home : Expression : Thoughts
Chakra
Christianity And Greece
Sacred Pipe

Christianity And Greece

Introduction

As a Christian, I find it fascinating to learn about those aspects that shaped early Christianity. In the recent past, much has been discovered about the beliefs of the Gnosticism - a popular early sect of the faith. With the discovery of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, documents that have been missing for centuries are available for research.

Gnosticism is a form of Christianity that embraced many concepts that would today be termed pagan. That said, there are a number "modern" aspects of Christianity that have clear pagan influences including holy days, those people who are considered to be sainted, and so on. I think it is not really possible to understand Christianity without grasping the underlying influences on the religion. To do this, it is necessary to understand these influences, how they are symbolized, their relationships, and their meanings.

The basic beliefs of Gnosticism were deemed heretical at the early church councils in the 5th century, and most Gnostic manuscripts destroyed. Some Gnostics believed in a form of Christianity very similar to the Greek religions of the time - that Christ was like Dionysius and not a historical character. Others believed that Jesus Christ was a state that any person could obtain, much like enlightenment.

For me, realizing that there was such a wide diversity of thought and debate about Christianity was a refreshing discovery. Instead of weaking my faith, it made me realize that the fundamental teachings of Christ are so powerful that they go beyond the necessity of historical fact. It was commonplace for early Christians to believe the tenants of Christianity without concern of historical fact. To me, this seems the ultimate act of faith.

My memory is poor, so this document is a collection of facts that I find useful to reference when discussing this topic. I ocassionally update this to make it more clear to those people who stumble across the page. At some point it might resemble an essay.

Two useful books that discuss many of the topics I mention is "The Jesus Mysteries" and "Jesus and the Goddess". Both of these books are by Timothy Fricke and Peter Gandy.

Roman Period

Constantine had his "miraculous conversion" in 312 A.D. In 313 Constantine issued the Edict of Milan granting freedom to practice the religion of one's choice.

Christianity was not made the official religion of the Roman Empire until the edicts of Theodosius I in 380 and 381 A.D. In fact Constantine was engaged in the process of simultaneously building pagan temples and Christian churches until his death in 337.

Although there are many good political/social reasons for Constantine to support Christianity, it is also worth nothing that Constantine's mother Helena converted to Christianity in 312-313, roughly the same time when Constantine had his conversion and issued his famouse "Edict of Milan" One can only suspect that her conversion might have been earlier, but wasn't made public until Constantine made it legal for her to do so. One suspects that his desire to make Christianity legal might have been something that his mother influenced him to do.

Certainly Helena went to great lengths to promote Christianity. She was a wildly devout Christian and travelled to Jerusalem soon after the Edict of Milan was made law. According to legend, she assembled Jewish rabbis and asked them to reveal the location of the crucifiction. The rabbis would not tell, perhaps out of fear that providing such evidence might mean the end of Jewish supremicy. Helena then threatened the Jewish leaders with torture and death.

After being denied food for 6 days, a Jewish leader named Judas finally told her the location. According to Judas, the cross was under the temple of Venus, which was soon destroyed so they could dig under it. Twenty feet under the temple they are reported to have found three crosses and the "INRI" sign. Perhaps these items were planted by the Jewish leaders out of terror, in an effort to end their persecution.

The true cross was tested by some accounts by raising someone from the dead, by healing a woman, or by finding an inspription of Pilate according to different sources. After an exceedingly vigorous conversion, Judas converted and became Bishop Cyriacus. Then Helena sent him looking for the nails of the cross, which he soon found "shining like gold" She took portions of the cross and the nails to Constantine, who had the nails put on his bridle and helmet.

Helena also built churches in Bethlehem, Egypt, the Mount of Olives, and Mount Calvary and died in Palestine during these activities. She was buried in a mausoleum attached to the basilicas of Saints Marcellinus and Peter.

At any rate, Helena was certainly a more serious Christian, despite her possible penchant towards torture, than Constantine, who did not convert until on his deathbed. One can not rule out the idea that Helena was a strong influence in Constantine's acceptance of Christianity.

Rome was sacked in 410 by the Visigoths and 455 by the Vandals. The official end of the western Roman Empire is 476 when Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed, though he only ruled as a child and his reign was contested. There were only 74 years between Christianity being made the legal religion of Rome, and the sacking of Rome by the Vandals, which was really the last gasp of the Western Roman empire.

Historical Evidence of Jesus

Historical references to Jesus and the early Christian church is unfortunately very sparse. Many historical reports that do exist are questioned by modern scholors. For example, Tacitus is considered the authority on Nero's persecution of the Christians. But Tacitus was believed to have been born in Gaul (France) around 56AD, and Nero died in 64AD. So Tacitus' report of Christian persecution in Rome was not firsthand.

