Krishna’s Contributions to Christianity
John P. Lundy, Nineteenth-Century Reverend:
If we may believe so good an authority as
Edward Moor (author of Moor's "Hindu Pantheon" and "Oriental
Fragments"), both the name of Krishna, and the general outline of his history,
were long anterior to the birth of our Savior, as very certain things, and
probably extended to the time of Homer, nearly nine hundred years before
Christ, or more than one hundred years before Isaiah lived and prophesied (John
P. Lundy, Monumental Christianity (New York, 1876), p. 151).
J. B. S. Carwithen, Nineteenth-Century Reverend:
Both the name of Krishna and the general
outline of his story are long anterior to the birth of our Savior; and this we
know, not on the presumed antiquity of the Hindu records alone. Both Arrian and
Strabo assert that the god Krishna was anciently worshipped at Mathura, on the
river Jumna, where he is worshipped at this day. But the emblems and attributes
essential to this deity are also transplanted into the mythology of the west (John
P. Lundy, Monumental Christianity (New York, 1876), p. 151-152).
T. W. Doane, Nineteenth Century:
In the Sanskrit Dictionary, compiled more
than two thousand years ago, we have the whole story of Krishna, the incarnate
deity, born of a virgin, and miraculously escaping in his infancy from Kansa,
the reigning monarch of the country (T. W. Doane, Bible Myths (New York,
1882), p. 286).
Monier Williams, Nineteenth-Century Professor:
...the religious creeds, rites, customs, and
habits of thought of the Hindus generally have altered little since the days of
Manu [in 1500 B.C.] (Williams, Indian Wisdom, or Examples of the Religious,
Philosophical, and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindoos (London, 1875), p. iv.).
George W. Con, Nineteenth Century Reverend:
...Practically, the myth of Krishna seems to
have been fully developed in the days of Megasthenes [fourth century B.C.], who
identifies him with the Greek Hercules (Cox, The Myths of the Aryan Nations
(London, 1870), vol. 2, p. 138.).
1.
Both were preceded by a "forerunner" born a short time before
them (Maurice, Hindostan, vol. 2, p. 316; Luke 1:57.).
2. Each was born in a city away from home where his father was on tax
business (H. H. Wilson, trans., The Vishnu Purana, A System of Hindoo Mythology
and Tradition (London, 1840), book 5, chap. 3; Luke 2:1-7).
3. Krishna was born in a cave (Cox, vol. 2,p. 107).
Jesus was born in a stable (Luke 2:7). However, Quintus Tertullian (third
century), St Jerome (fourth century), and other Church fathers claimed that
Jesus, too, was born in a cave (Godfred Higgins, Anacalypsis: An Enquiry into
the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions (London, 1836), vol. 2, pp.
98-99).
Frederick W. Farrar, Nineteenth-Century Canon: That the actual place of Jesus'
birth was a cave is a very ancient tradition, and this cave used to be shown as
the scene of the event even so early as the time of Justin Martyr (A.D. 150)
(Farrar, The Life of Christ (New York, 1876), p. 38).
4. In infancy, both Krishna and Jesus were sentenced to death by kings who
viewed them as pretenders to the throne. Due to this threat:
Krishna's father was warned by a heavenly voice "to fly with the child to
Gacool, across the river Jumna (Mons Dupuis, trans., The Origin of All
Religious Worship (New Orleans, 1872), p. 134).
Jesus' father was warned in a dream, "...rise and take the child and his
mother, and flee to Egypt..." (Matthew 2:13).
5. One of these kings then ordered "the massacre in all his states of
all the children of the male sex during the night of the birth of Crishna"
(J. Swain, Asiatic Researches, vol. 1, London, 1801. p. 259).
The other, Herod, "...sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem,
and in all that region, who were two years old or under..." (Matthew
2:16).
6. One of both Krishna and Jesus' first "miracles" performed as
adults was the curing of a leper (Thomas Maurice, History of Hindostan (London,
1798), vol. 2, p. 319; Matthew 8:2-4).
