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Title: Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions - Being a Comparison of the Old and New Testament Myths and - Miracles with those of the Heathen Nations of Antiquity - Considering also their Origin and Meaning
Author: Doane, T. W.
Language: English
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in the original are enclosed in {braces}. Ellipses match the original. A
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Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
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BIBLE MYTHS
AND THEIR
PARALLELS IN OTHER RELIGIONS
BEING A COMPARISON OF THE
Old and New Testament Myths and Miracles
WITH
THOSE OF HEATHEN NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY
CONSIDERING ALSO
THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING
BY T. W. DOANE
_WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS_
SEVENTH EDITION
"_He who knows only one religion knows none._"--PROF. MAX
MULLER.
"The same thing which is now called CHRISTIAN RELIGION existed
among the Ancients. They have begun to call Christian the true
religion which existed before."--ST. AUGUSTINE.
"Our love for what is old, our reverence for what our fathers
used, makes us keep still in the church, and on the very altar
cloths, symbols which would excite the smile of an _Oriental_,
and lead him to wonder why we send missionaries to his land,
while cherishing his faith in ours."--JAMES BONWICK.
COPYRIGHT,
1882.
COPYRIGHT RENEWED,
1910
Printed in U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION.
The idea of publishing the work here presented did not suggest itself
until a large portion of the material it contains had been accumulated
for the private use and personal gratification of the author. In
pursuing the study of the Bible Myths, facts pertaining thereto, in a
condensed form, seemed to be greatly needed, and nowhere to be found.
Widely scattered through hundreds of ancient and modern volumes, most of
the contents of this book may indeed be found; but any previous attempt
to trace exclusively the myths and legends of the Old and New Testament
to their origin, published as a separate work, is not known to the
writer of this. Many able writers have shown our so-called Sacred
Scriptures to be unhistorical, and have pronounced them largely
legendary, but have there left the matter, evidently aware of the great
extent of the subject lying beyond. As Thomas Scott remarks, in his
_English Life of Jesus_: "_How_ these narratives (_i. e._, the New
Testament narratives), unhistorical as they have been shown to be, came
into existence, _it is not our business to explain_; and once again, at
the end of the task, as at the beginning and throughout, we must
emphatically disclaim the obligation." To pursue the subject from the
point at which it is abandoned by this and many other distinguished
writers, has been the labor of the author of this volume for a number of
years. The result of this labor is herewith submitted to the reader,
but not without a painful consciousness of its many imperfections.
The work naturally begins with the Eden myth, and is followed by a
consideration of the principal Old Testament legends, showing their
universality, origin and meaning. Next will be found the account of the
birth of Christ Jesus, with his history until the close of his life upon
earth, showing, in connection therewith, the universality of the myth of
the Virgin-born, Crucified and Resurrected Saviour.
Before showing the _origin_ and _meaning_ of the myth (which is done in
Chapter XXXIX.), we have considered the _Miracles of Christ Jesus_, the
_Eucharist_, _Baptism_, the _Worship of the Virgin_, _Christian
Symbols_, the _Birthday of Christ Jesus_, the _Doctrine of the Trinity_,
_Why Christianity Prospered_, and the _Antiquity of Pagan Religions_,
besides making a comparison of the legendary histories of _Crishna and
Jesus_, and _Buddha and Jesus_. The concluding chapter relates to the
question, What do we really know about Jesus?
In the words of Prof. Max Müller (_The Science of Religion_, p. 11): "A
comparison of all the religions of the world, in which none can claim a
privileged position, will no doubt seem to many dangerous and
reprehensible, because ignoring that peculiar reverence which everybody,
down to the mere fetish worshiper, feels for his own religion, and for
his own god. Let me say, then, at once, that I myself have shared these
misgivings, but that I have tried to overcome them, because I would not
and could not allow myself to surrender either what I hold to be the
truth, or what I hold still dearer than truth, the right of testing
truth. Nor do I regret it. I do not say that the _Science of Religion_
is all gain. No, it entails losses, and losses of many things which we
hold dear. But this I will say, that, as far as my humble judgment goes,
it does not entail the loss of anything that is essential to _true
religion_, and that, if we strike the balance honestly, _the gain is
immeasurably greater than the loss_."
"All truth is safe, and nothing else is safe; and he who keeps back the
truth, or withholds it from men, from motives of expediency, is either a
coward or a criminal, or both."
But little beyond the arrangement of this work is claimed as original.
Ideas, phrases, and even whole paragraphs have been taken from the
writings of others, and in most, if not in all cases, acknowledged; but
with the thought in mind of the many hours of research this book may
save the student in this particular line of study; with the
consciousness of having done for others that which I would have been
thankful to have found done for myself; and more than all, with the hope
that it may in some way help to hasten the day when the mist of
superstition shall be dispelled by the light of reason; with all its
defects, it is most cheerfully committed to its fate by the author.
BOSTON, MASS., _November, 1882_.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION iii
LIST OF AUTHORITIES, AND BOOKS QUOTED FROM xi
CHAPTER I.
THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN 1
CHAPTER II.
THE DELUGE 19
CHAPTER III.
THE TOWER OF BABEL 33
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAM'S FAITH 36
CHAPTER V.
JACOB'S VISION OF THE LADDER 42
CHAPTER VI.
THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT 48
CHAPTER VII.
RECEIVING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS 58
CHAPTER VIII.
SAMSON AND HIS EXPLOITS 62
CHAPTER IX.
JONAH SWALLOWED BY A BIG FISH 77
CHAPTER X.
CIRCUMCISION 85
CHAPTER XI.
CONCLUSION OF PART FIRST 88
PART II.
CHAPTER XII.
THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH OF CHRIST JESUS 111
CHAPTER XIII.
THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM 140
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SONG OF THE HEAVENLY HOST 147
CHAPTER XV.
THE DIVINE CHILD RECOGNIZED, AND PRESENTED WITH GIFTS 150
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BIRTH-PLACE OF CHRIST JESUS 154
CHAPTER XVII.
THE GENEALOGY OF CHRIST JESUS 160
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS 165
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TEMPTATION, AND FAST OF FORTY DAYS 175
CHAPTER XX.
THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST JESUS 181
CHAPTER XXI.
THE DARKNESS AT THE CRUCIFIXION 206
CHAPTER XXII.
"HE DESCENDED INTO HELL." 211
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST JESUS 215
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST JESUS, AND THE MILLENNIUM 233
CHAPTER XXV.
CHRIST JESUS AS JUDGE OF THE DEAD 244
CHAPTER XXVI.
CHRIST JESUS AS CREATOR, AND ALPHA AND OMEGA 247
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST JESUS, AND THE PRIMITIVE
CHRISTIANS 278
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CHRIST CRISHNA AND CHRIST JESUS 252
CHAPTER XXIX.
CHRIST BUDDHA AND CHRIST JESUS 289
CHAPTER XXX.
THE EUCHARIST OR LORD'S SUPPER 305
CHAPTER XXXI.
BAPTISM 316
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER 326
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS 339
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE BIRTH-DAY OF CHRIST JESUS 359
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE TRINITY 368
CHAPTER XXXVI.
PAGANISM IN CHRISTIANITY 384
CHAPTER XXXVII.
WHY CHRISTIANITY PROSPERED 419
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE ANTIQUITY OF PAGAN RELIGIONS 450
CHAPTER XXXIX.
EXPLANATION 466
CHAPTER XL.
CONCLUSION 508
APPENDIX 531
LIST
OF
AUTHORS AND BOOKS QUOTED
IN THIS WORK.
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Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia. London: J. Swain, 1801.
BARING-GOULD (REV. S.). Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, by Rev. S.
Baring-Gould, M. A. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1880.
----. Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and other Old
Testament Characters, from various sources, by Rev. S.
Baring-Gould, M. A. New York: Holt & Williams, 1872.
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MALLET. Northern Antiquities; or an Historical Account of the Manners,
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MAURICE (THOMAS). Indian Antiquities: or Dissertations on the
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----. The History of Hindostan; Its Arts and its Sciences, as
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MAURICE (F. D.). The Religions of the World, and Their Relation to
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in Kings' College. London: J. W. Parker, 1847.
MIDDLETON (C.). The Miscellaneous Works of Conyers Middleton, D. D.,
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MONTFAUCON (B.). L'Antiquité Expliqueé; par Dom Bernard de Montfaucon.
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MOOR (EDWARD). Plates illustrating the Hindoo Pantheon, reprinted from
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MORTON (S. G.). Types of Mankind: or Ethnological Researches based upon
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MÜLLER (MAX). A History of Ancient Sanscrit Literature, so far as it
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----. Introduction to the Science of Religion; Four Lectures
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----. Chips from a German Workshop; by Max Müller, M. A., in 3
vols. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1876.
----. Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, as
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MURRAY (A. S.). Manual of Mythology, by Alexander S. Murray, Department
of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, 2d Edit. New York:
Armstrong & Co., 1876.
NICODEMUS (APOC.). The Gospel of Nicodemus the Disciple, concerning the
Sufferings and Resurrection of Our Master and Saviour Jesus Christ.
OORT (H.). The Bible for Learners, by Dr. H. Oort, Prof. of Oriental
Languages, &c., at Amsterdam, and Dr. I. Hooykaas, pastor at Rotterdam,
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ORTON (JAMES). The Andes and the Amazon; or Across the Continent of
South America, by James Orton, M. A., 3d Edit. New York: Harper & Bros.,
1876.
OWEN (RICHARD). Man's Earliest History, an Address delivered before the
International Congress of Orientalists, by Prof. Richard Owen. Tribune
Extra, No. 23. New York Tribune Pub. Co., 1874.
PESCHEL (OSCAR). The Races of Man, and their Geographical Distribution
from the German of Oscar Peschel. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1876.
POLYCARP. The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, translated by
Archbishop Wake.
PORTER (SIR R. K.). Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient
Babylonia, &c., by Sir Robert Kir Porter, in 2 vols. London: Longmans,
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PRESCOTT (WM. H.). History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a preliminary
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PRIESTLEY (JOSEPH). A Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those
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PROTEVANGELION APOC. The Protevangelion, or, An Historical Account of
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REBER (GEO.). The Christ of Paul, or the Enigmas of Christianity, by
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and Culture of Rome on Christianity, and the Development of the Catholic
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SOCRATES. The Ancient Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus,
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----. In a Sermon preached in Westminster Abbey on February
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STEINTHAL (H.). The Legend of Samson: An Essay, by H. Steinthal,
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SYNCHRONOLOGY. Synchronology of the Principal Events in Sacred and
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TACITUS (C.). The Annals of Cornelius Tacitus, the Roman Historian.
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----. The History of Cornelius Tacitus. Translated by Arthur
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London: Jones & Co., 1831.
TAYLOR (CHARLES). Taylor's Fragments: Being Illustrations of the
Manners, Incidents, and Phraseology of the Holy Scriptures. Intended as
an Appendix to Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible. London: W. Stratford,
1801.
TAYLOR (ROBERT). The Diegesis: Being a Discovery of the Origin,
Evidences, and Early History of Christianity, by Rev. Robert Taylor, A.
B. (From the London Edit.) Boston: J. P. Mendum, 1873.
----. Syntagma of the evidences of the Christian Religion, by
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(From the London Edit.) Boston: J. P. Mendum, 1876.
TAYLOR (THOMAS). Taylor's Mysteries; A Dissertation on the Eleusinian
and Bacchic Mysteries, by Thomas Taylor. Amsterdam.
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Treaty with Great Britain in 1842, by Thomas Thornton, Esq., Member of
the R. A. S. London: William H. Allen & Co., 1844.
TYLOR (E. B.). Researches Into the Early History of Mankind, and the
Development of Civilization, by Edward B. Tylor. 2d Edit. London: John
Murray, 1870.
----. Primitive Culture; Researches into the Development of
Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, &c., by Edward B. Tylor, in 2
vols. London: John Murray, 1871.
VISHNU PURANA. The Vishnu Purana, A System of Hindoo Mythology and
Tradition, Translated from the Original Sanscrit, by H. H. Wilson, M.
A., F. R. S. London: 1840.
VOLNEY (C. F.). New Researches in Ancient History, Translated from the
French of C. F. Volney, Count and Peer of France. (From the London
Edit.) Boston: J. P. Mendum, 1874.
----. The Ruins; or, Meditations on the Revolutions of
Empires, by Count de Volney, Translated under the immediate
inspection of the Author. (From the latest Paris Edit.)
Boston: J. P. Mendum, 1872.
WAKE (C. S.). See Westropp.
WESTROPP (H. M.). Ancient Symbol Worship. Influence of the Phallic Ideas
in the Religions of Antiquity, by Hodder M. Westropp and C. S. Wake,
with Appendix by Alexander Wilder, M. D. London: Trübner & Co., 1874.
WILLIAMS (MONIER). Indian Wisdom; or Examples of the Religious,
Philosophical, and Ethnical Doctrines of the Hindoos, by Monier
Williams, M. A., Prof. of Sanscrit in the University of Oxford. London:
W. H. Allen, 1875.
----. Hinduism; by Monier Williams, M. A., D. C. L., Published
under the Direction of the Committee of General Literature and
Education Appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge. London: 1877.
WISDOM (APOC.). The Book of Wisdom, Attributed to Solomon, King of
Israel.
WISE (ISAAC M.). The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth. A Historic Treatise
on the Last Chapters of the Gospel, by Dr Isaac M. Wise. Cincinnati.
ADDITIONS TO THIRD EDITION.
Beausobre's _Histoire Critique de Manichée et du Manicheisme_, Amsterdam
1734; Baronius' _Annales Ecclesiastici_; Hydes' _Historia Religionis
Veterum Persarum_; Rawlinson's _Herodotus_; Lenormant's _The Beginnings
of History_; Hardwick's _Christ and other Masters_; Daillé's _Treatise
on the Right Use of the Fathers_, London, 1841; _Apollonius de Tyana, sa
vie, ses voyages, et ses prodiges_, par Philostrate, Paris, 1862; Sir
John Malcolm's _History of Persia_, in 2 vols., London, 1815; Michaelis'
_Introduction to the New Testament_, in 4 vols. edited by Dr. Herbert
Marsh, London, 1828; Archbishop Wake's _Genuine Epistles of the
Apostolical Fathers_, London, 1719; Jeremiah Jones' _Canon of the New
Testament_, in 3 vols., Oxford, 1793; Milman's _History of
Christianity_; Barrow's _Travels in China_, London, 1840; Deane's
_Worship of the Serpent_, London, 1883; Baring-Gould's _Lost and Hostile
Gospels_, London, 1874; B. F. Westcott's _Survey of the History of the
Canon of the New Testament_, 4th Edit., London, 1875; Mosheim's
_Ecclesiastical History_, in 6 vols., Amer. ed. 1810; J. W. Rosses'
_Tacitus and Bracciolini_, London, 1878; and the writings of the
Christian Fathers, Justin Martyr, St. Clement of Alexandria, Irenæus,
Origen, Tertullian and Minucius Felix.
BIBLE MYTHS.
PART I.
THE OLD TESTAMENT.
CHAPTER I.
THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN.
The Old Testament commences with one of its most interesting myths, that
of the Creation and Fall of Man. The story is to be found in the first
_three_ chapters of Genesis, the substance of which is as follows:
After God created the "Heavens" and the "Earth," he said: "Let there be
light, and there was light," and after calling the light Day, and the
darkness Night, the _first_ day's work was ended.
God then made the "Firmament," which completed the _second_ day's work.
Then God caused the dry land to appear, which he called "Earth," and the
waters he called "Seas." After this the earth was made to bring forth
grass, trees, &c., which completed the _third_ day's work.
The next things God created were the "Sun,"[1:1] "Moon" and "Stars,"
and after he had _set them in the Firmament_, the _fourth_ day's work
was ended.[2:1]
After these, God created great "whales," and other creatures which
inhabit the water, also "winged fowls." This brought the _fifth_ day to
a close.
The work of creation was finally completed on the _sixth_ day,[2:2] when
God made "beasts" of every kind, "cattle," "creeping things," and lastly
"man," whom he created "male and female," in his own image.[2:3]
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the
host of them. And on the _seventh_[2:4] day God ended his work
which he had made: and he _rested_ on the seventh day, from
all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh
day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had _rested_
from all his work which God created and made."
After this information, which concludes at the _third_ verse of Genesis
ii., strange though it may appear, _another_ account of the Creation
commences, which is altogether different from the one we have just
related. This account commences thus:
"These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when
they were created, in the day (not days) that the Lord God
made the earth and the heavens."
It then goes on to say that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground,"[2:5] which appears to be the _first_ thing he made. After
planting a garden eastward in Eden,[2:6] the Lord God put the man
therein, "and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree
that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the _Tree of
Life_,[2:7] also in the midst of the garden, and the _Tree of
Knowledge_ of good and evil. And a _river_ went out of Eden to water
the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into _four_
heads." These _four rivers_ were called, first Pison, second Gihon,
third Hiddekel, and the fourth Euphrates.[3:1]
After the "Lord God" had made the "Tree of Life," and the "Tree of
Knowledge," he said unto the man:
"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat
of it, _for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die_." Then the Lord God, thinking that it would not be
well for man to live alone, formed--out of the ground--"every
beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought
them unto Adam to see what he would call them, and whatever
Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."
After Adam had given names to "all cattle, and to the fowls of the air,
and to every beast of the field," "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to
fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he (the Lord God) took one of his
(Adam's) ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof."
"And of the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made
he a _woman_, and brought her unto Adam." "And they were both
naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed."
After this everything is supposed to have gone harmoniously, until a
_serpent_ appeared before the _woman_[3:2]--who was afterwards called
Eve--and said to her:
"Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"
The woman, answering the serpent, said:
"We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of
the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, _lest ye die_."
Whereupon the serpent said to her:
"Ye shall _not_ surely die" (which, according to the
narrative, was the truth).
He then told her that, upon eating the fruit, their eyes would be
opened, and that they would be as _gods_, knowing good from evil.
The woman then looked upon the tree, and as the fruit was tempting, "she
took of the fruit, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband, and he
did eat." The result was _not_ death (as the Lord God had told them),
but, as the serpent had said, "the eyes of both were opened, and they
knew they were naked, and they _sewed_ fig leaves together, and made
themselves aprons."
Towards evening (_i. e._, "in the cool of the day"), Adam and his wife
"_heard_ the voice of the Lord God _walking_ in the garden," and being
afraid, they hid themselves among the trees of the garden. The Lord God
not finding Adam and his wife, said: "Where art thou?" Adam answering,
said: "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked, and I hid myself."
The "Lord God" then told Adam that he had eaten of the tree which he had
commanded him not to eat, whereupon Adam said: "The _woman_ whom thou
gavest to be with me, _she_ gave me of the tree and I did eat."
When the "Lord God" spoke to the woman concerning her transgression, she
blamed the _serpent_, which she said "beguiled" her. This sealed the
serpent's fate, for the "Lord God" cursed him and said:
"Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and _dust_ shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life."[4:1]
Unto the woman the "Lord God" said:
"I will greatly multiply thy sorrow, and thy conception; in
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, _and he shall rule over thee_."
Unto Adam he said:
"Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake;
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and
thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, _for
out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return_."
The "Lord God" then made coats of skin for Adam and his wife, with
which he clothed them, after which he said:
"Behold, the man is become _as one of us_,[5:1] to know good
and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also
of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (he must be
sent forth from Eden).
"So he (the Lord God) drove out the man (and the woman); and
he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, Cherubims, and a
flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the
Tree of Life."
Thus ends the narrative.
Before proceeding to show from whence this legend, or legends, had their
origin, we will notice a feature which is very prominent in the
narrative, and which cannot escape the eye of an observing reader, _i.
e._, _the two different and contradictory accounts of the creation_.
The first of these commences at the first verse of chapter first, and
ends at the third verse of chapter second. The second account commences
at the fourth verse of chapter second, and continues to the end of the
chapter.
In speaking of these contradictory accounts of the Creation, Dean
Stanley says:
"It is now clear to diligent students of the Bible, that the
first and second chapters of Genesis contain two narratives of
the Creation, side by side, differing from each other in most
every particular of time and place and order."[5:2]
Bishop Colenso, in his very learned work on the Pentateuch, speaking on
this subject, says:
"The following are the most noticeable points of difference
between the two cosmogonies:
"1. In the first, the earth emerges from the waters and is,
therefore, _saturated with moisture_.[5:3] In the second, the
'whole face of the ground' _requires to be moistened_.[5:4]
"2. In the first, the birds and the beasts are created
_before man_.[6:1] In the second, man is created _before the
birds and the beasts_.[6:2]
"3. In the first, 'all fowls that fly' are made out of the
_waters_.[6:3] In the second 'the fowls of the air' are made
out of the _ground_.[6:4]
"4. In the first, man is created in the image of God.[6:5] In
the second, man is made of the dust of the ground, and merely
animated with the breath of life; and it is only after his
eating the forbidden fruit that 'the Lord God said, Behold,
the man has become _as one of us_, to know good and
evil.'[6:6]
"5. In the first, man is made lord of the _whole earth_.[6:7]
In the second, he is merely placed in the garden of Eden, 'to
dress it and to keep it.'[6:8]
"6. In the first, the man and the woman are _created
together_, as the closing and completing work of the whole
creation,--created also, as is evidently implied, in the same
kind of way, to be the complement of one another, and, thus
created, they are blessed _together_.[6:9]
"In the second, the beasts and birds are created _between_ the
man and the woman. First, the man is made of the dust of the
ground; he is placed by _himself_ in the garden, charged with
a solemn command, and threatened with a curse if he breaks it;
_then the beasts and birds are made_, and the man gives names
to them, and, lastly, after all this, _the woman is made out
of one of his ribs_, but merely as a helpmate for the
man.[6:10]
"The fact is, that the _second_ account of the Creation,[6:11]
together with the story of the Fall,[6:12] is manifestly
composed by a _different writer_ altogether from him who wrote
_the first_.[6:13]
"This is suggested at once by the circumstance that,
throughout the _first_ narrative, the Creator is always spoken
of by the name Elohim (God), whereas, throughout the _second_
account, as well as the story of the Fall, he is always called
Jehovah Elohim (Lord God), except when the writer seems to
abstain, for some reason, from placing the name Jehovah in the
mouth of the serpent.[6:14] This accounts naturally for the
above contradictions. It would appear that, for some reason,
the productions of two pens have been here united, without any
reference to their inconsistencies."[6:15]
Dr. Kalisch, who does his utmost to maintain--as far as his knowledge of
the truth will allow--the general historical veracity of this narrative,
after speaking of the _first_ account of the Creation, says:
"But now the narrative seems not only to pause, but to go
backward. The grand and powerful climax seems at once broken
off, and a languid repetition appears to follow. _Another
cosmogony is introduced, which, to complete the perplexity,
is, in many important features, in direct contradiction to the
former._
"_It would be dishonesty to conceal these difficulties. It
would be weakmindedness and cowardice. It would be flight
instead of combat. It would be an ignoble retreat, instead of
victory. We confess there is an apparent dissonance._"[6:16]
Dr. Knappert says:[7:1]
"The account of the Creation from the hand of the _Priestly
author_ is utterly different from the _other narrative_,
beginning at the fourth verse of Genesis ii. Here we are told
that God created Heaven and Earth in six days, and rested on
the _seventh_ day, obviously with a view to bring out the
holiness of the Sabbath in a strong light."
Now that we have seen there are two different and contradictory accounts
of the Creation, to be found in the first two chapters of Genesis, we
will endeavor to learn if there is sufficient reason to believe they are
copies of _more ancient legends_.
We have seen that, according to the first account, God divided the work
of creation into _six_ days. This idea agrees with that of the ancient
_Persians_.
The Zend-Avesta--the sacred writings of the Parsees--states that the
Supreme being Ahuramazdâ (Ormuzd), created the universe and man in _six_
successive periods of time, in the following order: First, the Heavens;
second, the Waters; third, the Earth; fourth, the Trees and Plants;
fifth, Animals; and sixth, Man. After the Creator had finished his work,
he rested.[7:2]
The Avesta account of the Creation is limited to this announcement, but
we find a more detailed history of the origin of the human species in
the book entitled _Bundehesh_, dedicated to the exposition of a complete
cosmogony. This book states that Ahuramazdâ created the first man and
women joined together at the back. After dividing them, he endowed them
with motion and activity, placed within them an intelligent soul, and
bade them "to be humble of heart; to observe the law; to be pure in
their thoughts, pure in their speech, pure in their actions." Thus were
born Mashya and Mashyâna, the pair from which all human beings are
descended.[7:3]
The idea brought out in this story of the first human pair having
originally formed a single androgynous being with two faces, separated
later into two personalities by the Creator, is to be found in the
Genesis account (v. 2). "Male and female created he them, and blessed
them, and named their name Adam." Jewish tradition in the Targum and
Talmud, as well as among learned rabbis, allege that Adam was created
man and woman at the same time, having two faces turned in two opposite
directions, and that the Creator separated the feminine half from him,
in order to make of her a distinct person.[7:4]
The ancient _Etruscan_ legend, according to Delitzsch, is almost the
same as the Persian. They relate that God created the world in _six_
thousand years. In the first thousand he created the Heaven and Earth;
in the second, the Firmament; in the third, the Waters of the Earth; in
the fourth, the Sun, Moon and Stars; in the fifth, the Animals belonging
to air, water and land; and in the sixth, Man alone.[8:1]
Dr. Delitzsch, who maintains to the utmost the historical truth of the
Scripture story in Genesis, yet says:
"Whence comes the surprising agreement of the _Etruscan_ and
_Persian_ legends with this section? How comes it that the
_Babylonian_ cosmogony in Berosus, and the _Phœnician_ in
Sanchoniathon, in spite of their fantastical oddity, come in
contact with it in remarkable details?"
After showing some of the similarities in the legends of these different
nations, he continues:
"These are only instances of that which they have in common.
_For such an account outside of Israel, we must, however,
conclude, that the author of Genesis i. has no vision before
him, but a tradition._"[8:2]
Von Bohlen tells us that the old _Chaldæan_ cosmogony is also _the
same_.[8:3]
To continue the _Persian_ legend; we will now show that according to it,
after the Creation man was tempted, and _fell_. Kalisch[8:4] and Bishop
Colenso[8:5] tell us of the Persian legend that the first couple lived
originally in purity and innocence. Perpetual happiness was promised
them by the Creator if they persevered in their virtue. But an evil
demon came to them in the form of a _serpent_, sent by Ahriman, the
prince of devils, and gave them fruit of a wonderful _tree_, which
imparted immortality. Evil inclinations then entered their hearts, and
all their moral excellence was destroyed. Consequently they fell, and
forfeited the eternal happiness for which they were destined. They
killed beasts, and clothed themselves in their skins. The evil demon
obtained still more perfect power over their minds, and called forth
envy, hatred, discord, and rebellion, which raged in the bosom of the
families.
Since the above was written, Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum,
has discovered cuneiform inscriptions, which show conclusively that the
Babylonians had this legend of the Creation and Fall of Man, some 1,500
years or more before the Hebrews heard of it.[9:1] The cuneiform
inscriptions relating to the Babylonian legend of the Creation and Fall
of Man, which have been discovered by English archæologists, are not,
however, complete. The portions which relate to the _Tree_ and _Serpent_
have not been found, but Babylonian gem engravings show that these
incidents were evidently a part of the original legend.[9:2] The _Tree
of Life_ in the Genesis account appears to correspond with the sacred
grove of Anu, which was guarded by a sword turning to all the four
points of the compass.[9:3] A representation of this Sacred Tree, with
"_attendant cherubim_," copied from an Assyrian cylinder, may be seen in
Mr. George Smith's "Chaldean Account of Genesis."[9:4] Figure No. 1,
which we have taken from the same work,[9:5] shows the tree of
knowledge, fruit, and the serpent. Mr. Smith says of it:
"One striking and important specimen of early type in the
British Museum collection, has two figures sitting one on each
side of a _tree_, holding out their hands to the fruit, while
at the back of one (the _woman_) is scratched a _serpent_. We
know well that in these early sculptures none of these figures
were chance devices, but all represented events, or supposed
events, and figures in their legends; thus it is evident that
a form of the story of the Fall, similar to that of Genesis,
was known in early times in Babylonia."[9:5]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 1]
This illustration might be used to illustrate the narrative of
_Genesis_, and as Friedrich Delitzsch has remarked (G. Smith's
_Chaldäische Genesis_) is capable of no other explanation.
M. Renan does not hesitate to join forces with the ancient commentators,
in seeking to recover a trace of the same tradition among the Phenicians
in the fragments of Sanchoniathon, translated into Greek by Philo of
Byblos. In fact, it is there said, in speaking of the first human pair,
and of Æon, which seems to be the translation of _Havvâh_ (in Phenician
_Havâth_) and stands in her relation to the other members of the pair,
that this personage "has found out how to obtain nourishment from the
fruits of the tree."
The idea of the Edenic happiness of the first human beings constitutes
one of the universal traditions. Among the Egyptians, the terrestrial
reign of the god Râ, who inaugurated the existence of the world and of
human life, was a golden age to which they continually looked back with
regret and envy. Its "like has never been seen since."
The ancient Greeks boasted of their "Golden Age," when sorrow and
trouble were not known. Hesiod, an ancient Grecian poet, describes it
thus:
"Men lived like Gods, without vices or passions, vexation or
toil. In happy companionship with divine beings, they passed
their days in tranquillity and joy, living together in perfect
equality, united by mutual confidence and love. The earth was
more beautiful than now, and spontaneously yielded an abundant
variety of fruits. Human beings and animals spoke the same
language and conversed with each other. Men were considered
mere boys at a hundred years old. They had none of the
infirmities of age to trouble them, and when they passed to
regions of superior life, it was in a gentle slumber."
In the course of time, however, all the sorrows and troubles came to
man. They were caused by inquisitiveness. The story is as follows:
Epimetheus received a gift from Zeus (God), in the form of a beautiful
woman (Pandora).
"She brought with her a vase, the lid of which was (by the
command of God), to remain closed. The curiosity of her
husband, however, tempted him to open it, and suddenly there
escaped from it troubles, weariness and illness from which
mankind was never afterwards free. All that remained was
_hope_."[10:1]
Among the _Thibetans_, the paradisiacal condition was more complete and
spiritual. The desire to eat of a certain sweet herb deprived men of
their spiritual life. There arose a sense of shame, and the need to
clothe themselves. Necessity compelled them to agriculture; the virtues
disappeared, and murder, adultery and other vices, stepped into their
place.[10:2]
The idea that the Fall of the human race is connected with _agriculture_
is found to be also often represented in the legends of the East African
negroes, especially in the Calabar legend of the Creation, which
presents many interesting points of comparison with the biblical story
of the Fall. The first human pair are called by a bell at meal-times to
Abasi (the Calabar God), in heaven; and in place of the forbidden tree
of Genesis are put _agriculture_ and _propagation_, which Abasi
strictly denies to the first pair. The Fall is denoted by the
transgression of both these commands, especially through the use of
implements of tillage, to which the _woman_ is tempted by a female
friend who is given to her. From that moment man fell _and became
mortal_, so that, as the Bible story has it, he can eat bread only in
the sweat of his face. There agriculture is a curse, a fall from a more
perfect stage to a lower and imperfect one.[11:1]
Dr. Kalisch, writing of the Garden of Eden, says:
"The _Paradise_ is no exclusive feature of the early history
of the Hebrews. _Most of the ancient nations have similar
narratives about a happy abode, which care does not approach,
and which re-echoes with the sounds of the purest
bliss._"[11:2]
The _Persians_ supposed that a region of bliss and delight called
_Heden_, more beautiful than all the rest of the world, _traversed by a
mighty river_, was the original abode of the first men, before they were
tempted by the evil spirit in the form of a _serpent_, to partake of the
fruit of the forbidden tree _Hôm_.[11:3]
Dr. Delitzsch, writing of the _Persian_ legend, observes:
"Innumerable attendants of the Holy One keep watch against the
attempts of Ahriman, over the tree _Hôm_, which contains in
itself the power of the resurrection."[11:4]
The ancient Greeks had a tradition concerning the "Islands of the
Blessed," the "Elysium," on the borders of the earth, abounding in every
charm of life, and the "Garden of the Hesperides," the Paradise, in
which grew a _tree_ bearing the golden apples of Immortality. It was
guarded by three nymphs, and a Serpent, or Dragon, the ever-watchful
Ladon. It was one of the labors of Hercules to gather some of these
apples of life. When he arrived there he found the garden protected by a
_Dragon_. Ancient medallions represent a tree with a serpent twined
around it. Hercules has gathered an apple, and near him stand the three
nymphs, called Hesperides.[11:5] This is simply a parallel of the Eden
myth.
The Rev. Mr. Faber, speaking of _Hercules_, says:
"On the _Sphere_ he is represented in the act of contending
with the Serpent, the head of which is placed under his foot;
and this Serpent, we are told, is that which guarded the tree
with golden fruit in the midst of the garden of the
Hesperides. But the garden of the Hesperides _was none other
than the garden of Paradise_; consequently the serpent of that
garden, the head of which is crushed beneath the heel of
Hercules, and which itself is described as encircling with its
folds the trunk of the mysterious tree, must necessarily be a
transcript of that Serpent whose form was assumed by the
tempter of our first parents. We may observe the same ancient
tradition in the Phœnician fable representing Ophion or
Ophioneus."[12:1]
And Professor Fergusson says:
"_Hercules'_ adventures in the garden of the Hesperides, is
the Pagan form of the myth that most resembles the precious
Serpent-guarded fruit of the Garden of Eden, though the moral
of the fable is so widely different."[12:2]
The ancient _Egyptians_ also had the legend of the "Tree of Life." It is
mentioned in their sacred books that Osiris ordered the names of some
souls to be written on this "Tree of Life," the fruit of which made
those who ate it to become as gods.[12:3]
Among the most ancient traditions of the _Hindoos_, is that of the "Tree
of Life"--called _Sôma_ in Sanskrit--the juice of which imparted
immortality. This most wonderful tree was guarded by spirits.[12:4]
Still more striking is the Hindoo legend of the "Elysium" or "Paradise,"
which is as follows:
"In the sacred mountain _Meru_, which is perpetually clothed
in the golden rays of the Sun, and whose lofty summit reaches
into heaven, no sinful man can exist. _It is guarded by a
dreadful dragon._ It is adorned with many celestial plants and
trees, and is watered by _four rivers_, which thence separate
and flow to the four chief directions."[12:5]
The Hindoos, like the philosophers of the Ionic school (Thales, for
instance), held _water_ to be the first existing and all-pervading
principle, at the same time allowing the co-operation and influence of
an _immaterial_ intelligence in the work of creation.[12:6] A Vedic
poet, meditating on the Creation, uses the following expressions:
"Nothing that is was then, even what is not, did not exist
then." "There was no space, no life, and lastly there was no
time, no difference between day and night, no solar torch by
which morning might have been told from evening." "Darkness
there was, and all at first was veiled in gloom profound, as
ocean without light."[12:7]
The Hindoo legend approaches very nearly to that preserved in the Hebrew
Scriptures. Thus, it is said that Siva, as the Supreme Being, desired to
tempt Brahmá (who had taken human form, and was called Swayambhura--son
of the self-existent), and for this object he dropped from heaven a
blossom of the sacred _fig_ tree.
Swayambhura, instigated by his wife, Satarupa, endeavors to obtain this
blossom, thinking its possession will render him immortal and divine;
but when he has succeeded in doing so, he is cursed by Siva, and doomed
to misery and degradation.[13:1] The sacred Indian _fig_ is endowed by
the Brahmins and the Buddhists with mysterious significance, as the
"Tree of Knowledge" or "Intelligence."[13:2]
There is no Hindoo legend of the _Creation_ similar to the Persian and
Hebrew accounts, and Ceylon was never believed to have been the Paradise
or home of our first parents, although such stories are in
circulation.[13:3] The Hindoo religion states--as we have already
seen--Mount Meru to be the Paradise, out of which went _four rivers_.
We have noticed that the "Gardens of Paradise" are said to have been
guarded by _Dragons_, and that, according to the Genesis account, it was
Cherubim that protected Eden. This apparent difference in the legends is
owing to the fact that we have come in our modern times to speak of
Cherub as though it were an other name for an Angel. But the Cherub of
the writer of Genesis, the Cherub of Assyria, the Cherub of Babylon, the
Cherub of the entire Orient, at the time the Eden story was written, was
not at all an Angel, but an animal, and a mythological one at that. The
Cherub had, in some cases, the body of a lion, with the head of an other
animal, or a man, and the wings of a bird. In Ezekiel they have the body
of a man, whose head, besides a human countenance, has also that of a
_Lion_, an _Ox_ and an _Eagle_. They are provided with four wings, and
the whole body is spangled with innumerable eyes. In Assyria and Babylon
they appear as winged bulls with human faces, and are placed at the
gateways of palaces and temples as guardian genii who watch over the
dwelling, as the Cherubim in Genesis watch the "Tree of Life."
Most Jewish writers and Christian Fathers conceived the Cherubim as
Angels. Most theologians also considered them as Angels, until Michaelis
showed them to be a mythological animal, a poetical creation.[13:4]
We see then, that our _Cherub_ is simply a _Dragon_.
To continue our inquiry regarding the prevalence of the Eden-myth among
nations of antiquity.
The _Chinese_ have their Age of Virtue, when nature furnished abundant
food, and man lived peacefully, surrounded by all the beasts. In their
sacred books there is a story concerning a mysterious _garden_, where
grew a _tree_ bearing "apples of immortality," guarded by a winged
serpent, called a Dragon. They describe a primitive age of the world,
when the earth yielded abundance of delicious fruits without
cultivation, and the seasons were untroubled by wind and storms. There
was no calamity, sickness, or death. Men were then good without effort;
for the human heart was in harmony with the peacefulness and beauty of
nature.
The "Golden Age" of the past is much dwelt upon by their ancient
commentators. One of them says:
"All places were then equally the native county of every man.
Flocks wandered in the fields without any guide; birds filled
the air with their melodious voices; and the fruits grew of
their own accord. Men lived pleasantly with the animals, and
all creatures were members of the same family. Ignorant of
evil, man lived in simplicity and perfect innocence."
Another commentator says:
"In the first age of perfect purity, all was in harmony, and
the passions did not occasion the slightest murmur. Man,
united to sovereign reason within, conformed his outward
actions to sovereign justice. Far from all duplicity and
falsehood, his soul received marvelous felicity from heaven,
and the purest delights from earth."
Another says:
"A delicious _garden_ refreshed with zephyrs, and planted with
odoriferous trees, was situated in the middle of a mountain,
which was the avenue of heaven. The _waters_ that moistened it
flowed from a source called the '_Fountain of Immortality_'.
He who drinks of it never dies. Thence flowed _four rivers_. A
Golden River, betwixt the South and East, a Red River, between
the North and East, the River of the Lamb between the North
and West."
The animal Kaiming guards the entrance.
Partly by an undue thirst for knowledge, and partly by increasing
sensuality, and the seduction of _woman_, man fell. Then passion and
lust ruled in the human mind, and war with the animals began. In one of
the Chinese sacred volumes, called the Chi-King, it is said that:
"All was subject to man at first, _but a woman threw us into
slavery_. The wise husband raised up a bulwark of walls, _but
the woman, by an ambitious desire of knowledge, demolished
them_. Our misery did not come from heaven, _but from a
woman_. _She lost the human race._ Ah, unhappy _Poo See!_ thou
kindled the fire that consumes us, and which is every day
augmenting. Our misery has lasted many ages. _The world is
lost._ Vice overflows all things like a mortal poison."[15:1]
Thus we see that the Chinese are no strangers to the doctrine of
original sin. It is their invariable belief that man is a fallen being;
admitted by them from time immemorial.
The inhabitants of _Madagascar_ had a legend similar to the Eden story,
which is related as follows:
"The first man was created of the _dust of the earth_, and was
placed in a _garden_, where he was subject to none of the ills
which now affect mortality; he was also free from all bodily
appetites, and though surrounded by delicious _fruit_ and
limpid _streams_ yet felt no desire to taste of the fruit or
to quaff the water. The Creator had, moreover, _strictly
forbid him either to eat or to drink_. The great enemy,
however, came to him, and painted to him, in glowing colors,
the sweetness of the apple, and the lusciousness of the date,
and the succulence of the orange."
After resisting the temptations for a while, he at last ate of the
fruit, and consequently _fell_.[15:2]
A legend of the Creation, similar to the Hebrew, was found by Mr. Ellis
among the _Tahitians_, and appeared in his "Polynesian Researches." It
is as follows:
After Taarao had formed the world, he created man out of aræa, red
earth, which was also the food of man until bread was made. Taarao one
day called for the man by name. When he came, he caused him to fall
asleep, and while he slept, he took out one of his _ivi_, or bones, and
with it made a woman, whom he gave to the man as his wife, and they
became the progenitors of mankind. The woman's name was _Ivi_, which
signifies a bone.[15:3]
The prose Edda, of the ancient _Scandinavians_, speaks of the "Golden
Age" when all was pure and harmonious. This age lasted until the arrival
of _woman_ out of Jotunheim--the region of the giants, a sort of "land
of Nod"--who corrupted it.[15:4]
In the annals of the _Mexicans_, the first woman, whose name was
translated by the old Spanish writers, "the woman of our flesh," is
always represented as accompanied by a great male serpent, who seems to
be talking to her. Some writers believe this to be the _tempter_
speaking to the primeval mother, and others that it is intended to
represent the _father_ of the human race. This Mexican Eve is
represented on their monuments as the mother of twins.[15:5]
Mr. Franklin, in his "Buddhists and Jeynes," says:
"A striking instance is recorded by the very intelligent
traveler (Wilson), regarding a representation of the Fall of
our first parents, sculptured in the magnificent temple of
Ipsambul, in Nubia. He says that a very exact representation
of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden is to be seen in that
cave, and that the _serpent_ climbing round the tree is
especially delineated, and the whole subject of the tempting
of our first parents most accurately exhibited."[16:1]
Nearly the same thing was found by Colonel Coombs in the _South of
India_. Colonel Tod, in his "Hist. Rajapoutana," says:
"A drawing, brought by Colonel Coombs from a sculptured column
in a cave-temple in the South of India, represents the first
pair at the foot of the ambrosial tree, and a _serpent_
entwined among the heavily-laden boughs, presenting to them
some of the fruit from his mouth. The tempter appears to be at
that part of his discourse, when
'----his words, replete with guile,
Into her heart too easy entrance won:
Fixed on the fruit she gazed.'
"_This is a curious subject to be engraved on an ancient Pagan
temple._"[16:2]
So the Colonel thought, no doubt, but it is not so very curious after
all. It is the same myth which we have found--with but such small
variations only as time and circumstances may be expected to
produce--among different nations, in both the Old and New Worlds.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 2]
Fig. No. 2, taken from the work of Montfaucon,[16:3] represents one of
these ancient Pagan sculptures. Can any one doubt that it is allusive to
the myth of which we have been treating in this chapter?
That man was originally created a perfect being, and is now only a
fallen and broken remnant of what he once was, we have seen to be a
piece of _mythology_, not only unfounded in fact, but, beyond
intelligent question, proved untrue. What, then, is the significance of
the exposure of this myth? What does its loss as a scientific fact, and
as a portion of Christian dogma, imply? It implies that with
it--although many Christian divines who admit this to be a legend, do
not, or do not _profess_, to see it--_must fall the whole Orthodox
scheme, for upon this_ MYTH _the theology of Christendom is built_. The
doctrine of the _inspiration of the Scriptures_, the _Fall_ of _man_,
his _total depravity_, the _Incarnation_, the _Atonement_, the _devil_,
_hell_, in fact, the entire theology of the Christian church, falls to
pieces with the historical inaccuracy of this story, _for upon it is it
built; 'tis the foundation of the whole structure_.[17:1]
According to Christian dogma, the Incarnation of Christ Jesus had become
necessary, merely _because he had to redeem the evil introduced into the
world by the Fall of man_. These two dogmas cannot be separated from
each other. _If there was no Fall, there is no need of an atonement, and
no Redeemer is required._ Those, then, who consent in recognizing in
Christ Jesus a _God_ and _Redeemer_, and who, notwithstanding, cannot
resolve upon admitting the story of the Fall of man to be _historical_,
should exculpate themselves from the reproach of _inconsistency_. There
are a great number, however, in this position at the present day.
Although, as we have said, many Christian divines do not, or do not
profess to, see the force of the above argument, there are many who do;
and they, regardless of their scientific learning, cling to these old
myths, professing to believe them, _well knowing what must follow with
their fall_. The following, though written some years ago, will serve to
illustrate this style of reasoning.
The Bishop of Manchester (England) writing in the "Manchester Examiner
and Times," said:
"The very _foundation of our faith_, the very _basis of our
hopes_, the very nearest and dearest of our consolations are
taken from us, _when one line of that sacred volume, on which
we base everything, is declared to be untruthful and
untrustworthy_."
The "English Churchman," speaking of clergymen who have "_doubts_,"
said, that any who are not throughly persuaded "_that the Scriptures
cannot in any particular be untrue_," should leave the Church.
The Rev. E. Garbett, M. A., in a sermon preached before the University
of Oxford, speaking of the "_historical truth_" of the Bible, said:
"It is the clear teaching of those doctrinal formularies, to
which we of the Church of England have expressed our solemn
assent, _and no honest interpretation of her language can get
rid of it_."
And that:
"In all consistent reason, _we must accept the whole of the
inspired autographs, or reject the whole_."
Dr. Baylee, Principal of a theological university--_St. Aiden's
College_--at Birkenhead, England, and author of a "Manual," called
Baylee's "_Verbal Inspiration_," written "_chiefly for the youths of St.
Aiden's College_," makes use of the following words, in that work:
"_The whole Bible_, as a revelation, is a declaration of the
mind of God towards his creatures on all the subjects of which
the Bible treats."
"_The Bible is God's word_, in the same sense as if he had
made use of no human agent, but had _Himself spoken it_."
"The Bible cannot be less than verbally inspired. _Every word,
every syllable, every letter_, is just what it would be, had
God spoken from heaven without any human intervention."
"Every scientific statement is infallibly correct, all its
history and narrations of every kind, _are without any
inaccuracy_."[18:1]
A whole volume might be filled with such quotations, not only from
religious works and journals published in England, but from those
published in the United States of America.[18:2]
FOOTNOTES:
[1:1] The idea that the sun, moon and stars were _set_ in the firmament
was entertained by most nations of antiquity, but, as strange as it may
appear, Pythagoras, the Grecian philosopher, who flourished from 540 to
510 B. C.--as well as other Grecian philosophers--taught that the sun
was placed in the centre of the universe, _with the planets roving round
it in a circle_, thus making day and night. (See Knight's Ancient Art
and Mythology, p. 59, and note.) The Buddhists anciently taught that the
universe is composed of limitless systems or worlds, called _sakwalas_.
They are scattered throughout space, and each sakwala has a sun and
moon. (See Hardy: Buddhist Legends, pp. 80 and 87.)
[2:1] Origen, a Christian Father who flourished about A. D. 230, says:
"What man of sense will agree with the statement that the first, second,
and third days, in which the _evening_ is named and the _morning_, were
without sun, moon and stars?" (Quoted in Mysteries of Adoni, p. 176.)
[2:2] "The geologist reckons not by _days_ or by _years_; the whole six
thousand years, which were until lately looked on as the sum of the
world's age, are to him but as a unit of measurement in the long
succession of past ages." (Sir John Lubbock.)
"It is now certain that the vast epochs of time demanded by scientific
observation are incompatible both with the six thousand years of the
Mosaic chronology, and the six days of the Mosaic creation." (Dean
Stanley.)
[2:3] "Let us make man in our own likeness," was said by Ormuzd, the
Persian God of Gods, to his WORD. (See Bunsen's Angel Messiah, p. 104.)
[2:4] The number SEVEN was sacred among almost every nation of
antiquity. (See ch. ii.)
[2:5] According to Grecian Mythology, the God Prometheus created men, in
the image of the gods, _out of clay_ (see Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p.
26; and Goldzhier: Hebrew Myths, p. 373), and the God Hephaistos was
commanded by Zeus to mold of _clay_ the figure of a maiden, into which
Athênê, the dawn-goddess, _breathed the breath of life_. This is
Pandora--the gift of all the gods--who is presented to Epimetheus. (See
Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. ii., p. 208.)
[2:6] "What man is found such an idiot as to suppose that God planted
trees in Paradise, in Eden, like a husbandman." (Origen: quoted in
Mysteries of Adoni, p. 176.) "There is no way of preserving the literal
sense of the first chapter of Genesis, without impiety, and attributing
things to God unworthy of him." (St. Augustine.)
[2:7] "The records about the '_Tree of Life_' are the sublimest proofs
of the unity and continuity of tradition, and of its Eastern origin.
_The earliest records of the most ancient Oriental tradition refer to a
'Tree of Life,' which was guarded by spirits._ The juice of the fruit of
this sacred tree, like the tree itself, was called _Sôma_ in Sanscrit,
and _Haôma_ in Zend; it was revered as the life preserving essence."
(Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 414)
[3:1] "According to the Persian account of Paradise, _four_ great rivers
came from Mount Alborj; two are in the North, and two go towards the
South. The river Arduisir nourishes the _Tree of Immortality_, the Holy
Hom." (Stiefelhagen: quoted in Mysteries of Adoni p. 149.)
"According to the _Chinese_ myth, the waters of the Garden of Paradise
issue from the fountain of immortality, which divides itself into _four
rivers_." (Ibid., p. 150, and Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i., p. 210.) The
Hindoos call their Mount Meru the Paradise, out of which went _four_
rivers. (Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 357.)
[3:2] According to Persian legend, Arimanes, the Evil Spirit, _by eating
a certain kind of fruit_, transformed himself into a _serpent_, and went
gliding about on the earth to tempt human beings. His Devs entered the
bodies of men and produced all manner of diseases. They entered into
their minds, and incited them to sensuality, falsehood, slander and
revenge. Into every department of the world they introduced discord and
death.
[4:1] Inasmuch as the physical construction of the serpent never could
admit of its moving in any other way, and inasmuch as it _does not eat
dust_, does not the narrator of this myth reflect unpleasantly upon the
wisdom of such a God as Jehovah is claimed to be, as well as upon the
ineffectualness of his first curse?
[5:1] "Our writer unmistakably recognizes the existence of _many gods_;
for he makes Yahweh say: 'See, the man has become as ONE OF US, knowing
good and evil;' and so he evidently implies the existence of other
similar beings, to whom he attributes immortality and insight into the
difference between good and evil. Yahweh, then, was, in his eyes, the
god of gods, indeed, but not the _only_ god." (Bible for Learners, vol.
i. p. 51.)
[5:2] In his memorial sermon, preached in Westminster Abbey, after the
funeral of Sir Charles Lyell. He further said in this address:--
"It is well known that when the science of geology first arose, it was
involved in endless schemes of _attempted_ reconciliation with the
letter of Scripture. There was, there are perhaps still, two modes of
reconciliation of Scripture and science, which have been each in their
day attempted, _and each have totally and deservedly failed_. One is the
endeavor to wrest the words of the Bible from their natural meaning,
_and force it to speak the language of science_." After speaking of the
earliest known example, which was the interpolation of the word "_not_"
in Leviticus xi. 6, he continues: "This is the earliest instance of _the
falsification of Scripture to meet the demands of science_; and it has
been followed in later times by the various efforts which have been made
to twist the earlier chapters of the book of Genesis into _apparent_
agreement with the last results of geology--representing days not to be
days, morning and evening not to be morning and evening, the deluge not
to be the deluge, and the ark not to be the ark."
[5:3] Gen. i. 9, 10.
[5:4] Gen. ii. 6.
[6:1] Gen. i. 20, 24, 26.
[6:2] Gen. ii. 7, 9.
[6:3] Gen. i. 20.
[6:4] Gen. ii. 19.
[6:5] Gen. i. 27.
[6:6] Gen. ii. 7: iii. 22.
[6:7] Gen. i. 28.
[6:8] Gen. ii. 8, 15.
[6:9] Gen. i. 28.
[6:10] Gen. ii. 7, 8, 15, 22.
[6:11] Gen. ii. 4-25.
[6:12] Gen. iii.
[6:13] Gen. i. 1-ii. 8.
[6:14] Gen. iii. 1, 3, 5.
[6:15] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 171-173.
[6:16] Com. on Old Test. vol. i. p. 59.
[7:1] The Relig. of Israel, p. 186.
[7:2] Von Bohlen: Intro. to Gen. vol. ii. p. 4.
[7:3] Lenormant: Beginning of Hist. vol. i. p. 6.
[7:4] See Ibid. p. 64; and Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 31.
[8:1] "The Etruscans believed in a creation of six thousand years, and
in the successive production of different beings, the last of which was
man." (Dunlap: Spirit Hist. p. 357.)
[8:2] Quoted by Bishop Colenso: The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p.
115.
[8:3] Intro. to Genesis, vol. ii. p. 4.
[8:4] Com. on Old Test. vol. i. p. 63.
[8:5] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 158.
[9:1] See Chapter xi.
[9:2] Mr. Smith says, "Whatever the primitive account may have been from
which the earlier part of the Book of Genesis was copied, it is evident
that the brief narration given in the Pentateuch omits a number of
incidents and explanations--for instance, as to the origin of evil, the
fall of the angels, the wickedness of the serpent, &c. Such points as
these are included in the cuneiform narrative." (Smith: Chaldean Account
of Genesis, pp. 13, 14.)
[9:3] Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 88.
[9:4] Ibid. p. 89.
[9:5] Ibid. p. 91.
[10:1] Murray's Mythology, p. 208.
[10:2] Kalisch's Com. vol. i. p. 64.
[11:1] Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 87.
[11:2] Com. on the Old Test. vol. i. p. 70.
[11:3] Ibid.
[11:4] Ibid. "The fruit, and sap of this '_Tree of Life_' begat
immortality." (Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 240.)
[11:5] See Montfaucon: L'Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i. p. 211, and Pl.
cxxxiii.
[12:1] Faber: Origin Pagan Idolatry, vol. i. p. 443; in Anacalypsis,
vol. i. p. 237.
[12:2] Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 13.
[12:3] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 159.
[12:4] See Bunsen's Keys of St. Peter, p. 414.
[12:5] Colenso: The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 153.
[12:6] Buckley: Cities of the Ancient World, p. 148.
[12:7] Müller: Hist. Sanskrit Literature, p. 559.
[13:1] See Wake: Phallism in Ancient Religions, pp. 46, 47; and Maurice:
Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. p. 408.
[13:2] Hardwick: Christ and Other Masters, p. 215.
[13:3] See Jacolliot's "Bible in India," which John Fisk calls a "very
discreditable performance," and "a disgraceful piece of charlatanry"
(Myths, &c. p. 205). This writer also states that according to Hindoo
legend, the first man and woman were called "Adima and Heva," which is
certainly not the case. The "bridge of Adima" which he speaks of as
connecting the island of Ceylon with the mainland, is called "Rama's
bridge;" and the "Adam's footprints" are called "Buddha's footprints."
The Portuguese, who called the mountain _Pico d' Adama_ (Adam's Peak),
evidently invented these other names. (See Maurice's Hist. Hindostan,
vol. i. pp. 301, 362, and vol. ii. p. 242).
[13:4] See Smith's Bible Dic. Art. "Cherubim," and Lenormant's Beginning
of History, ch. iii.
[15:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 206-210, The Pentateuch
Examined, vol. iv. pp. 152, 153, and Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 38.
[15:2] Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 31.
[15:3] Quoted by Müller: The Science of Relig., p. 302.
[15:4] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 409.
[15:5] See Baring Gould's Legends of the Patriarchs; Squire's Serpent
Symbol, p. 161, and Wake's Phallism in Ancient Religions, p. 41.
[16:1] Quoted by Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 403.
[16:2] Tod's Hist. Raj., p. 581, quoted by Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i.
p. 404.
[16:3] L'Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i.
[17:1] Sir William Jones, the first president of the Royal Asiatic
Society, saw this when he said: "Either the first eleven chapters of
Genesis, all due allowance being made for a figurative Eastern style,
are _true_, or the whole fabric of our religion is false." (In Asiatic
Researches, vol. i. p. 225.) And so also did the learned Thomas Maurice,
for he says: "If the Mosaic History be indeed a fable, the whole fabric
of the national religion is false, since the main pillar of Christianity
rests upon that important original promise, that the seed of the woman
should bruise the head of the serpent." (Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. p.
20.)
[18:1] The above extracts are quoted by Bishop Colenso, in The
Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 10-12, from which we take them.
[18:2] "_Cosmogony_" is the title of a volume lately written by Prof.
Thomas Mitchell, and published by the American News Co., in which the
author attacks all the modern scientists in regard to the geological
antiquity of the world, evolution, atheism, pantheism, &c. He
believes--and rightly too--that, "_if the account of Creation in Genesis
falls, Christ and the apostles follow: if the book of Genesis is
erroneous, so also are the Gospels_."
CHAPTER II.
THE DELUGE.[19:1]
After "man's shameful fall," the earth began to be populated at a very
rapid rate. "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were
fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. . . . . There
were _giants_ in the earth in those days,[19:2] and also . . . mighty
men . . . men of renown."
But these "giants" and "mighty men" were very wicked, "and God saw the
wickedness of man . . . _and it repented the Lord that he had made man
upon the earth_,[19:3] and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord
said; I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,
both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air,
for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord (for) Noah was a just man . . . and walked with God.
. . . And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me,
for the earth is filled with violence through them, and, behold, I will
destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms
shalt thou make in the ark, (and) a window shalt thou make to the ark;
. . . . And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth,
to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven,
and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee shall I
establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy
sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives, with thee. And of every living
thing of all flesh, _two_ of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark,
to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls
after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping
thing of the earth after his kind, _two_ of every sort shall come in to
thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is
eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for
thee and for them. _Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded
him._"[20:1]
When the ark was finished, the Lord said unto Noah:
"Come thou and all thy house into the ark. . . . Of every clean
beast thou shalt take to thee by _sevens_, the male and his
female; and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and
his female. Of fowls also of the air by _sevens_, the male and
the female."[20:2]
Here, again, as in the Eden myth, there is a _contradiction_. We have
seen that the Lord told Noah to bring into the ark "of every living
thing, of all flesh, _two_ of _every sort_," and now that the ark is
finished, we are told that he said to him: "Of every clean beast thou
shalt take to thee by _sevens_," and, "of fowls also of the air by
_sevens_." This is owing to the story having been written by _two
different writers_--the Jehovistic, and the Elohistic--one of which took
from, and added to the narrative of the other.[20:3] The account goes on
to say, that:
"Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives
with him, into the ark. . . . Of _clean_ beasts, and of beasts
_that are not clean_, and of _fowls_, and of _every thing_
that creepeth upon the earth, there went in _two and two_,
unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, _as God had
commanded Noah_."[20:4]
We see, then, that Noah took into the ark _of all kinds_ of beasts, of
_fowls_, and of every thing that creepeth, _two of every sort_, and that
this was "_as God had commanded Noah_." This clearly shows that the
writer of these words knew nothing of the command to take in _clean
beasts_, and _fowls_ of the air, by _sevens_. We are further assured,
that, "_Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him_."
After Noah and his family, and every beast after his kind, and all the
cattle after their kind, the fowls of the air, and every creeping thing,
had entered the ark, the Lord shut them in. Then "were all the fountains
of the great deep broken up, _and the windows of heaven were opened_.
And the rain was upon the earth _forty days and forty nights_. . . . .
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the hills,
that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upwards
did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh
died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle, and of
beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and
every man. And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in
the ark."[21:1] The object of the flood was now accomplished, "_all
flesh died that moved upon the earth_." The Lord, therefore, "made a
wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains of
the deep, and the windows of heaven, were stopped, and the rain from
heaven was restrained. And the waters decreased continually. . . . . And
it came to pass at the end of _forty days_, that Noah opened the window
of the ark, which he had made. And he sent forth a raven, which went
forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. He
also sent forth a dove, . . . but the dove found no rest for the sole of
her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark." . . .
At the end of _seven_ days he again "sent forth the dove out of the ark,
and the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an
olive leaf, plucked off."
At the end of another _seven_ days, he again "sent forth the dove, which
returned not again to him any more."
And the ark rested in the _seventh_ month, on the seventeenth day of the
month, upon the mountains of Ararat. Then Noah and his wife, and his
sons, and his sons' wives, and every living thing that was in the ark,
went forth out of the ark. "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord,
. . . and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a
sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the
ground any more for man's sake."[21:2]
We shall now see that there is scarcely any considerable race of men
among whom there does not exist, in some form, the tradition of a great
deluge, which destroyed all the human race, except _their own_
progenitors.
The first of these which we shall notice, and the one with which the
Hebrew agrees most closely, having been copied from it,[22:1] is the
_Chaldean_, as given by Berosus, the Chaldean historian.[22:2] It is as
follows:
"After the death of Ardates (the ninth king of the Chaldeans),
his son _Xisuthrus_ reigned eighteen sari. In his time
happened a great _deluge_, the history of which is thus
described: The deity Cronos appeared to him (Xisuthrus) in a
vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the
month Desius there would be a flood, by which mankind would be
destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the
beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things, and to
bury it in the City of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a
vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations,
and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life,
together with all the different animals, both birds and
quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having
asked the deity whither he was to sail, he was answered: 'To
the Gods;' upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of
mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition, and built a
vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he
put everything which he had prepared, and last of all conveyed
into it his wife, his children, and his friends. After the
flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated,
Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel; which not finding
any food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet,
returned to him again. After an interval of some days, he sent
them forth a second time; and they now returned with their
feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these
birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged
that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters.
He therefore made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking
out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain;
upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his
daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to
the earth, and, having constructed an altar, offered
sacrifices to the gods."[22:3]
This account, given by Berosus, which agrees in almost every particular
with that found in Genesis, and with that found by George Smith of the
British Museum on terra cotta tablets in Assyria, is nevertheless
different in some respects. But, says Mr. Smith:
"When we consider the difference between the two countries of
Palestine and Babylonia, these variations do not appear
greater than we should expect. . . . It was only natural that, in
relating the same stories, each nation should color them in
accordance with its own ideas, and stress would naturally in
each case be laid upon points with which they were familiar.
Thus we should expect beforehand that there would be
differences in the narrative such as we actually find, and we
may also notice that the cuneiform account does not always
coincide even with the account of the same events given by
Berosus from Chaldean sources."[23:1]
The most important points are the same however, _i. e._, _in both cases_
the virtuous man is informed by the Lord that a flood is about to take
place, which would destroy mankind. _In both cases_ they are commanded
to build a vessel or ark, to enter it with their families, and to take
in beasts, birds, and everything that creepeth, also to provide
themselves with food. _In both cases_ they send out a bird from the ark
_three times_--the third time it failed to return. _In both cases_ they
land on a mountain, and upon leaving the ark they offer up a sacrifice
to the gods. Xisuthrus was the tenth king,[23:2] and Noah the tenth
patriarch.[23:3] Xisuthrus had three sons (Zerovanos, Titan and
Japetosthes),[23:4] and Noah had three sons (Shem, Ham and
Japhet).[23:5]
As Cory remarks in his "Ancient Fragments," the history of the flood, as
given by Berosus, so remarkably corresponds with the Biblical account of
the Noachian Deluge, that no one can doubt that both proceeded from one
source--they are evidently transcriptions, except the names, from some
ancient document.[23:6]
This legend became known to the Jews from Chaldean sources,[23:7] it was
not known in the country (Egypt) out of which they evidently came.[23:8]
Egyptian history, it is said, had gone on uninterrupted for ten
thousand years before the time assigned for the birth of Jesus.[24:1]
And it is known as absolute fact that the land of Egypt was never
visited by other than its annual beneficent overflow of the river
Nile.[24:2] The Egyptian Bible, _which is by far the most ancient of all
holy books[24:3], knew nothing of the Deluge_.[24:4] The Phra (or
Pharaoh) Khoufou-Cheops was building his pyramid, according to Egyptian
chronicle, when the whole world was under the waters of a universal
deluge, according to the Hebrew chronicle.[24:5] A number of other
nations of antiquity are found destitute of any story of a flood,[24:6]
which they certainly would have had if a universal deluge had ever
happened. Whether this legend is of high antiquity in India has even
been doubted by distinguished scholars.[24:7]
The _Hindoo_ legend of the Deluge is as follows:
"Many ages after the creation of the world, Brahma resolved to
destroy it with a deluge, on account of the wickedness of the
people. There lived at that time a pious man named
_Satyavrata_, and as the lord of the universe loved this pious
man, and wished to preserve him from the sea of destruction
which was to appear on account of the depravity of the age, he
appeared before him in the form of _Vishnu_ (the Preserver)
and said: In _seven_ days from the present time . . . the
worlds will be plunged in an ocean of death, but in the midst
of the destroying waves, a large vessel, sent by me for thy
use, shall stand before thee. Then shalt thou take all
medicinal herbs, all the variety of feeds, and, accompanied by
_seven_ saints, encircled by _pairs_ of all brute animals,
thou shalt enter the spacious ark, and continue in it, secure
from the flood, on one immense ocean without light, except the
radiance of thy holy companions. When the ship shall be
agitated by an impetuous wind, thou shalt fasten it with a
large sea-serpent on my horn; for I will be near thee (in
the form of a fish), drawing the vessel, with thee and thy
attendants. I will remain on the ocean, O chief of men, until
a night of _Brahma_ shall be completely ended. Thou shalt then
know my true greatness, rightly named the Supreme Godhead; by
my favor, all thy questions shall be answered, and thy mind
abundantly instructed."
Being thus directed, Satyavrata humbly waited for the time which the
ruler of our senses had appointed. It was not long, however, before the
sea, overwhelming its shores, began to deluge the whole earth, and it
was soon perceived to be augmented by showers from immense clouds. He,
still meditating on the commands of the Lord, saw a vessel advancing,
and entered it with the saints, after having carried into effect the
instructions which had been given him.
_Vishnu_ then appeared before them, in the form of a fish, as he had
said, and Satyavrata fastened a cable to his horn.
The deluge in time abated, and Satyavrata, instructed in all divine and
human knowledge, was appointed, by the favor of _Vishnu_, the Seventh
Menu. After coming forth from the ark he offers up a sacrifice to
Brahma.[25:1]
The ancient temples of Hindostan contain representations of Vishnu
sustaining the earth while overwhelmed by the waters of the deluge. _A
rainbow is seen on the surface of the subsiding waters._[25:2]
The _Chinese_ believe the earth to have been at one time covered with
water, which they described as flowing abundantly and then subsiding.
This great flood divided the higher from the lower age of man. It
happened during the reign of Yaou. This inundation, which is termed
_hung-shwuy_ (great water), almost ruined the country, and is spoken of
by Chinese writers with sentiments of horror. The _Shoo-King_, one of
their sacred books, describes the waters as reaching to the tops of some
of the mountains, covering the hills, and expanding as wide as the vault
of heaven.[25:3]
The _Parsees_ say that by the temptation of the evil spirit men became
wicked, and God destroyed them with a deluge, except a few, from whom
the world was peopled anew.[25:4]
In the _Zend-Avesta_, the oldest sacred book of the Persians, of whom
the Parsees are direct descendants, there are sixteen countries spoken
of as having been given by Ormuzd, the Good Deity, for the Aryans to
live in; and these countries are described as a land of delight, which
was turned by Ahriman, the Evil Deity, into a land of death and cold,
partly, it is said, by a great flood, which is described as being like
Noah's flood recorded in the Book of Genesis.[26:1]
The ancient _Greeks_ had records of a flood which destroyed nearly the
whole human race.[26:2] The story is as follows:
"From his throne in the high Olympos, Zeus looked down on the
children of men, and saw that everywhere they followed only
their lusts, and cared nothing for right or for law. And ever,
as their hearts waxed grosser in their wickedness, they
devised for themselves new rites to appease the anger of the
gods, till the whole earth was filled with blood. Far away in
the hidden glens of the Arcadian hills the sons of Lykaon
feasted and spake proud words against the majesty of Zeus, and
Zeus himself came down from his throne to see their way and
their doings. . . . Then Zeus returned to his home on Olympos,
and he gave the word that a flood of waters should be let
loose upon the earth, that the sons of men might die for their
great wickedness. So the west wind rose in its might, and the
dark rain-clouds veiled the whole heaven, for the winds of the
north which drive away the mists and vapors were shut up in
their prison house. On hill and valley burst the merciless
rain, and the rivers, loosened from their courses, rushed over
the whole plains and up the mountain-side. From his home on
the highlands of Phthia, Deukalion looked forth on the angry
sky, and, when he saw the waters swelling in the valleys
beneath, he called Pyrrha, his wife, and said to her: 'The
time has come of which my father, the wise Prometheus,
forewarned me. Make ready, therefore, the ark which I have
built, and place in it all that we may need for food while the
flood of waters is out upon the earth.' . . . Then Pyrrha
hastened to make all things ready, and they waited till the
waters rose up to the highlands of Phthia and floated away the
ark of Deukalion. The fishes swam amidst the old elm-groves,
and twined amongst the gnarled boughs on the oaks, while on
the face of the waters were tossed the bodies of men; and
Deukalion looked on the dead faces of stalwart warriors, of
maidens, and of babes, as they rose and fell upon the heavy
waves."
When the flood began to abate, the ark rested on Mount Parnassus, and
Deucalion, with his wife Pyrrha, stepped forth upon the desolate earth.
They then immediately constructed an altar, and offered up thanks to
Zeus, the mighty being who sent the flood and saved them from its
waters.[26:3]
According to Ovid (a Grecian writer born 43 B. C.), Deucalion does not
venture out of the ark until a dove which he sent out returns to him
with an olive branch.[26:4]
It was at one time extensively believed, even by intelligent scholars,
that the myth of Deucalion was a corrupted tradition of the Noachian
deluge, _but this untenable opinion is now all but universally
abandoned_.[27:1]
The legend was found in the West among the Kelts. They believed that a
great deluge overwhelmed the world and drowned all men except Drayan and
Droyvach, who escaped in a boat, and colonized Britain. This boat was
supposed to have been built by the "Heavenly Lord," and it received into
it a pair of every kind of beasts.[27:2]
The ancient _Scandinavians_ had their legend of a deluge. The _Edda_
describes this deluge, from which only one man escapes, with his family,
by means of a bark.[27:3] It was also found among the ancient Mexicans.
They believed that a man named Coxcox, and his wife, survived the
deluge. Lord Kingsborough, speaking of this legend,[27:4] informs us
that the person who answered to Noah entered the ark with six others;
and that the story of sending birds out of the ark, &c., is the same in
general character with that of the Bible.
* * * * *
Dr. Brinton also speaks of the _Mexican_ tradition.[27:5] They had not
only the story of sending out the _bird_, but related that the ark
landed _on a mountain_. The tradition of a deluge was also found among
the Brazilians, and among many Indian tribes.[27:6] The mountain upon
which the ark is supposed to have rested, was pointed to by the
residents in nearly every quarter of the globe. The mountain-chain of
Ararat was considered to be--by the _Chaldeans_ and _Hebrews_--the place
where the ark landed. The _Greeks_ pointed to Mount Parnassus; the
_Hindoos_ to the Himalayas; and in Armenia numberless heights were
pointed out with becoming reverence, as those on which the few survivors
of the dreadful scenes of the deluge were preserved. On the Red River
(in America), near the village of the Caddoes, there was an eminence to
which the Indian tribes for a great distance around paid devout homage.
The Cerro Naztarny on the Rio Grande, the peak of Old Zuni in New
Mexico, that of Colhuacan on the Pacific coast, Mount Apoala in Upper
Mixteca, and Mount Neba in the province of Guaymi, are some of many
elevations asserted by the neighboring nations to have been places of
refuge for their ancestors when the fountains of the great deep broke
forth.
The question now may naturally be asked, How could such a story have
originated unless there was some foundation for it?
In answer to this question we will say that we do not think such a story
could have originated without some foundation for it, and that most, if
not all, legends, have a basis of truth underlying the fabulous,
although not always discernible. This story may have an _astronomical_
basis, as some suppose,[28:1] or it may not. At any rate, it would be
very easy to transmit by memory the fact of the _sinking_ of _an
island_, or that of _an earthquake_, or a _great flood_, caused by
overflows of rivers, &c., which, in the course of time, would be added
to, and enlarged upon, and, in this way, made into quite a lengthy tale.
According to one of the most ancient accounts of the deluge, we are told
that at that time "the forest trees were dashed against each other;"
"the mountains were involved with smoke and flame;" that there was
"fire, and smoke, and wind, which ascended in thick clouds replete with
lightning." "The roaring of the ocean, whilst violently agitated with
the whirling of the mountains, was like the bellowing of a mighty cloud,
&c."[28:2]
A violent earthquake, with eruptions from volcanic mountains, and the
sinking of land into the sea, would evidently produce such a scene as
this. We know that at one period in the earth's history, such scenes
must have been of frequent occurrence. The science of geology
demonstrates this fact to us. _Local deluges_ were of frequent
occurrence, and that some persons may have been saved on one, or perhaps
many, such occasions, by means of a raft or boat, and that they may have
sought refuge on an eminence, or mountain, does not seem at all
improbable.
During the _Champlain_ period in the history of the world--which came
after the _Glacial_ period--the climate became warmer, _the continents
sank_, and there were, consequently, continued _local floods_ which must
have destroyed considerable animal life, including man. The foundation
of the deluge myth may have been laid at this time.
Some may suppose that this is dating the history of man too far back,
making his history too remote; but such is not the case. There is every
reason to believe that man existed for ages _before the Glacial epoch_.
It must not be supposed that we have yet found remains of the earliest
human beings; there is evidence, however, that man existed during the
_Pliocene_, if not during the _Miocene_ periods, when hoofed quadrupeds,
and Proboscidians abounded, human remains and implements having been
found mingled with remains of these animals.[29:1]
Charles Darwin believed that the animal called man, might have been
properly called by that name at an epoch as remote as the _Eocene_
period.[29:2] Man had probably lost his hairy covering by that time, and
had begun to look human.
Prof. Draper, speaking of the antiquity of man, says:
"So far as investigations have gone, they _indisputably_ refer
the existence of man to a date remote from us by many
_hundreds of thousands of years_," and that, "it is difficult
to assign a shorter date from the last glaciation of Europe
than a quarter of a million of years, _and human existence
antedates that_."[29:3]
Again he says:
"Recent researches give reason to believe that, under low and
base grades, the existence of man can be traced back into the
_Tertiary_ times. He was contemporary with the Southern
Elephant, the Rhinoceros-leptorhinus, the great Hippopotamus,
perhaps even in the _Miocene_, contemporary with the
Mastodon."[29:4]
Prof. Huxley closes his "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," by
saying:
"Where must we look for primeval man? Was the oldest _Homo
Sapiens_ Pliocene or Miocene, _or yet more ancient_? . . .
If any form of the doctrine of progressive development is
correct, _we must extend by long epochs the most liberal
estimate that has yet been made of the antiquity of
man_."[30:1]
Prof. Oscar Paschel, in his work on "Mankind," speaking of the deposits
of human remains which have been discovered in caves, mingled with the
bones of wild animals, says:
"The examination of one of these caves at Brixham, by a
geologist as trustworthy as Dr. Falconer, convinced the
specialists of Great Britain, as early as 1858, that man was a
contemporary of the Mammoth, the Woolly Rhinoceros, the
Cave-lion, the Cave-hyena, the Cave-bear, _and therefore of
the Mammalia of the Geological period antecedent to our
own_."[30:2]
The positive evidence of man's existence during the _Tertiary_ period,
are facts which must firmly convince every one--who is willing to be
convinced--of _the great antiquity of man_. We might multiply our
authorities, but deem it unnecessary.
The observation of shells, corals, and other remains of _aquatic
animals_, in places above the level of the sea, and even on high
mountains, may have given rise to legends of a great flood.
Fossils found imbedded in high ground have been appealed to, both in
ancient and modern times, both by savage and civilized man, as evidence
in support of their traditions of a flood; and, moreover, the argument,
apparently unconnected with any tradition, is to be found, that because
there are marine fossils in places away from the sea, _therefore the sea
must once have been there_.
It is only quite recently that the presence of fossil shells, &c., on
high mountains, has been abandoned as evidence of the Noachic flood.
Mr. Tylor tells us that in the ninth edition of "Horne's Introduction to
the Scriptures," published in 1846, the evidence of fossils _is
confidently held to prove_ the universality of the Deluge; _but the
argument disappears from the next edition, published ten years
later_.[30:3]
Besides fossil remains of aquatic animals, _boats_ have been found on
tops of mountains.[30:4] A discovery of this kind may have given rise to
the story of an _ark_ having been made in which to preserve the favored
ones from the waters, and of its landing on a mountain.[30:5]
Before closing this chapter, it may be well to notice a striking
incident in the legend we have been treating, _i. e._, the frequent
occurrence of the number _seven_ in the narrative. For instance: the
Lord commands Noah to take into the ark clean beasts by _sevens_, and
fowls also by _sevens_, and tells him that in _seven_ days he will cause
it to rain upon the earth. We are also told that the ark rested in the
_seventh_ month, and the _seven_teenth day of the month, upon the
mountains of Ararat. After sending the dove out of the ark the first
time, Noah waited _seven_ days before sending it out again. After
sending the dove out the second time, "he stayed yet another _seven_
days" ere he again sent forth the dove.
_This coincidence arises from the mystic power attached to the number
seven, derived from its frequent occurrence in astrology._
We find that in _all religions_ of antiquity the number _seven_--which
applied to the _sun_, _moon_ and the _five planets_ known to the
ancients--is a _sacred number_, represented in all kinds and sorts of
forms;[31:1] for instance: The candlestick with _seven_ branches in the
temple of Jerusalem. The _seven_ inclosures of the temple. The _seven_
doors of the cave of Mithras. The _seven_ stories of the tower of
Babylon.[31:2] The _seven_ gates of Thebes.[31:3] The flute of _seven_
pipes generally put into the hand of the god Pan. The lyre of _seven_
strings touched by Apollo. The book of "Fate," composed of _seven_
books. The _seven_ prophetic rings of the Brahmans.[31:4] The _seven_
stones--consecrated to the _seven_ planets--in Laconia.[31:5] The
division into _seven_ castes adopted by the Egyptians and Indians. The
_seven_ idols of the Bonzes. The _seven_ altars of the monument of
Mithras. The _seven_ great spirits invoked by the Persians. The _seven_
archangels of the Chaldeans. The _seven_ archangels of the Jews.[31:6]
The _seven_ days in the week.[32:1] The _seven_ sacraments of the
Christians. The _seven_ wicked spirits of the Babylonians. The
sprinkling of blood _seven_ times upon the altars of the Egyptians. The
_seven_ mortal sins of the Egyptians. The hymn of _seven_ vowels chanted
by the Egyptian priests.[32:2] The _seven_ branches of the Assyrian
"Tree of Life." Agni, the Hindoo god, is represented with _seven_ arms.
Sura's[32:3] horse was represented with _seven_ heads. _Seven_ churches
are spoken of in the Apocalypse. Balaam builded _seven_ altars, and
offered _seven_ bullocks and _seven_ rams on each altar. Pharaoh saw
_seven_ kine, &c., in his dream. The "Priest of Midian" had _seven_
daughters. Jacob served _seven_ years. Before Jericho _seven_ priests
bare _seven_ horns. Samson was bound with _seven_ green withes, and his
marriage feast lasted _seven_ days, &c., &c. We might continue with as
much more, but enough has been shown to verify the statement that, "in
all religions of antiquity, the number SEVEN is a _sacred_ number."
FOOTNOTES:
[19:1] See "The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science," by Prof. Wm.
Denton: J. P. Mendum, Boston.
[19:2] "There were _giants_ in the earth in those days." It is a
scientific fact that most races of men, in former ages, instead of being
_larger_, were _smaller_ than at the present time. There is hardly a
suit of armor in the Tower of London, or in the old castles, that is
large enough for the average Englishman of to-day to put on. Man has
grown in stature as well as intellect, and there is no proof
whatever--in fact, the opposite is certain--that there ever was a race
of what might properly be called _giants_, inhabiting the earth. Fossil
remains of large animals having been found by primitive man, _and a
legend invented to account for them_, it would naturally be that: "There
were giants in the earth in those days." As an illustration we may
mention the story, recorded by the traveller James Orton, we believe (in
"The Andes and the Amazon"), that, near Punin, in South America, was
found the remains of an extinct species of the horse, the mastodon, and
other large animals. This discovery was made, owing to the assurance of
the natives that _giants_ at one time had lived in that country, _and
that they had seen their remains at this certain place_. Many legends
have had a similar origin. But the originals of all the _Ogres_ and
_Giants_ to be found in the mythology of almost all nations of
antiquity, are the famous Hindoo demons, the _Rakshasas_ of our Aryan
ancestors. The Rakshasas were very terrible creatures indeed, and in the
minds of many people, in India, are so still. Their natural form, so the
stories say, is that of huge, unshapely _giants_, like _clouds_, with
hair and beard of the color of the _red lightning_. This description
explains their origin. _They are the dark, wicked and cruel clouds_,
personified.
[19:3] "And it _repented_ the Lord that he had made man." (Gen. iv.)
"God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that _he
should repent_." (Numb. xxiii. 19.)
[20:1] Gen. iv.
[20:2] Gen. vi. 1-3.
[20:3] See chapter xi.
[20:4] The image of Osiris of Egypt was by the priests shut up in a
sacred ark on the 17th of Athyr (Nov. 13th), the very day and month on
which Noah is said to have entered his ark, (See Bonwick's Egyptian
Belief, p. 165, and Bunsen's Angel Messiah, p. 22.)
[21:1] Gen. vi.
[21:2] Gen. viii.
[22:1] See chapter xi.
[22:2] Josephus, the Jewish historian, speaking of the flood of Noah
(Antiq. bk. 1, ch. iii.), says: "All the writers of the Babylonian
histories make mention of _this_ flood and this ark."
[22:3] Quoted by George Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 43-44;
see also, The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 211; Dunlap's Spirit
Hist. p. 138; Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 61, et seq. for similar
accounts.
[23:1] Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 285, 286.
[23:2] Volney: New Researches, p. 119; Chaldean Acct. of Genesis, p.
290; Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. p. 417, and Dunlap's Spirit Hist. p. 277.
[23:3] Ibid.
[23:4] Legends of the Patriarchs, pp. 109, 110.
[23:5] Gen. vi. 8.
[23:6] The Hindoo ark-preserved Menu had _three_ sons; Sama, Cama, and
Pra-Japati. (Faber: Orig. Pagan Idol.) The Bhattias, who live between
Delli and the Panjab, insist that they are descended from a certain king
called Salivahana, who had three sons, Bhat, Maha and Thamaz. (Col.
Wilford, in vol. ix. Asiatic Researches.) The Iranian hero Thraetona had
_three_ sons. The Iranian Sethite Lamech had _three_ sons, and Hellen,
the son of Deucalion, during whose time the flood is said to have
happened, had _three_ sons. (Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, pp. 70, 71.) All
the ancient nations of Europe also describe their origin from the
_three_ sons of some king or patriarch. The Germans said that Mannus
(son of the god Tuisco) had _three_ sons, who were the original
ancestors of the three principal nations of Germany. The Scythians said
that Targytagus, the founder of their nation, had _three_ sons, from
whom they were descended. A tradition among the Romans was that the
Cyclop Polyphemus had by Galatea _three_ sons. Saturn had _three_ sons,
Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; and Hesiod speaks of the _three_ sons which
sprung from the marriage of heaven and earth. (See Mallet's Northern
Antiquities, p. 509.)
[23:7] See chap. xi.
[23:8] "It is of no slight moment that the Egyptians, with whom the
Hebrews are represented as in earliest and closest intercourse, had no
traditions of a flood, while the Babylonian and Hellenic tales bear a
strong resemblance in many points to the narrative in Genesis." (Rev.
George W. Cox: Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 340. See also Owen: Man's
Earliest History, p. 28, and ch. xi. this work.)
[24:1] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 198, and Knight's Ancient Art and
Mythology, p. 107. "Plato was told that Egypt had hymns dating back ten
thousand years before his time." (Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 185.)
Plato lived 429 B. C. Herodotus relates that the priests of Egypt
informed him that from the first king to the present priest of Vulcan
who last reigned, were three hundred forty and one generations of men,
and during these generations there were the same number of chief priests
and kings. "Now (says he) three hundred generations are equal to ten
thousand years, for three generations of men are one hundred years; and
the forty-one remaining generations that were over the three hundred,
make one thousand three hundred and forty years," making _eleven
thousand three hundred and forty years_. "Conducting me into the
interior of an edifice that was spacious, and showing me wooden
colossuses to the number I have mentioned, they reckoned them up; for
every high priest places an image of himself there during his life-time;
the priests, therefore, reckoning them and showing them to me, pointed
out that each was the son of his own father; going through them all,
from the image of him who died last until they had pointed them all
out." (Herodotus, book ii. chs. 142, 143.) The discovery of mummies of
royal and priestly personages, made at Deir-el-Bahari (Aug., 1881), near
Thebes, in Egypt, would seem to confirm this statement made by
Herodotus. Of the thirty-nine mummies discovered, one--that of King
Raskenen--is about three thousand seven hundred years old. (See a Cairo
[Aug. 8th,] Letter to the London Times.)
[24:2] Owen: Man's Earliest History, p. 28.
[24:3] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 185.
[24:4] Ibid. p. 411.
[24:5] Owen: Man's Earliest History, pp. 27, 28.
[24:6] Goldzhier: Hebrew Mytho. p. 319.
[24:7] Ibid. p. 320.
[25:1] Translated from the _Bhagavat_ by Sir Wm. Jones, and published in
the first volume of the "Asiatic Researches," p. 230, _et seq._ See also
Maurice: Ind. Ant. ii. 277, _et seq._, and Prof. Max Müller's Hist.
Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 425, _et seq._
[25:2] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 55.
[25:3] See Thornton's Hist. China, vol. i. p. 30, Prog. Relig. Ideas,
vol. i. p. 205, and Priestley, p. 41.
[25:4] Priestley, p. 42.
[26:1] Bunce: Fairy Tales, Origin and Meaning, p. 18.
[26:2] The _oldest_ Greek mythology, however, has no such idea; it
cannot be proved to have been known to the Greeks earlier than the 6th
century B. C. (See Goldzhier: Hebrew Mytho., p. 319.) This could not
have been the case had there ever been a _universal_ deluge.
[26:3] Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. 72-74. "Apollodorus--a Grecian
mythologist, born 140 B. C.,--having mentioned Deucalion consigned to
the ark, takes notice, upon his quitting it, of his offering up an
immediate sacrifice to God." (Chambers' Encyclo., art, _Deluge_.)
[26:4] In Lundy's Monumental Christianity (p. 209, Fig. 137) may be seen
a representation of Deucalion and Pyrrha landing from the ark. _A dove
and olive branch_ are depicted in the scene.
[27:1] Chambers' Encyclo., art. Deucalion.
[27:2] Baring-Gould: Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 114. See also Myths
of the British Druids, p. 95.
[27:3] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 99.
[27:4] Mex. Antiq. vol. viii.
[27:5] Myths of the New World, pp. 203, 204.
[27:6] See Squire: Serpent Symbol, pp. 189, 190.
[28:1] Count de Volney says: "The Deluge mentioned by Jews, Chaldeans,
Greeks and Indians, as having destroyed the world, are one and the same
_physico-astronomical event_ which is still repeated every year," and
that "all those personages that figure in the Deluge of Noah and
Xisuthrus, are still in the celestial sphere. It was a real picture of
the calendar." (Researches in Ancient Hist., p. 124.) It was on the same
day that Noah is said to have shut himself up in the ark, that the
priests of Egypt shut up in their sacred coffer or ark the image of
Osiris, a personification of the Sun. This was on the 17th of the month
Athor, in which the Sun enters the Scorpion. (See Kenrick's Egypt, vol.
i. p. 410.) The history of Noah also corresponds, in some respects, with
that of Bacchus, another personification of the Sun.
[28:2] See Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 268.
[29:1] "In America, along with the bones of the _Mastodon_ imbedded in
the alluvium of the Bourbense, were found arrow heads and other traces
of the savages who had killed this member of an order no longer
represented in that part of the world." (Herbert Spencer: Principles of
Sociology, vol. i. p. 17.)
[29:2] Darwin: Descent of Man, p. 156. We think it may not be out of
place to insert here what might properly be called: "_The Drama of
Life_," which is as follows:
Act i. Azoic: Conflict of Inorganic Forces.
Act ii. Paleozoic: Age of Invertebrates.
{ Scene i. Eozoic: Enter Protozoans and Protophytes.
{ " ii. Silurian: Enter the Army of Invertebrates.
Primary { " iii. Devonian: Enter Fishes.
{ " iv. Carboniferous: (Age of Coal Plants) Enter
First _Air_ breathers.
Act iii. Mesozoic: Enter Reptiles.
{ Scene i. Triassic: Enter Batrachians.
Secondary { " ii. Jurassic: Enter huge Reptiles of Sea, Land
{ and Air.
{ " iii. Cretaceous: (Age of Chalk) Enter Ammonites.
Act iv. Cenozoic: (Age of Mammals.)
{ Scene i. Eocene: Enter Marine Mammals, and probably
{ _Man_.
Tertiary { " ii. Miocene: Enter Hoofed Quadrupeds.
{ " iii. Pliocene: Enter Proboscidians and Edentates.
Act v. Post Tertiary: _Positive_ Age of Man.
{ Scene i. Glacial: Ice and Drift Periods.
{ " ii. Champlain: _Sinking Continents_; Warmer;
{ Tropical Animals go _North_.
Post Tertiary { " iii. Terrace: Rising Continents; Colder.
{ " iv. Present: Enter Science, Iconoclasts, &c., &c.
[29:3] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 199.
[29:4] Ibid. pp. 195, 196.
[30:1] Huxley: Man's Place in Nature, p. 184.
[30:2] Paschel: Races of Man, p. 36.
[30:3] Tylor: Early History of Mankind, p. 328.
[30:4] Ibid. pp. 329, 330
[30:5] We know that many legends have originated in this way. For
example, Dr. Robinson, in his "Travels in Palestine" (ii. 586), mentions
a tradition that a city had once stood in a desert between Petra and
Hebron, the people of which had perished for their vices, and been
converted into stone. Mr. Seetzen, who went to the spot, found no traces
of ruins, but a number of stony concretions, resembling in form and size
the human head. _They had been ignorantly supposed to be petrified
heads, and a legend framed to account for their owners suffering so
terrible a fate._ Another illustration is as follows:--The Kamchadals
believe that volcanic mountains are the abode of devils, who, after they
have cooked their meals, fling the fire-brands out of the chimney. Being
asked what these devils eat, they said "_whales_." Here we see, _first_,
a story invented to account for the volcanic eruptions from the
mountains; and, _second_, a story invented to account for the _remains
of whales found on the mountains_. The savages _knew_ that this was
true, "because their old people had said so, and believed it
themselves." (Related by Mr. Tylor, in his "_Early History of Mankind_,"
p. 326.)
[31:1] "Everything of importance was calculated by, and fitted into,
this number (SEVEN) by the Aryan philosophers,--ideas as well as
localities." (Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 407).
[31:2] Each one being consecrated to a _planet_. First, to Saturn;
second, to Jupiter; third, to Mars; fourth, to the Sun; fifth, to Venus;
sixth, to Mercury; seventh, to the Moon. (The Pentateuch Examined, vol.
iv. p. 269. See also The Angel Messiah, p. 106.)
[31:3] Each of which had the name of a _planet_.
[31:4] On each of which the name of a _planet_ was engraved.
[31:5] "There was to be seen in Laconia, _seven_ columns erected in
honor of the _seven planets_." (Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p.
34.)
[31:6] "The Jews believed that the Throne of Jehovah was surrounded by
his _seven_ high chiefs: Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, &c." (Bible
for Learners, vol. iii. p. 46.)
[32:1] Each one being consecrated to a planet, and the Sun and Moon.
Sunday, "_Dies Solis_," sacred to the SUN. Monday, "Dies Lunae," sacred
to the MOON. Tuesday, sacred to Tuiso or MARS. Wednesday, sacred to Odin
or Woden, and to MERCURY. Thursday, sacred to Thor and others. Friday,
sacred to Freia and VENUS. Saturday, sacred to SATURN. "The (ancient)
Egyptians assigned a day of the week to the SUN, MOON, and five planets,
and the number SEVEN was held there in great reverence." (Kenrick:
Egypt, i. 238.)
[32:2] "The Egyptian priests chanted the _seven_ vowels as a hymn
addressed to _Serapis_." (The Rosicrucians, p. 143.)
[32:3] _Sura_: the Sun-god of the Hindoos.
CHAPTER III.
THE TOWER OF BABEL.
We are informed that, at one time, "the whole earth was of one language,
and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they (the inhabitants of the
earth) journeyed from the East, that they found a plain in the land of
Shinar, and they dwelt there.
"And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them
thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
"And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, _whose top
may reach unto heaven_, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered
abroad upon the face of the whole earth. _And the Lord came down to see
the city and the tower_, which the children of men builded. And the Lord
said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and
this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them,
which they have imagined to do. Go to, _let us go down_, and there
confound their language, that they may not understand one another's
speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of
all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the
name of it called _Babel_, because the Lord did there confound the
language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them
abroad upon the face of all the earth."[33:1]
Such is the "Scripture" account of the origin of languages, which
differs somewhat from the ideas of Prof. Max Müller and other
philologists.
Bishop Colenso tells us that:
"The story of the dispensation of tongues is connected by the
Jehovistic writer with the famous unfinished temple of
_Belus_, of which probably some wonderful reports had reached
him. . . . The derivation of the name _Babel_ from the Hebrew
word _babal_ (confound) which seems to be the connecting point
between the story and the tower of Babel, _is altogether
incorrect_."[33:2]
The literal meaning of the word being _house_, or _court_, or _gate_ of
Bel, or gate of God.[34:1]
John Fiske confirms this statement by saying:
"The name '_Babel_' is really '_Bab-il_', or '_The Gate of
God_'; but the Hebrew writer _erroneously_ derives the word
from the root '_babal_'--to confuse--and hence arises the
_mystical explanation_, that Babel was a place where human
speech became confused."[34:2]
The "wonderful reports" that reached the Jehovistic writer who inserted
this tale into the Hebrew Scriptures, were from the Chaldean account of
the confusion of tongues. It is related by _Berosus_ as follows:
The first inhabitants of the earth, glorying in their strength and
size,[34:3] and despising the gods, undertook to raise a tower whose top
should reach the sky, in the place where Babylon now stands. But when it
approached the heavens, the winds assisted the gods, and overthrew the
work of the contrivers, and also introduced a diversity of tongues among
men, who till that time had all spoken the same language. The ruins of
this tower are said to be still in Babylon.[34:4]
Josephus, the Jewish historian, says that it was _Nimrod_ who built the
tower, that he was a very wicked man, and that the tower was built in
case the Lord should have a mind to drown the world again. He continues
his account by saying that when Nimrod proposed the building of this
tower, the multitude were very ready to follow the proposition, as they
could then avenge themselves on God for destroying their forefathers.
"And they built a tower, neither sparing any pains nor being
in any degree negligent about the work. And by reason of the
multitude of hands employed on it, it grew very high, sooner
than any one could expect. . . . . It was built of burnt
brick, cemented together, with mortar made of bitumen, that it
might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they had
acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly,
_since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the
former sinners_, but he caused a tumult among them, by
producing in them divers languages, and causing, that through
the multitude of those languages they should not be able to
understand one another. The place where they built the tower
is now called Babylon."[34:5]
The tower in Babylonia, which seems to have been a foundation for the
legend of the confusion of tongues to be built upon, was evidently
originally built for _astronomical purposes_.[35:1] This is clearly seen
from the fact that it was called the "Stages of the Seven
Spheres,"[35:2] and that each one of these stages was consecrated to the
Sun, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury.[35:3]
Nebuchadnezzar says of it in his _cylinders_:
"The building named the 'Stages of the Seven Spheres,' which
was the tower of Borsippa (Babel), had been built by a former
king. He had completed forty-two cubits, but he did not finish
its head. From the lapse of time, it had become ruined; they
had not taken care of the exits of the waters, so the rain and
wet had penetrated into the brick-work; the casing of burnt
brick had bulged out, and the terraces of crude brick lay
scattered in heaps. Merobach, my great Lord, inclined my heart
to repair the building. I did not change its site, nor did I
destroy its foundation, but, in a fortunate month, and upon an
auspicious day, I undertook the rebuilding of the crude brick
terraces and burnt brick casing, &c., &c."[35:4]
There is not a word said here in these cylinders about the confusion of
tongues, nor anything pertaining to it. The ruins of this ancient tower
being there in Babylonia, and a legend of how the gods confused the
speech of mankind also being among them, it was very convenient to point
to these ruins as evidence that the story was true, just as the ancient
Mexicans pointed to the ruins of the tower of Cholula, as evidence of
the truth of the similar story which they had among them, and just as
many nations pointed to the remains of aquatic animals on the tops of
mountains, as evidence of the truth of the deluge story.
The _Armenian_ tradition of the "Confusion of Tongues" was to this
effect:
The world was formerly inhabited by men "with strong bodies and huge
size" (giants). These men being full of pride and envy, "they formed a
godless resolve to build a high tower; but whilst they were engaged on
the undertaking, a fearful wind overthrew it, which the wrath of God had
sent against it. _Unknown words were at the same time blown about among
men_, wherefore arose strife and confusion."[35:5]
The _Hindoo_ legend of the "Confusion of Tongues," is as follows:
There grew in the centre of the earth, the wonderful "_World Tree_," or
the "_Knowledge Tree_." It was so tall that it reached almost to heaven.
"It said in its heart: 'I shall hold my head in heaven, and spread my
branches over all the earth, and gather all men together under my
shadow, and protect them, and prevent them from separating.' But Brahma,
to punish the pride of the tree, cut off its branches and cast them down
on the earth, when they sprang up as _Wata trees, and made differences
of belief, and speech, and customs_, to prevail on the earth, to
disperse men over its surface."[36:1]
Traces of a somewhat similar story have also been met with among the
_Mongolian Tharus_ in the north of India, and, according to Dr.
Livingston, among the Africans of Lake _Nganu_.[36:2] The ancient
_Esthonians_[36:3] had a similar myth which they called "The Cooking of
Languages;" so also had the ancient inhabitants of the continent of
_Australia_.[36:4] The story was found among the ancient Mexicans, and
was related as follows:
Those, with their descendants, who were saved from the deluge which
destroyed all mankind, excepting the few saved in the ark, resolved to
build a tower which would reach to the skies. The object of this was to
see what was going on in Heaven, and also to have a place of refuge in
case of another deluge.[36:5]
The job was superintended by one of the _seven_ who were saved from the
flood.[36:6] He was a _giant_ called Xelhua, surnamed "the
Architect."[36:7]
Xelhua ordered bricks to be made in the province of Tlamanalco, at the
foot of the Sierra of Cocotl, and to be conveyed to _Cholula_, where the
tower was to be built. For this purpose, he placed a file of men
reaching from the Sierra to Cholula, who passed the bricks from hand to
hand.[36:8] The gods beheld with wrath this edifice,--the top of which
was nearing the clouds,--and were much irritated at the daring attempt
of Xelhua. They therefore hurled fire from Heaven upon the pyramid,
which threw it down, and killed many of the workmen. The work was then
discontinued,[36:9] as each family interested in the building of the
tower, _received a language of their own_,[36:10] and the builders could
not understand each other.
Dr. Delitzsch must have been astonished upon coming across this legend;
for he says:
"_Actually_ the Mexicans had a legend of a _tower-building_ as
well as of a _flood_. Xelhua, one of the _seven giants_
rescued from the flood, built the great pyramid of Cholula, in
order to reach heaven, until the gods, angry at his audacity,
threw fire upon the building and broke it down, whereupon
every separate family received a language of its own."[37:1]
The ancient Mexicans pointed to the ruins of a tower at Cholula as
evidence of the truth of their story. This tower was seen by Humboldt
and Lord Kingsborough, and described by them.[37:2]
We may say then, with Dr. Kalisch, that:
"Most of the ancient nations possessed myths concerning
impious giants who attempted to storm heaven, either to share
it with the immortal gods, or to expel them from it. In some
of these fables _the confusion of tongues_ is represented as
the punishment inflicted by the deities for such
wickedness."[37:3]
FOOTNOTES:
[33:1] Genesis xi. 1-9.
[33:2] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 268.
[34:1] Ibid. p. 268. See also Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 90.
[34:2] Myths and Myth-makers, p. 72. See also Encyclopædia Britannica,
art. "Babel."
[34:3] "There were _giants_ in the earth in those days." (Genesis vi.
4.)
[34:4] Quoted by Rev. S. Baring-Gould: Legends of the Patriarchs, p.
147. See also Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 48, and Volney's
Researches in Ancient History, pp. 130, 131.
[34:5] Jewish Antiquities, book 1, ch. iv. p. 30.
[35:1] "Diodorus states that the great tower of the temple of Belus was
used by the Chaldeans as an _observatory_." (Smith's Bible Dictionary,
art. "Babel.")
[35:2] The Hindoos had a sacred _Mount Meru_, the abode of the gods.
This mountain was supposed to consist of _seven stages_, increasing in
sanctity as they ascended. Many of the Hindoo temples, or rather altars,
were "studied transcripts of the sacred Mount Meru;" that is, they were
built, like the tower of Babel, in _seven stages_. Within the upper
dwelt Brahm. (See Squire's Serpent Symbol, p. 107.) Herodotus tells us
that the upper stage of the tower of Babel was the abode of the god
Belus.
[35:3] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 269. See also Bunsen: The
Angel Messiah, p. 106.
[35:4] Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 484.
[35:5] Legends of the Patriarchs, pp. 148, 149.
[36:1] Ibid. p. 148. The ancient _Scandinavians_ had a legend of a
somewhat similar tree. "The Mundane Tree," called _Yggdrasill_, was in
the centre of the earth; its branches covered over the surface of the
earth, and its top reached to the highest heaven. (See Mallet's Northern
Antiquities.)
[36:2] Encyclopædia Britannica, art. "Babel."
[36:3] _Esthonia_ is one of the three Baltic, or so-called, provinces of
Russia.
[36:4] Encyclopædia Britannica, art. "Babel."
[36:5] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 27.
[36:6] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 204.
[36:7] Humboldt: American Researches, vol. i. p. 96.
[36:8] Ibid.
[36:9] Ibid., and Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 204.
[36:10] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 272.
[37:1] Quoted by Bishop Colenso: The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p.
272.
[37:2] Humboldt: American Researches, vol. i. p. 97. Lord Kingsborough:
Mexican Antiquities.
[37:3] Com. on Old Test. vol. i. p. 196.
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAM'S FAITH.
The story of the trial of Abraham's faith--when he is ordered by the
Lord to sacrifice his only son Isaac--is to be found in Genesis xxii.
1-19, and is as follows:
"And it came to pass . . . that God did tempt Abraham, and
said unto him: 'Abraham,' and he said: 'Behold, here I am.'
And he (God) said: 'Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac,
whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and
offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains
which I will tell thee of.'
"And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his
ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his
son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up
and went into the place which God had told him. . . . (When
Abraham was near the appointed place) he said unto his young
men: 'Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go
yonder and worship, and come again to thee. And Abraham took
the wood for the burnt offering, and laid it upon (the
shoulders of) Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand,
and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac
spake unto Abraham his father, and said: 'Behold the fire and
the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' And
Abraham said: 'My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering.' So they went both of them together, and they
came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham built
an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac
his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham
stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and
said: 'Abraham! Abraham! lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou
fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine
only son from me.'
"And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind
him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, and Abraham went
and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in
the stead of his son. . . . And the angel of the Lord called unto
Abraham, out of heaven, the second time, and said: 'By myself
have I _sworn_ saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, . . . I
will bless thee, and . . . I will multiply thy seed as the
stars in the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea
shore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blest,
because thou hast obeyed my voice.' So Abraham returned unto
his young men, and they rose up and went together to
Beer-sheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba."
There is a Hindoo story related to the Sânkhâyana-sûtras, which, in
substance, is as follows: King Hariscandra had no son; he then prayed to
Varuna, promising, that if a son were born to him, he would sacrifice
the child to the god. Then a son was born to him, called Rohita. When
Rohita was grown up his father one day told him of the vow he had made
to Varuna, and bade him prepare to be sacrificed. The son objected to
being killed and ran away from his father's house. For six years he
wandered in the forest, and at last met a starving Brahman. Him he
persuaded to sell one of his sons named Sunahsepha, for a hundred cows.
This boy was bought by Rohita and taken to Hariscandra and about to be
sacrificed to Varuna as a substitute for Rohita, when, on praying to the
gods with verses from the Veda, he was released by them.[39:1]
There was an ancient _Phenician_ story, written by Sanchoniathon, who
wrote about 1300 years before our era, which is as follows:
"Saturn, whom the Phœnicians call _Israel_, had by a nymph of
the country a _male_ child whom he named Jeoud, that is, _one
and only_. On the breaking out of a war, which brought the
country into imminent danger, Saturn erected an altar, brought
to it his son, clothed in royal garments, and sacrificed
him."[39:2]
There is also a _Grecian_ fable to the effect that one Agamemnon had a
daughter whom he dearly loved, and she was deserving of his affection.
He was commanded by God, through the Delphic Oracle, _to offer her up as
a sacrifice_. Her father long resisted the demand, but finally
succumbed. Before the fatal blow had been struck, however, the goddess
Artemis or Ashtoreth interfered, and carried the maiden away, whilst in
her place was substituted a stag.[39:3]
Another similar _Grecian_ fable relates that:
"When the Greek army was detained at Aulis, by contrary winds,
the augurs being consulted, declared that one of the kings had
offended Diana, and she demanded the sacrifice of his daughter
Iphigenia. It was like taking the father's life-blood, but he
was persuaded that it was his duty to submit for the good of
his country. The maiden was brought forth for sacrifice, in
spite of her tears and supplications; but just as the priest
was about to strike the fatal blow, Iphigenia suddenly
disappeared, and a goat of uncommon beauty stood in her
place."[39:4]
There is yet still another, which belongs to the same country, and is
related thus:
"In _Sparta_, it being declared upon one occasion that the
gods demanded a human victim, the choice was made by lot, and
fell on a damsel named Helena. But when all was in readiness,
an eagle descended, carried away the priest's knife, and laid
it on the head of a heifer, which was sacrificed in her
stead."[40:1]
The story of Abraham and Isaac was written at a time when the Mosaic
party in Israel was endeavoring to abolish idolatry among their people.
They were offering up _human sacrifices_ to their gods Moloch, Baal, and
Chemosh, and the priestly author of this story was trying to make the
people think that the Lord had abolished such offerings, as far back as
the time of Abraham. The Grecian legends, which he had evidently heard,
may have given him the idea.[40:2]
Human offerings to the gods were at one time almost universal. In the
earliest ages the offerings were simple, and such as shepherds and
rustics could present. They loaded the altars of the gods with the first
fruits of their crops, and the choicest products of the earth.
Afterwards they sacrificed animals. When they had once laid it down as a
principle that the effusion of the blood of these animals appeased the
anger of the gods, and that their justice turned aside upon the victims
those strokes which were destined for men, their great care was for
nothing more than to conciliate their favor by so easy a method. It is
the nature of violent desires and excessive fear to know no bounds, and
therefore, when they would ask for any favor which they ardently wished
for, or would deprecate some public calamity which they feared, the
blood of animals was not deemed a price sufficient, but they began to
shed that of men. It is probable, as we have said, that this barbarous
practice was formerly almost universal, and that it is of very remote
antiquity. In time of war the captives were chosen for this purpose, but
in time of peace they took the slaves. The choice was partly regulated
by the opinion of the bystanders, and partly by lot. But they did not
always sacrifice such mean persons. In great calamities, in a pressing
famine, for example, if the people thought they had some pretext to
impute the cause of it to their _king_, they even sacrificed him without
hesitation, as the _highest price_ with which they could purchase the
Divine favor. In this manner, the first King of Vermaland (a province of
Sweden) was burnt in honor of Odin, the Supreme God, to put an end to a
great dearth; as we read in the history of Norway. The kings, in their
turn, did not spare the blood of their subjects; and many of them even
shed that of their children. Earl Hakon, of Norway, offered his son in
sacrifice, to obtain of Odin the victory over the Jomsburg pirates. Aun,
King of Sweden, devoted to Odin the blood of his nine sons, to prevail
on that god to prolong his life. Some of the kings of Israel offered up
their first-born sons as a sacrifice to the god Baal or Moloch.
The altar of Moloch reeked with blood. Children were sacrificed and
burned in the fire to him, while trumpets and flutes drowned their
screams, and the mothers looked on, and were bound to restrain their
tears.
The Phenicians offered to the gods, in times of war and drought, the
fairest of their children. The books of Sanchoniathon and Byblian Philo
are full of accounts of such sacrifices. In Byblos boys were immolated
to Adonis; and, on the founding of a city or colony, a sacrifice of a
vast number of children was solemnized, in the hopes of thereby averting
misfortune from the new settlement. The Phenicians, according to
Eusebius, yearly sacrificed their dearest, and even their only children,
to Saturn. The bones of the victims were preserved in the temple of
Moloch, in a golden ark, which was carried by the Phenicians with them
to war.[41:1] Like the Fijians of the present day, those people
considered their gods as beings like themselves. They loved and they
hated; they were proud and revengeful; they were, in fact, savages like
themselves.
If the eldest born of the family of Athamas entered the temple of the
Laphystian Jupiter, at Alos, in Achaia, he was sacrificed, crowned with
garlands, like an animal victim.[41:2]
The offering of human sacrifices to the Sun was extensively practiced in
Mexico and Peru, before the establishment of Christianity.[41:3]
FOOTNOTES:
[39:1] See Müller's Hist. Sanscrit Literature; and Williams' Indian
Wisdom, p. 29.
[39:2] Quoted by Count de Volney; New Researches in Anc't Hist., p. 144.
[39:3] See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 104.
[39:4] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 302.
[40:1] Ibid.
[40:2] See chapter xi.
[41:1] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 368.
[41:2] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 448.
[41:3] See Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii.
CHAPTER V.
JACOB'S VISION OF THE LADDER.
In the 28th chapter of Genesis, we are told that Isaac, after blessing
his son Jacob, sent him to Padan-aram, to take a daughter of Laban's
(his mother's brother) to wife. Jacob, obeying his father, "went out
from Beer-sheba (where he dwelt), and went towards Haran. And he lighted
upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was
set. And he took of the stones of the place, and put them for his
pillow, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold,
a _ladder_ set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. _And
he beheld the angels of God ascending and descending on it._ And,
behold, the Lord stood above it, and said: 'I am the Lord God of Abraham
thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee
will I give it, and to thy seed.' . . . And Jacob awoke out of his
sleep, and he said: 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I know it
not.' And he was afraid, and said: 'How _dreadful_ is this place, _this
is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven_.'
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, _and took the stone that he had
put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the
top of it_. And he called the name of that place _Beth-el_."
The doctrine of Metempsychosis has evidently something to do with this
legend. It means, in the theological acceptation of the term, the
supposed transition of the soul after death, into another substance or
body than that which it occupied before. The belief in such a transition
was common to the most civilized, and the most uncivilized, nations of
the earth.[42:1]
It was believed in, and taught by, the _Brahminical Hindoos_,[42:2] the
_Buddhists_,[42:3] the natives of _Egypt_,[42:4] several philosophers of
ancient _Greece_,[43:1] the ancient _Druids_,[43:2] the natives of
_Madagascar_,[43:3] several tribes of _Africa_,[43:4] and _North
America_,[43:5] the ancient _Mexicans_,[43:4] and by some _Jewish_ and
_Christian_ sects.[43:5]
"It deserves notice, that in both of these religions (_i. e._,
_Jewish_ and _Christian_), it found adherents as well in
ancient as in modern times. Among the _Jews_, the doctrine of
transmigration--the Gilgul Neshamoth--was taught in the
mystical system of the _Kabbala_."[43:6]
"All the souls," the spiritual code of this system says, "are
subject to the trials of transmigration; and men do not know
which are the ways of the Most High in their regard." "The
principle, in short, of the _Kabbala_, is the same as that of
_Brahmanism_."
"On the ground of this doctrine, which was shared in by Rabbis
of the highest renown, it was held, for instance, that the
soul of _Adam_ migrated into _David_, and will come in the
_Messiah_; that the soul of _Japhet_ is the same as that of
_Simeon_, and the soul of _Terah_, migrated into _Job_."
"Of all these transmigrations, biblical instances are adduced
according to their mode of interpretation--in the writings of
Rabbi Manasse ben Israel, Rabbi Naphtali, Rabbi Meyer ben
Gabbai, Rabbi Ruben, in the Jalkut Khadash, and other works of
a similar character."[43:4]
The doctrine is thus described by Ovid, in the language of Dryden:
"What feels the body when the soul expires,
By time corrupted, or consumed by fires?
Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats
Into other forms, and only changes seats.
Ev'n I, who these mysterious truths declare,
Was once Euphorbus in the Trojan war;
My name and lineage I remember well,
And how in fight by Spartan's King I fell.
In Argive Juno's fame I late beheld
My buckler hung on high, and own'd my former shield
Then death, so called, is but old matter dressed
In some new figure, and a varied vest.
Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies,
And here and there the unbodied spirit flies."
The Jews undoubtedly learned this doctrine after they had been subdued
by, and become acquainted with other nations; and the writer of this
story, whoever he may have been, was evidently endeavoring to strengthen
the belief in this doctrine--he being an advocate of it--by inventing
this story, _and making Jacob a witness to the truth of it_. Jacob would
have been looked upon at the time the story was written (_i. e._, after
the Babylonian captivity), as of great authority. We know that several
writers of portions of the Old Testament have written for similar
purposes. As an illustration, we may mention the book of _Esther_. This
book was written for the purpose of explaining the origin of the
festival of _Purim_, and _to encourage the Israelites to adopt it_. The
writer, _who was an advocate of the feast_, lived long after the
Babylonish captivity, and is quite unknown.[44:1]
The writer of the seventeenth chapter of Matthew has made Jesus a
teacher of the doctrine of Transmigration.
The Lord had promised that he would send Elijah (Elias) the prophet,
"before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord,"[44:2] and
Jesus is made to say that he had already come, or, _that his soul had
transmigrated unto the body of John the Baptist_, and they knew it
not.[44:3]
And in Mark (viii. 27) we are told that Jesus asked his disciples,
saying unto them; "Whom do men say that _I_ am?" whereupon they answer:
"Some say Elias; and others, one of the prophets;" or, in other words,
that the soul of Elias, or one of the prophets, had transmigrated into
the body of Jesus. In John (ix. 1, 2), we are told that Jesus and his
disciples seeing a man "_which was blind from his birth_," the disciples
asked him, saying; "Master, who did sin, _this man_ (in some former
state) or his parents." Being _born_ blind, how else could he sin,
_unless in some former state_? These passages result from the fact,
which we have already noticed, that some of the Jewish and Christian
sects believed in the doctrine of Metempsychosis.
According to some Jewish authors, _Adam_ was re-produced in _Noah_,
_Elijah_, and other Bible celebrities.[44:4]
The Rev. Mr. Faber says:
"Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, might in outward appearance be
_different_ men, but they were really the _self-same_ divine
persons who had been promised as the seed of the woman,
successively animating various human bodies."[44:5]
We have stated as our belief that the vision which the writer of the
twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis has made Jacob to witness, was intended
to strengthen the belief in the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, that he
was simply seeing the souls of men ascending and descending from heaven
_on a ladder_, during their transmigrations.
We will now give our reasons for thinking so.
The learned Thomas Maurice tells us that:
The _Indians_ had, in remote ages, in their system of theology, _the
sidereal ladder of seven gates_, which described, in a symbolical
manner, the _ascending and descending of the souls of men_.[45:1]
We are also informed by Origen that:
This descent (_i. e._, the descent of souls from heaven to
enter into some body), was described in a symbolical manner,
_by a ladder which was represented as reaching from heaven to
earth_, and divided into _seven_ stages, at each of which was
figured a gate; the eighth gate was at the top of the ladder,
which belonged to the sphere of the celestial firmament.[45:2]
That souls dwell in the _Galaxy_ was a thought familiar to the
_Pythagoreans_, who gave it on their master's word, that the souls that
crowd there, _descend and appear to men as dreams_.[45:3]
The fancy of the _Manicheans_ also transferred pure souls to this column
of light, _whence they could come down to earth and again return_.[45:4]
Paintings representing a scene of this kind may be seen in works of art
illustrative of _Indian Mythology_.
Maurice speaks of one, in which he says:
"The souls of men are represented as ascending and descending
(on a ladder), according to the received opinion of the
sidereal Metempsychosis in Asia."[45:5]
Mons. Dupuis tells us that:
"Among the mysterious pictures of the _Initiation_, in the
cave of the Persian God Mithras, there was exposed to the view
_the descent of the souls to the earth, and their return to
heaven_, through the seven planetary spheres."[45:6]
And Count de Volney says:
"In the cave of Mithra _was a ladder with seven steps_,
representing the seven spheres of the planets by means of
which _souls ascended and descended_. This is precisely the
ladder of Jacob's vision. There is in the Royal Library (of
France) a superb volume of pictures of the Indian gods, in
which the ladder is represented with the souls of men
ascending it."[45:7]
In several of the Egyptian sculptures also, the Transmigration of Souls
is represented by the ascending and descending of souls from heaven to
earth, _on a flight of steps_, and, as the souls of wicked men were
supposed to enter pigs and other animals, therefore pigs, monkeys, &c.,
are to be seen on the steps, descending from heaven.[45:8]
"And he dreamed, _and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and
the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God
ascending and descending on it_."
These are the words of the sacred text. Can anything be more
convincing? It continues thus:
"And Jacob awoke out of his sleep . . . and he was afraid, and
said . . . this is none other but the house of God, _and this
is the gate of heaven_."
Here we have "the gate of heaven," mentioned by Origen in describing the
_Metempsychosis_.
According to the ancients, the _top_ of this ladder was supposed to
reach _the throne_ of _the most high God_. This corresponds exactly with
the vision of Jacob. The ladder which he is made to see reached unto
heaven, _and the Lord stood above it._[46:1]
"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the _stone_
that he had put for his pillow, _and set it up for a pillar,
and poured oil upon the top of it_."[46:2]
This concluding portion to the story has evidently an allusion to
_Phallic_[46:3] worship. There is scarcely a nation of antiquity which
did not set up these stones (as emblems of the reproductive power of
nature) and worship them. Dr. Oort, speaking of this, says:
Few forms of worship were so universal in ancient times as the homage
paid to sacred stones. In the history of the religion of even the most
civilized peoples, such as the Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, Arabs and
Germans, we find traces of this form of worship.[46:4] The ancient
_Druids_ of Britain also worshiped sacred stones, which were _set up on
end_.[46:5]
Pausanias, an eminent Greek historian, says:
"The _Hermiac_ statue, which they venerate in Cyllenê above
other _symbols_, is an erect _Phallus_ on a pedestal."[46:6]
This was nothing more than a smooth, oblong _stone_, set erect on a flat
one.[46:7]
The learned Dr. Ginsburg, in his "Life of Levita," alludes to the
ancient mode of worship offered to the heathen deity Hermes, or Mercury.
A "Hermes" (_i. e._, a _stone_) was frequently set up on the road-side,
and each traveller, as he passed by, paid his homage to the deity by
either throwing a stone on the heap (which was thus collected), or by
_anointing_ it. This "Hermes" was the symbol of Phallus.[46:8]
Now, when we find that _this form of worship was very prevalent among
the Israelites_,[47:1] that these sacred stones which were "set up,"
were called (by the heathen), BÆTY-LI,[47:2] (which is not unlike
BETH-EL), and that _they were anointed with oil_,[47:3] I think we have
reasons for believing that the story of Jacob's _setting up_ a stone,
_pouring oil upon it_, and calling the place _Beth-el_, "has evidently
an allusion to Phallic worship."[47:4]
The male and female powers of nature were denoted respectively by an
upright and an oval emblem, and the conjunction of the two furnished at
once the altar and the _Ashera_, or grove, against which the Hebrew
prophets lifted up their voices in earnest protest. In the kingdoms,
both of Judah and Israel, the rites connected with these emblems assumed
their most corrupting form. Even in the temple itself, stood the
_Ashera_, or the upright emblem, on the circular altar of Baal-Peor, the
Priapos of the Jews, thus reproducing the _Linga_, and _Yoni_ of the
Hindu.[47:5] For this symbol, the women wove hangings, as the Athenian
maidens embroidered the sacred peplos for the ship presented to Athênê,
at the great Dionysiac festival. This _Ashera_, which, in the authorized
English version of the Old Testament is translated "_grove_," was, in
fact, a pole, or stem of a tree. It is reproduced in our modern
"Maypole," around which maidens dance, as maidens did of yore.[47:6]
FOOTNOTES:
[42:1] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Transmigration."
[42:2] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Transmigration." Prichard's Mythology,
p. 213, and Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 59.
[42:3] Ibid. Ernest de Bunsen says: "The first traces of the doctrine of
Transmigration of souls is to be found among the Brahmins and
Buddhists." (The Angel Messiah, pp. 63, 64.)
[42:4] Prichard's Mythology, pp. 213, 214.
[43:1] Gross: The Heathen Religion. Also Chambers's Encyclo., art.
"Transmigration."
[43:2] Ibid. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 13; and Myths of the
British Druids, p. 15.
[43:3] Chambers's Encyclo.
[43:4] Ibid.
[43:5] Ibid. See also Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, pp. 63, 64. Dupuis, p.
357. Josephus: Jewish Antiquities, book xviii. ch. 13. Dunlap: Son of
the Man, p. 94; and Beal: Hist. Buddha.
[43:6] Chambers, art. "Transmigration."
[44:1] See The Religion of Israel, p. 18.
[44:2] Malachi iv. 5.
[44:3] Matthew xvii. 12, 13.
[44:4] See Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 78.
[44:5] Faber: Orig. Pagan Idol, vol. iii. p. 612; in Anacalypsis, vol.
i. p. 210.
[45:1] Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 202.
[45:2] Contra Celsus, lib. vi. c. xxii.
[45:3] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 324.
[45:4] Ibid.
[45:5] Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 262.
[45:6] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, p. 344.
[45:7] Volney's Ruins, p. 147, _note_.
[45:8] See Child's Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 160, 162.
[46:1] Genesis xxviii. 12, 13.
[46:2] Genesis xxviii. 18, 19.
[46:3] "Phallic," from "Phallus," a representation of the male
generative organs. For further information on this subject, see the
works of R. Payne Knight, and Dr. Thomas Inman.
[46:4] Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 175, 276. See, also, Knight:
Ancient Art and Mythology; and Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. and ii.
[46:5] See Myths of the British Druids, p. 300; and Higgins: Celtic
Druids.
[46:6] Quoted by R. Payne Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 114,
_note_.
[46:7] See Illustrations in Dr. Inman's Pagan and Christian Symbolism.
[46:8] See Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. pp. 543, 544.
[47:1] Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 177, 178, 317, 321, 322.
[47:2] Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 356.
[47:3] Ibid.
[47:4] We read in Bell's "Pantheon of the Gods and Demi-Gods of
Antiquity," under the head of BAELYLION, BAELYLIA or BAETYLOS, that they
are "_Anointed Stones_, worshiped among the Greeks, Phrygians, and other
nations of the East;" that "these Baetylia were greatly venerated by the
ancient Heathen, many of their idols being no other;" and that, "in
reality no sort of idol was more common in the East, than that of oblong
stones _erected_, and hence termed by the Greeks _pillars_." The Rev.
Geo. W. Cox, in his Aryan Mythology (vol. ii. p. 113), says: "The
erection of these stone columns or pillars, the forms of which in most
cases tell their own story, are common throughout the East, some of the
most elaborate being found near Ghizni." And Mr. Wake (Phallism in
Ancient Religions, p. 60), says: "Kiyun, or Kivan, the name of the deity
said by Amos (v. 26), to have been worshiped in the wilderness by the
Hebrews, signifies GOD OF THE PILLAR."
[47:5] We find that there was nothing gross or immoral in the worship of
the male and female generative organs among the ancients, when the
subject is properly understood. Being the most intimately connected with
the reproduction of life on earth, the _Linga_ became the symbol under
which the _Sun_, invoked with a thousand names, has been worshiped
throughout the world _as the restorer of the powers of nature_ after the
long sleep or death of winter. But if the _Linga_ is the Sun-god in his
majesty, the _Yoni_ is the earth who yields her fruit under his
fertilizing warmth.
The _Phallic tree_ is introduced into the narrative of the book of
Genesis: but it is here called a tree, not of life, but of the knowledge
of good and evil, that knowledge which dawns in the mind with the first
consciousness of difference between man and woman. In contrast with this
tree of carnal indulgence, tending to death, is the tree of life,
denoting the higher existence for which man was designed, and which
would bring with it the happiness and the freedom of the children of
God. In the brazen serpent of the Pentateuch, the two emblems of the
_cross_ and _serpent_, the quiescent and energising Phallos, are united.
(See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. pp. 113, 116, 118.)
[47:6] See Cox: Aryan Mytho., ii. 112, 113.
CHAPTER VI.
THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT, AND PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA.
The children of Israel, who were in bondage in Egypt, making bricks, and
working in the field,[48:1] were looked upon with compassion by the
Lord.[48:2] He heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant with
Abraham,[48:3] with Isaac, and with Jacob. He, therefore, chose Moses
(an Israelite, who had murdered an Egyptian,[48:4] and who, therefore,
was obliged to flee from Egypt, as Pharaoh sought to punish him), as his
servant, to carry out his plans.
Moses was at this time keeping the flock of Jeruth, his father-in-law,
in the land of Midian. The angel of the Lord, or the Lord himself,
appeared to him there, and said unto him:
"I am the God of thy Father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob. . . . I have seen the affliction of
_my people_ which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by
reason of their tormentors; for I know their sorrows. And I am
_come down_ to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a
large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. I will send
thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the
children of Israel, out of Egypt."
Then Moses said unto the Lord:
"Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall
say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you,
and they shall say unto me: What is his name? What shall I say
unto them?"
Then God said unto Moses:
"I AM THAT I AM."[48:5] "Thus shalt thou say unto the children
of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."[48:6]
And God said, moreover, unto Moses:
"Go and gather the Elders of Israel together, and say unto
them: the Lord God of your fathers . . . appeared unto me,
saying: 'I have surely visited you, and seen that which is
done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you up out
of the affliction of Egypt . . . unto a land flowing with milk
and honey.' And they shall hearken to thy voice, and thou
shall come, thou and the Elders of Israel, unto the king of
Egypt, and ye shall say unto him: 'the Lord God of the Hebrews
hath met with us, and now let us go, we beseech thee, _three
days journey in the wilderness_, that we may sacrifice to the
Lord our God.'[49:1]
"_I am sure_ that the king of Egypt will _not_ let you go, no,
not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and
smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst
thereof: _and after that he will let you go_. And I will give
this people (the Hebrews) favor in the sight of the Egyptians,
and it shall come to pass, that when ye go, _ye shall not go
empty_. But every woman shall _borrow_ of her neighbor, and of
her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels
of gold, and raiment. And ye shall put them upon your sons and
upon your daughters, _and ye shall spoil the
Egyptians_."[49:2]
The Lord again appeared unto Moses, in Midian, and said:
"Go, return into Egypt, for all the men are dead which sought
thy life. And Moses took his wife, and his son, and set them
upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses
took the _rod of God_ (which the Lord had given him) in his
hand."[49:3]
Upon arriving in Egypt, Moses tells his brother Aaron, "all the words of
the Lord," and Aaron tells all the children of Israel. Moses, who was
not eloquent, but had a slow speech,[49:4] uses Aaron as his
spokesman.[49:5] They then appear unto Pharaoh, and falsify, "_according
to the commands of the Lord_," saying: "Let us go, we pray thee, _three
days' journey in the desert_, and sacrifice unto the Lord our
God."[49:6]
The Lord hardens Pharaoh's heart, so that he does not let the children
of Israel go to sacrifice unto their God, in the desert.
Moses and Aaron continue interceding with him, however, and, for the
purpose of showing their miraculous powers, they change their rods into
serpents, the river into blood, cause a plague of frogs and lice, and a
swarm of flies, &c., &c., to appear. Most of these feats were imitated
by the magicians of Egypt. Finally, the first-born of Egypt are slain,
when Pharaoh, after having had his heart hardened, by the Lord, over and
over again, consents to let Moses and the children of Israel go to serve
their God, _as they had said_, that is, for _three_ days.
The Lord having given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,
they borrowed of them jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment,
"_according to the commands of the Lord_." And they journeyed toward
Succoth, there being _six hundred thousand, besides children_.[50:1]
"And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in
Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before
them by day, _in a pillar of a cloud_, to lead them the way;
and by night _in a pillar of fire_, to give them light to go
by day and night."[50:2]
"And it was told the king of Egypt, that the people fled. . . .
And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him.
And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots
of Egypt, . . . and he pursued after the children of Israel,
and overtook them encamping beside the sea. . . . And when
Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel . . . were sore
afraid, and . . . (they) cried out unto the Lord. . . . And
the Lord said unto Moses, . . . speak unto the children of
Israel, that they go forward. But lift thou up thy rod, and
stretch out thine hand over the Red Sea, and divide it, and
the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the
midst of the sea. . . . And Moses stretched out his hand over
the sea,[50:3] and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a
strong east wind that night, and made the sea dry land, and
the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into
the midst of the sea upon the dry ground; _and the waters were
a wall unto them upon the right hand, and on their left_. And
the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of
the sea, _even all Pharaoh's horses, and his chariots, and his
horse-men_."
After the children of Israel had landed on the other side of the sea,
the Lord said unto Moses:
"Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come
again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their
horse-men. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea,
and the sea returned to his strength. . . . And the Lord
overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the
waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horse-men,
and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after
them; there remained not so much as one of them. But the
children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the
sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand,
and on their left. . . . And Israel saw the great work which
the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the
Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses."[51:1]
The writer of this story, whoever he may have been, was evidently
familiar with the legends related of the Sun-god, _Bacchus_, as he has
given Moses the credit of performing some of the miracles which were
attributed to that god.
It is related in the hymns of Orpheus,[51:2] that Bacchus had a _rod_
with which he performed miracles, and which he could change into a
_serpent_ at pleasure. _He passed the Red Sea, dry shod, at the head of
his army._ He divided the waters of the rivers Orontes and Hydaspus, by
the touch of his rod, and passed through them dry-shod.[51:3] _By the
same mighty wand, he drew water from the rock_,[51:4] and wherever they
marched, the land flowed with wine, milk and honey.[51:5]
Professor Steinthal, speaking of Dionysus (Bacchus), says:
Like Moses, he strikes fountains of wine and water out of the rock.
Almost all the acts of Moses correspond to those of the Sun-gods.[51:6]
Mons. Dupuis says:
"Among the different miracles of Bacchus and his Bacchantes,
there are prodigies very similar to those which are attributed
to Moses; for instance, such as the sources of water which the
_former_ caused to sprout from the innermost of the
rocks."[51:7]
In Bell's Pantheon of the Gods and Heroes of Antiquity,[51:8] an account
of the prodigies attributed to Bacchus is given; among these, are
mentioned his striking water from the rock, with his magic wand, his
turning a twig of ivy into a snake, his passing through the Red Sea and
the rivers Orontes and Hydaspus, and of his enjoying the light of the
Sun (while marching with his army in India), when the day was spent, and
it was dark to others. All these are parallels too striking to be
accidental.
We might also mention the fact, that Bacchus, as well as Moses was
called the "_Law-giver_," and that it was said of Bacchus, as well as of
Moses, that his laws were written on _two tables of stone_.[52:1]
Bacchus was represented _horned_, and so was Moses.[52:2] Bacchus "was
picked up in a box, that floated on the water,"[52:3] and so was
Moses.[52:4] Bacchus had two mothers, one by nature, and one by
adoption,[52:5] and so had Moses.[52:6] And, as we have already seen,
Bacchus and his army enjoyed the light of the Sun, during the night
time, and Moses and his army enjoyed the light of "a pillar of fire, by
night."[52:7]
In regard to the children of Israel going out from the land of Egypt, we
have no doubt that such an occurrence took place, although not in the
manner, and not for such reasons, as is recorded by the _sacred
historian_. We find, from other sources, what is evidently nearer the
truth.
It is related by the historian Choeremon, that, at one time, the land of
Egypt was infested with disease, and through the advice of the sacred
scribe Phritiphantes, the king caused the infected people (who were none
other than the brick-making slaves, known as the children of Israel), to
be collected, _and driven out of the country_.[52:8]
_Lysimachus_ relates that:
"A filthy disease broke out in Egypt, and the Oracle of Ammon,
being consulted on the occasion, commanded the king to purify
the land _by driving out the Jews_ (who were infected with
leprosy, &c.), a race of men who were hateful to the
Gods."[52:9] "_The whole multitude of the people were
accordingly collected and driven out into the
wilderness._"[52:10]
_Diodorus Siculus_, referring to this event, says:
"In ancient times Egypt was afflicted with a great plague,
which was attributed to the anger of God, on account of the
multitude of foreigners in Egypt: by whom the rites of the
native religion were neglected. _The Egyptians accordingly
drove them out._ The most noble of them went under Cadmus and
Danaus to Greece, but the greater number followed _Moses_, a
wise and valiant leader, to Palestine."[52:11]
After giving the different opinions concerning the origin of the Jewish
nation, Tacitus, the Roman historian, says:
"In this clash of opinions, _one point seems to be universally
admitted_. A pestilential disease, disfiguring the race of
man, and making the body an object of loathsome deformity,
spread all over Egypt. Bocchoris, at that time the reigning
monarch, consulted the oracle of Jupiter Hammon, and received
for answer, that the kingdom must be purified, by
exterminating the infected multitude, as a race of men
detested by the gods. After diligent search, the wretched
sufferers were collected together, and in a wild and barren
desert abandoned to their misery. In that distress, while the
vulgar herd was sunk in deep despair, Moses, one of their
number, reminded them, that, by the wisdom of his councils,
they had been already rescued out of impending danger.
Deserted as they were by men and gods, he told them, that if
they did not repose their confidence in him, as their chief by
divine commission, they had no resource left. His offer was
accepted. Their march began, they knew not whither. Want of
water was their chief distress. Worn out with fatigue, they
lay stretched on the bare earth, heart broken, ready to
expire, when a troop of wild asses, returning from pasture,
went up the steep ascent of a rock covered with a grove of
trees. The verdure of the herbage round the place suggested
the idea of springs near at hand. Moses traced the steps of
the animals, and discovered a plentiful vein of water. By this
relief the fainting multitude was raised from despair. They
pursued their journey for six days without intermission. On
the seventh day they made halt, and, having expelled the
natives, took possession of the country, where they built
their city, and dedicated their temple."[53:1]
Other accounts, similar to these, might be added, among which may be
mentioned that given by Manetho, an Egyptian priest, which is referred
to by Josephus, the Jewish historian.
Although the accounts quoted above are not exactly alike, _yet the main
points are the same_, which are to the effect that Egypt was infected
with disease owing to the foreigners (among whom were those who were
afterwards styled "the children of Israel") that were in the country,
and who were an unclean people, and that they were accordingly driven
out into the wilderness.
When we compare this statement with that recorded in Genesis, it does
not take long to decide which of the two is nearest the truth.
Everything putrid, or that had a tendency to putridity, was carefully
avoided by the ancient Egyptians, and so strict were the Egyptian
priests on this point, that they wore no garments made of any animal
substance, circumcised themselves, and shaved their whole bodies, even
to their eyebrows, lest they should unknowingly harbor any filth,
excrement or vermin, supposed to be bred from putrefaction.[53:2] We
know from the laws set down in _Leviticus_, that the Hebrews were not a
remarkably clean race.
Jewish priests, _in making a history for their race_, have given us but
a shadow of truth here and there; it is almost wholly mythical. The
author of "The Religion of Israel," speaking on this subject, says:
"The history of the religion of Israel _must start from the
sojourn_ of _the Israelites in Egypt_. Formerly it was usual
to take a much earlier starting-point, and to begin with a
religious discussion of the religious ideas of the
_Patriarchs_. And this was perfectly right, so long as the
accounts of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were considered
_historical_. _But now that a strict investigation has shown
us that all these stories are entirely unhistorical_, of
course we have to begin the history later on."[54:1]
The author of "The Spirit History of Man," says:
"The Hebrews came out of Egypt and settled among the
Canaanites. _They need not be traced beyond the Exodus. That
is their historical beginning._ It was very easy to cover up
this remote event by the recital of mythical traditions, and
to prefix to it an account of their origin in which the gods
(Patriarchs), should figure as their ancestors."[54:2]
Professor Goldzhier says:
"The residence of the Hebrews in Egypt, and their exodus
thence under the guidance and training of an enthusiast for
the freedom of his tribe, form a series of strictly historical
facts, which find confirmation even in the documents of
ancient Egypt (which we have just shown). But the traditional
narratives of these events (were) _elaborated by the Hebrew
people_."[54:3]
Count de Volney also observes that:
"What Exodus says of their (the Israelites) servitude under
the king of Heliopolis, and of the oppression of their hosts,
the Egyptians, is extremely probable. _It is here their
history begins. All that precedes . . . is nothing but
mythology and cosmogony._"[54:4]
In speaking of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, Dr. Knappert
says:
"According to the tradition preserved in Genesis, it was the
promotion of Jacob's son, Joseph, to be viceroy of Egypt, that
brought about the migration of the sons of Israel from Canaan
to Goshen. The story goes that this Joseph was sold as a slave
by his brothers, and after many changes of fortune received
the vice-regal office at Pharaoh's hands through his skill in
interpreting dreams. Famine drives his brothers--and
afterwards his father--to him, and the Egyptian prince gives
them the land of Goshen to live in. _It is by imagining all
this that the legend tries to account for the fact that
Israel passed some time in Egypt._ But we must look for the
real explanation in a migration of certain tribes which could
not establish or maintain themselves in Canaan, and were
forced to move further on.
