So the two main parts of this quote I'm going to comment on are:In this book, I have demonstrated that baptism in the Pauline communities is a ritual analogous to mystery initiation. Both the initiation rituals of the mysteries and baptismal ritual practiced in the Pauline groups are informed by similar socio-cultural understandings of how initiation constructs divine-human and intra-human/social relationships. Secondly, I have argued that Paul is an innovative interpreter of ritual who recalibrates the messages of preexisting rituals for his theological and ethical program, seeking to radically extend the implications of initiation to the social reality within his Christ-cult groups and the embodied life of every Christ-believer. Thirdly, I have argued that Paul recentralizes religious virtuosity by incorporating the pattern of baptismal initiation into his own apostolic existence.
Baptism in Paul’s mid-first century communities shares a certain type of ritual messages with the initiation rituals of the Dionysiac mysteries and the mysteries of Isis. In terms of self-referential messages (or the benefits promised by initiation), baptism was primarily an entry ritual into Paul’s Christ groups (largely consisting of Christ-devotees from pagan backgrounds) in a way similar to the initiation rituals of the mysteries. These rituals of initiation transform individual and communal identity (intra-human relationships are formed), and accordingly create boundaries and norms for the group by which they can identify themselves. Significantly, both Christ-baptism and mystery initiation communicate the self-referential message that ritual participation creates a personalized, trustworthy bond between the deity and devotee(s). As an extension of this bond, the divine pledge of a blessed afterlife (though what this entails might differ) for the devotees is often communicated as part of the promise of initiation, as baptism communicated eschatological promise...
This enables one to see how early Christ baptism participated in the pattern of mystery initiation. Canonical messages about the suffering of the deity (Dionysus, Isis, Christ), the deity’s nearness to the devotees (Dionysus, Christ) as well as sympathy/mercy (Isis, Christ), and the identification (or some type of unity) between the deity and the devotees based on the logic of metonymy (Dionysus, Isis, Christ) are found, mutatis mutandis, in both the mysteries and the description of baptism in the Pauline letters. The emphasis on the devotees’ faith/trust in the deity (in addition to the ritual activity itself ), their right understanding of the meaning of ritual, and as mentioned above, their ethical behavior to maintain order within the cultic community appear in all three groups. This is not surprising given the reciprocal process: one’s participation in and acceptance of ritual (this is part of the self-referential message) gives the canonical order its very existence, which guarantees the efficacy of the benefits promised by the ritual and generates the participant’s obligations. Finally, cultic initiation by definition signifies some form of religious virtuosity, but when compared to the Eleusinian mysteries (where differentiated stages of initiation are found), the two mystery cults examined here have more in common with Pauline baptism. With its emphasis on the figure of Dionysus as an archetypal initiate who powerfully enables his devotees to become like this deity, Dionysiac initiation provided a more “democratized” version of virtuosity, accessible to all initiates, although rules of order and diverse roles are still found within Dionysiac groups. While some differentiation among initiates is detected in Isis initiation (e.g., as seen in Apuleius’s Metamorphoses), a consideration of material culture suggests that the mysteries of Isis also developed a symbolic order where a larger group of initiates shared sacerdotal identity.
Since this overall contour of ritual messages was not unique to Christ-baptism and Paul’s baptism discourse, pagans in the first-century Mediterranean world who were familiar with how the Dionysiac mysteries or the mysteries of Isis worked would easily understand what ritual messages baptism communicated. Baptism fits the cognitive pattern of mystery initiation attested among pagans in Pauline cities. To be clear, this analogical relationship of ritual messages does not mean that Christ-baptism directly originated from the initiation rituals of the mysteries, or that Paul’s theology of baptism was dependent on the (abstracted) theology of the mystery cults. Throughout key passages in his letters, Paul as an interpreter and mythographer of the earliest phase of the Christ cult engages and expands the images and messages of baptism. On one hand, as seen above, baptism in Paul’s communities can be understood in light of the analogical framework of the mysteries. On the other hand, Paul developed distinctive messages of baptism that look different from initiation in the Dionysiac and Isis mysteries, although the differences are primarily of degree, rather than kind.
Fourth, the notion of “dying and rising with Christ through baptism” (in Rom 6)—a perennial theme in previous scholarship—can be briefly revisited. In Rom 5–8, one can see how Paul’s view of baptism evolved through his interactions with several types of pre-existing traditions (e.g., pre-Pauline baptismal tradition, LXX tradition, apocalyptic tradition) and with ritual innovations emerging from his Christ groups. Paul’s extended discourse on baptism in these chapters theologizes baptism as a revelatory space where the conquest of the cosmic problem of death through Christ’s death is enacted on individual believers’ body with renewed life animated by the Spirit of the risen Christ. It is true that Isis and Dionysus experienced suffering, and a part of their ritual messages includes a shared identity between the deity and the initiates. However, the precise connection between the cosmic nature of death, the death of the deity to address that issue, and initiates’ participation in this deity’s death/burial through ritual is a peculiar blend that does not appear in the mysteries of Dionysus and the Isis mysteries. Thus, as scholars of the Moratorium stage correctly argued, Paul’s presentation of baptism as dying and rising with Christ is not a reason to claim that Pauline baptism is dependent on the pagan mysteries. To the ex-pagans in Paul’s groups, Paul’s message of baptism as dying and rising with Christ would be a point that makes this ritual more distinctive from the other mystery initiations.
