Roger Pearse

A 4mb PDF of the Cumont article Un bas relief Mithriaque du louvre is here.

For those willing to tolerate some errors, a scan of the text is here.

It contains a translation of the relevant portion of the anonymous work in question.

I'll translate the relevant portions into English later today: give me a few hours to deal with domestic stuff.

Roger Pearse

Here is the translation:

St. Justin and Tertullian see in these mithraic meals a satanic imitation of the Christian communion [1]. The Greek apologist, recalling how the eucharist was instituted, ends by observing that the perverse demons imitated it in the mysteries of Mithras, and he refers to ritual formulas which were marked on the bread and the cup presented to the worshipper during his initiation; they must have offered some resemblance to the words pronounced by Jesus in the last supper [2].

A strange passage in a late work may perhaps compensate for the reticence of Justin, who scrupled to reproduce the pagan formulae. An Arab manuscript in Syriac characters (Karshuni) of the Library of Birmingham [3] containing a homily or pastoral letter, the theme of which is to put side by side the false pretentions of the Jews and Magians and the true wisdom of Christianity. The motif which is repeated with monotonous rigour, is that the devil has accomplished a series of miracles among the unbelievers, but, to these false miracles, God has opposed true ones.

Speaking about the Magi [193.1], the unknown author asserts that Zoroaster, having built pyres, exhorted his followers to throw themselves into the fire, and that they would seem to perish in the flames; and then coming out safe and well, they would appear to have come back from the dead, but this was only an illusion produced by magic spells. But Christ measured himself against Zoroaster, and by really bringing people back from the dead, made the propaganda of the Magi in the whole world pointless.

Then the Christian writer adds: "This Zardasht again says to his disciples: whoever does not eat of my body and does not drink of my blood, so that he mixes with me and I mix with him, he will not have salvation... But Christ says to his disciples: Whoever eats my body and drinks my blood will have eternal life. [193.2]"

The first part of this passage really goes back to a Mazdaean tradition, according to which similar wonders proved the divine mission of Zoroaster. In his childhood, he is thrown into a large bonfire at the instigation of the wizards, but the burning flames save him and his mother finds him alive [195.1]. Later, one reads elsewhere, the prophet being withdrawn on a mountain, a rain of fire set fire to him, but the Persians, who had come to pray in this place, see the prophet appear unharmed [195.2].

When the author of the Arab homily claims to have consulted a book of the Magi, the title of which unfortunately could not be deciphered, he appears to be telling the truth. There is thus some probability that he also found in this book the words which he gives to Zoroaster addressing his disciples.

So had this book transferred to the person of the founder of Mazdaeism that which the Mithraists applied to the Bull; that it was necessary, in a mystical meal, to consume its flesh and to drink its blood? Perhaps. But our medieval source is so confused that it would be labour lost, I believe, to try to clarify this.

It is not doubtful that certain Magi moved their traditions closer to the doctrines of the Church and claimed for themselves the priority. A Mazdaean myth, stripped of its true sense, was called upon to prove that Jesus, whose miraculous star was to announce the birth to the astrologers of Persia, was an avatar of Zoroaster [195.3]: "He will arise, says he, from my family and my line; I am him, and he is me; I am in him, and he is in me " These words offer a singular analogy with those of the anonymous Arab "so that he mixes with me and I mix with him".

F. Cumont.
---

1. Tertullien. De praescr. haeret.. 40 : Mithra celebrat et panis oblationem et imaginent resurrectionis inducit. »

2. Justin. Apol. I, 66 ...

3. A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Mingana collection of manuscripts (Birmingham, Selley Oak colleges library) Cambridge, 1933. Ms. Mingana, n° 142, ff. 48 - 61. --- Our attention was drawn to this manuscript by Fr. Vosé, whose erudition as an orientalist has again allowed us to profit from his discoveries. Our friend Mr. Levi della Vida agreed to undertake to translate the Karshuni work which interested us, with his proven competence, and he proposed to study in it more detail and determine its sources and date. The war has unfortunately halted his research; let us hope, only temporarily.

193.1. We reproduce here the translation of what this difficult to access and sometimes not very comprehensible work says about the Magi. f. 158 b: "As for the sect of the Magi, we will say again to you what did Zardasht in the time of L d. yû. n (or c. d. yû. n), the 82nd king after Adam. He started pyres, and accomplished prodigies which induced souls to obey him. Among his various miracles, he excited people to throw themselves into the pyres, and those who saw them believed that they burned, but all this was art of sorcery. After some time, as they always found them in the pyres, the people believed (f. 159 a) that they were resuscitated, as the book Z. b. h. r. and other books of the Magi attest. This Zardasht again says to his disciples: whoever does not eat of my body and does not drink of my blood, so that he mixes with me and I mix with him, he will not have salvation." When his works became famous, and his followers spread in the world, they boiled and drank beef.

