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by Scott Stirling.
Original Post: Human Happiness Never Continues Long in One Stay
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Herodotus says (as translated by George Rawlinson, available here) some prefatory words explaining why he'll be telling the history of both "greater and lesser cities" involved in the wars:
"For the cities which were formerly great have most of them become insignificant; and such as are at present powerful, were weak in the olden time. I shall therefore discourse equally of both, convinced that human happiness never continues long in one stay."
Jesus Christ said, reportedly (this quote from King James Version, Mark 13:1):
"And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down"
Jesus lived several hundred years after Herodotus, more toward the area owned and operated by the Greek's enemies, the Persians. Jesus probably didn't read Herodotus, though I don't see why he couldn't have (we don't know anything about Jesus's reading habits), but he could almost be interpreted here as making a similar observation about the passage of time and the temporality of happiness and suffering in human history. You could look at it as evidence in favor of "urban renewal" and proof of the universal truth of "same shit, different day," throughout human history. But Jesus's followers expected the end of the world any day, and he (according to the Gospels) assured them that "this generation" would see the end of the world come. Was he playing semantics with them? Or did someone put words in his mouth? I think, if he was smart (or wise) and we're supposed to take it that he would have been a smart guy (if nothing else!), then maybe he didn't mean it literally. Maybe he did mean something more along the lines of what Herodotus was talking about, the passage of time and the ineluctable continuity of opposites,such as happiness and suffering, growth and decay, the universal principle of opposites symbolized in Yin and Yang. Such is the way of man.
Herodotus got me launched into thoughts about other stuff. I am reading a very interesting book about Jesus from a strictly historical, analytical perspective: The Historical Figure of Jesus, byt E.P. Sanders, 1993. Sanders did a great job digging up and laying out the details of facts contemporary historians know and the theories they've proposed (sometimes with Sanders telling you which hypotheses and theories backdrop his own favored perspectives) about the person of Jesus and his political, social and religious context. As a historian, Sanders makes it pretty clear that there is nothing gained, scientifically, by denying that Jesus lived, died, or even appeared after death to some of his followers. In the absence of facts, having no opinion is better than jumping to an unnecessary conclusion, at least for a scientist or philosopher. We don't know why some people strongly believed they saw Jesus afte he was dead! We do know, according to he Gospels, that Jesus appeared strange and was not immediately recognized in many of the resurrection accounts. Mass hallucination? A badly wounded dying man, resuscitated, struggling along for a few more hours? An impersonator Who knows?