Pagan Elements in Christianity

[Ronin Truth]

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To what degree is Christianity a pagan religion? Ninety percent? The answer depends on what we mean by 'pagan', as pagans are of various kinds. Consider these elements - they are pagan:
​

Banquets ◕ Baptism ◕ Brotherhood ◕ Confession of sins ◕ Die and subsequently resurrect ◕ Early-morning ceremonies ◕ Fasting ◕ Imagery like the voyage of life, the ship, the anchor, and the port of religion ◕ Madonna and child (Hail mary, mother Isis in disguise, Isis and her son suckling her breast.) ◕ New names for the initiates ◕ Pastoral themes ◕ Pilgrimages ◕ Red cap, garment and ring ◕ Sacred marriage ◕ Shepherds and shepherdesses ◕ Shepherd's staff ◕ Speaking in tongues ◕ Statues ◕ The assembly (ekklesia) of the mystai ◕ The statue of the good shepherd carrying his lost sheep ◕ The title Father ◕ Theology of grace ◕ Vigils ◕ Water turned into wine.
Pagans ideas and representations were taken up

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Key pagan elements of the Roman Empire are included in Christian ceremonialism and made regular use of. Many so-called Christian "things" like ideas, signs, symbols and ceremonies have such an origin. They were taken up from other religions then.

The word 'pagan' holds wide and varied meanings. Not all of them suit a handed-over, conform Christian lifestyle full well, but surprisingly many do (below), and such stolen, pagan parts hold no strong, negative charges for devout Christians. Paganism plagiarism


The word 'pagan' comes from Latin, country dweller, from pagus, country district. In our culture pagan means heathen; a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome), or it may have to do with ancient religious beliefs; one who has little or no religion; one who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods (Merriam-Webster).

The Belgian historian, philologist and archaeologist Franz Cumont (1868-1947) thinks that Christianity has borrowed iconographic themes from Mithraism, pointing out that Mithraic images of the Heavens, the Earth, the Ocean, the Sun, the Moon, the Planets, signs of the Zodiac, the Winds, the Seasons, and the Elements are found on Christian sarcophagi, mosaics, and miniatures from the third to the fifth centuries. Such images were incorporated into Christian artworks he says further: "A few alterations in costume and attitude transformed a pagan scene into a Christian picture".

A. Derman maintains that it works well to look for large patterns of comparison: "with this method, pure coincidences can no longer be used and so the recognition of Mithras as the privileged pagan inspirer of medieval Christian iconography is forced upon us." [Derman, A. (1971). in Hinnells, John R.: "Mithras and Christ: Some Iconographical Similarities", in Mithraic Studies, vol. 2. Manchester University Press. pp. 510-7.] The Mithraism of Christians

1. The Mithraic Holy father wore a red cap and garment and a ring, and carried a shepherd's staff - The Pope wears a red cap and garment and a ring and carries a shepherds staff.
2. Priests of Mithraism bore the title Father. Catholic priests bear the title Father - despite "And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven (Matthew 23:9)."
3. Speaking in tongues is a feature of ancient religions too, and not exclusively Christian.

You may perhaps "have it all" outside Christianity if you will, but do not look crank for it, to avoid being scapegoated. You can be a good human being all the same and delight in material pleasures - that could very well develop into a religion, and a life-style. Epicureans did it. And you can be a bad and vindictive Christian, or a faker who ritually and uncleanly hails poverty, but strives to get rich above it. In fact, being a Christian is always being bad, says the gospel: It means being an ill sheep of a sinner, Jesus tells, and he should know:

Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick . . . I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." [Matthew 9:12-13]​

The Christian is an "ill sheep", then, on the word of Jesus. The question is how ill he or she is, and what to do about it. The comparison with sheep is from his mouth too; he called himself a good shepherd and asked Peter to feed and lead his flock and so on. To be a flock animal is hardly much to be proud of and pompously vein about either, for, as he said, an adult human should be worth more than many sheep. "How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!" said Jesus [Matthew 12:12]. One should adjust accordingly, minding there are depraved two-legged ones around too. The early Buddhist teaching poem Dhammapada tells it is wise to avoid (much) contact with fools. "If a man does not see fools, he will be truly happy. He who walks in the company of fools suffers a long way". [v 206-7]

A bleating, ill sheep does hardly object to scapegoating, butchering of innocents, and very much else we do not like to write about. Now, let us turn elsewhere and see just what links there are between paganism and early Christian ritual and theology. [/TD]
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Worship of the Sun and Similar


Rudolf Steiner and his Anthroposophy hold that the sun is Christ. "Super-sensible knowledge can transform the material universe into spirit before the eye of the soul, transform it in such a way that the sun at midnight becomes visible and is known in its spiritual nature. Such knowledge brings understanding of the super-earthly Christ Being, the Sun Being," says Steiner in The Festivals and Their Meaning, chap. 7.

A memorable episode from the Norse shows how Christ was linked to the sun somehow there too, and for the sake of propagation too. A local leader, Dale-Gudbrand, says:

"Him whom you speak about . . Do you call him God, whom neither you nor any one else can see? But we have a god who can be seen every day, although he is not out today, because the weather is wet, and he will appear to you terrible and very grand; and I expect that fear will mix with your very blood when he comes into the Thing [assembly of freemen]."

