Pagan Parallels: Achilles Heel of Christianity

[theterminator]

hello gdon. how come you have a picture of heman jesus?

m.youtube.com/watch?v=qYiWydDyMIE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqYiWydDyMIE

[Robert Tulip]

Maximos, why do you think pagan parallels are the Archilles Heel of Christianity? Can you give the clearest case of a pagan parallel which represents the strongest one as an Archilles Heel? Please give an exact example, rather than a wall of text.

If I can try to help out Maximos here, one of the strongest examples of pagan parallels is the derivation of the Lazarus story from Osiris. All the characters have analogous roles, indicating that John used this story as a way to secretly give new life to the old Egyptian deities, as a statement of respect. Lazarus = Osiris; Christ = Horus; Mary = Isis; Martha = Nephthys.

The Achilles Heel in this case is the demonstration that borrowing from Egypt provides a far more plausible explanation for the text than an origin in an actual historical Lazarus. But it is only an Achilles Heel for literalism, not for allegorical Christianity. And I don't think Achilles Heel is a good metaphor, since literalism is weak all over, not just at the heel. Prod anywhere with the slightest commitment to robust evidence and the whole house of cards falls down.

[bcedaifu]

Prod anywhere with the slightest commitment to robust evidence and the whole house of cards falls down.

Sensational. Ought to be a sticky.

[stephan happy huller]

So Lazarus is Osiris. Really? Fair enough. Let's challenge the linguistic abilities of the school of Acharya S. Please Robert or any of these other scholars attempt to explain how Λάζαρος or the Hebrew equivalent אלעזר derives from the Egyptian Osiris. We know already that anything that comes out of any of the members of the Acharya academy will be applauded by the rest of the kangaroo court there. But let's see whether they are up for actually putting forward a detailed linguistic argument here before our less 'enlightened' group.

[stephan happy huller]

Here I will even give you a hand. The name is very common in the Palestinian Talmud. It is written LAMED-ZAYIN-RESH and pronounced Lazar. It is a Palestinian Aramaic contraction of El’azar, spelt ALEF-LAMED-‘AYIN-ZAYIN-RESH (see above), the same name as Eli’ezer, spelt ALEF-LAMED-YOD-‘AYIN-ZAYIN-RESH, and ‘Ezri’el and ‘Azaryah, all meaning “God helps”. The Greek equivalent to this Hebrew name is Alexandros. Don’t be put off by the obvious meaning of the second part of the compound, which means in this context “a person” or “mankind”. The implicit meaning is still “God helps mankind."

[Blood]

There wasn't an ancient religion called "paganism." So this whole line of reasoning is wrong.

Christianity is inspired by Judaism and Greek religions. That makes sense, as the original "Christians" were probably Greeks who had converted to Judaism.

[stephan happy huller]

Paganism = 'idolatry' = גנות = 'not Judaism' = other than Christianity to the Church.

The Church developed an absolute perfect ideal for 'pure Judaism' which even Judaism itself couldn't attain.

[stephan happy huller]

But back to my main challenge to the acolytes of Acharya. You say Lazarus = Osiris. At least part of your argument is based on the similarity of names. Demonstrate it linguistically.

[GakuseiDon]

Acharya S (writing under her real name D.Murdock) writes in "Christ in Egypt":

• The correspondences continue, with Lazarus and Osiris even sharing the same name, as explained in my book “Who Was Jesus: Fingerprints of the Christ”:
  • “The Greek name “Lazaros” equals “Eleazar” in Hebrew and, per Strong’s (Concordance) (G2976), means “whom God helps.” It is a strange coincidence firstly that the person whom Jesus resurrects happens to be named “whom God helps,” and secondly that “Eleazar”—or, breaking down its original componenets in Hebrew, El-Azar—closely resembles a combination of the Semitic word for God, “El,” with the Egyptian name for Osiris, “Ausar.” Interestingly, there exists and ancient Phoenician inscription called “the Carpentras” that does indeed identify Osiris with the Semitic god “El” or “Elohim,” calling him “Osiris-Eloh.”[2]
  Regarding “El Osiris,” Albert Ross Parsons remarks:
  
  • “…El Osiris in another form is L’Azarus, an account of whose death and resurrection occur in the gospel of John, where the Lord Jesus personates the central sun which restored to life El Osiris…”[3]
  In addition, the word erl or al in Arabic means “the”; hence, “El-Azur-us” would be equivalent to “the Osiris,” which is in fact the frequent name of the deceased yearning to be resurrected. Verifying this fact, the village in Judea where the Lazarus miracle supposedly took place, Bethany, today is called in Arabic “El Azarieh.”[4]
  
  2. Murdock, WWJ, 234. See Heath, 92; Genesis 3:21, et al.
  3. Parsons. A., 187.
  4. Parsons, A., 190; Rousseau, 15; Davies, W.D., 143.

The original connection between the names "Lazarus" and "Osiris" seems to have been made by Gerald Massey, at least as I can find. I'll dig it out and post his evidence here shortly.

[stephan happy huller]

El-Azar—closely resembles a combination of the Semitic word for God, “El,” with the Egyptian name for Osiris

No it doesn't. Osiris would look like wsyr or wsyry in Aramaic. Maybe 'wsyry. But not like Lazarus.