Jewish mythology
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Jewish mythology is the body of myths associated with Judaism. Elements of Jewish mythology have had a profound influence on Christian mythology and on Islamic mythology, as well as on Abrahamic culture in general.[1] Christian mythology directly inherited many of the narratives from the Jewish people, sharing in common the narratives from the Old Testament. Islamic mythology also shares many of the same stories; for instance, a creation-account spaced out over six periods, the legend of Abraham, the stories of Moses and the Israelites, and many more.
Tanakh
The writings of the biblical prophets, including Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, express a concept of the divine that is distinct from the mythologies of its neighbors. Instead of seeing the god of Israel as just one national god, these writings describe Yahweh as the one god of the universe.
The prophetic writings condemned Hebrew participation in nature worship, and did not completely identify the divine with natural forces.
Through the prophets' influence, Jewish theology increasingly portrayed God as independent from nature and acting independently of natural forces. Instead of eternally repeating a seasonal cycle of acts, Yahweh stood outside nature and intervened in it, producing new, historically unprecedented events; Eliade wrote: "That was theophany of a new type, hitherto unknown—the intervention of Jahveh in history. It was therefore something irreversible and unrepeatable. The fall of Jerusalem does not repeat the fall of Samaria: the ruin of Jerusalem presents a new historic theophany, another 'wrath' of Jahveh. […] Jahveh stands out from the world of abstractions, of symbols and generalities; he acts in history and enters into relations with actual historical beings."[2]
Themes and narratives
Creation narrative
Two creation stories are found in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first, Elohim, the Hebrew generic word for God, creates the heavens and the earth in six days, then rests on, blesses and sanctifies the seventh. In the second story, God, now referred to by the personal name Yahweh, creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden, where he is given dominion over the animals. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam and as his companion. God creates by spoken command and names the elements of the world as he creates them.
Genesis 1:1–2:3 creation order:
- Day 1 – Creation of light (and, by implication, time).
- Day 2 – The firmament. In Genesis 1:17 the stars are set in the firmament.
- Day 3 – Creating a ring of ocean surrounding a single circular continent.[3] God does not create or make trees and plants, but instead commands the earth to produce them.
- Day 4 – God puts "lights" in the firmament to "rule over" the day and the night, referring to the "sun" and "moon".[4]
- Day 5 – Creation of the living creatures.
- Day 6 – Creation of first man, Adam.
- Day 7 – Creation is followed by rest.
In the second story (Genesis 2:4–2:25) the order is different; God created man, the Garden of Eden and planted trees, the living creatures and then the first woman.
The "combat myth"
Many of the Hebrews' neighbors had a "combat myth" about the good god battling the demon of
Even the Exodus story shows combat-myth influence. McGinn believes the "Song of the Sea", which the Hebrews sang after seeing God drown the Egyptian army in Yam Suph, includes "motifs and language from the combat myth used to emphasize the importance of the foundational event in Israel's religious identity: the crossing of the Red Sea and deliverance from the Pharaoh".[7] Likewise, Armstrong notes the similarity between pagan myths in which gods "split the sea in half when they created the world" and the story of the Exodus from Egypt, in which Moses splits the Sea of Reeds (the Red Sea) – "though what is being brought into being in the Exodus, is not a cosmos but a people".[9] In any case, the motif of God as the "divine warrior" fighting on Israel's behalf is clearly evident in the Song of the Sea (Ex. 15). This motif recur in poetry throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (I Samuel 2; Zechariah 9:11–16;14:3-8).
