Osiris and Dionysus Foreshadow Christ

Alice C. Linsley


C.S. Lewis accepted that the pagan myths of Osiris and Dionysus foreshadowed Christianity and spoke of spiritual realities. J.R.R. Tolkien expected Christ-figures to appear in myths, because from the beginning, the human has longed for a great ruler with the power to defeat death. Both understood the lasting power of myth compared to historical accounts.  Were I to interview random persons, most if not all, would be able to tell me about Adam and Eve. However, few if any, would be able to recount key events of 1520 or 1880. Myths have staying power.

All myths about a dying deity who returns from the grave are really the same myth with variations on the theme. As Joseph Campbell noted this myth has a wide global dispersion, indicating that it is very old. He called it the "monomyth" of the hero's journey.

The Greeks, who were much infatuated with ancient Egyptian religion, borrowed Osiris for their Dionysian cult. To understand how this myth is about Jesus Christ, we must investigate the religion of Abraham's Horite people. The expectation of a Righteous Ruler who would destroy death originated among them.

The Horites were devotees of the high God (Ra) whose emblem was the Sun. Ra's son was Hor (Horus) whose emblem or totem was the falcon.  Hor is sometimes shown flying above the Sun on Ra's solar boat.  This is important because it is Hor who dies and rises, not Osiris.  Osiris was murdered and his body dismembered and scattered. The pieces of his body were rejoined and he became the lord of the dead. Osiris did not rise from the grave.  He descended to the shadow land of Sheol.

The ancient Egyptian priests taught that the dead person continues as a shadow and they considered the blessed dead “the living ones.” [1] The word Sheol is derived from the Egyptian word Sheut (šwt), meaning shadow. Statues or ancestor figurines of deified rulers were painted black to convey their continued existence as shadows. On the final day, some in shadowland will be granted eternal life and others will die the second death.

Genesis 25:8 says, “Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.” The phrase “gathered to his people” or “gathered to his fathers” applies to the Horite ruler-priest caste to which Abraham, Job, Moses, Aaron and David belonged, and from whom Jesus Christ came as a direct descendant. Abraham, Job, Moses Aaron and David all died and remained in the grave, but Jesus Christ rose. As Hebrews attests, He is our great High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek.

This phrase "gathered to his people" should not be generalized. It does not apply to all people, but is specific to the unbroken line from Abraham to Christ our Lord. This is why I believe the phrase relates specifically to the Horites or Horim who were a priestly caste. This is evidenced again in Numbers 20:26: “Remove Aaron's garments and put them on his son Eleazar, for Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will die there.”

In Predynastic times, the whole people was embodied by the ruler who was expected to intercede in life and death for his people. Great pains were taken to bury the ruler so that he would rise from the grave. Likely, Abraham's beliefs about resurrection would have corresponded to those of his Horite ancestors who were called "gods" (elohiym).

The rulers of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death. Osiris controlled the shadowlands and rose daily from the deep as the Sun rises. His death is symbolized by the setting of the sun in the west.  There his son, Hor/Horus reigned for him as his heir. The Egyptian word hr (her, hor, har) means "the one on high." The Turin Canon, which provides important information on Egypt's early history, describes the Predynastic rulers of Egypt as "Followers of Horus" and Horus as the "Ruler of the Two Horizons."

Horus was identified with ruler-priests in ancient Egypt. His identification with the king was shown on early decorated monuments from Nekhen (Hierakonpolis). The Horites believed that heavenly recognition of a people depended on the righteousness of their ruler-priest.  If God turned His face away from the ruler, the people suffered from want and war. If the ruler found favor with God, the people experienced abundance and peace. The ruler's resurrection meant that he could lead his people beyond the grave to new life. This is why great pains were taken to insure that the ruler not come into contact with dead bodies, avoid sexual impurity, and be properly preserved after death. The ruler's burial was attended by prayers, sacrifices and a grand procession to the royal tomb.

Heavenly recognition for the Horites was never an individual prospect. Heavenly recognition came to the people through the righteousness of their ruler-priest. This is the context for the Christian understanding of Jesus as the risen ruler who leads his people from the grave to the throne of heaven.

Horite rulers hoped to rise from the grave in union with Osiris and inherit eternal life. They were a caste of ruler-priests whose origins are veiled in great antiquity.  They were honored in 4400 B.C. at Nekhen, the oldest known center of worship of Horus of Nekhen.  His totem was the falcon.

As the priests became more ambitious, the idea that heavenly recognition depended upon the Righteous Ruler who could defeat death shifted.  The cult of Osirus became very powerful and very profitable for the priests. Costly initiation rites were encouraged by priests willing to change the tradition of their Horim to line their pockets.This shift began about 500 years after Abraham and is reflected in the Vedic Age. People sought to be initiated into an emerging Osiris/Horus cult.[2] They hoped that ritual association with Horus' death and resurrection would bring them resurrection. They no longer expected a Righteous Ruler to actually rise from the dead.

