Reena

I was wondering if the idea of God becoming man and sacrificing himself to save humanity is a unique idea, or if it has been replicated by other, pre-Christian faiths.

I am also curious about how Christianity came to be, what moved people to believe in a crucified savior, resurrection from the dead, the idea of God becoming man etc.

Is there a progression of pre-Christian thought that explains the origins of Christianity?

Mabus_Zero

The most obvious links to the messiah death/rebirth tale would be the tale of Osiris being slashed to bits by Set, his jealous brother, and then being put back together again on request of his wife, Isis, per Ancient Egyptian Antiquity.

A similar tale existed of Dionysius (sp) as well, per Ancient Greek Antiquity.

Much of Christianity's more revolutionary pretectures mirror the Vedic and Buddhist traditions that predate it by several centuries, some conjecture being placed into whether Jesus/Yeshua/Essa had studied in India under the Yogi and the Buddhas. Mithraism was also near copied by early Christianity, or so the story goes, predating it by several hundred years. A great deal of persecution in the actual city of Rome against the early followers of the religious conviction was due to the fact that the Mithraists had been long established, held very similar sacraments, and felt as if the early-Christians were disservicing them through mimicry, and had complained to the provincial governor accordingly, who had found himself sympathetic to the Mithraists.

Chris Weimer

You can rest assured that no religion had a God who became man to sacrifice himself to save humanity - it's really unique to Christianity.

Osiris was a god who was killed by his brother Set. Isis put him back to life, though he never fully regained his godhood and instead resided in the afterlife to judge the souls of the dead. Any parallel to Christianity is quite a stretch of the imagination.

Diogenes the Cynic

One example of a god who sacrified himself specifically for humans would be Prometheus. He didn't become a human but does suffer (eternally) on their account.

Reena

Do you know if the Greeks/Romans took the Greek/Roman gods seriously?

i.e. did they believe there was an actual Prometheus, an actual Hercules, an actual Athena, or were they always thought to be myths/legends?

Diogenes the Cynic

They thought their gods and myths were quite real. Socrates was actually executed, in part, for "refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state."

Chris Weimer

But Prometheus never died. Nor was he considered "god" but a Titan, those who fought the Gods. Nor did he "save" humans, which the OP specifically asked about.

Also, by the first century CE, not many Romans, especially educated Romans, took the Gods seriously. I believe Ovid explictly stated that what he wrote was fable. Some Romans/Greek took to the theory that their Gods were once men who were later deified by the people. Although, this is not to say that all Romans felt this way. Tacitus especially is noted for his allusions to the divinity as real still.

Diogenes the Cynic

No, but he did suffer on behalf of humans which I think is notable and unusual.
I think he was the son of a Titan, wasn't he?

....Never mind, a quick check tells me he was both the son of a Titan and a Titan himself. I don't think his specific classification really matters much, though. I just think it's significant that he's a theistic entity who suffered for humans. I don't think that's a common motif in pre-Christian mythology.
I would argue that he did save them- not only from extinction (he gave them fire and other tools for civilization after Zeus wanted to let them die) but he also saved the from their "sins," in a manner of speaking, by telling them they could appease the gods with animal sacrifices.

I think it also bears mentioning that Prometheus created humans.

So with Prometheus you have a creator and a protector, who mediates between humans and gods, who saves them from death and from the wrath of the gods, and who suffers for them. There's no death or resurrection but this is still noteworthy stuff, is it not?

(There's also the intriguing aspect of Prometheus as rebel who gave men knowledge but that's a whole other discussion. I find Prometheus to be a fascinating character).
True, but the Greeks took the gods pretty seriously and I think the Greeks had more influence on Christianity than the Romans,

Chris Weimer

Not too unusual... It fits the larger theme of every god sacrificing something to save mankind. Of that aspect, neither Christ nor Prometheus are really that unusual.

Hrm, good point, but I'd doubt they would have saw it this way. Remember, the Greeks didn't have the concept of "sin". Socrates argued against the whims of the gods and for the concept of absolute morality, and was subsequently killed for it. I think that sounds familiar But I do not recall anything about Zeus wanting them to die. I thought that the punishment was for giving them something sacred, fire, which was reserved for the gods only. The sacrifice...the sacrifice came in...gosh, I forgot. I don't have the time to look this up further tonight, but I shall return tomorrow to find out details on this point.

Indeed it is noteworthy. But I wonder how much of it the Christians adopted from the Greeks, and how much from the Jews? Or where do we draw the lines at? I wonder, Dio, do you happen to know any other gods in unrelated mythologies which exhibit this? I'll check my mythology books tomorrow, as I don't have the time tonight, but it would be interesting to see if this perhaps forms one of our universal archetypes Jung was so fond of.

I agree. Prometheus is a fascinating character. Ever ponder his name? Prometheus, as opposed to Epimetheus?

By the first century CE? I don't know. I'll have to look into it more. Most likely, in both Greek and Roman society, the uneducated masses probably believed in the Gods, but I wonder how many educated actually did?

PS - This would be a great topic for my forum instead of BC&H. I'd love to derail this topic into a discussion about Prometheus in his own right, instead of trying to relate it back to the OP which I assume is trying to make a case for a mythical Jesus.

Diogenes the Cynic

How many other gods suffered physically to save mankind (granted I'm shifting the definition of "salvation" to something a little more basic)?
No, but neither did the proto-Jewish Israelites when they initiated animal sacrifice. I put "sin" in quotations because I'm talking about a more primative level of sacrificial appeasement. The crucifixion, when you get right down to it, still has its roots in the same kind of primal thinking.
It wasn't so much that Zeus wanted to kill the humans as that he didn't care about them and would have let them die. According to the myth, Zeus had alloted a certain number of gifts to Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus to populate the earth and ...

Here, I'll just quote from Wikipedia:
Here's something else I found:
I have some books of my own I could check but i'd have to dig for them. I beleive the second link is substantially accurate, though.
I'm of the opinion that it's more Greek than Jewish- at least by the time it gets to full blown Paulinism. There are several parallels to Dionysus, for instance (including a death and resurrection).
We're not going to solve that one tonight.
Off the top of my head, I can think of some vague parallels in Hinduism (was it Vishnu who drank the snake venom from off the top of the elixir of life?) but nothing really on point. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find something, though. Hinduism has so damn many stories that something is bound to come close.
And think of what those names mean in conjunction with their respective creations.
The Caesars were pretty rigid about demanding at least a pretense of piety so I would bet most of them went through the motions.

I think the Christian movement grew up in the absolute bottom classes, though, including slaves.
I agree. I think a lot of classical mythology is worth discussion in itself without trying to relate everything to the JM argument.