There are remarkable similarities between the Christian doctrine and the teachings of Mithraism. Nothing Jesus or any of his disciples taught resemble or seem even vaguely suggestive of the Mithran doctrines, yet Paul's letters are full of them. The terminologies he uses, many doctrinal principles he espoused regarding sin, salvation, faith, death, heaven and the very nature of God, even the names he uses for those in office within the Church, are not what Jesus used, but are all lifted straight from the Greek and Mithran Mystery religions. This study focuses on the Mithran cult, and how Paul might have come under its influence.
It is unthinkable that Paul would not have been at the centre of the religious debate and discussion that surrounded him in Tarsus as he grew up. He was an eager student, his vast knowledge of the religions of his day are evident in his writings. This is born out by his writings about Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, into which he has interwoven the detailed theology of Mithraism.
Paul would also have been aware that he had been born at a very significant turning point in history. Mithraic iconography portrays Mithras as the god who turns the wheel of the Great Year and thereby ushered in the New Age somewhere around 30 AD - the Age of Pisces. To the theologians of Tarsus, it would have been an event of increredible magnitude, similar to our beginning of a new millenium, and would have had the whole place buzzing at the realisation they were witnessing the dawn of a new era in time. Along with it would have been a very real expectation of divine intervention as the new era dawned.
Paul would have been among those eagerly awaiting the dawn of the new age. His experience on the road to Damascus seems to have convinced him that God was indeed making such an intervention and that he, Paul, had been chosen to take the message of God's Salvation to the world.
After his experience on the road to Damascus, Acts 9 says that Paul went to Jerusalem and joined with the 'pillars of the Church' Peter, James and John, however, if we are to believe Paul's version of events, he did not go to Jerusalem at all, but went into Arabia and was there for three years before returning to Damascus and then on to Jerusalem (Gal. 1:16-20). According to Paul, there was no visit to Annanias at Antioch, no meet and greet with the 12 Apostles - none of that happened. There was no sharing about the miracles, signs and wonders witnessed during their three years with Jesus, or passing on what he had taught them. For whatever reason, none of that interested Paul. "I did not receive it (the gospel) from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ," he declared (Gal. 1:12)." The disciples in Jerusalem had spent three years living, walking, talking, communicating with this very same Jesus who Paul says had given him the gospel by revelation. Surely Paul would have been even slightly interested in what this same Jesus had taught them? Apparently not. Amazingly, the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the four gospels appear to have been of no interest to him.
Even more amazing than Paul not going to the christian fellowship in Jerusalem that Jesus himself had founded, is that he chose instead to go to Arabia, the centre of Zoroasterist and Mithraic religious practice, to gather his thoughts, bring clarity to what he believed to be the call of Jesus on his life, and fornulate his doctrines. Paul appears to have been greatly influenced by Mithraic dotrine as he incorporared much of it into his teaching.
Paul's incorporation of Mithraism into Christianity is demonstrated in his Epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 9, verses 13 and 14: 13 "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" This is to say, "If goat's blood will get you some spiritual energy, then the blood of a messiah will get you even more." It is interesting to note that Paul refers to the killing of bulls and heifers in blood sacrifices. Jews never sacrificed bulls or heifers, but Mithrans did. Why does Paul make reference to a Mithran practice when writing about the Jewish sacrifical system, knowing that Mithraism was viewed by the Jews as a pagan religion?
Paul again quotes from Mithraism when he cites, "And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" I Cor. 10:4. Not only was Mithras referred to as "the spiritual Rock", but one of Mithras's mythological acts, which also appears in the acts of Moses, was the striking of the rock and the producing of water from it which his followers eagerly drank.
The worshippers of Mithras were called "Soldiers of Mithras", which is probably the origin of the Paul's term "Soldiers of Christ" and of the exhortation to Christians to "put on the armour of light" [Romans xiii. 12. Compare also Ephesians vi. 11, 13.], Mithras being the god of Light. As in Christianity, they recognized no social distinctions, both rich and poor, freemen and slaves, being admitted into the Army of the Lord. Mithraism had its austerities, typified in the severe initiation rites endured by a "Soldier of Mithras"; and the Epistle to Timothy, similarly, exhorts the Christian to "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" [2 Timothy ii. 3.]. Jesus never used the imagery of his followers being soldiers, or indeed that they were in any sort of battle, let alone in need of any armour. He simply told them to love one another, which is neither hard to endure or an activity which requires the use of armour.
