This and other Near Eastern mythologies clearly fueled the continuing evolution of Jewish myth, which incorporated and integrated the earlier mythology. New myths arose to fill the void created by the loss of the older pagan ones. These new myths involve not only God, but also God’s Bride, the Shekhinah,121 and like the Greek myths of Zeus and Hera, they sometimes converge and sometimes diverge and often give birth to additional myths. So too are there other mythical figures, including that of the Messiah, along with angels, demons, spirits, and fabulous creatures of the air, earth, and sea, such as the Ziz, a giant mythical bird, Behemoth, a giant land animal, and Leviathan, a monstrous sea creature.
There are many often intriguing parallels to be found between Jewish myth and that of the Greeks and Canaanites. Many of these parallels concern the nature of God. Just as Zeus and El are warrior gods, so too is God a warrior, as in the verse Yahweh is a man of war (Exod. 15:3), although, of course, this is only one aspect of God. In some sources God is said to have smitten the Egyptians with His finger, while in others God is described as a mighty warrior, carrying a fiery bow, with a sword of lightning, traveling through the heavens in a chariot. Confirming the image of God as a great warrior, Exodus Rabbah 5:14 states that God’s bow was fire, His arms flame, His spear a torch, the clouds His shield, and His sword lightning. The parallels to Zeus and the warrior gods of the Near East are clear:
Yahweh is a mighty warrior, who defeated Pharaoh at the Red Sea. It is said that God smote them with His finger, as it is said, And the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God” (Exod. 8:15).
Others say that God appeared to Pharaoh as a mighty warrior, carrying a fiery bow, with a sword of lightning, traveling through the heavens in a chariot. When Pharaoh shot arrows at Israel, God shot fiery arrows back. When Pharaoh’s army cast rocks, God brought hail. And when Pharaoh shot fiery arrows from a catapult, God deluged them with burning coals. Finally Pharaoh exhausted his entire armory. Then God took a cherub from His Throne of Glory and rode upon it, waging war against Pharaoh and Egypt, as it is said, He mounted a cherub and flew (Ps. 18:11). Leaping from one wing to another, God taunted Pharaoh, “O evil one, do you have a cherub? Can you do this?”
When the angels saw that God was waging war against the Egyptians on the sea, they came to His aid. Some came carrying swords and others carrying bows or lances. God said to them, “I do not need your aid, for when I go out to battle, I go alone.” That is why it is said that Yahweh is a man of war (Exod. 15:3).122
One might wonder where this extravagant description of God the Warrior comes from, but most of the central images can be traced back to several biblical verses. The foremost is Yahweh is a man of war. And the intensely mythic description of God riding upon a cherub is found in the verse He mounted a cherub and flew. The portrayal of God traveling through heavens in a chariot, so similar to that of Apollo, may well be a remnant of sun worship in Judaism.123 A parallel kind of sun worship can also be seen in the myths surrounding Enoch’s transformation into Metatron, as Metatron is described in fiery imagery, and Metatron himself is identified as a ruling divinity. As for God’s Chariot, known as the Merkavah, it is based on the vision of Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:1-28). God is said to have taken the cherub from between the wheels of this chariot.
Another important parallel concerns a conflict of cosmic importance between God and His Bride, as described in the Zohar and other kabbalistic sources. It resembles the disputes between Zeus and Hera in Greek mythology, where, for example, Hera, angered by Zeus’s infidelities, led a conspiracy in which Zeus was bound with leather thongs as he slept. In revenge, Zeus hung Hera from the sky with a golden bracelet on each of her wrists, and with an anvil fastened to each of her ankles.124 While the conflict between God and His Bride never reached this kind of acrimony, God and the Shekhinah are still described in the Zohar as arguing over the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.125 This confrontation results in God’s Bride separating from Him, choosing to go into exile with Her children, Israel. It is this separation, more than anything else, that announces the arrival of the Shekhinah’s mythic independence, in which the Shekhinah functions more as an independent mythic being than as the feminine aspect of God. Here, however, God does not seek revenge as does Zeus. Instead, he mourns over His losses, in a surprising series of myths about God’s suffering.126
In addition, there are remarkable parallels to the crucial myths of Creation, the Fall, and the Flood. There are Greek creation myths similar to the Genesis account of Creation found in Hesiod’s Theogony, 127 in which there is a union between darkness and chaos. What is missing in these myths is God’s role in combining these elements to create the world.
