What Scripture says
The New Testament insists that the story of Jesus is history, not myth: “we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16, ESV). It roots Jesus in Jewish history and Scripture, not pagan mythology (Matthew 1:1, Luke 3:1–2).
What the evidence says
History
Where the claim comes from
The idea that Jesus was copied from pagan gods became popular in the 19th century, and was spread online by the 2007 film Zeitgeist. It claims that gods like Horus, Mithras, Krishna and Dionysus were born of virgins on December 25, had twelve disciples, were crucified and rose after three days.
Checking the claims
Horus (Egyptian):
| Claim | What the Egyptian sources say |
|---|---|
| Born of a virgin | Isis conceived Horus with Osiris after reassembling his body; she wasn’t a virgin |
| Born on December 25 | No Egyptian source says so |
| Twelve disciples | None; this appears to be invented |
| Crucified and rose after three days | Horus wasn’t crucified, and didn’t die and rise |
Mithras (Roman):
- Mithras was born from a rock, fully grown, not from a virgin.
- He wasn’t crucified, and didn’t die or rise.
- Roman Mithraism is known mostly from archaeology after AD 100, later than Christianity. Its scenes show Mithras slaying a bull. It had no scripture, and almost nothing is known of its beliefs.
- The Persian god Mithra is much older, but the Roman cult of Mithras is a different, later religion.
Dionysus (Greek): born from Zeus and a mortal woman, Semele, through divine intercourse; in one version, Zeus sewed the unborn child into his thigh. Not a virgin birth. In some myths, he was torn apart and restored, but this is very different from a bodily resurrection.
Krishna (Hindu): the eighth child of his parents. Krishna was killed by an arrow, not crucified.
“Dying and rising gods”
Some scholars in the early 20th century, notably James Frazer in The Golden Bough, grouped gods such as Osiris, Adonis, Attis and Tammuz as “dying and rising gods” linked to the yearly cycle of crops. Most specialists today reject the category:
- Osiris, after his death, didn’t return to earthly life; he became king of the underworld.
- Some myths, such as the Attis story, only had a “rising” added in sources after Christianity.
- Seasonal myths about nature’s death and renewal are unlike a claim that a specific person, recently executed under a named Roman governor, rose bodily.
Tryggve Mettinger, who does argue some ancient gods were seen as dying and rising, still concludes that “there is, as far as I am aware, no prima facie evidence that the death and resurrection of Jesus is a mythological construct, drawing on the myths and rites of the dying and rising gods”.
Context
A Jewish setting
Jesus’ earliest followers were devout Jews, who regarded pagan gods with horror. The Jesus movement drew on Jewish Scripture and expectations: Messiah, kingdom of God, resurrection at the end of the age (Daniel 12:2). It makes little sense that they would build their faith on pagan myths.
When parallels exist
Some later Christian practices did adopt cultural forms, such as celebrating Christmas on December 25 (see 6.7 and 11.11). But that is about how a later church dated a festival, not where the story of Jesus came from.
Where they meet
The claimed parallels come from unreliable modern sources, are invented, or come after Christianity. Even skeptical scholars like Bart Ehrman reject the pagan-copy theory.
What’s still open
Little. Scholars still discuss how early Christians communicated their faith in Greek and Roman culture.
Bottom line
No. The claimed parallels come from unreliable modern sources, are invented, or come after Christianity. This is rated Settled.