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Mithras
- 15. Locations of Mithras Worship
Editor's Notes
- Today our topic is “Is Jesus Just a Copy Cat of Mithras?” You might be thinking “what???” But I assure you that this is an issue that many college age people have heard about in the last 10 years. The case is continually made that there appears to be a line of evidence that supports the idea that Jesus was in-fact just a copycat – another in a long line of very similar deities invented by man and morphed over the years.
- I want you see if you can identify this character from history: This character from history was born of a virgin on December 25th in a cave attended by shepherds. This character from history was considered a great traveling teacher and master, had 12 companions, or disciples. This character promised his followers immortality and performed miracles. This character sacrificed himself for world peace, and was buried in a tomb and after 3 days he rose again.
- Each year, we celebrate the time of his resurrection – his followers certainly did – and that was later to become known as Easter.
- This character was called the “Good Shepherd”, was identified with both the Lamb and the Lion and considered to be the Way the Truth and the Light, the Logos, the Redeemer, The Savior, the Messiah. His followers celebrated Sunday as a sacred day, also known as “the Lord’s Day”. And they celebrated a Eucharist (or a Lord’s Supper).
- Now, I want you to tell me – who am I describing? (Jesus???)
- Oh no I’m not describing Jesus – I’m describing Mithras – the character that preceded Jesus by anywhere from 3 – 5 centuries in Persia - the character from which, Jesus as a mythology, was stolen and adapted.
- This kind of approach – this approach of drawing out these characteristics, then demonstrating that these don’t belong to Jesus at all, but instead …
- to some prior mythological character– a character who we have obviously discarded from the past as pure mythology …
- this tactic is a common approach to discrediting Jesus that you’ve seen in movies such as Zeitgeist, The God Who Wasn’t There and others.
- In addition to trying to knock down the reliability of the Bible and of history on the Christian side,
- there is this affirmative effort made to present evidence to demonstrate the false nature of Christian claims related to Jesus.
- So, we have to be able to address these issues head-on, don’t we? In order to address this, we’re actually going to have to do a bit of a study of the claims of the Mithraic mystery religion. We need to understand how these skeptics came to this conclusion about Mithras and the similarity to Jesus. Let’s study that and then we can find out whether Mithras really is a precursor to Jesus.
- Let’s start to make our case….
- The first point is that Unlike Christianity, where there are thousands of manuscripts we can examine to determine: What it is the first followers of Jesus believed. The exact nature of the historical claims about Jesus. This is not the case with Mithras. There is no written scripture from which we can derive the details about what the people who worshipped Mithras actually believed about Mithras. We don’t have a written description or story about Mithras. For the most part, all we have is artwork and descriptions from the 1st 5 centuries of this millennium about what the followers of Mithras actually worshipped. But we don’t have Scripture, and that’s huge! Because if you wanted to know – did he have those disciples? How was he conceived and born? All those claims that I gave you in the beginning of this talk cannot be substantiated for us unless we have some scripture.
- It is also important to recognize that early worship of Mithras occurs in 2 locations. About 500 years or so before Jesus, we see worship of Mithras evolving in Persia (Iran) and then we also see it appear again in the first few centuries in Rome. So, a question comes up as to whether this the same Mithras that’s being described in Iran that we later see described in Rome? This is an important issue. The worship of Mithras in Iran is in fact very, very different from the worship of Mithras in Rome.
- There’s several scholars that you need to become familiar with in the study of Mithras…
- Franz Cumont – he published 2 volumes on Mithras in 1896 and 1897. He was the authority and for 100 years his views went unchallenged. His view about who Mithras was, was taken to be the seminal view – the view that could not be challenged. Franz was very, very familiar with the Christian worldview, growing up saturated in Christianity. His approach was to take the visual elements of the Mithraic mystery religion and read back into them in an effort to show continuity with the Christian narrative. The people who will cite similarities between Mithras and Jesus are for the most part quoting Cumont. He begins with a presupposition that the god Mithras (from Iran) is really the same god being worshipped in Rome. Then, according to Cumont, Jesus is then simply a continuation of the Mithras god in Rome.
- This presupposition about continuity is false. Later scholars have now debunked Cumont.
- The later scholars I mentioned are from the 20th century. Here are 3 of them: M. J. Vermaseren Mithras, the Secret God (Barnes and Noble Publishers, 1963) David Ulansey The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries (Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World) by (Oxford University Press, 1989) John Hinnells - The Mithraic Studies –from Manchester University press. (1975) These more recent works are far more reliable than 19th century scholarship (often cited by skeptics who claim Jesus is a retelling of Mithras). In the later works, the reported similarities between Mithras and Jesus vanish.