1. "However, the precise connection between the cosmic nature of death, the death of the deity to address that issue, and initiates’ participation in this deity’s death/burial through ritual is a peculiar blend that does not appear in the mysteries of Dionysus and the Isis mysteries... To the ex-pagans in Paul’s groups, Paul’s message of baptism as dying and rising with Christ would be a point that makes this ritual more distinctive from the other mystery initiations"
2. "To be clear, this analogical relationship of ritual messages does not mean that Christ-baptism directly originated from the initiation rituals of the mysteries, or that Paul’s theology of baptism was dependent on the (abstracted) theology of the mystery cults"
I will show that the idea of ritually dying and resurrecting with Christ isn't actually unique to Paul's description of baptism, it's very similar to the Egyptian mortuary ritual where the deceased is said to die and resurrect like Osiris, and that it's very likely that the initiates in the Isis mysteries and the Dionysus mysteries perform a ritual death and rebirth/resurrection in emulation of a deity's death and resurrection/rebirth. To be clear, I'm not saying everything in Paul is influenced by mystery cults. Obviously his Jewish background is an important influence on his theology. I'm saying that Paul (like the other authors of the NT texts) is bringing concepts found in other Greco-Roman cults into a Jewish context.
The following is a list of concepts found in Paul's theology that are comparable to the Egyptian mortuary cult and other mystery cults. A lot of these concepts are found in pre-Christian Jewish texts and theology but there are some important things missing from the Jewish context. As far as I'm aware, Jews didn't worship a deity that experiences and conquers death. They didn't perform rituals where they identified with a deity's death and resurrection. These concepts are:
* Ritual identification with a deity that experiences and conquers death. This deity usually goes through some type of suffering as already mentioned in the above quote from Donghyun Jeong's book.
* Paul says Jesus was the first to experience and conquer death. He's a model or prototype for his followers. His followers will conquer death and be "glorified" just as he had. Osiris was also said to be the first to experience and conquer death. He's a model or prototype for his followers. His followers will conquer death and be "glorified" just as he had.
* Paul says Christians are "crucified with Christ" just like the deceased is depicted as being dismembered like Osiris in the Egyptian mortuary ritual. Both are then raised to new life in emulation of Jesus and Osiris.
* Baptism is a ritual immersion in water. In the Egyptian ritual, the deceased is put in a basin and water is poured over the corpse. The water purification ritual was often associated with the sun god's immersion in the primordial waters of the underworld before he is reborn/resurrected. In both baptism and the Egyptian primordial waters of the underworld the persons old identity is exchanged for a new one. Osiris was also thrown into the Nile waters before he was found and raised to new life. The Nile waters were said to have flowed from Osiris's wounds (cf. gJohn where water flows out of Jesus's wound) and were also associated with the primordial waters. In the initiation of Lucius into the Isis cult he is bathed. There's evidence of water basins that were used by the Isis cult. Paul's ritual of baptism seems to combine water purification rituals with the death and rebirth/resurrection ritual.
* Paul talks about being "perfected" and associates perfection with morality. The resurrected deceased in the Egyptian mortuary ritual is said to be "perfected" and this perfection is associated with morality. Sin = death in both Paul and the Egyptian mortuary cult.
* Paul talks about being "justified" and passing judgement. Being "justified" and passing judgement is also found in the Egyptian mortuary ritual. Jesus becomes a savior and judge just like Osiris. In both traditions there is a "second death" for those who don't pass judgement.
* Paul says Jesus was the "first born" of many. He also describes Christians as being "reborn" in baptism. Christians are reborn as children of God. After the Egyptian mortuary ritual is completed, the deceased is transfigured, resurrected, and reborn. The deceased is said to be reborn out of the womb of the sky goddess as a divine being (cf. John 3:3-7 where Jesus states you must be born from above and through spirit). Rebirth and resurrection are interchangeable. Mystery cult initiations were considered to be a rebirth into a new life.
* Paul mentions the eucharist or "Lord's supper". The meal integrates the new initiate into the cult and forms a bond between the initiates and the deity. In the Egyptian mortuary ritual, the resurrected deceased receives bread and beer and eats meals with the gods and other divine beings in order to be integrated into the community of gods. Mystery cults also have some kind of meal that integrates the new initiate into the cult.
* Paul describes the resurrection body as glorified and associates it with "heavenly" or celestial bodies such as the sun and stars. The glorified resurrection body shines or is bright like the stars. The transfigured deceased in the Egyptian mortuary ritual is said to be "glorified" and transfigured into an "akh" which is associated with the heavenly and celestial bodies like the sun and stars. The "akh" shines or is bright like the stars.
