Comments on: Pagan parallels to Jesus: the forgotten sons of God

By: Michael Turton

Michael Turton — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:36:24 +0000

An important Romulus parallel you might consider incorporating: in a yearly ceremony when Romulus was taken up, his followers scattered… as I noted on my Mark site (http://www.michaelturton.com/Mark/GMark14.html):
Richard Carrier (2005, p180-1) points out that a Roman ceremony decribed in Plutarch is remarkably similar to the tale from Mark. Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, is killed by a conspiracy of the Senate, and ascends to Heaven amidst portents of darkness. Later he returns to earth, saying that he was a god sent down to earth to establish a mighty kingdom. Plutarch relates that at the Roman ceremony of Romulus’ ascent, names were recited: the names of those who had fled his vanishing in fear. Their fear and flight were then acted out in public. Carrier observes that this is :

“…a scene so obviously paralle to Mark’s ending of his Gospel that nearly anyone would have noticed — and gotten the point. Indeed, Livy’s account, just like Mark’s, emphasizes that ‘fear and bereavement’ kept the people ‘silent for a long time,’ and only later did they proclaim Romulus ‘God, Son of God, King, and Father.’” (p181) (italics in original)

By: rc_moore

rc_moore — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:04:17 +0000

An excellent summary — I will keep it bookmarked for further reference.
I am not one who believes that Gospels are new versions of earlier myths. I believe that the Gospels writers drew from their own personal knowledge of the various myths and applied them to the story they wished to tell, that of Jesus, modifying them as needed to support the theology they wished to promote.
(When I say “believe” by the way, I mean it in the legal sense — a belief derived from the available evidence.)
In answer to your question about the Buddha story, I see the major modification is the need of Matthew to move the focus of the story from the Buddhist viewpoint of belief in oneself to a Christian viewpoint in which only belief in Jesus can save you. Peter loses his focus on Jesus, and begins to drown.
The Buddha story is in section IV, page 61 (the link does not take you to the exact story).

By: Loren Petrich

Loren Petrich — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:45:08 +0000

That’s a great article, pointing out both similarities and differences. That related to something that I have long had an interest in: Lord Raglan’s Mythic-Hero profile. Lord Raglan discovered that many legendary heroes approximate a sort of average biography, and that well-documented ones seldom come close. Lord Raglan’s profile is a rather general one, without unsupportable details like being born on December 25 or having a set of 12 big early followers.
Lord Raglan himself may have recognized how well Jesus Christ fits it; he refused to get into that question. However, Alan Dundes did, finding that he scores in the range of Romulus and Hercules and the like.