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Christian symbolism can be found in sources for Irish and Scandinavian mythologies, as the authors that recorded it were Christian and probably wrote about it centuries later. Was there ever a Christianization of Egyptian myths?

I am looking for some sort of text where a common Egyptian tale has some evident elements of Christianity incorporated in it. There is a gap of a few centuries of Christianity in Roman Egypt were that could have happened but maybe it was too short lived?

Most sources I could find deal with possible influence of Egyptian myths on Abrahamic religions, but I would like to know if the opposite ever had place. The same question could be asked about Persian and Islam influence on the myths. How did early Christian wrote about Egyptian myths?

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Perhaps at a late stage, you might find this, but the majority of our knowledge about Egyptian myths derive from a time well before Christianity was around, let alone popular. Even late writers like Plutarch are writing in a tradition where Christianity is unknown.

The reason you see hypotheses that Christianity influenced Norse and Irish mythology is that those who preserved the original myths were themselves Christians. Irish monks copying texts lived in a land that had long ago Christianized. For the Norse stuff, it is not even certain that Christianization is as prevalent as once thought. Baldr's death and Ragnarok are actually more likely to be inherent to Norse mythology and not imported from Christianity. As far as I know, there isn't any good evidence to suggest they were Christian outside of fanciful parallelomania.

For some criticisms of the connections, see Lars Lönnroth's Njáls Saga: A Critical Introduction p. 161 and thereabouts. In particular, he notes that there is no evidence of Christian Medieval stylistic traits in the sagas, that supposed parallels are merely the adoption of a Christian worldview. But this is patently untenable without concrete evidence.

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  • Good point, I am less interested in the Norse part anyway. I was wondering if there were any attempts to synchretize Christianity and ancient Egyptian religion. Oct 24, 2022 at 17:08
  • So late sources are fine for you then?
    – cmw
    Oct 24, 2022 at 18:06
  • Yes. Later sources would work. How late are we talking about? Oct 24, 2022 at 18:34
  • Possibly 3rd century CE, but maybe later. I don't have immediate access to my library right now, as I'm on vacation, but I'll try to see what I can come up with online soon.
    – cmw
    Oct 25, 2022 at 1:42
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From Aset to Jesus: The History of the Goddess Aset in Ancient Kemet From Circa 3000 BCE Until the Removal of Feminine Salvation Circa 400 CE

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    I would suggest to add a description, not only it makes the answer clearer but even after reading the abstract the paper seems to be about Egyptian concepts in Christianity and not the opposite Feb 22, 2022 at 19:12

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