- There was a great deal of Mithraic worship occurring in the Roman Empire and it’s that Mithraic worship that the Christians sought to replace in the 3rd or 4th century as Christianity swept through the empire.
- There is some evidence of this history in Rome. Several of the Roman Catholic basilicas in Rome are built on the foundations of Mithraic temples. For example, this is the Basilica of St. Clement in Rome.
- It doesn’t mean that Mithraic religion morphed into Christianity, it means that Christianity made every attempt it could to replace the pagan religions that it displaced when it swept the empire.
- Mithras is typically depicted in artwork as riding on the back of a bull. That is part of the Roman legend of Mithras, but not of the earlier Iranian version of the legend. (tap for box) Around the feet of the bull, you’ll see a snake and dog and maybe a scorpion.
- The most recent research done on Mithras, which is called the star map thesis, argues that Mithras was in fact the god of (tap for box) Perseus that you see in the night-time sky, sitting right over the constellation for (tap for box) Taurus, the bull. All the other constellations are represented by the other animals in the depictions (for example Scorpio is the Scorpion). The theory says that some of the Mithraic artwork is really an effort to re-create the night-time sky – the star map. This convincing idea has been advanced by David Ulansey (author of The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries 1989).
- What you have here, is a depiction of what happens at the equinox, twice a year, when the axis of the earth shifts and the nighttime appears different to those of us that are standing on the face of the earth and the constellation - especially from the perspective of Iran –
- the constellation of Taurus dips below the horizon and the Perseus constellation becomes the dominant constellation in the sky. It’s as though Perseus has defeated the bull and pushed him down below the horizon. This idea is that this god defeats the bull and ushers in the new season.
- When people, who are at all versed in the origin of these Mithras legends, challenge you on this whole issue of Mithras/Jesus similarities, you need to ask them, “Are you looking at the studies that were done by Cumont in the 19th century, or are you looking at the more recent scholarly work done by Ulansey in the 1980’s?” Because there’s a big difference between the 2. If in fact you’re looking at the work done by Cumont, you’re looking at work that has been debunked. And it’s that work, which seems to draw the greatest parallels between Mithras and Jesus. But even those parallels are cherry picked and interpreted.
- As we start to go through these claims, you’ll see that any similarities provided between the Mithraic mystery religion and Christianity fall into one of three categories:
- Commonalities you see in every religious system – therefore, “so what?” – everyone believes certain things if you’re believing in a god – that god generally has certain powers and every religious system believes that their god has those powers. So those similarities really don’t matter. Similarities that came out of similar cultures They are “flat-out” not similar at all
- For example, the idea that Mithras was born of a virgin, on December 25th, in a cave and attended by shepherds.
- The truth of this is that Mithras actually emerged out of solid rock from the side of a rocky mountain and he left behind a cave when he emerged from the mountain. He’s not born of a virgin! Unless you’re going to consider that the rock mountain is virgin-ous in some way??? You cannot argue that he is born of a virgin.
- Now, it’s true that Mithras’s birthday was celebrated on December 25th, but we know as Christians that this has never been accepted as the orthodox birthday of Jesus, it’s simply the date that the earliest Christians chose – to do what? To replace those competitive religious systems that they were trying to supersede. We’ve never made a claim as a Christian that Jesus was born on the 25th. We recognize it has a pagan source, and all this does is give us another pagan source for that date. Both Mithras worshippers and Christian believers borrowed this date from very early winter solstice that occurred anyway.
- Now shepherds are a part of the Mithras mythology. They’re witnessing his birth and helping Mithras emerge from the rock. It is pretty interesting to note though, that in the Mithras mythology, shepherds are in the birth story at a time in which humans are not even thought to have created yet (according to the Mithraic religion).
- The earliest version of this part of the Mithras mythology is actually recorded 100 years after the appearance of the New Testament. So, I think it is reasonable for us to suspect that what’s happening is that Mithraisicm is borrowing from Christianity rather than the other way around. Those who claim similarities between Mithras and Jesus are actually looking at sources that follow the Christian story – that come after the emergence of Christianity in the first century. So, it’s very difficult to tell “who is borrowing from who”.
- Regardless, there is an undercurrent of reasoning that might account for humans to describe God in this way. Men and women dream and think about God.
- And men do that, it is reasonable to for them to think that God must be this incredibly strong being that would somehow emerge into our world through some supernatural cause. It shouldn’t shock us that people would reason that, however this God’s going to penetrate our world, He’s going to do it in an unusual way. Because the God is powerful and supernatural that His emergence into this world to be supernatural.
