CHRISTIAN ROOTS IN THE ALEXANDRIAN CULT OF SERAPIS
The
basis of Egyptian salvation beliefs was the divine nature that
Egyptians attributed to their king, who was looked upon as the
human son of Ra, the cosmic god. This special relationship between
god and the king was manifested in the three special events in
the ruler's lifehis holy birth, his anointing at coronation,
and his resurrection after death. It was an essence of Egyptian
belief that, while the spiritual element left the body at death,
it would return at some point in the future if the body could
be kept safe and protected, which is why Egyptians devoted such
care to mummification and secure tombs. Osiris was regarded as
an ancient king, slain by his brother Seth, who dismembered his
body. However, his wife/sister Isis was able to collect his remains
and, using a magic ritual, assemble his body again and restore
him to life, not on earth but in the underworld, where he became
the god and judge of the dead.
Following
the suppression of the Amarna monotheistic religious revolutionof
Akhenaten and Tutankhamun in the mid 14th century BCnew
theology developed within the cult of Osiris. Initially, the promise
of eternal life was confined to kings and nobles who could afford
the expensive burial rite. After the death of Tutankhamun, however,
a long process of change in the Osiris theology began, which resulted
in the emergence of the cult of Serapis, whose followers could
obtain the right to eternal life without the need for mummification
if they confessed in the deity and went through an initiation
ritual.
It
was Ptolemy I Soter (304-284 BC), who introduced Serapis. The
Apis bull was sacred at Memphis, where the deceased APIs was known
as Osiris-Apis, or "Oserapis," from which he derived the name
of his new deity, "Serapis." Ptolemy built a temple for Serapis
in Alexandria, where he placed a statue for the god: a man with
curly hair, benign expression, and a long beard, in the same style
used later for the representations of Christ in Coptic churches.
Other than his temple at Alexandria, Serapis had another centre
in Memphis, where, on the necropolis of Sakkara, the Serapeum
became one of the most famous sites in the country.
Isis
became the companion of Serapis, who also inherited many of the
attributes of Osiris, including mastery over the underworld. The
mystic rites of Isis, to which women as well as men were admitted
after an initiation ceremony, was based mainly on the explicit
promise of immortality that they offered to adherents. The APIs
bull was believed to enjoy eternal life in the sense that he was
reborn as soon as he died. When they died, APIs bulls were buried
in the subterranean galleries of the Serapeum, which was discovered
by Mariette, the French archaeologist, in the middle of last century.
Found there were 24 granite and basalt APIs sarcophagi the heaviest
of which weighed almost 70 tons. The Serapeum was served by voluntary
monks and included a sanatorium where the sick came in the hope
of receiving miraculous cures.
The
cult of Serapis was to have sweeping success throughout Greece
and Asia Minor, especially in Rome, where it became the most popular
religion. There was a Serapis temple in Rome as early as 105 BC.
Initiation into the Serapis cult included the rite of baptism,
and Sir Alan Gardiner, the British Egyptologist, argued in the
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology in 1950 that Egyptian baptism
should be seen as analogous to Christian baptism, of which he
commented: "In both cases a symbolic cleansing by means of water
serves as initiation into a properly legitimated religious life."
The cults of Serapis and Isis did not merely survive the emergence
of Christianity, but in the 2nd century AD actually increased
in popularity. Serapis and Christ existed side-by-side and were
frequently seen as interchangeable. Some early Christians made
no distinction between Christ and Serapis and frequently worshipped
both, while paintings of Isis with her son Horus became identified
by early Christians as portraits of Mary with her son Jesus. The
rite of baptism, part of the initiation ceremony of the Serapis
cult, was also adopted by the Church as part of its initiation
ceremony.
In
AD 134, after a visit to Alexandria, the Emperor Hadrian wrote
a letter to his elderly brother-in-law, Servianus, in which he
commented: "So you praise Egypt, my very dear Servianus! I know
the land from top to bottom . . . In it the worshippers of Serapis
are Christians, and those who call themselves Bishops of Christ
pay their vows to Serapis . . . Whenever the patriarch himself
comes to Egypt he is made to worship Serapis by some and Christ
by others."
Ahmed
Osman