What if the story of Jesus had similarities to myths from other cultures and other areas of the world? I am hesitant to grant this, as most of the similarities between the Gospels and pagan myths are exaggerated beyond credibility. But, what if?
More specifically, would it mean that the Gospel writers borrowed from those myth? And more specifically, would that be an argument against the historicity of those stories?
As some scholars have noted, there are certain themes that seem universal to humankind. There are similarities in stories between cultures that we have no reason to believe had contact with each other. You do not have to borrow from another culture to have an interest in some victory over death.
This idea was part of C.S. Lewis’s conversion to Christianity. He was drawn to the pagan, especially Norse myths, and J.R.R. Tolkien convinced him that the Gospels describe the “true myth.”
I actually think that Lewis allows for more similarity than there really is, probably because he overly relied on the work of James George Frazier. But even so, similarities to pagan myths is not a problem for the Christian.
If humanity was really created by God, we would think that certain longings would be part of who we are. And if that is the case, we would expect those longings to appear in our stories.
Again, I truly believe that most Mythicist claims to similarities are way off. But Christians do not have to be concerned about any potential similarities. The common denominator is our humanity.
