Gods - 6 Dying & Rising Mythical Gods

Jesus was a dying & rising God similar to Pagan Gods before him?

Jesus Mythicism (or 'Jesus Myth Theory') is the belief that Jesus Christ had no historical existence. If he did exist, he had no involvement in the founding of modern Christianity.

Was Jesus just another pagan God, modelled on previously worshipped dying and rising pagan Gods?

Dying & Rising Gods

They are saviour gods
They are a son of God (or daughter), but subordinate to God
They undergo a passion (or suffering)
They obtain victory over death, which they share with their followers through baptism, sacred meal etc.
There stories are known amongst earthly men
They are all invented myths. None of them actually existed.

The table below lists five dying & rising Gods.

1. Osiris
Pagan God Osiris is an Egyptian god, identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead, but more appropriately as the god of transition, resurrection and regeneration. Osiris was widely worshipped until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. W Osiris Dying & Rising God The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death. As Osiris rose from the dead, they would unite with him, and inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile. Family Osiris was the eldest son of the god Geb, though other sources state his father is the sun-god Ra, and sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his begotten son. Period The first evidence of the worship of Osiris was found in the middle of the 5th Dynasty of Egypt (2513-2374 BC).
2. Adonis
Pagan God In Greek mythology, Adonis was the god of beauty and desire. Originally, he was a god worshipped in the area of Phoenicia (modern – day Lebanon), but was later adopted by the Greeks. W Adonis Dying & Rising God Adonis died when he was attacked by a wild boar that was sent by Ares, as he was the lover of Aphrodite. When he died, Aphrodite poured nectar over his blood, and the flower anemone emerged. In 20th century scholarship of religion, Adonis was widely seen as a prime example of the archetypal dying-and-rising god. Family Adonis was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite in Greek mythology. In Ovid's first-century AD telling of the myth, he was conceived after Aphrodite cursed his mother Myrrha to lust after her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus. Myrrha had sex with her father in complete darkness for nine nights, but he discovered her identity and chased her with a sword. Period The earliest known Greek reference to Adonis comes from a fragment of a poem by the Lesbian poetess Sappho, dating to the 7th century BC.
3. Romulus
Pagan God Romulus, the Savior-God of Rome whose worshipers could be found throughout the Roman sphere of influence. Romulus' mythology followed a general oft-repeated theme throughout the Mediterranean and Near East; that of a dying and rising savior-deity. W Romulus Dying & Rising God Romulus appeared to Julius Proculus and proclaimed: "It pleased the gods, O Proculus, that we [half-gods], who come from them, should remain so long a time amongst men as we did; and having built a city to be the greatest in the world for empire and glory, should return again to heaven "- Life of Romulus. The date of July 7th (the Nones of July) was established as a date of worship in celebration of Romulus' formal rise to godhood. Family Ovid gives a description of the deification of Romulus and his wife Hersilia, who are given the new names of Quirinus and Hora respectively. Mars, the father of Romulus, is given permission by Jupiter to bring his son up to Olympus to live with the Olympians. Period Several ancient sources record the mythology of Romulus such as the writings of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Quintus Aelius Tubero, Diocles of Peparethus and Fabius Pictor in the 1st century BC.
4. Zalmoxis
Pagan God Zamolxis was the Supreme God of the Getae (or Dacians), a Thracian people inhabiting a territory including today's Romania, but also extending farther cast and northeast. The scholars have interpreted Zamolxis as a Sky-god, a god of the dead and a mystery-god. W Zalmoxis Dying & Rising God Similar to other myths, one version has Zalmoxis as a Christ-like figure who dies and is resurrected. This position was defended by Jean (Ioan) Coman, a professor of patristics and Orthodox priest in the 1930s. Strabo (63 BC-21 AD) in his work 'The Geography': "At first he [Zalmoxis] was only made a priest of the god who was most honoured in their country, yet after a while he [Zalmoxis] was given the title of god, spending his life in a cave only he had the right to enter". Family Zalmoxis was a slave of Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, on the island of Samos. After being liberated, he gathered huge wealth and, once rich, went back to his homeland. Zalmoxis had lived among the wisest of Greeks, such as Pythagoras. Period It is difficult to define the time when a cult to Zalmoxis may have existed. It is only certain that it antecedes Herodotus. Zalmoxis is a supposed divinity of the Getae and Dacians (a people of the lower Danube), mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories Book IV, 93-96, written before 425 BC.
5. Inanna
Pagan God Inanna was the ancient Sumerian goddess of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, combat, justice, and political power. She was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians under the name Ishtar. W Inanna Dying & Rising God Inanna was associated with the planet Venus as "the morning and evening star". Theology professor Jeffrey Cooley argued, Inanna may correspond with the movements of the planet Venus in the sky. The planet Venus appears to make a similar descent, setting in the West and then rising again in the East. Family As Inanna-Ishtar became more prominent, several lesser deities were assimilated into her, including Aya (wife of Utu), Anatu (a Semitic warrior goddess), Anunitu (an Akkadian light goddess), Agasayam (warrior goddess), Irnini (goddess of cedar forests in the Lebanese mountains), Kilili (symbol of desirable women), Sahirtu (messenger of lovers), Kir-gu-lu (bringer of rain) and Sarbanda (personification of sovereignty). Period Inanna was worshipped in Sumer at least as early as the Uruk period (c. 4000 BC-3100 BC).
6. Jesus Christ
Pagan God It is unlikely the authors of Mark, Matthew, Luke or John based their writings on pagan God mythology. However, they may have copied popular Greek stories and myths prevalent at the time, i.e. miracles of Asclepius, god of healing and medicine. W Jesus Dying & Rising God In Matthew 12:40, Jesus said he would be in the grave 3 days and 3 nights. Christians observe Good Friday at Jesus' dying and Easter Sunday as his rising up or resurrection. The concept of a dying-and-rising god was first proposed in comparative mythology by James Frazer's seminal The Golden Bough. Frazer associated the motif with fertility rites surrounding the yearly cycle of vegetation. Frazer cited the examples of Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, Dionysus and Jesus Christ. Frazer, quoted in Mettinger 2001:18, cited after Garry and El-Shamy, p. 19 Family The New Testament describes James, Joseph (Joses), Judas (Jude), and Simon as brothers of Jesus. Also mentioned, but not named, are sisters of Jesus. Period The majority of New Testament scholars place Jesus' birth in 4 BC or before. The crucifixion of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely between 30 and 33 AD (4 BC-33 AD)

Mythicist Viewpoint

Today, it is acknowledged that Osiris, Adonis, Romulus, Zalmoxis, or Inanna never existed. They are invented myths. Why is Jesus Christ any different given the similar narratives of dying, rising, salvation and resurrection?

The 'Muslim' Jesus

Islam teaches that Yeshua was a righteous Jewish prophet who claimed to be a Prophet sent by God ('the Father').

Many years after Yeshua's crucifixion, the Roman authorities invented a fictitious diety, namely Jesus Christ, who was a replacement for the historical Yeshua.

Jesus Christ was elevated to the status of God ('the Father'), and thereafter worshiped as a God.

CREDIT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying-and-rising_deity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_comparative_mythology
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/13890
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Christ_myth_theory
https://discoveringancienthistory.wordpress.com/2017/01/15/romulus-the-savior-god-of-rome/

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