“Nothing in the Jesus myth occurred at random; every detail was part of a formal sacrificial tradition, even to the Procession of Palms which glorified sacred kings in ancient Babylon.”
James B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East
“Still, despite centuries of research, no historical Jesus has come to light. It seems the story was not merely overlaid with myth; it was myth to the core.”
Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician
The savior who dies and is reborn is one of the oldest god archetypes - almost as old as the great mother of all that is. Throughout centuries he has been called: Attis, Adonis, Osiris, Dionysus, Orpheus, Herecles, Tammuz (Thomas), Serapis and Mithra. Hermes was even called the Logos or the word of god made flesh, long before any monotheistic religion used that description. (T. W. Doane, Bible Myths and their Parallels in Other Religions). There really is nothing new under the sun.
It was common practice to add the title “Soter,” (savior) to the names of kings who were worshiped as divine. Julius Caesar was accorded the title “Savior of Human Life,” and his successor was called something similar. The culture at the time of early Christianity was overflowing with saviors. Self-styled saviors were a dime a dozen, preaching from many street corners. Early writers complained about them as con men. Every miracle attributed to Jesus had been previously performed by some other savior. His parables also pre-date him. The Lord’s prayer comes from the Talmud, as does the Sermon on the Mount. But this doesn’t make Jesus less real or powerful - instead, it makes him more. The only thing new about Jesus is that he promised the world would end in one generation, which obviously didn’t happen. Many Christians are still waiting for the world to end. But again, veracity isn’t why the savior archetype is so powerful – and neither is logic. As people imbued each form of the savior with their faith, the archetype has grown.
This ancient pattern, so deeply ingrained in the human psyche, describes something very real about us. The savior archetype personifies the pattern of how human beings grow and change – the death and rebirth transformation. Viewed in another context, it’s the way we can heal past psychological trauma and grow into a new sense of self. In this case, death is a potent metaphor for losing an old identity, who we think we are, and rebirth describes what it feels like to become someone new – a stronger and more resilient self. We all die in order to be reborn. For the adolescent to be born, the child has to die; for the adult to take center stage, the adolescent has to be sacrificed. These transformations are often painful. If you’ve ever lost a job, a spouse or a loved one, you have been through the cycle. If you have ever prayed to any form of this archetype, you have activated the transformative power that resides in the human psyche – which can be very powerful indeed. The archetype doesn’t care what you call it.