As already stated, Greek "influence" on Jesus consisted in his making use of the Greek language and the Hellenized culture of Roman Palestine. — Apollodorus
In any case, it is clear from the NT text that, in Christianity, Jesus had the external appearance of a human, but in reality he was the Son of God manifested by the power of the Holy Spirit. — Apollodorus
It is well documented that Koine Greek was popular in his day. Aramaic just so happened to be his native tongue. So yes I do believe Jesus gave his lectures in Aramaic. — Dermot Griffin
The convenient term "Hellenistic" employed here signifies complex amalgamations in the Near East in which the Greek ingredient was a conspicuous presence rather than a monopoly.
“’Judaism,’ it need hardly be said, is at least as complex and elastic a term. The institution defies uniform definition. And changes over time, as in all religions, render any effort to capture its essence at a particular moment highly problematic. "Hellenistic Judaism" must have experienced considerable diversity, quite distinct in Alexandria, Antioch, Babylon, Ephesus, and Jerusalem-also a feature common to most or all religions. Simplistic formulations once in favor are now obsolete.
We can no longer contrast "Palestinian Judaism" as the unadulterated form of the ancestral faith with "Hellenistic Judaism" as the Diaspora variety that diluted antique practices with alien imports.
The real life of ‘philosophy’… had left the schools and gone into the marketplace and onto the streets of the big cities … In the imperial period the army of wandering missionaries or philosophers had become legion. All of them competed with each other, advertising their art in order to attract disciples, and outdid each other in demonstrations of their power … Such missionaries competed even within the same religious or philosophical school … pagan, Christian and Jewish philosophers of this sort did not address the educated establishment but the common people, that is anybody they could meet in the streets….
That Greek was the lingua franca of the Graeco-Roman world and the predominant language of the Roman Empire is acknowledged by virtually everyone who has considered this issue, although the full significance of this factor has not been fully appreciated by all New Testament scholars … Although Nazareth was a small village of only 1600 to 2000 in population, and it relied upon agriculture for its economic base (see Jn. 1:46, which might well be supported by what we know of the physical remains), it is not legitimate to think of Jesus as growing up in linguistic and cultural isolation … All of these factors are consistent with what we know of Jesus' own life and that of his followers … Jesus' being a carpenter or craftsman (Mk. 6:3), economically a middle level vocation, is consistent with the economic and cultural climate of the region, in which reciprocal trade was widespread.
This means that for Jesus to have conversed with inhabitants of cities in the Galilee, and especially of cities of the Decapolis and the Phoenician region, he would have had to have known Greek, certainly at the conversational level … It can be firmly established that Jesus did speak Greek and that we do indeed have some of his actual words. Once this has been established, then it can be seen that there are several other passages that may well record the words of Jesus, including the scene in Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus endorses Peter's confession that he is the Christ. In several of these contexts Jesus is recorded as speaking to others who plausibly did not speak a Semitic language, and where no translator or interpreter is indicated (see also Mt. 8:28-34; Mk. 5:1-20; Lk. 8:26-39).
The evidence regarding what is known about the use of Greek in ancient Palestine, including the cosmopolitan hellenistic character of lower Galilee, the epigraphic and literary evidence, including coins, papyri, literary writers, inscriptions and funerary texts, but most of all several significant contexts in the Gospels, all points in one direction: whereas it is not always known how much and on which occasions Jesus spoke Greek, it is virtually certain that he used Greek at various times in his itinerant ministry. It is probable that we have his actual words in Mark 15:2 and parallels, and may well have a passage of his teaching originally delivered in Greek recorded in Matthew 16:17-19 …
Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture. — Apollodorus
- Erich S. Gruen, Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition — Apollodorus
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520235069/heritage-and-hellenism)How did the Jews accommodate themselves to the larger cultural world of the Mediterranean while at the same time reasserting the character of their own heritage within it? Erich Gruen's work highlights Jewish creativity, ingenuity, and inventiveness, as the Jews engaged actively with the traditions of Hellas, adapting genres and transforming legends to articulate their own legacy in modes congenial to a Hellenistic setting.
