Summary
Summary of The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors
The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 7 h 55 min6 h 15 min fast, 9 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 112,900 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1875by Kersey Graves
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Other saviors frame the central question
Kersey Graves asks whether the story of Jesus belongs to a wider family of religious stories. He places Jesus beside Chrishna, Osiris, Mithra and Quexalcote, claiming that older religions already told of divine births, crucifixions and returns from death. His target is the claim that Christianity came through a revelation found nowhere else.
Graves builds his case through comparisons, drawing on Sir Godfrey Higgins, missionaries and translators. What matters throughout is whether these resemblances show a shared pattern or establish that Christianity borrowed its central stories.
Key idea 2
Shared images do not settle borrowing
Graves first makes chronology central: if Eastern religions and their scriptures came before the Gospels, he argues, Christianity would have been the borrower.
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Key idea 3
Divine births follow familiar patterns
Graves presents virgin birth as an ancient way of marking a child as divine, rather than a claim unique to Jesus.
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Key idea 4
Threatened children share a story shape
A royal child appears, a ruler fears a rival, and the family must escape.
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Key idea 5
Equal standards test the strongest claims
After comparing withdrawal, fasting and temptation, Graves asks readers to judge Jesus and other saviors by the same standard of evidence.
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Key idea 6
Rites and doctrines become inherited customs
Graves moves from stories about saviors to the teachings and practices surrounding them.
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Key idea 7
Human wishes explain gods becoming human
Why would people turn a person into a god?
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Key idea 8
Comparison needs evidence from original sources
Graves extends his argument to miracles, prophecy, moral teaching and the claim that an infinite God could inhabit a finite body.
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Who it’s for
Readers of comparative religion, the history of freethought, and debates about the origins of religious ideas will enjoy this book, especially those who like bold theses and extensive lists of parallels.
What this book is
What if the story told every December had been told before? The American writer Kersey Graves, who died in 1883, asks exactly that in The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors, also titled Christianity Before Christ. Gods and saviors in older religions, he says, were born of virgins, greeted by angels and shepherds, crucified, and raised on the third day.
Graves writes to challenge the claim that Christianity came by a special revelation found nowhere else. He leans on Sir Godfrey Higgins, a scholar of religious history, and on missionaries and translators of Eastern scriptures. He sets Jesus beside Chrishna of India, Osiris of Egypt, Mithra of Persia and Quexalcote of Mexico.
In this summary
- 1Other saviors frame the central questionFree
- 2Shared images do not settle borrowing
- 3Divine births follow familiar patterns
- 4Threatened children share a story shape
- 5Equal standards test the strongest claims
- 6Rites and doctrines become inherited customs
- 7Human wishes explain gods becoming human
- 8Comparison needs evidence from original sources
Many saviors compete for one title
Graves opens with a puzzle. Christians teach that Jesus is the only Son of God, sent to save the whole world. Yet hundreds of millions across other nations reject that claim, and the Gospels report that his own brothers did not believe in him. Graves treats this disagreement as the first fact of his case.
Next he lists the rivals. He says more than twenty beings were honored as saviors or sons of God. They include Chrishna of India, Osiris of Egypt, Odin, Zoroaster, Mithra and Thammuz of Syria. Some were said to be born of virgins, and many were said to be crucified.
The key move is chronology. The Eastern religions and their scriptures are far older than the Gospels, he points out, so if one system borrowed from another, Christianity was the borrower. He asks whether it drew its materials from heathenism rather than from high heaven. A claim to be the only true Savior has to face the other savior stories on the shelf.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Graves make chronology central to his borrowing argument?
Right. “The Eastern religions and their scriptures are far older than the Gospels, he points out, so if one system borrowed from another, Christianity was the borrower.”Not quite. “The Eastern religions and their scriptures are far older than the Gospels, he points out, so if one system borrowed from another, Christianity was the borrower.”
What standard does Graves propose for judging whether saviors were real?
Right. “Apply the same standard of evidence to Jesus and every other savior.”Not quite. “Apply the same standard of evidence to Jesus and every other savior.”
Why should Graves's parallels be checked against their sources?
Right. “Many parallels rest on late, secondhand or misread sources.”Not quite. “Many parallels rest on late, secondhand or misread sources.”
Go deeper: the whole of The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors
About 8 h 10 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 112,900 words
- Reading timeAbout 7 h 55 min
Questions about The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors
What is The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors about?
Kersey Graves argues that the story of Jesus, from virgin birth to crucifixion and rising, was told earlier about gods and saviors in India, Egypt, Persia, Mexico and elsewhere. He concludes that Christianity borrowed its central features from older religions.
Who are the sixteen crucified saviors in the book?
Graves names figures such as Chrishna of India, Sakia, Thammuz, Wittoba, Iao, Quexalcote of Mexico, Quirinus of Rome, Prometheus, Thulis of Egypt, Indra, Bali and Mithra of Persia, and adds a few more cases.
Is the book historically accurate?
Most historians and scholars of religion reject its thesis. Many of its parallels rest on late, secondhand or misread sources, and the supposed crucifixions of Krishna and Mithra are not found in their own scriptures.
When was the book written and what sources does it use?
It was written in the nineteenth century by Kersey Graves, who died in 1883. He draws on Sir Godfrey Higgins and his Anacalypsis, on missionaries, travelers, Eastern scriptures newly translated, and on Christian writers he quotes.
What is the main message of the book?
The author's message is that religions arise naturally from the human mind, that Christianity is a human and borrowed system rather than a unique revelation, and that every savior story deserves the same test of evidence.
Cite this edition
Graves, Kersey. The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-worlds-sixteen-crucified-saviors.
Graves, K. (2026). The world's sixteen crucified saviors. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-worlds-sixteen-crucified-saviors (Original work published 1875)
Graves, Kersey. The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-worlds-sixteen-crucified-saviors.
@book{graves2026worlds,
author = {Graves, Kersey},
title = {The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-worlds-sixteen-crucified-saviors},
note = {First published 1875}
}
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