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PAGAN ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY; AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JESUS Author(s): Paul Carus Source: The Monist, Vol. 12, No. 3 (April, 1902), pp. 416-425 Published by: Hegeler Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27899329 . Accessed: 30/09/2013 22:48
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PAGAN ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY; THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JESUS.

TN CHRISTIANITY

AND

we must distinguish between the underlying thought of a saviour and the belief in Jesus of Nazareth as hav ing been this saviour. The latter is now known under the name of Christianity, but it is ideally and to a great extent at least in Prot based estant countries also actually a Jesuanity, viz., a Church institution on Jesuism, i. e., the personal teachings of Jesus.

The ideas of Christ and Christianity existed before Jesus, and the Christianity of the Church was one form only of Christianity existed is among many others ; and that many other Christianities from the fact of the various Christ-conceptions and Apocryphal offered in both canonical books?not evident tion the innumerable
Hermes Trismegistos,

which

are

to men gods such as

etc., and

pagan

saviours

and

redeemers,
Mithras,

Hercules,

^Esculapius,

men

of Tyana. We must bear inmind that the such as Apollonius are are extant still traditions which only isolated d?bris saved by accident from the general deluge of all non-Christian religions. The term "Christ"

in the sense of Saviour makes its first ap in and the Apocryphal the books in pearance history Septuagint It translates the term Messiah of the Old Testament. and occurs St. Paul (xvii. 36 and xviii. 8). and he too regards the term as applies it to Jesus in his Epistles, a Greek the Anointed translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, twice in the Psalms of Solomon One.
One

Nevertheless,
would be ^pto^cvo?,

the derivation
or Kexpipevo?,

is doubtful,
or xpio-?ci?.

for the*Anointed
The form xpioro?

or xpwrco? is a gerund which

means

"he

who

is about

to be or

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PAGAN

ELEMENTS

OF

CHRISTIANITY.

it cannot very well mean ought to be anointed."1 Consequently the Messiah, but only the one who will become the Messiah. uses the Justin Martyr, of the second century, occasionally form xpiyo-r??for xpwrr?? and alludes ful, the serviceable, Some Now have the good." tried to connect to its significance as "the use

the word Christus with Krishna.

of legends (e. g., the massacre the innocents) and some features of the Krishna birth-festivals were practically identical with legends accepted by the early Chris had reached Syria tians,2 and we must grant that Krishna-worship and Egypt, but there is not the slightest positive evidence in favor of the assumption that the name itself should have been used in the sense of God-man and Saviour, and still less that Krisnos became changed into Christos. We deem the etymology of the word Christ to be an open question.3 The Book of Enoch, the main part of which was probably writ as a man but as a ten about 144 B. C, does not regard the Messiah divine personality, a prince among the angelic host,?one who ranks above all the angels, yet is not quite equal in dignity to God. Jew ish tradition has the conception of such an angel, called Metathron,

it is true that a few Krishna

who which

stands at God's
The Books of

side near his throne to execute His

Ezra propound another

will. to the The

saviour-conception,

is, however,

as little conformable which remained

as

that of Enoch in the end.

Jesus-Christianity

victorious

Jesus-Christianity originated under other conceptions of a messiah through a peculiar combination of definite historical circumstances,
"to rub"; i. e., lightly to touch the surface of a body; verb XPIUV means in the sense of smearing It is commonly used the body with oil, the idea of "rubbing" But as the Greeks were used to do after a bath. is funda "to bedaub." mental. only have as an act of consecration the meaning of anointing The word acquired and it is probable that no one save a Jew would through its use in the Bible, of xp'Leiv translated Messiah by xPLGr^? or any other derivative 2See Prof. A. Weber's article on the Krishna transi, birthday-festival. Engl, Antiquary, of June, October, the word and December, 1877. formation scarcely of details Gebrauch is a solecism Christianus, xPtaTLav^> or Latin before the last decade of the first century. have occurred For see R. A. Lepsius, den Ursprung Ueber the mooted question des Christennamens. 1873. 1 The

n the Indian 3The which further und can

ersten

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4i8

THE

MONIST.