"We find a passage in Flavius Josephus, from which it appears
that in Egypt, too, a recollection survived of the sojourn of
some foreign tribes in the north-eastern district of the
country. For this writer gives us two fragments out of a lost
work by Manetho, a priest, who lived about 250 B. C. In one of
these we have a statement that pretty nearly agrees with the
Israelitish tradition about a sojourn in Goshen. _But the
Israelites were looked down on by the Egyptians as foreigners,
and they are represented as lepers and unclean._ Moses himself
is mentioned by name, and we are told that he was a priest and
joined himself to these _lepers_ and gave them laws."[55:1]
To return now to the story of the Red Sea being divided to let Moses and
his followers pass through--of which we have already seen one
counterpart in the legend related of Bacchus and his army passing
through the same sea dry-shod--there is another similar story concerning
Alexander the Great.
The histories of Alexander relate that the Pamphylian Sea was divided to
let him and his army pass through. Josephus, after speaking of the Red
Sea being divided for the passage of the Israelites, says:
"For the sake of those who accompanied Alexander, king of
Macedonia, who yet lived comparatively but a little while ago,
the Pamphylian Sea retired and offered them a passage through
itself, when they had no other way to go . . . _and this is
confessed to be true by all who have written about the actions
of Alexander_."[55:2]
He seems to consider both legends of the same authority, quoting the
latter to substantiate the former.
"Callisthenes, who himself accompanied Alexander in the expedition,"
"wrote, how the Pamphylian Sea did not only open a passage for
Alexander, but, rising and elevating its waters, did pay him homage as
its king."[55:3]
It is related in Egyptian mythology that Isis was at one time on a
journey with the eldest child of the king of Byblos, when coming to the
river Phœdrus, which was in a "rough air," and wishing to cross, she
commanded the stream to be _dried up_. This being done she crossed
without trouble.[56:1]
There is a _Hindoo_ fable to the effect that when the infant Crishna was
being sought by the reigning tyrant of Madura (King Kansa)[56:2] his
foster-father took him and departed out of the country. Coming to the
river Yumna, and wishing to cross, it was divided for them by the Lord,
and they passed through.
The story is related by Thomas Maurice, in his "History of Hindostan,"
who has taken it from the _Bhagavat Pooraun_. It is as follows:
"Yasodha took the child Crishna, and carried him off (from
where he was born), but, coming to the river Yumna, directly
opposite to Gokul, Crishna's father perceiving the current to
be very strong, it being in the midst of the rainy season, and
not knowing which way to pass it, Crishna commanded the water
to give way on both sides to his father, _who accordingly
passed dry-footed, across the river_."[56:3]
This incident is illustrated in Plate 58 of Moore's "Hindu Pantheon."
There is another Hindoo legend, recorded in the _Rig Veda_, and quoted
by Viscount Amberly, from whose work we take it,[56:4] to the effect
that an Indian sage called Visvimati, having arrived at a river which he
wished to cross, that holy man said to it: "Listen to the Bard who has
come to you from afar with wagon and chariot. Sink down, become
fordable, and reach not up to our chariot axles." The river answers: "I
will bow down to thee like a woman with full breast (suckling her
child), as a maid to a man, will I throw myself open to thee."
This is accordingly done, and the sage passes through.
We have also an Indian legend which relates that a courtesan named
Bindumati, _turned back the streams of the river Ganges_.[56:5]
We see then, that the idea of seas and rivers being divided for the
purpose of letting some chosen one of God pass through is an old one
peculiar to other peoples beside the Hebrews, and the probability is
that many nations had legends of this kind.
That Pharaoh and his host should have been drowned in the Red Sea, and
the fact not mentioned by any historian, is simply impossible,
especially when they have, as we have seen, noticed the fact of the
Israelites being driven out of Egypt.[56:6] Dr. Inman, speaking of this,
says:
"We seek in vain amongst the Egyptian hieroglyphs for scenes
which recall such cruelties as those we read of in the Hebrew
records; and in the writings which have hitherto been
translated, we find nothing resembling the wholesale
destructions described and applauded by the Jewish historians,
as perpetrated by their own people."[57:1]
That Pharaoh should have pursued a tribe of diseased slaves, _whom he
had driven out of his country_, is altogether improbable. In the words
of Dr. Knappert, we may conclude, by saying that:
"_This story, which was not written until more than five
hundred years after the exodus itself, can lay no claim to be
considered historical_."[57:2]
FOOTNOTES:
[48:1] Exodus i. 14.
[48:2] Exodus ii. 24, 25.
[48:3] See chapter x.
[48:4] Exodus ii. 12.
[48:5] The Egyptian name for God was "_Nuk-Pa-Nuk_," or "I AM THAT I
AM." (Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 395.) This name was found on a temple
in Egypt. (Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 17.) "'I AM' was a Divine
name understood by all the initiated among the Egyptians." "The 'I AM'
of the Hebrews, and the 'I AM' of the Egyptians are identical." (Bunsen:
Keys of St. Peter, p. 38.) The name "_Jehovah_," which was adopted by
the Hebrews, was a name esteemed sacred among the Egyptians. They called
it Y-HA-HO, or Y-AH-WEH. (See the Religion of Israel, pp. 42, 43; and
Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 329, and vol. ii. p. 17.) "None dare to enter
the temple of Serapis, who did not bear on his breast or forehead the
name of JAO, or J-HA-HO, a name almost equivalent in sound to that of
the Hebrew _Jehovah_, and probably of identical import; and no name was
uttered in Egypt with more reverence than this IAO." (Trans. from the
Ger. of Schiller, in Monthly Repos., vol. xx.; and Voltaire: _Commentary
on Exodus_; Higgins' Anac., vol. i. p. 329; vol. ii. p. 17.) "That this
divine name was well-known to the _Heathen_ there can be no doubt."
(Parkhurst: Hebrew Lex. in Anac., i. 327.) So also with the name _El
Shaddai_. "The extremely common Egyptian expression _Nutar Nutra_
exactly corresponds in sense to the Hebrew _El Shaddai_, the very title
by which God tells Moses he was known to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob."
(Prof. Renouf: Relig. of Anc't Egypt, p. 99.)
[48:6] Exodus iii. 1, 14.
[49:1] Exodus iii. 15-18.
[49:2] Exodus iii. 19-22. Here is a command from the Lord to _deceive_,
and _lie_, and _steal_, which, according to the narrative, was carried
out to the letter (Ex. xii. 35, 36); and yet we are told that this _same
Lord_ said: "_Thou shalt not steal._" (Ex. xx. 15.) Again he says:
"_That shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him._" (Leviticus
xix. 18.) Surely this is inconsistency.
[49:3] Exodus iv. 19, 20.
[49:4] Exodus iv. 10.
[49:5] Exodus iv. 16.
[49:6] Exodus v. 3.
[50:1] Exodus vii. 35-37. Bishop Colenso shows, in his Pentateuch
Examined, how ridiculous this statement is.
[50:2] Exodus xiii. 20, 21.
[50:3] "The sea over which Moses stretches out his hand with the staff,
and which he divides, so that the waters stand up on either side like
walls while he passes through, must surely have been originally the Sea
of Clouds. . . . A German story presents a perfectly similar feature.
The conception of the cloud as sea, rock and wall, recurs very
frequently in mythology." (Prof. Steinthal: The Legend of Samson, p.
429.)
[51:1] Exodus xiv. 5-13.
[51:2] Orpheus is said to have been the earliest poet of Greece, where
he first introduced the rites of Bacchus, which he brought from Egypt.
(See Roman Antiquities, p. 134.)
[51:3] The Hebrew fable writers not wishing to be outdone, have made the
waters of the river Jordan to be divided to let Elijah and Elisha pass
through (2 Kings ii. 8), and also the children of Israel. (Joshua iii.
15-17.)
[51:4] Moses, with his rod, drew water from the rock. (Exodus xvii. 6.)
[51:5] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 191, and Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii.
p. 19.
[51:6] The Legend of Samson, p. 429.
[51:7] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, p. 135.
[51:8] Vol. i. p. 122.
[52:1] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122; and Higgins: Anacalypsis vol.
ii. p. 19.
[52:2] Ibid. and Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 174.
[52:3] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 190; Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. under
"Bacchus;" and Higgins: Anacalypsis ii. 19.
[52:4] Exodus ii. 1-11.
[52:5] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 191; Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. under
"Bacchus;" and Higgins: p. 19, vol. ii.
[52:6] Exodus ii. 1-11.
[52:7] Exodus xiii. 20, 21.
[52:8] See Prichard's Historical Records, p. 74; also Dunlap's Spirit
Hist., p. 40; and Cory's Ancient Fragments, pp. 80, 81, for similar
accounts.
[52:9] "All persons afflicted with leprosy were considered displeasing
in the sight of the Sun-god, by the Egyptians." (Dunlap: Spirit. Hist.
p. 40.)
[52:10] Prichard's Historical Records, p. 75.
[52:11] Ibid. p. 78.
[53:1] Tacitus: Hist. book v. ch. iii.
[53:2] Knight: Anc't Art and Mythology, p. 89, and Kenrick's Egypt, vol.
i. p. 447. "The cleanliness of the Egyptian priests was extreme. They
shaved their heads, and every three days shaved their whole bodies. They
bathed two or three times a day, often in the night also. They wore
garments of white linen, deeming it more cleanly than cloth made from
the hair of animals. If they had occasion to wear a woolen cloth or
mantle, they put it off before entering a temple; so scrupulous were
they that nothing impure should come into the presence of the gods."
(Prog. Relig. Ideas, i. 168.)
"Thinking it better to be clean than handsome, the (Egyptian) priests
shave their whole body every third day, that neither lice nor any other
impurity may be found upon them when engaged in the service of the
gods." (Herodotus: book ii. ch. 37.)
[54:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 27.
[54:2] Dunlap: Spirit Hist. of Man, p. 266.
[54:3] Hebrew Mythology, p. 23.
[54:4] Researches in Ancient History, p. 146.
[55:1] The Religion of Israel, pp. 31, 32.
[55:2] Jewish Antiq. bk. ii. ch. xvi.
[55:3] Ibid. _note_.
"It was said that the waters of the Pamphylian Sea miraculously opened a
passage for the army of Alexander the Great. Admiral Beaufort, however,
tells us that, 'though there are no tides in this part of the
Mediterranean, considerable depression of the sea is caused by
long-continued north winds; and Alexander, taking advantage of such a
moment, may have dashed on without impediment;' and we accept the
explanation as a matter of course. But the waters of the Red Sea are
said to have miraculously opened a passage for the children of Israel;
and we insist on the literal truth of _this_ story, and reject natural
explanations as monstrous." (Matthew Arnold.)
[56:1] See Prichard's Egyptian Mytho. p. 60.
[56:2] See ch. xviii.
[56:3] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 312.
[56:4] Analysis Relig. Belief, p. 552.
[56:5] See Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. 140.
[56:6] In a cave discovered at Deir-el-Bahari (Aug., 1881), near Thebes,
in Egypt, was found _thirty-nine_ mummies of royal and priestly
personages. Among these was King Ramses II., the third king of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, and the veritable Pharaoh of the Jewish captivity.
It is very strange that he should be _here_, among a number of other
kings, if he had been lost in the Red Sea. The mummy is wrapped in
rose-colored and yellow linen of a texture finer than the finest Indian
muslin, upon which lotus flowers are strewn. It is in a perfect state of
preservation. (See a Cairo [Aug. 8th] letter to the _London Times_.)
[57:1] Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 58.
[57:2] The Religion of Israel, p. 41.
CHAPTER VII.
RECEIVING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
The receiving of the _Ten Commandments_ by Moses, from the Lord, is
recorded in the following manner:
"In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone
forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into
the wilderness of Sinai, . . . and there Israel camped before
the Mount. . . .
"And it came to pass on the third day that there were thunders
and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the
voice of the tempest exceedingly loud, so that all the people
that was in the camp trembled. . . .
"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord
descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as
the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly.
And when the voice of the tempest sounded long, and waxed
louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a
voice.
"_And the Lord came down upon the Mount_, and called Moses up
to the top of the Mount, and Moses went up."[58:1]
The Lord there communed with him, and "he gave unto Moses . . . . two
tables of testimony, tables of stone, _written with the finger of
God_."[58:2]
When Moses came down from off the Mount, he found the children of Israel
dancing around a golden calf, which his brother Aaron had made, and, as
his "anger waxed hot," he cast the tables of stone on the ground, and
broke them.[58:3] Moses again saw the Lord on the Mount, however, and
received two more tables of stone.[58:4] When he came down this time
from off Mount Sinai, "the skin of his face did shine."[58:5]
These two tables of stone contained the _Ten Commandments_,[59:1] so it
is said, which the Jews and Christians of the present day are supposed
to take for their standard.
They are, in substance, as follows:
1--To have no other God but Jehovah.
2--To make no image for purpose of worship.
3--Not to take Jehovah's name in vain.
4--Not to work on the Sabbath-day.
5--To honor their parents.
6--Not to kill.
7--Not to commit adultery.
8--Not to steal.
9--Not to bear false witness against a neighbor.
10--Not to covet.[59:2]
We have already seen, in the last chapter, that Bacchus was called the
"_Law-giver_," and that his laws were written on _two tables of
stone_.[59:3] This feature in the Hebrew legend was evidently copied
from that related of Bacchus, but, the idea of his (Moses) receiving the
commandments from the Lord on a _mountain_ was obviously taken from the
_Persian_ legend related of Zoroaster.
Prof. Max Müller says:
"What applies to the religion of Moses applies to that of
Zoroaster. It is placed before us as a complete system from
the first, _revealed by Ahuramazda_ (Ormuzd), _proclaimed by
Zoroaster_."[59:4]
The disciples of Zoroaster, in their profusion of legends of the master,
relate that one day, as he prayed _on a high mountain_, in the midst of
thunders and lightnings ("fire from heaven"), the Lord himself appeared
before him, and delivered unto him the "Book of the Law." While the King
of Persia and the people were assembled together, Zoroaster came down
from the mountain unharmed, bringing with him the "Book of the Law,"
which had been revealed to him by Ormuzd. They call this book the
_Zend-Avesta_, which signifies the _Living Word_.[59:5]
According to the religion of the Cretans, Minos, their law-giver,
ascended a _mountain_ (Mount Dicta) and there received from the Supreme
Lord (Zeus) the sacred laws which he brought down with him.[60:1]
Almost all nations of antiquity have legends of their holy men ascending
a _mountain_ to ask counsel of the gods, such places being invested with
peculiar sanctity, and deemed nearer to the deities than other portions
of the earth.[60:2]
According to Egyptian belief, it is Thoth, the Deity itself, that speaks
and reveals to his elect among men the will of God and the arcana of
divine things. Portions of them are expressly stated to have been
written by the very finger of Thoth himself; to have been the work and
composition of the great god.[60:3]
Diodorus, the Grecian historian, says:
The idea promulgated by the ancient Egyptians that their _laws_ were
received direct from the Most High God, _has been adopted with success
by many other law-givers, who have thus insured respect for their
institutions_.[60:4]
The Supreme God of the ancient Mexicans was _Tezcatlipoca_. He occupied
a position corresponding to the Jehovah of the Jews, the Brahma of
India, the Zeus of the Greeks, and the Odin of the Scandinavians. His
name is compounded of Tezcatepec, the name of a _mountain_ (_upon which
he is said to have manifested himself to man_) _tlil_, dark, and _poca_,
smoke. The explanation of this designation is given in the _Codex
Vaticanus_, as follows:
Tezcatlipoca was one of their most potent deities; they say he once
appeared on the top of a mountain. They paid him great reverence and
adoration, and addressed him, in their prayers, as "Lord, whose servant
we are." No man ever saw his face, for he appeared only "as a shade."
Indeed, the Mexican idea of the godhead was similar to that of the Jews.
Like Jehovah, Tezcatlipoca dwelt in the "midst of thick darkness." _When
he descended upon the mount of Tezcatepec, darkness overshadowed the
earth, while fire and water, in mingled streams, flowed from beneath his
feet, from its summit._[61:1]
Thus, we see that other nations, beside the Hebrews, believed that their
laws were actually received from God, that they had legends to that
effect, and that a _mountain_ figures conspicuously in the stories.
Professor Oort, speaking on this subject, says:
"No one who has any knowledge of antiquity will be surprised
at this, for similar beliefs were very common. All peoples who
had issued from a life of barbarism and acquired regular
political institutions, more or less elaborate laws, and
established worship, and maxims of morality, attributed all
this--their birth as a nation, so to speak--to one or more
great men, all of whom, without exception, _were supposed to
have received their knowledge from some deity_.
"Whence did Zoroaster, the prophet of the Persians, derive his
religion? According to the beliefs of his followers, and the
doctrines of their sacred writings, it was from Ahuramazda,
the God of light. Why did the Egyptians represent the god
Thoth with a writing tablet and a pencil in his hand, and
honor him especially as the god of the priests? Because he was
'the Lord of the divine Word,' the foundation of all wisdom,
from whose inspiration the priests, who were the scholars, the
lawyers, and the religious teachers of the people, derived all
their wisdom. Was not Minos, the law-giver of the Cretans, the
friend of Zeus, the highest of the gods? Nay, was he not even
his son, and did he not ascend to the sacred cave on Mount
Dicte to bring down the laws which his god had placed there
for him? From whom did the Spartan law-giver, Lycurgus,
himself say that he had obtained his laws? From no other than
the god Apollo. The Roman legend, too, in honoring Numa
Pompilius as the people's instructor, at the same time
ascribed all his wisdom to his intercourse with the nymph
Egeria. It was the same elsewhere; and to make one more
example,--this from later times--Mohammed not only believed
himself to have been called immediately by God to be the
prophet of the Arabs, but declared that he had received every
page of the Koran from the hand of the angel Gabriel."[61:2]
FOOTNOTES:
[58:1] Exodus xix.
[58:2] Exodus xxxi. 18.
[58:3] Exodus xxii. 19.
[58:4] Exodus xxxiv.
[58:5] Ibid.
It was a common belief among ancient Pagan nations that the gods
appeared and conversed with men. As an illustration we may cite the
following, related by _Herodotus_, the Grecian historian, who, in
speaking of Egypt and the Egyptians, says: "There is a large city called
Chemmis, situated in the Thebaic district, near Neapolis, in which is a
quadrangular temple dedicated to (the god) Perseus, son of (the Virgin)
Danae; palm-trees grow round it, and the portico is of stone, very
spacious, and over it are placed two large stone statues. In this
inclosure is a temple, and in it is placed a statue of Perseus. The
Chemmitæ (or inhabitants of Chemmis), _affirm that Perseus has
frequently appeared to them on earth, and frequently within the
temple_." (Herodotus, bk. ii. ch. 91.)
[59:1] _Buddha_, the founder of Buddhism, had TEN commandments. 1. Not
to kill. 2. Not to steal. 3. To be chaste. 4 Not to bear false witness.
5. Not to lie. 6. Not to swear. 7. To avoid impure words. 8. To be
disinterested. 9. Not to avenge one's-self. 10. Not to be superstitious.
(See Huc's Travels, p. 328, vol. i.)
[59:2] Exodus xx. Dr. Oort says: "The original ten commandments probably
ran as follows: I Yahwah am your God. Worship no other gods beside me.
Make no image of a god. Commit no perjury. Remember to keep holy the
Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother. Commit no murder. Break
not the marriage vow. Steal not. Bear no false witness. Covet not."
(Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 18.)
[59:3] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122. Higgins, vol. ii. p. 19. Cox:
Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. p. 295.
[59:4] Müller: Origin of Religion, p. 130.
[59:5] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 257, 258. This book, the
_Zend-Avesta_, is similar, in many respects, to the _Vedas_ of the
_Hindoos_. This has led many to believe that Zoroaster was a Brahman;
among these are Rawlinson (See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 831)
and Thomas Maurice. (See Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 219.)
The Persians themselves had a tradition that he came from some country
to the East of them. That he was a foreigner is indicated by a passage
in the _Zend-Avesta_ which represents Ormuzd as saying to him: "Thou, O
Zoroaster, by the promulgation of my law, shalt restore to me my former
glory, which was pure light. Up! haste thee to the land of _Iran_, which
thirsteth after the law, and say, thus said Ormuzd, &c." (See Prog.
Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 263.)
[60:1] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 301.
[60:2] "The deities of the Hindoo Pantheon dwell on the sacred Mount
Meru; the gods of Persia ruled from Albordj; the Greek Jove thundered
from Olympus, and the Scandinavian gods made Asgard awful with their
presence. . . . Profane history is full of examples attesting the
attachment to high places for purpose of sacrifice." (Squire: Serpent
Symbols, p. 78.)
"The offerings of the Chinese to the deities were generally on the
summits of high mountains, as they seemed to them to be nearer heaven,
to the majesty of which they were to be offered." (Christmas's Mytho. p.
250, in Ibid.) "In the infancy of civilization, high places were chosen
by the people to offer sacrifices to the gods. The first altars, the
first temples, were erected on mountains." (Humboldt: American
Researches.) The Himalayas are the "_Heavenly mountains_." In Sanscrit
_Himala_, corresponding to the M. Gothic, _Himins_; Alem., _Himil_;
Ger., Swed., and Dan., _Himmel_; Old Norse, _Himin_; Dutch, _Hemel_;
Ang.-Sax., _Heofon_; Eng., _Heaven_. (See Mallet's Northern Antiquities,
p. 42.)
[60:3] Bunsen's Egypt, quoted in Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 367. Mrs.
Child says: "The _laws_ of Egypt were handed down from the earliest
times, and regarded with the utmost veneration as a portion of religion.
Their first legislator represented them as dictated by the gods
themselves and framed expressly for the benefit of mankind by their
secretary _Thoth_." (Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 173.)
[60:4] Quoted in Ibid.
[61:1] See Squire's Serpent Symbol, p. 175.
[61:2] Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 301.
CHAPTER VIII.
SAMSON AND HIS EXPLOITS.
This Israelite hero is said to have been born at a time when the
children of Israel were in the hands of the Philistines. His mother, who
had been barren for a number of years, is entertained by an angel, who
informs her that she shall conceive, and bear a son,[62:1] and that the
child shall be a _Nazarite_ unto God, from the womb, and he shall begin
to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.
According to the prediction of the angel, "the woman bore a son, and
called his name _Samson_; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him."
"And Samson (after he had grown to man's estate), went down to
Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the
Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his
mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the
daughters of the Philistines; now therefore get her for me to
wife."
Samson's father and mother preferred that he should take a woman among
the daughters of their own tribe, but Samson wished for the maid of the
Philistines, "for," said he, "she pleaseth me well."
The parents, after coming to the conclusion that it was the will of the
Lord, that he should marry the maid of the Philistines, consented.
"Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to
Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath, and, behold, a
young lion roared against him (Samson). And the spirit of the
Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him (the lion) as he
would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand."
This was Samson's _first_ exploit, which he told not to any one, not
even his father, or his mother.
He then continued on his way, and went down and talked with the woman,
and she pleased him well.
And, after a time, he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see
the carcass of the lion, and behold, "there was a swarm of bees, and
honey, in the carcass of the lion."
Samson made a feast at his wedding, which lasted for _seven_ days. At
this feast, there were brought thirty companions to be with him, unto
whom he said: "I will now put forth a riddle unto you, if ye can
certainly declare it me, within the _seven_ days of the feast, and find
it out, then I will give you thirty sheets, and thirty changes of
garments. But, if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty
sheets, and thirty changes of garments." And they said unto him, "Put
forth thy riddle, that we may hear it." And he answered them: "Out of
the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."
This riddle the thirty companions could not solve.
"And it came to pass, on the _seventh_ day, that they said unto Samson's
wife: 'Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle.'"
She accordingly went to Samson, and told him that he could not love her;
if it were so, he would tell her the answer to the riddle. After she had
wept and entreated of him, he finally told her, and she gave the answer
to the children of her people. "And the men of the city said unto him,
on the _seventh_ day, before the sun went down, 'What is sweeter than
honey, and what is stronger than a lion?'"
Samson, upon hearing this, suspected how they managed to find out the
answer, whereupon he said unto them: "If ye had not ploughed with my
heifer, ye had not found out my riddle."
Samson was then at a loss to know where to get the thirty sheets, and
the thirty changes of garments; but, "the spirit of the Lord came upon
him, and he went down to Ashkelon, _and slew thirty men of them_, and
took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded
the riddle."
This was the hero's _second_ exploit.
His anger being kindled, he went up to his father's house, instead of
returning to his wife.[64:1] But it came to pass, that, after a while,
Samson repented of his actions, and returned to his wife's house, and
wished to go in to his wife in the chamber; but her father would not
suffer him to go. And her father said: "I verily thought that thou hadst
utterly hated her, therefore, I gave her to thy companion. Is not her
younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her."
This did not seem to please Samson, even though the younger was fairer
than the older, for he "went and caught three hundred foxes, and took
firebrands, and turned (the foxes) tail to tail, and put a firebrand in
the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he
let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burned up
both the shocks and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and
olives."
This was Samson's _third_ exploit.
When the Philistines found their corn, their vineyards, and their olives
burned, they said: "Who hath done this?"
"And they answered, 'Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,
because he had taken his wife, and given her to his
companion.' And the Philistines came up, and burned her and
her father with fire. And Samson said unto them: 'Though ye
have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I
will cease.' _And he smote them hip and thigh with a great
slaughter_, and he went and dwelt in the top of the rock
Etam."
This "great slaughter" was Samson's _fourth_ exploit.
"Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and
spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said: 'Why are
ye come up against us?' And they answered: 'To bind Samson are
we come up, and to do to him as he hath done to us.' Then
three thousand men of Judah went up to the top of the rock
Etam, and said to Samson: 'Knowest thou not that the
Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that thou hast
done unto us?' And he said unto them: 'As they did unto me, so
have I done unto them.' And they said unto him: 'We are come
down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hands of
the Philistines.' And Samson said unto them: 'Swear unto me
that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.' And they spake unto
him, saying, 'No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee
into their hands: but surely we will not kill thee.' And they
bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the
rock. And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted
against him; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon
him, _and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax
that was burned with fire, and his bands loosed from off his
hands_. And he found a new jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth
his hand and took it, _and slew a thousand men with it_."
This was Samson's _fifth_ exploit.
After slaying a thousand men he was "sore athirst," and called unto the
Lord. And "God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came
water thereout, and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he
revived."[65:1]
"Then went Samson to Gaza and saw there a harlot, and went in
unto her. And it was told the Gazites, saying, 'Samson is come
hither.' And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all
night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night,
saying: 'In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.'
And Samson lay (with the harlot) till midnight, and arose at
midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the
two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them
upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a hill
that is in Hebron."
This was Samson's _sixth_ exploit.
"And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the
valley of Soreck, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the
Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her: 'Entice him,
and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we
may prevail against him.'"
Delilah then began to entice Samson to tell her wherein his strength
lay.
"She pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that
his soul was vexed unto death. Then he told her all his heart,
and said unto her: 'There hath not come a razor upon mine
head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's
womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I
shall become weak, and be like any other man.' And when
Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she went and
called for the lords of the Philistines, saying: 'Come up this
once, for he hath showed me all his heart.' Then the lords of
the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their
hands (for her).
"And she made him (Samson) sleep upon her knees; and she
called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the _seven_
locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his
strength went from him."
The Philistines then took him, put out his eyes, and put him in prison.
And being gathered together at a great sacrifice in honor of their God,
Dagon, they said: "Call for Samson, that he may make us sport." And they
called for Samson, and he made them sport.
"And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand.
Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house
standeth, that I may lean upon them.
"Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords
of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof
about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson
made sport.
"And Samson called unto the Lord, and said: 'O Lord God,
remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only
this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the
Philistines for my two eyes.'
"And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the
house stood and on which it was borne up, of the one with his
right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said:
'Let me die with the Philistines.' And he bowed himself with
all his might; and (having regained his strength) the house
fell upon the lords, and upon the people that were therein. So
the dead which he slew at his death, were more than they which
he slew in his life."[66:1]
Thus ended the career of the "strong man" of the Hebrews.
That this story is a copy of the legends related of Hercules, or that
they have both been copied from similar legends existing among some
other nations,[66:2] is too evident to be disputed. Many churchmen have
noticed the similarity between the history of Samson and that of
Hercules. In Chambers's Encyclopædia, under "Samson," we read as
follows:
"It has been matter of most contradictory speculations, how
far his existence is to be taken as a reality, or, in other
words, what substratum of historical truth there may be in
this supposed circle of popular legends, artistically rounded
off, in the four chapters of Judges which treat of him. . . .
"The miraculous deeds he performed have taxed the ingenuity of
many commentators, and the text has been _twisted and turned
in all directions_, to explain, _rationally_, his slaying
those prodigious numbers single-handed; his carrying the gates
of Gaza, in one night, a distance of about fifty miles, &c.,
&c."
That this is simply a _Solar_ myth, no one will doubt, we believe, who
will take the trouble to investigate it.
Prof. Goldziher, who has made "Comparative Mythology" a special study,
says of this story:
"The most complete and rounded-off _Solar myth_ extant in
Hebrew, is that of Shimshôn (Samson), a cycle of mythical
conceptions fully comparable with the Greek myth of
Hercules."[66:3]
We shall now endeavor to ascertain if such is the case, by comparing the
exploits of Samson with those of Hercules.
The first wonderful act performed by Samson was, as we have seen, _that
of slaying a lion_. This is said to have happened when he was but a
youth. So likewise was it with Hercules. At the age of eighteen, he slew
an enormous lion.[66:4]
The valley of Nemea was infested by a terrible lion; Eurystheus ordered
Hercules to bring him the skin of this monster. After using in vain his
club and arrows against the lion, Hercules strangled the animal with his
hands. He returned, carrying the dead lion on his shoulders; but
Eurystheus was so frightened at the sight of it, and at this proof of
the prodigious strength of the hero, that he ordered him to deliver the
accounts of his exploits in the future outside the town.[67:1]
To show the courage of Hercules, it is said that he entered the cave
where the lion's lair was, closed the entrance behind him, and at once
grappled with the monster.[67:2]
Samson is said to have torn asunder the _jaws_ of the lion, and we find
him generally represented slaying the beast in that manner. So likewise,
was this the manner in which Hercules disposed of the Nemean lion.[67:3]
The skin of the lion, Hercules tore off with his fingers, and knowing it
to be impenetrable, resolved to wear it henceforth.[67:4] The statues
and paintings of Hercules either represent him carrying the lion's skin
over his arm, or wearing it hanging down his back, the skin of its head
fitting to his crown like a cap, and the fore-legs knotted under his
chin.[67:5]
Samson's second exploit was when he went down to Ashkelon and slew
thirty men.
Hercules, when returning to Thebes from the lion-hunt, and wearing its
skin hanging from his shoulders, as a sign of his success, met the
heralds of the King of the Minyæ, coming from Orchomenos to claim the
annual tribute of a hundred cattle, levied on Thebes. Hercules cut off
the ears and noses of the heralds, bound their hands, and sent them
home.[67:6]
Samson's third exploit was when he caught three hundred foxes, and took
fire-brands, and turned them tail to tail, and put a fire-brand in the
midst between two tails, and let them go into the standing corn of the
Philistines.
There is no such feature as this in the legends of Hercules, the nearest
to it in resemblance is when he encounters and kills the Learnean
Hydra.[67:7] During this encounter a _fire-brand_ figures conspicuously,
and _the neighboring wood is set on fire_.[67:8]
We have, however, an explanation of this portion of the legend, in the
following from Prof. Steinthal:
At the festival of Ceres, held at Rome, in the month of April, a
fox-hunt through the circus was indulged in, _in which burning torches
were bound to the foxes' tails_.
This was intended to be a symbolical reminder of the damage done to the
fields by mildew, called the "_red fox_," which was exorcised in various
ways at this momentous season (the last third of April). It is the time
of the _Dog-Star_, at which the mildew was most to be feared; if at that
time great solar heat follows too close upon the hoar-frost or dew of
the cold nights, this mischief rages like a burning fox through the
corn-fields.[68:1]
He also says that:
"This is the sense of the story of the foxes, which Samson
caught and sent into the Philistines' fields, with fire-brands
fastened to their tails, to burn the crops. Like the lion, the
fox is an animal that indicated the solar heat, being well
suited for this both by its color and by its long-haired
tail."[68:2]
Bouchart, in his "Hierozoicon," observes that:
"At this period (_i. e._, the last third of April) they cut
the corn in Palestine and Lower Egypt, and a few days after
the setting of the Hyads arose the _Fox_, in whose train or
tail comes the fires or torches of the dog-days, represented
among the Egyptians by red marks painted on the backs of their
animals."[68:3]
Count de Volney also tells us that:
"The inhabitants of Carseoles, an ancient city of Latium,
every year, in a religious festival, burned a number of foxes
_with torches tied to their tails_. They gave, as the reason
for this whimsical ceremony, that their corn had been formerly
burnt by a fox to whose tail a young man had fastened a bundle
of lighted straw."[68:4]
He concludes his account of this peculiar "religious festival," by
saying:
"This is exactly the story of Samson with the Philistines, but
it is a Phenician tale. _Car-Seol_ is a compound word in that
tongue, signifying _town of foxes_. The Philistines,
originally from Egypt, do not appear to have had any colonies.
The Phenicians had a great many; and it can scarcely be
admitted that they borrowed this story from the Hebrews, as
obscure as the Druses are in our own times, or that a simple
adventure gave rise to a religious ceremony; _it evidently can
only be a mythological and allegorical narration_."[68:4]
So much, then, for the foxes and fire-brands.
Samson's fourth exploit was when he smote the Philistines "hip and
thigh," "with great slaughter."
It is related of Hercules that he had a combat with an _army_ of
Centaurs, who were armed with pine sticks, rocks, axes, &c. They flocked
in wild confusion, and surrounded the _cave_ of Pholos, where Hercules
was, when a violent fight ensued. Hercules was obliged to contend
against this large armed force single-handed, but he came off
victorious, and slew a great number of them.[69:1] Hercules also
encountered and fought against _an army of giants_, at the Phlegraean
fields, near Cumae.[69:2]
Samson's next wonderful exploit was when "three thousand men of Judah"
bound him with _cords_ and brought him up into Lehi, when the
Philistines were about to take his life. The cords with which he was
bound immediately became as flax, and loosened from off his hands. He
then, with the jaw-bone of an ass, slew one thousand Philistines.[69:3]
A very similar feature to this is found in the history of Hercules. He
is made prisoner by the Egyptians, who wish to take his life, but while
they are preparing to slay him, he breaks loose his bonds--having been
tied with _cords_--and kills Buseris, the leader of the band, _and the
whole retinue_.[69:4]
On another occasion, being refused shelter from a storm at Kos, he was
enraged at the inhabitants, and accordingly _destroyed the whole
town_.[69:5]
Samson, after he had slain a thousand Philistines, was "sore athirst,"
and called upon _Jehovah_, his father in heaven, to succor him,
whereupon, water immediately gushed forth from "a hollow place that was
in the jaw-bone."
Hercules, departing from the Indies (or rather Ethiopia), and conducting
his army through the desert of Lybia, feels a burning thirst, and
conjures _Ihou_, his father, to succor him in his danger.
Instantly the (celestial) Ram appears. Hercules follows him and arrives
at a place where the Ram scrapes with his foot, _and there instantly
comes forth a spring of water_.[70:1]
Samson's sixth exploit happened when he went to Gaza to visit a harlot.
The Gazites, who wished to take his life, laid wait for him all night,
but Samson left the town at midnight, and took with him the gates of the
city, and the _two posts_, on his shoulders. He carried them to the top
of a hill, some fifty miles away, and left them there.
This story very much resembles that of the "Pillars of Hercules," called
the "_Gates of Cadiz_."[70:2]
Count de Volney tells us that:
"Hercules was represented naked, carrying on his shoulders
_two columns_ called the Gates of Cadiz."[70:3]
"The _Pillars_ of Hercules" was the name given by the ancients to the
two rocks forming the entrance or _gate_ to the Mediterranean at the
Strait of Gibraltar.[70:4] Their erection was ascribed by the Greeks to
Hercules, on the occasion of his journey to the kingdom of Geryon.
According to one version of the story, they had been united, but
Hercules tore them asunder.[70:5]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 3.]
Fig. No. 3 is a representation of Hercules with the two posts or pillars
on his shoulders, as alluded to by Count de Volney. We have taken it
from Montfaucon's "L'Antiquité Expliquée."[70:6]
J. P. Lundy says of this:
"Hercules carrying his two columns to erect at the Straits of
Gibraltar, may have some reference to the Hebrew story."[71:1]
We think there is no doubt of it. By changing the name Hercules into
Samson, the legend is complete.
Sir William Drummond tells us, in his "Œdipus Judaicus," that:
"_Gaza_ signifies a Goat, and was the type of the Sun in
Capricorn. The _Gates of the Sun_ were feigned by the ancient
Astronomers to be in Capricorn and Cancer (that is, in
_Gaza_), from which signs the tropics are named. Samson
carried away the gates from Gaza to Hebron, the city of
conjunction. Now, Count Gebelin tells us that at Cadiz, where
Hercules was anciently worshiped, there was a representation
of him, _with a gate on his shoulders_."[71:2]
The stories of the amours of Samson with Delilah and other females, are
simply counterparts of those of Hercules with Omphale and Iole.
Montfaucon, speaking of this, says:
"Nothing is better known in the fables (related of Hercules)
than his amours with Omphale and Iole."[71:3]
Prof. Steinthal says:
"The circumstance that Samson is so addicted to sexual
pleasure, has its origin in the remembrance that the _Solar
god_ is the god of fruitfulness and procreation. We have as
examples, the amours of Hercules and Omphale; Ninyas, in
Assyria, with Semiramis; Samson, in Philistia, with Delila,
whilst among the Phenicians, Melkart pursues Dido-Anna."[71:4]
Samson is said to have had long hair. "There hath not come a razor upon
my head," says he, "for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's
womb."
Now, strange as it may appear, Hercules is said to have had long hair
also, and he was often represented that way. In Montfaucon's
"L'Antiquité Expliquée"[71:5] may be seen a representation of Hercules
_with hair reaching almost to his waist_. Almost all _Sun_-gods are
represented thus.[71:6]
Prof. Goldzhier says:
"Long locks of hair and a long beard are mythological
attributes of the Sun. The Sun's rays are compared with locks
of hair on the face or head of the Sun.
"When the sun sets and leaves his place to the darkness, or
when the powerful Summer Sun is succeeded by the weak rays of
the Winter Sun, then Samson's long locks, in which alone his
strength lies, are cut off through the treachery of his
deceitful concubine, Delilah, the 'languishing, languid,'
according to the meaning of the name (Delilah). The Beaming
Apollo, moreover, is called the _Unshaven_; and Minos cannot
conquer the solar hero Nisos, _till the latter loses his
golden hair_."[72:1]
Through the influence of Delilah, Samson is at last made a prisoner. He
tells her the secret of his strength, the _seven_ locks of hair are
shaven off, and his strength leaves him. The shearing of the locks of
the Sun must be followed by darkness and ruin.
From the shoulders of Phoibos Lykêgênes flow the sacred locks, over
which no razor might pass, and on the head of Nisos they become a
palladium, invested with a mysterious power.[72:2] The long locks of
hair which flow over his shoulders are taken from his head by Skylla,
while he is asleep, and, like another Delilah, she thus delivers him and
his people into the power of Minos.[72:3]
Prof. Steinthal says of Samson:
"His hair is a figure of increase and luxuriant fullness. In
Winter, when nature appears to have lost all strength, the god
of growing young life has lost his hair. In the Spring the
hair grows again, and nature returns to life again. Of this
original conception the Bible story still preserves a trace.
Samson's hair, after being cut off, grows again, and his
strength comes back with it."[72:4]
Towards the end of his career, Samson's eyes are put out. Even here, the
Hebrew writes with a singular fidelity to the old mythical speech. The
tender light of evening is blotted out by the dark vapors; the light of
the _Sun_ is quenched in gloom. _Samson's eyes are put out._
Œdipus, whose history resembles that of Samson and Hercules in many
respects, tears out his eyes, towards the end of his career. In other
words, the _Sun_ has blinded himself. Clouds and darkness have closed in
about him, and the clear light is blotted out of the heaven.[72:5]
The final act, Samson's death, reminds us clearly and decisively of the
Phenician Hercules, as Sun-god, who died at the Winter Solstice in the
furthest West, where his _two pillars_ are set up to mark the end of his
wanderings.
Samson also died at the _two pillars_, but in his case they are not the
Pillars of the World, but are only set up in the middle of a great
banqueting-hall. A feast was being held in honor of Dagon, the
Fish-god; the Sun was in the sign of the Waterman, _Samson, the Sun-god,
died_.[73:1]
The ethnology of the _name_ of Samson, as well as his adventures, are
very closely connected with the _Solar_ Hercules. _"Samson" was the name
of the Sun._[73:2] In Arabic, "_Shams-on_" means the _Sun_.[73:3] Samson
had _seven_ locks of hair, the number of the planetary bodies.[73:4]
The author of "The Religion of Israel," speaking of Samson, says:
"The story of Samson and his deeds originated in a _Solar
myth_, which was afterwards transformed by the narrator into a
_saga_ about a mighty hero and deliverer of Israel. The very
_name_ 'Samson,' is derived from the Hebrew word, and means
'Sun.' The hero's flowing locks were originally the _rays of
the sun_, and other traces of the old myth have been
preserved."[73:5]
Prof. Oort says:
"The story of Samson is simply a solar myth. In some of the
features of the story the original meaning may be traced quite
clearly, but in others the myth can no longer be recognized.
The exploits of some Danite hero, such as Shamgar, who 'slew
six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad' (Judges iii. 31),
have been woven into it; the whole has been remodeled after
the ideas of the prophets of later ages, and finally, it has
been fitted into the framework of the period of the Judges, as
conceived by the writer of the book called after them."[73:6]
Again he says:
"The myth that lies at the foundation of this story is a
description of the sun's course during the six winter months.
The god is gradually encompassed by his enemies, mist and
darkness. At first he easily maintains his freedom, and gives
glorious proofs of his strength; but the fetters grow stronger
and stronger, until at last he is robbed of his crown of rays,
and loses all his power and glory. _Such is the Sun in
Winter._ But he has not lost his splendor forever. Gradually
his strength returns, at last he reappears; and though he
still seems to allow himself to be mocked, yet the power of
avenging himself has returned, and in the end he triumphs over
his enemies once more."[73:7]
Other nations beside the Hebrews and Greeks had their "mighty men" and
lion-killers. The Hindoos had their Samson. His name was Bala-Rama, the
"_Strong Rama_." He was considered by some an incarnation of
Vishnu.[73:8]
Captain Wilford says, in "Asiatic Researches:"
"The _Indian_ Hercules, according to Cicero, was called
_Belus_. He is the same as _Bala_, the brother of Crishna, and
both are conjointly worshiped at Mutra; indeed, they are
considered as one Avatar or Incarnation of Vishnou. _Bala_ is
represented as a stout man, _with a club in his hand_. He is
also called _Bala-rama._"[74:1]
There is a Hindoo legend which relates that Sevah had an encounter with
a tiger, "whose mouth expanded like a cave, and whose voice resembled
thunder." He slew the monster, and, like Hercules, covered himself with
the skin.[74:2]
The Assyrians and Lydians, both Semitic nations, worshiped a Sun-god
named Sandan or Sandon. He also was believed to be a _lion-killer_, and
frequently figured struggling with the lion, or standing upon the slain
lion.[74:3]
Ninevah, too, had her mighty hero and king, who slew a lion and other
monsters. Layard, in his excavations, discovered a _bas-relief_
representation of this hero triumphing over the lion and wild
bull.[74:4]
The Ancient Babylonians had a hero lion-slayer, Izdubar by name. The
destruction of the lion, and other monsters, by Izdubar, is often
depicted on the cylinders and engraved gems belonging to the early
Babylonian monarchy.[74:5]
Izdubar is represented as a great or mighty man, who, in the early days
after the flood, destroyed wild animals, and conquered a number of petty
kings.[74:6]
Izdubar resembles the Grecian hero, Hercules, in other respects than as
a destroyer of wild animals, &c. We are told that he "wandered to the
regions where gigantic composite monsters held and controlled the rising
and setting sun, from these learned the road to _the region of the
blessed_, and passing across _a great waste of land_, he arrived at a
region where _splendid trees were laden with jewels_."[74:7]
He also resembles Hercules, Samson, and other solar-gods, in the
particular of _long flowing locks of hair_. In the Babylonian and
Assyrian sculptures he is always represented with a marked physiognomy,
and always indicated as a man with _masses of curls over his head_ and a
large curly beard.[74:8]
Here, evidently, is the Babylonian legend of Hercules. He too was a
_wanderer_, going from the furthest East to the furthest West. He
crossed "a great waste of land" (the desert of Lybia), visited "the
region of the blessed," where there were "splendid trees laden with
jewels" (golden apples).
The ancient Egyptians had their Hercules. According to Herodotus, he was
known several thousand years before the Grecian hero of that name. This
the Egyptians affirmed, and that he was _born_ in their country.[75:1]
The story of Hercules was known in the Island of Thasos, by the
Phenician colony settled there, five centuries before he was known in
Greece.[75:2] Fig. No. 4 is from an ancient representation of Hercules
in conflict with the lion, taken from Gorio.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 4]
Another mighty hero was the Grecian Bellerophon. The minstrels sang of
the beauty and the great deeds of Bellerophon throughout all the land of
Argos. His arm was strong in battle; his feet were swift in the chase.
None that were poor and weak and wretched feared the might of
Bellerophon. To them the sight of his beautiful form brought only joy
and gladness; but the proud and boastful, the slanderer and the robber,
dreaded the glance of his keen eye. For a long time he fought the Solymi
and the Amazons, until all his enemies shrank from the stroke of his
mighty arm, and sought for mercy.[75:3]
The second of the principal gods of the Ancient _Scandinavians_ was
named Thor, and was no less known than Odin among the Teutonic nations.
The Edda calls him expressly the most valiant of the sons of Odin. He
was considered the "_defender_" and "_avenger_." He always carried a
mallet, which, as often as he discharged it, returned to his hand of
itself; he grasped it with gauntlets of iron, and was further possessed
of a girdle which had the virtue of renewing his strength as often as
was needful. It was with these formidable arms that he overthrew to the
ground the monsters and giants, when he was sent by the gods to oppose
their enemies. He was represented of gigantic size, and as the stoutest
and strongest of the gods.[76:1] Thor was simply the Hercules of the
Northern nations. He was the Sun personified.[76:2]
Without enumerating them, we can safely say, that there was not a nation
of antiquity, from the remotest East to the furthest West, that did not
have its mighty hero, and counterpart of Hercules and Samson.[76:3]
FOOTNOTES:
[62:1] The idea of a woman conceiving, and bearing a son in her old age,
seems to have been a Hebrew peculiarity, as a number of their remarkable
personages were born, so it is said, of parents well advanced in years,
or of a woman who was supposed to have been _barren_. As illustrations,
we may mention this case of _Samson_, and that of _Joseph_ being born of
Rachel. The beautiful Rachel, who was so much beloved by Jacob, her
husband, was barren, and she bore him no sons. This caused grief and
discontent on her part, and anger on the part of her husband. In her old
age, however, she bore the wonderful child Joseph. (See Genesis, xxx.
1-29.)
_Isaac_ was born of a woman (Sarah) who had been barren many years. _An
angel appeared to her_ when her lord (Abraham) "was ninety years old and
nine," and informed her that she would conceive and bear a son. (See
Gen. xvi.)
_Samuel_, the "holy man," was also born of a woman (Hannah) who had been
barren many years. In grief, she prayed to the Lord for a child, and was
finally comforted by receiving her wish. (See 1 Samuel, i. 1-20.)
_John the Baptist_ was also a miraculously conceived infant. His mother,
Elizabeth, bore him _in her old age_. _An angel also informed her_ and
her husband Zachariah, that this event would take place. (See Luke, i.
1-25.)
_Mary_, the mother of _Jesus_, was born of a woman (Anna) who was "old
and stricken in years," and who had been barren all her life. _An angel
appeared to Anna and her husband_ (Joachim), and told them what was
about to take place. (See "The Gospel of Mary," Apoc.)
Thus we see, that the idea of a wonderful child being born of a woman
who had passed the age which nature had destined for her to bear
children, and who had been barren all her life, was a favorite one among
the Hebrews. The idea that the ancestors of a race lived to a fabulous
old age, is also a familiar one among the ancients.
Most ancient nations relate in their fables that their ancestors lived
to be very old men. For instance; the _Persian_ patriarch Kaiomaras
reigned 560 years; Jemshid reigned 300 years; Jahmurash reigned 700
years; Dahâk reigned 1000 years; Feridun reigned 120 years; Manugeher
reigned 500 years; Kaikans reigned 150 years; and Bahaman reigned 112
years. (See Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. 155, _note_.)
[64:1] Judges, xiv.
[65:1] Judges, xv.
[66:1] Judges, xvi.
[66:2] Perhaps that of Izdubar. See chapter xi.
[66:3] Hebrew Mythology, p. 248.
[66:4] Manual of Mythology, p. 248. The Age of Fable, p. 200.
[67:1] Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 200.
[67:2] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 249.
[67:3] Roman Antiquities, p. 124; and Montfaucon, vol. i. plate cxxvi.
[67:4] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 249.
[67:5] See Ibid. Greek and Italian Mythology, p. 129, and Montfaucon,
vol. i. plate cxxv. and cxxvi.
[67:6] Manual of Mythology, p. 247.
[67:7] "It has many heads, one being immortal, as the storm must
constantly supply new clouds while the vapors are driven off by the
_Sun_ into space. Hence the story went that although Herakles could burn
away its mortal heads, as the _Sun_ burns up the clouds, still he can
but hide away the mist or vapor itself, which at its appointed time must
again darken the sky." (Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 48.)
[67:8] See Manual of Mytho., p. 250.
[68:1] Steinthal: The Legend of Samson, p. 398. See, also, Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 240, and Volney: Researches in Anc't History, p.
42.
[68:2] Ibid.
[68:3] Quoted by Count de Volney: Researches in Ancient History, p. 42,
_note_.
[68:4] Volney: Researches in Ancient History, p. 42.
[69:1] See Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 251.
"The slaughter of the Centaurs by Hercules is the conquest and
dispersion of the vapors by the _Sun_ as he rises in the heaven." (Cox:
Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 47.)
[69:2] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 257.
[69:3] Shamgar also slew six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. (See
Judges, iii. 31.)
"It is scarcely necessary to say that these weapons are the heritage of
all the _Solar_ heroes, that they are found in the hands of Phebus and
Herakles, of Œdipus, Achilleus, Philoktetes, of Siguard, Rustem, Indra,
Isfendujar, of Telephos, Meleagros, Theseus, Kadmos, Bellerophon, and
all other slayers of noxious and fearful things." (Rev. Geo. Cox: Tales
of Ancient Greece, p. xxvii.)
[69:4] See Volney: Researches in Ancient History, p. 41. Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 239; Montfaucon: L'Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i.
p. 213, and Murray: Manual of Mythology, pp. 259-262.
It is evident that _Herodotus_, the Grecian historian, was somewhat of a
skeptic, for he says: "The Grecians say that 'When Hercules arrived in
Egypt, the Egyptians, having crowned him with a garland, led him in
procession, as designing to sacrifice him to Jupiter, and that for some
time he remained quiet, but when they began the preparatory ceremonies
upon him at the altar, he set about defending himself and slew every one
of them.' Now, since Hercules was but one, and, besides, a mere man, as
they confess, how is it possible that he should slay many thousands?"
(Herodotus, book ii. ch. 45).
[69:5] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 263.
[70:1] Volney: Researches in Anc't History, pp. 41, 42.
In Bell's "Pantheon of the Gods and Demi-Gods of Antiquity," we read,
under the head of _Ammon_ or _Hammon_ (the name of the Egyptian Jupiter,
worshiped under the figure of a _Ram_), that: "_Bacchus_ having subdued
Asia, and passing with his army through the deserts of Africa, was in
great want of water; but Jupiter, his father, assuming the shape of a
_Ram_, led him to a fountain, where he refreshed himself and his army;
in requital of which favor, Bacchus built there a temple to Jupiter,
under the title of _Ammon_."
[70:2] Cadiz (ancient Gades), being situated near the _mouth_ of the
Mediterranean. The first author who mentions the Pillars of Hercules is
Pindar, and he places them there. (Chambers's Encyclo. "Hercules.")
[70:3] Volney's Researches, p. 41. See also Tylor: Primitive Culture,
vol. i. p. 357.
[70:4] See Chambers's Encyclopædia, Art. "Hercules." Cory's Ancient
Fragments, p. 36, _note_; and Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 201.
[70:5] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Hercules."
[70:6] Vol. i. plate cxxvii.
[71:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 399.
[71:2] Œd. Jud. p. 360, in Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 239.
[71:3] "Rien de plus connu dans la fable que ses amours avec Omphale et
Iole."--L'Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i. p. 224.
[71:4] The Legend of Samson, p. 404.
[71:5] Vol. i. plate cxxvii.
[71:6] "Samson was remarkable for his long hair. The meaning of this
trait in the original myth is easy to guess, and appears also from
representations of the Sun-god amongst other peoples. _These long hairs
are the rays of the Sun._" (Bible for Learners, i. 416.)
"The beauty of the sun's rays is signified by the golden locks of
Phoibos, _over which no razor has ever passed_; by the flowing hair
which streams from the head of Kephalos, and falls over the shoulders of
Perseus and Bellerophon." (Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. i. p. 107.)
[72:1] Hebrew Mytho., pp. 137, 138.
[72:2] Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. i. p. 84.
[72:3] Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxix.
[72:4] The Legend of Samson, p. 408.
[72:5] Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 72.
[73:1] The Legend of Samson, p. 406.
[73:2] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 237. Goldzhier: Hebrew
Mythology, p. 22. The Religion of Israel, p. 61. The Bible for Learners,
vol. i. p. 418. Volney's Ruins, p. 41, and Stanley: History of the
Jewish Church, where he says: "His _name_, which Josephus interprets in
the sense of 'strong,' was still more characteristic. He was 'the
Sunny'--the bright and beaming, though wayward, likeness of the great
luminary."
[73:3] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 237, and Volney's Researches, p.
43, _note_.
[73:4] See chapter ii.
[73:5] The Religion of Israel, p. 61. "The yellow hair of Apollo was a
symbol of the solar rays." (Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 679.)
[73:6] Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 414.
[73:7] Ibid. p. 422.
[73:8] Williams' Hinduism, pp. 108 and 167.
[74:1] Vol. v. p. 270.
[74:2] Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 155.
[74:3] Steinthal: The Legend of Samson, p. 386.
[74:4] Buckley: Cities of the World, 41, 42.
[74:5] Smith: Assyrian Discoveries, p. 167, and Chaldean Account of
Genesis, p. 174.
[74:6] Assyrian Discoveries, p. 205, and Chaldean Account of Genesis, p.
174.
[74:7] Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 310.
[74:8] Ibid. pp. 193, 194, 174.
[75:1] See Tacitus: Annals, book ii. ch. lix.
[75:2] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 92.
[75:3] See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 153.
[76:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 94, 417, and 514.
[76:2] See Cox: Aryan Mythology.
[76:3] See vol. i. of Aryan Mythology, by Rev. G. W. Cox.
"Besides the fabulous Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, there
was, in ancient times, no warlike nation who did not boast of its own
particular Hercules." (Arthur Murphy, Translator of Tacitus.)
CHAPTER IX.
JONAH SWALLOWED BY A BIG FISH.
In the book of Jonah, containing four chapters, we are told the word of
the Lord came unto Jonah, saying: "Arise, go to Ninevah, that great
city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up against me."
Instead of obeying this command Jonah sought to flee "from the presence
of the Lord," by going to Tarshish. For this purpose he went to _Joppa_,
and there took ship for Tarshish. But the Lord sent a great wind, and
there was a mighty tempest, so that the ship was likely to be broken.
The mariners being afraid, they cried every one unto _his_ God; and
casting lots--that they might know which of them was the cause of the
storm--the lot fell upon Jonah, showing him to be the guilty man.
The mariners then said unto him; "What shall we do unto thee?" Jonah in
reply said, "Take me up and cast me forth into the sea, for I know that
for my sake this great tempest is upon you." So they took up Jonah, and
cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased raging.
And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, _and Jonah was
in the belly of the fish three days and three nights_. Then Jonah prayed
unto the Lord out of the fish's belly. And the Lord spake unto the fish,
and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
The Lord again spake unto Jonah and said:
"Go unto Ninevah and preach unto it." So Jonah arose and went unto
Ninevah, according to the command of the Lord, and preached unto it.
There is a _Hindoo_ fable, very much resembling this, to be found in the
_Somadeva Bhatta_, of a person by the name of _Saktideva_ who was
swallowed by a huge fish, and finally came out unhurt. The story is as
follows:
"There was once a king's daughter who would marry no one but the man
who had seen the Golden City--of legendary fame--and Saktideva was in
love with her; so he went travelling about the world seeking some one
who could tell him where this Golden City was. In the course of his
journeys _he embarked on board a ship_ bound for the Island of Utsthala,
where lived the King of the Fishermen, who, Saktideva hoped, would set
him on his way. On the voyage _there arose a great storm_ and the ship
went to pieces, _and a great fish swallowed Saktideva whole_. Then,
driven by the force of fate, the fish went to the Island of Utsthala,
and there the servants of the King of the Fishermen caught it, and the
king, wondering at its size, had it cut open, _and Saktideva came out
unhurt_."[78:1]
In Grecian fable, Hercules is said to have been swallowed by a whale, at
a place called Joppa, _and to have lain three days in his entrails_.
Bernard de Montfaucon, speaking of Jonah being swallowed by a whale, and
describing a piece of Grecian sculpture representing Hercules standing
by a huge sea monster, says:
"Some ancients relate to the effect that Hercules was also
swallowed by the whale that was watching Hesione, _that he
remained three days in his belly_, and that he came out
bald-pated after his sojourn there."[78:2]
Bouchet, in his "Hist. d'Animal," tells us that:
"The great fish which swallowed up _Jonah_, although it be
called a whale (Matt. xii. 40), yet it was not a whale,
properly so called, but a _Dog-fish_, called _Carcharias_.
Therefore in the Grecian fable _Hercules_ is said to have been
swallowed up of a _Dag_, and to have lain three days in his
entrails."[78:3]
Godfrey Higgins says, on this subject:
"The story of _Jonas_ swallowed up by a whale, is nothing but
part of the fiction of _Hercules_, described in the Heracleid
or Labors of Hercules, of whom the same story was told, and
who was swallowed up at the very same place, _Joppa_, and for
the same period of time, _three days_. Lycophron says that
Hercules was three nights in the belly of a fish."[78:4]
We have still another similar story in that of "_Arion the Musician_,"
who, being thrown overboard, was caught on the back of a _Dolphin_ and
landed safe on shore. The story is related in "Tales of Ancient Greece,"
as follows:
Arion was a Corinthian harper who had travelled in Sicily and
Italy, and had accumulated great wealth. Being desirous of again seeing
his native city, he set sail from Taras for Corinth. The sailors in the
ship, having seen the large boxes full of money which Arion had brought
with him into the ship, made up their minds to kill him and take his
gold and silver. So one day when he was sitting on the bow of the ship,
and looking down on the dark blue sea, three or four of the sailors came
to him and said they were going to kill him. Now Arion knew they said
this because they wanted his money; so he promised to give them all he
had if they would spare his life. But they would not. Then he asked them
to let him jump into the sea. When they had given him leave to do this,
Arion took one last look at the bright and sunny sky, and then leaped
into the sea, and the sailors saw him no more. But Arion was not drowned
in the sea, for a great fish called a dolphin was swimming by the ship
when Arion leaped over; and it caught him on its back and swam away with
him towards Corinth. So presently the fish came close to the shore and
left Arion on the beach, and swam away again into the deep sea.[79:1]
There is also a Persian legend to the effect that Jemshid was devoured
by a great monster waiting for him at the bottom of the sea, but
afterwards rises again out of the sea, like Jonah in the Hebrew, and
Hercules in the Phenician myth.[79:2] This legend was also found in the
myths of the _New World_.[79:3]
It was urged, many years ago, by Rosenmüller--an eminent German divine
and professor of theology--and other critics, that the miracle recorded
in the book of Jonah is not to be regarded as an historical fact, "_but
only as an allegory, founded on the Phenician myth of Hercules rescuing
Hesione from the sea monster by leaping himself into its jaws, and for
three days and three nights continuing to tear its entrails_."[79:4]
That the story is an allegory, and that it, as well as that of
Saktideva, Hercules and the rest, are simply different versions of the
same myth, the significance of which is the alternate swallowing up and
casting forth of _Day_, or the _Sun_, by _Night_, is now all but
universally admitted by scholars. The _Day_, or the _Sun_, is swallowed
up by _Night_, to be set free again at dawn, and from time to time
suffers a like but shorter durance in the maw of the eclipse and the
storm-cloud.[79:5]
Professor Goldzhier says:
"The most prominent mythical characteristic of the story of
Jonah is his celebrated abode in the sea in the belly of a
whale. This trait is eminently _Solar_. . . . As on occasion
of the storm the storm-dragon or the storm-serpent _swallows
the Sun_, so when he sets, he (Jonah, as a personification of
the Sun) is swallowed by a mighty fish, waiting for him at the
bottom of the sea. Then, when he appears again on the horizon,
he is _spit out on the shore_ by the sea-monster."[80:1]
The _Sun_ was called Jona, as appears from Gruter's inscriptions, and
other sources.[80:2]
In the _Vedas_--the four sacred books of the Hindoos--when _Day_ and
_Night_, _Sun_ and _Darkness_, are opposed to each other, the one is
designated _Red_, the other _Black_.[80:3]
The _Red Sun_ being swallowed up by the _Dark Earth_ at _Night_--as it
apparently is when it sets in the west--to be cast forth again at _Day_,
is also illustrated in like manner. Jonah, Hercules and others personify
the _Sun_, and a huge _Fish_ represents the _Earth_.[80:4] _The Earth
represented as a huge Fish is one of the most prominent ideas of the
Polynesian mythology._[80:5]
At other times, instead of a _Fish_, we have a great raving _Wolf_, who
comes to devour its victim and extinguish the _Sun_-light.[80:6] The
Wolf is particularly distinguished in ancient _Scandinavian_ mythology,
being employed as an emblem of the _Destroying Power_, which attempts to
destroy the _Sun_.[80:7] This is illustrated in the story of Little
_Red_ Riding-Hood (the Sun)[80:8] who is devoured by the great _Black
Wolf_ (Night) and afterwards _comes out unhurt_.[80:9]
The story of Little Red Riding-Hood _is mutilated in the English
version_. The original story was that the little maid, in her _shining
Red Cloak_, was swallowed by the great _Black Wolf_, and that _she came
out safe and sound_ when the hunters cut open the sleeping beast.[80:10]
In regard to these heroes remaining _three days and three nights_ in
the bowels of the Fish, _they represent the Sun at the Winter Solstice_.
From December 22d to the 25th--that is, _for three days and three
nights_--the _Sun_ remains in the _Lowest Regions_, in the bowels of the
Earth, in the belly of the Fish; it is then cast forth and renews its
career.
Thus, we see that the story of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish,
meant originally the Sun swallowed up by Night, and that it is identical
with the well-known nursery-tale. How such legends are transformed from
intelligible into unintelligible myths, is very clearly illustrated by
Prof. Max Müller, who, in speaking of "the comparison of the different
forms of Aryan Religion and Mythology," in India, Persia, Greece, Italy
and Germany, says:
"In each of these nations there was a tendency to change the
original conception of divine powers; to misunderstand the
many names given to these powers, and to misinterpret the
praises addressed to them. In this manner some of the divine
names were changed into half-divine, half-human heroes, _and
at last the myths which were true and intelligible as told
originally of the Sun, or the Dawn, or the Storms, were turned
into legends or fables too marvellous to be believed of common
mortals_. This process can be watched in _India_, in _Greece_,
and in _Germany_. The same story, or nearly the same, is told
of gods, of heroes, and of men. The _divine myth_ became an
_heroic legend_, and the _heroic legend_ fades away into a
_nursery tale_. Our nursery tales have well been called the
modern _patois_ of the ancient sacred mythology of the Aryan
race."[81:1]
How striking are these words; how plainly they illustrate the process by
which the story, that was true and intelligible as told originally of
the _Day_ being swallowed up by _Night_, or the _Sun_ being swallowed up
by the _Earth_, was transformed into a legend or fable, too marvellous
to be believed by common mortals. How the "_divine myth_" became an
"_heroic legend_," and how the heroic legend faded away into a "_nursery
tale_."
In regard to Jonah's going to the city of Ninevah, and preaching unto
the inhabitants, we believe that the old "Myth of Civilization," so
called,[82:1] is partly interwoven here, and that, in this respect, he
is nothing more than the Indian _Fish Avatar of Vishnou_, or the
Chaldean _Oannes_. At his first Avatar, _Vishnou_ is alleged to have
appeared to humanity in form like a fish,[82:2] or half-man and
half-fish, just as Oannes and Dagon were represented among the Chaldeans
and other nations. In the temple of _Rama_, in India, there is a
representation of _Vishnou_ which answers perfectly to that of
_Dagon_.[82:3] Mr. Maurice, in his "Hist. Hindostan," has proved the
identity of the Syrian _Dagon_ and the Indian Fish Avatar, and concludes
by saying:
"From the foregoing and a variety of parallel circumstances, I
am inclined to think that the Chaldean _Oannes_, the Phenician
and Philistian _Dagon_, and the _Pisces_ of the Syrian and
Egyptian Zodiac, were the same deity with the Indian
_Vishnu_."[82:4]
In the old mythological remains of the Chaldeans, compiled by Berosus,
Abydenus, and Polyhistor, there is an account of one _Oannes_, a
fish-god, who rendered great service to mankind.[82:5] This being is
said to have _come out of_ the Erythraean Sea.[82:6] This is evidently
_the Sun rising out of the sea_, as it apparently does, in the
East.[82:7]
Prof. Goldzhier, speaking of Oannes, says:
"That this founder of civilization has a _Solar character_,
like similar heroes in all other nations, is shown . . . in
the words of Berosus, who says: '_During the day-time_ Oannes
held intercourse with man, _but when the Sun set_, Oannes
fell into the sea, where he used to pass the night.' Here,
evidently, only the _Sun_ can be meant, who, in the evening,
dips into the sea, and comes forth again in the morning, and
passes the day on the dry land in the company of men."[82:8]
_Dagon_ was sometimes represented as _a man emerging from a fish's
mouth_, and sometimes as half-man and half-fish.[82:9] It was believed
that he came _in a ship_, and taught the people. Ancient history abounds
with such mythological personages.[82:10] There was also a _Durga_, a
fish deity, among the _Hindoos_, represented as _a full grown man
emerging from a fish's mouth_[82:9] The Philistines worshiped Dagon,
and in Babylonian Mythology _Odakon_ is applied to a fish-like being,
who _rose from the waters of the Red Sea_ as one of the benefactors of
men.[83:1]
On the coins of Ascalon, where she was held in great honor, the goddess
Derceto or Atergatis is represented as a woman with her lower
extremities like a fish. This is Semiramis, who appeared at _Joppa_ as a
mermaid. She is simply a personification of the _Moon_, who follows the
course of the _Sun_. At times she manifests herself to the eyes of men,
at others she seeks concealment in the Western flood.[83:2]
The Sun-god Phoibos traverses the sea in the form of a fish, and imparts
lessons of wisdom and goodness when he has come forth from the green
depths. All these powers or qualities are shared by Proteus in Hellenic
story, as well as by the fish-god, Dagon or Oannes.[83:3]
In the Iliad and Odyssey, Atlas is brought into close connection with
Helios, the bright god, the Latin Sol, and our Sun. In these poems he
rises every morning from a beautiful lake by the deep-flowing stream of
Ocean, and having accomplished his journey across the heavens, plunges
again into the Western waters.[83:4]
The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians had likewise semi-fish gods.[83:5]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 5]
Jonah then, is like these other personages, in so far as they are all
_personifications of the Sun_; they all _come out of the sea_; they are
all represented as _a man emerging from a fish's mouth_; and they are
all _benefactors of mankind_. We believe, therefore, that it is one and
the same myth, whether Oannes, Joannes, or Jonas,[83:6] differing to a
certain extent among different nations, just as we find to be the case
with other legends. This we have just seen illustrated in the story of
"Little Red Riding-Hood," which is considerably mutilated in the English
version.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 6]
Fig. No. 5 is a representation of _Dagon_, intended to illustrate a
creature half-man and half-fish; or, perhaps, a man emerging from a
fish's mouth. It is taken from Layard. Fig. No. 6[84:1] is a
representation of the Indian Avatar of Vishnou, _coming forth from the
fish_.[84:2] It would answer just as well for a representation of Jonah,
as it does for the Hindoo divinity. It should be noticed that in both of
these, the god has a crown on his head, surmounted with a _triple_
ornament, both of which had evidently the same meaning, _i. e._, _an
emblem of the trinity_.[84:3] The Indian Avatar being represented with
four arms, evidently means that he is god of the whole world, his _four_
arms extending to the _four corners of the world_. The _circle_, which
is seen in one hand, is an emblem of eternal reward. The _shell_, with
its eight convolutions, is intended to show the place in the number of
the cycles which he occupied. The _book_ and _sword_ are to show that he
ruled both in the right of the book and of the sword.[84:4]
FOOTNOTES:
[78:1] Tylor: Early Hist. Mankind, pp. 344, 345.
[78:2] "En effet, quelques anciens disent qu' Hercule fut aussi devorà
par la beleine qui gurdoit Hesione, qu'il demeura trois jours dans son
ventre, et qu'il sortit chauve de ce sejour." (L'Antiquité Expliqueé,
vol. i. p. 204.)
[78:3] Bouchet: Hist. d'Animal, in Anac., vol. i. p. 240.
[78:4] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 638. See also Tylor: Primitive Culture,
vol. i. p. 306, and Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Jonah."
[79:1] Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 296.
[79:2] See Hebrew Mythology, p. 203.
[79:3] See Tylor's Early Hist. Mankind, and Primitive Culture, vol. i.
[79:4] Chambers's Encyclo., art. Jonah.
[79:5] See Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77, and _note_; and Tylor:
Primitive Culture, i. 302.
[80:1] Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 102, 103.
[80:2] This is seen from the following, taken from Pictet: "_Du Culte
des Carabi_," p. 104, and quoted by Higgins: _Anac._, vol. i. p. 650:
"Vallancy dit que _Ionn_ étoit le même que Baal. En Gallois _Jon_, le
Seigneur, Dieu, la cause prémière. En Basque _Jawna_, _Jon_, _Jona_,
&c., Dieu, et Seigneur, Maître. Les Scandinaves appeloient le _Soleil_
John. . . . Une des inscriptions de Gruter montre ques les Troyens
adoroient _le même_ astre sous le nom de _Jona_. En Persan le _Soleil_
est appelè _Jawnah_." Thus we see that the _Sun_ was called _Jonah_, by
different nations of antiquity.
[80:3] See Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, p. 148.
[80:4] See Tylor: Early History of Mankind, p. 845, and Goldzhier:
Hebrew Mythology, pp. 102, 103.
[80:5] See Tylor: Early History of Mankind, p. 345.
[80:6] Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77.
[80:7] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 88, 89, and Mallet's
Northern Antiquities.
[80:8] In ancient _Scandinavian_ mythology, the _Sun_ is personified in
the form of a beautiful _maiden_. (See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p.
458.)
[80:9] See Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77. Bunce: Fairy Tales, 161.
[80:10] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 307.
"The story of Little Red Riding-Hood, as we call her, or Little Red-Cap,
came from the same (_i. e._, the ancient Aryan) source, and refers to
the _Sun_ and the _Night_."
"One of the fancies of the most ancient Aryan or Hindoo stories was that
there was a great dragon that was trying to devour the Sun, and to
prevent him from shining upon the earth and filling it with brightness
and life and beauty, and that Indra, the Sun-god, killed the dragon.
Now, this is the meaning of Little Red Riding-Hood, as it is told in our
nursery tales. Little Red Riding-Hood is the evening Sun, which is
always described as red or golden; the old grandmother is the earth, to
whom the rays of the Sun bring warmth and comfort. The wolf--which is a
well-known figure for the clouds and darkness of night--is the dragon in
another form. First he devours the grandmother; that is, he wraps the
earth in thick clouds, which the evening Sun is not strong enough to
pierce through. Then, with the darkness of night, he swallows up the
evening Sun itself, and all is dark and desolate. Then, as in the German
tale, the night-thunder and the storm-winds are represented by the loud
snoring of the wolf; and then the huntsman, the morning Sun, comes in
all his strength and majesty, and chases away the night-clouds and kills
the wolf, and revives old Grandmother Earth, and brings Little Red
Riding-Hood to life again." (Bunce, Fairy Tales, their Origin and
Meaning, p. 161.)
[81:1] Müller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 260.
[82:1] See Goldzhier's Hebrew Mythology, p. 198, et seq.
[82:2] See Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 277.
[82:3] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 259. Also, Fig. No. 5, next page.
[82:4] Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. pp. 418-419.
[82:5] See Pilchard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 190. Bible for Learners,
vol. i. p. 87. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 646. Cory's Ancient
Fragments, p. 57.
[82:6] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 646. Smith: Chaldean Account
of Genesis, p. 39, and Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 57.
[82:7] Civilizing gods, who diffuse intelligence and instruct
barbarians, are also _Solar Deities_. Among these _Oannes_ takes his
place, as the _Sun-god_, giving knowledge and civilization. (Rev. S.
Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 367.)
[82:8] Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 214, 215.
[82:9] See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 111.
[82:10] See Chamber's Encyclo., art "Dagon."
[83:1] See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, and Chambers's Encyclo.,
art. "Dagon" in both.
[83:2] See Baring-Gould's Curious Myths.
[83:3] See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 26.
[83:4] Ibid. p. 38.
[83:5] Curious Myths, p. 372.
[83:6] Since writing the above we find that Mr. Bryant, in his
"_Analysis of Ancient Mythology_" (vol. ii. p. 291), speaking of the
mystical nature of the name _John_, which is the same as _Jonah_, says:
"The prophet who was sent upon an embassy to the Ninevites, is styled
_Ionas_: a title probably bestowed upon him as a messenger of the Deity.
The great Patriarch who preached righteousness to the Antediluvians, is
styled _Oan_ and _Oannes_, which is _the same as Jonah_."
[84:1] From Maurice: Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. p. 495.
[84:2] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 634. See also, Calmet's
Fragments, 2d Hundred, p. 78.
[84:3] See the chapter on "The Trinity," in part second.
[84:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 640.
CHAPTER X.
CIRCUMCISION.
In the words of the Rev. Dr. Giles:
"The rite of circumcision must not be passed over in any work
that concerns the religion and literature of that (the Jewish)
people."[85:1]
The first mention of Circumcision, in the Bible, occurs in
Genesis,[85:2] where God is said to have commanded the Israelites to
perform this rite, and thereby establish a covenant between him and his
chosen people:
"This is my _covenant_ (said the Lord), which ye shall keep,
between me and you and thy seed after thee; every male child
among you shall be circumcised."
"We _need not doubt_," says the Rev. Dr. Giles, "that a _Divine command_
was given to Abraham that all his posterity should practice the rite of
circumcision."[85:3]
Such may be the case. If we believe that the Lord of the Universe
communes with man, we _need not doubt_ this; yet, we are compelled to
admit that nations other than the Hebrews practiced this rite. The
origin of it, however, as practiced among other nations, has never been
clearly ascertained. It has been maintained by some scholars that this
rite drew its origin from considerations of health and cleanliness,
which seems very probable, although doubted by many.[85:4] Whatever may
have been its origin, it is certain that it was practiced by many of the
ancient Eastern nations, who never came in contact with the Hebrews, in
early times, and, therefore, could not have learned it from them.
The _Egyptians_ practiced circumcision at a very early period,[85:5] at
least as early as the _fourth_ dynasty--pyramid one--and therefore, long
before the time assigned for Joseph's entry into Egypt, from whom some
writers have claimed the Egyptians learned it.[86:1]
In the decorative pictures of Egyptian tombs, one frequently meets with
persons on whom the denudation of the prepuce is manifested.[86:2]
On a stone found at Thebes, there is a representation of the
circumcision of Ramses II. A mother is seen holding her boy's arms back,
while the operator kneels in front.[86:3] All Egyptian priests were
obliged to be circumcised,[86:4] and Pythagoras had to submit to it
before being admitted to the Egyptian sacerdotal mysteries.[86:5]
Herodotus, the Greek historian, says:
"As this practice can be traced both in Egypt and Ethiopia, to
the remotest antiquity, it is not possible to say which first
introduced it. The Phenicians and Syrians of Palestine
acknowledge that they borrowed it from Egypt."[86:6]
It has been recognized among the _Kaffirs_ and other tribes of
_Africa_.[86:7] It was practiced among the _Fijians_ and _Samoans of
Polynesia_, and some races of _Australia_.[86:8] The _Suzees_ and the
_Mandingoes_ circumcise their women.[86:9] The _Assyrians_, _Colchins_,
_Phenicians_, and others, practiced it.[86:10] It has been from time
immemorial a custom among the _Abyssinians_, though, at the present
time, Christians.[86:11]
The antiquity of the custom may be assured from the fact of the _New
Hollanders_, (never known to civilized nations until a few years ago)
having practiced it.[86:12]
The _Troglodytes_ on the shore of the Red Sea, the _Idumeans_,
_Ammonites_, _Moabites_ and _Ishmaelites_, had the practice of
circumcision.[86:11]
The _ancient Mexicans_ also practiced this rite.[86:13] It was also
found among the _Amazon_ tribes of _South America_.[87:1] These
Indians, as well as some African tribes, were in the habit of
circumcising their women. Among the _Campas_, the women circumcised
themselves, and a man would not marry a woman who was not
circumcised.[87:2] They performed this singular rite upon arriving at
the age of puberty.[87:3]
Jesus of Nazareth was circumcised,[87:4] and had he been really the
founder of the Christian religion, so-called, it would certainly be
incumbent on all Christians to be circumcised as he was, and to observe
that Jewish law which he observed, and which he was so far from
abrogating, that he declared: "heaven and earth shall pass away" ere
"one jot or one tittle" of that law should be dispensed with.[87:5] But
the Christians are not followers of the religion of Jesus.[87:6] They
are followers of the religion of the _Pagans_. This, we believe, we
shall be able to show in Part Second of this work.
FOOTNOTES:
[85:1] Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. i. p. 249.
[85:2] Genesis, xvii. 10.
[85:3] Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. i. p. 251.
[85:4] Mr. Herbert Spencer shows (Principles of Sociology, pp. 290, 295)
that the sacrificing of a part of the body as a religious offering to
their deity, was, and is a common practice among savage tribes.
Circumcision may have originated in this way. And Mr. Wake, speaking of
it, says: "The _origin_ of this custom has not yet, so far as I am
aware, been satisfactorily explained. The idea that, under certain
climatic conditions, circumcision is necessary for cleanliness and
comfort, does not appear to be well founded, as the custom is not
universal even within the tropics." (Phallism in Ancient Religs., p.
36.)
[85:5] "Other men leave their private parts as they are formed by
nature, except those who have learned otherwise from them; but the
Egyptians are _circumcised_. . . . They are circumcised for the sake of
cleanliness, thinking it better to be clean than handsome." (Herodotus,
Book ii. ch. 36.)
[86:1] We have it also on the authority of Sir J. G. Wilkinson, that:
"this custom was established long before the arrival of Joseph in
Egypt," and that "this is proved by the ancient monuments."
[86:2] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, pp. 414, 415.
[86:3] Ibid. p. 415.
[86:4] Ibid. and Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 89.
[86:5] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 415.
[86:6] Herodotus: Book ii. ch. 36.
[86:7] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 114. Amberly: Analysis
Religious Belief, p. 67, and Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 309.
[86:8] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 414, and Amberly's Analysis, pp.
63, 73.
[86:9] Amberly: Analysis of Relig. Belief, p. 73.
[86:10] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 414: Amberly's Analysis, p. 63;
Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 163, and Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii.
pp. 18, 19.
[86:11] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 414.
[86:12] Kendrick's Egypt, quoted by Dunlap; Mysteries of Adoni, p. 146.
[86:13] Amberly's Analysis, p. 63, Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p.
309, and Acosta, ii. 369.
[87:1] Orton: The Andes and the Amazon, p. 322.
[87:2] This was done by cutting off the _clytoris_.
[87:3] Orton: The Andes and the Amazon, p. 322. Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv.
p. 563, and Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 319.
"At the time of the conquest, the Spaniards found circumcised nations in
Central America, and on the Amazon, the Tecuna and Manaos tribes still
observe this practice. In the South Seas it has been met with among
three different races, but it is performed in a somewhat different
manner. On the Australian continent, not all, but the majority of
tribes, practiced circumcision. Among the Papuans, the inhabitants of
New Caledonia and the New Hebrides adhere to this custom. In his third
voyage, Captain Cook found it among the inhabitants of the Friendly
Islands, in particular at Tongataboo, and the younger Pritchard bears
witness to its practice in the Samoa or Fiji groups." (Oscar Peschel:
The Races of Man, p. 22.)
[87:4] Luke, ii. 21.
[87:5] Matthew, v. 18.
[87:6] In using the words "the religion of Jesus," we mean simply _the
religion of Israel_. We believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a _Jew_, in
every sense of the word, and that he did not establish a new religion,
or preach a new doctrine, in any way, shape, or form. "The preacher from
the Mount, the prophet of the Beatitudes, does but repeat with
persuasive lips what the law-givers of his race proclaimed in mighty
tones of command." (See chap. xi.)
CHAPTER XI.
CONCLUSION OF PART FIRST.
There are many other legends recorded in the Old Testament which might
be treated at length, but, as we have considered the principal and most
important, and as we have so much to examine in Part Second, which
treats of the New Testament, we shall take but a passing glance at a few
others.
In Genesis xli. is to be found the story of
PHARAOH'S TWO DREAMS,
which is to the effect that Pharaoh dreamed that he stood by a river,
and saw come up out of it _seven_ fat kine, and _seven_ lean kine, which
devoured the fat ones. He then dreamed that he saw _seven_ good ears of
corn, on one stalk, spring up out of the ground. This was followed by
_seven_ poor ears, which sprang up after them, and devoured the good
ears.
Pharaoh, upon awaking from his sleep, and recalling the dreams which he
dreamed, was greatly troubled, "and he sent and called for all the
magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof, and Pharaoh told them
his dreams, but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh."
Finally, his chief butler tells him of one Joseph, who was skilled in
interpreting dreams, and Pharaoh orders him to be brought before his
presence. He then repeats his dreams to Joseph, who immediately
interprets them to the great satisfaction of the king.
A very similar story is related in the Buddhist _Fo-pen-hing_--one of
their sacred books, which has been translated by Prof. Samuel
Beal--which, in substance, is as follows:
Suddhôdana Raja dreamed _seven_ different dreams in one night, when,
"awaking from his sleep, and recalling the visions he had seen, was
greatly troubled, so that the very hair on his body stood erect, and his
limbs trembled." He forthwith summoned to his side, within his palace,
all the great ministers of his council, and exhorted them in these
words: "Most honorable Sirs! be it known to you that during the present
night I have seen in my dreams strange and potent visions--there were
_seven_ distinct dreams, which I will now recite (he recites the
dreams). I pray you, honorable Sirs! let not these dreams escape your
memories, but in the morning, when I am seated in my palace, and
surrounded by my attendants, let them be brought to my mind (that they
may be interpreted.)"
At morning light, the king, seated in the midst of his attendants,
issued his commands to all the Brahmans, interpreters of dreams, within
his kingdom, in these terms, "All ye men of wisdom, explain for me by
interpretation the meaning of the dreams I have dreamed in my sleep."
Then all the wise Brahmans, interpreters of dreams, began to consider,
each one in his own heart, what the meaning of these visions could be;
till at last they addressed the king, and said: "Mahâ-raja! be it known
to you that we never before have heard such dreams as these, _and we
cannot interpret their meaning_."
On hearing this, Suddhôdana was very troubled in his heart, and
exceeding distressed. He thought within himself: "Who is there that can
satisfy these doubts of mine?"
Finally a "holy one," called _T'so-Ping_, being present in the inner
palace, and perceiving the sorrow and distress of the king, assumed the
appearance of a Brahman, and under this form he stood at the gate of the
king's palace, and cried out, saying: "I am able fully to interpret the
dreams of Suddhôdana Râja, and with certainty to satisfy all the
doubts."
The king ordered him to be brought before his presence, and then related
to him his dreams. Upon hearing them, _T'so-Ping_ immediately
interpreted them, to the great satisfaction of the king.[89:1]
In the second chapter of Exodus we read of
MOSES THROWN INTO THE NILE,
which is done _by command of the king_.
There are many counterparts to this in ancient mythology; among them may
be mentioned that of the infant Perseus, who was, _by command of the
king_ (Acrisius of Argos), shut up in a chest, and cast into the sea. He
was found by one Dictys, who took great care of the child, and--as
Pharaoh's daughter did with the child Moses--educated him.[89:2]
The infant Bacchus was confined in a chest, _by order of Cadmus, King
of Thebes_, and thrown into the Nile.[90:1] He, like Moses, had two
mothers, one by nature, the other by adoption.[90:2] He was also, like
Moses, represented _horned_.[90:3]
Osiris was also confined in a chest, and thrown into the river
Nile.[90:4]
When Osiris was shut into the coffer, and cast into the river, he
floated to Phenicia, and was there received under the name of Adonis.
Isis (his mother, or wife) wandered in quest of him, came to Byblos, and
seated herself by a fountain in silence and tears. She was then taken by
the servants of the royal palace, and made to attend on the young prince
of the land. In like manner, Demeter, after Aidoneus had ravished her
daughter, went in pursuit, reached Eleusis, seated herself by a well,
conversed with the daughters of the queen, and became _nurse to her
son_.[90:5] So likewise, when Moses was put into the ark made of
bulrushes, and cast into the Nile, he was found by the daughters of
Pharaoh, and his own mother became his nurse.[90:6] This is simply
another version of the same myth.
In the second chapter of the second book of Kings, we read of
ELIJAH ASCENDING TO HEAVEN.
There are many counterparts to this, in heathen mythology.
Hindoo sacred writings relate many such stories--how some of their Holy
Ones were taken up alive into heaven--and impressions on rocks are
shown, said to be foot-prints, made when they ascended.[90:7]
According to Babylonian mythology, _Xisuthrus_ was translated to
heaven.[90:8]
The story of Elijah ascending to heaven in a chariot of fire may also be
compared to the fiery, flame-red chariot of _Ushas_.[90:9] This idea of
some Holy One ascending to heaven without dying was found in the ancient
mythology of the _Chinese_.[90:10]
The story of
DAVID KILLING GOLIATH,
by throwing a stone and hitting him in the forehead,[90:11] may be
compared to the story of _Thor_, the Scandinavian hero, throwing a
hammer at Hrungnir, and striking him in the forehead.[91:1]
We read in Numbers[91:2] that
BALAAM'S ASS SPOKE
to his master, and reproved him.
In ancient fables or stories in which animals play prominent parts, each
creature is endowed with the power of speech. This idea was common in
the whole of Western Asia and Egypt. It is found in various Egyptian and
Chaldean stories.[91:3] Homer has recorded that the _horse_ of Achilles
spoke to him.[91:4]
We have also a very wonderful story in that of
JOSHUA'S COMMAND TO THE SUN.
This story is related in the tenth chapter of the book of Joshua, and is
to the effect that the Israelites, who were at battle with the Amorites,
wished the day to be lengthened that they might continue their
slaughter, whereupon Joshua said: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon,
and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. _And the sun stood still_, and
the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their
enemies. . . . And there was no day like that before it or after it."
There are many stories similar to this, to be found among other nations
of antiquity. We have, as an example, that which is related of Bacchus
in the Orphic hymns, wherein it says that this god-man arrested the
course of the sun and the moon.[91:5]
An Indian legend relates that the sun stood still to hear the pious
ejaculations of Arjouan after the death of Crishna.[91:6]
A holy Buddhist by the name of Mâtanga prevented the sun, at his
command, from rising, and bisected the moon.[91:7] Arresting the course
of the sun was a common thing among the disciples of Buddha.[91:8]
The _Chinese_ also, had a legend of the sun standing still,[91:9] and a
legend was found among the _Ancient Mexicans_ to the effect that one of
their holy persons commanded the sun to stand still, which command was
obeyed.[91:10]
We shall now endeavor to answer the question which must naturally arise
in the minds of all who see, for the first time, the similarity in the
legends of the Hebrews and those of other nations, namely: have the
Hebrews copied from other nations, or, have other nations copied from
the Hebrews? To answer this question we shall; _first_, give a brief
account or history of the Pentateuch and other books of the Old
Testament from which we have taken legends, and show about what time
they were written; and, _second_, show that other nations were possessed
of these legends long before that time, _and that the Jews copied from
them_.
The Pentateuch is ascribed, in our _modern_ translations, to _Moses_,
and he is generally supposed to be the author. This is altogether
erroneous, as Moses had _nothing whatever_ to do with these five books.
Bishop Colenso, speaking of this, says:
"The books of the Pentateuch _are never ascribed to Moses in
the inscriptions of Hebrew manuscripts, or in printed copies
of the Hebrew Bible_. Nor are they styled the '_Books of
Moses_' in the Septuagint[92:1] or Vulgate,[92:2] _but only in
our modern translations_, after the example of many eminent
Fathers of the Church, who, with the exception of Jerome, and,
perhaps, Origen, were, one and all of them, very little
acquainted with the Hebrew language, and still less with its
criticism."[92:3]
The author of "The Religion of Israel," referring to this subject, says:
"The Jews who lived _after_ the Babylonish Captivity, and the
Christians following their examples, ascribed these books (the
Pentateuch) to Moses; and for many centuries the _notion_ was
cherished that he had really written them. _But strict and
impartial investigation has shown that this opinion must be
given up_; and that _nothing_ in the whole Law really comes
from Moses himself except the Ten Commandments. _And even
these were not delivered by him in the same form as we find
them now._ If we still call these books by his name, it is
only because the Israelites always thought of him as their
first and greatest law-giver, _and the actual authors grouped
all their narratives and laws around his figure, and
associated them with his name_."[92:4]
As we cannot go into an extended account, and show _how this is known_,
we will simply say that it is principally by _internal_ evidence that
these facts are ascertained.[92:5]
Now that we have seen that Moses did not write the books of the
Pentateuch, our next endeavor will be to ascertain _when_ they were
written, and _by whom_.
We can say that they were not written by any _one_ person, nor were they
written _at the same time_.
We can trace _three_ principal redactions of the Pentateuch, that is to
say, the material was _worked over_, and _re-edited_, with
_modifications_ and _additions_, by _different people_, at _three
distinct epochs_.[93:1]
The two principal writers are generally known as the _Jehovistic_ and
the _Elohistic_. We have--in speaking of the "Eden Myth" and the legend
of the "Deluge"--already alluded to this fact, and have illustrated how
these writers' narratives conflict with each other.
The _Jehovistic_ writer is supposed to have been a prophet, who, it
would seem, was anxious to give Israel a history. He begins at Genesis,
ii. 4, with a _short_ account, of the "_Creation_," and then he carries
the story on regularly until the Israelites enter Canaan. It is to him
that we are indebted for the _charming_ pictures of the patriarchs. _He
took these from other writings, or from the popular legends._[93:2]
About 725 B. C. the Israelites were conquered by Salmanassar, King of
Assyria, and many of them were carried away captives. _Their place was
supplied by Assyrian colonists from Babylon, Persia, and other
places._[93:3] This fact is of the greatest importance, and should not
be forgotten, as we find that the _first_ of the three writers of the
Pentateuch, spoken of above, _wrote about this time_, and the Israelites
heard, _from the colonists from Babylon, Persia, and other places--for
the first time--many of the legends which this writer wove into the
fabulous history which he wrote, especially the accounts of the Creation
and the Deluge_.
The Pentateuch remained in this, its _first_ form, until the year 620 B.
C. Then a certain _priest_ of marked prophetic sympathies wrote a book
of law which has come down to us in Deuteronomy, iv. 44, to xxvi., and
xxviii. Here we find the demands which the _Mosaic_ party at _that day_
were making thrown into the form of laws. It was by King Josiah that
this book was first introduced and proclaimed as authoritative.[93:4] It
was soon afterwards _wove into_ the work of the _first_ Pentateuchian
writer, and at the same time "_a few new passages_" were added, some of
which related to Joshua, the successor of Moses.[94:1]
At this period in Israel's history, Jehovah had become almost forgotten,
and "other gods" had taken his place.[94:2] The Mosaic party, so
called--who worshiped Jehovah exclusively--were in the minority, but
when King Amon--who was a worshiper of Moloch--died, and was succeeded
by his son Josiah, a change immediately took place. This young prince,
who was only eight years old at the death of his father, the Mosaic
party succeeded in winning over to their interests. In the year 621 B.
C., Josiah, now in the eighteenth year of his reign, began a thorough
reformation which completely answered to the ideas of the Mosaic
party.[94:3]
It was during this time that the _second_ Pentateuchian writer wrote,
and _he_ makes _Moses_ speak as the law-giver. This writer was probably
Hilkiah, _who claimed to have found a book, written by Moses, in the
temple,[94:4] although it had only just been drawn up_.[94:5]
The principal objections which _were_ brought against the claims of
Hilkiah, _but which are not needed in the present age of inquiry_, was
that Shaphan and Josiah read it off, not as if it were an _old_ book,
_but as though it had been recently written_, when any person who is
acquainted, in the slightest degree, with language, must know that a man
could not read off, at once, _a book written eight hundred years
before_. The phraseology would necessarily be so altered by time as to
render it comparatively unintelligible.
We must now turn to the _third_ Pentateuchian writer, _whose writings
were published 444 B. C._
At that time Ezra (or Ezdras) _added_ to the work of his two
_predecessors_ a series of _laws_ and _narratives_ which had been drawn
up _by some of the priests in Babylon_.[94:6] This "series of laws and
narratives," which was written by "some of the (Israelitish) priests in
Babylon," was called "_The Book of Origins_" (probably containing the
Babylonian account of the "_Origin of Things_," or the "_Creation_").
Ezra brought the book from _Babylon_ to Jerusalem. He made some
modifications in it and constituted it a code of law for Israel,
_dove-tailing it into those parts of the Pentateuch which existed
before_. A few _alterations_ and _additions_ were subsequently made,
but these are of minor importance, and we may fairly say _that Ezra put
the Pentateuch into the form in which we have it_ (about 444 B. C.).
These priestly passages are partly occupied with historical matter,
comprising a very free account of things from the creation of the world
to the arrival of Israel in Canaan. Everything is here presented from
the _priestly_ point of view; some events, elsewhere recorded, are
_touched up in the priestly spirit, and others are entirely
invented_.[95:1]
It was the belief of the Jews, asserted by the _Pirke Aboth_ (Sayings of
the Fathers), one of the oldest books of the _Talmud_,[95:2] as well as
other Jewish records, that Ezra, acting in accordance with a divine
commission, re-wrote the Old Testament, the manuscripts of which were
said to have been lost in the destruction of the first temple, when
Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem.[95:3] This we _know_ could not have been
the case. The fact that Ezra wrote--adding to, and taking from the
already existing books of the Pentateuch--was probably the foundation
for this tradition. The account of it is to be found in the Apocryphal
book of Esdras, a book deemed authentic by the Greek Church.
Dr. Knappert, speaking of this, says:
"For many centuries, both the Christians and the Jews supposed
that Ezra had brought together the sacred writings of his
people, united them in one whole, and introduced them as a
book given by the Spirit of God--a Holy Scripture.
"The only authority for this supposition was a very modern and
altogether untrustworthy _tradition_. The historical and
critical studies of our times have been emancipated from the
influence of this tradition, and the most ancient statements
with regard to the subject have been hunted up and compared
together. These statements are, indeed, scanty and incomplete,
and many a detail is still obscure; but the main facts have
been completely ascertained.
"_Before the Babylonish captivity, Israel had no sacred
writings._ There were certain laws, prophetic writings, and a
few historical books, but no one had ever thought of ascribing
binding and divine authority to these documents.
"_Ezra brought the priestly law with him from Babylon,
altering it and amalgamating it with the narratives and laws
already in existence, and thus produced the Pentateuch in
pretty much the same form_ (though not quite, as we shall
show) _as we still have it. These books got the name of the
'Law of Moses,' or simply the 'Law.'_ Ezra introduced them
into Israel (B. C. 444), and gave them binding authority, _and
from that time forward they were considered divine_."[95:4]
From the time of Ezra until the year 287 B. C., when the Pentateuch was
translated into Greek by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt,
these books evidently underwent some changes. This the writer quoted
above admits, in saying:
"Later still (viz., after the time of Ezra), _a few more
changes and additions were made_, and so the Pentateuch grew
into its present form."[96:1]
In answer to those who claim that the Pentateuch was written by _one_
person, Bishop Colenso says:
"It is certainly inconceivable that if the _Pentateuch_ be the
production of _one and the same hand throughout_, it should
contain _such a number of glaring inconsistencies_. . . . No
single author could have been guilty of such absurdities; but
it is quite possible, and what was almost sure to happen in
such a case, that, if the Pentateuch be the work of _different
authors_ in _different ages_, this fact should betray itself
_by the existence of contradictions in the narrative_."[96:2]
Having ascertained the origin of the Pentateuch, or first five books of
the Old Testament, it will be unnecessary to refer to the others _here_,
as we have nothing to do with _them_ in our investigations. Suffice it
to say then, that: "In the earlier period after Ezra, _none of the other
books_ which already existed, enjoyed the same authority as the
Pentateuch."[96:3]
It is probable[96:4] that Nehemiah made a collection of historical and
prophetic books, songs, _and letters from Persian kings_, not to form a
second collection, but for the purpose of saving them from being lost.
The scribes of Jerusalem, followers of Ezra, who were known as "the men
of the Great Synagogue," _were the collectors of the second and third
divisions of the Old Testament_. They collected together the historical
and prophetic books, songs, &c., which were then in existence, _and
after altering many of them_, they were added to the collection of
_sacred_ books. It must not be supposed that any fixed plan was pursued
in this work, _or that the idea was entertained from the first, that
these books would one day stand on the same level with the
Pentateuch_.[96:5]
In the course of time, however, many of the Jews began to consider
_some_ of these books as _sacred_. The Alexandrian Jews adopted books
into the canon which those of Jerusalem did not, _and this difference of
opinion lasted for a long time, even till the second century after
Christ. It was not until this time that all the books of the Old
Testament acquired divine authority._[96:6] It is not known, however,
_just when_ the canon of the Old Testament was closed. _The time and
manner in which it was done is altogether obscure._[97:1] Jewish
tradition indicates that the full canonicity of several books was not
free from doubt till the time of the famous Rabbi Akiba,[97:2] who
flourished about the beginning of the second century after Christ.[97:3]
After giving a history of the books of the Old Testament, the author of
"The Religion of Israel," whom we have followed in this investigation,
says:
"The great majority of the writers of the Old Testament had no
other source of information about the past history of Israel
than simple _tradition_. Indeed, it could not have been
otherwise, for in primitive times no one used to record
anything in writing, and the only way of preserving a
knowledge of the past was to hand it down by word of mouth.
The father told the son what his elders had told him, and the
son handed it on to the next generation.
"Not only did the historian of Israel draw from tradition with
perfect freedom, and write down without hesitation anything
they heard and what was current in the mouths of the people,
_but they did not shrink from modifying their representation
of the past in any way that they thought would be good and
useful_. It is difficult for us to look at things from this
point of view, because our ideas of historical good faith are
so utterly different. When we write history, we know that we
ought to be guided solely by a desire to represent facts
exactly as they really happened. All that we are concerned
with is _reality_; we want to make the old times live again,
and we take all possible pains not to remodel the past from
the point of view of to-day. All we want to know is what
happened, and how men lived, thought, and worked in those
days. The Israelites had a very different notion of the nature
of historical composition. When a prophet or a priest related
something about bygone times, his object was not to convey
knowledge about those times; on the contrary, he used history
merely as a vehicle for the conveyance of instruction and
exhortation. Not only did he confine his narrative to such
matters as he thought would serve his purpose but he never
hesitated to modify what he knew of the past, _and he did not
think twice about touching it up from his own imagination,
simply that it might be more conducive to the end he had in
view and chime in better with his opinions. All the past
became colored through and through with the tinge of his own
mind._ Our own notions of honor and good faith would never
permit all this; but we must not measure ancient writers by
our own standard; they considered that they were acting quite
within their rights and in strict accordance with duty and
conscience."[97:4]
It will be noticed that, in our investigations on the authority of the
Pentateuch, we have followed, principally, Dr. Knappert's ideas as set
forth in "The Religion of Israel."
This we have done because we could not go into an extended
investigation, and because his words are very expressive, and just to
the point. To those who may think that his ideas are not the same as
those entertained by other Biblical scholars of the present day, we
subjoin, in a note below, a list of works to which they are
referred.[98:1]
We shall now, after giving a brief history of the Pentateuch, refer to
the legends of which we have been treating, and endeavor to show from
whence the Hebrews borrowed them. The first of these is "_The Creation
and Fall of Man_."
Egypt, the country out of which the Israelites came, had no story of the
Creation and Fall of Man, _such as we have found among the Hebrews_;
they therefore could not have learned it from _them_. The _Chaldeans_,
however, as we saw in our first chapter, had this legend, and it is from
them that the Hebrews borrowed it.
The account which we have given of the Chaldean story of the Creation
and Fall of Man, was taken, as we stated, from the writings of Berosus,
the Chaldean historian, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great
(356-325 B. C.), and as the Jews were acquainted with the story some
centuries earlier than this, his works did not prove that these
traditions were in Babylonia before the Jewish captivity, and could not
afford testimony in favor of the statement that the Jews borrowed this
legend from the Babylonians _at that time_. It was left for Mr. George
Smith, of the British Museum, to establish, without a doubt, the fact
that this legend was known to the Babylonians at least _two thousand
years before the time assigned for the birth of Jesus_. The cuneiform
inscriptions discovered by him, while on an expedition to Assyria,
organized by the London "Daily Telegraph," was the means of doing this,
and although by far the greatest number of these tablets belong to the
age of Assurbanipal, who reigned over Assyria B. C. 670, it is
"acknowledged on all hands that these tablets are not the originals,
_but are only copies from earlier texts_." "The Assyrians acknowledge
themselves that this literature was borrowed from Babylonian sources,
and of course it is to Babylonia we have to look to ascertain the
approximate dates of the original documents."[98:2] Mr. Smith then
shows, from "fragments of the Cuneiform account of the Creation and
Fall" which have been discovered, that, "_in the period from B. C. 2000
to 1500, the Babylonians believed in a story similar to that in
Genesis_." It is probable, however, says Mr. Smith, that this legend
existed as _traditions_ in the country _long before it was committed to
writing_, and some of these traditions exhibited great difference in
details, _showing that they had passed through many changes_.[99:1]
Professor James Fergusson, in his celebrated work on "Tree and Serpent
Worship," says:
"The two chapters which refer to this (_i. e._, the Garden,
the Tree, and the Serpent), as indeed the whole of the first
eight of Genesis, are now generally admitted by scholars to be
made up of fragments of earlier books or earlier traditions,
belonging, properly speaking, to Mesopotamia rather than to
Jewish history, the exact meaning of which the writers of the
Pentateuch seem hardly to have appreciated when they
transcribed them in the form in which they are now
found."[99:2]
John Fiske says:
"The story of the Serpent in Eden is an Aryan story in every
particular. The notion of Satan as the author of evil appears
only in the later books, _composed after the Jews had come
into close contact with Persian ideas_."[99:3]
Prof. John W. Draper says:
"In the old legends of dualism, the evil spirit was said to
have _sent a serpent to ruin Paradise_. These legends became
known to the Jews _during their Babylonian captivity_."[99:4]
Professor Goldziher also shows, in his "Mythology Among the
Hebrews,"[99:5] that the story of the creation was borrowed by the
Hebrews from the Babylonians. He also informs us that the notion of the
_bôrê_ and _yôsêr_, "Creator" (the term used in the cosmogony in
Genesis) as an integral part of the idea of God, _are first brought into
use by the prophets of the captivity_. "Thus also the story of the
_Garden of Eden_, as a supplement to the history of the Creation, _was
written down at Babylon_."
Strange as it may appear, after the _Genesis_ account, we may pass
through the whole Pentateuch, and other books of the Old Testament,
clear to the end, and will find that the story of the "_Garden of Eden_"
and "_Fall of Man_," is hardly alluded to, if at all. Lengkerke says:
"One single _certain_ trace of the employment of the story of Adam's
fall is entirely wanting in the Hebrew Canon (after the Genesis
account). Adam, Eve, the Serpent, the woman's seduction of her husband,
&c., are all images, _to which the remaining words of the Israelites
never again recur_."[100:1]
This circumstance can only be explained by the fact that the first
chapters of Genesis were not written until _after_ the other portions
had been written.
It is worthy of notice, that this story of the Fall of Man, upon which
the whole orthodox scheme of a divine Saviour or Redeemer is based, was
_not_ considered by the learned Israelites as _fact_. They simply looked
upon it as a story which satisfied the ignorant, but which should be
considered as _allegory_ by the learned.[100:2]
Rabbi Maimonides (Moses Ben Maimon), one of the most celebrated of the
Rabbis, says on this subject:--
"We must not understand, or take in a literal sense, what is
written in _the book_ on the _Creation_, nor form of it the
same ideas which are participated by the generality of
mankind; _otherwise our ancient sages would not have so much
recommended to us, to hide the real meaning of it, and not to
lift the allegorical veil, which covers the truth contained
therein_. When taken in its _literal sense_, the work gives
the most absurd and most extravagant ideas of the Deity.
'Whosoever should divine its true meaning ought to take great
care in not divulging it.' This is a maxim repeated to us by
all our sages, principally concerning the understanding of the
work of the six days."[100:3]
Philo, a Jewish writer contemporary with Jesus, held the same opinion of
the character of the sacred books of the Hebrews. He has made two
particular treatises, bearing the title of "_The Allegories_," and he
traces back to the _allegorical_ sense the "Tree of Life," the "Rivers
of Paradise," and the other fictions of the Genesis.[100:4]
Many of the early Christian Fathers declared that, in the story of the
Creation and Fall of Man, there was but an _allegorical fiction_. Among
these may be mentioned St. Augustine, who speaks of it in his "City of
God," and also Origen, who says:
"What man of sense will agree with the statement that the
first, second, and third days, in which the _evening_ is named
and the _morning_, were without sun, moon and stars? What man
is found such an idiot as to suppose that God planted trees in
Paradise like an husbandman? _I believe that every man must
hold these things for images under which a hidden sense is
concealed._"[100:5]
Origen believed aright, as it is now almost universally admitted, that
the stories of the "Garden of Eden," the "Elysian Fields," the "Garden
of the Blessed," &c., which were the abode of the blessed, where grief
and sorrow could not approach them, where plague and sickness could not
touch them, were founded on _allegory_. These abodes of delight were far
away in the _West_, where the sun goes down beyond the bounds of the
earth. They were the "Golden Islands" sailing in a sea of blue--_the
burnished clouds floating in the pure ether_. In a word, _the "Elysian
Fields" are the clouds at eventide_. The picture was suggested by the
images drawn from the phenomena of sunset and twilight.[101:1]
Eating of the forbidden fruit was simply a figurative mode of expressing
the performance of the act necessary to the perpetuation of the human
race. The "Tree of Knowledge" was a Phallic tree, and the fruit which
grew upon it was Phallic fruit.[101:2]
In regard to the story of "_The Deluge_," we have already seen[101:3]
that "Egyptian records tell nothing of a cataclysmal deluge," and that,
"the land was _never_ visited by other than its annual beneficent
overflow of the river Nile." Also, that "the Pharaoh Khoufou-cheops was
building his pyramid, according to Egyptian chronicle, when the whole
world was under the waters of a universal deluge, according to the
Hebrew chronicle." This is sufficient evidence that the Hebrews did not
borrow the legend from the Egyptians.
We have also seen, in the chapter that treated of this legend, that it
corresponded in all the principal features with the _Chaldean_ account.
We shall now show that it was taken from this.
Mr. Smith discovered, on the site of Ninevah, during the years 1873-4,
cylinders belonging to the early Babylonian monarchy, (from 2500 to 1500
B. C.) which contained the legend of the flood,[101:4] and which we gave
in Chapter II. _This was the foundation for the Hebrew legend, and they
learned it at the time of the Captivity._[101:5] The myth of Deucalion,
the Grecian hero, was also taken from the same source. The Greeks
learned it from the Chaldeans.
We read in Chambers's Encyclopædia, that:
"It was at one time extensively believed, even by intelligent
scholars, that the myth of Deucalion was a corrupted
tradition of the _Noachian_ deluge, but this _untenable_
opinion is now all but universally abandoned."[102:1]
This idea was abandoned after it was found that the Deucalion myth was
older than the Hebrew.
What was said in regard to the Eden story not being mentioned in other
portions of the Old Testament save in Genesis, also applies to this
story of the Deluge. _Nowhere_ in the other books of the Old Testament
is found any reference to this story, except in Isaiah, where "the
waters of Noah" are mentioned, and in Ezekiel, where simply the _name_
of Noah is mentioned.
We stated in Chapter II. that some persons saw in this story an
_astronomical_ myth. Although not generally admitted, yet there are very
strong reasons for believing this to be the case.
According to the _Chaldean_ account--which is the oldest one
known--there were _seven_ persons saved in the ark.[102:2] There were
also _seven_ persons saved, according to some of the _Hindoo_
accounts.[102:3] That this referred to the sun, moon, and five planets
looks very probable. We have also seen that Noah was the _tenth_
patriarch, and Xisuthrus (who is the Chaldean hero) was the _tenth_
king.[102:4] Now, according to the Babylonian table, their _Zodiac_
contained _ten_ gods called the "_Ten Zodiac_ gods."[102:5] They also
believed that whenever all the _planets_ met in the sign of Capricorn,
_the whole earth was overwhelmed with a deluge of water_.[102:6] The
_Hindoos_ and other nations had a similar belief.[102:7]
It is well known that the Chaldeans were great astronomers. When
Alexander the Great conquered the city of Babylon, the Chaldean priests
boasted to the Greek philosophers, who followed his army, that they had
continued their astronomical calculations through a period of more than
forty thousand years.[102:8] Although this statement cannot be credited,
yet the great antiquity of Chaldea cannot be doubted, and its immediate
connection with Hindostan, or Egypt, is abundantly proved by the little
that is known concerning its religion, and by the few fragments that
remain of its former grandeur.
In regard to the story of "_The Tower of Babel_" little need be said.
This, as well as the story of the Creation and Fall of Man, and the
Deluge, was borrowed from the Babylonians.[102:9]
"It seems," says George Smith, "from the indications in the (cuneiform)
inscriptions, that there happened in the interval between 2000 and 1850
B. C. a general _collection_ of the development of the various
traditions of the Creation, Flood, Tower of Babel, and other similar
legends." "These legends were, however, traditions before they were
committed to writing, _and were common in some form to all the
country_."[103:1]
The Tower of Babel, or the confusion of tongues, is nowhere alluded to
in the Old Testament outside of Genesis, where the story is related.
The next story in order is "_The Trial of Abraham's Faith_."
In this connection we have shown similar legends taken from _Grecian_
mythology, which legends may have given _the idea_ to the writer of the
Hebrew story.
It may appear strange that the _Hebrews_ should have been acquainted
with _Grecian_ mythology, yet we know this was the case. The fact is
accounted for in the following manner:
Many of the Jews taken captive at the Edomite sack of Jerusalem were
sold to the _Grecians_,[103:2] who took them to their country. While
there, they became acquainted with Grecian legends, and when they
returned from "the Islands of the Sea"--as they called the Western
countries--_they brought them to Jerusalem_.[103:3]
This legend, as we stated in the chapter which treated of it, was
written at the time when the Mosaic party in Israel were endeavoring to
abolish human sacrifices and other "abominations," and the author of the
story invented it to make it appear that the Lord had abolished them in
the time of Abraham. The earliest _Targum_[103:4] knows nothing about
the legend, showing that the story was not in the Pentateuch at the time
this Targum was written.
We have also seen that a story written by Sanchoniathon (about B. C.
1300) of one Saturn, whom the Phenicians called _Israel_, bore a
resemblance to the Hebrew legend of Abraham. Now, Count de Volney
tells us that "a similar tradition prevailed among the _Chaldeans_,"
and that they had the history of one _Zerban_--which means
"rich-in-gold"[103:5]--that corresponded in many respects with the
history of Abraham.[103:6] It may, then, have been from the Chaldean
story that the Hebrew fable writer got his idea.
The next legend which we examined was that of "_Jacob's Vision of the
Ladder_." We claimed that it probably referred to the doctrine of the
transmigration of souls from one body into another, and also gave the
apparent reason for the invention of the story.
The next story was "_The Exodus from Egypt, and Passage through the Red
Sea_," in which we showed, from Egyptian history, that the Israelites
were _turned out_ of the country on account of their uncleanness, and
that the wonderful exploits recorded of Moses were simply copies of
legends related of the sun-god Bacchus. These legends came from "the
Islands of the Sea," and came in very handy for the Hebrew fable
writers; they saved them the trouble of _inventing_.
We now come to the story relating to "_The Receiving of the Ten
Commandments_" by Moses from the Lord, on the top of a mountain, 'mid
thunders and lightnings.
All that is likely to be historical in this account, is that Moses
assembled, not, indeed, the whole of the people, but the heads of the
tribes, and gave them the code which he had prepared.[104:1] The
_marvellous_ portion of the story was evidently copied from that related
of the law-giver Zoroaster, by the _Persians_, and the idea that there
were _two_ tables of stone with the Law written thereon was evidently
taken from the story of Bacchus, the Law-giver, who had _his_ laws
written on _two tables of stone_.[104:2]
The next legend treated was that of "_Samson and his Exploits_."
Those who, _like the learned of the last century_, maintain that the
Pagans copied from the Hebrews, may say that Samson was the model of all
their similar stories, but now that our ideas concerning antiquity are
enlarged, and when we know that Hercules is well known to have been the
God _Sol_, whose _allegorical history_ was spread among many nations
long before the Hebrews were ever heard of, we are authorized to believe
and to say that some Jewish _mythologist_--for what else are their
so-called historians--composed the anecdote of Samson, by partly
disfiguring the popular traditions of the Greeks, Phenicians and
Chaldeans, and claiming that hero for his own nation.[104:3]
The Babylonian story of Izdubar, the lion-killer, who wandered to _the
regions of the blessed_ (the Grecian Elysium), who crossed _a great
waste of land_ (the desert of _Lybia_, according to the Grecian mythos),
and arrived at a region _where splendid trees were laden with jewels_
(the Grecian Garden of the Hesperides), is probably the foundation for
the Hercules and other corresponding myths. This conclusion is drawn
from the fact that, although the story of Hercules was known in the
island of Thasus, by the _Phenician_ colony settled there, _five
centuries before he was known in Greece_,[105:1] yet _its antiquity
among the Babylonians antedates that_.
The age of the legends of Izdubar among the Babylonians cannot be placed
with certainty, yet, the cuneiform inscriptions relating to this hero,
which have been found, may be placed at about 2000 years B. C.[105:2]
"As these stories were _traditions_," says Mr. Smith, the discoverer of
the cylinders, "before they were committed to writing, their antiquity
as tradition is probably much greater than that."[105:3]
With these legends before them, the Jewish priests in Babylon had no
difficulty in arranging the story of Samson, and adding it to their
already fabulous history.
As the Rev. Dr. Isaac M. Wise remarks, in speaking of the ancient
Hebrews: "They adopted forms, terms, ideas and myths of all nations with
whom they came in contact, and, like the Greeks, in their way, _cast
them all in a peculiar Jewish religious mold_."
We have seen, in the chapter which treats of this legend, that it is
recorded in the book of Judges. _This book was not written till after
the first set of Israelites had been carried into captivity, and perhaps
still later._[105:4]
After this we have "_Jonah swallowed by a Big Fish_," which is the last
legend treated.
We saw that it was a _solar myth_, known to many nations of antiquity.
The writer of the book--whoever he may have been--_lived in the fifth
century before Christ_--after the Jews had become acquainted and had
mixed with other nations. The writer of this wholly fictitious story,
taking the prophet Jonah--who was evidently an historical personage--for
his hero, was perhaps intending to show the loving-kindness of
Jehovah.[105:5]
We have now examined all the _principal_ Old Testament legends, and,
after what has been seen, we think that no _impartial_ person can still
consider them _historical facts_. That so great a number of educated
persons still do so seems astonishing, in our way of thinking. They have
repudiated Greek and Roman mythology with disdain; why then admit with
respect the mythology of the Jews? Ought the miracles of Jehovah to
impress us more than those of Jupiter? We think not; they should all be
looked upon as _relics of the past_.
That Christian writers are beginning to be aroused to the idea that
another tack should be taken, differing from the old, is very evident.
This is clearly seen by the words of Prof. Richard A. Armstrong, the
translator of Dr. Knappert's "Religion of Israel" into English. In the
_Preface_ of this work, he says:
"It appears to me to be profoundly important that the youthful
English mind should be faithfully and accurately informed of
the results of modern research into the early development of
the Israelitish religion. Deplorable and irreparable mischief
will be done to the generation, now passing into manhood and
womanhood, if their educators leave them ignorant or loosely
informed on these topics; for they will then be rudely
awakened by the enemies of Christianity from a blind and
unreasoning faith in the supernatural inspiration of the
Scriptures; and being suddenly and bluntly made aware that
Abraham, Moses, David, and the rest did not say, do, or write
what has been ascribed to them, they will fling away all care
for the venerable religion of Israel and all hope that it can
nourish their own religious life. How much happier will those
of our children and young people be who learn what is now
known of the actual origin of the Pentateuch and the Writings,
from the same lips which have taught them that the Prophets
indeed prepared the way for Jesus, and that God is indeed our
Heavenly Father. For these will, without difficulty, perceive
that God's love is none the feebler and that the Bible is no
less precious, because Moses knew nothing of the Levitical
legislation, or because it was not the warrior monarch on his
semi-barbaric throne, but some far later son of Israel, who
breathed forth the immortal hymn of faith, 'The Lord is my
Shepherd; I shall not want.'"
For the benefit of those who may think that the evidence of plagiarism
on the part of the Hebrew writers has not been sufficiently
substantiated, we will quote a few words from Prof. Max Müller, who is
one of the best English authorities on this subject that can be
produced. In speaking of this he says:
"The opinion that the _Pagan_ religions were mere corruptions
of the religion of the Old Testament, once supported by men of
high authority and great learning, _is now as completely
surrendered as the attempts of explaining Greek and Latin as
the corruptions of Hebrew_."[106:1]
Again he says:
"As soon as the ancient language and religion of India became
known in Europe it was asserted that Sanskrit, _like all other
languages_, was to be derived from Hebrew, and the ancient
religion of the Brahmans from the Old Testament. There was at
that time an enthusiasm among Oriental scholars, particularly
at Calcutta, and an interest for Oriental antiquities in the
public at large, of which we, in these days of apathy for
Eastern literature, can hardly form an adequate idea.
Everybody wished to be first in the field, and to bring to
light some of the treasures which were supposed to be hidden
in the sacred literature of the Brahmans. . . . No doubt the
temptation was great. No one could look down for a moment into
the rich mine of religious and mythological lore that was
suddenly opened before the eyes of scholars and theologians,
_without being struck by a host of similarities, not only in
the languages, but also in the ancient traditions of the
Hindoos_, the Greeks, and the Romans; and if at that time the
Greeks and Romans were still _supposed_ to have borrowed their
language and their religion from Jewish quarters, _the same
conclusion could hardly be avoided with regard to the language
and the religion of the Brahmans of India_. . . .
"The student of Pagan religion as well as Christian
missionaries were bent on discovering more striking and more
startling coincidences, _in order to use them in confirmation
of their favorite theory that some rays of a primeval
revelation, or some reflection of the Jewish religion, had
reached the uttermost ends of the world_."[107:1]
The result of all this is summed up by Prof. Müller as follows:
"_It was the fate of all (these) pioneers, not only to be left
behind in the assault which they had planned, but to find that
many of their approaches were made in a false direction, and
had to be abandoned._"[107:2]
Before closing this chapter, we shall say a few words on the religion of
Israel. It is supposed by many--in fact, we have heard it asserted by
those who should know better--that the Israelites were always
_monotheists_, that they worshiped One God only--_Jehovah_.[107:3] This
is altogether erroneous; they were not different from their
neighbors--the Heathen, so-called--in regard to their religion.
In the first place, we know that they revered and worshiped a _Bull_,
called _Apis_,[107:4] just as the ancient Egyptians did. They worshiped
the _sun_,[108:1] the _moon_,[108:2] the _stars_ and all the host of
heaven.[108:3]
They worshiped _fire_, and kept it burning on an altar, just as the
Persians and other nations.[108:4] They worshiped _stones_,[108:5]
revered an _oak tree_,[108:6] and "bowed down" to _images_.[108:7] They
worshiped a "Queen of Heaven" called the goddess _Astarte_ or _Mylitta_,
and "burned incense" to her.[108:8] They worshiped _Baal_,[108:9]
Moloch,[108:10] and _Chemosh_,[108:11] _and offered up human sacrifices
to them_,[108:12] after which in some instances, _they ate the
victim_.[108:13]
It was during the Captivity that idolatry ceased among the
Israelites.[108:14] The Babylonian Captivity is clearly referred to in
the book of Deuteronomy, as the close of Israel's idolatry.[108:15]
There is reason to believe that the real genius of the people was first
called into full exercise, and put on its career of development at this
time; that Babylon was a _forcing nursery_, not a prison cell; _creating
instead of stifling a nation_. The astonishing outburst of intellectual
and moral energy that accompanied the return from the Babylonish
Captivity, attests the spiritual activity of that "mysterious and
momentous" time. As Prof. Goldziher says: "The intellect of _Babylon_
and _Assyria_ exerted a more than passing influence on that of the
_Hebrews_, not merely touching it, but _entering deep into it_, and
_leaving its own impression upon it_."[108:16]
This impression we have already partly seen in the legends which they
borrowed, and it may also be seen in the religious ideas which they
imbibed.
The Assyrian colonies which came and occupied the land of the tribes of
Israel filled the kingdom of Samaria with the dogma of the _Magi_, which
very soon penetrated into the kingdom of Judah. Afterward, Jerusalem
being subjugated, the defenseless country was entered by persons of
different nationalities, who introduced their opinions, and in this way,
the religion of Israel was doubly mutilated. Besides, the priests and
great men, who were transported to Babylon, were educated in the
sciences of the Chaldeans, and imbibed, during a residence of fifty
years, nearly the whole of their theology. It was not until this time
that the dogmas of the hostile genius (Satan), the angels Michael,
Uriel, Yar, Nisan, &c., the rebel angels, the battle in heaven, the
immortality of the soul, and the resurrection, were introduced and
naturalized among the Jews.[109:1]
* * * * *
NOTE.--It is not generally known that the Jews were removed from their
own land until the time of the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar, but there is
evidence that Jerusalem was plundered by the _Edomites_ about 800 B. C.,
who sold some of the captive Jews to the Greeks (Joel, iii. 6). When the
captives returned to their country from "the Islands which are beyond
the sea" (Jer. xxv. 18, 22), they would naturally bring back with them
much of the Hellenic lore of their conquerors. In Isaiah (xi. 11), we
find a reference to this first captivity in the following words: "In
that day the Lord shall set his hand again the _second time_ to recover
the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from
Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar,
and from Hamath, and from the _Islands of the sea_;" i. e., GREECE.
FOOTNOTES:
[89:1] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 111, _et seq._
[89:2] Bell's Pantheon, under "Perseus;" Knight: Ancient Art and Mytho.,
p. 178, and Bulfinch: Age of Fables, p. 161.
[90:1] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 118. Taylor's Diegesis, p. 190.
Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.
[90:2] Ibid.
[90:3] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122. Dupuis: Origin of Religious
Belief, p. 174. Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 179. Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.
[90:4] Bell's Pantheon, art. "Osiris;" and Bulfinch: Age of Fable, p.
391
[90:5] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, i. 159.
[90:6] Exodus, ii.
[90:7] See Child: Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 6, and most any work on
Buddhism.
[90:8] See Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis.
[90:9] See Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 128, _note_.
[90:10] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 213, 214.
[90:11] I. Samuel, xvii.
[91:1] See Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, p. 430, and Bulfinch: Age of
Fable, 440.
[91:2] Chapter xxii.
[91:3] See Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 188, _et seq._
[91:4] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 323.
[91:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.
[91:6] Ibid. i. 191, and ii. 241; Franklin: Bud. & Jeynes, 174.
[91:7] Hardy: Buddhist Legends, pp. 50, 53, and 140.
[91:8] See Ibid.
[91:9] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 191.
[91:10] Ibid. p. 39.
[92:1] "Septuagint."--The Old _Greek_ version of the Old Testament.
[92:2] "Vulgate."--The _Latin_ version of the Old Testament.
[92:3] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 186, 187.
[92:4] The Religion of Israel, p. 9.
[92:5] Besides the many other facts which show that the Pentateuch was
not composed until long after the time of Moses and Joshua, the
following may be mentioned as examples: _Gilgal_, mentioned in Deut. xi.
30, was not given as the name of that place till _after_ the entrance
into Canaan. _Dan_, mentioned in Genesis xiv. 14, was not so called till
long _after_ the time of Moses. In Gen. xxxvi. 31, the beginning of the
reign of the kings over Israel is spoken of _historically_, an event
which did not occur before the time of Samuel. (See, for further
information, Bishop Colenso's Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. ch. v. and
vi.)
[93:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 9.
[93:2] Ibid. p. 10.
[93:3] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Jews."
[93:4] The Religion of Israel, pp. 10, 11.
[94:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 11.
[94:2] See Ibid. pp. 120, 122.
[94:3] See Ibid. p. 122.
[94:4] The account of the _finding_ of this book by Hilkiah is to be
found in II. Chronicles, ch. xxxiv.
[94:5] See Religion of Israel, pp. 124, 125.
[94:6] Ibid. p. 11.
[95:1] The Religion of Israel, pp. 186, 187.
[95:2] "_Talmud._"--The books containing the Jewish traditions.
[95:3] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Bible."
[95:4] The Religion of Israel, pp. 240, 241.
[96:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 11.
[96:2] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. p. 178.
[96:3] The Religion of Israel, p. 241.
[96:4] On the strength of II. Maccabees, ii. 12.
[96:5] The Religion of Israel, p. 242.
[96:6] Ibid. p. 243.
[97:1] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Bible."
[97:2] Ibid.
[97:3] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Akiba."
[97:4] The Religion of Israel, pp. 19, 23.
[98:1] "What is the Bible," by J. T. Sunderland. "The Bible of To-day,"
by J. W. Chadwick. "Hebrew and Christian Records," by the Rev. Dr.
Giles, 2 vols. Prof. W. R. Smith's article on "The Bible," in the last
edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. "Introduction to the Old
Testament," by Davidson. "The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua
Examined," by Bishop Colenso. Prof. F. W. Newman's "Hebrew Monarchy."
"The Bible for Learners" (vols. i. and ii.), by Prof. Oort and others.
"The Old Testament in the Jewish Church," by Prof. Robertson Smith, and
Kuenen's "Religion of Israel."
[98:2] Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 22, 29.
[99:1] Ibid. pp. 29, 100. Also, Assyrian Discoveries, p. 397.
[99:2] Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 6, 7.
[99:3] Myths and Myth-Makers, p. 112.
[99:4] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 62.
[99:5] Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 328, _et seq._
[100:1] Quoted by Bishop Colenso: The Pentateuch Examined, iv. 283.
[100:2] "Much of the Old Testament which Christian divines, in their
ignorance of Jewish lore, have insisted on receiving and interpreting
_literally_, the informed Rabbis never dreamed of regarding as anything
but _allegorical_. The '_literalists_' they called fools. The account of
the _Creation_ was one of the portions which the unlearned were
specially forbidden to meddle with." (Greg: The Creed of Christendom, p.
80.)
[100:3] Quoted by Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 226.
[100:4] See Ibid. p. 227.
[100:5] Quoted by Dunlap: Mysteries of Adoni, p. 176. See also, Bunsen:
Keys of St. Peter, p. 406.
[101:1] See Appendix, c.
[101:2] See Westropp & Wakes, "Phallic Worship."
[101:3] In chap. ii.
[101:4] See Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 167, 168, and Chaldean Account of
Genesis.
[101:5] "Upon the carrying away of the Jews to Babylon, they were
brought into contact with a flood of Iranian as well as Chaldean myths,
_and adopted them without hesitation_." (S. Baring-Gould; Curious Myths,
p. 316.)
[102:1] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Deucalion."
[102:2] See chapter ii.
[102:3] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 185, and Maurice: Indian
Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 277.
[102:4] Chapter ii.
[102:5] See Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 153, _note_.
[102:6] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 254.
[102:7] See Ibid. p. 367.
[102:8] See Ibid. p. 252.
[102:9] Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 130-135, and Smith's Chaldean
Account of Genesis.
[103:1] Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 27, 28.
[103:2] See Note, p. 109.
[103:3] See Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 685.
[103:4] "_Targum._"--The general term for the Aramaic versions of the
Old Testament.
[103:5] In Genesis xxiii. 2, Abraham is called rich in gold and in
silver.
[103:6] See Volney's Researches in Ancient History, pp. 144-147.
[104:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 49.
[104:2] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122. Higgins: vol. ii. p. 19.
[104:3] In claiming the "mighty man" and "lion-killer" as one of their
own race, the Jews were simply doing what other nations had done before
them. The Greeks claimed Hercules as _their_ countryman; stated where he
was born, and showed his tomb. The Egyptians affirmed that he was born
in _their_ country (see Tacitus, Annals, b. ii. ch. lix.), and so did
many other nations.
[105:1] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 92, 93.
[105:2] Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 168 and 174; and Assyrian
Discoveries, p. 167.
[105:3] Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 168.
[105:4] See The Religion of Israel, p. 12; and Chadwick's Bible of
To-Day, p. 55.
[105:5] See The Religion of Israel, p. 41, and Chadwick's Bible of
To-Day, p. 24.
[106:1] The Science of Religion, p. 48.
[107:1] They even claimed that one of the "lost tribes of Israel" had
found their way to America, and had taught the natives _Hebrew_.
[107:2] The Science of Religion, pp. 285, 292.
[107:3] "It is an _assumption_ of the popular theology, and an almost
universal belief in the popular mind, that the Jewish nation was
selected by the Almighty to preserve and carry down to later ages a
knowledge of the _One_ and true God--that the Patriarchs possessed this
knowledge--that Moses delivered and enforced this doctrine as the
fundamental tenet of the national creed; and that it was, in fact, the
received and distinctive dogma of the Hebrew people. This _alleged
possession of the true faith_ by one only people, while all surrounding
tribes were lost in Polytheism, or something worse, has been adduced by
divines in general as a proof of the truth of the sacred history, and of
the divine origin of the Mosaic dispensation." (Greg: The Creed of
Christendom, p. 145.)
Even such authorities as Paley and Milman have written in this strain.
(See quotations from Paley's "_Evidences of Christianity_," and Dean
Milman's "_History of the Jews_," made by Mr. Greg in his "_Creed of
Christendom_," p. 145.)
[107:4] See the Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 321, vol. ii. p. 102; and
Dunlap: Mysteries of Adoni, p. 108.
[108:1] See the Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 317, 418; vol. ii. p.
301. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3, and his Spirit Hist., pp. 68 and
182. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 782, 783; and Goldziher: Hebrew
Mythol., pp. 227, 240, 242.
[108:2] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 317. Dunlap's Son of the Man,
p. 3; and Spirit Hist., p. 68. Also, Goldziher: Hebrew Mythol., p. 159.
[108:3] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 26, and 317; vol. ii. p. 301
and 328. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3. Dunlap's Spirit Hist., 68;
Mysteries of Adoni, pp. xvii. and 108; and The Religion of Israel, p.
38.
[108:4] Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, pp. 101, 102.
[108:5] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 175-178, 317, 322, 448.
[108:6] Ibid. 115.
[108:7] Ibid. i. 23, 321; ii. 102, 103, 109, 264, 274. Dunlap's Spirit
Hist., p. 108. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 438; vol. ii. p. 30.
[108:8] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 88, 318; vol. ii. pp. 102,
113, 300. Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. 3; and Mysteries of Adoni, p. xvii.
Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 261.
[108:9] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 21-25, 105, 391; vol. ii.
pp. 102, 136-138. Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. 3. Mysteries of Adoni, pp.
106, 177. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 782, 783. Bunsen: The Keys
of St. Peter, p. 91. Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 181. _Bal_,
_Bel_ or _Belus_ was an idol of the Chaldeans and Phenicians or
Canaanites. The word _Bal_, in the Punic language, signifies Lord or
Master. The name _Bal_ is often joined with some other, as _Bal_-berith,
_Bal_-peor, _Bal_-zephon, &c. "The Israelites made him their god, and
erected altars to him on which they offered human sacrifices," and "what
is still more unnatural, they _ate_ of the victims they offered."
(Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. pp. 113, 114.)
[108:10] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 17, 26; vol. ii. pp. 102,
299, 300. Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 110. Müller: The Science of
Religion, p. 285. _Moloch_ was a god of the Ammonites, also worshiped
among the Israelites. Solomon built a temple to him, on the Mount of
Olives, _and human sacrifices were offered to him_. (Bell's Pantheon,
vol. ii. pp. 84, 85.)
[108:11] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 153; vol. ii. pp. 71, 83,
125. Smith's Bible Dictionary art. "Chemosh."
[108:12] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 26, 117, 148, 319, 320;
vol. ii. pp. 16, 17, 299, 300. Dunlap's Spirit Hist., pp. 108, 222.
Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 100, 101. Müller: Science of
Religion, p. 261. Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. 113, 114; vol. ii. 84, 85.
[108:13] See note 9 above.
[108:14] See Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, 291.
[108:15] Ibid. p. 27.
[108:16] Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 319
[109:1] The _Talmud_ of Jerusalem expressly states that the names of the
angels and the months, such as Gabriel, Michael, Yar, Nisan, &c., came
from Babylon with the Jews. (Goldziher, p. 319.) "There is no trace of
the doctrine of Angels in the Hebrew Scriptures composed or written
before the exile." (Bunsen: The Angel Messiah, p. 285) "The Jews
adopted, during the Captivity, the idea of angels, Michael, Raphael,
Uriel, Gabriel," &c. (Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 54.) See,
for further information on this subject, Dr. Knappert's "Religion of
Israel," or Prof. Kuenen's "Religion of Israel."
PART II.
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
CHAPTER XII.
THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH OF CHRIST JESUS.
According to the dogma of the deity of Jesus, he who is said to have
lived on earth some eighteen centuries ago, as _Jesus of Nazareth_, is
second of the three persons in the Trinity, the SON, God as absolutely
as the Father and the Holy Spirit, except as eternally deriving his
existence from the Father. What, however, especially characterizes the
Son, and distinguishes him from the two other persons united with him in
the unity of the Deity, is this, that the Son, at a given moment of
time, became incarnate, and that, without losing anything of his divine
nature, he thus became possessed of a complete human nature; so that he
is at the same time, without injury to the unity of his person, "_truly
man and truly God_."
The story of the miraculous birth of Jesus is told by the _Matthew_
narrator as follows:[111:1]
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his
mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together,
she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her
husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a
public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while
he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord
appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of
David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that
which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he
shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the
prophet, saying: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and
shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."[111:2]
A Deliverer was hoped for, expected, prophesied, in the time of Jewish
misery[112:1] (and _Cyrus_ was perhaps the first referred to); but as no
one appeared who did what the Messiah, according to prophecy, should do,
they went on degrading each successive conqueror and hero from the
Messianic dignity, and are still expecting the true Deliverer. Hebrew
and Christian divines both start from the same assumed unproven
premises, viz.: that a Messiah, having been foretold, must appear; but
there they diverge, and the Jews show themselves to be the sounder
logicians of the two: the Christians assuming that Jesus was the Messiah
_intended_ (though not the one _expected_), wrest the obvious meaning of
the prophecies to show that they were fulfilled in him; while the Jews,
assuming the obvious meaning of the prophecies to be their real meaning,
argue that they were not fulfilled in Christ Jesus, and therefore that
the Messiah is yet to come.
We shall now see, in the words of Bishop Hawes: "that God should, in
some extraordinary manner, visit and dwell with man, is an idea which,
as we read the writings of the _ancient Heathens_, meets us in a
thousand different forms."
Immaculate conceptions and celestial descents were so currently received
among the ancients, that whoever had greatly distinguished himself in
the affairs of men was thought to be of supernatural lineage. Gods
descended from heaven and were made incarnate in men, and men ascended
from earth, and took their seat among the gods, so that these
incarnations and apotheosises were fast filling Olympus with divinities.
In our inquiries on this subject we shall turn first to _Asia_, where,
as the learned Thomas Maurice remarks in his _Indian Antiquities_, "in
every age, and in almost every region of the Asiatic world, there seems
uniformly to have flourished an immemorial tradition that one god had,
from all eternity, _begotten another god_."[112:2]
In India, there have been several _Avatars_, or incarnations of
Vishnu,[112:3] the most important of which is _Heri Crishna_,[112:4] or
_Crishna the Saviour_.
In the _Maha-bharata_, an Indian epic poem, written about the sixth
century B. C., Crishna is associated or identified with Vishnu the
Preserving god or Saviour.[113:1]
Sir William Jones, first President of the Royal Asiatic Society,
instituted in Bengal, says of him:
"Crishna continues to this hour the darling god of the Indian
woman. The sect of Hindoos who adore him with enthusiastic,
and almost exclusive devotion, have broached a doctrine, which
they maintain with eagerness, and which seems general in these
provinces, that he was distinct from all the _Avatars_
(incarnations) who had only an _ansa_, or a portion, of his
(_Vishnu's_) divinity, _while Crishna was the person of Vishnu
himself in human form_."[113:2]
The Rev. D. O. Allen, Missionary of the American Board, for twenty-five
years in India, speaking of Crishna, says:
"He was greater than, and distinct from, all the _Avatars_
which had only a portion of the divinity in them, while he was
the very person of Vishnu himself in human form."[113:3]
Thomas Maurice, in speaking of _Mathura_, says:
"It is particularly celebrated for having been the birth-place
of _Crishna_, who is esteemed in India, not so much an
incarnation of the divine Vishnu, _as the deity himself in
human form_."[113:4]
Again, in his "_History of Hindostan_," he says:
"It appears to me that the Hindoos, idolizing some eminent
character of antiquity, distinguished, in the early annals of
their nation, by heroic fortitude and exalted piety, have
applied to that character those ancient traditional accounts
of an _incarnate God_, or, as they not improperly term it, an
_Avatar_, which had been delivered down to them from their
ancestors, the virtuous Noachidæ, to descend amidst the
darkness and ignorance of succeeding ages, at once to reform
and instruct mankind. We have the more solid reason to affirm
this of the Avatar of Crishna, because it is allowed to be the
most illustrious of them all; since we have learned, that, in
the _seven_ preceding Avatars, the deity brought only an
_ansa_, or portion of his divinity; but, in the _eighth_, he
descended in all the plentitude of the Godhead, _and was
Vishnu himself in a human form_."[113:5]
Crishna was born of a chaste virgin,[113:6] called _Devaki_, who, on
account of her purity, was selected to become the "_mother of God_."
