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Did Christianity Copy Other Religions?

Quick Look: This article challenges the idea that Christianity merely copied other ancient religions by suggesting that the similarities between biblical and pagan teachings may stem from a common source rather than direct imitation. It emphasizes that humanity's shared history, like the flood narratives found in many cultures, could reflect a common historical event rather than an imitation of myths. The article shows that presuppositions heavily influence whether one views biblical similarities as evidence of a copycat or due to shared origins in early human history. It also highlights the uniqueness of Christianity in its core message of grace, contrasting with the legalism found in other religious systems. While other religions often represent mankind's attempts to hide from God, Christianity uniquely offers salvation as a free gift through faith in Jesus. For more details, read the article below.

One charge levelled against the Christian faith is that it copied other religions. It is held that little, if anything, in the Old or New Testaments of the Bible differs from the beliefs of other ancient religions, some of which predate the written Scriptures.

Dr. Will Durant expresses this view in his history book Caesar and Christ. Dr. Durant spends most of his book in an excellent history of Roman civilization's customs, society, beliefs and development. When he gets to the "New Testament times" and turns his focus to Jesus and the development of the Church, he accepts most of the history recorded in the Gospels and Acts as accurate while rejecting the supernatural elements. Although his book was published in 1944, the view presented below represents the view of many outside the Christian faith today.

"Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. The Greek mind, dying, came to a transmigrated life in the theology and liturgy of the Church; the Greek language, having reigned for centuries over philosophy, became the vehicle of Christian literature and ritual; the Greek mysteries passed down into the impressive mystery of the Mass. Other pagan cultures contributed to the syncretist result. From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity, the Last Judgment, and a personal immortality of reward and punishment; from Egypt the adoration of the Mother and Child, and mystic theosophy that made Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and obscured the Christian creed; there, too, Christian monasticism would find its exemplars and its source. From Phrygia came the worship of the Great Mother; from Syria the resurrection drama of Adonis; from Thrace, perhaps, the cult of Dionysus, the dying and saving god. From Persia came millenarianism, the 'ages of the world,' the 'final conflagration,' the dualism of Satan and God, of Darkness and Light; already in the Fourth Gospel, Christ is the 'Light shining in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.' The Mithraic ritual so closely resembled the eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass that Christian fathers charged the Devil with inventing these similarities to mislead frail minds. Christianity was the last great creation of the ancient pagan world." Dr. Will Durant, Caesar And Christ, pg. 595

The general idea is that many ancient religions held beliefs similar to those of the Jews [in the Old Testament] and the Christians [in the New Testament], so the Jews and Christians simply adapted the cultural beliefs of their time to their purposes. The thought is that there is nothing unique in the teaching of the Bible, but that Christianity copied other religions, and eventually surpassed them, to become what it is today.

Is this charge correct? Before we look at the facts, I want to clarify one thing. It is true that as the Church developed after the time of the original apostles, into what we know as the Catholic Church today, it did adapt some pagan practices into its rituals and belief system. Much of this was exposed during the Reformation, which is not what I am dealing with here, nor is it what most people who hold the above view are referring to. The question is: Did the writers of the Bible, in its original teachings, copy from other religions? We can all accept that corruptions can creep in over time [and need to be weeded out], but what about the original teachings? Did Christianity copy other religions? Is it just a late copycat?

Presuppositions

There are two facts that we must consider:

1. Many ancient religions do contain teachings similar to those found in the Bible. These include a virgin birth, a holy mother and child, a god who dies to save the world, life after death, resurrection, etc. All the exact details are not necessary in this discussion; it is enough to admit that on the surface, there appears to be very little original content in the fundamental doctrines of the Bible.

2. Some of these religions wrote their teachings before Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. [Yes, I accept that Moses wrote those books, although it is irrelevant in this article who wrote them. Also, it is possible that Job was the first book written.]

How we understand these two facts depends on our presuppositions. Presuppositions are beliefs we take by faith and then build our worldview. It does not matter if you are an atheist or a Christian or somewhere in between; you have built your life on presuppositions. That is just the way things work. Obviously, some presuppositions are correct, and some are wrong [be sure you are building your life on the right ones!].

If we begin with humanistic presuppositions [such as: there is no God, everything has a natural explanation, man is the centre, religion was part of man's evolutionary development, etc.], we will conclude like Dr. Durant did. We are going to look at those two facts and say, "See, that proves Christianity is, at best, a copycat, at worst, a shallow hoax. It simply took what was already there and developed it to its own purposes." Given the beginning presuppositions, that would be a logical conclusion. Christianity copied other religions. It was just another advance in human evolutionary development, and now we have reached a stage in evolution where religion is no longer necessary, at least for the most intellectual among us.

But that is not the only way we can look at those facts. If we begin with Christian presuppositions [such as: God is real, the Bible is the infallible Word of God, Jesus is God, etc], we can see evidence for the Bible and Christianity in the above facts. How?

The Bible's many similarities to other religions do not necessarily mean that Christianity copied them; they can mean that they all came from a common source. This is precisely what we would expect if the Bible were true, so there should be no surprise here. In addition, the Bible's historical claims have been proven repeatedly, showing that it is based in fact, not myth or fanciful imagination.

