Jesus quoting Hesiod
I was reading my way through some classical literature and came across this:
"Badness can be got easily and in shoals: the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough" (Works and Days 287-290)That was written by Hesiod, a Greek poet, in ~700BC.
It reminded me of this, spoken by Jesus in ~28AD:
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)
Can there be any reasonable doubt that Jesus' statement is ultimately dependent (probably indirectly through other sources) on Hesiod here?
A more difficult question: What is Jesus' point?
Presumably he knows its a well-known quotation (the Greeks considered their ancient poets to be Divinely Inspired Scripture, so a lot of people are going to recognise such a quote). I've heard a few people comment in the past that in this passage Jesus is saying that there will be more people in hell than heaven. A possible interpretation that comes to my mind is that he's saying that people who are virtuous need to make an effort to teach it to others because it is not something that a lot of people find easily or naturally, and the lifestyle of the masses can be self-destructive unless they receive the help of others in this respect.
I'm not entirely convinced. Any other ideas or thoughts?
posted by Andrew at
Monday, September 05, 2005
3 Comments:
Couldn't he just be saying the same thing hesiod was saying? It's difficult to do things correctly, not many people manage to pull it off, and those that do pull it off didn't do this by chance, but most likely put the effort in.
I read this (simplified to nutshell size) as Jesus saying "Being virtuous isnt going to be easy, but it'll be worth it"
in the NT there are a couple of references to Greek teachings and philosophies, like Paul in Athens, and Im sure peter did something like that too...
Jesus did spend some time in Egypt before he was 12, so is it possible he picked some stuff up while travelling around? certainly not out of hte realms of probability i would think.
Have a read of the rest of the chapter. It seems like he is talking in eschatological terms (esp v21-23).
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