Stories From Around The World 

Similar To That of The Bible

 

As I stated before, I believe in The Bible and God as that is the way I was brought up.

But did you know there are many stories in the Bible that have remarkable similarities with stories from other religions, legends, and myths.

I am not implying that the Bible is false, or copied stories, etc. I am simply pointing out all the similar stories out there from AROUND THE WORLD!
It's quite fascinating.

Commonly Christians argue that these myths simply show that the myths only show that pagans have twisted the myths over time, and that the biblical versions are the original unaltered truth. Texts in the bible telling who wrote it and where they came from tell another story. These biblical texts are backed up by historical records and Scientific dating that tells that the biblical stories were indeed written later.

There are similarities that can be drawn between any two myths. Some of these are relevant and some of them are not. A single unqualified similarity does not mean that there is a connection. When two myths come from the same area there will usually be some awareness of an older myth by the people who profess the newer myth. On the same note, a myth passed down gets generated like the Whisper Game or Telephone Game. Where players assemble in a straight line. The person at the beginning of the line thinks up a phrase and whispers it to the next person in line. That person whispers it to the next person, and so on, until everyone in the line has heard the phrase. The player at the end of the line calls out what he or she heard. Errors typically happen as the phrase goes down the line, so the statement announced by the last player could differ significantly from the one originally stated.

You can only imagine that the reason they have similarities is because they come from the same source and over time, separation, distance, life experiences, forgetting, corruption, and the fact that most old stories were orally taught that the original story changed.

That as you can often see from the nature of man which is selfish that over time he could change religion to rule over his fellow man or by prescribing to false beliefs you add more and more falsities to justify your own beliefs? It is very similar to a lie begetting a lie that begets another lie. Wasn't that one of the main reasons Jesus came to earth was to remind man of what he had fallen away from and how the church at the time was creating laws and ruling over man for their own reasons? That the holders of the lore of humanity were blind themselves and then if they were, how could they properly teach man to find himself and tell the true ways of man? The truth isn't always what we want it to be but what it necessary and ultimately what is true.

These similarities are there, but the fact that there is a similarity does not mean that the myths speak of a universal truth. What may be true for the ancient Israelites and the Sumerians or the Akkadians might not be true of the ancient people of India for example.

It is important to know the similarities are there. 

These myths let people know their place in the modern world. They allow us to see similarities to our distant cousins in Judaism and other religions. They show us not to be offended when an over zealous Evangelical tells us that we are going to hell because we don't believe in God.

The chronology of the Greek myths is very close to that of the Bible. These stories contain a great many personalities and details unheard of in Scripture, Vet of the eight people mentioned in the Biblical ark five (Noah, his wife and the wives of their three Sons) presumably had totally different family trees though only that of Noah's father and one family descended from Cain is recorded in Genesis. Greek tradition could contain any number of historically based legends Which are not Scriptural. More important, however, is the fact that when the Greeks talked of a time before their great flood, they referred to a fall from paradise, and they mentioned characters resembling Cain and Lamech's three sons from Genesis 4. The Greek flood legends sometimes come so close to Scripture that they mention things like a dove being Sent out from the ark, or the sacrifice Noah made when he disembarked on the top of a mountain. After the flood the Greeks have Stories of mass migrations which resemble Genesis 10 even down to the names of some of the participants. Modern scholarship has tended to downplay the fabulous elements of Greek tradition, the stories of Pandora's box and the flood, yet to the ancient Greeks and to those who believe Scripture, they are history.

Although this topic has been much debated, it's commonly accepted by scholars today that the following parts of the Bible may have been influenced by other cultures:

The story of the Garden of Eden

The Greek Tradition
Garden of Eden and Golden Age

The first people lived in a perfect world with no pain and no sadness, this place was called the Garden of Eden.

The first people lived in a perfect world with no pain and no sadness, this was called the Golden Age.

