Didn't Christianity 'Borrow' From Other Religions? The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the central doctrine of the Christian faith. Without it, Christianity would not be the unique claim to ‘Truth’ that it is. The Apostle Paul recognized and explained this when he said to the Church in Corinth “…if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Perhaps it is this reason that many skeptics focus on discrediting the resurrection of Christ, assuming that if it can be proven ‘false’ then Christianity will be shown to be a hoax. One approach that skeptics take is to project the Christian resurrection as ‘borrowed’ or ‘stolen’ from supposed resurrection claims from other ‘religions’. This claim was perhaps most widely distributed via a prime time television expose’ that the renowned public Theologian Peter Jennings conducted several years ago, in which he investigated the ‘facts’ behind Christianity and specifically the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In a dialogue regarding this subject with Jesus Seminar fellow Marvin Meyer, Mr. Jennings carried on the following conversation: Professor Marvin Meyer: The conviction was in the mysteries that there is death and resurrection, just as crops go into the ground and die and come back again for a new season in a wonderful kind of way. So also in human life we go through a kind of death and resurrection. Peter Jennings: Now hold it. You’re saying that the mystery cults had an influence on the Jesus story because people who wrote the Jesus story took an earlier story and passed it on via Jesus? Professor Marvin Meyer: I believe so. One of the greatest difficulties that early Christians had if they were going to cope with the reality of the crucifixion of Jesus is what do you do with that? I mean, how do you keep the movement going? How do you have some hope in the face of this kind of shameful and horrible death? And one of the things I believe that early Christians did is they took the model of the mystery religions; they took that story and retold that story as the story of Jesus. 1 Many people who have not studied this concept may find themselves intimidated by the ‘scholars’; these people have spent a great part of their lives researching this information. After all, who are we to question them? But are they right? How much documentary evidence exists to validate for these claims? How does Christianity really stand up to these ‘mystery’ religions vis-à-vis the evidences? In this paper we will survey this type of claim by the skeptic, consider the facts behind the claims, argue and conclude that Christianity is indeed unique in its claim of the miraculous resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Let’s take a cursory look at some of these ‘mystery’ religions and their claims, and then see how they stand up to the claims of Christianity. Mithras Scholars of Mithras purport that he lived as long ago as 1400 BC, and that his height of influence in the Roman Empire was at precisely the same time that Christianity was founded.2 He is purported to have been born of a virgin on December 25 in a cave and attended by shepherds, was a great traveling preacher, had 12 followers, promised his followers immortality, sacrificed himself as the ‘great bull of the sun’ for world peace, had been buried in a tomb and rose again in 3 days. He was called the ‘Good Shepherd’, the ‘word’, the ‘redeemer’, and identified himself with both the lamb and the lion.3 Clearly, there appear to be parallels between Jesus and Mithras. Osiris Perhaps one of the most well known ‘resurrection’ stories comes from actions from the ancient Egyptian god Isis. Osiris, Isis’ brother/husband, was killed by his evil brother Set and eventually cut into 14 pieces and scattered throughout Egypt. The distraught god Isis searched and found the body pieces, brought them together and brought him back to life. At issue is the accusation that this allegedly occurred many years before Christianity, potentially influencing the Christian story. Apollonius of Tyana In a city south of modern day Turkey, Apollonius is purported to have lived, had followers (disciples), performed miracles, died, and then was seen after his death. He supposedly lived in the first century AD, at the same time as Jesus of Nazareth. This is clearly another competing account, sometimes given as example of potentially influencing the Christian story. There are several points to consider when contrasting the mystery religions, their timing and documentation. Hank Hanegraaff boils these down to the memorable acronym FALSE. The letters in the acronym stand for False cause, Alleged similarities, Liberal revisionism, Syncretism, and Esotericism. Let’s examine these points to clarify what we should keep in mind when confronting the claim of Christian borrowing.4 False Cause This point refers to a logical fallacy that is easily committed. Just because two stories are similar does not necessarily mean that one connected to or dependent upon the other. For instance, some assert that the Lord’s Supper is a derivative of an ancient tradition of Mithras; but in fact it is more likely to be adapted from the Jewish tradition of Passover, just as Jesus intended. The Jewish tradition of Passover is a well documented fact that supports the documentation of the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ derivation of it displaying the New Covenant. In fact, there is NO documentary evidence of any of Mithras’ meal. Alleged Similarities Many times skeptics will