Topic: What's The story of religion? (Read 10030 times)

Prometheus · « **on:** September 16, 2012, 07:52:53 PM »

What's the story of religion?


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Prometheus · « **Reply #1 on:** September 18, 2016, 03:31:55 PM »

part1

The Greatest Story Ever Sold

This is the sun. As far back as 10,000 B.C., history is abundant with carvings and writings reflecting people’s respect and adoration for this object.

Numerous artifacts prove these points, such as from the sun-worshipping cultures of the Egyptians, Indians, Babylonians and Greeks, among many others, including the peoples of the Levant and ancient Israel. Concerning the antiquity of sun worship, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Dr. Madanjeet Singh relates:

The tool-making hominids, as anthropologists call them, emerged about one-and-a-half million years ago. But the sun‘s identification with the animals they hunted became evident much later as in the striking circular engravings representing the sun, discovered in the Central Asian regions (thirteenth millennium BC) in Siberia and western Turkistan. They seem to have eventually influenced the earliest artifacts made in Iran and Mesopotamia… Apart from the animals depicted in the Lascaux caves in

France, at Altamira in Spain, at Adduara in Sicily (15,000 to 10,000 BC), and at the prehistoric Tassili N‘Ajjer in the Sahara region (7000 to 4000 BC), are also strange human figures such as the dancing man with horns on his head and a stallion tail, as in the cave paintings at Trois Frères in Ariège. These are comparable to similar figures seen on the third-millennium-BC Mohenjo-daro seals found in the Indus Valley— symbols that are identified with the sun….¹

Describing this ubiquitous of sun worship, professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University Dr. Miranda J. Aldhouse-Green remarks:

The evidence for the sun cult manifests itself in Europe from as long ago as the fourth millennium BC, when Neolithic farmers recognized the divine power of the solar disc...

…Solar religion manifested itself not only in acknowledgement of the overt functions of the sun—as a provider of heat and light—but also in recognition of influences that were more wide-ranging…

¹ Singh, 12-13.

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To early communities, the sun was an enigma, with its nightly disappearance from the sky and the withdrawal of its heat for half the year. The sun‘s value as a life-force was revered….²

This solar religion continued for millennia, well into the common or &#8213;Christian&#8214; era. As stated by Dr. Lee I.A. Levine, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary:

On the religious plane, belief in the supremacy of the sun god was widespread. The cult of Mithra, as well as other Oriental cults in the late Roman era, identified the supreme deity with the sun. In fact, the tendency in Late Antiquity to unify the creeds allowed [the Greek sun god] Helios to be identified in many circles as the highest deity. On an intellectual level, Neoplatonic thought throughout these centuries likewise addressed the centrality of the sun... Closer to Palestine, sun-worship is amply attested...in Palmyra, among the Essenes, in Nabataea, as well as on a plethora of coins, statuettes, altars, busts, and inscriptions from the first centuries of our era.³

Dr. Levine also says:

In the late Roman era, the figure of Helios, or Sol Invictus, occupied a central role in a variety of settings, from the Imperial circles of Rome to the eastern provinces...

Throughout the Greco-Roman period generally, and especially in the first centuries of the Common Era, the cult of this sun god enjoyed enormous popularity.⁴

Sun worship persists to this day, as described in Dr. Singh‘s The Sun: Symbol of Power and Life, an extensive survey with many images of solar religious traditions and iconography from the earliest periods into the modern era. For more information on the &#8213;Astrotheology of the Ages&#8214; and &#8213;The God Sun,&#8214; see also Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled by Acharya S/D.M. Murdock.

		Irish &#8215;Sun Disc‘
&#8215;Anthropomorphized sun-god images	&#8215;Babylonian King before the Sun God	c. 2000 BCE
in Saimaly Tash rock drawings‘	Shamash,‘	(N. Museum of Ireland, Dublin)
Bronze Age (c. 3000-600 BCE)	c. 2000 BCE
Tien Mountains, Kyrgyzstan	(Musée du Louvre, Paris)
(Singh, 15)

And it is simple to understand why, as every morning the sun would rise, bringing vision, warmth, and security, saving man from the cold, blind, predator-filled darkness of night. Without it, the cultures understood, the crops would not grow, and life on the planet would not survive. These realities made the sun the most adored object of all time.

Concerning the ancient reverence for the sun, UNESCO Director-General Dr. Federico Mayor remarks:

As the bestower of light and life, ancient cultures generally identified the sun as the symbol of Truth, the all-seeing &#8213;one eye&#8214; of justice and equality, the fountainhead of

Singh, 295.

Kalmin, 106.

Kalmin, 103.

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wisdom, compassion, and enlightenment, the healer of physical and spiritual maladies, and, above all, the fundamental source of fecundity, growth, and fruition, as well as of death and the renewal of life.⁵

An Egyptian hymn from the era of the pharaoh Akhenaten (d. c. 1336 BCE) expresses the intense ancient reverence for the sun:

You appear beautiful,

You living sun, lord of Endless Time, are sparkling, beautiful and strong, Love of you is great and powerful.

Your rays touch every face…

Your radiant skin animates hearts.

You have filled the Two Lands [of the horizons] with love of yourself.⁶

Pharaoh Akhenaten and wife Nefertiri worshipping the sun

14^th century BCE

Likewise, they were also very aware of the stars.

Naturally, the ancient practice of &#8213;astrotheology&#8214; incorporated reverence for not only the sun but also the moon, planets, stars and constellations. In Prehistoric Lunar Astronomy, Indian scholar Dr. S.B. Roy remarks:

To the ancients...heaven was the land of gods and mystery. The sky...was itself living. The stars were the abode of the gods. The shining stars were indeed themselves luminous gods. Astronomy was the knowledge not of heavenly bodies, but of heavenly beings: It was the heavenly, celestial cosmic or divine knowledge—knowledge of devas— the bright luminous gods.⁷

Ancient stellar symbols and star maps have been found dating to many thousands of years ago, including in cave paintings and carvings. As the BBC reports in &#8213;Ice Age star map discovered&#8214;:

A prehistoric map of the night sky has been discovered on the walls of the famous painted caves at Lascaux in central France.

The map, which is thought to date back 16,5000 years, shows three bright stars known today as the summer Triangle...

Singh, 7.

Assman, ESRNK, 94.

Roy, 1.

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According to German researcher Dr. Michael Rappenglueck, of the University of Munich, the maps show that our ancestors were more sophisticated than many believe.⁸

In &#8213;&#8215;Oldest Star Chart‘ Found,&#8214; astronomer Dr. David Whitehouse states:

The oldest image of a star pattern, that of the famous constellation of Orion, has been recognised on an ivory tablet some 32,500 years old.

The tiny sliver of mammoth tusk contains a carving of a man-like figure with arms and legs outstretched in the same pose as the stars of Orion....⁹

Ancient star map	Ivory star chart
c. 16,500 years old	c. 32,500 to 38,000 years old
Lascaux, France	Ach Valley, Alb-Danuba, Germany

The tracking of the stars allowed them to recognize and anticipate events which occurred over long periods of time, such as eclipses and full moons. They in turn catalogued celestial groups into what we know today as constellations.

In his book In Search of Ancient Astronomies, astronomer Dr. Edwin C. Krupp remarks:

At Stonehenge in England and Carnac in France, in Egypt and Yucatan, across the whole face of the earth are found mysterious ruins of ancient monuments, monuments with astronomical significance... Some of them built according to celestial alignments; others were actually precision astronomical observatories... Careful observations of the celestial rhythms was compellingly important to early peoples and their expertise, in some respects, was not equaled in Europe until three thousand years later.¹⁰

One of these ancient observatories—one of the world‘s oldest yet discovered—is found in Goseck, Germany:

A vast, shadowy circle sits in a flat wheat field near Goseck, Germany... The circle represents the remains of the world‘s oldest observatory, dating back 7,000 years. Coupled with an etched disk recovered last year, the observatory suggests that Neolithic and Bronze Age people measured the heavens far earlier and more accurately than scientists had imagined.¹¹

In &#8213;Oldest solar Observatory in Americas Found in Peru,&#8214; NPR reports:

Archeologists may have uncovered what they say is by far the oldest astronomical observatory in the America: a series of towers near a temple in coastal Peru, built in the fourth century B.C...

"Ice Age star map discovered," news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/871930.stm

&#8213;&#8215;Oldest Star Chart‘ Found,&#8214; news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2679675.stm

Krupp, ISAA, xiii.

Mukerjee, &#8213;Circles for Space.&#8214; Mukerjee mentions here what is called the &#8213;Nebra Disk.&#8214;

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The towers at Chankillo mark the sun‘s progress across the sky... This suggests the sun may have played an important role in religious and political life long before the appearance of the famous Inca sun cult...

