Gods and saviours, Part 1
Exploring
their similarities to Jesus Christ
By Pip Wilson

Maya and Buddha; Isis and Horus; Mary and Jesus; Devaki
and Krishna
There are some remarkable similarities* to be found in the lives of various ancient great ones.
These pages, frequently updated at Wilson's Almanac, look at Jesus and some congruencies associated with him.
| Jesus | Dionysus/Bacchus | Osiris and Horus | Tammuz | |
| Image: Isis and Horus | ||||
| Place | Jesus was from Nazareth, Israel, then the Christian faith spread throughout world. | The Dionysus (aka Dionysos) religion is generally
considered to have begun in Thrace and spread throughout the known
world, to Greece, Egypt, and Rome, where he was called Bacchus. However, it might be that the deity's origin was in the Mediterranean, in Minoan Crete, as Dionysus was one of the names of gods discovered on the Linear B tablets of Mycenae. |
Osiris and his son Horus (Har, Haroeris,
Har-pa-khered, Harpokrates, etc) were worshipped in Egypt. There was a
major Osirian sanctuary at Philae, Greece. |
Tammuz is the Hebrew name for Dumuzu, a god who was worshipped in Syria and Babylon. The chief seat of the cult in Syria was Gebal (modern Gebail, Greek Bublos) in Phoenicia. |
| Time | Jesus lived approximately 2,000 years ago, probably c. 4 BCE - c. 30. I examined some suggested dates of his birth at my weblog on September 15, 2003. | The worship of Dioynsus dates back
several centuries BCE in Greece. The historian Livy mentions the faith
in Rome as early as 186 BCE. [Livy, Roman
History, 39, 3,6],
with the mysteries formally recognized under Julius Cesar in the mid
first century BCE [Servillus,
Bucolics, 5,29]. |
C. 3000 BCE until c. 400CE.
|
C. 2000 BCE. |
| Birth | Of royal descent, Jesus was born of a virgin,
Mary in a
stable or cave (the Apocryphal Gospel Protevangelion says in a cave, and the Church
of the Nativity in Bethlehem is still located in a cave). The Virgin Mary was told by an angel, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women ... Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest." ( Luke 1:28-33) The cave was illuminated so brightly Joseph and Mary's midwife could not tolerate the light. (Source: the Apocryphal Gospel Protevangelion) He was born or placed in a manger, a container of animal feed. The shepherds adored his birth. Angels sang hymns at the birth. The baby Jesus began speaking to the Virgin Mary shortly after his birth, saying, "Mary, I am Jesus, the Son of God, that WORD which thou didst bring forth according to the declaration of the Angel Gabriel to thee, and my Father hath sent me for the salvation of the world." (Source: the Apocryphal Gospel, The First Gospel of the Infancy) The aged widow Anna blessed the infant Jesus. His earthly father was Joseph the carpenter. Since the Church was fairly young, December 25 has been his traditional date of birth. Angels issued a warning that the local dictator, King Herod, planned to kill the baby and had issued a decree for his assassination (Matthew 2:16). The parents fled. Mary and Joseph stayed in Muturea. King Herod ordered the massacre of all male children born during the same night. * Ø * Ø * Ø * "About A.D. 153 St.
