The Jesus Parallels

(1st edition, 2007)

by Roger Viklund Umeå, Sweden

The present essay is principally a translation of one chapter out of 30 from my book written in Swedish, Den Jesus som aldrig funnits (in English: The Jesus That Never Was). You can also find the original Swedish article, Jesusparallellerna, at my Swedish web site. Apart from the Introduction and the Summary, which I have partly rewritten, I have made only some minor changes; I have removed some things and added others. In addition, I have enlarged the footnotes with actual quotes from the original sources, materials that due to lack of space are not included in the book. I would be much obliged to get feedback on errors, factual or linguistic, found in this essay. I would also appreciate information on important material that ought to be included.

My intention

Modern scholarship tends to disregard the similarities between Jesus of the Gospels and other demigods. Defenders of the Christian faith, so-called apologists, often say that the similarities are far-fetched. They say that the differences are bigger than the similarities; that the only similarities that exist are structural; and if anyone borrowed anything, pagans borrowed from Christians.

In this essay, I have compared the life of Jesus according to the Gospels with the lives of other sons of God. I have focused on six characters: the Greek healing god Asclepius, the saviour figure and miracle-worker Apollonius of Tyana – a contemporary of Gospel Jesus, the Greek hero and son of god Heracles, the god of wine Dionysus, the Roman mystery god Mithras, and Siddhârtha Gautama Buddha from India. I have also treated of the virgin birth, the resurrection and the miracles, and in connection with these I have investigated Adonis, Attis and Osiris.

My intention is …

1) to point out all the relevant similarities. Similarities that are not included here are such as I am not aware of, or have not been able to track down.

2) to include the quotes from the original sources, as far as possible, for everyone to be able to form their own opinion.

3) to show that many conceptions actually antedate Christianity.

My own belief is that there was no Jesus of Nazareth; that the Jesus who is portrayed in the Gospels never existed. Of course, the Jesus parallels alone do not lead me to that conclusion. They are but one detail in a much larger pattern, only one piece in a big jig-saw puzzle.

In my treatment of the six divine characters, I have, needless to say, excluded many details from their lives that have no correspondence in the Gospel stories. Obviously, each son of God needed his own unique expression to suit the needs of the different peoples.

I am not necessarily saying that other cultures or mythologies influenced Christianity. That might of course be the case in many instances, but hardly always. A better explanation is that they all draw from a common heritage. However, simply because everything is not necessarily borrowed from the pagans, this does not imply that the story told of Jesus in the Gospels is true. It does imply, however, that each story told of each son of God is a mythic story, and the story of Jesus as well. It seems unlikely that “every” Saviour God should have led his life in approximately the same way as all the others. That suggests to me that the Gospels are fictitious documents.

Vegetation Gods

Probably the oldest type of religion is nature-religion. From time immemorial, man has tried to interpret the reality in which he lives. The benevolence of nature has been a constant necessity for man’s survival. Small wonder then that man constantly searched for ways to appease nature, so that it brought rain, warmth, coolness, protection, food and so on, corresponding to his needs. Some time in the distant past, our ancestors began to personify the forces of nature. In the oldest religions, the gods were strongly connected to nature, and therefore they can be regarded as vegetation gods.

Christians have constantly called into question the existence of the vegetation gods. They claim that there actually are no unambiguous proofs that people ritually celebrated the death and resurrection of such gods, since the evidence for this in most cases derive from Christian sources and accordingly are late. However, not every source is late, and there is unequivocal pre-Christian evidence for most of these conceptions. We have to realize that we lack a complete understanding of ancient cultic ceremonies, not least because of the systematic destruction of displeasing documents which the Christian Church indulged in for several centuries. In addition, these cultic ceremonies were often held within the so-called mystery religions, which by their nature did not admit the uninitiated nor divulged their teachings to them. But as will be demonstrated, most of the evidence seems to indicate that the belief in a dying and rising god was a real phenomenon, above all in the eastern Mediterranean area and in Mesopotamia. The deeds of the vegetation gods followed the cycles of nature; and very early, festivals were arranged in honour of the gods at the time of sowing and harvesting. The god died in the hot late summer when nature dried up and lost its life, and he was born anew in the spring as vegetation returned. Later, during the era of the mystery religions, these gods were worshipped as having been raised from the kingdom of the dead.

To simplify the issue somewhat one might say that there were two types of vegetation gods – female and male. The former were in most cases earth-goddesses who ruled everything that had to do with vegetation, all the crops that fed the people in the agricultural societies. The latter were the horned gods who took care of all the livestock that gave clothing, meat, milk and other animal products.

Sun Gods

The sun gods are another category of gods. The people’s ideas of the lives of these gods were closely connected with the movement of the sun in the heavens. Often the god was both a vegetation god and a sun god. The shortest day of the year (the winter solstice), which also is the turning-point whereupon the days become longer, fell according to the Julian calendar on December 24, and the following day was considered not only the birthday of Jesus, but also that of Mithras and of other sun gods.

According to our current calendar, the winter solstice falls either on December 21 or 22. In the year 46 BCE the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) introduced a new calendar. The old one had ten months of approximately 30 days each; with a winter rest put in just before the beginning of the New Year. In order to correct flaws in the previous calendar, the new one was given 12 months of 365 days in all, and an intercalary day every fourth year. The new Julian calendar was adjusted 90 days as compared with the old one, so that the New Year began on January 1. This was a definite improvement on earlier efforts to compensate for the discrepancy accumulating in the course of time. The winter solstice was moved to December 24, which means that December 25 was made the day on which the light was thought to return. On this day, the possibly greatest pagan festivals were held to honour the return of the sun and, in consequence, to celebrate the birth of the sun gods.

However, the new calendar was almost 11 minutes longer than the actual year; and for that reason, the winter solstice gradually occurred earlier and earlier, so that it was displaced an entire day for every 128 years. But the ancients continued to celebrate their festivals on the days they had fixed. The great Roman feast was Saturnalia, which took place on December 17 and lasted to December 24. And in the year 274 CE, Emperor Aurelian introduced the celebration of “the birth of the invincible sun” (natalis solis invicti) on December 25, which coincided with the celebration of the birth of the Roman mystery god Mithras.

The earliest information to say that also Jesus was born on December 25 comes from Hippolytus (who lived c. 165-235). And a calendar from the year 354 contains a testimony from the year 336 to the effect that Jesus was born on December 25.

As the years went by, the Julian calendar became increasingly inaccurate, and by the end of the 16th century, it was twelve days off compared to the time when it was introduced. In the year 1582, Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar by removing 10 (not the needed 12) days and restored it to the order prevailing in the middle of the fourth century CE when Jesus’ birthday was fixed on December 25, and it was decided that in each 400 years to come, three intercalary days should be removed.

At the winter solstice, the sun begins its journey to the north. Two thousand years ago, the constellation of Virgo rose on the eastern horizon at every winter solstice. In the old sun-worshipping societies, people could observe the Sun being born again, and every year it was “born” in Virgo. Indubitably, many nations have regarded the sun as a god. It is equally certain that the return of the sun at the winter solstice was an important event accompanied with ceremonial festivals. Therefore, it must be reasonable to assume that people in the sun-worshipping societies interpreted the sun’s rising in the constellation of Virgo as if the Virgin gave birth to the Sun, which was worshipped as a god. Consequently, the Virgin gave birth to the God or to the Son of God.

It might also be said that the Son of God had twelve companions, or disciples if you like, in the shape of the twelve zodiacal constellations which the sun passes on its journey in the sky. The Sun God Mithras is in most cases depicted together with the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The two equinoxes (vernal and autumnal) and the two solstices (summer and winter) form a cross in the circle of the zodiac (mentioned by Plato), and so the Sun God can be said to be fettered on this cross, as he must constantly follow the path of the cross. All these ideas are probably the basis of the corresponding Christian conceptions.

Virgin Births

In most of the pre-Christian religions, there are stories told of a god impregnating a mortal woman, often a virgin, who then bears him a son. In this respect, Christianity differs in no way from the religions antedating it. According to the Gospels, Mary was still a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. She conceived Jesus through the action of the Holy Spirit, who according to the Christian doctrine is part of the deity. Thereby Jesus came to be seen as a “Son of God”.

Christian apologists claim that only Jesus is born of a virgin, and thus his mother Mary is the only virgin in history to have given birth to a child. They simply reject any other tale of prominent men and demigods who were conceived by gods and born of mortal women.

They say, for example, that Zeus had intercourse with the women while the Holy Spirit in a miraculous way made Mary pregnant while her maidenhead was still intact. One Catholic idea is that the Holy Spirit reaches Mary’s womb through her ear. Nor was Mary married, whereas most of the other childbearing “virgins” were married. Therefore they could not have been virgins. But what does the Bible actually say?

And in the sixth month was the messenger Gabriel sent by God, to a city of Galilee, the name of which [is] Nazareth, to a virgin, betrothed to a man, whose name [is] Joseph, of the house of David, and the name of the virgin [is] Mary. (Luke 1:26-27 YLT)

Obviously, Joseph and Mary were not married. However, betrothal often meant that the girl had not yet reached the age of 12 years when she was allowed to be married. And although not part of the normal procedure, sexual intercourse could be allowed during the betrothal period. Moreover, the Bible says that Jesus had sisters as well as brothers, who in that case must have been born after Jesus. In any case, Mary could not have remained a virgin her whole life, although the Catholics claim that the children mentioned were Jesus’ cousins and not his siblings.

