Was the Apostle Paul a Fan of Greek Poetry?

     When the Apostle Paul went out on his Second Missionary Journey the Lord brought him to Macedonia and to Greece.  While he was in Greece, he even went to Athens where he gave a famous speech that we call "The Men of Athens Speech" to the leaders of the city.  Paul begins by commenting on just how religious the people of Athens are and then he proceeds to talk about a strange altar he found.

   "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD' therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you." -Acts 17:23

     What Paul was doing in this speech was reaching back into the minds of his audience. The biographer Plutarch tells a story about a man from Crete called Epimenides, who in his day was considered a writer and a prophet.  According to the story, one of the leading families of Athens had fallen foul of the gods and so the gods had punished the entire city of Athens with a plague. The Athenians did everything in their power to placate all of the diverse gods in their pantheon, but nothing seemed to work. Finally they called in Epimenides to help them.  The prophet told them that they had actually angered a god whom they did not know and they should build this "unknown god" an altar and ask for his forgiveness. This the Athenians did and soon the plague ended. 

This was the story in the back of the minds of the Athenian leaders who heard Paul talk this way. Not long before this they were calling him an idle babbler and some one who was teaching strange deities, but suddenly he had just quoted from a story that was 100% Greek. Now the game had changed. Paul however, did not stop there. 

   "For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children'." -Acts 17:28

    Soon after his Epimenides reference he begins directly quoting the prophet. "For in him we live and move and exist" is straight out of his poem called Cretica. Apparently Paul had decided to go big or go home, and so he then quotes another Greek writer named Aratus.

 "For we also are His children" is from Aratus' poem called Phaenomena. A poem about constellations and weather. The beginning of this poem talks about how we are all God's children in a very Stoic philosophy style.  Now we begin to see an apostle who not only knows Jewish law, but also can talk Greek history and philosophy with the best philosophers in Athens. What is the point of this story? When you know the world view and the stories your audience tells themselves you can walk right in the front door! When you know the jargon, you have removed one of the biggest barriers to whatever point you are making, selling etc. There are tons of reasons you can fail at things, don't let your lack of homework be one of them!

Greek Poetry! A great read to bring with you on your next missionary journey!

-Jason

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William Golding Enjoys a Good Joke!

     Some of you may be familiar with the name William Golding. Some of you however, may be more aware of his best selling work entitled The Lord of the Flies.  Back in Old Testament times there was a famous group of gods called the Baals. These Baals were Canaanite gods, whose name literally translated into lord.There were also different Baals for different cities and  one particular town was called Zebul. The god of Zebul was naturally called Baal Zebul (alternatively spelled Bel Zebul) and the Hebrews who lived in the area began mocking him and calling him Bel Zebub, which means the Lord of the Flies.

    So it appears Mr. Golding had found himself enjoying a good Hebrew joke and voila!... the book title is born! Had Golding not known a little bit of Jewish history he may have come up with something much less catchy and perhaps we would have never heard of his book.

If you ever find yourself stranded on an island like in Lord of the Flies,  remember it could be worse.  Actually, no...that is pretty horrible!

-Jason

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Glycon the Snake God Puppet

     During the second century AD there was a Roman writer named Lucian of Samosata.  Lucian was mostly noted for his satires that he wrote, but he has one particular story he tells that is very interesting.  Sometime during that second century in Asia Minor (the Roman name for Turkey) there lived a man named Alexander of Abonutichus.  Now the people of this time often associated snakes with the god Asclepius  and so Alexander told them that Aesclepius was about to return as a new incarnation.  Then one day Alexander gathered the people of his village in the marketplace and pulled out a goose egg. He then split the egg open and out came a small serpent. He took it home and supposedly within one week it had grown  to the size of a man. Even stranger was that its face appeared to look like a man with long blond hair.  According to Lucian, Alexander was using a trained snake with a puppet head to create "Glycon" the snake god.