Justin (Apol., I, xxi) told his pagan readers that the virgin birth
of Jesus
Christ ought not to seem incredible to them, since many of the most
esteemed pagan writers spoke of a number of sons of Zeus: |
Dionysus was born of the virgin Semele; his father was the supreme god Zeus. He was placed in a manger and reared in a cave ( Zeus was also reared in a cave). | Horus was born to a virgin (who
remains eternally virginal), Isis-Meri, on December 25 in a cave or a manger. Isis, the goddess of motherhood and fertility, was called 'Mother of Heaven', 'Regina Coeli' (Queen of Heaven) and 'Stella Maris', as is Mary, the mother of Jesus, even today in the Roman Catholic Church: "Graeco-Roman culture was particularly enamoured of [Isis] and called her the Stella Maris (star of the sea), represented in the heavens by the north star ... [Mary's] portraits with the Christ often bear a striking similarity to those of Isis with Horus." Jordan, Michael, The Encyclopedia of Gods: Over 2,500 deities of the world, Kyle Cathie Ltd, London, 1992 Isis bore Horus having impregnated herself with the semen of Osiris after his death (see Legend of Osiris and Isis). In a story reminiscent of the Biblical Moses story, she hid Horus in the papyrus marshes of the Nile Delta, so Horus is sometimes depicted as a falcon upon a column of papyrus. Isis said: "I am she that is the natural mother of all things, the Mistress and Governess of all the Elements, the initial Progenitrix of all things, the Chief of powers divine, Queen of Heaven, the First of the Gods celestial, the light of the Goddesses. At my will, the planets of the air, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of hell are disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in various manners, in various customs and in many names, for the Phrygians call me the Mother of the Gods ..." Apuleius, The Golden Ass, 1st Century CE His earthly father was named Seb ('Joseph?) and was of royal descent. "Isis seems to have been originally a virgin (or, perhaps, sexless) goddess, and in the later period of Egyptian religion she was again considered a virgin goddess, demanding very strict abstinence from her devotees. It is at this period, apparently, that the birthday of Horus was annually celebrated, about December 25th, in the temples. As both Macrobius and the Christian writer [of the "Paschal Chronicle"] say, a figure of Horus as a baby was laid in a manger, in a scenic reconstruction of a stable, and a statue of Isis was placed beside it. Horus was, in a sense, the Savior of mankind. He was their avenger against the powers of darkness; he was the light of the world." (McCabe, Joseph, The Story of Religious Controversy; cited here) In the catacombs at Rome today can be found pictures of the baby Horus being held by the Virgin Isis-Meri in what scholars have claimed is the original 'Madonna and Child'. Like Jesus, Horus' birth was announced by a star in the east and he was allegedly attended by three wise men. "Osiris’s coming was announced by Three Wise Men: the three stars Mintaka, Anilam, and Alnitak in the belt of Orion, which point directly to Osiris’s star in the east, Sirius (Sothis), significator of his birth." Source "Furthermore,
inscribed about 3,500 years ago [1500 years before Jesus’ alleged
advent] on the walls of the Temple at Luxor were images of the
Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, Birth and Adoration of Horus, with
Thoth announcing to the Virgin Isis that she will conceive Horus; with
Kneph the 'Holy Ghost,' impregnating the virgin; and with the infant
being attended by three kings, or magi, bearing gifts. In addition, in
the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the
virgin mother Isis—the original 'Madonna and Child'.” Source
|
Tammuz was born to a virgin, named Mylitta, on December 25. |
| Life | Jesus warned of 'stumbling blocks' along the way (1 Cor. 1: 23 ; Rev. 2: 14). | Dionysus is a life-death-rebirth deity.
|
Horus
the sky god and his once-and-future Father, Osiris, are frequently
interchangeable just as Jesus, God and his Father are interchangeable. Like Jesus, Horus is claimed to have said: 'I and my Father are one'; his personal epithet was 'Iusa', the 'ever-becoming son' of 'P'tah' or 'the Father'. At 12, Horus taught in the temple and was baptised in the Eridanus or Iarutana (Jordan?) by 'Anup the Baptiser', who was decapitated. This occurred when he was 30 years old, having disappeared for 18 years. As an adult, Horus performed numerous miracles including, like Jesus and even Buddha, the feat of walking on water. He had 12 disciples, two of who were his 'witnesses” and were named “Anup' and 'Aan (the two Johns?). Just as Jesus allegedly raised Lazarus from the dead, Horus was supposed to have raised El-Azar-us from the dead. Before his death, Horus had 12 disciples and at one stage appeared before them, 'transfigured on the Mount'. Horud performed miracles, exorcised demons and raised El-Azarus ('El-Osiris'), from the dead. Horus walked on water. He delivered a 'Sermon on the Mount' and his followers recounted the 'Sayings of Iusa'. He was transfigured on the Mount. He came to fulfil the Law. Horus was supposed to reign one thousand years. |
Tammuz is a life-death-rebirth deity
who is referred to in the Bible (Ezekiel 8:14). He was
a sun god who, in his daily cycle, rose from his cave in the morning,
travelled across the sky by day, before returning to his cave at night. He was known to the Greeks as Adonis, which is the Phoenician 'Adhon' (the same in Hebrew). The Babylonian myth represents Dumuzu, or Tammuz, as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar, the symbol of winter. Tammuz performed miracles and healed the sick.
