The story of Jesus is the story of the divine king in ANE religion.

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In the ANE the king was often considered the son of god or the representative of god. In the following I'm going to use the Egyptian king/pharaoh as an example since I know more about Egyptian kings than other ANE kings.

In the gospels Jesus is portrayed as being the new king/messiah. The Jewish messiah is most likely based on enthronement/coronation hymns celebrating the Davidic king. These Hebrew enthronement/coronation hymns probably picked up influences from Egyptian and Babylonian enthronement/coronation hymns.

"Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archeology in Honor of Philip J. King" edited by Philip J. King, Michael David Coogan, J. Cheryl Exum, Lawrence E. Stager:

A number of scholars have suggested that Isaiah's messianic oracles in chapters 9 and 11 were structured as enthronement or coronation hymns celebrating the accession of Hezekiah--or some other king--to the throne. One further body of archaelogical evidence is worth noting here which helps to validate this interpretation of the oracles. Over the years a number of Egyptian coronation hymns have been retrieved from several periods. They reveal patterns of content and imagery that can be found reflected in Isaiah's messianic oracles. To illustrate the similarities, it will suffice here to refer to two hymns that have been published in translation and are readily accessible to readers: the late-thirteenth-century BCE "Joy at the Accession of Mer-ne-Ptah" and the mid-twelfth-century "Joy at the Accession of Ramses IV". First of all, the Egyptian royal hymns typically describe the pharaoh as divinely "given" or "sent" by his father, the great god. "A lord--life, prosperity, health!--is given in all lands...the King of Upper and Lower Egypt"(Mer-ne-Ptah);"All the lands say to him: 'Gracious is the Horus upon the throne of his father Amon-Re, the god who sent him forth, the protector of the prince who carries off every land"(Ramesses IV). Isaiah's words in 9:6, "to us a son is given," may draw upon this established theme in coronation liturgy. The Egyptian hymns apply exalted titles to the pharaoh and describe his reign as eternal. Mer-ne-Ptah is described as "the lord of millions of years, great of kingship like Horus." Ramesses IV is greeted with the exclamation, "Thou ruler--life, prosperity, health!--thou art for eternity!" Isaiah says in 9:6-7, "His name will be called 'Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince Of Peace.' Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end." Egyptian royal theology provided a natural context for such exalted language. The pharaoh was asserted to be divinely incarnated and eternal. It is noteworthy that Isaiah employs similar imagery even though the subject of his oracle is clearly identified as a Davidic royal descendant--not a deity himself, but simply a charismatic human agent of the deity. The exalted titles in Isaiah 9:6, therefore, must be seen as applied not to the Davidic king but to the God whose powers are made manifest in him. The Egyptian hymns use superlative imagery also to extol the blessings that the new pharaoh brings to the land--typically peace, justice, and material prosperity. Of Mer-ne-Ptah's accession it is proclaimed: "Right has banished wrong. Evildoers have fallen (upon) their faces. All the rapacious are ignored. The water stands and is not dried up; the Nile lifts high. Days are long, nights have hours, and the moon comes normally." In other words, the new pharaoh has brought harmonious order both to society and to nature. The hymn to Ramesses IV echoes the same double theme: "They who were fled have come (back) to their towns; they who were hidden have come forth (again). They who were hungry are sated and gay; they who were thirsty are drunken...High Niles have come forth from their caverns, that they may refresh the hearts of the common people...The ships, they rejoice upon the deep. They have no (need of) ropes, for they come to land with wind and oars." Isaiah proclaims the same dual theme: the Davidic king will establish perfect justice in the community while perfect peace will permeate nature. "With righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth...The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid"(Isa. 11:4,6). It need not be suggested that Isaiah was directly acquainted with Egyptian royal litanies. It is more likely that the prophet was consciously echoing the literary style and content of earlier Israelite coronation hymns and that they, in turn, quite understandably had appropriated established forms of royal ritual. By combining the archaeological evidence outlined above with a critical examination of the biblical texts, a compelling argument emerges that Isaiah's messianic oracles are, indeed, hymns celebrating the divinely installed king. They are most probably retrospective, however, presented not at Hezekiah's accession but after he had been on the throne for a number of years. The prophet has been inspired by the seemingly miraculous deliverance of 701 BCE to proclaim the king who could then be declared to have been divinely provided for this deliverance. Like other prophets, Isaiah not only looked to the future, he also sought to interpret the true meaning of past events. Here he proclaims that it was Yahweh who had "given" Hezekiah to his people--who had placed his spirit upon this ruler years before in order to prepare for this moment of crises.

