How did the myth of Jesus' resurrection originate?

[rightcoaster]

The word for today will be "syncretism." Defined as:

1 : the combination of different forms of belief or practice

2: the fusion of two or more originally different inflectional forms

We can't really know what first century Jews believed. ... We hear lots of b.s. about how the "Jews" did not represent the human form nor would they tolerate other gods. Yet,



this portion of a mosaic floor .. was unearthed in 1928 as the floor of an ancient synagogue. Helios was the Greek sun god yet here we see him depicted in the middle of a representation of a zodiac. How can this be if what we are told of ancient Judaism is true?
...

in spite of what they now say this did not always seem to be the case. ...
Helios example ... syncretism with Hellenistic ideas which was what Philo of Alexandria was trying to do in the early first century. ... You are right about resurrection not being restricted to gods - ... it only matters what first century jews thought if you accept the proto-orthodox version ... which has him living in first century Judaea.

Very fine, Mini. Great food for thought. The Beth Alpha mosaic was not the only one with Helios in a zodiac, and I hadn't thought about it at all. Here's a link to an article that attempts to explain, in a way neither of us will have much patience for, the use of the zodiac in the seven synagogues so far discovered having them: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily...n-symbols/. I didn't see the times and locations for these synagogues, nor did I yet spend time looking, but I'll see what turns up.

You narrow the discussion very helpfully with this: "... if you accept the proto-orthodox version of history which has him living in first century Judaea. ..." First, according to the story, Jesus never lived in Judea, although he died and was surely buried there. He lived mostly in Galilee, and found his followers there. It should be what the Galilean Jewish followers thought that would have counted most in their earliest portrayal of Jesus and his "resurrection". I think his brother James is considered the leader of the Jerusalem church. I guess he must have relocated the HQ to the big city, but he was really Galilean if he was really the brother.

None of the authors I have read attribute anything but Jewish piety to these followers, and it seems hard to believe that an apocalyptic worldview would have fit much with cosmopolitan, Hellenized Jews. Also, James was of the party that did not want to go beyond the Jews, that was the Paul people. But there was all sorts of stuff going on in the region at the time, and it may be hard to attach those mosaics to this or that set of Jews -- all we can know is that to make a nice mosaic costs money.