By Mike Burch
Ancient “saviors” dying on crosses or trees, then being “resurrected” were features of cultish religions long before Christianity. There were at least 16 crucified “saviors” who vastly predated the lollygagging latecomer Jesus:
● Thulis of Egypt, 1700 B.C.
○ Thulis came from heaven to benefit mankind and was said to be full of grace and truth. He suffered a violent death on a cross, was buried, resurrected, then ascended to heaven, where he became the judge of the dead. This was nearly two millennia before Jesus.
● Krishna of India, 1200 B.C.
○ Krishna was called:
■ The Son of God, the Firstborn, and the Only Begotten Son.
■ The Lord and Savior who came to earth to die for man’s salvation.
■ Sin-Bearer, Redeemer, Shepherd, Lion, Universal Word, King of Kings, God of Gods, the Alpha and Omega
■ The Christ (“Anointed One”)
■ Krishna’s disciples gave him the title “Jezeus” or “Jeseus” meaning “pure essence.”
○ Krishna was born of the Virgin Devaki on December 25 in a lowly cave after being sent from heaven to earth as the human incarnation of a triune god.
○ His earthly father was a carpenter who was off paying taxes when Krishna was born (shades of Joseph and the census tax).
○ His birth was signaled by a star in the east, attended by angels and shepherds, and he was presented with expensive spices.
○ The heavenly hosts sang at his birth.
○ Krishna had to flee a tyrant, King Kansa, who ordered the slaughter of infants (shades of Herod).
○ Krishna, like Jesus, was tempted by demons.
○ His head was anointed with oil by a woman he healed.
○ He was depicted with his foot on the head of a serpent.
○ He performed miracles, raising the dead and healing the deaf, blind and lepers.
○ He used parables to teach.
○ He “lived poor and loved the poor.”
○ His “beloved disciple” was Ar-jouan (John).
○ Krishna was transfigured before his disciples.
○ He gave his twelve disciples the ability to work miracles.
○ His path was “strewn with branches” like Jesus’s with palms.
○ Krishna castigated the clergy, charging them with hypocrisy, then fell victim to their vengeance, like Jesus.
○ He was crucified between two thieves with with nail-holes in his feet.
○ He died around age 30, and the sun darkened at his death.
○ He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven “in the sight of all men” like Jesus.
● Crite of Chaldea, 1200 B.C.
● Attis of Phrygia, 1170 B.C.
○ Attis was born on December 25 to a virgin. His body was bread eaten by his worshippers. His priests were “eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.” He was both the Divine Son and Father. He was the Savior slain for the salvation of mankind. Attis was crucified and his holy blood ran down to redeem the earth. He descended into the underworld for three days, was resurrected on March 25 (as tradition held for Jesus) and became the Most High God.
● Tammuz of Syria, 1160 B.C.
○ Tammuz was born to a virgin on December 25. He was the son of the father god Enki. Like Jesus, Tammuz was called a shepherd. He died and was resurrected.
● Hesus or Eros, 834 B.C.
● Bali of Orissa, 725 B.C.
● Indra of Tibet, 725 B.C.
● Iao of Nepal, 622 B.C.
● Buddha Sakia (Muni) of India, 600 B.C.
○ Buddha was born on December 25 to the Virgin Maya. His birth was announced by a star and attended by wise men who presented costly gifts. At his birth angels sang hymns. He taught in the temple at age 12. He was tempted by the Evil One, while fasting, but overcame the temptation. He healed the sick
and fed the multitudes from a small basket of cakes. He came to fulfill the law and preached about a kingdom of righteousness. He required his followers to renounce the world and live in poverty. He was said to have “crushed a serpent’s head” and to have been transfigured on a mountain. It was Buddha who first said, “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other cheek also.” He walked on water. One of his disciples wanted to hear him preach so he started to cross a stream, but doubted and began to sink but regained his faith and made it across.
● Mithra of Persia, 600 B.C.
○ Mithra was born on December 25, was conceived without sex, and his birth was attended by shepherds and wise men. He died, was resurrected, ascended into the heavens, and offered human beings salvation. He was depicted with a halo. His worshipers were baptized and had a symbolic sacred meal of bread and wine, with the wine representing blood. Mithra offered his worshipers immortality.
● Alcestis of Euripides, 600 B.C.
● Quetzalcoatl of Mexico, 587 B.C.
● Wittoba of the Bilingonese, 552 B.C.
● Prometheus or Æschylus of Caucasus, 547 B.C.
○ Prometheus was born on December 25, descended from heaven as a god incarnate to save mankind, and was crucified, suffered, died, and was resurrected.
● Quirinus of Rome, 506 B.C.
Here’s another ancient “savior” with incredible parallels to Jesus Christ…
Dionysus turned water into wine, thus Greek Christians deemed it necessary for Jesus to turn water into wine. But it goes deeper than that, because Dionysus had his blood drunk and his flesh eaten in a eucharistic ritual. In The Bacchae, written by Euripides in 405 BC, wine is called the “blood of Dionysus” and drinking his blood is said to lead to immortality. The Bacchae also discusses bread and wine as they pertain to the gods. Dionysus being poured out as wine in worship resembles Holy Communion.
