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Historical backgrounds The Hellenistic - Mediterranean culture
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Pythagoreans In Part II of this chapter, the possible use of √5 and Golden Section proportions by the Egyptians has been discussed. The same Golden Section proportion also appears in the Pentagram, the famous "secret" symbol op the Pythagoreans. In the following part, the geometrical qualities of the pentagram will be discussed in detail.
The aim of this chapter is to provide a partial reconstruction of the cultural influences and mathematical knowledge that belonged to the period of the antiquity. Much of this knowledge was mainstream, but there were certain aspects that were hidden by the veil of secrecy. The Pythagoreans loved the concept of mysterious secret knowledge and created an entire sectarian cult around it. Nevertheless this could not prevent that many aspects of their teachings were not original. A good example of this is the Pythagorean doctrine of the transformation of the soul. Quoting Porphirius on this issue: .."(19) What he said to his pupils can not be established with certainty because there was strict secrecy amongst them. Nevertheless some of his teachings were commonly known: first of all, that the soul is immortal; en subsequently, that this lives on in other living creatures; and apart from this, that events repeat themselves according to certain periods and that nothing is completely new, and that all that is inspired is related. These are the teachings that Pythagoras appears to have introduced in Greece... ...(46) He preached a philosophy that aimed to save our souls and liberate them from the shortcomings and the chains of this life" Orphism The fact that Pythagoras was not at all the first one to teach these doctrines was never a secret amongst classicists. The much older cult of Orphism found many followers in the entire Mediterranean area of the rapidly expanding Greece and was definitely known in the South of Italy at the time that Pythagoras founded his school. The cult is attributed to the mythical Orpheus and introduced several new teachings that were unknown in Greek religion. They believed in a sinful element in man, the immortality of the soul that was temporarily trapped in the human body. After death the soul needed to be cleansed of its sins and usually reincarnate in a recycling process of new lifes (all of these are oriental influences). Only if the soul was completely cleansed of sins it could be admitted to the Elysium. The fact that these teachings sound familiar is not coincidental. Besides Pythagoras, also Plato and Early Christianity were strongly influenced by this cult. Regarding the use of the term Early Christianity it needs to be pointed out what a controversial meaning this usually has. Many new facts about early Christianity have come to light through discoveries that put their existence in a new historical context (Qumran) as well as the discovery of sectarian writings (Nag Hammadi) and last but not least the results of scientific investigations into the literary origins of the gospels (the book Q). These new facts depict a completely different Christianity that has little to do with the clerical teachings that came after it. Considering Jesus a historical person, would it not be reasonable to give more value to the (early Christian) teachings considering that they are dated closer to the time that he actually lived than the gospel scriptures that originate from much later date? Maybe it would have been possible to give an impartial judgment about this in our time, were it not that after the edict of Milan in 314AC, almost all scripts that were not considered to be conform to the state religion were systematically destroyed by over-zealous servants of the church. An impression of the kind of documents that did not survive clerical censorship is the Gospel of Judas Thomas found in Nag Hammadi in 1945. The (undoubtedly early Christian) teachings in this gospel have much in common with the cult of Orphism. The many references to reincarnation have lead to speculations regarding possible Indian influences on the Thomas gospel. By itself this is not an unreasonable assumption considering that by the beginning of the Christian era, Alexandria (the supposed origin of the Thomas gospel), housed an Indian colony. We know that Seneca and Alexander Polyhistor have written books about India that obviously got lost. Many passages from the regular gospels show similarities with the old Buddhist legends, but the same can also be said about the old Greek tradition. All in all it has become clear that the gospels do not give a reliable historic account of the life and death of Jesus. Almost all miracles that were supposedly performed by Jesus also appear in much older writings. For instance Pythagoras had no problems with a miraculous catch of fish or calming sea storms etc. As such it is more likely that the so called oriental influences on Christianity were in reality spread by means of mainstream Hellenistic Mediterranean culture. It is impossible to ignore the fact that already since 600BC the Orphic cult became widely spread in the Greek Mediterranean colonies. To give an example of how far-going the Hellenistic influence was on the Jews and early Christianity; According to Philo of Alexandria (†45AC) there lived more than one million Greek speaking Jews in Alexandria, which is more than all Jews that lived in Palestine at that time. Alexandria is considered to be the cradle of the Christian gospels. Neo Pythagorism By the time that Jesus lived, neo-Pythagorism had a lot of supporters in Israel. The sect of the Essen (for some time erroneously connected with the Qumran scrolls) described by Flavius Josephus in his "Wars of the Jews", were directly related to the Pythagoreans. Even the at that time commonly known religious doctrines of the Pythagoreans are mentioned and directly compared to the teachings of the Essens. The teachings of Pythagoreans, Essens and Christians are compared in a table in the appendix of this book and show remarkable coherence. Nevertheless it has not been one specific philosophical school or religious cult that inspired Christianity; it has been the entire Hellenistic culture that had been completely integrated into all layers of Jewish and Mediterranean society that provided the philosophical and theological foundations of Christianity. The various passages in witch the originality of the Pythagorean teachings and findings is questioned in this book are not intended as criticism. Rather that this, they serve as illustration for the fact that whatever religious-, mathematical and philosophical influences existed in Israel during the time that Jesus lived, these were