Christianity and other Ancient Religions

Some of you may have been wondering why I recently posted the account of the story of Krishna, Horus, a reference for great information on the history of the Roman Mithras cult, and then the walk through of the Odyssey and the Gospel of Mark.

In this series of articles, I am responding to the claim that the story of Jesus is merely a recapitulation from a different ancient myth. All that I am doing in these is giving a report on the traits and narrative of these myths with very little comment. I leave it to the reader to determine if, in fact, these stories are mirrored in the account of Jesus Christ.  If you are unfamiliar with the account of Jesus Christ, I recommend any or all of the 4 gospels accounts – Matthew, Mark, Luke and/or John.

For others, you may have started a search and landed here trying to look at the claims that have recently resurfaced that Christianity is merely, largely, or in some way, a copy of an extinct ancient faith or literature of one kind or another.

Maybe you have read in any of several dozen websites that claim that the story of Jesus is essentially identical to any of several ancient myths.  I was intrigued by that as well.

My articles are mostly – meta-analysis… taking a look at and evaluating the research rather than the original claims.  I try to use reliable documentation, but I am personally not an expert…but I am capable of research. I certainly did enough of that in my education.  This started as a study just for my own purposes and interests.  I welcome (urge) any experts on the material to respond… because I want to understand it better.

Of those, these four are of the most common and often the “best” examples.

Was the story of Jesus merely a retelling of the accounts of Krishna?  Did early Christians take inspiration from the Mithras Cult?  Did the biographer, Mark, copy or at least seriously model his Gospel after the tale of the Odyssey?

In various publications and websites, the claim made by many in the Neo-Atheist movement claim that Jesus is such an obvious copy of other religions of the time of Christ and before that He and the gospel accounts of Him could not be historical.

There are websites that claim that other religions from around that era include virgin births, resurrections, and others… like the claim that “Dionysus was born of a virgin on December 25 and, as the Holy Child, was placed in a manger.”(in fact this website has some of the best examples of the claims made.)

This webpage is claimed to be based on the author’s own research and he does reference 3 different sources.  (at one point I was under the impression that he offered none, but either I missed them or he updated his site.)

Note:  None of the three sources are original sources – the author is not referencing  the actual ancient accounts of these different myths, rather he/she is posting the materials from one or more of these three sources.  Also, all three of these sources are in agreement as to this topic, so the author also seems not to have done any research by checking any sources that offer any opposition or argument against the theory.

Much, much worse, her/his material is the same cut-and-paste material that is common on the internet and over time, begins to feel universal on this topic…

The author has a favorite example… Of all things, his #1 similarity is Horus. (see below)

Mel Krantzler quipped “contrary to popular belief, we may not be the best informed nation in the world, we are perhaps only the most informed.” (The 7 Marriages of your Marriage, 1992). I think this statement reveals a big part of the issue. People read, accept and are troubled. Soon, they are deconstructing their faith with phrases like “the story of Jesus is just taken from other religions…” or “the Bible was written and commissioned by Constantine…” without ever checking to see if there is anything accurate about those statements.

Most of these “connections” (which I now cannot imagine any of the “scholars” taking seriously if they did not believe it called Christianity into question – can you imagine if Christians tried to use scholarship as flaccid as this?)  are the continued recapitulation of one Gerald Massey, a “Spiritualist” and poet from the late 19^th century.

Over time he also was somewhat respected among Egyptologists of his time.  He was apparently a pretty impressive poet, but his work connecting some ancient religions, and very especially the tale of Horus, to the gospel accounts of Jesus Christ are questionable at best.

Apparently, Massey claimed that, just like Jesus:

1. Horus was born of a virgin to a mother named Mary…

2. Horus was later baptized at age 30, crucified and rose again from the dead 3 days later…

3.  Horus was born on December 25^th, and was visited by 3 royal people,

4. and that the Herod of the Bible was a copy of the evil serpent “Herrut.”

Are there any accuracies to these claims?

1. Was Horus was not born of a virgin?

This is a super strange version of “virgin.”  His parents, Osiris and Isis, copulated to produce him.  In fact, a penis was so vital to his conception that Isis crafted one from gold when Osiris’ could not be found (read the account).

2.  Mother named Mary?  Well, one of many descriptive names (common for gods) of the mother of Horus is kind of similar in pronunciation to “Mary”… I have seen it spelled as “Isis-Meri.”  Such descriptive names were common among religions – in fact, Yahweh (Hebrew God) has dozens.

For example, this would be similar to say that one of the names of God, “Jehovah Jireh” (“God who provides”) is similar to an American named “Jerry” … so clearly the Bible is a rip-off from Seinfeld?

More damning, though, is the second problem that “Mary’s” name is not “Mary.”  It is “Miriam” (the Hebrew name).  “Mary” is the Anglicized version of her name.  This is even less similar to “Isis-Meri”.

3. I couldn’t find any evidence that Horus was born on December 25th.  However, Jesus was not born on the 25^th of December (if Horus even was) and we have no idea how many “magi” there were – no reason to think there were 3.

4.  No matter what the name of the evil serpent may have been, Herod the Great’s name was actually Herod (or at least the Latin version of that) – he is an established historical figure.  I cannot make any sense of the claim to this connection and what it would mean.

The author either believed that early Christians also invented the historical figure of Herod the Great (or maybe Tetrarch?) or maybe actually believed in Christianity, but believed that it was somehow supernaturally and cosmically connected to the Egyptian myths of Horus?

Since publishing this, I was sent a link to a youtube video that is a response to a book cataloguing many of these claims.  It is an hour and 20, but is very in depth.

ZEITGEIST – Lie of Lucifer (Lucis) Trust
http://youtu.be/qRdYDSBgRoI

Next time I will offer some more thoughts and then provide the links to the different accounts…