Why all the Similarities ? The Serpent and other Universal Beliefs & Symbols
Transcript of Why all the Similarities ? The Serpent and other Universal Beliefs & Symbols
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Why all the Similarities ?The Serpent and more…
Universal Beliefs & Symbols
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John 3:14-16 (NIV)
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life
in him.”16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and
only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life.
Why all the Similarities ?The Serpent and more…
Universal Beliefs & Symbols
Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World
Temple of the Feathered Serpent, or Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Teotihuacan
Adam, Eve and the Serpent in the Garden
Middle East America
The Hammurabi Code Room at the Louvre
Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World
"If a man has destroyed the eye of another free man, his own eye shall be destroyed. If he has broken the bone of a free man, his bone shall be broken" (Code Hammurabi, 196-197:15).
Legal Codes
"And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (Exodus 21:23-25)
Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World
The Law Giver
God Shamash sitting on a Mountain giving
the Law to Hammurabi
Yahweh giving Law to Moses on a Mountain
Utnapishtim laid out the boat of 120 cubits.His relatives "all the beasts and animals of the field" boarded the boat.The flood and wind lasted six days and six nights, flattening the land.All humans had turned to clay
"all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened". Rain falls for 40 days, the water rises 150 days, and all the high mountains are covered (Genesis 8:14)
We revealed to him: "Build the Ship under Our supervision and as We reveal. When Our command comes and water bubbles up from the earth, load into it a pair of every species, and your family-except for those among them against whom the word has already gone ahead. And do not address Me concerning those who do wrong. They shall be drowned.“ Qur'an, 23:27
Emperor Yao is facing the problem of flood waters that "reach to the Heavens".
Shujing, or "Book of History", 500 BCE or earlier,
Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World
Over 600 Flood stories from all over the world
Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11: Story of the Flood
Epic of Gilgamesh
Torah Qur’an China
Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World
Universal Patriarchy or Male DominanceConfucianis
mJudaism Buddhism Islam Christianity
A woman was to be subordinate to her father in youth, her husband in maturity, and her son in old age
Mencius 372 – 289 BC
"I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you”
Gen 3:16
An appropriate aim is for women to aspire to be reborn as male. They can become a male by moral actions and sincere aspiration to maleness. Being born a female is a result of bad karma.
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Women_in_Buddhis
m
Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other,..
http://corpus.quran.com/
translation.jsp?chapter=4&verse=
34
23 For the husband is the head of the wife … 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also
wives should submit to their husbands in everythingEphesians 5:23-24
15 But women
will be saved through
childbearing…1 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)
Confronted with Similarities from different Parts of the World
Universal Patriarchy or Male Dominance
Hindu sati where a Hindu woman is burned alive with the corpse of her
husband
Monreale Cathedral, Norman architecture, ca. 1180 AD
Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (ca 1615) Rubens
Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Michelangelo
You Know I want to talk about women, but I better talk about the Serpent
Serpent, not only in the Garden but all over the WorldJoseph Campbell said, “We find the symbolism of the
serpent, tree, and garden of immortality already in the earliest
cuneiform texts, depicted on Old Sumerian cylinder seals, and represented
even in the arts and rites of primitive village folk
throughout the world.”
Worship of serpent-gods existed among the Israelites during the period of the Judges and
Kings4 ”He (King Hezekiah) removed the high places, and brake the images,
and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days
the children of Israel did burn incense to it”2 Kings 18:4
Universal Presence of the Serpent & Serpent Worshiphttp://www.godawa.com/chronicles_of_the_nephilim/Articles_By_Others/Moorehead%20-%20Universality%20of%20Serpent%20Worship.pdf
Cylinder seal depicting a Garden of Eden story. A man and woman sitting under the seven branched Tree of Life with the snake on the right. Akkadian Cylinder Seal, 2330-2150 B.C.E.
Mesopotamia2330-2150 B.C.E.
The "libation vase of Gudea " with the dragon Mushussu , dedicated to Ningishzida. The caduceus is interpreted as depicting the god himself.
Ningishzida is the earliest known symbol of snakes twining around an axial rod.
Sumeria2100 BC, short chronology
http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible2.htm
Gilgamesh had the branch of life in his hand; all he had to do was return home. But half-way across the desert an oasis lured him to
take his rest. A snake ate the plant and he lost immortality
Old Babylon, 18th century BC
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=picture+gilgamesh+losing+plant+of+immortality&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-003
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Cobra+frieze+from+Saqqara%2C+Egypt&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-003
Cobra frieze from Saqqara, EgyptApep: an evil Egyptian god: the deification of darkness and chaos.
