My Capstone Essay-

by fulltimestudent 3 Replies latest jw friends

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  fulltimestudent

  I've had approval for the topic of my capstone essay (which is supposed to demonstrate how far I've travelled in my years of study.

  After some negotiation, the Unit convenor has approved the topic as: "An investigation of Hellenic influences on representations of divinity in Daniel 7."

  He was kind enough to suggest that I may find some interesting thoughts in this book, The Human and Divine in History: Herodotus and the Book of Daniel by Paul Miskanen.

  Some may recognise the topic as similar to a thread I started some four months ago, "Polytheism in the Book of Daniel, a late second temple religious document."

  That thread* had some interesting reactions, it was based on an idea in a book by Jewish scholar, Daniel Boyarin called, The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ. In which he called into question the idea that Second Temple Judaism was solely and exclusively monotheistic.

  In this essay I propose to investigate the source of this polytheism that we see in Daniel 7, Boyarin argues that it was native to Judaism, a kind of hangover from Canaanite days. I will investigate alternative influences ranging from Egyptian Judaism to Iranian ideas, which arrived in Jewish thinking during the exile, but also from the influence of Babylonian Jews who did not return to Jerusalem, before finally examining how deeply Hellenism had infiltrated the Judaism of that period, so that what we see in Daniel 7 is a Messianism re-told with Hellenistic overtones.

  Not sure how well I'm going to handle this. But its challenging and in line with my Libran instincts (haha)

  * http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/208020001/polytheism-book-daniel-late-second-temple-religious-document
  
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  Half banana

  I will look forward to a summary of your essay (if not the whole thing!). I think the choice is excellent, an area I would love to investigate in depth myself. It is a critical area of study capable of busting anyone's trust in the divinity of scripture.

  So much of adventist and therefore JW belief comes from Daniel and the facts as you have mentioned about the Persian and the Hellenic world is very germane to the development of messianic belief. It links the middle second century BCE Greek philosophical view with the NT world. Not surprising then that the nominally Hebrew Daniel is more accessible and less alien to Greek Christianity. After all it was Greek philosophy and NOT JEHOVAH which gave us the 'logos' which is central to Christianity along with much else from that era.

  Keep us informed!
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  fulltimestudent

  Half banana: I will look forward to a summary of your essay (if not the whole thing!). I think the choice is excellent, an area I would love to investigate in depth myself.

  Yup, I'll at least post key points and arguments

  It is a critical area of study capable of busting anyone's trust in the divinity of scripture.

  I agree HB. The JW view of scripture (and, most fundy churches) cannot be sustained once you see that the chain of inspiration that they claim exists, does not exist.

  So much of adventist and therefore JW belief comes from Daniel and the facts as you have mentioned about the Persian and the Hellenic world is very germane to the development of messianic belief.

  Part of the topic will be to test that possibility and compare it to both Egyptian and Iranian sources. As far as Hellenic influence is concerned. Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian (playwright). Think about this quote from his play Eumenides, I'm not claiming any great spiritual knowledge of him, but note the language he used.

  " ... I, as a prophet, cannot lie. Never from my prophetic shrine have I said anything of city, man or woman But what my father (Zeus) has commanded me. This plea of mine must override all othres, Since it accords with our great father's will."

  Aeschylus was born around 525BCE, withing a couple of hundred years, Greeks ruled over Palestine and Greek colonies were established in Galilee and other Palestinian provinces. Think of the affect this likely had on young Jewish men.
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  Half banana

  I think that the importance of the medium of theatre is greatly underplayed in the historical transmission of cultural belief. The christ cults used it to disseminate the story of "the man who overcame death" (according to JM Robertson) and the gospels can be argued to be transcripts of contemporary theatre on exactly the same theme. An example being the events leading up to the death of Jesus are telescoped down into one continuous narrative taking place in an unreasonably short period of time...just as it would be if it were in a theatrical presentation.