We began our series in part one with a look at the Old Testament
roots of Norse mythology. In that study, we saw that the beliefs
of the Norse bore a striking resemblance to the religion and culture
of the Hebrews, Canaanites, Assyrians, and Babylonians. These
cultural "cross-currents" were not unusual, and indicate
a Semitic wave of colonization in early Europe.
Let's continue our series with a closer look at Greek mythology and see if
the Bible in the Apocrypha is correct in I Maccabees 12:21, where we read, "It
has been found in a writing concerning the Lacedaemonians (Greeks) and Jews
(Judah), that they are kinsmen, and that they are descended from Abraham."
Yes, Israelites colonized Greece in early times, and the Greek religion shows
us proof of an Hebrew origin as stated in the Apocrypha in the Bible.
The most well known Greek God-hero was the one known as Hercules (the Latinized
form of the Greek "Heracles"), whose most distinguishing characteristic
was immense physical strength. Interestingly enough, the "ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD," states, "The tales of his heroic deeds lend
to the supposition that Hercules was originally an historic figure." Who
do we know in the Bible that exhibits a like characteristic? The answer, of
course, is the Israelite hero known as Samson, whose life was detailed in the
Bible in Judges chapters 13 through 16.
One important event in Hercules' life involved his escaping from the clutches
of a symbolic woman, who is called "Pleasure." This corresponds directly
to the troubles Samson got himself involved in with the harlots of Canaan.
But the most celebrated event in the life of Hercules involved the 12 labors
he was ordered to perform by God through the Oracle of Delphi. (Incidently,
"12" was an important divine number in Hebrew religion.) What do you
suppose was the very first labor Hercules had to perform? You might have guessed
it! He had to slay a lion with his bare hands! Let's read a paragraph from the
book, "GODS, HEROES AND MEN OF ANCIENT GREECE" by W.H.D. Rouse: "Heracles
threw down his bow and arrows and leapt upon the lion's back... while he put
his hands round the lions neck...gripped the lion's throat with his two hands,
and bending him backwards, throttled him. There lay the lion dead on the ground."
(p. 59). In our Bible, Judges 13:6 says that Samson actually tore the lion in
two, but the ancient historian Flavius Josephus in his "ANTIQUITIES OF
THE JEWS" also tells us that Samson first strangled the lion, which is
exactly as Hercules is said to have done.
I don't even know that there were any lions in Greece. The BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST
MAGAZINE somewhat tersely comments, "Lions, we may remark, are not frequent
in Greece." (59:1, p. 17) In fact, the Greek myths explain this one away
as the offspring of a monster! But whether there were lions in Greece is not
important; Hercules needed to find one anyway. Why? Simply because the Biblical
Samson inspired the Greek legend called Hercules, and provided the basis for
his life!
Another of Hercules' labors involved his live capture of a wild animal, which
he brought home and threw at the feet of Eurystheus. In Judges 15:4, Samson
is said to also capture live wild animals, which he released in the cornfields
of the Philistines.
A fascinating bit of additional information regarding Hercules is his connection
with the Biblical tribe of Dan. The Bible Samson was born of the tribe of Dan.
(Judges 13:2-25) Greek history tells us that a people called 'Danioi' came to
trade and colonize Greece in ancient times, settling in a region called 'Argos.'
The word Hercules in Greek is,'Heracles,' which is virtually identical with
the Hebrew plural word for traders, 'Heraclim,' and Heracles is said to have
come from 'Argos,' himself! The Greek myths tell that the Danioi were descended
from a patriarch 'Danaos' who was the son of 'Bela,' and sailed from Egypt.
In the Bible, the Hebrew patriarch Dan was the son of the concubine 'Bilhah'
(Genesis 30:3-6), and the Israelites were in Egypt at the time that 'Danaos'
set sail to Greece from there! Heracles, further, is said to marry a girl named
'Hebe,' an obvious and well-known short form of the word, Hebrew! Since the
tribe of Dan were traders and colonists who did so much sailing that they "stayed
in their ships" (Judges 5:17), it is not surprising to find such connections
with ancient Greece.
In another tale from Greek mythology, we read how God through
the Oracle at Delphi seemingly ordered a king to sacrificially
slay his son Phrixos, as a sign of his obedience to God. But let
me quote the story from my Greek commentary: "The oracle
said, kill Phrixos and Helle at the altar for a sacrifice, or
your corn will grow no more. This was a dreadful blow to the king;
but he had to obey what he believed to be god's wish, like Abraham
and Isaac in the Bible. And in this case, too, there was a ram,
but a different sort of ram from the ram which was sacrificed
instead of Isaac. There stood at the altar the two children, ready
to be killed; there stood the sacrificer with his knife; there
stood the king, full of sorrow. and lo and behold, down came the
ram, and up got the boy and girl upon his back, and away he flew
into the sky." (Ibid. P.92) This is obviously not an exact
retelling of the story of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac, but
an historical kernel obviously exists, which was corrupted into
the present Greek mythology over time.
