The Mystery Religions and the New Testament

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... may not have gained currency, in recent scholarship. Doubtless the fusion of Greek and Oriental constituents, following the conquests of Alexander, marked an important era in the history of religion. But it is quite possible to take too little account of the compromising features which limited the acceptability of any specific product of the fusion in the sphere both of Hellenic culture and of Jewish religious training. It has been indicated that the measure of Paul's indebtedness to the Mystery Religions for his terms is by no means a certain index of his obligations for characteristic ideas. He might very well have been too rich in ideas to need to borrow at all, while yet he was measurably dependent for the terms in which he might give the ideas appropriate and effective expression. Two things invite to skepticism in relation to the supposition that Paul owed any appreciable debt to the Mystery Religions as respects his fundamental ideas. In the first place, the sphere of Christian truth stood for him as the sphere of light and reality over against the darkness, foolishness, and vanity of Gentile religion. Emphatic declarations in his epistles make it evident that he never could have dreamed of going into the latter domain for any part of his theological furnishing.14 The supposition of conscious recourse to that province is simply preposterous. In the second place, whatever resemblances can be traced between Paul's characteristic ideas and various phases in the scheme of the Mysteries, they differ in fact so widely that ample proof is given that he did not either consciously or unconsciously take over into Jais own system any ruling conceptions from the latter. Much of what was said in the preceding chapter on similarities and contrasts is pertinent...