It is highly likely that Paul, in an attempt to woo the Gentile believers, deliberately incorporated elements of Mithraism into his brand of Gentile Christianity. In his document, "The Early Years of Christianity", Andre Austin sees it all happening like this:
"Christianity, at first, was preached by Jews to Jews, as a reformed Judaism, Saint James the brother of Jesus, and to a lesser extent Peter, wished it to remain no more than this, and they might have prevailed but for Paul/Saul, who was determined to admit gentiles without demanding circumcision, not eating Pork, or submission to the Mosaic Law. The contention between the two factions is related in the Acts of the Apostles, from a Pauline point of view vs. The Ebonite’s - Poor ones, of James the Just/Righteous. The communities of Christians that St. Paul established in many places were, no doubt, composed partly of converts from among the Jews, partly of Gentiles seeking a new religion. The certainties of Judaism made it attractive in that age of dissolving faiths, but circumcision was an obstacle to the conversion of men.
"The ritual laws in regard to food were also inconvenient. These two obstacles made it almost impossible for the Hebrew religion to become universal. Christianity, owing to Saint Paul, retained what was attractive in the doctrine of the Jews, without features that Gentiles found hardest to assimilate. If you worshiped a God like Mithras or Osiris who were virgin born and rose from the dead after 3 days you would find it easy to believe it again with just exchanging names. Take Apuleius writing about his initiation into the Osiris cult by a priest who named himself after Mithras. The Mithran fraternity cult didn't allow women in so they joined the Isis rites sorority. This proves Mithras/Osiris were already fused in many ways. Paul just took it to another level with substituting the names of pagans for his new converts."
Whether it happened like that, or some other way, we do not know. One thing we cannot deny is that Paul was heavily influenced in his religious beliefs by the Greek and Mithran Mystery religions of his day, as evidenced by the many strands of philosophy and phrasiology from them that Paul wove into his epsitles, and that now form part of the New Testament. Not all Mithran symbolism and influences that found their way into Christianity did so at the hand of Paul, however. Imagery such as the sign of the cross, the diefication of Mary the mother of Jesus as the "Queen of Heaven", the religious festivals of Easter and Christmas and the replacement of the Saturday Sabbath with the Sunday Lord's Day (along with its re-naming as Sun's Day, after the Sun God Mithras) were introduced by the Catholic Church of Rome. Emperor Constantine got the ball rolling when he "converted" from Mithraism to Christianity, which was perhaps easy for him given that Paul had already paved the way by introducing a few aspects of Mithran thought into Christianity a few centuries earlier. Constantine brought many of Mithran practices with him and made the church adopt them. He had Mithran temples taken over and renamed Christian churches, but their worship practices continued unchanged, except now they were performed in the name of Christ.
Mithras is the Zoroastrian divinity (yazata) of covenant and oath, an old Persian god borne originally out of Persia. The Mithran cult was the leading rival of Christianity in Rome, and was more successful than Christianity for the first four centuries of the Christian era. Originating in Persia, it was first introduced into Roman culture by garrisons of Roman soldiers stationed at Tarus, which was the main centre for the cult. It was also where Paul was born and educated. After enduring persecution initially, the cult made much progress in Rome during the 1st century when some Emperors adopted the religion. Mithras was initially very popular among the Roman legionaries, but later even among the Emperors. The worship of Mithras was first recognized by Emperor Aurelian and he instituted the cult of "Sol Invictus" or the Invincible Sun. Emperor Diocletian also a worshipper of Mithras , the Sun God, burned much of the Christian scriptures in 307 AD when officially designated Mithras "Protector of the Empire". However, Christianity and Mithraism were so close in many areas of doctrine by then that numerous leading lights in the Roman Church of the day, including St. Augustine, declared the priests of Mithras worshipped the same deity as they did. This may explain why Mithraism was incorporated into the Roman Catholic Church and became a large part of Christianity itself, both Catholic and Protestant. But how did this come to be, since what Jesus taught about the Kingdom of Heaven has little in common with Mithran ideologies?
