Something in MaryHelena's reply on another thread got me thinking about identifying the underlying characteristics of the Christos Mythos (which may have built up over time, become muddled, mixed together many varied bits, etc.) as a guide to the first source: if those factors might serve as cultural reference to a particular time and place.
Mine is a WHEN, WHERE question. If this were all I had to go on, I'd consider the simplest direction is: look for a locus w/ syncretizing interpreters proximate to 1) a vegetative rebirth tradition, 2) a celestial rebirth tradition.maryhelena wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 1:02 ammy thinking about the whole body and spirit scenario is to try and understand what is at the root of what it was that the ancients were trying to articulate. ...
The ancients had two options when looking around the world they lived in. The material world and the 'spiritual' world - the unknown world. Animals die, men die -but- vegetation dies but is reborn in the spring. Thus, went the thinking, man being part of nature, reflects not only nature's material aspect but also it's rebirth in the spring spiritual aspect. ... Since no material/physical rebirth was observed for man - a spiritual rebirth, an unseen rebirth, was man's destiny. Gods and an unknown heaven became man's rebirth reward. A spiritual rebirth in the unknown heaven became the goal of man - hence Gnostics and all those who seek spiritual enlightenment - often at the expense of overlooking the material needs of themselves or the natural environment. ... The intellectual framework in which the ancients lived is not our world. It is, in effect, a dead world. Our job today is not to attempt it's rebirth but to seek that new intellectual world that the ancients perhaps sensed in their musings but were unable to grasp and hence to articulate.
Add: If it is widely believed Christianity is born in Asia Minor or Syria, logically, shouldn't the Christos Myth appear there first, also?
I also wonder what ALL the components/criteria for the oldest level of the Christos Myth should be. Recommendations, thoughts?
Surely, scholars have tackled this problem before! So what is the shortlist of cities or specific areas where the Christos Myth appears, c. ... 100-25 BC?