already existing and mingled into the various Mediterranean cultures for hundreds to thousands of years before him. Contrary to what one might think of antique societies, they usually were highly multi-cultural and multi-ethnical. Unfortunately for the Jews, this integration had not always come voluntarily. The many deportations and occupations that they had to endure profoundly marked the character of the Jewish people, leading to a chronic identity crises by the time that Jesus lived. The Jewish society was divided between the establishment that collaborated with the occupant forces and the ordinary people that fiercely hoped for the coming of the long awaited independent Jewish state. This desire nurtured the call for a worldly Messiah that would liberate the land by force from the Roman occupancy. Other unsatisfied Jews found comfort in the many religious apocalyptic groups that lived in immediate expectancy of the end of time. They also awaited a Messiah. But more then just the king David-like worldly Messiah, they were waiting for a heavenly-, priest-like Messiah. The fact that these two Messiah profiles existed next to each other is part of the cause of the misunderstanding that the Jewish people had regarding Jesus. The scrolls that were found at Qumran, have provided a lot of insight into the highly developed Messiah profile that existed in those days. All of this took place in a period in which the many foreign cultural influences had completely invaded and mixed into Jewish society. |
Perhaps the biggest symbol of cultural invasion was the temple in Jerusalem. This gigantic new temple was reconstructed by Herod the Great to strengthen the Jewish identity that had been severely damaged by Antiochus Epifanus, and secure himself of the support of the Jewish people. Regardless of the strong religious and emotional meaning that this building has for the Jews (consider the exact building specifications provided by the Torah), it was almost obviously constructed in the typical pompous Hellenistic style of these days. The information that is currently available suggests that the temple has been build on a typical classical ground plan based on the √2 proportion. The reconstruction of the temple below is based on the description of Flavius Josephus (Wars 5:184-247) and the Misjna tract Middot that mentions the presumed measures of the temple.
Jesus of Nazareth If we accept the narratives of the gospels, during his life Jesus must have experienced many Hellenistic cultural influences from nearby. According to the gospels Jesus grew up in the small village of Nazareth. Close to his hometown Nazareth, where his father supposedly worked as a carpenter / building contractor (the Aramaic word "nagar" means building contractor), there were two big cities under construction: Sepphoris and Tiberias.
The city closest to Nazareth was Sepphoris at 8-Km distance (45 min. walk). Josephus mentions that the Roman general Varus, during the uprisings that followed the death of Herod the Great in 4BC, burned the city and made the inhabitants slaves. Antipas, the son and successor of Herod the Great, fortified the city again and made her into "The Jewel of Galilee" and called her "the Imperial" (Autocratoris). This capital of Galilee was under construction from 3-BC until 10-AC and was, according to Josephus, comparable to Jerusalem regarding the amount of inhabitants (±50.000). For the 500 inhabitants of the village of Nazareth, Sepphoris must have been an enormous city at very close distance. When in 18-AC, the Roman emperor Tiberius came to power, Antipas followed the example of his father Herod the Great and founded an entirely new capital of Galilee, which he named after the new Roman ruler, as a gesture of loyalty. This town called Tiberias, situated at Lake Galilee, got even more privileges than Sepphoris and rapidly expanded to become the biggest city of the prosperous province. As mentioned, the gospels claim that Jesus father was a building contractor in a relatively small village. The substantial building activities in the big town of Sepphoris at only 8-Km from Nazareth must have brought a lot of work for him and his family for many years. The same thing probably happened with the construction activities in Tiberias that started some years later. The substantial building activities in both towns, that extended over the entire period of Jesus life, must have attracted several Roman and Greek architects and specialist construction workers. From the Romans we know that their architecture was largely based on mathematical proportional systems. It is almost impossible that Joseph and his son Jesus did not get into close contact with the geometrical and mathematical proportions of the classical architecture that they were working with on a daily basis. It is almost impossible that the gospel Jesus has not been personally influenced by the cultural invasion close to his home town. Should the family of Joseph and Maria have had a modest income, than Jesus most probably had to work together with his father in order to support the family. In the case that Josephs family was economically well-being, then Jesus most likely would have had the possibility to enjoy a good education, which in those days almost always meant a religious philosophical education. Considering Jesus' substantial Torah knowledge, a religious education sounds plausible. Through Flavius Josephus we know that especially the Essenes were closely involved in the education of youth. The same Josephus explained the close ties between Essenes and Pythagoreans. Regarding religious and philosophical education in these days it should be taken in consideration that every student was supposed to also learn a normal every day trade. A known example was the apostle Paul that besides his high education also had to learn the craft of tentmaker. In the case of Jesus hypothetical education he surely also had to learn the arts and crafts of the building business of his father. In the first chapter of this book it has been explained how Jesus frequently used number symbolism that often hides complex calculations.. This fact can easily be explained as a consequence of experience and education that brought him in close contact with Roman and Greek architects and philosophers as well as Jewish religious scholars such as the intellectually highly developed sect of the Essenes. De exact impact of al these intellectual influences on Jesus can not be reconstructed, but it is absolutely impossible that he was not influenced by them. Perhaps the most impressive proof of how strong the Hellenistic influence must have been on Jesus, is provided by his very name; Ιησους, which remains after all a Greek- instead of a Jewish name |
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