Mithraism is the cult of Mithras . It emphasized a personal faith, the conflict of good and evil, and the reward of virtue and punishment of wickedness in the afterlife, the end of the world and the powers of hell. The religion spread through the Roman Empire, becoming a serious rival to Christianity, and yet many in churches today are barely even aware of its existence. If you ask most Christians today who Mithras is most wouldn't have any idea. The church has kept that part of its history silent and hidden even though it is one of the major reasons so many early christian believers were killed.
Who was Mithras ? He was a god-like figure who appealled to everybody and at one time was a dominant god followed by almost every race and nation throughout the history of mankind. They all utilized different names such as Buddha, Horus, Krishna, Odin, Quetzalcoatl, Baal, Ra (the sun god), Bel, Marduk, Apollo, and about 15 others, but they were all esentially the same. Originating from Persia, Mithras was both god and goddess as a bi-gender god, both male and female. Almost all of these gods who carried Mithras dogma have their birthdays on December 25, the birthday of the "sun." Even today's Christians know Jesus's real birthday isn't in December but October, yet for the sake of church tradition they go along with it anyway. Why?
My research into the history of the 1st century AD shows that the early church believers were persecuted and killed because they wouldn't bow to the Sun-god worship and had to go underground to meet on the Sabbath (Saturday), and yet today Christians all over the world meet on Sun-god day to worship who? They believe they are worshipping Jesus, but the religious calendar they keep follows the life of Mithras , not Jesus; the gospel of salvation they preach is that taught about Mithras , and is nowhere to be found in the Gospels; the teachings of Jesus that forgiveness comes through obedience to Gods commandments has been replaced altogether by a gospel centred around substitutional, sacrificial atonement, something God said time and again through the OT prophets that He never instigated nor wants.
Mithraism had its origins well before recorded history among the pagan nations. The central icon of Mithraism is the so-called tauroctony or "bull-slaying scene" in which Mithras is depicted as standing on the bull, in the process of slitting its throat. This bull motif is a reflection of the Age of Taurus, around 4320-2160 BC, and is found in numerous places around the then-known world precisely during the Age of Taurus. It was the religion to which the Children of Israel began to practice while Moses was up the mountain receiving the Ten Commandment. The change between the ages of Taurus and the age of Aries is recorded even in the Bible, in Exodus 12, where Moses institutes the sacrifice of the lamb or ram instead of the bull. Mithras 's slaying of the Bull was an act that became as central to Mithraism as was the crucifixion to Christianity.
The Mithraic tauroctony, apparently designed as a symbolic representation of the astronomical situation during the Age of Taurus, began to appear about the same time as Mithraism, during the 1st century BCE, but had its origins a century earlier. The phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes had been unknown throughout most of antiquity: it was discovered for the first time around 128 BC by the great Greek astronomer Hipparchus. Today we know that the precession is caused by a wobble in the earth's rotation on its axis. However, for Hipparchus - because he held to the ancient geocentric cosmology in which the earth was believed to be immovable - what we today know to be a movement of the earth could only be understood as a movement of the entire cosmic sphere. In other words, Hipparchus's discovery amounted to the rediscovery that the entire universe was moving in a way that was known to the ancient Egyptians, but has been forgotten over time. The Hyskos Pharoah Kings, who are, by many, linked to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament, were well aware of this "precession of the equinoxes".