And Mary said unto the messenger, ‘How shall this be, seeing a husband I do not know?’ And the messenger answering said to her, `The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also the holy-begotten thing shall be called Son of God… (Luke 1:34–35, YLT)

The Holy Spirit accordingly descends or comes upon Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadows her and she becomes pregnant. Note that in the Christian faith, the Holy Spirit is thought to be part of the Deity, and therefore technically it is God who comes upon Mary. The actual course of action of how the divine boy is produced is not described in the Bible. But neither are there any descriptions of the procedures resorted to when the other sons of god are begotten. It seems odd, however, that the gods always beget the mortal women by penetrating their vaginas, except just when it comes to Mary. Reasonably, it ought to have been the simplest way to get to the womb. And of course there is no difference. A mortal woman becomes pregnant without having had intercourse with any mortal man and instead the father is said to be a god.

The myths of virgin births are without any doubts a result of the demand of the woman’s chastity. A woman who is sexually active can never be chaste enough to give birth to a divine being. Therefore, a male divine being must beget the virgin. For obvious reasons, this can happen only in an inexplicable way.

The mother of Gautama Buddha was Queen Mâyâ, and the mother of Krishna was Devaki. Both were of royal birth. Later they were both adored as virgins. In Phrygia, Attis was thought to have been born of the virgin Nana, and the future Persian saviour, Saoshyant, was expected to be born of a virgin. Rhea Silvia gave birth to the twin brothers Romulus and Remus. Livy writes that while she was a Vestal Virgin she was impregnated by the god Mars. Another god who had sons here on earth was Apollo. Pythagoras, Plato and Emperor Augustus were all regarded as sons of Apollo and human mothers. Zeus was said to have begotten Dionysus, Heracles, Scipio Africanus and Alexander the Great. Also Adonis, Zarathustra (Zoroaster), Tammuz and Perseus were said to have been born of virgins:

And if we even affirm that He [Jesus] was born of a virgin, accept this in common with what you accept of Perseus. (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 22, written 150-160 CE)

Christian apologists have tried to explain away these facts, very troublesome for Christianity, by asserting that there is no evidence that these conceptions existed before the Gospels were written. However, there is every indication that the conception of a son of god being born of a mortal virgin is very old, and that it goes way back in time; long before the Christian era.

The Resurrection

Also the Christian idea that the Saviour rose from the dead after three days or on the third day was borrowed from older religions in the eastern Mediterranean area. It was a widely spread conception that the gods were born at the winter solstice (at Christmas) and died in spring in connection with the vernal equinox (Easter). The people experienced a short period of grief, whereupon, on the third day or after three days, they rejoiced and celebrated the resurrected god.

The model for the Gospel view that Jesus rose on the third day existed as early as in the Egyptian cult of the god Osiris. Before Christianity entered the religious scene, the people of Egypt regarded Osiris as a god who suffered and died for humanity only to rise on the third day.

Among other gods who were thought to have risen from the dead were Dionysus, Asclepius, Apollonius of Tyana, Heracles, Tammuz from Babylonia, Adonis of Phoenicia and Attis of Phrygia (who rose on the third day).

Since there are accounts preserved from the time before the advent of Christianity, and the archaeological finds indicate that these ideas existed earlier, it is reasonable to assume that the image the gospellers drew of Jesus is largely a modified copy of a very old conception.

One early apologist, Justin the Martyr (c. 150 CE), realized the embarrassing resemblance there was between the pagan and the Christian ideas. He solved this problem by simply claiming that the devil had imitated the prophecies about Jesus and spread them to the pagans in order to deceive the Christians. However, the pagan conceptions are older than the Christian one. It was therefore an unprecedented exploit of the devil to imitate the Christian ideas to such perfection even before they appeared in Christianity.

Adonis

The Sumerian Dumuzi (in Syria Tammuz) and the Canaanite god Baal are two examples of vegetation gods. In the Sumerian Inanna’s Descent to the Nether World, we are told about the siblings Geshtinanna and Dumuzi who take it in turns to spend one half of the year in the Nether World and the other half on earth. Each winter, when drought killed vegetation, Dumuzi died. And when vegetation returned in spring, he was regarded as having been born anew.

The god Adon was worshiped in Phoenicia (present Mediterranean coast of Lebanon and Syria). In Greece, he went by the name Adonis. This is probably the same god as Dumuzi and Tammuz. His life and death is depicted in two different tales. According to the one, a pre-Christian story, Adonis is killed by a boar during hunting. Aphrodite finds the dying Adonis and bursts out in grief: “every year an imitation of your death will complete a re-enactment of my mourning.”

According to the other tale, Adonis is born of Smyrna, who after she is turned into a tree is also called Myrrha. One of the oldest types of worship is that of trees. One example is Dionysus, who often was depicted as hung on a tree or of being the tree. Being hung on wood or on a tree is to be equated with being affixed to a cross. Actually, there is no word in Greek for crucifixion. In the New Testament, Jesus is either said to have been impaled (Greek: stauros = an upright pale, stake or pole; the verb stauroo = to affix to a stauros) or to have been hung on wood (Greek: xylon = a piece of wood, or timber). The Greek word stauros has no connotation of crossbeam. The idea that Jesus was nailed to a cross and not to a stake is a mere assumption from our belief that the Romans at the time used two-beamed “crosses”. However, this is never explicitly said in the New Testament. Consequently, there is no difference between the Christian and the pagan conception, as they are expressed in the writings.

The Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, puts the new-born Adonis in a chest, takes him to the queen of the underworld, Persephone, and asks her to take care of the child for a while. But when Persephone sees how beautiful Adonis is, she refuses to give him back to Aphrodite. The drama ends with Zeus having to mediate and he decides that Adonis will spend winter in the underworld with Persephone and summer on earth, among the living, along with Aphrodite. The rest of the time he may stay where he wants, and he chooses the light and the warmth above. Each winter Adonis is forced to descend to Persephone in the Kingdom of the dead and each spring, as vegetation returns, he is born anew as he ascends from the Kingdom of the Dead. Afterwards, he is killed by a boar.

This story is approximately contemporary with the Gospels, but it is based upon the Greek poet Panyassis, who wrote in the early fifth century BCE, and we know that the myth is old since it is reproduced in an image on a mirror found in Orbetello; a mirror dated back to the third century BCE or earlier.

Almost all testimonies of Adonis come from classical sources, which are often late. In the Greek version of the myth, there is no resurrection. Adonis, who has ordinary mortal parents, dies in a hunting accident and he is buried. In annual funeral festivals in Athens and probably also in other places in Greece, his death was mourned. Very early sources report how the women pounded their chests in despair. The cultic celebration took place during the dry period when vegetation died (the later part of July) and there was possibly a celebration in spring as well.

But Adonis has his abode in the eastern Mediterranean area. Unfortunately, there are no unambiguous sources from this area. The name Adonis contains the West Semitic word Adon, which means “Lord”, the same word the Jews used and still use for their God. Remains in Byblos from the 10th century BCE and an allusion in one of the Amarna letters (nr. 84) from the 14th century BCE, might indicate that Adonis was seen as a god who rose from the dead. This seems plausible also since Adonis is so closely connected with vegetation. The Greek poet Theocritus, who flourished during the first half of the third century BCE, identifies Adonis with the grains of corn and says that Adonis spends six months inside the earth along with Persephone and six months on earth with Aphrodite. But Adonis is above all a god who was linked to barrenness and death.

According to Origen, the Greek Adonis was the same god as Tammuz of the Jews and the Syrians. He claims that...

... they say that for a long time certain rites of initiation are conducted: first, that they weep for him, since he has died; second, that they rejoice for him because he has risen from the dead. (Origen, Comments on Ezekiel, 8:12; quoted by Richard Carrier)

Porphyry (c. 233-309 CE) says that Adonis is a symbol of the harvest of ripe fruit. In the East, the cultic celebration seems to have taken place in July. Also the celebration of Dumuzi took place in July. We find the oldest unambiguous proof of the resurrection of Adonis in De Syria dea, written in the second century CE, possibly by Lucian. There it says that the cult participants...

... in memory of that misfortune [Adonis’ death] every year they beat their breasts and mourn and perform the ceremonies, making solemn lamentations throughout the country. And when the breast-beating and weeping is at end, first they make offerings to Adon as if to a dead person; and then, on the next day, they proclaim that he is alive and fetch him forth into the air, and shave their heads as the Egyptians do when Apis dies. (Lucian of Samosata [c. 120-185 CE], De Syria dea, 6)

According to this report, Adonis’ resurrection was celebrated annually. The symbolic resurrection seems to have occurred on the second day. But Tryggve Mettinger, like previously Wolf Wilhelm Graf von Baudissin, interprets De Syria dea 6 in such a way, that the third day was possibly intended.

Therefore, it may be regarded as an established fact that in the East, the followers of the cult of Adonis asserted that their god had resurrected from the dead and that everything indicates that this conception is pre-Christian.

Attis

One of the more dominant Mother Goddesses of Asia was Cybele. The centre of the cult of Cybele was in Phrygia in contemporary Turkey. The cult was prominent also in the neighbouring country of Lydia. Cybele’s lover and son is the young shepherd Attis.

Attis, too, exhibits all signs of being a vegetation god. Two different stories of his life are extant. According to one myth (from Lydia), Attis is a castrated priest in the service of the goddess Cybele and he initiates people into the cult. Attis is later killed by a boar, as was the case with Dumuzi or Tammuz, Adonis and also the Egyptian god Osiris.

In the other version, the Phrygian one, the goddess Agdus (Cybele disguised as a rock) is raped by Zeus and gives birth to a hermaphroditic being named Agdistis. In another version, Zeus is said to have spilled his seed upon the ground, which then bears Agdistis. This creature, a daemon, is so violent that the other gods cut off its male organ, turning it into the female Mother Goddess Cybele. From the blood flowing from Agdistis an almond-tree, or possibly a pomegranate-tree, grows. Later the fresh-water nymph Nana, daughter of a river spirit, picks the fruit (or the almonds) and puts it in her bosom, where it disappears at once. She becomes pregnant and in due course of time gives birth to Attis. From a technical point of view, this is a paranormal conception. Zeus impregnates Nana without her having any sexual contact with any man, and so she can be considered a virgin who gives birth to a Son of God.

