A History of the World in 6 Glasses
Tom Standage
This was a really fun little history book that shows the development of human history through six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola. For a history book it really keeps the pages turning and would be a good read for just about anyone. It's not so lofty that only history nerds would like and understand it; but, it isn't so simple that those same nerds would turn their nose up at it.
Here are just some of my highlights from the book.
"To Neolithic drinkers, beer's ability to intoxicate and induce a state of altered consciousness seemed magical" (Standage, 19). - The obvious inference here is that beer is a gift from the gods, which played a central role in many ancient peoples' religions.
An interesting Egyptian myth that would be worth further study and possibly a short story:
"The Egyptians, for example, believed that beer was accidentally discovered by Osiris, the god of agriculture and king of the afterlife. One day he prepared a mixture of water and sprouted grain, but forgot about it and left it in the sun. He later returned to find the gruel had fermented, decided to drink it, and was so pleased with the result that he passed his knowledge on to humankind. (This tale seems to tally closely with the way beer was probably discovered in the stone age)." (Standage, 19).
It is better to be a beer drinker than a non-beer drinker.
"In other words, beer helped to make up for the decline in food quality as people took up farming, provided a safe form of liquid nourishment, and gave groups of beer-drinking farmers a comparative advantage over non-beer drinkers" (Standage, 22).
Philosophy of Religion and History of Religion: An interesting theory on how temples emerged to play a role in society:
"Keeping surplus food in the storehouse was one way to ward off future food shortages; ritual and religious activity, in which the gods were called upon to ensure a good harvest, was another. As these two activities became intertwined, deposits of surplus food came to be seen as offerings to the gods, and the storehouses became temples." (Standage, 22).
"The Mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with beer.
-Egyptian Proverb, c. 2200 BC."(Standage, 23)
The very definition of civilization is beer.
"The Mesopotamians regarded the consumption of bread and beer as one of the things that distinguished them from savages and made them fully human. Interestingly, this belief seems to echo beer's association with a settled, orderly lifestyle, rather than the haphazard existence of hunter-gatherers in prehistoric times" (Standage, 27).
Another Egyptian Myth worth retelling in short story form:
"One Egyptian tale even credits beer with saving humankind from destruction. Ra, the sun god, learned that humankind was plotting against him, and dispatched the goddess Hathor to exact punishment. But such was her ferocity that Ra feared there would soon be nobody left to worship him, and he took pity on humankind. He prepared a vast amount of beer - seven thousand jars of it, in some versions of the story - dyed it red to resemble blood, and spread it over the fields, where it shone like a vast mirror. Hathor paused to admire her reflection and then stooped to drink some of the mixture. She became intoxicated, fell asleep, and forgot about her bloody mission. Humankind was saved, and Hathor became the goddess of beer and brewing. Versions of this story have been found inscribed of Egyptian kings, including Tutankhamen, Seti I, and Ramses the Great" (Standage, 28-29).
"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever"
-Aristophanes, Greek comic poet (c. 450-385 BCE)." (Standage, 43).
Plato's wine experiment and "fear drink" to test someone's character:
"Wine could be used in everyday life to reveal truth: It could expose the true nature of those drinking it. While he objected to the hedonistic reality of actual symposia, Plato saw no reason why the practice could not, in theory, be put to good use as a test of personality. Speaking through one of the characters in his book Laws, Plato argues that drinking with someone at a symposium is in fact the simplest, fastest, and most reliable test of someone's character" (Standage, 63-64).
"Baths, wine and sex ruin our bodies. But what makes life worth living except baths, wine and sex?
-Corpus Inscriptions VI, 15258" (Standage, 69).
Another short story that would be worth writing - This might be good as a story of disembodied heads relating their final moments on earth at a party in the afterlife:
"It is not often that choosing one wine over another is a matter of life or death. Yet that is what determined the fate of Marcus Antonius, a Roman politician and a renowned orator. In 87 BCE, he found himself on the wrong side of one of Rome's many interminable power struggles. Gains Marius, an elderly general, had seized power and was ruthlessly hunting down supporters of his rival, Sulla. Marcus Antonius sought refuge in the house of an associate of far lower social status, hoping that nobody would think of looking for him in such a poor man's house. His host, however, unwittingly gave him away by sending his servant out to buy wine worthy of such a distinguished guest. The servant went to the neighborhood wine shop and, after tasting what was on offer, asked for a far better and more expensive wine than usual. When the vintner asked why, the servant revealed the identity of his master's guest. The vintner went straight to Marius, who dispatched a handful of soldiers to kill Marcus Antonius. Yet having burst into his room, the soldiers could not bring themselves to kill him, such was the power of his oratory. Eventually, their commanding officer, who was waiting outside, went in to see what was happening. Denouncing his men as cowards, he drew his sword and beheaded Marcus Antonius himself" (Standage, 75).
A funny account of early English settlers to the New World:
"In 1613 a Spanish observer reported that the three hundred colonists had nothing but water to drink, 'which is contrary to the nature of the English - on account of which they all wish to return and would have done so if they had been at liberty'" (Standage, 113-114).
The Early American Drink:
Rum starts out as the colonial and American drink, but it is supplanted by whiskey with even George Washington getting in on the game. Jefferson however laments this as both a statesman, and a wine aficionado - calling wine, the only antidote to the bane of whiskey. "No nation is drunken where wine is cheap, and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage" (Standage, 127).
A fascinating account of the origin of coffee
"One tells of an Ethiopian goatherd who noticed that is flock became particularly frisky after consuming the brownish purple cherries from a particular tree. He then tried eating them himself, noted their stimulating powers, and passed his discovery on to a local imam. The imam, in turn, devised a new way to prepare the berries, drying them and then boiling them in water to produce a hot drink, which he used to keep himself awake during overnight religious ceremonies. Another story tells of a man named Omar who was condemned to die of starvation in the desert outside Mocha, a city in Yemen, on the southwestern corner of the Arabian peninsula. A vision guided him to a coffee tree, whereupon he ate some of its berries. This gave him sufficient strength to return to Mocha, where his survival was taken as a sign that God had spared him in order to pass along to humankind knowledge of coffee, which then became a popular drink in Mocha" (Standage, 137).
Might be a funny short story:
Not everyone in the arabic world was thrilled with discovery of coffee. "Religious leaders invoked this rule in Mecca in June 1511, the earliest known of several attempts to ban the consumption of coffee. The local governor, a man named Kha'ir Beg, who was responsible for maintaining public morality, literally put coffee on trial. He convened a council of legal experts and placed the accused - a large vessel of coffee - before them. After discussion of its intoxicating effects, the council agreed with Kha'ir Beg that the sale and consumption of coffee should be prohibited... Within a few months, however, higher authorities in Cairo overturned Kha'ir Beg's ruling, and coffee was soon being openly consumed again. His authority undermined, Kha'ir Beg was replaced as governor the following year" (Standage, 138).
