Mithra & Christianity

Mithraism and Christianity's history

After Constantine became emperor from 306-337 he converted most of Rome to Christianity where it became the state religion. Afterwards Mithraism was treated hostilely based on its Persian origins. Persia at that time had been Rome's arch-enemy.

Roman writers began to write books in order to discredit Mithraism and force people to follow Christianity. An early Church writer Terullian even tried to justify any connections that Christianity had with Mithraism by saying that "Mithraism was inspired by the devil, who wished to mock the Christian sacraments in order to lead faithful Christians to hell."

Despite all of Christianity's efforts, Mithraism was able to survive up until this day.

Mithraism and Christian Similarities

Mithra Priest:

Christian Priest:

As Constantine started to spread Christianity it began to overwhelm Mithraism. It became evident at this point that the Christian church refused to believe in any sort of pagan connections. The Christian church was also believed to be responsible for erasing their connections to Mithraism by destroying many historical documents.

Regardless of what the Christian church stated there was still many similarities between the two religions. Here is a list of several similarities between the two religions:

	Mithra was said to be born on the same day as Jesus, December 25th.
	Mithra and Jesus both had similar conceptions of the world and of the destiny of man.
	Mithra was often referred to as "the good shepherd,” Jesus is usually associated with similar sayings.
	Both Mitraism and Christianity believed Sunday to be sacred
	Both Jesus and Mithra preached abstinence, continence, renunciation, and self-control as virtues.
	Mithra was considered a great traveling teacher and master. He had twelve companions as Jesus had twelve disciples.
	A relic of old mithraic worship depicted Mithra as a baby seated on his virgin mother's lap, surrounded by Persian Magi adoring him and offering gifts (very similar to the conditions Jesus was said to be born in).
	Like Christians, the disciples of Mithra formed an organized church, with a developed hierarchy. They both possessed the ideas of atonement and mediation.
	They both had a Eucharist, said to be used at the last supper, and a Baptism
	Both admitted the existence of a Heaven and Hell
	Mithra's resurrection is celebrated on the same day as Easter.

Authors: Andrew Woodworth, Dorothy Kujala, and Bryan megill