Christianity has been a dominant force in the shaping of western culture. How is it that this one religion became so dominant? What happened to the plethora of religions that had existed in the western world before Christianity became so widespread?

Most people don’t realize that most of the doctrines, rites, and symbols of Christianity had been around for a very long time before the supposed birth of Christ— The trinity, virgin birth, the resurrected savior, the cross, baptism, rabbits and eggs as symbols of the resurrection celebration, the sacrament of the Eucharist, etc, predate Christianity by a very long time span. Long before the supposed time of Christ, people worshipped many gods and demigods born of a virgin, at or near the winter solstice. These gods or demigods always died right after the beginning of springtime, only to be resurrected three days later. Most of them descended into the underworld during this three-day period.

Let’s retrace the origins of the basic tenets of Christianity. To do this we must go back to the dawn of civilization.

It was the invention of agriculture that made civilization possible. When the agricultural revolution took place, people began to settle down and build small villages, which eventually became big cities. Before the agricultural revolution people were nomadic. When they learned to farm the land they began to notice things that their hunter-gatherer ancestors either didn’t notice or didn’t care much about. We can’t really know what these hunter-gatherer tribes knew or believed, because they left us no writing.  One of the most important inventions of civilization was writing. With the invention of writing we have the end of pre-history and the beginning of history.

One of the first things that people noticed after civilization began is that the sun has an annual cycle. It rises and sets farther north every day as the weather gets warmer, making a higher arc in the sky each day. As this happens the days get longer and the nights get shorter. The sun reaches a point where its daily northward movement appears to stop and it then reverses the pattern. It rises and sets farther south every day, making a smaller arc in the sky; the days get shorter and the nights get longer.

These early farmers were acutely aware that the growing season was tied to the annual cycle of the sun. It was obvious to them that the sun is the source of light and heat. The sun is what makes crops grow. When the sun is in the southern part of its cycle it is cold, game is scarce, wheat doesn’t grow, trees loose their leaves. The Earth itself seems to die, only to spring to life again when the weather warms up. Little wonder these people were sun worshipers.

It was the job of the high priest to predict when the sun would be at the cardinal points in its annual journey. These points are, of course, the equinoxes and the solstices. When the sun reached the winter solstice (its most southerly declination) every one in the village would come outside and wait for sunrise. When the sun came up they would make all the noise they could to get the sun’s attention. They would beg the sun god not to continue his southerly course and to begin his northward journey again. This event eventually became the birthday of the sun god.

The myth of the Earth goddess was also very important to early civilizations. The Earth itself was a goddess, a virgin goddess, giving birth to new life every spring, her virginity being restored annually. The fruit of the Earth was her son. On his death he would return again to the Earth as the seed that would renew the cycle. Eventually this belief evolved into a virgin mother giving birth to a fertility god. This god was always born on or near the winter solstice, and was sacrificed right after the beginning of spring, and was resurrected three days and two nights after his death.  The three day and two night motif comes from the moon goddess. The moon is not visible for three days each month, the day of the new moon, the day before, and the day after. According to the ancient lunar myth the moon “dies” every month and after dying comes back to life in three days and two nights.

This three-day motif eventually found its way into the myth of the fertility god and, in fact is found in much ancient folklore, even Jewish folklore, such as the story of Jonah in the whale’s belly.  The fertility god would resurrect three days after his death, just as the moon does each month. And as the moon was believed to spend three days in the underworld before its return, in most versions of the story the fertility god would spend three days in the underworld before returning. His sacrificial death ensured that crops would grow, livestock would reproduce, and women could reproduce. The celebration of his resurrection was accompanied by symbols of fertility, the most common being rabbits and eggs.

As cities became larger and more populated, city dwellers became less concerned with the cycles of nature. Their food was grown for them by farmers who lived in the areas surrounding the cities, so they became less concerned with the fertility of crops and livestock. These resurrected saviors began to take on a new characteristic. It was reasoned that if they could bring new life to the Earth each spring, then they could bring new life to the human soul after death. They gradually became less important as fertility gods and became redeemers of the soul. Many vestiges of the fertility cults remained in the new religions of the redeemer. The virgin birth on the winter solstice, the death shortly after the vernal equinox, and the subsequent resurrection in three days. Much of the symbology of the old fertility cults remained in the new savior cults. For instance, rabbits and eggs remained part of the resurrection celebration.

There were many redeemers worshipped all over Asia Minor. Among these are Tammuz, Attis, Adonis, Osiris, and Mithras. The cult of Mithras originated in Persia and was centuries old when Christianity first started. Before the time of Christ it had spread all over the Roman Empire and was a very popular religion. Keep in mind that I am using the terms religion and cult interchangeably in this essay. Mithraism persisted until the fourth or fifth century CE. The birth of Mithras on December 25 was accompanied by shepherds in the field who recognized his divinity. A bright star guided three Magi to the birthplace so they could bring their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Mithraists ceremoniously passed around a wafer and a glass of wine proclaiming they were drinking the blood and eating the flesh of their savior. They performed the rite of Baptism. Mithras was called “The Way, the Truth, and the Light.” He was also called the “Good Shepherd” and was identified with the lion and the lamb. All of this was in place long before the time of Christ.

These redeemer gods always had a virgin mother. In some versions of Mithraism that have come down to us he was born of the Earth itself, the Earth being his virgin mother. In other versions he was born of a virgin woman.  As an Adult he performed many miracles, including healing the sick, making the lame walk, casting out demons, giving eyesight to the blind and even raising a man from the dead. Just before his death he had a last supper with his 12 disciples.

The Mater Dolorosa (sad mother) was an important part of these myths. She has many titles; Queen of heaven, Mother of God, Queen of Martyrs. The image of the virgin mother suckling her son, and the image of her watching helplessly while he is sacrificed are important images in these religions, and are found in many pre-Christian cults. In fact the early Christian paintings and sculptures of Mother Mary suckling baby Jesus were copies of the images of the virgin mother Isis suckling her son Horus, who would grow up to be Osiris, who had to die a sacrificial death for the salvation of his people. Archeologists have had great difficulty at times, trying to decide if a particular stone figure was the virgin Mary suckling baby Jesus or Isis suckling Horus. The cult of Isis and Osiris originated in Egypt but became widespread throughout the Roman Empire before the time of Christ. There are many parallels with Christianity. Osiris was baptized at the age of thirty. Osiris performed numerous miracles such as walking on water, raising someone from the dead, and healing the sick.