After Hipparchus made his discovery, Mediterranean intellectual and religious life was pervaded by astrological beliefs. It was widely believed that the stars and planets were living gods, and that their movements controlled all aspects of human existence. In addition, at this time most people believed in what scholars call "astral immortality;" that is, the idea that after death the human soul ascends up through the heavenly spheres to an afterlife in the pure and eternal world of the stars. In time, thecelestial ascent of the soul came to be seen as a difficult voyage, requiring secret passwords to be recited at each level of the journey. In such circumstances, Hipparchus's discovery would have had profound religious implications. A new force had been detected capable of shifting the cosmic sphere: was it not likely that this new force was a sign of the activity of a new god, a god so powerful that he was capable of moving the entire universe? The Greeks and Roman said 'yes' and developed what were referred to as Religions of Mysteries, because knowledge and understanding had to come by revelation. Antioch became a centre for the Mysteries of Adonis; Ephesus became a centre for the Mysteries of Attis; Corinth became a centre for the Mysteries of Dionysus; Tarsus became a centre for the Mysteries of Mithras .
Hipparchus's discovery of the precession made it clear that before the Greco-Roman period, in which the spring equinox was in the constellation of Aries the Ram, the spring equinox had last been in Taurus the Bull. Thus, an obvious symbol for the phenomenon of the precession would have been the death of a bull, symbolizing the end of the "Age of Taurus" brought about by the precession. And if the precession was believed to be caused by a new god, then that god would naturally become the agent of the death of the bull: hence, the "bull-slayer."
This is the origin and nature of Mithras the cosmic bull-slayer. His killing of the bull symbolizes his supreme power: namely, the power to move the entire universe, which he had demonstrated by shifting the cosmic sphere in such a way that the spring equinox had moved out of Taurus the Bull. Given the pervasive influence in the Greco-Roman period of astrology and "astral immortality," a god possessing such a literally world-shaking power would clearly have been eminently worthy of worship: since he had control over the cosmos, he would automatically have power over the astrological forces determining life on earth, and would also possess the ability to guarantee the soul a safe journey through the celestial spheres after death.
The bull represented rebirth, fertility and fecundity, with his blood corresponding to the wine of the mysteries. The sacrifice of the bull was reenacted in the Mithraic baptism, a mystery rite in which the initiates were splattered with the blood. The initiate was then said to have been "born again." In Mithraism, the slaying of the Heavenly Bull, Mithras is essentially sacrificing himself, in order to save the world: the bull appears to signify the earth or mankind, and the implication is that Mithras overcame the world; but in the early Persian writings Mithras himself is the bull, the god is thus sacrificing himself.
The rite of initiation into Mithraic cults involved the slaying of a bull over a naked body of the candidate in such a way that the blood of the bull poured over him. He was literally "washed in the blood", which appears to have given rise to the Christian belief that they are "washed in the blood", something never spoken of by Jesus or any writer of the Bible's text but Paul. The baptism by the blood of a bull (taurobolium, for the rich) or the blood of a ram (criobolium, for the poor) was a means of attaining a second birth. The pits around Mithraic altars suggest that the worshippers were bathed ritually in hot blood. If no bull was available, other animals were used. If a lamb was used they were "washed in the blood of the lamb." In the course of this gruesome ceremony the initiate was to drink some of the blood, thereby gaining the courage and strength of the bull or whatever animal that was sacrificed. They believed in the eating of this representative of the God they obtained the very attributes of the God. This was followed by a Eucharistic meal of the bull or animal's flesh.
The divine meal is more frequently portrayed than any other scene except the bull slaying. Besides bull meat, lamb, goat and fish were used as substitutes for bull meat, and wine for blood. They believed that by eating the animal's flesh and drinking its blood they would be "born again" just as life itself had once been created from the bull's blood. It was believed that the partaking of the Eucharistic sacrament ensured Eternal Life, the immediate passing after death, to the bosom of Mithras , there to tarry in bliss until the judgment. "He who shall not eat of his body, nor drink of my blood so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved," deeclared Mithras 's eucharist. It was mirrored by Paul when he introduced the Eucharistic meal to Christianity: "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me ... This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me. or as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come." (1 Corinthins: 11: 24-26).
Mithras was born of the Sun God and a virgin mother, called "the Mother of God", on December 25th. Mithras was considered the savior of mankind, and stories abound of his healing the sick, raising the dead, and performing miracles. He was perceived by his devotees as the "mediator between Heaven and earth and was associated with a "holy trinity." He remained celibate until the ripe old age of 64. The name "Mithras " comes from the Persian word for "contract;" being known as "the keeper of the covenant."
