The Parallels between Jesus and Mithras

On many Atheist websites, it is not uncommon to run across claims that Jesus Christ is a “copycat” of the pagan god Mithras. In part one of Zeitgeist, the Movie, he is listed as the fifth god that apparently was an inspiration for Jesus. Likewise, others like Acharya S repeat the same claim.

Mithraismbegan to be practiced by Romans in the late first century A.D. but didn’t enjoy widespread membership until the mid-second century A.D. It was a “mystery cult” so as a result there are no sacred writings of the cult like there are in other ancient religions such as Christianity, Hunduism and Buddhism. It is also doubtful that any such sacred texts ever existed. Because of that, I ran into a brick wall when I began researching it.

There exists the popular misconception that Christianity and Mithraism were in bitter competition for the heat and soul of the Roman empire. — This is not true! The truth is that the Roman cult of Mithraism only allowed men to join and excluded women. Christianity, being much more open to membership, was therefore at an advantage. Also, despite the fact that several Roman emperors were initiates in the cult of Mithras it was never instated as the official Roman religion. (Text Link)

The “Jesus-Myth” crowd often mentions Mithras alleging the parallels he had with Jesus. The anti-Christian website Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth (POCM) has repeated these claims and then retracted them. However, “Jesus Myther” Acharya S continually makes similar claims about them on her website despite the evidence against her, so they still need to be refuted. –  It was alleged that:

Early Christians established the dominance of their religion by exterminating Mithras’ faithful, razing His temples, burning His sacred texts.

In a Footnote, Acharya S also claims the existence of “Mithraic Scriptures.” — This is quite a claim considering that, as mentioned before, scholars doubt that Mithraic sacred writings even ever existed in the first place. This shows the ignorance of her part while the POCM, at least now, admits it was wrong. The claims then lists what we do “know” about the “mystery cult,”

He was buried in a tomb from which He rose again from the dead—an event celebrated yearly with much rejoicing.

The problem here is Mithras never died and therefore never rose from the dead. He was simply taken to heaven in a chariot after sharing a meal with Sol. (Text Link) — Next, it is claimed,

Every year in Rome, in the middle of winter, the Son of God was born one more, putting an end to darkness. Every year at first minute of December 25th the temple of Mithras was lit withcandles, priests in in white garments celebrated the birth of the Son of God and boys burned incense. Mithras was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin mother.

Mithras was born from a rock, not a virgin woman — that is unless anyone would like to use the pretty pathetic excuse that the rock he was born from, due to not being a sexual object, was a virgin. — Even though it is apparently true that he was born on December 25th, this is irrelevant to Christian origins because the evidence shows he wasn’t born in the winter. Luke 2:8-11 says that shepherds were in the fields the night Jesus was born which wouldn’t be the case in the winter. (click here) To top this off, the Bible doesn’t even say that Jesus was born in a cave. On the contrary, it was a stable which is fundamentally a barn.

He came from heaven to be born as a man, to redeem men from their sin. He was know as “Savior,” “Son of God,” “Redeemer,” and “Lamb of God.”

I cannot find any evidence to support this, and apparently neither can Mithraic scholars. If you do, then please contact them.

His followers kept the Sabbath holy, eating sacramental meals in remembrance of Him. The sacred meal of bread and water, or bread and wine, was symbolic of the body and blood of the sacred bull.

This claim is partially true. Pagan (non-Christian) researcher Ceiswr Serith points out that the Mithraic temples were constructed for this purpose. However, he also points out that this means virtually nothing because this was common practice is many cultures, and therefore it cannot be said that one influenced the other. He also objects to applying Christian vocabulary to Mithraic ritual saying it is inappropriate. (See “What Mithraism isn’t“)

As for keeping the Sabbath, this claim is somewhat suspicious because it is a completely Hebrew term — shabat. Zeitgeist claims that Christians copied Sunday worship from Mithras, however even if this were true, this wouldn’t matter because Jesus andthe first Christians celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday.

Acharya S’ claims about the connection between Mithra and Jesus are basically the same as those retracted on the POCM, so not much more refutation is needed. But they did make the common mistake of assuming that the Roman Mithras is the same as the Persian Mithra. Ceiswr Serith says that they are the same in name only, and that the nature and characteristics between the two are still debated. In fact, he considers the idea of Christians stealing from Mithraism as “garbage in, garbage out” arguing that if anyone copied the other, it was Mithras.

The Encyclopedia Britannica also confirms this fact pointing out,

There is little notice of the Persian god in the Roman world until the beginning of the 2nd century, but, from the year ad 136 onward, there are hundreds of dedicatory inscriptions to Mithra. This renewal of interest is not easily explained. The most plausible hypothesis seems to be that Roman Mithraism was practically a new creation, wrought by a religious genius who may have lived as late as c. ad 100 and who gave the old traditional Persian ceremonies a new Platonic interpretation that enabled Mithraism to become acceptable to the Roman world.

If this is true, then if is unlikely that Christianity is guilty of plagiarism. The more roughly dated evidence of Mithraism in the Roman Empire places it in its most early introduction in the really late first century AD or to the early second century, many years too late to be of any relevance to Christian origins. – But try telling that to the “Jesus-Mythers.”

The fact is most scholars (Christian and non-Christian) dismiss the claim that one copied the other. Many non-Christian scholars actually think that “any similarity between the two cults is rooted in a mindset common to many Greco-Oriental mystery religions.”