Another funny short story surrounding coffee, might be one reported in the Spectator (London paper) in 1712.
"There was a fellow in town some years ago, who used to divert himself by telling a lye at Charing Cross in the morning at eight of the clock, and then following it through all parts of town until eight at night: at which time he came to a club of his friends, and diverted them with an account of what censure it had drawn at Will's in Covent Garden, how dangerous it was believed at Child's and what inference they drew from it with relation to stocks at Jonathon's" (Standage, 154).
This was a well-written and well-researched book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Showing posts with label Ancient Near East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ancient Near East. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
1980
"About the life of Pythagoras we know almost nothing; we know even less about his views, as distinguished from those of his followers" (Jones, 31).
-Probably born in Samos off the coast of Asia Minor and emigrated to Southern Italy around 530 BC
-Founded a society, primarily a religious society in Croton. The society conducted some scientific research and dominated the politics of Croton for a time. The science they practiced seemed to be a part of their worship of god.
-Pythagoras was both scientific and religious
-The religious temperament of Greece was changing around the time of Pythagoras. The Olympic gods were being given lip service and the old Greek notion of religion with it. The quest for immortality was gaining sway as a new worship of Dionysus began to sweep through Greece.
-The worship of Dionysus was scandalous to the conservative Greeks. "The ceremonies took place, often at night, in remote places, and women - the scandal of conservative males - took a prominent part in them. In a frenzy of intoxication the worshipers tore living animals apart, drank their blood, and danced to the point of exhaustion. They felt the spirit of the god pass into their bodies; the union so passionately desired was consummated, and the worshipers exulted in a supreme happiness and utter freedom from any sort of restraint" (Jones, 32). This was a far cry between the business like transactions made between the earlier Greeks and the gods of Olympus.
The Pythagoreans took the Bacchic rites of worship and elevated it to an intellectual level. Rather than using wine to achieve intoxication, the Pythagoreans used music to purify their soul.
-The Pythagoreans believed in an immortal soul that passed through a cycle of births, coming back as different things determined by the kind of life led by the soul in the preceding existence.
-The goal of the Pythagoreans was to be released from the cycle of birth and death. It was accomplished through attaining wisdom.
There were three types of men in the Pythagorean system (stated in allegorical form based on the Olympic games)
1) The lovers of gain - those who sold souvenirs
2) The lovers of honor - the competitors
3) The lovers of knowledge - the spectators
The idea was that the Pythagoreans, by contemplating on the eternal truths to which their science afforded them access to would eventually lead to their escape from the cycle of birth and death.
For the Milesian three the use of science was to satisfy human curiosity and had some practical application. For the Pythagoreans the use of science was the method to spiritual redemption.
Mathematics was the principle science of the religion of the Pythagoreans. The tetraktys played an important part in their cosmology. (Tetraktys are triangle numbers in sequence, 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4, etc.)
They also developed the arithmetic mean and the harmonic mean. They used this in their metaphysics and cosmology to show that the conflict of opposites, a key component in early Greek philosophy, could be solved by means of harmonizing. They also used the idea of the mean in medicine and ethics. In medicine, health was the mean of a harmony of opposites, neither too hot nor too cold. The use of the mean in ethics led to the idea of moderation that persists in later Greek thought.
Unlike the Milesian three and their disciples, the Pythagoreans were not monists. They were dualists. Their two principles were the Limit and the Unlimited. The Unlimited was a mass of indeterminacy and indefinities. The Limit was fire.
The Pythagoreans saw the cosmic order as having a unity that is in nature mathematical. "The Pythagoreans' most notable achievement, certainly, was the concept of the 'cosmos' - the notion that the universe is not a chaotic hodgepodge but a thoroughly ordered system in which every element is harmoniously related to every other" (Jones, 38). While this was already nascent in Greek thought, but the Pythagoreans made it explicit. This meant that the universe was completely knowable.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1972
-Pythagoras was one of the most intellectually important men of all time
-Demonstrative deductive mathematics began with Pythagoras
-Native of Samos, flourishing around 532 B.C.
-"Some say he was the son of a substantial citizen named Mnesarchos, others that he was the son of the god Apollo; I leave the reader to take his choice between these alternatives" (Russell, 29). This particular sentence might have been the one that truly made me enjoy reading Russell initially ten years ago.
-Samos, like Miletus, was a commercial city
-Samos was ruled by Polycrates, a tyrant not known for his moral scruples. He killed his two brothers and used his considerable navy as a nationalized piracy ring
-Samos grew in stature after Miletus was subdued by Persia
-Polycrates tried to play both sides against the middle in the Persian and Egyptian wars, and used his political enemies to do so. Eventually, this caught up with him and led to his crucifixion by the Persians.
-Despite being treacherous, Polycrates was a patron of the arts. Pythagoras however, did not like Polycrates and left Samos on account of him.
-After leaving Pythagoras may have visited Egypt and learned from that visit. Regardless if this is true or not, he ended up settling down at Croton, in Southern Italy.
- Like Miletus and Samos, the cities of southern Italy were commercial hubs.
- At Croton, Pythagoras founded a society with various disciples and school for mathematics
- Unfortunately Pythagoras wore out his welcome at Croton and left for another southern Italian city, Metapontion
-Pythagoras was both a mathematical thinker and a mystic. He founded a religion based on transmigration of souls. His religion was a sort of reformation of Orphism, which itself was a reformation of the religion of Bacchus or Dionysus
-Much of Pythagoras' religion was otherworldly, placed value in the unity of God and condemned the visible world as illusionary and bemoaned that it obscured the view of the real things.
Religious beliefs:
-believed the soul to be immortal
-the soul is transformed into other kinds of living things
-everything in existence is born again and so nothing is absolutely new
-everything that has life should be treated as family
-the rebirth cycle is the wheel of birth, to escape most effectively is to be a philosopher
"In the society that he founded, men and women were admitted on equal terms; property was held in common, and there was a common way of life. Even scientific and mathematical discoveries were deemed collective, and in a mystical sense due to Pythagoras even after his death" (Russell, 33).
Believed there to be three types of men:
1) lowest - those who buy and sell
2) middle - those who act and do things (the competitors)
3) highest - those who observe (the philosopher)
For Pythagoras the chief good was the contemplative life. Hence, the spectators/philosophers who contemplate are better than those that do/competitors. This is somewhat backwards to today's thoughts where those that do are considered more valuable than those that watch.
