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... man. This did not occur suddenly. The Romans conquered the Greeks and adopted much of the Greek mythology adding their own embellishments to the traditions. History reveals that the Romans also abandoned these adopted traditions for Christianity. Christianity takes the Hebrew tradition and adds a second chapter so to speak.
The Hebrews do not accept this Christian theology but both share the same original traditions. The Hebrew God passed down to man standards for righteous living. The Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20 are the first written standards of living righteous passed from God to man. The remainder of the book of Exodus reveals numerous other standards that God required from man. The Hebrews called these standards The Law. The Hebrews learned that God was infallible, totally pure, totally just, and completely unchangeable in his ways.
The Greeks could not say the same about their gods. Their gods acted capriciously and the issue of justice was one that meant one thing for the gods and another for man. Morality was not something that the gods passed on to the Greeks but rather ideals that the Greeks adopted for themselves. Edith Hamilton, comments: Zeus, trying to hide his love affairs from his wife and invariably shown up, was a capital figure of fun. (9).
The Greeks did not necessarily see the gods as being moral. Michael Gibson explains this relationship. Another way in which the Greeks tried to make the all-powerful gods seem less austere was to give them human weaknesses. (12). It is interesting to note that God played an active part in Hebrew morality whereas the Greeks where influenced by the gods immorality. God punished the Hebrews for their sins. It is not really clear that the Greeks were punished for their sins; however, they probably saw common misfortunes as a possible punishment from the gods for sin.
The Hebrews passed the Law to their children and continued this tradition throughout generations. We see the opposite in the Greeks. Murray finds: It is remarkable and surprising that, with all the piety and religious ceremonies of the ancients, there existed among them no established means of instruction for the mass of the people, as to the character and function of the gods whom they worshipped. (16). The belief system of the Greek and Hebrew warrants comment. After the establishment of the Law, God also gave instruction concerning offerings, worship, and sacraments. It is not clear how the Greeks established the rules concerning such things.
They did develop such a system because throughout The Illiad and The Odyssey the characters did make obeisance to the gods in the form of oblations. An example from The Illiad is the following quote. Here, quickly-pour a libation out to Father Zeus! Pray for a safe return from all our mortal enemies, seeing youre dead set on going down to the ships- (196). The Greeks practiced two types of offerings or sacrifices. The first was the fruits, cakes, and wine offering.
The second was animal sacrifices. In both cases the offering was to be of the best quality, and in the case of animals, they were to be of the healthiest stock and without blemish. Gibson offers an explanation of how the idea of offerings to gods came about for the Greeks. the Greeks probably adapted stories brought by invaders, or heard in other lands, to fit their own ritual practices, the true meanings of which had been forgotten. (12). The Hebrews on the other hand had very similar practices. They had oil, flour and animal offerings.
These offerings had to meet the same criteria of being of the best quality. God meticulously described in the book of Leviticus the process of making sacrifices. His instructions were very clear and concise. The Greek and Hebrew cultures maintained priesthoods. In the Greek culture, the priesthood was to be pure but there appears to have been no consequence for impurity in the priest. In the Hebrew culture, a priest had to be pure otherwise God would strike him dead.
The Hebrews had a practice of tying a rope around a priests ankle with bells attached. The priest would enter the holiest of holies and perform sacrifices to God. If the priests were impure, God would kill them. In order to retrieve the body of a slain priest, they had to pull him via the rope from the holy place. Only priests were allowed in this most holy place.
There does not appear to be any tales of such consequences from the Greek gods. We do see that the Greek gods became angered if they were not recognized through some shrine or oblation. It was commonly thought that prosperity and health were results of pleasing the gods. In the Hebrew culture, the main concern was more on the issue of an afterlife.
There appears to be some differences between the Greeks and Hebrews concerning thoughts of life after death. The Greeks were more concerned about the physical life rather than the life after death. There are some indications that they believed in a life in the realm of the gods but it is not clear that they really prepared for such an event. The Hebrews on the other hand were taught that they must live a pure life in order to go to heaven.
Heaven is the abode of God. Faithful servants would be entitled to enter heaven after death. The unfaithful or disobedient were directed to a much less desirable place. This destination called Hades or Hell was a place of eternal torment. It can be clearly understood that such a thought would cause fear in a person. Therefore, the Hebrews saw a mortal life of devotion to God as just a stepping-stone into an eternal afterlife.
Sin was enmity against God and since man was not perfect he was apt to sin. God made a provision for sin and that was animal sacrifice. The blood of the slain animal would atone for the sins committed by man. The Greeks did not have such a belief and they did not envision an eternal place called hell. There is one final point to be made concerning the Hebrews and their god. The Hebrews felt that God was a god exclusive to the Hebrews.
All other people were considered heathen and the heathen had their own false gods. The Greeks did not have the same philosophy. A foreign person was permitted to learn about and worship the Greeks gods. This was not thought to be abnormal.
The Hebrews were tempted to worship the false gods of the heathen. Throughout the Old Testament, which is comprised of 66 books, there are many stories of the Hebrews trying to adapt to pagan ritual and custom. In nearly every incident, God punishes the Hebrews for their disobedience. It is possible that some of these rituals finally became a part of the Hebrew belief system.
Like the Hebrews, the Greeks did borrow from other cultures. It is improbable that the Hebrews did not do the same even though their God did not wish it. Both cultures were equal in their quest to understand the origin of human existence. The Greeks developed science as an explanation. The Hebrews followed their faith in God as an answer to all.
We can see parallels in some of the stories that show the attempts by man to explain phenomena that occur in nature. It is likely that the Greeks and Hebrews felt that the gods were responsible for fierce storms, thunder, and lightning. We realize that today these are natural weather phenomenon but to these early cultures they were very frightful experiences that could only be explained through their own imaginations. In summary, the Greeks and Hebrews shared the common belief that gods or God had the final say so as to the fate of man.
The gods were all knowing, all powerful, and could be anywhere at all times. Gods were immortal and man was mortal. There are some contrasts but these contrasts only show the differences in Mans relationship to his god. The Greeks and Hebrews borrowed from other cultures at least in part. The Greeks were conquerors and the Hebrews were normally the conquered. This probably explains the difference in mans relationship to a god.
Eventually we see that the contrasts are not that different and the comparisons are very much alike. Bibliography: Tucker 10 Works Cited. Gibson, Michael. Gods Men & Monsters.
New York: Schocken Books, 1977. Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942. Homer, The Iliad.
The Norton Anthology World Masterpieces. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1999. Murray, Alexander S. Whos Who in Mythology.
New York: Crescent Books, 1988. The Holy Bible. King James Version: Anchor Bible Concepts, 1996. Tenney, Merrill C.
The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1967 ed.
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Research essay sample on Life After Death Greek Gods
