The story of Jesus, found in ancient Greek mythology?

Question

Ancient Greek myths include a story about a hero named Orpheus, the offspring of the god Apollo, who descends into the underworld to defeat death. Although the story has many differences, the basic similarity can not be denied. A "cult" sprung up in following of this myth, which taught that a strict moral code -- including abstinence from sex and to avoid wearing wool -- would result in eternal blessedness.

Do you think that the story of Jesus Christ has its basis somewhere in this early myth? Or is it all just a coincidence?

Aaron -- Since you pointed that out, that kind of goes along with the similarity to christianity: the followers being so very different from the idea of the person they follow.

Answer 1

There is an entire cycle of such myths, providing the basis of what are called "mystery cults." The earliest was the cult of Osiris, which was transported to Greece by Pythagoras, where it became the cult of Dionysious. The Dionysian mysteries are actually much more closely related to the Christian religion than the Orphic rites.
The most famous of the ancient mystery schools was found at Eleusis; many great thinkers of the ancient world, including Plato and Aristotle, were initiates of the Eleusinian mysteries.
If you are interested in exploring this area, I recommend beginning with the book "The Jesus Mysteries" by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy:
http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Mysteries-Was-Original-Pagan/dp/0609807986/sr=8-1/qid=1171879755/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2098379-0094526?ie=UTF8&s=books

Answer 2

Contrary to the most ardent practitioner, aside from postmortem scripts authored some sixty years after his attributed death, by anonymous individuals and accredited to main characters of alleged eyewitness accounts. The Jesus story has no real time documentation or anthropological evidence to support the fact that this person ever existed. What does exist are countless reoccurring themes throughout ancient literature that tell similar variations of the theme. We do know that early Christianity was a splinter group of the Jewish religion originally. Most if not all were Jews, but this group was very limited in number. So in an effort to survive it became a practice of this group to allow conversions of non-Jews into it's fold. This was received with great success. Ultimately non-Jews became the majority at which point a clear and decisive separation of the two mandates occurred. Thereby giving birth to modern christian doctrine and all that that implies. Evidence of this permeates most all christian beliefs and practices, from baptism to communion all of which is just a slightly tweeked version of an ancient Jewish tradition. The concept begs to discover the origins of the Jewish religion as well. Christianity was not born of itself but rather evolved over time, and still is. Is it a cult religion? Not now for sure but at it's inception no doubt it was. Whether or not Jesus was a man or a myth remains inconsiquential for most non-christians as long as peace, love and harmony are attributed to his name. I doubt that G-d suffers an identity crisis or that he's hung up on symantics, I'm guessing he's a whole lot brighter then we are.

Answer 3

I'd like to be the first to deny the similarities.

Resurrection stories exist in many ancient cultures, and all you have to do is go shopping for one that you think is similar to the gospels and then claim that that's the one the gospel writers must have copied from.

(Somehow the curmudgeons always seem to miss the Jewish stories of resurrection...)

The funny thing is the more you compare the actual stories, the more they begin to diverge according to local preferences. In Babylonian mythology, it was Ishtar. In Sumerian mythos, it was Inanna, and her sister was the one who ruled in the underworld.

Her sister, by the way was a real wench. She trapped her husband in the underworld, who eventually became the moon. In another myth, she forced Enlil, the supreme god to give up three gifts before being allowed to escape the underworld. Mesopotamia even had their own version of the Styx Boatman.

Answer 4

Actually, the story of Hercules was closer to the story of jesus. Orpheus was just the son of a Muse, not the God.EDIT: I know that, what I was pointing out is Orpheus was not the son of the Supreme God-figure in Greek Mythology, whereas in Christian mythology, jesus was the son of the Supreme God-figure. Anyway, comparing a polytheistic religion with a monotheistic one is comparing apples to oranges.
Also, we're both right on this one Aaron.

According to the best-known tradition, Orpheus was the son of Oeagrus, king of Thrace, which in pre-historic period seems to describe a wider region from Olymbos to the Hellespontos Straits, as the Orphic texts (Argonautica) point out that Orpheus was born in Mount Helicon at Livithra (Pieria), and that his mother was Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry. In other traditions, Calliope and Apollo were his parents. Orpheus learned music from Linus, or from Apollo, who gave him his own lyre (made by Hermes out of a turtle shell) as a gift.

Answer 5

Wow! An ancient Greek god defeated death in the underworld!Well,that just proves that the entire story of Jesus was copied,doesn't it!
No.You assertation is incorrect.All the themes of the New Testament and Jesus are found in the Old Testament,including the Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God,Atonement by blood,God's son,Crucifixion,Incarnation of God,Resurrection of Christ,Trinity and the Virgin birth.For the scriptures,see here:
http://www.carm.org/evidence/ot_nt_themes.htm
Debunking the claim that Jesus was copied of pagan myths:
http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/copycathub.html
Includes a free refutation of:Mithra,Krishna,and the Greek gods.

Answer 6

The first divine prophecy was God telling Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that he would send someone to redeem them and their kind.

And since a redeemer would need to be one of them, a man, born of woman, that leaves room for lots of variations in mythology, but all with the same typology.

The old testament of the Bible is full of authentic "types" of Christ.

When he arrived, Jesus perfectly fulfilled all that was written about him in the law, the prophets, and the psalms, as well as all the authentic oral traditions.

And that's no myth.

Answer 7

The big deal about Jesus was that he supposedly resurrected from the dead which somehow redeemed mankind from the penalty of sin. Orpheus was a lovesick husband who was followed his wife into Hades. The story isn't even close to that of Jesus.

Answer 8

I think they are probably just similar themes that many cultures address in different ways. I'd always thought of Orpheus as a fairly cheery chap...why were the followers so austere?

To the guy above me...she's right...you're wrong...Orpheus was the son of Apollo.

Answer 9

Greek mythology has no deep meaning and power, it is more entertaining than moral education.
The Bible is the Book of God, containing the Divine Word, which has creative, attractive, transformative and divine power to change the worlds and the hearts of men. It brings out a civilization that only other religious civilizations can be compared.

Answer 10

Actually i think the best theory was. The cult of mirtha. Something that was very common among roman soldiers. Something to do with worshiping the sun. The Catholics did a lot of burning of mirtha writings so we will never know the truth.