On Tue, 29 May 2007 16:22:29 GMT, "Zadok" wrote:
>
>"Sound of Strumpet" <> wrote in message
>
>> Jesus is Not a Mithras Redux
>>
>>
>> Mithraism, as it is germane to Christian historical discussion, was a
>> mystery religion adopted by the Romans in the 1st century A.D.
>
>Yet Plutarch tells that pirates were practicing the rites of Mithras in the
>Empire in 67BC. In Cilicia in fact.
>
>Do we have any early church figure with a connection to Cilicia??
>
>WOW, Saulus of Tarsus (Acts 22: 3), a Herodian (Romans 16: 11), who as a
>Herodian was an Idumean, and not really a Jew. But Paul is famous in the
>Dead Sea Scrolls as "THE LIAR", so why not lie about his origins.
>
>(I am
>> careful with my words here, as Mithraism has a previous historical
>> incantation in ancient Persia, though its relationship to the Roman
>> tradition, in practice and philosophy, is unclear at this point.) Some
>> critics claim that Christianity borrowed from the traditions of
>> Mithraism as a means of attracting followers, though these allegedly
>> adopted Mithraic traditions were not actually authentic to Jesus. I
>> believe it is safe to say that, on the basis of historical scholarship
>> done by secular, Christian and Mithraic-oriented scholars, this claim
>> is thoroughly without serious basis.
>
>Let's have a quick look at this statement -
>
>The Roman pope has the title pope, which means Papa (Father).
>
>The bible says - Matthew 23: 9 - And do not call anyone on earth 'father,'
>for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
>
>But who did have a head called father??
>
>From the catho_lick encylopedia -
>
> There were seven degrees of initiation into the mithraic mysteries. The
>consecrated one (mystes) became in succession crow (corax), occult
>(cryphius), soldier (miles), lion (leo), Persian (Perses), solar messenger
>(heliodromos), and father (pater).
Better luck next time, turkey z.
RELATION TO CHRISTIANITY
A similarity between Mithra and Christ struck even early observers, such as
Justin, Tertullian, and other Fathers, and in recent times has been urged to
prove that Christianity is but an adaptation of Mithraism, or at most the
outcome of the same religious ideas and aspirations (e.g. Robertson, "Pagan
Christs", 1903).### Against this erroneous and unscientific procedure, which is
not endorsed by the greatest living authority on Mithraism,###
2) Some apparent similarities exist; but in a number of details it is quite
probable that Mithraism was the borrower from Christianity.
Mithraism had a Eucharist, but the idea of a sacred banquet is as old as the
human race and existed at all ages and amongst all peoples. Mithra saved the
world by sacrificing a bull; Christ by sacrificing Himself. It is hardly
possible to conceive a more radical difference than that between Mithra
taurochonos and Christ crucified. Christ was born of a Virgin; there is nothing
to prove that the same was believed of Mithra born from the rock. Christ was
born in a cave; and Mithraists worshipped in a cave, but Mithra was born under a
tree near a river. Much as been made of the presence of adoring shepherds; but
their existence on sculptures has not been proven, and considering that man had
not yet appeared, it is an anachronism to suppose their presence. (3) Christ was
an historical personage, recently born in a well known town of Judea, and
crucified under a Roman governor, whose name figured in the ordinary official
lists. ###Mithra was an abstraction, a personification not even of the sun but
of the diffused daylight;### his incarnation, if such it may be called, was
supposed to have happened before the creation of the human race, before all
history.
duke, American-American
*****
"The Mass is the most perfect form of Prayer."
Pope Paul VI
*****
