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04/11/14
10:54
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Originally posted by newdepths
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In his Travels through Greece, Pausanias, a Romanised Greek who wrote in the first century CE, said something really interesting to effect that when he first started delving into Greek myths, he thought the stories were childish, until he realised that many of the ancient tales were posed as riddles - that should not to be believed at face value but investigated further to unravel their true import.
Most of the more fantastic biblical stories appear to have been similarly constructed, especially since most Biblical authors were greatly influenced (whether they liked it or not) by ancient Aegean culture - firstly by the Mycenaeans who inherited the Kreten/Minoan/Hyksos tradition and controlled the eastern Mediterranean for 500 years 1600-1100 BCE, secondly by Palestinians/Philistines/Phoinikians who controlled the eastern Mediterranean for 300 years 1100-800 BCE, thirdly by the classic Ionian Greeks who controlled the eastern Mediterranean for 300 years 800-500 BCE and fourthly by the empire of Alexander the Great who controlled the eastern Mediterranean for 300 years 333-30 BCE. So for more than 1500 years, ancient Greek in its many forms was linga franca in the eastern Mediterranean. In comparison, English has been only linga franca of the western world for about 100 years.
The story of the creation of man can (must) also be viewed as a riddle - not to be taken literally but to discern the image of god. When one works out what that image is, one will also discover why the "rib" - of all things - features in the story and then a great many other things not evident through a simple surface scan of the text. Find this key is of paramount importance to avoid p*ssing into the wind.
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newdepths
Nice post. Yes, each religion builds on the foundations of previous religions in a process of progressive revelation.
I too have thought long and hard about why the image of the rib was used. All I can come up with is that the ribs cover the heart and protect the heart, but love between a man and woman has no barriers. Bit soppy, I know. Let me know if you come up with something better.