The Christ of Christianity Borrowed from Other Pagan Religions?
Skeptics of Christianity say ad infinitum ad nausea the Jesus of the Bible is one of many other dying and rising gods from paganism. The typical approach is to point out certain Christian beliefs and practices, like Christmas, the star in the East, three kings (magi), twelve disciples, miraculous sings and wonders, the divine titles attributed to Jesus (“Lamb of God,” etc.), Judas’ betrayal, and the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection on the third day, have roots in paganism. This is then followed by a blitzkrieg a dogmatic assertions of alleged connections between Jesus to pagan gods. Discerning people, however, need to check the facts before signing off on them without some research. When one does look into the pagan religious sources, one finds they just do not pan put. The pagan gods have nothing in common with the Jesus of Christianity.
The basic idea of Christianity evolving out of pagan myths originated with the History of Religions School which flourished between 1880 and 1920. It theorized that the Bible should be understood “in the context of broader religious and cultural setting of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hellenistic religion,” and “emphasized the continuity between the Bible and the ancient Near East and also the discontinuity between the Bible and the modern world.”1 Although scholars abandoned the theory, on the basis that no real example of dying and rising gods could be found prior to the first century, the same bankrupt theory has resurfaced again in books like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy’s The Jesus Mysteries.2 The internet video Zeitgeist has also spread its own version of the myth about Christianity borrowing from pagan sources.
Some imagine links between Jesus Christ and the Egyptian god Horus. According to the Egyptian mythology of Osiris and Isis, while still in their mother’s womb, they consorted and bore a child named Horus. Osirus and Isis rule Egypt as divine monarchs. One day Typon [or Seth], a sibling to the divine monarchs, assassinates the king by luring him into a wooden box, sealing it, and casting it into a river. When Isis learns of the murder, she searches for the box, finds it, and, hides it. After she leaves to console her son, Typon discovers the hidden box, removes the body, cuts it into fourteen pieces, and scatters the remains throughout Egypt. When Isis learns of the desecration, she mourns, and begins a search for each part. Wherever she finds a part, a funeral is held. Osiris eventually returns the netherworld, trains Horus in combat, and sends him to avenge his death. After several battles, Horus defeats Typhon. The story ends with postmortem union between Osiris and Isis, followed by the birth of Harpocrates.3 Some versions of the myth do not have Osiris coming back to life, but becoming ruler of the underworld. Moreover, in the later era of the mystery religion of Isis, Serapis the sun god replaces Osiris, and the former deity does not die.4
It becomes clear that only with a runaway imagination can one connect the Jesus Christ of the Bible with the Horus of Egyptian mythology. More to come….
1. C. Brown, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green, Scott McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 333.
2. Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 160
3. cf. Plutarch, Isis and Osirus 12-19, in C.K. Barrett, The New Testament Background: Selected Documents (New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 121-124. Plutarch’s telling of the myth would be in the form that circulated in the first century. Missing from the Isis and Osirus myth is “a virgin birth on December 25 accompanied by a star in the East.” Neither can there be found baptism, disciples, miracles, divine titles, betrayal, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection!
4. Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought? (Richardson, TX: Probe Books, 1992), 138
The basic idea of Christianity evolving out of pagan myths originated with the History of Religions School which flourished between 1880 and 1920. It theorized that the Bible should be understood “in the context of broader religious and cultural setting of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hellenistic religion,” and “emphasized the continuity between the Bible and the ancient Near East and also the discontinuity between the Bible and the modern world.”1 Although scholars abandoned the theory, on the basis that no real example of dying and rising gods could be found prior to the first century, the same bankrupt theory has resurfaced again in books like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy’s The Jesus Mysteries.2 The internet video Zeitgeist has also spread its own version of the myth about Christianity borrowing from pagan sources.
Some imagine links between Jesus Christ and the Egyptian god Horus. According to the Egyptian mythology of Osiris and Isis, while still in their mother’s womb, they consorted and bore a child named Horus. Osirus and Isis rule Egypt as divine monarchs. One day Typon [or Seth], a sibling to the divine monarchs, assassinates the king by luring him into a wooden box, sealing it, and casting it into a river. When Isis learns of the murder, she searches for the box, finds it, and, hides it. After she leaves to console her son, Typon discovers the hidden box, removes the body, cuts it into fourteen pieces, and scatters the remains throughout Egypt. When Isis learns of the desecration, she mourns, and begins a search for each part. Wherever she finds a part, a funeral is held. Osiris eventually returns the netherworld, trains Horus in combat, and sends him to avenge his death. After several battles, Horus defeats Typhon. The story ends with postmortem union between Osiris and Isis, followed by the birth of Harpocrates.3 Some versions of the myth do not have Osiris coming back to life, but becoming ruler of the underworld. Moreover, in the later era of the mystery religion of Isis, Serapis the sun god replaces Osiris, and the former deity does not die.4
It becomes clear that only with a runaway imagination can one connect the Jesus Christ of the Bible with the Horus of Egyptian mythology. More to come….
1. C. Brown, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green, Scott McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 333.
2. Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 160
3. cf. Plutarch, Isis and Osirus 12-19, in C.K. Barrett, The New Testament Background: Selected Documents (New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 121-124. Plutarch’s telling of the myth would be in the form that circulated in the first century. Missing from the Isis and Osirus myth is “a virgin birth on December 25 accompanied by a star in the East.” Neither can there be found baptism, disciples, miracles, divine titles, betrayal, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection!
4. Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought? (Richardson, TX: Probe Books, 1992), 138
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