Crucified gods??

An article I read today (taken from About.com) inaccurately stated that gods such as Attis, Osiris, and Jesus were all crucified on trees.

Unfortunately this is pretty typical of many websites today all preaching that Jesus never existed. I’ve also read a couple of books by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, that also suffer from the same kind of loose (and often non-existent) connections, claiming that the Jesus story has its origins in the pagan “Osiris-Dionysus” myth.

So now you’ve had your little rant, what about Attis and Osiris?

Attis was depicted as castrated, and transformed into a pine tree, while Osiris was locked up in a coffin and cast upon the Nile by his brother Set. the Coffin floated out to sea, eventually reaching the shore of Byblos, and a tree grew around the coffin, encasing the god, and later cut down and erected as the central pillar in the king’s palace. Neither Attis or Osiris were crucified on a tree.

Where does Jesus fit in?

Of the three deities mentioned, only Jesus was crucified, although he was crucified upon a stauros, which doesn’t refer to a living tree, but rather a post or stake, often with a crosspiece.

However, there are a number of Biblical verses that refer to Jesus as “Hung on a Tree”. In the book of Acts, Peter (and the other Apostles) proclaim that Jesus was hung on a tree (5:30; 10:39; 13:29), and in the 1st letter of Peter, it reads:

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed (2:24).

A good explanation as to why Jesus is referred to being executed upon a tree is the fact that in Hebrew language (One of the three main languages in New Testament times along with Greek and Aramaic), the word for tree (Eytz) also refers to wood.

Also we have a theological connection in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul compares the Deuteronomic curse and capitol punishment of being hung upon a tree, with the crucifixion of Jesus.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Apart from this brief allusion to a tree, Paul usually refers to Jesus as “Crucified” (stauroo), so it is clear that Paul himself did not believe that Jesus was hung on a living tree.

Authentic Mythical Parallels

It would of been more accurate to of said that “resurrected Gods” (although even that term is pretty dubious in itself) are often associated with trees. Infact the Mythological victim is often associated to the point of near (as in the case of Osiris), and total (as in the case of Attis) Identification.

Further down the article the author does mention Odin, who was hung from the cosmic world ash that upheld the universe, as a sacrifice to himself for nine nights, to gain the wisdom of the runes:

I know that I hung on a windy tree
nights all nine,
wounded with a spear and given to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run

No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
downwards I peered,
I took up the runes,
screaming I took them,
then I fell back from there

Although Odin wasn’t actually crucified (despite what google says), We do have a mythical connection with the alleged historical account of Christ’s death in John’s Gospel, where it is stated that Jesus side was pieced with a spear:

But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe (19:33-35).

The account of Odin’s self-to-self sacrifice (clearly parallel to God the son’s sacrifice to god the father) appears around a millennium later than the Gospels, but there is no reason to think that Odin’s sacrifice is in any way based upon that of the historical crucifixion.

In Sweden, at the Temple at Uppsala, men were sacrificially slain Odinic style, and men who were fated to die of natural causes were given the “Mark of Odin” upon their deathbeds, that is, wounded with a spear, so as to be included among the joyous slain in the afterlife.

Also, the act of self-sacrifice parallels the mythical account of the Buddha, even closer than the crucifixion account, who beneath the cosmic world tree, discovered the wisdom of life’s suffering, as Odin suffered to gain the wisdom of the runes. Clearly, both accounts have the same mythical roots.

Getting back to Jesus, Attis, and Osiris

A spear wound was also suffered by the Grail-Fisher King, sometimes in the groin, which finally gives us a connection to both Attis, who was castrated, and Osiris, whose phallus remained lost, after he was torn apart by Set. It was also through castration of the male-female Agdistis that led to the miraculous birth of Attis. In fact the castration of Agdistis symbolizes the creation of male (Attis) and female (Cybele). It is the age old cosmogonic myth of the primordial androgynous being, through whose death, the opposites (Male and Female, Good and Evil, Sun and Moon, etc.) of the temporal universe sprang.

The wound in Christ’s side should therefore be compared with the wound of Adam, who, at the beginning of time could also be said to be like the androgynous first being, was put into a deep deathly sleep, and from whose rib, Eve was created, and so, the one, became two. The Hebrew word rib (ṣela), can also be translated as “side”.