7. Urged by Krishna to make a request, a man replied: " 'Above all
things, I desire to have my two dead sons restored to life.' Immediately they
were brought to life and came to their father" (Maria L. Child, The
Progress of Religious Ideas through Successive Ages (New York, 1855), vol. 1,
p. 68).
"While [Jesus] was thus speaking to them, behold, a ruler came in and
knelt before him, saying: 'My daughter has just died; but come and lay your
hand on her, and she will live....' But when the crowd had been put aside, he went
in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose" (Matthew 9:18, 25).
8. Either a poor cripple or a lame woman came with "a vessel filled
with spices, sweet scented oils, sandalwood, saffron, civet, and other
perfumes, and made a certain sign on [Krishna's] forehead, casting the rest
upon his head" (Maurice, Hindostan, vol. 2, p. 320).
"Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman
came up to him with an alabaster box of very expensive ointment, and she poured
it on his head, as he sat at the table" (Matthew 26:6-7).
9. Both washed the feet of their disciples (Maurice, Indian Antiquities
(London, 1794), vol. 3, p. 46; John 13:5).
10. Both had a
beloved disciple (Charles Wilkes, trans., The Bhagavat Gita, or Dialogues of
Crishna and Arjoon, in Eighteen Lectures With Notes (London, 1785), p. 51; John
13:23).
11. Krishna
said: "Let him, if seeking God by deep abstraction, abandon his
possessions and his hopes, betake himself to some secluded spot, and fix his
heart and thoughts on God alone" (Williams, Hinduism (London, 1877), p.
211).
Jesus said: "But when you pray, go into your room and close the door and
pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will
reward you" (Matthew 6:6).
12. Krishna
said: "I am the light in the sun and the moon, far, far beyond the
darkness. I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance in all that's radiant, and
the light of lights" (Ibid, p. 213).
Jesus said: "I am the light of the world, he who follows me will not walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
13. Krishna
said: "I am the sustainer of the world, its friend and Lord. I am its way
and refuge" (Ibid, p. 213).
Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to
the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
14. Krishna
said: "I am the Goodness of the good; I am Beginning, Middle, End, Eternal
Time, the Birth, the Death of all" (Ibid, p. 213).
Jesus said: "Fear not, I am the first, and the last, and the living one; I
died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and
Hell" (Revelations 1:17,18).
15. Both "descended" to hell (Swain,
Vol. 1. P. 237; I Peter 3:9).
16. Both
"ascended" to heaven before witnesses (Higgins, p. 131; Acts 1:9).
17. Both are
said to have been God incarnate:
"Crishna is the very Supreme Brahma, though it be a mystery how the
Supreme should assume the form of a man" (Wilson, p. 492).
"Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion; He manifested
in the flesh..." (I Timothy 3:16).
18. Before
death, Krishna was pierced with an arrows (Higgins, vol. 1, p. 144), and Jesus
with a spear (John 19:34).
19. Both were
crucified:
o John P. Lundy, Nineteenth-Century Reverend:
"I object to the crucifix because it is an image, and liable to gross
abuse, just as the old Hindoo crucifix was an idol" (Lundy, p. 128).
o Thomas Inman, Nineteenth Century Physician:
"Crishna, whose history so closely resembles our Lord's, was also like him
in his being crucified" (Inman, Ancient Faiths and Modern (London, 1868),
p. 411).
20. When Krishna
died, it is said that a black circle surrounded the moon, the sun was darkened
at noon, the sky rained fire and ashes, and spirits were seen everywhere
(Child, vol. 1, p. 71).
When Jesus died, the sun was darkened from the sixth to the ninth hour, graves
were opened, and saints rose and entered the city (Matthew 27:45, 51-52).
21. Both were
"resurrected" (Dupuis, p. 240; Matthew 28:6).
22. "Krishna
will return in the end days as an armed warrior, riding on a winged white
horse. He will destroy the wicked then living. The sun and the moon will be
darkened, the earth will tremble, and the stars will fall" (Chad, vol.
1,p.75; Williams, Hinduism, p. 108).
