It's Written in Stone: Jesus May Have Been A Copycat!

Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

According to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, there were over sixteen crucified saviors before Jesus Christ. . Some were born of a virgin. Some were born in a cave or barn.

From Wikipedia:

The central figure of one of the most widespread mysteries, Osiris-Dionysus, was consistently localised and deliberately merged with local deities in each area, since it was the mysteries which were imparted that were regarded as important, not the method by which they were taught. Other prominently cited parallels are with Tammuz, Horus and Mithras. Horus was one of the life-death-rebirth deities, and was connected and involved in the resurrection of Osiris, whose Egyptian name (Asar) is very similar to the root of Lazarus. In the view of some advocates of the Jesus Myth theory, most prominently Freke and Gandy in The Jesus Mysteries, Jewish mystics adapted their form of Osiris-Dionysus to match prior Jewish heroes like Moses and Joshua, hence creating Jesus.

So maybe the discovery of this stone tablet isn't quite as shocking as it at first seems:

New York Times By ETHAN BRONNER

Published: July 6, 2008

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

Dominic Buettner for The New York Times
When David Jeselsohn bought an ancient tablet, above, he was unaware of its significance.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

Then this article delivers the coup de gras:

“This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” he [Israel Kohl of Hebrew University in Jerusalem] said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”

Will this article and the translation of the stone's Hebrew spark waves of anti-Semitism? Or will evangelicals scream "fake scholarship" or "what do you expect of non-believers?"

Will this discovery even hit the pulpits this Sunday? I doubt it. Preachers wouldn't like to confuse their flocks!

O.K. - Who copied who? All three are "Madonna and Child" but the one on the left predates the other two by perhaps 2000 years. It is, of course, the Egyptian goddess with her son Horus. The middle one is a 19th century Maori "Madonna and Child." The third is from 14th century Burgundy, France.