Parallels between Jesus and horus?

[N/A Gone]

Parallels between Jesus and
Horus, an Egyptian God?

[url="http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm"]http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm[/url]

How would you attac something like this?

[Aloysius]

Horus died and ressurected as a symbol of the harvest cycle. Jesus' death and ressurection was never connected to any harvest cycle.

Just one of the many things the artical fails to mention.

Anyway, it is not surprising that we would find in pagan myths many parallels. there is a basic human longing for a savior because there is a basic core human knowledge that there is something wrong with us and we are in need of saving. There is a fascination with miracles by which the powers of nature are harnessed. and the image of a mother and child-- very universal image of humanity.

Christ is not the same as Horus. But Horus represents basic aspirations towards redemption.

Another innacuracy- Horus is not begotten of Osiris, he WAS BORN of Osiris. Jesus is eternally begotten before all ages, He is always and forever by his nature being begotten. Very different concept, Jesus being the Son of God and any pagan god being the son of another god.

[Laudate_Dominum]

One major difference that they fail to mention is that Jesus was way better looking than Horus. I mean crrrap, Horus had a bird head..

[lifescanticle]

[quote name='Revprodeji' date='Dec 15 2005, 06:22 AM']Parallels between Jesus and
Horus, an Egyptian God?

[url="http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm"]http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm[/url]

How would you attac something like this?
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People are always looking for a god to follow. This was the case in the time that egyptians worshiped multiple gods and will always be. I don't find it surprising that an historian could find similarities between Jesus and another god. In the gnostic writings there were claims about Jesus that were fiction. That is why a council was called (i forget which one, St Athanasius was there) to affirm the canon of scripture. This shows the importance of a teaching authority.
Unique to monotheistic religions, Christianity makes the unique assertion that God became man. That Jesus was God .
God is all powerful therefore there is no need for other gods to make up for what a god lacks.

[Didacus]

One of the best defences I found againsdt this sort of thing was in reading Tertullien and St. Augustine (still reading St. Augustine). These two tag team to make attack after attack on the pagean 'gods'! I believe together they show the mind-set of early Christians and how THEY saw a difference between the two (gods and God) which is just as important if not more so then how WE see a difference.

Basically, it comes down to Jesus proving He was God not only by his miracles, but by His teachings and His life which are both flawless and without sin. Whereas look at the teachings of Horus and Hercules? Didn't Herc kill his own children at one time? (IE: Hercules show the same type of similarities than Horus and actually, Horus became Hercules in a sense).


I like St. Augustine's retort to the Romans when he said something to the effect;

[quote]"The Roman gods justify the Roman's failings and pettiness with their own example" [/quote]and then spends a good length chapter justifying the statement.

If that is not the main difference between a 'legend' or 'story' of a said 'god' and the one God the Son of Man, please tell what I should be looking for?

Edited December 15, 2005 by Didacus

[Laudate_Dominum]

Yeah, there are common motifs among all mythology and religion. While it would be absurd to say that the Gospels copied Aztec mythology considering the geographical gap between them, people have asserted this with myths closer in proximity to the time of Christ despite the obvious fallacy in this thinking. The main problem I have with this is that it is radically superficial. It fails to recognize the categorical difference between the Gospels and the various myths and pagan religions. The life of Christ was a real historical event, and we have the testimony of witnesses, and the character of the Christian religion is essentially different from that of the pagan religions. There is much that could be said about this.
And there is a profound significance to the fact that the earthly life of Christ fulfills the age-old religious yearnings of mankind. In popular literature, C.S. Lewis has said some interesting stuff about this ([i]The Golden Bough[/i], a classic text on this subject was one of his favourite books). Chesterton has some cool insights as well. There is a lot of other stuff that one could read if you are quite interested in the subject.

Anyway, in the meantime perhaps some links will help satiate your curiosity? This should keep you busy for a while. Holla back if you wanna talk more about this stuff or need more links. :

[url="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat.html"]http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat.html[/url]
[url="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycatwho1.html"]http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycatwho1.html[/url]
[url="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat2.html"]http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat2.html[/url]

[url="http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/osy.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/osy.html[/url]
[url="http://www.tektonics.org/harpur01.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/harpur01.html[/url]
[url="http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/pagint.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/pagint.html[/url]
[url="http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/copycathub.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/copycathub.html[/url]
[url="http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html[/url]

[url="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan1.html"]http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan1.html[/url]
[url="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan2.html"]http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan2.html[/url]
[url="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan3.html"]http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan3.html[/url]
[url="http://members.aol.com/jasonte2/myths.htm"]http://members.aol.com/jasonte2/myths.htm[/url]


You might wanna read up on horus and all those peeps to see the errors inherent in these claims:
[url="http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/horus.htm"]http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/horus.htm[/url]
[url="http://www.egyptianmyths.net/horus.htm"]http://www.egyptianmyths.net/horus.htm[/url]
[url="http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/horus.html"]http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/horus.html[/url]

[Didacus]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' date='Dec 15 2005, 07:51 AM']Yeah, there are common motifs among all mythology and religion. While it would be absurd to say that the Gospels copied Aztec mythology considering the geographical gap between them, people have asserted this with myths closer in proximity to the time of Christ despite the obvious fallacy in this thinking.