(https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/b7e85690-e10d-49f4-9127-698f80b7c1fe/1001727.pdf)How did ancient societies come to articulate their own identities? The question presents numerous difficulties and stumbling blocks. One topic of inquiry, however, may bring some useful results. I refer to the manipulation of myths, the reshaping of traditions, the elaboration of legends, fictions, and inventions, the recasting of ostensibly alien cultural legacies with the aim of defining or reinforcing a distinctive cultural character.
... it is likely that Jesus' primary language was Aramaic ...
This evidence clearly points to the presumption that Jesus' productive bilingual capacity included the ability to speak and possibly to teach in Greek ...
Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture.
It has been argued that all Judaism after the conquests of Alexander was Hellenistic Judaism … Although many have seen the Maccabean revolt as opposing Hellenistic culture, this is to be very much doubted.
Hellenization is used with reference to Judea, Persia, etc. to indicate the penetration of elements of Greek civilization into territories which, though subject to Greco-Macedonian rule for a certain period of time, preserved their national culture with conspicuous success … Confronted with Greek ideas, some attempted to combine Greek intellectual values with Hebrew ones; such efforts were more successful in Egypt than in Judea. However, even in Judea the Hellenizing movement under Antiochus IV came near to prevailing.
... truth is objective ... truth stemming from God — Blake4508
Since the Church was designated as the mouthpiece of God — Blake4508
But before that, in Jesus’ time, Judaism, i.e., Hellenistic Judaism which was the dominant form of the religion, was very similar to Greek and Roman religion, being centered on animal sacrifice. — Apollodorus
(emphasis added)Ultimately the Jews organized their culture and their political life on their own terms, as witnessed by the rise of the Essenes and Pharisees. The independence of Jewish intellectual life in the Hellenistic age is partly explained by the fact that while Jews took a great interest in Greek ideas, the outside world took relatively little interest in Hebrew ideas ... The isolation in which the Jews lived, especially in Judea, was conducive to the creation ofa style of thought and life which can be (and was) considered competitive with Hellenistic civilization.
The ark was constructed using a visual language that everyone knew 3,300 years ago but is mostly lost to us today … the Chest of Anubis, a special canopic chest, was used to carry canopic jars to a tomb. It was covered in gold inside and out (as the ark in Exodus 25:11; 37:2), held sacred objects (as the ark in Deuteronomy 10:2, 5), and had its poles attached to its base. Its lid, which fit over the lip of the chest and was known as the “mercy seat,” bore a statue of Anubis (god who escorted the dead to the afterlife) made in one piece with the lid. These features are markedly similar to the ark …
There seems to have been something of a standard covenant or treaty Gattung all over the ancient Near East. The Old Testament preserves the particular form of the pattern which was current in Israel.
The writers of the Old Testament were using the literary forms of their own age, and much can be learned by studying other examples of the same forms. Thus the structure and subject-matter of some of the Psalms can be paralleled in the literature of Ugarit; the wisdom literature of the Old Testament has numerous parallels in the ancient Near East; many of the laws of the Pentateuch have parallels in the Hammurabi Code and elsewhere; the Old Testament story of the Flood has certain points of contact with the Babylonian flood stories; indeed, examples could be multiplied …
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, now make us a king to judge us like all the nations (1 Samuel 8:4-5).
Between the tenth century BC and the beginning of their Babylonian exile in 586 BC, polytheism was normal throughout Israel. Worship solely of Yahweh became established only after the exile, and possibly, only as late as the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BC).
The great Jewish philosopher Maimonides believed that the sacrifices were a concession to the common practices in biblical times, when all nations worshiped by means of animal sacrifices … For this reason, God allowed Jews to make sacrifices, but, all elements of idolatry were removed. Instead, limitations were placed on sacrifices. They were confined to one central location (instead of each family having a home altar) – The Times of Israel.
In Judaism, the korban (קָרְבָּן qorbān), also spelled qorban or corban, is any of a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah.
The object sacrificed was usually an animal that was ritually slaughtered and then transferred from the human to the divine realm by being burned on an altar.
After the destruction of the Second Temple, sacrifices were prohibited because there was no longer a Temple, the only place allowed by halakha for sacrifices. Offering of sacrifices was briefly reinstated during the Jewish–Roman wars of the second century CE and was continued in certain communities thereafter.
there is a lot of mythology involved in the mainstream perception of Judaism as an absolutely unique religion that developed in complete isolation from all external influence. — Apollodorus
This may have been ancient Hebrew tradition. But it was also the tradition of neighboring peoples like the Egyptians and the Canaanites. — Apollodorus
(Exodus 32:26–28)Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’ ” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell.
