Mythology

The Fourth Gospel has no account of the birth of Jesus or his baptism, and the passion and resurrection narratives of that gospel differ in many respects from those in the Synoptic gospels; but the character of the Fourth Gospel raises theological, rather than historical, issues, so that we shall not pursue the question of the Christian use of myth in that gospel. But enough has been said to show that round the two focal points of the entry of Jesus into the world and his departure from it mythical elements tended to gather from a very early date. To the Hebrew writers who recorded the history of Israel the creation of the universe, the redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage, and the epiphany of Yahweh on Sinai, were real events which had happened in time, but their character as supreme examples of divine activity placed them beyond the range of ordinary historical narrative. The telling of them became part of an act of worship, a cultic activity, and the language in which they were clothed was such as to magnify the glory of Yahweh, and to remind Israel at the great seasonal festivals of Yahweh’s creative and redemptive acts. After the settlement of Israel in Canaan, the myths which related the mighty acts of the gods of the surrounding nations and of the Canaanite deities became part of the early Hebrew traditions, and the Hebrew writers made use of the language of these myths to describe the mighty acts of Yahweh. This has been described as a process of ‘demythologization’. [4] But it is better described as the creation of a new relation between myth and reality. We can see myth in the process of acquiring a new function, the function of mediating divine activity to the human mind in terms of analogy and symbol. This process reaches its fullest development at the point when divine activity in redemption reaches its climax in the Incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. To say, as we have done, that the gospel writers used the forms and language of myth to describe the events which had taken place before their eyes, is not to deny the reality of these events, but to affirm that they belonged to an order of reality transcending human modes of expression; belonging, indeed, to what Berdiaev has called ‘metahistory’. This, of course, is a Christian point of view, and will only be acceptable to those who accept the reality of the Incarnation and its consequences. —- 1. Goulder, M. D., and Sanderson, M. L., ‘St Luke’s Genesis’ (Journal of Theological Studies, April 1957). Also Evans, C. F., ‘The Central Section of St Luke’s Gospel’ (Studies in the Gospels, ed. D. E. Nineham). 2. For a full discussion and sources see Meyer, E., Ursprung and Anfdnge des Christentums, Vol. 1, pp. 52ff. 3. Dodd, C. H., The Fourth Gospel, p. 425, n. I. 4. Childs, Brevard S., Myth and Reality in the Old Testament, pp. 95 ff. ———————————– Christian Myth And Ritual Chapter 8 The last aspect of myth which will be considered here is the relation of myth to Christian ritual. Here the wheel has come full circle, and we return to the earliest function of myth, its use as the muthos, or spoken part, of the dromenon, the pattern of significant acts which constitute a ritual. A modern scholar has said, ‘In Christian ritual and its associated beliefs we

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