I wouldn't say 'stealing', they're just coming out of the same culture. Which would be Greco-Roman. So it wouldn't be surprising that Christianity would eventually have something associated with the winter solstice or rebirth of the sun.
It may not be directly influenced by Egyptian tradition...
There was a pre-Christian festival for the birth of Horus on the 25th of Dec. There also seems to be a tradition of the sun being born/reborn around the time of the winter solstice.
Isis Regina--Zeus Sarapis(Walter de Gruyter, 2001), Reinhold Merkelbach
Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic...
Where does this concept of having to be born twice or "again" come from? It has a long pre-Christian history. In ancient Egyptian religion you were "born again" into the afterlife. You were born on earth through your human mother and then reborn through a "spiritual" mother or a goddess. Born of...
Christianity was Hellenic from the beginning.
Origen and the Platonic Tradition by Ilaria L.E. Ramelli
Hellenistic Influence On The Idea Of Resurrection In Jewish Apocalyptic Literature by Stephen J. Bedard
Oh, I see what you're saying. I don't think there's necessarily anything mystical about it. I just think the number twelve occurs in myths a lot because of it's significance to these cultures. Twelve hours of the day and night, twelve months, twelve signs of the zodiac, etc. I think it became a...
You're right that Harpur didn't do a good job because he used outdated sources. I've been able to verify that there is a lot of parallels between Egyptian and Christian religion by reading academic/scholarly sources though. So his overall point was correct, he just didn't back it up well with...
I think there's something to this. Notice Jesus has twelve disciples. In ancient Egyptian religion the sun god would go through the twelve hours of the night in the underworld and the twelve hours of the day in the sky. While the sun god was in the underworld he would go through a baptism...
I agree. That's why I put the word "pagan" in quotation marks. I don't see the Abrahamic religions as being completely separate and unrelated to other religions. All these Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman religions came into contact with each other and influenced each other. Judaism and...
I think it's pretty accurate. There's a lot of parallels between "pagan" religion and Christianity. A lot of scholars have pointed this out. The concept of a dying and resurrecting savior predates Christianity. You can find most of the motifs in the NT writings in earlier "pagan"...