Pythagoras was a religious philosopher and a mathematical one. The contemplation that he achieved brought about mathematics for the sake of mathematics, it didn't need utility.
"Personal religion derived from ecstasy, theology from mathematics; and both are to be found in Pythagoras" (Russell, 37).
The combination of mathematics and theology began with Pythagoras.
Pythagoras is influential in numerous fields. What he began found its way into numerous thoughts/worldviews. "But for him, Christians would not have thought of Christ as the Word; but for him, theologians would not have sought logical proofs of God and immortality" (Russell, 37).
Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001
-"We hear more about Pythagoras than about any other Presocratic philosopher. For the school of thought to which he gave his name lasted for a millennium, and several works by later Pythagoreans have survived. Yet in many ways Pythagoras is the most obscure and perplexing of all the early thinkers" (Barnes, 28).
-The legend of Pythagoras rapidly built up around him.
-Isocrates mentions an interesting thing about Pythagoras: "He was the first to bring philosophy to Greece, and in particular he was concerned, more conspicuously than anyone else, with matters to do with sacrifices and temple purifications, thinking that even if this would gain him no advantage from the gods it would at least bring him high repute among men" (Barnes, 31).
Aristotle, in a lost work, attributes many miracles to Pythagoras. First, Pythagoras bit a poisonous snake that bit him and it killed the snake. Second, Pythagoras showed his thigh was made of gold. Third, he appeared in two cities simultaneously.
The teachings of Pythagoras can be divided into two categories: mathematico-metaphysical and moral.
Porphyry wrote that Pythagoras said that the soul was immortal, that it changed into other kinds of animals. He also stated that Pythagoras taught the history repeated itself from time to time and thus, nothing was ever truly new.
Diodorus wrote that Pythagoras was vegetarian because eating meat was horrible on account of the soul of the animal. He also wrote that Pythagoras claimed to remember his past life as Euphorbus who was killed by Menelaus in the Trojan war.
FUTURE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - Have Pythagoras be a charlatan. He sets up a community to do 'communal work for the good of the community' but it really just puffs up his own image.
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
1980
"About the life of Pythagoras we know almost nothing; we know even less about his views, as distinguished from those of his followers" (Jones, 31).
-Probably born in Samos off the coast of Asia Minor and emigrated to Southern Italy around 530 BC
-Founded a society, primarily a religious society in Croton. The society conducted some scientific research and dominated the politics of Croton for a time. The science they practiced seemed to be a part of their worship of god.
-Pythagoras was both scientific and religious
-The religious temperament of Greece was changing around the time of Pythagoras. The Olympic gods were being given lip service and the old Greek notion of religion with it. The quest for immortality was gaining sway as a new worship of Dionysus began to sweep through Greece.
-The worship of Dionysus was scandalous to the conservative Greeks. "The ceremonies took place, often at night, in remote places, and women - the scandal of conservative males - took a prominent part in them. In a frenzy of intoxication the worshipers tore living animals apart, drank their blood, and danced to the point of exhaustion. They felt the spirit of the god pass into their bodies; the union so passionately desired was consummated, and the worshipers exulted in a supreme happiness and utter freedom from any sort of restraint" (Jones, 32). This was a far cry between the business like transactions made between the earlier Greeks and the gods of Olympus.
The Pythagoreans took the Bacchic rites of worship and elevated it to an intellectual level. Rather than using wine to achieve intoxication, the Pythagoreans used music to purify their soul.
-The Pythagoreans believed in an immortal soul that passed through a cycle of births, coming back as different things determined by the kind of life led by the soul in the preceding existence.
-The goal of the Pythagoreans was to be released from the cycle of birth and death. It was accomplished through attaining wisdom.
There were three types of men in the Pythagorean system (stated in allegorical form based on the Olympic games)
1) The lovers of gain - those who sold souvenirs
2) The lovers of honor - the competitors
3) The lovers of knowledge - the spectators
The idea was that the Pythagoreans, by contemplating on the eternal truths to which their science afforded them access to would eventually lead to their escape from the cycle of birth and death.
For the Milesian three the use of science was to satisfy human curiosity and had some practical application. For the Pythagoreans the use of science was the method to spiritual redemption.
Mathematics was the principle science of the religion of the Pythagoreans. The tetraktys played an important part in their cosmology. (Tetraktys are triangle numbers in sequence, 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4, etc.)
They also developed the arithmetic mean and the harmonic mean. They used this in their metaphysics and cosmology to show that the conflict of opposites, a key component in early Greek philosophy, could be solved by means of harmonizing. They also used the idea of the mean in medicine and ethics. In medicine, health was the mean of a harmony of opposites, neither too hot nor too cold. The use of the mean in ethics led to the idea of moderation that persists in later Greek thought.
Unlike the Milesian three and their disciples, the Pythagoreans were not monists. They were dualists. Their two principles were the Limit and the Unlimited. The Unlimited was a mass of indeterminacy and indefinities. The Limit was fire.
The Pythagoreans saw the cosmic order as having a unity that is in nature mathematical. "The Pythagoreans' most notable achievement, certainly, was the concept of the 'cosmos' - the notion that the universe is not a chaotic hodgepodge but a thoroughly ordered system in which every element is harmoniously related to every other" (Jones, 38). While this was already nascent in Greek thought, but the Pythagoreans made it explicit. This meant that the universe was completely knowable.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1972
-Pythagoras was one of the most intellectually important men of all time
-Demonstrative deductive mathematics began with Pythagoras
-Native of Samos, flourishing around 532 B.C.
-"Some say he was the son of a substantial citizen named Mnesarchos, others that he was the son of the god Apollo; I leave the reader to take his choice between these alternatives" (Russell, 29). This particular sentence might have been the one that truly made me enjoy reading Russell initially ten years ago.
-Samos, like Miletus, was a commercial city
-Samos was ruled by Polycrates, a tyrant not known for his moral scruples. He killed his two brothers and used his considerable navy as a nationalized piracy ring
-Samos grew in stature after Miletus was subdued by Persia
-Polycrates tried to play both sides against the middle in the Persian and Egyptian wars, and used his political enemies to do so. Eventually, this caught up with him and led to his crucifixion by the Persians.
-Despite being treacherous, Polycrates was a patron of the arts. Pythagoras however, did not like Polycrates and left Samos on account of him.
-After leaving Pythagoras may have visited Egypt and learned from that visit. Regardless if this is true or not, he ended up settling down at Croton, in Southern Italy.
- Like Miletus and Samos, the cities of southern Italy were commercial hubs.
