If one reads myths and legends of ancient cultures, it becomes apparant that most have stories which explain the origin of the planet, of humans, why there is suffering, the relationship between gods and humans, natural phenomena, etc. For example, the Hebrews (and JWs) claim that the rainbow was a sign given at the end of the Deluge as a promise that God wouldn't flood the planet again. Older accounts from Babylon and Assyria say that the flood was caused by one of the gods, but ended by his wife (Ishtar or Innana), and the rainbow was her necklace which she placed in the sky. The Hebrews say the human race was started by the first man, Adam, who was a direct construction by YHWH. However, the Greeks say that humans were created by one of the Titans, Prometheus, and his brother Epimetheus, under Zeus orders to see to repopulation of the Earth after most living creatures perished in earlier battles between the Gods (mass extinctions?). Prometheus created new animals to replace those which had been wiped out, and modeled humans after the gods (in the image of the gods), and distributed gifts to each of the species. However, humans were the last created, and most of the good gifts had been already given to animals, better vision, hearing, and smelling, faster speed and greater strength and endurance, plus fur which kept them warm and protected their skin from the sun. Prometheus felt pity for humans, so asked Zeus if he could give the humans fire. Zeus refused, reserving fire for the gods alone. Rather than allow humans to suffer, he decided to steal fire from Olympus and give it to the humans. Now humans didn't shiver in the cold, and animals did not attack them. As humans watched the smoke from their fires rise toward heavens, their thoughts turned toward the heavens and those who dwelled there in gratitude. They began to wonder and think, and built temples to honor the gods. The result was the beginning of human civilization, leading eventually to science, and technology. Zeus could see the fires flickering on Earth, and was furious at Prometheus, so had him chained to a peak in the Caucasus Mountains, where a great eagle came and ate his liver each day (being an immortal god, he couldn't die, but his liver regrew each night). So, why do you think that people came to prefer the Hebrew myths over the Babylonian and Greek myths? In what way if any, do the Hebrew myths seem "inspired" and the others not inspired? Why do many believe one set of myths as literal truth, and others as childrens stories?
Why believe Hebrew mythology but not Greek, Babylonian, etc?
by gaiagirl 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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WTWizard
Rainbows as a sign of no more global floods--no wonder the Watchtower Society doesn't want people to be educated!
I remember a fifth grade science experiment. We would shine a beam of light through a prism, and look at the different colors of the rainbow. The scientific explanation is that each droplet acts as a prism, and the different colors are refracted to different degrees. Each color needs a certain angle. The sinbeam that reaches us comes from only one angle. So this is what produces the whole range of colors: light reaching us from different angles is from a different color. It also explains why the rainbow is an arc: that proper angle depends on where the sun is relative to the viewer. You can also notice a rainbow in a sprinkler or a waterfall where there is a lot of spray.
Now, what does this have to do with never having another Flood again? Nothing! Personally, I don't even believe in the first Flood, since the water could have never pushed down the rock (which is heavier and thus would have sank under the water). If the lighter water pushed down the continent to form a basin for the water to drain, then why didn't the heavier rock where there was mountains sink even more? All explaining why the Tower doesn't want you to do well in school--so you will believe their Hebrew myths instead of science.
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Narkissos
So, why do you think that people came to prefer the Hebrew myths over the Babylonian and Greek myths? In what way if any, do the Hebrew myths seem "inspired" and the others not inspired? Why do many believe one set of myths as literal truth, and others as childrens stories?
I don't think this has anything to do with any objective "originality" or "superiority" of Hebrew mythology (which btw might be better described as the late Hebrew remix of Ancient Near Eastern mythology) but rather with the history of our culture. The Hebrew mythology, not another, came to be integrated into post-exilic Jewish monotheism. From the fringe of Greek-speaking Judaism sprang a new trans-ethnical religion which appealed to the late Roman empire for its political opportunities (keeping the unity of a multi-ethnic empire when the central power was declining) and philosophical overtones (convergence with the focus on "oneness" in popular Graeco-Roman philosophy, Stoic, middle- and neo-Platonic). That set the scene for the Christian "middle-ages" of Europe from which Western modernity came up. Because we are the result of this main historical line, Hebrew mythology is special to us, just like Indian mythology is special to a Chinese Buddhist.
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startingover
Hebrew mythology, surely a term which will tick of xians. Thanks for the thread and comments.
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Leolaia
Greek mythology was influenced by Hittite, Phoenician, and Canaanite mythology, which is not surprising in part because they also received the alphabet from the East. Cadmus, Apollo, Andromeda, Adonis, etc. are Semitic names. In Greek mythology, Andromeda was chained to a rock on the Levantine coast, near Joppa. Zeus, the storm god, was believed to have fought a monstrous dragon on Mount Cassius (= Mount Hazzi) in Syria, the same mountain that the Canaanites believed that Baal-Hadad defeated the dragon Yamm. The Hebrews of the first millennium were similarly heirs to the religious traditions of the ANE. The OT refers to Yahweh fighting the dragons Rahab and Leviathan, just as Baal and Anat also faced the seven-headed dragon Lotan, and Heracles faced the dragon Ladon. The OT refers to an ancient wise hero named Danel (not to be confused with Daniel) who like Job and Noah faced the possibility of his children perishing, just as Danel in Canaanite myth had a son named Aqhat who was killed by the goddess Anat (torn apart by her attendants in hawk form), while the boy Actaeon in Greek myth was killed by the goddess Artemis (torn apart by her dogs). A baby Perseus in Greek myth sent to sea in a wooden chest because his grandfather feared that he would kill him, there was a similar Greek myth about the young Gilgamos, grandson of the King of Babylon (who tried to kill him because he was seen as a threat to the throne), and another myth concerned Deucalion who survived a flood in a wooden ark. In Hebrew/Jewish tradition, Moses was sent in a wooden/reed chest in the Nile River to save his life (and he would later defeat Pharaoh king of Egypt), Gilgamesh and Atambish were names of giants before the flood (see the Book of Giants of 1 Enoch), and another story concerned Noah, who survived a flood in a wooden ark. Finally, in Akkadian myth, Gilgamesh was the name of an early king of Uruk who sought Utnapishtim, who survived the flood in an ark, and Sargon was the name of the founding king of the Akkadian dynasty who as a baby was sent away in the Euphrates in a wooden chest. Although the links are often indirect and ambiguous, there are clear links between the mythologies nonetheless, as there was much cultural contact among the peoples of the ANE.