Greg Koukl: Jesus and Other Myths
Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason answers the question, “Is the account of Jesus in the Bible just copying earlier mythical traditions with similar stories?”
#StandtoReason #Apologetics #Christianity
————— CONNECT —————
Website: https://www.str.org/
Stand to Reason University: https://training.str.org/
Stand to Reason Apps: https://www.str.org/apps
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STRtweets
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/standtoreason93
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/standtoreason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stand-to-reason/
Have a question or comment? Call Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason live Tuesdays 4-6pm Pacific Time – (855) 243-9975. If you’d like to submit your question ahead of time, fill out the online form here: https://www.str.org/broadcast.
————— GIVE —————
Support the work of Stand to Reason: https://str.org/donate
source
@STRvideos Jesus, and by extension, Christianity, is likely just a copy of the cult of Dionysus.
@LogosApologia One final thought. Looks like you were going to use the tired "why would they die for a lie?" argument.
1. How do we know that they died martyrs? From second century sources. As late as the Gospels are, this is far later still! Not a reliable source.
2. For them to "die for a lie," they must be given a chance to recant. To what charge could they say, "Kidding about Jesus!" and be let off?? Not disturbing the peace. Not inciting to riot. Not rabble rousing.
@LogosApologia Note that the NT records the infighting between the different factions. Having Peter deny Jesus could have been written by someone … who didn't like Peter.
One book says James thought Jesus was crazy. A different book says nothing of the kind; it says that James was the head of the Jerusalem church.
Your job is to show that the natural explanations are not unlikely but *impossible.* The plausible natural explanation always trumps the supernatural one.
@LogosApologia I do not suggest that the Jesus story was deliberately made up any more than we'd call the end result of the game of telephone deliberately made up. It's false, but that was an accident, just like the errors that accumulated in the Gospels stories over *decades* of oral history.
Stories change over time. Why would this story be any different?
@BobTheAtheist2 the apostles did not expect Jesus to resurrect, they are portrayed as clueless until it becomes blatantly obvious. If they made up the story as you would argue, why would they be so dumb? Then Paul whose mission in life was to stop the spread of Christianity. Also Jesus' brother James thought he was crazy. Then he sees the resurrected Jesus and becomes a leader in the church. These facts are not explained by the fabrication of legend. These guys die for their belief w/o recantin
@LogosApologia I agree with you if you're simply saying that the dying-and-rising savior stories that preceded the Jesus stories aren't identical. I agree–the Jesus story adds important new elements. But isn't the fact that the authors of the books in the New Testament doubtless knew of these other gods relevant? When they write up a story that takes important features from previous stories, doesn't that give you pause?
The natural explanations for the Bible are sufficient. No need for god.
@cottoncandicane I may be misunderstanding your point. You're not saying that the Jesus story was accurately predicted in the Old Testament, are you?
@brianhar100 Did you even listen?
@brianhar100 Nope, the prophecy of Jesus came way before in the Old Testament. Just FYI.
@EHSEagleVideos I don't think so, for instance Horus is never said to have been crucified, nevertheless to have died. In the Egyptian tale, Osiris is either dismembered by Set.Isis then pieces Osiris' body back together and resurrects Osiris to conceive an heir that will avenge Osiris' death (although technically Osiris is never actually resurrected as he is forbidden to return to the world of the living). There is no actual resurrection. Its a contrived connection.
Indeed, Jesus COULD be fictional, OR some attributes could be given to him from other sources. In any case, believing the extraordinary claims about Jesus would require equally extraordinary evidence. Which isn't there.
@LogosApologia
Horus, Attis, Dionysis just to name a few.
According to Gary Habermas there are no written accounts of a dying and rising God in the mystery religions prior to the second century. Some scholars speculate that the stories might be older but they have no evidence. Hence, all the dying and rising accounts are derivative from the gospels not vice versa.
Thanks for the video. Really enjoy and get a lot out of these.
Excellent vid, thank you.
Hi GREG!!!
Great Job on the expanation here. Thanks again for arming us with solid reasoning when faced with some of these questions.