Is Christianity based on older religions.

[Autumnleaf]

A friend of mine who is a tree hugger says Christianity is based on older religions from Egypt. He mentions lots of stuff like similarities in the Bible where Jesus is the light of the world so he says Jesus is compared to the sun God. He menitons stuff about Joseph in the Old Testament having 12 brothers who sold him out and Jesus having 12 desciples in the New Testament. He has all kinds of little comparisons like this.

Is there any study on this which I can go over so I can address his concerns?

 

[Joykins]

Some aspects of Christianity existed in pre-Christian religions. The savior figure who dies and returns to life exists in several myths. Virgin birth stories -- and children of gods and mortal women-- were also common in the Mediterranean pagan religions.

 

[E.C.]

Christianity is a religion all its own. This is something people neglect.

The only religion that one could say Christianity is "based off" of is Judaism.

 

[E.C.]

Also, somebody define "archetype".

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

A friend of mine who is a tree hugger says Christianity is based on older religions from Egypt. He mentions lots of stuff like similarities in the Bible where Jesus is the light of the world so he says Jesus is compared to the sun God. He menitons stuff about Joseph in the Old Testament having 12 brothers who sold him out and Jesus having 12 desciples in the New Testament. He has all kinds of little comparisons like this.

Is there any study on this which I can go over so I can address his concerns?

Considering how often Egypt and Pharaoh are mentioned in the Bible I can see why a lot of comparisons can be made on those myths/legends.
Interesting that Egypt is used 24 times in the NT which would be 12 x 2.

(egypt)
occurs 611 times in 558 verses in the KJV

Strong's Number H4714 matches the Hebrew מצרים (Mitsrayim).
AV — Egypt 586, Egyptian 90, Mizraim 4, Egyptians + 01121 1

Strong's Number G125 matches the Greek Αἴγυπτος (Aigyptos).
AV — Egypt 24

 

[Carey]

A friend of mine who is a tree hugger says Christianity is based on older religions from Egypt. He mentions lots of stuff like similarities in the Bible where Jesus is the light of the world so he says Jesus is compared to the sun God. He menitons stuff about Joseph in the Old Testament having 12 brothers who sold him out and Jesus having 12 desciples in the New Testament. He has all kinds of little comparisons like this.

Is there any study on this which I can go over so I can address his concerns?

The Roman Catholic church started includung synbolism and ritualism of other religions.

The Jesus and the desciples of course only included the oldest religion in their practices. Judaism.

 

[E.C.]

The Roman Catholic church started includung synbolism and ritualism of other religions.

The Jesus and the desciples of course only included the oldest religion in their practices. Judaism.

So, if Catholicism "started includung" ritualism, than did Orthodoxy start "includung" ritualism?

 

[davidoffinland]

From Finland.

From what I have studied and look at, many people try to make some sort of connection between Christianity and the ancient religions of Egypt, or Rome and Greece For example, the similarites of the bread and wine comparing this to the same in the mystery religions of Greece, or the virgin birth. Try as you may....

There is no connection whatsoever in what G-D has done for the salvation of mankind and the attempts of man in finding some sort of satisfactin for his role in religion. Man has lost that divine image after the fall and he has tried through religion...i.e. his attempts to restore that image through ceremony. Man has a religious nature. But it had to be the LORD GOD, YHWH, who restored that image in His Messiah.

In Him, david.

 

[artybloke]

The Jesus and the desciples of course only included the oldest religion in their practices. Judaism.

A Judaism, however, that was itself influenced by such religions as Zoroastrianism (from Persia & Babylon) and by Greek philosophy (via Alexander the Great's conquests of the ancient near east.) And, of course, Egypt was where Jesus escaped to...

 

[LamorakDesGalis]

here Jesus is the light of the world so he says Jesus is compared to the sun God. He menitons stuff about Joseph in the Old Testament having 12 brothers who sold him out and Jesus having 12 desciples in the New Testament

And I suppose he also makes a connection between Jesus being the cornerstone and the cornerstone of a pyramid. These are all surface stuff that have no real connections. What he is attempting to do is prove the "Jesus was a Myth" idea. However the "Jesus was a Myth" idea has been considered as refuted by scholars.

Is there any study on this which I can go over so I can address his concerns?