Like the vast majority of the ancient gods, Mithras was never a "real person." In actuality he was originally represented by non-human forms. It is very significant to note that ancient Iranians themselves did not represent the Sun-god in human form in the earliest times, and they used to represent him by means of symbols. In one of the sepulchres of Darius near Naqshi Rustam, Mithras is represented as a round disc (a UFO). Next stage was that of human busts of Sun in later Mithraism. Today we see Mithraic symbols more commonly known as Masonic or Illuminati symbols such as the all-seeing eye or references to the sun and sun-god. The Mithraic sun-god symbols are still in use by the Roman Catholic church today.
Mithran paganism has the following in common with the Jesus Christ of today's churches:
* Mithras was born on December 25th. Called "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun", it was incorporated into the church in the 4th century AD as the birthday of Christ. Although Jesus was born in October, christians today celebrate Mithras ' birthday, believing it was Jesus' birthday.
* Mithras's birth was witnessed by shepherds and by Magi (wise men) who brought gifts to his sacred birth-cave of the Rock
* He was considered a great travelling teacher and master.
* He had 12 companions or disciples, which in Mithraism were represented by the 12 astrological signs.
* He performed miracles.
* He was buried in a tomb.
* After three days he rose again, but with no witnesses to the event
* His triumph over death and ascension to heaven were celebrated at the Mithran's most important festival, Easter, held at the spring equinox when the sun rises toward its apogee
* Mithras was called "the Good Shepherd."
* He was considered "the Way, the Truth and the Light, the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah."
* In the cult's rituals, Mithras was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
* His sacred day was Sunday, and was called "the Lord's Day" hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
* Mithraism had a Eucharist or "Lord's Supper" in which bread was eaten as a symbol of Mithras ' body, and wine was drunk as a symbol of the blood shed when Mithras overpowered and killed the bull
* Mithras performed many miracles, including raising the dead, healing the sick, making the blind see and the lame walk, casting out devils.
* Mithras was said to carry keys to the kingdom of heaven.
* Mithras was called the god of light and truth, the god of mediation between god and man. He was to his worshippers The creator of life; The Mediator between man and the higher gods; The God of light; The All-seeing one; The Guardian of oaths (covenants); The Protector of the righteous in this world and also in the next.
* A trinity godhead comprised of Mithras (divine god of truth), Rashnu (divine god of justice, judgement and righteousness), Vohu Manah (divine spirit of enlightenment). These three persons were separate yet they were one.
Before returning to heaven, Mithras was said to have celebrated a Last Supper with followers, who represented the twelve signs of the zodiac. In memory of this, his worshippers partook of a sacramental meal of bread marked with the Mithran cross of light. This was one of the seven Mithraic sacraments, believed to be the models for the Christians' seven sacraments, which follow them identically. It was called mizd, latin missa, in other words, English mass. 'Mithras ' image was buried in a rock tomb, the same sacred cave that represented his mother's womb. He was withdrawn from it and said to live again.
Mithraism was an ascetic, anti-female religion. Its priesthood consisted of celibate men only. Women were forbidden to enter Mithraic temples. The women of Mithraic families had nothing to do with the men's cult, but attended services of the Great Mother in their own temples of Isis, Diana or Juno. Anahita was the Mother of Waters, traditional spouse of the solar god whom she bore, loved and swallowed up. She was identified with the Anatolian Great Goddess Ma and referred to as the Mother of God. Mithras was naturally coupled with her, as her opposite, a spirit of fire, light and the sun. Her element, water, overwhelmed the world in the primordial flood, when one man built an ark and saved himself, together with his cattle, according to Mithraic myth.
What began in water would end in fire, according to the Mithraic eschatology. The great battle between the forces of light and darkness in the Last Days would destroy the earth with its upheavals and burnings. Virtuous ones who followed the teachings of the Mithraic priesthood would join the spirits of light (Illuminati) and be saved. Sinful ones who followed other teachings would be cast into hell with Ahriman and the fallen angels.