Attis was a savior god of the Phrygians. He was called “the only begotten son and savior.” He was depicted as being nailed or tied to a tree. Sometimes a lamb was shown at the foot of the tree where he hung.

The Akkadian god Tammuz predated Christianity by about 2000 years. He was said to have performed many miracles, including healing the sick. He seems to have been a fertility god who also had the ability to redeem souls. The annual lamentation of the death of Tammuz is described in the Old Testament (Ezekiel 8:14).

Adonis is a modification of the god Tammuz. His name comes from the Hebrew Adon, which means “Lord” or “master.” The cult of Adonis persisted into the fifth century C.E. It was finally eliminated by Christian persecution. Christianity was merely the last in a long succession of redeemer religions. There were many more of these redeemer religions than I have the space to mention in this essay, but they all share the same basic pattern of beliefs. When it became successful and widespread, mostly due to the actions of one man, the emperor Constantine, Christianity began a process of covering its tracks, erasing its origins, mostly by persecuting believers of other religions and burning their books.  Eventually it was the only one left.  However, they never were entirely successful at wiping out all traces of the previous redeemer religions. Luckily, many ancient books and manuscripts survived, allowing us to see that Christianity was nothing new. Only the name of the Son of God had been changed, along with a few minor details.  There is of course one feature that was added to Christianity that distinguished it from other redeemer religions. It began to claim in the second century that it was the only true religion. Previously people of one religion had respected the redeemers and beliefs of other religions. Most people didn’t think of theirs as being the only valid one.

What did the early Christian church have to say in response to those who pointed out the similarities between Christianity and other religions? The early church fathers usually said things like, “Yes we know Christianity is very similar to these older religions, but this time it’s real, those other religions are just myths”. Later, they began to resort to the argument that the Devil knew in advance that Christ would be born, and he knew all of the circumstances of his birth and death. He created all of these redeemer religions prior to the birth of Christ in order to confuse people. Eventually Christians dealt with this issue by persecuting all of the other redeemer religions out of existence. They destroyed as many books and works of art from these religions as they could. They forcibly converted pagan temples into Christian churches. They forced people to choose between conversion to Christianity or death.

So how did a Jewish Messianic sect merge with a redeemer religion and create a totally new religion? It’s a very complicated and convoluted story and many of the details have been lost to history. What follows is a brief outline of that story.

The Messiah

At the time of Jesus’ supposed birth, Judaism was fragmented into many different sects. Some of these sects were very concerned about a future apocalypse, which they considered imminent. They were also looking for a Messiah. Messiah is a Hebrew word that means anointed, or the anointed one. Eventually, with apocalyptic belief becoming more important, the term began to take on new connotations. The Messiah became a supernatural person who would crush any empire that was oppressing the Jews, particularly the Romans.

There seems to have been a sect of Judaism that believed that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. They believed the apocalypse was imminent and Jesus was the man who would lead them against the Romans. However it is much more complicated than this. Mixed in with this apocalyptic belief was a lot of rhetoric about the kingdom of heaven. It is impossible to determine what Jesus really taught, or for that matter, if he even existed. He wrote no books and no books were written about him until decades after his death. By the time the gospels were written, even his disciples would have been dead, unless we are willing to assign implausible ages to them. It seems however that his message may have been entirely spiritual. He may have been genuinely trying to convey to people that the kingdom of God is within them and not to be found anywhere but in their own hearts. He may have preached love and peace. We will ultimately never know what he preached for this Jesus never left us any kind of written record.

There were many stories circulating in the Jewish world of the time, of itinerant healers, wandering around healing the lame, causing the blind to see, and performing other miracles, even raising the dead. These same miracles also were claimed of Jesus. The Jewish followers of Jesus believed in no virgin birth or resurrection. These pagan ideas would be added after the Jesus movement found its way into the world of the gentiles.

As mentioned above, in the time of Jesus, the Jews were a diverse people with many sects, each with their own beliefs. Ever since Alexander the Great conquered Judea in the 4th century B.C.E., the Greeks and the Jews were intimately intermingled. Many Greeks became Jewish converts. Sometime between the third and first century BCE the Greeks translated the Old Testament into Greek. This book was called the Septuagint (from the Greek word for seventy) because of the belief that it was the work of seventy scholars.  Many Jews of the time took on Greek customs. Some even participated in the Hellenistic cults with their redeemer gods. Eventually the apocalyptic sect of Judaism, with Jesus as the Messiah began to be accepted by many Greek converts.

Many times in history different people with different religions have come together for various reasons. When different cultures intermingle, their religions intermingle as well.  Ideas from one religion are absorbed into another. This is known as syncretism, and has always occurred throughout history, and of course still occurs today.

Paul

Over time, Jesus began to take on attributes of the redeemer gods. This, of course, did not happen over night but was a gradual occurrence. A very important milestone, however, was the conversion of one man, a certain Paul of Tarsus. For this man there was no virgin birth, no miracles performed by Jesus, no apocalyptic visions, no description of Jesus’ childhood, or any biographical information of Jesus at all, only a belief in a savior, born in an unknown place and time. Like the saviors of the Pagan religions, Paul’s Jesus promised everlasting life to those who would believe in him. The earliest writings in the New Testament are letters penned by this man.

We will now consider the Ebionites. The Ebionites were a sect of Jews who followed (supposedly) the teachings of Jesus. Their writings were mostly destroyed by the proto-Orthodox and Orthodox church. Their beliefs and views can only be discerned by reading what their opponents wrote about them. This is an unfortunate circumstance, as one cannot expect unbiased information about them from a group that reviled them. It was claimed by the Ebionites that Paul had changed the original teachings of Jesus by merging them with Greek paganism. They believed that one could not be a follower of Jesus unless one was a Jew who obeyed all of the Jewish laws, including circumcision and dietary laws. Originally called Nazarenes, the Ebionites claimed to be the successors of the disciples of Jesus. They claimed that their church was started by James and Peter, both of whom had actually known Jesus. The Ebionites said that Paul had not been a Pharisee as he claimed. They said he was a gentile who had converted to Judaism, had been disappointed when his hopes of advancement in the Jewish synagogue had been thwarted, so he started a new religion, merging pagan ideas with the Jesus movement.  Almost all of their writings were destroyed by Christians in the second century; however, there are books from the first two centuries of the Christian era that describe their beliefs.

