Editing Christian mythology (section)

==Connections to other belief systems==

=== Jewish mythology===
{{Original research section|date=April 2019}}
{{Main|Jewish mythology}}
* Cosmogony
** [[Genesis creation narrative#First narrative: creation week|The 7-day creation week narrative]] (Genesis 1:1—2:3)
** [[Genesis creation narrative#Second narrative: Eden|The Eden narrative]] (Genesis 2:4—3:24)
* Origins
** [[Fall of man#Genesis 3|The Fall of Man]]: Although the Book of Genesis does not mention [[original sin]], many Christians interpret the Fall as the origin of sin.
** [[Noah's Ark]]
** [[The Tower of Babel]]: the origin and division of nations and languages
* The life of [[Abraham]]
* [[The Exodus]] of the Hebrews from Egypt
* The Hebrews' conquest of the [[Promised Land]]
* The period of the [[Prophet#Judaism|Hebrew prophets]]. One example is the [[apocryphal]] part of the Book of Daniel (14:1–30; excluded from the Hebrew and Protestant canon) that tells the story of [[Bel and the dragon]].

===Zoroastrianism===
Some scholars believe that many elements of Christian mythology, particularly its linear portrayal of time, originated with the [[Persian religions|Persian]] religion of [[Zoroastrianism]].<ref>Campbell, p. 190–92</ref> [[Mary Boyce]], an authority on Zoroastrianism, writes:
{{blockquote|Zoroaster was thus the first to teach the doctrines of an individual judgment, Heaven and Hell, the future resurrection of the body, the general Last Judgment, and life everlasting for the reunited soul and body. These doctrines were to become familiar articles of faith to much of mankind, through borrowings by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.<ref>Boyce, p. 29</ref>}}

[[Mircea Eliade]] believes the Hebrews had a sense of linear time before Zoroastrianism influenced them. However, he argues,
"a number of other [Jewish] religious ideas were discovered, revalorized, of systematized in Iran". These ideas include a [[Dualistic cosmology|dualism]] between good and evil, belief in a future savior and [[resurrection]], and "an optimistic eschatology, proclaiming the final triumph of Good".<ref>Eliade, ''A History of Religious Ideas'', vol. 1, p. 302</ref>

The Zoroastrian concepts of [[Ahriman]], [[Amesha Spentas]], [[Yazata]]s, and [[Daeva]]s probably gave rise to the Christian understanding of Satan, archangels, angels, and demons.<ref>H. James Birx ''Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, & Culture, Band 1'' SAGE, 13.01.2009 {{ISBN|9781412941648}}, p. 303.</ref>

===Other connections===
In [[Buddhist mythology]], the demon [[Mara (demon)|Mara]] tries to distract the historical Buddha, [[Siddhartha Gautama]], before he can reach enlightenment. [[Huston Smith]], a professor of philosophy and a writer on comparative religion, notes the similarity between Mara's temptation of the Buddha before his ministry and Satan's temptation of Christ before his ministry.<ref>Smith, p. 9</ref>

In the [[Book of Revelation]], the author sees a vision of a pregnant woman in the sky being pursued by a huge red dragon. The dragon tries to devour her child when she gives birth, but the child is "caught up to God and his throne". This appears to be an allegory for the triumph of Christianity: the child presumably represents Christ; the woman may represent God's people of the Old and New Testaments (who produced Christ); and the Dragon symbolizes Satan, who opposes Christ.<ref>footnote on Revelation 12:1–6 in ''The New American Bible'', St Joseph Edition</ref> According to Catholic scholars, the images used in this allegory may have been inspired by pagan mythology:
{{blockquote|This corresponds to a widespread myth throughout the ancient world that a goddess pregnant with a savior was pursued by a horrible monster; by miraculous intervention, she bore a son who then killed the monster.<ref>footnote on Revelation 12:1–6 in ''The New American Bible'', St Joseph Edition. The footnote does not specify which pagan myths it means.</ref>}}