The basis of the Christian proclamation is the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, his death, and subsequent resurrection. In this regard, Cook wisely notes that “the existence of Jesus is not the problem for the world — the resurrection is” (Resurrection in Paganism and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ). In fact, this phenomenon is the subject of controversy both among ordinary people and in academic circles. One of the doubts that critics of the Christian faith have is the origin of the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Within the framework of this essay, I will not dwell on arguments supporting or refuting the historicity of this event. In this paper, I will focus on considering whether any pagans believed in bodily resurrection. The Christian concept of resurrection has a number of analogies with pagan beliefs but is not based on them. The main difference is that the pagans believed in the resurrection as the passage of the soul to the afterlife. The Christian resurrection that Jesus experienced involves death and subsequent return to a physical body that continues to live in the earthly world.
The modern Christian religion uses a variety of evidence and reasoning to prove the validity of its principles. The concept of resurrection is one of the central concepts in Christianity and forms the basis of religious faith. Doug Becker, the contemporary pastor of theology, argues that it is common in contemporary culture to claim that the Christian concept of resurrection was borrowed from early pagan beliefs (Becker). In particular, the pastor notes that many critics of Christianity are trying to prove that “a belief in dying and rising gods in the ancient world was somehow borrowed by the early Christians and applied to Jesus” (Becker). However, despite the existence of such a concept as an afterlife in many pagan beliefs that preceded Christianity, they do not have direct parallels with bodily resurrection.
Many researchers consider the problem of the origin of the resurrection concept in Christianity and its possible origin from ancient pagan beliefs. However, the scholars provide compelling evidence that the idea of a pagan resurrection has nothing to do with the Christian bodily resurrection. This assumption is supported by Wright pointing out that pagans, regardless of their desire, accepted the impossibility of this phenomenon (The Resurrection of the Son of God 82; Jesus’ Resurrection and Christian Origins 63). Cook notes that bodily resurrection is related to the body’s return to life (mortal or not), which “is consistent with a transformation of the earthly body” (Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb 57). The researcher also notes that in Paganism, there are analogies to the concept of resurrection, presented later in ancient Judaism and early Christianity (Cook, Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb 57). However, these analogies do not identify the genealogies of the concept of resurrection since pagan ideas about this phenomenon have a number of significant differences.
The most common parallels regarding the concept of resurrection in paganism and Christianity are found in early Greco-Roman mythology. It should be noted that the ideas about resurrection in this period are based on the images of dying and rising gods. One of the earliest individuals who offered objections to the originality of the resurrection of Christ was the philosopher Celsus (Wright 99; Cook, Resurrection in Paganism and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ). According to the pagan in Greco-Roman mythology, there are a number of figures who descended into Hades and returned successfully, including “Pythagoras, Orpheus, Protesilaus, Heracles, Theseus, and several others” (Cook, Resurrection in Paganism and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ). Celsus explains that the story of the resurrection of Christ is either a delusion or a lie. The line of reasoning of the philosopher is based on the fact that the stories of the dying and rising gods from Greco-Roman mythology and the resurrection of Christ are extremely similar. However, if we consider these episodes in more detail, it will be revealed that examples of resurrection from paganism and Christianity have different roots.
In order to understand the existing similiarities between the concept of dying and rising gods in pagan religious views and resurrection in Christianity, it is necessary to consider several examples. Tawa Jon Anderson gives some evidence that although there are parallels with pagan beliefs in the concept of resurrection, it did not originate from them (210). The Ugaritic god Baal, according to the myths, descended into Hades, which resulted in the death of his physical body (Anderson 211; Becker). Since Baal is the god of rain and storms, his death causes a prolonged drought. However, goddess Anat later finds Baal’s body, meets death, and the supreme god has a “dream-vision, by which he is able to determine that Baal has returned to life” (as cited in Anderson 211). This event also coincided with the return of rain and the end of the drought.
This example provides some important insights into the key differences between the concept of pagan dying and rising gods and resurrection in Christianity. Primarily, Baal is a vegetation god, as evidenced by his life and death connected with the cycles of nature. Another important point is that the supreme god only had the vision of bringing Baal back to life, not his bodily resurrection (Anderson 211). This is an important aspect that points to the main difference between pagan and Christian ideas. In pagan belief, resurrection is not tied to the physical body but rather describes the liberation of the spirit. In the Christian faith, the return of the body to life is a central concept, as noted by Cook (Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb 57). Thus, the dying and rising gods of pagan beliefs have a number of distinctive features, which also reflect the ideas of these religious groups about resurrection.
