Parallel Gods

[secondeve]

I've been doing some reading lately, and am finding some interesting parallels in mythology with regard to shepherd gods/goddesses dying and being reborn.

The Sumerian myth has Dumuzi, lover of Inanna, spending half the year in the underworld, so that he dies in winter and is reborn with the spring. He was god of the flock and the sheepfold. In the Akkadian version, Dumuzi was Tammuz and Inanna was Ishtar, but Tammuz was still a god of flocks who died and was resurrected from hell. Interestingly, Tammuz and Dumuzi are also the origins of Adonis, and Aphordite comes from the semitic roots of Inanna and Ishtar. Adonis eventually dies pierced through the side by a boar's tusk (his death was celebrated as a winter/spring death-and-transition rite by the Greeks). Persephone, Greek Queen of the Underworld, spends half the year in hell (winter) and the other half on Earth (spring).

Interestingly, Adonis was also known as Adonai, another name for YHWH.

In the Vatican, there's an inscription on an old temple which says, "He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood, so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved," - but this is an inscription about the god Mithras, whose temple it is, and not about Christ; Mithras, a god of Light, was also known as the Redeemer and the Good Shepherd, and who was born, with shepherds in attendance, in a cave on December 25.

Another pre-Christian deity, Attis, was called 'the lamb of God,' son of the virgin goddess Cybele (another version of Innana and Ishtar, and also Astarte). Ishtar's name is also suspected of being the origin of the word Easter, along with another related goddess of the dawn, Eostre. Attis was crucified and resurrected, a festival celebrated yearly with libations of wine. Going back to Tammuz, the cross was once his religious symbol.

And then there's the myth of the wine-god Dionysis, who was born to a mortal woman, wandered around gathering followers, who was arrested and crucified for claiming to be a god, and who then rose from the grave.

Going north, there's also Odin Gallows-God, to whom ritual hangings/crucifixions were offered. His side pierced by a spear, Odin hung for nine days and nine nights on the branches of the world tree to gain the knowledge of the universe, before being cut down and reborn more powerful than ever.

Well, if you're me, the similarities bear thinking about.

[Copper Scroll]

Well, if you're me, the similarities bear thinking about.

...And what conclusion do you draw?

[crab3]

Well, if you're me, the similarities bear thinking about.

To what extent, might I ask. Think about Paul and the Corinthians, he witnessed to them by actions, not words, why was that. Because at that time that area was full of pagan cults, and all kind of 'gods' that people had, ironically enough, some died and ascended three days later, some sat at the right hand of God, some died to save man, some were beaten and crucified. I dare say Satan won some souls by working through these 'gods,' have they got your attention in a similar way....

peace

crabs><>

[Prodigalson123]

did any of these "gods" come back to life with over 500 witnesses at once? me thnks that satan is a good copycat, knowing what was going to happen, because he surely knew the story and the end that awaits him. Don't let him fool you 2nd eve like he did the 1st

[Old Timer]

Well, if you're me, the similarities bear thinking about.

I have thought about it.

Why do even the constellations of the Zodiac tell the story of the Messiah?

Why are we told that nature itself reveals the true God?

Why are we told that those who reject that revelation are without excuse?

Why was the worship of the Queen of Heaven forbidden?

Who were the many gods that Paul spoke about on Mar

[crab3]

Sounds silly, but Superman is a parallel God too:

- his father sends his only son to save the people of Earth

- Superman's Kryptonian name is Kal-EL, his father is Jor-El... "El" is translated to "God"

- Superman's Earth parents are Jonathan and Martha. Jesus' parents are Joesph and Mary (M&J). Actuallly, Superman's parents were orginally supposed to be named Mary and Joseph before they were changed

- Jesus battles Satan, or Lucifer. Superman battles Luthor.

Hmmm...

These other 'gods' are about as credible as well. This other 'gods' buisness needs no 'thinking about' to come to a conclusion. Don't question the real and true God, and leave it at that. Lets focus on his son....

crabs><>

[SoulGrind]

there are so many biblical accounts which crop up in other religions and myths across the world. One can draw two conclusions - either the biblical authors were influenced by them or the accounts of the ancient Israels influenced cultures throuought the world.

I subscribe to thee latter, not least because every other culture has only a few of all the elements of scriptural teaching ie this would make scripture or the experiences of those in the scripture to be the source of this worldwide beliefs.

Another aspect to consider when taking on this particular argument is the age of the documents being quoted from and the age of the cultures from which they are derived.

EXAMPLE:

If Book A was written in 1901 and says "All grass is greener in may"

If Book B was written in 1980 and says "Blue birds sing sweet love sonnets"

If Book C was written in 1833 and says "Blue birds sing sweet love sonnets when the grass is greener in may"

A person only need to look as far as the date of origin for each book to realize that Book A and Book B draw upon Book C, because Book A and Book B were written after Book C.

When studying other religions on cultures, this of course is extremely difficult. Once needs to study in depth the culture and history and trace back to whence the culture came.

If we look back to the first five books of the Bible, we know that Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are sometimes referred to as the "Five Books of Moses," because the writings themselves identify the author as Moses, or as the "Pentateuch," a Greek term meaning "pente (5) teuchos (volumes)," or as the "Books of the Law", or as the "Torah" (a Hebrew word meaning "instruction").

We also know that these books were originally written as a single unbroken scroll. Sometime before the 2nd Century BCE, it was divided into the five books that we see today.