In two cases, there appear to be direct borrowing from Greek myth. One Jewish myth portrays Joshua, the successor of Moses, as Oedipus, while another describes a Jewish Icarus.128
Likewise, the biblical account of Eve eating the forbidden fruit and its myriad consequences has striking parallels to the story of Pandora, who set free the winged Evils, the misfortunes that plague mankind: Old Age, Labor, Sickness, Insanity, Vice, and Passion.129 Both hearken back to a primordial sin, and both provide a myth of the origin of evil. Yet both myths include a forward-looking hope for redemption. In Pandora’s case, Hope is the last to come out of the box.130 And in the case of Eve there is hope for the Messiah.
An even closer parallel to the story of Pandora is found in Genesis Rabbah 19:10: “A woman came to the wife of a snake-charmer to borrow vinegar. ‘How does your husband treat you?’ she asked the wife. ‘He treats me very well,’ the woman answered, ‘but he does not permit me to approach this cask, which is full of serpents.’ The visiting woman said, ‘Surely your husband is deceiving you and the cask is full of finery he plans to give to another woman.’ Hearing this, the wife inserted her hand into the cask, and the serpents began biting her. When her husband came home, he heard her crying out in pain. ‘Have you touched that cask?’ he demanded to know. Thus, God said to Adam and Eve, Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?” (Gen. 3:11).
Above all, many parallels exist to the biblical account of the Flood. One Mesopotamian Flood myth is found in the Epic of Atrahasis, who, like Noah, is the survivor of the great Flood. The god Ea-Enki advises Atrahasis to build an ark. Ea-Enki says: “Place a roof over the barge, cover it as the heavens cover the earth. Do not let the sun see inside. Enclose it completely. Make the joints strong. Caulk the timbers with pitch.”131 This is very much like the directions God gives to Noah to build the ark.132 So too does Atrahasis fill the ark with animals.
Another Flood myth, an even closer parallel, is found in the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, in which Utnapishtim is parallel to Noah. Ea, the divine patron of fresh water, warns Utnapishtim about the coming Flood and tells him to build an ark and take specimens of every living thing on board. In this way Utnapishtim and his wife are the lone human survivors of a Flood brought on by the divine assembly that was intended to destroy every other mortal.
Another great Flood myth, this one Greek, is recounted in the Latin poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It is remarkably similar to the biblical account of Noah, and even includes a dove. Here Zeus floods the earth, intending to wipe out the entire race of man. But Deucalion, King of Phthia, is warned by his father, Prometheus, and builds an ark. All the world is flooded, and all mortal creatures are lost except for Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha. Deucalion sends out a dove on an exploratory flight, and is reassured by it.133
These Flood narratives with their distinct parallels strongly suggest that all of them—including the biblical narrative of the Flood—are based on the same ancient Mesopotamian tradition from the third millennium BCE.
Parallels also exist between the Jewish heavenly pantheon and the Greek. The Jewish pantheon is just as extensive, but with a host of angels playing roles equivalent to those of the Greek gods. Thus, instead of Poseidon, there is the angel Rahab, who likewise rules the sea. Or just as Hermes is the d
ivine messenger, so this role in Jewish mythology is played by the angel Raziel, who delivers a book of secrets to Adam. And the angel Metatron, who is described in terms of the sun, plays a role similar to that of Helios, the Greek God of the sun.
