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one of London's most famous landmarks St
Paul's Cathedral is dedicated to
Christianity's first Theologian and
after Jesus himself arguably its true
founder the Apostle
Paul it was Paul who first took
Christianity out of its Jewish
Palestinian setting and transformed it
into a world
beater it was Paul and his followers who
created much of the Christianity we know
today a religion of salvation by faith
in Jesus a pre-existent Divine being
sent to Earth by God to save us all from
our
sins much of the Dogma that surrounds
Jesus was created by
Paul Paul describes himself as the
Apostle to the Gentiles or as we know
them today pagans Paul was supremely
practical in terms of converting
non-believers and he even admits in his
letter to the Corinthians I have become
all things to all people that I might
win them to Christ and what he meant by
that was that he was willing to adapt
and adjust himself to whatever
circumstances he found himself and if
that meant a little bit of borrowing
from Pagan religion then so be it
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my search for the hidden Jesus has now
brought me to the north of England to
the border of the Roman Empire hadran's
wall when Jesus first appeared 2,000
years ago he was born into a world full
of pagan gods and if he was to survive
he would need to compete on their
terms and this could mean reworking some
of the best ideas that had already
existed for thousands of
years just after the second world war
there was an incredible series of
archaeological discoveries in the UK
they revealed a network of Roman temples
from London in the South to hadran's
wall in the north they were dedicated to
a Pagan religion that existed at the
same time as Christianity and to a God
who had striking similarities to Jesus
mithas
Lindsay Allison Jones is the director of
the Museum of Antiquities at the
University of
Newcastle where I come from and an
expert in the mystery Cult of
mithas oh wow this looks really well
preserved it is isn't it yes now what
could I have expected to see if it was
uh in its original condition you
probably wouldn't have seen very much at
all because it was sunk right down the
worshippers of mithas um were trying to
reconstruct um in a sense the original
Cave of Mithra so they wanted it dark
they wanted it Subterranean this would
have been door you would have gone in
through here you would then come in
through here into the actual Temple
itself um and you'd see in front of you
the three altars there and behind that
there would be a large relief showing
mithas killing the Prime Evil ball that
was the Act of Creation for the
worshippers of
mithas may he bring us help may he bring
us Comfort may he bring us joy he the
awful and overpowering worthy of
sacrifice and prayer Mithra the Lord of
wide
pastures and mithas is a God to the good
side I presume the the light yes mithas
was the Lord of Light that he was
basically attached to the Sun God who
ordered mithas to go and kill the
Primeval bull to release life force for
the benefit of mankind that's
interesting symbolism there you've got
this powerful deity and then this kind
of sub deity who acts as a kind a kind
of Savior figure for
humankind the rise of mithas almost
exactly parallels the rise of Jesus
although his Origins could be much more
ancient some say he was created by the
Romans others that he came from Persia
and India Mythos was a was a seen as a
savior God he was unusual amongst the
Gods in that you weren't really trying
to bribe him in quite the same same way
that they were trying to bribe some of
the other deities um to make sure that
you your life on Earth was as
comfortable as possible um mithas was
rare in that he actually offered you a
life after death so if mithas predated
Jesus and is also a savior God who
offered his followers a life after death
did Christianity steal these ideas it
was a mystery cult um we certainly know
that they were having ritual meals it
seems to have been a fairly basic Feast
based largely on the chickens on bread
and on wine Bread and Wine Bread and
Wine yes you know it's got similarities
with early Christianity the sense of
feasting um the sense of discipline you
don't have to appease the deity you work
at things for your own good um there's a
deity who is a a God of Light who is
sent by a major deity to um kill his
Nemesis in order to redeem and save the
world yes the early Christian fathers
who wrote a lot were very upset about
mithraism they thought that mithraism
was parodying
Christianity this so infuriated many
early Christians that they felt they had
to publicly denounce mithas and his
worshippers one fourth century Christian
writer ambrosiaster tried to demonize
their secret
rituals what travesty is it then that
they enact in the cave with veiled
faces for they cover their eyes lest
their deeds of Shame should Revolt them
some like birds flap their wings
imitating the Raven's cry others roar
like lions others bind their hands with
the entrails of fowls and fling
themselves down over pits full of water
what shameful mockeries for men who call
themselves
wise another early Church Father Justin
Marta tried to claim it was myth who was
copying
Jesus Jesus Took bread and when he had
given thanks said this do ye in
remembrance of me this is my body and
having taken the cup and given thanks he
said this is my blood and gave it to
them alone which the wicked Devils have
imitated in the mysteries of
mithas the problem for Christians was
that the similarities did not stop there
one tradition claims mithras even had a
virgin birth mithras there were two
stories one that he was born from the
living Rock and the other that he was
born from the cosmic egg so there is
potentially a crossing of ideas and even
potentially a merging of ideas between
mithas and early Christianity
potentially uh there is even a story
that um myth's birth was witnessed by
Shepherds watching their sheep but that
again is a much later story and you
don't know whether at this point
Christianity myis is all getting rather
intertwined and it's getting
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confused mithas was a pagan god with a
story a purpose an elements of ritual
very similar to that of Jesus but one
whose Origins could predate him by
thousands of
years but the fact is that mithraism
failed to survive and it was Chris iisan
it that conquered the Roman Empire but
we do know that early Christian fathers
were very worried about the similarities
between Christianity and mithraism
especially the charge that Christianity
borrowed many of its ideas from this
Pagan cult so when paganism was
officially outlawed particular animosity
was shown towards mithraism many of its
temples were destroyed and others had
churches built on top of them but
mithraism did leave one mind on
Christianity when later Church fathers
were deciding what anniversary to
celebrate the birthday of Jesus they
chose December the 25th the winter
solstice which also happens to be the
birthday of mithas