193.2. Jean, VI, 53; cf Matth., XXVI, 26. — On the introduction of a similar formula into Manicheism, cf Alberry, Das manichäische Bema-Fest (Zeitschr. F Neutest. Wissenschaft, 1938, XXXVII, p. 7).

195.1. Dinkart, VII, 3, 8 s. (West, Pahlavi Texts, V, 36), Zad-Sparam, XVI, 7 (Ibid., p. 146). The same story in the Persian Zarâtust Nama (Rosenberg, Le livre de Zoroastre, 1904, c. 8, p. 12).

195.2. Dion Chrysost... Or.. XXXVI, 39. cf. our Mages hellénisés. I, p. 29 ; II, p. 143. In the same way at the end of the world, the just will traverse a river of fire without feeling the burning (Boundahish, XXX. 18).

195.3. Theodore bar Koni, in Mages hellénisés, vol. II, p. 128 (translation of P. Peeters) ; cf. vol. I, p. 52 ff.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

God Fearing Atheist

Good stuff Andrew and Roger!

andrewcriddle

This material does appear to be responding to the legendary narrative about Zoroaster which took shape during the Sassanid period (After 200 CE) and is first found in Pahlavi texts like the Dinkart/Denkard.
http://irantarikh.com/persia/dinkrd71.htm

I have doubts whether it can be used as evidence of pre-Sassanid beliefs and hence whether it can be used as evidence for Mithraism. (Only pre-Sassanid Zoroastrianism can have influenced Zoroastrianism for obvious chronological reasons.)

Andrew Criddle

Roger Pearse

One point of interest from Cumont's article is that a French translation does exist of this work, in manuscript. It would be interesting to know where Cumont's papers are. Likewise those of Mr. Levi della Vida, who has a Wikipedia entry as a Jewish-Italian orientalist.

Roger Pearse

It would seem that a Magian text existed, in which these words appeared, but we still have no evidence of any connection with Mithras here. "Perhaps" is as close as Cumont will go, if I read him aright.

An interesting statement by Cumont: "It is not doubtful that certain Magi moved their traditions closer to the doctrines of the Church and claimed for themselves the priority".

The lack of any real reference for this is somewhat annoying. The statement of Theodore bar Koni, the Nestorian scholiast in the early Abbasid period, would be interesting to see, I admit, but I don't know if it would back up what Cumont said.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Roger Pearse

I have discovered that the papers of Franz Cumont are held at the Academia Belgica in Rome. I have written to them today to ask if they have Levi della Vida's translation of Mingana 142.

mountainman

In regard to the search for the historical Mithra, in addition to
comments about its known trajectory from Indus-Sarasvati,
thence Iran to Anatolia then on to Rome and its empire, one
salient point needs to be underscored.

In the year c.220 CE, Ardashir shut down the Parthian empire.
The old gods got shafted for a brand new version of monotheism
called Zoroastrianism. The written knowledge of the ancient
Parthian civilisation, which had carried the trajectory of Mithra,
was utterly destroyed by the military despot Ardashir. This is
a boundary event with respect to the search for the historical
Mithra, and anything "Parthian".

The worship of Mithra in the (then) Roman empire was essentially
"cut off from its source". There was no going back to the roots
of Mithra in Parthia, because Ardashir had created the theocracy
of Iran, and there, in the "eastern home country one step removed
from the empire", the god had been rebadged.

Mithra sounds like a river cut-off from its ancient source.
It may have flowed from the east in ancient days, but the
Ardashir boundary event cut off its source, in the same
manner that the ancient Sarasvati River mentioned in
the Rig Veda, was cut off from its Himalayan source
and gradually ceased to flow, drying up c.1900 BCE.


Best wishes,


Pete

mountainman

Hi Roger,

Its a real pity something does not say when the arrival
of christ happened, with respect to the search for the
historical christ. However any writing conflating Mithra
and Zoroastrianism, as outlined above, needs to clearly
mention the boundary event of the early third century,
at which time the nation of Iran came into existence
and the ancient civilisation, and all written records of
the Parthians (ie: pre- c.220 CE) were utterly destroyed.

The monotheistic Zoroastrianism was invented by the
warlord from fragments of the ancient Parthian hymn
"The Avesta" --- its all that remains of Parthia. His
deathbed advice to his son Shapur I was:

“Consider the Fire Altar and the Throne
as inseparable as to sustain each other"

It was good for business. The army
marches with one song.


Best wishes,


Pete

andrewcriddle

The Book of the Bee
http://sacred-texts.com/chr/bb/bb37.htm

Has a version of the passage in Theodore_bar_Koni Andrew Criddle