When someone living in ancient Greece died, did they meet Zeus? Or Apollo or their favorite God? I would think so.

The Greeks were God makers. There were lots of Gods. They could have had a God of the month club.

Weren't the gospels of the New Testament written in Greek? I mean, these stories of miracles and virgin birth and resurrection came from the same folks who brought us demigods like Perseus.

Sure, maybe Jesus was a historical figure. But maybe he was the made-up demigod picked up and syndicated by Emperor Augustine to pacify a failing empire.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2022 09:00AM by bradley.

"Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form, but with regard to their mode of life."

—Aristotle

"maybe Jesus was a historical figure." ... yeah, no.

I think you can make the argument that he was a wandering holy man who attempted to do healings, because that was not unusual at the time.

Yes, or a collection of stories that coalesced around a person, or just an image, named Jesus.

But that begs the question: what is "a historical figure?"

Is a conglomeration of different true or false stories around a hypothetical character "historical?"

How about the man around whom the stories accreted? Is he a historical figure if he had little or no connection to the stories?

What of an itinerant preacher who taught what Mark says but was not resurrected? Is he the historical Jesus or is the divergence between the image and the reality too great?

I don't know what standard we should use to evaluate historicity, but unless we agree on one we'll constantly be talking past one another.

I think the basic teachings were his (i.e. the sayings outlined in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.) I do wonder how the stories of miracles came about -- it might be something in human nature that is prone to mythologize certain people.

Now that I've had my fun, the gnostics may have been right about the demiurge. The collective unconscious conjured the Christ into existence as an archon. Being a mythical figure does not equal unreality. Belief made Him real, or hyper-real, so to those who believe in Him he is real.

This is no vindication of Mormonism, however. It is still a dysfunctional cult.

"you can make the argument that he was a wandering holy man who attempted to do healings"

Like a Santa who stuck around after Christmas and didn’t have an obesity problem?

Getting back to the original question, the pagan gods had nothing really to do with the afterlife. The gods were much more invested in seeing that mortal humans propitiated them correctly. The Fates decided your post-mortal destinies. The good people got to go to the Elysian Fields, where life was pleasant and free of strife. And yes, Hades was the "god" of the underworld, but in both cases the interactions with any deities was minimal. And there was nothing like Hell. You just sort of sat around forever, and that's about as far as the Greeks took things.