Christ in Egypt: Anup the Baptizer
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 1:13 am
Christ in Egypt: Anup the Baptizer
To kick off discussion on this chapter of Christ in Egypt on the continuity between the Gospel story of John the Baptist and the Egyptian God Anubis, the above painting by Leonardo Da Vinci of the Baptism of Christ has an amazing astrotheological content, illustrating that the astrotheological back story continued to be understood as a secret esoteric meaning for the surface narrative of Christianity. The stars I have added to the painting (link to source) are in the shape of the constellation of Aquarius for John, and of Pisces for the arms of Christ. It is obvious that Leonardo has used his acute and accurate natural observation of the stars as his blueprint for this painting, matching to the esoteric claim that John the Baptist represents Aquarius and Jesus Christ represents Pisces.
DM Murdock proves that this use of blueprints occurs abundantly throughout the Gospels, in this case with John the Baptist based squarely on the jackal-headed god of Egypt, Anubis. I should say at this point, to mark a topic that is in need of expansion, other contemporary writers on the myth of Christ, notably Earl Doherty, barely mention the theological continuity between the Gospels and Egypt. Murdock draws extensively on older research, notably by Gerald Massey in the nineteenth century, but it remains the case that Egyptian parallels are viewed with suspicion. This intellectual framework for how the New Testament authors developed their ideas from older myth is an expansion on the basic mythicist idea that the Bible is fiction; it shows the source of the fiction and starts to explain why it found such ready resonance in popular culture. Murdock is a pioneer on astrotheology as a lucid theoretical alternative to orthodoxy that explains the motivation of the early writers.
For the Egyptians, Anubis was the ‘preparer of the way of the other world’, much as John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Lord (p238). A jackal is literally a ‘voice crying in the wilderness’ (p240), (and cf Micah 1:8) as is the metaphorical John, with his diet of wild honey and locusts and his clothes of camel hair. An early Christian Father, John Chrysostom, tells us that John had a boat of gold to transport the souls of the righteous, an image that is eerily similar to the Egyptian Coffin Text description of Anubis as “the celestial ferryman” (p241).
Baptism is found abundantly in Egypt, as a rite of purification. Here we see antecedents of the Gospel story of the baptism of Christ. The jackal has a role in purification in its scavenging of dead corpses, preventing putrefaction and disease. Anubis expands this role as the god of mummification (interestingly explored by Neil Gaiman in American Gods). In Greek, to anoint is to Christ. So when John anoints Jesus with the living water of the Jordan River, he declares him as Christ. The holy dove that appears at the scene is a direct steal from the Egyptian image of the spirit, as Murdock explains in her analysis of the love of Isis and Osiris as intermediated by this type of magical bird, in this case a kite. The Book of the Dead speaks of how Horus is washed and purified in order to be declared the beloved son of Osiris (p251).
Murdock discusses the old association between this baptism motif and the constellation of Aquarius, the water bearer. Apparently there is a tradition of seeing Aquarius as headless, an image reminding of Salome arranging delivery of the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Anubis too, was fetishised as a headless animal skin. In the myth, Anubis is decapitated, coming back to life with the head of a jackal.
Overall, this Anubis-John connection illustrates the depth of the Egyptian influence on Christianity. Early Christians even linked Christ to Anubis. Christians took motifs that had proven popular, and carnalized them in a historical story to appropriate older myth. The transitional Greco-Egyptian religion of Serapis provided a platform for Christianity to kick away the Egyptian ladder while taking advantage of it in their new syncretic mythology.
To kick off discussion on this chapter of Christ in Egypt on the continuity between the Gospel story of John the Baptist and the Egyptian God Anubis, the above painting by Leonardo Da Vinci of the Baptism of Christ has an amazing astrotheological content, illustrating that the astrotheological back story continued to be understood as a secret esoteric meaning for the surface narrative of Christianity. The stars I have added to the painting (link to source) are in the shape of the constellation of Aquarius for John, and of Pisces for the arms of Christ. It is obvious that Leonardo has used his acute and accurate natural observation of the stars as his blueprint for this painting, matching to the esoteric claim that John the Baptist represents Aquarius and Jesus Christ represents Pisces.
DM Murdock proves that this use of blueprints occurs abundantly throughout the Gospels, in this case with John the Baptist based squarely on the jackal-headed god of Egypt, Anubis. I should say at this point, to mark a topic that is in need of expansion, other contemporary writers on the myth of Christ, notably Earl Doherty, barely mention the theological continuity between the Gospels and Egypt. Murdock draws extensively on older research, notably by Gerald Massey in the nineteenth century, but it remains the case that Egyptian parallels are viewed with suspicion. This intellectual framework for how the New Testament authors developed their ideas from older myth is an expansion on the basic mythicist idea that the Bible is fiction; it shows the source of the fiction and starts to explain why it found such ready resonance in popular culture. Murdock is a pioneer on astrotheology as a lucid theoretical alternative to orthodoxy that explains the motivation of the early writers.
For the Egyptians, Anubis was the ‘preparer of the way of the other world’, much as John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Lord (p238). A jackal is literally a ‘voice crying in the wilderness’ (p240), (and cf Micah 1:8) as is the metaphorical John, with his diet of wild honey and locusts and his clothes of camel hair. An early Christian Father, John Chrysostom, tells us that John had a boat of gold to transport the souls of the righteous, an image that is eerily similar to the Egyptian Coffin Text description of Anubis as “the celestial ferryman” (p241).
Baptism is found abundantly in Egypt, as a rite of purification. Here we see antecedents of the Gospel story of the baptism of Christ. The jackal has a role in purification in its scavenging of dead corpses, preventing putrefaction and disease. Anubis expands this role as the god of mummification (interestingly explored by Neil Gaiman in American Gods). In Greek, to anoint is to Christ. So when John anoints Jesus with the living water of the Jordan River, he declares him as Christ. The holy dove that appears at the scene is a direct steal from the Egyptian image of the spirit, as Murdock explains in her analysis of the love of Isis and Osiris as intermediated by this type of magical bird, in this case a kite. The Book of the Dead speaks of how Horus is washed and purified in order to be declared the beloved son of Osiris (p251).
Murdock discusses the old association between this baptism motif and the constellation of Aquarius, the water bearer. Apparently there is a tradition of seeing Aquarius as headless, an image reminding of Salome arranging delivery of the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Anubis too, was fetishised as a headless animal skin. In the myth, Anubis is decapitated, coming back to life with the head of a jackal.
Overall, this Anubis-John connection illustrates the depth of the Egyptian influence on Christianity. Early Christians even linked Christ to Anubis. Christians took motifs that had proven popular, and carnalized them in a historical story to appropriate older myth. The transitional Greco-Egyptian religion of Serapis provided a platform for Christianity to kick away the Egyptian ladder while taking advantage of it in their new syncretic mythology.