and embodying in itself all those traits of other Christianities which a practical and moral significance, it grew in breadth and possessed was thus enabled to survive. New Testament contains the strangest thing is that the a book with passages based upon a Christ But

that knows nothing of Jesus of Nazareth, nothing of conception on death the of the details the Atonement cross, nothing through of the Jesus-worship preached by Paul, set forth in the four Gos in the sustained and epistles of the various apostles. pels, the New This Christ-conception, utterly incompatible with the Jesus of in the Revelation is contained of St. John, Testament,

chapter xii., which (if viewed from the standpoint of the old and uncritical school of theology) is one of the obscurest passages in the Christian canon. investigations cance of the text. Several recognised passage ceeded in Revelation xii. Recent have thrown much theologians (or rather un-Jesuanic) origin of this But Professor Gunkel has finally suc light on the signifi of the critical school have

the non-Christian

in explaining the significance of these strange traditions. The Saviour is represented in the twelfth chapter of the Reve or anywhere on lation as being born in Heaven (not in Bethlehem a earth), and he is at once attacked by dangerous dragon ; the child is rescued and taken to the throne of God, while the unfortunate The dragon in his wrath is persecuted mother by the monster. and a combat ensues throws down one third of the stars in Heaven, and the dragon. Later on, in the continuation between Michael of the prophecy, which is found in chapter xix., the child reappears as a hero who fulfils the prophecy (chapter xii. 5) that he will gov ern the nations with a rod of iron and found the kingdom of God on the in earth by a most terrible slaughter of the Gentiles. During at to the the is do much Saviour, harm, and dragon liberty fancy of the time of tribulation is near, but the victorious conqueror is ex pected and will at last vanquish the monster of the deep. All attempts to reconcile this picture of the Saviour with that have failed. The woman who is the given of Jesus in the Gospels mother of the Saviour insignia, not as Mary in Heaven adorned with celestial appears of the tribe of Levy and betrothed to Joseph,

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PAGAN

ELEMENTS

OF CHRISTIANITY.

419

but as a deity of Heaven, gies, standing on the moon

like those described in pagan mytholo and crowned with the zodiac, a wreath of the twelve constellations. is mentioned of the Cruci Nothing

fixion, nothing of the. Resurrection, nothing of the preaching of on earth, nothing of the miracles of Jesus, of healing the the Word sick and restoring the dead to life. That the religion of the prophet who wrote the passage in the is not the Christianity of the four twelfth chapter of Revelation is obvious, and we have here the remarkable canonical Gospels of a Christianity which lacks utterly all those sig phenomenon nificant features which characterise the humanity of Jesus and his are apparently confronted in this passage special fate in life. We with one of the relics of a pre-Christian Christianity, such as it ex isted among the pagans with whom the Jews came into contact. Professor Gunkel has proved that the essential features of this pre-Christian Christianity of the twelfth chapter of Revelation But genesis has nothing but a recital of the Marduk myth. eschatology. is applied to the end of all verse. The chaotic conditions suffer and
heaven and

are be

come here

The

report as to the origin of the world things and to the renewal of the uni of the age, inwhich the elect of God triumph, will be reversed and a new
be created, for which the resurrection

the unbelievers
a new earth will

of the dead

is promised and a general restitution assured. The which old channels through the Marduk myth has been transferred to Jewish writers can perhaps no longer be traced back to their sources, but we of God the Persian can plainly recognise Zoroastrian influences and views of the virgin-born saviour who will found the on earth.

to eschatological adapted contemplations. Under the influence of ancient prophecies dating back to the Baby lonian period, and repeated in purified form in the Zoroastrian literature appeared in which writings, a whole flood of apocalyptic the Jews dreamed of a restitution of the Jewish race and a fulfil ment of their national ideals. The oldest of these revelations, set the Daniel, example, and most of them breathed a spirit of bloodthirstiness and revenge. They are written by a race that has

kingdom The

age was well

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420

THE

MONIST.