Paul’s letters were written from about 50CE to about 60CE. Paul never met Jesus and did not know his disciples. He seems to have been a very creative, intelligent, man, having become dissatisfied with current religious dogma, he decided to create something new by combining the Jesus movement with pagan ideas. It was Paul who introduced the sacrament of the Eucharist into Christianity. Perhaps I shouldn’t use the word Christianity here, because anything that we would now recognize as Christianity, didn’t exist yet.

The earliest mention of the Eucharist in the bible is found in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. (Corinthians 11:23-30) -For I received from the lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he hand given thanks, he broke it and said ” This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

This is the earliest record of the belief in the power of salvation of the body and blood of Jesus. We have already seen that the sacrament of the Eucharist was an old tradition in many religions before Jesus was even born. Paul, here, is merging a pagan ritual with the Jesus movement. It is interesting to note that Paul is claiming to have received this information by divine revelation (“For I have received from the Lord”). He had no choice but to introduce the Eucharist this way. Surely it was common knowledge that he never met Jesus and did not know his disciples.

Perhaps this would be a good place to explain the word “Pagan.” It is derived from the Latin word paganus, and in modern usage carries certain connotations that I do not intend to give it in this essay. Paganus meant someone from a rural district. The beliefs of most redeemer cults, had, by the first century C.E. become very popular in rural areas. Therefore the believers became known as pagans.

The Mystery Religions

As mentioned above, in the ancient world there were many religions with a dying and resurrected god or demigod. These religions are known as the mystery religions, though I have been using the term “redeemer religions.” They were extremely popular in the near-east and middle east. It is difficult for us, in the modern world, to appreciate the way in which people of ancient times viewed their religions. We must not assume that they always believed that their myths were literally true. The story of the dying and resurrected god was a metaphor for the death and consequent rebirth of the soul. It can be viewed on different levels. On one level, it can be viewed as the death and resurrection of an actual person or demigod. On another level, it can be viewed as a metaphor for the resurrection of the soul of the believer after their own death. On a deeper level it can be viewed as a metaphor for the dying of the old materialistic way of thought, and the birth of a spiritually oriented mind-set in the believer. The old materialistic, Earth-bound, ego-centric ways must die. This death is analogous to the sacrifice of the god. The individual must experience a spiritual awakening in which he or she realizes his or her true nature as pure spirit. This is analogous with the resurrection. The mystery religions were usually organized into levels, with the people at the lower levels viewing the myth in a more simplistic fashion. When a believer was deemed to be spiritually advanced enough, he or she would be initiated into a higher level in which they were taught a more esoteric interpretation of the myth.

Was there a Real Jesus?

Did Christianity start out as just another mystery religion in the near east? The evidence strongly suggests it. There is absolutely no mention of Jesus Christ outside of religious writings. It should be mentioned here that there are two references to Jesus found in a copy of the records of the 1st century historian, Flavius Josephus, “Antiquities of the Jews,” published in 93C.E. This has been cited by many Christian apologists as proof that Christ existed. However, the experts say that both passages are obvious interpolations. There is much evidence that shows that they are not authentic; perhaps the most damning is the fact that no Christian apologist mentions them until the fourth century, though the works of Josephus were well known to the church fathers. Some of them had thoroughly studied the works of Josephus. Origen, one of the most important early Christian writers, says that Josephus did not believe in Jesus. There were many manuscripts of “Antiquities” that do not have these two passages. These two passages seem out of place, as they interrupt the narrative in a way that is entirely out of context.

On the other hand it is possible that there was a great spiritual teacher who is behind the myths and legends of the New Testament. There is no way to prove or disprove that he existed.

Birth of a Religion

In the opinion of this writer, there is a general pattern from which most religions are created. It begins with a truly sincere, very spiritually gifted individual. Due to the patriarchal nature of most societies, this spiritually gifted individual is almost always a male, though no doubt, many women in history have attained the same level of spiritual growth. The spiritually advanced individual who is charismatic and has the gift eloquent speech, soon develops a following. This Guru, or whatever you want to call him, will choose a small group of initiates whom he deems to be more spiritually advanced and perhaps more intelligent than most people. To these disciples he will impart deep spiritual knowledge and esoteric teachings. To others, he will mainly speak in parables and generalities.

Rather than teach metaphysics or theology, these great Gurus teach ways to get in touch with the divinity that is already within you and without you, everywhere present, but imperceptible only because we are ignorant of it. They teach meditation techniques, ethics, compassion, and living a simple, moral life. Eventually the fame of the Guru will grow and people who are hungry for spiritual guidance will seek him out.  The crowds that gather around him soon become too large for all to hear his message directly. Consequently, his message must be “interpreted” to those who have never had a chance to hear him speak. The deeper aspects of the spiritual message become diluted as it is filtered down to the masses. At some point, people with rather authoritarian and aggressive personalities begin to take over and organize it into a religion. This usually doesn’t happen until the great Guru has died. And this Guru, be he Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna, does not write books because they believe (perhaps quite correctly) that their teaching cannot be put into books, but can only be directly taught. Soon there are people who put into writing what they see as the teachings of the Guru. Biographical information about the Guru is invented in order to make the story more interesting. The performance of miracles by the Guru is added in order to show that he had special powers, and therefore, must in some way, be divine. A whole body of teachings eventually evolves and the majority of it is probably very different from what the Guru taught.

Birth of The Gospels

For the first few decades after the death of Christ, his followers had only an oral tradition for their inspiration. Then came the letters of Paul. These were followed by the gospels. No one knows how many gospels were written about Jesus Christ, but there seem to have been more than one hundred of them. Some sources claim that there were two hundred gospels. Some of these were collections of sayings, some of them contained stories about Jesus’ life, and some were a combination of both. The Christians of the first and early second century distrusted any written records other than the Old Testament, and most of the non-Jewish Christians placed no stock in that book. There are writings from the early church fathers that show their disdain for the gospels, and clearly point out that only the oral tradition was trusted over any written source. Gradually the letters of Paul came to be accepted. By the middle of the second century the gospels came to be accepted as legitimate Christian writings. The problem was, there were so many gospels. Each church decided for itself which gospel or gospels it would use. There were many types of Christianity, almost as many as there were gospels.

