What's the difference between religious texts and mythology?

Question

When someone tells a Christian that their bible is a book of mythology, they take offense to it. If I told you I believed in Greek gods, like Zeus and Hera, you'd refer to it as mythology.

What makes the bible better than everyone else's stories?

And don't say "because the bible is the truth" because that's a total cop-out.

Answer 1

Actually this isn't a bad question. A legend is a story that was written a long time after it occured, usually hundreds of years later. A myth is a religious legend. An example of a legendary tale is the story of Atlantis or the Trojan War. The authors did not see these events, they were instead passed down through oral tradition until they were finally written.

Make no mistake, a myth or legend is not necessarily false. Usually, instead, they have some truth to them. There really was a war at Troy. There really was a global flood of some kind since everyone from the Sumerians to the Greeks, the Hebrews, the Hawaiians and the ancient Americans had such legends. But many of these stories have some sort of fictional twist or exageration of some kind, or are shaped to present a moral message. Again, this does not mean the entire thing is false, usually there is some truth to it.

Now the Greek gods are mythical because no one wrote, "I saw Zeus and Hermes". All the tales of the Greek gods were written by people who never claimed to see it with their own eyes.

The New Testament is different though because it is not written hundreds of years after the events occurred. In 1st John the author says they had seen and heard Christ with their own eyes and ears. In Acts 2 Peter says he had seen the risen Christ with his own eyes. In Luke 1 the author says he carefully investigated everything from sources (people who knew Jesus). Mark likely talked to Peter and wrote the things. Paul met with Peter, James and John and discussed things with them and also claims to have seen an appearance of Christ. So the New Testament is not mythical but is, instead, historical. Being historical does not mean it is automatically true, but it carries much more weight then a mythical tale.

Mythical is basically, "My father's father's father's father saw an angel wandering the earth". You would doubt that testament.

Historical is "I saw this ................" or "Here is a testimony of someone saying they saw this".

You know about primary and secondary sources? A primary source is, say, the journal of George Washington. A secondary source may be a historian. A friend of George Washington is a primary source. A friend of someone who was a friend of George Washington is beginning to push it.

You also have to take into account who the writers were and why they were writing. Mark for instance is largely a nobody. A friend of Peter, who was a disciple of Jesus. Luke is somewhat more credible because he was better educated. Matthew is even more credible because he was one of the 12 disciples. John is yet more credible because John was one of Jesus' inner three circle of friends - John, James and Peter.

But who were the writers of the Greek myths? How did they know the gods? They didn't. That is why they are mythical and untrustworthy.

Answer 2

The Bible has been found to be accurate as far as its historical and Archaeological record.Mythology have little to no connection to the actual historical events in history. Where as in the Bible you can go to those places find evidence that those people describe existed and also be able to verify that with outside sources.

Here are some other interesting facts about the reliablity of the bible.
The Bible is 98 percent textually pure. Through all the copies of the Biblical manuscripts of the entire Bible, only 1% has any question about it. Nothing in all of the ancient writings of the entire world approaches the accuracy of the biblical documents.
The 1 percent that is in question does not affect doctrine. The areas of interest are called variants, and they consist mainly in variations of wording and spelling.
The NT has over 5000 supporting Greek manuscripts existing today with another 20,000 manuscripts in other languages. Some of the manuscript evidence dates to within 100 years of the original writing.
Some of the supporting manuscripts of the NT are:
John Rylands MS written around 130 A.D., the oldest existing fragment of the gospel of John
Bodmer Papyrus II (150-200 A.D.)
Chester Beatty Papyri (200 A.D.), contains major portions of the NT
Codex Vaticanus (325-350 A.D.), contains nearly all the Bible.
Codex Sinaiticus (350 A.D.), contains almost all the NT and over half of the OT
Go to the website below for more information

Answer 3

With the advent of the NT, the Bible became applicable to ALL of mankind. Which mythology from Greek or Roman tales ever did this? When did zeus or any other "god" of mythology speak decrees to all mankind? Further, and just like my Literature professor said, ALL of Greek, Roman, and ALL other obvious mythologies were culture specific, meaning they pertained ONLY to that culture. If that's not difference enough for you, sorry about your luck in not comprehending these matters.

Answer 4

Why don't you take your question one step further. How distorted does a history book have to be before it is considered mythology. The Bible is closer to a History book than a fable. There are geneologys and records of battles and nations. Even if you discount the Bible on religious terms there is to much truth in it to disregard as complete mythology.

Answer 5

Some parts of the Bible are mythology (the Books of Genesis and Revelation, for example), and other parts of the Bible are religious texts (Paul's letters to the Corinthians, for example).

What distinguishes the two is that one (Genesis) is a story, and the other (Paul's letters) is a person expressing his thoughts about philosophy about religion.

Answer 6

basically religions that are not part of the main stream become "mythology". i suppose that when roman "mythology" was considered the true religion of the empire some of the etruscan and celtic religions were considered as "myths".
the bible seems to have lasted longer because it has a better support system, but who knows what will be in the future.

Answer 7

While i can't say the entire bible is true and have something to back it up i can say that many other books and writings tell a different perspective of some of the things that are talked about in the bible

Answer 8

The only different is that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whose Son is Jesus the Christ says that He is the Only True God and that there is no other.

God required the people of Israel to record His Word that He inspired the Holy men of God to write.

The worship of Zeus was very prevalent throughout the Roman Empire during the first century. Zeus equivalent to Roman god Jupiter. Acts 14:8-12

The origin of mythology can be blamed on Nimrod who rebelled against God and his grandfather Noah. His evil wife Semiramis and son Tammuz began the mother/son cult and spawned many gods and goddesses of the ancient world such as Zeus being Greek and Jupiter being Roman. The Book of Jeremiah in the 7th chapter speaks of the old evil queen of heaven with her many names from Semiramis, to Ashtoreth to Aphrodite, to Venus, to Diana, to Ishtar, to Astarte, to Atargatos. to Eastre. to Cybele, to Isis, to Ceres, to Fortuna, to Shingmoo, to Disa, to Nutri, to Virgo-Paritura, to Isi or Indrani or Devaki or Ashera.

Names for Nimrod/Tammuz in his reincarnated form are Horus (Egypt) Attis (Italy) Crishna or Iswara (India) Deoius (Asia Minor) Janus (Rome)

Most famous in the Bible are Baal and Ashtaroth. Judges 2:13

This evil was on every high hill and under every green tree with frenzied dances, cult prostitution both male and female and at times even human sacrifice. Jeremiah 19:5-7, 1 Kings 18:26-28, 2 Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 7:30, 32:30-35.

So Ham, Canaan and Nimrod are the cursed descendants of Noah.

These cities in Genesis 10:10-12 mentions Babel, Asshur, Nineveh and Calah. the mention of these places may send shivers up your spine because these cities were known for great, almost unimaginable practices and perversion.

Babel was the origin of an idolatrous system that swept the world. The nations drank her wine: therefore the nations are deranged. Jeremiah 51:7. The Bible speaks of the Satanic religions that came from her. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus "witnessed the Mystery religion and its rites in numerous countries and mentions how Babylon was the primeval source from which all systems of idolatry flowed."

More truth to your mythology than what you wish to believe because fallen angels and God's angelic beings were called gods.

The Bible is the Word of the Living God and for that reason it is truth and different from all others.

Answer 9

Give it time. If mankind is still around in 2000 years, todays popular religions will be regarded as mythology.

Answer 10

Mythology is what some old geezers back in the ages, high on herbs (there was no crack then) came up with. Actually it started out as story-telling and then it turned into idolitry.