I will continue my exposition and analysis started in a previous post about the links between Noah and the chief god(s) in ancient cultures and religions.
In addition to his scientific contributions, Isaac Newton was known for his interest in occult topics, and for his particular or peculiar religious convictions. That said, he had some insights about the history of ancient religions, and expounded ideas and opinions that were held by scholars and authors during the 17th century and earlier centuries.
Newton expounded his views and ideas about the history of religions mostly in his manuscript document entitled ‘Theologiae gentilis origines philosophicae’ (Philosophical Origins of Gentile Theology). The contents of this document are discussed in the book Never at Rest, a Biography of Isaac Newton, by Richard Westfall:
“The ‘Origines’ started with the argument that all the ancient peoples worshiped the same twelve gods under different names.The gods were divinized ancestors-in fact Noah, his sons, and his grandchildren-though as this religion passed from people to people, each used it to its own ends by identifying the gods with its own early kings and heroes.[…] All peoples worshiped one god whom they took to be the ancestor of the rest. They described him as an old and morose man and associated him with time and with the sea. Clearly, Noah furnished the original model of the god called (among other names) Saturn and Janus. Like Noah, Saturn had three sons. Every people had a god whom they depicted as a mature man, the god they held most in honor. They had translated Ham into Zeus, Jupiter, Hammon, and others.”
Another book explaining Newton’s views is NEWTON AND RELIGION, Context, Nature, and Influence, edited by James Force and Richard Popkin:
“The ‘gods’ of pagan antiquity Newton identifies with Noah and Noah’s descendants. Noah and his sons are first idolized by their people as gods and, ultimately, identified with, especially, planets. Newton argues that Noah is ultimately deified as the god Saturn.”
In light of the authors, texts and documents mentioned in this post and in the related previous post, it can be seen that the identification of chief ancient deities with biblical characters centers around Noah and his children. Sometimes Noah is described as the equivalent of Cronus/ Saturn, sometimes he is identified with Ouranos, or with Zeus/Jupiter.
I think the best and most accurate description of Noah is to identify him with Zeus or Jupiter. Zeus or the other names by which he was known (Jupiter, Amun-Ra, Marduk, Baal, …, with some small differences or variations in their attributes, roles, and characteristics) as a supreme god in Antiquity was revered, followed or worshipped during many centuries. It is the most plausible explanation that the important and essential biblical character named Noah is the same person as the essential supreme deity known as Zeus or Jupiter, and also known by other names. Moreover, let us note that some authors identified the supreme god Ahura Mazda with Zeus, and that the chief Hindu god Indra has many common characteristics with Zeus.
Thus it can be stated that the story of Noah is the Biblical or monotheistic version of the story of Zeus or Jupiter, or equivalently, the Biblical character or figure Noah is the monotheistic version of (and the same person or original historical figure as) the non-monotheistic or polytheistic character and deity called Zeus or Jupiter.
It it possible to provide some additional explanations and clarifications.
The ancient Hebrews, their scribes and priests, or the followers of the (mainly monotheistic) Biblical religion in Antiquity and many others very likely knew about the connection between Noah and the deity called Zeus, Baal or Jupiter. This connection was more and more forgotten with the passing of years and centuries, notably in the centuries following the beginning of the Christian era. It is possible to argue or note that the conflicts or disagreements between the ancient monotheistic followers of the biblical religion and the (mostly polytheistic) people around them (from the ancient Egyptians and the Canaanites to the Greeks and Romans) were similar to the conflicts and disagreements between the followers of Islam, who viewed Jesus as a very important prophet, and the followers of Christianity, who regarded Jesus as the divine son of God and equal to God.
These connections and relations became somewhat blurred and unclear with time, causing some confusion, and leading various authors in the last few centuries to surmise and write that either Noah or his son Ham or his son Japheth could be identified with Zeus/Jupiter.
