For the Biblical scholars on my list

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Gabriel's Revelation suggests that the idea of a messiah dying and being resurrected after three days was already an established concept at the time of Christ, a part of the apocalyptic writings in the tradition of Daniel. An interesting article.

Comments

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It was. Much of Christianity is found in other traditions. To me, that doesn't lessen its validity at all. God uses and has always used the world in which we live and the things with which we are familiar in order to communicate with his creation. That's my understanding, at least.

This, to me, is the same as saying baptism, sacrifice, communal meals or cleanliness rituals or a flood narrative or a creation story or an End of Times eschatology were pre-established. Well, yeah, they were. That's kind of a given. But in my theology, they were taken, shaped and repurposed, given "fuller" meaning in the Judeo-Christian tradition.