According to the "BHAGAVAT POORAUN," _Vishnu_ said:
"I will become incarnate at Mathura in the house of _Yadu_,
and will issue forth to mortal birth from the womb of
Devaki. . . . It is time I should display my power, and
relieve the oppressed earth from its load."[114:1]
Then a chorus of angels exclaimed:
"In the delivery of this favored woman, all nature shall have
cause to exult."[114:2]
In the sacred book of the Hindoos, called "_Vishnu Purana_," we read as
follows:
"Eulogized by the gods, Devaki bore in her womb the lotus-eyed
deity, the protector of the world. . . .
"No person could bear to gaze upon Devaki, from the light that
invested her, and those who contemplated her radiance felt
their minds disturbed. The gods, invisible to mortals,
celebrated her praises continually from the time that _Vishnu_
was contained in her person."[114:3]
Again we read:
"The divine _Vishnu himself_, the root of the vast universal
tree, inscrutable by the understandings of all gods, demons,
sages, and men, past, present, or to come, adored by Brahma
and all the deities, he who is without beginning, middle, or
end, being moved to relieve the earth of her load, descended
into the womb of Devaki, and was born as her son, Vasudeva,"
_i. e._, _Crishna_.[114:4]
Again:
"Crishna is the very _Supreme Brahma_, though it be a
_mystery_[114:5] how the Supreme _should assume the form of a
man_."[114:6]
The Hindoo belief in a divine incarnation has at least, above many
others, its logical side of conceiving that God manifests himself on
earth whenever the weakness or the errors of humanity render his
presence necessary. We find this idea expressed in one of their sacred
books called the "_Bhágavat Geeta_," wherein it says:
"I (the Supreme One said), I am made evident by my own power,
and as often as there is a decline of virtue, and an
insurrection of vice and injustice in the world, I make myself
evident, _and thus I appear from age to age_, for the
preservation of the just, the destruction of the wicked, and
the establishment of virtue."[114:7]
Crishna is recorded in the "_Bhágavat Geeta_" as saying to his beloved
disciple Arjouna:
"He, O Arjoun, who, from conviction, acknowledgeth my _divine
birth_ (upon quitting his mortal form), entereth into
me."[115:1]
Again, he says:
"The foolish, being _unacquainted with my supreme and divine
nature, as Lord of all things_, despise me in this _human
form_, trusting to the evil, diabolic, and deceitful principle
within them. They are of vain hope, of vain endeavors, of vain
wisdom, and void of reason; whilst men of great minds,
trusting to their divine natures, _discover that I am before
all things and incorruptible_, and serve me with their hearts
undiverted by other gods."[115:2]
The next in importance among the _God-begotten_ and _Virgin-born_
Saviours of India, is _Buddha_[115:3] who was born of the Virgin Maya or
Mary. He in mercy left Paradise, and came down to earth because he was
filled with compassion for the sins and miseries of mankind. He sought
to lead them into better paths, and took their sufferings upon himself,
that he might expiate their crimes, and mitigate the punishment they
must otherwise inevitably undergo.[115:4]
According to the _Fo-pen-hing_,[115:5] when Buddha was about to descend
from heaven, to be born into the world, the angels in heaven, calling to
the inhabitants of the earth, said:
"Ye mortals! adorn your earth! for Bôdhisatwa, the great
Mahâsatwa, not long hence shall descend from Tusita to be born
amongst you! make ready and prepare! Buddha is about to
descend and be born!"[115:6]
The womb that bears a Buddha is like a casket in which a relic is
placed; no other being can be conceived in the same receptacle; the
usual secretions are not formed; and from the time of conception,
Maha-maya was free from passion, and lived in the strictest
continence.[115:7]
The resemblance between this legend and the doctrine of the _perpetual
virginity_ of Mary the mother of Jesus, cannot but be remarked. The
opinion that she had ever borne other children was called heresy by
Epiphanius and Jerome, long before she had been exalted to the station
of supremacy she now occupies.[115:8]
M. l'Abbé Huc, a French Missionary, in speaking of Buddha, says:
"In the eyes of the Buddhists, this personage is sometimes a
man and sometimes a god, or rather both one and the other, _a
divine incarnation_, _a man-god_; who came into the world to
enlighten men, to redeem them, and to indicate to them the way
of safety.
"This idea of redemption by a _divine incarnation_ is so
general and popular among the Buddhists, that during our
travels in Upper Asia, we everywhere found it expressed in a
neat formula. If we addressed to a Mongol or a Thibetan the
question, 'Who is Buddha?' he would immediately reply: '_The
Saviour of Men._'"[116:1]
He further says:
"The miraculous birth of Buddha, his life and instructions,
contain a great number of the moral and dogmatic truths
professed in Christianity."[116:2]
This Angel-Messiah was regarded as the divinely chosen and incarnate
messenger, the vicar of God. He is addressed as "God of Gods," "Father
of the World," "Almighty and All-knowing Ruler," and "Redeemer of
All."[116:3] He is called also "The Holy One," "The Author of
Happiness," "The Lord," "The Possessor of All," "He who is Omnipotent
and Everlastingly to be Contemplated," "The Supreme Being, the Eternal
One," "The Divinity worthy to be Adored by the most praiseworthy of
Mankind."[116:4] He is addressed by Amora--one of his followers--thus:
"Reverence be unto thee in the form of Buddha! Reverence be
unto thee, the Lord of the Earth! Reverence be unto thee, an
incarnation of the Deity! Of the Eternal One! Reverence be
unto thee, O God, in the form of the God of Mercy; the
dispeller of pain and trouble, the Lord of all things, the
deity, the guardian of the universe, the emblem of
mercy."[116:5]
The incarnation of Gautama Buddha is recorded to have been brought about
by the descent of the divine power called The "_Holy Ghost_" upon the
Virgin _Maya_.[116:6] This Holy Ghost, or Spirit, descended in the form
of a _white elephant_. The _Tikas_ explain this as indicating power and
wisdom.[117:1]
The incarnation of the angel destined to become Buddha took place in a
spiritual manner. The Elephant is the symbol of power and wisdom; and
Buddha was considered the organ of divine power and wisdom, as he is
called in the Tikas. For these reasons Buddha is described by Buddhistic
legends as having descended from heaven in the form of an Elephant to
the place where the Virgin Maya was. But according to Chinese Buddhistic
writings, it was the Holy Ghost, or _Shing-Shin_, who descended on the
Virgin Maya.[117:2]
The _Fo-pen-hing_ says:
"If a mother, in her dream, behold
A white elephant enter her right side,
That mother, when she bears a son,
Shall bear one chief of all the world (Buddha);
Able to profit all flesh;
Equally poised between preference and dislike;
Able to save and deliver the world and men
From the deep sea of misery and grief."[117:3]
In Prof. Fergusson's "_Tree and Serpent Worship_" may be seen (Plate
xxxiii.) a representation of Maya, the mother of Buddha, asleep, and
dreaming that a white elephant appeared to her, and entered her womb.
This dream being interpreted by the Brahmans learned in the _Rig Veda_,
was considered as announcing the incarnation of him who was to be in
future the deliverer of mankind from pain and sorrow. It is, in fact,
the form which the Annunciation took in Buddhist legends.[117:4]
"----Awaked,
Bliss beyond mortal mother's filled her breast,
And over half the earth a lovely light
Forewent the morn. The strong hills shook; the waves
Sank lulled; all flowers that blow by day came forth
As 'twere high noon; down to the farthest hells
Passed the Queen's joy, as when warm sunshine thrills
Wood-glooms to gold, and into all the deeps
A tender whisper pierced. 'Oh ye,' it said,
'The dead that are to live, the live who die,
Uprise, and hear, and hope! Buddha is come!'
Whereat in Limbos numberless much peace
Spread, and the world's heart throbbed, and a wind blew
With unknown freshness over land and seas.
And when the morning dawned, and this was told,
The grey dream-readers said, 'The dream is good!
The Crab is in conjunction with the Sun;
The Queen shall bear a boy, a holy child
Of wondrous wisdom, profiting all flesh,
Who shall deliver men from ignorance,
Or rule the world, if he will deign to rule.'
In this wise was the holy Buddha born."
In Fig. 4, Plate xci., the same subject is also illustrated. Prof.
Fergusson, referring to it, says:
"Fig. 4 is another edition of a legend more frequently
repeated than almost any other in Buddhist Scriptures. It was,
with their artists, as great a favorite as the Annunciation
and Nativity were with Christian painters."[118:1]
When Buddha _avatar_ descended from the regions of the souls, and
entered the body of the Virgin Maya, her womb suddenly assumed the
appearance of clear, transparent crystal, in which Buddha appeared,
beautiful as a flower, kneeling and reclining on his hands.[118:2]
Buddha's representative on earth is the _Dalai Lama_, or _Grand Lama_,
the High Priest of the Tartars. He is regarded as the vicegerent of God,
with power to dispense divine blessings on whomsoever he will, and is
considered among the Buddhists to be a sort of divine being. He is the
Pope of Buddhism.[118:3]
The _Siamese_ had a Virgin-born God and Saviour whom they called
_Codom_. His mother, a beautiful young virgin, being inspired from
heaven, quitted the society of men and wandered into the most
unfrequented parts of a great forest, there to await the coming of a god
which had long been announced to mankind. While she was one day
prostrate in prayer, she was _impregnated by the sunbeams_. She
thereupon retired to the borders of a lake, between Siam and Cambodia,
where she was delivered of a "_heavenly boy_," which she placed within
the folds of a _lotus_, that opened to receive him. When the boy grew
up, he became a prodigy of wisdom, performed miracles, &c.[118:4]
The first Europeans who visited Cape Comorin, the most southerly
extremity of the peninsula of Hindostan, were surprised to find the
inhabitants worshiping a Lord and Saviour whom they called _Salivahana_.
They related that his father's name was Taishaca, but that he was _a
divine child horn of a Virgin_, in fact, an incarnation of the Supreme
_Vishnu_.[119:1]
The belief in a virgin-born god-man is found in the religions of China.
As Sir John Francis Davis remarks,[119:2] "China has her mythology in
common with all other nations, and under this head we must range the
persons styled _Fo-hi_ (or Fuh-he), _Shin-noong_, _Hoang-ty_ and their
immediate successors, who, like the demi gods and heroes of Grecian
fable, rescued mankind by their ability or enterprise from the most
primitive barbarism, and have since been invested with _superhuman_
attributes. The most extravagant prodigies are related of these persons,
and the most incongruous qualities attributed to them."
Dean Milman, in his "History of Christianity" (Vol. i. p. 97), refers to
the tradition, found among the Chinese, that _Fo-hi_ was born of a
virgin; and remarks that, the first Jesuit missionaries who went to
China were appalled at finding, in the mythology of that country, a
counterpart of the story of the virgin of Judea.
Fo-hi is said to have been born 3463 years B. C., and, according to some
Chinese writers, with him begins the historical era and the foundation
of the empire. When his mother conceived him in her womb, a rainbow was
seen to surround her.[119:3]
The Chinese traditions concerning the birth of Fo-hi are, some of them,
highly poetical. That which has received the widest acceptance is as
follows:
"Three nymphs came down from heaven to wash themselves in a
river; but scarce had they got there before the herb _lotus_
appeared on one of their garments, with its coral fruit upon
it. They could not imagine whence it proceeded, and one was
tempted to taste it, whereby she became pregnant and was
delivered of a boy, who afterwards became a great man, a
founder of religion, a conqueror, and legislator."[119:4]
The sect of _Xaca_, which is evidently a corruption of Buddhism, claim
that their master was also of supernatural origin. Alvarez Semedo,
speaking of them, says:
"The third religious sect among the Chinese is from India,
from the parts of Hindostan, which sect they call _Xaca_, from
the founder of it, concerning whom they fable--that he was
conceived by his mother Maya, from a white elephant, which
she saw in her sleep, and for more purity she brought him from
one of her sides."[120:1]
_Lao-kiun_, sometimes celled _Lao-tsze_, who is said to have been born
in the third year of the emperor _Ting-wang_, of the Chow dynasty (604
B. C.), was another miraculously-born man. He acquired great reputation
for sanctity, and marvelous stories were told of his birth. It was said
that he had existed from all eternity; that he had descended on earth
_and was born of a virgin_, black in complexion, described "marvelous
and beautiful as jasper." Splendid temples were erected to him, and he
was worshiped as a _god_. His disciples were called "Heavenly Teachers."
They inculcated great tenderness toward animals, and considered strict
celibacy necessary for the attainment of perfect holiness. Lao-kiun
believed in _One God_ whom he called _Tao_, and the sect which he formed
is called _Tao-tse_, or "Sect of Reason." Sir Thomas Thornton, speaking
of him, says:
"The mythological history of this 'prince of the doctrine of
the _Taou_,' which is current amongst his followers,
_represents him as a divine emanation incarnate in a human
form_. They term him the 'most high and venerable prince of
the portals of gold of the palace of the _genii_,' and say
that he condescended to a contact with humanity when he became
incorporated with the 'miraculous and excellent Virgin of
jasper.' Like Buddha, he came out of his mother's side, and
was born under a tree.
"The legends of the _Taou-tse_ declare their founder to have
existed antecedent to the birth of the elements, in the Great
Absolute; that he is the 'pure essence of the tëen;' that he
is the 'original ancestor of the prime breath of life;' and
that he gave form to the heavens and the earth."[120:2]
M. Le Compte says:
"Those who have made this (the religion of Taou-tsze) their
professed business, are called _Tien-se_, that is, 'Heavenly
Doctors;' they have houses (Monasteries) given them to live
together in society; they erect, in divers parts, temples to
their master, and king and people honor him with _divine_
worship."
_Yu_ was another _virgin-born_ Chinese sage, who is said to have lived
upon earth many ages ago. Confucius--as though he had been questioned
about him--says: "I see no defect in the character of Yu. He was sober
in eating and drinking, and eminently pious toward spirits and
ancestors."[120:3]
_Hâu-ki_, the Chinese hero, was of supernatural origin.
The following is the history of his birth, according to the "Shih-King:"
"His mother, who was childless, had presented a pure offering
and sacrificed, that her childlessness might be taken away.
She then trod on a toe-print made by God, and was
moved,[121:1] in the large place where she rested. She became
pregnant; she dwelt retired; she gave birth to and nourished a
son, who was _Hâu-ki_. When she had fulfilled her months, her
first-born son came forth like a lamb. There was no bursting,
no rending, no injury, no hurt; showing how wonderful he would
be. Did not God give her comfort? Had he not accepted her pure
offering and sacrifice, so that thus easily she brought forth
her son?"[121:2]
Even the sober Confucius (born B. C. 501) was of supernatural origin.
The most important event in Chinese literary and ethical history is the
birth of _Kung-foo-tsze_ (Confucius), both in its effects on the moral
organization of this great empire, and the study of Chinese philosophy
in Europe.
Kung-foo-tsze (meaning "the sage Kung" or "the wise excellence") was of
_royal descent_; and his family the most ancient in the empire, as his
genealogy was traceable directly up to Hwang-te, the reputed organizer
of the state, the first emperor of the semi-historical period (beginning
2696 B. C.).
At his birth a prodigious quadruped, called the Ke-lin, appeared and
prophesied that the new-born infant "would be a king without throne or
territory." Two dragons hovered about the couch of _Yen-she_ (his
mother), and five celestial sages, or angels, entered at the moment of
the birth of the wondrous child; heavenly strains were heard in the air,
and harmonious chords followed each other, fast and full. Thus was
Confucius ushered into the world.
His disciples, who were to expound his precepts, were seventy-two in
number, _twelve_ of whom were his ordinary companions, the depositories
of his thoughts, and the witnesses of all his actions. To them he
minutely explained his doctrines, and charged them with their
propagation after his death. YAN-HWUY was his favorite disciple, who, in
his opinion, had attained the highest degree of moral perfection.
Confucius addressed him in terms of great affection, which denoted that
he relied mainly upon him for the accomplishment of his work.[121:3]
Even as late as the seventeenth century of our era, do we find the myth
of the virgin-born God in China.[121:4]
All these god-begotten and virgin-born men were called _Tien-tse_, _i.
e._, "Sons of Heaven."
If from China we should turn to Egypt we would find that, for ages
before the time of Jesus of Nazareth, the mediating deity, born of a
virgin, and without a worldly father, was a portion of the Egyptian
belief.[122:1]
_Horus_, who had the epithet of "_Saviour_," was born of the virgin
Isis. "His birth was one of the greatest Mysteries of the Egyptian
religion. Pictures representing it appear on the walls of
temples."[122:2] He is "the second emanation of _Amon_, the son whom he
begot."[122:3] Egyptian monuments represent the infant Saviour in the
arms of his virgin mother, or sitting on her knee.[122:4] An inscription
on a monument, translated by Champollion, reads thus:
"O thou avenger, God, son of a God; O thou avenger, Horus,
manifested by Osiris, engendered of the goddess Isis."[122:5]
The Egyptian god _Ra_ was born from the side of his mother, _but was not
engendered_.[122:6]
The ancient Egyptians also deified kings and heroes, in the same manner
as the ancient Greeks and Romans. An Egyptian king became, in a sense,
"the vicar of God on earth, the infallible, and the personated
deity."[122:7]
P. Le Page Renouf, in his Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of Ancient
Egypt, says:
"I must not quit this part of my subject without a reference
to the belief that the ruling sovereign of Egypt was the
living image and vicegerent of the Sun-god (_Ra_). _He was
invested with the attributes of divinity_, and that in the
earliest times of which we possess monumental
evidence."[122:8]
_Menes_, who is said to have been the first king of Egypt, was believed
to be a god.[122:9]
Almost all the temples of the left bank of the Nile, at Thebes, had been
constructed in view of the worship rendered to the Pharaohs, their
founders, after their death.[122:10]
On the wall of one of these Theban temples is to be seen a picture
representing the god Thoth--the messenger of God--telling the _maiden_,
Queen Mautmes, that she is to give birth to a _divine son_, who is to be
King _Amunothph_ III.[123:1]
An inscription found in Egypt makes the god _Ra_ say to his son Ramses
III.:
"I am thy father; by me are begotten all thy members as
divine; I have formed thy shape like the Mendesian god; I have
begotten thee, impregnating thy venerable mother."[123:2]
_Raam-ses_, or _Ra-mé-ses_, means "Son of the Sun," and _Ramses Hek An_,
a name of Ramses III., means "engendered by Ra (the Sun), Prince of An
(Heliopolis)."[123:3]
"_Thotmes_ III., on the tablet of Karnak, presents offerings to his
predecessors; so does _Ramses_ on the tablet of Abydos. Even during his
life-time the Egyptian king was denominated '_Beneficent God_.'"[123:4]
The ancient Babylonians also believed that their kings were gods upon
earth. A passage from Ménaut's translation of the great inscription of
Nebuchadnezzar, reads thus:
"I am Nabu-kuder-usur . . . the first-born son of Nebu-pal-usur,
King of Babylon. The god _Bel_ himself created me, the god
_Marduk_ engendered me, and deposited himself the germ of my
life in the womb of my mother."[123:5]
In the life of _Zoroaster_, the law-giver of the _Persians_, the common
mythos is apparent. He was born in innocence, of an immaculate
conception, of a ray of the Divine Reason. As soon as he was born the
glory from his body enlightened the whole room.[123:6] Plato informs us
that Zoroaster was said to be "the son of Oromasdes, which was the name
the Persians gave to the Supreme God"[123:7]--therefore he was the _Son
of God_.
From the East we will turn to the West, and shall find that many of the
ancient heroes of Grecian and Roman mythology were regarded as of divine
origin, were represented as men, possessed of god-like form, strength
and courage; were believed to have lived on earth in the remote, dim
ages of the nation's history; to have been occupied in their life-time
with thrilling adventures and extraordinary services in the cause of
human civilization, and to have been after death in some cases
translated to a life among the gods, and entitled to sacrifice and
worship. In the hospitable Pantheon of the Greeks and Romans, a niche
was always in readiness for every new divinity who could produce
respectable credentials.
The Christian Father Justin Martyr, says:
"It having reached the Devil's ears that the prophets had
foretold the coming of Christ (_the Son of God_), he set the
_Heathen Poets_ to bring forward a great many who should be
called _the sons of Jove_. The Devil laying his scheme in
this, to get men to imagine that the _true_ history of Christ
was of the same character as the _prodigious fables_ related
of the sons of Jove."
Among these "sons of Jove" may be mentioned the following: _Hercules_
was the son of Jupiter by a mortal mother, Alcmene, Queen of
Thebes.[124:1] Zeus, the god of gods, spake of Hercules, his son, and
said: "This day shall a child be born of the race of Perseus, who shall
be the mightiest of the sons of men."[124:2]
_Bacchus_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, Semele, daughter
of Kadmus, King of Thebes.[124:3] As Montfaucon says, "It is the son of
Jupiter and Semele which the poets celebrate, and which the monuments
represent."[124:4]
Bacchus is made to say:
"I, son of Deus, am come to this land of the Thebans, Bacchus,
whom formerly Semele the daughter of Kadmus brings forth,
being delivered by the lightning-bearing flame: _and having
taken a mortal form_ instead of a god's, I have arrived at the
fountains of Dirce and the water of Ismenus."[124:5]
_Amphion_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, Antiope, daughter
of Nicetus, King of Bœotia.[124:6]
_Prometheus_, whose name is derived from a Greek word signifying
foresight and providence, was a deity who united the divine and human
nature in one person, and was confessedly both man and god.[124:7]
_Perseus_ was the son of Jupiter by the virgin Danae, daughter of
Acrisius, King of Argos.[124:8] Divine honors were paid him, and a
temple was erected to him in Athens.[124:9]
Justin Martyr (A. D. 140), in his Apology to the Emperor Adrian, says:
"By declaring the Logos, the first-begotten of God, our
Master, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin, without any
human mixture, we (Christians) _say no more in this than what
you_ (Pagans) _say of those whom you style the Sons of Jove_.
For you need not be told what a parcel of sons the writers
most in vogue among you assign to Jove. . . .
"As to the Son of God, called Jesus, should we allow him to be
nothing more than man, yet the title of 'the Son of God' is
very justifiable, upon the account of his wisdom, considering
that you (Pagans) have your Mercury in worship under the title
of the Word, a messenger of God. . . .
"As to his (Jesus Christ's) being born of a virgin, _you have
your Perseus to balance that_."[125:1]
_Mercury_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, Maia, daughter of
Atlas. Cyllene, in Arcadia, is said to have been the scene of his birth
and education, and a magnificent temple was erected to him there.[125:2]
_Æolus_, king of the Lipari Islands, near Sicily, was the son of Jupiter
and a mortal mother, Acasta.[125:3]
_Apollo_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, Latona.[125:4] Like
Buddha and Lao-Kiun, Apollo, so the Ephesians said, was born under a
tree; Latona, taking shelter under an olive-tree, was delivered
there.[125:5] Then there was joy among the undying gods in Olympus, and
the Earth laughed beneath the smile of Heaven.[125:6]
_Aethlius_, who is said to have been one of the institutors of the
Orphic games, was the son of Jupiter by a mortal mother,
Protogenia.[125:7]
_Arcas_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother.[125:8]
_Aroclus_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother.[125:9]
We might continue and give the names of many more sons of Jove, but
sufficient has been seen, we believe, to show, in the words of Justin,
that Jove had a great "parcel of sons." "The images of self-restraint,
of power used for the good of others, are prominent in the lives of all
or almost all the Zeus-born heroes."[125:10]
This Jupiter, who begat so many sons, was the supreme god of the Pagans.
In the words of _Orpheus_:
"Jupiter is omnipotent; the first and the last, the head and
the midst; Jupiter, the giver of all things, the foundation of
the earth, and the starry heavens."[125:11]
The ancient Romans were in the habit of deifying their living and
departed emperors, and gave to them the title of DIVUS, or the Divine
One. It was required throughout the whole empire that divine honors
should be paid to the emperors.[125:12] They had a ceremony called
_Apotheosis_, or deification. After this ceremony, temples, altars, and
images, with attributes of divinity, were erected to the new deity. It
is related by Eusebius, Tertullian, and Chrysostom, that Tiberius
proposed to the Roman Senate the Apotheosis or deification of Jesus
Christ.[126:1] Ælius Lampridius, in his Life of Alexander Severus (who
reigned A. D. 222-235), says:
"This emperor had two private chapels, one more honorable than
the other; and in the former were placed the deified emperors,
and also some _eminent good men_, among them Abraham, Christ,
and Orpheus."[126:2]
_Romulus_, who is said to have been the founder of Rome, was believed to
have been the son of God by a pure virgin, Rhea-Sylvia.[126:3] One
Julius Proculus took a solemn oath, that Romulus himself appeared to him
and ordered him to inform the Senate of his being called up to the
assembly of the gods, under the name of Quirinus.[126:4]
_Julius Cæsar_ was supposed to have had a god for a father.[126:5]
_Augustus Cæsar_ was also believed to have been of celestial origin, and
had all the honors paid to him as to a divine person.[126:6] His
divinity is expressed by Virgil, in the following lines:
"----Turn, turn thine eyes, see here thy race divine,
Behold thy own imperial Roman Sine:
Cæsar, with all the Julian name survey;
See where the glorious ranks ascend to-day!--
This--this is he--_the chief so long foretold_,
To bless the land where Saturn ruled of old,
And give the Learnean realms a second eye of gold!
The promised prince, _Augustus the divine_,
Of Cæsar's race, and Jove's immortal line."[126:7]
"The honors due to the gods," says Tacitus, "were no longer sacred:
_Augustus_ claimed equal worship. Temples were built, and statues were
erected, to him; a mortal man was adored, and priests and pontiffs were
appointed to pay him impious homage."[126:8]
Divine honors were declared to the memory of Claudius, after his death,
and he was added to the number of the gods. The titles "Our Lord," "Our
Master," and "Our God," were given to the Emperors of Rome, even while
living.[126:9]
In the deification of the Cæsars, a testimony upon oath, of an eagle's
flying out of the funeral pile, toward heaven, which was supposed to
convey the soul of the deceased, was the established proof of their
divinity.[127:1]
_Alexander the Great_, King of Macedonia (born 356 B. C.), whom genius
and uncommon success had raised above ordinary men, was believed to have
been a god upon earth.[127:2] He was believed to have been the son of
Jupiter by a mortal mother, Olympias.
Alexander at one time visited the temple of Jupiter Ammon, which was
situated in an oasis in the Libyan desert, and the _Oracle_ there
declared him to be a son of the god. He afterwards issued his orders,
letters, decrees, &c., styling himself "_Alexander, son of Jupiter
Ammon_."[127:3]
The words of the oracle which declared him to be divine were as follows,
says Socrates:
"Let altars burn and incense pour, please Jove Minerva eke;
The potent Prince though nature frail, his favor you must seek,
For Jove from heaven to earth him sent, lo! Alexander king,
As God he comes the earth to rule, and just laws for to bring."[127:4]
_Ptolemy_, who was one of Alexander's generals in his Eastern campaigns,
and into whose hands Egypt fell at the death of Alexander, was also
believed to have been of divine origin. At the siege of Rhodes, Ptolemy
had been of such signal service to its citizens that in gratitude they
paid _divine honors_ to him, and saluted him with the title of _Soter_,
_i. e._, Saviour. By that designation, "_Ptolemy Soter_," he is
distinguished from the succeeding kings of the Macedonian dynasty in
Egypt.[127:5]
_Cyrus_, King of Persia, was believed to have been of _divine origin_;
he was called the "_Christ_," or the "_Anointed_ of God," and God's
messenger.[127:6]
_Plato_, born at Athens 429 B. C., was believed to have been the son of
God by a _pure virgin_, called Perictione.[127:7]
The reputed father of Plato (Aris) was admonished in a dream to respect
the person of his wife until after the birth of the child of which she
was then pregnant by a god.[127:8]
Prof. Draper, speaking of Plato, says:
"The Egyptian disciples of Plato would have looked with anger
on those who rejected the legend that Perictione, the mother
of that great philosopher, a pure virgin, had suffered an
immaculate conception through the influences of (the god)
Apollo, _and that the god had declared to Aris, to whom she
was betrothed, the parentage of the child_."[128:1]
Here we have the legend of the angel appearing to Joseph--to whom Mary
was betrothed--believed in by the disciples of Plato for centuries
before the time of Christ Jesus, the only difference being that the
virgin's name was Perictione instead of Mary, and the confiding
husband's name Aris instead of Joseph. We have another similar case.
The mother of _Apollonius_ (B. C. 41) was informed by a god, who
appeared to her, _that he himself should be born of her_.[128:2] In the
course of time she gave birth to Apollonius, who became a great
religious teacher, and performer of miracles.[128:3]
_Pythagoras_, born about 570 B. C., had divine honors paid him. His
mother is said to have become impregnated through a _spectre_, or Holy
Ghost. His father--or foster-father--was also informed that his wife
should bring forth a son, who should be a benefactor to mankind.[128:4]
_Æsculapius_, the great performer of miracles,[128:5] was supposed to be
the son of a god and a worldly mother, Coronis. The Messenians, who
consulted the oracle at Delphi to know where Æsculapius was born, and of
what parents, were informed that a god was his father, Coronis his
mother, and that their son was born at Epidaurus.
Coronis, to conceal her pregnancy from her father, went to Epidaurus,
where she was delivered of a son, whom she exposed on a mountain.
Aristhenes, a goat-herd, going in search of a goat and a dog missing
from his fold, discovered the child, whom he would have carried to his
home, had he not, upon approaching to lift him from the earth,
_perceived his head encircled with fiery rays, which made him believe
the child was divine_. The voice of fame soon published the birth of a
miraculous infant, upon which the people flocked from all quarters _to
behold this heaven-born child_.[128:6]
Being honored as a god in Phenicia and Egypt, his worship passed into
Greece and Rome.[128:7]
_Simon the Samaritan_, surnamed "_Magus_" or the "Magician," who was
contemporary with Jesus, was believed to be a _god_. In Rome, where he
performed wonderful miracles, he was honored as a god, and his picture
placed among the gods.[129:1]
Justin Martyr, quoted by Eusebius, tells us that Simon Magus attained
great honor among the Romans. That he was believed to be a _god_, and
that he was worshiped as such. Between two bridges upon the River
Tibris, was to be seen this inscription: "Simoni Deo Sancto," _i. e._
"To Simon the Holy God."[129:2]
It was customary with all the heroes of the northern nations (Danes,
Swedes, Norwegians and Icelanders), to speak of themselves as sprung
from their supreme deity, _Odin_. The historians of those times, that is
to say, the poets, never failed to bestow the same honor on all those
whose praises they sang; and thus they multiplied the descendants of
Odin as much as they found convenient. The first-begotten son of Odin
was Thor, whom the Eddas call the most valiant of his sons. "Baldur the
Good," the "Beneficent Saviour," was the son of the Supreme Odin and the
goddess Frigga, whose worship was transferred to that of the Virgin
Mary.[129:3]
In the mythological systems of _America_, a virgin-born god was not less
clearly recognized than in those of the Old World. Among the savage
tribes his origin and character were, for obvious reasons, much
confused; but among the more advanced nations he occupied a well-defined
position. Among the nations of Anahuac, he bore the name of
_Quetzalcoatle_, and was regarded with the highest veneration.
For ages before the landing of Columbus on its shores, the inhabitants
of ancient Mexico worshiped a "Saviour"--as they called
him--(_Quetzalcoatle_) who was _born of a pure virgin_.[129:4] _A
messenger from heaven announced to his mother that she should bear a son
without connection with man._[129:5] Lord Kingsborough tells us that the
annunciation of the _virgin Sochiquetzal_, mother of Quetzalcoatle,--who
was styled the "_Queen of Heaven_"[129:6]--was the subject of a Mexican
hieroglyph.[129:7]
The embassador was sent from heaven to this virgin, who had two sisters,
Tzochitlique and Conatlique. "These three being alone in the house, two
of them, on perceiving the embassador from heaven, died of fright,
Sochiquetzal remaining alive, to whom the ambassador announced that it
was the will of God that she should conceive a son."[130:1] She
therefore, according to the prediction, "conceived a son, _without
connection with man_, who was called Quetzalcoatle."[130:2]
Dr. Daniel Brinton, in his "Myths of the New World," says:
"The Central figure of Toltec mythology is _Quetzalcoatle_.
Not an author on ancient Mexico, but has something to say
about the glorious days when he ruled over the land. No one
denies him to have been a god. _He was born of a virgin_ in
the land of _Tula_ or _Tlopallan_."[130:3]
The Mayas of _Yucatan_ had a virgin-born god, corresponding entirely
with Quetzalcoatle, if he was not the same under a different name, a
conjecture very well sustained by the evident relationship between the
Mexican and Mayan mythologies. He was named _Zama_, and was the
only-begotten son of their supreme god, Kinchahan.[130:4]
The _Muyscas_ of Columbia had a similar hero-god. According to their
traditionary history, he bore the name of _Bochica_. He was the
incarnation of the Great Father, whose sovereignty and paternal care he
emblematized.[130:5]
The inhabitants of _Nicaragua_ called their principal god Thomathoyo;
and said that he had a _son_, who came down to earth, whose name was
Theotbilahe, and that he was their general instructor.[130:6]
We find a corresponding character in the traditionary history of _Peru_.
The Sun--the god of the Peruvians--deploring their miserable condition,
sent down his son, _Manco Capac_, to instruct them in religion,
&c.[130:7]
We have also traces of a similar personage in the traditionary _Votan_
of _Guatemala_; but our accounts concerning him are more vague than in
the cases above mentioned.
We find this traditional character in countries and among tribes where
we would be least apt to suspect its existence. In _Brazil_, besides the
common belief in an age of violence, during which the world was
destroyed by water, there is a tradition of a supernatural personage
called _Zome_, whose history is similar, in some respects, to that of
Quetzalcoatle.[130:8]
The semi-civilized agricultural tribes of _Florida_ had like traditions.
The _Cherokees_, in particular, had a priest and law-giver _essentially
corresponding to Quetzalcoatle and Bochica_. He was their great prophet,
and bore the name of _Wasi_. "He told them what had been from the
beginning of the world, and what would be, and gave the people in all
things directions what to do. He appointed their feasts and fasts, and
all the ceremonies of their religion, and enjoined upon them to obey his
directions from generation to generation."[131:1]
Among the savage tribes the same notions prevailed. The _Edues_ of the
Californians taught that there was a supreme Creator, _Niparaga_, and
that his son, _Quaagagp_, came down upon the earth and instructed the
Indians in religion, &c. Finally, through hatred, the Indians killed
him; but although dead, he is incorruptible and beautiful. To him they
pay adoration, as the _mediatory power_ between earth and the Supreme
Niparaga.[131:2]
The _Iroquois_ also had a beneficent being, uniting in himself the
character of _a god and man_, who was called _Tarengawagan_. He imparted
to them the knowledge of the laws of the Great Spirit, established their
form of government, &c.[131:3]
Among the _Algonquins_, and particularly among the _Ojibways_ and other
remnants of that stock of the North-west, this intermediate great
teacher (denominated, by Mr. Schoolcraft, in his "_Notes of the
Iroquois_," "the great incarnation of the North-west") is fully
recognized. He bears the name of _Michabou_, and is represented as _the
first-born son of a great celestial Manitou_, or _Spirit, by an earthly
mother_, and is esteemed the friend and protector of the human
race.[131:4]
I think we can now say with M. Dupuis, that "the idea of a God, who came
down on earth to save mankind, is neither new nor peculiar to the
Christians," and with Cicero, the great Roman orator and philosopher,
that "brave, famous or powerful men, after death, came to be _gods_, and
they are the very ones whom we are accustomed to worship, pray to and
venerate."
Taking for granted that the synoptic Gospels are historical, there is no
proof that Jesus ever claimed to be either God, or a god; on the other
hand, it is quite the contrary.[131:5] As Viscount Amberly says: "The
best proof of this is that Jesus never, at any period of his life,
desired his followers to worship him, either as God, or as the Son of
God," in the sense in which it is now understood. Had he believed of
himself what his followers subsequently believed of him, that he was one
of the constituent persons in a divine Trinity, he must have enjoined
his Apostles both to address him in prayer themselves, and to desire
their converts to do likewise. It is quite plain that he did nothing of
the kind, and that they never supposed him to have done so.
Belief in Jesus _as the Messiah_ was taught as the first dogma of
Christianity, but adoration of Jesus _as God_ was not taught at all.
But we are not left in this matter to depend on conjectural inferences.
The words put into the mouth of Jesus are plain. Whenever occasion
arose, _he asserted his inferiority to the Father_, though, as no one
had then dreamt of his equality, it is natural that the occasions should
not have been frequent.
He made himself _inferior in knowledge_ when he said that of the day and
hour of the day of judgment no one knew, neither the angels in heaven
nor the Son; no one except the Father.[132:1]
He made himself _inferior in power_ when he said that seats on his right
hand and on his left in the kingdom of heaven were not his to
give.[132:2]
He made himself _inferior in virtue_ when he desired a certain man not
to address him as "Good Master," for there was none good but God.[132:3]
The words of his prayer at Gethsemane, "all things are possible unto
_thee_," imply that all things were _not_ possible to _him_, while its
conclusion "not what _I will_, but what _thou wilt_," indicates
submission to a superior, not the mere execution of a purpose of his
own.[132:4] Indeed, the whole prayer would have been a mockery, useless
for any purpose but the deception of his disciples, if he had himself
been identical with the Being to whom he prayed, and had merely been
giving effect by his death to their common counsels. While the cry of
agony from the cross, "_My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken
me?_"[132:5] would have been quite unmeaning if _the person forsaken_,
and _the person forsaking_, had been _one and the same_.
_Either, then, we must assume that the language of Jesus has been
misreported, or we must admit that he never for a moment pretended to be
co-equal, co-eternal or consubstantial with God._
It also follows of necessity from _both the genealogies_,[133:1] that
their compilers entertained no doubt that _Joseph_ was the father of
Jesus. Otherwise the descent of Joseph would not have been in the least
to the point. All attempts to reconcile this inconsistency with the
doctrine of the Angel-Messiah has been without avail, although the most
learned Christian divines, for many generations past, have endeavored to
do so.
So, too, of the stories of the Presentation in the Temple,[133:2] and of
the child Jesus at Jerusalem,[133:3] _Joseph is called his father_.
Jesus is repeatedly described as _the son of the carpenter_,[133:4] or
the _son of Joseph_, without the least indication that the expression is
not strictly in accordance with the fact.[133:5]
If his parents fail to understand him when he says, at twelve years old,
that he must be about his Father's business;[133:6] if he afterwards
declares that he finds no faith among his nearest relations;[133:7] if
he exalts his faithful disciples above his _unbelieving mother_ and
brothers;[133:8] above all, if Mary and her other sons put down his
prophetic enthusiasm to _insanity_;[133:9]--then the untrustworthy
nature of these stories of his birth is absolutely certain. If even a
_little_ of what they tell us had been true, then _Mary at least_ would
have believed in Jesus, and would not have failed so utterly to
understand him.[133:10]
The Gospel of Mark--which, in this respect, at least, abides most
faithfully by the old apostolic tradition--says not a word about
Bethlehem or _the miraculous birth_. The congregation of Jerusalem to
which Mary and the brothers of Jesus belonged,[133:11] and over which
the eldest of them, James, presided,[133:12] can have known nothing of
it; for the later Jewish-Christian communities, the so-called Ebionites,
who were descended from the congregation at Jerusalem, called Jesus _the
son of Joseph_. Nay, the story that the _Holy Spirit_ was the father of
Jesus, must have risen among the _Greeks_, or elsewhere, and not among
the first believers, who were Jews, for the Hebrew word for _spirit_ is
of _the feminine gender_.[134:1]
The immediate successors of the "congregation at Jerusalem"--to which
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers belonged--were, as we have
seen, the Ebionites. Eusebius, the first ecclesiastical historian (born
A. D. 264), speaking of the _Ebionites_ (_i. e._ "poor men"), tell us
that they believed Jesus to be "_a simple and common man_," born as
other men, "_of Mary and her husband_."[134:2]
The views held by the Ebionites of Jesus were, it is said, derived from
the Gospel of Matthew, _and what they learned direct from the Apostles_.
Matthew had been a hearer of Jesus, a companion of the Apostles, and had
seen and no doubt conversed with Mary. When he wrote his Gospel
everything was fresh in his mind, and there could be no object, on his
part, in writing the life of Jesus, to state falsehoods or omit
important truths in order to deceive his countrymen. If what is stated
in the _interpolated_ first two chapters, concerning the miraculous
birth of Jesus, were true, Matthew would have known of it; and, knowing
it, why should he omit it in giving an account of the life of
Jesus?[134:3]
The Ebionites, or Nazarenes, as they were previously called were
rejected by the Jews _as apostates_, and by the Egyptian and Roman
Christians _as heretics_, therefore, until they completely disappear,
their history is one of tyrannical persecution. Although some traces of
that obsolete sect may be discovered as late as the fourth century, they
insensibly melted away, either into the Roman Christian Church, or into
the Jewish Synagogue,[134:4] and with them perished the _original_
Gospel of Matthew, _the only Gospel written by an apostle_.
"Who, where masses of men are burning to burst the bonds of time and
sense, to deify and to adore, wants what seems earth-born, prosaic fact?
Woe to the man that dares to interpose it! Woe to the sect of faithful
Ebionites even, and on the very soil of Palestine, that dare to maintain
the earlier, humbler tradition! Swiftly do they become heretics,
revilers, blasphemers, though sanctioned by a James, brother of the
Lord."
Edward Gibbon, speaking of this most unfortunate sect, says:
"A laudable regard for the honor of the first proselytes has
countenanced the belief, the hope, the wish, that the
Ebionites, or at least the Nazarenes, were distinguished only
by their obstinate perseverance in the practice of the Mosaic
rites. Their churches have disappeared, _their books are
obliterated_, their obscure freedom might allow a latitude of
faith, and the softness of their infant creed would be
variously moulded by the zeal of prejudice of three hundred
years. Yet the most charitable criticism must refuse these
sectaries any knowledge of the pure and proper _divinity of
Christ_. Educated in the school of Jewish prophecy and
prejudice, they had never been taught to elevate their hope
above _a human_ and temporal Messiah. If they had courage to
hail their king when he appeared in a plebeian garb, their
grosser apprehensions were incapable of discerning their God,
_who had studiously disguised his celestial character under
the name and person of a mortal_.
"The familiar companions of Jesus of Nazareth conversed with
their friend and countryman, who, in all the actions of
rational and human life, appeared of the same species with
themselves. His progress from infancy to youth and manhood was
marked by a regular increase in stature and wisdom; and after
a painful agony of mind and body, he expired on the
cross."[135:1]
The Jewish Christians then--the congregation of Jerusalem, and their
immediate successors, the Ebionites or Nazarenes--saw in their master
nothing more than _a man_. From this, and the other facts which we have
seen in this chapter, it is evident that the man Jesus of Nazareth was
deified long after his death, just as many other men had been deified
centuries before his time, and even _after_. Until it had been settled
by a council of bishops that Jesus was not only _a God_, but "_God
himself in human form_," who appeared on earth, as did Crishna of old,
to redeem and save mankind, there were many theories concerning his
nature.
Among the early Christians there were a certain class called by the
later Christians _Heretics_. Among these may be mentioned the
"_Carpocratians_," named after one Carpocrates. They maintained that
Jesus was a _mere man_, born of Joseph and Mary, _like other men_, but
that he was good and virtuous. "Some of them have the vanity," says
_Irenæus_, "to think that they may equal, or in some respects exceed,
Jesus himself."[135:2]
These are called by the general name of _Gnostics, and comprehend almost
all the sects of the first two ages_.[135:3] They said that "all the
ancients, and even the Apostles themselves, received and taught the same
things which they held; and that the truth of the Gospel had been
preserved till the time of _Victor_, the thirteenth Bishop of Rome, but
by his successor, _Zephyrinus_, the truth had been corrupted."[135:4]
Eusebius, speaking of _Artemon_ and his followers, who denied the
divinity of Christ, says:
"They affirm that all our ancestors, yea, and the Apostles
themselves, were of the same opinion, and taught the same with
them, and that this their true doctrine (for so they call it)
was preached and embraced unto the time of Victor, the
thirteenth Bishop of Rome after Peter, and corrupted by his
successor Zephyrinus."[136:1]
There were also the "_Cerinthians_," named after one Cerinthus, who
maintained that Jesus was _not_ born of a virgin, which to them
appeared impossible, but that he was the son of Joseph and Mary, _born
altogether as other men are_; but he excelled all men in virtue,
knowledge and wisdom. At the time of his baptism, "_the Christ_" came
down upon him in the shape of a dove, and _left him_ at the time of his
crucifixion.[136:2]
Irenæus, speaking of Cerinthus and his doctrines, says:
"He represents Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary, according
to the ordinary course of human generation, and _not_ as
having been born of a virgin. He believed nevertheless that he
was more righteous, prudent and wise than most men, and that
_the Christ_ descended upon, and entered into him, at the time
of his baptism."[136:3]
The _Docetes_ were a numerous and learned sect of Asiatic Christians who
invented the _Phantastic_ system, which was afterwards promulgated by
the Marcionites, the Manicheans, and various other sects.
They denied the truth and authenticity of the Gospels, as far as they
related to the conception of Mary, the birth of Jesus, and the thirty
years that preceded the exercise of his ministry.
Bordering upon the Jewish and Gentile world, the _Cerinthians_ labored
to reconcile the _Gnostic_ and the _Ebionite_, by confessing in the
_same Messiah_ the supernatural union of a man and a god; and this
_mystic_ doctrine was adopted, with many fanciful improvements, by many
sects. The hypothesis was this: that Jesus of Nazareth was a mere
mortal, the legitimate son of Joseph and Mary, but he was _the best_ and
wisest of the human race, selected as the worthy instrument to restore
upon earth the worship of the true and supreme Deity. When he was
baptized in the Jordan, _and not till then_, he became _more than man_.
At that time, _the Christ_, the first of the _Æons_, the Son of God
himself, descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, _to inhabit his
mind_, and direct his actions during the allotted period of _his
ministry_. When he was delivered into the hands of the Jews, _the
Christ_ forsook him, flew back to the world of spirits, and left the
_solitary Jesus_ to suffer, to complain, and to die. This is why he
said, while hanging on the cross: "My God! My God! why hast thou
forsaken me?"[137:1]
Here, then, we see the _first_ budding out of--what was termed by the
_true_ followers of Jesus--_heretical doctrines_. The time had not yet
come to make Jesus _a god_, to claim that he had been born of a virgin.
As he _must_, however, have been different from other mortals--throughout
the period of his ministry, at least--the Christ _must_ have entered
into him at the time of his baptism, and _as mysteriously_ disappeared
when he was delivered into the hands of the Jews.
In the course of time, the seeds of the faith, which had slowly arisen
in the rocky and ungrateful soil of Judea, were transplanted, in full
maturity, to the happier climes of the _Gentiles_; and the strangers of
_Rome_ and _Alexandria, who had never beheld the manhood_, were more
ready to embrace the _divinity_ of Jesus.
The polytheist and the philosopher, the Greek and the barbarian, were
alike accustomed to receive--as we have seen in this chapter--a long
succession and infinite chain of angels, or deities, or _æons_, or
emanations, issuing from the throne of light. Nor could it seem strange
and incredible _to them_, that the first of the _æons_, the Logos, or
Word of God, of the same substance with the Father, should descend upon
earth, to deliver the human race from vice and error. The histories of
their countries, their odes, and their religions were teeming with such
ideas, as happening in the past, and they were also _looking for and
expecting an Angel-Messiah_.[137:2]
Centuries rolled by, however, before the doctrine of Christ Jesus, the
Angel-Messiah, became a settled question, an established tenet in the
Christian faith. The dignity of Christ Jesus was measured by _private
judgment_, according to the indefinite _rule of Scripture_, or
_tradition_ or _reason_. But when his pure and proper divinity had been
established _on the ruins of Arianism_, the faith of the Catholics
trembled _on the edge of a precipice_ where it was impossible to recede,
dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall; and the _manifold inconveniences
of their creed_ were aggravated by the sublime character of their
theology. They hesitated to pronounce that _God himself_, the second
person of an equal and consubstantial Trinity, was _manifested in the
flesh_,[137:3] that the Being who pervades the universe _had been
confined in the womb of Mary_; that his eternal duration had been
marked by the days, and months, and years of human existence; _that the
Almighty God had been scourged and crucified_; that his impassible
essence _had felt pain and anguish_; that his omniscience was _not
exempt from ignorance_; and that _the source of life and immortality
expired on Mount Calvary_.
These alarming consequences were affirmed with unblushing simplicity by
Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea, and one of the luminaries of the
Church. The son of a learned grammarian, he was skilled in all the
sciences of Greece; eloquence, erudition, and philosophy, conspicuous in
the volumes of Apollinaris, were humbly devoted to the service of
religion.
The worthy friend of Athanasius, the worthy antagonist of Julian, he
bravely wrestled with the Arians and polytheists, _and though he
affected the rigor of geometrical demonstration_, his commentaries
revealed the literal and allegorical sense of the Scriptures.
_A mystery_, which had long floated in the looseness of popular belief,
was defined by his perverse diligence in a technical form, _and he first
proclaimed the memorable words, "One incarnate nature of
Christ._"[138:1]
This was about A. D. 362, he being Bishop of Laodicea, in Syria, at that
time.[138:2]
The recent zeal against the errors of Apollinaris reduced the Catholics
to a seeming agreement with the _double-nature_ of Cerinthus. But
instead of a temporary and occasional alliance, they established, and
Christians _still embrace_, the substantial, indissoluble, and
everlasting _union of a perfect God with a perfect man_, of the second
person of the Trinity with a reasonable soul and human flesh. In the
beginning of the _fifth century_, the unity of the two natures was the
prevailing doctrine of the church.[138:3] From that time, until a
comparatively recent period, the cry was: "_May those who divide
Christ[138:4] be divided with the sword; may they be hewn in pieces,
may they be burned alive!_" These were actually the words of a
_Christian_ synod.[139:1] Is it any wonder that after this came the
_dark ages_? How appropriate is the name which has been applied to the
centuries which followed! _Dark_ indeed they were. Now and then,
however, a ray of light was seen, which gave evidence of the coming
_morn_, whose glorious light we now enjoy. But what a grand light is yet
to come from the noon-day sun, which must shed its glorious rays over
the whole earth, ere it sets.
FOOTNOTES:
[111:1] Matthew, i. 18-25.
[111:2] The Luke narrator tells the story in a different manner. His
account is more like that recorded in the KORAN, which says that Gabriel
appeared unto Mary in the shape of a perfect man, that Mary, upon seeing
him, and seeming to understand his intentions, said: "If thou fearest
God, thou wilt not approach me." Gabriel answering said: "Verily, I am
the messenger of the Lord, and am sent to give thee a holy son." (Koran,
ch. xix.)
[112:1] Instead, however, of the benevolent Jesus, the "Prince of
Peace"--as Christian writers make him out to be--the Jews were expecting
a daring and irresistible warrior and conqueror, who, armed with greater
power than Cæsar, was to come upon earth to rend the fetters in which
their hapless nation had so long groaned, to avenge them upon their
haughty oppressors, and to re-establish the kingdom of Judah.
[112:2] Vol. v. p. 294.
[112:3] Moor, in his "_Pantheon_," tells us that a learned Pandit once
observed to him that the English were a new people, and had only the
record of one Avatara, but the Hindoos were an ancient people, and had
accounts of a great many.
[112:4] This name has been spelled in many different ways, such as
Krishna, Khrishna, Krishnu, Chrisna, Cristna, Christna, &c. We have
followed Sir Wm. Jones's way of spelling it, and shall do so throughout.
[113:1] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 259-275.
[113:2] Ibid. p. 260. We may say that, "In him dwelt the fulness of the
Godhead bodily." (Colossians, ii. 9.)
[113:3] Allen's India, p. 397.
[113:4] Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 45.
[113:5] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 270.
[113:6] Like Mary, the mother of Jesus, Devaki is called the "_Virgin
Mother_," although she, as well as Mary, is said to have had other
children.
[114:1] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 327.
[114:2] Ibid. p. 329.
[114:3] Vishnu Purana, p. 502.
[114:4] Ibid. p. 440.
[114:5] "Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my
gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation
of the _mystery_, which was kept secret since the world began." (Romans,
xvi. 15.) "And without controversy, great is the _mystery_ of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory." (1 Timothy, iii. 16.)
[114:6] Vishnu Purana, p. 492, _note_ 3.
[114:7] Geeta, ch. iv.
[115:1] Bhagavat Geeta, Lecture iv. p. 52.
[115:2] Ibid., Lecture iv. p. 79.
[115:3] It is said that there have been several Buddhas (see ch. xxix).
We speak of _Gautama_. Buddha is variously pronounced and expressed
Boudh, Bod, Bot, But, Bud, Budd, Buddou, Bouttu, Bota, Budso, Pot, Pout,
Pota, Poti, and Pouti. The Siamese make the final _t_ or _d_ quiescent,
and sound the word Po; whence the Chinese still further vary it to Pho
or Fo. BUDDHA--which means _awakened_ or _enlightened_ (see Müller: Sci.
of Relig., p. 308)--is the proper way in which to spell the name. We
have adopted this throughout this work, regardless of the manner in
which the writer from which we quote spells it.
[115:4] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 86.
[115:5] FO-PEN-HING is the life of Gautama Buddha, translated from the
Chinese Sanskrit by Prof. Samuel Beal.
[115:6] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 25.
[115:7] Hardy: Manual of Buddhism, p. 141.
[115:8] A Christian sect called Collyridians believed that Mary was born
of a virgin, as Christ is related to have been born of her (See _note_
to the "Gospel of the Birth of Mary" [Apocryphal]; also King: The
Gnostics and their Remains, p. 91, and Gibbon's Hist. of Rome, vol. v.
p. 108, _note_). This idea has been recently adopted by the Roman
Catholic Church. They now claim that Mary was born as immaculate as her
son. (See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 75, and The Lily of Israel,
pp. 6-15; also fig. 17, ch. xxxii.)
"The gradual _deification_ of Mary, though slower in its progress,
follows, in the Romish Church, a course analogous to that which the
Church of the first centuries followed, in elaborating the deity of
Jesus. With almost all the Catholic writers of our day, Mary is the
universal mediatrix; _all power has been given to her in heaven and upon
earth_. Indeed, more than one serious attempt has been already made in
the Ultramontane camp to unite Mary in some way to the _Trinity_; and if
Mariolatry lasts much longer, this will probably be accomplished in the
end." (Albert Réville.)
[116:1] Huc's Travels, vol. i. pp. 326, 327.
[116:2] Ibid. p. 327.
[116:3] Oriental Religions, p. 604.
[116:4] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah.
[116:5] Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 309, and King's Gnostics, p.
167.
[116:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 10, 25 and 44.
[117:1] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 36, _note_. Ganesa, the Indian God of
Wisdom, is either represented as an elephant or a man with an elephant's
head. (See Moore's Hindu Pantheon, and vol. i. of Asiatic Researches.)
[117:2] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 83.
[117:3] Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 38, 39.
[117:4] Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 131.
[118:1] Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 212.
[118:2] King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 168, and Hist.
Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 485. R. Spence Hardy says: "The body of the Queen
was transparent, and the child could be distinctly seen, like a priest
seated upon a throne in the act of saying bana, or like a golden image
enclosed in a vase of crystal; so that it could be known how much he
grew every succeeding day." (Hardy: Manual of Buddhism, p. 144.) The
same thing was said of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Early art represented
the infant distinctly visible in her womb. (See Inman's Ancient Pagan
and Modern Christian Symbolism, and chap. xxix. this work.)
[118:3] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 34.
[118:4] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 185. See also Anacalypsis, vol. i.
pp. 162 and 308.
[119:1] See Asiatic Res., vol. x., and Anac., vol. i. p. 662.
[119:2] Davis: Hist. China, vol. i. p. 161.
[119:3] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. pp. 21, 22.
[119:4] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 184.
[120:1] Semedo: Hist. China, p. 89, in Anac., vol. ii. p. 227.
[120:2] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. pp. 134-137. See also Chambers's
Encyclo., art. Lao-tsze.
[120:3] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 204, 205.
[121:1] "The '_toe-print made by God_' has occasioned much speculation
of the critics. We may simply draw the conclusion that the poet meant to
have his readers believe with him that the conception of his hero was
SUPERNATURAL." (James Legge.)
[121:2] The Shih-King, Decade ii. Ode 1.
[121:3] See Thornton's Hist. China, vol. i. pp. 199, 200, and Buckley's
Cities of the Ancient World, pp. 168-170.
[121:4] "Le Dieu LA des LAMAS est né d'une _Vierge_: plusieurs princes
de l'Asie, entr'autres _l'Empereur Kienlong_, aujourd'hui regnant à la
Chine, et qui est de la race de ces Tartares Mandhuis, qui conquirent
cet empire en 1644, croit, et assure lui-même, être descendu d'une
_Vierge_." (D'Hancarville: Res. Sur l'Orig., p. 186, in Anac., vol. ii.
p. 97.)
[122:1] See Mahaffy: Proleg. to Anct. Hist., p. 416, and Bonwick's
Egyptian Belief, p. 406.
[122:2] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 157.
[122:3] Renouf: Relig. Anct. Egypt, p. 162.
[122:4] See the chapter on "The Worship of the Virgin Mother."
[122:5] "O toi vengeur, Dieu fils d'un Dieu; O toi vengeur, Horus,
manifesté par Osiris, engendré d'Isis déesee." (Champollion, p. 190.)
[122:6] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 406.
[122:7] Ibid. p. 247.
[122:8] Renouf: Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 161.
[122:9] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. pp. 67 and 147.
[122:10] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 248.
[123:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 407.
[123:2] Renouf: Relig. of Anct. Egypt, p. 163.
[123:3] See Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology, vol. i. p. 420.
[123:4] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 431.
[123:5] Spencer's Principles of Sociology, vol. i. p. 421.
[123:6] Malcolm: Hist. Persia, vol. i. p. 494.
[123:7] Anac. vol. i. p. 117.
[124:1] Roman Antiq., p. 124. Bell's Panth., i. 128. Dupuis, p. 258.
[124:2] Tales of Anct. Greece, p. 55.
[124:3] Greek and Italian Mytho., p. 81. Bell's Panth., i. 117. Roman
Antiq., p. 71, and Murray's Manual Mytho., p. 118.
[124:4] L'Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i. p. 229.
[124:5] Euripides: Bacchae. Quoted by Dunlap: Spirit Hist. of Man, p.
200.
[124:6] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 58. Roman Antiquities, p. 133.
[124:7] See the chapter on "The Crucifixion of Jesus," and Bell's
Pantheon, ii. 195.
[124:8] Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 170. Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p.
161.
[124:9] Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 171.
[125:1] Apol. 1, ch. xxii.
[125:2] Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 67. Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p.
19.
[125:3] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 25.
[125:4] Ibid. p. 74, and Bulfinch: p. 248.
[125:5] Tacitus: Annals, iii. lxi.
[125:6] Tales of Anct. Greece, p. 4.
[125:7] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 31.
[125:8] Ibid. p. 81.
[125:9] Ibid. p. 16.
[125:10] Bell's Pantheon, ii. p. 30.
[125:11] Cox: Aryan Mythology, ii. 45.
[125:12] The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 3.
[126:1] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 78.
[126:2] Quoted by Lardner, vol. iii. p. 157.
[126:3] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 8.
[126:4] Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 37. In the case of _Jesus_,
one _Saul_ of Tarsus, said to be of a worthy and upright character,
declared most solemnly, that Jesus himself appeared to him while on his
way to Damascus, and again while praying in the temple at Jerusalem.
(Acts xxii.)
[126:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 345. Gibbon's Rome, vol.
i. pp. 84, 85.
[126:6] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 611.
[126:7] Æneid, lib. iv.
[126:8] Tacitus: Annals, bk. i. ch. x.
[126:9] Ibid. bk. ii, ch. lxxxii. and bk. xiii. ch. ii.
[127:1] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, pp. 37, 38.
[127:2] See Religion of the Ancient Greeks, p. 81, and Gibbon's Rome,
vol. i. pp. 84, 85.
[127:3] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 8.
[127:4] Socrates: Eccl. Hist. Lib. 3, ch. xix.
[127:5] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 17.
[127:6] See Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 418. Bunsen: Bible
Chronology, p. 5, and The Angel-Messiah, pp. 80 and 298.
[127:7] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 113, and Draper: Religion
and Science, p. 8.
[127:8] Hardy: Manual Budd., p. 141. Higgins: Anac., i. 618.
[128:1] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 8. Compare Luke i. 26-35.
[128:2] Philostratus, p. 5.
[128:3] See the chapter on Miracles.
[128:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 151.
[128:5] See the chapter on Miracles.
[128:6] Bell's Pantheon, i. 27. Roman Ant., 136. Taylor's Diegesis, p.
150.
[128:7] Ibid.
[129:1] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch. xiii.
[129:2] Ibid. ch. xiii.
[129:3] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
[129:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 32, Kingsborough: Mexican
Antiquities, vol. vi. 166 and 175-6.
[129:5] Ibid.
[129:6] See Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 176.
[129:7] Ibid. p. 175.
[130:1] See Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 176.
[130:2] Ibid. p. 166.
[130:3] Brinton: Myths of the New World, pp. 180, 181.
[130:4] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 187.
[130:5] Ibid. p. 188.
[130:6] Ibid.
[130:7] Ibid.
[130:8] Ibid. p. 190.
[131:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 191.
[131:2] Ibid.
[131:3] Ibid.
[131:4] Ibid. p. 192.
[131:5] "If we seek, in the first three Gospels, to know what his
biographers thought of Jesus, we find his _true humanity_ plainly
stated, and if we possessed only the Gospel of _Mark_ and the discourses
of the Apostles in the _Acts_, the whole Christology of the New
Testament would be reduced to this: that Jesus of Nazareth was '_a
prophet mighty in deeds and in words_, made by God Christ and Lord.'"
(Albert Réville.)
[132:1] Mark, xiii. 32.
[132:2] Mark, x. 40.
[132:3] Mark, x. 18.
[132:4] Mark, xiv. 36.
[132:5] Mark, xv. 34.
[133:1] Matt. and Luke.
"The passages which appear most confirmatory of Christ's Deity, or
Divine nature, are, in the first place, the narratives of the
Incarnation and of the Miraculous Conception, as given by Matthew and
Luke. Now, the two narratives do not harmonize with each other; they
neutralize and negative the _genealogies_ on which depend so large a
portion of the proof of Jesus being the Messiah--the marvellous
statement they contain is not referred to in any subsequent portion of
the two Gospels, and is tacitly but positively negatived by several
passages--it is never mentioned in the Acts or in the Epistles, and was
evidently unknown to all the Apostles--and, finally, the tone of the
narrative, especially in Luke, is poetical and legendary, and bears a
marked similarity to the stories contained in the Apocryphal Gospels."
(W. R. Greg: The Creed of Christendom, p. 229.)
[133:2] Luke, ii. 27.
[133:3] Luke, ii. 41-48.
[133:4] Matt. xiii. 55.
[133:5] Luke, iv. 22. John, i. 46; vi. 42. Luke, iii. 23.
[133:6] Luke, ii. 50.
[133:7] Matt. xiii. 57. Mark, vi. 4.
[133:8] Matt. xii. 48-50. Mark, iii. 33-35.
[133:9] Mark, iii. 21.
[133:10] Dr. Hooykaas.
[133:11] Acts, i. 14.
[133:12] Acts, xxi. 18. Gal. ii. 19-21.
[134:1] See The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 57.
[134:2] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 3, ch. xxiv.
[134:3] Mr. George Reber has thoroughly investigated this subject in his
"Christ of Paul," to which the reader is referred.
[134:4] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. pp. 515-517.
[135:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. pp. 488, 489.
[135:2] See Lardner's Works, vol. viii. pp. 395, 396.
[135:3] Ibid. p. 306.
[135:4] Ibid. p. 571.
[136:1] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 5, ch. xxv.
[136:2] Lardner: vol. viii. p. 404.
[136:3] Irenæus: Against Heresies, bk. i. c. xxiv.
[137:1] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. pp. 492-495.
[137:2] Not a _worldly Messiah_, as the Jews looked for, but an
_Angel-Messiah_, such an one as always came at the end of a _cycle_. We
shall treat of this subject anon, when we answer the question _why_
Jesus was believed to be an _Avatar_, by the Gentiles, and not by the
Jews; why, in fact, the doctrine of _Christ incarnate_ in Jesus
succeeded and prospered.
[137:3] "This strong expression might be justified by the language of
St. Paul (_God_ was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, &c. I. Timothy, iii. 16), but we are deceived by our modern
Bibles. The word _which_ was altered to _God_ at Constantinople in the
beginning of the sixth century: the true meaning, which is visible in
the Latin and Syriac versions, still exists in the reasoning of the
Greek, as well as of the Latin fathers; and this fraud, with that of the
_three witnesses of St. John_ (I. John, v. 7), is admirably detected by
Sir Isaac Newton." (Gibbon's Rome, iv. 496, _note_.) _Dean Milman_ says:
"The weight of authority is so much against the common reading of both
these points (_i. e._, I. Tim. iii. 16, and I. John, v. 7), that they
are no longer urged by prudent controversialists." (Note in Ibid.)
[138:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. pp. 492-497.
[138:2] See Chambers's Encyclopædia, art. "Apollinaris."
[138:3] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. p. 498.
[138:4] That is, separate _him_ from God the Father, by saying that
_he_, Jesus of Nazareth, was _not_ really and truly God Almighty himself
in human form.
[139:1] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. p. 516.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.
Being born in a miraculous manner, as other great personages had been,
it was necessary that the miracles attending the births of these
virgin-born gods should be added to the history of Christ Jesus,
otherwise the legend would not be complete.
The first which we shall notice is the story of the _star_ which is said
to have heralded his birth, and which was designated "_his_ star." It is
related by the _Matthew_ narrator as follows:[140:1]
"When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, of Judea, in the days of
Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to
Jerusalem, saying: 'Where is he that is born King of the Jews?
for we have seen _his star_ in the east, and are come to
worship him.'"
Herod the king, having heard these things, he privately called the wise
men, and inquired of them what time the star appeared, at the same time
sending them to Bethlehem to search diligently for the young child. The
wise men, accordingly, departed and went on their way towards Bethlehem.
"The star which they saw in the east went before them, till it came _and
stood over_ where the young child was."
The general legendary character of this narrative--its similarity in
style with those contained in the apocryphal gospels--and more
especially its conformity with those _astrological notions_ which,
though prevalent in the time of the Matthew narrator, have been exploded
by the sounder scientific knowledge of our days--all unite to stamp upon
the story the impress of poetic or mythic fiction.
The fact that the writer of this story speaks not of _a star_ but of
_his star_, shows that it was the popular belief of the people among
whom he lived, that each and every person was born under a star, and
that this one which had been seen was _his star_.
All ancient nations were very superstitious in regard to the influence
of the stars upon human affairs, and this ridiculous idea has been
handed down, in some places, even to the present day. Dr. Hooykaas,
speaking on this subject, says:
"In ancient times the Jews, like other peoples, might very
well believe that there was some immediate connection between
the stars and the life of man--an idea which we still preserve
in the forms of speech that so-and-so was born under a lucky
or under an evil star. They might therefore suppose that the
birth of great men, such as Abraham, for instance, was
announced in the heavens. In our century, however, if not
before, all serious belief in astrology has ceased, and it
would be regarded as an act of the grossest superstition for
any one to have his horoscope drawn; for the course, the
appearance and the disappearance of the heavenly bodies have
been long determined with mathematical precision by
science."[141:1]
The Rev. Dr. Geikie says, in his _Life of Christ_:[141:2]
"The Jews had already, long before Christ's day, dabbled
in astrology, and the various forms of magic which became
connected with it. . . . They were much given to cast horoscopes
from the numerical value of a name. Everywhere throughout the
whole Roman Empire, Jewish magicians, dream expounders, and
sorcerers, were found.
"'The life and portion of children,' says the _Talmud_, 'hang
not on righteousness, but on _their_ star.' 'The planet of the
day has no virtue, but the planet of the hour (of nativity)
has much.' 'When the Messiah is to be revealed,' says the book
_Sohar_, 'a star will rise in the east, shining in great
brightness, and _seven_ other stars round it will fight
against it on every side.' 'A star will rise in the east,
which is the star of the Messiah, and will remain in the east
fifteen days.'"
The moment of every man's birth being supposed to determine every
circumstance in his life, it was only necessary to find out in what mode
the _celestial bodies_--supposed to be the primary wheels to the
universal machine--operated at that moment, in order to discover all
that would happen to him afterward.
The regularity of the risings and settings of the fixed stars, though it
announced the changes of the seasons and the orderly variations of
nature, could not be adapted to the capricious mutability of human
actions, fortunes, and adventures: wherefore the astrologers had
recourse to the planets, whose more complicated revolutions offered more
varied and more extended combinations. Their different returns to
certain points of the Zodiac, their relative positions and conjunctions
with each other, were supposed to influence the affairs of men; whence
daring impostors presumed to foretell, not only the destinies of
individuals, but also the rise and fall of empires, and the fate of the
world itself.[141:3]
The inhabitants of _India_ are, and have always been, very superstitious
concerning the stars. The Rev. D. O. Allen, who resided in India for
twenty-five years, and who undoubtedly became thoroughly acquainted with
the superstitions of the inhabitants, says on this subject:
"So strong are the superstitious feelings of many, concerning
the supposed influence of the stars on human affairs, that
some days are _lucky_, and others again are _unlucky_, that no
arguments or promises would induce them to deviate from the
course which these _stars_, signs, &c., indicate, as the way
of safety, prosperity, and happiness. The evils and
inconveniences of these superstitions and prejudices are among
the things that press heavily upon the people of
India."[142:1]
The _Nakshatias_--twenty-seven constellations which in Indian astronomy
separate the moon's path into twenty-seven divisions, as the signs of
the Zodiac do that of the sun into twelve--are regarded as deities who
exert a vast influence on the destiny of men, not only at the moment of
their entrance into the world, but during their whole passage through
it. These formidable constellations are consulted at births, marriages,
and on all occasions of family rejoicing, distress or calamity. No one
undertakes a journey or any important matter except on days which the
aspect of the Nakshatias renders lucky and auspicious. If any
constellation is unfavorable, it must by all means be propitiated by a
ceremony called S'anti.
The _Chinese_ were very superstitious concerning the stars. They
annually published astronomical calculations of the motions of the
planets, for every hour and minute of the year. They considered it
important to be very exact, because the hours, and even the minutes, are
lucky or unlucky, according to the aspect of the stars. Some days were
considered peculiarly fortunate for marrying, or beginning to build a
house; and the gods are better pleased with sacrifice offered at certain
hours than they are with the same ceremony performed at other
times.[142:2]
The ancient _Persians_ were also great astrologers, and held the stars
in great reverence. They believed and taught that the destinies of men
were intimately connected with their motions, and therefore it was
important to know under the influence of what star a human soul made its
advent into this world. Astrologers swarmed throughout the country, and
were consulted upon all important occasions.[142:3]
The ancient _Egyptians_ were exactly the same in this respect. According
to Champollion, the tomb of Ramses V., at Thebes, contains tables of the
constellations, and of their influence on human beings, for every hour
of every month of the year.[142:4]
The Buddhists' sacred books relate that the birth of _Buddha_ was
announced in the heavens by an _asterim_ which was seen rising on the
horizon. It is called the "_Messianic star_."[143:1]
The Fo-pen-hing says:
"The time of Bôdhisatwa's incarnation is, when the
constellation _Kwei_ is in conjunction with the Sun."[143:2]
"Wise men," known as "Holy Rishis," were informed by these celestial
signs that the Messiah was born.[143:3]
In the _Rāmāyana_ (one of the sacred books of the Hindoos) the horoscope
of Rama's birth is given. He is said to have been born on the 9th Tithi
of the month Caitra. _The planet Jupiter_ figured at his birth; it being
in Cancer at that time.[143:4] Rama was an incarnation of Vishnu. When
_Crishna_ was born "_his stars_" were to be seen in the heavens. They
were pointed out by one Nared, a great prophet and astrologer.[143:5]
Without going through the list, we can say that the birth of every
Indian _Avatar_ was foretold by _celestial signs_.[143:6]
The same myth is to be found in the legends of China. Among others they
relate that a star figured at the birth of _Yu_, the founder of the
first dynasty which reigned in China,[143:7] who--as we saw in the last
chapter--was of heavenly origin, having been born of a virgin. It is
also said that a star figured at the birth of _Laou-tsze_, the Chinese
sage.[143:8]
In the legends of the Jewish patriarchs and prophets, it is stated that
a _brilliant star_ shone at the time of the birth of _Moses_. It was
seen by the _Magi_ of Egypt, who immediately informed the king.[143:9]
When _Abraham_ was born "_his star_" shone in the heavens, if we may
believe the popular legends, and its brilliancy outshone all the other
stars.[143:10] Rabbinic traditions relate the following:
"Abraham was the son of Terah, general of Nimrod's army. He
was born at Ur of the Chaldees 1948 years after the Creation.
On the night of his birth, Terah's friends--among whom were
many of Nimrod's councillors and soothsayers--were feasting in
his house. On leaving, late at night, _they observed an
unusual star in the east_, it seemed to run from one quarter
of the heavens to the other, and to devour four stars which
were there. All amazed in astonishment at this wondrous
sight, 'Truly,' said they, '_this can signify nothing else but
that Terah's new-born son will become great and
powerful_.'"[144:1]
It is also related that Nimrod, in a dream, saw a star rising above the
horizon, which was very brilliant. The soothsayers being consulted in
regard to it, foretold that a child was born who would become a great
prince.[144:2]
A brilliant star, which eclipsed all the other stars, was also to be
seen at the birth of the Cæsars; in fact, as Canon Farrar remarks, "The
Greeks and Romans had _always_ considered that the births and deaths of
great men were symbolized by the appearance and disappearance of
heavenly bodies, and the same belief has continued down to comparatively
modern times."[144:3]
Tacitus, the Roman historian, speaking of the reign of the Emperor Nero,
says:
"A comet having appeared, in this juncture, the phenomenon,
according to the _popular opinion_, announced that governments
were to be changed, and kings dethroned. In the imaginations
of men, Nero was already dethroned, and who should be his
successor was the question."[144:4]
According to Moslem authorities, the birth of _Ali_--Mohammed's great
disciple, and the chief of one of the two principal sects into which
Islam is divided--was foretold by celestial signs. "A light was
distinctly visible, resembling a bright column, extending from
the earth to the firmament."[144:5] Even during the reign of the
Emperor Hadrian, a hundred years after the time assigned for the
death of Jesus, a certain Jew who gave himself out as the "_Messiah_,"
and headed the last great insurrection of his country, assumed the name
of _Bar-Cochba_--that is, "_Son of a Star_."[144:6]
This myth evidently extended to the New World, as we find that the
symbol of _Quetzalcoatle_, the virgin-born Saviour, was the "_Morning
Star_."[144:7]
We see, then, that among the ancients there seems to have been a very
general idea that the birth of a great person would be announced by a
star. The Rev. Dr. Geikie, who maintains to his utmost the truth of the
Gospel narrative, is yet constrained to admit that:
"It was, indeed, universally believed, that extraordinary
events, especially the birth and death of great men, were
heralded by appearances of stars, and still more of comets, or
by conjunctions of the heavenly bodies."[145:1]
The whole tenor of the narrative recorded by the _Matthew_ narrator is
the most complete justification of the science of _astrology_; that the
first intimation of the birth of the Son of God was given to the
worshipers of Ormuzd, who have the power of distinguishing with
certainty _his_ peculiar star; that from these _heathen_ the tidings of
his birth are received by the Jews at Jerusalem, _and therefore that the
theory must be right which connects great events in the life of men with
phenomena in the starry heavens_.
If this _divine sanction of astrology_ is contested on the ground that
this was an _exceptional_ event, in which, simply to bring the Magi to
Jerusalem, God caused the star to appear in accordance with their
superstitious science, the difficulty is only pushed one degree
backwards, for in this case God, it is asserted, wrought an event which
was perfectly certain to strengthen the belief of the Magi, of Herod, of
the Jewish priests, and of the Jews generally, in the truth of
astrology.
If, to avoid the alternative, recourse be had to the notion that the
star appeared _by chance_, or that this _chance_ or _accident_ directed
the Magi aright, is the position really improved? Is _chance_ consistent
with any notion of supernatural interposition?
We may also ask the question, why were the Magi brought to Jerusalem at
all? If they knew that the star which they saw was the star of Christ
Jesus--as the narrative states[145:2]--and were by this knowledge
conducted to Jerusalem, why did it not suffice to guide them _straight
to Bethlehem_, and thus prevent the Slaughter of the Innocents? Why did
the star desert them after its first appearance, not to be seen again
till they issued from Jerusalem? or, if it did not desert them, why did
they ask of Herod and the priests the road which they should take, when,
by the hypothesis, the star was ready to guide them?[145:3]
It is said that in the oracles of Zoroaster there is to be found a
prophecy to the effect that, _in the latter days_, a virgin would
conceive and bear a son, and that, at the time of his birth, a star
would shine at noonday. Christian divines have seen in this a prophecy
of the birth of _Christ_ Jesus, but when critically examined, it does
not stand the test. The drift of the story is this:
Ormuzd, the Lord of Light, who created the universe in _six_ periods of
time, accomplished his work by making the first man and woman, and
infusing into them the breath of life. It was not long before Ahriman,
the evil one, contrived to seduce the first parents of mankind by
persuading them to eat of the forbidden fruit. Sin and death are now in
the world; the principles of _good_ and _evil_ are now in deadly strife.
Ormuzd then reveals to mankind his _law_ through his prophet Zoroaster;
the strife between the two principles continues, however, and will
continue until the end of a destined term. During the last three
thousand years of the period Ahriman is predominant. The world now
hastens to its doom; religion and virtue are nowhere to be found;
mankind are plunged in sin and misery. _Sosiosh_ is born of a virgin,
and redeems them, subdues the Devs, awakens the dead, _and holds the
last judgment_. A comet sets the world in flames; the Genii of Light
combat against the Genii of Darkness, and cast them into Duzakh, where
Ahriman and the Devs and the souls of the wicked are thoroughly cleansed
and purified by fire. Ahriman then submits to Ormuzd; evil is absorbed
into goodness; the unrighteous, thoroughly purified, are united with the
righteous, and _a new earth and a new heaven_ arise, free from all evil,
where peace and innocence will forever dwell.
Who can fail to see that this virgin-born _Sosiosh_ was to come, _not
eighteen hundred years ago_, but, in the "_latter days_," when the world
is to be set on fire by a _comet_, the _judgment_ to take place, and the
"new heaven and new earth" is to be established? Who can fail to see
also, by a perusal of the New Testament, that the idea of a _temporal
Messiah_ (a mighty king and warrior, who should liberate and rule over
his people Israel), and the idea of an _Angel-Messiah_ (who had come to
announce that the "kingdom of heaven was at hand," that the "stars
should fall from heaven," and that all men would shortly be judged
according to their deeds), are both jumbled together in a heap?
FOOTNOTES:
[140:1] Matthew, ch. ii.
[141:1] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 72.
[141:2] Vol. i. p. 145.
[141:3] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 52.
[142:1] Allen's India, p. 456.
[142:2] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 221.
[142:3] Ibid. p. 261.
[142:4] See Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 456.
[143:1] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 22, 23, 38.
[143:2] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 23, 33, 35.
[143:3] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 36.
[143:4] Williams's Indian Wisdom, p. 347.
[143:5] See Hist. Hindostan, ii. 336.
[143:6] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 561. For that of Crishna,
see Vishnu Purana, book v. ch. iii.
[143:7] See Ibid. p. 618.
[143:8] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. p. 137.
[143:9] See Anac., i. p. 560, and Geikie's Life of Christ, i. 559.
[143:10] See Ibid., and The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 72, and
Calmet's Fragments, art. "Abraham."
[144:1] Baring-Gould: Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 149.
[144:2] Calmet's Fragments, art. "Abraham."
[144:3] Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 52.
[144:4] Tacitus: Annals, bk. xiv. ch. xxii.
[144:5] Amberly's Analysis of Religious Belief, p. 227.
[144:6] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 73.
[144:7] Brinton: Myths of the New World, pp. 180, 181, and Squire:
Serpent Symbol.
[145:1] Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 144.
[145:2] Matthew ii. 2.
[145:3] See Thomas Scott's English Life of Jesus for a full
investigation of this subject.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SONG OF THE HEAVENLY HOST.
The story of the Song of the Heavenly Host belongs exclusively to the
_Luke_ narrator, and, in substance, is as follows:
At the time of the birth of Christ Jesus, there were shepherds abiding
in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And the angel of
the Lord appeared among them, and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them, and the angel said: "I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city
of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host,
praising God in song, saying: "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth
peace, good will towards men." After this the angels went _into
heaven_.[147:1]
It is recorded in the _Vishnu Purana_[147:2] that while the virgin
Devaki bore _Crishna_, "the protector of the world," in her womb, she
was eulogized by the gods, and on the day of Crishna's birth, "the
quarters of the horizon were irradiate with joy, as if moonlight was
diffused over the whole earth." "_The spirits and the nymphs of heaven
danced and sang_," and, "at _midnight_,[147:3] when the support of all
was born, _the clouds emitted low pleasing sounds, and poured down rain
of flowers_."[147:4]
Similar demonstrations of celestial delight were not wanting at the
birth of _Buddha_. All beings everywhere were full of joy. Music was to
be heard all over the land, and, as in the case of Crishna, there fell
from the skies a gentle shower of flowers and perfumes. Caressing
breezes blew, and a marvellous light was produced.[147:5]
The Fo-pen-hing relates that:
"The attending spirits, who surrounded the Virgin Maya and the
infant Saviour, singing praises of 'the Blessed One,' said:
'All joy be to you, Queen Maya, rejoice and be glad, for the
child you have borne is holy.' Then the Rishis and Devas who
dwelt on earth exclaimed with great joy: 'This day Buddha is
born for the good of men, to dispel the darkness of their
ignorance.' Then the four heavenly kings took up the strain
and said: 'Now because Bôdhisatwa is born, to give joy and
bring peace to the world, therefore is there this brightness.'
Then the gods of the thirty-three heavens took up the burden
of the strain, and the Yama Devas and the Tûsita Devas, and so
forth, through all the heavens of the Kama, Rupa, and Arupa
worlds, even up to the Akanishta heavens, all the Devas joined
in this song, and said: '_To-day Bôdhisatwa is born on earth,
to give joy and peace to men and Devas, to shed light in the
dark places, and to give sight to the blind._"[148:1]
Even the sober philosopher _Confucius_ did not enter the world, if we
may believe Chinese tradition, without premonitory symptoms of his
greatness.[148:2]
Sir John Francis Davis, speaking of Confucius, says:
"Various prodigies, _as in other instances_, were the
forerunners of the birth of this extraordinary person. On the
eve of his appearance upon earth, _celestial music_ sounded in
the ears of his mother; and when he was born, this inscription
appeared on his breast: 'The maker of a rule for setting the
World.'"[148:3]
In the case of _Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, at his birth, a voice was
heard proclaiming that: "The Ruler of all the Earth is born."[148:4]
In Plutarch's "_Isis_" occurs the following:
"At the birth of Osiris, there was heard a voice that the Lord
of all the Earth was coming in being; and some say that a
woman named Pamgle, as she was going to carry water to the
temple of Ammon, in the city of Thebes, heard that voice,
which commanded her to proclaim it with a loud voice, that the
great beneficent god Osiris was born."[148:5]
Wonderful demonstrations of delight also attended the birth of the
heavenly-born _Apollonius_. According to Flavius Philostratus, who wrote
the life of this remarkable man, a flock of swans surrounded his mother,
and clapping their wings, as is their custom, they sang in unison, while
the air was fanned by gentle breezes.
When the god _Apollo_ was born of the virgin Latona in the Island of
Delos, there was joy among the undying gods in Olympus, and the Earth
laughed beneath the smile of Heaven.[148:6]
At the time of the birth of "_Hercules the Saviour_," his father Zeus,
the god of gods, spake from heaven and said:
"This day shall a child be born of the race of Perseus, who
shall be the mightiest of the sons of men."[149:1]
When _Æsculapius_ was a helpless infant, and when he was about to be put
to death, a voice from the god Apollo was heard, saying:
"Slay not the child with the mother; _he is born to do great
things_; but bear him to the wise centaur Cheiron, and bid him
train the boy in all his wisdom and teach him to do brave
deeds, that men may praise his name in the generations that
shall be hereafter."[149:2]
As we stated above, the story of the Song of the Heavenly Host belongs
exclusively to the _Luke_ narrator; none of the other writers of the
synoptic Gospels know anything about it, which, if it really happened,
seems very strange.
If the reader will turn to the apocryphal Gospel called
"_Protevangelion_" (chapter xiii.), he will there see one of the reasons
why it was thought best to leave this Gospel out of the canon of the New
Testament. It relates the "Miracles at Mary's labor," similar to the
_Luke_ narrator, but in a still more wonderful form. It is probably from
this apocryphal Gospel that the Luke narrator copied.
FOOTNOTES:
[147:1] Luke, ii. 8-15.
[147:2] Translated from the original Sanscrit by H. H. Wilson, M. D., F.
R. S.
[147:3] All the virgin-born Saviours are born at _midnight or early
dawn_.
[147:4] Vishnu Purana, book v. ch. iii. p. 502.
[147:5] See Amberly's Analysis, p. 226. Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 45, 46,
47, and Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 35.
[148:1] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 43, 55, 56, and Bunsen's
Angel-Messiah, p. 35.
[148:2] See Amberly: Analysis of Religious Belief, p. 84.
[148:3] Davis: History of China, vol. ii. p. 48. See also Thornton:
Hist. China, i. 152.
[148:4] See Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 56, and Kenrick's Egypt,
vol. i. p. 408.
[148:5] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 424, and Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i.
p. 408.
[148:6] See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 4.
[149:1] See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 55.
[149:2] Ibid. p. 45.
CHAPTER XV.
THE DIVINE CHILD RECOGNIZED AND PRESENTED WITH GIFTS.
The next in order of the wonderful events which are related to have
happened at the birth of Christ Jesus, is the recognition of the divine
child, and the presentation of gifts.
We are informed by the _Matthew_ narrator, that being guided by a star,
the _Magi_[150:1] from the east came to where the young child was.
"And when they were come into the _house_ (not _stable_) they
saw the young child, with Mary his mother, and fell down and
worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they
presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, and
myrrh."[150:2]
The _Luke_ narrator--who seems to know nothing about the Magi from the
east--informs us that _shepherds_ came and worshiped the young child.
They were keeping their flocks by night when the angel of the Lord
appeared before them, saying:
"Behold, I bring you good tidings--for unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
After the angel had left them, they said one to another:
"Let us go unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to
pass, which the Lord hath made known to us. And they came with
haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a
_manger_."[150:3]
The Luke narrator evidently borrowed this story of the _shepherds_ from
the "_Gospel of the Egyptians_" (of which we shall speak in another
chapter), or from other sacred records of the biographies of Crishna or
Buddha.
It is related in the legends of _Crishna_ that the divine child was
cradled among shepherds, to whom were first made known the stupendous
feats which stamped his character with marks of the divinity. He was
recognized as the promised _Saviour_ by Nanda, a shepherd, or cowherd,
and his companions, who prostrated themselves before the heaven-born
child. After the birth of Crishna, the Indian prophet Nared, having
heard of his fame, visited his father and mother at Gokool, examined the
stars, &c., and declared him to be of celestial descent.[151:1]
Not only was Crishna adored by the shepherds and Magi, and received with
_divine honors_, but he was _also presented with gifts_. These gifts
were "sandal wood and perfumes."[151:2] (Why not "frankincense and
myrrh?")
Similar stories are related of the infant _Buddha_. He was visited, at
the time of his birth, by _wise men_, who at once recognized in the
marvellous infant all the characters of the divinity, and he had
scarcely seen the day before he was hailed god of gods.[151:3]
"'Mongst the strangers came
A grey-haired saint, Asita, one whose ears,
Long closed to earthly things, caught heavenly sounds,
And heard at prayer beneath his peepul-tree,
The Devas singing songs at Buddha's birth."
Viscount Amberly, speaking of him, says:[151:4]
"He was visited and adored by a very eminent _Rishi_, or
hermit, known as _Asita_, who predicted his future greatness,
but wept at the thought that he himself was too old to see the
day when the law of salvation would be taught by the infant
whom he had come to contemplate."
"I weep (said Asita), because I am old and stricken in years,
and shall not see all that is about to come to pass. The
Buddha Bhagavat (God Almighty Buddha) comes to the world only
after many kalpas. This bright boy will be Buddha. _For the
salvation of the world_ he will teach the law. He will succor
the old, the sick, the afflicted, the dying. He will release
those who are bound in the meshes of _natural corruption_. He
will quicken the spiritual vision of those whose eyes are
darkened by the thick darkness of ignorance. Hundreds of
thousands of millions of beings will be carried by him to the
'other shore'--will put on immortality. And I shall not see
this perfect Buddha--this is why I weep."[151:5]
He returns rejoicing, however, to his mountain-home, for his eyes had
seen the promised and expected Saviour.[151:6]
Paintings in the _cave_ of Ajunta represent Asita with the infant
Buddha in his arms.[152:1] The marvelous gifts of this child had become
known to this eminent ascetic by _supernatural signs_.[152:2]
Buddha, as well as Crishna and Jesus, was presented with "costly jewels
and precious substances."[152:3] (Why not gold and perfumes?)
_Rama_--the seventh incarnation of Vishnu for human deliverance from
evil--is also hailed by "_aged saints_"--(why not "wise _men_"?)--who
die gladly when their eyes see the long-expected one.[152:4]
_How-tseich_, who was one of those personages styled, in China,
"Tien-Tse," or "Sons of Heaven,"[152:5] and who came into the world in a
miraculous manner, was laid in a narrow lane. When his mother had
fulfilled her time:
"Her first-born son (came forth) like a lamb.
There was no bursting, no rending,
No injury, no hurt--
Showing how wonderful he would be."
When born, the sheep and oxen protected him with loving care.[152:6]
The birth of _Confucius_ (B. C. 551), like that of all the demi-gods and
saints of antiquity, is fabled to have been attended with allegorical
prodigies, amongst which was the appearance of the _Ke-lin_, a
miraculous quadruped, prophetic of happiness and virtue, which announced
that the child would be "a king without a throne or territory." _Five
celestial sages, or "wise men" entered the house at the time of the
child's birth, whilst vocal and instrumental music filed the
air._[152:7]
_Mithras_, the Persian Saviour, and mediator between God and man, was
also visited by "wise men" called Magi, at the time of his birth.[152:8]
He was presented with gifts consisting of gold, frankincense and
myrrh.'[152:9]
According to Plato, at the birth of _Socrates_ (469 B. C.) there came
three Magi from the east to worship him, bringing gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh.[152:10]
_Æsculapius_, the virgin-born Saviour, was protected by goatherds (why
not shepherds?), who, upon seeing the child, knew at once that he was
divine. The voice of fame soon published the birth of this miraculous
infant, upon which people flocked from all quarters to behold and
worship this heaven-born child.[153:1]
Many of the Grecian and Roman demi-gods and heroes were either fostered
by or worshiped by shepherds. Amongst these may be mentioned _Bacchus_,
who was educated among shepherds,[153:2] and _Romulus_, who was found on
the banks of the Tiber, and educated by shepherds.[153:3] _Paris_, son
of Priam, was educated among shepherds,[153:4] and _Ægisthus_ was
exposed, like Æsculapius, by his mother, found by shepherds and educated
among them.[153:5]
Viscount Amberly has well said that: "Prognostications of greatness in
infancy are, indeed, among the stock incidents in the mythical or
semi-mythical lives of eminent persons."
We have seen that the _Matthew_ narrator speaks of the infant Jesus, and
Mary, his mother, being in a "_house_"--implying that he had been born
there; and that the _Luke_ narrator speaks of the infant "lying in a
manger"--implying that he was born in a stable. We will now show that
there is still _another_ story related of the _place_ in which he was
born.
FOOTNOTES:
[150:1] "The original word here is '_Magoi_,' from which comes our word
'_Magician_.' . . . The persons _here_ denoted were philosophers,
priests, or _astronomers_. They dwelt chiefly in Persia and Arabia. They
were the learned men of the Eastern nations, devoted to _astronomy_, to
religion, and to medicine. They were held in high esteem by the Persian
court; were admitted as councilors, and followed the camps in war to
give advice." (Barnes's Notes, vol. i. p. 25.)
[150:2] Matthew, ii. 2.
[150:3] Luke, ii. 8-16.
[151:1] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 129, 130, and Maurice: Hist.
Hindostan, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257 and 317. Also, The Vishnu Purana.
[151:2] Oriental Religions, pp. 500, 501. See also, Ancient Faiths, vol.
ii. p. 353.
[151:3] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 157.
[151:4] Amberly's Analysis, p. 177. See also, Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p.
36.
[151:5] Lillie: Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 76.
[151:6] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 6, and Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 58,
60.
[152:1] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 36.
[152:2] See Amberly's Analysis p. 231, and Bunsen's Angel Messiah, p.
36.
[152:3] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 58.
[152:4] Oriental Religions, p. 491.
[152:5] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 200.
[152:6] See Amberly's Analysis of Religious Belief, p. 226.
[152:7] See Thornton's Hist. China, vol. i. p. 152.
[152:8] King: The Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 134 and 149.
[152:9] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 353.
[152:10] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 96.
[153:1] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 150. Roman Antiquities, p. 136, and Bell's
Pantheon, vol. i. p. 27.
[153:2] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322.
[153:3] Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 213.
[153:4] Ibid. vol. i. p. 47.
[153:5] Ibid. p. 20.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BIRTH-PLACE OF CHRIST JESUS.
The writer of that portion of the Gospel according to _Matthew_ which
treats of the _place_ in which Jesus was born, implies, as we stated in
our last chapter, that he was born in a _house_. His words are these:
"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea _in the days of
Herod the king_, behold, there came wise men from the east" to
worship him. "And when they were come _into the house_, they
saw the young child with Mary his mother."[154:1]
The writer of the _Luke_ version implies that he was born in _a stable_,
as the following statement will show:
"The days being accomplished that she (Mary) should be
delivered . . . she brought forth her first-born son, and
wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and _laid him in a manger_,
there being no room for him in the _inn_."[154:2]
If these accounts were contained in these Gospels in the time of
Eusebius, the first ecclesiastical historian, who flourished during the
Council of Nice (A. D. 327), it is very strange that, in speaking of the
birth of Jesus, he should have omitted even mentioning them, and should
have given an altogether different version. He tells us that Jesus was
neither born in a _house_, nor in a _stable_, but in a _cave_, and that
at the time of Constantine a magnificent temple was erected on the spot,
so that the Christians might worship in the place where their Saviour's
feet had stood.[154:3]
In the apocryphal Gospel called "_Protevangelion_," attributed to James,
the brother of Jesus, we are informed that Mary and her husband, being
away from their home in Nazareth, and when within three miles of
Bethlehem, to which city they were going, Mary said to Joseph:
"Take me down from the ass, for that which is in me presses to
come forth."
Joseph, replying, said:
"Whither shall I take thee, _for the place is desert_?"
Then said Mary again to Joseph:
"Take me down, for that which is within me mightily presses
me."
Joseph then took her down from off the ass, and he found there a _cave_
and put her into it.
Joseph then left Mary in the cave, and started toward Bethlehem for a
midwife, whom he found and brought back with him. When they neared the
spot a bright cloud overshadowed the cave.
"But on a sudden the cloud became _a great light in the cave_,
so their eyes could not bear it. But the light gradually
decreased, until the infant appeared and sucked the breast of
his mother."[155:1]
Tertullian (A. D. 200), Jerome (A. D. 375) and other Fathers of the
Church, also state that Jesus was born in a _cave_, and that the
_heathen_ celebrated, in their day, the birth and _Mysteries_ of their
Lord and Saviour Adonis in this very cave near Bethlehem.[155:2]
Canon Farrar says:
"That the actual place of Christ's birth was a _cave_, is a
very ancient tradition, and this cave used to be shown as the
scene of the event even so early as the time of Justin Martyr
(A. D. 150)."[155:3]
Mr. King says:
"The place _yet_ shown as the scene of their (the Magi's)
adoration at Bethlehem is a _cave_."[155:4]
The Christian ceremonies in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem are
celebrated to this day in a _cave_,[155:5] and are undoubtedly nearly
the same as were celebrated, _in the same place_, in honor of _Adonis_,
in the time of Tertullian and Jerome; and as are yet celebrated in Rome
every Christmas-day, _very early in the morning_.
We see, then, that there are _three_ different accounts concerning the
_place_ in which Jesus was born. The first, and evidently true one, was
that which is recorded by the _Matthew_ narrator, namely, that he was
born in a _house_. The stories about his being born in a _stable_ or in
a _cave_[155:6] were later inventions, caused from the desire to place
him in as _humble_ a position as possible in his infancy, and from the
fact that the virgin-born Saviours who had _preceded_ him had almost
all been born in a position the most humiliating--such as a cave, a
cow-shed, a sheep-fold, &c.--or had been placed there after birth. This
was a part of the _universal mythos_. As illustrations we may mention
the following:
_Crishna_, the Hindoo virgin-born Saviour, was born in a _cave_,[156:1]
fostered by an honest _herdsman_,[156:2] and, it is said, placed in a
_sheep-fold_ shortly after his birth.
_How-Tseih_, the Chinese "Son of Heaven," when an infant, was left
unprotected by his mother, but the _sheep_ and _oxen_ protected him with
loving care.[156:3]
_Abraham_, the Father of Patriarchs, is said to have been _born in a
cave_.[156:4]
_Bacchus_, who was the son of God by the virgin Semele, is said to have
been _born in a cave_, or placed in one shortly after his birth.[156:5]
Philostratus, the Greek sophist and rhetorician, says, "the inhabitants
of India had a tradition that Bacchus was born at _Nisa_, and was
brought up in a _cave_ on Mount Meros."
_Æsculapius_, who was the son of God by the virgin Coronis, was left
exposed, when an infant, on a mountain, where he was found and cared for
by a _goatherd_.[156:6]
_Romulus_, who was the son of God by the virgin Rhea-Sylvia, was left
exposed, when an infant, on the banks of the river Tiber, where he was
found and cared for by a _shepherd_.[156:7]
_Adonis_, the "Lord" and "Saviour," was placed in a _cave_ shortly after
his birth.[156:8]
_Apollo_ (Phoibos), son of the Almighty Zeus, was born in a cave at
early dawn.[156:9]
_Mithras_, the Persian Saviour, was born in a _cave or grotto_,[156:10]
at early dawn.
_Hermes_, the son of God by the mortal _Maia_, was born early in the
morning, in _a cave or grotto_ of the Kyllemian hill.[156:11]
_Attys_, the god of the Phrygians,[156:12] was born in a _cave_ or
grotto.[156:13]
The _object_ is the same in all of these stories, however they may
differ in detail, which is to place the heaven-born infant in the most
humiliating position in infancy.
We have seen it is recorded that, at the time of the birth of Jesus
"there was a _great light_ in the cave, so that the eyes of Joseph and
the midwife could not bear it." This feature is also represented in
early Christian art. "Early Christian painters have represented the
infant Jesus as welcoming three Kings of the East, _and shining as
brilliantly as if covered with phosphuretted oil_."[157:1] In all
pictures of the Nativity, the light is made to arise from the body of
the infant, and the father and mother are often depicted with glories
round their heads. This too was a part of the old mythos, as we shall
now see.
The moment _Crishna_ was born, his mother became beautiful, and her form
brilliant. The whole cave was splendidly illuminated, being filled with
a _heavenly light_, and the countenances of his father and his mother
emitted rays of glory.[157:2]
So likewise, it is recorded that, at the time of the birth of Buddha,
"the Saviour of the World," which, according to one account, took place
in an _inn_, "_a divine light diffused around his person_," so that "the
Blessed One" was "heralded into the world by a supernatural
light."[157:3]
When _Bacchus_ was born, a _bright light_ shone round him,[157:4] so
that, "_there was a brilliant light in the cave_."
When _Apollo_ was born, _a halo of serene light encircled his cradle_,
the nymphs of heaven attended, and bathed him in pure water, and girded
a broad golden band around his form.[157:5]
When the Saviour _Æsculapius_ was born, his countenance shone like the
sun, and he was surrounded by a fiery ray.[157:6]
In the life of _Zoroaster_ the common mythos is apparent. He was born in
innocence of an immaculate conception of a Ray of the Divine Reason. As
soon as he was born, _the glory arising from his body enlightened the
whole room_, and he laughed at his mother.[157:7]
It is stated in the legends of the Hebrew Patriarchs that, at the birth
of _Moses_, a bright light appeared and shone around.[157:8]
There is still another feature which we must notice in these narratives,
that is, the contradictory statements concerning the _time_ when Jesus
was born. As we shall treat of this subject more fully in the chapter on
"The Birthday of Christ Jesus," we shall allude to it here simply as far
as necessary.
The _Matthew_ narrator informs us that Jesus was born _in the days of
Herod the King_, and the _Luke_ narrator says he was born _when
Cyrenius_ was _Governor of Syria_, or later. This is a very awkward and
unfortunate statement, as Cyrenius was not Governor of Syria until some
_ten years after the time of Herod_.[158:1]
The cause of this dilemma is owing to the fact that the Luke narrator,
after having interwoven into _his_ story, of the birth of Jesus, the
_old myth_ of the tax or tribute, which is said to have taken place at
the time of the birth of some _previous_ virgin-born Saviours, looked
among the records to see if a taxing had ever taken place in Judea, so
that he might refer to it in support of his statement. He found the
account of the taxing, referred to above, and without stopping to
consider _when_ this taxing took place, or whether or not it would
conflict with the statement that Jesus was born _in the days of Herod_,
he added to his narrative the words: "And this taxing was _first made_
when Cyrenius was governor of Syria."[158:2]
We will now show the ancient myth of the taxing. According to the
_Vishnu Purana_, when the infant Saviour _Crishna_ was born, his foster
father, _Nanda_, had come to the city _to pay his tax or yearly tribute
to the king_. It distinctly speaks of Nanda, and other cowherds,
"_bringing tribute or tax to Kansa_" the reigning monarch.[158:3]
It also describes a scene which took place after the taxes had been
paid.
Vasudeva, an acquaintance of Nanda's, "went to the wagon of Nanda, and
found Nanda there, rejoicing that a son (Crishna) had been born to him.
"Vasudeva spoke to him kindly, and congratulated him _on having a son in
his old age_.[158:4]
"'Thy yearly tribute,' he added, 'has been paid to the king . . . why do
you delay, now that your affairs are settled? Up, Nanda, quickly, and
set off to your own pastures.' . . . Accordingly Nanda and the other
cowherds returned to their village."[158:5]
Now, in regard to _Buddha_, the same myth is found.
Among the thirty-two signs which were to be fulfilled by the mother of
the expected Messiah (Buddha), the fifth sign was recorded to be, "_that
she would be on a journey at the time of her child's birth_."
Therefore, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophets," the virgin Maya, in the tenth month after her heavenly
conception, was on a journey to her father, when lo, the birth of the
Messiah took place under a tree. One account says that "she had alighted
at an _inn_ when Buddha was born."[159:1]
The mother of _Lao-tsze_, the Virgin-born Chinese sage, was away from
home when her child was born. She stopped to rest _under a tree_, and
there, like the virgin Maya, gave birth to her son.[159:2]
_Pythagoras_ (B. C. 570), whose real father was the Holy Ghost,[159:3]
was also born at a time when his mother was away from home on a journey.
She was travelling with her husband, who was _about his mercantile
concerns_, from Samos to Sidon.[159:4]
_Apollo_ was born when his mother was away from home. The Ionian legend
tells the simple tale that Leto, the mother of the unborn Apollo, could
find no place to receive her in her hour of travail until she came to
Delos. The child was born like Buddha and Lao-tsze--_under a
tree_.[159:5] The mother knew that he was destined to be a being of
mighty power, ruling among the undying gods and mortal men.[159:6]
Thus we see that the stories, one after another, relating to the birth
and infancy of Jesus, are simply old myths, and are therefore not
historical.
FOOTNOTES:
[154:1] Matthew, ii.
[154:2] Luke, ii.
[154:3] Eusebius's Life of Constantine, lib. 3, chs. xl., xli. and xlii.
[155:1] Protevangelion. Apoc. chs. xii., xiii., and xiv., and Lily of
Israel, p. 95.
[155:2] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 98, 99.
[155:3] Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 38, and _note_. See also, Hist.
Hindostan, ii. 311.
[155:4] King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 134.
[155:5] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 95.
[155:6] Some writers have tried to connect these by saying that it was a
_cave-stable_, but why should a stable be in a _desert place_, as the
narrative states?
[156:1] Aryan Myths, vol. ii. p. 107.
[156:2] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 259.
[156:3] See Amberly's Analysis, p. 226.
[156:4] See Calmet's Fragments, art. "Abraham."
[156:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 321. Bell's Pantheon, vol.
i. p. 118, and Dupuis, p. 284.
[156:6] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 150, and Bell's Pantheon under
"Æsculapius."
[156:7] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 218.
[156:8] See Ibid. vol. i. p. 12.
[156:9] Aryan Mythology, vol. i. pp. 72, 158.
[156:10] See Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 124, and Aryan Mythology,
vol. ii. p. 134.
[156:11] Ibid.
[156:12] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, p. 255.
[156:13] See Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 124.
[157:1] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 460.
[157:2] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 133. Higgins: Anacalypsis,
vol. i. p. 130. See also, Vishnu Purana, p. 502, where it says:
"No person could bear to gaze upon Devaki from the light that invested
her."
[157:3] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 43, 46, or Bunsen's Angel-Messiah,
pp. 34, 35.
[157:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322, and Dupuis: Origin of
Relig. Belief, p. 119.
[157:5] Tales of Anct. Greece, p. xviii.
[157:6] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 27. Roman Antiquities, p. 136.
[157:7] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 460. Anacalypsis, vol. i. p.
649.
[157:8] See Hardy: Manual of Buddhism, p. 145.
[158:1] See the chapter on "Christmas."
[158:2] It may be that this verse was added by another hand some time
after the narrative was written. We have seen it stated somewhere that,
in the manuscript, this verse is in brackets.
[158:3] See Vishnu Purana, book v. chap. iii.
[158:4] Here is an exact counterpart to the story of Joseph--the
foster-father, so-called--of Jesus. He too, had a son in his old age.
[158:5] Vishnu Purana, book v. chap. v.
[159:1] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 34. See also, Beal: Hist. Buddha,
p. 32, and Lillie: Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 73.
[159:2] Thornton: Hist. China, i. 138.
[159:3] As we saw in Chapter XII.
[159:4] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 150.
[159:5] See Rhys David's Buddhism, p. 25.
[159:6] See Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. ii. p. 31.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE GENEALOGY OF CHRIST JESUS.
The biographers of Jesus, although they have placed him in a position
the most humiliating in his infancy, and although they have given him
poor and humble parents, have notwithstanding made him to be of _royal
descent_. The reasons for doing this were twofold. First, because,
according to the Old Testament, the expected Messiah was to be of the
seed of Abraham,[160:1] and second, because the Angel-Messiahs who had
previously been on earth to redeem and save mankind had been of _royal
descent_, therefore Christ Jesus must be so.
The following story, taken from Colebrooke's "_Miscellaneous
Essays_,"[160:2] clearly shows that this idea was general:
"The last of the Jinas, Vardhamâna, was _at first_ conceived
by Devanandā, a Brahmānā. The conception was announced to
her by a dream. Sekra, being apprised of his incarnation,
prostrated himself and worshiped the future saint (who was in
the womb of Devanandā); but reflecting that _no great saint
was ever born in an indigent or mendicant family_, as that of
a Brahmānā, Sekra commanded his chief attendant to remove the
child from the womb of Devanandā to that of Trisala, wife of
Siddhartha, _a prince of the race of Jeswaca_, of the Kasyapa
family."
In their attempts to accomplish their object, the biographers of Jesus
have made such poor work of it, that all the ingenuity Christianity has
yet produced, has not been able to repair their blunders.
The genealogies are contained in the first and third Gospels, and
although they do not agree, yet, if either is right, then Jesus was
_not_ the son of God, engendered by the "Holy Ghost," but the legitimate
son of Joseph and Mary. In any other sense they amount to nothing. That
Jesus can be of royal descent, and yet be the Son of God, in the sense
in which these words are used, is a conclusion which can be acceptable
to those only who believe in _alleged_ historical narratives on no other
ground than that they wish them to be true, and dare not call them into
question.
The _Matthew_ narrator states that _all_ the generations from Abraham to
David are _fourteen_, from David until the carrying away into Babylon
are _fourteen_, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Jesus are
_fourteen_ generations.[161:1] Surely nothing can have a more
_mythological_ appearance than this. But, when we confine our attention
to the genealogy itself, we find that the generations in the third
stage, including Jesus himself, amount to only _thirteen_. All attempts
to get over this difficulty have been without success; the genealogies
are, and have always been, hard nuts for theologians to crack. Some of
the early Christian fathers saw this, and they very wisely put an
_allegorical_ interpretation to them.
Dr. South says, in Kitto's Biblical Encyclopædia:
"Christ's being the true Messiah depends upon his being the
son of David and king of the Jews. _So that unless this be
evinced the whole foundation of Christianity must totter and
fall._"
Another writer in the same work says:
"In these two documents (Matthew and Luke), which profess to
give us the genealogy of Christ, there is no notice whatever
of the connection of his only earthly parent with the stock of
David. On the contrary, both the genealogies profess to give
us the descent of Joseph, to connect our Lord with whom by
natural generation, would be to falsify the whole story of his
miraculous birth, and overthrow the Christian faith."
Again, when the idea that one of the genealogies is Mary's is spoken of:
"One thing is certain, that our belief in Mary's descent from
David is grounded on inference and tradition and not on any
direct statement of the sacred writings. And there has been a
ceaseless endeavor, both among ancients and moderns, to
gratify the natural cravings for knowledge on this subject."
Thomas Scott, speaking of the genealogies, says:
"It is a favorite saying with those who seek to defend the
history of the Pentateuch against the scrutiny of modern
criticism, that the objections urged against it were known
long ago. The objections to the _genealogy_ were known long
ago, indeed; and perhaps nothing shows more conclusively than
this knowledge, the disgraceful dishonesty and willful
deception of the most illustrious of Christian
doctors."[161:2]
Referring to the two genealogies, Albert Barnes says:
"No two passages of Scripture have caused more difficulty than
these, and various attempts have been made to explain them.
. . . Most interpreters have supposed that Matthew gives the
genealogy of Joseph, and Luke that of Mary. _But though this
solution is plausible and may be true, yet it wants
evidence._"
Barnes furthermore admits the fallibility of the Bible in his remarks
upon the genealogies; 1st, by comparing them to _our_ fallible family
records; and 2d, by the remark that "the only inquiry which can now be
fairly made _is whether they copied these tables correctly_."
Alford, Ellicott, Hervey, Meyer, Mill, Patritius and Wordsworth hold
that both genealogies are Joseph's; and Aubertin, Ebrard, Greswell,
Kurtz, Lange, Lightfoot and others, hold that one is Joseph's, and the
other Mary's.
When the genealogy contained in _Matthew_ is compared with the Old
Testament _they are found to disagree_; there are omissions which any
writer with the least claim to historical sense would never have made.
When the genealogy of the _third_ Gospel is turned to, the difficulties
greatly increase, instead of diminish. It not only contradicts the
statements made by the _Matthew_ narrator, but it does not agree with
the Old Testament.
What, _according to the three first evangelists_, did Jesus think of
himself? In the first place he made no allusion to any miraculous
circumstances connected with his birth. He looked upon himself as
belonging to _Nazareth_, not as the child of Bethlehem;[162:1] _he
reproved the scribes for teaching that the Messiah must necessarily be a
descendant of David,[162:2] and did not himself make any express claim
to such descent_.[162:3]
As we cannot go into an extended inquiry concerning the genealogies, and
as there is no real necessity for so doing, as many others have already
done so in a masterly manner,[162:4] we will continue our investigations
in another direction, and show that Jesus was not the only Messiah who
was claimed to be of royal descent.
To commence with _Crishna_, the Hindoo Saviour, he was of _royal
descent_, although born in a state the most abject and humiliating.[163:1]
Thomas Maurice says of him:
"Crishna, in the _male_ line, was of royal descent, being of
the Yadava line, the oldest and noblest of India; and nephew,
by his _mother's_ side, to the reigning sovereign; but, though
royally descended, he was actually born in a state the most
abject and humiliating; and, though not in a stable, yet in a
dungeon."[163:2]
_Buddha_ was of _royal descent_, having descended from the house of
Sakya, the most illustrious of the caste of Brahmans, which reigned in
India over the powerful empire of Mogadha, in the Southern Bahr.[163:3]
R. Spence Hardy says, in his "Manual of Buddhism:"
"The ancestry of Gotama Buddha is traced from his father,
Sodhódana, through various individuals and races, all of royal
dignity, to Maha Sammata, the first monarch of the world.
Several of the names, and some of the events, are met with in
the Puranas of the Brahmins, but it is not possible to
reconcile one order of statement with the other; and it would
appear that the Buddhist historians have introduced races, and
invented names, that they may invest their venerated sage with
all the honors of heraldry, in addition to the attributes of
divinity."
How remarkably these words compare with what we have just seen
concerning the genealogies of Jesus!
_Rama_, another Indian _avatar_--the seventh incarnation of Vishnu--was
also of _royal descent_.[163:4]
_Fo-hi_; or _Fuh-he_, the virgin-born "Son of Heaven," was of _royal
descent_. He belonged to the oldest family of monarchs who ruled in
China.[163:5]
_Confucius_ was of _royal descent_. His pedigree is traced back in a
summary manner to the monarch _Hoang-ty_, who is said to have lived and
ruled more than two thousand years before the time of Christ
Jesus.[163:6]
_Horus_, the Egyptian virgin-born Saviour, was of _royal descent_,
having descended from a line of kings.[163:7] He had the title of "Royal
Good Shepherd."[163:8]
_Hercules_, the Saviour, was of _royal descent_.[163:9]
_Bacchus_, although the Son of God, was of _royal descent_.[164:1]
_Perseus_, son of the virgin Danae, was of _royal descent_.[164:2]
_Æsculapius_, the great performer of miracles, although a son of God,
was notwithstanding of _royal descent_.[164:3]
Many more such cases might be mentioned, as may be seen by referring to
the histories of the virgin-born gods and demi-gods spoken of in Chapter
XII.
FOOTNOTES:
[160:1] That is, a passage in the Old Testament was construed to mean
this, although another and more plausible meaning might be inferred. It
is when Abraham is blessed by the Lord, who is made to say: "_In thy
seed_ shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast
obeyed my voice." (Genesis, xxii. 18.)
[160:2] Vol. ii. p. 214.
[161:1] Matthew, i. 17.
[161:2] Scott's English Life of Jesus.
[162:1] Matthew, xiii. 54; Luke, iv. 24.
[162:2] Mark, ii. 35.
[162:3] "There is no doubt that the authors of the genealogies regarded
him (Jesus), as did his countrymen and contemporaries generally, as the
eldest son of Joseph, Mary's husband, and that they had no idea of
anything miraculous connected with his birth. All the attempts of the
old commentators to reconcile the inconsistencies of the evangelical
narratives are of no avail." (Albert Réville: Hist. Dogma, Deity, Jesus,
p. 15.)
[162:4] The reader is referred to Thomas Scott's English Life of Jesus,
Strauss's Life of Jesus, The Genealogies of Our Lord, by Lord Arthur
Hervey, Kitto's Biblical Encyclopædia, and Barnes' Notes.
[163:1] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 130. Asiatic Researches,
vol. i. p. 259, and Allen's India, p. 379.
[163:2] Hist. Hindostan, ii. p. 310.
[163:3] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 157. Bunsen: The
Angel-Messiah. Davis: Hist. of China, vol. ii. p. 80, and Huc's Travels,
vol. i. p. 327.
[163:4] Allen's India, p. 379.
[163:5] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 200, and Chambers's Encyclo.,
art. "Fuh-he."
[163:6] Davis: History of China, vol. ii. p. 48, and Thornton: Hist.
China, vol. i. p. 151.
[163:7] See almost any work on Egyptian history or the religions of
Egypt.
[163:8] See Lundy: Monumental Christianity, p. 403.
[163:9] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 152. Roman Antiquities, p. 124, and
Bell's Pantheon, i. 382.
[164:1] See Greek and Italian Mythology, p. 81. Bell's Pantheon, vol. i.
p. 117. Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 118, and Roman Antiquities, p.
71.
[164:2] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 170, and Bulfinch: The Age of
Fable, p. 161.
[164:3] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 27. Roman Antiquities, p. 136,
and Taylor's Diegesis, p. 150.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS.
Interwoven with the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus, the star,
the visit of the Magi, &c., we have a myth which belongs to a common
form, and which, in this instance, is merely adapted to the special
circumstances of the age and place. This has been termed "the myth of
the dangerous child." Its general outline is this: A child is born
concerning whose future greatness some prophetic indications have been
given. But the life of the child is fraught with danger to some powerful
individual, generally a monarch. In alarm at his threatened fate, this
person endeavors to take the child's life, but it is preserved by divine
care.
Escaping the measures directed against it, and generally remaining long
unknown, it at length fulfills the prophecies concerning its career,
while the fate which he has vainly sought to shun falls upon him who had
desired to slay it. There is a departure from the ordinary type, in the
case of Jesus, inasmuch as Herod does not actually die or suffer any
calamity through his agency. But this failure is due to the fact that
Jesus did not fulfill the conditions of the Messiahship, according to
the Jewish conception which Matthew has here in mind. Had he--as was
expected of the Messiah--become the actual sovereign of the Jews, he
must have dethroned the reigning dynasty, whether represented by Herod
or his successors. But as his subsequent career belied the expectations,
the evangelist was obliged to postpone to a future time his accession to
that throne of temporal dominion which the incredulity of his countrymen
had withheld from him during his earthly life.
The story of the slaughter of the infants which is said to have taken
place in Judea about the time of the birth of Jesus, is to be found in
the second chapter of _Matthew_, and is as follows:
"When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of
Herod the king, there came wise men from the East to
Jerusalem, saying: 'Where is he that is born _king of the
Jews_? for we have seen _his star_ in the East and have come
to worship him.' When Herod the king had heard these things,
he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Then Herod, when
he had privately called the wise men, enquired of them
diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to
Bethlehem, and said: 'Go and search diligently for the young
child; and when ye have found him, bring me word.'"
The wise men went to Bethlehem and found the young child, but instead of
returning to Herod as he had told them, they departed into their own
country another way, having been warned of God _in a dream_, that they
should not return to Herod.
"Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men,
was exceeding wroth, _and sent forth, and slew all the
children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts
thereof, from two years old and under_."
We have in this story, told by the _Matthew_ narrator--which the writers
of the other gospels seem to know nothing about,--almost a counterpart,
if not an exact one, to that related of _Crishna_ of India, which shows
how closely the mythological history of Jesus has been copied from that
of the Hindoo Saviour.
Joguth Chunder Gangooly, a "Hindoo convert to Christ," tells us, in his
"Life and Religion of the Hindoos," that:
"A _heavenly voice_ whispered to the foster father of Crishna
and told him to fly with the child across the river Jumna,
which was immediately done.[166:1] This was owing to the fact
that the reigning monarch, King Kansa, sought the life of the
infant Saviour, and to accomplish his purpose, he sent
messengers '_to kill all the infants in the neighboring
places_.'"[166:2]
Mr. Higgins says:
"Soon after Crishna's birth he was carried away by night and
concealed in a region remote from his natal place, for fear of
a tyrant whose destroyer it was foretold he would become; and
who had, for that reason, ordered all the male children born
at that period to be slain."[166:3]
Sir William Jones says of Crishna:
"He passed a life, according to the Indians, of a most
extraordinary and incomprehensible nature. His birth was
concealed through fear of the reigning tyrant Kansa, who, at
the time of his birth, _ordered all new-born males to be
slain, yet this wonderful babe was preserved_."[166:4]
In the Epic poem Mahabarata, composed more than two thousand years ago,
we have the whole story of this incarnate deity, born of a virgin, and
miraculously escaping in his infancy from the reigning tyrant of his
country, related in its original form.
Representations of this flight with the babe at midnight are sculptured
on the walls of ancient Hindoo temples.[167:1]
This story is also the subject of an immense sculpture in the
cave-temple at Elephanta, where the children are represented as being
slain. The date of this sculpture is lost in the most remote antiquity.
It represents a person holding a drawn sword, surrounded by slaughtered
_infant boys_. Figures of men and women are also represented who are
supposed to be supplicating for their children.[167:2]
Thomas Maurice, speaking of this sculpture, says:
"The event of Crishna's birth, and the attempt to destroy him,
took place by night, and therefore the shadowy mantle of
darkness, _upon which mutilated figures of infants are
engraved_, darkness (at once congenial with his crime and the
season of its perpetration), involves the tyrant's bust; the
string of _death heads_ marks the multitude of infants slain
by his savage mandate; and every object in the sculpture
illustrates the events of that Avatar."[167:3]
Another feature which connects these stories is the following:
Sir Wm. Jones tells us that when Crishna was taken out of reach of the
tyrant Kansa who sought to slay him, he was fostered at _Mathura_ by
Nanda, the herdsman;[167:4] and Canon Farrar, speaking of the sojourn of
the Holy Family in Egypt, says:
"St. Matthew neither tells us where the Holy Family abode in
Egypt, nor how long their exile continued; but ancient legends
say that they remained two years absent from Palestine, and
lived at Mataréëh, a few miles north-east of Cairo."[167:5]
Chemnitius, out of Stipulensis, who had it from Peter Martyr, Bishop of
Alexandria, in the third century, says, that the place in Egypt where
Jesus was banished, is now called Matarea, about ten miles beyond Cairo,
that the inhabitants constantly burn a lamp in remembrance of it, and
that there is a garden of trees yielding a balsam, which was planted by
Jesus when a boy.[167:6]
Here is evidently one and the same legend.
_Salivahana_, the virgin-born Saviour, anciently worshiped near Cape
Comorin, the southerly part of the Peninsula of India, had the same
history. It was attempted to destroy him in infancy by a tyrant who was
afterward killed by him. Most of the other circumstances, with slight
variations, are the same as those told of Crishna and Jesus.[167:7]
_Buddha's_ life was also in danger when an infant. In the southern
country of Magadha, there lived a king by the name of Bimbasara, who,
being fearful of some enemy arising that might overturn his kingdom,
frequently assembled his principal ministers together to hold discussion
with them on the subject. On one of these occasions they told him that
away to the north there was a respectable tribe of people called the
Sâkyas, and that belonging to this race there was a youth newly-born,
the first-begotten of his mother, &c. This youth, who was Buddha, they
said was liable to overturn him, they therefore advised him to "at once
raise an army and destroy the child."[168:1]
In the chronicles of the East Mongols, the same tale is to be found
repeated in the following story:
"A certain king of a people called Patsala, had a son whose
peculiar appearance led the Brahmins at court to prophesy that
he would bring evil upon his father, and to advise his
destruction. Various modes of execution having failed, _the
boy was laid in a copper chest and thrown into the Ganges_.
Rescued by an old peasant who brought him up as his son, he,
in due time, learned the story of his escape, and returned to
seize upon the kingdom destined for him from his
birth."[168:2]
_Hau-ki_, the Chinese hero of supernatural origin, was exposed in
infancy, as the "Shih-king" says:
"He was placed in a narrow lane, but the sheep and oxen
protected him with loving care. He was placed in a wide
forest, where he was met with by the wood-cutters. He was
placed on the cold ice, and a bird screened and supported him
with its wings," &c.[168:3]
Mr. Legge draws a comparison with this to the Roman legend of Romulus.
_Horus_, according to the Egyptian story, was born in the winter, and
brought up secretly in the Isle of Buto, for fear of Typhon, who sought
his life. Typhon at first schemed to prevent his birth and then sought
to destroy him when born.[168:4]
Within historical times, _Cyrus_, king of Persia (6th cent. B. C.), is
the hero of a similar tale. His grandfather, Astyages, had dreamed
certain dreams which were interpreted by the Magi to mean that the
offspring of his daughter Mandane would expel him from his kingdom.
Alarmed at the prophecy, he handed the child to his kinsman Harpagos to
be slain; but this man having entrusted it to a shepherd to be exposed,
the latter contrived to save it by exhibiting to the emissaries of
Harpagos the body of a still-born child of which his own wife had just
been delivered. Grown to man's estate Cyrus of course justified the
prediction of the Magi by his successful revolt against Astyages and
assumption of the monarchy.
Herodotus, the Grecian Historian (B. C. 484), relates that Astyages, in
a vision, appeared to see a vine grow up from Mandane's womb, which
covered all Asia. Having seen this and communicated it to the
interpreters of dreams, he put her under guard, resolving to destroy
whatever should be born of her; for the Magian interpreters had
signified to him from his vision that the child born of Mandane would
reign in his stead. Astyages therefore, guarding against this, as soon
as Cyrus was born sought to have him destroyed. The story of his
exposure on the mountain, and his subsequent good fortune, is then
related.[169:1]
_Abraham_ was also a "dangerous child." At the time of his birth,
Nimrod, king of Babylon, was informed by his soothsayers that "a child
should be born in Babylonia, who would shortly become a great prince,
and that he had reason to fear him." The result of this was that Nimrod
then issued orders that "all women with child should be guarded with
great care, _and all children born of them should be put to
death_."[169:2]
The mother of Abraham was at that time with child, but, of course, _he_
escaped from being put to death, although many children were
slaughtered.
_Zoroaster_, the chief of the religion of the Magi, was a "dangerous
child." Prodigies had announced his birth; he was exposed to dangers
from the time of his infancy, and was obliged to fly into Persia, like
Jesus into Egypt. Like him, he was pursued by a king, his enemy, who
wanted to get rid of him.[169:3]
His mother had alarming dreams of evil spirits seeking to destroy the
child to whom she was about to give birth. But a good spirit came to
comfort her and said: "Fear nothing! Ormuzd will protect this infant. He
has sent him as a prophet to the people. The world is waiting for
him."[169:4]
_Perseus_, son of the Virgin Danae, was also a "dangerous child."
Acrisius, king of Argos, being told by the oracle that a son born of his
virgin daughter would destroy him, immured his daughter Danae in a
tower, _where no man could approach her_, and by this means hoped to
keep his daughter from becoming _enceinte_. The god Jupiter, however,
visited her there, as it is related of the Angel Gabriel visiting the
Virgin Mary,[170:1] the result of which was that she bore a
son--_Perseus_. Acrisius, on hearing of his daughter's disgrace, caused
both her and the infant to be shut up in a chest and cast into the sea.
They were discovered by one Dictys, and liberated from what must have
been anything but a pleasant position.[170:2]
_Æsculapius_, when an infant, was exposed on the Mount of Myrtles, and
left there to die, but escaped the death which was intended for him,
having been found and cared for by _shepherds_.[170:3]
_Hercules_, son of the virgin Leto, was left to die on a plain, but was
found and rescued by a maiden.[170:4]
_Œdipous_ was a "dangerous child." Laios, King of Thebes, having been
told by the Delphic Oracle that Œdipous would be his destroyer, no
sooner is Œdipous born than the decree goes forth that the child must
be slain: but the servant to whom he is intrusted contents himself with
exposing the babe on the slopes of Mount Kithairon, where a _shepherd_
finds him, and carries him, like Cyrus or Romulus, to his wife, who
cherishes the child with a mother's care.[170:5]
The Theban myth of Œdipous is repeated substantially in the Arcadian
tradition of _Telephos_. He is exposed, when a babe, on Mount Parthenon,
and is suckled by a doe, which represents the wolf in the myth of
Romulus, and the dog of the Persian story of Cyrus. Like Moses, he is
brought up in the palace of a king.[170:6]
As we read the story of Telephos, we can scarcely fail to think of the
story of the Trojan _Paris_, for, like Telephos, Paris is exposed as a
babe on the mountain-side.[170:7] Before he is born, there are portents
of the ruin which he is to bring upon his house and people. Priam, the
ruling monarch, therefore decrees that the child shall be left to die on
the hill-side. But the babe lies on the slopes of _Ida_ and is nourished
by a she-bear. He is fostered, like Crishna and others, by _shepherds_,
among whom he grows up.[170:8]
_Iamos_ was left to die among the bushes and violets. Aipytos, the
chieftain of Phaisana, had learned at Delphi that a child had been born
who should become the greatest of all the seers and prophets of the
earth, and he asked all his people where the babe was: but none had
heard or seen him, for he lay away amid the thick bushes, with his soft
body bathed in the golden and pure rays of the violets. So when he was
found, they called him Iamos, the "violet child;" and as he grew in
years and strength, he went down into the Alpheian stream, and prayed to
his father that he would glorify his son. Then the voice of Zeus was
heard, bidding him come to the heights of Olympus, where he should
receive the gift of prophecy.[171:1]
_Chandragupta_ was also a "dangerous child." He is exposed to great
dangers in his infancy at the hands of a tributary chief who has
defeated and slain his suzerain. His mother, "relinquishing him to the
protection of the Devas, places him in a vase, and deposits him at the
door of a _cattle pen_." A _herdsman_ takes the child and rears it as
his own.[171:2]
_Jason_ is another hero of the same kind. Pelias, the chief of Iolkos,
had been told that one of the children of Aiolos would be his destroyer,
and decreed, therefore, that all should be slain. Jason only is
preserved, and brought up by Cheiron.[171:3]
_Bacchus_, son of the virgin Semele, was destined to bring ruin upon
Cadmus, King of Thebes, who therefore orders the infant to be put into a
chest and thrown into a river. He is found, and taken from the water by
loving hands, and lives to fulfill his mission.[171:4]
Herodotus relates a similar story, which is as follows:
"The constitution of the _Corinthians_ was formerly of this
kind; it was an _oligarchy_, (a government in the hands of a
selected few), and those who were called _Bacchiadæ_ governed
the city. About this time one Eetion, who had been married to
a maiden called Labda, and having no children by her, went to
Delphi to inquire of the oracle about having offspring. Upon
entering the temple he was immediately saluted as follows;
'Eetion, no one honors thee, though worthy of much honor.
Labda is pregnant and will bring forth a round stone; it will
fall on monarchs, and vindicate Corinth.' This oracle,
pronounced to Eetion, was by chance reported to the
_Bacchiadæ_, who well knew that it prophesied the birth of a
son to Eetion who would overthrow them, and reign in their
stead; and though they comprehended, they kept it secret,
purposing to destroy the offspring that should be born to
Eetion. As soon as the woman brought forth, they sent ten
persons to the district where Eetion lived, to put the child
to death; but, the child, _by a divine providence_, was saved.
His mother hid him in a chest, and as they could not find the
child they resolved to depart, and tell those who sent them
that they had done all that they had commanded. After this,
Eetion's son grew up, and having escaped this danger, the name
of Cypselus was given him, from the chest. When Cypselus
reached man's estate, and consulted the oracle, an ambiguous
answer was given him at Delphi; relying on which he attacked
and got possession of Corinth."[171:5]
_Romulus_ and _Remus_, the founders of Rome, were exposed on the banks
of the Tiber, when infants, and left there to die, but escaped the death
intended for them.
The story of the "dangerous child" was well known in ancient Rome, and
several of their emperors, so it is said, were threatened with death at
their birth, or when mere infants. Julius Marathus, in his life of the
Emperor Augustus Cæsar, says that before his birth there was a prophecy
in Rome that a king over the Roman people would soon be born. To obviate
this danger to the republic, the Senate ordered that all the male
children born in that year should be abandoned or exposed.[172:1]
The flight of the virgin-mother with her babe is also illustrated in the
story of Astrea when beset by Orion, and of Latona, the mother of
Apollo, when pursued by the monster.[172:2] It is simply the same old
story, over and over again. Someone has predicted that a child born at a
certain time shall be great, he is therefore a "dangerous child," and
the reigning monarch, or some other interested party, attempts to have
the child destroyed, but he invariably escapes and grows to manhood, and
generally accomplishes the purpose for which he was intended. This
almost universal mythos was added to the fictitious history of Jesus by
its fictitious authors, who have made him escape in his infancy from the
reigning tyrant with the usual good fortune.
When a marvellous occurrence is said to have happened _everywhere_, we
may feel sure that it never happened anywhere. Popular fancies propagate
themselves indefinitely, but historical events, especially the striking
and dramatic ones, are rarely repeated. That this is a fictitious story
is seen from the narratives of the birth of Jesus, which are recorded by
the first and third Gospel writers, without any other evidence. In the
one--that related by the _Matthew_ narrator--we have a birth at
Bethlehem--implying the ordinary residence of the parents there--and a
_hurried flight_--almost immediately after the birth--from that place
into Egypt,[172:3] the slaughter of the infants, and a journey, after
many months, from Egypt to Nazareth in Galilee. In the other story--that
told by the _Luke_ narrator--the parents, who have lived in Nazareth,
came to Bethlehem only for business of the State, and the casual birth
in the cave or stable is followed by a quiet sojourn, during which the
child is circumcised, and by a leisurely journey to Jerusalem; whence,
everything having gone off peaceably and happily, they return naturally
to their own former place of abode, full, _it is said over and over
again_, of wonder at the things that had happened, and deeply impressed
with the conviction that their child had a special work to do, and was
specially gifted for it. _There is no fear of Herod, who seems never to
trouble himself about the child, or even to have any knowledge of him.
There is no trouble or misery at Bethlehem, and certainly no mourning
for children slain._ Far from flying hurriedly away by night, his
parents _celebrate openly_, and at the usual time, the circumcision of
the child; and when he is presented in the temple, there is not only no
sign that enemies seek his life, _but the devout saints give public
thanks for the manifestation of the Saviour_.
Dr. Hooykaas, speaking of the slaughter of the innocents, says:
"Antiquity in general delighted in representing great men,
such as Romulus, Cyrus, and many more, as having been
threatened in their childhood by fearful dangers. This served
to bring into clear relief both the lofty significance of
their future lives, and the special protection of the deity
who watched over them.
"The brow of many a theologian has been bent over this
(Matthew) narrative! For, as long as people believed in the
miraculous inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, of course they
accepted every page as literally true, and thought that there
_could_ not be any contradiction between the different
accounts or representations of Scripture. The worst of all
such pre-conceived ideas is, that they compel those who hold
them to do violence to their own sense of truth. For when
these so-called religious prejudices come into play, people
are afraid to call things by their right names, and, without
knowing it themselves, become guilty of all kinds of evasive
and arbitrary practices; for what would be thought quite
unjustifiable in any other case is here considered a duty,
inasmuch as it is supposed to tend toward the maintenance of
faith and the glory of God!"[173:1]
As we stated above, this story is to be found in the fictitious gospel
according to Matthew only; contemporary history has nowhere recorded
this audacious crime. It is mentioned neither by Jewish nor Roman
historians. Tacitus, who has stamped forever the crimes of despots with
the brand of reprobation, it would seem then, did not think such
infamies worthy of his condemnation. Josephus also, who gives us a
minute account of the atrocities perpetrated by Herod up to even the
very last moment of his life, does not say a single word about this
unheard-of crime, which must have been so notorious. Surely he must have
known of it, and must have mentioned it, had it ever been committed. "We
can readily imagine the Pagans," says Mr. Reber, "who composed the
learned and intelligent men of their day, at work in exposing the story
of Herod's cruelty, by showing that, considering the extent of
territory embraced in the order, and the population within it, the
assumed destruction of life stamped the story false and ridiculous. A
governor of a Roman province who dared make such an order would be so
speedily overtaken by the vengeance of the Roman people, that his head
would fall from his body before the blood of his victims had time to
dry. Archelaus, his son, was deposed for offenses not to be spoken of
when compared with this massacre of the infants."
No wonder that there is no trace at all in the Roman catacombs, nor in
Christian art, of this fictitious story, until about the beginning of
the fifth century.[174:1] Never would Herod dared to have taken upon
himself the odium and responsibility of such a sacrifice. _Such a crime
could never have happened at the epoch of its professed perpetration._
To such lengths were the early Fathers led, by the servile adaptation of
the ancient traditions of the East, they required a _second edition_ of
the tyrant Kansa, and their holy wrath fell upon Herod. The Apostles of
Jesus counted too much upon human credulity, they trusted too much that
the future might not unravel their maneuvers, the sanctity of their
object made them too reckless. They destroyed all the evidence against
themselves which they could lay their hands upon, but they did not
destroy it all.
FOOTNOTES:
[166:1] _A heavenly voice_ whispered to the foster-father of Jesus, and
told him to fly with the child into Egypt, which was immediately done.
(See Matthew, ii. 13.)
[166:2] Life and Relig. of the Hindoos, p. 134.
[166:3] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 129. See also, Cox: Aryan Mythology,
vol. ii. p. 134, and Maurice: Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 331.
[166:4] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 273 and 259.
[167:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 61.
[167:2] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. 130, 13-, and Maurice: Indian
Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 112, 113, and vol. iii. pp. 45, 95.
[167:3] Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 112, 113.
[167:4] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 259.
[167:5] Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 58.
[167:6] See Introduction to Gospel of Infancy, Apoc.
[167:7] See vol. x. Asiatic Researches.
[168:1] Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 103, 104.
[168:2] Amberly's Analysis, p. 229.
[168:3] The Shih-king. Decade ii, ode 1.
[168:4] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, pp. 158 and 186.
