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1quicksiva
About Robin Lane Fox and Pagans and Christians
I have problems with this statement from early in the book.
“I will say most about the pagan cults of Greek tradition; then I will explore the presence and oracles of the gods, using evidence which is entirely Greek. The so called Oriental gods, Mithras, Serapis, Isis and others were themselves Greek creations.” p.36.
Since I refuse to believe Fox is this ignorant, I have to suppose that he is lying. But why? Who has the more correct assessment of this type of history, Martin Bernal, Napoleon, or the writers at The Onion?
The book gives rise to questions such as A) Where and what is “the Orient”. B) Where is the” Greek East”? C) Where is” Greek Asia”? D) Why do Fox’s maps so often exclude important North African educational centers? E) To what is the near East near? There is only room on one of Fox’s maps for the north African provinces of Mauretania, Numidia, Africa, Proconsularis, Cyrenne, and Egypt. Yet many of the most important chararcters in early Christian and later pagan history come from this part of the world.
In The Evolution of God, Serapis is referred to by Robert Wright as “a mutant Osiris formed by fusing Osiris with the Greek god Apis. Wright repeats the idea that this creation was “Greek”. “First called Oserapis this image of god was designed by the Greeks and later used by the Romans to facilitate their acceptance by the native Egyptian populace.” Wright also calls the author ofThe Golden Ass, Lucius Apuleius "Africanus, a “Greek author”, so his credentials are suspect.
This quotation by Lucius Apuleius “Africanus” should be better known.
"It is true I am not a Roman, and you call me a Barbarian. Yes, I am a Barbarian, and say I have no shame in my origins. Moreover, I can use your own language so well, so proficiently, and with such virtuosity as to make you look ridiculous in your charges of barbarism. The tools of consciousness are my own, delivered in words from your language that I throw back at you with such ease and dexterity, and the mirror image that I am placing before you is that of the other you despise through ignorance. In this defense of my identity, I am aided by all the powers of the earth, ancient wisdom, our African heritage, all the powers of transformation and true knowledge. We are the heirs to ancient Egyptian wisdom, to the Isis/Osiris mysteries of ancestral truth, to the transcendental consciousness that will outlive and outwit the centuries, and this message, I know, by the grace bestowed upon me by my dreams, will live on and become my long lived legacy as a North African philosopher and not a Roman, even though I use your language to send the message off."
Serapis is widely understood to have been created by the Ptolemy dynasty as part of the Greek rulers’ attempt to be accepted by Egyptians as divine. Serapis gave the world a European icon with long straight hair. To most modern Christians, black or white, this is the image of God.
Two priests, one from the Eleusinian Mysteries and one from the Egyptian were given the task of merging the two faiths by Ptolemy I, "The Savior". The Greeks must have seemed like saviors to the Egyptians after ten years of Persian abuse.
Egyptologists, however, see The cult of the Apis bull as existing from the very beginning of Egyptian history, probably as a fertility god connected to grain and the herds. In a funerary context, the Apis was a protector of the deceased, and linked to the pharaoh. This animal was chosen because it symbolized the king’s courageous heart, great strength, virility, and fighting spirit. The Apis bull was considered to be a manifestation of the pharaoh, as bulls were symbols of strength and fertility, qualities which are closely linked with kingship ("strong bull of his mother Hathor " was a common title for gods and pharaohs).Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt by Eric Hornung
The image of the pharaohs in latter times was shaped above all in Memphis. This was due to a number of factors: first from a theological point of view, Apis of Memphis was related to the king by virtue of the fact that the latter held a divine office; second, Apis played an especially important role in the royal year festivals and coronation festivals and as the city- god on the standard of the king, he was the protector of the king at his coronation. ….In stark contrast to the Persians who had killed the Apis Bull, Alexander was careful to pay public sacrifice to Apis and he thereby set a precedent which would be followed by the Ptolemies.”
Gunther Holbl, A history of the Ptolemaic Empire pp 80-81.