It is a commonly held belief among modern day churches that the predominance of Christianity resulted in Mithraic worship dying out in the 4th century. Such is not the case, Mithraism did not die out, rather Emperor Constantine the Great incorporated Mithraic beliefs and doctrines into the church during the fouth century, combining the two religions under the one banner of Christianity. Following 300 years of persecutions, there weren't many early Christian believers left to protest and resist the intrusion and takeover of Mithraism into the church. They had all died refusing to accommodate it.
Constantine the Great was an avid Mithras worshipper and his devoted mother Helena, a great worshipper of Ishtar, 'My Lady', the Queen of Heaven. As well as transferring most of the doctrines and tenants of Mithraism, he also turned the shrines and temples of Mithras and Helena into Christian churches after his claimed 'conversion' to Christianity in 312 AD. He didn't abandon his occult practices after his conversion, but brought them into the church and then had the church write new scriptures to incorporate them into the church doctrines. His did this because Christianity and Mithraism were now so similar in their doctrines and tenants, it seemed logical to create one state religion out of the two that could would adopted universally without question by followers of both throughout The Roman Empire. Most of the Christian churches were built over the top of shrines and temples of Mithraism. In 1954 when rebuilding the bombed ruins of St. Paul's cathedral, another shrine of the cult god Mithras was unearthed in the ruins.
To show the validity of this change over without conversion, a worship decree was issued by the Emperor Constantine in the year 321 AD., which was some nine years after his supposed conversion - Constantine, Emperor Agustus, to Helidus: "On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates, and the people residing in cities rest, let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits". Note here the day mentioned; 'The venerable day of the sun', the special day dedicated to the cult sun-god, Mithras , the first day of the week, SUNDAY! This was the first recorded blue Sunday law. In short, Constantine had never given up worshipping on his beloved 'venerable day of the sun', the day totally dedicated to the sun-god Mithras , the 'son of the sun-god', he simply changed the day of Christian worship from Saturday to Sunday. Only the name of the god Mithras had to be changed to Christ. There was little need to change anything else, as the doctrines and teachings of Mithras had already been transferred and assimilated into the church, completing job Paul had begun in the 1st century AD.
In his edict of Milan, issued in 313AD., a year after his supposed conversion, tolerance and equality were proclaimed to other cults and religions within the state, however anyone who persisted in observing any other day than their 'venerable day of the sun', the state promoted day, were actively persecuted, therefore any Sabbath keeper had to go underground. At this time, the seven Mithraic sacraments were adopted (retained in Catholicism to this day) and Christmas and Easter, Mithraic holidays were also brought in.
The female companion cult to this male's only religion, a dedication to the fertility goddess, Ishtar, the Queen of heaven, or Magnus Mater, was also incroporated into Christianity. Mary the mother of Jesus was diefied and renamed Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, the title previously bestowed on the fertility goddess, Ishtar.
The moon was her planet and she was assifned the second day of the week - Moon day, our Monday, since the moon was the next largest orb in our heavens. At the first full moon of spring in the northern hemisphere, that is at the end of our March, in Babylonian times the pagan son of the sun-god, Demuzi, or Tammuz, the forerunner of Mithras , descended into the nether world, to be rescued by his mother/lover, Ishtar, the fertility goddess, and on being rescued participated in an act of human procreation. Rabbits and eggs were symbols of this fertility rite. Little round cakes, from which our hot cross buns originated, were also baked in honour to this Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven, and were marked with the Mithran cross of light. The evidence of this is found in Jeremiah's time
Jer.7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.See also Jer.44: 17-19.
These practices were merged into the church to where today we have a combination of both the pagan Mithraism and Queen of heaven worship via the Protestant Easter and the Catholicism celebration of Mary.
