The film Zeitgeist seemingly projects the person of Jesus as basically a spin-off of other religions and religious figures as challenging the authenticity of the early biblical text as another retake of ancient history and culture as assigning Jesus a mythical role just like other Savior characters whose storyline is fictitious based on the conspiracy of a copycat theory.
However when making these comparisons there are several factors to take into consideration such as the fallacy of terminology, which in some instances has been used to coerce the experience to coincide with Christian terms as a typology or in some instances the wording, may be similar, yet conversely influenced by Christianity, as a post dated reference. According to the latter, this use of language leads to an equivocation over meanings much like how cults can use the same words to convey different things. While the former is like trying to connect Horus, Krishna, and Dionysius to similar values that are expressed in Christianity in referring to them as being born of a virgin, baptized, crucified and resurrected, but as you will see from reading this article, these claims are fallacious comparisons.
There is also the chronological fallacy as the beliefs and practices of these mystery religions evolved over time as some of these sources post date Christianity from the 2nd and 3rd centuries making them highly suspicious especially as they differ from their original forms with these latter additions. This may be due in part to the (1) explosion of Christianity in that many of these mystery religions adopted Christian elements as to compete or attract Christians. Yet the only influence that Christianity directly received was from the Jewish religious culture, which predated some of these mystery religions.
Then there is the source fallacy as using outdated and misinformed sources that have been discarded from consideration, as well as failure to utilize the comparative religion as a primary source which in some cases there is so little to go by because of its secrecy, leading to undocumented assertions, speculation on casual relationships, and selective interpretations. An example of this is Mithraism, which does not have a text but relies on the interpretation of reliefs and statues by using brief comments by ancient writers, of whom are mostly post first century. There are also individual assessments which are made by those who aren’t even experts in the field of religion much like that of the Jesus Seminar.
Lastly, there is the difference fallacy, which overemphasizes the supposed similarities while ignoring the differences leading to a Parallelomania (Samuel Sandmel). Such differences would include doctrine and beliefs, which is unimportant to the pagan religions but essential to Christianity, as well as their syncretistic values that is contrary to Christianity with its exclusive claims. There is also a lack of ethical standards that is characteristic of Christianity as well as a secretive nature among these mystery religions unlike the openness and transparency to that of Christianity.
In addition to all of this, there are other cultural considerations, which I believe is helpful, in discerning the nature of this argument as dismissing some of these claims.
Which include taking into consideration the historical person of Jesus and the reliability of the scriptures, with its early dating, as hard to imagine, borrowing non-Jewish ideas taken from pagan cultures, especially in light of the oppressive nature of the Greco-Roman empires that had tried to eradicate their Jewish identity and faith to now deify Jesus like one of their (1) mythological characters or Greek philosophers/ Roman Emperors. It would be like trying to convince Christians who are being persecuted by Muslims that Islam is the way.
Also from a biblical perspective such beliefs would have been rejected as idolatry with the strongest of terms comparing such actions to demon worship, 1 Corinthians 10:19-22. In conjunction, it is inconceivable why they would even attempt plagiarizing such folklore stories in reaching out to their countryman who would despise such foreign influences as detestable to them as to remove their identity in severing their societal ties as to readily accept these ideas in abandoning their ancestral faith. It was already enough for both the disciples and the Jewish people in trying to grasp the scriptural and societal concept of Jesus as the Messiah let alone add these extra-biblical claims.
Also the Jewish people of that time were conquered and marginalized, yet resisted the mainstreaming of integration and assimilation, which is why they have largely maintained their identity to this day as surviving millennia. Thus, it seems highly unlikely that early Christians could have been so easily swayed by these mystery religions especially in some cases where the majority of people would have been geographically isolated from, such as the Far Eastern Religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Finally, there is no evidence of pagan mystery influence within Israel during the first century.
Now getting on with the data for consideration, we will begin by taking a survey as comparing the person and work of Christ to these mystery religions as dealing with (1) miraculous births, baptismal initiations, dying saviors, and the likes, etc.
Virgin birth- According to Payam Nabarz, Mithras was said to have been born by a virgin which involved springing forth from the underworld via a rock not of human origin. Another account, taken from Persia, has Anahita, Mithra’s mother, portrayed as the immaculate virgin mother goddess of lord Mithra who becomes impregnated by the seed of Zoroaster, contrary to the fallen human nature of Jesus’ virgin mother. Mithras is then born of a goddess by the seed of a man as awkwardly backwards to Christ’s conception and birth.
