Coming to grips with antiquity
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Today I was listening to a guy who has been studying Aboriginal art in caves in Sydney - these caves are within walking distance of the Harbour bridge and they have hand drawings that date before the pyramids!
We talk of antiquity being about Moses and Noah's flood etc but these dates are only 10,000 BC yet aboriginal culture goes back 40,000 years (and counting) in this country.
Surely they were not alone for their time, there must have been antiquity before Noah and all the myths surrounding him and his time.
Has our belief in Biblical history blinded us from what really may have happened?
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I don't know if 'blinded' is the correct word. The oral traditions of storytelling and songs certainly must go right back to the earliest days of humanity and i believe those traditions continue through to this day.
Part of being human is to communicate with stories. Some of the stories we all know may have had their germination many thousands of years ago. For instance, many people believe that traditional biblical stories evolved to incorporate enough of older pagan stories that the 'new' stories had a timeless familiarity to them. That would help to communicate the message of the new story and make it more believable and memorable. Broad themes like love, betrayal, pride, anger, hope and fear must have been talked about as long as there have been people. It makes sense that the really good stories developed over time are still with us in some form today even if hard to recognize. If we could go back and visit the caveman days I think we might be surprised by the familiarity of many of their campfire stories. They might understand some of our stories too.
Regards, Ross
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