The origin of monotheism: "Pagan" Egypt

Oh! I learned all about this years ago and how it likely influenced Moses who combined his experiences in Egypt with Zoroastrianism after he left further into the middle east and that those were the combined inspirations for Judaism's mythology of Heaven and Hell. Similarly it was likely Jesus learned about Buddhism and used what he learned from that combined with Judaism to create the core concepts of Christianity. Timelines are cool.

My main question for you though is how do you have time to moderate and post on so many streams? I am forever grateful for you taking over mine. I have 3 kids and just never had time for how many people ended up following it. Also, sorry for semi-stalking you we just have a lot of shared interests. I don't work during the summer, so I've been on a bit more lately. Sadly the site has kind of slowed down the past year or so it seems.

Also, any time that you want to add to imgflip.com/m/AncientMemes or imgflip.com/m/parentlife -- or any of them, really, please do!

Are these streams of yours?

Yes. They're very curated.

Yes, I really like the Moses link: The name Moses is _actually_ a possible royal name from the 18th Dynasty, when Akhenaten came up with his radical idea. (Other Pharoahs from that dynasty include Thutmosis and Ahmosis).

However, I don't believe that Jesus learned about Buddhism, as lovely a story as that would be. The distances and language barriers involved make that improbable (to say the least). But he came out of a time when Judaism was in a ferment, after years of existing in different contexts and with lots of different sects and theorists (hmm, I guess it's a same-old, same-old thing). He's contemporaneous, or close, with both Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Hillel, so there were lots of thoughts to draw on.

I agree about how the site has slowed down. Honestly, my work has me remote this summer, so moderating is only a matter of checking in for ten minutes every so often to approve memes. And, obviously, being very, very nerdy.

But: three kids! Congratulations, that is serious work.

True, but Zoroastrianism was more of a later influence, after the the Jews were liberated by the Iranians from Babylon. There is no mythology of Heaven and Hell in Judaism, they only belief in the afterlife would be Sheol, basically an underground cave where the dead slept.

Zoroastrians did introduce concepts of Heaven and Hell, one God and an opposing Satan, as well as existence on a spiritual plane (the Jews believed only in a physical existence), and also the concept of an eventual apocalyptic battle between good and evil. There were actually Zoroastrian sects in Rome, as well as other countries, at the time being the most widespread religion in the world. This heavily influenced early Christianity. Another Iranian religious influence was the Cult of Mithra, which while the details are a bit scanty, bears a lot of similarity to Jesus and the emerging Christianity.