Some comparative mythologists think Jewish mythology absorbed elements from pagan mythology. According to these scholars, even while resisting pagan worship, the Jews willingly absorbed elements of pagan mythology.[10]
Origin myth
Adam and Eve
According to the
Garden of Eden
The biblical story of Garden of Eden, most notably in the
The story of the Garden of Eden makes theological use of mythological themes to explain human progression from a state of innocence and bliss to the present human condition of knowledge of sin, misery, and death.[13]
Tower of Babel
The story of the Tower of Babel explains the origin of different human languages. According to the story, which is recorded in Genesis 11:1–9, everyone on earth spoke the same language. As people migrated from the east, they settled in the land of Shinar (Mesopotamia). People there sought to make bricks and build a city and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for themselves, so that they not be scattered over the world. God came down to look at the city and tower, and remarked that as one people with one language, nothing that they sought would be out of their reach. God went down and confounded their speech, so that they could not understand each other, and scattered them over the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city. Thus the city was called Babel.
Flood narrative
The
Another ancient flood myth is the Hindu story of
National myth
The Patriarchs
The Patriarchs in Hebrew bible are
The Exodus
The story of the exodus is told in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Israelites had settled in the Land of Goshen in the time of Joseph and Jacob, but a new pharaoh arose who enslaved and oppressed the children of Israel. At this time Moses was born; the Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew children born would be drowned in the river Nile, but Moses' mother placed him in an ark and concealed the ark in the bulrushes by the riverbank, where the baby was discovered and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, and raised as an Egyptian. One day after Moses had reached adulthood he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Moses, in order to escape the Pharaoh's death penalty, fled to Midian.
There, on Mount Horeb, God appeared to Moses as a burning bush revealed to Moses his name YHWH[16] and commanded him to return to Egypt and bring his chosen people (Israel) out of bondage and into the Promised Land.[17] During the journey, God tried to kill Moses, but Zipporah saved his life. Moses returned to carry out God's command, but God caused the Pharaoh to refuse, and only after God had subjected Egypt to ten plagues did the Pharaoh relent. Moses led the Israelites to the border of Egypt, but there God hardened the Pharaoh's heart once more, so that he could destroy the Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea Crossing as a sign of his power to Israel and the nations.[18]
From Egypt, Moses
Heroic narratives
Gideon
Gideon was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the
During the night, God instructed Gideon to approach the Midianite camp. There, Gideon overheard a Midianite man tell a friend of a dream in which "a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian" (Judges 7:13), causing their tent or camp to collapse. This was interpreted as meaning that God had given the Midianites over to Gideon. Gideon returned to the Israelite camp and gave each of his men a trumpet (shofar) and a clay jar with a torch hidden inside. Divided into three companies, Gideon and his 300 men marched on the enemy camp. He instructed them to blow the trumpet, give a battle cry and light torches, simulating an attack by a large force. As they did so, the Midianite army fled (Judges 7:17–22). Later, their leaders were caught and killed.
Samson
Samson was the last of the
Samson falls in love with Delilah in the valley of Sorek. The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her with 1,100 silver coins to find the secret of Samson's strength so that they can capture their enemy. While Samson refuses to reveal the secret and teases her with false answers, he is finally worn down and tells Delilah that God supplies his power because of his consecration to God as a Nazirite and that if his hair is cut off he will lose his strength. Delilah then woos him to sleep "in her lap" and calls for a servant to shave his hair. Samson loses his strength and he is captured by the Philistines who blind him by gouging out his eyes. They then take him to Gaza, imprison him, and put him to work turning a large millstone and grinding corn.
One day, the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon, for having delivered Samson into their hands.[23] They summon Samson so that people can watch him perform for them. The temple is so crowded and all the rulers of the entire government of Philistia have gathered there too, some 3,000 people in all.[24] Samson is led into the temple, and he asks his captors to let him lean against the supporting pillars to rest. He prays for strength and God gives him strength to break the pillars, causing the temple to collapse, killing him and the people inside.[25]
Academics have interpreted Samson as a demigod (such as Heracles or Enkidu) enfolded into Jewish religious lore,[26] or as an archetypical folk hero.
David and Goliath
According to the
David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and javelin, David with his staff and sling. David hurls a stone from his sling and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead, Goliath falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head. The Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites "as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron". David puts the armor of Goliath in his own tent and takes the head to Jerusalem, and Saul sends Abner to bring the boy to him. The king asks whose son he is, and David answers, "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."
