Myths Beneath the Mountain

Echoes and Antecedents in the Biblical World

by P. Glenn

Preface: Not in a Camp
This path doesn’t belong to any one tribe or theory.
It doesn’t stake claims on timelines or demand certainty from story.
Sacred Imagination walks alongside myth, memory, and meaning - not to debate their origins, but to listen for what still echoes in the human soul.

Some names here - Moses, Paul, Osiris, even unnamed ancestors -
may be understood as real, as representative, or as mythic archetypes.
Each still speaks. Each still carries the weight of human longing.
Whether history holds them fully, or only partially, or not at all -
we’re less concerned with the ledger, and more with the light they leave behind.

We honor even what we do not prove.
We remember what moved the heart, not just what was recorded.
This isn’t a map for defending -
It’s a guide for walking, wondering, and discovering meaning on the mountain.

The Mountain Itself
Every sacred tradition seems to have a mountain -
a place between earth and sky, silence and thunder, trembling and transcendence.
It is where the divine is said to meet the dust.
Where laws are given. Where names are changed.
Where flame does not consume, and voices emerge from wind.

The mountain stands, not just as a location,
but as a symbol for ascent, transformation, and revelation.
Whether Mount Sinai, Mount Olympus, Mount Kailash, or the Mount of Transfiguration -
these peaks become mirrors of the interior climb,
reminding us that revelation is often hard-won,
that clarity comes not from dominance, but from surrender.

Egyptian Wisdom: Death, Resurrection, and the Way
Before Moses climbed Sinai, Egypt had already climbed centuries of mythic vision.
Pyramids rose as cosmological declarations -
possibly mapping the soul’s journey, or maybe a human quest for “power”.
Sun boats sailed through darkness to dawn.
The gods walked with kings. The heart was weighed against a feather.

This wasn’t superstition. It was story made sacred.
It gave shape to justice, to life beyond death, to the eternal balance of things.
(And for those who ponder even older roots - lost civilizations, forgotten cultures, hidden technologies—this path does not reject such wonder. I simply walk forward without needing to prove it.)

Egypt gave us the image of resurrection long before the word was spoken in Greek or Aramaic.
It whispered that meaning was not bound by death.
That there is a path - mysterious, mythic, and real - to becoming more than dust.

Moses: Myth, Liberation, and Law
Moses may have lived. He may not have.
But the story lives. And it matters.
He stands at the place where empire is defied and wilderness begins.
He hears the name that isn’t a name.
He throws down tablets, strikes rocks, sees glory - but never the full promised land.

Moses is the one who walks between worlds:
Hebrew and Egyptian, prince and prophet, lawgiver and exile.
He’s an archetype of spiritual transition - of tearing down what enslaves and receiving what sets free.

And whether or not the Red Sea parted,
something in us parts when we read his story.
The myth walks with us. And we walk freer because of it.

Paul: The Flame and the Fall
Paul doesn’t come down a mountain. He’s knocked down on a road.
He goes blind. Then he sees again. But never the same.

Paul is the mythic figure of reversal -
persecutor turned preacher, zealot turned mystic, letter-writer to the unknown future.
His voice echoes with fire, frustration, and fragile brilliance.
He carries the flame of transformation,
but not without casting shadows.
Not all he touched turned to light.

Paul invites us to wrestle -
with vision, with authority, with the risk of being wrong.
He may be history. He may be legend.
But his presence in the mythic memory matters.

Listening for Echoes
These figures and cultures are not here for argument.
They’re not weapons to prove or dismiss.
They’re vessels - carrying longing, loss, courage, and contradiction.

When we read them mythically, something shifts.
We don’t have to ask: Did it happen just this way?
We can ask: What does this awaken in me?
What liberation is calling me?
What wilderness must I walk?
What fire still burns on the mountain?

Myth doesn’t erase history.
It opens the heart beyond history.
And the mountain - whether Egyptian, Hebrew, or your own -
still waits.

Introduction:
The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament were not born in a vacuum. They arose from a vast terrain of myth, story, poetry, and ritual already at work in the ancient world. From the riverbank temples of Egypt to the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, from the hymns of Sumer to the wisdom of Canaan and the paradoxes of Hellenism - sacred imagination was everywhere.

This guide explores the mythic antecedents - those narrative patterns, symbolic figures, and cosmological structures - that informed and surrounded the biblical texts. It doesn’t seek to undermine the sacredness of those scriptures, but to show that they belong to a shared river of human meaning-making.

Here I invite you into that river, not to drown in contradiction or debate, but to float downstream with awe at the interconnectedness of mythic memory. Each entry offers:

  • A summary of the cultural myth system

  • Key myths, deities, and symbols with phonetic spelling

  • Connections to biblical parallels (without overreaching claims)

  • A gentle note on how Sacred Imagination honors the legacy without literalism

Let the journey begin.

1. Mesopotamian Echoes: The Deep Waters of Beginning
Overview: Mesopotamia (“the land between rivers” - Tigris and Euphrates) was home to Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria. Its myths predate biblical texts by over a thousand years.

