Haley Lynn Shoemaker

Ancient Near East II

Fall 2012 - Spring 2013

A Cult by Any Other Name: Early Christianity and Greco-Roman Mystery Religions

Until it was legitimized under the reign of Constantine (306 C.E.-337 C.E.1),

Christianity was just one of many mystery cults that abounded in the Roman world of the

second century. It seems logical that early Christianity would have shared marked similarities

with these contemporaneous initiatory religious sects, and yet this concept has formed the

center of a storm of debate within historical and religious discourse. Many scholars have tried

to discount, discredit or minimize the correspondences between the early Church and Greco-

Roman Mystery Religions.2 In fact, they practiced similar rites and rituals, they held similar

dogmatic beliefs to be true, and they demonstrated similar dynamics as oppressed groups in a

hostile society. This paper will explore those parallels of ritual and doctrine as well as the

interplay between these groups in two critical sources from antiquity, The Golden Ass and

“On Baptism,” to establish that Christianity was “in child-hood… rocked in a Jewish cradle

and that it grew to maturity in a gentile home.”3 These works, while written for very different

purposes, are particularly ripe for comparison. They both portrayed the liturgy of the author’s

religion in great detail, and each illuminated the struggle between these two groups as they

competed for a place in the Roman world.

1 D. Brendan Nagle, Ancient Rome: A History (Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Sloan Publishing, 2010), pg. 427.2 Hinson, E. Gelnn. "Worshiping like pagans?" Christian History 12, no. 1 (February 1993): 16. This is just one of many scholarly rejections of a link between Roman mystery cults and early Christianity. Similar frustration is expressed in Shirley Jackson Case’s “Christianity and the Mystery Religions.”3 Shirley Jackson Case, “Christianity and the Mystery Religions,” The Biblical World 43, no. 1 (January 1, 1914): 3–16.

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Before examining these comparisons, however, it is necessary to introduce the

aforementioned texts. The first is The Golden Ass, also known as The Metamorphosis. It told

the story of Lucius, a man who became too curious about magic and was turned into a

donkey. After various misadventures, Lucius despaired and was visited by the goddess Isis,

who promised to return him to his human form if he dedicated his life to her. He agreed and

was given human form and eternal salvation. The Golden Ass was written by Apuleius, a

renowned writer and lecturer who studied in Carthage, Athens and Rome and who was

himself an initiate into the mysteries of Isis.4 Exactly when he wrote The Golden Ass is

uncertain, but the evidence suggests sometime in or after the 160s C.E.5 It is the only Roman

novel to survive in its entirety, and also the most detailed extant record of the liturgy of the

Isiac Mysteries.67 The second source, “On Baptism,” was written by the famed Carthaginian

bishop and scholar Tertullian sometime between 200 C.E. and 206 C.E.8 It was the first book

ever written about Christian baptism. 9 It is also one of the only thorough accounts of early

Christian liturgy possessed by scholars. In the text, Tertullian explained the importance of

baptism to salvation, when and how baptisms should be conducted, and what differentiated

Christian baptism from the baptismal rites of pagans and Jews. It was also a polemic text

which condemned various heresies and responded to several of the most common arguments

against baptism.

The most conspicuous resemblance between these two documents was that of the

religious ceremonies they depicted. Tertullian opened “On Baptism” with this exclamation:

4 Apuleius, The Golden Ass, trans. P. G. Walsh, Oxford World’s Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pg. xii.5 Ibid, pg. xx.6Ibid, pg xiv.7 Ibid, pg. xxxvii.8 Chapman, J., “Tertullian,” The Catholic Encyclopedia.9 “Tertullian,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/588511/Tertullian.

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“Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness,

we are set free and admitted into eternal life!” Through baptism one entered into the Christian

church and gained salvation, and would thus be admitted into heaven after death. This concept

of life after death also appears in a passage in The Golden Ass, though the “rebirth” of the

followers of Isis took place in this life, rather than the next: “The act of initiation itself was

performed as a rite of voluntary death and of salvation… by her providence they were in some

sense reborn.” The spiritual justification for the baptismal rites of the cult of Isis and

Christianity are much alike, as each sect saw baptism as a rite of spiritual purification leading

to salvation. In The Golden Ass, the salvation of Lucius is very literal, as his transformation

into a donkey and his eventual return to human form signifies a lapse into bestial living, just

punishment for pursuing a perverted path to knowledge, and heavenly intervention offering

him salvation by saving him from his twisted form.10 Even more similar than their rhetoric of

salvation were the rituals surrounding each group’s baptism. Tertullian described baptism in

this way: “a man is dipped in water, and amid the utterance of some few words, is sprinkled,

and then rises again…”11 This is almost identical to Apuleius’ account of initiation into the

cult of Isis: “First I was ushered into the normal bath. Then the priest first asked for the gods’

blessing, and cleansed me by sprinkling water all over me until I was wholly purified.”12 In

both disciplines, baptism served as a passage of initiation into the “inner mysteries” of the

doctrine. This initiation required the greatest commitment, and was not to be undertaken

lightly. Thus, when Lucius asked to be initiated into the Isis Mysteries, the priest instructed

10 Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pg. xxxii.11 Tertullian, “On Baptism,” in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. S. Thelwall, (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885), revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm.12 Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pg. 232.

