The Myth of Jesus: A Refutation of the Zeitgeist– Part 3

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.

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

After Zeitgeist finishes its claims about Attis the film then makes similar claims about Krishna that he was born of a virgin, a star in the east announced his birth, performed miracles with his diciples and was resurrected upon his death.

According to the story of Krishna’s birth, Kasma (his uncle) offered to be the charioteer for the wedding of his sister, Devaki in her marriage to Vesudevu. While he was driving the chariot to the wedding hall he then heard a voice which said that the eighth child of his sister would destroy him. After hearing this, he decided to kill his sister on the spot.

However Vesudevu begged Kasma not to kill Devaki promising to hand over to him any child they would have and Kasma agreed. Every time the married couple had a child, they handed him over to Kasma. The seventh child, however was saved when the parents slipped it passed the sleeping guards.  And when it came time for the eighth child to be born Kasma decided not to risk anything and had both Vasudeva and Devaki locked up in a dungeon and there Krishna, the eighth child, was born. At that moment, Vasudeva’s chains fell off and he decided to escape with his child. He replaced him with a female infant thinking Kasma wouldn’t kill her. Kasma, however, attempted to kill her not knowing she wasn’t the child he was looking for. However she disappeared before any harm could happen to her.

Now first, as for the claim that Krishna’s mother Devaki was a virgin at his birth according to the story of Krishna,

Krishna was of the royal family of Mathura, and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her husband Vasudeva, a noble of the court.

Krishna was the youngest of eight children meaning his mother Devaki could not possibly have been a virgin at the time of his birth. The story clearly says that Kasma would be destroyed by her eighth child. Besides, there is nothing in the story that implies that his birth was miraculous in the slightest. From the story of Krishna’s birth, it is obvious that there is virtually no resemblance to the birth of Jesus.  Not to mention, there is no star in the east that proclaims his birth.

It is true that Krishna performed miracles. But, being a god in his own right, this is a given and is not relevant because miracles would only be expected from a deity. (Click here) — Also there is an apparent parallel between Kasma who wanted to kill Krishna and Herod the Great who wanted to kill Jesus according the Matthew chapter two. But this is the only similarity between the two narratives. Considering all the differences, the only parallel seems pretty trivial.

Now what about his death and resurrection? — The fact of the matter is that Krishna was not crucified. According to sacred Hindu writings (See “Mahabharata 16: 4“ ) he was accidentally shot and killed by a hunter that mistook him for a deer.

The hunter, mistaking  Keshava [or Krishna], who was stretched on the earth in high Yoga, for a deer, pierced him at the heel with a shaft and quickly came to that spot for capturing his prey. Coming up, Jara beheld a man dressed in yellow robes, rapt in Yoga and endued with many arms. Regarding himself an offender, and filled with fear, he touched the feet of Keshava. The high-souled one comforted him and then ascended upwards, filling the entire welkin with splendour.

When the hunter found out what he had done he became afraid, but in that moment it says that Krisha “comforted”  him. When that happened he ascended to heaven and saw the gods and deities.

So the fact is that even though he was killed, the circumstances in the Hindu writtings are completely different from the Christian tradition. — Jesus was betrayed, crucified,  placed in a tomb, then was resurrected. Krishna simply ascended to heaven when he was killed. So it has to be concluded that there is no credible evidence to believe that Jesus was copied from Krisha. Even what little similarities they have are really trivial and cannot be said to have influenced one or the other.

As a side issue, there is one particular claim made many other ”Jesus-Mythers,” though not by Zeitgeist that the term “Christ” (Jesus’ title as the Messiah) is similar to the name “Krishna” because of the somewhat similar pronunciation. However Christ, or Khristos, actually means “the annointed.” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament)

On the other hand, the meaning of Krishna’s name (click here) is completely different,

The term Krishna in Sanskrit means “black” according to standard dictionaries. It is related to similar words in other Indo-European languages meaning black. The name is often translated as ‘the dark one’ or as ‘the black one.’

Anyway, the attitude of Zeitgeist is now becoming clearer: “Academic correctness be damned! We have our agenda and we are going to advance it even if it means distorting the facts.” — I truly feel sorry for anyone that takes these films seriously without doing actual research.

As a side issue, there is one particular claim made many other ”Jesus-Mythers,” though not by Zeitgeist that the term “Christ” (Jesus’ title as the Messiah) is similar to the name “Krishna” because of the somewhat similar pronunciation. However Christ, or Khristos, actually means “the annointed.” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament)

If you want to read a more details on Krishna and Jesus then click here and here.

The Myth of Jesus: A Refutation of the Zeitgeist — Part 2

The film Zeitgeist begins with list of pagan gods such Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus and Mithra. 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.

So far, on the part of the film, claims of being academically are false, as seen in the case of the parallels between Horus and Jesus. — But it goes on to the next pagan deity, Attis, and makes similar claims about him saying,

Attis, of Phyrigia, born of the virgin Nana on December 25th, crucified, placed in a tomb and after 3 days, was resurrected.