These diverse sects of Christianity can be lumped into four main groups, each with about an equal number of adherents. They all claimed apostolic succession, i.e. meaning that they have directly inherited the teachings of Jesus from his apostles. The earliest group, of course, was comprised of the Jewish Christians of Palestine, the Ebionites. For them there was no Son of God, no virgin birth. Their Jesus was the long awaited Messiah who would glorify Israel before the world. Not much is known of their beliefs because their writings were so thoroughly destroyed by the Orthodox Church when it came into being.

Another sect was the Gnostics. The Gnostics had been around before Christianity appeared, but they absorbed the teachings of Jesus (or what they thought to be his teachings) into their religion. There were many different sects of Gnostics, but for our purposes we will lump them together as one group. The word Gnostic comes from the word gnosis, which means knowledge. They believed that we are saved not by merely believing in Jesus but by having a knowledge of his teachings and putting this knowledge to use. The Gnostics drew a sharp contrast between body and soul. The body was corrupt and impermanent. The soul, which is the true self, is entrapped within the body and must endure many incarnations while gradually perfecting its spiritual nature. In this belief, the Gnostic Christians are somewhat akin to the eastern religions. Another aspect of Gnosticism that it shares with eastern religions is that it stressed self knowledge. Meditation and looking inward are stressed. The Gnostics did not believe in a hierarchy of rulership within the church. They took turns leading the congregation. There was no priest, or leader of any kind.

Some Gnostics denied that Christ actually had a physical body. His body was a mere illusion. Therefore he did not suffer on the cross. Some denied that he had been born of a woman. Some scholars claim that Paul himself was a Gnostic. There is not enough evidence to support or refute this view. Judging from his epistles, Paul may or may not have been some sort of Gnostic.

Then of course there were the followers of Marcion. Marcion believed that the god of the Old Testament had indeed created the world. But, since the world is corrupt and evil, this creator must be an evil god. But there was another god above this evil demiurge. The more powerful god loved the world, and sent his son down to save mankind from the mess that this evil demiurge had created. Marcion made the first attempt at creating a book of sacred writings for Christians. He Purged the gospel of Luke (which of course was not called Luke in those days but was an anonymous work) of all Jewish influence. He took ten letters of Paul, which he took to be authentic, and along with his revised gospel of Luke, claimed that this was to be the sacred Christian canon.

Still, most Christians did not consider any of these gospels to be sacred. Not being considered sacred, they were freely edited, elaborated on and revised again and again. Most of the editing and revising took place before the third century, but it continued throughout the sixth century.

The last group of early Christians I will discuss is the group that eventually evolved into the Orthodox Church.  To them Jesus was a savior who would grant eternal life to those who believed in him. The followers of Paul, of course, believed in the salvational powers of Jesus. The proto-orthodox group believed in that Jesus had preexisted before his earthly birth, and was divine from the very beginning. It was this sect that eventually infused the ancient idea of the trinity into Christianity.  I do not mean to give the impression that these sects of Christianity were monolithic. There was great diversity among the Gnostics. There was great diversity among the proto-Orthodox.  Among the followers of Marcion one can also find a diverse set of beliefs. In fact it can be said that early Christianity was an extremely diverse religion with a multitude of conflicting beliefs and practices. And it should be mentioned that, although I have lumped the followers of Paul separately from the Marcionites, it is true that Marcion himself was a follower of Paul. He just interpreted Paul differently. And the proto-orthodox group also placed an importance on the letters of Paul, but again, they interpreted him in their own way.

In the year 180CE Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, produced a book that gradually evolved into the New Testament. In fact, Irenaeus was the first person to use the term, New Testament. Irenaeus’ sole reason for creating a New Testament was to provide an alternative to the book Marcion had created.  Marcion had taken the gospel we now call Luke, purged it of all Jewish content, added a couple of Paul’s letters, and claimed that this is the book that Christians should use for guidance. A sacred book is a powerful tool for converting the masses and reinforcing a particular belief. Irenaeus couldn’t let Marcion and his followers have such a powerful tool, while he and his followers did not. So basically, the creation of the New Testament was a sort of power-play. Irenaeus said that there should be four gospels, because there are four winds, four zones of the Earth, the four divisions of a man’s estate, and the four forms of the first living creatures. He took four anonymous gospels and gave them the names Matteus, Marcus, Lukus, and Johannes (Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John). To these he added a few letters of Paul. Irenaeus was well aware that the gospel of John contradicts almost everything in Mathew, Mark and Luke. That the Gospel of John was quite different, and even contradictory to most of the gospels, was well known in the early second century. It was not Irenaeus’ intention to put together a book in which every word is true. It was his intention to create a book from which one could draw inspiration and insight, and mostly, a book that he could use to persuade people that the type of Christianity he believed in was the correct form of the religion.

Each of the four gospels was meant to appeal to a certain group. Mathew would appeal more to those with strong Jewish leanings and extensive knowledge of the Old Testament. Mathew creates many parallels between the life of Jesus and that of Moses. Also, the writer of Mathew, more than the other three, took great pains to make it sound as if Jesus had fulfilled ancient Jewish prophecy. Luke would have more appeal to those with strong Greek leanings. Mark seems to have been written for Jews without extensive knowledge of the Old Testament and with certain Greek leanings. John obviously was meant to appeal to those with very strong pagan leanings. All four of these gospels were originally written in Greek.

It is obvious to anyone who reads them carefully, that Luke and Mathew contradict each other on a number of points. I will only allow room here for two examples, but there are many. First the genealogy of Jesus is different. Mathew and Luke don’t even agree on who Jesus’ grandfather was. Second, Mathew has Mary and Joseph living in Bethlehem, where they are visited by three Magi. They escape the slaughter of the innocents ordered by Herod, flee to Egypt and return to Nazareth. Luke has Mary and Joseph living in Nazareth, from where they are summoned to Bethlehem for a census, and then returning to Nazareth. The slaughter of the innocents isn’t even mentioned in Luke.

