BIBLICAL RELIGION: The Great Lie
1st English edition
Copyright © 2003 by Michael Kalopoulos
Smashwords Edition
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For more information about this book or Michael Kalopoulos please visit his web site at http://www.greatlie.com/en/
Dedicated to the true pathfinders of human history
Published in Greece by M.Kalopoulos
http://www/greatlie.com
Dedicated to the true pathfinders of human history
Other Works by Michael Kalopoulos:
The Great Lie
1995 (1st Greek Edition)
ISBN 960-90201-0-0
Weapons of Deceit
1998 (1st Greek Edition)
ISBN 960-90201-1-9
Abraham the Sorcerer
2000 (1st Greek Edition)
ISBN 960-90201-2-7
Miracle or Fraud?
The “Holy Light” of Jerusalem
2003 (1st Greek Edition)
ISBN 960-90201-3-5
The Theater of Salvation
1st Greek Edition
2005
ISBN 960-90201-4-5
The Magician who forged the future
Historical Novel
1ST Greek edition 2006
ISBN 960-90201-5-1
BIBLICAL RELIGION
THE GREAT LIE
by Michael Kalopoulos
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The Great Lie
1st Greek Edition
Copyright © 1995 Michael Kalopoulos
ISBN 96090201-0-0
All Rights Reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publisher.
The Great Lie
1st English edition Copyright © 2003 by Michael Kalopoulos
ISBN: 1-4010-9955-6
Published in the United States of America by Xlibris publishing house
Published in Greece by M.Kalopoulos
http://www/greatlie.com
Dedicated to the true pathfinders of human history
Map 1: The
Eastern Mediterranean in Abraham’s time. Abraham’s journey is
marked with bold arrows
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Map of the Mediterranean
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
CHAPTER 1
The Dawn of Creation
Hesiod’s Theogony
The Pelasgic Myth of Creation
Philosophical Theogony
How the Universe came into being
The Creation of Man
The forbidden Fruit
The Gilgamesh Epic
Deucalion’s Dove
The shattered ‘Sun’ of Antiquity
The Greek Babel
CHAPTER 2
Abraham the Chaldean
The Sister ‘Sting’
An incredible Healer
The profitable Transformations of Mestra
Sarah, a Hebrew Pandora
Abraham burns down Sodom
Who were the Sodomites?
Cretans, Canaanites and Philistines
A Price on Lot’s Head
The Gods destroy sinful Cities
Do not look back
Orpheus and Eurydice
Kenyras, Smyrna and Adonis
Hagar the ill-treated Slave-girl
Isaac, the ‘Sacrifice’ that never happened
‘Greek’ Sacrifices
Abraham, a dangerous Liar
Wisdom from Ur of Chaldea
Freud, Oedipus and Abraham
CHAPTER 3
Isaac, the second generation of treachery
The Family of the Patriarchs
‘You will be my God, if...!’
Sly Jacob
Jacob the imaginary Wrestler
The Dreams of the Patriarchs
The struggle of Greek Heroes against Gods
Meander: The wrestling Handgrip of the ‘God-Fighters’
Homer: Proteus and Menelaus
Heracles, Idas and Apollo
Shechem, an incredible Crime
CHAPTER 4
Chaldeans and the Art of poisonous Sorcery
Joseph ‘goes’ to Egypt
The amorous wife of Potiphar, the Eunuch
An Interpreter… of artificial Nightmares
Joseph: A devastating ‘Saviour’
The Myth, once again
Akhenaton in the Snare of Monotheism
CHAPTER 5
Exodus
Perseus and Danae
Laius and Oedipus
Shiphrah, the heroic Midwife
Moses, the dark Prince
Midian, the Land of Preparation
Jehovah the Lord of the ‘Plagues’
The River ‘Plague’
The Animal ‘Plague’
The Great ‘Plague’ is announced with ‘Grace’
A most peculiar Form of Slavery
The unleavened Bread of Salvation
Passover, the Diet of Salvation
Passover, the Night of Terror
Despoiling the Victims of Passover
The leprous Hand of… Pharaoh
Exodus with unleavened Bread
The Red Sea Crossing-a staged ‘Miracle’
Hercules drowns the Vistons
CHAPTER 6
Hermes’ Harp of Interpretation
‘Blessing’ and ‘Curse’-The Essence of patriarchal Deceit
The Septuagint Translation
Miracles and Sorcery-The ancient Arts of the Gods
Questions-The straight and narrow path of the Greeks
TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank all the readers and friends who have contacted him with suggestions and ideas. Their contribution in bringing this work to completion has been significant.
Many thanks to the staff of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki and in particular to Giannakudakis Andreas, Assoc. Professor of Chemistry for their answers to our queries, for their fruitful criticism and for placing the University Library at our disposal.
We are indebted to Catherine Johnson-Stefanidou for repeatedly checking the translation to identify errors and to ensure a uniform final result.
PREFACE
Comparative Mythology, the comparison of ancient myths of different peoples, is a fascinating field for research. Our study started with the comparison of a number of eastern Mediterranean myths, some of them well known and others obscure, with those parts of the biblical narrative that include similar subject matter. This comparison has conclusively demonstrated extensive mythological loans that have been incorporated in the Bible. Moreover, our analysis has unexpectedly penetrated to an unprecedented depth, providing a new, rational interpretation of the biblical texts and particularly of the peculiar behaviour and inexplicable ‘powers’ of the biblical heroes.
In the first part of this book, the first chapters of the book of Genesis are compared with parallel ancient Greek and Assyrian myths on Theogonyi, the Creation of Man, the Great Flood and the multiplicity of Languages. The nature of the subject has made it necessary to include a number of references to mythical persons and situations that the average reader may be unfamiliar with. However, in return for his small effort to come to terms with strange mythical names and locales, the reader will be guided into a fascinating world of great variety.
