Please share the information provided in this
video.
Always remember that a crucial part of removing
a person's confusion is understanding his
or her unique source of it.
Was Jesus was borrowed from Ancient mythology?
If the basic story of Jesus Christ shares
many unlikely specific similarities to earlier
mythological figures, then an argument could
be made that Jesus is also mythological figure.
This is because numerous specific similarites
are unlikely to happen by chance.
Nevertheless, if an all powerful God does
exist, then nothing really every happens by
chance, and the question changes to why God
would allow this to happen.
Many today will give you a list of similarites
between Jesus and Mythological figures.
The fundamental problem is we usually are
not given references for these lists of similarities.
Therefore, we do not know where they are getting
their information from.
In historical study, if you want to make a
claim, you must give evidence for it.
Understandably, there may be a tremendous
amount of references to quotations to sort
through.
But the problem is that a list with no references
is impossible to fact check.
We need the ability to go to multiple 3rd
party sources and see if the evidence is there.
Then those sources need to quote their sources.
Eventually, we get back to a reference to
the actual ancient text.
But if you give no references, we wonder if
the list of similarities is fake.
Furthermore even if a studied expert in ancient
mythology claims the list of similarities
is fake, the person who gave the orgininal
list can simply say that the expert has not
studied enough.
The bottom line is that without any evidence
being given, we have no way to tell who is
lying.
If there is no evidence for fairies, then
why believe in them?
If there is no evidence for these lists, then
why believe in them?
Please remember that television programs should
give references for their claims as well.
Those boring credits at the end of the show
are actually important.
What we are left with is lists of similarities
between Jesus and characters in ancient mythology.
These lists include things like Horus being
a god becoming a man by being born of a virgin
or dying and rising again to provide salvation.
The three figures of ancient Mythology whom
Jesus is most commonly claimed to be borrowed
from are Horus of Egypt, Krishna of India,
and Mithras of Rome.
In the case of Mithras, the religion was actually
a contemporary of early Christianity.
The Cult of Mithras was a secret belief system.
The cult was only for men and the more a man
rose in it, the more secrets he was told.
Therefore, the Cult of Mithras has no writings.
What we know of them comes from works of art
and writings of people who opposed them.
From the art, we can tell that the main event
of Mithraism was Mithra killing a bull.
The signifigance of this we do not know, but
it appears to be at the center of the cult.
Early Christians actually give us some of
our only information about Mithraism.
Early Christin Apologist Justin Martyr mentions
Mithraism as a Satanic copycat of Christianity
in his First Apology.
I have actually read Justin's first Apology.
It is a legal case made to the Emperor of
Rome to end the killing of Christians.
In Rome, one had to worship the Gods or be
guilty of the crime of atheism.
Justin does not merely argue that Mithraism
is a devil inspired copycat of Christianity.
Justin actually spends a large portion of
the Apology arguing that all of Greek and
Roman religious thought and writings are copied
from Moses and the other ancient Jewish prophets.
His argument to the emperor of Rome is that
Christians are not atheists, rather that the
Gods the Romans worship are stolen from the
writings of Moses and the other prophets.
The Bottom line for Mithraism is that we know
very little about it because it was secretive.
In the case of Horus and Krishna, there is
no secrecy.
Rather, the problem is that these gods were
so popular and widespread that many versions
of their lives existed.
So we are left at the mercy of experts who
pour over numerous ancient texts to find the
basic story for us.
I will read for you the basic origin stories
of Horus and Krishna.
I will provide links to where I got this information
in thedescription below.
Note that both these stories begin with a
mother earth goddess and a sky father.
This is also true of Greek mythology as well.
This first story is about Horus.
The Story of Osiris, Isis and Horus: The Egyptian
Myth of Creation
From Geb, the sky god, and Nut, the earth
goddess came four children: Osiris, Isis,
Set and Nepthys.
Osiris was the oldest and so became king of
Egypt, and he married his sister Isis.
Osiris was a good
king and commanded the respect of all who
lived on the earth and the gods who dwelled
in the
netherworld.
However, Set was always jealous of Osiris,
because he did not command the respect of
those on
earth or those in the netherworld.
One day, Set transformed himself into a vicious
monster and
attacked Osiris, killing him.
Set then cut Osiris into pieces and distributed
them throughout the
length and breadth of Egypt.
With Osiris dead, Set became king of Egypt,
with his sister Nepthys as his wife.
Nepthys, however,
felt sorry for her sister Isis, who wept endlessly
over her lost husband.
Isis, who had great magical
powers, decided to find her husband and bring
him back to life long enough so that they
could have
a child.
Together with Nepthys, Isis roamed the country,
collecting the pieces of her husband's body
and reassembling them.
Isis failed to find Osiris's important penis.
So she crafted one for him out of gold.
Once she completed this task, she breathed
the breath of life into his body
and resurrected him.
They were together again, and Isis became
pregnant soon after.
