CelticBear’s Musings

I’m greatly interested in religious history: its origins, its evolution, its influences from cultures and other religions. Few people realize that the religion they believe or the tome they hold dear has a sordid and complex history. For example, the way the Biblical cannon was created is a huge mess of political conniving. The four Gospels that were selected, out of dozens, were selected not because of any factualness or consistency but because they supported the political and ideological beliefs of those who headed the Church.

The cult of Jesus comes from many sources including Dionysus and Horus, and almost completely from the Roman/Sumerian man-god Mithras.

The early Hebrews were quite polytheistic, with the evidence for it contained in the Pentateuch, not to mention anthropological studies of the Canaanite and Ugarit cultures from which the Hebrew tribes originated from.

Well, Lee Randolph has put together some excellent research on the way the Jewish creation story is a mix of influence from all over the region:

♦ Genesis 1:1-25 Is An Amalgam of Near Eastern Creation Myths

Full of detail, maps, timelines, and well sourced. It’s some fantastic reading!