To all Romans

[Robert Vermaat]

A happy Novruz to you as well, Ardeshir.<br>
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Mithras (Greek form of Mithra) was a very popular god amongst the Roman military (Rome had some 700 mithraea and Ostia had some more), and there are many (disconcerting) details that are shared by Christianity and Mithraism, which van be found [url=http://essenes.net/m55.htm" target="top]here[/url] and I will mention but a few:<br>
- Initiates of the Mysteries of Mithras were purified by baptism. Tertullian, a third century Christian from North Africa, complains that the Devil was imitating the Christians' divine mysteries because initiates of the Mithraic religion were baptised in this way.<br>
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- At the level of initiation called Miles or soldier, the mystae of Mithras were symbolically branded, the priest making the sign of the cross upon their foreheads to redeem their sins and to mark them as soldiers of Mithras ready to fight the Good Fight. Christians use the expressions soldiers of Christ and put on the armour of light, somewhat inappropriate metaphors for a religion of love, one might think, but entirely appropriate to their Mithraic origins.<br>
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- Mithras had 12 disciples.<br>
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- The Mithraic sacred meal was essentially identical to the Christian Eucharist. Justin Martyr complained that Satan had copied the Christian Eucharist because the adherents of Mithras also partook of consecrated bread and water symbolic of the incarnate god's body. The bread consisted of small round cakesâ€â€Â