Another interesting Bible comparison can be made with the Greek hero Achilles, who could only die by having his heel wounded. What a strange store to tell! That is, it would be strange were it not for the fact that we read such an account in the Bible in the form of a prophecy concerning the coming Christ in Genesis 3:15: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou SHALT BRUISE HIS HEEL." It can easily be seen how a misinterpretation of this verse (especially in the early pre-Christian centuries, before Christ's fulfillment of prophecy was made manifest) could inspire a story of someone dying through a wound in his heel!
The strong connection between the Hebrew and Greek civilizations is well known
to scholars of ancient history. Perhaps the leading American archaeologist of
the twentieth century is Cyrus H. Gordon, author of over 20 books, and recognized
authority on Mediterranean cultural history. In his book, "THE COMMON BACKGROUND
OF GREEK AND HEBREW CIVILIZATIONS," Dr. Gordon says, "Pagan critics of early
Christianity confronted the Church Fathers with some embarrassing parallels,
but the Fathers were equal to the challenge and provided answers in keeping
with the spirit of their times. There were Fathers who honestly recognized the
reality of the parallels but explained them as the mischief of demons who had
planted them in Greek literature to harass the Church." (p. 10) Gordon then
points out that the definite similarity between Greek early religion and literature,
and that of the Old Testament, is not due to demons but to the fact that the
Hebrew people provided the basis of Greek culture. In ancient times, Hebrew
traders and colonists established trading colonies and settlements throughout
the Mediterranean seaboard; our tracts, "ANCIENT HEBREW SEA MIGRATIONS," and
"ANCIENT HEBREWS IN SPAIN AND BRITAIN," also give evidence of such migrations
in ancient times. Dr. Gordon gives numerous other parallels between Greek traditions
and the Bible, such as the "staff of God," in Exodus 17, which appears in the
Iliad in 15:318-322. The theme of "washing away uncleanliness into the sea,"
in Micah 7:18-20, also appears in Iliad 1:312-317. (ibid., p.12-13) The imagery
of the sea as a "watery path" in Psalm 8:9 finds its duplicate often in Greek
literature. The Hebrew "Cities of Refuge" for a fugitive kinsman who had to
flee from an avenger of his own family, is also paralleled in Greek literature
as in Odyssey 15:271-278. Likewise, military "triads of officers" in 2 Samuel
23:9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, and 23 are paralleled in Iliad 2:563-7 and Odyssey
14:470-471. In fact, the Hebrew word for military officers, "salis," comes from,
"salos," the Hebrew number 3. (ibid., p. 17) Early Hebrew burial customs were
also paralleled in early Greece. The Bible tells us that when Saul and his sons
died, the Hebrews retrieved and burned the corpses prior to burial. (I Samuel
31:12) Similarly, during the Trojan War, Hector's body was retrieved by Priam,
and the Trojans "shedding tears, carried out brave Hector and set the corpse
on the highest pyre and cast fire thereon." (Iliad 24:786-787) The very same
custom was well-known in the Norse and early peoples of Europe, showing another
familial connection. (Also see our tract, "THE OLD TESTAMENT ROOTS OF NORSE
MYTHOLOGY") As a result of such evidence, Gordon sees Hebrew and Greek civilization
as "a continuum instead of two unconnected areas poles apart." (ibid., p.54)
Yet some insist on ignoring the mass of such evidence! Gordon comments that
the ancient Greek writer, "Herodotus (I:105, 2:44; 4:147ff; 6:47, etc.) knew
about the early [Hebrew]-Phoenician penetration of what is now Greek territory.
But many modern scholars still choose to discount his testimony and instead
follow current schools of thought." (ibid., p. 216) Other familiar Bible history
also has its counterpart in Greek literature. Cyrus Gordon explains (ibid.,
p. 279), "The analogy between the Greeks and Hebrews goes much further. [The
Greek hero] Minos has rightly been compared with Moses. Both are greater than
life-size figures who received the law from the Supreme God on a sacred mountain
(Dionysius of Helicarnassus, Roman antiquities 2:61) God's law itself has parallels
in early Greece. Dr. Gordon comments, "Leviticus 25 makes the theory of real
estate quite clear. God owned the Land and the People. The Hebrews… were entrusted
with the land as His tenants. They were at the same time to be the landed warrior
and administrative ruling class. All this is basically paralleled in Greece."
(ibid., p. 295) The long day of Joshua, where the sun stood still to lengthen
the day and ensure a victory, also appears in Greek legend. (Joshua 10:13-14;
cp., Iliad 18:239-242) Truly, it would be astonishing for such parallel detail
between the Hebrews and Greeks to be mere happenstance!
The strong connection between the Hebrew and Greek civilizations
is well known to scholars of ancient history. Perhaps the leading
American archaeologist of the twentieth century is Cyrus H. Gordon.
The BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST MAGAZINE (March 1996, p. 22) reported,
"Professor Gordon had been delivering a popular lecture on
'The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations,' particularly
about the Heroic Age both in Late Bronze Age Greece and in pre-monarchic
Israel. Citing the Iliad of Homer and the Biblical book Samuel,
he pointed out that the heroes David and Achilles performed essentially
the same warlike exploits in search of imperishable glory, the
only bulwark against oblivion. The milieu of Achilles and of David
were therefore closer to one another than was that of Achilles
to Classical Greece or that of David to the Age of the Prophets
in Israel. Following the lecture, a little old lady, wide-eyed
with astonishment and admiration, made her way up to the distinguished
lecturer and asked, 'Does that mean, Professor Gordon, that Achilles
was Jewish?'" This insightful woman was on the right track
in her thinking, for the ancestors of the early Greeks were Israelites,
as the close parallels between the religion of these two nations
implies.
Near-Eastern scholar, Dr. Louis H. Feldman, concurs with this in a lengthy
article in the same journal pointing out the connection between Greek mythic
literature and its source in both the Bible and Mesopotamian religion. He states,
"Likewise, Mondi (1990:187) cites the parallel between the Homeric shield
of Achilles; 'And upon it he made the earth and the sky and the sea, the tireless
sun and the waxing moon, and all the constellations which wreathe the sky.'
(Iliad 18.483-485) And Psalm 136:5-9: 'to him who made the heavens, the earth
upon the waters, ....the great lights, ...the sun..., the moon and the stars.'"
Dr. Feldman continues, "Furthermore, the scenes on the
shield of a city at peace in which the leaders are dispensing
justice, repelling aggression, and harvesting, while the king
stands by watching happily, correspond to the description in Psalm
72." An obvious inference is that the Greek myths are so
chock full of Hebraisms because of Hebrew colonization of Greece
in ancient times.
Parallels with Assyrian and Babylon religion are also commonplace
in Greek mythic literature. On this, Dr. Feldman comments, "Furthermore,
there are parallels in motifs between Near Eastern epics and Homer.
In the first place, as Professor Gordon, followed by Considine
and Walcot (Gordon 1962:180-181; Considine 1969:85-159; Walcot
1970:273-5), has noted, there are eight striking parallels between
the Baal-Anath text 137, where Baal is restrained from doing violence
to the envoys by the goddesses Anath and Ashtoreth, and the scene
in the Iliad (1.188-222), when Achilles is about to slay Agamemnon,
but is restrained by the two goddesses, Athena and Hera."
Dr. Feldman's article continues on these themes for many pages,
proving without doubt the connection between Greece and the Near
East, including Israel, in very early times. Feldman concludes
by saying, "SOME WOULD SAY, as they did with Professor Gordon's
'Homer and Bible' (1955) and 'Before the Bible' (1962), THAT SEVERAL
OF THESE PARALLELS ARE COMMONPLACES; BUT THE TOTAL EFFECT IS WHAT
COUNTS. THERE IS NOW FAIRLY GENERAL AGREEMENT THAT THE NEAR EAST
…INFLUENCED HOMER." (ibid. p. 19)
The story of the Noahic flood is also told in Greek mythology,
where Deucalion and Pyrrha built a wooden "chest" to
save them. Historican Olive Beaupre Miller, in "A PICTURESQUE
TALE OF PROGRESS" says, "The similarity of these flood
stories [Greek and Hebrew] is interesting. Here, as in the Bible,
the flood is sent to destroy mortals because of the evil in the
world, the chest goes aground on a mountain top and the survivors
at once offer sacrifice."
We have seen not only Hebrew, but Canaanite, Assyrian, and
Babylonian influence upon early Greek mythology. That Greek religion
could be influenced by so many streams of different Semitic influence
may seem incredible until we remember that the religion of the
Israelites was also influenced by these same foreign nations.
This heavily mixed amalgam may therefore have been brought to
Greece by the Hebrews themselves.
Before closing this discussion on Greece and its ancient ties
to Hebrew religion, it is interesting to mention that the Greek
god-hero, "Adonis," also received his name from the
Semitic word, "Adon" or Lord. For example, one of the
New Testament titles applied to Christ was "Adonay."
Greek heroes such as Hercules and Achilles were called children
of God, but they were not immortal. They lived on earth, died,
and their spirits were believed to sometimes be lifted up into
heaven. Above these heroes in importance and power were said to
be a pantheon of Gods. Yet, large numbers of Greeks also worshipped
a ONE TRUE GOD, eternal in the heavens, unnamed except to be called
"THE UNKNOWN GOD."
This brings us down to New Testament times, where we pick up
the rest of our story in the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of
the Apostles: (verses 22-23). "Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mar's Hill and said: Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all
things ye are too superstitious; for as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE
UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him I declare
unto you."
Yes, these people were not adopting a new religion with the coming of Christianity; they were rediscovering their old religion in its purified form, as sent unto them by our Lord in the flesh, Jesus Christ. By God's design, our forefathers forgot who they were, where they came from, and what their past religion was, all in His plan of purifying and preparing them to again become united with the ONE TRUE GOD, who came unto them in the form of man, Yahshua Jesus Christ.