Some people claim that the death and resurrection of Jesus is simply a classical theme that appears in most ancient religions, especially the mystery religions. These motifs were simply translated in Jewish terms with Jesus. How much truth is there in that?
First I would like to say that the claim of many dying and rising gods is very exaggerated. There are very few ancient religions that have this. It is more about people trying to force Christian concepts on unrelated religions.
Let us assume for a minute (even though it is not true) that there were many contemporary religions that had a crucified god-man similar to Jesus. Would that be evidence against Christianity? There is a huge difference. The story of Jesus is the only one that is firmly placed in history. We can date the crucifixion of Jesus. We can name some of the historical figures that were involved. Written accounts were recorded during the lifetime of some of the people involved. There is nothing else like that. The other religious accounts took place in the mythical past. They were never meant to be seen as history. In comparison, the authors of the Gospels went out of their way to get their readers to see this as history.
The crucifixion of Jesus is most definitely history rather than mystery.
- crucifixion
- Good Friday
- History
