1. Cultural Interchange Through The Ages QOHELETH 1:9 "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

2. Example of #1: Ancient Flood Myths (http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_myth_flood.htm) A wide variety of ancient cultures have their own versions of a Great Flood; many of these tales contain the following similarities: Humans are guilty of transgression. God (or gods) send a flood as punishment. Instructions are sent to an individual to build a craft. The instructions include ensuring the survival of all species. The flood destroys the old race. After the flood, a new, less sinful race emerges to repopulate the earth.

3. A summary of a couple of examples that show amazing similarity to the story of Noah: Aztec In the Valley of Mexico there lived a pious man named Tapi. The Creator told him to build a boat to live in, to take his wife and a pair of every animal that existed. Neighbors thought he was crazy. As soon as he finished, it began to rain. The valley flooded; men and animals went to mountains, but they were submerged. The rain ended, waters receded, etc. Tapi realized that the floodwaters had receded after having sent a dove that did not return. Tapi rejoiced. Hawaiian A Hawaiian legend tells of a flood in which all beings were killed except for Nuu and his family who repopulated the earth when their boat landed on top of Mauna Kea.

4. China While specific flood legends exist in China, I want to briefly look at some circumstantial evidence in the origin of Chinese characters. Ship "Eight 'mouths' on a boat". Flood

6. Two primary ways of explaining these similarities: Coincidence. Practically every culture faces disastrous floods at one time or another and these are explained by mythology. Common source. DNA studies conclude that all humans emerged from a common ancestral pair on the order of 50,000 years ago. If such a flood took place in prehistory, then it's logical that its distant memory would be preserved in ancient stories.

7. Example of #2: The Spread of Christian Concepts Along "The Silk Road" As Far As Japan

8. Japan is thought of as having been a Shinto and Buddhist culture from ancient times. Christianity is said to have first entered Japan in 1549 with Xavier. But this standard view needs to be modified. It is true that Western Christianity first came with Xavier, but "Keikyo" (="Nestorianism") was here long before, leaving its legacy in the form of many adopted ideas.

11. The Christ motif of a savior entering human history from outside appears to have found its way into many stories. For instance, "Momo Taro", an ancient Japanese fairy tale of a boy that is born from a giant peach that floats up to a farmhouse. He is raised by the farmer and becomes a kind of savior who vanquishes evil with his power. In modern terms, it's very much like the story of "Superman". The common motif would seem to have been derived from the Christ story.