Greek Mythology influence on New Testament

by Magnum 29 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Magnum

  A few days ago, I was in a book store, and I picked up a book providing a brief overview of classical mythology. As I examined the opening pages, I read about Tartaurus (place of punishment) and Hades (god of the underworld).

  It seems so odd that Tartarus and Hades would be mentioned in the New Testament, and yet they were part of Greek Mythology which predated the New Testament. Why would Bible writers have used such terms? To what extent and how might they have been influenced by Greek Mythology? Did the terms have an origin that predated Greek mythology, allowing for the argument that Bible writers didn’t get the terms from it, but from a source predating it?

  What are the implications of the Bible’s use of these terms? It is adding to my increasing skepticism of the Bible. Any opinions, insights, references, etc. will be appreciated.
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  snare&racket

  The beginning of the end...... keep digging.....
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  _Morpheus

  I dont have anything in the way of research but we recently doscussed this on another thread and i too have noted the use of tartarus. Its clearly a referance paul used as a result of greek influance. neither the term nor even the concept is found in prechristian jewish writings. It was however very popular in helinistic culture.... Along with demi gods, that is half man half god beings... Sound like anyone the in the bible ;)?
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  fulltimestudent

  Magnum: It seems so odd that Tartarus and Hades would be mentioned in the New Testament , and yet they were part of Greek Mythology which predated the New Testament. Why would Bible writers have used such terms? To what extent and how might they have been influenced by Greek Mythology? Did the terms have an origin that predated Greek mythology, allowing for the argument that Bible writers didn’t get the terms from it, but from a source predating it?

  Yes, Magnum, it does seem odd, and like you I once wondered why the NT writers would use these words?

  But we wonder, because there exists within Christian ideology a misunderstanding. The misunderstanding is that we have within Judaism and Christianity a pure stream of information that outlines Yahweh's dealings with mankind and that this 'pure stream' is uncomtaminated by pagan mythology.

  But stop and think, is it really like that?
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  _Morpheus

  If god cannot communicate clearly, dispite our own preconceived ideas, hes not much of god.
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  fulltimestudent

  It can be shown that the 'Holy writings' of both Jews and Christians is influenced by the beliefs of the pagans who lived around and with them. There never was a 'pure stream' of truth.

  In Judaism's traditions, the collation of the 'holy writings' is assigned to Moses. Regarding Moses, it is acknowledged in the NT, that:

  "Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." (Acts 7:22, NWT)

  The usual narrative of Jewish contact with Egypt places the Jews (Israelites) as captives in Egypt, and Moses becomes a deliverer. Whatever incidents that tradition may have for a foundation, we are on surer ground when we learn that Egyptian Empires often controlled the area we call Palestine, so that there is grounds to think of continual contact between Egypt and Judah. And when you set Egyptian creation mythology alongside Biblical creation mythology, the connection is clear.

  I'm asserting that, but if anyone thinks that this assertion is not true, go check it out for yourself.
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  fulltimestudent

  But the Egyptian "contamination" is only the beginning - there is more, much more.
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  Terry

  The historical setting of the New Testament is in the Roman Empire.

  The Romans were enthralled with the culture, language and religion of the Greeks.

  GREEK was the way educated people displayed their sophistication in the Roman Empire.

  ________________

  While it is true that the Romans did speak a form of Latin known as vulgar Latin, it was quite different from the Classical Latin that we generally think of them speaking (Classical Latin is what we usually learn at University). Vulgar Latin is the language that the Romance languages (Italian, French, etc.) developed from. Classical Latin was used as an official language only. In addition, members of the Eastern Roman Empire were speaking Greek exclusively by the 4th century, and Greek had replaced Latin as the official language. (http://listverse.com/2008/05/05/top-10-myths-about-the-romans/)

  ______________________

  Early Christians were certainly strongly influenced by the Greek philosophers such as Socrates (the model for Jesus), Plato, and Aristotle.

  Neo-Platonic academies, schools, and traveling teachers were everywhere.

  Paul of Tarsus grew up in a hotbed of Greek culture and religious ideas.

  The Hebrews/Jews had seen their culture and language smothered by the conquests of Alexander the Great. Greek subsumed Aramaic and Hebrew.

  THE SEPTUAGINT was a GREEK translation of the OLD TESTAMENT.

