Ancient mystery cults have left traces in the New Testament. Theologian Prof Dr Peter Wick from Ruhr University Bochum has researched which ones. Elements of the Demeter fear cult appear in the Gospels of John and Mark, for example, although they were not included in the Jewish foundations of Christianity, the Old Testament. ‘I am convinced that some evangelists deliberately adopted elements from the ancient cults – not only to make themselves easier to understand, but also to enrich the teaching,’ summarises Peter Wick. He reports on his work in the Ruhr-Universität Bochum’s science magazine Rubin.
Bochum/Germany, March 10, 2025 The cult of Demeter was the most important ancient fertility cult since the 4th century BC. Grain was the basis of people’s diet in ancient times. However, they could not grind all of the harvested grain into flour. Some was resown. ‘This grain was virtually destroyed for the people, they could no longer see it,’ says Wick. ‘That was the prerequisite for new ears of corn the following year. This went hand in hand with the belief that death is the prerequisite for new life.’
Through the fertility cults, the belief in a cycle of life – death – life developed. Similar patterns were found not only in the cult of Demeter, but also in many other ancient cults that developed from it.
Elements from mystery cults find their way into the New Testament
This positive interpretation of death was not found in the Old Testament, i.e. in the Jewish foundations of Christianity. ‘God was the God of life. Death was the last enemy and God was greater than this enemy,’ says Wick, describing the concept of the time. This changed in the New Testament. For example, the evangelist John has Jesus say in chapter 12: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’ Death suddenly becomes a necessary and positive prerequisite for life. ‘This content does not come from Jewish sources, but reflects the ritual of the Demeter cult,’ says Wick.
References to the Demeter cult can also be found in the Gospel of Mark, for example the parable of the self-growing seed. However, this parable does not appear in the evangelists Matthew and Luke, although they actually used the Gospel of Mark as a model. ‘Apparently they didn’t like it,’ interprets Wick. ‘They deliberately did not use it. Here we see traces of a discourse in early Christianity about the extent to which, as a Jewish movement, it was allowed to adopt elements from its religious environment.’
Detailed article in the science magazine Rubin
You can read more about how the Demeter cult celebrated its grain and how the fertility cults influenced the New Testament in a detailed article in Rubin focussing on ‘Mystery’ at (https://news.rub.de/wissenschaft/2025-03-05-theologie-der-kult-ums-korn). The texts on the website may be used free of charge for editorial purposes, provided that the source ‘Rubin – Ruhr-Universität Bochum’ and images from the download area are cited and the terms of use are observed.
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