|
| Names | Jesus is called the Christ; King of
Kings; Beginning and the end (Alpha and Omega) Revelation
1: 8 ); Only
Begotten Son; Saviour; Redeemer; Sin Bearer; Anointed One; the
Way, the Truth and the Life; Light of the World; Messiah; Son of Man;
the Word; the Word made Flesh; Lamb of God; Resurrected
One; Good Shepherd; King of Kings; associated with fish ('Ichthys');
the Word; Master; Lord; Rabbi (teacher); the Most High God; Prince of
Peace; Son of Righteousness; Lion
of the Tribe of Judah; identified as 'the seed of the woman bruising the
serpent's head'. Jesus is the second person of the Christian Trinity: (1) God, the Father, (2) Jesus the Son, (3) the Holy Ghost. |
Dionysus was sometimes identified
with the lamb; King of Kings; Only Begotten Son; Saviour (Sôtêrios);
Redeemer; Sin Bearer; Anointed One; Alpha and Omega. "At this mountain [Mt Pontinos in Argolis] begins the grove, which consists chiefly of plane trees... [within which] ... is a seated wooden image of Dionysus Saotes (Saviour)." Pausanias, Guide to Greece, 2.37.2 "Dionysos was identified by Greek writers with the Egyptian god Osiris, the Roman Liber, the Thracian Sabazios, the Arabian Orotatl and various other non-Greek gods." Source
|
Horus
was called: Resurrected One; 'Iusa',
the 'ever-becoming son' of 'P'tah' or 'the Father'; 'the Way, the Truth
and the Light'; 'Messiah'; 'Son of Man'; 'Son of God'; 'the Word';
'the Word made Flesh'; 'Holy Child'; 'God’s Anointed Son'; 'Word
of Truth'. Horus was called the 'KRST', or the 'Anointed One', long before the title was given to Jesus. Horus also was called the Fisher; Good Shepherd; Lamb of God, and was associated with the lion, the lamb and the fish ('Ichthys'). Osiris was called Lord of Lords, King of Kings, God of Gods; the Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and the Life; Eternity and Everlastingness; the god who “made men and women to be born again". |
|
| Death | Jesus died
painfully, pierced by a spear, crucified on a cross, often known as 'the
tree', or 'Calvary's tree' ("The God of our fathers raised up
Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." Act 5:30; "Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,
Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree." Galatians 3:13). The scriptural reference to crucifixion in Deuteronomy 21:22, 23 – often taken as prophetic of Jesus – is to hanging on a tree, rather than being nailed or tied to a cross, and Peter and the apostles (Acts 5:30; 10:39) refer to Jesus as hanging on a tree.
|
"Of the
Roman God Liber (aka Dionysus, or Bacchus) Christian father Firmicus
Maternus writes that his followers believe 'he was intercepted and
killed,' and his murderers, 'chopped his members up into pieces and ...
devoured them.' An event which his worshipers celebrate in 'recurring
sacred rights celebrated every two years,' in which, 'They tear a live
bull with their teeth, representing the cruel banquet [at which the God
was eaten.]' [Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions,
Ch 6.2]" Source
|
Horus was crucified
on 'an accursed tree' in sin-atonement, between
two thieves. After suffering death, Horus, like Jesus, was buried in a tomb where he was resurrected and ascended into Heaven, or 'Amen-ti'.