- At Croton, Pythagoras founded a society with various disciples and school for mathematics
- Unfortunately Pythagoras wore out his welcome at Croton and left for another southern Italian city, Metapontion
-Pythagoras was both a mathematical thinker and a mystic. He founded a religion based on transmigration of souls. His religion was a sort of reformation of Orphism, which itself was a reformation of the religion of Bacchus or Dionysus
-Much of Pythagoras' religion was otherworldly, placed value in the unity of God and condemned the visible world as illusionary and bemoaned that it obscured the view of the real things.
Religious beliefs:
-believed the soul to be immortal
-the soul is transformed into other kinds of living things
-everything in existence is born again and so nothing is absolutely new
-everything that has life should be treated as family
-the rebirth cycle is the wheel of birth, to escape most effectively is to be a philosopher
"In the society that he founded, men and women were admitted on equal terms; property was held in common, and there was a common way of life. Even scientific and mathematical discoveries were deemed collective, and in a mystical sense due to Pythagoras even after his death" (Russell, 33).
Believed there to be three types of men:
1) lowest - those who buy and sell
2) middle - those who act and do things (the competitors)
3) highest - those who observe (the philosopher)
For Pythagoras the chief good was the contemplative life. Hence, the spectators/philosophers who contemplate are better than those that do/competitors. This is somewhat backwards to today's thoughts where those that do are considered more valuable than those that watch.
Pythagoras was a religious philosopher and a mathematical one. The contemplation that he achieved brought about mathematics for the sake of mathematics, it didn't need utility.
"Personal religion derived from ecstasy, theology from mathematics; and both are to be found in Pythagoras" (Russell, 37).
The combination of mathematics and theology began with Pythagoras.
Pythagoras is influential in numerous fields. What he began found its way into numerous thoughts/worldviews. "But for him, Christians would not have thought of Christ as the Word; but for him, theologians would not have sought logical proofs of God and immortality" (Russell, 37).
Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001
-"We hear more about Pythagoras than about any other Presocratic philosopher. For the school of thought to which he gave his name lasted for a millennium, and several works by later Pythagoreans have survived. Yet in many ways Pythagoras is the most obscure and perplexing of all the early thinkers" (Barnes, 28).
-The legend of Pythagoras rapidly built up around him.
-Isocrates mentions an interesting thing about Pythagoras: "He was the first to bring philosophy to Greece, and in particular he was concerned, more conspicuously than anyone else, with matters to do with sacrifices and temple purifications, thinking that even if this would gain him no advantage from the gods it would at least bring him high repute among men" (Barnes, 31).
Aristotle, in a lost work, attributes many miracles to Pythagoras. First, Pythagoras bit a poisonous snake that bit him and it killed the snake. Second, Pythagoras showed his thigh was made of gold. Third, he appeared in two cities simultaneously.
The teachings of Pythagoras can be divided into two categories: mathematico-metaphysical and moral.
Porphyry wrote that Pythagoras said that the soul was immortal, that it changed into other kinds of animals. He also stated that Pythagoras taught the history repeated itself from time to time and thus, nothing was ever truly new.
Diodorus wrote that Pythagoras was vegetarian because eating meat was horrible on account of the soul of the animal. He also wrote that Pythagoras claimed to remember his past life as Euphorbus who was killed by Menelaus in the Trojan war.
FUTURE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - Have Pythagoras be a charlatan. He sets up a community to do 'communal work for the good of the community' but it really just puffs up his own image.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
The Rise of Greek Civilization - Part 1
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1972
Chapter 1 - The Rise of Greek Civilization
The rise of the Greeks to such extraordinary heights is surprising. Civilization had existed thousands of years prior to the Greeks popping up on the scene in Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. But, the Greeks supplied a number of crucial inventions to society: their art and literature is incredible, but their invention of mathematics, science and philosophy were crucial. They were the first to history rather than merely annals and "they speculated freely about the nature of the world and the ends of life, without being bound in the fetters of any inherited orthodoxy" (Russell, 3).
In Mesopotamian and Egyptian histories the civilizations were supported by great rivers. A king rose up and aristocracies formed by military men and priests grew up around the king to check his powers. The people were often serfs of the king and/or the aristocrats. While there are huge differences between Egyptian and Mesopotamian religions there was a strong connection between law and lawgivers (deities) that transformed both cultures. "The connection between religion and morality became continually closer throughout ancient times" (Russell, 5). Since the laws were associated with the state and the gods, breaking a law was sinful as well.
The Greek civilization seems to have sprung from the classical Cretan civilization The Minoans. The Minoan civilization was a commercial empire that transacted with Egypt and ancient Syria/Asia Minor. At some point they traveled to mainland Greece and became the Mycenaean Civilization either by conquest or integration with the local population. "The Mycenaean civilization, seen through a haze of legend, is that which is depicted in Homer" (Russell, 7).
"The Greeks came to Greece in three successive waves, first the Ionians, then the Achaeans, and last the Dorians" (Russell, 7). The Ionians adopted the Cretan civilization pretty much fully. The Achaeans displaced the Ionians and some of the remaining Mycenaean civilization. The Dorians destroyed the weakened Mycenaean civilization altogether.
"The Dorians retained the original Indo-European religion of their ancestors. The religion of Mycenaean times, however, lingered on, especially in the lower classes, and the religion of classical Greece was a blend of the two" (Russell, 8).
Some of the Greeks became farmers, but the ones who made impacts moved further into islands, Asia Minor, Sicily and Southern Italy where they became seafaring commercial opportunists. It was these Greeks that first impacted the world.
Because of the Greek landscape, independent communities sprang up on the mainland that were isolated from one another. Thus, various social systems developed simultaneously. Generally speaking though the development of society began with a sort of limited monarchy, then aristocracy before devolving into a rotating door of tyranny and democracy.
Bertrand Russell
1972
Chapter 1 - The Rise of Greek Civilization
The rise of the Greeks to such extraordinary heights is surprising. Civilization had existed thousands of years prior to the Greeks popping up on the scene in Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. But, the Greeks supplied a number of crucial inventions to society: their art and literature is incredible, but their invention of mathematics, science and philosophy were crucial. They were the first to history rather than merely annals and "they speculated freely about the nature of the world and the ends of life, without being bound in the fetters of any inherited orthodoxy" (Russell, 3).
In Mesopotamian and Egyptian histories the civilizations were supported by great rivers. A king rose up and aristocracies formed by military men and priests grew up around the king to check his powers. The people were often serfs of the king and/or the aristocrats. While there are huge differences between Egyptian and Mesopotamian religions there was a strong connection between law and lawgivers (deities) that transformed both cultures. "The connection between religion and morality became continually closer throughout ancient times" (Russell, 5). Since the laws were associated with the state and the gods, breaking a law was sinful as well.
