Kelsey Graves' groundbreaking treatise, arguing against the existence of Jesus Christ with the citation of fifteen precedents with striking similarities, remains popular and controversial to this day. Published in 1875, Graves' thesis was among the most divisive of its time. Already rocked by the newly-published theory of evolutionary science, which directly contradicted the Biblical telling of man's creation, the Christian church found itself further assailed by skeptics who doubted the existence of Christ. Kelsey Graves authored the most comprehensive criticism of the time, compiling from existing chronicles this thesis: that the genesis of Christianity existed before Christ himself. The central notion put forth in this book is that there were a total of sixteen crucified individuals from a variety of different ancient belief systems, all of whom provided a model for Jesus Christ.