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115-500: In ancient mystery religions , a mystagogue would be responsible for leading an initiate into the secret teachings and rituals of a cultus . The initiate would often be blindfolded, and the mystagogue would literally "guide" him into the sacred space. In the early Christian church , this same concept was used to describe role of the bishop , who was responsible for seeing to it that the catechumens were properly prepared for baptism . Mystagogical homilies, or homilies that dealt with

230-481: A theophoric name with the god’s name omitted. The suffix mose appears in Egyptian pharaohs’ names like Thutmose ('born of Thoth ') and Ramose ('born of Ra '). One of the Egyptian names of Ramesses was Ra-mesesu mari-Amon , meaning “born of Ra, beloved of Amon” (he was also called Usermaatre Setepenre , meaning “Keeper of light and harmony, strong in light, elect of Re”). Linguist Abraham Yahuda , based on

345-508: A Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, in his Geographica (c. 24 CE), wrote in detail about Moses, whom he considered to be an Egyptian who deplored the situation in his homeland, and thereby attracted many followers who respected the deity. He writes, for example, that Moses opposed the picturing of the deity in the form of man or animal, and was convinced that the deity was an entity which encompassed everything – land and sea: 35. An Egyptian priest named Moses, who possessed

460-519: A Mithraic mystery cult in Tarsus , even though no mystery cult existed there nor did a Mithraic mystery cult exist before the end of the 1st century. The attitudes of scholars began to change as Egyptology continued emerging as a discipline and a seminal article published by Arthur Nock in 1952 that noted the near absence of mystery terminology in the New Testament . While some have tried to tie

575-533: A clear image. His primary work, wherein he describes Jewish philosophy , is his Histories ( c.  100 ), where, according to 18th-century translator and Irish dramatist Arthur Murphy , as a result of the Jewish worship of one God, " pagan mythology fell into contempt". Tacitus states that, despite various opinions current in his day regarding the Jews' ethnicity, most of his sources are in agreement that there

690-413: A familiar motif in ancient Near Eastern mythological accounts of the ruler who rises from humble origins. For example, in the account of the origin of Sargon of Akkad (23rd century BCE): My mother, the high priestess, conceived; in secret she bore me She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid She cast me into the river which rose over me. Moses' story, like those of

805-685: A historical Moses-like figure include the princes Ahmose-ankh and Ramose , who were sons of pharaoh Ahmose I , or a figure associated with the family of pharaoh Thutmose III . Israel Knohl has proposed to identify Moses with Irsu , a Shasu who, according to Papyrus Harris I and the Elephantine Stele, took power in Egypt with the support of "Asiatics" (people from the Levant ) after the death of Queen Twosret ; after coming to power, Irsu and his supporters disrupted Egyptian rituals, "treating

920-399: A military expedition to Ethiopia , where he won great victories. After having built the city of Hermopolis , he taught the people the value of the ibis as a protection against the serpents, making the bird the sacred guardian spirit of the city; then he introduced circumcision . After his return to Memphis , Moses taught the people the value of oxen for agriculture, and the consecration of

1035-553: A myth concerning the kidnapping of Persephone , daughter of Demeter , the goddess of agriculture, by Hades , the god of the underworld, as told in the Homeric Hymns . Anguished by this event and wishing to persuade Zeus , the king of the gods, to allow the return of her daughter, Demeter caused famine and drought across the land, killing many and depriving the gods of proper sacrifice and worship. Eventually, Zeus permitted Persephone to rejoin her mother, prompting Demeter to end

1150-412: A niche for the preservation of ancient religious ritual, which was especially in demand by the time of the late Roman Empire, as cultic practices supported the established social and political orders instead of working against them; numerous early strands of Judaism and Christianity, for instance, appeared in opposition to such conditions, whereas the mystery cults, by their very nature, served to strengthen

1265-487: A number of US government buildings. In the medieval and Renaissance period, he is frequently shown as having small horns , as the result of a mistranslation in the Latin Vulgate bible, which nevertheless at times could reflect Christian ambivalence or have overtly antisemitic connotations. The Egyptian root msy ('child of') or mose has been considered as a possible etymology, arguably an abbreviation of

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1380-669: A portion of the country called the Lower Egypt , being dissatisfied with the established institutions there, left it and came to Judaea with a large body of people who worshipped the Divinity. He declared and taught that the Egyptians and Africans entertained erroneous sentiments, in representing the Divinity under the likeness of wild beasts and cattle of the field; that the Greeks also were in error in making images of their gods after

1495-472: A position for a mystagogue at either the chapter or the national level. The mystagogue is a person of great respect, and his knowledge concerning both the physical and spiritual matters of the organization is not questioned. In a way similar to that of some Native American traditions, the mystagogue in the fraternity system has the power to shut down parts of the fraternity which are not in keeping with customs or tradition . Max Weber , considered to be one of

1610-462: A radical religious ethic or an example to be followed." Mystery religion Mystery religions , mystery cults , sacred mysteries or simply mysteries ( Greek : μυστήρια ), were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates (mystai) . The main characteristic of these religious schools was the secrecy associated with the particulars of

