Comparative Analysis: Christianity and Greek Mythology Essay Example

📌Category: Cultural Differences, Culture
📌Words: 1591
📌Pages: 6
📌Published: 07 September 2020

Greek mythology is comparatively similarly to the religion of Christianity in several ways. Greek mythology believes in a main God “Zeus” with lower ethereal beings under his command. Concerning Christianity as a religion, there is also a main God, but the main God is more complex. Christians believe that God is made up of three persons, God the father, God the son “Jesus," and God the Holy Spirit. God rules over different types of Angels, demons, and even Satan himself. Satan still has the power to affect the world and the people around us.  This event is allowed because God gives him free-will simply like he does us. Greek mythology has several stories that most of us have heard, read, or seen at some point in our lives: King Midas and the golden touch, Theseus and the Minotaur, Perseus and the Gorgon Medusa, and so many others. 

The story of King Midas is a story that teaches a good lesson. King Midas loved his gold with all of his heart, but he also had a daughter. He loved her, but he spent all  his time counting and recounting his gold. One day, a King Midas did a good deed for a Satyr and the God of wine granted him a wish. Midas finally asked that whatever he touched would turn to gold and after Dionysus failed to change his mind the wish was granted. The king went around touching all of his possessions, turning them to gold. After a while, King Midas became hungry. He picked up some food, but to his despair when he went to eat it, the food turned to gold.

The king realized that if he could not eat, he would starve, and he began to regret his wish. In is sorrow his daughter threw her arms around him to comfort her father. Instantly, the girl turned to pure gold. The king he cried out, saying “The golden touch is no blessing," he ran to a river and began to cry there, and as his tears hit the sand it turned parts of the sand into gold which became “fools gold." It is said that by crying for many hours mourning for his daughter washed away his not so fortunate curse. There are two lessons to take away from this story. The first lesson is to cherish the ones around you not your possessions, and the second lesson is listen to others before you act. The king cherished his gold more that his daughter and when he turned her to gold the valuable metal no longer mattered to him, he only wanted his daughter back.

In the second lesson, the king was sure that wishing for the golden touch was the wisest choice to make, even though the Satyr warned him against it. If the king had only listened, he could have wished for something more resourceful or wise instead of the golden touch.

Just like Greek mythology the Bible, God’s word has many, many stories such as David and Goliath, Jesus's birth, The healing of the 10 leopards, and many more. These stories have happened throughout history. The Bible not only holds lessons and stories, but it also has songs, poetry, and many more interesting stories and lessons that seem too good to be true. As well as stories, the bible also helps catalog history of the world as a whole. This includes from the beginning of time all the way to 165 BC when the Bible was completed. 

The Story of David and Goliath

The story of David and Goliath is well known. David was a young boy who had seven brothers. One day while David was in the fields watching sheep, his brothers were sent off to fight for King Saul. The israelites sat on a hill while the philistines sat on an opposing hill. The philistines had gathered together and they had a secret weapon named Goliath. Goliath was nine feet tall which, compared to the israelites was enormous. Goliath began to jeer the israelites with taunts. After a while he said ¨Chose a man to come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.¨ (1 Samuel 17:8-10) All of Saul's men were terrified and no one volunteered to step up and fight. In all of the commotion David's three brothers went into the battle to help fight with saul. Instead of this David went back and forth between the base camp and his father's sheep in the field. For forty days

Goliath came forth and took his stance. One day David's father sent David food to give his brothers. The next morning David left for the battle field. As David arrived the israelites were in their battle stance shouting war-cries. David ran to the battle lines and asked about his brothers and after talking David began to hear Goliaths blasmouphas sayings against God and the israelites. When the israelites saw Goliath they all ran away out of fear. David overheard some men talking about Goliath and how Saul had said that whoever killed Goliath would be given great wealth, marriage to his daughter, and the man's family would be exempt from the taxes in israel.

