Long ago in Alexandria, within a large community of immigrants, there lived a scholar and his wife. They were quite well-off, being descended from the aristocracy of their own people, and held considerable standing in their own community. They were the loving parents of a strong and healthy son, and the whole family were active members of their church. In their later years, Miriam, the wife, became pregnant, at an age when conception was both unusual and dangerous to her health. As her husband was considerably older than her, as was quite common at the time, the usual envious comments praising his virility turned to rumours of her infidelity. In fact, due to her occupation, a dancer, which by the time's definition included her having sexual encounters with regular clients at her place of work, it was indeed very likely that her husband was not the baby's real father.

The child, a boy which they named Yeshua Ben Joseph, grew up strong and tall, and had a normal enough childhood, marred only by feelings of sibling rivalry for his older brother. This jealousy was due to his brother being groomed to inherit the family estate and position, as was the custom at the time. Still, young Yeshua loved his brother and led a normal happy childhood until, at play one day, he struck his playmate in fit of rage, and the boy died, after striking his head on a rock when he fell.

Fortunately, the family's position of importance enabled the incident to be explained away as an accident, and although Yeshua's temper attracted a small amount of attention over the years, his life continued normally enough until he killed a man after a minor accident in the street. This time it was decided to send the youth away to a temple, where the training for the priesthood would hopefully teach the lad some humility and self-control. In time, Yeshua was ordained as a priest of Osiris. Apart from the occasional outburst, the temple's training had quieted the impetuous young man's nature, and he went about his duties in the normal manner. Dedicated to his religion, Yeshua became zealous. He decided to attempt the most ambitious religious feat ever attempted within his ethnic community... the return of his community's homeland to it's original religious roots. Over the years, his ethnic homeland had lapsed somewhat from it's religious origins, becoming patriarchal and denying women their original vital place within the priesthood. Yeshua was driven by the fires of the true believer and was determined to lead them from the slide he perceived had occurred.

After convincing his family to return to their native land, they took up residence in a town just over the border, a cosmopolitan city with many different ethnic nationalities. In this town, the large Greek and Egyptian communities meant that not only was Yeshua's Egyptian accent more acceptable to the locals, he was able to maintain links to the latest discoveries by the scholars and priests he had trained with. Religion and politics being two sides of the same coin in those days, Yeshua's ministries became more and more noticable, and he finally achieved control of the political organisation he had joined on his return. Various rumours circulated about the means employed to achieve this, and although none were ever proved, it was apparent that it was done in a politically underhanded manner. Politics is like that though, even today, and it was certainly no barrier to Yeshua's growing power and influence.

Some of the old temper and arrogance remained however and a violent brawl and near-riot in the stronghold of the current state religion brought Yeshua not only new converts of disillusioned young hot-heads, it also won him the more unwelcome attentions of the Roman government. Having now attracted both the enmity of the highest ranked religious authorities and the scrutiny of the ever-paranoid Imperial Rome, Yeshua was on borrowed time as a public figure. Still, he continued blithely on his way, using the techniques learned in the Egyptian mystery schools to perform magical rituals and techniques, which attracted ever more converts to his group. Possibly he was manipulated by wealthy patrons of his organisation, but Yeshua's own ambition had already helped to show him the way to achieve the "Godhood" he craved, and he began to consciously mimic the life of the God he worshipped, in order to gain his power.

After being warned by his rich and influential patrons of a plot by the orthodox heirarchy to rid themselves of this heretical young upstart, Yeshua realised a way to turn the situation to his own advantage and the attainment of his self divinity. Enlisting the aid of his wife and high-priestess, another Miriam, and her brother, his most influential patron and member of the aristocracy, Yeshua put his plans into effect. After Miriam's younger brother was initiated by Yeshua and Miriam, Yeshua deliberately acted out ancient folktales to thumb his nose at the orthodox, had one of his own initiates pretend to inform on him, and sat back to await his arrest.

This happened as planned, and after the satisfactory arrangement of a bribe to the known corrupt regional Governor, Yeshua was tried and condemned for sorcery. As the Roman habit was to clear the execution area on a Friday evening, the execution took place on a Friday morning, a day that was calculated to contain a solar eclipse. Yeshua "suffered" most of the day, and just as the romans prepared to issue the coup de gras, he dramatically "died". As all spectators to the scene were kept at a reasonable distance, and, due to the occurring eclipse, visual conditions were fairly poor, the "execution" was extremely convincing.

After the removal of the "corpse" by influential members of the party, and a decent amount of time, Yeshua allowed himself to be seen just enough to allow the obvious comparisons to be drawn to the ressurected Osiris. Returning to Alexandria to resume his studies in the temple, he returned to his native land in his old age, dying some thirty years later at the scene of a major rebellion against Rome.

Hidden Meanings

Home