In the evening the king asked Gudbrand's son what their god was like. He replied that he looked like Thor [the Norse god of thunder]; had a hammer in his hand; was of great size, but hollow within; and had a high stand, on which he stood when he was out. "Neither gold nor silver are wanting about him, and every day he receives four cakes of bread, besides meat."

At the Thing a man said, "Many things we are told of by this horned man [bishop] with the staff in his hand crooked at the top like a ram's horn."

Later, on the Thing-field; on the one side of it sat the bondes, and on the other the king and his people. Dale-Gudbrand stood up and said, "Where now, king, is your god? I think he will now carry his head lower; and neither you, nor the man with the horn whom you call bishop, and sits there beside you, are so bold today as on the former days; for now our god, who rules over all, is come, and looks on you with an angry eye; and now I see well enough that you are terrified, and scarcely dare to raise your eyes. Throw away now all your opposition, and believe in the god who has all your fate in his hands."

The king now whispers to Kolbein Sterke [the strong], without the bondes perceiving it, "If it come so in the course of my speech that the bondes look another way than towards their idol, strike him as hard as you can with your club."

The king then stood up and spoke. "Much have you talked to us this morning, and greatly have you wondered that you can not see our God; but we expect that he will soon come to us. You wouldst frighten us with your god, who is both blind and deaf, and can neither save himself nor others, and cannot even move about without being carried; but now I expect it will be but a short time before he meets his fate: for turn your eyes towards the east, – behold our God advancing in great light."

The sun was rising, and all turned to look. At that moment Kolbein gave their god a stroke. The idol burst asunder; and there ran out of it mice as big almost as cats, and reptiles, and adders."

The king rose up and said, "You see yourselves what your god can do, – the idol you adorned with gold and silver, and brought meat and provisions to. You see now that the protecting powers who used it were the mice and adders, reptiles and paddocks; and they do ill who trust to such and will not abandon this folly. Take now your gold and ornaments that are lying strewed about on the grass, and give them to your wives and daughters. And either accept Christianity, or fight this very day."

Then Dale-Gudbrand stood up and said, "We have sustained great damage on our god; but since he will not help us, we will believe in the God you believe in."

Then all received Christianity. The bishop baptized, and they who met as enemies parted as friends; and Gudbrand built a church in the valley.
[Excerpts from the Saga of Olaf Haraldson, chaps 118, 119: Link]
​

Sun god-worship is pagan, and the height of Syrian influence in the Roman Empire was in the 200s AD when the Syrian sun god was on the verge of becoming the chief god there. He was introduced into Rome in about AD 220, and by about AD 240 Pythian Games (i.e., festivals of the sun god Apollo Helios) were instituted in many cities of the Empire. The emperor Aurelian (270–275) elevated the sun god to the highest rank among the gods of Romans. Sanctuaries of the Sun and the gods of other planets (septizonium) were constructed. Also, the greatest of all Roman festivals was held on December 24–25, in honour of the Sun, at the time of the winter solstice, for from this date the length of the day began to increase. It was regarded as the day of the rebirth of the god. Emperor Constantine the Great, some 50 years later than Aurelius, wavered between the Sun and Christ. Finally, Christianity was accepted as the official religion, and since none at the time knew when Jesus was born, he was just given the Sun's birthday by an emperor decree. Pagan religions were subsequently given hard times. At least one battle was fought in the Roman Empire for paganism, fought and lost. In paganism thoughts and ceremonies were blended


But beforehand, early Christianity had picked up key elements we find in pagan religions during the Roman Empire. There were a lot of cults and pagan cults there, and its many mystery religions in the Roman Empire were rather loosely organised. However, Egyptians and Greeks had a very strong influence.
The Greek had blended many religious elements before the Romans, and Romans incorporated them, at times with different names of gods. In the Timaeus, which is an exposition of his theory of the universe, Plato also developed his theory of the soul. Beyond the sphere of the fixed stars is the realm of the divine. The sphere of the fixed stars, moved by the divine, continuously turns. The original home of each soul is in one of the fixed stars.
Plato was influenced by the Pythagoreans, who invested music, geometry, and astronomy with religious values, and who found a hidden religious or philosophical meaning behind mythical tales of the Greek. And Pythagoras was heavily influenced from Egyptian material (Naess). The Cult of Isis


The most popular of the Oriental mysteries was the cult of Isis. She and her son Horus were regarded by the Egyptians as the perfect mother and son; Isis gave her child shelter and protection. The Isis cult was already in vogue at Rome in the time of the emperor Augustus, where Isis was taken to be the goddess of love. Initiation ceremonies usually mimed death and resurrection.

