The origins of the nation of Israel remains obscure outside of the Biblical account. Modern archaeology has proven the existence of many of the Biblical sites and we can surmise that there is some degree of authenticity given to the Bible stories.  Dates, however, must not be considered accurate, but rather the reader should understand that the ancient Hebrew scribes recorded the events as they would have them remembered.  Ancient Jewish writers wanted to preserve their history giving Jehovah (Yahweh) credit for the world's creation and the development of all there is in existence.

Jewish tradition relates the story of how Abraham's descendants migrated to Egypt due to a famine in Palestine and apparently Egypt as well.  Abraham was Isaac's father (Gen. 25:19) and Isaac was Jacob's father (Gen. 25:21-26); Jacob in turn became the father of twelve sons who were to become the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 29:31-30:24; 35:16-18).  Joseph was Jacob's second to the youngest of the twelve (Gen. 34:24), Benjamin being the youngest (Gen. 42:13-44:26).

Joseph was envied by his brothers (Gen 37:11) because of two dreams he purportedly dreamt (Gen. 37:5-9); these dreams were considered to be prophetic.  In these dreams Joseph came to rule over his brothers (Gen. 37:9,10).  It was for this reason that his brothers conspired against him and sold him to Ishmaelite travelers (Gen.37:25) who in turn sold him to an Egyptian named Potipher (Gen. 39:1).  Potipher's wife developed a deep affection for Joseph and attempted to seduce Joseph (Gen. 39:7-19).  Joseph is recorded to have been a Godly man and refused the advances upon him in favor of remaining pure in heart and spirit.   Potipher's wife then accused Joseph of molesting her whereupon Joseph was put in prison (Gen. 39:20).

In prison, Joseph interpreted the dreams of the Pharoah's butler and baker (Gen. 40:1-22).  When Joseph correctly interpreted the dreams it was later told Pharoah and the Pharoah summoned Joseph to interpret the Pharoah's own dreams (Gen. 41:14).  When Joseph gave a satisfying interpretation of a coming famine he was promoted to the position of rule in Egypt second only to the Pharoah himself (Gen. 41:39-44).  When the famine struck, Joseph's brothers went to Egypt for food and eventually the family migrated there (Gen. 45:9-46:7).  After the death of the reigning Pharoah, the descendants of Joseph and his brothers became slaves in Egypt, or so the legend is told (Gen 1: 8-18).

The Hebrews served four hundred and thirty years of bondage in Egypt (Ex. 12:40-41; Gal. 3:17). Moses was born around this time and became the famed deliverer of the Hebrew people (Ex. 3:2-4:18). Moses led the Hebrew descendants through forty years of wandering in the Sinai peninsula (Ex. 16:35; Num. 14:33,34; 32:13; Deut. 2:7; 8:2,4; Josh. 5:6 Neh. 9:21; Ps. 95:10; Am. 2:10; Acts 7:36; 13:18; Heb. 3:9,17). The group of people Moses led out of Egypt were a "mixed multitude" (Ex. 12:38); this implies that there were probably run-away Egyptians and slaves from other ethnic races that followed Moses along with the Hebrews. This would explain why they eagerly adopted practices that were forbidden to them; the end result was a mixed religion in most of the nation of Israel.

After the death of Moses, Joshua rises to the position of leadership and begins the military campaigns in Palestine and this begins the history of Israel. The Hebrews, however, did not adhere to the instructions Moses had given them and began making treaties with the people (Joshua 9:1-16) and in some places adopted the religious practices of the people they were supposed to be conquering. According to biblical records, the Hebrews were instructed to drive out the inhabitants of the land yet they failed to do this (Joshua 16:10, 17:12, 13 et. al.).   

Before the time of the Jewish kings, the Hebrew nation was governed by judges who assumed power as was believed to be bestowed upon them by God (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25).  The Hebrew scribes record in the book of Judges as this being a time of confusion, "every man did that which was right in his own eyes (Judge 17:6; 21:25)."  One account of this confusion tells the story of a military leader named Jepthah, who was recorded to have sacrificed his own daughter to the God of Israel after defeating the Ammonites in battle (Judges 11:30-40).  Eli's sons where known to eat the flesh of the temple offering forbidden them and seduce the young ladies that came to the temple to worship (I Sam. 2:12-17, 22).

The worship of the sun and stars was forbidden to the Hebrews (Deut. 17:2-5); yet modern excavation has uncovered many Jewish temples that have the solar system depicted on their ceilings.  In one of Joseph's dreams, the sun and the moon along with eleven stars bow down to him(Gen. 37:9).  Jacob identifies the sun and the moon in the dream with himself and Joseph's mother (v. 10).  Many scholars believe this to imply that the celestial bodies and their orbits were studied by the ancient Hebrews.  We know that many of the other civilizations from the earliest antiquity observed the heavenly bodies and learned to plant and cultivate crops according to their seasons; this is why the elements in nature became sacred to them. Many of these cultures worshipped the stars and planets in various fashions and the Hebrews copied from them. The prophet Ezekiel expressed this, "And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, [were] about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east" (Ezek. 8:16).

Solomon, in his time, married many foreign wives (I Kings 11:1) and turned to their gods in his old age (Kings 11:4). If you study the Kings and Chronicles, you will find that this condition continued and the prosperity of the nation of Israel progressively declined (I Kings 14:22; 16:20). After the death of Solomon, the nation of Israel was divided into two distinct countries (I Kings 11:28-39).  Jeroboam became the first ruler of the Northern kingdom and Rehoboam became the first ruler of the isolated Judea (I Kings 12:20,21). Jeroboam built two golden calves, one to be worshipped in the city of Dan at Israel's northern most border, and one in Bethel, the city which separated Israel from Judea (I Kings 12:26-29). This practice was condemned by the orthodox Jews of the south. Child sacrifice was not uncommon in the ancient world, but forbidden to the Hebrews (Lev. 18:21; 20:2-5; Deut. 18:10). Solomon was recorded to have built temples to pagan gods including Molech to whom child sacrifices were made (I Kings 11:7). Later kings were recorded to have sacrificed their children to Molech (II Kings 16:23; 17:7-17; 21:1-6; II Chron 33:1-6). By the time of the later prophets the Hebrew people were worshipping Molech (Ezek. 16:20, 21; 20:26,31; 23:37; Jer. 32:35). This is the reason that God eventually allowed first the Assyrians to invade the northern kingdom of Israel (II Kings 17:1-6), and later the Babylonians to conquer southern Judea (II Kings 25:1-11). It was for this apostasy that Christians claim Jesus came to save the world.

Since we can see that the Hebrews borrowed from pagan cultures, and Christianity borrowed from the Jewish faith, it should become clear that Christianity employs many ideas which originated in paganism.