Posted on 01/23/2025 2:44:18 PM PST by daniel1212
Analysis of general principles used by the "borrowing" thesis.
Some notes on alleged parallels between Christianity and pagan religions -- an introductory commentary by a classical scholar writing for us as "Justin Martyr"
On Napoleon as Myth translated by "Justin Martyr"
Glenn Miller's general essay refuting the pagan-copycat thesis
Creation Ministries International on Indian creation myths
Figures claimed to be sources for the Old Testament. Named entities in alphabetical order.
Akhenaten -- Did the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten influence Jewish monotheism?
Sargon -- Did the story of this Assyrian king influence the story of Moses?
Sinuhe -- Did the story of this Egyptian hero influence the Exodus account?
Was the creation account "stolen" from the Babylonian creation account?
Is the Biblical Flood story borrowed from pagan accounts? -- from Glenn Miller's Christian Thinktank.
Did NT Biblical writers "rip off" stories from the Old Testament? -- from Glenn Miller's Christian Thinktank. Also see our article on Randel Helms (right column).
Is the Christian fish symbol derived from pagan symbols?
Abraham Lincoln was a copy of John F. Kennedy!
Figures claimed to be sources for the life of Jesus. Named entities in alphabetical order.
Adonis -- The Greek deity: A source for the life of Jesus?
Alcides (Or Hercules) --The Greek strongman/demigod.
Alexander of Abonuteichos -- A charismatic figure who started a quasi-religious movement; this is more of a claim of a social parallel.
Apollonius of Tyana -- Pagan performer of miracles and traveller.
Attis -- Phrygian and later Greco-Roman demigod. Also discusses the ritual of the "tauribolium".
Baal -- Ancient Near Eastern deity.
Balder -- Norse deity. Also discusses Frey.
Beddru of Japan -- As it happens -- a non-existent entity.
Buddha -- Two entries on this figure; one here and another here.
Chu Chulainn -- Celtic hero.
Crite -- As far as I can find, another non-existent figure.
Dazhdbog -- Russian heroic figure.
Deva Tat -- Heroic figure from Siam.
Dionysus -- Greek god of wine.
Hesus -- Deity associated with druids.
Horus -- Egyptian deity. Also covers Osiris.
Krishna -- Hindu deity. Two essays, one here on moral teachings and one here on life story.
Mithra -- Persian deity.
Osiris -- Egyptian deity.
Prometheus -- Greek demigod.
Quetzalcoatl -- Mesoamerican deity.
Salivahana -- Indian teacher.
Serapis -- Mediterranean deity.
Tammuz -- Sumerian shepherd-god.
Zamloxis -- Thracian hero.
Zoar -- Unknown figure.
Zoroaster -- Religious founder.
Essays and book reviews on persons who promote "copycat" theories.
Acharya S -- Preserves the work of 19th century freethinkers.
Atwill, Joseph -- author of Caesar's Messiah.
ben-Jochanon, Yosef -- from the school that says it was all borrowed from Africa.
Campbell, Joseph -- General proponent of copying of ideas via Jungian archaetypes.
Freke, Timothy and Peter Gandy -- review of The Jesus Mysteries
Graham, Lloyd M. -- author of Deceptions and Myths of the Bible
Greenberg, Gary -- author of 101 Myths of the Bible
Harpur, Tom -- author of The Pagan Christ
Helms, Randel --Author of Gospel Fictions, which proposes that the NT borrowed content from the OT.
Higgins, Godfrey -- early proponent of the copycat thesis.
Kalopoulus, Michael -- review of Biblical Religion: The Great Lie
Kuhn, Alvin Boyd -- a proponent early last century. Sample items commenting on his works Mary Magdalene and Her Seven Devils and Who Is This King of Glory?
MacDonald, Dennis -- Author of The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark
Massey, Gerald -- another early proponent.
Price, Robert -- Review of Deconstructing Jesus.
Lord Raglan by "Justin Martyr" -- Raglan was an early proponent of the "copycat" thesis.
Thompson, Thomas -- review of The Messiah Myth
Shattering the Christ Myth -- my own book, with several chapters on the subject; hub page for the book here and see new website here featuring updated versions
Recommended Books -- a bibliography of books on the historical Jesus
Deeper Waters interview with Joe Mulvilhill
Meanwhile, for the keyword adding poster who thinks this "belongsinreligion" forum, not only is that ignorant (as if beliefs are not related to conservation vales) but by that measure he do not belong on the officially pro-God (of the Bible) FR.
It doesn’t make them fictional, it just makes them non-Jewish. Noah was not a Jew.
On a related note: centuries before the ancient Greeks said that everything is made of 4 elements, Genesis said that God made Adam from the dust of the ground. Sounds to me like the Greeks were the copycats. LOL
There is absolutely no question that many of the Old Testament Bible stories were borrowed from previous sources.
So what? That does not make them untrue.
“These things which are allegory.”
The ancweints for the most part did not write hstory. They wrote mythology where “they hid there wisdom.”
Greeks were pretty ahead of their time.
They got some things right that NO ONE ANYWHERE had said or thought yet.
It doesn’t disprove the Bible, just like the Bible doesn’t disprove Greeks being ahead of their time.
True that.
So you ignored the article. Not surprised.
I call them “keyword cowards”.
They use keywords to take digs at the poster without having the manhood to do it publicly.
That said, other religions took what was known about God and corrupted it and it devolved into their own religion or mythology.
