Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Plagiarism of Jesus Christ - part I: Jesus vs. Horus

Many frequently argue against the historicity of Jesus Christ, saying that he never existed as a human on earth at all. One of the most common arguments I've encountered is that of plagiarism: that the story of Jesus is a conglomeration or an outright rip-off of many previous god stories before him.

Rather than taking these claims at face value (especially since most were just comments on blogs or videos, with no effort to back them up with research), I decided to take on the task of doing some research myself. I would examine the stories of these other gods that the Jesus story is said to have been stolen from, and come to my own conclusions.

Disclaimer: I didn't break into the ancient underground vaults of the Pyramids or the Vatican, I just did some online research from places like Wikipedia and other specific sites dedicated to the research of that god. These comparisons are made by me, I am not referencing any of the hundreds of comparisons I've seen others copy, paste, and essentially regurgitate haughtily (nor will I list them here). I am not an expert on ANY religious figure, but I can read about them and compare for myself. I wasn't looking for any specific details to compare, I just made the comparisons as I ran across them. The first figure I'm analyzing is the Eqyptian god Horus.

Case Study: Jesus vs. Horus

Comparisons:

Birth:
Jesus: Born of a virgin named Mary, who was impregnated by the God / the Holy Spirit.
Horus: Born of the Goddess Isis, who reconstructed the body of her dismembered husband Osiris so that they could conceive their god-son Horus. Isis was not a virgin, since she was in fact sexed up by the golden phallus that she made for her husband Osiris. Both Horus' parents were gods.

Name:
Jesus the Christ: means Jesus "the anointed one". Taken from the Hebrew ritual of anointing someone with oil so that they have a divine purpose or influence.
Horus: means Falcon, other meanings include variations of "the sky" or "the one from above".

Death / Resurrection:
Jesus: Died after being crucifed, was resurrected only once as the same man, Jesus. He remained on earth for 40 days before ascending into the heavens.
Horus: Died and was continually re-incarnated as each successive Pharaoh. Horus is considered the Pharaoh and ruler of both the world of the living and the dead. I didn't find details relating to how Horus died.

Entity:
Jesus: God in human form.
Horus: He was said to have been the sky, and also the sun and moon. The sun and moon were his eyes, and when these celestial objects were seen traveling across the sky, it was said to be Horus, the falcon, flying across it.

Physical Characteristics:
Jesus: Allegedly looked like any other financially poor male from the period, probably having long-ish hair, a beard, and the common robes of the common man. Was a Hebrew from the middle-east, so was probably of dark complexion, dark hair, brown eyes (as opposed to the oft-depicted light-skinned, blonde, blue-eyed Jesus).
Horus: Head of a falcon. His left eye, the moon, was gouged out during a battle with his jealous uncle Set (or Seth), his mother Isis' brother. This was to explain why the moon is not as bright as the sun. Horus is generally depicted wearing a pschent (red and white crown) to symbolize his dominion of all of Egypt. Otherwise he seems to have the body of a human, dark skin, and wears the clothes of the area/period: a robe/skirt thing, bare feet, assorted jewelry.

Enemies:
Jesus: Usually enemies involved people of power: royalty, the Pharisees, etc. This was mainly because of Jesus' claim to being the song of God, which was a heresy (unless of course you actually WERE the son of God, which then of course anything goes).
Horus: Many stories show Horus' jealous uncle Set (the god of the desert) to be a prevalent enemy. Many battles between the two are told, some for Horus to avenge his murdered father Osiris, and others to fight for the rule of Egypt.

Theological Hierarchy:
Jesus: The same entity as God and the Holy Spirit. None seem to have any authority over the other, as they all are facets of the same God. Jesus does pray to his "Father" many times which could indicate Jesus' lesser status as God, however in many cases this is said to have been done as an example to other people witnessing the prayer. Other prayers by Jesus are also said to have been strictly fulfilling prophecies made by previously written scriptures.
Horus: Seemed to be somewhat of equal powers/abilities/authority as his uncle Set, whom he battled and challenged in many different ways (from actual fights to boat races). The two go before other apparently higher gods to argue over the rule of Egypt.

