I present some facts.
One: Dionysus is preset at the crucifiction.
How very odd indeed. From Acts (attributed to Luke):
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
What is Areopagus? "Areopagus. The hill of Mars, the seat of the ancient and venerable supreme court of Athens, called the Areopagites" - Topical Bible
Damaris is granted a sainthood and is prominent in the greek orthodox church as a follower of Paul. So what we have in Acts is a speech by Paul most likely TO the Areopagus or supreme court of Athens.
Two: Crucifiction From Buddha
The first telling of crucifiction is of the Buddha, 500 years earlier.
"Buddha’s mission and death. In his teaching, the Buddha is opposed traditional rigid laws, rebukes intolerance, dogmatism, ritualism, and priestly hypocrisy. He censors the unquestioning adherence to the Vedas and criticizes the bloody sacrifices of the Brahmins.[206]
Voluntarily he leads a life of utmost simplicity as a beggar – a life of renunciation – and mixes mostly with the lowly in society.[207] He accepts an invitation to eat in the house of a prostitute, for which he is criticized by the prominent people of the town.[208] He is called the Seer (prophet), the Master, the Blessed One, the Enlightened One, the Lord and “the Awakened One”[209] and he calls himself Tathâgata (Sanskrit and Pali: “The One thus-come [to Truth]”. Peter’s threefold denial of his Master Jesus, has its equivalent in Buddha’s favourite disciple Ânanda’s threefold failure to ask the Buddha to stay on for the rest of the aeon.[210] The Buddha also has an enemy, his wicked cousin and once his disciple, a traitor by the name of Devadatta. He makes three attempts at the Buddha’s life but fails every time. Just like Judas Iscariot, he meets a deplorable end, as he is swallowed by the earth and goes to hell, boiling for an eon.[211] Jesus converted a robber on the cross. The Buddha turns a robber (Angulimâla) from his evil ways and makes him his devotee.[212]
The Buddha eats a last meal,[213] dies, and attains (pari)nirvâna. His death is presaged by a solar eclipse,[214] a great earthquake and a thunderstorm:
And when the Blessed One had passed away, simultaneously with his Parinibbana there came a tremendous earthquake, dreadful and astounding, and the thunders rolled across the heavens. (Suttapitaka, Dîghanikâya[Mahâparinibbânasutta], 16:6:12; also 16:3:10)
Buddha is said, in a probably post-Christian scripture, to have risen after his death, and opened the coffin and spoken to his mother who came to visit him from “heaven”.[215]
The crucified Buddha. A probably pre-Christian and rather unnoticed text in Sanskrit is “The Story of Gautama, the Progenitor of Ikshvâku”, which is found in Sanghabhedavastu.[216] Here we find a remarkable parallel to the crucifixion scene of the Gospels.
Gautama abandons his life as heir to the kingdom and turns to the ascetic hermit Krishnadvaipâyana who like John the Baptist subsists only on what wild nature produces, in this case fruits, roots and water. Just as Jesus, Gautama thinks that his teacher’s life is too ascetic, and he seeks a less ascetic life, a sort of middle course.
A harlot is murdered and Gautama is innocently accused of the murder. He is brought before the king who is persuaded by the crowd of his guilt and sentences Gautama to death by crucifixion (literally: to be put “on a stake”). In the Gospels, Governor Pilate is persuaded by the crowd and crucifies (stauroo) the wrongfully convicted Jesus.
They announce Gautama’s crime and sentence, a parallel to the inscription at Jesus’ cross.[217] Then they put a garland of oleanders around Gautama’s neck, just as they put a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head. Gautama is driven out of the city through the southern city-gate and he is fixed “on a stake while still alive”. We are told that Gautama “has been pierced”, so that his “joints have been loosened” and that he is suffering from “severe pains” but that his mind is not injured.