[Archeologist Ivan] Ghezzi says, &#8213;The Inca claimed to be the offspring of the sun. But now we have a society that is 1,800 years before the Inca that is clearly using the sun as a way to make a political, social and ideological statement.&#8214;

Many more such discoveries have occurred over the past several decades.

Astronomically aligned stones,	Solar circle observatory	The Thirteen Towers
c. 7,000 years old
	6,000 to 8,500 years old	c. 14^th century BCE
Goseck, Germany
	Nabta Playa, Egypt	Chankillo, Peru
(Ralf Beutragel)
		(Ivan Ghezzi)

This is the cross of the Zodiac, one of the oldest conceptual images in human history. It reflects the sun as it figuratively passes through the 12 major constellations over the course of a year. It also reflects the 12 months of the year, the four seasons, and the solstices and equinoxes. The term Zodiac relates to the fact that constellations were anthropomorphized, or personified, as figures, or animals.

The antiquity of the idea of a zodiac is disputed, but it may have been formulated as early as 4,000 or more years ago. As D.M. Murdock says in Christ in Egypt: The Horus Jesus Connection:

…the zodiac certainly existed in Mesopotamia millennia ago, worked over by the famed

Chaldean astronomers, with the Greeks further polishing it. In this regard, several sources—such as royal astronomer Dr. Edward Walter Maunder…, the devout Christian author of The Astronomy of the Bible—have indicated an origin of the zodiac, including the popular signs, to some 4,000 or more years ago. We also possess the relatively

recent find of the &#8213;Karanovo Zodiac&#8214; from Bulgaria, which has been dated to around

6,000 years ago and which seems to bear rudimentary renditions of the constellations found in the Western zodiac.¹²

The zodiac as it appears to us today was refined by the Greeks several centuries prior to the common era.

¹² Murdock, CIE, 265-266. The Karanovo Tablet has also been interpreted to be crude Egyptian hieroglyphs. See &#8213;The Sacred Tablet from the village of Karanovo,&#8214; [url=http://www.institutet-science.com/en/karanovoe.php]www.institutet-science.com/en/karanovoe.php[/url]

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Prometheus · « **Reply #2 on:** September 19, 2016, 09:24:57 PM »

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¹² Murdock, CIE, 265-266. The Karanovo Tablet has also been interpreted to be crude Egyptian hieroglyphs. See ―The Sacred Tablet from the village of Karanovo,‖ www.institutet-science.com/en/karanovoe.php

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		―Hieroglyphic Plan, by
Karanovo Tablet		Hermes, of the Ancient
c. 6,000 years old	Dendera zodiac	Zodiac‖
Nova Zagora, Bulgaria	(Kirchner, OEdipus
Nova Zagora, Bulgaria		1^st century BCE
		Dendera, Egypt	AEgyptiacus)
		Dendera, Egypt

In other words, the early civilizations did not just follow the sun and stars, they personified them with elaborate myths involving their movements and relationships.

The meanings of many myths can be traced to a number of origins, the most prominent of which is nature worship and astrotheology, whereby the gods and goddesses are essentially personifications of earthly forces and celestial bodies. As concerns the anthropomorphization of the celestial bodies, in Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, Murdock relates:

Ancient peoples abundantly acknowledged that their religions, dating back centuries and millennia before the common era, were largely based on astrotheology, with their gods representing the sun, moon, stars and planets. One of their focuses was the sun...and the story of the sun became highly developed over a period of thousands of years, possibly tens of thousands or more. The observations of the sun and its daily, monthly, annual and precessional movements have led to complex myths in which it was personified as a god...¹³

We can see this astrotheological and nature-worshipping religion in the writings of ancient historians such as Herodotus, Berossus and Diodorus, as well as in the Bible, both overtly and covertly, and in Jewish apocryphal texts.¹⁴ The writings of the Church fathers also discussed the Pagan astrotheology, sometimes fairly extensively.

One ancient source for the true nature-worshipping and astrotheological meaning of many Greek gods and goddesses is the writer Porphyry (c. 235-c. 305 AD/CE), who (according to early Catholic Church father/historian Eusebius) related:

The whole power productive of water [the Greeks] called Oceanus... the drinking-water produced is called Achelous; and the sea-water Poseidon...

...the power of fire they called Hephaestus... the fire brought down from heaven to earth is less intense...wherefore he is lame...

Also they supposed a power of this kind to belong to the sun and called it Apollo...

There are also nine Muses singing to his lyre, which are the sublunar sphere, and seven spheres of the planets, and one of the fixed stars...

But inasmuch as the sun wards off the evils of the earth, they called him Heracles [Hercules]... And they invented fables of his performing twelve labours, as the symbol of the division of the signs of the zodiac in heaven; and they arrayed him with a club and a

Acharya, SOG, 60.

For more on these subjects, see Murdock/Acharya‘s Suns of God.

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lion‘s skin, the one as an indication of his uneven motion, and the other representative of his strength in ―Leo‖ the sign of the zodiac.

Of the sun‘s healing power Asclepius is the symbol...

But the fiery power of his revolving and circling motion whereby he ripens the crops, is called Dionysus... And whereas he revolves round the cosmical seasons [Grk. horas] and is the maker of ―times and tides,‖ the sun is on this account called Horus.

Of his power over agriculture, whereon depend the gifts of wealth (Plutus), the symbol is Pluto...

Cerberus is represented with three heads, because the positions of the sun above the earth are three—rising, midday, and setting.

The moon, conceived according to her brightness, they called Artemis...

What Apollo is to the sun, that Athena is to the moon: for the moon is a symbol of wisdom, and so a kind of Athena.

But, again, the moon is Hecate, the symbol of her varying phases...

They made Pan the symbol of the universe, and gave him his horns as symbols of sun and moon, and the fawn skin as emblem of the stars in heaven, or of the variety of the universe.¹⁵

Porphyry‘s explanations include many other divine figures, relating them to additional nature-worshipping elements such as air, wind, fruits and seeds, and he names the earth as a virgin and mother:

In all these ways, then, the power of the earth finds an interpretation and is worshipped: as a virgin and Hestia, she holds the centre; as a mother she nourishes...¹⁶

Here is clearly one source in antiquity of the virgin-mother concept, which was so obviously adopted into Christianity from Paganism. As can be seen, the Greek religion was perceived in ancient times to be highly astrotheological and reflective of nature worship. The same can be said of many others, such as the Babylonian, Egyptian, Indian and Roman.

Hercules and the Hydra	Disk with Dionysus and 11 signs of
Roman mosaic	the zodiac
Valencia, Spain	4^th cent. BCE?
(Photo: Zaqarbal)	Brindisi, Italy
	(Kerenyi, fig. 146)¹⁷

Sun god Apollo riding in his chariot pulled by four horses

Mosaic

¹⁵ Eusebius, Evangelicae Praeparationis (―The Preparation for the Gospel‖), III, XI, 112d-115a; Eusebius/Gifford, 122-125.

Eusebius, Praep., III, XI, 110c; Eusebius/Gifford, 120-121.

Concerning this disk, Dr. Kerenyi (386) states: ―The Brindisi disk includes the earliest known representation of the zodiac on Greek or Italian soil. To the artisan who fashioned it, the zodiac was still new. He inscribed it on the edge of the disk but did not understand its figures…. He also changed the order of the constellations but surely followed a very early model, for like the original Babylonian zodiac his has only eleven signs and a double-length Scorpio.‖

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The sun, with its life-giving and saving qualities was personified as a representative of the unseen creator or god—“God’s Sun”

We have already seen that the ancient cultures have considered the sun as divine; hence, it is either God, a god, or a son of God/a god. Indeed, this ―sun of God as son of God‖ motif is common in the mythology of India, Greece, Rome and Egypt, to name a few of the more well-known nations. In Egypt, this ―son of the sun‖ is the god Horus, among others, while in Greece it is Apollo, son of Zeus, whose name means ―God.‖ This same tradition was discussed by Plato, as related in The Book of the Sun (1494) by Neoplatonic-Christian philosopher Marsillio Ficino:

According to Plato [Republic, VI, 508c¹⁸], he called the Sun not God himself, but the son of God. And I say not the first son of God, but a second, and moreover visible son. For the first son of God is not this visible Sun, but another far superior intellect, namely the first one which only the intellect can contemplate. Therefore Socrates, having been awakened by the celestial Sun, surmised a super celestial Sun, and he contemplated attentively its majesty, and inspired, would admire the incomprehensible bounty of the Father.¹⁹

In a chapter (2) entitled, ―How the light of the Sun is similar to Goodness itself, namely, God,‖ Ficino summarizes the ―god‖ characteristics projected upon the solar orb by ancient cultures extending into modern times:

...Above all the Sun is most able to signify to you God himself. The Sun offers you signs, and who dare to call the Sun false? Finally, the invisible things of God, that is to say, the angelic spirits, can be most powerfully seen by the intellect through the stars, and indeed even eternal things—the virtue and divinity of God—can be seen through the Sun.²⁰

