Mithraism & Christianity
Here is a nifty quote from the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (“Mithra, Mithraism,” VII, 419):
“The birth of Mithra and of Christ were celebrated on the same day; tradition placed the birth of both in a cave; both regarded Sunday as sacred; in both the central figure was a mediator (mesites) who was one of a triad or trinity; in both there was a sacrifice for the benefit of the race, and the purifying power of blood from the sacrifice was…a prime motive; regeneration or the second birth was a fundamental tenet in both…both had sacraments, in which baptism and a communion meal of bread and the cup were included; both had mysteries from which the lower orders of initiates were excluded; ascetic ideals were common to both; the ideas of man, the soul and its immortality, heaven and hell, the resurrection from the dead, judgment after death, the final conflagration by which the world is to be consumed, the final conquest of evil, were quite similar.”
Look for more such goodies in my forthcoming book, The Christ Myth Anthology. You’re first to hear of it!
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I love this info. What was more popular in Rome during the first and second centuries, Mithraism or Attis worship? From my understanding both were popular in this region.
:-?: Maybe both religious legends were used to test out initiates in each religion on what their true intent was. The lower orders were probably initiates who chose to balance themselves to a particular skill, work or understanding and the true failures would have been those who declared themselves the “legendary hero”, these initiates would possibly have suffered the punishment listed in either legend for the hero of either legend. Those who became the “first grade” initiates were probably the type of initiate who declared themselves a “true tribal member” and expressed a desire to find a partner for who they had some real “love”. Why would this make them First Grade, well if in ancient time you felt that a person was at least somewhat to be trusted, this would make grounds for them being First Grade and if this particular initiate also desired a partner whom they really loved then through the birth of new children the tribe was at a good chance of continuing. But in the end these thing happened two millennium ago at least, so who can really tell. ❗