Key Myths and Symbols:

  • Enuma Elish (eh-NOO-mah AY-leesh): The Babylonian creation epic featuring Marduk defeating Tiamat (primordial chaos).

  • The Epic of Gilgamesh (GIL-guh-mesh): A story of a king seeking immortality, paralleling themes of Eden, the flood, and friendship.

  • Atrahasis (ah-trah-HAH-sis): A flood myth with striking similarities to the story of Noah.

Biblical Resonance:

  • The Genesis creation story echoes the taming of chaos (Tiamat vs. God hovering over the waters).

  • The Flood narratives share near-identical plotlines and divine motives.

  • Gilgamesh's search for the plant of life resonates with Eden’s Tree of Life.

Sacred Imagination Note: These stories remind us that before texts became doctrine, they were rivers of reflection. Myth speaks first - not to history, but to humanity. Sacred Imagination sees in these myths the shared ache for meaning, mortality, and the mystery of being.

2. Egyptian Wisdom: Death, Resurrection, and the Way
Overview: Ancient Egypt gave the world millennia of mythic imagination: pyramids, sun boats, resurrection rites, and gods who walked with kings.

Key Myths and Symbols:

  • Osiris (oh-SIGH-ris): Dismembered god of death and rebirth, resurrected by Isis.

  • Isis (EYE-sis): Divine mother, healer, protector—one of the most enduring goddesses in ancient religion.

  • Ma'at (MAH-aht): The cosmic principle of truth, justice, and balance.

Biblical Resonance:

  • The resurrection of Osiris prefigures the symbolic death-rebirth cycle.

  • Moses’ Egyptian upbringing situates him in the symbolic overlap of Egyptian priesthood and Hebrew prophecy.

  • Proverbs and Psalms reflect Egyptian wisdom literature in tone and format.

Sacred Imagination Note: Egypt reminds us that memory is ritualized in story. The tomb isn’t just a place of loss but transformation. Sacred Imagination hears the echoes and honors the longing that resurrection was never about escape, but renewal.

3. Canaanite Currents: The Land Before the Land
Overview: The Canaanites were indigenous to the land later claimed by Israel. Their deities and rituals deeply influenced early Israelite religion.

Key Myths and Symbols:

  • El (EL): The chief god of the pantheon - name preserved in “Elohim.”

  • Baal (BAHL): Storm god, associated with fertility, thunder, and seasonal cycles.

  • Asherah (ASH-uh-rah): The mother goddess, often depicted as a tree or pole - possibly once venerated alongside YHWH.

Biblical Resonance:

  • The use of El/Elohim in Genesis reflects Canaanite roots.

  • Prophetic condemnations of Baal worship show anxiety over religious interweaving.

  • Asherah’s erasure may mark a shift from mythic plurality to monotheistic hierarchy.

Sacred Imagination Note: These layered voices are not revived to restore ancient worship but to recognize that no sacred story springs from silence. All emerge from soil already seeded. Sacred Imagination remembers - not to repeat, but to reawaken wonder in what came before.

4. Zoroastrian Vision: Light, Dark, and the Cosmic Struggle
Overview: Originating in ancient Persia, Zoroastrianism was among the first world religions to articulate cosmic dualism: light vs. darkness, truth vs. lie, good vs. evil.

Key Myths and Symbols:

  • Ahura Mazda (ah-HOO-rah MAHZ-dah): Supreme god of light and wisdom.

  • Angra Mainyu (AHN-grah MINE-you): The spirit of destruction and deceit.

  • Frashokereti (frah-SHO-ker-eh-tee): A final restoration or renewal of the world.

Biblical Resonance:

  • The Satan figure emerges more clearly during and after the Babylonian exile, possibly influenced by Zoroastrian dualism.

  • Themes of final judgment, resurrection, and messianic expectation take form in Jewish apocalyptic literature.

Sacred Imagination Note: Sacred dualities need not trap us in conflict - they can awaken choice, responsibility, and reverence. Sacred Imagination acknowledges the call toward the light while holding space for shadow as teacher.

5. Hellenistic Influence: Logos, Soul, and the Shape of the Good
Overview: After Alexander the Great, the Mediterranean world entered a period of fusion - Greek thought, language, and philosophy swept across Judea and beyond.

Key Philosophical Ideas:

  • Logos (LOH-gohs): Reason, word, or divine principle animating the cosmos.

  • Psyche (SOO-kay): The soul, seat of the self.

  • Eudaimonia (yoo-dai-MOH-nee-ah): Human flourishing, or living in alignment with one’s essence.

Biblical Resonance:

  • The Gospel of John’s use of Logos shows direct dialogue with Greek metaphysical thought.

  • Paul’s letters reflect Stoic and Platonic phrasing, especially around the soul and spiritual discipline.

Sacred Imagination Note: To philosophize isn’t to reject myth but to refine it. The Greeks remind us that reason and wonder are not enemies. Sacred Imagination embraces both - head and heart, symbol and logic - as paths toward living meaningfully.

