Jesus and the greek god dionysius?

[ejp123]

Was Jesus developed from the greek god dionysius? What are there similarities and differences? Scholars say there are overlaps in there traits. Some argue that Jesus is a myth because they are similar.

 

[johnnyjones]

Was Jesus developed from the greek god dionysius? What are there similarities and differences? Scholars say there are overlaps in there traits. Some argue that Jesus is a myth because they are similar.

The biggest point. Dionysius didn’t change the world on a massive scale… Jesus did . Think about which one is the real myth.

 

[Calgar]

Some argue that Jesus is a myth because they are similar.

There are other accounts of Jesus besides the Bible.

The people who are making these claims are either trying to cause trouble, or are ignorant of recorded history.

 

[adrift]

I don’t see anything similiar with Jesus and this greek god.:nope:

 

[MisterCorduroy]

Just went through this discussion with my brother-in-law. He claimed that older myths talk about virgin births, crucifixions, resurrections, water changed into wine, and such. He asserts that these ideas were borrowed by Christians to market their new religion to pagans.

After doing some research you will discover that while Dionysius, or Attis, or Mithras predate Jesus, the parallels were added after Christ to counteract the spread of Jesus devotees. Justin Martyr mentions this in the 2nd century.

The oldest texts do not contain these similarities. When confronted by these people I ask for “chapter and verse” for their accusation. In other words, show me in the original legend of Dionysius anything that is similar to Jesus. Show me a text that predates Christ where these allegations occur. They can’t. They’ll quote third-hand material that makes the accusation without any historical manuscripts to back it up.

There’s a decent Protetstant site that handles these well. Here’s the link to the page on Dionysius thedevineevidence.com/pagan_copycat_dionysus_bacchus.html

 

[Kouyate42]

If you’re talking about the similarities between the two as gods of wine/vine, their births to virgins and fathered by gods (Dionysus was born to Semele with Zeus as father) and miracles of wine which Dionysus supposedly performed, then there’s arguments on both sides.

My own personal response is that arguing that Dionysus myth was robbed by Christians to create the god Jesus is like arguing Harry Potter was plagarized from the legends of Merlin because they’re both stories about wizards. Two stories with similar/same elements are not necessarily copied from either of them.

 

[theblindlead]

historical authors talk about jesus and not dionysius. done deal

 

[Gaber]

Was Jesus developed from the greek god dionysius? What are there similarities and differences? Scholars say there are overlaps in there traits. Some argue that Jesus is a myth because they are similar.

The very thing which is now called the Christian religion existed among the ancients also, nor was it wanting from the inception of the human race until the coming of Christ in the flesh, at which point, the true religion, which was already in existence, began to be called Christian. ~~St. Augustine, Retractions.

Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born
But not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn;
The cross on Golgatha thou lookest to in vain
Unless within thyself it be set up again. ~~Angelus Silesius

There are several things going on here.

One, since we as Christians stem our beliefs from what we are passed on about Jesus, veracity in this matter is paramount to us. And yet one of the things we do least is examine how we came to believe, and even less do we consider our mind and the nature of its workings when we think about such things. And the number who add to that mix any thought or exploration into the nature of awareness itsellf? Miniscule at best. And yet the last of these is likely the most important, as it is, as far as I can tell, the very crux, so to speak, of what Jesus’ teaching was, or is, about.

And that is where things get confused. Jesus Himself–I am quite sure he actually existed and taught–taught in parables that had at least three levels of meaning. But those who recorded those parables and His words weren’t restricted by the kind of paramaters we put on writing today in the sense of distinguishing between factual exposition, fiction, and myth.

Now myth is a special catagory. It doesn’t, as we commonly take it to, mean “a made up story.” A myth is a story with a specific intent, which is to impart either psychological or spiritual truth in the form of a tellable story, as our minds are made up to thrive on stories. Functionally, then, like a parable, myths can be used as an entrtainment around a campfire, or for insight about a mental dynamic, or to reveal some metaphysical truth. And each of those perceptions takes a bit different kind and level of attention and penetration. Even Jesus, after speaking parables, took His desciples aside and spoke, I am sure, differently to them. It even says so in the Bible.

So when we read abour Jesus and what peoploe think or bleieve about Him, one of the things we have to do is consider the source. And we have to remember that God was always with us, and that we were and will allways be, all of us, ever, made in His image and likeness.

Now it is hard, for me at least, to imagine that since we always were each and every one made in His image and likeness, that someones through time didn’t get something right about how one goes from being an ignorant “sinner” (another misunderstood concept,) to a Saint. I mean, the persoon looking was modeled after what he was looking for, yes? So the “end” was and is always present as part of the package.

So since you can’t just slam an innocent with news that they they have to know calculus despite just entiering kindergarten, stories that were permeable to an inquisitve mind were made up at different times and places about a transformative victoory. These had to have commoonfactors.; Those were such things as a virgin birth, an unusual youth, miracles, an ignominious death, and a resurection.

So it would be no wonder that somone who accomplished this transformation, and I’m speaking very simplistically here, might at the time of Jesus have the myth of transformation fused with the more historical aspects of His life. So no, Jesus wasn’t Dionysius, but the factors that made such stories ad Dionysius useful to those who used it, were as well useful in the story of Jesus, historic, psychological, or spiritual. It has allways been thus, but perhaps Jesus was the first to have, eventually, thanks to Paul winning an argument with Peter, an empire which required the faith attached to Jesus to go public, as it were. Similarly, huge populations follow Buddha, Mohamed, and the likes of Confu-tze.

But we here go with the story that makes us most sense and we are more comfortable with, even though essentially it is an Eastern religion, as much as we Christians tend to revile those.