The Greek civilization seems to have sprung from the classical Cretan civilization The Minoans. The Minoan civilization was a commercial empire that transacted with Egypt and ancient Syria/Asia Minor. At some point they traveled to mainland Greece and became the Mycenaean Civilization either by conquest or integration with the local population. "The Mycenaean civilization, seen through a haze of legend, is that which is depicted in Homer" (Russell, 7).
"The Greeks came to Greece in three successive waves, first the Ionians, then the Achaeans, and last the Dorians" (Russell, 7). The Ionians adopted the Cretan civilization pretty much fully. The Achaeans displaced the Ionians and some of the remaining Mycenaean civilization. The Dorians destroyed the weakened Mycenaean civilization altogether.
"The Dorians retained the original Indo-European religion of their ancestors. The religion of Mycenaean times, however, lingered on, especially in the lower classes, and the religion of classical Greece was a blend of the two" (Russell, 8).
Some of the Greeks became farmers, but the ones who made impacts moved further into islands, Asia Minor, Sicily and Southern Italy where they became seafaring commercial opportunists. It was these Greeks that first impacted the world.
Because of the Greek landscape, independent communities sprang up on the mainland that were isolated from one another. Thus, various social systems developed simultaneously. Generally speaking though the development of society began with a sort of limited monarchy, then aristocracy before devolving into a rotating door of tyranny and democracy.
Notes on Early Greek Philosophy (Precursors)
Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001
Thales, though considered the first philosopher, did not operate from an absolute starting point. Instead he drew on two primary sources that influenced his philosophy. The first was his pre-philosophic Greek writers, mainly poets. Two of these were most definitely Homer and Hesiod. Especially in Hesiod's Theogony you see an order forming.
Hesiod claims that the 'race of immortals who exist forever' came from first the Expanse. Expanse bore Darkness and Night. Night bore Ether and Day by joining with Love. Earth and Heaven and Mountains and Sea and Ocean were born as well as other gods. The account of the origins of the earth by Hesiod wasn't scientific, but a scientific story as many of the gods are personifications of naturally occurring phenomena.
What is interesting about Hesiod's origin of the gods poem is that later philosophers used the problem of infinite regress to refute him. Diogenes Laeritus, writing in the 5th century BC basically asks, if Expanse came first How could that be? He had nothing to come from and nowhere to go in the beginning so Expanse couldn't have come first. Therefore, "These things existed always" (Barnes, 5). Likewise Sextus Empiricus (circa 160-210 AD) recounts how Epicurus turned to philosophy. When Epicurus asked the schoolmaster what Expanse came from if it came first, the teacher replied it wasn't his job to explain that, it was the job of the philosopher. From that moment Epicurus took up the mantle of philosophy.
Many of the later ancient Greeks seemed to think think that the early Pre-Socratics got their philosophy going when they visited eastern lands like Assyria and Egypt. In fact there are some resemblances between Hesiod's cosmology and that of the Babylonian Epic the Enuma Elishu and that of the Egyptian Creation Myth.
For Barnes though, "Both the Babylonian and the Egyptian stories bear comparison with Hesiod as examples of mythical cosmogony. Many scholars compare stories more directly with Greek philosophy, suggesting (for example) that Thales' ideas about the importance of water may derive from the primordial significance of Mummu-Tiamat and Nun. To me Thales seems to live in a different and a more luminous world" (Barnes, 8). In other words, while there are superficial resemblances to the precursors to the Pre-Socratics and the creation myths of the Ancient Near East, Thales seems to be a break from those in a more philosophical/scientific way of thinking than the much earlier mythical cosmologies.
Jonathan Barnes
2001
Thales, though considered the first philosopher, did not operate from an absolute starting point. Instead he drew on two primary sources that influenced his philosophy. The first was his pre-philosophic Greek writers, mainly poets. Two of these were most definitely Homer and Hesiod. Especially in Hesiod's Theogony you see an order forming.
Hesiod claims that the 'race of immortals who exist forever' came from first the Expanse. Expanse bore Darkness and Night. Night bore Ether and Day by joining with Love. Earth and Heaven and Mountains and Sea and Ocean were born as well as other gods. The account of the origins of the earth by Hesiod wasn't scientific, but a scientific story as many of the gods are personifications of naturally occurring phenomena.
What is interesting about Hesiod's origin of the gods poem is that later philosophers used the problem of infinite regress to refute him. Diogenes Laeritus, writing in the 5th century BC basically asks, if Expanse came first How could that be? He had nothing to come from and nowhere to go in the beginning so Expanse couldn't have come first. Therefore, "These things existed always" (Barnes, 5). Likewise Sextus Empiricus (circa 160-210 AD) recounts how Epicurus turned to philosophy. When Epicurus asked the schoolmaster what Expanse came from if it came first, the teacher replied it wasn't his job to explain that, it was the job of the philosopher. From that moment Epicurus took up the mantle of philosophy.
Many of the later ancient Greeks seemed to think think that the early Pre-Socratics got their philosophy going when they visited eastern lands like Assyria and Egypt. In fact there are some resemblances between Hesiod's cosmology and that of the Babylonian Epic the Enuma Elishu and that of the Egyptian Creation Myth.
For Barnes though, "Both the Babylonian and the Egyptian stories bear comparison with Hesiod as examples of mythical cosmogony. Many scholars compare stories more directly with Greek philosophy, suggesting (for example) that Thales' ideas about the importance of water may derive from the primordial significance of Mummu-Tiamat and Nun. To me Thales seems to live in a different and a more luminous world" (Barnes, 8). In other words, while there are superficial resemblances to the precursors to the Pre-Socratics and the creation myths of the Ancient Near East, Thales seems to be a break from those in a more philosophical/scientific way of thinking than the much earlier mythical cosmologies.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Voltaire - Abbé & Abraham
I love Voltaire's sarcasm and wit. This is the first of many entries on Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, translated by Peter Gay. Just a sample of his sarcasm comes in his Preface to the Seventh Edition: "This book will be read by enlightened persons alone, the common herd are not made for such knowledge, philosophy will never be their portion. Those who say there are truths that should be hidden from the people need not feel any alarm; the common people do not read; they work six days a week and go to the tavern on the seventh" (Voltaire, 56). I have read this volume before, though I don't know how fully so there may be some posts in other journals that will be added here duplicating these. But, that is ok for me - sorry, if it bores the readers, of which I am sure there are only a few enlightened ones.
