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Jesus has been compared to a broad variety of figures from various mythological traditions, including (in rows from left to right) Dionysus, Mithras, Krishna, Osiris, Horus, Attis, and Inanna
The Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, depicted in this nineteenth-century painting by Carl Bloch, is an example of an instance in which one of the gospel-writers shapes his account in light of Jewish tradition.[13]
Nonetheless, most secular scholars generally agree that the gospels contain large amounts of material that is not historically accurate and is better categorized as legend.[9] In a discussion of genuinely legendary episodes from the gospels, Bart Ehrman, the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, mentions the birth narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke and the release of Barabbas.[29] He points out, however, that, just because these stories are not true does not mean that Jesus himself did not exist.[9] According to theologians Paul R. Eddy and Gregory A. Boyd, there is no evidence that the portrayal of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels (the three earliest gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke) was directly influenced by pagan mythology in any significant way.[10][11] The earliest followers of Jesus were devout Palestinian Jews who abhorred paganism[30] and would have therefore been extremely unlikely to model stories about their founder on pagan myths.[10]
It is, however, widely agreed that the portrayal of Jesus in the gospels is deeply influenced by Jewish tradition.[12] The accounts of the Annunciation of Jesus's conception found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are both modeled on the stories of the annunciations of Ishmael, Isaac, and Samson in the Old Testament.[31][32] Matthew quotes from the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 7:14 to support his account of the virgin birth of Jesus.[33] The Hebrew text of this verse states "Behold, the young woman [ha‘almāh] is with child and about to bear a son and she will call him Immanuel."[33] The Septuagint, however, translates the Hebrew word ‘almāh, which literally means "young woman",[33] as the Greek word παρθένος (parthenos), which means "virgin".[33] Most secular historians therefore generally see the two separate accounts of the virgin birth from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke as independent legendary inventions designed to fulfill the mistranslated passage from Isaiah.[34][35][36] The author of the Gospel of Matthew in particular intentionally seeks to portray Jesus as a "new Moses".[12] Matthew's account of Herod's attempt to kill the infant Jesus, Jesus's family's flight into Egypt, and their subsequent return to Judaea is a mythical narrative based on the account of the Exodus in the Torah.[37] In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus delivers his first public sermon on a mountain in imitation of the giving of the Law of Moses atop Mount Sinai.[13] The teachings preserved in the sermon are statements that Jesus himself really said on different occasions that were originally recorded without context,[38] but the author of the Gospel of Matthew compiled them into an organized lecture and invented context for them in order to fit his portrayal of Jesus as a "new Moses".[38][13] Scholars disagree whether the parable of the rich man and Lazarus recorded in Luke 16:19–31 originates with Jesus or if it is a later Christian invention,[39] but the story bears strong resemblances to various folk tales told throughout the Near East.[40]
Scholars have long suspected that the Gospel of John may have also been influenced by symbolism associated with the cult of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.[41][42][43][44][45][46] The issue of whether the Gospel of John was truly influenced by the cult of Dionysus is hotly disputed,[41] with reputable scholars passionately defending both sides of the argument.[41] Dionysus was one of the best-known Greek deities;[49] he was worshipped throughout most of the Greco-Roman world[49] and his cult is attested in Palestine, Asia Minor, and Italy.[49] At the same time, other scholars have argued that it is highly implausible that the devout Christian author of the Gospel of John would have deliberately incorporated Dionysian imagery into his account[49] and instead argue that the symbolism of wine in the Gospel of John is much more likely to be based on the many references to wine found throughout the Old Testament.[49] In response to this objection, proponents of Dionysian influence have argued that it is possible that the author of the Gospel of John may have used Dionysian imagery in effort to show Jesus as "superior" to Dionysus.[49][50][51]
