If we were to ask any Christian about their faith, one of the things we would hear is that it is unique, the concept of a sacrificial god, born of a young woman from a patriarchal god, it seems extremely enticing. Indeed this reflects the bias of the believer, there are many sources predating the myth of Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God similar in those qualities, take Heracles, for example, the son of Zeus born of an asexual relationship, a shower of gold, who selflessly travelled Greece in order to defend its inhabitants from the merciless toying of the gods, who even went to Tartarus -the Greek Hell- in order to deliver Theseus from it, similar to the common tradition that Jesus went to the underworld to save the souls of the deceased before ascending into Heaven. The idea of a triune god is also not a novel concept as many gods in ancient Greece and Rome were represented by different forms such as Jupiter being the almighty god of the Roman pantheon, represented as a human, but also as an eagle, and the emperor, at least for a time was the representative of god, or Amon Ra, in Egypt being represented as the Pharaoh to the mere people. But the question is, why did Christianity prevail of those previously common myths and how did Jesus of Nazareth come out as a Savior god to the people of the Western World? Those questions are answered in the history of the composition and redaction of the texts depicting the life of the Son of God, and the politics surrounding them.
Starting at the beginning of the Christian Myth, one can clearly see resemblances between the greek Creation myth and fall of mankind, and the Judeo-Christian one, coming from a misogynist standpoint. Indeed, the story of the fall of man coming from a woman is not a new one, as the Christian Fall story and the cursing of the Earth is attributed to Eve, the Greek story of such a curse is attributed to Pandora (Hamilton:88). When Pandora opened her box and let all kinds of evil roam the world, she closed it, albeit too late. The last thing remaining in the box was Hope (Hamilton:88), in a similar fashion, hope was attached to women in the form of giving birth to the savior of all nations.
Now onto the Christian myth, it is easy to see similarities between Jesus and Heracles, or Hercules his given Roman name. They were both born of a god, Jesus of Yahweh, Heracles of Zeus, by a human mother. Both women were betrothed to a human man, Jesus’ mother Mary to Joseph, and Heracles’ mother to Amphytrion (Hamilton:227). As I mentioned before there are several different similarities between Jesus and Heracles, including the last feat Jesus accomplished according to Christian Tradition that he went to the underworld to preach to those lost souls who had the misfortune of dying before having the chance to witness his ministry. Heracles’ parallel to this story is none other than the last of his 12 works where he was sent to the underworld in order to defeat Cerberus and freed the Athenian Hero Theseus from the underworld (Hamilton:235).
But the Heracles comparison doesn’t end there, the young demigod was well educated but also extremely prone to violent and vicious fits throughout his childhood, such as the time where he murdered his music teacher simple because he disliked musical education (Hamilton:229). Young Jesus, as depicted in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, was quite the violent child as well, murdering, cursing, sadistically resurrecting children in front of their parents only to kill them again after they confirmed his word (Ehrman:58). The temper attributed to young Jesus in this Gospel seem to show in the casting the merchants out of the Temple in Matthew 21:12 (Wells:1239). Though apologists, as well as most Christians would argue that this anger was righteous, is is highly unlikely as the practice was condoned by the Torah, and price gouging were heavily frowned upon by the Temple administrators (Aslan:6).
Other Hellenistic influences are found in Christianity when compared to the Sumerian goddess Inanna, who descended through the seven levels of hell, having an encounter at each level, only to be crucified and humiliated at the bottom of the seventh level. The Christian savior, in a similar fashion descended through the seven levels of Heaven to Earth, having an encounter at each level, only to be humiliated and crucified at the bottom of the seventh level -Earth- as well (Carrier:18). After reading on both posthumous accounts, we also see an interesting similarity, the idea concept of spending three days and three nights in the underworld, as Inanna was dead for this amount of time, and Jesus predicted that exact same time period, though we know different as tradition has the Nazarene Savior god die on a Friday evening, and his resurrection happen on a Sunday morning, leaving only 2 nights (Carrier:18-19).
To this day, in certain Christian traditions, a Pantheon has been kept, we clearly see this in the Catholic prayers to the saints, similar to the worship of lesser gods in Ancient Greece, and is a remnant of the Roman influences in Church, as many consider their prayers to the Saints as a respectful way to approach their Savior (Brom:1). We can clearly see that the worship of ancient minor gods directly affected this early Christian Church as a means to not bother the Almighty with the trivialities of life, and the saints would intercede for the living. In the Roman Catholic culture, the saints seem to have taken precedent over Jesus, not in importance, but in the day to day activities, similarly to what happened to the worship of Hestia in ancient Greece, who was the goddess of home and hearth, and whose temple flame was most important in Greek cities (Hamilton:34), though her name is generally unknown to the general population compared to Dionysus in the modern mind.
