How Quickly Religious Myths Can Appear. Why Is This Not Possible About Jesus?

[Wandering Monk]

Within 80 years of George Washington's death, a myth appeared overnight (probably at the hands of a preacher) that George had an angelic revelation about the future of the United States.

Within our lifetimes, lore and myths have appeared about Padre Pio (who died in 1968.) In one myth, he flew up into the sky and stopped American bombers during WWII.

Why is this not possible that myths were created about the life of Jesus within a generation of his death?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Why is this not possible that myths were created about the life of Jesus within a generation of his death?

I'm not clear on the premise here. Who suggested that it wasn't possible?

 

[ChristineM]

Within 80 years of George Washington's death, a myth appeared overnight (probably at the hands of a preacher) that George had an angelic revelation about the future of the United States.

Within our lifetimes, lore and myths have appeared about Padre Pio (who died in 1968.) In one myth, he flew up into the sky and stopped American bombers during WWII.

Why is this not possible that myths were created about the life of Jesus within a generation of his death?

I am sure most of the bible is mythology

 

[Kenny]

Within 80 years of George Washington's death, a myth appeared overnight (probably at the hands of a preacher) that George had an angelic revelation about the future of the United States.

Within our lifetimes, lore and myths have appeared about Padre Pio (who died in 1968.) In one myth, he flew up into the sky and stopped American bombers during WWII.

Why is this not possible that myths were created about the life of Jesus within a generation of his death?

There was and that is why they convened and eliminated the myths and came up with those that were known to be true.

Today, we have compiled those letters and compiled them under the title of New Testament.

 

[ChristineM]

There was and that is why they convened and eliminated the myths and came up with those that were known to be true.

Today, we have compiled those letters and compiled them under the title of New Testament.

I wouldn't necessarily say true, just more popular ways to build on thr myth

 

[Kenny]

I wouldn't necessarily say true, just more popular ways to build on thr myth

Yes... there are many viewpoints on that subject. People are people and we do have our own way of looking at things.

 

[ChristineM]

Yes... there are many viewpoints on that subject. People are people and we do have our own way of looking at things.

Thanks for that.

I am not religious but a do find some of the stuff they threw away to be more compelling then the stuff they kept.

 

[Windwalker]

Why is this not possible that myths were created about the life of Jesus within a generation of his death?

It is more than possible. There are clear evidences of this throughout the NT, as well as the OT.

 

[Terry Sampson]

Within 80 years of George Washington's death, a myth appeared overnight (probably at the hands of a preacher) that George had an angelic revelation about the future of the United States.

Nice try. The myth "appeared overnight" but not at the hands of a preacher. It appeared at the hands of a journalist. George Washington's Vision

• The tale of “Washington’s Vision” was penned by Charles Wesley Alexander (1836-1927), a Philadelphia journalist who published The Soldier’s Casket, a periodical for Union veterans of the Civil War. Writing under the pseudonym “Wesley Bradshaw,” Alexander authored several fictional “vision” or “dream” pieces featuring historic American figures which were published as broadsheets and in various newspapers during the Civil War and were later offered for sale through advertisements in the pages of The Soldier’s Casket, with the artificial separation between the real Charles Alexander and the pseudonymous “Wesley Bradshaw” allowing the former to unashamedly laud the latter’s works.
• The meaning of “Washington’s Vision” was apparent to Alexander’s contemporary audience. First published in April 1861 (at the outbreak of the Civil War) and full of references to “Union” and “Republic,” this account of Washington’s praying “to God in secret for aid and comfort” during the darkest days of the American Revolution and being visited by an angel who revealed to him a vision of the United States victorious was an obvious allegory for Unionists whose America was facing its greatest crisis since the revolution: a civil war pitting one half the country against the other in a struggle that threatened the existence of the Republic.
  
  During the war Alexander penned several similar tracts featuring both historical and contemporary American figures (e.g., Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant), including “General McClellan’s Dream,” a narrative in which the general-in-chief of the Union Army fell asleep at his desk and was awakened by a vision of George Washington, who admonished the general for sleeping at his post and revealed to him secret rebel plans which he urged McClellan to act on quickly in order to prevent Washington, D.C. from falling into Confederate hands. Alexander also published even more fantastical tales, including several about female Union soldiers with supernatural powers and one of a demonic Englishwoman who fought on the side of the Confederacy.
• Although an officer named Anthony Sherman did serve in the Continental Army, he was at Saratoga under the command of Benedict Arnold at the end of 1777 and therefore wasn’t with Washington’s forces at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78, so it’s likely mere coincidence that Alexander chose that appellation for the name of his fictitious narrator.)