Since conservative Christians believe in the inerrancy (freedom from error) of the Bible, the matter of authorship is settled and is not open to debate. Moses wrote at least the vast majority of the Pentateuch. Some suggest that he authored all five books, and that the account of his death and burial was a prophecy by Moses. However, some Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians have deviated from traditional Christian teachings. They believe that selected passages were written by persons other than Moses. Some of these writings are referred to as "post-Mosaica" (material that was added after Moses' death). Others are called "a-Mosaica" (material that could have been written at the time of Moses but which could not reasonably be attributed to him).

Fundamentalists and other Evangelical Christians generally believe that Moses wrote all or most of the five books after the Israelite's exodus from Egypt, but before they entered Canaan. This would date the writing to the 40 year period when the Israelites were wandering through the desert, circa 1450 BCE.

based on this sound-byte of information, we obviously can conclude that the first five books of the Bible were written by Moses in the ball park of 1450 BCE. Of course, with further research, I'm sure this date can be argued for or against.

However, the purpose of this exercise is not to debate the accuracy of the date (at this time), but to illustrate how to determine the validity of a work based upon who, when, where, and why these books were written - this should give the reader better insite into determining whether any other book on the market (so-to-speak) came before or after, and whether it borrowed or contributed.

[SoulGrind]

Also, multiple flood myths would be expected if there really was a great flood, even if some of them are wrong and ridiculous. Within a few generations, the people would have been seperated after the tower of babel, and some of them would have heard the account of the flood from their parents and grandparents, or maybe read partial accounts somewhere, and maybe even heard about God, but their understandings and beliefs may not have been complete, so over time satan decieved them into believing and inventing myths that weren't exactly right. i.e. gilgamesh, and certain american indian myths, and it was encorporated into their religious teachings as well.

WSB, well put!

I'd like to add onto what you said...

This reminds me of the party game where you set a group of people up in a row... You write down on a piece of paper a "message". You start at one end and tell the person at that end the "secret message". That person is to then tell the person next to them the message. By the time the message reaches the end of the group and the last person "quotes" it back to you, it is usually different from the original message you wrote down.

One also notices from this exercise that the more people you have and the longer it takes to go from the first person to the last person by word of mouth, the message becomes more and more convoluted and twisted from the original.

However, if you gave the first person the slip of paper and told them to read it, then pass the paper on to the next person, so forth and so on, by the time the message reached the end, it would not have changed. The only thing that would have changed however is the interpreation of the message by the individual persons in the chain.

If we think of this in terms of the Bible being passed down from generation to generation - we must realize that it is mostly the interpretations of the reader that is changing over time - the Word never changes.

Now some do argue that because of all the translations that the original message has been lost, yadda yadda yadda. Well, there's a quick and easy solution for this. IF you are one of those types who feels that the King James is the ONLY version worth reading, or you believe the NASB is the BEST translation (to date), or maybe you don't believe in God and the Bible and you are just going by what someone told you or what you've "heard" (remember the group experiment we just did), then you owe it to yourself to learn Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic and go read the ORIGINAL texts for yourself to know for sure.

Cheers!

[cjrose]

Interesting But This could beat up some ones faith........

((((((((((Hope)))))))))))))) so glad to see you on the boards again, you doing good??? And Amen, this entire outer court can cause confusion for someone not on solid foundation in their faith. Which is why we are here to let them know the Truth!!

[secondeve]

did any of these "gods" come back to life with over 500 witnesses at once? me thnks that satan is a good copycat, knowing what was going to happen, because he surely knew the story and the end that awaits him. Don't let him fool you 2nd eve like he did the 1st

In response to this and to previous posts:

1. Unless you are a Young Earth creationist, in which case, you'll disregard what I'm going to say by default, why is it that the worship of deities like Inanna, Ishtar, Adonis/Adonai, Dumuzi and Tammuz predate Christianity by thousands of years? The oldest, I think, may well predate Judaism. The point being, how can you say that these religions borrowed from Christianity, when Christianity wasn't even a twinkling in the historic eye when they were at their height? But certainly, they Jews would have known of them, moving through Canaan, Phoenecia, hearing myths from Sumer and Akkadia. The Gentiles would have known them - Aphrodite and Adonis parallel Venus and Cupid in the Roman as well as Ishtar and Tammuz. Egyptian Isis resurects her husband, Orisis, from the dead, and has to keep her holy child, Horus, safe from the evil god Set, Isis being another variant on Ishtar/Astarte.

2. Someone brought up the flood myths. Look in the ancient world; we know what caused the flood. It was the explosion of a volcano on the Greek island now known as Santorini, one known as Thera, and also, after its sinking and perhaps in antiquity, called Atlantis. Pliny the Younger recorded that 'in a single day and night of misfortune, the island of Atlantis was lost beneath the waves.' Santorini is a crescent island, but was once almost circular; the explosion sunk most of the island. This caused, unsurprisingly, a massive tidal wave - hence the flood myths. The Greek story of Decalian and Pyrrah even parallels the Ark story, as they build a boat at the bequest of Zeus and are saved. So yes, there was a flood - but not across the whole world.

3. Witnesses to the death of Christ. This point always bugs me. We do not have 500 eye-witness testimonies that Christ rose and appeared to the masses; we have, at most, the word of four disciples that he did so. If I told you I was at a party with 500 people, but you were unable to round up even a single one of them to prove this, it would not be unreasonable to suspect that I was lying. So - perhaps 500 people did see something, and perhaps they didn't. Perhaps the numberr was bigger or smaller (who was counting anyway, I'd like to know? And why is it always a conveniently round number? Do mobs always form to the nearest hundred?) The point being, there is no proof that 500 people saw Christ. Just the word of one or four people who may or may not be accurate.