Bonkers parallels between Jesus and Mithras - examples?

[Roger Pearse]

On my Mithras pages, I've started a page "Mithras and Jesus", intended to deal with the crazy stuff. After all, most people who read that "Mithras had 12 disciples" and repeat it do so in good faith. Since I have another page to address connections that have some merit, I thought that I would comb out the crazy stuff, and research it.

As far as it goes, the page is here, but it only contains a couple of items so far:

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithr ... _and_Jesus

What I would like, tho, is some suggestions of ideas of "similarities" that are in *wide* circulation which Mithras and Jesus have in common.

Suggestions please!

All the best,

Roger Pearse

[andrewcriddle]

This site Jesus..Mithra contains a number of strange but quite widely circulated claims.

Andrew Criddle

[Roger Pearse]

Thank you. I suspect Acharya S invented most of these.

[bcedaifu]

I suspect Acharya S invented most of these.

I doubt that she has so much influence.

http://pleaseconvinceme.com/2012/is-jes ... mythology/

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 that he was associated with a Lion. But once again, all of this evidence is actually POST New Testament, and cannot therefore be borrowed by Christianity.

"all of this evidence". What evidence? This Christian web site offers only opinion, not evidence.

http://www.academia.edu/2569952/Mithrai ... man_Empire

There will be no progress on this question, until evidence from Persian sources is obtained. Most of the nonsense here and elsewhere in blogsphere is due to improperly equating the Roman cave evidence, circa 2nd - 4th centuries CE, with the more ancient practices of the Zoroastrians.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/mom/mom04.htm

IN THAT unknown epoch when the ancestors of the Persians were still united with those of the Hindus, they were already worshippers of Mithra. The hymns of the Vedas celebrated his name, as did those of the Avesta, and despite the differences obtaining between the two theological systems of which these books were the expression, the Vedic Mitra and the Iranian Mithra have preserved so many traits of resemblance that it is impossible to entertain any doubt concerning their common origin.

I doubt that Acharya S had anything to do with manufacturing this evidence.

Please don't shoot the messenger.

[beowulf]

Thank you. I suspect Acharya S invented most of these.

You seem to have an unhealthy obsession.

An exchange with a Christian fundamentalist



D.M. Murdock/Acharya S
“Many people are waking up to this delusion, and the old tactics of lying about and smearing critics will no longer work. We’ve frankly had enough of the sexist, misogynistic and culturally bigoted bibliolatry.”

[Roger Pearse]

If she didn't invent the stories in question (12 disciples etc) then where are the earlier examples? That's a genuine question btw.

[andrewcriddle]

If she didn't invent the stories in question (12 disciples etc) then where are the earlier examples? That's a genuine question btw.

The earliest reference I can find to Mihtras having twelve disciples is a 1942 book The Sangamon it is unlikely that the author invented the idea but I can't trace it any earlier.

Andrew Criddle

[Bernard Muller]

From this website: http://beginningandend.com/jesus-copy-h ... agan-gods/

“Mithra had 12 disciples.” — This is based on the carving above which shows Mithras surrounded by 12 signs of the Zodiac. There is no reason to conclude that signs of the Zodiac are “disciples.” Remember, there is no written record of Mithra’s existence from the 1st to 4th centuries when the cult thrived. The earliest writings are from outsiders recording their observations. So most of the wild assertions of Zeitgeist are just being based on this piece of art. Franz Cumont, considered the first great researcher of Mithras claimed that the disciples in the relief were actually people dressed up as Zodiac signs, showing how ludicrous the effort to link Mithras to Jesus can get.

Remain to know who was the first to "interpret" 12 disciples from that carving.

Cordially, Bernard

[GakuseiDon]

Acharya S in "The Christ Conspiracy" cites Higgins on the 12 disciples parallel with Mithra/Mithras. Using her cite and Google books, I found in Godfrey Higgins' "Anacalypsis an Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or. an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions" (1836)

• The number of the twelve apostles, which formed the retinue of Jesus during his mission, is that of the signs, and of the secondary genii, the tutelary gods of the Zodiacal signs which the sun passes through in his annual revolution. It is that of the twelve gods of the Romans, each of whom presided over a month. The Greeks, the Egyptians, the Persians, each had their twelve gods, as the Christian followers of Mithra had their twelve apostles. The chief of the twelve Genii of the annual revolution had the barque and the keys of time, the same as the chief of the secondary gods of the Romans or Janus, after whom St. Peter, Bar-Jona, with his barque and keys, is modelled.

Higgins doesn't appear to give any citation for the above information.

[Roger Pearse]

If she didn't invent the stories in question (12 disciples etc) then where are the earlier examples? That's a genuine question btw.

The earliest reference I can find to Mihtras having twelve disciples is a 1942 book The Sangamon it is unlikely that the author invented the idea but I can't trace it any earlier.

Well that's a lesson to me. I'd really thought Acharya S invented it, but that search reveals a number of preceding head-bangers. Thank you very much; and it is a reminder never to take these things for granted.

All the best,

Roger Pearse