Before initiation, a confession of sins was expected. The candidate sometimes told at length the story of the faults of his life up to the point of his baptism, which was commonly a part of the initiation ceremony, and the community of devotees listened to the confession. It was believed that the rite of baptism would wash away all the candidate's sins, and, from that point on, his life would be changed for the better, because he had enrolled himself in the service of the saviour god. [Ebu, s.v. "mystery religion". Emphasis added]​

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[TD]Isis giving milk to Horus. Egyptian art.
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Many forms of initiation were imitations of being victims, beheaded, mutilated, and so on. And in the Dionysus and Isis mysteries, initiation could be accomplished by a "sacred marriage," a sacral copulation (Paul writes about something similar in 1 Corinthians 7:13-14).
The ceremonies always contained a prayer for the welfare of the emperor. Many seasonal festivals were inherited from old tribal ceremonies that had been closely associated with the sowing and reaping of corn and with the production of wine. Dionysiac festivals were held in all four seasons; vintage and tasting of the new wine were the most important occasions. But the religion of Dionysus was closely associated with that of Demeter, and, thus, sowing and reaping were also celebrated in Dionysiac festivals. In the religion of the Great Mother, a hilarious spring festival celebrating the renewal of life, was enacted in Rome. [TABLE="class: floatLeft"]
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The religions of Dionysus and Demeter and of Isis and the Great Mother had something of an ecclesiastical year.
The festivals of the Isis religion were connected with the three Egyptian seasons caused by the cycle of the Nile River (inundation, sowing, and reaping). There were initiation ceremonies, banquets, and dances.
Some treatises


The Egyptian god Thoth was the reputed author of treatises that have been preserved. The Greeks identified Thoth with their god Hermes and termed him "Thoth, the thrice great" (Hermes Trismegistos). Thoth was the scribe, interpreter, and adviser of the gods, the inventor of writing, and the patron of all the arts dependent on writing. Animals associated with Thoth were the ibis and the baboon. These treatises are not exactly mystery texts, but they are works of revelation on occult subjects and on theology. [Ebu "Thoth"]

The pagan mysteries had no official creed, each congregation of initiates was free to construct and change a theology of its own. The Hermetic writings were attempts to provide a theology for a particular community. The Hermetic treatises give an instructive picture of spiritual life in mystery communities.

Chaldean Oracles had great influence on the Neoplatonists.

One of the central subjects in mystery writings was cosmogony – the theory of the origin or creation of the world. In the Hermetic treatises, in the Chaldean Oracles, and in the little known writings of Mithraism, the cosmogony was modelled after Plato's Timaeus, and it always dealt with the creation of the soul and with the soul's subsequent fate. "The Highest God"


Formulated by Zoroaster, a 7th-century Iranian prophet: Who could have created the heavens and the stars, the sun and the moon, except God? Who could have made wind, water, fire, and earth (the elements), the seasons of the year, the crops, the animals, and man, except God? Later Christian theological discussions focused on these subjects too.

The highest god of the religion (for example, Sarapis in the Isis Mysteries) stood far above the stars and was their master. A man who decided to become a servant of this god stepped out of the circle of determination and entered into the sphere of liberty. The god could suspend determination, because he ruled over the stars; he could unravel the threads of the Moirai (the three spinners of fate); he could save his servant from illness and prolong his life, even against the will of fate. In the Isis Mysteries there was a theology of grace foreshadowing Christian doctrine.

Henotheism abounded: Isis was the essence of all pagan goddesses; Sarapis was the name uniting the gods Zeus, Pluto, Dionysus, Asclepius, Helios, and even the Jewish god YHWH (Yahweh). In the religion of Sol, an elaborate syncretistic theology was developed to show that all known gods of all nations were nothing but provisional names for the sun god.

Jesus took over the place of the sun god among Romans, getting the sun's celebration day as the arbitrarily fixed birthday of Jesus, by Caesar's decree. Also, the portrayal of Jesus gradually changed from a shepherd carrying a sheep to an emperor-like, tough, enthroned figure. One may say Christianity came to take over key elements of the Roman Emperor worship too, by presenting Jesus increasingly as a pantrocrator, world ruler. And this way of presenting Jesus has been the most common one in the Orthodox Church to this day. And in Roman times the key Christian symbol was changed from a P (for fish) into a cross of various shapes too. The cross is not original. Other Notable Elements


The Temple of Sarapis (the Sarapeum) at Alexandria was a huge construction.
The use of water ("clowning drowning") was such an important element in most of the mystery rites.
Note the Dionysiac miracle of water turned into wine.

Many statues were exhibited in the temples and shrines of the mystery gods. They were usually executed in the traditional Greek style. In the sanctuary of Isis and Sarapis at Thessalonica (modern Thessaloníki), in northern Greece, there were statues of a whole series of Greek goddesses, each of whom was identified with Isis in one way or another to show that the Egyptian goddess was the essence and synthesis of Greek religion. Compare the Hail Mary - a Mother Isis in disguise - of the Catholic Church. Its elements correspond to the more ancient Isis worship.

In the 4th century BC the sculptor Bryaxis created a famous colossal statue of Sarapis in the temple at Alexandria. It represented the god – as a combination of the Greek gods Zeus (the father of the gods), Hades, and Dionysus – seated upon a throne, with Cerberus, the three-headed monster, beside him. An interesting statuette found at Cyrene (modern Libya) shows a female initiate of Isis. The woman is wrapped from feet to waist like a mummy; but the upper part of her body is free, and she is wearing the crown of Isis on her head. The statue thus showed how an initiate would first die and subsequently resurrect in triumph during the ceremony. Many terra-cotta statues of Isis and her son Horus have survived from Roman Egypt; they are similar to the later statues of the Christian Madonna and Child.

