History Main / HijackedByJesus

See also EverybodyHatesHades, SatanicArchetype, NunsAreMikos, FauxSymbolism, TheThemeParkVersion, SadlyMythtaken, CrystalDragonJesus, MessianicArchetype. Contrast NotUsingTheZWord and ChurchOfSaintGenericus. This will often include a MythologyUpgrade.

* Myth/ClassicalMythology: There's some speculation that the cults of Orphic Dionysus and Mithras both competed with early Christianity and may have influenced it. There are a few parallels: both involve a being who's partially man and partially god, who is born through miraculous circumstances and who dies only to return to life.[[note]]So far as we can tell, anyway; both cults were pretty secretive[[/note]]

* This has happened to Superman across the decades and throughout various interceptions. Originally created by the Jewish Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, superman very much startled off as a Moses archetype as he was sent away by his family to save him, and upon reaching a new land he grows up to become a savior. However, ever since Richard Donner's Superman, a far more Christian reading has gradually overtaken it's source inspiration. As Jor-EL (Read: God) sends his son Kal-El (Read: Jesus) to Earth where he's raised by a version of Jonathan and Martha Kent who commonly cannot have their own children (Read: Joseph and Mary) with a mission to safeguard and protect humanity. One of his most popular villains Darkseid is a blatant Satanic Archetype and expect plenty of Jesus imagery whenever Superman sacrifices himself to save the day.

*** Odin's self-sacrifice to gain knowledge (by hanging himself on the World Tree for nine days) bears a striking resemblance to the Crucifixion. In particular, note that Odin sacrificed himself ''to himself'' -- and since conventional Christianity interprets Jesus as an incarnation of God, the Crucifixion thus entailed the Christian God likewise sacrificing himself to himself. However, there are no reported Viking activities in the area of Israel at the time, and all reported versions of that myth are from ''after'' Christianity became a thing in Europe, so it may also be a case of the Vikings trying to hijack Christian stories, instead of the other way. It may also be just a coincidence: deaths by hanging were a common punishment in real life, same as crucifixion, but the part of the god having his side torn by a pike seems too specific and suggests an influence in either way. Although, that could again just be coincidence - using a spear to prod the side of a hanged / crucified person was used as a way to check they were dead before they were cut down: if they reacted, they were still alive and would be left up there longer.[[note]] it should also be noted that there were Vikings who worked for Christian rulers all throughout the 8th, 9th & 10th Centuries when their civilization was at it's most prominent. The idea that they hated Christians reflexively is a complete myth. This could go a long way to explaining some of the uncanny similarities in mythologies. Though to be completely fair, it's not like Christianity originated all of these ideas. the idea of a god dying for the benefit of the community and then being resurrected was hardly a new one by the time Christianity came around. [[/note]]

** The end of Völuspá is probably the most blatant example of this. It mentions a "might one" who is the actual creator and far above the Aesir and also we can't know His name, but he is called Fimbultyr, "Mighty God". Most scholars agree that this was probably an attempt at retrofitting Christianity into the Norse myths.

* The movie ''Film/{{Constantine}}'' removes all non-Christian (and for the most part non-Catholic) mythical elements that were present in ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}''. In the comics' canon, John does have a certain "relationship" with Heaven and Hell, namely that they both get up his arse, and all kinds of other mythical entities exist.

* The 2010 ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|2010}}'': Hades is the bad guy. However, at least the writers tried to provide some form of justification in that in this version of events, he was tricked into taking control of the underworld by Zeus. The blow is further softened by virtue of the fact that the rest of the gods are generally portrayed as all around dicks, particularly since the story of Medusa's origin is told as the "Poseidon raped her and Athena punished her for it" variant. On the other hand, it then turns Zeus into Jesus by [[spoiler:having him bring Io back from the dead, despite the fact that ''only Hades can raise the dead''.]] To make matters worse, it essentially makes Zeus an {{Expy}} of the Abrahamic God by having him be the creator of mankind, when in reality -- or mythology, really -- it was a Titan called Prometheus who created man from clay. This is where the subtitle of Mary Shelley's ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' comes from.

