THERE ARE STRIKING RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN
MITHRAISM AND CHRISTIANITY
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism
)
The resemblances between
the two hostile churches were so striking as to impress even the minds of
antiquity" (Cumont, 193). Like Origen (an early Christian writer and in
this respect a peculiarity among the other patristic writers), Mithraism held
that all souls pre-existed in the ethereal regions with God, and inhabited a
body upon birth. Similar to Pythagorean, Jewish, and Pauline theology, life
then becomes the great struggle between good and evil, spirit and body,
ending in judgment, with the elect being saved. "They both admitted to
the existence of a heaven inhabited by beautiful ones. . .and a hell peopled
by demons situate in the bowels of earth" (Cumont 191). Both religions
used the rite of baptism, and each participated in an outwardly similar type
of sacrament, bread and wine. Both Mithra and Christ were supposedly visited
by shepherds and Magi. It has been claimed that both Mithraism and
Christianity considered Sunday their holy day, though for different reasons,
although the evidence that Mithradists practiced weekly worship, any more
than any other pagan religion of the time, is lacking. Many have noted that
the title of Pope (father) is found in Mithraic doctrine and seemingly
prohibited in Christian doctrine. The words Peter (rock) and mass
(sacrament) have significance in Mithraism. Mithraism and
early Christianity considered abstinence, celibacy, and self-control to be
among their highest virtues. Both had similar beliefs about the world,
destiny, heaven and hell, and the immortality of the soul. Their conceptions
of the battles between good and evil were similar (though Mithraism was more
dualistic), including a great and final battle at the end of times.
Mithraism's flood at the beginning of history was deemed necessary because
what began in water would end in fire, according to Mithraic eschatology.
Both religions believed in revelation as key to their doctrine. Both awaited
the last judgment and resurrection of the dead. When inducted into
the degree of Leo, he was purified with honey, and baptised, not with water,
but with fire, as John the Baptist declared that his successor would baptise.
After this second baptism, initiates were considered
"participants," and they received the sacrament of bread and wine
commemorating Mithra's banquet at the conclusion of his labors (Larson 190). Although
Christianity eventually rivaled the four-century-old cult of Mithra in Rome,
they were practiced by different social classes. Mithra was popular among soldiers
and had a certain elitism because it barred women, and like Gnosticism, it
emphasized hidden knowledge. On the other hand, Christianity was a version
that could be practiced by women and so it enjoyed a degree of populism.
Under emperors like Julian and Commodus, Mithra became the patron of Roman
armies (Cumont 87). Mithra had no
mother, but was miraculously born of a rock, or the petra genetix (de
Riencourt 135). His worshipers partook of a sacramental meal of bread marked
with a cross (Cumont 160). This was one of seven Mithraic ritual meals. Mithra's
cave-temple on the Vatican Hill was seized by Christians in 376 A.D. (J.
Smith 146). The Mithraic festival of Epiphany, marking the arrival of
sun-priests ("Magi") at the Savior's birthplace, was adopted by the
Christian church only as late as 813 A.D. (Brewster 55). Christianity may
have emphasized common features that attracted Mithra followers, perhaps the
crucifix appealed to those Mithra followers who had crosses already branded
on their foreheads. In art Mithra, a sun god, was normally depicted with a
halo representing the sun. In Christianity, the halo remains, but has lost
its meaning because of the doctrinal prohibition against star gazing, as
recorded in Halakaic sanctions. Justin Martyr, in
a discussion with the Jewish apologist Trypho, wrote: "'And when those
who record the mysteries of Mithras say that he was begotten of a rock, and
call the place where those who believe in him are initiated a cave, do I not
perceive here that the utterance of Daniel, that a stone without hands was
cut out of a great mountain, has been imitated by them, and that they have
attempted likewise to imitate the whole of Isaiah's words? For they contrived
that the words of righteousness be quoted also by them. . . . And when I
hear, Trypho,' said I, 'that Perseus was begotten of a virgin, I understand
that the deceiving serpent counterfeited also this.'" (Dialogue with
Trypho, LXXVIII). Tertullian gives a similar account. According to
Martin A. Larson, in The Story of Christian Origins (1977), the first
example of mythological concept of the savior god which is present in many
faiths including Christianity and Mithraism is Osiris. Larson concluded that
the general concept of savior must have originated from the savior cult of
Osiris. He also believed that the Essenes were Jewish Pythagoreans, whose
members not only gave birth to Christianity as Essenes, but were directly
influenced by Zoroastrian doctrine as Pythagoreans — a view probably shared
by Cumont.[2] Mithraism, in Larson's view, was an established but exclusive
sect devoted to social justice, and was assimilated by state-sponsored
Christianity before being disposed of in name. |
⨪