1725-435: A reference to Cicero , Moses is the only non-Greek writer quoted in the work; contextually he is put on a par with Homer and he is described "with far more admiration than even Greek writers who treated Moses with respect, such as Hecataeus and Strabo ". In Josephus ' (37 – c. 100 CE) Antiquities of the Jews , Moses is mentioned throughout. For example, Book VIII Ch. IV, describes Solomon's Temple , also known as

1840-461: A rod, in remembrance of that used for Moses' miracles. He describes Moses as 80 years old, "tall and ruddy, with long white hair, and dignified". Some historians, however, point out the " apologetic nature of much of Artapanus' work", with his addition of extra-biblical details, such as his references to Jethro: the non-Jewish Jethro expresses admiration for Moses' gallantry in helping his daughters, and chooses to adopt Moses as his son. Strabo ,

1955-540: A vague understanding. A system of grades or levels was present in the hierarchical structure of Mithraic religion, the first of these being the rank of Corax (raven), followed by Nymphus or Gryphus (bridegroom), Miles (soldier), Leo (lion), Perses (Persian), Heliodromus (sun-runner), and finally Pater (father) as the highest. Though precise details are difficult to determine and certainly varied between locations, one general depiction of an initiation ritual at Capua has it that men were blindfolded and walked into

2070-417: A visual reminder of his eastern origins. The cultic acts of adherents were new and distinct, involving underground initiation rituals reserved exclusively for soldiers and complex, allegorical rites only vaguely understood today due to an absence of written sources. Feasting was the primary religious experience of initiated members, along with reenactments of core Mithraic imagery, such as the meal shared between

2185-467: Is associated with narratives of an exodus and a conquest, and several motifs in stories about him are shared with the Exodus tale and that regarding Israel's war with Moab ( 2 Kings 3 ). Moab rebels against oppression, like Moses, leads his people out of Israel, as Moses does from Egypt, and his first-born son is slaughtered at the wall of Kir-hareseth as the firstborn of Israel are condemned to slaughter in

2300-648: Is mentioned in ancient Egyptian literature . In the writing of Jewish historian Josephus , ancient Egyptian historian Manetho is quoted writing of a treasonous ancient Egyptian priest, Osarseph , who renamed himself Moses and led a successful coup against the presiding pharaoh , subsequently ruling Egypt for years until the pharaoh regained power and expelled Osarseph and his supporters. Moses has often been portrayed in Christian art and literature, for instance in Michelangelo's Moses and in works at

2415-544: Is no textual indication that this daughter of Pharaoh is the same one who named Moses. Ibn Ezra gave two possibilities for the name of Moses: he believed that it was either a translation of the Egyptian name instead of a transliteration or that the Pharaoh's daughter was able to speak Hebrew. Kenneth Kitchen argues that the Hebrew etymology is most likely correct, as the sounds in the Hebrew m-š-h do not correspond to

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2530-625: Is the high honour in which it holds the peoples of the East in general and some specific groups among these peoples." In addition to the Judeo-Roman or Judeo-Hellenic historians Artapanus , Eupolemus , Josephus , and Philo , a few non-Jewish historians including Hecataeus of Abdera (quoted by Diodorus Siculus ), Alexander Polyhistor , Manetho , Apion , Chaeremon of Alexandria , Tacitus and Porphyry also make reference to him. The extent to which any of these accounts rely on earlier sources

2645-533: Is the role of the mystagogue to "mystify" pledges. The term is sometimes used to refer to a person who guides people through religious sites, such as churches, and explains the various artifacts. This branch of theology is at times called mystagogy. In the United States versions of mystagogical legends predate European contact . Early Native American tribes around the Great Lakes region , taught that

2760-483: Is unknown, but it is commonly assigned to the late 1st century C.E. The writer quotes Genesis in a "style which presents the nature of the deity in a manner suitable to his pure and great being", but he does not mention Moses by name, calling him 'no chance person' ( οὐχ ὁ τυχὼν ἀνήρ ) but "the Lawgiver" ( θεσμοθέτης , thesmothete ) of the Jews, a term that puts him on a par with Lycurgus and Minos . Aside from

2875-635: Is unknown. Moses also appears in other religious texts such as the Mishnah (c. 200 CE) and the Midrash (200–1200 CE). The figure of Osarseph in Hellenistic historiography is a renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army of lepers against the pharaoh and is finally expelled from Egypt, changing his name to Moses. The earliest existing reference to Moses in Greek literature occurs in

2990-654: The Book of Deuteronomy another. Moses has traditionally been regarded as the author of those four books and the Book of Genesis , which together comprise the Torah , the first section of the Hebrew Bible . Scholars hold different opinions on the historicity of Moses. For instance, according to William G. Dever , the modern scholarly consensus is that the biblical person of Moses is largely mythical while also holding that "a Moses-like figure may have existed somewhere in

3105-452: The Jewish religion or took a tip from Jochebed (Moses' mother). The Egyptian princess who named Moses is not named in the book of Exodus. However, she was known to Josephus as Thermutis (identified as Tharmuth), and some within Jewish tradition have tried to identify her with a "daughter of Pharaoh" in 1 Chronicles 4:17 named Bithiah , but others note that this is unlikely since there

3220-622: The Mithraic Mysteries , Thracian/Phrygian Sabazius , and Phrygian Cybele . The Eleusinian Mysteries were the earliest and most famous of the mystery cults and lasted for over a millennium. Whenever they first originated, by the end of the 5th century BCE, they had been heavily influenced by Orphism , and in Late Antiquity, they had become allegorized. The basis for the Eleusinian Mysteries can be found in

