Dear Editor,
Contrary to Mr. Pat Dial in his column in the Kaieteur Newspaper on April 3, Easter does have its roots in Paganism, as shown hereunder.
When Paul began to preach to the Gentiles, the latter’s attitude compelled him to modify the principles taught by Jesus. He presented the crucified Jesus in the way they believed in their gods. Mentioned hereunder, for example, are a few gods in which the Pagans believed.
- At the festival of Adonis held in all Greek lands, the death of the god was annually mourned with a bitter wailing. In some places, his revival was celebrated on the following day. At Alexandria they sang that the ‘dead’ god would come back again. In the Phoenician sanctuary of Astarte at Byblus the death of Adonis was annually mourned, but next day he was believed to come to life again, and ascend to heaven in the presence of his worshippers.
The central idea in the worship of Adonis was the death and resurrection of this god. He was killed by a boar, which was an incarnation of the said god, and thus the god was both executioner and victim, an idea propounded in the Epistle to the Hebrews wherein Christ is described as High Priest, who to put away sin, sacrificed himself.
- In olden days the priest who bore the name and played the part of Attis at the Spring Festival of Cybele, was regularly hanged or otherwise slain upon the sacred tree. This barbarous custom was afterwards mitigated into the form where the priest merely drew blood from his body under the tree. In the grove of Upsale, men and animals were sacrificed by being hanged upon trees. The human sacrifices dedicated to Odin were regularly put to death by hanging or by a combination of hanging and stabbing, the men being strung up to a tree and then wounded with a spear.
- InAntioch was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Adonis of Tammuz, the former name meaning simply “the Lord”. This god is believed to have suffered a cruel death, to have descended to Hell or Hades, to have risen again, and to have ascended to Heaven, and at his festival, as held in various lands, his death was bewailed, and on the next day his resurrection was commemorated with great rejoicing, the very words, “He is risen” being used. (See ‘Paganism in Christianity’ by Arthur Weigall).
- The Spartan god, Hyacinth was killed by an accidental blow. His three days’ festival was held each year in spring or early summer. On the first day he was mourned as dead; on the second his resurrection was celebrated; and on the third day, his ascension to heaven was commemorated, the sculptures at his tomb showing him ascending to heaven.
- Then again, there was the worship of Attis, the good shepherd, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, alternatively, of the VirginNana, who conceived him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the Virgin Mary. But in the prime of his manhood, he mutilated himself and bled to death at the foot of the sacred pine tree. In Rome the festival of the death and resurrection was annually held from March 22 to 25. At this festival, a pine tree was felled on March 22 and to its trunk an effigy of the god was fastened: Attis being “slain and hanged on a tree,” in the Biblical phrase. This effigy was later buried in a tomb. March 24 was the Day of Blood, whereupon the High Priest, who impersonated Attis, drew blood of a human sacrifice, thus as it were, sacrificing himself. It recalls to mind the words of the Epistles of the Hebrews: “Christ being come as High Priest … neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood … obtained eternal redemption for us.” It was in reference to the Pagans sacrificing animals and, even humans, for the redemption of sins. (See 6 & 7 below ).
That night the priests went to the tomb and found it illuminated from within, and it was then ‘discovered’ to be empty, the god, Attis, having risen on the third day from the dead, and on the 25th the resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicing, a sacramental meal being taken, and initiates being baptized with blood whereby their sins were washed away, and they were said to be born again.
- Similarly, Mithra sacrificed a bull, but the bull, again, was himself. A goat and a bull were sacrificed to Dionysos, but they were themselves aspects of that god. A bear was sacrificed to Artemis, but this bear likewise was Artemis herself, and so forth.
Thus, the idea of a god atoning to himself was widespread, and human sacrifices in general, directly or indirectly, symbolizing the beneficial deaths of gods were matters of ordinary thought and conversation. Similarly, children were sacrificed to Saturn, and soldiers to Mars in the time of Julius Caesar. There are other instances showing how general was the belief in the efficacy of human sacrifice.
Arthur Weigall writes: “The immemorial Jewish views as to sin-offering were firmly held in the time of Christ. The sacrifice of a lamb, goat or some other animal for the remission of sins was a regular custom, and the Scapegoat which, bearing all the sins of the nation, was driven to the wilderness to be devoured by beasts of prey, was employed as a variant of this practice. On all sides the pagan gods were supposed to have suffered and bled for mankind for the remission of sins.”
Sir James Fraser in his book “Adonis, Attis, Osiris”, writes: “The employment of a divine man or animal as a scapegoat is especially to be noted. Evils are believed to be transferred to a god who is afterwards slain.”
It was Paul alone who created the idea: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us.” And, “If Christ be not risen from the dead, then is our preaching in vain and your faith in vain.”
Yours truly,
Balbadar
