Heretical musings on religion and culture from a literary scholar
Jack the Giant Killer, a re-telling of European myth and folklore, starring Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci and Ewan McGregor, is coming out summer 2012! Although you probably know the story by heart, I'll bet you didn't know it's biblical roots. Read on to learn where the story really comes from! History of Jack and the Beanstalk: The earliest printed edition which has survived is the 1807 book The History of Jack and the Bean Stalk, printed by ...
Something interesting I discovered today was the link between the David and Goliath story and Homer's Iliad. I've already come to understand how much of the Old Testament (especially the flood story, but there are others) were lifted from Sumerian stories (Abraham was raised in, and left behind, a highly developed Sumerian culture before founding his new religious movement). But I hadn't considered the extent to which Old Testament scribes borrowed from successful Greek Literature such ...
An article that caught my attention this summer is suggestively called "In Israel, diggers unearth the Bible's bad guys." The article continues to detail the archaeological discoveries by a team in Southern Israel, of what used to be the Philistines city of Gath. Although fairly objective, the article mentions the discovery that names similar to "Goliath" existed, as well as a temple with two pillars - which is reminiscent of the one Samson tore down ...
If you're interested in religious mythology, astrological symbolism, or supernatural folklore, grab my book Gods of Myth and Man. You can go buy it on Amazon.
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