Watchers
Also possibly derived from pagan mythology is the story of the "Watchers" (Genesis 6:1–4). According to this story, heavenly beings once descended to earth, intermarried with humans, and produced the nephilim, "the heroes of old, men of renown". Jewish tradition regards those heavenly beings as wicked angels,[27] but the myth may represent a fragment of pagan mythology about gods interbreeding with humans to produce heroes.[28]
Zoroastrian influence
Linear history
The mythologist Joseph Campbell believed the Judeo-Christian idea of linear history originated with the Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. In the mythologies of India and the Far East, "the world was not to be reformed, but only known, revered, and its laws obeyed".[30] In contrast, in Zoroastrianism, the current world is "corrupt [...] and to be reformed by human action".[30] According to Campbell, this "progressive view of cosmic history"[31] "can be heard echoed and re-echoed, in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Aramaean, Arabic, and every tongue of the West".[32]
Other traditional cultures limited mythical events to the beginning of time, and saw important historical events as repetitions of those mythical events.[33] According to Mircea Eliade, the Hebrew prophets "valorized" history, seeing historical events as episodes in a continual divine revelation.[34] This doesn't mean that all historical events have significance in Judaism;[35] however, in Jewish mythology, significant events happen throughout history, and they are not merely repetitions of each other; each significant event is a new act of God:
"The fall of Samaria actually did occur in history [...] It was therefore something irreversible and unrepeatable. The fall of Jerusalem does not repeat the fall of Samaria: the ruin of Jerusalem presents a new historic theophany."[36]
By portraying time as a linear progression of events, rather than an
Eliade believes that the Hebrews had a sense of linear time before their contact with Zoroastrianism,
Talmud
The Jewish people's tendency to adopt the neighboring pagan practices, denounced as it had been by the Jewish prophets, returned with force during the Talmudic period. However, almost no mythology was borrowed until the Midrashic and Talmudic periods, when what can be described as mysticism emerged in the kabbalistic schools.
Shedim
One such aspect was the appearance of the shedim; these became ubiquitous to the ordinary Jews[41] with the increased access to the study of the Talmud after the invention of the printing press.
Dreams
The classical rabbis themselves were at times not free from sharing in the popular beliefs. Thus, while there is a whole catalog of prognostications by means of dreams in Ber. 55 et seq., and Rabbi Johanan claimed that those dreams are true which come in the morning or are dreamed about us by others, or are repeated,[42] Rabbi Meïr declares that dreams help not and injure not.[43] Dream interpretation is not however a factor in considering mythologyfication of Talmud knowledge since it was at the time a part of the wider nascent development of what later became the discipline of Psychology, and also incorporated Astrology, and effect of digestion on behaviour.
The Keresh and the Tigris of the Bei Ilai
An example of typical mythology in the Talmud exists as a discussion about a
The Roman emperor Hadrian once asked Joshua ben Hananiah to show him the Lion of Bei Ilai, since every lion can be killed, but the Rabbi refused and pointed out that this is not a normal lion. The emperor insisted, so the Rabbi reluctantly called for the lion of "Bei Ilai". He roared once from a distance of 400 parasangs, and all pregnant women miscarried and all the city walls of Rome tumbled down. Then he came to 300 parasangs and roared again, and the front teeth and molars of Roman men fell out, and even the emperor himself fell from his throne. He begged the Rabbi to send it back. The Rabbi prayed, and it returned to its place.[48]
Traditional folk beliefs
The authorities of the Talmud seem to be particularly influenced by popular conception in the direction of
Planting huppah trees
A remarkable custom mentioned in the Talmud is that of planting trees when children are born and intertwining them to form the huppah when they marry.[51] Yet this idea may be originally Iranian[citation needed] and is also found in India.[52]
Mythological components of Haggadic exegesis
It may be possible to distinguish in the
The uniqueness of the Talmudic style of both recording meaning and deriving it using exegesis places the many seemingly mythological components of the much larger halachic content into a content very unlike the purely story-telling corpus of other cultures.
