JESUS SIRED BY AN ANGEL?

Hugh Fogelman

The ancient pagans very naturally concluded that an offspring of God (a son of God) should have a purer, higher and holier maternal origin than is incident to the lot of mortals, and this was to constitute one of the evidences of his emanation from the Deity―that is, of his supernatural or divine origin.

 The early Christian Church Fathers knew this pagan concept. This Son of God must not only have a different origin, but one in the highest degree superior and supernatural. And on the part of the mother, a sexual connection with the great Potentate of heaven would show plainly her offspring the very degree of superiority with respect to his origin, moral perfection and authority. That the Son of God was born of a woman furnished the most propitiates opportunity to concoct the story that "The Most High" had approved one of His heavenly agents to become a father and produced a half human.

Again, to make the origin and character of the God and the Son of God stand higher for purity, and partake in the highest degree of the miraculous, the impression must go abroad that he was born of a woman while she was yet a maiden, i.e., before she was contaminated by illicit association with the earthly masculine sex.

 Hence, nearly all the pagan saviors were reputedly born of virgins. It is true that Christian present canonical gospels are silent as to the manner of Jesus’ birth; but one of the Apocryphal gospels, which gives the matter in fuller detail, and whose authority in the earlier ages of the Christian church was not disputed, declares that the manner of his birth was as related above. The same is related in the pagan bibles of heathen gods. And hence it is related of Jesus (in an Apocryphal Gospel), of Chrishna of India, and other saviors, that they were born through the mother's side.

 And we may observe here that it is not the Saviors alone who are reported to have been ushered into tangible existence without a human father, but it is declared of beings known and acknowledged to be men, as Plato, Pythagoras, Alexander, Augustus and a number of others.

 Of Plato an author remarks, "He was born of Paretonia, and begotten of Apollo, and not Ariston, his father." Both the manner, or process, and the source of the influence by which the Gods and Saviors were generated, seem to have been different in different countries, though the idea of "overshadowing with the Holy Ghost" seems to have been most current.

We are told that Pythais, the mother of Pythagoras, five hundred and fifty years B.C.E., conceived by a specter or ghost (of course the Holy Ghost) of the God Apollo, or God Sol.

In Malcolm's "History of Persia" (vol. i. p494) the author tells us that "Zoroaster was born of an immaculate conception by a ray from the Divine Reason." And there was the immaculate conception of Juno of Greece.

Here we have "the immaculate conception" in the superlative degree, and while much more beautiful and grand it cannot be more senseless or unreasonable than the conception by a ghost. It proves at least that the doctrine of the immaculate conception is of very ancient date. And this fastidious maiden lady and immaculate virgin, Juno, not only conceived the God Mars by the touch of a flower, but she also (so the story reads) conceived Vulcan by being overshadowed by the wind -- exactly a parallel case with that of the virgin Mary, as we find that ghost, in the original, means wind.

Thus we observe that Vulcan, long before Jesus, was "born of the Holy Ghost, i.e., both were conceived by the "Holy Wind." And the author of the "Perennial Calendar" speaks of the miraculous conception of Juno Jugulis, "the blessed virgin queen of heaven," and describes it as falling on the second of February, the very day which the early Christians celebrated with a festival, as being the date of the conception of the "ever Blessed Virgin Mary." This case, with respect to the degree of procreative delicacy and refinement evinced, may be classed with that of Juno of Greece.

Here it may be noted as a curious circumstance, that several of the virgin mothers of Gods and great men are specifically represented as going ten months between conception and delivery. The mothers of Hercules, Sakia, Guatama, Scipio, Arion, Solomon and Jesus Christ may be mentioned as samples of this character.

Of the ancient Mexicans, it is said "they had the immaculate conception, the crucifixion, and the resurrection after three days." (Mex. Antiq., vol. i.) And in an ancient work called "Codex Vaticanus," the immaculate conception is spoken of as a part of the history of Quexalcote, the Mexican Savior. "Suchiquecal," says the Mexican Antiquities, "was called the Queen of Heaven. She conceived a son without connection with a man" -- a very obvious case of immaculate conception.

Alvarez Semedo, in his History of China, p 89, speaks of a sect in that country who worshiped a Savior known as Xaca, who was reputedly conceived of his mother, Maia, by a white elephant, which she saw in her sleep, and "for greater purity, she brought him forth from one of her sides." Colonel Tod, of England, tells us in his History of the Rajahs, p 57, that Yu, the first Chinese monarch, was conceived by his mother being struck with a star while traveling. The virgin mother Shing-Mon of China furnishes another case of immaculate conception. Possessing a sensibility too lofty and too refined to descend to the ordinary routine of the world, she gave birth to the God Yu from previous conception by a water lily.

In the case of Jesus, it will be recollected, the star did not appear till after his birth. But here the star is the author and agent of the conception. According to Ranking's History of the Moguls, p 178, Tamerlane's mother (of Bermuda) professedly conceived by having had sexual intercourse with "the God of Day." The mother of Ghengis Khan, of Tartary, "being too modest to claim that she was the mother of the son of God, said only that he was the son of the sun." (History of Mogul, p 65.)

Both Julius and Osiris of Egypt are spoken of by some authors as having been honored with a divine immaculate conception -- the former being the son of the beautiful virgin Cronis Celestine, and "begotten by the Father of all Gods." Both Buddha and Chrishna, of India, are reported as having been immaculately conceived. The mother of the latter (God) was (as the Hindoo Holy Book declares) overshadowed by the Supreme God, Brahma, while the spirit-author of the conception (that is, the Holy Ghost) was Naraan. The mother of Apollonius of Cappadocia, who was contemporary with Jesus Christ (according to his history by Philostratus -- and his (Apollonius') disciple Damis testifies to the same effect (gave birth to this God and rival Savior of Jesus, by having been previously "overshadowed" by the supreme God Proteus. For the corporeal existence and earthly career of Augustus Caesar, the world has ostensibly to acknowledge itself indebted to the "overshadowing" influence and generating power of Jove, by whose divine influence he was immacuously conceived in the temple of Apollo, according to the statement of Nimrod, his biographer.

 In view of the foregoing facts, drawn from accredited histories, the reader will readily concede that the tradition of the miraculous conceptions of Gods (sons of God), Saviors and Messiahs was very prevalent in the world at a very ancient period of time.

And long before the mother of Jesus was "overshadowed by the Most High," the belief in the immaculate conception extended to every nation in the world. and the furtive pregnancy of young women, often by a God, is one of the most frequently recurring incidents in the legendary narratives of the country.

 Again, we have another example of a statement made which people could never verify.

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