There are also striking parallels involving Prometheus. Just as Prometheus is said to have formed man out of clay and water, so the angel Michael (or, some say, Gabriel) is said, in some sources, to have formed the body of Adam. And while it is widely known that Prometheus brought fire from heaven and gave it to humankind,134 it is far less known that in some Jewish myths Adam plays a very Promethean role, bringing down both light and fire from heaven for the sake of humankind.135
Some of the most interesting parallels are those between Jewish and Christian sources. In Christianity, God is said to have incarnated His son, Jesus, as a human; thus the essence of the Christian myth is that a divine figure became a human being. This follows the pattern of Jewish myth where it is angels who are incarnated as human. Genesis 6 describes how the Sons of God cohabited with the daughters of men, begetting giants. Rabbinic commentaries identify the Sons of God as two angels, Shemhazai and Azazel, who descended from on high, took on human form, and sought out human women for lovers.136 These angels revealed all kinds of heavenly secrets, including magical spells, and taught women the arts of seduction. In addition, the prophet Elijah, who was taken into heaven in a fiery chariot, is an angel who often appears in human form on earth.137
Another variant of this divine-to-human pattern concerns how the talmudic sage Rabbi Ishmael was conceived. It is said that Rabbi Ishmael’s mother was so pious that God sent the angel Gabriel to take the form of her husband and to meet her at the mikveh, the ritual bath, and to conceive a child with her. She, of course, had no idea that it was a disguised angel and not her husband who met her. She conceived that day, and when Rabbi Ishmael was born, he was said to have been as beautiful as an angel.138 This is the same theme of human women having intercourse with an angel, but here it is with God’s approval, while the angels Shemhazai and Azazel broke their promise to God that they would not fall into sinful ways.
So too are there myths in which the patriarch Jacob is identified as an angel who came down to earth in human form. We can now see that this myth, so strange at first, is part of an explicit pattern in Jewish mythology, that of a divine figure becoming human. Sometimes these echoes even become overt. The first century philosopher, Philo, proposed that it was God who begat Isaac, not Abraham, although God made sure that Isaac closely resembled Abraham. Philo even says that this child was born to the “virgin” Sarah. Here we find a direct parallel to later Christian lore.139 Indeed, there are an extensive number of parallels with Hellenistic and Canaanite mythology. What this indicates is that Jewish mythology was not isolated from the other mythologies. It was resonant with the motifs that were the psychic currency of their neighboring cultures.
Christian tradition is built upon Jewish sources, especially on the myths of heaven and on the messianic tradition. In Christian theology, Jesus is said to have fulfilled the long-awaited messianic prophecies stated in Isaiah and elsewhere. Those who recognized Jesus as the Messiah became Christians. Those who did not remained Jews, still awaiting the Messiah.
While the Christian dependence on Jewish tradition is irrefutable, there are also Jewish myths that hark back to Christianity. In the Christian interpretation of the binding of Isaac, a direct link is made between Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, and God’s willingness to sacrifice His son, Jesus. Abraham replied to Isaac’s question about what they would sacrifice by saying, God Himself will provide the lamb, my son (Gen. 22:8). The Christian reading of this verse is that God will be making the sacrifice of his son, Jesus, who is identified as the lamb. Thus the linkage between Isaac and Jesus was well-established in Christian texts when we find a midrashic tradition that Abraham did slay Isaac, and that Isaac’s soul ascended on high. He studied in the heavenly academy of Shem and Eber, and after three years his soul descended and he was resurrected. The parallel to the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus is clear—the major difference is that of the three days of Jesus and the three years of Isaac. This, then, is a likely example of a Christian-influenced Jewish myth.140
So too is the Islamic tradition based on the Jewish one. Abraham is the Muslim as well as the Jewish patriarch, and while the Koran does not specify which son of Abraham climbed Mount Moriah with him, later Muslim exegesis identified him as Ishmael.141
There are also Islamic myths to be found about Adam as well as Abraham, and, of course, about Ishmael, Abraham’s son by Hagar.
