Shinobi

Do people consider the similarities between the Jesus myth and older myths from Greece, Egypt, Asia (eg. Mithra) a good case aginst a historical jesus or do you consider it grasping at straws?

I personally think it's a good case, high on the list of good HJ smackdowns along with the lack of (reliable) extra biblical records and internal contradictions.

I'd like to hear what people think.

Peter Kirby

In this area, four things are important:

1. Documenting the ancient source in which the deity/figure is described in a certain way (NOT A SCHOLAR'S WORD).
2. Evaluating the similarities accurately, without importing terminology from Christian theology unless warranted.
3. Dating the ancient source and drawing a plausible line of dependence (e.g. Aztec mythology has no influence on the NT).
4. Determining how fundamental the trait is to the JC mythos, e.g. a date of birth on Dec. 25 wouldn't be such.

But the first one is absolutely the most important. Often a person making this kind of argument will reference the work of a scholar, i.e. a secondary source. This makes it just that much harder for a reader to evaluate the evidence--first the scholar has to be looked up (and then any further references back) and then the original document is identified--if it is, while often it won't be there.

I definitely think that early Christianity was influenced by ideas current among Greeks, Syrians, and others. It is our job to investigate carefully and sort out what claimed parallels have substance and what isn't properly documented. Then we can put forward reasonable conclusions.

Unfortunately, most people who have written on this topic have come to the table with a desire to minimize or maximize the degree of borrowing, not letting the evidence speak for itself. If anyone is aware of a good book in this area, I would be quite interested.

best,
Peter Kirby

MetalStoner

All it does is show where the people who created myths about jesus got their ideas from.

I think jesus, like buddha, was a man worshipped as a god and had myths put to his name, period. The pre-jesus similarities just shed light on where the mythmakers got their ideas from.

It's not at all odd that the myths they gave to jesus would reflect earlier myths about gods/goddesses, because to his cult, jesus was a god. So, when people made myths about jesus, they would attribute god-myths to him.

I guess it could be used for the case that jesus was 100% myth. However, I think there was probably a real man behind the myths.