[169:1] Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 110.
[169:2] Calmet's Fragments, art. "Abraham."
[169:3] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 240.
[169:4] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. "Religions of Persia."
[170:1] In the Apocryphal Gospel of the Birth of Mary and
"Protevangelion."
[170:2] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 9. Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol.
ii. p. 58, and Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 161.
[170:3] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 27. Cox: Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. p.
34.
[170:4] Cox: Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. p. 44.
[170:5] Ibid. p. 69, and Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xlii.
[170:6] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 14.
[170:7] Ibid. p. 75.
[170:8] Ibid. p. 78.
[171:1] Cox: Aryan Mytho. ii. p. 81.
[171:2] Ibid. p. 84.
[171:3] Ibid. p. 150.
[171:4] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 188. Cox: Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. p.
296.
[171:5] Herodotus: bk. v. ch. 92.
[172:1] See Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 60.
[172:2] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 168.
[172:3] There are no very early examples in Christian art of the flight
of the Holy Family into Egypt. (See Monumental Christianity, p. 289.)
[173:1] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. pp. 71-74.
[174:1] See Monumental Christianity, p. 238.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TEMPTATION, AND FAST OF FORTY DAYS.
We are informed by the _Matthew_ narrator that, after being baptized by
John in the river Jordan, Jesus was led by the spirit into the
wilderness "_to be tempted of the devil_."
"And when he had fasted _forty days and forty nights_, he was
afterward an hungered. And when the _tempter_ came to him he
said: 'If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be
made bread.' . . . Then the devil taketh him up into the holy
city, _and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple_, and saith
unto him: 'If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.'
. . . Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high
mountain, _and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world_, and
the glory of them, and saith unto him:' _All these things will
I give thee_ if thou wilt fall down and worship me.' Then
saith Jesus unto him, 'Get thee hence, Satan: for it is
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only
shalt thou serve.' Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold,
angels came and ministered unto him."[175:1]
This is really a very peculiar story; it is therefore not to be wondered
at that many of the early Christian Fathers rejected it as being
fabulous,[175:2] but this, according to orthodox teaching, cannot be
done; because, in all consistent reason, "_we must accept the whole of
the inspired autographs or reject the whole_,"[175:3] and, because, "the
very foundations of our faith, the very basis of our hopes, the very
nearest and dearest of our consolations, are taken from us, when _one
line_ of that sacred volume, on which we base everything, is declared to
be untruthful and untrustworthy."[175:4]
The reason why we have this story in the New Testament is because the
writer wished to show that Christ Jesus was proof against all
temptations, that _he_ too, as well as _Buddha_ and others, could resist
the powers of the prince of evil. This Angel-Messiah was tempted by the
devil, and he fasted for forty-seven days and nights, without taking an
atom of food.[175:5]
The story of Buddha's temptation, presented below, is taken from the
"_Siamese Life of Buddha_," by Moncure D. Conway, and published in his
"_Sacred Anthology_," from which we take it.[176:1] It is also to be
found in the _Fo-pen-hing_,[176:2] and other works on Buddha and
Buddhism. Buddha went through a more lengthy and severe trial than did
Jesus, having been tempted in many different ways. The portion which
most resembles that recorded by the Matthew narrator is the following:
"The Grand Being (Buddha) applied himself to practice
asceticism of the extremest nature. _He ceased to eat_ (that
is, _he fasted_) and held his breath. . . . _Then it was that
the royal Mara_ (the Prince of Evil) _sought occasion to tempt
him._ Pretending compassion, he said: 'Beware, O Grand Being,
your state is pitiable to look on; you are attenuated beyond
measure, . . . you are practicing this mortification in vain;
I can see that you will not live through it. . . . Lord, that
art capable of such vast endurance, go not forth to adopt a
religious life, but return to thy kingdom, and in _seven_ days
thou shalt become _the Emperor of the World_, riding over the
four great continents.'"
To this the Grand Being, Buddha, replied:
"'Take heed, O Mara; I also know that in seven days I might
gain universal empire, but I desire not such possessions. I
know that the pursuit of religion is better than the empire of
the world. You, thinking only of evil lusts, would force me to
leave all beings without guidance into your power. _Avaunt!
Get thou away from me!_'
"The Lord (then) rode onwards, intent on his purpose. The
skies rained flowers, and delicious odors pervaded the
air."[176:3]
Now, mark the similarity between these two legends.
Was Jesus about "beginning to preach" when he was tempted by the evil
spirit? So was Buddha about to go forth "to adopt a religious life,"
when he was tempted by the evil spirit.
Did Jesus fast, and was he "afterwards an hungered"? So did Buddha
"cease to eat," and was "attenuated beyond measure."
Did the evil spirit take Jesus and show him "all the kingdoms of the
world," which he promised to give him, provided he did not lead the life
he contemplated, but follow him?
So did the evil spirit say to Buddha: "Go not forth to adopt a religious
life, and in seven days thou shalt become an emperor of the world."
Did not Jesus resist these temptations, and say unto the evil one, "Get
thee behind me, Satan"?
So did Buddha resist the temptations, and said unto the evil one, "Get
thee away from me."
After the evil spirit left Jesus did not "angels come and minister unto
him"?
So with Buddha. After the evil one had left him "the skies rained
flowers, and delicious odors pervaded the air."
These parallels are too striking to be accidental.
_Zoroaster_, the founder of the religion of the Persians, was tempted by
the devil, who made him magnificent promises, in order to induce him to
become his servant and to be dependent on him, but the temptations were
in vain.[177:1] "His temptation by the devil, forms the subject of many
traditional reports and legends."[177:2]
_Quetzalcoatle_, the virgin-born Mexican Saviour, was also tempted by
the devil, and the forty days' fast was found among them.[177:3]
Fasting and self-denial were observances practiced by all nations of
antiquity. The _Hindoos_ have days set apart for fasting on many
different occasions throughout the year, one of which is when the
birth-day of their Lord and Saviour Crishna is celebrated. On this
occasion, the day is spent in fasting and worship. They abstain entirely
from food and drink for more than thirty hours, at the end of which
Crishna's image is worshiped, and the story of his miraculous birth is
read to his hungry worshipers.[177:4]
Among the ancient _Egyptians_, there were times when the priests
submitted to abstinence of the most severe description, being forbidden
to eat even bread, and at other times they only ate it mingled with
hyssop. "The priests in Heliopolis," says Plutarch, "have many fasts,
during which they meditate on divine things."[177:5]
Among the _Sabians_, fasting was insisted on as an essential act of
religion. During the month _Tammuz_, they were in the habit of fasting
from sunrise to sunset, without allowing a morsel of food or drop of
liquid to pass their lips.[177:6]
The Jews also had their fasts, and on special occasions they gave
themselves up to prolonged fasts and mortifications.
Fasting and self-denial were observances required of the Greeks who
desired initiation into the _Mysteries_. Abstinence from food, chastity
and hard couches prepared the neophyte, who broke his fast on the third
and fourth day only, on consecrated food.[177:7]
The same practice was found among the ancient _Mexicans_ and
_Peruvians_. Acosta, speaking of them, says:
"These priests and religious men used great fastings, of five
and ten days together, before any of their great feasts, and
they were unto them as our four ember weeks. . . .
"They drank no wine, and slept little, for the greatest part
of their exercises (of penance) were at night, committing
great cruelties and martyring themselves for the devil, and
all to be reputed great fasters and penitents."[178:1]
In regard to the number of days which Jesus is said to have fasted being
specified as _forty_, this is simply owing to the fact that the number
_forty_ as well as _seven_ was a sacred one among most nations of
antiquity, particularly among the Jews, and because _others_ had fasted
that number of days. For instance; it is related[178:2] that _Moses_
went up into a mountain, "and he was there with the Lord _forty days and
forty nights, and he did neither eat bread, nor drink water_," which is
to say that he _fasted_.
In Deuteronomy[178:3] Moses _is made to say_--for he did not write it,
"When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, . . .
then I abode in the mount _forty days and forty nights_, I neither did
eat bread nor drink water."
_Elijah_ also had a long fast, which, _of course_, was continued for a
period of _forty days and forty nights_.[178:4]
_St. Joachim_, father of the "ever-blessed Virgin Mary," had a long
fast, which was also continued for a period of _forty days and forty
nights_. The story is to be found in the apocryphal gospel
_Protevangelion_.[178:5]
The ancient _Persians_ had a religious festival which they annually
celebrated, and which they called the "Salutation of Mithras." During
this festival, _forty days_ were set apart for thanksgiving and
sacrifice.[178:6]
The _forty days' fast_ was found in the New World.
Godfrey Higgins tells us that:
"The ancient _Mexicans_ had a _forty days' fast_, in memory of
one of their sacred persons (Quetzalcoatle) who was tempted
(and fasted) _forty days_ on a mountain."[178:7]
Lord Kingsborough says:
"The temptation of Quetzalcoatle, and _the fast of forty days,
. . . are very curious and mysterious_."[178:8]
The ancient Mexicans were also in the habit of making their prisoners
of war fast for a term of _forty days_ before they were put to
death.[179:1]
Mr. Bonwick says:
"The Spaniards were surprised to see the _Mexicans_ keep the
vernal _forty days' fast_. The Tammuz month of Syria was in
the spring. The _forty days_ were kept for Proserpine. Thus
does history repeat itself."[179:2]
The Spanish monks accounted for what Lord Kingsborough calls "very
curious and mysterious" circumstances, by the agency of the devil, and
burned all the books containing them, whenever it was in their power.
The forty days' fast was also found among some of the Indian tribes in
the New World. Dr. Daniel Brinton tells us that "the females of the
_Orinoco_ tribes _fasted forty days_ before marriage,"[179:3] and Prof.
Max Müller informs us that it was customary for some of the females of
the South American tribes of Indians "to fast before and after the birth
of a child," and that, among the _Carib-Coudave_ tribe, in the West
Indies, "when a child is born the mother goes presently to work, but the
father begins to complain, and takes to his hammock, and there he is
visited as though he were sick. _He then fasts for forty days._"[179:4]
The females belonging to the tribes of the Upper Mississippi, were held
unclean for _forty days_ after childbirth.[179:5] The prince of the
Tezcuca tribes _fasted forty days_ when he wished an heir to his throne,
and the Mandanas supposed it required _forty days and forty nights_ to
wash clean the earth at the deluge.[179:6]
The number _forty_ is to be found in a great many instances in the Old
Testament; for instance, at the end of _forty days_ Noah sent out a
raven from the ark.[179:7] Isaac and Esau were each _forty years_ old
when they married.[179:8] _Forty days_ were fulfilled for the embalming
of Jacob.[179:9] The spies were _forty days_ in search of the land of
Canaan.[179:10] The Israelites wandered _forty years_ in the
wilderness.[179:11] The land "had rest" _forty years_ on three
occasions.[179:12] The land was delivered into the hand of the
Philistines _forty years_.[179:13] Eli judged Israel _forty
years_.[179:14] King David reigned _forty years_.[179:15]
King Solomon reigned _forty years_.[180:1] Goliath presented himself
_forty days_.[180:2] The rain was upon the earth _forty days_ at the
time of the deluge.[180:3] And, as we saw above, Moses was on the mount
_forty days_ and _forty nights_ on each occasion.[180:4] Can anything be
more mythological than this?
The number forty was used by the ancients in constructing temples. There
were _forty_ pillars around the temple of Chilminar, in Persia; the
temple at Baalbec had _forty_ pillars; on the frontiers of China, in
Tartary, there is to be seen the "Temple of the _forty_ pillars."
_Forty_ is one of the most common numbers in the Druidical temples, and
in the plan of the temple of Ezekiel, the four oblong buildings in the
middle of the courts have each _forty_ pillars.[180:5] Most temples of
antiquity were imitative--were microcosms of the Celestial Templum--and
on this account they were surrounded with pillars recording
_astronomical_ subjects, and intended both to do honor to these
subjects, and to keep them in perpetual remembrance. In the Abury
temples were to be seen the cycles of 650-608-600-60-40-30-19-12,
etc.[180:6]
FOOTNOTES:
[175:1] Matthew, iv. 1-11.
[175:2] See Lardner's Works, vol. viii. p. 491.
[175:3] Words of the Rev. E. Garbett, M. A., in a sermon preached before
the University of Oxford, England.
[175:4] The Bishop of Manchester (England), in the "Manchester Examiner
and Times."
[175:5] See Lillie's Buddhism, p. 100.
[176:1] Pp. 44 and 172, 173.
[176:2] Translated by Prof. Samuel Beal.
[176:3] See also Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 38, 39. Beal: Hist. Buddha,
pp. xxviii., xxix., and 190, and Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. xvii.
[177:1] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 240.
[177:2] Chambers's Encyclo. art. "Zoroaster."
[177:3] See Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 200.
[177:4] Life and Relig. of the Hindoos, p. 134.
[177:5] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 341.
[177:6] Ibid.
[177:7] Ibid. p. 340.
[178:1] Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 339.
[178:2] Exodus, xxiv. 28.
[178:3] Deut. ix. 18.
[178:4] 1 Kings, xix. 8.
[178:5] Chapter i.
[178:6] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 272.
[178:7] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.
[178:8] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. pp. 197-200.
[179:1] See Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 223.
[179:2] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 370.
[179:3] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 94.
[179:4] Max Müller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 279.
[179:5] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 94.
[179:6] Ibid. According to Genesis, vii. 12, "the rain was upon the
earth forty days and forty nights" at the time of the flood.
[179:7] Genesis, viii. 6.
[179:8] Gen. xxv. 20-xxvi. 34.
[179:9] Gen. i. 3.
[179:10] Numbers, xiii. 25.
[179:11] Numbers, xiii. 13.
[179:12] Jud. iii. 11; v. 31; viii. 28.
[179:13] Jud. xiii. 1.
[179:14] I. Samuel, iv. 18.
[179:15] I. Kings, ii. 11.
[180:1] I. Kings, xi. 42.
[180:2] I. Samuel, xvii. 16.
[180:3] Gen. vii. 12.
[180:4] Exodus, xxiv. 18-xxxiv. 28.
[180:5] See Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 798; vol. ii. p. 402.
[180:6] See Ibid. vol. ii. p. 708.
CHAPTER XX.
THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST JESUS.
The punishment of an individual by crucifixion, for claiming to be "King
of the Jews," "Son of God," or "The Christ;" which are the causes
assigned by the Evangelists for the Crucifixion of Jesus, would need but
a passing glance in our inquiry, were it not for the fact that there is
much attached to it of a _dogmatic_ and _heathenish_ nature, which
demands considerably more than a "passing glance." The doctrine of
atonement for sin had been preached long before the doctrine was deduced
from the Christian Scriptures, long before these Scriptures are
pretended to have been written. Before the period assigned for the birth
of Christ Jesus, the poet _Ovid_ had assailed the demoralizing delusion
with the most powerful shafts of philosophic scorn: "_When thou thyself
art guilty,_" says he, "_why should a victim die for thee? What folly it
is to expect salvation from the death of another._"
The idea of expiation by the sacrifice of a _god_ was to be found among
the Hindoos even in _Vedic_ times. _The sacrificer was mystically
identified with the victim_, which was regarded as the ransom for sin,
and the instrument of its annulment. The _Rig-Veda_ represents the gods
as sacrificing _Purusha_, the primeval male, supposed to be coeval with
the Creator. This idea is even more remarkably developed in the
_Tāndya-brāhmanas_, thus:
"The lord of creatures (_prajā-pati_) _offered himself a
sacrifice for the gods_."
And again, in the _Satapatha-brāhmana_:
"He who, knowing this, sacrifices the _Purusha-medha_, or
sacrifice of the primeval male, becomes everything."[181:1]
Prof. Monier Williams, from whose work on _Hindooism_ we quote the
above, says:
"Surely, in these mystical allusions to the sacrifice of a
representative man, we may perceive traces of the original
institution of sacrifice as a _divinely-appointed ordinance
typical of the one great sacrifice of the Son of God for the
sins of the world_."[182:1]
This idea of redemption from sin through the sufferings and death of a
Divine Incarnate Saviour, is simply the crowning-point of the idea
entertained by primitive man that the gods _demanded_ a sacrifice of
some kind, to atone for some sin, or avert some calamity.
In primitive ages, when men lived mostly on vegetables, they offered
only grain, water, salt, fruit, and flowers to the gods, to propitiate
them and thereby obtain temporal blessings. But when they began to eat
meat and spices, and drink wine, they offered the same; naturally
supposing the deities would be pleased with whatever was useful or
agreeable to themselves. They imagined that some gods were partial to
animals, others to fruits, flowers, etc. To the celestial gods they
offered _white_ victims at sunrise, or at open day. To the infernal
deities they sacrificed _black_ animals in the night. Each god had some
creature peculiarly devoted to his worship. They sacrificed a _bull_ to
Mars, a _dove_ to Venus, and to Minerva, a _heifer_ without blemish,
which had never been put to the yoke. If a man was too poor to sacrifice
a living animal, he offered an image of one made of bread.
In the course of time, it began to be imagined that the gods demanded
something more sacred as offerings or atonements for sin. This led to
the sacrifice of _human beings_, principally slaves and those taken in
war, then, their own children, even their most beloved "first-born." It
came to be an idea that every sin must have its prescribed amount of
punishment, _and that the gods would accept the life of one person as
atonement for the sins of others_. This idea prevailed even in Greece
and Rome: but there it mainly took the form of heroic self-sacrifice for
the public good. Cicero says: "The force of religion was so great among
our ancestors, that some of their commanders have, with their faces
veiled, and with the strongest expressions of sincerity, _sacrificed
themselves to the immortal gods to save their country_."[182:2]
In Egypt, offerings of human sacrifices, for the atonement of sin,
became so general that "if the eldest born of the family of Athamas
entered the temple of the Laphystan Jupiter at Alos in Achaia, he was
sacrificed, crowned with garlands like an animal victim."[182:3]
When the Egyptian priests offered up a sacrifice to the gods, they
pronounced the following imprecations on the head of the victim:
"If any evil is about to befall either those who now
sacrifice, or Egypt in general, _may it be averted on this
head_."[183:1]
This idea of atonement finally resulted in the belief that the incarnate
_Christ_, the _Anointed_, the _God among us_, was to _save_ mankind from
a curse by God imposed. Man had sinned, and God could not and did not
forgive without a propitiatory _sacrifice_. The curse of God must be
removed from the _sinful_, and the _sinless_ must bear the load of that
curse. It was asserted that _divine justice_ required BLOOD.[183:2]
The belief of redemption from sin by the sufferings of a _Divine
Incarnation_, whether by death on the cross or otherwise, was general
and popular among the heathen, centuries before the time of Jesus of
Nazareth, and this dogma, no matter how sacred it may have become, or
how _consoling_ it may be, must fall along with the rest of the material
of which the Christian church is built.
Julius Firmicius, referring to this popular belief among the _Pagans_,
says: "The _devil_ has _his Christs_."[183:3] This was the general
off-hand manner in which the Christian Fathers disposed of such matters.
Everything in the religion of the Pagans which corresponded to their
religion was of the devil. Most Protestant divines have resorted to the
_type_ theory, of which we shall speak anon.
As we have done heretofore in our inquiries, we will first turn to
_India_, where we shall find, in the words of M. l'Abbé Huc, that "_the
idea of redemption by a divine incarnation_," who came into the world
for the express purpose of redeeming mankind, was "general and
popular."[183:4]
"A sense of _original corruption_," says Prof. Monier Williams, seems
to be felt by all classes of Hindoos, as indicated by the following
prayer used after the _Gāyatrī_ by some Vaishnavas:
"'I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, _I am
conceived in sin_. Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Heri (Saviour),
the remover of sin.'"[184:1]
Moreover, the doctrine of _bhakti_ (_salvation by faith_) existed among
the Hindoos from the earliest times.[184:2]
Crishna, the virgin-born, "the Divine Vishnu himself,"[184:3] "he who is
without beginning, middle or end,"[184:4] being moved "to relieve the
earth of her load,"[184:5] came upon earth and redeemed man by his
_sufferings_--to _save_ him.
The accounts of the deaths of most all the virgin-born Saviours of whom
we shall speak, are conflicting. It is stated in one place that such an
one died in such a manner, and in another place we may find it stated
altogether differently. Even the accounts of the death of Jesus, as we
shall hereafter see, are conflicting; therefore, until the chapter on
"_Explanation_" is read, these myths cannot really be thoroughly
understood.
As the Rev. Geo. W. Cox remarks, in his _Aryan Mythology_, Crishna is
described, in one of his aspects, as a self-sacrificing and unselfish
hero, a being who is filled with divine wisdom and love, who offers up a
sacrifice which he alone can make.[184:6]
The _Vishnu Purana_[184:7] speaks of _Crishna_ being shot in the _foot_
with an arrow, and states that _this_ was the cause of his death. Other
accounts, however, state that he was suspended on a tree, or in other
words, _crucified_.
Mons. Guigniaut, in his "_Religion de l'Antiquité_" says:
"The death of Crishna is very differently related. One
remarkable and convincing tradition makes him perish on a
_tree_, to which he was _nailed_ by the stroke of an
arrow."[184:8]
Rev. J. P. Lundy alludes to this passage of Guigniaut's in his
"Monumental Christianity," and translates the passage "un bois fatal"
(see note below) "_a cross_." Although we do not think he is justified
in doing this, as M. Guigniaut has distinctly stated that this "bois
fatal" (which is applied to a gibbet, a cross, a scaffold, etc.) was "un
arbre" (a _tree_), yet, he is justified in doing so on other accounts,
for we find that _Crishna_ is represented _hanging on a cross_, and we
know that a _cross_ was frequently called the "accursed _tree_." It was
an ancient custom to use trees as gibbets for crucifixion, or, if
artificial, to call the cross a tree.[185:1]
A writer in _Deuteronomy_[185:2] speaks of hanging criminals upon a
_tree_, as though it was a general custom, and says:
"He that is hanged (on a tree) is accursed of God."
And _Paul_ undoubtedly refers to this text when he says:
"Christ hath redeemed us from the _curse_ of the law, being
made a curse for us; for it is written, 'Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree.'"[185:3]
It is evident, then, that to be hung on a cross was anciently called
hanging on a _tree_, and to be hung on a tree was called crucifixion. We
may therefore conclude from this, and from what we shall now see, that
Crishna was said to have been _crucified_.
In the earlier copies of Moor's "_Hindu Pantheon_," is to be seen
representations of Crishna (as _Wittoba_),[185:4] with marks of holes in
both feet, and in others, of holes in the hands. In Figures 4 and 5 of
Plate 11 (Moor's work), the figures have _nail-holes in both feet_.
Figure 6 has a _round hole in the side_; to his collar or shirt hangs
the emblem of a _heart_ (which we often see in pictures of Christ Jesus)
and on his head he has a _Yoni-Linga_ (which we _do not_ see in pictures
of Christ Jesus.)
Our Figure No. 7 (next page), is a pre-Christian crucifix of _Asiatic_
origin,[185:5] evidently intended to represent Crishna crucified. Figure
No. 8 we can speak more positively of, it is surely Crishna crucified.
It is unlike any Christian crucifix ever made, and, with that described
above with the _Yoni-Linga_ attached to the head, would probably not be
claimed as such. Instead of the _crown of thorns_ usually put on the
head of the Christian Saviour, it has the turreted coronet of the
Ephesian Diana, the ankles are tied together by a cord, _and the dress
about the loins is exactly the style with which Crishna is almost always
represented_.[185:6]
Rev. J. P. Lundy, speaking of the Christian crucifix, says:
"I object to the crucifix because it is an _image_, and
liable to gross abuse, _just as the old Hindoo crucifix was an
idol_."[186:1]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 7]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 8]
And Dr. Inman says:
"Crishna, whose history so closely resembles our Lord's, was
also like him in his being crucified."[186:2]
The Evangelist[186:3] relates that when Jesus was crucified two others
(malefactors) were crucified with him, one of whom, through his favor,
went to heaven. One of the malefactors reviled him, but the other said
to Jesus: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." And
Jesus said unto him: "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with
me in paradise." According to the _Vishnu Purana_, the hunter who shot
the arrow at Crishna afterwards said unto him: "Have pity upon me, who
am consumed by my crime, for thou art able to consume me!" Crishna
replied: "Fear not thou in the least. _Go, hunter, through my favor, to
heaven, the abode of the gods._" As soon as he had thus spoken, a
celestial car appeared, and the hunter, ascending it, forthwith
proceeded to heaven. Then the illustrious Crishna, having united himself
with his own pure, spiritual, inexhaustible, inconceivable, unborn,
undecaying, imperishable and universal spirit, which is one with
_Vasudeva_ (God),[186:4] abandoned his mortal body, and the condition of
the threefold equalities.[186:5] One of the titles of Crishna is
"_Pardoner of sins_," another is "_Liberator from the Serpent of
death_."[187:1]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 9]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 10]
The monk Georgius, in his _Tibetinum Alphabetum_ (p. 203), has given
plates of _a crucified god_ who was worshiped in _Nepal_. These
crucifixes were to be seen at the corners of roads and on eminences. He
calls it the god _Indra_. Figures No. 9 and No. 10 are taken from this
work. They are also different from any Christian crucifix yet produced.
Georgius says:
"If the matter stands as Beausobre thinks, then the
inhabitants of India, and the Buddhists, whose religion is the
same as that of the inhabitants of Thibet, have received these
new portents of fanatics nowhere else than from the
Manicheans. For those nations, especially in the city of
Nepal, in the month of August, being about to celebrate the
festival days of the god _Indra_, erect crosses, wreathed with
_Abrotono_, to his memory, everywhere. You have the
description of these in letter B, the picture following after;
for A is the representation of _Indra_ himself _crucified_,
bearing on his forehead, hands and feet the signs
_Telech_."[187:2]
P. Andrada la Crozius, one of the first Europeans who went to Nepal and
Thibet, in speaking of the god whom they worshiped there--_Indra_--tells
us that they said _he spilt his blood for the salvation of the human
race_, and that he was pierced through the body with nails. He further
says that, although they do not say he suffered the penalty of the
cross, yet they find, nevertheless, figures of it in their books.[188:1]
In regard to Beausobre's ideas that the religion of India is corrupted
Christianity, obtained from the Manicheans, little need be said, as all
scholars of the present day know that the religion of India is many
centuries older than Mani or the Manicheans.[188:2]
In the promontory of India, in the South, at Tanjore, and in the North,
at Oude or Ayoudia, was found the worship of the _crucified god Bal-li_.
This god, who was believed to have been an incarnation of Vishnu, was
represented with holes in his hands and side.[188:3]
The incarnate god Buddha, although said to have expired peacefully at
the foot of a tree, is nevertheless described as a suffering Saviour,
who, "when his mind was moved by pity (for the human race) _gave his
life like grass for the sake of others_."[188:4]
A hymn, addressed to Buddha, says:
"Persecutions without end,
Revilings and many prisons,
_Death and murder_,
These hast thou suffered with love and patience
(To secure the happiness of mankind),
Forgiving thine executioners."[188:5]
He was called the "Great Physician,"[188:6] the "Saviour of the
World,"[188:7] the "Blessed One,"[188:8] the "God among Gods,"[188:9]
the "Anointed," or the "Christ,"[188:10] the "Messiah,"[188:11] the
"Only Begotten,"[188:12] etc. He is described by the author of the
"Cambridge Key"[188:13] as sacrificing his life to wash away the
offenses of mankind, and thereby to make them partakers of the kingdom
of heaven. This induces him to say "Can a Christian doubt that this
Buddha was the TYPE of the Saviour of the World."[189:1]
As a spirit in the fourth heaven, he resolves to give up "all that
glory, in order to be born into the world," "to rescue all men from
their misery and every future consequence of it." He vows "to deliver
all men, who are left as it were without a _Saviour_."[189:2]
While in the realms of the blest, and when about to descend upon earth
to be born as man, he said:
"I am now about to assume a body; not for the sake of gaining
wealth, or enjoying the pleasures of sense, but I am about to
descend and be born, among men, _simply to give peace and rest
to all flesh; to remove all sorrow and grief from the
world_."[189:3]
M. l'Abbé Huc says:
"In the eyes of the Buddhists, this personage (Buddha) is
sometimes a man and sometimes a god, or rather both one and
the other--a divine incarnation, a man-god--who came into the
world to enlighten men, to _redeem them_, and to indicate to
them the way of safety. This idea of _redemption by a divine
incarnation_ is so general and popular among the Buddhists,
that during our travels in Upper Asia we everywhere found it
expressed in a neat formula. If we addressed to a Mongol or a
Thibetan the question 'Who is Buddha?' he would immediately
reply: '_The Saviour of Men!_'"[189:4]
According to Prof. Max Müller, Buddha is reported as saying:
"_Let all the sins that were committed in this world fall on
me, that the world may be delivered._"[189:5]
The _Indians_ are no strangers to the doctrine of _original sin_. It is
their invariable belief that _man is a fallen being_; admitted by them
from time immemorial.[189:6] And what we have seen concerning their
beliefs in _Crishna_ and _Buddha_ unmistakably shows a belief in a
_divine Saviour_, who _redeems man_, and takes upon himself the sins of
the world; so that "_Baddha_ paid it all, all to him is due."[189:7]
The idea of redemption through the sufferings and death of a _Divine
Saviour_, is to be found even in the ancient religions of China. One of
their five sacred volumes, called the _Y-King_, says, in speaking of
_Tien, the "Holy One"_:
"The _Holy One_ will unite in himself all the virtues of
heaven and earth. By his justice the world will be
re-established in the ways of righteousness. He will labor and
suffer much. He must pass the great torrent, whose waves shall
enter into his soul; _but he alone can offer up to the Lord a
sacrifice worthy of him_."[190:1]
An ancient commentator says:
"The common people sacrifice their lives to gain bread; the
philosophers to gain reputation; the nobility to perpetuate
their families. The _Holy One_ (_Tien_) does not seek himself,
but the good of others. _He dies to save the world._"[190:2]
_Tien_, the Holy One, is always spoken of as one with God, existing with
him from all eternity, "before anything was made."
_Osiris_ and _Horus_, the Egyptian virgin-born gods, suffered
death.[190:3] Mr. Bonwick, speaking of _Osiris_, says:
"He is one of the _Saviours_ or deliverers of humanity, to be
found in almost all lands." "In his efforts to do good, he
encounters evil; in struggling with that he is overcome; he is
killed."[190:4]
Alexander Murray says:
"_The Egyptian Saviour Osiris_ was gratefully regarded as the
great exemplar of self-sacrifice, in _giving his life for
others_."[190:5]
Sir J. G. Wilkinson says of him:
"The sufferings and death of _Osiris_ were the great Mystery
of the Egyptian religion, and some traces of it are
perceptible among other peoples of antiquity. His being the
_Divine Goodness_, and the abstract idea of 'good,' his
manifestation upon earth (like a Hindoo god), his death and
resurrection, and his office as judge of the dead in a future
state, _look like the early revelation of a future
manifestation of the deity converted into a mythological
fable_."[190:6]
_Horus_ was also called "The Saviour." "As Horus Sneb, he is the
_Redeemer_. He is the Lord of Life and the Eternal One."[190:7] He is
also called "The Only-Begotten."[190:8]
_Attys_, who was called the "_Only Begotten Son_"[190:9] and
"_Saviour_," was worshiped by the Phrygians (who were regarded as one of
the oldest races of Asia Minor). He was represented by them as _a man
tied to a tree_, at the foot of which was a _lamb_,[191:1] and, without
doubt, also _as a man nailed to the tree, or stake_, for we find
Lactantius making this Apollo of Miletus (anciently, the greatest and
most flourishing city of Ionia, in Asia Minor) say that:
"He was a mortal according to the flesh; wise in miraculous
works; but, being arrested by an armed force by command of the
Chaldean judges, _he suffered a death made bitter with nails
and stakes_."[191:2]
In this god of the Phrygians, we again have the myth of the _crucified
Saviour of Paganism_.
By referring to Mrs. Jameson's "History of Our Lord in Art,"[191:3] or
to illustrations in chapter xl. this work, it will be seen that a common
mode of representing a crucifixion was that of a man, tied with cords by
the hands and feet, to an upright beam or stake. The _lamb_, spoken of
above, which signifies considerable, we shall speak of in its proper
place.
_Tammuz_, or _Adonis_, the Syrian and Jewish _Adonai_ (in Hebrew "Our
Lord"), was another _virgin-born_ god, who suffered for mankind, and who
had the title of _Saviour_. The accounts of his death are conflicting,
just as it is with almost all of the so-called Saviours of mankind
(_including the Christian Saviour_, as we shall hereafter see) one
account, however, makes him a _crucified Saviour_.[191:4]
It is certain, however, that the ancients who honored him as their Lord
and Saviour, celebrated, annually, a feast in commemoration of his
death. An image, intended as a representation of their Lord, was laid on
a bed or bier, and bewailed in mournful ditties--just as the Roman
Catholics do at the present day in their "Good Friday" mass.
During this ceremony the priest murmured:
"_Trust ye in your Lord, for the pains which he endured, our
salvation have procured._"[191:5]
The Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, in his "Hebrew Lexicon," after referring to what
we have just stated above, says:
"I find myself _obliged_ to refer _Tammuz_ to that class of
idols which were originally designed to represent the promised
Saviour, the Desire of all Nations. His other name, _Adonis_,
is almost the very Hebrew _Adoni_ or _Lord_, a well-known
title of Christ."[191:6]
_Prometheus_ was a crucified Saviour. He was "an immortal god, a friend
of the human race, _who does not shrink even from sacrificing himself
for their salvation_."[192:1]
The tragedy of the crucifixion of Prometheus, written by Æschylus, was
acted in Athens five hundred years before the Christian Era, and is by
many considered to be the most ancient dramatic poem now in existence.
The plot was derived from materials even at that time of an infinitely
remote antiquity. Nothing was ever so exquisitely calculated to work
upon the feelings of the spectators. No author ever displayed greater
powers of poetry, with equal strength of judgment, in supporting through
the piece the august character of the _Divine Sufferer_. The spectators
themselves were unconsciously made a party to the interest of the scene:
its hero was their friend, their benefactor, their creator, and their
_Saviour_; his wrongs were incurred in their quarrel--_his sorrows were
endured for their salvation_; "he was wounded for their transgressions,
and bruised for their iniquities; the chastisement of their peace was
upon him, and by his stripes they were healed;" "he was oppressed and
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." The majesty of his silence,
whilst the ministers of an offended god were _nailing him by the hands
and feet to Mount Caucasus_,[192:2] could be only equaled by the modesty
with which he relates, _while hanging with arms extended in the form of
a cross_, his services to the human race, which had brought on him that
horrible crucifixion.[192:3] "None, save myself," says he, "opposed his
(Jove's) will,"
"I dared;
And boldly pleading saved them from destruction,
Saved them from sinking to the realms of night.
For this offense I bend beneath these pains,
Dreadful to suffer, piteous to behold:
For mercy to mankind I am not deem'd
Worthy of mercy; but with ruthless hate
In this uncouth appointment am fix'd here
A spectacle dishonorable to Jove."[192:4]
In the catastrophe of the plot, his especially professed friend,
Oceanus, _the Fisherman_--as his name _Petræus_ indicates,[193:1]--being
unable to prevail on him to make his peace with Jupiter, by throwing the
cause of human redemption out of his hands,[193:2] forsook him and fled.
None remained to be witness of his dying agonies but the chorus of
ever-amiable and ever-faithful which also bewailed and lamented
him,[193:3] but were unable to subdue his inflexible philanthropy.[193:4]
In the words of Justin Martyr: "Suffering was common to all the sons of
Jove." They were called the "Slain Ones," "Saviours," "Redeemers," &c.
_Bacchus_, the offspring of Jupiter and Semele,[193:5] was called the
"_Saviour_."[193:6] He was called the "_Only Begotten Son_,"[193:7] the
"Slain One,"[193:8] the "Sin Bearer,"[193:9] the "Redeemer,"[193:10] &c.
Evil having spread itself over the earth, through the inquisitiveness of
Pandora, the Lord of the gods is begged to come to the relief of
mankind. Jupiter lends a willing ear to the entreaties, "and wishes that
his _son_ should be the _redeemer_ of the misfortunes of the world; _The
Bacchus Saviour_. He promises to the earth a _Liberator_ . . The
universe shall worship him, and shall praise in songs his blessings." In
order to execute his purpose, Jupiter overshadows the beautiful young
maiden--the virgin Semele--who becomes the mother of the
_Redeemer_.[193:11]
"It is I (says the lord Bacchus to mankind), who guides you;
it is I who protects you, and who saves you; I who am Alpha
and Omega."[193:12]
_Hercules_, the son of Zeus, was called "The Saviour."[193:13] The words
"Hercules the Saviour" were engraven on ancient coins and
monuments.[193:14] He was also called "The Only Begotten," and the
"Universal Word." He was re-absorbed into God. He was said by Ovid to be
the "Self-produced," the Generator and Ruler of all things, and the
Father of time.[193:15]
_Æsculapius_ was distinguished by the epithet "The Saviour."[194:1] The
temple erected to his memory in the city of Athens was called: "_The
Temple of the Saviour_."[194:2]
_Apollo_ was distinguished by the epithet "_The Saviour_."[194:3] In a
hymn to _Apollo_ he is called: "The willing _Saviour_ of distressed
mankind."[194:4]
_Serapis_ was called "The Saviour."[194:5] He was considered by Hadrian,
the Roman emperor (117-138 A. D.), and the Gentiles, to be the peculiar
god of the Christians.[194:6] A _cross_ was found under the ruins of his
temple in Alexandria in Egypt.[194:7] Fig. No. 11 is a representation of
this Egyptian Saviour, taken from Murray's "Manual of Mythology." It
certainly resembles the pictures of "the peculiar God of the
Christians." It is very evident that the pictures of Christ Jesus, as we
know them to-day, are simply the pictures of some of the Pagan gods, who
were, for certain reasons which we shall speak of in a subsequent
chapter, always represented with _long yellow or red hair, and a florid
complexion_. If such a person as Jesus of Nazareth ever lived in the
flesh, he was undoubtedly a _Jew_, and would therefore have _Jewish
features_; this his pictures do not betray.[194:8]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 11]
_Mithras_, who was "Mediator between God and man,"[194:9] was called
"The Saviour." He was the peculiar god of the Persians, who believed
that he had, by his sufferings, worked their salvation, and on this
account he was called their _Saviour_.[194:10] He was also called "_The
Logos_."[194:11]
The Persians believed that they were tainted with _original sin_, owing
to the fall of their first parents who were tempted by the evil one in
the form of a serpent.[194:12]
They considered their law-giver _Zoroaster_ to be also a _Divine
Messenger_, sent to redeem men from their evil ways, and they always
worshiped his memory. To this day his followers mention him with the
greatest reverence, calling him "_The Immortal Zoroaster_," "_The
Blessed Zoroaster_," "The First-Born of the Eternal One," &c.[195:1]
"In the life of Zoroaster the common mythos is apparent. He was born in
innocence, of an immaculate conception, of a ray of the Divine Reason.
As soon as he was born, the glory arising from his body enlightened the
room, and he laughed at his mother. He was called a _Splendid Light from
the Tree of Knowledge_, and, in fine, he or his soul was _suspensus a
lingo_, hung upon a tree, and this was the Tree of Knowledge."[195:2]
How much this resembles "the mystery which hath been hid from ages and
from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints."[195:3]
_Hermes_ was called "_The Saviour_." On the altar of Pepi (B. C. 3500)
are to be found prayers to Hermes--"_He who is the good
Saviour._"[195:4] He was also called "_The Logos._" The church fathers,
Hippolytus, Justin Martyr, and Plutarch (_de Iside et Osir_) assert that
the _Logos_ is _Hermes_.[195:5] The term "_Logos_" is Greek, and
signifies literally "_Word_."[195:6] He was also "_The Messenger of
God_."[195:7]
Dr. Inman says:
"There are few words which strike more strongly upon the
senses of an inquirer into the nature of ancient faiths, than
_Salvation_ and _Saviour_. Both were used long before the
birth of Christ, and they are still common among those who
never heard of Jesus, or of that which is known among us as
the Gospels."[195:8]
He also tells us that there is a very remarkable figure copied in Payne
Knight's work, in which we see on a man's shoulders a _cock's_ head,
whilst on the pediment are placed the words: "_The Saviour of the
World._"[195:9]
Besides the titles of "God's First-Born," "Only Begotten," the
"Mediator," the "Shepherd," the "Advocate," the "Paraclete or
Comforter," the "Son of God," the "Logos," &c.,[195:10] being applied to
heathen virgin-born gods, before the time assigned for the birth of
Jesus of Nazareth, we have also that of _Christ_ and _Jesus_.
_Cyrus_, King of Persia, was called the "Christ," or the "Anointed of
God."[196:1] As Dr. Giles says, "_Christ_" is "a name having no
spiritual signification, and importing nothing more than an _ordinary
surname_."[196:2] The worshipers of _Serapis_ were called
"_Christians_," and those devoted to Serapis were called "Bishops of
Christ."[196:3] _Eusebius_, the ecclesiastical historian, says, that the
names of "Jesus" and "Christ," were both known and honored among the
ancients.[196:4]
_Mithras_ was called the "Anointed" or the "Christ;"[196:5] and _Horus_,
_Mano_, _Mithras_, _Bel-Minor_, _Iao_, _Adoni_, &c., were each of them
"God of Light," "Light of the World," the "Anointed," or the
"Christ."[196:6]
It is said that Peter called his Master _the Christ_, whereupon "he
straightway charged them (the disciples), and commanded them to tell no
man _that thing_."[196:7]
The title of "_Christ_" or "The Anointed," was held by the kings of
Israel. "Touch not my Christ and do my prophets no harm," says the
Psalmist.[196:8]
The term "Christ" was applied to religious teachers, leaders of
factions, necromancers or wonder-workers, &c. This is seen by the
passage in _Matthew_, where the writer says:
"There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall
show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were
possible, they shall deceive the very elect."[196:9]
The virgin-born Crishna and Buddha were incarnations of Vishnu, called
Avatars. An Avatar is an _Angel-Messiah_, a _God-man_, a CHRIST; for the
word _Christ_ is from the Greek _Christos_, an _Anointed One_, a
_Messiah_.
The name _Jesus_, which is pronounced in Hebrew _Yezua_, and is
sometimes Grecized into _Jason_, was very common. After the Captivity it
occurs quite frequently, and is interchanged with the name _Joshua_.
Indeed Joshua, the successor of Moses, is called Jesus in the New
Testament more than once,[196:10] though the meaning of the two names is
not really quite the same. We know of a Jesus, son of Sirach, a writer
of proverbs, whose collection is preserved among the apocryphal books
of the Old Testament. The notorious _Barabbas_[197:1] or _son of Abbas_,
was himself called Jesus. Among Paul's opponents we find a magician
called Elymas, _the Son of Jesus_. Among the early Christians a certain
Jesus, also called Justus, appears. Flavius Josephus mentions more than
_ten_ distinct persons--priests, robbers, peasants, and others--who bore
the name of Jesus, all of whom lived during the last century of the
Jewish state.[197:2]
To return now to our theme--_crucified gods before the time of Jesus of
Nazareth_.
The holy Father _Minucius Felix_, in his _Octavius_, written as late as
A. D. 211, indignantly _resents the supposition that the sign of the
cross should be considered exclusively as a Christian symbol_, and
represents his advocate of the Christian argument as retorting on an
infidel opponent. His words are:
"As for the adoration of _crosses_ which you (_Pagans_) object
against us (_Christians_), I must tell you, _that we neither
adore crosses nor desire them; you it is, ye Pagans_ . . . who
are the most likely people to adore wooden crosses . . . for
what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards, _but crosses
gilt and beautiful_. Your victorious trophies not only
represent a simple cross, _but a cross with a man upon
it_."[197:3]
The existence, in the writings of Minucius Felix, of this passage, is
probably owing to an oversight of the destroyers of all evidences
against the Christian religion that could be had. The practice of the
Romans, here alluded to, of carrying _a cross with a man on it_, or, in
other words, a _crucifix_, has evidently been concealed from us by the
careful destruction of such of their works as alluded to it. The priests
had everything their own way for centuries, and to destroy what was
evidence against their claims was a very simple matter.
It is very evident that this celebrated Christian Father alludes to some
Gentile mystery, of which the prudence of his successors has deprived
us. When we compare this with the fact that for centuries after the time
assigned for the birth of Christ Jesus, he was not represented as a man
on a cross, and that the Christians did not have such a thing as a
_crucifix_, we are inclined to think that the effigies of a black or
_dark-skinned crucified man_, which were to be seen in many places in
Italy even during the last century, may have had something to do with
it.[197:4]
While speaking of "_a cross with a man on it_" as being carried by the
Pagan Romans as a _standard_, we might mention the fact, related by
Arrian the historian,[198:1] that the troops of Porus, in their war with
Alexander the Great, carried on their standards _the figure of a
man_.[198:2] Here is evidently the _crucifix standard_ again.
"This must have been (says Mr. Higgins) a Staurobates or
Salivahana, and looks very like the figure of a man carried on
their standards by the Romans. This was similar to the dove
carried on the standards of the Assyrians. This must have been
the crucifix of Nepaul."[198:3]
Tertullian, a Christian Father of the second and third centuries,
writing to the Pagans, says:
"The origin of _your_ gods is derived from _figures moulded on
a cross_. All those rows of _images on your standards_ are the
appendages of crosses; those hangings on your standards and
banners are the robes of crosses."[198:4]
We have it then, on the authority of a Christian Father, as late as A.
D. 211, that the Christians "_neither adored crosses nor desired them_,"
but that the _Pagans_ "adored crosses," and not that alone, but "_a
cross with a man upon it_." This we shall presently find to be the case.
Jesus, in those days, nor for centuries after, was _not_ represented as
a _man on a cross_. He was represented as a _lamb_, and the adoration of
the crucifix, by the Christians, was a later addition to their religion.
But this we shall treat of in its place.
We may now ask the question, who was this _crucified man_ whom the
Pagans "_adored_" before and after the time of Jesus of Nazareth? Who
did the crucifix represent? It was, undoubtedly, "the Saviour crucified
for the salvation of mankind," long before the Christian Era, _whose
effigies were to be seen in many places all over Italy_. These Pagan
crucifixes were either destroyed, corrupted, or adopted; the latter was
the case with many ancient paintings of the _Bambino_,[198:5] on which
may be seen the words _Deo Soli_. Now, these two words can never apply
to Christ Jesus. He was _not Deus Solus_, in any sense, according to the
idiom of the Latin language, and the Romish faith. Whether we construe
the words to "the only God," or "God alone," they are equally heretical.
No priest, in any age of the Church, would have thought of putting them
there, _but finding them there_, they tolerated them.
In the "_Celtic Druids_," Mr. Higgins describes a _crucifix_, a _lamb_,
and an _elephant_, which was cut upon the "fire tower"--so-called--at
Brechin, a town of Forfarshire, in Scotland. Although they appeared to
be of very ancient date, he supposed, at that time, that they were
modern, and belonged to Christianity, but some years afterwards, he
wrote as follows:
"I now doubt (the modern date of the tower), for we have, over
and over again, seen the crucified man before Christ. We have
also found 'The Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world,'
among the Carnutes of Gaul, before the time of Christ; and
when I contemplate these, and the _Elephant_ or
_Ganesa_,[199:1] and the _Ring_[199:2] and its Cobra,[199:3]
_Linga_,[199:4] _Iona_,[199:5] and Nandies, found not far from
the tower, on the estate of Lord Castles, with the Colidei,
the island of Iona, and Ii, . . . I am induced to doubt my
former conclusions. The Elephant, the Ganesa of India, is a
very stubborn fellow to be found here. The Ring, too, when
joined with other matters, I cannot get over. _All these
superstitions must have come from India._"[199:6]
On one of the Irish "round towers" is to be seen _a crucifix of
unmistakable Asiatic origin_.[199:7]
If we turn to the New World, we shall find strange though it may appear,
that the ancient _Mexicans_ and _Peruvians_ worshiped a _crucified
Saviour_. This was the virgin-born _Quetzalcoatle_ whose crucifixion is
represented in the paintings of the "_Codex Borgianus_," and the "_Codex
Vaticanus_."
These paintings illustrate the religious opinions of the ancient
Mexicans, and were copied from the hieroglyphics found in Mexico. The
Spaniards destroyed nearly all the books, ancient monuments and
paintings which they could find; had it not been for this, much more
regarding the religion of the ancient Mexicans would have been handed
down to us. Many chapters were also taken--by the Spanish
authorities--from the writings of the first historians who wrote on
ancient Mexico. _All manuscripts had to be inspected previous to being
published._ Anything found among these heathens resembling the religion
of the Christians, was destroyed when possible.[199:8]
The first Spanish monks who went to Mexico were surprised to find the
_crucifix_ among the heathen inhabitants, and upon inquiring what it
meant, were told that it was a representation of _Bacob_
(Quetzalcoatle), the Son of God, who was put to death by _Eopuco_. They
said that he was placed on a beam of wood, _with his arms stretched
out_, and that he died there.[200:1]
Lord Kingsborough, from whose very learned and elaborate work we have
taken the above, says:
"Being questioned as to the manner in which they became
acquainted with these things, they replied that the lords
instructed their sons in them, and that thus this doctrine
descended from one to another."[200:2]
Sometimes Quetzalcoatle or Bacob is represented as _tied_ to the
cross--just as we have seen that _Attys_ was represented by the
Phrygians--and at other times he is represented "in the attitude of a
person crucified, with impressions of nail-holes in his hands and feet,
but not actually upon a cross"--just as we have found the Hindoo
_Crishna_, and as he is represented in Fig. No. 8. Beneath _this_
representation of Quetzalcoatle crucified, is an image of Death, which
an angry serpent seems threatening to devour.[200:3]
On the 73d page of the Borgian MS., he is represented _crucified on a
cross of the Greek form_. In this print there are also _impressions of
nails_ to be seen on the _feet and hands_, and his body is strangely
covered with _suns_.[200:4]
In vol. ii. plate 75, the god is crucified in a circle of nineteen
figures, and a _serpent_ is depriving him of the organs of generation.
Lord Kingsborough, commenting on these paintings, says:
"It is remarkable that in these Mexican paintings the faces of
many of the figures are _black_, and that the visage of
Quetzalcoatle is frequently painted in a very deformed
manner."[200:5]
His lordship further tells us that (according to the belief of the
ancient Mexicans), "the death of Quetzalcoatle upon the cross" was "_an
atonement for the sins of mankind_."[200:6]
Dr. Daniel Brinton, in his "_Myths of the New World_," tells us that the
_Aztecs_ had a feast which they celebrated "_in the early spring_," when
"_victims were nailed to a cross and shot with an arrow_."[200:7]
Alexander Von Humboldt, in his "_American Researches_," also speaks of
this feast, when the Mexicans crucified a man, and pierced him with an
arrow.[200:8]
The author of _Monumental Christianity_, speaking of this, says:
"Here is the old story of the _Prometheus crucified_ on the
Caucasus, _and of all other Pagan crucifixions of the young
incarnate divinities of India, Persia, Asia Minor and
Egypt_."[201:1]
This we believe; _but how did this myth get there_? He does not say, but
we shall attempt to show, in a future chapter, how _this_ and _other_
myths of Eastern origin became known in the New World.[201:2]
It must not be forgotten, in connection with what we have seen
concerning the Mexican crucified god being sometimes represented as
_black_, and the feast when the _crucified man_ was shot with an arrow,
that effigies of a _black crucified man were found in Italy_; that
Crishna, the crucified, is very often represented _black_; and that
_Crishna_ was shot with an arrow.
Crosses were also found in _Yucatan_, as well as Mexico, _with a man
upon them_.[201:3] Cogolludo, in his "History of Yucatan," speaking of a
crucifix found there, says:
"Don Eugenio de Alcantara (one of the true teachers of the
Gospel), told me, not only once, that I might safely write
that the Indians of Cozumel possessed this holy cross in the
time of their paganism; and that some years had elapsed since
it was brought to Medira; for having heard from many persons
what was reported of it, he had made particular inquiries of
some very old Indians who resided there, who assured him that
it was the fact."
He then speaks of the difficulty in accounting for this crucifix being
found among the Indians of Cozumel, and ends by saying:
"But if it be considered that these Indians believed that the
Son of God, whom they called Bacob, _had died upon a cross,
with his arms stretched out upon it_, it cannot appear so
difficult a matter to comprehend that they should have formed
his image according to the religious creed which they
possessed."[201:4]
We shall find, in another chapter, that these virgin-born "_Saviours_"
and "Slain Ones;" Crishna, Osiris, Horus, Attys, Adonis, Bacchus,
&c.--whether torn in pieces, killed by a boar, or crucified--_will all
melt into_ ONE.
We now come to a very important fact not generally known, namely: _There
are no early representations of Christ Jesus suffering on the cross._
Rev. J. P. Lundy, speaking of this, says:
"Why should a fact so well known to the heathen as the
crucifixion be concealed? _And yet its actual realistic
representation never once occurs in the monuments of
Christianity, for more than six or seven centuries._"[202:1]
Mrs. Jameson, in her "History of Our Lord in Art," says:
"The crucifixion is _not_ one of the subjects of early
Christianity. The death of our Lord was represented by various
_types_, but _never in its actual form_.
"The _earliest_ instances of the _crucifixion_ are found in
illustrated manuscripts of various countries, and in those
_ivory and enameled forms_ which are described in the
Introduction. Some of these are ascertained, by historical or
by internal evidence, to have been executed in the _ninth
century_, there is one also, of an extraordinary rude and
fantastic character, in a MS. in the ancient library of St.
Galle, which is ascertained to be of the _eighth century_. _At
all events, there seems no just grounds at present for
assigning an earlier date._"[202:2]
"Early Christian art, such as it appears in the bas-reliefs on
sarcophagi, gave but one solitary incident from the story of
Our Lord's Passion, _and that utterly divested of all
circumstances of suffering_. Our Lord is represented as young
and beautiful, free from bonds, with no '_accursed tree_' on
his shoulders."[202:3]
The oldest representation of Christ Jesus was a figure of a
_lamb_,[202:4] to which sometimes a vase was added, into which his blood
flowed, and at other times couched at the foot of a cross. _This custom
subsisted up to the year 680, and until the pontificate of Agathon,
during the reign of Constantine Pogonat._ By the sixth synod of
Constantinople (canon 82) it was ordained that instead of the ancient
symbol, which had been the LAMB, _the figure of a man fastened to a
cross_ (such as the _Pagans_ had adored), should be represented. All
this was confirmed by Pope Adrian I.[202:5]
A simple cross, which was the symbol of eternal life, or of salvation,
among the ancients, was sometimes, as we have seen, placed alongside of
the _Lamb_. In the course of time, the _Lamb_ was put on the cross, as
the ancient _Israelites_ had put the paschal lamb centuries
before,[202:6] and then, as we have seen, they put a _man_ upon it.
Christ Jesus is also represented in early art as the "Good Shepherd,"
that is, as a young man with a lamb on his shoulders.[202:7]
This is just the manner in which the Pagan Apollo, Mercury and others
were represented centuries before.[203:1]
Mrs. Jameson says:
"_Mercury_ attired as a _shepherd_, with a _ram_ on his
shoulders, borne in the same manner as in many of the
Christian representations, was no unfrequent object (in
ancient art) and in some instances led to a difficulty in
distinguishing between the two,"[203:2] that is, between
_Mercury_ and _Christ Jesus_.
M. Renan says:
"The Good Shepherd of the catacombs in Rome is a copy from the
_Aristeus_, or from the _Apollo Nomius_, which figured in the
same posture on the _Pagan_ sarcophagi; and still carries the
flute of _Pan_, in the midst of the four half-naked
seasons."[203:3]
The Egyptian Saviour _Horus_ was called the "Shepherd of the
People."[203:4]
The Hindoo Saviour _Crishna_ was called the "Royal Good
Shepherd."[203:5]
We have seen, then, on the authority of a Christian writer who has made
the subject a special study, that, "there seems no just grounds at
present for assigning an earlier date," for the "earliest instances of
the crucifixion" of Christ Jesus, represented in art, than the _eighth_
or _ninth_ century. Now, a few words in regard to _what these crucifixes
looked like_. If the reader imagines that the crucifixes which are
familiar to us at the present day are similar to those early ones, we
would inform him that such is not the case. The earliest artists of the
crucifixion represent the Christian Saviour as _young and beardless_,
always without the crown of thorns, alive, and erect, apparently elate;
no signs of bodily suffering are there.[203:6]
On page 151, plate 181, of Jameson's "History of Our Lord in Art" (vol.
ii.), he is represented standing on a foot-rest on the cross, alive, and
eyes open. Again, on page 330, plate 253, he is represented standing
"with body upright and arms extended straight, with _no nails_, _no
wounds_, _no crown of thorns_--frequently clothed, and with a regal
crown--a God, young and beautiful, hanging, as it were, without
compulsion or pain."
On page 167, plate 188, are to be seen "the thieves _bound_ to their
_cross (which is simply an upright beam, without cross-bars)_, with the
figure of the Lord _standing_ between them." He is not bound nor nailed
to a cross; no cross is there. He is simply standing erect in the form
of a cross. This is a representation of what is styled, "_Early
crucifixion with thieves_." On page 173, plate 190, we have a
representation of the crucifixion, in which Jesus and the thieves are
represented crucified on the Egyptian _tau_ (see Fig. No. 12). The
thieves are _tied_, but the man-god is _nailed_ to the cross. A similar
representation may be seen on page 189, plate 198.
On page 155, plate 183, there is a representation of what is called
"Virgin and St. John at foot of _cross_," but this _cross_ is simply _an
upright beam_ (as Fig. No. 13). There are no cross-bars attached. On
page 167, plate 188, the thieves are _tied_ to an upright beam (as Fig.
13), and Jesus stands between them, _with arms extended in the form of a
cross_, as the Hindoo Crishna is to be seen in Fig. No. 8. On page 157,
plate 185, Jesus is represented crucified on the Egyptian cross (as No.
12).
Some ancient crucifixes represent the Christian Saviour crucified on a
cross similar in form to the Roman figure which stands for the number
_ten_ (see Fig. No. 14). Thus we see that there was no uniformity in
representing the "cross of Christ," among the early Christians; even the
cross which Constantine put on his "Labarum," or sacred banner, was
nothing more than the monogram of the Pagan god Osiris (Fig. No.
15),[204:1] as we shall see in a subsequent chapter.
[Illustration: No. 12, No. 13, No. 14, No. 15]
The dogma of the _vicarious atonement_ has met with no success whatever
among the Jews. The reason for this is very evident. The idea of
vicarious atonement, in any form, is contrary to Jewish ethics, but it
is in full accord with the _Gentile_. The _law_ ordains that[205:1]
"every man shall be put to death for _his own_ sin," and not for the sin
or crime committed by any other person. No ransom should protect the
murderer against the arm of justice.[205:2] The principle of equal
rights and equal responsibilities is fundamental in the law. If the law
of _God_--for as such it is received--denounces the vicarious atonement,
viz., _to slaughter an innocent person to atone for the crimes of
others_, then God must abhor it. What is more, Jesus is said to have
sanctioned this law, for is he not made to say: "Think not that I am
come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law."[205:3]
"Salvation is and can be nothing else than learning the laws of life and
keeping them. There is, in the modern world, neither place nor need for
any of the theological 'schemes of salvation' or theological 'Saviours.'
No wrath of either God or devil stands in man's way; and therefore no
'sacrifice' is needed to get them out of the way. Jesus saves only as he
helps men know and keep God's laws. Thousands of other men, in their
degree, are Saviours in precisely the same way. As there has been no
'fall of man,' all the hundreds of theological devices for obviating its
supposed effects are only imaginary cures for imaginary ills. What man
does need is to be taught the necessary laws of life, and have brought
to bear upon him adequate motives for obeying them. To know and keep
God's laws is being reconciled to him. This is health; and out of
health--that is, the perfect condition of the whole man, called holiness
or wholeness--comes happiness, in this world and in all worlds."
FOOTNOTES:
[181:1] Monier Williams: Hinduism, pp. 36-40.
[182:1] Monier Williams: Hinduism, p. 36.
[182:2] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 303.
[182:3] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 443.
[183:1] Herodotus: bk. ii. ch. 39.
[183:2] In the trial of Dr. Thomas (at Chicago) for "_doctrinal
heresy_," one of the charges made against him (Sept. 8, 1881) was that
he had said "the BLOOD of the Lamb had nothing to do with salvation."
And in a sermon preached in Boston, Sept. 2, 1881, at the Columbus
Avenue Presbyterian Church, by the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar. D. D., the
preacher said: "No sinner dares to meet the holy God until his sin has
been forgiven, or until he has received _remission_. The penalty of sin
is death, _and this penalty is not remitted by anything the sinner can
do for himself_, but only through the BLOOD of Jesus. If you have
accepted Jesus as your Saviour, you can take the blood of Jesus, and
with boldness present it to the Father _as payment in full of the
penalties of all your sins_. Sinful man has no right to the benefits and
the beauties and glories of nature. _These were all lost to him through
Adam's sin_, but to the blood of Christ's sacrifice he has a right; it
was shed for him. It is Christ's death that does the blessed work of
salvation for us. It was _not_ his life nor his Incarnation. His
Incarnation could not pay a farthing of our debt, but his _blood_ shed
in redeeming love, _pays it all_." (See Boston Advertiser, Sept. 3,
1881.)
[183:3] _Habet ergo Diabolus Christos suos._
[183:4] Huc's Travels, vol. i. pp. 326 and 327.
[184:1] Hinduism, p. 214.
[184:2] Ibid. p. 115.
[184:3] Vishnu Purana, p. 440.
[184:4] Ibid.
[184:5] Ibid.
[184:6] Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 132.
[184:7] Pages 274 and 612.
[184:8] "On reconte fort diversement la mort de Crishna. Une tradition
remarquable et avérée le fait périr sur un bois fatal (un arbre), ou il
fut cloué d'un coup de flèche." (Quoted by Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i.
p. 144.)
[185:1] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 499, and Mrs. Jameson's
"History of Our Lord in Art," ii. 317, where the cross is called the
"accursed tree."
[185:2] Chap. xxi. 22, 23: "If a man have committed a sin worthy of
death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: his
body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any
wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that
thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an
inheritance."
[185:3] Galatians, iii. 13.
[185:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 146, and Inman's Ancient
Faiths, vol. i. p. 402.
"The crucified god Wittoba is also called Balü. He is worshiped in a
marked manner at Pander-poor or Bunder-poor, near Poonah." (Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 750, _note_ 1.)
"A form of Vishnu (Crishna), called _Viththal_ or _Vithobā_, is the
popular god at Pandharpur in Mahā-ráshtrá, the favorite of the
celebrated Marāthi poet Tukārāma." (Prof. Monier Williams: Indian
Wisdom, p. xlviii.)
[185:5] See Lundy: Monumental Christianity, p. 160.
[185:6] This can be seen by referring to Calmet, Sonnerat, or Higgins,
vol. ii., which contain plates representing Crishna.
[186:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 128.
[186:2] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 411.
[186:3] Luke, xxiii. 39-43.
[186:4] Vasudeva means God. See Vishnu Purana, p. 274.
[186:5] Vishnu Purana, p. 612.
[187:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 72.
[187:2] "Si ita se res habet, ut existimat Beausobrius, _Indi_, et
_Budistæ_ quorum religio, eadem est ac Tibetana, nonnisi a Manichæis
nova hæc deliriorum portenta acceperunt. Hænamque gentes præsertim in
urbe Nepal, Luna XII. _Badr_ seu _Bhadon Augusti_ mensis, dies festos
auspicaturæ Dei _Indræ_, erigunt ad illius memoriam ubique locorum
_cruces_ amictas _Abrotono_. Earum figuram descriptam habes ad lit. B,
Tabula pone sequenti. Nam A effigies est ipsius _Indræ crucifixi_ signa
Telech in fronte manibus pedibusque gerentis." (Alph Tibet, p. 203.
Quoted in Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 130.)
[188:1] "Ils conviennent qu'il a répandu son sang pour le salut du genre
humain, ayant été percé de clous par tout son corps. Quoiqu'ils ne
disent pas qu'il a souffert le supplice de la croix, ou en trouve
pourtant la figure dans leurs livres." (Quoted in Higgins' Anacalypsis,
vol. ii. p. 118.)
[188:2] "Although the nations of Europe have changed their religions
during the past eighteen centuries, the Hindoo has not done so, except
very partially. . . . The religious creeds, rites, customs, and habits
of thought of the Hindoos generally, have altered little since the days
of Manu, 500 years B. C." (Prof. Monier Williams: Indian Wisdom, p. iv.)
[188:3] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 147, 572, 667 and 750;
vol. ii. p. 122, and note 4, p. 185, this chapter.
[188:4] See Max Müller's Science of Religion, p. 224.
[188:5] Quoted in Lillie's Buddhism, p. 93.
[188:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 20.
[188:7] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 20, 25, 85. Prog. Relig. Ideas,
vol. i. p. 247. Huc's Travels, vol. i. pp. 326, 327, and almost any work
on Buddhism.
[188:8] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 20.
[188:9] Ibid. Johnson's Oriental Religions, p. 604. See also Asiatic
Researches, vol. iii., or chapter xii. of this work.
[188:10] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 18.
[188:11] Ibid.
[188:12] Ibid.
[188:13] Vol. i. p. 118.
[189:1] Quoted in Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 118.
[189:2] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 20.
[189:3] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 33.
[189:4] Huc's Travels, vol. i. pp. 326, 337.
[189:5] Müller: Hist. Sanscrit Literature, p. 80.
[189:6] See Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. v. p. 95, and Williams:
Hinduism, p. 214.
[189:7] "He in mercy left paradise, and came down to earth, because he
was filled with compassion for the sins and miseries of mankind. He
sought to lead them into better paths, _and took their sufferings upon
himself, that he might expiate their crimes_, and mitigate the
punishment they must otherwise inevitably undergo." (Prog. Relig. Ideas,
vol. ii. p. 86.)
"The object of his mission on earth was to instruct those who were
straying from the right path, _expiate the sins of mortals by his own
sufferings_, and produce for them a happy entrance into another
existence by obedience to his precepts and prayers in his name. They
always speak of him as one with God from all eternity. His most common
title is '_The Saviour of the World_.'" (Ibid. vol. i. p. 247.)
[190:1] Quoted in Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 211.
[190:2] Ibid.
[190:3] See Renouf: Religions of Ancient Egypt, p. 178.
[190:4] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 155.
[190:5] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 848.
[190:6] In Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 171. Quoted in Knight's
Art and Mythology, p. 71.
[190:7] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 185.
[190:8] See Mysteries of Adoni, p. 88.
[190:9] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. xxii. note.
[191:1] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 255.
[191:2] Vol. ii.
[191:3] Lactant. Inst., div. iv. chap. xiii. In Anacalypsis, vol. i. p.
544.
[191:4] See chapter xxxix. this work.
[191:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 114, and Taylor's
Diegesis, p. 163.
[191:6] See the chapter on "The Resurrection of Jesus."
[192:1] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Prometheus."
[192:2] "_Prometheus_ has been a favorite subject with the poets. He is
represented as the friend of mankind, who interposed in their behalf
when Jove was incensed against them." (Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p.
32.)
"In the mythos relating to Prometheus, he always appears as the friend
of the human race, suffering in its behalf the most fearful tortures."
(John Fiske: Myths and Myth-makers, pp. 64, 65.) "Prometheus was
_nailed_ to the rocks on Mount Caucasus, _with arms extended_."
(Alexander Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 82.) "Prometheus is said to
have been _nailed up with arms extended_, near the Caspian Straits, on
Mount Caucasus. The history of Prometheus on the Cathedral at Bordeaux
(France) here receives its explanation." (Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii.
p. 113.)
[192:3] See Æschylus' "Prometheus Chained." Translated by the Rev. R.
Potter: Harper & Bros., N. Y.
[192:4] Ibid. p. 82.
[193:1] Petræus was an interchangeable synonym of the name Oceanus.
[193:2] "Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying: Be it far
from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee." (Matt. xvi. 22.)
[193:3] "And there followed him a great company of people, and of women,
which also bewailed and lamented him." (Luke, xxiii. 27.)
[193:4] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 193, 194, or Potter's Æschylus.
[193:5] "They say that the god (Bacchus), the offspring of Zeus and
Demeter, was torn to pieces." (Diodorus Siculus, in Knight, p. 156,
_note_.)
[193:6] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mythology, p. 98, _note_. Dupuis:
Origin of Religious Belief, 258. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 102.
[193:7] Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. xxii. _note_.
[193:8] Ibid.
[193:9] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 169.
[193:10] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 135.
[193:11] Ibid.
[193:12] Beausobre quotes the inscription on a monument of Bacchus,
thus: "C'est moi, dit il, qui vous conduis, C'est moi, qui vous
conserve, ou qui vous sauve; Je sui Alpha et Omega, &c." (See chap.
xxxix this work.)
[193:13] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322. Dupuis: Origin of
Religious Belief, p. 195. Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 152. Dunlap:
Mysteries of Adoni, p. 94.
[193:14] See Celtic Druids, Taylor's Diegesis, p. 153, and Montfaucon,
vol. i.
[193:15] See Mysteries of Adoni, p. 91, and Higgins: Anac., vol. i. p.
322.
[194:1] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 153.
[194:2] See the chapter on "Miracles of Jesus."
[194:3] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 254.
[194:4] See Monumental Christianity, p. 186.
[194:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 15.
[194:6] See Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 86.
[194:7] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 15, and _our_ chapter on Christian
Symbols.
[194:8] This subject will be referred to again in chapter xxxix.
[194:9] See Dunlap's Spirit Hist., pp. 237, 241, 242, and Mysteries of
Adoni, p. 123, _note_.
[194:10] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 99.
[194:11] See Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 20.
"According to the most ancient tradition of the East-Iranians recorded
in the _Zend-Avesta_, the God of Light (Ormuzd) communicated his
mysteries to some men through his _Word_." (Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p.
75.)
[194:12] Wake: Phallism, &c., p. 47.
[195:1] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 258, 259.
[195:2] Malcolm: Hist. Persia, vol. i. Ap. p. 494; Nimrod, vol. ii. p.
31. Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 649.
[195:3] Col. i. 26.
[195:4] See Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 102.
[195:5] See Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 89, _marginal note_.
[195:6] "In the beginning was the _Word_, and the _Word_ was with God,
and the _Word_ was God." (John, i. 1.)
[195:7] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. 69 and 71.
[195:8] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 652.
[195:9] Ibid. vol. i. p. 537.
[195:10] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 119. Knight's Ancient Art and
Mythology, pp. xxii. and 98. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 71, and Spirit
History, pp. 183, 205, 206, 249. Bible for Learners, vol. ii. p. 25.
Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. pp. 195, 237, 516, besides the authorities
already cited.
[196:1] See Bunsen's Bible Chronology, p. 5. Keys of St. Peter, 135.
Volney's Ruins, p. 168.
[196:2] Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, p. 64, vol. ii.
[196:3] Ibid. p. 86, and Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 202, 206, 407. Dupuis:
p. 267.
[196:4] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. iv.
[196:5] See Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 78.
[196:6] See Ibid. p. 39.
[196:7] Luke, iv. 21.
[196:8] Psalm, cv. 15. The term "an _Anointed One_," which we use in
English, is _Christos_ in Greek, and _Messiah_ in Hebrew. (See Bible for
Learners, and Religion of Israel, p. 147.)
[196:9] Matthew, xxiv. 24.
[196:10] Acts, vii. 45; Hebrews, iv. 8; compare Nehemiah, viii. 17.
[197:1] He who, it is said, was liberated at the time of the crucifixion
of Jesus of Nazareth.
[197:2] See Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 60.
[197:3] Octavius, c. xxix.
[197:4] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 116.
[198:1] In his _History of the Campaigns of Alexander_.
[198:2] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 118.
[198:3] Ibid.
[198:4] Apol. c. 16; Ad Nationes, c. xii.
[198:5] See the chapter on "The Worship of the Virgin."
[199:1] _Ganesa_ is the _Indian_ God of Wisdom. (See Asiatic Researches,
vol. i.)
[199:2] The _Ring_ and circle was an emblem of god, or eternity, among
the _Hindoos_. (See Lundy: Monumental Christianity, p. 87.)
[199:3] The Cobra, or hooded snake, is a native of the _East Indies_,
where it is held as sacred. (See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 16,
and Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship.)
[199:4] _Linga_ denotes, in the sectarian worship of the _Hindoos_, the
_Phallus_, an emblem of the male or generative power of nature.
[199:5] _Iona_, or _Yoni_, is the counterpart of Linga, _i. e._, an
emblem of the female generative power. We have seen that these were
attached to the effigies of the _Hindoo_ crucified Saviour, Crishna.
[199:6] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 130.
[199:7] See Lundy: Monumental Christianity, pp. 253, 254, 255.
[199:8] See Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. pp. 165 and 179.
[200:1] See Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 166.
[200:2] Ibid. p. 162.
[200:3] Ibid. p. 161.
[200:4] Ibid. p. 167.
[200:5] Ibid. p. 167.
[200:6] Ibid. p. 166.
[200:7] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 95.
[200:8] See, also, Monumental Christianity, p. 393.
"Once a year the ancient Mexicans made an image of one of their gods,
which was pierced by an arrow, shot by a priest of Quetzalcoatle."
(Dunlap's Spirit Hist., 207.)
[201:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 393.
[201:2] See Appendix A.
[201:3] See Monumental Christianity, p. 390, and Mexican Antiquities,
vol. vi. p. 169.
[201:4] Quoted by Lord Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p.
172.
[202:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 246.
[202:2] History of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 137.
[202:3] Ibid. p. 317.
[202:4] See Illustrations in Ibid. vol. i.
[202:5] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 252. Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. ii. 111, and Monumental Christianity, p. 246, _et
seq._
[202:6] The paschal lamb was roasted on a _cross_, by ancient Israel,
and is still so done by the Samaritans at Nablous. (See Lundy's
Monumental Christianity, pp. 19 and 247.)
"The _lamb_ slain (at the feast of the passover) was roasted whole, with
two spits thrust through it--one lengthwise, and one
transversely--crossing each other near the fore legs; so that the animal
was, in a manner, _crucified_. Not a bone of it might be broken--a
circumstance strongly representing the sufferings of our Lord Jesus,
_the passover slain for us_." (Barnes's Notes, vol. i. p. 292.)
[202:7] See King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 138. Also,
Monumental Christianity, and Jameson's History of Our Lord in Art, for
illustrations.
[203:1] See King's Gnostics, p. 178. Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology,
p. xxii., and Jameson's History of Our Lord in Art, ii. 340.
[203:2] Jameson: Hist. of Our Lord in Art, p. 340, vol. ii.
[203:3] Quoted in Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. xxii. _note_.
[203:4] Dunlap: Spirit Hist., p. 185.
[203:5] See chapter xvii. and vol. ii. Hist. Hindostan.
[203:6] See Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 142.
[204:1] "It would be difficult to prove that the cross of Constantine
was of the simple construction as now understood. . . . As regards the
_Labarum_, the coins of the time, in which it is especially set forth,
prove that the so-called cross upon it was nothing else than the same
ever-recurring monogram of Christ" (that is, the XP). (History of Our
Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 310. See also, Smith's Bible Dictionary, art.
"Labarum.")
[205:1] Deut. xxiv. 16.
[205:2] Num. xxv. 31-34.
[205:3] Matt. v. 17, 18.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE DARKNESS AT THE CRUCIFIXION.
The _Luke_ narrator informs us that at the time of the death of Christ
Jesus, the sun was darkened, and there was darkness over the earth from
the sixth until the ninth hour; also the veil of the temple was rent in
the midst.[206:1]
The _Matthew_ narrator, in addition to this, tells us that:
"The earth did quake, and the rocks were rent, and the graves
were opened, _and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
and came out of their graves_ . . . and went into the holy
city and appeared unto many."[206:2]
"_His star_" having shone at the time of his birth, and his having been
born in a miraculous manner, it was necessary that at the death of
Christ Jesus, something miraculous should happen. Something of an
unusual nature had happened at the time of the death of other
supernatural beings, therefore something must happen at _his_ death;
_the myth would not have been complete without it_. In the words of
Viscount Amberly: "The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour, the
rending of the temple veil, the earthquake, the rending of the rocks,
_are altogether like the prodigies attending the decease of other great
men_."[206:3]
The Rev. Dr. Geikie, one of the most orthodox writers, says:[206:4]
"It is impossible to explain the _origin_ of this darkness.
The passover moon was then at the full, so that it could not
have been an _eclipse_. The early Fathers, relying on a notice
of _an_ eclipse that _seemed_ to coincide in time, though it
really _did not_, fancied that the darkness was caused by it,
but incorrectly."
Perhaps "the _origin_ of this darkness" may be explained from what we
shall now see.
At the time of the death of the Hindoo Saviour _Crishna_, there came
calamities and bad omens of every kind. A black circle surrounded the
moon, _and the sun was darkened at noon-day_; the sky rained fire and
ashes; flames burned dusky and livid; demons committed depredations on
earth; at sunrise and sunset, thousands of figures were seen skirmishing
in the air; spirits were to be seen on all sides.[207:1]
When the conflict began between _Buddha_, the Saviour of the World, and
the Prince of Evil, _a thousand appalling meteors fell; clouds and
darkness prevailed_. Even this earth, with the oceans and mountains it
contains, though it is unconscious, _quaked like a conscious
being_--like a fond bride when forcibly torn from her bridegroom--like
the festoons of a vine shaken under the blast of a whirlwind. The ocean
rose under the vibration of this earthquake; rivers flowed back toward
their sources; peaks of lofty mountains, where countless trees had grown
for ages, rolled crumbling to the earth; a fierce storm howled all
around; the roar of the concussion became terrific; _the very sun
enveloped itself in awful darkness, and a host of headless spirits
filled the air_.[207:2]
When _Prometheus_ was crucified on Mount Caucasus, _the whole frame of
nature became convulsed_. The earth did quake, thunder roared, lightning
flashed, the wild winds rent the vexed air, the boisterous billows rose,
and the dissolution of the universe seemed to be threatened.[207:3]
The ancient Greeks and Romans, says Canon Farrar,[207:4] had always
considered that the _births_ and _deaths_ of great men were announced by
_celestial signs_. We therefore find that at the death of _Romulus_, the
founder of Rome, the sun was darkened, _and there was darkness over the
face of the earth for the space of six hours_.[207:5]
When _Julius Cæsar_, who was the son of a god, was murdered, there was a
darkness over the earth, _the sun being eclipsed for the space of six
hours_.[207:6]
This is spoken of by _Virgil_, where he says:
"He (the Sun) covered his luminous head with a sooty darkness,
And the impious ages feared eternal night."[207:7]
It is also referred to by Tibullus, Ovid, and Lucian (poets), Pliny,
Appian, Dion Cassius, and Julius Obsequenes (historians.)[207:8]
When _Æsculapius_ the Saviour was put to death, _the sun shone dimly
from the heavens_; the birds were silent in the darkened groves; the
trees bowed down their heads in sorrow; and the hearts of all the sons
of men fainted within them, because the healer of their pains and
sickness lived no more upon the earth.[208:1]
When _Hercules_ was dying, he said to the faithful female (Iole) who
followed him to the last spot on earth on which he trod, "Weep not, my
toil is done, and now is the time for rest. I shall see thee again in
the bright land which is never trodden by the feet of night." Then, as
the dying god expired, _darkness was on the face of the earth_; from the
high heaven came down the thick cloud, _and the din of its thunder
crashed through the air_. In this manner, Zeus, the god of gods, carried
his son home, and the halls of Olympus were opened to welcome the bright
hero who rested from his mighty toil. There he now sits, clothed in a
white robe, with a crown upon his head.[208:2]
When _Œdipus_ was about to leave this world of pain and sorrow, he
bade Antigone farewell, and said, "Weep not, my child, I am going to my
home, and I rejoice to lay down the burden of my woe." Then there were
_signs_ in the heaven above and on the earth beneath, that the end was
nigh at hand, _for the earth did quake, and the thunder roared_ and
echoed again and again through the sky.[208:3]
"The Romans had a god called _Quirinius_. His soul emanated from the
sun, and was restored to it. He was begotten by the god of armies upon a
_virgin_ of the royal blood, and exposed by order of the jealous tyrant
Amulius, and was preserved and educated among _shepherds_. He was torn
to pieces at his death, when he ascended into heaven; _upon which the
sun was eclipsed or darkened_."[208:4]
When _Alexander the Great_ died, similar prodigies are said to have
happened; again, when foul murders were committed, it is said that the
sun seemed to hide its face. This is illustrated in the story of
_Atreus_, King of Mycenae, who foully murdered the children of his
brother Thyestes. At that time, the sun, unable to endure a sight so
horrible, "_turned his course backward and withdrew his light._"[208:5]
At the time of the death of the virgin-born _Quetzalcoatle_, the
Mexican crucified Saviour, _the sun was darkened_, and withheld its
light.[209:1]
Lord Kingsborough, speaking of this event, considers it very strange
that the Mexicans should have preserved an account of it among their
records, when "the great eclipse which sacred history records" is _not_
recorded in profane history.
Gibbon, the historian, speaking of this phenomenon, says:
"Under the reign of Tiberius, the whole earth,[209:2] or at
least a celebrated province of the Roman empire,[209:3] was
involved in a perpetual darkness of three hours. Even this
miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the
curiosity, and the devotion of mankind, passed without notice
in an age of science and history. It happened during the
life-time of Seneca[209:4] and the elder Pliny,[209:5] who
must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the
earliest intelligence, of the prodigy. Each of these
philosophers, in a laborious work, has recorded all the great
phenomena of nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets and
eclipses, which his indefatigable curiosity could
collect.[209:6] But the one and the other have omitted to
mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has
been witness since the creation of the globe."[209:7]
This account of the darkness at the time of the death of Jesus of
Nazareth, is one of the prodigies related in the New Testament which no
Christian commentator has been able to make appear reasonable. The
favorite theory is that it was a _natural_ eclipse of the sun, which
_happened_ to take place at that particular time, but, if this was the
case, there was nothing _supernatural_ in the event, and it had nothing
whatever to do with the death of Jesus. Again, it would be necessary to
prove from other sources that such an event happened at that time, but
this cannot be done. The argument from the duration of the
darkness--_three hours_--is also of great force against such an
occurrence having happened, _for an eclipse seldom lasts in great
intensity more than six minutes_.
Even if it could be proved that an eclipse really happened at the time
assigned for the crucifixion of Jesus, how about the earthquake, when
the rocks were rent and the graves opened? and how about the "saints
which slept" rising _bodily_ and walking in the streets of the Holy City
and _appearing to many_? Surely, the faith that would remove
mountains,[209:8] is required here.
Shakespeare has embalmed some traditions of the kind exactly analogous
to the present case:
"In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."[210:1]
Belief in the influence of the _stars_ over life and death, _and in
special portents at the death of great men_, survived, indeed, to recent
times. Chaucer abounds in allusions to it, and still later Shakespeare
tells us:
"When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."
It would seem that this superstition survives even to the present day,
for it is well known that the dark and yellow atmosphere which settled
over so much of the country, on the day of the removal of President
Garfield from Washington to Long Branch, was sincerely held by hundreds
of persons to be a death-warning sent from heaven, and there were
numerous predictions that dissolution would take place before the train
arrived at its destination.
As Mr. Greg remarks, there can, we think, remain little doubt in
unprepossessed minds, that the whole legend in question was one of those
intended to magnify Christ Jesus, which were current in great numbers at
the time the Matthew narrator wrote, and which he, with the usual want
of discrimination and somewhat omnivorous tendency, which distinguished
him as a compiler, admitted into his Gospel.
FOOTNOTES:
[206:1] Luke, xxiii. 44, 45.
[206:2] Matthew, xxvii. 51-53.
[206:3] Amberly: Analysis of Religious Belief, p. 268.
[206:4] Life of Christ, vol. ii. p. 643.
[207:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 71.
[207:2] Rhys David's Buddhism, pp. 36, 37.
[207:3] See Potter's Æschylus, "Prometheus Chained," last stanza.
[207:4] Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 52.
[207:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 616, 617.
[207:6] See Ibid. and Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. pp. 159 and 590, also
Josephus: Jewish Antiquities, book xiv. ch. xii. and _note_.
[207:7]
"Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit
Impiaquæ æternam timuerunt sæcula noctem."
[207:8] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. pp. 159 and 590.
[208:1] Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 46.
[208:2] Ibid. pp. 61, 62.
[208:3] Ibid. p. 270.
[208:4] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 822.
[208:5] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 106.
[209:1] See Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 5.
[209:2] The Fathers of the Church seem to cover the whole earth with
darkness, in which they are followed by most of the moderns. (Gibbon.
Luke, xxiii. 44, says "_over all the earth_.")
[209:3] Origen (a Father of the third century) and a few modern critics,
are desirous of confining it to the land of Judea. (Gibbon.)
[209:4] Seneca, a celebrated philosopher and historian, born in Spain a
few years B. C., but educated in Rome, and became a "Roman."
[209:5] Pliny the elder, a celebrated Roman philosopher and historian,
born about 23 A. D.
[209:6] Seneca: Quaest. Natur. l. i. 15, vi. l. vii. 17. Pliny: Hist.
Natur. l. ii.
[209:7] Gibbon's Rome, i. 589, 590.
[209:8] Matt. xvi. 20.
[210:1] Hamlet, act 1, s. 1.
CHAPTER XXII.
"HE DESCENDED INTO HELL."
The doctrine of Christ Jesus' descent into hell is emphatically part of
the Christian belief, although not alluded to by Christian divines
excepting when unavoidable.
In the first place, it is taught in the _Creed_ of the Christians,
wherein it says:
"_He descended into hell, and on the third day he rose again
from the dead._"
The doctrine was also taught by the Fathers of the Church. St.
Chrysostom (born 347 A. D.) asks:
"Who but an infidel would deny that Christ was in
hell?"[211:1]
And St. Clement of Alexandria, who flourished at the beginning of the
third century, is equally clear and emphatic as to Jesus' descent into
hell. He says:
"The Lord preached the gospel to those in Hades, as well as to
all in earth, in order that all might believe and be saved,
wherever they were. If, then, the Lord descended to Hades for
no other end but to preach the gospel, _as He did descend_, it
was either to preach the gospel to all, or to the Hebrews
only. If accordingly to all, then all who believe shall be
saved, although they may be of the Gentiles, on making their
profession there."[211:2]
Origen, who flourished during the latter part of the second, and
beginning of the third centuries, also emphatically declares that Christ
Jesus descended into hell.[211:3]
Ancient Christian works of art represent his descent into hell.[211:4]
The apocryphal gospels teach the doctrine of Christ Jesus' descent into
hell, the object of which was to preach to those in bondage there, and
to liberate the _saints_ who had died before his advent on earth.
On account of the sin committed by Adam in the Garden of Eden, all
mankind were doomed, all had gone to hell--excepting those who had been
translated to heaven--even those persons who were "after God's own
heart," and who had belonged to his "chosen people." The coming of
Christ Jesus into the world, however, made a change in the affairs of
man. The _saints_ were then liberated from their prison, and all those
who believe in the efficacy of his name, shall escape hereafter the
tortures of hell. This is the doctrine to be found in the apocryphal
gospels, and was taught by the Fathers of the Church.[212:1]
In the "_Gospel of Nicodemus_" (apoc.) is to be found the whole story of
Christ Jesus' descent into hell, and of his liberating the saints.
Satan, and the Prince of Hell, having heard that Jesus of Nazareth was
about to descend to their domain, began to talk the matter over, as to
what they should do, &c. While thus engaged, on a sudden, there was a
voice as of thunder and the rushing of winds, saying: "Lift up your
gates, O ye Princes, and be ye lifted up, O ye everlasting gates, and
the King of Glory shall come in."
When the Prince of Hell heard this, he said to his impious officers:
"Shut the brass gates . . . and make them fast with iron bars, and fight
courageously."
The _saints_ having heard what had been said on both sides, immediately
spoke with a loud voice, saying: "Open thy gates, that the King of Glory
may come in." The divine prophets, _David_ and _Isaiah_, were
particularly conspicuous in this protest against the intentions of the
Prince of Hell.
Again the voice of Jesus was heard saying: "Lift up your gates, O
Prince; and be ye lifted up, ye gates of hell, and the King of Glory
will enter in." The Prince of Hell then cried out: "Who is the King of
Glory?" upon which the prophet _David_ commenced to reply to him, but
while he was speaking, the mighty Lord Jesus appeared in the form of a
man, and broke asunder the fetters which before could not be broken, and
crying aloud, said: "Come to me, all ye saints, who were created in my
image, who were condemned by the tree of the forbidden fruit . . . live
now by the word of my cross."
Then presently all the saints were joined together, hand in hand, and
the Lord Jesus laid hold on Adam's hand, and ascended from hell, and all
the saints of God followed him.[212:2]
When the saints arrived in paradise, two "very ancient men" met them,
and were asked by the saints: "Who are ye, who have not been with us in
hell, and have had your bodies placed in paradise?" One of these "very
ancient men" answered and said: "I am _Enoch_, who was translated by the
word of God, and this man who is with me is Elijah the Tishbite, who was
translated in a fiery chariot."[213:1]
The doctrine of the descent into hell may be found alluded to in the
_canonical_ books; thus, for instance, in I. Peter:
"It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for
well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ also hath suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to
God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
spirit: _by which also he went and preached unto the spirits
in prison_."[213:2]
Again, in "Acts," where the writer is speaking of David as a _prophet_,
he says:
"He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ,
_that his soul was not left in hell_, neither his flesh did
see corruption."[213:3]
The reason why Christ Jesus has been made to descend into hell, is
because _it is a part of the universal mythos_, even the _three days'_
duration. The _Saviours_ of mankind had all done so, _he_ must therefore
do likewise.
_Crishna_, the Hindoo Saviour, _descended into hell_, for the purpose of
raising the dead (the doomed),[213:4] before he returned to his heavenly
seat.
_Zoroaster_, of the Persians, _descended into hell_.[213:5]
_Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, _descended into hell_.[213:6]
_Horus_, the virgin-born Saviour, _descended into hell_.[213:7]
_Adonis_, the virgin-born Saviour, _descended into hell_.[213:8]
_Bacchus_, the virgin-born Saviour, _descended into hell_.[213:9]
_Hercules_, the virgin-born Saviour, _descended into hell_.[213:10]
_Mercury_, the _Word_ and Messenger of God, _descended into
hell_.[213:11]
_Baldur_, the Scandinavian god, after being killed, _descended into
hell_.[214:1]
_Quetzalcoatle_, the Mexican crucified Saviour, _descended into
hell_.[214:2]
All these gods, and many others that might be mentioned, _remained in
hell for the space of three days and three nights_. "They descended into
hell, and on the third day rose again."[214:3]
FOOTNOTES:
[211:1] Quoted by Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 46.
[211:2] Strom, vi. c. 6.
[211:3] Contra Celsus, bk. ii. c. 43.
[211:4] See Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. pp. 354, 355.
[212:1] See Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. pp. 250, 251.
[212:2] Nicodemus: Apoc. ch. xvi. and xix.
[213:1] Nicodemus: Apoc. ch. xx.
[213:2] I. Peter, iii. 17-19.
[213:3] Acts, ii. 31.
[213:4] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 237. Bonwick's Egyptian
Belief, p. 168, and Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 85.
[213:5] See Monumental Christianity, p. 286.
[213:6] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 256, Bonwick's
Egyptian Belief, and Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, pp. 125, 152.
[213:7] See Chap. XXXIX.
[213:8] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 12.
[213:9] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322. Dupuis: Origin of
Religious Belief, p. 257, and Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 33.
[213:10] See Taylor's Mysteries, p. 40, and Mysteries of Adoni, pp.
94-96.
[213:11] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 72. Our Christian writers
discover considerable apprehension, and a jealous caution in their
language, when the resemblance between _Paganism_ and _Christianity_
might be apt to strike the mind too cogently. In quoting Horace's
account of Mercury's descent into hell, and his causing a cessation of
the sufferings there, Mr. Spence, in "Bell's Pantheon," says: "As this,
perhaps, may be a mythical part of his character, _we had better let it
alone_."
[214:1] See Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 169, and Mallet, p. 448.
[214:2] See Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 166.
[214:3] See the chapter on _Explanation_.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST JESUS.
The story of the resurrection of Christ Jesus is related by the four
Gospel narrators, and is to the effect that, after being crucified, his
body was wrapped in a linen cloth, laid in a tomb, and a "great stone"
rolled to the door. The sepulchre was then made sure by "sealing the
stone" and "setting a watch."
On the first day of the week some of Jesus' followers came to see the
sepulchre, when they found that, in spite of the "sealing" and the
"watch," the angel of the Lord had descended from heaven, had rolled
back the stone from the door, and that "_Jesus had risen from the
dead_."[215:1]
The story of his _ascension_ is told by the _Mark_[215:2] narrator, who
says "he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God;"
by _Luke_,[215:3] who says "he was carried up into heaven;" and by the
writer of the _Acts_,[215:4] who says "he was taken up (to heaven) and a
cloud received him out of sight."
We will find, in stripping Christianity of its robes of Paganism, that
these miraculous events must be put on the same level with those we have
already examined.
_Crishna_, the crucified Hindoo Saviour, _rose from the dead_,[215:5]
and _ascended bodily into heaven_.[215:6] At that time a great light
enveloped the earth and illuminated the whole expanse of heaven.
Attended by celestial spirits, and luminous as on that night when he was
born in the house of Vasudeva, _Crishna_ pursued, by his own light, the
journey between earth and heaven, to the bright paradise from whence he
had descended. All men saw him, and exclaimed, "_Lo, Crishna's soul
ascends its native skies!_"[215:7]
Samuel Johnson, in his "Oriental Religions," tells us that _Râma_--an
incarnation of Vishnu--after his manifestations on earth, "_at last
ascended to heaven_," "resuming his divine essence."
"By the blessings of Râma's name, and through previous faith in him, all
sins are remitted, and every one who shall at death pronounce his name
with sincere worship shall be forgiven."[216:1]
The mythological account of _Buddha_, the son of the Virgin Maya, who,
as the God of Love, is named _Cam-deo_, _Cam_, and _Cama_, is of the
same character as that of other virgin-born gods. When he died there
were tears and lamentations. Heaven and earth are said equally to have
lamented the loss of "_Divine Love_," insomuch that _Maha-deo_ (the
supreme god) was moved to pity, and exclaimed, "_Rise, holy love!_" on
which _Cama_ was restored and the lamentations changed into the most
enthusiastic joy. The heavens are said to have echoed back the exulting
sound; then the deity, supposed to be lost (_dead_), was restored,
"_hell's great dread and heaven's eternal admiration_."[216:2]
The coverings of the body unrolled themselves, and the lid of his coffin
was opened by supernatural powers.[216:3]
_Buddha_ also ascended bodily to the celestial regions when his mission
on earth was fulfilled, and marks on the rocks of a high mountain are
shown, and believed to be the last impression of his footsteps on this
earth. By prayers in his name his followers expect to receive the
rewards of paradise, and finally to become one with him, as he became
one with the Source of Life.[216:4]
_Lao-Kiun_, the virgin-born, he who had existed from all eternity, when
his mission of benevolence was completed on earth, _ascended bodily into
the paradise above_. Since this time he has been worshiped as a _god_,
and splendid temples erected to his memory.[216:5]
_Zoroaster_, the founder of the religion of the ancient Persians, who
was considered "a divine messenger sent to redeem men from their evil
ways," _ascended to heaven_ at the end of his earthly career. To this
day his followers mention him with the greatest reverence, calling him
"The Immortal Zoroaster," "The Blessed Zoroaster," "The Living Star,"
&c.[216:6]
_Æsculapius_, the Son of God, the Saviour, after being put to death,
_rose from the dead_. His history is portrayed in the following lines of
_Ovid's_, which are prophecies foretelling his life and actions:
"Once, as the sacred infant she surveyed,
The god was kindled in the raving maid;
And thus she uttered her prophetic tale:
Hail, great Physician of the world! all hail!
Hail, mighty infant, who in years to come
Shalt heal the nations, and defraud the tomb!
Swift be thy growth, thy triumphs unconfined,
Make kingdoms thicker, and increase mankind.
Thy daring art shall animate the dead,
And draw the thunder on thy guilty head;
_Then shalt thou die, but from the dark abode
Shalt rise victorious, and be twice a god_."[217:1]
The Saviour _Adonis_ or _Tammuz_, after being put to death, _rose from
the dead_. The following is an account given of the rites of Tammuz or
of Adonis by Julius Firmicius (who lived during the reign of
Constantine):
"On a certain night (while the ceremony of the Adonia, or
religious rites in honor of Adonis, lasted), an image was laid
upon a bed (or bier) and bewailed in doleful ditties. After
they had satiated themselves with fictitious lamentations,
light was brought in: then the mouths of all the mourners were
anointed by the priests (_with oil_), upon which he, with a
gentle murmur, whispered:
'Trust, ye Saints, your God restored.
Trust ye, _in your risen Lord_;
For the pains which he endured
Our salvation have procured.'
"Literally, 'Trust, ye _communicants_: the God having been
saved, there shall be to us out of pain, _Salvation_.'"[217:2]
Upon which their sorrow was turned into joy.
Godwyn renders it:
"_Trust ye in God, for out of pains,
Salvation is come unto us._"[217:3]
Dr. Prichard, in his "_Egyptian Mythology_," tells us that the Syrians
celebrated, _in the early spring_, this ceremony in honor of _the
resurrection of Adonis_. After lamentations, his restoration was
commemorated with joy and festivity.[217:4]
Mons. Dupuis says:
"The obsequies of _Adonis_ were celebrated at _Alexandria_ (in
Egypt) with the utmost display. His image was carried with
great solemnity to a tomb, which served the purpose of
rendering him the last honors. Before singing his return to
life, there were mournful rites celebrated in honor of his
suffering and his death. The large wound he had received was
shown, just as the wound was shown which was made to Christ by
the thrust of the spear. _The feast of his resurrection was
fixed at the 25th of March._"[218:1]
In Calmet's "Fragments," the resurrection of _Adonis_ is referred to as
follows:
"In these _mysteries_, after the attendants had for a long
time bewailed the death of this _just person_, he was at
length understood to be _restored to life_, to have
experienced a _resurrection_; signified by the re-admission of
light. On this the priest addressed the company, saying,
'Comfort yourselves, all ye who have been partakers of the
mysteries of the deity, thus preserved: for we shall now enjoy
some respite from our labors:' to which were added these
words: 'I have scaped a sad calamity, and my lot is greatly
mended.' The people answered by the invocation: 'Hail to the
Dove! the Restorer of Light!'"[218:2]
Alexander Murray tells us that the ancient Greeks also celebrated this
festival in honor of the resurrection of Adonis, in the course of which
a figure of him was produced, and the ceremony of burial, with weeping
and songs of wailing, gone through. After these a joyful shout was
raised: "_Adonis lives and is risen again._"[218:3]
Plutarch, in his life of Alcibiades and of Nicias, tells us that it was
at the time of the celebration of the death of _Adonis_ that the
Athenian fleet set sail for its unlucky expedition to Sicily; that
nothing but images of dead Adonises were to be met with in the streets,
and that they were carried to the sepulchre in the midst of an immense
train of women, crying and beating their breasts, and imitating in every
particular the lugubrious pomp of interments. Sinister omens were drawn
from it, which were only too much realized by subsequent events.[218:4]
It was in an oration or address delivered to the Emperors Constans and
Constantius that Julius Firmicius wrote concerning the rites celebrated
by the heathens in commemoration of the resurrection of Adonis. In his
tide of eloquence he breaks away into indignant objurgation of the
priest who officiated in those _heathen mysteries_, which, he admitted,
resembled the _Christian sacrament_ in honor of the death and
resurrection of Christ Jesus, so closely that there was really no
difference between them, except that no sufficient proof had been given
to the world of the resurrection of Adonis, _and no divine oracle had
borne witness to his resurrection_, nor had he shown himself alive
after his death to those who were concerned to have assurance of the
fact that they might believe.
The _divine oracle_, be it observed, which Julius Firmicius says had
borne testimony to Christ Jesus' resurrection, _was none other than the
answer of the god Apollo, whom the Pagans worshiped at Delphos_, which
this writer derived from Porphyry's books "_On the Philosophy of
Oracles_."[219:1]
Eusebius, the celebrated ecclesiastical historian, has also condescended
to quote this claimed testimony from _a Pagan oracle_, as furnishing one
of the most convincing proofs that could be adduced in favor of the
resurrection of Christ Jesus.
"But thou at least (says he to the Pagans), _listen to thine
own gods, to thy oracular deities themselves_, who have borne
witness, and ascribed to our Saviour (Jesus Christ) not
imposture, but piety and wisdom, and ascent into heaven."
This was vastly obliging and liberal of the god Apollo, but, it happens
awkwardly enough, that the whole work (consisting of several books)
ascribed to Porphyry, in which this and other admissions equally
honorable to the evidences of the Christian religion are made, was _not_
written by Porphyry, but is altogether the pious fraud of Christian
hands, who have kindly fathered the great philosopher with admissions,
which, as he would certainly never have made himself, they have very
charitably made for him.[219:2]
The festival in honor of the resurrection of Adonis was observed in
Alexandria in Egypt--_the cradle of Christianity_--in the time of St.
Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria (A. D. 412), and at Antioch--the ancient
capital of the Greek Kings of Syria--even as late as the time of the
Emperor Julian (A. D. 361-363), whose arrival there, during the
solemnity of the festival, was taken as an ill omen.[219:3]
It is most curious that the arrival of the Emperor Julian at
Antioch--where the followers of Christ Jesus, it is said, were first
called Christians--at that time, should be considered an _ill omen_. Why
should it have been so? He was not a Christian, but a known apostate
from the Christian religion, and a zealous patron of _Paganism_. The
evidence is very conclusive; _the celebration in honor of the
resurrection of Adonis had become to be known as a Christian festival,
which has not been abolished even unto this day_. The ceremonies held in
Roman Catholic countries on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday, are
nothing more than the festival of the death and resurrection of Adonis,
as we shall presently see.
Even as late as the year A. D. 386, the resurrection of Adonis was
celebrated in _Judea_. St. Jerome says:
"Over Bethlehem (in the year 386 after Christ) the grove of
Tammuz, that is, of Adonis, was casting its shadow! And in the
_grotto_ where formerly the infant Anointed (_i. e._, _Christ
Jesus_) cried, the lover of Venus was being mourned."[220:1]
In the idolatrous worship practiced by the _children of Israel_ was that
of the worship of _Adonis_.
Under the designation of _Tammuz_, this god was worshiped, and had his
altar even in the Temple of the Lord which was at Jerusalem. Several of
the Psalms of David were parts of the liturgical service employed in his
worship; the 110th, in particular, is an account of a friendly alliance
between the two gods, Jehovah and Adonis, in which Jehovah adorns Adonis
for his priest, as sitting at his right hand, and promises to fight for
him against his enemies. This god was worshiped at Byblis in Phœnicia
with precisely the same ceremonies: the same articles of faith as to his
mystical incarnation, his precious death and burial, and his glorious
resurrection and ascension, and even in the very same words of religious
adoration and homage which are now, with the slightest degree of
variation that could well be conceived, addressed to the Christ of the
Gospel.
The prophet Ezekiel, when an exile, painted once more the scene he had
so often witnessed of the Israelitish women in the Temple court
bewailing the death of Tammuz.[220:2]
Dr. Parkhurst says, in his "Hebrew Lexicon":
"I find myself _obliged_ to refer Tammuz, as well as the Greek
and Roman Hercules, to that class of idols _which were
originally designed to represent the promised Saviour_ (Christ
Jesus), the desire of all nations. His other name, Adonis, is
almost the very Hebrew word 'Our Lord,' a well-known title of
Christ."[220:3]
So it seems that the ingenious and most learned orthodox Dr. Parkhurst
was _obliged_ to consider Adonis a type of "the promised Saviour (Christ
Jesus), the desire of all nations." This is a very favorite way for
Christian divines to express themselves, when pushed thereto, by the
striking resemblance between the Pagan, virgin-born, crucified, and
resurrected gods and Christ Jesus.
If the reader is satisfied that all these things are types or symbols of
what the "_real Saviour_" was to do and suffer, he is welcome to such
food. The doctrine of Dr. Parkhurst and others comes with but an ill
grace, however, from Roman Catholic priests, _who have never ceased to
suppress information when possible_, and when it was impossible for them
to do so, they claimed these things to be the work of the devil, in
imitation of their predecessors, the Christian Fathers.
Julius Firmicius has said: "The devil has his Christs," and does not
deny that _Adonis_ was one. Tertullian and St. Justin explain all the
conformity which exists between _Christianity_ and _Paganism_, by
asserting "that a long time before there were Christians in existence,
the devil had taken pleasure to have their future mysteries and
ceremonies copied by his worshipers."[221:1]
_Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, after being put to death, _rose from the
dead_,[221:2] and bore the title of "_The Resurrected One_."[221:3]
Prof. Mahaffy, lecturer on ancient history in the University of Dublin,
observes that:
"The _Resurrection_ and reign over an eternal kingdom, by an
_incarnate mediating deity_ born of a virgin, was a
theological conception which pervaded the oldest religion of
Egypt."[221:4]
The ancient Egyptians celebrated annually, in early spring, about the
time known in Christian countries as Easter, the resurrection and
ascension of Osiris. During these mysteries the misfortunes and tragical
death of the "_Saviour_" were celebrated in a species of drama, in which
all the particulars were exhibited, accompanied with loud lamentations
and every mark of sorrow. At this time his image was carried in a
procession, covered--as were those in the temples--_with black veils_.
On the 25th of March his _resurrection from the dead_ was celebrated
with great festivity and rejoicings.[221:5]
Alexander Murray says:
"The worship of _Osiris_ was universal throughout Egypt, where
he was gratefully regarded as the great exemplar of
_self-sacrifice_--in giving his life for others--as the
manifestor of good, as the opener of truth, and as being full
of goodness and truth. _After being dead, he was restored to
life._"[221:6]
Mons. Dupuis says on this subject:
"The Fathers of the Church, and the writers of the Christian
sect, speak frequently of these feasts, celebrated in honor of
Osiris, _who died and arose from the dead_, and they draw a
parallel with the adventurers of _their_ Christ. Athanasius,
Augustin, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Minucius Felix, Lactantius,
Firmicius, as also the ancient authors who have spoken of
_Osiris_ . . . all agree in the description of the universal
mourning of the Egyptians at the festival, when the
commemoration of that death took place. They describe the
ceremonies which were practiced at his sepulchre, the tears,
which were there shed during several days, and the festivities
and rejoicings, which followed after that mourning, at the
moment when his resurrection was announced."[222:1]
Mr. Bonwick remarks, in his "Egyptian Belief," that:
"It is astonishing to find that, at least, five thousand years
ago, men trusted an _Osiris_ as the '_Risen Saviour_,' and
confidently hoped to rise, as he arose, from the
grave."[222:2]
Again he says:
"Osiris was, unquestionably, the popular god of Egypt. . . .
Osiris was dear to the hearts of the people. He was
pre-eminently '_good_.' He was in life and death their friend.
His birth, death, burial, resurrection and ascension, embraced
the leading points of Egyptian theology." "In his efforts to
do good, he encounters evil. In struggling with that, he is
overcome. He is killed. The story, entered into in the account
of the Osiris myth, is a circumstantial one. Osiris is buried.
His tomb was the object of pilgrimage for thousands of years.
_But he did not rest in his grave. At the end of three days,
or forty, he arose again_, and ascended to heaven. This is the
story of his humanity." "As the _invictus Osiris_, his tomb
was illuminated, as is the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem now.
The mourning song, whose plaintive tones were noted by
Herodotus, and has been compared to the '_miserere_' of Rome,
was followed, _in three days_, by the language of
triumph."[222:3]
Herodotus, who had been initiated into the Egyptian and Grecian
"_Mysteries_," speaks thus of them:
"At Sais (in Egypt), in the sacred precinct of Minerva; behind
the chapel and joining the wall, is the tomb of one whose name
I consider it impious to divulge on such an occasion; and in
the inclosure stand large stone obelisks, and there is a lake
near, ornamented with a stone margin, formed in a circle, and
in size, as appeared to me, much the same as that in Delos,
which is called the circular. In this lake they perform by
night the representation of that person's adventures, which
they call _mysteries_. On these matters, however, though
accurately acquainted with the particulars of them, _I must
observe a discreet silence_; and respecting the sacred rites
of Ceres, which the Greeks call Thesmyphoria, although I am
acquainted with them, I must observe silence except so far as
is lawful for me to speak of them."[222:4]
_Horus_, son of the virgin _Isis_, experienced similar misfortunes. The
principal features of this sacred romance are to be found in the
writings of the Christian Fathers. They give us a description of the
grief which was manifested at his death, and of the rejoicings at his
_resurrection_, which are similar to those spoken of above.[222:5]
_Atys_, the Phrygian Saviour, was put to death, _and rose again from
the dead_. Various histories were given of him in various places, but
all accounts terminated in the usual manner. He was one of the "Slain
Ones" who rose to life again on the 25th of March, or the "_Hilaria_" or
primitive Easter.[223:1]
_Mithras_, the Persian Saviour, and mediator between God and man, was
believed by the inhabitants of Persia, Asia Minor and Armenia, to have
been put to death, _and to have risen again from the dead_. In their
mysteries, the body of a young man, apparently dead, was exhibited,
which was feigned to be restored to life. By his sufferings he was
believed to have worked their salvation, and on this account he was
called their "_Saviour_." His priests watched his tomb to the midnight
of the veil of the 25th of March, _with loud cries, and in darkness_;
when all at once the lights burst forth from all parts, and the priest
cried:
"_Rejoice, Oh sacred Initiated, your god is risen. His death,
his pains, his sufferings, have worked our salvation._"[223:2]
Mons. Dupuis, speaking of the resurrection of this god, says:
"It is chiefly in the religion of _Mithras_. . . . that we
find mostly these features of analogy with the death and
resurrection of Christ, and with the mysteries of the
Christians. _Mithras_, who was also born on the 25th of
December, like Christ, died as he did; and he had his
sepulchre, over which his disciples came to shed tears. During
the night, the priests carried his image to a tomb, expressly
prepared for him; he was laid out on a litter, like the
Phœnician _Adonis_.
"These funeral ceremonies, like those on Good Friday (in Roman
Catholic churches), were accompanied with funeral dirges and
groans of the priests; after having spent some time with these
expressions of feigned grief; after having lighted the sacred
_flambeau_, or their paschal candle, and anointed the image
with _chrism_ or perfumes, one of them came forward and
pronounced with the gravest mien these words: '_Be of good
cheer, sacred band of Initiates, your god has risen from the
dead. His pains and his sufferings shall be your
salvation._'"[223:3]
In King's "_Gnostics and their Remains_" (Plate XI.), may be seen the
representation of a bronze medal, or rather disk, engraved in the
coarsest manner, on which is to be seen a female figure, standing in the
attitude of adoration, the object of which is expressed by the
inscription--ORTVS SALVAT, "_The Rising of the Saviour_"--_i. e._, of
_Mithras_.[224:1]
"This medal" (says Mr. King), "doubtless had accompanied the
interment of some individual initiated into the Mithraic
mysteries; and is certainly the most curious relic of that
faith that has come under my notice."[224:2]
_Bacchus_, the Saviour, son of the virgin Semele, after being put to
death, also _arose from the dead_. During the commemoration of the
ceremonies of this event the dead body of a young man was exhibited with
great lamentations, in the same manner as the cases cited above, and at
dawn on the 25th of March his resurrection from the dead was celebrated
with great rejoicings.[224:3] After having brought solace to the
misfortunes of mankind, he, after his resurrection, _ascended into
heaven_.[224:4]
_Hercules_, the Saviour, the son of Zeus by a mortal mother, was put to
death, but arose from the funeral pile, _and ascended into heaven_ in a
_cloud_, 'mid peals of thunder. His followers manifested gratitude to
his memory by erecting an altar on the spot from whence be
ascended.[224:5]
_Memnon_ is put to death, but rises again to life and immortality. His
mother Eos weeps tears at the death of her son--as Mary does for Christ
Jesus--but her prayers avail to bring him back, like Adonis or Tammuz,
and Jesus, from the shadowy region, to dwell always in Olympus.[224:6]
The ancient Greeks also believed that _Amphiaraus_--one of their most
celebrated prophets and demi-gods--_rose from the dead_. They even
pointed to the place of his resurrection.[224:7]
_Baldur_, the Scandinavian Lord and Saviour, is put to death, but does
not rest in his grave. He too rises again to life and immortality.[224:8]
When "Baldur the Good," the beneficent god, descended into hell, Hela
(Death) said to Hermod (who mourned for Baldur): "If all things in the
world, both living and lifeless, weep for him, then shall he return to
the Æsir (the gods)." Upon hearing this, messengers were dispatched
throughout the world to beg everything to weep in order that Baldur
might be delivered from hell. All things everywhere willingly complied
with this request, both men and every other living being, so that
_wailing_ was heard in all quarters.[225:1]
Thus we see the same myth among the northern nations. As Bunsen says:
"The tragedy of the _murdered and risen god_ is familiar to us
from the days of ancient Egypt: must it not be of equally
primeval origin here?" [In Teutonic tradition.]
The ancient Scandinavians also worshiped a god called _Frey_, who was
put to death, _and rose again from the dead_.[225:2]
The ancient _Druids_ celebrated, in the British Isles, in heathen times,
the rites of the resurrected Bacchus, and other ceremonies, similar to
the Greeks and Romans.[225:3]
_Quetzalcoatle_, the Mexican crucified Saviour, after being put to
death, _rose from the dead_. His resurrection was represented in Mexican
_hieroglyphics_, and may be seen in the _Codex Borgianus_.[225:4]
The Jews in Palestine celebrated their _Passover_ on the same day that
the Pagans celebrated the resurrection of their gods.
Besides the resurrected gods mentioned in this chapter, who were
believed in for centuries before the time assigned for the birth of
Christ Jesus, many others might be named, as we shall see in our chapter
on "Explanation." In the words of Dunbar T. Heath:
"We find men taught everywhere, from Southern Arabia to
Greece, by hundreds of symbolisms, the birth, death, and
resurrection of deities, and a resurrection too, apparently
after the second day, _i. e._, _on the third_."[225:5]
And now, to conclude all, _another god_ is said to have been born on the
_same day_[225:6] as these Pagan deities; he is crucified and buried,
and on the _same day_[225:7] rises again from the dead. Christians of
Europe and America celebrate annually the resurrection of _their_
Saviour in almost the identical manner in which the Pagans celebrated
the resurrection of _their_ Saviours, centuries before the God of the
Christians is said to have been born. In Roman Catholic churches, in
Catholic countries, the body of a young man is laid on a bier, and
placed before the altar; the wound in his side is to be seen, and his
death is bewailed in mournful dirges, and the verse, _Gloria Patri_, is
discontinued in the mass. All the images in the churches and the altar
_are covered with black_, and the priest and attendants are robed in
black; nearly all lights are put out, and the windows are darkened. This
is the "Agonie," the "Miserere," the "Good Friday" mass. On Easter
Sunday[226:1] all the drapery has disappeared; the church is
_illuminated_, and rejoicing, in place of sorrow, is manifest. The
Easter hymns partake of the following expression:
"_Rejoice, Oh sacred Initiated, your God is risen. His death,
his pains, his sufferings, have worked our salvation._"
Cedrenus (a celebrated Byzantine writer), speaking of the 25th of March,
says:
"The first day of the first month, is the first of the month
_Nisan_; it corresponds to the 25th of March of the _Romans_,
and the _Phamenot_ of the _Egyptians_. On that day Gabriel
saluted Mary, in order to make her conceive the Saviour. I
observe that it is the same month, _Phamenot_, that _Osiris_
gave fecundity to _Isis_, according to the Egyptian theology.
_On the very same day, our God Saviour _(Christ Jesus)_, after
the termination of his career, arose from the dead_; that is,
what our forefathers called the _Pass-over_, or the passage of
the Lord. It is also on the _same day_, that our ancient
theologians have fixed his return, or his second
advent."[226:2]
We have seen, then, that a festival celebrating the resurrection of
their several gods was annually held among the Pagans, before the time
of Christ Jesus, and that it was almost universal. That it dates to a
period of great antiquity is very certain. The adventures of these
incarnate gods, exposed in their infancy, put to death, and rising again
from the grave to life and immortality, were acted on the _Deisuls_ and
in the sacred theatres of the ancient Pagans,[226:3] just as the
"Passion Play" is acted to-day.
Eusebius relates a _tale_ to the effect that, at one time, the
Christians were about to celebrate "the solemn vigils of Easter," when,
to their dismay, they found that _oil_ was wanted. Narcissus, Bishop of
Jerusalem, who was among the number, "commanded that such as had charge
of the _lights_, speedily to bring unto him water, drawn up out of the
next well." This water Narcissus, "by the wonderful power of God,"
changed into _oil_, and the celebration was continued.[227:1]
This tells the whole story. Here we see the _oil_--which the Pagans had
in their ceremonies, and with which the priests anointed the lips of the
Initiates--and the _lights_, which were suddenly lighted when the god
was feigned to have risen from the dead.
With her usual policy, the Christian Church endeavored to give a
_Christian_ significance to the rites borrowed from Paganism, and in
this case, as in many others, the conversion was particularly easy.
In the earliest times, the Christians did not celebrate the resurrection
of their Lord from the grave. They made the _Jewish Passover_ their
chief festival, celebrating it on the same day as the Jews, the 14th of
Nisan, no matter in what part of the week that day might fall.
Believing, according to the tradition, that Jesus on the eve of his
death had eaten the Passover with his disciples, they regarded such a
solemnity as a commemoration of the Supper and not as a memorial of the
Resurrection. But in proportion as Christianity more and more separated
itself from Judaism and imbibed paganism, this way of looking at the
matter became less easy. A new tradition gained currency among the Roman
Christians to the effect that Jesus before his death had not eaten the
Passover, but had died on the very day of the Passover, thus
substituting himself for the Paschal Lamb. The great Christian festival
was then made the Resurrection of Jesus, and was celebrated on the first
pagan holiday--_Sun-day_--after the Passover.
This _Easter_ celebration was observed in _China_, and called a
"Festival of Gratitude to Tien." From there it extended over the then
known world to the extreme West.
The ancient Pagan inhabitants of Europe celebrated annually this same
feast, which is yet continued over all the Christian world. This
festival began with a week's indulgence in all kinds of sports, called
the _carne-vale_, or the taking _a farewell to animal_ food, because it
was followed by a fast of forty days. This was in honor of the Saxon
goddess _Ostrt_ or _Eostre_ of the Germans, whence our _Easter_.[227:2]
The most characteristic Easter rite, and the one most widely diffused,
is the use of _Easter eggs_. They are usually stained of various colors
with dye-woods or herbs, and people mutually make presents of them;
sometimes they are kept as _amulets_, sometimes eaten. Now, "dyed eggs
were sacred Easter offerings in _Egypt_;"[228:1] the ancient _Persians_,
"when they kept the festival of the solar new year (in March), mutually
presented each other with colored eggs;"[228:2] "the _Jews_ used eggs in
the feast of the Passover;" and the custom prevailed in Western
countries.[228:3]
The stories of the resurrection written by the Gospel narrators are
altogether different. This is owing to the fact that the story, as
related by one, was written to correct the mistakes and to endeavor to
reconcile with common sense the absurdities of the other. For instance,
the "_Matthew_" narrator says: "And when they saw him (after he had
risen from the dead) they worshiped him; _but some doubted_."[228:4]
To leave the question where this writer leaves it would be fatal. In
such a case there must be no doubt. Therefore, the "_Mark_" narrator
makes Jesus appear _three times_, under such circumstances as to render
a mistake next to impossible, and to silence the most obstinate
skepticism. He is first made to appear to Mary Magdalene, who was
convinced that it was Jesus, because she went and told the disciples
that he had risen, and that she had seen him. They--_notwithstanding
that Jesus had foretold them of his resurrection_[228:5]--disbelieved,
nor could they be convinced until he appeared to _them_. They in turn
told it to the other disciples, who were also skeptical; and, that they
might be convinced, Jesus also appeared to _them_ as they sat at meat,
when he upbraided them for their unbelief.
This story is much improved in the hands of the "_Mark_" narrator, but,
in the anxiety to make a clear case, it is overdone, as often happens
when the object is to remedy or correct an oversight or mistake
previously made. In relating that the disciples _doubted_ the words of
Mary Magdalene, he had probably forgotten Jesus had promised them that
he should rise, for, if he had told them this, _why did they doubt_?
Neither the "_Matthew_" nor the "_Mark_" narrator says in what _way_
Jesus made his appearance--whether it was in the _body_ or only in the
_spirit_. If in the latter, it would be fatal to the whole theory of
the resurrection, as it is a _material_ resurrection that Christianity
taught--just like their neighbors the Persians--and not a
spiritual.[229:1]
To put this disputed question in its true light, and to silence the
objections which must naturally have arisen against it, was the object
which the "_Luke_" narrator had in view. He says that when Jesus
appeared and spoke to the disciples they were afraid: "But they were
terrified and affrighted, and _supposed_ they had seen a
_spirit_."[229:2] Jesus then--to show that he was _not_ a spirit--showed
the wounds in his hands and feet. "And they gave him a piece of a
broiled fish, and of a honeycomb. And he took it, _and did eat before
them_."[229:3] After this, who is there that can doubt? but, if the
_fish_ and _honeycomb_ story was true, why did the "_Matthew_" and
"_Mark_" narrators fail to mention it?
The "_Luke_" narrator, like his predecessors, had also overdone the
matter, and instead of convincing the skeptical, he only excited their
ridicule.
The "_John_" narrator now comes, and endeavors to set matters right. He
does not omit entirely the story of Jesus eating fish, _for that would
not do, after there had been so much said about it_. He might leave it
to be inferred that the "_Luke_" narrator made a mistake, so he modifies
the story and omits the ridiculous part. The scene is laid on the shores
of the Sea of Tiberias. Under the direction of Jesus, Peter drew his net
to land, full of fish. "Jesus said unto them: Come and dine. And none of
the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus then cometh, and taketh _bread_, and _giveth them_, and _fish_
likewise."[229:4]
It does not appear from _this_ account that Jesus ate the fish at all.
He took the fish and _gave to the disciples_; the inference is that
_they_ were the ones that ate. In the "_Luke_" narrator's account _the
statement is reversed_; the disciples gave the fish to Jesus, _and he
ate_. The "_John_" narrator has taken out of the story that which was
absurd, but he leaves us to infer that the "_Luke_" narrator was
_careless_ in stating the account of what took place. If we leave out of
the "_Luke_" narrator's account the part that relates to the fish and
honeycomb, he fails to prove what it really was which appeared to the
disciples, as it seems from this that the disciples could not be
convinced that Jesus was not a spirit until he had actually eaten
something.
Now, if the _eating_ part is struck out--which the "_John_" narrator
does, and which, no doubt, the ridicule cast upon it drove him to
do--the "_Luke_" narrator leaves the question _just where he found it_.
It was the business of the "_John_" narrator to attempt to leave it
clean, and put an end to all cavil.
Jesus appeared to the disciples when they assembled at Jerusalem. "And
when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side."[230:1]
They were satisfied, and no doubts were expressed. But Thomas was not
present, and when he was told by the brethren that Jesus had appeared to
them, he refused to believe; nor would he, "Except I shall see in his
hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the
nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe."[230:2]
Now, if Thomas could be convinced, with all _his_ doubts, it would be
foolish after _that_ to deny that Jesus was not in the _body_ when he
appeared to his disciples.
After eight days Jesus again appears, for no other purpose--as it would
seem--but to convince the doubting disciple Thomas. Then said he to
Thomas: "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither
thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but
believing."[230:3] This convinced Thomas, and he exclaimed: "My Lord and
my God." After _this evidence_, if there were still unbelievers, they
were even more skeptical than Thomas himself. We should be at a loss to
understand _why the writers of the first three Gospels entirely omitted
the story of Thomas_, if we were not aware that when the "_John_"
narrator wrote the state of the public mind was such that proof of the
most unquestionable character was demanded that Christ Jesus had risen
in the body. The "_John_" narrator selected a person who claimed he was
hard to convince, and if the evidence was such as to satisfy _him_, it
ought to satisfy the balance of the world.[230:4]
The first that we knew of the fourth Gospel--attributed to _John_--is
from the writings of _Irenæus_ (A. D. 177-202), and the evidence is that
_he is the author of it_.[230:5] That controversies were rife in his day
concerning the resurrection of Jesus, is very evident from other
sources. We find that at this time the resurrection of the dead
(according to the accounts of the Christian forgers) was very far from
being esteemed an uncommon event; that the miracle was frequently
performed on necessary occasions by great fasting and the joint
supplication of the church of the place, and that the persons thus
restored by their prayers had lived afterwards among them many years. At
such a period, when faith could boast of so many wonderful victories
over death, it seems difficult to account for the skepticism of those
philosophers, who still rejected and derided the doctrine of the
resurrection. A noble Grecian had rested on this important ground the
whole controversy, and promised Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, _that if
he could be gratified by the sight of a single person who had been
actually raised from the dead, he would immediately embrace the
Christian religion_.
"It is somewhat remarkable," says Gibbon, the historian, from whom we
take the above, "that the prelate of the first Eastern Church, however
anxious for the conversion of his friend, thought proper to _decline_
this fair and reasonable challenge."[231:1]
This Christian _saint_, Irenæus, had invented many stories of others
being raised from the dead, for the purpose of attempting to strengthen
the belief in the resurrection of Jesus. In the words of the Rev.
Jeremiah Jones:
"Such _pious frauds_ were very common among Christians even in
the first three centuries; and a forgery of this nature, with
the view above-mentioned, _seems natural and probable_."
One of these "_pious frauds_" is the "_Gospel of Nicodemus the Disciple,
concerning the Sufferings and Resurrection of our Master and Saviour
Jesus Christ_." Although attributed to Nicodemus, a disciple of Jesus,
it has been shown to be a forgery, written towards the close of the
second century--during the time of _Irenæus_, the well-known pious
forger. In this book we find the following:
"And now hear me a little. We all know the blessed Simeon, the
high-priest, who took Jesus when an infant into his arms in
the temple. This same Simeon had two sons of his own, _and we
were all present at their death and funeral_. Go therefore and
see their _tombs_, for these are open, _and they are risen_;
and behold, they are in the city of Arimathæa, spending their
time together in offices of devotion."[231:2]
The purpose of this story is very evident. Some "zealous believer,"
observing the appeals for proof of the resurrection, wishing to make it
appear that resurrections from the dead were common occurrences,
invented this story _towards the close of the second century_, and
fathered it upon Nicodemus.
We shall speak, anon, more fully on the subject of the frauds of the
early Christians, the "lying and deceiving _for the cause of Christ_,"
which is carried on even to the present day.
As President Cheney of Bates College has lately remarked, "_The
resurrection is the doctrine of Christianity and the foundation of the
entire system_,"[232:1] but outside of the four spurious gospels this
greatest of all recorded miracles is hardly mentioned. "We have epistles
from Peter, James, John, and Jude--all of whom are said by the
evangelists to have _seen_ Jesus after he rose from the dead, in none of
which epistles is the fact of the resurrection even stated, much less
that Jesus was seen by the writer after his resurrection."[232:2]
Many of the early Christian sects denied the resurrection of Christ
Jesus, but taught that he will rise, when there shall be a general
resurrection.
No actual representation of the resurrection of the Christian's Saviour
has yet been found among the monuments of _early_ Christianity. The
earliest representation of this event that has been found is an ivory
carving, and belongs to the _fifth or sixth_ century.[232:3]
FOOTNOTES:
[215:1] See Matthew, xxviii. Mark, xvi. Luke, xxiv. and John, xx.
[215:2] Mark, xvi. 19.
[215:3] Luke, xxiv. 51.
[215:4] Acts, i. 9.
[215:5] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 240. Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 142 and 145.
[215:6] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 131. Bonwick's Egyptian
Belief, p. 168. Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 259 and 261.
[215:7] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 72. Hist. Hindostan, ii. pp.
466 and 473.
"In Hindu pictures, Vishnu, who is identified with Crishna, is often
seen mounted on the Eagle Garuda." (Moore: Hindu Panth. p. 214.) And M.
Sonnerat noticed "two basso-relievos placed at the entrance of the choir
of Bordeaux Cathedral, one of which represents the ascension of our
Saviour to heaven on an Eagle." (Higgins: Anac., vol. i. p. 273.)
[216:1] Oriental Religions, pp. 494, 495.
[216:2] Asiatic Res., vol. x. p. 129. Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 103.
[216:3] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 49.
[216:4] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 86. See also, Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 159.
[216:5] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 214.
[216:6] Ibid. p. 258.
[217:1] Ovid's Metamorphoses, as rendered by Addison. Quoted in Taylor's
Diegesis, p. 148.
[217:2] Quoted by Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 114. See also,
Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 163, 164.
[217:3] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 164.
[217:4] Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, pp. 66, 67.
[218:1] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 161. See also, Dunlap's
Mysteries of Adoni, p. 23, and Spirit Hist. of Man, p. 216.
[218:2] Calmet's Fragments, vol. ii. p. 21.
[218:3] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 86.
[218:4] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, p. 261.
[219:1] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, p. 247, and Taylor's
Diegesis, p. 164.
[219:2] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 164. We shall speak of _Christian_
forgeries anon.
[219:3] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 2.
[220:1] Quoted in Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. vii. See also, Knight:
Ancient Art and Mythology, p. xxvii.
"From the days of the prophet Daniel, down to the time when the red
cross knights gave no quarter (fighting for _the Christ_) in the streets
of Jerusalem, the Anointed was worshiped in Babylon, Basan, Galilee and
Palestine." (Son of the Man, p. 38.)
[220:2] Ezekiel, viii. 14.
[220:3] Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 162, and Higgins: Anacalypsis,
vol. ii. p. 114.
[221:1] See Justin: Cum. Typho, and Tertullian: De Bap.
[221:2] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 16, and vol. i. p. 519.
Also, Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 66, and Bonwick's Egyptian
Belief, p. 163.
[221:3] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 166, and Dunlap's Mysteries of
Adoni, pp. 124, 125.
[221:4] Prolegomena to Ancient History.
[221:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 102.
[221:6] Murray: Manual of Mythology, pp. 347, 348.
[222:1] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 256.
[222:2] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. vi.
[222:3] Ibid. pp. 150-155, 178.
[222:4] Herodotus, bk. ii. chs. 170, 171.
[222:5] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 263, and Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. ii. 108.
[223:1] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 169. Higgins: Anacalypsis,
vol. ii. p. 104. Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 255. Dunlap's
Mysteries of Adoni, p. 110, and Knight: Anct. Art and Mythology, p. 86.
[223:2] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 99. _Mithras_ remained in the
grave a period of _three days_, as did Christ _Jesus_, and the other
Christs. "The Persians believed that the soul of man remained yet _three
days_ in the world after its separation from the body." (Dunlap:
Mysteries of Adoni, p. 63.)
"In the Zoroastrian religion, after soul and body have separated, the
souls, _in the third night_ after death--as soon as the shining sun
ascends--come over the Mount Berezaiti upon the bridge Tshinavat which
leads to Garonmana, the dwelling of the good gods." (Dunlap's Spirit
Hist., p. 216, and Mysteries of Adoni, 60.)
The Ghost of Polydore says:
"Being raised up this _third day_--light, Having deserted my body!"
(Euripides, Hecuba, 31, 32.)
[223:3] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, pp. 246, 247.
[224:1] King's Gnostics and their Remains, p. 225.
[224:2] Ibid. p. 226.
[224:3] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 102. Dupuis: Origin of
Religious Belief, pp. 256, 257, and Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 169.
[224:4] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 135, and Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. i. 322.
[224:5] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 294. See also, Goldzhier's Hebrew
Mythology, p. 127. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322, and Chambers's
Encyclo., art. "Hercules."
[224:6] Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 90.
[224:7] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 56.
[224:8] Aryan Mytho., vol. ii p. 94.
[225:1] Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 449.
[225:2] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 85.
[225:3] See Davies: Myths and Rites of the British Druids, pp. 89 and
208.
[225:4] See Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 166.
[225:5] Quoted in Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 174.
[225:6] As we shall see in the chapter on "The Birth-day of Christ
Jesus."
[225:7] _Easter_, the triumph of Christ, was originally solemnized on
the 25th of March, the very day upon which the Pagan gods were believed
to have risen from the dead. (See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief,
pp. 244, 255.)
A very long and terrible schism took place in the Christian Church upon
the question whether _Easter_, the day of the resurrection, was to be
celebrated on the 14th day of the first month, after the Jewish custom,
or on the Lord's day afterward; and it was at last decided in favor of
the Lord's day. (See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 90, and
Chambers's Encyclopædia, art. "Easter.")
The day upon which Easter should be celebrated was not settled until the
Council of Nice. (See Euseb. Life of Constantine, lib. 3, ch. xvii.
Also, Socrates' Eccl. Hist. lib. 1, ch. vi.)
[226:1] Even the name of "EASTER" is derived from the heathen goddess,
_Ostrt_, of the Saxons, and the _Eostre_ of the Germans.
"Many of the popular observances connected with Easter are clearly of
_Pagan origin_. The goddess Ostara or Eastre seems to have been the
personification of the morning or East, and also of the opening year or
Spring. . . . With her usual policy, the church endeavored to give a
Christian significance to such of the rites as could not be rooted out;
and in this case the conversion was practically easy." (Chambers's
Encyclo., art. "Easter.")
[226:2] Quoted in Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 244.
[226:3] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 340.
[227:1] Eccl. Hist., lib. 6, c. viii.
[227:2] Anacalypsis, ii. 59.
[228:1] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 24.
[228:2] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Easter."
[228:3] Ibid.
[228:4] Matthew, xxviii. 17.
[228:5] See xii. 40; xvi. 21; Mark, ix. 31; xiv. 23; John, ii. 10.
[229:1] "And let not any one among you say, that _this very flesh_ is
not judged, neither raised up. Consider, in what were ye saved? in what
did ye look up, if not whilst ye were in this flesh? We must, therefore,
keep our flesh as the temple of God. For in like manner as ye were
called in the flesh, _ye shall also come to judgment_ in the flesh. Our
one Lord Jesus Christ, who has saved us, being first a spirit, was made
flesh, and so called us: _even so we also in this flesh, shall receive
the reward_ (_of heaven_)." (II. Corinthians, ch. iv. _Apoc._ See also
the Christian Creed: "I believe in the resurrection of the _body_.")
[229:2] Luke, xxiv. 37.
[229:3] Luke, xxiv. 42, 43.
[229:4] John, xxi. 12, 13.
[230:1] John, xx. 20.
[230:2] John, xx. 25.
[230:3] John, xx. 27.
[230:4] See, for a further account of the resurrection, Reber's Christ
of Paul; Scott's English Life of Jesus; and Greg's Creed of Christendom.
[230:5] See the Chapter xxxviii.
[231:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. p. 541.
[231:2] Nicodemus, Apoc. ch. xii.
[232:1] Baccalaureate Sermon, June 26th, 1881.
[232:2] Greg: The Creed of Christendom, p. 284.
[232:3] See Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii., and Lundy's
Monumental Christianity.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST JESUS, AND THE MILLENNIUM.
The second coming of Christ Jesus is clearly taught in the canonical, as
well as in the apocryphal, books of the New Testament. Paul teaches, or
_is made to teach it_,[233:1] in the following words:
"If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them
also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we
say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
_and remain unto the coming of the Lord_, shall not prevent
them which are asleep. _For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven_ with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise
first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be _caught up_
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord _in the
air_: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."[233:2]
He further tells the Thessalonians to "abstain from all appearance of
evil," and to "be preserved blameless _unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ_."[233:3]
James,[233:4] in his epistle to the brethren, tells them not to be in
too great a hurry for the coming of their Lord, but to "be patient" and
wait for the "coming of the Lord," as the "husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth." But still he assures them that "the coming
of the Lord draweth nigh."[233:5]
Peter, in his first epistle, tells his brethren that "the end of all
things is at hand,"[233:6] and that when the "chief shepherd" does
appear, they "shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not
away."[233:7]
John, in his first epistle, tells the Christian community to "abide in
him" (Christ), so that, "when he shall appear, we may have confidence,
and not be ashamed before him."[234:1]
He further says:
"Behold, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be, but we know that, _when he shall
appear_, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he
is."[234:2]
According to the writer of the book of "The Acts," when Jesus ascended
into heaven, the Apostles stood looking _up_ towards heaven, where he
had gone, and while thus engaged: "behold, two men stood by them
(dressed) in white apparel," who said unto them:
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This
same Jesus which is _taken up_ from you into heaven, _shall so
come in like manner as ye have seen him go_ (up) _into
heaven_."[234:3]
The one great object which the writer of the book of Revelations wished
to present to view, was "_the second coming of Christ_." This writer,
who seems to have been anxious for that time, which was "surely" to come
"quickly;" ends his book by saying: "Even so, come Lord Jesus."[234:4]
The two men, dressed in white apparel, who had told the Apostles that
Jesus should "come again," were not the only persons whom they looked to
for authority. He himself (according to the Gospel) had told them so:
"The Son of man shall come (again) in the glory of his Father
with his angels."
And, as if to impress upon their minds that his second coming should not
be at a distant day, he further said:
"Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which
shall not taste of death, _till they see the Son of man coming
in his kingdom_."[234:5]
This, surely, is very explicit, but it is not the only time he speaks of
his second advent. When foretelling the destruction of the temple, his
disciples came unto him, saying:
"Tell us when shall these things be, _and what shall be the
sign of thy coming_?"[234:6]
His answer to this is very plain:
"Verily I say unto you, _this generation shall not pass till
all these things be fulfilled_ (_i. e_, the destruction of the
temple and his second coming), but of that day and hour
knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father
only."[234:7]
In the second Epistle _attributed_ to Peter, which was written after
that generation had passed away,[235:1] there had begun to be some
impatience manifest among the _believers_, on account of the long delay
of Christ Jesus' second coming. "Where is the promise of his coming?"
say they, "for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they
were from the beginning of the creation."[235:2] In attempting to
smoothe over matters, this writer says: "There shall come in the last
days scoffers, saying: 'Where is the promise of his coming?'" to which
he replies by telling them that they were ignorant of all the ways of
the Lord, and that: "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day." He further says: "The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise;" and that "the day of the Lord _will come_."
