Short answer
No. The story of Jesus was not copied from Mithras. Mithraism was a Roman cult for men that spread in the second and third centuries, as the Church was growing beside it. Two early Church writers, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, saw a likeness between its rites and the Christian meal and baptism. They said demons had copied the Christians, not the other way round. Their likenesses are in rites, not in the story of Jesus. The date of Christmas, the Sunday rest and the cave are not in the Gospels at all. The Church fixed 25 December, and the emperor Constantine fixed the Sunday rest, in a Roman world that honoured the Sun. Historians dispute why 25 December was chosen. Neither comes from Jesus. The real question is what Jesus taught: the worship of the one God (﷾), which is Islam's message.
Full explanation
What the cult of Mithras was
Mithraism was a mystery cult for men. A mystery cult was a secret religion with rites of initiation (a ceremony to join). It was found across the Roman Empire from Syria to Britain. Soldiers and officials did much to spread it. Its god was born from a rock, and its central image shows him killing a bull. In the second and third centuries it grew in the same cities as Christianity.
A standard history of Roman Mithraism. It describes a mystery cult for men only, with seven grades of initiation, whose god was born from a rock and whose central image shows him killing a bull. The cult spread through the Roman army and administration in the second and third centuries, at the same time as Christianity.
What the Church Fathers said
Two of the earliest Christian writers noticed a likeness themselves. Justin Martyr, a Christian writer who died about 165, says the Mithras rite set out bread and a cup of water with certain words. He says demons imitated the Eucharist (the Christian meal of bread and wine). Tertullian, a Christian writer of North Africa about 200, makes a similar claim. He says the devil baptises and promises forgiveness by washing. He says Mithras marks his soldiers on the forehead, offers bread and has an image of a resurrection. Neither denies the likeness. Both say the cult copied the Christians, with the devil behind it.
Describing the bread and cup of the Christian Eucharist, Justin says that the wicked demons have imitated it in the mysteries of Mithras, where bread and a cup of water are set out with certain words for the one being initiated.
Tertullian complains that the devil copies the Christian sacraments in the mysteries of idols. He says that in the rites of Mithras the devil baptises his believers and promises the putting away of sins by washing, marks his soldiers on the forehead, celebrates an offering of bread, and brings in an image of a resurrection.
The cave
Justin also says that Jesus was born in a cave near Bethlehem. He says the followers of Mithras were initiated in a place they call a cave, which he again puts down to the devil. The Gospels themselves say nothing of a cave.
Justin says that Jesus was born in a cave near Bethlehem, because Joseph found no lodging in the village. He adds that the devil stirred up the leaders of the mysteries of Mithras to say that they were initiated by Mithras in a place they call a cave.
Justin says that those who hand down the mysteries of Mithras teach that he was born from a rock, and call the place where his believers are initiated a cave. He holds that they imitated the prophecies of Daniel and Isaiah.
The date of Christmas
The Gospels give no date for the birth of Jesus. The earliest Christians kept no feast of it. A Roman calendar of 354 marks 25 December as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun. This was a Roman sun god, and the entry does not name Mithras. In the same book, a list dated to 336 puts the birth of Christ on that day. The Catholic Encyclopedia says the solar feast has a strong claim to be the reason for the date. Some historians argue instead that the date was calculated from 25 March. Either way, the date was fixed by the later Church and not by Jesus.
A book of calendars and lists made in Rome in 354. Its list of the burial days of the martyrs, drawn up by 336, opens with 25 December: "Christ born in Bethlehem of Judaea" (natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae). The same book's public calendar of the city of Rome marks 25 December as N(atalis) Invicti, the birthday of the Unconquered One, the sun-god, with thirty chariot races.
A Catholic reference work says that Christmas was not among the earliest feasts of the Church, that Irenaeus and Tertullian leave it out of their lists of feasts, and that the well-known solar feast of Natalis Invicti on 25 December has a strong claim to be the reason for the December date.
A study of how the Christian feasts arose. Talley argues that 25 December may have been reached by calculation from a belief that Jesus died on 25 March, rather than simply taken over from the pagan sun feast.
The Sunday day of rest
The Ten Commandments make the seventh day, the Sabbath, holy. Christians met on Sunday, the day they believe Jesus rose. By about 155 Justin calls it "the day called Sunday". Some pagans suspected Christians of worshipping the sun, because they prayed toward the east and made Sunday a day of rejoicing. Tertullian answered that the pagans did much the same. Justin gives the Christians' own reason: it is the first day of creation, and the day they believe Jesus rose. In 321 the emperor Constantine made "the venerable day of the Sun" (the honoured day of the Sun) a legal day of rest.
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Justin says that Christians gather on the day called Sunday, the day of the Sun, because it is the first day, on which God made the world, and the day on which Jesus rose from the dead.