3335-794: The Red Sea Crossing as a sign of his power to Israel and the nations. After defeating the Amalekites in Rephidim , Moses led the Israelites to Mount Sinai , where he was given the Ten Commandments from God, written on stone tablets . However, since Moses remained a long time on the mountain, some of the people feared that he might be dead, so they made a statue of a golden calf and worshipped it , thus disobeying and angering God and Moses. Moses, out of anger, broke

3450-476: The Torah . According to the Book of Exodus , Moses was born in a time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved minority, were increasing in population and, as a result, the Egyptian Pharaoh worried that they might ally themselves with Egypt 's enemies. Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed , secretly hid him when Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of

3565-658: The stoa of the sanctuary. The initiation of the second night was also concluded by a banquet. Worship of the god Mithras was extremely popular among men of the Roman army for several centuries, originating in the 1st century BCE and ending with the persecution of non-Christian faiths within the Empire in the 4th century CE. Imported from Persia and adapted for Roman purposes like many other previously foreign deities, Mithras bears little relation to his Zoroastrian precursor, Mithra, retaining his Phrygian cap and garments, for instance, as

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3680-523: The "Samothracian gods" or the "Great Gods". This makes it difficult to reconstruct who they were, though comparisons between the "gods of Samothrace" and the Cabeiri, chthonic deities of an indeterminate amount (sometimes twins, or multiple distinct beings) from comparable, pre-Greek or entirely non-Greek cultures such as Thrace or Phrygia have been made. The similarities in regards to what each deity or set of deities were purported to offer—protection on

3795-473: The 4th century BCE, long after he is believed to have lived. No contemporary Egyptian sources mention Moses, or the events of Exodus–Deuteronomy, nor has any archaeological evidence been discovered in Egypt or the Sinai wilderness to support the story in which he is the central figure. David Adams Leeming states that Moses is a mythic hero and the central figure in Hebrew mythology. The Oxford Companion to

3910-651: The Bible states that the historicity of Moses is the most reasonable (albeit not unbiased) assumption to be made about him as his absence would leave a vacuum that cannot be explained away. Oxford Biblical Studies states that although few modern scholars are willing to support the traditional view that Moses himself wrote the five books of the Torah , there are certainly those who regard the leadership of Moses as too firmly based in Israel's corporate memory to be dismissed as pious fiction . The story of Moses' discovery follows

4025-481: The Biblical story may reflect an attempt to cancel out traces of Moses' Egyptian origins . The Egyptian character of his name was recognized as such by ancient Jewish writers like Philo and Josephus . Philo linked Moses' name ( Ancient Greek : Μωϋσῆς , romanized :  Mōysēs , lit.   'Mōusês') to the Egyptian ( Coptic ) word for 'water' ( môu , μῶυ ), in reference to his finding in

4140-517: The Church's sacraments , were given to those in the last stages of preparation for full Church membership. Sometimes these mystagogical instructions were not given until after the catechumen had been baptized. The most famous of these mystagogical works are the "Mystagogical Homilies" of St. Cyril of Jerusalem , and the work, "On the Mysteries" by St. Ambrose of Milan . In various organizations, it

4255-432: The Egyptian history of Hecataeus of Abdera (4th century BCE). All that remains of his description of Moses are two references made by Diodorus Siculus, wherein, writes historian Arthur Droge, he "describes Moses as a wise and courageous leader who left Egypt and colonized Judaea ". Among the many accomplishments described by Hecataeus, Moses had founded cities, established a temple and religious cult, and issued laws: After

4370-454: The Exile (i.e., in the first half of the 6th century BCE), testifies to tension between the people of Judah and the returning post-Exilic Jews (the " gôlâ "), stating that God is the father of Israel and that Israel's history begins with the Exodus and not with Abraham . The conclusion to be inferred from this and similar evidence (e.g., the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah ) is that

4485-689: The Exodus story, in what Calvinist theologian Peter Leithart described as "an infernal Passover that delivers Mesha while wrath burns against his enemies". An Egyptian version of the tale that crosses over with the Moses story is found in Manetho who, according to the summary in Josephus , wrote that a certain Osarseph , a Heliopolitan priest, became overseer of a band of lepers , when Amenophis , following indications by Amenhotep, son of Hapu , had all

4600-584: The Greek mustḗrion 'revealed secret' is not entirely clear, though scholars have traditionally thought it to have derived from the Greek múō 'to close, shut; to be shut (especially of the eyes)' (chiefly referring to shutting the eyes, hence one who shuts their eyes and is initiated into the mysteries). Hittite scholar Jaan Puhvel suggests that the Greek term derives from the Hittite verb munnae 'to conceal, to hide, to shut out of sight'. Mystery religions formed one of three types of Hellenistic religion ,

4715-612: The Israelites. Through Pharaoh's daughter , the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave-master who was beating a Hebrew, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian , where he encountered the Angel of the Lord , speaking to him from within a burning bush on Mount Horeb . God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand

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4830-507: The Nile and the biblical folk etymology . Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews , claims that the second element, -esês , meant 'those who are saved'. The problem of how an Egyptian princess (who, according to the Biblical account found in the book of Exodus , gave him the name "Moses") could have known Hebrew puzzled medieval Jewish commentators like Abraham ibn Ezra and Hezekiah ben Manoah . Hezekiah suggested she either converted to

4945-529: The Theatral Circle. Livy records that here, the initiates would listen to a proclamation concerning the absence of crime and bloodshed. Near the beginning of the rituals, like at Eleusis, sacrifices and libations were likely made, where the prospective animal for the sacrifice would have been a ram. The initiates would have moved to a building where the actual initiation took place at night with torches, though archaeologists are unsure of which building it

5060-514: The age of 120, within sight of the Promised Land . The majority of scholars see the biblical Moses as a legendary figure, while retaining the possibility that Moses or a Moses-like figure existed in the 13th century BCE. Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE; Jerome suggested 1592 BCE, and James Ussher suggested 1571 BCE as his birth year. The Egyptian name "Moses"

5175-454: The age of one hundred and twenty: So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the LORD. And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day. (Deuteronomy 34:5–6, Amplified Bible ) Moses is honoured among Jews today as the "lawgiver of Israel", and he delivers several sets of laws in

5290-453: The agora of Athens , the gathering limited to those that spoke Greek and had never killed (as the emphasis on purity grew, this ban would include those who had "impure" souls). Like other large festivals such as the Diasia and Thesmophoria , the prospective initiates would bring their own sacrificial animals and hear the festivals proclamation as it began. The next day, they would have gone to

5405-421: The audience by the skilled Eleusinian clergy, and the climax of the event which must have included displaying a statue of Demeter and showing of an ear of wheat and a "birth" of agricultural wealth. Hence, these mysteries had associations with fertility and agriculture. In an attempt to solve the mystery of how so many people over the span of two millennia could have consistently experienced revelatory states during

5520-485: The banks of the Jordan River , in sight of the land, Moses assembled the tribes . After recalling their wanderings, he delivered God's laws by which they must live in the land, sang a song of praise and pronounced a blessing on the people, and passed his authority to Joshua , under whom they would possess the land. Moses then went up Mount Nebo , looked over the Promised Land spread out before him, and died, at

5635-507: The city on an hours-long 15-mile journey constantly interrupted by celebration, dances, etc, to the city of Eleusis . The initiates would carry torches on the way to the city. Once the city was reached, the pilgrims would dance into the sanctuary. The next day would begin with sacrifices, and at sunset, the initiates would go to a building called the telestêrion where the actual initiations would commence. The initiates washed themselves to be pure and everyone sat together in silence surrounded by

5750-629: The course of the four books. The first is the Covenant Code , the terms of the covenant which God offers to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Embedded in the covenant are the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments , Exodus 20:1–17), and the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22–23:19). The entire Book of Leviticus constitutes a second body of law, the Book of Numbers begins with yet another set, and

5865-487: The culminating ceremony of the Eleusinian Mysteries, numerous scholars have proposed that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the kykeon 's functioning as an entheogen . The day of the completion of the initiation was called the Plemochoai (after a type of vessel used to conclude a libation), and the new members could now wear a myrtle wreath like the priests. Eventually, the initiates would leave and utter

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5980-402: The cult at Samothrace. The bowls used for the libation were also left behind, revealed by the thousands of discovered libation bowls at the cult sites. The participants occasionally left behind other materials, such as lamps. In addition to the purple fillet, they also left with a 'Samothracian ring' (magnetic iron ring coated in gold) and some initiates would set up a record of their initiation in

6095-464: The decisive role he played in Israelite religion, and a third that argues there are elements of both history and legend from which "these issues are hotly debated unresolved matters among scholars". According to Brian Britt, there is divide amongst scholars when discussing matters on Moses that threatens gridlock. According to the official Torah commentary for Conservative Judaism, it is irrelevant if

6210-492: The earth for the months that Persephone is gone, only doing so when she returns, until the process repeats again. These episodic periods became the winter and spring seasons, with the "death" and "rebirth" of Persephone being allegorical for the cycle of life and the experience of all beings. In the 15th of the month of Boedromion (September/October) in the Attic calendar , as many as 3,000 potential initiates would have gathered in

6325-693: The end of the Exodus journey had become the enemies of the Israelites due to their notorious role in enticing the Israelites to sin against God . Moses was twice given notice that he would die before entry to the Promised Land: in Numbers 27:13, once he had seen the Promised Land from a viewpoint on Mount Abarim , and again in Numbers 31:1 once battle with the Midianites had been won. On

6440-402: The establishment of settled life in Egypt in early times, which took place, according to the mythical account, in the period of the gods and heroes, the first ... to persuade the multitudes to use written laws was Mneves, a man not only great of soul but also in his life the most public-spirited of all lawgivers whose names are recorded. Droge also points out that this statement by Hecataeus

6555-421: The figure of Moses and the story of the Exodus must have been preeminent among the people of Judah at the time of the Exile and after, serving to support their claims to the land in opposition to those of the returning exiles. A theory developed by Cornelis Tiele in 1872, which has proved influential, argued that Yahweh was a Midianite god, introduced to the Israelites by Moses, whose father-in-law Jethro

