Would Jesus promote punishing the innocent instead of the guilty?

[Fake Messiah]

That's cool, but...as above, the observation that sacrificial gods are a thing is not the claim that christians copied those gods, for example.  They never would have known about the sacrificial pantheons of mesoamerica.   Couldn't possibly have copied them, nor could the mesoamericans have known about christ and copied those beliefs.  

Multiple instances of parallel construction.  Like a bow.  Like fire.  Like boats.  Like agriculture.  Like a fishing hook.

This is a generous appraisal, as we know for fact that christian authors were borrowers - but there's nothing wrong with that.  OFC they were going to borrow stories and twists and phrases they found engaging.  They borrowed the jewish god right from the outset, lol.

Yeah, you're right, there is a book called "An Edible History of Humanity" that argues how when people switched to agronomy and its lifestyle, that they started seeing/ inventing gods as sacrificing themselves for people and then people to gods to restore the order.

Here's for instance a few sentences

Some Mesoamerican cultures believed that the gods even sacrificed themselves or each other from time to time to ensure the continued existence of the universe and survival of mankind. The Maya, for example, believed that maize was the flesh of the gods containing divine power, and at harvest time the gods were, in effect, sacrificing themselves to sustain humanity. This divine power passed into humans as they ate, and was particularly concentrated in their blood. Human sacrifices in which blood was spilled were a way to repay this debt and return the divine power to the gods. Food and incense were provided as offerings as well, but human sacrifices were thought to be most important of all.

But, then again, why couldn't NT writers be influenced by Mithra's resurrection story and sacrifice?

from britannica.com

As in the Timaeus, the human soul came down from heaven. It crossed the seven spheres of the planets, taking on their vices (e.g., those of Mars and of Venus), and was finally caught within the body. The task of human life is to liberate one’s divine part (the soul) from the shackles of the body and to reascend through the seven spheres to the eternal, unchanging realm of the fixed stars. This ascent to the sky was prefigured by Mithra himself, when he left the earth in the chariot of the sun god.