The settings are different, the plot remains the same.
Stop me if you heard this one:
Once upon a time there was a boy with a great destiny, but he didn't know it. His parents were kind of special, but he never knew them. He was taken away from his real family as an infant for his own protection. Until one day, a crazy old wizard showed up at his door and offered to take him away to a special place where he would eventually learn to become the hero he was destined to be. Wouldn't you know it? That's exactly what happened! The boy grew up to be a hero, and, even though the crazy old wizard who taught him was long gone, the boy (now a man) still managed to save the day from the big bad evil he was quite literally born to vanquish.
Now -- who's the boy?
Original stories, you say? I think not.
I remember back when we had free will, before we were characters in His Narrative.
Art imitates life; I does not come from a vacuum - I know you know this. Indeed, the iterations of life you previously spoke about imitate spiritual life. Moreover, the are prophetic allusions using real agents of God for the purposes of instructing His people.
Most atheists and agnostics won't get this - simply because it isn't worth their spiritual/carnal investment to figure it out. The irony and connection between what you are asking is that
it seems clear that the HEBREWS never "got this" either - as many times as He has given people warnings. Every single one of us is spiritually retarded, which is why we needed a "special needs teacher" with the credentials in dealing with us (no, I am not equating retardation go special needs persons; I mean the word in its context above - the denotation.)
As far as the repeated stories, TLK you are on to something in a way you may not get - and it is quite profound.
Assume the canonical bible is real.
Let's assume the skeleton/superficiality of your connections in similar stories.
The reason these similar prophetic incidences happen is because they are prophetic. That should be clear with hindsight; in this case it is LIFE imitating spirituality - not so different from the theory that this life is a holographic reflection of happenings on a real plane of existence.
So, let's assume also that God did this deliberately to specific generations in order to give His people a heads up, and a WAKE UP call. Only a few got it.
The incidents in the canon are lessons that unfortunately have to be taught over and over because the Hebrews were stubborn people. They even literally cheated on God with other gods - sometimes the same gods that enslaved them (Stockholm Syndrome in antiquity.)
He made them walk around for 40 years, for example, to
purge the Hebrews that were too old to change, that had this "spiritual Stockholm Syndrome," and continued to long for Egypt and it's practices despite being slaves. Do you think mentalities like that would be productive in making people a FREE PEOPLE under GOD of gods? Indeed, one of the first things they did was make a golden calf to worship a "cultic/ god. The 40 years also also allowed for new people born under the care of God - to replenish His people, and to build on a relationship with Him.
Man is the foolish one, that is why you continuously see the "same stuff, different day" ."
Imagine how God feels when he purposefully allows incidents happen for instruction, but all His people see is opportunitiesto reject him. Then, they have the audacity to blame Him when things fail for them - when they ignored all of his warnings and instruction! If you think about it, we act like horrible children.
Iterative incidents are expressions of Mercy through God. Another example is the sacrifice of Isaac''s only child - his child of old age. IN hindsight, it is clear God was never going to make Isaac sacrifice his son: the point of the entire incident is to illustrate to US that Christ's sacrifice wont be/isn't just a "lame" activity: Isaac's life IMITATES the spiritual pain God goes through as a loving Father in allowing His son - delivering Him up - to be killed in order to save all of us.
There are many iterations in the history that seem superfluous. And, they are - to a righteous person (or someone with incredible foresight/hindsight) But, they serve an important purpose in saving us spiritually retarded lot, to give each generation a better chance to attain real life.
