Jesus: a case of divine plagiarism?

One of the most frequent and brought up objections to Christianity is the claim that the story of Jesus is nothing more than just a case of plagiarism. That is, that the early gospel writers blatantly stole elements found in mythology.

Some bring up the fact that Horus, in Egyptian mythology also had a virgin birth, like Jesus. Even in Persian mythology, Mithras had a virgin birth as well. Another objection is the fact that the miracles of Jesus are very similar to other gods, like Asclepius in Greek mythology. Some also claim that the resurrection account “borrows” from other resurrection accounts; such as Osirus in Egyptian mythology, or Dionysus in Greek mythology.

Is Christianity merely a case of divine plagiarism?

So is that it? Is Christianity merely a case of divine plagiarism? Is it so that the gospel writers just ripped off different mythologies to craft a narrative that perpetuates their own agenda? How are we to reconcile the similarities between Jesus and these other figures?

Well… the answer to that question is, just compare them… The problem with this objection is it focuses on superficial supposed similarities. A complete comparison reveals that these stories are not the same in the slightest.

Let’s take a look at the examples I mentioned above, which are some of the most brought up examples:

Virgin Birth

The claim is that Horus from Egyptian mythology, and Mithras from Persian mythology both had a miraculous virgin birth, and that it is here that the gospels got the idea from. In actuality Horus was believed to be born to the goddess Isis, who had a husband named Osiris. So not a virgin birth. And Mithras was said to be born of, and this is what actually was believed, a rock. So again, not a virgin birth.

Miracles

So what about the workings of miracles? Both Asclepius from Greek mythology and Krishna from hindu mythology are said to heal the sick. It is important to note here, that this comparison does not show why there has to be plagiarism. Is it not logical to think that a deity can heal the sick? It would be expected across any claim of deity, be it a deity of Greek mythology or be it the claim of Jesus’ deity. This comparison does not lend any credibility to the claim that the story of Jesus is a copy of mythology. It is like claiming that “Harry Potter” was copying from the “Chronicles of Narnia” because both stories contain magical elements and spellcasting of some sort. So it does not support the claim whatsoever.

Resurrection

What about the resurrection accounts? In Egyptian Mythology, Osiris, the father of the supposed, but not really, virgin conceived Horus, was killed by his brother and then revived by Isis, his wife (and sister by the way). Greek mythology presents Dionysus as being torn apart by titans, and then revived later again. So what are we to make of this? Well if we ignore the fact that both these stories do not resemble, in any way the gospel account, we are left with a pretty important distinction. That being, the historical evidence. Neither Osiris, nor Dionysus have any evidence to suggest that they existed in history. No historian believes that they existed in history, whereas Jesus’ historicity is as sure a fact as anything can be, with ample historical evidence of his resurrection as well. [CLICK HERE for our podcast episode on the subject].

Jesus’ historicity is as sure a fact as anything can be, with ample historical evidence of his resurrection as well.

Concluding remarks

In actually taking time to study the claims, and doing an honest comparison between Jesus and mythological figures, we see that any attempt to show that the gospel accounts took elements from these mythological accounts, are intellectually dishonest, or done in ignorance of the facts.
Jesus is king, and he reigns forever more, unlike these mythological figures.