In popular culture
In the past century to modern day, there have been many retellings of Jewish myths (mostly from the Torah), and adaptations for the modern public. They have mostly been in the regions of science fiction, as Isaac Asimov noted in his introduction to More Wandering Stars:[53]
Can science fiction be part of Jewish culture? From fantasy stories we know?/ And as I think of it, it begins to seem to me that it is and we do know. And the source? From where else? From the Hebrew source for everything-- From the Bible. We have but to look through the Bible to see for ourselves.
— Isaac Asimov[citation needed]
He goes on to show parallels between biblical stories and modern science fiction
- Let there be light was an example of advanced scientific mechanisms
- God is an extraterrestrial
- Adam and Eve as colonists on a new planet
- The serpent was an alien, as Earth snakes don't speak or show any intelligence
- The flood was a story of a world catastrophe, and the survivors
- The Tower of Babel (like Metropolis, which it inspired in part)
- Moses vs. the Egyptian magicians is advanced technological warfare
- Samson as sword and sorcery
- The first chapter of UFOaccount.
The
Another example is Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series, which uses kabbalah elements while narrating a reinterpretation of events surrounding Adam, Eve and Lilith in a futuristic and apocalyptic way.
Edward M. Erdelac's Weird West book and short story series Merkabah Rider features a Hasidic mystic gunslinger and draws heavily from Jewish myth and folklore.
It is often suggested that
See also
References
Citations
- ^ "Abrahamic religions". British Library. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
- ^ Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries, p. 152-53
- ^ Seeley 1997, p. 236.
- ^ Walsh 2001, p. 37 (fn.5).
- ^ McGinn, p. 23
- ^ Labbu is discussed in terms of the developing "adversary" mythology of the Ancient Near East and the Judeo-Christian tradition, in Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy: Satan & the Combat Myth (Princeton University press) 1987:44f.
- ^ a b McGinn, p. 24
- ^ McGinn, p. 23-25
- ^ Armstrong, p. 96
- ^ Armstrong, p. 96; McGinn, p. 23-24
- ^ Cohen 2011, pp. 228–229
- ISBN 978-1418551179, p. PT207
- ^ Garden of Eden, Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ The Epic of Gilgamesh, p. 108-13
- ^ Translation of the Hindu scripture Matsya 1:11–35 in Classical Hindu Mythology, p. 71-74
- ^ "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'Exodus 3:14
- S2CID 222445896,. It was the perpetual mystery of the divine touching the human..
It was the prophet's call. It was a real ecstatic experience, like that of David under the baka-tree, Elijah on the mountain, Isaiah in the temple, Ezekiel on the Khebar, Jesus in the Jordan, Paul on the Damascus road
- ^ Ginzberg, Louis (1909). The Legends of the Jews Vol III : Chapter I (Translated by Henrietta Szold) Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
- ISBN 0-517-32170-X.
- ^ Judges 16:17
- ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Samson". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
- ISBN 0-7607-2278-1.
- ISBN 0-517-32170-X.
- ^ Judges 16:27
- ^ Judges 16:28–30, JPS (1917)
- ISBN 9781491741290.
- ^ McGinn, p. 25
- ^ Footnote on Genesis 6:1–4 in The New American Bible, St Joseph Edition.
- ^ Zaehner, p. 58
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 191
- ^ Campbell, p. 192
- ^ Campbell, p. 190
- ^ Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries, p. 190; Eliade, Myth and Reality, pp. 11–12
- ^ Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, vol. 1, p. 356
- ^ Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries, p. 153
- ^ Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries, p. 152
- ^ Irwin, p. 323
- ^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 69; Campbell, p. 201
- ^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 64
- ^ a b Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, vol. 1, p. 302
- ^ G. Dennis, "Demons and Demonology," The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism
- ^ Ber. 56b
- ^ Gittin 52a, and parallels
- ^ "Chullin 59b". www.sefaria.org.
- ^ "Shabbat 28b:7". www.sefaria.org.
