Gawen

We all know that Judaism has its blend of other belief systems interwoven into the present day religion. But this (below) is new for me.
It was the beginning of the 4th century, Emperor Constantine declared catholic Christianity to be the state religion. This was a momentous victory for Christianity. But they needed a liturgy. It appears that the fledgling religion took over the liturgy of the popular Mithraic Church.

"Here we must pause and remember the Mithras cult and those aspects of it which were taken over by Christianity: In its early years the mightiest competitor of the Christian Church was the movement that came to Egypt from the East, two hundred years before Jesus, reached Rome around the turn of the millennium, and soon became the Roman Empire’s most important religion - the cult of Mithras. Mithras is a God from the pantheon of the Indians and Persians. Vedic India has worshipped Mithras as a patron of human relationships, the preserver of heaven and earth and a God fighting against lies and error. When Mithras started his victorious progress across the Graeco-Roman world, the Buddhist saviour Maitreya started his journey in the east. As the saviour of the Buddhists, Maitreya’s future coming was promised by Sakyamuni. The name Maitreya is seen as related to the Aramaic meshia - the messiah. There are very interesting parallels when the etymology of the word Maitreya is considered:

The word means friendly, loving, and is derived from maitri (friendship, compassion, friend, ally), the sanskrit form of Mithras.

Used as a personal name Maitreya even means Son of Mithra (Mithra is the God; Son of Mithra is the ‘Son of God’)

Like Maitreya, Mithras is thought to be waiting in heaven for the end of time, when he will descend to earth.

According to the legend, the redeemer will be born of a virgin, a goddess, thrusting through animal skin to the light of day.

His birth will be watched by shepherds, who will worship the newly born..

His earthly mission culminates in his victory over the bull..From the body of the dying bull grow corn (bread) and grapes (wine) (Here is the origin of the eating of bread and drinking of wine which is a Christian ritual),

..until Mithras finally mounts to heaven in the sun-chariot and is enthroned by the God of light as the ruler of the world, to return to earth when the time comes, awaken the dead and pass judgement.

The legend does not specify whether this birth is a past or future event but those who believed in Mithras celebrated his arrival every year on the night of 24-25 December, when the community had its important festivity.

Romans worshipped Mithras as the saviour of the mankind, and these December celebrations were for Dies Natalis Invicti (‘Birthday of the Unconquered’).

In short, when the Romans were converted to Christianity they just simply converted the Mithra festival into a Christian festival. This date was arbitrarily fixed by a Scythian monk - Dionysius Exiguus in the year 533. Furthermore Exiguus moved 1 BC to 1 AD. Prior to Exiguus, Jesus’ birthday was fixed as January 6, which is still celebrated in the Orthodox church, in the Balkans and Mexico. So where did this first birthday come from? The Christian feast of the epiphany was the celebration of Christ’s birth. Then it became the celebration of Christ’s baptism. There are still some scholars who feel that epiphany has always been an idea feast, celebrating the manifestations of Christ’s power. The epiphany originated in the Eastern Church probably as early as 3rd century, and came to be celebrated in the West in the 4th century. The choice of date, January 6, is presumably an adaptation of rival pagan feasts. In Egypt, the waters of the Nile are reputed to acquire special powers during the night of January 5-6, which is the festival of the god Aeon, who was born of the virgin Kore (here is another story of immaculate conception which fits Jesus’ stature.) Another big annual festival was held at the start of spring, this is now called Easter - the resurrection of Jesus. After all, all the agriculture gods did come back to life with the spring, didn’t they?

The weekly divine service was held on Sunday (Christianity adopted this practice), the day of the God. The predecessor of the New Testament, the Old Testament, established the seventh day (Saturday), when God rested, as God’s Day. Didn’t it? No one can find a Biblical support for the Sunday worship. Church services on Sundays were started with rituals taken over from the Mithras cult. Mithra was called ‘Sol invictus Mithra’ - Mithra the unconquered Sun; Sunday was God’s day, Sun’s day, Mithra’s day.

The ‘mass’ is said to be nothing but the celebration of the Mithraic mysteries, and the call “dominus vobiscum” (“Lord is with you”, is literally the utterance of acceptance: chron-k-am, p-ak. The most important cult activity was a meal of wine and bread - offered as consecrated wafers bearing the sign of a cross. The spiritual leader of the hierarchically organized Mithras religion was entitled Pater Patrum - ‘Father of Fathers’ - who corresponds to the Roman Pope of our day. The centre of Christianity, Vatican has its Church of St Peter built over a Mithraic cult site.