Attis grows up and Cybele (that is, the castrated Agdistis) falls in love with him. This leads Attis into love problems. Attis castrates himself (or makes Cybele castrate him) and he falls down under a pine tree and dies. According to one legend, he is turned into a tree.

Obviously, the notion of Cybele and Attis came to form a cult which reached Rome in 204 BCE at the latest. According to Livy (59 BCE-17 CE), in that year an image of the goddess Cybele was brought to Rome and put in a temple in her honour. In the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 CE), the cult was raised to the status of an official government cult among others.

According to inscriptions found in Rome and in the Phrygian city of Pessinus, the high priest was named Attis. The big festivals in honour of Cybele and Attis were held at the end of March at the time of the vernal equinox. The actual entertainment was bloody. A bull was slaughtered, and his blood was sprayed over the participants in some kind of ritual act, which could be compared to a baptism. There are depictions of how the priests cut their arms, and probably there occurred castrations of priests as well as of other initiates.

On March 22, a tree was brought to the sanctuary of Cybele. In view of the fact that Attis was regarded as a tree, we might guess that this symbolised Attis (hung on a tree). The next day, the second day, they blew the trumpets. The third day (March 24) was called the day of the blood, and now they cut their own arms and sacrificed their own blood. When darkness fell the great festival of joy, “Hilaria”, began and it went on till the next day, March 25, which was also regarded as the vernal equinox.

The proofs that these elements in the celebration of Attis existed before Christianity came into being are principally archaeological. The earliest written testimonies date from the first or the second century CE. Unfortunately, very scanty written material about Attis has been preserved to our time. The Christian Church in particular has been thorough in its systematic destruction of undesirable texts. Christian apologists assert that there is no evidence that Attis’ resurrection from the dead has been celebrated.

If that were the case one might wonder what on earth they were celebrating with such great joy on the third day just after having mourned. There is no doubt that Attis was a dying god and that his death was celebrated every year. Reasonably, he must have risen from the dead to be able to die again. The Neo-Platonist Damascius says in The Life of Isidorus that the festival of Hilaria “discloses the way of our salvation from Hades”. However, Damascius wrote this as late as the beginning of the sixth century CE. In the first half of the fourth century CE, Firmicus Maternus reports that “he whom they had buried a little while earlier [Attis] had come to life again.”

We can easily see the entire pattern of the Jesus character. A god in human shape is born of a virgin. He chooses voluntarily to die, to shed his blood, to be hung upon a tree (cross) and then he rises from the dead. We also know from Justin the Martyr and others that in the middle of the second century at the latest, Christians were tremendously inconvenienced by the fact that not only Jesus, but also other gods were said to have been virgin-born, to have risen from the dead and gone to heaven.

Osiris

Osiris is an Egyptian god whose existence is confirmed as early as in the third millennium BCE. He ruled the kingdom of the dead. We know that the cult of Osiris had reached Greece in the fourth century BCE at the latest, because in 333 BCE a temple in Athens was dedicated to Osiris and his consort Isis. The religion made its entrance in Rome in the first century CE, although most likely it had then assumed a partially different shape.

In the entire Egyptian literature, there is not a single complete rendering of the Osiris myth, a connected narrative of his life, death, and resurrection. Scholars usually interpret this in such a way that the myth was so well known by the Egyptians that they did not need to have it documented in its entirety. Therefore, our most important source of information about Osiris is Plutarch, who wrote in approximately 100 CE. But valuable information is given also by Lucius Apuleius (slightly later than 150 CE) and by Julius Firmicus Maternus (fourth century CE). More or less the same myth seems to be told in the hieroglyphs carved on the pyramid walls. Plutarch writes that the god Hermes impregnates Rhea and that she gives birth to Osiris, who is proclaimed “The Lord of All” and a “mighty and beneficent king”. Osiris is raised by Zeus himself.

Osiris is killed by his brother Set, his body is mutilated and the parts of his body are scattered. Later Osiris’ wife Isis collects all the parts (except the genitals, which are nowhere to be found) and the gods put them together, whereupon Osiris is resurrected. He travels to the underworld and becomes the Lord of the dead. As early as the middle of the second century CE Jesus, too, was believed to have descended to the kingdom of the dead after his resurrection and before he went to heaven. However, there is an important difference between Osiris and the other gods. Osiris is resurrected in the kingdom of the dead only, and he never again lives among the mortals. He remains a dead god all the time but leads an active life in the kingdom of the dead. Despite this, Plutarch asserts that Osiris left the kingdom of the dead and went “into the realm of the invisible and the unseen, the dispassionate and the pure”, where also the souls migrate.

You should also be aware of the fact the Kingdom of death in the Nether world is not to be equated with the Christian hell. Everyone who died came to the Kingdom of the dead, which therefore more resembles the Christian heaven. And of course Jesus was the ruler of heaven, judging the dead also from the Kingdom of the dead.

Osiris was killed by being enticed into lying down in a chest, whereupon the lid was fastened by nails and the chest sent out on the Nile. According to Plutarch, this happened on the seventeenth day of the month Athyr. When Plutarch wrote, Athyr 17 ought to have corresponded to November 13. In Egypt, Osiris was thought to have disappeared in the month of Athyr, and on Athyr 17 a period of mourning began. On Athyr 19 the chest is brought down to the Nile, water is poured into it, whereupon loud shouts of joy are raised, because Osiris is found. Osiris died accordingly on Athyr 17, as the period of grief was initiated on that day. Consequently, that day was seen as the first day. This means that Athyr 19 was the third day and that therefore Osiris like Jesus was considered to have risen from the dead on the third day. Remember that Jesus died on a Friday and rose from the dead on Sunday, the third day.

Also outside of Egypt, in Greece, there was a cultic celebration of Osiris. Plutarch states “Osiris is identical with Dionysus”. In the autumn, a great festival was held in honour of Osiris, a celebration of his death, resurrection, and rebirth:

Furthermore, the tales regarding the Titans and the rites celebrated by night agree with the accounts of the dismemberment of Osiris and his revivification and regenesis. (Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, 35)

In connection with this festival, called “Inventio Osiridis”, where the people along with “Isis” mourned Osiris, the priesthood offered salvation from hell, from sorrow, and suffering. The people were also offered comfort and help, all due to Osiris’ voluntary death.

Osiris and Isis had a son named Horus. Horus was a sun god, and as such he was thought to have been born on December 25, at the winter solstice. At least, that is the interpretation James George Frazer made in The Golden Bough on the basis of inscriptions and other objects.

The Miracles of Jesus

The Jesus character possesses a power which Paul is unaware of but the gospel writers bring out into the light. That is Jesus’ ability to perform miracles. The entire story in the Gospel of Mark is constructed on the miracles, and this to such an extent that the story does not keep together if the miracles are eliminated. According to the gospels, Jesus cures the sick, the deaf, the blind, the lame and the mute. He performs exactly what the coming Messiah in Isaiah is predicted to accomplish:

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. (Isaiah 35:5-6, NIV)

Jesus also expels daemons, turns waters into wine, produces food by magic, calms storms and walks on water. He even resurrects people from the dead.

The models existed in the prophets Elijah and Elisha already. Like Jesus, Elijah spends forty days and forty nights without any food in the desert (1 Kings 19:4-8). Elijah feeds for a long time an entire family with only a handful of flour and a little oil (1 King 17:10-16). Elisha satisfies one hundred men with twenty loaves of barley bread, along with some heads of new grain, and nevertheless there is food left (2 Kings 4:42-44). They both raise people from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-23, 2 Kings 4:17-37). Elisha cures people of their leprosy (2 Kings 5:6-14) and turns bad water into fresh and wholesome (2 Kings 2:19-22). Elijah, while still alive, is taken up into heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11).

In the Gospel of John, Jesus performs only seven miracles, which are called signs. Each miracle is founded upon the previous. The raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44), the holy seventh sign, constitutes the climax and is the promise of Jesus’ own resurrection to come.

The content of the miracle-stories clearly bear the stamp of conceptions generally held at the times. Jesus simply worked such miracles as the people of the time though that prophets were able to perform. Today, a divine character of that kind would not need to expel daemons. And as it turns out, there actually are parallels in contemporary literature to every miracle Jesus is said to have performed.

The Gospel Jesus

The father of Jesus was the supreme god YHWH, his mother the mortal woman Mary. Despite that she is betrothed to the mortal man Joseph, YHWH makes her pregnant by making his holy spirit come over her. Therefore, Jesus is considered to be the son of God. An angel appears to both Joseph and Mary and tells them that Mary’s child has come into being through divine conception and that Mary is still a virgin.

Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Mary gives birth to the Jesus child in a stable, a house, or a cave. The child’s birth is accompanied by heavenly miracles including angels and a star that guides Magi to the child. Also shepherds visit the new-born, who lies in a manger. In order to escape a despot, the family is forced to wander to Egypt, and afterwards they all return to Nazareth.

When Jesus is twelve years old, he teaches the Jewish scribes in the temple, and they are amazed at his great wisdom. Later, when Jesus has grown up, his forerunner, John the Baptist, baptizes him in the river Jordan. Jesus spends 40 days and nights fasting in the desert and is tempted by the devil. Jesus resists the temptations, however, and then begins his mission.

Jesus chooses twelve disciples three of whom are considered superior and one is beloved. Jesus and his disciples wander around Galilee, and Jesus teaches the people, mainly in parables. He often confronts those versed in the Scriptures.

Jesus also helps people in need. He cures all kinds of diseased people, the deaf, the blind, paralytics and lepers. He expels daemons and raises people from the dead. He can also perform other miracles, such as producing wine and food, walking on water and calming storms.

Jesus is transformed before his foremost disciples (his “transfiguration” on the mount). Jesus is a “god” who suffers, and he anticipates his destiny, which he also voluntarily chooses, since it is inevitable.

