Thread by @travisdon1981

Was the story of #Jesus' #Resurrection inspired or based on the resurrection of the pagan god #Zalmoxis?
Um, #NO, and here is why:

The story of Zalmoxis is used by Jesus Mythcists to show that either A. The Gospel writers were inspired by it to come up with the story Christ’s resurrection, or B. that there was a common “dying and rising” god motif in the ancient world, not solely a Jewish idea.

However…there are problems with this (stupid) theory.
Thrace was an ancient land that today would make up parts of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. Zalmoxis, aka Salmoxis, aka Gebeleizis was a god of the Getae, a Thracian tribe. Indeed, he was the only god they worshipped, even

though they believed there was more than one god. Whenever a thunderstorm came around, they would “retaliate” with arrows, aiming them at the sky, threatening the “Lord of the Lightning and the Thunder” (Possibly Zeus). They did this because they only worshipped Zalmoxis.

The Getae believed that they “never died”; when their bodies died, they went to be with Zalmoxis. This idea seems like any other afterlife belief in the ancient world, though instead of going to the underworld (Which in Greek myth was divided into the Plains of Asphodel (where

most went when they died), Tartarus (The Greek Mythological Hell) and the Elysian fields (Heaven), followers of Zalmoxis went to a blissful eternity with Zalmoxis. This would differ with The Greek concept, where most went to the Plains of Asphodel, where their spirits bore the

marks of the injuries or diseases that killed them. The Plains of Asphodel wasn’t technically Hell, but it was far from pleasant. Only the few favorites of the gods went to the Elysian Fields (though over time, the Greeks eventually believed that those who were good went there,

not just the few that the gods favored).
What is interesting is that there are two versions of Zalmoxis, neither of which were resurrected.
In the first, he is always a god. No death, let alone resurrection.
In the second version, he started out as a man, a slave of the

historical Pythagoras. He was a genius and a healer (though his healing is not described as supernatural. We don’t know what techniques or powers (if any) he used). He gained his freedom and eventually returned to Thrace, where he told people that they would “never die”.

I.e. that they would all live blissfully in the hereafter. He sought to prove this to them by staying in an underground chamber that he had built and staying inside for 4 years. The people mourned him “as if” he was dead (repeat, “AS if”, which implies they knew he wasn’t dead),

but when he came out the 4rth year, they finally believed his teaching on immortality. Though starting out a man, he was later thought to have turned into a God.

This…is not a resurrection.
At all.

Indeed, many in the ancient world (Christian and non) suspected that Zalmoxis pulled the wool over the Thracians eyes with his underground chamber “miracle”. We find no other ancient source that speaks of a resurrection, and the Getae Thracians left us no bible on Zalmoxis, no

writings that describe their beliefs.

Zalmoxis didn’t resurrect.
Jesus did.

Sources:

Herodotus (484-425/413 BC) “The Histories”, 4.93-96
perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?do…
Origin (185-254 AD) , “Contra Celsum”, 2.55
newadvent.org/fathers/04162.…

britannica.com/place/Thrace

"Titans and Olympians" by Tony Allan, Sarah Maitland and Dr. Michael Trapp, pages 108-111

@thethreadreader untoll please