Greek tradition contains many stories similar to those of the first eleven chapters of the Bible: legends of a "Golden Age", like that of Eden, which ended through the first woman's disobedience; characters resembling Cain and the sons of Lamech from Genesis 4; Stories of a great flood and a "Noah," The Greeks also had traditions of mass migrations throughout the eastern Mediterranean shortly after their great flood. These stories have passed down to us through the often conflicting genealogies of the many early Greek states. Such is their similarity to Scripture that these legends must have been rooted in the same events described in Genesis 1 to 11.

Persian Scriptures of the Zoroastrians

In the Persian scriptures of the Zoroastrians, the Avesta tells the story of how Ormuzd created the world and the first two humans in six days and then rested on the seventh. The names of these two human beings were Adama and Evah. These texts date back as far as the 10th century B.C.

There is also a lot of evidence that the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest recorded texts in human history, had an influence on the biblical creation story. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of a man, Enkidu, who was created from the earth by a god. He lives amongst the animals in a natural paradise until he is tempted by a woman, Shamhat. He accepts food from this woman and is forced to leave the place where he lives after becoming aware of his own nakedness. Later in the epic, he encounters a snake which steals a plant of immortality from him. Obviously, there are a lot of parallels between this story and the Garden of Eden from the Bible.

Fall of Mankind

Fall of mankind (Genesis 3). There is a Greek legend, that of Pandora's Box, whose details differ so dramatically from the biblical account of the Fall that one might never suspect a relationship. But they may actually attest to the same historical event. Both stories tell how the very first woman unleashed sin, sickness, and suffering upon the world which had been, up to that point, an Edenic paradise. Both stories end with the emergence of hope, hope in a promised Redeemer in the case of Genesis, and "hope" as a thing having been released from the box at the very end of the Pandora legend.

The Greeks believed that men originally lived "like the gods": free from disease, sorrow or work. Then the first woman was made and, together with her husband, entrusted with a jar that was not to be opened. As long as the couple obeyed the "Golden Age" lasted. But the woman's curiosity finally overcame her and she decided to peek inside.
As Eve's eating of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3) resulted in the expulsion of mankind from paradise and the entrance of death to the world, the Greek woman's peek ended the "Golden Age" and allowed all this world's evils to escape out of the jar.

The "Ungodly Line"  

Various attributes of the scriptural family of Cain (Genesis 4) appear in Greek myths of the preflood era. The southerly genealogies of Argos and Arcadia seemingly allude to Cain in their accounts of one of mankind's second generation who founded the first city and performed the first sacrifice. The Arcadian account repeats the Biblical theme of this man's evil and his committing murder; the stories from Argos are reminiscent of a Hebrew legend that Cain established the first market. The chief Greek god Zeus appears to be a preflood Biblical character named Lamech. While Genesis 4:19-22 describes the three sons of Lamech as the inventors, respectively, of cattle herding, the lyre and pan pipes (NAS) and forging of bronze and iron implements, these same accomplishments are paralleled by Zeus' sons (the sun god) Apollo, (the messenger god) Hermes and (the blacksmith god) Hepaistos. That the Greeks should elevate the memory of Lamech to such heights is understandable when we consider the immense innovations of his sons (presumably carried out during his majority) and the position implied by the literal translation of Lamech: "powerful"

The Story of the Great Flood

The Great Flood 

The flood of Greek tradition was as singular and as shattering an event as that of the Bible. As one account states;
All men were destroyed except for a few who fled to the high mountains of the neighbourhood. It was then that the mountains of Thessaly parted and that all the world outside the Isthmus and the Peloponnesus was

~ Another ancient author mentions the destruction of all plant life and elsewhere Speculates as ~o whether the lack of rainfall in the arid regions of upper Egypt may have allowed that region to escape.

In the Bible it says that men had become corrupt and God's only choice was to pick one man to continue life, and subject everyone else to a flood so they would drown to death. He felt really bad about it though.

Zeus got sick of everyone and decided to kill them all with a gigantic flood.

 

Epic of Gilgamesh

A man is warned of an imminent flood by a god and is instructed to build a large boat in order to survive. The dimensions of the boat are 120 cubits; the building materials are wood, pitch, and reeds; and there are six decks. After the flood, the boat lands on a mountaintop where the man sends out a series of birds to find dry land. He eventually lets all the people and animals free and sacrifices to the god that saved him.