Concerning the ―son-sun‖ play on words—which is not a cognate but a mere happy coincidence in English that reflects the mythological ―reality‖—in Jesus as the Sun throughout History, Murdock states:

…this sun-son word play has been noted many times previously in history by a variety of individuals, including English priest and poet Robert Southwell in the 16^th century and English poet Richard Crashaw in the 17^th century. English poet and preacher John Donne (1572-1631) and Welsh poet and priest George Herbert (1593-1633) likewise engaged in the son/sun pun as applied to Christ. In discussing Donne, Dr. Arthur L. Clements, a professor at Binghamton University, remarks that the ―Son-sun pun‖ is ―familiar enough.‖ Comparing Christ to the ―day star,‖ famous English poet John Milton (1608-1674) was aware of the ―sun/son of God‖ analogy and ―revel[ed] in the sun-son pun.‖… Puritan minister Edward Taylor (1642-1729) engaged in the same punning by describing Christ as ―the onely [sic] begotten Sun that is in the bosom of the Father...‖

Furthermore, in describing the actions of the Church fathers in adapting sun myths to Christianity, Thomas Ellwood Longshore declared in 1881, ―They merely changed the visible ‗Sun of God‘ for the invisible ‗Son of God,‘ or for this personage they called the ‗Son of God‘...‖

Obviously, this ―devotional pun‖ was widely recognized centuries ago by the English-speaking intelligentsia and educated elite….

To reiterate, while the mythical ―truth‖ is that in antiquity the sun was perceived as the ―son of God,‖ the claim is not being made that the words ―sun‖ and ―son‖ are related or cognates. Or

See Plato/Ferrari, 215. See also Pico della Mirandola (163): ―...when Plato in the Republic calls the sun the visible son of God, why may we not understand it as the image of the invisible Son?‖

Voss, 211.

Voss, 190.

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that the NT writers knew English, or that this phonic coincidence in itself provides any evidence whatsoever of the thesis it illustrates. As we can see, however, great English writers have happily glommed onto the notion that the ―Sun of Righteousness‖ is the ―Son of God‖ and have utilized the ―son/sun‖ pun or play on words with glee.

…the light of the world, the savior of human kind. Likewise, the 12 constellations represented places of travel for God’s Sun and were identified by names, usually representing elements of nature that happened during that period of time. For example, Aquarius, the water bearer, who brings the Spring rains.

The notions of the sun as the ―savior‖ and the ―light of the world‖ are understandably common in ancient religious history:

...The Sun was looked up to as the grand omnipotent nucleus, whose all-vivifying power is the vital and sole source of animative and vegetative existence upon the globe—the glorious foundation out of which springs all that man ever has, or ever can call good; and as such, the only proper object of the homage and adoration of mankind: hence the Sun, as we are informed by Pausanias, was worshipped at Eleusis under the name of ―The Saviour.‖²¹

In his description of a sacred precinct in Arkadia that apparently practiced the Eleusinian mysteries, famous Greek historian of the second century AD/CE, Pausanias, (8.31) remarks:

There are these square-shaped statues of other gods inside the enclosure: Hermes the Leader, Apollo, Athene, Poseidon, the Saviour Sun, and Herakles.²²

To describe the sun as ―savior,‖ Pausanias uses the word Soter, a title commonly applied to many gods and goddesses at different places.

The sun‘s role as savior and light is exemplified in the following ancient

Egyptian solar hymn:

You are the light, which rises for humankind; the sun, which brings clarity,

so that gods and humans be recognised and distinguished when you reveal yourself.

Every face lives from seeing your beauty,

all seed germinates when touched by your rays, and there is no-one who can live without you.

You lead everyone, because they have a duty to their work. You have given form to their life, by becoming visible.²³

With regard to the ―12...places of travel for God‘s Sun,‖ The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology relates:

In Russian Folklore the Sun possessed twelve kingdoms—the twelve

months or signs of the Zodiac. He lived in the solar disk and his children on the stars...

The daily movement of the Sun across the celestial sphere was represented in certain Slavonic myths as a change in his age: the sun was born every morning...²⁴

The notion of the sun moving, passing or traveling through the zodiacal circle was expressed by the Greek philosophers Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle.²⁵ Neoplatonist Ficino may be echoing their sentiment, when he says:

Mitchell, 62.

Pausanias/Levi, 451.

Assman, ESRNK, 78.

Larousse, 285.

Mansfield, 701.

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The Sun, in that it is clearly lord of the sky, rules and moderates all truly celestial things... Firstly, it infuses light into all the stars, whether they have a tiny light of their own (as some people suspect), or no light at all (as very many think). Next, through the twelve signs of the zodiac, it is called living...and that sign which the Sun invigorates actually appears to be alive.²⁶

This idea of the sun—or moon—―traveling‖ through the signs of the zodiac was common among several peoples, including the Anglo-Saxons, as demonstrated in the De temporibus anni of Ælfric Puttoc (d. 1051), who personifies the moon (―old and tired‖) and relates:

Truly the moon year has twenty-seven days and eight hours... This is the moon year, but its month is more, which is when the moon travels new from the sun until it returns to the sun again, old and tired, and is displayed again through the sun [i.e. new moon]. In the moon month are counted twenty-nine days and twelve hours, this is the moon month, and its year is when it travels through all twelve star signs.²⁷

So&

Prometheus · « **Reply #3 on:** September 19, 2016, 09:33:36 PM »

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Voss, 192.

Chardonnens, 395.

Sela, 37.

Acharya, CC, 152, as paraphrased from Hazelrigg‘s The Sun Book, 43.

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In order to understand how the ancients personified the celestial elements and told stories about them, we can turn to the myth of Hercules, which has been recognized to be both astronomical and astrotheological:

…The Labors of Hercules which chiefly interest us are: (1) The capture of the Bull, (2) the slaughter of the Lion, (3) the destruction of the Hydra, (4) of the Boar, (5) the cleansing of the stables of Augeas, (6) the descent into Hades and the taming of Cerberus. The first of these is in line with the Mithraic conquest of the Bull; the Lion is of course one of the most prominent constellations of the Zodiac, and its conquest is obviously the work of a Saviour of mankind; while the last four labors connect themselves very naturally with the Solar conflict in winter against the powers of darkness. The Boar (4) we have seen already as the image of Typhon, the prince of darkness; the Hydra (3) was said to be the offspring of Typhon; the descent into Hades

(6)—generally associated with Hercules‘ struggle with and victory over Death—links on to the descent of the Sun into the underworld, and its long and doubtful strife with the forces of winter; and the cleansing of the stables of Augeas (5) has the same signification. It appears in fact that the stables of Augeas was another name for the sign of Capricorn through which the Sun passes at the Winter solstice—the stable of course being an underground chamber—and the myth was that there, in this lowest tract and backwater of the Ecliptic all the malarious and evil influences of the sky were collected, and the Sungod came to wash them away (December was the height of the rainy season in Judæa) and cleanse the year towards its rebirth.

It should not be forgotten too that even as a child in the cradle Hercules slew two serpents sent for his destruction—the serpent and the scorpion as autumnal constellations figuring always as enemies of the Sungod—to which may be compared the power given to his disciples by Jesus ―to tread on serpents and scorpions.‖ Hercules also as a Sungod compares curiously with Samson...but we need not dwell on all the elaborate analogies that have been traced between these two heroes....³⁰

9. This is Horus. He is the Sun God of Egypt of around 3000 BC.

Concerning the antiquity of Horus, Egyptologist Dr. Edmund S. Meltzer remarks:

Horus is one of the earliest attested of the major ancient Egyptian deities, becoming known to us at least as early as the late Predynastic period (Naqada III/Dynasty 0) [c. 3200-3000 BCE]; he was still prominent in the latest temples of the Greco-Roman period [332 BCE-640 AD/CE], especially at Philae and Edfu, as well as in the Old Coptic and Greco-Egyptian ritual power, or magical, texts.³¹

As is the case with many gods in other parts of the world, several Egyptian gods (and goddesses) possess solar attributes, essentially making them sun gods. These Egyptian sun gods included not only the commonly known Ra or Re, but also Osiris and Horus, among others. In the first century BCE, the Greek writer Diodorus Siculus described Osiris as the sun, while his sister-wife, Isis, is the moon:

Now when the ancient Egyptians, awestruck and wondering, turned their eyes to the heavens, they concluded that two gods, the sun and the moon, were primeval and eternal: they called the former Osiris, the latter Isis....³²

Concerning the nature of certain Egyptian gods, Dr. James P. Allen, Curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, remarks:

...Ruling over the universe by day, the Sun was identified with Horus, the god of kingship; at sunset he was seen as Atum, the oldest of all gods. The Sun‘s daily

Carpenter, 48-50.

Redford, 165.

Diodorus/Murphy, 14.

