Can we PLEASE settle the Horus and Jesus disagreement once and for all? (See details before answering)?

Question

Is there even one REAL scholar, whose field is Egyptian mythology, who says with any certainty that there is ANY similarity between Jesus and Horus? And if there is even ONE real scholar in Egyptian mythology who says so, do more than a very small contingent of scholars believe him or her?

For a couple bonus questions, why is it that every time a question is asked about Horus and Jesus, anyone who disagrees (using real sources) with there being any similarity, their answers are given multiple thumbs-down?

Why are the writings of real scholars dismissed, and some people choose to believe books like "Sixteen Dying and Rising Gods", "The Golden Bough" and "The Jesus Mysteries", and movies like Zeitgeist, which almost directly plagiarizes those books, instead?

Wow, is that the sound of grasshoppers rubbing their wings together, or are all the people who insist Horus is like Jesus just so busy researching their answer that they haven't had a chance to reply yet?
Ten minutes and only one answer!

I think byHisgrace misunderstood the question. I'm a Christian myself, and I'm tired of Horus and Jesus being compared, when NONE of the books I've read on Egyptian mythology contain even ONE similarity between the two.
And here's an example of my first comments, if anyone is interested (even Devoted to Christ, who went more in depth than I did got multiple thumbs-down):
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtR_cINxueJeTwOSdnaVgYHsy6IX?qid=20070904054540AAuwFVJ&show=7#profile-info-GLBQQWYnaa

And the stuff that Cute Cat (love the SN, BTW) copied and pasted is ALSO plagiarized from the books I mentioned, onto the site they got it from.
Still don't get it? Horus was NOT born of a virgin, Isis was NEVER called Isis-Meri, and if ANYONE bothered to read what REAL scholars have written about Egyptian mythology (not to mention Mithraism and Buddhism) they would know this!

Answer 1

Like Christy said, I understand your frustration. I don't personally answer the Jesus/Horus questions because I just get accused of being biased because I happen to be a Christian. Never mind the fact that I studied ancient languages and cultures at a respected secular university and took a few classes on Egyptian Mythology.

Answer 2

There are similarities in ALL religions. Period.
Most religions have a great flood. Greek, Sumerian, Egyptian, Christian and yes even Heathen.
Most religions have someone coming back from the dead to save people. Horus, Mithras, Jesus, Osiris and even Baldr will come back at Ragnarok.
Most religions have a god that sacrifices for the good of mankind. Odin, Osiris, Jesus, Prometheus
If you approach it in an open minded manner you see the similarities. The fact is that religions borrow from each other. They evolved FROM other religions usually. This would make sense. You have a bunch of people following a religion and a group thinks to themselves "That's not right. Lets do this the right way" and makes a few changes. Over a few hundred years you have a completely different religion. Almost ALL the middle eastern religions directly rip each other off.
The Epics of Gilgamesh are the FIRST WRITINGS OF A GREAT FLOOD. Period. You guys can come up with all the little explanations you want but the first tablets were dated over 1000 years before there is ANY evidence of the Hebrews anywhere close to area. That is FACT.
The Book of the Dead was around before Moses even lived let along got the tablets. Period. THIS IS FACT.
Does it make Christianity any less valid as a religion? Of course not. It is simply acknowleging its roots. I don't see why this is a bad thing. This is the HISTORY of the faith. It makes it what it is today. Feel free to deny such things as you wish. It doesn't change the facts.

edit: Nostradamus was an opium hazed hippy who wrote down schizophrenic dreams. The word "Hister" can be taken about seven different ways with roots in about ten names in history. Come on people.

Answer 3

What do you consider a real scholar? Does belief in the bible determine a persons scholarship? The stories share many common themes, but Jesus is not based on Horus alone. He is what all of the savior-godmen were supposed to be and do. Please don't pretend as if there haven't been numerous studies done that outline themes of the Christ mythos as compared to it's predecessors. These similarities have been known since christianity began. Unfortunately, I'm not sitting in front of my library, but you can do the research yourself. You have a computer in front of you as you view this post, so all of the tools you need to perform the research are at your disposal. Something that you may want to do to solidify your knowledge of the subject is to take a look at Judaism and find out what their definition of messiah is, and what The Messiah (the one they're still awaiting) is supposed to be and do, as well as the actual prophecies that identify him. Taking a look at Jesus through the eyes of christians will always give you the same result (it's true, because the bible says so). Take a look at it through the eyes of Judaism, the religion from which the term messiah came. The 300+ "prophecies" christians claim Jesus fulfilled are not prophecies, and I'll let you decide whether or not Jesus fulfilled the actual prophecies as stated by the god of Judaism. Here's a link you can start with: http://www.messiahtruth.org

Then see http://www.whatjewsbelieve.org and http://www.drazin.com/ please pay attention to what Jews have to say about their religion, and try to realize that Romans and Greeks were not Jews, and had several savior-godmen in their religious beliefs before they came into contact with Jews. All they did was create a new savior-godman and give/invent ties for him in Judaism. Even the concepts of god are completely different.

I'm not telling you what is truth, I'm simply asking you to honestly search for it yourself. You can't do that if you already have your mind made up that one thing is definitely truth while everything else is definitely false. Just for a moment, look at it objectively, the way you would determine who is telling the truth between two people that you don't know that both claim to be telling the truth but have completely contradicting "truths" about the same event. Do the research yourself, and make up your own mind.

Answer 4

OK.
There is some vague similarity because both seemingly are up in arms against traditional authorities. Both have supposedly a very strong and uncompromising sense of justice.
Both are supposed to be kind of "son of god" if in harshly contrasting cultural environments.
Both are supposedly "coming around again" in a vague similarity

The whole concept of one "god" or "half-god" being in different "disguise" around again is a purely Greek-Roman one.