Now although these details sound like they were taken directly from the book of Genesis, you'd find the same information in the story of Utnapishtim, found in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Read The Epic of Gilgamesh here

 

In Greek Mythology

Deucalion / Noah

There can be no mistaking the principal Greek flood hero, Deucalion, for anyone other than Noah. Deucalion, like the Scriptural hero, was prewarned of the deluge to come and built an ark into which he escaped with his wife; was washed, in his ark, to the top of a mountain by the flood waters; released a dove to test conditions before landing; upon disembarking performed a sacrifice to the Almighty and was blessed right after this. Such similarities are too striking to ignore; even secular authorities such as Robert Graves admit the common origin of the Greek and Scriptural tales. Genesis 9:20-27 continues Noah's biography with an anecdote concerning his invention of wine. While there is no corresponding Story about Deucalion, Graves states that "Deucalion's claim to the invention has been suppressed by the Greeks in favour of (their wine god) Dionysus". Deucalion's true part in the discovery is revealed by the literal translation of his name: "new wine sailor"

Postflood Migrations 

Both the Bible and Greek tradition refer to massive migrations in the first few generations after the flood. Genesis 10 outlines the repopulation of the earth by Noah's descendants. The Greeks believed that the nations of Egypt, Libya and Phoenicia derived their names from immigrants of this period. The effect of these immigrations on the Greek area itself was astronomical. The island of Crete was first occupied, the cities of Athens, Thebes and Argos were founded on the mainland, Asia Minor (modern Turkey), the Aegean islands and most of the Greek states were occupied.

Biblical Pattern of Settlement 

The essential pattern of these Greek migration Stories assumes many Biblical aspects. As Genesis 10:21-25 indicates, it was in the fourth postflood generation that mankind dispersed to colonise the earth. The family of Von, usually translated as Javan, is usually associated with the Greek area and the names of three of Von's sons are significant to this study: Elishah (who is sometimes identified with the Aeolian Greeks), Dodanim (who is sometimes identified with the island of Rhodes) and Tarshish (who is sometimes identified with the city of Tarshish in Asia Minor). is The name Von itself, finds quick parallels in several Greek names of the postflood era: Ion, Io and Ino. Of these three names, Io is the most significant: four generations after the flood the descendants of a mythical lady named 10, from Argos, settled much of the Greek area. Two of Io's descendants stopped on the island of Rhodes, already associated with Biblical Dodanim, prior to their arrival on the Greek mainland and a third colonised that same area of Asia Minor that the patriarch Tarshish is said to have reached.20 The patriarch Elishah finds a quick agreement in a Greek postflood hero named Aeolis. Their names (ELIS hah & a IE 0 LIS) bear a resemblance which is further strengthened in the name of Aeolis' kingdom, Hellas (h ELLAS) and in the fact that one of Aeolis' sons founded a colony in the southern Greek state of Elis. Aeolis is perhaps the most prominently mentioned of Deucalion's descendants and it seems significant that his sons were to establish kingdoms in areas as far apart as the northern Greek states of Macedonia, Magnesia and Thessaly and the southern states of Corinth and Elis. Such a wide dispersal of descendants, in positions of power, is precisely what we might expect from the patriarch Elishah. 

The Book of Proverbs

There are a large number of striking similarities between the book of Proverbs in the bible and the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope. Though all surviving texts of the Instruction of Amenemope are of a later date, the works are thought to have been composed during the 12th dynasty. There has been much debate on this topic, but modern scholars agree that there is enough compelling evidence to support the originality of the Instruction of Amenemope. Here are a few examples of the parallel verses:

Proverbs 22:17-18: "Incline thy ear, and hear the words of the wise: and apply thy heart to my doctrine. Which shall be beautiful for thee, if thou keep it in thy bowels, and it shall flow in thy lips."

