The film Zeitgeist begins with list of pagan gods such Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus and Mithra. It goes through the list of details associated with Jesus Christ and then applies them to these pagan gods in order to create the impression that Christianity is only a copycat religion. However, viewers (whether believers or skeptics) should watch this film with the realization that there is an agenda behind it. — And I advise anyone reading this to do the same with what I am about to say as well.
As the film itself says, we want to be academically correct. So now it is our duty to check the facts to see if the makers of Zeitgeist have lived up to that expectation. If the film is right, then that means we Christians have a lot of reevaluating to do. If it is wrong, however, then it is the Jesus-Mythers that should reevaluate what they are spreading all over their websites.
The first God that the film deals with is Horus, the God the Son of Osiris and Isis. — As I point out in the introduction of this review, the film makes claims in an attempt to tie Horus to Jesus. — After going into some background about him, the narrator of the film says:
Horus was born on December 25th of the virgin Isis-Meri. His birth was accompanied by a star in the east, which in turn, three kings followed to locate and adorn the new-born savior. At the age of 12, he was a prodigal child teacher, and at the age of 30 he was baptized by a figure known as Anup and thus began his ministry. Horus had 12 disciples he traveled about with, performing miracles such as healing the sick and walking on water. Horus was known by many gestural names such as The Truth, The Light, God’s Anointed Son, The Good Shepherd, The Lamb of God, and many others. After being betrayed by Typhon, Horus was crucified, buried for 3 days, and thus, resurrected.
These are incredible claims. But as I said, we have to be skeptical of any film that has a clear agenda. The truth is that even though it is claimed that Horus was the product of a virgin birth, there is no reference that I could find that supports what the film says. It is actually unlikely that a married couple of gods would have not procreated at any time before the birth of Horus. The story goes that after Seth murdered Osiris, his body was mutilated into fourteen pieces. Isis then recovered them, with the exception of the penis which was eaten by fish. She made a new one and procreated with her revived husband to conceive Horus. In other words, not only is it unlikely to be a virgin birth due to the marital status of Osiris and Isis, the opposite is most certainly the case.
Now what about the date of December 25th? It so happens this is also false. The birth of Horus occurred during the second of the so-called Epagomenal days, which served as an extra five days to the Egyptian calendar. In the Gregorian Calendar, it would have been during the month of July, what we would call summer. (See: A Festival Calendar of the Ancient Egyptians). But even if we suppose for a moment that Horus had been born on December 25th, why would it matter? So was Humphry Bogart. Obviously, this proves Bogart was a myth plagiarized from Pre-Bogartian paganism!
As for the claim that Horus was baptized by Anup the Baptizer, over a decade ago when I was first researching this series, the only promising lead to this I found was a link to an article from the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica which indicates that Anup is a variant spelling of Anubis, the embalmer. Even if this connection were to turn out to be accurate, embalming isn’t baptism, and I have yet to see any evidence Anubis did any such thing on the side of his usual duties.
About for the rest of the claims, such as having twelve disciples, being a prodigal teacher at age twelve, and the titles alleged to have been given to Horus, I hit a brick wall. That Horus would have been a miracle worker is so generic a detail as to be meaningless. It’s like saying that Dwight Eisenhower was a myth based off George Washington because they were both military men, generals, and were elected President of the United States.
The truth about Typhon is the Greeks associated him with Seth, the murderer of Horus’ father. Zeitgeist claims that he betrayed Horus, however Seth was Horus’ enemy from birth so by definition nobody was betrayed. It’s hard to be betrayed by someone who was never your friend to begin with. — The one reference that I could find that describes his death is seemingly unrelated to the Passion of Jesus. According to the Cippi of Horus, he was stung to death by a scorpion. When Isis found him dead she is said to have become “distraught and frantic with grief, and was inconsolable.” – Thoth, who had helped her to revive her husband Osiris, heard her and came down to answer her. Isis was then supplied with incantations and then was able to revive her son. — No crucifixion, no three days in a tomb.
To show that Jesus’ infancy narrative is the product of plagiarism, Zeitgeist goes on to cite a 3,500 year old Egyptian inscription found at Luxor that it claims tells the story of the annunciation, the virgin birth and the adoration of Horus.
The film then says:
The images begin with Thoth announcing to the virgin Isis that she will conceive Horus. Then Neth the holy ghost impregnating the virgin. And then the virgin birth and the adoration. This is exactly the story of Jesus’ miracle conception.
This seems to implicate Christianity and Jesus as an imitation, however besides my refutation given above of untrue idea of Isis being a virgin when Horus was born, there is yet another problem with using the Luxor inscription to support the copycat hypothesis.
Even well known atheist historian and skeptic, who elsewhere calls the virgin birth pagan, refutes the claim that the Luxor Inscription gives essentially the same story as the Nativity, pointing out that it is sexual in nature. In his refutation of Acharya S/D.M. Murdock, who is a major source for Zeitgeist, he says:
I doubt Acharya/Murdock can find any living Egyptologist who would [ . . . ] endorse any of her convoluted efforts to reinterpret the text to say the opposite of what it says and what the accompanying images show. The Luxor text even borrows verbatim phrases from the Deir el-Bahri text, e.g. the god “did everything he wanted with her,” which if you wonder what that means, the expanded text at Deir el-Bahri tells you, in some sexy detail. (Brackets, ellipses mine)
Also it has to be said that the inscription, as far as I can tell, isn’t even about Horus’s birth, indicating how poor a job the makers of Zeitgeist have done in researching for their film.
With the information given here, is there any meaningful connection between Jesus and Horus? I’d have to say no. Some are impossible to verify, and the ones which can be checked turn up negative. It is a shame, however, that many so-called skeptics will accept such claims without even thinking (Irony alert on their claim to be open-minded, critical thinkers) and that Christians who don’t do the research will have a crisis of faith because of easily refuted claims.
References and Recommended Links:
Epagomenal Days, Global Egyptian Museum
A FESTIVAL CALENDAR OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, Egyptian Virtual Temple Temple from Panhistoria.com.
- Also of interest to the Epagomenal days is “Five Days Out of Time” by John Opsopaus (of the Biblioteca Arcana) who gives a sowhat different estimate of when these days occured. But for our purposes, it doesn’t effect the case presented since they still occur in what we would call summer.
Egypt: Gods – Cippi of Horus, TourEgypt.net
Ancient Egyptian Mythology, Ancient History Encyclopedia.
Anubis, AncientEgypt.co.uk
Anubis article from the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica at StudyLight.org
Cleaning Up the Horus Manure: Debunking the Jesus/Horus Connection by Jon Sorensen from Catholic Answers.
Horus and Osiris vs Jesus by James Patrick Holding, Tektonics.org
Da Pacem Domine 