[snip]

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Nice response!

Guess that's why you the scholar and I'm the pahtamsser!

LOL

[philothea]

I always thought Aten was a better candidate for comparision with Christianity anyway.

[Fidei Defensor]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' date='Dec 15 2005, 07:51 AM']Yeah, there are common motifs among all mythology and religion. While it would be absurd to say that the Gospels copied Aztec mythology considering the geographical gap between them, people have asserted this with myths closer in proximity to the time of Christ despite the obvious fallacy in this thinking. The main problem I have with this is that it is radically superficial. It fails to recognize the categorical difference between the Gospels and the various myths and pagan religions. The life of Christ was a real historical event, and we have the testimony of witnesses, and the character of the Christian religion is essentially different from that of the pagan religions. There is much that could be said about this.
And there is a profound significance to the fact that the earthly life of Christ fulfills the age-old religious yearnings of mankind. In popular literature, C.S. Lewis has said some interesting stuff about this ([i]The Golden Bough[/i], a classic text on this subject was one of his favourite books). Chesterton has some cool insights as well. There is a lot of other stuff that one could read if you are quite interested in the subject.

Anyway, in the meantime perhaps some links will help satiate your curiosity? This should keep you busy for a while. Holla back if you wanna talk more about this stuff or need more links. :

[url="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat.html"]http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat.html[/url]
[url="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycatwho1.html"]http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycatwho1.html[/url]
[url="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat2.html"]http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat2.html[/url]

[url="http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/osy.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/osy.html[/url]
[url="http://www.tektonics.org/harpur01.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/harpur01.html[/url]
[url="http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/pagint.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/pagint.html[/url]
[url="http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/copycathub.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/copycathub.html[/url]
[url="http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html"]http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/mithra.html[/url]

[url="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan1.html"]http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan1.html[/url]
[url="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan2.html"]http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan2.html[/url]
[url="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan3.html"]http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5743/pagan3.html[/url]
[url="http://members.aol.com/jasonte2/myths.htm"]http://members.aol.com/jasonte2/myths.htm[/url]
You might wanna read up on horus and all those peeps to see the errors inherent in these claims:
[url="http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/horus.htm"]http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/horus.htm[/url]
[url="http://www.egyptianmyths.net/horus.htm"]http://www.egyptianmyths.net/horus.htm[/url]
[url="http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/horus.html"]http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/horus.html[/url]
[right][snapback]826624[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
Thanks for those, they are quite helpful

[sraf]

Do I place a stigma on myself if I say, "Whoa, that's COOL!"?

All religions, whether poly-or-mono-theistic, if it has a pantheon of millions of deities, one deity with different names, or a vague Spirit, have a very similar question surrounding the heart of the matter:
Is there something greater than us (humans)? Do our lives have meaning? Are we taken care of after death?
My religion teacher told me that the prescence of such a 'God Question' itself proves that there is a God somewhere - if humans have the capacity to ask this, then Someone must have given us this capacity. Interesting.
I'm not very surprised that there are so many similarities between religions, between certain saints and certain old gods, (I think it's fascinating.) Do I think that Jesus is solely a corruption of the legend of Horus? No. You'd need to show me more evidence. Is it possible that some aspects of Christ's story, such at the Nativity, were borrowed from the Egyptians? It wouldn't have been the last time. Is it possible that the Egyptians borrowed from the Christians? Eh. Not sure if Egypt was around at that time. Probably not. Maybe, though, a few Egyptian writers were inspired by that same divine Spirit hundreds of years before Christ's birth and chose to write about it in a way that they could understand. Now THAT would be cool! (and that explains a lot, as well...)
It's safe to say that there are probably huge chunks of the Horus legends that completely DO NOT parallel JC, but the author of this just chose what would support his thesis statement. We know it's the same with Jesus, right? And as Catholics, we understand that the Bible isn't to be taken literally - that many aspects of Jesus' Nativity are to be understood in a semi-allegorical sense, right?

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='sraf' date='Dec 18 2005, 02:42 PM']And as Catholics, we understand that the Bible isn't to be taken literally - that many aspects of Jesus' Nativity are to be understood in a semi-allegorical sense, right?
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As Catholics we recognize that the Bible is complex and there are different senses to Scripture, and there are aspects of Scripture that aren't meant to be understood literally. But if one assumes that the Gospels are just something akin to Midrash, or that the Virgin Birth is a theologoumenon, or that Jesus did not perform any miracles, you aren't going to be Catholic anymore. As Catholics we believe in miracles, and it would be foolish to believe that Padre Pio could rock miracles but God Incarnate could not. Also, many dogmas (such as the Virgin Birth) are based on a "literal" understanding of these passages. The truth of the Catholic Faith is not based on agnostic theories of Biblical scholars, but on Faith. So I guess the answer is yes and no, because there is no outline of exactly what verses are to be understood in what sense(s). However, there are certain non-negotiables. For example, the Church did condemn certain figurative understandings of many aspects of Genesis, but we do not interpret the whole thing literally.

I realize that many people who claim to be Catholic (some or theology professors) have a very heterodox reading of Scripture, but if you reject non-negotiables such as Christ's Divinity, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, etc.. You have abandoned the Catholic Faith.