Other examples of this include Attis, who is conceived when Zeus spilled his seed on the side of the mountain that eventually became a pomegranate tree. Nana, mother of Attis, while sitting under the tree, receives a pomegranate into her lap, which fell from the tree, causing her to become pregnant. This seems more akin to Buddha sitting underneath the Bodhi tree when he received enlightenment.
According to the Zeitgeist script such causal connections are made between Virgo and its glyph as symbolized by an altered “m” to associate these so-called virgin mothers as connecting the stars of the constellation as their names begin with an M, leading to Mary the mother of Jesus, Adonis’s mother Myrrha, Buddha’s mother Maya, which all seems out of this world like applying a generic daily horoscope in finding all sorts of random applications and scenarios.
Baptism– (1) There are groups, which predate Christianity, having cleansing or purification rituals, but are unlike Christian baptism which identifies the baptized with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, while these other religions, have nothing to do with the symbolism of death in their ritual according to professor of New Testament, Herman Ridderbos, Romans 6:3-6.
(1) Also, some have associated the blood of Christ, as in Revelation 7:14 and 1 Peter 1:2, to that of the Cybele and Attis cult ritual, known as Taurobolium, which involves taking a blood bath/shower from a bull. However, this account is so dissimilar, in that, the blood of a bull as used in this ritual is nothing in comparison to the precious lifeblood of Christ, Hebrews 10:4-23. (1) Lastly, this ritual post-dates Christianity by about a 100 years , as well as a similar ritual known as Criobolium, thus disqualifying it for consideration.
(1) Furthermore, there is no ritual in Christianity involving blood except when Jesus’ blood is symbolically represented by the wine.
Rebirth- (1) Only in a couple of cases is this term even debatable, but even at that, the notion of rebirth as used in this part of the world doesn’t occur until the 2nd Century or afterwards as also including Mithraism and the Taurobolium (Nash).
Communion- (1) Nash explains, that in Mithraism, they used a piece of bread and a cup of water as given to an initiate while the priest spoke some ceremonial words.
Yet, communion or the Lord’s Supper, was not influenced by Mithraism, (1) as it didn’t gain influence in the Roman Empire until after 100 A.D, but rather, communion was taken from the Jewish Passover Seder.
(1) Nash notes, that Justin Martyr referred to this practice as a satanic imitation of the Lord’s supper. Accordingly, Satanism perverts Christian symbols and rites in their black mass.
Crucifixion- Jesus actually underwent this form of death unlike these other figures such as Krishna who had been shot in the foot with an arrow and died of his wounds, Attis castrated himself in a jealous rage and then fled into the wilderness to die, Adonis was gored by a wild boar, Osiris was ripped apart , and Horus was stung by a scorpion.
In comparison to Christ’s death, it wasn’t simply self-inflicted or an accident, but was the intentional will of God as directly linked to the outcome of a bodily resurrection as a victory over sin and death, unlike these legendary accounts.
Another controversial position is that of D.M. Murdock, who claims that anytime a deity is depicted with their arms outstretched, justifies the notion of crucifixion, yet he also admits, that it could have a different meaning making it inconclusive at best.
Dying and Rising gods- The so-called resurrection accounts among the mystery religions would include (1) the Egyptian cult of Isis and Osiris, as Osiris is murdered by his brother Seth as sinking the coffin in the Nile River at which point Osiris’s wife, the goddess Isis, discovers the body and returns it to Egypt then Seth regains the body and cuts it into fourteen pieces and scatters it abroad leading to Isis recovering the pieces and according to Ronald Nash, becomes the lord of the underworld. Now according to Plutarch, “Osiris is said to have descended to hell and then risen from the dead on the third day” to become the king of the dead, unlike Christ, who rose to life from the dead while Osiris remained in the grave. (1) Anyway, the resurrection account of Osiris, as well as others, does not appear in literature until the second century and afterwards, which again, makes it an unlikely candidate for consideration. Furthermore, one might try to make a connection between Osiris and ‘The Apostles Creed’ which mentions Jesus descending into Hell, yet according to the Bible, it is not quite clear on the nature of this descent.
