It is simultaneously impossible to separate the Abrahamic traditions from the Egyptian, Chaldean, Greek, and Roman traditions from which they arose, and to separate these so-called 'pagan' traditions from the Abrahamic vehicle through which they were transmitted.
Discuss.
persian too
I was including that in the "Chaldean" category because of how much exposure to Persian ideas the Israelites had whilst in Babylon
Really? Not even an argument from the resident crusader LARPers?
Christians aren't familiar with other mythologies, and non-Christians see the obvious borrowings from Sumer and Egypt.
You don't think there are any Christians who might even have a refutation of some kind with basis in their theology, the historical trajectory of their religion, or anything?
No, because they don't read other mythologies. Their refutation is "something something satan".
Mind furthering your point
>It is impossible to separate the Abrahamic traditions from the Egyptian, Chaldean, Greek, and Roman traditions
But that is awesome.
Their refutation is to say that these other myths copied from the bible. No. Seriously. They do say that.
Which part?
Psalm 51 being quoted almost verbatim from the Egyptian "Book of the Dead"?
Psalms 74 and 89 quoting the Ugaritic Baal Epic?
The Moabite king offering sacrifice to Shamash in Judges II and winning out against the Israelites and their deity?
The connection between the Tower of Babel and the Ziggurat of Nimrud, or the cult of the dead associated with the Rephaim and corroborated with the archaeological discovery of ancient ritual death masks in Israel and Jordan?
What now?
What seriously are you joking me
Not him. But I've legit talked to people who belive that wholeheartedly
Is there any explanation given by these types for how mentions of the various deities of the OT are mentioned in material pre-dating the Bible as we know it?
Not that guy, but I've encountered people who say the same thing. At least among the people I've talked to, they don't acknowledge that those pre-biblical mentions are actually pre-biblical. To them, the biblical traditions are the oldest, and others are later copies, no matter what other evidence says.
Ok. The old testament is a oral history of ancient isreal. Judaism was at one point a polythiestic religion. The old testament is used to establish the roots of Christianity and to show how jesus has a connection to it. Jesus being the messiah tosses almost every thing in it to the side as the laws of Moses were no longer needed.
The concept of the messiah, of the prophesied tribal warrior-hero priest-king, is itself derived from previous Canaanite notions of the sons of various gods.
The Jesus Christ of Christian theology has more to do with the Hermetic magician figure than any evidence we have of the historical figure of Yeshua bar-Yosef.
Furthermore, Jesus is a priest of the order of Melchizedek, himself a pagan priest-king who was comitted to the, you guessed it, Canaanite sky-god El.
Hey dumbass the point of my post was to that people already know this and don't care. Anyone with two brain cells can tell thst you are trying to have some kind of athiest circlejerk
Not even atheist.
Hermetist, raised Catholic.
I see so much back and forth between atheistards and Christards I was wondering why there was never any discussion on the general continuity of Christianity with, well, the rest of the entire Western tradition
Id also like to point out that Hermetic magicians were a thing after jesus was around.
El means god. It can be any god. The priest of the order of Melchizedek, means that Jesus is seen as a priest king
"El" became a general term for deity long after it was the proper name of the Canaanite sky deity.
Hermetism might have come together as a tradition in its own right after the founding of Christianity but its roots as a synthesis of all Greco-Egyptian mystery schools seem pretty well founded.
One no it didn't.
Two the biblical god is supposed to a cannite sky god.
Hermatics were a pagan knee jerl to Christianity with the surviving text having a prophecy that pagans would become dominant in egypt again.
Though i don't know why you try to bring up its orgins when your first claim is that jesus was more similar to one than someone thought to be jesus
actually, the discourse between Hermes Trismegistus and Asclepius prophesying the end of Egyptian civilization predicts an end to religious piety and devotion and a subsequent revival of religiosity.
My first claim was rather that the Christian Jesus has more in common with Greco-Roman mystery deities than he does the Nazarene temple-reformer we hear about from contemporary source.
No he isn't. Jesus was attempting reform and bring people away from the Pharisees whom he called the synagogue of satan.
And the prophecy talks about the end of roman rule over egypt and a revival of old pagan ways
The dude you're talking about, the historical Yeshua bar-Yosef, was a temple reformer.
Jesus Christ is a Greco-Egyptian mystery deity clothed in Judaic trappings.
"
And so the gods will depart from mankind, a grievous thing!, and only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches by main force into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul. Then will the earth no longer stand unshaken, and the sea will bear no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits, nor will the stars pursue their constant course in heaven; all voices of the gods will of necessity be silenced and dumb; the fruits of the earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken in sullen stagnation. After this manner will old age come upon the world. Religion will be no more; all things will be disordered and awry; all good will disappear.
But when all this has befallen, Asclepius, then the Master and Father, God, the first before all, the maker of that god who first came into being, will look on that which has come to pass, and will stay the disorder by the counterworking of his will, which is the good. He will call back to the right path those who have gone astray; he will cleanse the world from evil, now washing it away with water-floods, now burning it out with fiercest fire, or again expelling it by war and pestilence. And thus he will bring back his world to its former aspect, so that the Kosmos will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence, and God, the maker and restorer of the mighty fabric, will be adored by the men of that day with unceasing hymns of praise and blessing."
Islam, bro. Fuckin' Islam.