Expectation of life beyond the grave came to depend, not on the appearance of a Righteous Ruler, but on the agency of priests and sacrifice. This happened among the Vedic and Pagan priests who encouraged animal sacrifice to such extreme proportions that blood flowed from their altars. A Vedic proverb states that "Sacrifice is the navel of the world." The priests taught that the merit of the sacrifice depended on its costliness. Sacrifices of twelve and three victims (trittues) were the most common, but hundreds of animals might be sacrificed at a time.

The priests of Israel distanced themselves from the Pagan and Vedic priests. They taught that sacrifice was for the atonement of sin, but they also looked for the coming of the Righteous Ruler.  Many had hoped that David would be that ruler, but he too died and was gathered to his fathers. He did not rise from the grave.  In all of history, there is but one Righteous Ruler who rose from the dead, even Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

1. Conceptions of God In Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many", Erik Hornung (translated by John Baines), p. 233, Cornell University Press, 1996, ISBN 10-8014-8384-0

2. “Man, Myth and Magic", Osiris, vol. 5, p. 2087-2088, S.G.F. Brandon, BPC Publishing, 1971.

Related reading: Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Resurrection as Mirrored Reality; "Gathered to His People"; Horite Expectation and the Star of Bethlehem; The Eyes of Horus Speak of Jesus; The Double Crown of Horus; Jesus Christ of the Two Crowns; Why Does Genesis Speak of Gods?

Adam and Enoch: Archetype and Ancestral Rulers

Alice C. Linsley


Bishop Usher’s dating of the earth at 10,000 years and mankind at 4000 years is terribly mistaken.  Some Bible literalists insist on the accuracy of Usher's dating, though it flies in the face of all the physical evidence.  How do they reconcile a 10,000 year earth with human-crafted tools and ochre plaques dating to 100,000 years?  They argue that radio carbon dating is inaccurate.  Okay, let's say that it is wrong by 50%.  That would mean that the mace heads found in Africa are only 50,000 years old.  That's still 40,000 years older than the literalists say the earth has existed

Adding the life spans of the rulers doesn't provide a "biblical" answer to the age of the earth because the Septuagint, the Masoretic, and the Samaritan texts don't agree on the number of years. The total number of years in the Septuagint and the Masoretic (Hebrew) records agree except in the case of Lamech the Younger (Noah's father). The Septuagint assigns Lamech a total of 753 years, whereas the Samaritan Pentateuch assigns him only 653 years. The Masoretic text assigns Lamech 777 years. Lamech the Elder, the father of Tubal-Kain, isn't assigned an age span.  It is evident that the age of the earth can't be calculated using the lifespans of the rulers listed in Genesis.

Instead, Genesis poses two men as the founders: Adam, the first ruler and Enoch the first ancestor of the historical persons listed in Genesis 4, 5 and 11. We find a clue as to how we are to correctly understand both biblical figures in Psalm 8:4: 

What is man (Enoch) that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him?

Here we see that the historical first ancestor Enoch is paralled with the first man Adam. The author of the Psalm makes a distinction between the two figures, but also regards them as real fathers of the people.  They are the deified rulers who are ancestral to Jesus Christ, the Divine "Son of Man."

Bishop Usher’s dating is not accurate because he didn’t recognize the telescopic nature of some genealogical lists. He believed that all the genealogical lists involved biological fathers and sons, but some of the lists are telescopic, listing only the most famous of the chiefs. This means that we can’t use the genealogies to measure years. All the genealogical lists are telescopic except for Genesis 4, 5 and Genesis 11:24-26.

Usher also didn’t understand that the genealogical material in Genesis 4 and 5 pertains to the wives of Cain and Seth, the daughter of an African chief named Enoch or Nok. Therefore the name that should appear at the head of the family tree is Nok, the father-in-law of Cain and Seth. Analysis of the Genesis 4 and 5 kinship pattern makes it clear that Adam is not the head of these lines.

In biblical parlance Adam represents the first created man.  Since the oldest human fossils are over 3 million years old, Adam would have been created at least before these humans.  Enoch, on the other hand lived no more than 12,000 years ago. He is the father-in-law of Cain and Seth.

Cain and Seth's brides named their first-born sons Enoch, after their father. This name is sometimes rendered Hanoch, as in the case of Reuben's first-born son. The name that should appear at the head of the Genesis 4 and 5 family tree is Enoch or Nok.

Bishop Usher appears to have been unaware that the descendents listed in Genesis 4 and 5 were ruler-priests whose lines exclusively intermarried. Each ruler-priest had 2 wives. One was a patrilineal cousin or niece who named her first-born son after her father. This explains the recurrence of names in chapters 4 and 5. For example, Kain and Kenan and Irad and Jared are linguistically equivalent names.

In the case of Lamech's daughter, Naamah, the pattern is quite clear. She married her cousin Methuselah and named her first-born son Lamech after her father.

Knowing the marriage pattern of the Horite ruler-priests helps us to trace Jesus Christ's ancestors from Genesis 4 and 5 to Joseph and Mary, of the ruler-priest lines, whose marriage appears to have been consistent with this pattern.


Related reading: Horite Deified Sons; The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; Andrei A. Orlov, Enoch as the Heavenly Priest