and persecution; suffered greatly from oppression and the truly Christian spirit is utterly absent in them. This, no doubt, is the reason why in the general competition in of religious ideas which those days moved the world, that form of Christianity which is ex of St. John failed hibited in the twelfth chapter of the Revelation by the other Christianity above, might properly be called Jesuanity. One question remains : How was it possible superseded could be incorporated into the canonical writings tament? The answer seems to be this: First, of the Revelation and was which, as stated

that this chapter of the New Tes

the un-Jesuanic so as to be not of is St. obvious character John to a person reading these chapters or copying at once perceptible them for preservation. They are intermingled with a conglomera tion of other chapters full of mysterious hints and prophecies which The final redactor of the their true significance. in book knew of the existence of Judaistic Christian congregations tend to conceal Asia Minor, character and there can be no doubt about their anti-Pauline ; yet the opposition made to the apostle Paul is not made openly, but indirectly, by allusions which rendered it possible that into the canon, in spite of its anti it could at last be received Gentile tendency. the fate of suppression when an it escaped Being canonised, in the general struggle for re survived other form of Christianity Any one who can judge impartially between ligious supremacy. must confess that this Marduk-Christianity was the two religions in the competition with the nobler, and morally The Marduk-Christ is deeper, Christianity of Jesus the Nazarene. a the of ancient a mythological figure, god Babylonian fairy-tale bound to succumb world, but Jesus of Nazareth There down-trodden martyr. tesque, here it is human to be truly divine. In addition an aspiring, suffering, and the divinity of the conqueror is gro it is truly human, itwas felt ; and because is a man,

Christianity of Babylon, preserved there are Egyptian in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, concep tions of Christ, and even here the name Christ is attested by good
authority.

to the Marduk

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PAGAN

ELEMENTS

OF CHRISTIANITY.

421

and Socrates the Church histo learn through Sozomenes rian, that the cross was used as a prominent symbol (probably the crux ansata, the key of life) in the temples of Serapis, Egyptian and Emperor Hadrian writes in a letter to the Consul Servianus : We
"Those consecrated who worship call Serapis are Christians, the bishops and those who are especially to Serapis themselves of Christ."

in his Diegesis, p. 205, believes that The Rev. Robert Taylor the use of the word Christ is a confusion due to the fear of perse that many Christians, to escape martyrdom, professed to be Serapis worshippers. the case is the reverse. Not But call themselves Serapis worshippers, but Serapis wor Christians The Emperor's expression does shippers claim to be Christians. cution, and not admit the interpretation that the name Christian was disowned, and we have only the choice that either there was a confusion of two religions in the mind of the Emperor, or there was ac a in Egypt who worshipped class of people tually Serapis under the name of Christ. these Serapis is the god of the other world, the life to come. The

as lord of the dead. i. e., the apis as Osiris, and he was worshipped The Serapis form of the ancient Osiris cult was a Hellenised worship introduced by King Ptolemy Soter for the purpose of rec A monastery was con subjects. onciling his Greek and Egyptian as we know from papyri nected with the Serapaeum at Memphis, the spot, and Christian monks adopted some features of the habits of these monks of Serapis. It is certainly not accidental that the institutions of Christian monks originated in Egypt. is a belief in Jesus of Christianity as the faith of the Church as as Nazareth the Christ, land the life of Jesus told in the Gospels has exercised a paramount influence upon the formation of the creed. several of itsmain ideas were added to from Nevertheless, is not pure Jesuism ; Christianity other sources. is Christianity the religious life of the pre-Christian ages focused round the ideal ised figure of Jesus. Jesuism is the dominant factor of Christian ity; but some of the rays collected from other quarters are not merely accessory. Jesus is the center of crystalisation, determin found on

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422

THE

MONIST.