"Biblical Narrative and Palestine's History: Changing Perspectives 2" By Thomas L. Thompson:

Another thematic element of major importance in Psalm 2's use of the messiah is the divine declaration or decree that he is Yahweh's son, born on that day by god (Ps. 2:7). This is comparable to the official publication of cosmic joy and good news at the accession to the throne of Rameses IV: 'O happy day! Heaven and earth are in joy, for you are the great lord of Egypt.' Similar to the messianic son of Yahweh of Psalm 2:7, Rameses IV is the son of Re. As Horus, Ramses, like Akhenaten before him, takes the throne of his father 'who sent him forth.' Similar to Ramses rule and protection over all nations, Psalm 2's king and messiah governs Yahweh's kingdom: the nations are in his patronage, which embraces the entire world. Like Merneptah, who banishes wrong at his accession and causes evildoers to fall on their face, Psalm 2's messiah is given the power to shatter and crush the nations. Finally, Psalm 2 closes with the phrase: 'happy are those who seek refuge in him,' a verse which reiterates the beatitudes of Psalm 1's eightfold contrast between the way of righteousness and the way of the ungodly. The announcement of Ramses IV's accession presents a similarly structured ninefold version of this poor man's song in order to describe the 'happy' day' for those who come under the king's divine patronage, a trope that plays a central role in the Bible's messianic tradition: "They who were fled have come back to their town; they who were hidden have come forth again. They who were hungry are sated and gay; they who were thirsty are drunken. They who were naked are clothed in fine linen; they who were dirty are clad in white. They who were in prison are set free; they who were fettered are in joy. But troublemakers have become peaceful."

"The Messiah Myth: The Near Eastern Roots of Jesus and David" By Thomas L. Thompson:

The frequent references to "the kingdom of God" in the gospels and sayings attributed to Jesus in the controversial gospel of Thomas all point to an earlier tradition: like king David before him, the Jesus of the Bible is an amalgamation of themes from near eastern mythology and traditions of kingship and divinity. The theme of a messiah--a divinely appointed king who restores the world to perfection--is typical of Egyptian and Babylonian royal ideology...

Mary and Joseph are told that their son will be king and rule over Jacob's descendants forever.

From gLuke:

Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

In ancient Egypt the pharaoh was given a divine birth myth that portrayed his mother being impregnated by a god and being told that the child will be future king and rule forever.

From "Chronicle of a Pharaoh: The Intimate Life of Amenhotep III" by Joann Fletcher:

At Luxor we can follow the great king from his divine conception right through his life, and beyond. The story begins with Amun diplomatically taking the form of Tuthmosis to visit Mutemwia, who is asleep in the inner rooms of her palace. According to the inscriptions that accompany the temple reliefs, "She awoke on account of the aroma of the god and cried out before him ... He went to her straight away, she rejoiced at the sight of his beauty, and love for him coursed through her body. The palace was flooded with the god's aroma. "Words spoken by Mutemwia before the majesty of this great god Amun-Ra: `How strong is your power! Your dew fills my body,' and then the majesty of this god did all that he desired with her.Words spoken by Amun-Ra: `Amenhotep, ruler of Thebes, is the name of this child I have placed in your body ... He shall exercise the beneficent kingship in this whole land, he shall rule the Two Lands like Ra forever.'" The sandstone reliefs depict the couple's fingers touching briefly—and in this auspicious instant Amenhotep, son of Amun, is conceived.

"God's Wife, God's Servant: The God's Wife of Amun (ca.740–525 BC)" by By Mariam F. Ayad:

...a union with the king's mother and the supreme deity imbued the future king with his divine nature. It was precisely this divine nature that enabled an Egyptian king to serve as a mediator between mankind and the gods. Temple scene representing the king's divine conception and birth are known from the reigns of Queen Hatshepsut(c. 1479/73-1458/57 BC) and Amenhotep III(c. 1390-1352 BC)

"Handbook of Egyptian Mythology" By Geraldine Pinch:

Many kings claimed that they, like Horus, had been chosen to rule "while still in the egg". In practice, it was the inaugeration rituals that turned the chosen heir into "the living Horus"...The accession of individual kings might be validated by giving them a divine parent. One such royal birth myth is found in the inauguration incriptions of King Horemheb[c. 1319-1307 BCE]. Horemheb was a soldier who served under Akhenaton and Tutankhamun, but the inscription presents his career in mythological terms. He is called the son of Horus...Horemheb claims that his exceptional qualities were evident as soon as he was born and that Horus of Hnes always intended that he should be king...Horemheb is then able to restore the country and it's institutions to the way things were "in the time of Ra"

"The Search for God in Ancient Egypt" By Jan Assmann:

The story...has to do with the divine descent of the royal child. Amun, king of the gods, decides to engender a new king in whose hands rule over the world will be placed, one who will build temples to deities and increase their offerings, and in whose time abundance and fertility will reign. A mortal woman strikes his fancy; Thoth the divine messenger ascertains that she is none other than the queen herself...Amun forms the name of the future child from the words the couple exchange...Thoth is sent to the queen to announce her pregnancy to her...divine nurses suckle the child, and deities bestow blessings on it. As the child grows, it is circumcised, purified, and presented to the assembled deities of the land as the new king...Here, in the myth of the divine birth of the king, we are told that the coronation of the king fulfills the will of the god who engendered the child and "socialized" it into the divine realm to rule as king of the world in peace and fear of god...The story of the divine descent of the royal child was first told of the three kings who began Dynasty 5...and included the title "Son of Re" in the official royal titulary...This fact suggests rather clearly that we are not dealing exclusively with a piece of official royal ideology, but with a concept that was related in the form of a story in various contexts and which must thus have had a certain general influence and popularity in ancient Egypt. The story is also familiar to us today and is still told in a variant that differs in only one respect from the Egyptian version: the kingdom of Christian tradition is not of this world. But Egyptian tradition prepared the way for even this transposition. At a specific point in Egyptian history, the myth changed it's form and it's point of reference. It became a festival drama that was enacted one or more times each year in all the larger temples in the land, and it referred, not to the birth of the king, but to that of the child god in respective temple triads. Now it was the new god who came into the world and ascended the throne. In this version, the emphasis of the myth shifted from it's legitimizing to it's explanatory and meaning-imparting function...Because welfare was no longer embodied in the king, a festival drama was enacted to relate--or, rather, celebrate--how a god had come to bring salvation into the world.

The pharaoh would perform a death and resurrection/rebirth ritual at a certain point during his reign.

"Amenhotep III: Egypt's Radiant Pharaoh" By Arielle P. Kozloff:

The royal jubilee, or heb-sed, was a festival of renewal rooted in Egypt's most ancient history...The Sed festival traditionally took place during the thirtieth year of the reign...Timing was crucial for the climax of the festival deep inside the royal tomb. There Pharaoh faced the images of the gods represented on his tomb walls and remained for a period of time before going to his funeral bed, where he "died" and was "reborn" in a series of rituals, incantations, and offerings...This resurrection was the culmination of a process of deification that had begun with Amenhoteps III's coronation. At the time, like all Egyptian kings, he was the representative and high priest of each god on earth.

"Temples of Ancient Egypt" by Dieter Arnold:

Numerous representations attest that the assembly of the Followers of Horus played another, even more important role during the Sed-Festival. This ceremonial regeneration of the king's divine powers was carried out, ideally, thirty years after his coronation or appointment as official successor to the throne. Apparently the rites of this renewal of the royal reign were also performed in the fortress of the gods, where the gods again arrived in the boats that play an important role in this ceremony...These powerful rites, which influenced the nature of Egyptian kingship until the end of pharaonic rule, could culminate in a ceremonial death and rebirth of the aging king.

"Temples of Ancient Egypt" by Lanny Bell:

During the Sed-Festival, the living king, as part of his eternal cycle, underwent a ritual death and rejuvenation. In the rite's critical climax, the king experienced the nadir of his strength...An almost unbearable tension gripped the priests at the service and the people who waited outside, and when the king reappeared, successfully rejuvenated, their high excitement and enormous relief turned to jubilation.

"The Search for God in Ancient Egypt" By Jan Assmann:

Quite similarly, at a very early date, Egyptian texts began to celebrate the resurrection of the king, who has emerged from his tomb and ascended to the sky, as a theophany.

