Satay has asked that I post some of my ideas that come from my research into most of the major religions and scriptures. I have found some commonalities in them which are leading me to believe that they couldoriginally have come from a common source, possibly the Vedas.

With Judaism, at this stage of the discussion, I will just give a very broad brush stroked overview of how my ideas are developing and then if others want to take up any specific points, we can go into more detail.

I am coming to the conclusion that the three major influences on Judaism

  • Zoroastrianism, with which the Israelites would have come into contact around 500 BC when they were captive in Babylon. Zoroaster was originally a Vedic priest.
  • Greek and Pagan Gnostics, whose beliefs are very similar to the Egyptian Hermetica.
  • Alexandrian Jews around 100 BC.

It’s hard to say how much the Jews were influenced by the Egyptians, as there is no record or evidence of them having been captive in Egypt. For example, there is no mention of the pyramids in the Bible. In addtion, if they were crossing the Red Sea to get to Israel, they would have been taking a huge detour. So the story of the flight from Egypt under Moses may well be allegory. The bare bones of that story would certainly match the stories of the Gnostics, which were Mystery stories and not meant to be taken literally.

The Greek influence on the Old Testament applies to the later books that were written after the Greeks conquered Jerusalem post Alexander the Great. And of course, we know that the first translation of the OT was by the Greeks, and so their influence would also have been added in that way.

In addition, there were more Jews in Alexandria during 1st century BC than anywhere else, including Jerusalem. Alexandria at this time would have been a veritable melting pot of spiritual teachers including rabbis, Brahmins and Greek Stoics. So many of the later books of the OT, including the Apocrypha, would have had this influence.

How I’ve connected the Greek and Pagan Gnostic stories to the Vedas is this - the story at the heart of the Mystery stories is that of a descending Godman who rescues a fallen Goddess from the Underworld. In the Rig-veda, Indra descends to rescue Sarama from the caves of the Panis.

So I hope this overview gives some idea of my thinking and I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has any views on it.