Amenemope ch1: "Give thine ear, and hear what I say, And apply thine heart to apprehend; It is good for thee to place them in thine heart, let them rest in the casket of thy belly; That they may act as a peg upon thy tongue."

Proverbs 22:22: "Do no violence to the poor, because he is poor: and do not oppress the needy in the gate."

Amenemope ch1: "Beware of robbing the poor, and oppressing the afflicted."

 

Proverbs 23:1: "When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face."

Amenemope ch23: "Eat not bread in the presence of a ruler, And lunge not forward with thy mouth before a governor. When thou art replenished with that to which thou has no right, It is only a delight to thy spittle. Look upon the dish that is before thee, And let that (alone) supply thy need."

See Flood Myths From Around The World

The Ten Commandments

In the Bible, the Ten Commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and were written on stone tablets, allegedly by the hand of God himself. This was thought to take place around 1490 B.C. However when one examines chapter 125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (around 2600 B.C.), it seems he may have had a little help. The Egyptian Book of the Dead reads like the Ten Commandments written in the Negative Confession. Some examples are:

Book of the Dead: "I have not blasphemed."
Exodus 20:7: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain."

Book of the Dead: "I have not committed adultery, I have not lain with men."
Exodus 20:14: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

Book of the Dead: "I have not stolen."
Exodus 20:15: "Thou shalt not steal."

The “Book of the Dead” is the name given to a genre of mortuary spells, magical texts, and accompanying illustrations called vignettes. These were written on sheets of papyrus, the walls of tombs and coffins. They were placed with the dead in order to help them pass through the dangers of the underworld and attain an afterlife of bliss in the Field of Peace. The various texts were composed over thousands of years, and total nearly two hundred, no one media contains them all.

The Code of Hammurabi 

There is also some similarity between the story of the Ten Commandments and the Code of Hammurapi, dated around 1772 B.C.

Hammurabi ruled for nearly 43 years, ca. 1792 to 1750 BC according to the Middle chronology. In the preface to the law, he states, "Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared Marduk, the patron god of Babylon to bring about the rule in the land."

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code of ancient Iraq, formerly Mesopotamia, dating back to about 1772 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a human-sized stone stele and various clay tablets. The Code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis) as graded depending on social status, of slave versus free man.

Nearly one-half of the Code deals with matters of contract, establishing, for example, the wages to be paid to an ox driver or a surgeon. Other provisions set the terms of a transaction, establishing the liability of a builder for a house that collapses, for example, or property that is damaged while left in the care of another. A third of the code addresses issues concerning household and family relationships such as inheritance, divorce, paternity and sexual behavior. Only one provision appears to impose obligations on an official; this provision establishes that a judge who reaches an incorrect decision is to be fined and removed from the bench permanently. A handful of provisions address issues related to military service.

Jesus

Aspects of the Messiah

It is interesting to note the possible influence that other religions in existence at the time of Jesus may have had on his own philosophies. While the pagan aspects of the rituals surrounding Christian celebrations can easily be explained by the fact that these rituals were intended to replace pagan practices, the similarities in philosophy can only be explained through external influence. Although the fundamental aspects of the two religions differ greatly, there are still some remarkable parallels between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Buddha, Mithras, and Zarathustra.

Jesus: “And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner.” (Luke 6:31)
Buddha: “Consider others as yourself.” (Dhammapada 10:1)

 

Jesus: “And to him that striketh thee on the one cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh away from thee thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also.” (Luke 6:29)
Buddha: “If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon any desires and utter no evil words.” (Majjhima Nikaya 21:6)

The successor

Wise men told the people that the King of Jews was to be born and he would challenge authority and change their lives.

Before Zeus, Cronus was king of the gods. He heard that one day he would have a son who would overthrow him.

King Herrod decided the only way to ensure noone would ever take over was to have every single baby up to 2 years old in Bethlehem murdered.

Cronus decided to prevent this by swallowing all his sons as they were born.

God told Joseph to take Jesus and run, so only the uninformed babies would die.

Cronus' wife Rhea hid one of the babies.