6670-533: The first stage, including Moses and his direct heirs; to the final stage where "the Temple of Jerusalem continued to be surrounded by an aura of sanctity". Strabo's "positive and unequivocal appreciation of Moses' personality is among the most sympathetic in all ancient literature." His portrayal of Moses is said to be similar to the writing of Hecataeus who "described Moses as a man who excelled in wisdom and courage". Egyptologist Jan Assmann concludes that Strabo

6785-511: The five, originally independent, themes of that work. Manfred Görg  [ de ] and Rolf Krauss  [ de ] , the latter in a somewhat sensationalist manner, have suggested that the Moses story is a distortion or transmogrification of the historical pharaoh Amenmose ( c.  1200 BCE ), who was dismissed from office and whose name was later simplified to msy (Mose). Aidan Dodson regards this hypothesis as "intriguing, but beyond proof". Rudolf Smend argues that

6900-403: The founders of the modern study of sociology , described the mystagogue as part magician and part prophet, and as one who dispensed "magical actions that contain the boons of salvation." According to Roy Wallis: "The primary criterion that Weber had in mind in distinguishing the prophet from the mystagogue was that the latter offers a largely magical means of salvation rather than proclaiming

7015-531: The god Sol Invictus and Mithras, or the bearing of torches by men representing the twins of the rising and setting sun, Cautes and Cautopates . Traditionally, scholarship surrounding Mithras' mythological beginnings purport that followers believed the common image of the god emerging from a rock, already a young man, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other, was representative of his birth and nativity. New perspectives have appeared in light of continuous study which suppose that this scene instead displays

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7130-481: The gods like the people" and halting offerings to the Egyptian deities. They were eventually defeated and expelled by the new Pharaoh Setnakhte and, while fleeing, they abandoned large quantities of gold and silver they had stolen from the temples. Non-biblical writings about Jews, with references to the role of Moses, first appear at the beginning of the Hellenistic period , from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE. Shmuel notes that "a characteristic of this literature

7245-610: The guidance of the first being, by whose aid they should get out of their present plight. In this version, Moses and the Jews wander through the desert for only six days, capturing the Holy Land on the seventh. The Septuagint , the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, impressed the pagan author of the famous classical book of literary criticism, On the Sublime , traditionally attributed to Longinus . The date of composition

7360-496: The handshake". Little is known about the cult's practices subsequent to initiation, as the highly secretive nature of the religion as well as a substantial absence of written texts makes it difficult to determine what precisely took place in regular meetings, beyond the payment of a membership fee.   Towards the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, it was becoming more popular in German scholarship to connect

7475-431: The historical Moses existed, calling him "the folkloristic, national hero". Jan Assmann argues that it cannot be known if Moses ever lived because there are no traces of him outside tradition. Though the names of Moses and others in the biblical narratives are Egyptian and contain genuine Egyptian elements, no extrabiblical sources point clearly to Moses. No references to Moses appear in any Egyptian sources prior to

7590-424: The human form. For God [said he] may be this one thing which encompasses us all, land and sea, which we call heaven, or the universe, or the nature of things.... 36. By such doctrine Moses persuaded a large body of right-minded persons to accompany him to the place where Jerusalem now stands. In Strabo's writings of the history of Judaism as he understood it, he describes various stages in its development: from

7705-490: The initiates were given a purple fillet . There was also a second night of initiation, the epopteia where the "usual preliminary lustration rites and sacrifices" took place though not much else can be known besides that it may have been similar to the epopteia at Eleusis and would have climaxed with the showing of a great light. The initiation of the first night was concluded by banqueting together and many dining rooms have been uncovered by archaeologists in association with

7820-611: The initiation and the ritual practice, which may not be revealed to outsiders. The most famous mysteries of Greco-Roman antiquity were the Eleusinian Mysteries , which predated the Greek Dark Ages . The mystery schools flourished in Late Antiquity ; Emperor Julian , of the mid-4th century, is believed by some scholars to have been associated with various mystery cults—most notably the mithraists . Due to

7935-412: The journey, God tried to kill Moses for failing to circumcise his son, but Zipporah saved his life . Moses returned to carry out God's command, but God caused the Pharaoh to refuse, and only after God had subjected Egypt to ten plagues did Pharaoh relent. Moses led the Israelites to the border of Egypt, but their God hardened the Pharaoh's heart once more, so that he could destroy Pharaoh and his army at

8050-575: The land. Later on, Korah was punished for leading a revolt against Moses. When the forty years had passed, Moses led the Israelites east around the Dead Sea to the territories of Edom and Moab . There they escaped the temptation of idolatry, conquered the lands of Og and Sihon in Transjordan , received God's blessing through Balaam the prophet, and massacred the Midianites , who by

8165-452: The land. The spies returned with samples of the land's fertility but warned that its inhabitants were giants . The people were afraid and wanted to return to Egypt, and some rebelled against Moses and against God. Moses told the Israelites that they were not worthy to inherit the land, and would wander the wilderness for forty years until the generation who had refused to enter Canaan had died, so that it would be their children who would possess

8280-476: The late eighteenth century, went further by claiming that Christianity itself sprang from the mystery cults. Intensified by religious disputes between Protestants, Catholics, and non-Christians, the controversy has continued to the present day. Because of this element of secrecy, we are ill-informed as to the beliefs and practices of the various mystery faiths. We know that they had a general likeness to one another. Moses In Abrahamic religions , Moses

