Greco-Roman Mythology's Influence on Christianity

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Religious Ideas")

The book, Hellenism and Christianity asserts that Christianity and Greco-Roman sentiment meshed and that this melding is evident from the very first Christian writings to the church of Thessalonica during the reign of Claudius. (Bevan and Allen 1921) The authors contend that the Christian writing takes the "old body of ideas, emotions, and desires which made up the mentality of the Greco-Roman world." (Bevan and Allen 1921) Ultimately, the authors argue, Christianity is nothing more than the fusion of the Greco-Roman world and a Christ based religion.
An article in Sociological Analysis also explains that the influence of the Greco-Roman World can be seen in the moral structure that Christians adapted. Nielson (1991) explains that,

"the concept of "natural law," is largely Stoic in inspiration, became merged with Christian ideas and experiences in several different ways. The ambiguities of this concept allowed early Christian apologists to argue ...

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undertaken in the name of the God of Abraham and Moses, found a sphere already prepared for itself." (Stark 1991)

Because of Diaspora Jews were exposed to Greco-Roman gods and myths. Many experts believe that this exposure led to the melding of the two cultures and the appearance of parallel myths throughout the bible.
In many cases Jews and Christians have denied that there is parallelism between the bible and Greco-Roman gods and Myths. They feel that comparing the word of god to paganism is blasphemous. However, the fact of the matter is there are many parallels between Greco-Roman myths and Christianity. Whether or not these comparisons are intentional of coincidental are of ...

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