Mark thought you might be interested in Judaism so here is excerpt from book on Judaism:
Judaism
Sources and development
Myth and legend in the Old Testament
The vast repertoire of Jewish myths and legends begins with the Old
Testament. Their overall purpose in Scripture is to illustrate the ways of God with man, as exemplified both in historical events and in
personal experience. The stories themselves are often derived from
current popular lore and possess abundant parallels in other
cultures, both ancient and modern. In each case, however, they are
given a peculiar and distinctive twist.
Myths
Old Testament myths are found mainly in the first 11 chapters of
Genesis, the first book of the Bible. They are concerned with the
creation of the world and of man, the origin of the continuing human
condition, the primeval Deluge, the distribution of peoples, and the
variation of languages.
The basic stories are derived from the popular lore of the ancient
Middle East and can be paralleled in the extant literature of the
peoples of the area. The Mesopotamians, for instance, also knew of
an earthly paradise such as Eden, and the figure of the
cherubim--properly griffins rather than nightgowned angels--was
known to the Canaanites. In the Bible, however, this mythical
garden of the gods becomes the scene of man's fall and the
background of a story designed to account for the natural limitations
of human life. Similarly, the Babylonians, too, told of the formation
of man from clay, but in the scriptural version his function is to bear
rule over all other creatures, whereas in the pagan tale it is to serve
as an earthly menial of the gods. Again, the story of the Deluge,
including the elements of the ark and the dispatch of the raven and
dove, appears already in the Babylonian myths of Gilgamesh and
Atrahasis. There, however, the hero is eventually made immortal,
whereas in the Bible this detail is omitted because to the Israelite
mind no child of woman could receive that status. Lastly, while the
story of the Tower of Babel was told originally to account for the
stepped temples (ziggurats) of Babylonia, to the Hebrew writer its
purpose is simply to inculcate the moral lesson that man should not
build beyond his assigned station. (See Syrian and Palestinian
religion, original sin, flood myth.)
Scattered through the Prophets and Holy Writings (the two latter
portions of the Hebrew Bible) are allusions to other ancient
myths--e.g., to that of a primordial combat between Yahweh and a
monster variously named Leviathan (Wriggly), Rahab (Braggart), or
simply Sir Sea or Dragon. The Babylonians told likewise of a fight
between their god Marduk and the monster Tiamat; the Hittites told
of a battle between the weather god and the dragon Illuyankas;
while from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), in north Syria, has come a
Canaanite poem relating the discomfiture of Sir Sea by the deity
Baal and the rout of an opponent named Leviathan. (Originally, this
myth probably referred to the annual subjugation of the floods.) (See
Ketuvim.)
Ancient myths are utilized also in the form of passing allusions or
poetic "conceits," much as modern Westerners may speak of Cupid
or the Muses. Thus, there are references in the prophetic books to a
celestial upstart hurled to Earth on account of his brashness and to
the imprisonment of certain rebellious constellations.
The prophets used such myths paradigmatically to illustrate the hand
of God in contemporary events or to reinforce their forecasts. Thus,
to Isaiah the primeval dragon becomes the symbol of that
continuous force of chaos and evil that will again have to be
vanquished before the Kingdom of God can be established on
Earth. Similarly, for Ezekiel the celestial upstart serves as the
prototype of the prince of Tyre, destined for an imminent fall; and
Habakkuk sees in the impending rout of certain invaders a repetition
on the stage of history of Yahweh's mythical sortie against the
monster of the sea. |
