In existographies, Lloyd M. Graham (c.1935-) is or was an anonymous religio-mythology scholar, characterized (Holding, 2014) as being Alvin Kuhn like in ideas and writing style, noted for []
Overview
In 1975, Graham published his Deceptions and Myths of the Bible, the gist abstract of which seems to be the following:
“The Bible is not the ‘word of god’, but stolen from pagan sources. Its Eden, Adam and Eve were taken from the Babylonian account; its flood or deluge is but an epitome of some four hundred flood accounts; its Ark and Ararat have their equivalents in a score of deluge myths; even the names of Noah's sons are copies, so also Isaac's sacrifice, Solomon's judgment, and Samson's pillar act; its Moses is fashioned after the Syrian Mises; its laws after Hammurabi's code. Its Messiah is derived from the Egyptian Mandi, Savior, certain verses are verbatim copies of Egyptian scriptures. Between Jesus and the Egyptian Horus, Gerald Massey found 137 similarities, and those between Christ and Krishna run into the hundreds. How then can the Bible be a revelation to the Jews?”
Christian apologist James Holding (c.2014) refers to this as the standard “Pagan theft thesis”.
Graham starts off with the general JEP thesis, that the Old Testament was written by a Jhwhist author, a Elohist author, and a Priestly author, that the priestly account of creation is but a “kindergarten cosmology”, that has been gratuitously accepted by the western man owing to what he considers to be the conspiratorial cover-up by the priestly power structure, aided and abetted, over time, today by the legions of what he calls the "Christendumb". [2]
Terah
Graham determines that the character Terah, Abraham’s father (see: religio-mythology genealogy) means “earth”, which is a rescript of the original Egyptian formulation that Ra was born out of Atum, aka the pyramid, the primordial land mound, or the keme, depending on interpretation, following the flood, aka Nile River flood, represented by the god Nun.
Abraham | Brahma
Graham does work on the Abraham and Brahma connection; the gist of which is as follows:
“Abraham, formerly Abram is but the Hindu creator Brahma, with the a prefix instead of suffix.”
— Lloyd Graham (1975), Deceptions and Myths of the Bible (pg. 12)
“Abram is but the Hindu Brama, with a as prefix instead of suffix; and Brama was the original name of the Hindu creator. Later the letter h was added, thus making it Brahma. The letter h signifies life, and thus did Brama, Abram, and Sarai in due time receive life, or being, which implies that in the beginning they did not have it.”
— Lloyd Graham (1975), Deceptions and Myths of the Bible (pg. 113)
Here we see Graham intelligently connecting, but what he is missing is the Egyptian origin of both in the god Ra.
Jesus | Never existed
Graham, citing Arthur Drews, asserts that Jesus never existed as person, and touches on Kersey Graves’ discussions of 16 crucified saviors.
New age | Astrology
Graham, to note, in place of god standard, attempts to sell a real messy new age creative energy type conglomeration of ideas, mixed in with evolution.
Quotes | By
The following are quotes by Graham:
“The Jews never had great knowledge of things cosmic and metaphysical; they were but plagiarists culling mythic artifacts they did not understand.”
— Lloyd Graham (1975), Deceptions and Myths of the Bible (pg. 2)
“In 125AD, St. Irenaeus said ‘there was a multitude of gospels’ in his day. Those that came down to us are but the ones the priesthood needed for its purpose, the rest it destroyed.”
— Lloyd Graham (1975), Deceptions and Myths of the Bible (pg. 2)
References
1. Graham, Lloyd M. (1975). Deceptions and Myths of the Bible. Citadel Press Book.
2. Holding, James P. (c.2014). “Lloyd M. Graham's Deceptions and Myths of the Bible: A Critique”, Tektonics.org.
