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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Failed Parallels, Confused People


Alice C. Linsley

In historical analysis, literary criticism, and comparative mythology "parallelomania" refers to works that stress apparent similarities and construct parallels and analogies without historical basis. Without historical basis, the parallel is considered false and unfounded. There are many examples of parallelomania and false correlations circulating on the Internet. Here is an example:

  • Abraham is a variant of Brahma.
  • Sara is a variant of Sarawati.
  • Brahma and his wife Saraswati are the founders of the worlds.
  • Abraham is said to be the father of many nations.
  • Abraham and Sara represent a parallel to the Hindu myth.

The mythical Brahma and Sarawati are posed as a parallel to the historical Abraham and Sarah, but the historical evidence that links the two couples is never provided. There are linguistic connections between the ancient languages spoken by Abraham's ancestors and the Dravoid peoples. They share ancient Akkadian roots, as has been recognized by Hindu scholars. However, no logical conclusions can be drawn simply on the basis of the resemblance of names. Sarawati refers to a river and a sub-caste of Hindu Brahman society. 

This is not to dismiss the importance of myth as it reflects the beliefs of a given people in a given time and place. Myths speak in symbols and Jung discovered that discrete symbols emerged in the dreams of people with common ancestors. He called this the "collective unconscious." Mythic symbols and narratives must be investigated using the same test: Is there sufficient historical basis for drawing the parallel?

This raises a question about the proper boundaries of historical investigation. None would question the value of referring to the writings of ancient historians to better understand their contexts. Ancient sacred texts are useful for historical investigation also. However, secularists tend to regard religious documents as questionable historical evidence. 

As an anthropologist, I am aware of the dangers of constructing parallels without substantial evidence. I have no interest in exaggerating trifling resemblances. The apparent similarities between Horus and the biblical account of Jesus Christ are not an example of parallelomania. Instead, the evidence suggests that the Horite Hebrew belief in Horus as the son of God is the basis of Messianic expectation. 

A close reading of Genesis reveals that Abraham's ancestors came out of the Nile Valley. His cultural context was Kushite. Abraham's father Terah was a Horite Hebrew priest, and the Horite Hebrew were devotees of Re, Hathor and Horus. That has been confirmed by archaeology, anthropology, DNA studies, ancient texts, and migration studies. 

Abraham and his people held Hathor as a sacred archetype. She conceived Horus by divine overshadowing. She points to the Virgin Mary, who by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, brought forth the "Seed" of God in accordance with Genesis 3:15. The message of Christianity is that Jesus fulfilled the expectation of a Righteous Ruler who would trample down death by his death and lead his people to immortality.

The Ra-Horus-Hathor narrative is a form of the Proto-Gospel. To pose Christianity and the faith of the Horite Hebrew as an example of parallelomania is nonsense! The Horite Hebrew believed in God Father and God Son. Horus is the pattern upon which Messianic expectation developed. Jesus is the only figure of history who fits the pattern, and He is a descendant of the Horite ruler-priests, as I have demonstrated through scientific analysis of the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern

Christianity is not an invented religion based on the Horus myth. It is a faith with deep roots, a received tradition concerning a unique hope for life beyond death. That life is given through the divine ruler who overcomes the grave and leads his people to abundant life. The details of the narrative are extremely important. One such detail is the third-day resurrection described in Pyramid Texts, Utterance 667: "Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the imperishable stars."

The Horite expectation that the Divine One would not remain in the grave is expressed in Psalm 16:10:  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Consider how Horus, the archetype of Christ, describes himself in the Coffin texts (passage 148):

“I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of ‘Red Cloak’.” (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, p. 216)

Here we find the words of Psalm 110:1, a messianic reference: The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

It has been argued that the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection are based on the Horus myth, and that Christianity is a copy-cat religion. This argument has no basis in facts, and has been proven false.

The core of Christianity concerns the expectation of a Divine Son or the "Seed"of God. This is called “Messianic Expectation” and is attributed to the Jews. However, it existed long before there was a "Jewish" ethnicity. It is attributed to the ancient Hebrew.

This expectation can be traced to Abraham’s Horite ancestors. They believed that one of their virgins would miraculously conceive and bring forth the Son/Seed of God. This was a central belief of Abraham’s Horite ancestors

Why would the Horite Hebrew believe this? What was the basis for their hope?  The answer appears to be found in Genesis 3:15. Abraham’s ancestors received a promise that a “Woman” of their ruler-priest lines would bring forth the Seed who would crush the serpent’s head and restore paradise.

The myth of Horus is a form of the Proto-Gospel. Jesus’ Horite ancestry has been demonstrated through scientific analysis of the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern. We are not speaking here of trifling resemblances between the myth of Horus and the historic Jesus. Scripture itself which indicates that Abraham and his people were a caste of ruler-priest devotees of Horus. Their cultural context was Kushite and they expected a woman of their blood lines to bring forth the "Seed" of God in accordance with the first biblical promise (Gen. 3:15). This is the origin of Messianic expectation, and clearly it did not originate with the Jews who reject belief in God Son. (See Trinitarian Correspondances Between Mesopotamia and the Nile.)

Because the myth of Horus has striking parallels to the story of Jesus, some claim that Christians borrowed the idea of a dying-rising deity from the ancient Egyptians. That claim fails to take into consideration that the New Testament writers were heirs of the Horite Hebrew religion and they saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient hope for a ruler-priest who would overcome death.




This statute of the Kushite-Nubian Pharaoh Taharqa shows him holding two orbs and kneeling before the falcon totem of Horus. The two orbs are the Upper and Lower Nile regions which were first united by the Kushite-Nubian kings before the first Egyptian dynasties. Apparently, the inscription states that Taharka is offering "wine to the little-known Egyptian falcon-god Hemen." Inscriptions are not reliable because sometimes they are written long after the statue was created or are changed to honor the current ruler and the current ruler's favorite deity.

We have reason to doubt that Taharqa is venerating Hemen as Hemen's totem was a hippopotamus. The falcon is the totem of Horus. At Nekhen, the oldest known site of the Horite Hebrew, Hemen was associated with Horus, the Son of  the High God Ra. 

One ancient Nilotic text says, "I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of ‘Red Cloak’.”

Here we find the words of Psalm 110:1, a messianic reference: The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” 

A reference to Horus' resurrection on the third day is found in Pyramid Texts Utterance 667: "Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the imperishable stars." (1941b)

The Horite Hebrew expectation that the Divine One would not remain in the grave is expressed in Psalm 16:10: "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." However, it was expressed almost 1000 years earlier in the Pyramid Texts.




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