Pharaoh’s Egypt
Isis and Nephthys as serpent goddesses, c. 1300 B.C., Tomb of Seti I, Valley of the Kings, Thebes.
Crete: Knossos, Minoan Culture
tumblr_m9jfj1Vxbo1retgeoo1_1280.jpg
Snake Goddess
Gorgon, pediment of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu
Greece 590-580 B.C
The Hesperides in the garden with apples on a tree,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis,_Corfu#/media/
File:Close_up_of_Gorgon_at_the_pediment_of_Artemis_temple_in_Corfu.jpg
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/apples.html
Asclepius, God of Medicine and Healing using snakes
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asklepios_-_Statue_Epidauros_Museum_2008-09-11.jpg
Asclepius with his daughter Hygieia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius#Sacred_places_and_practices
Greek & Roman
Hercules stealing the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. Detail of The Twelve Labours Roman mosaic from LIiria (Valencia, Spain). between 201 and 250 AD
Rome 200 AD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperides
The early, pre-Canaanite
Phoenicians serpent god called the Basilisk.
Phoenicians
https://inannafilm.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/5-basilisk.jpg
Astarte - Consort to Baal, she is here depicted with two
foals in ecstatic dance, her typically upraised arms
grasping serpents
The most famous divine serpent in Viking or Norse mythology was Jormungand, the Great Divine World Serpent. Jormungand is the son of Loki, the Teutonic Satan. 's arch-enemy is the god Thor.
Jormungand, the Great Divine World Serpent
Viking or Norse mythology
Thor in battling the Midgard Serpent" (1788) by Henry Fuseli
Kukulkan (Snake God, Chichen Itza, Maya
Temple of the Feathered Serpent, or Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Teotihuacan
Pre-Hispanic America
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism
Lord Krishna dancing on the serpent Kaliva; while the serpent's wives pray to Krishna
Nāga , deities or beings, taking the form of great snakes found in:
Krishna dancing over snake Kaliya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naga2.jpghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliya
Southeast Asia: Snakes adored and respected Everywhere
India: Buddha being shielded by Naga (Serpent ) Mucalinda
https://www.flickr.com/photos/albill/364164595/?ytcheck=1
Snake God Worship
India: Hinduism
Azhi Dahaka is the Sky Serpent of Iranian creation mythology. pinterest.com
Iranian Sky Serpent
Mami Wata, "serpent priestess" painted by German by
Schleisinger
Mami Wata, "serpent priestess“ , venerated in West, Central, and
Southern Africa, and in the African diaspora in the
Americas.
West, Central, Southern Africa, the
Americas
Mami Wata, "serpent priestess“
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mami_Wata
The Rainbow Serpent is a common deity, often a creator god, in the mythology of Aboriginal Australia. It is named for the obvious identification between the shape of a rainbow and the shape of a snake. The Rainbow Serpent is one of the oldest continuing religious beliefs in the worldThe Rainbow Serpent is considered to be the ultimate creator
of everything in the universe
Rainbow Serpent of Aboriginal Australia
Australian Aboriginal rock painting of the "Rainbow Serpent".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Serpent
Damballaserpent spirit and "The
Great Master“ who created the cosmos Sky Father and the
primordial creator of all life. He rules the mind,
intellect, and cosmic equilibrium. Damballah La Flambeau, by the Haitian
artist Hector Hyppolite
CARIBBEANVoodoo religions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damballa
The Serpent: a Universal Symbol of Good and Evil
& much More
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_brotherhoodsnake08.htm
9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient
serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Revelation 12:9 (NIV)“2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, “Revelation 20:2
Serpent - Symbol of Satan and Pure Evil
http://doubleportioninheritance.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-serpent-seed-doctrine-true-or-false.html
Serpent - Symbol of Satan and Pure Evil
Apep- an evil Egyptian god (He appears in art as a giant serpent) : the deification of darkness and chaos. Opponent of light and Ma’at (order/truth).
Set speared Apep
Serpent -Speaking. Anthropomorphic Characteristics
http://doubleportioninheritance.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-serpent-seed-doctrine-true-or-false.html
“…He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any
tree in the garden'?"Genesis 3:1
Ancient painting ofNuwa and Fuxi
Naga Figure Gasa Dzong
Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. (NIV)The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made (NLT)
Serpent Symbol of Craftiness, Wise or Shrewdness
2 Corinthians 11:3 |
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
"be ye therefore wise as serpents “Matt 10:16]
Believers are poor, culturally isolated; awareness of other religions is minimal. Few have traveled more than a few miles from home. Little more than the Bible is read. Life revolves around the church.