Youth:
Jesus: was a human child in his youth. Not much is mentioned about specific clothing or adornments.
Horus: Was thought of as the form of the rising sun, supposedly representing the first light of day. Sometimes depicted as a human child wearing the united crowns of Egypt.

As Savior:
Jesus: the savior of all humankind, providing the only way into heaven after your physical body dies.
Horus: referred to as savior with respect to rescuing his father Osiris' earthly domain from Isis' brother Set. Possibly other reasons for the word "savior", but none seem to point specifically to the salvation of man in any way.

Purpose as a God:
Jesus: God came to earth in the human form of Jesus to save the human race from damnation. He was also fulfilling prophecies of ancient Jewish scripture. By acknowledging Jesus as the son of God and worshiping him, once your body dies, Jesus saves your eternal soul and allows you to be in heaven with God for all eternity. The punishment for not acknowledging Jesus is that your eternal soul is sent to hell to be with other damned souls and you experience pain and agony for all eternity.
Horus: I can't seem to locate any specific purpose for Horus' existence as a God, nor any specific reward or punishment for worshipping him. The gods of Egypt, much like the gods of Greece, seemed to procreate at will and for no specific divine reason, just like people do. If anyone has more sources on this, that would be appreciated.

Relating to other Gods:
Jesus: Is the same as God and the Holy Spirit. Considered one of three facets of the same God. Said to be the only one true god.
Horus: Very closely associated/intermingled with many other gods, including: Re (god of the sun), Min (god of fertility), Sopedu (some sort of protecting or "border-patrol" type god), Khonsu (god of the moon, time and knowledge), and Montu (another god of the sun, also a warrior god).

I'm trying to stay unbiased here, but I have to seriously say WOW... how could anyone on earth actually think these two stories are even remotely related? I think what happens is someone reads a claim online about this (or watches Zeitgeist), and then just spouts it out to everyone they know without actually doing the research. About an hour of research tells me pretty quickly that there doesn't seem to be any plagiarism of any kind between Jesus and Horus. The two stories are very unique from each other. But hey, do the research yourself, that's the only way to know anything for sure anyway.

2 comments:

  1. Jesus was the son of Kleopatra:
    Ptolemaios XV

    She send him to Ethiopia bevor she died when he was 12.
    There are many Ethiopian storys that Jesus was there.
    The paintings in ethopia with maria and jesus shown him as 12year old kid.

    Kleopatra called his son Horus son of Ises... catholic church is full of horus eye symbols...
    first christian symbol has a P in it...

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  2. I think most intelligent people that discuss this matter don't claim that the story of Jesus is directly taken from a previous deity, simply that there are several recurring themes within stories of several deities. Sacrifice, resurrection, virgin birth, red wine, the sun, the sky, the earth, dance, and torture/execution to name but a few. Dawkins writes an excellent section in The God Delusion about the "evolution" of religion and how if you look back to the early pagan religions, you can see certain themes that obviously rang true to followers and were kept on by the next religion. The inclusion of the sky/stars/sun/moon etc is an obvious one, because at the time, people had no explanation for these things and so if you could explain it in a book and call it holy, people would take it for truth and not argue. sacrifice is another great one as it essentially inspires guilt in people who aren't sure whether to follow or not.

    I think if you study any religious text at all, you can see very easily how they, at the very least, have been shaped and molded by people depending on what goes down well with the public and what doesn't, what is useful to the people in control and what isn't (An excellent example being heaven and hell. Hell is eternal damnation after you die. No one ever ask why the damnation isn't carried out while you're alive? This would at least stop you sinning again and hurting more innocents? Because you can't tell anyone hell doesn't exist once you're dead...)

    I don't believe in a god of any sort because I think there are too many reasons for man to have invented religion. Whether it's explaining what stars are or keeping a populous under control, religion has proven a very handy tool for the leaders of civilizations for thousands of years and continues to do so.

    As such, I would say:
    Yes there are many parallels between religious characters, because religious characters are made up to play a role. If the characters are playing the same role, they are likely to have similar traits. Dance, wine, beams of sunlight, halos etc tend to follow the "goodies" and snakes, darkness, wild dogs, fire and brimstone tend to follow the goodies because it's what people expect and it's what people are comfortable with. Religious figures are designed around humans. God is made in our image.

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