We
don’t know much about the Apostle Paul, but what we do know it significant. The
Bible says that he came from Tarsus. Tarsus! Tarsus was the home of Mithraism,
one of the many so called “mystery religions” that were popular during the
first century. It is significant that Mithras was worshipped by placing a bull
on a rack and cutting its throat. Initiates would stand under the rack and wash
themselves “in the blood of the bull.”
In the rites of the bull-sacrifice, a bull
was slaughtered on a perforated platform through which the blood poured down to
bathe the initiate standing in a pit beneath. Afterward the initiate was
considered “born again.” Poorer people made do with a sheep in which the sheep
was sacrificed, and were literally “washed in the blood of the lamb.”[i]
Most
people reading Paul’s talking about one being “washed in the blood of the lamb”
assume that he was referring to Jesus and not some mystery savior.
In
fact, the ancients worshiped a “Son of God” who was considered God made flesh,
whose mother was a virgin. He was born on December 25th, visited by
shepherds, turned water into wine at a wedding ceremony, rode into town on a
donkey while people waved palm leaves, dies on Easter as a sacrifice for the
sins of the world, rose on the third day and his followers celebrate his death
and resurrection by a ritual meal of bread and wine. But few people have ever heard of this
god-man, His name was Osiris-Dionysus, one of the many mystery saviors of the
first century.[ii]
Does
that mean that I think Christianity was just another mystery religion? No, I do
not, but I think Paul did. He writes
nothing about the life and teachings of Jesus or his commitment to social
justice. Paul himself declares that his interest in Jesus was limited to the
shedding of his divine blood as a sacrifice. Nothing about the commitment to
the poor and oppressed.
Paul
substitutes the faith of Jesus, what he taught and did, for a belief in Jesus,
that he was the second person of the trinity, the “only” begotten Son of God. That
little slip has dominated the fundamentalist branch of the church to this
day. It has even influenced our
translation of the Bible. The King James
version says:
For there are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
(KJV, I John 5:7)
Sounds
very certain that Jesus was the second person of the Trinity. On the other
hand, the Revised Standard Version, based on much earlier manuscripts says
nothing like that:
And the Spirit is the witness, because the
Spirit is the truth. There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the
blood; and these three agree. (RSV. I John 5:7)
And
why is any of this important? The basic
issue revolves around one question; are we faithful to Christ (Christian) by
believing things about him, or to be a Christian, must we strive to live by his
teachings and example?
Thomas
Are
December
28, 2017
