There’s what we call the alien abduction scenario, along with hallucinations or false memories of it happening; apparently some quirk in the wiring of human brains predisposes us to that. The details and props change from culture to culture, but the underlying theme remains. In our culture it’s aliens* taking you into a spaceship; in others it was djinn and a magic carpet, the Fair Folk taking you under the hill, angels taking you into the clouds and so forth. But the underlying pattern stays the same; being paralyzed, being abducted, being prodded or violated, and often being made to forget it until you “remember”.
*“Aliens” that differ from region to region, according to the locally popular image of aliens
Early people had more time on their hands to observe the seasonal changes in the sky above, the movement of the constellations, the stars that didn’t move like the others, the wanderers we now know as planets.
These changes in the sky happen on a regular schedule that could be observed and used as signs of the coming Spring or impending Winter, and the people thought about how to bring these events about. So it was natural to assign names and attributes to these omens or portents, because from the limited scientific view at the time the movements of these signs appeared to accurately predict the coming of the Spring or Harvest.
So you would tend to want to please these omens and whatever is causing them, so they will bring in the next bounty. I think you really don’t have to look much farther than the cycle of life and death that the seasons provide to find the hope that people can influence the outcome by appeasing the Gods.
The Garden of Eden myth can still be seen in active duty today by those who believe in a steady-state Earth that would be a garden if not for the sins of Man.
And this implies a marketplace in God. We can tell from the OT that in the early days the important thing was that our god was our god, and he loved us best. But by Roman times the gods from many cultures competed, and their were temples of all sorts of gods in Rome and other cities. You had to worship the Emperor, but in a polytheistic culture that was simple.
But getting someone to buy into a monotheistic god took him out of the marketplace, especially if he were all powerful. That was the innovation of Judaism, but they were just concerned about losing members. The innovation of Christianity was recruiting into monotheism, and rejecting the notion of a tribal god for an all-encompassing one.
Kind of like phones. If you choose Android, there is a big marketplace to choose from. If you choose the monotheistic Apple, you are less likely to switch manufacturers.
QuikkSilver’s link mentions Osiris, the (2nd?) most famous resurectee:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell …
[/QUOTE]
You’re right; I hadn’t thought to link fair folk stories with alien abduction before. The theory goes it’s based in night terrors if I remember correctly?
As did Inanna and Demeter. The three day thing was asserted in Cashford’s Moon in Myth and Image - I don’t have it to hand, but will look up the references it has when I get home.
The word “henotheism” is sometimes used for the worship of one among many gods (i.e. “other gods may exist, but our god is the only one we worship”).
According to some, this is the idea behind “thou shalt have no other gods before me”. Not that he’s the only god there is, but that he wants his people to worship him and only him.
I’ve always thought that the earliest belief in “life after death” was prompted by people having dreams about their departed loved ones. When Grampaw Og dies, but he comes back and talks to you in a dream, that could very easily lead young Og to think that Grampaw “lives on” in some way. This, I think, might be the origin of belief in spirits, and thus the ultimate foundation of religion.
This claim would have more force if it were not for Trito-Isaiah, (Isaiah, chapters 56 - 66, written shortly after the return from the Babylonian Exile), that portrays the Jewish people as a beacon and compass for all other peoples to turn to their God, (not as a recruiting effort, but simply as a way towards righteousness).
Sometimes there is a difference between what something is, and what it is sold as. Of the two reasons shown above, which do you think might sell better as a concept?
Given the various writings from the post-Exilic period, we have Ezra and Nehemiah taking strong actions to purge foreign worship and foreign people from the Jewish nation and we have the author of Trito-Isaiah appealing to the Jewish nation to stand up to be a beacon of righteousness in the world. I doubt that either one held some central position in Jewish thinking of the time. I also note that both writings were included in the eventual creation of the Jewish canon. I doubt that either one resulted in a better “sale” and either one or the other might have held more sway at different times, based on different outside forces.
If we absolutely had to give weight to one or the other, I will note that Isaiah, (treated as a whole until Lit Crit began to take it apart in the last century and a half) was accepted as Scripture among the Neviim (Prophets) a couple of hundred years before Ezra and Nehemiah were included when the Kesuvim (Writings) were included as Scripture.
They don’t appear to be contradictory. The elite who went to Babylon were certainly more exposed to other ways of dealing with gods than they were when they were less cosmopolitan. And the attempt to increase the power of the priests in Jerusalem and centralize worship could go hand in hand with a claim of righteousness, which was also useful for internal worshipers of a god not in line with the central god.
In any case, I’m not aware of efforts to propagate the religion at that time. Given the spread of synagogues in Roman times, there might of been some in that marketplace.
I heard something interesting recently. It says the common theme in many legends of a forty-day period being associated with a trial before rebirth may originate with astronomical observation of the Pleiades. The Pleiades are a cluster of prominent stars. They rise and fall in the sky during the course of the year as the Earth moves. In the temperate zone of the Northern hemisphere they disappear from view for a period of forty days and their disappearance coincides with the vernal equinox. So every year, ancient astronomers would observe a group of well-known stars disappearing in the heart of winter and reappearing forty days later just as spring began.
Do not forget that these people are returning to a land already occupied, with all the good jobs in the hands of the people living there. Who were still polytheistic, maybe henotheistic.
But the ex-exiles were from the elite and they want their ‘rightful place’ in society.
This new rightiousness was most certainly a weapon in securing their position.
It also helps that your new religious view happens to look a lot like that of the guys who are really the top-dog, the Persians. Makes bargaining for good positions and functions a lot easier.
I thought zoroastrianism was the first monotheistic religion, and that in fact, it might have had a hand in influencing early Hebrews, no?
Who were returning where?
The Israelites who were exiled by the Babylonians, and set free by the Persians.
Well, more precisely, a dualistic religion. A Good God (Ahuramazda) and a Bad God (Ahriman). All the other gods having been reduced to ‘little helpers’ for one of both.
So, yes, this is the template foor God vs Satan plus angels and demons.
Ok, that makes sense.
There may be a variety of myths that can be vaguely lumped together, but it takes stretching to fit them all into one mold. Several ancient Greek myths picture Hades as a place where characters can walk in and walk out. The Egyptian story of Osiris/Horus in The Book of the Dead doesn’t really feature the character returning from the dead at all, but remaining in the land of the dead. In the case of Attis, early versions of the relevant myths say nothing at all about death and resurrection. Later versions contain a wide variety of views. It would take a stretch to find much similarity between all of these myths, or between any of them and the resurrection of Jesus in the gospels.
Many people have found that Joseph Campbell’s and Jung’s ability to find similarities among all strands of mythology from cultures all over the world involves clinging to very tenuous connections.