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days [following Jesus'
"return"] the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its
light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will
be shaken" (Matthew 24:29).
For over three hundred years the rulers of
the Roman Empire worshipped the god Mithra’s. Known throughout Europe and Asia
by the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher, the veneration of
this god began some 4000 years ago in Persia, where it was soon imbedded with
Babylonian doctrines. The faith spread east through India to China, and reached
west throughout the entire length of the Roman frontier; from Scotland to the
Sahara Desert, and from Spain to the Black Sea. Sites of Mithraic worship have
been found in Britain, Italy, Romania, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey,
Persia, Armenia, Syria, Israel, and North Africa.
In Rome, more than a hundred inscriptions
dedicated to Mithras have been found, in addition to 75 sculpture fragments,
and a series of Mithraic temples situated in all parts of the city.
One of the largest Mithraic temples built in
Italy now lies under the present site of the Church of St. Clement, near the
Colosseum in Rome.
The Greek historian Herodotus, the Greek
biographer Plutarch, the neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry, the Gnostic heretic
Origen, and St. Jerome the church Father discussed the widespread popularity
and appeal of Mithraism as the final and most refined form of pre-Christian
paganism. Many historians for its many astonishing similarities quite often
noted Mithraism to Christianity.
The faithful referred to Mithras (REMEMBER,
4000 years ago!) as "the Light of the World", symbol of truth,
justice, and loyalty. He was mediator between heaven and earth and was a member
of a Holy Trinity. According to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin
given the title 'Mother of God'. The god remained celibate throughout his life,
and valued self-control, renunciation and resistance to sensuality among his
worshippers. Mithras represented a system of ethics in which brotherhood was
encouraged in order to unify against the forces of evil.
The worshippers of Mithras held strong
beliefs in a celestial heaven and an infernal hell. They believed that the
benevolent powers of the god would sympathize with their suffering and grant
them the final justice of immortality and eternal salvation in the world to
come. They looked forward to a final day of judgment in which the dead would
resurrect, and to a final conflict that would destroy the existing order of all
things to bring about the triumph of light over darkness.
Purification through a ritualistic baptism
was required of the faithful, who also took part in a ceremony in which they
drank wine and ate bread to symbolize the body and blood of the god. Sundays
were held sacred, and the birth of the god was celebrated annually on December
the 25th. After the earthly mission of this god had been accomplished, he took
part in a Last Supper with his companions before ascending to heaven, to
forever protect the faithful from above.
However, it would be a vast
oversimplification to suggest that Mithraism was the single forerunner of early
Christianity. Aside from Christ and Mithras, there were plenty of other deities
(such as Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Balder, Attis, and Dionysus) said to have died
and resurrected. Many classical heroic figures, such as Hercules, Perseus, and
Theseus, were said to have been born through the union of a virgin mother and
divine father. Virtually every pagan religious practice and festivity that
couldn't be suppressed or driven underground was eventually incorporated into
the rites of Gentile Christianity as it spread across Europe and throughout the
world.
The Lord's Supper was not invented by Paul,
but was borrowed by him from Mithraism, the mystery religion that existed long
before Christianity and was Christianity's chief competitor up until the time
of Constantine. Paul's "home-town" was Tarsus, from where Mithraism
began. In Mithraism, the central figure is the mythical Mithras, who died for
the sins of mankind and was resurrected.
Believers in Mithras were rewarded with
eternal life. Part of the Mithraic communion liturgy included the words,
"He who will not eat of my body and drink of my blood, so that he will be
made one with me and I with him, the same shall not know salvation."
Originally Mithra was one of the lesser gods
of the ancient Persian pantheon, but he came to be regarded as the spiritual
Sun, the heavenly Light, and the chief and also the embodiment of the seven
divine spirits of goodness; and already in the time of Jesus he had risen to be
co-equal with, though created by, Ormuzd (Ahura-Mazda), the Supreme Being [J.M.
