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24. The Greek Mystery Religions and Their Influence on Christianity

24.1 Similarities between the Greek Mystery Religions and Christianity

            The Greek mystery religions were cults into which a person could be initiated (taken in). The initiate was called “mystes,” the introducing person “mystagogos” (leader of the mystes). The leaders of the cults were the “hierophantes ” (revealer of holy things) and the “dadouchos” (torchbearer).Several mystery religions existed before the Hellenistic era. Their great period of proliferation began during the reign of the Emperor Augustus (reigned 44 BCE to 14 CE). In the first century CE almost every city of the eastern Mediterranean had a temple dedicated to a god or a goddess of a mystery religion.

          These religions were so widespread that many officials and kings participated in them. For example, in Alexandria Ptolemy IV Philopator (reigned 221-205 BCE) was a devotee of Dionysus. At about 34 BCE, the Roman general Mark Anthony, after his successful expedition to Armenia, entered triumphantly into Ephesus casting himself in the role of the savior god Dionysus. He was received by ecstatic maenads. (The maenads were women, participants in orgiastic Dionysian rites. They performed a rite, which was the forerunner of the Christian ritual of communion. They tore up an animal and ate its flesh, which symbolized the flesh of the god Dionysus.) In the time of Jesus, in Rome Emperor Augustus was an initiate of the Eleusinian mysteries and a devotee of Apollo. Under his rule, in 28 BCE, a splendid temple of Apollo was built on the Palatine Hill. Gaius Caesar (Caligula), the Roman emperor from 37 to 41 CE, instituted his own mystery religion and was initiated in it. Frescoes of the goddess Isis (of the mystery of Isis) dating from the time of Caligula were found in the ruins on the Palatine Hill at Rome. Emperor Vespasian (reigned 69-79 CE) became a devotee of Sarapis (a god associated with Isis) after he participated in a miracle (the healing of a lame hand and a vision problem) in Alexandria (at 70 CE). Domitian (reigned 81-96 CE) built a huge temple for Isis and adopted the Egyptian dietary laws after the priests of Isis saved his life. At the end of the 1st century CE he erected on the Campus Martius in Rome the temple of Isis, a stately building. Trajan (he reigned 98-117 CE) is depicted on his triumphal arch as sacrificing to Isis. The Roman emperors Septimus Sevirus and Caracalla, who ruled jointly from 198 to 211 CE, were devotees of Sarapis. Caracalla appeared on his coins as “Sarapis Cosmocrator.” He called himself “Philosarapis” (lover of Sarapis). 

            There is a distinct difference between the words “secret” and “mystery.” A secret is knowledge that is hidden, whereas a mystery is a truth that can be understood only by revelation from God. The words “secret” and “secrets,” which appear in the Old Testament books, refer to lack of knowledge, not to lack of understanding. The mystery is more like an enigma, a riddle, or a puzzle. There were no mysteries in the Old Testament, except in the book of Daniel. In Daniel God gave a dream to King Nebuchadnezzar that included a mystery, whose explanation was revealed to Daniel by God. The book of Daniel contains a mystery because it was completed around 167-164 BCE, during the time of Antiochus IV, when the mystery of Dionysus was widespread in Palestine.

            The word “mystery” (Gr. mysterion ) is a key word in Christianity. It appears in the New Testament 22 times in the singular and 5 times in the plural. The following verses portray Christianity as a mystery religion. “Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great.” (1 Timothy 3:16 NRSV) “... they {the deacons} must hold fast to the mystery of the faith ...” (1 Timothy 3:9 NRSV) “The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” (Luke 8:10 KJV) “... the mystery {of Christ}, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God ...” (Ephesians 3:9 KJV) More than once Paul mentions “the mystery of Christ”: “This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:32 NASB) “... so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ ...” (Colossians 4:3 NASB) “When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:4 RSV) Interestingly, Paul did not say “the mystery of Jesus.” Perhaps because he was not concerned with the historical Jesus. Paul preached the spiritual Jesus: the Christ. Gentile Christianity was “the mystery of Christ,” like “the mystery of Dionysus” or “the mystery of Isis.” With the following declaration Paul indicated that Christianity is a mystery religion: “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:1 RSV) Paul wrote that resurrection was a mystery: “Lo! I tell you a mystery; We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed ...” (1 Corinthians 15:51 KJV) His gospel was a mystery: “... that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel ...” (Ephesians 6:19 KJV) Gentile Christianity was “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now made manifest to his saints {the Gentile Christians}.” (Colossians 1:26 KJV) “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” (1 Corinthians 2:7 KJV) “{God} ... made known to us the mystery ...” (Ephesians 1:9 KJV)