It is also entirely possible that he had knowledge of Greek wisdom — Apollodorus
(5:1-5)"My child, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, so that you may hold on to prudence, and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
(5:15)"Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
So, I think the curious hypothesis to the effect that Jews hated Greeks and therefore couldn’t have spoken Greek or adopted elements of Greek culture including philosophy, can be safely dismissed as bogus. — Apollodorus
As stated by Plato, knowledge and truth are of divine origin. So, I think it makes sense to assume that divine truth is universal and that different aspects of it are revealed at different points in time and space, and under consideration of the prevalent culture. — Apollodorus
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them (Exodus 20:3-5).
If Moses gave to the Jews not only a new religion, but also the law of circumcision [which was an Egyptian custom], he was no Jew but an Egyptian, and then the Mosaic religion was probably an Egyptian one, namely – because of its contrast to the popular religion – that of Aton with which the Jewish one shows agreement in some remarkable points (p.46).
Not everything needs to be empirically established to be true. — Blake4508
God equated to the Sun — Apollodorus
But the fact that the philosophy does not contradict revealed dogma means that it can certainly influence Catholic thought and be a good thing to incorporate. At the end of the day, ALL TRUTH is good, no matter what religion or philosophy discovers it. — Blake4508
I was unaware of the extent of Hellenistic influence in Judaism. — Blake4508
And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down (lit. recline) with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 8:11).
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19).
The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew, and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16).
For the Lord God [is a/the] Sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. (Psalm 84:11-12).
I have set my king upon my holy mountain of Zion. I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me [King David], ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten [i.e., created or appointed] You” (Psalm 2:6-7).
Yahweh: but when being read aloud the title Adonai (‘My great Lord’) was substituted out of reverence. When vowels were added to the Hebrew text, the vowels of Adonai were combined with YHWH to jog the reader's memory to use Adonai (Oxford Reference).
In a radical sense, human agency has messianic force. I trace this idea back to Cohen, to a lesser extent to Rosenzweig, and further back into the rabbinic tradition. As Levinas formulates the view in one of his first Talmudic readings, “to be myself is to be the Messiah”. This “myself” [[i]moi[/i]] is not the ego who lords power over others, but the ethical subject who gives up that power and takes responsibility for the suffering of others. In Levinas and Cohen, being the Messiah is synonymous with human moral perfection
The true human perfection consists in the acquisition of the rational virtues… Through it man is man (Guide of the Perplexed).
This book vigorously rejects the Athens-Jerusalem problem that has been our pet mosquito, sucking our lifeblood since the third century C.E. In its infancy, it was a problem for Christianity. It is first mentioned in the seventh chapter of the early Church father Tertullian’s de Praescriptione Haereticorum (On the Prescription against Heresies).
Thus begins a long history of the fear of miscegenation, paralleled by rabbinic texts from the same time period that proscribe the learning of Greek wisdom. But the Athens-Jerusalem problem is not only about the relationship between faith and the heresy of philosophy. In the modern period, it is about the relationship between Jewish faith and Western culture, which are perceived to be in necessary conflict.
The either/or of the Athens-Jerusalem problem insidiously perseveres to this day. There is no reason why this either/or is necessary. In spite of the uneasy relationship with Athens displayed by the rabbis, some medieval Jewish philosophers refused to admit that there was any Athens-Jerusalem split …. (pp. 2-3).
Truth is perceived as “bad” only by those who are afraid of it and seek to impose their own mythology on reality. — Apollodorus
The way I see it, the discovery of truth can only happen through the elimination of untruth. — Apollodorus
As pointed out by many scholars, some of whom I have mentioned here, archaeology doesn’t lie. — Apollodorus
udaism and Early Christianity were heavily influenced by Greek culture — Apollodorus
If we take the mainstream Christian position (1) that he was the Son of God, then it stands to reason (a) that he knew Greek and (b) that he taught in Greek ... — Apollodorus
Psalm 84:11 literally reads “Lord Yahweh [is the] Sun” (Shemesh Yahweh Elohim). — Apollodorus
But if we recall that “Yahweh” (YHWH) is articulated as “Adon-ai”, — Apollodorus
The same idea occurs in Plato's Republic where the divine Form or Idea of the Good which is the source of truth, knowledge, and justice, is compared to the Sun which is the source of life on earth. — Apollodorus
(379b)The good is not the source of everything; rather it is the cause of things that are in a good way, while it is not responsible for the bad things.