The four gospels and the letters of Paul were edited many times over the next few centuries. They were copied numerous times, with errors inevitably occurring each time. Copies made from other copies would usually reproduce those errors while adding more.  And something that is known to biblical scholars, but the general public is unaware of, the scribes who made copies of the New Testament made many deliberate changes. These changes were made to bring the gospels more in line with Christian theology as it was developing. The books of the New Testament were no longer altered by the end of the sixth century, that is until they were translated into English and German. But that is a story for part two.

It was Irenaeus who coined the terms orthodox, and heresy. Orthodox is derived from the Greek words ortho, and doxy. It literally means “correct thinking.” The word heresy is derived from the Greek word, hairesis, meaning choice. In other words if you choose what to believe, you are a heretic but if you believe what you are told by the “one true church”, you are orthodox, or thinking correctly. It is obvious that what he meant was that his view was correct and any other view was erroneous.

Many different holy books were used by various Christian churches for centuries to come. As late as 450CE Theodore of Cyrrhus claimed that there were over two hundred different gospels circulating within his own diocese.

During the second and third centuries, as Christianity was still seeking to define itself, there was much discussion of the nature of Christ’s divinity. The early Christian view that he was a man who had attained divine status by living a truly spiritual life, was giving way to the belief that he was divine before he was born. There were those who believed that his physical body was a mere illusion.  This belief can be traced back to at least the early second century. There were many Christians who believed in reincarnation, the Gnostics, among them. They believed that we all eventually will attain the status and power of Christ, as we grow spiritually through many lifetimes. There were so many different kinds of Christianity and they differed from each other so much, it’s amazing that it not only survived, but became the only legal religion in the western world (which the exception of Judaism, whose followers were marginalized, ostracized. Disenfranchised, and persecuted).

Constantine the Great

In the year 312, the Roman Empire was engaged in a great civil war. The winner of this war would become the new emperor. In the final deciding battle, Constantine and his army fought Maximian and his army on the Tiber. Constantine was a sun worshiper. He had the image of the sun god, Sol Invictus imprinted on his coins. However, on the eve before the great battle, he had a vision (or a dream, he is not clear on this point) of a flaming cross appearing over the sun, with the words “with this sign you shall conquer” appearing over the cross. He had all of his men paint crosses on their shields and helmets that night. The rest, as they say, is history. Constantine won the battle and became emperor of the Roman Empire. His predecessors had persecuted the Christians, but Constantine embraced Christianity. He saw in it a means to solidify his empire and keep his people from revolting. When he realized how many different kinds of Christianity there were, he quickly set about creating a version of Christianity that would be conducive to securing his rulership of the empire. He was not concerned with theological arguments as such, but was only concerned with creating a belief system that would make it easier to subjugate the masses.

In the early fourth century the debate on the nature of Christ’s divinity was coming to a head. On one side there were those who believed that Christ was born at some point in time and did not pre-exist before that point in time. Their most prominent spokesman was a man name Arius. On the other side were those who believed that Christ always existed and is in some way, a part of God. Their most prominent spokesman was a man named Athanasius. Arius believed that Christ was of a similar substance to God, while Athanasius believed that Christ and God were of the same substance. Two words were at the center of this argument, the Greek word “homoiousion,” which means similar, and the Greek word “homooousion,” which means same. The political danger or the Arian view, that Christ was of a similar substance to, but not the same substance as God, and was created at some point in time, is that if this is true of Christ, then someone could come along and make this claim of another individual. This has political as well as theological implications. In the year 325 Constantine assembled a great council in the city of Nicea to resolve this and other issues. He was not particularly concerned with theological issues per se; he was only concerned with the political ramifications of theological issues. His aim was to create a religion that would not only unify the people of the Roman Empire, but also would justify his own secular  power.

If Christ was divine, but separate from God, then that was tantamount to saying that there is more than one God. Yet most Christians believed that there is only one God, a belief they inherited from Judaism. But if he was a part of God, then how could he have suffered on the cross? And how could he be part of God, but not identical with God? Both sides had considerable support. It was by no means clear which side would win.

The council of Nicea eventually settled the question on the side of Athanasius. They drew a document outlining the tenets that all Christians should believe. This is known as the Nicene Creed.

Arius and four other dissidents who refused to sign the creed were banished from the kingdom. Constantine decreed that anyone who did not deliver up their books for burning would be put to death. He had over three thousand Christians executed for continuing to preach the now forbidden forms of Christianity.
Constantine soon discovered that the majority of Christians in Asia Minor were Arians (followers of Arius). He convened another council in Tyre in 335, and this time the Arians won.

Constantine died in 337. His three sons divided the empire amongst themselves. The west and middle provinces were primarily believers in the Nicene Creed. The East was decidedly Arian. Each of Constantine’s sons adopted the beliefs of his province. When two of them died, in 340 and 350 respectively, the ruler of the eastern province, Constantius, ruled the entire empire. The doctrine of Arianism then became dominant in the empire.

The Roman Empire returned briefly to pagan rule with the death of Constantius and the ascension of his cousin Julian to the throne in 361. He ruled for only three years, and was succeeded by Theodosius. Theodosius summoned the second Ecumenical council at Constantinople, which re-affirmed the Nicene Creed, but with modification.

With the Arius/Athanesuis debate, another ancient concept gradually crept into Christianity, the trinity. The concept of the trinity had been around at least since the time of ancient Babylon at the dawn of civilization. The Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Hindus had believed in a trinity for centuries before Christ. The trinity of Babylon goes back thousands of years before Christ. Nowhere in the bible is there any mention of the trinity. There is one place in the New Testament where the phrase Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is used, but that is open to interpretation.  Incorporating the concept of the trinity into Christianity proved to be tricky, and fraught with peril. It could easily be seen as contradicting their claim to be monotheists. In fact throughout the ages, many attacks on Christianity have been aimed at this concept.