Along with his disciples he walks to Jerusalem, entering the city riding on an ass while the crowd is rejoicing. He visits the temple and expels the hawkers. He spends his days in the city, where he challenges the Pharisees and makes enemies. He spends his nights along with his disciples just outside of the city. Before the Passover, he eats a Passover meal together with his closest disciples.

The disciple Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus by informing on him to the Jewish High Council. The Jews interrogate Jesus and they find him guilty of blasphemy and to have proclaimed himself god. They deliver Jesus up to the Roman governing power, and he is again interrogated, this time by the Governor Pilate, who finds him innocent. Despite this, Jesus is executed by crucifixion and his body is brought to a tomb in the vicinity of the execution place. On the third day, he rises from the dead and shows himself to his disciples. Then he ascends to his Father in heaven.

Asclepius

According to Greek mythology, Asclepius is the father of medicine. He could cure people from their diseases and even raise them from the dead. For doing this Zeus put him to death. However, Asclepius rose from Hades (the kingdom of the dead) and was made a god and immortal.

On an inscription found in Epidaurus and dating from the early third century BCE, a certain Isyllus writes that Asclepius’ mother, the [mortal] woman Aegla – who [because of her beauty] also is called Coronis – was deflowered by the god Apollo. The outcome of their brief intercourse was Asclepius, and Coronis gave birth in Apollo’s sacred temple. According to Pindar, princess Coronis, while probably still a virgin, has a love affair with the god Apollo and becomes pregnant with the god’s child. Still Coronis lives together with her lover Ischys, an ordinary mortal man. Accordingly, also Asclepius is a son of God. Pausanias, writing in the second century, says that Coronis gave birth to Asclepius when travelling to Epidaurus. Dazzling light encompassed the child and warned a shepherd, who was the first to arrive on the spot, not to touch him.

The cult of Asclepius existed in Greece as early as in the sixth century BCE, and it spread considerably during the following two centuries. People made pilgrimages to the temples of Asclepius, which were a kind of health resources of the Antiquity. In the beginning, Asclepius was considered only a healer and a saviour god, but as time went by, he was to be considered Lord, God of light, rescuer, helper and universal saviour, just like Jesus.

It is uncertain whether or not Asclepius was seen as a god who was dying and rising from the dead. He was closely connected to the Phoenician healing god Eshmun, however, and the two were believed by the Greeks to be the same god. Eshmun was a vegetation god, and like Attis he is mutilated to be restored later. This does not necessarily mean that Eshmun was a dying god, but he was probably still considered a dying god, since the memory of a cult place named “The Tomb of Eshmun” seems to have been preserved in a place-name. Moreover, according to the Iranian scientist and historian al-Biruni, who wrote in the beginning of the eleventh century CE, the Greek physician Galen, living at the end of the second century CE, wrote “that Asclepius was raised to the angels in a column of fire, the like of which is also related with regard to Dionysus, Heracles, and others”. It is therefore possible, but far from certain, that people thought also of Asclepius as of a god who died and later rose from the dead.

The many miracles the Gospels claim that Jesus carried out are but copies of Asclepius’ miracles. Asclepius wrought numerous healing miracles by touching the sick. Sometimes he did this by reaching out his hand, sometimes by putting his hand on the sick person, or pressing his finger into the diseased body part. Sometimes, the sick person had to believe in order to be healed. This was also the case when Jesus healed the sick.

According to inscriptions from Epidaurus and other testimonials (among others that of Justin Martyr), Asclepius healed people who suffered from diseases of all kinds, the paralytics, the dumb and the blind. He could heal people at distance as well. After he had healed the sick people, they went away carrying their beds. Asclepius healed the old as well as the young, the poor as well as the rich, women as well as men, slaves as well as freemen and friends as well as enemies.

Moreover, Asclepius raised people from the dead. This is also confirmed by the early church father Justin Martyr (c. 150 CE), who writes:

And when he [the devil] brings forward Aesculapius as the raiser of the dead and healer of all diseases, may I not say that in this matter likewise he has imitated the prophecies about Christ? (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 69).

In the tales told about the five (or possibly six) people Asclepius called back to life, we find many details that correspond with what the Gospels tell us about the three times Jesus did the same. For example, many witnesses were present, non-believers assumed that the ones raised to life were only apparently dead; the ones raised to life were given something to eat, and so on.

It must have been embarrassing for the early Christians to realize that every miracle they claimed that Jesus had performed had already been wrought by Asclepius, and besides even more magnificently. The soul of Asclepius, like that of Heracles, “survived and enjoyed eternal life”.

Apollonius of Tyana

Apollonius was a great miracle-worker and a contemporary of the Gospel Jesus (perhaps 2 - 99 CE). He was born in Tyana, a town situated in modern south-central Turkey, not far from Paul’s birth town, Tarsus. Through the years, several writers have brought forth the view that Apollonius was the real Jesus. This idea was evidently so powerful in the beginning of the fourth century that Eusebius of Caesarea had to write Against Hierocles. In this writing, he turns against Hierocles, a Neoplatonic who asserts that the Gospels were plagiarism mainly of notes made by Apollonius’ disciple Damis. And it is not very remarkable that the two characters, Apollonius and Jesus, were confused, since they undeniably are suggestive of one another.

At the beginning of the third century, Philostratus (c. 170-245 CE) wrote the story of the life of Apollonius, “Vita Apollonii”, and dedicated his opus to Empress Julia Domna. It is considered that he based his work on notes made by a certain Damis who was a follower of Apollonius. However, Apollonius is said to have written some books all by himself, and a few authors, including Porphyry, have actually quoted from these. There are also a large number of letters that Apollonius is said to have written. It is unlikely, however, that Apollonius should have written any of these. References to Apollonius are found in several writers, including Dio Cassius, Lucian of Samosata and Anastasius Sinaiticus.[62]

According to Philostratus’ biography, Apollonius was a Pythagorean (Vita Apollonii 1:7). Apollonius wore a beard, had long hair and was a clean-living man, a teetotaller and a vegetarian. He walked barefoot, was dressed only in a linen raiment (1:8).

Even Apollonius’ birth is a miracle accompanied by heavenly revelations (1:5). While his mother is still pregnant, the god Proteus reveals himself to her and announces that he is the father of the child (1:4). Therefore, Apollonius, too, was a Son of God. It is not clear from the text, however, if Apollonius was born of a virgin.

At the age of 14, he travels to the temple of Asclepius at Aegae. There he enters into philosophical discussions with Platonists, Pythagoreans, and others, and they are amazed at his great wisdom (1:7). He knows even more than the priests and the prophets (1:19, 5:5). As he grows up, he attracts to himself many disciples. They are 21), and they follow him on his wanderings. He preaches in Asia Minor, Syria, Greece and Rome and he also travels to India; his teaching is on a high level of culture; he readily speaks in parables (4:9), and he is considered to be omniscient (7:14, 3:18). He knows the goal and origin of his “soul’s past and future transformations” (8:7:7); he is compassionate (1:15, 6:39); he interprets dreams and events (1:23, 4:34); he knows all languages (1:19) and understands even that of animals (1:20, 3:9, 4:3). He knows people’s thoughts (1:19, 7:22) and for example immediately sees through a bad person who gives large gifts in the temple of Asclepius (1:10). He shows a rich young man the uselessness of wealth (5:22), and he intervenes against bloody sacrifices (1:1ff,10,31ff, 3:41, 4:19, 5:25).

The people consider him to be sent by God and to be a God (1:2, 3:50). He performs miracles similar to those Jesus is said to have wrought. On his pilgrimage through life, he helps the people he meets by healing them. The wise men he associates with cure the lame, the paralyzed and the blind (3:39). He expels evil spirits (4:20), cures a boy from rabies (6:43) and, like Jesus (Luke 9:11-17), he interrupts a funeral of a young girl and raises her from the dead by touching her (4:45). A , stories of miracle-workers who .

Apollonius knows what is happening at other places (5:30), knows that the Emperor Domitian is murdered (8:[70] 8:5ff) and can also hover above the ground (3:15,17). Moreover, he is able to control nature, as he prevents earthquakes (6:41) and storms at sea (4:15).

To his friends he predicts that he is going to be captured, and he tells them of his future destiny (7:10). In Rome, he is arrested, interrogated, accused of being a wizard and of having put himself on a par with the gods, and he is imprisoned (7:16-22). They cut off his beard and hair (7:34), strip him naked and put him before the court at the palace of Emperor Domitian.

The accuser is bribed with money. Like Jesus, who hardly responded to Pilate’s questions (John 19:9, Matt 27:14); Apollonius totally ignores the Emperor’s presence. And like Pilate, who considered Jesus to be innocent (John 18:38, 19:4-6, Luke 23:4), the Emperor considers Apollonius to be innocent. Apollonius says, as Jesus said to Pilate (John 19:11), that the Emperor does not have any power over him and then he vanishes miraculously (8:3-5).

Apollonius lives on for several years and travels to Olympia and other places. At Olympia, all of Hellas honours him (8:15). Finally, he dies, although Philostratus does not know when, where and how, and he ascends to heaven from the temple of Dictynna on Crete (8:30). After his death, he appears before a doubting disciple (8:31). Like doubting Thomas in John 20:24ff this disciple, too, becomes convinced that the son of God has really risen from the dead and that the soul is immortal.

Many writers have considered Philostratus’ portrayal of Apollonius as an attempt at copying the life of Jesus; that Roman officials, as a reaction against the Christian faith, chose to romance together a fairytale about a pagan Saviour character. By depicting Apollonius as an equal of Jesus, they wanted to show that Jesus was in no way unique. This is hardly likely to have happened, however, since when Philostratus wrote his book, Christianity was scarcely such a powerful movement that Roman officials would have wasted time on such a mission.