This coming is to be "as a thief in the night," that is, when they least
expect it.[235:3]
No wonder there should have been scoffers--as this writer calls
them--the generation which was not to have passed away before his
coming, had passed away; all those who stood there had been dead many
years; the sun had not yet been darkened; the stars were still in the
heavens, and the moon still continued to reflect light. None of the
predictions had yet been fulfilled.
Some of the early Christian Fathers have tried to account for the words
of Jesus, where he says: "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing
here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming
in his kingdom," by saying that he referred to _John_ only, and that
that Apostle was not dead, but sleeping. This fictitious story is
related by Saint Augustin, "from the report," as he says, "of credible
persons," and is to the effect that:
"At Ephesus, where St. John the Apostle lay buried, he was not
believed to be dead, _but to be sleeping only in the grave_,
which he had provided for himself till our Saviour's second
coming: in proof of which, they affirm, that the earth, under
which he lay, was seen to heave up and down perpetually, in
conformity to the motion of his body, in the act of
breathing."[235:4]
This story clearly illustrates the stupid credulity and superstition of
the primitive age of the church, and the faculty of imposing any
fictions upon the people, which their leaders saw fit to inculcate.
The doctrine of the _millennium_ designates a certain period in the
history of the world, lasting for a long, indefinite space (vaguely a
_thousand years_, as the word "_millennium_" implies) during which the
kingdom of _Christ Jesus_ will be visibly established on the earth. The
idea undoubtedly originated proximately in the Messianic expectation of
the Jews (as Jesus _did not_ sit on the throne of David and become an
earthly ruler, it _must be_ that he is _coming again_ for this purpose),
but more remotely in the Pagan doctrine of the final triumph of the
several "Christs" over their adversaries.
In the first century of the Church, _millenarianism_ was a _whispered_
belief, to which the book of Daniel, and more particularly the
predictions of the _Apocalypse_[236:1] gave an apostolical authority,
but, when the church imbibed _Paganism_, their belief on this subject
lent it a more vivid coloring and imagery.
The unanimity which the early Christian teachers exhibit in regard to
_millenarianism_, proves how strongly it had laid hold of the
imagination of the Church, to which, in this early stage, immortality
and future rewards were to a great extent things of this world as yet.
Not only did Cerinthus, but even the orthodox doctors--such as Papias
(Bishop of Hierapolis), Irenæus, Justin Martyr and others--delighted
themselves with dreams of the glory and magnificence of the millennial
kingdom. Papias, in his collection of traditional sayings of Christ
Jesus, indulges in the most monstrous representations of the re-building
of Jerusalem, and the colossal vines and grapes of the millennial reign.
According to the general opinion, the millennium was to be preceded by
great calamities, after which the Messiah, _Christ Jesus_, would appear,
and would bind Satan for a thousand years, annihilate the godless
heathen, or make them slaves of the believers, overturn the Roman
empire, from the ruins of which a new order of things would spring
forth, in which "the dead in Christ" would rise, and along with the
surviving saints enjoy an incomparable felicity in the city of the "New
Jerusalem." Finally, all nations would bend their knee to _him_, and
acknowledge _him only_ to be _the Christ_--his religion would reign
supreme. This is the "Golden Age" of the future, which all nations of
antiquity believed in and looked forward to.
We will first turn to _India_, and shall there find that the _Hindoos_
believed their "_Saviour_," or "Preserver" _Vishnu_, who appeared in
mortal form as _Crishna_, is _to come again in the latter days_. Their
sacred books declare that in the last days, when the fixed stars have
all apparently returned to the point whence they started, at the
beginning of all things, in the month _Scorpio_, Vishnu will appear
among mortals, in the form of an armed warrior, riding a winged _white
horse_.[236:2] In one hand he will carry a scimitar, "blazing like a
comet," to destroy all the impure who shall then dwell on the face of
the earth. In the other hand he will carry a large shining ring, to
signify that the great circle of _Yugas_ (ages) is completed, and that
the end has come. At his approach _the sun and moon will be darkened,
the earth will tremble, and the stars fall from the firmament_.[237:1]
The Buddhists believe that _Buddha_ has repeatedly assumed a human form
to facilitate the reunion of men with his own universal soul, so they
believe that _"in the latter days" he will come again_. Their sacred
books predict this coming, and relate that his mission will be to
restore the world to order and happiness.[237:2] This is exactly the
Christian idea of the millennium.
The _Chinese_ also believe that "_in the latter days_" there is to be a
_millennium_ upon earth. Their five sacred volumes are full of
prophesies concerning this "Golden Age of the Future." It is the
universal belief among them that a "_Divine Man_" will establish himself
on earth, and everywhere restore peace and happiness.[237:3]
The ancient _Persians_ believed that in the last days, there would be a
millennium on earth, when the religion of Zoroaster would be accepted by
all mankind. The Parsees of to-day, who are the remnants of the once
mighty Persians, have a tradition that a holy personage is waiting in a
region called Kanguedez, for a summons from the Ized Serosch, who in the
last days will bring him to Persia, to restore the ancient dominion of
that country, and spread the religion of Zoroaster over the whole
earth.[237:4]
The Rev. Joseph B. Gross, in his "Heathen Religion,"[237:5] speaking of
the belief of the ancient Persians in the millennium, says:
"The dead would be raised,[237:6] and he who has made all
things, cause the earth and the sea to return again the
remains of the departed.[237:7] Then Ormuzd shall clothe them
with flesh and blood, while they that live at the time of the
resurrection, must die in order to likewise participate in its
advantage.
"Before this momentous event takes place, three illustrious
prophets shall appear, who will announce their presence by the
performance of miracles.
"During this period of its existence, and till its final
removal, the earth will be afflicted with pestilence,
tempests, war, famine, and various other baneful
calamities."[237:8]
"After the resurrection, every one will be apprised of the
good or evil which he may have done, and the righteous and the
wicked will be separated from each other.[238:1] Those of the
latter whose offenses have not yet been expiated, will be cast
into hell during the term of three days and three
nights,[238:2] in the presence of an assembled world, in order
to be purified in the burning stream of liquid ore.[238:3]
After this, they enjoy endless felicity in the society of the
blessed, and the pernicious empire of Ahriman (the devil), is
fairly exterminated.[238:4] Even this lying spirit will be
under the necessity to avail himself of this fiery ordeal, and
made to rejoice in its expurgating and cleansing efficacy.
Nay, hell itself is purged of its mephitic impurities, and
washed clean in the flames of a universal regeneration.[238:5]
"The earth is now the habitation of bliss, all nature glows in
light; and the equitable and benignant laws of Ormuzd reign
supremely through the illimitable universe.[238:6] Finally,
after the resurrection, mankind will recognize each other
again; wants, cares, and passions will cease;[238:7] and
everything in the paradisian and all-embracing empire of
light, shall rebound to the praise of the benificent
God."[238:8]
The disciples of _Bacchus_ expected his _second advent_. They hoped he
would assume at some future day the government of the universe, and that
he would restore to man his primary felicity.[238:9]
The _Esthonian_ from the time of the German invasion lived a life of
bondage under a foreign yoke, and the iron of his slavery entered into
his soul. He told how the ancient hero Kalewipoeg sits in the realms of
shadows, waiting until his country is in its extremity of distress, when
he will _return to earth_ to avenge the injuries of the Esths, and
elevate the poor crushed people into a mighty power.[238:10]
The suffering _Celt_ has his Brian Boroihme, or Arthur, _who will come
again_, the first to inaugurate a Fenian millennium, the second to
regenerate Wales. Olger Dansk waits till the time arrives when he is to
start from sleep to the assistance of the _Dane_ against the hated
Prussian. The Messiah is to come and restore the kingdom of the _Jews_.
Charlemagne was the Messiah of mediæval Teutondom. He it was who founded
the great German empire, and shed over it the blaze of Christian truth,
and now he sleeps in the Kyffhauserberg, waiting till German heresy has
reached its climax and Germany is wasted through internal conflicts, to
rush to earth once more, and revive the great empire and restore the
Catholic faith.[239:1]
The ancient _Scandinavians_ believed that in the "latter days" great
calamities would befall mankind. The earth would tremble, and the stars
fall from heaven. After which, the great _serpent_ would be chained, and
the religion of Odin would reign supreme.[239:2]
The disciples of _Quetzalcoatle_, the Mexican Saviour, expected his
second advent. Before he departed this life, he told the inhabitants of
Cholula that he would return again to govern them.[239:3] This
remarkable tradition was so deeply cherished in their hearts, says Mr.
Prescott in his "Conquest of Mexico," that "the Mexicans looked
confidently to the return of their benevolent deity."[239:4]
So implicitly was this believed by the subjects, that when the Spaniards
appeared on the coast, they were joyfully hailed as the returning god
and his companions. Montezuma's messengers reported to the Inca that "it
was Quetzalcoatle who was coming, bringing his temples (ships) with
him." All throughout New Spain they expected the reappearance of this
"Son of the Great God" into the world, who would renew all
things.[239:5]
Acosta alludes to this, in his "History of the Indies," as follows:
"In the beginning of the year 1518, they (the Mexicans),
discovered a fleet at sea, in the which was the Marques del
Valle, Don Fernando Cortez, with his companions, a news which
much troubled Montezuma, and conferring with his council, they
all said, that without doubt, their great and ancient lord
Quetzalcoatle was come, who had said that he would return from
the East, whither he had gone."[239:6]
The doctrine of the millennium and the second advent of Christ Jesus,
has been a very important one in the Christian church. The ancient
Christians were animated by a contempt for their present existence, and
by a just confidence of immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect
faith of modern ages cannot give us any adequate notion. In the
primitive church, the influence of truth was powerfully strengthened by
an opinion, which, however much it may deserve respect for its
usefulness and antiquity, has not been found agreeable to experience.
_It was universally believed, that the end of the world and the kingdom
of heaven were at hand._[240:1] The near approach of this wonderful
event had been predicted, as we have seen, by the Apostles; the
tradition of it was preserved by their earliest disciples, and those who
believed that the discourses _attributed_ to Jesus were really uttered
by him, were _obliged_ to expect the second and glorious coming of the
"Son of Man" in the clouds, _before that generation was totally
extinguished_ which had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and
which might still witness the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or
Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has instructed us not to
press too closely the _mysterious_ language of prophecy and revelation;
but as long as this error was permitted to subsist in the church, it was
productive of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice of
Christians, who lived in the awful expectation of that moment when the
globe itself and all the various races of mankind, _should tremble at
the appearance of their divine judge_. This expectation was
countenanced--as we have seen--by the twenty-fourth chapter of St.
Matthew, and by the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians. Erasmus
(one of the most vigorous promoters of the Reformation) removes the
difficulty by the help of _allegory_ and _metaphor_; and the learned
Grotius (a learned theologian of the 16th century) ventures to
insinuate, that, for wise purposes, _the pious deception was permitted
to take place_.
_The ancient and popular doctrine of the millennium_ was intimately
connected with the second coming of Christ Jesus. As the works of the
creation had been fixed in _six days_, their duration in the present
state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet
Elijah, was fixed to _six thousand years_.[240:2] By the same analogy it
was inferred, that this long period of labor and contention, which had
now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a
_thousand years_, and that Christ Jesus, with the triumphant band of the
saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously
revived, would reign upon earth until the time appointed for the last
and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the mind of the
believers, that the "New Jerusalem," the seat of this blissful kingdom,
was quickly adorned with all the gayest colors of the imagination. A
felicity consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would have been
too refined for its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess
their human nature and senses. A "Garden of Eden," with the amusements
of the pastoral life, was no longer suited to the advanced state of
society which prevailed under the Roman empire. A city was therefore
erected of gold and precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn
and wine was bestowed on the adjacent territory; in the free enjoyment
of whose spontaneous productions, the happy and benevolent people were
never to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive property. Most
of these pictures were borrowed from a misrepresentation of Isaiah,
Daniel, and the Apocalypse. One of the grossest images may be found in
Irenæus (l. v.) the disciple of Papias, who had seen the Apostle St.
John. Though it might not be universally received, it appears to have
been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it seems so
well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of mankind, that it must
have contributed in a very considerable degree to the progress of the
Christian faith. But when the edifice of the church was almost
completed, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ
Jesus' reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound _allegory_,
was considered by degrees as a _doubtful_ and _useless_ opinion, and was
at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism. But
although this doctrine had been "laid aside," and "rejected," it was
again resurrected, and is alive and rife at the present day, even among
those who stand as the leaders of the orthodox faith.
The expectation of the "last day" in the year 1000 A. D., reinvested the
doctrine with a transitory importance; but it lost all credit again when
the hopes so keenly excited by the _crusades_ faded away before the
stern reality of Saracenic success, and the predictions of the
"Everlasting Gospel," a work of Joachim de Floris, a Franciscan abbot,
remained unfulfilled.[241:1]
At the period of the _Reformation_, millenarianism once more experienced
a partial revival, because it was not a difficult matter to apply some
of its symbolism to the papacy. The Pope, for example, was
_Antichrist_--a belief still adhered to by some extreme Protestants. Yet
the doctrine was not adopted by the great body of the reformers, but by
some fanatical sects, such as the Anabaptists, and by the Theosophists
of the seventeenth century.
During the civil and religious wars in France and England, when great
excitement prevailed, it was also prominent. The "Fifth Monarchy Men" of
Cromwell's time were millenarians of the most exaggerated and dangerous
sort. Their peculiar tenet was that the millennium _had_ come, and that
_they_ were the saints who were to inherit the earth. The excesses of
the French Roman Catholic Mystics and Quietists terminated in
_chiliastic_[242:1] views. Among the Protestants it was during the
"Thirty Years' War" that the most enthusiastic and learned chiliasts
flourished. The awful suffering and wide-spread desolation of that time
led pious hearts to solace themselves with the hope of a peaceful and
glorious future. Since then the _penchant_ which has sprung up for
expounding the prophetical books of the Bible, and particularly the
_Apocalypse_, with a view to present events, has given the doctrine a
faint semi-theological life, very different, however, from the earnest
faith of the first Christians.
Among the foremost chiliastic teachers of modern centuries are to be
mentioned Ezechiel Meth, Paul Felgenhauer, Bishop Comenius, Professor
Jurien, Seraris, Poiret, J. Mede; while Thomas Burnet and William
Whiston endeavored to give chiliasm a geological foundation, but without
finding much favor. Latterly, especially since the rise and extension of
missionary enterprise, the opinion has obtained a wide currency, that
after the conversion of the whole world to Christianity, a blissful and
glorious era will ensue; but not much stress--except by extreme
literalists--is now laid on the nature or duration of this far-off
felicity.
Great eagerness, and not a little ingenuity have been exhibited by many
persons in fixing a _date_ for the commencement of the millennium. The
celebrated theologian, Johann Albrecht Bengel, who, in the eighteenth
century, revived an earnest interest in the subject amongst orthodox
Protestants, asserted from a study of the prophecies that the millennium
would begin in 1836. This date was long popular. Swedenborg held that
the last judgment _took place_ in 1757, and that the new church, or
"_Church of the New Jerusalem_," as his followers designate
themselves--in other words, the millennial era--_then began_.
In America, considerable agitation was excited by the preaching of one
William Miller, who fixed the second advent of Christ Jesus about 1843.
Of late years, the most noted English millenarian was Dr. John Cumming,
who placed the end of the _present dispensation_ in 1866 or 1867; but as
that time passed without any millennial symptoms, he modified his
original views considerably, before he died, and conjectured that the
beginning of the millennium would not differ so much after all from the
years immediately preceding it, as people commonly suppose.
FOOTNOTES:
[233:1] We say "is made to teach it," for the probability is that Paul
never wrote this passage. The authority of _both_ the Letters to the
_Thessalonians_, attributed to Paul, is undoubtedly spurious. (See The
Bible of To-Day, pp. 211, 212.)
[233:2] I. Thessalonians, iv. 14-17.
[233:3] Ibid. v. 22, 23.
[233:4] We say "James," but, it is probable that we have, in this
epistle of James, another pseudonymous writing which appeared after the
time that James must have lived. (See The Bible of To-Day, p. 225.)
[233:5] James, v. 7, 8.
[233:6] I. Peter, iv. 7.
[233:7] I. Peter, v. 7. This Epistle is not authentic. (See The Bible of
To-Day, pp. 226, 227, 228.)
[234:1] I. John, ii. 26. This epistle is not authentic. (See Ibid. p.
231.)
[234:2] I. John, v. 2.
[234:3] Acts, i. 10, 11.
[234:4] Rev. xxii. 20.
[234:5] Matt. xvi. 27, 28.
[234:6] Ibid. xxiv. 3.
[234:7] Ibid. xxiv. 34-36.
[235:1] Towards the close of the second century. (See Bible of To-Day.)
[235:2] II. Peter, iii. 4.
[235:3] II. Peter, iii. 8-10.
[235:4] See Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 188.
[236:1] Chapters xx. and xxi. in particular.
[236:2] The _Christian Saviour_, as well as the _Hindoo Saviour_, will
appear "in the latter days" among mortals "in the form of an armed
warrior, riding a _white horse_." St. John sees this in his _vision_,
and prophecies it in his "Revelation" thus: "And I saw, and behold a
_white horse_: and he that sat on him had a _bow_; and a _crown_ was
given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." (Rev. vi.
2.)
[237:1] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 75. Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. pp.
497-503. See also, Williams: Hinduism, p. 108.
[237:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, i. 247, and Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 48.
[237:3] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 209.
[237:4] See Ibid. p. 279. The Angel-Messiah, p. 287, and chap. xiii.
this work.
[237:5] Pp. 122, 123.
[237:6] "And I saw the _dead_, small and great, stand before God." (Rev.
xx. 12.)
[237:7] "And the _sea_ gave up the dead which were in it." (Rev. xx.
13.)
[237:8] "And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars." "Nation shall
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be
famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." (Matt. xxiv. 6,
7.)
[238:1] "And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall
separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from
the goats." (Matt. xxv. 32, 33.)
[238:2] "He descended into hell, the third day he rose (again) from the
dead." (Apostles' Creed.)
[238:3] Purgatory--a place in which souls are supposed by the papists to
be purged by fire from carnal impurities, before they are received into
heaven.
[238:4] "And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the
Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years." (Rev. xx. 2.)
[238:5] "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. xx.
14.)
[238:6] "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first earth,
and the first heaven were passed away." (Rev. xxi. 1.)
[238:7] "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev. xxi. 1.)
[238:8] "And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in
heaven, saying, 'Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power,
unto the Lord, our God.'" (Rev. xix. 1.) "For the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth." (Rev. xix. 6.)
[238:9] Dupuis: Orig. Relig. Belief.
[238:10] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 407.
[239:1] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 407.
[239:2] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
[239:3] Humboldt: Amer. Res., vol. i. p. 91.
[239:4] Prescott: Con. of Mexico, vol. i. p. 60.
[239:5] Fergusson: Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 87. Squire: Serpent
Symbol, p. 187.
[239:6] Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 513.
[240:1] Over all the Higher Asia there seems to have been diffused an
immemorial tradition relative to a second grand convulsion of nature,
and the final dissolution of the earth by the terrible agency of FIRE,
as the first is said to have been by that of WATER. It was taught by the
Hindoos, the Egyptians, Plato, Pythagoras, Zoroaster, the Stoics, and
others, and was afterwards adopted by the Christians. (II. Peter, iii.
9. Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. pp. 498-500.)
[240:2] "And God made, in six days, the works of his hands, . . . the
meaning of it is this; that in _six thousand years_ the Lord will bring
all things to an end." (Barnabas. _Apoc._ c. xiii.)
[241:1] After the devotees and followers of the new gospel had in vain
expected the _Holy One_ who was to come, they at last pitched upon St.
Francis as having been the expected one, and, of course, the most
surprising and absurd miracles were said to have been performed by him.
Some of the fanatics who believed in this man, maintained that St.
Francis was "wholly and entirely transformed into the person of
Christ"--_Totum Christo configuratum_. Some of them maintained that the
gospel of Joachim was expressly preferred to the gospel of Christ.
(Mosheim: Hist. Cent., xiii. pt. ii. sects. xxxiv. and xxxvi.
Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 695.)
[242:1] _Chiliasm_--the thousand years when Satan is bound.
CHAPTER XXV.
CHRIST JESUS AS JUDGE OF THE DEAD.
According to Christian dogma, "God the Father" is not to be the judge at
the last day, but this very important office is to be held by "God the
Son." This is taught by the writer of "The Gospel according to St.
John"--whoever he may have been--when he says:
"For the Father judgeth no man, _but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son_."[244:1]
Paul also, in his "Epistle to the Romans" (or some other person who has
interpolated the passage), tells us that:
"In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men," this
judgment shall be done "by _Jesus Christ_," his son.[244:2]
Again, in his "Epistle to Timothy,"[244:3] he says:
"_The Lord Jesus Christ_ shall judge the quick and the dead,
at his appearing and his kingdom."[244:4]
The writer of the "Gospel according to St. Matthew," also describes
Christ Jesus as judge at the last day.[244:5]
Now, the question arises, _is this doctrine original with Christianity_?
To this we must answer _no_. It was taught, for ages before the time of
Christ Jesus or Christianity, that the Supreme Being--whether "Brahmá,"
"Zeruâné Akeréné," "Jupiter," or "Yahweh,"[244:6]--was not to be the
judge at the last day, but that their _sons_ were to hold this position.
The sectarians of _Buddha_ taught that he (who was the _Son of God_
(Brahmá) and the Holy Virgin Maya), is to be the judge of the
dead.[244:7]
According to the religion of the Hindoos, _Crishna_ (who was the _Son
of God_, and the Holy Virgin Devaki), is to be the judge at the last
day.[245:1] And _Yama_ is the god of the departed spirits, and the judge
of the dead, according to the _Vedas_.[245:2]
_Osiris_, the Egyptian "Saviour" and son of the "Immaculate Virgin"
Neith or Nout, was believed by the ancient Egyptians to be the judge of
the dead.[245:3] He is represented on Egyptian monuments, seated on his
throne of judgment, bearing a staff, and carrying the _crux ansata_, or
cross with a handle.[245:4] _St. Andrew's cross_ is upon his breast. His
_throne_ is in checkers, to denote the good and evil over which he
presides, or to indicate the good and evil who appear before him as the
judge.[245:5]
Among the many hieroglyphic titles which accompany his figure in these
sculptures, and in many other places on the walls of temples and tombs,
are "Lord of Life," "The Eternal Ruler," "Manifester of Good," "Revealer
of Truth," "Full of Goodness and Truth," &c.[245:6]
Mr. Bonwick, speaking of the Egyptian belief in the last judgment, says:
"A perusal of the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew will prepare
the reader for the investigation of the Egyptian notion of the
last judgment."[245:7]
Prof. Carpenter, referring to the Egyptian Bible--which is by far the
most ancient of all holy books[245:8]--says:
"In the 'Book of the Dead,' there are used the very phrases we
find in the New Testament, _in connection with the day of
judgment_."[245:9]
According to the religion of the _Persians_, it is _Ormuzd_, "_The First
Born of the Eternal One_," who is judge of the dead. He had the title of
"The All-Seeing," and "The Just Judge."[245:10]
Zeruâné Akeréné is the name of him who corresponds to "God the Father"
among other nations. He was the "One Supreme essence," the "Invisible
and Incomprehensible."[245:11]
Among the ancient _Greeks_, it was _Aeacus_--Son of the Most High
God--who was to be judge of the dead.[245:12]
The Christian Emperor Constantine, in his oration to the clergy,
speaking of the ancient poets of Greece, says:
"They affirm that men who are the _sons of the gods_, do
judge departed souls."[246:1]
Strange as it may seem, "there are no examples of Christ Jesus
conceived as judge, or the last judgment, in the _early_ art of
Christianity."[246:2]
The author from whom we quote the above, says, "It would be difficult to
define the _cause_ of this, though many may be conjectured."[246:3]
Would it be unreasonable to "conjecture" that the _early_ Christians did
not teach this doctrine, but that it was imbibed, in after years, with
many other heathen ideas?
FOOTNOTES:
[244:1] John, v. 22.
[244:2] Romans, ii. 16.
[244:3] Not authentic. (See The Bible of To-Day, p. 212.)
[244:4] II. Timothy, iv. 1.
[244:5] Matt. xxv. 31-46.
[244:6] Through an error we pronounce this name _Jehovah_.
[244:7] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 366.
[245:1] See Samuel Johnson's Oriental Religions, p. 504.
[245:2] See Williams' Hinduism, p. 25.
[245:3] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 120. Renouf: Religions of the
Ancient Egyptians, p. 110, and Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 152.
[245:4] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 151, and Prog. Relig. Ideas,
vol. i. p. 152.
[245:5] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 151.
[245:6] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 154.
[245:7] Egyptian Belief, p. 419.
[245:8] See Ibid. p. 185.
[245:9] Quoted in Ibid. p. 419.
[245:10] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 259.
[245:11] Ibid. p. 258.
[245:12] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 16.
[246:1] Constantine's Oration to the Clergy, ch. x.
[246:2] Jameson: History of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 392.
[246:3] Ibid.
CHAPTER XXVI.
CHRIST JESUS AS CREATOR, AND ALPHA AND OMEGA.
Christian dogma also teaches that it was not "God the Father," but "God
the Son" who created the heavens, the earth, and all that therein is.
The writer of the fourth Gospel says:
"_All things were made by him_, and without him was not
anything made that was made."[247:1]
Again:
"He was in the world _and the world was made by him_, and the
world knew him not."[247:2]
In the "Epistle to the Colossians," we read that:
"By _him_ were all things created that are in heaven and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers; _all things were
created by him_."[247:3]
Again, in the "Epistle to the Hebrews," we are told that:
"God hath spoken unto us by _his son_, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, _by whom also he made the world_."[247:4]
Samuel Johnson, D. O. Allen,[247:5] and Thomas Maurice,[247:6] tell us
that, according to the religion of the _Hindoos_, it is _Crishna_, the
Son, and the second person in the ever blessed Trinity,[247:7] "who is
the origin and end of all the worlds; _all this universe, came into
being through him, the eternal maker_."[247:8]
In the holy book of the Hindoos, called the "_Bhagvat Geeta_," may be
found the following words of _Crishna_, addressed to his "beloved
disciple" Ar-jouan:
"I am _the Lord of all created beings_."[247:9] "_Mankind was
created by me_ of four kinds, distinct in their principles and
in their duties; _know me then to be the Creator of mankind_,
uncreated, and without decay."[247:10]
In Lecture VII., entitled: "Of the Principles of Nature, and the Vital
Spirit," he also says:
"I am the creation and the dissolution of the whole universe.
There is not anything greater than I, and all things hang on
me."
Again, in Lecture IX., entitled, "Of the Chief of Secrets and Prince of
Science," Crishna says:
"The whole world was spread abroad by me in my invisible form.
All things are dependent on me." "I am the Father and the
Mother of this world, the Grandsire and the Preserver. I am
the Holy One worthy to be known; the mystic figure OM.[248:1]
. . . I am the journey of the good; the _Comforter_; the
_Creator_; the _Witness_; the _Resting-place_; the _Asylum_
and the _Friend_."[248:2]
In Lecture X., entitled, "Of the diversity of the Divine Nature," he
says:
"_I am the Creator of all things_, and all things proceed from
me. Those who are endued with spiritual wisdom, believe this
and worship me; their very hearts and minds are in me; they
rejoice amongst themselves, and delight in speaking of my
name, and teaching one another my doctrine."[248:3]
Innumerable texts, similar to these, might be produced from the Hindoo
Scriptures, but these we deem sufficient to show, in the words of Samuel
Johnson quoted above, that, "According to the religion of the Hindoos,
it is Crishna who is the origin and the end of all the worlds;" and that
"all this universe came into being through him, the Eternal Maker." The
_Chinese_ believed in One Supreme God, to whose honor they burnt
incense, but of whom they had no image. This "God the Father" was _not_
the Creator, according to their theology or mythology; but they had
another god, of whom they had statues or idols, called _Natigai_, who
was the god of all terrestrial things; in fact, God, _the Creator of
this world_--inferior or subordinate to the Supreme Being--from whom
they petition for fine weather, or whatever else they want--a sort of
_mediator_.[248:4]
_Lanthu_, who was born of a "pure, spotless virgin," is believed by his
followers or disciples to be the Creator of all things;[248:5] and
_Taou_, a deified hero, who is mentioned about 560 B. C., is believed by
some sects and affirmed by their books, to be "the original source and
first productive cause of all things."[248:6]
In the _Chaldean_ oracles, the doctrine of the "Only Begotten Son," I A
O, as _Creator_, is plainly taught.
According to ancient _Persian_ mythology, there is one supreme essence,
invisible and incomprehensible, named "_Zeruâné Akeréné_" which
signifies "unlimited time," or "the eternal." From him emanated
_Ormuzd_, the "King of Light," the "First-born of the Eternal One," &c.
Now, this "First-born of the Eternal One" is he by whom all things were
made, all things came into being through him; _he is the
Creator_.[249:1]
A large portion of the _Zend-Avesta_--the Persian Sacred Book or
Bible--is filled with prayers to Ormuzd, God's First-Born. The following
are samples:
"I address my prayer to Ormuzd, _Creator of all_ things; who
always has been, who is, and who will be forever; who is wise
and powerful; who made the great arch of heaven, the sun, the
moon, stars, winds, clouds, waters, earth, fire, trees,
animals and men, whom Zoroaster adored. Zoroaster, who brought
to the world knowledge of the law, who knew by natural
intelligence, and by the ear, what ought to be done, all that
has been, all that is, and all that will be; the science of
sciences, _the excellent word_, by which souls pass the
luminous and radiant bridge, separate themselves from the evil
regions, and go to light and holy dwellings, full of
fragrance. _O Creator_, I obey thy laws, I think, act, speak,
according to thy orders. I separate myself from all sin. I do
good works according to my power. I adore thee with purity of
thought, word, and action. I pray to Ormuzd, who recompenses
good works, who delivers unto the end all those who obey his
laws. Grant that I may arrive at paradise, where all is
fragrance, light, and happiness."[249:2]
According to the religion of the ancient _Assyrians_, it was _Narduk_,
the Logos, the WORD, "the eldest son of Hea," "the Merciful One," "the
Life-giver," &c., who created the heavens, the earth, and all that
therein is.[249:3]
_Adonis_, the Lord and Saviour, was believed to be the Creator of men,
and god of the resurrection of the dead.[249:4]
_Prometheus_, the Crucified Saviour, is the divine forethought, existing
before the souls of men, and the creator Hominium.[249:5]
The writer of "The Gospel according to St. John," has made Christ Jesus
_co-eternal_ with God, as well as Creator, in these words:
"In the beginning was the _Word_, and the Word was with God."
"The same was in the beginning with God."[249:6]
Again, in praying to his Father, he makes Jesus say:
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with
the glory _which I had with thee before the world
was_."[249:7]
Paul is made to say:
"And he (Christ) is before all things."[250:1]
Again:
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and
forever."[250:2]
St. John the Divine, in his "Revelation," has made Christ Jesus say:
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end"--"which is,
and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty,"[250:3]
"the first and the last."[250:4]
Hindoo scripture also makes _Crishna_ "the first and the last," "the
beginning and the end." We read in the "Geeta," where Crishna is
reported to have said:
"I myself never was not."[250:5] "Learn that he by whom all
things were formed" (meaning himself) "is
incorruptible."[250:6] "I am eternity and
non-eternity."[250:7] "I am before all things, and the mighty
ruler of the universe."[250:8] "I am the beginning, the middle
and the end of all things."[250:9]
Arjouan, his disciple, addresses him thus:
"Thou art the Supreme Being, incorruptible, worthy to be
known; thou art prime supporter of the universal orb; thou art
the never-failing and eternal guardian of religion; _thou art
from all beginning_, and I esteem thee."[250:10] Thou art "the
Divine Being, before all other gods."[250:11]
Again he says:
"Reverence! Reverence be unto thee, before and behind!
Reverence be unto thee on all sides, O thou who art all in
all! Infinite in thy power and thy glory! Thou includest all
things, wherefore thou art all things."[250:12]
In another Holy Book of the Hindoos, called the "Vishnu Purana," we also
read that Vishnu--in the form of Crishna--"who descended into the womb
of the (virgin) Devaki, and was born as her son" was "_without
beginning, middle or end_."[250:13]
_Buddha_ is also Alpha and Omega, without beginning or end, "The Lord,"
"the Possessor of All," "He who is Omnipotent and Everlastingly to be
Contemplated," "the Supreme Being, the Eternal One."[250:14]
_Lao-kiun_, the Chinese virgin-born God, who came upon earth about six
hundred years before Jesus, was without beginning. It was said that he
had existed from all eternity.[250:15]
The legends of the Taou-tsze sect in China declare their founder to
have existed antecedent to the birth of the elements, in the Great
Absolute; that he is the "pure essence of the _tëen_;" that he is the
original ancestor of the prime breath of life; that he gave form to the
heavens and the earth, and caused creations and annihilations to succeed
each other, in an endless series, during innumerable periods of the
world. He himself is made to say:
"I was in existence prior to the manifestation of any
corporeal shape; I appeared anterior to the supreme being, or
first motion of creation."[251:1]
According to the _Zend Avesta_, Ormuzd, the first-born of the Eternal
One, is he "who is, always has been, and who will be forever."[251:2]
_Zeus_ was Alpha and Omega. An Orphic line runs thus:
"Zeus is the beginning, Zeus is the middle, out of Zeus all
things have been made."[251:3]
_Bacchus_ was without beginning or end. An inscription on an ancient
medal, referring to him, reads thus:
"It is I who leads you; it is I who protects you, and who
saves you, I am Alpha and Omega."
Beneath this inscription is a serpent, with his tail in his mouth, thus
forming a _circle_, which was an emblem of _eternity_ among the
ancients.[251:4]
Without enumerating them, we may say that the majority of the
virgin-born gods spoken of in Chapter XII. were like Christ
Jesus--without beginning or end--and that many of them were considered
Creators of all things. This has led M. Dridon to remark (in his Hist.
de Dieu), that in _early works of art_, Christ Jesus is made to take the
place of his Father in _creation_ and in similar labors, just as in
heathen religions an inferior deity does the work under a superior one.
FOOTNOTES:
[247:1] John, i. 3.
[247:2] John, i. 10.
[247:3] Colossians, i.
[247:4] Hebrews, i. 2.
[247:5] Allen's India, pp. 137 and 380.
[247:6] Indian Antiq., vol. ii. p. 288.
[247:7] See the chapter on the Trinity.
[247:8] Oriental Religions, p. 502.
[247:9] Lecture iv. p. 51.
[247:10] Geeta, p. 52.
[248:1] O. M. or A. U. M. is the Hindoo ineffable name; the mystic
emblem of the deity. It is never uttered aloud, but only mentally by the
devout. It signifies Brahma, Vishnou, and Siva, the _Hindoo Trinity_.
(See Charles Wilkes in Geeta, p. 142, and King's Gnostics and their
Remains, p. 163.)
[248:2] Geeta, p. 80.
[248:3] Geeta, p. 84.
[248:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 48.
[248:5] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 35.
[248:6] See Davis: Hist. China, vol. ii. pp. 109 and 113, and Thornton,
vol. i. p. 137.
[249:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 259. In the most ancient
parts of the Zend-Avesta, Ormuzd is said to have created the world by
his WORD. (See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 104, and Gibbon's Rome, vol.
ii. p. 302, Note by Guizot.) "In the beginning was the WORD, and the
WORD was with God, and the WORD was God." (John, i. 1.)
[249:2] Quoted in Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 267.
[249:3] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 404.
[249:4] See Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 156.
[249:5] See Ibid. p. 156, and Bulfinch, Age of Fable.
[249:6] John, i. 1, 2.
[249:7] John, xvii. 5.
[250:1] Col. i. 17.
[250:2] Hebrews, xiii. 8.
[250:3] Rev. i. 8, 23, 13.
[250:4] Rev. i. 17; xii. 13.
[250:5] Geeta, p. 35.
[250:6] Geeta, p. 36.
[250:7] Lecture ix. p. 80.
[250:8] Lecture x. p. 83.
[250:9] Lecture x. p. 85.
[250:10] Lecture ix. p. 91.
[250:11] Lecture x. p. 84.
[250:12] Lecture xi. p. 95.
[250:13] See Vishnu Purana, p. 440.
[250:14] See chapter xii.
[250:15] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 200.
[251:1] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. p. 137.
[251:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, ii. p. 267.
[251:3] Müller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 15.
[251:4] "C'est moi qui vous conduis, vous et tout ce qui vous regarde.
C'est moi, qui vous conserve, on qui vous sauve. Je suis Alpha et Omega.
Il y a au dessous de l'inscription un serpent qui tient sa queue dans sa
gueule et dans la cercle qu'il décrit, cest trois lettre Greques ΤΞΕ,
qui sont le nombre 365. Le serpent, qui est'ordinaire un emblème de
l'éternité est ici celui de soleil et de ses revolutions." Beausobre:
Hist. de Manichee, Tom. ii. p. 56.
"I say that I am immortal, Dionysus (Bacchus), son of Deus."
_Aristophanes_, in Myst. Of Adoni, pp. 80, and 105.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST JESUS AND THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS.
The legendary history of Jesus of Nazareth, contained in the books of
the New Testament, is full of prodigies and wonders. These alleged
prodigies, and the faith which the people seem to have put in such a
tissue of falsehoods, indicate the prevalent disposition of the people
to believe in everything, and it was among such a class that
Christianity was propagated. All leaders of religion had the reputation
of having performed miracles; the biographers of Jesus, therefore, not
wishing _their_ Master to be outdone, have made him also a
wonder-worker, and a performer of miracles; without them Christianity
could not prosper. Miracles were needed in those days, on all special
occasions. "There is not a single historian of antiquity, whether Greek
or Latin, who has not recorded oracles, prodigies, prophecies, and
_miracles_, on the occasion of some memorable events, or revolutions of
states and kingdoms. Many of these are attested in the gravest manner by
the gravest writers, _and were firmly believed at the time by the
people_."[252:1]
Hindoo sacred books represent _Crishna_, their Saviour and Redeemer, as
in constant strife against the evil spirit. He surmounts extraordinary
dangers; strews his way with miracles; raising the dead, healing the
sick, restoring the maimed, the deaf and the blind; everywhere
supporting the weak against the strong, the oppressed against the
powerful. The people crowded his way and adored him as a GOD, and these
miracles were the evidences of his divinity for centuries before the
time of Jesus.
The learned Thomas Maurice, speaking of Crishna, tells us that he passed
his innocent hours at the home of his foster-father, in rural
diversions, his divine origin not being suspected, _until repeated
miracles soon discovered his celestial origin_;[252:2] and Sir William
Jones speaks of his _raising the dead_, and saving multitudes _by his
miraculous powers_.[253:1] To enumerate the miracles of Crishna would
be useless and tedious; we shall therefore mention but a few, of which
the Hindoo sacred books are teeming.
When Crishna was born, his life was sought by the reigning monarch,
Kansa, who had the infant Saviour and his father and mother locked in a
dungeon, guarded, and barred by seven iron doors. While in this dungeon
the father heard a secret voice distinctly utter these words: "Son of
Yadu, take up this child and carry it to Gokool, to the house of Nanda."
Vasudeva, struck with astonishment, answered: "How shall I obey this
injunction, thus vigilantly guarded and barred by seven iron doors that
prohibit all egress?" The unknown voice replied: "The doors shall open
of themselves to let thee pass, and behold, I have caused a deep slumber
to fall upon thy guards, which shall continue till thy journey be
accomplished." Vasudeva immediately felt his chains miraculously
loosened, and, taking up the child in his arms, hurried with it through
all the doors, the guards being buried in profound sleep. When he came
to the river Yumna, which he was obliged to cross to get to Gokool, the
waters immediately rose up to kiss the child's feet, and then
respectfully retired on each side to make way for its transportation, so
that Vasudeva passed dry-shod to the opposite shore.[253:2]
When Crishna came to man's estate, one of his first miracles was the
cure of a leper.
A passionate Brahman, having received a slight insult from a certain
Rajah, on going out of his doors, uttered this curse: "That he should,
from head to foot, be covered with boils and leprosy;" which being
fulfilled in an instant upon the unfortunate king, he prayed to Crishna
to deliver him from his evil. At first, Crishna did not heed his
request, but finally he appeared to him, asking what his request was? He
replied, "To be freed from my distemper." The Saviour then cured him of
his distemper.[253:3]
Crishna was one day walking with his disciples, when "they met a poor
cripple or lame woman, having a vessel filled with spices, sweet-scented
oils, sandal-wood, saffron, civet and other perfumes. Crishna making a
halt, she made a certain sign with her finger on his forehead, _casting
the rest upon his head_. Crishna asking her what it was she would
request of him, the woman replied, nothing but the use of my limbs.
Crishna, then, setting his foot upon hers, and taking her by the hand,
raised her from the ground, and not only restored her limbs, but
renewed her age, so that, instead of a wrinkled, tawny skin, she
received a fresh and fair one in an instant. At her request, Crishna and
his company lodged in her house."[254:1]
On another occasion, Crishna having requested a learned Brahman to ask
of him whatever boon he most desired, the Brahman said, "Above all
things, I desire to have my two dead sons restored to life." Crishna
assured him that this should be done, and immediately the two young men
were restored to life and brought to their father.[254:2]
The learned Orientalist, Thomas Maurice, after speaking of the miracles
performed by Crishna, says:
"In regard to the numerous miracles wrought by Crishna, it
should be remembered that miracles are never wanting to the
decoration of an Indian romance; they are, in fact, the life
and soul of the vast machine; nor is it at all a subject of
wonder that the dead should be raised to life in a history
expressly intended, like all other sacred fables of Indian
fabrication, for the propagation and support of the whimsical
doctrine of the Metempsychosis."[254:3]
To speak thus of the miracles of Christ Jesus, would, of course, be
heresy--although what applies to the miracles of Crishna apply to those
of Jesus--we, therefore, find this gentleman branding as "_infidel_" a
learned French orientalist who was guilty of doing this thing.
_Buddha_ performed great miracles for the good of mankind, and the
legends concerning him are full of the most extravagant prodigies and
wonders.[254:4] "By miracles and preaching," says Burnouf, "was the
religion of Buddha established."
R. Spence Hardy says of Buddha:
"All the principal events of his life are represented as being
attended by incredible prodigies. He could pass through the
air at will, and know the thoughts of all beings."[254:5]
Prof. Max Müller says:
"The Buddhist legends teem with miracles attributed to Buddha
and his disciples--miracles which in wonderfulness certainly
surpass the miracles of any other religion."[254:6]
Buddha was at one time going from the city of Rohita-vastu to the city
of Benares, when, coming to the banks of the river Ganges, and wishing
to go across, he addressed himself to the owner of a ferry-boat, thus;
"Hail! respectable sir! I pray you take me across the river in your
boat!" To this the boatman replied, "If you can pay me the fare, I will
willingly take you across the river." Buddha said, "Whence shall I
procure money to pay you your fare, I, who have given up all worldly
wealth and riches, &c." The boatman still refusing to take him across,
Buddha, pointing to a flock of geese flying from the south to the north
banks of the Ganges, said:
"See yonder geese in fellowship passing o'er the Ganges,
They ask not as to fare of any boatman,
But each by his inherent strength of body
Flies through the air as pleases him.
So, by my power of spiritual energy,
Will I transport myself across the river,
Even though the waters on this southern bank
Stood up as high and firm as (Mount) Semeru."[255:1]
He then floats through the air across the stream.
In the _Lalita Vistara_ Buddha is called the "Great Physician" who is to
"dull all human pain." At his appearance the "sick are healed, the deaf
are cured, the blind see, the poor are relieved." He visits the sick
man, Su-ta, and heals soul as well as body.
At Vaisali, a pest like modern cholera was depopulating the kingdom, due
to an accumulation of festering corpses. Buddha, summoned, caused a
strong rain which carried away the dead bodies and cured every one. At
Gaudhârâ was an old mendicant afflicted with a disease so loathsome that
none of his brother monks could go near him on account of his fetid
humors and stinking condition. The "Great Physician" was, however, not
to be deterred; he washed the poor old man and attended to his maladies.
A disciple had his feet hacked off by an unjust king, and Buddha cured
even him. To convert certain skeptical villagers near Srâvastî, Buddha
showed them a man walking across the deep and rapid river without
immersing his feet. Pûrna, one of Buddha's disciples, had a brother in
imminent danger of shipwreck in a "black storm." The "spirits that are
favorable to Pûrna and Arya" apprised him of this and he at once
performed the miracle of transporting himself to the deck of the ship.
"Immediately the black tempest ceased, as if Sumera arrested it."[255:2]
When Buddha was told that a woman was suffering in severe labor, unable
to bring forth, he said, Go and say: "I have never knowingly put any
creature to death since I was born; by the virtue of this obedience may
you be free from pain!" When these words were repeated in the presence
of the mother, the child was instantly born with ease.[256:1]
Innumerable are the miracles ascribed to Buddhist saints, and to others
who followed their example. Their garments, and the staffs with which
they walked, are supposed to imbibe some mysterious power, and blessed
are they who are allowed to touch them.[256:2] A Buddhist saint who
attains the power called "_perfection_," is able to rise and float along
through the air.[256:3] Having this power, the saint exercises it by
mere determination of his will, his body becoming imponderous, as when a
man in the common human state determines to leap, and leaps. Buddhist
annals relate the performance of the miraculous suspension by Gautama
Buddha, himself, as well as by other _saints_.[256:4]
In the year 217 B. C., a Buddhist missionary priest, called by the
Chinese historians Shih-le-fang, came from "the west" into Shan-se,
accompanied by eighteen other priests, with their sacred books, in order
to propagate the faith of Buddha. The emperor, disliking foreigners and
exotic customs, imprisoned the missionaries; but an angel, genii, or
spirit, came and opened the prison door, and liberated them.[256:5]
Here is a third edition of "Peter in prison," for we have already seen
that the Hindoo sage Vasudeva was liberated from prison in like manner.
_Zoroaster_, the founder of the religion of the Persians, opposed his
persecutors by performing miracles, in order to confirm his divine
mission.[256:6]
_Bochia_ of the Persians also performed miracles; the places where he
performed them were consecrated, and people flocked in crowds to visit
them.[256:7]
_Horus_, the Egyptian Saviour, performed great miracles, among which was
that of raising the dead to life.[256:8]
_Osiris_ of Egypt also performed great miracles;[256:9] and so did the
virgin goddess _Isis_.
Pilgrimages were made to the temples of Isis, in Egypt, by the sick.
Diodorus, the Grecian historian, says that:
"Those who go to consult in dreams the goddess Isis recover
perfect health. Many whose cure has been despaired of by
physicians have by this means been saved, and others who have
long been deprived of sight, or of some other part of the
body, by taking refuge, so to speak, in the arms of the
goddess, have been restored to the enjoyment of their
faculties."[257:1]
_Serapis_, the Egyptian Saviour, performed great miracles, principally
those of healing the sick. He was called "The Healer of the
World."[257:2]
_Marduk_, the Assyrian God, the "Logos," the "Eldest Son of Hea;" "He
who made Heaven and Earth;" the "Merciful One;" the "Life-Giver," &c.,
performed great miracles, among which was that of raising the dead to
life.[257:3]
_Bacchus_, son of Zeus by the virgin Semele, was a great performer of
miracles, among which may be mentioned his changing water into
wine,[257:4] as it is recorded of Jesus in the Gospels.
"In his gentler aspects he is the giver of joy, the healer of
sicknesses, the guardian against plagues. As such he is even a law-giver
and a promoter of peace and concord. As kindling new or strange thoughts
in the mind, he is a giver of wisdom and the revealer of hidden secrets
of the future."[257:5]
The legends related of this god state that on one occasion Pantheus,
King of Thebes, sent his attendants to seize Bacchus, the "vagabond
leader of a faction"--as he called him. This they were unable to do, as
the multitude who followed him were too numerous. They succeeded,
however, in capturing one of his disciples, Acetes, who was led away and
shut up fast in prison; but while they were getting ready the
instruments of execution, _the prison doors came open of their own
accord, and the chains fell from his limbs_, and when they looked for
him he was nowhere to be found.[257:6] Here is still another edition of
"Peter in prison."
_Æsculapius_ was another great performer of miracles. The ancient Greeks
said of him that he not only cured the sick of the most malignant
diseases, _but even raised the dead_.
A writer in Bell's Pantheon says:
"As the Greeks always carried the encomiums of their great men
beyond the truth, so they feigned that Æsculapius was so
expert in medicine as not only to cure the sick, but even to
raise the dead."[258:1]
Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian, speaking of Æsculapius, says:
"He sometimes appeared unto them (the Cilicians) in dreams and
visions, and sometimes restored the sick to health."
He claims, however, that this was the work of the DEVIL, "who by this
means did withdraw the minds of men from the knowledge of the _true_
SAVIOUR."[258:2]
For many years after the death of Æsculapius, miracles continued to be
performed by the efficacy of faith in his name. Patients were conveyed
to the temple of Æsculapius, and there cured of their disease. A short
statement of the symptoms of each case, and the remedy employed, were
inscribed on tablets and hung up in the temples.[258:3] There were also
a multitude of eyes, ears, hands, feet, and other members of the human
body, made of wax, silver, or gold, and presented by those whom the god
had cured of blindness, deafness, and other diseases.[258:4]
Marinus, a scholar of the philosopher Proclus, relates one of these
remarkable cures, in the life of his master. He says:
"Asclipigenia, a young maiden who had lived with her parents,
was seized with a grievous distemper, incurable by the
physicians. All help from the physicians failing, the father
applied to the philosopher, earnestly entreating him to pray
for his daughter. Proclus, full of faith, went to the temple
of Æsculapius, intending to pray for the sick young woman to
the god--for the city (Athens) was at that time blessed in
him, and still enjoyed the undemolished temple of THE
SAVIOUR--but while he was praying, a sudden change appeared in
the damsel, and she immediately became convalescent, for the
_Saviour_, Æsculapius, as being God, easily healed
her."[258:5]
Dr. Conyers Middleton says:
"Whatever proof the primitive (Christian) Church might have
among themselves, of the miraculous gift, yet it could have
but little effect towards making proselytes among those who
pretended to the same gift--possessed more largely and exerted
more openly, than in the private assemblies of the Christians.
For in the temples of _Æsculapius_, all kinds of diseases were
believed to be publicly cured, by the pretended help of that
deity, in proof of which there were erected in each temple,
columns or tables of brass or marble, on which a distinct
narrative of each particular cure was inscribed.
Pausanias[258:6] writes that in the temple at Epidaurus there
were many columns anciently of this kind, and six of them
remaining to his time, _inscribed with the names of men and
women who had been cured by the god_, with an account of their
several cases, and the method of their cure; and that there
was an old pillar besides, which stood apart, dedicated to the
memory of Hippolytus, _who had been raised from the dead_.
Strabo, also, another grave writer, informs us that these
temples were constantly filled with the sick, imploring the
help of the god, and that they had tables hanging around them,
in which all the miraculous cures were described. There is a
remarkable fragment of one of these tables still extant, and
exhibited by Gruter in his collection, as it was found in the
ruins of Æsculapius's temple in the Island of the Tiber, in
Rome, which gives an account of two blind men restored to
sight by Æsculapius, in the open view,[259:1] and with the
loud acclamation of the people, acknowledging the manifest
power of the god."[259:2]
Livy, the most illustrious of Roman historians (born B. C. 61), tells us
that temples of _heathen gods_ were rich in the number of offerings
_which the people used to make in return for the cures and benefits
which they received from them_.[259:3]
A writer in _Bell's Pantheon_ says:
"Making presents to the gods was a custom even from the
earliest times, either to deprecate their wrath, obtain some
benefit, or acknowledge some favor. These donations consisted
of garlands, garments, cups of gold, or whatever conduced to
the decoration or splendor of their temples. They were
sometimes laid on the floor, sometimes hung upon the walls,
doors, pillars, roof, or any other conspicuous place.
Sometimes the occasion of the dedication was inscribed, either
upon the thing itself, or upon a tablet hung up with
it."[259:4]
No one custom of antiquity is so frequently mentioned by ancient
historians, as the practice which was so common among the _heathens_, of
making votive offerings to their deities, and hanging them up in their
temples, many of which are preserved to this day, viz., images of metal,
stone, or clay, as well as legs, arms, and other parts of the body, _in
testimony of some divine cure effected in that particular
member_.[259:5]
Horace says:
"----Me tabula sacer
Votivâ paries indicat humida
Suspendisse potenti
Vestimenta maris Deo." (Lib. 1, Ode V.)
It was the custom of offering _ex-votos_ of _Priapic_ forms, at the
church of Isernia, in the _Christian_ kingdom of Naples, during the last
century, which induced Mr. R. Payne Knight to compile his remarkable
work on Phallic Worship.
Juvenal, who wrote A. D. 81-96, says of the goddess _Isis_, whose
religion was at that time in the greatest vogue at Rome, that the
painters get their livelihood out of her. This was because "the most
common of all offerings (made by the heathen to their deities) were
_pictures_ presenting the history of the miraculous cure or deliverance,
vouchsafed upon the vow of the donor."[260:1] One of their prayers ran
thus:
"Now, Goddess, help, for thou canst help bestow,
_As all these pictures round thy altars show_."[260:2]
In _Chambers's Encyclopædia_ may be found the following:
"Patients that were cured of their ailments (by _Æsculapius_,
or through faith in him) hung up a tablet in his temple,
recording the name, the disease, and the manner of cure. _Many
of these votive tablets are still extant._"[260:3]
Alexander S. Murray, of the department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in
the British Museum, speaking of the miracles performed by _Æsculapius_,
says:
"A person who had recovered from a local illness would dictate
a sculptured representation of the part that had been
affected. _Of such sculptures there are a number of examples
in the British Museum._"[260:4]
Justin Martyr, in his _Apology_ for the Christian religion, addressed to
the Emperor Hadrian, says:
"As to _our_ Jesus curing the lame, and the paralytic, and
such as were crippled from birth, this is little more than
what you say of your _Æsculapius_."[260:5]
At a time when the Romans were infested with the plague, having
consulted their sacred books, they learned that in order to be delivered
from it, they were to go in quest of _Æsculapius_ at Epidaurus;
accordingly, an embassy was appointed of ten senators, at the head of
whom was Quintus Ogulnius, and the worship of Æsculapius was established
at Rome, A. U. C. 462, that is, B. C. 288. But the most remarkable
coincidence is that the worship of this god continued with scarcely any
diminished splendor, for several hundred years after the establishment
of Christianity.[260:6]
Hermes or Mercury, the Lord's Messenger, was a wonder-worker. The staff
or rod which Hermes received from Phoibos (Apollo), and which connects
this myth with the special emblem of Vishnu (the Hindoo Saviour), was
regarded as denoting his heraldic office. It was, however, always
endowed with magic properties, and had the power even of raising the
dead.[261:1]
Herodotus, the Grecian historian, relates a wonderful miracle which
happened among the _Spartans_, many centuries before the time assigned
for the birth of Christ Jesus. The story is as follows:
A Spartan couple of great wealth and influence, had a daughter
born to them who was a cripple from birth. Her nurse,
perceiving that she was misshapen, and knowing her to be the
daughter of opulent persons, and deformed, and seeing,
moreover, that her parents considered her form a great
misfortune, considering these several circumstances, devised
the following plan. She carried her every day to the temple of
the Goddess _Helen_, and standing before her image, prayed to
the goddess to free the child from its deformity. One day, as
the nurse was going out of the temple, a woman appeared to
her, and having appeared, asked what she was carrying in her
arms; and she answered that she was carrying an infant;
whereupon she bid her show it to her, but the nurse refused,
for she had been forbidden by the parents to show the child to
any one. The woman, however--who was none other than the
Goddess herself--urged her by all means to show it to her, and
the nurse, seeing that the woman was so very anxious to see
the child, at length showed it; upon which she, stroking the
head of the child with her hands, said that she would surpass
all the women in Sparta in beauty. From that day her
appearance began to change, her deformed limbs became
symmetrical, and when she reached the age for marriage she was
the most beautiful woman in all Sparta.[261:2]
_Apollonius_ of Tyana, in Cappadocia, who was born in the latter part of
the reign of Augustus, about four years before the time assigned for the
birth of Jesus, and who was therefore contemporary with him, was
celebrated for the wonderful miracles he performed. Oracles in various
places declared that he was endowed with a portion of Apollo's power to
cure diseases, and foretell events; and those who were affected were
commanded to apply to him. The priests of Iona made over the diseased to
his care, and his cures were considered so remarkable, that divine
honors were decreed to him.[261:3]
He at one time went to Ephesus, but as the inhabitants did not hearken
to his preaching, he left there and went to Smyrna, where he was well
received by the inhabitants. While there, ambassadors came from
Ephesus, begging him to return to that city, where a terrible plague was
raging, _as he had prophesied_. He went immediately, and as soon as he
arrived, he said to the Ephesians: "Be not dejected, I will this day put
a stop to the disease." According to his words, the pestilence was
stayed, and the people erected a statue to him, in token of their
gratitude.[262:1]
In the city of Athens, there was one of the dissipated young citizens,
who laughed and cried by turns, and talked and sang to himself, without
apparent cause. His friends supposed these habits were the effects of
early intemperance, but Apollonius, who happened to meet the young man,
told him he was possessed of a _demon_; and, as soon as he fixed his
eyes upon him, the demon broke out into all those horrid, violent
expressions used by people on the rack, and then swore he would depart
out of the youth, and never enter another.[262:2] The young man had not
been aware that he was possessed by a devil, but from that moment, his
wild, disturbed looks changed, he became very temperate, and assumed the
garb of a Pythagorean philosopher.
Apollonius went to Rome, and arrived there after the emperor Nero had
passed very severe laws against _magicians_. He was met on the way by a
person who advised him to turn back and not enter the city, saying that
all who wore the philosopher's garb were in danger of being arrested as
magicians. He heeded not these words of warning, but proceeded on his
way, and entered the city. It was not long before he became an object of
suspicion, was closely watched, and finally arrested, but when his
accusers appeared before the tribunal and unrolled the parchment on
which the charges against him had been written, they found that all the
characters had disappeared. Apollonius made such an impression on the
magistrates by the bold tone he assumed, that he was allowed to go where
he pleased.[262:3]
Many miracles were performed by him while in Rome, among others may be
mentioned his restoring a _dead maiden to life_.
She belonged to a family of rank, and was just about to be married, when
she died suddenly. Apollonius met the funeral procession that was
conveying her body to the tomb. He asked them to set down the bier,
saying to her betrothed: "I will dry up the tears you are shedding for
this maiden." They supposed he was going to pronounce a funeral oration,
but he merely _took her hand_, bent over her, and uttered a few words in
a low tone. She opened her eyes, and began to speak, and was carried
back alive and well to her father's house.[263:1]
Passing through Tarsus, in his travels, a young man was pointed out to
him who had been bitten thirty days before by a mad dog, and who was
then running on all fours, barking and howling. Apollonius took his case
in hand, and it was not long before the young man was restored to his
right mind.[263:2]
Domitian, Emperor of Rome, caused Apollonius to be arrested, during one
of his visits to that city, on charge of allowing himself to be
worshiped (the people having given him _divine honors_), speaking
against the reigning powers, and pretending that his words were inspired
by the gods. He was taken, loaded with irons, and cast into prison. "I
have bound you," said the emperor, "and you will not escape me."
Apollonius was one day visited in his prison by his steadfast disciple,
Damus, who asked him when he thought he should recover his liberty,
whereupon he answered: "This instant, if it depended upon myself," and
drawing his legs out of the shackles, he added: "Keep up your spirits,
you see the freedom I enjoy." He was brought to trial not long after,
and so defended himself, that the emperor was induced to acquit him, but
forbade him to leave Rome. Apollonius then addressed the emperor, and
ended by saying: "You cannot kill me, because I am not mortal;" and as
soon as he had said these words, _he vanished from the tribunal_.[263:3]
Damus (the disciple who had visited him in prison) had previously been
sent away from Rome, with the promise of his master that he would soon
rejoin him. Apollonius vanished from the presence of the emperor (at
Rome) at noon. _On the evening of the same day, he suddenly appeared
before Damus and some other friends who were at Puteoli, more than a
hundred miles from Rome._ They started, being doubtful whether or not it
was his spirit, but he stretched out his hand, saying: "Take it, and if
I escape from you regard me as an apparition."[263:4]
When Apollonius had told his disciples that he had made his defense in
Rome, only a few hours before, they marveled how he could have performed
the journey so rapidly. He, in reply, said that they must ascribe it to
a god.[264:1]
The Empress Julia, wife of Alexander Severus, was so much interested in
the history of Apollonius, that she requested Flavius Philostratus, an
Athenian author of reputation, to write an account of him. The early
Christian Fathers, alluding to this life of Apollonius, do not deny the
miracles it recounts, but attribute to them the aid of evil
spirits.[264:2]
Justin Martyr was one of the believers in the miracles performed by
Apollonius, and by others through him, for he says:
"How is it that the talismans of Apollonius have power in
certain members of creation? for they prevent, _as we see_,
the fury of the waves, and the violence of the winds, and the
attacks of wild beasts, and whilst _our_ Lord's miracles _are
preserved by tradition alone, those of Apollonius are most
numerous, and actually manifested in present facts, so as to
lead astray all beholders_."[264:3]
So much for Apollonius. We will now speak of another miracle performer,
_Simon Magus_.
Simon the Samaritan, generally called Simon _Magus_, produced marked
effects on the times succeeding him; being the progenitor of a large
class of sects, which long troubled the Christian churches.
In the time of Jesus and Simon Magus it was almost universally believed
that men could foretell events, cure diseases, and obtain control over
the forces of nature, by the aid of spirits, if they knew how to invoke
them. It was Simon's proficiency in this occult science which gained him
the surname of _Magus_, or _Magician_.
The writer of the eighth chapter of "_The Acts of the Apostles_" informs
us that when Philip went into Samaria, "to preach Christ unto them," he
found there "a certain man called Simon, which beforetime in the same
city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that
himself was some great one. To whom they all gave heed, from the least
to the greatest, saying: This man is the great power of God."[264:4]
Simon traveled about preaching, and made many proselytes. He professed
to be "_The Wisdom of God_," "_The Word of God_," "_The Paraclete_, or
_Comforter_," "_The Image of the Eternal Father, Manifested in the
Flesh_," and his followers claimed that he was "_The First Born of the
Supreme_."[265:1] All of these are titles, which, in after years, were
applied to Christ Jesus. His followers had a gospel called "_The Four
Corners of the World_," which reminds us of the reason given by Irenæus,
for there being _four_ Gospels among the Christians. He says:
"It is impossible that there could be more or less than
_four_. For there are _four_ climates, and _four_ cardinal
winds; but the _Gospel_ is the pillar and foundation of the
Church, and its breath of life. The Church, therefore, was to
have _four pillars_, blowing immortality from every quarter,
and giving life to men."[265:2]
Simon also composed some works, of which but slight fragments remain,
Christian authority having evidently destroyed them. That he made a
lively impression on his contemporaries is indicated by the subsequent
extension of his doctrines, under varied forms, by the wonderful stories
which the Christian Fathers relate of him, and by the strong dislike
they manifested toward him.
Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian, says of him:
"The malicious power of _Satan_, enemy to all honesty, and foe
to all human salvation, brought forth at that time this
monster Simon, a father and worker of all such mischiefs, _as
a great adversary unto the mighty and holy Apostles_.
"Coming into the city of Rome, he was so aided by that power
which prevaileth in this world, that in short time he brought
his purpose to such a pass, that his picture was there placed
with others, and he honored as a god."[265:3]
Justin Martyr says of him:
"After the ascension of _our_ Savior into heaven, the DEVIL
brought forth certain men which called themselves gods, who
not only suffered no vexation of you (Romans), but attained
unto honor amongst you, by name one _Simon_, a Samaritan, born
in the village of Gitton, who (under Claudius Cæsar) by the
art of _devils_, through whom he dealt, wrought devilish
enchantments, was esteemed and counted in your regal city of
Rome for a _god_, and honored by you as a _god_, with a
picture between two bridges upon the river Tibris, having this
Roman inscription: '_Simoni deo Sancto_' (To Simon the Holy
God). And in manner all the Samaritans, and certain also of
other nations, do worship him, acknowledging him for their
chief god."[265:4]
According to accounts given by several other Christian Fathers, he could
make his appearance wherever he pleased to be at any moment; could poise
himself on the air; make inanimate things move without visible
assistance; produce trees from the earth suddenly; cause a stick to reap
without hands; change himself into the likeness of any other person, or
even into the forms of animals; fling himself from high precipices
unhurt, walk through the streets accompanied by spirits of the dead; and
many other such like performances.[266:1]
Simon went to Rome, where he gave himself out to be an "Incarnate Spirit
of God."[266:2] He became a favorite with the Emperor Claudius, and
afterwards with Nero. His Christian opponents, as we have seen in the
cases cited above, did not deny the miracles attributed to him, but said
they were done through the agency of evil spirits, which was a common
opinion among the Fathers. They claimed that every _magician_ had an
attendant evil spirit, who came when summoned, obeyed his commands, and
taught him ceremonies and forms of words, by which he was able to do
supernatural things. In this way they were accustomed to account for all
the miracles performed by Gentiles and heretics.[266:3]
_Menander_--who was called the "Wonder-Worker"--was another great
performer of miracles. Eusebius, speaking of him, says that he was
skilled in magical art, and performed _devilish_ operations; and that
"as yet there be divers which can testify the same of him."[266:4]
Dr. Conyers Middleton, speaking on this subject, says:
"It was universally received and believed through all ages of
the primitive church, that there was a number of magicians,
necromancers, or conjurors, both among the _Gentiles_, and the
_heretical Christians_, who had each their peculiar _demon_ or
evil spirit, for their associates, perpetually attending on
their persons and obsequious to their commands, by whose help
they could perform miracles, foretell future events, call up
the souls of the dead, exhibit them to open view, and infuse
into people whatever dreams or visions they saw fit, all which
is constantly affirmed by the primitive writers and
apologists, and commonly applied by them to prove the
immortality of the soul."[266:5]
After quoting from Justin Martyr, who says that these _magicians_ could
convince any one "that the souls of men exist still after death," he
continues by saying:
"Lactantius, speaking of certain philosophers who held that
the soul perished with the body, says: 'they durst not have
declared such an opinion, in the presence of _any magician_,
for if they had done it, he would have confuted them upon the
spot, by sensible experiments; _by calling up souls from the
dead, and rendering them visible to human eyes, and making
them speak and foretell future events_."[267:1]
The Christian Father Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, who was contemporary
with Irenæus (A. D. 177-202), went so far as to declare that it was evil
spirits who inspired the old poets and prophets of Greece and Rome. He
says:
"The truth of this is manifestly shown; because those who are
possessed by devils, even at this day, are sometimes exorcised
by us in the name of God; and the seducing spirits confess
themselves to be the same demons who before inspired the
Gentile poets."[267:2]
Even in the second century after Christianity, foreign conjurors were
professing to exhibit miracles among the Greeks. Lucian gives an account
of one of these "foreign barbarians"--as he calls them[267:3]--and says:
"I believed and was overcome in spite of my resistance, for
what was I to do when I saw him carried through the air in
daylight, and walking on the water,[267:4] and passing
leisurely and slowly through the fire?"[267:5]
He further tells us that this "foreign barbarian" was able to raise the
dead to life.[267:6]
Athenagoras, a Christian Father who flourished during the latter part of
the second century, says on this subject:
"We (Christians) do not deny that in several places, cities,
and countries, there are some extraordinary works performed in
the name of _idols_," _i. e._, heathen gods.[267:7]
Miracles were not uncommon things among the Jews before and during the
time of Christ Jesus. Casting out devils was an every-day
occurrence,[267:8] and miracles frequently happened to confirm the
sayings of Rabbis. One cried out, when his opinion was disputed, "May
this tree prove that I am right!" and forthwith the tree was torn up by
the roots, and hurled a hundred ells off. But his opponents declared
that a tree could prove nothing. "May this stream, then, witness for
me!" cried Eliezar, and at once it flowed the opposite way.[268:1]
Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that _King Solomon_ was expert
in casting out devils who had taken possession of the body of mortals.
This gift was also possessed by many Jews throughout different ages. He
(Josephus) relates that he saw one of his own countrymen (Eleazar)
casting out devils, in the presence of a vast multitude.[268:2]
Dr. Conyers Middleton says:
"It is remarkable that all the Christian Fathers, who lay so
great a stress on the particular gift of _casting out devils_,
allow the same power both to the Jews and the Gentiles, _as
well before as after our Saviour's coming_."[268:3]
_Vespasian_, who was born about ten years after the time assigned for
the birth of Christ Jesus, performed wonderful miracles, for the good of
mankind. Tacitus, the Roman historian, informs us that he cured a _blind
man_ in Alexandria, by means of his spittle, and a _lame man_ by the
mere touch of his foot.
The words of Tacitus are as follows:
"Vespasian passed some months at Alexandria, having resolved
to defer his voyage to Italy till the return of summer, when
the winds, blowing in a regular direction, afford a safe and
pleasant navigation. During his residence in that city, a
number of incidents, out of the ordinary course of nature,
seemed to mark him as the peculiar favorite of the gods. A man
of mean condition, born at Alexandria, had lost his sight by a
defluxion on his eyes. He presented himself before Vespasian,
and, falling prostrate on the ground, implored the emperor to
administer a cure for his blindness. He came, he said, by the
admonition of Serapis, the god whom the superstition of the
Egyptians holds in the highest veneration. The request was,
that the emperor, with his spittle, would condescend to
moisten the poor man's face and the balls of his eyes.[268:4]
Another, who had lost the use of his hand, inspired by the
same god, begged that he would tread on the part affected.
. . . In the presence of a prodigious multitude, all erect
with expectation, he advanced with an air of serenity, and
hazarded the experiment. The paralytic hand recovered its
functions, and the blind man saw the light of the sun.[268:5]
By living witnesses, who were actually on the spot, both
events are confirmed at this hour, when deceit and flattery
can hope for no reward."[268:6]
The striking resemblance between the account of these miracles, and
those attributed to Jesus in the Gospels "_according to_" Matthew and
Mark, would lead us to think that one had been copied from the other,
but when we find that Tacitus wrote his history A. D. 98,[269:1] and
that the "_Matthew_" and Mark narrators' works were not known until
_after_ that time,[269:2] the evidence certainly is that Tacitus was
_not_ the plagiarist, but that this charge must fall on the shoulders of
the Christian writers, whoever they may have been.
To come down to earlier times, even the religion of the Mahometans is a
religion of miracles and wonders. Mahomet, like Jesus of Nazareth, did
not claim to perform miracles, but the votaries of Mahomet are more
assured than himself of his miraculous gifts; and their confidence and
credulity increase as they are farther removed from the time and place
of his spiritual exploits. They believe or affirm that trees went forth
to meet him; that he was saluted by stones; that water gushed from his
fingers; that he fed the hungry, cured the sick, and raised the dead;
that a beam groaned to him; that a camel complained to him; that a
shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poisoned; and that both
animate and inanimate nature were equally subject to the apostle of God.
His dream of a nocturnal journey is seriously described as a real and
corporeal transaction. A mysterious animal, the Borak, conveyed him from
the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem; with his companion Gabriel he
successively ascended the seven heavens, and received and repaid the
salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the angels in their
respective mansions. Beyond the seventh heaven, Mahomet alone was
permitted to proceed; he passed the veil of unity, approached within two
bow-shots of the throne, and felt a cold that pierced him to the heart,
when his shoulder was touched by the hand of God. After a familiar,
though important conversation, he descended to Jerusalem, remounted the
Borak, returned to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a night the
journey of many thousand years. His resistless word split asunder the
orb of the moon, and the obedient planet stooped from her station in the
sky.[269:3]
These and many other wonders, similar in character to the story of Jesus
sending the demons into the swine, are related of Mahomet by his
followers.
It is very certain that the same circumstances which are claimed to have
taken place with respect to the Christian religion, are also claimed to
have taken place in the religions of Crishna, Buddha, Zoroaster,
Æsculapius, Bacchus, Apollonius, Simon Magus, &c. Histories of these
persons, with miracles, relics, circumstances of locality, suitable to
them, were as common, as well authenticated (if not better), and as much
believed by the devotees as were those relating to Jesus.
All the Christian theologians which the world has yet produced have not
been able to procure any evidence of the miracles recorded in the
_Gospels_, half so strong as can be procured in evidence of miracles
performed by heathens and heathen gods, both before and after the time
of Jesus; and, as they cannot do this, let them give us a reason why we
should reject the one and receive the other. And if they cannot do this,
let them candidly confess that we must either admit them all, or reject
them all, for they all stand on the same footing.
In the early times of the Roman republic, in the war with the Latins,
the gods Castor and Pollux are said to have appeared on white horses in
the Roman army, which by their assistance gained a complete victory: in
memory of which, the General Posthumius vowed and built a temple to
these deities; and for a proof of the fact, there was shown, we find, in
Cicero's time (106 to 43 B. C.), the marks of the horses' hoofs on a
rock at Regillum, where they first appeared.[270:1]
Now this miracle, with those which have already been mentioned, and many
others of the same kind which could be mentioned, has as authentic an
attestation, if not more so, as any of the Gospel miracles. It has, for
instance: The decree of a senate to confirm it; visible marks on the
spot where it was transacted; and all this supported by the best authors
of antiquity, amongst whom Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, who says that
there was subsisting in his time at Rome many evident proofs of its
reality, besides a yearly festival, with a solemn sacrifice and
procession, in memory of it.[270:2]
With all these evidences in favor of this miracle having really
happened, it seems to us so ridiculous, that we wonder how there could
ever have been any so simple as to believe it, yet we should believe
that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, after he had been in the tomb
four days, our only authority being that _anonymous_ book known as the
"Gospel according to St. John," which was not known until after A. D.
173. Albert Barnes, in his "Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity,"
speaking of the authenticity of the Gospel miracles, makes the following
damaging confession:
"An important question is, whether there is any stronger
evidence in favor of miracles, than there is in favor of
witchcraft, or sorcery, or the re-appearance of the dead, of
ghosts, of apparitions? Is not the evidence in favor of these
as strong as any that can be adduced in favor of miracles?
Have not these things been matters of universal belief? In
what respect is the evidence in favor of the miracles of the
Bible stronger than that which can be adduced in favor of
witchcraft and sorcery? Does it differ in nature and degrees;
and if it differs, is it not in favor of witchcraft and
sorcery? Has not the evidence in favor of the latter been
derived from as competent and reliable witnesses? Has it not
been brought to us from those who saw the facts alleged? Has
it not been subjected to a close scrutiny in the courts of
justice, to cross-examination, to tortures? Has it not
convinced those of highest legal attainments; those accustomed
to sift testimony; those who understood the true principles of
evidence? Has not the evidence in favor of witchcraft and
sorcery had, what the evidence in favor of miracles has not
had, the advantage of strict judicial investigation? and been
subjected to trial, where evidence should be, before courts of
law? Have not the most eminent judges in the most civilized
and enlightened courts of Europe and America admitted the
force of such evidence, and on the ground of it committed
great numbers of innocent persons to the gallows and to the
stake? _I confess that of all the questions ever asked on the
subject of miracles, this is the most perplexing and the most
difficult to answer._ It is rather to be wondered at that it
has not been pressed with more zeal by those who deny the
reality of miracles, and that they have placed their
objections so extensively on other grounds."
It was a common adage among the Greeks, "_Miracles for fools_," and the
same proverb obtained among the shrewder Romans, in the saying: "_The
common people like to be deceived--deceived let them be._"
St. Chrysostom declares that "miracles are proper only to excite
sluggish and vulgar minds, _men of sense have no occasion for them_;"
and that "they frequently carry some untoward suspicion along with
them;" and Saint Chrysostom, Jerome, Euthemius, and Theophylact, prove
by several instances, that _real miracles_ had been performed by those
who were not Catholic, but heretic, Christians.[271:1]
Celsus (an Epicurean philosopher, towards the close of the second
century), the first writer who entered the lists against the claims of
the Christians, in speaking of the miracles which were claimed to have
been performed by Jesus, says:
"His miracles, _granted to be true_, were nothing more than
the common works of those _enchanters_, who, for a few
_oboli_, will perform greater deeds in the midst of the Forum,
calling up the souls of heroes, exhibiting sumptuous banquets,
and tables covered with food, which have no reality. Such
things do not prove these jugglers to be sons of God; nor do
Christ's miracles."[271:2]
Celsus, in common with most of the Grecians, looked upon Christianity
as a _blind faith_, that shunned the light of reason. In speaking of the
Christians, he says:
"They are forever repeating: 'Do not examine. _Only believe_,
and thy _faith_ will make thee blessed. _Wisdom_ is a bad
thing in life; _foolishness_ is to be preferred.'"[272:1]
He jeers at the fact that _ignorant men_ were allowed to preach, and
says that "weavers, tailors, fullers, and the most illiterate and rustic
fellows," set up to teach strange paradoxes. "They openly declared that
none but the ignorant (were) fit disciples for the God they worshiped,"
and that one of their rules was, "let no man that is learned come among
us."[272:2]
The _miracles_ claimed to have been performed by the Christians, he
attributed to _magic_,[272:3] and considered--as we have seen
above--their miracle performers to be on the same level with all Gentile
magicians. He says that the "wonder-workers" among the Christians
"rambled about to play tricks at fairs and markets," that they never
appeared in the circles of the wiser and better sort, but always took
care to intrude themselves among the ignorant and uncultured.[272:4]
"The magicians in Egypt (says he), cast out evil spirits, cure
diseases by a breath, call up the spirits of the dead, make
inanimate things move as if they were alive, and so influence
some uncultured men, that they produce in them whatever sights
and sounds they please. But because they do such things shall
we consider them the sons of God? Or shall we call such things
the tricks of pitiable and wicked men?"[272:5]
He believed that Jesus was like all these other wonder-workers, that is,
simply a _necromancer_, and that he learned his magical arts in
Egypt.[272:6] All philosophers, during the time of the Early Fathers,
answered the claims that Jesus performed miracles, in the same manner.
"They even ventured to call him a _magician_ and a deceiver of the
people," says Justin Martyr,[272:7] and St. Augustine asserted that it
was generally believed that Jesus had been initiated in _magical art_ in
Egypt, and that he had written books concerning magic, one of which was
called "_Magia Jesu Christi_."[272:8] In the Clementine Recognitions,
the charge is brought against Jesus that he did not perform his miracles
as a Jewish prophet, but as a magician, an initiate of the heathen
temples.[272:9]
The casting out of devils was the most frequent and among the most
striking and the oftenest appealed to of the miracles of Jesus; yet, in
the conversation between himself and the Pharisees (Matt. xii. 24-27),
he speaks of it as one that was constantly and habitually performed by
their own _exorcists_; and, so far from insinuating any difference
between the two cases, _expressly puts them on a level_.
One of the best proofs, and most unquestionable, that Jesus was accused
of being a _magician_, or that some of the early Christians believed him
to have been such, may be found in the representations of him performing
miracles. On a _sarcophagus_ to be found in the _Museo Gregoriano_,
which is paneled with bas-reliefs, is to be seen a representation of
Jesus raising Lazarus from the grave. He is represented as a young man,
beardless, and equipped with a _wand_ in the received guise of a
_necromancer_, whilst the corpse of Lazarus is swathed in bandages
exactly as an Egyptian mummy.[273:1] On other Christian monuments
representing the miracles of Jesus, he is pictured in the same manner.
For instance, when he is represented as turning the water into wine, and
multiplying the bread in the wilderness, he is a necromancer with a
_wand_ in his hand.[273:2]
_Horus_, the Egyptian Saviour, is represented on the ancient monuments
of Egypt, _with a wand in his hand raising the dead to life_, "just as
we see Christ doing the same thing," says J. P. Lundy, "in the same way,
to Lazarus, in our Christian monuments."[273:3]
Dr. Conyers Middleton, speaking of the primitive Christians, says:
"In the performance of their miracles, they were always
charged with fraud and imposture, by their adversaries. Lucian
(who flourished during the second century), tells us that
whenever any crafty juggler, expert in his trade, and who knew
how to make a right use of things, went over to the
Christians, he was sure to grow rich immediately, by making a
prey of their simplicity. And Celsus represents all the
Christian wonder-workers as mere vagabonds and common cheats,
who rambled about to play their tricks at fairs and markets;
not in the circles of the wiser and the better sort, for among
such they never ventured to appear, but wherever they observed
a set of raw young fellows, slaves or fools, there they took
care to intrude themselves, and to display all their
arts."[273:4]
The same charge was constantly urged against them by Julian, Porphyry
and others. Similar sentiments were entertained by Polybius, the Pagan
philosopher, who considered all miracles as fables, invented to preserve
in the unlearned a due sense of respect for the deity.[273:5]
Edward Gibbon, speaking of the miracles of the Christians, writes in
his familiar style as follows:
"How shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and
philosophic world, to those evidences which were represented
by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their
senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and of
their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was
confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind
saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, demons were
expelled, and the laws of nature were frequently suspended for
the benefit of the church. But the sages of Greece and Rome
turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the
ordinary occupations of life and study, appeared unconscious
of any alterations in the moral or physical government of the
world."[274:1]
The learned Dr. Middleton, whom we have quoted on a preceding page,
after a searching inquiry into the miraculous powers of the Christians,
says:
"From these short hints and characters of the primitive
wonder-workers, as given both by friends and enemies, we may
fairly conclude, that the celebrated gifts of these ages were
generally engrossed and exercised by the primitive Christians,
chiefly of the laity, who used to travel about from city to
city, to assist the ordinary pastors of the church, and
preachers of the Gospel, in the conversion of Pagans, by the
extraordinary gifts with which they were supposed to be indued
by the spirit of God, and the miraculous works which they
pretended to perform. . . .
"We have just reason to suspect that there was some original
fraud in the case; and that the strolling wonder-workers, by a
dexterity of jugglery which art, not heaven, had taught them,
imposed upon the credulity of the pious Fathers, whose strong
prejudices and ardent zeal for the interest of Christianity
would dispose them to embrace, without examination, whatever
seemed to promote so good a cause. That this was really the
case in some instances, is certain and notorious, and that it
was so in all, will appear still more probable, when we have
considered the particular characters of the several Fathers,
on whose testimony the credit of these wonderful narratives
depends."[274:2]
Again he says:
"The pretended miracles of the primitive church were all mere
fictions, which the pious and zealous Fathers, partly from a
weak credulity, and partly from reasons of policy, believing
some perhaps to be true, and knowing all of them to be useful,
were induced to espouse and propagate, for the support of a
righteous cause."[274:3]
Origen, a Christian Father of the third century, uses the following
words in his answer to Celsus:
"A vast number of persons who have left those horrid
debaucheries in which they formerly wallowed, and have
professed to embrace the Christian religion, shall receive a
bright and massive crown when this frail and short life is
ended, _though they don't stand to examine the grounds on
which their faith is_ built, nor defer their conversion till
they have a fair opportunity and capacity to apply themselves
to rational and learned studies. And since our adversaries are
continually making such a stir about our _taking things on
trust_, I answer, that we, who see plainly and have found the
vast advantage that the common people do manifestly and
frequently reap thereby (who make up by far the greater
number), I say, we (the Christian clergy), who are so well
advised of these things, _do professedly teach men to believe
without examination_."[275:1]
Origen flourished and wrote A. D. 225-235, which shows that at that
early day there was no rational evidence for Christianity, but it was
professedly taught, and men were supposed to believe "_these things_"
(_i. e._ the Christian legends) _without severe examination_.
The primitive Christians were perpetually reproached for their gross
credulity, by all their enemies. Celsus, as we have already seen,
declares that they cared neither to receive nor give any reason for
their faith, and that it was a usual saying with them: "Do not examine,
but believe only, and thy faith will save thee;" and Julian affirms
that, "the sum of all their wisdom was comprised in the single precept,
'_believe_.'"
Arnobius, speaking of this, says:
"The Gentiles make it their constant business to laugh at our
faith, and to lash our credulity with their facetious jokes."
The Christian Fathers defended themselves against these charges by
declaring that they did nothing more than the heathens themselves had
always done; and reminds them that they too had found the same method
useful with the uneducated or common people, who were not at leisure to
examine things, and whom they taught therefore, to believe without
reason.[275:2]
This "believing without reason" is illustrated in the following words of
Tertullian, a Christian Father of the second century, who reasons on the
evidence of Christianity as follows:
"I find no other means to prove myself to be impudent with
success, and happily a fool, than by my contempt of shame; as,
for instance--I maintain that the son of God was born: why am
I not ashamed of maintaining such a thing? Why! but because it
is a shameful thing. I maintain that the son of God died:
well, _that_ is wholly credible because it is monstrously
absurd. I maintain that after having been buried, he rose
again: and _that_ I take to be absolutely true, because it was
manifestly impossible."[275:3]
According to the very books which record the miracles of Jesus, he never
claimed to perform such deeds, and Paul declares that the great reason
why Israel did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah was that "the Jews
required a sign."[276:1] He meant: "Signs and wonders are the only
proofs they will admit that any one is sent by God and is preaching the
truth. If they cannot have this palpable, external proof, they withhold
their faith."
A writer of the second century (John, in ch. iv. 18) makes Jesus aim at
his fellow-countrymen and contemporaries, the reproach: "Unless you see
signs and wonders, you do not believe." In connection with Paul's
declaration, given above, these words might be paraphrased: "The reason
why the Jews never believed in Jesus was that they never saw him do
signs and wonders."
Listen to the reply he (Jesus) made when told that if he wanted people
to believe in him he must first prove his claim by a miracle: "A wicked
and adulterous generation asks for a _sign_, and no sign shall be given
it except the sign of the prophet Jonas."[276:2] Of course, this answer
did not in the least degree satisfy the questioners; so they presently
came to him again with a more direct request: "If the kingdom of God is,
as you say, close at hand, show us at least some _one_ of the signs in
heaven which are to precede the Messianic age." What could appear more
reasonable than such a request? Every one knew that the end of the
present age was to be heralded by fearful signs in heaven. The light of
the sun was to be put out, the moon turned to blood, the stars robbed of
their brightness, and many other fearful signs were to be shown![276:3]
If any _one_ of these could be produced, they would be content; but if
not, they must decline to surrender themselves to an idle joy which must
end in a bitter disappointment; and surely Jesus himself could hardly
expect them to believe in him on his bare word.
_Historians_ have recorded miracles said to have been performed by other
persons, but not a word is said by _them_ about the miracles claimed to
have been performed by Jesus.
Justus of Tiberias, who was born about five years after the time
assigned for the crucifixion of Jesus, wrote a _Jewish History_. Now, if
the miracles attributed to Christ Jesus, and his death and resurrection,
had taken place in the manner described by the Gospel narrators, he
could not have failed to allude to them. But Photius, Patriarch of
Constantinople, tells us that it contained "_no mention of the coming of
Christ, nor of the events concerning him, nor of the prodigies he
wrought_." As Theodore Parker has remarked: "The miracle is of a most
_fluctuating_ character. The miracle-worker of to-day is a
matter-of-fact juggler to-morrow. Science each year adds new wonders to
our store. The master of a locomotive steam-engine would have been
thought greater than Jupiter Tonans, or the Elohim, thirty centuries
ago."
In the words of Dr. Oort: "Our increased knowledge of nature has
gradually undermined the belief in the possibility of miracles, and the
time is not far distant when in the mind of every man, of any culture,
all accounts of miracles will be banished together to their proper
region--_that of legend_."
What had been said to have been done in _India_ was said by the "_half
Jew_"[277:1] writers of the Gospels to have been done in Palestine. The
change of names and places, with the mixing up of various sketches of
_Egyptian_, _Phenician_, _Greek_ and _Roman_ mythology, was all that was
necessary. They had an abundance of material, and with it they built. A
long-continued habit of imposing upon others would in time subdue the
minds of the impostors themselves, and cause them to become at length
the dupes of their own deception.
FOOTNOTES:
[252:1] Dr. Conyers Middleton: Free Enquiry, p. 177.
[252:2] Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 46.
[253:1] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 237.
[253:2] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 331.
[253:3] Ibid. p. 319.
[254:1] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 320. Vishnu Parana, bk. v. ch. xx.
[254:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 68.
[254:3] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 269.
[254:4] See Hardy's Buddhist Legends, and Eastern Monachism. Beal's
Romantic Hist. Buddha. Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, and Huc's Travels, &c.
[254:5] Hardy: Buddhist Legends, pp. xxi. xxii.
[254:6] The Science of Religion, p. 27.
[255:1] Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 246, 247.
[255:2] Dhammapada, pp. 47, 50 and 90. Bigandet, pp. 186 and 192.
Bournouf: Intro. p. 156. In Lillie's Buddhism, pp. 139, 140.
[256:1] Hardy: Manual of Buddhism.
[256:2] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 229.
[256:3] See Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 135, and Hardy:
Buddhist Legends, pp. 98, 126, 137.
[256:4] See Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 135.
[256:5] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. p. 341.
[256:6] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 240, and Inman's
Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 460.
[256:7] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 34.
[256:8] See Lundy: Monumental Christianity, pp. 303-405.
[256:9] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief.
[257:1] Quoted by Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 397.
[257:2] See Prichard's Mythology, p. 347.
[257:3] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 404.
[257:4] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, 258, and Anacalypsis,
vol. ii. p. 102. Compare John, ii. 7.
A _Grecian_ festival called THYIA was observed by the Eleans _in honor
of Bacchus_. The priests conveyed three empty vessels into a chapel, in
the presence of a large assembly, after which the doors were shut and
_sealed_. "On the morrow the company returned, and after every man had
looked upon his own seal, and seen that it was unbroken, the doors being
opened, the vessels were found full of wine." The god himself is said to
have appeared in person and filled the vessels. (Bell's Pantheon.)
[257:5] Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 295.
[257:6] Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 225. "And they laid their hands
on the apostles, and put them in the common prison; but the angel of the
Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth." (Acts,
v. 18, 19.)
[258:1] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 28.
[258:2] Eusebius: Life of Constantine, lib. 3, ch. liv.
"_Æsculapius_, the son of Apollo, was endowed by his father with such
skill in the healing art that he even restored the dead to life."
(Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 246.)
[258:3] Murray: Manual of Mythology, pp. 179, 180.
[258:4] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 304.
[258:5] Marinus: Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 151.
[258:6] Pausanias was one of the most eminent Greek geographers and
historians.
[259:1] "And when Jesus departed thence, _two blind men_ followed him,
crying and saying: thou son of David, have mercy on us. . . . And Jesus
said unto them: Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto
him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying: According to your
faith be it unto you, and their eyes were opened." (Matt. ix. 27-30.)
[259:2] Middleton's Works, vol. i. pp. 63, 64.
[259:3] Ibid. p. 48.
[259:4] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 62.
[259:5] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 76.
[260:1] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 76.
[260:2]
"Nunc Dea, nunc succurre mihi, nam posse mederi
Picta docet temptes multa tabella tuis."
(Horace: Tibull. lib. 1, Eleg. iii. In Ibid.)
[260:3] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Æsculapius."
[260:4] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 180.
[260:5] Apol. 1, ch. xxii.
[260:6] Deane: Serp. Wor. p. 204. See also, Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p.
29.
"There were numerous oracles of Æsculapius, but the most celebrated one
was at Epidaurus. Here the sick sought responses and the recovery of
their health by sleeping in the temple. . . . The worship of Æsculapius
was introduced into Rome in a time of great sickness, and an embassy
sent to the temple Epidaurus to entreat the aid of the god." (Bulfinch:
The Age of Fable, p. 397.)
[261:1] Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. p. 238.
[261:2] Herodotus: bk. vi. ch. 61.
[261:3] See Philostratus: Vie d'Apo.
Gibbon, the historian, says of him: "Apollonius of Tyana, born about the
same time as Jesus Christ. His life (that of the former) is related in
so fabulous a manner by his disciples, that we are at a loss to discover
whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic." (Gibbon's Rome, vol.
i. p. 353, _note_.) What this learned historian says of Apollonius
applies to Jesus of Nazareth. _His_ disciples have related his life in
so fabulous a manner, that some consider him to have been an impostor,
others a fanatic, others a sage, and others a GOD.
[262:1] See Philostratus, p. 146.
[262:2] Ibid. p. 158.
[262:3] See Ibid. p. 182.
[263:1] Compare Matt. ix. 18-25. "There came a certain ruler and
worshiped him, saying: 'My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay
thy hand upon her, and she shall live.' And Jesus arose and followed
him, and so did his disciples. . . . And when Jesus came into the
ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, he
said unto them: 'Give peace, for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.'
And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he
went in, _and took her by the hand_, and the maid arose."
[263:2] See Philostratus, pp. 285-286.
[263:3] "He could render himself invisible, evoke departed spirits,
utter predictions, and discover the thoughts of other men." (Hardy:
Eastern Monachism, p. 380.)
[263:4] "And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of
them, and said unto them: 'Peace be unto you.' But they were terrified
and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said
unto them: 'Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your
hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is myself; handle me and
see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." (Luke,
xxiv. 36-39.)
[264:1] See Philostratus, p. 342.
[264:2] Ibid. p. 5.
[264:3] Justin Martyr's "_Quæst._" xxiv. Quoted in King's Gnostics, p.
242.
[264:4] Acts, viii. 9, 10.
[265:1] See Mosheim, vol. i. pp. 137, 140.
[265:2] Irenæus: Against Heresies, bk. iii. ch. xi. The _authorship_ of
the fourth gospel, attributed to John, has been traced to this same
_Irenæus_. He is the _first_ person who speaks of it; and adding this
fact to the statement that "it is impossible that there could be more or
less than _four_," certainly makes it appear very suspicious. We shall
allude to this again.
[265:3] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist. lib. 2, ch. xiv.
[265:4] Apol. 1, ch. xxiv.
[266:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. ii. pp. 241, 242.
[266:2] According to Hieronymus (a Christian Father, born A. D. 348),
Simon Magus applied to himself these words: "I am the Word (or Logos) of
God; I am the Beautiful, I the Advocate, I the Omnipotent; I am all
things that belong to God." (See "Son of the Man," p. 67.)
[266:3] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. ii. p. 316, and Middleton's Free
Inquiry, p. 62.
[266:4] Eusebius: Ecc. Hist., lib. 3, ch. xiv.
[266:5] Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 54.
[267:1] Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 54.
[267:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. ii. p. 312, and Middleton's Works, vol.
i. p. 10.
[267:3] "The Egyptians call all men '_barbarians_' who do not speak the
same language as themselves." (Herodotus, book ii. ch. 158.)
"By '_barbarians_' the Greeks meant all who were not sprung from
themselves--all foreigners." (Henry Cary, translator of _Herodotus_.)
The Chinese call the English, and all foreigners from western countries,
"_western barbarians_;" the Japanese were called by them the "_eastern
barbarians_." (See Thornton's History of China, vol. i.)
The Jews considered all who did not belong to their race to be
_heathens_ and _barbarians_.
The Christians consider those who are not followers of Christ Jesus to
be _heathens_ and _barbarians_.
The Mohammedans consider all others to be _dogs_, _infidels_, and
_barbarians_.
[267:4] "And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them,
walking on the sea." (Matt. xiv. 25.)
[267:5] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. ii. p. 236. We have it on the authority
of _Strabo_ that Roman priests walked barefoot over burning coals,
without receiving the slightest injury. This was done in the presence of
crowds of people. _Pliny_ also relates the same story.
[267:6] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. ii. p. 236.
[267:7] Athenagoras, Apolog. p. 25. Quoted in Middleton's Works, vol. i.
p. 62.
[267:8] Geikie: Life of Christ, vol. ii. p. 619.
[268:1] Geikie: Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 75.
[268:2] Jewish Antiquities, bk. viii. ch. ii.
[268:3] Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 68.
[268:4] "And he cometh to Bethsaida, and they bring a _blind man_ unto
him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the
hand . . . _and when he had spit on his eyes_, . . . he looked up and
said: 'I see men and trees,' . . . and he was restored." (Mark, viii.
22-25.)
[268:5] "And behold there was a man _which had his hand withered_. . . .
Then said he unto the man, 'Stretch forth thine hand;' and he stretched
it forth, and it was restored whole, like as the other." (Matt. xii.
10-13.)
[268:6] Tacitus: Hist., lib. iv. ch. lxxxi.
[269:1] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Tacitus."
[269:2] See The Bible of To-Day, pp. 273, 278.
[269:3] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. pp. 539-541.
[270:1] Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 102. See also, Bell's
Pantheon, vol. i. p. 16.
[270:2] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, one of the most accurate historians
of antiquity, says: "In the war with the Latins, Castor and Pollux
appeared visibly on white horses, and fought on the side of the Romans,
who by their assistance gained a complete victory. As a perpetual
memorial of it, a temple was erected and a yearly festival instituted in
honor of these deities." (Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 323, and
Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 103.)
[271:1] See Prefatory Discourse to vol. iii. Middleton's Works, p. 54.
[271:2] See Origen: Contra Celsus, bk. 1, ch. lxviii.
[272:1] See Origen: Contra Celsus, bk. 1, ch. ix.
[272:2] Ibid. bk. iii. ch. xliv.
[272:3] Ibid.
[272:4] Ibid. bk. 1, ch. lxviii.
[272:5] Ibid.
[272:6] Ibid.
[272:7] Dial. Cum. Typho. ch. lxix.
[272:8] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 148.
[272:9] See Baring-Gould's Lost and Hostile Gospels. A knowledge of
magic had spread from Central Asia into Syria, by means of the return of
the Jews from Babylon, and had afterwards extended widely, through the
mixing of nations produced by Alexander's conquests.
[273:1] See King's Gnostics, p. 145. Monumental Christianity, pp. 100
and 402, and Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. i. p. 16.
[273:2] See Monumental Christianity, p. 402, and Hist. of Our Lord, vol.
i. p. 16.
[273:3] Monumental Christianity, pp. 403-405.
[273:4] Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 19.
[273:5] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 59.
[274:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. p. 588. An eminent heathen challenged his
Christian friend Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, a champion of the
Gospel, to show him but one person who had been raised from the dead, on
the condition of turning Christian himself upon it. _The Christian
bishop was unable to give him that satisfaction._ (See Gibbon's Rome,
vol. i. p. 541, and Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 60.)
[274:2] Middleton's Works, vol. i. pp. 20, 21.
[274:3] Ibid. p. 62. The Christian Fathers are noted for their frauds.
Their writings are full of falsehoods and deceit.
[275:1] Contra Celsus, bk. 1, ch. ix. x.
[275:2] See Middleton's Works, pp. 62, 63, 64.
[275:3] On The Flesh of Christ, ch. v.
[276:1] I. Corinthians, i. 22, 23.
[276:2] Matt. xii. 29.
[276:3] See for example, Joel, ii. 10, 31; iii. 15; Matt. xxiv. 29, 30;
Acts, ii. 19, 20; Revelations, vi. 12, 13; xvi. 18, _et seq._
[277:1] The writers of the Gospels were "I know not what sort of _half_
Jews, not even agreeing with themselves." (Bishop Faustus.)
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CHRIST CRISHNA AND CHRIST JESUS COMPARED.
Believing and affirming, that the _mythological portion_ of the history
of Jesus of Nazareth, contained in the books forming the Canon of the
New Testament, is nothing more or less than a copy of the mythological
histories of the Hindoo Saviour _Crishna_, and the Buddhist Saviour
_Buddha_,[278:1] with a mixture of mythology borrowed from the Persians
and other nations, we shall in this and the chapter following, compare
the histories of these _Christs_, side by side with that of Christ
Jesus, the Christian Saviour.
In comparing the history of Crishna with that of Jesus, we have the
following remarkable parallels:
1. "Crishna was born of a chaste virgin, called Devaki, who was selected
by the Lord for this purpose on account of her purity."[278:2]
1. Jesus was born of a chaste virgin, called Mary, who was
selected by the Lord for this purpose, on account of her
purity.[278:3]
2. A chorus of Devatas celebrated with song the praise of Devaki,
exclaiming: "In the delivery of this favored woman all nature shall have
cause to exult."[278:4]
2. The angel of the Lord saluted Mary, and said: "Hail Mary!
the Lord is with you, you are blessed above all women, . . .
for thou hast found favor with the Lord."[278:5]
3. The birth of Crishna was announced in the heavens by _his
star_.[278:6]
3. The birth of Jesus was announced in the heavens by _his
star_.[278:7]
4. On the morn of Crishna's birth, "the quarters of the horizon were
irradiate with joy, as if moonlight was diffused over the whole earth;"
"the spirits and nymphs of heaven danced and sang," and "the clouds
emitted low pleasing sounds."[279:1]
4. When Jesus was born, the angels of heaven sang with joy,
and from the clouds there came pleasing sounds.[279:2]
5. Crishna, though royally descended, was actually born in a state the
most abject and humiliating, having been brought into the world in a
_cave_.[279:3]
5. "The birth of Jesus, the King of Israel, took place under
circumstances of extreme indigence; and the place of his
nativity, according to the united voice of the ancients, and
of oriental travelers, was in a _cave_."[279:4]
6. "The moment Crishna was born, the whole cave was splendidly
illuminated, and the countenances of his father and his mother emitted
rays of glory."[279:5]
6. The moment Jesus was born, "there was a great light in the
cave, so that the eyes of Joseph and the midwife could not
bear it.[279:6]"
7. "Soon after Crishna's mother was delivered of him, and while she was
weeping over him _and lamenting his unhappy destiny_, the compassionate
infant assumed the power of speech, and soothed and comforted his
afflicted parent."[279:7]
7. "Jesus spake even when he was in his cradle, and said to
his mother: 'Mary, I am Jesus, the Son of God, that _Word_
which thou didst bring forth according to the declaration of
the Angel Gabriel unto thee, and my Father hath sent me for
the salvation of the world.'"[279:8]
8. The divine child--Crishna--was recognized, and adored by cowherds,
who prostrated themselves before the heaven-born child.[279:9]
8. The divine child--Jesus--was recognized, and adored by
shepherds, who prostrated themselves before the heaven-born
child.[279:10]
9. Crishna was received with divine honors, and presented with gifts of
sandal-wood and perfumes.[279:11]
9. Jesus was received with divine honors, and presented with
gifts of frankincense and myrrh.[279:12]
10. "Soon after the birth of Crishna, the holy Indian prophet Nared,
hearing of the fame of the infant Crishna, pays him a visit at Gokul,
examines the _stars_, and declares him to be of celestial
descent."[279:13]
10. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, behold,
there came wise men from the East, saying: Where is he that is
born King of the Jews, for we have seen his _star_ in the East
and have come to worship him."[279:14]
11. Crishna was born at a time when Nanda--his foster-father--was away
from home, having come to the city to pay his tax or yearly tribute, to
the king.[279:15]
11. Jesus was born at a time when Joseph--his
foster-father--was away from home, having come to the city to
pay his tax or tribute to the governor.[279:16]
12. Crishna, although born in a state the most abject and humiliating,
was of royal descent.[280:1]
12. Jesus, although born in a state the most abject and
humiliating, was of royal descent.[280:2]
13. Crishna's father was warned by a "heavenly voice," to "fly with the
child to Gacool, across the river Jumna," as the reigning monarch sought
his life.[280:3]
13. Jesus' father was warned "in a dream" to "take the young
child and his mother, and flee into Egypt," as the reigning
monarch sought his life.[280:4]
14. The ruler of the country in which Crishna was born, having been
informed of the birth of the divine child, sought to destroy him. For
this purpose, he ordered "the massacre in all his states, of all the
children of the male sex, born during the night of the birth of
Crishna."[280:5]
14. The ruler of the country in which Jesus was born, having
been informed of the birth of the divine child, sought to
destroy him. For this purpose, he ordered "all the children
that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof," to be
slain.[280:6]
15. "Mathura (pronounced Mattra), was the city in which Crishna was
born, where his most extraordinary miracles were performed, and which
continues at this day the place where his name and _Avatar_ are held in
the most sacred veneration of any province in Hindostan."[280:7]
15. Matarea, near Hermopolis, in Egypt, is said to have been
the place where Jesus resided during his absence from the land
of Judea. At this place he is reported to have wrought many
miracles.[280:8]
16. Crishna was preceded by _Rama_, who was born a short time before
him, and whose life was sought by Kansa, the ruling monarch, at the time
he attempted to destroy the infant Crishna.[280:9]
16. Jesus was preceded by _John_ the "divine herald," who was
born a short time before him, and whose life was sought by
Herod, the ruling monarch, at the time he attempted to destroy
the infant Jesus.[280:10]
17. Crishna, being brought up among shepherds, wanted the advantage of a
preceptor to teach him the sciences. Afterwards, when he went to
Mathura, a tutor, profoundly learned, was obtained for him; but, in a
very short time, he became such a scholar as utterly to astonish and
perplex his master with a variety of the most intricate questions in
Sanscrit science.[280:11]
17. Jesus was sent to Zaccheus the schoolmaster, who wrote out
an alphabet for him, and bade him say _Aleph_. "Then the Lord
Jesus said to him, Tell me first the meaning of the letter
Aleph, and then I will pronounce Beth, and when the master
threatened to whip him, the Lord Jesus explained to _him_ the
meaning of the letters Aleph and Beth; also which where the
straight figures of the letters, which the oblique, and what
letters had double figures; which had points, and which had
none; why one letter went before another; and many other
things he began to tell him and explain, of which the master
himself had never heard, nor read in any book."[281:1]
18. "At a certain time, Crishna, taking a walk with the other cowherds,
they chose him their _King_, and every one had his place assigned him
under the new King."[281:2]
18. "In the month Adar, Jesus gathered together the boys, and
ranked them as though he had been a KING. . . . And if any one
happened to pass by, they took him by force, and said, Come
hither, and worship the King."[281:3]
19. Some of Crishna's play-fellows were stung by a serpent, and he,
filled with compassion at their untimely fate, "and casting upon them an
eye of divine mercy, they immediately rose," and were restored.[281:4]
19. When Jesus was at play, a boy was stung by a serpent, "and
he (Jesus) touched the boy with his hand," and he was restored
to his former health.[281:5]
20. Crishna's companions, with some calves, were stolen, and hid in a
cave, whereupon Crishna, "by his power, created other calves and boys,
in all things, perfect resemblances of the others."[281:6]
20. Jesus' companions, who had hid themselves in a furnace,
were turned into kids, whereupon Jesus said: "Come hither, O
boys, that we may go and play; and immediately the kids were
changed into the shape of boys."[281:7]
21. "One of the first miracles performed by Crishna, when mature, was
the curing of a leper."[281:8]
21. One of the first miracles performed by Jesus, when mature,
was the curing of a leper.[281:9]
22. A poor cripple, or lame woman, came, with "a vessel filled with
spices, sweet-scented oils, sandal-wood, saffron, civet, and other
perfumes, and made a certain sign on his (Crishna's) forehead, _casting
the rest upon his head_."[281:10]
22. "Now, when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the
leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of
very precious ointment, _and poured it on his head_, as he sat
at meat."[281:11]
23. Crishna was crucified, and he is represented with arms extended,
hanging on a cross.[281:12]
23. Jesus was crucified, and he is represented with arms
extended, hanging on a cross.
24. At the time of the death of Crishna, there came calamities and bad
omens of every kind. A black circle surrounded the moon, and the sun was
darkened at noon-day; the sky rained fire and ashes; flames burned dusky
and livid; demons committed depredations on earth; at sunrise and
sunset, thousands of figures were seen skirmishing in the air; spirits
were to be seen on all sides.[282:1]
24. At the time of the death of Jesus, there came calamities
of many kinds. The veil of the temple was rent in twain from
the top to the bottom, the sun was darkened from the sixth to
the ninth hour, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of
the saints which slept arose and came out of their
graves.[282:2]
25. Crishna was pierced with an arrow.[282:3]
25. Jesus was pierced with a spear.[282:4]
26. Crishna said to the hunter who shot him: "Go, hunter, through my
favor, to heaven, the abode of the gods."[282:5]
26. Jesus said to one of the malefactors who was crucified
with him: "Verily I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with
me in paradise."[282:6]
27. Crishna descended into hell.[282:7]
27. Jesus descended into hell.[282:8]
28. Crishna, after being put to death, rose again from the dead.[282:9]
28. Jesus, after being put to death, rose again from the
dead.[282:10]
29. Crishna ascended bodily into heaven, and many persons witnessed his
ascent.[282:11]
29. Jesus ascended bodily into heaven, and many persons
witnessed his ascent.[282:12]
30. Crishna is to come again on earth in the latter days. He will appear
among mortals as an armed warrior, riding a white horse. At his approach
the sun and moon will be darkened, the earth will tremble, and the stars
fall from the firmament.[282:13]
30. Jesus is to come again on earth in the latter days. He
will appear among mortals as an armed warrior, riding a white
horse. At his approach, the sun and moon will be darkened, the
earth will tremble, and the stars fall from the
firmament.[282:14]
31. Crishna is to be judge of the dead at the last day.[282:15]
31. Jesus is to be judge of the dead at the last day.[282:16]
32. Crishna is the creator of all things visible and invisible; "all
this universe came into being through him, the eternal maker."[282:17]
32. Jesus is the creator of all things visible and invisible;
"all this universe came into being through him, the eternal
maker."[282:18]
33. Crishna is Alpha and Omega, "the beginning, the middle, and the end
of all things."[282:19]
33. Jesus is Alpha and Omega, the beginning, the middle, and
the end of all things.[282:20]
34. Crishna, when on earth, was in constant strife against the evil
spirit.[282:21] He surmounts extraordinary dangers, strews his way with
miracles, raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring the maimed, the
deaf and the blind, everywhere supporting the weak against the strong,
the oppressed against the powerful. The people crowded his way, and
adored him as a _God_.[283:1]
34. Jesus, when on earth, was in constant strife against the
evil spirit.[282:22] He surmounts extraordinary dangers,
strews his way with miracles, raising the dead, healing the
sick, restoring the maimed, the deaf and the blind,
everywhere supporting the weak against the strong, the
oppressed against the powerful. The people crowded his way and
adored him as a _God_.[283:2]
35. Crishna had a beloved disciple--_Arjuna_.[283:3]
35. Jesus had a beloved disciple--_John_.[283:4]
36. Crishna was transfigured before his disciple Arjuna. "All in an
instant, with a thousand suns, blazing with dazzling luster, so beheld
he the glories of the universe collected in the one person of the God of
Gods."[283:5]
Arjuna bows his head at this vision, and folding his hands in reverence,
says:
"Now that I see thee as thou really art, I thrill with terror! Mercy!
Lord of Lords, once more display to me thy human form, thou habitation
of the universe."[283:6]
36. "And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John
his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart,
and was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as
the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. . . While he
yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and
behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said: &c." "And when
the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were
sore afraid."[283:7]
37. Crishna was "the meekest and best tempered of beings." "He preached
very nobly indeed, and sublimely." "He was pure and chaste in
reality,"[283:8] and, as a lesson of humility, "he even condescended to
wash the feet of the Brahmins."[283:9]
37. Jesus was the meekest and best tempered of beings. He
preached very nobly indeed, and sublimely. He was pure and
chaste, and he even condescended to wash the feet of his
disciples, to whom he taught a lesson of humility.[283:10]
38. "Crishna is the very Supreme Brahma, though it be a _mystery_ how
the Supreme should assume the form of a man."[283:11]
38. Jesus is the very Supreme Jehovah, though it be a
_mystery_ how the Supreme should assume the form of a man, for
"Great is the mystery of Godliness."[283:12]
39. Crishna is the second person in the Hindoo Trinity.[283:13]
39. Jesus is the second person in the Christian
Trinity.[283:14]
40. Crishna said: "Let him if seeking God by deep abstraction, abandon
his possessions and his hopes, betake himself to some secluded spot, and
fix his heart and thoughts on God alone."[284:1]
40. Jesus said: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy
closet, and when then hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father,
which is in secret."[284:2]
41. Crishna said: "Whate'er thou dost perform, whate'er thou eatest,
whate'er thou givest to the poor, whate'er thou offerest in sacrifice,
whate'er thou doest as an act of holy presence, do all as if to me, O
Arjuna. I am the great Sage, without beginning; I am the Ruler and the
All-sustainer."[284:3]
41. Jesus said: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God"[284:4] who is
the great Sage, without beginning; the Ruler and the
All-sustainer.
42. Crishna said: "I am the cause of the whole universe; through me it
is created and dissolved; on me all things within it hang and suspend,
like pearls upon a string."[284:5]
42. "Of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things."
"All things were made by him; and without him was not anything
made that was made."[284:6]
43. Crishna said: "I am the light in the Sun and Moon, far, far beyond
the darkness. I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance in all that's
radiant, and the light of lights."[284:7]
43. "Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying: I am the light
of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life."[284:8]
44. Crishna said: "I am the sustainer of the world, its friend and Lord.
I am its way and refuge."[284:9]
44. "Jesus said unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me."[284:10]
45. Crishna said: "I am the Goodness of the good; I am Beginning,
Middle, End, Eternal Time, the Birth, the Death of all."[284:11]
45. "I am the first and the last; and have the keys of hell
and of death."[284:12]
46. Crishna said: "Then be not sorrowful, from all thy sins I will
deliver thee. Think thou on me, have faith in me, adore and worship me,
and join thyself in meditation to me; thus shalt thou come to me, O
Arjuna; thus shalt thou rise to my supreme abode, where neither sun nor
moon hath need to shine, for know that all the lustre they possess is
mine."[284:13]
46. Jesus said: "Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven
thee."[284:14] "My son, give me thine heart."[284:15] "The
city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in
it; for the glory of God did lighten it."[284:16]
Many other remarkable passages might be adduced from the Bhagavad-gita,
the following of which may be noted:[284:17]
"He who has brought his members under subjection, but sits
with foolish minds thinking in his heart of sensual things, is
called a hypocrite." (Compare Matt. v. 28.)
"Many are my births that are past; many are thine too, O
Arjuna. I know them all, but thou knowest them not." (Comp.
John, viii. 14.)
"For the establishment of righteousness am I born from time to
time." (Comp. John, xviii. 37; I. John, iii. 3.)
"I am dearer to the wise than all possessions, and he is
dearer to me." (Comp. Luke, xiv. 33; John, xiv. 21.)
"The ignorant, the unbeliever, and he of a doubting mind
perish utterly." (Comp. Mark, xvi. 16.)
"Deluded men despise me when I take human form." (Comp. John,
i. 10.)
Crishna had the titles of "Saviour," "Redeemer," "Preserver,"
"Comforter," "Mediator," &c. He was called "The Resurrection and the
Life," "The Lord of Lords," "The Great God," "The Holy One," "The Good
Shepherd," &c. All of which are titles applied to Christ Jesus.
Justice, humanity, good faith, compassion, disinterestedness, in fact,
all the virtues, are said[285:1] to have been taught by Crishna, both by
precept and example.
The Christian missionary Georgius, who found the worship of the
crucified God in India, consoles himself by saying: "That which P.
Cassianus Maceratentis had told me before, I find to have been observed
more fully in French by the Living De Guignes, a most learned man; _i.
e._, that _Crishna_ is the very name corrupted of Christ the
Saviour."[285:2] Many others have since made a similar statement, but
unfortunately for them, the name _Crishna_ has nothing whatever to do
with "Christ the Saviour." It is a purely Sanscrit word, and means "_the
dark god_" or "_the black god_."[285:3] The word _Christ_ (which is not
a name, but a title), as we have already seen, is a Greek word, and
means "the Anointed," or "the Messiah." The fact is, the history of
Christ Crishna is older than that of Christ Jesus.
Statues of Crishna are to be found in the very oldest cave temples
throughout India, and it has been satisfactorily proved, on the
authority of a passage of _Arrian_, that the _worship_ of Crishna was
practiced in the time of Alexander the Great at what still remains one
of the most famous temples of India, the temple of Mathura, on the Jumna
river,[285:4] which shows that he was considered a _god_ at that
time.[286:1] We have already seen that, according to Prof. Monier
Williams, he was _deified_ about the fourth century B. C.
Rev. J. P. Lundy says:
"If we may believe so good an authority as Edward Moor (author
of Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," and "Oriental Fragments"), both
the name of Crishna, and the general outline of his history,
were long anterior to the birth of our Saviour, _as very
certain things_, and probably extended to the time of Homer,
nearly nine hundred years before Christ, or more than a
hundred years before Isaiah lived and prophesied."[286:2]
In the Sanscrit Dictionary, compiled more than two thousand years ago,
we have the whole story of Crishna, the incarnate deity, born of a
virgin, and miraculously escaping in his infancy from Kansa, the
reigning monarch of the country.[286:3]
The Rev. J. B. S. Carwithen, known as one of the "Brampton Lecturers,"
says:
"Both the name of Crishna and the general outline of his story
are long anterior to the birth of our Saviour; and this we
know, _not on the presumed antiquity of the Hindoo records
alone_. Both Arrian and Strabo assert that the god Crishna was
anciently worshiped at Mathura, on the river Jumna, where he
is worshiped at this day. But the emblems and attributes
essential to this deity are also transplanted into the
mythology of the West."[286:4]
On the walls of the most ancient Hindoo temples, are sculptured
representations of the flight of Vasudeva and the infant Saviour
Crishna, from King Kansa, who sought to destroy him. The story of the
slaughtered infants is also the subject of an immense sculpture in the
cave temple of Elephanta. A person with a drawn sword is represented
surrounded by slaughtered infant boys, while men and women are
supplicating for their children. The date of this sculpture is lost in
the most remote antiquity.[286:5]
The _flat roof_ of this cavern-temple, and that of Ellora, and every
other circumstance connected with them, prove that their origin must be
referred to a very remote epoch. The _ancient_ temples can easily be
distinguished from the more modern ones--such as those of Solsette--by
the shape of the roof. The ancient are flat, while the more modern are
arched.[286:6]
The _Bhagavad gita_, which contains so many sentiments akin to
Christianity, and which was not written until about the first or second
century,[287:1] has led many _Christian_ scholars to believe, and
attempt to prove, that they have been borrowed from the New Testament,
but unfortunately for them, their premises are untenable. Prof. Monier
Williams, _the_ accepted authority on Hindooism, and a thorough
Christian, writing for the "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,"
knowing that he could not very well overlook this subject in speaking of
the _Bhagavad-gita_, says:
"To any one who has followed me in tracing the outline of this
remarkable philosophical dialogue, and has noted the numerous
parallels it offers to passages in _our_ Sacred Scriptures, it
may seem strange that I hesitate to concur to any theory which
explains these coincidences by supposing that the author had
access to the New Testament, or that he derived some of his
ideas from the first propagaters of Christianity. Surely it
will be conceded that the probability of contact and
interaction between Gentile systems and the Christian religion
of the first two centuries of our era must have been greater
in Italy than in India. Yet, if we take the writings and
sayings of those great Roman philosophers, Seneca, Epictetus,
and Marcus Aurelius, we shall find them full of resemblances
to passages in our Scriptures, while their appears to be no
ground whatever for supposing that these eminent Pagan writers
and thinkers derived any of their ideas from either Jewish or
Christian sources. In fact, the Rev. F. W. Farrar, in his
interesting and valuable work 'Seekers after God,' has clearly
shown that 'to say that Pagan morality kindled its faded taper
at the Gospel light, whether furtively or unconsciously, that
it dissembled the obligation and made a boast of the splendor,
as if it were originally her own, is to make an assertion
wholly untenable.' He points out that the attempts of the
Christian Fathers to make out Pythagoras a debtor to Hebraic
wisdom, Plato an 'Atticizing Moses,' Aristotle a picker-up of
ethics from a Jew, Seneca a correspondent of St. Paul, were
due 'in some cases to ignorance, in some to a want of perfect
honesty in controversial dealing.'[287:2]
"_His arguments would be even more conclusive if applied to
the Bhagavad-gita_, the author of which was probably
contemporaneous with Seneca.[287:3] It must, indeed, be
admitted that the flames of true light which emerge from the
mists of pantheism in the writings of Indian philosophers,
must spring from the same source of light as the Gospel
itself; but it may reasonably be questioned whether there
could have been any actual contact of the Hindoo systems with
Christianity without a more satisfactory result in the
modification of pantheistic and anti-Christian ideas."[288:1]
Again he says:
"It should not be forgotten that although the nations of
Europe have changed their religions during the past eighteen
centuries, _the Hindu has not done so, except very partially_.
Islam converted a certain number by force of arms in the
eighth and following centuries, and Christian truth is at last
slowly creeping onwards and winning its way by its own
inherent energy in the nineteenth; _but the religious creeds,
rites, customs, and habits of thought of the Hindus generally,
have altered little since the days of Manu, five hundred years
B. C._"[288:2]
These words are conclusive; comments, therefore, are unnecessary.
Geo. W. Cox, in his "Aryan Mythology," speaking on this subject says:
"It is true that these myths have been crystallized around the
name of Crishna in ages subsequent to the period during which
the earliest _vedic_ literature came into existence; _but the
myths themselves are found in this older literature associated
with other gods_, and not always only in germ. _There is no
more room for inferring foreign influence in the growth of any
of these myths than, as Bunsen rightly insists, there is room
for tracing Christian influence in the earlier epical
literature of the Teutonic tribes._ Practically the myths of
Crishna seems to have been fully developed in the days of
Megasthenes (fourth century B. C.) who identifies him with the
Greek Hercules."[288:3]
It should be remembered, in connection with this, that Dr. Parkhurst and
others have considered _Hercules_ a type of Christ Jesus.
In the ancient epics Crishna is made to say:
"I am Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, and the source as well as the
destruction of things, the creator and the annihilator of the
whole aggregate of existences. While all men live in
unrighteousness, I, the unfailing, build up the bulwark of
righteousness, as the ages pass away."[288:4]
These words are almost identical with what we find in the
_Bhagavad-gita_. In the _Maha-bharata_, Vishnu is associated or
identified with Crishna, just as he is in the _Bhagavad-gita_ and
_Vishnu Purana_, showing, in the words of Prof. Williams, that: the
_Puranas_, although of a comparatively modern date, are nevertheless
composed of matter to be found in the two great epic poems the
_Ramayana_ and the _Maha-bharata_.[288:5]
FOOTNOTES:
[278:1] It is also very evident that the history of Crishna--or that
part of it at least which has a _religious aspect_--is taken from that
of Buddha. Crishna, in the ancient epic poems, is simply a great hero,
and it is not until about the fourth century B. C., that he is _deified_
and declared to be an incarnation of Vishnu, or Vishnu himself in human
form. (See Monier Williams' Hinduism, pp. 102, 103.)
"If it be urged that the attribution to Crishna of qualities or powers
belonging to the other deities is a mere device by which his devotees
sought to supersede the more ancient gods, _the answer must be that
nothing is done in his case which has not been done in the case of
almost every other member of the great company of the gods_, and that
the systematic adoption of this method is itself conclusive proof of the
looseness and flexibility of the materials of which the cumbrous
mythology of the Hindu epic poems is composed." (Cox: Aryan Mythology,
vol. ii. p. 130.) These words apply very forcibly to the history of
Christ Jesus. He being attributed with qualities and powers belonging to
the deities of the heathen is a mere device by which _his_ devotees
sought to supersede the more ancient gods.
[278:2] See ch. xii.
[278:3] See The Gospel of Mary, _Apoc._, ch. vii.
[278:4] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 329.
[278:5] Mary, _Apoc._, vii. Luke, i. 28-30.
[278:6] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. pp. 317 and 336.
[278:7] Matt. ii. 2.
[279:1] Vishnu Purana, p. 502.
[279:2] Luke, ii. 13.
[279:3] See ch. xvi.
[279:4] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 311. See also, chap. xvi.
[279:5] See ch. xvi.
[279:6] Protevangelion, _Apoc._, chs. xii. and xiii.
[279:7] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. 311.
[279:8] Infancy, _Apoc._, ch. i. 2, 3.
[279:9] See ch. xv.
[279:10] Luke, ii. 8-10.
[279:11] See Oriental Religions, p. 500, and Inman's Ancient Faiths,
vol. ii. p. 353.
[279:12] Matt. ii. 2.
[279:13] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 317.
[279:14] Matt., ii. 1, 2.
[279:15] Vishnu Purana, bk. v. ch. iii.
[279:16] Luke, ii. 1-17.
[280:1] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 259. Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p.
310.
[280:2] See the Genealogies in Matt. and Luke.
[280:3] See ch. xviii.
[280:4] Matt. ii. 13.
[280:5] See ch. xviii.
[280:6] Matt. ii. 16.
[280:7] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 317. Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p.
259.
[280:8] Introduc. to Infancy, Apoc. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p.
130. Savary: Travels in Egypt, vol. i. p. 126, in Hist. Hindostan, vol.
ii. p. 318.
[280:9] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 316.
[280:10] "Elizabeth, hearing that her son John was about to be searched
for (by Herod), took him and went up into the mountains, and looked
around for a place to hide him. . . . But Herod made search after John,
and sent servants to Zacharias," &c. (Protevangelion, Apoc. ch. xvi.)
[280:11] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 321.
[281:1] Infancy, Apoc., ch. xx. 1-8.
[281:2] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 321.
[281:3] Infancy, Apoc., ch. xviii. 1-3.
[281:4] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 343.
[281:5] Infancy, Apoc., ch. xviii.
[281:6] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 340. Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 136.
[281:7] Infancy, Apoc., ch. xvii.
[281:8] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 319, and ch. xxvii. this work.
[281:9] Matthew, viii. 2.
[281:10] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 320.
[281:11] Matt. xxvi. 6-7.
[281:12] See ch. xx.
[282:1] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 71.
[282:2] Matt. xxii. Luke, xxviii.
[282:3] See ch. xx.
[282:4] John, xix. 34.
[282:5] See Vishnu Purana, p. 612.
[282:6] Luke, xxiii. 43.
[282:7] See ch. xxii.
[282:8] See Ibid.
[282:9] See ch. xxiii.
[282:10] Matt. xxviii.
[282:11] See ch. xxiii.
[282:12] See Acts, i. 9-11.
[282:13] See ch. xxiv.
[282:14] See passages quoted in ch. xxiv.
[282:15] See Oriental Religions, p. 504.
[282:16] Matt. xxiv. 31. Rom. xiv. 10.
[282:17] See ch. xxvi.
[282:18] John, i. 3. I. Cor. viii. 6. Eph. iii. 9.
[282:19] See Geeta, lec. x. p. 85.
[282:20] Rev. i. 8, 11; xxii. 13; xxi. 6.
[282:21] He is described as a superhuman organ of light, to whom the
superhuman organ of darkness, the evil serpent, was opposed. He is
represented "bruising the head of the serpent," and standing upon him.
(See illustrations in vol. i. Asiatic Researches; vol. ii. Higgins'
Anacalypsis; Calmet's Fragments, and other works illustrating Hindoo
Mythology.)
[282:22] Jesus, "the Sun of Righteousness," is also described as a
superhuman organ of light, opposed by Satan, "the old serpent." He is
claimed to have been the seed of the woman who should "bruise the head
of the serpent." (Genesis, iii. 15.)
[283:1] See ch. xxvii.
[283:2] According to the New Testament.
[283:3] See Bhagavat Geeta.
[283:4] John, xiii. 23.
[283:5] Williams' Hinduism, p. 215.
[283:6] Ibid. p. 216.
[283:7] Matt. xvii. 1-6.
[283:8] "He was pure and chaste in _reality_," although represented as
sporting amorously, when a youth, with cowherdesses. According to the
pure Vaishnava faith, however, Crishna's love for the Gopis, and
especially for his favorite Rādhā, is to be explained allegorically, as
symbolizing the longing of the human soul for the Supreme. (Prof. Monier
Williams: Hinduism, p. 144.) Just as the amorous "_Song of Solomon_" is
said to be _allegorical_, and to mean "Christ's love for his church."
[283:9] See Indian Antiquities, iii. 46, and Asiatic Researches, vol. i.
p. 273.
[283:10] John, xiii.
[283:11] Vishnu Purana, p. 492, _note_ 3.
[283:12] I. Timothy, iii. 16.
[283:13] Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. _Crishna is Vishnu in human form._ "A
more personal, and, so to speak, _human_ god than Siva was needed for
the mass of the people--a god who could satisfy the yearnings of the
human heart for religion of faith (_bhakti_)--a god who could sympathize
with, and condescend to human wants and necessities. Such a god was
found in the second member of the Tri-mūrti. It was as _Vishnu_ that the
Supreme Being was supposed to exhibit his sympathy with human trials,
and his love for the human race.
"If _Siva_ is the great god of the Hindu Pantheon, to whom adoration is
due from all indiscriminately, _Vishnu_ is certainly its most popular
deity. He is the god selected by far the greater number of individuals
as their Saviour, protector and friend, who rescues them from the power
of evil, interests himself in their welfare, and finally admits them to
his heaven. But it is not so much _Vishnu_ in his own person as _Vishnu_
in his _incarnations_, that effects all this for his votaries." (Prof.
Monier Williams: Hinduism, p. 100.)
[283:14] Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Jesus is the Son in human form.
[284:1] Williams' Hinduism, p. 211.
[284:2] Matt. vi. 6.
[284:3] Williams' Hinduism, p. 212.
[284:4] I. Cor. x. 31.
[284:5] Williams' Hinduism, p. 213.
[284:6] John, i. 3.
[284:7] Williams' Hinduism, p. 213.
[284:8] John, viii. 12.
[284:9] Williams' Hinduism, p. 213.
[284:10] John, xiv. 6.
[284:11] Williams' Hinduism, p. 213.
[284:12] Rev. i. 17, 18.
[284:13] Williams' Hinduism, p. 214.
[284:14] Matt. ix. 2.
[284:15] Prov. xxiii. 26.
[284:16] Rev. xxi. 23.
[284:17] Quoted from Williams' Hinduism, pp. 217-219.
[285:1] It is said in the Hindoo sacred books that Crishna was a
religious teacher, but, as we have previously remarked, this is a later
addition to his legendary history. In the ancient epic poems he is
simply a great hero and warrior. The portion pertaining to his religious
career, is evidently a copy of the history of Buddha.
[285:2] "Est Crishna (quod ut mihi pridem indicaverat P. Cassianus
Maceratentis, sic nunc uberius in Galliis observatum intelligo avivo
litteratissimo De Guignes) nomen ipsum corruptum Christi Servatoris."
[285:3] See Williams' Hinduism, and Maurice: Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii.
p. 269.
[285:4] See Celtic Druids, pp. 256, 257.
[286:1] "Alexander the Great made his expedition to the banks of the
Indus about 327 B. C., and to this invasion is due the first trustworthy
information obtained by Europeans concerning the north-westerly portion
of India and the region of the five rivers, down which the Grecian
troops were conducted in ships by Nearchus. Megasthenes, who was the
ambassador of Seleukos Nikator (Alexander's successor, and ruler over
the whole region between the Euphrates and India, B. C. 312), at the
court of Candra-gupa (Sandrokottus), in Pataliputra (Patna), during a
long sojourn in that city collected further information, of which
Strabo, Pliny, _Arrian_, and others availed themselves." (Williams'
Hinduism, p. 4.)
[286:2] Monumental Christianity, p. 151. See also, Asiatic Researches,
i. 273.
[286:3] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 259-273.
[286:4] Quoted in Monumental Christianity, pp. 151, 152.
[286:5] See chapter xviii.
[286:6] See Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 112.
[287:1] In speaking of the antiquity of the _Bhagavad-gita_, Prof.
Monier Williams says: "The author was probably a Brahman and nominally a
Vishnava, but really a philosopher whose mind was cast in a broad and
comprehensive mould. He is supposed to have lived in India during the
first and second century of our era. Some consider that he lived as late
as the third century, and some place him even later, _but with these I
cannot agree_." (Indian Wisdom, p. 137.)
[287:2] In order that the resemblances to Christian Scripture in the
writings of Roman philosophers may be compared, Prof. Williams refers
the reader to "Seekers after God," by the Rev. F. W. Farrar, and Dr.
Ramage's "Beautiful Thoughts." The same sentiments are to be found in
_Mann_, which, says Prof. Williams, "few will place later than the fifth
century B. C." The _Mahabhrata_, written many centuries B. C., contains
numerous parallels to New Testament sayings. (See our chapter on
"Paganism in Christianity.")
[287:3] Seneca, the celebrated Roman philosopher, was born at Cordoba,
in Spain, a few years B. C. When a child, he was brought by his father
to Rome, where he was initiated in the study of eloquence.
[288:1] Indian Wisdom, pp. 153, 154. Similar sentiments are expressed in
his Hinduism, pp. 218-220.
[288:2] Indian Wisdom, p. iv.
[288:3] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. pp. 137, 138.
[288:4] Ibid. p. 131.
[288:5] Williams' Hinduism, pp. 119-110. It was from these sources that
the doctrine of _incarnation_ was first evolved by the Brahman. They
were written many centuries B. C. (See Ibid.)
CHAPTER XXIX.
CHRIST BUDDHA AND CHRIST JESUS COMPARED.
"The more I learn to know Buddha the more I admire him, and
the sooner all mankind shall have been made acquainted with
his doctrines the better it will be, for he is certainly one
of the heroes of humanity."
_Fausböll._
The _mythological_ portions of the histories of Buddha and Jesus are,
without doubt, nearer in resemblance than that of any two characters of
antiquity. The _cause_ of this we shall speak of in our chapter on "Why
Christianity Prospered," and shall content ourselves for the present by
comparing the following analogies:
1. Buddha was born of the Virgin Mary,[289:1] who conceived him without
carnal intercourse.[289:2]
1. Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, who conceived him
without carnal intercourse.[289:3]
2. The incarnation of Buddha is recorded to have been brought about by
the descent of the divine power called the "_Holy_ Ghost," upon the
Virgin Maya.[289:4]
2. The incarnation of Jesus is recorded to have been brought
about by the descent of the divine power called the "Holy
Ghost," upon the Virgin Mary.[289:3]
3. When Buddha descended from the regions of the souls,[290:1] and
entered the body of the Virgin Maya, her womb assumed the appearance of
clear transparent crystal, in which Buddha appeared, beautiful as a
flower.[290:2]
3. When Jesus descended from his heavenly seat, and entered
the body of the Virgin Mary, her womb assumed the appearance
of clear transparent crystal, in which Jesus appeared
beautiful as a flower.[290:3]
4. The birth of Buddha was announced in the heavens by an _asterim_
which was seen rising on the horizon. It is called the "Messianic
Star."[290:4]
4. The birth of Jesus was announced in the heavens by "his
star," which was seen rising on the horizon.[290:5] It might
properly be called the "Messianic Star."
5. "The son of the Virgin Maya, on whom, according to the tradition, the
'Holy Ghost' had descended, was said to have been born on Christmas
day."[290:6]
5. The Son of the Virgin Mary, on whom, according to the
tradition, the 'Holy Ghost' had descended, was said to have
been born on Christmas day.[290:7]
6. Demonstrations of celestial delight were manifest at the birth of
Buddha. The _Devas_[290:8] in heaven and earth sang praises to the
"Blessed One," and said: "To day, _Bodhisatwa_ is born on earth, to give
joy and peace to men and Devas, to shed light in the dark places, and to
give sight to the blind."[290:9]
6. Demonstrations of celestial delight were manifest at the
birth of Jesus. The angels in heaven and earth sang praises to
the "Blessed One," saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will toward men."[290:10]
7. "Buddha was visited by wise men who recognized in this marvelous
infant all the characters of the divinity, and he had scarcely seen the
day before he was hailed God of Gods."[290:11]
7. Jesus was visited by wise men who recognized in this
marvelous infant all the characters of the divinity, and he
had scarcely seen the day before he was hailed God of
Gods.[290:12]
8. The infant Buddha was presented with "costly jewels and precious
substances."[290:13]
8. The infant Jesus was presented with gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh.[290:14]
9. When Buddha was an infant, just born, he spoke to his mother, and
said: "I am the greatest among men."[290:15]
9. When Jesus was an infant in his cradle, he spoke to his
mother, and said: "I am Jesus, the Son of God."[290:16]
10. Buddha was a "dangerous child." His life was threatened by King
Bimbasara, who was advised to destroy the child, as he was liable to
overthrow him.[291:1]
10. Jesus was a "dangerous child." His life was threatened by
King Herod,[291:2] who attempted to destroy the child, as he
was liable to overthrow him.[291:3]
11. When sent to school, the young Buddha surprised his masters. Without
having ever studied, he completely worsted all his competitors, not only
in writing, but in arithmetic, mathematics, metaphysics, astrology,
geometry, &c.[291:4]
11. When sent to school, Jesus surprised his master Zaccheus,
who, turning to Joseph, said: "Thou hast brought a boy to me
to be taught, who is more learned than any master."[291:5]
12. "When _twelve_ years old the child Buddha is presented in the
temple. He explains and asks learned questions; he excels all those who
enter into competition with him."[291:6]
12. "And when he was _twelve_ years old, they brought him to
(the temple at) Jerusalem . . . . While in the temple among
the doctors and elders, and learned men of Israel, he proposed
several questions of learning, and also gave them
answers."[291:7]
13. Buddha entered a temple, on which occasion forthwith all the statues
rose and threw themselves at his feet, in act of worship.[291:8]
13. "And as Jesus was going in by the ensigns, who carried the
standards, the tops of them bowed down and worshiped
Jesus."[291:9]
14. "The ancestry of Gotama Buddha is traced from his father,
_Sodhōdana_, through various individuals and races, all of royal
dignity, to _Maha Sammata_, the first monarch of the world. Several of
the names and some of the events are met with in the Puranas of the
Brahmans, but it is not possible to reconcile one order of statement
with the other; and it would appear that the Buddhist historians have
introduced races, and invented names, that they may invest their
venerated Sage with all the honors of heraldry, in addition to the
attributes of divinity."[292:1]
14. The ancestry of Jesus is traced from his father, Joseph,
through various individuals, nearly all of whom were of royal
dignity, to Adam, the first monarch of the world. Several of
the names, and some of the events, are met with in the sacred
Scriptures of the Hebrews, but it is not possible to reconcile
one order of statement with the other; and it would appear
that the Christian historians have invented and introduced
names, that they may invest their venerated Sage with all the
honors of heraldry, in addition to the attributes of
divinity.[292:2]
15. When Buddha was about to go forth "to adopt a religious life,"
_Mara_[292:3] appeared before him, to tempt him.[292:4]
15. When Jesus was about "beginning to preach," the _devil_
appeared before him, to tempt him.[292:5]
16. _Mara_ said unto Buddha: "Go not forth to adopt a religious life,
and in seven days thou shalt become an emperor of the world."[292:6]
16. The _devil_ said to Jesus: If thou wilt fall down and
worship me, I will give thee all the kingdoms of the
world.[292:7]
17. Buddha would not heed the words of the Evil One, and said to him:
"Get thee away from me."[292:8]
17. Jesus would not heed the words of the Evil One, and said
to him: "Get thee behind me, Satan."[292:9]
18. After _Mara_ had left Buddha, "the skies rained flowers, and
delicious odors pervaded the air."[292:10]
18. After the _devil_ had left Jesus, "angels came and
ministered unto him."[292:11]
19. Buddha fasted for a long period.[292:12]
19. Jesus fasted forty days and nights.[292:13]
20. Buddha, the Saviour, was baptized, and at this recorded water
baptism the Spirit of God was present; that is, not only the highest
God, but also the "Holy Ghost," through whom the incarnation of Gautama
Buddha is recorded to have been brought about by the descent of that
Divine power upon the Virgin Maya.[292:14]
20. Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan, at which
time the Spirit of God was present; that is, not only the
highest God, but also the "Holy Ghost," through whom the
incarnation of Jesus is recorded to have been brought about,
by the descent of that Divine power upon the Virgin
Mary.[292:15]
21. "On one occasion toward the end of his life on earth, Gautama Buddha
is reported to have been _transfigured_. When _on a mountain_ in Ceylon,
suddenly a flame of light descended upon him and encircled the crown of
his head with a circle of light. The mount is called _Pandava_, or
yellow-white color. It is said that 'the glory of his person shone forth
with double power,' that his body was 'glorious as a bright golden
image,' that he 'shone as the brightness of the sun and moon,' that
bystanders expressed their opinion, that he could not be 'an every-day
person,' or 'a mortal man,' and that his body was divided into
_three_[293:1] parts, from each of which a ray of light issued
forth."[293:2]
21. On one occasion during his career on earth, Jesus is
reported to have been transfigured: "Jesus taketh Peter,
James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a _high
mountain_ apart. And was transfigured before them: and his
face did shine as the sun, and his raiment as white as the
light."[292:16]
22. "Buddha performed great miracles for the good of mankind, and the
legends concerning him are full of the greatest prodigies and
wonders."[293:3]
22. Jesus performed great miracles for the good of the
mankind, and the legends concerning him are full of the
greatest prodigies and wonders.[293:4]
23. By prayers in the name of Buddha, his followers expect to receive
the rewards of paradise.[293:5]
23. By prayers in the name of Jesus, his followers expect to
receive the rewards of paradise.
