| 11. | Joining Isis's cult was therefore a sharper change in identity than in many other mystery cults.
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| 12. | The mystery cults, and gives a census of past vegetarians, starting with the semi-mythical Epimenides.
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| 13. | It was during this anticlerical era that Dupuis claimed that Christianity was a distorted offshoot of ancient mystery cults.
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| 14. | This followed the hierarchical patterns of the various mystery cults that were popular at the time in the Roman Empire.
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| 15. | Astrological themes appeared in many other cults in the Roman Empire, including another mystery cult, dedicated to Mithras.
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| 16. | But by the large and as long as they kept a low profile such Mystery cults were also left in peace.
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| 17. | Non-Christians in the Roman Empire in the early centuries CE thought Christianity and the mystery cults resembled each other.
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| 18. | Another Roman mystery cult in which a sacrificial bull played a role was that of the 1st-4th century Mithraic Mysteries.
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| 19. | Similarly, the sacred meals shared by the initiates of many mystery cults have been compared with the Christian rite of communion.
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| 20. | Bowden doubts that afterlife beliefs were a very important aspect of mystery cults and therefore thinks their resemblance to Christianity was small.
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