Similarities Between Jesus' Life and the Old Testament

Many of the events in Jesus' life bear a striking resemblance to various stories of in the Old Testament. Such parallels would seem to indicate that the account of Jesus' life may have been influenced by previous writings. Scholars, many of which are Christians, believe that much of the Bible's text is based upon the work of previous writers, which would suggest that there might be the possibility that such reuse of tales might have also been done in Jesus' account.

Thus it appears that the story of Jesus' life is a mixture of history and folklore (at least). In hindsight this should be obvious since the Gospels were not written in a biographical style. Unfortunately, this scholarship certainly undermines the literal interpretation popular with fundamentalists, but only slightly alters the biblical viewpoint of other Christians. Even if it is true that the writers of the gospels took liberties with the story, it does not necessarily mean that Jesus was not real.

Jesus and Elisha

Elisha cures a man with leprosy (2 Kings 5)
Jesus cures a man with leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-16)
Elisha feeds 100 men on twenty loaves of bread (2 Kings 4:42-44).
Jesus feeds over 5000 men, women and children on five loaves of bread and two fish (Matthew 14:16-21, Mark 6:35-44, Luke 9:13-17, John 6:7-13). The plots are the same: Elisha delegates the task of feeding, there is a complaint that there is not enough food, everyone is eventually fed, and there is food left over.
Elisha raises the dead: a woman tries to beseech him for help but is prevented, they think the boy is asleep in a house some distance away, then he is reported to have died, they go anyway and Elisha raises him. In both this account and that of Jesus, the parent goes ahead to the house so that both parents are present when he arrives. The miracle worker seeks a high degree of privacy before working the miracle, and afterward the parents fall to his feet. Interestingly, Jairus in Mark 5 means "he awakens".
When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why." "Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said. "Didn't I tell you, `Don't raise my hopes'?" Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy's face." But the child's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened." When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy's body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite." And he did. When she came, he said, "Take your son." She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out. (2 Kings 4:27-37)
Jesus raises the dead: a man tries to beseech him for help but is prevented, they think the girl is asleep, then they think she dies, then Jesus wakes her.
Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. (Matthew 5:22-24)
While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?" Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe." He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat. (Matthew 5:34-43)

Jesus and Elijah

Elijah asks God to revive the dead son of a widow (who meets him at the gates of the city) then hands him to his mother. (1 Kings 17:17-24)

Jesus heals the dead son of a widow (who meets him at the gates of the city) then hands him to his mother. (Luke 7:12-15)

Here the Greek for "and he gave him to his mother" is the same in both accounts "kai edoken auton te metri autou", copied word for word from the Septuagint (Steven Carr).

John 4 uses parts of 1 Kings 17 that Luke does not:
While in a foreign land, Jesus meets a widower, and asks the woman for a drink because he is thirsty. The woman is actually the one in true need, however. Jesus promises her a neverending source, and later she certifies that he is a true prophet. (John 4)

While in a foreign land, Elijah meets a widower, and asks the woman for a drink because he is thirsty. The woman is actually the one in true need. Elijah promises her a neverending source, and later she certifies that he is a true prophet. (1 Kings 17)

Jesus and Jonah

Jonah gets on a boat, a violent storm arises, the captain wakes him, and he tells them to throw him overboard to calm the storm. (Jonah 1)

Jesus gets on a boat, a furious squall comes up, the disciples wake him, and he calms the storm. (Mark 4)

This is the only time in the new testament that Jesus is shown sleeping, and in this case it is on a tiny boat in the middle of a severe storm. This is the only place where Matthew calls the disciples "the men" (Matthew 8:27), which is an obvious echo of Jonah 1:16.

The Slaughter of the Innocents

"When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi." (Matthew 2:16)

In Judaism the earliest intended victim [of a massacre of children] was Abraham, whom the jealous King Nimrod of Babylon had tried to destroy when he learned of Abraham's birth through the sudden appearance of a new star (just as the magi learned of Zarathustra's birth through the appearance of a new star.) (William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus)

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Last changed February 21 2009 12:12:02. David Coppit, david@coppit.org
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