home > pagan origins > eternal life | |
Stone age savages Of course the stone age savages who were our Western ancestors didn't leave us a written record of their beliefs, but in modern times life follows death in primitive societies around the world. | By the way |
Don't think of the ancient's Underworld or Hades, as Hell, a place uniquely of punishment. Think of it as Hades the place of the dead. The idea of the dead ascending had not yet developed -- but it would, in time for Christianity to borrow it. |
In pre-Columbian Nicaragua, the wicked died but immortal life was a gift to the good. In the Tongas islands of the Pacific, men of rank lived forever after death. An afterlife was part of the old cultures of Greenland and New Guinea. An so on. Interesting, but wide of our topic. Christians
believe in eternal life -- but Paganism believed in it first. |
Babylon & Assyria
We're talking about a Western civilization that started three
or four thousand years BC! For the Assyro- Babylonians, the soul
-- their word was ekimmu --
survived the death of the body and descended
to the underworld. The myth of the god Ishtar describes her descent into the underworld to bring back her lover to this world -- back to life. In the underworld Ishtar meets demons who punish the dead for sins committed during life. Sound familiar?
|
|
||||||||||
You probably know the Jews lost a war with the Babylonians in 586 BC, and were taken as captives back to Babylon, where they lived for generations. So you probably won't be surprised to learn the Babylonians had other myths you may find familiar: Their creation myth begins with a watery waste and an abyss that the great God Marduk gives shape and order. The myth of the first man, named Adamu Utnapistrum (often called the "Babylonian Noah") built and arc, collected animals, and saved the world from a great flood. Sargon of Akkad, born of a priestess mother, was placed in a basket of bulrushes and pitch and left floating on the river Euphrates, where he was found and raised as a gardener, before becoming King. ....But I digress. |
Christians believe in eternal life -- but Paganism believed in it first. |
Egypt Osiris' followers knew their fate after death depended on the morality of the life they lead before death. The ancient Book of the Dead, 1250 BC, pictures the Ka -- the soul -- of dead believers standing the presence of Osiris as their judge. If they could recite a list of their good deeds in life, Osiris rewarded them with eternal life. The Book of the Dead survives, so your can read the details yourself-- look for Chapter 125. |
Persia For the Persians, who worshiped the great Lord of the Universe, the God of Light, Ahura Mazda, the soul of the dead comes to a bride of Chinvat and was judged according to it's deeds, words and thoughts in life. The good passed over the bridge safely and into paradise. The bad were dragged down to hell. Christians
believe in eternal life -- but Paganism believed in it first. |
Christians believe in eternal life -- but Paganism believed in it first. |
Greece I know you've heard the Greek myth of the dead ferried by Charon across the river Styx into Hades -- the world of the dead -- so I won't bore you with that. | |
Christians believe in eternal life -- but Paganism believed in it first. |
The
next time you're in Church When they get to the part about your soul, and how it will live on after you die, remember the eternal life of the Babylonian's Ekimmu, the Egyptian's Ka judged for eternity by Osiris, and the Greek dead crossing the river Styx into Hades. You'll know you're hearing about stuff that predated Christianity by thousands of years -- in a culture where over and over people built new religions out of old parts. Wow! |