Jesus and Heracles

Why pee in everyone's cereal? Nobody cares if there was another virgin birth in history, and would frankly just rather not know about it. Why take Jesus a step down by making the virgin birth of Christ not unique?

The reason is because you care about truth, and though some traditional notions of the faith give you a certain secure feeling, you will reluctantly toss them aside to gain a truer perspective.

In those earlier blogs about heroes, I mentioned that many of the hero myths have the hero born through the union of a royal virgin and a deity - as in Heracles. In the myth of Heracles, he was the child of Zeus by Alcmene, a human mother.

The miraculous conception was universally understood to signify in the ancient world that a hero was being born. Having attributes of both god and man, he would be able to perform heroic feats. He would have special strength and save the needy from attacking monsters. He would enjoy the favor and blessing of Zeus all his life.

The same is true of Gilgamesh, slayer of Humbaba. A divine birth story even developed around Alexander the Great.

By having Jesus born of a virgin, God was signaling to the entire world that the child would be a hero in the classical sense. God borrowed a literary device from the culture of the day. He communicated much simply by using this familiar form.

The conception of Jesus has the same "bedroom" glimpse that the other hero stories have: the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you; the Most High will overshadow you..." Luke 1:35. This is imagery of sex in case you missed it.

This opens the door to seeing Jesus is a whole new literary light using the well-known literary forms of the ancient world. Many other details were also common narrative tools: signs in the heavens, ancient prophecies about his way of life, his defeat of the "dragon", his blessings by God, his ability to heal, his hidden kingship.

Many ancient stories include these common traits. Lord of the Rings is a modern one, but there are others: King Arthur and St. George are two.

One of the most exciting aspects is what it tells us about God, his condescension to man, his pleasure in using human forms of communication, his affirmation of narrative. It shows that he is not opposed to using mythical, pagan stories - he takes them and uses them to his own purpose.

He did this before with circumcision - this practices was going on in other pagan cultures before Abraham. God took it and vested it with new meaning - a familiar practice to Abraham, which explains why Abraham was not horrified, rather he knew just what God was talking about when he said "circumcise your son."