Did Mythology Predate the Bible?

^&^

People get thrown off a lot because the Greeks and Romans were influenced by demonic entities that held the image of gods/goddesses. Not only did they take on this image but they used a lot of the biblical scriptures as a foundation for their fallacies... like they do with everything. They took the truth and twisted it. But we can find the truth by examining the root. What is the basis of the polytheistic belief system? That God/gods created the world (sounds similar to the universal God in the bible). They also used some of the stories from the bible but they just altered them. Like the Epic of Gilgamesh. It’s just the story of Noah rewritten.

Another reason people get confused is because it would appear that these Roman/Greek philosophies came first in history… before the bible. But this is not correct. Because if you retrace history you will see that it directly aligns with what the bible says about Greek/Roman history. And that the only real explanation for these beliefs arises from the scriptures.

Only in the scriptures do we see an explanation as to where a belief in multiple deities could have originated or what could have been the culprit for such a belief system.

The belief in a deity (whether it be one or two or three etc) had to originate from somewhere and only the bible provides an explanation.

The Romans/Greeks maintain a belief system based on their culture that existed before the formal institution of Christianity... but the scriptures preceded both polytheism and Christianity.

Many believe that the mythological teachings of Hinduism predated the biblical scriptures but this is incorrect. I have studied Hinduism as well as linguistics. As I stated before in my previous article titled "anthropology" these ancient civilizations developed writing around the same time-- 3,500 B.C.

Hinduism originated with the Indus Valley Civilization--

And the Indus Valley Civilization started documenting around 3,500 B.C

Mesopotamia started documenting around 3,500 B.C

The Egyptian civilization started documenting around 3,500 B.C

And China started documenting around 3,500 B.C

"One of the oldest extinct languages is Eblaite.
Three versions of a text described as an Eblaite creation hymn have been found. They have been translated by Pettinato as--
Lord of heaven and earth:
the earth was not, you created it,
the light of day was not, you created it,
the morning light you had not [yet] made exist.

Some versions of Pettinato's translation use "he" instead of "you".

Many ancient Hebraic names have been reported to occur in similar forms in Eblaite (Adamu, H’à-wa, Jabal, Abarama, Bilhah, Ishma-el, Isûra-el, Esau, Mika-el, Mikaya, Saul, David, et al.). A large number of Biblical locations (many of them known from other sources) have also been reported to occur in the texts: for example Ashtaroth, Sinai, Jerusalem (Ye-ru-sa-lu-um), Hazor, Lachish, Gezer, Dor, Megiddo, Joppa, Ur etc. Giovanni Pettinato has also claimed to find references to Sodom and Gomorrah.

We find an extensive area of overlap between the Ebla tablets and the biblical text. Such occurrences point back to a common basis in language and culture for the ancestors of the Israelites and the people of Ebla. Actually, this is no surprise, because the Bible, while not mentioning Ebla, does point to this region as the fatherland of the Israelites. The patriarchs came to Canaan from Haran, where elements of their kinship group continued to live long after Abraham and his family had departed. A bride was brought from there for Isaac; and Jacob returned to his kinsmen there when prudence called for a rapid removal from Canaan. Haran is not very far away from Ebla, and is often mentioned in the Ebla texts.

The tablets date to around 2500 B.C making them one of the oldest surviving texts and outdating both the Egyptian and Hindu religious texts.

Timeline of Religion

~3750 BCE

The Proto-Semitic people emerged with a generally accepted urheimat in the Arabian peninsula. The Proto-Semitic people would migrate throughout the Near East into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Their religion would influence their descendant cultures and faiths, including the Abrahamic religions.

Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical proto-language ancestral to historical Semitic languages of the Middle East. Locations which have been proposed for its origination include northern Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Levant with a 2009 study proposing that it may have originated around 3750 BCE.

***(The earliest attestations of a Semitic language are in Akkadian and Eblaite).

~3300–1300 BCE

 The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, noted for its cities built of brick, roadside drainage system, and multistoried houses as well as for containing artifacts which could be linked to pre-vedic religions.

~2494–2345 BCE

The oldest surviving religious texts of Ancient Egypt, the Pyramid Texts, are composed.

~2150–2000 BCE

The earliest surviving versions of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (originally titled "He who Saw the Deep" (Sha naqba īmuru) or "Surpassing All Other Kings" (Shūtur eli sharrī)) were written.

~1700–1100 BCE

 Rig Veda gets composed, the oldest of all Vedas (scriptures in Hinduism).

~1200–600 BCE

The Upanishads (Vedic texts) get composed which contain the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

In 1886, a group of French and British language teachers formed the international phonetic association.
Their original alphabet was based on a spelling reform for English known as the Romic Alphabet, but in order to make it usable for other languages, the values of the symbols were allowed to vary from language to language.
In 1888, the alphabet was revised so as to be uniform across languages, thus providing the base for all future revisions."

Languages change over time due to colonization and cultural variation. Prototypical languages are often translated subject to the translators interpretation as illustrated in the previous passage.
As such variations in the target language can result.
These are often subtle variations however over time they multiply--
just as when one relays a story to another and then to another and so on and so forth the result is never precisely correct.