8395-592: The lepers in Egypt quarantined in order to cleanse the land so that he might see the gods. The lepers are bundled into Avaris , the former capital of the Hyksos , where Osarseph prescribes for them everything forbidden in Egypt, while proscribing everything permitted in Egypt. They invite the Hyksos to reinvade Egypt, rule with them for 13 years – Osarseph then assumes the name Moses – and are then driven out. Other Egyptian figures which have been postulated as candidates for

8510-470: The mystagogue was a spiritual leader, and upon death would transform into a beast with many heads. The mystagogue would reappear in his beastly form and feed on those who strayed from the tribe if it was not in keeping with their religious customs. The historical tradition of the mystagogue has carried on today in one way through the fraternity system in American universities , that have historically held

8625-404: The mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace) had no content but rather limited themselves to showing objects in initiation. Later interaction between Christianity and mystery religions did take place. Christianity has its own initiation ritual, baptism , and beginning in the fourth century, Christians began to refer to their sacraments , such as baptism, with the word mysterion , the Greek term that

8740-533: The mysteries of the deities of Cabeiri . Philip II of Macedon and his later wife Olympias were said to have met during the initiation ceremony at Samothrace. Heracles , Jason , Cadmus , Orpheus and the Dioscuri were all said to have been initiated here. Little is known about any core foundational myths for the entities worshipped by cult initiates at Samothrace; even their identities are unknown, as they tended to be discussed anonymously, being referred to as

8855-529: The mystery cults resembled each other. Reacting to these claims by outsiders, early Christian apologists , such as Justin Martyr , denied that these cults had influenced their religion. The seventeenth-century Protestant scholar Isaac Casaubon brought up the issue again by accusing the Catholic Church of deriving its sacraments from the rituals of the mystery cults. Charles-François Dupuis , in

8970-627: The neighboring regions. While the information here is even more scarce than that available with the Eleusinian Mysteries (and more late, dating to the Hellenistic and Roman periods), it's known that the Samothracian Mysteries significantly borrowed from the ones at Eleusis (including the word 'Mysteries'), furthermore, archaeological and linguistic data continues elucidating more of what happened at Samothrace. These rituals were also associated with others on neighboring island such as

9085-487: The origins of Christianity with heavy influence from the mystery cults, if not labeling Christianity itself as a mystery cult. This trend was partly the result of the increasing growth of critical historical analysis of Christianity's history, as exemplified by David Strauss 's Das Leben Jesu (1835–36) and the secularizing trend among scholars that sought to derive Christianity from its pagan surroundings. Scholars, for example, began attempting to derive Paul's theology from

9200-562: The origins of rites in Christianity such as baptism and the Eucharist to mystery religions, it has been demonstrated that the origins of baptism rather lie in Jewish purificatory ritual and that cult meals were so widespread in the ancient world that attempting to demonstrate their origins from any one source is arbitrary. Searches for Christianity deriving content from mystery religions has also been unsuccessful; many of them (such as

9315-482: The other patriarchs , most likely had a substantial oral prehistory (he is mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Isaiah ). The earliest mention of him is vague, in the Book of Hosea and his name is apparently ancient, as the tradition found in Exodus gives it a folk etymology. Nevertheless, the Torah was completed by combining older traditional texts with newly-written ones. Isaiah , written during

9430-566: The others being the imperial cult , or the ethnic religion particular to a nation or state, and the philosophic religions such as Neoplatonism . This is also reflected in the tripartite division of " theology "—by Varro —into civil theology (concerning the state religion and its stabilizing effect on society), natural theology (philosophical speculation about the nature of the divine), and mythical theology (concerning myth and ritual ). Mysteries thus supplement rather than compete with civil religion . An individual could easily observe

9545-484: The pestilences which deprived the world of its prosperity. However, because the Fates decreed that whoever ate or drank in the underworld was doomed to spend eternity there, Persephone was still forced to remain in the realm for either four or six months of the year (depending on the telling), as she was tricked by Hades into eating pomegranate seeds of a corresponding amount. Thus, Demeter, in her sadness, neglects to nourish

9660-424: The phrases paks or konks , which referenced the proclamation of a conclusion of an event. The clothing worn by the new members during their journey were used as lucky blankets for children or perhaps were given to their sanctuary. The second most famous Mysteries were those on the island of Samothrace and promised safety to sailors from the perils of the sea, and most participants would come to be initiated from

9775-525: The popular Roman religio-philosophical theme of ascent, whereby the god's emergence from the stone serves to depict his divinity and power over "earthly mundaneness". The visual and metaphorical components to the core cult image of Mithras slaying a bull, known as the tauroctony , have also been greatly debated. Propositions that the scene depicts nothing more than the act of sacrifice, well known to Romans through their civil religions and obligatory state festivals, have been accepted for some time, but belief that

9890-513: The priesthood under the sons of Moses' brother Aaron , and destroyed those Israelites who fell away from his worship. In his final act at Sinai, God gave Moses instructions for the Tabernacle , the mobile shrine by which he would travel with Israel to the Promised Land. From Sinai, Moses led the Israelites to the Desert of Paran on the border of Canaan. From there he sent twelve spies into