-->-- ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', "A Very Supernatural Christmas"

It should be noted that [[TruthInTelevision this has happened]] a number of times historically, as it was both an useful resource and an inevitable point of view. As proselytizing sects spread into new regions, they often incorporate existing beliefs into their canon in order to make the new religion more palatable to others. For example, the medieval story of the hermit Josaphat (not to be mistaken with the King Jehoshaphat of Judea, or the 17th-century martyr St. Josaphat) was a Christianized version of the life of [[UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} Gautama Buddha]] (with "Bodhisattva" mutating into "Josaphat"). On the opposite end, polytheistic cultures "converted" to Christianity simply transferred the worship of individual gods to the ''saints'' that most resembled them (in some cases, the old pagan gods were remade ''into'' saints). The Catholic church in particular got ''a lot'' of mileage out of this, and seeing some processions for some saints (in e.g. Latin America), it's not hard at all to imagine what the religious customs prior to Christianity may have looked like.

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*** Odin's self-sacrifice to gain knowledge (by hanging himself on the World Tree for nine days) bears a striking resemblance to the Crucifixion. In particular, note that Odin sacrificed himself ''to himself'' -- and since conventional Christianity interprets Jesus as an incarnation of God, the Crucifixion thus entailed the Christian God likewise sacrificing himself to himself. However, there are no reported Viking activities in the area of Israel at the time, and all reported versions of that myth are from ''after'' Christianity became a thing in Europe, so it may also be a case of the Vikings trying to hijack Christian stories, instead of the other way. It may also be just a coincidence: deaths by hanging were a common punishment in real life, same as crucifixion, but the part of the god having his side torn by a pike seems too specific and suggests an influence in either way. Although, that could again just be coincidence - using a spear to prod the side of a hanged / crucified person was used as a way to check they were dead before they were cut down: if they reacted, they were still alive and would be left up there longer.[[note]] it should also be noted that there were Vikings who worked for Christian rulers all throughout the 8th,9th & 10th Centuries when their civilization was at it's most prominent. The idea that they hated Christians reflexively is a complete myth. This could go a long way to explaining some of the uncanny similarities in mythologies. Though to be completely fair, it's not like Christianity originated all of these ideas. the idea of a god dying for the benefit of the community and then being resurrected was hardly a new one by the time Christianity came around. [[/note]]

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': {{Inverted|Trope}} and played for [[CosmicHorrorStory cosmic]] and religious horror by [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3004 SCP-3004 ("Imago")]]. SCP-3004 is an Irish cicada god once worshipped by a particularly large and gruesome druidic cult. When the followers were converted to Christianity in the late 1700s, the resulting turn of faith and metaphysical confusion scrambled the deity's mind and now it is convinced that it is the Judeo-Christian God. In fact it may have eaten and usurped Him. It warps Christian practices into a ReligionOfEvil which involves {{Animalistic Abomination}}s and ritual self-mutilation, [[MadGod it is completely insane]] [[BlueAndOrangeMorality and unaware of concepts like metaphors and mortality]], and worst of all it is trying to break through into our reality. In that event the Foundation's contingency is to ''completely erase Christianity from the historical record'' in an attempt to starve it.

* Part of the final plan in Literature/PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus involves influencing the pre-existing Mesoamerican religion in order to 1) eliminate the practice of human sacrifice, and 2) prevent religious conflict when they come into contact with Renaissance Christianity. The basic gist of how they pull it off is to introduce a new prophet that tells the natives to look for a people across the sea who have discovered a divine figure whose blood-sacrifice permanently sates the requirement for human sacrifice.

* This isn't the first time Hades' image was hijacked. Disney's ''The Goddess of Spring'', a precursor to ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', made the merger between Satan and Hades ''even more'' blatant. WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick gave her review going on in detail about how poorly this was handled.

* It has been claimed that the story of the HolyGrail and TheSpearOfDestiny are likely Christianized versions of older myths. For example, the Fisher King is Brân the Blessed. In one theory (but by far not the most popular one, not that there ''is'' a most popular one), Myth/KingArthur was originally a Celtic hero-king which doomed the old "England" because he first got the power of the holy vessel (more likely a cooking pot, later grail) and dug up the head of Lug in Lugdunum -- that way, he broke the spell protecting his country.

