Source: TW
Similarity Summary
Theme | Orphism | Christianity |
---|---|---|
Divine Victim | Dionysus Zagreus, dismembered by the Titans | Christ, crucified by humanity |
Divine Innocence | The child-god torn apart unjustly | The sinless Son of God unjustly |
Human Complicity | Humanity descends from the guilty Titans | Humanity bears God’s image, wounded by sin |
Divine Element in Humans | Humans contain Dionysus’ spark divine essence | Humans bear God’s image |
Goal of Salvation | Purify Titanic nature and reawaken divine essence | Redeem fallen nature and restore divine image |
Means of Communion | Consuming Dionysus’ essence (wine = blood) | Consuming Christ’s body and blood (wine = blood) |
Final Destiny | Return to divine unity (theosis) | Eternal life with God (eschatology) |
Killed and consumed deity
At the core of Christianity is a belief in substitutionary atonement through the consumption of the flesh and blood of a risen savior deity. This risen savior deity is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
In my opinion, the closest cult to Christianity are the Orphic–Dionysian mysteries.
As per Orphic theology, Dionysus Zagreus, the son of Zeus and Persephone, was torn apart and eaten by the Titans. Zeus destroys the Titans with his thunderbolt and humanity is born their ashes, hence humans contain both Titanic (“sinful”) and Dionysian (“divine”) elements.
The Orphic rites involved ritual meals of bread and wine representing the body and blood of Dionysus, symbolic participation in the god’s suffering and rebirth, and mystical union with the deity through “eating and drinking Dionysus.”
It is quite possible that sacramental praxis of a blood-magic cult akin to the Orphic-Dionysian cults was foisted upon the cult of an apocalyptic Jewish zealot who was seen as a criminal by the Romans to give rise to Christianity.
My point is that both religions involve deities who are killed (whether in this world, as in the case of Jesus, or in a supernatural realm, as in the case of Dionysus) and reborn/reconstituted/restored to life, after which the believers partake of a meal of the diety’s “flesh” and “blood” in order to return to a state of “purity” or “divinity.”
Ritual
In the case of the cult of Dionysus Zagreus, the original meal (attested in Crete and Thrace) consisted of raw flesh and wine or raw flesh and blood. As the rite grew less sanguinary, bread (and occasionally cakes or fruits) was used as a substitute for raw flesh.
Differences
However, this is ultimately speculative and there are noticeable differences as well.
Cyclical vs linear time
Orphism operates in a cyclical time cycle whereas Christianity operates in a linear time cycle, so the dismemberment and consumption of Bacchus by the Titans occurs repeatedly whereas the crucifixion of Jesus occured only once.
Apocalypse
The early Christians believed in an eminent apocalpyse. In their view, Christ would return triumphant within their lifetime with his army of angels and cast all non-believers in eternal hellfire:
“And He was saying to them, ‘Truly I say to you that there are some of those standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God having come with power.’” Mark 9:1
“For truly I say to you, you shall not have completed the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.”
Matthew 10:23
“We declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Thessalonians 4:15
“Repose with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with His mighty angels, blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
2 Thessalonians 1:7
Delay
The absence of an imminent apocalpyse led to the crisis often referred to as the “Delay of the Parousia.”
As a result of this failed expectation, there was an increased emphasis on statements such as “concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”
Salvation
For example, the Orphics believed in an eternal cosmic cycle involving metempsychosis and believed in salvation through both purification AND gnosis/knowledge.
On the other hand, early Christianity placed emphasis on salvation through faith. There was also a stronger eschatological urgency, as the early Christians viewed crucifixion as a once-for-all act of self-sacrifice in accordance with Judaism’s linear timeline, not as an act that repeats itself every cosmic cycle like the dismemberment of Dionysus.
Reincarnation vs Resurrection
Orphists also believed in reincarnation whereas Christianity teaches resurrection, which will occur in a glorified “spirit” body (“The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”).
There are many Biblical examples for the raising of the dead (widow of Zarephath’s son, the Shunammite’s son, widow’s son at Nain, Jairus’ daughter, Lazarus, Tabitha in Joppa, and Eutychus in Troas), but they are raised in a mortal body that was subject to decay and are not true exceptions to 1 Corinthians 15.
Unlike Christians, the Orphics did not believe in resurrection. Therefore, one must assume it was borrowed from Judaism by default.
Hypothetical value
In my opinion, this is an area of study which is much more promising than bizarre claims of Christianity emerging from Mahayana Buddhism. Unfortunately, there is scarcity in the surviving Orphic fragments, so there are limits as to what we can reliably reconstruct.
Much of what can be said has already been said by previous scholars; however, based on the Orphic Hymns, fragments from Euripides’ Bacchae, etc., it is almost certainly the closest pre-Christian parallel to Christianity.
There is a reason why “ΟΡΦΕΟΣ ΒΑΚΚΙΚΟΣ” was chosen by the Italian counterfeiter of the so-called “Orpheus Amulet.” The similarities, even if entirely coincidental, make Orphism more similar to Christianity than any other religion (aside from Judaism, of course). He exploited genuine conceptual overlap that was recognized since antiquity.
In the case of Christianity, the deity is also consumed in the form of communion of (ideally, unleavened) bread and wine, likely chosen either as a reference to the offering of bread and wine by Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18 or as a reference to the bread (of affliction) and wine (of redemption) in the Pesach Seder. However, this explanation is still theoretical to some extent.
While the Synoptics refer to the Last Supper is a Passover meal, John’s Gospel deliberately places the Last Supper before Passover so that Jesus can die at the same hour the Passover lambs are slaughtered.
Moreover the form of the Seder we know today (with four cups, Haggadah, reclining, etc.) was not yet fixed in the first century. Therefore, potential borrowing from one of the mystery cults (Eleusinian Mysteries, Dionysian Mysteries, etc.) cannot entirely be ruled out given the other similarities between Orphism and Christianity.
However, it also cannot be ruled in due to the fragmentary nature of what survives.
Nonetheless, it is a far more promising line of inquiry than looking for similarities between Christianity and Buddhism. Buddhism has fewer direct parallels in ritual or theology with Christianity and did not share the same Hellenistic cultural milieu.