Tablet ignites debate on messiah and resurrection - International Herald Tribune:"A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.
If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time."
Except for the fact that anyone with the slightest knowledge of religious history or mythography knows that the dying and reborn god figure is easily one of the oldest and most common religious archetypes. The "story of Jesus" is neither special nor unique from an historical perspective.
You can even get the bare bones via the bastion of all things internet encyclopedia related - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Life-death-rebirth deity:
"The category life-death-rebirth deity also known as a 'dying-and-rising' or 'Resurrection' deity is a convenient means of classifying the many divinities in world mythology or religion who are born, suffer death, an eclipse, or other death-like experience, pass a phase in the underworld among the dead, and are subsequently reborn, in either a literal or symbolic sense.
Male deities among such figures might include Osiris, Adonis, Tammuz, Zalmoxis, phoenix, Jesus, Baldr, and Odin.
Female deities who passed into the kingdom of death and returned include Inanna (also known as Ishtar) whose cult dates to 4000 BC and Persephone, the central figure of the Eleusinian Mysteries, whose cult may date to 1700 BC as the unnamed goddess worshiped in Crete."
You can find at least another forty gods over at the article with the same essential back story. Education and knowledge is such an anathema to these people.
No comments:
Post a Comment