10005-514: The pronunciation of Egyptian msy in the relevant time period. The Israelites had settled in the Land of Goshen in the time of Joseph and Jacob , but a new Pharaoh arose who oppressed the children of Israel. At this time Moses was born to his father Amram , son (or descendant) of Kehath the Levite , who entered Egypt with Jacob's household; his mother was Jochebed (also Yocheved), who

10120-604: The release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak eloquently, so God allowed Aaron , his elder brother, to become his spokesperson. After the Ten Plagues , Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea , after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai , where Moses received the Ten Commandments . After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died on Mount Nebo at

10235-411: The rites of the state religion, be an initiate in one or more mysteries, and at the same time adhere to a certain philosophical school. Many of the aspects of public religion such as sacrifices, ritual meals, and ritual purification were repeated within the mystery, but with the additional requirement that they take place in secrecy and be confined to a closed set of initiates. The mystery schools offered

10350-498: The same by Moses gave rise to the cult of Apis . Finally, after having escaped another plot by killing the assailant sent by the king, Moses fled to Arabia , where he married the daughter of Raguel [Jethro], the ruler of the district. Artapanus goes on to relate how Moses returns to Egypt with Aaron, and is imprisoned, but miraculously escapes through the name of YHWH in order to lead the Exodus. This account further testifies that all Egyptian temples of Isis thereafter contained

10465-412: The scene displays a star-map of major constellations in addition to the usual action of sacrifice has appeared in recent years. As is the case with most other mystery religions, almost no written sources pertaining to the practices, much less the beliefs of adherents, survive. Thus, conjecture and assumption based almost exclusively on archaeological finds and modern interpretations provide only somewhat of

10580-408: The sea and purified themselves and the animals. Three days of rest would pass until the 19th, the agora was once more filled with the initiates at the procession at the sanctuary of Demeter and her daughter Persephone . Two Eleusinian priestesses were at the front of the procession followed by many Greeks holding special items in preparation for the rest of the ceremony, and the procession would leave

10695-522: The seas and help in difficult times—display a definite connection, though to what extent is impossible to conclude. It is therefore likely that if the Samothracian gods are not the Cabeiri themselves, elements from this comparative religion, along with Thracian elements of worship present on the island before an established Greek presence, heavily influenced the ideas and practices central to the mystery cult. Unlike at Eleusis, initiation at Samothrace

10810-490: The secret nature of the schools, and because the mystery religions of Late Antiquity were persecuted by the Christian Roman Empire from the 4th century, the details of these religious practices are derived from descriptions, imagery and cross-cultural studies. Justin Martyr in the 2nd century explicitly noted and identified them as "demonic imitations" of the true faith; "the devils, in imitation of what

10925-470: The smell of extinguished torches. The initiation may have taken place over two nights. If so, the first night may have concerned the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades and ended with the goddess's return, whereas the second night concerned the epopteia (the higher degree of the Mysteries) which was a performance that included singing, dancing, potentially the showing of a phallus, a terrifying experience for

11040-402: The southern Transjordan in the mid-late 13th century B.C." and that "archeology can do nothing" to prove or confirm either way. Some scholars, such as Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter, consider Moses a historical figure. According to Solomon Nigosian, there are actually three prevailing views among biblical scholars: one is that Moses is not a historical figure, another view strives to anchor

11155-591: The spelling given in the Tanakh , argues that it combines "water" or "seed" and "pond, expanse of water," thus yielding the sense of "child of the Nile " ( mw - š ). The biblical account of Moses' birth provides him with a folk etymology to explain the ostensible meaning of his name. He is said to have received it from the Pharaoh's daughter : "he became her son. She named him Moses [ מֹשֶׁה , Mōše ], saying, 'I drew him out [ מְשִׁיתִֽהוּ , mǝšīṯīhū ] of

11270-408: The statue of Hermes at Kyllene. The aforesaid statues are images of the primal man and of the regenerated, spiritual man who is in every respect consubstantial with that man. The scarcity of information precludes understanding what went on during the initiation, though there may have been dancing such as at Eleusis associated with the mythology of the search for Harmonia . At the end of the initiation,

11385-786: The status quo. For this reason, what evidence remains of the older Greek mysteries has been understood as reflecting certain archaic aspects of common Indo-European religion , with parallels in Indo-Iranian religion . The mystery schools of Greco-Roman antiquity include the Eleusinian Mysteries , the Dionysian Mysteries , and the Orphic Mysteries . Some of the many divinities that the Romans nominally adopted from other cultures also came to be worshipped in Mysteries; for instance, Egyptian Isis , Persian Mithras from

11500-433: The subterranean chamber known as a Mithraeum where the rites and practices of the cult would be performed. Initiates were naked, bound with their arms behind them, and knelt before a priest, whereupon they would be released from their bondage, crowned, but not permitted to rise until a particular moment. The initiation was confirmed by a handshake, as members would henceforth be referred to as syndexioi , or those "united by

11615-425: The tablets, and later ordered the elimination of those who had worshiped the golden statue, which was melted down and fed to the idolaters . God again wrote the ten commandments on a new set of tablets. Later at Mount Sinai , Moses and the elders entered into a covenant, by which Israel would become the people of YHWH, obeying his laws, and YHWH would be their god. Moses delivered the laws of God to Israel, instituted