In the northern hemisphere the winter solstice falls on December 22/23, thus making this time the sun's most weakest point of the year, so it was then reckoned to be the time of its yearly death. But then, two days after this point, the sun becomes stronger and begins rising earlier each day, so the ancients considered that it was the time of rebirth and hence declared a few days after as being the birthday of the sun (son), that is, Mithras 's birthday! Since Constantine was incroporating the stories of Jesus and Mithras into one, it was only natural that he should declare Christ's birthday the same as Mithras 's birthday - December 25 - the most important date on the Babylonian calendar year. Likewise, Jesus must rise on the third day, even though the Gospels indicate that Jesus had already risen by the second day after his death.
Mithras 's cave-temple on the Vatican Hill was seized by Christians in 376 AD. Christian bishops of Rome pre-empted even the Mithraic high priest's title of Pater Patrum, which became Papa (or Pope). First we had Constantine adopting Christianity into Mithaism, now, we have Christianity copying and assimilating the pagan aspects of Mithraism. Both would become assimilated into each other creating a false and delusional mystery cult religion. There are seven hills in Rome, and the Vatican was built on top of the Mithras 's cave-temple, just as other churches had been built on top of ancient Mithras temples.
The head of the Mithraic faith was called Pater Patrum, "Father of the Fathers", and was seated at Rome; similarly the head of the Church was the Papa, or "Father", now known as the Pope, who was also seated at Rome. He too is still refered to as "Father of the Fathers", the other "Fathers" being the many Fathers who run local Catholic congregations. The Pope's crown is called a tiara, but a tiara is a Persian, and hence perhaps a Mithraic headdress. The ancient chair preserved in the Vatican and supposed to have been the pontifical throne used by St. Peter, is in reality of pagan origin, and may possibly be Mithraic also, for it has upon it certain pagan carvings connected with Mithras .
Christianity thus became a synthesis of Mithraistic thought on eternal life gained from the blood of the sacrificed saviour (like a bull), the ultimate sacrifice. The imagery of the blood of Jesus washing away sins and granting eternal life (like Mithras ), are all derived from the natural Roman merging of Judaism with Mithraism, as they were never part of Jesus' teaching (check the four gospels and see for yourself if you don't believe me). The transformation of Mithras into a Bull or Ram which preceded the eating of his flesh and blood directly parallels the Christians Jesus' death and rebirth, and his statement that his disciples should eat and drink his flesh and blood to wash away sin and gain eternal life.
Another image from Mithras that found its way into Christianity was the cross. Images of Mithras often show him standing on a sphere (not the Earth) that symbolises the Universe (Cosmos). The Ancients believed that when the creator of the universe first formed the cosmos, he shaped its substance in the form of a cross, representing the intersection of the two celestial circles of the zodiac and the celestial equator. This cross-shaped symbol was often depicted in ancient art to indicate the cosmic sphere. It was signified by worshippers of Mithras who would form the sign of the cross before a statue of Mithras by moving their index finger from their right shoulder to the left, then down from their forehead to their waste. Emperor Constantine apears to have introduced the practice of making the sign of the cross on one's self into Roman Catholic worship, a practice continued to this day. Note that this is not representative of the cross of Jesus, which would has a much longer vertical line than the horizontal. On the Mithran cross, as with the Catholic sign of the cross, the bars are of equal length and intersect in the middle. The christian cross, universally represented as a crucifix, was only introduced into religious art as late as the 6th century.
The "X" shaped Mithran Cross had its origins in the 'Crux Ansata', which was carried in the hands of the Egyptian priests and Pontiff kings as the symbol of their authority as priests of the Sun god and was called 'the Sign of Life". It appears directly in the centre of many of the ceremonial crucifixes of the catholic church. It also appears on Easter or Hot Cross Buns. The Mithraic festival of Ishtar (Easter) celebrated the birth of Spring. It was thus timed to coincide with the 'immaculate' conception of Mithras , hence the practice of giving Easter Eggs. The fleet ensign of Christopher Columbus, who sail to and discovered the New World in 1492, was the Mithran Cross. It was also used by the Crusader Knights and the Knights Templar.
In my studies into the Book of Revelation, I explore the notion that The Beast referred to in it is the Roman Catholic Church. If that is so, then the cross 'drawn' by moving their index finger from their right shoulder to the left, then down from their forehead to their waste, could well be the Mark of The Beast.
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