Jesus/Dionysus
June 9th
Yesterday, I wasn’t aware that there are similarities between god persons of Jesus and Dionysus. Resemblances that are based mostly on critical reading of “The Gospel of John“ and “The Bacchae” of Euripides. Today I know about it after reading this “Dionysian Gospel: The Fourth Gospel and Euripides” by Dennis R. MacDonald and I have to admit that I did not know that this, rather niche subject, can be so engrossing and interesting. The book is rather scholarly with a lot of footnotes and quotes (including in original Greek) and I still couldn’t put it down. The subject of early Christianity for many years fascinated me, but it was mostly from a historical and more sweeping point of view. Here in this book, a subject that I had no idea about (even though this subject was actually in the minds of theologians and scholars since about the third century) is presented with a line-by-line reading and comparison of those two unique books. Books separated by 500 years and yet “The Bacchae” of Euripides was clearly known to a writer of “The Gospel of John”, and based the Christian gospel on an ancient Greek tragedy which in turn was based on immemorial myths. Both personas — Jesus and Dionysus — were born of a father-god and a mortal mother, they were both rejected by their compatriots except for a small band of followers and they were put on trial by authorities only because they both dared to bring HOPE to the people. The connection between religions and myths across the centuries and different cultures is absolutely riveting. Those interconnections tell me that everything comes from some primeval single source and current differences are only artificial, but so deeply ingrained that I don’t see a possibility of any agreement between religions any time soon.
