Or so a book by Jon M Sweeney apparently claims.
I've previously argued against claims that Easter and Christmas are ultimately pagan. Even the claims for Halloween, I reckon, are ultimately unprovable.
But Hell. Pinched and converted from the pagan philosophies of Greece and Rome?
OK, pagans. You can have this one.
Though of course Christian Theology owes so much to (pagan) Greek philosophy—it led Harnack to dismiss large chunks of the New Testament, for the opposite reason to Marcion—that I think we would be unwise to discard things just because we don't like where they came from. Try explaining the Trinity on the basis of Scripture alone!
ReplyDeleteAnd when you consider what we owe to Zoroastrianism (archangels, the Adversary &c)……
Just because God chose to reveal these things via pagans doesn't make them untrue.