He then went to the men and asked them what would happen if he killed Goliath himself and they repeated the rewards that David had overheard them saying. But Davids older brother had heard David talking to the men and rage filled his veins. In anger His brother said ¨Why have you come down here? And whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.¨  David responded by asking ¨Now what have I done? Can I even speak?¨ He then went and asked another person about the reward. After it was confirmed that this was true he went to talk to Saul. Once there he told Saul that he would volunteer as tribute to fight Goliath. But Saul did not like this. David was just a young man while Goliath had been trained for battle ever since he was a child, it was quite obvious who would win the battle if David were to fight.

David spoke up and told the story about a lion and a bear which had tried to take his father's sheep but was killed by David. David began to explain that Goliaths life would end just like the lions and the bears lives were ended. ¨The Lord who rescued me from paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this philistine¨ this was the final bow on the cake for Saul so he agreed to let David fight for them. Saul gave David a tunic, a coat of armour, a bronze helmet, and a sword, but as David began to walk around he realized that he could never fight with all of the heavy armour. So instead he took a staff, five smooth stones, a shepherd's bag, and a slingshot. David and the Goliath began to walk towards each other.

The closer they got the more Goliath realized that David was a young, healthy,and handsome man which made him despise him even more. Goliath began to threaten David saying that he was going to feed his flesh to the birds and the wild animals.  David then said, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 

All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands". This made Goliath angry and he began to run towards David and David did the same. As he was running towards Goliath he took out one of the five stones he had gathered before the battle and placed it in his slingshot. Quickly Davis let the stone fly out of his slingshot and it his Goliath's forehead and began to sink it. The impact caused Goliath to fall to the ground and David kept his promise. With a sword he raised it over his head and chopped off Goliath's head. The utter defeat caused the philistines to run away and the israelites chased after them. After littering the streets with the philistines bodies they plundered the cam and David was given his rewards. This is just the beginning of the story of David, he grew up to be a king, a murder, adultery, and the bloodline of Jesus. The story has two obvious lessons, the first lesson is that no matter how small you are and even though some people may doubt you, with God's help you can do anything. The second lesson is that God works through the least likely people.

Work Cited:

“BibleGateway.” 1 Samuel 17 NIV - - Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%2BSamuel%2B17&version=NIV.

Chaffey, Tim. “Giant Speculations: The Bible and Greek Mythology.” Creation Today, 2007, creationtoday.org/giant-speculations-the-bible-and-greek-mythology/.

Drane, John. “Religions - Christianity: The Bible.” BBC, BBC, 12 July 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/texts/bible.shtml.

Isselhardt, Tiffany R. “Did Christianity Evolve From Greek Religion?” Owlcation, 8 May 2017, owlcation.com/humanities/Did-Christianity-evolve-from-Greek-religion.

library, Story. “The Golden Touch.” Story Arts | Stories in a Nutshell | The Golden Touch, 2000, www.storyarts.org/library/nutshell/stories/golden.html.

Pollard, John Richard Thornhill, and A.W.H. Adkins. “Greek Religion.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 12 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-religion.

Schmucker, Nathaniel. “Greek Mythology and the Christian Doctrine of God |.” Apologia, 19 Jan. 2012, www.dartmouthapologia.org/apologia/greek-mythology-and-the-christian-doctrine-of-god/.

Sledge, Benjamin. “Let's Stop Pretending Christianity Is Actually Relevant, Okay?” HeartSupport, HeartSupport, 22 Mar. 2017, blog.heartsupport.com/lets-stop-pretending-christianity-is-actually-relevant-okay-ade4c00dabcc.

Unknown, Unknown. “Lesson 1: How Did Greek Mythology Shape the Lives of Greeks?” Lesson 1: How Did Greek Mythology Shape the Lives of Greeks? - KNILT, 2010, tccl.arcc.albany.edu/knilt/index.php/Lesson_1:_How_did_Greek_mythology_shape_the_lives_of_Greeks%3F.

 

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