The claim of parallels between ancient works such as The Bacchae by Euripides and The Bible.
“One of the more recent attacks on Christianity and the Bible of the past 150 years or so has been the claim that many of the ancient writings of the pagan mythologies contain numerous parallels to The Bible and the Christian religion,” explained the Reverend J.A. Layman, evangelist with Sterling Ministries, before The Lay School faculty here in Clinton, Tennessee. “The Bacchae of Euripides is one of those ancient works which has recently crossed our path in our presentation on Herodotus’ The Histories. Proponents of this belief of parallels between the ancient pagan religions and Christianity take this so far as to adamantly assert that Christianity, being a much younger ‘religion’ must have ‘borrowed’ these elements from earlier pagan religions; thereby, in their eyes, discrediting the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Biblical record. In an attempt to seriously consider their claims, and especially in light of our recent reading and color-coding of The Bacchae of Euripides, which is a short enough work to be read, color-coded, and allow us to compile the following lists of terms and phrases that are or can be, even remotely, considered Christian; terms or phrases that are contrary to the Biblical record and teaching (something that proponents of this belief conveniently omit from even mentioning in their assertions); concepts which the translator finds in this work which we do not; and certain other curious phrases/doctrines which we feel are worthy of note.
Terminology in The Bacchae that is also found, even remotely, in Christianity and The Bible:
God’s Son/child
Manifest God
Mystery (of the god)
The Living Fountain
Mention of the giants
Bacchios, the All-Father’s mystic son
Immaculate
Watchers
Lie in a manger
The Babe of God, the Mystery
Motherless Mystery
The bride of Dionyse
In the dark he lies forsaken
The mother of the King
And were scorched not
Kick against the pricks
Glorying to God in the height
Dionysus, Child of the Highest
The murdered son
God’s will
And save alive to the Oslands of the Blest
The Child of God
We have sinned!
Dionysus says: Ye knew me not!
Terminology in The Bacchae that is contrary to Christianity and The Bible:
Bacchus as the horned God
Bacchus – a God with serpents crowned
Bacchus – Spirit of Guiding Fire
He Whom thou deniest cometh after thee
Horned kine
Heaven is found in one’s happiness
Bacchus – Mountain Bull, Snake of the Hundred Heads
For thou must change and be a Serpent Thing
Concepts which the translator, Gilbert Murray, of The Bacchae finds in this play that are also found in Christianity and/or The Bible:
a second birth – of the demi-god to a god (although no passage intimated such as we read and color-coded it)
eternal life (we did not)
the sacrifice of Dionysus himself (we did not)
the purification of man by Dionysus’ blood (we did not)
Murray identifies Bacchus/Dionysus as the god of intoxication which is certainly NOT a parallel with the Almighty God or the Jesus of the Bible.
Murray identifies the blood of the bull (Dionysus-Zagreus), the bull of God, slain in sacrifice for the purification of man.
Murray asserts that this mystery of Bacchus/Dionysus was “a mystery which transcended reason”.
Curious terminology in The Bacchae:
Rites of rascaldom
Bacchus/Dionysus is referred to as a bull in several places
As the play comes to its end the stage directions instruct: “Dionysus rises upon the Cloud and disappears” which alludes to a resurrection, and more specifically, to Jesus’ resurrection as recorded in Acts 1.
Doctrines which the translator notes are conspicuously absent from The Bacchae:
The immortality of the soul
The alleged parallels amount to nothing more than such terms as those noted above appearing in Euripides’ The Bacchae, totally devoid of explanation, interpretation, or meaning within the text of the play itself. This is in stark contrast to the record contained in The Bible where the revelation of Jesus Christ and God’s plan for both Jews and Gentiles gradually unfolds, from obscure prophetic passages of Hebrew origin, through the historical record of God’s active participation in the daily lives of His people, the Israelites, to the doctrinal explanations and interpretations of Jesus Christ Himself as recorded in the Gospels, and the writings of the Apostles Paul, Peter, and John. The vast majority of problems in interpretation occur when God’s Word is NOT taken literally for what it says! Truly, just as Eve added the phrase ‘neither shall ye touch it’ to God’s prohibition concerning the tree of life in the midst of the Garden of Eden, (Genesis 3:3; but refer back to God’s command in Genesis 2:16-17) one of the problems that has plagued both synagogue and church alike for over 3000 years is the determination of some to add to God’s Word! Contrariwise, the other problem that has plagued both synagogue and church alike has been the determination of some to ‘take away’ from what God has said, creating doubt in the mind’s of men and women alike, just as the serpent did to Eve in that same passage in Genesis 3. Is it not interesting to note that BOTH testaments contain warnings against BOTH:
Deuteronomy 4:2; 5:32; 12:32
Revelation 22:18-19
So WHY must the cynics and the skeptics continue to ask, ‘Hath God said?’
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