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Messiah Wars, Round One


                So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)

      There are people who point to certain mythological figures: Mithras, Dionysus (Bacchus), Attis, Osiris, Horus, Tammuz, Adonis, Persephone and Orpheus as parallels to Jesus based on these commonalities: 
*   death and resurrection around our Easter;
*   virgin birth around 25 December;
*   association with the seasons and the vegetation cycle (fertility gods);
*    called "son of God" and/or a god in human form, who performed miracles
*    ritual celebration of their death;
*    the offer of salvation to a small community of initiates.[1]  
       These similarities lead some to claim there is nothing unique about Jesus' claims. The first thing I notice is that nowhere in the list of contenders do I see it mentioned that any of these others were fulfillments of prophecy. Since I have been writing about prophecies and their fulfillment, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the prophecies about the Messiah. Let's test their claim of similarity, starting with what I believe is the first messianic prophecy in Scripture, today's passage.
         The first thing of note is to whom this prophecy was given. When God's court convened because of Adam's sin, Adam, Eve and the serpent were all there, but it is to the serpent that God speaks the first prophecy about the Messiah. What God tells the devil is that 1) Eve's offspring (also translated seed) would crush the devil's head. 2) The best that the devil would do would be to bruise the Messiah's heel, and 3) Said offspring would be a singular: and he(or that) will crush your head and the term offspring or seed is singular. 
         While some may argue that offspring/seed can refer to a collection or group, the issue that cannot be argued away is that the Messiah had to be the offspring of a woman. Mithras was born of Anahita, a Hindu goddess. Dionysus (Bacchus) was said to be the son of Zeus and Semele, princess of Thebes.  Attis, was the son of either Cybelle or Nana, both of whom were goddesses. Osiris was supposedly born of Nut and Geb, both of whom were Egyptian gods. Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis, both of whom were Egyptian gods. Tammuz's mother was the goddess Duttur, was a personification of the ewe. Adonis' mother was Smyrna, daughter of Theias, king of Assyria. She tricked her father into impregnating her.  Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess, Demeter. Orpheus' mother was either the muse, Calliope or the daughter of Pierus, son of Makednos.
      Given this first prophecy about the Messiah, that He would be a descendant of Eve, the only remaining contenders for Messiah from the list above are Jesus, Dionysus/Bacchus, Adonis and possibly Orpheus. Tomorrow, we'll continue the Messiah Wars.[2]




[1] http://www.is-there-a-god.info/belief/pagangods/


[2] Please note, I'm not in any actual doubt about the outcome of this series of battles, I am simply arguing the case using logic.

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