An Old Roman might very well develop such an understanding within his very own traditions.

Answer 5

Why would you expect experts in Egyptian mythology to also be an experts on Jesus?

You should be looking for experts on Christian history, such as Robert Price, who has noted the similarities between Jesus and Horus as well.

But Jesus is not simply a rehash of Horus. Jesus is a composite character that syncretizes Hellenistic ideas - which includes Horus.

Answer 6

Read the accounts of Jesus's birth again -


Jesus was not born in a stable or a cave - He was born in the lambing pen because there was no room in the family home. Although the New Testament does not tell us where in Bethlehem Jesus was born, the Old Testament does. Micah 4:8 states, “And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.”

The phrase “tower of the flock” is the Hebrew phrase “Migdal Edar” [mig-dawl ay-der] and means a "watch tower of the flock". In ancient times this was a military tower to view into the valley just outside of Bethlehem to protect the city. Several of these military towers are recorded in the Old Testament (See Judges 8:71, 9:46, 9:51; 2 Kings 9:17, 18:8; Nehemiah 3:1) The tower at Bethlehem is first mentioned in Genesis 35:21, “And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar (“tower of Edar” - migdal edar). After Jacob left Bethel he came to Edar (the tower) and there Rachael began hard labor and as she delivered Benjamin she died and was buried there in Ephrath which is Bethlehem" (Gen. 35:19). After burying Rachael, Jacob moved his flocks beyond the tower of Edar. This would pinpoint the location as being near to what is present day Bethlehem. Clearly, this establishes that Migdal Edar, “the tower of the flock” was in Bethlehem in Bible times. These were lambs that were cottled and kept from harm as they were destined to be used as temple sacrifices. They were cleaned, wrapped in swaddling and laid for warmth in mangers (tiny stalls) not feeding troughs.


The term "inn" has been mistranslated from the same Hebrew word to greek which means "guest room". There were not three wise men...there were three gifts.

There could have been several "magi" present or only 2...the scriptures don't give an exact number. Jesus's birthday was not on Dec 25th.

Jesus was not present at the temple in Jerusalem for his coming of age at the age of 12...the scriptures do not point to a reason for His being there at that time, just He was found in deep discussion was some awestruck scribes.

Also, to note...there might be several simalarites to the life and death and resurrection of Christ to ancient mythology because of the pure fact that Jesus was taking on the sins of people en mass who continually sinned particularly with regard to idolotry. It was the symbols of the egyptian gods that God plagued Egypt with inspiring the exodus. So, who knows if these so called simularities are contrived or not. After all, Jesus was hung on a pagan cross, had a pagan crown of thorns on His head and other occurances...For myself I trust the account that has literally thousands of ancient documents supporting it. Love in Christ, ~J~

Answer 7

There are always many parallels in the lives of all major religious figures such as:
* orphaned or no father
* we have details on childhood and adulthood, but not in between
* They come into their "powers" as adults
etc... so Horus or any other god(ling) will have parallels, like Hercules, Siddhartha, and even Luke Skywallker!

Answer 8

I am no Egyptian scholar or Egyptologist. But I saw a documentary about everything you just mentioned on Youtube before, and it was very compelling. At first I took it at face-value, as a de-bunking of christianity and patted my atheistic self on the back. But, I have been seeking and have learned new things that make me think maybe the story of Horus (if it does indeed mirror the story of Jesus) which pre-dates christianity, was instead a prophetic message about Jesus to come. You know, like how Nostradamus said "Hister" and it was really about Hitler. Maybe they just got the name confused, they both end in "us". ????? IDK, just a guess.

Answer 9

As you pronounced that he replaced into an previous guy. contained in the previous age human beings frustrate greater and bathrooms their reminiscence. In that problem they do no longer comprehend what they say. that must be the clarification. may be he observed in television that NATO bombing on innocents in Libya and doing no longer something in Syria. So he replaced into co fussed and speaking approximately bomb. Secondly he must be thinking which you're a bom ( undesirable Boy) and you heared bomb. So do no longer problem and God bless you.

Answer 10

There is no one true and authentic story of Horus because it suffers from the universal problem of all religions: it is fiction. Followers added their own interpretations and embellishments and adapted the story for centuries. Therefore, you can describe dozens of different Horuses by using references from different churches and different times. The same is true of the several Abrahamic gods: the only thing they all have in common is that they are all the one and only true god. But there is no similarity whatsoever between the characters Elohim, Yahweh, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, The Father, and Allah. And the description of Jesus himself varies depending upon the branch of Christianity describing him.
I would suggest that the scholars you are studying are simply quoting from different descriptions of Horus.

This whole debate is not new, it was merely revived in recent centuries. During the early years of the church when there were still followers of the other savior-gods who knew very well the similarities, church leaders were often frustrated by accusations of plagiary. They eventually took the position that all of the other similar savior-gods were deliberate forgeries by Satan before Christ's birth in order to deceive men (yes really). That remains the position of the orthodox church today. And in an even more ironic twist, early church leaders occasionally drew on the similarities to counter skepticism about their own claims for their Christ.

edit: I just read the post by Cute Cat, and the quoted source does indeed exaggerate the similarities by making all of the savior-gods essentially the same. When Mark wrote a life story for Jesus, elements of various savior-gods were used. He is an amalgam, as other gods had been before.

This practice continues today, of course. Watch any movie from Hollywood and you could write a thick volume about every element of the film and how it has been used and adapted in cinema for decades. The only difference is that today we are a bit more honest about labeling fiction as "fiction". This is a relatively new concept.