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Cyrus H. Gordon

70 quotes

“Only two people in East Mediterranean antiquity developed [parallel tendecies towards] "canonical" Scripture: the Greeks and the Jews. The Greeks treated Homer as their Scripture par excellence, much as the Jews regarded the Bible. ...Hebrew and pagan Greek scriptures were each considered the divinely inspired guide for life.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Minos has rightly been compared with Moses. Both are greater-than-life-size figures who received the law from the supreme god on the sacred mountain (see Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 2: 61 concerning Minos).”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Book [of Judges] as a whole gives a coherent picture of an era and propounds the thesis that the institutions of pre-monarchic Israel were so chaotic... that centralized, hereditary kingship was necessary.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The incorporation of... earlier sources does not mean that the Pentateuch or Former Prophets is the work of an editor who pasted together various docuements. Once we view the work as a whole, we see that it is a fresh creation though not a creatio ex nihilo. The same holds for Homeric Epic that has been subjected to the same kinds of modern literary criticism.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heroic epic and saga (Indic as well as Greek and Hebrew, etc.) combine action with genealogy. This is necessary because the action is performed by aristocrats who require genealogies.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most important document at Ugarit for both Biblical and Homeric studies is the Epic of Kret. It anticipates the Helen-of-Troy motif in the Iliad and Genesis, thus bridging the gap between the two literatures.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once we recognize the factor of royal epic in Genesis, we see that the Helen-of-Troy motif permeates the Patriarchal Narratives. ...Like Helen and Hurrai, Sarah and Dinah are heroines according to the standards of royal epic.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like Helen, Sarah is wonderously fair and ageless. ...Like Helen, Sarah's name means "princess" in normal Hebrew, and "queen" in Akkadian. It is conceivable that (like David afterwards, whose name dāvîd means "leader, chief") her title came to be used as her name.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The [Judaic] Patriarchs are depicted as Arameans as long as they remained in their native lands.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Samaritans (whose beginnings were pre-Josianic) have a Pentateuch quite similar to the familiar Jewish Pentateuch. ...our Pentateuchal text was fairly well established before the rift between the Samaritans and Judeans.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The function of reciting (actually chanting—for Scripture and national epic were sung, not read) Pentateuch and Homer at national reunions is the same in both cases. The narrative knits the segments of the nation together telling how they achieved their place in history in the course of a great event (The Exodus or the Trojan War). All of the tribes and their leaders are heroic. The text brings in each tribe by name. ...there must be an honoured place for all.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Conquest of Joshua could not have been a primitive assault, because a civilized land like Canaan with well-fortified cities could easily have repulsed an attack that was militarily naïve. ...Spies were sent to search out the land and lay the groundwork.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Battles ended with sunset or dusk; so heroes, on special occasions when they needed more time, were vouchsafed victory by the stoppage of the sun in Greek as well as Hebrew saga.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The central problem of the Greek tragedies is why we suffer so at the hands of God. The movement that evoked Greek tragedy in the fifth century B.C. was spread over the East Mediterranean evoking a parallel response in Israel. ...And as in Greek tragedy, Job deals with the problem of why man suffers so at the had of God.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aristocrats (among Hebrews and Greeks) often had harems that included women of common or even servile origin, as well as well-born aristocratic ladies. Normally, the successors would be chosen from the sons born by ladies; but on occasion those born by servile or common wives achieved the ascendency. In the latter case, tradition could dwell on the phenomenon as "worthy of saga.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The prevailing view is simply that the Judges were inspired, not hereditary leaders. But this misses the point; the Judges were normally from the ruling aristocracy, quite like the kings in Homer. ...The kings did not necessarily inherit rulership from their fathers but sometimes did, like Odysseus from Laertes, or Abimelech from Gideon. ...the kings came from the fighting and landed aristocracy...”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If archeology had yielded only the Epic of Kret, we would have enough to bridge the gap between the Iliad and Genesis. But... our new sources are so rich that we have only begun... The years ahead bid fair to be the most fruitful in the annals of Classical and Biblical scholarship. Our debt to the Bible and Classics is so great that this type of research will deepen our understanding of our culture and of ourselves.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just as Mycenaean civilisation is a development of the Minoan, so too the Philistines who came to Palestine from Caphtor were an offshoot of the same general Aegean civilisation. ...until David's victories around 1000 B.C., the Philistines dominated the Hebrews, so that, militarily at least, the Davidic monarchy was the Hebrew response to the Philistine stimulus. ...the Achaeans, Trojans, Philistines and Hebrews during the closing centuries of the second millennium belonged to the same international complex of peoples, sharing many conventions and institutions, specifically in military matters.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ancient theory of heroic genealogy... reflects paternity at two levels: human and divine. A man's inheritance comes from his human father, but his qualitative superiority among mortals comes from his divine father. When Odysseus is called Zeus-born (diognēs) this does not mean that the poet has forgotten... that he is the son of human Laertes. ...Zeus is often described as impregnating noble ladies, not so much to gratify his lust for women, but because divine parentage was a necessity among the claims of the aristocracy. Odysseus is a superhuman because he is diogenēs; but he is king of Ithaca because of his human father Laertes. Jesus is divine because of his heavenly Father; but he derives his kingship of the Jews from the mortal Joseph, who was heir to the throne (Matthew I). While normative Judaism has has tried to strip the Old Testament of this phenomenon, vestiges have nevertheless remained in the text.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scripture makes it clear that unlike the conceptions of Abraham and of Jacob, Isaac was conceived through divine agency. Like the Mycenaean Greek heroes, Isaac could claim paternity at two levels; the human and the divine. ...Normative Judaism has divested itself of this approach to the paternity of heroes, in spite of the tell-tale text in Genesis. Midrash does not hesitate to call Moses half-god and half-man. ...The Church tradition that connects the sacrifice of Isaac with the sacrifice of Christ apparently rests on a sound exegesis, for the sacrifice of Isaac would have meant not only the sacrifice of Abraham's son but of God's.”
Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source