Old Testament vs. Hellenic Divine Intervention
The Old Testament and Hellenic texts we have studied have numerous
examples of divine intervention. The range and complexity in human affairs that
these interventions occur have similar, yet different attributes. Both texts
describe divine intervention as a way of explaining "why things happen(ed) and
being "chosen" by God or gods to fulfill a destiny. Both also see divine
intervention as something that can not be understood by humans; God or the gods
have their reasons why people are "chosen" and why certain gifts, events, and
catastrophes happen and we will never understand the reasoning. Differences in
the texts stem from the reasons they are the same; why certain people are chosen,
why events happen, etc.
The range and complexity in human affairs of divine intervention as
described in the Hellenic texts and the Old Testament are similar because of the
interference in human affairs, yet they are different because of why certain
people are chosen to fulfill a destiny. For instance, in the Old Testament, God
chooses Noah and his family to be the only survivors after the flood that wipes
out the earth. His destiny was to build the ark and take a pair of every living
creature to help repopulate the earth after everything is wiped out. This is
similar to Oedipus at Colonus, in the Hellenic texts, because the gods choose
Oedipus to save the city of Colonus from his own sons. They differ because God,
in the Old Testament, chooses rather blindly. He does not choose people for any
reason except that is who He wanted. If He does choose, it is based on goodnes ...