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Peacemaker

Registered: 02-2007
Posts: 868
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The Mithra Myth, pt. 1


http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html

quote:

Back in the Roman era, Mithraism was perhaps Christianity's leading competitor for the hearts and minds of others. Today Mithraism is religiously a non-factor, but it still "competes" with Christianity, in another way: It is a leading candidate for the "pagan copycat" thesis crowd as a supposed source for Christianity.

Our walking papers are laid out for us by a leading proponent of that view, Acharya S, who, in her magnum opus The Christ Conspiracy (118-120), lays out over a dozen things that Jesus supposedly has in common with Mithras and, by extension, Christianity allegedly borrowed to create the Jesus character; some of these points she now defends further in a work titled Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, which is presently only available in sample chapters on her Internet page. The points are:

   1. Mithra was born of a virgin on December 25th in a cave, and his birth was attended by shepherds.
   2. He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
   3. He had 12 companions or disciples.
   4. Mithra's followers were promised immortality.
   5. He performed miracles.
   6. As the "great bull of the Sun," Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
   7. He was buried in a tomb and after three days rose again.
   8. His resurrection was celebrated every year.
   9. He was called "the Good Shepherd" and identified with both the Lamb and the Lion.
  10. He was considered the "Way, the Truth and the Light," and the "Logos," "Redeemer," "Savior" and "Messiah."
  11. His sacred day was Sunday, the "Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
  12. Mithra had his principal festival of what was later to become Easter.
  13. His religion had a eucharist or "Lord's Supper," at which Mithra said, "He who shall not eat of my body nor drink of my blood so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved."
  14. "His annual sacrifice is the passover of the Magi, a symbolical atonement or pledge of moral and physical regeneration."
  15. Shmuel Golding is quoted as saying that 1 Cor. 10:4 is "identical words to those found in the Mithraic scriptures, except that the name Mithra is used instead of Christ."
  16. The Catholic Encyclopedia is quoted as saying that Mithraic services were conduced by "fathers" and that the "chief of the fathers, a sort of pope, who always lived at Rome, was called 'Pater Patratus.'"

Our goal in this essay is to offer an overview of Mithraic belief and at the same time analyze each of these claims in terms of the evidence. In order to lay some groundwork, however, it will be necessary to briefly explore the goings-on over the past few decades in the field of Mithraic studies. There is a certain caveat emptor that will be necessary in order to help the reader understand exactly how critics like Acharya S are misusing their sources -- and what to be on the lookout for in future comparisons.



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