Another example is the Jewish history as written by Flavius Josephus. Flavius born in 37AD, a little too late for direct knowledge of Jesus. However, his history extends well before his own time and is considered the most thorough and accurate history of the Jewish people. However, he did have his biases, and was a bit of a traitor to his own people.

In Josephus' work "Antiquities of the Jews" (published in 95), Jesus is mentioned in two places. In Book 18 (18.3.3) there is the famous "Testimonium Flavianum" Later in book 20 (20.9.1) Jesus is mentioned again. The Testimonium Flavianum is a sentence that basically says that Jesus lived and was the messiah.

However, both quotes are suspect of being edited or inserted by later Christians, or completely forged. Origen (185-254), who dealt extensively with Josephus, wrote that Josephus did not believe Jesus to be the messiah nor proclaim him as such. Eusebius, in 324 CE, first mentions this passage (twice). In fact, Eusebius is suspected as a man who forged and modified texts for the benefit of the Christian faith. Many Christian scholars quoted Josephus before (and after) 324 CE who did not quote these sections, which would be surprising if they were in the original text.

There are many reaons to believe Josephus didn't actually write the positive text about Jesus. For one thing, Josephus did not believe in the idea of a messiah coming to save the world, and says this thoughout the rest of his writings. He speaks in highly negative terms about other messiah figures (such as John the Baptist).

  • http://www.tektonics.org/tekton_01_01_01_JOS.html
  • http://www.atheist-community.org/library/jesus_fact_or_fiction.htm

    • Jesus, Mithras, and Other Greek Influences

    Some early Christians did not believe in a historical Jesus. Although this concept may sound strange to many modern Christians, this idea would have been quite comfortable to many people of the ancient Greek world. It was quite common among these people to worship dieties that had humanlike qualities, but were not in fact historical. The similarities found in the New Testament between Jesus and Mithras, for example, suggest that at least some early worshipers of Jesus may not have viewed Jesus as a historical figure. The manuscrips found at Nag Hammadi also highlight that this idea was common among early Gnostic Christians.

    The first evidence of people worshiping Mithra comes from 1400 B.C. Worship of Mithra began in Persia and later became infused with Babylonian influences. At its height of popularity, Mithra was worshiped from Scotland to China. Underneath the Colosseum in Rome lies one of the largest Mithraic temples built in Italy.

    Mithras also a Persian god who, like Jesus, was:

    • Born of a virgin (Mithras birthday was celebrated on December 25).
    • Lived to the age of 33.
    • Had 12 major followers.
    • Died for humanty's sins.
    • Died by being hung on a tree.
    • Rose from the dead (Mithras resurrection was celebratedon on the spring equinox).

    Many of the religious rituals that are followed by Christians today are adopted from Greek pagan mystery religions (as mentioned above). It is well known that many of these (like the followers of Bacchus as an obvious example) took mood altering substances like wine to enhance/encourage their ritual.

    A similar example is that the Catholic mass involves drinking wine and eating bread, which was a common mystery religion ritual that well predates Christianity. There is a belief that other mystery religions used more powerful intoxicants (the Oracle of Delphi for example).

    Worshipers of Mithras held beliefs in a celestial heaven and in an infernal hell. Mithras was believed to have visited earth after being born of a virgin, and to have taken part in a last supper with his 12 companions before ascending to heaven.

    Believers had faith that Mithra's sympathy to human suffering would grant them salvation in the world to come, and followers looked forward to a final day of judgement where the world order would be forever changed and good would triumph over evil.

    Followers of the Mithric cult followed the same sacrements that are still used by the Catholic church (baptism, communion, confirmation, marriage, vows of priesthood, last rites). Their church services involved sacrificing a bull and eating a ritual meal, including the words "eating the flesh and drinking the blood" All of this 3000 years before the birth of Christ.

    The Christian heresy hunter Tertullian (160-220) "explained" these similarities basically as Satan causing coincidances in order to confuse faithful Christians. Tertullian refered to this as the devil's "diabolical mimicry" Though Tertullian is well known for this "explination" it is less known that he himself converted to a "heretiacal" form of Gnosticism in 207 after being a literalist Christian for only 12 years.

    Obviously the ritual use of wine and bread was also prevelant in Jewish culture, so it also has Jewish roots.

    While the idea that the New Testament might not be 100% acurate is abhorant to many literalist Christians, a growing body of scholars are questioning the accuracies of the text. Such literalists likely find Tertullian's "diabolical mimicry" idea comforting.