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movement through the sky was viewed as a journey from birth to death, and his rebirth

at dawn was made possible through Osiris, the force of new life...

…In the middle of the night the Sun merged with Osiris‘s body; through this union, the

Sun received the power of new life while Osiris was reborn in the Sun.³³

These gods are often interchangeable, and their attributes and stories may overlap. As stated by Egyptologist Dr. Erik Hornung:

Many Egyptian gods can be the sun god, especially Re, Atum, Amun, and manifestations of Horus. Even Osiris appears as the night form of the sun god in the New Kingdom. It is often not defined which particular sun god is meant in a given instance.³⁴

Hieroglyph representing either Horus or Ra in his Sun Disk (Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, cxiv)

These gods‘ interchangeability is evident from Egyptian texts, such as chapter or spell 69 of the

Book of the Dead:

…I am Horus the Elder on the Day of Accession, I am Anubis of Sepa, I am the Lord of

All, I am Osiris.³⁵

Moreover, there were several Horuses, including Horus the Elder, whose eyes are the sun and the moon, as well as also Horus the Child, a number of whose attributes may be found in the gospel story and Christian tradition. Eventually these ―various Horuses blended together until there were only two left; Horus the Sun God and Horus the son of Osiris and Isis.‖³⁶

Concerning these different Horuses, Egyptologist Dr. Henri Frankfort says:

It is therefore a mistake to separate ―Horus, the Great God, Lord of Heaven,‖ from ―Horus, son of Osiris,‖ or to explain their identity as due to syncretism in comparatively late times. The two gods ―Horus‖ whose titles we have set side by side are, in reality, one and the same.³⁷

Horus the Elder Horus the Child with sidelock

Magical Stela, 360–343 BCE

Allen, AEPT, 8.

Hornung, CGAE, 283.

Faulkner, EBD (1967), 107

Jackson, J., 112.

Frankfort, 41.

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10. He is the sun, anthropomorphized, and his life is a series of allegorical myths involving the sun’s movement in the sky.

We have already seen that Horus is a sun god, a fact confirmed five centuries before the common era by the Greek historian Herodotus (2.144, 156), when he equated Osiris with Dionysus and Horus with the Greek sun god Apollo: ―In Egyptian, Apollo is Horus, Demeter is Isis,

Artemis is Bubastis….‖³⁸

Regarding Horus as the sun god, Murdock says:

In ancient Egyptian writings such as the Pyramid Texts, in which he is called the ―Lord of the Sky,‖ along with other solar epithets such as ―He Whose Face is Seen,‖ ―He Whose Hair is Parted,‖ and ―He Whose Two Plumes are Long,‖ Horus‘s function as a sun god or aspect of the sun is repeatedly emphasized, although this singularly pertinent fact is seldom found in encyclopedias and textbooks, leaving us to wonder why he would be thus diminished. In the

Coffin Texts as well is Horus‘s role as (morning) sun god made clear, such as in the following elegantly rendered scripture from CT Sp. 255:

―…I will appear as Horus who ascends in gold from upon the lips of the horizon…‖

In CT Sp. 326, Horus is even called ―Lord of the sunlight.‖³⁹ Egyptologist James Allen also discusses Horus‘s solar attributes:

‗The Sun Springing from an Opening Lotus-Flower in the Form of the Child Horus‘

(Maspero, 193)

Horus was the power of kingship. To the Egyptians this was as much a force of nature as those embodied in the other gods. It was manifest in two natural phenomena: the sun, the most powerful force in nature; and the pharaoh, the most powerful force in human society. Horus‘s role as the king of nature is probably the origin of his name: hrw seems to mean ―the one above‖ or ―the one far off‖... This is apparently a reference to the sun, which is ―above‖ and ―far off‖ in the sky, like the falcon with which Horus is regularly associated...⁴⁰

Illustrating certain motifs including the sun god‘s movement through the night and day, Sir Dr. E.A. Wallis Budge (1857–1934), noted English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works, remarks:

The Sun has countless names, Ptah, Tmu, Ra, Horus, Khnemu, Sebek, Amen, etc.; and some of them, such as Osiris and Seker, are names of the Sun after he has set, or, in mythological language, has died and been buried.... All gods, as such, were absolutely equal in their might and in their divinity; but, mythologically, Osiris might be said to be slain by his brother Set, the personification of Night, who, in his turn, was overthrown by Horus (the rising sun), the heir of Osiris.⁴¹

As we can see, both Osiris and Horus are essentially sun gods, who both also battle with the

―Prince of Darkness,‖ the god Set or Seth.

Herodotus/de Selincourt, 145.

Murdock, CIE, 47.

Allen, J., ME, 144.

Budge, GFSER, 2-3.

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‗Horus emerging from the corpse of Osiris, the sun disk behind him‘ Burial chamber of Ramesses VI, 1145-1137 BCE

(Hornung, Valley of the Kings, 116)

11. From the ancient hieroglyphics in Egypt, we know much about this solar messiah. For instance, Horus, being the sun, or the light, had an enemy known as Set, and Set was the personification of the darkness or night. And, metaphorically speaking, every morning Horus would win the battle against Set—while in the evening, Set would conquer Horus and send him into the underworld. It is important to note that “dark vs. light” or “good vs. evil” is one of the most ubiquitous mythological dualities ever known and is still expressed on many levels to this day.

Like his father, Osiris, battling Set/Seth on a nightly basis, so too does Horus fight Seth, as related by Egyptologist Dr. Jan Assman:

First, Horus and Seth battle one another in the form of hippopotami; Isis seizes a harpoon but is unable to kill Seth, because he addresses her as sister. Horus is furious at this act of mercy and decapitates Isis. He flees into the desert, where Seth finds him and rips his eyes out. But the wounds are immediately healed and the plot continues.⁴²

Horus‘s conflict with Set is also recounted by the director of the Antiquities Museum at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, Dr. Badrya Serry:

It is known that the child Harpocrates struggled with his uncle Seth to revenge his father...and attain victory upon him. Since he overcame the powers of darkness (Seth) [he was] likened to the Greek hero Heracles who battled the powers of evilness.⁴³

For more information, see the chapter ―Horus versus Set,‖ pp. 67-78, in Murdock‘s Christ in Egypt.

‗Set‘ as represented in the tomb of Horus versus Set

pharaoh Thutmose III (fl. 1479–1425)

Assman, SGAE, 140.

Goyon, 121.

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12. Broadly speaking, the story of Horus is as follows. Horus was born on December 25^th….

It needs to be understood that the Egyptian stories were never ―laid out‖ in a linear form; rather, they appear in bits and pieces in primary sources such as the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, compiled and altered over many centuries, beginning as early as 7,000 years ago. Thus, it is a common misconception that the myths unfold in the same linear manner as in the Christian narrative. Most of these motifs are indeed not linear narratives, but, rather, symbolic associations derived from different Egyptian texts, as well as later mythographers‘ accounts. Since this description of Horus here is obviously angled from the reference point of the Christian narrative, the subject needs to be deconstructed and reconsidered from the standpoint of each motif, rather than the overall narrative. The Christian story must, in turn, likewise be considered from the standpoint of each individual motif and not linearly, because this basic ―mythicist‖⁴⁴ argument is that the Christian religion is a compilation of religious motifs which existed previously—and separately.

Obviously, the English term ―December 25^th‖ did not exist in the ancient Egyptian calendar but simply refers to the winter solstice, which the ancients perceived as beginning on December 21^st and ending at midnight on the 24^th. We learn from one of the most famous historians of the first century, Plutarch (46-120 AD/CE), that Horus the Child—or ―Harpocrates,‖ as was his Greek name—was ―born about the winter solstice, unfinished and infant-like...‖⁴⁵

Three centuries after Plutarch, ancient Latin writer Macrobius (395–423 AD/CE) also reported on an annual Egyptian ―Christmas‖ celebration (Saturnalia, I, XVIII:10):

…at the winter solstice the sun would seem to be a little child, like that which the

Egyptians bring forth from a shrine on an appointed day, since the day is then at its shortest and the god is accordingly shown as a tiny infant.⁴⁶

As Egyptologist Dr. Bojana Mojsov remarks: ―The symbol of the savior-child was the eye of the sun newly born every year at the winter solstice.‖⁴⁷

Other indications of the Egyptian reverence of the winter solstice may be found in hieroglyphs, as Murdock relates:

As [Egyptologist Dr. Heinrich] Brugsch explains, the Egyptians not only abundantly recorded and revered the time of the winter solstice, they also created a number of hieroglyphs to depict it, including the image mentioned by Budge, which turns out to be the goddess-sisters Isis and Nephthys with the solar disc floating above their hands over a lifegiving ankh—the looped Egyptian cross—as the sun‘s rays extend down to the cross symbol. This image of the sun between Isis and Nephthys, which is sometimes depicted without the ankh, is described in an inscription at Edfu regarding Ptolemy VII (fl. 145 BCE?) and applied to the winter solstice, translated as: ―The sun coming out of the sky-ocean into the hands of the siblings Isis and Nephthys.‖ This image very much looks like the sun being born, which is sensible, since, again, Harpocrates, the morning sun, was born every day, including at the winter solstice.⁴⁸

The ―mythicist position‖ or ―mythicism‖ posits that many if not most of the ancient gods, goddesses and godmen, as well as various heroes and legends, are not ―real people‖ but mythical figures. This perception may include not just the Greek and Roman gods, for example, who are presently viewed as myths by mainstream scholarship and the lay public alike, but also many biblical figures, including Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

Plutarch, ―Isis and Osiris‖ (65, 387C); King, C.W., 56; Plutarch/Babbitt, 153.