Of course, if we look at it from a modern Western perspective, we may find it difficult to accept that the authors of the Hebrew Bible could have equated the God of Israel with the Sun in any other way than metaphorically. — Apollodorus
The OT itself says: “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High” (Psalm 82:6). — Apollodorus
1. What is not? Everything that has not yet actualized its potential. Most viscerally, me.
2. What is meontology? The study of unmediated experiences of lack and privation. This study inaugurates self-critique and the realization that I live in a moment best described as not-yet. I thereby begin my path toward human perfection and toward God.
3. How do I live in this not-yet? In manic desire for what appears to me to be stable, for what displays a comfort in its own skin that I have never experienced. For you.
4. What is the effect of this desire? In the hope against hope that my desire will come to fulfillment, I keep you in mind, near me. I take care of you and work to engender political reforms that allow our conversation and relationship to perdure. I act to delay your death – even, perhaps, if this contributes to the skyrocketing proportion of the GDP taken up by the cost of medical care – and the death of your friends, and their friends, ad infinitum. In these brief moments when I break free of my narcissistic chains, I act messianically and redeem the world that is responsible for your suffering and your death, which will always be premature for me. I engender a world that my tradition (and perhaps yours) says God engenders, and I articulate my resemblance to God.
This argument makes a long journey from Athens to Jerusalem. It moves from a philosophy of nonbeing to the passionate faith in a redeemer still to come ... whom I represent. Indeed, the notion of a redeemer to come – the difference between Judaism and Christianity – cannot be defended without turning back to the analysis of nonbeing in the Greek philosophical tradition. Without Athens, Jerusalem (Judaism) risks being unable to articulate the meaning of its own religious practices, becoming no more than a set of customs divorced from their ultimate source, a sedimented series of
rote actions that can create an identity for its practitioners only through the profane category of “culture.”
What remains to be considered is the relation between universal and particular realities (or experience of them), or between Father (universal) and Son (particular). — Apollodorus
Of course, if we look at it from a modern Western perspective, we may find it difficult to accept that the authors of the Hebrew Bible could have equated the God of Israel with the Sun in any other way than metaphorically. However, the perspective changes if we consider that this was written many centuries ago in a totally different cultural environment and that even Plato equates the source of truth with the Sun which in Greek religion was a deity. If the Egyptians, Babylonians, Canaanites, and Greeks, all saw the Sun as a deity, what are the chances of their Hebrew neighbors seeing it as a “metaphor”? Probably, zero. — Apollodorus
In any case, what is certain is that Judaism has many elements in common with Egyptian and other religions and cultures in the region, including the following:
Henotheism or monotheism.
God equated to the Sun and described as having war chariots.
Creation myth.
Psalms.
Prayers.
Covenant.
Code of moral conduct inscribed on stone or clay.
Ark.
Kings.
Prophets.
Temple.
Spring and fall festivals.
Animal sacrifices.
Male circumcision.