A Common Source

Consider Adam and Eve [Gen. 1-4]. We see that the entire human race began with two people. They disobeyed God and were cast out of Eden. If they are the original parents, as the Bible teaches, they would have passed down everything that happened to their children, who would have told their children, etc. In fact, Adam lived for over half the time between creation and the Flood, which means there was a living eyewitness around until about 700 years before the Flood.

"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Gen. 3:7-8, NIV

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Gen. 3:15, NIV

Considering our first verse, we can see that sin separates man from God, and man's natural reaction is to try and hide from God. It is unsurprising that as mankind developed, he invented many religious systems as "fig leaves" in an attempt to hide from God. Non-Christian religions are still man's attempt to hide from the true God. Nor should it be shocking that as man wove his own religions, he would use elements from what was true and turn them to his own purposes. So it is perfectly logical and expected to find stories of man cast out of paradise, angry gods, blood sacrifices, etc., in ancient religions. If you look at Gen. 3:15 [above], you can see that God spoke of the offspring of the woman [not the man, as would be expected] fighting against the serpent. So, again, it is to be expected that we would find stories in ancient religions involving an important woman [sometimes a virgin] and child, a great struggle of good and evil, a painful victory, and a fight against a snake or snake-like god.

If we look at Noah and the Flood, we again find a common source for many ancient religious stories. Most, if not all, ancient religions have a story of a man who, with his family, survived a great flood (sometimes local, sometimes global) and restarted the human family or a portion of it. While the humanist may argue that religions copied this story from each other, it makes more sense that there was one event from which all religions drew their main ideas. Again, remember that Noah's son, Seth, lived until after Isaac married Rebekah. There was, at least, one eyewitness around for a long time!

The humanist idea is copycat religions evolving over time. The other possibility is a common source corrupted and changed over time to fit man's attempt to hide from the true God. Which one you accept will depend on your presuppositions. Obviously, someone is right, and someone is wrong.

What about the fact that some ancient religions had these ideas written down before the first books of the Bible were written? Doesn't that support the idea that the Bible copied from other religions?

Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah. Gen. 4:19-22, NIV

It is not surprising at all. Lamech, who was a descendant of Cain, had three sons. One developed husbandry, one developed musical instruments and one invented and worked with tools. We see here technological development happening early in the ungodly line of Cain. The Godly line of Seth seemed to have a more pastoral life. Certainly, at the time of Abraham, they became nomadic and focused on being shepherds, etc. Therefore, we would except writing to develop in other cultures first. It then follows that other cultures/religions would have written their accounts first. That does not automatically mean that their version is the correct one.

Christianity Is Unique

But since the Hebrews and their forerunners did not write things down until later, would it not have been easy for them to mix up the details? Would it not be more likely that Moses got it wrong and one of the others got it right or that all the stories are corruptions of original events? It's a good question, but its basic assumptions are humanistic and evolutionary.

Adam was created as a perfect human being. He used, for example, his mental abilities to their fullest capacity. From our point of view, he would have seemed super-intelligent. The Christian view is that man started at the top and has progressively declined since. We use computers for things that Adam could probably do almost instantly in his mind. [This explains why some ancient cultures were advanced and doing things we still do not know how to do - to the surprise of modern scientists. It is the evolutionary assumption that man began as a "brute beast" and is developing into a super-intelligent being. As expected, the opposite of reality.] There is no issue with people accurately relaying the true story from generation to generation without error. Even today, there are people in "primitive" tribes who can recite their history from previous generations without error. Also, remember that the time from the Flood to the Exodus can be traced in the lifetimes of 6 - 7 people.

There is one way in which Christianity is unique. As previously mentioned, all religions - including humanism - are man's attempt to hide from God. They have taken the facts and distorted or corrupted them to fit into what man's idea of religion is. In every case, it involves some kind of legalism. There is some system of rules, sacrifices, or rituals by which man can earn or achieve salvation. Only true Christianity stands up and says, "Because our nature is corrupted by sin, there is NOTHING we can do to please God." We can never earn our salvation. But the Good News of Christianity is that God, in Jesus, has earned salvation on our behalf. Now, all we have to do is accept it as a free gift. The Truth stands alone.

Did Christianity Copy Other Religions?
Frequently Asked Questions

Question: What Does The Bible Say About Other Religions?

Answer: The Bible recognizes people's right to believe what they want to believe and to practice any religion they wish as long as such actions do not violate God's moral Law. At the same time, Christianity teaches that all other religions are false and ultimately lead to Hell. Jesus is the only true way to God.

Question: Did Christianity Break Away From Another Religion?

Answer: In Genesis 3:15, God laid the foundation of the plan He was developing to redeem mankind. Throughout the Old Testament, we see that plan developing. For a season, it was limited to the nation of Israel and was known as Judaism. Over the centuries, Judaism became legalistic and departed from God's intention. When Jesus came to fulfill the promise made in Genesis 3:15 and developed over millennia, Christianity in its current form was born and forever departed from Judaism. Multinational Christianity redeemed by the blood of Jesus on the Cross was the goal the entire time, although it went through different stages of development. See the article: What Was The Purpose Of Israel?

Question: Does The Bible Tell Us To Respect Other Religions?

Answer: The Bible teaches us to treat others with respect and love regardless of their belief system. We respect the right of people to believe as they choose while recognizing that Jesus is the only true way of salvation. We share the good news of the Gospel with those open to hearing it. We rejoice with those who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and mourn for those who reject Him to their eternal doom while respecting their right to do so.

For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.

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