America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences: The Glory that was

Greece

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences Ancient

GreeceGreece & Israel: Was there a connection?• Time period: 1000 BC – 1 AD• David//Achilles• Nehemiah//Pythagoras• Micah//Anaxagoras

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences - Ancient Greece

Biblical EVENTS Year Greek EVENTS

Period of Judges 1380 Mycenaean Civilization (Crete)

  1200 Mycenaean Civilization ends; Trojan War?

Saul 1030  Growth of early Greek city-states

David 900  

Solomon 971-930

Divided Kingdom – Civil War

930  

  776 Olympic Games

Fall of Israel to Assyria 722 Athens begins democratic government

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences Ancient Greece

Babylonian Captivity, Fall of Jerusalem

587 Athenian citizens vote, develop court and legal system

Daniel In Lion's Den

538  Pythagoras develops theories

Persians conquer Babylonia; Temple rebuilt

536

Ezra 500 Greeks and Persians engaged in great wars; Anaxagoras and Intelligent Design

Enemies burn Jerusalem's walls

466/65 Darius' son Artaxerxes defeated by Greeks

Ezra Restores Worship

458 Greeks destroy Persian Empire

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences Ancient Greece

Nehemiah 446/45 Greeks fight among themselves Peloponnesian Wars

Malachi, Last Prophet; Restoration of Judah

445-432

  375 Plato; Alexander the Great educated by Aristotle, conquers most of known world

 Judea and Near East controlled by Greeks

318/17 Greeks Hellenize the Near East

 Jews caught in power struggle between Syria, Greece and Egypt. Greek language was prominent.

313/100

Greeks fight wars against Egypt, Syria, and Judea.

  300 Rome rapidly growing in power.

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences - Ancient Greece

• Tyrants• Ostracism• Civic participation

Democracy• Athens “pure” democracy• Citizen duties & rights

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences - Ancient

Greece• Love and care of the

body & mind• Classical architecture:

Acropolis• Epic poetry & plays

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences Ancient

GreeceThe Heroic Ideal:

Homer’s Epics: Ulysses, Achilles, Hector

• Pericles : Defense of Homeland

• Leonidas: the Supreme sacrifice

• Marathon runner “Athens is saved!”

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece

Pythagoras; 550 BC• Immortality (transmigration of

the soul) – strong influence on Socrates & Plato.

• Pythagorean theorem, the beginning of mathematics in Western culture – demonstrative and deductive reasoning which has had a key influence .

• Influence found an expression in visual art and music, particularly in the renaissance and baroque epoch.

• The “Music of the Spheres” assumes that there is correct and pleasing “unheard” music which moves and motivates us.

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient

GreeceImmortality of the soul: Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.Music as way of communicating with God: Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient

Greece

Music as way of antagonizing God: Daniel 3:15: Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient GreeceIntelligent Design: Anaxagoras, 500 BC

• Advanced view of matter, • An infinite number of elements. • One of the earliest "Big Bang"

theories, he suggested that initially "all things were together,” matter was a homogeneous mixture.

• Intelligent design:” that "nous" (“the supreme mind") separated two great masses, one consisting of the rare, hot, dry, called the 'aether,' the other of the opposite categories and called 'air.'

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece

GENESIS 1:1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient GreeceEthics and Self-Discovery: Socrates/Plato, 350 BC• Father of ethics.• “Know Thyself!”• Irony as method• Socratic method. • “The Cave” metaphor• Accused of corrupting the

youth of Athens.• Virtue is the most valuable

of all possessions; the ideal life should be spent in search of the Good.

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient GreeceAristotle, 300 BC• Student of Plato• Scientific inquiry; body of

knowledge & proof• Biology, psychology,

medicine, physics, geology, optics, & metaphysics

• Cause and effect• Research and classify• “Follow the divine.”• “The Golden Mean.”

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences Ancient Greece

World is illusion; ideals (form) is real: Socrates• Romans 1:20

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;

Nature of God; our souls’ relation to God: Plato• Romans 13:1

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

The good life consists in striving to be in consonance with God: Aristotle• Luke 10:27… ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your

heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’

Immediate Consequences• Greek language becomes the

language of the Bible• Greek philosophy and religion

seeks a “new” way – Paul’s influence

Platonic & Aristotelian thought• Greeks and Judeans intermingle: • Jews and Gentiles; • universalism of Christianity

America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences Ancient Greece

The Decline of Ancient Greece

• Disunity• Distrust• Decadenc

e• Pluralism• Corruptio

n