Why is God described like Zeus?

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Psalms 18

"
1 [For the choirmaster Of David, the servant of Yahweh, who addressed the words of this song to Yahweh when Yahweh had delivered him from all his enemies and from the clutches of Saul. He said:] I love you, Yahweh, my strength (my Saviour, you have saved me from violence).

2 Yahweh is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold, my place of refuge.

3 I call to Yahweh who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my foes.

4 With Death’s breakers closing in on me, Belial’s torrents ready to swallow me,

5 Sheol’s snares every side of me, Death’s traps lying ahead of me,

6 I called to Yahweh in my anguish, I cried for help to my God; from his Temple he heard my voice, my cry came to his ears.

7 Then the earth quaked and rocked, the mountains’ foundations shuddered, they quaked at his blazing anger.

8 Smoke rose from his nostrils, from his mouth devouring fire (coals were kindled at it).

9 He parted the heavens and came down, a storm-cloud underneath his feet;

10 riding one of the winged creatures, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.

11 His covering he made the darkness, his pavilion dark waters and dense cloud.

12 A brightness lit up before him, hail and blazing fire.

13 Yahweh thundered from the heavens, the Most High made his voice heard.

14 He shot his arrows and scattered them, he hurled his lightning and routed them.

15 The very springs of ocean were exposed, the world’s foundations were laid bare, at your roaring, Yahweh, at the blast of breath from your nostrils!

16 He reached down from on high, snatched me up, pulled me from the watery depths,

17 rescued me from my mighty foe, from my enemies who were stronger than I.

18 They assailed me on my day of disaster but Yahweh was there to support me;

19 he freed me, set me at large, he rescued me because he loves me.

20 Yahweh rewards me for my uprightness, as my hands are pure, so he repays me,"

I don’t understand.
 
The Greco-roman deity Zeus and God are very different. Zeus according their(the Greeks) mythology committed adultery, rape, murder lust. God is Holy and does not commit sins. Why then does this psalm seem like Zeus well God like Zeus is mighty-the psalm also says he is Holy the Greek pagans thought it natural their gods like Zeus would have human flaws. I can tell you are in doubt about your faith, I urge you to study the scriptures, follow the magisterium and obey as a child. I am sorry to say it but you must do away with reason.
 
I suppose many people don’t think perhaps the pseudo-gods were developed using aspects of the one true God, not the other way around.🙂
 
I would add that the very nature of songs is to take poetic license.
 
As mentioned above its not that the Christian God took from idolatry, but the other way around. And since the devil has played a big part in the creation of idols through the works of man, then no doubt the devil has made many sorts of counterfits of the one true Christian deity.
 
Much of this can be understood in expressing God’s power seen in nature and then applied to one’s own life in his aid. Man’s oppression, death, and trouble can also be seen as sin, and God’s power and strength reaching down to free him from sin and sin’s effects.

The apacolypse is similar in that it is expressing things in dreamy way of what God can do and in praising his glorious power. This is something of a mystical experience. If we look at these expressions as technical, like we read a manual, then the goodness of these passages will be not be understood in the way they were intended, and the meaning missed.

If you read any of the women mystics and great saints, they write poetry and love letters to God. They are sometimes dripping with syrupy emotions of a woman in love. Another woman may understand these better than I for I find them taxing because I am a man who wants to get to the point. But they go on and on with their love to God, which is good because that is them. But if I read them and don’t understand where they are coming from, then I miss the point of their great love expressed in this way. That is a woman’s way. So various writtings have their own way.

For instance if we look at paintings. Some will not understand the painting because they don’t understand where the painter is coming from, or his perspective. So tho a certain painting may seem a bit much to me, that is because I don’t understand, and it is not due to the painter.

In a sense a story or description of something is similar to a picture. To appreciate it, a perspective of the writer needs to be appreciated. And even tho we may understand where they are coming from, we still don’t get it. But then that is us, and not them.
 
Psalms 18

"
1 [For the choirmaster Of David, the servant of Yahweh, who addressed the words of this song to Yahweh when Yahweh had delivered him from all his enemies and from the clutches of Saul. He said:] I love you, Yahweh, my strength (my Saviour, you have saved me from violence).