As Jan Assmann and Thomas L. Thomson say in the quotes above, these "royal myths" were also a part of the mythology surrounding personal savior gods and heroes. In "Assyrian Prophecies" Assyriologist Simo Parpola says the same thing:

The intricate connection between mystery religion, esotericism and emperor cult, crucial to the understanding of ANE prophecy and the origins of ancient philosophy, emerges with full clarity only from the Assyrian evidence. on the other hand, the Assyrian sources, especially their symbolic imagery, cannot be fully understood without the supporting evidence of related traditions

So Jesus(whether you think he's historical or not) was given these royal/savior mythological motifs in order to deify him and portray him as king/messiah.

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This resurrection was the culmination of a process of deification that had begun with Amenhoteps III's coronation.

This reminds me of the transfiguration and baptism of Jesus in the gospels. One or both of these events can be compared to the coronation ceremony of the king when he becomes divine or at least begins his deification process and the death and resurrection of Jesus, as with the king, is the culmination of his deification.

Lannie Bell, "Luxor Temple and the Cult of the Royal Ka," JNES 44(1985) 257

The representation of this Ka is intended as proof of his divine origins and sufficient evidence that he was predestined to rule. But he actually becomes divine only when he becomes one with the royal Ka, when his human form is overtaken by this immortal element...This happens at the climax of the coronation ceremony when he assumes rightful place on the "Horus-throne of the living."

The "Ka" in Egyptian religion represented the life force or spiritual double of a being.

So in the above quote the king becomes divine when he becomes one with the royal "Ka". This reminds me of the spirit descending on Jesus "like a dove".

From Mark

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;[a] with you I am well pleased.”

At the coronation of the king in Egyptian royal ritual the king is told "He is my son, on my throne, in accordance with the decree of the gods" or "You are my son, the heir who came forth from my flesh" or "I am your father, who have begotten you as a god and your members as gods".

"King and Messiah as Son of God: Divine, Human, and Angelic Messianic Figures in Biblical and Related Literature" by Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins:

Eckart Otto has argued persuasively that Psalm 2 combines Egyptian and Assyrian influences. He finds Assyrian influence in the motif of the rebellion of the subject nations, and in the promise that the king will break the nations with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. These motifs suggest a date for the psalm in the Neo-Assyrian period. The declaration that the king is the son of God, however, has closer Egyptian parallels. The idea that the king was the son of a god is not unusual in the ancient Near East. We have noted some Mesopotamian evidence. Kings of Damascus from the 9th century BCE took the name "son of Hadad", and at least one king of the strian state of Sam'al was called "son of Rakib". Only in the Egyptian evidence, however, do we find the distinctive formulae by which the deity addresses the king as "my son." The formula, "you are my son, this day I have begotten you," finds a parallel in an inscription in the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut:

"my daughter, from my body, Maat-Ka-Re, my brilliant image, gone forth from me. You are a king, who take possession of the two lands, on the throne of Horus, like Re."

