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Please provide the link to the above C/P.
It's from Wright, Sanders and Hundley. All historians who work on this period repeat this knowledge.
During the period of the
Second Temple (c. 515 BC – 70 AD), the Hebrew people lived under the rule of first the Persian
Achaemenid Empire, then the Greek kingdoms of the
Diadochi, and finally the
Roman Empire.
[47] Their culture was profoundly influenced by those of the peoples who ruled them.
[47] Consequently, their views on existence after death were profoundly shaped by the ideas of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans.
[48][49] The idea of the
immortality of the soul is derived from Greek philosophy
[49] and the idea of the
resurrection of the dead is derived from Persian cosmology.
[49] By the early first century AD, these two seemingly incompatible ideas were often conflated by Hebrew thinkers.
[49] The Hebrews also inherited from the Persians, Greeks, and Romans the idea that the human soul originates in the divine realm and seeks to return there.
[47] The idea that a human soul belongs in Heaven and that Earth is merely a temporary abode in which the soul is tested to prove its worthiness became increasingly popular during the
Hellenistic period (323 – 31 BC).
[40] Gradually, some Hebrews began to adopt the idea of Heaven as the eternal home of the righteous dead.
[40]
Heaven - Wikipedia
Hundley, Michael B. (2015), "Heaven and Earth", in Balentine, Samuel E. (ed.),
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology, vol. 1: ABR – JUS, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press,
Wright, J. Edward (2000),
The Early History of Heaven, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press,
Sanders, E. P. (1993),
The Historical Figure of Jesus,
Lee, Sang Meyng
Sang Meyng Lee, Born 1963; 2005-2008 Adjunct Professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary, Pasadena; since 2008, Professor of New Testament and Dean of Academic Affairs at Presbyterian Theological Seminary in America, Santa Fe Springs,
"The ancient Israelites envisaged the universe as a
flat disc-shaped Earth floating on water,
heaven above,
underworld below.
[6] Humans inhabited Earth during life and the underworld after death; there was no way that mortals could enter heaven, and the underworld was morally neutral;
[7] [8]only in
Hellenistic times (after c. 330 BCE) did Jews begin to adopt the
Greek idea that it would be a place of punishment for misdeeds, and that the righteous would enjoy an
afterlife in heaven.
[8] In this period too the older three-level cosmology in large measure gave way to the Greek concept of a
spherical earth suspended in
space at the
center of a number of
concentric heavens.
[9]"
The Relationship between Hellenistic Mystery Religions and Early Christianity:
A Case Study using Baptism and Eucharist
Jennifer Uzzell , peer-reviewed
Early apologists admited similarities and blamed them on Satan. (not just Justin Martyr as our apologist friend tried to say he didn't do this, now a scholar will tell you they ALL did)
Even allowing for these caveats, it is clear that substantial ideological and ritual similarities did exist. In fact they were sufficiently obvious to the early Christian apologists that they felt obliged to offer some explanation for them, particularly since, to their embarrassment, it was clear that the Mystery rituals predated their own. The most common explanation, offered by many Christian apologists including Firmicus Maternus, Tertullian and Justin Martyr, was
that demons had deliberately prefigured Christian sacraments in order to lead people astray. This explanation has sufficed for Christians over countless centuries, and indeed scholastic bias towards the assumed uniqueness, primacy and superiority of Christianity is one of the major methodological pitfalls encountered by those engaged in the comparative study of Christianity and the Mysteries. Many Christian scholars have been so certain that Christianity alone, of all the world’s religions, is an original and unique revelation that at times it seems that they might almost prefer the “demonic intervention” explanation to the unthinkable possibility that Christianity was influenced by its philosophical and theological environs. This paper, however, will seek to explore and quantify the similarities and differences and to offer a more prosaic explanation for them as far as it is possible to do so at such a remove and in the light of the methodological difficulties discussed above.
Baptism has been widely compared with initiation into the Mystery cults. In many of the Mysteries purification through ritual bathing was required as a prerequisite for initiation.
It is interesting to note that the early Christian writer Tertullian (c. 160-225CE) would not have agreed with this appraisal. Not only did he believe that certain of the Mysteries practiced baptism, but also that they did so in hope of attaining forgiveness of sins and a new birth. This was so striking a similarity that it clearly demanded some form of explanation. Not surprisingly, demonic imitation was the culprit.
The Nations, who are strangers to all understandings of spiritual powers, ascribe to their idols the imbuing of waters with the self-same efficacy. But they cheat themselves with waters that are widowed. For washing is the channel through which they are initiated into some sacred rites...of some notorious Isis or Mithras...at the Appolianrian or Eleusinian games they are baptised and they presume that the effect of their doing is their regeneration and the remission of the penalties due to their perjuries.
Another area where some have seen a link between Christian baptism and the Mystery religions concerns the Taurobolium associated with the cult of Cybele and Attis.
Eucharist.
-Perhaps the clearest point of contact between the Mysteries and Christian Eucharist, and one of which the Church Fathers were painfully conscious, lay in a sacramental meal of bread or cakes and wine mixed with water in which initiates to the cult of Mithras participated.
They seek salvation from the debased material world through a spiritual ascent through the spheres. Mithras was expected to return to earth to lead his followers in a final cataclysmic battle between good and evil.
-The Mithraic sacramental meal almost certainly predates Christianity and cannot, therefore, be contingent upon it.
-It seems likely that there was dialogue, friendly or otherwise, between the groups which led to ideological growth and development in both; with Christianity increasingly appropriating the language and ritual of the Cults in what it eventually came to refer to as the
μυστηριον (mystery) of the Eucharist.
Dying/rising demigods
In Pagan Hellenistic and Near Eastern thought, the motif of a “Dying and Rising God” existed for millennia before Christ and there had been stories of divine beings questing into the underworld and returning transformed in some way.
J. P. Moreland is an American philosopher, theologian, and apologist. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy . So he's again not a historian but an apologist. Crank.
His main argument is the gospels. Nothing here. The Synoptic Problem has proven the source for all is Mark. The 7-8 arguments are solid. Mark is written in a highly fictive style using all types of literary devices only used in fiction. Ring structure, triadic cyles, chismias, all highly improbable in real life. He also uses (verbatim at times) Kings, Psalms, and other OT narratives and there are dozens of examples in PhD papers of his extensive use of Pauls letters and making earthly stories out of these revelations. Everything is accounted for. No room even for oral sources. This all can be greatly expanded on.
He uses Acts which has been shown to be historical fiction by the peer-reviewed work of Purvoe which we can get dee into as well.
This theologian/apologist is probably great at telling you what scripture means. He is terrible at debunking historicity and literally knows nothing about the field. That was pitiful.
Richard Carrier also writes on Acts as historical fiction and a blog writer summed up some of the work here:
The Book of Acts as Historical Fiction
He also uses Dr Carrier and several other scholars work to write about Mark being mythical
The Gospels as Allegorical Myth, Part I of 4: Mark
Christian writer Robert H. Stein’s
The Synoptic Problem: An Introduction, is used to sum up the issues with the Synoptic Problem and how it's accepted that Mark is the source for the other gospels
The Synoptic Problem | Bible.org
He isn't a historian, he's an actual believing Christian.
As is Mark Goodacre who has closed the case on this issue with his peer-reviewed work.
The Case Against Q: A Synoptic Problem Web Site by Mark Goodacre
