I’m reading The HarperCollins Study Bible, Introduction, pages liii-lv, titled The Greco-Roman Context of the New Testament written by David E Aune. I find myself drawn to a rabbit hole here and am going to dive in and try to learn a little. I learned a bunch from responses to my last post and thought I’d try to crowd source a jump start to my research. I don’t know what I don’t know.The thought above (the title) occurred to me and made me want to go down this rabbit hole:

Aune tells us:

Throughout the first century CE, Greek religion and culture dominated the eastern Mediterranean… Three main types of voluntary Greek private associations existed, each of which had a greater or lesser cultic component: professional corporations or guilds…, funerary societies…, and religious or cult societies, centering on the worship of a deity. This last category includes “mystery religions,” a general term for a variety of ancient private cults that shared several features.

I know ancient Greeks and Romans didn’t believe in a blissful afterlife but it wasn’t until I read that that I realized the idea of salvation and heaven as the carrot, and hell as the stick evolved over time. A little more because I am having a hard time finding this text to link:

The term “mystery” is related to a Greek term meaning “initiate” and “mystery” itself means “ritual of initiation,” referring to the secret initiation rites at the center of such cults. …the period of greatest popularity appears to have been the first through the third centuries CE. …Initiates who experienced the central mystery ritual became convinced that they would enjoy soteria (“Salvation”), health and prosperity in this life as well as a blissful afterlife.

So this is all happening with great popularity in the same place and time of Jesus and later that century, Paul. These cults are popular as Christianity is formed into a religion. Little is known about details on the cults, because, well, they were secret. Seems like early Christianity may have united these cults by adopting some of their fundamentals? I’ve found this so far but I’m just diving in and it occurred to me that one of you might light a path for me. Anybody been down this road already?