            The Gentile Christians borrowed various terms from the mystery religions. Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, Syria, a prominent Church father (he died ca. 110 CE), wrote to the Ephesians and called them “initiates”: “... you are ... fellow-initiates with {the apostle} Paul ...”  Clement of Alexandria invited Gentiles to be initiated in the “holy mysteries” of Christianity: “Then you will have the vision of my God, and will be initiated in those holy mysteries {of Christianity}, and will taste the joys that are hidden away in heaven ...” Clement called Christianity the “truly sacred mysteries: “He {the Christian initiate} saw the light and a vision {the initiates of the mystery religions saw the light and a vision}, he was sanctified by initiation, and Jesus marked the initiate with his seal: ‘O Truly sacred mysteries! O pure light! In the blaze of torches  I have a vision of heaven and of God. I become holy by initiation.’ The Lord {Jesus} reveals the mysteries; he marks the worshipper with his seal ...”  Christians were marked symbolically with the seal of the Lord, like the Dionysians were marked with the seal of Dionysus.

            The devotees of the mystery religions were consecrated and bonded with each other through the mystery, and set themselves apart from the unconsecrated world. Likewise, the Christians set themselves apart from the world: “... you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world ...” (John 15:19 KJV)

            Plato mentioned that members of mystery communities considered each other brothers: “Dion attached to himself two brothers ... men whose friendship was not derived from philosophy, but from ... mutual entertaining and sharing in religion and mystic ceremonies.”  Likewise, the Christians considered each other brothers. Paul addresses the Corinthians, “Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers ...” (1 Corinthians 16:12 NRSV)

            The Church father Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-211 or 215 CE) wrote, “... in the current Mysteries among the Greeks ceremonial purifications hold the premier place.”  The initiation to the mysteries was preceded by rites of purification such as fasting, baptism (including sprinkling of holy water), and confession. Plutarch (ca. 46-119 CE) mentions that mystery initiates confessed their sins during the ritual of initiation. “When Antalcidas was being initiated into the mysteries at Samothrace, he was asked by the priest what especially dreadful thing he had done during his life ...”  The Christian theologian Tertullian (ca. 155-220 CE) wrote, “In certain mysteries, e.g. Isis and Mithra, it is by baptism that members are initiated ...”  Likewise, the Christians were initiated with confession of sins and baptism. The second century Christian apologist Justin Martyr (born ca. 100 CE died ca. 165 CE) acknowledged that the Greek mystery religions practiced baptism before Christianity but denied that the Christians borrowed this ritual from the mystery religions. He explained that the reason Gentiles practiced baptism before Christianity is because the demons learned about baptism from Isaiah and taught it to the Gentiles: “... the demons prompted those who enter their temples ... to sprinkle themselves also with water; furthermore, they cause them to wash {baptize} their whole persons.” 

            As mentioned earlier, after Antiochus IV, the mysteries of Dionysus were widespread in Palestine. Sometime after Antiochus IV, the Essenes practiced repentance followed by baptism as part of the initiation to their sect. They passed this practice to John the Baptist. John preached baptism for the remission of sins: “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out to him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Mark 1:4-5 KJV) The early Christians borrowed this ritual from John the Baptist. They first repented and then were baptized: “Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized ... for the remission of sins ...” (Acts 2:38 KJV)

            In the initiation ceremonies of the mysteries, after the preliminaries, followed the delivery of the sacred symbol or signal. One Dionysian symbol was the leaf of ivy. (Christians used as symbols the fish and the anchor.) The initiation was conducted in the dark. It culminated in the vision of the deity of the cult. The appearance of light played an important role. During the ceremony of initiation at the greater mysteries of Eleusis the initiate “saw the light” (usually the bright light of a torch) and received the revelation of the mysteries from his god. Similarly, Paul “saw the light” on the road to Damascus and “received the revelations of the mysteries” from the spiritual Jesus: the fictional Jesus. But Paul did not consider Jesus his god. As we will examine later, he considered Jesus as the mediator to God. He wrote, “... the mystery was made known to me by revelation ...” (Ephesians 3:3 RSV) Paul was initiated by Jesus into the mystery of Christ: “... so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ ...” (Colossians 4:3 NASB)