If Jesus is actually a part of God as the followers of Athanesius believed, then what about the Holy Spirit mentioned in scripture? Not much thought was given to the idea of the Holy Spirit until the early fourth century when the debate between the followers of Arius and Athanasius had reached a climax. It is as if the followers of Athanasius resorted to this age-old concept to help resolve the paradox of Jesus and God being the same but different. The trinity was a concept familiar to most people back then, Christianity was still a minority religion in the empire, and Christians would have been very familiar with this, and other popular concepts which would have been thought of as pagan by most people back then. It found its way quite easily into Christianity despite the difficulties of interpretation and the obvious conflict with monotheism.

Theodosius

Theodosius became emperor of the east in 379CE and emperor of the west in 394CE. He ruled with an iron fist and made Christianity the official Roman religion. Anyone who held views that differed from the newly established Christianity (based on the Nicene Creed) was persecuted. He was ruthless. In 390CE he ordered the massacre of 7000 Greek citizens in Thessalonica. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan excommunicated him for this barbaric act. The excommunication of Theodosius was an historic event in that it shows the power the church had amassed by that time. Now a bishop actually had the authority to impose his will on the emperor. Theodosius was allowed back into the church after he had done penance.  He continued his persecution of pagans and heretics. He was relentless. Their books were burned, their churches were confiscated, and they were forbidden to assemble. In the year 388 he forbade any public discussion of religious topics.  Theodosius the second went further. In the year 438 he issued the Theodosian code, which called for the death penalty for those who refused to believe in the trinity (Arians) or those who repeated baptisms. It also stated that no pagans could serve in the army because their gods might injure the Roman State. And speaking of baptism that is another concept that was thousands of years old before the birth of Christ. Let me digress for a moment and explain the history of this rite.

The rite of baptism was practiced in the first civilization, Sumeria. In the ancient temple city of Eridu in Sumeria the water god Ea presided over this ancient rite. In the Hellenistic period Ea was called Oannes and Ioaness. In Latin Ea became Johannes and in Hebrew Ea was Yohnan. In English, this name became John. The chronicles of the Jewish historian Josephus, mention John the Baptist, so we can assume that he was real, but it is probably no mere coincidence that his name was the same as the ancient god of Baptism.  The early Christians had believed that baptism only washed away prior sins, and had no effect on sins not yet committed. Most Christians postponed baptism until late in life. However it was a fairly common practice among certain Christians to perform the rite of baptism on someone any time they felt they had sinned.

The Theodosian code more that any other single event, marks the beginning of the dark ages. Another momentous event was when the council at Ephesius declared that Mary was the mother of God. Ephesius, which had for centuries been a center of worship of the virgin goddess Diana, became the center of worship of the Virgin Mary.

Under the emperor Justinian, things got even worse for the so-called pagans. They were severely persecuted. Any Christian who lapsed into Paganism was beheaded. Justinian closed the great university at Athens, which had been a center of learning for centuries. The so-called heretics were persecuted relentlessly. The Jews were allowed to survive, however they were marginalized, ostracized, and had to assume a peripheral role in society.

Christians destroyed pagan temples, burned books by the thousands. Whole libraries were burned. The library in Alexandria, burned down by Christians in 391 CE was said to have housed 700,000 scrolls. In Philadelphus, about 270,000 ancient documents were burned.  It was made illegal to read any books other than the bible and eventually the church even made it illegal for the common man to read the bible. Only the clergy were allowed to posses this book.  In 398 CE the Fourth Council of Carthage forbade bishops to read any classical literature.

St Augustine (354-430 CE) had been the last theologian to have a major impact in the creation of Christian dogma. He was the first important Christian theologian who could not speak or read Greek, and therefore could not read the New Testament in its original form. It was he who invented the concept of original sin, the idea that the sins of Adam and Eve are passed down to humanity by the sex act. He also solidified the interpretation of the trinity. The Eastern Church, however, was not influenced by his new concept of the trinity, in which the Son and Holy Ghost are subordinate to the Father. The Eastern Church to this day, sees the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in much more equal terms.

The churches of the eastern and western regions of the Roman Empire began to gradually drift apart in terms of their beliefs and politics. This was to culminate in the great schism of 1054 when the churches of the east and west, the Latin and the Greek, went their separate ways.

In the Early Middle Ages Christianity was spread from the top down, always by force. What I mean by this is that it did not spread by gradually converting masses of people. It was spread by first converting kings, who subsequently initiated forceful mass conversions of their subjects.  For instance, in the year 777, Charlemagne, a devout Christian, conquered the Saxon rebels and gave them a choice between conversion and execution. When they refused to convert, he had 4500 of them beheaded in one morning.

Towards the end of the tenth century, Vladmir, who had strong ties with Constantinople, converted to Christianity.  He then forced the Russian people to convert. They were given the usual choice that Christian rulers gave their people, convert, or die.

Clovis, king of the Franks, converted to Christianity, and a mass conversion of the Franks followed. Of course whenever a mass conversion occurs, people mix in elements of their old religion with the new. It is interesting to note that the Franks made a military figure out of St Peter. Most of the so-called barbarian people who converted to Christianity didn’t have a strong sense of sin and redemption. The Christian faith began to center itself more on the idea of Christ as a heavenly ruler rather than a redeemer.

These so-called barbarians believed in numerous nature spirits, each with their own specific powers. Some watched over the animals, some watched over crops, some cured stomach aches, some cured headaches, etc. As time went by they began to assimilate the stories of the saints into their version of Christianity. The saints gradually took over the role of nature spirits. Saint Anthony took care of pigs, Saint Saturnius watched over sheep. Saint Gall looked after hens; Saint Medardus protected vines from frost. Saint Appollonia, according to legend, had all of her teeth pulled out by her persecutors, so naturally, she cured toothaches. They had Saints for sore throats, for headaches, the list goes on and on. For a time the saints seem to have meant more to Christians than Jesus.

Christmas

As mentioned above, the winter solstice was the time of celebration of the God born of a virgin mother, since time immemorial. During the first few centuries of Christianity the winter solstice fell on December 25th.  Though this was celebrated as the birthday of Lord Mithras, and many other gods, the most popular observance in the Roman Empire on this day was the celebration of the birthday of the god Saturn. It was called the Saturnalia.  On this day people gave each other gifts. On this day of the year all slaves were given their freedom for the whole day.  It was only natural that Dec 25th would be adopted by the Christians as the birthday of their savior. This made it much easier to gain new converts, because people were already used to celebrating on that day. No one in those days would have taken a new religion seriously if it celebrated a savior’s birth on any day except December 25th. It was during the fourth century that Christians began to celebrate Christmas.

