An Egyptian Origin of the Word ‘Christ’ ? (1908 article)
Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2021 12:27 pm
See (Alabama Congressman, lawyer, amateur historian & spiritualist) Willis Brewer “Egyptian Origin of the Word ‘Christ’,” The Open Court: Vol. 1908, No.5. LINK.
In other threads (and wholly apart from this article), I have reviewed some Biblical and non-Biblical evidence to show how the (Jewish) Melchizedek=Logos existed long before the Christos ever appears in the myth complex. And the Alexandrian-authored 'Epistle to the Hebrews' illustrates that, c.55 AD. As 'the Jewish version of', Melchizedek closely correspoded to Logos/Thoth, who becomes -or is replaced by- the Judaic-pagan Christos throughout the Diaspora in the period 25-75 AD.
The 1908 article sounds logical, but the polymath author is still a rank amateur, so (as w/ Massey) everything must be confirmed. Djehuti/Thoth WAS the Logos first: correct. Furthermore, Prof. Ronald J. Leprohon is a serious Egyptologist: he confirms the meaning of Kheru. Also the chrēston(XP) appears BEFORE CHRIST, on Egyptian coinage pre-235 BC, another pointer:
A few evolving thoughts:
I'm thinking 'the Anointed King' and Saviour motif appears in the cosmopolitan capital of the Jewish Diaspora, a Judeo-Egyptian interpretation of the Jewish Mashiach (esp.expressed as 'Messiah ben Joseph') ~200 years before Jesus. SO THEN a new tradition develops: at some point, a small network of antinomian Jewish synagogues adds a new Christos myth to the older Logos Myth already fully-developed in (i.e. much older than) Philo Judaeus.
A 'Christos' may refer to a newly anointed prophet in whatever the heterodox Jewish sect - a syncretized Joseph-Serapis has been attested to in period reports (previously discussed here), for example. We might suspect such religious innovators (alchemists) ALSO commercially produced luxe goods sold across the regional Diaspora. Their preachers were like snake-oil salesmen, with miracle healing stories to tell ... not unlike an HerbaLife MLM cult-scheme. And their business is strongest with the Jews and proselytes around Byblos, Tyre, Sidon? Something seems to drive this developing cult to coastal Syro-Phoenicia (c.10 AD?), into communities with an Osiris Myth complex, a generation before Paul and with greater zeal after 40 AD. Though the record is poor, there should be many small communities of gnostic Jews and Chrestiani around the Mediterranean littoral in 50 AD. The Christos Myth became a dominant and organizational principle in quite a few heterodox synagogues abroad by that time, 50 AD. (Ironically, the movement did not succeed in Alexandria, left no traces there; other more elaborate Gnostic systems were hatched.)
The Jesus crew hijacked a failing Alexandrian Jewish perfume network, in subsequent decades. The ointment biz? Became irrelevant, next to the faith-healing and tithes ...
At the period when the Septuaguint was prepared …all the schools of speculative thought around the Mediterranean were discussing the Logos. Under its personality as Ta-Khut {ḏḥwtj/ Djehuti=Thoth/Hermes Trismegistus} the Egyptians had evidently ended such metaphysics long before Cadmus is supposed to have come into Greece. They invariably placed after the name of the deceased on the funeral papyri the words Maa Kheru {ma'ā-kheru = True Voice; the Judged Righteous, etc.}. These papyri contained one or more chapters of books believed to have been written by {Djehuti/Thoth}, and which were to guide and shield the soul in its journey through the Shades till it reached Aaru {Field of Reeds}. Without these kheru {Voice} the soul would be lost. In classic mythology we often find Hermes/Mercury escorting the soul, while in Egypt the word of {Djehuti/Thoth} not only shielded the Dead, but had created the Cosmos. He was the personified Logos or ‘Word’; the Kheru or ‘voice’ that consecrated the living and the dead, and gave them the true kheru.
The Egyptian letter kh {= ḫ} is a highly aspirated H, and is usually transcribed by the Greeks as X {Chi}, and vice versa. (The value of the Greek X in English is usually Ch.) The kheru of the Egyptian would thus be Cheru, or Ch-R {Chi +Rho}. These latter two letters form the famous ‘XP’ cryptogram of the early Christians. That this referred to Christ is generally accepted, but perhaps as the ‘Word’ that the Greek John’s Gospel {c.90 AD} said was made flesh, and which was in the Beginning, and was God. A Greek or Jew, writing at Alexandria when the Septuagint was prepared, and while the Logos was subject to many ramifications of thought, would have a different view of the Mashiach from the Galilean {+300 years} later.