Upon reaching the first world-renowned ‘historical’ hero of the Bible, the patriarch Abraham, our research changes direction and assumes a demystifying character. It appears that this great biblical personality who
has been represented as ‘lost’ in the depths of history or as a person veiled in fantasy, has in fact played a much more important role in our lives and in our social history, then we could ever imagine.
Our examination of the biblical narrative struck an original vein and penetrated to substantial depth, when we attempted to analyse rationally the deeds and words of Abraham, that incontestable founder of three large religions. The rich ‘biographical’ data on his personality recorded in the Bible do not fit the pattern of a typical mythological hero. To our great surprise, we found the behaviour of Abraham, as it is described in the original biblical text to be surrounded by a host of unexplained elements incompatible with conventional religious, philosophical or mythological interpretations. Precisely the discovery of those peculiar, repeated actions of the patriarch has provided the ‘key’ to a reappraisal of the biblical narrative.
The next step was to project our questions concerning Abraham’s actions to the patriarchs that succeeded him; the parallel examination of mythological tales that we have already mentioned has consistently proved to be a valuable aid in the scrutiny of their behaviour. Our analysis has brought to light a host of new, original evidence, leaving little room for doubt concerning the real circumstances of the creation and dissemination
of biblical religion and the special knowledge and ‘miraculous’ abilities of the patriarchs!
One of the most important obstacles in the way of our research was the difficulty created by numerous ‘corrected’ and ‘embellished’ translations of the Bible. In those translations, the Hebrew transcribers (Masoritesii) have eliminated all those details of the biblical narrative that could raise difficult questions during an inquisitive reading of the Bible. Gradually, they also managed to impose the allegorical (adultered) way of interpretation that has, for centuries now effectively covered up with veils of confusing interpretations and theological rose petals, the real words and actions of the biblical heroes.
We got priceless assistance from an existing ancient original translation of the Bible, the Septuagint translation, compiled during the reign of Ptolemy the II.iii This first translation into Greek from the ancient Hebrew sacred texts was written by secular learned Hebrews of Alexandria iv in 270 B.C. under direct orders from King Ptolemy and against the will of the Hebrew priesthood; it secured for us the most authentic translation of the original Hebrew sacred texts at an early time. The surviving Septuagint translation that has reached our hands relatively unadulterated has proved the most valuable tool allowing us to detect the corrections and interpolations in later, corrected (Masoretic) translations.
What started as a typical comparative study between ancient Mediterranean Mythologies and the Hebrew texts of the Bible has effortlessly evolved into a sweeping demystification of the biblical heroes’ behaviour. Indeed, long before most readers have reached the last pages of this volume they will have acknowledged the validity of our claim: A great Lie with tremendous historical and social ramifications has been exposed, a Lie that has managed to thrive and survive to our days disguised as an object of religious veneration!
Even if you do not accept our conclusions, this book will certainly upgrade your knowledge and critical abilities. The detailed descriptions of the clash of civilizations and ideologies and of the ensnarement of entire nations and of their rulers included in the present volume v will guide you through some of the darkest pages of human history and allow you to see the biblical narrative from a new, different perspective.
Of course, the claim that we should not scrutinize and judge the religion and the heroes of a specific people is lacking any relevance whatsoever. Indeed, it may be considered downright ridiculous since for thousands of years half the planet has adopted as entirely ‘its own’ those particular biblical tales! Indeed, we teach them systematically to our children because those biblical characters are considered universal models of virtue. We have been praising and extolling them for endless generations now, considering everything biblical as our own spiritual heritage.
Accordingly, the biblical texts are ‘our own’ as well and we are entitled to question the actions of the biblical ‘heroes’, since the Bible has regulated our lives and our societies for generations.
Our main concern is not whether the characters described in the Bible are historically accurate, or myths formed around an historical core. In the long term such myths can prove far more damaging than the actual deeds of historical persons. Accordingly, our main concern must be the actions, morals and ideologies described in the Bible and aggressively promoted by the biblical texts. The persons embodying those ideals have been accepted by pious people as real for thousands of years and their actions must be judged accordingly. It is time we realized that we do not have only duties towards our objects of veneration, but the right of criticism and reappraisal as well! Besides, the truth should never have anything to fear from any question!
Illustration 1 : Griffons guarding the sacred fire
CHAPTER 1
And in this lies your only certain and constant hope to reveal the truth, and no other hope exists; you must be able to judge and tell the lie from truth exactly as a money-changer can tell the counterfeit coins from the true and valuable ones. If you ever acquire such a power and skill, then you can proceed to examine what is being said. For if you do not, know that everybody will lead you by the nose, and you will find yourself running after some greenery held in front of your nose as is done with sheep.
Lucianus On Heresies 8.10
The Dawn of Creation
Even from the first verses of the Bible, questions arise spontaneously because of the obvious similarities between the biblical and other surviving Theogonies of the ancient world, which we will examine in detail. Our first striking example comes from the surviving ancient texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistusvi. The comparison of the biblical text of Genesis with the texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus is just a starting point for our intense quest for truth.
Hermes Trismegistus was a person veiled in myth and the authorship of his works has been contested. Many sources point to him as an author of books of infinite wisdom, safeguarded for centuries in the Egyptian temples in Egyptian hieroglyphs, as the written records of Egyptian wisdom, unsurpassed by anything else written in the antique world. He was credited with many inventions including writing, medicine and with the discovery of basic skills such as agriculture and the creation of organized communities, gifts that were essential for the survival and prosperity of those early human communities.
Hermes’ texts belong to the valuable legacy of Greek scholarship; Manethon, a priest of ancient Heliopolis vii in cooperation with the Greek Timotheos supposedly translated the original Hermetic Books viii written in Egyptian hieroglyphs that were astonishingly old; according to Manethon’s own calculations, they dated from several thousands of years B.C. In one of his books, Manethon wrote to King Ptolemy II:
“According to your order (to translate from the Egyptian Hieroglyphs) you will be handed the sacred books, written by our ancestor Hermes
Trismegistus” ix.