The Dionysiac reliefs are numerous. They show symbols of the religion, such as the shepherd's staff, the winnow (an ancient device for separating chaff from grain, and an implement of purification), the phallus, and the oyster (which had to be liberated from the shell during festive meals as the soul from the body); they depict the gay life of satyrs and maenads, shepherds and shepherdesses; and they represent the "golden age" of the gods with tame and wild animals enjoying a peace that the god had instituted (much as the idea of heaven on earth of Christianity and Judaism)
Mystery Religions and Christianity more Specifically


Merkelbach writes that "Christianity originated during the time of the Roman Empire, which was also the time at which the mysteries reached their height of popularity." The striking similarities between the mystery religions and Christianity can be explained by parallel developments from similar origins, as well as a counterpart to grand theft. In both cases, ritualistic religions were transformed along similar lines: from national to ecumenical religion, from ritualistic ceremonies and taboos to spiritual doctrines and ideas of revelation.

The ideas of Greek philosophy penetrated everywhere. Merkelbach writes:

The mystery religions and Christianity had many similar features - e.g., a time of preparation before initiation and periods of fasting; baptism and banquets; vigils and early-morning ceremonies; pilgrimages and new names for the initiates. The purity demanded in the worship of Sol (the Sun) and in the Chaldean fire rites was similar to Christian standards. The first Christian communities resembled the mystery communities in big cities and seaports by providing social security and the feeling of brotherhood. In the Christian congregations of the first two centuries, the variety of rites and creeds was almost as great as in the mystery communities; few of the early Christian congregations could have been called orthodox according to later standards. The date of Christmas was purposely fixed on December 25 to push into the background the great festival of the sun god, and Epiphany on January 6 ("Orthodox Christmas") to supplant an Egyptian festival of the same day. The Easter ceremonies rivalled the pagan spring festivals. The religious art of the Christians continued the pagan art of the preceding generations. The Christian representations of the Madonna and child are clearly the continuation of the representations of Isis and her son suckling her breast. The statue of the Good Shepherd carrying his lost sheep and the pastoral themes on Christian sarcophagi were also taken over from pagan craftsmanship. [Emphasis added]​

In theology the differences between early Christians, Gnostics and pagan Hermetists were slight. In the large Gnostic library discovered at Nag Hammadi, in upper Egypt, in 1945, Hermetic writings were found side-by-side with Christian Gnostic texts. The doctrine of the soul taught in Gnostic communities was almost identical to that taught in the mysteries: the soul emanated from the Father, fell into the body, and had to return to its former home. The Greeks interpreted the national religions of the Greek Orient chiefly in terms of Plato's philosophical and religious concepts. Interpretation in Platonic concepts was also the means by which the Judeo-Christian set of creeds was thoroughly assimilated to Greek ideas by the early Christian thinkers Clement of Alexandria and Origen. Thus, the religions had a common conceptual framework. The doctrinal similarity is exemplified in the case of the pagan writer and philosopher Synesius. The people of Cyrene selected him as the most able man of the city to be their bishop, and he was able to accept the election without sacrificing his intellectual honesty. In his pagan period he wrote hymns that closely follow the fire theology of the Chaldean Oracles; later he wrote hymns to Christ. The doctrine is almost identical.

The similarity of the religious vocabulary is also great. Mystery religions adopted many expressions from domains of Greek life: they spoke of the assembly (ekklesia) of the mystai; the voyage of life; the ship, the anchor, and the port of religion; and the wreath of the initiate; life was a stage and man the actor. The Christians took over the entire terminology; but many pagan words were strangely twisted: the service of the state (leitourgia) became the ritual, or liturgy, of the church; the decree of the assembly and the opinions of the philosophers (dogma) became the fixed doctrine of Christianity.

There are differences between Christianity outlets today.

Crushed

History belongs to the versions of victors.
​

The mysteries declined quickly when the emperor Constantine raised Christianity to the status of the state religion and the pagan religions were prohibited. The capital of the Empire was transferred to the new Christian city of Constantinople, while in Rome the old aristocracy clung to the mysteries, and Alexandria, where the pagan Neoplatonist philosophers expounded the mystery doctrines.
Remnants of the mystery doctrines, amalgamated with Platonism, were transmitted by a few philosophers and individualists. [/TD]
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Parts of this article is rooted in an informative article by Reinhold Merkelbach: [Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. "mystery religion"].
General texts on the subject include James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., 12 vol. (1911–15, reprinted 1990), also available on-line.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2010 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2010. Næss, Arne. Filosofiens historie, bd 1. 5. utg. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1976.

Steiner, Rudolf. The Festivals and Their Meaning: I. Christmas, Chap. 7, "The Revelation of the Cosmic Christ". Basle, 26 December 1921. GA 0202. Online http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Christmas/19211226a01.html

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http://oaks.nvg.org/ap3.html

 

[Natural Citizen]

dp

 

[Natural Citizen]

Well, that sure is a lot to read. Hm. Do I or don't I....

What do you think about it, Ronan? Are there Pagan elements in Christianity?

