That research book was an apology of the theory of A. Drews about the mythological nature of the figure of Jesus Christ. On the first page of his work, the author declares: “Jesus is not a historical person, but a mythical one: in his face we find hidden Judaized, ancient pagan, multi-named, vegetative-astral, dying and resurrecting ‘savior’ — Tammuz — Adonis et al.”.
In the first part of the book, ‘Pre-Christian Christ’, the author observes all known examples of dying and resurrecting gods of Ancient East (Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Attis), as well as ideas of the salvation of soul and the redemption connected with their cults. At the same time, he interpreted Maria as the image of the ancient goddess (Ishtar, Isis, Cybele), transformed in the Greek and Roman epoch. The author establishes links between the seasons of the years, natural phenomena, agrarian cycles, and festivals of the dying and resurrecting gods.
In the second part, ‘Pre-Christian Christ: from Bethlehem to Jerusalem’, he makes a consequent astralization of the Gospel story and its characters. Chist, Maria, and apostles are interpretes as zodiacal constellations, and the Cross way of Christ is treated as the annual way of Sun in the ecliptic.
Thus, if in the first part of the book religious realities are connected with the cult calendar, in the second part they are linked to astrological interpretations of the zodiac. The author comes to the conclusion: “Those are myths — and myths only; they were compiled of the Old Testament and the pagan material, reflecting the natural life and the human working life closely connected with the nature — and all of it was transformed into structured Gospel pictures, thanks to the astral plan laid in the foundation, and thee artificial inclusion of it into the historical frames”. The historical existence of Christ is radically refused by the author.
In his book, R. gathered significant and heterogeneous research data of his time. He cited works by Assyriologists (A. Jeremiahs, H. Winkler, V.K. Shileiko), historians of astronomy (F. Kugler), Semitologists and Bibleists (H. Gunckel, D, Strauss, M. Bruckner), Classicists (G, Frazer, E.G. Kagarov). At that, he introduced into his book pseudo-scientific theories (N.A. Morozov, A. Nemoevsky) which took historical realities of the Roman Judea of thee epoch of Early Christianity out of his view. In spite of the fact, that many ideas of the first part of the book are confirmed now by thee data of Assyriology and Semitic studies, the astral character of the Gospel story is not accepted today. But it is true that some astralization of thee Gospel characters was presented in composition and art objects of the medieval epoch.