|
Tammuz suffered a painful death in order to
become mankind's saviour. On the third day, some accounts claimed, Tammuz was resurrected into a new life of eternal blessedness. "His death is supposed to typify the long, dry summer of Syria and Palestine, when vegetation perishes, and his return to life the rainy season when the parched earth is revivified and is covered with luxuriant vegetation, or his death symbolizes the cold, rough winter, the boar of the myth, and his return the verdant spring." Source
|
| Beliefs | Baptism: Christians from at least
the time of St Paul understood immersion in water as a death-like
experience, and emergence from the water they took as the beginning of a
new life. Eucharist: Sacred meal of Blood and Body of the God. Jesus Christ was 'without sin'. Considered both human and divine; omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Christ claimed: "I am the Resurrection". He referred to himself as having existed before his birth on earth. Jesus will return on the last day to judge the living and the dead. Some features: A future reward in heaven or punishment in Hell; a day of judgment; a general resurrection; the need for repentance for sin; salvation requires faith in the Saviour; belief in angels and of evil spirits; belief that disease and sickness is caused by evil spirits; a past war in heaven between good and bad angels; free will; God is considered the 'Word' Scriptures speak of "the blind leading the blind, "a new heaven and a new earth", "living water", "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", "all scripture is profitable for doctrine", "to die is great gain". Fasting forms a part of the religion. The act of being born again is present. |
The Mysteries of Dionysus included:
a sacred meal; a myth about the death of the god; salvation. Dionysus was worshipped, along with other deities, at Eleusis, site of the Eleusinian Mysteries. There was a strong soteriological element of the Mysteries: "It was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the Mysteries [at Eleusis] would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine glory. Hence all were eager for initiation." Scholiast (ancient commentator) on The Frogs, by Aristophanes (c. 446 BCE - 385 BCE), 158 "It looks as if those also who established rites of initiation [into the mysteries] for us were no fools, but that there is a hidden meaning in their teaching when it says that whoever arrives uninitiated in Hades will lie in mud, but the purified and initiated when he arrives there will dwell with gods." Plato (c. 427 BCE - c. 347 BCE), Phaedo, 69 c "In Italy, in the third or fourth century BC, texts written on gold plates and buried with the dead, describe the souls of Dionysus followers in the afterlife, drinking not from one particular spring in Hades, but from another cool pool – and that will give them divinity and eternal life." Source: Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth "There was usually the meal of mystic foods – grains of all sorts at Eleusis, bread and water in the cult of Mithra, wine (Dionysus), milk and honey (Attis), raw bull's flesh in the Orphic Dionysus-Zagreus cult." 'Paganism', in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI Baptism: "at all events, at the Apollinarian and Eleusinian games they are baptized; and they presume that the effect of their doing that is their regeneration and the remission of the penalties due to their perjuries. Among the ancients, again, whoever had defiled himself with murder, was wont to go in quest of purifying waters." Tertullian (born c. 150 or 160 - died between 220 and 240 CE), On Baptism, Ch. 5
|
Just as
Christians end their prayers with amen, the Horus-worshippers
ended their prayers with amen-ti – Egyptian for 'Heaven' or the
