So seriously.."Jesus Parallels"?
Every time i look these things up, i get contradicting information, including atheists that don't see strong parallels between Jesus and pagan gods such as Horus, Attis, Mithras.
I'm agnostic about whether Jesus existed, but i'm not sure about this. Do you have any *primary* "parallel" sources that are *conclusively* dated to before Jesus' supposed lifetime or Paul's letters that could help me out??
Update:@John, show me your source that is directly from egyptian hieroglyphs and translated by an actual egyptologist, not "Archarya S"
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Short answer: Jesus is just a mythical character and never existed.
Here's the long answer (with evidence), which is needed to cover all bases:
The Jesus story also shows extensive similarities to other myths of the time (especially Dionysus, Mithra, and Horus). Some early Christians attributed this to Satan who went back in time and created the religions that "copied" Christianity.
Jesus is worshiped on Sunday because he is a sun god, like Mithra, Zeus/Jupiter, Horus, Attis, Dionysus, Adonis, Tammuz, Hercules, Perseus, Bacchus, Apollo, Helios, and Sol Invictus -- whose birthdays are also on the old winter solstice of December 25, when the sun is “reborn.”
There were more than a dozen other deities and saviors who were resurrected after violent deaths -- Mithra, Osiris/Serapis, Inanna/Ishtar, Horus, Perseus, Bacchus, Attis, Hermes, Adonis, Hercules/Heracles, Tammuz, Asclepius, and Prometheus. Christianity just told the story the best, and managed to get control of the government under Constantine.
All reliable evidence points to Jesus Christ being just a myth. There is no reliable evidence that Jesus even existed, and significant evidence that he didn't. The evidence is in the Bible, the other religions of the time, and the lack of writings about Jesus by historians of the time.
The story of Jesus can be shown to be just a myth created to fulfill prophesy, cobbled together out of stories from the Old Testament and previous gods and myths -- created in the 40's and 50's by Paul of Tarsus (who exhibited symptoms of epilepsy and had delusions of Christ talking to him), the other apostles, the unknown authors of the gospels in the 70's or later, and many other people. The reliable evidence for this is overwhelming.
Paul and the other epistle writers don't know any biographical details of Jesus' life, or even the time of his earthly existence. They don't refer to Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Calvary or Golgotha — or any pilgrimages to what should have been holy sites of Jesus' life. They also don't mention any miracles that Jesus was supposed to have worked, his virgin birth, his trial, the empty tomb, his moral teachings. To them Jesus was largely a sky-god, who existed in the spiritual past.
If Jesus had actually existed, Paul would have written about his life, disciples, and teachings. Paul did not write about any of this. Paul wrote (in Romans 16:25-26, Galatians 1:11,12) that he knew Jesus through revelation, which is another term for fantasy. We can also tell that people were accusing Paul of lying, because he attempted to defend himself in Romans 3:5-8.
If Jesus had actually existed, the gospels would have been written in first person format. Instead, they were written in third person fiction format like a Harry Potter story, with Matthew and Luke extensively plagiarizing from Mark. The gospels were also written in Greek, which the disciples would not have known.
If the Jesus story were true, his trial would have been legal. Instead, the purported trial was illegitimate under both Roman and Jewish law. The story of the trial is just a re-telling of the Jewish ritual of scapegoating, where one goat is set free (i.e. Barabbas, which means "son of the father") and one goat is sacrificed (i.e. Jesus).
If Jesus had actually existed, at least one of the approximately 30 local historians of the first century would have written about him. No historian of the first century (including Josephus and Philo of Alexandria) wrote about him or his disciples.
Therefore Jesus didn't exist.
For much more evidence, see the links. There are also several good books on this, including:
"Nailed: Ten Christian Myths that Show Jesus Never Existed At All" by David Fitzgerald
"The Jesus Puzzle" by Earl Doherty
"Not the Impossible Faith" by Richard Carrier
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Depends on what is crucial to making it a parallel. According to wikipedia, the Hindu Lord Krishna, depicted as early as 3000 BC, was conceived without a human father, was like a cow-herd for a while, and was a pretty special guy, an avatar of Vishnu, battled bad guys, saved people in trouble from bad guys, did some "miracle" stuff. His mother had other children before him though, so wasn't a virgin, and well, Hinduism is pretty different than Christianity. Don't know how accurate that is since it's wikipedia, but I'd say there's enough parallel, cultural differences accounted for, to count. And I do know that Lord Krishna is a big deal in Hinduism.