Gautama’s ascetic teacher Krishnadvaipâyana is worried about Gautama who has not had time to engender any offspring, a fact that probably will give him bad karma. He therefore persuades Gautama, while still hanging on the stake, to produce two drops of semen which mixed with blood falls to the ground and are transformed into two eggs. These eggs crack in the sun and two princes are born. Gautama dies as the sun rises, but resurrects indirectly in his offspring. His teacher sees the eggshells near the stake and realizes that the two boys (princes) must be the sons of Gautama. Each of the princes in succession is made an “anointed king”. To be anointed king is the exact meaning of the Hebrew word Messiah (the anointed).
Moreover, in the place where they crucified Gautama lie the crushed eggshells. These eggshells are called kapâlâni in Sanskrit, the word kapâla (kapâlâni in the plural) meaning eggshell as well as skull or cranium. Jesus was executed on Golgotha (In English Calvary; in Aramaic Gulgolta) which means “the skull”. The place is also referred to as “place of a skull” and possibly the hill resembled a cranium." - The Jesus Parallels (1st edition, 2007) by Roger Viklund Umeå, Sweden
Also we see the prominence of Dionysis as the first "Re-Birth" and acension to heaven:
"Diodorus speaks accordingly of “a new birth” and he says furthermore that this can be traced “back to certain causes found in nature.” Dionysus is presented as “the twice-born” (Dimetor) since he is a god of vegetation. The first birth is “when the plant [the vine] is set in the ground and begins to grow” and the second “when it becomes laden with fruit and ripens its clusters”. Dionysus therefore is “considered as having been born once from the earth and again from the vine”.[132]
And like Jesus, who was consumed as wine and bread, also Dionysus and the goddess of growing plants, Ceres, was thought of as the divine substance of wine and bread which was consumed when eaten.[133]
Dionysus’ resurrection. Dionysus was believed to have risen after his death. On the island of Thasos, in north-eastern Greece, an old inscription speaks of Dionysus as a god who each year renews himself and returns rejuvenated.[134] After doing this he was thought to have ascended to heaven." - Viklund Ibid.
Let's look to the first image of the crucifiction we have. Its from a third century coin. It was in a museum in Berlin but lost after the war. We still have its casting:
We also have a drawing of what is a more technically accurate crucifiction. Arms bound not pierced, pulled back to assist in the asphyxiation, and legs pierced through the ankles to the SIDES of the cross.
But when I look at the coin (who is to be Dionysis based on the inscription, not Jesus) I see the fish-hook, the huge ship anchors from the sea of Galilee, the northern lands of Bethany. And I wonder, was there some need or meaning or ceremony to someone to climb aboard these giant anchors to steady them or perhaps some initiation ceremony to be fishermen. Were they even submerged, to rise again from the waters (a baptism?) all as rites of fishermen. Speculation? Perhaps. But remember this. Galilee is the largest and only freshwater lake of significance in or near Israeal so it's of tremendous importance, and also the town of Nazareth is just 10 miles away.
so is it a cross or an anchor, that someone knowing of dionysis took to be a cross?
an ancient anchor with 3 tines. The Chi-Ro symbol is 4 tines.
Try to picture that in your head.
an ancient chi-ro mosaic. Cross or Anchor?
A 4th century Chi Ro.
Remember that it is easy to tell the age of your "chi ro" if it shows doves or Alpha / Omega, it is modern. If you look at the 4th century chi ro, try to picture an achor with 4 "hooks" as two bars crossed, and then in three dimentions, the central lifting bar rising from above, with the loop to attach the line. This is what really we are seeing with the chi ro. And what may be pomegranates on each side (later badly mi-interpreted as alpha and omega) may in fact be stylized anchors. All of this iconography telling us it is Christ the FISHERMAN and what better symbols than the fish and the sea. So try to see it in three dimensions. This image really helps us to see that the chi ro really, is an anchor in 3 dimensions
So did people see the old images of dionysis?
Here finally, we have the sixth century mosaic of Jesus carrying the anchor. NOT A CROSS! and smiting both lions (the state) and vipers.
ancient christian graffiti - fishhook
tombstone of the second or third century: Museo Cristiano, Vatican Rome
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