 

[heavenlyboy34]

/epic facepalm. To believe the OP, you would have to ignore every credentialed secular and religious historian and philosopher who have seriously written about this subject. Was the OP part of the Zeitgeist movement? I highly doubt any real scholar of any relgious/atheist denomination/sect would take that site seriously.

 

[RJB]

I did a quick read, but they talk of cultural (ie. clothing and art), literary (ie. comparing Christ to the sun as a metaphor), linguistics (ie. the Greek root word for liturgy) influences from different civilizations outside of worship. A lot of it is a stretch at best. It doesn't replace the teaching of Christ, the ancient prophecies from the Old Testament, or the sacrifice on the cross.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Zeitgeist movement?

Jiminy Crickets. There you go with that zeitgeist stuff again.

Why not point us to these credentialed secular and religious historian and philosophical fellers who have seriously written about this subject?

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Jiminy Crickets. There you go with that zeitgeist stuff again.

Why not point us to these credentialed secular and religious historian and philosophical fellers who have seriously written about this subject?

For starters, Amy-Jill Levine. Pretty much every humanities department in every university has scholars who dedicate themselves to the subject. I've never heard of one who comes up with the bizarre results you do.

If your source/inspiration isn't Zeitgeist, who else would feed you such absurd and just bad (by any standard) information?

 

[Ronin Truth]

Well, that sure is a lot to read. Hm. Do I or don't I....

What do you think about it, Ronan? Are there Pagan elements in Christianity?

Absitively, the Romans had to find some ways and means to convert their Roman (pagan) brethren.

 

[Ronin Truth]

/epic facepalm. To believe the OP, you would have to ignore every credentialed secular and religious historian and philosopher who have seriously written about this subject. Was the OP part of the Zeitgeist movement? I highly doubt any real scholar of any relgious/atheist denomination/sect would take that site seriously.

Was Jesus born on December 25th?

 

[erowe1]

Why do you call these things pagan?

 

[Natural Citizen]

Was Jesus born on December 25th?

Well. I'll tell you my opinion. The entire Birth sequence is based upon the ancients understanding of the cosmos. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Especially since i can see the phenomenon repeat itself every year. Once you threw in Plato and Aristotle and that bunch we saw them divorce the Heavens from the Earth and proceed to guide society to accept a tyrannical governing body . Essentially slavery mentality and a willingness to strive for that lifestyle to boot. Whatever though. That's my two cents.

 

[Ronin Truth]

Why do you call these things pagan?

Mainly because they have NOTHING to do with Jesus of Nazareth, and everything to do with Roman Empire (pagan).

 

[erowe1]

Mainly because they have NOTHING to do with Jesus of Nazareth, and everything to do with Roman Empire (pagan).

Jesus of Nazareth turning water into wine has nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth?

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Was Jesus born on December 25th?

We don't know the exact date of Yeshua's birth. We know that it was likely in the spring, as Mary and Joseph were going to the census per Augustus Ceasar's mandate during that Nativity narrative. Like other events which happened on dates we can't determine (like the birth of Plato) but want to discuss, the best one possible was chosen.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Mainly because they have NOTHING to do with Jesus of Nazareth, and everything to do with Roman Empire (pagan).

The Romans adopted Christianity as the State religion in 325 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great. Christianity had been in practice long before-and had suffered persecution for not worshipping the pagan Gods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church#Early_Church

You haven't done your research.

 

[Sola_Fide]

I agree that there are pagan elements in Romanism. Romanism is itself paganism. But Romanism isn't Christianity.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

I agree that there are pagan elements in Romanism. Romanism is itself paganism. But Romanism isn't Christianity.

How so? The Roman Church confesses the Nicene Creed.

 

[PierzStyx]

How so? The Roman Church confesses the Nicene Creed.

Convenient then that it invented the Nicene Creed.

 

[TER]

A look at the "pagan roots" of Christian Holidays- Are They Breaking God's Law?

I was thinking recently about all the chaos caused during Christmas by Atheist, Hebrew Roots Movement (HRM) enthusiasts and even sadly some Christians who insist that Christmas is pagan in origin. It got me to thinking about Easter coming up and we know that we will see the same claims of pagan roots as we see every year in regards to this Christian holiday as well, especially on sites like Facebook. It occurred to me that the Christians and HRM Enthusiast who make these claims are not adhering to what the Bible says. This is especially hypocritical of the HRM because by claiming that Christmas and Easter are pagan, they are breaking the Law that they claim to follow:

Matthew 18:15-17: 15 “If your brother sins [against you], go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. 16 If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector."

John 8:17: Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two men can be verified.

2 Corinthians 13:1: This third time I am coming to you. “On the testimony of two or three witnesses a fact shall be established.”

1 Timothy 5:19: Do not accept an accusation against a presbyter unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.

Now if you are one who believes the myths about Christmas and Easter's pagan roots, you are most likely thinking that there are more than three witnesses to back your point of view, however the fact is there is not. I am sure you can count dozens of sources, but none would be ancient. And that is in fact what matters isn't it? If the source is ancient, thus proving that a holiday for pagan gods or goddesses existed before the holiday in question was observed by Christians, then yes that would suffice, wouldn't it? Especially if you had two or three witnesses to this fact as prescribed by the Bible. However, in the case of both Christian holidays, there is no ancient source that either was observed for a pagan god or goddess before it was a Christian observance. So let's look at the age of sources for Easter first, since it is coming up soon.