            With this vision the mystery initiate attained union with the deity of his cult and was endowed with eternal life. Epictetus (born ca. 55 and died 135 CE) also said, “... whatever we do and say in imitation of and {in} union with Him {god}.”  The initiate was in union with the deity: the deity lived in the initiate and the initiate lived in the deity. Gentile Christianity adopted this, too. Paul wrote, “... Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20 KJV) John wrote, “{Jesus said:}... I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:11 NRSV) “... I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20 NRSV) These were common expressions of the Greek mystery religions. They existed before the writing of the New Testament. The devotees of the Greek mystery religions and the Stoics believed that god lives in the heart of the righteous. In the following quotation Epictetus chastised those who sinned: “You are a being of highest importance; you are a fragment of god [i.e. united with god}; you have within you a part of him. ... You bear god about with you {i.e. you are in god and god is in you}, you poor wretch, and know it not! ... It is within yourself that you bear him {god}, and do not perceive that you are defiling him with impure thoughts and sinful actions. ... with god himself present within you, seeing and hearing everything, are you not ashamed to be thinking and doing such things as these? O, insensible ... object of god’s wrath!” 

            Another symbolic ritual was the vesting of the robe of the deity. By putting on the robe, the initiate “put on the deity.”  Paul borrowed this idea from the mystery religions. According to Paul, a Christian believer must “put on Christ”: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27 KJV) The NIV renders it, “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27 NIV)
            The gods of the Greek mystery religions offered salvation from Hell. Some mystery religions promised salvation from the cycle of reincarnation and an escape to the heavenly world.  The mystery devotees believed that when a wicked person dies, his spirit leaves his body and goes to the underworld to be punished and purified. After his spirit is purified, it returns to the world and enters the body of an animal or human at the time of its birth. Some believed that only the soul that had lived a pious life three times could be liberated from the cycle of reincarnation. Others believed that when a truly righteous person dies his soul leaves his body and joins the eternal company of his god.
            Josephus confirms that some Pharisees believed in reincarnation. The Essenes believed in pre-existence of the soul, which is associated with the belief in re-incarnation. Many Essenes and Pharisees joined the Jewish Christian church in Jerusalem. Thus, the first Jewish Christians probably believed in reincarnation. This belief appears in Matthew (where Jesus said that John the Baptist is Elijah), in the Gospel of John (where the disciples asked Jesus whether the blind man was born blind because he had sinned), and in the Wisdom of Solomon (the mention of a pre-existent soul that entered an undefiled body), and in the letter to Hebrews (where Abraham is portrayed as a pilgrim on earth yearning to return to his heavenly country). The Gentile Christians abandoned the belief in reincarnation (and pre-existence of the soul) but they did not erase its traces from the above books.
            Within the mystery communities the class distinctions of the secular world, such as differences in nationality, race, or economic and social position, were null and void. Free men and slaves, the important and the insignificant, all were brethren within the community. Except for Mithraism (which was a religion for men only), the women of the mystery religions associated freely with men.  The early Christians adopted this practice, too: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28 KJV) Gentile Christian women associated freely in the churches with men.
            Mystery religions emphasized personal salvation.  They promised to bridge the gap between man and God, so that man would be elevated to the rank of deity. Thus, an initiate would become sinless like his god. Paul wrote a believer will “ ... become conformed to the image of his {God’s} son {Jesus}.” (Romans 8:29 NASB) And John wrote, “We know that whosoever is born of God sins not; but he that is begotten of God keeps himself ...” (1 John 5:18 KJV)
            The mystery initiate believed that after death his soul would rise from his grave (a spiritual resurrection) and go to the other world to live in the presence of his god. Plato wrote, “... whoever goes uninitiated and unsanctified to the other world will lie in the mire, but he who arrives there initiated and purified will dwell with the gods.”  Likewise, those initiated in the mystery of Christ, in the other world (or the new earth) will dwell with God: “He {God} will dwell among them, and they will be His people, and God himself will be among them ...” (Revelation 21:3 NASB)
            The initiate’s personal relationship with the deity was also attained through a sacred meal. This sacred meal was practiced in the mysteries of Dionysus, Attis, Isis, Mithra, and Orphism. The initiate ate “holy food” that symbolized the deity. It was as though he ate the deity and the deity became part of him. This was the “mystic union” or the “mystic communion.”  This sacred meal probably inspired the communion of Christianity: “Whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” (John 6:56 NIV) The historical Jesus would not have said this. Even in a symbolic way, this statement is contrary to the law of Moses.  Even though Jesus was influenced by the Greek culture, he taught the law of Moses, which prohibited the drinking of blood.
            The mystery religions used the following expressions: “the assembly” (ekklesia), “the voyage of life,” “the ship,” “the anchor,” “the port,” “the wreath” of the initiate, etc. The post New Testament Christians adopted these expressions. The mystery religions promised eternal life to everyone regardless of their nationality. Christianity adopted this, too: “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon him.” (Romans 10:12 KJV) The main differences between the mystery religions and Christianity are: unlike Christianity, the mystery religions did not teach judgment day, the end of time, and universal resurrection. 
            The mystery initiates secured immortality by ritually reenacting the death and resurrection of their god. Paul wrote that through the ritual of baptism the Christian initiates die and rise with Jesus: “... so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we will be also in the likeness of his resurrection. ... our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed ... if we are dead with Christ {if we have died with Christ}, we believe that we will also live with him.” (Romans 6:3, 5-6, 8 KJV)
            In those days people believed that gods acknowledged prayers with earthquakes. The writer of Acts wrote that God acknowledged the prayer of Peter and John with an earthquake:

Virgil (70-19 BCE) wrote the above passage long before Luke wrote the book of Acts. Christianity copied various beliefs of the Hellenistic culture.

            During the Hellenistic era, people believed that the gods of some mystery religions, such as Osiris, Adonis, Attis, and Zagreus-Dionysus, died and rose. The belief in a dying and rising god developed from early Egyptian and Babylonian myths. The Babylonians and the Assyrians believed that the god Tammuz (a minor deity, a shepherd) died and rose every year. The Canaanites believed that their god Baal (son of the god Dagon) was murdered each spring by Mot  and came to life in the fall.  In one version, the Canaanite god Baal (also known in the Hellenistic era as Bel  or Marduk) was overpowered by Mot (the personification of death) and died: “... Baal Fallen {dead} on the ground: Puissant {mighty} Baal is dead.”  The goddess Anath found him, buried him, and mourned him: “She [comes] upon Baal Fal[len] on the ground: She puts [sackcloth] and loincloth {to mourn}.”  Anath seized Mot and destroyed him: “She seizes Godly Mot, with sword she does kill him.”  Because of her victory over death, Baal revived and returned to his throne: “So I knew that Alive was Puissant {mighty} Baal!”  The myths of Tammuz and Baal have similarities with the Greek myth of the goddess Persephone. Persephone went to Hades and returned to life every year. Her death and return from Hades was celebrated every year in the mysteries of Eleusis. People in those days believed that various demi-gods and heroes had gone down to Hades and come back. Orpheus (from whom the Orphics received their name) and Dionysus went to Hades and returned. Plato wrote, “Orpheus ... they sent back ... from Hades.”  The Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily (1st century BCE) wrote, “... he {Orpheus} dared the amazing deed of descending into Hades, where he entranced Persephone ... and persuaded her ... to allow him to bring up his dead wife from Hades, in this act resembling Dionysus; for the myths relate that Dionysus brought up his mother Semele from Hades.”  Pollux, Theseus, and the god-man Hercules (god-man: half god, half man; the offspring of a god and a human), went down to Hades and came back. Diogenes Laertius wrote that Pythagoras returned from Hades: “So greatly was he {Pythagoras} admired that his disciples used to be called ‘prophets to declare the voice of God,’ besides he {Pythagoras} himself says in a written work that ‘after two hundred and seven years in Hades he has returned to the land of the living.’ ”  Finally, the god-man Jesus (the fictional Jesus of the Gentile Christians) descended and returned from Hades. “... the Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40 KJV) “For Christ ... was put to death ... he went and preached to the spirits in prison {Hades} ...” (1 Peter 3:18-20 NIV) Justin Martyr wrote: “... Dionysus was born of Zeus’ union with Semele ... and died, he arose again and ascended to heaven ...”  Likewise, the god-man Jesus was born of God and a mortal woman, died, arose, and ascended to Heaven. When the Gentile Christians preached that Jesus, the man conceived by God and a mortal woman, went to Hades and returned, they did not have to work hard to convince the people of the Roman Empire to believe this, because those people already believed in such things. In other words, the stories and beliefs of Christianity were readily acceptable because they were similar to the existing stories and beliefs of the Greek mystery religions.