The most prominent mythological parallels between Jews and Muslims are those concerning Jerusalem. The Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock was built, is sacred to both religions. Both identify the Temple Mount as Beth El, the place where Jacob had his dream of angels ascending and descending. In the Muslim version, God identifies Himself to Jacob as “The God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac.” Both believe that the terrestrial Temple was placed exactly below the celestial Temple, and that although the earthly Temple has been destroyed, the celestial Temple still remains. Both people believe that a ram’s horn will be blown in Jerusalem on Judgment Day and both expect the resurrection of the dead to take place there.142 From these examples it is clear that the Jewish and Muslim traditions about Jerusalem have a great many parallels, and in many cases are virtually identical.
These are just a few of the many parallels to Greek, Christian, and Near Eastern myths that are found in Jewish sources. These parallels demonstrate that Jewish tradition did not exist in a vacuum, but that the kinds of motifs found in other traditions are mirrored, sometimes transformed, in Jewish lore. Thus Jewish mythology was not separate from the other surrounding mythologies, but very much a part of the existing tradition.
IV. Myth and Ritual in Judaism
According to the mythologist Walter F. Otto, “Myth demands ritual.”143 This is the central premise of the Myth and Ritual school of mythological studies. The intimate relationship between myth and ritual in Judaism confirms this approach. Many of the rituals of Judaism, such as those of the Sabbath or the saying of the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, have their basis in some elemental myth, such as the creation of the world or the fate of the soul after death. Thus Judaism can be said to possess both of the primary elements of a mythic system: myth and ritual.
As in other traditions, Jewish myth and ritual reaffirm and validate each other, for as long as they remain linked, the ritual keeps the myth alive. But as soon as the ritual falls into disuse, the myth loses its primary purpose: linking the past and the present through the acting out of the ritual. Without the ritual, the myth is no more than a story, albeit a powerful and compelling one.
It is important to remind ourselves that what we call a myth was, or still is, someone else’s truth. Among observant Jews, most of the texts identified as myths in this book still constitute divine truths from the Written Torah or the Oral Torah—that is, truths that originated with God. Likewise, for observant Jews, the stories that accompany Jewish rituals have retained the status of absolute truth. Indeed, the key test in our time144 for whether one holds Orthodox views is whether one believes that God dictated the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai. Without this belief, the seal of truth that binds the Torah and makes every word fraught with infinite meaning no longer exists. Thus, for believers, the ultimate truth of the Torah must be beyond any doubt. This is the essential condition for a mythic system to flourish.
However, even for those Jews in our time who regard the stories of the Torah more as myths than as truths, the stories retain much of their inherent power. Like all myths, they are not arbitrary creations, but projections from the deepest levels of the Self. From this perspective, these stories can be read as psychic maps, as archetypes of the collective Jewish unconscious. Further, they are an essential part of a rich heritage that derives from an ancient past, and even those Jews who do not be
lieve in the divine origin of the Torah may well regard themselves as descendants of Abraham. They also are likely to observe some of the most prominent Jewish rituals, such as participating in a Seder on Passover, celebrating a Jewish wedding, or, above all, observing the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is openly intended to recall the seventh day of Creation, when God rested, as stated in Genesis 2:3: And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it; because that day He rested from all His work which God in creating had made. It is interesting to note that the practice of observing a day of rest on the Sabbath appears to have existed prior to the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. The account of the manna found in Exodus 16:25-30 includes an injunction against collecting manna on the Sabbath; nor did the manna fall on that day. This indicates that the Sabbath was already recognized as a holy day, as God states, “See that Yahweh has given you the Sabbath” (Exod. 16:29).145 So too was it identified as a day of rest.
To emphasize the parallels between God’s day of rest and the human day of rest, all forms of work are forbidden on the Sabbath, as stated in Exodus 20:10: But the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall not do any work. The laws of the Sabbath include dozens of kinds of activities that are defined as work and therefore forbidden, such as lighting a fire, carrying of any kind, or writing, as well as any exchange of money.146 The point of this blanket prohibition against work on the Sabbath is to remind the people at every turn that they, like their Creator, are observing a day of rest. Thus there is a remarkable mutuality in the way that the myth of God’s day of rest recalls the ritual of the Sabbath and the Sabbath ritual recalls the creation myth.
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