The first instance of possible Dionysian influence is Jesus's miracle of turning water into wine at the Marriage at Cana in John 2:1–11.[41][50] The story bears some resemblance to a number of stories that were told about Dionysus.[52] Dionysus's close associations with wine are attested as early as the writings of Plato[52] and the second-century AD Greek geographer Pausanias describes a ritual in which Dionysus was said to fill empty barrels that had been left locked inside a temple overnight with wine.[53][54] In the Greek novel Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius, written in the first or second century AD, a herdsman takes Dionysus into his home and offers him a meal,[55] but can only offer him the same thing to drink as his oxen.[55] Miraculously, Dionysus turns the drink into wine.[55] The account of turning water into wine does not occur in any of the Synoptic Gospels and is only found in the Gospel of John,[56] indicating that the author of the fourth gospel may have invented it.[56][50][51] A second occurrence of possible Dionysian influence is the allegory found in John 15:1–17, in which Jesus declares himself to be the "True Vine",[56] a title reminiscent of Dionysus, who was said to have discovered the first grape vine.[56]
Mark S. W. Stibbe has argued that the Gospel of John also contains parallels with The Bacchae, a tragedy written by the Athenian playwright Euripides that was first performed in 405 BC and involves Dionysus as a central character.[57][58] In both works, the central figure is portrayed as an incarnate deity who arrives in a country where he should be known and worshipped,[57][59] but, because he is disguised as a mortal, the deity is not recognized and is instead persecuted by the ruling party.[57][59] In the Gospel of John, Jesus is portrayed as elusive, intentionally making ambiguous statements to evade capture, much like Dionysus in Euripides's Bacchae.[57][60] In both works, the deity is supported by a group of female followers.[57][60] Both works end with the violent death of one of the central figures;[60] in John's gospel it is Jesus himself, but in The Bacchae it is Dionysus's cousin and adversary Pentheus, the king of Thebes.[60]
Stibbe emphasizes that two accounts are also radically different,[61] but states that they share similar themes.[61] One of the most obvious differences is that, in The Bacchae, Dionysus has come to advocate a philosophy of wine and hedonism;[61] whereas Jesus in the Gospel of John has come to offer his followers salvation from sin.[61] Euripides portrays Dionysus as aggressive and violent;[61] whereas the Gospel of John shows Jesus as peaceful and full of mercy.[61] Furthermore, The Bacchae is set within an explicitly polytheistic world,[61] but the Gospel of John admits the existence of only two gods: Jesus himself and his Father in Heaven.[61]
Syncretisms in late antiquity
Mithraism
Ancient Roman tauroctony dating to the third century AD, depicting Mithras slaying the bull, the most important story of the Mithraic Cult[62][63]
Around the same time that Christianity was expanding, the cult of the god Mithras was also spreading throughout the Roman Empire.[64] Christianity and Mithraism were both of Oriental origin[65] and their practices and respective savior figures were both shaped by the social conditions in the Roman Empire during the time period.[66] Very little is known for certain about the Mithraic cult because it was a "Mystery Cult", meaning its members were forbidden from disclosing what the cult believed to outsiders.[62] Consequently, it is disputed how much influence Christianity and Mithraism may have had on each other.[66] No Mithraic sacred texts have survived[62][66] and the only written sources attesting to similarities between Christianity and Mithraism are the writings of Christian apologists who had never been members of the Mithraic cult and had never spoken to its members.[62] According to Ehrman, these writers were ideologically motivated to portray Christianity and Mithraism as similar because they wanted to persuade pagan officials that Christianity was not so different from other religious traditions, so that these officials would realize that there was no reason to single Christians out for persecution.[67] These apologists therefore intentionally exaggerated similarities between Christianity and Mithraism to support their arguments.[67] Scholars are generally wary of trusting anything these sources have to say about the Mithraic cult's alleged practices.[68]
Most of what is known about the Mithraic cult comes from archaeological excavation of Mithraea, underground Mithraic sanctuaries of worship, which were found all across the Roman world.[69] Like Jesus, Mithras was seen as a divine savior,[70] but, unlike Jesus, Mithras was not believed to have brought his salvation by suffering and dying.[69] In the center of every Mithraeum was a tauroctony,[63][62] a painting or sculpture showing Mithras as a young man, usually wearing a cape, plunging a knife into the neck or shoulder of a bull as he turns its head towards him, simultaneously turning his own head away.[63][62] A dog laps up the blood pouring from the bull's wound, from which emerges an ear of corn,[62] as a scorpion stings the bull's scrotum.[62] Human torchbearers stand on either side of the scene, one holding his torch upright and other upside-down.[62] A serpent is also present.[62] The exact interpretation of this scene is unclear,[62] but the image likely depicts a narrative central to Mithraism[62][63] and the figures in it appear to correspond to the signs of the zodiac.[62][63]
Late Roman copy of a fifth-century BC Greek statue showing Hermes, the god of travelers, carrying a ram over his shoulders in his role as Kriophoros (the "Ram-Bearer")