2 Yahweh is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold, my place of refuge.

3 I call to Yahweh who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my foes.

4 With Death’s breakers closing in on me, Belial’s torrents ready to swallow me,

5 Sheol’s snares every side of me, Death’s traps lying ahead of me,

6 I called to Yahweh in my anguish, I cried for help to my God; from his Temple he heard my voice, my cry came to his ears.

7 Then the earth quaked and rocked, the mountains’ foundations shuddered, they quaked at his blazing anger.

8 Smoke rose from his nostrils, from his mouth devouring fire (coals were kindled at it).

9 He parted the heavens and came down, a storm-cloud underneath his feet;

10 riding one of the winged creatures, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.

11 His covering he made the darkness, his pavilion dark waters and dense cloud.

12 A brightness lit up before him, hail and blazing fire.

13 Yahweh thundered from the heavens, the Most High made his voice heard.

14 He shot his arrows and scattered them, he hurled his lightning and routed them.

15 The very springs of ocean were exposed, the world’s foundations were laid bare, at your roaring, Yahweh, at the blast of breath from your nostrils!

16 He reached down from on high, snatched me up, pulled me from the watery depths,

17 rescued me from my mighty foe, from my enemies who were stronger than I.

18 They assailed me on my day of disaster but Yahweh was there to support me;

19 he freed me, set me at large, he rescued me because he loves me.

20 Yahweh rewards me for my uprightness, as my hands are pure, so he repays me,"

I don’t understand.
Perhaps I’ve watched too many episodes of “Ancient Aliens” on the History Channel, but this passage sounds like David’s prayers summoned ‘alien intervention’. 🙂
 
Uh, wasn’t this Psalm (and ALL of the OT) written BEFORE the rise of the Greek gods? How on Earth can anyone think this is a description of a pagan deity (and one of an entire pantheon of gods, all with a beginning and end, as well as human flaws)?
 
Much of this can be understood in expressing God’s power seen in nature and then applied to one’s own life in his aid. Man’s oppression, death, and trouble can also be seen as sin, and God’s power and strength reaching down to free him from sin and sin’s effects.

The apacolypse is similar in that it is expressing things in dreamy way of what God can do and in praising his glorious power. This is something of a mystical experience. If we look at these expressions as technical, like we read a manual, then the goodness of these passages will be not be understood in the way they were intended, and the meaning missed.

If you read any of the women mystics and great saints, they write poetry and love letters to God. They are sometimes dripping with syrupy emotions of a woman in love. Another woman may understand these better than I for I find them taxing because I am a man who wants to get to the point. But they go on and on with their love to God, which is good because that is them. But if I read them and don’t understand where they are coming from, then I miss the point of their great love expressed in this way. That is a woman’s way. So various writtings have their own way.

For instance if we look at paintings. Some will not understand the painting because they don’t understand where the painter is coming from, or his perspective. So tho a certain painting may seem a bit much to me, that is because I don’t understand, and it is not due to the painter.

In a sense a story or description of something is similar to a picture. To appreciate it, a perspective of the writer needs to be appreciated. And even tho we may understand where they are coming from, we still don’t get it. But then that is us, and not them.
Thanks for the words of wisdom.
 
Uh, wasn’t this Psalm (and ALL of the OT) written BEFORE the rise of the Greek gods? How on Earth can anyone think this is a description of a pagan deity (and one of an entire pantheon of gods, all with a beginning and end, as well as human flaws)?
Certainly not ALL of the OT; the mad monarch who was the villain of the Maccabean revolt performed the atrocious provocation of transforming the Temple of Jerusalem into a place of Zeus-worship (probably the atrocity alluded to in apocalyptic Scriptures as “the abomination of desolation”). As a “former Roman Catholic” you might not consider the books of the Maccabees part of the OT, but a bit of online research suggests that they were already worshipping the Olympians over in Greece during the time King David is supposed to have lived.

I don’t think the OP’s concern is that the psalm is actually describing Zeus, though, but that it represents an unusually anthropomorphic depiction of the God of Israel, in the style of a thunderbolt-hurling sky god like the Greek Zeus.

