CHRISTIANITY – PAGAN MYTH

By Hugh Fogelman

Many parts of the Jesus story are not based on Yeishu or ben Stada. Most Christian denominations claim or celebrate that Jesus was born on 25 December.

Originally the eastern Christians believed that he was born on the 6^th of January. The Armenian Christians still follow this early belief while most Christians consider this date to be the visit of the Magi.

Jesus was probably confused with Tammuz born of the virgin Myrrha. We know that in Roman times, the gods Tammuz, Aion and Osiris were known.

Osiris-Aion was said to be born of the virgin Egyptian goddess Isis on the 6^th of January. Isis was sometimes represented as a sacred cow and her temple as a stable, which may provide the origin of the Christian belief that Jesus was born in a stable.

Although some might find this claim to be farfetched, some early Christian sects identified Jesus and Osiris in their writings.

The date of 25^th of December―Christmas―was originally the pagan birthday of the sun god, whose day of the week is still known as Sunday. The halo of light which is usually shown surrounding the face of Jesus and Christian saints, is another concept taken from the sun god.

The theme of temptation by a devil-like creature was also found in pagan mythology. In particular the story of Jesus' temptation by Satan resembles the temptation of Osiris by the devil-god Set in Egyptian mythology.

There was also a connection between Jesus and the pagan god Dionysus. Like Dionysus, the infant Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger; like Dionysus, Jesus could turn water into wine; like Dionysus, Jesus rode on an ass and fed a multitude in the wilderness; like Dionysus, Jesus suffered and was mocked.

Some early Christians claimed that Jesus had in fact been born, not in a stable, but in a cave―just like Dionysus

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