Robertson, /Pagan Christs/, p. 290.], and Mediator between him and man
[Plutarch, /Isis et Osiris/, ch. 46; Julian, /In regem solem/, chs. 9, 10,
21.]. He appears to have lived an incarnate life on earth, and in some unknown
manner to suffer death for the good of mankind, an image symbolizing his
resurrection being employed in his ceremonies [Tertullian, /Praescr/. ch. 40.].
Tarsus, the home of Paul, was one of the great centers of his worship, being
the chief city of the Cilicians; and, as will presently appear, there is a
decided tinge of Mithraism in the Epistles and Gospels. Thus the designations
of Jesus as the Dayspring from on High [Luke, i. 78.], the Light [2 Cor. iv. 6;
Eph. v. 13, 14; I. Thess. v. 5; etc.], the Sun of Righteousness [Malachi iv.
2]; and much used in Christianity, and similar expressions, are borrowed from
or related to Mithraic phraseology.
Mithra was born from a rock [Firmicus, /De
errore/, xxi. etc.], as shown in Mithraic sculptures, being sometimes termed
''the god out of the rock'', and his worship was always conducted in a cave;
and the general belief in the early Church that Jesus was born in a cave is a
direct instance of the taking over of Mithraic ideas. The words of Paul,
"They drank of that spiritual rock ... and that rock was Christ'' [I
Corinthians x. 4.] are borrowed from the Mithraic scriptures; for not only was
Mithra "the Rock'', but one of his mythological acts, which also appears
in the acts of Moses, was the striking of the rock and the producing of water
from it which his followers eagerly drank. Justin Martyr [Justin Martyr, /Dial.
with Trypho/, ch. 70.] complains that the prophetic words in the Book of Daniel
[Daniel ii. 34.] regarding a stone which was cut out of the rock without hands
were also used in the Mithraic ritual; and it is apparent that the great
importance attached by the early Church to the supposed words of Jesus in
regard to Peter -- "Upon this rock I will build my church" [Matthew
xvi. 18.] -- was due to their approximation to the Mithraic idea of the /Theos
ek Petras/, the "God from the Rock''. Indeed, it may be that the reason of
the Vatican hill at Rome being regarded as sacred to Peter, the Christian
"Rock'', was that it was already sacred to Mithra, for Mithraic remains
have been found there.
The chief incident of Mithra's life was his
struggle with a symbolical bull, which he overpowered and sacrificed, and from
the blood of the sacrifice came the world's peace and plenty, typified by ears
of corn. The bull appears to signify the earth or mankind, and the implication
is that Mithra, like Jesus, overcame the world; but in the early Persian
writings Mithra is himself the bull [J.M. Robertson, /Pagan Christs/, p. 298.],
the god thus sacrificing himself, which is a close approximation to the
Christian idea. In later times the bull is interchangeable with a ram; but the
zodiacal ram, Aries, which is associated with Mithra, was replaced by a lamb in
the Persian zodiac [Bundahish, ii. 2.], so that it is a lamb, which is
sacrificed [Garucci, /Les Myste`res du Syn. Phrygien/, p. 34.], as in Easter
concept of Jesus. That this sacrifice had originally a human victim, and that
it later involved the idea of the sacramental death of a human being, is clear
from the fact that the Church historian, Socrates, believed that human victims
were still sacrificed in the Mithraic mysteries down to some period before A.D.
360 [Socrates, /Eccles. Hist., bk. iii. ch. 2.].
Thus the paramount Christian idea of the
sacrifice of the lamb of God was one with which every worshipper of Mithra was
familiar; and just as Mithra was an embodiment of the seven spirits of God, so
the slain Lamb in the Book of Revelation has seven horns and seven eyes
"which are the seven spirits of God'' [Revelation v. 6.]. Early writers
say that a lamb was consecrated, killed, and eaten as an Easter rite in the
Church; but Easter was a Mithraic festival [Macrobius, /Saturnalia/, i. 18.],
presumably of the resurrection of their god, and the parallel is thus complete,
in which regard it is to be noted that in the Seventh Century the Church
endeavored without success to suppress the picturing of Jesus as a lamb, owing
to the paganism involved in the idea [Bingham, /Christian Antiq./, viii. 8, sec. 11; xv.
