Exploring Ancient World Cultures is important to religious studies because the Bible, and other ancient religious texts such as the Koran and Vedas, grew out of these cultures. Knowing something about these cultures tells us something about the setting in which our sacred texts were written, who first read them, and how these people might have understood the texts when they were first written.

This website, Exploring Ancient World Cultures, looks at eight primary world cultures: Near East, India, Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, Islam, and Europe.

In the section on the Near East we find the following paragraph about the biblical people set in the context of their contemporaries:



In the sidebar on the left we see links to biblical books as well as other ancient texts written in the Near East. In addition, there is a link to an essay on Storytelling, the Meaning of Life, and The Epic of Gilgamesh. The attempt of this essay is to help the reader understand ancient texts--why they were told, how they developed and were finally written down, and what they might have meant then and now.

The other parts of the site follow similar patterns. The person who wishes to learn can learn much. For example, in exploring the "Egypt" link I came across the Nag Hammadi Library, which is the largest collection of ancient Gnostic literature we have todate.

I'm not quite sure where to post this. It grew out of an offline project I'm doing. I read a book on the relationship between Mithraism and Christianity, and also found a website called Hollywood Jesus. Because I am looking at Mithraism through a book and website, it seems this might be the appropriate place to post this.

At this point I know too little about the the relationship between Mithraism and Christianity to take a position on it. However, Mithraism was an ancient religion. I also think it cannot be otherwise than that the early Christians and the Mithraists had some of the same views about life and the universe simply because they existed in the same time and place. For this reason, Mithraism may be relevant to Christianity. I also think it is natural that they used some of the same terms to talk about their religions for the same reasons.

Look at the situation in today's world. Terms like God, Buddha, and enlightenment are used across cultures and societies and religions. Just because a person uses a term does not mean that person borrowed ideas from someone else. It does mean that they are speaking the same language, and using common terms to communicate. I will post more in subsequent posts.

This posts were originally posted here.

I just completed reading my first book, written from a Christian perspective who wanted to show how Mithraism was absorbed into Christianity. Fascinating!

Title: Mithras: The Fellow in the Cap
Author: Esme Wynne-Tyson
First edition: 1958, present edition, 1972.

A main argument being made by Wynne-Tyson is that Christianity absorbed many aspects of the sun-worship from Mithraism. Jane, the verses you mentioned are probably part of it. As Christians we interpreted them mystically. Wynne-Tyson informs me that such terms are clear evidence of sun-worship infiltration. WT goes through the entire Bible--OT, Gospels, Paul's Epistles, Hebrews, and Revelation--to show where Mithra and sun-worship is hiding.

I plan to read more current literature on this topic, too, but have not yet had time. At the time WT was writing, it was still thought that Paul wrote Timothy; it is no longer believed that he did. Much else may have changed, too, since 1972.

As for the Son/Sun issue. I don't claim to have any answers but I can throw out a few ideas--in case you haven't arrived at any yourself.
According to WT, the concept of Divine Right of Kings comes from Mithraism, and/or predecessor religions. The king is understood to be the son of God, and the most high God is understood to be the Sun-God. Thus, in a very literal sense, the king is the Son of the Sun.
WT points out the similarities between the names Moses and Mithras. I think it is no accident that Moses is said to have had a radiant face when he came down off the mountain after speaking with God (being so close to the Sun) that one time.

A few more points of interest:

• More mithraeums (or whatever the caves are called where they did their rituals) have been found in Germany than in any other part of the Europe-Asia-India landmass, suggesting that at the height of its development it was a West European thing, especially Germanic.
• When I looked in my school's library for books describing Mithraism, the best book I could find was in German: Mithras, by Reinhold Merkelbach. It contains over a hundred picture plates. I mention this in case anyone has opportunty and inclination to look at the pictures. Captions are in German. Once you're familiar with the themes you can pretty well tell from the plates what the pics are about.

Wynne-Tyson suggests the Church of the fourth century so thoroughly purged the land of Mithraism because it absorbed Mithraism. The reason for purging the land of Mithraism, according to Wynne-Tyson's guess, might be so that people would not say, "Wait a minute! This isn't Christianity--this is Mithraism!"