Prohibition against eating pork. — Apollodorus
What I was getting at is that something doesn’t necessarily have to be PROVEN to be true for it to actually be true. — Blake4508
The 1976 publication by Milik[42] of the results of the paleographic dating of the Enochic fragments found in Qumran made a breakthrough. According to this scholar, who studied the original scrolls for many years, the oldest fragments of the Book of Watchers are dated to 200–150 BC. Since the Book of Watchers shows evidence of multiple stages of composition, it is probable that this work was extant already in the 3rd century BC.[47] The same can be said about the Astronomical Book.[1]
It was no longer possible to claim that the core of the Book of Enoch was composed in the wake of the Maccabean Revolt as a reaction to Hellenization.[48]: 93 Scholars thus had to look for the origins of the Qumranic sections of 1 Enoch in the previous historical period, and the comparison with traditional material of such a time showed that these sections do not draw exclusively on categories and ideas prominent in the Hebrew Bible. Some scholars speak even of an "Enochic Judaism" from which the writers of Qumran scrolls were descended.[49] Margaret Barker argues, "Enoch is the writing of a very conservative group whose roots go right back to the time of the First Temple".[50] The main peculiar aspects of the Enochic Judaism are the following:
the idea of the origin of the evil caused by the fallen angels, who came on the earth to unite with human women. These fallen angels are considered ultimately responsible for the spread of evil and impurity on the earth;[48]: 90
the absence in 1 Enoch of formal parallels to the specific laws and commandments found in the Mosaic Torah and of references to issues like Shabbat observance or the rite of circumcision. The Sinaitic covenant and Torah are not of central importance in the Book of Enoch;[51]: 50–51
the concept of "End of Days" as the time of final judgment that takes the place of promised earthly rewards;[48]: 92
the rejection of the Second Temple's sacrifices considered impure: according to Enoch 89:73, the Jews, when returned from the exile, "reared up that tower (the temple) and they began again to place a table before the tower, but all the bread on it was polluted and not pure";[citation needed]
the presentation of heaven in 1 Enoch 1-36, not in terms of the Jerusalem temple and its priests, but modelling God and his angels on an ancient near eastern or Hellenistic court, with its king and courtiers;[52]
a solar calendar in opposition to the lunar calendar used in the Second Temple (a very important aspect for the determination of the dates of religious feasts);
an interest in the angelic world that involves life after death.[53]
Most Qumran fragments are relatively early, with none written from the last period of the Qumranic experience. Thus, it is probable that the Qumran community gradually lost interest in the Book of Enoch.[54]
The relation between 1 Enoch and the Essenes was noted even before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.[55] While there is consensus to consider the sections of the Book of Enoch found in Qumran as texts used by the Essenes, the same is not so clear for the Enochic texts not found in Qumran (mainly the Book of Parables): it was proposed[56] to consider these parts as expression of the mainstream, but not-Qumranic, essenic movement. The main peculiar aspects of the not-Qumranic units of 1 Enoch are the following:
a Messiah called "Son of Man", with divine attributes, generated before the creation, who will act directly in the final judgment and sit on a throne of glory (1 Enoch 46:1–4, 48:2–7, 69:26–29)[17]: 562–563
the sinners usually seen as the wealthy ones and the just as the oppressed (a theme we find also in the Psalms of Solomon).
Early influence
Classical rabbinic literature is characterized by near silence concerning Enoch. It seems plausible that rabbinic polemics against Enochic texts and traditions might have led to the loss of these books to Rabbinic Judaism.[57]
The Book of Enoch plays an important role in the history of Jewish mysticism: the scholar Gershom Scholem wrote, "The main subjects of the later Merkabah mysticism already occupy a central position in the older esoteric literature, best represented by the Book of Enoch."[58] Particular attention is paid to the detailed description of the throne of God included in chapter 14 of 1 Enoch.[1]
For the quotation from the Book of Watchers in the New Testament Epistle of Jude:
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all who are ungodly among them of all their godless deeds which they have godlessly committed, and of all the harsh speeches which godless sinners have spoken against Him."
There is little doubt that 1 Enoch was influential in molding New Testament doctrines about the Messiah, the Son of Man, the messianic kingdom, demonology, the resurrection, and eschatology.[2][5]: 10 The limits of the influence of 1 Enoch are discussed at length by R.H. Charles,[59] Ephraim Isaac,[5] and G.W. Nickelsburg[60] in their respective translations and commentaries. It is possible that the earlier sections of 1 Enoch had direct textual and content influence on many Biblical apocrypha, such as Jubilees, 2 Baruch, 2 Esdras, Apocalypse of Abraham and 2 Enoch, though even in these cases, the connection is typically more branches of a common trunk than direct development.[61]
The Greek text was known to, and quoted, both positively and negatively, by many Church Fathers: references can be found in Justin Martyr, Minucius Felix, Irenaeus, Origen, Cyprian, Hippolytus, Commodianus, Lactantius and Cassian.[62]: 430 After Cassian and before the modern "rediscovery", some excerpts are given in the Byzantine Empire by the 8th-century monk George Syncellus in his chronography, and in the 9th century, it is listed as an apocryphon of the New Testament by Patriarch Nicephorus.[63] — Book of Enoch Wikipedia Article
Some Church Fathers describe some Ebionites as departing from traditional Jewish principles of faith and practice. For example, Methodius of Olympus stated that the Ebionites believed that the prophets spoke only by their own power and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.[36] Epiphanius of Salamis stated that the Ebionites engaged in excessive ritual bathing,[37] possessed an angelology which claimed that the Christ is an angel of God who was incarnated in Jesus when he was adopted as the son of God during his baptism,[38][39] — Ebionites Wikipedia Article
1.6 And the high mountains will be shaken; and the high hills will be laid low and will melt like wax in a flame.
1.7 And the earth will sink, and everything that is on the earth will be destroyed, and there will be judgment upon all, and upon all the righteous.
