>
> Dear nagasiva yronwode, et al
>
I'm not sure when the Jewish ten commandments was actually put together -
presumably a few centuries BCE or perhaps just after the Babylonian
captivity?
Point is the Jewish/Hebrew foundation "myth" is as a counter religion to
that of Egypt.
Paganism is indeed imo a creation of the late classical world ie when
Egypt (and most everywhere else) was
ruled by Rome - even so for "The Pagan" one could as easily read "The
Egyptian".
The Egyptologist Jan Assmann goes further than this and suggests
that the theology of the Hebrew "Decalogue"
forms part of a pan cultural debate/discussion of the period of the 18th
dynasty -
whose most famous example is the fanatical Egyptian King Akhenaton
(c1350BCE) -
It's another theory and not all Egyptologists follow Assmann in this,
AFAIK he is sometimes
thought to be biased too heavily on the Abrahamic side.
The issue of "statues" is discussed in several late classical texts,
various Pagan and Christian
philosophers/practitioners placing themselves on various sides - for
references see the footnote to the famous
chapter in Copenhaver's translation of the "Asclepius".
bb/93
Mogg
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