For an oral version of Charles Wesley Alexander's account of a purportedly 99-year old Revolutionary Solder's marvelous tale of Washington's vision, repeated in the 1st-person as if a 99-year old veteran could remember Washington's words, go here: The Folktale Project – George Washington's Vision – 13:29[/QUOTE]

Gee, ... sounds like fake news to me.

 

[dianaiad]

I am sure most of the bible is mythology

All of the bible is mythology.

Mythology does NOT mean 'untrue fantastical idiocy," the way many people use the word, as a pejorative insult. Mythology is a collection of a culture's stories of creation, and of stories that teach moral lessons.

Mythology is always true.
Sometimes it's even factual.

But it's always true, because it teaches about cultural mores, and what makes a group 'run.'

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Within 80 years of George Washington's death, a myth appeared overnight (probably at the hands of a preacher) that George had an angelic revelation about the future of the United States.
Within our lifetimes, lore and myths have appeared about Padre Pio (who died in 1968.) In one myth, he flew up into the sky and stopped American bombers during WWII.
Why is this not possible that myths were created about the life of Jesus within a generation of his death?

I find even 'more' than possible because a religious apostasy started at the end of the first century.
Those people living at the end of the1st-century were forewarned as written at Acts of the Apostles 20:29-30.
How false shepherds (dressed in sheep's clothing) would start fleecing the flock of God. - Matthew 7:15.
Fleece, so to speak with man-made traditions or customs outside of Scripture but would teach them as being Scripture.
Especially when un-faithful Jews began mixing with the Greeks, then Greek myth became blended with Scripture.
Now those myth teachings are so deeply embedded in people's minds as being Scripture that even once that myth, that mirage is exposed, people still insist on keeping it alive rather then erase them from their form of worship.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Yes... there are many viewpoints on that subject. People are people and we do have our own way of looking at things.

Yes, agree ' their ' way, people's way of looking at things which has created a religious syncretism.
There was a billboard that said "Go to the church or 'your' choice" instead of "Go to the church of 'God's' choice."
The mixing or fusion of differing beliefs has spread like a virus, like a plague released in people's minds.
The result is: the ' new ' teachings or a belief systems which can't be reconciled to Biblical Christianity.
People's viewpoints then are a blending of the 'secular with the sacred' (Non-biblical with biblical )
This mixture takes on a life or a shape of its own composed of mixing religious myth with Scripture.
The ' new ' never fully replaces Scripture, but people adopt the ' new' as if it was the original old.
The ' new ' simply rises and or falls in popularity by the whims of men and Not by Scripture.- Matthew 15:9
That ' new ' is simply Not compatible with true or genuine Christianity as taught by Jesus in Scripture.
This syncretism ties in with Jesus' illustration about how the fake 'weed/tares' would grow together over the centuries with the genuine 'wheat' Christians until the Harvest Time, or our time frame. - Acts of the Apostles 20:29-30

 

[Kenny]

Yes, agree ' their ' way, people's way of looking at things which has created a religious syncretism.
There was a billboard that said "Go to the church or 'your' choice" instead of "Go to the church of 'God's' choice."
The mixing or fusion of differing beliefs has spread like a virus, like a plague released in people's minds.
The result is: the ' new ' teachings or a belief systems which can't be reconciled to Biblical Christianity.
People's viewpoints then are a blending of the 'secular with the sacred' (Non-biblical with biblical )
This mixture takes on a life or a shape of its own composed of mixing religious myth with Scripture.
The ' new ' never fully replaces Scripture, but people adopt the ' new' as if it was the original old.
The ' new ' simply rises and or falls in popularity by the whims of men and Not by Scripture.- Matthew 15:9
That ' new ' is simply Not compatible with true or genuine Christianity as taught by Jesus in Scripture.
This syncretism ties in with Jesus' illustration about how the fake 'weed/tares' would grow together over the centuries with the genuine 'wheat' Christians until the Harvest Time, or our time frame. - Acts of the Apostles 20:29-30

It's so wonderful that we have the Holy Spirit to teach us all things and to get us back to true Christianity.

 

[Augustus]

Why is this not possible that myths were created about the life of Jesus within a generation of his death?

How quickly can myths emerge?

Stories about the supposed actions of people can emerge within their lifetime.

Takes much longer for stories about a non-existent mythical character to emerge though. So if Jesus wasn't a real person at all, it is unlikely myths would emerge within a generation of his purported lifetime.

 

[ChristineM]

All of the bible is mythology.

Mythology does NOT mean 'untrue fantastical idiocy," the way many people use the word, as a pejorative insult. Mythology is a collection of a culture's stories of creation, and of stories that teach moral lessons.