11730-588: The third century, and especially after Constantine became emperor, components of mystery religions began to be incorporated into mainstream Christian thinking, such as is reflected by the disciplina arcani . The English word 'mystery' originally appeared as the Ancient Greek plural Mustḗria 'the Mysteries', and developed into the Latin mysterium , where the English term originates. The etymology of

11845-463: The two details about Moses that were most likely to be historical are his name, of Egyptian origin, and his marriage to a Midianite woman, details which seem unlikely to have been invented by the Israelites; in Smend's view, all other details given in the biblical narrative are too mythically charged to be seen as accurate data. The name King Mesha of Moab has been linked to that of Moses. Mesha also

11960-515: The water'." This explanation links it to the Semitic root משׁה , m-š-h , meaning "to draw out". The eleventh-century Tosafist Isaac b. Asher haLevi noted that the princess names him the active participle 'drawer-out' ( מֹשֶׁה , mōše ), not the passive participle 'drawn-out' ( נִמְשֶׁה , nīmše ), in effect prophesying that Moses would draw others out (of Egypt); this has been accepted by some scholars. The Hebrew etymology in

12075-729: Was a prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the Exodus . He is considered the most important prophet in Judaism and Samaritanism , and one of the most important prophets in Christianity , Islam , the Baháʼí Faith , and other Abrahamic religions . According to both the Bible and the Quran , God dictated the Mosaic Law to Moses, which he wrote down in the five books of

12190-616: Was a Midianite priest. It was to such a Moses that Yahweh reveals his real name, hidden from the Patriarchs who knew him only as El Shaddai . Against this view is the modern consensus that most of the Israelites were native to Palestine . Martin Noth argued that the Pentateuch uses the figure of Moses, originally linked to legends of a Transjordan conquest, as a narrative bracket or late redactional device to weld together four of

12305-518: Was also used for a mystery rite. In this case, the word meant that Christians did not discuss their most important rites with non-Christians who might misunderstand or disrespect them. Their rites thus acquired some of the aura of secrecy that surrounded the mystery cults. Even in ancient times these similarities were controversial. Non-Christians in the Roman Empire in the early centuries CE, such as Lucian and Celsus , thought Christianity and

12420-507: Was an Exodus from Egypt. By his account, the Pharaoh Bocchoris , suffering from a plague , banished the Jews in response to an oracle of the god Zeus - Amun . A motley crowd was thus collected and abandoned in the desert. While all the other outcasts lay idly lamenting, one of them, named Moses, advised them not to look for help to gods or men, since both had deserted them, but to trust rather in themselves, and accept as divine

12535-435: Was beating a Hebrew. Moses, in order to escape Pharaoh's death penalty , fled to Midian (a desert country south of Judah), where he married Zipporah . There, on Mount Horeb , God appeared to Moses as a burning bush , revealed to Moses his name YHWH (probably pronounced Yahweh ) and commanded him to return to Egypt and bring his chosen people (Israel) out of bondage and into the Promised Land ( Canaan ). During

12650-732: Was considering the abundance of possibilities including the Hall of Choral Dancers, the Hieron, the Anaktoron and the Rotunda of Arsinoe II. In the 3rd century, Hippolytus of Rome in his Refutation of All Heresies quotes a Gnostic author who provides a summary of some of the images here; There stand two statues of naked men in the Anaktoron of the Samothracians, with both hands stretched up toward heaven and their pudenda turned up, just as

12765-484: Was kin to Kehath. Moses had one older (by seven years) sister, Miriam , and one older (by three years) brother, Aaron . Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew children born would be drowned in the river Nile , but Moses' mother placed him in an ark and concealed the ark in the bulrushes by the riverbank, where the baby was discovered and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter , and raised as an Egyptian. One day, after Moses had reached adulthood, he killed an Egyptian who

12880-530: Was not restricted to a narrow few days of the year and lasted from April to November (the sailing season) with a large event likely taking place in June but may have taken place over two nights. Like in Samothrace, the future initiates would enter the sanctuary of Samothrace from the east where they would have entered into a 9-meter in diameter circular space with flagstones and a grandstand of five steps now called

12995-490: Was said by Moses , asserted that Proserpine was the daughter of Jupiter , and instigated the people to set up an image of her under the name of Kore" ( First Apology ). Through the 1st to 4th century, Christianity stood in direct competition for adherents with the mystery schools, insofar as the "mystery schools too were an intrinsic element of the non-Jewish horizon of the reception of the Christian message". Beginning in

13110-549: Was similar to statements made subsequently by Eupolemus. The Jewish historian Artapanus of Alexandria (2nd century BCE) portrayed Moses as a cultural hero, alien to the Pharaonic court. According to theologian John Barclay, the Moses of Artapanus "clearly bears the destiny of the Jews, and in his personal, cultural and military splendor, brings credit to the whole Jewish people". Jealousy of Moses' excellent qualities induced Chenephres to send him with unskilled troops on

13225-414: Was the historian "who came closest to a construction of Moses' religion as monotheistic and as a pronounced counter-religion." It recognized "only one divine being whom no image can represent ... [and] the only way to approach this god is to live in virtue and in justice." The Roman historian Tacitus (c. 56–120 CE) refers to Moses by noting that the Jewish religion was monotheistic and without

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