The tradition of bringing a tree into the house and decorating it goes back centuries, if not millennia, before Christianity. The use of an evergreen tree as a symbol of life and fertility goes back to the ancient Egyptians, the Chinese, the Babylonians and many other ancient people.  However, it wasn’t until the Germanic tribes were converted, that the Christmas tree and the Yule log found their way into the Christmas celebration.

The use of mistletoe as a symbol of eternal life and regeneration goes back to the ancient Celtic tribes. The Romans, who also regarded it as a fertility symbol, used it as a symbol of peace. Kissing under the mistletoe was an old Roman custom. In order to insure fertility a couple would kiss under the mistletoe.

The Devil

The word devil comes from the Latin word “diabolicus” which itself came from Greek word “diabolus” and meant a slanderer or accuser. Though evil beings can be found in most religions both past and present, it was the Zoroastrians in Persia who first came up with the idea of a supreme evil being who opposes God and is always attempting to corrupt the world. There were certain sects of Judaism that adopted this belief, but it never became a part of mainstream Judaism.  Despite what some people might think, there is no devil in the Old Testament.  As the concept of the devil, or Satan, took shape, the Christians began to reinterpret many passages in the Old Testament as references to the devil, when in fact; they are nothing of the sort. The snake in the Adam and Eve myth derives from the mythology or early agricultural people. In fact the entire Adam and Eve myth is derived from an ancient Sumerian myth that is vastly older than the Old Testament.

The name Lucifer is often equated with the devil.  This name is used in Isaiah and is found nowhere else in the entire bible.  Lucifer is a Latin name meaning “bringer of light ” and was the name the Romans gave to the planet Venus when it appeared as the morning star.  The original Hebrew text does not use the name Lucifer.  It uses the expression “Helal, son of Shahar” which means “Day star, son of the dawn.”  The Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, as it is called, uses the term Hesphorus, which was the Greek name for Venus when it was the morning star. When Jerome wrote the vulgate bible in the fourth century, he used the Latin name Lucifer in place of the Hebrew, Helal. In the early middle ages, Lucifer was reinterpreted as a fallen angel and was eventually identified with the devil. How ironic it is that the bringer of light became the prince of darkness.

The quote is from Isaiah 14:12 and reads “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” Put in its proper context, it is referring to a fallen Babylonian King who had persecuted the Children of Israel. The writers of the bible, like all good writers, use metaphor to make their work more interesting, and this is a prime example of such use. The Babylonian King is equated with the planet Venus, which as the morning star, gradually rises later and later until it is “cut down to the ground” i.e.  becomes invisible as it rises with the sun.

Now let us consider the name Satan. This name is used by writers of both, the old and new Testaments. The term Satan, when used in the bible, is used to describe a person or angelic being who takes on an adversarial role. The word Satan appears 13 times in the Old Testament (mostly in Job) and originally was preceded by the Hebrew word “ha” which means “the.” By taking the article “the” out of every reference to the satan, translators of the bible made it sound as if the word satan was the name of a particular being instead of a more generic word. The word satan was a common word in the old Hebrew language.  It meant “one who opposes, obstructs, or acts as an adversary” and does not necessarily denote one who is malevolent.  A Satan is sometimes sent by God to perform a particular task. Sometimes the satan is a loyal member of God’s court as in Zechariah or Job. In the book of Job, Satan only does what God allows him to do.  Certain biblical writers began to use the satan to explain strife and division among the Hebrew people.  The satan stood up against Israel and incited David to number the people (1st Chron. 21:1), but this in no way implies a powerful evil demon who is opposing God.

Another name that came to be applied to the devil is Beelzebub. This name is found 7 times in the New Testament and is referred to by Mathew and Mark as “The Prince of Devils” ( Mathew 12:24 & Mark 3:22). Luke calls him “The Chief of Devils” (Luke 11:15). The New Testament use of Beelzebub is most likely a misspelling of the name Baalzebub from the Old Testament. 2Kings 1:2 refers to Baalzebub as the god of Ekron and is the only use of Baalzebub in the Old Testament.  Baalzebub literally means “Lord of the Flies” in Hebrew. The word Baal is the ordinary Hebrew title for a deity, especially a local deity. Zebub is a Hebrew word meaning flies.  Perhaps the god of Ekron had power over plagues of insects, and was thus called “Lord of the Flies.” Another explanation is that the actual name of the god of Ekron was “Baalzebul,” which means “Lord of the Temple” in Hebrew. By the change of one letter, the writer(s) of Kings was making a pun which was intended to deride the god of Ekron.  In Dante’s Inferno (which by the way, defined and solidified the Christian conceptions of hell, Satan, and purgatory), Beelzebub is the name given to the Devil’s right-hand man. He is sort of the second in command in hell.

Early Christianity was influenced heavily by dualistic concepts found in certain popular religions of the time, especially Zoroastrianism.  As mentioned above, the concept of an evil being who opposed God originally came from the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. The Zoroastrians saw the world as a great struggle between good and evil. They were the first monotheists, but their monotheism was compromised by creating this evil character who is like an evil version of God, though not quite as powerful. When the Jews were under Persian rule, in the early third century BCE, they adopted the Zoroastrian concept of monotheism, but the idea of an evil character in opposition to God never became part of mainstream Judaism because they felt that it compromised their monotheism.

One theme that has been repeated many times since the beginning of history when a new religion replaces an older one, is the demonization of the gods if the older religion. Thus the Greek satyrs and more specifically, the god Pan, were made out to be evil demons by the Christians in the Middle Ages. These half human half goat creatures were then given the trident of Neptune (Poseidon).

Christians began more and more to perceive the world in terms of good verses evil, God verses the devil. You were either on the side of God, in other words you were a Christian, or you were on the side of the devil, in other words you were a non-Christian. In the new Testament the Satan became more of a specific being who is compelled to corrupt the world.

