Is the story of Jesus original?

Question

Or is it shaped by the beliefs of the people who lived in the area at the time. I'm asking because there's this nasty little rumor that there were several prototypes for the story of Jesus and some of them pre-date Jesus by as much as 3000 years, or 1500 years before the Old Testement if you count that way. What do you think? Any truth to this?

Please try to respond with verifiable facts, and not conjecture about diabolical plots by characters in one story to discredit characters in another. Thank you for your participation.

Answer 1

Oh this was a fun one. TY for the question! Nice to tackle something interesting instead of the usual foolishness.

The December 25th birthday of the sun god is a common motif globally, dating back at least 12,000 years as reflected in winter solstices artfully recorded in caves. Nearly all nations commemorated the birth of the god Sol to the Queen of Heaven also called the Celestial Virgin.

The winter solstice was celebrated in countless places, including China and Persia, the latter regarding the solar Lord and Savior Mithra's birth. In Rome, a great festival called Saturnalia was celebrated from December 1st to the 23rd. The winter solstice festival in Egypt included the babe in a manger brought out of the sanctuary.

The Greco-Syrian sun god Adonis was also born on December 25th, a festival spoken of by Tertullian, Jerome, and other Fathers of the Church, who inform us that the ceremonies took place in a cave, and that the cave in which they celebrated his mysteries in Bethlehem, was that in which Christ Jesus was born.

Nor is the winter solstice celebration a purely Pagan concept, as the Jews also observed it in reference to the birth of their god, Yahweh. The Feast of Illumination, Feast of Lights or feast of the Dedication, occurred in winter and represented the ancient Hebrew Winter Solstice Feast.

The December 25th birth date is that of the sun, not a "real person," revealing its unoriginality within Christianity and the true nature of the Christian godman. "Christmas" was not incorporated into Christianity until 354 AD/CE.

When very primitive people worshiped the sun and moon as father and mother of the earth, they worried that the sun might not return as the days got shorter and shorter. Then they noticed when the days began to grow longer and the myth began that the father sun and mother moon had given birth to the sun again. Eventually this myth was twisted about in many ways over the thousands and thousands of years. Today, our Son/sun is born of Mary, a virgin birth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus
To learn more, study Horus in Egyptian mythology

The Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (600 B.C.). The Orthodox Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version. Virtually all of the elements of Orthodox Christian rituals, from miter, wafer, water baptism, alter, and doxology, were adopted from the Mithra and earlier pagan mystery religions.

The religion of Mithra preceded Christianity by roughly six hundred years. Mithraic worship at one time covered a large portion of the ancient world. It flourished as late as the second century. The Messianic idea originated in ancient Persia and this is where the Jewish and Christian concepts of a Savior came from. Mithra, as the sun god of ancient Persia, had the following karmic similarities with Jesus:

Identical Life Experiences

(1)Mithra was born on December 25th as an offspring of the Sun. Next to the gods Ormuzd and Ahrimanes, Mithra held the highest rank among the gods of ancient Persia. He was represented as a beautiful youth and a Mediator.

Mithras is spiritual light contending with spiritual darkness, and through his labors the kingdom of darkness shall be lit with heaven's own light; the Eternal will receive all things back into his favor, the world will be redeemed to God. The impure are to be purified, and the evil made good, through the mediation of Mithras, the reconciler of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Mithras is the Good, his name is Love. In relation to the Eternal he is the source of grace, in relation to man he is the life-giver and mediator

(2)He was considered a great traveling teacher and masters. He had twelve companions as Jesus had twelve disciples. Mithras also performed miracles.

(3)Mithra was called "the good shepherd,” "the way, the truth and the light,” “redeemer,” “savior,” “Messiah." He was identified with both the lion and the lamb.

(4)Mithras seems to have owed his prominence to the belief that he was the source of life, and could also redeem the souls of the dead into the better world ... The ceremonies included a sort of baptism to remove sins, anointing, and a sacred meal of bread and water, while a consecrated wine, believed to possess wonderful power, played a prominent part.

(5)The most important of his many festivals was his birthday, celebrated on the 25th of December, the day subsequently fixed -- against all evidence -- as the birthday of Christ. The worship of Mithras early found its way into Rome, and the mysteries of Mithras, which fell in the spring equinox, were famous even among the many Roman festivals.

The ceremonies observed in the initiation to these mysteries -- symbolical of the struggle between Ahriman and Ormuzd (the Good and the Evil) -- were of the most extraordinary and to a certain degree even dangerous character. Baptism and the partaking of a mystical liquid, consisting of flour and water, to be drunk with the utterance of sacred formulas, were among the inauguration acts

(6)The sectaries of the Persian god, like the Christians', purified themselves by baptism, received by a species of confirmation the power necessary to combat the spirit of evil; and expected from a Lord's supper salvation of body and soul. Like the latter, they also held Sunday sacred, and celebrated the birth of the Sun on the 25th of December....

They both preached a categorical system of ethics, regarded asceticism as meritorious and counted among their principal virtues abstinence and continence, renunciation and self-control. Their conceptions of the world and of the destiny of man were similar. They both admitted the existence of a Heaven inhabited by beatified ones, situated in the upper regions, and of a Hell, peopled by demons, situated in the bowels of the earth.

They both placed a flood at the beginning of history; they both assigned as the source of their condition, a primitive revelation; they both, finally, believed in the immortality of the soul, in a last judgment, and in a resurrection of the dead, consequent upon a final conflagration of the universe.