Birth Of Jesus Christ 

The Egyptian story of Isis gave birth to Horus while yet a virgin and it was recorded as the birth of the son of god , the Karast '' Christ '' , the Messeh '' Messiah ''. This was written thousands of years before the bible new testament story.

The Christian myths were first related of Horus or Osiris, who was the embodiment of divine goodness, wisdom, truth and purity.

Many of the attributes of Isis, the God-mother, the mother of Horus; and of Neith, the goddess of Sais are identical with those of Mary the Mother of Christ." (page 161) Early Christian stories in the Apocryphal Gospels, which record the wanderings of the Virgin and Child in Egypt are similar to stories found on the Metternich Stela texts about the life of Isis. (page 161) Also, the pictures and sculptures of Isis suckling her child Horus are the foundation for Christian figurines and paintings of the Madonna and Child. Of course, the legend of the birth of Horus has many elements not found even in the Apocryphal Gospels. Egyptian texts mention numerous forms of Horus. In one he is "Heru-sa Ast, sa-Asar, or Horus, son of Isis, son of Osiris." Isis is described in the Hymn to Osiris, as finding and restoring the body of her dead husband, and using magical words given her by Thoth to restore him to life. Then, by uniting with Osiris she conceives Horus. Horus represented the rising sun and in this respect was comparable to the Greek Apollo.

Life events shared by Horus and Jesus

Stories from the life of Horus had been circulating for centuries before Jesus birth (circa 4 to 7 BC). If any copying occurred by the writers of the Egyptian or Christian religions, it was the followers of Jesus who incorporated into his biography the myths and legends of Horus, not vice-versa.

According to author and theologian Tom Harpur: "[Author Gerald] Massey discovered nearly two hundred instances of immediate correspondence between the mythical Egyptian material and the allegedly historical Christian writings about Jesus. Horus indeed was the archetypal Pagan Christ."

Event -

Conception: Horus/by virgin | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/by virgin8

Father: Horus/Only begotten son of the God Osiris. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Only begotten son of Yehovah (in the form of the Holy Spirit).

Mother: Horus/Meri. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Miriam (a.k.a. Mary).

Foster father: Horus/Seb, (Jo-Seph). | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Joseph.

Foster father's ancestry: Horus/Of royal descent. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Of royal descent.

Birth location: Horus/In a cave. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/In a cave or stable.

Annunciation: Horus/By an angel to Isis, his mother. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/By an angel to Miriam, his mother.

Birth heralded by: Horus/The star Sirius, the morning star. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/An unidentified "star in the East."

Birth date: Horus/Ancient Egyptians paraded a manger and child representing Horus through the streets at the time of the winter solstice (typically DEC-21). | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Celebrated on DEC-25. The date was chosen to occur on the same date as the birth of Mithra, Dionysus and the Sol Invictus (unconquerable Sun), etc.

Birth announcement: Horus/By angels. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/By angels.

Death threat during infancy: Horus/Herut tried to have Horus murdered. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Herod tried to have Jesus murdered.

Baptized by: Horus/Anup the Baptiser. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/John the Baptist.

Close followers:Horus/Twelve disciples. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Twelve disciples.

Method of death: Horus/Twelve disciples. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/By crucifixion.

Fate after death: Horus/resurrected after three days. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/resurrected after about 30 to 38 hours (Friday PM to presumably some time in Sunday AM) covering parts of three days.

Common portrayal: Horus/Virgin Isis holding the infant Horus. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.

Description: Horus/the Lamb. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/the lamb.

Zodiac Sign: Horus/Pisces the fish. | Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus/Pisces the fish.

Quotes:

Heru: "I am the possessor of bread in Anu. I have bread in heaven with Ra."
Jesus: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven."

Heru: "I am Horus who stepeth onward through eternity . . . Eternity and everlastingness is my name."
Jesus: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever."

Egyptian/Kemetians: Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Bible: "You reap what you sow."

They very concept of a virgin birth was also copied into the bible in the story of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. Is it interesting that you have Mary and Elizabeth, who are both blood relatives, conceiving a child by the holy ghost.

