A Pagan Novel, Jesus, and a Tomb

A Pagan Novel, Jesus, and a Tomb

Brett A. Todd

We have mentioned in the past how the stories of Jesus were passed down by word of mouth and possibly even in written texts, whether Jewish or Christian.  Eventually, these stories ended up becoming resources for the authors of the New Testament to help them write their own stories, however, we also know many of these Gospel stories found their sources in Greek and Roman literature.  To put it more plainly, the Gospel stories did not get their inspiration only from other Jewish and Christian stories but also from pagan stories.

Among scholars, this idea has at times become contentious.  Basically, what you have are two sides to this debate.  You have those who believe all the stories of the Bible came from pure oral traditions passed down from one Christian to another and those who believe the stories of the Bible come from Greek and Roman pagan stories.  Truth be told, it is actually a mix of both.  This will be something we will talk about in another study.  Notwithstanding, it is certain, that many of the Bible stories make allusions to Greek and Roman literature.  Not word for word, but the inspiration seems obvious.  

The story of Jesus’ tomb and his resurrection is one example.  Although we cannot go into depth, we can at least give you a sense of how the Gospel stories do make allusions to Greek and Roman stories.  Here is one from an ancient novel, Chariton’s novella Chaereas and Callirhoe, Book 3, Section 3 (1 CE-100 CE):

At the crack of dawn, Chaereas turned up at the tomb, apparently to offer wreaths and libations…he found that the stones had been moved and the entrance was open. He was astonished at the sight and overcome by fearful perplexity at what had happened…It seemed incredible that even the corpse was not lying there…Chaereas looked toward the heavens, stretched up his arms, and cried: “Which of the gods is it, then, who has become my rival in love and carried off Callirhoe?

There are other similar pagan stories as well, however, this one is quite pronounced.  

In light of this particular allusion, what can we learn?  If you were an educated Gospel writer, you were more than likely aware of these pagan stories and would use them to help create your own stories.  Here I cannot stress enough that all of these authors, not just Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but other Gospel writers whose books didn’t make it into the Bible, were in competition with each other to get their books on the ancient bestseller list (the Bible).  So they borrowed material from other Christians, made stories up, and used Greek and Roman writings as a way to make their Gospel, the best Gospel.

In our next study, we will study marriage: polygamy and the Bible.