'After World'. At least 2,500 years before John baptised believers in the Jordan, the ancient Egyptians washed believers in the Nile, or in burial chambers. In both cases, the purpose of baptism was to cleanse and revivify individuals – whether alive or dead – into a new state of 'eternal blessedness'. Furthermore, just as Christians today are assimilated with Jesus through baptism, the ancient Egyptians were assimilated through baptism with their god, Horus. In addition, just as Jesus himself was baptised by John, Horus was baptised by lesser gods. Early Christian author Tertullian wrote: "For washing is the channel through which they are initiated into the sacred rites of some notorious Isis". Source Osiris's flesh was eaten in the form of communion cakes of wheat, the “plant of Truth”. "The 23rd Psalm copied an Egyptian text appealing to Osiris the Good Shepherd to lead the deceased to the 'green pastures' and 'still waters' of the nefer-nefer land, to restore the soul to the body, and to give protection in the valley of the shadow of death (the Tuat)." Source In Duat (Tuat), the underworld, Osiris weighed the dead souls. Orisis "once possessed human form and lived upon earth, and that by means of some unusual power or powers he was able to bestow upon himself after the death a new life which he lived in a region over which he ruled as king, and into which he was believed to be willing to admit all such as had lived a good and correct life upon earth". Egyptian Ministry of Tourism website "Ptah, creator god of the Memphite region brought things into being by the mere utterance of their names. The opening words of the Old Testament state that God also said the names of things to create them." Source "In the resurrection of Osiris the Egyptians saw the pledge of a life everlasting for themselves beyond the grave. They believed that every man would live eternally in the other world if only his surviving friends did for his body what the gods had done for the body of Osiris. " Source (Frazer)
|
Trust, ye saints, your Lord restored, Trust ye in your risen Lord; For the pains which Tammuz endured Our salvation have procured. Ctesias (c. 400 BCE), author of Persika (Source: Crucified Saviours) The resurrection of Tammuz was celebrated in an
annual lamentation that involved washing with water and anointing with
oil. With the return of Tammuz, the lands of the Akkadians became fertile again and the seasonal and daily cycles continued.
|
| |
Mithras | Alexander the Great | ||
| Image | ||||
| Place |
India. |
Zarathustra as he is correctly named (Zoroaster was a Greek impression of his name), lived in Asia Minor, perhaps in modern-day Iran. |
Mithras was originally Persian. | Alexander was born in Macedon. He conquered much
of the world as then known to European cultures, as far as the Indus
River in India. Even today there are sometimes Alexandrine
characteristics in faiths in Western India. |
| Time |
C. 1400 BCE. Estimates of his birth date vary. Some are 1477, 3112, 3600, 5150, and 5771 BCE. |
Uncertain; perhaps as early as 1700 BCE or as late as 1000 BCE. |
The Mithras cult arose c. 600 BCE,
before the rise of Rome. When the Christ myth was new Mithras and Mithraism were already ancient. Worshiped for centuries as God's Messenger of Truth, Mithras was long revered by the Persians (Zoroastrianism) and the Indians (see the Vedic literature). Christian apologist Justin Martyr (1 Apologia, 66, 4) denounces the devil for having sent a God so similar to Jesus – yet preceding him. |
Alexander lived 356 BCE - June 11, 323 BCE.
|
| Birth |
His advent was heralded by a pious old
man (Asita), who could die happy knowing of his arrival, a story
paralleled in the Bible by that of Simeon (Luke 2: 25). * Ø * Ø * Ø * Extract from the Vedangas: |
Sources
differ: Some say Zarathustra was born to a 15-year-old virgin, Dughdhava the milk
maid, in a cave. He received his prophetic calling at about 30 years of
age. |
Every year in Rome, in the middle of winter, the
Son of God was born once more, putting an end to darkness. Every year at
first minute of December 25th the temple of Mithras was lit with
candles, priests in in white garments celebrated the birth of the Son of
God and boys burned incense. Mithras was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin mother.
God, in the form of light, entered a virgin,
Anahita. "In Armenian tradition, Mithras was believed to shut himself up in a cave from which he emerged once a year, born anew. The Persians introduced initiates to the mysteries in natural caves, according to Porphyry, the third century neoplatonic philosopher. These cave temples were created in the image of the World Cave that Mithras had created, according to the Persian creation myth." Source
|
Alexander the Great was a real historical figure,
a general and emperor, whose life was imbued with overtones of
deification from Europe to parts of Western India. Alexander "was
the son of King Philip II of Macedon and the infamous Epirote
princess Olympias.