Macrobius/Davies, 129. The original Latin of this paragraph in Macrobius is: ―…ut parvulus videatur hiemali solstitio, qualem Aegyptii proferunt ex adyto die certa, quod tunc brevissimo die veluti parvus et infans videatur…‖ (Murdock, CIE, 89.)

Mojsov, 13.

Murdock, CIE, 94.

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Isis and Nephthys holding the baby Sun

over the Life-Giving Ankh, representing the Winter Solstice (Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, 351)

There are many other artifacts in Egypt that demonstrate Horus‘s association with the winter solstice, including his temples aligned to the rising sun at that time of the year.⁴⁹

13. ...of the virgin Isis-Meri.

The virginity of Horus‘s mother, Isis, has been disputed, because in one myth she is portrayed <

Prometheus · « **Reply #4 on:** September 19, 2016, 09:36:53 PM »

―Osiris...begetting a son by Isis, who hovers over him in the form of a hawk.‖ (Budge, On the Future Life: Egyptian Religion, 80)

As is often the case with mythical figures, despite the way she is impregnated, Isis remained the ―Great Virgin,‖ as she is called in a number of pre-Christian Egyptian writings. As stated by Egyptologist Dr. Reginald E. Witt:

The Egyptian goddess who was equally ―the Great Virgin‖ (hwnt) and ―Mother of the God‖ was the object of the very same praise bestowed upon her successor [Mary, Virgin Mother of Jesus].⁵²

One of the inscriptions that calls Isis the ―Great Virgin‖ appears in the temple of Seti I at Abydos dating to the 13^th century BCE, while in later times she is equated with the constellation of Virgo, the Virgin.⁵³ Also, in the temple of Neith and Isis at Sais was an ancient inscription that depicted the virgin birth of the sun:

For more information on the winter solstice in ancient Egypt, see Murdock, CIE, 79-117.

Frazer, GB, IV, 8.

Murdock, CIE, 201.

Witt, 273.

For more on the virgin status of Isis, see Murdock, CIE, 138-157.

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The present and the future and the past, I am. My undergarment no one has uncovered. The fruit I brought forth, the sun came into being.⁵⁴

In the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, professor of Old Testament and Catholic Theology at the University of Bonn Dr. G. Johannes Botterweck writes:

In the Late Period in particular, goddesses are frequently called ―(beautiful) virgins,‖ especially Hathor, Isis, and Nephthys.⁵⁵

In addition, according to early Church father Epiphanius (c. 310-403), the virgin mother of the god Aion—also considered to be Horus—brought him forth out of the manger each year.⁵⁶ This account is verified earlier by Church father Hippolytus (c. 236), who, in discussing the various Pagan mysteries (Refutation of All Heresies, 8.45), raises the idea of a ―virgin spirit‖ and remarks: ―For she is the virgin who is with child and conceives and bears a son, who is not psychic, not bodily, but a blessed Aion of Aions.‖⁵⁷

Concerning the relationship of the Egyptian religion to Christianity, Budge summarizes:

..at the last, when [Osiris‘s] cult disappeared before the religion of the

Man Christ, the Egyptians who embraced Christianity found that the moral system of the old cult and that of the new religion were so similar, and the promises of resurrection and immortality in each so much alike, that they transferred their allegiance from Osiris to Jesus of Nazareth without difficulty. Moreover, Isis and the child Horus were straightway identified with Mary the Virgin and her Son, and in the apocryphal literature of the first few centuries which followed the evangelization of Egypt, several of the legends about Isis and her sorrowful wanderings were made to centre round the Mother of Christ. Certain of the attributes of the sister goddesses of Isis were also ascribed to her, and, like the goddess Neith of Sais, she was declared to possess perpetual virginity. Certain of the Egyptian Christian Fathers gave to the Virgin the title ―Theotokos,‖ or ―Mother of God,‖ forgetting, apparently, that it was an exact translation of neter mut, a very old and common title of Isis.

As Murdock shows in her books Suns of God and Christ in Egypt, the mythical virgin-mother motif has been common, possesses an astrotheological meaning, and was part of the ancient mysteries.

Isis nursing Horus (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

Moreover, the title or epithet of ―Meri‖ or ―Mery,‖ meaning ―beloved,‖

was applied to many kings and later to various deities, such as Isis, including just before the supposed existence of Jesus‘s mother, Mary. As Egyptologist Dr. Alfred Wiedermann, a professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Bonn, remarks:

The Egyptian word Meri means, very generally, ―the loving or the beloved,‖ and serves in this sense as a title of goddesses, and is as often used as a proper name…⁵⁸

For more on this subject of the term ―Meri,‖ see Christ in Egypt, pp. 124-138.

Murdock, CIE, 146.

Botterweck, II, 338-339.

Murdock, CIE, 87-88.

Meyer, 152.

Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archaeology, XI, 272.

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14. His birth was accompanied by a star in the east, and upon his birth he was adored by three kings.

The very idea that when a person is born a star appears, along with three magi or kings following it to meet the newborn savior, obviously and logically represents a metaphysical fantasy/mythological event. Therefore, again, the symbolic relationships are of the greatest interest to us, and here the important questions thus become: Were Jesus and Horus both associated with a birth star and three ―kings‖ or magi? Is there a relationship between the birth star and the three kings? The answer to these questions is a definitive yes, based on scholarship concerning the Horus/Osiris/Ra myths, which we need to recall are often interchangeable.

The theme of the newborn savior being signaled by a star and approached by three ―kings‖ or dignitaries has multiple mythological meanings, the prominent astrotheological one of which is summarized by Barbara G. Walker:

Osiris‘s coming was announced by Three Wise Men: the three stars Mintaka, Anilam, and Alnitak in the belt of Orion, which point directly to Osiris‘s star in the east, Sirius (Sothis), significator of his birth.⁵⁹

Star in the East: To understand the ―Star in the East,‖ one first needs to recognize the significance of the star Sirius or Sothis, as it is called in Greek. In the words of Dr. Allen:

Sothis (spdt ―Sharp‖). The morning star, Sirius, seen by the Egyptians as a goddess. In

Egypt the star disappears below the horizon once a year for a period of some seventy days; its reappearance in midsummer marked the beginning of the annual inundation and the Egyptian year. The star‘s rising was also seen as a harbinger of the sunrise and therefore associated with Horus in his solar aspect, occasionally specified as Horus in Sothis (hrw jmj spdt), Sothic Horus (hrw spdtj), or Sharp Horus (hrw spd).⁶⁰

The importance to the Egyptians of Sirius/Sothis, as well as the constellation of Orion, is further explained by Welsh professor Dr. John Gwyn Griffiths:

...Sothis was the harbinger of the annual inundation of the Nile through her appearance with the rising sun at the time when the inundation was due to begin. The bright star would therefore naturally become, together with the conjoined constellation of Orion, the sign and symbol of new vegetation which the Year then beginning would infallibly bring with it….⁶¹

The above birth sequence with Sirius refers not to the winter solstice (as will be discussed later) but to the summer solstice, signaling the births of Osiris as the Nile inundation and of Horus the Elder, as well as the Child who is the daily newborn sun. In winter, the ―Three Kings‖ in the belt of Orion pointed to Sirius at night before the annual birth of the sun, which is also Horus, as the Child.

Three Kings: Again, the ―Three Kings‖ are the stars in Orion‘s belt: ―Mintaka,‖ ―Anilam‖ and ―Alnitak.‖ These stars, along with Sirius, are tied to the cycles of death and rebirth. In the ancient texts, Osiris is often identified with Orion and these stars. (Remember, Osiris and Horus overlap and can sometimes be considered one entity in certain contexts.) As Murdock states, "So interchangeable are Osiris and Horus that there is even a hybrid god Osiris-Horus or Asar-Heru."⁶²

Walker, B., WEMS, 749.

Allen, J., 441.

Griffiths, OOHC, 157.

Murdock, CIE, 56.