* Paul compares death and resurrection to the planting and sprouting of a seed. Death and resurrection in ancient Egypt was compared to the planting and sprouting of seeds. The planting and sprouting of grains were an important symbol of death and resurrection/rebirth in the Eleusinian mysteries and the grapevine was an important symbol of resurrection/rebirth in the Dionysus mysteries (cf. gJohn where Jesus identifies himself with the grapevine). Grains and grapes sprout out of the body and blood of the sacrificial bull of the Mithras cult signifying life out of death.
* Paul says that after being resurrected and passing judgement, Christians will receive "incorruptible crowns". After being resurrected and passing through judgement, Osiris and all of the deceased are crowned. The initiates into the Isis mysteries, Eleusinian mysteries, and Dionysus mysteries are crowned after completing initiation and in the afterlife.
* Both Paul and the Egyptian mortuary texts describe death as an enemy that must be conquered. Paul describes a battle with God and Jesus on one side and Death and other enemies of God on the other. Paul says Jesus will put all of his enemies under his feet. In the Egyptian netherworld, Osiris and the sun god battle the enemies of Osiris and the sun god. One of these enemies is the serpent Apophis. Osiris is said to put his enemies under his feet. In Paul, this battle happens once at the end of time (comparable to Zoroastrian beliefs) while in Egyptian beliefs this battle happened every night when the sun god entered the netherworld. Interestingly, Egyptian texts describe nighttime as a deconstruction of the cosmos where there's a threat that everything will sink back into the primordial waters. The rising sun out of the primordial waters in the morning is described as a recreation/new creation of the cosmos.
* Both Paul and the Egyptian mortuary texts refer to the resurrection of life from death as a "mystery". The "mystery" of new life through death seems to be one of the most important themes in mystery cults.
* Paul describes God giving the resurrected and glorified Jesus rulership and power over cosmic forces. Paul also says that Jesus received "the name above every other name". In the Egyptian mortuary cult the resurrected and glorified person is given power and rulership by the god Re. The resurrected person also receives the name of Osiris. Isis and other mystery cult deities had power over cosmic forces.
I'm going to start with the Egyptian mortuary ritual. This ritual seems to be the first initiation ritual into some type of "mysteries". This mortuary ritual influenced the rituals of the later Isis mysteries and likely influenced other mystery cult initiations.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of Histories 1.96.4–6:
So Diodorus Siculus says that the initiation rituals of the mysteries of Dionysus and Demeter are based on the Egyptian funeral customs. This seems like it might be accurate. Notice also that he mentions the judgement of the dead which is also found in the Egyptian mortuary cult. By joining the mystery cult you would be saved from punishments in the afterlife.Orpheus, for instance, brought from Egypt most of his mystic ceremonies, the orgiastic rites that accompanied his wanderings, and his fabulous account of his experiences in Hades. For the rite of Osiris is the same as that of Dionysus and that of Isis very similar to that of Demeter, the names alone having been interchanged; and the punishments in Hades of the unrighteous, the Fields of the Righteous, and the fantastic conceptions, current among the many, which are figments of the imagination – all these were introduced by Orpheus in imitation of the Egyptian funeral customs.
In the Egyptian religion, the two most important deities associated with death and resurrection were Osiris and the sun god (usually referred to as Re/Ra). They were the two deities that experienced and conquered death. During the Egyptian mortuary rituals, the deceased person was associated with either one of these deities or sometimes both. The ritual was a reenactment of their deaths and resurrections just like Paul's description of baptism. They were both "models" or "prototypes" (especially Osiris) for their followers just as Jesus is for Christians.
In the following quotes, I bolded parts that I think are comparable to concepts found in Paul's letters.
Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Cornell University Press, 2011), Jan Assmann:
"Death and Initiation in the Funerary Religion of Ancient Egypt", Jan Assmann in Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt (Yale Egyptological Studies 3, 1989):“Salvation” and “eternal life” are Christian concepts, and we might think that the Egyptian myth can all too easily be viewed through the lens of Christian tradition. Quite the contrary, in my opinion, Christian myth is itself thoroughly stamped by Egyptian tradition, by the myth of Isis and Osiris, which from the very beginning had to do with salvation and eternal life...
We now understand why the embalming ritual had to portray the corpse not just as a lifeless body but as a dismembered one... The myth dramatized this condition, telling how Seth slew his brother Osiris, tore his body into pieces, and scattered his limbs throughout all of Egypt. In the embalming ritual, this myth was played out for each deceased person, even if he had in no way been killed and dismembered but rather had died a peaceful, natural death... This first phase was carried out in the name of purification. Everything “foul,” that is, everything perishable that could represent a danger to the goal of achieving an eternal form, was removed from the body. For this reason, in the few representations of the embalming ritual, this phase is represented as a purifying bath. The corpse lay “on” (that is, in) a basin, and water was poured over it. The Egyptian word for such a basin is Sj, “lake,” and such a “lake” is mentioned repeatedly in the accompanying spells, some of which we shall cite in chapter 5... In Egyptian mortuary belief, Osiris was the prototype of every deceased individual. Everyone would become Osiris in death and be endowed with life by Isis...
