trast, the cult of Isis and Osiris required a substantial 

 financial outlay in addition to the moral commitment, 

 and (2) the Isis-Osiris cult had been granted legitimacy 

 early in the Imperial period, something Christianity 

 didn't achieve until the reign of Constantine (A.D. 

 312-337). So, Isis and Osiris were part of the Roman 

 establishment, while Christianity was outside of it. As 

 the early church fathers recognized, the blood of the 

 martyrs was the seed of the church. 



By the early third century A. D. , the cult of Isis and 

 Osiris also faced the competition of newly arriving 

 mystery cults, such as that of Mithra, a Persian cult 

 with strong appeal to men. In Egypt itself, there were 

 also new restrictions against Egyptian pharaonic relig- 

 ion. The Romans ridiculed Egyptian religion with its 

 myriad forms of deity, including animals, reptiles, even 

 insects, and the power and influence of the temples was 

 curtailed sharply. In the Ptolemaic Period, it had been 

 the temples and priesthoods that preserved and nur- 

 tured Egyptian nationalism. Now, under Roman rule, 

 Egyptians were fourth-class people, ranked after Ro- 

 man citizens, Greeks with Alexandrian citizenship, 

 and Jews in a system created by Augustus that comes 

 strikingly close to South African-style apartheid. In 

 Egypt, the indigenous religion was seen to have failed 

 to rid the nation of foreign domination. The large 

 number of Greek settlers dating back to the Ptolemaic 

 era led to growing Hellenistic influence. While many 

 Greeks adopted Egyptian funerary traditions, even 

 there, Greek artistic influence appears. 



Into this milieu the early Christian missionaries 

 entered, probably in the first century A.D. Initially, 

 Christianity's strongest gains were in Alexandria, espe- 

 cially in the extensive Jewish community. Later, the 

 many parallels with Egyptian religion, especially Isis 

 and Osiris, made the Christian message sound familiar 

 to indigenous Egyptians, and Christianity penetrated 

 into the Nile Valley proper. By the 2nd-3rd century 

 A.D. , Christianity had a strong hold throughout Egypt, 

 especially among the poorer, common folk. 



Meanwhile, by the 2nd century, a prominent and 

 influential theological Christian school developed in 

 Alexandria under teachers and leaders such as Pan- 

 taeus, Clement, and Origen. This school, steeped in 

 Greek Platonic philosophy but also knowledgable 

 about Egyptian culture, was instrumental in develop- 

 ing early Christian theology. Not surprisingly, some 

 Egyptian religious ideas made their way into Christian- 

 ity. Egyptian trinitarian ideas helped to explain the 

 Christian Trinity; Origen speaks of Christ and the Holy 

 Spirit as aspects of God, the Father in a fashion that 



18. Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statuettes In wood, painted and gilt. 105202 



barkens back to Ramesside speculations and depictions 

 (fig. 18). And it is not surprising to see the Alexan- 

 drian school championing the idea of the Virgin Mary 

 as God-bearer. Isis, mother of Horus, offered the par- 

 allel here as well as the imagery. This helped fill the 

 void of feminine influence in Christianity to an extent 

 (but still not to the extent of Isis in Egyptian religion). 

 The Osiride resurrection, and the concept of judge- 

 ment of the dead offered other parallels that Christian- 

 ity used. The Egyptian Coptic Christians saw many of 

 these parallels as prefigurations of Christianity. 



Most prominently, the pharaonic hieroglyph T 

 ankh, meaning "life," that in Egyptian religion was be- 

 stowed by deities upon pharaohs and humans, to the 



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