Myths

The word myth can be understood in many different ways.

Originally Greek, it literally meant telling stories. All cultures and people tell stories about their past, and often they teach ideas, values, and traditions handed down from generation to generation. Some may be based on or originate in actual events. Others are didactic tools and ways of conveying important ideas, even if sometimes in fantastic ways.

For thousands of years in Western societies, religious truths dominated the way people thought. But recent generations have been brought up in a more rational and largely secular societies (as well as a religious one) that considered myths not to be factual, any more than Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf were. But scientific, historical methodologies are only themselves tools, albeit very important elements of life and culture. Not the whole or the only way to live.

Humans have various ways of conveying values, morals, and most of us live in worlds where there are different, and sometimes indeed conflicting mythologies, narratives and traditions and we have to decide what to accept and what to reject. The important thing is not to agree, but to respect differences. Something in rapid decline in the West.

In Judaism, our story goes back thousands of years, long before there was such a concept as objective history. Most of the ancient societies only recorded their conquests and rarely their defeats. Even the Roman historians thought nothing of inventing facts or tailoring their records to suit whoever was in power at the time. And adventurers came back with strange tales. Does this mean we cannot take anything they say seriously? Or can one learn certain things from these stories or myths?

Ancient accounts of creation were told by humans long before the Torah gave its version. Mesopotamia and Egypt,from whence the Israelites emerged, had their traditions and stories. What was unique about the Bible was its form of monotheism and a much more universal and relatively egalitarian, ethical way of life. Seeing God as an inscrutable power pulling the strings of human behaviour. Narratives of creation, floods, human frailty, reflected societies and cultures. And spoke to their audiences in a language that they recognised and understood.

Most religions today have very similar, fundamental values. But each is expressed in different cultural contexts and ways. New ways of looking at the world with archaeological and historical information have cast new light on what holy books have said about their worlds. As a result, in all religions you will find the literalists, the fundamentalists, the evolutionists and the cynics and the critics. At the same time, all religions have preserved and protected their Holy Texts. Even secular movements have dogmas that define their differences and underpin their goals.

We often look at each other’s religions with a degree of cynicism about their myths. I used to think that Christian mythology didn’t make any sense at all to me. And I have no doubt they looked at Jewish mythology and thought the same. There is much about Christianity (and other religions) that is not historical or verifiable. Even some Christian theologians have claimed that Jesus was not a historical character. But that has not prevented them from being inspired by aspects of Christianity and its cultures.

I recently came across a book by the very well-known American Christian professor of Religion at Princeton, Elaine Pagels, a devout Christian, who challenges the literalism of Christian myths in “Miracles and Wonder” in which she examines the Gospels and narratives of Early Christianity. This is her conclusion:

“We have learned that we cannot consider the gospels as accounts of historical events, and that likely none of the gospel writers knew Jesus, despite John’s claim that he did. The gospel writers were writing for a purpose to attract new followers which shaped what they were likely to say. And they were writing in challenging historical conditions. Knowing all this we can speculate that his followers created some of the details of Jesus’s life to paper over inconvenient facts Jesus wasn’t illegitimate his mother miraculously conceived him. My own experience as a historian has made me cautious…I have shown that some scenes sound like inventions that were written as metaphors… and yet we have seen that Jesus is still a powerful presence for many people today or that a shepherd named David fells a hostile giant with a single shot …and what if Jonah did not emerge from the belly of a whale? I love these stories and as I see it, they give us what we often need most-an outburst of hope.”

We ought not to feel we must take all narratives at face value. Rambam thought as much. Or beat up on ourselves too much for being loyal to our way of looking at the world differently. We should have confidence in the choices we have made and in the traditions that we have grown up with or adopted, on the assumption that they will make us better human beings and develop spiritual dimensions and experiences. Religions may indeed, for all their good intentions, have failed so far to make the world a perfect place, and we are no nearer loving our neighbours than were our forefathers. But that should not prevent us from enjoying our traditions, living a richer life and maintaining what has been handed down over the past three thousand years.

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.