24. When Buddha died and was buried, "the coverings of the body unrolled
themselves, and the lid of his coffin was opened by supernatural
powers."[293:6]
24. When Jesus died and was buried, the coverings of the body
were unrolled from off him, and his tomb was opened by
supernatural powers.[293:7]
25. Buddha ascended bodily to the celestial regions, when his mission on
earth was fulfilled.[293:8]
25. Jesus ascended bodily to the celestial regions, when his
mission on earth was fulfilled.[293:9]
26. Buddha is to come upon the earth again in the latter days, his
mission being to restore the world to order and happiness.[293:10]
26. Jesus is to come upon the earth again in the latter days,
his mission being to restore the world to order and
happiness.[293:11]
27. Buddha is to be judge of the dead.[293:12]
27. Jesus is to be judge of the dead.[293:13]
28. Buddha is Alpha and Omega, without beginning or end, "the Supreme
Being, the Eternal One."[293:14]
28. Jesus is Alpha and Omega, without beginning or
end,[293:15] "the Supreme Being, the Eternal One."[293:16]
29. Buddha is represented as saying: "Let all the sins that were
committed in this world fall on me, that the world may be
delivered."[293:17]
29. Jesus is represented as the Saviour of mankind, and all
the sins that are committed in this world may fall on him,
that the world may be delivered.[293:18]
30. Buddha said: "Hide your good deeds, and confess before the world the
sins you have committed."[293:19]
30. Jesus taught men to hide their good deeds,[293:20] and
confess before the world the sins they had committed.[293:21]
31. "Buddha was described as a superhuman organ of light, to whom a
superhuman organ of darkness, Mara or Naga, the Evil Serpent, was
opposed."[294:1]
31. Jesus was described as a superhuman organ of light--"the
_Sun_ of Righteousness"[294:2]--opposed by "the old Serpent,"
the Satan, hinderer, or adversary.[294:3]
32. Buddha came, not to destroy, but to fulfill, the law. He delighted
in "representing himself as a _mere link_ in a long chain of enlightened
teachers."[294:4]
32. Jesus said: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfill."[294:5]
33. "One day Ananda, the disciple of Buddha, after a long walk in the
country, meets with Mâtangî, a woman of the low caste of the Kândâlas,
near a well, and asks her for some water. She tells him what she is, and
that she must not come near him. But he replies, 'My sister, I ask not
for thy caste or thy family, I ask only for a draught of water.' She
afterwards became a disciple of Buddha."[294:6]
33. One day Jesus, after a long walk, cometh to the city of
Samaria, and being wearied with his journey, sat on a well.
While there, a woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus
said unto her: "give me to drink." "Then said the woman unto
him: How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans."[294:7]
34. "According to Buddha, the motive of all our actions should be _pity_
or _love_ for our neighbor."[294:8]
34. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to
them that hate you."[294:9]
35. During the early part of his career as a teacher, "Buddha went to
the city of Benares, and there delivered a discourse, by which Kondanya,
and afterwards _four_ others, were induced to become his disciples. From
that period, whenever he preached, multitudes of men and women embraced
his doctrines."[294:10]
35. During the early part of his career as a teacher, Jesus
went to the city of Capernaum, and there delivered a
discourse. It was at this time that _four_ fishermen were
induced to become his disciples.[294:11] From that period,
whenever he preached, multitudes of men and women embraced his
doctrines.[294:12]
36. Those who became disciples of Buddha were told that they must
"renounce the world," give up all their riches, and avow
poverty.[294:13]
36. Those who became disciples of Jesus were told that they
must renounce the world, give up all their riches, and avow
poverty.[294:14]
37. It is recorded in the "Sacred Canon" of the Buddhists that the
multitudes "_required a sign_" from Buddha "that they might
believe."[295:1]
37. It is recorded in the "Sacred Canon" of the Christians
that the multitudes required a sign from Jesus that they might
believe.[295:2]
38. When Buddha's time on earth was about coming to a close, he,
"foreseeing the things that would happen in future times," said to his
disciple Ananda: "Ananda, when I am gone, you must not think there is no
Buddha; the _discourses_ I have delivered, and the _precepts_ I have
enjoined, _must be my successors_, or representatives, and be to you as
Buddha."[295:3]
38. When Jesus' time on earth was about coming to a close, he
told of the things that would happen in future times,[295:4]
and said unto his disciples: "Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world."[295:5]
39. In the Buddhist _Somadeva_, is to be found the following: "To give
away our riches is considered the most difficult virtue in the world; he
who gives away his riches is like a man who gives away his life: for our
very life seems to cling to our riches. But Buddha, when his mind was
moved by pity, _gave his life_ like grass, for the sake of others; why
should we think of miserable riches! By this exalted virtue, Buddha,
when he was freed from all desires, and had obtained divine knowledge,
attained unto Buddhahood. Therefore let a wise man, after he has turned
away his desires from all pleasures, do good to all beings, even unto
sacrificing his own life, that thus he may attain to true
knowledge."[295:6]
39. "And behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what
good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? . . .
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that
thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven: and come and follow me."[295:7] "Lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal."[295:8]
40. Buddha's aim was to establish a "Religious Kingdom," a "_Kingdom of
Heaven_."[296:1]
40. "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say,
Repent: for the _Kingdom of Heaven_ is at hand."[296:2]
41. Buddha said: "I now desire to turn the wheel of the excellent
law.[296:3] For this purpose am I going to the city of Benares,[296:4]
to give light to those enshrouded in darkness, and to open the gate of
Immortality to man."[296:5]
41. Jesus, after his temptation by the devil, began to
establish the dominion of his religion, and he went for this
purpose to the city of Capernaum. "The people which sat in
darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region
and shadow of death, light is sprung up."[296:6]
42. Buddha said: "Though the heavens were to fall to earth, and the
great world be swallowed up and pass away: Though Mount Sumera were to
crack to pieces, and the great ocean be dried up, yet, Ananda, be
assured, the words of Buddha are true."[296:7]
42. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and _truth_ came by
Jesus Christ."[296:8]
"_Verily_ I say unto you . . . heaven and earth shall pass
away, _but my words shall not pass away_."[296:9]
43. Buddha said: "There is no passion more violent than voluptuousness.
Happily there is but one such passion. If there were two, not a man in
the whole universe could follow the truth." "Beware of fixing your eyes
upon women. If you find yourself in their company, let it be as though
you were not present. If you speak with them, guard well your
hearts."[296:10]
43. Jesus said: "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old
time. Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, that
whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart."[296:11]
44. Buddha said: "A wise man should avoid married life as if it were a
burning pit of live coals. One who is not able to live in a state of
celibacy should not commit adultery."[297:1]
44. "It is good for a man not to touch a woman," "but if they
cannot contain let them marry, for it is better to marry than
to burn." "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own
wife and let every woman have her own husband."[297:2]
45. "Buddhism is convinced that if a man reaps sorrow, disappointment,
pain, he himself, and no other, must at some time have sown folly,
error, sin; and if not in this life then in some former birth."[297:3]
45. "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was _blind
from his birth_. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master,
who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born
blind."[297:4]
46. Buddha knew the thoughts of others: "By directing his mind to the
thoughts of others, he can know the thoughts of all beings."[297:5]
46. Jesus knew the thoughts of others. By directing his mind
to the thoughts of others, he knew the thoughts of all
beings.[297:6]
47. In the _Somadeva_ a story is related of a Buddhist ascetic whose eye
offended him, he therefore plucked it out, and cast it away.[297:7]
47. It is related in the New Testament that Jesus said: "If
thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from
thee."[297:8]
48. When Buddha was about to become an ascetic, and when riding on the
horse "Kantako," his path was strewn with flowers, thrown there by
Devas.[297:9]
48. When Jesus was entering Jerusalem, riding on an ass, his
path was strewn with palm branches, thrown there by the
multitude.[297:10]
Never were devotees of any creed or faith as fast bound in its thraldom
as are the disciples of Gautama Buddha. For nearly two thousand four
hundred years it has been the established religion of Burmah, Siam,
Laos, Pega, Cambodia, Thibet, Japan, Tartary, Ceylon and Loo-Choo, and
many neighboring islands, beside about two-thirds of China and a large
portion of Siberia; and at the present day no inconsiderable number of
the simple peasantry of Swedish Lapland are found among its firm
adherents.[297:11]
Well authenticated records establish indisputably the facts, that
together with a noble physique, superior mental endowments, and high
moral excellence, there were found in Buddha a purity of life, sanctity
of character, and simple integrity of purpose, that commended themselves
to all brought under his influence. Even at this distant day, one cannot
listen with tearless eyes to the touching details of his pure, earnest
life, and patient endurance under contradiction, often fierce
persecution for those he sought to benefit. Altogether he seems to have
been one of those remarkable examples, of genius and virtue occasionally
met with, unaccountably superior to the age and nation that produced
them.
There is no reason to believe that he ever arrogated to himself any
higher authority than that of a teacher of religion, but, _as in modern
factions_, there were readily found among his followers those who
carried his peculiar tenets much further than their founder. These, not
content with lauding during his life-time the noble deeds of their
teacher, exalted him, within a quarter of a century after his death, to
a place among their deities--worshiping as a God one they had known only
as a simple-hearted, earnest, truth-seeking philanthropist.[298:1]
This worship was at first but the natural upgushing of the veneration
and love Gautama had inspired during his noble life, and his sorrowing
disciples, mourning over the desolation his death had occasioned, turned
for consolation to the theory that he still lived.
Those who had known him in life cherished his name as the very synonym
of all that was generous and good, and it required but a step to exalt
him to divine honors; and so it was that Gautama Buddha became a God,
and continues to be worshiped as such.
For more than forty years Gautama thus dwelt among his followers,
instructing them daily in the sacred law, and laying down many rules
for their guidance when he should be no longer with them.[299:1]
He lived in a style the most simple and unostentatious, bore
uncomplainingly the weariness and privations incident to the many long
journeys made for the propagation of the new faith; and performed
countless deeds of love and mercy.
"When the time came for him to be perfected, he directed his followers
no longer to remain together, but to go out in companies, and proclaim
the doctrines he had taught them, found schools and monasteries, build
temples, and perform acts of charity, that they might 'obtain merit,'
and gain access to the blessed shade of Nigban, which he told them he
was about to enter, and where they believe he has now reposed more than
two thousand years."
To the pious Buddhist it seems irreverent to speak of Gautama by his
mere ordinary and human name, and he makes use therefore, of one of
those numerous epithets which are used only of the Buddha, "the
Enlightened One." Such are _Sakya-sinha_, "the Lion of the Tribe of
Sakya;" _Sakya-muni_, "the Sakya Sage;" _Sugata_, "the Happy One;"
_Sattha_, "the Teacher;" _Jina_, "the Conqueror;" _Bhagavad_, "the
Blessed One;" _Loka-natha_, "the Lord of the World;" _Sarvajna_, "the
Omniscient One;" _Dharma-raja_, "the King of Righteousness;" he is also
called "the Author of Happiness," "the Possessor of All," "the Supreme
Being," "the Eternal One," "the Dispeller of Pain and Trouble," "the
Guardian of the Universe," "the Emblem of Mercy," "the Saviour of the
World," "the Great Physician," "the God among Gods," "the Anointed" or
"the Christ," "the Messiah," "the Only-Begotten," "the Heaven-Descended
Mortal," "the Way of Life, and of Immortality," &c.[299:2]
At no time did Buddha receive his knowledge from a human source, that
is, from flesh and blood. His source was the power of his divine wisdom,
the spiritual power of Maya, which he already possessed before his
incarnation. It was by this divine power, which is also called the "Holy
Ghost," that he became the Saviour, the Kung-teng, the Anointed or
Messiah, to whom prophecies had pointed. Buddha was regarded as the
supernatural light of the world; and this world to which he came was his
own, his possession, for he is styled: "The Lord of the World."[300:1]
"Gautama Buddha taught that all men are brothers;[300:2] that charity
ought to be extended to all, even to enemies; that men ought to love
truth and hate the lie; that good works ought not be done openly, but
rather in secret; that the dangers of riches are to be avoided; that
man's highest aim ought to be purity in thought, word and deed, since
the higher beings are pure, whose nature is akin to that of man."[300:3]
"Sakya-Muni healed the sick, performed miracles and taught his doctrines
to the poor. He selected his first disciples among laymen, and even two
women, the mother and wife of his first convert, the sick Yasa, became
his followers. He subjected himself to the religious obligations imposed
by the recognized authorities, avoided strife, and illustrated his
doctrines by his life."[300:4]
It is said that eighty thousand followers of Buddha went forth from
Hindostan, as missionaries to other lands; and the traditions of various
countries are full of legends concerning their benevolence, holiness,
and miraculous power. His religion has never been propagated by the
sword. It has been effected entirely by the influence of peaceable and
persevering devotees.[300:5] The era of the Siamese is the death of
Buddha. In Ceylon, they date from the introduction of his religion into
their island. It is supposed to be more extensively adopted than any
religion that ever existed. Its votaries are computed at four hundred
millions; more than one-third of the whole human race.[300:6]
There is much contradiction among writers concerning the _date_ of the
Buddhist religion. This confusion arises from the fact that there are
several Buddhas,[301:1] objects of worship; because the word is not a
name, but a title, signifying an extraordinary degree of holiness. Those
who have examined the subject most deeply have generally agreed that
Buddha Sakai, from whom the religion takes its name, must have been a
real, historical personage, who appeared many centuries before the time
assigned for the birth of Christ Jesus.[301:2] There are many things to
confirm this supposition. In some portions of India, his religion
appears to have flourished for a long time side by side with that of the
Brahmans. This is shown by the existence of many ancient temples, some
of them cut in subterranean rock, with an immensity of labor, which it
must have required a long period to accomplish. In those old temples,
his statues represent him with hair knotted all over his head, which was
a very ancient custom with the anchorites of Hindostan, before the
practice of shaving the head was introduced among their devotees.[301:3]
His religion is also mentioned in one of the very ancient epic poems of
India. The severity of the persecution indicates that their numbers and
influence had became formidable to the Brahmans, who had everything to
fear from a sect which abolished hereditary priesthood, and allowed the
holy of all castes to become teachers.[301:4]
It may be observed that in speaking of the pre-existence of Buddha in
heaven--his birth of a virgin--the songs of the angels at his birth--his
recognition as a divine child--his disputation with the doctors--his
temptation in the wilderness--his transfiguration on the Mount--his life
of preaching and working miracles--and finally, his ascension into
heaven, we referred to Prof. Samuel Beal's "History of Buddha," as one
of our authorities. This work is simply a translation of the
"_Fo-pen-hing_," made by Professor Beal from a Chinese copy, in the
"Indian Office Library."
Now, in regard to the antiquity of this work, we will quote the words
of the translator in speaking on this subject.
First, he says:
"_We know_ that the _Fo-pen-hing_ was translated into Chinese
from _Sanscrit_ (the ancient language of _Hindostan_) so early
as the eleventh year of the reign of Wing-ping (Ming-ti), of
the Han dynasty, _i. e._, 69 or 70 A. D. _We may, therefore,
safely suppose that the original work was in circulation in
India for some time previous to this date._"[302:1]
Again, he says:
"There can be no doubt that the present work (_i. e._ the
Fo-pen-hing, or Hist. of Buddha) contains as a woof (so to
speak) some of the earliest verses (Gâthas) in which the
History of Buddha was sung, _long before the work itself was
penned_.
"These Gâthas were evidently composed in different Prakrit
forms (during a period of disintegration) _before the more
modern type of Sanscrit_ was fixed by the rules of Panini, and
the popular epics of the Mâhabharata and the Ramâyana."[302:2]
Again, in speaking of the points of resemblance in the history of Buddha
and Jesus, he says:
"These points of agreement with the Gospel narrative naturally
arouse curiosity _and require explanation_. If we could prove
that they (the legends related of Buddha) were unknown in the
East for some centuries _after_ Christ, the explanation would
be easy. _But all the evidence we have goes to prove the
contrary._
"It would be a natural inference that many of the events in
the legend of Buddha were borrowed from the Apocryphal
Gospels, if we were quite certain that these Apocryphal
Gospels had not borrowed from it. How then may we explain the
matter? It would be better at once to say that in our present
state of knowledge there is no complete explanation to
offer."[302:3]
There certainly is no "complete explanation" to be offered by one who
attempts to uphold the historical accuracy of the New Testament. The
"Devil" and "Type" theories having vanished, like all theories built on
sand, nothing now remains for the honest man to do but acknowledge the
truth, which is, _that the history of Jesus of Nazareth as related in
the books of the New Testament, is simply a copy of that of Buddha, with
a mixture of mythology borrowed from other nations_. Ernest de Bunsen
almost acknowledges this when he says:
"With the remarkable exception of the death of Jesus on the
cross, and of the doctrine of atonement by vicarious
suffering, which is absolutely excluded by Buddhism, the _most
ancient_ of the Buddhistic records known to us contain
statements about the life and the doctrines of Gautama Buddha
which correspond in a remarkable manner, _and impossibly by
mere chance_, with the traditions recorded in the Gospels
about the life and doctrines of Jesus Christ. It is still more
strange that these Buddhistic legends about Gautama _as the
Angel-Messiah_ refer to a doctrine which we find only in the
Epistles of Paul and in the fourth Gospel. This can be
explained by the assumption of a common source of revelation;
but then the serious question must be considered, why the
doctrine of the Angel-Messiah, supposing it to have been
revealed, and which we find in the East and in the West, is
not contained in any of the Scriptures of the Old Testament
which can possibly have been written before the Babylonian
Captivity, nor in the first three Gospels. _Can the systematic
keeping-back of essential truth be attributed to God or to
man?_"[303:1]
Beside the work referred to above as being translated by Prof. Beal,
there is another copy originally composed in verse. This was translated
by the learned Fonceau, who gives it an antiquity of _two thousand
years_, "although the original treatise must be attributed to an earlier
date."[303:2]
In regard to the teachings of Buddha, which correspond so strikingly
with those of Jesus, Prof. Rhys Davids, says:
"With regard to Gautama's teaching we have more reliable
authority than we have with regard to his life. It is true
that none of the books of the Three Pitakas can at present be
satisfactorily traced back before the Council of Asoka, held
at Patna, about 250 B. C., that is to say, at least one
hundred and thirty years after the death of the teacher; but
they undoubtedly contain a great deal of much older
matter."[303:3]
Prof. Max Müller says:
"Between the language of Buddha and his disciples, and the
language of Christ and his apostles, there are strange
coincidences. Even some of the Buddhist legends and parables
sound as if taken from the New Testament; _though we know that
many of them existed before the beginning of the Christian
Era_."[303:4]
Just as many of the myths related of the Hindoo Saviour Crishna were
_previously current_ regarding some of the Vedic gods, so likewise, many
of the myths _previously current_ regarding the god _Sumana_, worshiped
both on Adam's peak, and at the cave of Dambulla, _were added to the
Buddha myth_.[303:5] Much of the legend which was transferred to the
Buddha, had previously existed, and had clustered around the idea of a
_Chakrawarti_.[303:6] Thus we see that the legend of _Christ_ Buddha, as
with the legend of _Christ_ Jesus, _existed before his time_.[303:7]
We have established the fact then--_and no man can produce better
authorities_--that Buddha and Buddhism, which correspond in such a
remarkable manner with Jesus and Christianity, were long anterior to the
Christian era. Now, as Ernest de Bunsen says, this remarkable similarity
in the histories of the founders and their religion, could not possibly
happen by chance.
Whenever two religious or legendary histories of mythological personages
resemble each other so completely as do the histories and teachings of
Buddha and Jesus, the older must be the parent, and the younger the
child. We must therefore conclude that, since the history of Buddha and
Buddhism is very much older than that of Jesus and Christianity, the
Christians are incontestably _either sectarians or plagiarists of the
religion of the Buddhists_.
FOOTNOTES:
[289:1] Maya, and Mary, as we have already seen, are one and the same
name.
[289:2] See chap. xii. Buddha is considered to be an incarnation of
Vishnu, although he preached against the doctrines of the Brahmans. The
adoption of Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu was really owning to the
desire of the Brahmans to effect a compromise with Buddhism. (See
Williams' Hinduism, pp. 82 and 108.)
"Buddha was brought forth not from the matrix, but from the right side,
of a virgin." (De Guignes: Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 224.)
"Some of the (Christian) heretics maintained that Christ was born from
the side of his mother." (Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 157.)
"In the eyes of the Buddhists, this personage is sometimes a man and
sometimes a god, or rather both one and the other, a divine incarnation,
a man-god; who came into the world to enlighten men, to redeem them, and
to indicate to them the way of safety. This idea of redemption by a
divine incarnation is so general and popular among the Buddhists, that
during our travels in Upper Asia, we everywhere found it expressed in a
neat formula. If we addressed to a Mongol or Thibetan the question, 'Who
is Buddha?' he would immediately reply, 'The Saviour of Men.'" (M.
L'Abbé Huc: Travels, vol. i. p. 326.)
"The miraculous birth of Buddha, his life and instructions, contain a
great number of the moral and dogmatic truths professed in
Christianity." (Ibid. p. 327.)
"He in mercy left paradise, and came down to earth because he was filled
with compassion for the sins and misery of mankind. He sought to lead
them into better paths, and took their sufferings upon himself, that he
might expiate their crimes, and mitigate the punishment they must
otherwise inevitably undergo." (L. Maria Child.)
[289:3] Matt. ch. i.
[289:4] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 10, 25 and 44. Also, ch. xiii.
this work.
[290:1] "As a spirit in the fourth heaven he resolves to give up all
that glory in order to be born in the world for the purpose of rescuing
all men from their misery and every future consequence of it: he vows to
deliver all men who are left as it were without a _Saviour_." (Bunsen:
The Angel-Messiah, p. 20.)
[290:2] See King's Gnostics, p. 168, and Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, p.
144.
[290:3] See chap. xii. _note_ 2, page 117.
"On a painted glass of the sixteenth century, found in the church of
Jouy, a little village in France, the Virgin is represented standing,
her hands clasped in prayer, and the naked body of the child in the same
attitude appears upon her stomach, apparently supposed to be seen
through the garments and body of the mother. M. Drydon saw at Lyons a
Salutation painted on shutters, in which the two infants (Jesus and
John) likewise depicted on their mothers' stomachs, were also saluting
each other. This precisely corresponds to Buddhist accounts of the
Boddhisattvas ante-natal proceedings." (Viscount Amberly: Analysis of
Relig. Belief, p. 224, _note_.)
[290:4] See chap. xiii.
[290:5] Matt. ii. 1, 2.
[290:6] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. x.
[290:7] We show, in our chapter on "The Birth-Day of Christ Jesus," that
this was not the case. This day was adopted by his followers long after
his death.
[290:8] "_Devas_," _i. e._, angels.
[290:9] See chap. xiv.
[290:10] Luke, ii. 13, 14.
[290:11] See chap. xv.
[290:12] Matt. ii. 1-11.
[290:13] See chap. xi.
[290:14] Matt. ii. 11.
[290:15] See Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, pp. 145, 146.
[290:16] Gospel of Infancy, _Apoc._, i. 3. No sooner was _Apollo_ born
than he spoke to his virgin-mother, declaring that he should teach to
men the councils of his heavenly father Zeus. (See Cox: Aryan Mythology,
vol. ii. p. 22.) _Hermes_ spoke to his mother as soon as he was born,
and, according to Jewish tradition, so did _Moses_. (See Hardy's Manual
of Buddhism, p. 145.)
[291:1] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 103, 104.
[291:2] See Matt. ii. 1.
[291:3] That is, provided he was the expected Messiah, who was to be a
mighty prince and warrior, and who was to rule his people Israel.
[291:4] See Hardy's Manual of Buddhism; Bunsen's Angel-Messiah; Beal's
Hist. Buddha, and other works on Buddhism.
This was a common myth. For instance: A Brahman called _Dashthaka_, a
"_heaven descended mortal_," after his birth, _without any human
instruction whatever_, was able thoroughly to explain the four _Vedas_,
the collective body of the sacred writings of the Hindoos, which were
considered as directly revealed by Brahma. (See Beal's Hist. Buddha, p.
48.)
_Confucius_, the miraculous-born Chinese sage, was a wonderful child. At
the age of seven he went to a public school, the superior of which was a
person of eminent wisdom and piety. The faculty with which Confucius
imbibed the lessons of his master, the ascendency which he acquired
amongst his fellow pupils, and the superiority of his genius and
capacity, raised universal admiration. He appeared to acquire knowledge
_intuitively_, and his mother found it superfluous to teach him what
"heaven had already engraven upon his heart." (See Thornton's Hist.
China, vol. i. p. 153.)
[291:5] See Infancy, _Apoc._, xx. 11, and Luke, ii. 46, 47.
[291:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 37, and Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp.
67-69.
[291:7] See Infancy, _Apoc._, xxi. 1, 2, and Luke, ii. 41-48.
[291:8] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 37, and Beal: Hist. Bud. 67-69.
[291:9] Nicodemus, _Apoc._, ch. i. 20.
[292:1] R. Spence Hardy, in Manual of Buddhism.
[292:2] See chap. xvii.
[292:3] "_Mara_" is the "Author of Evil," the "King of Death," the "God
of the World of Pleasure," &c., _i. e._, the _Devil_. (See Beal: Hist.
Buddha, p. 36.)
[292:4] See ch. xix.
[292:5] Matt. iv. 1-18.
[292:6] See ch. xix.
[292:7] Matt. iv. 8-19.
[292:8] See ch. xix.
[292:9] Luke, iv. 8.
[292:10] See ch. xix.
[292:11] Matt. iv. 11.
[292:12] See ch. xix.
[292:13] Matt. iv. 2.
[292:14] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 45.
[292:15] Matt. iii. 13-17.
[292:16] Matt. xvii. 1, 2.
[293:1] This has evidently an allusion to the Trinity. Buddha, as an
incarnation of Vishnu, would be one god and yet three, three gods and
yet one. (See the chapter on the _Trinity_.)
[293:2] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 45, and Beal: Hist. Buddha, p.
177.
_Iamblichus_, the great _Neo-Platonic mystic_, was at one time
_transfigured_. According to the report of his servants, _while in
prayer to the gods_, his body and clothes were changed to a beautiful
gold color, but after he ceased from prayer, his body became as before.
He then returned to the society of his followers. (Primitive Culture, i.
136, 137.)
[293:3] See ch. xxvii.
[293:4] See that recorded in Matt. viii. 28-34.
[293:5] See ch. xxiii.
[293:6] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 49.
[293:7] See Matt. xxviii. John, xx.
[293:8] See chap. xxiii.
[293:9] See Acts, i. 9-12.
[293:10] See ch. xxiv.
[293:11] See Ibid.
[293:12] See ch. xxv.
[293:13] Matt. xvi. 27; John, v. 22.
[293:14] "Buddha, the Angel-Messiah, was regarded as the divinely chosen
and incarnate messenger, the vicar of God, and God himself on earth."
(Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 33. See also, our chap. xxvi.)
[293:15] Rev. i. 8; xxii. 13.
[293:16] John, i. 1. Titus, ii. 13. Romans, ix. 5. Acts, vii. 59, 60.
[293:17] Müller: Hist. Sanscrit Literature, p. 80.
[293:18] This is according to Christian dogma:
"Jesus paid it all,
All to him is due,
Nothing, either great or small,
Remains for me to do."
[293:19] Müller: Science of Religion, p. 28.
[293:20] "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of
them: otherwise ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven."
(Matt. vi. 1.)
[293:21] "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another,
that ye may be healed." (James, v. 16.)
[294:1] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, pp. x. and 39.
[294:2] "That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world." (John, i. 9.)
[294:3] Matt. iv. 1; Mark, i. 13; Luke, iv. 2.
[294:4] Müller: Science of Religion, p. 140.
[294:5] Matt. v. 17.
[294:6] Müller: Science of Religion, p. 243. See also, Bunsen's
Angel-Messiah, pp. 47, 48, and Amberly's Analysis, p. 285.
[294:7] John, iv. 1-11.
Just as the Samaritan woman wondered that Jesus, a Jew, should ask drink
of _her_, one of a nation with whom the Jews had no dealings, so this
young Matangi warned Ananda of her caste, which rendered it unlawful for
her to approach a monk. And as Jesus continued, nevertheless, to
converse with the woman, so Ananda did not shrink from this outcast
damsel. And as the disciples "marvelled" that Jesus should have
conversed with this member of a despised race, so the respectable
Brahmans and householders who adhered to Brahmanism were scandalized to
learn that the young Matangi had been admitted to the order of
mendicants.
[294:8] Müller: Religion of Science, p. 249.
[294:9] Matt. v. 44.
[294:10] Hardy: Eastern Monachism, p. 6.
[294:11] See Matt. iv. 13-25.
[294:12] "And there followed him great multitudes of people." (Matt. iv.
25.)
[294:13] Hardy: Eastern Monachism, pp. 6 and 62 _et seq._
While at Rajageiha Buddha called together his followers and addressed
them at some length on the means requisite for Buddhist salvation. This
sermon was summed up in the celebrated verse:
"To cease from all sin,
To get virtue,
To cleanse one's own heart--
This is the religion of the Buddhas."
--(Rhys David's Buddha, p. 62.)
[294:14] See Matt. viii. 19, 20; xvi. 25-28.
[295:1] Müller: Science of Religion, p. 27.
[295:2] Hardy: Eastern Monachism, p. 230.
"Gautama Buddha is said to have announced to his disciples that the time
of his departure had come: 'Arise, let us go hence, my time is come.'
Turned toward the East and with folded arms he prayed to the highest
spirit who inhabits the region of purest light, to Maha-Brahma, to the
king in heaven, to Devaraja, who from his throne looked down on Gautama,
and appeared to him in a self-chosen personality." (Bunsen: The
Angel-Messiah. Compare with Matt. xxvi. 36-47.)
[295:3] "Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying,
Master, we would see a sign from thee." (Matt. xii. 38.)
[295:4] See Matt. xxiv; Mark, viii. 31; Luke, ix. 18.
[295:5] Mark, xxviii. 18-20.
Buddha at one time said to his disciples: "Go ye now, and preach the
most excellent law, expounding every point thereof, and unfolding it
with care and attention in all its bearings and particulars. Explain the
beginning, the middle, and the end of the law, to all men without
exception; let everything respecting it be made publicly known and
brought to the broad daylight." (Rhys David's Buddhism, p. 55, 56.)
When Buddha, just before his death, took his last formal farewell of his
assembled followers, he said unto them: "Oh mendicants, thoroughly
learn, and practice, and perfect, and spread abroad the law thought out
and revealed by me, in order that this religion of mine may last long,
and be perpetuated for the good and happiness of the great multitudes,
out of pity for the world, to the advantage and prosperity of gods and
men." (Ibid. p. 172.)
[295:6] Müller: Science of Religion, p. 244.
[295:7] Matt. xix. 16-21.
[295:8] Matt. vi. 19, 20.
[296:1] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. x, _note_.
[296:2] Matt. iv. 17.
[296:3] _i. e._, to establish the dominion of religion. (See Beal: p.
244, _note_.)
[296:4] The Jerusalem, the Rome, or the Mecca of India.
This celebrated city of Benares, which has a population of 200,000, out
of which at least 25,000 are Brahmans, was probably one of the first to
acquire a fame for sanctity, and it has always maintained its reputation
as the most sacred spot in all India. Here, in this fortress of
Hindooism, Brahmanism displays itself in all its plentitude and power.
Here the degrading effect of idolatry is visibly demonstrated as it is
nowhere else except in the extreme south of India. Here, temples, idols,
and symbols, sacred wells, springs, and pools, are multiplied beyond all
calculation. Here every particle of ground is believed to be hallowed,
and the very air holy. The number of temples is at least two thousand,
not counting innumerable smaller shrines. In the principal temple of
Siva, called Visvesvara, are collected in one spot several thousand
idols and symbols, the whole number scattered throughout the city,
being, it is thought, at least half a million.
Benares, indeed, must always be regarded as the Hindoo's Jerusalem. The
desire of a pious man's life is to accomplish at least one pilgrimage to
what he regards as a portion of heaven let down upon earth; and if he
can die within the holy circuit of the Pancakosi stretching with a
radius of ten miles around the city--nay, if any human being die there,
be he Asiatic or European--no previously incurred guilt, however
heinous, can prevent his attainment of celestial bliss.
[296:5] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 245.
[296:6] Matt. iv. 13-17.
[296:7] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 11.
[296:8] John, i. 17.
[296:9] Luke, xxi. 32, 33.
[296:10] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 228.
[296:11] Matt. v. 27, 28.
On one occasion Buddha preached a sermon on the five senses and the
heart (which he regarded as a sixth organ of sense), which pertained to
guarding against the passion of lust. Rhys Davids, who, in speaking of
this sermon, says: "One may pause and wonder at finding such a sermon
preached so early in the history of the world--more than 400 years
before the rise of Christianity--and among a people who have long been
thought peculiarly idolatrous and sensual." (Buddhism, p. 60.)
[297:1] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 138.
[297:2] I. Corinth. vii. 1-7.
[297:3] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 103.
[297:4] John, ix. 1, 2.
This is the doctrine of transmigration clearly taught. If this man was
born blind, as punishment for some sin committed by him, this sin must
have been committed in _some former birth_.
[297:5] Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. 181.
[297:6] See the story of his conversation with the woman of Samaria.
(John, iv. 1.) And with the woman who was cured of the "bloody issue."
(Matt. ix. 20.)
[297:7] Müller: Science of Religion, p. 245.
[297:8] Matt. v. 29.
[297:9] Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. 134.
[297:10] Matt. xxi. 1-9.
_Bacchus_ rode in a triumphal procession, on approaching the city of
_Thebes_. "Pantheus, the king, who had no respect for the new worship
(instituted by Bacchus) forbade its rites to be performed. But when it
was known that Bacchus was advancing, men and women, but chiefly the
latter, young and old, poured forth to meet him and to join his
triumphal march. . . . It was in vain Pantheus remonstrated, commanded
and threatened. 'Go,' said he to his attendants, 'seize this vagabond
leader of the rout and bring him to me. I will soon make him confess his
false claim of heavenly parentage and renounce his counterfeit
worship.'" (Bulfinch: Age of Fable, p. 222. Compare with Matt. xxvi.;
Luke, xxii.; John xviii.)
[297:11] "There are few names among the men of the West that stand forth
as saliently as Gotama Buddha, in the annals of the East. In little more
than two centuries from his decease the system he established had spread
throughout the whole of India, overcoming opposition the most
formidable, and binding together the most discordant elements; and at
the present moment Buddhism is the prevailing religion, under various
modifications, of Tibet, Nepal, Siam, Burma, Japan, and South Ceylon;
and in China it has a position of at least equal prominence with its two
great rivals, Confucianism and Taouism. A long time its influence
extended throughout nearly three-fourths of Asia; from the steppes of
Tartary to the palm groves of Ceylon, and from the vale of Cashmere to
the isles of Japan." (R. Spence Hardy: Buddhist Leg. p. xi.)
[298:1] "Gautama was _very early_ regarded as omniscient, and absolutely
sinless. His perfect wisdom is declared by the ancient epithet of
_Samma-sambuddha_, 'the Completely Enlightened One;' found at the
commencement of every Pali text; and at the present day, in Ceylon, the
usual way in which Gautama is styled is _Sarwajnan-wahanse_,' the
Venerable Omniscient One.' From his perfect wisdom, according to
Buddhist belief, _his sinlessness would follow as a matter of course_.
He was the first and the greatest of the Arahats. _As a consequence of
this doctrine_ the belief soon sprang up that he could not have been,
that he was not, born as ordinary men are; that he had no earthly
father; that he descended of his own accord into his mother's womb from
his throne in heaven; and that he gave unmistakable signs, immediately
after his birth of his high character and of his future greatness."
(Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 162.)
[299:1] Gautama Buddha left behind him no written works, but the
Buddhists believe that he composed works which his immediate disciples
learned by heart in his life-time, and which were handed down by memory
in their original state until they were committed to writing. This is
not impossible: it is known that the _Vedas_ were handed down in this
manner for many hundreds of years, and none would now dispute the
enormous powers of memory to which Indian priests and monks attained,
when written books were not invented, or only used as helps to memory.
Even though they are well acquainted with writing, the monks in Ceylon
do not use books in their religions services, but, repeat, for instance,
the whole of the _Patimokkha_ on Uposatha (Sabbath) days by heart. (See
Rhys Davids' Buddhism, pp. 9, 10.)
[299:2] Compare this with the names, titles, and characters given to
Jesus. He is called the "Deliverer," (Acts, vii. 35); the "First
Begotten" (Rev. i. 5); "God blessed forever" (Rom. ix. 5); the "Holy
One" (Luke, iv. 34; Acts, iii. 14); the "King Everlasting" (Luke, i.
33); "King of Kings" (Rev. xvii. 14); "Lamb of God" (John, i. 29, 36);
"Lord of Glory" (I. Cor. ii. 8); "Lord of Lords" (Rev. xvii. 14); "Lion
of the tribe of Judah" (Rev. v. 5); "Maker and Preserver of all things"
(John, i. 3, 10; I. Cor. viii. 6; Col. i. 16); "Prince of Peace" (Isai.
ix. 6); "Redeemer," "Saviour," "Mediator," "Word," &c., &c.
[300:1] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 41.
[300:2] "He joined to his gifts as a thinker a prophetic ardor and
missionary zeal which prompted him to popularize his doctrine, and to
preach to all without exception, men and women, high and low, ignorant
and learned alike." (Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 53.)
[300:3] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 45.
[300:4] Ibid. p. 46.
[300:5] "The success of Buddhism was in great part due to the reverence
the Buddha inspired by his own personal character. He practiced honestly
what he preached enthusiastically. He was sincere, energetic, earnest,
self-sacrificing, and devout. Adherents gathered in thousands around the
person of the consistent preacher, and the Buddha himself became the
real centre of Buddhism." (Williams' Hinduism, p. 102.)
[300:6] "It may be said to be the prevailing religion of the world. Its
adherents are estimated at _four hundred millions_, more than a third of
the human race." (Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Buddhism." See also,
Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 251.)
[301:1] It should be understood that the Buddha of this chapter, and in
fact, the Buddha of _this_ work, is _Gautama_ Buddha, the Sakya Prince.
According to Buddhist belief there have been many different Buddhas on
earth. _The names_ of _twenty-four_ of the Buddhas who appeared previous
to Gautama have been handed down to us. The _Buddhavansa_ or "History of
the Buddhas," gives the lives of all the previous Buddhas before
commencing the account of Gautama himself. (See Rhys Davids' Buddhism,
pp. 179, 180.)
[301:2] "The date usually fixed for Buddha's death is 543 B. C. Whether
this precise year for one of the greatest epochs in the religious
history of the human race can be accepted is doubtful, but it is
tolerably certain that Buddhism arose in Behar and Eastern Hindustan
about five centuries B. C.; and that it spread with great rapidity, _not
by force of arms, or coercion of any kind_, like Muhammedanism, but by
the sheer persuasiveness of its doctrine." (Monier Williams' Hinduism,
p. 72.)
[301:3] "Of the high antiquity of Buddhism there is much collateral as
well as direct evidence--evidence that neither internecine nor foreign
strife, not even religious persecution, has been able to destroy. . . .
Witness the gigantic images in the caves of Elephanta, near Bombay and
those of Lingi Sara, in the interior of Java, all of which are known to
have been in existence at least four centuries prior to our Lord's
advent." (The Mammoth Religion.)
[301:4] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 250.
[302:1] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. vi.
[302:2] Ibid. pp. x. and xi.
[302:3] Ibid. pp. vii., ix. and _note_.
[303:1] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 50.
[303:2] Quoted by Prof. Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. viii.
[303:3] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 86.
[303:4] Science of Religion, p. 243.
[303:5] Rhys Davids' Buddhism.
[303:6] Ibid. p. 184.
"It is surprising," says Rhys Davids, "that, like Romans worshiping
Augustus, or Greeks adding the glow of the sun-myth to the glory of
Alexander, the Indians should have formed an ideal of their Chakravarti,
and transferred to this new ideal many of the dimly sacred and half
understood traits of the Vedic heroes? Is it surprising that the
Buddhists should have found it edifying to recognize in _their_ hero the
Chakravarti of Righteousness, and that the story of the Buddha should be
tinged with the coloring of these Chakravarti myths?" (Ibid. Buddhism,
p. 220.)
[303:7] In Chapter xxxix., we shall explain the _origin_ of these myths.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE EUCHARIST OR LORD'S SUPPER.
We are informed by the _Matthew_ narrator that when Jesus was eating his
last supper with the disciples,
"He took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to
the disciples, and said, Take, eat, _this is my body_. And he
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
drink ye all of it, _for this is my blood_ of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins."[305:1]
According to Christian belief, Jesus _instituted_ this
"_Sacrament_"[305:2]--as it is called--and it was observed by the
primitive Christians, as he had enjoined them; but we shall find that
this breaking of bread, and drinking of wine,--_supposed to be the body
and blood of a god_[305:3]--is simply another piece of Paganism imbibed
by the Christians.
The _Eucharist_ was instituted many hundreds of years before the time
assigned for the birth of Christ Jesus. Cicero, the greatest orator of
Rome, and one of the most illustrious of her statesmen, born in the year
106 B. C., mentions it in his works, and wonders at the strangeness of
the rite. "How can a man be so stupid," says he, "as to imagine that
which he eats to be a God?" There had been an esoteric meaning attached
to it from the first establishment of the _mysteries_ among the Pagans,
and the Eucharistia is one of the oldest rites of antiquity.
The adherents of the Grand Lama in Thibet and Tartary offer to their god
a sacrament of _bread and wine_.[305:4]
P. Andrada La Crozius, a French missionary, and one of the first
Christians who went to Nepaul and Thibet, says in his "History of
India:"
"Their Grand Lama celebrates a species of sacrifice with
_bread_ and _wine_, in which, after taking a small quantity
himself, he distributes the rest among the Lamas present at
this ceremony."[306:1]
In certain rites both in the _Indian_ and the _Parsee_ religions, the
devotees drink the juice of the Soma, or _Haoma_ plant. They consider it
a _god_ as well as a plant, just as the wine of the Christian sacrament
is considered both the juice of the grape, and the blood of the
Redeemer.[306:2] Says Mr. Baring-Gould:
"Among the ancient Hindoos, _Soma_ was a chief deity; he is
called 'the Giver of Life and of health,' the 'Protector,' he
who is 'the Guide to Immortality.' He became incarnate among
men, was taken by them and slain, and brayed in a mortar. But
he rose in flame to heaven, to be the 'Benefactor of the
World,' and the 'Mediator between God and Man.' Through
communion with him in his sacrifice, man, (who partook of this
god), has an assurance of immortality, for by that _sacrament_
he obtains union with his divinity."[306:3]
The ancient _Egyptians_--as we have seen--annually celebrated the
_Resurrection_ of their God and Saviour _Osiris_, at which time they
commemorated his death by the _Eucharist_, eating the sacred cake, or
wafer, _after it had been consecrated by the priest, and become
veritable flesh of his flesh_.[306:4] The bread, after sacerdotal rites,
became mystically the body of _Osiris_, and, in such a manner, _they ate
their god_.[306:5] Bread and wine were brought to the temples by the
worshipers, as offerings.[306:6]
The _Therapeutes_ or _Essenes_, whom we believe to be of Buddhist
origin, and who lived in large numbers in Egypt, also had the ceremony
of the sacrament among them.[306:7] Most of them, however, being
temperate, substituted water for wine, while others drank a mixture of
water and wine.
Pythagoras, the celebrated Grecian philosopher, who was born about the
year 570 B. C., performed this ceremony of the _sacrament_.[306:8] He is
supposed to have visited Egypt, and there availed himself of all such
mysterious lore as the priests could be induced to impart. He and his
followers practiced asceticism, and peculiarities of diet and clothing,
similar to the Essenes, which has led some scholars to believe that he
instituted the order, but this is evidently not the case.
The Kenite "King of Righteousness," _Melchizedek_, "a priest of the Most
High God," brought out BREAD _and_ WINE as a _sign_ or _symbol_ of
worship; as _the mystic elements of Divine presence_. In the visible
symbol of _bread and wine_ they worshiped _the invisible presence of the
Creator of heaven and earth_.[307:1]
To account for this, Christian divines have been much puzzled. The Rev.
Dr. Milner says, in speaking of this passage:
"It was in offering up a sacrifice of bread and wine, instead
of slaughtered animals, that Melchizedek's sacrifice differed
from the generality of those in the old law, and that he
_prefigured_ the sacrifice which Christ was to _institute_ in
the new law from the same elements. No other sense than this
can be elicited from the Scripture as to this matter; and
accordingly the holy fathers unanimously adhere to this
meaning."[307:2]
This style of reasoning is in accord with the TYPE theory concerning the
Virgin-born, Crucified and Resurrected Saviours, but it is not
altogether satisfactory. If it had been said that the religion of
Melchizedek, and the religion of the Persians, were the _same_, there
would be no difficulty in explaining the passage.
Not only were bread and wine brought forth by Melchizedek when he
blessed Abraham, but it was offered to God and eaten before him by
Jethro and the elders of Israel, and some, at least, of the _mourning_
Israelites broke bread and drank "the cup of consolation," in
remembrance of the departed, "to comfort them for the dead."[307:3]
It is in the ancient religion of Persia--the religion of Mithra, the
Mediator, the Redeemer and Saviour--that we find the nearest resemblance
to the sacrament of the Christians, and from which it was evidently
borrowed. Those who were initiated into the mysteries of Mithra, or
became _members_, took the sacrament of bread and wine.[307:4]
M. Renan, speaking of _Mithraicism_, says:
"It had its mysterious meetings: its chapels, which bore a
strong resemblance to little churches. It forged a very
lasting bond of brotherhood between its initiates: it had a
_Eucharist_, a Supper so like the Christian Mysteries, that
good Justin Martyr, the Apologist, can find only one
explanation of the apparent identity, namely, that Satan, in
order to deceive the human race, determined to imitate the
Christian ceremonies, and so stole them."[307:5]
The words of St. Justin, wherein he alludes to this ceremony, are as
follows:
"The apostles, in the commentaries written by themselves,
which we call Gospels, have delivered down to us how that
Jesus thus commanded them: He having taken bread, _after he
had given thanks_,[308:1] said, Do this in commemoration of
me; this is my body. And having taken a cup, and returned
thanks, he said: This is my blood, and delivered it to them
alone. Which thing indeed the evil spirits have taught to be
done out of mimicry in the Mysteries and Initiatory rites of
Mithra.
"For you either know, or can know, that bread and a cup of
water (or wine) are given out, with certain incantations, in
the consecration of the person who is being initiated in the
Mysteries of Mithra."[308:2]
This food they called the Eucharist, of which no one was allowed to
partake but the persons who believed that the things they taught were
true, and who had been washed with the washing that is for the remission
of sin.[308:3] Tertullian, who flourished from 193 to 220 A. D., also
speaks of the Mithraic devotees celebrating the Eucharist.[308:4]
The Eucharist of the Lord and Saviour, as the Magi called Mithra, the
second person in their Trinity, or their Eucharistic sacrifice, was
always made exactly and in every respect the same as that of the
orthodox Christians, for both sometimes used water instead of wine, or a
mixture of the two.[308:5]
The Christian Fathers often liken their rites to those of the Therapeuts
(Essenes) and worshipers of Mithra. Here is Justin Martyr's account of
Christian initiation:
"But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced
and assented to our teachings, bring him to the place where
those who are called _brethren_ are assembled, in order that
we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and the
_illuminated_ person. Having ended our prayers, we salute one
another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of
the brethren _bread and a cup of wine mixed with water_. When
the president has given thanks, and all the people have
expressed their assent, those that are called by us _deacons_
give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine
mixed with water."[308:6]
In the service of Edward the Sixth of England, water is directed to be
mixed with the wine.[309:1] This is a union of the two; not a half
measure, but a double one. If it be correct to take it with wine, then
they were right; if with water, they still were right; as they took
both, they could not be wrong.
The _bread_, used in these Pagan Mysteries, was carried in _baskets_,
which practice was also adopted by the Christians. St. Jerome, speaking
of it, says:
"Nothing can be richer than one who carries _the body of
Christ_ (viz.: _the bread_) in a basket made of twigs."[309:2]
The Persian Magi introduced the worship of Mithra into Rome, and his
mysteries were solemnized in a _cave_. In the process of initiation
there, candidates were also administered the sacrament of _bread and
wine_, and were marked on the forehead with the sign of the
cross.[309:3]
The ancient _Greeks_ also had their "_Mysteries_," wherein they
celebrated the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The Rev. Robert Taylor,
speaking of this, says:
"The _Eleusinian_ Mysteries, or, Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, was the most august of all the Pagan ceremonies
celebrated, more especially by the Athenians, every fifth
year,[309:4] in honor of _Ceres_, the goddess of corn, who, in
allegorical language, _had given us her flesh to eat_; as
_Bacchus_, the god of wine, in like sense, _had given us his
blood to drink_. . . .
"From these ceremonies is derived the very name attached to
our _Christian_ sacrament of the Lord's Supper,--'_those holy
Mysteries_;'--and not one or two, but absolutely all and every
one of the observances used in our Christian solemnity. Very
many of our forms of expression in that solemnity are
precisely the same as those that appertained to the Pagan
rite."[309:5]
Prodicus (a Greek sophist of the 5th century B. C.) says that, the
ancients worshiped _bread_ as Demeter (_Ceres_) and _wine_ as Dionysos
(_Bacchus_);[309:6] therefore, when they ate the bread, and drank the
wine, after it had been consecrated, they were doing as the Romanists
claim to do at the present day, _i. e._, _eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of their god_.[309:7]
Mosheim, the celebrated ecclesiastical historian, acknowledges that:
"The profound respect that was paid to the Greek and Roman
_Mysteries_, and the extraordinary sanctity that was
attributed to them, induced the Christians of the second
century, to give _their_ religion a _mystic_ air, in order to
put it upon an equal footing in point of dignity, with that of
the Pagans. For this purpose they gave the name of _Mysteries_
to the institutions of the Gospels, and decorated particularly
the 'Holy Sacrament' with that title; they used the very terms
employed in the _Heathen Mysteries_, and adopted some of the
rites and ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries
consisted. This imitation began in the eastern provinces; but,
after the time of Adrian, who first introduced the mysteries
among the Latins, it was followed by the Christians who dwelt
in the western part of the empire. A great part, therefore, of
the service of the Church in this--the second--century, had a
certain air of the Heathen Mysteries, and resembled them
considerably in many particulars."[310:1]
_Eleusinian Mysteries_ and _Christian Sacraments Compared_.
1. "But as the benefit of Initiation was great, such as were convicted
of witchcraft, murder, even though unintentional, or any other heinous
crimes, were debarred from those mysteries."[310:2]
1. "For as the benefit is great, if, with a true penitent
heart and lively faith, we receive that holy sacrament, &c.,
if any be an open and notorious evil-liver, or hath done wrong
to his neighbor, &c., that he presume not to come to the
Lord's table."[310:3]
2. "At their entrance, purifying themselves, by washing their hands in
_holy water_, they were at the same time admonished to present
themselves with pure minds, without which the external cleanness of the
body would by no means be accepted."[310:4]
2. See the fonts of _holy water_ at the entrance of every
Catholic chapel in Christendom for the same purpose.
"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,
and our bodies washed with pure water."[310:5]
3. "The priests who officiated in these sacred solemnities, were called
Hierophants, or '_revealers of holy things_.'"[310:6]
3. The priests who officiate at these Christian solemnities
are supposed to be 'revealers of holy things.'
4. The Pagan Priest dismissed their congregation with these words:
"_The Lord be with you._"[310:7]
4. The Christian priests dismiss their congregation with these
words:
"_The Lord be with you._"
These Eleusinian Mysteries were accompanied with various rites,
expressive of the purity and self-denial of the worshiper, and were
therefore considered to be an expiation of past sins, and to place the
initiated under the special protection of the awful and potent goddess
who presided over them.[310:8]
These _mysteries_ were, as we have said, also celebrated in honor of
_Bacchus_ as well as _Ceres_. A consecrated cup of wine was handed
around after supper, called the "Cup of the Agathodaemon"--the Good
Divinity.[311:1] Throughout the whole ceremony, the name of the _Lord_
was many times repeated, and his brightness or glory not only exhibited
to the eye by the rays which surrounded his name (or his monogram, I. H.
S.), but was made the peculiar theme or subject of their triumphant
exultation.[311:2]
The mystical wine and bread were used during the Mysteries of _Adonis_,
the Lord and Saviour.[311:3] In fact, the communion of bread and wine
was used in the worship of nearly every important deity.[311:4]
The rites of _Bacchus_ were celebrated in the British Islands in heathen
times,[311:5] and so were those of _Mithra_, which were spread over Gaul
and Great Britain.[311:6] We therefore find that the ancient _Druids_
offered the sacrament of bread and wine, during which ceremony they were
dressed in white robes,[311:7] just as the Egyptian priests of Isis were
in the habit of dressing, and as the priests of many Christian sects
dress at the present day.
Among some negro tribes in Africa there is a belief that "on eating and
drinking consecrated food they eat and drink the god himself."[311:8]
The ancient _Mexicans_ celebrated the mysterious sacrament of the
Eucharist, called the "most holy supper," during which they ate the
flesh of their god. The bread used at their Eucharist was made of _corn_
meal, which they mixed with _blood_, instead of wine. This was
_consecrated_ by the priest, and given to the people, who ate it with
humility and penitence, _as the flesh of their god_.[311:9]
Lord Kingsborough, in his "_Mexican Antiquities_," speaks of the ancient
Mexicans as performing this sacrament; when they made a cake, which they
called _Tzoalia_. The high priest blessed it in his manner, after which
he broke it into pieces, and put it into certain very clean vessels. He
then took a thorn of _maguery_, which resembles a thick needle, with
which he took up with the utmost reverence single morsels, _which he put
into the mouth of each individual, after the manner of a
communion_.[311:10]
The writer of the "Explanation of Plates of the _Codex
Vaticanus_,"--which are copies of Mexican _hieroglyphics_--says:
"I am disposed to believe that these poor people have had the
knowledge of our mode of communion, or of the annunciation of
the gospel; or perhaps the _devil_, most envious of the honor
of God, may have led them into this superstition, in order
that by this ceremony he might be adored and served as Christ
our Lord."[312:1]
The Rev. Father Acosta says:
"That which is most admirable in the hatred and presumption of
Satan is, that he hath not only counterfeited in idolatry and
sacrifice, but also in certain ceremonies, _our Sacraments_,
which Jesus Christ our Lord hath instituted and the holy
Church doth use, having especially pretended to imitate in
some sort the _Sacrament of the Communion_, which is the most
high and divine of all others."
He then relates how the _Mexicans_ and _Peruvians_, in certain
ceremonies, ate the flesh of their god, and called certain morsels of
paste, "the flesh and bones of _Vitzilipuzlti_."
"After putting themselves in order about these morsels and
pieces of paste, they used certain ceremonies with singing, by
means whereof they (the pieces of paste) were blessed and
consecrated for the flesh and bones of this idol."[312:2]
These facts show that the _Eucharist_ is another piece of Paganism
adopted by the Christians. The story of Jesus and his disciples being at
supper, where the Master did break bread, may be true, but the statement
that he said, "Do this in remembrance of me,"--"this is my body," and
"this is my blood," was undoubtedly invented to give authority to the
_mystic_ ceremony, which had been borrowed from Paganism.
Why should they do this in remembrance of Jesus? Provided he took this
supper with his disciples--which the _John_ narrator denies[312:3]--he
did not do anything on that occasion new or unusual among Jews. To
pronounce the benediction, break the bread, and distribute pieces
thereof to the persons at table, was, and is now, a common usage of the
Hebrews. Jesus could not have commanded born Jews to do in remembrance
of him what they already practiced, and what every religious Jew does to
this day. The whole story is evidently a myth, as a perusal of it with
the eye of a critic clearly demonstrates.
The _Mark_ narrator informs us that Jesus sent two of his disciples to
the city, and told them this:
"Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a
pitcher of water; follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in,
say ye to the _goodman_ of the house, The Master saith, Where
is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my
disciples? And he will show you a large upper room _furnished
and prepared_: there make ready for us. And his disciples went
forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto
them: and they made ready the passover."[313:1]
The story of the passover or the last supper, seems to be introduced in
this unusual manner to make it manifest that a divine power is
interested in, and conducting the whole affair, parallels of which we
find in the story of Elieser and Rebecca, where Rebecca is to identify
herself in a manner pre-arranged by Elieser with God;[313:2] and also in
the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, where by God's
directions a journey is made, and the widow is found.[313:3]
It suggests itself to our mind that this style of connecting a
supernatural interest with human affairs was not entirely original with
the Mark narrator. In this connection it is interesting to note that a
man in Jerusalem should have had an unoccupied and _properly_ furnished
room just at _that_ time, when two millions of pilgrims sojourned in and
around the city. The man, it appears, was not distinguished either for
wealth or piety, for his _name_ is not mentioned; he was not present at
the supper, and no further reference is made to him. It appears rather
that the Mark narrator imagined an ordinary man who had a furnished room
to let for such purposes, and would imply that Jesus knew it
_prophetically_. He had only to pass in his mind from Elijah to his
disciple Elisha, for whom the great woman of Shunem had so richly
furnished an upper chamber, to find a like instance.[313:4] _Why should
not somebody have furnished also an upper chamber for the Messiah?_
The Matthew narrator's account is free from these embellishments, and
simply runs thus: Jesus said to some of his disciples--the number is not
given--
"Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master
saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy
house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had
appointed them; and _they_ made ready the passover."[313:5]
In this account, no pitcher, no water, no prophecy is mentioned.[313:6]
It was many centuries before the genuine heathen doctrine of
_Transubstantiation_--a change of the elements of the Eucharist into
the _real_ body and blood of Christ Jesus--became a tenet of the
Christian faith. This greatest of mysteries was developed gradually. As
early as the second century, however, the seeds were planted, when we
find Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Irenæus advancing the opinion, that
the mere bread and wine became, in the Eucharist, _something
higher_--the earthly, something heavenly--without, however, ceasing to
be bread and wine. Though these views were opposed by some eminent
individual Christian teachers, yet both among the people and in the
ritual of the Church, the miraculous or supernatural view of the Lord's
Supper gained ground. After the third century the office of presenting
the bread and wine came to be confined to the _ministers_ or _priests_.
This practice arose from, and in turn strengthened, the notion which was
gaining ground, that in this act of presentation by the priest, a
sacrifice, similar to that once offered up in the death of Christ Jesus,
though bloodless, was ever anew presented to God. This still deepened
the feeling of _mysterious_ significance and importance with which the
rite of the Lord's Supper was viewed, and led to that gradually
increasing splendor of celebration which took the form of the _Mass_. As
in Christ Jesus two distinct natures, the divine and the human, were
wonderfully combined, so in the Eucharist there was a corresponding
union of the earthly and the heavenly.
For a long time there was no formal declaration of the mind of the
Church on the _real presence_ of Christ Jesus in the Eucharist. At
length a _discussion_ on the point was raised, and the most
distinguished men of the time took part in it. One party maintained that
"the bread and wine are, in the act of consecration, transformed by the
omnipotence of God into the _very body_ of Christ which was once born of
Mary, nailed to the cross, and raised from the dead." According to this
conception, nothing remains of the bread and wine but the outward form,
the taste and the smell; while the other party would only allow that
there is _some change_ in the bread and wine themselves, but granted
that an actual transformation of their power and efficacy takes place.
The greater accordance of the first view with the credulity of the age,
its love for the wonderful and magical, the interest of the priesthood
to add lustre, in accordance with the heathens, to a rite which enhanced
their own office, resulted in the doctrine of Transubstantiation being
declared an article of faith of the Christian Church.
Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread and wine into the
body and blood of Christ, is a tenet that may defy the powers of
argument and pleasantry; but instead of consulting the evidence of their
senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first
Protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the
reputed words of Jesus in the institution of the sacrament. Luther
maintained a _corporeal_, and Calvin a _real_ presence of Christ in the
Eucharist; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a
spiritual communion, a simple memorial, has slowly prevailed in the
reformed churches.[315:1]
Under Edward VI. the reformation was more bold and perfect, but in the
fundamental articles of the Church of England, a strong and explicit
declaration against the real presence was _obliterated_ in the original
copy, to please the people, or the Lutherans, or Queen Elizabeth. At the
present day, the Greek and Roman Catholics alone hold to the original
doctrine of the _real presence_.
Of all the religious observances among heathens, Jews, or Turks, none
has been the cause of more hatred, persecution, outrage, and bloodshed,
than the Eucharist. Christians persecuted one another like relentless
foes, and thousands of Jews were slaughtered on account of the Eucharist
and the Host.
FOOTNOTES:
[305:1] Matt. xxvi. 26. See also, Mark, xiv. 22.
[305:2] At the heading of the chapters named in the above note may be
seen the words: "Jesus keepeth the Passover (and) _instituteth_ the
Lord's Supper."
[305:3] According to the Roman Christians, the Eucharist is the natural
body and blood of Christ Jesus _verè et realiter_, but the Protestant
sophistically explains away these two plain words _verily_ and _indeed_,
and by the grossest abuse of language, makes them to mean _spiritually
by grace and efficacy_. "In the sacrament of the altar," says the
Protestant divine, "is the _natural_ body and blood of Christ _verè et
realiter_, verily and indeed, if you take these terms for _spiritually
by grace and efficacy_; but if you mean _really and indeed_, so that
thereby you would include a lively and movable body under the form of
bread and wine, then in that sense it is _not_ Christ's body in the
sacrament really and indeed."
[305:4] See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 203, and Anacalypsis, i.
232.
[306:1] "Leur grand Lama célèbre une espèce de sacrifice avec du pain et
du vin dont il prend une petite quantité, et distribue le reste aux
Lamas presens à cette cérémonie." (Quoted in Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p.
118.)
[306:2] Viscount Amberly's Analysis, p. 46.
[306:3] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 401.
[306:4] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 163.
[306:5] See Ibid. p. 417.
[306:6] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 179.
[306:7] See Bunsen's Keys of St. Peter, p. 199; Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p.
60, and Lillie's Buddhism, p. 136.
[306:8] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 60.
[307:1] See Bunsen's Keys of St. Peter, p. 55, and Genesis, xiv. 18, 19.
[307:2] St. Jerome says: "Melchizédek in typo Christi panem et vinum
obtulit: et mysterium Christianum in Salvatoris sanguine et corpore
dedicavit."
[307:3] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 227.
[307:4] See King's Gnostics and their Remains, p. xxv., and Higgins'
Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 58, 59.
[307:5] Renan's Hibbert Lectures, p. 35.
[308:1] In the words of Mr. King: "This expression shows that the notion
of blessing or consecrating the elements was _as yet_ unknown to the
Christians."
[308:2] Apol. 1. ch. lxvi.
[308:3] Ibid.
[308:4] De Præscriptione Hæreticorum, ch. xl. Tertullian explains this
conformity between Christianity and Paganism, by asserting that the
devil copied the Christian mysteries.
[308:5] "De Tinctione, de oblatione panis, et de imagine resurrectionis,
videatur doctiss, de la Cerda ad ea Tertulliani loca ubi de hiscerebus
agitur. Gentiles citra Christum, talia celébradant Mithriaca quæ
videbantur cum doctrinâ _eucharistæ_ et _resurrectionis_ et aliis
ritibus Christianis convenire, quæ fecerunt ex industria ad imitationem
Christianismi: unde Tertulliani et Patres aiunt eos talia fecisse, duce
diabolo, quo vult esse simia Christi, &c. Volunt itaque eos res suas ita
compârasse, ut _Mithræ mysteria essent eucharistiæ Christianæ imago_.
Sic Just. Martyr (p. 98), et Tertullianus et Chrysostomus. In suis etiam
sacris habebant Mithriaci lavacra (quasi regenerationis) in quibus
tingit et ipse (sc. sacerdos) quosdam utique credentes et fideles suos,
et expiatoria delictorum de lavacro repromittit et sic adhuc initiat
Mithræ." (Hyde: De Relig. Vet. Persian, p. 113.)
[308:6] Justin: 1st Apol., ch. lvi.
[309:1] Dr. Grabes' Notes on Irenæus, lib. v. c. 2, in Anac., vol. i. p.
60.
[309:2] Quoted in Monumental Christianity, p. 370.
[309:3] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 369.
"The Divine Presence called his angel of mercy and said unto him: 'Go
through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set
the mark of Tau (Τ, the headless cross) upon the foreheads of the men
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the
midst thereof.'" Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 305.
[309:4] They were celebrated every fifth year at _Eleusis_, a town of
Attica, from whence their name.
[309:5] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 212.
[309:6] Müller: Origin of Religion, p. 181.
[309:7] "In the _Bacchic_ Mysteries a consecrated cup (of wine) was
handed around after supper, called the cup of the _Agathodaemon_."
(Cousin: Lec. on Modn. Phil. Quoted in Isis Unveiled, ii. 513. See also,
Dunlap's Spirit Hist., p. 217.)
[310:1] Eccl. Hist. cent. ii. pt. 2, sec. v.
[310:2] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 282.
[310:3] Episcopal Communion Service.
[310:4] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 282.
[310:5] Hebrews, x. 22.
[310:6] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 213.
[310:7] See Ibid.
[310:8] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 471.
[311:1] See Dunlap's Spirit Hist., p. 217, and Isis Unveiled, vol. ii.
p. 513.
[311:2] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 214.
[311:3] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 139.
[311:4] See Ibid. p. 513.
[311:5] See Myths of the British Druids, p. 89.
[311:6] See Dupuis: Origin of Relig. Belief, p. 238.
[311:7] See Myths of the British Druids, p. 280, and Prog. Relig. Ideas,
vol. i. p. 376.
[311:8] Herbert Spencer: Principles of Sociology, vol. i. p. 299.
[311:9] See Monumental Christianity, pp. 390 and 393.
[311:10] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 220.
[312:1] Quoted In Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 221.
[312:2] Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii. chs. xiii. and xiv.
[312:3] According to the "_John_" narrator, Jesus ate no Paschal meal,
but was captured the evening before Passover, and was crucified before
the feast opened. According to the _Synoptics_, Jesus partook of the
Paschal supper, was captured the first night of the feast, and executed
on the first day thereof, which was on a Friday. If the _John_
narrator's account is true, that of the _Synoptics_ is not, or _vice
versa_.
[313:1] Mark, xiv. 13-16.
[313:2] Gen. xxiv.
[313:3] I. Kings, xvii. 8.
[313:4] II. Kings, iv. 8.
[313:5] Matt. xxvi. 18, 19.
[313:6] For further observations on this subject, see Dr. Isaac M.
Wise's "Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth," a valuable little work,
published at the office of the American Israelite, Cincinnati, Ohio.
[315:1] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. v. pp. 399, 400. Calvin, after quoting
_Matt._ xxvi. 26, 27, says: "There is no doubt that as soon as these
words are added to the bread and the wine, the bread and the wine become
the _true_ body and the _true_ blood of Christ, so that the substance of
bread and wine is transmuted into the _true_ body and blood of Christ.
He who denies this calls the omnipotence of Christ in question, and
charges Christ himself with foolishness." (Calvin's Tracts, p. 214.
Translated by Henry Beveridge, Edinburgh, 1851.) In other parts of his
writings, Calvin seems to contradict this statement, and speaks of the
bread and wine in the Eucharist as being _symbolical_. Gibbon evidently
refers to the passage quoted above.
CHAPTER XXXI.
BAPTISM.
Baptism, or purification from sin by water, is supposed by many to be an
exclusive _Christian_ ceremony. The idea is that circumcision was given
up, but _baptism took its place_ as a compulsory form indispensable to
salvation, and was declared to have been instituted by Jesus himself or
by his predecessor John.[316:1] That Jesus was baptized by John may be
true, or it may not, but that he never directly enjoined his followers
to call the _heathen_ to a share in the privileges of the _Golden Age_
is gospel doctrine;[316:2] and this saying:
"Go out into _all the world_ to preach the gospel to every
creature. And whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved,
but whoever believes not shall be damned,"
must therefore be of comparatively late origin, dating from a period at
which the mission to the heathen was not only fully recognized, but even
declared to have originated with the followers of Jesus.[316:3] When the
early Christians received members among them they were _not_ initiated
by baptism, but with prayer and laying on of hands. This, says
_Eusebius_, was the "_ancient custom_," which was followed until the
time of Stephen. During his bishopric controversies arose as to whether
members should be received "after the ancient Christian custom" or by
baptism,[316:4] after the heathen custom. Rev. J. P. Lundy, who has made
ancient religions a special study, and who, being a thorough Christian
writer, endeavors to get over the difficulty by saying that:
"John the Baptist simply _adopted_ and practiced the
_universal custom_ of sacred bathing _for the remission of
sins_. Christ sanctioned it; the church inherited it from his
example."[316:5]
When we say that baptism is a _heathen_ rite adopted by the Christians,
we come near the truth. Mr. Lundy is a strong advocate of the _type_
theory--of which we shall speak anon--therefore the above mode of
reasoning is not to be wondered at.
The facts in the case are that baptism by immersion, or sprinkling in
infancy, _for the remission of sin_, was a common rite, to be found in
countries the most widely separated on the face of the earth, and the
most unconnected in religious genealogy.[317:1]
If we turn to India we shall find that in the vast domain of the
Buddhist faith the birth of children is regularly the occasion of a
ceremony, at which the priest is present. In Mongolia and Thibet this
ceremony assumes the special form of _baptism_. Candles burn and incense
is offered on the domestic altar, the priest reads the prescribed
prayers, _dips the child three times in water, and imposes on it a
name_.[317:2]
_Brahmanism_, from the very earliest times, had its initiatory rites,
similar to what we shall find among the ancient Persians, Egyptians,
Greeks and Romans. Mr. Mackenzie, in his "Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,"
(_sub voce_ "Mysteries of Hindustan,") gives a capital digest of these
mysteries from the "Indische Alterthum-Skunde" of Lassen. After an
invocation to the SUN, an oath was demanded of the aspirant, to the
effect of implicit obedience to superiors, purity of body, and
inviolable secrecy. _Water was then sprinkled over him_, suitable
addresses were made to him, &c. This was supposed to constitute the
_regeneration_ of the candidate, and he was now invested with the white
robe and the tiara. A peculiar cross was marked on his forehead, and the
Tau cross on his breast. Finally, he was given the sacred word, A. U.
M.[317:3]
The Brahmans had also a mode of baptism similar to the Christian sect of
Baptists, the ceremony being performed in a river.
The officiating Brahman priest, who was called Gooroo, or
Pastor,[318:1] rubbed mud on the candidate, _and then plunged him three
times into the water_. During the process the priest said:
"O Supreme Lord, this man is impure, like the mud of this
stream; but as water cleanses him from this dirt, _do thou
free him from his sin_."[318:2]
Rivers, as sources of fertility and purification, were at an early date
invested with a sacred character. Every great river was supposed to be
permeated with the divine essence, and its waters held to cleanse from
all moral guilt and contamination. And as the Ganges was the most
majestic, so it soon became the holiest and most revered of all rivers.
No sin too heinous to be removed, no character too black to be washed
clean by its waters. Hence the countless temples, with flights of steps,
lining its banks; hence the array of priests, called "Sons of the
Ganges," sitting on the edge of its streams, ready to aid the ablutions
of conscience-stricken bathers, and stamp them as white-washed when they
emerge from its waters. Hence also the constant traffic carried on in
transporting Ganges water in small bottles to all parts of the
country.[318:3]
The ceremony of baptism was a practice of the followers of _Zoroaster_,
both for infants and adults.
M. Beausobre tells us that:
"The ancient _Persians_ carried their infants to the temple a
few days after they were born, and presented them to the
priest before the sun, and before the fire, which was his
symbol. _Then the priest took the child and baptized it for
the purification of the soul._ Sometimes he plunged it into a
great vase full of water: it was in the same ceremony that the
father gave a name to the child."[318:4]
The learned Dr. Hyde also tells us that infants were brought to the
temples and baptized by the priests, sometimes by sprinkling and
sometimes by immersion, plunging the child into a large vase filled with
water. This was to them a regeneration, or a purification of their
souls. A name was at the same time imposed upon the child, as indicated
by the parents.[318:5]
The rite of baptism was also administered to adults in the _Mithraic_
mysteries during initiation. The foreheads of the initiated being marked
at the same time with the "_sacred sign_," which was none other than the
sign of the CROSS.[319:1] The Christian Father Tertullian, who believed
it to be the work of the devil, says:
"He BAPTIZES his believers and followers; he promises the
remission of sins at the _sacred fount_, and thus initiates
them into the religion of _Mithra_; he _marks on the forehead_
his own soldiers," &c.[319:2]
"He marks on the forehead," _i. e._, he marks _the sign of the cross_ on
their foreheads, just as priests of Christ Jesus do at the present day
to those who are initiated into the Christian mysteries.
Again, he says:
"The nations who are strangers to all spiritual powers (the
heathens), ascribe to their idols (gods) the power of
impregnating the waters with the same efficacy as in Christian
baptism." For, "in certain sacred rites of theirs, the mode of
initiation is by baptism," and "whoever had defiled himself
with murder, expiation was sought in purifying water."[319:3]
He also says that:
"The devil signed his soldiers in the forehead, in imitation
of the Christians."[319:4]
And St. Augustin says:
"The _cross_ and _baptism_ were never parted."[319:5]
The ancient _Egyptians_ performed their rite of baptism, and those who
were initiated into the mysteries of Isis were baptized.[319:6]
Apuleius of Madura, in Africa, who was initiated into these mysteries,
shows that baptism was used; that the ceremony was performed by the
attending priest, and that purification and forgiveness of sin was the
result.[319:7]
The custom of baptism in Egypt is known by the hieroglyphic term of
"_water of purification_." The water so used in immersion absolutely
cleansed the soul, _and the person was said to be regenerated_.[320:1]
They also believed in baptism _after death_, for it was held that the
dead were washed from their sins by Osiris, the beneficent saviour, in
the land of shades, and the departed are often represented (on the
sarcophagi) kneeling before Osiris, who pours over them water from a
pitcher.[320:2]
The ancient _Etruscans_ performed the rite of baptism. In _Tab._ clxxii.
Gorius gives two pictures of ancient Etruscan baptism by water. In the
first, the youth is held in the arms of one priest, and another is
pouring water upon his head. In the second, the young person is going
through the same ceremony, kneeling on a kind of altar. At the time of
its baptism the child was named, blessed and marked on the forehead with
_the sign of the cross_.[320:3]
Baptism, or the application of water, was a rite well known to the Jews
before the time of Christ Jesus, and was practiced by them when they
admitted proselytes to their religion from heathenism. When children
were baptized they received the sign of the cross, were anointed, and
fed with milk and honey.[320:4] "It was not customary, however, among
them, to baptize those who were converted to the Jewish religion, _until
after the Babylonish captivity_."[320:5] This clearly shows that they
learned the rite from their heathen oppressors.
Baptism was practiced by the ascetics of Buddhist origin, known as the
_Essenes_.[320:6] John the Baptist was, evidently, nothing more than a
member of this order, with which the deserts of Syria and the Thebais of
Egypt abounded.
The idea that man is restrained from perfect union with God by his
imperfection, uncleanness and sin, was implicitly believed by the
ancient _Greeks_ and _Romans_. In Thessaly was yearly celebrated a great
festival of cleansing. A work bearing the name of "_Museus_" was a
complete ritual of purifications. The usual mode of purification was
dipping in water (immersion), or it was performed by aspersion. These
sacraments were held to have virtue independent of the dispositions of
the candidates, an opinion which called forth the sneer of Diogenes, the
Grecian historian, when he saw some one undergoing baptism by aspersion.
"Poor wretch! do you not see that since these sprinklings
cannot repair your grammatical errors, they cannot repair
either, the faults of your life."[321:1]
And the belief that water could wash out the stains of original sin, led
the poet _Ovid_ (43 B. C.) to say:
"Ah, easy fools, to think that a whole flood
Of water e'er can purge the stain of blood."
These ancient Pagans had especial gods and goddesses who presided over
the birth of children. The goddess _Nundina_ took her name from the
ninth day, _on which all male children were sprinkled with holy
water_,[321:2] as females were on the eighth, at the same time receiving
their name, of which _addition_ to the ceremonial of Christian baptism
we find no mention in the Christian Scriptures. When all the forms of
the Pagan nundination were duly complied with, the priest gave a
certificate to the parents of the regenerated infant; it was, therefore,
duly recognized as a legitimate member of the family and of society, and
the day was spent in feasting and hilarity.[321:3]
Adults were also baptized; and those who were initiated in the sacred
rites of the _Bacchic_ mysteries were regenerated and admitted by
baptism, just as they were admitted into the mysteries of Mithra.[321:4]
Justin Martyr, like his brother Tertullian, claimed that this ablution
was invented by demons, in imitation of the _true_ baptism, that their
votaries might also have their pretended purification by water.[321:5]
Infant Baptism was practiced among the ancient inhabitants of northern
Europe--the Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and Icelanders--long before the
first dawn of Christianity had reached those parts. Water was poured on
the head of the new-born child, and a name was given it at the same
time. Baptism is expressly mentioned in the _Hava-mal_ and _Rigs-mal_,
and alluded to in other epic poems.[322:1]
The ancient _Livonians_ (inhabitants of the three modern Baltic
provinces of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia), observed the same
ceremony; which also prevailed among the ancient _Germans_. This is
expressly stated in a letter which the famous Pope Gregory III. sent to
their apostle Boniface, directing him how to act in respect to
it.[322:2]
The same ceremony was performed by the ancient Druids of Britain.[322:3]
Among the _New Zealanders_ young children were baptized. After the
ceremony of baptism had taken place, prayers were offered to make the
child sacred, and clean from all impurities.[322:4]
The ancient _Mexicans_ baptized their children shortly after birth.
After the relatives had assembled in the court of the parents' house,
the midwife placed the child's head to the east, and prayed for a
blessing from the _Saviour_ Quetzalcoatle, and the goddess of the water.
The breast of the child was then touched with the fingers dipped in
water, and the following prayer said:
"May it (the water) destroy and separate from thee all the
evil that was beginning in thee before the beginning of the
world."
After this the child's body was washed with water, and all things that
might injure him were requested to depart from him, "that now he may
live again and be born again."[322:5]
Mr. Prescott alludes to it as follows, in his "Conquest of
Mexico:"[322:6]
"The lips and bosom of the infant were sprinkled with water,
and the Lord was implored to permit the holy drops to wash
away that sin that was given to it before the foundation of
the world, so that the child might be born anew." "This
interesting rite, usually solemnized with great formality, in
the presence of assembled friends and relations, is detailed
with minuteness by Sahagun and by Zuazo, both of them
eyewitnesses."
Rev. J. P. Lundy says:
"Now, as baptism of some kind has been the _universal custom_
of all religious nations and peoples for purification and
regeneration, it is not to be wondered at that it had found
its way from high Asia, the centre of the Old World's religion
and civilization, into the American continent. . . .
"American priests were found in Mexico, beyond Darien,
baptizing boys and girls a year old in the temples at the
cross, pouring the water upon them from a small
pitcher."[323:1]
The water which they used was called the "WATER OF REGENERATION."[323:2]
The Rev. Father Acosta alludes to this baptism by saying:
"The Indians had an infinite number of other ceremonies and
customs which resembled to the ancient law of Moses, and some
to those which the Moores use, and some approaching near to
the Law of the Gospel, as the baths or _Opacuna_, as they
called them; _they did wash themselves in water to cleanse
themselves from sin_."[323:3]
After speaking of "_confession which the Indians used_," he says:
"When the Inca had been confessed, he made a certain bath to
cleanse himself, in a running river, saying these words: '_I
have told my sins to the Sun_ (his god); _receive them, O thou
River, and carry them to the Sea, where they may never appear
more._'"[323:4]
He tells us that the Mexicans also had a baptism for infants, which they
performed with great ceremony.[323:5]
Baptism was also practiced in Yucatan. They administered it to children
three years old; and called it REGENERATION.[323:6]
The ancient Peruvians also baptized their children.[323:7]
History, then, records the fact that all the principal nations of
antiquity administered the rite of baptism to their children, and to
adults who were initiated into the sacred mysteries. The words
"_regenerationem et impunitatem perjuriorum suorum_"--used by the
heathen in this ceremony--prove that the doctrines as well as the
outward forms were the same. The giving of a name to the child, the
marking of him with the _cross_ as a sign of his being a soldier of
Christ, followed at fifteen years of age by his admission into the
mysteries of the ceremony of _confirmation_, also prove that the two
institutions are identical. But the most striking feature of all is the
_regeneration_--and consequent forgiveness of sins--the being "_born
again_." This shows that the Christian baptism in _doctrine_ as well as
in _outward ceremony_, was precisely that of the heathen. We have seen
that it was supposed to destroy all the evil in him, and all things that
might injure him were requested to depart from him. So likewise among
the Christians; the priest, looking upon the child, and baptizing him,
was formerly accustomed to say:
"I command thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father,
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou come out and
depart from this infant, whom our Lord Jesus Christ has
vouchsafed to call to this holy baptism, to be made member of
his body and of his holy congregation. And presume not
hereafter to exercise any tyranny towards this infant, whom
Christ hath bought with his precious blood, and by this holy
baptism called to be of his flock."
The ancients also baptized with _fire_ as well as water. This is what is
alluded to many times in the gospels; for instance, Matt. (iii. 11)
makes John say, "I, indeed, baptize you with water; he shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with FIRE."
The baptism by _fire_ was in use by the Romans; it was performed by
jumping _three times_ through the flames of a sacred fire. This is still
practiced in India. Even at the present day, in some parts of Scotland,
it is a custom at the baptism of children to swing them in their clothes
over a fire _three times_, saying, "_Now, fire, burn this child, or
never._" Here is evidently a relic of the heathen _baptism by fire_.
Christian baptism was not originally intended to be administered to
unconscious infants, but to persons in full possession of their
faculties, and responsible for their actions. Moreover, it was
performed, as is well known, not merely by sprinkling the forehead, but
by causing the candidate to descend naked into the water, the priest
joining him there, and pouring the water over his head. The catechumen
could not receive baptism until after he understood something of the
nature of the faith he was embracing, and was prepared to assume its
obligations. A rite more totally unfitted for administration to
_infants_ could hardly have been found. Yet such was the need that was
felt for a solemn recognition by religion of the entrance of a child
into the world, that this rite, in course of time, completely lost its
original nature, and, as with the heathen, _infancy_ took the place of
maturity: sprinkling of immersion. But while the age and manner of
baptism were altered, the ritual remained under the influence of the
primitive idea with which it had been instituted. The obligations were
no longer confined to the persons baptized, hence they must be
undertaken for them. Thus was the Christian Church landed in the
absurdity--unparalleled, we believe, in any other natal ceremony--of
requiring the most solemn promises to be made, not by those who were
thereafter to fulfill them, _but by others in their name_; these others
having no power to enforce their fulfillment, and neither those actually
assuming the engagement, nor those on whose behalf it was assumed, being
morally responsible in case it should be broken. Yet this strange
incongruity was forced upon the church by an imperious want of human
nature itself, and the insignificant sects who have adopted the baptism
of adults only, have failed, in their zeal for historical consistency,
to recognize a sentiment whose roots lie far deeper than the
chronological foundation of Christian rites, and stretch far wider than
the geographical boundaries of the Christian faith.
The intention of all these forms of baptism is identical. Water, as the
natural means of physical cleansing, is the universal symbol of
spiritual purification. Hence immersion, or washing, or sprinkling,
implies the deliverance of the infant from the stain of original
sin.[325:1] The _Pagan_ and _Christian_ rituals, as we have seen, are
perfectly clear on this head. In both, the avowed intention is to wash
away the sinful nature common to humanity; in both, the infant is
declared to be born again by the agency of water. Among the early
Christians, as with the Pagans, the sacrament of baptism was supposed to
contain a full and absolute expiation of sin; and the soul was instantly
restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise of eternal
salvation. Among the proselytes of Christianity, there were many who
judged it imprudent to precipitate a salutary rite, which could not be
repeated; to throw away an inestimable privilege, which could never be
recovered. By the delay of their baptism, they could venture freely to
indulge their passions in the enjoyments of this world, while they still
retained in their own hands the means of a sure and easy absolution. St.
Constantine was one of these.
FOOTNOTES:
[316:1] The Rev. Dr. Geikie makes the assertion that: "With the call to
repent, John united a significant rite for all who were willing to own
their sins, and promise amendment of life. It was the _new_ and striking
requirement of baptism, _which John had been sent by divine appointment
to_ INTRODUCE." (Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 394.)
[316:2] See Galatians, ii. 7-9. Acts, x. and xi.
[316:3] See The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. pp. 658 and 472.
[316:4] See Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 7, ch. ii.
[316:5] Monumental Christianity, p. 385.
[317:1] "Among all nations, and from the very earliest period, WATER has
been used as a species of religious sacrament. . . . Water was the agent
by means of which everything was _regenerated or born again_. Hence, in
all nations, we find the Dove, or Divine Love, operating by means of its
agent, water, and all nations using the ceremony of plunging, or, as we
call it, baptizing, for the remission of sins, to introduce the
candidate to a regeneration, to a new birth unto righteousness."
(Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 529.)
"Baptism is a very ancient rite pertaining to _heathen_ religions,
whether of Asia, Africa, Europe or America." (Bonwick: Egyptian Belief,
p. 416.)
"Baptism, or purification by water, was a ceremony common to all
religions of antiquity. It consists in being made clean from some
supposed pollution or defilement." (Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 201.)
"L'usage de ce _Baptéme_ par immersion, qui subsista dans l'Occident
jusqu' au 8{e} ciècle, se maintient encore dans l'Eglise Greque: c'est
celui que Jean le _Précurseur_ administra, dans le Jourdain, à Jesus
Christ même. Il fut pratiqué chez les Juifs, chez les Grecs, _et chez
presque tous les peuples_, bien des siècles _avant_ l'existence de la
religion Chrétienne." (D'Ancarville: Res., vol. i. p. 292.)
[317:2] See Amberly's Analysis, p. 61. Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 42.
Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 69, and Lillie's Buddhism, pp. 55 and
184.
[317:3] Lillie's Buddhism, p. 134.
[318:1] Life and Religion of the Hindus, p. 94.
[318:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 125.
"Every orthodox Hindu is perfectly persuaded that the dirtiest water, if
taken from a _sacred stream_ and applied to his body, either externally
or internally, _will purify his soul_." (Prof. Monier Williams:
Hinduism, p. 157.) The Egyptians bathed in the water of the Nile; the
Chaldeans and Persians in the Euphrates, and the Hindus, at we have
seen, in the Ganges, all of which were considered as "sacred waters" by
the different nations. The Jews looked upon the Jordan in the same
manner.
Herodotus, speaking of the Persians' manners, says:
"They (the Persians) neither make water, nor spit, nor wash their hands
in a river, nor defile the stream with urine, nor do they allow any one
else to do so, but they pay extreme veneration to all rivers." (Hist.
lib. i. ch. 138.)
[318:3] Williams' Hinduism, p. 176.
[318:4] Hist. Manichee, lib. ix. ch. vi. sect. xvi. in Anac., vol. ii.
p. 65. See also, Dupuis: Orig. Relig. Belief, p. 249, and Baring-Gould:
Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.
[318:5] "Pro infantibus non utuntur circumcisione, sed tantum baptismo
seu lotione ad animæ purificationem internam. Infantem ad sacerdotem in
ecclesiam adductum sistunt coram sole et igne, quâ factâ ceremoniâ,
eundem sanctiorem existimant. D. Lord dicit quod aquam ad hoc afferunt
in cortice arboris Holm: ea autem arbor revers est Haum Magorum, cujus
mentionem aliâ occasione supra fecimus. Alias, aliquando fit immergendo
in magnum vas aquæ, ut dicit Tavernier. Post talem lotionem seu
baptismum, sacerdos imponit nomen à parentibus inditum." (Hyde de Rel.
Vet. Pers., p. 414.) After this Hyde goes on to say, that when he comes
to be fifteen years of age he is confirmed by receiving the girdle, and
the sudra or cassock.
[319:1] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. xxv. Higgins: _Anac._, vol.
i pp. 218 and 222. Dunlap: Mysteries of Adoni, p. 189. King: The
Gnostics and their Remains, p. 51.
[319:2] De Præscrip. ch. xi.
[319:3] Ibid.
[319:4] "Mithra signat illic in frontibus milites suos."
[319:5] "Semper enim cruci baptismus jungitur." (Aug. Temp. Ser. ci.)
[319:6] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 69, and Monumental Christianity, p.
385.
[319:7] "Sacerdos, stipatum me religiosa cohorte, deducit ad proximas
balucas; et prius sueto lavraco traditum, prœfatus deûm veniam,
purissimē circumrorans abluit." (Apuleius: Milesi, ii. citat. a
Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. p. 69.)
[320:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 416. Dunlap: Mysteries Adoni, p.
139.
[320:2] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.
[320:3] See Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. pp. 67-69.
[320:4] Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 38. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p.
65.
[320:5] Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 41.
[320:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 121, Gainsburgh's Essenes, and
Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 66, 67.
[321:1] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 391.
[321:2] "_Holy Water_"--water wherein the person is baptized, in the
name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Church of
England Catechism.)
[321:3] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 333, 334, and Higgins' Anacalypsis,
ii. p. 65.
[321:4] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 80 and 232, and Baring-Gould's Orig.
Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 391.
"De-là-vint, que pour devenir capable d'entendre les secrets de la
création, révélés dans ces mêmes mystères, il fallut se faire
_régénérer_ par _l'initiation_. Cette cérémonie, par laquelle, _on
apprenoit les vrais principes de la vie_, s'opéroit par le moyen de
_l'eau_ qui voit été celui de la _régénération_ du monde. On conduisoit
sur les bords de l'Ilissus le candidat qui devoit être initié; apres
l'avoir purifié avec le sel et l'eau de la mer, on repandoit de l'orge
sur lui, on le couronnoit de fleurs, et _l'Hydranos_ ou le _Baptisseur_
le plongeoit dans le fleuve." (D'Ancarville: Res., vol. i. p. 292.
Anac., ii. p. 65.)
[321:5] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 232.
[322:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 306, 313, 320, 366.
Baring-Gould's Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. pp. 392, 393, and Dupuis, p.
242.
[322:2] Mallet: Northern Antiquities, p. 206.
[322:3] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 393. Higgins:
Anac., vol. ii. p. 67, and Davies: Myths of the British Druids.
[322:4] Sir George Grey: Polynesian Mytho., p. 32, in Baring-Gould:
Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.
[322:5] See Viscount Amberly's Analysis Relig. Belief, p. 59.
[322:6] Vol. i. p. 64.
[323:1] Monumental Christianity, pp. 389, 390.
[323:2] Kingsborough: Mex. Antiq., vol. vi. p. 114.
[323:3] Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 369.
[323:4] Ibid. p. 361.
[323:5] Ibid. p. 369.
[323:6] Monumental Christianity, p. 390.
[323:7] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 416.
[325:1] That man is born in _original sin_ seems to have been the belief
of all nations of antiquity, especially the Hindus. This sense of
original corruption is expressed in the following prayer, used by them:
"I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, _I am conceived in
sin_. Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Heri, the remover of Sin." (Williams'
Hinduism, p. 214.)
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER.
The worship of the "Virgin," the "Queen of Heaven," the "Great Goddess,"
the "Mother of God," &c., which has become one of the grand features of
the Christian religion--the Council of Ephesus (A. D. 431) having
declared Mary "Mother of God," her assumption being declared in 813, and
her Immaculate Conception by the Pope and Council in 1851[326:1]--was
almost universal, for ages before the birth of Jesus, and "the _pure
virginity_ of the celestial mother was a tenet of faith for two thousand
years before the virgin now adored was born."[326:2]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 16]
In _India_, they have worshiped, for ages, _Devi_, _Maha-Devi_--"The One
Great Goddess"[326:3]--and have temples erected in honor of her.[326:4]
Gonzales states that among the Indians he found a temple "_Parituræ
Virginis_"--of the Virgin about to bring forth.[326:5]
_Maya_, the mother of Buddha, and _Devaki_ the mother of Crishna, were
worshiped as _virgins_,[326:6] and represented with the infant Saviours
in their arms, just as the virgin of the Christians is represented at
the present day. Maya was so pure that it was impossible for God, man,
or Asura to view her with carnal desire. Fig. No. 16 is a
representation of the Virgin Devaki, with, the infant Saviour Crishna,
taken from Moor's "Hindu Pantheon."[327:1] "No person could bear to gaze
upon Devaki, because of the light that invested her." "The gods,
invisible to mortals, celebrated her praise continually from the time
that _Vishnu_ was contained in her person."[327:2]
"Crishna and his mother are almost always represented _black_,"[327:3]
and the word "_Crishna_" means "_the black_."
The _Chinese_, who have had several _avatars_, or virgin-born gods,
among them, have also worshiped a Virgin Mother from time immemorial.
Sir Charles Francis Davis, in his "History of China," tells us that the
Chinese at Canton worshiped an idol, to which they gave the name of "The
Virgin."[327:4]
The Rev. Joseph B. Gross, in his "Heathen Religion," tells us that:
"Upon the altars of the Chinese temples were placed, behind a
screen, an image of _Shin-moo_, or the '_Holy Mother_,'
_sitting with a child in her arms_, in an alcove, with rays of
glory around her head, and tapers constantly burning before
her."[327:5]
Shin-moo is called the "Mother Goddess," and the "Virgin." Her child,
who was exposed in his infancy, was brought up by poor fishermen. He
became a great man, and performed wonderful miracles. In wealthy houses
the sacred image of the "Mother Goddess" is carefully kept in a recess
behind an altar, veiled with a silken screen.[327:6]
The Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, in his "Travels," speaking of the Chinese people,
says:
"Though otherwise very reasonable men, they have always showed
themselves bigoted heathens. . . . They have everywhere built
splendid temples, chiefly in honor of _Ma-tsoo-po_, the
'_Queen of Heaven_.'"[327:7]
_Isis_, mother of the Egyptian Saviour, Horus, was worshiped as a
virgin. Nothing is more common on the religious monuments of Egypt than
the infant Horus seated in the lap of his virgin mother. She is styled
"Our Lady," the "Queen of Heaven," "Star of the Sea," "Governess,"
"Mother of God," "Intercessor," "Immaculate Virgin," &c.;[328:1] all of
which epithets were in after years applied to the Virgin Mother
worshiped by the Christians.[328:2]
"The most common representation of Horus is being nursed on the knee of
Isis, or suckled at her breast."[328:3] In _Monumental Christianity_
(Fig. 92), is to be seen a representation of "Isis and Horus." The
infant Saviour is sitting on his mother's knee, while she gazes into his
face. A cross is on the back of the seat. The author, Rev. J. P. Lundy,
says, in speaking of it:
"Is this Egyptian mother, too, meditating her son's conflict,
suffering, and triumph, as she holds him before her and gazes
into his face? And is this CROSS meant to convey the idea of
life through suffering, and conflict with Typho or Evil?"
In some statues and _basso-relievos_, when Isis appears alone, she is
entirely veiled from head to foot, in common with nearly every other
goddess, as a symbol of a mother's chastity. No mortal man hath ever
lifted her veil.
Isis was also represented standing on the _crescent_ moon, with _twelve
stars_ surrounding her head.[328:4] In almost every Roman Catholic
Church on the continent of Europe may be seen pictures and statues of
_Mary_, the "Queen of Heaven," standing on the crescent moon, and her
head surrounded with _twelve_ stars.
Dr. Inman, in his "Pagan and Christian Symbolism," gives a figure of the
Virgin Mary, with her infant, standing on the _crescent moon_. In
speaking of this figure, he says:
"In it the Virgin is seen as the 'Queen of Heaven,' nursing
her infant, and identified with the crescent moon. . . . Than
this, nothing could more completely identify the Christian
mother and child, with Isis and Horus."[328:5]
This _crescent moon_ is the symbol of Isis and Juno, and is the _Yoni_
of the Hindoos.[328:6]
The priests of Isis yearly dedicated to her a new ship (emblematic of
the YONI), laden with the first fruits of spring. Strange as it may
seem, the carrying in procession of ships, in which the Virgin Mary
takes the place of the heathen goddesses, has not yet wholly gone out of
use.[328:7]
Isis is also represented, with the infant Saviour in her arms, enclosed
in a framework of the flowers of the Egyptian bean, or _lotus_.[328:8]
The Virgin _Mary_ is very often represented in this manner, as those who
have studied mediæval art, well know.
Dr. Inman, describing a painting of the Virgin Mary, which is to be
seen in the South Kensington Museum, and which is enclosed in a
framework of flowers, says:
"It represents the Virgin and Child precisely as she used to
be represented in Egypt, in India, in Assyria, Babylonia,
Phœnicia, and Etruria."[329:1]
The lotus and poppy were sacred among all Eastern nations, and were
consecrated to the various virgins worshiped by them. These virgins are
represented holding this plant in their hands, just as the Virgin,
adored by the Christians, is represented at the present day.[329:2] Mr.
Squire, speaking of this plant, says:
"It is well known that the '_Nymphe_'--lotus or water-lily--is
held sacred throughout the East, and the various sects of that
quarter of the globe represented their deities either
decorated with its flowers, holding it as a sceptre, or seated
on a lotus throne or pedestal. _Lacshmi_, the beautiful Hindoo
goddess, is associated with the lotus. The Egyptian _Isis_ is
often called the 'Lotus-_crowned_,' in the ancient
invocations. The Mexican goddess _Corieotl_, is often
represented with a water-plant resembling the lotus in her
hand."[329:3]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 17]
In Egyptian and Hindoo mythology, the offspring of the virgin is made to
bruise the head of the serpent, but the Romanists have given this office
to the mother. Mary is often seen represented standing on the serpent.
Fig. 17 alludes to this, and to her _immaculate conception_, which, as
we have seen, was declared by the Pope and council in 1851. The notion
of the divinity of Mary was broached by some at the Council of Nice, and
they were thence named Marianites.
The Christian Father Epiphanius accounts for the fact of the Egyptians
worshiping a virgin and child, by declaring that the prophecy--"Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son"--must have been revealed
to them.[329:4]
In an ancient Christian work, called the "Chronicle of Alexandria,"
occurs the following:
"Watch how Egypt has constructed the childbirth of a virgin,
and the birth of her son, _who was exposed in a crib to the
adoration of the people_."[330:1]
We have another Egyptian Virgin Mother in Neith or Nout, mother of
"Osiris the Saviour." She was known as the "Great Mother," and yet
"Immaculate Virgin."[330:2] M. Beauregard speaks of
"The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin (Mary), who can
henceforth, as well as the Egyptian Minerva, the mysterious
Neith, boast of having come from herself, and of having given
birth to god."[330:3]
What is known in Christian countries as "Candlemas day," or the
Purification of the Virgin Mary, is of Egyptian origin. The feast of
Candlemas was kept by the ancient Egyptians in honor of the goddess
Neith, and on the very day that is marked on our Christian almanacs as
"Candlemas day."[330:4]
The ancient _Chaldees_ believed in a celestial virgin, who had purity of
body, loveliness of person, and tenderness of affection; and who was one
to whom the erring sinner could appeal with more chance of success than
to a stern father. She was portrayed as a mother, although a virgin,
with a child in her arms.[330:5]
The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians worshiped a goddess mother, and
son, who was represented in pictures and in images as an infant in his
mother's arms (see Fig. No. 18). Her name was _Mylitta_, the divine son
was _Tammuz_, the Saviour, whom we have seen rose from the dead. He was
invested with all his father's attributes and glory, and identified with
him. He was worshiped as _mediator_.[330:6]
There was a temple at Paphos, in Cyprus, dedicated to the Virgin
Mylitta, and was the most celebrated one in Grecian times.[330:7]
The ancient _Etruscans_ worshiped a Virgin Mother and Son, who was
represented in pictures and images in the arms of his mother. This was
the goddess _Nutria_, to be seen in Fig. No. 19. On the arm of the
mother is an inscription in Etruscan letters. This goddess was also
worshiped in Italy. Long before the Christian era temples and statues
were erected in memory of her. "To the Great Goddess Nutria," is an
inscription which has been found among the ruins of a temple dedicated
to her. No doubt the Roman Church would have claimed her for a Madonna,
but most unluckily for them, she has the name "_Nutria_," in Etruscan
letters on her arm, after the Etruscan practice.
The Egyptian _Isis_ was also worshiped in Italy, many centuries before
the Christian era, and all images of her, with the infant Horus in her
arms, have been adopted, as we shall presently see, by the Christians,
even though they represent her and her child as _black_ as an Ethiopian,
in the same manner as we have seen that Devaki and Crishna were
represented.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 18]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 19]
The children of Israel, who, as we have seen in a previous chapter, were
idolaters of the worst kind--worshiping the sun, moon and stars, and
offering human sacrifices to their god, Moloch--were also worshipers of
a Virgin Mother, whom they styled the "Queen of Heaven."
Jeremiah, who appeared in Jerusalem about the year 625 B. C., and who
was one of the prophets and reformers, rebukes the Israelites for their
idolatry and worship of the "Queen of Heaven," whereupon they answer him
as follows:
"As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us, in the name of
the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly
do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn
incense unto the _Queen of Heaven_, and to pour out drink
offerings unto her, _as we have done, we, and our fathers, our
kings, and our princes, in the city of Judah, and in the
streets of Jerusalem_: for then we had plenty of victuals, and
were well, and saw no evil.
"But since we left off to burn incense to the _Queen of
Heaven_, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have
wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by
the famine. And when we burned incense to the _Queen of
Heaven_, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make
her _cakes_ to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto
her, without our men?"[332:1]
The "_cakes_" which were offered to the "Queen of Heaven" by the
Israelites were marked with a _cross_, or other symbol of sun
worship.[332:2] The ancient Egyptians also put a cross on their "sacred
cakes."[332:3] Some of the early Christians offered "sacred cakes" to
the Virgin Mary centuries after.[332:4]
The ancient Persians worshiped the Virgin and Child. On the monuments of
Mithra, the Saviour, the Mediating and Redeeming God of the Persians,
the Virgin Mother of this god is to be seen suckling her infant.[332:5]
The ancient Greeks and Romans worshiped the Virgin Mother and Child for
centuries before the Christian era. One of these was _Myrrha_,[332:6]
the mother of _Bacchus_, the Saviour, who was represented with the
infant in her arms. She had the title of "Queen of Heaven."[332:7] At
many a _Christian_ shrine the infant Saviour Bacchus may be seen
reposing in the arms of his deified mother. The names are changed--the
ideas remain as before.[332:8]
The Rev. Dr. Stuckley writes:
"Diodorus says Bacchus was born of Jupiter, the Supreme God,
and Ceres (Myrrha). Both Ceres and Proserpine were called
_Virgo_ (Virgin). The story of this woman being deserted by a
man, and espoused by a god, has somewhat so exceedingly like
that passage, Matt. i. 19, 20, of the blessed Virgin's
history, that we should wonder at it, _did we not see the
parallelism infinite between the sacred and the profane
history before us_.
"There are many similitudes between the Virgin (Mary) and the
mother of Bacchus (also called Mary--see note 6 below)--in all
the old fables. Mary, or Miriam, St. Jerome interprets Myrrha
Maris. Orpheus calls the mother of Bacchus a _Sea Goddess_
(and the mother of Jesus is called '_Mary, Star of the
Sea_.'")[332:9]
Thus we see that the reverend and learned Dr. Stuckley has clearly made
out that the story of Mary, the "Queen of Heaven," the "Star of the
Sea," the mother of the Lord, with her translation to heaven, &c., was
an _old story_ long before Jesus of Nazareth was born. After this
Stuckley observes that the _Pagan_ "Queen of Heaven" has upon her head a
crown of twelve stars. This, as we have observed above, is the case of
the _Christian_ "Queen of Heaven" in almost every Romish church on the
continent of Europe.
The goddess _Cybele_ was another. She was equally called the "Queen of
Heaven" and the "Mother of God." As devotees now collect alms in the
name of the Virgin Mary, so did they in ancient times in the name of
Cybele. The _Galli_ now used in the churches of Italy, were anciently
used in the worship of Cybele (called _Galliambus_, and sang by her
priests). "Our Lady Day," or the day of the Blessed Virgin of the Roman
Church, was heretofore dedicated to Cybele.[333:1]
_Minerva_, who was distinguished by the title of "Virgin Queen,"[333:2]
was extensively worshiped in ancient Greece. Among the innumerable
temples of Greece, the most beautiful was the _Parthenon_, meaning, the
_Temple of the Virgin Goddess_. It was a magnificent Doric edifice,
dedicated to Minerva, the presiding deity of Athens.
_Juno_ was called the "Virgin Queen of Heaven."[333:3] She was
represented, like _Isis_ and _Mary_, standing on the crescent
moon,[333:4] and was considered the special protectress of women, from
the cradle to the grave, just as Mary is considered at the present day.
_Diana_, who had the title of "Mother," was nevertheless famed for her
virginal purity.[333:5] She was represented, like _Isis_ and _Mary_,
with stars surrounding her head.[333:6]
The ancient _Muscovites_ worshiped a sacred group, composed of a woman
with a _male child_ in her lap, and another _standing by her_. They had
likewise another idol, called _the golden heifer_, which, says Mr.
Knight, "seems to have been the animal _symbol_ of the same
personage."[333:7] Here we have the Virgin and infant Saviour, with the
companion (John the Baptist), and "The _Lamb_ that taketh away the sins
of the world," among the ancient _Muscovites_ before the time of Christ
Jesus. This goddess had also the title of "Queen of Heaven."[334:1]
The ancient _Germans_ worshiped a virgin goddess under the the name of
_Hertha_, or Ostara, who was fecundated by the active spirit, _i. e._,
the "Holy Spirit."[334:2] She was represented in images as a woman with
a child in her arms. This image was common in their consecrated forests,
and was held peculiarly sacred.[334:3] The Christian celebration called
_Easter_ derived its _name_ from this goddess.
The ancient _Scandinavians_ worshiped a virgin goddess called Disa. Mr.
R. Payne Knight tells us that:
"This goddess is delineated on the sacred drums of the
Laplanders, _accompanied by a child_, similar to the _Horus_
of the Egyptians, who so often appears in the lap of Isis on
the religious monuments of that people."[334:4]
The ancient _Scandinavians_ also worshiped the goddess Frigga. She was
mother of "Baldur the Good," his father being Odin, the supreme god of
the northern nations. It was she who was addressed, as Mary is at the
present day, in order to obtain happy marriages and easy childbirths.
The Eddas style her the most favorable of the goddesses.[334:5]
In _Gaul_, the ancient Druids worshiped the _Virgo-Paritura_ as the
"Mother of God," and a festival was annually celebrated in honor of this
virgin.[334:6]
In the year 1747 a monument was found at Oxford, England, of pagan
origin, on which is exhibited a female nursing an infant.[334:7] Thus we
see that the Virgin and Child were worshiped, in pagan times, from China
to Britain, and, if we turn to the New World, we shall find the same
thing there; for, in the words of Dr. Inman, "even in Mexico the 'Mother
and Child' were worshiped."[334:8]
This mother, who had the title of "Virgin," and "Queen of
Heaven,"[334:9] was Chimalman, or Sochiquetzal, and the infant was
Quetzalcoatle, the crucified Saviour. Lord Kingsborough says:
"She who represented 'Our Lady' (among the ancient Mexicans)
had her hair tied up in the manner in which the Indian women
tie and fasten their hair, and in the knot behind was
inserted a small _cross_, by which it was intended to show
that she was the Most Holy."[335:1]
The Mexicans had pictures of this "Heavenly Goddess" on long pieces of
leather, which they rolled up.[335:2]
The annunciation to the Virgin Chimalman, that she should become the
mother of the Saviour Quetzalcoatle, was the subject of a Mexican
hieroglyphic, and is remarkable in more than one respect. She appears to
be receiving a bunch of flowers from the embassador or angel,[335:3]
which brings to mind the _lotus_, the sacred plant of the East, which is
placed in the hands of the Pagan and Christian virgins.
The 25th of March, which was celebrated throughout the ancient Grecian
and Roman world, in honor of "the Mother of the Gods," was appointed to
the honor of the Christian "Mother of God," and is now celebrated in
Catholic countries, and called "Lady day."[335:4] The festival of the
conception of the "Blessed Virgin Mary" is also held on the very day
that the festival of the miraculous conception of the "Blessed Virgin
Juno" was held among the pagans,[335:5] which, says the author of the
"Perennial Calendar," "is a remarkable coincidence."[335:6] It is not
such a very "remarkable coincidence" after all, when we find that, even
as early as the time of St. Gregory, Bishop of Neo-Cæsarea, who
flourished about A. D. 240-250, Pagan festivals were changed into
Christian holidays. This saint was commended by his namesake of Nyssa
for changing the Pagan festivals into Christian holidays, the better to
draw the heathens to the religion of Christ.[335:7]
The month of _May_, which was dedicated to the heathen Virgin Mothers,
is also the month of Mary, the Christian Virgin.
Now that we have seen that the worship of the Virgin and Child was
universal for ages before the Christian era, we shall say a few words on
the subject of pictures and images of the Madonna--so called.
The most ancient pictures and statues in Italy and other parts of
Europe, of what are supposed to be representations of the Virgin _Mary_
and the infant Jesus, are _black_. The infant god, in the arms of his
black mother, his eyes and drapery white, is himself perfectly
black.[335:8]
Godfrey Higgins, on whose authority we have stated the above, informs us
that, at the time of his writing--1825-1835--images and paintings of
this kind were to be seen at the cathedral of Moulins; the famous chapel
of "the Virgin" at Loretto; the church of the Annunciation, the church
of St. Lazaro, and the church of St. Stephens, at _Genoa_; St. Francis,
at _Pisa_; the church at _Brixen_, in the Tyrol; the church at _Padua_;
the church of St. Theodore, at _Munich_--in the two last of which the
white of the eyes and teeth, and the studied redness of the lips, are
very observable.[336:1]
"The _Bambino_[336:2] at _Rome_ is black," says Dr. Inman, "and so are
the Virgin and Child at Loretto."[336:3] Many more are to be seen in
Rome, and in innumerable other places; in fact, says Mr. Higgins,
"There is scarcely an old church in Italy where some remains
of the worship of the _black Virgin_, and _black child_, are
not met with;" and that "pictures in great numbers are to be
met with, where the white of the eyes, and of the teeth, and
the lips a little tinged with red, like the black figures in
the museum of the Indian company."[336:4]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 20]
Fig. No. 20 is a copy of the image of the Virgin of Loretto. Dr. Conyers
Middleton, speaking of it, says:
"The mention of Loretto puts me in mind of the surprise that I
was in at the first sight of the Holy Image, for its face is
as black as a negro's. But I soon recollected, that this very
circumstance of its complexion made it but resemble the more
exactly the _old idols of Paganism_."[336:5]
The reason assigned by the Christian priests for the images being black,
is that they are made so by smoke and incense, but, we may ask, if they
became black by smoke, why is it that the _white_ drapery, _white_
teeth, and the _white_ of the eyes have not changed in color? Why are
the lips of a bright red color? Why, we may also ask, are the black
images crowned and adorned with jewels, just as the images of the Hindoo
and Egyptian virgins are represented?
When we find that the Virgin Devaki, and the Virgin Isis were
represented just as these so-called _ancient Christian_ idols represent
Mary, we are led to the conclusion that they are Pagan idols adopted by
the Christians.
We may say, in the words of Mr. Lundy, "what jewels are doing on the
neck of this poor and lowly maid, it is not easy to say."[337:1] The
_crown_ is also foreign to early representations of the Madonna and
Child, but not so to Devaki and Crishna,[337:2] and Isis and Horus. The
_coronation_ of the Virgin Mary is unknown to primitive Christian art,
but is common in Pagan art.[337:3] "It may be well," says Mr. Lundy, "to
compare some of the oldest _Hindoo_ representations of the subject with
the Romish, and see how complete the resemblance is;"[337:4] and Dr.
Inman says that, "the head-dress, as put on the head of the Virgin Mary,
is of Grecian, Egyptian, and Indian origin."[337:5]
The whole secret of the fact of these early representations of the
Virgin Mary and Jesus--so-called--being _black_, crowned, and covered
with jewels, is that they are of pre-Christian origin; they are _Isis_
and _Horus_, and perhaps, in some cases, Devaki and Crishna, baptized
anew.
The Egyptian "Queen of Heaven" was worshiped in Europe for centuries
before and after the Christian Era.[337:6] Temples and statues were also
erected in honor of Isis, one of which was at Bologna, in Italy.
Mr. King tells us that the Emperor Hadrian zealously strove to reanimate
the forms of that old religion, whose spirit had long since passed away,
and it was under his patronage that the creed of the Pharaohs blazed up
for a moment with a bright but fictitious lustre.[337:7] To this period
belongs a beautiful sard, in Mr. King's collection, representing
Serapis[337:8] and Isis, with the legend: "Immaculate is Our Lady
Isis."[337:9]
Mr. King further tells us that:
"The '_Black Virgins_' so highly reverenced in certain French
cathedrals during the long night of the middle ages, proved,
when at last examined critically, basalt figures of
Isis."[337:10]
And Mr. Bonwick says:
"We may be surprised that, as Europe has _Black_ Madonnas,
Egypt had _Black_ images and pictures of Isis. At the same
time it is a little odd that the Virgin Mary copies most
honored should not only be _Black_, but have a decided _Isis
cast_ of feature."[338:1]
The shrine now known as that of the "Virgin in Amadon," in France, was
formerly an old Black _Venus_.[338:2]
"To this we may add," (says Dr. Inman), "that at the Abbey of
Einsiedelen, on Lake Zurich, the object of adoration is an old
_black doll_, dressed in gold brocade, and glittering with
jewels. She is called, apparently, the Virgin of the Swiss
Mountains. My friend, Mr. Newton, also tells me that he saw,
over a church door at Ivrea, in Italy, twenty-nine miles from
Turin, the fresco of a _Black_ Virgin and child, the former
bearing a _triple crown_."[338:3]
This _triple crown_ is to be seen on the heads of Pagan gods and
goddesses, especially those of the Hindoos.
Dr. Barlow says:
"The doctrine of the Mother of God was of Egyptian origin. It
was brought in along with the worship of the Madonna by Cyril
(Bishop of Alexandria, and the Cyril of Hypatia) and the monks
of Alexandria, in the fifth century. The earliest
representations of the Madonna have quite a Greco-Egyptian
character, and there can be little doubt that Isis nursing
Horus was the origin of them all."[338:4]
And Arthur Murphy tells us that:
"The superstition and religious ceremonies of the _Egyptians_
were diffused over Asia, Greece, _and the rest of Europe_.
Brotier says, that inscriptions of Isis and Serapis (Horus?)
have been frequently found in _Germany_. . . . The missionaries
who went in the eighth and ninth centuries to propagate the
Christian religion in those parts, _saw many images and
statues of these gods_."[338:5]
These "many images and statues of these gods" were evidently baptized
anew, given other names, and allowed to remain where they were.
In many parts of Italy are to be seen pictures of the Virgin with her
infant in her arms, inscribed with the words: "Deo Soli." This betrays
their Pagan origin.
FOOTNOTES:
[326:1] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 115, and Monumental
Christianity, pp. 206 and 226.
[326:2] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 159.
[326:3] See Williams' Hinduism.
[326:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 540.
[326:5] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 185.
[326:6] _St. Jerome_ says: "It is handed down as a tradition among the
Gymnosophists of India, that _Buddha_, the founder of their system was
brought forth by a virgin from her side." (_Contra Jovian_, bk. i.
Quoted in Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 183.)
[327:1] Plate 59.
[327:2] Monumental Christianity, p. 218.
Of the Virgin _Mary_ we read: "Her face was shining as snow, and its
brightness could hardly be borne. Her conversation was with the angels,
&c." (Nativity of Mary, _Apoc._)
[327:3] See Ancient Faiths, i. 401.
[327:4] Davis' China, vol. ii. p. 95.
[327:5] The Heathen Relig., p. 60.
[327:6] Barrows: Travels in China, p. 467.
[327:7] Gutzlaff's Voyages, p. 154.
[328:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 141.
[328:2] See The Lily of Israel, p. 14.
[328:3] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 425.
[328:4] See Draper's Science and Religion, pp. 47, 48, and Higgins'
Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 804.
[328:5] Pagan and Christian Symbolism, p. 50.
[328:6] See Monumental Christianity, p. 307, and Dr. Inman's Ancient
Faiths.
[328:7] See Cox's Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 119, _note_.
[328:8] See Pagan and Christian Symbolism, pp. 13, 14.
[329:1] Pagan and Christian Symbolism, pp. 4, 5.
[329:2] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 45, 104, 105.
"We see, in pictures, that the Virgin and Child are associated in modern
times with the split apricot, the pomegranate, rimmon, and the Vine,
just as was the ancient Venus." (Dr. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p.
528.)
[329:3] Serpent Symbol, p. 39.
[329:4] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 185.
[330:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 143.
[330:2] Ibid. p. 115.
[330:3] Quoted in Ibid. p. 115.
[330:4] Ibid., and Kenrick's Egypt.
[330:5] Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 59.
[330:6] See Monumental Christianity, p. 211, and Ancient Faiths, vol.
ii. p. 350.
[330:7] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 213.
[332:1] Jeremiah, xliv. 16-22.
[332:2] See Colenso's Lectures, p. 297, and Bonwick's Egyptian Belief,
p. 148.
[332:3] See the Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. p. 115, App., and
Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 148.
[332:4] See King's Gnostics, p. 91, and Monumental Christianity, p. 224.
[332:5] See Dupuis: Origin of Relig. Belief, p. 237.
[332:6] It would seem more than chance that so many of the virgin
mothers and goddesses of antiquity should have the same name. The mother
of _Bacchus_ was Myrrha: the mother of Mercury or Hermes was Myrrha or
Maia (See Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 186, and Inman's
Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 233); the mother of the Siamese
Saviour--Sommona Cadom--was called Maya Maria, _i. e._, "the Great
Mary;" the mother of Adonis was Myrrha (See Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 314,
and Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 253); the mother of Buddha was
Maya; now, all these names, whether Myrrha, Maia or Maria, are the same
as _Mary_, the name of the mother of the Christian Saviour. (See Inman's
Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 353 and 780. Also, Dunlap's Mysteries of
Adoni, p. 124.) The month of _May_ was sacred to these goddesses, so
likewise is it sacred to the Virgin Mary at the present day. _She_ was
also called Myrrha and Maria, as well as Mary. (See Anacalypsis, vol. i.
p. 304, and Son of the Man, p. 26.)
[332:7] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 303, 304.
[332:8] Prof. Wilder, in "Evolution," June, '77. Isis Unveiled, vol. ii.
[332:9] Stuckley: Pal. Sac. No. 1, p. 34, in Anacalypsis, i. p. 304.
[333:1] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 305.
[333:2] See Bell's Pantheon, and Knight: Ancient Art and Mytho., p. 175.
[333:3] See Roman Antiquities, p. 73. Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 82, and
Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 160.
[333:4] See Monumental Christianity, p. 308--Fig. 144.
[333:5] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., pp. 175, 176.
[333:6] See Montfaucon, vol. i. plate xcii.
[333:7] Knight's Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 147.
[334:1] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110.
[334:2] See Knight's Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 21.
[334:3] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 374, and Mallet: Northern
Antiquities.
[334:4] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 147.
[334:5] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
[334:6] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 108, 109, 259. Dupuis:
Orig. Relig. Belief, p. 257. Celtic Druids, p. 163, and Taylor's
Diegesis, p. 184.
[334:7] See Celtic Druids, p. 163, and Dupuis, p. 237.
[334:8] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 100.
[334:9] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 33, and Mexican Antiquities, vol.
vi. p. 176.
[335:1] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 176.
[335:2] Ibid.
[335:3] Ibid.
[335:4] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 304.
[335:5] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 82.
[335:6] Quoted in Ibid.
[335:7] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 236.
[335:8] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 138.
[336:1] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 138.
[336:2] _Bambino_--a term in art, descriptive of the swaddled figure of
the infant Saviour.
[336:3] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 401.
[336:4] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 138.
[336:5] Letters from Rome, p. 84.
[337:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 208.
[337:2] See Ibid. p. 229, and Moore's Hindu Pantheon, Inman's Christian
and Pagan Symbolism, Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii., where the figures
of Crishna and Devaki may be seen, crowned, laden with jewels, and a ray
of glory surrounding their heads.
[337:3] Monumental Christianity, p. 227.
[337:4] Ibid.
[337:5] Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 767.
[337:6] In King's Gnostics and their Remains, p. 109, the author gives a
description of a procession, given during the second century by
Apuleius, in honor of _Isis_, the "Immaculate Lady."
[337:7] King's Gnostics, p. 71.
[337:8] "Serapis does not appear to be one of the native gods, or
monsters, who sprung from the fruitful soil of Egypt. The first of the
Ptolemies had been commanded, by a dream, to import the mysterious
stranger from the coast of Pontus, where he had been long adored by the
inhabitants of Sinope; but his attributes and his reign were so
imperfectly understood, that it became a subject of dispute, whether he
represented the bright orb of day, or the gloomy monarch of the
subterraneous regions." (Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 143.)
[337:9] Ibid.
[337:10] King's Gnostics, p. 71, _note_.
[338:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 141. "_Black_ is the color of the
Egyptian Isis." (The Rosecrucians, p. 154.)
[338:2] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 159. In Montfaucon, vol. i. plate
xcv., may be seen a representation of a _Black_ Venus.
[338:3] Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 264.
[338:4] Quoted in Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 142.
[338:5] Notes 3 and 4 to Tacitus' Manners of the Germans.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS.
A thorough investigation of this subject would require a volume,
therefore, as we can devote but a chapter to it, it must necessarily be
treated somewhat slightingly.
The first of the Christian Symbols which we shall notice is the CROSS.
Overwhelming historical facts show that the cross was used, _as a
religious emblem_, many centuries before the Christian era, by every
nation in the world. Bishop Colenso, speaking on this subject, says:--
"From the dawn of organized Paganism in the Eastern world, to
the final establishment of Christianity in the West, the cross
was undoubtedly one of the commonest and most sacred of
symbolical monuments. Apart from any distinctions of social or
intellectual superiority, of caste, color, nationality, or
location in either hemisphere, it appears to have been the
aboriginal possession of every people in antiquity.
"Diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or less
artistically, according to the progress achieved in
civilization at the period, on the ruined walls of temples and
palaces, on natural rocks and sepulchral galleries, on the
hoariest monoliths and the rudest statuary; on coins, medals,
and vases of every description; and in not a few instances,
are preserved in the architectural proportions of subterranean
as well as superterranean structures of tumuli, as well as
fanes.
"Populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and
pursuits--the highly-civilized and the semi-civilized, the
settled and the nomadic--vied with each other in their
superstitious _adoration_ of it, and in their efforts to
extend the knowledge of its exceptional import and virtue
amongst their latest posterities.
"Of the several varieties of the cross still in vogue, as
national and ecclesiastical emblems, and distinguished by the
familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, the Maltese,
the Greek, the Latin, &c., &c., _there is not one amongst
them, the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest
antiquity. They were the common property of the Eastern
nations._
"That each known variety has been derived from a common
source, and is emblematical of one and the same truth may be
inferred from the fact of forms identically the same, whether
simple or complex, cropping out in contrary directions, in the
Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere."[339:1]
The cross has been adored in _India_ from time immemorial, and was a
symbol of mysterious significance in Brahmanical iconography. It was the
symbol of the Hindoo god Agni, the "Light of the World."[340:1]
In the Cave of Elephanta, over the head of the figure represented as
destroying the infants, whence the story of Herod and the infants of
Bethlehem (which was unknown to all the Jewish, Roman, and Grecian
historians) took its origin, may be seen the Mitre, the Crosier, and the
Cross.[340:2]
It is placed by Müller in the hand of Siva, Brahma, Vishnu, Crishna,
Tvashtri and Jama. To it the worshipers of Vishnu attribute as many
virtues as does the devout Catholic to the Christian cross.[340:3] Fra
Paolino tells us it was used by the ancient kings of India as a
sceptre.[340:4]
Two of the principal pagodas of India--Benares and Mathura--were erected
in the forms of vast crosses.[340:5] The pagoda at Mathura was sacred to
the memory of the Virgin-born and crucified Saviour Crishna.[340:6]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 21]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 22]
The cross has been an object of profound veneration among the Buddhists
from the earliest times. One is the sacred Swastica (Fig. No. 21). It is
seen in the old Buddhist Zodiacs, and is one of the symbols in the Asoka
inscriptions. It is the sectarian mark of the Jains, and the distinctive
badge of the sect of Xaca Japonicus. The Vaishnavas of India have also
the same sacred sign.[340:7] And, according to Arthur Lillie,[340:8]
"_the only Christian cross in the catacombs is this Buddhist Swastica_."
The cross is adored by the followers of the Lama of Thibet.[340:9] Fig.
No. 22 is a representation of the most familiar form of Buddhist cross.
The close resemblance between the ancient religion of Thibet and that
of the Christians has been noticed by many European travellers and
missionaries, among whom may be mentioned Pere Grebillon, Pere Grueber,
Horace de la Paon, D'Orville, and M. L'Abbé Huc. The Buddhists, and
indeed all the sects of India, marked their followers on the head with
the sign of the cross.[341:1] This was undoubtedly practiced by almost
all heathen nations, as we have seen in the chapter on the _Eucharist_
that the initiates into the Heathen mysteries were marked in that
manner.
The ancient _Egyptians_ adored the cross with the profoundest
veneration. This sacred symbol is to be found on many of their ancient
monuments, some of which may be seen at the present day in the British
Museum.[341:2] In the museum of the London University, a cross upon a
Calvary is to be seen upon the breast of one of the Egyptian
mummies.[341:3] Many of the Egyptian images hold a cross in their hand.
There is one now extant of the Egyptian Saviour Horus holding a cross in
his hand,[341:4] and he is represented as an infant sitting on his
mother's knee, with a cross on the back of the seat they occupy.[341:5]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 23]
The commonest of all the Egyptian crosses, the CRUX ANSATA (Fig. No. 23)
was adopted by the Christians. Thus, beside one of the Christian
inscriptions at Phile (a celebrated island lying in the midst of the
Nile) is seen both a _Maltese cross_ and a _crux ansata_.[341:6] In a
painting covering the end of a church in the cemetery of El Khargeh, in
the Great Oasis, are three of these crosses round the principal subject,
which seems to have been a figure of a saint.[341:7] In an inscription
in a Christian church to the east of the Nile, in the desert, these
crosses are also to be seen. Beside, or in the hand of, the Egyptian
gods, this symbol is generally to be seen. When the Saviour Osiris is
represented holding out the _crux ansata_ to a mortal, it signifies that
the person to whom he presents it has put off mortality, and entered on
the life to come.[341:8]
The Greek cross, and the cross of St. Anthony, are also found on
Egyptian monuments. A figure of a Shari (Fig. No. 24), from Sir Gardner
Wilkinson's book, has a necklace round his throat, from which depends a
pectoral cross. A third Egyptian cross is that represented in Fig. No.
25, which is apparently intended for a Latin cross rising out of a
heart, like the mediæval emblem of "_Cor in Cruce, Crux in Corde_:" it
is the hieroglyph of goodness.[342:1]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 24]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 25]
It is related by the ecclesiastical historians Socrates and Sozomon,
that when the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, in Egypt, was demolished
by one of the Christian emperors, beneath the foundation was discovered
a cross. The words of Socrates are as follows:
"In the temple of Serapis, now overthrown and rifled
throughout, there were found engraven in the stones certain
letters . . . resembling the form of the cross. The which when
both Christians and Ethnics beheld, every one applied to his
proper religion. The Christians affirmed that the cross was a
sign or token of the passion of Christ, and the proper
cognizance of their profession. _The Ethnics avouched that
therein was contained something in common, belonging as well
to Serapis as to Christ._"[342:2]
It should be remembered, in connection with this, that the Emperor
Hadrian saw no difference between the worshipers of Serapis and the
worshipers of Christ Jesus. In a letter to the Consul Servanus he says:
"There are there (in Egypt) _Christians_ who worship
_Serapis_, and devoted to Serapis are those who call
themselves '_Bishops of Christ_.'"[342:3]
The ancient Egyptians were in the habit of putting a cross on their
sacred cakes, just as the Christians of the present day do on Good
Friday.[342:4] The plan of the chamber of some Egyptian sepulchres has
the form of a cross,[342:5] and the cross was worn by Egyptian ladies as
an ornament, in precisely the same manner as Christian ladies wear it at
the present day.[342:6]
The ancient Babylonians honored the cross as a religious symbol. It is
to be found on their oldest monuments. Anu, a deity who stood at the
head of the Babylonian mythology, had a cross for his sign or
symbol.[343:1] It is also the symbol of the Babylonian god Bal.[343:2] A
cross hangs on the breast of Tiglath Pileser, in the colossal tablet
from Nimroud, now in the British Museum. Another king, from the ruins of
Ninevah, wears a Maltese cross on his bosom. And another, from the hall
of Nisroch, carries an emblematic necklace, to which a Maltese cross is
attached.[343:3] The most common of crosses, the _crux ansata_ (Fig. No.
21) was also a sacred symbol among the Babylonians. It occurs repeatedly
on their cylinders, bricks and gems.[343:4]
The ensigns and standards carried by the Persians during their wars with
Alexander the Great (B. C. 335), were made in the form of a cross--as we
shall presently see was the style of the ancient _Roman_ standards--and
representations of these cross-standards have been handed down to the
present day.
Sir Robert Ker Porter, in his very valuable work entitled: "Travels in
Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia,"[343:5] shows the
representation of a _bas-relief_, of very ancient antiquity, which he
found at Nashi-Roustam, or the Mountain of Sepulchres. It represents a
combat between two horsemen--Baharam-Gour, one of the old Persian kings,
and a Tartar prince. Baharam-Gour is in the act of charging his opponent
with a spear, and behind him, scarcely visible, appears an almost
effaced form, which must have been his standard-bearer, as the _ensign_
is very plainly to be seen. _This ensign is a cross._ There is another
representation of the same subject to be seen in a _bas-relief_, which
shows the standard-bearer and his _cross_ ensign very plainly.[343:6]
This _bas-relief_ belongs to a period when the Arsacedian kings governed
Persia,[343:7] which was within a century after the time of Alexander,
and consequently more than two centuries B. C.
Sir Robert also found at this place, sculptures cut in the solid rock,
which are in the form of crosses. These belong to the early race of
Persian monarchs, whose dynasty terminated under the sword of Alexander
the Great.[343:8] At the foot of Mount Nakshi-Rajab, he also found
_bas-reliefs_, among which were two figures carrying a cross-standard.
Fig. No. 26 is a representation of this.[343:9] It is coeval with the
sculptures found at Nashi-Roustam,[343:10] and therefore belongs to a
period before the time of Alexander's invasion.
The cross is represented frequently and prominently on the coins of
Asia Minor. Several have a ram or lamb on one side, and a cross on the
other.[344:1] On some of the early coins of the Phenicians, the cross is
found attached to a chaplet of beads placed in a circle, so as to form a
complete rosary, such as the Lamas of Thibet and China, the Hindoos, and
the Roman Catholics, now tell over while they pray.[344:2] On a
Phenician medal, found in the ruins of Citium, in Cyprus, and printed in
Dr. Clark's "Travels" (vol. ii. c. xi.), are engraved a cross, a rosary,
and a lamb.[344:3] This is the "Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of
the world."
[Illustration: Fig. No. 26]
The ancient Etruscans revered the cross as a religious emblem. This
sacred sign, accompanied with the heart, is to be seen on their
monuments. Fig. No. 27, taken from the work of Gorrio (Tab. xxxv.),
shows an ancient tomb with angels and the cross thereon. It would answer
perfectly for a Christian cemetery.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 27]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 28]
The cross was adored by the ancient Greeks and Romans for centuries
before the Augustan era. An ancient inscription in Thessaly is
accompanied by a Calvary cross (Fig. No. 28); and Greek crosses of equal
arms adorn the tomb of Midas (one of the ancient kings), in
Phrygia.[344:4]
The adoration of the cross by the Romans is spoken of by the Christian
Father Minucius Felix, when denying the charge of idolatry which was
made against his sect.
"As for the adoration of cross," (says he to the Romans),
"which you object against us, I must tell you that we neither
adore crosses nor desire them. You it is, ye Pagans, who
worship wooden gods, who are the most likely people to adore
wooden crosses, as being part of the same substance with your
deities. For what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards,
but crosses, gilt and beautiful. Your victorious trophies not
only represent a cross, but a cross with a man upon
it."[345:1]
The principal silver coin among the Romans, called the _denarius_, had
on one side a personification of Rome as a warrior with a helmet, and on
the reverse, a chariot drawn by four horses. The driver had a
cross-standard in one hand. This is a representation of a denarius of
the earliest kind, which was first coined 296 B. C.[345:2] The cross was
used on the roll of the Roman soldiery as the sign of _life_.[345:3]
But, long before the Romans, long before the Etruscans, there lived in
the plains of Northern Italy a people to whom the cross was a religious
symbol, the sign beneath which they laid their dead to rest; a people of
whom history tells nothing, knowing not their name; but of whom
antiquarian research has learned this, that they lived in ignorance of
the arts of civilization, that they dwelt in villages built on platforms
over lakes, and that they trusted to the cross to guard, and may be to
revive, their loved ones whom they committed to the dust.
The examination of the tombs of Golasecca proves, in a most convincing,
positive, and precise manner that which the terramares of Emilia had
only indicated, but which had been confirmed by the cemetery of
Villanova, that above a thousand years B. C., the cross was already a
religious emblem of frequent employment.[345:4]
"It is more than a coincidence," (says the Rev. S.
Baring-Gould), "that Osiris by the cross should give life
eternal to the spirits of the just; that with the cross Thor
should smite the head of the great Serpent, and bring to life
those who were slain; that beneath the cross the Muysca
mothers should lay their babes, trusting to that sign to
secure them from the power of evil spirits; that with that
symbol to protect them, the ancient people of Northern Italy
should lay them down in the dust."[345:5]
The cross was also found among the ruins of Pompeii.[345:6]
It was a sacred emblem among the ancient Scandinavians.
"It occurs" (says Mr. R. Payne Knight), "on many Runic
monuments found in Sweden and Denmark, which are of an age
long anterior to the approach of Christianity to those
countries, and, probably, to its appearance in the
world."[346:1]
Their god Thor, son of the Supreme god Odin, and the goddess Freyga, had
the hammer for his symbol. It was with this hammer that Thor crushed the
head of the great Mitgard serpent, that he destroyed the giants, that he
restored the dead goats to life, which drew his car, that he consecrated
the pyre of Baldur. _This hammer was a cross._[346:2]
The cross of Thor is still used in Iceland as a magical sign in
connection with storms of wind and rain.
King Olaf, Longfellow tells us, when keeping Christmas at Drontheim:
"O'er his drinking-horn, the sign
He made of the Cross Divine,
And he drank, and mutter'd his prayers;
But the Berserks evermore
Made the sign of the hammer of Thor
Over theirs."
Actually, they both made the same symbol.
This we are told by Snorro Sturleson, in the Heimskringla (Saga iv. c.
