fallingblood

He is God made flesh, the savior and "Son of God"
His father is God and his mother is a mortal virgin
He is born in a cave or humble cowshed on December 25th before three shepards
He offers his followers the chance to be born again throught the rites of baptism
He miraculously turns water into wine at a marriage ceremony
He rides triumphantly into town on a donkey while people wave palm leaves to honor him
He dies at Eastertime as a sacrifice for the sins of the world
After his death he decends to hell, then on the third day he rises from the dead and ascends to heaven in glory
His followeres await his return as the judge during the Last Days
His death and resurrection are celebreated by a ritual meal of bread and wine, which symbolizes his body and blood

So who does this sound like? To the surprise of many, it's not Jesus. I was accutally describing Pagan godmen from Egypt (Osiris), Greece (Dionysus), Asia Minor (Attis), Syria (Adonis), Italy (Bacchus), and Persia (Mithras). All of which are basically the same.

The reason most people don't know this is because the early Roman Church did everything in their power to prevent us from perceiving them. They destroyed Pagan literature so completely that today Paganism is regarded as a "dead" religion.

It was obvious to the writers of the first few centuries of A.D. though. Pagan critics of Chrisianity such as the satirist Celsus, complained that this recent religion was nothing more than a pale reflection of their own ancient teachings.

Early church fathers though, like Just Martyr, Tertullion, and Irenaeus, resorted to the desperate claim that these similarities were the result of a diabolical mimicry. They accused the Devil of "plagiarism by anticipation," of devioulsy copying the true story of Jesus before it had actually happened in an attempt to mislead the gullible.

Just as one last thing, the virgin birth is often regarded as an extraneous later addition that should not be understood literally.

Chris Weimer

The cult of Isis stemmed the cult of the virgin, you can still see pictures of Isis holding Osiris very closely related to that of Mary and Jesus. The whole halo thing came from Mithras. Dieing and rising again belong to both Osiris and Dionysos. Yeah, I thought everyone knew this? Hasn't everyone had a good clasical education? Damn.

Mat Wilder

Here is an appropriate quote that I read today (Camus quoted it in The Rebel): Saint Ignatius in Spiritual Excesses wrote: "We should always be prepared, so as never to err, to believe that what I see as white is black, if the hierarchic Church defines it thus."

GakuseiDon

Yuck! Those sicko shepherds!

Toto

Source

Radcliffe Emerson

I usually stay out of the debates these days, but I have to say this idea is absolutely the stupidest one I've ever seen!

I just shake my head in amazement now whenever I hear anyone talking about their 'god' beliefs.

littlegirlost

I've read a few posts that have talked about the early church destroying/tampering with literature. Could someone point me in the direction of some reliable reading material with which to educate myself on this topic?

Thanks! lgl

fallingblood

I completely agree.

Evoken

This is a topic of much interest to me since I like to explore and discover(when possible) the origins of my religion. I agree that there are influences..in fact I admit that Christianity IS a mystery religion. It is a Jewish adaptation of the Greek mysteries influenced by Zoroatrianism/Hellenism. But I think that trying to find parallels will fail, the influences are not like that, they have to do with the culture in which Christianity developed. It started as a cult within Judaism but later it outgrew Judaism and became what it is today. So claiming that it just borrowed from pagan religion and was made overnight is false.

Anyway, what follows below is a research I made some months ago while discussing this same subject in another forum.

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I will deal here with the Legend of Osiris, I searched for many different versions and found an amazing number of variations of the same story. This makes the study of the legend quite tedious and misleasing, so as a result I decided to single out the versions that seemed to be the most authentic, historical and also the most widely accepted. This versions are the one found in the Pyramid and Coffin text, the one in the Papyrus of Ani from the Book of The Dead, a third one found in The Shabaka Stone and a fourth one found in a work done by the Greek writter Plutarch. While there are differences between the four versions in a couple of details, the main events remain the same.

Afterwards I will draw a comparision between the Legend of Osiris and the one of Jesus and Moses.

-Osiris, Isis and Horus are gods of Egyptian mythology, their story was very popular and originaded at probably around 3300-3000 BC. Their epic strugle with Osiri's brother Seth became the model for the selection of the Pharaohs. Osiris was the first god-man of Egypt or the first Pharaoh/King, along with Isis his sister they reigned peacefully the land. Osiris also went about the job of civilizing his people. He taught them agriculture and animal husbandry. He gave them a code of laws to live by and showed them the proper ways in which to worship the gods. Egypt became a mighty land under his kind and gentle rule. When Egypt was civilized, Osiris left to bring his teachings to other lands. While Osiris was away, he left his wife, Isis, in charge. She ruled the country in the same fashion. But Osiri's brother Seth became jealous of him and set out to kill him to take his place. Based on this tale, Osiris became the personification of the dead Pharaohs and ruler of the dead and Horus the one of the current living Pharaoh and the ruler of the living. When the current Pharaoh died he became the new Osiris and the new Pharaoh that was selected in his place became the new Horus.

