The Bible Among the Myths is a book by John N. Oswalt. Referencing this book provides an opportunity to link to various posts about comparisons between Jesus and various characters:
Muhammad and Jesus, part 1 of 10
Jesus & Buddha (this was a corroboration piece between this author and the one introduced below)
The following are provided by Marcus of the very informative blog What Had Happen′ Was…
Jesus & Pythia-the Oracle at Delphi
Also see:
Kyle Butt (you may recall that he debated Dan Barker) Reviewing Tom Harpur’s The Pagan Christ
Eric Lyons, Mythology and the Bible article.
JP Holding, Shattering the Christ Myth article and his book.
Ronald Nash, Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions article.
Hank Hanegraaff, Is Jesus Myth? Answering More Prime Time Fallacies article.
Rational Christianity, Is the story of Jesus’ life based on pagan myths? article.
Jonathan Sarfati, Was Christianity plagiarized from pagan myths? article.
Patrick Zukeran, Pagan Connection: Did Christianity Borrow From the Mystery Religions? article.
C.S. Lewis wrote:
“A man who has spent his youth and manhood in the minute study of New Testament texts and of other people’s studies of them, whose literary experience of those texts lacks any standard of comparison such as can only grow from a wide and deep and genial experience of literature in general, is, I should think, very likely to miss the obvious thing about them.
If he tells me that something in a Gospel is legend or romance, I want to know how many legends and romances he has read, how well his palate is trained in detecting them by the flavour; not how many years he has spend on that Gospel…I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this…”
The following is from Amazon.com
Product Description
“The Bible Among the Myths is a sometimes controversial, always engaging corrective to a growing rejection in Western society of the revelation found within the Old Testament regarding a transcendent God who breaks into time and space and reveals himself in and through human activity.”
From the Back Cover
“Sixty years ago, most biblical scholars maintained that Israel’s religion was unique—that it stood in marked contrast to the faiths of its ancient Near Eastern neighbors. Nowadays, it is widely argued that Israel’s religion mirrors that of other West Semitic societies. What accounts for this radical change, and what are its implications for our understanding of the Old Testament?
Dr. John N. Oswalt says the root of this new attitude lies in Western society’s hostility to the idea of revelation, which presupposes a reality that transcends the world of the senses, asserting the existence of a realm humans cannot control. While not advocating a “the Bible says it, and I believe it, and that settles it” point of view, Oswalt asserts convincingly that while other ancient literatures all see reality in essentially the same terms, the Bible differs radically on all the main points.
The Bible Among the Myths supplies a necessary corrective to those who reject the Old Testament’s testimony about a transcendent God who breaks into time and space and reveals himself in and through human activity.”
About the Author
“Dr. John N. Oswalt (PhD, Brandeis University) is Visiting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including the two-volume commentary on Isaiah in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament series and Called to be Holy: A Biblical Perspective.”
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Footnote
[1] C.S. Lewis, “Originally entitled ‘Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism’, Lewis read this essay at Westcott House, Cambridge, on 11 May 1959. Published under that title in Christian Reflections (1981), it is now in Fern-seed and Elephants (1998).”—from Orthodox Web