ing the interpretation of the various elements that were assimilated, but some of the more essential thoughts of Christianity are not found in the doctrines dent accretions which minds
the new

of Jesus and must be regarded as indepen on account of their vital importance in the and necessarily were incorporated in

of the people
system.

naturally

such later accretions Among coming from sources of pre are the trinity, the conception of the of Christian dogma religions the sacraments, the incarnation idea, the doctrine of vicarious atonement with its peculiar scheme of salvation. idea of vicarious atonement, which underlies The the sacri as well as Judaism, reappears in the inter ficial cult of Paganism Although Christianity is in a certain pretation of Christ's death. the necessity of human reactionary, in de jure recognising for instead of continuing the sacrifices, it is de facto progressive, to it served abolish bloody sacrifices for good. barbarous practice, the superstition of the ceremonial of the cannibalism on the thought that by eating the flesh of any savage age (based creature or by drinking its blood we partake of the powers of which it is possessed) was revived in Christianity, but it became a Similarly The symbol and obtained a deeper and spiritualisd significance. divinity of the ideal man, representing the civil order and the sense

mere

moral welfare deification

of the community, so vigorously insisted upon in the of the Roman emperor, found expression in the dogma of the God-man Christ. These ideal thoughts assumed a more

aspect under the humaner ethics and the loftier philosophy of the age which rejected the idolatry of the past and began to look upon God as the one deity, the father of all, who with the same love embraces The the noblest as well as the meanest of his creatures. trinity, or rather tri-unity of God, which is nowhere men tioned in the New Testament, was even in its purer forms quite common among the philosophers in the age of Jesus. Thus, for explains the name "Hermes who in Egyptian mythology is Trismegistos," Tpwrp-eywrTo?), ('Ep/M/? the of the He is regarded as the revealer of scribe Thoth, gods. instance, the Chronicon Alexandrinum, divine mysteries and a shepherd or pastor of mankind (iroifLdv&prjs);

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PAGAN

ELEMENTS

OF

CHRISTIANITY.

423

thereupon it proceeds to make the following statement: "Hermes declared that there are three greatest powers (Swa//.i?), but he said that the name of the Ineffable and the world-building God (?rjfiiovp' . yov Oeov) consisted in one divinity. . . Therefore he was called by the Egyptians thrice-greatest Hermes." The thrice-greatest does not mean the triple-greatest, but it indicates a reverence for the number three. The quotation proves, however, that the name Hermes trine of Hermetic Trismegistos literature must be older the trinity doc than the Chronicum and

Alexandrinum, but there is a strong probability that this notion as well as other ideas set forth in the Divine Pymander of Hermes sources. Trismegistos have been derived from ancient Egyptian or 8vva/u? is also used in the New Testa The word "power" ment in connection with Simon Magus whose doctrine of the trin grasp. ity is remarkable for its purity and philosophical The doctrine of the God-child Hor, who was worshipped as a saviour and as a promise of resurrection inEgypt, is very near to conception of God the Son. Nothing was absolutely new in Christianity, yet the whole set ting was original, and in this new synthesis the traditional religions were
practical

the Christian

purified and
application,

their barbarous
abolished.

features were,
The more we

at least in their
consider the con

the better we shall understand of mankind, that the most of and effective ancient rites such as way simplest abolishing atonement by blood, was by granting their propriety for the past, servatism by claiming them to be fulfilled, and thus abolishing without denying their justice. them for good,

In spite of the great progress which Christianity denotes in history, we cannot fail to see that early Christianity was by no means so ideal as it appears to the Christian romancer, for on the contrary, early Christianity contains many superstitious notions which cannot be reconciled with its great humanitarian and univer salis?e ideals that form the leaven in the dough of mankind. important idea of Christianity is the belief in the immortality of the soul, and here we must observe the noteworthy fact that this doctrine is glaringly absent in the Old Testament. But the most

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424

THE

MONIST.