It is also obvious that several components of the tale, such as Apollonius carrying out miracles, were well-known long before. If you nevertheless are willing to accept this line of thought, in the name of honesty you must also accept that the Jesus character of the Gospels has come into existence in a similar way. Because Gospel Jesus is in many parts a replica of earlier saviours. An obvious example of such a Saviour is Heracles.

Heracles

The Greek God Heracles is mostly known by his Latin name Hercules. The legend has it that he performed twelve great labours. It is less known that a religion worshipping him existed as early as in the sixth century BCE – a cult of Heracles as the saviour of the world.

Melqart (king of the city) is a very old divinity of the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre. He was worshipped also in Carthage. Melqart can be considered a sun god as well as a vegetation god. There is a close relationship between Melqart and Heracles. The facts are that the Greek authors most often refers to Melqart as the Tyrian (or Phoenician) Heracles. It is not always easy to decide which god they have in mind, since they sometimes write only Heracles and yet mean Melqart. In many ways, the two gods have coalesced.

From the very beginning, Heracles was seen as the reconciler of humanity and the Son of God. As time went by, the tales told of his life were expanded and even more idealised by the Stoics, and others. At the beginning of our Common Era, the faith of Heracles was spread in large parts of the Mediterranean area, such as Greece, Syria and Rome.

There are points of close similarity between the life of Jesus and the life of Heracles. Heracles’ mother, a woman named Alcmene, becomes pregnant through a union with the god Zeus, and she gives birth to Heracles. Heracles is consequently a Son of God. Just like Jesus, Heracles has a mortal stepfather named Amphitryon. But like Joseph (Matthew 2:4ff), Amphitryon does not have sexual intercourse with his wife until the divine conception has taken place and she still is a virgin. Heracles’ mortal parents make a trip from their hometown Mycenae to Thebes where Zeus makes Alcmene pregnant and she gives birth to Heracles. It was commonly held that virgin sons were born during flights or travels, and that was the case when Isis gave birth to Horus. While Jesus, according to the Gospels, was born in Bethlehem, he was still known as Jesus of Nazareth. Also Heracles was known to hail from his father’s hometown, despite the fact that he was born in Thebes.

When Heracles is born, the goddess Hera, Zeus’ wife, is told that a king of her tribe is born. Knowing that Zeus is the father, and enraged by jealousy and fear of losing her power to the new king, she attempts to kill Heracles. Jesus’ parents fled with Jesus to Egypt in order to escape Herod’s persecution, and after Herod’s death, they returned to Palestine. Heracles’ mother Alcmene leaves Heracles in the woods to escape Hera’s wrath and persecution. Athena rescues Heracles and eventually she brings him back to Alcmene.

Before Heracles begins his public mission, he spends – just like Jesus – a long time by himself. During this period, he is tempted, and like Jesus, he overcomes the temptations. The god Hermes shows Heracles the realms of the king and the tyrant from a high mountain. Jesus also meets this fate, when the Devil shows him the glory of the kingdoms of the earth from a high mountain, and promises that he can rule them all (Matthew 4:8).

Both Jesus and Heracles have received a mission from their heavenly father, and both fulfil their fathers’ will. The mission is confirmed by way of prophecy, in the case of Heracles a prophecy by the oracle, in the case of Jesus a prophecy from the book of Isaiah. They will both choose a path of suffering. Heracles is called The Saviour. Like Jesus, he walks on water, and he raises Alcestis from the dead, but his true feat is to overcome death, and his death leads to eternal life. Heracles’ second wife Deianira causes his death by accident, and like Judas Iscariot she is overcome by horror and remorse, and hangs herself.

There are two traditions concerning Melqart’s or Heracles’ death, both of which are pre-Christian. According to one, he is killed by the hundred-headed monster Typhon, he ed th Sophocles gives testimony that Heracles died in a fire on Mount Oeta. Siculus gives the same information s us

There was also a cultic celebration of Melqart or Heracles. According to an inscription from approximately 500 BCE found in the Etrurian (Italian) town of Pyrgi, they ritually buried an unnamed god, who probably was Melqart, in the month of krr (probably July). Josephus tells us awakening of the ofP ch There are many indications that people of ’And the Greek sophist Eudoxus of Cnidus was was resuscitated by the aid of a quail, and ascended to heaven in a cloud. This indicates that Me, , god one in the upper regions on earth, a . We also have the testimony of Justin Martyr, writing in the middle of the second century CE:

And when they tell that Hercules was strong, and travelled over all the world, and was begotten by Jove of Alcmene, and ascended to heaven when he died, do I not perceive that the Scripture which speaks of Christ, ‘strong as a giant to run his race’, has been in like manner imitated? (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 69)

Jesus is crucified on Golgotha, a small hill outside of Jerusalem. Heracles is burned to death on the mountain Oeta. When Heracles is dying, both his mother and a beloved disciple are present. According to John 19:25f, the conditions were the same when Jesus died. Before Heracles dies, he invokes his heavenly Father:

I pray you admit this spirit of mine to the stars – – – See, my father is summoning me now and opening heaven. I come, father!

… spiritum admitte hunc, precor, in astra – – – vocat ecce iam me genitor et pandit polos; venio, pater (Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus, 1703–4, 1724–6, Loeb)

According to Luke 23:46 (NASB), Jesus cries out: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” As both Sons of God are dying, they say: “it is completed” or “It is finished”. When Heracles as well as Jesus dies, both an earthquake and a solar eclipse occur. After his death, Heracles still can communicate with this world (he is resurrected?) and calls out: “Mother, now cease your wailing ... I must go up now into the heavenly climes”, which he is also said to have done. The resurrected Jesus says to his Mary Magdalene: “Woman, why are you weeping? ... I ascend to m y Father and your Father ” (John 20:15–17 NASB) . Even the information that the most beloved disciple cared for the Saviour’s mother is found in the legend of Heracles.

The author of the Gospel of John in particular seems to have borrowed a lot from the cult of Heracles. The concept of “Logos ”, which is so important in the Prologue to the Gospel of John, is borrowed from the Stoics, and was also part of the religion of Heracles. Compare John 3:17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”, to Cornutus, who in the first century wrote: “For the Logos [the word] is not there to harm or to punish, but to save”.

Dionysus

Dionysus was above all the god of wine and drunkenness. However, he was also a god who comforted the dying. He was seen as a bringer of peace, but also as a god who suffered, died and was resurrected from the dead. The cult of Dionysus had a significant influence in Greece as early as in the seventh century BCE, aches s found and dating the . In the centuries that followed, the cult expanded in many places in the Mediterranean area. In Rome, for instance, there were in 186 BCE seven thousand followers of Dionysus.

Dionysus had the same father as Heracles, that is to say the father of all gods, Zeus. His mother was the mortal woman Semele. It is nowhere said that Semele was a virgin, made her pregnant[110] On the other hand, neither the opposite is said, de bolt, her womb. In the same way as the divine force of the supreme Roman god supreme god Y , (Luke 1:35)

We are familiar with the representation of the Jesus child lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes (see Luke 2:12ff). This is a well-known theme. The divine child Hermes is portrayed in swaddling clothes, and Zeus’ mother Rhea wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes in order to make Cronus believe that it was her new-born child Zeus. At the great festivals in honour of Dionysus, also his idol was carried about in a manger (a winnowing fan).

Dionysus was regarded as a physician who healed the sick, and as a God comforting those who were dying. He was known as the Lord, the child of God, the son of God in human form and the true God. In Euripides’ The Ba, is portrayed Dionysus suffered, but he hardly suffered for the sake of others. Instead, he suffered for his own sake. Here, Christianity differs, as Jesus was said to have died for the salvation of mankind. This, however, is a religious belief and really has nothing to do with the story in itself. Jesus, as well as other sons of God, suffered and died. Dionysus is sometimes described also as a redeemer, a Saviour, but he never saves people from sins.

On paintings — often on vases — on coins and in sculptures, Dionysus is depicted as riding on an ass, often in procession where the crowd (satyrs) is waving with branches of ivy. Like Jesus, Dionysus is portrayed as a beautiful youth, as well as an elderly bearded man.

Dionysus and the wine. Dionysus was closely connected with the wine and was called “the vine”. The author of the Gospel of John makes Jesus call himself “ true vine” n NIV , y a the cult of D

John also writes that Jesus at the wedding at Cana, turned the water in six hundred litre jars into wine (Joh 2:1ff). Five hundred years before, Euripides writes that the land is flowing with wine when Dionysus appears. Several sources, almost all of which are slightly older than, or contemporary with the Gospels, say that Dionysus brings forth wine from water and other substances. In the middle of the first century BCE, Diodorus writes that at certain fixed times wine flows from a well in Teos, and that according to the inhabitants of Teos, this is proof that Dionysus was born in their City. In the year 1 CE, Ovid writes (who was the ) and other things. Pliny the Elder, writing in the year 7 , tells us there is a spring of D u d of A . E on the festival of Th , that well with A few years earlier, Plutarch (c. 46-c. 120 CE) writes that nurses washed now - And in the middle of the second century CE, writes priests of D u in Elis, telling us that the priests used to leave three e , and in the morning, they were “filled ”.

The cultic celebration. In the Gospel of John we read:

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. (John 6:53–55, NIV)

This is an odd statement which can hardly be taken literally. In a sacramental act, however, the adherents of Dionysus tore a piece of flesh apart and ate it raw, in order to gain immortality. Moreover, in one version of the Dionysus myth, the Titans dismember the little Dionysus child and boil his body-parts, they where brought together and resuscitated

… the sons of Gaia [the titans] tore to pieces the god, who was a son of Zeus and Demeter [that is Dionysus], and boiled him, but his members were brought together again by Demeter and he experienced a new birth as if for the first time, such accounts as this they trace back to certain causes found in nature. (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 3:62:6 [Loeb]; quoted by Beck Sanderson)

Diodorus speaks accordingly of “a new birth” and he says furthermore that this can be traced “back to certain causes found in nature.” Dionysus is presented as “the twice-born” (Dimetor) since he is a god of vegetation. The first birth is “when the plant [the vine] is set in the ground and begins to grow” and the second “when it becomes laden with fruit and ripens its clusters”. Dionysus therefore is “considered as having been born once from the earth and again from the vine”.