            Justin Martyr wrote the following to win Gentiles over to Christianity: “When we say that God created and arranged all things in this world, we seem to repeat the teaching of Plato; when we announce a final conflagration, we utter the doctrine of the Stoics; and when we assert that the souls of the wicked ... after death, will be ... punished, and that the souls of the good ... will live happily, we believe the same things as your poets and philosophers ... When ... we assert that the Word, our ... Jesus Christ, who is the first-begotten of God the Father, was not born as the result of sexual relations {between a mortal man and a mortal woman}, and that He was crucified, died, arose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, we propose nothing new or different from that which you say about the so-called sons of Jupiter {sons of Zeus}.”  But by making these comparisons, Justin inadvertently confirmed that Christianity borrowed several beliefs form the Greek mystery religions. By saying “we propose nothing new or different from that which you say about the so-called sons of Jupiter,” he, confirmed the statement of Ecclesiastes, who wrote, “... what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 NIV) To put it in the words of Ecclesiastes, most of the Christian beliefs “were there already, long ago.”

            Before the emergence of Christianity Plato, the Stoics, and the Greek mystery religions used figurative interpretation to explain the Greek classical poems, which the Greeks considered inspired by gods (just as the Jews considered the poems of Isaiah inspired by God). Christianity adopted this method of interpretation through Philo of Alexandria, the Platonist. (Further on, we will examine compelling evidence indicating that the New Testament writers were inspired by Philo’s writings.) Porphyry accused the Christian Church father Origen of using the figurative interpretation of the Stoics and the Greek mystery religions. He wrote, “He {Origen} used the books of Chaeremon the Stoic and Cornutus, from whom he learned the figurative interpretation, as employed in the Greek mysteries ...” 

            The writers of the New Testament borrowed Gentile sayings and used them with some adaptations. For example,

Some Gentiles scorned the Gentile Christians for borrowing their beliefs from the Greeks. Tertullian wrote, “... we are laughed at for proclaiming that God will judge, for just so the {Greek} poets and philosophers set up a tribunal in the world below.”  Further on in his book Tertullian mentioned the river Pyriphlegethon, the flaming river of the underworld mentioned in the writings of Plato. Tertullian believed that such river existed. He believed that Plato was inspired by God. (Plato lead the Christians to believe several things.) Tertullian acknowledged the striking similarities between the Gentile beliefs about life after death and the corresponding beliefs mentioned in the New Testament. Twice he referred to Christianity as “our mysteries.” Naturally, he claimed that the beliefs of Christianity are older than the parallel beliefs of the Greek mystery religions. He claimed that the mysteries of the Greeks are copies of the mysteries of Christianity: “Now whence, I ask you, do the {Greek} philosophers and poets find things so similar? Whence indeed, unless it be from our mysteries. And if from our mysteries {notice, he acknowledges Christianity as a mystery religion} which are the older, then ours are truer and more credible when the mere copies of them win credence. If they invented these things out of their feelings, then our mysteries must be counted copies of what came later, a thing contrary to nature. For the shadow never exists before the body, nor the copy before the truth.”  Tertullian is correct on this point: that the shadow does not exist before the body, nor the copy before the truth. But he is incorrect on this one: the Greek philosophers and poets wrote before the advent of Christianity. The Greek mystery religions existed before Christianity. They cannot be “the shadow” or “the copy.”

