Hello tinkgk9~
What an interesting question! While there are a few parallels between
ancient Greek and Hebrew religion, there are mostly contrasts. Here
they are:
* The Greek gods were very much like humans: they were fallible, they
had very human emotions (for example, they are lustful, they got into
petty fights), and could readily be called flawed. While Hebrews
believed humans were made in God’s likeness, God was seen as
perfect—-not flawed in any way
* Greek gods were subject to fate. As one paper puts it, “…Zeus does
not control fate; rather, ‘the golden scales’ control fate. The gods
can be seen as the enforcers of the fate, but they cannot control fate
itself.” (“Greek Religion, From Homer to Plato,” by Eric Adler and
Josh Robinson, found for a limited time in this Google cache:
://www.google.com/search?q=cache:NtR4LxGaY8oJ:www.duke.edu/~jwr6/repository/Greek%2520Civ%2520Paper.pdf+Homer+Greek+religion&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
) To Hebrews, God sent all things: good or bad. He was in total
control.
* The Greek “gods were not thought to be omnipresent, omniscient, or
omnipotent” (“Homeric Religion,” Inforplease.com,
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0858491.html ) However, the
Hebrew God was all of these things.
* Homer talks of the gods bleeding when their skin is broken, and
while it’s a special “godly blood,” the Hebrew God would never be
imagined as so earthly that He’d bleed. Indeed, while the Greeks
imagined their gods as looking very much like humans, the Hebrew God
wouldn’t be imagined in a body of any fleshly kind.
* While the Hebrew God is singular, the Greeks had many gods, and
generally speaking, each served his or her own special function. As
the Theology Website says, “The gods formed something of a divine
society living around Zeus on Mount Olympus. Theirs was the highest
layer of society, and their society was a reflection of the
organization of society in the heroic age.” (“Ancient Greek Religion:
The Epic Age: Homer,”
http://www.theologywebsite.com/history/greekrel.shtml )
* While Hebrews kept temples to worship their God, and did so weekly,
the Greeks only used their temples on special occasions.
* Greek gods were “attached to definite places. Shrines were located
at places that were already ‘holy’ and were not necessarily located
for the convenience of the worshippers.” (“Ancient Greek Religion: The
Epic Age: Homer,” http://www.theologywebsite.com/history/greekrel.shtml
) The Hebrews, on the other hand, had temples of one sort or other
anywhere a large group of Hebrews lived, and God was not pinned down
to certain holy locations; He was everywhere.
* The alter in the Hebrew temple was holy and not to be approached or
touched except by certain religious leaders. The Greeks did not
consider their alter sanctified in this way.
* Greek temples contained it’s god’s image; the Hebrew temple never
contained any images of God.
* The Greek temple was considered the home of the god; it was for the
god, not the worshippers. The Hebrew temple definitely did not keep
God boxed, and it was designed as a place for the people to come and
worship God.
I hope this helps!
Kriswrite
Keywords Used:
Homer Greek religion
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