2, sec. 3.].
The ceremonies of purification by the
sprinkling or drenching of the novice with the blood of bulls or rams were
widespread, and were to be found in the rites of Mithra. By this purification a
man was "born again" [Beugnot, /Hist. de la Dest. Du Paganisme/, i.
p. 334.], and the Christian expression "washed in the blood of the
Lamb" is undoubtedly a reflection of this idea, the reference thus being
clear in the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "It is not possible that
the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins". In this passage
the writer goes on to say: "Having boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us
through the veil, that is to say his flesh ... let us draw near ... having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water" [Hebrews x. 19.]. But when we learn that the Mithraic initiation
ceremony consisted in entering boldly into a mysterious underground "holy
of holies", with the eyes veiled, and there being sprinkled with blood,
and washed with water, it is clear that the author of the Epistle was thinking
of those Mithraic rites with which everybody at that time must have been so
familiar.
Another ceremony in the religion of Mithra
was that of stepping across a channel of water, the hands being entangled in
the entrails of a bird, signifying sin, and of being "liberated" on
the other side; and this seems to be referred to by Paul when he says:
"Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage" [Galatians v. 1.].
Tertullian [Tertullian, /Praescr. /, ch. 40.]
states that the worshippers of Mithra practiced baptism by water, through which
they were thought to be redeemed from sin, and that the priest made a sign upon
the forehead of the person baptized; but as this was also a Christian rite,
Tertullian declares that the Devil must have effected the coincidence for his
wicked ends. "The Devil'', he also writes, "imitates even the main
parts of our divine mysteries", and "has gone about to apply to the
worship of idols those very things of which the administration of Christ's
sacraments consists".
In this rite he must be referring both to the
baptismal rite and also to the Mithraic Eucharist, of which Justin Martyr
[Justin Martyr, /1 Apol. /, ch. 66.] had already complained when he declared
that it was Satan who had plagiarized the ceremony, causing the worshippers of
Mithra to receive the consecrated bread and cup of water. The ceremony of
eating an incarnate god's body and drinking his blood is, of course, of very
ancient and originally cannibalistic inception, and there are several sources
from which the Christian rite may be derived, if, as most critics think, it was
not instituted as an actual ceremony by Jesus; but its connection with the
Mithraic rite is the most apparent.
The worshippers of Mithra were called
"Soldiers of Mithra", which is probably the origin of the term
"Soldiers of Christ'' and of the exhortation to Christians to "put on
the armour of light" [Romans xiii. 12. Compare also Ephesians VI. 11,
13.], Mithra being the god of Light. As in Christianity, they recognized no
social distinctions, both rich and poor, freemen and slaves, being admitted
into the Army of the Lord. Mithraism had its austerities, typified in the
severe initiation rites endured by a "Soldier of Mithra"; and the
Epistle to Timothy, similarly, exhorts the Christian to "endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" [2 Timothy ii. 3.]. It also had its
nuns and its male celibates [Tertullian, /Prascr. /, ch. 40.]; and one of its
main tenets was the control of the flesh and the repudiation of the world, this
being symbolized in the initiation ceremony, whereat a crown was offered to the
novice, who had to reject it, saying, as did the Christians, that it was to a
heavenly crown that he looked. We hear, too, of hymns which could be used with
equal propriety by Christians and Mithraists alike [/Rev. Arch./, vol. xvii.
(1911), p. 397.]. The Mithraic worship always took place in caves, these being
either natural or artificial. Now the early Christians, openly and for no
reasons of secrecy or security, employed those subterranean rock chambers known
as catacombs both for their burials and for public worship. Like the Mithraic
caves, these catacombs were decorated with paintings, amongst which the subject
of Moses striking the rock, which, as I have said above, has a Mithraic
parallel, is often represented. The most frequent theme is that of Jesus as the
Good Shepherd; and although it is generally agreed that the figure of Jesus
carrying a lamb is taken from the statues of Hermes Kriophoros [Pausanias, iv.
