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Name: KRS •
Title: Early Christians and the Mystery Religions •
Date posted: 03/05/07 5:52
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Q: The early Christian page is very questionable at best. It seems to cite facts that are popular today, but most scholars have noted the relationship between the Christians and the mystery religions is an exercise in begging the question, and special pleading.
There are two significant problems that proponents of this view have never over come. The first is the problem of chronology. The first century Christian material (known as the New Testament) is typically being compared to the third century AD mystery religion materials. While there is some indications of borrowing, the question of who is borrowing is open to debate (since the mystery religions are noted for borrowing material from a variety of sources, and the New Testament letters all warn against mixing the faith with Pagan ideals, the idea that the mystery religions did the borrowing is at least as likely, if not more likely, than the New Testament authors).
The comparison of the New Testament gospels to the mystery religion myths (and other groups such as the Mandeans) suffers from this as well (the first non-Christian reference to a virgin birth extant is usually dated around the the eighth century AD). However, this is where the second problem really becomes apparant. In comparing the materials, those arguing that the Christians borrowed from pagan sources are highly selective in the material they use in their comparison. (This error is known in literary scholarship cherry picking).
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Name: rivershaman •
Date: 03/07/07 18:20 |
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A: It is well documented by Timothy Freke in The Jesus Mysteries that the Osiris myth predates Christianity.
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Name: KRS •
Date: 03/07/07 18:46 |
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A: Yes, the osiris myth predates Christianity, what is what details of the Osiris myth were present before that time period. I'll double check Freke, but one of his major problems is that he is moving the dates of NT books around in ways that aren't possible given the archeological and patristic evidence.
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Name: Panluna •
Date: 03/10/07 20:01 |
A: The early christians did incorporate various beliefs from the Greeks especially the view of Heaven and Hell and what happens to the Divine Spark or Soul or Spirit after it leaves the body.Actually that question about death goes way back when the first intellgent human being asked"WHY?"And then attempted to answer it.Religions were invented by our ancestors to explain the mysterious world around them and our laws and cultural customs evovled from a sense of unity and identification and similarities of beliefs. I always wondered what would have happened to humankind if logic,psychology and science had taken root instead of religion.How advance do you think we would be at this time?and would we have had all the wars during the course of human history?
Some of the current customs like Christmas and Easter were incorporated by the more unified church after the fall of the Roman Empire.Since they had no idea of the exact birth,they used Mithra's birthday as the winter celebration and Oestra or Ostara (this were the name Easter originates)as the spring or rebirth.Later on during the reformation when the church finally absorbed and converted by force(THE BURNING TIMES)any one who followed pagan customs was persucuted during the inquisition ,even the Jews who never believed the New Testament story and more than likely knew the truth all along.
The current Bible is a revision that was a collection of testimonies secreted away then used to unify the beliefs of the early church.The coucil of Nicea determined what" books"(scrolls) would be included for public beliefs.
If you would like another spin on the whole topic then read THE URANTIA BOOK.It's mind blowing.
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Name: Panluna •
Date: 03/10/07 20:10 |
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A: Osiris was an Egyptian Diety.
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Name: chemba •
Date: 03/12/07 15:10 |
A: Even after thousands of years we still did not come to a conclusion about religion and god. This is the main problem for present conflicts among us.
For more details please visit the web pages,
http://understanding-the-life.blogspot.com/ and other important details about God, life and universe through ancient arts, and words, you may go and see all pages from
http://www2.blogger.com/-profile/01439148689153182226-
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Name: Panluna •
Date: 04/06/07 18:55 |
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A: Should every one believe in the same thing and what religion should that be?i think if we gain knowledge,understand and accept we can learn to live together harmoniously if we wanted to.
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