Mystery Religions and their Influence on the New Testament and Early Christianity
Ebenezer Fai 
& Olugbenga Samuel Olagunju
Issue: Vol.8 No.3 March 2022 Issue Article 4 pp.88-97
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.2022834 | Published online 30th March 2022.
© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This article discusses mystery religions and how they influenced the New Testament and early Christianity. It is library research and is descriptive. Data was gathered from books, journal articles, and internet sources. The research findings reveal that mystery religions influenced the New Testament to the extent that the knowledge derived from it sheds more light on the background of some New Testament texts, such as John 12:24 and Matthew 17:1-13. Also, some practices in the New Testament times, such as baptism, meal fellowship, the veiling of women, and other early Christian practices, were influenced by mystery religions. Both the mystery religions and New Testament contain the same linguistic form. Therefore, this article recommends that mystery religions be studied to gain background knowledge of particular texts in the New Testament. Also, the language in mystery religious texts can be examined since it can aid the understanding of New Testament writings at times.
Keywords: Mystery, Religions, Influence, New Testament
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Ebenezer Fai is currently a Phd student at the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. He holds a Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary-Ndu, a Diploma in Theology from the Full Gospel Bible Institute Bamenda-Cameroon and a Bachelor of Theology from the Baptist College of Theology Obinze- Imo State Nigeria. He has research interests in Old and New Testament Language and Literature. He currently serves as a Pastor with the Cameroon Baptist Convention.
Olugbenga, Samuel Olagunju is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biblical Studies, Faculty of Theological Studies of the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary Ogbomoso, Nigeria. He holds a BSC in Soils from the University of Ibadan, Master of Divinity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary – USA, Master of Arts in Religions from the University of Ghana, MTH in New Testament Languages and Literature from NBTS- Ogbomoso and a PhD in Biblical Studies from the University of Jos. He is a fellow of Stephen Olford Center for Preaching in Memphis, USA.
Fai, E. & Olagunju,S.O. “Mystery Religions and their Influence on the New Testament and Early Christianity,” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, 8 no.3 (2022): 88-97. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.2022834
© 2022 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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