Osiris also represented the corporeal resurrection into eternal life that the Egyptians sought by embalsaming the bodies of their dead and putting them in coffins like the one of Osiris. The Egyptians at first believed in the ressurrection of the body because of this they turned the dead into mummies to preserve them. This changed later and turned into the belief of the transmigration of the soul or Ka into the land of the dead where Osiris reigned. Also the insertion of the box/coffin of Seth with Osiris in it into the Nile came to represent the annual flooding of the river.

Summary of the Legend of Osiris, Isis, Horus and Seth:

Having examined all four versions of the legend and summarised their content, I think it is time to put them all thogheter into a single story to reconcile the different elements in each. This will serve to get a better view of the different roles of the four characters and the major events of the story.

Osiris is the first born of Ra "The Lord of Heaven", he was named "The Lord of all the Earth" because he reinged along with his sister Isis in peace and united the two lands which are Upper and Lower Egypt and because he was the first to stablish the rules and traditions of the land. Other titles given to Osiris, specialy in the Papyrus of Ani are "Lord of Lords" and "King of Kings". Osiris is said to have been born at "Mount Sinai", the birth place of nearly all the solar gods, but this claim is lacking evidence and it is not mentioned in any of the different variations of the story. Osiris also had a brother named Seth, he was always jealous of his brother's success and always sought to kill him to take over his throne. Seth is refered to in both The Papyrus of Ani and in the Shabaka Stone as the ruler of "Upper Egypt", because he took over the throne of his brother.

One day, Osiris is said to have left Egypt after his rule was stablished and left Isis in charge. The reason for his departure seem to be personal, he wanted to bring his teachings to other lands. My personal guess is that he left to Lower Egypt and was killed there by Seth. The way Seth killed Osiris is not revealed in any of the older texts, but one thing that remains constant across all four is that Osiri's body was broken into several pieces (the number of this pieces is said to be 14) this then Seth threw into the Nile and this event later came to represent the annual flooding of the river. Isis found out about the fate of her brother and went on to find him and found the pieces, it is said that she buried each piece individually but the evidence shows that she gathered all the pieces and formed the body of her husband and then gave him a proper burial. After combining all the pieces she along with her sister Nephtys moured over the fallen body of Osiris. After a series of prayers and spells casted by Isis, Osiris is resurrected temporaly and gives Isis the chance to have sexual intercourse with his reanimated corpse to become pregant with Horus (in contrast, texts like the Coffin and Pyramid texts and The Shabaka Stone, put Horus as having been born before Osiris death). After this Osiris is turned into the "King of the Dead" or "King of the Netherworld", the place where the dead go and are judged by him.

Horus was either born while Osiris was alive but was very joung when he was killed or was born after Osiris was killed and Isis had sexual intercourse with his reanimated corpse. Yet one thing that remains constant in all stories is that Horus was the first born of Osiris and because of this he was the heir to the throne also that he was raised by Isis in loneliness. Also Horus was born in a swamp. When Horus grows up he seeks to avenge his father's death and engages Seth in a battle. The battle is a fierce one in which Horus loses and eye and Seth loses one of his genitals. The battle raged on and seemed endless, as a result the Nine Gods decided to ask Geb, the father of Osiris concerning who was the true heir to the throne. Geb at first settled the dispute by sending Horus to Lower Egypt (the place where his father drowned) and Seth to Upper Egypt (the place where he was born). This, Geb found to be unfair so he decided to give Horus his iheritance so he gave him the throne of his father and as a result both land united again like it was during Osiri's reing after this event Horus was known as "King of the Living". Seth was either cast away from Egypt or reconciled with Horus.

Parallels of The Legend of Osiris in Christianity?

A claim commonly made by many is that Christianity borrowed many if not all of its beliefs and practices from the Egyptian myths, specialy the life of Jesus who is said to be nothing but a remake of the life of Horus. Having examined the evidence for the Egyptian myths, we now have a better picture of what (if any) was borrowed by the Christians.

For this comparission I will use a list of similarities that is very popular made by Acharya S and I will answer the questions myself:

-Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave/manger with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.
Horus was the first born of Isis(not of Isis-Meri), so yes she was a virgin when she got pregant with him. But her virginity is not even mentioned in any of the text nor it is given any importance unlike the importance the virginity of Mary has in the Christian doctrine. The only important aspect is that Horus is the first born of Osiris the first born of Ra and because of this he is the heir to the throne. Also he was born in a swamp and not in a cave after Isis had regular sex with Osiris. His birth was not announced by a star nor was he attended by three wise men. As for the date of his birth, it has no relevance whatsover, the birth of Jesus is not the 25th of December nor it is the one of Horus which is November 15th. Both dates where later moved as the cultural and religious exchange arose between competing religions.