Abbé
Voltaire notes the distinction between a father (Abbé means father) and a Father of some group of monks. A father does a work for the state; he does the best thing a man can do - causing the birth of a human being. But a Father of some Abby has become a perverse office. In the beginning they were poor men leading other poor men. Now they are corrupt and rich. Sarcastically, he encourages them to enrich themselves to the fullest at the downfall of the common man. But, he warns them to tremble, "lest the day of reason arrive" (Voltaire, 58).
Abraham
The post on Abraham is a scathing, anti-Semitic rant. But in some of the shrillness of the article he poses some difficulties for Christians to tend with. First, he brings up the age question of Abraham. The ages of the Old Testament patriarchs are definitely difficult to deal with for the believer. The second point of difficulty he brings up is the fact that Abraham passed his wife off as his sister to the king of Egypt and the king in the desert. While Voltaire attacks this from numerous angles, the angle I'm most concerned with is the moral aspect. If Abraham is the father of the Jews and through spiritual descent the father of Christians everywhere are we to absolve Abraham of this lie? What are we to do with it? I haven't answers at the moment, but it is a question to be asked.
Now his attack on why we give credit to the Jews rather than the more ancient established cultures like that of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and Phoenicia is much easier for me to understand. He claims that "The Jews, then, treat their history and ancient fables as their peddlers treat their old clothes: they turn them and sell them for new as dearly as possible" (Voltaire, 61). Firstly, that shows some of Voltaire's racist tendencies towards the Jews, earlier he speaks of the Jews as "our masters and our enemies, whom we believe in and detest" (Voltaire, 58). But, the sum of his argument is that the Israelites were relative newcomers on the scene in the Ancient Near East, surrounded by powerful and more ancient civilizations like the aforementioned societies. Why then do we give credit to the Jews and not these others? He claims that the name Abraham or Ibrahim, comes from Babylonians and that the Jews gave names to God such as Eloi, Eloa, Adonai, and Jehovah after the Phoenician usage. I'll disregard his skepticism about the historicity of Abraham at this point. Just because the journey of Abraham seems to difficult to have been done is not a valid argument for it not having been undertaken. (The age question still persists though). But, as for language it is only natural that languages adopt from their neighbors. Also, on a more fundamental level the commonality of language and religion throughout the region (and really throughout the world) often leads those skeptical of the existence of God, or of organized religion to point out that the similarities between the religions automatically show that religion is man-made, hence the similarities. But, a counter point to this is that the similarities of religious sentiment could also point to the fact that there is a truth behind all of these religions and some of the closeness of religion throughout the world is actually a testament to the existence of God, or the event of the flood, or other shared "fables" across world religions. He ends this article with an elevation of the Greeks above the Jews. "A man must be either a great ignoramus or a great rascal to say that the Jews taught the Greeks" (Voltaire, 62). Even in the Greek philosophy, which is highly sophisticated we can weave it in to this commonality theory. Not, so much a commonality theory as a divine plan theory. To some God gave a similar vein of religion to pave the way for the human understanding and eventual acceptance of Him. To some he gave Philosophy to pave the path for understanding Him. To others he gave some ineffable, mystical experience. To all he gave a general revelation. To the Jews he gave the Chosen revelation. And through the Jews he gave Christ and at that moment all the other paths were the framework for which Christ could be understood culturally. The other paths were not paths to salvation, but paths to the one way to salvation.
Abbé
Voltaire notes the distinction between a father (Abbé means father) and a Father of some group of monks. A father does a work for the state; he does the best thing a man can do - causing the birth of a human being. But a Father of some Abby has become a perverse office. In the beginning they were poor men leading other poor men. Now they are corrupt and rich. Sarcastically, he encourages them to enrich themselves to the fullest at the downfall of the common man. But, he warns them to tremble, "lest the day of reason arrive" (Voltaire, 58).
Abraham
The post on Abraham is a scathing, anti-Semitic rant. But in some of the shrillness of the article he poses some difficulties for Christians to tend with. First, he brings up the age question of Abraham. The ages of the Old Testament patriarchs are definitely difficult to deal with for the believer. The second point of difficulty he brings up is the fact that Abraham passed his wife off as his sister to the king of Egypt and the king in the desert. While Voltaire attacks this from numerous angles, the angle I'm most concerned with is the moral aspect. If Abraham is the father of the Jews and through spiritual descent the father of Christians everywhere are we to absolve Abraham of this lie? What are we to do with it? I haven't answers at the moment, but it is a question to be asked.
Now his attack on why we give credit to the Jews rather than the more ancient established cultures like that of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and Phoenicia is much easier for me to understand. He claims that "The Jews, then, treat their history and ancient fables as their peddlers treat their old clothes: they turn them and sell them for new as dearly as possible" (Voltaire, 61). Firstly, that shows some of Voltaire's racist tendencies towards the Jews, earlier he speaks of the Jews as "our masters and our enemies, whom we believe in and detest" (Voltaire, 58). But, the sum of his argument is that the Israelites were relative newcomers on the scene in the Ancient Near East, surrounded by powerful and more ancient civilizations like the aforementioned societies. Why then do we give credit to the Jews and not these others? He claims that the name Abraham or Ibrahim, comes from Babylonians and that the Jews gave names to God such as Eloi, Eloa, Adonai, and Jehovah after the Phoenician usage. I'll disregard his skepticism about the historicity of Abraham at this point. Just because the journey of Abraham seems to difficult to have been done is not a valid argument for it not having been undertaken. (The age question still persists though). But, as for language it is only natural that languages adopt from their neighbors. Also, on a more fundamental level the commonality of language and religion throughout the region (and really throughout the world) often leads those skeptical of the existence of God, or of organized religion to point out that the similarities between the religions automatically show that religion is man-made, hence the similarities. But, a counter point to this is that the similarities of religious sentiment could also point to the fact that there is a truth behind all of these religions and some of the closeness of religion throughout the world is actually a testament to the existence of God, or the event of the flood, or other shared "fables" across world religions. He ends this article with an elevation of the Greeks above the Jews. "A man must be either a great ignoramus or a great rascal to say that the Jews taught the Greeks" (Voltaire, 62). Even in the Greek philosophy, which is highly sophisticated we can weave it in to this commonality theory. Not, so much a commonality theory as a divine plan theory. To some God gave a similar vein of religion to pave the way for the human understanding and eventual acceptance of Him. To some he gave Philosophy to pave the path for understanding Him. To others he gave some ineffable, mystical experience. To all he gave a general revelation. To the Jews he gave the Chosen revelation. And through the Jews he gave Christ and at that moment all the other paths were the framework for which Christ could be understood culturally. The other paths were not paths to salvation, but paths to the one way to salvation.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
The Milesians & Pythagorus according to Russell
(Originally written February 6, 2014 on scrap paper)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Book I
Chapter II - The Milesian School
Thales, circa 585 BC, believed that water was the original substance out of which all other things were formed, magnets had a soul because they moved iron and that all things were full of gods.