Reliefs at the temple of Amenophis III at Luxor show Amun touching the royal child and taking it in his arms. Another inscription of Amenophis III has the god declare:
"He is my son, on my throne, in accordance with the decree of the gods." At the coronation of Haremhab, Amun declares to him: "You are my son, the heir who came forth from my flesh." Or again, in the blessing of Ptah, from the time of Rameses II: "I am your father, who have begotten you as a god and your members as gods." Such recognition formulae occur frequently in Egyptian inscriptions of the New Kingdom period. Otto suggests that the psalm does not reflect direct Egyptian influence, since the closest Egyptian parallels date from the New Kingdom, before the rise of the Israelite monarchy. Rather, the Hofstil of pre-Israelite (Jebusite) Jerusalem may have been influencedby Egyptian models during the late second Millenium, and have been taken over by the Judean monarchy in Jerusalem.
The formulation of the psalm, "this day I have begotten you," is widely taken to reflect an enthronement ceremony. The idea that the enthronement ritual in Jerusalem was influenced by Egyptian models was argued by Gerhard von Rad, in an article published in 1947. He argued that the "decree" of Ps 2:7 referred to the royal protocol, presented to the king at the time of the coronation. The Egyptian protocol contained the pharaoh's titles, and the acknowledgment that the king was son of Re, and therefore legitimate king. Von Rad noted that a fuller example of royal protocol can be found in Isa 9:6, where the proclamation of the birth of a son is followed by the titles by which he is to be known, including "mighty god". Von Rad's insights were taken up and developed in a famous essay by Albrecht Alt, who argued that the passage in Isaish 9 was composed for Hezekiah's enthronement, and celebrated not the birth of a child but the accession of the king. The interpretation of Isiah 9 in terms of an enthronement ceremony is not certain. The oracle could be celebrating the birth of a royal child. The word is not otherwise used for an adult king. But the accession hypothesis is attractive, nonetheless, in light of Psalm 2. The list of titles is reminiscent in a general way of the titulary of the Egyptian pharaohs. Most importantly, the passage confirms that the king could be addressed as elohim, "god". The latter point is further illustrated in Ps. 45:6, which is most naturallly translated as "Your throne, O God, endures forever." The objection that the king is not otherwise addressed as God loses it's force in light of Isaiah 9. The fact that the king is addressed as God in Ps. 45:6 is shown by the distinction drawn in the following verse, "therefore God, your God, has anointed you." The king is still subject to the Most High, but he is an elohim, not just a man.
In light of this discussion, it seems very likely that the Jerusalem enthronement ritual was influenced, even if only indirectly, by Egyptian ideas of kingship. At least as a matter of court rhetoric, the king was declared to be the son of God, and could be called an elohim, a god. This is not to say that the Judahite and Egyptian conceptions were identical. Most probably, the Israelites took over their conception of kingship from the Canaanite forebears in Jerusalem, and modified it in various ways.

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The Pharaoh also went through a transfiguration and baptism during the coronation ceremony.

"A Companion to Ancient Egypt" edited by Alan B. Lloyd:

During this central ceremony of Kingship, a more or less ordinary mortal, whom many of the elite had known on a personal level, was transfigured into a living god...Those that remained more or less inviolate symbolically alluded to the original unification of Upper and Lower Egypt (such as the union of the Two Lands and the Circuit of the Walls) or to the king's control of the four directions (such as the shooting of arrows to the four cardinal directions and the king's baptism by the gods of the four cardinal points).

"Ancient Egypt" By David P. Silverman:

In the scene referred to as "the Baptism of Pharaoh", deities are depicted in the act of pouring a ritual libation over the king. The "waters" of the libation sometimes take the form of a stream of hieroglyphs, which include most frequently the ankh ("life") and the was sceptre ("dominion"): in addition to it's more apparent meaning, the scene therefore also represents the gods granting these gifts to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh

• Born to a mortal woman impregnated by a god

• Baptized

• Becomes one with the royal "Ka"(life force/spirit)

• Goes through a transfiguration

• Dies and resurrects

Jesus

• Born to a mortal woman impregnated by a god

• Baptized

• Spirit descends on him

• Goes through a transfiguration

• Dies and resurrects

This royal ritual is also found in the mystery cults and Christianity where the initiate goes through a ritual death and resurrection/rebirth and purification. It seems like at some point the royal ritual which gave the Pharaoh/king eternal life eventually was performed by the common people in the the mystery cults and Christianity.

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This royal ritual is also found in the mystery cults and Christianity where the initiate goes through a ritual death and resurrection/rebirth and purification. It seems like at some point the royal ritual which gave the Pharaoh/king eternal life eventually was performed by the common people in the the mystery cults and Christianity.

To add to this thread:

Baptism and initiation in the cult of Isis and Sarapis by Brook Pearson

In ancient times, the Osiris myth was the basis for what are perhaps the first mysteries- the lawful succession of the pharaohs, their burial and eventual union with Osiris in the afterlife. This 'mystery' eventually became something in which not only kings but other Egyptians could partake, and, in time, spread across the known world, along with the worship of Isis and Sarapis. For our purposes here, both of these elements separately and in combination suggest that the Isis initiate did indeed go through a process of identification with the god Osiris, and that this fact would have been the assumption behind the entire initiation process. In the first place, the ancient form of the Isis-Osiris mysteries clearly has the kings, and later normal people, identifying with the god Osiris in the hope of unification with him in the afterlife (and even, possibly, in his resurrection). This is indisputable. We have no reason to think that the worship of Isis and Osiris (Sarapis), as it spread throughout the Graeco-Roman world, changed it's essential myth in any great way. The initiate of the first century would surely have partaken in the mysteries akin to those practised throughout the history of the Isiac cult. This is where the identification of Osiris and Dionysus becomes most important...

