Copycat stories

[stevencarrwork]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/progra...m_wright.shtml

' I have come to see the stories in Matthew and Luke about the Virgin Birth as stories which are as historians often find, so strange in themselves, that if you tried to figure out how those stories could've come about unless there was substantial truth at the heart of it, it's actually harder to do that then to see them as I do, as people saying 'This is really very odd. We know there are lots of stories like this out there in the pagan world.' I mean Augustus - there were stories about a miraculous birth and so on, and round the same time.'

Were Christians really saying that there were lots of stories like this out there in the pagan world?

I find this really hard to believe

[Ray Fletcher]

I remember reading an exerpt from a historian of those times (I think maybe Justin Martyr) that stated that there were similarites between the Jesus stories and other myths, but that the devil had inspired them. I'll try to find that excerpt and post it.

[stevencarrwork]

I remember reading an exerpt from a historian of those times (I think maybe Justin Martyr) that stated that there were similarites between the Jesus stories and other myths, but that the devil had inspired them. I'll try to find that excerpt and post it.

I assume that NT Wright must have something to back up his claim......

[GakuseiDon]

I remember reading an exerpt from a historian of those times (I think maybe Justin Martyr) that stated that there were similarites between the Jesus stories and other myths, but that the devil had inspired them. I'll try to find that excerpt and post it.

Actually, that isn't quite right, at least from Justin's perspective. Often people write as if Justin is claiming that the demons were trying to copy the stories in the gospels, but that isn't the case.

According to Justin, pagan mythology were demonically inspired copies of the OT's prophecies regarding Jesus. Justin makes the point that the demons didn't understand the prophecies, which resulted in inferior or distorted versions of them when inspiring pagan ideas about their gods. But for Justin, the demons were copying from Jewish ideas. Early church fathers also liked to claim that ancient Greek philosophers like Plato, etc, got their ideas from Jewish writings, which predate the philosophers' writings.

[salvationfound]

Were Christians really saying that there were lots of stories like this out there in the pagan world?

When it comes to copycat myths I always ask the same question: Where in
the New Testament does it claim any of its stories were an original idea?
Doesn't the New Testament claim to simply be a fulfillment of the Old
Testament? So bringing up copycat myths seems pointless to me since all
of the New Testament is meant to be copycat.