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| Facts > Pagan Ideas > Eternal Life | ||||
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Eternal life—Paganism had it first |  |
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Was Christianity new? Was christianity unique? Let's talk about eternal life. We've all heard about the Greeks' Hades, and we all know the Egyptian pyramids were chock-a-block with goodies for the dead guy's afterlife, so chances are you've got a vague idea the ancient's had a notion of life after death. But I'll bet you didn't realize how old and widespread was the idea of immortal life. It was old. It was universal. Here's what the Pagans believed about life after death. |
 Stone
age savages Of course the stone age savages
who were our Western ancestors didn't leave us a written record of their
beliefs, but in modern times life follows death
in primitive societies around the world. |
By the way |
Don't think of the ancient's Underworld or Hades, as Hell, a place uniquely of punishment. Think of it as Hades the place of the dead. The idea of the dead ascending had not yet developed—but it would, in time for Christianity to borrow it. |
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In pre-Columbian Nicaragua, the wicked died but immortal life was a gift to the good. In the Tongas islands of the Pacific, men of rank lived forever after death. An afterlife was part of the old cultures of Greenland and New Guinea. An so on. Interesting, but wide of our topic. Christians
believe in eternal life—but Paganism believed in it first. |
Babylon & Assyria
We're talking about a Western civilization that started three
or four thousand years BC! For the Assyro- Babylonians, the soul—their word was ekimmu—survived the death of the body and descended
to the underworld.
The myth of the god Ishtar describes her descent into the underworld to bring back her lover to this world—back to life. In the underworld Ishtar meets demons who punish the dead for sins committed during life. Sound familiar?
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You probably know the Jews lost a war with the Babylonians in 586 BC, and were taken as captives back to Babylon, where they lived for generations. So you probably won't be surprised to learn the Babylonians had other myths you may find familiar: Their creation myth begins with a watery waste and an abyss that the great God Marduk gives shape and order. The myth of the first man, named Adamu Utnapistrum (often called the "Babylonian Noah") built an arc, collected animals, and saved the world from a great flood. Sargon of Akkad, born of a priestess mother, was placed in a basket of bulrushes and pitch and left floating on the river Euphrates, where he was found and raised as a gardener, before becoming King. ....But I digress. |
| Christians believe in eternal life—but Paganism believed in it first. |
Egypt Osiris' followers knew their fate after death depended on the morality of the life they lead before death. The ancient Book of the Dead, 1250 BC, pictures the Ka—the soul—of dead believers standing in the presence of Osiris as their judge. If they could recite a list of their good deeds in life, Osiris rewarded them with eternal life. The Book of the Dead survives, so your can read the details yourself-- look for Chapter 125. |
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Persia For the Persians, who worshiped the great Lord of the Universe, the God of Light, Ahura Mazda, the soul of the dead comes to a bride of Chinvat and was judged according to its deeds, words and thoughts in life. The good passed over the bridge safely and into paradise. The bad were dragged down to hell. Christians
believe in eternal life—but Paganism believed in it first. |
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Mystery Religions of Greece and the Hellenized Mediterranean You've maybe noticed the Mysteries keep popping up. One of the appeals of the mysteries was the hope they gave of a better life after death. You don't have to
believe me; listen to the words of the ancients themselves
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It
was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the Mysteries
would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine
glory. Hence all were eager for initiation.
It
looks as if those also who established rites of initiation for us were
no fools, but that there is a hidden meaning in their teaching when it
says that whoever arrives uninitiated in Hades will lie in mud, but the
purified and initiated
when he arrives there will dwell with gods. Quoting
Socrates, "[T]he
soul of man is immortal. At
one time it comes to an end-that which is called death-and at another
is born
again, but is never finally exterminated. On these grounds a man must
live all his days as righteously as possible." And
Cicero: For it appears to me that among the many exceptional and divine
things your Athens has produced and contributed to human life, nothing
is better than those mysteries. For by means of them we have been civilized.
The basis not only for living with joy but also for dying
with a better hope. "Happy
is he among men upon earth who has seen these [Eleusinian] mysteries;
but he who is uninitiate and who has no part in them,
never has like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness
and gloom." Happy
is he who, having seen these [Eleusinian] rites, goes below the hollow
earth; for he knows the end of life and he knows its god-sent beginning.
Beautiful
indeed is the Mystery given us by the blessed gods: death
is for mortals no longer
an evil, but a blessing.
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| Christians believe in eternal life—but Paganism believed in it first. |
| Greece I know you've heard the Greek myth of the dead ferried by Charon across the river Styx into Hades—the world of the dead—so I won't bore you with that. | |
| Christians believe in eternal life—but Paganism believed in it first. |
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The
next time you're in Church When they get to the part about your soul, and how it will live on after you die, remember the eternal life of the Babylonian's Ekimmu, the Egyptian's Ka judged for eternity by Osiris, and the Greek dead crossing the river Styx into Hades. You'll know you're hearing about stuff that predated Christianity by thousands of years—in a culture where over and over people built new religions out of old parts. Wow! |
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Life
After Death by Alan Segal
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What
you'll find:
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| Death
and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt by John H. Taylor
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A glossy coffee table book full of beautiful pictures of Egyptian Gods taken from surviving papyruses, etc., and, who'd a thunk it, of lots of fun scholarly information about ancient Egyptian religion. Surviving ancient texts, including Egyptian book of The Dead and the Pyramid Texts, etc. describe an afterlife of happiness for good people and torment for bad people, mediated by the great savior Gods Ra and Osiris. The Egyptians had not one soul, but several—the ba, the ka, the shadow, the name—all of which survived death. A well written, pretty, wonderful book, if you like this sort of thing.
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