Mithraic Mysteries and Early Christian Sacraments
The Urantia Book · 98:7.4
The Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident
By the end of the third century after Christ, Mithraic and Christian churches were very similar both in appearance and in the character of their ritual. The majority of such churches were practically identical, except for the sacrifice of the bull and the absence of women members. Many groups practiced both religions side by side. By the fourth century the two religions had largely merged through the wholesale conversion of the Mithraists to a nominal Christianity.Read the full UB paper →
Ancient Source · Roman Mithraism (with Iranian roots)
The Mithraic Mysteries (1st to 4th centuries CE)
Mithras was born of a rock on the 25th of December, witnessed by shepherds bearing gifts. His followers were initiated through baptism and sealed on the forehead. They shared a sacred meal of bread and wine, mingled with water, in remembrance of the bull sacrifice. Sunday was the day of the Lord (dies Solis). The faithful believed in the immortality of the soul, a final judgment, the resurrection of the dead, and the eventual triumph of light over darkness.
Reconstructed from Justin Martyr (First Apology 66), Tertullian (De Praescriptione 40, De Corona 15), and the Mithraeum inscriptions catalogued by Franz Cumont
Justin Martyr complained that "the wicked devils have imitated" the Eucharist in the Mithraic mysteries. The complaint itself confirms how close the two rituals had become.
The Parallel
December 25 nativity, virgin or miraculous birth, twelve associates, sacred meal of bread and wine, baptism, Sunday observance, belief in immortality, final judgment, and resurrection. Every one of these elements existed in Mithraism before they became central to Christian practice. Justin Martyr in the second century admitted the parallels and could only attribute them to demonic mimicry.
Why It Matters
The UB at 98:5.3 names Mithras as a Persian reformer who taught a derivative of Zoroastrian and Salem religion. The Roman cult that grew up around him absorbed Salem teachings already present in the Mediterranean world. When Christianity displaced Mithraism, it absorbed the ritual scaffolding of its rival because the underlying Salem stream was the same in both.
Scholarship
- Cumont, Franz. The Mysteries of Mithra (1903; English trans. T.J. McCormack 1910).
- Vermaseren, M.J. Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae (The Hague, 1956 to 1960).
- Beck, Roger. The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire (Oxford, 2006).
- Ulansey, David. The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries (Oxford, 1989).