Jesus and God 

God and Zeus are similar only in apparance, because Zeus was the most powerful and threatening looking god christians could find to rip off.

The Bible's 'Jesus' and Greek mythologys 'Dinoysus, god of wine' were born of a virgin mother and an immortal father. They created a ritual for men to honor them which involves eating and drinking items symobolising their flesh and blood. They died and rose again three days later, still living.

See Our Page on Other Christ-like Figures Who Pre-Date Jesus

 

Moses and Sargon

Greek Legend has it that Sargon was placed in a reed basket and sent down the river by his mother. He was rescued by Aqqi, who then adopted him as his own son.
The same as the story of Moses in Exodus 2.

 

Isaiah

There is an interesting correlation between the Gathas of Zarathushtra Yasna (the sacred texts of the Zoroastrians) and the chapter of creation and book of Isaiah in the Old Testament.
This can be largely attributed to the influence that the Mesopotamians held over the Israelites during the time the Israelites were living in Babylon. Strangely, the book of Yasna asks questions which are answered directly in the book of Isaiah. There are countless other examples of influences from Zoroastrianism, but this one is very compelling.

Some examples of these similarities texts are:

Yasna 44.3 :4-5: "who made the routes of the sun and stars? By whom the moon waxes and wanes?"

Isaiah 40:26: "Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these things: who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth them all by their names: by the greatness of his might, and strength, and power, not one of them was missing."

Yasna 44.4:1-3: "who fixed the earth below and kept the sky above from falling?"

Isaiah 40:12: "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? Who hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?"

The Canaanites

The origin of the Israelite nation is a little vague since the biblical accounts don't always agree with archaeological evidence. According to the Bible, the Canaanites were a tribe of people who descended from Ham (the son of Noah). They were thought to be a cursed nation that the Israelites destroyed. However, conquests are never that simple, and it is widely accepted that the Canaanite religion had numerous influences on Judaism. Psalms 29 is a hymn that bears so much similarity to Ulgaritic (the language of the Canaanites) poetry that some believe that it was originally an hymn to Baal. Today scholars agree that the Israelites emerged from a Canaanite civilization in the early part of the second millennium B.C.

Heaven and Hell

Along with the idea of good and evil, the concept of Heaven and Hell seem to predate Judaism as well. Once again, we go back Zoroastrianism and Persian influence. The prophet Daniel was the first biblical figure to refer to ideas of resurrection and judgement in Daniel 12:2, and this can be easily attributed to Babylonian influence. The word “paradise” comes directly from the Persian religion of Mithraism. The word “Hell” seems to derive from the Norse word Hel, most certainly a pre-Christian concept. There are countless examples of Hell-like afterlives portrayed in pagan mythology.

In the New Testament, there are four different words used to describe Hell, all of which have been translated into English as “Hell”. They are “Sheol”, which means “place of the dead”; “Hades,” the Greek god of the underworld, “Gehenna,” a kind of garbage dump; and “Tartaro,” which means “to cast” or “throw”.

Angels and Demons

It must be clear by now that there were a number of ways that Judaism and Christianity have been influenced by Zoroastrianism. One of the primary examples is the existence, structure, and hierarchy of the angels and demons. According to scholars, the Zoroastrians were the first to believe in angels, the idea of Satan, and the ongoing battle between the forces of good and evil. Interestingly, Zoroastrian art portrays the prophet Zarathustra as being surrounded by the same halo of light in which Christian figures are often depicted.

The Trinity

While the New Testament definitely mentions the concepts of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew28:19), it makes no actual mention of the word “trinity,” and there is still some contention as to whether the trinity god-head is a biblical theme. Judaism teaches pure monotheism, while Catholicism favors the trinity concept.

Yet it is clearly a concept that was influenced by pagan religions existing at the time that Christianity came about. Examples of pagan trinities are:

Amun, Re, and Ptah of Egyptian Mythology; 
Anu, Enlil, and Ea of Sumerian Mythology; 
Ishtar, Baal, and Tammuz of Babylonian Mythology. 

 

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