If you want to start reading some background inforamtion Hamas try The Epic of Gilgamesh (way proceeded the book of Genesis0 then Who Wrote the Bible by Friedman -- I have the book at home so if you are interested e-mail me and I will let you know wah the ISBN is so you can order from your local bookstore-- after that there are so many books that talk about these myths I would not know where to start
Adam and Eve.....and Egypt
by gumby 55 Replies latest watchtower bible
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gumby
I think Hamas is messin with our minds again. He already knows this stuff.........the crafty little bastard!
Gumby
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stillajwexelder
Hamas -- it appears gumby is questioning your parentage1
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AGuest
peace to you, dear one!
Actually, we really shouldn't be surprised at the similarities:
If ALL people originated from Adam... then ALL religions, nationalities, etc., would have SOME similarity. Hence, the similar tale of a global flood in almost all cultures. Since it was not until the building of Babel that language separation separate "cultures"... then it would be logical to conclude that many, if not most "origin" tales would have some corresponding events. That these events are mixed up and confused with... and at times include... false gods... should not be alarming. ALL religious beliefs today have the beliefs of some other religion mixed up, confused with and including the beliefs of... some other religion. For they all came out of the predominant belief system before them.
We tend to find these similarities most hard to take, however, when it comes to comparing the event of creation, existence of God, etc., with ancient Egyptian (and Sumerian, Mesopotamian, etc.) beliefs. But why? If Noah restarted the human family in the Mesopotamian valley... near Shemer (NOT "Sumer")... and given the very human phenomenom that results from oral retelling... you know, the "telephone" effect... where you tell one person and he tells and another and that one another... and so on and so on... until the tale is NOTHING like it started out to be... then there should be no surprise. And if the Israelites spent 400 years in Egypt, then there are bound to be some similarities in the post-Exodus beliefs of both cultures. In addition, we ASSUME... because of the Moses/Pharaoh matter, that Egypt was always... and remained... an enemy of Israel. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was the grain of Egypt that saved Israel from famine, which is how they came to BE in that land. And for many years after that, Israel enjoyed relative comfort in Egypt. It was not until a certain Pharaoh died... and his advisors advised him badly... that things changed. But even later, Egypt was returned to being a "friend" of Israel, for it was to Egypt that Joseph was told to take Mary and my Lord, when Herod was seeking to kill the child.
I would ask then, that you use your LOGICAL thinking and not take everything on face value, but try to determine how... and why... beliefs have evolved. In this instance, you may well conclude that it was Israelite influence in the Egyptian rule that caused the tale that you spoke of. On the other hand, you can also conclude that the Egyptians knew the account, too, but by the establishment of making their Pharaohs into "human gods"... so as to garner the reverence... and obedience of THEIR people... and the subsequent demise of a Pharaoh at the hand of the God of Israel... chose to disregard the original tale for the more... or rather, lesser... embarrassing one.
I bid you peace.
YOUR servant and a slave of Christ,
SJ
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Hamas
AGuest
I admire your faith
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Country_Woman
A guest, well spoken.
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The Adam and Eve story is but ONE of MANY stories told in the bible, that can be found in ancient civilizations older than the jews. Their God 'Jehovah' was known to others BEFORE THEM.
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never mind if it was before or after, When Jehovah is the only true God.
When he "has no begin and no end" then it is obvious that all cultures would have known him..... -
gumby
Hey country woman.....how is ya?
never mind if it was before or after, When Jehovah is the only true God. When he "has no begin and no end" then it is obvious that all cultures would have known him.....
How do you know he exists, and that he is the true god......if you just admitted the bible is a copy of other pagan faiths faiths? I don't see your reasoning? You say Jehovah is the true god, when your idea of god mustr have came from the bible.
You said Jehovah he has no begining and no end....thats from the bible....that was copied from others as you say..................???????????????????
Gumby
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LittleToe
I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
Genesis appears to be a compilation of around ten previous works.
It would surprise me not one jot to find that either the Israelites or the Egyptians had the original story, that latter found it's way into that book. -
Satanus
Yhwh was a caananite god, god of the ugarites, just a small, local deity. And so, the great nations of the day didn't know about him. They had their own.
SS
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Satanus
From http://www.theology.edu/ugarbib.htm , here are some quotes.
There is one Ugaritic text which seems to indicate that among the inhabitants of Ugarit, Yahweh was viewed as another son of El. KTU 1.1 IV 14 says:
sm . bny . yw . ilt
?The name of the son of god, Yahweh.?
This text seems to show that Yahweh was known at Ugarit, though not as the Lord but as one of the many sons of El.
One of the most interesting of these lesser deities, Asherah, plays a very important role in the Old Testament. There she is called the wife of Baal; but she is also known as the consort of Yahweh! That is, among some Yahwists, Ahserah is Yahweh?s female counterpart! Inscriptions found at Kuntillet ?Ajrud (dated between 850 and 750 BCE) say:
I bless you through Yahweh of Samaria,
and through his Asherah!
And at ?El Qom (from the same period) this inscription:
Uriyahu, the king, has written this.
Blessed be Uriyahu through Yahweh,
and his enemies have been conquered
through Yahweh?s Asherah.
Other deities worshipped at Ugarit were El Shaddai, El Elyon, and El Berith. All of these names are applied to Yahweh by the writers of the Old Testament. What this means is that the Hebrew theologians adopted the titles of the Canaanite gods and attributed them to Yahweh in an effort to eliminate them. If Yahweh is all of these there is no need for the Canaanite gods to exist! This process is known as assimilation.
El was the chief god at Ugarit. Yet El is also the name of God used in many of the Psalms for Yahweh; or at least that has been the presupposition among pious Christians. Yet when one reads these Psalms and the Ugaritic texts one sees that the very attributes for which Yahweh is acclaimed are the same for which El is acclaimed. In fact, these Psalms were most likely originally Ugaritic or Canaanite hymns to El which were simply adopted by Israel, much like the American National Anthem was set to a beer hall tune by Francis Scott Key. El is called the ?father of men?, ?creator?, and ?creator of the creation?. These attributes are also granted Yahweh by the Old Testament.
The Ugaritic literature demonstrates that Israel and Ugarit shared a common literary heritage and a common linguistic lineage. They are, in short, related languages and literatures.
Ugarit experienced a very long history. A city was built on the site in the Neolithic period around 6000 BCE. The oldest written evidence of the city is found in some texts from the nearby city of Ebla written around 1800 BCE. At that time both Ebla and Ugarit were under Egyptian hegemony, which shows that the long arm of Egypt extended all along the west coast of the Mediterranean Sea (for Ugarit is located in modern day Syria roughly dead east of the NE coast of Cyprus on the coast of Syria). The population of Ugarit at that time was roughly 7635 people. The city of Ugarit continued to be dominated by the Egyptians through 1400 BCE.
SS