Mythology is always true.
Sometimes it's even factual.

But it's always true, because it teaches about cultural mores, and what makes a group 'run.'

Nope, folk stories are not always true,most of the time they are enhanced version of mundane events on none events, prettied up for entertainment when there was no phone, tv or internet and passed on from group to group.

As in "send reinforcements we are going to advance' can become 'send three and four pence, we are going to a dance'

True :
In accordance with fact or reality.
Accurate or exact.

 

[dianaiad]

Nope, folk stories are not always true,most of the time they are enhanced version of mundane events on none events, prettied up for entertainment when there was no phone, tv or internet and passed on from group to group.

As in "send reinforcements we are going to advance' can become 'send three and four pence, we are going to a dance'

True :
In accordance with fact or reality.
Accurate or exact.

True can mean an accurate representation of attitudes and beliefs, illustrated by stories and analogies that may not be precisely factual.

Look at Einstein. Do you think he described a real man in a real elevator, going up and down in space? Do you think that he spoke about a real passenger on a real train passing another person on a train station, or the lightning that strikes both ends of the train at once?

Do you think that Schrodinger had a real cat he put in a box?

Facts are....this is an igneous rock. That one over there is sandstone. There is a house near (or in, I don't remember) Pompeii which has one of its walls decorated in trompe l'oiel marble slabs, carefully painted to represent the amazing and rare slabs of marble found in the local quarries. They are paint and plaster, but they certainly look like, and teach about, the real thing taken from many places.

Mythology...in that those paintings are not fact.
True...in that the things they represent exist, and the paintings teach about the type of marble available.

Mythology is true.
sometimes....but not always, and perhaps not often...it's fact.

And mythology isn't quite the same thing as 'folk stories.' Now I love folk stories. I grew up on Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, but as fun as those stories were, none of them attempted to explain the roll of people with each other, with God, or the purpose of creation. They are just fun stories that nobody is expected to take seriously...except that a good laugh is always to be taken seriously. It's hard work to get people to laugh.

 

[ChristineM]

True can mean an accurate representation of attitudes and beliefs, illustrated by stories and analogies that may not be precisely factual.

Look at Einstein. Do you think he described a real man in a real elevator, going up and down in space? Do you think that he spoke about a real passenger on a real train passing another person on a train station, or the lightning that strikes both ends of the train at once?

Do you think that Schrodinger had a real cat he put in a box?

Facts are....this is an igneous rock. That one over there is sandstone. There is a house near (or in, I don't remember) Pompeii which has one of its walls decorated in trompe l'oiel marble slabs, carefully painted to represent the amazing and rare slabs of marble found in the local quarries. They are paint and plaster, but they certainly look like, and teach about, the real thing taken from many places.

Mythology...in that those paintings are not fact.
True...in that the things they represent exist, and the paintings teach about the type of marble available.

Mythology is true.
sometimes....but not always, and perhaps not often...it's fact.

And mythology isn't quite the same thing as 'folk stories.' Now I love folk stories. I grew up on Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, but as fun as those stories were, none of them attempted to explain the roll of people with each other, with God, or the purpose of creation. They are just fun stories that nobody is expected to take seriously...except that a good laugh is always to be taken seriously. It's hard work to get people to laugh.

I provided the definition of true. But anyone can make whatever they want up and call it true. The only people they deceive is themselves.


Talking of definitions, here is another
Mythology : a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.

 

[dianaiad]

I provided the definition of true. But anyone can make whatever they want up and call it true. The only people they deceive is themselves.


Talking of definitions, here is another
Mythology : a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.

That is not a definition of mythology. It's a file folder. "mythology is a collection of myths.' You know, like "Christianity" is the catch all title for all Christian beliefs, or "Archeology" is the catch all title of all the people who investigate what happened in ancient history by examining what people left behind them.

Here is the definition of 'myth.'

Myth;
: a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon....example, creation myths
b: PARABLE, ALLEGORY Moral responsibility is the motif of Plato's myths.

Now the second definition, way down at the bottom, says 'unfounded or false notion," but it's a wise idea to go with definition 1, not 2 b.

At least make sure that you and the person with whom you are discussing things are using the same definition. Otherwise, there's no communication.

Now me, I love mythology. I absolutely do NOT use it to explain the practical and scientific workings of, say, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (on my birthday, as it happens). However, the stories that grew up around it, the mythology, is wonderful. It gives us all a valuable insight into how those people saw the world and each other.

