Orphism included wandering, proselytizing adherents who acted out plays that contained religious themes. Much of the Orphic religion and mysteries revolved around the Greek savior Dionysus, the son of God born of a virgin mother on December 25th long before the purported advent of Jesus Christ. Centuries prior to the Christian era, Dionysus's religion was spread by a group of missionaries in the very same area recorded in the New Testament as having been proselytized by Paul. One of Dionysus's epithets was "IES," which, with the Latin terminus "-us," becomes Iesus or Jesus. Thus, hundreds of years before the existence of Christianity and the alleged savior Jesus Christ, missionaries were traveling around the Mediterranean, spreading the "good news " of IES, the savior son of God born of a virgin on December 25th.
In The Paganism in Our Christianity, Christian apologist Sir Arthur Weigall describes the Dionysus myth:
"Dionysos, whose father, as in the Christian story, was 'God' but whose mother was a mortal woman [Semele], was represented in the East as a bearded young man of dignified appearance, who had not only taught mankind the use of the vine, but had also been a law-giver, promoting the arts of civilisation, preaching happiness, and encouraging peace. He, like Jesus, had suffered a violent death, and had descended into hell, but his resurrection and ascension then followed; and these were commemorated in his sacred rites. According to one legend, he had turned himself into a bull, and in this guise had been cut to pieces by his enemies; and according to another he had been transformed into a ram. His worshippers were wont to tear a bull or a goat to pieces and to devour the meat raw, thereby eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their god in a frenzied eucharist. Various animals were sacred to him, amongst which were the ram and the ass; and in regard to the latter there was a story that he had once ridden upon two asses and had afterwards caused them to become celestial constellations, in which legend we may perhaps see him as a solar god and may connect him with the zodiacal sign of Cancer, which, in the Babylonian zodiac, was the Ass and Foal, and which marked the zenith of the sun’s power and the beginning of its decline towards winter.As Weigall outlines, the similarities between the Dionysus and Jesus myths include not only the torturous death and the resurrection but also the water-to-wine miracle, the Christian myth even keeping the same Pagan date for its celebration, January 6th. That this "miracle" predates Christianity is proved by the ruins of the water-to-wine sluice used by Greek priests at Corinth at least four centuries before the common era. Indeed, correspondences between the Dionysian and Christian cults can be found in Paul's epistles to the Corinthians, which is appropriate since Corinth in specific was a locus for the Dionysian mysteries."...the connection of Jesus with Dionysos in men's minds is shown by the introduction into the Gospel story of the incident of the turning of water into wine at the marriage-feast of Cana..."
A relatively recent and exciting find of Europe's oldest "book," dating to the 4th century BCE, provides us with yet more concrete evidence of the fact that the "Christ Code," i.e., the gospel tale, is not an original, true story but was taken from older myths and rituals.
Ancient scroll may yield religious secrets
By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS, Associated Press WriterATHENS, Greece - A collection of charred scraps kept in a Greek museum's storerooms are all that remains of what archaeologists say is Europe's oldest surviving book — which may hold a key to understanding early monotheistic beliefs....
The scroll contains a philosophical treatise on a lost poem describing the birth of the gods and other beliefs focusing on Orpheus, the mythical musician who visited the underworld to reclaim his dead love and enjoyed a strong cult following in the ancient world.
The Orpheus cult raised the notion of a single creator god — as opposed to the multitude of deities the ancient Greeks believed in — and influenced later monotheistic faiths.
"In a way, it was a precursor of Christianity," Pierris said. "Orphism believed that man's salvation depended on his knowledge of the truth."
Veleni said the manuscript "will help show the influence of Orphism on later monotheistic religions."...
14 comments:
Very interesting about the Orphic plays. Do you suppose there could have been an IES minstrel show, at one time, for instance in the neutral province of Galilee? The play could have been organized to appeal to local Jews/Israelites as well as gentiles/pagans. Could this have served as an oral Q for the later gospel narratives?
You mean, as in a Passion Play? I would evince that just such a thing happened many times, likely often in secret, as part of the mysteries but also the sacred-king/scapegoat human sacrifice ritual that we find throughout the world. There is an enigmatic scripture at Galatians 3:1, in which "Paul" says that Jesus had been crucified among the Galatians--an odd assertion if the gospel tale recounts the one-time crucifixion of the son of God at Jerusalem.
In the meantime, it is doubtless to me that the narrative of the Passion is in fact a reflection of a play, complete with stage directions and a compressed timeframe, as well as ritual lines such as "Let his blood be upon us and our children." This latter "blood libel" is in fact a line used in a ritual for fecundity, as the sacred-king sacrifice was frequently designed to bestow fertility and fecundity upon a people, as the blood of the sacrificed human or animal was literally spilled upon the "audience" of the ritual. Hence, this statement would be a request for fecundity from the god, rather than a peculiar admission of guilt in the heinous crime of deicide.
As concerns "Q," I take it you refer to the term in its German original as "Quelle," meaning "source," such that you are addressing a source of the gospel tale, rather than specifically referring to the "Q" of Q scholarship, which deals mainly with the Logia Iesou or Sayings of the Lord, as opposed to the narrative we are discussing. As such, yes, I would concur that the Orphic/Dionysian mysteries were one such nucleus - of many!
Sydney, you're thinking of the pharaoh Akhenaton, to whom it has been traditionally attributed the formation of the concept of monotheism. However, it should be noted that within the Egyptian religion, as well as the Indian, both of which appear to be riotously pantheistic, there nonetheless was the concept of the Supreme Being, with all the other gods and goddesses serving as his limbs or adjuncts. Akhenaton took this supreme being concept and attempted to outlaw the "limbs," which made him very unpopular with the priests of the other gods. In any event, monotheism or the worship of the One God was extent within the esoteric religion or mysteries long prior to Akhenaton.