Becoming Divine: An Introduction to Deification in Western Culture By M. David Litwa

In the ancient world, typically only kings and pharaohs claimed the divine prerogatives of immortality and ruling power. Yet in the mysteries of Dionysus-the topic of chapter 3-deification was made available to all who underwent initiation...Orphic deification is experienced, interestingly, as a postmortem rebirth from the goddess Persephone and consequently an assimilation to Persephone's divine son, Dionysus. As Orphic initiates identified with the god Dionysus, so the Apostle Paul morphed with the divine Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ," he once claimed, "I no longer live- Christ lives in me"(Gal 2:19-20).

These quotes support the idea that the royal death/rebirth ritual may be where the death/rebirth rituals that are found in the mystery cults and Christianity originate from.

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In the ANE and Greco-Roman era, the king was the son of god or representative of god/the gods. The king would sometimes have miraculous stories associated with his birth and death. The birth and coronation of the king meant that a time of peace and salvation was coming, the evil would be destroyed and the good would be rewarded. A lot of these motifs are used for Jesus in the Gospels.

King and Messiah as Son of God: Divine, Human, and Angelic Messianic Figures in Biblical and Related Literature, Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins

This book traces the history of the idea that the king and later the messiah is Son of God, from its origins in ancient Near Eastern royal ideology to its Christian appropriation in the New Testament.

Both highly regarded scholars, Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins argue that Jesus was called “the Son of God” precisely because he was believed to be the messianic king. This belief and tradition, they contend, led to the identification of Jesus as preexistent, personified Wisdom, or a heavenly being in the New Testament canon. However, the titles Jesus is given are historical titles tracing back to Egyptian New Kingdom ideology. Therefore the title “Son of God” is likely solely messianic and not literal. King and Messiah as Son of God is distinctive in its range, spanning both Testaments and informed by ancient Near Eastern literature and Jewish noncanonical literature

From Akhenaten to Moses: Ancient Egypt and Religious Change, Jan Assmann

The most important aspect of ruling, and the primary role of the king, is to establish and to maintain contact with the divine world. In the execution of his official role, he is himself a god, the only one on earth qualified for conversing with the gods, but he delegates this office to the priesthoods of the various deities and their local cults. As an important text specifies, his role is to establish ma‘at—order, harmony, justice—on earth by “judging mankind and satisfying the gods.” Judging mankind is explained as rescuing the weak and poor from the powerful and rich, and satisfying the gods is defined as giving offerings to the gods and to the dead...

In the Old Kingdom, Pharaoh, being a god incarnate, was the only being who was granted real immortality and not merely endurance in social memory. Pharaoh was believed to ascend to heaven and unite with the gods. A plethora of rituals and recitation texts surrounded this ascension. The decisive transformation of Egyptian funerary beliefs came with the breakdown of the Old Kingdom when these rituals, texts, and beliefs became accessible to a greater number of people all over the country. At that point, the originally royal concept of afterlife lost its political meaning and was generalized and extended to virtually everybody. The distinction between royals and mortals was transformed into the distinction between good and bad, worthy and unworthy, just and unjust. This is how the concept of a judgment of the dead was born, which eventually transformed Egyptian religion into a precursor of later religions of salvation and which had such a great influence on Christianity and other religions.

The Messiah Myth: The Near Eastern Roots of Jesus and David, Thomas L. Thompson

The reversal of this world's power and wealth are central elements in a clearly definable song type and theme. It can be found in every major ancient Near Eastern wisdom tradition and in nearly every ancient text tradition that gives voice to the ideology of kings and kingship. As it has been transmitted and reinterpreted within biblical tradition, this trope has played a decisive role in the development of the Jesus story. It goes far in defining his character, personality and mission...

The saving figure of the universal king, victor over evil, transcendent judge, son of God, good shepherd and representative of the people is as old as the sayings given to him to speak. The myth of the messiah the gospels present has its roots in Egyptian and Babylonian royal ideology since the Bronze Age, from which we first find ancient kings announcing their Utopian kingdoms in very gospel-like phrases. The miracle stories of the gospels illustrate the reversal of destiny of the poor or oppressed as signs of the kingdom. The sayings of Jesus, giving Jesus his personal generosity and tragic intensity, are rooted in a long tradition of literature centered on themes of the good king, a mediator between the divine and human realms of the ancient world. He is savior and shepherd of his people. He destroys evil; he creates good; and his reign is forever...