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Hieroglyph for Osiris-Horus

(Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, I, 87)

In the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (PT 442:819c-822b/P38⁶³) it reads:

―Look, he is come as Orion,‖ (they say). ―Look, Osiris is come as Orion...‖

The sky shall conceive you with Orion, the morning-star shall give you birth with Orion. Live! Live, as the gods have commanded you live.

With Orion in the eastern arm of the sky shall you go up, with Orion in the western arm of the sky shall you go down. Sothis, whose places are clean, is the third of you two: she is the one who will lead you...⁶⁴

Concerning the general relationship between Orion, Sirius and the Egyptian deities, Egyptologist Dr. Bojana Mojsov states:

The constellation of Orion was linked with Osiris: ―He has come as Orion. Osiris has come as Orion,‖ proclaim the Pyramid Texts. Sirius and Orion, Isis and Osiris, inseparable in heaven as on earth, heralded the inundation and the rebirth of life. Their appearance in the sky was a measure of time and a portent of great magnitude. In historic times, both occasions were always marked by celebrations.⁶⁵

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for Orion,

with three-looped string and star (Budge, Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, 638)

The ―three kings‖ approaching the baby in a manger can also be seen in the ritual of the baby falcon god Sokar, who was brought out of the temple at the winter solstice and who has been identified with Horus.⁶⁶

This numbering method is after that devised by D.M. Murdock in Christ in Egypt. (See Murdock, CIE, p. 36, footnote 6.)

Allen, J., 107.

Mojsov, 7.

For more information, see Murdock, CIE, 107ff.

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Prometheus · « **Reply #5 on:** September 20, 2016, 09:43:36 PM »

The baby Sokar approached by Ptah-Sokar-Osiris at the winter solstice (Wilkinson, Manner and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, III, 18; Murdock, The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar, 34)

15. At the age of 12, he was a prodigal child teacher, and at the age of 30 he was baptized by a figure known as Anup and thus began his ministry.

Child Teacher: Regarding Horus‘s role as a ―child teacher in the temple,‖ Murdock relates:

…In the first place, Horus was commonly viewed as the rising sun, during which time, it could be said, ―He dwelt on earth as mortal Horus in the house of Seb (earth) until he was twelve years of age.‖ In the solar mythos, the ―age‖ of 12 refers to the sun at high noon, the twelfth hour of the day, when the ―God Sun‖ is doing his ―heavenly father‘s work‖ in the ―temple‖ or ―tabernacle‖ of the ―most high.‖ In the Egyptian myth, the child Horus—the rising sun—becomes Re at the ―age‖ of 12 noon, when he moves into his ―Father‘s house,‖ in other words, that of Re and/or Osiris, who are interchangeable, as we have seen. Indeed, while the sun gods or solar epithets are interchangeable in and of themselves, in certain texts…Re is specifically named as Horus‘s father; hence, the relationship here is doubly appropriate. The fact of Horus attaining so quickly to such maturity certainly may impress his elders, the older suns, as he literally becomes them. To put it another way, Horus is the sun from the time it arrives on the horizon until 12 noon, at which point he becomes Re, the father of the gods and the ―father of Horus‖ as well. It could thus be said that Horus does his father’s work in the temple at the age of

12.

In The Dawn of Astronomy, [Royal Astronomer Sir Norman] Lockyer describes this process of Horus becoming Re at the hour or ―age‖ of 12:

We have the form of Harpocrates at its rising, the child sun-god being generally represented by the figure of a hawk. When in human form, we notice the presence of a side lock of hair. The god Ra symbolises, it is said, the sun in his noontide strength; while for the time of sunset we have various names, chiefly Osiris, Tum, or Atmu, the dying sun represented by a mummy and typifying old age. The hours of the day were also personified, the twelve changes during the twelve hours being mythically connected with the sun‘s daily movement across the sky.

The various ―phases‖ of the sun‘s journey were given different personalities, while remaining one entity. Hence, Horus the Child wears the side lock until 12 noon when he becomes the adult Re.⁶⁷

⁶⁷ Murdock, CIE, 214.

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Murdock also says:

In the Egyptian story of Khamuas/Khamois found on Papyrus DCIV of the British Museum appears an interesting tale about Sa-Asar, Si-Osiris or Senosiris—the ―son of Osiris‖—who ―grew rapidly in wisdom and knowledge of magic.‖ The tale continues: ―When Si-Osiris was twelve years old he was wiser than the wisest of the scribes.‖ This story includes fantastical elements—such as a visit to the underworld—that indicate it is not historical but may well revolve around Horus, son of Osiris. Thus, in Egypt we find a similar tale as in the gospel about the ―son of God‖ who is 12 years old and is precocious in intelligence and knowledge, besting the elders and scribes.⁶⁸

Baptism: Baptism in the ancient pre-Christian world, including in Egypt, was common, as related by early Church father Tertullian (c. 160-c. 220):

For washing is the channel through which [the heathen] are initiated into some sacred rites—of some notorious Isis or Mithras. The gods themselves likewise they honour by washings.⁶⁹

In CIE, Murdock discusses the ancient Egyptian purification or baptism:

Concerning the sun god‘s nightly journey back to life, Egyptologist Dr. Jacobus Van Dijk of the University of Groningen says that ―according to the Pyramid Texts, the sun god purifies himself in the morning in the Lake of the Field of Rushes.‖ Thus, the morning sun—or Horus—was said to pass through the purifying or baptismal waters to become reborn, revivified or resurrected.⁷⁰

Murdock references several Pyramid Texts citing the issue of using a ―Divine Lake‖ to purify.

The Egyptian god Anpu, Anup or ―Anubis,‖ the latter of which is his Greek name, is the Egyptian precedent for the Christian character John the Baptist. There are many similarities, such as Anubis being the ―Preparer of the Way of the Other World‖⁷¹ and John the Baptist being ―preparer of the way of Christ.‖ As another, Anubis serves as ―purifier‖ or ―baptizer‖ of

Egyptian gods and deceased persons, including both Horus and Osiris.

Concerning the role of Anubis/Anup in Egyptian mythology, lay Egyptologist Gerald Massey states:

The karast is literally the god or person who has been mummified, embalmed, and anointed or christified. Anup the baptizer and embalmer of the dead for the new life was the preparer of the karast-mummy. As John the Baptist is the founder of the Christ in baptism, so Anup was the christifier of the mortal Horus, he on whom the holy ghost descended as a bird when the Osiris made his transformation in the marriage mystery of Tat tu (Rit., ch. 17). We read in the funeral texts of Anup—being ―Suten tu hetep, Anup, neb tser khent neter ta krast-ef em set‖ (Birch, Funereal Text, 4^th Dynasty). ―Suten hept tu Anup tep-tuf khent neter ha am ut neb tser krast ef em as-ef en kar neter em set Amenta‖ (Birch, Funereal Stele of Ra-Khepr-Ka, 12^th Dynasty). Anup gives embalmment, krast; he is lord over the place of embalmment, the kras; the lord of embalming (krast), who, so to say, makes the ―krast.‖ The process of embalmment is to make the mummy. This was a type of immortality or rising again. Osiris is krast, or embalmed and mummified for the resurrection. Passage into life and light is made for the karast-dead through the embalmment of the good Osiris (Rit., ch. 162)—that is,

Murdock, CIE, 213.

Tertullian, On Baptism, V , p. 9.

Murdock, CIE, 247.

Bonwick, 120.

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through his being karast as the mummy type. Thus the Egyptian krast was the pre-Christian Christ, and the pictures in the Roman Catacombs preserve the proof.⁷²

For a detailed discussion of the term ―karast‖ or ―krst,‖ see Murdock, CIE, pp. 313-318. Regarding Anubis‘s role as not only embalmer but also ―purifier,‖ Murdock remarks:

… as embalmer, Anubis‘s purifying role in mummification is made clear in the fact that he presides over the ―House of Purification‖ and ―Tent of Purification,‖ the latter called tp-jbw in Egyptian. In describing the funerary rituals, Dr. Lesko states:

Pouring of water, for its life-giving as well as purification qualities, was part of every ritual. The corpse, whether first desiccated or not, would have been washed (in the Tent of Purification) and then anointed and wrapped in the embalmer‘s shop. Seven sacred oils used for anointing the body are known already in the first dynasty….⁷³

There is much more to this subject, and interested parties are directed to the 28-page chapter

―Anup the Baptizer‖ in Murdock‘s Christ in Egypt.

Anubis purifying the Osiris (Renouf, Egyptian Book of the Dead, 51)

16. Horus had 12 disciples he traveled about with, performing miracles such as healing the sick and walking on water.

Again, these themes were not all rolled into one in this manner in an ancient text but are put together here in order to reconstruct the Horus myth, the same as mythographers do with modern encyclopedia entries. The motifs exist separately in a variety of texts, from which the creators of Christianity evidently drew for their narrative.

