Pre-Christian Pagan parallels in Christianity

Pre-Christian Pagan parallels in Christianity

"In the case of all things which have several parts and in which the totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something beside the parts, there is a cause; for even in bodies contact is the cause of unity in some cases, and in others viscosity or some other such quality" Metaphysics by Aristotle

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1: 9 (KJV)

Related Texts - Modern

Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller, rustic", also called paynimry) is a word used to refer to various religions and religious beliefs from across the world. It is a term which, from a Western perspective, has modern connotations of spiritualist, animistic or shamanic practices or beliefs of any folk religion, and of historical and contemporary polytheistic religions in particular.

What you won't find here: an attempt to fit disparate myths into a single, all-encompassing, hypothesis or lists, like the one below:

Preceded by an Annunciation
His coming announced by an Archangel.
Born in the same manner as Jesus
Displayed a childhood precocity in religious matters
Went through a period of preparation
A period of public and positive activity
A passion
A resurrection
An ascension.

Most of them are derived from poor scholarship as exemplified by Kersey Graves' The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors or the works of Dr. R. W. Bernard as seen in Apollonius of Tyana the Nazarene

Even though each ancient religion had its own myths and it's own deities, some striking similar, what these pre-Christian religions shared with each other and with Christianity was not so much the myths but the religious ideas that those myths were based on.

What you'll find here: ancient texts showing what ancient people wrote about ancient religions; how they viewed the universe, and how their deities and their powers fitted into their ideas about the human soul, eternal destiny, miraculous powers, prophesy, answering prayers, the afterlife and preparations for a place therein and that Christian and older myths are similar because they were made up to fit similar religious ideas.

Various modern texts and ebooks tracing and detailing ancient and modern myths and mythology. Unfortunately, as is the case of writers like Graves, Acharya S, Metzger, Nash, Nock, J.P. Holding, etc., a lot of the works are agenda driven; information seemingly made up or massaged to fit their world view or to defend their views from a position of faith not facts.

There's also a large selection of Gods and Goddesses, Heroes and Heroines, Hells and Heavens, Goodies and Badies, Folklore and Fairy Tales, Fables and Tall Tales on my main mythology site along with a Myth Map Of The World and a list of 12,870 assorted deities.

"Now, therefore, in nearly every myth of importance, and certainly in every one of those which I shall speak to-night, you have to discern these three structural parts,—the root and the two branches: the root, in physical existence, sun, or sky, or cloud, or sea; then the personal incarnation of that, becoming a trusted and companionable deity, with whom you may walk hand in hand, as a child with its brother or its sister; and, lastly, the moral significance of the image, which is in all the great myths eternally and beneficently true."
The Queen of the Air. Being a Study of the Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm

Christ's Death On The Cross And Its Prototypes Biblia Pauperum. (Woodcut of the fifteenth century.)

The immolation of Isaac shows Christ's death in its connexion with human sacrifice, and the story of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness exemplifies the healing power of faith.

Human Sacrifices At The Funeral Pyre Of Patroclus
Wall picture of a tomb in Vulci. (From Michaelis, Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte, I., p. 235.)
From The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil from Earliest Times to the Present Day by Paul Carus

"And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. For you know how many sons your esteemed writers ascribed to Jupiter: Mercury, the interpreting word and teacher of all; Aesculapius, who, though he was a great physician, was struck by a thunderbolt, and so ascended to heaven; and Bacchus too, after he had been torn limb from limb; and Hercules, when he had committed himself to the flames to escape his toils; and the sons of Leda, and Dioscuri; and Perseus, son of Danae; and Bellerophon, who, though sprung from mortals, rose to heaven on the horse Pegasus."

From what has been already said, you can understand how the devils, in imitation of what was said by Moses, asserted that Proserpine was the daughter of Jupiter, and instigated the people to set up an image of her under the name of Kore [Cora, i.e., the maiden or daughter] at the spring-heads.

Justin Martyr, 100 - 165 CE, an early Church Father, writing about Jesus' divine birth, trying to explain why it's so similar to all the other pre-Christian divine births: His miraculous conception was not new and unique because the of devils' craftily feigning in imitation of what was said by Moses. Justin Martyr - The First Apology

From: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine Chapter 8
By John Henry Cardinal Newman

The example set by St. Gregory in an age of persecution was impetuously followed when a time of peace succeeded. In the course of the fourth century two movements or developments spread over the face of Christendom, with a rapidity characteristic of the Church; the one ascetic, the other ritual or ceremonial. We are told in various ways by Eusebius, that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own. It is not necessary to go into a subject which the diligence of Protestant writers has made familiar to most of us. The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.

From: Hippolyte Delehaye: The Legends of the Saints
An Introduction to Hagiography

RECENT progress in scientific hagiography has given rise to move than one misunderstanding. Historical criticism when applied to the lives of the saints has had certain results which are in no way surprising to those who are accustomed to handle documents and to interpret inscriptions, but which have had a somewhat disturbing effect on the mind of the general public.

Religious-minded people who regard with equal veneration not only the saints themselves but everything associated with them, have been greatly agitated by certain conclusions assumed by them to have been inspired by the revolutionary spirit that has penetrated even into the Church, and to be highly derogatory to the honour of the heroes of our faith. This conviction frequently finds utterance in somewhat violent terms.