The early Alexanderian Christian community appears to have been rather syncretic in their worship of Serapis and Jesus and would prostrate themselves without distinction between the two. A letter ascribed in the Augustan History to the Emperor Hadrian refers to the worship of Serapis by residents of Egypt who described themselves as Christians, and Christian worship by those claiming to worship Serapis, suggesting a great confusion of the cults and practices:
"The land of Egypt, the praises of which you have been recounting to me, my dear Servianus, I have found to be wholly light-minded, unstable, and blown about by every breath of rumour. There those who worship Serapis are, in fact, Christians, and those who call themselves bishops of Christ are, in fact, devotees of Serapis. There is no chief of the Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no Christian presbyter, who is not an astrologer, a soothsayer, or an anointer. Even the Patriarch himself, when he comes to Egypt, is forced by some to worship Serapis, by others to worship Christ". Augustan History, Firmus et al. 8)
The worship of Mithras, including the Tauroctony, was introduced into the empire by returning soldiers who had picked it up in India and Persia. Some sources have claimed that Constantine remained committed to Mithras until his deathbed baptism.
Many attributes of the early Roman Church were borrowed from the Cult of Mithras which was located at the present site of the Vatican. Long before “the Passion” the anointed, who called their leader “Pope”, could boast of “being covered with the blood of their savior”. The cult disappeared earlier than that of Isis. Isis was still remembered in the middle ages as a pagan deity, but Mithras was already forgotten in late antiquity.
Statues of Isis from the Old Kingdom have been dated circa, 2635 B.C.E. From the earliest to the latest dynasties, Isis was the greatest goddess of Egypt.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead holds Osiris to be the great god of the dead.
“….it was Osiris, the god-man himself, who had risen from the dead and was living in a body perfect in all its members, who was the cause of the resurrection. Osiris could give life after death because he had attained to it, and he could give eternal life to the souls of men in their transformed bodies because he had made himself incorruptible and immortal. Moreover, he was himself “Eternity and Everlastingness,” and it was he who made men and women to be born again,…., the new birth was into the new life of the world which is beyond the grave and is everlasting.”
Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians v.2,p.141
In 1600, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake on Ash Wednesday. Like later scholars, Bruno had argued that not only was Christianity strongly influenced by the cults of Isis and Osiris, but that ancient Egypt offered a model of spiritual harmony far superior to Christianity.
I have problems with this statement from early in the book.
“I will say most about the pagan cults of Greek tradition; then I will explore the presence and oracles of the gods, using evidence which is entirely Greek. The so called Oriental gods, Mithras, Serapis, Isis and others were themselves Greek creations.” p.36.
Since I refuse to believe Fox is this ignorant, I have to suppose that he is lying. But why? Who has the more correct assessment of this type of history, Martin Bernal, Napoleon, or the writers at The Onion?
The book gives rise to questions such as A) Where and what is “the Orient”. B) Where is the” Greek East”? C) Where is” Greek Asia”? D) Why do Fox’s maps so often exclude important North African educational centers? E) To what is the near East near? There is only room on one of Fox’s maps for the north African provinces of Mauretania, Numidia, Africa, Proconsularis, Cyrenne, and Egypt. Yet many of the most important chararcters in early Christian and later pagan history come from this part of the world.
In The Evolution of God, Serapis is referred to by Robert Wright as “a mutant Osiris formed by fusing Osiris with the Greek god Apis. Wright repeats the idea that this creation was “Greek”. “First called Oserapis this image of god was designed by the Greeks and later used by the Romans to facilitate their acceptance by the native Egyptian populace.” Wright also calls the author ofThe Golden Ass, Lucius Apuleius "Africanus, a “Greek author”, so his credentials are suspect.
This quotation by Lucius Apuleius “Africanus” should be better known.
"It is true I am not a Roman, and you call me a Barbarian. Yes, I am a Barbarian, and say I have no shame in my origins. Moreover, I can use your own language so well, so proficiently, and with such virtuosity as to make you look ridiculous in your charges of barbarism. The tools of consciousness are my own, delivered in words from your language that I throw back at you with such ease and dexterity, and the mirror image that I am placing before you is that of the other you despise through ignorance. In this defense of my identity, I am aided by all the powers of the earth, ancient wisdom, our African heritage, all the powers of transformation and true knowledge. We are the heirs to ancient Egyptian wisdom, to the Isis/Osiris mysteries of ancestral truth, to the transcendental consciousness that will outlive and outwit the centuries, and this message, I know, by the grace bestowed upon me by my dreams, will live on and become my long lived legacy as a North African philosopher and not a Roman, even though I use your language to send the message off."