- But don’t for a second think that Jesus is borrowing from Mithras on the virgin birth. There is no virgin birth of Mithras – period. So, when someone makes that claim – that’s just a false claim and you need to be able to respond to that.
- Now we’re going to quickly speed through some of these other claims about Mithras and Jesus similarity to see what the reality is…
- Claim: Mithras was considered a great traveling teacher and master
- Truth: You’ll see artwork portraying Mithras surrounded by other faces. So, the assumption is that he is a teacher. However, there is nothing in the Mithraic tradition indicating he was a teacher of any kind, but he was could have been considered a master of sorts. This would not be unexpected of any deity, however. Most mythologies describe their gods in this way. All religions gods have something to teach them – after all they’re supposed to be the source of all wisdom…
- Claim: Mithras had 12 companions or disciples
- Truth: There is no evidence for any of this in the traditions of Iran or Rome. It is possible the idea Mithras had 12 disciples is simply derived from artwork in which Mithras is surrounded by twelve signs and personages of the Zodiac (two of whom are the moon and the sun).
- Even this imagery is post Christian, and, therefore, did not contribute to the imagery of Christianity (although it could certainly have borrowed from Christianity).
- Claim: Mithras promised his followers immortality
- Truth: While there is little evidence for this, it is certainly reasonable to think Mithras might have offered immortality, as this is not uncommon for any God of mythology.
- Claim: Mithras performed miracles
- Truth: Of course this is what his worshippers claimed! This was not uncommon (and not unexpected) for mythological characters.
- Claim: Mithras sacrificed himself for world peace
- Truth: There is little or no evidence this is true, although there is a story about Mithras slaying a threatening bull in a heroic deed. But that’s about as close as it gets.
- Claim: Mithras was buried in a tomb and after three days rose again, and Mithras was celebrated each year at the time of His resurrection (later to become Easter)
- Truth: There is nothing in the Mithraic tradition indicating he ever even died, let alone resurrected. Tertullian did write about Mithraic believers re-enacting resurrection scenes, but he wrote about this occurring well after New Testament times. Christianity could not, therefore, have borrowed from Mithraic traditions, but the opposite could certainly be true.
- Claim: Mithras was called “the Good Shepherd”, and was identified with both the Lamb and the Lion
- Truth: There is no evidence that Mithras was ever called “the Good Shepherd” or identified with a lamb, but since Mithras was a sun-god, there was an association with Leo (the House of the Sun in Babylonian astrology), so one might say he was associated with a Lion. But once again, all of this evidence is actually post New Testament; Mithraic believers may once again have borrowed this attribute from Christianity.
- Claim: Mithras was considered to be the “Way, the Truth and the Light,” and the “Logos,” “Redeemer,” “Savior” and “Messiah.”
- Truth: Based on the researched and known historic record of the Mithraic traditions, none of these terms has ever been applied to Mithras with the exception of “mediator”. But this term was used in a very different from how Christians used the term. Mithras was not the mediator between God and man but the mediator between the good and evil gods of Zoroaster.
- Claim: Mithraic believers celebrated Sunday as Mithras’ sacred day (also known as the “Lord’s Day,”)
- Truth: This tradition of celebrating Sunday is only true of Mithraic believers in Rome and it is a tradition that dates to post Christian times. Once again, it is more likely to have been borrowed from Christianity than the other way around.
- Claim: Mithraic believers celebrated a Eucharist or “Lord’s Supper”
- Truth: Followers of Mithras did not celebrate a Eucharist,
- but they did celebrate a fellowship meal regularly, just as did many other groups in the Roman world.
- So, if you look at all these supposed similarities, they just dissolve when you examine them closely.
- Here is the approach we should be taking…
- Challenge the history of the scholarship – is it Cumont and his followers or is it Ulansey and that star map group.
- The star map group seems to have much better evidential support regarding exactly what it was that Mithraic legend was built on. And Cumont's idea of continuity is very, very faulty, and most scholars today would agree with that, whether they are Christian or not.
- The second thing we should do is to look closely at the similarities - the ways in which they say Mithras is said to be similar to Jesus. I think Mithras is the best they have. But let's say for example they talk about Horus or Osiris. What are we do with any collection of similarities - even if they are small, two or three? Is it still a reasonable objection? Even though there are very few similarities between Mithras and Jesus, you've got to look at this and say ok, how do we explain even the similarities that do exist? How could that happen? Is it possible for someone to imagine something that could later become a reality? Even if only in part?
- As an example, we'll take a look at something from history.