  What is beneficial about Greek?

  The Greeks had a word for everything. The vocabulary was specific to a degree and depth Hebrew never was.
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  Phizzy

  A couple of excerpts from Leolaia's excellent posts on JWN :

  " Yeah, that Tartarus reference is an interesting one. That allusion in 2 Peter 2:4 represents a reworking of the very Enochic allusion in Jude 6 (as delineated above); the priority of Jude over 2 Peter is especially apparent in how the Petrine author blurred or omitted altogether the allusions to 1 Enoch and the Assumption of Moses. The reference to "Tartartus" (actually it is a verb here, tartaroun"cast into Tartarus") however is quite in keeping with 1 Enoch, where "Tartarus" appears in 1 Enoch 20:2although it appears in the LXX as well (Job 40:20, 41:24 LXX, Proberbs 30:16 LXX). The verbal form doesn't occur in the LXX or the Greek version of 1 Enoch but is solely restricted to pagan references to the Tartarus myth. And it is also very interesting that there is a probable allusion to the Tartarus myth in the original version of the text in Jude 6. There the author says that the imprisoned angels are kept "under nether blackness" (hupo zophon). The Enochic texts use skotos "darkness" to refer to the gloom of the angelic prison, although zophos does occur elsewhere in 1 Enoch, specifically in ch. 17, where it refers to the "place of black darkness" (zophódé topon) at the extremities of the world, near where the gloom of "the great darkness" (tou megalou skotous) is found (v. 2, 6). But we find both "under nether blackness" (hupo zophon) and "chains" (desmois), the two expressions found in Jude 6, used together in Hesiod in his classical telling of the Tartarus myth:

  • "[They] overshadowed the Titans with their missiles, and buried them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains (desmoisin) when they had conquered them by their strength for all their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to Tartarus.... There by the counsel of Zeus who drives the clouds, the Titan gods (theoi Titénes) are hidden under black darkness (hupo zophó), in a dank place where the ends of the huge earth meet" (Hesiod, Theogonia 715-730).
  • The Society ignores all this and metaphorically refers to a "spritual state of debasement" of the fallen angels. The reason for this interpretation is their identification of the demons with the fallen angels and not the souls of the drowned Nephilim, as in Enochic and subsequent literature (including the NT). If the fallen angels were bound and imprisoned in an abyss (just as the Devil is supposed to be at the end times, according to Revelation), then they wouldn't be around possessing and bothering people. Rather the ancient Jewish-Christian belief was that the demons look for fleshly bodies to dwell in because they lost their original bodies in the Flood when the Nephilim drowned (which is why the legion of demons proceed to drown themselves when they possess a herd of swine in Mark 9

  • From another of Leos Posts :
  • Hellenistic modes of thought are pervasive in the NT just as they are in later Second Temple Judaism, such as an anthropology reflective of Platonic/Pythagorean ideas (2 Corinthians 5:1-8, 12:2, Philippians 1:22-23, 2 Peter 1:13-14, Revelation 6:9-11) and an ethics influenced by Stoicism (e.g. 2 Peter 1:3-8, 2:2, 10, 12, 18-19, 3:5-7, 11-12).
  • The author of 2 Peter draws on Greek mythology for the name Tartarus as the place of punishment of the fallen angels (2:4). This follows the earlier use of Tartarus in 1 Enoch.
  • Revelation (ch. 12) and the 13Kingdoms section of the Apocalypse of Adam draw on the Apollo-Leto/Horus-Isis myth in characterizing the birth of the Messiah. This myth also has certain narrative parallels with the nativity story in Matthew(which otherwise draws on stories about Moses).
  • The chiliasm of Revelation was part of a more general millenarian movement in Phrygia, and since Phyrgia was strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism, this suggests that Revelation was impacted by Persian ideas; this is supported further by the literary similarity between ch. 11 and 13 of Revelation with fragments of the Oracles of Hystaspes, a Zoroastrian apocalypse which according to Justin Martyr (one of the earliest commentators of Revelation) and Clement of Alexandria was popular among Christians. The Nero redivivus legend in ch. 13 and 17 may also indicate a Parthian connection. The harlot in ch. 17 draws on imagery associated with the goddess Dea Roma (parodying the patron goddess of Rome as a drunken harlot).
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  _Morpheus

  ^^ that