And like Jesus, who was consumed as wine and bread, also Dionysus and the goddess of growing plants, Ceres, was thought of as the divine substance of wine and bread which was consumed when eaten.

Dionysus’ resurrection. Dionysus was believed to have risen after his death. On the island of Thasos, in north-eastern Greece, an old inscription speaks of Dionysus as a god who each year renews himself and returns rejuvenated. After doing this he was thought to have ascended to heaven. The Christian apologist Justin Martyr confirms about 150 CE the existence of these ideas, but at the same time, he denies that the events described actually had occurred and he claims that the devil had forged the writings of the Greeks:

For when they tell that Bacchus, son of Jupiter, was begotten by [Jupiter’s, that is Zeus’] intercourse with Semele, and that he was the discoverer of the vine; and when they relate, that being torn in pieces, and having died, he rose again, and ascended to heaven; and when they introduce wine into his mysteries, do I not perceive that [the devil] has imitated the prophecy announced by the patriarch Jacob, and recorded by Moses? (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 69)

Crucifixion, or being put on a stake, hung on wood or on a tree, seems to be part of many mythological tales. Like [135] also ucified god. Even before the Christian era, people worshipped a “crucified” Dionysus. The wine on the cross is a familiar subject, and Dionysus vas the wine. He c. (communion-) There are vessels of wine on the table (and another vase shows something similar to bread) that probably was intended to be used to celebrate the mysteries of Holy Communion. Dionysus was not merely a crucified god, but also a crucifying one, since he ied c u

… and caught Lycurgus alive, stung out his eyes and inflicted him each possible damage and then crucified him. (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 3:65 [Loeb])

Jesus is not depicted as crucified in art until late in history. Our oldest evidence dates from the fifth century CE. There is however, a very famous wall scribble found in Rome, known as the Alexander graffito. It was made sometime during the period from the first to the third century CE. The image represents a man with a head of an ass, hung on a cross-like stand. Below stands a boy. The scribble is sometimes interpreted as a malicious portrait of Christians worshipping a crucified ass, meaning Jesus. However, this interpretation is strained.

First, there is no evidence that Jesus was ever depicted as crucified in art until the fifth century CE. Secondly, there was an old tradition saying that the Jews worshipped an ass, or the head of an ass. From the third century BCE up to the second century CE, both Greek and Roman authors repeatedly throw this accusation at the Jews. In the second century, the accusation is transferred also onto the Christians whom the vast majority still looked upon as Jews.

Another circumstance is the sign of Y in the picture’s upper right corner. The Gnostic Sethians, who worshipped the god Typhon-Seth, used the head of an ass as a symbol and in the many instances where the god Typhon-Seth’s ass head occurs in Rome, most often also the symbol Y is inscribed to the right of the ass head.

But above all, the ass can be connected with the cult of Dionysus or Bacchus. The ass is often depicted along with Dionysus and was considered holy. It was a symbol of the fact that the bodily passions ceased through death.

Up until World War II, there was in the museum of Berlin a small amulet representing a crucified Dionysus. The amulet is dated to the third century CE, and if that is correct, then it is older than every known representation of Jesus on the cross (earliest fifth century CE). However, several pre-war experts suspected that the amulet was a forgery. Since it is now lost and we only have the casting left, there is no way we can settle whether it was a forgery or not.

Justin Martyr knew of several pagan sons of god (for example the sons of Zeus) whose respective death each was filled with agony and suffering and in his opinion was in that respect similar to the death of Jesus. He asserts, however, that the sons of god died in various ways and that the pagans did not imitate the crucifixion, since they considered it symbolic. Whether they are symbols or not, Dionysus the Vine is depicted on a tree and the wine is said to be hung on the cross. As a consequence, the legend of Jesus’ crucifixion may be seen as a development of the legend of Dionysus’ crucifixion.

Mitra, Mithra and Mithras

In ancient India, in the old Persian empire, and later in the vast Roman empire, there were three cults, all worshipping a god with a similar name. In the Indian Vedas, he is called Mitra and in the Persian Avesta, he goes by the name of Mithra. In both these cases, the god is a personification of the sun, and in all likelihood it is the same god. The oldest written source mentioning Mitra is from approximately 1400 BCE, but the cult of this god is probably much older.

Mitra and Mithra. The Indo-Persian Mithra was from the start a minor divinity but worked himself up to become one of the major gods. He was considered a peaceful and benevolent god, a guardian of truth, a light of the world, the Lord of wide pastures and everybody’s friend. He was an all-seeing and all-knowing god. The sun was his eye, and with this eye, he observed the world when travelling by his chariot across the sky. Later he took a slightly more warlike shape and got the role of mediator between the spiritual twin brothers Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda), who represented good, and Ahriman (Angra Mainyu), who personalized evil (the precursor of the Jewish-Christian Devil). At this stage, Mithra was entrusted with the mission of bringing the souls to Paradise and was thus technically seen a Redeemer or a Saviour.

The origin of Mithras. Later in the Roman Empire, a mystery cult of the saviour Mithras emerged. According to Plutarch, Sicilian pirates revered Mithras, and the soldiers of General Pompey in 67 BCE brought the cult of Mithras to Rome. Roman sources allege that the Mithras cult came from Persia. However, many present-day scholars doubt that information for several reasons. They consider it a new movement and that Mithras only has some few features in common with the Persian Mithra, including the name. Instead, some scholars suspect that the god Perseus was the proper Mithras. Despite the information that the cult was introduced in the year 67 BCE, the first signs of the dawning cult of Mithras are from the end of the first century CE (approximately at the same time as the Gospels were written) in the form of sculptures and inscriptions. Since this was a mystery religion, the teaching was kept secret from the profane, and therefore our knowledge of the cult is principally based on archaeological remains and to some extent on the surviving writings of its critics.

By all accounts, the Roman cult of Mithras was a rival of the early Christian Church. Thus the Mithras cult shared the fate of the Gnostic movement. When in the fourth century, the Christian Church emerged the victor; the Mithras cult was eventually suppressed, and was later forbidden. Its followers were persecuted, its temples destroyed, and Christian churches were erected upon the ruins. If the Mithraic Church ever possessed any writings, they have not survived.

The birth of Mithras. Since Mithras was considered a Sun God, he was thought to have been born on the day after the darkest day of the year, the winter solstice. In the third century CE his birth was celebrated on the 25th of December according to the Julian calendar then in use. This day was later, in the fourth century, appointed the birthday of Jesus by the Christian Church. Mithras was believed to have been born in or from a rock, and so he was called “the Rock-Born”. Consequently, he was worshipped in caves or in temples built to resemble caves. According to early Christian beliefs, also Jesus was born in a cave. Justin Martyr attests this belief already in the middle of the second century CE. Origen and the apocryphal Gospel according to James also say so. The word Rock (Greek: Petros, Latin: Petrus, Aramaic: Kephas) was according to Paul the name of one of the leaders of the Jerusalem Church. In the Gospels, Peter is Jesus’ foremost disciple. Paul even calls Christ “Rock” (1 Cor 10:4).

Mithras is born an adult. When he is born, he, or possibly the rock, radiates a divine light. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the star of Bethlehem led some Magi from the East to the Jesus child. Magi from the East points unambiguously to Persia, from where Mithra derived his origin. Moreover, the Jesus child is visited by shepherds. Mithras’ birth is supervised by shepherds, and they give Mithras fruit and their flocks, as can be seen on ancient monuments that have been preserved.

The deeds of Mithras. The Roman Mithras wrought one miracle, namely making water pour out of a rock. However, most interpretations of Mithras deal with the bull. Mithras wrestles down the bull, whereupon he drags it to his cave. In the next scene, he has conquered the bull and sits on top of it with his dagger ready to stab. Then Mithras sacrifices the bull by stabbing it while turning his head away. In the next scene, we see the sun god Helios kneeling before Mithras. After that, Mithras eats a last supper together with Helios, where they drink the blood and eat the meat of the bull. Thereupon, Mithras and Helios go up into the heavens in a chariot.

The sacraments. There were several sacraments within the Roman cult of Mithras. Since there were seven degrees of initiation, it seems reasonable to conclude that there were also seven sacraments. There were at least a baptism h the ad[154] , they ate [155] ( , later Latin: ,[156] Within Mithraism there was a belief in the immortality of the soul and probably also in a resurrection. An inscription, presumably from the latter part of the second century and found in a Mithraeum, suggests that the followers were ensured immortality: “us too you have saved by blood eternally shed [from the bull]”.

The resurrection of Mithras. It is often said that there is no evidence of a conception where Mithras rose from the dead, since there are no proofs that Mithras was a dying god, and he had to die in order to rise again. In almost all mystery religions, however, the initiates underwent a symbolic death and rebirth. This was the case with the Mithras cult as well, as can be inferred from The Chronicles of Emperor Commodus (ruled 180-192 CE), where it says that Commodus …

... polluted the Mithraic rites with real homicide, whereas the custom in them is only to say or to pretend something that creates an appearance of fright. (Aelius Lampridius, [early fourth century CE] Vita Commodi Antonini)

That is, he really killed, instead of participating in an enactment. Moreover, Tertullian states that “an image of a resurrection” was introduced into the celebration of the Roman Mithras. If both a ritual death and a ritual resurrection were enacted in the cult of Mithras, it is hard to draw any other conclusion than that they thought that Mithras had first died and then risen. Furthermore, if Mithras actually is Perseus, it is even more plausible that he was considered to have risen, since Justin Martyr claims that the pagans assert that Perseus had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven.

