From the Editor: This article is a response from Fr. Robert Spitzer to a Facebook comment that brought into question the authenticity of the Gospels. The Christmas Season is the ideal time to reflect upon the fact that the events recounted in the Gospels really happened. We thank the Magis Center for offering us this post, and hope your faith it helps strengthen your faith.
Comment:
“Dear Father Spitzer, the Jesus myth is almost entirely lifted from Horus, the Egyptian God of the sun.”
“Born of a virgin on Dec. 25, had 12 disciples, healed the blind, raised a man from the dead, crucified, rose again three days later, and was …savior… all thousands of years before the New Testament (and a larger part of the Old, as I recall) was written.”
“Although I have never doubted that a man named Jesus existed and taught, calling him the messiah seems extremely pretentious.“
— Brad (as commented on the Magis Center Facebook page)
Response:
Dear Brad,
Thank you for your question.
I think you will eventually want to answer it in a much larger context taking into consideration some of the outstanding scholarly works of historical exegesis concerning Jesus Christ (see below).
These works address the historical questions which have been raised by scholars who have extensive knowledge of the Semitic world and literature at the time of Jesus.
I can give you a brief answer to your specific question.
To be quite frank, the history of Jesus of Nazareth is not derived from the myth of Horus.
“Horus of the Two Horizons”
More Facts About Horus
As you know, in Egyptian mythology, Horus is the god of the sky (and therefore to contain the sun and the moon).
His divine origin is from Isis, who became pregnant in many ways (she was by no means a virgin).
Horus did not have a single incarnation (e.g. born on December 25 of a virgin), but rather multiple incarnations in all of the pharaohs, and—Egyptians believed— was the source of Pharaonic power.
When one Pharaoh died, Horus would assume a new incarnation in the next Pharaoh and the deceased Pharaoh would assume the presence of Osiris.
To be honest with you, the differences between Horus and Jesus are so vast that it does not seem reasonable to believe that a “Jesus myth” could have been developed from it.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Verified Facts About Jesus
As noted above, there is a vast literature of serious historical scholarship about Jesus.
I would like to recommend to you two series which are both recent and rigorously peer-reviewed.
First, a five volume series by John P. Meier entitled, A Marginal Jew.
The first volume addresses the historical apparatus and methodology used not only in Meier’s volumes but also in the vast literature of serious historical Jesus research that has been done in the last hundred years—particularly in the last forty years.
The other three volumes specifically address questions surrounding Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection.
Meier uses several well-known techniques in historical method to ascertain the most primitive strands of the New Testament narratives and then applies historical criticism to them to derive the most probable historical conclusions.
Each volume is about eight hundred pages of extensive research with hundreds of footnotes to outstanding scholarly journals.
I also recommend the three volume series of N.T. Wright, particularly the second volume, Jesus and the Victory of God, and the third volume, The Resurrection of the Son of God.
Though these titles indicate conclusions, Wright has used a rigorous exegetical and historical method to come to those conclusions, and—again—hundreds of footnotes to outstanding scholarly journals heavily support his work.
This article was first published on the Magis Center Blog. It has been republished here with permission.
You May Also Like:
Reasons to Be Confident about the Historical Jesus
5 Reasons Why Jesus’ Miracles Were Unique for Their Time
How the Catholic Faith Fulfills Old Testament Promises
About Fr. Robert Spitzer
Fr. Spitzer was president of Gonzaga University from 1998 to 2009. While president, he significantly increased the programs and curricula in faith, ethics, service, and leadership. He has appeared on Larry King Live, The Today Show, The History Channel, and PBS. He appears weekly on EWTN in Father Spitzer’s Universe.
What color was the original Jesus
Josephus mentions him
can someone supply me with evidence.. real evidence, that jesus even existed? otherwise, isn’t this just a waste of time? you’re all welcome to email me your evidence, and then I’ll supply it to historians, and scientists.. until then. There is no evidence, even the romans didn’t mention him.
so your saying there is no God or Son of God ?
There is real evidence. You may have already read the book The case for Christ.
The author’s autobiography is the movie with the same name as the book. He was a devout Atheist. His wife, after i think a tragedy of some kind, became a believer and had a real encounter with the Living Jesus Christ. She began to influence their child. The author aka her husband felt betrayed and resentful. So he goes to great lengths and intense digging in history and finds evidence of the historical Jesus the man and evidence that Jesus Christ was crucified and risen God The Son. He even found evidence that the United States of America has proofs of Jesus life death by crucifixion and resurrection. He’s also introduced to The Shroud of Turin. Turns out the information on and from the Shroud of Turin had actually taught us about how to make holograms. advanced
I think the similarities are enough of a link. But even if you dont see those connections then what do you think about the story of noah & the poem of gilgamesh or the tale of atra-hasis?
The story of Horus may be mythological, but the fact is, it was depicted long before Jesus supposedly walked the earth, approx 3000BC so what makes logical sense to me is that Jesus is a depiction of Horus among many other ancient dieties. And another point I have is, countless other ancient “Gospels” were found that were not put in the Bible, or even mentioned within the Christian community even today, that are being withheld for I’m sure various reasons to keep the population believing in the myth of Jesus for money, control & power!!
I am Horus /
Jesus
Just how historically reliable are the Gospels and Acts if even prominent evangelical and conservative Protestant Bible scholars believe that fictional stories may exist in these books? The link below provides comments from conservative scholars such as Richard Bauckham, William Lane Craig, Michael Licona, Craig Blomberg, and NT Wright on this issue:
https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2019/05/23/bombshell-how-historically-reliable-are-the-gospels-if-even-conservative-bible-scholars-believe-they-may-contain-fictional-stories/
I don’t need ‘Jesus to be proven to me, or rather, his existence. I know he was here. I have seen him once, i’ve been yo heaven to see a loved one, and have seen my brother. He is real, he is alive he is The Great I Am!