What if the Old Testament were Pagan?

What distinguishes the witness of the prophets and the apostles, so that it can have this significance for the existence of the congregation and its proclamation to the world? After all, they were men fallible as we are, children of their time as we are of ours, and their spiritual horizon was as limited as ours—in significant ways, even more limited than ours. Whoever enjoys that sort of thing can again and again demonstrate that their natural science, conception of the world, and also to a great extent their morality cannot be binding for us. They told all sorts of sagas and legends and at least made free use of all kinds of mythological material. In many things they said—and in some important propositions—they contradicted each other. With few exceptions they were not remarkable theologians.

Barth, Karl, 1964 (2006), ‘God Here and Now‘, p.59

…and yet these Primitive Christians with more than a little help and authority from their Hebrew predecessors, managed to cook up a pretty climatic squeal to the Old Testament. In many ways I see the creation of the New Testament as very Pagan, in the sense that a bunch of believers, all with differing mythic images of Jesus, created an organic whole out of some pretty disparate and contradictory material. Over the years this organic tried and tested process continued trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, until finally after centuries a biblical canon was settled upon. No doubt a lot of politics had come into play way before this point. Nothing worked against the Creative Spirit of Christianity as insidiously as Church politics.

The writing of the New Testament was certainly off to a good start, Written from the perspective of many different Christian sects, sometimes interacting and other times not, over an estimated period of around 70 years. Yet, I imagine what the NT would of looked like if the Hebrew followers of the Most High hadn’t enforced their beliefs on the populace, eliminated the worship of other gods, creating an entirely different foundation for Jesus and the writers of the NT?

I do not object to a Pagan Bible, or numerous Pagan Scriptures. As long as the organic process of the Creative Spirit is left to do its thing. Who knows, in a time to come we may have an abundance of Pagan Sacred Texts, written by scattered individuals throughout the years across the globe? We just have to learn from the 3000 (give or take) years old lesson of how not to go about it.

“I do not object to a Pagan Bible, or numerous Pagan Scriptures. As long as the organic process of the Creative Spirit is left to do its thing.”

Monotheism is not the problem. Forcing people to become Monotheists is. Even today, while many have the opportunity to become followers of Christ through choice, this choice came at a terrible price, especially for the Pagans of old, who lost their cultures, there deities and their identities.

As long as New Pagans don’t take arms against the non-pagans enforcing the survivors to bow down before the deities, destroying identity and culture with an alien set of concepts of the sacred, I can’t really see a problem with Pagan sacred texts. Or a Pagan Monotheism for that matter.

As to the question of Oral Vs. Written sacred narrative. I’m willing to stick with the written. To me it does not damage the mythic expedience, although it has certainly canonized it. It’s interesting to think how myths would of transformed had they never been written down. Either way we win and we loss on that one. If it wasn’t for the Sumerians who recorded their myths on cuneiform tablets we wouldn’t have much to go on apart from later Babylonian priests and such. I’m sure that there are many Celtic mythologists, reconstructionists, witches and druids who wished that the Celts wrote down their myths, ritual practice and wisdom.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (2)

Frequently, I desire spiritual direction through the creative word. One of the elements of Christianity that I miss. Despite this, there are a multitude of Pagan wordsmiths online, ever ready to share their wisdom of experience with the online Pagan community. These creative individuals are my psychopomps, leading me through the cyclic ebb and flow of life’s labyrinthine. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”

As Hephaestus I am the protector of the outcasted people and the Unloved. For often the most beautiful comes from those with the greatest physical beauty, do you not agree? For beautiful art and other things created comes not from the body but from the heart and soul and mind. So worry not when the world laughs and jeers at you, stay strong and I will send you friends.

Pagan Dad: Sage/Dark God/Lord of the Underworld

I don’t mind being the first to try something. In fact, if I can be first, I prefer it. There’s a thrill in making my own path, and if others follow the precedent I’ve set and it makes life easier for them, that’s great, too.

The Spiritual Eclectic: 10 Quotes to Live Life By

And see what comes of trouble. What comes of our self dying. What is birthed into our self upon its death? At that very moment, we are birth and death with no separation. What will come?

The Wildest Branch: Of Burnt Thumbs and Other Songs

A magician can make everything that has happened have a reason. Crowley has a line in the oath of the abyss, “I will interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my soul.” The events in our lives may indeed be without meaning. However, if we view them from this perspective, a meaning appears. As subjective as this may seem, it is not. Someone that practices this often enough will find himself developing a inner intuition that specifically aids him in the work.

Doing Magic: Everything Happens for a Reason…if You So Choose

We take the Fool’s Journey and arrive at the beginning again, with a new arm of the spiral to traverse and explore.

Or perhaps it is better to say that we arrive, not at the beginning, but at the center, the Source.

meadowsweet & myrrh: Regarding Spiritual Growth