Most of the myths claim that Easter was another name for Eostre or Easter was an observance for Ostara/Eostre. However, there is no historical evidence for this until the 8th century A.D. Not only is this late in antiquity, but this is the only evidence that Easter was named for a goddess known as Eostre and it is the only evidence that she even existed. And the fact is, this evidence is not so much proof, as it is not even from a "pagan" text, but rather is based on the ramblings and writings of a Monk named Bede:

"The first month, which the Latins call January, is Giuli; February is called Solmonath; March Hrethmonath; April, Eosturmonath; May, Thrimilchi; June, Litha; July, also Litha; August, Weodmonath; September, Halegmonath; October, Winterfilleth; November, Blodmonath; December, Giuli, the same name by which January is called. ...Nor is it irrelevant if we take the time to translate the names of the other months.... Hrethmonath is named for their goddess Hretha, to whom they sacrificed at this time. Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance. "- From De ratione temporum 15. (The reckoning of time, tr. Faith Wallis, Liverpool University Press 1988, pp.53-54) more can be found at tertullian.org​

"Eostre is a very obscure Goddess, and uniquely Anglo-Saxon Pagan. She is not mentioned at all in the Norse corpus and only fleetingly in the Old English by Bede in De Temporum Rationale. Her material is so scant that some scholars have speculated she was not a Goddess at all, but that Eostre was merely a name for the holiday." - Wednesbury Shire History of Anglo-Saxon Paganism​

As already stated, Bede's quote above is the ONLY ancient source for any Easter/Eostre connection. As noted above, many scholars along with those who practice Wicca readily admit that Eostre never existed in ancient sources. And while modern scholarship since the time of Jacob Grimm have attempted to link the word Eostre to various ancient goddesses based on guessing and later on inscriptions, division comes due to the lack of historical evidence to link Eostre to either. The only thing known for certain of the word Eostre is that it was likely nothing more than a name for a season or month when the equinox occurs for spring, not a festival, feast or any other activity linking it to a god or goddess. And even if Bede were correct that Easter was named for a goddess, the name would have been Hredhe, not Eostre:

All we know from Bede was that she was worshipped sometime in April. Bede also mentions another Anglo-Saxon goddess, Hredhe, who was honoured in March, and for whom the month of March was named. If the heathen Anglo-Saxons actually did worship a goddess at the Vernal Equinox, then according to the only historical evidence we have it would have been Hredhe, not Eostre.- manygods.org.uk​

Perhaps Bede, thinking that all ancient month names were linked to a god or goddess, simply made a guess that historically can not be proven:

“It is equally valid, however, to suggest that the Anglo-Saxon “Estor-monath”simply meant “the month of opening”, or the “month of beginning”, and that Bede mistakenly connected it with a goddess who either never existed at all, or was never associated with a particular season, but merely, like Eos and Aurora, with the Dawn itself.” [Stations of the Sun, p.180]​

As you can see there is not any historical evidence that Eostre ever existed. It is more likely that Easter was simply a name given to the time of year for the resurrection since we know from history that this is the only thing Ostara/Easter has ever meant:

“No Norwegian, Icelandic or other Scandinavian primary source mentions ‘Ostara’. In fact, the name ‘Ostara’ isn’t found anywhere in connection with a goddess. ‘Ostara’ is simply the Old High German name for the Christian Festival of Easter.”- manygods.org.uk​

Therefore, those who claim that Easter is the festival of an ancient goddess base this claim on myth and only one historical witness in the writings of an 8th century Monk. This clearly goes against the Biblical prescription of having two or three witnesses on a matter.

Next moving on to Christmas, the only ancient so called proof that Christmas was the feast or festival of Sol Invictus comes for the late 3rd century A.D. However, the date given for the games or festival of Sol (there is no listing for a feast as claimed by the pagan police) were dated for October, not December 25th. This text comes from 276 A.D when Aurelian installed the games of Sol. However, despite the myths Christmas ( December 25th) was known as Jesus' date of birth well before this time, as there are two ancient witnesses to this fact:

In his commentary on the Book of Daniel, Hippolytus of Rome (A.D 170-236) wrote of Jesus' birthday:

For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, eight days before the kalends of January [December 25th], the 4th day of the week [Wednesday], while Augustus was in his forty-second year, [2 or 3BC] but from Adam five thousand and five hundred years. He suffered in the thirty third year, 8 days before the kalends of April [March 25th], the Day of Preparation, the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar [29 or 30 AD], while Rufus and Roubellion and Gaius Caesar, for the 4th time, and Gaius Cestius Saturninus were Consuls.​

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (no later than 250 A.D): Sec. III.—On Feast Days and Fast Days XII:

Brethren, observe the festival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth of the ninth month; after which let the Epiphany be to you the most honoured, in which the Lord made to you a display of His own Godhead, and let it take place on the sixth of the tenth month; Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VII: Constitutions of the Holy Apostles: Sec. III.—On Feast Days and Fast Days​

Note: The ninth month on the Jewish Calendar corresponds to our December.

