Greek Mythology and the Unknown God

   For those of you who do not know I like learning new things. One topic that has always interested me, other than God and the Bible, is Greek Mythology. I don’t believe any of the stories are true, though some of them may be based off of true stories. I like to read the stories because most of them are entertaining. Some of them can get a little strange and creepy; but throughout my study I discovered there are a lot of similarities between Greek Mythology stories and the Bible.

   In the Bible the first human, Adam, is created out of dust of the ground. And then God breaths the breath of life into him (Genesis 2:7). In Greek Mythology a Titan named Prometheus was at a river and created humans out of wet clay, or the ground. Some stories say the Prometheus then breathed the breath of life into the humans.

   The final example, which I am going to give you, of how the Bible and Greek Mythology are similar is the fall of man. In the Bible a serpent (Satan) goes to Eve and tempts her to eat of the fruit of the tree of life (Genesis 3). He tells her that if she does eat of the fruit she will be like God, who has knowledge of right and wrong. Then Eve eats of the tree and so does Adam. Sin enters the world and now God must be separate from man. Adam and Eve are forced to leave the Garden of Eden. However, even in this time of failure, there is still hope. In Genesis 3:15 God says to the serpent (Satan) “I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel.” This is alluding to the coming of Jesus. Satan may have the upper hand now; and will tempt humans, or strike their heel. But, some day an offspring of Eve will strike the head of Satan. That offspring is Jesus. And, that is where our hope is.

   In Greek Mythology the story of the fall of man is very similar. There was a Titan named Epimetheus who was not too smart. His brother, Prometheus got on Zeus’ (the king of the gods) bad side. Prometheus warned his brother not to accept any gifts from the gods because of this. Epimetheus did okay for a while. But, one day the gods created a woman named Pandora. She became Epimetheus’ wife. The gods offered the couple a wedding present. The present was a box, which the gods told the couple that they must never open it. But, Pandora was created to be curious. So, you guessed it, Pandora opened the box. When she did all of these evil spirts came out and spread across the world. But, one good spirit stayed in the box. That spirit was hope. No matter how bad things got humans still were able to hope that things would get better.

   Now, you may be wondering why I am telling you the similarities between the Bible and Greek stories. It is to either teach, or remind, you about a lesson Paul has already taught everyone. Nowadays not many people, if any, believe in the Greek gods. But, in Bible times there were people who did worship them. Paul went to Athens (where they worshiped many idols, probably Greek gods) and began preaching about the gospel. Some philosophers heard Paul and brought him to the high council where he told them about God. He said they had been worshiping this unknown god. Paul said he knew who the God was. “He is the God who made the world and everything in it.” Paul introduced the gospel to these people in a way they would understand. And, there were some who became believers that day (Acts 17:16-34).

   This is an important lesson for us. We may try to reach non-believers but we may not know anything about them or their religions. Paul did his research before he preached to them. He knew what these people believed in and then found the best way to relate the gospel to them. Isn’t that what we should be doing today? We need to care, and learn about others before we can truly create a relationship and reach them. That may mean we need to research other religions and find commonalities between their religion and the Bible.

   So, are you learning new things every day in order to grow and spread the gospel? Are you reaching out to others and getting to know them?

   Psalm 96:3, 2 Timothy 3:16, Matthew 28:19