This letter is Manly P. Hall’s opening exposition on the New Testament, arguing that its true value lies not in historical literalism but in its mystical, symbolic, and initiatory meaning—rooted in older Egyptian, Syrian, Gnostic, and Essene traditions.

Hall begins by dismantling the assumption that the New Testament is a reliable historical record. He reviews the destruction of early manuscripts, the absence of first‑century originals, the extensive alterations in surviving codices, and the political motives behind the King James translation. He emphasizes the lack of contemporaneous evidence for Jesus’ life, the contradictions surrounding the Nativity, and the Church Fathers’ own admissions of uncertainty. Drawing on Talmudic references to Jehoshua Ben Panthira, Hall suggests that the historical Jesus may have been a rabbinic figure whose biography was later adapted to fit a pre‑existing solar‑Messianic mythos. He argues that the Gospel narrative parallels the initiatory dramas of Egypt, Greece, and Syria, where divine heroes symbolized cosmic principles rather than literal individuals.

The second half of the letter shifts from critique to esoteric interpretation. Hall presents Christ as a mystical archetype—the “Word made flesh”—whose story encodes universal truths about initiation, the descent of the soul, and the awakening of divine consciousness. He traces parallels between Mary and the Great Mother goddesses (Isis, Sophia, Istar), between the Nativity and ancient cave‑birth symbolism, and between the Star of Bethlehem and the descent of the higher self. The manger, the animals, the Magi, and their gifts become psychological and cosmological symbols rather than historical details. Hall concludes that the true Christian mystery is not the biography of a man but the inner drama of spiritual rebirth enacted within every seeker: the Christ‑principle awakening in the soul.