Blood of Christ

While I was bumming around looking for something to read, I saw a new book co-authored by James Rollins titled Blood Gospel. Expecting interesting religious/horror themes, I picked it up.

I’d like to note that this book was published in 2013, while I began my vampire novel in 2009 and published in 2012. I’m making this disclaimer because both of our books depict the Blood of Christ as the origin for vampires.

Rollins, however, does so in a manner that is much more respectful to the consensus of Christian history. He maintains the character of Christ as an agent of God.

My book takes a more blasphemous tone in arguing that Christ could have easily been a mislead necromancer. With heavy themes of sacrifice and miracles involving blood, healing and raising from the dead, I don’t think it’s a big surprise Of course, I called my character Yeshua and hoped people would take less offense to that equally outrageous claim.

I am certainly not the first, nor the last, to tie the historical miracle-worker into darker themes. Numerous stories involve blood-drinking entities and Christian miracles.

It seems that religion should expect some divergent themes like this, especially with the concept of communion. When Christ offers his body to be eaten, his blood to be imbibed, and his life made forfeit the imagery opens a lot of doors. I want to emphasize that some sects of Christianity do not consider this entirely metaphorical and believe that consecrated communion is indeed the actual blood/flesh of God’s son. Blood sacrifice is so prevalent in most religious ceremony, especially in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

In most fairy tales and other lore, blood magick is usually dark magick.

A non-christian reading highlights of the Bible might consider Jesus a practitioner of blood magick.

I know I’ll get some feedback for this. That’s fine. I’m not actually saying that actual Christ is a vampire or necromancer. I’m simply saying that “what-if” led me in that direction. Besides, you can’t prove He wasn’t.

Here are some other vampire/Jesus mixes:

Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter, a film. Not a serious flick by any means, but a low-budget parody that is nonetheless entertaining.

The Last Days of Christ the Vampire, by J. G. Eccarius. I hear it’s funnier but poorly written and haven’t read it.

Robert A. Wilson’s Illuminatus trilogy which fantasizes about a lot of cover-ups throughout history, including the notion that Christianity could have been founded by a vampire.

I certainly am not the first or last to make a connection between archetypes. I absolutely don’t expect people to believe my version over the biblical text. That would just be silly. After all, I’m just a writer making stories.