Without an active encounter with his enemy, Osiris cannot come back to life; this encounter is the decisive threshold he must cross in order to conquer death. With his public vindication against his enemy—that is, death as assassin—Osiris regains both rulership and life, for in this image of death, these two things are closely related. The crown that Osiris regains symbolizes eternal life and ultimate salvation from death... The ordinary deceased was a follower of Osiris, was called Osiris and compared to him, and became a member of his following. He came into possession not only of life but also of personal status and recognition. He bore the name of the god, along with his own titles and his personal name, as well as the epithet “justified/vindicated.” He smote Seth, which meant that he had conquered death... Through his victory over Seth in the lawsuit over the succession to the throne, and also through his acquittal in the Judgment of the Dead, the deceased, who had suffered the first death, was saved from the second, ultimate death... Guilt, accusation, enmity, and so forth are treated as forms of impurity and decay—as, so to say, immaterial but harmful substances—that must be eliminated so as to transpose the deceased into a condition of purity that can withstand decay and dissolution. Vindication was moral mummification... In this last stage of the mummification process, the deceased experienced the Judgment of the Dead and received the aristocratic status of a follower of Osiris in the netherworld. He was vindicated against all accusations and absolved of any and all guilt, of any sin that could hinder his transition into the next life...
With this increasing moralization, the afterlife became ever more ambivalent and threatening. It was divided not into a physical heaven and hell but into two aspects, one of which spelled annihilation for evildoers, and the other, salvation for the righteous... The guilt of the deceased was that which stood in the way of his transformation into the eternal form of a “transfigured ancestral spirit.” It was the Egyptian form of the Pauline concept, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)... What mattered was whether he had lived righteously, already judging himself during life against the norms of the next world... If condemned, the deceased could not become a transfigured spirit; rather, he had to vanish from the created cosmos, and that was the second death...
Perhaps we are to understand this talk about bread that does not grow moldy and beer that does not grow sour quite literally, as an allusion to symbolic and thus imperishable representations of these offering items... The relationship between the offering meal and ascent to the sky, the latter being the sacramental explanation of the former, is one of the fundamentals of the Egyptian mortuary cult. The offering was the ritual framework for the image of death as transition. Spells that mention the deceased's passage from the realm of death, where the conditions of life are reversed, into the Elysian realm, where the order of eternal life prevails, have especially to do with eating and drinking... The nourishment to which he had a claim demonstrated that the deceased no longer belonged to that realm [of death] but rather had been called to life eternal. He strove for a share of this nourishment in the Elysian realm, and he ate of this nourishment in order to belong to it. Means and end intertwined, with the result that the deceased's food became the medium of his salvation from the realm of death (the aspect of salvation is clearly expressed by the verb sdj "to take out, rescue"). The offerings therefore had to be pure, for only thus did they belong to the realm of the gods, into which the deceased was integrated by receiving them. This initiatory, transformative aspect of taking nourishment is familiar to Christians through the ritual of Communion, though the latter rests on different traditions of offerings and sacred meals. The Egyptian rite of provisioning the dead was intended to integrate the deceased into the communal feasting of the gods and the transfigured ancestral spirits...
The concept of completion/perfection, Egyptian nfrw, not only had connotations of beauty, perfection, and imperishability but also, and above all, connotations of virtue and righteousness, of moral perfection and conformance with the norms of maat. From djet-time, there arose a moral perspective. Only good could continue unchangeably; evil, bad, uncleanliness, and imperfection were given over to perishability. The moral qualities of a result, that is, its conformance to maat, decided its imperishability... He who is vindicated in the Judgment of the Dead will “stride freely like the lords of eternity,” he will be accepted among the gods. He will thus not only enjoy continuance on earth but also immortality in the next world...
In the coffin, the vindicated deceased experiences a revelation of the great mother, the sky goddess, who incorporates him into herself for eternal regeneration. But the deceased encounters her in many forms, not just that of the coffin. She is the tomb, the necropolis, the West, and the realm of the dead; all the spaces that receive him, from the smallest to the largest, are manifestations of the womb into which the transfigured deceased enters...
The text in question deals with the initiation of Lucius into the mysteries of Isis, as related by Apuleius in his novel "The Golden Ass.” The scene is not Egypt but Cenchreae, the harbor of Corinth, where there was an Isis sanctuary. In the Hellenistic Isis religion, the goddess embodied her adherents’ hope for eternal life, and she brought a great deal from her Egyptian past to this role. It was she who had awakened Osiris to new life through the power of her magical spells. And since, according to Egyptian belief, every individual became an Osiris by means of the mortuary rituals, his hope for immortality depended on Isis as well. There is good reason to think that ancient Egyptian burial customs lived on in the Hellenistic Isis mysteries, though in the latter case, they were enacted and interpreted not as a burial of the deceased but as an initiation of the living... Lucius is initiated into the mysteries of the netherworld. He carries out the descensus of the sun god, descending into the netherworld and beholding the sun at midnight. With these sentences, we cannot help but think of the Books of the Netherworld that are to be found on the walls of the Ramesside royal tombs and in the Osireion at Abydos. We may imagine that the mystic was led into similarly decorated rooms—perhaps the crypts—of a temple. In any case, the process seems to be a symbolic journey through the netherworld, in which the netherworld is depicted, in an entirely Egyptian sense, as the subterranean realm of the midnight sun... When the day of the initiation finally comes, Lucius is first bathed (baptized), and the priest “expresses the forgiveness of the gods.” The bath thus has the sacramental sense of a remission of sins...
