Greek Mythology influence on New Testament

by Magnum 29 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  fulltimestudent

  Further Jewish intermingling with other cultures and their thought.

  The captivity in Babylon have brought the captive Jews face to face with another more powerful culture and the mythical stories of the Babylonians.

  And, then came the defeat of the Babylonians by the Persians (Iranians). This was a powerful influence, as the Jewish writers makes Yahwehsay that Cyrus was his shepherd. (Isaiah 44:28). And that Cyrus was Yahweh's 'Christ.' It would also have brought them into contact with proto-Zoroastrianism and the idea of dualism.
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  Magnum

  Thank you all. You've given me a lot to think about and some direction in which to aim for research.

  I'm still trying to process the fact that what I once so strongly believed in might not be what I thought it was. My life was profoundly influenced by the Bible for at least four decades, and now I'm beginning to have serious doubts about its being what I thought it was.
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  Apognophos

  I don't personally find the mentions of Tartarus and Hades to be very meaningful or indicative that the Bible is not inspired, as it could simply be assumed that the writers were using those Greek concepts as analogies for teaching the Greek-influenced audience basic theological truths.

  But the point-by-point explanations of Genesis' creation accounts, Flood accounts, and Red Sea accounts, which I found on contradictionsinthebible.com a few months after I learned TTATT, were sufficient to convince me that the Bible is properly viewed as a collection of ancient man-made Jewish writings from different time periods and different schools of thought. It might be best to read the Essential Reading links in the sidebar first.

  Overview of creation accounts: http://contradictionsinthebible.com/genesis-2-creation-accounts/

  The Flood: http://contradictionsinthebible.com/the-flood-narratives/

  Crossing the Red Sea: http://contradictionsinthebible.com/how-is-the-red-sea-dried-up-moses-rod-or-yahwehs-wind/

  It's quite eye-opening to see the dual Flood and Red Sea accounts that have been merged get separated again. I know this is a lot of material, and quite off-topic from your question; I guess I just feel that it's much more essential for you to know that material than to discuss some minor mention of Tartarus
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  fulltimestudent

  Magnum: I'm still trying to process the fact that what I once so strongly believed in might not be what I thought it was. My life was profoundly influenced by the Bible for at least four decades, and now I'm beginning to have serious doubts about its being what I thought it was.

  Same problem, also 40 years of mental imprisonment.

  But now I am Free!
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  Island Man

  The virgin birth of Jesus appears to be a borrowing of the virgin birth meme found in many pre-christian myths about the births of demigods. Note too that Matthew 1:23 appears to deliberately twist Isaiah 7:14 to support the ingrafting of this pagan virgin birth meme into christianity. Isaiah uses the word "maiden" meaning simply a young woman. But Matthew twists it to say virgin. So the whole virgin birth story of Jesus is based on what appears to be a deliberately false transation/quoting of Isaiah 7:14 in an effort to incorporate a popular pagan meme into the new christian cult. In many respects christianity is a sychretic religion that combines Judaism with pre-existing pagan traditions. A lot of the pagan traditions are in the form of pagan stories rewritten within the gospel narratives with tweaks here and there as they're applied to Jesus. But most christians are unaware of this because they are unaware of these ancient pagan traditions and stories that clearly inspired the NT.

  This video is recommended viewing (fast forward to the 27:45 mark where actual lecture starts):

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILldt2XHZw0
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  Magnum

  Apognophos, actually, I consider what you posted to be quite on-topic. Thanks for the links. The material they lead to is just the sort I'm interested in right now; I'm interested in the whole subject of the history of the Bible, influences on it, the origins of it, etc.

  Island Man, thanks for the info and the video link.

  I have a lot of reading, researching, and thinking to do. I want to make a definite decision as to whether to believe the Bible. Again, thanks to all (fulltimestudent, _Morpheus, Terry, Phizzy). And Snare, it does seem that I'm at the beginning of the end of my belief in the Bible. Right now, that's depressing to me. I loved having a hope for the future, but now that hope is fading fast.
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  Crazyguy

  Island Man hit the nail on the head concerning Matthew, in this book he tries to make the character of Jesus fulfill several what he thought was prophecies but they were not and in doing so he makes a mess of things. The fact that none of these 4 gospels can't even get thier facts straight with one another is proof that they were all made up and probably a copy from the book of Mark but with their own embellishments and ideas and thats why things get screwed up. Also in these books there are geographical errors so this shows that these writers were not familiar with the land of Israel.

  One other thing to mention is that all 4 gospels were written in Greek and no manuscript ever found in Aramaic or Hebrew. Most jews at that time did not and could not read or write but if they could it would be in Aramaic even less of the population could read or write Greek.
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  Doug Mason

  Today there is a range of beliefs that fall under each umbrella of "Christianity" and "Judaism". At the time when the NT was being written, there was an even wider range of beliefs covered by the term, "Judaism", "Hebrews", and similar. (Christianity was part of Judaism at the time.) Some Jewish belief systems, particularly those of the disapora - such as Paul - were influenced by their neighbours' belief systems. Nothing new here, of course, as this was true of many key stories in the OT.

  Many NT passages are sourced from texts that are no longer considered "Holy Scripture". Books that are today termed "apocryphal" were not considered as such at that time. A most excellent invaluable resource for NT studies is:

  "Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies", by C. A. Evans. (Available at Book Depository and at Amazon.)

  Doug
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  Doug Mason

  Jewish scholar Daniel Boyarin recognises that some strands of Jewish thinking at the time accepted the ideas which are now considered uniquely Christian: "The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ".

  The first people who wrote and accepted the idea of a God-becoming-man were Jews.

  Doug
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  kaik

  One of the biggest association of paganims Judeo-Christian thought is the act of baptism. While OT talks on sprinkling waters (Ez 36:25), the submersion into water is clearly pagan, similar to what Greeks myth describes in Achilles and his dipping into water to ensure immortality. John of Baptist was probably combining middle eastern religion of water god Oannes with a jewish beliefs of Essenes. Entire idea of water baptism never make sense, and probably did not make in the 1st century either; therefore, Christians invented spiritual baptism as something devine thus and unverified.