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The Letter of Aristeas mocks the worship of men who were made gods for their useful inventions. The Sibylline Oracles treat Cronos, Titan and Iapetus the same way, as early human kings whom people later named after earth and heaven.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Letter of Aristeas 1:137
Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
they have clear proof that they possess no feeling. For it would be utterly foolish to suppose that anyone became a god by virtue of his inventions. For the inventors simply took certain objects already created and by combining them together, showed that they possessed a fresh utility: they did not themselves create the substance of the thing, and so it is a vain and foolish thing for people to make gods of men like themselves. For in our times there are many who are much more inventive and much more learned than the men of former days who have been deified, and yet they would never come to worship them. The makers and authors of these myths think that they are
Sibylline Oracles 3:133
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
127 Now when the tower fell and the tongues of men 128 Turned to all sorts of sounds, straightway all earth 129 Was filled with men and kingdoms were divided; 130 And then the generation tenth appeared 131 Of mortal men, from the time when the flood 132 Came upon earlier men. And Cronos reigned, 133 And Titan and Iapetus; and men called them 134 Best offspring of Gaia and of Uranus, 135 Giving to them names both of earth and heaven, 136 Since they were very first of mortal men. 137 So there were three divisions of the earth 138 According to the allotment of each man, 139 And each one having his own portion reigned
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Notes and References
“... A more direct use of Euhemerus' theory by Jewish writers, on the other hand, may be found in the so-called Letter of Aristeas and in the Sibylline Oracles. In his attack on idolatry (134-137), Ps-Aristeas first ridicules the senselessness of the stone and wooden images, and then, in direct allusion to Euhemerus' view, argues that it is foolish to deify men because of some invention they had contrived, since "such persons only took things already created and put them together and showed that they possessed further usefulness, but they did not themselves create the objects." [...] According to the third Sibylline Oracle (ca. 140 BCE) (108-113), "Cronos, Titan and Iapetos were kings, the goodliest children of Gaia and Ouranos, whom men called Earth and Heaven, dubbing them so because they were the first of all articulate men" (cf. 3.723, and 522-555). ...”
Winston, David
The Wisdom of Solomon: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
(pp. 270-271) Doubleday, 1979
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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