12 Disciples: In Chaldean Magic: Its Origins and Development, French archaeologist Francois Lenormant states:

...The sun of the lower Hemispheres took more especially the name of Osiris. Its companions and deputies were the twelve of the night personified as so many gods, at the head of which was placed Horus, the rising sun itself...⁷⁴

As Murdock says:

The configuration of Re, Osiris or Horus with 12 other individuals, whether gods or men, can be found abundantly in Egyptian texts, essentially reflecting the sun god with

⁷² Massey, AELW, I, 218. For a discussion of Massey‘s work, which was based on that of the best

Egyptologists of his day, some of whom also reviewed his writings prior to publication, see Christ in Egypt, pp. 13-23.

Murdock, CIE, 249.

Lenormant, 83.

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12 ―companions,‖ ―helpers‖ or ―disciples.‖ This theme is repeated numerous times in the nightly passage of the sun: Like Hercules in his 12 labors, when the Egyptian sun god entered into the night sky, he was besieged with trials, as found in some of the Egyptian

―Holy Scriptures.‖ One such text is the ―Book of the Amtuat/Amduat,‖ which ―describes the journey of the sun god through the twelve hours of the night,‖ the term ―Amduat‖ meaning ―underworld‖ or ―netherworld.‖...

Horus is thus firmly associated with 12 ―star-gods,‖ who, in conducting the sun god through his passage, can be deemed his ―protectors,‖ ―assistants‖ or ―helpers,‖ etc.⁷⁵

Concerning this motif of Horus and the Twelve, Murdock also states:

...in the tenth hour of the Amduat, Horus the Elder leaning on his staff is depicted as leading the 12 "drowned" or lost souls to their salvation in the "Fields of the Blessed." These 12 deceased, Hornung relates, are "saved from decay and decomposition by Horus, who leads them to a blessed posthumous existence..." In this manner, Horus's companions, like the disciples of Jesus, are meant to "become like gods," so to speak, and to exist forever, reaping eternal life, as do those who believe in Christ.⁷⁶

Horus helps the 12 drowned souls ―find their way to the Fields of the Blessed,‖ commanding them as they are being ―deified‖

10^th hour of the Amduat

Tomb of Amenophis/Amenhotep II (14^th cent. BCE) (Hornung, Valley of the Kings, 138, 144)

For much more on this subject, see Christ in Egypt, pp. 262-284.

Miracles: As in many other religions, the Egyptian gods and goddesses were known to produce miracles, including healing the sick, ―walking on water‖ and raising the dead. Regarding Horus

Murdock, CIE, 269-271.

Murdock, CIE, 271.

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being associated with healing, Greek historian of the first century BCE Diodorus Siculus remarks:

They say Horus, in the Greek Tongue, is Apollo, who was taught both medicine and divination by his mother Isis, and who showers benefits on the race of man through his oracles and his cures.⁷⁷

Concerning the motif of the god ―commanding the waters,‖ Murdock relates:

In BD [Book of the Dead spell] 62…the deceased, who is Re or Osiris, pleads to have ―command of the water,‖ saying, ―May I be granted power over the waters…‖

Spells 57, 58 and 59 of the BD are titled chapters for ―command of water‖ or ―having power over water,‖ while BD 57 includes the request:

Oh Hapi, Chief of the heaven! in thy name of Conductor of the Heaven, let the Osiris prevail over the waters...⁷⁸

Murdock also writes:

The command over water includes the crossing of the ―celestial river‖: ―Upon reaching the sky, the life-essence of the King approaches the celestial gate and/or the celestial river.‖ When the king reaches the river with his ―mentor‖ Horus, he requests the god to take him with him: ―Since Horus has already crossed the river with his father in mythical times…, he can apparently then cross the river at will.‖⁷⁹

For much more on these subjects, see Christ in Egypt, pp. 285-308.

Horus the Child on the Metternich Stela c. 380-342 BCE

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)

―This stele represented the power to protect man possessed by all the divine beings in the universe, and, however it was placed, it formed an impassable barrier to every spirit of evil and to every venomous reptile.‖ (Budge, Legends of the Egyptian Gods, lxii)

Diodorus/Murphy, 31-32.

Murdock, CIE, 293.

Murdock, CIE, 296-297.

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Prometheus · « **Reply #6 on:** September 20, 2016, 09:46:25 PM »

[html]

Horus resurrecting Osiris using the cross of eternal life (Lundy, Monumental Christianity, 403)

17. Horus was known by many gestural names such as The Truth, The Light,

God’s Anointed Son, The Good Shepherd, The Lamb of God, and many others.

Many Egyptian gods and goddesses held ―sacred titles‖ of one sort or another. For example, in chapter/spell 125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the deceased addresses Osiris as the

―Lord of Truth,‖ and it is also easy to understand why solar gods would be deemed ―The Light.‖ Following is a compilation of epithets taken from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, as applied to various deities, including Osiris, Isis, Horus, Re, Anubis, Thoth and Seb:

Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Lord of Truth, Savior, the Divine, All-Powerful, the Unknowable, Great God, Lord of All, Inviolate God, God of Justice, Lord of Justice, Lord of Right, Lord of Prayer... Son of the Great One...Lord of Light... The Giver of Light, Lord of the Horizon, Lord of Daylight, Lord of the Sunbeams, Soul of his father, Lord of Years, Lord of the Great Mansion...⁸⁰

Concerning the Egyptian ―savior,‖ Murdock states:

…according to the hymns some 1,400 years before the purported advent of Christ, the sun is the ―unique shepherd, who protects his flock,‖ also serving as a ―savior.‖ In the Coffin Texts appears another mention of the Egyptian god as ―savior,‖ as in CT Sp. 155, in which the speaker specifically defines himself as a god and also says, ―Open to me, for I am a saviour…‖ In CT Sp. 847, the deceased—who at times is Osiris and/or Horus—is the ―Saviour-god.‖…⁸¹

Regarding Horus‘s other epithets, William R. Cooper relates:

The very first of the chief epithets applied to Horus in this, his third great office, has a startlingly Christian sound; it is the ―Sole begotten son of the Father,‖ to which, in other texts, is added, ―Horus the Holy Child,‖ the ―Beloved son of his father.‖ The Lord of Life, the Giver of Life [are also] both very usual epithets...the ―Justifier of the Righteous,‖ the ―Eternal King‖ and the ―Word of the Father Osiris.‖…

...very many of the essential names and attributes of Horus were attributed to Ra, Tum, and the other deities also, they were alike ―self-created,‖ ―born of a Virgin,‖ ―deliverers of mankind,‖ ―only begotten sons‖...⁸²

See Murdock, CIE, 329-320.

Murdock, CIE, 310.

Cooper, 22, 76-77.

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The epithet of ―God’s Anointed Son‖ is a combination of Horus being called ―Anointed‖ and ―Beloved son‖ of his father, Osiris, this latter epithet being very common in the Pyramid Texts.⁸³ As an example of Horus‘s anointed or christed state, Pyramid text W 51/PT 77:52a-b says:

Ointment, ointment, where should you be? You on Horus‘s forehead, where should you be? You were on Horus‘s forehead...⁸⁴

Concerning the god as ―Good Shepherd,‖ Murdock also remarks:

In BD [Book of the Dead spell] 142 appears a long ―List of the Forms and Shrines of Osiris,‖ with over 140 epithets for the god, including the ―Protector‖ or ―Shepherd‖— Asar-Saa. The sun god Re too was the ―good shepherd,‖ and Horus‘s ―Good Shepherd‖ role is made clear in the Pyramid Texts as well, for example, at PT 690:2106a-b/N 524: ―O King, stand up for Horus, that he may make you a spirit and guide you when you ascend to the sky.‖

―Horus,‖ in other words, the king, is called ―the good shepherd‖ also in the third inscription at the Temple of ―Redesiyeh‖ or El-Radesia at Wady Abad, near Edfu in Upper Egypt. As Lundy says, ―The royal Good Shepherd is the antitype of Horus...‖ The idea of the Horus-king as the ―good shepherd,‖ in fact, was so important that it constituted a major shift in perception and public policy, representing the general mentality of the 11^th and 12^th Dynasties (c. 2050-1800 BCE). As remarked upon by Egyptologist Dr. John A. Wilson, a director of the Oriental Institute at the University of

Chicago, ―The concept of the good shepherd rather than the distant and lordly owner of the flocks shifted the idea of kingship from possession as a right to responsibility as a duty.‖⁸⁵

Regarding the ―Lamb of God‖ epithet, Massey explains:

...In the text Horus is addressed as the ―Sheep, son of a sheep; Lamb, son of a lamb,‖ and invoked in this character as the protector and saviour of souls...Horus is the lamb of God the father, and is addresses by the name of the lamb who is the protector of savior of the dead in the earth and Amenti.⁸⁶

18. After being “betrayed” by Typhon, Horus was “crucified,” buried for three days, and thus, resurrected.

It needs to be reiterated here that the ancient texts did not necessarily spell out the myths in a linear fashion, resembling a story following a certain timeframe. Mythical motifs found disparately in the ancient Egyptian texts are combined in this paragraph, as they are in modern encyclopedia entries. While some might be critical of this manner of unfolding in the movie, it should be understood that the premise of the entire section (―Zeitgeist,‖ Part 1) concerns how symbolic characteristics were taken from the Egyptian religion and infused into Christianity, as a natural flow of religious evolution across various seemingly independent doctrines. Hence, the linear nature of such points becomes less important than the symbols they represent—especially when all the evidence and the context of astrotheology are taken into consideration.