Cyril of Alexandria wrote that Hermes measured and divided the land of Egypt into lots, constructed canals along the Nile for irrigation and improved the practice of agriculture with the life-giving waters of the river. His assistance allowed the Egyptians to achieve a high level of social organization with the introduction of law, logic, numbers, geometry and astronomy.
“Worthy of mention and of everlasting fame is our Hermes who was also called Trismegistus... he divided the land of Egypt into lots and irrigated the entire land by means of canals, he issued laws and put down his thoughts in writing, invented geometry and delivered a catalogue of the heavenly stars” x.
Johannes Damascenus refers unambiguously to Hermes’ Greek descent: “To the Greeks were born the wisest of men, not twice but thrice as wise (as other men) like Hermes the so called Trismegistus” xi.
Stobaeus completes our knowledge of the extraordinary abilities of Hermes:
“The secret legislation of God, the sciences and achievements were taught to them (to his pupils) by Hermes, so they became humanity’s instructors and lawmakers” xii.
According to several authorities, it was the religious proposals, ideas and statements of Hermes Trismegistus that supplied the raw material for the great religions of West and East.
The Hermetic texts, despite the controversy concerning their origin and the indisputable presence of later, interpolated elements in them are significant in this respect: when we studied the Hermetic texts, in the form in which they have reached us xiii we were astonished to find in those texts complete sections that were quite similar to the biblical texts. When we assembled these widely dispersed fragments with the biblical text serving as a template, we ended up with a narrative surprisingly parallel to the book of Genesis. This means that whoever compiled the biblical book of Genesis must have borrowed elements from the Hermetic texts to produce his synopsis of Theogony and Anthropogony rather than the opposite.
Had the relevant parallel sections found in Hermes’ texts been copied from the Bible, they would have been kept together or artfully assembled to constitute a meaningful narrative rather than be dispersed in the way that we find them in the Hermetic texts. Here are the relevant sections, assembled from Hermes’s texts with the Bible as a template:
Thus wrote Hermes: Here is the corresponding biblical text:
“The beginning of all beings “In the beginning
is God, of mind, nature and God created the sky and the
Matter… Earth.
All beings were undefined And the Earth was obscured
and unformed… and unformed
A vast darkness existed over darkness reigned over
the abyss… the abyss
Water and spirit, delicate The spirit of God
and thoughtful created by roamed over the water
divine force roamed the Chaos and God said:
When a holy light was lit…” “Let there be light”.
Hermes Trismegistus C.H.3.1.2 xiv Bible Genesis 1.1-3
“The elements were separated ‘And God divided the light
by the action of fire…”C.H 1.11.7 from the darkness”.
Genesis 1.4
“ and the light elements settled “God…divided the waters which
above while heavy ones came were under the firmament from
to rest in the wet sand…” the waters which were above and
C.H. 3.2.3 called the firmament Heaven”.
Genesis 1.7,8
“And earth and water xv were “Then God said: Let the waters
entangled. He called, and lo, under the heavens be gathered
at once the dark mass of Chaos together unto one place and let
started to take form…” C.H.1.5.7 the dry land appear” Genesis 1.9
“..and the sky appeared “God called the firmament
and the Sun shone forth”. Heaven…and God made the
C.H. 3.2.5 greater light to rule the day”.
Genesis 1.1,17
“Then the Sun said: I will shine “God made the two great lights,
brighter and let the Moon shine the greater one to rule the day
bright as well for the sky to and the lesser light to rule the
appear above”. night… and God set them in
C.H. 1.49.44.191 the firmament to give light
upon the Earth”. Genesis 1.1,17
“And the Earth set and hardened, “God called the dry land
so God was pleased with his work..”. Earth…and God saw that it
S.A. 1.49.44.405 xvi was good”. Genesis 1.10
“Then he said, let the ether and “And God said let the
sky be filled with creatures and it waters bring forth abundantly
was done”. C.H. 1.11.7 moving creatures that have
life and fowl that may fly”.
Genesis 1.20
“And birds were created from “And God created great
the air and creatures of the sea from whales and every living
water and when the land separated creature that moves which
from the waters according to the the waters brought forth
wishes of the spirit animals four- abundantly, after their kind
limbed and reptiles and creatures and every winged bird after
of the sea and birds and every its kind…cattle and creeping
seedlings’ seed, grass and flowers things and beasts of the earth”
and chloe of all kinds were created”
C.H.3.3.1-3
“they sowed the seed of regeneration And the earth brought forth
and of the creation of mankind”. grass and herb yielding seed
C.H. 3.3 after its kind and the tree
yielding fruit whose seed
was in itself…” Genesis 11,25,21
“Mankind with its work and “Let them rule over the fish
cooperation of the people to rule of the sea and over the birds
over all beneath the sky”. of the sky and over the
C.H. 3.3.7 cattle and over all the
earth”. Genesis 1.25
“Upon this God said: Multiply “God said to them Be fruitful
and grow in number...to form and multiply, and fill the
a great crowd...” earth and subdue it;”
C.H. 1.18.5-6, C.H. 3.3.8 Genesis 1.28
“Thus spoke God and it was all “And on the seventh day
fulfilled and upon completing his God completed his work
work, God withdrew”. which he had done and he
S.A1. 49.44.72 rested”. Genesis 2.2
“Thus spoke God the Lord and he “And the Lord God formed man
mixed water with earth of the dust of the ground and
and blew life in this mixture breathed into his nostrils the
small creatures he formed with this breath of life”. Genesis 2.7
clay in his likeness, human in shape…”
S.A.1.49.44. 131-138
“The Mind is the Father of all, “Then God said ‘ Let us make
a being alive with light man in Our image, according
he begot man, a living being in his to our likeness; and let them
likeness. And as man was beautiful, rule over every thing… on the
with his own (divine) form he loved earth…and God created man
man like a son and allowed him to rule in His own Image, in the
over all his creations.. image of God. Genesis 1.26,27
C.H. 1.12.1
“Oh souls, my spirit’s tasks and “Then God said, Behold I
children of my labors created by, have given you every plant
my own hand I hand over my yielding seed that is on
creation to you. You must however the surface of all
follow my command: Thou shall the Earth and every tree
not touch any other site but the one which has fruit yielding seed;
that has been designated for you. it shall be food to you.