    On the other side of the spectrum are those that believe that there was no historical Jesus at all and that Christians were fooled into worshiping Mithras (or a conglomeration of various ancient gods) under a new name.

    However the fact remains that nobody really knows to what degree the texts are historically accurate. A few sections are suspect (like the differing lineages of Jesus in Matthew and Luke, or the fact that an eclipse is reported on passover in Luke 23:45. Since passover happens on a new moon, this is obviously impossible (without, of course, divine intervention).

    Eating and drinking rituals are very powerful rituals, as is clear by their prevelance in many different cultures. Rituals celebrating the sacrifice made by god to save humanity are also common among many cultures and are also, in my opinion, very powerful.

    All of the various forms of baptism are initiatory. Baptism by water, baptism by fire (as in "Pentecost") and baptism by air or breath. In the Gnostic Nag Hammadi manuscripts other Christian initiation practices are mentioned such as the "bridal chamber" The Gnostic "Gospel of Phillip" mentions the following Christian sacrements or mysteries "a baptism and a chrism, and a eucharist, and a redemption, and a bridal chamber."

    Further reading:

    Christianity After Rome

    The early Church was ruled by the "pentarchy" of Sees (Rome, Constantanople, Antioch, Alexandra, and Jerusalem). Although, the oldest cannon only recognizes three of these (Rome, Antioch, and Alexandra).

    The five churches comprised the universal church with Rome having slight amount of power over the others. This power was mostly symbolical. The Pope in Rome was the supreme Pontif and holds related dignaties, but each patriarch would govern their related areas independantly (appoint its own bishops, etc.).

    In 1052 Rome split from the other four. In 1589 the Tsar Feodor I (1581-98) made the Metropolitan See of Moscow into an independent patriarchate. In 1591 the other patriarchs in synod confirmed his arrangement and gave Moscow the fifth place, below Jerusalem. Orthodox theologians were delighted that the sacred pentarchy, the classical order of five patriarchs, was thus restored; they said that God had raised up Moscow to replace fallen Rome. But their joy did not last long. Only ten Russian patriarchs reigned. In 1700 the last of these, Adria, died. Peter the Great did not allow a successor to be elected. The schism between the east and west was nullified in 1965, after almost a millenium.

    New Testament

    The 4 gospels are first mentioned in the middle of the 2nd century and Irenaeus is the first to give them the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John near the tail end of the 2nd century.

    There is a good history of the gospels here which goes into the details:

    Here is Irenaeus logic that there can be only 4 gospels:

    It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are, since there are four directions of the world in which we are, and four principal winds...the four living creatures [of Revelation 4.9] symbolize the four Gospels...and there were four principal covenants made with humanity, through Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Christ

    When you consider that Mark, Matthew, and Luke share source material, it is somewhat generous to think of them as 4 separate Gospels. It is also interesting that all of these books were written in Greek, rather than Hebrew. Scolars who have analyzed the gospels have determined that they were not translated from Hebrew by their word choice and structure. The gospels were unknown until 125 AD years after Christ's death, and not by name until 150 AD. Only the most conservate literalist would not question their accuracy since they were not likely written by eye witnesses.

    Some contradictions in the New Testament include:

    • Luke says that Jesus was born at the time of the census of Quirinius which took place in 6 AD, yet Matthew tells us that Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod who died in 4 BC. Did Mary have a 10 year pregnancy?
    • In Matthew Judas hangs himself, in Acts he falls of a cliff and dies.
    • The last words of Jesus are the same in Matthew and Mark, but different Luke and John.
    • In Chapter 9 of Acts we are told that Paul received his vision of light and heard a divine voice on the road to Damascus and that his companions heard the voice but could see no light. In Chapter 21 Paul relates the story again and this time the companions saw the light but heard no voice.
    • The Gospel of Matthew and Luke have differing genealogies.

    The last item is especially interesting. Note that in Matthew's geneology, there are four women who are either prostitutes or adultresses. This is interesting only when one considers the role of prostitution in Greek culture/mythology. Note Plato's story of the Fall of Redemption and Psyche in the "Phaedo" the myth of Aphrodite, Eros & Psyche, Demeter & Persephone. In other words these Sophia myths are full of imagry of prostitution. In the Sophia story, as long as an individual associates with one's ego (a hylic), a person is like a prostitute with many lovers none giving any meaning. As one discovers that ego != self and enters the psychic stage of development, the individual recants and prepares themselves through proper purification rituals for a complete identity with the universal (pneumatic). The individual repents, and becomes like a bride awaiting the "universal" connection which is compared to a bridegroom. When this connection happens, it is referred to as being like a marriage.