1.8 But for the righteous: He will make peace, and He will keep safe the Chosen, and mercy will be upon them.
In a certain sense I’m sure there were mixtures of cultural practices where many Jews did have these notions, that being said, God being the sun as a deity in and of itself seems like a stretch. — Blake4508
The lamb was seen as a sacred creature to the Egyptians and this was a way where God essentially had them reject many of the religious/cultural tenants of their polytheistic faith. But whether there was a resurgence of such beliefs in the Hellenistic era is of course another discussion. — Blake4508
And the LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day (Deuteronomy 34:4-6).
No matter what the primitive religion of the Hebrews may have been, or what Moses may have taught, the Hebrews, having settled in Israel and Judah, and having become people not of the desert but of the soil, had assumed the normal customs of that time and paid worship to the normal gods. But in the epochal year of 621 B.C. a priest of the temple (who was the father, by the way, of the future prophet Jeremiah) produced a book purporting to be the book of the laws of Moses (who had died, if had ever lived, at least six hundred years before), and the book of laws then furnished the platform for a thoroughgoing, devastating revolution – the immediate effects of which endured, however, no longer than the life time of King Josiah himself. For, as we read, the following four kings “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord”.
It is hard to imagine how it might have been stated more clearly that until the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah of Judah neither kings nor people had paid any attention whatsoever to the law of Moses, which, indeed, they had not even known. They had been devoted to the normal deities of the nuclear Near East, with all the usual cults, which are described clearly enough in this passage to be readily recognized. King Solomon himself, the son of David, had built sanctuaries to the gods, had placed their images in his temple, and the stable of horses of the sun-god stood at the entrance … (Occidental Mythology, p. 100).
Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, "We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven [also known as Anath, Yahweh's consort] and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine" (Jeremiah 44:15-18).
In fact, at the time of the original composition of Psalm 84:11, the words "Shemesh umagen Yahweh Elohim" could perfectly well have meant "God Yahweh is the Sun (source of light and life) and a shield/protector (to those who take refuge in his cult). — Apollodorus
Hence the OT’s warning against this: “When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven (Deuteronomy 4:19). — Apollodorus
Interestingly, not a single Israeli town or village is named after Yahweh. — Apollodorus
In any case, Hellenistic influence at the time of Jesus is evidenced by the Greek names of some of his close disciples ... — Apollodorus
The Torah was compiled and redacted from earlier myths and established as THE LAW and retroactively written as it if it was written in its full form prior. It was during this time that the commandments were codified as THE way to live as a Judean — schopenhauer1
The ideas of angels ... — schopenhauer1
Confluence and influence. Various stories and beliefs that are for one reason or another embraced, are embellished, altered, and combined. There is a sense in which influence flows in both directions of time. On the one hand I do not think there is a linear progression, old ideas gain new currency. On the other, redaction distorts and erases the direction of influence. — Fooloso4
I find the ambiguity of the status of angels interesting. Their intermediary place has been fertile ground for the imagination. — Fooloso4
The Babylonian Talmud mentions Metatron by name in three places: Hagigah 15a, Sanhedrin 38b and Avodah Zarah 3b.