For those who believed in Mithra, he was the ‘coming one’, whose arrival was celebrated every year on the night of 24-25 December. The community had its important festivity on that day. This day was the day of the winter solstice also. On this point Luke and Matthew wrote that around Jesus’ birthday shepherds were out in the country keeping watch over their flocks day and night. However, in Palestine in the month of December nights are cold, sheep won’t be out in the fields, and there are no shepherds keeping watch over their flocks because there would be frost. Flocks are put out to grass between the months of March-November. So there is something amiss. It is the birthday of Mithra. Therefore if someone called Jesus ever lived, he must have been born between the months of March and November if we are to believe the texts of Luke and Matthew."

What I wish to know....is the above correct, especially pertaining to Mithras? I know there are a few people here that know a great deal of ancient middle-east belief systems. Could the early gospel writers have 'used' part of the Mithraic cult? Or is this more on the order of early catholicism taking literary license? And, if it seems likely to be true and why would the gospel writers use such a flagrant plagarism? Something just doesn't seem right here.

Hannibal

I won't be able to help much with this, but I did run across this link about Mithraism's connection to Chrisianity:

Link to Christianity

As Christianity gathered momentum and eventually became the Roman Empires state religion, Mithraism was not tolerated. The Apologist saw it as a satanic transversty of the holiest rites of their religion. Nevertheless Catholicism has preserved some of the outer form of Mithraism to name some; the timing of Christmas, Bishops adaptation of miters as sign of their office, Christians priests becoming 'Father' despite Jesus' specific proscription of the acceptance of such title. The Mithraic Holy father wore a red cap and garment and a ring, and carried a shepherd1s staff. The Head Christian adopted the same title and outfitted himself in the same manner. While the outer appearance of Mithraism can be detected in Catholicism, some traces of the inner teachings of Mithraism can be found in Sufisim, therefore study of Sufisim allows a new insight into Mithraism, and possibly vise versa.

From: http://www.crystalinks.com/mithra.html

SLD

Great Link Hannibal, and welcome to the Boards.

I think, like the conclusion to the article Hannibal linked, that equating Christianity to Mithraism is too simplistic. Mithraism seems to have different beliefs at different times. It is one thing under the Persians and something different under the Romans. It really didn't get its start in the Roman world until right around the time of Christ. Certainly Roman Mithraism seems to have a lot in common with Christianity, but it seems hard to determine which Mystery Cult influenced which. Did Mithraism adopt from Christianity or did Christianity adopt from Mithraism? Perhaps we'll never know.

What we do know is that the religion was growing in the Tarsus area during the latter part of Augustus's reign and this is exactly where Paul spent his formative childhood years. IMHO, Paul incorporated ideas from Mithraism but also other mystery cults of that era and combined them with the life of a simple Pharasaic preacher whose followers he had some familiarity with, and probably did persecute. Paul created Christianity from an amalgam of these elements. His later followers wrote the gospels and incorporated still other myths from a variety of sources.

SLD

Gawen

Thanks Hannibal for the site. Most informative.

Although the similarities between Mithraism and Christianity are numerous, I have to agree with you, SLD. I try to think...to understand the early gospel writers motivation in deifying Jesus, whether he exsisted or not. Assuming that some forms or tenets of Mithraism and Zoroastrian belief systems infiltrated the area certainly before the turn of the millenium, I still can't see why some Jews would adopt them. Surely someone must have been really pissed off.

We also have to assume that what I wrote above is true, since so far, no one has come forward to refute it. But it still is a very short time period between the year 1 to 55ce or so to have basically assimilated Mithraism and converted it to early christianity (along with Greek gnostic and buddists teahings as well). Sure, some outward appearances survive. But how much was actually assimilated?
If.....if this is true, how many Xtians would believe this? How many faiths would be shaken in knowing that their belief system is based on various other ancient belief systems? (that is assuming that Xtians have open minds ) How many would stop living the lie?

Haran

I believe this topic has been refuted here in the past. Can't find the thread in the archives though, but I can't seem to find anything with the above Search function.