A man lived in the ancient past about two millennia before the start of the Christian era. This great man initiated new innovative teachings and ideas, and accomplished important deeds, which included piloting a ship that was unique in its kind and represented a great technological achievement. There were possibly a few animals on the ship, or not. The animals were mostly the results of posterior modifications and embellishments of the story. There was possibly a local flood or some local floods at the time when the ship sailed, but the limited knowledge of geography people had at that time, and later transmissions, embroiderings, added metaphorical elements and retransmissions of the story described the flood as global. The followers of this man gave different interpretations to the story of his life and actions, depending on their different mentalities, views and perspectives. Some increasingly revered him after he died, and many deified him with members of his family, giving him different names in different places, such as Amun-Ra, Baal and Zeus. Some also viewed him as a great man, prophet and patriarch.
About six centuries after the passing of this man, another man named Moses and his followers, inspired by earlier narratives of the ship and the flood, interpreted the story of this earlier important patriarch and described it in a strictly monotheistic way, calling him Noah.
The same thing happened two thousand years after the passing of the one who was later named Zeus (or Noah) to the great man named Jesus, who gave new innovative teachings for his time. The followers of Jesus interpreted his story in different ways and directions in the following centuries, many revering him and deifying him. And Christianity as the religion with Jesus as its head progressively replaced the religion having Zeus or Jupiter as its head.
About six centuries after Jesus, his story was interpreted in a strictly monotheistic way by the founder of Islam and his followers, who regarded Jesus as a very important prophet. It is to be noted that Noah and Jesus are regarded as two of the five greatest and most important prophets in Islam.
Patterns and regularities can be noticed in the progress of historical events described above, which can be explained by taking into account notions such as the periodical or cyclical return of events, and the transmutation or inversion of values, related to the philosophical ideas of Nietzsche.
In ancient cultures the great flood was justified by the decision and will of the relevant supreme god. In the Bible the flood was explained by the will of the biblical monotheistic god. The flood was explained by Christians as the result of the will and involvement of the Christian God and Jesus. And so on.
Some additional variations in the biblical account of the story of Noah can be explained.
I analyzed the story of Prometheus in previous posts. Prometheus was plausibly someone who stole fire from Zeus (or Noah) by envy, hubris and greed years before the ship sailed or was navigated, and was held accountable and punished. The story of Prometheus is not mentioned in the Bible, in the same way as the story of a character like Judas Iscariot is not mentioned in the Quran.
Since it was not appropriate for the man who was deified as the supreme god Zeus (or Marduk or Jupiter) and who ordered the Deluge to be the pilot of the ship, the story was modified and the man who piloted or navigated the ship was described as someone else, named Deucalion or Utnapishtim.
I mentioned elsewhere that people in Antiquity had a more permissive view of sexuality and were not inconvenienced by incest. For example, ancient Greeks used to celebrate annually the “Hieros Gamos” or holy marriage between Zeus and his sister-wife Hera. This importance given to endogamous marriage explains why the parents of Zeus, Cronus and Rhea, were depicted in ancient stories as brother and sister, even if in real history they were not necessarily siblings. The supreme god was supposed to be fertile and sexually active in Antiquity. By contrast, Christianity highlights or emphasizes the importance of chastity and virginity; this explains the insistence on the virginity of the mother of Jesus in the centuries following the start of the Christian era.
Taking into consideration the results and conclusions reached in this post, I want to give some remarks about the god of war game, which I alluded to in an earlier post.
The god of war game is distorting ancient stories, religions and cultures, inciting the misunderstanding or possibly the hatred of these cultures.
From the arguments in this post, it can be seen that this is a pointless game that is not only portraying badly ancient gods and deities, but is also killing a deity like Zeus, who is the non-monotheistic version of the story of Noah. Effectively the non-biblical version of Noah is being killed in the game, and nobody seems to comprehend this.
Perhaps players of the game don’t care about anything except pushing buttons and destroying all that can destroyed in the game, or perhaps some players have other religious backgrounds or think they are killing bad gods or “demonic” versions of ancient characters. The game depicts the killing of gods of the Greek pantheon and the Norse pantheon. If in the future this game involves for example killing ancient Egyptian gods, this would be somewhat ridiculous, since Amun-Ra and other Egyptian gods are the equivalents and the Egyptian versions of Zeus and other Greek gods.
I think the best attitude is to try to be neutral and try to understand other cultures. One does not have to follow or like someone like Zeus, Odin or Hercules, but one also does not have to portray them badly and show then getting killed.
I also think this game will not have good consequences, and that it is playing with things that should not be played with.