World Faiths & Religions

Good question. Some stories, such as that of the flood, and some versions of creation, and other seemingly "mythological" events in the Hebrew Bible, seem to have been influenced by, or even borrowed from, pre Israelite (and thus pre Christian) stories. This is very common across the world's religions - it is sometimes called "syncretism." Other stories, though, may seem similar but there is no evidence of any contact or mutual influence (both Jesus and the Buddha have immaculate births, for instance, although the two cultures did not come into contact with one another until a thousand years after Jesus' birth); this may reflect the fact that very different, unconnected cultures deal with very similar human issues.