Was Jesus a big copycat?

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 7/5/08 at 11:40pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[tazber]

Posted: 7/5/08 at 11:54pm

He was such a hack.
Like Shakespeare to Marlowe.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 12:01am

Christian Elements have been lifted from many religions that had come before. The Cult of Mithra for example, and various other Egyptian sects have similar rites, events and teachings some almost word for word and were practices years before the birth of Jesus.
I believe the early Christians would use the "Yeah that's the ticket!" technique of weaving a story that would get converts.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 12:07am

Except in the case of Christians, it's all true.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 12:09am

Yes and watch how quickly ones faith is shaken and how hard they will fight to believe when they worship the messenger more then the message.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 12:22am

What do the Obamatistas have to do with anything?

[nitsua]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 2:33am

I think the early Catholics stole the Heathen message more than anything.

I mean, Christmas is pretty much an exact copy of Saturnmas. I don't expect anyone at BWW to be familiar with this holiday but I thought i'd throw that out there.

My friend Sean has a kitty named Bellatrix. I love it! He also thinks that Helena should've won an Oscar for Mrs Lovett.

[KrissySim]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 2:59am

There is nothing in the Bible stating the Date of the birth of Jesus. Christmas and the Feast of the Nativity are two somewhat different things. I think that they probably ex post facto chose the dates (Dec. 25 / Jan 6-7) due to coincidence with existing feasts/festivals or holy days. Easier dates to get people to adopt, even though descriptions of shepherds watching flocks at night may coincide more with springtime.

I've read that historians place the birth of the historical Jesus at about 5 or 6 BC. But I am in no way a Biblical scholar. Modern methods of journalism, historical accounting and scientific inquiry did not exist back then. Journalism and history became fused with folklore, superstition, art, poetry and maybe a bit of propaganda.

Can anyone tell I'm somewhat agnostic? Nope, I'm not an atheist.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 9:08am

The cult of Mythrus has a little more in common with Christianity then sharing feast dates. Mythrus was martyred in battle, a bloddy tortured death and then rose after three days. His cult predates Christianity by at least 300 years.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 4:37pm

and yet almost no one knows who he is and almost everybody knows who jesus is.

as far as the stone? it's gonna turn out to be as influential and world changing as most of the other "finds" have been that have challenged the core of christianity. so good luck with this one.