- What if I told you that a man named Morgan Robinson once wrote about a British ocean liner that was about 800 feet long? This ocean liner weighed over 60,000 tons. It could carry 3,000 passengers.
- What if I told you that this ship had a top cruising speed of over 24 knots? And had 3 propellers and had about 20 life boats.
- What if I told you that this ocean liner hit an iceberg in its maiden voyage in the month of April, tearing an opening in the starboard side (the forward position of the ship) and sinking along with about 2000 passengers?
- Would you recognize that event from history? Well, you might think it’s the Titanic that I’m describing. But you’d be wrong if you said that – the same way that skeptics about Jesus are wrong when they want us to believe that those descriptions of characteristics I shared at the beginning are actually Jesus.
- In fact, the details I just gave you were from a ship called “The Titan” – and it’s a fictional ship that’s described in Robinson’s book which he entitled “The Wreck of the Titan” or “Futility”.
- This book was published in 1898. That book was written 14 years before the Titanic sank. And several years before the construction was even started on the Titanic. What’s interesting is that if people were to discover that book a thousand years from now, and also discover the record of the Titanic sinking, they might be able to argue that the Titanic never really sank, because they found a “pre-existing” mythology about a ship called the Titan, which is so similar, that it now casts into doubt the sinking of the Titanic. But the fact is, the Titanic did sink, even though this author wrote about a similar ship 14 years before the disaster. I hope that if we encounter something like this, we wouldn’t conclude that the account of the Titanic sinking is a lie. I would hope that we would evaluate the evidence related to the existence of the Titanic. We would read the eyewitness accounts related to the history of the Titanic. We would study the impact the event had on history and then make a decision about whether the event is historical.
- That’s what we’ve got to do also with the life of Jesus. It’s not that there’s some prior story that’s similar. It’s: “did Jesus really exist based on the affirmative evidence for Jesus?”.
- Why should we be surprised, that people who are created in the image of God would have it in their heart and mind to think and dream about the nature of God? If God has placed His moral truth in our hearts, and hinted at His existence with the wonder of the created world around us, I think it’s reasonable that even before anything was directly revealed in the Bible, men and women thought, imagined and dreamed about the nature of God. Just like somebody thought about large ocean liners before they were built. You could expect these mythologies to bear some resemblance to the reality of God’s nature once it is revealed to you – just as the Titan resembled the Titanic. And that appears to be the case with Mithras – at least a little bit, in the small details. And that might be the case with other pre-existing mythologies, so these should not “rattle you”. Let’s be realistic about the similarities Mithras has with Jesus – they’re not all that powerful. You’re going to find that no pre-existing mythology is that similar to Jesus, especially when you investigate them.
- Remember, it’s not the similarities that are important, it’s the differences that are so important – that define the contrast between each person.
- The Apostle Paul addressed this issue with early pagan god seekers when he was in Athens on Mars Hill 2000 years ago. He told those Greek thinkers and seeks – people who imagined all kinds of Greek mythologies - about the nature of God. Paul told them that there is actually a true God – Jesus Christ who came into the world and exceeded their expectations.
- Keep this in mind as we re-read this passage of Scripture that you’re probably familiar with in Acts 17: 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' 29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
- Paul was saying - you people have imagined the nature of God and got some things right – your poets have said some things accurately. But you got a lot of stuff wrong. I’m here to reveal to you the true God. So you can know Him – accurately. So, even in Paul’s day, he recognized that there were many pre-existing mythologies that got some things right. So, given everything we’ve talked about here don’t be surprised that there are pre-existing mythologies that get some things right. That didn’t surprise Paul. There’s a passage of Scripture in Acts 17 that addresses this issue specifically! Sometimes atheists and skeptics want to throw this out at us as if it’s never been thought of before. Paul saw it 2,000 years ago. Don’t be surprised.
- The pre-existing mythologies are never going to be as strong as the atheists and skeptics make them out to be. If you just look at each one, you’re going to see that the similarities are not compelling. Mithras is the best they have in trying to draw similarities, just like all those pre-existing mythologies that Paul addressed in Acts, they get some details right, but most wrong. The importance is in what’s different, not in what’s similar. What we need to do is determine whether we can in fact trust what’s written specifically about Jesus – not is there something pre-existing that we can then use to discredit Jesus. There may be similarities pre-Jesus, but that would not discredit Jesus Himself. We have to make an affirmative case for the God-Man we know as Jesus Christ.
- I hope this has been informative for you – maybe some new information you hadn’t heard of before. I always believe it is best that you first hear about objections from a source who can give you a fair explanation of the objection along with a reasonable response. I hope I’ve been able to do that today.