People have been trying to find the "origins" of Christianity through comparison of Greek, Babylonian, and Egyptian religions. Here are some links which show these folks are wrong:

www.frontline-apologetics.com/resurrection_of_osiris_.htm

www.about-jesus.org/fiveways.htm

http://www.about-jesus.org/paganism.htm

www.thedevineevidence.com/jesus_similarities.html

http://www.summit.org/resource/essay/show_essay.php?essay_id=29

www.tektonics.org/copycat/copycathub.html




In the 1800s a man named Alexander Hislop wrote a book called Two Baylons attempting to "prove" the Roman Catholic Church is a pagan organization. In this day and age another man named Ralph Woodrow wrote a book promoting Hislop's views that the RCC was a pagan organization. When he did further research he came to the conclusion that Hislop's claims were fraudulent. So Woodrow wrote another book that discredited Hislop's theories.

Although Hislop said that the origin was Babylon, he made all sorts of connections with just about all the other ancient religions including the assertion that the Babylonian religion migrated to Egypt. Really though, refuting Hislop and similar views is on the same level as proving or disproving the existence of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. Lots of hype plus no real evidence.

Here are a few sites that address Hilsop:

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1999/9911chap.asp

http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/were_catholics_pagan.htm


LDG

 

[Rick Otto]

where I heard about angels teaching Adam & Seth?
The symbols of the Mazzaroth told the story of creation before Nimrod corrupted it into The Zodiac.

So consider a reverse hypothesis:
All world religions are derivative of truths taught our original ancestors & then corrupted by ensuing civilizations.

So that later, when the original truths were expressed in Christianity, the resemblences led to the OP hypothesis.

 

[Tapioman]

I would say, rituals, cults practised by early Christians are somewhat based on older thoughts and ideas. Christmas for example is dated same day as The Sun God of Egypt just for that no one has to celebrate on a different day. The question is that how can one believe 'truths' that may have been influenced by any random thing?

 

[E.C.]

Food for thought:

When something evil is used for good and stays good, it is no longer evil. It is evil converted or become good.

With that in mind, does it really matter that Jews, Pagans, Zorostars and Christians all use altars in some way, shape or form?

 

[MarkEvan]

I know many who say that christianity is derived from many older religions, and it is true that a lot of what is recorded in scripture is found in many other religions, the flood for exaple, it is also true that many OT practices can be found in other religions, but does that immediatly mean that christianity is "borrowed?" No i find it interesting how these people always say "christianity borrowed this story from this religion," and yet it never crosses their minds that other religions may have borrowed things from christianity.


Mark


Oh and by the way I include all of what we would call the OT, in christianity.

 

[disasm]

It's not that Christianity is derived from other religions, but that all religions point to Christ. Not all religions contain THE truth (Jesus said "I am the Truth"), but they contain some truth, and the truth they contain points to Christ. This is why the early church didn't abolish pagan traditions (with a lowercase t), but showed the pagans the truth in their traditions and rituals and how it pointed to Christ. Christians would constantly take a Feast in their faith, like the Nativity of Christ, and then if a pagan ritual was near in time to it, for example winter solstice, they would move the date of the pagan ritual and allow them to continue the rituals in this new light of how they related to Christ. Christians never let the pagan traditions modify they faith, but let the faith modify the pagan traditions. It's really awesome if you think about it.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner.

 

[Touma]

First, we must realize that all pagan and false religions are deceived by satan. Satan knows the word of God, so don't you think he, in order to lead people astray from the straight and narrow, would decieve people and make it look like there are similarities, or that our faith is based on one of those pagan ones? It makes sense to me. He will do what ever he can to lead us astray, even invent lies that say that what Christ did, wasn't extra-ordinary, and make it seem less worthy by saying that the same type of story is found in many other religions.

 

[artybloke]

First, we must realize that all pagan and false religions are deceived by satan

Considering that Satan is a mythological figure imported from Zoroastrianism into late Judaism, I don't see why we must.

 

[2cents]

I would say, rituals, cults practised by early Christians are somewhat based on older thoughts and ideas. Christmas for example is dated same day as The Sun God of Egypt just for that no one has to celebrate on a different day. The question is that how can one believe 'truths' that may have been influenced by any random thing?

Christmas wasn't practised by early Christians.

 

[Touma]

Christmas wasn't practised by early Christians.

Many things we hold as christian isn't really, but we have allowed the world to blend with the church, and now look at the mess we have. Its truly sad.

 

[cyberlizard]

for sure there are similarities. The styles of poetry in genesis are canaanite (stylistically speaking), good swathes of the Pslams are similar to the language used in egyptian poetry. The style of the ten commandments is also like that of canaanite legal documents.

But all that said. We should not just presume that judaism and christianity as synthesised faiths. Everyone writes things in the style of the culture they live at any given time.

The difference between judaism and christianity is that they are faiths of divine revelation (assuming you accept the account of the scriptures).

I would recommend everyone read 'our father abraham: the jewish roots of the christian faith' by brad young.

Steve