Gentaut of Mexico

Just like "Beddru of Japan," "Holy On," and "Ieo of China," the name "Gentaut of Mexico" does not belong to any real historical figure or mythological deity. There is no god by this name in Aztec, Maya, Toltec, Olmec, or any other indigenous Mesoamerican religion.


 

This name originates directly from Kersey Graves' 1875 book, The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors. Scholars of Mesoamerican history and comparative religion recognize "Gentaut" as a severe 19th-century Western corruption of a Nahuatl (Aztec) word, likely stemming from poor translations by early Spanish missionaries.


 

Historians generally believe "Gentaut" is a garbled misspelling of Centéotl (the Aztec god of maize), or a misunderstanding of the Nahuatl word Teotl, which simply translates to "god" or "divine energy." Because "Gentaut" is a phantom deity created by translation errors, he has no actual history, mythology, or dates of his own.


 

However, to address your specific theological questions, here is how those claims hold up against the actual indigenous religions of Mexico, and the real deity this name likely originated from (Centéotl).


 

Timeline, Locations, & Appearance

  • Dates & Locations: The name "Gentaut" is a 19th-century invention. The actual worship of Mesoamerican gods like Centéotl took place primarily in central Mexico (the Aztec Empire) from roughly the 14th to the 16th century CE, ending with the Spanish conquest.


     

  • Appearance: Because Gentaut doesn't exist, there are no pictures of him. The actual maize god, Centéotl, was depicted in indigenous codices as a young man with maize cobs growing from his headdress, painted yellow with a black line down his face.


     

Life, Death, & Resurrection

  • Did the Savior Die & Resurrect? In Aztec mythology, gods did not die and resurrect in a Christian sense to save human souls. Instead, gods sacrificed themselves at the beginning of creation to set the sun in motion and create the world.


     

  • Crucified? No. Crucifixion was a Roman execution method entirely unknown in the Americas before the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. While the Aztecs practiced extensive human sacrifice (typically by extracting the heart of a captive on a stone altar), they did not crucify their gods or people.


     

  • Descend to Hell or Ascend to Heaven? Mesoamerican cosmology did not have a Christian Heaven or Hell. They had a complex, multi-tiered universe with upper realms and a difficult underworld (Mictlan) that most souls had to journey through, regardless of their morality.


     

Actions & Theological Comparisons

  • Did He Die for the Salvation of Man? No. Mesoamerican religion was based on a debt of blood. Humans offered blood and sacrifices to the gods to keep the universe from collapsing and to ensure the sun would rise, not to achieve personal spiritual "salvation" or the forgiveness of sins.


     

  • Born of a Virgin? No. Centéotl was the son of the earth goddess Tlazolteotl and the solar deity Piltzintecuhtli. (While another Aztec god, Huitzilopochtli, had a miraculous conception involving a ball of feathers, this was not a virgin birth in the Christian theological sense).


     

  • Called the Son of God / Part of the Trinity? No. The Aztec pantheon was incredibly vast and polytheistic. They believed in a dualistic supreme creator (Ometeotl), but there was no Holy Trinity.


     

  • Will He Judge Man in Heaven? No. In Aztec belief, your afterlife destination was determined by how you died (e.g., in battle, in childbirth, or by drowning), not by a moral judgment of your earthly actions by a savior god.


     

Worship & Followers

  • Who Worshipped Him? No one worshipped "Gentaut." The indigenous peoples of central Mexico worshipped their actual pantheon of gods through complex calendrical rituals, fasting, and bloodletting.