The scholar at Alexandria, with few illusions, and environed by the mystical and metaphysical ideas of Egypt and Greece, would construe Mashiach as some agent or agency emanating from the Divine Order or Supreme Intelligence, and working as noiselessly in nature …this is seen in the Greek Gospel of John, where Jesus is called the Logos, is made to speak of the Paraclete or ‘Comforter,’ and to say (17:17) of God ‘Thy Word is Truth,’ in the sense of Maa Kheru, since it was to sanctify them. The Jewish concept was practical, and grew out of a condition of oppression which called for a deliverer… The Greek or Egyptian idea was psychologic or phrenic, and Paraclete to them must have represented the inward monitor which we call by the curious name ‘conscience,’ though personified as a divine message and messenger or adviser, such as Djehuti was to the gods.
It was this warning ‘voice’ or kheru, which as Cheru we may have as Christos, the substitute for Mashiach in the Septuagint; an Egyptian word for Logos.
The Egyptian letter kh {= ḫ} is a highly aspirated H, and is usually transcribed by the Greeks as X {Chi}, and vice versa. (The value of the Greek X in English is usually Ch.) The kheru of the Egyptian would thus be Cheru, or Ch-R {Chi +Rho}. These latter two letters form the famous ‘XP’ cryptogram of the early Christians. That this referred to Christ is generally accepted, but perhaps as the ‘Word’ that the Greek John’s Gospel {c.90 AD} said was made flesh, and which was in the Beginning, and was God. A Greek or Jew, writing at Alexandria when the Septuagint was prepared, and while the Logos was subject to many ramifications of thought, would have a different view of the Mashiach from the Galilean {+300 years} later.
The scholar at Alexandria, with few illusions, and environed by the mystical and metaphysical ideas of Egypt and Greece, would construe Mashiach as some agent or agency emanating from the Divine Order or Supreme Intelligence, and working as noiselessly in nature …this is seen in the Greek Gospel of John, where Jesus is called the Logos, is made to speak of the Paraclete or ‘Comforter,’ and to say (17:17) of God ‘Thy Word is Truth,’ in the sense of Maa Kheru, since it was to sanctify them. The Jewish concept was practical, and grew out of a condition of oppression which called for a deliverer… The Greek or Egyptian idea was psychologic or phrenic, and Paraclete to them must have represented the inward monitor which we call by the curious name ‘conscience,’ though personified as a divine message and messenger or adviser, such as Djehuti was to the gods.
It was this warning ‘voice’ or kheru, which as Cheru we may have as Christos, the substitute for Mashiach in the Septuagint; an Egyptian word for Logos.
In other threads (and wholly apart from this article), I have reviewed some Biblical and non-Biblical evidence to show how the (Jewish) Melchizedek=Logos existed long before the Christos ever appears in the myth complex. And the Alexandrian-authored 'Epistle to the Hebrews' illustrates that, c.55 AD. As 'the Jewish version of', Melchizedek closely correspoded to Logos/Thoth, who becomes -or is replaced by- the Judaic-pagan Christos throughout the Diaspora in the period 25-75 AD.
The 1908 article sounds logical, but the polymath author is still a rank amateur, so (as w/ Massey) everything must be confirmed. Djehuti/Thoth WAS the Logos first: correct. Furthermore, Prof. Ronald J. Leprohon is a serious Egyptologist: he confirms the meaning of Kheru. Also the chrēston(XP) appears BEFORE CHRIST, on Egyptian coinage pre-235 BC, another pointer:
A few evolving thoughts:
I'm thinking 'the Anointed King' and Saviour motif appears in the cosmopolitan capital of the Jewish Diaspora, a Judeo-Egyptian interpretation of the Jewish Mashiach (esp.expressed as 'Messiah ben Joseph') ~200 years before Jesus. SO THEN a new tradition develops: at some point, a small network of antinomian Jewish synagogues adds a new Christos myth to the older Logos Myth already fully-developed in (i.e. much older than) Philo Judaeus.
A 'Christos' may refer to a newly anointed prophet in whatever the heterodox Jewish sect - a syncretized Joseph-Serapis has been attested to in period reports (previously discussed here), for example. We might suspect such religious innovators (alchemists) ALSO commercially produced luxe goods sold across the regional Diaspora. Their preachers were like snake-oil salesmen, with miracle healing stories to tell ... not unlike an HerbaLife MLM cult-scheme. And their business is strongest with the Jews and proselytes around Byblos, Tyre, Sidon? Something seems to drive this developing cult to coastal Syro-Phoenicia (c.10 AD?), into communities with an Osiris Myth complex, a generation before Paul and with greater zeal after 40 AD. Though the record is poor, there should be many small communities of gnostic Jews and Chrestiani around the Mediterranean littoral in 50 AD. The Christos Myth became a dominant and organizational principle in quite a few heterodox synagogues abroad by that time, 50 AD. (Ironically, the movement did not succeed in Alexandria, left no traces there; other more elaborate Gnostic systems were hatched.)
The Jesus crew hijacked a failing Alexandrian Jewish perfume network, in subsequent decades. The ointment biz? Became irrelevant, next to the faith-healing and tithes ...
