Jesus vs. Mithras: Did Christians Borrow the Resurrection Story from an Ancient Roman Mystery Religion?

We have all heard: There are two guarantees in life, death and taxes. There is also a third: Conspiracy theories trying to discredit Christianity. We will quickly examine one such theory that is good for some laughs and yawns by anyone who is serious about history.

Secular progressive woke baby boomers in stuffy university suits like to claim that Christianity borrowed the Resurrection concept from an ancient Roman religion known as Mithraism, which worshipped the false god Mithras. Mithraism is categorized by historians today as a Roman mystery religion, and we now know that it was really only a belief among some in the Roman Imperial Army from roughly the late 1st to mid 4th centuries AD. In other words, it was a popular fad among some who belonged to the bougie Roman miliary. Its cult was centered primarily in Rome.

Historian Manfred Clauss, in The Roman Cult of Mithras, notes that the "mysteries" or worship of Mithras did not really take form until the 1st century AD. Another historian, Roger Beck, in The Mysteries of Mithras, says that underground temples do not appear in archeology until the last quarter of the 1st century, some decades after the Resurrection and explosion of the Christian Religion. The earliest monument to Mithras that has been discovered so far dates to between 98-101AD. By this time, the entire New Testament had already been written.

At best, Mithraism only had some common themes with Christianity (and Judaism). What is far more probable is that as Mithraism developed, it started to adopt Christian concepts, especially considering how popular the Christian Religion was becoming at the time. As Acts 17:6 describes it, "These who have turned the world upside down."

Ronald Nash, philosophy professor and historian, comments, "Allegations of an early Christian dependence on Mithraism have been rejected on many grounds. Mithraism had no concept of the death and resurrection of its god and no place for any concept of rebirth -- at least during its early stages... During the early stages of the cult, the notion of rebirth would have been foreign to its basic outlook... Moreover, Mithraism was basically a military cult. Therefore, one must be skeptical about suggestions that it appealed to nonmilitary people like the early Christians."

What is more probable is that with the explosive nature of the Christian church in the 1st and 2nd century, other cult groups started to adapt themselves to take advantage of some of the teachings found in Christianity.

Josh McDowell, author of Evidence That Demands a Verdict, writes, "While there are several sources that suggest that Mithraism included a notion of rebirth, they are all post-Christian. The earliest dates from the end of the second century A.D."

Therefore, even though there are similarities between Christianity and Mithraism, it is up to the critics to prove that one borrowed from the other. But, considering that the writers of the New Testament were Jews who shunned pagan philosophies and that the Old Testament has all of the themes found in Christianity, it is far more probable that if any borrowing was done, it was done by the pagan religions that wanted to emulate the success of Christianity.