Resurrection in History

[Minimalist]

One of the foremost scholars of ANE epigraphy is Christopher Rollston. In this article he details a bit about belief in resurrection. Sure to piss off xtian shitwits.... but who cares.

It's actually the second story on the page and concludes with:

Thus, in the final analysis, the cumulative evidence is decisive: There is nothing distinctively “Christian” about a belief in a resurrection. Rather, some segments of Late Second Temple and Early Post-Biblical Judaism believed in a resurrection and some segments did not. Christianity, as an heir to apocalyptic branches of Judaism, was quite consistent in always affirming a belief in a resurrection, but the fact remains that belief in a resurrection is well attested prior to the rise of Christianity, and this belief also persists in certain segments of Judaism after the rise of Christianity.

http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?cat=5&paged=2


Xtians love to think they are special....but they are not.

[Crossless2.0]

And of course, resurrection motifs are legion in ancient pagan stories. The Christian belief in resurrection is definitely Jewish in origin, but when it came time to market these beliefs to the Gentiles, as Paul did, they found a ready-made audience long accustomed to stories of resurrected gods and heroes. Not only are Christians not special in holding such beliefs, but modern Christians seem loathe to admit that the founders of their creed had more in common with, and were better understood by, their pagan contemporaries than by their latter day followers. No matter how retrograde this or that modern believer might be in terms of scientific or historical knowledge, he/she is still a child -- perhaps an ungrateful child -- of the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment, and this fact presents a gulf of understanding between the 21st Century Christian and the people they celebrate and ape that cannot be overcome without a tremendous amount of scholarly achievement. Yet they presume to speak for these people. Gullible, superstitious, and presumptuous is no way to go through life.

[Tonus]

Didn't some of the Canaanite myths involve gods dying and being brought back to life? Now that I think of it, most ancient myths and legends are precursors to today's comic books in that respect as well-- characters die and return to life all the time.

[Diablo]

What about Doctor Who, that's what I say.

[Cyberman]

Xtians love to think they are special....but they are not.

Yes they are; but not in the way they'd like to think.

(Apologies for the gross generalisation. It was forced on me by the structure of the dialogue.)

[ShaMan]

Xtians love to think they are special....but they are not.

Don't forget context

[Drich]

One of the foremost scholars of ANE epigraphy is Christopher Rollston. In this article he details a bit about belief in resurrection. Sure to piss off xtian shitwits.... but who cares.

It's actually the second story on the page and concludes with:

Thus, in the final analysis, the cumulative evidence is decisive: There is nothing distinctively “Christian” about a belief in a resurrection. Rather, some segments of Late Second Temple and Early Post-Biblical Judaism believed in a resurrection and some segments did not. Christianity, as an heir to apocalyptic branches of Judaism, was quite consistent in always affirming a belief in a resurrection, but the fact remains that belief in a resurrection is well attested prior to the rise of Christianity, and this belief also persists in certain segments of Judaism after the rise of Christianity.

http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?cat=5&paged=2


Xtians love to think they are special....but they are not.

Uh, duh...

That was the primary difference between the pharisees and the Saducees. The pharisees believed in the resurrection and the Saducees did not. (That is why the where 'sad you see.') Every 3rd grade Sunday schooler knows that.

Once the Saducees were slaughtered in the destruction of the temple in 70ad and the Saducees all killed, the pharisaical belief in the resurection dominated Judaism.

[Chad32]

Part of the reason I finally left christianity is learning that much of it really isn't special. There are older religions and philosophies that have similar stories. Christianity has a history of incorporating older beliefs into it in order to convert people. It's not unique.

[Minimalist]

It sounds just as stupid when the Jews talk about it, Drippy.

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/...tion.shtml

There are only two biblical references to the resurrection of the dead, in passages generally held by biblical scholars to be of late date, so that it has been conjectured that the doctrine owes something to Persian influence. The first is: "Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise, awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of light, and the earth shall bring to life the shades" (Isaiah 26:19); and the second: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence" (Daniel 12:2).

[Dolorian]

The similarities of Christ with the pagan figures was pointed out to Christians early on. Justin Martyr very much explains them away in this passage:

Justin Martyr, The First Apology, 54
"...the demons heard the prophets foretelling that Christ would specially be believed in; but that in hearing what was said by the prophets they did not accurately understand it, but imitated what was said of our Christ, like men who are in error [...] The devils, accordingly, when they heard these prophetic words, said that Bacchus was the son of Jupiter, and gave out that he was the discoverer of the vine, and they number wine [or, the ass] among his mysteries; and they taught that, having been torn in pieces, he ascended into heaven. [...] And when they heard it said by the other prophet Isaiah, that He should be born of a virgin, and by His own means ascend into heaven, they pretended that Perseus was spoken of. And when they knew what was said, as has been cited above, in the prophecies written aforetime, Strong as a giant to run his course, they said that Hercules was strong, and had journeyed over the whole earth. And when, again, they learned that it had been foretold that He should heal every sickness, and raise the dead, they produced Æsculapius."