PhilosopherJay

Hi All,

Here are just a few random thoughts.

If Jesus is a mythological character like Heracles, Theseus and Jason, one has to ask why he does not meet Heracles, Theseus or Jason. Greco-Roman mythology was quite syncratic and Gods and relatives of Gods were constantly running into each other and having adventures together.

While Jesus is a Son of God, like many mythological characters, he does not meet or associate with any of the Greek or Roman characters. This could suggest that he is a historical character. The alternative would be that he is a mythological character from a different mythology. If we take the Hebrew Scriptures as Jewish Mythology, then Jesus is a mythological figure interacting with other Jewish mythological figures like Moses, God the Father, John the Baptist etc. One may argue that the Jews believed their mythology to be historical, but the same is true of the Greeks and Romans.

A recent example of this type of interaction and non-interaction between mythologies can be seen on American Network television from the 1950's to the present. Characters in different shows on one network often visit other television shows on the same network. However, it is much rarer for characters from shows on different networks to visit each other.

This restriction does not stop one network from copying ideas and concepts from another network. In 1964, the ABC network and the CBS network both broadcast comedy series about funny monster families, "The Addams Family" and "the Munsters". Also, t.The success of the the first two james Bond films led to the television spy series "the Man from U.N.C.L.E." (1964) on NBC, which led to Mission Impossible on C.B.S. (1966). Successful series often "spin off" shows on the same network as "the Girl from U.N.C.L.E." (1966) spun off from "the Man from U.N.C.L.E." (1964), or NCIS (2003), NCIS: Los Angles (2009).

We may think of Judaism and Greco-Roman mythologies as competing channels. Christians form a third channel, a disgruntled group of Jews, who claim the various text used by the Jews for themselves and use it as background for their new major character - Jesus.

We may think of history as a separate channel of texts from mythology. In this case, it appears that Jesus only appears as a single report on a Jewish history channel (Josephus) and the report is based on the gospels. The insertion seems to be the work of Eusebius who had an opportunity to fool around with old history texts due to his connection with the Emperor Constantine.

We may say in looking at things this way that Jesus appears as a character in late Jewish mythology around the middle of the 2nd century when the Hebrew texts are being compiled into a canonical mythology. The Christians break away from the Jews and form their own canon at this time with Jesus as the central character.

The underlying inability of the Romans to integrate the Judean territory into its economic structure, probably due to the poverty of the land, is the ultimate reason for the separate mythologies. The Roman building of the Jewish Temple turned out to be a great mistake. It provided economic independence, but did not alleviate the underlying great poverty in the area.

Warmly,

Philosopher Jay

dog-on

I like to think of Christianity as starting with a group of non-Jews that created a mythology using the LXX.

Clivedurdle

In one story he meets Moses et al, another satan - looks like there are meetings with other gods.

And actually it might be a time thing - the classic tales are much older when seeing a god when you went down the newsagent was normal - the gods - like pirates - were dying out by the early Roman Empire.

bacht

The basic issue was the separation of the monotheistic Jews from all other polytheistic cultures of the ancient world, whether Asian or European. This only seemed to work well in the Persian period; after that the Jews were on the defensive. Syncretism was common throughout the Mediterranean except for the Jews in Palestine.

GakuseiDon

I think it is just time and place. While some of the gods were known wanderers -- noticeably Dionysus, Hercules and Osiris -- most were associated with certain areas only, and certainly associated with particular periods; Hercules around the time of Troy, for example. So I don't think that there were any opportunities to create myths to have them meet on earth. It just wouldn't have been realistic.

Anyway, most myths have gods fighting when they meet up. So who would win between, say, Jesus and Hercules?

GakuseiDon

Slightly off-topic: I remember reading that some Jews used to worship a synthesis of Jehovah and Zeus, but I've never found a primary source for that claim. Does anyone know anything about this?

show_no_mercy

It's interesting that Jesus meets Moses, yet Moses died at a point in Jewish theology when they didn't believe in an afterlife. Since there more than likely wasn't an Exodus, then there probably wasn't a Moses either. Jesus also met Elijah who for all intents is a mythological person who never died but was taken up to heaven.

dog-on

You mean Jewzeus?

Petergdi

The Sadducees certainly didn't. I'm not sure that you can make the case that it was true of ancient Hebrew religion in general. It doesn't seem to square well with the story of Elijah or of Saul, Samuel and the Witch of Endor. The Sadducees had ways of explaining apparent references in the Torah itself (Enoch for instance), but even if the Torah contains no reference to postmortal existence, I don't think the Torah reached its current form prior to the Former Prophets.

Peter.

show_no_mercy

This depends on when the Exodus story was written. I'm assuming it was written (or the tradition originated) prior to the exile, when there probably was no belief in the afterlife.