Before going into detail, I want to emphesize that December 25th has no theological significance to Christianity. It is not mentioned in the Bible as Jesus’ birth date. The date was adopted in 350 AD by Bishop Julius I, too late a date to have any relevance to Christian origins.

The story of Attis begins when Agdistis, a hermaphroditic demon with male and female sex organs, gets castrated by gods that feared him. They disposed of his organ, and an almond tree grew where it landed. — Pausanias, the second century Greek writer, says:

There grew up from it an almond-tree with its fruit ripe, and a daughter of the river Sangarius [Nana, Attis' mother], they say, took of the fruit and laid it in her bosom, when it at once disappeared, but she was with child. A boy was born, and exposed, but was tended by a he-goat. As he grew up his beauty was more than human, and Agdistis fell in love with him. (Description of Greece 7, 17, 11)

After Attis’s birth, Nana’s father ordered the child exposed so that he would die, but fortunately he was saved by the goddess Cybele and was mothered by a she-goat. Attis grew to manhood and was so handsome in appearance that Agdistis and/or Cybele, the mother of the gods, fell in love with him.

When Attis was sent to marry the daughter of the king of Pessinos, Agdistis drove Attis insane to the point of castrating himself so that nobody else could have him. When Agdistis saw Attis’ dead body, he repented of driving him insane and made sure that his body didn’t decay. He was then reborn as an evergreen pine tree, as recounted by Strabo the historian. — In other versions, Cybele, who was jealous and refused to take Attis back, got sexually involved with women, and this drove Attis insane and he mutilated himself under a pine tree where he died. — Pausanias points out one tradition in which Attis is killed by a boar. (Description of Greece 7, 17, 10)

There is no indication that Nana, Attis’ mother, was a virgin when her son was born, though she could have been since there is no reason to believe she wasn’t. As for his death, he was either castrated, or his has gored by a wild bore. He was not crucified.

The claim that Attis was dead for three days and later resurrected seems to have its roots in the Magna Mater’s Spring Festival which lasted from the 15th of March until the 27th. — On the eighth say of the festival, a pine tree which symbolized Attis was cut down, and this was followed by three days of mourning. On the tenth day, he was burried, and then on the so-called Halaria, or the “Day of Joy” was on the eleventh day. This is cited as the resurrection day.

A.T. Fear, who contributed a chapter to the book entitled Attis and Related Cults and wrote about this very same festival, points out in the chapter entitled “Cybele and Christ“ does seem to confirm the claims that that Jesus may have been copied from Attis because of a similar claim that he was killed and resurrected after three days during a celebration that depicts his resurrection out of a tomb. (Page 39) — But there is a major problem. The ceremony that Dr. Fear describes is from a major festival of the metroac cult. But later he points out that this very cult had gone through changes which could have been “a deliberate attempt to rival Christianity” to ensure the cult’s survival in the market. (Page 44) — As a matter of fact, about the resurrection of Attis he says,

Attis too with his strong emphasis on resurrection seems to be a late-comer to the cult, the stress on the Halaria as celebrating the resurrection of Attis also appears to increase at the beginning of the Fourth century AD.: the same time as in the taurobolium towards the rite of personal redemption.

While these changes could simply be a mutation of religion over time, and it is important to remember that here we are discussing a period of centuries not merely years, they do seem to have been provoked by a need to respond to the challenge of Christianity. (Attis and Related Cults, pages 41, 42)

Dr. Fear does question whether the process of changing the Attis cult was conscious, but he never even implies that Jesus was influenced by Attis. He says that the Attis cult either mutated or that it responded to Christianity. He also dates the celebration of Attis’ “resurrection” to the fourth century AD!

To be fair, there is one possible earlier date for the apparent resurrection of Attis, but it is not much better for those that want Jesus to have been copied from Attis. — According to this other reconstruction, the three days of mourning were introduced during Emperor Claudius’ reign which was from 41 to 54 AD. Also, the apparent resurrection day was was introduced during the reign of Antoninus Pius, between 130 to 161 AD. The obvious problem with supposing that this was an inspiration for Christianity was that these aspects of the festival are post-Christian. So either way, both possible scenarios have it as too late to have affected Christianity.

So, my conclusion here is that Zeitgeist’s claims about Attis are only marginally better that those made about Horus. It cannot be said definitively that Attis was born of a virgin because it is not specified whether or not his mother was. His death in both versions of his life differ from the crucifixion of Jesus, and the three day death and resurrection of Attis are from the post-Christian era, not from before as would be expected if Christianity were influence by the Attis cult. — Academic correctness on Peter Joseph’s part (the producer of Zeitgeist) seems to be secondary to his anti-Christian agenda.

References:
The History of Christmas from holidays.net
Description of Greece 7, 17, 11, Pausanias
CATULLUS. “ATTIS” (#63)
Attis — From AbsoluteAstronomy.com
Description of Greece 7, 17, 10. Pausanias
The Great Mother from Asia Minor to Rome. From Mythology.OurGardenPath.com
Attis and Related Cults, pages 39 to 42. — Attis and Christ, by A.T. Fear