Why Were the Ancient Jews Different

In surviving information about ancient religions, many that were present long before Judaism or Christianity, there were similar things about the gods. They were born of virgin mothers around winter solstice. The locations of their births was always humble, a cave or manger, but they went on to save the world. They encountered evil forces which killed them but they came back to life.

The sources of these cults was not only surviving stone carvings and papyrus but also interviews with native people who had little contact outside their tribal life. The late Joseph Campbell wrote about the gods he learned about in conversations around campfires.

During the period when ancients were writing a lot, some of which made it into the Bible, the societies surrounding the Mediterranean mostly had "savior-gods" that would save them from their troubles. The Jews were apparently alone in not having such a savior-god. They were comforted with something else, a coming savior who would free them from the Romans and lead them on a righteous path.

Like the real time savior gods who had been passed down from previous societies, the coming savior notion also seems to have come from a previous source. In the Egypt of previous times had been a "coming savior" who gave those people a similar myth they could hang onto. While the notion Jews were slaves in Egypt and escaped under Moses has no evidence, there is evidence of Jews going in and out of Egypt for a long time. This may have been how the story made it to the Jews.

While I see the stories of Christianity as myths, trying to figure out where the myths came from and why so many yet to this day see them as historical fact remains an interesting topic to study.

Source: Christianity Before Christ by John G. Jackson, American Atheist Press, 1985.