https://independent.academia.edu/RichardMiller140
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN5-yZyga2U
Miller actually opens the book by pointing out that the earliest Christian apologists themselves acknowledged these parallels. I was amazed to learn how directly figures like Justin Martyr (2nd century) compared Jesus to the likes of Greek heroes and deified Roman emperors. Justin basically said (paraphrasing here): “Look, we claim Jesus ascended to heaven – but so do you about Hercules, Perseus, Bellerophon, even your emperors. Don’t punish us for saying the same kind of things you say about your own revered figures!” In his First Apology, Justin rattles off examples: Zeus’s son Hermes, Dionysus (Bacchus) who was torn apart and resurrected, Hercules who ascended from his funeral pyre, the Dioscuri twins, Perseus, and so on – and then he reminds his Roman readers about their Caesars. The Romans, Justin notes, even appointed a witness to swear that the emperor’s soul had risen from the burning pyre into the sky! Miller underscores this striking admission. It’s mind-blowing to see a Church father basically confess that Jesus’s story was following the same template as the old pagan myths. As a reader, it set the stage for understanding the Gospels not as isolated miracles, but as part of a broader mythic language shared across cultures.
One of my favorite features of Miller’s book is what I’d call his gallery of examples – he lays out 15 distinct motifs that recur in these resurrection/translation fables across history. This list includes things like a vanished or missing body, metamorphosis (heroes changing form), ascension to heaven, postmortem appearances to friends or followers, encounters “on the road”, eyewitness testimony to the ascension, being taken up in a cloud or wind, even thunderbolts from Zeus, and more. Seeing all those tropes listed out, with examples from Greek and Roman lore, really helped me visualize just how common these story patterns were in antiquity. It’s like a checklist of divinity signals that many different cultures used. And guess what – the Jesus story hits a bunch of those marks. Miller’s “gallery” is such a handy reference; I found myself flipping back to it repeatedly, just to marvel at how the New Testament narrative slots into this bigger picture.
There are countless “golden nuggets” in this book, but one that blew my mind was learning about the ancient reports of eyewitnesses seeing dead rulers alive again. For instance, Roman historians tell how after Emperor Augustus died, an observer swore he saw Augustus’s spirit ascend to heaven. In the case of Julius Caesar (and later emperors), the state even paid someone to testify that they personally witnessed the emperor’s soul rising to godhood from his funeral pyre. And in the old legend of Romulus (the mythical founder of Rome), one of his friends claimed he met Romulus walking on the road after his disappearance – Romulus then delivered a final message before vanishing again. Sound familiar? It’s exactly like the New Testament resurrection stories where disciples meet Jesus on the road or see him in visionary encounters. When Miller highlighted this, I practically jumped out of my chair. It was like the entire background of the Gospels lit up for me: people of that era already had a context for these claims. A dead leader appearing on a highway or ascending into the clouds wasn’t a one-off miracle – it was an established trope for “this person is now divine.” This insight brought the Gospel accounts into sharp focus as mythic narratives rather than newspaper reports, and it was incredibly affirming for those of us who’ve suspected as much.
By the time I turned the last page, I felt my perspective on the Resurrection (and the origins of Christianity as a whole) fundamentally shift. Miller convincingly argues – and I agree – that the earliest Christians likely did not view the resurrection story as a straightforward historical event, but as a sacred story in the mold of the great myths. The resurrection wasn’t about proving anything with empirical evidence; it was about placing Jesus in the pantheon of the divine, using the language and symbols their world understood. Reading this, I realized how much modern debates miss the forest for the trees. We get so caught up in “did it literally happen or not?” that we forget these ancient writers were operating within a mythic and cultic framework. Miller’s book drove home that the Gospel authors weren’t writing cold history – they were crafting a theological masterpiece, echoing the familiar hero legends to give Jesus the highest honor possible. This has completely changed how I approach the New Testament. It’s like I can finally see the Resurrection story for what it was in its original context: a powerful piece of sacred storytelling, not a forensic report. And that realization is incredibly liberating and illuminating.
I could go on for hours about Resurrection and Reception in Early Christianity. Every chapter had at least one moment where I had to stop and say, “Whoa, this is huge!” Yes, it’s challenging reading – Dr. Miller is thorough and expects you to keep up with him – but the payoff is enormous. The book is packed with golden nuggets for anyone interested in early Christianity, Greco-Roman myths, or the evolution of religious narr
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