The researchers also note that Osiris is one of the most prominent examples of resurrection in pagan beliefs. According to ancient Egyptian mythology, Osiris was killed by his brother Set (Becker). After that, he was dismembered, and pieces of his body were scattered throughout Egypt. The wife of Osiris, Isis, collects the pieces of the body and, with the support of other gods, reassembles the body. After that, Osiris awakens, rules in the Nether land, and conceives a son, Horus, whose bodily reincarnations are the Egyptian pharaohs (Cook, Resurrection in Paganism and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ). In this case, the main factor is that Osiris, his wife Isis, and his son Horus are all in the afterlife. Despite the fact that Osiris is depicted as a mummy and personifies the practice of mummification, he does not have a physical earthly incarnation (Becker; Anderson 212). Cook gives an opinion that the resurrection of Osiris corresponds to his reincarnation as Apis, which is the image of his soul (Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb 65). Parallels are often drawn between Osiris and Jesus, but the pagan god was not physically resurrected.
Osiris was restricted to living in the Nether world, and after his death was referred to as the king of the dead. This aspect does not allow us to say that the god was completely resurrected since he did not have a physical embodiment on earth. Although Osiris could also rise, as the resurrection suggests, he did not return to the physical world in the actual body, which makes this example additional evidence of the lack of similarity between the Christian concept of resurrection and pagan views.
Another significant pagan resurrection example cited by multiple researchers is Adonis. Anderson, immediately notes that before the advent of Christianity, Adonis was known exclusively as a dying and not a rising god (212). This aspect may already indicate that pagan views could also be modified after the emergence of Christianity. There are several versions of the myth of Adonis, each of which presents him as a refutation of the similarity between pagan and Christian resurrection (Becker). In one version, Aphrodite gives Adonis to Persephone, who refuses to return him; after that, Zeus allows Adonis to spend half a year on earth and half a year in the underworld. In another version, Adonis is killed by a boar, and Aphrodite honors his memory with a flower. Thus, in the first myth, Adonis does not die, and in the second myth, he does not resurrect. However, in this example, it is also interesting that Adonis essentially personifies the change of semesters, which also correlates him with the ideas about the gods of vegetation common in Paganism, and not with the concept of resurrection from Christianity.
Based on the examples presented, a number of conclusions can be drawn that prove that the concept of resurrection in paganism and Christianity have different roots. First of all, the resurrection of Jesus is perceived by Christians and is described in the Bible as a one-time historical event with a known topography (Anderson 214; Wright 83). The main difference between the ideas of the pagans about the resurrection and the concept in Christianity is the need for a bodily resurrection. It is also important that stories about dying and rising gods in pagan beliefs are connected with natural cycles and vegetation. At the same time, Christians did not associate the resurrection of Christ with a certain season or natural event (Anderson 214; Wright 81). Another important difference between Christian and pagan resurrection is the promise of a future resurrection for believers (Anderson 214; Wright 116). Thus, the idea of resurrection differs both in form and purpose, which is another proof of the originality of this concept in Christianity.
Jesus died and rose in his physical body, continuing to exist in the physical world. At the same time, examples of gods from pagan beliefs refer to episodes of transition after death to the afterlife and not a full return to earthly existence. Researchers agree that the empty tomb is the most prominent evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus (Anderson 214; Cook, Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb 74-75). Cook concludes that “the tradition about the burial of Christ and his resurrection on the third day presupposed a tradition of an empty tomb” (Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb, 74). In other words, the empty tomb is evidence of a bodily resurrection, explicitly showing that Jesus died and rose in his physical body. This aspect is the main difference meaning that the Christian concept of resurrection was not based on the ideas of the pagans.
Thus, the pagans did not believe in bodily resurrection, although this concept was common in their views. Within the framework of pagan religions, resurrection assumed the passage of a person’s soul after death to the afterlife, where existence continues. This was what happened right after death, a new heavenly life. This view contrasts sharply with the Christian ideas of resurrection, which involves death and a subsequent return to the physical body, as well as to earthly life. As Wright underlines, “it was not a redescription or redefinition of death. It was death’s reversal” (83). Thus, although the pagan concept of resurrection has a number of parallels with the Christian one, they are not similar. Christian bodily resurrection is also not a modification of pagan phenomena; it is a separate phenomenon that has a number of distinctive features. Most importantly, the Christian concept of bodily resurrection is the basis of the faith, explaining its ultimate goal, while the pagan view exclusively describes aspects of nature and the world.
Works Cited
Anderson, Tawa. J. The Myth of the Metaphorical Resurrection: A Critical Analysis of John Dominic Crossan’s Methodology, Presuppositions, and Conclusions. 2011. The Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Ph.D. Web.
Becker, Doug. “Was the Resurrection of Jesus a Repackaged Pagan Myth?” Emergence, 2018.
Cook, John G. “Resurrection in Paganism and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.” HBU, 2016.
…. “Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15.” New Testament Studies, vol. 63, no. 1, 2017, pp. 56-75.
Wright, Nicholas. “Jesus’ Resurrection and Christian Origins.” Theofilos, vol. 6, no. 2, 2013, pp. 62-71.
…. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Fortress Press, 2003.