Jesus v Mithras a coincidence?

Question

Mithras was born December 25th
Mithras had 12 companions
Mithras was known as the lamb, messiah and the shepherd
Mithras' followers were babtized
Mithras' mother was a virgin
Mithras' at his birth was attended by shepherds
Mithras turned water into wine
Mithras died and was resurrected
Mithras was worshipped on a Sunday

If Mithras was worshipped before Jesus is this just a coincidence?

http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Scriptures/www.innvista.com/scriptures/compare/mithra.htm

For Shawn - Mithras was worshiped in Rome well before Jesus was supposedly born and ancient relecs/artefacts show this. Mithras is also mentioned by Herodotus - so thats my timeline - Whats yours?

Sorry Shawn I see we were both mistaken and are saying the same.

Answer 1

Re. Shawn M: Spanish thought devil had mocked Catholicism in South America too. Maybe the pagans think church buildings mock groves of sacred trees, by seducing beliefs with mimicry in their internal architecture. Venantius Fortunatis: 'God is reigning from the tree.'

‘Like Christ: Adonis and Attis, Osiris and Dionysus, also suffer and rise again… to become one with them is the mystical passion of their worshippers. They are alike in that their mysteries give immortality. Like Mithraism, Christ takes the symbolic keys of heaven and assumes the function of the virgin-born Saoshayant; the destroyer of the evil one.’ ( JM Robertson: ‘Pagan Christs’)

The 'virgin birth' as a phenomenon confirming the appearance of prophets is a device seen in the histories of Zoroaster, Pythagorus, Lao Tzu… (theogamy: divine marriage, Vestal Virgins).

Christianity as a new religion, can be seen as created out of the dynamic that arose as the various ethnic and religious converts struggled to make their own kind of sense out of the individual, and often conflicting/contradictory, elements of the hybrid. The followers faced a compromise between the dying-and -risen god, and the classical account of the Messiah: seen in the Church’s Christ as a blend of various elements. Dragging wood behind oneself as a symbol of loss and sorrow, was a ritual in Europe, older than Christianity. The concept of the Holy Grail is a tradition of divine revelation, wisdom, enlightenment.

‘The Christian myth grew by absorbing details from pagan cults… like the image of the child-god in the cult of Dionysus, he was pictured in swaddling clothes in a manger. He was born in a stable like Horus; the stable - temple of the virgin goddess Isis; queen of heaven. Like Dionysus, he turned water into wine; like Aesculapius, he raised men from the dead and gave sight to the blind; and like Attis and Adonis, he is mourned and rejoiced over by women. His resurrection took place, like that of Mithra, from a rock tomb.

Mithra was born on the winter solstice: circa December 25th; watched over by shepherds, crucified and risen again after three days … 'there is not a single conception associated with Christ, that is not common to some or all of the saviour cults of antiquity.’ (Harold Bayley: ‘The Lost Language of Symbolism’)

A symbolism, like the 'language of legend', as children are taught the lessons of disease and hygiene by puppet plays in simple cultures. The language of legend - the moral precepts from the ten negative confessions in the Egyptian 'Book Of The Dead', parodied by Moses' monotheistic Ten Comandments. Moses' retrieval of the sapphire rod from the ground, a parody of initiatory testing to be found in the legends of Norse Sagas, and King Arthur.

Miracles as allegory? The wine from water symbolising Jesus having terminated a 'two tier ' system of communion by the Essenes; with water and wine for the lower and higher social orders?

Romantic tales commonly accompany and embellish ancient history and the accounts of folk heroes: the exploits of Cuchulain with his preter-natural weapon, as 'The Hound Of Ulster', the theft of the crucixion nails by the gypsies in the Gnostic Gospels, and the Cross-Bill chaffinch with its red breast: so formed through trying to extract them.

It is significant that only female followers of Jesus were 'last at the cross and first at the grave': present at the crucifixion and discovery of the empty tomb, and charged with the messages of resurrection and ascension. Da Vinci’s mischievous painting of the Last Supper, raises the possibility of Mary Magdelene being at the right hand of Jesus - with Judas already departed. Spikenard was specific to the head and feet, cf. the epic of Gilgamesh: ‘The harlot who annointed you with fragrant oil weeps for you now.’ (‘The Woman With The Alabaster Jar’, Bear and Co., Santa Fe, 1993 - Karen Torjesen: ‘When Women Were Priests’)

Great deal more to be found on these themes. Corinthians '1st fruits' etc.

Answer 2

this quote is for christians who think that maybe mithras and jesus were the same person... or dionysus, etc... you are close to right, but your chronology is wrong. Mithras came first, then Jesus... no matter how you redraw your history timeline, that's just the way it is. Dionysus came before Jesus. same story. You are not the first christians to see this, read the quote below.


"Of course, later Christians were terribly perturbed by these similarities to Pagan religions- these coincidences so disturbed one early Christian church father, Justin Martyr, that he accused the devil of sending an imitator of Christ in advance. Had he paid a little more attention to the past, he might have noted that the association of Jesus with Dionysus is not so strange-philosophers had been making connections between Jehovah and Dionysus for centuries." (1)

Oh yeah, and we all know that Jesus wasn't actually "born" on the 25th of Dec. but we celebrate it that day, and that's the point. no one knows exactly WHEN Jesus was born, not even what year.(2) Finally, there is no way of telling for sure that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Why would Joseph bring his pregnant wife over the desert for 40+ miles (which was not just a 40 minute drive in those days, remember...) when only HE would have been responsible for going? There are other reasons that this page points out (3) that show it more likely that the gospels were written for the purpose of making jesus fulfil the prophecies of the OT, not that jesus actually DID fulfill the prophecies. Sort of like the chicken or the egg cunundrum.

merry christ/dionys/mithra-mas :D hahah.

better yet, happy winter solstice, i look forward to the longer warmer days...

Answer 3

There are some similarities between the two. There are also substantial differences. Maitharism, for instance, is elitist whilst Christianity is a faith for the poor. Jesus was not born on December 25th, although it may be that Mithras worshippers had a hand in setting the date. Jesus may have purposely performed feats associated with Mithras to demonstrate Jesus' greatness over Mithras.

Mithras's mother was not a virgin, he came from a rock, the Petra Genatix.

Answer 4

Mithra is the Way the Light.

Only through him can we be saved.

EDIT: Hey shawns answer is cool :)

I have been saying Happy Mithra-Mass for awhile now :D

Answer 5

There seem to have been about 9 others in the few centuries preceding the rise of Christianity. All very similar.

Answer 6

For Scott, above me. This was Mithras
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithras

And you make a good point. Errr, ya see, God sent Mithras to sorta "get things ready" for Me! yeah! That's the ticket!

Answer 7

What evidence do you have that the name Mithras was not substituted for Jesus, say in the 1st century by unbelievers?

Answer 8

No the religious lunatics that invented jesus borrowed everything from other earlier religions christianity is just another myth and story that has been made into the so called truth by liars and maniacs

Answer 9

Strange question. No coincidence that I can see. Quite deliberate.

Answer 10

So what if they are similar ?I don't know of anybody who saw another resurrection.There is historical evidence ,well documented,of the Resurrection of Jesus.