littlewanderer Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Curious - If the bible is a collection of myths born from Paganism, why does the Jesus rebuke Pagans? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the leaders putting this book together by insinuating that it's central character rejects paganism? I thought the general consensus was that it absorbed paganism to appease the masses? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. - matt. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orbit Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Curious - If the bible is a collection of myths born from Paganism, why does the Jesus rebuke Pagans? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the leaders putting this book together by insinuating that it's central character rejects paganism? I thought the general consensus was that it absorbed paganism to appease the masses? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. - matt. 6 It's also Hebrew myths. Jesus doesn't rebuke pagans, ever. Jesus was concerned with preaching to the Jews only. He didn't ever even mention pagans. It's a Bible translation issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlewanderer Posted September 2, 2014 Author Share Posted September 2, 2014 Can you cite the original translation for clarity sake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miekko Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Can you cite the original translation for clarity sake? "original translation"?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blood Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Curious - If the bible is a collection of myths born from Paganism, why does the Jesus rebuke Pagans? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the leaders putting this book together by insinuating that it's central character rejects paganism? I thought the general consensus was that it absorbed paganism to appease the masses? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. - matt. 6 The word "pagan" never appears in the Bible in Greek. A couple of translations use "pagan" where the Greek has "nations" or "heathens," but this is completely arbitrary and uncalled for. The Bible isn't "a collection of myths born from Paganism," mainly because there was no ancient religion called "Paganism." The Bible is a collection of myths born from a lot of different sources and ideas, but mostly from the writers' imaginations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlewanderer Posted September 2, 2014 Author Share Posted September 2, 2014 Thank you guys! My head is just swirling with all this new information and I'm trying to make sense of it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miekko Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Curious - If the bible is a collection of myths born from Paganism, why does the Jesus rebuke Pagans? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the leaders putting this book together by insinuating that it's central character rejects paganism? I thought the general consensus was that it absorbed paganism to appease the masses? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. - matt. 6 The word "pagan" never appears in the Bible in Greek. A couple of translations use "pagan" where the Greek has "nations" or "heathens," but this is completely arbitrary and uncalled for. The Bible isn't "a collection of myths born from Paganism," mainly because there was no ancient religion called "Paganism." The Bible is a collection of myths born from a lot of different sources and ideas, but mostly from the writers' imaginations. I don't quite agree with your rejection of 'pagan' as a meaningful term at the time the Bible was written; keep in mind that the Bible was written either by hellenistic Jews or by non-Jews with strong influences from hellenistic Judaism. In Jewish parlance, words like 'nations' had long been used to denote 'those of other, non-monotheist belief systems'. Of course, identifying non-Jewish religions of antiquity as a coherent system isn't an accurate analysis, but it does catch how the Jews and 'godfearing heathens' saw non-Jewish religions. The NT does have several quite clear non-Jewish influences - although obviously some of these non-Jewish influences have also affected Judaism to some extent (e.g. Stoicism has affected both Judaism and Christianity, Zoroastrianism has affected various branches of Judaism in different ways - it's quite likely the idea that Satan is an opponent of God is of Zoroastrian origin (note: that idea is not present in Pharisaic Judaism, and therefore not in any modern kind of Judaism)). In the meantime, many Christians do think paganism is a terrible thing and that any idea that comes from pagan sources has to be evil - which makes Christianity somewhat inconsistent on the topic of paganism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blood Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Curious - If the bible is a collection of myths born from Paganism, why does the Jesus rebuke Pagans? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the leaders putting this book together by insinuating that it's central character rejects paganism? I thought the general consensus was that it absorbed paganism to appease the masses? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. - matt. 6 The word "pagan" never appears in the Bible in Greek. A couple of translations use "pagan" where the Greek has "nations" or "heathens," but this is completely arbitrary and uncalled for. The Bible isn't "a collection of myths born from Paganism," mainly because there was no ancient religion called "Paganism." The Bible is a collection of myths born from a lot of different sources and ideas, but mostly from the writers' imaginations. I don't quite agree with your rejection of 'pagan' as a meaningful term at the time the Bible was written; keep in mind that the Bible was written either by hellenistic Jews or by non-Jews with strong influences from hellenistic Judaism. In Jewish parlance, words like 'nations' had long been used to denote 'those of other, non-monotheist belief systems'. Of course, identifying non-Jewish religions of antiquity as a coherent system isn't an accurate analysis, but it does catch how the Jews and 'godfearing heathens' saw non-Jewish religions. The NT does have several quite clear non-Jewish influences - although obviously some of these non-Jewish influences have also affected Judaism to some extent (e.g. Stoicism has affected both Judaism and Christianity, Zoroastrianism has affected various branches of Judaism in different ways - it's quite likely the idea that Satan is an opponent of God is of Zoroastrian origin (note: that idea is not present in Pharisaic Judaism, and therefore not in any modern kind of Judaism)). In the meantime, many Christians do think paganism is a terrible thing and that any idea that comes from pagan sources has to be evil - which makes Christianity somewhat inconsistent on the topic of paganism. I don't disagree that "nations" often had a negative connotation in the NT. I'm just saying that the substitution of the Latin word "pagan" into the Greek is arbitrary and anachronistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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