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him to “take strict precautions against both over-enthusiasm and obstinacy.” 13 Lucius thus

waited several days to ensure his sincerety. Tertullian gave his followers similar advice,

saying that “baptism is not rashly to be administered,” and that “delay of baptism is

preferable.”14 Once baptism was undertaken, Tertullian instructed those “who are about to

enter baptism out to pray with repeated prayers, fasts… and vigils all the night through.”15

This corresponds closely to the overnight vigil and ten days of fasting that Apuleius describes,

though he performed these after his baptism.16 Once initiated, both Christian congregations

and mystery initiates were expected to contribute money to their group. Leviticus instructed

Christians to give one-fifth of the harvest to their god, saying that “Every tithe of the land… is

the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.”17 Lucius’ contributions were more straightforward: he was

reminded several times throughout his initiation that he needed to pay for the ceremony and

the garb, eventually prompting him to sell his clothes for money.18 It is apparent that the

rituals of Greco-Roman cults and early Christianity had much in common.

Early Christianity and the cult of Isis offered Roman converts many of the same

advantages. The expansion of the empire accelerated the breakdown of civic polytheism.

These civic religions were characterized by the worship of a few specific gods within each

community. They had a few advantages: the frequent festivals were presented immediate

physical and emotional gratification; there was little doctrine and the ethical codes were loose;

and religious observation required very little specialized knowledge or training. Nevertheless,

there were disadvantages as well: the gods of civic religion were distant and often seemed

13 Ibid, pg. 233-4.14Tertullian, “On Baptism.”15 Ibid.16 Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pg. 233-4.17 Albert Pietersma and Benjamin Wright, eds., “Leuitikon,” tr. Dirk L. Büchner, A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included Under That Title, 2nd edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/.18 Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pg. 238.

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indifferent to the struggles of individual believers. In addition to this, the civic religions were

highly localized. While they fostered a high level of social cohesion within small

communities, increased travel within the Empire had eroded this “small town” unity and left

many Romans searching for a more universal belief system. 19 The traditional civic paganism

was supplemented by the worship of the Emperor as a demigod. However, this cult was more

popular among the elite of the Empire.20 Also, whether the Emperor was a god or a mortal, he

shared the civic gods’ disinterest in his subjects’ struggles. These inherent weaknesses in the

civic religion led people to search for new spiritual outlets, and both the mystery cults and

early Christian house-churches offered believers a more personal relationship with the divine.

The unfeeling, indifferent gods of official Roman religion, and the veneration of an even more

unsympathetic emperor, paled in comparison with the promise offered by both creeds of a god

who would protect and care for its followers.

In addition to these benefits, it is likely that the structure shared by both mystery cults

and Christianity was inherently attractive: modern psychological studies have shown that

conditions of secrecy and the requirement to undergo initiation in order to gain access to a

group fosters conformity within the group, leads people to value that group more highly, and

gives the initiated an ideal to identify themselves with.21 The natural human tendency to form

cliques may well have contributed to the spread of both the Mysteries and Christianity.

Whether or not one attributes modern psychology to ancient people, it is certain that these

fraternities promoted a sense of community.2223 This sense of community may have come in

19 D. Brendan Nagle, Ancient Rome, pg. 398.20 Ibid, pg. 366.21 D.R. Forsyth, Group Dynamics, 5th edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009), pg. 124.22 D. Brendan Nagle, Ancient Rome, pg. 398.23 Richard S. Ascough, “Translocal Relationships Among Voluntary Associations and Early Christianity,” Journal of Early Christian Studies vol. 5, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 223–241.

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part from the strong ties each of these factions had to distant locations within the Empire. The

cult of Isis was of course associated with Egypt, while Christianity was linked with Jerusalem.

These religions existed throughout the Empire and were made up primarily of Roman

converts, yet their fixation on a distant “spiritual homeland” made them perpetual foreigners

within their own society, drawing them ever closer together.24

Roman society certainly viewed the Mysteries and Christianity as interlopers: both

groups faced considerable persecution from the Emperors, provincial governors and fellow

citizens. Romans at every level of society believed that both cults and house-churches were

undermining the very fabric of society and risked bringing the wrath of the gods down on the

entire Empire by refusing to worship the emperor or participate in the festivals of civic

religion. Due to this belief, various attempts were made to destroy both the mystery religions

and Christianity. For instance, the cult of Isis was violently repressed throughout the first

century B.C.E., culminating in the destruction of their shrines in the 50s B.C.E.25 Similarly,

Christians were the targets of sporadic persecution from the time of its inception until its

legalization under the reign of Emperor Constantine in 313.26

The two groups did not band together in the face of similar prejudice, however.

