All kinds of religions have resurrection stories.
How did we get from the Old Testament, a nationalistic Jewish document, to Jesus as Christians see Jesus?
The Jews rejected Jesus because they didn't think he matched the messiah that had been foretold, so they condemned him as a blasphemer for claiming (falsely) that he was. In this they were following the Law, in which the penalty for blasphemy was death.
(Mind you, I'm sure the historical Jesus BELIEVED he was the messiah.)
That's when the great sea-change began. Jesus' body was not cold before his followers began having arguments among themselves. Peter wanted to convince the Jews they had been wrong, that Jesus was the messiah and they had killed him. Then along came Paul, and he saw that Christianity was going nowhere. Because of its tribal laws, it was not appealing to gentiles; and the Jews had rejected Jesus.
So it had to change, to be more appealing to Gentiles, because otherwise it would die out.
First, no circumcision. That didn't appeal to adult men at all. Even with wine to dull the pain. Because there was always the chance that the knife would slip....
Then all the 'mystery' stuff began creeping in. Things that had nothing to do with Judaism. These ideas were floating around at the time; Rome was a hodgepodge of different religions. A very influential one was from Egypt.
So whatever was wonderful and miraculous and fascinating and amazing in any of the cults, it was brought into Christian doctrine to attract the multitudes.
The much older Egyptian sun-worship had many such beliefs.
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The god Horus was the son of the gods Osiris and Isis. The three of them formed a unit, a trinity.
The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin. The Jews had no trinity, only the Lord, who made it clear he would stand for no rivals.
Osiris died and was resurrected before he fathered Horus.
"Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matt. 2:15)
Each pharaoh was considered to be a re-incarnation of Horus.
The story of Horus can be found in "The Egyptian Book of the Dead” (also known as the "Papyrus of Ani") written over 3,000 years before the birth of Jesus.
The adoration of the Virgin and Child is connected with the adoration of Isis and the infant Horus. Their portraits are remarkably alike.
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So just as temple priests 'faked' miracles and swore they were the actions of the gods, so the followers of Jesus swore that he had raised the dead, walked on water, fed the mob, etc.
Similarly, many people in 1917 at Fatima, Portugal, 'swore' that they had seen the sun
- become an oval, and start spinning in the sky
- cast bright lights around the landscape
- become less bright than usual
- careen towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, and strongly radiate heat
- at one moment be surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple
- move in a manner " exceedingly fast and whirling"
- at times to be loosened from the sky
- tremble, make sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws
- turn silver, enveloped in gauzy grey light
- whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds
- its light turned blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral
- its light spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands
- suddenly and completely dry clothes previously wet with rain.
Yet many people at or near Fatima said they saw nothing unusual. Some said they saw sun dogs, nothing else.
Yet the same sun in other parts of Europe and indeed everywhere else but around Fatima appeared as normal.
Well, which was it? Did the sun do these gymnastics, and no one noticed except the people of Fatima? Or were the people of Fatima who swore they had witnessed the cosmic display liars? Or merely very suggestible theists?
And if the sun had done what they claim they saw it do, why is there no evidence in the earth's geology? Because there would have been tsunamis all over the world the like of which have not been seen since.
Don't forget that some of Charles Manson's followers claimed he had performed miracles, for example, causing a jeep to fly over some bad potholes in the road to the Ranch.