According to several legends, Olympias was impregnated not by Philip,
who was afraid of her and her affinity for sleeping in the company of snakes,
but by the supreme god Zeus. Aware of these
legends and of their political usefulness, Alexander was wont to refer
to his father as Zeus, rather than as Philip." Source
Visions and omens were associated with his birth.
|
| Life |
Krishna's
mission was to give directions to 'the kingdom of God' (Bhagavad Gita
2: 72). |
(Zarathustra was fully human and
not divine.) He was baptized in a river.
"He spent years in the wilderness communing with God before his first vision, in which Vohu Manah came to him in the form of an Angel. All the heavenly entities, the Amesha Spentas, instructed Zarathustra in heaven, and he received perfect knowledge of past, present, and future. Zarathustra's preaching to King Vishtaspa was enhanced by miracles ..." Source |
With twelve disciples, Mithras
travelled far and wide as a teacher and illuminator of men. At about age 30 he began his ministry, offering salvation based on faith, compassion, knowledge and valour. He had 12 companions or disciples and was considered a great travelling teacher and master. Mithras performed miracles. "The god remained celibate throughout his life, and valued self-control, renunciation and resistance to sensuality among his worshippers. Mithras represented a system of ethics in which brotherhood was encouraged in order to unify against the forces of evil." Source
|
Alexander in the Talmud |
| Names |
Krishna's names: Shepherd God; Sin
Bearer; Liberator; Firstborn; Universal Word; Beginning and the End
(Alpha and Omega) ("I am the beginning, the middle, and the end"
(Bhagavad Gita 10: 20; cf Revelation
1: 8 );
Lion of the Tribe of Saki;
identified as 'the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head'. |
Names of Zarathustra include: the Word made Flesh; Logos. |
Mithras was known as: Saviour; Son of God; Redeemer;
Lamb of God; the Way, the Truth and
the Light; Messiah; Light of the World. He also was called the Good Shepherd and was identified with both the lion and the lamb. "Mithras was known as the God of Truth, and Lord of Heavenly Light, and said to have stated 'I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths'." Source |
|
| Death |
At about age 30, Krishna was
"suspended to the branches of a tree by his murderer, that it might
become the prey of the vultures ... [Later] the mortal frame of the
Redeemer had disappeared – no doubt it had regained the celestial abodes
..."
|
|
Mithras was buried in a tomb from which he rose
again from the dead – an event celebrated yearly (spring equinox) with
much rejoicing. "After the earthly mission of this god had been accomplished, he took part in a Last Supper with his companions before ascending to heaven, to forever protect the faithful from above." Source "Mithras of Persia atoned for mankind, and prepared for the salvation of mankind through slaying the primaeval bull—the first sacrifice ... his celebrations at the spring and autumn equinoxes were associated with crucifixion on a tree. These were the Persian New Year festivities described in the scriptural book of Esther, and involved the crucifixion of the old years, considered wicked, so that a new and uncorrupted year could take its place. This was seen as an annual rehearsal of the eschaton when the wicked world is finally replaced by the purity of the original creation of Ahuramazda. Christian writers speak of Mithras being slain, and yet do not say how. It has been suppressed ..." Source |
Alexander was aged 33 when he died on June 11, 323 BCE. There were several bad omens preceding his death. The skies and earth turned dark on Alexander's death.
|
|
Beliefs |
Krishna is the second person of the
Hindu trinity.
Some
features: A future reward in heaven or punishment in Hell; a day of
judgment; a general resurrection; the need for repentance for sin;
salvation requires faith in the Saviour; belief in angels and of evil
spirits; belief that disease and sickness is caused by evil spirits; a
past war in heaven between good and bad angels; free will; God is
considered the 'Word'
|
Zarathustra's
followers celebrated a sacred eucharistic meal. |