- Osiris-Dionysus
The term Osiris-Dionysus is used by some historians of religion [see, e.g., "
The Jesus Mysteries : Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?" byTimothy Freke andPeter Gandy , ISBN 0-722-53677-1 ] to refer to a group of deities worshipped around theMediterranean in the centuries prior to the emergence ofJesus . It has been argued that these deities were closely related and shared many characteristics, most notably being male, partly-human, born of virgins, life-death-rebirth deities and other similar characteristics.Ancient syncretism
The Egyptian god
Osiris and the Greek godDionysus had been equated as long ago as the 5th century BC by the historianHerodotus (seeinterpretatio graeca ). ByLate Antiquity , someGnostic andNeoplatonist thinkers had expanded thissyncretic equation to include Aion,Adonis ,Attis ,Mithras and other gods of themystery religions . The composite term Osiris-Dionysus is found around the start of the first century BC, for example in "Aegyptiaca" byHecateus of Abdera , and in works byLeon of Pella .With the growth of Christianity, some pagan polemicists (notably
Celsus ) charged that the Gospels' narrative of Jesus's death and resurrection was in fact a bastardized reworking of the sufferings of Dionysus and other similar gods. Christian apologists likeJustin Martyr charged in turn that the pagan mystery-cults were degenerate adaptations of vagueBiblical prophecies about theJewish Messiah - although neither Osiris nor Dionysus show many similarities to the actual prophecies. Jews likePhilo of Alexandria observed similarities between Judaism and other faiths and postulated that the pagan religions had borrowed from Jewish scriptures.Modern era
In the 19th century, the idea of a pan-Mediterranean cult of the dying-and-rising demigod was used by
Alexander Hislop in his anti-Roman Catholicism treatiseThe Two Babylons . Hislop argued thatRoman Catholicism was based not upon Biblical Christianity, but upon pagan cults of the divinemother goddess and her suffering son (e.g.Cybele andAttis , etc.).Later authors, such as
Peter Gandy andTimothy Freke , have expanded this line of reasoning to encompass not merely Roman Catholicism, but Christianity more generally. Their book, "The Jesus Mysteries ", contends thatJesus was not an historical figure, but rather a mythic product of the same pan-Mediterranean mythic complex that also yieldedOsiris ,Dionysus and other similar figures.Latter-Day-Saint Perspective
An alternate explanation held in regards to the aforementioned similarities is that God has revealed, by
prophecy , the true nature of theMessiah or theChrist (orOsiris andDionysus ) to many different nations and many different peoples at different times throughout the history of the Earth, thus resulting in different cross-civilization mythologies sharing similar characteristics:"13. And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men, to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he [Christ] had already come among them." - (Mosiah 3:13,
Book of Mormon )References
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