More from Questioning the Bible--Jesus a copycat myth? How early was his story told?

I am continuing to go through an important book called Questioning the Bible by Jonathan Morrow. Last time I was covering his information about what we can really know about Jesus. I want to continue that this time with a new challenge raised against the Bible.

Years ago some critics charge that Christianity was a copycat religion that had borrowed from earlier myths. The same challenge is back, thanks to movies like Zeitgeist. But the author believes there are three reasons why the copycat myth is false.

First, look at what Christianity came out of in the first century. The Jewish people were committed to one and only one God. Their belief was monotheistic and exclusive. It's doubtful they would want to use stories of other gods.

Secondly, the Jesus story is not like the other myths. When you look at the specifics of each myth, you see that there are huge differences. A dying and rising Jesus is not a meaningful parallel with crops coming to life in the spring only to die off again in the winter. There is no sound evidence of overlapping details between other myths and the story of Jesus.

Probably the most important reason to believe the copycat myth is false has to do with dating. All of the myths date after the birth of Christianity, so if anything, mystery religions were copying from and being influenced by Christianity in the first two centuries because they had to compete to gain new converts and survive.

Morrow takes on another challenge having to do with whether Christianity was invented. He asks if the New Testament contains what the earliest Christians really believe about Jesus from the beginning. For example, how early was the proclamation of the message that Jesus was raised from the dead? The four Gospels were written in the late first century, which is still considered very close to the original events when compared to other ancient manuscripts dealing with other historical figures. But we can get even closer to the time of Jesus by looking at Paul's letters. One of the main text concerning the proclamation of the resurrection message occurs in 1 Corinthians 15, which was written around A.D. 55. Many critics believe the message Paul has included there is part of a creed written within one year of the time of Jesus. Let me repeat that--within one year of Jesus, people were saying he died and was resurrected; he was deity. So, it appears there never was a time when the message of Jesus's resurrection was not an integral part of the earliest apostolic proclamation.

That's powerful information. Let's stop here to digest that.