If you obey, the Skies and the Throne From any tree of the Garden
of Virtue will always be there for you. you may eat freely; but from
But should you act against my wish the tree of knowledge of good
you will be punished… and evil you shall not eat,
But what the souls did! They laid for in the day that you eat
their hands upon the mixture from it you will surely die...
of life and they tried to understand it, She took from its fruit and
they tried to “see” what stuff they were ate; and she gave also to her
made of. This proving difficult, they husband with her, and he ate.
feared they had provoked God’s anger… Then the eyes of both were
With these acts the souls soon grew opened and the man and his
bolder and started disobeying the wife hid themselves from the
commands of God the Creator. presence of the Lord God
among the trees in the garden
Genesis1.29, Gen 2.16,17 Gen 3.6,8
They started leaving the “site” meant Therefore, the Lord God
by God for them and wander without sent man out from the
staying at the site meant for them. garden of Eden to cultivate
They took a path leading to ‘Death’. the ground from which he
was taken… Genesis 3.23
Cast your glance upon the Earth, “Now the earth was corrupt
how long will Earth present this in the sight of God
sorry sight? They claimed to be of and the earth was filled with
the same origin as the Creator but violence. God looked at the
were readily convinced to fight each earth and behold, it was
other…now I’ m dishonored and corrupt, for all flesh had
outlaws roam this Earth, corrupted corrupted his way upon
by the bodies of the dead; its sacred the earth”. Genesis 6.11,12
sites were sacked”.
S.149.44.120-420
You must have read those Hermetic texts in astonishment. The similarity with the corresponding texts of the first chapters of the biblical Genesis is striking.
Why do those texts of different origin contain strikingly similar passages with common philological elements? Who copied from whom? Can the Bible, the “Holy Scriptures”, the “Word of God”, hold its own as an original text and uphold its authenticity?
Could it be that the biblical book of Genesis has incorporated earlier traditions and lore on Theogony, the Creation of Man, the Great Flood and the Multiplicity of Languages that were not of Hebrew origin? Let us proceed with our examination of the texts of recorded Theogonies because Hermes’ text is only the first of many unexpected look-alikes to those ‘unique revelations’ of the Bible we will encounter. The people of the Eastern Mediterranean basin had devised a host of fascinating Theogonies.
We will examine only those extracts that contain elements related to biblical Theogony, whose origin is being questioned…
Hesiod’s Theogony
Our journey in the realm of Mythology will proceed with the work of a great Greek epic poet, Hesiod xvii, who lived in Boiotea (8th century B.C. xviii) and could have had no knowledge of the biblical texts xix. In his case, both the authorship of his works and the time they were written cannot be contested, as both happened and were documented in historical times.
Hesiod studied poetry on Mount Helicon, at the school of the Muses xx. He studied there the legends and traditions of Greece. There the Muses “rule Helicon, a mountain high and sacred” xxi. The Muses produced a lengthy song “by divine inspiration”. In it, elements belonging to most ancient tales and the remnants of antique historical facts are clearly discernible, enveloped in a transparent shell of noble poetic inventions. The deified natural forces parading in Hesiod’s truly inspired Theogony provide us with images and information from the remote human past and describe the beginning of things and the birth of ‘gods’ and of man.
This ancient bard preserved for us in an unsurpassed manner the recollection of prehistoric memories by these melodic Muses. Their mother was none other than “Memory” xxii and their father was the omnipotent Greek God Zeus. Let us listen then to the formidable song of Hesiod, inspired by the Muses:
“The sweet words flowed effortlessly from their lips singing about the past, present and future”
“These (Muses) were born in Pieria with Zeus as their father and Memory (Mnemosyne) as their mother…to allow the oblivion of evils and relief from all worries…”
“ …with the passing of time she gave birth to nine daughters, united in heart and purpose- just song –a little lower than Olympus’ snow-capped summit. There they dwell with grace, dances, and desire. Festively they celebrate and sing and with mellow resounding voices they glorify the wise laws and virtues agreeable to us all…rejoice, daughters of Zeus, let me sing an enchanting tune to relate how the gods were first created, then land and the rivers and the Sea; (How) the vast heavenly expanse and the lofty bright stars…(were created) Tell me of the beginning of things, what came first”?
And they modestly responded:
“In the beginning there was Chaos
and then broad-bosomed Earth and Eros the most handsome among the immortal Gods secured (for man) a foothold in eternity
Out of Chaos, and (out of the) darkest Night the day and the sky came forth:
the Earth first gave birth to her equal
to the sky with its constellations
and to the lofty mountains... ”
Hesiod Theogony 116
This great poet indefatigably praised Memory, stressing her great value as a prerequisite of Freedom: He questioned politely the daughters of “Memory” to learn about the past! We, in turn, taking into consideration the liberating power of memory, ask:
Could perhaps the critical study of myths, combined with careful scrutiny of the historical events shed light on the true nature of the repressing socio-religious conditions that surround and stifle us today?
Could such research liberate us from our oppressive bonds and grant us that desired prize of spiritual freedom?
Let us continue our wandering in the past using those instructive myths as our guides. Perhaps, eventually we will agree with Hesiod that only the gracious ‘Memory’ (the precious Mnemosyne) the Mother of the Muses may relieve us from our recurring afflictions by bringing enlightenment and understanding of errors long forgotten in the past…
Homer, antedating Hesiod, recorded Oceanus xxiii as the first God of Greek Theogony. After keeping company with the human race for an indefinitely long time, Oceanus withdrew silently abdicating his authority to his son Uranus. The latter was overthrown, after a fierce battle with his son Cronus, who, after a long reign was overthrown himself by his powerful son Zeus.