Anaximander, born circa 610 BC, slightly younger than Thales, also believed that all things came from an original substance. Unlike Thales, who thought this was water, Anaximander taught that the original substance was an eternal, infinite substance.
Anaximander believed that this original substance was transformed into empirical substances (i.e. fire, water, etc.) and then transformed back again. Each of the empirically observable substances wished to enlarge itself at the expense of others, but a cosmic justice superseded the elements and kept them in check.
Justice - a profound Greek belief, taught that each thing had an eternally fixed proportion and that when things began to overstep their bounds a correction would take place. This justice bound both the natural and supernatural, man and god alike. However, this justice, though being supreme over man and god, was not a supreme god.
Anaximander taught a sort of evolutionary theory. "Man, like every other animal, was descended from fishes" (Russell, 27). Unlike Darwinian reasoning though, Anaximander used a rational argument to support his theory. The length of human infancy is too long for it to have been the original state; otherwise, man would have not survived.
Anaximenes, the third of the Milesians, held that the fundamental substance was air.
The soul is air. Fire is rarefied air. Water is condensed air. Very condensed air is earth.
The Milesian school was, though crude, very scientific in nature. There was limited religious nature in it.
Miletus was a cultural melting pot. Greek religion and thought mixed with successful commercial activity brought in by both Egyptian and Babylonian and fused with the thinking. This blending of culture provided the spark for philosophical thinking to begin.
Chapter III - Pythagorus
"Pythagorus was intellectually one of the most important men that ever lived, both when he was wise and when he was unwise" (Russell, 29).
Pythagorus combined mysticism and mathematics. He was a reformer of Orphic traditions, itself a reformed worship of Bacchus. In this way, Pythagorus took an already mystical transformation of Bacchic rites and made it even more intellectually bent.
Pythagorus put more stock in the otherworldly, relegated the physical world to the illusionary. He taught the transmigration of souls and taught that the soul was immortal.
The body is a tomb of the soul. However, suicide is not an option without permission of God.
There are three classes of men: those who buy and sell (the lowest), the participants, like those at the Olympics and the spectators who simply think on the doings of the participants. These are the philosophers and by doing this, they can achieve release from the wheel of birth.
In Pythagorean thought, because the contemplative life was the achievement of all that is worth achievement, mathematics took on a sort of ecstatic context. Discovery in mathematics was sort of an intoxicating experience - a oneness with god.
Pythagorus embodies two diverging views of religion. Personal religion is derived from ecstasy - union with God; theology is derived from mathematics. Theology is derived from mathematics as it takes the shape of geometry. Geometry (Euclidian) starts with axioms deemed to be self-evident and then derives theorems from deductive reasoning. Theology proceeds in a similar fashion. Pythagorus embodied both personal religion (mystical nature) and theology (a system based on deductive reasoning).
Russell seems to be doing a bit of this geometry when he states "But for him (Pythagorus), Christians would not have thought of Christ as the Word; but for him, theologians would not have sought a logical proof of God and immortality. But, in him all this is implicit. How it became explicit will appear" (Russell, 37). And now from the axiom that Pythagorus began the long tradition of mathematical theology (an axiom deemed self-evident by Russell we shall see the theorems...)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Book I
Chapter II - The Milesian School
Thales, circa 585 BC, believed that water was the original substance out of which all other things were formed, magnets had a soul because they moved iron and that all things were full of gods.
Anaximander, born circa 610 BC, slightly younger than Thales, also believed that all things came from an original substance. Unlike Thales, who thought this was water, Anaximander taught that the original substance was an eternal, infinite substance.
Anaximander believed that this original substance was transformed into empirical substances (i.e. fire, water, etc.) and then transformed back again. Each of the empirically observable substances wished to enlarge itself at the expense of others, but a cosmic justice superseded the elements and kept them in check.
Justice - a profound Greek belief, taught that each thing had an eternally fixed proportion and that when things began to overstep their bounds a correction would take place. This justice bound both the natural and supernatural, man and god alike. However, this justice, though being supreme over man and god, was not a supreme god.
Anaximander taught a sort of evolutionary theory. "Man, like every other animal, was descended from fishes" (Russell, 27). Unlike Darwinian reasoning though, Anaximander used a rational argument to support his theory. The length of human infancy is too long for it to have been the original state; otherwise, man would have not survived.
Anaximenes, the third of the Milesians, held that the fundamental substance was air.
The soul is air. Fire is rarefied air. Water is condensed air. Very condensed air is earth.
The Milesian school was, though crude, very scientific in nature. There was limited religious nature in it.
Miletus was a cultural melting pot. Greek religion and thought mixed with successful commercial activity brought in by both Egyptian and Babylonian and fused with the thinking. This blending of culture provided the spark for philosophical thinking to begin.
Chapter III - Pythagorus
"Pythagorus was intellectually one of the most important men that ever lived, both when he was wise and when he was unwise" (Russell, 29).
Pythagorus combined mysticism and mathematics. He was a reformer of Orphic traditions, itself a reformed worship of Bacchus. In this way, Pythagorus took an already mystical transformation of Bacchic rites and made it even more intellectually bent.
Pythagorus put more stock in the otherworldly, relegated the physical world to the illusionary. He taught the transmigration of souls and taught that the soul was immortal.
The body is a tomb of the soul. However, suicide is not an option without permission of God.
There are three classes of men: those who buy and sell (the lowest), the participants, like those at the Olympics and the spectators who simply think on the doings of the participants. These are the philosophers and by doing this, they can achieve release from the wheel of birth.
In Pythagorean thought, because the contemplative life was the achievement of all that is worth achievement, mathematics took on a sort of ecstatic context. Discovery in mathematics was sort of an intoxicating experience - a oneness with god.
Pythagorus embodies two diverging views of religion. Personal religion is derived from ecstasy - union with God; theology is derived from mathematics. Theology is derived from mathematics as it takes the shape of geometry. Geometry (Euclidian) starts with axioms deemed to be self-evident and then derives theorems from deductive reasoning. Theology proceeds in a similar fashion. Pythagorus embodied both personal religion (mystical nature) and theology (a system based on deductive reasoning).
Russell seems to be doing a bit of this geometry when he states "But for him (Pythagorus), Christians would not have thought of Christ as the Word; but for him, theologians would not have sought a logical proof of God and immortality. But, in him all this is implicit. How it became explicit will appear" (Russell, 37). And now from the axiom that Pythagorus began the long tradition of mathematical theology (an axiom deemed self-evident by Russell we shall see the theorems...)