* It has been claimed that the story of the HolyGrail and TheSpearOfDestiny are likely Christianized versions of older myths. For example, the Fisher King is Brân the Blessed.
** In one theory (but by far not the most popular one, not that there ''is'' a most popular one), Myth/KingArthur was originally a Celtic hero-king which doomed the old "England" because he first got the power of the holy vessel (more likely a cooking pot, later grail) and dug up the head of Lug in Lugdunum -- that way, he broke the spell protecting his country.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' is based on films from the 1930s, which commonly reduced various foreign cultures into caricature. In the film, the complex and sophisticated religion of Hinduism is reduced to nice people worshiping Shiva and murderous Thuggee cultists worshiping Kali. The film portrays Thuggee almost as a kind of HollywoodSatanism. The real Thugs, those who practiced Thuggee, did worship Kali, but no more so than the Ku Klux Klan worshiped Jesus. While they did tend to ritually murder people, it was by strangulation via a yellow scarf, not ripping hearts out of someone's chest. It wasn't just the British who worked on eradicating them. And, incidentally, Kali herself is ''Shiva's wife''. Not the estranged kind, either.[[note]]Technically, Parvati is Shiva's wife, and Kali is the darker aspect of her, who awakens to strike down Evil when needed -- basically, Kali is the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk to Parvati's Bruce Banner. In Indy's defense, though, he does briefly note that the Thuggees are a heretical sect. To clarify it, Kali is a good goddess, but there is a demon ACTUALLY worshiped by the equivalent of Satanists named Kali. Note that there is ''no relation between the two entities''. The confusion exists because, English not having the level of vowel representation Indian languages do, the names of both the demon and the Goddess are written with the same spelling. For those interested, the approximate pronunciations are as follows: the Goddess's name is "Kah-lee", whereas the demon is "Kully". The proper transcriptions are Kālī and Kali.[[/note]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' publishes a "Deities and Demigods" supplement with most editions. While some of the entries are original pantheons made up from scratch by the company, there are also sections on Egyptian, Greek, and Norse mythology which take this trope UpToEleven.

** ''Demigod'' also has Pan show up... and turn out to be masquerading as Satan. It's explained away as Pan's debauchery going UpToEleven and deciding to play to this idea of a horned and hooved wicked being ForTheEvulz.

* It is sometimes claimed (unsurprisingly, most often by those with a bone to pick with Christianity) that almost every aspect of Jesus' story in the Gospel Accounts was lifted wholesale from the god Mithras (born of a virgin, birth attended by shepherds and Magi, twelve disciples, last supper, death and resurrection, etc.). In fact, most of the comparisons between Mithraism and Christianity (including the above) are at best a stretch, at worst simply made-up. (For instance, Mithras was sometimes depicted surrounded by the twelve signs of the Zodiac. It strains credibility to interpret this as, "He had twelve disciples.") Today, the "Christianity is a carbon-copy of Mithraism," thesis isn't taken seriously by any credible scholars.

* It is sometimes claimed (unsurprisingly, most often by those with a bone to pick with Christianity) that almost every aspect of Jesus' story in the Gospel Accounts was lifted wholesale from the god Mithras (born of a virgin, birth attended by shepherds and Magi, twelve disciples, last supper, death and resurrection, etc.). In fact, most the comparisons between Mithraism and Christianity (including the above) are at best a stretch, at worst simply made-up. (For instance, Mithras was sometimes depicted surrounded by the twelve signs of the Zodiac. It strains credibility to interpret this as, "He had twelve disciples.") Today, the "Christianity is a carbon-copy of Mithraism," thesis isn't taken seriously by any credible scholars.

* It is sometimes claimed that almost every aspect of Jesus' story in the Gospel Accounts was lifted wholesale from the god Mithras (born of a virgin, birth attended by shepherds and Magi, twelve disciples, last supper, death and resurrection, etc.). While there were some similarities between the rituals of early Christianity and Mithraism, the "Jesus is a carbon-copy of Mithras" claim isn't taken very seriously by credible scholars. Case in point: Mithras actually was born from a ''rock'' in some versions of his story.

** Christianity in Southeast Asia uses some Islamic terms for Christian concepts. More specifically, when the locals were converted to Islam centuries ago, the predominant religious vocabulary all became Arabic, because Islam considers only a Quran written in Arabic to be a "real" Quran. Therefore, even if local languages had their own word for "god," Southeast Asian Muslims refer to God as Allah (which is simply the Arabic word for "God"). This would be rather like if Catholics the world-over referred to God as "Deus" instead of translating the word into their own languages. The point is, in Malaysia and Indonesia, some Christians, particularly Catholics, ''also'' refer to God as "Allah", even though for them this a foreign Arabic term imported from Islam and not their native word for "god" or "a diety." This has become controversial in Malaysia at various times when the government sought to restrict use of the word "Allah" to Muslims only.