Also, it is important to remember the ―hybrid‖ nature of the Egyptian gods and how multiple names are given to the same entity (i.e., Horus/Osiris hybrid). As Murdock explains:

As we explore the original Egyptian mythos and ritual upon which much of Christianity was evidently founded, it needs to be kept in mind that the gods Osiris and Horus in

⁸³ Faulkner, EBD, pl. 33, 110; Allen, J., AEPT, 36. (E.g., PT 20:11a; PT 219:179b; PT 369:644c; PT 510:1130c; PT 540:1331b; W 152)

Allen, J., AEPT, 22.

Murdock, CIE, 312.

Massey, NG, II, 471,

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particular were frequently interchangeable and combined, as in ―I and the Father are one.‖ (Jn 10:30)⁸⁷

Along the same lines, Egyptologist Dr. Samuel C. Sharpe remarks:

The long list of gods...again further increased in two ways. The priests sometimes made a new god by uniting two or three or four into one, and at other times by dividing one into two or three, or more. Thus out of Horus and Ra they made Horus-Ra, called by the Greeks Aroeris. Out of Osiris and Apis the bull of Memphis, the priests of Memphis made Osiri-Apis or Serapis. He carries the two sceptres of Osiris, and has a bull‘s head... Out of Amun-Ra and Ehe the bull of Heliopolis, the priests of the East of the Delta made Amun-Ra-Ehe. To this again they added a fourth character, that of Chem, and made a god Amun-Ra-Ehe-Chem. Out of Kneph the Spirit, and Ra the Sun, they made Kneph-Ra. Out of Sebek and Ra, they made Sebek-Ra. In this way the Egyptians worshipped a plurality in unity.⁸⁸

Betrayed by Typhon: The Typhon figure is also known as Set/Seth, the god of desert and darkness who betrays his brother, Osiris, and who is depicted in the Pyramid Texts as battling with Horus, who avenges his father. In later texts, Seth is said to have sent a snake or scorpion to sting and kill Horus, as on the Metternich Stela⁸⁹ (c. 380-342 BCE) and other such ―cippi‖ or magical stele.

Recounting another myth in which Horus is drowned, Diodorus (Antiquities of Egypt, 1.25.6) describes the god‘s raising or resurrection by Isis, using the same term, anastasis, later employed to describe Jesus‘s resurrection:

Isis also discovered the elixir of immortality, and when her son Horus fell victim to the plots of the Titans and was found dead beneath the waves, she not only raised him from the dead and restored his soul, but also gave him eternal life.⁹⁰

The similarity of the Osiris-Set conflict with that of the Jesus-Satan battle is highlighted by historian Dr. Philip Van Ness Myers:

The god Seth, called Typhon by the Greek writers, was the Satan of later Egyptian mythology. He was the personification of the evil in the world, just as Osiris was the personification of the good.⁹¹

For more on the contention between Horus and Set, see Christ in Egypt, pp. 67-78.

Horus Crucified: The ―crucifixion‖ of Horus is misunderstood because many erroneously assume that the term denotes a direct resemblance to the crucifixion narrative of Jesus Christ. Hence, it is critical to point out that we are dealing with metaphors here, not ―history,‖ as the

―crucifixions‖ of both Horus and Jesus are improvable events historically.

The issue at hand is not a man being thrown to the ground and nailed to a cross, as Jesus is depicted to have been, but the portrayal of gods and goddesses in “cruciform,” whereby the divine figure appears with arms outstretched in a symbolic context. The word ―crucify‖ comes from the Latin crucifigere, composed of cruci/crux and affigere/figere, meaning ―cross‖ and ―to fix/affix,‖ respectively. Thus, it does not necessarily mean to throw a living person to the ground and nail him or her to a cross, but could signify any image affixed to a cross-shape or in cruciform. This symbolic imagery of a person on a cross or in cross-shape was fairly common in the Pagan world, concerning many gods, goddesses and other figures.

First of all, the cross was a very ancient pre-Christian symbol that often designated the sun. Regarding the cross, the Catholic Encyclopedia (―Cross and the Crucifix‖) states:

Murdock, CIE, 67-68.

Sharpe, 12.

See, e.g., te Velde, 37-38.

Diodorus/Murphy, 31. See also Murdock, CIE, 388.

Van Ness Myers, 38.

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The sign of the cross, represented in its simplest form by a crossing of two lines at right angles, greatly antedates, in both the East and the West, the introduction of Christianity. It goes back to a very remote period of human civilization....

...It is also...a symbol of the sun...and seems to denote its daily rotation.... Cruciform objects have been found in Assyria. Shari people in Egypt wearing crucifixes around their necks. The statutes of Kings Asurnazirpal and Sansirauman, now in the British Museum, have cruciform jewels about the neck.... Cruciform earrings were found by Father Delattre in Punic tombs at Carthage.

Another symbol which has been connected with the cross is the ansated cross (ankh or crux ansata) of the ancient Egyptians.... From the earliest times also it appears among the hieroglyphic signs symbolic of life or of the living... perhaps it was originally, like the swastika, an astronomical sign. The ansated cross is found on many and various monuments of Egypt.... In later times the Egyptian Christians (Copts), attracted by its form, and perhaps by its symbolism, adopted it as the emblem of the cross...⁹²

Fortunately, many ancient artifacts survive that demonstrate the antiquity not only of the cross but also of a human figure in the shape of a cross or in cruciform.

Human in cruciform with cross around neck

Chalcolithic, 3900-2500 BCE

Cyprus, Greece (www.limassollink.com/history.php)

Shari in Egypt wearing crosses, possibly Assyrians c. 15^th cent. BCE. (Wilkinson, I, 365, 375ff)

Crosses on the bottoms of ossuary

c. 6^th-5^th cent. BCE? Golasecca, Italy (Seymour, 25)

Original Coptic cross

These pre-Christian or non-Christian gods on a cross were evidently what was being discussed around 150 AD/CE by Church father Justin Martyr (First Apology, 21):

And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter.⁹³

The ―sons of Jupiter‖ are Greco-Roman gods, and Justin claims Christians are ―propounding nothing different‖ than what the Pagans said about their gods—and he is describing the scenario in a linear fashion, as we are likewise compelled to do in our own mythography. The suggestion that other gods were ―crucified‖ by being put in a cross shape or cruciform is confirmed by early Christian writer Minucius Felix in his Octavius (29):

CHAP. XXIX—ARGUMENT: NOR IS IT MORE TRUE THAT A MAN FASTENED TO A

CROSS ON ACCOUNT OF HIS CRIMES IS WORSHIPPED BY CHRISTIANS…

Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4, p. 517-518.

Roberts, A., ANF, I, 170.

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For in that you attribute to our religion the worship of a criminal and his cross, you wander far from the neighbourhood of the truth, in thinking either that a criminal deserved, or that any earthly being was able, to be believed God…. Crosses, moreover, we neither worship nor wish for. You, indeed, who consecrate gods of wood, adore wooden crosses perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camp, what else are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it.⁹⁴

Since these passionate defenders of Christianity themselves have made the comparison between Christ on the cross and Pagan figures in cruciform or affixed to crosses, we would be remiss in not following their lead.

Counted among these ―sons of Jupiter‖ depicted in cruciform may be the Greek god Prometheus, who was portrayed both in ancient writings and in pre-Christian artifacts as being bound to a cross or in cruciform. As related by the Catholic Encyclopedia:

...On an ancient vase we see Prometheus bound to a beam which serves the purpose of a cross.... In the same way the rock to which Andromeda was fastened is called crux, or cross....⁹⁵

Prometheus crucified using chains	Andromeda crucified using chains
c. 350 BCE	c. 79 AD/CE
Greek vase	Wall painting, Pompeii
(www.theoi.com/Gallery/T21.4.html)	(www.uwm.edu/Course/mythology/0800/underworld.htm)

Regarding the Egyptian god in cruciform, Thomas W. Doane relates:

Osiris, the Egyptian Saviour, was crucified in the heavens. To the Egyptian the cross was the symbol of immortality, an emblem of the Sun, and the god himself was crucified to the tree, which denoted his fructifying power.

Horus was also crucified in the heavens. He was represented, like... Christ Jesus, with outstretched arms in the vault of heaven.⁹⁶