Sermon of the week: Myth and men

(In this 92nd installment of the UPI series of sermons, the Rev. Dr. Carsten Peter Thiede, who teaches early Christian archaeology in Basel, Switzerland, and serves as an Anglican chaplain with the rank of colonel to British forces in Germany, reflects on the reliability of the New Testament narrative.)

Christmas is behind us. We are approaching lent -- and then Easter. What are we celebrating in these holy seasons? Incarnation and resurrection myths, steeped in ancient near Eastern cult legends, as Christianity's detractors keep telling us?

According to a painstakingly detailed comparative analysis worked out by historians, nothing could be further from the truth. Let's look at the world of myth, religion and philosophy in New Testament times:

Ancient mysteries were purveyors of "good news", concerning the life of people on earth, and after death. To 1st-century people outside Judaism, the message of the first Christians was, at first glance, just another mystery, and it was the role of their own particular "myth" to tell the story.

Thus a Greek-speaking man in the Roman Empire of that period did not treat a "myth" as something negative. It simply was the oral and literary form of any given mystery cult.

Now, if we say just before receiving Holy Communion, "Let us proclaim the mystery of faith," and, "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again", then this is, formally speaking, quite in tune with what a message of "mystery" meant to the ancients.

The 3rd-century theologian Origen happily accepted the term "mystery" as a description of Christian teaching. But he emphasized one vital difference: The ancient mysteries were confined to a small number of festive days. Judaism and Christianity, by contrast, involve their adherents' whole life, every day, not merely on the Sabbath or on Sundays. Jewish and Christian practices are not occasional ceremonies but lifestyle.

True, these days they often resemble the ancient "special day" mysteries. Many people enter a church only once a year, to join in the proclamation of that mystery of faith which for the rest of the year is of no particular concern to them.

Christianity, going beyond the basis it shared with Judaism, introduced a decisive change from the ancient "myths," which were unhistorical, to wit the Isis and Osiris cult that had permeated the whole Empire in New Testament times.

They were mere tales told about gods and demigods who never existed. Most philosophers, beginning with Plato, and historians starting with Herodotus, refuted these tales. This is why the term, myth, acquired its modern, colloquial sense of something untrue, untrustworthy.

The Gospels are "myth" merely from a technical, classical perspective, as stories about a mystery. But the message of the Gospels is explicitly historical (cf., Luke 1:1-4; John 19:35, 21:24), about a person who really lived and was seen by many.

That person, Jesus, was at no-one's disposal, unlike the many cultic deities of the Empire. For it was impossible to invent or re-invent, use or misuse this God incarnate, according to one's own tastes.

The teachings about Jesus and his message may have been misinterpreted frequently in the Church history, but not because of a free-for-all mystery. Rather, readers and interpreters deviated from the message of the historical accounts -- and still do.

The Roman practice of taking over other peoples' gods illustrates what this meant in antiquity. When they laid siege to a city, they called on its god and demanded that he joined them. Obviously, no godhead appeared in person. But when the Romans successfully conquered the place, they interpreted their victory as proof that this god had indeed changed sides. So they built him a temple.

In New Testament times, the God of the Jews and Christians, and Jesus, were never within reach of such attitudes. Jesus did not join others -- in victory or in defeat. Instead, others joined him; they became his followers. Nothing like it had ever happened before.

At this stage, we can understand why the first Christians happily used the term "mystery" in their conversations and dialogues with non-Christians. It was a welcome starting point, facilitating the dialogue.

One example is Paul's argument with Athenian thinkers. Paul quoted to them the Greek philosopher Aratus about the one God ("We are of his kind", Aratus, 'Phainomena' 5; Luke, Acts 17:28). Only as a second step, did he introduce his audience to the decisive differences.

As for the many "myths", Christian teaching had to tackle them sooner rather than later. It happened in New Testament times, early on in the controversies between Christianity and its rivals. Five times, the Greek word "mythos" is used in the New Testament: 1 Timothy 1:4 and 4:7; 2 Timothy 4:4; Titus 1:14; 2 Peter 1:16.

Each of these passages deals with real, observable and well-documented conflicts:

-- The myths of the mystery cults celebrated in Ephesus and elsewhere (1 Timothy 1:4 and 4:7);

-- early stories about a different, philosophical rather than divine Jesus (2 Timothy 4:4 -- a myth believed by certain contemporary New Testament scholars, particularly those of the 'Jesus Seminar' in the U.S.);

-- post-biblical Jewish stories deviating from Old Testament teaching as Christians saw it (Titus 1:14).

The last of these five passages, 2 Peter 1:16, is particularly interesting: Here, the message of Jesus is directly contrasted with the "myths" prevalent in rival religions and cults.

No, Peter implies, ours is not a mystery cult based on "cleverly invented myths." Unlike all the others, it is historical truth: "We had seen his majesty with our own eyes".

Peter of course refers to the Transfiguration: "We ourselves heard his (God's) voice from heaven, when we were with him (Jesus) on the holy mountain" (2 Peter 1:17-18).

In a nutshell: So many aspects do look similar, at first glance. This is an ideal starting point for the Christian message. But Peter and others were uncompromising. Beware the temptation to become syncretistic in your theology.

The similarities end where the historical message of Jesus the Son of God begins. The "good news" of a godly life on earth, the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life in Christ is not yet another myth.

Jesus himself expressed this in John's Gospel, speaking "to the Jews who believed in him": "If you make my word your home, you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).