** Christianity in Southeast Asia uses some Islamic terms for Christian concepts. More specifically, when the locals were converted to Islam centuries ago, the predominant religious vocabulary all became Arabic, because Islam considers only a Quran written in Arabic to be a "real" Quran. Therefore, even if local languages had their own word for "god," Southeast Asian Muslims refer to God as Allah (which is simply the Arabic word for "God"). This would be rather like if Catholics the world-over referred to God as "Deus" instead of translating the word into their own languages. The point is, some Christians, particularly Catholics, in Malaysia and Indonesia ''also'' refer to God as "Allah", even though for them this a foreign Arabic term imported from Islam and not their native word for "god" or "a diety." This has become controversial in Malaysia at various times when the government sought to restrict use of the word "Allah" to Muslims only.

** Christianity in Southeast Asia uses some Islamic terms for Christian concepts. More specifically, when the locals were converted to Islam centuries ago, all the religious vocabulary remained in Arabic, because Islam considers only a Quran written in Arabic to be a "real" Quran. Therefore, even if local languages had their own word for "god," Southeast Asian Muslims refer to God as Allah (which is simply the Arabic word for "God"). This would be rather like if Catholics the world-over referred to God as "Deus" instead of translating the word into their own languages. The point is, some Christians, particularly Catholics, in Malaysia and Indonesia ''also'' refer to God as "Allah", even though for them this a foreign Arabic term imported from Islam and not their native word for "god" or "a diety." This has become controversial in Malaysia at various times when the government sought to restrict use of the word "Allah" to Muslims only.

** Christian missionaries in Southeast Asia also Christianized Islamic terms. Many Southeast Asian Catholics in Malaysia and Indonesia refer to God as Allah, despite the term being foreign to this region (so do Christian Arabs, but, to them, the word Allah is their own native language that has been used for centuries even before the rise of Christianity and Islam, not an imported term). This was due to efforts by the 16th century Jesuit missionaries who deliberately used the term Allah to refer to the Christian concept of God. This became controversial in Malaysia at various times when the government sought to forbid use of the term Allah by non-Muslims.

* Many concepts from ancient Chinese religions and philosophy were absorbed into Christianity by the Jesuit missionaries when they began arriving in China in the 16th century. Among others, they equated the Chinese concept of the "Heaven," (or Tian, 天) an abstract, all-encompassing supreme entity in the universe, to the Christian notion of God. This still manifests itself in the difference in the reference to "God" in Chinese and Chinese-influenced languages (e.g. Korean) by Catholics and Protestants. For Catholics, God is "the Lord of Heaven," (or Tianzhu, 天主), while Protestants use different terms in different countries, depending on circumstances.

* [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Disney's adaptation]] of ''[[Myth/GreekMythology Hercules]]'', featuring Hades as {{Satan}}, Zeus as {{God}} (and a BumblingDad), Hercules as Jesus, and the other Olympians as angels. [[{{Bowdlerise}} To protect family values]], Zeus's "special relationship" with mortal women was ignored, making Hercules a son of ''Hera'', and poisoned (by Hades, of course) with mortality. This moves Hera out of her original ClingyJealousGirl and BigBad roles in the original myths. Interestingly enough, the movie does nothing to rectify Hera's status as Zeus's [[BrotherSisterIncest sister]], however, outside of just not mentioning it. Hades was one of the few Greek Gods who ''didn't'' routinely screw with mortals or curse them, and could even be convinced to help them (Orpheus). Granted, kidnapping Persephone wasn't very nice, but that's probably the worst thing he ever did. Moreover, he ''was'' genuinely in love with her and gave her a relatively happy matrimony, which is more than most other male gods of his level can boast of. (It was also a deal with Zeus as a way of compensating for him getting the short end of the deal, being in charge of the underworld instead of sky or sea). The only time he did screw over any mortals (beyond the whole death thing), was with Theseus and Pirithous, which actually only serves to strengthen the depiction of Hades as a loving husband, since Pirithous and Theseus were attempting to kidnap Persephone.

** The Roman winter solstice festival / Celtic/Norse Yule, respectively the Pagan spring celebration Ostara, were taken over by / merged with respectively Christmas / Hanukkah, and Easter[[note]]The Christmas tree, Easter bunny, and Easter eggs are all symbols stemming from the original Pagan festivals[[/note]].