Both of these witnesses give the date of December 25th for the birth of Jesus. And both sources are dated to before Emperor Aurelian instituted the games of Sol in 274, which again were not held on December 25th but instead October 19-22, every four years. The next source connecting December 25th with Sol is from 354 A.D. The Philocalian calendar gives a festival of "Natalis Invicti" on December 25th but again this is well over a hundred years after either of the above Christian sources. Likewise, the ancient sources for Jesus' date of birth are well before Emperor Constantine's time thus eliminating the myth that he "Christianized" an already existing pagan birthday. Furthermore, the first claim of any connection between Christmas and a pagan god or gods did not come about until the 12th century by a scribe of a Syrian bishop named Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe wrote:

"It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day."​

Again, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses, Christmas was not a celebration for any ancient deity. We have two witnesses that Christmas was known as Jesus' date of birth well before any connection to an ancient god. However, for those who promote myths against Christmas there is not any ancient witnesses to support their claims. In fact, the writings that later make use of December 25th for a pagan deity or festival obviously borrowed this date from Christians. Similarly, Easter was not the name for any ancient goddess. So again, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses, the claims made by the HRM and other superstitious Christians that the Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas are rooted in paganism is nothing more than myth. It seems that anyone who observes the Law,as well as those who follow the New Testament would not make fictitious claims against other Christians without two or three witnesses to back their claims as prescribed by the Bible. Not only are they disregarding the Biblical instructions on such accusations, but they are breaking a commandment in bearing false witness against their neighbor/fellow believers in Jesus.

 

[TER]

Calculating Christmas

Many Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the church fathers appropriated the date of a pagan festival. Almost no one minds, except for a few groups on the fringes of American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas itself a pagan festival. But it is perhaps interesting to know that the choice of December 25th is the result of attempts among the earliest Christians to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals.

Rather, the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Son” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the “pagan origins of Christmas” is a myth without historical substance.

A Mistake

The idea that the date was taken from the pagans goes back to two scholars from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Paul Ernst Jablonski, a German Protestant, wished to show that the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th was one of the many “paganizations” of Christianity that the Church of the fourth century embraced, as one of many “degenerations” that transformed pure apostolic Christianity into Catholicism. Dom Jean Hardouin, a Benedictine monk, tried to show that the Catholic Church adopted pagan festivals for Christian purposes without paganizing the gospel.

In the Julian calendar, created in 45 B.C. under Julius Caesar, the winter solstice fell on December 25th, and it therefore seemed obvious to Jablonski and Hardouin that the day must have had a pagan significance before it had a Christian one. But in fact, the date had no religious significance in the Roman pagan festal calendar before Aurelian’s time, nor did the cult of the sun play a prominent role in Rome before him.

There were two temples of the sun in Rome, one of which (maintained by the clan into which Aurelian was born or adopted) celebrated its dedication festival on August 9th, the other of which celebrated its dedication festival on August 28th. But both of these cults fell into neglect in the second century, when eastern cults of the sun, such as Mithraism, began to win a following in Rome. And in any case, none of these cults, old or new, had festivals associated with solstices or equinoxes.

As things actually happened, Aurelian, who ruled from 270 until his assassination in 275, was hostile to Christianity and appears to have promoted the establishment of the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” as a device to unify the various pagan cults of the Roman Empire around a commemoration of the annual “rebirth” of the sun. He led an empire that appeared to be collapsing in the face of internal unrest, rebellions in the provinces, economic decay, and repeated attacks from German tribes to the north and the Persian Empire to the east.

In creating the new feast, he intended the beginning of the lengthening of the daylight, and the arresting of the lengthening of darkness, on December 25th to be a symbol of the hoped-for “rebirth,” or perpetual rejuvenation, of the Roman Empire, resulting from the maintenance of the worship of the gods whose tutelage (the Romans thought) had brought Rome to greatness and world-rule. If it co-opted the Christian celebration, so much the better.

A By-Product

It is true that the first evidence of Christians celebrating December 25th as the date of the Lord’s nativity comes from Rome some years after Aurelian, in A.D. 336, but there is evidence from both the Greek East and the Latin West that Christians attempted to figure out the date of Christ’s birth long before they began to celebrate it liturgically, even in the second and third centuries. The evidence indicates, in fact, that the attribution of the date of December 25th was a by-product of attempts to determine when to celebrate his death and resurrection.

How did this happen? There is a seeming contradiction between the date of the Lord’s death as given in the synoptic Gospels and in John’s Gospel. The synoptics would appear to place it on Passover Day (after the Lord had celebrated the Passover Meal on the preceding evening), and John on the Eve of Passover, just when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Jerusalem Temple for the feast that was to ensue after sunset on that day.

Solving this problem involves answering the question of whether the Lord’s Last Supper was a Passover Meal, or a meal celebrated a day earlier, which we cannot enter into here. Suffice it to say that the early Church followed John rather than the synoptics, and thus believed that Christ’s death would have taken place on 14 Nisan, according to the Jewish lunar calendar. (Modern scholars agree, by the way, that the death of Christ could have taken place only in A.D. 30 or 33, as those two are the only years of that time when the eve of Passover could have fallen on a Friday, the possibilities being either 7 April 30 or 3 April 33.)