Therefore, Oceanus-Uranus-Cronus-Zeus xxiv was the theogonic lineage handed down to us by Greek Mythology, preserving to our days hints of actual situations engraved in the collective Mediterranean memory. Those memories do not just constitute the essence of the rich Greco-Mediterranean mythology but they also represent an irreplaceable heritage of instructive mythical images, a fact that unfortunately has not yet been fully appreciated.
Those myths are vague historical records containing ancient memories and vague hints of long-forgotten human situations; like a pictorial representation of an extensive period of human life they present a valuable source to anyone who would contemplate with respect these ancestral “shadows” pulsating forcefully with the memories of millennia.
The Pelasgic Myth of Creation
“Eurynome, the Mother of all things emerged from Chaos. Nothing was solid at first; she danced alone over the waters and separated the sea from the sky. Then, capturing the North wind she caressed him with her hands and lo and behold Ophion the Great Serpent emerged!” xxv
“Eurynome and Ophion dwelt on Mount Olympus from the beginning of things xxvi. But Ophion infuriated Eurynome when he claimed he was the Creator. At once she crashed his head with her heel, knocking out all his teeth and banished him from heaven to the darkness of subterranean caves”.
“Then the Goddess created…the first man was Pelasgus, the ancestor of the Pelasgi. He sprang from the land xxvii of Arcadia and was soon followed by others. Pelasgus taught them to construct huts, to eat the fruits of the earth and to sew leather garments from the skins of the animals, like those still worn by the poor”.
I will only comment on the point where Eurynome, after flirting with the Great Serpent (Ophion) had a quarrel with him about who was the true Creator of the world and crushed his head with her heel. The corresponding biblical verses refer to the serpent of paradise:
“And I shall put enmity between you and the woman’s offspring; between your seed and her seed; they shall crash your head but you shall bite their heel” Genesis 3.15
The similarity of the stories speaks for itself. Neither must we omit to note that Pelasgus, that first pan-Mediterranean founder of a nation xxviii first clad his people in leather garments made from animals’ skin, exactly as we read in the bible: “the Lord produced ...garments from animal’s skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them…”. Genesis 3.21
Philosophical Theogony
“The Lord of all things, whoever he may be- some have called him Nature- suddenly appeared from Chaos and separated the Earth from the sky, the water from the Earth and the lower air from higher drifts. After he untangled (separated) the elements, he assigned them their proper order that is preserved to this day. He separated the Earth into zones, some of them quite hot, some very cold and some of temperate climate. He formed her (the Earth) into valleys and mountains and trimmed her with grass and trees. He secured the revolving firmament above embellishing it with the constellations and appointed the four winds to their appropriate stations. He filled the waters with fish, the Earth with animals and the sky with the Sun, the Moon and the five planets. Finally he created man, the only one among the animals that raises his head to the sky to observe the Sun, the Moon and the stars…”.
“Prometheus xxix, the son of Iapetus created the body of Man by mixing clay and water and a soul was granted to this body by wandering
divine entities that had survived from the first creation(!)” xxx.
How the Universe came into being
“This world, in its scattered form was formed in the following manner”: “The bodies of the atoms, with a spontaneous, purposeless and random movement, moving continuously and swiftly, were gathered in great multitude in the same space…”
“As they were gathered together in the same space, those among them that were greater in size and heavier shifted underneath (towards the center) whereas those small and mobile, smoothly gliding among themselves, were squeezed upon the convent of the atoms towards the periphery rising to the meteors (distancing themselves from the center of the event). “However, when the power xxxi pushing (those atoms moving towards the periphery) stopped acting and guiding the atoms towards the meteor, and at the same time they were hindered from reaching down (return towards the center of the phenomenon) they were pushed towards the surrounding spaces able to accommodate them and in this expanse the multitude of bodies was scattered (i.e. they were scattered by an explosion) Intermingling with each other through their divisions they gave birth to the sky”! “Atoms of that same nature and of great variety…constitute the substance of stars” xxxii.
Is this an abstract from a modern astrophysics book? No, this description of the events of Cosmogony xxxiii was deducted and described 2500 years ago, by Leucippus of Abdera, a great philosopher and naturalist living in the 5th century B.C.
It is beyond human comprehension how this great philosopher and theorist managed to postulate and describe with such precision that great explosion considered by modern science to represent the initial event of the birth of the universe known to us as the Big Bang! The same philosopher also speculated: “All (elements) are infinite, transforming liberally among themselves”.
Your questions must be welling up spontaneously: Why have I not heard of this before? Why was such detailed knowledge lost to humanity for 25 centuries? What may have happened? The answers will be provided effortlessly further on in our query.
The Creation of Man
The Jewish-Biblical version of the Creation of Man has come to monopolize our imagination. However, such “sagas of the creation of man” are usually the cultural products of advanced urban cultures, a stage reached by the biblical authors only with great delay! Additionally, the rudiments of Man’s creation of Genesis contain passages with extensive similarities with contemporary or pre-existing Mediterranean and other myths. It would seem reasonable to conclude that the story of Adam xxxiv and Eve xxxv originates from some widely circulated tale of creation of that time, elements of which were incorporated into the prologue of the Mosaic Pentateuch.
Moses, the supposed author of Genesis, was generally admitted to have “learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians” Acts 7.22 and must have had a vivid recollection of the Theogony and the Creation of Man of Hermes Trismegistus. This appears to be a satisfactory explanation for the tendency of the book of Genesis to follow the same narrative axis as the Hermetic texts, often copying word for word all those Hermetic notions that constitute in effect the passages of the Bible dealing with “Theogony” and “Anthropogony”.
Well, what about the basic concepts of the biblical Creation of Man? Does the biblical version include anything original or different, when compared with other ancient narratives famous at that time?
“And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2.7
We must not forget that this was the era of the potter’s wheel. The creation of pottery and of the clay statuettes that adorned the altars of the first urban civilizations provided the raw material for the possible process of man’s creation by a supreme being.