33.], the kid-carrying god, Mithra is sometimes shown carrying a bull across
his shoulders, and Apollo, who, in his solar aspect and as the patron of the
rocks [/Hymn to the Delian Apollo. /], is to be identified with Mithra, is
often called "The Good Shepherd". At the birth of Mithra the child
was adored by shepherds, who brought gifts to him [/Encyc. Brit./, 11th ed.,
vol. xvii. p. 623.].
The Hebrew Sabbath having been abolished by
Christians, the Church made a sacred day of Sunday, partly because it was the
day of the resurrection, but largely because it was the weekly festival of the
sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals
endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.
But, as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred day of Mithra; and it is
interesting to notice that since Mithra was addressed as /Dominus/,
"Lord'', Sunday must have been "the Lord's Day" long before
Christian times. December 25th was the birthday of the sun god, and
particularly of Mithra, and was only taken over in the Fourth Century as the
date, actually unknown, of the birth of Jesus.
The head of the Mithraic faith was called
/Pater Patrum/, "Father of the Fathers", and was seated at Rome; and
similarly the head of the Church was the /Papa/, or "Father", now
known as the Pope, who was also seated at Rome. The Pope's crown is called a
tiara, but a tiara is a Persian, and hence perhaps a Mithraic, headdress. The
ancient chair preserved in the Vatican and supposed to have been the pontifical
throne used by St. Peter, is in reality of pagan origin, and may possibly be
Mithraic also, for it has upon it certain pagan carvings which are thought to
be connected with Mithra [J.M. Robertson, /Pagan Christs/, p. 336.].
The word "testament" is
simply the English transliteration of the Latin word for something that has
been witnessed (testamentum).
This term was widely used to refer to the publication of a person's last will
(a document that had to be signed by witnesses). In Latin versions of the
scriptures this term was used to translate the Greek word for a dispensation (diathéké), a term that was also
generally used for a final will. But diathéké
could refer to any
legal contract. Therefore, those who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek
regularly used it for the Hebrew word for a binding pact or
"covenant" (berith)
between two parties.
Distinction between old & new dispensations was later
adopted as a convenient way to distinguish Christian scriptures from the Greek
translation of Jewish scriptures. So, when the Greek scriptures were translated
into Latin, these two collections became known as the Old & New Testaments.
At first the books of the NT were not published in a single volume but
as separate codices. By the 3rd century CE several gospels or letters were
occasionally bound together. But the production of volumes containing many
different types of works (gospels, letters, acts, apocalypses) did not occur
until after the council of Nicea (325 CE) when the emperor Constantine ordered
50 leather- bound parchment NTs from Eusebius of Caesarea.
Any universally recognized church authority, however, has never
officially fixed the contents of the NT. Eusebius classified Christian
scriptures in three groups:
§
§
20 that were generally accepted
(4 gospels, 13 letters of Paul, Acts, 1 John & 1 Peter);
§
§
5 that were disputed (James, 2
Peter, Jude, 2 & 3 John; Hebrews & Revelation are not even
mentioned); &
§
§
Others that were regarded as
spurious (including the gospels of Thomas & Peter).
Throughout the 4th c. CE various bishops published differing canonical
lists of Christian scripture. The list that Athanasius of Alexandria issued in
his festal letter 39 (367 CE) --- including all the works in Eusebius' first
two groups, plus Hebrews & Revelation --- was eventually accepted as the
standard NT by most Greek & Latin churches.
Still the contents of manuscripts of the NT continued to vary for more
than 1000 years. Some
ˇ
Lacked some material (from a
portion of a canonical book to one or more whole works); and/or
ˇ
Included other non-canonical
material; and/or
ˇ
Presented canonical works in
different sequences.
There was no standard text of the NT before the invention of the
printing press. But even after this biblical scholars & theologians
continued to dispute the canonical status of various NT books (especially
James, Hebrews, Revelation & the pastoral letters).
In 1546 the Roman Catholic Council of Trent affirmed the doctrinal
authority of all 27 books on Athanasius' canonical list. While generally
asserting the authority of the NT, Protestant & Orthodox churches have
still not officially defined its contents.