Hagigah 15a describes Elisha ben Abuyah in Paradise seeing Metatron sitting down (an action that is not done in the presence of God). Elishah ben Abuyah therefore looks to Metatron as a deity and says heretically: "There are indeed two powers in Heaven!"[34] The rabbis explain that Metatron had permission to sit because of his function as the Heavenly Scribe, writing down the deeds of Israel.[35] The Talmud states, it was proved to Elisha that Metatron could not be a second deity by the fact that Metatron received 60 "strokes with fiery rods" to demonstrate that Metatron was not a god, but an angel, and could be punished.[36]
In Sanhedrin 38b one of the minim tells Rabbi Idith that Metatron should be worshiped because he has a name like his master. Rabbi Idith uses the same passage Exodus 23:21 to show that Metatron was an angel and not a deity and thus should not be worshiped. Furthermore, as an angel, Metatron has no power to pardon transgressions nor was he to be received even as a messenger of forgiveness.[36][37][38]
In Avodah Zarah 3b, the Talmud hypothesizes as to how God spends His day. It is suggested that in the fourth quarter of the day God sits and instructs the school children, while in the preceding three quarters Metatron may take God's place or God may do this among other tasks.[39]
Yevamot 16b records an utterance, "I have been young; also I have been old" found in Psalm 37:25. The Talmud here attributes this utterance to the Chief Angel and Prince of the World, whom the rabbinic tradition identifies as Metatron.[40] — Metatron Wikipedia
Metatron "the Youth", a title previously used in 3 Enoch, where it appears to mean "servant".[45] It identifies him as the angel that led the people of Israel through the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt (again referring to Exodus 23:21, see above), and describes him as a heavenly priest.
In the later Ecstatic Kabbalah, Metatron is a messianic figure.[47]
The Zohar describes Metatron as the "King of the angels."[48] and associates the concept of Metatron with that of the divine name Shadday.[49] Zohar commentaries such as the "Ohr Yakar" by Moses ben Jacob Cordovero explain the Zohar as meaning that Metatron as the head of Yetzira[50] This corresponds closely with Maimonides' description of the Talmudic "Prince of the World",[51] traditionally associated with Metatron,[52] as the core "Active Intellect."[53][54]
The Zohar describes several biblical figures as metaphors for Metatron. Examples are Enoch,[55][56] Joseph,[57][58] Eliezer,[59] Joshua,[60] and others. The Zohar finds the word "youth" used to describe Joseph and Joshua a hint that the figures are a metaphor to Metatron, and also the concept of "servant" by Eliezer as a reference to Metatron.[61] The Staff of Moses is also described by the Zohar[56] as a reference to Metatron. The Zohar also states that the two tets in "totaphot" of the phylacteries are a reference to Metatron.[62] The Zohar draws distinction between Metatron and Michael.[63] While Michael is described repeatedly in the Zohar as the figure represented by the High Priest, Metatron is represented by the structure of the tabernacle itself.[63]
Yes, but also for the ancient Jews. — schopenhauer1
It's like there was some odd ideas rolling around about a Son of Man ... — schopenhauer1
THE LAW — schopenhauer1
The Talmud states, it was proved to Elisha that Metatron could not be a second deity by the fact that Metatron received 60 "strokes with fiery rods" to demonstrate that Metatron was not a god, but an angel, and could be punished.[ — Metatron Wikipedia
there is room in this debate for a "squishy middle" whereby a "metaphysical" messiah was not out of the question of beliefs of Jews in 1st century Judea. The idea that Jesus, a messianic claimant, would be attached to this idea, might not then be unreasonable — schopenhauer1
Although there are a few notable exception the term 'god' is singular and refers to a unique being, the terms divine is used to refer to the elevated or supernatural status of angels by some but objected to by others. The passage from the Talmud points to the mistake of confusing what is divine a deity. Failure to understand the difference has caused Apollodorus a great deal of confusion, especially with regard to his neoPlatonic interpretation of Plato, where he makes both the sun and the good gods and conflates this with the Christian God. — Fooloso4
As with these other terms, messiah is a fertile imaginative ground. The question was not only who is the messiah but what is the messiah. I don't think the Hebrew expression translated as son of man, that is, 'ben adam', son of Adam, is ambiguous. It refers to a human being. I think it is in this sense that Jesus and his disciples used and understood the term. — Fooloso4
Cyrus ll, Cyrus the Great, was, according to the Book of Isaiah, was anointed by God. (45:1) Anointed is the translation of the Hebrew word transliterated , as messiah. Here the term means liberator. There is a clear a clear connection here with the divine but Cyrus, although of elevated status is still human.
Given the diversity of beliefs within a fairly narrow range, it seems likely that different beliefs regarding such things sprouted. — Fooloso4
That being some sort of angelic figure representing Man — schopenhauer1
He need not be an actual angel, but sort of have a metaphysical connection somehow.. — schopenhauer1
Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. — Exodus 7:1
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