From time immemorial, the Greeks were convinced that their ancestors were “born of the Earth” xxxvi. Apart from the popular belief of being indigenous, there was a widespread belief that “Earth xxxvii, the Mother of all beings” had given birth to their ancestors.
“Oh Nature, Goddess, Mother of all beings, resourceful, intricate, man’s greatest friend, provider of all things…you are Mother and
Father to us all…”.
Orphica. Orpheus to Mousaios 10
(Incense and fragrances of Nature)
In Attica, Erechtheus was born of Earth, the provider. In Arcadia: “the black Earth begot Pelasgus on the high mountains crowned with trees.” xxxviii. Hesiod relates that “Zeus created” the third species of man xxxix.
Xenophanes, who had definitely not read the Jewish Bible, was absolutely convinced that “the gods created man from soil and earth” xl! Earth-soil-stone-clay; around these elements revolve an endless series of either well-known or obscure tales of ancient Mediterranean mythology on the Creation of Man.
Illustration 2 : The Goddess Athena and Prometheus creating the first human being. On a sarcophagus in the Museo Capitolino . Greek Mythology Vol 2 pp 59
For instance in Egypt, the God “Khnoum Lord of the Creations” created man from clay on his potter’s wheel. The Babylonians, situated at the crossroads between East and West also believed in a similar ceramist god: Marduk and Ea mixed divine blood and soil to obtain the material for the creation of Man.
The detail of the first divine breath from the life-giving biblical God, is nothing more than a banal repetition of the Greco-Mediterranean myths: “…after the flood in Deucalion’s time all the people were drowned, and as soon as the Earth dried, Zeus ordered Prometheus and Athena to create human forms from clay; then calling upon the winds he ordered them to breathe life into all of them and thus living men were created” xli.
In almost all cases the gods breathe the “breath of life” into the nostrils of the first man and woman, exactly as quoted in the work of Hermes Trismegistus.
A discussion with an experienced centenarian midwife from Crete, offered us an insight into the origin of these mythical tales. She recalled that: “it’s an ancient custom for the midwife to breathe the first breath of life into those newborns who are slow in taking their first breath”.
It appears that the reference to the first breath of life for man was not necessarily of divine origin, but may have its origin in the long-established tradition of resuscitation of the newborn after a difficult birth.
The experience of the tender, life-giving midwife breathing the first breath of life into the nostrils of the newborn to bring it to life has probably inspired this image of the first breath of life from the lips of the Gods in the stories of the Creation of Man.
Therefore, the “breath of life” cannot be considered an original biblical invention. The idea of the Creator discriminating between man and woman was also widespread.
The Greek version, as mentioned above, has man created by the hand of the benevolent Prometheus. However, the woman ‘Pandora’xlii was created by the hand of the subterranean God Hephaestus, to no other good purpose but to ensnare man through her charms. Adorned by the hand of the goddess of beauty Aphrodite and the goddess of wisdom Athena, Pandora was a creature of exquisite beauty, dangerously cunning and of unrestrained curiosity. She became the cause of countless evils for humankind when she opened a sealed box and thereby let out all human ills into the world.
“Thus spoke the father of Gods and laughing, he ordered renowned Hephaestus to mix earth with water, to provide it with speech and stamina, the looks of an immortal goddess and the beauty of a lovable virgin…and the herald of the Gods named the woman Pandora, because all the Gods that dwell in the chambers of Olympus provided her with their gifts – a calamity for bread-eating man” xliii.
“ Zeus who thunders from the sky thus arranged a vile affliction for mortal men; women, associates in bitter works” xliv.
Concerning the origin of Adam, Descharmes noted in his Universal Mythology (a work awarded a prize by the French Academy) that “one of the characters of the mysteries of Samothrace, named Adamas, appeared there as the archetype of man, as the first male” xlv. The myth records that the divine Kabeiroi xlvi that preserved the myth of Adamas antedated the birth of Zeus.
How many people are aware that the biblical text is a copy of the Mediterranean legends on the Creation of Man, even in its strangest details? For instance on the naming of the animals by the first humans, the Bible says:
“and God created out of the Earth all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the sky and he brought them to Adam to see what he
would call them, and whatever Adam called a living creature that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the animals and to all the beasts of the field”. Genesis 2.19-20
Here is how the corresponding mythxlvii was preserved for us by Plato through the mouth of Socrates: “I think it will be more pleasant if I narrate you a myth” said Socrates “There was a time when there were Gods, but the mortal species did not exist. When the predestined time came (for the mortal species) to be created by the gods… they ordered Prometheus and Epimetheus to endow them with ability and apportion them with powers as they saw fitting. Epimetheus begged Prometheus to allow him to do the allotting- ‘when I have apportioned them with their powers you may examine them’, he said. Thus he persuaded Prometheus and allotted the powers. And he apportioned strength without speed to some whereas he provided the weakest species with speed. Some species he provided with weapons, whereas he left other species go unarmed providing them with other means of defense ” xlviii.
More interesting details follow, on the separation of living beings into species according to their particular properties (details proving the Greeks’ knowledge of physical history). The brother of Prometheus, Epimetheus, after patient study endowed each species with various abilities assisting its survival and assigned to each species not just a name, like his “colleague’ Adam in the biblical myth, but the abilities themselves that often led to the name by which it would be known.
This charming story was called by its narrator Socrates a ‘myth’. This can only mean that in Socrates’ time this old story was considered an inseparable part of the ancient Greek lore of legends and references (myths). The similarities of these two narratives are more than obvious; certainly, they cannot be considered accidental. Our original question remains provocatively unanswered: Who copied from whom?
We can see that the entire Mediterranean basin reverberated with echoes of the Greek epical tales of the creation of indigenous men-heroes created from Earth and Water- and of their first breath of life, and of all the details that have come down to us with the corresponding Hebrew-biblical book of Genesis.
