Jesus and Mithras: The curious coincidences of the man and the myth (Video)
The Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (the bull guy-600 B.C.). The Orthodox Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version. If a coincidence it’s a massive one, but judge for yourselves.
Virtually all of the elements of Orthodox Christian rituals, from miter, wafer, water baptism, alter, and doxology, were adopted from the Mithra and earlier pagan mystery religions. The religion of Mithra preceded Christianity by roughly six hundred years. Mithraic worship at one time covered a large portion of the ancient world. It flourished as late as the second century. The Messianic idea originated in ancient Persia and this is where the Jewish and Christian concepts of a Savior originated.
In this clip from the British show QI, Stephen Fry and co. discuss the strange similarities between the Christian savior and the far cooler and more mystical Roman/Persian god Mithras, who shares the December 25 birthday, and had twelve disciples of his own, and was birthed in the form of a mortal to a virgin mother…and…and…and….But why tease? Here’s the video starring the inimitable Stephen Fry:
Thanks to disinformation.com, and neardeath.com for their contributions to this story. Video uploaded to YouTube by BlissfulKnowledge.
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It’s unfortunate that QI and Stephen Fry are perpetuating these nonsense claims about Mithraism paralleling Christianity. It’s a cute idea, but it’s total garbage.
To begin with, there is zero evidence linking Mithraism to December 25th. None. That was a festival of another solar cult, that of Sol Invictus, which is the origin of Christmas being celebrated on that date. The confusion comes from the fact that Mithras was often given the title “Sol Invictus” (ie the Unconquered Sun) since these deities often shared titles and honorifics. But there was nothing specifically Mithraic about that date.
More importantly, the list of supposed parallels Fry recites at the 1.00 min mark on the video above is almost completely without foundation. With a couple of minor exceptions, everything in it is fantasy with no basis in evidence at all. It comes, ultimately, from Kersey Graves’ notorious 1875 work of esoterical pseudo history The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors, a pastiche of distortion and invention long since debunked as nonsense. Mithraic scholars have been trying to correct Graves’ fantasies for over a century, without much luck. People seem to prefer a good story to sober fact.
Be careful what you find lying around on the internet – some of it is total crap.
I’m a font of knowledge that has done me no good.
Mithraists were also persecuted in ancient Rome. It morphed itself from a religipn of peace and closeness to the earth, from what I remember from my studies, to a warriors religion and friend of power.
Without the rise of Christianity it is thought that Mithrism would have become the western world’s religion.
Very interesting Joe. This whole dynamic has inspired my research gene.