The accession hymn of Ramses IV (Appendix 1, no. 22) is remarkably lyrical and clearly expresses the social idealism that is the hallmark of this trope, as does a similar song written for the accession of Merneptah (no. 21). It announces the good news of the king coming into his kingdom, where, similarly, right conquers wrong and Egypt enters a time of peace and prosperity. As in other New Kingdom texts (nos. 19, 20), joy coming to the poor and oppressed expresses divine rule. In the Book of the Dead (no. 18) and in the sayings of Amenemopet (no. 23), the trope takes on a pedagogical function: instructing the reader and using religious motivation to support care and respect for the poor, the blind and the lame. An element of divine judgment enters the contrasting critique of the rich: "God prefers him who honors the poor to him who worships the wealthy." Giving bread to the hungry and caring for the thirsty and naked are supported as signs of a good and pious life (also no. 5).

Variations of the song for a poor man are found as early as the Sixth Dynasty in the middle of the third millennium BCE. Already at this early date, they help form a central template for autobiographical tales. They represent the good king or hero as role model for his people. Descriptions of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked (nos. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7) are already common, for example, "I gave water to the thirsty; I showed the way to him who strayed; I rescued him who had been robbed" (no. 7). This vision of the just life is also apparent in hymns and prayers that see generosity as a divine attribute. Care for the widow and orphan (no. 6), the humble and the distressed, are divine deeds (nos. 14, 15, 16). They are happy and blessed by the gods (no. 9). The texts reflect a recurrent theme that the gods take upon themselves the care of the poor, widows, fatherless and the imprisoned and ease or eliminate their suffering (no. 12). Amon-Re himself is described as "vizier of the poor." He judges the unjust with fire and saves the just (no. 15). He protects the humble and brings down the proud (nos. 16, 19, 20). The reversed fate of the rich and the poor marks divine intervention in the world (nos. 20, 21, 22). One does not put ones trust in the strong of this world (no. 17). What is striking among these few early examples from Egyptian literature is that nearly the entire range of expression supporting this high ethical ideal is represented, with many of the same stereotypical patterns we find some thousand years later in biblical texts...

This part of the book addresses three roles a king is given in ancient literature: the role of the ideal king, the king at war as protector and savior of his people and finally the myth of the dying and rising god...

The passion narrative reiterates the myth of Dionysus, with its many motifs of wine and fertility borne by a dying and rising divine figure. Similar Roman traditions and festivals of Bacchus place a greater emphasis on the seasonal cycle of cereals. In the more complex Hellenistic world, however, where festivals of Dionysus are among the most popular in antiquity, this divine-human figure plays different roles. Among many variations, the most popular themes are the drinking of wine as blood, the dying and rising of one who is half god and half man, the transformation of tears of mourning into gladness and singing, suffering transformed into the intoxication of new wine, the ecstatic meal, the fertility of spring and a new creation. Such themes are abundantly present in biblical literature and reflect similar patterns and purpose. Some we have already seen. The figure of a god-man who is destroyed, who relinquishes his life and who is born again is as fundamental to the mythic reflection of the natural cycle of grain agriculture as it is central to the theme of resurrection. Freely overcoming death through suffering marks the self-sacrifice of the hero, leading to expressions of joy through wine and food...

Our review of royal biography shows that the narrative techniques, motifs and themes of biblical story were solidly in place long before any biblical narratives were written. The virtues of humility, social justice and integrity are all marks of a piety oriented toward an ideal kingdom. What is yet lacking is to show how the great themes of ancient Near Eastern idealism are integrated and transformed in an expanding and creative development. Three themes with roots in ancient myth will be taken up in the following chapters: (1) the role of the king as son of god and divine warrior, maintaining creations dominance over chaos; (2) the interrelationship of renewal and resurrection to illustrate a pedagogy that centers on the role of the king in providing fertility and life and (3) the role of the king as sufferer, transforming a world of violence. Integrated in the world of ancient Near Eastern story and song, these elements create a discourse about the transcendent that is centered in justice, eternal life and peace. They are epitomized in the figure of an apocalyptic judge and a world-transforming savior-king.