Serapis is widely understood to have been created by the Ptolemy dynasty as part of the Greek rulers’ attempt to be accepted by Egyptians as divine. Serapis gave the world a European icon with long straight hair. To most modern Christians, black or white, this is the image of God.
Two priests, one from the Eleusinian Mysteries and one from the Egyptian were given the task of merging the two faiths by Ptolemy I, "The Savior". The Greeks must have seemed like saviors to the Egyptians after ten years of Persian abuse.
Egyptologists, however, see The cult of the Apis bull as existing from the very beginning of Egyptian history, probably as a fertility god connected to grain and the herds. In a funerary context, the Apis was a protector of the deceased, and linked to the pharaoh. This animal was chosen because it symbolized the king’s courageous heart, great strength, virility, and fighting spirit. The Apis bull was considered to be a manifestation of the pharaoh, as bulls were symbols of strength and fertility, qualities which are closely linked with kingship ("strong bull of his mother Hathor " was a common title for gods and pharaohs).Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt by Eric Hornung
The image of the pharaohs in latter times was shaped above all in Memphis. This was due to a number of factors: first from a theological point of view, Apis of Memphis was related to the king by virtue of the fact that the latter held a divine office; second, Apis played an especially important role in the royal year festivals and coronation festivals and as the city- god on the standard of the king, he was the protector of the king at his coronation. ….In stark contrast to the Persians who had killed the Apis Bull, Alexander was careful to pay public sacrifice to Apis and he thereby set a precedent which would be followed by the Ptolemies.”
Gunther Holbl, A history of the Ptolemaic Empire pp 80-81.
The early Alexanderian Christian community appears to have been rather syncretic in their worship of Serapis and Jesus and would prostrate themselves without distinction between the two. A letter ascribed in the Augustan History to the Emperor Hadrian refers to the worship of Serapis by residents of Egypt who described themselves as Christians, and Christian worship by those claiming to worship Serapis, suggesting a great confusion of the cults and practices:
"The land of Egypt, the praises of which you have been recounting to me, my dear Servianus, I have found to be wholly light-minded, unstable, and blown about by every breath of rumour. There those who worship Serapis are, in fact, Christians, and those who call themselves bishops of Christ are, in fact, devotees of Serapis. There is no chief of the Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no Christian presbyter, who is not an astrologer, a soothsayer, or an anointer. Even the Patriarch himself, when he comes to Egypt, is forced by some to worship Serapis, by others to worship Christ". Augustan History, Firmus et al. 8)
The worship of Mithras, including the Tauroctony, was introduced into the empire by returning soldiers who had picked it up in India and Persia. Some sources have claimed that Constantine remained committed to Mithras until his deathbed baptism.
Many attributes of the early Roman Church were borrowed from the Cult of Mithras which was located at the present site of the Vatican. Long before “the Passion” the anointed, who called their leader “Pope”, could boast of “being covered with the blood of their savior”. The cult disappeared earlier than that of Isis. Isis was still remembered in the middle ages as a pagan deity, but Mithras was already forgotten in late antiquity.
Statues of Isis from the Old Kingdom have been dated circa, 2635 B.C.E. From the earliest to the latest dynasties, Isis was the greatest goddess of Egypt.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead holds Osiris to be the great god of the dead.
“….it was Osiris, the god-man himself, who had risen from the dead and was living in a body perfect in all its members, who was the cause of the resurrection. Osiris could give life after death because he had attained to it, and he could give eternal life to the souls of men in their transformed bodies because he had made himself incorruptible and immortal. Moreover, he was himself “Eternity and Everlastingness,” and it was he who made men and women to be born again,…., the new birth was into the new life of the world which is beyond the grave and is everlasting.”
Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians v.2,p.141
In 1600, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake on Ash Wednesday. Like later scholars, Bruno had argued that not only was Christianity strongly influenced by the cults of Isis and Osiris, but that ancient Egypt offered a model of spiritual harmony far superior to Christianity.
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