The Jesus-Mithras Myth Debunked
Compiled by Lewis Loflin
The claim that “Jesus is just a rehash of Mithras” is one of the most persistent internet myths. It originates largely from 19th- and early 20th-century fringe scholarship and was popularized in modern times by works such as the film Zeitgeist and Acharya S’s writings. Mainstream historians of ancient religion reject it almost all of the alleged parallels.
Key Facts About Roman Mithraism
- All-male cult (women excluded)
- No evidence of a virgin birth — Mithras emerges fully-grown from solid rock (petra genetrix)
- December 25 was the festival “Natalis Invicti” (Birth of the Unconquered Sun), not Mithras’ birthday in extant sources
- No resurrection narrative in surviving Mithraic texts or iconography
- Seven grades of initiation with no parallel in Christianity
- No crucifixion, no atonement for sin, no “dying and rising” savior figure
Scholarly consensus (Cumont, Merkelbach, Beck, Clauss, Gordon, Ulansey, etc.) is that Roman Mithraism was a distinct mystery religion that developed in the late 1st century CE — after Christianity had already begun spreading — and shows no significant doctrinal dependence on Christianity or vice-versa.
Many supposed parallels collapse upon examination:
- “Virgin birth” — Mithras born from rock, not a virgin
- “12 disciples” — Mithras surrounded by zodiac signs or torchbearers, not followers
- “Resurrection” — no such story in Mithraic evidence
- “Sunday worship” — Mithraic gatherings were often on Sunday because it was the day of the Sun, but Christians adopted Sunday for the resurrection, not from Mithraism
The December 25 date was assigned to Christmas in the 4th century precisely to co-opt the existing Roman solar festivals (Saturnalia, Natalis Invicti), not because Jesus was “copied” from Mithras.
Conclusion: The “Jesus = Mithras” narrative is not supported by primary evidence and is rejected by virtually all academic specialists in Roman religion and early Christianity.
Further reading: Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire (Oxford, 2006); Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras (2000); Richard Gordon, Image and Value in the Greco-Roman World (1996).
