Origin of Medicine Symbol

[Cilla]

Alextemplet wrote: 'I think that in today's culture, especially in academice fields, there seems to be an attitude among some scholars that if it's in the Bible it must be wrong. For example one person here tried to say that Greek mythology predates the Bible, even though this example is from the Book of Numbers which predates the Greeks by several hundred years. Some people also try to claim that there's no evidence that Jesus existed, which completely ignores the evidence that He did.'


Oh, the Bible is not wrong, and the reason for the attitude among even some of the most learned within academe is, perhaps, down to old snake features himself.

As to whether the gods and goddesses within Greek mythology predate the events recorded in the Bible or not, I do not know. A lot would depend on the meaning you choose to ascribe to their existence. I once heard a person say that they were part of the throng of angels with beautiful faces who fell from heaven in accordance with the apostacy of their archangel, Lucifer, the bringer of light, and sometime serpent.

If, on the other hand, you do not believe in demoniacal forces, or transforming angels, or think that, while these may exist, the gods and goddesses of the Greeks have nothing to do with them, being as they are only part of a nation's collective intellectual mythology, then I suppose the Bible would have come first.

There again, the Bible was first written in Greek, before being translated into Latin, and then into the English of Shakespeare. Some scholars in Stratford-upon-Avon, or in its academic environs, are now of the opinion that the Bard himself may even have had an input to the beautiful Middle English found in the writing of the King James version.

Perhaps because of his classical education, and maybe because he would have felt the influence of the theological tumult of his days, any religious references found in his plays can usually be traced back to the gods of the Greeks.

In this sense, then, if the above is true, maybe everything that moves really is Greek in origin.

[alextemplet]

There again, the Bible was first written in Greek, before being translated into Latin, and then into the English of Shakespeare. Some scholars in Stratford-upon-Avon, or in its academic environs, are now of the opinion that the Bard himself may even have had an input to the beautiful Middle English found in the writing of the King James version.

Most of the Old Testament was orignally written in Hebrew before being translated into Greek, and in the case of the snake symbol, being part of the Book of Numbers, the Hebrew record predates the Greek by several centuries. The Hebrew was translated into a Greek version called the Septuagint about two hundred years before Christ; it was called the Septuagint because it was supposedly translated by 70 scholars in 70 days. It is this version from which most modern translations are derived, although some, such as the KJV and RSV, also take into account the original Hebrew. As far as I know only one or two versions were translated from Latin, and those that were have never been very popular because the extra step in translation degrades their accuracy. I'm not sure if Shakespeare had to do with the the KJV, since the langauge found in that version doesn't sound much like his plays, although I suppose a few of the psalms might have been influenced by him. The KJV also wan't the first English translation, either; that honor belongs to the Douey-Rheims version, a version published by the Catholic Church some years before the KJV. In fact, I believe King James' biggest reason for creating the KJV was that the English Catholics already had a vernacular Bible and he didn't want the Protestants to feel left out!

Everything being Greek? I doubt it, although the Greeks certainly played a significant part. As for the anti-Biblical attitude among some scholars, that's just downright foolish.

[Linn]

wow Alex,
I'm impressed you really did your homework on this!!!
Thanx for saving me to reply, I could not have said it better.
and you are accurate.

[alextemplet]

wow Alex,
I'm impressed you really did your homework on this!!!
Thanx for saving me to reply, I could not have said it better.
and you are accurate.

I can't let you be the only smart one around here, now can I?

[Linn]

aahh
come on I am no smarter than you are.

I just think too hard

[Cilla]

Hi Alex,

I too am very impressed by your wonderful and knowledgeable answer. Are you a theologist?

[alextemplet]

Hi Alex,

I too am very impressed by your wonderful and knowledgeable answer. Are you a theologist?

Hehe, I wish. No, I'm just a humble layman who enjoys studying theology. In fact my knowledge is much more now than it was a few months ago. Since then I've been trying to read the whole Bible cover-to-cover, and before I read each book I conduct a brief study of the history behind it and try to keep that in mind as I'm reading. It helps to provide a sense of context and makes it easier to understand what I read.

[mith]

ok peeps, save the congrats for PM

[alextemplet]

ok peeps, save the congrats for PM

Poste mideim? Afternoon? So no one can congratulate me in the morning?

PS - Sorry if my Latin is poor, I'm a bit rusty.

[mith]

Private messaging . I wish I had the power to suspend that privilege

[alextemplet]

Private messaging . I wish I had the power to suspend that privilege

If you did, people would just say what they would say in PMs in the actual forum, thus generating an awful lot of spam.

[mith]

ok, a mute button to suspend all posting privileges , it's like a temporary ban