From: Pagan Christs, by John M. Robertson. § 8. Revival and Disintegration

In the case of the Jesuine cult, an actual historic person may or may not have been connected with the doctrine; and for such a connection there is a quasi-historic basis in an elusive figure of a Jesus who appears to have been put to death by stoning and hanging about a century before the death of Herod. On the other hand the name in its Hebrew and Aramaic forms had probably an ancient divine status, being borne by the mythic Deliverer Joshua, and again by the quasi-Messianic high-priest of the Restoration. It was thus in every aspect fitted to be the name of a new Demigod who should combine in himself the qualities of the Akkadian Deliverer-Messiah and the Sacrificed God of the most popular cults of the Græco-Roman, Egyptian, and west-Asiatic world. In this aspect only is it to be historically understood. But before considering it in its type, we have to consider it in its genetic relation to Judaism, and so complete our estimate of the evolution of that cult to the moment of its definite arrest.

The Epistle of Eugnostos

A description of the esoteric cosmology of the gnostics from The Epistle of Eugnostos, dated to the 1^th century C.E.

Rejoice in this, that you know. Greetings! I want you to know that all men born from the foundation of the world until now are dust. While they have inquired about God, who he is and what he is like, they have not found him. The wisest among them have speculated about the truth from the ordering of the world. And the speculation has not reached the truth. For the ordering is spoken of in three (different) opinions by all the philosophers; hence they do not agree. For some of them say about the world that it was directed by itself.

From: The Sophia of Jesus Christ dated to the 4^th century C.E.

The Savior said to them: "I want you to know that all men are born on earth from the foundation of the world until now, being dust, while they have inquired about God, who he is and what he is like, have not found him. Now the wisest among them have speculated from the ordering of the world and (its) movement. But their speculation has not reached the truth. For it is said that the ordering is directed in three ways, by all the philosophers, (and) hence they do not agree. For some of them say about the world that it is directed by itself.

Common Elements

From The Christ by John E. Remsberg.
Chapter 10. Sources of the Christ Myth: Ancient Religions

"Christ and the religion he is said to have founded are composite products, made up, to a great extent, of the attributes, the doctrines, and the customs of the gods and the religions which preceded them and existed around them. The Christian believes that Christ is coexistent with his father, Jehovah - that he has existed from the foundations of the world. This is in a measure true. The years that have elapsed since his alleged incarnation are few compared with the years of his gestation in the intellectual womb of humanity.

To understand the origin and nature of Christ and Christianity it is necessary to know something of the religious systems and doctrines from which they were evolved. The following, some in a large and others in but a small degree, contributed to mold this supposed divine incarnation and inspire this supposed revelation:"

Nature or Sex Worship
The deification and worship of the procreative organs and the generative principles of life is one of the oldest and one of the most universal of religions. It has been called the foundation of all religions. In some nations the worship of the male energy, Phallic worship, predominated; in others the worship of the female energy, Yoni worship, prevailed. But in all both elements were recognized.

The symbol of Phallic worship, the cross, has become the emblem of Christianity.
Related Texts:
The Masculine Cross and Ancient Sex Worship by Sha Rocco 1874
Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism By Thomas Inman
The Non-Christian Cross, by John Denham Parsons
Solar Worship
Scarcely less prevalent than sex worship was the worship of the sun. While sex worship was confined chiefly to the generation of human life, sun worship comprehended the generation of all life. The sun was recognized as the generative power of the universe. He overshadows the receptive earth from whom all life is born.
Related Texts:
The Rise of Amon by Donald Mackenzie
The Babylonian Legends of the Creation
The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs by T. Sharper Knowlson
Osiris and the Sun by Sir James George Frazer
Astral Worship
The worship of the planets and stars was probably a later development than sex and solar worship. It flourished for a time in nearly every part of the world, and left its impress on the religions that succeeded it. In Chaldea, one of the principal sources of Judaism and Christianity, the worship of the stars prevailed.
Related Texts:
Astral Worship, by J. H. Hill
Worship of the Elements and Forces of Nature
The elements and forces of nature, Volney believes, inspired the first ideas of God and religion:
"Man, reflecting on his condition, began to perceive that he was subjected to forces superior to his own, and independent of his will. The sun enlightened and warmed him, fire burned him, thunder terrified him; the wind beat upon him, and water drowned him."
"Considering the action of the elements on him, he conceived the idea of weakness and subjection on his part, and of power and domination on theirs; and this idea of power was the primitive and fundamental type of every idea of the Divinity."
"The action of these natural existences excited in him sensations of pleasure and pain, of good or evil; and by a natural elect of his organization he conceived for them love or aversion; he desired or dreaded their presence; and fear or hope gave rise to the first idea of religion."The Ruins" by Constantin Francois de Volney
Related Texts:
The Magical Control of the Weather by Sir James George Frazer
Departmental Kings of Nature by Sir James George Frazer
Worship of Animals and Plants
Related Texts:
The Making of Religion, by Andrew Lang
The Prehistoric World: or, Vanished Races, Chapter 6, by E. A. Allen
The Nature Of The Self by Edward Carpenter
The Folk-Lore Of Plants by T.F. Thiselton-Dyer
Fetichism
Related Texts:
Folkways Chapter 18, by William Graham Sumner
The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism by Franz Cumont
Polytheism and Monotheism
Related Texts:
Polytheism and Monotheism from Studies in comparative Hierology
The Natural History Of Religion by David Hume
Old And New World Civilizatons Compared by Ignatius Donnelly
The Mediatorial Idea
Related Texts:
Ten Great Religions, by James Freeman Clarke
The Messianic Idea
Related Texts:
The Book of Enoch
The Destiny of the Soul by William Rounseville Alger
The Logos
Related Texts:
Derivations of the Christian Logos by John M. Robertson
Orpheus - Myths of the World by Padraic Colum
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by Jane Ellen Harrison
The Perfect Man
Related Texts:
Miracles and Supernatural Religion by James Morris Whiton