Similar Scriptures

[whoisgod]

The various world religions obviously have similar ideas. Some religions even incorporate entire texts of another religion into their own. Christianity accepts the Jewish Bible (more or less), although with a different interpretation. Mormonism accepts the KJV Bible while adding its own Book of Mormon.

However, there seems to be a common occurance where one religion's scripture will borrow heavily from another religion's scripture. In some cases this seems to be a "hi-jacking" of the original scripture for a religion's own purposes. Other times perhaps a somewhat "accidental" occurance.

This occurance bothers me for the following reasons:
1) Sometimes there seems to be a diliberate attempt to hide this "plagerism"
2) Many scriptures (and their associated religions) claim infallibility (of their scripture)
3) Many scriptures diliberately exclude other religions

Does this bother anyone else?

Here are some examples:

Example 1:

As quoted by Leo Tolstoy in "A Letter to a Hindu":
(Does anyone know from where Tolstoy is quoting?)
For I have placed thee in broad,
smooth paths, which are strewn with flowers. I have put a light
before thee, which thou canst follow and thus run without
stumbling. KRISHNA.

Similar to Hebrews 12:12-13
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level
paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather
healed.
Which also (in part) quotes Proverbs 4:25-27

Also similar is Isaiah 40:30-31
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
... they will run and not grow weary,


Another example
Ps 104 and Egyptian literature
(see http://www.seanet.com/~realistic/psalm104.html)

More Egyptian Bible Similarities
(http://www.egypt-tehuti.org/articles...ilarities.html)

What other examples do people know of?
Are these commonly sourced texts? One texted sourced from another?
Evidence of common truth found within different cultures?

[I, Brian]

Hi whoisgod, and welcome to CR.

As for similarities - it's worth remembering the cutlural background of various religions. For example, as you note, Christianity references a lot of Jewish lit, and Mormons have their own book but also the Bible. In both instances, you have groups forming as subgroups within a religion, then striding out for their own identity, while maintaining key links to their original foundations.

Hope that helps.

[wil]

Do I think the biblical writers borrowed from other stories...yes sort of.

Do I see similarities in stories from continent to contienent, religion to religion...yes definitely.

Do I think since truths are truths they show up in various ways in various texts...yes.

Does it bother me...no...but it used to.

[aburaees]

Originally Posted by whoisgod

What other examples do people know of?
Are these commonly sourced texts? One texted sourced from another?
Evidence of common truth found within different cultures?

There are some nice examples in Sumerian/Akkadian writings which pre-date the old testament of the Bible.

Compare Utnapishtim/Zisudra/Atrahasis with Noah
Compare Adapa with Adam

Hope that helps.

.

[9Harmony]

Originally Posted by whoisgod

What other examples do people know of?
Are these commonly sourced texts? One texted sourced from another?
Evidence of common truth found within different cultures?

read the first post in this thread...

"his voice as the sound of many waters."

to me it seems that people assume plagerism because of the similarities, but i am more inclined to believe that the reason there are similarities is because the source of the message is the same. but that's just me.

Have a nice weekend!

-Amy

[Operacast]

Originally Posted by aburaees

There are some nice examples in Sumerian/Akkadian writings which pre-date the old testament of the Bible.

.

As one for whom the study of ancient religious and political history is strictly a
hobby, I cannot claim to be a specialist in this field. However, I suppose it's
possible that some here (despite this being an old thread now) might still be
intrigued by a pretty rough-and-ready Web Page that I assembled in the
course of one afternoon (thanks to the miracle of Google) a week or so back.
This Web Page simply represents the harvesting of those takes generally
available on the Net that struck me as the most reasonably thorough and
conscientious on the earliest precursor of the laws of Hamurrabi and Moses.
The materials concern the earliest kings dynasty in the ancient Sumerian city
of Lagash, where these earliest "lawgivers" come from, ca. the third century
B.C.E.

In case this assortment of diverse material, sometimes reflecting divergent
points of view, is a bit cumbersome for some, I've also put at the very top of
the page a heavily abridged user-friendly sequence of five self-contained
bite-size "narratives", each running a screenful's length at most, covering the
salient points in Lagash's earliest history. Then, if you're still intrigued, you
can peruse further down through the various prolegomena on these pioneers.

The page is at

http://www.operacast.com/untitled/ningirsu.htm

Hope this proves useful for some.

Best,

Operacast