In accordance with the image of death as mystery, the deceased not only crossed over, or returned, to the netherworld, he was initiated into it. In their rubrics, many spells of the Book of the Dead identify themselves as initiations into the mysteries of the netherworld... Initiation into the mysteries of a deity entailed the deification of the mystic. “Conducting into the presence of” and “becoming” Osiris comprise precisely these two aspects of initiation into the mysteries of Osiris... I think it is essentially less risky to view the Books of the Netherworld and the guides to the world beyond as initiation literature... In any event, the Egyptian texts say one thing clearly enough: that all rituals, and especially those centered on Osiris and the sun god, were cloaked in mystery. And it is also clear that there is a relationship between initiation into these (ritual) mysteries and life in the next world... The image of death as return has led us to the mystery of the circuit of the sun god and his nightly renewal in the depths of the world. He is able to join the end to the beginning, so that each morning, he emerges from the realm of the dead rejuvenated and glorious, as on the “first occasion.” That this renewal is a mystery, and perhaps even the deepest mystery in Egyptian religion, is assured by the texts and representations that depict it. Unlike the images of death treated to this point, which occur in all the mortuary texts of all periods, the mystery of the nocturnal regeneration of the sun occurs in a single text genre, one that is thoroughly exclusive and cloaked in the aura of mystery: the texts in the royal tombs of the New Kingdom. For their part, these royal tombs were architectonic realizations of the mysterious, crypts where no human foot was to tread after the burial. Thus, the external fact of the place where it was represented already reveals that the renewal of the sun god in the depths of the world has to do with a mystery.
Following Osiris: Perspectives on the Osirian Afterlife from Four Millennia (Oxford University Press, 2017), Mark Smith:The idea of interpreting the ritual and conceptual structure of the funerary religion of Ancient Egypt in the light of the anthropological topic of initiation is certainly not new... The general idea of "transition" underlying all concrete formulations of this theme is of ontic nature: it is conceived as a transformation from one state of being to another which the deceased must undergo. The Egyptian language has a specific word for this "other " state of being: "akh", which is usually rendered as "spirit " and "spirit-state. " The phonetic root (j)3h conveys the basic meanings of "light", "brightness" and "radiance." The feminine form Sht (akhet) designates that "radiant place" in the heavens where the sun rises and sets, but also the "land of the blessed" to which the deceased journey after death. "Radiant place," in the Old Kingdom, is also the name of the king's pyramid-tomb , an indication that his entombment is the prefiguration or the equivalent of his ascent to the heavens... Within this ontic distance between the "here " and "yonder," between visual and mythical reality, lies the initiatory and mystical character of the Egyptian funerary religion. The world of mythical reality stands for a certain knowledge, to which the deceased is initiated, for a cosmic sphere, to which he is transferred, and for a state of being, which he must attain. Let us distinguish, for the sake of clarity, between two variants found in the formulations and illustrations of the "passage" from this world to the next: firstly, those concerned primarily with the spatial aspect ("transition") and secondly, those presenting a more biomorphic model ("rebirth"). That both variants in no way exclude one another, but actually stand in a complementary relationship and in many way s overlap, needs no explanation...
In the context of the myth of Osiris, the dismemberment of the god's body has dual function and meaning, to which corresponds a dual tradition. Seth has not only killed his brother Osiris, but also, in a second act of violence, cut his corpse to pieces and thrown these into the water... This state now becomes the starting point of restorative acts, the goal of which is to cure the condition of death. The rejoining of the limbs of Osiris, found only after a long search, became the prototype for the "overcoming" of death and furnished the mythical precedent for embalment. Embalment and mummification, in the light of the myth of Osiris, are equated with the restoration of life to the body, which had by no means to be ritually dismembered beforehand, since its lifelessness alone was mythically interpreted as dismemberment... The embalming process, to which it refers, is related to the topic of initiation in manifold ways. It is conceived not so much as a preservation of the corpse, but rather as its transfiguration to a new body...
In accordance with the principle of "transfiguration," as the correlation of this world's symbolic objects and actions with yonder world of values and realities, the coffin becomes the body of the sky - and mother-goddess, thus enabling the "placing of the body in the coffin" to be transfigured into the ascent of the deceased to the heavens and the return to the mother-goddess. The sky-goddess is the Egyptian manifestation of the Great Mother. A central aspect of this belief is the fact that the Egyptians imagined the deceased as being the children of this Mother-of-all-Beings... The texts underline the indissolubility of this bond, or more precisely of the embrace into which the deceased, when laid in his coffin, enters with the sky - the mother-goddess, the goddess of the dead. The concept of rebirth, however, still plays an important role. "I shall bear thee anew, rejuvenated," exclaims the sky-goddess to the deceased in one of many such texts inscribed on or in nearly every coffin and tomb. "I have spread myself over thee, I have born thee again as a god." Through this rebirth, the deceased becomes a star-god, a member of the AKH-sphere, a new entity. This rebirth, however, does not imply a de-livery, a separation, but takes place inside the mother's womb, inside the coffin and sky... The deceased, now reborn through the sky-goddess as a god himself, is subsequently breast-fed by divine nurses and elevated to the heavens...