However, as the early Church was forcibly separated from Judaism, it entered into a world with different calendars, and had to devise its own time to celebrate the Lord’s Passion, not least so as to be independent of the rabbinic calculations of the date of Passover. Also, since the Jewish calendar was a lunar calendar consisting of twelve months of thirty days each, every few years a thirteenth month had to be added by a decree of the Sanhedrin to keep the calendar in synchronization with the equinoxes and solstices, as well as to prevent the seasons from “straying” into inappropriate months.

Apart from the difficulty Christians would have had in following—or perhaps even being accurately informed about—the dating of Passover in any given year, to follow a lunar calendar of their own devising would have set them at odds with both Jews and pagans, and very likely embroiled them in endless disputes among themselves. (The second century saw severe disputes about whether Pascha had always to fall on a Sunday or on whatever weekday followed two days after 14 Artemision/Nisan, but to have followed a lunar calendar would have made such problems much worse.)

These difficulties played out in different ways among the Greek Christians in the eastern part of the empire and the Latin Christians in the western part of it. Greek Christians seem to have wanted to find a date equivalent to 14 Nisan in their own solar calendar, and since Nisan was the month in which the spring equinox occurred, they chose the 14th day of Artemision, the month in which the spring equinox invariably fell in their own calendar. Around A.D. 300, the Greek calendar was superseded by the Roman calendar, and since the dates of the beginnings and endings of the months in these two systems did not coincide, 14 Artemision became April 6th.

In contrast, second-century Latin Christians in Rome and North Africa appear to have desired to establish the historical date on which the Lord Jesus died. By the time of Tertullian they had concluded that he died on Friday, 25 March 29. (As an aside, I will note that this is impossible: 25 March 29 was not a Friday, and Passover Eve in A.D. 29 did not fall on a Friday and was not on March 25th, or in March at all.)

Integral Age

So in the East we have April 6th, in the West, March 25th. At this point, we have to introduce a belief that seems to have been widespread in Judaism at the time of Christ, but which, as it is nowhere taught in the Bible, has completely fallen from the awareness of Christians. The idea is that of the “integral age” of the great Jewish prophets: the idea that the prophets of Israel died on the same dates as their birth or conception.

This notion is a key factor in understanding how some early Christians came to believe that December 25th is the date of Christ’s birth. The early Christians applied this idea to Jesus, so that March 25th and April 6th were not only the supposed dates of Christ’s death, but of his conception or birth as well. There is some fleeting evidence that at least some first- and second-century Christians thought of March 25th or April 6th as the date of Christ’s birth, but rather quickly the assignment of March 25th as the date of Christ’s conception prevailed.

It is to this day, commemorated almost universally among Christians as the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel brought the good tidings of a savior to the Virgin Mary, upon whose acquiescence the Eternal Word of God (“Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten of the Father before all ages”) forthwith became incarnate in her womb. What is the length of pregnancy? Nine months. Add nine months to March 25th and you get December 25th; add it to April 6th and you get January 6th. December 25th is Christmas, and January 6th is Epiphany.

Christmas (December 25th) is a feast of Western Christian origin. In Constantinople it appears to have been introduced in 379 or 380. From a sermon of St. John Chrysostom, at the time a renowned ascetic and preacher in his native Antioch, it appears that the feast was first celebrated there on 25 December 386. From these centers it spread throughout the Christian East, being adopted in Alexandria around 432 and in Jerusalem a century or more later. The Armenians, alone among ancient Christian churches, have never adopted it, and to this day celebrate Christ’s birth, manifestation to the magi, and baptism on January 6th.

Western churches, in turn, gradually adopted the January 6th Epiphany feast from the East, Rome doing so sometime between 366 and 394. But in the West, the feast was generally presented as the commemoration of the visit of the magi to the infant Christ, and as such, it was an important feast, but not one of the most important ones—a striking contrast to its position in the East, where it remains the second most important festival of the church year, second only to Pascha (Easter).

In the East, Epiphany far outstrips Christmas. The reason is that the feast celebrates Christ’s baptism in the Jordan and the occasion on which the Voice of the Father and the Descent of the Spirit both manifested for the first time to mortal men the divinity of the Incarnate Christ and the Trinity of the Persons in the One Godhead.

A Christian Feast

Thus, December 25th as the date of the Christ’s birth appears to owe nothing whatsoever to pagan influences upon the practice of the Church during or after Constantine’s time. It is wholly unlikely to have been the actual date of Christ’s birth, but it arose entirely from the efforts of early Latin Christians to determine the historical date of Christ’s death.

And the pagan feast which the Emperor Aurelian instituted on that date in the year 274 was not only an effort to use the winter solstice to make a political statement, but also almost certainly an attempt to give a pagan significance to a date already of importance to Roman Christians. The Christians, in turn, could at a later date re-appropriate the pagan “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” to refer, on the occasion of the birth of Christ, to the rising of the “Sun of Salvation” or the “Sun of Justice.”

The author refers interested readers to Thomas J. Talley’s The Origins of the Liturgical Year (The Liturgical Press). A draft of this article appeared on the listserve Virtuosity.