The film Zeitgeist begins with list of pagan gods such Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus and Mythra. It goes through the list of details associated with Jesus Christ and then applies them to these pagan gods in order to create the impression that Christianity is only a copycat religion. However, viewers (whether believers or skeptics) should watch this film with the realization that there is an agenda behind it. — And I advise anyone reading this to do the same with what I am about to say as well.

As the film itself says, we want to be academically correct. So now it is our duty to check the facts to see if the makers of Zeitgeist have lived up to that expectation. If the film is right, then that means we Christians have a lot of reevaluating to do. If it is wrong, however, then it is the Jesus-Mythers that should reevaluate what they are spreading all over their webstes.

So, please bear with me as I go over the facts of this matter:

The first God that the film deals with is Horus, the God the Son of Osiris and Isis. — As I point out in the introduction of this review the film makes the claims that he was born on December 25th of the “Virgin” Isis.  — Also it says that his birth was accompanied by a star in the east and was adorned by three kings. Also at age twelve, it says he was a teacher, was baptized at age 30, had 12 diciples and perfomed miracles and other things associated with Jesus.

Also, the film ads that Horus was betrayed, crucified, dead for three days and then resurrected.

These are incredible claims. But as I said, we have to be skeptical of any film that has a clear agenda. The truth is that even though it is claimed that Horus was the product of a virgin birth, there is no reference that I could find that supports what the film says. It is actually unlikely that a married couple of gods would have not procreated at any time before the birth of Horus.

As it so turns out, serious research shows that what lead to Horus’ birth was not asexual. — The Encyclopedia of Mythica  points out that after Osiris (Horus’ father) was murdered by Seth,

She [Isis] retrieved and reassembled the body, and in this connection she took on the role of a goddess of the dead and of the funeral rights. Isis impregnated herself from the Osiris’ body and gave birth to Horus in the swamps of Khemnis in the Nile Delta. (Brackets mine, emphasis mine)

So Isis committed necrophilia with her husband’s dead cadaver and then, as a result, got pregnant. — This may be a miraculous conception by human standards, but it is millions of miles from a virgin birth. And it has no similarity with the virgin birth of Jesus.

As for the date of Horus’ birth being the 25th of December, there is no Biblical nor historical reason why this date should be relevant to Christianity because the Bible gives no such information of the birth of Jesus. — However, the fact is that Horus was not born on December 25th. In reality he was born he was born on the second of the Epagomenal Days which actually corresponds from July 31st to August 24th.

Also, as for Horus having twelve diciples, Glenn Miller In his study on the subject, points out,

My research in the academic literature does not surface this fact. I can find references to FOUR “disciples”–variously called the semi-divine HERU-SHEMSU (”Followers of Horus”) . I can find references to SIXTEEN human followers . And I can find reference to an UNNUMBERED group of followers called mesniu/mesnitu (”blacksmiths”) who accompanied Horus in some of his battles. But I cannot find TWELVE anywhere.

As for the claims that Horus was a teacher at twelve years, I have been unable to confirm or deny that. And as for Horus’ death, I could find no reference either to his being crucified on a cross.

The one reference that I could find that describes his death is seeminly unrelated to the Passion of Jesus. Horus was stung him to death by a scorpion. When Isis found him dead she is said to have become “distraught and frantic with grief, and was inconsolable.” – Thoth, who had helped her to revive her husband Osiris, heard her and came down to answer her. Isis was then supplied with incantations and then was able to revive her son. (See: “The Cippi of Horus“)

So as far as I can tell, Horus was neither born of a virgin nor was he crucified. Even though we have a Resurrection here, the details of the story are completely different than the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. Also, as far as many of the other claims made about the parallels between Jesus and Horus, I have been unable to find any credible reference to either confirm or deny them.

The last detail that is given about Horus in the film that is worth any mention given later is that the films claims that Jesus’ being a literary and astrological hybrid is actually a plagiarizing of the “Egyptian Sun God Horus.” — (Note the quotations) — The fact that the film makers call Horus “the Egyptian Sun god” is a major give-away to to how rotten a job they did at researching the film. The fact is that Ra is the Egyptian Sun god, not Horus.

But it continues. To show that Jesus’ infancy is a plagiarizing, the film goes on to cite a 3,500 year old Egyptian inscription found at Luxor that it claims tells the story of the annunciation, the immaculate conception, the birth and the adoration of Horus.

Luxor Inscription

The film then says,

The images begin with Thoth announcing to the virgin Isis that she will conceive Horus. Then Neth the holy ghost impregnating the virgin. And then the virgin birth and the adoration. This is exactly the story of Jesus’ miracle conception.

This seems to implicate Christianity and Jesus as an imitation, however besides my refutation given above of untrue idea of Isis being a virgin when Horus was born, there is yet another problem with using the Luxor inscription to support the copycat hypothesis.

Richard Carrier, a historian and skeptic of Christianity in his comments about the inscription says that this inscription has nothing to do with Christianity,

The cycle depicted at Luxor does not match up in the same sequence with the Christian narrative. The annunciation follows the conception in the Egyptian cycle (but they do happen in the same panel), though Brunner explains that, for technical reasons in Egyptian morality and law, the girl could not know she was having sex with a god, rather than her real husband, until it was too late, and so it was necessary to have the annunciation follow the conception in order to maintain propriety, i.e. the Queen did nothing immoral. Thus, the difference here reflects the difference in culture.

Carrier also uses terminology such as “very weak” to describe the parallels between Christianity and the inscription.

This is all my own personal research could produce on any alleged parallels between Horus and Jesus. My conclusion is that no relevant reference confirms the claims made by Jesus-Mythers that Jesus is a rewritten version of Horus. But if anyone wishes for a more detailed discussion Horus and Jesus then see “About Horus: An Egyptian Copy of Christ?” But all the same, I hope this was informative and I’ll post further on Zeitgeist as time permits.