The gods live in a redistributive community, itself a projection of earthly society. Membership in this community is the only way for the deceased to partake of the sustenance of the gods; it is, on the other hand, the sharing in the divine nourishment which makes him a member of the community of gods. This specific motif appears repeatedly as a sacramental explanation in those spells concerned with the concrete action of eating and drinking, i.e. dealing with the reception of funerary offerings... Just to illustrate the point, let me quote the following passage from a funerary liturgy: "Thy bread is the bread of Re, thy beer is the beer of Hathor. Thou getst up and siteth down for thy meal and joinest the gods who follow the god (Re)." The means and the end are fully interchangeable: eating and drinking (a social act of paradigmatic significance) are the ideal concretizations of the desired social integration, while social integration inversely represents the prerequisite for sustenance in the hereafter...
"Justification" is the central concept of Egyptian funerary religion in which all aspects of the "overcoming of death" and of salvation in the next world come together... The structure of those funerary texts concerned with justification may be divided into a number of aspects. The deceased must justify himself: (a) with respect to the enemy (as the personification of death), (b) with respect to an enemy, who might face him in the next world and perhaps bring forth accusations against him in "yonder" court of justice and, finally, (c) with respect to the divine prosecutor and judge, in whose presence the deceased must answer for his conduct on earth and prove himself worthy of eternal salvation...
The outcome of the trial, however, has aspects other than simply gaining admittance to the divine sphere of existence. First of all, the survival of the deceased's individual personality depends on it... He is henceforth no longer an immaterial shadow, but, for instance, the high steward Amenemope who may now place his earthly offices and names between the new titles "Osiris" and "justified," both acquired in the judgement of the dead. The second aspect of the trial is the acceptance of the deceased into the 'redistributive community,' in which gods and spirits are thought to live in and which is modeled after the pattern of earthly society. Sustenance and social integration exist, in the Egyptian mind, as one indivisible whole: they merely represent two aspects of one and the same thing. The desired verdict of the funerary judge appropriately formulates it: "A truly righteous one. Let him be given the bread and beer, which issues forth from Osiris. He shall be forever amongst the followers of Horus."...
Death and Initiation in the Isis-Mysteries of Apuleius: "I entered the boundary of death, and as I stepped across Proserpina's threshold, I was carried by all elements and returned; At midnight, I caught sight of the sun, dazzling in radiant light, I approached the lower and upper gods and prayed to them face to face"
The Egyptian associations present in this description have often been emphasized. We are dealing here with a katabasis, i.e. a ritual descent into the underworld, which, in this case, is visually and architectonically actualized by a descent into a crypt decorated with cosmographic representations. In the precise same way, the royal tombs of the New Kingdom are decorated with representations of the underworld, thereby equating the entombment of the king to a descensus ad inferos. The wall paintings of these tombs are cosmographies: they describe the path of the sun-god, sailing in his bark through the hourly regions of the underworld and of the sky. The mystical character of these "books," in the sense of a codification of an esoteric and secret knowledge, is clearly expressed in these representations... In the initiation of Lucius, the voyage through the underworld stands for a symbolic death, followed on the next morning by his resurrection as the sun-god: adorned with a palm wreath ad instar solis, he appears to the cheering crowd, just as the justified deceased at the judgement of the dead... No one doubts that the initiation rites of the Isis-mysteries, as Apuleius ventures to describe them, are deeply rooted in the uniquely elaborated rituals and conceptions of Egyptian funerary religion. The same holds true for other initiation rituals. Seen from this aspect, a relationship between death and initiation is not disputed.
“Resurrection and the Body in Graeco-Roman Egypt,” Mark J. Smith in The Human Body in Death and Resurrection (Walter de Gruyter, 2009), eds. T. Nicklas, F.V. Reiterer, and J. Verheyden:However, there was one important difference between these gods and Osiris. Unlike them, he had triumphed over death, and the ability to do likewise could be conferred upon his followers. The colophon of Pyramid Text Spell 561B states that whoever worships Osiris will live forever, showing that already at this date those who devoted themselves to the god might expect to share in his resurrection...
Osiris is one of the few ancient Egyptian deities of whom it is possible to write even the outline of a biography. More personal details about him are extant than about any other god or goddess. This is not simply an accident of preservation. The Egyptians considered some deities important because of their impersonal attributes and powers, the roles they were believed to play in the maintenance of the cosmos. But the crucial significance of Osiris for them lay in what he personally had done and undergone. His life, death, and resurrection were perceived to be particularly momentous in relation to their own fates, and thus they figure more prominently in the textual record than do accounts of the exploits of other divinities. Moreover, because so much importance was invested in the fact that these were events actually experienced by a real individual, and not merely abstractions, personal detail was essential in recounting them.
