According to St. Paul, God created everything for Himself. (Col. 1:16) He did not create everything just for the mere purpose of watching what all happens to it and never intervening when something goes wrong. Instead, He took and continues to take an active interest in His creation. Because He takes an active interest in all that He has made, He has revealed Himself to various men and women at various different times.
Many of His initial revelations of Himself were not recorded with ink and paper, nor were they preserved in stone or mud. They were passed on by word of mouth.
Evidence that ancient man passed on divine revelation by word of mouth can be seen in many of the various myths of the various cultures of man. In many of these myths the original version of the stories became distorted. In the Pelasgian Creation Myth, for example, the goddess, Eurynome, arose out of Chaos naked. She created a snake by rubbing the North Wind in her hands. Then, she mated with the snake who is called Ophion. Later, she changed herself into a dove and layed the Universal Egg out of which all things that exist came. The snake, Ophion, and she started living together on Mount Olympus. Ophion vexed Eurynome by saying that he was the Author of the Universe. She bruised his head with her heel. (The Greek Myths, vol. 1, p. 27)
This is just a distorted version of Genesis chapters 1-3. Eurynome is the name for the Creator and also the name for Eve. Chaos is "the world without form and void." (Gen. 1:2) Ophion is Satan. (Compare Gen. 3:1-7, II Cor. 11:1-3, and Rev. 12:9.) Mount Olympus is Mount Zion, a figurative name for Heaven. (Rev. 14:1) In the Pelasgian account, the snake mates with the woman. In the Hebrew account the snake deceives the woman and gets her to sin. In the Hebrew account God creates the universe (Gen. 1:1-25) and creates man and woman. (Gen. 1:26-28) In the Pelasgian account the goddess, Eurynome, lays an egg out of which everything came. In the Hebrew account God puts enmity between the snake and the seed of the woman and says that her seed shall bruise the snake's head. (Gen. 3:15) In the Pelasgian account Eurynome bruises Ophion's head with her heel.
The original stories containing divine revelation were preserved orally by the Hebrew people for many years until they were eventually written down in either Proto-Semitic or Hebrew characters. God preserved these stories from error so that they could eventually be recorded for others to read.
In time, people wrote other books as they received revelations from God. Eventually, the Jews collected these books together in the form of scrolls. These scrolls were kept together and read during the Jewish worship services. Later, an Egyptian king, Ptolemy Philadelphus (309-246 B.C.), had seventy Palestinian Jews come to Alexandria Egypt and translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. According to one account of this work of translation, each of the translators worked independently on translating the same text. All of them, according to this account, came up with the exact word for word translation into Greek. This miracle was attributed to God. The Septuagint, then, became the authoritative Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Later, some other books were added to this collection of books in the Septuagint. These later books were written after the translation had been completed by the Seventy translators. Christians continued to use these books in the first and second centuries A.D., but the Jews, after the Council of Jamnia (100 A.D.), stopped using them.
I will speak more about these books in a later blog.
Steve
Many of His initial revelations of Himself were not recorded with ink and paper, nor were they preserved in stone or mud. They were passed on by word of mouth.
Evidence that ancient man passed on divine revelation by word of mouth can be seen in many of the various myths of the various cultures of man. In many of these myths the original version of the stories became distorted. In the Pelasgian Creation Myth, for example, the goddess, Eurynome, arose out of Chaos naked. She created a snake by rubbing the North Wind in her hands. Then, she mated with the snake who is called Ophion. Later, she changed herself into a dove and layed the Universal Egg out of which all things that exist came. The snake, Ophion, and she started living together on Mount Olympus. Ophion vexed Eurynome by saying that he was the Author of the Universe. She bruised his head with her heel. (The Greek Myths, vol. 1, p. 27)
This is just a distorted version of Genesis chapters 1-3. Eurynome is the name for the Creator and also the name for Eve. Chaos is "the world without form and void." (Gen. 1:2) Ophion is Satan. (Compare Gen. 3:1-7, II Cor. 11:1-3, and Rev. 12:9.) Mount Olympus is Mount Zion, a figurative name for Heaven. (Rev. 14:1) In the Pelasgian account, the snake mates with the woman. In the Hebrew account the snake deceives the woman and gets her to sin. In the Hebrew account God creates the universe (Gen. 1:1-25) and creates man and woman. (Gen. 1:26-28) In the Pelasgian account the goddess, Eurynome, lays an egg out of which everything came. In the Hebrew account God puts enmity between the snake and the seed of the woman and says that her seed shall bruise the snake's head. (Gen. 3:15) In the Pelasgian account Eurynome bruises Ophion's head with her heel.
The original stories containing divine revelation were preserved orally by the Hebrew people for many years until they were eventually written down in either Proto-Semitic or Hebrew characters. God preserved these stories from error so that they could eventually be recorded for others to read.
In time, people wrote other books as they received revelations from God. Eventually, the Jews collected these books together in the form of scrolls. These scrolls were kept together and read during the Jewish worship services. Later, an Egyptian king, Ptolemy Philadelphus (309-246 B.C.), had seventy Palestinian Jews come to Alexandria Egypt and translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. According to one account of this work of translation, each of the translators worked independently on translating the same text. All of them, according to this account, came up with the exact word for word translation into Greek. This miracle was attributed to God. The Septuagint, then, became the authoritative Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Later, some other books were added to this collection of books in the Septuagint. These later books were written after the translation had been completed by the Seventy translators. Christians continued to use these books in the first and second centuries A.D., but the Jews, after the Council of Jamnia (100 A.D.), stopped using them.
I will speak more about these books in a later blog.
Steve
Bibliography
The Greek Myths, volumes 1 and 2, by Robert Graves, Viking Penguin, Inc., 40 West 23rd Street, New York, New York, 10010, copyright 1960 by Robert Graves
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