Is Jesus Christ the same as the other ancient Greco-Roman gods?
Alexander the Great became a great Grecian conqueror of nations around the fourth century BC, and his empire stretched from the Mediterranean to just beyond the Indus River. Hellenism became the dominant social force in Alexander’s kingdom. So influential was Hellenistic culture that by the third century BC the Hebrew Old Testament begun to be translated into Greek or the Septuagint. By the time of Jesus Christ, the Greek empire fragmented, and Rome became the ruling power. Did the Greco-Roman culture influence biblical writers into pattering their Christ after Gentile pagan gods? This simply was not the case. In fact, the idea of pagan deities like Attis, Dionysus, and Mithras were virgin born dying and rising gods really does not pan out.
According to Greek mythology, Attis was the son of a nymph named Nana. She was “impregnated by an almond from the tree which grew from the severed genitals of Agdistis.”1 The goddess Cybele loved the shepherd Attis and made him her priest on the condition he preserve his chastity. Attis, however, has an affair with another woman, and when Cybele finds out, she causes her unfaithful lover to go insane and castrate himself, but then ends his suffering by transforming him into a fir tree.2 As for the Roman spring festival wherein Cybele worshippers observed the ritual of burying and unburying a pine tree to symbolize the dying and rising of Attis, no evidence of this ritual can be found prior to AD 300.3
Dionysus the Olympian god of wine, pleasure, and festivity has no resemblance to Jesus Christ. He is identified as the son of Zeus but traditions differ on the identity of his mother (e.g. Semele, Demeter, Io, Dione, or Arge).4 Dionysus is a capricious god. He travels about the world teaching people how to cultivate vines and make wine; however, those who reject his teaching suffer greatly. For example, he “flays Damascus alive” for not introducing wine into their culture, and when the people of Argos refused to acknowledge him as god, he drove their women into mad cannibalism. After establishing his divinity throughout the world, he travels to Hades to take his mother to Olympus.5
Mithras was a Persian god whom Romans adopted into their own mystery religion, but has very little resemblance to the Jesus of Christianity. The Romans identified Mithras with astrological phenomena, a god who had control over celestial forces.6 He was believed to have been born out of a rock, carrying a knife and a torch, and wearing a Phrygian cap. He battled the sun and the primeval bull, and when he slew the bull, the blood became the ground of life for the human race.7 The cult of Mithras only initiated males and demanded a high degree of loyalty, which attracted many soldiers and government officials, and flourished in the second and third centuries.8 A major Mithraic festival did occur on December 25th at the time of the winter solstice; but evidence indicates this mystery religion did not become established in Rome until AD 168, which makes its genesis after Christianity.9 (If there was any borrowing going on, it was paganism from Christianity, and not the other way around.)
The Jesus Christ of Christianity is a unique person. He is nothing like the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon. The first Christians understood Jesus to be fully God and fully man in a single person. Yet, the Word became Flesh was far different that the gods of this world. He was a God who would give dignify and empower them with spiritual truth. He ultimately reconciled sinful man with the Heavenly Father.
1. Theoi Greek Mythology, “Attis,” http://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Attis.html. Apparently, semen from Zeus fell upon the ground, producing an androgynous being named Agdistis. The other gods, however, feared the creature and cut off its male genitalia, which fell to the ground and grew into an almond tree. The nymph named Nana took almonds from that tree, placed them on her bosom, and the almonds disappeared, leaving her pregnant with Attis (Theoi Greek Mythology, “Agdistis,” http://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Agdistis.html).
2. Theoi Greek Mythology, “Attis.” Eusebius, an ancient church historian, ties in the forbidden love affair scenario as the basis for a Phrygian custom in his day (cf. Eusebius, Preparatio Evangelica II, ii. 22ff, in Barrett, The New Testament Background, 125).
