What if there were absolutely no evidence for the existence of an historical Jesus?

What if for thousands of years Pagans had also followed a Son of God?

What if this Pagan saviour was also born of a virgin on the 25th of December before three shepherds, turned water into wine at a wedding, died and resurrected at Easter, and offered his body and blood as a Holy Communion?

What if these Pagan myths had been rewritten as the gospel of Jesus Christ?

What if the earliest Gnostic Christians knew that the Jesus story was a myth?

What if Christianity turned out to be a continuation of Paganism by another name?

The Jesus Mysteries is a provocative, exciting and challenging book. Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy will force a new debate in Christian circles for which the Church will ultimately be grateful.

Right Rev'd John Shelby Spong, Bishop of Newark,
Author of Why Christianity Must Change or Die

Book of the Year. An erudite and well-researched book stuffed with plenty of controversial ideas.

Fiona Pitt-Kethley
The Daily Telegraph

So persuasive that is doubtful whether theological scholarship will ever be the same.

Robert Macklin
The Canberra Times

"Rarely have the roots of Christianity been disentangled to such disturbing effect. I shall never be able to read the gospels in the same way again."

Roger Bolton, Presenter of BBC Radio 4 The Sunday Programme

"The parallels between paganism and Christianity that Freke and Gandy advance are impressive"

Professor G A Wells, author of The Jesus Myth

"The lively and energetic style of this book will give the ordinary reader a rare insight into what may be called the New Age of Antiquity, and thereby also to the obscure and intriguing beginnings of Christianity. Scholars will appreciate the thorough documentation, specified in hundreds of footnotes."

Professor Alvar Ellegard, author of Jesus - One Hundred Years Before Christ

"I have used this book in my graduate seminar on Christian Origins. I think it is an excellent book for introducing anyone interested in Christian origins to the relationships between earliest Christianity and other religions of the Greco-Roman world."

"This is a powerful book, and its impact, like a rolling express train, accelerates as one is carried along, page after page, through the authors’ demolition of the Literalist Christian tradition."

Earl Doherty, author of The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity begin with a Mythical Christ?