Instead, Christianity and the cult of Isis developed an intense rivalry, competing for followers.

Furthermore, comparisons similar to those found in this paper were also being drawn in

antiquity; since each group viewed the other as heretical, misguided and bizarre, they both

resented being associated with one another. As the Isaic and Christian factions sought

legitimacy in the eyes of the public and of the government, they considered these analogies to

24 Ibid.25 D. Brendan Nagle, Ancient Rome, pg. 213.26 Ibid, pg. 430. The most famous example of this persecution was when Christians were blamed for the burning of Rome under Nero in 64 C.E.

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be harmful to their goal. These factors combined to create significant tension, which is

apparent in these two sources. In other words, the Isis cult and early Christianity both

exhibited group dynamics commonly associated with oppression, particularly horizontal

hostility, which is the phenomenon of one oppressed minority exhibiting hostility toward

another minority.27 Both sources exemplified this perfectly, as each of the authors sought to

discredit the other’s beliefs, and to put as much dogmatic distance as possible between their

“true” path and the other’s “heretical” one. For example, it is quite possible that Apuleius

chose to have Lucius transform into an ass because of a widespread belief that Christians

worshipped donkeys, thereby associating Lucius’ time as an ass with conversion to

Christianity and equating his return to humanity with conversion to the Isaic cult.28 Apuleius

then engaged Christianity more directly by writing that the “whole world worships this single

godhead [Isis] under a variety of shapes and liturgies and titles,” a proclamation aimed

directly at the monotheistic criticism of polytheism which was a prominent point of the

religious discourse at that time.29 Finally, he delivered a final jibe: “join the procession of the

savior goddess with triumphal step. Let unbelievers see you, and as they see you let them

recognize the error of their ways.”30 Tertullian was more direct in his attack of baptism within

the Isaic cult: “they cheat themselves with waters which are widowed. For washing is the

channel through which they are initiated into some sacred rites- of some notorious Isis… their

baptism is not one with ours either, because it is not the same…”31 So, both of these works

27 Judith B. White and Ellen J. Langer, “Horizontal Hostility; Relations Between Similar Minority Groups,” Journal of Social Issues 55, no. 3 (1999): 537–559.28 Apuleius, The Golden Ass, pg. xxxviii-xxxix.29 Ibid, pg. 220.30 Ibid, pg. 227-8.31 Tertullian, “On Baptism.”

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were written with an awareness of the parallels that exist between the two groups and partially

in response to those comparisons.

In light of the evidence offered by The Golden Ass and “On Baptism,” it seems

indisputable that there were many similarities between the cult of Isis and early Christianity. It

is curious that this fact has been a catalyst for so much contention among scholars.

Christianity and the mystery cults sought to satisfy the same religious needs. When

Christianity left Jerusalem to spread throughout the Empire, it followed in the footsteps of the

Mystery traditions, which were already well established. Both religions developed in response

to the civic religion which dominated Rome, shifting and flowing to fill the cracks in its

ideology. Both were made up primarily of native converts, rather than a relocated religious

group. It is likely that many actually converted from the mystery cults to Christianity32. In

short, it is only logical that two reactionary religions which spread through the same

geographic regions at similar points in history through similar cultural channels, and drew a

similar type of followers, and which were met also with similar persecution should share

many similarities! After all, “Rarely does a victor fail to profit from contact with, and

conquest over, a competitor.”33

32 Shirley Jackson Case, “Christianity and the Mystery Religions.”33 Ibid.

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Bibliography

Apuleius. The Golden Ass. Translated by P. G. Walsh. Oxford World’s Classics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Ascough, Richard S. “Translocal Relationships Among Voluntary Associations and Early Christianity.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 5, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 223–241.

Case, Shirley Jackson. “Christianity and the Mystery Religions.” The Biblical World 43, no. 1 (January 1, 1914): 3–16.

Chapman, J. “Tertullian.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14520c.htm.

Forsyth, D.R. Group Dynamics. 5th edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009.

Hinson, E. Gelnn. “Worshiping Like Pagans?” Christian History 12, no. 1 (February 1993): 16.

Nagle, D. Brendan. Ancient Rome: A History. Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Sloan Publishing, 2010.

Pietersma, Albert and Benjamin Wright, eds. A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included Under That Title. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/.

Tertullian. “On Baptism.” In Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Translated by S. Thelwall. Vol. 3. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm.

“Tertullian.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2013. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/588511/Tertullian.

White, Judith B. and Ellen J. Langer. “Horizontal Hostility; Relations Between Similar Minority Groups.” Journal of Social Issues 55, no. 3 (1999): 537–559.

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