      Despite how weird and ridiculous this sounds the cult became very large in Asia Minor and Roman governors and even the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius payed homage to the god, who became known for protecting his followers from plagues.  Alexander of Abonutichus so changed the world he lived in that even the village he was from became an important town called Ionopolis. This snake cult lasted well over a hundred years and statutes and coins were dedicated to Glycon.  While I am not advocating deception or starting your own cult, it just goes to show you that those who speak their mind, are the ones that change things.

Hello children, Big Bird couldn't be here this week, but don't worry my name is Glycon the Plague Stopper!

-Jason

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The Monstrous Boar Hunt (Patriarchs of Story Pt 2)

     A long time ago in what we now call Turkey, there lived a wealthy and powerful king. This king was named Croesus, and he ruled a kingdom called Lydia.  Croesus was famous for his wealth and was known far and wide for it. He was so rich he thought that he was the happiest of men, and according to Herodotus this hubris (or arrogance) upset the gods to the point they decided to punish him. This is the story of Croesus' punishment.

    Croesus had a son named Atys, who was a very capable man. He fought in the army, and generally succeeded at whatever he decided to do. One day Croesus had a dream where Atys was wounded by an iron spear and shortly afterwards died. When the king awoke he immediately went about removing the iron spears from the palace, began taking away dangerous assignments from Atys and began looking for him a wife so he could settle down into a nice peaceful life.  All of this Croesus did with almost no problem and soon things were going well.

     A little while after Atys' wedding day, there came  a man named Adrastos, who had been banished from his home by his family after he accidentally killed his brother. Croesus however, knew his family and accepted him into his palace and placed him in high respect.

     Now let us listen to the words of Herodotus.  "And so Adrastos lived for some time at the court of Croesus. Meanwhile a monster of a boar appeared on Mt Olympus in Mysia (in northern Turkey) from which it would set out to ravage the fields of the people of Mysia. The people of Mysia went out to attack it, but could do it no harm and they suffered injuries from it instead."  So the people of Mysia sent a message to king Croesus begging him to send his son and a group of soldiers to help kill the monster of a boar. The king vehemently refused to send his son, but agreed to send soldiers and all was set to go off without a hitch, when Atys came to see his father.

     Atys accused his father of keeping him away from his former status as a good warrior. He said he could not handle being mocked by the people, and his wife was beginning to think he was a coward. The king now had to explain to his son the truth and he told him of his dream and how he would die of an iron spear and the king's great fear for his son.

    Atys replied " You said that in your dream I appeared to die by an iron spear. Well, what kind of hands does a boar have? Or what kind of spear could it use that you are so afraid?"

A boar with a spear? Did that guy just create a Ninja Turtles bad guy two millennium before the show came out?

     Seeing the reasoning of his son, the king agreed and also sent Adrastos, who was now indebted to the king because of his taking him in.  He solemnly vowed Adrastos to protect his son from any harm. Soon the party was off and they went to the mountain, found the boar and surrounded him. The party began throwing javelins at the boar and before the combat was done Adrastos' spear had found Atys and gave him a mortal blow.  The man sworn to protect him seemed to have permanent bad luck.  The party suceeded in killing the boar and they all returned home but with a heavy heart. Fortunately the king accepted Adrastos' apology, but still I wouldn't say the story ended happily.   Thus ends the Monstrous Boar Hunt by Herodotus...one fine story!

-Jason

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The Macedonians and the Whale (Patriarchs of Story Pt1)

      When Alexander the Great was out conquering the world, he came into contact with the Indian Ocean, this massive expanse that was virtually unknown to the Macedonians.  Alexander commissioned his naval commander, Nearchus to sail out into the ocean and begin exploring.  The primary writer we have for this story is Arrian, a Roman writer, so lets see what he says.

     "Large whales live in the outer ocean, and fishes much larger than those in our inland sea. Nearchus states that when they left Cyiza (the port), about daybreak they saw water being blown upwards from the sea as it might be shot upwards by the force of a waterspout. They were astonished, and asked the pilots of the convoy what it might be and how it was caused; they replied that these were whales that rove about the ocean spouting up the water to a great height."

