Plutarch, Alexander, and Christianity

[bob]

I have been reading Plutarch, Arrian, Diodorus, and Curtius Rufus. I enjoy Plutarch and Arian the most. I have a couple of questions for all:1. Reading Plutarch, he begins by saying something along the lines of "It is accepted without any question Alexander is a descendant of Herecles." While on the one hand, I am amazed at how much the four sources I mentioned above agree on a great many things, thus, I feel that is confirmation of what little we know of Alexander. On the other hand, it seems Plutarch was the only writer to discuss Alexanders birth or childhood, and he says "it is accepted without question" he is a descendant of Herecles. I understand that there is some historicity (very little) to the Iliad, and Heinrich Schlieman suppossedly found Troy (Ilium) but it amazes me that ancients accepted the historicity of people like Herecles without question. I am curious as to whether the average Macedonian felt their kings descended from Herecles? Obviously I doubt the average Greek accepted this, since they felt their northern neighbors were barbarians. (It is obvious from the coins Philip II and Alexander minted (many of which I recently bought) that they at least felt they were descended from Herekles. But how did the average Macedonian handle that?)
2. Modern source books state that Alexander paved the way towards christianity. Pardon my ignorance (I am Jewish by nationality and think I know something about chrisitnaity though not being one how can I say I am an expert?) I would like to get a better grasp as to how a Polytheist paved the way for anything monotheistic, especially since Alexander placated a great many gods, and felt he was the son of zeus ammon and Herecles. Is it because Plutarch felt maybe that Alexander had a virgin birth (i.e. born of Olympias before Philip lay with her and the snake - Zeus beat him to her? causing him to lose his one eye for peering at a snake (the form of Zeus himself? Thus, are modern scholars saying the Alexander story is the "source" of the virign birth stories in the greek bible? I see nothing in Alexanders character that leads me to see anything Hebraic, Jewish, or monotheist in him. (I myself am not a monotheist, and while I was educated at Hebrew U in Israel, I am not a very good Jew.) If I remember correctly, there were more Aramaic and Latin manuscripts found at Masada and in the Dead Sea Scrolls than Greek. Thus, I am unsure if they think his "Hellenization" (which I call Macedonianizat

[bob]

I guess my post got too long. I finished by saying that I was unsure if his Greek (Macedonian) language was the basis of the idea of spreading xianity, or was it the fact there was a tie with Alexander and Ammon, and a pharaoh *(ancient) also renamed himself with that gods name and tried to spread monotheism accross egypt. Thus, I was wondering if that was the tie of Alexander to Xianity? Oddly enough, I recently heard an Iron Maiden song on Alexander the Great that too said "he paved the way for Christianity." I guess I am having a great difficulty accepting the idea that a Macedonian Polytheistic King 400 years before the birth of that new religion (suppossedly founded on Jewish monotheistic ideas) had anything to do with it? I certainly do not take the Jewish Historian Josephus' account of Alexander going to the Jewish Temple to be historical, but Josephus' Jewish propaganda to the Roman world. Thus, I am kind of curious how widespread or accepted this idea of Alexander paving the way for Xianity really is? Thanks
(PS I do not intend on discussing religion in general, just alexanders religion. Nor do I intend on offending anyone with the question, Jewish or Christian or whatever. Personally, it seems to me the book of Daniel (i.e. Daniel really slams our hero as being evil. (I am not saying he was perfect, but I am far from it myself so I can't talk.) Thanks all.
Bob

[marcus]

It's more to do with the opening up of the Mediterranean world, and the easier/more natural spread of ideas that came about as a result of the widespread Hellenisation of the east.Alexander's own religion, his divinity, and all the other bits and bobs are unlikely to have had that much to do with the birth of Christianity; although there were many typical facets of older religions that emerge in Christianity - elements such as the death and rebirth of the god are as old as mankind (or, at least, very old indeed) and appear in ancient Anatolian, Mesopotamian and Egyptian myth, to name but three.ATBMarcus

[kennyxx]

Alexander and ChristainityIt maybe a hard thing or opinion. But in my opinion Jesus and Alexander were2 sides to the same coin if Alexanders new world order of equality amongst his empire is to be believed. Christianity and Jesus preacehed it by way or peace tollerance and forgiveness. Alexander tried the same thing through force of arms. If you ever get to see some of the programes about Alexander there is one in search of Alexanders body. And the reasoning at the end of that programe stated that Alexander had an influence on all todays religions. Alexander is named both in your old testament and in the Koran. I think in the Koran Alexander is worshiped as something next to their god or prophet.As for Alexander been divine I see no reason why he didnt believe it and it wasnt propganda. We try to compare with the stories today and the Myths of gods. But in Alexanders day gods and dieties were very real. And to be totaly honest and without exageration in life Alexander out did the gods so its common sense he thought himself divine and Im sure people around him his soldiers thought the same.Kenny

[Efstathios]

Hmmm nice subject. "Christianity and Jesus preacehed it by way or peace tollerance and forgiveness. Alexander tried the same thing through force of arms." Yes something like that.Alexander was the first man to think and try to make it happen to unite the world where people could be equal and bring peace to them e.t.c.These are the general similarities with Christianity.He was not born out of a virgin,that's for sure.So no similarity there. Alexander was not the first to claim to be a descendant of a god or a semi-god.And there are many misconceptions about what greeks believed of their religion and their gods.Religion was not exactly the same in all parts of greece.The gods were the same but there were different local practises of worship e.t.c.And as time passed the greeks formed different views about their gods.But they believed that the gods did exist and lived among them thousands of years ago (Diodorus makes that more obvious as he talks of gods being ancient Kings and such). We can never know what these people knew and claimed to be descendants of gods.We cannot know if it was just make up or if they really were descendants of these Kings-gods.In many occasions these genealogical trees were preserved by mouth to mouth,by common belief ,and by myths and tells.For example the Macedonian Kings were always also called Herakleides.The name Herakleides shows the relation between the ancient Macedonians and the Dorians that were also known as Herakleides (the movement of the Dorians to the south, in 1100 BC, is also known as "cathod of the Herakleides")

[amyntoros]

Phil Harland, Assistant Professor of Social and Cultural History of Christianity in the Religion Department of Concordia University, Montreal, has a post on his blog, Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean, about Alexander the Great and Christian origins. It's part of a thread on Christian origns and literature where Harland states "We will see how important Hellenistic, as well as Roman, culture was for early Christianity as we continue in this series." So far, his only other post has been on the gospel of St. Mark, but you might want to monitor the blog to see if/when there are further posts on Hellenistic influence.http://www.philipharland.com/Blog/2006/ ... s-nt-2/And once again, David Meadows at Rogueclassicsm is to be thanked for this link. An invaluable resource on the web!http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism/Best regards,Amyntoros

[bob]

Thanks to all for the replies...!