So what was particularly new or revolutionary in the Hebrew version of the creation of Man that would allow it to be considered divine and that could have added to the endless variations of Greek Mythology? The only fact we can establish at first glance is the following:
Whereas the Hebrew anthropogenic tale is familiar even to toddlers, the extremely interesting variations of the ancient Greco-Mediterranean tales on the Creation of Man that are infinitely richer in detail remain obscure and largely unknown. I wonder on what grounds the biblical tale has enjoyed high honours as the epitome of obvious truth, whereas the corresponding Mediterranean stories antedating the Bible, have been considered second-rate knowledge, unworthy of popular and scholastic attention when their content is more original, at times identical with and often more complete than the corresponding biblical text.
Have you ever asked yourselves why the biblical Anthropogony, consisting of a scant 35 verses, came down to us intact, whereas the entire Greek epics, consisting of several thousand magnificent verses ‘ w e r e l o s t ’ with the passage of time?
Let us proceed; our provocative questions will be answered effortlessly during the course of this work. We will return to those interesting details that prove that the plethoric Greeks could never have felt the need to copy the “fifteen” verses of the Hebrew-biblical Creation of Man. Where the biblical text comments a fact epigrammatically with two words, or vaguely hints at an idea, the eloquent Mediterranean versions contained endless songs, legends and rhapsodies; the delicate charm and the endless flow of their graceful imagery remains the best proof of their authenticity. It is precisely this comparison that should make one feel ashamed at the idea that the vast pool of literary wealth of the Mediterranean peoples might have benefited from literary loans of those meagre biblical images.
However, let us continue with our collection of parallel information; we found that every single biblical citation referred us to a host of Greek myths with similar subjects. Such parallel myths often amazed us by being more complete and richer in detail than the corresponding biblical tale. Accordingly, they provided us with amazing clues that allowed for revealing interpretations.
You may think for instance that it would be impossible to find something related to the details of the notorious fall into sin, resulting from the eating of the forbidden ‘fruit’ in the Greek texts…Far from it! Here we quote from Hesiod in his “Works and Days”:
“Formerly men lived…without harsh toil and tormenting diseases that cause such troubles to humans. They lived like gods without a care in the soul, without toil or pain, nor did dire old age affect them, and their hands and feet they enjoyed (to remain) unchanged…and the life-giving Earth bore them her fruits effortlessly and in abundance… But the woman (Pandora) removed the lid from the large jar with her own hands letting out all evils and bringing bitter sorrows to humankind. Only Hope remained in her intact home…(thus) countless troubles roam among mortals, and the earth and sea are full of ills, and sicknesses come only to plague humans, some of them coming by day, others by night, silently bringing suffering to the mortals.”
Hesiod Epic. “Opera et dies” 90
Compare this with the biblical divine curse? “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil shall you eat of it (the fruit) all the days of your life…by the sweat of your face shall you eat your bread until you return to the earth from which you was taken”! Genesis 3.17-19
But perhaps other well-known biblical details may be missing from the Greek texts because they had been exclusively confided to the biblical authors by ‘eye-witnesses’ of the original temptation, under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when that cursed serpent played his treacherous role? Anything but that! Greek mythology can boast of a whole series of episodes of forbidden ‘fruit’, the eating of which caused punishment or death. The stories of peculiar divine prohibitions were so widespread, that even the great Homer included in his Odyssey a similar charming story of the cows of the Sun-god (Helios). This is obviously a quite ancient pre-Homeric story that Homer incorporated in his sublime epic–the Odyssey. Let us enjoy this pleasant story and relax, as we become familiar with the forbidden fruit of the Greek myth.
The Forbidden Fruit
The visit of Odysseus’s ship to the island of Thrinacia proved fatal to his comrades. There they ate of the forbidden divine ‘fruit’, which in this case were the sacred cows of the Sun God.
“As they approached the island they heard the lowing of the heavenly cattle. Into the mind of the wandering Odysseus came the words of Circe and of the prophet Teiresias: ‘…in no case should you touch the divine animals’. So Odysseus suggested they sail past the island. His sailors, however, were exhausted, as they had just escaped the perils of Scyllaxlix and Charybdis, l so they had every reason to disobey him.
They disembarked, had supper, rested and lamented for their lost comrades whom Scylla had devoured. She had snatched six of them, one for each of her heads. Then sweet sleep overtook them and granted them forgetfulness and a rest. The next morning a strong gale prevented them from leaving the island. They secured their ship in a sheltered cave and remained helpless on the island. For a whole month, the South Wind blew without pause. Their provisions gave out and in vain did they try to satisfy their hunger with the few fish and birds they caught. Odysseus decided to go inland in quest of food. As soon as he found a sheltered spot, he washed his hands and prayed to the gods…he was then cast into a deep sleep in that lonely place.
In the meantime, Eurylochus (one of Odysseus’ comrades) incited his shipmates to slaughter some of the Sun god’s sacred cows. ‘We better drown at sea’, he argued, ‘in case the gods get angry and sink our ship rather than die slowly of starvation’. Besides, he reasoned, some of the slaughtered cattle could be offered as a sacrifice to the gods to appease them.
Hunger is a bad counselor, especially in the presence of fine, fatted cows. The crew yielded to temptation (as it was ordained by fate anyway). When Odysseus woke from his sleep, the fattest cows had already been slaughtered and the sweet smell of roasting meat bore witness to the irredeemable transgression... For six days the men feasted and on the seventh day the fury of the gale that had kept them on the island abated.
They quickly embarked and left the island behind them. Suddenly, Zeus brought a black cloud to rest above the ship. The sea was darkened and a terrible whirlwind snapped the forestays, and the mast fell, killing the helmsman. Then Zeus thundered and struck the vessel by lightning, destroying it.
