign of Claudius became acquainted at Rome with Peter, who was then preaching there. Nor is this indeed improbable, for the work of which we have spoken, and which was composed by him some years later, clearly contains those rules of the Church which are even to this day observed among us. And since he describes as accurately as possible the life of our ascetics, it is clear that he not only knew, but that he also approved, while he venerated and extolled, the apostolic men of his time, who were as it seems of the Hebrew race, and hence observed, after the manner of the Jews, the most of the customs of the ancients. In the work to which he gave the title, On a Contemplative Life or on Suppliants, after affirming in the first place that he will add to those things which he is about to relate nothing contrary to truth or of his own invention, he says that these men were called Therapeut' and the women that were with them Therapeutrides.