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Note: these excerpt threads are subject to continual revision and updating as opportunity and priority permits Michael Patella: "Many studies have taken up the topic of various Hellenistic mystery religions and their influence on the Gospels, particularly over the twentieth century. The prevailing opinions break down into two camps. The first sees the Gospels and Christianity as an adaptation and offshoot of the cults of Dionysus, Cybele and Attis, Isis and Osiris, Mithras, and others. The second camp holds that there has not been any such infiltration of mystery cults within Christianity. Rather than try to prove or disprove a direct influence of Mithraism on the Gospels, however, it is more accurate to speak about the world and culture that Christianity and Mithras share and reflect. Several reasons support this approach. Above all, no documents from the Mithraic cult exist. Until they come to light, if they ever do, to draw definitive conclusions about the Mithraic mysteries and Gospel formation is speculation at best. In addition, the terms Mithras or Perseus do not appear in any language of any canonical version of Scripture... To find veiled Mithraic references in canonical or noncanonical Christian texts, therefore, is impossible, or at least quite difficult to substantiate..." [2-3] Lord of the Cosmos: Mithras, Paul, Gospel of Mark "With the use of the name Bartimeaus ... Mark questions Timaeus's vision. As a son, Bartimaeus is the heir of Plato's character Timaeus, blind and crying out in lament. It seems that Mark is writing a mimesis of Plato. As a mimesis, Bartimaeus calls into question the moral order of Timaeus's universe, and in so doing acts as the voice for suffering, lost, and perishing humankind. Jesus, however, does not leave Bartimeaus wallowing in despair. Though physically blind, Bartimeaus has spiritual insight that causes him to call out for mercy from the Son of David ... and the Son of David grants it... Although all three Synoptics relate a version of this story, only Mark includes the detail of Bartimeaus casting off the cloak... Cloaks wrap and protect, but they also hinder sight and hamper movement. Bartimeaus casts off his cloak for precisely that reason; it represents the old way of seeing reality and responding to it. By throwing off his cloak, Bartimeaus makes a radical break with his past..." [100-101] Lord of the Cosmos "The Markan presentation of Jesus' death, the climax of the narrative, brings the act of divine communication full circle. At the baptism, God communicates to creation, and with Jesus' cry from the cross, creation replies. The rending of the temple curtain signals the communication in symbols recognizable to both Jew and Gentile. The women at the tomb are so awestruck that they do not tell anyone what they have witnessed. The notice to meet Jesus in Galilee is an affirmation of the resurrection by moving from the place of the dead (the tomb) to the land of the living (Gaililee), thus rejoining Paul's cosmic theology, which moves from life to death, and back to eternal life. Although Mithraism and Christianity grew in the same Hellenistic soil, the important point is that Christianity differs from Mithraism in its soteriology. Unlike Mithraism and indeed unlike all mystery cults, Christianity's followers participate in the life of their God; they are not mere observers imitating their deity and depending on that god's capricious beneficence for salvation. In the Greco-Roman world during the intertestamental period, Plato's Timaeus was the currency of the religious, scientific, and philosophical realm. Its astronomical calculation that the whole cosmos was a living entity forming a cross at the intersection of two ecliptics combined with Posidonius of Tarsus' teaching on astral immortality. The cult of Mithras, at this stage in its development in Tarsus of Cilicia, melded with the vision of the universe outlined in Plato's Timaeus. Together, these two systems provided for Paul a worthy vehicle to become the apostle to the Gentiles. Not only was he able to speak to the world on its own terms, but he was also able to engage the participation in the life of a god that Mithraism proclaimed... At this point, it is impossible to ascertain how, when, and where Paul influenced the Markan text, if at all. The most we can say is that Paul's writings and Mark's Gospel share the same worldview, and consequently we can understand how the earliest converts heard the Christian message..." [120-122] Lord of the Cosmos: Mithras, Paul, Gospel of Mark |