And such syncretism did happen. I remember DN Boswell saying that Euripides's play, The Bacchae, actually shows hints at being influenced by Jewish myths, and not so much the other way around. Of course in a world where culture's cross pollinated such influences would be expected. But to assume that the Jews themselves weren't influenced by their neighbors...davidmartin wrote: ↑Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:26 pm
This is syncretism going to and not from the greco/roman pantheon
Well, to borrow Giuseppe's own rhetoric, anyone who denies they weren't is an idiot.
Diodorus, Library of History
/
I call upon you, Master of the gods, high-thundering Zeus, sovereign Zeus, ADŌNAI, lord IAŌ, OYĒE.
/
Lord of the {sunrise}, risen fury,
Titan, I call {you}, flaming messenger
Of Zeus, divine IAO, and you, too,
Who rule the Heaven's realm, {RAPHAEL}
Various Greek Magical Texts
Valerius Maximus
2 Maccabees, ch. 6
Plutarch, Moralia
Most authors agree that once during a plague in Egypt which caused bodily disfigurement, King Bocchoris6 approached the oracle of Ammon and asked for a remedy, whereupon he was told to purge his kingdom and to transport this race into other lands, since it was hateful to the gods. So the Hebrews were searched out and gathered together; then, being abandoned in the desert, while all others lay idle and weeping, one only of the exiles, Moses by name, warned them not to hope for help from gods or men, for they were deserted by both, but to trust to themselves, regarding as a guide sent from heaven the one whose assistance should first give them escape from their present distress. They agreed, and then set out on their journey in utter ignorance, but trusting to chance. Nothing caused them so much distress as scarcity of water, and in fact they had already fallen exhausted over the plain nigh unto death, when a herd of wild asses moved from their pasturage to a rock that was shaded by a grove of trees. Moses followed them, and, conjecturing the truth from the grassy ground, discovered abundant streams of water. This relieved them, and they then marched six days continuously, and on the seventh seized a country, expelling the former inhabitants; there they founded a city and dedicated a temple. To establish his influence over this people for all time, Moses introduced new religious practices, quite opposed to those of all other religions. The Jews regard as profane all that we hold sacred; on the other hand, they permit all that we abhor. They dedicated, in a shrine, a statue of that creature whose guidance enabled them to put an end to their wandering and thirst,9 sacrificing a ram, apparently in derision of Ammon. They likewise offer the ox, because the Egyptians worship Apis. They abstain from pork, in recollection of a plague, for the scab to which this animal is subject once afflicted them. By frequent fasts even now they bear witness to the long hunger with which they were once distressed, and the unleavened Jewish bread is still employed in memory of the haste with which they seized the grain.11 They say that they first chose to rest on the seventh day because that day ended their toils; but after a time they were led by the charms of indolence to give over the seventh year as well to inactivity.12 Others say that this is done in honour of Saturn, whether it be that the primitive elements of their religion were given by the Idaeans, who, according to tradition, were expelled with Saturn and became the founders of the Jewish race, or is due to the fact that, of the seven planets that rule the fortunes of mankind, Saturn moves in the highest orbit and has the greatest potency; and that many of the heavenly bodies traverse their paths and courses in multiples of seven.
Whatever their origin, these rites are maintained by their antiquity: the other customs of the Jews are base and abominable, and owe their persistence to their depravity. For the worst rascals among other peoples,15 renouncing their ancestral religions, always kept sending tribute and contributions to Jerusalem, thereby increasing the wealth of the Jews; again, the Jews are extremely loyal toward one another, and always ready to show compassion, but toward every other people they feel only hate and enmity. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart, and although as a race, they are prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; yet among themselves nothing is unlawful. They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of little account. However, they take thought to increase their numbers; for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born child,16 and they believe that the souls of those who are killed in battle or by the executioner are immortal: hence comes their passion for begetting children, and their scorn of death. They bury the body rather than burn it, thus following the Egyptians' custom; they likewise bestow the same care on the dead, and hold the same belief about the world below; but their ideas of heavenly things are quite the opposite. The Egyptians worship many animals and monstrous images; the Jews conceive of one god only, and that with the mind alone: they regard as impious those who make from perishable materials representations of gods in man's image; that supreme and eternal being is to them incapable of representation and without end. Therefore they set up no statues in their cities, still less in their temples; this flattery is not paid their kings, nor this honour given to the Caesars. But since their priests used to chant to the accompaniment of pipes and cymbals and to wear garlands of ivy, and because a golden vine was found in their temple, some have thought that they were devotees of Father Liber, the conqueror of the East, in spite of the incongruity of their customs. For Liber established festive rites of a joyous nature, while the ways of the Jews are preposterous and mean.
Tacitus, Histories
Not long after this the king sent an old man of Athens to compel the Jews to depart from the laws of their fathers, and not to live after the laws of God: And to pollute also the temple, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius; and that in Garizim, of Jupiter the Defender of strangers, as they did desire that dwelt in the place. …
And when the feast of Dionysus was kept, they were compelled to go in procession to Dionysus, carrying ivy. Moreover there went out a decree to the neighbour cities of the heathen, by the suggestion of Ptolemee, against them, that they should observe the same fashions, and be partakers of their sacrifices. …
Those who spoke against it should be taken by force and put to death; and that those who were registered should even be branded on their bodies with an ivy-leaf, the emblem of Dionysus, and be reduced to their former limited status. But that he might not appear an enemy to all, he added, But if any of them prefer to join those who are initiated into the mysteries, they shall have equal rights with the citizens of Alexandria. Some obviously hating the price paid for the religion of their city readily gave themselves up, expecting to gain great glory from their association with the king.
Epitome of Jason of Cyrene
Aramaic Amherst Papyrus 63 (4th cen. BCE)
So you're one hundred percent wrong. Jews did indeed conflate YHWH with other gods; their festivals emulated the festivals of these gentile gods, and their myths about YHWH were similar to other myths about Zeus, Apollo, Dionysus and Marduk.
Give it up. You're done.
You mean like how Paul quotes two gentile poets writing about Zeus and says that he is preaching the exact same thing as them?What i'm doubting is that the original, first Christians were anything to do with worshipping Zeus with the syncretism going the other way.
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,“‘For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Epimenides' Cretica:
Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies.
But you are not dead: you live and abide forever,
For in you we live and move and have our being
Zeus has a tomb made for him, yet he isn't dead? Resurrection much?
Aratus's Phenomena:
For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.
Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity.
Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus.
For we are indeed his offspring ...
We're all Zeus's offspring? Sounds like we're all "Sons of God".
And YHWH granted barren women fertility. What's your point?Especially not Zeus, that men sacrificed chickens thinking he'd make their phallus grow longer
I can see why Giuseppe appeals to you. You're about as smart as he is.