Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
Yes, even Nash, who argues against what he sees as various contemporary writers attempts to undermine the authority of the New Testament by affirming that some of its teachings were borrowed from pagan philosophical systems of the day, admits that Paul, the authors of John's gospel and of the book of Hebrews were schooled in Hellenism, using its terminology and reacting to it's concepts.
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Your whole post deserves responses. Books can be written on these matters.
I'll try to keep it short and sweet.
From what I understand Jesus was God's plan. So that means that God planned for Jesus' birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, AND -- the birth of the Christian movement, loosely stated -- all happened DURING the Hellenistic Age.
That means that God planned it all that way : that it would end up being Greek.
It was planned from the beginning. Those ancient Greek philosophers were planned by God ; Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Heraclitus, et al. all planned by God. Alexander the Great was planned by God (he was right, he was divinely inspired, coerce Delphi said he was "invincible").
The point is, it was all planned. Were Paul, John, and whoever wrote the book of Hebrews, influenced by Hellenism? If so, and if Jesus was planned, then yes, it was all planned by God.
So Hellenism wasn't bad in the beginning. Why then, and when, was it stamped out? And was that God's plan? Was Constantine and Theodosius I, who made Christianity the state religion, and stamped out Hellenism, God's plan?
Seems to me that when it stopped being God's plan is when Christianity became poor. Was that when Hellenism was removed?