| Aren’t there some striking parallels between the Jesus and Orion stories? |
| No.
The only parallel that Christ-mythers bring up for Orion is that he could, per Greek mythology, walk upon the water, as was later credited with Jesus. Supposedly, the Greek mythologist Hesiod (7th century B.C.) wrote about this, but we no longer have any copies of this source, so we are unable to positively confirm that he wrote this. The Greek astronomer Eratosthenes (3rd century B.C.) supposedly wrote, "Hesiod said that [Orion] was the son of Euryale, the daughter of Minos and Poseidon, and that it was granted him as a gift to go upon the waves exactly as upon the earth". I also came across Apollodorus' "Library" (2nd century B.C.), which also mentions this, saying: "Poseidon bestowed on him [Orion] the power of striding across the sea." (Apollodorus - Library1.4.3) However, there are some problems with the idea that the Gospel authors borrowed this idea from Orion. 1) There is no evidence that the Gospel authors were familiar with Greek mythology at all. They probably would have been somewhat familiar with Roman mythology, however, since they were under Roman rule, and Orion was also a character in Roman mythology. But in the Roman version of the Orion story, as written by Vergil in the 1st century B.C., Orion could not walk on water, but was described as wading through the Aegean Sea with the waves breaking against his shoulders. This version is far more likely to be the one that the Gospel authors would have been familiar with. They would almost certainly have been unfamiliar with any story in which Orion walked upon the water. 2) The Book of Job says, "[God] alone stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waves of the sea." [Job 9:8]. The Book of Job is generally believed to have been written in the 15th century B.C. (though there is some disagreement, some putting it as early as the 20th century B.C. and some as late as the 10th century B.C.). Whenever it was written, it certainly predates any possible 7th century reference by Hesiod. Even if, hypothetically, the Gospel authors fabricated the detail of Jesus walking on water, their source is far more likely to be the book of Job (which we know they would have been familiar with, and already associated with their messiah) than Greek mythology (which they probably would not have been familiar with, and wouldn't have associated with Jesus). 3) The first Gospels to make note of Jesus walking on the sea were Mark and Matthew's Gospels. While Mark was writing for a general audience, Matthew's Gospel was specifically written for a Jewish audience, to convince them that Jesus was the foretold messiah. The Jewish religion was very exclusivist, not allowing its members to carry over remnants of other religions or myths. Borrowing from Greek mythology would thus have a negative effect upon the audience, not a positive one. It's true that Matthew's audience would likely have been unfamiliar with Greek mythology (if they were familiar with Orion at all, it probably would have been the Roman version by Vergil, in which Orion doesn't walk on water), but, again, that would mean that the apostles were probably unfamiliar with the story as well. If they were somehow familiar with the story, then they would know that they'd risk someone in their audience being familiar with it, and exposing their carrying-over of Greek mythology into the Jesus story. If they borrowed it at all, it would have been from the Book of Job, which their audience would have been familiar with, and would have approved of them referencing. Luke's Gospel was written primarily for a non-Christian audience, and thus he was the only one who might have benefitted from comparing Jesus to Orion, but Luke's Gospel is the only one that didn't mention Jesus walking on water. 4) Comparing any two stories, real or fictional, you can find some parallels if you try hard enough. If this parallel, and the few other valid parallels that are to be found between Jesus and pre-Christian deities, were enough to prove that Jesus was based on earlier mythology, then why have Christ-mythers felt the need to fabricate so many additional "parallels"? About 90% of the claims I've seen have had no validity to them, but appear to be total fabrications. Why do Christ-mythers "stack the deck" so to speak, if they already have a winning hand? I want to thank "Squeehunter" for bringing this parallel to my attention and doing much of the research on this item. Links:
Pre-Christian Sources:
General Sources: |