Egyptian Mythology - Help
Posted on: March 27, 2007 - 2:48am
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Egyptian Mythology - Help
Someone, I forget who (sorry) had a link in one of the forum topics to a movie titled "The Naked Truth." I watched it and became very interested in Egyptian Mythology, and how much the religion of Christianity stole from Egyptian Myths, and other religious cults in Ancient History. I was just wondering how valid this information is..there are a lot of figures labeled to be "Christ" like, and I just wanted to know if the comparisons are fair, and also if anyone knows of any good books or websites where I would be able to get a lot of research done.
Thanks.
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I have no links off the top of my head, but I believe it is quite valid to compare the two.
It is valid to link almost any modern western religion to Egyptian mythology. It is very important to remember... Egypt was the only super power in the known world for thousands of years. Their beliefs, culture, and customs were the foundation for many societies.
Many people believe that Judaism itself was the direct result of the monotheistic solar cult popularized by Akenatten (excuse my spelling on this one). After his death, the priests quickly restored the entire pantheon of dieties... but the monotheistic concepts of Judaism seem to have sprung up a few hundred years later.
In addition to this, there is the obvious similarity between Jesus and Osiris. They are both permutations of the resurected god theme.
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This is one thing I've heard many times too, and once I finish The God Delusion I'd like to get other books on the subject of the origins of different religions, which things are similar or picked from what. I'm hoping there is something out there because all I have to tell people on these topics at the moment is heresay.
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For the most part, it was a decent film, but it used a lot of pseudo-science and false claims.
The only way Egyptian mythology effected Christianity in the fact that Egyptian mythology had already effected Judaism. Christianity was a platonic cult, highly hellenized, so it took mainly from the Greeks, although there is also some hint of Romanization as well. The Egyptians however did also influence the Greeks during the Hellenistic age, and by the time of late antiquity there would also have been very Hellenized Egyptians like in Alexandria.
Unfortunately there is a lot of false information on this subject, both from atheists and theits a like. This is mainly due to bad scholarship. SOme books to worry about are Joe Atwill's book, Caesar's Messiah, Kearsey Graves The Worlds Sixteen Crucified Saviors, and Gandy and Freke's The Jesus Mysteries. These books are highly suspect and generally contain misinformation and poor scholarship.
However, I will recommend books which I know use good research, are written by Peer Reviewed scholars and have excellent standing in the community.
1.) The Jesus Puzzle, Earl Doherty
2.) The Christ Myth, Arthur Drews
3.) The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark, McDonald
4.) Christianizing Homer, McDonald
5.) The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, Price
6.) The Empty Tomb, Robert Price (specifically Richard Carrier and Robert Prices' chapters in the book)
7.) What Is a Gospel, Talbert (Explains how the Gospels are Mythology)
8.) The Ancient Mysteries, Marvin Meyer
9.) The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel, Mark Smith
10.) The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts, Mark Smith
These are some of the best books out there to read and gain some perspective on the larger picture of comparative texts, mainly through the Greeks. I would still strongly recommend you read these books critically, and Doherty has a tendancy to resort to hyperbole, McDonald (for the most part) uses sound research but at times his points can be weak (in Ch. 4 especially) but on a whole his case is sound. Also Arthur Drews wrote early on in the 20th century, but his information is pretty good.
I hope this has been a help for you. As per internet sites, there are some, I would recommend reading Richard Carrier and Robert Price's www.infidels.org library page where they ave peer reviewed articles published and many are right up this ally. Also check out my forums on here, The Jesus Mythicist Position, and my new show dealing with - in part - this very subject called Rook's Nook.
The best to you,
Rook
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Not as much as you'd believe. The Persians conquered much of the known world, as did the Greeks, and the Babylonians and Assyrians. There are tons of other "super powers" and many of them had a greater influence then the Egyptians.
The Assyrians brought about Crucifixion, Babylonian brought Summarian mythology and law, courts and the like. Alexander and his Greek Army brought about education, civilization and technology to the world. Egyptiansmainly stayed secluded in Egypt, although we have evidence their garrisons spread as far west as the Red Sea, beyond that there is no real influence of Egyptian mythology until the Greeks unified the area of Palestine and the whole mediterrainian.
Also, be weary of the Anunaken books. I have read them and there is some serious historical implications being made that don't match up with what we know of real history.
The problem with comparative religion is that it is hard to know, without proper study, exactly when to stop and start with making a case and which societies to look at. As a whole, one could say every religion stemmed from the same one, but that is ridiculous when societies which never met each other had God belief without influence. So it's important to know where said cultures derived their beliefs without overstating your positon.
There are some good books on the Pantheon of Gods represented in the Hebrew Tanakh, such as those mentioned aboe by Mark Smith, on that of the Ugaritic texts.
Be careful here. I would say there is not so much similarity between Osirus and Jesus and rather there is much more similarities between Jesus and Orpheus and Mithras, even Pythagoras - and in the Gos. Mark, it is clear that Jesus is the new Moses and the new Odysseus. (Re: McDonald)
There isn't as much similarity with Osirus as you might think. This is where overstating a position at the part of a scholar who should know better really hurts our case.
The best to you.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server, which houses Celebrity Atheists. Books by Rook Hawkins (Thomas Verenna)