To understand why the life, death, and resurrection of Osiris were so significant, one must first grasp how the ancient Egyptians conceived of the human being. Their conception was essentially a monistic one. They did not divide the person into a corruptible body and an immortal soul. They did, however, perceive each individual as having a ‘corporeal self’ and a ‘social self ’... Osiris provided a model whereby the effects of this rupture could be reversed, for the god underwent a twofold process of resurrection. Just as the mummification rites restored his corporeal integrity, so too justification against Seth and the events that followed it restored his social position and reintegrated him within the hierarchy of the gods. In the same way that Osiris was restored to life and declared free of wrongdoing, so all who died hoped to be revived and justified...
As we have seen, the colophon of Pyramid Text Spell 561B states that whoever worships Osiris will live forever (section 3.9.1). Moreover, since the worshippers of Osiris were, in the first instance, divine beings themselves, the deceased, by participating in his worship, acquired the same status as them. So it was not just eternal life, but eternal life in divine form that Osiris bestowed upon his followers. This link between worshipping Osiris and attaining the status of a god is made explicit in Coffin Text Spell 789...
The first decree, inscribed on the north wall, begins with a hymn to the ba of Osiris. It stresses that he is ruler over everything, calling him the twice unique one who created what exists, noble primordial one, and ba who is over the gods and the goddesses... A prominent theme in hymns to Osiris at Philae is the god’s royal status, in particular, his universal kingship... One of these, inscribed in the chapel of Osiris lord of eternity at Karnak, has already been cited in section 6.12.1 as evidence for the growing importance of the conception of Osiris as ruler of both the living and the dead in the first half of the first millennium. A scene on one of the architraves of the pronaos of the temple of Isis emphasizes Osiris’s universal kingship over the sky, the two lands, and the under-world. Hieroglyphic inscriptions from the island of Bigga likewise stress the status of that god as ruler over everything...
In texts of later periods, the deceased only attain the status of Akh after they have been judged before Osiris and found to have led a virtuous life... The venue where their conduct was examined and their fitness to join the ranks of the immortal blessed assessed continued to be the hall of judgement where he presided... As in earlier periods, those who passed the test of judgement were declared ‘justified' and accepted into the following of Osiris... In the same way that justification and acceptance into the company of Osiris’s followers offered a means of social reintegration for those whom death had cut off from friends and relations, the mummification rites restored the physical integrity of their bodies, transfiguring them and endowing them with a new eternal form. This transfiguration was accomplished in the same manner as before, by means of special spells known as sakhu or ‘glorifications’, which were recited during the period that the deceased spent in the place of embalming prior to burial. As noted in section 4.15.4, the concepts of mummification and justification were closely linked, so much so that the rites associated with the former actually included an assessment of the deceased’s character. The embalming table doubled as a judge’s tribunal, and if the dead person was found to be guilty of sin, the very processes which should have provided surcease from the suffering inflicted by death became a form of torture from which escape was impossible...
The adjacent text says of Osiris: ‘His enemies are beneath his feet, while the gods and akhs are before him. He makes a reckoning among those of the underworld, consigning the foes to perdition and slaughtering their bas'... That of Spell 82 says that knowing the utterance means being an excellent akh in the presence of Osiris, that of Spell 228 states that when someone who knows the spell proceeds to the god’s domain he will eat bread at the side of Osiris, while that of Spell 339 promises that knowing the utterance means eating bread in the house of Osiris. Several of the requests found in offering formulas of the eleventh dynasty are for association with Osiris and enjoyment of the benefits conferred thereby. They include wishes that the deceased receive the provisions of the lord of Abydos (2g), the pure bread of Khentiamentiu (2h)... Five of the wishes listed above refer to Khentiamentiu rather than Osiris. This reflects the fact that by the eleventh dynasty, the former had been absorbed by the latter and was no longer an autonomous deity. Now Khentiamentiu is simply an epithet of Osiris... Coffin Text Spell 314 makes reference to the ‘excellent bas’ of the house of Osiris. The deceased asks those who conduct these bas to the god’s house to give him bread and beer at all times... Here too, the bas constitute a group defined by its members’ association with Osiris... Thus we find utterances where the dead person is said to come to Osiris, enter before him or be at his side, see him, worship him, be like him, enter the god’s house and have knowledge of him... be among his followers, be in the midst of those who eat bread in Osiris’s presence, spells in which the deceased identifies himself as the son of Osiris, or the god is said to be his father...
As many have noted, the myths of Persephone and Osiris share a number of common features. Both protagonists experience death unwillingly but are restored to life through the intervention of others. As a result, the fertility of the earth is renewed and crops are enabled to grow. Moreover, both hold positions of authority in the underworld. These similarities undoubtedly account for the fact that episodes from their respective myths are juxtaposed in tombs 3 and 4 at Kom el-Shoqafa. But what does this juxtaposition tell us about the religious views of those responsible? Did they believe equally in both deities? Or did they simply see in these scenes two different but complementary ways of evoking the grander overarching concept of victory over death?...
