Some good points, Milu. I'll check the prophecies from Isaiah -- would you believe I can also look up Hebrew words?
Seriously, I'll check those tonight when I get home. Send me a PM if you really want me to remember.
The interesting question on virgin births (as with all other parallels between religions) is really hard -- who came up with the idea first? Jesus may not have been the first to occur, but was he the first to be foretold? It becomes the kind of question that is nearly impossible to asnwer, as the ancient history of civilizations that died thousands of years ago is a bit tough to trace.
Did the Christian idea form out of an Egyptian story? Did the Egyptians take their story from Christian prophecy? Tough to tell, sadly.
Palestine has historically been a hotly disputed region. Because of arable farmland, tactical significance of both sea and land trade routes, and a variety of other reasons, various powers have owned the area on and off throughout the last 6000 years. Naturally, whichever power holds the land gets to declare the language. During the time the testaments were written, the land was occupied by the Romans. Pontius Pilate was the Roman official who oversaw that particular region, for example. Rome used Latin for official paperwork and message traffic, and Greek for all daily communications. Thus, anyone living in the region who wanted to tell a story, pass word about anything, etc., would have used Greek, as it was the lingua franca. The Jews, of course, would have also known Hebrew and likely some Aramaic (depending on which Jew you grabbed, of course -- the scribes would have been fluent, but the fishermen probably not so much). Being a guy who's rotten at language, I think it would have been miserable to live there -- Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic? Good heavens, that's too much!
Either way, a great many manuscripts were written in Greek in that area during that time -- I find it no surprise that we find the gospel accounts written in Greek, on appropriate paper for the time period, with appropriate inks and the appropriate language nuances. I won't discount the theory that they were originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, then translated -- but I will say that I haven't seen any conclusive evidence to support the idea.
The Qumran Scrolls are always fun to paint conspiracy theories about. Sadly, I could never find the particular flavor of koolaid that I wanted to drink on those.
There's really not much of a coverup at all, and if you're really interested, you too can own the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The high profile part is the early copy of Isaiah, dating to about 150BC -- identical to every other copy we've ever seen. There's also a significant collection of early commentaries on scripture, which give insight to the early Jewish beliefs. While they aren't technically scriptural, it's valuable to know what the thoughts of the time were.
As to offense -- certainly none taken.
I'm just having fun. This is what I do. You've asked some great questions, and raised some excellent points. I enjoy discussing this sort of thing with someone who has done enough study to make me think.
Likewise, I hope I haven't come off too strong, or too rude, or too offensive -- like I said, I'm just having fun, and mean no disrespect. These beliefs are my own, and while I believe they are true, you believe that yours are true as well, and I won't doubt that you've put a lot of thought and research into what you believe.
Speaking of research -- WereWulf, any word on those Egyptologists? I'd still be curious to back that business up. TIA.
Cheers,
Dan