Origins of Christianity

Early Christianity: weirder than you think On the 115th anniversary of his birth, we bring you a previously unpublished piece, from 1973, written by the great wit, writer, and scholar, Revilo Pendleton Oliver, born in Texas on 7 July, 1908. by Revilo P. Oliver IF WE HAD all the early versions, oral and…

Mithras Sacrificing the Bull, Roman, c. 150 CE; now in the Louvre by Revilo P. Oliver LATER ZOROASTRIANISM (APPENDIX 2, continued) ONE CONSEQUENCE OF THE Greek conquest of Asia was that Zoroastrianism survived in bastard cults that would have given its founder apoplexy. A very good example is the spectacular…

Alexander the Great by Revilo P. Oliver CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
LATER ZOROASTRIANISM (APPENDIX 2) SINCE one of the later Zoroastrian sects exerted a great influence on early Christianity, some mention of it in these pages seems called for. A first-rate theologian always wants to rise and shine by devising…

by Revilo P. Oliver CHAPTER TWELVE:
AHURA MAZDA (APPENDIX 1) IN MY highly condensed summary of the Zoroastrian religion, I have assumed that when Zoroaster tells us there is only one supreme god of good, he means what he says, and that when he gave to that god an unprecedented name, Ahura Mazda, he coined…

by Revilo P. Oliver BUDDHISM GAUTAMA, who was later called the Buddha (“enlightener”), is said to have been an Aryan princeling in the part of India that lies at the foot of the Himalayas and is now called Nepal. He is reported to have had the distinctive mental trait that makes us distressed…

by Revilo P. Oliver GOD’S HOUSE WHEN A RESIDENCE is sold these days, the new owner almost always makes changes: He has it painted another color, he has the interior redecorated and installs new furniture, he may remove a partition between small rooms or divide a very large room, he may have the kitchen…

A Christian sculpture depicting the “battle of good versus evil” by Revilo P. Oliver PSYCHIC MAGIC THE GODLY TRIBE of Ahura Mazda’s clever priests gave us the word ’Magic,’ but none of their feats of prestidigitation was half so marvelous as the magic Zoroaster says he performed at the…

Engraving based on a bas-relief showing a Persian King in combat with a monster symbolizing Angra Mainyu, “first incarnation of Evil,” Darío palace, Persepolis by Revilo P. Oliver CHAPTER ELEVEN:
THE GREAT ÜBERWERTUNG, PSYCHIC MAGIC, GOD’S HOUSE, BUDDHISM, AND TAPAS _______ THE GREAT…

The natural Aryan conception of god is quite different from those posited by Zoroaster and later Semitic religions such as Christianity. by Revilo P. Oliver CHAPTER TEN:
ZOROASTER’S CREATION ZOROASTER’S RELIGION, often called Mazdaism, is the greatest religion ever created by one man. It is the…

A modern Iranian depiction of Zoroaster by Revilo P. Oliver ZOROASTER
continued IT IS A GENERAL RULE that Saviours should disdain females,(9) but Zoroaster was an exception, as befits one who, by his laughter at birth, affirmed that life is worth living. As soon as he had established himself at the…