There are many other parallels between Dionysus and Jesus:
● Justin Martyr saw so many strong parallels between Jesus and Dionysus that he argued demons had imitated Jesus before he was born! The
Occam’s Razor here is that the Greek author of the gospel of John patterned his text after the Bacchae. For instance, Jesus’s first miracle was turning water into wine, an invention that appears nowhere else in the New Testament.
● Dionysus was the son of the Supreme God, Zeus, who fathered Dionysus on a mortal virgin, Semele. (Nonnus).
● Dionysus was born of a virgin on December 25 and placed in a manger.
● Dionysus was a member of a trinity with Zeus and Hades. (Orphic tradition)
● Zeus sent his son Dionysus to teach mortals how to make wine [Jesus’s first miracle], to alleviate their suffering [Jesus “bore their stripes”] and to end war [Jesus was called the Prince of Peace]. Zeus foresaw that Dionysus would struggle on earth, but would be received into heaven “to shine beside Zeus.” (Nonnus).
● Like Jesus, Dionysus came to earth as god in human form. (Orphic tradition)
● Jesus was a rabbi, Dionysus, a priest. (Euripides)
● Like Jesus, Dionysus introduced a new form of religion. (Euripides)
● Dionysus’s divinity was rejected by members of his own family; Jesus’s family thought he was mad. (Euripides)
● Dionysus performed miracles. (Euripides)
● King Pentheus was violently hostile to Dionysus, as King Herod was to Jesus. (Euripides)
● Dionysus faced hostility from the rulers but was welcomed by the lowly. (Euripides)
● Jesus tells Pilate his power is derived from God; this echoes Dionysus telling Pentheus that imprisonment is useless because God will free him whenever he wishes. In each case the prisoner has the upper hand.
● Like Jesus, Dionysus answers the questions of Pentheus in an enigmatic way, so that it’s the interrogator who is really on trial. Are we seeing the direct influence of Euripides on the author of the gospel of John here? (Euripides)
● Dionysus escaping from prison via a miraculous earthquake is very similar to the “prison break” of Paul and Silas at Philippi (Acts 16:25-30). The jailer at Philippi rushes in with a drawn sword and collapses, just as Pentheus does. The followers of Dionysus are singing hymns, just as Paul and Silas were. (Euripides)
● Paul on the road to Damascus hears a divine voice saying, “It is hard to kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:14). This expression, found nowhere else in the Bible, echoes Dionysus urging Pentheus not to “kick against the goads.” (Euripides)
● Dionysus rode on an ass in a triumphal procession.
● Dionysus’s title of “Dendrites” indicates he was hung on a tree or crucified.
● Dionysus rose from the dead on Easter. (Philodemus)
● Tacitus, Plutarch, Lydus and Cornelius Labeo all mentioned Dionysus being associated with Yahweh.
Is there any “evidence” whatsoever that Jesus actually lived and was the Messiah?
Think about it. Both the Romans and the Jews had highly literate people living in Israel at the time of Jesus’s alleged life and death. We have the writings of literate Romans and Jews, about far more mundane things, but no contemporary of Jesus wrote a single word about him, or even mentioned the name of the wonder-working Jesus of Nazareth.
Christians frequently cite a highly disputed passage from the Antiquities of the famous Jewish historian Flavius Josephus as “evidence” that Jesus actually lived and was the Messiah. My response:
We know the Josephus passage in question, the Testimonium Flavianum, is a Christian insertion and obvious fraud. Why? Because if Josephus, a religious Jew, had really believed Jesus was the Messiah, he would have written more about him. A lot more. No religious Jew says, “Jesus was the Messiah, ho-hum!” then rushes on to write at far greater length about far lesser figures.
Josephus was writing a history of the Jews and their most important figures. The passage in question is like me writing a history of the American people, giving George Washington a rushed sentence or two, then writing at far greater length about Millard Fillmore, James Pierce, James Buchanan, et al.
Of course that makes no sense and the Messiah would have been a far greater figure to the Jews than George Washington was to Americans.
What we have is clearly a Christian gloss, probably all the charlatans could squeeze in when they doctored the text in question.
Furthermore, Josephus was born in Jerusalem just a few years after the alleged resurrection of Jesus, at a time when apostles like Peter and Paul were allegedly healing people with their shadows and performing other outlandish “miracles.” And yet Josephus never mentioned Peter, Paul or a single Christian miracle, even though they occurred in his backyard. Why? Because there were no “miracles.” All the “miracles” were made up after the destruction of Jerusalem when Christians scattered to the four winds. And that explains why the New Testament was written in Greek rather than Hebrew or Aramaic, as one would expect.
The “evidence” of the few Roman historians who mentioned Jesus was hearsay: probably what they had heard from Roman Christians who believed lies made up long after the fact.
The evangelist Paul was trying to convince the world that Jesus was the Christ, with every possible proof, but he never mentioned the loopy “ascension” nor the loopy “transfiguration” nor the loopy “virgin birth” nor the loopy “massacre of the innocents” nor the “miracles” of Jesus, not even those at the supposedly empty grave. Obviously these blatant lies were added to the texts after the fact, once Paul and the other apostles were no longer around to argue for the truth.
This is one of the reasons many Europeans are abandoning churches following the advent of DNA and the Internet. The internet has made possible old books to be digitized and made available at every home. In the past, you have to travel to discover the facts.