Gerald Massey

Gerald Massey (; 29 May 1828 – 29 October 1907) was an English poet, critic, political activist, historian, and writer on Spiritualism and Ancient Egypt. He was heavily involved in Christian socialism and Chartism throughout his lifetime.

Early life Massey was born in Gamble's Wharf, near Tring, Hertfordshire, England, on 29 May 1828 to canal boatman William Massey and his wife Mary.

Later life

From about 1870 onwards, Massey became increasingly interested in Egyptology and perceived between Egyptian mythology and the Gospel. He studied the extensive Egyptian records of the British Museum, where he worked closely with curator Samuel Birch and other leading Egyptologists of his day, even learning hieroglyphics at the time the Temple of Edfu was first being excavated.

Writing career

Massey's first public appearance as a writer was in connection with the Chartist journal Spirit of Freedom, and Working Man's Vindicator, of which he became editor. His first volume of poems, Poems and Chansons, was printed privately in 1848. The publication of The Ballad of Babe Christabel, with Other Lyrical Poems (1854) brought Massey to greater attention.

In regard to Ancient Egypt, Massey first published The Book of the Beginnings, followed by The Natural Genesis. His most important work of Egyptology is Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World, published shortly before his death.

One of the more important aspects of Massey's writings were his assertions that there were parallels between Jesus Christ and the Egyptian god Horus. He argued in The Natural Genesis that both Horus and Jesus were born of virgins on 25 December, raised men from the dead (Massey speculates that the biblical Lazarus had a parallel in El-Asar-Us, a title of Osiris), died by crucifixion and were resurrected three days later. He cited perceived similarities between Christian iconography and Egyptian representations of Horus as evidence of this, and asserted that ancient Gnostic sects considered the two synonymous. While widely rejected by mainstream historians, these assertions have influenced writers such as Alvin Boyd Kuhn, Tom Harpur, Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Acharya S, and Kenneth Grant.

Criticism Christian theologian W. Ward Gasque solicited twenty Egyptologists worldwide that he considered leaders of the field, including Kenneth Kitchen and Ron Leprohon, to assess some of Massey's assertions. His primary targets were Tom Harpur, Alvin Boyd Kuhn and the Christ myth theory, and only indirectly Massey. Ten out of twenty responded, but most were not named. According to Gasque, Massey's work is not considered significant in the field of modern Egyptology. Gasque reports that those who responded were unanimous in dismissing the proposed etymologies for Jesus and Christ, and one referred to Kuhn's comparison as "fringe nonsense." The earliest known source recognizing 25 December as the date of birth of Jesus is by Hippolytus of Rome, written around the beginning of the 3rd century, based on the assumption that the conception of Jesus took place on the vernal equinox. The Roman Chronograph of 354 then included an early reference to the celebration of a Nativity feast in December, as of the fourth century. Porter states that Massey's errors often render his works nonsensical, such as his assertion that Herod the Great was not a historical figure and was merely based on "Herrut", an Egyptian name for the Hydra.