In late antiquity, early Christians frequently adapted pagan iconography to suit Christian purposes.[71][72] This does not in any way indicate that Christianity itself was derived from paganism,[71] only that early Christians made use of the pre-existing symbols that were readily available in their society.[71] Sometimes Christians deliberately used pagan iconography in conscious effort to show Jesus as superior to the pagan gods.[73] In classical iconography, the god Hermes was sometimes shown as a kriophoros, a handsome, beardless youth bearing a ram or sheep over his shoulders.[74] In late antiquity, this image developed a generic association with philanthropy.[74] Early Christians adapted images of this kind as representations of Jesus in his role of as the "Good Shepherd".[75]
Early Christians also adapted the iconography of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing and medicine, to the miracles of Jesus.[76][77] Images of Jesus as a healer replaced images of Asclepius and Hippocrates as the ideal physician.[77] Jesus, who was originally shown as clean-shaven, may have first been shown as bearded as a result of this syncretism with Asclepius,[78][79] as well as other bearded deities such as Zeus and Serapis.[79] A second-century AD head of Asclepius was discovered underneath a fourth-century AD Christian church in Gerasa, Jordan.[78]
In some depictions from late antiquity, Jesus was shown with the halo of the sun god Sol Invictus.[80] Images of "Christ in Majesty" seated upon a throne were inspired by classical depictions of Zeus and other chief deities.[79] By the fourth century AD, the recognizable image of Jesus as long-haired, bearded, and clad in long, baggy-sleeved clothing had fully emerged.[79] This widespread adaptation of pagan iconography to suit Jesus did not sit well with many Christians.[81] A fragment of a lost work by Theodor Lector preserves a miracle story dated to around 465 AD in which the bishop Gennadius of Constantinople was said to have healed an artist who had lost all strength in his hand after painting an image of Christ showing him with long, curly hair, parted in the same manner as traditional representations of Zeus.[81]
Christians also may have adapted the iconography of the Egyptian goddess Isis nursing her son Horus and applied it to the Virgin Mary nursing her son Jesus.[82][83] Some Christians also may have conflated stories about the Egyptian god Osiris with the resurrection of Jesus.[82][83] The title of kosmokrateros ("Ruler of the Cosmos"), which was eventually applied to Jesus, had previously been borne by Serapis.[84] During the sixth century AD, some Christians in the Middle East borrowed elements from poems of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar mourning over the death of her husband Tammuz into their own retellings of the Virgin Mary mourning over the death of her son Jesus.[85][86] The Syrian writers Jacob of Serugh and Romanos the Melodist both wrote laments in which the Virgin Mary describes her compassion for her son at the foot of the cross in deeply personal terms closely resembling Ishtar's laments over the death of Tammuz.[87]
The Bible never states when Jesus was born,[88][89][90] but, in the third century AD, Pope Julius I (337-352) decreed that his birth would be celebrated on 25 December.[89] In 274 AD, the Roman emperor Aurelian had declared 25 December the birthdate of Sol Invictus, a sun god of Syrian origin whose cult had been vigorously promoted by the earlier emperor Elagabalus.[91][90] Julius I may have thought that he could attract more converts to Christianity by allowing them to continue to celebrate on the same day.[90] 25 December also falls around the same time as the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which was much older and more widely celebrated.[92][89] Many of the customs originally associated with Saturnalia eventually became associated with Christmas.[92][89] Julius I may have also been influenced by the idea that Jesus had died on the anniversary of his conception;[90] because Jesus died during Passover and, in the third century AD, Passover was celebrated on 25 March,[90] he may have assumed that Jesus's birthday must have come nine months later, on 25 December.[90]
General comparisons
Aspects of Jesus's life as recorded in the gospels bear some similarities to various other figures, both historical and mythological.[93][94] Proponents of the Christ Myth theory frequently exaggerate these similarities as part of their efforts to claim that Jesus never existed as a historical figure.[93][94]Maurice Casey, the late Emeritus Professor of New Testament Languages and Literature at the University of Nottingham, writes that these parallels do not in any way indicate that Jesus was invented based on pagan "divine men",[95] but rather that he was simply not as perfectly unique as many evangelical Christians frequently claim he was.[95]
Miraculous birth
Attic red-figure stamnos (c. 470–460 BC), depicting the birth of Erichthonius from Gaia, an Athenian story which bears some similarities to the Christian account of the virgin birth of Jesus.[96]