canon contains many traditions, notions, the Hebrew Although and beliefs which can be traced to pagan sources, be it in Egypt or inMesopotamia, contrast between the spirit there is a decided of the Old Testament the second and nians and other nations. the religious literature of the Babylo The Hebrew prophets and the priests of

temple are iconoclastic monotheists and haters of myth in any form. Thus, they have rationalised the creation myth, the fight with the dragon, the legends of Samas the story of Marduk's sun-god, changing him into a hero and a judge called Samson, etc. ; and in doing this they passed over in silence the belief in im mortality, or, wherever it is alluded to, we can still recognise un mistakable
death.

hints

condemning

the pagan

conception

of life after

to the belief in immortality by made is1 The objection which seems strange to us, authors of the Old Testament the canonical the custom of reading the Hebrew Scriptures who have acquired in the light of the New Testament lief in immortality is the keystone
stand the situation better when we

among which the be of religion. But we shall under doctrines,

consider the intimate connexion

with the wor in immortality among the Babylonians forTammuz was a kind and Istar. The wailing ship of Tammuz the bereaved for a restoration of of All Souls' day, and the hope of of the belief upon myths and celebrated with idolatrous incantations (probably after the fashion of modern to the sober and rationalist mediums) which were an abomination their beloved dead based
Yahvist.1

to life was

the Jewish policy of ignoring Christianity not only abandoned restoration of the problem of immortality, but denotes a decided new a form. in and beliefs pagan higher Christianity spread over Syria, the religious ceremony of and rejoicings for his revival lamentation for the death of Tammuz wer? changed into Christian festivals, viz., into the lamentation on When Good into a Friday for the death of Christ and on other occasions The old of the death and resurrection of Lazarus. celebration
1See the author's in The article Open 14 The Babylonian 1901, pp. and Hebrew Views of Man's Fate

After Death"

Court,

346-366.

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pagan

elements

of

christianity.

425

pagan belief and even the story itself continued in the imagination of the people, but under different names. in the fur ideas were critically revised and chastened Pagan nace of Jewish monotheism, and the result was Christianity. Thus the saying of St. Augustine remains true that Christianity, the new the Roman Empire and religion that so suddenly conquered crowded out Greek and Roman mythology, was, after all, an an

were abandoned other Christ-conceptions and doomed to ob of Tammuz, livion. The myths of Marduk, of Thoth, of Osiris, the god-son, and further of the great mother of life, the of Horus and other pagan stories, are products of deep of Heaven, Queen human sentiments. They are as significant as is the awe inspired idea the of the of the world, the yearning for life im creation by But literal belief in the mortal, the respect for das ewig Weibliche. to and led which needed constant aberrations superstition myth All
purification. Thus the Judaistic suppression of these rituals is as

the world, first through the Apostle Paul and then in the shape in which itwas presented in theGospels. It rejected everything that collided with its essential doctrines, but assimilated freelywhatever could be reconciled with the teachings of Jesus. Jesus being a historical fact and a human saviour, a suffering man and flesh of our flesh, was finally recognised as the only Christ.

cient institution which had existed from time immemorial. There are many indications of a fierce struggle between the several forms of Christianity, but the result was no accident. The as soon as it became known in Jesus-Christianity proved victorious

much justified as is the broader spirit of reinstating them. The rise of Christianity in Judaea may very well be regarded as a reac tion, for it is practically the restoration of the most essential pagan beliefs in a new and monotheistic form. Considering the power of the hope of immortality and the fascination of the more poetic forms of pagan worship, we believe it was an inevitable phase in the But Christianity, history of the religious evolution of mankind. was it nourished which their roots in have although by aspirations pagan soil, is not a mere reversion to paganism ; it is after all a new epoch in the history of mankind. it contains ingre Though dients which can be traced back to the traditions of a hoary an ; and the event which be tiquity, it is a distinctly new movement comes its center and dominating factor, constituting its originality, is the life of Jesus.

Editor.

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