18), when he describes the sacrifice at Lade, at which King Hakon,
Athelstan's foster-son, was present:
"Now when the first full goblet was filled, Earl Sigurd spoke
some words over it, and blessed it in Odin's name, and drank
to the king out of the horn; and the king then took it, and
made the sign of the cross over it. Then said Kaare of
Greyting, 'What does the king mean by doing so? will he not
sacrifice?' But Earl Sigurd replied, 'The King is doing what
all of you do who trust in your power and strength; for he is
blessing the full goblet in the name of Thor, by making the
sign of his hammer over it before he drinks it."[346:3]
The cross was also a _sacred_ emblem among the _Laplanders_. "In solemn
sacrifices, all the Lapland idols were marked with it from the blood of
the victims."[346:4]
It was adored by the ancient _Druids_ of Britain, and is to be seen on
the so-called "fire towers" of Ireland and Scotland. The "consecrated
trees" of the Druids had a _cross beam_ attached to them, making the
figure of a cross. On several of the most curious and most ancient
monuments of Britain, the cross is to be seen, evidently cut thereon by
the Druids. Many large stones throughout Ireland have these Druid
crosses cut in them.[346:5]
Cleland observes, in his "Attempt to Revive Celtic Literature," that
the Druids taught the doctrine of an overruling providence, and the
immortality of the soul: that they had also their Lent, their Purgatory,
their Paradise, their Hell, their Sanctuaries, and the similitude of the
May-pole _in form to the cross_.[347:1]
"In the Island of I-com-kill, at the monastery of the Culdees, at the
time of the Reformation, there were three hundred and sixty
crosses."[347:2] The Caaba at Mecca was surrounded by three hundred and
sixty crosses.[347:3] This number has nothing whatever to do with
Christianity, but is to be found everywhere among the ancients. It
represents the number of days of the ancient year.[347:4]
When the Spanish missionaries first set foot upon the soil of _America_,
in the fifteenth century, they were amazed to find that the _cross_ was
as devoutly worshiped by the red Indians as by themselves. The hallowed
symbol challenged their attention on every hand, and in almost every
variety of form. And, what is still more remarkable, the cross was not
only associated with other objects corresponding in every particular
with those delineated on Babylonian monuments; but it was also
distinguished by the Catholic appellations, "the tree of subsistence,"
"the wood of health," "the emblem of life," &c.[347:5]
When the Spanish missionaries found that the cross was no new object of
veneration to the red men, they were in doubt whether to ascribe the
fact to the pious labors of St. Thomas, whom they thought might have
found his way to America, or the sacrilegious subtlety of Satan. It was
the central object in the great temple of Cozamel, and is still
preserved on the _bas-reliefs_ of the ruined city of Palenque. From time
immemorial it had received the prayers and sacrifices of the Aztecs and
Toltecs, and was suspended as an august emblem from the walls of temples
in Popogan and Cundinamarca.[347:6]
The ruined city of Palenque is in the depths of the forests of Central
America. It was not inhabited at the time of the conquest of Mexico by
the Spaniards. They discovered the temples and palaces of Chiapa, but of
Palenque they knew nothing. According to tradition it was founded by
Votan in the ninth century before the Christian era. The principal
building in this ruined city is the palace. A noble tower rises above
the courtyard in the centre. In this building are several small temples
or chapels, with altars standing. At the back of one of these altars is
a slab of gypsum, on which are sculptured two figures, one on each side
of a cross (Fig. No. 29). The cross is surrounded with rich
feather-work, and ornamental chains.[348:1] "The style of scripture,"
says Mr. Baring-Gould, "and the accompanying hieroglyphic inscriptions,
leave no room for doubting it to be a heathen representation."[348:2]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 29]
The same cross is represented on old pre-Mexican MSS., as in the Dresden
Codex, and that in the possession of Herr Fejervary, at the end of which
is a colossal cross, in the midst of which is represented a bleeding
deity, and figures stand round a _Tau_ cross, upon which is perched the
sacred bird.[348:3]
The cross was also used in the north of Mexico. It occurs among the
Mixtecas and in Queredaro. Siguenza speaks of an Indian cross which was
found in the cave of Mixteca Baja. Among the ruins on the island of
Zaputero, in Lake Nicaragua, were also found old crosses reverenced by
the Indians. White marble crosses were found on the island of St. Ulloa,
on its discovery. In the state of Oaxaca, the Spaniards found that
wooden crosses were erected as sacred symbols, so also in Aguatoleo, and
among the Zapatecas. The cross was venerated as far as Florida on one
side, and Cibola on the other. In South America, the same sign was
considered symbolical and sacred. It was revered in Paraguay. In Peru
the Incas honored a cross made out of a single piece of jasper; it was
an emblem belonging to a former civilization.[348:4]
Among the Muyscas at Cumana the cross was regarded with devotion, and
was believed to be endowed with power to drive away evil spirits;
consequently new-born children were placed under the sign.[348:5]
The Toltecs said that their national deity Quetzalcoatle--whom we have
found to be a virgin-born and crucified Saviour--had introduced the
sign and ritual of the cross, and it was called the "Tree of Nutriment,"
or "Tree of Life."[349:1]
Malcom, in his "Antiquities of Britain," says
"Gomara tells that St. Andrew's cross, which is the same with
that of Burgundy, was in great veneration among the Cumas, in
South America, and that they fortified themselves with the
cross against the incursions of evil spirits, and were in use
to put them upon new-born infants; which thing very justly
deserves admiration."[349:2]
Felix Cabrara, in his "Description of the Ancient City of Mexico," says:
"The adoration of the cross has been more general in the
world, than that of any other emblem. It is to be found in the
ruins of the fine city of Mexico, near Palenque, where there
are many examples of it among the hieroglyphics on the
buildings."[349:3]
In "Chambers's Encyclopædia" we find the following:
"It appears that the sign of the _cross_ was in use _as an
emblem having certain religious and mystic meanings attached
to it, long before the Christian era_; and the Spanish
conquerors were astonished to find it _an object of religious
veneration_ among the nations of Central and South
America."[349:4]
Lord Kingsborough, in his "Antiquities of Mexico," speaks of crosses
being found in Mexico, Peru, and Yucatan.[349:5] He also informs us that
the _banner_ of Montezuma was a cross, and that the historical paintings
of the "Codex Vaticanus" represent him carrying a cross as his
banner.[349:6]
A very fine and highly polished marble cross which was taken from the
Incas, was placed in the Roman Catholic cathedral at Cuzco.[349:7]
Few cases have been more powerful in producing mistakes in ancient
history, than the idea, hastily taken by Christians in all ages, that
every monument of antiquity marked with a cross, or with any of those
symbols which they conceived to be monograms of their god, was of
Christian origin. The early Christians did not adopt it as one of their
symbols; it was not until Christianity began to be paganized that it
became a Christian monogram, and even then it was not the cross as we
know it to-day. "It is not until the middle of the _fifth_ century that
the pure form of the cross emerges to light."[349:8] The cross of
Constantine was nothing more than the [Symbol: PX], the monogram of
Osiris, and afterwards of Christ.[349:9] This is seen from the fact
that the "_Labarum_," or sacred banner of Constantine--on which was
placed the sign by which he was to conquer--was inscribed with this
sacred monogram. Fig. No. 30 is a representation of the Labarum, taken
from Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. The author of "The History of Our
Lord in Art" says:
"It would be difficult to prove that the cross of Constantine
was of the simple construction as now understood. As regards
the Labarum, the coins of the time, in which it is expressly
set forth, proves that the so-called cross upon it was nothing
else than the same ever-recurring monogram of Christ."[350:1]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 30]
Now, this so-called monogram of Christ, like everything else called
Christian, is of Pagan origin. It was the monogram of the Egyptian
Saviour, Osiris, and also of Jupiter Ammon.[350:2] As M. Basnage remarks
in his _Hist. de Juif_:[350:3]
"Nothing can be more opposite to Jesus Christ, than the Oracle
of _Jupiter Ammon_. And yet the _same cipher_ served the false
god as well as the true one; for we see a medal of Ptolemy,
King of Cyrene, having an eagle carrying a thunderbolt, _with
the monogram of Christ to signify the Oracle of Jupiter
Ammon_."
Rev. J. P. Lundy says:
"Even the P.X., which I had thought to be exclusively
Christian, are to be found in combination thus: [Symbol: PX]
(just as the early Christians used it), on coins of the
Ptolemies, and on those of Herod the Great, struck forty years
before our era, together with this other form, so often seen
on the early Christian monuments, viz.: [Symbol: P with
horizontal cross-bar]."[350:4]
This monogram is also to be found on the coins of Decius, a Pagan Roman
emperor, who ruled during the commencement of the third century.[350:5]
Another form of the same monogram is [Symbol: X over H] and X H. The
monogram of the _Sun_ was [Symbol: Y with superimposed circle]. P. H.
All these are now called monograms of Christ, and are to be met with in
great numbers in almost every church in Italy.[351:1] The monogram of
Mercury was a cross.[351:2] The monogram of the Egyptian Taut was formed
by three crosses.[351:3] The monogram of Saturn was a cross and a ram's
horn; it was also a monogram of Jupiter.[351:4] The monogram of Venus
was a cross and a circle.[351:5] The monogram of the Phenician Astarte,
and the Babylonian Bal, was also a cross and a circle.[351:6] It was
also that of Freya, Holda, and Aphrodite.[351:7] Its true significance
was the Linga and Yoni.
The cross, which was so universally adored, in its different forms among
heathen nations, was intended as an emblem or symbol of the _Sun_, of
_eternal life_, the _generative powers_, &c.[351:8]
As with the cross, and the X. P., so likewise with many other so-called
Christian symbols--they are borrowed from Paganism. Among these may be
mentioned the mystical three letters I. H. S., to this day retained in
some of our Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic churches, and falsely
supposed to stand for "_Jesu Hominium Salvator_," or "In Hoc Signo." It
is none other than the identical monogram of the heathen god
_Bacchus_,[351:9] and was to be seen on the coins of the Maharajah of
_Cashmere_.[351:10] Dr. Inman says:
"For a long period I. H. S., I. E. E. S., was a monogram of
Bacchus; letters now adopted by Romanists. _Hesus_ was an old
divinity of Gaul, possibly left by the Phenicians. We have the
same I. H. S. in _Jazabel_, and reproduced in our _Isabel_.
The idea connected with the word is '_Phallic
Vigor_.'"[351:11]
The TRIANGLE, which is to be seen at the present day in Christian
churches as an emblem of the "Ever-blessed Trinity," is also of Pagan
origin, and was used by them for the same purpose.
Among the numerous symbols, the Triangle is conspicuous in _India_.
Hindoos attached a mystic signification to its _three_ sides, and
generally placed it in their temples. It was often composed of lotus
plants, with an eye in the center.[351:12] It was sometimes represented
in connection with the mystical word AUM[351:13] (Fig. No. 31), and
sometimes surrounded with rays of glory.[351:14]
This symbol was engraved upon the tablet of the ring which the religious
chief, called the _Brahm-âtma_ wore, as one of the signs of his
dignity, and it was used by the Buddhists as emblematic of the
Trinity.[352:1]
The ancient _Egyptians_ signified their divine _Triad_ by a single
_Triangle_.[352:2]
Mr. Bonwick says:
"The _Triangle_ was a religious form from the first. It is to
be recognized in the Obelisk and Pyramid (of Egypt). To this
day, in some Christian churches, the priest's blessing is
given as it was in Egypt, by the sign of a triangle; viz.: two
fingers and a thumb. An Egyptian god is seen with a triangle
over his shoulders. This figure, in ancient Egyptian theology,
was the type of the Holy Trinity--three in one."[352:3]
And Dr. Inman says:
"The Triangle is a sacred symbol in our modern churches, and
it was the sign used in ancient temples before the initiated,
to indicate the Trinity--three persons 'co-eternal together,
and co-equal.'"[352:4]
The Triangle is found on ancient Greek monuments.[352:5] An ancient seal
(engraved in the Mémoires de l'Académie royale des Inscriptions et
Belles Lettres), supposed to be of Phenician origin, "has as subject a
standing figure between two stars, beneath which are handled crosses.
Above the head of the deity is the TRIANGLE, or symbol of the
Trinity."[352:6]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 31]
One of the most conspicuous among the symbols intended to represent the
Trinity, to be seen in Christian churches, is the compound leaf of the
_trefoil_. Modern story had attributed to St. Patrick the idea of
demonstrating a trinity in unity, by showing the _shamrock_ to his
hearers; but, says Dr. Inman, "like many other things attributed to the
moderns, the idea belongs to the ancients."[352:7]
The _Trefoil_ adorned the head of _Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, and is
to be found among the Pagan symbols or representations of the
_three-in-one_ mystery.[353:1] Fig. No. 32 is a representation of the
_Trefoil_ used by the ancient Hindoos as emblematic of their celestial
Triad--Brahma, Vishnu and Siva--and afterwards adopted by the
Christians.[353:2] The leaf of the _Vila_, or _Bel-tree_, is typical of
Siva's attributes, because _triple_ in form.[353:3]
The _Trefoil_ was a sacred plant among the ancient Druids of Britain. It
was to them an emblem of the mysterious _three in one_.[353:4] It is to
be seen on their _coins_.[353:5]
The _Tripod_ was very generally employed among the ancients as an emblem
of the _Trinity_, and is found composed in an endless variety of ways.
On the coins of Menecratia, in Phrygia, it is represented between two
asterisks, with a serpent wreathed around a battle-axe, inserted into
it, as an accessory symbol, signifying preservation and destruction. In
the ceremonial of worship, the number _three_ was employed with mystic
solemnity.[353:6]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 32]
The three lines, or three human legs, springing from a central disk or
circle, which has been called a _Trinacria_, and supposed to allude to
the island of Sicily, is simply an ancient emblem of the _Trinity_. "It
is of _Asiatic_ origin; its earliest appearance being upon the very
ancient coins of Aspendus in Pamphylia; sometimes alone in the square
incuse, and sometimes upon the body of an eagle or the back of a
lion."[353:7]
We have already seen, in the chapter on the _crucifixion_, that the
earliest emblems of the Christian Saviour were the "Good Shepherd" and
the "Lamb." Among these may also be mentioned the _Fish_. "The only
satisfactory explanation why Jesus should be represented as a _Fish_,"
says Mr. King, in his Gnostics and their Remains,[353:8] "seems to be
the circumstance that in the quaint jargon of the Talmud the Messiah is
often designated 'Dag,' or 'The Fish;'" and Mr. Lundy, in his
"Monumental Christianity," says:
"Next to the sacred monogram (the [Symbol: PX]) the _Fish_
takes its place in importance as a sign of Christ in his
special office of _Saviour_." "In the Talmud the Messiah is
called 'Dag' or 'Fish.'" "Where did the Jews learn to apply
'Dag' to their Messiah? And why did the primitive Christians
adopt it as a sign of Christ?" "I cannot disguise facts. Truth
demands no concealment or apology. _Paganism_ has its types
and prophecies of Christ as well as Judaism. What then is the
Dag-on of the old Babylonians? The _fish_-god or being that
taught them all their civilization."[354:1]
As Mr. Lundy says, "truth demands no concealment or apology," therefore,
when the truth is exposed, we find that _Vishnu_, the Hindoo Messiah,
Preserver, Mediator and _Saviour_, was represented as a "dag," or fish.
The _Fish_ takes its place in importance as a sign of _Vishnu_ in his
special office of _Saviour_.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 33]
Prof. Monier Williams says:
"It is as _Vishnu_ that the Supreme Being, according to the
Hindoos, exhibited his sympathy with human trials, his love
for the human race. Nine principal occasions have already
occurred in which the god has thus interposed for the
salvation of his creatures. The first was _Matsaya_, the
_Fish_. In this Vishnu became a fish to save the seventh Manu,
the progenitor of the human race, from the universal
deluge."[354:2]
We have already seen, in Chap. IX., the identity of the Hindoo _Matsaya_
and the Babylonian Dagon.
The fish was sacred among the Babylonians, Assyrians and Phenicians, as
it is among the Romanists of to-day. It was sacred also to _Venus_, and
the Romanists still eat it on the very day of the week which was called
"_Dies veneris_," Venus' day; fish day.[354:3] It was an emblem of
_fecundity_. The most ancient symbol of the productive power was a fish,
and it is accordingly found to be the universal symbol upon many of the
earliest coins.[354:4] Pythagoras and his followers did not eat fish.
They were ascetics, and the eating of fish was supposed to tend to
carnal desires. This ancient superstition is entertained by many even at
the present day.
The fish was the earliest symbol of Christ Jesus. Fig. No. 33 is a
design from the catacombs.[354:5] This cross-fish is not unlike the
sacred monogram.
That the Christian Saviour should be called a fish may at first appear
strange, but when the mythos is properly understood (as we shall
endeavor to make it in Chap. XXXIX.), it will not appear so. The Rev.
Dr. Geikie, in his "Life and Words of Christ," says that a fish stood
for his _name_, from the significance of the Greek letters in the word
that expresses the idea, and for this reason he was called a fish. But,
we may ask, why was Buddha not only called Fo, or Po, but _Dag-Po_,
which was literally the Fish Po, or Fish Buddha? The fish did not stand
for his name. The idea that Jesus was called a fish because the Messiah
is designated "Dag" in the Talmud, is also an unsatisfactory
explanation.
Julius Africanus (an early Christian writer) says:
"Christ is the great Fish taken by the fish-hook of God, and
whose flesh nourishes the whole world."[355:1]
"The fish fried
Was Christ that died,"
is an old couplet.[355:2]
Prosper Africanus calls Christ,
"The great fish who satisfied for himself the disciples on the
shore, and offered himself as a fish to the whole
world."[355:3]
The _Serpent_ was also an emblem of Christ Jesus, or in other words,
represented Christ, among some of the early Christians.
Moses _set up_ a brazen _serpent_ in the wilderness, and Christian
divines have seen in this a type of Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Gospels
sanction this; for it is written:
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of man be lifted up."
From this serpent, Tertullian asserts, the early sect of Christians
called _Ophites_ took their rise. Epiphanius says, that the "Ophites
sprung out of the Nicolaitans and Gnostics, who were so called from the
_serpent_, which they worshiped." "The Gnostics," he adds, "_taught that
the ruler of the world was of a dracontic form_." The Ophites preserved
live serpents in their sacred chest, and looked upon them as the
_mediator_ between them and God. Manes, in the third century, taught
serpent worship in Asia Minor, under the name of Christianity,
promulgating that
"_Christ was an incarnation of the Great Serpent, who glided
over the cradle of the Virgin Mary, when she was asleep, at
the age of a year and a half._"[355:4]
"The Gnostics," says Irenaeus, "represented the Mind (the Son, the
Wisdom) in the form of a serpent," and "the Ophites," says Epiphanius,
"have a veneration for the serpent; they esteem him the same as Christ."
"They even quote the Gospels," says Tertullian, "to prove that Christ
was an imitation of the serpent."[356:1]
The question now arises, Why was the Christian Saviour represented as a
serpent? Simply because the heathen Saviours were represented in like
manner.
From the earliest times of which we have any historical notice, the
serpent has been connected with the preserving gods, or Saviours; the
gods of goodness and of wisdom. In Hindoo mythology, the serpent is
intimately associated with Vishnu, the preserving god, the
Saviour.[356:2] Serpents are often associated with the Hindoo gods, as
emblems of eternity.[356:3] It was a very sacred animal among the
Hindoos.[356:4]
Worshipers of Buddha venerate serpents. "This animal," says Mr. Wake,
"became equal in importance as Buddha himself." And Mr. Lillie says:
"That God was worshiped at an early date by the Buddhists
under the symbol of the _Serpent_ is proved from the
sculptures of oldest topes, where worshipers are represented
so doing."[356:5]
The Egyptians also venerated the serpent. It was the special symbol of
Thoth, a primeval deity of Syro-Egyptian mythology, and of all those
gods, such as Hermes and Seth, who can be connected with him.[356:6]
Kneph and Apap were also represented as serpents.[356:7]
Herodotus, when he visited Egypt, found sacred serpents in the temples.
Speaking of them, he says:
"In the neighborhood of Thebes, there are sacred serpents, not
at all hurtful to men: they are diminutive in size, and carry
two horns that grow on the top of the head. When these
serpents die, they bury them in the temple of Jupiter; for
they say they are sacred to that god."[356:8]
The third member of the Chaldean triad, Héa, or Hoa, was represented by
a serpent. According to Sir Henry Rawlinson, the most important titles
of this deity refer "to his functions as the source of all knowledge and
science." Not only is he "The Intelligent Fish," but his name may be
read as signifying both "Life" and a "Serpent," and he may be considered
as "figured by the great serpent which occupies so conspicuous a place
among the symbols of the gods on the black stones recording Babylonian
benefactors."[357:1]
The Phenicians and other eastern nations venerated the serpent as
symbols of their beneficent gods.[357:2]
As god of medicine, Apollo, the central figure in Grecian mythology, was
originally worshiped under the form of a serpent, and men invoked him as
the "Helper." He was the Solar Serpent-god.[357:3]
Æsculapius, the healing god, the Saviour, was also worshiped under the
form of a serpent.[357:4] "Throughout Hellas," says Mr. Cox, "Æsculapius
remained the 'Healer,' and the 'Restorer of Life,' and accordingly the
serpent is everywhere his special emblem."[357:5]
Why the serpent was the symbol of the Saviours and beneficent gods of
antiquity, will be explained in Chap. XXXIX.
The _Dove_, among the Christians, is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. The
Matthew narrator relates that when Jesus went up out of the water, after
being baptized by John, "the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw
the Spirit of God descending like a _dove_, and lighting upon him."
Here is another piece of Paganism, as we find that the _Dove_ was the
symbol of the Holy Spirit among all nations of antiquity. Rev. J. P.
Lundy, speaking of this, says:
"It is a remarkable fact that this spirit (_i. e._, the Holy
Spirit) has been symbolized among all religious and civilized
nations by the _Dove_."[357:6]
And Earnest De Bunsen says:
"The symbol of the Spirit of God was the _Dove_, in Greek,
_peleia_, and the Samaritans had a brazen fiery dove, instead
of the brazen fiery serpent. Both referred to fire, the symbol
of the Holy Ghost."[357:7]
Buddha is represented, like Christ Jesus, with a dove hovering over his
head.[357:8]
The virgin goddess Juno is often represented with a dove on her head. It
is also seen on the heads of the images of Astarte, Cybele, and Isis; it
was sacred to Venus, and was intended as a symbol of the Holy
Spirit.[357:9]
Even in the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean, a _bird_ is believed to
be an emblem of the Holy Spirit.[357:10]
R. Payne Knight, in speaking of the "mystic Dove," says:
"A bird was probably chosen for the emblem of the third
person (_i. e._, the Holy Ghost) to signify incubation, by
which was figuratively expressed the fructification of inert
matter, caused by the vital spirit moving upon the waters.
"The _Dove_ would naturally be selected in the East in
preference to every other species of bird, on account of its
domestic familiarity with man; it usually lodging under the
same roof with him, and being employed as his messenger from
one remote place to another. Birds of this kind were also
remarkable for the care of their offspring, and for a sort of
conjugal attachment and fidelity to each other, as likewise
for the peculiar fervency of their sexual desires, whence they
were sacred to Venus, and emblems of love."[358:1]
Masons' marks are conspicuous among the Christian symbols. On some of
the most ancient Roman Catholic cathedrals are to be found figures of
Christ Jesus with Mason's marks about him.
Many are the so-called Christian symbols which are direct importations
from paganism. To enumerate them would take, as we have previously said,
a volume of itself. For further information on this subject the reader
is referred to Dr. Inman's "Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
Symbolism," where he will see how many ancient Indian, Egyptian,
Etruscan, Grecian and Roman symbols have been adopted by Christians, a
great number of which are _Phallic_ emblems.[358:2]
FOOTNOTES:
[339:1] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. p. 113.
[340:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 14.
[340:2] Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 301. Higgins: Anac., vol. i. p.
220.
[340:3] Curious Myths, p. 301.
[340:4] Ibid. p. 302.
[340:5] Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 350.
[340:6] Ibid. vol. iii. p. 47.
[340:7] Curious Myths, pp. 280-282. Buddha and Early Buddhism, pp. 7, 9,
and 22, and Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 223.
[340:8] Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 227.
[340:9] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 409. Higgins: Anac., vol. i.
p. 230.
[341:1] See Ibid.
[341:2] See Celtic Druids, p. 126; Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 217, and
Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, pp. 216, 217 and 219.
[341:3] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 217.
[341:4] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 58.
[341:5] See Inman's "Symbolism," and Lundy's Monu. Christianity, Fig.
92.
[341:6] Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 285.
[341:7] Hoskins' Visit to the great Oasis, pl. xii. in Curious Myths, p.
286.
[341:8] Curious Myths, p. 286.
[342:1] Curious Myths, p. 287.
[342:2] Socrates: Eccl. Hist., lib. v. ch. xvii.
[342:3] Quoted by Rev. Dr. Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii.
p. 86, and Rev. Robert Taylor: Diegesis, p. 202.
[342:4] See Colenso's Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. p. 115.
[342:5] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 12.
[342:6] Ibid. p. 219.
[343:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 218, and Smith's Chaldean Account
of Genesis, p. 54.
[343:2] Egyptian Belief, p. 218.
[343:3] Bonomi: Ninevah and Its Palaces, in Curious Myths, p. 287.
[343:4] Curious Myths, p. 287.
[343:5] Vol. i. p. 337, pl. xx.
[343:6] Travels in Persia, vol. i. p. 545, pl. xxi.
[343:7] Ibid. p. 529, and pl. xvi
[343:8] Ibid., and pl. xvii.
[343:9] Ibid. pl. xxvii.
[343:10] Ibid. p. 573.
[344:1] Curious Myths, p. 290.
[344:2] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 31.
[344:3] See Illustration in Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 224.
[344:4] Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 291.
[345:1] Octavius, ch. xxix.
[345:2] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Denarius."
[345:3] Curious Myths, p. 291.
[345:4] Ibid. pp. 291, 296.
[345:5] Ibid. p. 311.
[345:6] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. p. 115.
[346:1] Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 30.
[346:2] Curious Myths, pp. 280, 281.
[346:3] Ibid. pp. 281, 282.
[346:4] Knight: Ancient Art and Mytho., p. 30.
[346:5] See Celtic Druids, pp. 126, 130, 131.
[347:1] Cleland, p. 102, in Anac., i. p. 716.
[347:2] Celtic Druids, p. 242, and Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Cross."
[347:3] Ibid.
[347:4] See Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. 103.
[347:5] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. p. 114.
[347:6] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 95.
[348:1] Stephens: Central America, vol. ii. p. 346, in Curious Myths, p.
298.
[348:2] Curious Myths, p. 298
[348:3] Klemm Kulturgeschichte, v. 142, in Curious Myths, pp. 298, 299.
[348:4] Curious Myths, p. 299.
[348:5] Müller: Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, in Ibid.
[349:1] Curious Myths, p. 301.
[349:2] Quoted in Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 30.
[349:3] Quoted in Celtic Druids, p. 131.
[349:4] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Cross."
[349:5] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. pp. 165, 180.
[349:6] Ibid. p. 179.
[349:7] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 32.
[349:8] Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 318.
[349:9] "These two letters in the old Samaritan, as found on coins,
stand, the first for 400, the second for 200-600. This is the staff of
Osiris. It is also the monogram of Osiris, and has been adopted by the
Christians, and is to be seen in the churches in Italy in thousands of
places. See Basnage (lib. iii. c. xxxiii.), where several other
instances of this kind may be found. In Addison's 'Travels in Italy'
there is an account of a medal, at Rome, of Constantius, with this
inscription; _In hoc signo Victor eris_ [Symbol: PX]." (Anacalypsis, vol.
i. p. 222.)
[350:1] Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 316.
[350:2] See Celtic Druids, p. 127, and Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p.
218.
[350:3] Bk. iii. c. xxiii. in Anac., i. p. 219.
[350:4] Monumental Christianity, p. 125.
[350:5] See Celtic Druids, pp. 127, 128.
[351:1] See Ibid. and Monumental Christianity, pp. 15, 92, 123, 126,
127.
[351:2] See Celtic Druids, p. 101. Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 220. Indian
Antiq., ii. 68.
[351:3] See Celtic Druids, p. 101. Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 103.
[351:4] See Celtic Druids, p. 127, and Taylor's Diegesis, p. 201.
[351:5] See Celtic Druids, p. 127.
[351:6] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 218.
[351:7] See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. 115.
[351:8] See The Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. pp. 113-115.
[351:9] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 221 and 328. Taylor's
Diegesis, p. 187. Celtic Druids, p. 127, and Isis Unveiled, p. 527, vol.
ii.
[351:10] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 212.
[351:11] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. pp. 518, 519.
[351:12] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 94.
[351:13] This word--AUM--stood for Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, the Hindoo
Trinity.
[351:14] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 31.
[352:1] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 81.
[352:2] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 196.
[352:3] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 213.
[352:4] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 328.
[352:5] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 196.
[352:6] Curious Myths, p. 289.
[352:7] Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. pp. 153, 154.
[353:1] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 242.
[353:2] See Inman's Pagan and Christian Symbolism, p. 30.
[353:3] See Williams' Hinduism, p. 99.
[353:4] See Myths of the British Druids, p. 448.
[353:5] Ibid. p. 601.
[353:6] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 170.
[353:7] Ibid. pp. 169, 170.
[353:8] Page 138.
[354:1] Monumental Christianity, pp. 130, 132, 133.
[354:2] Indian Wisdom, p. 329.
[354:3] Inman: Anct. Faiths, vol. i. pp. 528, 529, and Müller: Science
of Relig., p. 315.
[354:4] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 111.
[354:5] Lillie: Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 227.
[355:1] Quoted in Monumental Christianity, p. 134.
[355:2] Ibid. p. 135.
[355:3] Ibid. p. 372.
[355:4] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 246.
[356:1] Fergusson: Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 9.
[356:2] Wake: Phallism in Ancient Religs., p. 72.
[356:3] Williams' Hinduism, p. 169.
[356:4] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 16, and Fergusson: Tree and
Serpent Worship.
[356:5] Wake, p. 73. Lillie: p. 20.
[356:6] Wake, p. 40, and Bunsen's Keys, p. 101.
[356:7] Champollion, pp. 144, 145.
[356:8] Herodotus, bk. ii. ch. 74.
[357:1] Wake: Phallism in Anct. Religs., p. 30.
[357:2] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 16. Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol.
ii. p. 128. Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, and Squire's Serpent
Symbol.
[357:3] Deane: Serpent Worship, p. 213.
[357:4] Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 7, and Bulfinch: Age of Fable, p.
397.
[357:5] Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 36.
[357:6] Monumental Christianity, p. 293.
[357:7] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 44.
[357:8] See ch. xxix.
[357:9] Monumental Christianity, pp. 323 and 234.
[357:10] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 169.
[358:1] Knight's Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 170.
[358:2] See also R. Payne Knight's Worship of Priapus, and the other
works of Dr. Thomas Inman.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE BIRTH-DAY OF CHRIST JESUS.
Christmas--December the 25th--is a day which has been set apart by the
Christian church on which to celebrate the birth of their Lord and
Saviour, Christ Jesus, and is considered by the majority of persons to
be really the day on which he was born. This is altogether erroneous, as
will be seen upon examination of the subject.
There was no uniformity in the period of observing the Nativity among
the early Christian churches; some held the festival in the month of May
or April, others in January.[359:1]
The _year_ in which he was born is also as uncertain as the month or
day. "The year in which it happened," says Mosheim, the ecclesiastical
historian, "has not hitherto been fixed with certainty, notwithstanding
the deep and laborious researches of the learned."[359:2]
According to IRENÆUS (A. D. 190), on the authority of "The Gospel," and
"all the elders who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of
the Lord," Christ Jesus lived to be nearly, if not quite, _fifty years
of age_. If this celebrated Christian father is correct, and who can say
he is not, Jesus was born some twenty years before the time which has
been assigned as that of his birth.[359:3]
The Rev. Dr. Giles says:
"Concerning the _time_ of Christ's birth there are even
greater doubts than about the _place_; for, though the four
Evangelists have noticed several contemporary facts, which
would seem to settle this point, yet on comparing these dates
with the general history of the period, we meet with serious
discrepancies, which involve the subject in the greatest
uncertainty."[359:4]
Again he says:
"Not only do we date our time from the exact year in which
Christ _is said to have been born_, but our ecclesiastical
calendar has determined with scrupulous minuteness the day and
almost the hour at which every particular of Christ's
wonderful life is stated to have happened. All this is
implicitly believed by millions; _yet all these things are
among the most uncertain and shadowy that history has
recorded. We have no clue to either the day or the time of
year, or even the year itself, in which Christ was
born._"[360:1]
Some Christian writers fix the year 4 B. C., as the time when he was
born, others the year 5 B. C., and again others place his time of birth
at about 15 B. C. The Rev. Dr. Geikie, speaking of this, in his _Life of
Christ_, says:
"The whole subject is _very uncertain_. Ewald appears to fix
the date of the birth at _five_ years earlier than our era.
Petavius and Usher fix it on the 25th of December, _five_
years before our era. Bengel on the 25th of December, _four_
years before our era; Anger and Winer, _four_ years before our
era, _in the Spring_; Scaliger, _three_ years before our era,
in _October_; St. Jerome, _three_ years before our era, on
December 25th; Eusebius, _two_ years before our era, on
_January_ 6th; and Idler, _seven_ years before our era, in
_December_."[360:2]
Albert Barnes writes in a manner which implies that he knew all about
the _year_ (although he does not give any authorities), but knew nothing
about the _month_. He says:
"The birth of Christ took place _four_ years before the common
era. That era began to be used about A. D. 526, being first
employed by Dionysius, and is supposed to have been placed
about four years too late. Some make the difference two,
others three, four, five, and even eight years. He was born at
the commencement of the last year of the reign of Herod, or at
the close of the year preceding."[360:3]
"The Jews sent out their flocks into the mountainous and
desert regions during the summer months, and took them up in
the latter part of October or the first of November, when the
cold weather commenced. . . . It is clear from this that our
Saviour was born before the 25th of December, or before what
we call _Christmas_. At that time it is cold, and especially
in the high and mountainous regions about Bethlehem. _God has
concealed the time of his birth. There is no way to ascertain
it._ By different learned men it has been fixed at each month
in the year."[360:4]
Canon Farrar writes with a little more caution, as follows:
"Although the date of Christ's birth cannot be fixed with
absolute certainty, there is at least a large amount of
evidence to render it _probable_ that he was born _four_ years
before our present era. It is universally admitted that our
received chronology, which is not older than Dionysius
Exignus, in the sixth century, is wrong. But all attempts to
discover the _month_ and the _day_ are useless. No data
whatever exists to enable us to determine them with even
approximate accuracy."[360:5]
Bunsen attempts to show (on the authority of _Irenæus_, above quoted),
that Jesus was born some _fifteen_ years before the time assigned, and
that he lived to be nearly, if not quite, fifty years of age.[361:1]
According to Basnage,[361:2] the Jews placed his birth near a century
sooner than the generally assumed epoch. Others have placed it even in
the _third century_ B. C. This belief is founded on a passage in the
"_Book of Wisdom_,"[361:3] written about 250 B. C., which is supposed to
refer to Christ _Jesus_, and none other. In speaking of some individual
who lived _at that time_, it says:
"He professeth to have the knowledge of God, and he calleth
himself _the child of the Lord_. He was made to reprove our
thoughts. He is grievous unto us even to behold; for his life
is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion. We
are esteemed of him as counterfeits; he abstaineth from our
ways as from filthiness; he pronounceth the end of the just to
be blessed, _and maketh his boast that God is his father_. Let
us see if his words be true; and let us prove what shall
happen in the end of him. For if the _just man_ be the son of
God, he (God) will help him, and deliver him from the hand of
his enemies. Let us examine him with despitefulness and
torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his
patience. Let us condemn him with a shameful death; for by his
own saying he shall be respected."
This is a very important passage. Of course, the church claim it to be a
_prophecy_ of what Christ Jesus was to do and suffer, but this does not
explain it.
If the writer of the "_Gospel according to Luke_" is correct, Jesus was
not born until about A. D. 10, for he explicitly tells us that this
event did not happen until Cyrenius was governor of Syria.[361:4] Now it
is well known that Cyrenius was not appointed to this office until long
after the death of Herod (during whose reign the Matthew narrator
informs us Jesus was born[361:5]), and that the taxing spoken of by the
Luke narrator as having taken place at this time, did not take place
until about ten years after the time at which, according to the Matthew
narrator, Jesus was born.[361:6]
Eusebius, the first ecclesiastical historian,[361:7] places his birth at
the time Cyrenius was governor of Syria, and therefore at about A. D.
10. His words are as follows:
"It was the two and fortieth year after the reign of Augustus
the Emperor, and the eight and twentieth year after the
subduing of Egypt, and the death of Antonius and Cleopatra,
when last of all the Ptolemies in Egypt ceased to bear rule,
when our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, at the time of the
first taxing--Cyrenius, then President of Syria--was born in
Bethlehem, a city of Judea, according unto the prophecies in
that behalf premised."[362:1]
Had the Luke narrator known anything about Jewish history, he never
would have made so gross a blunder as to place the taxing of Cyrenius in
the days of Herod, and would have saved the immense amount of labor that
it has taken in endeavoring to explain away the effects of his
ignorance. One explanation of this mistake is, that there were _two_
assessments, one about the time Jesus was born, and the other ten years
after; but this has entirely failed. Dr. Hooykaas, speaking of this,
says:
"The Evangelist (Luke) falls into the most extraordinary
mistakes throughout. In the first place, history is silent as
to a census of the whole (Roman) world ever having been made
at all. In the next place, though Quirinius certainly did make
such a register in Judea and Samaria, it did not extend to
Galilee; so that Joseph's household was not affected by it.
Besides, _it did not take place until ten years after the
death of Herod_, when his son Archelaus was deposed by the
emperor, and the districts of Judea and Samaria were thrown
into a Roman province. Under the reign of Herod, nothing of
the kind took place, nor was there any occasion for it.
Finally, at the time of the birth of Jesus, the Governor of
Syria was not Quirinius, but Quintus Sentius
Saturninus."[362:2]
The institution of the festival of the Nativity of Christ Jesus being
held on the 25th of December, among the Christians, is attributed to
Telesphorus, who flourished during the reign of Antonius Pius (A. D.
138-161), but the first _certain_ traces of it are found about the time
of the Emperor Commodus (A. D. 180-192).[362:3]
For a long time the Christians had been trying to discover upon what
particular day Jesus had possibly or probably come into the world; and
conjectures and traditions that rested upon absolutely no foundation,
led one to the 20th of May, another to the 19th or 20th of April, and a
third to the 5th of January. At last the opinion of the _community at
Rome_ gained the upper hand, and the 25th of December was fixed
upon.[362:4] It was not until the _fifth_ century, however, that this
day had been _generally_ agreed upon.[362:5] _How it happened_ that this
day finally became fixed as the birthday of Christ Jesus, may be
inferred from what we shall now see.
On the first moment after midnight of the 24th of December (_i. e._, on
the morning of the 25th), nearly all the nations of the earth, as if by
common consent, celebrated the accouchement of the "_Queen of Heaven_,"
of the "_Celestial Virgin_" of the sphere, and the birth of the god
_Sol_.
In _India_ this is a period of rejoicing everywhere.[363:1] It is a
great religious festival, and the people _decorate their houses with
garlands_, and _make presents to friends and relatives_. This custom is
of very great antiquity.[363:2]
In _China_, religious solemnities are celebrated at the time of the
_winter solstice_, the last week in _December_, when all shops are shut
up, and the courts are closed.[363:3]
_Buddha_, the son of the Virgin Mâya, on whom, according to Chinese
tradition, "the Holy Ghost" had descended, was said to have been born on
Christmas day, December 25th.[363:4]
Among the ancient _Persians_ their most splendid ceremonials were in
honor of their Lord and Saviour _Mithras_; they kept his birthday, with
many rejoicings, on the 25th of December.
The author of the "_Celtic Druids_" says:
"It was the custom of the heathen, long before the birth of
Christ, to celebrate the birth-day of their gods," and that,
"the 25th of December was a great festival with the
_Persians_, who, in very early times, celebrated the birth of
their god _Mithras_."[363:5]
The Rev. Joseph B. Gross, in his "_Heathen Religion_," also tells us
that:
"The ancient Persians celebrated a festival in honor of
_Mithras_ on the first day succeeding the _Winter Solstice_,
the object of which was to _commemorate the Birth of
Mithras_."[363:6]
Among the ancient _Egyptians_, for centuries before the time of Christ
Jesus, the 25th of December was set aside as the birthday of their gods.
M. Le Clerk De Septchenes speaks of it as follows:
"The ancient Egyptians fixed the pregnancy of _Isis_ (the
_Queen of Heaven_, and the _Virgin Mother_ of the Saviour
Horus), on the last days of March, and towards the end of
_December_ they placed the commemoration of her
delivery."[363:7]
Mr. Bonwick, in speaking of _Horus_, says:
"He is the great God-loved of Heaven. His birth was one of the
greatest mysteries of the Egyptian religion. Pictures
representing it appeared on the walls of temples. One passed
through the holy _Adytum_[364:1] to the still more sacred
quarter of the temple known as the birth-place of Horus. He
was presumably the child of Deity. _At Christmas time_, or
that answering to our festival, his image was brought out of
that sanctuary with peculiar ceremonies, as the image of the
infant _Bambino_[364:2] is still brought out and exhibited in
Rome."[364:3]
Rigord observes that the Egyptians not only worshiped a _Virgin Mother_
"prior to the birth of our Saviour, but exhibited the effigy of her son
lying in the manger, in the manner the infant Jesus was afterwards laid
in the cave at Bethlehem."[364:4]
The "Chronicles of Alexandria," an ancient Christian work, says:
"Watch how Egypt has constructed the childbirth of a Virgin,
and the birth of her son, _who was exposed in a crib to the
adoration of the people_."[364:5]
_Osiris_, son of the "_Holy Virgin_," as they called Ceres, or Neith,
his mother, was born on the 25th of December.[364:6]
This was also the time celebrated by the ancient _Greeks_ as being the
birthday of _Hercules_. The author of "_The Religion of the Ancient
Greeks_" says:
"The night of the _Winter Solstice_, which the Greeks named
the triple night, was that which they thought gave birth to
_Hercules_."[364:7]
He further says:
"It has become an epoch of singular importance in the eyes of
the Christian, who has destined it to celebrate the birth of
the Saviour, the _true_ Sun of Justice, who alone came to
dissipate the darkness of ignorance."[364:8]
_Bacchus_, also, was born at early dawn on the 25th of December. Mr.
Higgins says of him:
"The birth-place of Bacchus, called Sabizius or Sabaoth, was
claimed by several places in Greece; but on Mount Zelmissus,
in Thrace, his worship seems to have been chiefly celebrated.
He was born of a virgin on the 25th of December, and was
always called the SAVIOUR. In his Mysteries, he was shown to
the people, as an infant is by the Christians at this day, on
Christmas-day morning, in Rome."[364:9]
The birthday of _Adonis_ was celebrated on the 25th of December. This
celebration is spoken of by Tertullian, Jerome, and other Fathers of
the Church,[365:1] who inform us that the ceremonies took place in a
cave, and that the cave in which they celebrated his mysteries in
Bethlehem, was that in which Christ Jesus was born.
This was also a great holy day in ancient Rome. The Rev. Mr. Gross says:
"In _Rome_, before the time of Christ, a festival was observed
on the 25th of December, under the name of '_Natalis Solis
Invicti_' (Birthday of Sol the Invincible). It was a day of
universal rejoicings, illustrated by illuminations and public
games."[365:2] "All public business was suspended,
declarations of war and criminal executions were postponed,
_friends made presents to one another_, and the slaves were
indulged with great liberties."[365:3]
A few weeks before the winter solstice, the Calabrian shepherds came
into Rome to play on the pipes. Ovid alludes to this when he says:
"Ante Deûm matrem cornu tibicen adunco
Cum canit, exiguæ quis stipis aera neget."
--(Epist. i. l. ii.)
_i. e._, "When to the mighty mother pipes the swain,
Grudge not a trifle for his pious strain."
This practice is kept up to the present day.
The ancient _Germans_, for centuries before "the _true_ Sun of Justice"
was ever heard of, celebrated annually, at the time of the _Winter
solstice_, what they called their Yule-feast. At this feast agreements
were renewed, the gods were consulted as to the future, sacrifices were
made to them, and the time was spent in jovial hospitality. Many
features of this festival, such as burning the yule-log on
Christmas-eve, still survive among us.[365:4]
_Yule_ was the old name for Christmas. In French it is called _Noel_,
which is the Hebrew or Chaldee word _Nule_.[365:5]
The greatest festival of the year celebrated among the ancient
_Scandinavians_, was at the _Winter solstice_. They called the night
upon which it was observed, the "_Mother-night_." This feast was named
_Jul_--hence is derived the word _Yule_--and was celebrated in honor of
_Freyr_ (son of the Supreme God Odin, and the goddess Frigga), who was
born on that day. Feasting, nocturnal assemblies, and all the
demonstrations of a most dissolute joy, were then authorized by the
general usage. At this festival the principal guests _received
presents_--generally horses, swords, battle-axes, and gold rings--at
their departure.[365:6]
The festival of the 25th of December was celebrated by the ancient
_Druids_, in Great Britain and Ireland, with great fires lighted on the
tops of hills.[366:1]
Godfrey Higgins says:
"Stuckley observes that the worship of Mithra was spread all
over Gaul and Britain. The Druids kept this night as a great
festival, and called the day following it Nolagh or Noel, or
the day of regeneration, and celebrated it with great fires on
the tops of their mountains, which they repeated on the day of
the Epiphany or twelfth night. The Mithraic monuments, which
are common in Britain, have been attributed to the Romans, but
this festival proves that the Mithraic worship was there prior
to their arrival."[366:2]
This was also a time of rejoicing in Ancient Mexico. Acosta says:
"In the first month, which in Peru they call Rayme, and
answering to our _December_, they made a solemn feast called
_Capacrayme_ (the Winter Solstice), wherein they made many
sacrifices and ceremonies, which continued many days."[366:3]
The evergreens, and particularly the mistletoe, which are used all over
the Christian world at Christmas time, betray its heathen origin.
Tertullian, a Father of the Church, who flourished about A. D. 200,
writing to his brethren, affirms it to be "_rank idolatry_" to deck
their doors "_with garlands or flowers, on festival days, according to
the custom of the heathen_."[366:4]
This shows that the heathen in those days, did as the Christians do now.
What have evergreens, and garlands, and Christmas trees, to do with
Christianity? Simply _nothing_. It is the old Yule-feast which was held
by all the northern nations, from time immemorial, handed down to, and
observed at the present day. In the greenery with which Christians deck
their houses and temples of worship, and in the Christmas-trees laden
with gifts, we unquestionably see a relic of the symbols by which our
heathen forefathers signified their faith in the powers of the returning
sun to clothe the earth again with green, and hang new fruit on the
trees. Foliage, such as the laurel, myrtle, ivy, or oak, and in general,
_all evergreens_, were _Dionysiac plants_, that is, symbols of the
generative power, signifying perpetuity of youth and vigor.[366:5]
Among the causes, then, that co-operated in fixing this period--December
25th--as the birthday of Christ Jesus, was, as we have seen, that almost
every ancient nation of the earth held a festival on this day in
commemoration of the birth of _their_ virgin-born god.
On this account the Christians _adopted it_ as the time of the birth of
_their_ God. Mr. Gibbon, speaking of this in his "Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire," says:
"The Roman Christians, ignorant of the real date of his
(Christ's) birth, fixed the solemn festival to the 25th of
December, the _Brumalia_, or Winter Solstice, when the Pagans
annually celebrated the birth of _Sol_."[367:1]
And Mr. King, in his "Gnostics and their Remains," says:
"The ancient festival held on the 25th of December in honor of
the 'Birthday of the Invincible One,' and celebrated by the
'great games' at the circus, was afterwards transferred to the
commemoration of the birth of Christ, the precise day of which
many of the Fathers confess was then unknown."[367:2]
St. Chrysostom, who flourished about A. D. 390, referring to this Pagan
festival, says:
"_On this day, also, the birth of Christ was lately fixed at
Rome_, in order that whilst the heathen were busy with their
_profane_ ceremonies, the Christians might perform their _holy
rites_ undisturbed."[367:3]
Add to this the fact that St. Gregory, a Christian Father of the third
century, was instrumental in, and commended by other Fathers for,
changing _Pagan festivals_ into Christian _holidays_, for the purpose,
as they said, of drawing the heathen to the religion of Christ.[367:4]
As Dr. Hooykaas remarks, the church was always anxious to meet the
heathen _half way_, by allowing them to retain the feasts they were
accustomed to, only giving them a _Christian dress_, or attaching a new
or Christian signification to them.[367:5]
In doing these, and many other such things, which we shall speak of in
our chapter on "_Paganism in Christianity_," the Christian Fathers,
instead of drawing the heathen to their religion, drew themselves into
Paganism.
FOOTNOTES:
[359:1] See Bible for Learners vol. iii. p. 66; Chambers's Encyclo.,
art. "_Christmas_."
[359:2] Eccl. Hist., vol. i. p. 53. Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 104.
[359:3] See Chapter XL., this work.
[359:4] Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 189.
[360:1] Hebrew and Christian Records, p. 194.
[360:2] Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 556.
[360:3] Barnes' Notes, vol. ii. p. 402.
[360:4] Ibid. p. 25.
[360:5] Farrar's Life of Christ, App., pp. 673, 4.
[361:1] Bible Chronology, pp. 73, 74.
[361:2] Hist. de Juif.
[361:3] Chap. ii. 13-20.
[361:4] Luke, ii. 1-7.
[361:5] Matt. ii. 1.
[361:6] See Josephus: Antiq., bk. xviii. ch. i. sec. i.
[361:7] Eusebius was Bishop of Cesarea from A. D. 315 to 340, in which
he died, in the 70th year of his age, thus playing his great part in
life chiefly under the reigns of Constantine the Great and his son
Constantine.
[362:1] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. vi.
[362:2] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 56.
[362:3] See Chamber's Encyclo., art. "_Christmas_."
[362:4] See Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 66.
[362:5] "By the fifth century, however, whether from the influence of
some tradition, or from the desire to supplant _Heathen Festivals_ of
that period of the year, such as the Saturnalia, the 25th of December
had been generally agreed upon." (Encyclopædia Brit., art. "Christmas.")
[363:1] See Monier Williams: Hinduism, p. 181.
[363:2] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 126.
[363:3] Ibid. 216.
[363:4] See Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, pp. x.-25, and 110, and Lillie:
Buddha and Buddhism, p. 73.
Some writers have asserted that _Crishna_ is said to have been born on
December 25th, but this is not the case. His birthday is held in
July-August. (See Williams' Hinduism, p. 183, and Life and Religion of
the Hindoos, p. 134.)
[363:5] Celtic Druids, p. 163. See also, Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p.
272; Monumental Christianity, p. 167; Bible for Learners, iii. pp. 66,
67.
[363:6] The Heathen Religion, p. 287. See also, Dupuis: p. 246.
[363:7] Relig. of the Anct. Greeks, p. 214. See also, Higgins:
Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 99.
[364:1] "_Adytum_"--the interior or sacred part of a heathen temple.
[364:2] "_Bambino_"--a term used for representations of the infant
Saviour, Christ Jesus, in _swaddlings_.
[364:3] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 157. See also, Dupuis, p. 237.
[364:4] "Deinceps Egyptii PARITURAM VIRGINEM magno in honore habuerunt;
quin soliti sunt puerum effingere jacentem in præsepe, quali POSTEA in
Bethlehemeticâ speluncâ natus est." (Quoted in Anacalypsis, p. 102, of
vol. ii.)
[364:5] Quoted by Bonwick, p. 143.
[364:6] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 99.
[364:7] Relig. Anct. Greece, p. 215.
[364:8] Ibid.
[364:9] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 102; Dupuis, p. 237, and Baring Gould:
Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 322.
[365:1] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 99.
[365:2] The Heathen Religion, p. 287; Dupuis, p. 283.
[365:3] Bulfinch, p. 21.
[365:4] See Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 67, and Chambers, art.
"Yule."
[365:5] See Chambers's, art. "Yule," and "Celtic Druids," p. 162.
[365:6] Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 110 and 355. Knight: p. 87.
[366:1] Dupuis, 160; Celtic Druids, and Monumental Christianity, p. 167.
[366:2] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 99.
[366:3] Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 354.
[366:4] See Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 80.
[366:5] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 82.
[367:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 383.
[367:2] King's Gnostics, p. 49.
[367:3] Quoted in Ibid.
[367:4] See the chapter on "Paganism in Christianity."
[367:5] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 67.
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE TRINITY.
"Say not there are three Gods, God is but One God."--(Koran.)
The doctrine of the Trinity is the highest and most mysterious doctrine
of the Christian church. It declares that there are _three_ persons in
the Godhead or divine nature--the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost--and that "these three are _one_ true, eternal God, the same in
substance, equal in power and glory, although distinguished by their
personal propensities." The most celebrated statement of the doctrine is
to be found in the Athanasian creed,[368:1] which asserts that:
"The Catholic[368:2] faith is this: That we worship _One_ God
as Trinity, and Trinity in Unity--neither confounding the
persons, nor dividing the substance--for there is One person
of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy
Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost _is all one_; the glory equal, the majesty
co-eternal."
As M. Reville remarks:
"The dogma of the Trinity displayed its contradictions with
true bravery. The Deity divided into _three_ divine persons,
_and yet_ these _three_ persons forming only _One_ God; of
these three _the first only_ being self-existent, the two
others _deriving their existence_ from the first, _and yet_
these three persons being considered as _perfectly equal_;
each having his special, distinct character, his individual
qualities, wanting in the other two, _and yet_ each one of the
three being supposed to possess the fullness of
perfection--here, it must be confessed, we have the
deification of the contradictory."[368:3]
We shall now see that this very peculiar doctrine of three in one, and
one in three, is of _heathen_ origin, and that it must fall with all the
other dogmas of the Christian religion.
The number _three_ is sacred in all theories derived from oriental
sources. Deity is always a trinity of some kind, or the successive
emanations proceeded in threes.[369:1]
If we turn to _India_ we shall find that one of the most prominent
features in the Indian theology is the doctrine of a divine triad,
governing all things. This triad is called _Tri-murti_--from the
Sanscrit word _tri_ (three) and _murti_ (form)--and consists of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva. It is an _inseparable_ unity, though three in
form.[369:2]
"When the universal and infinite being Brahma--the only really existing
entity, wholly without form, and unbound and unaffected by the three
Gunas or by qualities of any kind--wished to create for his own
entertainment the phenomena of the universe, he assumed the quality of
activity and became a male person, as _Brahma_ the creator. Next, in the
progress of still further self-evolution, he willed to invest himself
with the second quality of goodness, as _Vishnu_ the preserver, and with
the third quality of darkness, as _Siva_ the destroyer. This development
of the doctrine of triple manifestation (_tri-murti_), which appears
first in the Brahmanized version of the Indian Epics, had already been
adumbrated in the Veda in the triple form of fire, and in the triad of
gods, Agni, Sūrya, and Indra; and in other ways."[369:3]
This divine _Tri-murti_--says the Brahmans and the sacred books--is
indivisible in essence, and indivisible in action; mystery profound!
which is explained in the following manner:
_Brahma_ represents the _creative_ principle, the unreflected or
unevolved protogoneus state of divinity--the _Father_.
_Vishnu_ represents the _protecting_ and _preserving_ principle, the
evolved or reflected state of divinity--the _Son_.[369:4]
_Siva_ is the principle that presides at destruction and
re-construction--the Holy Spirit.[369:5]
The third person was the Destroyer, or, in his good capacity, the
Regenerator. The dove was the emblem of the Regenerator. As the
_spiritus_ was the passive cause (brooding on the face of the waters) by
which all things sprang into life, the dove became the emblem of the
Spirit, or Holy Ghost, the third person.
These three gods are the first and the highest manifestations of the
Eternal Essence, and are typified by the three letters composing the
mystic syllable OM or AUM. They constitute the well known Trimurti or
Triad of divine forms which characterizes Hindooism. It is usual to
describe these three gods as Creator, Preserver and Destroyer, but this
gives a very inadequate idea of their complex characters. Nor does the
conception of their relationship to each other become clearer when it is
ascertained that their functions are constantly interchangeable, and
that each may take the place of the other, according to the sentiment
expressed by the greatest of Indian poets, Kalidasa (Kumara-sambhava,
Griffith, vii. 44):
"In those three persons the One God was shown--
Each first in place, each last--not one alone;
Of Siva, Vishnu, Brahmā, each may be
First, second, third, among the blessed three."
A devout person called Attencin, becoming convinced that he should
worship but _one_ deity, thus addressed Brahma, Vishnu and Siva:
"O you _three_ Lords; know that I recognize only _One_ God;
inform me therefore, _which of you is the true divinity_, that
I may address to him alone my vows and adorations."
The three gods became manifest to him, and replied:
"Learn, O devotee, that there is no real distinction between
us; what to you _appears_ such is only by semblance; _the
Single Being appears under three forms, but he is
One_."[370:1]
Sir William Jones says:
"Very respectable natives have assured me, that one or two
missionaries have been absurd enough in their zeal for the
conversion of the Gentiles, to urge that the Hindoos were even
now almost Christians; because their Brahmā, Vishnou, and
Mahesa (Siva), were no other than the Christian
Trinity."[370:2]
Thomas Maurice, in his "Indian Antiquities," describes a magnificent
piece of Indian sculpture, of exquisite workmanship, and of stupendous
antiquity, namely:
"A bust composed of _three heads_, united to _one body_,
adorned with the _oldest_ symbols of the Indian theology, and
thus expressly fabricated according to the unanimous
confession of the sacred sacerdotal tribe of India, to
indicate _the Creator_, the _Preserver_, and the
_Regenerator_, of mankind; which _establishes the solemn fact,
that from the remotest eras, the Indian nations had adored a
triune deity_."[371:1]
Fig. No. 34 is a representation of an Indian sculpture, intended to
represent the Triune God,[371:2] evidently similar to the one described
above by Mr. Maurice. It is taken from "a very ancient granite" in the
museum at the "Indian House," and was dug from the ruins of a temple in
the island of Bombay.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 34]
The Buddhists, as well as the Brahmans, have had their Trinity from a
very early period.
Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Heathen Idolatry," says:
"Among the Hindoos, we have the Triad of Brahmā, Vishnu,
and Siva; so, among the votaries of Buddha, we find the
self-triplicated Buddha declared to be the same as the Hindoo
Trimurti. Among the Buddhist sect of the Jainists, we have the
triple Jiva, in whom the Trimurti is similarly declared to be
incarnate."
In this Trinity _Vajrapani_ answers to Brahmā, or Jehovah, the
"All-father," _Manjusri_ is the "deified teacher," the counterpart of
Crishna or Jesus, and _Avalokitesvara_ is the "Holy Spirit."
Buddha was believed by _his_ followers to be, not only an incarnation of
the deity, but "God himself in human form"--as the followers of Crishna
believed him to be--and therefore "three gods in one." This is clearly
illustrated by the following address delivered to Buddha by a devotee
called Amora:
"Reverence be unto thee, O God, in the form of the God of
mercy, the dispeller of pain and trouble, the Lord of all
things, the guardian of the universe, the emblem of mercy
towards those who serve thee--OM! the possessor of all things
in vital form. Thou art Brahmā, Vishnu, and Mahesa; thou art
Lord of all the universe. Thou art under the proper form of
all things, movable and immovable, the possessor of the whole,
and thus I adore thee. I adore thee, who art celebrated by a
thousand names, and under various forms; in the shape of
Buddha, the god of mercy."[371:3]
The inhabitants of _China_ and _Japan_, the majority of whom are
Buddhists, worship God in the form of a Trinity. Their name for him
(Buddha) is Fo, and in speaking of the Trinity they say: "The three
pure, precious or honorable Fo."[372:1] This triad is represented in
their temples by images similar to those found in the pagodas of India,
and when they speak of God they say: "_Fo is one person, but has three
forms._"[372:2]
In a chapel belonging to the monastery of Poo-ta-la, which was found in
Manchow-Tartary, was to be seen representations of Fo, in the form of
three persons.[372:3]
Navarette, in his account of China, says:
"This sect (of Fo) has another idol they call _Sanpao_. It
consists of _three_, equal in all respects. This, which has
been represented as an image of the Most Blessed Trinity, is
exactly the same with that which is on the high altar of the
monastery of the Trinitarians at Madrid. If any Chinese
whatsoever saw it, he would say that _Sanpao_ of his country
was worshiped in these parts."
And Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Heathen Idolatry," says:
"Among the Chinese, who worship Buddha under the name of _Fo_,
we find this God mysteriously multiplied into _three
persons_."
The mystic syllable O. M. or A. U. M. is also reverenced by the Chinese
and Japanese,[372:4] as we have found it reverenced by the inhabitants
of India.
The followers of Laou-tsze, or Laou-keum-tsze--a celebrated philosopher
of China, and deified hero, born 604 B. C.--known as the Taou sect, are
also worshipers of a Trinity.[372:5] It was the leading feature in
Laou-keun's system of philosophical theology, that Taou, the eternal
reason, produced _one_; one produced _two_; two produced _three_; and
three produced all things.[372:6] This was a sentence which Laou-keun
continually repeated, and which Mr. Maurice considers, "a most singular
axiom for a _heathen_ philosopher."[372:7]
The sacred volumes of the Chinese state that:
"The Source and Root of all is _One_. This self-existent unity
necessarily produced a _second_. The first and second, by
their union, produced a _third_. These _Three_ produced
all."[372:8]
The ancient emperors of China solemnly sacrificed, every three years, to
"Him who is One and Three."[372:9]
The ancient _Egyptians_ worshiped God in the form of a Trinity, which
was represented in sculptures on the most ancient of their temples. The
celebrated symbol of the wing, the globe, and the serpent, is supposed
to have stood for the different attributes of God.[373:1]
The priests of Memphis, in Egypt, explained this mystery to the novice,
by intimating that the premier (first) _monad_ created the _dyad_, who
engendered the _triad_, and that it is this triad which shines through
nature.
Thulis, a great monarch, who at one time reigned over all Egypt, and who
was in the habit of consulting the oracle of Serapis, is said to have
addressed the oracle in these words:
"Tell me if ever there was before one greater than I, or will
ever be one greater than me?"
The oracle answered thus:
"First _God_, afterward the _Word_, and with them the _Holy
Spirit_, all these are of the same nature, and make but _one_
whole, of which the power is eternal. Go away quickly,
_mortal_, thou who hast but an uncertain life."[373:2]
The idea of calling the second person in the Trinity the _Logos_, or
_Word_[373:3] is an Egyptian feature, and was engrafted into
Christianity many centuries after the time of Christ Jesus.[373:4]
_Apollo_, who had his tomb at Delphi in Egypt, was called the
Word.[373:5]
Mr. Bonwick, in his "Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought," says:
"Some persons are prepared to admit that the most astonishing
development of the old religion of Egypt was in relation to
the _Logos_ or Divine _Word_, by whom all things were made,
and who, though from God, was God. It had long been known that
Plato, Aristotle, and others before the Christian era,
cherished the idea of this Demiurgus; but it was not known
till of late that Chaldeans and Egyptians recognized this
mysterious principle."[373:6]
"The _Logos_ or _Word_ was a great mystery (among the
Egyptians), in whose sacred books the following passages may
be seen: 'I know the mystery of the divine Word;' 'The Word of
the Lord of All, which was the maker of it;' 'The Word--this
is the first person after himself, uncreated, infinite ruling
over all things that were made by him.'"[374:1]
The Assyrians had Marduk for their Logos;[374:2] one of their sacred
addresses to him reads thus:
"Thou art the powerful one--Thou art the life-giver--Thou also
the prosperer--Merciful one among the gods--Eldest son of Hea,
who made heaven and earth--Lord of heaven and earth, who an
equal has not--Merciful one, who dead to life raises."[374:3]
The Chaldeans had their _Memra_ or "Word of God," corresponding to the
Greek _Logos_, which designated that being who organized and who still
governs the world, and is inferior to God only.[374:4]
The Logos was with Philoa most interesting subject of discourse,
tempting him to wonderful feats of imagination. There is scarcely a
personifying or exalting epithet that he did not bestow on the Divine
Reason. He described it as a distinct being; called it "a Rock," "The
Summit of the Universe," "Before all things," "First-begotten Son of
God," "Eternal Bread from Heaven," "Fountain of Wisdom," "Guide to God,"
"Substitute for God," "Image of God," "Priest," "Creator of the Worlds,"
"Second God," "Interpreter of God," "Ambassador of God," "Power of God,"
"King," "Angel," "Man," "Mediator," "Light," "The Beginning," "The
East," "The Name of God," "The Intercessor."[374:5]
This is exactly the Logos of John. It becomes a man, "is made flesh;"
appears as an _incarnation_; in order that the God whom "no man has seen
at any time," may be manifested.
The worship of God in the form of a Trinity was to be found among the
ancient _Greeks_. When the priests were about to offer up a sacrifice to
the gods, the altar was _three times_ sprinkled by dipping a laurel
branch in holy water, and the people assembled around it were _three
times_ sprinkled also. Frankincense was taken from the censer with
_three fingers_, and strewed upon the altar _three times_. This was done
because an oracle had declared that _all sacred things ought to be in
threes_, therefore, that number was scrupulously observed in most
religious ceremonies.[374:6]
Orpheus[374:7] wrote that:
"All things were made by _One_ godhead in _three_ names, and
that this god is all things."[375:1]
This Trinitarian view of the Deity he is said to have brought from
Egypt, and the Christian Fathers of the third and fourth centuries
claimed that Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Plato--who taught the doctrine
of the Trinity--had drawn their theological philosophy from the writings
of Orpheus.[375:2]
The works of Plato were extensively studied by the Church Fathers, one
of whom joyfully recognizes in the great teacher, the schoolmaster who,
in the fullness of time, was destined to educate the heathen for Christ,
as Moses did the Jews.[375:3]
The celebrated passage: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God,"[375:4] is a fragment of some Pagan
treatise on the Platonic philosophy, evidently written by
Irenæus.[375:5] It is quoted by _Amelius_, a Pagan philosopher, as
strictly applicable to the Logos, or Mercury, the Word, apparently as an
honorable testimony borne to the Pagan deity by a barbarian--for such is
what he calls the writer of John i. 1. His words are:
"This plainly was the Word, by whom all things were made, he
being himself eternal, as Heraclitus also would say; and by
Jove, the same whom the _barbarian_ affirms to have been in
the place and dignity of a principal, and to be with God, and
to be God, by whom all things were made, and in whom
everything that was made has its life and being."[375:6]
The Christian Father, Justin Martyr, _apologizing_ for the Christian
religion, tells the Emperor Antoninus Pius, that the Pagans need not
taunt the Christians for worshiping the Logos, which "was with God, and
was God," as _they were also guilty of the same act_.
"If we (Christians) hold," says he, "some opinions near of kin
to the poets and philosophers, in great repute among you, why
are we thus unjustly hated?" "There's _Mercury_, Jove's
interpreter, in imitation of the Logos, in worship among you,"
and "as to the Son of God, called Jesus, should we allow him
to be nothing more than man, yet the title of the 'Son of God'
is very justifiable, upon the account of his wisdom,
considering _you_ have your _Mercury_, (also called the 'Son
of God') in worship under the title of the _Word_ and
Messenger of God."[375:7]
We see, then, that the title "Word" or "Logos," being applied to Jesus,
is another piece of Pagan amalgamation with Christianity. _It did not
receive its authorized Christian form until the middle of the second
century after Christ._[376:1]
The ancient Pagan _Romans_ worshiped a Trinity. An oracle is said to
have declared that there was, "first God, then the Word, and with them
the Spirit."[376:2]
Here we see distinctly enumerated, God, the Logos, and the Spirit or
Holy Ghost, in ancient Rome, where the most celebrated temple of this
capital--that of Jupiter Capitolinus--was dedicated to _three_ deities,
which three deities were honored with joint worship.[376:3]
The ancient _Persians_ worshiped a Trinity.[376:4] This trinity
consisted of Oromasdes, Mithras, and Ahriman.[376:5] It was virtually
the same as that of the Hindoos: Oromasdes was the Creator, Mithras was
the "Son of God," the "Saviour," the "Mediator" or "Intercessor," and
Ahriman was the Destroyer. In the oracles of Zoroaster the Persian
lawgiver, is to be found the following sentence:
"A _Triad_ of Deity shines forth through the whole world, of
which a _Monad_ (an invisible thing) is the head."[376:6]
Plutarch, "De Iside et Osiride," says:
"Zoroaster is said to have made a _threefold_ distribution of
things: to have assigned the first and highest rank to
Oromasdes, who, _in the Oracles_, is called the _Father_; the
lowest to Ahrimanes; and the middle to Mithras; who, in the
_same Oracles_, is called the _second Mind_."
The _Assyrians_ and _Phenicians_ worshiped a Trinity.[376:7]
"It is a curious and instructive fact, that the Jews had symbols of the
divine Unity in Trinity as well as the Pagans."[376:8] The _Cabbala_ had
its Trinity: "the _Ancient_, whose name is sanctified, is with _three_
heads, which make but _one_."[376:9]
Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai says:
"Come and see the _mystery_ of the word _Elohim_: there are
_three degrees_, and each degree by itself alone, and yet,
notwithstanding, _they are all One_, and _joined together in
One_, and cannot be divided from each other."
According to Dr. Parkhurst:
"The _Vandals_[376:10] had a god called Triglaff. One of these
was found at Hertungerberg, near Brandenburg (in Prussia). He
was represented with _three heads_. This was apparently the
_Trinity of Paganism_."[377:1]
The ancient _Scandinavians_ worshiped a triple deity who was yet one
god. It consisted of Odin, Thor, and Frey. A triune statue representing
this Trinity in Unity was found at Upsal in Sweden.[377:2] The three
principal nations of Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark, and Norway) vied with
each other in erecting temples, but none were more famous than the
temple at Upsal in Sweden. It glittered on all sides with gold. It
seemed to be particularly consecrated to the _Three Superior Deities_,
Odin, Thor and Frey. The statues of these gods were placed in this
temple on three thrones, one above the other. _Odin_ was represented
holding a sword in his hand: _Thor_ stood at the left hand of Odin, with
a crown upon his head, and a scepter in his hand; _Frey_ stood at the
left hand of Thor, and was represented of both sexes. Odin was the
supreme God, the _Al-fader_; Thor was the first-begotten son of this
god, and Frey was the bestower of fertility, peace and riches. King
Gylfi of Sweden is supposed to have gone at one time to _Asgard_ (the
abode of the gods), where he beheld three thrones raised one above
another, with a man sitting on each of them. Upon his asking what the
names of these lords might be, his guide answered: "He who sitteth on
the lowest throne is _the Lofty One_; the second is _the equal to the
Lofty One_; and he who sitteth on the highest throne is called _the
Third_."[377:3]
The ancient _Druids_ also worshiped: "_Ain Treidhe Dia ainm Taulac, Fan,
Mollac_;" which is to say: "Ain triple God, of name Taulac, Fan,
Mollac."[377:4]
The ancient inhabitants of _Siberia_ worshiped a triune God. In remote
ages, wanderers from India directed their eyes northward, and crossing
the vast Tartarian deserts, finally settled in Siberia, bringing with
them the worship of a triune God. This is clearly shown from the fact
stated by Thomas Maurice, that:
"The first Christian missionaries who arrived in those
regions, found the people already in possession of that
fundamental doctrine of the true religion, which, among
others, they came to impress upon their minds, and universally
adored an idol fabricated to resemble, as near as possible, _a
Trinity in Unity_."
This triune God consisted of, first "the Creator of all things," second,
"the God of Armies," third, "the Spirit of Heavenly Love," and yet these
three were but _one_ indivisible God.[377:5]
The _Tartars_ also worshiped God as a Trinity in Unity. On one of their
medals, which is now in the St. Petersburgh Museum, may be seen a
representation of the triple God seated on the lotus.[378:1]
Even in the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean, the supreme deities are
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, the latter of which is
symbolized as a bird.[378:2]
The ancient _Mexicans_ and _Peruvians_ had their Trinity. The supreme
God of the Mexicans (_Tezcatlipoca_), who had, as Lord Kingsborough
says, "all the attributes and powers which were assigned to Jehovah by
the Hebrews," had associated with him two other gods, _Huitzlipochtli_
and _Tlaloc_; one occupied a place upon his left hand, the other on his
right. This was the Trinity of the Mexicans.[378:3]
When the bishop Don Bartholomew de las Casas proceeded to his bishopric,
which was in 1545, he commissioned an ecclesiastic, whose name was
Francis Hernandez, who was well acquainted with the language of the
Indians (as the natives were called), to visit them, carrying with him a
sort of catechism of what he was about to preach. In about one year from
the time that Francis Hernandez was sent out, he wrote to Bishop las
Casas, stating that:
"The Indians believed in the God who was in heaven; that this
God was the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that the Father
was named _Yzona_, the Son _Bacab_, who was born of a Virgin,
and that the Holy Ghost was called _Echiah_."[378:4]
The Rev. Father Acosta says, in speaking of the _Peruvians_:
"It is strange that the devil after his manner hath brought a
Trinity into idolatry, for the three images of the Sun called
_Apomti_, _Churunti_, and _Intiquaoqui_, signifieth Father and
Lord Sun, the Son Sun, and the Brother Sun.
"Being in Chuquisaca, an honorable priest showed me an
information, which I had long in my hands, where it was proved
that there was a certain oratory, whereat the Indians did
worship an idol called _Tangatanga_, which they said was 'One
in Three, and Three in One.' And as this priest stood amazed
thereat, I said that the devil by his internal and obstinate
pride (whereby he always pretends to make himself God) did
steal all that he could from the truth, to employ it in his
lying and deceits."[378:5]
The doctrine was recognized among the Indians of the Californian
peninsula. The statue of the principal deity of the New Granadian
Indians had "three heads on one body," and was understood to be "three
persons with one heart and one will."[378:6]
The result of our investigations then, is that, for ages before the
time of Christ Jesus or Christianity, God was worshiped in the form of a
TRIAD, and that this doctrine was extensively diffused through all
nations. That it was established in regions as far distant as China and
Mexico, and immemorially acknowledged through the whole extent of Egypt
and India. That it flourished with equal vigor among the snowy mountains
of Thibet, and the vast deserts of Siberia. That the barbarians of
central Europe, the Scandinavians, and the Druids of Britain and
Ireland, bent their knee to an idol of a _Triune God_. What then becomes
of "the Ever-Blessed Trinity" of Christianity? It must fall, together
with all the rest of its dogmas, and be buried with the Pagan débris.
The learned Thomas Maurice imagined that this mysterious doctrine must
have been revealed by God to Adam, or to Noah, or to Abraham, or to
somebody else. Notice with what caution he wrote (A. D. 1794) on this
subject. He says:
"In the course of the wide range which I have been compelled
to take in the field of Asiatic mythology, certain topics have
arisen for discussion, _equally delicate and perplexing_.
Among them, in particular, a species of Trinity forms a
constant and prominent feature in nearly all the systems of
Oriental theology."
After saying, "_I venture with a trembling step_," and that, "It was not
from _choice_, but from _necessity_, that I entered thus upon this
subject," he concludes:
"This extensive and interesting subject engrosses a
considerable portion of this work, _and my anxiety to prepare
the public mind to receive it_, my efforts to elucidate so
_mysterious_ a point of theology, induces me to remind the
candid reader, that visible traces of this doctrine are
discovered, not only in the _three_ principals of the Chaldaic
theology; in the _Triplasios_ Mithra of Persia; in the
_Triad_, Brahmā, Vishnu, and Siva, of India--where it was
evidently promulgated in the Geeta, _fifteen hundred years
before the birth of Plato_;[379:1] but in the Numen Triplex of
Japan; in the inscription upon the famous medal found in the
deserts of Siberia, "To the Triune God," to be seen at this
day in the valuable cabinet of the Empress, at St.
Petersburgh; in the Tanga-Tanga, or Three in One, of the South
Americans; and, finally, without mentioning the vestiges of it
in Greece, in the Symbol of the Wing, the Globe, and the
Serpent, conspicuous on most of the ancient temples of Upper
Egypt."[379:2]
It was a long time after the followers of Christ Jesus had made him _a_
God, before they ventured to declare that he was "_God himself in human
form_," and, "_the second person in the Ever-Blessed Trinity_." It was
_Justin Martyr, a Christian convert from the Platonic school_,[380:1]
who, about the middle of the second century, first promulgated the
opinion, that Jesus of Nazareth, the "Son of God," was the second
principle in the Deity, and the Creator of all material things. He is
the earliest writer to whom the opinion can be traced. This knowledge,
he does not ascribe to the Scriptures, but to the special favor of
God.[380:2]
The passage in I. John, v. 7, which reads thus: "For there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one," is _one of the numerous interpolations which
were inserted into the books of the New Testament, many years after
these books were written_.[380:3] These passages are retained and
circulated as the _word of God_, or as of equal authority with the rest,
though known and admitted by the learned on all hands, to be forgeries,
willful and wicked interpolations.
The subtle and profound questions concerning the nature, generation, the
distinction, and the quality of the three divine persons of the
mysterious triad, or Trinity, were agitated in the philosophical and in
the Christian schools of _Alexandria in Egypt_,[380:4] but it was not a
part of the established Christian faith until as late as A. D. 327, when
the question was settled at the Councils of Nice and Constantinople. _Up
to this time there was no understood and recognized doctrine on this
high subject._ The Christians were for the most part accustomed to use
scriptural expressions in speaking of the Father, and the Son, and the
Spirit, without defining articulately their relation to one
another.[380:5]
In these trinitarian controversies, which first broke out in
Egypt--_Egypt, the land of Trinities_--the chief point in the discussion
was to define the position of "the Son."
There lived in _Alexandria_ a presbyter of the name of _Arius_, a
disappointed candidate for the office of bishop. He took the ground
that there was a time when, from the very nature of _Sonship_, the Son
did not exist, and a time at which he commenced to be, asserting that it
is the necessary condition of the filial relation _that a father must be
older than his son_. But this assertion evidently denied the
_co-eternity_ of the three persons of the Trinity, it suggested a
_subordination_ or _inequality_ among them, and indeed implied a time
when the Trinity did not exist. Hereupon, the bishop, who had been the
successful competitor against Arius, displayed his rhetorical powers in
public debates on the question, and, the strife spreading, the Jews and
Pagans, who formed a very large portion of the population of Alexandria,
_amused themselves with theatrical representations of the contest on the
stage--the point of their burlesques being the equality of age of the
Father and the Son_. Such was the violence the controversy at length
assumed, that the matter had to be referred to the emperor
(Constantine).
At first he looked upon the dispute as altogether frivolous, and perhaps
in truth inclined to the assertion of Arius, that in the very nature of
the thing a father must be older than his son. So great, however, was
the pressure laid upon him, that he was eventually compelled to summon
the Council of Nicea, which, to dispose of the conflict, set forth a
formulary or creed, and attached to it this anathema:
"The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes those
who say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, and
that, before he was begotten, he was not, and that, he was
made out of nothing, or out of another substance or essence,
and is created, or changeable, or alterable."
Constantine at once _enforced_ the decision of the council by the civil
power.[381:1]
Even after this "subtle and profound question" had been settled at the
Council of Nice, those who settled it did not understand the question
they had settled. Athanasius, who was a member of the first general
council, and who is said to have written the _creed_ which bears his
name, which asserts that the true Catholic faith is this:
"That we worship _One_ God as Trinity, and Trinity in
Unity--neither confounding the persons nor dividing the
substance--for there is one person of the Father, another of
the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost, but the Godhead of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost _is all one_,
the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal,"
--also confessed that whenever he forced his understanding to meditate
on the divinity of the Logos, his toilsome and unavailing efforts
recoiled on themselves; _that the more he thought the less he
comprehended; and the more he wrote the less capable was he of
expressing his thoughts_.[382:1]
We see, then, that this great question was settled, not by the consent
of all members of the council, but simply because the _majority_ were in
favor of it. Jesus of Nazareth was "God himself in human form;" "one of
the persons of the Ever-Blessed Trinity," who "had no beginning, and
will have no end," _because the majority of the members of this council
said so_. Hereafter--so it was decreed--_all must believe it_; if not,
they must not oppose it, but forever hold their peace.
The Emperor Theodosius declared his resolution of expelling from all the
churches of his dominions, the bishops and their clergy who should
obstinately refuse to believe, _or at least to profess_, the doctrine of
the Council of Nice. His lieutenant, Sapor, was armed with the ample
powers of a general law, a special commission, _and a military force_;
and this ecclesiastical resolution was conducted _with so much
discretion and vigor, that the religion of the Emperor was
established_.[382:2]
Here we have the historical fact, that bishops of the Christian church,
and their clergy, _were forced to profess their belief in the doctrine
of the Trinity_.
We also find that:
"This orthodox Emperor (Theodosius) considered every heretic
(as he called those who did not believe as he and his
ecclesiastics professed) as a rebel against the supreme powers
of heaven and of earth (he being one of the supreme powers of
earth) _and each of the powers_ might exercise their peculiar
jurisdiction _over the soul and body of the guilty_.
"The decrees of the Council of Constantinople had ascertained
the _true_ standard of the faith, _and the ecclesiastics, who
governed the conscience of Theodosius, suggested the most
effectual methods of persecution_. In the space of fifteen
years he promulgated at least fifteen severe edicts against
the heretics, _more especially against those who rejected the
doctrine of the Trinity_."[382:3]
Thus we see one of the many reasons why the "most holy Christian
religion" spread so rapidly.
Arius--who declared that in the nature of things a father must be older
than his son--was excommunicated for his so-called heretical notions
concerning the Trinity. His followers, who were very numerous, were
called Arians. Their writings, if they had been permitted to
exist,[383:1] would undoubtedly contain the lamentable story of the
persecution which affected the church under the reign of the impious
Emperor Theodosius.
FOOTNOTES:
[368:1] The celebrated passage (I. John, v. 7) "For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and
these three are one," is now admitted on all hands to be an
interpolation into the epistle many centuries after the time of Christ
Jesus. (See Giles' Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 12.
Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 556. Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p.
886. Taylor's Diegesis and Reber's Christ of Paul.)
[368:2] That is, the _true_ faith.
[368:3] Dogma Deity Jesus Christ, p. 95.
[369:1] "The notion of a _Triad_ of Supreme Powers is indeed common to
most ancient religions." (Prichard's Egyptian Mytho., p. 285.)
"Nearly all the Pagan nations of antiquity, in their various theological
systems, acknowledged a trinity in the divine nature." (Maurice: Indian
Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 35.)
"The ancients imagined that their _triad_ of gods or persons, only
constituted one god." (Celtic Druids, p. 197.)
[369:2] The three attributes called Brahmā, Vishnu and Siva, are
indicated by letters corresponding to our A. U. M., generally pronounced
OM. This mystic word is never uttered except in prayer, and the sign
which represents it in their temples is an object of profound adoration.
[369:3] Monier Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 324.
[369:4] That is, the Lord and Saviour _Crishna_. The Supreme Spirit, in
order to preserve the world, produced Vishnu. Vishnu came upon earth for
this purpose, in the form of Crishna. He was believed to be an
incarnation of the Supreme Being, one of the persons of their holy and
mysterious trinity, to use their language, "The Lord and Savior--three
persons and one god." In the Geita, Crishna is made to say: "I am the
Lord of all created beings." "I am the mystic figure O. M." "I am
Brahmā Vishnu, and Siva, three gods in one."
[369:5] See The Heathen Religion, p. 124.
[370:1] Allen's India, pp. 382, 383.
[370:2] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 272.
[371:1] Indian Antiquities, vol. iv. p. 372.
[371:2] Taken from Moore's "Hindoo Pantheon," plate 81.
[371:3] Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. pp. 285, 286. See also, King's
Gnostics, 167.
[372:1] Davis' China, vol. ii. p. 104.
[372:2] Ibid. pp. 103 and 81.
[372:3] Ibid. pp. 105, 106.
[372:4] Ibid. pp. 103, 81.
[372:5] Ibid. 110, 111. Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 36. Dunlap's Spirit
Hist., 150.
[372:6] Indian Antiquities, vol. v. p. 41. Dupuis, p. 285. Dunlap's
Spirit Hist., 150.
[372:7] Indian Antiquities, vol. v. p. 41.
This Taou sect, according to John Francis Davis, and the Rev. Charles
Gutzlaff, both of whom have resided in China--call their trinity "the
three pure ones," or "the three precious ones in heaven." (See Davis'
China, vol. ii. p. 110, and Gutzlaff's Voyages, p. 307.)
[372:8] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 210.
[372:9] Ibid.
[373:1] Indian Antiquities, vol. i. p. 127.
[373:2] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 14.
The following answer is stated by Manetho, an Egyptian priest, to have
been given by an Oracle to Sesostris: "On his return through Africa he
entered the sanctuary of the Oracle, saying: 'Tell me, O thou strong in
fire, who before me could subjugate all things? and who shall after me?'
But the Oracle rebuked him, saying, 'First, _God_; then the _Word_; and
with them, the _Spirit_.'" (Nimrod, vol. i. p. 119, in Ibid. vol. i. p.
805.)
Here we have distinctly enumerated God, the Logos, and the Spirit or
Holy Ghost, in a very early period, long previous to the Christian era.
[373:3] I. John, v. 7. John, i. 1.
[373:4] The _Alexandrian_ theology, of which the celebrated _Plato_ was
the chief representative, taught that the _Logos_ was "_the second
God_;" a being of divine essence, but distinguished from the Supreme
God. It is also called "_the first-born Son of God_."
"The _Platonists_ furnished brilliant recruits to the Christian churches
of Asia Minor and Greece, and brought with them their love for system
and their idealism." "It is in the Platonizing or Alexandrian, branch of
Judaism that we must seek for the antecedents of the Christian doctrine
of the _Logos_." (A. Revillé: Dogma Deity Jesus, p. 29.)
[373:5] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 102. _Mithras_, the Mediator,
and Saviour of the Persians, was called the _Logos_. (See Dunlap's Son
of the Man, p. 20. Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 75.) _Hermes_ was called
the _Logos_. (See Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 39, _marginal note_.)
[373:6] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 402.
[374:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 404.
[374:2] Ibid.
[374:3] Ibid.
[374:4] Ibid. p. 28.
[374:5] Frothingham's Cradle of the Christ, p. 112.
[374:6] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 307.
[374:7] Orpheus is said to have been a native of Thracia, the oldest
poet of Greece, and to have written before the time of Homer; but he is
evidently a mythological character.
[375:1] See Indian Antiquities, vol. iv. p. 332, and Taylor's Diegesis,
p. 189.
[375:2] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Orpheus."
[375:3] Ibid., art. "Plato."
[375:4] John, i. 1.
[375:5] The first that we know of this gospel for certain is during the
time of Irenæus, the great Christian forger.
[375:6] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 185.
[375:7] Apol. 1. ch. xx.-xxii.
[376:1] See Fiske: Myths and Myth-makers, p. 205. _Celsus_ charges the
Christians with a _recoinage_ of the misunderstood doctrine of the
Logos.
[376:2] See Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 105.
[376:3] See Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 158.
[376:4] See Indian Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 346. Monumental
Christianity, p. 65, and Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 819.
[376:5] Ibid.
[376:6] Indian Antiquities, vol. iv. p. 259.
[376:7] See Monumental Christianity, p. 65, and Ancient Faiths, vol. ii.
p. 819.
[376:8] Monumental Christianity, p. 923. See also, Maurice's Indian
Antiquities.
[376:9] Idra Suta, Sohar, iii. 288. B. Franck, 138. Son of the Man, p.
78.
[376:10] _Vandals_--a race of European barbarians, either of Germanic or
Slavonic origin.
[377:1] Parkhurst: Hebrew Lexicon, Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 216.
[377:2] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 169. Maurice: Indian
Antiq., vol. v. p. 14, and Gross: The Heathen Religion, p. 210.
[377:3] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
[377:4] Celtic Druids, p. 171; Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 123; and Myths of
the British Druids, p. 448.
[377:5] Indian Antiquities, vol. v. pp. 8, 9.
[378:1] Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 48.
[378:2] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 169.
[378:3] Squire: Serpent Symbol, pp. 179, 180. Mexican Ant., vol. vi. p.
164.
[378:4] Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 164.
[378:5] Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 373. See also, Indian Antiq.,
vol. v. p. 26, and Squire's Serpent Symbol, p. 181.
[378:6] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 181.
[379:1] The ideas entertained concerning the antiquity of the Geeta, at
the time Mr. Maurice wrote his Indian Antiquities, were erroneous. This
work, as we have elsewhere seen, is not as old as he supposed. The
doctrine of the _Trimurti_ in India, however, is to be found in the
_Veda_, and epic poems, which are of an antiquity long anterior to the
rise of Christianity, preceding it by many centuries. (See Monier
Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 324, and Hinduism, pp. 109, 110-115.)
"The grand cavern pagoda of Elephants, the oldest and most magnificent
temple in the world, is neither more nor less than a superb temple of a
Triune God." (Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. ix.)
[379:2] Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 125-127.
[380:1] We have already seen that Plato and his followers taught the
doctrine of the Trinity centuries before the time of Christ Jesus.
[380:2] Israel Worsley's Enquiry, p. 54. Quoted in Higgins' Anacalypsis,
vol. i. p. 116.
[380:3] "The memorable test (I. John v. 7) which asserts the unity of
the three which bear witness in heaven, is condemned by the universal
silence of the orthodox Fathers, ancient versions, and authentic
manuscripts. It was first alleged by the Catholic Bishop whom Hunneric
summoned to the Conference of Carthage (A. D. 254), or, more properly,
by the four bishops who composed and published the profession of faith,
in the name of their brethren." (Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 556, and
note 117.) None of the ancient manuscripts now extant, above four-score
in number, _contain this passage_. (Ibid. note 116.) In the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, the Bible was corrected. Yet, notwithstanding these
corrections, the passage is still wanting in twenty-five Latin
manuscripts. (Ibid. note 116. See also Dr. Giles' Hebrew and Christian
Records, vol. ii. p. 12. Dr. Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 886.
Rev. Robert Taylor's Diegesis, p. 421, and Reber's Christ of Paul.)
[380:4] See Gibbon's Rome, ii. 309.
[380:5] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Trinity."
[381:1] Draper: Religion and Science, pp. 53, 54.
[382:1] Athanasius, tom. i. p. 808. Quoted in Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p.
310.
Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was so much amazed by the
extraordinary composition called "Athanasius' Creed," that he frankly
pronounced it to be the work of a drunken man. (Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii.
p. 555, note 114.)
[382:2] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 87.
[382:3] Ibid. pp. 91, 92.
[383:1] All their writings were ordered to be destroyed, and any one
found to have them in his possession was severely punished.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
PAGANISM IN CHRISTIANITY.
Our assertion that that which is called Christianity is nothing more
than the religion of Paganism, we consider to have been fully verified.
We have found among the heathen, centuries before the time of Christ
Jesus, the belief in an incarnate God born of a virgin; his previous
existence in heaven; the celestial signs at the time of his birth; the
rejoicing in heaven; the adoration by the magi and shepherds; the
offerings of precious substances to the divine child; the slaughter of
the innocents; the presentation at the temple; the temptation by the
devil; the performing of miracles; the crucifixion by enemies; and the
death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. We have also found the
belief that this incarnate God was from all eternity; that he was the
Creator of the world, and that he is to be Judge of the dead at the last
day. We have also seen the practice of Baptism, and the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper or Eucharist, added to the belief in a Triune God,
consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Let us now compare the
Christian creed with ancient Pagan belief.
_Christian Creed._
1. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
_Ancient Pagan Belief._
1. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and
earth:[384:1]
2. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, Our Lord.
2. And in his only Son, our Lord.[384:2]
3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,
3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
Mary.[384:3]
4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.
4. Suffered under (whom it might be), was crucified, dead, and
buried.[384:4]
5. He descended into Hell;
5. He descended into Hell;[385:1]
6. The third day he rose again from the dead;
6. The third day he rose again from the dead;[385:2]
7. He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the
Father Almighty;
7. He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of
God the Father Almighty;[385:3]
8. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
8. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the
dead.[385:4]
9. I believe in the Holy Ghost;
9. I believe in the Holy Ghost;[385:5]
10. The Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints;
10. The Holy Catholic Church,[385:6] the Communion of Saints;
11. The forgiveness of sins;
11. The forgiveness of sins;[385:7]
12. The resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.
12. The resurrection of the body; and the life
everlasting.[385:8]
The above is the so-called "_Apostles' Creed_," as it now stands in the
book of common prayer of the United Church of England and Ireland, as by
law established.
It is affirmed by Ambrose, that:
"The twelve apostles, as skilled artificers, assembled
together, and made a key by their common advice, that is, the
Creed, by which the darkness of the devil is disclosed, that
the light of Christ may appear."
Others fable that every Apostle inserted an article, by which the Creed
is divided into twelve articles.
The earliest account of its origin we have from Ruffinus, an historical
compiler and traditionist of the _fourth_ century, but not in the form
in which it is known at present, it having been added to since that
time. The most important addition is that which affirms that Jesus
descended into hell, which has been added since A. D. 600.[385:9]
Beside what we have already seen, the ancient Pagans had many beliefs
and ceremonies which are to be found among the Christians. One of these
is the story of "_The War in Heaven_."
The New Testament version is as follows:
"There was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and
prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in
heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,
called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,
he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out
with him."[386:1]
The cause of the revolt, it is said, was that Satan, who was then an
angel, desired to be as great as God. The writer of Isaiah, xiv. 13, 14,
is supposed to refer to it when he says:
"Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the North;
I will ascend before the heights of the clouds; I will be like
the Most High."
The Catholic theory of the fall of the angels is as follows:
"In the beginning, before the creation of heaven and earth,
God made the angels, free intelligences, and free wills, out
of his love He made them, that they might be eternally happy.
And that their happiness might be complete, he gave them the
perfection of a created nature, that is, he gave them freedom.
But happiness is only attained by the free will agreeing in
its freedom to accord with the will of God. Some of the angels
by an act of free will obeyed the will of God, and in such
obedience found perfect happiness. Other angels, by an act of
free will, rebelled against the will of God, and in such
disobedience found misery."[386:2]
They were driven out of heaven, after having a combat with the obedient
angels, and cast into hell. The writer of second _Peter_ alludes to it
in saying that God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down
into hell.[386:3]
The writer of _Jude_ also alludes to it in saying:
"The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their
own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness unto the judgment of the great day."[386:4]
According to the _Talmudists_, Satan, whose proper name is Sammael, was
one of the Seraphim of heaven, with six wings.
"He was not driven out of heaven until after he had led Adam
and Eve into sin; then Sammael and his host were precipitated
out of the place of bliss, with God's curse to weigh them
down. In the struggle between Michael and Sammael, the falling
Seraph caught the wings of Michael, and tried to drag him down
with him, but God saved him, when Michael derived his
name,--the Rescued."[386:5]
Sammael was formerly chief among the angels of God, and now he is
prince among devils. His name is derived from Simmē, which means, to
blind and deceive. He stands on the left side of men. He goes by various
names; such as "The Old Serpent," "The Unclean Spirit," "Satan,"
"Leviathan," and sometimes also "Asael."[387:1]
According to _Hindoo_ mythology, there is a legion of evil spirits
called _Rakshasas_, who are governed by a prince named _Ravana_. These
Rakshasas are continually aiming to do injury to mankind, and are the
same who fought desperate battles with _Indra_, and his Spirits of
Light. They would have taken his paradise by storm, and subverted the
whole order of the universe, if Brahmā had not sent _Vishnou_ to
circumvent their plans.
In the _Aitareya-brahmana_ (Hindoo) written, according to Prof. Monier
Williams, seven or eight centuries B. C., we have the following legend:
"The gods and demons were engaged in warfare.
The evil demons, like to mighty kings,
Made these worlds castles; then they formed the earth
Into an iron citadel, the air
Into a silver fortress, and the sky
Into a fort of gold. Whereat the gods
Said to each other, 'Frame me other worlds
In opposition to these fortresses.'
Then they constructed sacrificial places,
Where they performed a triple burnt oblation.
By the first sacrifice they drove the demons
Out of their earthly fortress, by the second
Out of the air, and by the third oblation
Out of the sky. Thus were the evil spirits
Chased by the gods in triumph from the worlds."[387:2]
The ancient _Egyptians_ were familiar with the tale of the war in
heaven; and the legend of the revolt against the god Rā, the Heavenly
Father, and his destruction of the revolters, was discovered by M.
Naville in one of the tombs at Biban-el-moluk.[387:3]
The same story is to be found among the ancient _Persian_ legends, and
is related as follows:
"Ahriman, the devil, was not created evil by the eternal one,
but he became evil by revolting against his will. This revolt
resulted in a 'war in heaven.' In this war the _Iveds_ (good
angels) fought against the _Divs_ (rebellious ones) headed by
_Ahriman_, and flung the conquered into Douzahk or
hell."[387:4]
An extract from the Persian _Zend-avesta_ reads as follows:
"_Ahriman_ interrupted the order of the universe, raised an
army against _Ormuzd_, and having maintained a fight against
him during ninety days, was at length vanquished by Honover,
the divine Word."[388:1]
The _Assyrians_ had an account of a war in heaven, which was like that
described in the book of Enoch and the Revelation.[388:2]
This legend was also to be found among the ancient Greeks, in the
struggle of the _Titans_ against _Jupiter_. Titan and all his rebellious
host were cast out of heaven, and imprisoned in the dark abyss.[388:3]
Among the legends of the ancient _Mexicans_ was found this same story of
the war in heaven, and the downfall of the rebellious angels.[388:4]
"The natives of the _Caroline Islands_ (in the North Pacific Ocean),
related that one of the inferior gods, named _Merogrog_, was driven by
the other gods out of heaven."[388:5]
We see, therefore, that this also was an almost universal legend.
The belief in _a future life_ was almost universal among nations of
antiquity. The _Hindoos_ have believed from time immemorial that man has
an invisible body within the material body; that is, a soul.
Among the ancient _Egyptians_ the same belief was to be found. All the
dead, both men and women, were spoken of as "_Osiriana_;" by which they
intended to signify "gone to Osiris."
Their belief in One Supreme Being, and the immortality of the soul, must
have been very ancient; for on a monument, which dates ages before
Abraham is said to have lived, is found this epitaph: "May thy soul
attain to the Creator of all mankind." Sculptures and paintings in these
grand receptacles of the dead, as translated by Champollion, represent
the deceased ushered into the world of spirits by funeral deities, who
announce, "A soul arrived in Amenti."[388:6]
The Hindoo idea of a subtile invisible body within the material body,
reappeared in the description of Greek poets. They represented the
constitution of man as consisting of three principles: the soul, the
invisible body, and the material body. The invisible body they called
the ghost or shade, and considered it as the material portion of the
soul. At death, the soul, clothed in this subtile body, went to enjoy
paradise for a season, or suffer in hell till its sins were expiated.
This paradise was called the "Elysian Fields," and the hell was called
Tartarus.
The paradise, some supposed to be a part of the lower world, some placed
them in a middle zone in the air, some in the moon, and others in
far-off isles in the ocean. There shone more glorious sun and stars than
illuminated this world. The day was always serene, the air forever pure,
and a soft, celestial light clothed all things in transfigured beauty.
Majestic groves, verdant meadows, and blooming gardens varied the
landscape. The river Eridanus flowed through winding banks fringed with
laurel. On its borders lived heroes who had died for their country,
priests who had led a pure life, artists who had embodied genuine beauty
in their work, and poets who had never degraded their muse with subjects
unworthy of Apollo. There each one renewed the pleasures in which he
formerly delighted. Orpheus, in long white robes, made enrapturing music
on his lyre, while others danced and sang. The husband rejoined his
beloved wife; old friendships were renewed, the poet repeated his
verses, and the charioteer managed his horses.
Some souls wandered in vast forests between Tartarus and Elysium, not
good enough for one, or bad enough for the other. Some were purified
from their sins by exposure to searching winds, others by being
submerged in deep waters, others by passing through intense fires. After
a long period of probation and suffering, many of them gained the
Elysian Fields. This belief is handed down to our day in the Roman
Catholic idea of _Purgatory_.
A belief in the existence of the soul after death was indicated in all
periods of history of the world, by the fact that man was always
accustomed to address prayers to the spirits of their ancestors.[389:1]
These _heavens_ and _hells_ where men abode after death, vary, in
different countries, according to the likes and dislikes of each nation.
All the Teutonic nations held to a fixed Elysium and a hell, where the
valiant and the just were rewarded, and where the cowardly and the
wicked suffered punishment. As all nations have made a god, and that god
has resembled the persons who made it, so have all nations made a
heaven, and that heaven corresponds to the fancies of the people who
have created it.
In the prose Edda there is a description of the joys of _Valhalla_ (the
Hall of the Chosen), which states that: "All men who have fallen in
fight since the beginning of the world are gone to Odin (the Supreme
God), in Valhalla." A mighty band of men are there, "and every day, as
soon as they have dressed themselves, they ride out into the court (or
field), and there fight until they cut each other into pieces. This is
their pastime, but when the meal-tide approaches, they remount their
steeds, and return to drink in _Valhalla_. As it is said (in
Vafthrudnis-mal):
'The Einherjar all
On Odin's plain
Hew daily each other,
While chosen the slain are.
From the frey they then ride,
And drink ale with the Æsir.'"[390:1]
This description of the palace of Odin is a natural picture of the
manners of the ancient Scandinavians and Germans. Prompted by the wants
of their climate, and the impulse of their own temperament, they formed
to themselves a delicious paradise in their own way; where they were to
eat and drink, and fight. The women, to whom they assigned a place
there, were introduced for no other purpose but to fill their cups.
The Mohammedan paradise differs from this. Women _there_, are for man's
pleasure. The day is always serene, the air forever pure, and a soft
celestial light clothes all things in transfigured beauty. Majestic
groves, verdant meadows, and blooming gardens vary the landscape. There,
in radiant halls, dwell the departed, ever blooming and beautiful, ever
laughing and gay.
The American Indian calculates upon finding successful chases after wild
animals, verdant plains, and no winter, as the characteristics of his
"future life."
The red Indian, when told by a missionary that in the "promised land"
they would neither eat, drink, hunt, nor marry a wife, contemptuously
replied, that instead of wishing to go there, he should deem his
residence in such a place as the greatest possible calamity. Many not
only rejected such a destiny for themselves, but were indignant at the
attempt to decoy their children into such a comfortless region.
All nations of the earth have had their heavens. As Moore observes:
"A heaven, too, ye must have, ye lords of dust--
A splendid paradise, poor souls, ye must:
That prophet ill sustains his holy call
Who finds not heavens to suit the tastes of all.
Vain things! as lust or _vanity_ inspires,
The heaven of each is but what each desires."
_Heaven_ was born of the sky,[391:1] and nurtured by cunning priests,
who made man a coward and a slave.
_Hell_ was built by priests, and nurtured by the fears and servile
fancies of man during the ages when dungeons of torture were a
recognized part of every government, and when God was supposed to be an
infinite tyrant, with infinite resources of vengeance.
_The devil_ is an imaginary being, invented by primitive man to account
for the existence of evil, and relieve God of his responsibility. The
famous Hindoo _Rakshasas_ of our Aryan ancestors--the dark and evil
_clouds_ personified--are the originals of all devils. The cloudy shape
has assumed a thousand different forms, horrible or grotesque and
ludicrous, to suit the changing fancies of the ages.
But strange as it may appear, the god of one nation became the devil of
another.
The rock of Behistun, the sculptured chronicle of the glories of Darius,
king of Persia, situated on the western frontier of Media, on the
high-road from Babylon to the eastward, was used as a "holy of holies."
It was named _Bagistane_--"the place of the _Baga_"--referring to
Ormuzd, chief of the Bagas. When examined with the lenses of linguistic
science, the "_Bogie_" or "_Bug-a-boo_" or "_Bugbear_" of nursery lore,
turns out to be identical with the Slavonic "_Bog_" and the "_Baga_" of
the cuneiform inscriptions, both of which are names of the _Supreme
Being_. It is found also in the old Aryan "_Bhaga_," who is described in
a commentary of the _Rig-Veda_ as the lord of life, the giver of bread,
and the bringer of happiness. Thus, the same name which, to the _Vedic_
poet, to the Persian of the time of Xerxes, and to the modern Russian,
suggests the supreme majesty of deity, is in English associated with an
ugly and ludicrous fiend. Another striking illustration is to be found
in the word _devil_ itself. When traced back to its primitive source, it
is found to be a name of the Supreme Being.[391:2]
The ancients had a great number of festival days, many of which are
handed down to the present time, and are to be found in Christianity.
We have already seen that the 25th of December was almost a universal
festival among the ancients; so it is the same with the _spring_
festivals, when days of fasting are observed.
The _Hindoos_ hold a festival, called _Siva-ratri_, in honor of _Siva_,
about the middle or end of February. _A strict fast is observed during
the day._ They have also a festival in April, when a strict fast is kept
by some.[392:1]
At the _spring equinox_ most nations of antiquity set apart a day to
implore the blessings of their god, or gods, on the fruits of the earth.
At the autumnal equinox, they offered the fruits of the harvest, and
returned thanks. In China, these religious solemnities are called
"Festivals of gratitude to Tien."[392:2] The last named corresponds to
_our_ "Thanksgiving" celebration.
One of the most considerable festivals held by the ancient
_Scandinavians_ was the _spring_ celebration. This was held in honor of
Odin, at the beginning of spring, in order to welcome in that pleasant
season, and to obtain of their god happy success in their projected
expeditions.
Another festival was held toward the autumn equinox, when they were
accustomed to kill all their cattle in good condition, and lay in a
store of provision for the winter. This festival was also attended with
religious ceremonies, when Odin, the supreme god, was thanked for what
he had given them, by having his altar loaded with the fruits of their
crops, and the choicest products of the earth.[392:3]
There was a grand celebration in Egypt, called the "Feast of Lamps,"
held at Sais, in honor of the goddess Neith. Those who did not attend
the ceremony, as well as those who did, burned lamps before their houses
all night, filled with oil and salt: thus all Egypt was illuminated. It
was deemed a great irreverence to the goddess for any one to omit this
ceremony.[392:4]
The _Hindoos_ also held a festival in honor of the goddesses Lakshmi and
Bhavanti, called "_The feast of Lamps_."[392:5] This festival has been
handed down to the present time in what is called "Candlemas day," or
the purification of the Virgin Mary.
The most celebrated Pagan festival held by modern Christians is that
known as "_Sunday_," or the "Lord's day."
All the principal nations of antiquity kept the _seventh_ day of the
week as a "holy day," just as the ancient Israelites did. This was owing
to the fact that they consecrated the days of the week to the Sun, the
Moon, and the five planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
_The seventh day was sacred to Saturn from time immemorial._ Homer and
Hesiod call it the "Holy Day."[393:1] The people generally visited the
temples of the gods, on that day, and offered up their prayers and
supplications.[393:2] The Acadians, thousands of years ago, kept holy
the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of each month as _Salum_ (rest), on which
certain works were forbidden.[393:3] The _Arabs_ anciently worshiped
Saturn under the name of Hobal. In his hands he held _seven_ arrows,
symbols of the planets that preside over the seven days of the
week.[393:4] The _Egyptians_ assigned a day of the week to the sun,
moon, and five planets, and the number _seven_ was held there in great
reverence.[393:5]
The planet _Saturn_ very early became the chief deity of Semitic
religion. Moses consecrated the number seven to him.[393:6]
In the _old_ conception, which finds expression in the Decalogue in
Deuteronomy (v. 15), the Sabbath has a purely theocratic significance,
and is intended to remind the Hebrews of their miraculous deliverance
from the land of Egypt and bondage. When the story of _Creation_ was
borrowed from the _Babylonians_, the celebration of the Sabbath was
established on entirely new grounds (Ex. xx. 11), for we find it is
because the "Creator," after his six days of work, rested on the
seventh, that the day should be kept holy.
The Assyrians kept this day holy. Mr. George Smith says:
"In the year 1869, I discovered among other things a curious
religious calendar of the Assyrians, in which every month is
divided into four weeks, and the _seventh_ days or
'_Sabbaths_,' are marked out as days on which no work should
be undertaken."[393:7]
The ancient _Scandinavians_ consecrated one day in the week to their
Supreme God, _Odin_ or _Wodin_.[393:8] Even at the present time we call
this day _Odin's-day_.[393:9]
The question now arises, how was the great festival day changed from
the _seventh_--Saturn's day--to the _first_--_Sun_-day--among the
Christians?
"If we go back to the founding of the church, we find that the most
marked feature of that age, so far as the church itself is concerned, is
the grand division between the 'Jewish faction,' as it was called, and
the followers of Paul. This division was so deep, so marked, so
characteristic, that it has left its traces all through the New
Testament itself. It was one of the grand aspects of the time, and the
point on which they were divided was simply this: the followers of
Peter, those who adhered to the teachings of the central church in
Jerusalem, held that all Christians, both converted Jews and Gentiles,
were under obligation to keep the Mosaic law, ordinances, and
traditions. That is, a Christian, according to their definition, was
first a Jew; Christianity was something _added to_ that, not something
taking the place of it.
"We find this controversy raging violently all through the early
churches, and splitting them into factions, so that they were the
occasion of prayer and counsel. Paul took the ground distinctly that
Christianity, while it might be spiritually the lineal successor of
Judaism, was not Judaism; and that he who became a Christian, whether a
converted Jew or Gentile, was under no obligation whatever to keep the
Jewish law, so far as it was separate from practical matters of life and
character. We find this intimated in the writings of Paul; for we have
to go to the New Testament for the origin of that which, we find,
existed immediately after the New Testament was written. Paul says: 'One
man esteemeth one day above another: another man esteemeth every day
alike' (Rom. xiv. 5-9). He leaves it an open question; they can do as
they please. Then: 'Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I
am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain' (Gal. iv.
10, 11). And if you will note this Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, you
will find that the whole purpose of his writing it was to protest
against what he believed to be the viciousness of the Judaizing
influences. That is, he says: 'I have come to preach to you the perfect
truth, that Christ hath made us free; and you are going back and taking
upon yourselves this yoke of bondage. My labor is being thrown away; my
efforts have been in vain.' Then he says, in his celebrated Epistle to
the Colossians, that has never yet been explained away or met: 'Let no
man therefore judge you any more in meat, or in drink, or in respect of
an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days' (Col. ii. 16,
17), distinctly abrogating the binding authority of the Sabbath on the
Christian church. So that, if Paul's word anywhere means anything--if
his authority is to be taken as of binding force on any point
whatever--then Paul is to be regarded as authoritatively and distinctly
abrogating the Sabbath, and declaring that it is no longer binding on
the Christian church."[395:1]
This breach in the early church, this controversy, resulted at last in
Paul's going up to Jerusalem "to meet James and the representatives of
the Jerusalem church, to see if they could find any common platform of
agreement--if they could come together so that they could work with
mutual respect and without any further bickering. What is the platform
that they met upon? It was distinctly understood that those who wished
to keep up the observance of Judaism should do so; and the church at
Jerusalem gave Paul this grand freedom, substantially saying to him: 'Go
back to your missionary work, found churches, and teach them that they
are perfectly free in regard to all Mosaic and Jewish observances, save
only these four: Abstain from pollutions of idols, from fornication,
from things strangled, and from blood."[395:2]
The point to which our attention is forcibly drawn is, that the question
of Sabbath-keeping is one of those that is left out. The point that Paul
had been fighting for was conceded by the central church at Jerusalem,
and he was to go out thenceforth free, so far as that was concerned, in
his teaching of the churches that he should found.
There is no mention of the Sabbath, or the Lord's day, as binding in the
New Testament. What, then, was the actual condition of affairs? What did
the churches do in the first three hundred years of their existence?
Why, they did just what Paul and the Jerusalem church had agreed upon.
Those who wished to keep the Jewish Sabbath did so; and those who did
not wish to, did not do so. This is seen from the fact that Justin
Martyr, a Christian Father who flourished about A. D. 140, did not
observe the day. In his "Dialogue" with Typho, the Jew reproaches the
Christians for not keeping the "Sabbath." Justin admits the charge by
saying:
"Do you not see that the Elements keep no Sabbaths and are
never idle? Continue as you were created. If there was no need
of circumcision before Abraham's time, and no need of the
Sabbath, of festivals and oblations, before the time of Moses,
_neither of them are necessary after the coming of Christ_. If
any among you is guilty of perjury, fraud, or other crimes,
let him cease from them and repent, and he will have kept
_the_ kind of Sabbath pleasing to God."
There was no binding authority then, among the Christians, as to
whether they should keep the first or the seventh day of the week holy,
or not, until the time of the first Christian Roman Emperor.
"_Constantine, a Sun worshiper, who had, as other Heathen, kept the
Sun-day, publicly ordered this to supplant the Jewish Sabbath._"[396:1]
He commanded that this day should be kept holy, throughout the whole
Roman empire, and sent an edict to all governors of provinces to this
effect.[396:2] _Thus we see how the great Pagan festival, in honor of
Sol the invincible, was transformed into a Christian holy-day._
Not only were Pagan festival days changed into Christian holy-days, but
Pagan idols were converted into Christian saints, and Pagan temples into
Christian churches.
A Pagan temple at Rome, formerly sacred to the "_Bona Dea_" (the "Good
Goddess"), was Christianized and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In a
place formerly sacred to Apollo, there now stands the church of Saint
Apollinaris. Where there anciently stood the temple of Mars, may now be
seen the church of Saint Martine.[396:3] A Pagan temple, originally
dedicated to "_Cælestis Dea_" (the "Heavenly Goddess"), by one Aurelius,
a Pagan high-priest, was converted into a Christian church by another
Aurelius, created Bishop of Carthage in the year 390 of Christ. He
placed his episcopal chair in the very place where the statue of the
Heavenly Goddess had stood.[396:4]
The noblest heathen temple now remaining in the world, is the _Pantheon_
or _Rotunda_, which, as the inscription over the portico informs us,
having been _impiously_ dedicated of old by Agrippa to "Jove and all the
gods," was _piously_ reconsecrated by Pope Boniface the Fourth, to "The
Mother of God and all the Saints."[396:5]
The church of Saint Reparatae, at Florence, was formerly a Pagan temple.
An inscription was found in the foundation of this church, of these
words: "To the Great Goddess Nutria."[396:6] The church of St. Stephen,
at Bologna, was formed from heathen temples, one of which was a temple
of Isis.[396:7]
At the southern extremity of the present Forum at Rome, and just under
the Palatine hill--where the noble babes, who, miraculously preserved,
became the founders of a state that was to command the world, were
exposed--stands the church of St. Theodore.
This temple was built in honor of Romulus, and the brazen
wolf--commemorating the curious manner in which the founders of Rome
were nurtured--occupied a place here till the sixteenth century. And, as
the Roman matrons of old used to carry their children, when ill, to the
temple of Romulus, so too, the women still carry their children to St.
Theodore on the same occasions.
In _Christianizing_ these Pagan temples, free use was made of the
sculptured and painted stones of heathen monuments. In some cases they
evidently painted over one name, and inserted another. This may be seen
from the following
INSCRIPTIONS FORMERLY IN PAGAN TEMPLES.
1. To Mercury and Minerva, Tutelary Gods.
_and_
INSCRIPTIONS NOW IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.
1. To St. Mary and St. Francis, My Tutelaries.
2. To the Gods who preside over this Temple.
2. To the Divine Eustrogius, who presides over this Temple.
3. To the Divinity of Mercury the Availing, the Powerful, the
Unconquered.
3. To the Divinity of St. George the Availing, the Powerful,
the Unconquered.
4. Sacred to the Gods and Goddesses, with Jove the best and greatest.
4. Sacred to the presiding helpers, St. George and St.
Stephen, with God the best and greatest.
5. Venus' Pigeon.
5. The Holy Ghost represented as a Pigeon.
6. The Mystical Letters I. H. S.[397:1]
6. The Mystical Letters I. H. S.[397:2]
In many cases the _Images_ of the Pagan gods were allowed to remain in
these temples, and, after being _Christianized_, continued to receive
divine honors.[397:3]
"In St. Peter's, Rome, is a statue of _Jupiter_, deprived of his
thunderbolt, which is replaced by the emblematic keys. In like manner,
much of the religion of the lower orders, which we regard as essentially
_Christian_, is ancient _heathenism_, refitted with Christian
symbols."[397:4] We find that as early as the time of St. Gregory,
Bishop of Neo-Cesarea (A. D. 243), the "simple" and "unskilled"
multitudes of Christians were allowed to pay divine honors to these
images, hoping that in the process of time they would learn
better.[398:1] In fact, as Prof. Draper says:
"Olympus was restored, but the divinities passed under other
names. The more powerful provinces insisted upon the adoption
of their time-honored conceptions. . . . Not only was the
adoration of _ISIS_ under a new name restored, but even her
image, standing on the crescent moon, reappeared. The
well-known effigy of that goddess with the infant Horus in her
arms, has descended to our days in the beautiful, artistic
creations of the Madonna and child. Such restorations of old
conceptions under novel forms were everywhere received with
delight. When it was announced to the Ephesians, that the
Council of that place, headed by Cyril, had declared that the
Virgin (Mary) should be called the '_Mother of God_,' with
tears of joy they embraced the knees of their bishop; it was
the old instinct cropping out; their ancestors would have done
the same for Diana."[398:2]
"O bright goddess; once again
Fix on earth thy heav'nly reign;
Be thy sacred name ador'd,
Altars rais'd, and rites restor'd."
Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople from 428 A. D., refused to call Mary
"_the mother of God_," on the ground that she could be the mother of the
human nature only, which the divine Logos used as its organ. Cyril,
Bishop of Alexandria, did all in his power to stir up the minds of the
people against Nestorius; the consequence was that, both at Rome and at
Alexandria, Nestorius was accused of heresy. The dispute grew more
bitter, and Theodosius II. thought it necessary to convoke an
Œcumenical Council at Ephesus in 431. On this, as on former occasions,
the affirmative party overruled the negative. The person of Mary began
to rise in the new empyrean. The paradoxical name of "_Mother of God_"
pleased the popular piety. Nestorius was condemned, and died in exile.
The shrine of many an old hero was filled by the statue of some
imaginary saint.
"They have not always" (says Dr. Conyers Middleton), "as I am
well informed, given themselves the trouble of making even
this change, but have been contented sometimes to take up with
the _old image_, just as they found it; after baptizing it
only, as it were, or consecrating it anew, by the imposition
of a Christian name. This their antiquaries do not scruple to
put strangers in mind of, in showing their churches, as it
was, I think, in that of St. Agnes, where they showed me an
antique statue of a young _BACCHUS_, which, with a new name,
and some little change of drapery, stands now worshiped under
the title of a female saint."[398:3]
In many parts of Italy are to be seen pictures of the "Holy Family," of
extreme antiquity, the grounds of them often of gold.
These pictures represent the mother with a child on her knee, and a
little boy standing close by her side; the _Lamb_ is generally seen in
the picture. They are inscribed "_Deo Soli_," and are simply ancient
representations of Isis and Horus. The _Lamb_ is "The Lamb that taketh
away the sins of the world," which, as we have already seen, was
believed on in the Pagan world centuries before the time of Christ
Jesus.[399:1] Some half-pagan Christian went so far as to forge a book,
which he attributed to Christ Jesus himself, which was for the purpose
of showing that he--Christ Jesus--was in no way against these heathen
gods.[399:2]
The _Icelanders_ were induced to embrace Christianity, with its legends
and miracles, and sainted divinities, as the Christian monks were ready
to substitute for Thor, their warrior-god, Michael, the warrior-angel;
for Freyja, their goddess, the Virgin Mary; and for the god Vila, a St.
Valentine--probably manufactured for the occasion.
"The statues of Jupiter, Apollo, Mercury, Orpheus, did duty for _The
Christ_.[399:3] The Thames River god officiates at the baptism of Jesus
in the Jordan. Peter holds the keys of Janus.[399:4] Moses wears the
horns of Jove. Ceres, Cybele, Demeter assume new names, as '_Queen of
Heaven_,' '_Star of the Sea_,' '_Maria Illuminatrix_;' Dionysius is St.
Denis; Cosmos is St. Cosmo; Pluto and Proserpine resign their seats in
the hall of final judgment to the Christ and his mother. The Parcæ
depute one of their number, Lachesis, the disposer of lots, to set the
stamp of destiny upon the deaths of Christian believers. The _aura
placida_ of the poets, the gentle breeze, is personified as Aura and
Placida. The _perpetua felicitas_ of the devotee becomes a lovely
presence in the forms of St. Perpetua and St. Felicitas, guardian angels
of the pious soul. No relic of Paganism was permitted to remain in its
casket. The depositories were all ransacked. The shadowy hands of
Egyptian priests placed the urn of holy water at the porch of the
basilica, which stood ready to be converted into a temple. Priests of
the most ancient faiths of Palestine, Assyria, Babylon, Thebes, Persia
were permitted to erect the altar at the point where the transverse beam
of the cross meets the main stem. The hands that constructed the temple
in cruciform shape had long become too attenuated to cast the faintest
shadow. There Devaki with the infant Crishna, Maya with the babe Buddha,
Juno with the child Mars, represent Mary with Jesus in her arms. Coarse
emblems are not rejected; the Assyrian dove is a tender symbol of the
Holy Ghost. The rag-bags and toy boxes were explored. A bauble which the
Roman schoolboy had thrown away was picked up, and called an '_agnus
dei_.' The musty wardrobes of forgotten hierarchies furnished costumes
for the officers of the new prince. Alb and chasuble recalled the
fashions of Numa's day. The cast-off purple habits and shoes of Pagan
emperors beautified the august persons of Christian popes. The cardinals
must be contented with the robes once worn by senators. Zoroaster bound
about the monks the girdle he invented as a protection against evil
spirits, and clothed them in the frocks he had found convenient for his
ritual. The pope thrust out his foot to be kissed, as Caligula,
Heliogabalus, and Julius Cesar had thrust out theirs. Nothing came amiss
to the faith that was to discharge henceforth the offices of spiritual
impression."[400:1]
The ascetic and monastic life practiced by some Christians of the
present day, is of great antiquity. Among the Buddhists there are
priests who are ordained, tonsured, live in monasteries, and make vows
of celibacy. There are also nuns among them, whose vows and discipline
are the same as the priests.[400:2]
The close resemblance between the ancient religion of _Thibet_ and
_Nepaul_--where the worship of a crucified God was found--and the Roman
Catholic religion of the present day, is very striking. In Thibet was
found the pope, or head of the religion, whom they called the "Dalai
Lama;"[400:3] they use holy water, they celebrate a sacrifice with bread
and wine; they give extreme unction, pray for the sick; they have
monasteries, and convents for women; they chant in their services, have
fasts; they worship one God in a trinity, believe in a hell, heaven, and
a half-way place or purgatory; they make prayers and sacrifices for the
dead, have confession, adore the cross; have chaplets, or strings of
beads to count their prayers, and many other practices common to the
Roman Catholic Church.[400:4]
The resemblance between Buddhism and Christianity has been remarked by
many travelers in the eastern countries. Sir John Francis Davis, in his
"History of China," speaking of Buddhism in that country, says:
"Certain it is--and the observance may be daily made even at
Canton--that they (the Buddhist priests) practice the
ordinances of celibacy, fasting, and prayers for the dead;
they have holy water, rosaries of beads, which they count with
their prayers, the worship of relics, and a monastic habit
resembling that of the Franciscans" (an order of Roman
Catholic monks).
Père Premere, a Jesuit missionary to China, was driven to conclude that
the devil had practiced a trick to perplex his friends, the Jesuits. To
others, however, it is not so difficult to account for these things as
it seemed for the good Father. Sir John continues his account as
follows:
"These priests are associated in monasteries attached to the
temples of Fo. They are in China precisely a society of
mendicants, and go about, like monks of that description in
the Romish Church, asking alms for the support of their
establishment. Their tonsure extends to the hair of the whole
head. There is a regular gradation among the priesthood; and
according to his reputation for sanctity, his length of
service and other claims, each priest may rise from the lowest
rank of servitor--whose duty it is to perform the menial
offices of the temple--to that of officiating priest--and
ultimately of 'Tae Hoepang,' Abbot or head of the
establishment."
The five principal precepts, or rather interdicts, addressed to the
Buddhist priests are:
1. Do not kill.
2. Do not steal.
3. Do not marry.
4. Speak not falsely.
5. Drink no wine.
Poo-ta-la is the name of a monastery, described in Lord Macartney's
mission, and is an extensive establishment, which was found in
Manchow-Tartary, beyond the great wall. This building offered shelter to
no less than eight hundred Chinese Buddhist priests.[401:1]
The Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, in his "Journal of Voyages along the coast of
China," tells us that he found the Buddhist "Monasteries, nuns, and
friars very numerous;" and adds that: "their priests are generally very
ignorant."[401:2]
This reminds us of the fact that, for centuries during the "dark ages"
of Christianity, Christian bishops and prelates, the teachers, spiritual
pastors and masters, were mostly _marksmen_, that is, they supplied, by
the sign of the cross, their inability to write their own name.[402:1]
Many of the bishops in the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, it is
said, could not write their names. Ignorance was not considered a
disqualification for ordination. A cloud of ignorance overspread the
whole face of the Church, hardly broken by a few glimmering lights, who
owe almost the whole of their distinction to the surrounding
darkness.[402:2]
One of the principal objects of curiosity to the Europeans who first
went to China, was a large monastery at Canton. This monastery, which
was dedicated to Fo, or Buddha, and which is on a very large scale, is
situated upon the southern side of the river. There are extensive
grounds surrounding the building, planted with trees, in the center of
which is a broad pavement of granite, which is kept very clean. An
English gentleman, Mr. Bennett, entered this establishment, which he
fully describes. He says that after walking along this granite pavement,
they entered a temple, where the priesthood happened to be assembled,
worshiping. They were arranged in rows, chanting, striking gongs, &c.
These priests, with their shaven crowns, and arrayed in the yellow robes
of the religion, appeared to go through the mummery with devotion. As
soon as the mummery had ceased, the priests all flocked out of the
temple, adjourned to their respective rooms, divested themselves of
their official robes, and the images--among which were evidently
representations of Shin-moo, the "Holy Mother," and "Queen of Heaven,"
and "The Three Pure Ones,"--were left to themselves, with lamps burning
before them.
To expiate sin, offerings made to these priests are--according to the
Buddhist idea--sufficient. To facilitate the release of some unfortunate
from purgatory, they said masses. Their prayers are counted by means of
a rosary, and they live in a state of celibacy.
Mr. Gutzlaff, in describing a temple dedicated to Buddha, situated on
the island of Poo-ta-la, says:
"We were present at the vespers of the priests, which they
chanted in the Pali language, not unlike the Latin service of
the Romish church. They held their rosaries in their hands,
which rested folded upon their breasts. One of them had a
small bell, by the tingling of which the service was
regulated."
The Buddhists in _India_ have similar institutions. The French
missionary, M. L'Abbé Huc, says of them:
"The Buddhist ascetic not aspiring to elevate himself only, he
practiced virtue and applied himself to perfection to make
other men share in its belief; and by the institution of an
order of religious mendicants, which increased to an immense
extent, he attached towards him, and restored to society, the
poor and unfortunate. It was, indeed, precisely because Buddha
received among his disciples miserable creatures who were
outcasts from the respectable class of India, that he became
an object of mockery to the Brahmins. But he merely replied to
their taunts, 'My law is a law of mercy for all.'"[403:1]
In the words of Viscount Amberly, we can say that, "Monasticism, in
countries where Buddhism reigns supreme, is a vast and powerful
institution."
The _Essenes_, of whom we shall speak more fully anon, were an order of
ascetics, dwelling in monasteries. Among the order of Pythagoras, which
was very similar to the Essenes, there was an order of nuns.[403:2] The
ancient Druids admitted females into their sacred order, and initiated
them into the mysteries of their religion.[403:3] The priestesses of the
Saxon Frigga devoted themselves to perpetual virginity.[403:4] The
vestal virgins[403:5] were bound by a solemn vow to preserve their
chastity for a space of thirty years.[403:6]
The Egyptian priests of Isis were obliged to observe perpetual
chastity.[403:7] They were also tonsured like the Buddhist
priests.[403:8] The Assyrian, Arabian, Persian and Egyptian priests wore
_white_ surplices,[403:9] and so did the ancient Druids. The Corinthian
Aphrodite had her Hierodoulio, the pure Gerairai ministered to the
goddess of the Parthenon, the altar of the Latin Vesta was tended by her
chosen virgins, and the Romish "Queen of Heaven" has her nuns.
When the Spaniards had established themselves in Mexico and Peru, they
were astonished to find, among other things which closely resembled
their religion, _monastic institutions_ on a large scale.
The Rev. Father Acosta, in his "Natural and Moral History of the
Indies," says:
"There is one thing worthy of special regard, the which is,
how the Devil, by his pride, hath opposed himself to God; and
that which God, by his wisdom, hath decreed for his honor and
service, and for the good and health of man, the devil strives
to imitate and pervert, to be honored, and to cause men to be
damned: for as we see the great God hath Sacrifices, Priests,
Sacraments, Religious Prophets, and Ministers, dedicated to
his divine service and holy ceremonies, so likewise the devil
hath his Sacrifices, Priests, his kinds of Sacraments, his
Ministers appointed, his secluded and feigned holiness, with a
thousand sorts of false prophets."[403:10]
"We find among all the nations of the world, men especially
dedicated to the service of the true God, or to the false,
which serve in sacrifices, and declare unto the people what
their gods command them. There was in Mexico a strange
curiosity upon this point. And the devil, counterfeiting the
use of the church of God, hath placed in the order of his
Priests, some greater or superiors, and some less, the one as
Acolites, the other as Levites, and that which hath made most
to wonder, was, that the devil would usurp to himself the
service of God; yea, and use the same name: for the Mexicans
in their ancient tongue call their high priests _Papes_, as
they should say sovereign bishops, as it appears now by their
histories."[404:1]
In Mexico, within the circuit of the great temple, there were two
monasteries, one for virgins, the other for men, which they called
religious. These men lived poorly and chastely, and did the office of
Levites.[404:2]
"These priests and religious men used great fastings, of five
or ten days together, before any of their great feasts, and
they were unto them as our four ember week; they were so
strict in continence that some of them (not to fall into any
sensuality) slit their members in the midst, and did a
thousand things to make themselves unable, lest they should
offend their gods."[404:3]
"There were in Peru many monasteries of virgins (for there are
no other admitted), at the least one in every province. In
these monasteries there were two sorts of women, one ancient,
which they called Mamacomas (mothers), for the instruction of
the young, and the other was of young maidens placed there for
a certain time, and after they were drawn forth, either for
their gods or for the Inca." "If any of the Mamacomas or
Acllas were found to have trespassed against their honor, it
was an inevitable chastisement to bury them alive or to put
them to death by some other kind of cruel torment."[404:4]
The Rev. Father concludes by saying:
"In truth it is very strange to see that this false opinion of
religion hath so great force among these young men and maidens
of Mexico, that they will serve the devil with so great rigor
and austerity, which many of us do not in the service of the
most high God, the which is a great shame and
confusion."[404:5]
The religious orders of the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians are described
at length in Lord Kingsborough's "Mexican Antiquities," and by most
every writer on ancient Mexico. Differing in minor details, the grand
features of self-consecration are everywhere the same, whether we look
to the saintly Rishis of ancient India, to the wearers of the yellow
robe in China or Ceylon, to the Essenes among the Jews, to the devotees
of Vitziliputzli in pagan Mexico, or to the monks and nuns of Christian
times in Africa, in Asia, and in Europe. Throughout the various creeds
of these distant lands there runs the same unconquerable impulse,
producing the same remarkable effects.
The "_Sacred Heart_," was a great mystery with the ancients.
_Horus_, the Egyptian virgin-born Saviour, was represented carrying the
sacred heart outside on his breast. _Vishnu_, the Mediator and Preserver
of the Hindoos, was also represented in that manner. So was it with
_Bel_ of Babylon.[405:1] In like manner, Christ Jesus, the Christian
Saviour, is represented at the present day.
The amulets or charms which the Roman Christians wear, to drive away
diseases, and to protect them from harm, are other relics of paganism.
The ancient pagans wore these charms for the same purpose. The name of
their favorite god was generally inscribed upon them, and we learn by a
quotation from Chrysostom that the Christians at Antioch used to bind
brass coins of Alexander the Great about their heads, to keep off or
drive away diseases.[405:2] The Christians also used amulets with the
name or monogram of the god _Serapis_ engraved thereon, which show that
it made no difference whether the god was their own or that of another.
Even the charm which is worn by the Christians at the present day, has
none other than the monogram of _Bacchus_ engraved thereon, _i. e._, I.
H. S.[405:3]
The ancient Roman children carried around their necks a small ornament
in the form of a heart, called _Bulla_. This was imitated by the early
Christians. Upon their ancient monuments in the Vatican, the heart is
very common, and it may be seen in numbers of old pictures. After some
time it was succeeded by the _Agnus Dei_, which, like the ancient
_Bulla_, was supposed to avert dangers from the children and the wearers
of them. Cardinal Baronius (an eminent Roman Catholic ecclesiastical
historian, born at Sora, in Naples, A. D. 1538) says, that those who
have been baptized carry pendent from their neck an _Agnus Dei_, in
imitation of a devotion of the Pagans, who hung to the neck of their
children little bottles in the form of a heart, which served as
preservatives against charms and enchantments. Says Mr. Cox:
"That ornaments in the shape of a _vesica_ have been popular
in all countries as preservatives against dangers, and
especially from evil spirits, can as little be questioned as
the fact that they still retain some measure of their ancient
popularity in England, where horse-shoes are nailed to walls
as a safeguard against unknown perils, where a shoe is thrown
by way of good-luck after newly-married couples, and where the
villagers have not yet ceased to dance round the May-pole on
the green."[405:4]
All of these are emblems of either the Linga or Yoni.
The use of amulets was carried to the most extravagant excess in
ancient Egypt, and their Sacred Book of the Dead, even in its earliest
form, shows the importance attached to such things.[406:1]
We can say with M. Renan that:
"Almost all our superstitions are the remains of a religion
anterior to Christianity, and which Christianity has not been
able entirely to root out."[406:2]
Baptismal fonts were used by the pagans, as well as the little cisterns
which are to be seen at the entrance of Catholic churches. In the temple
of Apollo, at Delphi, there were two of these; one of silver, and the
other of gold.[406:3]
Temples always faced the east, to receive the rays of the rising sun.
They contained an outer court for the public, and an inner sanctuary for
the priests, called the "_Adytum_." Near the entrance was a large
vessel, of stone or brass, filled with water, made holy by plunging into
it a burning torch from the altar. All who were admitted to the
sacrifices were sprinkled with this water, and none but the unpolluted
were allowed to pass beyond it. In the center of the building stood the
statue of the god, on a pedestal raised above the altar and enclosed by
a railing. On festival occasions, the people brought laurel, olive, or
ivy, to decorate the pillars and walls. Before they entered they always
washed their hands, as a type of purification from sin.[406:4] A story
is told of a man who was struck dead by a thunderbolt because he omitted
this ceremony when entering a temple of Jupiter. Sometimes they crawled
up the steps on their knees, and bowing their heads to the ground,
kissed the threshold. Always when they passed one of these sacred
edifices they kissed their right hand to it, in token of veneration.
In all the temples of Vishnu, Crishna, Rama, Durga, and Kali, in India,
there are to be seen idols before which lights and incense are burned.
Moreover, the idols of these gods are constantly decorated with flowers
and costly ornaments, especially on festive occasions.[406:5] The
ancient Egyptian worship had a great splendor of ritual. There was a
morning service, a kind of mass, celebrated by a priest, shorn and
beardless; there were sprinklings of holy water, &c., &c.[406:6] All of
this kind of worship was finally adopted by the Christians.
The sublime and simple theology of the primitive Christians was
gradually corrupted and degraded by the introduction of a popular
mythology, which tended to restore the reign of polytheism.
As the objects of religion were gradually reduced to the standard of the
imagination, the rites and ceremonies were introduced that seemed most
powerfully to affect the senses of the vulgar. If, in the beginning of
the fifth century, Tertullian, or Lactantius, had been suddenly raised
from the dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint or
martyr, they would have gazed with astonishment and indignation on the
profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship
of a Christian congregation.[407:1]
Dr. Draper, in speaking of the early Christian Church, says:
"Great is the difference between Christianity under Severus
(born 146) and Christianity under Constantine (born 274). Many
of the doctrines which at the latter period were pre-eminent,
in the former were unknown. Two causes led to the amalgamation
of Christianity with Paganism. 1. The political necessities of
the new dynasty: 2. The policy adopted by the new religion to
insure its spread.
"Though the Christian party had proved itself sufficiently
strong to give a master to the empire, it was never
sufficiently strong to destroy its antagonist, Paganism. The
issue of the struggle between them _was an amalgamation of the
principles of both_. In this, Christianity differed from
Mohammedanism, which absolutely annihilated its antagonist,
and spread its own doctrines without adulteration.
"Constantine continually showed by his acts that he felt he
must be the impartial sovereign of all his people, not merely
the representative of a successful faction. Hence, if he built
Christian churches, he also restored Pagan temples; if he
listened to the clergy, he also consulted the haruspices; if
he summoned the Council of Nicea, he also honored the statue
of Fortune; if he accepted the rite of Baptism, he also struck
a medal bearing his title of 'God.' His statue, on top of the
great porphyry pillar at Constantinople, consisted of an
ancient image of Apollo, whose features were replaced by those
of the emperor, and its head surrounded by the nails feigned
to have been used at the crucifixion of Christ, arranged so as
to form a crown of glory.
"Feeling that there must be concessions to the defeated Pagan
party, in accordance with its ideas, he looked with favor on
the idolatrous movements of his court. In fact, the leaders of
these movements were persons of his own family.
"To the emperor,--a mere worldling--a man without any
religious convictions, doubtless it appeared best for himself,
best for the empire, and best for the contending parties,
Christian and Pagan, to promote their _union or amalgamation
as much as possible_. Even sincere Christians do not seem to
have been averse to this; perhaps they believed that the new
doctrines would diffuse most thoroughly by incorporating in
themselves ideas borrowed from the old; that Truth would
assert herself in the end, and the impurities be cast off. In
accomplishing this amalgamation, Helen, the Empress-mother,
aided by the court ladies, led the way.
"As years passed on, the faith described by Tertullian (A. D.
150-195) was transformed into one more fashionable and more
debased. It was incorporated with the old Greek mythology.
Olympus was restored, but the divinities passed under new
names. . . .
"Heathen rites were adopted, a pompous and splendid ritual,
gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax-tapers, processional
services, lustrations, gold and silver vases, were introduced.
"The festival of the Purification of the Virgin was invented
to remove the uneasiness of heathen converts on account of the
loss of their Lupercalia, or feasts of Pan.
