This is a blatant misrepresentation of the argument. As ReligiousTolerance observes:
"There are many dozens of events in the gospels that are very similar, or identical, to incidents which appeared centuries before, in the stories of Pagan hero/saviors. These "godmen" were worshiped by the priesthood and laity of Mediterranean and Middle East religions. This linkage was known by many early Christian writers. They attributed the parallels to Satan. They figured that the devil had influenced the creation of Pagan religions in the centuries before Jesus' birth." [rt]
Although Holding and Tektonics are skilled at pointing out the differences between Christian teachings and pagan myths - and the often unsupported claims made in popular works on the subject - they refuse to accept any evidence that Christianity was influenced by pagan mythology.
Their argument is that because no one pagan myth is exactly the same as any particular element of Christianity, then the two cannot be related, or come from a common source or theme. This is as ludicrous as arguing that the four Gospel accounts of the Resurrection could not refer to the same events because of differences in their narratives. (On that point, see my article The Resurrection on Trial).
Tektonics position is well demonstrated in the their review of Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy’s The Jesus Mysteries [tj], where they take the authors to task for omitting a "vital" quotation from the second century First Apology of Justin (LV), after he had listed numerous similarities between "Christ" and numerous other mythological heroes:
"But in no instance, not even in any of those called sons of Jupiter, did they imitate the being crucified; for it was not understood by them, all the things said of it having been put symbolically." [j1]
Christianity has, in fact, one other vital claim to differentiate it from the pagan myths, as recognised by Celsus 1,800 years ago:
"Are these distinctive happenings unique to the Christians - and if so, how are they unique? Or are ours to be accounted myths and theirs believed? What reasons do the Christians give for the distinctiveness of their beliefs? In truth there is nothing at all unusual about what the Christians believe, except that they believe it to the exclusion of more comprehensive truths about God." [jm]
"G" does not seem to be much of a scholar. The parallels between Christianity and other mythologies are evident, and are accepted even by such mainstream works as the Oxford Companion To The Bible [oc]. To pick selected examples:
The "Genesis" account of creation: First written in around 800 BCE, it contains elements similar to the Babylonian Enuma Elish, which is thought to date from 1,500 BCE - and to the even older Sumerian Creation myths of c.2500 BCE. The parallels between the Judaism and the much older Sumerian and Babylonian cultures can leave no reasonable doubt that the "Genesis" account is based at least in part from it's much older ancestors [oc].
"Noah's Flood": Similar to the much older Epic of Gilgamesh [gm], related to Judaism as with the Genesis account.
"The Exodus": Similar to the older Egyptian story of Sinuhe. With no archaeological evidence to support it, the only reasonable conclusions is that "Exodus" is based, at least in part on the older Egyptian myths. [gm]
"Jesus Christ": The story contains elements found in the mythologies of almost every culture - a god-man who is killed but reborn, who will return at a future date to offer liberation.
By Tektonics logic, there would be no reason to doubt the "truth" of any of the stories of Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastarianism or any number of other religious beliefs - since it would be impossible to "prove" any relationship with other mythologies.
Moreover, without firm proof of that the Christian "Life of Christ" actually occurred as claimed, there is no reason to accept it as "true" while rejecting Old Testament accounts as "mythology".
Like Jesus, Krishna was an incarnation of a God; he was sent to heaven in the form of a man; he was a saviour and the second person of a "trinity"; and he died and was "resurrected" (in his case casting off his earthly body before regaining a new one)[rk].
Tektonics would have one believe that either Jesus was Krishna, or nothing. They fail, at every turn, to consider the possibility that Christian teaching is likely to be, as studies of comparative mythologies show, a mixture of common themes and historical events, made culturally acceptable to the group at which they are aimed.
In fact, by discussing the similarities between around twenty mythological events and Christian teaching [h1], Holding and Tektonics only push their argument to an ever more ludicrous position.
(NB: This page has been amended to remove claims that Krishna was "the son of god"; that his mother was named "maia"; and to clarify his "resurrection". Many thanks for Anthony Roberts for his kind suggestions, some but not all of which have been incorporated here).
The Jesus Mysteries (excerpts) by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy. (Celsus quotations are from R.J. Hoffmann, Celsus On The True Doctrine, Oxford University Press, 1987) [jm]
