Is Christianity based on pagan beliefs and rituals? Did the authors of the Bible, especially the New Testament, draw from pagan myths and ancient fables?

At some point in the sixth decade of the first century, the Apostle Peter wrote: "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty" (II Peter 1:16, NKJV).

Sorry, Peter. In addition to challenging your authorship of the second epistle which bears your name, many critics of Christianity charge that you and your peers did, in fact, found the Christian religion based on ancient fables and pagan traditions. These critics allege that Christianity is indeed rooted in paganism and that the origins of Christianity have more to due with legend and myth than history.

Pagan Roots of Christianity?

According to the website Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth (POCM), Mediterranean cultures in the ancient world "shared standard ideas about Gods and their powers and place in the universe [and] Christianity simply adopted those ideas and applied them to Jesus."

POCM explains:

Heaven, hell, prophecy, daemon possession, sacrifice, initiation by baptism, communion with God through a holy meal, the Holy Spirit, monotheism, immortality of the soul, and many other "Christian" ideas all belonged to earlier, older Pagan faiths. They were simply part of ancient Mediterranean culture. Along with miracle working sons of God, born of a mortal woman, they were common elements of pre-Christian Pagan religion. Mithras had 'em. So did Dionysus, Attis, Osiris, and Orpheus. And more. (Emphasis theirs)

One former Anglican priest bluntly states: "Christianity began as a cult with almost wholly Pagan origins and motivations for the first century." In fact, says Tom Harpur, the former priest turned critic, "Not one single doctrine, rite, tenet, or usage in Christianity was in reality a fresh contribution to the world."

What the Scholars Say about Paganism and Christianity

The pagan roots of Christianity is a popular argument on the Internet and a premise favored in several recent books, including The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy and Those Incredible Christians by Hugh J. Schonfield. However, its popularity within scholarly circles has significantly declined since the early 20th century.

T.N.D. Mettinger, a Swedish scholar who has devoted years to the analysis of pagan religions, declines to endorse the view that Christianity parallels paganism. Addressing the resurrection of Jesus specifically, Mettinger writes: "There is, as far as I know, no prima facie evidence that the death and resurrection of Jesus is a mythological construct, drawing on the myths and rites of the dying and rising gods of the surrounding world."

Interestingly, many elements of the pagan myths often associated with Christianity actually post-date the writing of the New Testament. One example is the myth of Attis. While the myth itself predates Christianity, Christian apologist Michael Licona points out that "the first report we have of a resurrection of Attis comes long after the first century."

Many aspects of various ancient religions were lifted out of context, pasted together with others, and shaped into a sort of "universal Mystery-religion" that was then paralleled with Christianity. While this approach continues to earn mileage on the Internet, the academic community no longer embraces it.

Edwin Yamauchi, a student of 22 languages and a professor of Mediterranean studies, explains that "by the mid-twentieth century, scholars had established that the sources used [for the ancient pagan religions] were far from satisfactory and the parallels [with Christianity] were much too superficial." Consequently, says Yamauchi, it's been "pretty much of a closed issue in the scholarly community."

POCM acknowledges that "modern academic orthodoxy" is against them, but they counter that this is due to the Christian bias of most religion scholars. The scope of this article does not permit an examination of this claim, but it should be noted that bias in and of itself does not fatally undermine the quest for truth or the discovery of facts. As such, it is inappropriate to dismiss "modern academic orthodoxy" out of hand, simply because a majority of modern academics disagree with POCM.

Evaluating Christianity on its Own Terms

Regardless of the apparent parallels with other faiths and religions, Christianity deserves to be assessed on its own terms. The claims of the Bible warrant examination in their own right, and the historical evidence for Jesus should be weighed irrespective of whatever has been written concerning Mithras, Osiris, or any other ancient god.

It is unlikely, however, that those advancing the claims of similarity between Christianity and paganism will respect such ground rules. According to Yamauchi, they don't even respect the ground rules of basic academic scholarship. Yamauchi writes: "They don't have the languages, they don't study the original sources, they don't pay attention to the dates, and they frequently quote ideas that were popular in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries but have already been refuted."

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Sources for this article include:

The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel (Zondervan, 2007)

Website: "Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth"

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