Jesus just a copy of the ancient Egyptian god Horus? A hoary old heresy.

There is a hoary old Horus heresy that the ancient Egyptian god Horus was the template for Jesus of Nazareth. Horus was the symbol of kingship, a sky god depicted as a “blade-winged falcon” or a man with a falcon’s head. Horus on high, ‘the Distant One’ is one of the most famous icons in Egypt along with his mother Isis whose image holding the baby Horus on her lap prefigured Mary and Jesus icons. Atheists and neo-pagans like to compare Horus with Jesus and claim Jesus was just a copy of the ancient god. Whole books have been devoted to the spurious theory, not to mention a good chunk of the Internet, citing parallels – asserting that both Jesus and Horus were born of a virgin, had twelve disciples, walked on water, delivered a 'sermon on the mount', performed miracles, were executed beside two thieves, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Apart from healing and ‘miracles’, stock in trade of all ancient gods, there is no support for these fabrications in ancient Egyptian texts. Not that we should be surprised by similarities and earlier myths of dying and resurrected gods such as Horus and Osiris. As C.S. Lewis pointed out. It would be alarming if they were not there. He called them “pre-echoes” of what was to come. There are many myths of dying gods in antiquity. Ancient texts like the Turin King's List, records the lifespans and the deaths of Egypt’s gods and goddesses. All things died, the Egyptians believed, all gods, all men, all animals, all except for the High God. Legends of tombs of gods and goddesses also crop up in Egypt. Archaeologists have located several mythical tombs of Osiris, the father of Horus, the suffering son of a murdered father. The importance of Horus persisted into the Christian era in Egypt. Horus turns up in Coptic magical healing spells and the Lamentations of Horus to this day. Horus is the healer and magical saviour of a sort, but not of souls. Carved stone stele of the child Horus, known as healing cippi, showing him standing on snakes and crocodiles. They were a feature of ancient Egyptian magical medicine, believed to cure poisonous snake and scorpion bites. There is a fine example in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, called the Metternich Stela.

Horus spans Egypt like the falcon, but Jesus he is not.