Serapis Christus Your Christ

Simply put, Serapis (Sarapis, Zaparrus) was an invented god. He was a composite of several Egyptian and Hellenistic deities who was introduced to the world at the beginning of the Ptolemaic (Greek) Period in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy I, though his legacy lasted well into the Roman period. Thus, he was meant to form a bridge between the Greek and Egyptian religion in a new age in which their respective gods were bought face to face with each other, so that both Egyptians and Greeks could find union in a specific supreme entity.

Linguistically, the god's name is a fusion of Osiris and the bull Apis, which by the Greek period might be said to have represented the essence of Egyptian religion. In fact, a cult of this combination god, named Osirapis (or Userhapi, Asar-Hapi), had existed in Egypt prior to the rule of the Ptolemies. Osirapis was basically the ssacred bull of Memphis after its death. According to the hieroglyphic texts which were found on stelae and other objects in the Serapeum at Sakkara, established long before the Greek Period, Apis is called "the life of Osiris, the lord of heaven, Tem {with} his horns {in} his head." and he is said to "give life, strength, health, to thy nostrils for ever."

Elsewhere from the 18th Dynasty, Osirapis is described as, "the great god, Khent, Amentet, the lord of life forever," Apis and Osiris were joined together by the priests of Memphis, where the attributes of Apis had been made to assume a funeral character and hence recognized as a god of the Underworld. On a monument of the 19th Dynasty, Apis is said to be "the renewed life of Ptah," and in an inscription of the 25th Dynasty he is called the "second Ptah." In the same text we have a mention of the "temple of Asar-Hapi (Osirapis)," and here it is clear that his identity had been merged with that of Osiris. The identification of Apis with Osiris was easy enough, because one of the most common names of Osiris was "Bull of the West". Apis was, in fact, believed to be animated by the soul of Osiris, and to be Osiris incarnate. The appearance of a new Apis was regarded as a new manifestation of Osiris upon earth.