But there is always an original:

"The cuneiform writing system was in use for a span of more than three millennia, through several stages of development, from the 34th century BC down to the 2nd century AD. Ultimately, it was completely replaced by alphabetic writing (in the general sense) in the course of the Roman era and there are no Cuneiform systems in current use. It had to be deciphered as a completely unknown writing system in 19th-century Assyriology.

The early writing systems that emerged in Eurasia in the early 3rd millennium BC were not a sudden invention. Rather, they were a development based on earlier traditions of symbol systems that cannot be classified as writing proper, but have many characteristics strikingly similar to writing. These systems may be described as proto-writing. They used ideographic and/or early mnemonic symbols to convey information yet were probably devoid of direct linguistic content.

In historical archaeology, the ancient literature of the Iron Age includes the earliest texts preserved in manuscript tradition. Sanskrit literature and Chinese literature flourished in the Iron Age. Other texts include the Avestan Gathas, the Indian Vedas and the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible. The principal feature that distinguishes the Iron Age from the preceding ages is the introduction of alphabetic characters, and the consequent development of written language which enabled literature and historic record (source: http://mikode.net/world-history-2/)."

In the beginning, the earth was all of one language (probably the aforementioned indistinguished proto-writing). Then God confused their language after the flood due to the event of the Tower of Babel-- the early civilizations started documenting in their own individual languages around the same time due to this event. This also accounts for why various different cultures appear to have similiar elements in their beliefs with many of them "altered by false prophets":

The Golden Rule is documented in all the major world religions.

The Creation Account is documented in all the major world religions.

The event of the Tower of Babel is documented in all the major world religions.

The global flood story is documented in all the major world religions.

The story of the Messiah is documented in all the major world religions.

And several other parallel stories are documented as well.

We can conclude that the ancient civilizations had knowledge of that which is contained in the scriptures...
because they documented that which is contained in the scriptures.
And thus is written in secular history.
The Bible states that the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and other nonfictional ancient civilizations were following other false gods (ie those mentioned in various polytheistic belief systems existing in both the past and present) but Abraham was called a friend of God because he listened to Him instead of following other pagan belief systems.

Moses would later descend from this lineage
And document the Torah (the Old Testament scriptures)
These descendents were later referred to as the chosen people:
The Jewish nation.

Jesus would also descend from this group of people and become the basis for most of the writings documented by His disciples in the New Testament scriptures.

There is an origin of truth and it’s the biblical scriptures because Abraham is the father of many nations and we are all descendents of Noah.

This is historical and scientific (according to science, we all ascended from a common 'human' ancestor-- see the aforementioned article regarding anthropological studies and below is an article based on the most recent study conducted regarding Y-Chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve).

Y-Chromosomal Adam Lived 208,300 Years Ago, Says New Study | Genetics | Sci-News.com

Mesopotamia is the 'cradle of civilization' from which the descendents of Shem originated. Most of the people spoke Semitic (Akkadian and Eblaite-- the languages I mentioned above in the religious timeline).

The Semitic languages were derived from Shem (Shemitic), Noah’s oldest son from which Abraham and the Jewish nation descended.

"Though Abraham's forefathers were from southern Mesopotamia,[1] the LORD led (then named) Abram on a journey to the land of Canaan, which he promised to his descendants. He is known as the patriarch of the Jewish people of today through Isaac, the son born to him and Sarah in their old age, in fulfillment of a promise from God. Many Arabic people claim descent from Abraham through his son Ishmael, born to Abraham and his wife’s servant Hagar."

The following articles address the origination of the people and the first civilizations. The people that wrote them may have missed some things. If I were more historically versed I could tell you. I know some of it is correct from the research I’ve done and the parts that have biblical scripture to support them are correct.

www.freemaninstitute.com/RTGham.htm

 www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/sitchinbooks03_03a.htm

I’m sure you know but Mesopotamia is called the cradle of civilization because it "was a region in the Middle East from which all of civilization developed."

I feel like you probably know most of this or you're familiar with it. Maybe not exactly with what I’ve posted but the historical aspect.

Oh, no wait.

All of it is historical.

I meant you're probably familiar with the parts they chose not to leave out in your history class.

The authoritative biblical scriptures were written in the exact way God intended. That is why after all this time they still so closely resemble the early writings such as that I quoted in the Eblaite language. There are only minor changes that God allowed throughout time for His own purposes... only He who has understanding can interpret.

The scriptures were documented by those who were inspired by the Holy Spirit... that is why the bible is the only holy book. The other writings have been tampered with and altered by false prophets but they contain some universal truths in their writings because they have an origin of truth. The problem is that truth has been twisted by false prophets in addition to alterations in language over the years.

The pagan belief systems never predated the biblical scriptures.
They copied and altered them.

Jamie 19.08.2014 20:06

So when did the mythological teachings of Christianity start ? I don't understand the point you are trying to make with this information ?