6. Second Temple Synthesis: Where Prophets Meet Empires
Overview: The Second Temple period (c. 516 BCE – 70 CE) was a time of profound transformation for Jewish religion and identity. Situated between empires - Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman - the Jewish people found themselves constantly reinterpreting their sacred stories in response to conquest, exile, and survival.

Key Developments and Symbols:

  • Apocalyptic Visions: Books like Daniel, 1 Enoch, and Jubilees present symbolic dreams, angelic battles, and end-of-days hope.

  • Heavenly Intermediaries: Figures like Metatron, Wisdom (Chokhmah), and the Son of Man emerge as bridges between God and creation.

  • Messianic Expectation: Hope for a liberating king (or priest, or prophet) intensified under foreign rule, often portrayed with echoes of Davidic myth.

Biblical Resonance:

  • The Book of Daniel’s visions reflect Babylonian and Persian court symbolism.

  • The concept of resurrection and final judgment develops in response to Zoroastrian influence and post-exilic reflection.

  • The New Testament inherits much of this mythic scaffolding: Son of Man, cosmic battle, the Messiah, and spiritual warfare.

Sacred Imagination Note: The Second Temple period is a crucible of sacred longing. It births poetry out of oppression, vision out of devastation. Sacred Imagination receives this period not as a blueprint for dogma, but as a tapestry of mythic response—voices rising like incense amid ruins, dreaming not just of escape, but of renewal through story.

7. Greco-Roman Religion: Gods, Empires, and Echoes of Power
Overview: Classical Greco-Roman religion was a world of gods with human faces - dramatic, flawed, radiant, and powerful. Religion was public, political, and performative - intertwined with empire and identity.

Key Myths and Symbols:

  • Zeus/Jupiter (ZOOS / JOO-pih-ter): King of the gods, thunder-wielder.

  • Apollo (uh-PAH-loh): God of light, reason, poetry, and plague.

  • Dionysus/Bacchus (DYE-oh-ny-sus / BAK-us): God of ecstasy, wine, and divine madness.

  • Caesar (SEE-zar): Deified ruler - emperor as living god.

Biblical Resonance:

  • The Gospel proclamation of “Jesus is Lord” is a direct challenge to “Caesar is Lord.”

  • Christ as Son of God, Savior, and Prince of Peace were all titles used for Roman emperors.

  • The Book of Revelation critiques empire in symbolic, apocalyptic language, casting Rome as Babylon the Great.

Sacred Imagination Note: Empires rise by myth, and so must be unmasked by it. Sacred Imagination sees how the biblical texts both borrowed from and subverted the mythologies of their oppressors - turning imperial symbols into metaphors of liberation, humility, and love.

8. Early Christian Mythmaking: The Word in New Flesh
Overview: Christianity didn’t arrive with a blank slate - it was born as a Jewish renewal movement steeped in Second Temple imagery, apocalyptic expectation, and Greco-Roman symbolic logic. Its early myths - death and resurrection, incarnation, Eucharist, kingdom of God - were not invented from whole cloth but emerged from a symphonic reweaving of older threads.

Key Myths and Symbols:

  • Christ as Logos: In John 1, Jesus is the preexistent Word (Logos), both Jewish Wisdom and Greek Reason enfleshed.

  • Death and Resurrection: Echoing Osiris, Dionysus, and Tammuz, Jesus' death is reinterpreted as cosmic renewal, not just personal salvation.

  • The Eucharist: Shared bread and wine as body and blood - bridging ancient sacrificial rites and communal feasts.

  • The Kingdom of God: Not a geopolitical regime but a radically inverted realm of justice, mercy, and presence.

Mythic Influences:

  • Hebrew prophetic imagination: Justice for the poor, liberation for the oppressed, divine closeness through covenant.

  • Mystery cults of the Greco-Roman world: Including Mithras, Dionysus, and Isis - each featuring ritual initiation, divine-human saviors, and communal meals.

  • Platonic dualism and Stoic ethics: Reflected in Paul's letters, which often straddle Hellenistic and Hebraic thought.

Sacred Imagination Note: Early Christianity is a living mosaic of ancient longing. Its sacred stories carry the scent of Jewish soil and the breath of Roman air. Sacred Imagination honors this layered mythmaking - not as fraud or fiction, but as human response: a mythos of wounded hope daring to speak again. It asks not, “Did it happen?” but “What truth was it trying to live into?”

Closing Reflection
The Hebrew Bible and New Testament were not born in sterile silence. They breathed among pyramids and temples, courts and caves, torches and scrolls. To understand them isn’t to betray them, but to listen more deeply. Sacred Imagination affirms: All sacred speech is layered speech.

I don’t seek to dismantle what has been cherished. I seek to hear it whole. Although I no longer adhere to the doctrines and dogmas that once smothered my heart and condemned my questions, I still carry a deep honor for what may once have been sacred imagination - before it was imprisoned.

— P. Glenn