A Common Theme in Ancient Culture

How similar are these stories? Are the similarities/differences significant?

These stories contain ancient themes which are related to Egypt. Some common universal themes in various ancient culture arts are seasons, power and love. These are shown in many ways in the works of art. An example of each in ancient art can be found in the following works. Bamboo in the Four Seasons shows the use of seasons in Ancient Japanese art. The Ancient Chinese work Palace Lady shows love between the two subjects. The Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt work demonstrates power in that there is one man who has a crown while the surrounding men are hunting and wearing sandals (Moussalli & Ahmad: 36).

In today's society, these concepts can still be found. Power is represented by the usage of affiliatory symbols such as flags and other emblems of a certain nation's power being depicted in art. Love is depicted in many ways, from Romantic movies to Romantic novels. The concept of seasons can be seen in many such as the marketing of certain goods depending on the season, functional or not, the trends change with the seasons.

Power can be depicted in art in many ways. As we saw in Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt; both differences in clothing and having servants doing work for you demonstrate power. Also, as we see in the Egyptian Pharaoh statues, size can be used to imply power. Also, in both today's culture and ancient culture, being seen slaying or defeating an enemy is a very quick way to demonstrate power. In ancient paintings of war and in modern broadcasts of capturing enemies, this is demonstrated.

A common claim of resurrection skeptics is that the people who lived in first century Palestine and the surrounding Roman Empire would believe just about anything.  They would have easily embraced the story of Jesus' resurrection without thinking twice.  So, for the early proponents of Christianity who thought they really saw Jesus alive after his crucifixion, it was relatively straightforward to spread the story.  After all, in the ancient world everything is believable.

The report of Jesus' resurrection would have also have been unthinkable to the Jews. Unlike the Greeks, the Jews saw the material and physical world as good. Death was not seen as liberation from the material world but as a tragedy. By Jesus' day many Jews had come to hope that someday in the future there would be a bodily resurrection of all the righteous, when God renewed the entire world and removed all suffering and death. The resurrection, however, was merely one part of the complete renewal of the whole world, according to Jewish teaching. The idea of an individual being resurrected, in the middle of history, while the rest of the world continued on burdened by sickness, decay, and death, was inconceivable (David & Rosalie: 69).

Who were the people who recorded these stories and when did their cultures flourish? As an aspiring historian, what do you make of the recurring ...