The star chart. The most important event within the Roman cult of Mithras is that of Mithras killing the bull. The reason for the bull slaughtering is to be found on the firmament. It so turns out that was y. On so-called tauroctonies, a sort of star charts engraved on stone tablets, Mithras is depicted on top of the bull. He is surrounded on all sides by the twelve signs of the zodiac, which almost always accompany a Sun God.

Christianity, on the other hand, talks of Jesus’ twelve disciples who are derived from the twelve tribes of Israel which in turn probably are an interpretation of the twelve signs of the zodiac. Below is a representation of Mithras accompanied by the bull (the constellation Taurus) and also by a dog, a snake, a cup, a raven, a scorpion and a lion, all of which correspond to specific constellations.

The period c. 4000 BCE to c. 2000 BCE was the age of Taurus. At the vernal equinox, when all over the world days and nights are equally long; our ancestors saw the sun rising in the sign of Taurus. Mithras was intimately connected with the sun and was actually a sun god. During this epoch and at the time of the vernal equinox, the aforementioned constellations, and only these, were situated along an imaginary line in the sky corresponding to the earth equator, above or below the orbit which the sun and the moon seem to follow across the vault of heaven. The exception is Leo, which then was at the place of the summer solstice. It is possible that the cup does not refer to Crater (Latin for “wine bowl”), but instead to Aquarius (the water carrier), which at that time was at the winter solstice (when both Jesus and Mithras were thought to have been born).

The unique relation here described, therefore, prevailed only in the age of Taurus. As a consequence of the precession of the equinoxes (see the “more detailed description”) the conditions of 4000 years ago (c. 2000 BCE) had changed in such a way that the sun at the vernal equinox rose in Aries instead of in Taurus. At some point in history, our ancestors must have made this discovery, and this probably was the basis of the widely spread idea about the killing of the bull. When they made this discovery, they killed a bull as a symbol of the entrance into a new era or perhaps only in order to appease the heavenly gods. The bull (Taurus) died and the ram (Aries) was born.

In addition, the Indian Vedas mention that a bull was slaughtered and that all plants and animals grew from its body. However, no Persian text says that Mithra slew a bull. Instead, it is Ahriman (Angra Mainyu), the force of cosmic evil, who does the actual killing of the bull. In the Indian Vedic literature, Mitra is invited to participate in the killing and he ends up assisting the other gods killing the bull. Evidently, this idea, one way or another, lived on much later in the Roman mysteries of Mithras, or was it adopted from other bull-killing cults. On star charts ( of the god Perseus [166] to the bull at corresponding to the of the Pleiades

at that time d that the fish became th (Piscean)

The sacrificial lamb. At the Jewish traditional Passover celebration, before the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, a lamb was slaughtered as a thank-offering to God. At the very beginning of the Christian movement, Jesus was looked upon as a sacrifice for the world’s salvation, the lamb sacrificed for the world. In the book of Revelation, the common picture of Jesus is that of a sacrificial lamb. John 1:29 says: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”. And even before the Gospels were written, Paul claims: “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor 5:7).

The supreme Sun God. Mithras is often depicted together with the Sun God Helios, who symbolises the sun. Therefore, Mithras reasonably cannot have been the actual sun. A convincing hypothesis presented by David Ulansey suggests that Mithras represents another sun. While Helios is the sun god, Mithras is called “Sol Invictus”, “the invincible sun”.

Plato seems to have assumed that there were two suns, the generally known visible one, as well as a so-called “Hypercosmic” sun, which exists in a higher sphere. This higher sphere is situated outside of the cosmos, and on the hypothesis that be , the the This would also explain the fact that in all depictions, the bull is inverted compared to the constellation Taurus on the sky. As seen “from outside” it is turned the right way round. Therefore, the rock from which Mithras is born would be the cosmos, out of which Mithras escapes like a chicken from an egg. People are entrapped in the cave (cosmos) where Mithras was born and out of which he has now escaped. He is watching the cosmos from outside. There is an correspondence between the myth of trapped in the cave a dark “ one person manages to escape

Buddha

Trade between India and above all the Near East but also Greece, flourished even at the time of Alexander the Great. There was also missionary activity, and Buddhism was well-known in Rome as early as in the second century BCE. Although you should not push the parallels between the lives of Jesus and Buddha too far, it is plausible that people in the West were familiar with many of the Buddhist legends at the dawn of Christianity. The similarities the of d us

The legends of the Buddha’s life were first recorded in the Pali language and the Sanskrit language and were early translated into Chinese, Tibetan and other languages. Indian writings are very difficult to date. The Indians themselves have never cared much for dating their literary works. Most often, the texts are anonymous, and even when we know who authored them, we seldom know exactly when that person lived.

In the following summary of Buddha’s life, I have used texts that are earlier and some that are later than the Gospels. The first of the three parts of the extensive Pali Tipitaka is Vinayapitaka. It contains seven books, including Mahâvagga and Cullavagga. The second part of the Tipitaka is Suttapitaka, containing five Nikâyas (collections), out of which I used four, Digha-, Majjhima-, Samyutta-, and Anguttara-Nikâya. All of these antedate Christianity. The Mahâyânasûtras are of later date. Saddharmapundarîkasûtra (the Lotussûtra) is written some time between 100 BCE and 100 CE. Vimalakîrtinirdeshasûtra seems to have been written some time before the middle of the second century CE. The Lalitavistârasûtra was probably written in the third century CE.

Other scriptures: The Buddhacharita probably dates from the beginning of the second century CE. The the Commentary century CE However, you must always remember that every text, every statement, probably existed as common cultural traditions long before they were put down into writing. Generally speaking, ancient Indian literature does not consist of any new individual innovative literature. All texts are founded upon older material, sometimes upon manuscripts that are no longer extant and, not least, upon very old oral traditions.

One can therefore assert that the scriptures have a prehistory, where materials were collected and at some stage were recorded and eventually achieved authority. With these reservations, I shall compare some of the Gospel stories with what can be found in ancient Indian literature.

The birth the Buddha. T amous is known as Siddhârtha Gautama. He is supposed to have lived some time in the period from late seventh century BCE to early third century BCE. Like Jesus he dwelt as a spiritual being in heaven before his arrival on earth. He incarnated voluntarily in order to save the world. His mother was Queen Mâyâ who was later regarded as a virgin. She was believed to have been impregnated by a divine being in the shape of a white elephant who entered her through her right side. Buddha’s birth can therefore be considered a virgin birth, as Mâyâ’s husband Suddhodana, like Joseph, was only stepfather and not the real father of Buddha. Mâyâ also had no sensual thoughts of men, was inaccessible to them and lived as a virgin for thirty-two months. Jerome (c. 347-420 CE) says that Buddha “had his birth through the side of a virgin”. Consequently, the Buddha was regarded as the Son of God (devaputra).

The Buddha child is born while his mother is making a journey to visit her parents. At Buddha’s birth, angels (devas) or gods announces to Queen Mâyâ that she has given birth to a mighty and powerful son. The Buddha child radiates a dazzling light and receives homage from heaven. Wise men recognize in him the signs of a god or superman (mahâpurisa). He is seen as a World Saviour who saves people from suffering and he is sought after in wide areas and receives veneration.

Buddha’s childhood. Buddha is a prince of a royal family. Jesus, although not of a royal family, still is descended from King David. As a little boy, the Buddha is revered in the palace by an old wise man named Asita. Also Jesus was revered in the temple by a wise man, a righteous and devout man by the name of Simeon.

Luke 2:25 - 34 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout… and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts… Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” … “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel … Suttanipata 689ff The longhaired sage looked at the baby and with great joy he picked him up… a man who now, filled with delight, raised his voice to say these words: ‘there is nothing to compare with this: this is the ultimate, this is the perfect man!’ Just then the hermit remembered that he was going to die quite soon – and he felt so sad at this that he began to cry… This prince will come to the fulfilment of perfect enlightenment. The religious life will be fully expounded. He, seeing the utmost purity, will set rolling the Wheel of Dhamma through sympathy for the welfare of many. His holy life will spread far and wide.”

The story of twelve-year-old Jesus is told in Luke 2:41ff. His parents lose him on a journey and later find him in the temple courts, teaching the teachers. Even as a young boy Siddhârtha is very wise. He is revered in the temple, and at school he proves to master all spoken and written languages. When travelling in company with adults, they lose him, and when they finally find him, he is in deep meditation.

The baptism and the temptation. Also Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan and his temptation in the wilderness have their direct parallels. Siddhârtha bathes in the river Nairañjana, and then sits down under a tree and experiences an inner awakening that causes “the dwellers in heaven [to] burst into unequalled joy”. When Jesus had been baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and ...

... opened to him were the heavens, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him, and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, `This is My Son -- the Beloved, in whom I did delight.’ (Matthew 3:16-17 YLT)

After the baptism, Jesus fasts for forty days in the wilderness and is afterwards tempted by the devil. Following a forty-nine days long fast, also Siddhârtha is tempted in his solitude by Mâra, the Evil One, who promises to make him a world emperor, if he renounces becoming a world saviour. Just as Jesus, the Buddha resists the temptation, and he is praised as a conqueror by gods and animals, just as angels came and attended Jesus.

