Merry Mithras-mas
  by David Eller, Ph.D.

'Tis the season to celebrate the birth of the "Light of the World," the third member of the Holy Trinity, the virgin-born son of the "Mother of God"-that's right, Mithras. Mithras, an Eastern god, not only proceeded Jesus into the Western world and the Roman empire by a good three hundred years but he had the same "biography" that Jesus (or rather, Jesus-worshippers) claimed centuries later.

It was Mithras whose birthday was first celebrated on December 25. There is absolutely no reference to a birth date for Jesus in the Christian scriptures. None. It was Mithraism that first taught about a heaven and a hell, a judgment day and resurrection of the dead, and a final conflict in which the forces of light would destroy the forces of darkness-and the world in the process. It was Mithraism that first practiced baptism, shared a ritual meal of bread and wine, worshipped on Sunday, and believed in an incarnated god who ascended to heaven to protect the faithful from above.

Mithraism was popular throughout the Roman empire long before it had heard of Christianity; many Roman soldiers stationed at the frontiers belonged to the religion, and several Roman emperors, including Commodus, Aurelian, Diocletian, and Julian "the Apostate" (as late as the 200s AD) were initiated into and became supporters of it. Early Christian Church fathers such as Tertullian were well aware of the rival religion and its similarities to Christianity; he condemned Mithraism as a satanic mockery of the Jesus story rather than as a true precursor to it.

Nor was Mithraism alone in the world to rival Christianity. In fact, the Middle East and Europe were full of "mystery religions" in those days-cults that claimed to have the one true god and one true belief, into which true believers were initiated with secret ceremonies. Aside from Jesus and Mithras, there were plenty of other deities (such as Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Balder, Attis, and Dionysus) said to have died and resurrected. Many other classical figures, such as Hercules, Perseus, and Theseus, were said to have been born through the union of a virgin mother and divine father. Jesus was nothing new.

The point here is not to make fun of Christianity and definitely not to prove that another of these cults was correct. The real point is that they are all copies of each other and reflections of a way of thinking that was rampant 2,000 years ago. In a time of crisis and ferment, of cultural mixing and individual hope and despair, people invented the same solutions multiple times. A god who is part human, who can triumph over death and offer his followers the same triumph, is an appealing being. In this regard, history shows indisputably that Jesus was not unique, not even original, therefore almost certainly not "the real one." It shows that Jesus, if he even existed, was given a quite conventional and well-known life story-not a personal "biography" at all but a recurring myth.

So, in this holiday season, don't forget to acknowledge whose holiday it was first and where the latest version (resurrected god 2.0) got his credentials. Christmas is Mithras' birthday-appropriated, like so much else, by a subsequent religion that attempted to wipe out any memory of its real pedigree.

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