I want to get your perspective because I'm worried that my train of thought might lead me down that path of accidentally falling for some New Age Nazi shit again.
I recently started learning about Judaism and the differences between that beautiful religion and christianity. Something that I noticed with the latter is how Jesus, or Joshua, may not have actually been a God at all but just a man (TM). This made me wonder about where in the ever loving fuck that deification came from and that led me to learning a little bit about Mithraism. So Judaism does not have that perfect God v evil Devil or any intermediary at all. Islam has a similar portrayal for God to that of Judaism but does acknowledge some rendition of a devil figure but not as blatant as Zoroastrianism or christianity. They do have a prophet but not exemplified in the same way as Joshua. I believe that both are just messengers, just men that spoke lovingly of the same God. Joshua is not that God but is for some reason associated with Him as if these were one and the same. In Mithraism, specifically, Mithras is considered a son of that God and was born to save humanity from some evil devil. His day is supposedly Sunday and He had twelve followers that represented the zodiac. I am wondering if the deification of Joshua was just an assimilation with Mithras. So, christianity has then greatly diverged from the original thought and belief that is Judaism even though both express great disdain over deification of a human. I am wondering if the misrepresentation of Joshua today is due to Constantine who adopted worship of Mithras and combined that with christianity which is what we have today. The irony is that christians supposedly hate Constantine but will defend him in the same breath. So all of this regarding a holy trinity, that does not exist in Judaism, and the deification of Just a Man (TM) is a lie from the time of Constantine. I'm worried that this is just me falling for some shit again because I started thinking that christianity is therefore false and a horrid disfigurement of two ancient religions. That it's just Neo-Nazi cult overall, even if it wasn't originally that. I am wondering that the christianity from before the influence from Zoroastrianism was supposed to be more like Islam with following the teachings of a messenger and working to grow closer to the same God. But due to the influence of Zoroastrianism and Constantine, christianity became bastardized and no longer resembles what it was supposed to be.
Am I falling for something? I greatly appreciate your perspective if you are able. Thank you for any advice or help that you can give.
So, Constantine didn't invent Christian mythology. It was well-established by his time.
There's also no evidence that Jesus's disciples represent the Zodiac. Besides the Star of Bethlehem and the Magi, astrology doesn't really play a role in Christianity. If this was a big thing early Christians believed, they would've openly said so. As it is, there's another reason for the number twelve to be significant to early Christians - the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Furthermore, I can't find any reputable sources to back up the claim that Mithras had twelve disciples. Everybody repeats this, but nobody ever cites a primary source.
I have found a page that debunks many of the alleged similarities between Jesus and Mithras, and I recommend reading it.
If you want to learn more about the actual history of early Christianity, I recommend Bart D. Ehrman. You can read his books, find recordings of his lectures on YouTube, or you can check out his podcast Misquoting Jesus.






