All the men were flung overboard and perished in the foaming waters. Only Odysseus escaped. All who had shown irreverence were lost forever, because they had eaten of what belonged to the god”.li
As it becomes clear from many other instances of similar myths, this divine ‘sport’ of prohibitions must have been very common in ancient times. Many scholars,lii including Ioannis Kordatosliii have studied the long periods of tree-worship in ancient totemic societies. In prehistoric times, ‘totem’ was the name given to a special attitude towards a kind of food, either animal or vegetable, that included abstinence or strict limitation of its consumption, or even, as in this case, the privileged use by the divine rulers only. In those pre-historic totemic societies, the God-Kings of the various tribes could secure the privilege of eating rare and tasty fruit and game by proclaiming them as ‘totem’. The sacred prohibition meant that specific tree or game was food for the gods only. Such a prohibition was of course accompanied by a dissuasive ‘friendly’ warning such as: “if you eat this you will surely die, unless you are a God”. We realize from the very first biblical myth that such totemic prohibitions were the ancient ‘watch-dogs’ of the ‘Gods’ and the best guardians of the divine privileges.
Then one day came when some daring or very hungry individuals eventually violated the totemic prohibition; they discovered that not only did they not perish, but found the forbidden ‘totems’ to be both tasty and satisfying. At the same time, through their daring act they realized they had been victims of perpetual deception.
The very first biblical tale is a good example of such a totemic prohibition. The biblical description of the two special trees in the Garden of Eden, the one of “knowledge” and the other of “life”, reflects the fact that those societies attributed secret miraculous properties to those rare but forbidden trees of the ‘gods’. The unique aroma and the unrivalled beauty of the fruit were said to provide the local ruler-god with distinct wisdom (the knowledge of good and evil) and inexplicable longevity (the tree of life). The ruler (or priest) certainly contributed to his longevity by cleverly managing to keep for him most of the totemic delicacies, and his infallible wisdom was also a fact, as he successfully demonstrated by deceiving all the other members of his tribe in such an elegant way!
Let us now have a closer look at the imagery of this first biblical story. Our first information on the heavenly Garden of Eden is contradictory:
“And on the sixth day God concluded his work; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had made”. Genesis 2.2
But suddenly the narrative takes another course and has God going back to work, providing a clue that we are dealing with two different stories joined together rather awkwardly. So after “he ceased from all the work that he had made” Genesis 2.2 he set to work again: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden;” Genesis 2.8
But who was this Lord, who planted a special gardenliv in Eden? lv
Could it be that same God who had just concluded his work: “And God
saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”.
Genesis 1.31
But that same God had just finished his work of creation, and had been completely satisfied! Doesn’t “very good” mean that the whole of the earth created by a perfect divine creative hand was an endless paradise? Therefore, what need was there for God to start work again, planting this time a separate paradise in a special manner? By planting one more additional garden of paradise was he improving on his previous creation? Or could this be another Lord, working at a much later date than the biblical ‘creator’ of the world?
Further evidence that these first biblical lines are careless additions to the primeval myth of creation comes when the first verses on this Garden of Eden casually record along with the creation of the first humans, the intense interest of the narrator…in the abundant gold of good quality to be found in the area, and in sedative medicines, aromatic resins, sapphires (anthraxlvi) as well as other precious green stones! Objects whose value we have every reason to believe became known to men and appreciated by them at a much later period than that of…the first created humans. According to the Bible, a river, which divided into four tributaries, watered Eden: “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it, which encircles the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium, lvii anthrax and the onyx lviii stone”. Genesis 2.10 –2.12 “And the name of the third river is Tigris: it flows toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates” lix. Genesis 2:14
Really how are we to interpret such a premature interest of the biblical author in those material goods and the strange reference to the connection of Eastern Eden with the neighbouring rich region of Havilah, where one can find gold of good quality and other kinds of precious materials?
Do you consider it natural to find details on interesting sources of enrichment interspersed among pious details of the creation of the world and of humankind in the very first verses of this peculiar Holy Bible? However, let us proceed a bit further, to examine the facts given to us concerning the biblical heavenly Garden of Eden:
The fact that there are two trees in the divine garden, each with its own separate properties is made clear from the following: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil”. Genesis 2.8-9
Furthermore, after Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit from the tree that gives knowledge of good and evil, the tree that gives life was obviously still there, untouched… The Lord certainly appears to have tried to deter Adam and Eve from ingesting the fruit of this second tree. He justified his actions by arguing: “Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he stretch forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and so he shall live for ever”. Genesis 3.22
According to God, Adam and Eve might have escaped the consequences of their misconduct by eating that second sort of fruit. How could they have missed such an opportunity after they had just eaten of the fruit of wisdom? Of course, one wonders, does God or the fruit from a certain tree decide who will die and who will live... forever? What sort of a deity hastened to prevent the newly created humanity from eating a fruit that would ensure eternal life?
In the story of Adam and Eve, the couple boldly disobeyed the “Lord’s” threats and prohibitions not to eat the fruit and were accordingly banished from their fertile homeland to barren areas, where they were obliged to toil hard in order to survive. But where were these barren regions, since the whole of earth was supposed to be a newly created paradise?
Anyway, if we read the biblical story more attentively, we are left with the definite feeling that this garden was not arranged for man but for the Lord-God himself. For instance those two precious trees with their rare divine fruit are not planted away in a corner but “in the midst of the garden”. Genesis 3.3 If the Lord had planted the garden for Adam, why had he planted the forbidden trees in such a central, prominent and obviously tempting position? The infallible trap set here is obvious: Who could manage to live forever, and always stay away from the central fruit of his garden? Something seems really wrong in this myth. But if we concede that the divine Lord planted this magnificent garden of paradise, taking special care, not for Adam, but for himself, then the central honorary position of the rare trees with the “divine” fruit is also explained. As for Adam, he was stationed there as a keeper and labourer in the garden of the God-king or Lord-God, a divinity that wandered around his garden each afternoon and behaved in a very human manner. “And the Lord God took the man, whom he had created and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it”. Genesis 2.15 So Adam was supposed to work in the garden and to ‘keep it’…from whom? A fine question, with no answer! Perhaps he was in fact supposed to “keep” the two valuable trees in the center of the delightful garden! In any case, Adam, the keeper and his wife instead of just guarding, ate from the precious fruit that brought “knowledge”: “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking (!?) in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves…”. Genesis 3.8
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