Ehuemerus strikes back: Adair's academic article

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Giuseppe
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Ehuemerus strikes back: Adair's academic article

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Euhemerus and the New Testament: From Myth to Birth (of a) Legend
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Aaron Adair, Merrimack College
Interpreting and creating stories about gods or deified men was a common practice in the Greco-Roman period, and it provides a matrix in which scholars have already considered useful in understanding how Jesus could have been seen as divine. There were many ways to theologize in the Hellenistic period and later, and not all such methods have been explored in ways to help us uncover how early Christian literature could have been composed. In particular, the theories and methods of Euhemerus seem to have been influential in taking completely preternatural stories of the gods and placing them into a historical and human context. This is not the same as rationalizations, and the distinction is important to understanding how some might interpret historicized tales of god-like beings. Christian apologists used Euhemerus’ theories as a cudgel against pagan deities, but pious ways of using the same theologizing technique could exist. Plutarch, for example, argued that the euhemerized stories of Isis and Osiris were encoding a larger cosmic drama, even if this was not true to the origins of the Egyptian myths. Could a similar model help explain some details of the Jesus story as historicizing some aspects of an older Christ myth? Here a possibility is raised: the stories of a celestial resurrection and ascension of Jesus are behind one of the birth stories of Jesus. This is suggested by the fact that a common title for Jesus, so far not well-explained, seems to have commonality with the Magi pericope from Matt 2. In three different places in the New Testament (Rev 2:28; 22:16; 2 Pet 1:19) Jesus is referred to as the ‘morning star’, and there is the Star Hymn of Ignatius (Eph 19) that has Jesus as a bright star. In these cases, the best explanation for what this Jesus-as-star belief is that this related to the resurrected state of the Christ. On the other hand, in Matt 2, the Christmas Star is said to be “in the East” or in modern translations “at its rising”, and this also seem to be related to the star’s first appearance. This is suggestive of the Star of Bethlehem also being a morning star. This insinuates a question: did the myth of Jesus as the morning star become the legend of the star of Jesus’ birth? After exploring the popularity and use of euhemerization in antiquity by various sources, reasons are given to believe that a similar process happened for at least one story of Jesus.
https://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Congr ... etingId=29
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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