Usagi
 
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Usagi:
Certainly not ALL of the OT;
Sorry. I meant what I consider to be the OT Scripture was written before the Greek gods came along. That is clearly not the case with what Catholics have to believe is Scripture. Regardless, the Psalms were all written long before the time of Zues
 
Sorry. I meant what I consider to be the OT Scripture was written before the Greek gods came along. That is clearly not the case with what Catholics have to believe is Scripture. Regardless, the Psalms were all written long before the time of Zues
I did also mention that the Olympians seem to have been worshipped in the time of King David, who is supposed to have composed at least some of the Psalms. So I don’t think your assertion is accurate. Even if the psalmist had never heard of the Greek pantheon, certainly there were anthropomorphic pagan sky gods closer to home that we know were worshipped in the time of the ancient Israelites because God had to repeatedly tell them to stop joining in.

The OP would have to clarify to make sure, but it seems to me he was using Zeus merely as a familiar example of an anthropomorphized sky god.

Usagi
 
Psalm 18 is also a ‘repeat’ of 2 Sam. 22, so the ‘happenings’ are even older, it would seem. Zeus appears to be just a later name for the same god who controls the same things?

“The Egyptian god is Set also known as Seth. He is lord of the desert and god of storms, confusion, and destruction.”

“In Babylonian they have Enlil. A god of the wind. Enlil acted as Anu’s enforcer, destroying mortal cities that refuses to pay tribute and enemies with lightning, hurricanes, and tornadoes.”

“In Norse the god is Thor. Thor controls the sky, thunder and lightning.”

What looks to be an interesting article: (Zeus was also the ‘bull of heaven’ - and perhaps the ‘golden calf’ episode in the Wilderness was Hera, his wife?.)

touregypt.net/featurestories/baal.htm

“Baal’s cult animal was the bull, which symbolized his power and fertility, though at times and in different places he was also associated with goats and even flies.”

“Baal was known to be a rider of clouds, most active during storms but was also considered to be a “lord of heaven and earth”, even controlling earth’s fertility. He was the god of thunderstorms, the most vigorous and aggressive of the gods and the one on whom mortals most depended. Some of his other common epithets include " Most High Prince/Master”, …and many, many other epithets."
Ephesians 2:2 - 1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Another site on the Canaanite Religion:

mc.maricopa.edu/~thoqh49081/StudentPapers/canaanite.html

I’ve been curious for a long time about the god/goddess who prompts people to cut/flog themselves…this may be her.

“Like many regional fertility goddesses, Astarte was identified with the moon and depicted with a crescent moon. There is evidence from both biblical and non-biblical sources that her worship included frenetic dancing and self-mortification with knives and whips.”

As synchronicity sometimes happens…was watching “Quick Study” on NRB network today (3/24 episode) and Corie was talking about “The Descent of Ishtar” (Inanna) as reflected in pagan practices in the Bible. thestreamtv.com/ (16:00)

Further study opened up lots of things. There are two gods named Dumuzid - one is a fisherman, one a shepherd. Two sisters - one is Ishtar/Inanna who is sexually wanton to the extreme and her sister Ereshkigal…“Ereshkigal was the only one who could pass judgment and give laws in her kingdom. The main temple dedicated to her was located in Kutha.”

I had been using Norse and Greek mythology to help make connections in the Bible but the angle above may be the one that holds the most answers. “Nergal” is also part of the Inanna religion and is mentioned in the OT.

"The Aramaic name “Tammuz” seems to have been derived from the Akkadian form Tammuzi, based on early Sumerian Damu-zid.

These mourning ceremonies were observed even at the very door of the Temple in Jerusalem in a vision the Israelite prophet Ezekiel was given, which serves as a Biblical prophecy which expresses YHWH’s message at His people’s apostate worship of idols:"
“Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto to me, 'Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.” —Ezekiel 8:14-15
 
Let’s think in the spiritual realm:

Does the devil know of God’s characteristics?

Can the devil incite man to think/do/make/worship/write things that are deceptive, divisive or disobedient?

This is one potential explanation.
 
Either he is not when investigated or Satan knows what God is like and when he makes up a false religion he uses enough truth to make it useable.
 
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