One way in which Christianity managed to survive, and still be relevant in its early stages was the ability complete disregard for the elitism attributed to Judaism, where one is born into a religion, and in the embracing of the gentiles (Carrier:51). Indeed, in a Roman controlled world, the only way to expand one’s worshippers base is also to avoid ostracizing people, welcoming people of all walks of life into the religion. Offering redemption for virtually any sin is also a good way to earn worshippers. Hellenism in its purest form promoted the longing for immortality and everlasting life, though it was a rather unknown process in the mind of the early leaders and worshippers, Christianity, by its very nature offers a vision of life everlasting and even a purpose for such an ideal, as well as a reason for a temporary life in the known mortal World (Von Dobshutz:249).
In yet another parallel with Hellenistic traditions, we see the Judeo-Christian myth to be polytheistic to some extent as with the existence of minor deities, some benevolent as angels and all the hierarchy which comes with it, others depicted as the source of all evil in the world and having a hierarchy of their own with the first fallen angel, Lucifer, at the top (Von Dobschutz:250). Though Christianity prides itself in being a monotheistic religion, it is only so in named, after the redefinition of the term, after all, by the Christian standard of monotheism, having one supreme god reign over all others, the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian myths can be considered monotheistic as well with Zeus, Jupiter, and Amon Ra set as supreme deities.
Lastly, we see the trial a tribulation of Jesus of Nazareth as a passion, and the pinnacle of the his ministry, Dr Richard Carrier, in his lecture for the UNCG Atheist about the historicity of Jesus points out that it is a typical trait of hellenistic deities (Carrier:Video). This point is driven home, especially as I mentioned previously that the last Heraclean trial was to travel to the underworld and conquer death. The trial is one of enduring pain and lasting fight. Such a trial was rather common especially when compared to all the other previous deities encountered in the Greco-Roman world, such as Prometheus enduring pain and suffering for a seeming eternity in order to provide humans with fire (Hamilton:95).
While semantics in the Christian myth apologist conferences, and articles lean towards a unique faith based on the life and death of a truly great man, we learn through our study of history that it is not as unique as it is portrayed. From the immaculate conception to the death of a Savior god, through the enduring of a passion, and humiliation. Jesus of Nazareth, if he lived in Galilee at the beginning of the first century BCE was little more than a plagiarist of previous religions, giving hope to those less fortunate, and adapting older myths to Judaism. The life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God could be a compilation of several stories given to us by Roman editors under Constantine’s supervision and a severe amount of redaction and adaptation in order to fit the story (Gonzalez:340).
If Christianity were a novel idea in any way, shape, or form, it would be in its adaptation of hellenistic elements in the Judaic faith and the expansion of salvation beyond a simple ethnicity, embracing the cultural influences of the Roman occupation in the Middle East. Though some elements are heavily resembling older Hellenist myths, it has been most successful in its expansion due to the appeal of redemption of any crime or transgression. The reinforced appeal of a benevolent god who wants nothing but good things for its creation and the explanation of the concept of ever lasting life. Jesus, as I stated before, is merely a Jewish version of Heracles and Inanna, among others, a mere compilation of previous myths which gave hope to an ever suffering population.
Works cited:
Aslan, Reza
Zealot, The Life and Times Of Jesus of Nazareth, Random House Publishing, New York (2013)
Brom, Robert (Bishop)
Praying to the Saints, Catholic.com (http://www.catholic.com/tracts/praying-to-the-saints) Accessed 11/10/2013
Carrier, Richard
Not The Impossible Faith: Why Christianity Didn’t Need a Miracle To Succeed, Lulu Publishing (2009)
Carrier, Richard
Why I think Jesus Didn't Exist Lecture March 18th 2013, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwUZOZN-9dc) Accessed 11/12/2013
Ehrman, Bart D.
Lost Scriptures, Books that Did Not Make it in The New Testament, Oxford University Press, New York (2003)
Gonzalez, Justo
A History of Christian Thought Vol. 1, Abingdon Press, Nashville (1970)
Hamilton, Edith
Mythology: A Timeless Tale of Gods and Heroes, Hamilton press, New York (1942)
Koester, Helmut
Introduction to The New Testament: History and Literature of Early Christianity, Volume 2, 2nd Ed.
DeGruyter Company, Berlin (2000)
Von Dobschutz, E.
Christianity and Hellenism, The Journal of Biblical Literature, Volume 33, no 4 (Dec 1914) pp.245-265
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