ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the relation between Christianity and some esoteric traditions which either made use of philosophy or were invested by outsiders with philosophical significance. Orpheus could be regarded as a precursor of Christ because he preached monotheism, had the ambivalent status of a barbarian, was both the first theologian and a priest of the only God, was credited with miraculous works and bears some resemblance to David as a singer of sacred songs. Mithraism was commonly seen as a rival to Christianity, and similarities were denounced by Christians as plagiarisms; the cult nonetheless seems to furnish the iconography to which some forms of Gnosticism supply the text. The Hermetica offer a synthesis of biblical imagery with a vulgarised Platonism which rendered them particularly serviceable to some Christian apologists, though they remained questionable as models for dogma.