I wonder why no one had made an attempt to uncover more , in regard to old pagan practices, in smaller countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, etc, the eastern block, where some ancient practices are still alive.
The vineyards are famous from ancient times, and so their cults. The Thracian tribes , The Dacian, The Getae, where famous long before the Roman Empire.
Dacians were famous in one particular ritual, of human sacrifice, every 5 years, as an ambassador, to their god , Zalmoxis. Dionysus was also part of their cult but as a Wine God. In studying etymology of the name Isus Hristos, I came to the conclussion that Isus is of ProtoIndoEuropean origin meanning Arrow, Spear, and Hristo not annointed as is thought in all of the interpretations i have read , this being derived from the practice of annintment and merged with the name Hristo, CHRIO = annoint, but Hristos , better comes from WINE , KRASI, KRISIS , ISUS HRISTOS being in this context THE NEW WINE, Mustu, the babbling one, obtained in september, yes in VIRGO, the type of grape juice that fizzes ( sends Isu , arrows ) on your tongue. In time of the Dacian king Boirebista, a prohibition on wine was issued, the priests only offering wine with a little spoon, custom still performed today in orthodox church.
Now, in Romanian we have an expression, " This wine has annointed my soul". Is this an ancient believe that Wine was used to annoint the soul? Probably so. Also VIE in romanian is Vine and also ALIVE. Vitsa de Vie = Viatsa Vie = Being alive, Living Fully, and also Grape Vine.
Beat KRITSA = very drunk
Lets not forget that from the place where Romania is today, many of the world stories have originated, including Dionysus, Achiles, (see ALBA island , or Insula serpilor, snakes island), Dracula (drac= devil), Varcolacii ( dragons with wolf head VRKA (gives FRICA = FEAR) and snake tails, the story of Romulus and Remus ( names still used today in romania), etc... .
By the way, in Hittite Ishuwa = arrow , the jewish?? jeshua??? ....The Black Sea, was probably the source of the Flooding Story, forcing many to leave their lands and move away... A comparativ study between sumerian , akkadian and Romanian, will shed some light on how this civilizations appeared so sudden and sudden dissappeared. Romanian is not latin, rather latin is romanian. But who cares to look to such a small country with no wrtten records? No written records , because everything was transmited orraly from fathers to sons for thousands of years.
Take a look at the Tablets from Tartaria , writing, long before sumerian, 6400bce, yet very similar to sumerian tablets.
And so much more....
paulancka @ yahoo.com
have you read Gerald Massey's A book of the beginnings?
Is worth it. He has a very interesting approach.
Re the correspondences Paul provides, very interesting. One culture I would LOVE to study because of its isolation and antiquity, as well as its enigmatic nature, is that of the Basque. I found it fascinating that in the Basque language "Dionysus" is "Dunixi," which sounds like the Sumerian "Dumuzi," or "Tammuz" in the Semitic. Tammuz, of course, is the dying-and-rising solar savior and fertility god worshipped by Jews as well.
I have read much of Gerald Massey - I quoted him heavily in The Christ Conspiracy. I have not read that particular book. Interestingly, in my follow up book Suns of GodI was able to demonstrate many of his most germane points, without using much of his work at all.
Let us not forget that more than one Egyptplogist has suggested that Moses was simply another name (Hebrew)for Akhenaton....
makes one wonder, no?
Acharya, can you quote for us from sources before Christ that proves what you say?
Thank you.
Interested parties may consult my books The Christ Conspiracy and, in particular, Suns of God, as well as the many sources cited therein. Each contains many quotes to demonstrate the basic, logical thesis presented here and elsewhere.
I have read "The Christ Conspiracy" and, upon reading it, I honestly felt that you weren't being sincere in your work.
I mean, when you talked about how pagan religions greatly influenced Christianity, the references that you based your information on were not really reliable at all. I mean ... some good reliable references to show that the Jesus character was influenced by pagan religions/mythologies that existed before the supposed birth of Jesus ... would be the religions/mythologies themselves. Those are some great reliable sources!
For example, if you want to post real information about the Krishna character ... you go to the source(s) of the teachings and myths of Hinduism. Unfortunately, you did not base what you posted about Krishna on any Hindu text. And because of this, it wouldn't be right for me to believe what you wrote about Krishna ... unless you are the founder of Hinduism ... which I strongly doubt! ;)
I can say similar things about the other pagan characters that you discussed in that book.
By the way, what you posted/quoted about Heracles is full of mistakes! Greek Mythology doesn't say what you say about him. Same with Dionysus ...
Also, keep in mind that the Bible never says the date when Jesus was born ... so there's no use making up birth dates for your pagan characters.
Anyway, my friend, I said what I had to say here. I pray that the Lord bless you and lead you to Him.
With God's Love,
George
By the way, feel free to email me at:
soldierofchrist2007@hotmail.com
Yes, I had a feeling that your previous post was intended to heckle me.
In any event, I obviously disagree with your remarks as to my scholarship, and I again urge you to read Suns of God. Skimming encyclopedias does NOT constitute scholarship, which is why I do not simply regurgitate the mainstream perspective found in encyclopedia entries as you are recommending.
If you wish for sincerity, I am sincerely not impressed by anyone who relies on mainstream encyclopedia entries for their knowledge.
And why would I not be surprised that you are a "soldier of christ" heckling me and telling me that my work is "full of mistakes"
Obviously, you haven't paid much attention to the many mistakes in the New Testament, which is clearly not inerrant by any stretch of the imagination.
You can email me at "soldier for truth" at enlightenment.com
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