In general I'd say parallels are more a matter of early cultures influencing later cultures, not one ripping off another, because the more current culture gets integrated into the new parallel and becomes a central part of it.
Those who deny he existed are called "mythicists. Acharya S is one, who wrote a book called, The Christ Conspiracy--- the Greatest Story Ever Sold. There are others. And they base their thought on other mythical men. However, the parallels aren't exact, as some would have you believe. Their reasons are flimsy.
Jesus did exist. Peter knew James, and James was the brother of Jesus. That's pretty good. Surely James would have known if he had a brother or not.
As well, it would not be rare at all that any contemporary historian wrote anything about him. 99.9% of the people who lived in the ancient worlds were not written about, even if they held important government jobs... Why?
Because 90% of the people couldn't even read, much less write an elegant ( or unelegant, even) paragraph.
Our main information comes from Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius... but all these guys were born long after Jesus was dead. Nevertheless, oral history about Jesus comes from everywhere. Some non-existent man wouldn't have had over 40 gospels written about him. Of course, lots of magic had been added between his death, and 60-80 years later when they were all written...rather like the telephone game played by children....what the first kid said, isn't anything at all what the last kid reported.
You might find some interesting stuff in the books written by THE planet's leading New Testament Scholar, Bart Ehrman. There are a few lectures on Youtube, too. Watch those. Author of over 20 books, Chair, Dept of Rel Studies, U of NC, Chapel Hill.
@John: Provide a pre-Christian historical source (exactly what the questioner asked for) that depicts Horus as such. Just one. We're waiting.
Horus's mother is Isis. Isis was a fertility goddess for crying out loud. She didn't just have sex with her husband. She even had sex with her dead husband.
His father Osiris was dead and then resurrected, although there was certainly no cross involved. He also got an artificial phallus out of the deal. Doesn't sound very much like Jesus, unless there's a part of the gospels I overlooked.
Just because people keep repeating this nonsense doesn't magically create historical evidence to support it.
Well, one example is Horus, who was born of a virgin, died on a cross, resurrected from a tomb, and gave similar advice.
Personally, I stopped comparing the two a while back, seeing as how it doesn't change people's minds. It's not a bad argument, but there are many better ones, such as showing how the universe doesn't prove any specific deity or being.
The stories of Jesus and Horus are very similar, with Horus even contributing the name of Jesus Christ. Horus and his once-and-future Father, Osiris, are frequently interchangeable in the mythos ("I and my Father are one"). The legends of Horus go back thousands of years, and he shares the following in common with Jesus:
Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave/manger, with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.
He was a child teacher in the Temple and was baptized when he was 30 years old.
Horus was also baptized by "Anup the Baptizer," who becomes "John the Baptist."
He had 12 disciples.
He performed miracles and raised one man, El-Azar-us, from the dead.
He walked on water.
Horus was transfigured on the Mount.
He was crucified, buried in a tomb and resurrected.
He was also the "Way, the Truth, the Light, the Messiah, God's Anointed Son, the Son of Man, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Word" etc.
He was "the Fisher," and was associated with the Lamb, Lion and Fish ("Ichthys").
Horus's personal epithet was "Iusa," the "ever-becoming son" of "Ptah," the "Father."
Horus was called "the KRST," or "Anointed One," long before the Christians duplicated the story.
In fact, in the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis - the original "Madonna and Child" - and the Vatican itself is built upon the papacy of Mithra, who shares many qualities with Jesus and who existed as a deity long before the Jesus character was formalized. The Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version it replaced. Virtually all of the elements of the Catholic ritual, from miter to wafer to water to altar to doxology, are directly taken from earlier pagan mystery religions.
The idea that Jesus was copied from pagan gods is relatively new. About the last 100 years or so. No credible scholar or historians will claim any parable between the two. The internet is full of B/S websites that claim otherwise, you are smart enought to not pay attention to Archarya S.
The fable of the Jeez was created and designed on the old gods, as you have discovered.
You may also discover that there is a large pagan movement in the USA right now.
jesus has no parallel , what other pagan god , suffered, died, and then rose again , and by never writing a book is able to be in the lives of so many
Watch the movie "Zeitgeist" you will enjoy it mucho-and it brings a lot of other things together. I think you can see it on youtube.