What about the others before him who had said the same thing?
Have you ever read the story of Attis? This comes directly from Greek Mythology.
ttis of Phrygia offers very little grist for the pagan copycat theorists; indeed, even Acharya S offers less than a dozen points of correspondence, and Freke and Gandy barely find Attis worth a mention. Therefore our item this time will be fairly short.
Acharya's items listed are as follows [107-8]:
1. Attis was born on December 25th of the Virgin Nana.
2. He was considered the savior who was slain for the salvation of mankind.
3. His body as bread was eaten by his worshippers.
4. His priests were "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven."
5. He was both the Divine Son and the Father.
6. On "Black Friday," he was crucified on a tree, from which his holy blood ran down to redeem the earth.
7. He descended into the underworld.
8. After three days, Attis was resurrected on March 25th (as tradition held of Jesus) as the "Most High God."
9. Doane is recorded as saying that Attis was represented as a "a man tied to a tree, at the foot of which was a lamb, and, without doubt also as a man nailed to a tree..."
10. Jackson is reported as saying that on March 22nd, a pine tree was felled and "an effigy of the god was affixed to it, thus being slain and hung on a tree..." Later the priests are supposed to have found Attis' grave empty.
Source:
http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/attis.html
you may want to do some google searches and find out more about Attis and Cybele
Remember this was all recorded in Greece before Christ(as) was born. Just one of the reasons I feel Paul added some Greek Mythology to Christianity.