Compare and Contrast Judaism and Christianity with Greek Mythology

Compare and Contrast Judaism and Christianity with Greek Mythology

Compare and Contrast: Christianity with Greek Mythology

It should be noted that in the Christian Bible, there appears two stories of creation. In Greek mythology there are two versions of creation as well. One stems from the writings of Homer, the other from a poet named Hesiod. Also, one commonality is that both in Christianity and in the Greek myths, the gods are viewed as being in the form of man.

In the beginning…
What / First Story of Creation / Second Story of Creation / Hesiod / Homer
Documentation / Christian Bible / Christian Bible / Assortment of writings / Iliad and Odyssey
Before the world / There was God. / There was the god Chaos – a supernatural presence (not disorder). / There was the god Oceanus (Pronounced O-key-on-us) a spirit in the form of an endless river.
Creation of the Earth / God Creates the earth. / A goddess name Gaia (Mother Earth) – Mated with Uranus (heavens). / Tethys (the first mother/Earth).
Other gods and goddesses / Including Rhea and Cronus, parents of Zeus, and the Titans.
Olympian gods / Zeus and his brothers and sisters.
Deity’s home / Heaven / Mount Olympus
Creation of man / God creates man and woman in his image. / God creates man in his image ¨The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breathe of life. / Zeus creates different races of men (gold, silver, bronze, and iron) Gold people lived a perfect existence. The age of the golden people ended without explanation. Without disobeying god. / The god Prometheus creates the first man out of mud and breathes life into him. Gods must be in human form because human form is beautiful. Gods were seen as “humans plus”.
Fall from grace / Adam and Eve eating from the tree of life.
A disobeying of God. / Adam and Eve eating from the tree of life. / Silver people did not worship the gods sufficiently.
Men of bronze exterminate themselves through constant warfare.
People of today are said to be men of iron.
Woman / Eve disobeys God and brings sin to the world. / Woman was sent to earth as an affliction to punish man because the god Prometheus tried to trick Zeus and stole fire for man. Zeus gives man Pandora, a woman. Pandora opens a jar that she should not have and brings all evil to the world.
Children of God/gods/goddesses / Jesus, the son of God with a mortal mother, Mary. Jesus possesses extraordinary powers. Taken, after death, to live for eternity with his father God. / Hercules, the son of Zeus and a mortal mother. Hercules possesses extraordinary powers. Taken, after death, to live with his father on Mount Olympus.
Fate v. Free Will / Man has free will. / Three “Fates” that determine life. Fate is a power above the gods. Humans could control some of their own destiny although the gods had a lot of control as well.
Afterlife / Heaven, ruled by God, is reward.
Hell, ruled by Satan, is punishment. / Olympus, ruled by Zeus, is reward. No person is admitted here.
The House of Hades, or underworld, is where a dead person’s soul passes to. Ruled by the god Hades, this is neither a punishment nor reward. Those that had offended the gods were sent to a harsher place known as Tartarus.