A Short History of Linking Jesus and Dionysus

Posted on August 7, 2024 
Filed under History, Resources

“Controversy was stirred by a tableau vivant (‘living picture’) in the Paris Olympic Games Opening Ceremony that performed (or parodied) da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The scene was enacted by a cast of drag queens and a peculiar near-naked man painted head to toe in blue. Enough has been said about the event itself; I want to talk about that man in blue.

The Opening Ceremony’s creative director has since explained that this man represented none other than the Greek god of wine, Dionysus. It raised the question, what was this scene? A mockery of the sacred, or a celebration of the pagan?

I find myself oddly well placed to talk about this.

Two years ago, I completed my doctorate at Cambridge University. My thesis? A contrast between the Gospel of John and the portrayal of Dionysus’s opponents in Euripides’ tragedy, The Bacchae. For three years I immersed myself in this play and took as many classes as I could on Dionysus. And now I discover that my thesis on Greek poetry has real-world application! It’s every doctoral student’s dream come true!…’

– Moore College’s Tom Habib writes at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

It just might be something you could use in conversation.

He notes:

“Two millennia ago, the ancient world began to exchange Dionysus for Jesus. And it seems as though the world now wants to swap back. The tableau vivant at the Opening Ceremony was indeed a living picture of our world today.”