Christianity changed drastically after the death of Christ. One of the things that transformed was the giving of sacrifices. I find it interesting how the Jews used to sacrifice animals, as the Greek religion did. The Greeks used sacrifices to appease their gods similarly to how the Jews did. They seemed used their sacrifices more to persuade the gods, but it was not totally different from the meaning of the offerings set before our God. The characters in the Iliad and the Aeneid didn’t have the same concept of sin that the Jews had, however they would offer to the gods to stop the rage of the gods, especially when they made mistakes.
I wonder why these two totally different religions had such a similar practice. In my opinion the use of sacrifices to appease God, is too similar to the Greek religion. Through the teachings of Paul we learned that animal sacrifices are no longer needed to come close to God. Through Jesus our God was further differentiated from the Greek gods. We are now called to use our bodies as living sacrifices, a concept that other religions cannot relate to and don’t understand.
Ps. I commented on Sara Dye’s post
My guess would be that in order to appease the Gods, both Jews and Greeks wanted to give them the most valuable thing they could find. Since the Gods don't really need posessions, food, or anything really, the only worth gift would be life. And since giving your own life as a sacrifice kind of defeats the purpose of you asking for help, sacrificing other life, whether it be animal or human, was the ideal solution.
ReplyDeleteA definitely agree with Ben...
ReplyDeleteAlso this made me wonder, what does being a "living sacrifice" mean to you?
Because depending on how a person defines this phrase depends on whether or not other religions relate to the practice.
For example. If one were to define being a living sacrifice by living a holy life ("therefore i urge your brothers in view of Gods mercy to present your bodies as living sacrifices HOLY and pleasing to the Lord."
Then other cultures and religions would find this relatable as they seek to attain their "salvation" through deeds of righteousness and charities such as alms giving...