Hebrew God vs. Ancient Greek Gods
...loving. The Hebrew people feared God because they knew his wrath. In the story of Joseph, we find out how God protected his followers. Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery. Genesis 39 says that the Lord was with Joseph when he was brought to Egypt. It says “…And he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and the lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all he had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.” After all, of this Joseph’s master put him into jail because his wife said that Joseph had tried to go to bed with her. But the Lord was still with him. The Lord showed Joseph mercy and gave him favor with the prison guard. The guard put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and did not worry because he too saw that the Lord was with Joseph. Again the Lord made everything Joseph did prosper. This is one story that shows how much God loved his people and wanted good things for them. The Hellenic people portrayed their deities to be humanlike in some of their qualities. They seem to be motivated mostly by these qualities, though not all the time. Some of these qualities are greed and the desire for revenge. Zeus, the father of all Gods, was largely mentioned throughout the excerpts of the Iliad. He did not do much speaking but was praised a lot throughout the war between the Achaeans and the Trojans. While being motivated by his humanlike qualities, one can also see how he loves his people and wants to protect them. This is seen in book 1, when Thetis was begging Zeus to grant the Trojans victory after victory in the war until the Acheans gave Achillies, her son, Brisies back. Thetis said the Achaens had disgraced her son by taking his prize away from him. Zeus in return told Thetis that she was going to drive him into war with his wife and sister, Hera. He said that he would take care of it for her, even if Hera ends up mad with him. Although there are a lot of differences in the way the Hebrew and Hellenic people portrayed their Gods and worshipped them, there are also a few similarities. The Hellenic people looked to their Gods to grant prayers as did the Hebrew people to their God. They offered sacrifices to their Gods as well. Both peoples asked for forgiveness as well as favor. The Hellenic people would often offer up prayer for their children. The Hebrew people were no strangers to this either. Hector, another character in The Iliad, picked up his son and prayed to the Gods on Mt. Olympus saying “Zeus, all you immortals! Grant this boy, my son, may be like me, and rule all Troy in power and one day let them say, ‘He is a better man than his father!’-when he comes home from battle bearing the bloody gear of the mortak enemy he has killed in war- a joy ...