(7)The disciples of Mithra formed an organized church, with a developed hierarchy. They possessed the ideas of Mediation, Atonement, and a Savior, who is human and yet divine, and not only the idea, but a doctrine of the future life. They had a Eucharist, and a Baptism, and other curious analogies might be pointed out between their system and the church of Christ

(8)In the catacombs at Rome was preserved a relic of the old Mithraic worship. It was a picture of the infant Mithra seated in the lap of his virgin mother, while on their knees before him were Persian Magi adoring him and offering gifts.

(9)He was buried in a tomb and after three days he rose again. His resurrection was celebrated every year.

(10)In modern times Christian writers have been induced to look favorably upon the assertion that some of our ecclesiastical usages (e.g., the institution of the Christmas festival) originated in the cultus of Mithraism. Some writers who refuse to accept the Christian religion as of supernatural origin, have even gone so far as to institute a close comparison with the founder of Christianity; and Dupuis and others, going even beyond this, have not hesitated to pronounce the Gospel simply a branch of Mithraism.

(11)Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter, at which time he was resurrected. His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day." The Mithra religion had a Eucharist or "Lord's Supper."

(12)The Christian Father Manes, founder of the heretical sect known as Manicheans, believed that Christ and Mithra were one. His teaching, according to Mosheim, was as follows: "Christ is that glorious intelligence which the Persians called Mithras ... His residence is in the sun"

WELL seems pretty obvious to me! Hope you got the answer you are looking for.

Answer 2

Notice that in Christian doctrine, Christ is described as man AND spirit at the same time. A spirit or a soul can return post-mortum.

Christ sais "I will return." Mithras, Osiris, Tammuz, Quetzacotl, and Khrishna said they would return. The man (Jesus) is not the spirit (Christ). The traditional church has intentionally blurred the line between the two.

The object is to create a belief where there is no responsability. We'll just reduce the whole message of Jesus down to a human sacrifice, and you'll be off scott-free no matter what you do. Hey, just wait for the second comming. You can be the scourage of humanity, and all is forgiven.

You can believe that if you want to. My bet is on the spirit that returns and what he SAID TO DO: Love your neighbor. Not beat him in the head with your Bible.

Answer 3

No not original in the body of the story. Many aspects of the jesus character were taken from much older religions, such as Dionysus, Osiris, Mithras and a few others. The name jesus as far as god messiahs go was original.

Answer 4

No, Jesus' "virgin" birth was taken from many different myths and legends. There are many instances of virgin births in Pagan religions, only one example is Mithra's, and his story most closely resembles that of Jesus, though it came from a much earlier time.
The Mithra's story claims that he was born of a virgin on December 25. This date was celebrated as the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. Some depictions of his birth show shepherds in attendance, while others show only two torchbearers. This is only one instance, there are many other Pagan examples that early Christians drew from to create Jesus' myths.

Answer 5

born dec twenty 5th Christ Born March or April born of a virgin Isaiah reported so centuries formerly celebrity of the east embellished by using 3 kings Um Magi are not particularly kings age of 12 a protocol new child instructor No thought what meaning baptized age of 30 satisfying prophecy of king David in Hosea had 12 disciples Represents the 12 tribes of Israel preformed miracles and walking on water satisfying quite a few prophecies additionally commonly used because of the fact the lamb of god Fulfulling function/Prophecies of the Passover Lamb the on a daily basis offering, Sin offering etc. the certainty the sunshine nicely it is self explanatory gods anointed son Technically God himself interior the flesh interior the function of son the sturdy Shepard back God himself reported he'd come because of the fact the Shepherd after being betrayed horus replaced into crucified ineffective for 3 days and resurrected Prophesy of Jonah worshiped on sunday that did not ensue till 321 genuine worship in accordance to the two old and new testaments is Saturday

Answer 6

The Cult of Mithras was the official Roman Religion during the second and third centuries, and was the major competitor of Christianity. It had originated in Persia and Asia long before Christianity had been heard of. The Sacrament, Mithraic temples and the concept of bloodshed for remission of sins are common ideas, adopted and expanded upon by both groups as they fought for dominance in Rome. Even the term "The Lamb slaughtered from the Foundation of the World', referring to Jesus was taken from the much older Bull being slaughtered by Mithras to cause the creation.

Horus/Osiris from Egypt was borrowed from extensively by the Christians. There is a tablet that depicts what many say is the Nativity, but with Horus, from many centuries before Christianity. Many of the titles lavished upon Jesus and his family were taken from the much older cults of Osirir/Horus/Isis, such as; King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Creator, Queen of Heaven, Virgin Mother. The 23rd Psalm is likely taken from an hymn to Osiris, the Christian 'Amen' is taken from an aspect of Osiris, Amen-Ra, the raising of Lazerus is the resurrection of Osiris, as the names are the same but translated; Osiris is actually the Greek form, while El-Azur-Us is the Egyptian. There is much, much more.

Jesus descends to hell and defeats death, Hercules descended to Hades and defeated Pluto.

Jesus walked on water and calmed the waves, Poseidon did the same.

Jesus turned water to wine at a wedding, Bacchus/Dionysus did before him.

The miracle healing stories of Jesus are taken from the stories of Elijah/Elisha in the OT Book of Kings I & II.

Christianity is the ultimate patchwork religion.

They never met a god they couldn't borrow something from and claim as their own.

Answer 7

The story of Jesus is remarkably similar to that of Mithra.

Answer 8

No it was not original. Many older "crucified savior-virgin birth" tales were plagiarized to form this one.

All of them are truly talking about the moon, which is the actual Christ.

Answer 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra