Resurrection

While the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity, accounts of other resurrections also figure in religion, myth, and fable.

Examples are Mithraism; Greek worship of Adonis; Egyptian worship of Osiris; the Babylonian story of Tammuz; and rural religious belief in the Corn King. Some historians conjecture that the New Testament's accounts of the resurrection of Jesus were in some ways influenced by, or directly based on, these earlier resurrection stories. Some discussion of these views are expressed on the relevant articles.

Christians hold that the stories are significantly different, and that the similarities are superficial; thus, no special significant need be attached to the similarities.

On a similar note, many stories in the Torah, held sacred by both Jews and Christians, also are noted by historians to have close parallels to earlier pagan myths and stories. Liberal Jewish and Christian denominations agree that this is likely the case, and have theologies that do not depend on this finding. Traditional Christians and Orthodox Jews reject any similarities.

In the New Testament, Jesus is said to have raised several persons from death, including Lazarus and the young girl sometimes known as Tabitha.

See also Quetzalcoatl

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