    This 3-phase (hylic, psychic, pneumatic) reaching of enlightenment is common in Gnostic teaching, which is also littered with references that correspond to the above mythic story. If you read that Nag Hammadi manuscripts, you will see that such references were quite common in early Christian literature.

    You also find this language used in the New Testament. In fact, you find John the Baptist calling Jesus a bridegroom, Paul mentions the marriage chamber, Jesus tells the story of the prepared and unprepared bridesmaids, and the many prostitues which play important roles in the Jesus story.

    Since a prostitute is a common symbol in the Sophia myth (as an individual before enlightenment), is it just a coincidence that the New Testament (which was written in Greek and possibly by Greeks) makes this connection?

    Mary Magdaline plays such an important role in the New Testament. In fact she is the one who first finds Jesus resurrected! If a former prostitute is a symbol for the Greek concept of wisdom, that is certainly interesting imagry. Imagry that would not be lost on a person familiar with Greek culture (as were many, if not most, early Christiains).

    Paul's Letters

    The early Christian evangelist Paul was from Tarsus, the birthplace of Mithraism. In fact, Paul never mentions a historical Jesus, Jerusalem, or John the Baptist in his writings. He does mention Jesus as a historical personl in his letter to Timothy. However Paul's "pastoral" letters of Timothy 1, Timothy 2, and Titus are questionable since the earliest collections of Paul's letters do not contain them, and the early Eusebus scholor did not include them in his New Testament. See:

    One thing that is remarkable at Paul's letters is that he never refers to Jesus as a historical figure. He almost never quotes Jesus, even to strengthen his own argument. Aside from saying that Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected, he is not mentioned.

    The language that Paul uses to describe Jesus is more typical of the language a Greek person would use to describe any greek god. Osiris/Dionysis also lived, died and was resurrected. Paul's focus is only on these aspects of Jesus' life that make him a similarly mythic figure. It is clear that Jesus' mythic characteristics are his main focus, since that is all he writes about. Paul's writings read more like a Greek person writing about a Greek god than they read like person writing about a person who lived.

    Paul only quotes Jesus once in 1 Corinthians 24-25, and here has Jesus saying the words of the meal mass with almost identical wording to that used by the cult of Mithras in their meal ceremony.

    Many scholors are suspicious that some of the Pastoral letters (as well as 2 Thessalonians and Ephesians) may have been later forgeries, to make Paul's Jesus more in-line with the Gospels. The following links discuss this in detail:

    Celsus

    Celsus' book "On the True Doctorine" was considered so damaging that it was vigorously hunted down and destroyed. It is a book that has been reconstructed through fragments and quotations. Celsus was alive in the late 2nd century and wrote the above book in 178. He is considered one of the greatest thinkers of his day, and was well aware of Christianity and its teachings. He was one of its most vocal and early critics. Many Christian apologies were written to refute him (thus the quotations).

    You can buy the reconstructed "On the True Doctorine" here:

    Gnostic Christianity

    The following page talks about Simon the Samaritan, and that he was a founder of Christian Gnosticism. Bishop Irenaus painted Simon in Acts 7:8 as being the same as the Gnostic religious leader Simon.

    Bishop Irenaus lived from ~135-200, was bishop of Lyons, and considered the "Father of the church" He wrote "Against Heresies" which established Christian doctoring against the Gnostics. If you want to read his "Against Heresies" it is here:

    Bishop Irenaus was the main figure who gave credibility to the four gospels that were accepted at the council of Nicea. He is also the first to mention them.

    The two people who are probably more responsible for the New Testament are Bishop Eusebius and Bishop Irenaus. However, the more you read about them, the more you start to wonder about their motives and their qualifications for making the decisions that they make. The two of them are suspected by scholors for tweaking texts for their own benefit. Eusebius, for example, wrote Constantine's biography. He paints Constantine as perhaps the most holy man who ever lived and neglects to discuss Constantine's murder of his sons, etc. Clearly he was not above selective/inaccurate views of history.

    Info on the Council of Nicea (325):

    Regarding Mary and the Council of Ephesus (431):

    The Nag Hammadi Manuscripts:

    Conclusion

    The early Literalist Timothy wrote the following about the Gnostics:

    They eat whenever they are hungry. They drink when they are thirsty, at any hour of the day, without regard for the proscribed fasts. They spend their time doing nothing and sleeping. In summertime, when night falls, they lie down to sleep in the open air, men and women together, and they say that this is of no consequence.

    Such damning behavior is what caused the Literalists to eradicate Gnosticism.

    To Top

    e-mail
    © 1994-2008 Brian A. Cameron