DID THE NT BORROW FROM PAGAN MYTHS?

I asked him why he had renounced Jesus. George (invented name) explained that, although the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus appealed to him, it was derived from pagan mythology.

Although I had heard this charge before, it seemed so far-fetched that I never tried to explore it. However, this time, I made a quick search through Wikipedia, no friend of the Christian faith. Here are some of leading pagan candidates I had found:

·       The Synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke are heavily shaped by Jewish tradition, with the Gospel of Matthew deliberately portraying Jesus as a "new Moses". Although it is highly unlikely that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels directly based any of their stories on pagan mythology, it is possible that they may have subtly shaped their accounts of Jesus's healing miracles to resemble familiar Greek stories about miracles associated with Asclepius, the god of healing and medicine. (Wikipedia)

Why would the NT writers have to find their inspiration in the reports of pagan miracles in light of the many OT miracles from which they could have drawn and did draw?

·       [In The Golden Bough, James] Frazer's interpretation of the category has been critically discussed in 20th-century scholarship, to the conclusion that many examples from the world's mythologies included under "dying and rising" should only be considered "dying" but not "rising", and that the genuine dying-and-rising god is a characteristic feature of Ancient Near Eastern mythologies and the derived mystery cults of Late Antiquity.

·       Early in the 20th century, Gerald Massey argued that there are similarities between the Egyptian dying-and-rising god myths and Jesus. However, Massey's historical errors often render his works nonsensical, e.g., Massey stated that the biblical references to Herod the Great were based on the myth of "Herrut" the evil hydra serpent, while the existence of Herod the Great can be well established without reliance on Christian sources. Massey's scholarship has been widely rejected by mainstream academics, including, among many others, Christian Evangelical writers such as Stanley E. Porter.

·       The general applicability of the death and resurrection of Osiris to the dying-and-rising-god analogy has been criticized, on the grounds that it derived from the harvesting rituals that related the rising and receding waters of the Nile river and the farming cycle.

·       In Greek mythology Dionysus, the son of Zeus was a horned child who was torn to pieces by Titans who lured him with toys, then boiled and ate him. Zeus then destroyed the Titans by thunderbolt as a result of their action against Dionysus and from the ashes humans were formed. However, Dionysus' grandmother Rhea managed to put some of his pieces back together (principally from his heart that was spared) and brought him back to life.

Wikipedia concludes:

·       The category "dying-and-rising-god" was debated throughout the 20th century, most modern scholars questioning its ubiquity in the world's mythologies. By the end of the 20th century the overall scholarly consensus had emerged against the category [of a "dying-and-rising-god"…

Besides, pagan mythology had always been utterly rejected by the Israelites of Jesus’ day. To resort to such mythology would have put the kibosh on the New Testament writings, at least in the eyes of Israel.

Even more importantly, the NT writers had explicitly drawn their understanding of Jesus and His resurrection from the Jewish Scriptures as Jesus had directed them to do (Luke 24:25-27, 44-47):

·       “Brothers, I [Peter] may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. (Acts 2:29-32; Psalm 16:27)

The Book of Hebrews draws from Psalm 40:

·       For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” (Hebrews 10:4-7)

In many instances, Jesus also alluded to His death and resurrection in accordance with OT revelation:

·       “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God? (citing Exodus 3): ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:30-32)

To His disciples, Jesus said:

·       “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. (John 14:18-19)

This accorded with the many cryptic OT portraits of the slain Messiah living again (Psalm 22; 69; Isaiah 53; Daniel 9; Zechariah 12:10).

Paul also asserted that the belief in the resurrection is a teaching from the OT. On his first missionary trip, he quoted Psalm 2 in support of the resurrection:

·       “And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ Acts 13:32-33 (ESV)

Later, Paul explained to the Roman governor, Felix:

·       “But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.” (Acts 24:14-15)

Had the resurrection theology been derived from paganism, Paul would have presented this fact before the pagan Felix in hope of gaining sympathy for this global outlook.

Although not every Jew understood this, the resurrection was a Biblical hope, as Paul explained to King Agrippa:

·       “And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:6-8)

The Apostles didn’t find their inspiration from pagan mythology but from the Hebrew Scriptures. Never once did they appeal to these myths as a basis for the Gospel, which they had been teaching. Why would they even consider risking their lives for pagan myths, which they clearly disdained? Instead, the Gospels portrayed them as such racists that even the idea of entering into a pagan household was totally unacceptable to them, let alone bowing before pagan myths.

I was grieved that George had renounced Jesus, but his rejection wasn’t rationally based.