3. The most important component of the narrative of Jesus, the resurrection of a murdered divine is a common theme in preceding religious traditions
The resurrection of Christ, a central doctrine of Christianity, contends that, after execution by the Romans via crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead before subsequently ascending to heaven. Celebrated as evidence of his divinity, this aspect of the Christian narrative is highly unoriginal and derivative, with the “dying-and-rising god” motif a recurrent feature throughout ancient religious traditions. Coined by the anthropologist James George Frazer, comparative inquiries of several Near East religions from this time observe the inclusion of this theme, appearing also in Mesopotamia, Greece, Phrygia, Egypt, and Sumeria.
Bearing a close resemblance to the subsequent Greek narrative of Persephone, the Sumerian god Tammuz, killed in place of his wife, Inanna, who had escaped the underworld, would be resurrected each year to walk the Earth again for a brief time in honor of his sacrifice. Equally, the Egyptian deity Osiris was murdered by his brother, Set, and chopped into many parts scattered across the world. Pieced together by his wife, Isis, Osiris was resurrected and became the king of the dead within the Egyptian pantheon. With similar appearance by Adonis in Ancient Greece and Attis in Phrygia, the Christian narrative regarding Jesus is simply another in an extensive history of resurrection stories.