-His earthly father was named "Seb" ("Joseph".
There is no "Seb" in the Legend of Osiris but a Geb who was the father of Osiris and not of Horus. Horus had no "earthly" father, his father was Osiris the husband of Isis.

-He was a royal descendant.
Well, yes Horus was the first born of the king and the heir to the throne, but this parallel is too generic.

-At the age of 12, he was a child teacher in the Temple, and at 30 he was baptized, having disappeared for 18 years.
This claims are not true about Horus. No age is ever mentioned in any of the texts nor anything is mentioned about baptism, teaching at a temple or his dissapearence for 18 years.

-Horus was baptized in the river Eridanus or Iarutana (Jordan) by "Anup the Baptized" ("John the Baptist"), who was decapitated.
Again a false claim. There is no "Anup" in the story but Anu, which is a place and not an acutal diety.

-He had 12 disciples, two of whom were his "witnesses" and were named "Anup" and "Aan" (the two "Johns".)
As in the previus question, Anup is not found in any of the texts, what is found is Anu and it is a place. As for Aan, it is not found either, the only word containing Aan is "Sekhet-Aanru" in the Papyrus of Any and has nothing to do with Horus or a disciple. Also Horus joined with blacksmiths (not disciples) who joined him in battle and their numbers is not given.

-He performed miracles, exorcised demons and raiosed El-Azarus ("El-Osiris"), from the dead.
Horus performed miracles but very diferent from the ones of Jesus and this is also a very generic parallel, nearly all messiahs performed miracles. His mother Isis was the one who knew magic and performed spells. There is no mention of "El-Osiris" or "El-Azarus" in any of the texts and it was Isis not Horus who resurrected Osiris.

-He walked on water.
No reference for this. Osiris is linked with the flooding of the Nile but other than that there is no reference of any of them walking on water.

-His personal epithet was "Iusa", the "ever-becoming son" of "Ptah" the "Father". He was thus called "Holy Child".
Again no reference for this in any of the texts. The titles of Horus where "The Jackal of Upper Egypt", "The Opener of The ways", "The Firstborn" and "The Son of Osiris".

-He delivered a "Sermon on The Mount" and his follower reconted the "Sayings of Iusa".
Another unsuported claim, Horus never gave a sermon and never was refered to as "Iusa".

-Horus was transfigured on the Mount.
No reference to a transfiguration or of a mount in the story.

-He was crucified between two thieves, buried for three days in a tomb, and ressurrected.
No mention of Horus death is found in the texts and crucifiction was not practiced by the Egyptians. They turned their dead into mummies and made rituals to help the soul transmigrate to the Netherworld where it would go to be judged by the "King of the Dead" Osiris.

-He was also the "Way, the truth, the light" "Messiah" "God's Anointed Son, "Son of Man" the "Good Shepherd" the "Lamb of God" the "Word made flesh" "Word of Truth,"etd.
This titles like in the same case pointed above are not found in the Egyptian texts and the titles given to Horus were pointed above.

-He was "the fisher" and was associated with the Fish ("Itchthys") Lamb and Lion.
Horus was not refered to with that title neither associated with the fish, lamb or lion. He was associated with the falcon in the sense that he was a Falcon Headed God.

-He came to fulfill the law.
He didn't come to fulfill the law but to bring peace to the land by reconciling Upper and Lower Egypt. His motive was to avenge his father's death and not to fulfill any law.

-Horus was called "the KRST" or "Anointed One".
No reference to these titles either. The word "KRST" is not found anywhere either.

-Like Jesus, "Horus was supposed to reing one thousand years."
The time of Horus reing is not mentioned in the story and it is evident that the reing of Horus lasted as long as the Pharaoh's life in which when he died he was transformed into the new Osiris and the new Pharaoh into the new Horus. Both reinged at the same time Horus as the "King of the Living" and Osiris as the "King of the Dead".

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There is the part of all the quotes from the original Egyptian texts that I left out because they would just make the post too long. If you are interested I can post them for you in another post.

Have a good day,
Asimis

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fallingblood

IAsimisI- you make a very good arguement for Horus, but I wasn't talking about him, I was talking about Osiris.

Christianity is wrapped in Paganism. Many christian holidays are actually Pagan holidays (ex. Easter and Christmas). I will post some more on how Paganism and Christianity are mixed together very soon.