For Christians, Why is there similarities of Jesus and other 'mythology' gods?

[savethedreams]

Why does stories of Jesus, and other stories in the bible very similar to mythologies that came before Jesus?

 

[Pegg]

Why does stories of Jesus, and other stories in the bible very similar to mythologies that came before Jesus?

What the churchs have been teaching is a paganized Christianity, whereby they have sought to explain Christianity in terms of Pagan ideas.

But what you must know is that not all that is taught about Jesus is in accord with what we read about him in the NT. Church doctrines are not to be confused with the inspired word of God.

 

[ninerbuff]

What the churchs have been teaching is a paganized Christianity, whereby they have sought to explain Christianity in terms of Pagan ideas.

But what you must know is that not all that is taught about Jesus is in accord with what we read about him in the NT. Church doctrines are not to be confused with the inspired word of God.

This jesus is a nothing more than a mere man. Hebrew to Greek translations were erred and some of them gave people the notion that jesus came about from a virgin birth.
The actual Hebrew scripture if translated correctly was that a "young maiden" gave birth. That word in Hebrew is "almah". But when it was translated it became "partenos" in Greek which means "virgin". There is a word for "virgin" in Hebrew and that word is "bethulah". Now IF jesus virgin birth supposedly made him the son of god, then why in the OT is the word "bethulah" not used and "almah" in it's place? This is part of the reason that Jews don't believe jesus was the messiah that has been prophesized.
So yes the NT IS following pagan stories as well as mythology (which was a religion at one time) to the amazement of humans at that time.

 

[Pegg]

This jesus is a nothing more than a mere man. Hebrew to Greek translations were erred and some of them gave people the notion that jesus came about from a virgin birth.
The actual Hebrew scripture if translated correctly was that a "young maiden" gave birth. That word in Hebrew is "almah". But when it was translated it became "partenos" in Greek which means "virgin".

the verse is from Isaiah 7:14 Therefore Jehovah himself will give YOU men a sign: Look! The maiden herself will actually become pregnant"
It is true that almah does not necessarily mean “virgin” the way bethulah does, but it is applied to virgins in several places such as at Genesis 24:43 with reference to Rebecca: "...What must occur is that the maiden (almah) coming out to draw water to whom I shall actually say: “Please, let me drink a little water from your jar,” In vs 16 it specifically mentions Rebecca as a virgin Genesis 24:15-16 "Now the young woman was very attractive in appearance, a virgin (bethulah), and no man had had sexual intercourse with her
So a maiden can be a young unmarried woman who, in those days, would generally be a virgin which is likely why the term is applied to Mary...she was young and unmarried and a virgin at the time.

There is a word for "virgin" in Hebrew and that word is "bethulah". Now IF jesus virgin birth supposedly made him the son of god, then why in the OT is the word "bethulah" not used and "almah" in it's place? This is part of the reason that Jews don't believe jesus was the messiah that has been prophesized.

The oldest written translation of the Hebrew Scriptures is the Greek Septuagint (LXX), and this Greek translation was begun in the third century B.C. by Greek-speaking Jews. Thus it was the Jews themselves that gave the meaning of “virgin” to the Hebrew word ‘al‧mah′ at Isaiah 7:14. If the jews of today render it in a different way then thats a matter for them, but you should realise that it was the jews of the 3 bce who rendered almah as 'virgin' in their own greek translation of the hebrew scriptures...it had nothing to do with christians.

 

[ninerbuff]

the verse is from Isaiah 7:14 Therefore Jehovah himself will give YOU men a sign: Look! The maiden herself will actually become pregnant"
It is true that almah does not necessarily mean “virgin” the way bethulah does, but it is applied to virgins in several places such as at Genesis 24:43 with reference to Rebecca: "...What must occur is that the maiden (almah) coming out to draw water to whom I shall actually say: “Please, let me drink a little water from your jar,” In vs 16 it specifically mentions Rebecca as a virgin Genesis 24:15-16 "Now the young woman was very attractive in appearance, a virgin (bethulah), and no man had had sexual intercourse with her
So a maiden can be a young unmarried woman who, in those days, would generally be a virgin which is likely why the term is applied to Mary...she was young and unmarried and a virgin at the time.

You are making an assumption that she was a virgin before becoming pregnant. Even in proverbs King Solomon mentions that the "almah" can't be proven not to have lain with someone. (proverbs 30:18-20) We don't know that. And again so not to confuse ANYONE, the word "bethulah" would have been the MOST appropriate word for description, yet it wasn't. To bad we didn't have DNA testing back then. I'd bet dollars to donuts that joseph was the real father.

The oldest written translation of the Hebrew Scriptures is the Greek Septuagint (LXX), and this Greek translation was begun in the third century B.C. by Greek-speaking Jews. Thus it was the Jews themselves that gave the meaning of “virgin” to the Hebrew word ‘al‧mah′ at Isaiah 7:14. If the jews of today render it in a different way then thats a matter for them, but you should realise that it was the jews of the 3 bce who rendered almah as 'virgin' in their own greek translation of the hebrew scriptures...it had nothing to do with christians.

The first translations had much more "editing" done well before the bible was finished. It's safe to say that there could have been mistranslations in the original translations.

 

[Pegg]

The first translations had much more "editing" done well before the bible was finished. It's safe to say that there could have been mistranslations in the original translations.

of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint is Papyrus 957, the Rylands Papyrus iii. 458, preserved in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, England. It is of the second century B.C.E

manuscripts dont come much older then that. Those who translated the Septuagint were 70 hebrew and greek speaking Jewish scholars... so it might be easy for 2 or 3 or 4 scholars to make a translation error with the word in question, but it would be highly improbable for all 70 to make the same mistake.....Unless of course it wasnt a mistake. A young girl may have been considered both maiden and virgin... a virgin because she was a maiden and a maiden because she was a virgin. Morals were strictly guarded back in those days and what you are assuming is that young women were as free as the women of today are. They weren't. The culture forbade young women from such things and the culture protected them from them too.

 

[dmgdnooc]

Why does stories of Jesus, and other stories in the bible very similar to mythologies that came before Jesus?

At the time of Noah there was only one religion.
In that religion prophecies of Christ were a feature, and all of Noah's descendants would have known something of that religion and its prophecies.
With the confusion of languages each of the families went its own way and developed its own version of that original religion and most retained some of the information regarding Christ.
Over time the information became variously garbled as the limits of translation, oral transmission and transitory local politics had their impact on the message.
　
That there are aspects of Christ found in other religions is to be expected in the circumstances that the Bible describes.
A problem for the Bible would arise if aspects of Christ could not be found in other religions.
　
Further, as Pegg points out, there was also a flow-back of information after Christ, whereby the nascent Church attempted to incorporate aspects of the garbled messages back into its scheme.

 

[Mister Emu]

Most of the supposed pagan similarities are out-right fabrications(that Horus had a virgin birth), misleading(being born on Dec. 25, ignoring that very few, if any, Christians believe that Jesus was actually born on Dec. 25), or our sources of information actually come after Jesus(Roman Mithraism).

 

[Breathe]

Most of the supposed pagan similarities are out-right fabrications(that Horus had a virgin birth), misleading(being born on Dec. 25, ignoring that very few, if any, Christians believe that Jesus was actually born on Dec. 25), or our sources of information actually come after Jesus(Roman Mithraism).

Even though some are similar, that is very true.

Some of the funnier fabrications I have seen are Buddha and Krishna were crucified, with the latter also being born on Dec. 25th. None of these are true, but some people will still argue otherwise.


I'll step out now, since this isn't my territory.