From what I have read of the Hellenistic stories they are not close to the gospel story, in fact they are a long way removed and the gospel story has the Hebrew scriptures and prophecies to point to.
LOL. Please tell me which historical scholars you have read on Hellenistic religion, David Litwa? Sanders? Or an apologist article desperately trying to deny history?
Let's look at a plain and simple reading of what changes Hellenistic religion brought:
Hellenistic religion, any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of eastern Mediterranean peoples from 300 bc to ad 300. The period of Hellenistic influence, when taken as a whole, constitutes one of the most creative periods in the history of religions. It was a time of spiritual
www.britannica.com
Changes that religions began taking from Hellenistic religions (this describes Judaism to Christianity exactly) - how many times is salvation mentioned.
-the seasonal drama was homologized to a
soteriology (salvation concept) concerning the destiny, fortune, and salvation of the individual after death.
-his led to a change from concern for a religion of national prosperity to one for individual
salvation, from focus on a particular
ethnic group to concern for every human. The prophet or
saviour replaced the priest and king as the chief religious figure.
-his process was carried further through the identification of the experiences of the soul that was to be saved with the
vicissitudes of a divine but fallen soul, which had to be redeemed by cultic activity and divine intervention. This view is illustrated in the concept of the paradoxical figure of the saved saviour,
salvator salvandus.
-Other deities, who had previously been associated with national destiny (
e.g., Zeus, Yahweh, and Isis), were raised to the status of
transcendent, supreme
-The temples and cult institutions of the various Hellenistic religions were repositories of the knowledge and techniques necessary for
salvation and were the agents of the public worship of a particular deity. In addition, they served an important sociological role. In the new,
cosmopolitan ideology that followed Alexander’s conquests, the old nationalistic and ethnic boundaries had broken down and the problem of religious and social identity had become
acute.
-Most of these groups had regular meetings for a communal meal that served the dual role of
sacramental participation (referring to the use of material elements believed to convey spiritual benefits among the members and with their deity)
-Hellenistic philosophy (Stoicism,
Cynicism, Neo-Aristotelianism, Neo-Pythagoreanism, and Neoplatonism) provided key formulations for
Jewish,
Christian, and
Muslim philosophy,
theology, and
mysticism through the 18th century
- The basic forms of worship of both the Jewish and Christian
communities were heavily influenced in their formative period by Hellenistic practices, and this remains fundamentally unchanged to the present time. Finally, the central religious literature of both traditions—the Jewish
Talmud (an
authoritative compendium of law, lore, and interpretation), the
New Testament, and the later
patristic literature of the early Church Fathers—are characteristic Hellenistic documents both in form and content.
-Other traditions even more radically reinterpreted the ancient figures. The cosmic or seasonal drama was interiorized to refer to the divine
soul within man that must be liberated.
-Each persisted in its native land with little perceptible change save for its becoming linked to
nationalistic or
messianic movements (centring on a deliverer figure)
-and
apocalyptic traditions (referring to a belief in the dramatic intervention of a god in human and natural events)
- Particularly noticeable was the success of a variety of prophets, magicians, and healers—
e.g., John the Baptist, Jesus,
Simon Magus,
Apollonius of Tyana,
Alexander the Paphlagonian, and the cult of the healer Asclepius—whose preaching corresponded to the activities of various Greek and Roman philosophic missionaries
Ok, so that would be the EXACT CHANGES that turned Judaism into Christianity.
You seem to start with the idea that all religions come from other religions and that the supernatural is not true and so automatically the gospel theme had to have been copied from other religions.
All other religions in that time and region were Hellenized with fictional savior deities. You need evidence to suggest this one is true. The evidence does not suggest that at all.
Why do you keep on with this? Again, Muslims will say the same "you seem to think the Quran isn't really a revelation from Gabrielle, if you just started with that then you would see it's true"........
Evidence please? Reason to start with an absurd and improbable starting point? Just because you accept a story as true does not mean it is or others should accept it as true? How hard is this to fathom???
Interestingly in the answers you gave above you say , Judaism had no Hellenistic theology. BUT ALL of the gospel message can be found in the Hebrew Scriptures and all of the theology as well.
The most wrong thing you have come up with so far.
Communion, baptism, dying/rising savior son/daughter of a supreme God, personal salvation through a savior deity to get to heaven.
In the OT heaven WAS ONLY FOR YAHWEH. There was NO AFTERLIFE. God as a man would have been never suggested, that is a Greek invention.
Henotheism: transforming / reinterpreting polytheism into monotheism. (Judaism introduced monolatric concepts.)
Individualism: agricultural salvation cults retooled as personal salvation cults. Salvation of community changed into personal individual salvation in afterlife. All original agricultural salvation cults were retooled by the time Christianity arose.
- Cosmopolitianism: all races, cultures, classes admitted as equals, with fictive kinship (members are all brothers) you now “join” a religion rather than being born into it
Savior deities who underwent a passion and obtain victory over death and share this victory with followers. Stories set on Earth.
A devil at war with God (that one is Persian). Judiasm had NONE of these religious aspects. NONE.
A dying and rising and atoning Messiah who brings a New Covenant and is God's Son and who replaces the Old Covenant and Mosaic Law with God's Holy Spirit etc etc.
Yes during the 2nd Temple Period while ruled by the Persians they began to incorporate the Persian theology. It shows up in David, Isaiah but mostly in the NT:
PhD Mary Boyce -
Doctrines
fundamental doctrines became disseminated throughout the region, from Egypt to the Black Sea: namely that there is a supreme God who is the Creator; that an evil power exists which is opposed to him, and not under his control; that he has emanated many lesser divinities to help combat this power; that he has created this world for a purpose, and that in its present state it will have an end; that this end will be heralded by the coming of a cosmic Saviour, who will help to bring it about; that meantime heaven and hell exist, with an individual judgment to decide the fate of each soul at death; that at the end of time there will be a resurrection of the dead and a Last Judgment, with annihilation of the wicked; and that thereafter the kingdom of God will come upon earth, and the righteous will enter into it as into a garden (a Persian word for which is 'paradise'), and be happy there in the presence of God for ever, immortal themselves in body as well as soul. These doctrines all came to be adopted by various Jewish schools in the post-Exilic period, for the Jews were one of the peoples, it seems, most open to Zoroastrian influences - a tiny minority, holding staunchly to their own beliefs, but evidently admiring their Persian benefactors, and finding congenial elements in their faith. Worship of the one supreme God, and belief in the coming of a Messiah or Saviour, together with adherence to a way of life which combined moral and spiritual aspirations with a strict code of behaviour (including purity laws) were all matters in which Judaism and Zoroastrianism were in harmony; and it was this harmony, it seems, reinforced by the respect of a subject people for a great protective power, which allowed Zoroastrian doctrines to exert their influence. The extent of this influence is best attested, however, by Jewish writings of the Parthian period, when Christianity and the Gnostic faiths, as well as northern Buddhism, all likewise bore witness to the profound effect: which Zoroaster's teachings had had throughout the lands of the Achaernenian empire.