utilize Christian terms that just do not apply to the cult they are comparing – the words are used to make it sound similar when in reality they are not. The Christian reference to Resurrection, for example, is often mentioned within the contexts of the mystery cults. But in fact the Christian meaning of Resurrection is quite unique, and has no parallel in any other myth – but this does not stop the skeptic from using the word to feign similarity (as with Osiris, which would be more accurately describes as a resuscitation, not a resurrection. Liberal Revisionism It is no secret that there exists much modern revision to historical fact. The ‘Liberal’ tendency to de-mystify the documented accounts of the Bible is clearly evident. This tendency only emphasizes the need to critically examine any claim that is made that is contrary to established dogma, and to examine the motives behind it. One must be aware of the potential of causing the evidence to align with an expected outcome, instead of leading us to its own conclusion. Syncretism This interesting word is simply defined in this case as the ‘meshing together of various dogmas into one’. For instance, it is quiet well documented that the mystery religions were quite often combining aspects of various cults into one, seemingly at the popular will or perhaps at the whim of the cultic ‘leaders’. Here Christianity is quite unique; Christianity has been solidly grounded from its onset in the belief that Jesus was ‘The Way, the Truth and the Life’, singularly providing salvation only through Himself. Men have died for ages because of this belief, and it has not changed, as have ALL of the mystery cults. Esotericism Another word to consider for the E in FALSE is perhaps Emotion, since one hallmark of the mystery cults is that of an altered state. In contrast to Christianity, which serves the whole man (body, mind and spirit - including emotion), these cults require their adherents to enter into another realm of consciousness to fully attain their required ‘spirituality’. Christianity is a thoroughly rational faith, which is open to all who believe. Before we consider the evidence for these mystery cults and whether we should place as much ‘faith’ in them as we do Christianity, we will summarize the relevant claims behind Christianity. We will consider the special ( and relevant) aspects of Christianity which claim to be unique, and then see if these aspects are also evident in the mystery cults, and if they are, whether the evidence is as clear and conclusive. This is not an exhaustive analysis of the evidence, but a summary of the copious evidences available in the accompanying references: Jesus Actually Existed With the evidence extant in the tremendous documentation of the Bible as well as extra-Biblical evidence, it is historically appropriate to posit that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed exist. Gary Habermas reminds us that “Surprisingly few scholars have asserted that Jesus never existed or have attempted to cast almost total doubt on his life and ministry.”5 Jesus Appeared After His Death William Lane Craig documents the reasons to believe that the appearances of Jesus are historically accurate and that these accounts can be trusted. First, Paul documents (1 Cor 15:3-5) that the Apostles saw Him. Second, there was not time for legend to develop; in fact eyewitnesses could have easily disputed these claims. Third, particular peculiar references lend historical credence to the stories. For instance, Jesus’ appeared first to women (which is surprising since at the time women were not accepted as reliable witnesses.) Fourth, the direct assertion in the references is that Jesus appeared in bodily form, not in an image or an apparition.6 The Jewish People Were Not Prepared For A Resurrection Story Such As That Of Jesus Of Nazareth N.T. Wright eloquently and convincingly shows us that while the first century Jewish people had a concept and an expectation of a ‘new life’, it was in the context of renewed national prominence; they expected the kingdom to prosper as it did under King David (remember at the time of Christ they were subservient to the Romans.) His thesis is summarized in a question: “How does it happen that we find virtually no spectrum of belief about life after death, but instead an almost universal affirmation of that which pagans said could not happen, and that which one stream of Judaism insisted would happen, namely resurrection?”7 His survey of Biblical and extra-Biblical evidences conclude that “The early Christians did not invent the empty tomb and the ‘meetings’…in order to explain a faith they already had…Nobody was expecting this kind of thing; no kind of conversion experience would have generated such ideas; nobody would have invented it, no matter how guilty (or how forgiven) they felt, no matter how many hours they pored over the scriptures.”8 Now, let’s analyze the claims of the mystery cults and the evidences available for their validation. Mithraism It turns out that the cult died out during the fifth century BC, leaving us with absolutely no documentary evidence. 