...........for instance, were you aware that the vast majority of Pompeians actually survived, were rescued and resettled in places like Capua, etc., on the Emperor's money? That some of them actually attempted to come back and get their belongings by tunneling through the ash,,,and left some graffiti there, like "Sodom and Gomorrah?" Now THAT'S mythology that's 'true.' The only evidence we have that there were Christians or Jews connected to Pompeii, other than, er, 'myth.'

Think about all the stories...the mythology...based around the Trojan War and the burning of the city of Troy. Troy itself is real. It was burned and destroyed. We have established that, and the guy who did used the Iliad to find the city. So SOME of that particular bit of mythology is 'fact.' Perhaps not much, but enough for an archaeologist to find the city, right? That so many wonderful stories came out of that, stories that tell us of the character and beliefs of those people is an added bonus, and for THAT, they are all 'true,' if not precisely factual.

I can't quite see where the Odyssey is factual, or how it can be used to find anything, but hey....the stories are great. My niece named her son Odysseus.

We're still dealing with that. Shortening that name isn't easy. He's going to hate her if he ever runs for office....but never mind that.

Truth about people is often illustrated by stories that are not factual. Do not confuse 'mythology' with 'scientific fact about the physical world,' because it's not. That's not the purpose of myth, even when the myth IS historically or scientifically accurate. Mythology is all about the people who tell the stories, not about whether the stories are scientifically accurate.

It's NICE when mythology is factual, and I'm sure you understand that I believe that more of the Bible (and the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price) stories are 'fact' than you do, but again, that's not the point of mythology.

At all.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Within 80 years of George Washington's death, a myth appeared overnight (probably at the hands of a preacher) that George had an angelic revelation about the future of the United States.

Within our lifetimes, lore and myths have appeared about Padre Pio (who died in 1968.) In one myth, he flew up into the sky and stopped American bombers during WWII.

Why is this not possible that myths were created about the life of Jesus within a generation of his death?

It is possible, that's the thing.


You can have a running myth in mere weeks after somebody's death if the person existed. Come to think of it. If they didn't exist, it's possible.

Christianity isn't anything special that it would be an exemption in any way.

 

[ChristineM]

That is not a definition of mythology. It's a file folder. "mythology is a collection of myths.' You know, like "Christianity" is the catch all title for all Christian beliefs, or "Archeology" is the catch all title of all the people who investigate what happened in ancient history by examining what people left behind them.

Here is the definition of 'myth.'

Myth;
: a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon....example, creation myths
b: PARABLE, ALLEGORY Moral responsibility is the motif of Plato's myths.

Now the second definition, way down at the bottom, says 'unfounded or false notion," but it's a wise idea to go with definition 1, not 2 b.

At least make sure that you and the person with whom you are discussing things are using the same definition. Otherwise, there's no communication.

Now me, I love mythology. I absolutely do NOT use it to explain the practical and scientific workings of, say, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (on my birthday, as it happens). However, the stories that grew up around it, the mythology, is wonderful. It gives us all a valuable insight into how those people saw the world and each other.

...........for instance, were you aware that the vast majority of Pompeians actually survived, were rescued and resettled in places like Capua, etc., on the Emperor's money? That some of them actually attempted to come back and get their belongings by tunneling through the ash,,,and left some graffiti there, like "Sodom and Gomorrah?" Now THAT'S mythology that's 'true.' The only evidence we have that there were Christians or Jews connected to Pompeii, other than, er, 'myth.'

Think about all the stories...the mythology...based around the Trojan War and the burning of the city of Troy. Troy itself is real. It was burned and destroyed. We have established that, and the guy who did used the Iliad to find the city. So SOME of that particular bit of mythology is 'fact.' Perhaps not much, but enough for an archaeologist to find the city, right? That so many wonderful stories came out of that, stories that tell us of the character and beliefs of those people is an added bonus, and for THAT, they are all 'true,' if not precisely factual.

I can't quite see where the Odyssey is factual, or how it can be used to find anything, but hey....the stories are great. My niece named her son Odysseus.

We're still dealing with that. Shortening that name isn't easy. He's going to hate her if he ever runs for office....but never mind that.

Truth about people is often illustrated by stories that are not factual. Do not confuse 'mythology' with 'scientific fact about the physical world,' because it's not. That's not the purpose of myth, even when the myth IS historically or scientifically accurate. Mythology is all about the people who tell the stories, not about whether the stories are scientifically accurate.

It's NICE when mythology is factual, and I'm sure you understand that I believe that more of the Bible (and the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price) stories are 'fact' than you do, but again, that's not the point of mythology.

At all.

That is not???

mythology | Definition of mythology in English by Lexico Dictionaries

Definition of mythology | Dictionary.com

Definition of MYTH


Your definition i believe is from Merriam Webster, my last link

a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon....example, creation myths