80 have died due to snake bite
West Virginia and BeyondPicking up snakes is a demonstration of one’s faith in God.
"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak
with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover," (Mark 16:17-18).
Serpent-Handling Sign of FAITH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_handling
Not a candidate for a Snake handling Church
“Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.“Numbers 21:9
Saved by Looking at Serpent
4 He (King Hezekiah) removed the high places, and brake the images,
and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that
Moses had made: for unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it
2 Kings 18:4
https://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/File:M
ichelangelo_Buonarroti_024.jp
g
Worship of serpent-gods existed among the
Israelites during the period of the Judges and Kings
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:14-16 NIV
Lifted Up Serpent pointing to Jesus
Gorgon, pediment of the Temple of Artemis in Corfu
Serpent- Symbol of Fertility
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis,_Corfu#/media/File:Close_up_of_Gorgon_at_the_pediment_of_Artemis_temple_in_Corfu.jpg
Historically, serpents and snakes represent fertility or a creative life force.
Because they resemble phallic symbols, snakes often represent fertility in myth and literature, according to the Myths Encyclopedia.
http://www.wikisymbol.com/246/sobi2details
Fertility Goddess. She carries snakes
Ouroboros as emblem of mortality and new life,from George Wither's A Collection of Emblems, Ancient and Modern, 1635
Death
New life
Eternal recurrence
Serpent Symbol of EternityOuroboros, the Greek symbol of eternity, consisted of a snake curled into a circle or hoop, biting its own tail.
The Ouroboros (serpents) eat themselves and are reborn from themselves in an endless cycle of destruction and creation.
"The power of life causes the snake to shed its skin, just as the moon sheds its shadow to be born again. They are equivalent symbols. Sometimes the serpent is represented as a circle eating its own tail. That's an image of life. Life sheds one generation after another, to be born again. The serpent represents immortal energy and consciousness engaged in the field of time, constantly throwing off death and being born again. There is something tremendously terrifying about life when you look at it that way."
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
Greek - Pelasgian creation mythEurynome "The Goddess of All Things spontaneously generates the serpent Ophion, who mates with her. She bids Ophion to incubate it by coiling seven times around until it splits in two and hatches "all things that exist ... sun, moon, planets, stars, the earth with its mountains and rivers, its trees, herbs, and living creatures".
Serpent Ophion co-Creator
Australian Aboriginal rock painting of the "Rainbow Serpent".
The Rainbow Serpent is considered to be the ultimate
creator of everything in the universe
Rainbow Serpent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Serpent
Creator
Buddha’s best friend was a snake that shielded him from sun and storms. Buddhist legends say Buddha got
his deep understanding from the king of the serpents.
Serpent Protector and Imparter of Wisdom
http://www.drachen-fabelwesen.de/drachen-arten/indische-veden-naga-schlangen-drachen.html
Snake statue guards Thailand's Patong beach
https://biblescienceguy.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/snake-smaku.jpg
Protectors and Guardians
Serpent Symbol of Desire (Kama) in - Hinduism
The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (about 1615) by Rubens
…and Christianity
In honor of Asclepius, a particular type of non-venomous snake was often used in healing rituals, and these snakes — the Aesculapian Snakes — crawled around freely on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. These snakes were introduced at the founding of each new temple of Asclepius throughout the classical world. From about 300 BC onwards, the cult of Asclepius grew very popular and pilgrims flocked to his healing temples (Asclepieia) to be cured of their ills.
Healing with Snakes RitualsMedical Symbols from Around The World
http://gnosticwarrior.com/healing-centers-asclepius.html
Many cultural universals were diffused through travel, migration, and other forms of transcontinental communication.
Cultural universals are basically human responses and occur inevitably because all humans
have things in common, birth death, need food, need shelter need fertility
Cultural universals are basically human responses to social institutional needs
Things to Ponder! Why so many Similarities and Universals?
People may have experienced certain Global Events“Noah’s” or Utnapishtim Flood
"What does it say about what all of us have in common that so many of these stories contain similar elements-the forbidden fruit, the woman?. . . After years and years of reading these things, I am still overwhelmed at the similarities in cultures that are far, far apart. . . . How do you explain these similarities?" Bill Moyers in 1987 interviewed Joseph Campbell , http://www.worldmag.com/2006/08/snakes_on_the_brain
The Serpent: a Universal Symbol of Good and Evil
& much More