Dear Editor,

Many are claiming that the accounts of Jesus in the Bible are simply myths borrowed from pagan folklore, such as the stories of Horus, Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, and Mithras.

The claim is that these myths are essentially the same story as that of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The claim that Jesus was a myth or an exaggeration originated in 19th century writings. They essentially said that Jesus was nothing more than a copy of popular pagan gods. None of the books containing these theories were taken seriously by the academics back then.

They were investigated and determined to be completely baseless. It is only recently that these assertions have been resurrected due to the Internet and the mass distribution of information from unaccountable sources.

For example, here are popular claims about the Egyptian god Horus: he was born on December 25 of a virgin, Isis Mary; a star in the East proclaimed his arrival; three kings came to adore the newborn saviour; he became a child teacher at age 12; he was baptised at age 30 and began a ministry, had 12 disciples, was betrayed, crucified, buried for three days and resurrected afterwards.

But when the actual writings about Horus are competently examined, this is what we find:

Horus was born to Isis; there is no mention in history of her being called ‘Mary’. Moreover, ‘Mary’ was not even used in the original texts of Scripture. ‘Mary’ is our Anglicised form of her real name, Miryam.

Isis was not a virgin; she conceived Horus with Osiris.

Horus was born on Khoiak (October/November), not December 25. Further, Christ’s birth date was not recorded in the Bible.

There is no record of three kings visiting Horus at his birth. The Bible never states the actual number of magi who came to see Christ.

Horus is not a saviour in any way; he did not die for anyone.

There are no accounts of Horus being a teacher at the age of 12.

The only account of Horus that involves water is not baptism, but where Horus is torn to pieces, with Isis requesting the crocodile god to fish him out of the water.

Horus did not have a ministry nor 12 disciples. According to the Horus accounts, he had about 16 followers and an unknown number of blacksmiths who went into battle with him.

There is no account of Horus being betrayed.

There are various accounts of Horus’ death, none of them involve crucifixion. (Crucifixion is a Roman method of execution, and the accounts of Horus were set in Egypt).

There is no account of Horus being buried for three days, neither is there any account of Horus being resurrected. Some accounts have Horus/Osiris being brought back to life by Isis and then becoming the lord of the underworld.

When compared side by side, Jesus and Horus bear little, if any, resemblance to each another. More examples can be given of Krishna, Attis, Dionysus, and other gods, but the result is the same. Further, the vast majority of the earliest writings of these religions date from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, well after New Testament times, so if any copycatting was done, it was these pagan religions copying Christianity.

Claiming that Jesus is a copy of mythological gods is like saying the Star Wars movies caused the NASA Space Shuttle programme. The alleged parallels between Jesus and other gods disappear when the originals are examined.

Hal Lewis

mobiusraptor7@gmail.com