Classical mythology is filled with stories of miraculous births of various kinds,[97][98][99] but does not contain any instances of a virgin woman giving birth to a son without having engaged in some kind of sexual intercourse.[100][99] In most cases of divine offspring from classical mythology, the father is a god who engages in literal sexual intercourse with the mother, a mortal woman,[101][68] causing her to give birth to a son who is literally half god and half man.[101][68] A possible pagan precursor to the Christian story of the virgin birth of Jesus is an Athenian legend recounted by the mythographer Pseudo-Apollodorus.[96][102] According to this account, Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths, once attempted to rape Athena, the virgin goddess of wisdom, but she pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh.[103][96][104] Athena wiped the semen off using a tuft of wool,[103][96][104] which she tossed into the dust,[103][96][104] impregnating Gaia and causing her to give birth to Erichthonius,[103][96][104] whom Athena adopted as her own child.[103][105] Thus, Athena was able to produce a "son" without her losing her virginity.[105] The Roman mythographer Hyginus[102] records a similar story in which Hephaestus demanded Zeus to let him marry Athena since he was the one who had smashed open Zeus's skull, allowing Athena to be born.[103] Zeus agreed to this and Hephaestus and Athena were married,[103] but, when Hephaestus was about to consummate the union, Athena vanished from the bridal bed, causing him to ejaculate on the floor, thus impregnating Gaia with Erichthonius.[103]
The authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are very careful to avoid portraying Jesus's conception as anything resembling pagan accounts of divine parentage[100] and the author of the Gospel of Luke tells a similar story about the conception of John the Baptist in effort to emphasize the Jewish character of Jesus's birth.[100] Nonetheless, he may still have been unconsciously influenced by pagan stories of divine men, despite his efforts to avert this.[101] Other stories of virgin births similar to Jesus's are referenced by later Christian writers.[106] The third-century AD Christian theologian Origen retells a legend that Plato's mother Perictione had virginally conceived him after the god Apollo had appeared to her husband Ariston and told him not to consummate his marriage with his wife,[107][108] a scene closely paralleling the account of the Annunciation to Joseph from the Gospel of Matthew.[107] Origen interpreted this story and others like it as prefiguring the reality made manifest by Jesus's virginal conception.[107][109] In the fourth century, the bishop Epiphanius of Salamis protested that, in Alexandria, at the temple of Kore-Persephone, the pagans enacted a "hideous mockery" of the Christian Epiphany in which they claimed that "Today at this hour Kore, that is the virgin, has given birth to Aion."[107]
The late nineteenth-century Scottish anthropologistSir James George Frazer wrote extensively about the existence of a "dying-and rising god" archetype in his monumental study of comparative religion The Golden Bough (the first edition of which was published in 1890)[110][113] as well as in later works.[114] Frazer's main intention was to prove that all religions were fundamentally the same[115] and that all the essential features of Christianity could be found in earlier religions.[116] Although Frazer himself did not explicitly claim that Jesus was a "dying-and-rising god" of the supposedly typical Near Eastern variety, he strongly implied it.[117] Frazer's claims became widely influential in late nineteenth and early twentieth century scholarship of religion,[111][112][110] but are now mostly rejected modern scholars.[117][112][118]
The main examples of "dying-and-rising gods" discussed by Frazer were the Mesopotamian god Tammuz and his Greek equivalent Adonis.[110][113][114] Tammuz's categorization as a "dying-and-rising god" was based on the abbreviated Akkadian redaction of Inanna's Descent into the Underworld, which was missing the ending.[119][120] Since numerous lamentations over the death of Dumuzid had already been translated, scholars filled in the missing ending by assuming that the reason for Ishtar's descent was because she was going to resurrect Dumuzid and that the text could therefore be assumed to end with Tammuz's resurrection.[119] Then, in the middle of the twentieth century, the complete, unabridged, original Sumerian text of Inanna's Descent was finally translated,[119][120] revealing that, instead of ending with Dumuzid's resurrection as had long been assumed, the text actually ended with Dumuzid's death.[119][120] The discovery of the Return of Dumuzid in 1963 briefly revived hopes that Dumuzid might once again be able to be categorized as a "dying-and-rising god",[119] but the text ultimately proved disappointing in this regard because it does not describe a triumph over death (as would be necessary for a true Frazerian "resurrection myth")[119][121] and instead does precisely the opposite and affirms the "inalterable power of the realm of the dead" by the fact that Dumuzid can only leave the Underworld when his sister takes his place.[119][121] Frazer and others also saw Tammuz's Greek equivalent Adonis as a "dying-and-rising god",[111][110][122] despite the fact that he is never described as rising from the dead in any extant Graeco-Roman writings[123] and the only possible allusions to his supposed resurrection come from late, highly ambiguous statements made by Christian authors.[123][nb 13]