2 In addition, the cult was so secretive its orthodoxy’s were only delivered to those initiated into the cult. The only means by which scholars extrapolate information about the cult today is via the remaining temples and artifacts, which consist of elaborate statues, relief’s and paintings. The most famous of these statues is the ‘taroctony’, which is the ‘bull-slaying scene’ in which Mithras is seen killing a bull with a sword, in the company of a dog, a snake, a raven, and a scorpion. Franz Cumont, one of the first serious scholars of Mitraism, had presented the claim that Mithraism was founded in Iran in 1400 BC. There was indeed a being worshipped at that time named Mithra, however his influence was compromised over the years as syncretism did its work and relegated his legend into one of the lesser gods. There is absolutely no evidence of the Iranian Mithra slaying a bull, so Cumont proceeded to project the belief that someone somewhere must have, allowing the mere possibility of it to have happened to become the driving force behind the legend. There is also no evidence of the Iranian Mithra worshipers meeting in caves, having levels of secrecy, or even pursuing secrecy at all. All of these items were added to the cult in the early first century by the Romans.3 All of these logically lead to the conclusion that the cult of Roman Mithraism was “a new creation using old Iranian names and details for an exotic coloring to give a suitably esoteric appearance to a mystery cult.”9 Recent scholarship has proposed a new meaning to the bull-slaying scene. We know that first century Romans had a geocentric view of the cosmos and participated in intense study and belief of the zodiac. We also know that the earth at that time was leaving the ‘Age of Taurus’ and entering the ‘Age of Aries’. It is therefore likely that the cult was derived to display the death of the bull (which was thought to be in charge of the cosmos) by someone who stands apart from the cosmos (some sort of deity.)2 Regarding the death and resurrection of Mithra, there is absolutely no record in the Mithraic scholarly literature that Mithra died, or was buried, or (of course) rose again. Ironically the ONLY evidence for this is a quote by the early Christian Church Father Tertullian, which was written significantly after the New Testament was written, and it is likely that he was simply repeating the claims of the Mithraic followers. As for some of the other Christ-like claims, a detailed analysis of the reality behind the legend shows that Mithra was not born in a cave, but out of a rock. He was not born or a virgin woman, but of the virgin ‘dawn’. And one might wonder how shepherds could have attended his birth if mankind was yet to be created? These are excellent examples of alleged similarities utilizing Biblical words with different meaning in order to cause confusion. Clearly, there is no need to continue with an investigation of this alleged example of Christian ‘borrowing’.2 Osiris Also rampant within reference to the ‘resurrection’ of Osiris is semantics and alleged similarities. In a famous debate with Dr. Norman Geisler, the former minister turned skeptic Farrell Till uses language such as “[Isis] hovered over Osiris and fanned the breath of life back into his body.”10 However, Mark McFall accurately points out that just a cursory examination of the documentation available shows that this is quite a stretch, and that most scholars are ‘not so quick’ to resort to such elaboration.11 McFall shows us evidence of this in the response of Bruce Metzger (Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton Theological Seminary): “whether his can rightly be called a resurrection is questionable”. In fact, in some versions of the myth Osiris is not ‘resurrected’ or even resuscitated, instead he simply stays dead and becomes King of the Underworld! McFall goes on to summarize many other ‘stretches’ of the skeptics and the purveyors of the myth of Isis/Osiris, concluding that “If Osiris was bodily resurrected back to earth as we know earth to be, it would only seem likely that he was resurrected in this way according to much later imaginations of writers…” Apollonius of Tyana Most interesting about the accounts of Apollonius is that there is only one major historical reference to him, and that is dated well after he is purported to have lived by a man named Pilostratus (170-245 AD). This biography was commissioned by an empress to be used in the dedication of a temple for Apollonius; not exactly independent eyewitness testimony to be used for historical purposes. Norman Geisler describes this type of embellishment as an ‘apotheosis’, which in this type of case is a legend in which a person becomes deified (or the ‘ultimate human’).12 Most interesting about this case is the fact that this is precisely what many skeptics charge about Christianity; however the purpose, quantity, and quality of the documentation clearly point to the apotheosis of Apollonius, but not to Christ. Ronald Nash describes six major points for us to consider in his classic article on the subject: “Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions.”13: These points are summarized by Elliot Miller14: 1) None of the so-called savior gods died for someone else. The notion of the Son of God dying in place of His creatures is unique to Christianity. 2) Only Jesus died for sin. As Gunter Wagner observes, none of the pagan gods ‘has the intention of helping men been attributed. The sort of death that they died is quite different (hunting accident, self-emasculation, etc.) 3) Jesus died once for all (Heb 7:27, 9:25-28; 10:10-14). In contrast, the mystery gods were vegetation deities whose repeated deaths and resuscitations depict the annual cycle of nature. 