Tertullian answers pagans who suspected that the Christians worshipped the sun, because they prayed toward the east and made Sunday a day of rejoicing. He replies that the pagans do much the same.
Constantine's law of 7 March 321 orders judges, city people and all trades to rest on "the venerable day of the Sun", while allowing farmers to work their fields.
| Practice | In the Roman world | In the Church |
|---|---|---|
| 25 December | A Roman calendar of 354 marks it as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun. | The Gospels give no date for Jesus' birth. A list in the same calendar puts Christ's birth on this day by 336. |
| Sunday | The day of the Sun. | Christians met on Sunday, the day they believe Jesus rose. In 321 the emperor Constantine made “the venerable day of the Sun” a legal day of rest. |
| Bread and cup | The Mithras rite set out bread and a cup of water with certain words. | The Christian meal has bread and a cup. Justin Martyr, about 155, said demons had imitated it. |
| Forehead mark | Mithras marked his followers on the forehead, offered bread and had an image of a resurrection. | Tertullian, about 200, saw the likeness and blamed the devil. |
The story of Jesus was not copied from Mithras. But the Church Fathers admitted the rites looked alike, and the date of Christmas and the day of rest were fixed in a Roman world whose calendar honoured the Sun.
What Jesus actually taught
The real question is not where a feast or a rite came from. It is what Jesus taught. He said the first commandment is "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord". He told Satan, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The Qur'an says Jesus will tell God (﷾) that he said to people only what God (﷾) commanded him: "worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord". This is the message of Islam.
“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:”
“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
“And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah'?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, Thou I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden. "Never said I to them aught except what Thou didst command me to say, to wit, 'worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord'; and I was a witness over them whilst I dwelt amongst them; when Thou didst take me up Thou wast the Watcher over them, and Thou art a witness to all things.”
What the Qur'an says
The Qur'an tells the People of the Book, the Jews and Christians, not to go beyond the bounds of their religion. It also says that the Christians' life of monks was their own invention. God (﷾) did not prescribe it.
“Say: "O people of the Book! exceed not in your religion the bounds (of what is proper), trespassing beyond the truth, nor follow the vain desires of people who went wrong in times gone by,- who misled many, and strayed (themselves) from the even way.”
“Then, in their wake, We followed them up with (others of) Our messengers: We sent after them Jesus the son of Mary, and bestowed on him the Gospel; and We ordained in the hearts of those who followed him Compassion and Mercy. But the Monasticism which they invented for themselves, We did not prescribe for them: (We commanded) only the seeking for the Good Pleasure of Allah; but that they did not foster as they should have done. Yet We bestowed, on those among them who believed, their (due) reward, but many of them are rebellious transgressors.”
Perspectives
The Church Fathers
The likeness between Christian and Mithraic rites was real. But it was the work of demons, who copied the Christian rites.
Justin Martyr said demons imitated the Eucharist in the mysteries of Mithras.
Rebuttal
Justin agrees with this page that the story of Jesus was not taken from Mithras. But a likeness in a rite does not tell us what Jesus taught. He taught worship of the Lord alone (Matthew 4:10).
Tertullian said the devil set up rites to rival the Christian sacraments, holy rites such as baptism. He named three in the worship of Mithras: a mark on the forehead, an offering of bread and an image of a resurrection.
Rebuttal
Even so, a likeness in rites does not tell us what Jesus taught. He taught that the Lord our God (﷾) is one Lord (Mark 12:29).
What the record shows
The date of Christmas and the day of rest were fixed later, by the Church and by the emperor Constantine. The Roman world around them honoured the Sun. Historians dispute why 25 December was chosen. Neither comes from Jesus.
The earliest record of Christmas being kept as a feast on 25 December is a Roman list dated to 336. The calendar in the same book marks that day as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun.
Christmas was not among the earliest feasts of the Church.
A Catholic reference work says the sun's feast on 25 December is a likely reason for the date of Christmas.
Another study suggests a different route. Jesus was believed to have died on 25 March, and 25 December may have been worked out from that date.
Constantine made the day of the Sun a legal day of rest in 321.
Mithraism and Christianity grew in the same cities of the Roman Empire at the same time.
The Islamic perspective
Jesus taught the worship of the one God (﷾). The feast of Christmas and the Sunday day of rest were fixed afterwards. The Church and a Roman emperor fixed them, not Jesus.
Jesus taught the worship of the one God (﷾) alone.
The Bible's holy day is the seventh day, which most churches no longer keep.
The Qur'an warns the People of the Book not to go beyond the bounds of their religion.
The Qur'an says the monasticism Christians practised was their own invention, not prescribed by God (﷾).