Around the same time that the notion of Tammuz as a "dying-and-rising god" became discredited, scholars began to severely criticize the designation of "dying-and-rising god" altogether.[114][121][124] In 1987, Jonathan Z. Smith concluded in Mircea Eliade's Encyclopedia of Religion that "The category of dying and rising gods, once a major topic of scholarly investigation, must now be understood to have been largely a misnomer based on imaginative reconstructions and exceedingly late or highly ambiguous texts."[121][123] He further argued that the deities previously referred to as "dying-and-rising" would be better termed separately as "dying gods" and "disappearing gods",[121][124] asserting that before Christianity, the two categories were distinct and gods who "died" did not return, and those who returned never truly "died".[121][124] By the end of the twentieth century, most scholars had come to agree that the notion of a "dying-and-rising god" was an invention[117][112][118] and that the term was not a useful scholarly designation.[117][112][118]
See also
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
^While discussing the "striking" fact that "we don't have any Roman records, of any kind, that attest to the existence of Jesus," Ehrman dismisses claims that this means Jesus never existed, saying, "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees, based on clear and certain evidence."[5]
^Robert M. Price, a former fundamentalist apologist turned atheist who says the existence of Jesus cannot be ruled out, but is less probable than non-existence, agrees that his perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars.[6]
^Michael Grant (a classicist) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus, or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary."[7]
^"There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more."[8]
^While discussing the "striking" fact that "we don't have any Roman records, of any kind, that attest to the existence of Jesus," Ehrman dismisses claims that this means Jesus never existed, saying, "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees, based on clear and certain evidence."[5]
^Robert M. Price, a former fundamentalist apologist turned atheist who says the existence of Jesus cannot be ruled out, but is less probable than non-existence, agrees that his perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars.[6]
^Michael Grant (a classicist) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus, or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary."[7]
^"There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more."[8]
^"...The point I shall argue below is that, the agreed evidentiary practices of the historians of Yeshua, despite their best efforts, have not been those of sound historical practice".[14]
^"[F]arfetched theories that Jesus' existence was a Christian invention are highly implausible."[16]
^Of "baptism and crucifixion", these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent".[20]
^"That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus ... agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact."[22]
^Origen discusses Adonis, (whom he associates with Tammuz), in his Selecta in Ezechielem ( “Comments on Ezekiel”), noting that "they say that for a long time certain rites of initiation are conducted: first, that they weep for him, since he has died; second, that they rejoice for him because he has risen from the dead (apo nekrôn anastanti)" (cf. J.-P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca, 13:800).
References
^ abBlomberg, Craig L. (2007). The Historical Reliability of the Gospels. InterVarsity Press. ISBN9780830828074.
^ abCarrier, Richard Lane (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt. Sheffield Phoenix Press. ISBN9781909697355.
^ abFox, Robin Lane (2005). The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. Basic Books. p. 48. ISBN978-0465024971.
^Jesus Remembered by James D. G. Dunn 2003 ISBN0-8028-3931-2 p. 339 states of baptism and crucifixion that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent".
^Crossan, John Dominic (1995). Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne. p. 145. ISBN0-06-061662-8. That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus ... agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact.
Ehrman, Bart D. (2012), Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, New York City, New York: HarperCollins, ISBN978-0-06-220644-2((citation)): Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Price, Robert M. (2005). "New Testament narrative as Old Testament midrash". In Jacob Neusner and Alan J. Avery-Peck (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Midrash: Biblical Interpretation in Formative Judaism. Leiden: Brill. ISBN978-90-04-14166-7.
Smith, Jonathan Z. (1987), "Dying and Rising Gods", in Eliade, Mircea (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. IV, London, England: Macmillan, pp. 521–527, ISBN0029097002((citation)): Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Van Voorst, Robert E. (2003). "Nonexistence Hypothesis". In James Leslie Houlden (ed.). Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 658–660.
Wells, G. A. (January–March 1973). "Friedrich Solmsen on Christian Origins". Journal of the History of Ideas. 34 (1): 143–144. doi:10.2307/2708950. JSTOR2708950. ((cite journal)): Invalid |ref=harv (help)