Osiris was
able to descend into the underworld, where
he became the lord of that domain.
The child born to Isis was named Horus, the
hawk-god.
When he became an adult, Horus decided to
make a case before the court of gods that
he, not Set, was the rightful king of Egypt.
A long period
of argument followed, and Set challenged Horus
to a contest.
The winner would become king.
Set, however, did not play fair.
After several matches in which Set cheated
and was the victor, Horus'
mother, Isis, decided to help her son and
set a trap for Set.
She snared him, but Set begged for his
life, and Isis let him go.
When he found out that she had let his enemy
live, Horus became angry
with his mother, and rages against her, earning
him the contempt of the other gods.
They decided
that there would be one more match, and Set
would get to choose what it would be.
Set decided that the final round of the contest
would be a boat race.
However, in order to make the
contest a challenge, Set decided that he and
Horus should race boats made of stone.
Horus was
tricky and built a boat made of wood, covered
with limestone plaster, which looked like
stone.
As the
gods assembled for the race, Set cut the top
off of a mountain to serve as his boat and
set it in the
water.
His boat sank right away, and all the other
gods laughed at him.
Angry, Set transformed
himself into a hippopotamus and attacked Horus'
boat.
Horus fought off Set, but the other gods
stopped him before he could kill Set.
The other gods decided that the match was
a tie.
Many of the
gods were sympathetic to Horus, but remembered
his anger toward his mother for being lenient
to
Set, and were unwilling to support him completely.
The gods who formed the court decided to write
a letter to Osiris and ask for his advice.
Osiris
responded with a definite answer: his son
is the rightful king, and should be placed
upon the throne.
No one, said Osiris, should take the throne
of Egypt through an act of murder, as Set
had done.
Set
had killed Osiris, but Horus did not killed
anyone, and was the better candidate.
The sun and the
stars, who were Osiris' allies, descended
into the underworld, leaving the world in
darkness.
Fi-
nally, the gods agreed that Horus should claim
his birthright as king of Egypt.
This second story is about Krishna.
He is still greatly revered in India to this
day.
Mother Earth, unable to bear the burden of
sins committed by evil kings and rulers, appealed
to Brahma, the Creator for help.
Brahma prayed to the Supreme Lord Vishnu,
who assured him that he would soon be born
on earth to annihilate tyrannical forces.
One such evil force was Kamsa, the ruler of
Mathura (in northern India) and his people
were utterly terrified of him.
On the day Kamsa's sister Devaki was married
off to Vasudeva, an akashvani or voice from
the sky was heard prophesying that Devaki's
8th son would be the destroyer of Kamsa.
The frightened Kamsa immediately unsheathed
his sword to kill his sister but Vasudeva
intervened and implored Kamsa to spare his
bride, and promised to hand over every new
born child to him.
Kamsa relented but imprisoned both Devaki
and her husband Vasudeva.
When Devaki gave birth to her first child,
Kamsa came to the prison cell and slaughtered
the newborn.
In this way, he killed the first six sons
of Devaki.
Even before her 8th child was born, Devaki
and Vasudeva started lamenting its fate and
theirs.
Then suddenly Lord Vishnu appeared before
them and said he himself was coming to rescue
them and the people of Mathura.
He asked Vasudeva to carry him to the house
of his friend, the cowherd chief Nanda in
Gokula right after his birth, where Nanda's
wife Yashoda had given birth to a daughter.
He was to exchange his boy and bring Yashoda's
baby daughter back to the prison.
Vishnu assured them that "nothing shall bar
your path".
At midnight on ashtami, the divine baby was
born in Kamsa's prison.
Remembering the divine instructions, Vasudeva
clasped the child to his bosom and started
for Gokula, but found that his legs were in
chains.
He jerked his legs and was unfettered!
The massive iron-barred doors unlocked and
opened up.
While crossing river Yamuna, Vasudeva held
his baby high over his head.
The rain fell in torrents and the river was
in spate.
But the water made way for Vasudeva and miraculously
a five-mouthed snake followed him from behind
and provided shelter over the baby.
When Vasudeva reached Gokula, he found the
door of Nanda's house open.
He exchanged the babies and hurried back to
the prison of Kamsa with the baby girl.
Early in the morning, all the people at Gokula
rejoiced the birth of Nanda's beautiful male
child.
Vasudeva came back to Mathura and as he entered,
the doors of the prison closed themselves.
When Kamsa came to know about the birth, he
rushed inside the prison and tried to kill
the baby.
But this time it skipped from his hand and
reaching the sky.
She was transformed into the goddess Yogamaya,
who told Kamsa: "O foolish!
What will you get by killing me?
Your nemesis is already born somewhere else."
In his youth Krishna killed Kamsa along with
all his cruel associates, liberated his parents
from prison, and reinstated Ugrasen as the
King of Mathura.
I hope this video was enjoyable and informative.
New videos every monday and friday.
Thank you for your time.
