Tag: Pyrrhus

An Amazing Historical Coincidence

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

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Pyrrhus, King of Epirus: “Another such victory and I am undone!”

In the Book of Judges, Chapter 8, Abimelech, illegitimate son of Gideon, proclaimed himself king of Israel and went about conquering cities. During street fighting in the town of Thebaz, a woman brained him with a piece of a millstone and that was the end of him.

Fast-forward several centuries and hundreds of miles to the west: Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, invaded Italy and there won “pyrrhic victories” (a victory so costly as to be as bad as a defeat) and was finally driven off by the Romans. Returning home to the Balkans, he attempted to conquer Greece. And exactly the same thing happened to him as happened to Abimelech. During a street fight in Argos, a woman on the roof brained Pyrrhus with a piece of a millstone, ending his career in 272 B.C.

How does this happen? Did Greek and Roman historians take that story from the Bible and apply it to Pyrrhus? Or did this remarkable coincidence actually occur? Was the Bible better known throughout the ancient world than we’ve suspected?

The question has to be, Is this what really happened to Pyrrhus? If not, then we simply don’t know how he died. And for a man as famous as Pyrrhus, it’s very hard to imagine how that could be. There were any number of historians writing about Pyrrhus during his lifetime and shortly afterward–but none of them offers a different story of his death.

God passed judgment on both these tyrants, Abimelech and Pyrrhus; and it was the same judgment for each. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise.

The Update: a Horror Story

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

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Well, now what do I do?

The computer sez “install new updated version of Firefox.” I didn’t dare try, but Patty did. That was an hour ago. It still doesn’t work. It just sits there “configuring.” It’ll only take a few minutes, she said.

Meanwhile, viewership has imploded and today is shaping up as a right proper rotter. Where did everybody go? Was it something I said? I wonder if other bloggers have experienced this lately.

Yes, I’m typing this on another computer. We have two. The one I use has stopped working. What a great update. As Pyrrhus once said, “Another such victory and I am undone.” I don’t have a victory, but I love using classical quotes. It keeps me from cursing.

So now I guess I’ll go back outside and try to read this big thick book with really small print that I have to review for Chalcedon. It’s all about postmodernism. After that I guess I’ll scream for a while.

A Dynamic of History: the Devourer

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Genghis Khan’s piece of the world

The outward appearance of the world is always changing, but the dynamics of history never change.

One of those dynamics is this: there’s always somebody who wants to rule the world, a devourer of nations.

Pyrrhus wanted to conquer all the countries around the Mediterranean. He couldn’t have told you why. A woman killed him with a piece of a millstone: just like what happened to Ahimelech in Judges 9:53.

Alexander the Great conquered nations because he thought he was a god. Julius Caesar and his successors trampled other nations as their way of getting ahead in Roman politics.

Genghis Khan grabbed more of the earth’s surface than anyone; and God alone knows why.

Adolph Hitler tried to engulf Europe. His own ambition killed him.

Today there is no individual, no single nation, that’s out to conquer the world. But the dynamic of history remains. The new devourers of nations are globalists, consortia, an international gaggle of self-anointed big shots. Instead of Roman legions, they’ve got legions of lawyers. Instead of Panzer divisions, they’ve got waves and waves of “migrants.”

But it’s the same old thing, a yen to rule the world. The methodology has changed, but the motivation stays the same. Control everything and be as gods.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall have them in derision… (Psalm 2: 4)

When He stops laughing, then they will learn who is God and who is not.

It Was in the Bible First

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Pyrrhus the king, whose death in 272 B.C. was almost an exact match to the death of Abimelech in the Book of Judges, 1,000 years earlier.

You’ve heard of a “Pyrrhic victory,” a victory that costs so much, it might as well be a loss. It was named for a real person, a king, Pyrrhus of Epirus, who invaded Italy and everywhere else he could get to, in a bid to conquer the world. There’s always some fool who wants to conquer the world.

Pyrrhus died in 272 B.C. Writing about him in the 1st  century A.D., the historian and philosopher Plutarch told how Pyrrhus came to a bad end. Attacking the city of Argos, Pyrrhus got caught up in the street-fighting. Watching from a rooftop, an old woman picked up a heavy tile and threw it down at Pyrrhus. It knocked him from his horse and, although it didn’t kill him outright, rendered him defenseless. A soldier on the scene then finished him off.

This is history. No one takes the trouble to dispute it. But let us turn to the Book of Judges, Chapter 9, in which Abimelech, illegitimate son of Gideon, tries to make himself the ruler of all Israel. He starts out by murdering his brothers, and all goes well for him until he gets involved in heavy fighting in the streets of a town called Thebez. And then:

“And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull. Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him.” (verses 53-54) And that was the end of Abimelech.

We don’t have exact chronology for the Book of Judges, but certainly Abimelech lived and died about 1,000 years before the death of Pyrrhus.

How could these two deaths be so much alike? Could Plutarch have read Judges? Even if he had, it’s highly unlikely that he would’ve just lifted information from the Jewish scriptures and plugged it into his secular history.

Are we dealing here with repeated patterns in history? Or with traditions that slowly work their way into the collective memories of widely separated nations? Or events that so strongly impressed people, that reports of them worked themselves all over the world, being slightly changed and distorted with every repetition?

All we can say for sure is that this story, this report, was in the Bible first, centuries before the birth of Pyrrhus or Plutarch.

It’s something to think about.