- ^ "Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 2:3:3". www.sefaria.org.
- ISBN 978-0-88125-400-6. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
- ^ "Chullin 59b:9". www.sefaria.org.
- ^ Pesachim 109b
- ^ ib. 110b
- ^ Gittin 57a
- ^ W. Crookes, in "Folk-Lore," vii.
- ISBN 978-1-68336-200-5. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
Sources
- Jewish Encyclopedia. Ed. Cyrus Adler, et al. 22 May 2008 JewishEncyclopedia.com.
- Armstrong, Karen. A Short History of Myth. NY: Canongate, 2005.
- Ausubel, Nathan, ed. A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: The Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, and Wisdom of the Jewish People NY: Crown Publishers, 1990.
- Hillel Bakis, (in French) Jewish tales and stories from North Africa, Vol. 1- The thread of time. Traditions and everyday life , Ed. A.J. Presse, 2000, 288 p., 2000 ; (in French) Jewish tales and stories from North Africa, Vol. 2- The paths of Heaven. Miracles, Supernatural, Strange …, Ed. A.J. Presse, 288 p., 2005
- Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. NY: Penguin Compass, 1991.
- Cohen, Chaim (2011). "Eden". In Berlin, Adele; Grossman, Maxine (eds.). The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199730049.
- Dennis, Geoffrey. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism. MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2007.
- Eliade, Mircea.
- A History of Religious Ideas. Vol. 1. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
- Myth and Reality. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.
- Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.
- Irwin, William A. "The Hebrews". (Frankfort et al. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977. pp. 221–360.)
- Mimekor Yisrael: Classical Jewish Folktales, Micha Joseph bin Gorion, translated by I. M. Lask, Trans. Three volumes. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1976
- Mimekor Yisrael: Classical Jewish Folktales Abridged and Annotated Edition ISBN 0-253-31158-6.
- Folktales of Israel Ed. Dov Noy, with the assistance of Dan Ben-Amos. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1963
- Jewish Folktales from Morocco, Ed. Dov Noy, Jerusalem, 1964.
- Jewish Folktales from Tunisia, Ed. Dov Noy, Jerusalem, 1964.
- "Hebrew Parallels to Indian Folktales," Journal of the Assam Research Society, 15 (1963), pp. 37–45.
- Magoulick, Mary. "What is Myth?" Folklore Connections. Georgia College State University, 22 May 2008 .
- McGinn, Bernard. Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil. NY: HarperCollins, 1994.
- Mintz, Jerome R. Legends of the Hasidim: An Introduction to Hasidic Culture and Oral Tradition in the New World Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1968
- Four Master Folklorists And Their Major Contributions Peninnah Schram, from Opening Worlds of Words, Peninnah Schram and Cherie Karo Schwartz
- Seeley, Paul H. (1997). "The Geographical Meaning of 'Earth' and 'Seas' in Genesis 1:10" (PDF). Westminster Theological Journal. 59. Westminster Theological Seminary: 231–55. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2007.
- Segal, Robert A. Myth: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Walsh, Jerome T. (2001). Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative. Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-8146-5897-0. Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
- Zong In-Sob. Folk Tales From Korea. Elizabeth: Hollym International, 1982.
- Graves, Robert, "Introduction," New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (trans. Richard Aldington and Delano Ames), London: Hamlyn, 1968, pp. v–viii.
- The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. N.K. Sandars. NY: Penguin, 1960.
- Classical Hindu Mythology. Ed. and trans. Cornelia Dimmitt and J.A.B. van Buitenen. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978.
- New American Bible. St Joseph Edition. NY: Catholic Publishing Co. (Used as a source for some scholarly information on comparative mythology found in its footnotes.)
- Harris, Robert, Virtual Salt: A Glossary of Literary Terms 2002.
- Leaves from the Garden of Eden: One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales. Edited by Howard Schwartz. New York, OUP USA, 2008, 540 pp.
- R. C. Zaehner, The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1961.
Further reading
- ISBN 1-57731-202-3.