Another account is Horus, the offspring of Osiris and Isis, who was stung by a scorpion but restored back to health (life) as a form of death and resurrection.
(1) According to Metzger, the other dying and rising gods such as Attis and Adonis are not even comparable to that of Christ. (1) Also there is no evidence earlier than the 2nd century AD regarding these supposed resurrection accounts.
Finally in Acts 17:18 the idea of resurrection was foreign among the Gentile philosophers of that time who saw Paul’s appeal as advocating foreign gods. This seems like a strange reaction if Paul had borrowed this idea from the cultures around him as these philosophers were well-educated and versed in the latest and greatest ideas and would have been familiar to such a notion. Also, if Christianity was just about converting people then obviously they should have done a better job of adapting their message to find acceptance and inclusion among the Jews (who saw it as only coming at the end of the age/time), and their Gentile audiences.
Nash identifies some unique traits to the death and resurrection of Christ, which separate Him from the other Wannabe’s as including these (1) mystery religions and their gods.
- None of the savior gods died for someone else’s sin.
- Jesus died once and for all, unlike the vegetation deities with their cyclical death and resuscitation following the annual cycle of nature.
- Jesus is a historical person whose death was in history
- Jesus died voluntarily and was a message of victory not defeat.
Furthermore, a bodily resurrection would disagree with the mystery religions who regarded the body as beyond saving as materially unfit as corrupt and evil, whereas in the gospel, it is a holistic message as involving the entire person as being made in God’s image. Therefore, the idea of resurrection is not univocal to these mystery religions, which only emphasize the spiritual life, while in Christianity, it deals with the whole person including the bodily life.
Saviour– Some examples of this are Osiris, as lord of the netherworld, who judges by merit, a person’s earthly works, while Christ worked on our behalf apart from our own merit. The former is really the essence of all religion as apart from the essential teachings of Christianity.
Moreover, there is Mithras, whose bull-slaying was to said to be the saving action of shedding blood which again is inferior to the blood of Christ in comparison to that of bulls, Hebrews 10:4-23. Not only that, but his designation as a savior god wasn’t mentioned until the late first and second centuries.
In conclusion, (1) according to Adolf von Harnack, to associate comparative mythology as finding causal connections between everything is to tear down solid barriers, to bridge a chasm in spinning combinations from superficial similarities.
Thus to make such associations as linking events and things to Jesus is a special pleading in hoping to find casual agents as discrediting His exclusivity and uniqueness as just one among many savior gods who is mythically irrelevant and ineffectual in mission. In so doing some may try to put Jesus at the end of the parade as a just another religious prop, but in my opinion, this parade has been ‘rained on’ from the view of jeering spectators.
In the final analysis, the Zeitgeist copycat theory hardly represents the scholarly crowds, nevertheless, these movies influence others who are uninformed about the details. Accordingly, Bruce Metzger admits to the influence of pagan rites and practices in the post-Constantinian era, but not early Christianity, which is what needs to be believed and practiced as Orthodox. For example, we see such influences as celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25, which is not his birth date. Another comparison related to the birth narrative are the three stars in the belt of Orion, called the ‘three kings’, as pertaining to the biblical story of Jesus, yet the bible does not state they were kings, let alone three of them, who visited Christ.
So when others overreach as to include these non-biblical fallacies it only hurt’s their cause in making for a weaker case, which is more than likely just a smear campaign to discredit Christianity by presenting a false association with these post hoc and ergo propter hoc arguments in relationship to these unrelated mystery religions in correlating such concepts, which is on same level with the Davinci Code.
Also if you adopt the language of Christianity and forcefully coerce the facts to round off the square peg in the round hole, then that’s what is being done by comparing something that is obviously mythical to that of a historical narrative, such as when comparing the book of Acts to these fictional accounts. (1) Thus, according to Nash, this process becomes an oversimplification and exaggeration that is overstated in their supposed analogies.
Therefore, it takes a special kind of imagination with an ulterior motive to formulate a syncretism of influence over such a dichotomy of beliefs that it becomes obviously questionable at best. As based on their own criteria I think it would be more suitable to apply their methods towards the pagan origins of the Easter Egg and Easter Bunny than to the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ as making the mystery religions dead, apart from the one who has risen from the grave and who gives life to all who call upon His name, Romans 10:13.
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