     These whales so startled the crew because of their size and ability to shoot out water, that Nearchus had to cheer his men up and encourage them to even keep going.  Having achieved this, he decided to  have the ships give battle to the whales. They turned towards them as if they were going to ram the nearest whale and sped towards him blowing on their bugles and shouting with all their might.  This naturally frightened the whale and he dived under the water.

Back to Arrian  " Thereupon joyful applause welcomed this unexpected salvation, and much praise was showered on Nearchus for his courage and prudence."

But wait!  Oh no! Watch out Nearchus the whales are behind us now! How did they do that? Oh no! Run!

Surprise! Whales are Ninjas!

This ends the tale of the Macedonians and the Whale. As you can see stories like this are ripe for fiction writing. Plot twists and awesome literary encounters are yours for the taking.  A big thank you to Arrian for being a  Patriarch of Story.

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Introduction of the Patriarchs of Story

      The human race has long been interested in stories, in  fact stories existed before we had a way to write them down.  Poems were composed by bards, to tell stories that were considered so worth of passing on they were memorized in verse.   We often think the modern day we live in as the epitome of  literature, but in reality the fiction writers, the science fiction and even the fantasy we read today have their inspirations long ago in the ancient world. These early writers were in fact patriarchs of a tradition of story telling that we are the heirs of.  This is just the beginning of the tale written for writers, readers of good stories and students of how the world works.

     The Patriarchs of Story is obviously not something these writers would have ever heard of, it is merely a way to express an idea that connects these great literary figures who span the length of time.  These men (and sometimes women)  are the great writers whose work has influenced generation after generation of their successors and have changed the way we all think.  Today, if there had been no J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis the Fantasy genre would be dramatically different. On that same token however, if Tolkien had never read Beowulf and the Viking Sagas and some of the other works he read; his writings would have been totally different. The Patriarchs of Story are the writers whose work have changed the way we think about writing and the way we think about our world. The amazing thing about this is that we do not even have to have read their works, because these influential writers so changed their world that the trickle down effect influences even those who do not read them.

     Surely you have heard of Achilles right? Well you have been influenced by Homer.  Are you familiar with the Three Musketeers? Then your world has been changed by the French author, Alexander Dumas. Finally have you heard of Leonidas the King of Sparta? If you have then you been influenced by Herodotus,  a Greek writer who lived around 2,500 years ago.  Do you think these guys were thinking about writing to audiences  thousands of years in the future?  Of course not, but that is the glory of stories.  People who lived long ago can live on in our hearts and minds as long as we appreciate and value their words.

Patriarchs don't always look like this, this isn't some sort of religious thing!

  

      Now, to be clear from the start, a "story" does not imply true or false. It is not a  judgment on their credibility, but an appreciation of what the writer was trying to tell us.  For instance, in war there are always two sides and just because one side sees it one way, does not mean the other is wrong. Also in religion, it is impossible to say that all mythology can be true, because of the vast amounts of inconsistencies, but both of these types of stories tell us about the people who came up with them. We know the people who wrote about traveling to the Elysium Fields after they died, believed in an afterlife.

     Finally there is the question of quality. Can we really say that these stories by authors of long ago can hold a candle to our modern writing techniques and vast amounts of knowledge?  Please do not fall victim to the idea that people of long ago have nothing to contribute to the discussions we have about life. There stories are in fact so good, that often the very stories we love the most are based upon the works of these Patriarchs of Story. These intellectual giants have changed every generation who has read them, dared us all to think  and to dream.

     Writers, if you want to write, do not deprive yourself of reading these towering figures who stood before you and willingly guide us. Readers, pass up these rich resources only at your own peril; and students of our world, remember that even though the world of thousands of years ago and today seem so distant and foreign...people do not change and you will always see the same motivations driving humans from the dawn of time until its finale.

    This is what it means to be a Patriarch of Story....

-Jason

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