Old Testament Vs. Hellenic Divine Intervention :: essays research papers

old(a) Testament vs. Hellenic Divine Intervention     The Old Testament and Hellenic texts we have studied have numerousexamples of divine intervention. The range and complexity in human affairs thatthese interventions occur have similar, merely different attributes. Both textsdescribe divine intervention as a way of explaining "why things happen(ed) andbeing "chosen" by God or gods to run a destiny. Both also see divineintervention as something that can not be understood by humans God or the godshave their reasons why multitude are "chosen" and why certain gifts, events, andcatastrophes happen and we will never understand the reasoning. Differences inthe texts stem from the reasons they are the resembling why certain people are chosen,why events happen, etc.     The range and complexity in human affairs of divine intervention as draw in the Hellenic texts and the Old Testament are similar because of theinterference in human affairs, yet they are different because of why certainpeople are chosen to fulfill a destiny. For instance, in the Old Testament, Godchooses Noah and his family to be the only survivors after the flood that wipesout the earth. His destiny was to build the ark and flash a pair of every livingcreature to help repopulate the earth after everything is wiped out. This issimilar to Oedipus at Colonus, in the Hellenic texts, because the gods chooseOedipus to save the urban center of Colonus from his own sons. They differ because God,in the Old Testament, chooses rather blindly. He does not choose people for anyreason except that is who He cherished. If He does choose, it is found on goodnessor loyalty to Him. The gods of Hellenic texts, like in Oedipus at Colonus, thegods choose Oedipus because of his wisdom and his family line. The Hellenictexts choose based on prestige, family, and honor. other example of this isthe story "Joseph" in the Old Testament. Joseph was chos en to be a powerfulruler in Egypt for no reason whatsoever, just because God wanted him to be. InThe Illiad, this would never happen, Achilles is chosen to defeat Hector becauseof his prestige, honor, and family line. Achilles is not chosen because Zeusjust wanted him to. Not just anybody could have killed Hector, it had to be someone famous.     In the Old Testament, divine intervention, especially in "Genesis,"plays a very important part. For example, in "The Creation of the Universe,"God wills everything into being. "God said, Let there be light," (Genesis15) "Then God said, Let the earth produce growing things," (Genesis 111)