The Gilgamesh story of about 2,400 B.C. is a very old story. It opens a small window into the myths, fears and thinking of early civilisation and their desire to have eternal life. It shows how they sought to explain the origins of mankind and the causes of unexplainable events and things beyond their control. Events which, for them, would have appeared to be directed by gods or magical means. The very fact of the extremes of natural phenomena would make it appear to them that some superior being or spirit was trying to tell them something. Once a myth is given expression and has been accepted as fact, it tends to grow with constant telling. The more power people attributed to the gods or spirits, the less they had for themselves.

When we look at the Roman Empire over a thousand years later, we see their dependence on their gods and the same drive to appease the same supposed spirit forces. The Romans were constantly making animal sacrifices and looking to their astrologers to read the possible signs and portents for success or failure. The supposed omens of life were drawn from such minor things as the flight of birds, the shape of a comet or the lay of an animal's intestines. Emperor Augustus was frightened by lightning early in life, so for the rest of his life he carried a sealskin amulet to protect himself from lightning. There are millions of people living today who still believe in magic and myths and lucky charms to the same extent as the people of five thousand years ago.

The Old Testament of the Bible is full of mythology. Can you really believe that Joshua could successfully order the sun to stand still until he had finished killing his enemies? (Joshua. 10:12-13) or the sun could reverse ten degrees just to prove to Hezekiah that he would be cured of boils? (2 Kings 20:9-11) That Jonah could be three days in the belly of a fish and be vomited up alive and well on a dry beach? (Jonah 1:17) Perhaps you cannot believe that Daniel's three friends could be cast into a hot furnace which killed other people, and yet come out without the hair on their heads being singed (Dan. 3:27 ). The fairy tale magic stories go on and on.

When we come to the New Testament do you expect a more enlightened approach than the myths of the Old Testament? You will be disappointed. Fairy tale magic is central from the start to the finish. Mark's Gospel is generally thought to be the first to be written, 70 to WO A.D. But Mark was not one of the original twelve disciples of the Jesus story. Nowhere in the New Testament is there a suggestion that the writers of the Gospels had direct contact with Jesus. The Gospels of Luke and Matthew were written 90 to 110 A.D. Neither of them was known to Jesus. We know that both of these writers had read Mark's Gospel because they followed the same sequence in presenting the same stories embellishing them in their own words.

The interesting thing is that Mark, the first gospel to be written, does not claim divinity for Jesus. Mark does not give a genealogy of Jesus nor any stories of his birth or boyhood. Matthew and Luke give genealogies which strongly disagree with each other and make no reliable sense at all. (Matt. 1:1-17. and Luke 3:23-38.) Matthew tells us that "Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born". Luke tells us that "Heli was the father of Joseph" who was the father of Jesus. (Luke 3:23). Both talk about the babyhood and boyhood of Jesus but they do not even vaguely agree on one story. It is as if they were talking about two entirely different children. So what is their evidence worth or are their stories nothing more than myth making fantasies? The 25^th of December had been celebrated by the pagans centuries before Christ. It marked the sun-worshipers' festival of the winter solstice. As the winter approached, the sun would appear to slow down until it seemed to stop. By the 25¹ of December (here would be no doubt that the sun was returning. The people could then look forward to another spring and harvest.