Y’all have to remember the Bible is the inspired
word of God.
If Genesis was written by Moses why are there
three creation accounts?
The Bible is not a history text,
it is many interpretations of the word of God
as the authors felt compelled to write and
Christian churches choose to include in their book.
It is all about faith.
One of the hardest things modern humans
have to do is have faith in something
they physically never saw, touched, or
experienced. Even Jews of his time could
not accept Jesus after seeing his works, death and resurrection in person.
It is all about Faith in something bigger than us.
And our God asks us to Love people we don’t like.
Allah demands them to kill people they don’t like.
Which is easier?
Bookmark.
In modern stories people destined for greatness rarely start off privileged. They are dropped off at the doorstep of an orphanage or abandoned in the rain. This literary motif goes back to ancient stories, where writers use the abandoned child theme to identify a character that rises from obscurity to privileged hero status. It’s a motif found in the biblical account of Moses’ birth. But is that really the whole story?
Moses’ story begins when Pharaoh feels threatened by the growing Hebrew population in Egypt and commands that all Hebrew male infants be killed (Exod 1:16–22). Moses’ mother hides her newborn son for three months and then devises a risky but calculated plan: She sets him adrift on the Nile in a small basket made of bulrushes, waterproofed with bitumen and pitch (2:1–3). Moses’ older sister, Miriam, watches as the basket floats to where the daughter of Pharaoh bathes. God uses these circumstances to bring Moses under the protection of Egypt’s ruler (2:4–10).
Ancient literature outside the Bible attests to several stories in which a child, perceived as a threat by an enemy, is abandoned and later spared by divine intervention or otherworldly circumstance. Roughly 30 stories like this survive from the literature of ancient Mesopotamia, Canaan, Greece, Egypt, Rome and India.
The Mesopotamian work known as the Sargon Birth Legend offers the most striking parallels to the biblical story. It relates the birth story of Sargon the Great, an Akkadian emperor who ruled a number of Sumerian city-states around 2000 bc, centuries before the time of Moses. The infant boy is born into great peril: His mother is a high priestess, and he is illegitimate. Consequently, his mother sets him adrift on a river in a reed basket. The boy is rescued and raised by a gardener named Akki in the town of Kish. He becomes a humble gardener in Akki’s service until the goddess Ishtar takes an interest in him, setting him on the path to kingship.
Some assume that the biblical story of Moses’ birth was based on the Sargon Birth Legend, but this is unlikely. Although ancient Sumerian accounts of Sargon the Great date back to his lifetime, the legendary account of his birth is known from only four fragmentary tablets—three from the Neo-Assyrian period (934–605 bc) and one from the Neo-Babylonian period (626–539 bc). During the Neo-Assyrian period an Assyrian king took the name Sargon II and likely commanded the legends to be written about his namesake (722–705 bc). By doing so, he would have linked himself to the ancient hero and glorified himself as a “revived Sargon” figure. This would suggest that the birth legend was composed for propaganda purposes well after the biblical story of Moses.
The existence of stories like the Sargon Birth Legend help us understand the biblical story. They show that the abandoned child theme was a popular literary strategy for the ancients. They used it to introduce a figure who rises from mundane origins after gaining favor from fate or the divine. The common elements in these rags-to-riches stories helped ancient audiences identify with the central figure and develop respect for his achievements.
Moses’ story is about more than parallels, though. While Moses briefly seems to find favor and protection in the household of Pharaoh, a quasi-divine figure for the Egyptians, his life takes a surprising turn. He ends up leaving the kingdom of Egypt fearing that Pharaoh will kill him. From there, the story is repatterned: In a wilderness of Midian, Yahweh appears to Moses, now an obscure shepherd “slow of speech and of tongue” (4:10). He tells Moses to act as His spokesperson before Pharaoh and lead His people out of Egypt.
Moses stands out against the stories of the ancient cultures because he isn’t promoted like their chosen figures, but saved and demoted to poverty so that he can lead others to salvation. He is the new archetype of the chosen hero—one who is promoted only for the benefit of others. Over and against the stories of worldly kingdoms, Moses’ story articulates God’s remarkable work for His kingdom. His values are different from ours, and as is often the case in retrospect, we can be grateful for that.
😂
Jesus directly referred to JONAH Which is ,No Doubt the most Scoffed at Book in our Bible-— which tells me It’s Original and Truthful to the smallest Detail.
Great point.
Behind each religious/philosophical text is a narrative voice that tells us the “secret” as to how to most smoothly and efficaciously navigate what we understand as consciousness, reality, or life.
That’s the key to how to evaluate the substance of each of them.
The Bible works. And the rest do not to the extent that they are in opposition to the Bible.
Not fictional—just borrowed. Many religions have a Noah and flood story. Joseph may have been borrowed from Egyptian genius Imhotep—who had 12 sons and lived to be 120—like Joseph. Strangely enough, Imhotep only believed in one God—like Joseph.
Remember a few years ago when agnostics and atheists tried to claim Jesus was really Mithra? They even had an illustration of Mithra on the cross. Professional archeologists and Middle Eastern theologians who studied such things said the illustration was a modern fake.
Over the years I have read of agnostics who concoct wild stories about Christianity and pass it into the Christian culture to see how fast it will spread.
Futhermore, there is a spiritual power behind religions, ideologies, and ideas.
They can be evaluated as to their evil message.
Boy, the way Glenn Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.