10 Christ-like Figures Who Pre-Date Jesus. Religion I recently watched the documentary Zeitgeist (Part 1) as well as Bill Maher’s movie Religulous.
Both made mention of claims often made that there are many stories that predate Jesus but have striking parallels. I decided to follow up on these claims and see what kind of information was out there to substantiate these assertions. I found several websites run by Christians who obviously disputed all claims of any parallels to the life of Jesus. I also found several interesting books on the subject, such as The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves, and The Christ Conspiracy, and Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled by Acharya S. Mithra. Mithra (Avestan: 𐬀𐬭𐬚𐬌𐬨 Miθra, Old Persian: 𐎷𐎰𐎼 Miça) is the Zoroastrian angelic divinity (yazata) of covenant and oath.
In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing protector of Truth, and the guardian of cattle, the harvest and of The Waters. The term Mithra is from the Avestan language. In Middle Iranian languages (Middle Persian, Parthian etc.), Mithra became Mihr, from which Modern Persian مهر Mihr, Northern Pashto لمر Nwar, Waziri Pashto ميېر Myer and Armenian Mihr/Mher ultimately derive. The Romans attributed their Mithraic Mysteries (the mystery religion known as Mithraism) to Persian or Zoroastrian sources relating to Mithra. However, since the early 1970s, the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities, and those mysteries are now qualified as a distinct Roman product.[1] Apollonius of Tyana.