Hell

Hell is another Christian concept that arose in the early middle ages. The word “hell” comes from the Norse word “Hel.” In early Norse mythology, the word Hel was the underworld, the abode of dead souls. It was also the name of the Goddess who ruled the underworld.  The Hebrew word “Sheol” occurs 65 times in the Old Testament. It is translated “hell” 31 times, “grave” 31 times, and “pit” 3 times in the King James Bible.  The Hebrew Sheol was not seen as a place of eternal punishment. It was merely a place where people went when they died. Psalm 139:8 makes it clear that God is present in sheol.

The New Testament translates the Greek word “Gehenna” as Hell. This is an unfortunate mistranslation as the Greek Gehenna refers to an actual place on Earth, namely, the valley of Hinnom in the land of Israel. The valley of Hinnom was considered a place of abomination because in ancient times, it is where the Israelites had sacrificed their children to the god Moloch. By the first century C.E. it had become a refuse dump where dead animals and waste were piled up and burned.  The fires of Gehenna (Hinnom) were continually maintained. Another Greek word that was mistranslated as hell in the New Testament is the word “Hades.” The Greek concept of  Hades is merely an underworld inhabited by the souls of those who have died. It carries no connotation of punishment or suffering. The word Tartaroo is translated as hell in the bible and appears only once in the original Greek New Testament, 2Peter 2:4. It refers to a subterranean region inhabited by the souls of the wicked.

Rev 21:8 is often quoted by Christians. It speaks of a lake of fire and brimstone. It is where the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, all liars go to experience a “second death.”  This passage has been very influential in forming the Christian concept of hell, but by far the biggest influence of all was Dante’s “Inferno.”

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was the author of an epic work called “The Divine Comedy.” This work, from the early 1300s,  was divided into three sections–The Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.  The Divine Comedy is an epic tale of an imaginary journey by Dante in which he goes first to hell, then purgatory, then heaven.  This work can be interpreted on different levels and was most likely intended as allegory. However it became the single biggest influence on the Christian concept of hell for both Catholics and Protestants.

The Calendar

The origin of our seven day week goes back to the ancient Babylonians.  From the very beginning of civilization people noticed that there were seven objects that moved among the stars. The stars themselves formed patterns, or constellations, which remained fixed relative to each other, but these seven objects moved freely across a broad swath of sky, each taking a different length of time to complete the entire 360 degree journey. These seven objects of course are the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets which are visible to the naked eye, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The constellations represented gods, but the Sun, Moon, and planets were obviously more powerful gods because they were free to wander. In fact the word planet comes from the Latin word for wanderer. Each of these important gods was given his or her (Venus and the Moon were considered female) own day.  The Romans adopted the Babylonian seven day week under Constantine. By then it had already been around for millennia. The Babylonian names were changed to Latin names.  When the Germanic peoples were conquered by the Romans, they adopted the seven day week, using their names for the seven gods. Sunday and Monday are obviously derived from Sun-day and Moon-day.  Mars day was changed to Tuesday in honor of the god Tues, the Germanic equivalent of Mars. Mercury had been associated with the Germanic Wodin ever since the days of Julius Caesar. Wodinsday eventually became corrupted into Wednesday. Thor was the equivalent of Jupiter. Thorsday became Thursday. The goddess Freya was the Germanic equivalent of Venus. Freyday eventually became Friday. The French language preserves the original Latin names of the days of the week to a large extent, with the exception of Sunday, which was changed to Dimanche, which means God’s day.

In the early centuries of Christianity the calendar in use reckoned the year one as the first year of the reign of the emperor Diocletian.  But Diocletian was a notorious persecutor of the Christians. In the year AD531, (which at the time was called the year 247) an Abbott by the name of Dionysius calculated that Christ had been born exactly 531 years earlier. He decided to call this year Anno Domini, year of our Lord.  Under his system this became the year one. His new system did not catch on right away but eventually became the dominant dating system in the world.  The Coptic Christians in Egypt (a sect far older than any other existing form of Christianity) still use the old system.  For them the year 2000 was called 1716. Christians did not use the term BC until the seventeenth century.

The Great Schism

Much has been written about the great schism of 1054. That was the year the bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople excommunicated each other. The churches of the east and west went their separate ways. Actually they had been drifting apart for centuries. The Eastern Church never accepted St. Augustine’s interpretation of the trinity.  The Eastern Church had always seen the Father as the unifying principle with the Son and Spirit emanating from Him. St Augustine thought of the Spirit as emanating from the Father and the Son. The Eastern Church allowed married men to become priests and the Western Church did not. Many eastern Christians believed in purgatory but they did not require all Christians to believe in it, while the Church of Rome required all Christians to believe in purgatory.

With the great split, the bishop of Rome was seen in the west as the supreme ruler of the Christian world and was given the title pope, derived from the Late Latin word papa, which itself is derived from the Greek word pappas, meaning father. The title pope is often applied to bishops of Rome who predated the creation of the Catholic Church, but this is an anachronism. For instance, the bishop Gregory is often referred to as Pope Gregory the Great, but in his day (born at Rome about 540; died 12 March 604) the term Pope was not yet in use.

Speaking of Gregory the Great, he was instrumental in initiating many ideas which brought about the dark ages. Seeing the value of keeping the common man ignorant, he forbade education for all but the clergy. He forbade laymen to read the bible. Later the church would make the act of translating the bible into the vernacular, or the possession of such a bible, a crime punishable by death. The bible was considered a dangerous book to have in the hands of the laity. They might interpret it for themselves, or they might see all of its inconsistencies and contradictions.

Conclusion of part one

By the middle of the eleventh century all forms of Christianity other than Orthodox or Catholic had been destroyed or suppressed to the point that they existed only in isolated groups in remote areas. These older forms of Christianity never completely recovered from the persecution they suffered. Today they exist, but only as small sects, isolated from the mainstream.

The Catholic Church however, was growing so corrupt that it would unwittingly cause a revolution that would spawn many new forms of Christianity. The Protestant Revolution was a profound turning point in history and ultimately is responsible, in no small way, for the gradual decline in the power of the Church.  Part two will deal with this revolution, the witch hunts, the inquisition, and the crusades, as well as the Copernican revolution.

I don’t know when I will begin writing part two.  It may not be for a while.