The equation of Osiris with Dionysos is already mentioned in Herodotus (II, 42); thus it pre-dates the start of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the equation of Osiris with Sarapis. The latter god could be identified with Dionysos as well, and this could have been an additional factor that contributed to his identification with Osiris. Evidence for the equation of Osiris with Dionysos is provided by ‘double’ names where Egyptian Petosorapis or Petosiris corresponds to Greek Dionysios. See also the epithet ‘new Dionysos’ adopted by Ptolemy XII, which was translated into Egyptian as Wsἰr ḥwn, ‘young Osiris’. Some Greek dedications refer to ‘Dionysos, also called Petempamentes’ or ‘Petempamentes, also called Dionysos’, Petempamentes being a Greek transcription of an Egyptian epithet meaning ‘the one who is in the west’, i.e. Osiris.
So by now you've probably noticed a lot of similarities with Paul's descriptions of Christian rituals like baptism and the eucharist or the "Lord's Supper". Now I'm going to quote from sources that go into concepts that are found in Paul's letters. I'll of course bold parts that are comparable to the Egyptian mortuary cult and the mystery cults. After this I will go back to the Egyptian and Greco-Roman mysteries and give some more "evidence" that there are a lot of similarities between Paul and mystery cults.Three basic conceptions underlie all ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices concerning the afterlife. This applies to the Graeco-Roman Period as well as earlier periods of Egyptian history. The first conception is that of the continued survival of those who die as physical or corporeal entities. The second is that of the existence of a hierarchy of divinities and other immortal beings into which the deceased hope to be integrated. The third conception is one of a causal relationship whereby the position of the deceased within this hierarchy, and indeed whether they are admitted to it or not, is determined by their conduct while alive... Osiris presided over the judgement of the deceased. Each person, at death, had to go before a tribunal where his or her conduct was weighed in a balance against the standard of righteousness. This took place in a venue called the hall of the two truths, also known as the hall of the righteous or hall of the blessed. Those who received a favourable judgement were acclaimed with the epithet ‘justified’, blessed and accepted into Osiris’ following. Those who did not were condemned to various fates, depending upon which source one consults. Some texts indicate that the wicked were consumed immediately after judgement by a monster known as the devourer of the dead... Others state that they were condemned for all eternity to punishments like decapitation, confinement within dark and gloomy caverns, being cooked in cauldrons, or immolation in flames...
The ancient Egyptian conception of the human being was monistic. They did not divide the person into a corruptible body and an immortal soul. They did, however, perceive each individual as having a ‘corporeal self’ and a ‘social self’... Thus the god [Osiris] reversed the effects of death’s twofold rupture by undergoing a twofold process of resurrection. Just as mummification restored his corporeal integrity, so too justification against Seth and the events which followed it restored his social position and re-integrated him within the hierarchy of the gods... In obtaining justice against Seth, Osiris regained full life, since his death was an injustice. By his justification, he gained total mastery over death. In the same way that Osiris was restored to life and declared free of wrongdoing, so all who died hoped to be revived and justified, as a result of the mummification process and its attendant rituals... But how could embalming and wrapping the body in bandages permit a deceased person to emulate the example of Osiris? As noted above, the Egyptians hoped to be revived and justified as a result of the mummification process and its attendant rituals...
Performing the rites of mummification was believed to restore the deceased to life, but this was not their only result. Another consequence was that they elevated him or her to a new, exalted status, that of akh. The root from which this word is derived refers to a power or force which operates without visible connection between cause and effect. One can see the result of its application but not how this came about, since it originates in a sphere concealed from view or cognition. For the Egyptians, the prototypical manifestation of this force in the natural world was the sun, whose rays were perceived to illuminate the world before it was actually visible above the horizon. In fact, the Egyptian word for horizon, akhet, which denotes the place where the boundary between the visible and the hidden is located, is derived from the same root as akh.
How was this power mobilised in the mummification ritual? It could be harnessed through the medium of the spoken or recited word, specifically through a category of spells known as glorifications or transfigurations... One becomes an akh as a result of their recitation. It was precisely spells of this nature that Isis uttered to restore Osiris to life. Here we have the answer to our question, how could the deceased hope to emulate that god? By being glorified or transfigured in the same manner as he was...
Typically, the transformative power described above was possessed by divinities, but human beings who acquired the status of akh received a share of it as well. Thus, after death, they were transfigured or glorified, and raised to a new plane of existence. In this form, they were able to transcend the boundary between the visible and hidden, and move freely from one sphere to the other. Consequently, akhs could go wherever they wished and do whatever they desired. They were even supposed to be capable of interacting with the living...
It will be clear from the survey presented above that body and resurrection were closely linked in Graeco-Roman Egypt. The resurrection in which the Egyptians believed was a bodily resurrection, involving a physical entity which had been justified, that is examined and declared to be free of sin. The successful transition from this life to the next had a profound effect on those who experienced it. They were not simply restored to vitality again. In addition, they were elevated to the status of akhs... The mummification and its attendant rites did more than reconstitute their bodies. In addition, through the justification which they incorporated, these ceremonies gave their beneficiaries a position in the hierarchy of gods and the blessed dead in the afterlife. Transfigured and raised by these means to a new plane of being, the deceased were not confined to their tombs or to the underworld. For them, the cemetery was only a resting place; their sphere of existence encompassed the whole of the cosmos.