4) Jesus death was an actual event in history. The death of the mystery god appears in a mythical drama with no historical ties; its continued rehearsal celebrates the recurring death and rebirth of nature. The incontestable fact that the early church believed that its proclamation of Jesus’ death and resurrection was grounded in an actual historical event makes absurd any attempt to derive this belief form the mythical, non historical stories of the pagan cults. 5) Unlike the mystery gods, Jesus died voluntarily. Nothing like this appears even implicitly in the mysteries. 6) And finally, Jesus death was not a defeat but a triumph. Christianity stands entirely apart form the pagan mysteries in that its report of Jesus’ death is a message of triumph. Even as Jesus was experiencing the pain and humiliation of the cross, He was the victor. The New Testament’s mood of exultation contrasts sharply with that of the mystery religions, whose followers wept and mourned for the terrible fate that overtook their gods. In building a cumulative case for the validity of the Christian story, let’s summarize the facts that we have considered thus far. First, the Christian story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is as well documented as anything in antiquity, indeed, it is exponentially more documented. If we choose not to believe it, it cannot be because we do not have legitimate record of it. Could the records be the results of legend or of misrepresentation? This is highly doubtful, as is described in detail elsewhere.15 Second, it appears that the resurrection stories in the other myths do not in fact appear to be the source of the Christian story, indeed many they seem to have been influenced (either in ancient times or in current times by creative and energetic skeptics) by the Christian story. In addition, the documentation for their validation either does not exist, or it does not stand to the tremendous evidence of Christianity. Finally, to add to our cumulative case, we could consider the activities of God in preparing humankind for such a tremendous story. Leon McKenzie proposes that “the resurrection archetype is a meaning structure in the human psyche based upon universal human experience.” 16 McKenzie proposes that the resurrection theme is quite prevalent in our world, found in seven major phenomena that God uses to prepare us for the Christian story (part of the Natural Revelation). These phenomena include the burial of seed and the consequent resurrection of the plant; the changes of climate; the daily death and resurrection of the sun; the repeated resurrection patterns in stellar constellations; our daily sleep and wakefulness patterns; human mood changes; and finally the ‘death and resurrection’ of particular tribal cultures. Clearly, God providently filled our world with resurrection motifs that appear in nature. Are these the genesis of resurrection myth, or are they a precursor given to us by God to cause us to look forward to the ultimate resurrection of Christ? Perhaps both? The existence of these motifs can explain the prevalent resurrection motif in the mystery religions; it can also explain how God prepared us for the greatest story of all. Given the vast differences between the Christian resurrection story and the mythical and fantastic nature of the pagan myths, it is clearly valid to conclude that the Christian resurrection story stands apart and earns sole respect as truth.
1 Peter Jennings Reporting: The Search For Jesus; ABC News: June 26, 2000. Documented in Answering More Prime Time Fallacies; Hank Hanegraaff; Christian Research Journal; Volume 23 Number 2 2 Solving the Mithraic Mysteries; Biblical Archeological Review; Volume 20 Number 5; September/October 1994; pp. 40-53 3 Mighty Mithraic Madness – Did the Mithraic Mysteries Influence Christianity?; J.P Holding; Observed on April 9, 2004 at www.tektonics.org/tekton 04 02 04 mmm.html 4 Adapted from Answering More Prime Time Fallacies; Hank Hanegraaff; Christian Research Journal; Volume 23 Number 2 5 The Historical Jesus; Gary Habermas College Press Publishing Co; 1996; pg 46 6 Jesus Under Fire; Edited by Michael J. Wilkins and J.P. Moreland; Zondervan Press; 1995; pg 141; “Did Jesus Rise From The Dead?”; William Lane Craig 7 The Resurrection Of The Son Of God; N.T. Wright; Fortress Press; 2003; pg 209 8 The Resurrection Of The Son Of God; N.T. Wright; Fortress Press; 2003; pg 707 9 Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies; Manchester U Press, 1975. As quoted from: Mighty Mithraic Madness – Did the Mithraic Mysteries Influence Christianity?; J.P Holding; Observed on April 9, 2004 at www.tektonics.org/tekton 04 02 04 mmm.html 10 http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/geisler-till/till3.html 11 The Resurrection Of Osiris According To Farrell Till; Mark McFall; The Skeptical Review; November / December 2001. Found in http://www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/2001/6/016osir.html 12 Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics; Norman Geisler; Baker Book House; 1999; pp 649 13 Was The New Testament Influenced By Pagan Religions? Ronald Nash; Christian Research Journal; Winter 1994; pg 8; http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0169a.html 14 www.equip.org/free/DB109.htm 15 Here I am relying upon William Lane Craig’s copious study of the legitimacy of the Christian resurrection story found in Reasonable Faith; William Lane Craig; Crossway Books; 1994. Specifically the chapter entitled “Chapter 8: The Resurrection Of Jesus”, pgs 255-298 16 Pagan Resurrection Myths And The Resurrection Of Jesus; Leon McKenzie; Bookwrights Press; 1997
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