Sunday, July 16, 2006
The Religious Development of the Jews
(Originally written July 16, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter I - The Religious Development of the Jews
"The Christian religion, as it was handed over by the late Roman Empire to the Barbarians consisted of three elements: first, certain philosophical beliefs, derived mainly from Plato and the Neoplatonists, but also in part from the Stoics; second, a conception of morals and history derived from the Jews; and thirdly, certain theories, more especially as to salvation, were on the whole new in Christianity though in part traceable to Orphism, and to kindred cults of the Near East" (Russell, 308).
Russell believes these six things are the most important Jewish elements in Christianity:
1) A sacred history: from Creation to an end in the future, with it a way of justifying God's ways to man.
2) The Existence a small section of mankind who God specially loves.
3) A new conception of righteousness
4) The Law
5) The Messiah
6) The Kingdom of Heaven
Linehan - if the Messiah is the fifth most important thing Christianity got from Jewish tradition than Christianity is merely a philosophical theory and not a very consistent one. Actually, Russell is just way off. Without Christ (the Messiah) there would be no Christianity. The most important thing Christianity took from Judaism is obviously Christ himself.
Jewish religion undertook a drastic change when they were in captivity.
The 1st commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me' was a new innovation in religion. Monotheism in a strict sense was very new.
"Jeremiah and Ezekiel seem to invented the idea that all religions except one are false, and that the Lord punished idolatry" (Russell, 310).
The Jewish religion became exclusive and fiercely nationalistic. The Jews distinguished themselves from other ancient peoples through fierce national pride. Unlike all other ancient peoples, the Jews never conformed when they were conquered.
Sidenote: It's hard to take Russell's words seriously because he is misrepresenting when the Books of the Old Testament were written. Russell claims that the Law was written post-exile, in order to preserve national unity. He claims the Book of Isaiah is written by two prophets - one pre-exile and one post-exile. The second prophet, 'Deuteron-Isaiah' is what is used in Messianic prophecies by Christians. Sidenote done.
The Jewish kingdom remained a small theocracy state after Ezra and Nehemiah. The theocracy existed around Jerusalem and was a disputed territory between the Ptolemies and Seleucids.
The Jews lived under their own rule for a while until the Seleucid king, King Antiochus IV was determined to hellenize his whole kingdom. The Jews rebelled against Antiochus IV in 170 B.C. when the Seleucids fought against Egypt. Then, Antiochus identified Yahweh with Zeus and the Jews everywhere outside of Jerusalem rebelled. This caused the Maccabean revolution. This is also (Russell contends) when Jews began to fully adhere to their strict morality.
Russell attacks religion by belittling the Jews belief and pointing out 'trivial' things they fought for. "The Jews of this time showed immense heroism, although in defense of things that do not strike us as important, such as circumcision and the wickedness of eating pork" (Russell, 316).
King Herod replaced the Maccabees through Marc Antony's help. The Jews didn't like him but suffered him well. The Zealots wanted to overthrow him and Roman rule entirely however.
In A.D. 66 the Zealots got the revolt they were looking for but were defeated and the Jewish Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.
Philo, a Jewish philosopher who lived around the time of Christ is the best illustration of how a Jew can be influenced by Greek thought. Phil was orthodox in religion, but Platonic in philosophy. He was used by the Church Fathers to reconcile the Scriptures with Greek thought.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter I - The Religious Development of the Jews
"The Christian religion, as it was handed over by the late Roman Empire to the Barbarians consisted of three elements: first, certain philosophical beliefs, derived mainly from Plato and the Neoplatonists, but also in part from the Stoics; second, a conception of morals and history derived from the Jews; and thirdly, certain theories, more especially as to salvation, were on the whole new in Christianity though in part traceable to Orphism, and to kindred cults of the Near East" (Russell, 308).
Russell believes these six things are the most important Jewish elements in Christianity:
1) A sacred history: from Creation to an end in the future, with it a way of justifying God's ways to man.
2) The Existence a small section of mankind who God specially loves.
3) A new conception of righteousness
4) The Law
5) The Messiah
6) The Kingdom of Heaven
Linehan - if the Messiah is the fifth most important thing Christianity got from Jewish tradition than Christianity is merely a philosophical theory and not a very consistent one. Actually, Russell is just way off. Without Christ (the Messiah) there would be no Christianity. The most important thing Christianity took from Judaism is obviously Christ himself.
Jewish religion undertook a drastic change when they were in captivity.
The 1st commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me' was a new innovation in religion. Monotheism in a strict sense was very new.
"Jeremiah and Ezekiel seem to invented the idea that all religions except one are false, and that the Lord punished idolatry" (Russell, 310).
The Jewish religion became exclusive and fiercely nationalistic. The Jews distinguished themselves from other ancient peoples through fierce national pride. Unlike all other ancient peoples, the Jews never conformed when they were conquered.
Sidenote: It's hard to take Russell's words seriously because he is misrepresenting when the Books of the Old Testament were written. Russell claims that the Law was written post-exile, in order to preserve national unity. He claims the Book of Isaiah is written by two prophets - one pre-exile and one post-exile. The second prophet, 'Deuteron-Isaiah' is what is used in Messianic prophecies by Christians. Sidenote done.
The Jewish kingdom remained a small theocracy state after Ezra and Nehemiah. The theocracy existed around Jerusalem and was a disputed territory between the Ptolemies and Seleucids.
The Jews lived under their own rule for a while until the Seleucid king, King Antiochus IV was determined to hellenize his whole kingdom. The Jews rebelled against Antiochus IV in 170 B.C. when the Seleucids fought against Egypt. Then, Antiochus identified Yahweh with Zeus and the Jews everywhere outside of Jerusalem rebelled. This caused the Maccabean revolution. This is also (Russell contends) when Jews began to fully adhere to their strict morality.
Russell attacks religion by belittling the Jews belief and pointing out 'trivial' things they fought for. "The Jews of this time showed immense heroism, although in defense of things that do not strike us as important, such as circumcision and the wickedness of eating pork" (Russell, 316).
King Herod replaced the Maccabees through Marc Antony's help. The Jews didn't like him but suffered him well. The Zealots wanted to overthrow him and Roman rule entirely however.
In A.D. 66 the Zealots got the revolt they were looking for but were defeated and the Jewish Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.
Philo, a Jewish philosopher who lived around the time of Christ is the best illustration of how a Jew can be influenced by Greek thought. Phil was orthodox in religion, but Platonic in philosophy. He was used by the Church Fathers to reconcile the Scriptures with Greek thought.
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