3. Ronald Nash, “Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions” http://www.equip.org/articles/was-the-new-testament-influenced-by-pagan-religions-
4. cf. Theoi Greek Mythology, “Dionysos” http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html.
5. Ibid.
6. E. Ferguson, Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments, ed. Ralph Martin and Peter Davids (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 1009
7. Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Geeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought (Richardson, TX: Probe Books, 1992), 144.
8. Ferguson, 1009.
9. Nash, 146-148.
According to Greek mythology, Attis was the son of a nymph named Nana. She was “impregnated by an almond from the tree which grew from the severed genitals of Agdistis.”1 The goddess Cybele loved the shepherd Attis and made him her priest on the condition he preserve his chastity. Attis, however, has an affair with another woman, and when Cybele finds out, she causes her unfaithful lover to go insane and castrate himself, but then ends his suffering by transforming him into a fir tree.2 As for the Roman spring festival wherein Cybele worshippers observed the ritual of burying and unburying a pine tree to symbolize the dying and rising of Attis, no evidence of this ritual can be found prior to AD 300.3
Dionysus the Olympian god of wine, pleasure, and festivity has no resemblance to Jesus Christ. He is identified as the son of Zeus but traditions differ on the identity of his mother (e.g. Semele, Demeter, Io, Dione, or Arge).4 Dionysus is a capricious god. He travels about the world teaching people how to cultivate vines and make wine; however, those who reject his teaching suffer greatly. For example, he “flays Damascus alive” for not introducing wine into their culture, and when the people of Argos refused to acknowledge him as god, he drove their women into mad cannibalism. After establishing his divinity throughout the world, he travels to Hades to take his mother to Olympus.5
Mithras was a Persian god whom Romans adopted into their own mystery religion, but has very little resemblance to the Jesus of Christianity. The Romans identified Mithras with astrological phenomena, a god who had control over celestial forces.6 He was believed to have been born out of a rock, carrying a knife and a torch, and wearing a Phrygian cap. He battled the sun and the primeval bull, and when he slew the bull, the blood became the ground of life for the human race.7 The cult of Mithras only initiated males and demanded a high degree of loyalty, which attracted many soldiers and government officials, and flourished in the second and third centuries.8 A major Mithraic festival did occur on December 25th at the time of the winter solstice; but evidence indicates this mystery religion did not become established in Rome until AD 168, which makes its genesis after Christianity.9 (If there was any borrowing going on, it was paganism from Christianity, and not the other way around.)
The Jesus Christ of Christianity is a unique person. He is nothing like the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon. The first Christians understood Jesus to be fully God and fully man in a single person. Yet, the Word became Flesh was far different that the gods of this world. He was a God who would give dignify and empower them with spiritual truth. He ultimately reconciled sinful man with the Heavenly Father.
1. Theoi Greek Mythology, “Attis,” http://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Attis.html. Apparently, semen from Zeus fell upon the ground, producing an androgynous being named Agdistis. The other gods, however, feared the creature and cut off its male genitalia, which fell to the ground and grew into an almond tree. The nymph named Nana took almonds from that tree, placed them on her bosom, and the almonds disappeared, leaving her pregnant with Attis (Theoi Greek Mythology, “Agdistis,” http://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Agdistis.html).
2. Theoi Greek Mythology, “Attis.” Eusebius, an ancient church historian, ties in the forbidden love affair scenario as the basis for a Phrygian custom in his day (cf. Eusebius, Preparatio Evangelica II, ii. 22ff, in Barrett, The New Testament Background, 125).
3. Ronald Nash, “Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions” http://www.equip.org/articles/was-the-new-testament-influenced-by-pagan-religions-
4. cf. Theoi Greek Mythology, “Dionysos” http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html.
5. Ibid.
6. E. Ferguson, Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments, ed. Ralph Martin and Peter Davids (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 1009
7. Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Geeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought (Richardson, TX: Probe Books, 1992), 144.
8. Ferguson, 1009.
9. Nash, 146-148.
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