            In the following passage, Justin Martyr is trying to prove that the motifs of the myth of the god-man Jesus were not inspired by Gentile myths about god-men: "... those counterfeits which he who is called the devil is said to have performed among the Greeks; ... For when they tell that Bacchus {Dionysus}, son of Jupiter, was begotten by [Jupiter's] intercourse with Semele ... and when they relate, that being torn in pieces, and having died, he rose again, and ascended to heaven; and when they introduce wine into his mysteries, do I not perceive that [the devil] has imitated the prophecy announced by the patriarch Jacob, and recorded by Moses? And when they tell that {the god-man} Hercules was strong, and traveled over all the world, and was begotten by Jove {Zeus} of Alcmene, and ascended to heaven when he died, do I not perceive that the Scripture which speaks of Christ, 'strong as a giant to run his race,' has been in like manner imitated? And when he [the devil] brings forward Asclepius as the raiser of the dead and healer of all diseases, may I not say that in this matter likewise he has imitated the prophecies about Christ?”  Justin Martyr  and Tertullian  tried to explain away the similarities between Mithraism and Christianity. They claimed that these similarities existed because the demons learned from the Old Testament about the future rituals of Christianity and imitated them before the advent of Christianity. Clement of Alexandria  suggested that Christianity is indeed a mystery religion with “truly sacred mysteries” and that the Christian mysteries offer the pure light and vision of the only true God. He called the Greek mysteries shameless and corrupt.  Referring to Christianity Origen wrote, “... we call them {Christianity} our mysteries.” He distinguished Christianity from “the other mysteries.”  Celsus, too, implied that Christianity was one of the mystery religions. While discussing Christianity, he referred to the Greek mystery religions as “the other mysteries.” Clement of Alexandria claimed that Christianity was the best mystery religion, and rightfully so because in the fourth century it managed to eliminate its forerunners and competitors.

            Plutarch wrote that the Pythagoreans hid the meanings of their sayings from the common people.  The Pythagoreans and later the Neopythagoreans (who revived Pythagoreanism in the 1st century CE) blended philosophy with mysteries. They were like a mystery religion. Their beliefs were similar to those of the Orphics. Seneca wrote, “And as only the initiated know the more hallowed portion of the rites, so in philosophy {specifically, the Pythagorean and Neopythagorean} the hidden truths are revealed only to those who are members and have been admitted to the sacred rites. But precepts {axioms} and other such matters are familiar even to the uninitiated.”  Origen compared Christianity to Neopythagoreanism: “The existence of certain doctrines, which are beyond those which are exoteric {suitable to be imparted to the public} and do not reach the public, is not a peculiarity of Christian doctrine only, but is shared by the philosophers. For they had some doctrines that were exoteric and some esoteric {designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone}. Some hearers of Pythagoras only learned of the master’s ‘ipse dixit’ {exoteric sayings}; but others were taught in secret doctrines which could not deservedly reach ears that were uninitiated and not yet purified. None of the mysteries in any place, in Greece or in barbarian land has been attacked for being secret.”  Apparently, some attacked Christianity for being secret or having esoteric doctrines, and Origen defended it with this argument. Origen wanted Gentiles to treat Christianity like the mystery religions. In a way, he put Christianity in the class of the mystery religions.

            Christianity was put together by blending Hellenistic Judaism with the Greek mystery religions. But after it became a major religion it began to influence the other mystery religions. In other words, the influence did not always flow one way: from the Greek mystery religions to Christianity. For example, it is likely that the Dionysians borrowed from the Christians the miracle of turning the water into wine. (In the Gospel of John, Jesus turned the water in the jars into wine in Cana of Galilee.) Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer who wrote between 143 and 176 CE. He wrote, “Between the market-place and the Menius is an old theater and a shrine of Dionysos. The image is the work of Praxiteles. Of the gods the Eleans worship Dionysos with the greatest reverence, and they assert that the god attends their festival, the Thyia. The place where they hold the festival they name the Thyia is about eight stadia from the city. Three pots are brought into the building by the priests and set down empty in the presence of the citizens and of any strangers who may chance to be in the country. The doors of the building are sealed by the priests themselves and by any others who may be so inclined. On the morrow they are allowed to examine the seals, and on going into the building they find the pots filled with wine. I {Pausanias} did not myself arrive at the time of the festival, but the most respected Elean citizens, and with them strangers also, swore that what I have said is the truth. The Andrians too assert that every other year at their feat of Dionysos wine flows of its own accord from the sanctuary.”

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