Who was Mithra?

Some Pagan messiah which non-believers say the 'Jesus Story' has been copied from. Some say Jesus-Christ is Mithra himself. They would be one and the same.

For all-too scientific minds, the 'story of Jesus-Christ' is a myth, nothing but a myth. He never existed.

A more than a few years back (and three fried computers) a friend sent me some fantastic links on Mithras. I still can't find the one on the Temple Veil (it compared it to the cosmos and so sort of indicated that it's ripping in two had a profound meaning), but I believe this is one of those links.

http://www.crystalinks.com/mithraism.html

Mithras was a myth. Jesus is a fact.

And remember that just because there are some similarities or parallels or whatever between reality and myth, that doesn't mean that the reality had to have"copied" myth. To assume that there was any "copying" involved is only an assumption which really cannot be proven.

Mithra/Mithras was originally a persian deity. This is from memory, but I believe he was originally the god who was in noted for justice and ensuring that people honored agreements etc.

When Zoarastrianism came into power, Mithras was redefined as one of the primary angels of the one god Ahura Mazda. This is where he first began to be ascociated with 'messianic' type of roles. However, Zoarastrianism was monotheistic and he was as an angel. Over time Zoarastrianism became mixed with other pagan traditions and Mithras took on more deity, eventually becoming a messianic god.

Eventually Mithras was picked up by traders etc and introduced to the Romans were he became a mystery cult among the army. This is when his name changed to Mithra. Mithra's cult was male only and performed its rituals in caves etc.
Very little is known about Mithra worship, except that it appeared to be heavily astrological.

Mithra/Mithras has some amazing similarities to Jesus, including supposedly being incarnated from a virgin. HOWEVER, most of these similarities (including the virgin mother) can't be traced back before Christianity. Thus it is very possible that some of the similarities could have been borrowed from Christianity, not the other way around.

For example, much of the info about his virgin mother was from a temple dedicated to his mother, but the temple was built during the christian era.. so we don't really know that this predated christianity.

As for the Roman cult of Mithra, almost nothing is actually known about their beliefs of practices.

However, the early church did respond to the cult and condemned it, which would indicate that they probably didn't borrow from it.


Another point is that God sent precursors in the mythology of many of the nations. For example Zoarastrianism has amazing similarities to both Judaism and Christianity. I personally am of the opinion that God gave that as a revelation to prepare the way. The same could very easily be true of Mithras.

Whatever the case, it is certain that mithras changed significantly over time. He was morphed by almost every religion that he came in contact with. As a result its pretty difficult to really know when the similarities were added, or where they came from.

There are no texts that tell us what the Roman cult of Mithras belived nor how they worshipped.

Peace

I don't know much about the Mithras cultus other than that it was popular in Rome, that it shares the virgin birth with christianity, and that it has to do with bulls and knives (I suppose bulls were killed). A month ago I was in the San Clemente, one of Rome's early churches, and it is built on top of a Mithras temple. You can still visit the remains underneath the San Clemente (I did - that's where I saw the bull thing). I don't think it has much in common with christianity other than virgin birth.

WarriorAngel said:

Thank you, thank you.

Will look that over a bit.

So did Mithras exist? Or did the pagans say he existed? Hmmmm. Interesting.

Click to expand...

There is and only ever was one God. The legend to which you refer should be called "Myth-ra", it was a pagan diety story. Just like Horus and Anubis, Zeus and Athena, Jupiter and Mars, Odin and Thor, etc....

Alright! Learning is a never ending process. I now am so curious. Off to read what I can about Mithra/Mithras. Have a great day all!

-Peace-

Still looking for that site that had that awesome illustration of the veil--can't seem to find it, but there's this:

http://www.well.com/user/davidu/transfiguration2.html

And I do believe that the author of the article mentions that that the seeming connection of Mithra and Jesus is due to man's longing.

And I believe that the carm website has an article about why Christianity could not be from Mithra like some would have us believe.

WarriorAngel said:

Who was Mithra?

Click to expand...

Uh...the sister of Mothra? Sorry, I couldn't resist. I know, there's always one in every crowd.

I have a picture!!!!! Taken with a cellphone cam.






Peace

Any more info about the carbon dating of anything Mithra?

Click to expand...

The Roman cult started several years after Christianity. I don't know how many.

Peace

http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html

Refer to his sources to get to the scholarly material--not to say Holding is unscholarly, but it's generally worth reading people's sources. (Freke and Gandy are nutcases, btw. Read after going through actual scholarship.)

jbarcher said:

http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for this link. It's great! All Christians should refer to it whenever someone tries to tell us that Christianity just copied Mithraism. I just love it!