Christianity != Mithraism

SLD

Quite a few I believe. For most of the past two millenia, the church has had enormous political power and been able to repress heresies. It's taken awhile, including a lot of research and archeology and the creation of a scientific method that has led to enormous technological benefits as well as advances in the understanding of the universe and our place in it. Combine these things, and the Church loses its political power and voila it starts to die off. Non-Religion is growing rapidly in the United States, and I predict that we will be a majority by the end of this century. I wish I could stick around to see it happen.

Of course, many people are not going to change their minds - no matter what the evidence. You need only stick around these boards for a few weeks to see that. Or worse, check out www.rapture-ready.org. AAAARRRGGGGHHH.

In the end though, I am optimistic that Religious belief (at least in its fundamentalist forms) is dying.

SLD

GakuseiDon

No, it has been refuted so many times that perhaps nobody wants to refute it. This topic pops up every few months, refuted or not refuted.

The name Maitreya is seen as related to the Aramaic meshia - the messiah.

How? Messiah means 'anointed'. Maitreya means 'universal love'. What is the relationship?

Used as a personal name Maitreya even means Son of Mithra

Didn't they just say it means 'universal love'? From this link: "Maitreya's name is derived from the Sanskrit 'maitri' meaning 'universal love'."

'Maitri' looks a little like 'Mithra' - but then, the word 'horse' looks like 'house'. It doesn't mean we used to live in horses.

Mithras is thought to be waiting in heaven for the end of time, when he will descend to earth.

True enough. Some of the things in the article are true.

According to the legend, the redeemer will be born of a virgin, a goddess, thrusting through animal skin to the light of day.

Mithra was born from a rock, not a virgin.

From the body of the dying bull grow corn (bread) and grapes (wine) (Here is the origin of the eating of bread and drinking of wine which is a Christian ritual)

Actually, I thought the Passover was the origin...

Furthermore Exiguus moved 1 BC to 1 AD

What does this mean???

The ‘mass’ is said to be nothing but the celebration of the Mithraic mysteries, and the call “dominus vobiscum” (“Lord is with you”, is literally the utterance of acceptance: chron-k-am, p-ak. The most important cult activity was a meal of wine and bread - offered as consecrated wafers bearing the sign of a cross.

I'd be interested to see any support of this. It's not true, as far as I know. Mithra rituals used wine and honey, and there were no consecrated wafers used in Mithraism.

For those who believed in Mithra, he was the ‘coming one’, whose arrival was celebrated every year on the night of 24-25 December.

'Coming one'? AFAIK, Mithra had already arrived. He was formed from a rock, sometimes depicted as a child, but usually as an adult.

The above may be true, but it would be interesting to see the evidence for it. There isn't much historical material available on Mithraism, but there is a lot of bogus material, mostly created in the 19th and early 20th century, that still gets cited today.

So, sources please?

Toto

The index was wiped out in the last server class and Bill has not rebuilt it yet.

The question has been discussed, but the state of the evidence is not such that any really firm conclusions can be drawn. But it appears that Constantine deliberately tried to meld Christianity, Mithraism, and the worship of Sol Invictus together, and Christianity picked up a lot of cultural baggage about that time. Many Protestant Christians object to Roman Catholic practices on that basis.

David Ulanksy's page on Mithra

Toto

The search function won't work, but you can sort the threads by title, and I found these:

Mithras and Jesus not similar after all?

Mithras and christian apologetics

rlogan

The Ulansey piece was quite illuminating, Toto - thanks. I recommend this highly.

Hmmm... What did the threads acomplish prior to devolving into the Christians destroyed the library - yes they did, no they didn't? Not clear.

There's some misinformation on the 'net and I've fallen prey to some of it. One of the problems with Mithraism is that it was a secret cult and were any writings to have survived our benificent Christian monopolists would have destroyed them as heresies.

Whether mithraism or not the foundation stones of the church ritual are Sunday worship and Solstice celebration of the birth of Christ - neither of which are supported by Christian scripture. In fact, they are outright contradictions. There's good entertainment value in having the fundies contort their way through explaining those.

There are a whole host of these sorts of things that find paralells in pagan rites or traditions. Virgin birth. Isis and the God-child. Christians "glommed on" to other traditions in scripture and in practice. Further back in time the Hebrews "glommed on" to existing flood and creation myths.

GakuseiDon - important clarification: it was a virgin rock.