From Ebonites and Marcionites books. 2. Introductions to the Earliest Forms of Christianity 2.1. Mithraism and Christianity (200BCE +) Many have realized that as Christianity copied, re-named and inherited many Pagan myths, such as those of Mithraism, that it is hard to pin down a start date for Christian ideas. If you go back far enough, Christian history is actually pagan history. “Jesus, son of the Hebrew sky God, and Mithras, son of Ormuzd are both the same myth. The rituals of Christianity coincide with the earlier rituals of Mithraism, including the Eucharist and the Communion in great detail. The language used by Mithraism was the language used by Christians. [...] The idea of a sacrificed saviour is Mithraist, so is the symbolism of bulls, rams, sheep, the blood of a transformed saviour washing away sins and granting eternal life, the 7 sacraments, the banishing of an evil host from heaven, apocalyptic end of time when God/Ormuzd sends the wicked to hell and establishes peace. Roman Emperors, Mithraist then Christian, mixed the rituals and laws of both religions into one. Emperor Constantine established 25th of Dec, the birthdate of Mithras, to be the birthdate of Jesus too. The principal day of worship of the Jews, The Sabbath, was replaced by the Mithraistic Sun Day as the Christian holy day. The Catholic Church, based in Rome and founded on top of the most venerated Mithraist temple, wiped out all competing son-of-god religions within the Roman Empire, giving us modern literalist Christianity.” Mithraism and Early Christianity by Vexen Crabtree (2002) 2.2. The Therapeutae (10CE) Early Christians were criticized for copying Pagan ideas and stories and simply re-telling them. By the 4th century, the founders of the Christian Church sought evidence and historical proof to back up their mistaken opinion that Christianity was a new religion, derived from the new revelations of Jesus. Eusebius failed to find much evidence at all, except in the book of the first century author, Philo, who described a group of people who were clearly practicing Christian rituals: “Eusebius, the fourth-century Church propagandist, could find little evidence from which to construct a history of Christianity, so he eagerly seized upon a description in one of Philos books, of a group of Jews called the Therapeutae. Philos description of their spring festival is reminiscent of the Christian celebration of Easter and Eusebius, therefore, claimed that he had discovered the earliest Christians in Alexandria. [... but] the spring, of course, was also the time when Pagans celebrated their festival of the dying and resurrecting godman, so Eusebius is unjustified in his assumption. Philo wrote about the Therapeutae in 10 CE, which would be 20 years before the supposed date of the crucifixion [...]. The Therapeutae are a group of Jews clearly practising a Jewish version of the Pagan Mysteries. [...] We can tell that the Therapeutae were Jews because they celebrated the Jewish festival of the Pentecost and kept sacred the Sabbath. [...]” The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy (1999) [Book Review]10 Eusebius didnt know that Philo was writing 20 years too early, and he had therefore uncovered additional evidence that turn-of-the-millennium Jewish Paganism was almost identical to Christianity in terms of rituals and beliefs - if Jesus arrived and preached a New Testament, it seems he really didnt have anything new to say that wasnt already being practiced in a Christian way by pagans. The fact that Philo can, in one sentence, compare the Therapeutae to both initiates of the Mysteries of Dionysis and the followers of Moses on the banks of the Red Sea shows just how integrated Pagan and Jewish traditions had become. They lived near that great melting-pot of Pagan and Jewish cultures, Alexandria. The Encyclopedia of Religion by Eliade Mircea (1987) notes that their center was a hill above Lake Mareotis near Alexandria, and that they were similar to the Essenes11. Today when we trace the source of modern Christianity, we find that Christianity was codified in the 4th century. But in the fourth century, they didnt know what the source of Christianity was although critics said it was re-hashed paganism. So in the fourth century, they too searched in history to find the source of Christianity. They found the history of their religion to pre-date the actual founding of their own religion. The ancient history of Christianity is merged with the history of Paganism and the Church Fathers in the 4th century, so much closer to original Christianity than us, even mistook a group of pagans for early Christians. It wasnt the only time that they done this either, for when Bishop Melito in 160CE when in search of the ancient center of Christianity, he discovered only a group called the Ebionites, another ancient group that 4th century Christianity rejected as heretical.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 05:38:29 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015