Buddha’s disciples. When Siddhârtha begins his mission, he is like Jesus about 30 years old. He has many disciples, but according to later visual art, the principal disciples are twelve. Siddhârtha’s two first lay disciples are brothers (Tapussa and Bhallika), and they come to him when he is sitting under the Rajâyatana tree, having recently moved from the bo tree (a fig-tree, Ficus religiosa — a Buddhist symbol), where he attained Enlightenment (Bodhi). In addition, Jesus first two disciples, Simon Peter and Andrew, are brothers (Mark 1:16-18). Moreover, according to John 1:48, Jesus finds his disciple Nathanael under a fig tree. Buddha also has a pair of noble principal disciples, Shâriputra (Pali: Sâriputta) and Maudgalyâyana (Pali: Moggallâna), where Shâriputra like Simon Peter is the chief disciple (aggasâvaka) who will succeed Buddha when he is gone. — like Jesus — also Ânanda

Just as John the Baptist sends out two of his disciples to ask whether Jesus is the awaited Messiah, Pokkharasati sends out Ambattha to learn whether Sâkyamuni really is the promised Buddha. Both Buddha and Jesus are transfigured in the sight of their disciples, so that their bodies radiate a dazzling light. Moreover, like Jesus, Buddha sends out his disciples into the world to preach his message.

The teaching of Buddha. Buddha, as well as Jesus, teaches that you shall primarily consider your own life rather than blame others. They both preach by means of parables. They use a language of rich imagery, such as light and darkness, sun and rain, fertility and infertility.

Buddha “Consider others as yourself.” (Dhammapada 10:1) “Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good”. (Dhammapada 1:5 and 17:3) “If anyone would strike you with his hand, with a stick or cut you with a knife, you should restrain yourself and say no evil.” (Majjhimanikâya 21:6) “The faults of others are easier to see than one’s own” (Udânavarga 27:1) “Even as the great cloud, Kâsyapa, after expanding over the whole universe, pours out the same water … As the light of the sun and moon, Kâsyapa, shines upon all the world, upon the virtuous and the wicked, upon high and low … as their beams are sent down upon everything equally, without inequality (partiality); so, too, Kâsyapa, the intellectual light of the knowledge of the omniscient, the Tathâgatas, the Arhats, the preaching of the true law proceeds equally in respect to all beings in the five states of existence…” (Saddharma-pundarika 5) Jesus “… love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 19:19) “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you …” (Matthew 5:44) “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” (Matthew 5:39) “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3) “… that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45)

The miracles. The Buddha possesses great powers and works miracles. He knows the thoughts and deeds of others in beforehand. He heals the sick, makes the blind see again, makes the deaf hear, the lame and the paralytic well again, restores reason to the deranged, and expels evil spirits. When Jesus feeds five thousand re twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish left ff Buddha, together with his disciple Maudgalyâyana (Moggallâna) feeds five hundred monks with bread baked from dough for one bread only. And despite the fact that everyone eats until they are full, equally many breads remain. Like J others, also the Buddha walks on water. He can appear and disappear at will, and walk through walls. He even stills storms and makes a flood cease.

Also his disciples work similar miracles. A chosen disciple named Sâriputta walks on the river Aciravati in an ecstasy of faith, and all the time he thinks of the Buddha. But when he sees the waves, he for a moment looses his faith and begins to sink. However, by an act of will he regains his former faith and continues the walk to the other side of the river.

According to Mark, Matthew and Luke, Jesus’ favourite disciple Peter walks on water (Matthew 14:22-33). Peter does this by order of Jesus, after Jesus inspired him with courage. But when Peter sees the wind, he is afraid and begins to sink, whereupon Jesus helps him up and accuses him of having little faith.

Luke tells about a woman who praises the mother of Jesus, saying: “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you” (11:27). In Nidânakathâ, a noble virgin, when seeing The Buddha, burst forth: “Full happy now that mother is … who owns this lord so glorious!” However, neither the Buddha nor Jesus pays regard to the real purpose of such glorification. Instead they give it a deeper religious interpretation.

In Mark (12:41-44) and Luke (21:1-4) there is a story of a poor widow, who comes to the temple and as a gift offers two mites (very small coins). Jesus honours her in front of the disciples, as she donated more than all the other, who gave out of their wealth, while she gave all she had to live on. This tale is also documented by Ashvaghosha, an Indian writer who is believed to have lived at the beginning of the second century CE, that is, approximately at the same time as the Gospels were written. Evidently, the same tradition (legend) was known in both India and the Mediterranean area.

Ashvaghosha tells us about a poor widow (or poor unmarried woman), who comes to a religious assembly. She sees that the others give precious gifts, while she has nothing to give. However, she remembers that she found earlier two small coins in a dungheap and donates them to the community with pleasure. Then the high priest honours her in front of the other priests. He disregards the rich gifts of others, and the woman realizes that he is right, since what she has done is as difficult as it is for a rich man to give away all that he has.

Buddha’s mission and death. In his teaching, the Buddha is opposed traditional rigid laws, rebukes intolerance, dogmatism, ritualism, and priestly hypocrisy. He censors the unquestioning adherence to the Vedas and criticizes the bloody sacrifices of the Brahmins.

Voluntarily he leads a life of utmost simplicity as a beggar – a life of renunciation – and mixes mostly with the lowly in society. He accepts an invitation to eat in the house of a prostitute, for which he is criticized by the prominent people of the town. He is called the Seer (prophet), the Master, the Blessed One, the Enlightened One, the Lord and “the Awakened One”[209] and he calls himself Tathâgata (Sanskrit and Pali: “The One thus-come [to Truth]”. Peter’s threefold denial of his Master Jesus, has its equivalent in Buddha’s favourite disciple Ânanda’s threefold failure to ask the Buddha to stay on for the rest of the aeon. The Buddha also has an enemy, his wicked cousin and once his disciple, a traitor by the name of Devadatta. He makes three attempts at the Buddha’s life but fails every time. Just like Judas Iscariot, he meets a deplorable end, as he is swallowed by the earth and goes to hell, boiling for an eon. Jesus converted a robber on the cross. The Buddha turns a robber (Angulimâla) from his evil ways and makes him his devotee.

The Buddha eats a last meal, dies, and attains (pari)nirvâna. His death is presaged by a solar eclipse, a great earthquake and a thunderstorm:

And when the Blessed One had passed away, simultaneously with his Parinibbana there came a tremendous earthquake, dreadful and astounding, and the thunders rolled across the heavens. (Suttapitaka, Dîghanikâya [Mahâparinibbânasutta], 16:6:12; also 16:3:10)

Buddha is said, in a probably post-Christian scripture, to have risen after his death, and opened the coffin and spoken to his mother who came to visit him from “heaven”.

The crucified Buddha. A probably pre-Christian and rather unnoticed text in Sanskrit is “The Story of Gautama, the Progenitor of Ikshvâku”, which is found in Sanghabhedavastu. Here we find a remarkable parallel to

Gautama abandons his life as heir to the kingdom and turns to the ascetic hermit Krishnadvaipâyana who like John the Baptist subsists only on what wild nature produces, in this case fruits, roots and water. Just as Jesus, Gautama thinks that his teacher’s life is too ascetic, and he seeks a less ascetic life, a sort of middle course.

A harlot is murdered and Gautama is innocently accused of the murder. He is brought before the king who is persuaded by the crowd of his guilt and sentences Gautama to death by crucifixion (literally: to be put “on a stake”). In the Gospels, Governor Pilate is persuaded by the crowd and crucifies (stauroo) the wrongfully convicted Jesus.

They announce Gautama’s crime and sentence, a parallel to the inscription at Jesus’ cross. Then they put a garland of oleanders around Gautama’s neck, just as they put a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head. Gautama is driven out of the city through the southern city-gate and he is fixed “on a stake while still alive”. We are told that Gautama “has been pierced”, so that his “joints have been loosened” and that he is suffering from “severe pains” but that his mind is not injured.

Gautama’s ascetic teacher Krishnadvaipâyana is worried about Gautama who has not had time to engender any offspring, a fact that probably will give him bad karma. He therefore persuades Gautama, while still hanging on the stake, to produce two drops of semen which mixed with blood falls to the ground and are transformed into two eggs. These eggs crack in the sun and two princes are born. Gautama dies as the sun rises, but resurrects indirectly in his offspring. His teacher sees the eggshells near the stake and realizes that the two boys (princes) must be the sons of Gautama. Each of the princes in succession is made an “anointed king”. To be anointed king is the exact meaning of the Hebrew word Messiah (the anointed).

Moreover, in the place where they crucified Gautama lie the crushed eggshells. These eggshells are called kapâlâni in Sanskrit, the word kapâla (kapâlâni in the plural) meaning eggshell as well as skull or cranium. Jesus was executed on Golgotha (In English Calvary; in Aramaic Gulgolta) which means “the skull”. The place is also referred to as “place of a skull” and possibly the hill resembled a cranium.

The table in PDF format

Yet another son of God created

When the Gospels were written (in my opinion about 100 CE) and “Jesus of Nazareth” for the first time was thought of as a real physical being, there were already many conceptions of how the life of a Son of God should turn out. The Gospel writers were of course heavily influenced by Jewish attitudes, but — as clearly have been shown — also of non-Jewish beliefs.

Two thousand years ago, there were widely spread conceptions of gods thought of as born by mortal virgins made pregnant by gods; of dying gods, tree gods who were adored hanging on trees and who rose from the dead, sometimes on the third day; of vegetation gods who followed the succession of the seasons, and sun gods who followed the phases of the sun in the sky; of gods who were born at the winter solstice and died at the vernal equinox.

I have portrayed six characters (mythical or real) whose life stories in broad outline correspond to the life of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. These six are not the only examples that can be found. But they are those six lives that (at least according to my knowledge) most resemble the Jesus story of the Gospels.

Obviously, the Gospel writers considered the common legends to be too fascinating not to be used in their description of the newly born Son of God. The modern controversy regarding which scriptures are the older ones, the Christian or the non-Christian, is not crucial, since in many of these cases it probably is not a matter of direct borrowing from the one group to the other. Instead, comparisons made lead one to the conclusion that the material is legendary, and provided that God has not sent many of his sons and instructed them all to live their lives in approximately the same way, these tales should be relegated to where they belong, to the department of fairy tales and myths. We can only conclude that yet another Son of God had been created.

Copyright © Roger Viklund, Röbäck, Umeå, Sweden, 2007.

NOTES