Biblical Influences

I have recently started reading Folk-Lore in the Old Testament and noticed a pattern within all of the mythological studies. Almost every story within the Bible has a story that is somewhat similar in another culture. However, the author of this book consistently states that these other stories are influenced by the Biblical stories. Not once that I have read is the Bible influenced by other stories. I think that this is very interesting to consider. This seems to be very odd to me. Some of the cultures that are referenced are much older than Christianity. According to various sources, the last book of the Bible was written around A.D. 70-95. But then all of these books had to be compiled and the first published copy did not come out until 1611 A.D. I find it weird that one book, which was not even really a book for a long time, could influence so many different cultures. I tried looking up dates and info on the other creation stories. However, information on these mythological stories was not readily available. I wonder if it is often thought that the Bible influenced the other stories because it is more of a publicized mythological system than the other systems of thought. This will be an idea to be aware of as I continue reading Folk-Lore in the Old Testament. I will continue to look for some sort of mythological story that  influenced the Bible. This will be my goal for my reading of Folk-Lore in the Old Testament.