Dear Dr. Levine,

I am wondering if the symbol on the tomb could be the resurrection of Lazarus? The symbol of his tomb with a round circle under the roof was a popular one in the catacombs of early Christians. I wrote a long post to the general discussion group, but I think it was lost. The symbol also looks a little like the upright version of the fish.

I noticed that underneath the circle of the lost tomb of Jesus, there is another inverted chevron. Could this be the top portion of the sarcouphagus of Lazarus? This symbol would work whether you are in the spiritual or the literal camp on resurrection. I have read the Gnostic Gospels by Dr. Anne Pagels, and there is a gospel that discusses the spiritual aspects of the resurrection of Lazarus. Once he came out of the tomb, all of the other disciples asked Jesus "Can I be next?" meaning that they wanted to get wrapped up and go into the tomb. Three days without food or water would cause the initiate to hallucinate and have a spiritual awakening.

Did Cathar priests rewrite the sections about the resurrection of Christ after Mark in order to deify Jesus?

Yours,
Dr. Broe

DR. BRO:

I believe you mean Dr. Elaine Pagels, at Princeton... and yes, she is an excellent source.

AS far as the goofy NT mythos of "Lazarus", obviously it was in no way "historical", but a clear literary fiction.

CONSIDER one gospel's attempt to lay the groundwork for a bodily resurrected messiah. Inexplicably, only the last of the gospel ghost-writers, aka John, got the word of jesus raising the rotting corpse of Lazarus of Bethany, 4 days after his death. Luke particularly should have corroborated this miracle for the ages, but does not. Of course, he writes of Mary and Martha, but somehow is unaware they have a brother, whom John alleges jesus knew well. Luke only manages a stale parable of a rich-man versus a poor-man named Lazarus.

THERE are numerous "historical" problems with this overtly fictional account, but perhaps more interestingly, are the parallels with the Egyptian god-man Osiris, resurrected by his son, Horus. Osiris, like Lazarus, rose on the 4th day and had two weeping sisters (Isis and Nephythis). Both accounts mention foul-odor... having the tomb door opened... wakening from sleep... etc.. Also, the semetic reference to El-Osiris or El-Azar-Us is phonetically almost identical to Laz-a-rus... as is the "House of Annu" (necropolis) or "Beth-Annu", to Bethany.


INTERESTING, is it not?


A couple of observations, from the scholar herself:


"We know virtually nothing about the persons who wrote the gospels we call Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."... ..."But the gnostic Christians rejected Luke's theory. Some gnostics called the literal view of resurrection the 'faith of fools'." -Dr. Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, and receipient of Guggenheim, MacArthur, and Rockefeller fellowships, ("The Gnostic Gospels", 1979, winner of the National Book Critcs Circle and National Book awards, and acclaimed as one of the "100 best books of the 20th century" by Modern Library).

"Now when I read the Gospel of John, I see Jesus standing there saying "I am the way, the truth, the light, I am the water," and I think "Who is he talking to? Why does he say this over and over?" New Testament scholars would say, "Well, Jesus never said these words"--and that's probably true." and "I realized that conventional views of Christian faith that I'd heard when I was growing up were simply made up -- and I realized that many parts of the story of the early Christian movement had been left out." -Dr. Elaine Pagels, from interviews on BeliefNet (by Laura Sheahen) and PBS's "Religion and Ethics" (Oct. 10, 2003).


CHEERS.