"The apotheosis of the old Roman times was replaced by
canonization; tutelary _saints_ succeeded to local
mythological divinities. Then came the mystery of
_transubstantiation_, or the conversion of bread and wine by
the priest into the flesh and blood of Christ. As centuries
passed, the _paganization_ became more and more
complete."[408:1]
The early Christian saints, bishops, and fathers, _confessedly_ adopted
the liturgies, rites, ceremonies, and terms of heathenism; making it
their boast, that the pagan religion, properly explained, really was
nothing else than Christianity; that the best and wisest of its
professors, in all ages, had been Christians all along; that
Christianity was but a name more recently acquired to a religion which
had previously existed, and had been known to the Greek philosophers, to
Plato, Socrates, and Heraclitus; and that "if the writings of Cicero had
been read as they ought to have been, there would have been no occasion
for the Christian Scriptures."
And our Protestant, and most orthodox Christian divines, the best
learned on ecclesiastical antiquity, and most entirely persuaded of the
truth of the Christian religion, unable to resist or to conflict with
the constraining demonstration of the data that prove the absolute
sameness and identity of Paganism and Christianity, and unable to point
out so much as one single idea or notion, of which they could show that
it was peculiar to Christianity, or that Christianity had it, and
Paganism had it not, have invented the apology of an hypothesis, that
the Pagan religion was _typical_, and that Crishna, Buddha, Bacchus,
Hercules, Adonis, Osiris, Horus, &c., were all of them _types_ and
forerunners of the _true_ and _real_ Saviour, Christ Jesus. Those who
are satisfied with this kind of reasoning are certainly welcome to it.
That Christianity is nothing more than Paganism under a new name, has,
as we said above, been admitted over and over again by the Fathers of
the Church, and others. Aringhus (in his account of subterraneous Rome)
acknowledges the conformity between the Pagan and Christian form of
worship, and defends the admission of the ceremonies of heathenism into
the service of the Church, by the authority of the wisest prelates and
governors, whom, he says, found it necessary, in the conversion of the
Gentiles, to dissemble, and wink at many things, and yield to the times;
and not to use force against customs which the people were so
obstinately fond of.[409:1]
Melito (a Christian bishop of Sardis), in an _apology_ delivered to the
Emperor Marcus Antoninus, in the year 170, claims the patronage of the
emperor, for the _now_ called Christian religion, which he calls "_our
philosophy_," "on account of its _high antiquity_, as having been
_imported_ from countries lying beyond the limits of the Roman empire,
in the region of his ancestor Augustus, who found its _importation_
ominous of good fortune to his government."[409:2] This is an absolute
demonstration that Christianity did _not_ originate in Judea, which was
a Roman province, but really was an exotic oriental fable, _imported_
from India, and that Paul was doing as he claimed, viz.: preaching a God
manifest in the flesh who had been "believed on in the world" centuries
before his time, and a doctrine which had already been preached "unto
every creature under heaven."
Baronius (an eminent Catholic ecclesiastical historian) says:
"It is permitted to the Church to use, _for the purpose of
piety_, the ceremonies which the pagans used _for the purpose
of impiety_ in a superstitious religion, after having first
expiated them by consecration--to the end, that the devil
might receive a greater affront from employing, in honor of
Jesus Christ, that which his enemy had destined for his own
service."[409:3]
Clarke, in his "Evidences of Revealed Religion," says:
"Some of the ancient writers of the church have not scrupled
expressly to call the Athenian _Socrates_, and some others of
the best of the _heathen moralists_, by the name of
_Christians_, and to affirm, as the law was as it were a
schoolmaster, to bring the Jews unto Christ, so true moral
philosophy was to the Gentiles a preparative to receive the
gospel."[409:4]
Clemens Alexandrinus says:
"Those who lived according to the _Logos_ were really
_Christians_, though they have been thought to be atheists; as
Socrates and Heraclitus were among the Greeks, and such as
resembled them."[409:5]
And St. Augustine says:
"_That_, in our times, is the _Christian religion_, which to
know and follow is the most sure and certain health, called
according to that name, but not according to the thing
itself, of which it is the name; for the thing itself which is
now called the _Christian religion_, really was known to the
ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of
the human race, until the time when Christ came in the flesh,
from whence the true religion, _which had previously existed_,
began to be called _Christian_; and this in our days is the
Christian religion, not as having been wanting in former
times, but as having in later times received this
name."[410:1]
Eusebius, the great champion of Christianity, admits that that which is
called the Christian religion, is neither new nor strange, but--if it be
lawful to testify the truth--was known to the _ancients_.[410:2]
How the common people were Christianized, we gather from a remarkable
passage which Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, has preserved for
us, in the life of Gregory, surnamed "_Thaumaturgus_," that is, "the
wonder worker." The passage is as follows:
"When Gregory perceived that the simple and unskilled
multitude persisted in their worship of images, on account of
the pleasures and sensual gratifications which they enjoyed at
the Pagan festivals, _he granted them a permission to indulge
themselves in the like pleasures_, in celebrating the memory
of the holy martyrs, hoping that in process of time, they
would return of their own accord, to a more virtuous and
regular course of life."[410:3]
The historian remarks that there is no sort of doubt, that by this
permission, Gregory allowed the Christians to dance, sport, and feast at
the tombs of the martyrs, upon their respective festivals, and to do
everything which the Pagans were accustomed to do in their temples,
during the feasts celebrated in honor of their gods.
The learned Christian advocate, M. Turretin, in describing the state of
Christianity in the fourth century, has a well-turned rhetoricism, the
point of which is, that "it was not so much the empire that was brought
over to the faith, as the faith that was brought over to the empire; not
the Pagans who were converted to Christianity, but Christianity that was
converted to Paganism."[410:4]
Edward Gibbon says:
"It must be confessed that the ministers of the Catholic
church imitated the profane model which they were impatient to
destroy. The most respectable bishops had persuaded
themselves, that the ignorant rusties would more cheerfully
renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they found some
resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity.
The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a century,
the final conquest of the Roman empire: _but the victors
themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their
vanquished rivals_."[411:1]
Faustus, writing to St. Augustine, says:
"You have substituted your agapæ for the sacrifices of the
Pagans; for their idols your martyrs, whom you serve with the
very same honors. You appease the shades of the dead with wine
and feasts; you celebrate the solemn festivities of the
_Gentiles_, their calends, and their solstices; and, as to
their manners, those you have retained without any alteration.
_Nothing distinguishes you from the Pagans, except that you
hold your assemblies apart from them._"[411:2]
Ammonius Saccus (a Greek philosopher, founder of the Neo-platonic
school) taught that:
"Christianity and Paganism, when rightly understood, differ in
no essential points, but had a common origin, _and are really
one and the same thing_."[411:3]
Justin explains the thing in the following manner:
"It having reached the devil's ears that the prophets had
foretold that Christ would come . . . he (the devil) set the
heathen poets to bring forward a great many who should be
called sons of Jove, (_i. e._, "The Sons of God.") The devil
laying his scheme in this, to get men to imagine that the
_true_ history of Christ was of the same character as the
prodigious fables and poetic stories."[411:4]
Cæcilius, in the Octavius of Minucius Felix, says:
"All these fragments of crack-brained opiniatry and silly
solaces played off in the sweetness of song by (the) deceitful
(Pagan) poets, by you too credulous creatures (_i. e._, the
Christians) have been shamefully reformed and made over to
your own god."[411:5]
Celsus, the Epicurean philosopher, wrote that:
"The Christian religion contains nothing but what Christians
hold in common with heathens; nothing new, or truly
great."[411:6]
This assertion is fully verified by Justin Martyr, in his apology to the
Emperor Adrian, which is one of the most remarkable admissions ever made
by a Christian writer. He says:
"In saying that all things were made in this beautiful order
by God, what do we seem to say more than Plato? When we teach
a general conflagration, what do we teach more than the
Stoics? By opposing the worship of the works of men's hands,
we concur with Menander, the comedian; and by declaring the
Logos, the first begotten of God, our master Jesus Christ, to
be born of a virgin, without any human mixture, to be
crucified and dead, and to have rose again, and ascended into
heaven: _we say no more in this, than what you say of those
whom you style the Sons of Jove_. For you need not be told
what a parcel of sons, the writers most in vogue among you,
assign to Jove; there's Mercury, Jove's interpreter, in
imitation of the Logos, in worship among you. There's
Æsculapius, the physician, smitten by a thunderbolt, and after
that ascending into heaven. There's Bacchus, torn to pieces;
and Hercules, burnt to get rid of his pains. There's Pollux
and Castor, the sons of Jove by Leda, and Perseus by Danae;
and not to mention others, I would fain know why you always
deify the departed emperors and have a fellow at hand to make
affidavit that he saw Cæsar mount to heaven from the funeral
pile?
"As to the son of God, called Jesus, should we allow him to be
nothing more than man, yet the title of the son of God is very
justifiable, upon the account of his wisdom, considering that
you have your Mercury in worship, under the title of the Word
and Messenger of God.
"_As to the objection of our Jesus's being crucified_, I say,
that suffering was common to all the forementioned sons of
Jove, but only they suffered another kind of death. As to his
being born of a virgin, you have your Perseus to balance that.
As to his curing the lame, and the paralytic, and such as were
cripples from birth, this is little more than what you say of
your Æsculapius."[412:1]
The most celebrated Fathers of the Christian church, the most frequently
quoted, and those whose names stand the highest were nothing more nor
less than Pagans, being born and educated Pagans. Pantaenus (A. D. 193)
was one of these half-Pagan, half-Christian, Fathers. He at one time
presided in the school of the faithful in _Alexandria_ in Egypt, and was
celebrated on account of his learning. He was brought up in the Stoic
philosophy.[412:2]
Clemens Alexandrinus (A. D. 194) or St. Clement of Alexandria, was
another Christian Father of the same sort, being originally a Pagan. He
succeeded Pantaenus as president of the _monkish_ university at
Alexandria. His works are very extensive, and his authority very high in
the church.[412:3]
Tertullian (A. D. 200) may next be mentioned. He also was originally a
Pagan, and at one time Presbyter of the Christian church of Carthage, in
Africa. The following is a specimen of his manner of reasoning on the
evidences of Christianity. He says:
"I find no other means to prove myself to be impudent with
success, and happily a fool, than by my contempt of shame; as,
for instance--I maintain that the Son of God was born; why am
I not ashamed of maintaining such a thing? Why! but because it
is itself a shameful thing. I maintain that the Son of God
died: well, that is wholly credible because it is monstrously
absurd. I maintain that after having been buried, he rose
again: and that I take to be absolutely true, because it was
manifestly impossible."[412:4]
Origen (A. D. 230), one of the shining lights of the Christian church,
was another Father of this class. Porphyry (a Neo-platonist philosopher)
objects to him on this account.[413:1]
He also was born in the great cradle and nursery of
superstition--Egypt--and studied under that celebrated philosopher,
Ammonius Saccus, who taught that "Christianity and Paganism, when
rightly understood, differed in no essential point, but had a common
origin." This man was so sincere in his devotion to the cause of
monkery, or Essenism, that he made himself an eunuch "for the kingdom of
heaven's sake."[413:2] The writer of the twelfth verse of the nineteenth
chapter of Matthew, was without doubt an Egyptian monk. The words are
put into the mouth of the _Jewish_ Jesus, which is simply ridiculous,
when it is considered that the Jews did not allow an eunuch so much as
to enter the congregation of the Lord.[413:3]
St. Gregory (A. D. 240), bishop of Neo-Cæsarea in Pontus, was another
celebrated Christian Father, born of Pagan parents and educated a Pagan.
He is called Thaumaturgus, or the wonder-worker, and is said to have
performed miracles when still a Pagan.[413:4] He, too, was an
Alexandrian student. This is the Gregory who was commended by his
namesake of Nyssa for changing the Pagan festivals into Christian
holidays, the better to draw the heathen to the religion of
Christ.[413:5]
Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, in speaking of the Christian
church during the second century, says:
"The profound respect that was paid to the Greek and Roman
_mysteries_, and the extraordinary sanctity that was
attributed to them, induced the Christians to give their
religion a _mystic_ air, in order to put it upon an equal
footing, in point of dignity, with that of the Pagans. For
this purpose they gave the name of _mysteries_ to the
institutions of the gospel, and decorated, particularly the
holy sacrament, with that solemn title. They used, in that
sacred institution, as also in that of baptism, several of the
terms employed in the heathen mysteries, and proceeded so far
at length, as even to adopt some of the rites and ceremonies
of which those renowned mysteries consisted."[413:6]
We have seen, then, that the only difference between Christianity and
Paganism is that Brahma, Ormuzd, Osiris, Zeus, Jupiter, etc., are called
by another name; Crishna, Buddha, Bacchus, Adonis, Mithras, etc., have
been turned into Christ Jesus: Venus' pigeon into the Holy Ghost; Diana,
Isis, Devaki, etc., into the Virgin Mary; and the demi-gods and heroes
into saints. The exploits of the one were represented as the miracles of
the other. Pagan festivals became Christian holidays, and Pagan temples
became Christian churches.
Mr. Mahaffy, Fellow and Tutor in Trinity College, and Lecturer on
Ancient History in the University of Dublin, ends his "Prolegomena to
Ancient History" in the following manner:
"There is indeed, hardly a great or fruitful idea in the
Jewish or Christian systems, which has not its analogy in the
(ancient) Egyptian faith. The development of the one God into
a _trinity_; the incarnation of the mediating deity in a
Virgin, and without a father; his conflict and his momentary
defeat by the powers of darkness; his partial victory (for the
enemy is not destroyed); his resurrection and reign over an
eternal kingdom with his justified saints; his distinction
from, and yet identity with, the uncreate incomprehensible
Father, whose form is unknown, and who dwelleth not in temples
made with hands--_all these theological conceptions pervade
the oldest religion of Egypt_. So, too, the contrast and even
the apparent inconsistencies between our moral and theological
beliefs--the vacillating attribution of sin and guilt partly
to moral weakness, partly to the interference of evil spirits,
and likewise of righteousness to moral worth, and again to the
help of good genii or angels; the immortality of the soul and
its final judgment--_all these things have met us in the
Egyptian ritual and moral treatises_. So, too, the purely
human side of morals, and the catalogue of virtues and vices,
are by natural consequences as like as are the theological
systems. _But I recoil from opening this great subject now; it
is enough to have lifted the veil and shown the scene of many
a future contest._"[414:1]
In regard to the _moral sentiments_ expressed in the books of the New
Testament, and believed by the majority of Christians to be peculiar to
Christianity, we shall touch them but lightly, as this has already been
done so frequently by many able scholars.
The moral doctrines that appear in the New Testament, even the sayings
of the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer, are found with slight
variation, among the Rabbins, who have certainly borrowed nothing out of
the New Testament.
Christian teachers have delighted to exhibit the essential superiority
of Christianity to Judaism, have quoted with triumph the maxims that are
said to have fallen from the lips of Jesus, and which, they surmised,
could not be paralleled in the elder Scriptures, and have put the least
favorable construction on such passages in the ancient books as seemed
to contain the thoughts of evangelists and apostles. A more ingenious
study of the Hebrew law, according to the oldest traditions, as well as
its later interpretations by the prophets, reduces these differences
materially by bringing into relief sentiments and precepts whereof the
New Testament morality is but an echo.
There are passages in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, even tenderer in
their humanity than anything in the Gospels. The preacher from the
Mount, the prophet of the Beatitudes, does but repeat with persuasive
lips what the law-givers of his race proclaimed in mighty tones of
command. Such an acquaintance with the later literature of the Jews as
is really obtained now from popular sources, will convince the
ordinarily fair mind that the originality of the New Testament has been
greatly over-estimated.
"To feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the
naked, bury the dead, loyally serve the king, forms the first
duty of a pious man and faithful subject,"
is an abstract from the Egyptian "Book of the Dead," the oldest Bible in
the world.
Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, born 551 B. C., said:
"Obey Heaven, and follow the orders of Him who governs it.
_Love your neighbor as yourself._ Do to another what you would
he should do unto you; and do not unto another what you would
should not be done unto you; thou only needest this law alone,
it is the foundation and principle of all the rest.
Acknowledge thy benefits by the return of other benefits, _but
never revenge injuries_."[415:1]
The following extracts from Manu and the _Maha-bharata_, an Indian epic
poem, written many centuries before the time of Christ Jesus,[415:2]
compared with similar sentiment contained in the books of the New
Testament, are very striking.
"An evil-minded man is quick to see his neighbor's faults, though small
as mustard-seed; but when he turns his eyes towards his own, though
large as Bilva fruit, he none descries." (Maha-bharata.)
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" (Matt.
vii. 3.)
"Conquer a man who never gives by gifts; subdue untruthful men by
truthfulness; vanquish an angry man by gentleness; and overcome the evil
man by goodness." (Ibid.)
"Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
(Romans, xii. 21.)
"To injure none by thought or word or deed, to give to others, and be
kind to all--this is the constant duty of the good. High-minded men
delight in doing good, without a thought of their own interest; when
they confer a benefit on others, they reckon not on favors in return."
(Ibid.)
"Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing
again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the
children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful
and to the evil." (Luke, vii. 35.)
"Two persons will hereafter be exalted above the heavens--the man with
boundless power, who yet forbears to use it indiscreetly, and he who is
not rich, and yet can give." (Ibid.)
"Just heaven is not so pleased with costly gifts, offered in hope of
future recompense, as with the merest trifle set apart from honest
gains, and sanctified by faith." (Ibid.)
"And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how
people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich
cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she
threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto
him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you,
that this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which
have cast into the treasury: For all _they_ did cast in of
their abundance, but she of her want did cast all that she
had, even all her living." (Mark, xii. 41-44.)
"To curb the tongue and moderate the speech, is held to be the hardest
of all tasks. The words of him who talk too volubly have neither
substance nor variety." (Ibid.)
"But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison." (James, iii. 8.)
"Even to foes who visit us as guests due hospitality should be
displayed; the tree screens with its leaves, the man who fells it."
(Ibid.)
"Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst,
give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire
on his head." (Rom. xii. 20.)
"In granting or refusing a request, a man obtains a proper rule of
action by looking on his neighbor as himself." (Ibid.)
"Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." (Matt. xxii. 39.)
"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them
likewise." (Luke vi. 31.)
"Before infirmities creep o'er thy flesh; before decay impairs thy
strength and mars the beauty of thy limbs; before the Ender, whose
charioteer is sickness, hastes towards thee, breaks up thy fragile frame
and ends thy life, lay up the only treasure: Do good deeds; practice
sobriety and self-control; amass that wealth which thieves cannot
abstract, nor tyrants seize, which follows thee at death, which never
wastes away, nor is corrupted." (Ibid.)
"Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the
evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt
say: I have no pleasure in them." (Ecc. xii. 1.)
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth
and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and
steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through and steal." (Matt. vi. 19-20.)
"This is the sum of all true righteousness--Treat others as thou wouldst
thyself be treated. Do nothing to thy neighbor, which hereafter thou
would'st not have thy neighbor do to thee. In causing pleasure, or in
giving pain, in doing good or injury to others, in granting or refusing
a request, a man obtains a proper rule of action by looking on his
neighbor as himself." (Ibid.)
"Ye have heard that it hath been said: Thou shall love thy
neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you." (Matt. v. 43-44.)
"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another:
as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." (John,
xii. 34.)
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (Matt, xi 39.)
"Think constantly, O Son, how thou mayest please
Thy father, mother, teacher,--these obey.
By deep devotion seek thy debt to pay.
This is thy highest duty and religion."
(Manu.)
"Wound not another, though by him provoked.
Do no one injury by thought or deed.
Utter no word to pain thy fellow-creatures."
(Ibid.)
"Treat no one with disdain, with patience bear
Reviling language; with an angry man
Be never angry; blessings give for curses."
(Ibid.)
"E'en as a driver checks his restive steeds,
Do thou, if thou art wise, restrain thy passions,
Which, running wild, will hurry thee away."
(Ibid.)
"Pride not thyself on thy religious works.
Give to the poor, but talk not of thy gifts.
By pride religious merit melts away,
The merit of thy alms by ostentation."
(Ibid.)
"Good words, good deeds, and beautiful expressions
A wise man ever culls from every quarter,
E'en as a gleaner gathers ears of corn."
(Maha-bharata.)
"Repeated sin destroys the understanding,
And he whose reason is impaired, repeats
His sins. The constant practice of virtue
Strengthens the mental faculties, and he
Whose judgment stronger grows, acts always right."
(Ibid.)
"If thou art wise seek ease and happiness
In deeds of virtue and of usefulness;
And ever act in such a way by day
That in the night thy sleep may tranquil be;
And so comport thyself when thou art young
That when thou art grown old, thy age may pass
In calm serenity. So ply thy talk
Through thy life, that when thy days are ended,
Thou may'st enjoy eternal bliss hereafter."
(Ibid.)
"Do naught to others which if done to thee
Would cause thee pain; this is the sum of duty."
(Ibid.)
"No sacred lore can save the hypocrite,--
Though he employ it craftily,--from hell;
When his end comes, his pious texts take wings,
Like fledglings eager to forsake their nest."
(Ibid.)
"Iniquity once practiced, like a seed,
Fails not to yield its fruit to him who wrought it,
If not to him, yet to his sons and grandsons."
(Manu.)
"Single is every living creature born,
Single he passes to another world.
Single he eats the fruit of evil deeds,
Single, the fruit of good; and when he leaves
His body like a log or heap of clay
Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away;
Virtue alone stands by him at the tomb,
And bears him through the dreary, trackless gloom."
(Ibid.)
"Thou canst not gather what thou dost not sow;
As thou dost plant the tree so will it grow."
(Ibid.)
"He who pretends to be what he is not,
Acts a part, commits the worst of crimes,
For, thief-like, he abstracts a good man's heart."
(Ibid.)
FOOTNOTES:
[384:1] "Before the separation of the Aryan race, before the existence
of Sanscrit, Greek, or Latin, before the gods of the Veda had been
worshiped, ONE SUPREME DEITY had been found, had been named, and had
been invoked by the ancestors of our race." (Prof. Max Müller: The
Science of Religion, p. 67.)
[384:2] See Chap. XII. and Chap. XX., for Only-begotten Sons.
[384:3] See Chap. XII. and Chap. XXXII., where we have shown that many
other virgin-born gods were conceived by the Holy Ghost, and that the
name MARY is the same as Maia, Maya, Myrra, &c.
[384:4] See Chap. XX., for Crucified Saviours.
[385:1] See Chap. XXII.
[385:2] See Chaps. XXII. and XXXIX., for Resurrected Saviours.
[385:3] See Ibid.
[385:4] See Chap. XXIV., and Chap. XXV.
[385:5] See Chap. XII., and Chap. XXXV.
[385:6] That is, the holy _true_ Church. All peoples who have had a
religion believe that _theirs_ was the _Catholic_ faith.
[385:7] There was no nation of antiquity who did not believe in "the
forgiveness of sins," especially if some innocent creature _redeemed_
them by the shedding of his blood (see Chap. IV., and Chap. XX.), and as
far as _confession_ of sins is concerned, and thereby being forgiven,
this too is almost as old as humanity. Father Acosta found it even among
the Mexicans, and said that "the father of lies (the Devil)
counterfeited the sacrament of confession, so that he might be honored
with ceremonies very like the Christians." (See Acosta, vol. ii. p.
360.)
[385:8] "No doctrine except that of a supreme and subtly-pervading
deity, is so extended, and has retained its primitive form so
distinctly, _as a belief in immortality_, and a future state of rewards
and punishments. Among the most savage races, the idea of a future
existence in a place of delight is found." (Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.)
"Go back far as we may in the history of the Indo-European race, of
which the Greeks and Italians are branches, and we do not find that this
race has ever thought that after this short life all was finished for
man. The most ancient generations, long before there were philosophers,
believed in a second existence after the present. They looked upon death
not as a dissolution of our being, but simply as a change of life." (M.
De Coulanges: The Ancient City, p. 15.)
[385:9] For full information on this subject see Archbishop Wake's
Apostolic Fathers, p. 108, Justice Bailey's Common Prayer, Taylor's
Diegesis, p. 10, and Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Creeds."
[386:1] Rev. xi. 7-9.
[386:2] S. Baring-Gould: Legends of Patriarchs, p. 25.
[386:3] II. Peter, ii. 4.
[386:4] Jude, 6.
[386:5] S. Baring-Gould: Legends of Patriarchs, p. 16.
[387:1] S. Baring-Gould: Legends of Patriarchs, p. 17.
[387:2] Indian Wisdom, p. 39.
[387:3] See Renouf's Hibbert Lectures, p. 165. Dupuis: Origin of Relig.
Beliefs, p. 73, and Baring-Gould's Legends of the Prophets, p. 19.
[387:4] S. Baring-Gould's Legends of Patriarchs, p. 19.
[388:1] Priestley, p. 35.
[388:2] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 411.
[388:3] See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 819. Taylor's Diegesis,
p. 215, and Dupuis: Origin of Relig. Beliefs, p. 78.
[388:4] See Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 31.
[388:5] S. Baring-Gould's Legends of Patriarchs, p. 20.
[388:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 159, and Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i.
[389:1] This subject is most fully entered into by Mr. Herbert Spencer,
in vol. i. of "Principles of Sociology."
[390:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 426.
[391:1] See Appendix C.
[391:2] See Fiske, pp. 104-107.
[392:1] Williams' Hinduism, pp. 182, 183.
[392:2] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 216.
[392:3] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 111.
[392:4] See Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 466.
[392:5] Williams' Hinduism, p. 184.
[393:1] "The _Seventh_ day was sacred to _Saturn_ throughout the East."
(Dunlap's Spirit Hist., pp. 35, 36.)
"Saturn's day was made sacred to God, and the planet is now called
cochab shabbath, 'The Sabbath Star.'
"The sanctification of the Sabbath is clearly connected with the word
Shabua or Sheba, _i. e._, _seven_." (Inman's Anct. Faiths, vol. ii. p.
504.) "The Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese, and the natives of India,
were acquainted with the _seven_ days' division of time, as were the
ancient Druids." (Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 412.) "With the
Egyptians the _Seventh_ day was consecrated to God the Father." (Ibid.)
"Hesiod, Herodotus, Philostratus, &c., mention that day. Homer,
Callimachus, and other ancient writers call the _Seventh_ day the _Holy
One_. Eusebius confesses its observance by almost all philosophers and
poets." (Ibid.)
[393:2] Ibid.
[393:3] Ibid. p. 413.
[393:4] Pococke Specimen: Hist. Arab., p. 97. Quoted in Dunlap's Spirit
Hist., p. 274. "Some of the families of the Israelites worshiped
_Saturn_ under the name of Kiwan, which may have given rise to the
religious observance of the Seventh day." (Bible for Learners, vol. i,
p. 317.)
[393:5] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 283.
[393:6] Mover's Phönizier, vol. i. p. 313. Quoted in Dunlap's Spirit
Hist., p. 36.
[393:7] Assyrian Discoveries.
[393:8] Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 92.
[393:9] Old Norse, _Odinsdagr_; Swe. and Danish, _Onsdag_; Ang. Sax.,
_Wodensdeg_; Dutch, _Woensdag_; Eng., _Wednesday_.
[395:1] Rev. M. J. Savage.
[395:2] Acts, xv. 20.
[396:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 182.
[396:2] See Eusebius' Life of Constantine, lib. iv. chs. xviii. and
xxiii.
[396:3] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 237.
[396:4] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 187, and Gibbon's Rome, vol.
iii. pp. 142, 143.
[396:5] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 236, and Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. pp.
142, 143.
[396:6] Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 137.
[396:7] Ibid. p. 307.
[397:1] Gruter's Inscriptions. Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 237.
[397:2] Boldonius' Epigraphs. Quoted in Ibid.
[397:3] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 237. Taylor's Diegesis, p. 48,
and Middleton's Letters from Rome.
[397:4] Baring-Gould's Curious Myths, p. 428.
[398:1] Mosheim, Cent. ii. p. 202. Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 48.
[398:2] Draper: Religion and Science, pp. 48, 49.
[398:3] Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 84.
[399:1] See Higgins' Anacalypsis.
[399:2] Jones on the Canon, vol. i. p. 11. Diegesis, p. 49.
[399:3] Compare "Apollo among the Muses," and "The Vine and its
Branches" (that is, Christ Jesus and his Disciples), in Lundy's
_Monumental Christianity_, pp. 141-143. As Mr. Lundy says, there is so
striking a resemblance between the two, that one looks very much like a
copy of the other. Apollo is also represented as the "_Good Shepherd_,"
with a lamb upon his back, just exactly as Christ Jesus is represented
in Christian Art. (See Lundy's Monumental Christianity, and Jameson's
Hist. of Our Lord in Art.)
[399:4] The Roman god Jonas, or Janus, with his keys, was changed into
Peter, who was surnamed Bar-Jonas. Many years ago a statue of the god
Janus, in bronze, being found in Rome, he was perched up in St. Peter's
with his keys in his hand: the very identical god, in all his native
ugliness. This statue sits as St. Peter, under the cupola of the church
of St. Peter. It is looked upon with the most profound veneration: the
toes are nearly kissed away by devotees.
[400:1] Frothingham: The Cradle of the Christ, p. 179.
[400:2] See Hardy's Eastern Monachism.
[400:3] The "_Grand Lama_" is the head of a priestly order in Thibet and
Tartar. The office is not hereditary, but, like the Pope of Rome, he is
elected by the priests. (Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 203. See
also, Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. pp. 32-34.)
[400:4] See Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 233, Inman's Ancient
Faiths, vol. ii. p. 203, and Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 211.
[401:1] Davis: Hist. China, vol. ii. pp. 105, 106.
[401:2] Gutzlaff's Voyages, p. 309.
[402:1] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 34.
[402:2] See Hallam's Middle Ages.
[403:1] Huc's Travels, vol. i. p. 329.
[403:2] See Hardy's Eastern Monachism, p. 163.
[403:3] Ibid.
[403:4] Ibid.
[403:5] "Vestal Virgins," an order of virgins consecrated to the goddess
Vesta.
[403:6] Hardy: Eastern Monachism, p. 163.
[403:7] Ibid. p. 48.
[403:8] See Herodotus, b. ii. ch. 36.
[403:9] Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. x.
[403:10] Acosta, vol. ii. p. 324.
[404:1] Acosta, vol. ii. p. 330.
[404:2] Ibid. p. 336.
[404:3] Ibid. p. 338.
[404:4] Ibid. pp. 332, 333.
[404:5] Ibid. p. 337.
[405:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 241.
[405:2] See Lardner's Works, vol. viii. pp. 375, 376.
[405:3] See Chap. XXXIII.
[405:4] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 127.
[406:1] Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, p. 191.
[406:2] Renan: Hibbert Lectures, p. 32.
[406:3] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 232.
[406:4] "At their entrance, purifying themselves by washing their hands
in _holy water_, they were at the same time admonished to present
themselves with pure minds, without which the external cleanness of the
body would by no means be accepted." (Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 282.)
[406:5] See Williams' Hinduism, p. 99.
[406:6] See Renan's Hibbert Lectures, p. 35.
[407:1] Edward Gibbon: Decline and Fall, vol. iii. p. 161.
[408:1] Draper: Science and Religion, pp. 46-49.
[409:1] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 237.
[409:2] Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 249. See also, Eusebius: Eccl.
Hist., book iv. ch. xxvi. who alludes to it.
[409:3] Baronius' Annals, An. 36.
[409:4] Quoted by Rev. R. Taylor, Diegesis p. 41.
[409:5] Strom. bk. i. ch. xix.
[410:1] "Es est nostris temporibus Christiana religio, quam cognoscere
ac sequi securissima et certissima salus est: secundum hoc nomen dictum
est non secundum ipsam rem cujus hoc nomen est: nam res ipsa quæ nunc
Christiana religio nuncupatur erat et apud antiquos, nec defuit ab
initio generis humani, quousque ipse Christus veniret in carne, unde
vera religio quæ jam erat cæpit appellari Christiana. Hæc est nostris
temporibus Christiana religio, non quia prioribus temporibus non fuit,
sed quia posterioribus hoc nomen accepit." (Opera Augustini, vol. i. p.
12. Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 42.)
[410:2] See Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch. v.
[410:3] "Cum animadvertisset Gregorius quod ob corporeas delectationes
et voluptates, simplex et imperitum vulgus in simulacrorum cultus errore
permaneret--permisit eis, ut in memoriam et recordationem sanctorum
martyrum sese oblectarent, et in lætitiam effunderentur, quod successu
temporis aliquando futurum esset, ut sua sponte, ad honestiorem et
accuratiorem vitæ rationem, transirent." (Mosheim, vol. i. cent. 2, p.
202.)
[410:4] "Non imperio ad fidem adducto, sed et imperii pompa ecclesiam
inficiente. Non ethnicis ad Christum conversis, sed et Christi religione
ad Ethnicæ formam depravata." (Orat. Academ. De Variis Christ. Rel.
fatis.)
[411:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 163.
[411:2] Quoted by Draper: Science and Religion, p. 48.
[411:3] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 329.
[411:4] Justin: Apol. 1, ch. lix.
[411:5] Octavius, ch. xi.
[411:6] See Origen: Contra Celsus.
[412:1] Apol. 1, ch. xx, xii, xxii.
[412:2] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 323.
[412:3] See Ibid. p. 324.
[412:4] On the Flesh of Christ, ch. v.
[413:1] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 328.
[413:2] Matt. xix. 12.
[413:3] Deut. xxiii. 1.
[413:4] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 339.
[413:5] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 236; Mosheim, vol. i.
cent. 2, pt. 2, ch. 4.
[413:6] Eccl. Hist. vol. 1. p. 199.
[414:1] Prolegomena to Ancient History, pp. 416, 417.
[415:1] Tindal: Christianity as Old as the Creation.
[415:2] Manu's works were written during the _sixth_ century B. C. (see
Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 215), and the Maha-bharata about the same
time.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
WHY CHRISTIANITY PROSPERED.
We now come to the question, Why did Christianity prosper, and why was
Jesus of Nazareth believed to be a divine incarnation and Saviour?
There were many causes for this, but as we can devote but one chapter to
the subject, we must necessarily treat it briefly.
For many centuries before the time of Christ Jesus there lived a sect of
religious monks known as _Essenes_, or _Therapeutæ_;[419:1] _these
entirely disappeared from history shortly after the time assigned for
the crucifixion of Jesus_. There were thousands of them, and their
_monasteries_ were to be counted by the score. Many have asked the
question, "What became of them?" We now propose to show, 1. That they
were expecting the advent of an _Angel-Messiah_; 2. That they considered
Jesus of Nazareth to be _the_ Messiah; 3. That they came over to
Christianity in a body; and, 4. That they brought the legendary
histories of the former Angel-Messiahs with them.
The origin of the sect known as _Essenes_ is enveloped in mist, and will
probably never be revealed. To speak of all the different ideas
entertained as to their origin would make a volume of itself, we can
therefore but glance at the subject. It has been the object of Christian
writers up to a comparatively recent date, to claim that almost
everything originated with God's chosen people, the _Jews_, and that
even all languages can be traced to the _Hebrew_. Under these
circumstances, then, it is not to be wondered at that we find they have
also traced the Essenes to Hebrew origin.
Theophilus Gale, who wrote a work called "The Court of the Gentiles"
(Oxford, 1671), to demonstrate that "the origin of _all human
literature_, both philology and philosophy, is from the Scriptures and
the Jewish church," undoubtedly hits upon the truth when he says:
"Now, the origination or rise of these Essenes (among the
Jews) I conceive by the best conjectures I can make from
antiquity, _to be in or immediately after the Babylonian
captivity_, though some make them later."
Some Christian writers trace them to Moses or some of the prophets, but
that they originated in _India_, and were a sort of Buddhist sect, we
believe is their true history.
Gfrörer, who wrote concerning them in 1835, and said that "_the Essenes
and the Therapeutæ are the same sect, and hold the same views_," was
undoubtedly another writer who was touching upon historical ground.
The identity of many of the precepts and practices of _Essenism_ and
those of the _New Testament_ is unquestionable. Essenism urged on its
disciples to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.[420:1]
The Essenes forbade the laying up of treasures upon earth.[420:2] The
Essenes demanded of those who wished to join them to sell all their
possessions, and to divide it among the poor brethren.[420:3] The
Essenes had all things in common, and appointed one of the brethren as
steward to manage the common bag.[420:4] Essenism put all its members on
the same level, forbidding the exercise of authority of one over the
other, and enjoining mutual service.[420:5] Essenism commanded its
disciples to call no man master upon the earth.[420:6] Essenism laid the
greatest stress upon being meek and lowly in spirit.[420:7] The Essenes
commended the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemaker. They
combined the healing of the body with that of the soul. They declared
that the power to cast out evil spirits, to perform miraculous cures,
&c., should be possessed by their disciples as signs of their
belief.[420:8] The Essenes did not swear at all; their answer was yea,
yea, and nay, nay.[420:9] When the Essenes started on a mission of
mercy, they provided neither gold nor silver, neither two coats, neither
shoes, but relied on hospitality for support.[420:10] The Essenes,
though repudiating offensive war, yet took weapons with them when they
went on a perilous journey.[421:1] The Essenes abstained from connubial
intercourse.[421:2] The Essenes did not offer animal sacrifices, but
strove to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto God, which they regarded as a reasonable service.[421:3] It was the
great aim of the Essenes to live such a life of purity and holiness as
to be the temples of the Holy Spirit, and to be able to prophesy.[421:4]
Many other comparisons might be made, but these are sufficient to show
that there is a great similarity between the two.[421:5] These
similarities have led many Christian writers to believe that Jesus
belonged to this order. Dr. Ginsburg, an advocate of this theory, says:
"It will hardly be doubted that _our_ Saviour himself belonged
to this holy brotherhood. This will especially be apparent
when we remember that the whole Jewish community, at the
advent of Christ, was divided into three parties, the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, and that every Jew
had to belong to one of these sects. Jesus, who, in all
things, conformed to the Jewish law, and who was holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, would
therefore naturally associate himself with that order of
Judaism which was most congenial to his holy nature. Moreover,
the fact that Christ, with the exception of once, was not
heard of in public until his thirtieth year, implying that he
lived in seclusion with this fraternity, and that though he
frequently rebuked the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, he
never denounced the Essenes, strongly confirms this
conclusion."[421:6]
The _facts_--as Dr. Ginsburg calls them--which confirm his conclusions,
are simply _no facts at all_. Jesus may or may not have been a member of
this order; but when it is stated as a fact that he never rebuked the
Essenes, it is implying too much. We know not whether the words _said to
have been_ uttered by Jesus were ever uttered by him or not, and it is
almost certain that _had he_ rebuked the Essenes, and had his words been
written in the Gospels, _they would not remain there long_. We hear very
little of the Essenes after A. D. 40,[421:7] therefore, when we read of
the "_primitive Christians_," we are reading of _Essenes_, and others.
The statement that, with the exception of once, Jesus was not heard in
public life till his _thirtieth_ year, is also uncertain. One of the
early Christian Fathers (Irenæus) tells us that he did not begin to
teach until he was _forty_ years of age, or thereabout, and that he
lived to be nearly _fifty_ years old.[422:1] "_The records of his life
are very scanty; and these have been so shaped and colored and modified
by the hands of ignorance and superstition and party prejudice and
ecclesiastical purpose, that it is hard to be sure of the original
outlines._"
The similarity of the sentiments of the Essenes, or Therapeutæ, to those
of the Church of Rome, induced the learned Jesuit, Nicolaus Serarius, to
seek for them an honorable origin. He contended therefore, that they
were Asideans, and derived them from the Rechabites, described so
circumstantially in the thirty-fifth chapter of Jeremiah; at the same
time, he asserted that the first Christian monks were Essenes.[422:2]
Mr. King, speaking of the _Christian_ sect called Gnostics, says:
"Their chief doctrines had been held for centuries before
(their time) in many of the cities of Asia Minor. There, it is
probable, they first came into existence as 'Mystæ,' _upon the
establishment of a direct intercourse with India under the
Seleucidæ and the Ptolemies_. The colleges of _Essenes_ and
Megabyzae at Ephesus, the Orphics of Thrace, the Curetes of
Crete, _are all merely branches of one antique and common
religion, and that originally Asiatic_."[422:3]
Again:
"The introduction of _Buddhism_ into Egypt and Palestine
_affords the only true solution of innumerable difficulties in
the history of religion_."[422:4]
Again:
"That Buddhism had actually been planted in the dominions of
the Seleucidæ and Ptolemies (Palestine belonging to the
former) before the beginning of the third century B. C., is
_proved to demonstration_ by a passage in the Edicts of Asoka,
grandson of the famous Chandragupta, the Sandracottus of the
Greeks. These edicts are engraven on a rock at Girnur, in
Guzerat."[422:5]
Eusebius, in quoting from Philo concerning the Essenes, seems to take it
for granted that _they and the Christians were one and the same_, and
from the manner in which he writes, it would appear that it was
generally understood so. He says that Philo called them "Worshipers,"
and concludes by saying:
"But whether he himself gave them this name, or whether at the
_beginning_ they were so called, _when as yet the name of
Christians was not everywhere published_, I think it not
needful curiosity to sift out."[422:6]
This celebrated ecclesiastical historian considered it very probable
that the writings of the Essenic Therapeuts in Egypt had been
incorporated into the gospels of the New Testament, and into some
Pauline epistles. His words are:
"It is very likely that the commentaries (Scriptures) which
were among them (the Essenes) were the Gospels, and the works
of the apostles, and certain expositions of the ancient
prophets, such as partly that epistle unto the Hebrews, and
also the other epistles of Paul do contain."[423:1]
The principal doctrines and rites of the Essenes can be connected with
the _East_, with Parsism, and especially with _Buddhism_. Among the
doctrines which Essenes and Buddhists had in common was that of the
_Angel-Messiah_.[423:2]
Godfrey Higgins says:
"The _Essenes_ were called physicians of the soul, or
_Therapeutæ_; being resident both in Judea and Egypt, they
probably spoke or had their sacred books in Chaldee. They were
_Pythagoreans_, as is proved by all their forms, ceremonies,
and doctrines, and they called themselves sons of Jesse. If
the Pythagoreans or Conobitæ, as they are called by Jamblicus,
were Buddhists, the Essenes were Buddhists. The Essenes lived
in Egypt, on the lake of Parembole or Maria, in _monasteries_.
These are the very places in which we formerly found the
_Gymnosophists_, or _Samaneans_, or _Buddhist_ priests to have
lived; which Gymnosophistæ are placed also by Ptolemy in
north-eastern India."
"Their (the Essenes) parishes, churches, bishops, priests,
deacons, festivals are all identically the same (as the
Christians). They had apostolic founders; the manners which
distinguished the immediate apostles of Christ; scriptures
divinely inspired; the same allegorical mode of interpreting
them, which has since obtained among Christians, and the same
order of performing public worship. They had missionary
stations or colonies of their community established in Rome,
Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Phillippi, Colosse, and
Thessalonica, precisely such, and in the same circumstances,
as were those to whom St. Paul addressed his letters in those
places. All the fine moral doctrines which are attributed to
the Samaritan Nazarite, and I doubt not justly attributed to
him, are to be found among the doctrines of these
ascetics."[423:3]
And Arthur Lillie says:
"It is asserted by calm thinkers like Dean Mansel that within
two generations of the time of Alexander the Great, the
missionaries of Buddha made their appearance at
_Alexandria_.[423:4] This theory is confirmed--in the east by
the Asoka monuments--in the west by Philo. He expressly
maintains the identity in creed of the higher Judaism and that
of the _Gymnosophists_ of India who abstained from the
'sacrifice of living animals'--in a word, the BUDDHISTS. It
would follow from this that the priestly religion of
Babylonia, Palestine, Egypt, and Greece were undermined by
certain kindred mystical societies organized by Buddha's
missionaries under the various names of Therapeutes, Essenes,
Neo-Pythagoreans, Neo-Zoroastrians, &c. _Thus Buddhism
prepared the way for Christianity._"[424:1]
The Buddhists have the "eight-fold holy path" (Dhammapada), eight
spiritual states leading up to Buddhahood. The first state of the
Essenes resulted from baptism, and it seems to correspond with the first
Buddhistic state, those who have entered the (mystic) stream. Patience,
purity, and the mastery of passion were aimed at by both devotees in the
other stages. In the last, magical powers, healing the sick, casting
out evil spirits, etc., were supposed to be gained. Buddhists and
Essenes seem to have doubled up this eight-fold path into four, for
some reason or other. Buddhists and Essenes had three orders of
ascetics or monks, but this classification is distinct from the
spiritual classifications.[424:2]
The doctrine of the "_Anointed Angel_," of the man from heaven, the
Creator of the world, the doctrine of the atoning sacrificial death of
Jesus by the blood of his cross, the doctrine of the Messianic antetype
of the Paschal lamb of the Paschal omer, and thus of the resurrection of
Christ Jesus, the third day, according to the Scriptures, these
doctrines of Paul can, with more or less certainty, be connected with
the Essenes. It becomes almost a certainty that Eusebius was right in
surmising that _Essenic writings have been used by Paul and the
evangelists_. Not Jesus, but Paul, is the cause of the separation of the
Jews from the Christians.[424:3]
The probability, then, that that sect of vagrant quack-doctors, the
Therapeutæ, who were established in Egypt and its neighborhood many ages
before the period assigned by later theologians as that of the birth of
Christ Jesus, were the original fabricators of the writings contained in
the New Testament, becomes a certainty on the basis of evidence, than
which history has nothing more certain, furnished by the unguarded, but
explicit, unwary, but most unqualified and positive statement of the
historian Eusebius, that "_those ancient Therapeutæ were Christians, and
that their ancient writings were our gospels and epistles_."
The Essenes, the Therapeuts, the Ascetics, the Monks, the Ecclesiastics,
and the Eclectics, are but different names for one and the self-same
sect.
The word "_Essene_" is nothing more than the Egyptian word for that of
which Therapeut is the Greek, each of them signifying "healer" or
"doctor," and designating the character of the sect as professing to be
endued with the miraculous gift of healing; and more especially so with
respect to diseases of the mind.
Their name of "_Ascetics_" indicated the severe discipline and exercise
of self-mortification, long fastings, prayers, contemplation, and even
making of themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, as did
Origen, Melito, and others who derived their Christianity from the same
school; Jesus himself is represented to have recognized and approved
their practice.
Their name of "_Monks_" indicated their delight in solitude, their
contemplative life, and their entire segregation and abstraction from
the world, which Jesus, in the Gospel, is in like manner represented as
describing, as characteristic of the community of which he was a member.
Their name of "_Ecclesiastics_" was of the same sense, and indicated
their being called out, elected, separated from the general fraternity
of mankind, and set apart to the more immediate service and honor of
God.
They had a flourishing university, or corporate body, established upon
these principles, at Alexandria in Egypt, long before the period
assigned for the birth of Christ Jesus.[425:1]
From this body they sent out missionaries, and had established colonies,
auxiliary branches, and affiliated communities, in various cities of
Asia Minor, which colonies were in a flourishing condition, before the
preaching of St. Paul.
"_The very ancient and Eastern doctrine of an Angel-Messiah had been
applied to Gautama-Buddha, and so it was applied to Jesus Christ by the
Essenes of Egypt and of Palestine, who introduced this new Messianic
doctrine into Essenic Judaism and Essenic Christianity._"[425:2]
In the Pali and Sanscrit texts the word _Buddha_ is always used as a
_title_, not as a name. It means "The Enlightened One." Gautama Buddha
is represented to have taught that he was only one of a long series of
Buddhas, who appear at intervals in the world, and who all teach the
same system. After the death of each Buddha his religion flourishes for
a time, but finally wickedness and vice again rule over the land. Then
a _new_ Buddha appears, who again preaches the lost _Dharma_ or truth.
The names of twenty-four of these Buddhas who appeared previous to
Gautama have been handed down to us. The _Buddhavansa_, or "History of
the Buddhas," the last book of the _Khuddaka Nikaya_ in the second
Pitca, gives the lives of all the previous Buddhas before commencing its
account of Gautama himself; and the Pali commentary on the _Jatakas_
gives certain details regarding each of the twenty-four.[426:1]
An _Avatar_ was expected about every six hundred years.[426:2] At the
time of Jesus of Nazareth an Avatar was expected, not by some of the
Jews alone, but by most every eastern nation.[426:3] Many persons were
thought at that time to be, and undoubtedly thought themselves to be,
_the_ Christ, and the only reason why the name of Jesus of Nazareth
succeeded above all others, is because the _Essenes_--who were expecting
an Angel-Messiah--espoused it. Had it not been for this almost
indisputable fact, the name of Jesus of Nazareth would undoubtedly not
be known at the present day.
Epiphanius, a Christian bishop and writer of the fourth century, says,
in speaking of the Essenes:
"They who believed on Christ were called JESSÆI (or Essenes),
_before they were called Christians_. These derived their
constitution from the signification of the name Jesus, which
in Hebrew signifies the same as _Therapeutes_, that is, a
saviour or physician."
Thus we see that, according to Christian authority, the Essenes and
Therapeutes are one, and that the Essenes espoused the cause of Jesus of
Nazareth, accepted him as an Angel-Messiah, and became known to history
as _Christians_, or believers in the Anointed Angel.
This ascetic _Buddhist_ sect called Essenes were therefore expecting an
Angel-Messiah, for had not Gautama announced to his disciples that
another Buddha, and therefore another angel in human form, another organ
or advocate of the wisdom from above, would descend from heaven to
earth, and would be called the "Son of Love."
The learned Thomas Maurice says:
"From the earliest post-diluvian age, to that in which the
Messiah appeared, together with the traditions which so
expressly recorded the fall of the human race from a state of
original rectitude and felicity, there appears, from an
infinite variety of hieroglyphic monuments and of written
documents, to have prevailed, from generation to generation,
_throughout all the regions of the higher Asia_, an uniform
belief that, in the course of revolving ages, _there should
arise a sacred personage, a mighty deliverer of mankind from
the thraldom of sin and of death_. In fact, the memory of the
grand original promise, that the seed of the woman should
eventually crush the serpent, was carefully preserved in the
breasts of the _Asiatics_; it entered deeply into their
symbolic superstitions, and was engraved aloft amidst their
mythologic sculptures."[427:1]
That an Angel-Messiah was generally expected at this time may be
inferred from the following facts: Some of the Gnostic sects of
Christians, who believed that Jesus was an emanation from God, likewise
supposed that there were several _Æons_, or emanations from the Eternal
Father. Among those who taught this doctrine was _Basilides_ and his
followers.[427:2]
SIMON MAGUS was believed to be "He who should come." Simon was worshiped
in Samaria and other countries, as the expected Angel-Messiah, as a God.
Justin Martyr says:
"After the ascension of our Lord into heaven, certain _men_
were suborned by demons as their agents, who said that they
were gods (_i. e._, _the_ Angel Messiah). Among these was
_Simon_, a certain Samaritan, whom nearly all the Samaritans
and a few also of other nations, worshiped, confessing him as
a Supreme God."[427:3]
His miracles were notorious, and admitted by all. His followers became
so numerous that they were to be found in all countries. In Rome, in the
reign of Claudius, a statue was erected in his honor. Clement of Rome,
speaking of Simon Magus, says that:
"He wishes to be considered an exalted person, and to be
considered 'the Christ.' He claims that he can never be
dissolved, asserting that he will endure to eternity."
Montanus was another person who evidently believed himself to be an
Angel-Messiah. He was called by himself and his followers the
"Paraclete," or "Holy Spirit."[428:1]
Socrates, in his Ecclesiastical History, tells us of one _Buddhas_ (who
lived after Jesus):
"Who afore that time was called Terebynthus, which went to the
coasts of Babylon, inhabited by Persians, and there published
of himself many false wonders: that he was born of a virgin,
that he was bred and brought up in the mountains, etc."[428:2]
He was evidently one of the many fanatics who believed themselves to be
the Paraclete or Comforter, the "Expected One."
Another one of these _Christs_ was _Apollonius_. This remarkable man was
born a few years before the commencement of the Christian era, and
during his career, sustained the role of a philosopher, religious
teacher and reformer, and a worker of miracles. He is said to have lived
to be a hundred years old. From the history of his life, written by the
learned sophist and scholar, Philostratus, we glean the following:
Before his birth a god appeared to his mother and informed her that he
himself should be born of her. At the time of her delivery, the most
wonderful things happened. All the people of the country acknowledged
that he was the "Son of God." As he grew in stature, his wonderful
powers, greatness of memory, and marvelous beauty attracted the
attention of all. A great part of his time was spent, when a youth,
among the learned doctors; the disciples of Plato, Chrysippus and
Aristotle. When he came to man's estate, he became an enthusiastic
admirer and devoted follower of Pythagoras. His fame soon spread far and
near, and wherever he went he reformed the religious worship of the day.
He went to Ephesus, like Christ Jesus to Jerusalem, where the people
flocked about him. While at Athens, in Greece, he cast out an evil
spirit from a youth. As soon as Apollonius fixed his eyes upon him, the
demon broke out into the most angry and horrid expressions, and then
swore he would depart out of the youth. He put an end to a plague which
was raging at Ephesus, and at Corinth he raised a dead maiden to life,
by simply taking her by the hand and bidding her arise. The miracles of
Apollonius were extensively believed, _by Christians as well as others_,
for centuries after his time. In the fourth century Hierocles drew a
parallel between the two Christs--Apollonius and Jesus--which was
answered by Eusebius, the great champion of the Christian church. In it
he admits the miracles of Apollonius, but attributes them to sorcery.
Apollonius was worshiped as a god, in different countries, as late as
the fourth century. A beautiful temple was built in honor of him, and he
was held in high esteem by many of the Pagan emperors. Eunapius, who
wrote concerning him in the fifth century, says that his history should
have been entitled "_The Descent of a God_ upon Earth." It is as Albert
Reville says:
"The universal respect in which Apollonius was held by the
whole pagan world, testified to the deep impression which the
life of this _Supernatural Being_ had left indelibly fixed in
their minds; an expression which caused one of his
contemporaries to exclaim, '_We have a God living among us._'"
A Samaritan, by name Menander, who was contemporary with the apostles of
Jesus, was another of these fanatics who believed himself to be the
Christ. He went about performing miracles, claiming that he was a
SAVIOUR, "sent down from above from the invisible worlds, _for the
salvation of mankind_."[429:1] He baptized his followers in his own
name. His influence was great, and continued for several centuries.
Justin Martyr and other Christian Fathers wrote against him.
Manes evidently believed himself to be "the Christ," or "he who was to
come." His followers also believed the same concerning him. Eusebius,
speaking of him, says:
"He presumed to represent the person of Christ; he proclaimed
himself to be the Comforter and the Holy Ghost, and being
puffed up with this frantic pride, chose, as if he were
Christ, _twelve_ partners of his new-found doctrine, patching
into one heap false and detestable doctrines of old, rotten,
and rooted out heresies, _the which he brought out of
Persia_."[429:2]
The word Manes, says Usher in his Annals, has the meaning of Paraclete
or Comforter or Saviour. This at once lets us into the secret--a new
incarnation, an Angel-Messiah, a Christ--born from the side of his
mother, and put to a violent death--flayed alive, and hung up, or
crucified, by a king of Persia.[429:3] This is the teacher with his
twelve apostles on the rock of Gualior.
Du Perron, in his life of Zoroaster, gives an account of certain
prophecies to be found in the sacred books of the _Persians_. One of
these is to the effect that, at successive periods of time, there will
appear on earth certain "Sons of Zoroaster," who are to be the result
of _immaculate conceptions_. These virgin-born gods will come upon earth
for the purpose of establishing the law of God. It is also asserted that
Zoroaster, when on earth, declared that in the "latter days" a pure
virgin would conceive, and bear a son, and that as soon as the child was
born a _star_ would appear, blazing even at noonday, with undiminished
splendor. This Christ is to be called _Sosiosh_. He will redeem mankind,
and subdue the Devs, who have been tempting and leading men astray ever
since the fall of our first parents.
Among the Greeks the same prophecy was found. The Oracle of Delphi was
the depository, according to Plato, of an ancient and _secret_ prophecy
of the birth of a "Son of Apollo," who was to restore the reign of
justice and virtue on the earth.[430:1]
Those who believed in successive emanations of Æons from the Throne of
Light, pointed to the passage in the Gospels where Jesus is made to say
that he will be succeeded by the Paraclete or Comforter. Mahommed was
believed by many to be this Paraclete, and it is said that he too told
his disciples that _another_ Paraclete would succeed him. From present
appearances, however, there is some reason for believing that the
Mohammedans are to have their ancient prophecy set at naught by the
multiplicity of those who pretend to be divinely appointed to fulfill
it. The present year was designated as the period at which this great
reformer was to arise, who should be almost, if not quite, the equal of
Mahommed. His mission was to be to to purify the religion from its
corruptions; to overthrow those who had usurped its control, and to
rule, as a great spiritual caliph, over the faithful. According to
accepted tradition, the prophet himself designated the line of descent
in which his most important successor would be found, and even indicated
his personal appearance. The time having arrived, it is not strange that
the man is forthcoming, only in this instance there is more than one
claimant. There is a "holy man" in Morocco who has allowed it to be
announced that he is the designated reformer, while cable reports show
that a rival pretender has appeared in Yemen, in southern Arabia, and
his supporters, sword in hand, are now advancing upon Mecca, for the
purpose of proclaiming their leader as caliph within the sacred city
itself.
History then relates to us the indisputable fact that at the time of
Jesus of Nazareth an Angel-Messiah was expected, that many persons
claimed, and were believed to be, _the_ "Expected One," and that the
reason why _Jesus_ was accepted above all others was because the
Essenes--a very numerous sect--believed him to be the true Messiah, and
came over to his followers in a body. It was because there were so many
of these _Christs_ in existence that some follower of Jesus--but no one
knows _who_--wrote as follows:
"If any man shall say to you, Lo, _here is Christ_, or, lo, he
is _there_; believe him not; for _false Christs_ and false
prophets shall rise, _and shall show signs and wonders_ to
seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."[431:1]
The reasons why Jesus was not accepted as the Messiah by the _majority_
of the Jews was because the majority expected a daring and irresistible
warrior and conqueror, who, armed with greater power than Cæsar, was to
come upon earth to rend the fetters in which their hapless nation had so
long groaned, to avenge them upon their haughty oppressors, and to
re-establish the kingdom of Judah; and this Jesus--although he evidently
claimed to be the Messiah--did not do.
Tacitus, the Roman historian, says:
"The generality had a strong persuasion that it was contained
in the ancient writings of the priests, that at that very time
the east should prevail: and that some one, who should come
out of Judea, _should obtain the empire of the world_; which
ambiguities foretold Vespasian and Titus. But the common
people (of the Jews), according to the influence of human
wishes, appropriated to themselves, by their interpretation,
this vast grandeur foretold by the fates, nor could be brought
to change their opinion for the true, by all their
adversities."
Suetonius, another Roman historian, says:
"There had been for a long time all over the east a constant
persuasion that it was recorded in the fates (books of the
fates, or foretellings), that at that time some one who should
come out of Judea _should obtain universal dominion_. It
appears by the event, that this prediction referred to the
Roman emperor; but the Jews, referring it to themselves,
rebelled."
This is corroborated by Josephus, the Jewish historian, who says:
"That which, chiefly excited them (the Jews) to war, was an
_ambiguous prophecy_, which was also found in the sacred
books, that at that time some one, within their country,
should arise, that should obtain _the empire of the whole
world_. For this they had received by tradition, that it was
spoken of one of their nation; and many wise men were deceived
with the interpretation. But, in truth, Vespasian's empire was
designed in this prophecy, who was created emperor (of Rome)
_in Judea_."
As the Rev. Dr. Geikie remarks, the central and dominant characteristic
of the teaching of the rabbis, was the certain advent of a great
national _Deliverer_--the Messiah--but not a God from heaven.
For a time _Cyrus_ appeared to realize the promised Deliverer, or, at
least, to be the chosen instrument to prepare the way for him, and, in
his turn, _Zerubabel_ became the centre of Messianic hopes. In fact, the
national mind had become so inflammable, by constant brooding on this
one theme, that any bold spirit, rising in revolt against the Roman
power, could find an army of fierce disciples who trusted that it should
be he who would redeem Israel.[432:1]
The "_taxing_" which took place under Cyrenius, Governor of Syria (A. D.
7), excited the wildest uproar against the Roman power. The Hebrew
spirit was stung into exasperation; the puritans of the nation, the
enthusiasts, fanatics, the zealots of the law, the literal
constructionists of prophecy, appealed to the national temper, revived
the national faith, and fanned into flame the combustible elements that
smoldered in the bosom of the race. The Messianic hope was strong in
these people; all the stronger on account of their political
degradation. Born in sorrow, the anticipation grew keen in bitter hours.
That Jehovah would abandon them could not be believed. The thought would
be atheism. The hope kept the eastern Jews in a perpetual state of
insurrection. The cry "Lo here, lo there!" was incessant. Claimant after
claimant of the dangerous supremacy of the _Messiah_ appeared, pitched a
camp in the wilderness, raised the banner, gathered a force, was
attacked, defeated, banished, or crucified; but the frenzy did not
abate.
The last insurrection among the Jews, that of Bar-Cochba--"Son of the
Star"--revealed an astonishing frenzy of zeal. It was purely a
_Messianic_ uprising. Judaism had excited the fears of the Emperor
Hadrian, and induced him to inflict unusual severities on the people.
The effect of the violence was to stimulate that conviction to fury. The
night of their despair was once more illumined by the star of the east.
The banner of the Messiah was raised. Potents, as of old, were seen in
the sky; the clouds were watched for the glory that should appear.
_Bar-Cochba_ seemed to fill out the popular idea of the deliverer.
Miracles were ascribed to him; flames issued from his mouth. The vulgar
imagination made haste to transform the audacious fanatic into a child
of David. Multitudes flocked to his standard. The whole Jewish race
throughout the world was in commotion. The insurrection gained head. The
heights about Jerusalem were seized and occupied, and fortifications
were erected; nothing but the "host of angels" was needed to insure
victory. The angels did not appear; the Roman legions did. The
"Messiah," not proving himself a conqueror, was held to have proved
himself an impostor, the "son of a lie."[433:1]
The impetuous zeal with which the Jews rushed to the standard of this
Messianic impostor, in the 130th year of the Christian era, demonstrates
the true Jewish character, and shows how readily any one who made the
claim, was believed to be "He who should come." Even the celebrated
Rabbi Akiba sanctioned this daring fraud. Akiba declared that the
so-called prophecy of Balaam,--"_a star shall rise out of Jacob_,"--was
accomplished. Hence the impostor took his title of _Bar-Cochabas_, or
_Son of the Star_; and Akiba not only publicly anointed him "KING OF THE
JEWS," and placed an imperial diadem upon his head, but followed him to
the field at the head of four-and-twenty thousand of his disciples, and
acted in the capacity of master of his horse.
Those who believed on the meek and benevolent Jesus--and whose number
was very small--were of that class who believed in the doctrine of the
_Angel-Messiah_,[433:2] first heard of among them when taken captives to
Babylon. These believed that just as Buddha appeared at different
intervals, and as Vishnu appeared at different intervals, the avatars
appeared among the Jews. Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, and Elijah or Elias,
might in outward appearance be different men, but they were really the
self-same divine person successively animating various human
bodies.[433:3] Christ _Jesus_ was the _avatar_ of the ninth age, Christ
_Cyrus_ was the _avatar_ of the eighth. Of the hero of the eighth age it
is said: "Thus said the Lord to his Anointed (_i. e._, his _Christ_),
his Messiah, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue
nations."[434:1] The eighth period began about the Babylonish captivity,
about six hundred years before Christ _Jesus_. The ninth began with
Christ Jesus, making in all eight cycles before Jesus.
"What was known in Judea more than a century before the birth of Jesus
Christ cannot have been introduced among Buddhists by Christian
missionaries. It will become equally certain that the bishop and
church-historian, Eusebius, was right when he wrote, that he considered
it highly probable that the writings of the Essenic Therapeuts in Egypt
had been incorporated into our Gospels, and into some Pauline
epistles."[434:2]
For further information on the subject of the connection between
Essenism and Christianity, the reader is referred to Taylor's Diegesis,
Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, and the works of S. F. Dunlap. We shall now
speak of another powerful lever which was brought to bear upon the
promulgation of Christianity; namely, that of FRAUD.
It was a common thing among the early Christian Fathers and saints to
lie and deceive, if their lies and deceits helped the cause of their
Christ. Lactantius, an eminent Christian author who flourished in the
fourth century, has well said:
"Among those who seek power and gain from their religion,
there will never be wanting an inclination to forge and lie
for it."[434:3]
Gregory of Nazianzus, writing to St. Jerome, says:
"A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose on the
people. The less they comprehend, the more they admire. Our
forefathers and doctors have often said, not what they
thought, but what circumstances and necessity
dictated."[434:4]
The celebrated _Eusebius_, Bishop of CÆSAREA, and friend of Constantine
the Great, who is our chief guide for the early history of the Church,
_confesses that he was by no means scrupulous to record the whole truth
concerning the early Christians in the various works which he has left
behind him_.[434:5] Edward Gibbon, speaking of him, says:
"The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius
himself, indirectly confesses that he has related what might
redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that
could tend to the disgrace of religion. Such an acknowledgment
will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so
openly violated one of the fundamental laws of history, has
not paid a very strict regard to the observance of the other;
and the suspicion will derive additional credit from the
character of Eusebius, which was less tinctured with
credulity, and more practiced in the arts of courts, than that
of almost any of his contemporaries."[435:1]
The great theologian, Beausobre, in his "Histoire de Manichee," says:
"We see in the history which I have related, a sort of
hypocrisy, that has been perhaps, but too common at all times;
that churchmen not only do not say what they think, but they
do say the direct contrary of what they think. Philosophers in
their cabinets; out of them they are content with fables,
though they well know they are fables. Nay, more; they deliver
honest men to the executioner, for having uttered what they
themselves know to be true. How many atheists and pagans have
burned holy men under the pretext of heresy? Every day do
hypocrites consecrate, and make people adore the host, though
as well convinced as I am, that it is nothing but a bit of
bread."[435:2]
M. Daille says:
"This opinion has always been in the world, that to settle a
certain and assured estimation upon that which is good and
true, it is necessary to remove out of the way, whatsoever may
be an hinderance to it. _Neither ought we to wonder that even
those of the honest, innocent, primitive times made use of
these deceits, seeing for a good end they made no scruple to
forge whole books._"[435:3]
Reeves, in his "Apologies of the Fathers," says:
"It was a Catholic opinion among the philosophers, that pious
frauds were good things, and that the people ought to be
imposed on in matters of religion."[435:4]
Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, says:
"It was held as a maxim that it was not only lawful but
praiseworthy to _deceive_, and even to use the expedient of a
_lie_, in order to advance the cause of truth and
piety."[435:5]
Isaac de Casaubon, the great ecclesiastical scholar, says:
"It mightily affects me, to see how many there were in the
earliest times of the church, who considered it as a capital
exploit, to lend to heavenly truth the help of their own
inventions, in order that the new doctrine might be more
readily allowed by the wise among the Gentiles. _These
officious lies, they were wont to say, were devised for a good
end._"[435:6]
The Apostolic Father, Hermas, who was the fellow-laborer of St. Paul in
the work of the ministry; who is greeted as such in the New Testament;
and whose writings are expressly quoted as of divine inspiration, by the
early Fathers, ingenuously confesses that lying was the easily-besetting
sin of a Christian. His words are:
"O Lord, I never spake a true word in my life, but I have
always lived in dissimulation, and affirmed a lie for truth to
all men, and no man contradicted me, but all gave credit to my
words."
To which the holy angel, whom he addresses, condescendingly admonishes
him, that as the lie was up, now, he had better keep it up, and as in
time it would come to be believed, it would answer as well as
truth.[436:1]
Dr. Mosheim admits, that the Platonists and Pythagoreans held it as a
maxim, that it was not only lawful, but praiseworthy, to deceive, and
even to use the expedient of a lie, in order to advance the cause of
truth and piety. The Jews who lived in Egypt, had learned and received
this maxim from them, before the coming of Christ Jesus, as appears
incontestably from a multitude of ancient records, _and the Christians
were infected from both these sources, with the same pernicious
error_.[436:2]
Of the fifteen letters ascribed to Ignatius (Bishop of Antioch after 69
A. D.), _eight have been rejected by Christian writers as being
forgeries_, having no authority whatever. "_The remaining seven_
epistles were accounted genuine by most critics, although disputed by
some, previous to the discoveries of Mr. Cureton, _which have shaken,
and indeed almost wholly destroyed the credit and authenticity of all
alike_."[436:3]
Paul of Tarsus, who was preaching a doctrine which had already been
preached to every nation on earth,[436:4] inculcates and avows the
principle of deceiving the common people, talks of his having been
upbraided by his own converts with being crafty and catching them with
guile,[436:5] and of his known and willful lies, abounding to the glory
of God.[436:6]
Even the orthodox Doctor Burnet, an eminent English author, in his
treatise "_De Statu Mortuorum_," purposely written in Latin, that it
might serve for the instruction of the clergy only, and not come to the
knowledge of the laity, because, as he said, "_too much light is hurtful
for weak eyes_," not only justified but recommended the practice of the
most consummate hypocrisy, and would have his clergy seriously preach
and maintain the reality and eternity of hell torments, even though they
should believe nothing of the sort themselves.[437:1]
The incredible and very ridiculous stories related by Christian Fathers
and ecclesiastical historians, _on whom we are obliged to rely for
information on the most important of subjects_, show us how
untrustworthy these men were. We have, for instance, the story related
by St. Augustine, who is styled "the greatest of the Latin Fathers," of
his preaching the Gospel to people _without heads_. In his 33d Sermon he
says:
"I was already Bishop of Hippo, when I went into Ethiopia with
some servants of Christ there to preach the Gospel. In this
country we saw many men and women without heads, who had two
great eyes in their breasts; and in countries still more
southly, we saw people who had but one eye in their
foreheads."[437:2]
This same holy Father bears an equally unquestionable testimony to
several resurrections of the dead, of _which he himself had been an
eye-witness_.
In a book written "towards the close of the second century, by some
zealous believer," and fathered upon one Nicodemus, who is said to have
been a disciple of Christ Jesus, we find the following:
"We all know the blessed Simeon, the high priest, who took
Jesus when an infant into his arms in the temple. This same
Simeon had two sons of his own, _and we were all present at
their death and funeral_. Go therefore and see their tombs,
for these are open, and they are risen; and behold, _they are
in the city of Arimathæa, spending their time together in
offices of devotion_."[438:1]
Eusebius, "the Father of ecclesiastical history," Bishop of Cæsarea, and
one of the most prominent personages at the Council of Nice, relates as
truth, the ridiculous story of King Agbarus writing a letter to Christ
Jesus, and of Jesus' answer to the same.[438:2] And Socrates relates how
the Empress Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem
for the purpose of finding, if possible, "the cross of Christ." This she
succeeded in doing, also the nails with which he was nailed to the
cross.[438:3]
Beside forging, lying, and deceiving for the cause of Christ, the
Christian Fathers destroyed all evidence against themselves and their
religion, which they came across. Christian divines seem to have always
been afraid of too much light. In the very infancy of printing, Cardinal
Wolsey foresaw its effect on Christianity, and in a speech to the
clergy, publicly forewarned them, that, _if they did not destroy the
Press, the Press would destroy them_.[438:4] There can be no doubt, that
had the objections of Porphyry,[438:5] Hierocles,[438:6] Celsus,[438:7]
and other opponents of the Christian faith, been permitted to come down
to us, the plagiarism in the Christian Scriptures from previously
existing Pagan documents, is the specific charge they would have
presented us. But these were ordered to be burned, by the prudent piety
of the Christian emperors.
In Alexandria, in Egypt, there was an immense library, founded by the
Ptolemies. This library was situated in the Alexandrian Museum; the
apartments which were allotted for it were beautifully sculptured, and
crowded with the choicest statues and pictures; the building was built
of marble. This library eventually comprised four hundred thousand
volumes. In the course of time, probably on account of inadequate
accommodation for so many books, an additional library was established,
and placed in the temple of Serapis. The number of volumes in this
library, which was called the daughter of that in the museum, was
eventually three hundred thousand. There were, therefore, _seven hundred
thousand volumes in these royal collections_.
In the establishment of the museum, Ptolemy Soter, and his son
Philadelphus, had three objects in view: 1. The perpetuation of such
knowledge as was then in the world; 2. Its increase; 3. Its diffusion.
1. _For the perpetuation of knowledge._ Orders were given to the chief
librarian to buy, at the king's expense, whatever books he could. A body
of transcribers was maintained in the museum, whose duty it was to make
correct copies of such works as their owners were not disposed to sell.
_Any books brought by foreigners into Egypt_ were taken at once to the
museum, and when correct copies had been made, the transcript was given
to the owner, and the original placed in the library. Often a very large
pecuniary indemnity was paid.
2. _For the increase of knowledge._ One of the chief objects of the
museum was that of serving as the home of a body of men who devoted
themselves to study, and were lodged and maintained at the king's
expense. In the original organization of the museum the residents were
divided into four faculties,--Literature, Mathematics, Astronomy, and
Medicine. An officer of very great distinction presided over the
establishment, and had general charge of its interests. Demetius
Phalareus, perhaps the most learned man of his age, who had been
Governor of Athens for many years, was the first so appointed. Under him
was the librarian, an office sometimes held by men whose names have
descended to our times, as Eratosthenes and Apollonius Rhodius. In
connection with the museum was a botanical and a zoological garden.
These gardens, as their names imply, were for the purpose of
facilitating the study of plants and animals. There was also an
astronomical observatory, containing armillary spheres, globes,
solstitial and equatorial armils, astrolabes, parallactic rules, and
other apparatus then in use, the graduation on the divided instruments
being into degrees and sixths.
3. _For the diffusion of knowledge._ In the museum was given, by
lectures, conversation, or other appropriate methods, instruction in all
the various departments of human knowledge.
_There flocked to this great intellectual centre, students from all
countries._ It is said that at one time not fewer than fourteen thousand
were in attendance. Subsequently even the Christian church received from
it some of the most eminent of its Fathers, as Clemens Alexandrinus,
Origen, Athanasius, &c.
The library in the museum was burned during the siege of Alexandria by
Julius Cæsar. To make amends for this great loss, the library collected
by Eumenes, King of Pergamus, was presented by Mark Antony to Queen
Cleopatra. Originally it was founded as a rival to that of the
Ptolemies. It was added to the collection in the Serapion, or the temple
of Serapis.[440:1]
It was not destined, however, to remain there many centuries, as this
very valuable library was willfully destroyed by the Christian
Theophilus, and on the spot where this beautiful temple of Serapis
stood, in fact, on its very foundation, was erected a church in honor of
the "noble army of martyrs," who had never existed.
This we learn from the historian Gibbon, who says that, after this
library was destroyed, "the appearance of the empty shelves excited the
regret and indignation of every spectator, whose mind was not totally
darkened by religious prejudice."[440:2]
The destruction of this library was almost the death-blow to
free-thought--wherever Christianity ruled--for more than a thousand
years.
The death-blow was soon to be struck, however, which was done by _Saint
Cyril_, who succeeded _Theophilus_ as Bishop of Alexandria.
_Hypatia_, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, endeavored to
continue the old-time instructions. Each day before her academy stood a
long train of chariots; her lecture-room was crowded with the wealth and
fashion of _Alexandria_. They came to listen to her discourses on those
questions which man in all ages has asked, but which have never yet been
answered: "What am I? Where am I? What can I know?"
Hypatia and Cyril; philosophy and bigotry; they cannot exist together.
As Hypatia repaired to her academy, she was assaulted by (Saint) Cyril's
mob--_a mob of many monks_. Stripped naked in the street, she was
dragged into a _church_, and there killed _by the club of Peter the
Reader_. The corpse was cut to pieces, the flesh was scraped from the
bones with shells, and the remnants cast into a fire. _For this
frightful crime Cyril was never called to account. It seemed to be
admitted that the end sanctified the means. So ended Greek philosophy in
Alexandria_, so came to an untimely close the learning that the
Ptolemies had done so much to promote.
The fate of Hypatia was a warning to all who would cultivate profane
knowledge. _Henceforth there was to be no freedom for human thought.
Every one must think as ecclesiastical authority ordered him_; A. D.
414. In Athens itself philosophy awaited its doom. Justinian at length
prohibited its teaching and caused all its schools in that city to be
closed.[441:1]
After this followed the long and dreary _dark ages_, but the _sun of
science_, that bright and glorious luminary, was destined to rise again.
The history of this great Alexandrian library is one of the keys which
unlock the door, and exposes to our view the manner in which the Hindoo
incarnate god _Crishna_, and the meek and benevolent _Buddha_, came to
be worshiped under the name of _Christ Jesus_. For instance, we have
just seen:
1. That, "orders were given to the chief librarian to buy at the king's
expense _whatever books he could_."
2. That, "one of the chief objects of the museum was that of serving as
the home of a _body of men_ who devoted themselves to study."
3. That, "any books brought by foreigners into Egypt were taken at once
to the museum and correct copies made."
4. That, "there flocked to this great intellectual centre students from
all countries."
5. That, "the Christian church received from it some of the most eminent
of its Fathers."
And also:
6. That, the chief doctrines of the Gnostic Christians "had been held
for centuries before their time in many of the cities in Asia Minor.
There, it is probable, they first came into existence as 'Mystæ,' _upon
the establishment of a direct intercourse with India_ under the
Seleucidæ and the Ptolemies."
7. That, "the College of ESSENES at Ephesus, the Orphics of Thrace, the
Curetes of Crete, _are all merely branches of one_ antique and common
religion, _and that originally Asiatic_."
8. That, "_the introduction of Buddhism into Egypt and Palestine
affords the only true solution of innumerable difficulties in the
history of religion_."
9. That, "_Buddhism_ had actually been planted in the dominions of the
Seleucidæ and Ptolemies (Palestine belonging to the former) _before the
beginning of the third century_ B. C. and is proved to demonstration by
a passage in the edicts of Asoka."
10. That, "it is very likely that the commentaries (Scriptures) which
were among them (the _Essenes_) were the Gospels."
11. That, "the principal doctrines and rites of the _Essenes_ can be
connected with the East, with Parsism, and especially with _Buddhism_."
12. That, "among the doctrines which the _Essenes_ and _Buddhists_ had
in common was that of the _Angel-Messiah_."
13. That, "they (the _Essenes_) had a flourishing university or
corporate body, established at _Alexandria, in Egypt_, long before the
period assigned for the birth of Christ."
14. That, "the _very ancient_ and Eastern doctrine of the
_Angel-Messiah_ had been applied to Gautama Buddha, _and so it was
applied to Jesus Christ by the Essenes of Egypt and Palestine_, who
introduced this new Messianic doctrine into Essenic Judaism and Essenic
Christianity."
15. That, "we hear very little of them (the _Essenes_) after A. D. 40;
and there can hardly be any doubt that the _Essenes_ as a body must have
embraced Christianity."
Here is the solution of the problem. The sacred books of Hindoos and
Buddhists were among the _Essenes_, and in the library at Alexandria.
The _Essenes_, who were afterwards called _Christians_, applied the
legend of the _Angel-Messiah_--"the very ancient Eastern doctrine,"
which we have shown throughout this work--to Christ Jesus. It was simply
a transformation of names, _a transformation which had previously
occurred in many cases_.[442:1] After this came _additions_ to the
legend from other sources. Portions of the legends related of the
Persian, Greek and Roman Saviours and Redeemers of mankind, were, from
time to time, added to the already legendary history of the Christian
Saviour. Thus history was repeating itself. Thus the virgin-born God
and Saviour, worshiped by all nations of the earth, though called by
different names, was but one and the same.
In a subsequent chapter we shall see _who_ this One God was, and _how_
the myth originated.
Albert Revillé says:
"_Alexandria_, the home of Philonism, and Neo-Platonism (and
we might add _Essenism_), was naturally the centre _whence
spread the dogma of the deity of Jesus Christ_. In that city,
through the third century, flourished a school of
transcendental theology, afterwards looked upon with suspicion
by the conservators of ecclesiastical doctrine, but not the
less the real cradle of orthodoxy. It was still the Platonic
tendency which influenced the speculations of Clement, Origen
and Dionysius, and the theory of the Logos was at the
foundation of their theology."[443:1]
Among the numerous gospels in circulation among the Christians of the
first three centuries, there was one entitled "The Gospel of the
_Egyptians_." Epiphanius (A. D. 385), speaking of it, says:
"Many things are proposed (in this Gospel of the Egyptians) in
a hidden, _mysterious manner_, as by our Saviour, as though he
had said to his disciples, that the Father was the same
person, the Son the same person, and the Holy Ghost the same
person."
That this was one of the "_Scriptures_" of the Essenes, becomes very
evident when we find it admitted by the most learned of Christian
theologians that it was in existence "_before either of the canonical
Gospels_," and that it contained the doctrine of the _Trinity_, a
doctrine not established in the Christian church until A. D. 327, but
which was taught by this Buddhist sect in Alexandria, in Egypt, which
has been well called, "Egypt, the land of Trinities."
The learned Dr. Grabe thought it was composed by _some Christians in
Egypt_, and that it was published _before either of the canonical
Gospels_. Dr. Mill also believed that it was composed _before either of
the canonical Gospels_, and, what is more important than all, _that the
authors of it were Essenes_.
_These "Scriptures" of the Essenes were undoubtedly amalgamated with the
"Gospels" of the Christians, the result being the canonical Gospels as
we now have them._ The "Gospel of the Hebrews," and such like, on the
one hand, and the "Gospel of the Egyptians," or Essenes, and such like,
on the other. That the "Gospel of the Hebrews" spoke of Jesus of
Nazareth as the son of Joseph and Mary, _according to the flesh_, and
that it taught _nothing_ about his miracles, his resurrection from the
dead, and other such prodigies, is admitted on all hands. That the
"Scriptures" of the Essenes contained the whole legend of the
Angel-Messiah, which was afterwards added to the history of Jesus,
_making him a_ CHRIST, _or an Anointed Angel_, is a probability almost
to a certainty. Do we now understand how all the traditions and legends,
originally _Indian_, escaping from the great focus through _Egypt_, were
able to reach Judea, Greece and Rome?
To continue with our subject, "why Christianity prospered," we must now
speak of another great support to the cause, _i. e._, _Persecution_.
Ernest de Bunsen, speaking of Buddha, says:
"His religion has never been propagated by the sword. It has
been effected entirely by the influence of peaceable and
persevering devotees."
Can we say as much for what is termed "the religion of Christ?" No! this
religion has had the aid of the sword and firebrand, the rack and the
thumb-screw. "_Persecution_," is to be seen written on the pages of
ecclesiastical history, from the time of Constantine even to the present
day.[444:1] This Christian emperor and saint was the first to check
free-thought.
"We search in vain," (says M. Renan), "in the collection of
Roman laws _before Constantine_, for any enactment aimed at
free thought, or in the history of the emperors, for a
persecution of abstract doctrine. Not a single _savant_ was
disturbed. Men whom the Middle Ages would have burned--such as
Galen, Lucian, Plotinus--lived in peace, protected by the
law."[444:2]
Born and educated a pagan, Constantine embraced the Christian faith from
the following motives. Having committed horrid crimes, in fact, having
committed murders,[444:3] and,
"When he would have had his (Pagan) priests purge him by
sacrifice, of these horrible murders, and could not have his
purpose (for they answered plainly, it lay not in their power
to cleanse him)[444:4] he lighted at last upon an _Egyptian_
who came out of Iberia, and being persuaded by him that the
Christian faith was of force to wipe away every sin, were it
ever so heinous, he embraced willingly at whatever the
Egyptian told him."[444:5]
Mons. Dupuis, speaking of this conversion, says:
"Constantine, soiled with all sorts of crimes, and stained
with the blood of his wife, after repeated perjuries and
assassinations, presented himself before the heathen priests
in order to be absolved of so many outrages he had committed.
He was answered, that amongst the various kinds of expiations,
there was none which could expiate so many crimes, and that no
religion whatever could offer efficient protection against the
justice of the gods; and Constantine was emperor. One of the
courtiers of the palace, who witnessed the trouble and
agitation of his mind, torn by remorse, which nothing could
appease, informed him, that the evil he was suffering was not
without a remedy; that there existed in the religion of the
Christians certain purifications, which expiated every kind of
misdeeds, of whatever nature, and in whatsoever number they
were: that one of the promises of the religion was, that
whoever was converted to it, as impious and as great a villain
as he might be, could hope that his crimes were immediately
forgotten.[445:1] From that moment, Constantine declared
himself the protector of a sect which treats great criminals
with so much lenity.[445:2] He was a great villain, who tried
to lull himself with illusions to smother his remorse."[445:3]
By the delay of baptism, a person who had accepted the _true_ faith
could venture freely to indulge their passions in the enjoyment of this
world, while they still retained in their own hands the means of
salvation; therefore, we find that Constantine, although he accepted the
faith, did not get baptized until he was on his death-bed, as he wished
to continue, as long as possible, the wicked life he was leading. Mr.
Gibbon, speaking of him, says:
"The example and reputation of Constantine seemed to
countenance the delay of baptism. Future tyrants were
encouraged to believe, that the innocent blood which they
might shed in a long reign would instantly be washed away in
the waters of regeneration; and the abuse of religion
dangerously undermined the foundations of moral
virtue."[445:4]
Eusebius, in his "Life of Constantine," tells us that:
"_When he thought that he was near his death_, he confessed
his sins, desiring pardon for them of God, and was baptized.
"Before doing so, he assembled the bishops of Nicomedia
together, and spake thus unto them:
"'Brethren, the salvation which I have earnestly desired of
God these many years, I do now this day expect. It is time
therefore that we should be sealed and signed with the badge
of immortality. And though I proposed to receive it in the
river Jordan, in which our Saviour for our example was
baptized, yet God, knowing what is fittest for me, hath
appointed that I shall receive it in this place, _therefore
let me not be delayed_.'"
"And so, after the service of baptism was read, they baptized
him with all the ceremonies belonging to this mysterious
sacrament. So that Constantine was the first of all the
emperors who was regenerated by the new birth of baptism, and
that was signed with the sign of the cross."[446:1]
When Constantine had heard the good news from the Christian monk from
Egypt, he commenced by conferring many dignities on the Christians, and
those only who were addicted to Christianity, he made governors of his
provinces, &c.[446:2] He then issued edicts against heretics,--_i. e._,
those who, like Arius, did not believe that Christ was "_of one
substance with the Father_," and others--calling them "enemies of truth
and eternal life," "authors and councillors of death," &c.[446:3] He
"_commanded by law_" that none should dare "to meet at conventicles,"
and that "all places where they were wont to keep their meetings should
be _demolished_," or "confiscated to the Catholic church;"[446:4] _and
Constantine was emperor_. "By this means," says Eusebius, "_such as
maintained doctrines and opinions contrary to the church, were
suppressed._"[446:5]
This Constantine, says Eusebius:
"Caused his image to be engraven on his gold coins, in the
form of prayer, with his hands joined together, and looking up
towards Heaven." "And over divers gates of his palace, he was
drawn praying, and lifting up his hands and eyes to
heaven."[446:6]
After his death, "effigies of this blessed man" were engraved on the
Roman coins, "sitting in and driving a chariot, and a hand reached down
from heaven to receive and take him up."[446:7]
The hopes of wealth and honors, the example of an emperor, his
exhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among the
venal and obsequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of a
palace, and as the lower ranks of society are governed by example, the
conversion of those who possessed any eminence of birth, of power, or of
riches, _was soon followed by dependent multitudes_. Constantine passed
a law which gave freedom to all the slaves who should embrace
Christianity, and to those who were not slaves, he gave a white garment
and twenty pieces of gold, upon their embracing the Christian faith. The
common people were thus _purchased_ at such an easy rate that, in one
year, _twelve thousand men were baptised at Rome_, besides a
proportionable number of women and children.[447:1]
To suppress the opinions of philosophers, which were contrary to
Christianity, the Christian emperors published edicts. The respective
decrees of the emperors Constantine and Theodosius,[447:2] generally ran
in the words, "that all writings adverse to the claims of the Christian
religion, in the possession of whomsoever they should be found, should
be committed to the fire," as the pious emperors would not that those
things tending to provoke God to wrath, should be allowed to offend the
minds of the piously disposed.
The following is a decree of the Emperor Theodosius of this purport:
"We decree, therefore, that all writings, whatever, which
Porphyry or anyone else hath written against the Christian
religion, in the possession of whomsoever they shall be found
should be committed to the fire; for we would not suffer any
of those things so much as to come to men's ears, which tend
to provoke God to wrath and offend the minds of the
_pious_."[447:3]
A similar decree of the emperor for establishing the doctrine of the
Trinity, concludes with an admonition to all who shall object to it,
that,
"Besides the condemnation of divine justice, they must expect
to suffer the severe penalties, which _our_ authority, guided
by heavenly wisdom, may think proper to inflict upon
them."[447:4]
This orthodox emperor (Theodosius) considered every heretic (as he
called those who did not believe as he and his ecclesiastics
_professed_) a rebel against the supreme powers of heaven and of earth
(he being one of the supreme powers of earth), _and each of the powers_
might exercise their peculiar jurisdiction _over the soul and body of
the guilty_.
The decrees of the Council of Constantinople had ascertained the _true_
standard of the faith, _and the ecclesiastics, who governed the
conscience of Theodosius, suggested the most effectual methods of
persecution_. In the space of fifteen years he promulgated at least
fifteen severe edicts against the heretics, _more especially against
those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity_.[448:1]
_Arius_ (the presbyter of whom we have spoken in Chapter XXXV., as
declaring that, in the nature of things, _a father must be older than
his son_) was _excommunicated_ for his so-called _heretical_ notions
concerning the Trinity. His followers, who were very numerous, were
called Arians. Their writings, _if they had been permitted to
exist_,[448:2] would undoubtedly contain the lamentable story of the
persecution which affected the church under the reign of the impious
Emperor _Theodosius_.
In Asia Minor the people were persecuted by orders of Constantius, and
these orders were more than obeyed by Macedonius. The civil and military
powers were ordered to obey his commands; the consequence was, he
disgraced the reign of Constantius. "The rites of baptism were conferred
on women and children, who, for that purpose, had been torn from the
arms of their friends and parents; the mouths of the communicants were
held open by a wooden engine, while the consecrated bread was forced
down their throats; the breasts of tender virgins were either burned
with red-hot egg-shells, or inhumanly compressed between sharp and heavy
boards."[448:3] The principal assistants of Macedonius--the tool of
Constantius--in the work of persecution, were the two bishops of
Nicomedia and Cyzicus, who were esteemed for their virtues, and
especially for their charity.[448:4]
Julian, the successor of Constantius, has described some of the
theological calamities which afflicted the empire, and more especially
in the East, in the reign of a prince who was the slave of his own
passions, and of those of his eunuchs: "Many were imprisoned, and
persecuted, and driven into exile. Whole troops of those who are styled
_heretics_ were massacred, particularly at Cyzicus, and at Samosata. In
Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Gallatia, and in many other provinces, towns and
villages were laid waste, and utterly destroyed."[449:1]
Persecutions in the name of Christ Jesus were inflicted on the heathen
in most every part of the then known world. Even among the Norwegians,
the Christian sword was unsheathed. They clung tenaciously to the
worship of their forefathers, and numbers of them died real martyrs for
their faith, after suffering the most cruel torments from their
persecutors. It was by sheer compulsion that the Norwegians embraced
Christianity. The reign of Olaf Tryggvason, a Christian king of Norway,
was in fact entirely devoted to the propagation of the new faith, by
means the most revolting to humanity. His general practice was to enter
a district at the head of a formidable force, summon a _Thing_,[449:2]
and give the people the alternative of fighting with him, or of being
baptized. Most of them, of course, preferred baptism to the risk of a
battle with an adversary so well prepared for combat; and the recusants
were tortured to death with fiend-like ferocity, and their estates
confiscated.[449:3]
These are some of the reasons "why Christianity prospered."
* * * * *
NOTE.--The learned Christian historian Pagi endeavors to smoothe over
the crimes of Constantine. He says: "As for those few murders (which
Eusebius says nothing about), had he thought it worth his while to refer
to them, he would perhaps, with Baronius himself have said, that the
young Licinius (his infant nephew), although the fact might not
generally have been known, had most likely been an accomplice in the
treason of his father. That as to the murder of his son, the Emperor is
rather to be considered as unfortunate than as criminal. And with
respect to his putting his wife to death, he ought to be pronounced
rather a just and righteous judge. As for his numerous friends, whom
Eutropius informs us he put to death one after another, we are bound to
believe that most of them deserved it, and they were found out to have
abused the Emperor's too great credulity, for the gratification of their
own inordinate wickedness, and insatiable avarice; and such no doubt was
that SOPATER the philosopher, who was at last put to death upon the
accusation of Adlabius, and that by the righteous dispensation of God,
for his having attempted to alienate the mind of Constantine from the
true religion." (_Pagi Ann._ 324, quoted in Latin by Dr. Lardner, vol.
iv. p. 371, in his notes for the benefit of the _learned_ reader, but
gives no rendering into English.)
FOOTNOTES:
[419:1] "Numerous bodies of ascetics (Therapeutæ), especially near Lake
Mareotis, devoted themselves to discipline and study, abjuring society
and labor, and often forgetting, it is said, the simplest wants of
nature, in contemplating the hidden wisdom of the _Scriptures_. Eusebius
even claimed them as _Christians_; and some of the forms of monasticism
were evidently modeled after the _Therapeutæ_." (Smith's Bible
Dictionary, art. "_Alexandria_.")
[420:1] Comp. Matt. vi. 33; Luke, xii. 31.
[420:2] Comp. Matt. vi. 19-21.
[420:3] Comp. Matt. xix. 21; Luke, xii. 33.
[420:4] Comp. Acts, ii. 44, 45; iv. 32-34; John, xii. 6; xiii. 29.
[420:5] Comp. Matt. xx. 25-28; Mark, ix. 35-37; x. 42-45.
[420:6] Comp. Matt. xxiii. 8-10.
[420:7] Comp. Matt. v. 5; xi. 29.
[420:8] Comp. Mark, xvi. 17; Matt. x. 8; Luke, ix. 1, 2; x. 9.
[420:9] Comp. Matt. v. 34.
[420:10] Comp. Matt. x. 9, 10.
[421:1] Comp. Luke, xxii. 36.
[421:2] Comp. Matt. xix. 10-12; I. Cor. viii.
[421:3] Comp. Rom. xii. 1.
[421:4] Comp. I. Cor. xiv. 1, 39.
[421:5] The above comparisons have been taken from Ginsburg's "Essenes,"
to which the reader is referred for a more lengthy observation on the
subject.
[421:6] Ginsburg's Essenes, p. 24.
[421:7] "We hear very little of them after A. D. 40; and there can
hardly be any doubt that, owing to the great similarity existing between
their precepts and practices and those of primitive Christians, the
Essenes _as a body_ must have embraced Christianity." (Dr. Ginsburg, p.
27.)
[422:1] This will be alluded to in another chapter.
[422:2] It was believed by some that the order of _Essenes_ was
instituted by Elias, and some writers asserted that there was a regular
succession of hermits upon Mount Carmel from the time of the prophets to
that of Christ, and that the hermits embraced Christianity at an early
period. (See Ginsburgh's Essenes, and Hardy's Eastern Monachism, p.
358.)
[422:3] King's Gnostics and their Remains, p. 1.
[422:4] Ibid. p. 6.
[422:5] King's Gnostics, p. 23.
[422:6] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch. xvii.
[423:1] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch. xvii.
[423:2] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. vii. "The New Testament is the
Essene-Nazarene Glad Tidings! Adon, Adoni, Adonis, style of worship."
(S. F. Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. iii.)
[423:3] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 747; vol. ii. p. 34.
[423:4] "In this," says Mr. Lillie, "he was supported by philosophers of
the calibre of Schilling and Schopenhauer, and the great Sanscrit
authority, Lassen. Renan also sees traces of this Buddhist propagandism
in Palestine before the Christian era. Hilgenfeld, Mutter, Bohlen, King,
all admit the Buddhist influence. Colebrooke saw a striking similarity
between the Buddhist philosophy and that of the Pythagoreans. Dean
Milman was convinced that the Therapeuts sprung from the 'contemplative
and indolent fraternities' of India." And, he might have added, the Rev.
Robert Taylor in his "_Diegesis_," and Godfrey Higgins in his
"Anacalypsis," have brought strong arguments to bear in support of this
theory.
[424:1] Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. vi.
[424:2] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 121.
[424:3] Ibid. p. 240.
[425:1] "The Essenes abounded in Egypt, especially about Alexandria."
(Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch. xvii.)
[425:2] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 255.
[426:1] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 179.
[426:2] This is clearly shown by Mr. Higgins in his Anacalypsis. It
should be remembered that Gautama Buddha, the "Angel-Messiah," and
Cyrus, the "Anointed" of the Lord, are placed about six hundred years
before Jesus, the "Anointed." This cycle of six hundred years was called
the "_great year_." Josephus, the Jewish historian, alludes to it when
speaking of the patriarchs that lived to a great age. "God afforded them
a longer time of life," says he, "on account of their virtue, and the
good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical discoveries,
which would not have afforded the time for foretelling (the periods of
the stars), unless they had lived _six hundred years_; for the _great
year_ is completed in that interval." (Josephus, Antiq., bk. i. c. iii.)
"From this cycle of _six hundred_," says Col. Vallancey, "came the name
of the bird Phœnix, called by the Egyptians Phenu, with the well-known
story of its going to Egypt to burn itself on the altar of the Sun (at
Heliopolis) and rise again from its ashes, at the end of a certain
period."
[426:3] "Philo's writings prove the probability, almost rising to a
certainty, that already in his time the Essenes did expect an
Angel-Messiah as one of a series of divine incarnations. Within about
fifty years after Philo's death, Elkesai the Essene probably applied
this doctrine to Jesus, and it was promulgated in Rome about the same
time, if not earlier, by the Pseudo-Clementines." (Bunsen: The
Angel-Messiah, p. 118.)
"There was, at this time (_i. e._, at the time of the birth of Jesus), a
prevalent expectation that some remarkable personage was about to appear
in Judea. The Jews were anxiously looking for the coming of the
_Messiah_. By computing the time mentioned by Daniel (ch. ix. 23-27),
they knew that the period was approaching when the Messiah should
appear. This personage, _they supposed_, would be a temporal prince, and
they were expecting that he would deliver them from Roman bondage. _It
was natural that this expectation should spread into other countries._"
(Barnes' Notes, vol. i. p. 27.)
[427:1] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 273.
[427:2] See Lardner's Works, vol. viii. p. 353.
[427:3] Apol. 1, ch. xxvi.
[428:1] See Lardner's Works, vol. viii. p. 593.
[428:2] Socrates: Eccl. Hist., lib. i. ch. xvii.
[429:1] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 3, ch. xxiii.
[429:2] Ibid. lib. 7, ch. xxx.
[429:3] The death of Manes, according to Socrates, was as follows: The
King of Persia, hearing that he was in Mesopotamia, "made him to be
apprehended, flayed him alive, took his skin, filled it full of chaff,
and hanged it at the gates of the city." (Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. xv.)
[430:1] Plato in Apolog. Anac., ii. p. 189.
[431:1] Mark, xiii. 21, 22.
[432:1] Geikie: Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 79.
[433:1] Frothingham's Cradle of the Christ.
[433:2] "The prevailing opinion of the Rabbis and the people alike, in
Christ's day, was, that the Messiah would be simply a great prince, who
should found a kingdom of matchless splendor." "With a few, however, the
conception of the Messiah's kingdom was pure and lofty. . . . Daniel,
and all who wrote after him, painted the 'Expected One' as a _heavenly
being_. He was the 'messenger,' the 'Elect of God,' appointed from
eternity, to appear in due time, and _redeem_ his people." (Geikie's
Life of Christ, vol. i. pp. 80, 81.)
In the book of _Daniel_, by some supposed to have been written during
the captivity, by others as late as Antiochus Epiphanes (B. C. 75), the
restoration of the Jews is described in tremendous language, and the
Messiah is portrayed as a supernatural personage, in close relation with
Jehovah himself. In the book of Enoch, supposed to have been written at
various intervals between 144 and 120 (B. C.) and to have been completed
in its present form in the first half of the second century that
preceded the advent of Jesus, the figure of the Messiah is invested with
superhuman attributes. He is called "The Son of God," "whose name was
spoken before the Sun was made;" "who existed from the beginning in the
presence of God," that is, was pre-existent. At the same time his human
characteristics are insisted on. He is called "Son of Man," even "Son of
Woman," "The Anointed" or "The Christ," "The Righteous One," &c.
(Frothingham: The Cradle of the Christ, p. 20.)
[433:3] This is clearly seen from the statement made by the Matthew
narrator (xvii. 9-13) that the disciples of Christ Jesus supposed John
the Baptist was Elias.
[434:1] Isaiah, xlv. 1.
[434:2] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 17.
[434:3] Quoted in Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 51.
[434:4] Hieron ad Nep. Quoted Volney's Ruins, p. 177, _note_.
[434:5] See his Eccl. Hist., viii. 21.
[435:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. pp. 79, 80.
[435:2] "On voit dans l'histoire que j'ai rapportée une sorte
d'hypocrisie, qui n'a peut-être été que trop commune dans tous les tems.
C'est que des ecclésiastiques, non-seulement ne disent pas ce qu'ils
pensent, mais disent tout le contraire de ce qu'ils pensent. Philosophes
dans leur cabinet, hors delà, ils content des fables, quoiqu'ils sachent
bien que ce sont des fables. Ils font plus; ils livrent au bourreau des
gens de biens, pour l'avoir dit. Combiens d'athées et de profanes ont
fait brûler de saints personnages, sous prétexte d'hérésie? Tous les
jours des hypocrites, consacrent et font adorer l'hostie, bien qu'ils
soient aussi convaincus que moi, que ce n'est qu'un morceau de pain."
(Tom. 2, p. 568.)
[435:3] On the Use of the Fathers, pp. 36, 37.
[435:4] Quoted in Taylor's Syntagma, p. 170.
[435:5] Mosheim: vol. 1, p. 198.
[435:6] "Postremo illud quoque me vehementer movet, quod videam primis
ecclesiæ temporibus, quam plurimos extitisse, qui facinus palmarium
judicabant, cælestem veritatem, figmentis suis ire adjutum, quo facilius
nova doctrina a gentium sapientibus admitteretur Officiosa hæc mendacia
vocabant bono fine exeogitata." (Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 44, and
Giles' Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 19.)
[436:1] See the Vision of Hermas, b. 2, c. iii.
[436:2] Mosheim, vol. i. p. 197. Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 47.
[436:3] Dr. Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 99.
[436:4] "Continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was
preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made
a minister." (Colossians, i. 23.)
[436:5] "Being crafty, I caught you with guile." (II. Cor. xii. 16.)
[436:6] "For if the truth of God had more abounded _through my lie_ unto
his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner." (Romans, iii. 7.)
[437:1] "Si me tamen audire velis, mallem te pænas has dicere
indefinitas quam infinitas. Sed veniet dies, cum non minus absurda,
habebitur et odiosa hæc opinio quam transubstantiatio hodie." (De Statu
Mort., p. 304. Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 43.)
[437:2] Quoted in Taylor's Syntagma, p. 52.
Among the ancients, there were many stories current of countries, the
inhabitants of which were of peculiar size, form or features. Our
Christian saint evidently believed these tales, and thinking thus,
sought to make others believe them. We find the following examples
related by _Herodotus_: "Aristeas, son of Caystrobius, a native of
Proconesus, says in his epic verses that, inspired by Apollo, he came to
the Issedones; that beyond the Issedones dwell the Arimaspians, _a
people that have only one eye_." (Herodotus, book iv. ch. 13.) "When one
has passed through a considerable extent of the rugged country (of the
Seythians), a people are found living at the foot of lofty mountains,
_who are said to be all bald from their birth_, both men and women
alike, and they are flat-nosed, and have large chins." (Ibid. ch. 23.)
"These bald men say, what to me is incredible, that _men with goat's
feet_ inhabit these mountains; and when one has passed beyond them,
other men are found, _who sleep six months at a time_, but this I do not
at all admit." (Ibid. ch. 24.) In the country westward of Libya, "there
are enormous serpents, and lions, elephants, bears, asps, and asses with
horns, and monsters with dog's heads and without heads, _who have eyes
in their breasts_, at least, as the Libyans say, and wild men and wild
women, and many other wild beasts which are not fabulous." (Ibid. ch.
192.)
[438:1] Nicodemus, Apoc., ch. xii.
[438:2] See Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. xiv.
[438:3] Socrates: Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. xiii.
[438:4] In year 1444, Caxton published the first book ever printed in
England. In 1474, the then Bishop of London, in a convocation of his
clergy, said: "_If we do not destroy this dangerous invention, it will
one day destroy us._" (See Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 4.) The
reader should compare this with Pope Leo X.'s avowal that, "_it is well
known how profitable this fable of Christ has been to us_;" and
Archdeacon Paley's declaration that "_he could ill afford to have a
conscience_."
[438:5] _Porphyry_, who flourished about the year 270 A. D., a man of
great abilities, published a large work of fifteen books against the
Christians. "His objections against Christianity," says Dr. Lardner,
"were in esteem with Gentile people for a long while; and the Christians
were not insensible of the importance of his work; as may be concluded
from the several answers made to it by Eusebius, and others in great
repute for learning." (Vol. viii. p. 158.) There are but fragments of
these _fifteen_ books remaining, _Christian magistrates_ having ordered
them to be destroyed. (Ibid.)
[438:6] _Hierocles_ was a Neo-Platonist, who lived at Alexandria about
the middle of the fifth century, and enjoyed a great reputation. He was
the author of a great number of works, a few extracts of which alone
remain.
[438:7] _Celsus_ was an Epicurean philosopher, who lived in the second
century A. D. He wrote a work called "The True Word," against
Christianity, but as it has been destroyed we know nothing about it.
Origen claims to give quotations from it.
[440:1] Draper: Religion and Science, pp. 18-21.
[440:2] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 146.
[441:1] Draper: Religion and Science, pp. 55, 56. See also, Socrates'
Eccl. Hist., lib. 7, ch. xv.
[442:1] We have seen this particularly in the cases of Crishna and
Buddha. Mr. Cox, speaking of the former, says: "If it be urged that the
attribution to Crishna of qualities or powers belonging to the other
deities is a mere device by which _his_ devotees sought to supersede the
more ancient gods, _the answer must be that nothing has been done in his
case which has not been done in the case of almost every other member of
the great company of the gods_." (Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 130.)
These words apply to the case we have before us. Jesus was simply
attributed with the qualities or powers which _had been previously
attributed to other deities_. This we hope to be able to fully
demonstrate in our chapter on "_Explanation_."
[443:1] "Dogma of the Deity of Jesus Christ," p. 41.
[444:1] Adherents of the old religion of Russia have been persecuted in
that country within the past year, and even in enlightened England, a
gentleman has been persecuted by government officials because he
believes in neither a personal God or a personal Devil.
[444:2] Renan, Hibbert Lectures, p. 22.
[444:3] The following are the names of his victims:
Maximian, His wife's father, A. D. 310
Bassianus, His sister's husband, A. D. 314
Licinius, His nephew, A. D. 319
Fausta, His wife, A. D. 320
Sopater, His former friend, A. D. 321
Licinius, His sister's husband, A. D. 325
Crispus, His own son, A. D. 326
Dr. Lardner, in speaking of the murders committed by this Christian
saint, is constrained to say that: "The death of Crispus is altogether
without any _good_ excuse, so likewise is the death of the young
Licinianus, who could not have been more than a little above eleven
years of age, and appears not to have been charged with any fault, and
could hardly be suspected of any."
[444:4] The Emperor Nero could not be _baptized_ and be initiated into
Pagan Mysteries--as Constantine was initiated into those of the
Christians--on account of the murder of his mother. And he did not dare
to _compel_--which he certainly could have done--the priests to initiate
him.
[444:5] Zosimus, in Socrates, lib. iii. ch. xl.
[445:1] "The sacrament of baptism was supposed to contain a full and
absolute expiation of sin; and the soul was instantly restored to its
original purity and entitled to the promise of eternal salvation. Among
the proselytes of Christianity, there were many who judged it imprudent
to precipitate a salutary rite, which could not be repeated. By the
delay of their baptism, they could venture freely to indulge their
passions in the enjoyments of this world, while they still retained in
their own hands the means of a sure and speedy absolution." (Gibbon: ii.
pp. 272, 273.)
[445:2] "Constantine, as he was praying about noon-tide, God showed him
a vision in the sky, which was the sign of the cross lively figured in
the air, with this inscription on it: 'In hoc vince;' that is, 'By this
overcome.'" This is the story as related by Eusebius (Life of
Constantine, lib. 1, ch. xxii.), but it must be remembered that Eusebius
acknowledged that he told falsehoods. That night Christ appeared unto
Constantine in his dream, and commanded him to make the figure of the
cross which he had seen, and to wear it in his _banner_ when he went to
battle with his enemies. (See Eusebius' Life of Constantine, lib. 1, ch.
xxiii. See also, Socrates: Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. ii.)
[445:3] Dupuis, p. 405.
[445:4] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 373. The Fathers, who censured this
criminal delay, could not deny the certain and victorious efficacy even
of a death-bed baptism. The ingenious rhetoric of Chrysostom (A. D.
347-407) could find only three arguments against these prudent
Christians. 1. "That we should love and pursue virtue for her own sake,
and not merely for the reward. 2. That we may be surprised by death
without an opportunity of baptism. 3. That although we shall be placed
in heaven, we shall only twinkle like little stars, when compared to the
suns of righteousness who have run their appointed course with labor,
with success, and with glory." (Chrysostom in Epist. ad Hebræos. Homil.
xiii. Quoted in Gibbon's "Rome," ii. 272.)
[446:1] Lib. 4, chs. lxi. and lxii., and Socrates: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2,
ch. xxvi.
[446:2] Eusebius: Life of Constantine, lib. 2, ch. xliii.
[446:3] Ibid. lib. 3, ch. lxii.
[446:4] Ibid. lib. 3, ch. lxiii.
[446:5] Ibid. lib. 3, ch. lxiv.
[446:6] Ibid. lib. 4, ch. xv.
[446:7] Ibid. ch. lxiii.
Plato places the ferocious tyrants in the Tartarus, such as Ardiacus of
Pamphylia, who had slain his own father, a venerable old man, also an
elder brother, and was stained with a great many other crimes.
Constantine, covered with similar crimes, was better treated by the
Christians, who have sent him to heaven, and _sainted_ him besides.
[447:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 274.
[447:2] "Theodosius, though a professor of the orthodox Christian faith,
was not baptized till 380, and his behavior after that period stamps him
as one of the most cruel and vindictive persecutors who ever wore the
purple. His arbitrary establishment of the Nicene faith over the whole
empire, the deprivation of civil rites of all apostates from
Christianity and of the Eunomians, the sentence of death on the
Manicheans, and Quarto-decimans all prove this." (Chambers's Encyclo.,
art. Theodosius.)
[447:3] Quoted in Taylor's Syntagma, p. 54.
[447:4] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 81.
[448:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. pp. 91, 92.
[448:2] All their writings were ordered to be destroyed.
[448:3] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 359.
[448:4] Ibid. note 154.
[449:1] Julian: Epistol. lii. p. 436. Quoted in Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii.
p. 360.
[449:2] "_Thing_"--a general assembly of the freemen, who gave their
assent to a measure by striking their shields with their drawn swords.
[449:3] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 180, 351, and 470.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE ANTIQUITY OF PAGAN RELIGIONS.
We shall now compare the great antiquity of the sacred books and
religions of Paganism with those of the Christian, so that there may be
no doubt as to which is the original, and which the copy. Allusions to
this subject have already been made throughout this work, we shall
therefore devote as little space to it here as possible.
In speaking of the sacred literature of India, Prof. Monier Williams
says:
"Sanskrit literature, embracing as it does nearly every branch
of knowledge is entirely deficient in one department. It is
wholly destitute of trustworthy historical records. Hence,
little or nothing is known of the lives of ancient Indian
authors, and the dates of their most celebrated works cannot
be fixed with certainty. A fair conjecture, however, may be
arrived at by comparing the most ancient with the more modern
compositions, and estimating the period of time required to
effect the changes of structure and idiom observable in the
language. In this manner we may be justified in assuming that
the hymns of the Veda were probably composed by a succession
of poets at different dates between 1500 and 1000 years B.
C."[450:1]
Prof. Wm. D. Whitney shows the great antiquity of the Vedic hymns from
the fact that,
"The language of the Vedas is an _older_ dialect, varying very
considerably, both in its grammatical and lexical character,
from the classical Sanscrit."
And M. de Coulanges, in his "Ancient City," says:
"We learn from the hymns of the _Vedas_, which are certainly
very ancient, and from the laws of Manu," "what the Aryans of
the east thought nearly thirty-five centuries ago."[450:2]
That the _Vedas_ are of very high antiquity is unquestionable; but
however remote we may place the period when they were written, we must
necessarily presuppose that the Hindostanic race had already attained
to a comparatively high degree of civilization, otherwise men capable of
framing such doctrines could not have been found. Now this state of
civilization must necessarily have been preceded by several centuries of
barbarism, during which we cannot possibly admit a more refined faith
than the popular belief in elementary deities.
We shall see in our next chapter that these very ancient Vedic hymns
contain the _origin_ of the legend of the Virgin-born God and Saviour,
the great benefactor of mankind, who is finally put to death, and rises
again to life and immortality on the third day.
The _Geetas_ and _Puranas_, although of a comparatively modern date,
are, as we have already seen, nevertheless composed of matter to be
found in the two great epic poems, the _Ramayana_ and the _Mahabharata_,
which were written many centuries before the time assigned as that of
the birth of Christ Jesus.[451:1]
The Pali sacred books, which contain the legend of the virgin-born God
and Saviour--Sommona Cadom--are known to have been in existence 316 B.
C.[451:2]
We have already seen that the religion known as Buddhism, and which
corresponds in such a striking manner with Christianity, has now existed
for upwards of twenty-four hundred years.[451:3]
Prof. Rhys Davids says:
"There is every reason to believe that the _Pitakas_ (the
sacred books which contain the legend of 'The Buddha'), now
extant in Ceylon, are substantially identical with the books
of the Southern Canon, as settled at the Council of Patna
about the year 250 B. C.[451:4] As no works would have been
received into the Canon which were not _then_ believed to be
very old, the _Pitakas_ may be approximately placed in the
_fourth century_ B. C., and parts of them possibly reach back
very nearly, if not quite, to the time of Gautama
himself."[451:5]
The religion of the ancient _Persians_, which corresponds in so very
many respects with that of the Christians, was established by
Zoroaster--who was undoubtedly a Brahman[451:6]--and is contained in
the _Zend-Avesta_, their sacred book or Bible. This book is very
ancient. Prof. Max Müller speaks of "the sacred book of the
Zoroastrians" as being "older in its language than the cuneiform
inscriptions of Cyrus (B. C. 560), Darius (B. C. 520), and Xerxes (B. C.
485) those ancient Kings of Persia, who knew that they were kings by the
grace of _Auramazda_, and who placed his sacred image high on the
mountain-records of Behistun."[452:1] That ancient book, or its
fragments, at least, have survived many dynasties and kingdoms, and is
still believed in by a small remnant of the Persian race, now settled at
Bombay, and known all over the world by the name of Parsees.[452:2]
"The Babylonian and Phenician sacred books date back to a fabulous
antiquity;"[452:3] and so do the sacred books and religion of Egypt.
Prof. Mahaffy, in his "Prolegomena to Ancient History," says:
"There is indeed hardly a great and fruitful idea in the
Jewish or Christian systems which has not its analogy in the
Egyptian faith, and _all these theological conceptions pervade
the oldest religion of Egypt_."[452:4]
The worship of Osiris, the Lord and Saviour, must have been of extremely
ancient date, for he is represented as "Judge of the Dead," in
sculptures contemporary with the building of the Pyramids, centuries
before Abraham is said to have been born. Among the many hieroglyphic
titles which accompany his figure in those sculptures, and in many other
places on the walls of temples and tombs, are, "Lord of Life," "The
Eternal Ruler," "Manifester of Good," "Revealer of Truth," "Full of
Goodness and Truth," etc.
In speaking of the "Myth of Osiris," Mr. Bonwick says:
"This great mystery of the Egyptians demands serious
consideration. Its antiquity--its universal hold upon the
people for over five thousand years--its identification with
the very life of the nation--_and its marvellous likeness to
the creed of modern date_, unite in exciting the greatest
interest."[452:5]
This myth, and that of Isis and Horus, were known before the Pyramid
time.[453:1]
The worship of the Virgin Mother in Egypt--from which country it was
imported into Europe[453:2]--dates back thousands of years B. C. Mr.
Bonwick says:
"In all probability she was worshiped three thousand years
before Moses wrote. 'Isis nursing her child Horus, was
represented,' says Mariette Bey, 'at least six thousand years
ago.' We read the name of Isis on monuments of the fourth
dynasty, and she lost none of her popularity to the close of
the empire."
"The Egyptian Bible is by far the most ancient of all holy
books." "Plato was told that Egypt possessed hymns dating back
ten thousand years before his time."[453:3]
Bunsen says:
"The origin of the ancient prayers and hymns of the 'Book of
the Dead,' is anterior to Menes; it implies that the system of
Osirian worship and mythology was already formed."[453:4]
And, says Mr. Bonwick:
"Besides opinions, we have facts as a basis for arriving at a
conclusion, and justifying the assertion of Dr. Birch, that
the work dated from a period long anterior to the rise of
Ammon worship at Thebes."[453:5]
Now, "this most ancient of all holy books," establishes the fact that a
virgin-born and resurrected Saviour was worshiped in Egypt thousands of
year before the time of Christ Jesus.
P. Le Page Renouf says:
"The _earliest monuments_ which have been discovered present
to us the _very same_ fully-developed civilization and the
_same religion_ as the later monuments. . . . The gods whose
names appear in the _oldest tombs_ were worshiped down to the
Christian times. The same kind of priesthoods which are
mentioned in the tablets of Canopus and Rosetta in the
Ptolemaic period are as ancient as the pyramids, and more
ancient than any pyramid of which we know the date."[453:6]
In regard to the doctrine of the _Trinity_. We have just seen that "the
development of the One God into a Trinity" pervades the oldest religion
of Egypt, and the same may be said of India. Prof. Monier Williams,
speaking on this subject, says:
"It should be observed that the native commentaries on the
Veda often allude to thirty-three gods, which number is also
mentioned in the Rig-Veda. This is a multiple of _three_,
which is a sacred number constantly appearing in the Hindu
religious system. It is probable, indeed, that although the
Tri-murti is not named in the Vedic hymns,[454:1] yet the
Veda is the real source of this Triad of personifications,
afterwards so conspicuous in Hindu mythology. This much, at
least, is clear, that the Vedic poets exhibited a tendency to
group all the forces and energies of nature under three heads,
and the assertion that the number of the gods was
thirty-three, amounted to saying that each of the three
leading personifications was capable of eleven
modifications."[454:2]
The great antiquity of the legends referred to in this work is
demonstrated in the fact that they were found in a great measure on the
continent of America, by the first Europeans who set foot on its soil.
Now, how did they get there? Mr. Lundy, in his "Monumental
Christianity," speaking on this subject, says:
"So great was the resemblance between the two sacraments of
the Christian Church (viz., that of Baptism and the Eucharist)
and those of the ancient Mexicans; so many other points of
similarity, also, in _doctrine_ existed, as to the unity of
God, the Triad, the Creation, the Incarnation and Sacrifice,
the Resurrection, etc., that Herman Witsius, no mean scholar
and thinker, was induced to believe that Christianity had been
preached on this continent by some one of the apostles,
perhaps St. Thomas, from the fact that he is reported to have
carried the Gospel to India and Tartary, whence he came to
America."[454:3]
Some writers, who do not think that St. Thomas could have gotten to
America, believe that St. Patrick, or some other saint, must have, in
some unaccountable manner, reached the shores of the Western continent,
and preached their doctrine there.[454:4] Others have advocated the
devil theory, which is, that the devil, being jealous of the worship of
Christ Jesus, set up a religion of his own, and imitated, nearly as
possible, the religion of Christ. All of these theories being untenable,
we must, in the words of Burnouf, the eminent French Orientalist, "learn
one day that all ancient traditions disfigured by emigration and legend,
_belong to the history of India_."
That America was inhabited by Asiatic emigrants, and that the American
legends are of _Asiatic origin_, we believe to be indisputable. There is
an abundance of proof to this effect.[454:5]
In contrast to the great antiquity of the sacred books and religions of
Paganism, we have the facts that the Gospels were not written by the
persons whose names they bear, that they were written many years after
the time these men are said to have lived, and that they are full of
interpolations and errors. The first that we know of the four gospels
is at the time of Irenæus, who, in the second century, intimates that he
had received four gospels, as authentic scriptures. This pious forger
was probably the author of the _fourth_, as we shall presently see.
Besides these gospels there were many more which were subsequently
deemed apocryphal; the narratives related in them of Christ Jesus and
his apostles were stamped as forgeries.
"The Gospel according to Matthew" is believed by the majority of
biblical scholars of the present day to be the oldest of the four, and
to be made up principally of a pre-existing one, called "The Gospel of
the Hebrews." The principal difference in these two gospels being that
"_The Gospel of the Hebrews_" commenced with giving the genealogy of
Jesus from David, through Joseph "_according to the flesh_." The story
of Jesus being born of a virgin _was not to be found there_, it being an
afterpiece, originating either with the writer of "_The Gospel according
to Matthew_," or some one after him, and was evidently taken from "The
Gospel of the Egyptians." "_The Gospel of the Hebrews_"--from which, we
have said, the _Matthew_ narrator copied--_was an intensely Jewish
gospel_, and was to be found--in one of its forms--among the Ebionites,
who were the narrowest Jewish Christians of the second century. "_The
Gospel according to Matthew_" is, therefore, the most Jewish gospel of
the four; in fact, the most Jewish book in the New Testament, excepting,
perhaps, the _Apocalypse_ and the _Epistle of James_.
Some of the more conspicuous Jewish traits, to be found in this gospel,
are as follows:
Jesus is sent _only_ to the lost sheep of the house of _Israel_. The
twelve are forbidden to go among the _Gentiles_ or the _Samaritans_.
They are to sit on twelve thrones, _judging the twelve tribes of
Israel_. The genealogy of Jesus is traced back to _Abraham_, and there
stops.[455:1] The works of the _law_ are frequently insisted on. There
is a superstitious regard for the _Sabbath_, &c.
There is no evidence of the existence of the Gospel of Matthew,--_in its
present form_--until the year 173, A. D. It is at this time, also, that
it is first ascribed to Matthew, by Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis.
The original oracles of the Gospel of the Hebrews, however,--which were
made use of by the author of our present Gospel of Matthew,--were
written, likely enough, not long before the destruction of Jerusalem,
but the Gospel itself dates from about A. D. 100.[456:1]
"_The Gospel according to Luke_" is believed to come next--in
chronological order--to that of Matthew, and to have been written some
fifteen or twenty years after it. The author was a _foreigner_, as his
writings plainly show that he was far removed from the events which he
records.
In writing his Gospel, the author made use of that of Matthew, the
Gospel of the Hebrews, and Marcion's Gospel. He must have had, also,
still other sources, as there are parables peculiar to it, which are not
found in them. Among these may be mentioned that of the "_Prodigal
Son_," and the "_Good Samaritan_." Other parables peculiar to it are
that of the two debtors; the friend borrowing bread at night; the rich
man's barns; Dives and Lazarus; the lost piece of silver; the unjust
steward; the Pharisee and the Publican.
Several miracles are also peculiar to the Luke narrator's Gospel, the
raising of the widow of Nain's son being the most remarkable. Perhaps
these stories were delivered to him _orally_, and perhaps _he is the
author of them_,--we shall never know. The foundation of the legends,
however, undoubtedly came from the "_certain scriptures_" of the Essenes
in Egypt. The principal _object_ which the writer of this gospel had in
view was to reconcile _Paulinism_ and the _more Jewish_ forms of
Christianity.[456:2]
The next in chronological order, according to the same school of
critics, is "The Gospel according to Mark." This gospel is supposed to
have been written within ten years of the former, and its author, as of
the other two gospels, is unknown. It was probably written at _Rome_, as
the Latinisms of the author's style, and the apparent motive of his
work, strongly suggest that he was a Jewish citizen of the Eternal City.
He made use of the Gospel of Matthew as his principal authority, and
probably referred to that of Luke, as he has things in common with Luke
only.
The object which the writer had in view, was to have a neutral
go-between, a compromise between Matthew as too Petrine (Jewish), and
Luke as too Pauline (Gentile). The different aspects of Matthew and Luke
were found to be confusing to believers, and provocative of hostile
criticism from without; hence the idea of writing a shorter gospel, that
should combine the most essential elements of both. Luke was itself a
compromise between the opposing Jewish and universal tendencies of
early Christianity, but Mark endeavors by avoidance and omission to
effect what Luke did more by addition and contrast. Luke proposed to
himself to open a door for the admission of Pauline ideas without
offending Gentile Christianity; Mark, on the contrary, in a negative
spirit, to publish a Gospel which should not hurt the feelings of either
party. Hence his avoidance of all those disputed questions which
disturbed the church during the first quarter of the second century. The
genealogy of Jesus is omitted; this being offensive to Gentile
Christians, and even to some of the more liberal Judaizers. The
supernatural birth of Jesus is omitted, this being offensive to the
Ebonitish (extreme Jewish) and some of the Gnostic Christians. For every
Judaizing feature that is sacrificed, a universal one is also
sacrificed. Hard words against the Jews are left out, but with equal
care, hard words about the Gentiles.[457:1]
We now come to the fourth, and last gospel, that "_according to John_,"
which was not written until many years after that "according to
Matthew."
"It is impossible to pass from the Synoptic[457:2] Gospels," says Canon
Westcott, "to the fourth, without feeling that the transition involves
the passage from one world of thought to another. No familiarity with
the general teachings of the Gospels, no wide conception of the
character of the Saviour, is sufficient to destroy the contrast which
exists in form and spirit between the earlier and later narratives."
The discrepancies between the fourth and the Synoptic Gospels are
numerous. If Jesus was the _man_ of Matthew's Gospel, he was not the
_mysterious being_ of the fourth. If his ministry was only _one_ year
long, it was not _three_. If he made but _one_ journey to Jerusalem, he
did not make _many_. If his method of teaching was that of the
Synoptics, it was not that of the fourth Gospel. If he was the _Jew_ of
Matthew, he was not the _Anti-Jew_ of John.[457:3]
Everywhere in John we come upon a more developed stage of Christianity
than in the Synoptics. The scene, the atmosphere, is different. In the
Synoptics Judaism, the Temple, the Law and the Messianic Kingdom are
omnipresent. In John they are remote and vague. In Matthew Jesus is
always yearning for _his own_ nation. In John he has no other sentiment
for it than _hate and scorn_. In Matthew the sanction of the Prophets is
his great credential. In John his dignity can tolerate no previous
approximation.
"Do we ask," says Francis Tiffany, "who wrote this wondrous Gospel?
Mysterious its origin, as that wind of which its author speaks, which
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof and canst
not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. As with the Great Unknown
of the book of Job, the Great Unknown of the later Isaiah, the ages keep
his secret. _The first absolutely indisputable evidence of the existence
of the book dates from the latter half of the second century._"
The first that we know of the _fourth_ Gospel, for certainty, is at the
time of Irenæus (A. D. 179).[458:1] We look in vain for an express
recognition of the _four_ canonical Gospels, or for a _distinct mention_
of any one of them, in the writings of St. Clement (A. D. 96), St.
Ignatius (A. D. 107), St. Justin (A. D. 140), or St. Polycarp (A. D.
108). All we can find is incidents from the life of Jesus, sayings, etc.
That Irenæus is the author of it is very evident. This learned and pious
forger says:
"John, the disciple of the Lord, wrote his Gospel to confute
the doctrine _lately_ taught by Cerinthus, and a great while
before by those called Nicolaitans, a branch of the Gnostics;
and to show that there is one God who made all things by his
WORD: and not, as they say, that there is one the Creator, and
another the Father of our Lord: and one the Son of the
Creator, and another, even the Christ, who descended from
above upon the Son of the Creator, and continued impassible,
and at length returned to his pleroma or fulness."[458:2]
The idea of God having inspired _four_ different men to write a history
of the _same transactions_,--or rather, of many different men having
undertaken to write such a history, of whom God inspired _four only_ to
write correctly, leaving the others to their own unaided resources, and
giving us no test by which to distinguish the inspired from the
uninspired--certainly appears self-confuting, and anything but natural.
The reasons assigned by Irenæus for there being _four_ Gospels are as
follows:
"It is impossible that there could be more or less than
_four_. For there are _four_ climates, and _four_ cardinal
winds; but the Gospel is the pillar and foundation of the
church, and its breath of life. _The church therefore was to
have four pillars, blowing immortality from every quarter, and
giving life to man._"[459:1]
It was by this Irenæus, with the assistance of Clement of Alexandria,
and Tertullian, one of the Latin Fathers, that the four Gospels were
introduced into _general_ use among the Christians.
In these four spurious Gospels, and in some which are considered
_Apocryphal_--because the bishops at the Council of Laodicea (A. D. 365)
rejected them--we have the only history of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, if
all accounts or narratives of Christ Jesus and his Apostles were
forgeries, as it is admitted that all the _Apocryphal_ ones were, what
can the superior character of the received Gospels prove for them, but
that they are merely superiorly executed forgeries? The existence of
Jesus is implied in the New Testament outside of the Gospels, _but
hardly an incident of his life is mentioned, hardly a sentence that he
spoke has been preserved_. Paul, writing from twenty to thirty years
after his death, has but a single reference to anything he ever said or
did.
Beside these four Gospels there were, as we said above, many others,
for, in the words of Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian:
"Not long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several
histories of his life and doctrines, full of _pious frauds_
and _fabulous wonders_, were composed by persons whose
intentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose writings
discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was
this all; _productions appeared, which were imposed upon the
world by fraudulent men, as the writings of the holy
apostles_."[459:2]
Dr. Conyers Middleton, speaking on this subject, says:
"There never was any period of time in all ecclesiastical
history, in which so many rank heresies were publicly
professed, _nor in which so many spurious books were forged_
and published by the Christians, under the names of Christ,
and the Apostles, and the Apostolic writers, as in those
primitive ages. _Several of these forged books are frequently
cited and applied to the defense of Christianity, by the most
eminent fathers of the same ages, as true and genuine
pieces._"[459:3]
Archbishop Wake also admits that:
"It would be useless to insist on all the spurious pieces
which were attributed to St. Paul alone, in the primitive ages
of Christianity."[460:1]
Some of the "spurious pieces which were attributed to St. Paul," may be
found to-day in our canonical New Testament, and are believed by many to
be the word of God.[460:2]
The learned Bishop Faustus, in speaking of the authenticity of the _New
Testament_, says:
"It is certain that the New Testament was not written by
Christ himself, nor by his apostles, but a long while after
them, _by some unknown persons_, who, lest they should not be
credited when they wrote of affairs they were little
acquainted with, affixed to their works the names of the
apostles, or of such as were supposed to have been their
companions, asserting that what they had written themselves,
was written according to these persons to whom they ascribed
it."[460:3]
Again he says:
"Many things have been inserted by our ancestors in the
speeches of our Lord, which, though put forth under his name,
agree not with his faith; especially since--_as already it has
been often proved_--these things were not written by Christ,
nor his apostles, but a long while after their assumption, by
I know not what sort of half Jews, not even agreeing with
themselves, who made up their tale out of reports and opinions
merely, and yet, fathering the whole upon the names of the
apostles of the Lord, or on those who were supposed to follow
the apostles, they mendaciously pretended that they had
written their lies and conceits according to them."[460:4]
What had been said to have been done in _India_, was said by these
"half-Jews" to have been done in _Palestine_; the change of names and
places, with the mixing up of various sketches of the Egyptian, Persian,
Phenician, Greek and Roman mythology, was all that was necessary. They
had an abundance of material, and with it they built. The foundation
upon which they built was undoubtedly the "_Scriptures_," or Diegesis,
of the Essenes in Alexandria in Egypt, which fact led Eusebius, the
ecclesiastical historian--"without whom," says Tillemont, "we should
scarce have had any knowledge of the history of the first ages of
Christianity, or of the authors who wrote in that time"--to say that the
sacred writings used by this sect were none other than "_Our Gospels_."
We offer below a few of the many proofs showing the Gospels to have
been written a long time after the events narrated are said to have
occurred, and by persons unacquainted with the country of which they
wrote.
"He (Jesus) came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the
coasts of Decapolis," is an assertion made by the Mark narrator (vii.
31), when there were no coasts of Decapolis, nor was the name so much as
known before the reign of the emperor Nero.
Again, "He (Jesus) departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of
Judea, beyond Jordan," is an assertion made by the Matthew narrator
(xix. 1), when the Jordan itself was the eastern boundary of Judea, and
there were no coasts of Judea beyond it.
Again, "But when he (Joseph) heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea, in
the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither,
notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into
the parts of Galilee, and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth;
that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets, he shall
be called a Nazarene," is another assertion made by the Matthew narrator
(ii. 22, 23), when--1. It was a son of Herod who reigned in Galilee as
well as Judea, so that he could not be more secure in one province than
in the other; and when--2. It was impossible for him to have gone from
Egypt to Nazareth, without traveling through the whole extent of
Archelaus's kingdom, or making a peregrination through the deserts on
the north and east of the Lake Asphaltites, and the country of Moab; and
then, either crossing the Jordan into Samaria or the Lake of Gennesareth
into Galilee, and from thence going to the city of Nazareth, which is no
better geography, than if one should describe a person as _turning
aside_ from Cheapside into the parts of Yorkshire; and when--3. There
were no prophets whatever who had prophesied that Jesus "_should be
called a Nazarene_."
The Matthew narrator (iv. 13) states that "He departed into Galilee, and
leaving Nazareth, came and dwelt in Capernaum," as if he imagined that
the city of Nazareth was not as properly in Galilee as Capernaum was;
which is much such geographical accuracy, as if one should relate the
travels of a hero, who departed into Middlesex, and leaving London, came
and dwelt in Lombard street.[461:1]
There are many other falsehoods in gospel geography beside these,
which, it is needless to mention, plainly show that the writers were not
the persons they are generally supposed to be.
Of gospel statistics there are many falsehoods; among them may be
mentioned the following:
"Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto
John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness," is an assertion made by
the Luke narrator (Luke iii. 2); when all Jews, or persons living among
them, must have known that there never was but _one_ high priest at a
time, as with ourselves there is but one mayor of a city.
Again we read (John vii. 52), "Search (the Scriptures) and look, for out
of Galilee ariseth no prophet," when the most distinguished of the
Jewish prophets--Nahum and Jonah--were both Galileans.
See reference in the Epistles to "_Saints_," a religious order, owing
its origin to the popes. Also, references to the distinct orders of
"_Bishops_," "_Priests_," and "_Deacons_," and calls to a monastic life;
to fasting, etc., when, the titles of "Bishop," "Priest," and "Deacon"
were given to the Essenes--whom Eusebius calls Christians--and, as is
well known, _monasteries_ were the abode of the Essenes or Therapeuts.
See the words for "_legion_," "_aprons_," "_handkerchiefs_,"
"_centurion_," etc., in the original, not being Greek, but Latin,
written in Greek characters, a practice first to be found in the
historian Herodian, in the third century.
In Matt. xvi. 18, and Matt. xviii. 17, the word "_Church_" is used, and
its _papistical_ and infallible authority referred to as then existing,
which is known not to have existed till ages after. And the passage in
Matt. xi. 12:--"From the days of John the Baptist until _now_, the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence," etc., could not have been written
till a very late period.
Luke ii. 1, shows that the writer (whoever he may have been) lived long
after the events related. His dates, about the fifteenth year of
Tiberius, and the government of Cyrenius (the only indications of time
in the New Testament), are manifestly false. The general ignorance of
the four Evangelists, not merely of the geography and statistics of
Judea, but even of its language,--their egregious blunders, which no
writers who had lived in that age could be conceived of as
making,--prove that they were not only no such persons as those who have
been willing to be deceived have taken them to be, but that they were
not Jews, had never been in Palestine, and neither lived at, or at
anywhere near the times to which their narratives seem to refer. The
ablest divines at the present day, of all denominations, have yielded as
much as this.[463:1]
The Scriptures were in the hands of the clergy only, and they had every
opportunity to insert whatsoever they pleased; thus we find them full of
_interpolations_. Johann Solomo Semler, one of the most influential
theologians of the eighteenth century, speaking of this, says:
"The Christian doctors never brought their sacred books before
the common people; although people in general have been wont
to think otherwise; during the first ages, they were in the
hands of the clergy only."[463:2]
Concerning the _time_ when the canon of the New Testament was settled,
Mosheim says:
"The opinions, or rather the _conjectures_, of the learned
concerning the _time_ when the books of the New Testament were
collected into one volume; as also about the authors of that
collection, are extremely different. This important question
is attended with great and almost insuperable difficulties to
us in these later times."[463:3]
The Rev. B. F. Westcott says:
"It is impossible to point to any period as marking the date
at which our present canon was determined. When it first
appears, it is presented not as a novelty, but as an ancient
tradition."[463:4]
Dr. Lardner says:
"Even so late as the middle of the _sixth century_, the canon
of the New Testament had not been settled by any authority
that was decisive and universally acknowledged, but Christian
people were at liberty to judge for themselves concerning the
genuineness of writings proposed to them as apostolical, and
to determine according to evidence."[464:1]
The learned Michaelis says:
"No manuscript of the New Testament now extant is prior to the
_sixth century_, and what is to be lamented, various readings
which, as appears from the quotations of the Fathers, were in
the text of the Greek Testament, are to be found in none of
the manuscripts which are at present remaining."[464:2]
And Bishop Marsh says:
"It is a certain fact, that several readings in our common
printed text are nothing more than _alterations_ made by
Origen, whose authority was so great in the Christian Church
(A. D. 230) that emendations which he proposed, though, as he
himself acknowledged, they were supported by the evidence of
no manuscript, were very generally received."[464:3]
In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius gives us a list of what books at
that time (A. D. 315) were considered canonical. They are as follows:
"The four-fold writings of the Evangelists," "The Acts of the
Apostles," "The Epistles of Peter," "after these the _first_
of John, and that of Peter," "_All these are received for
undoubted._" "The Revelation of St. John, _some disavow_."
"The books which are _gainsaid_, though well known unto many,
are these: the Epistle of James, the Epistle of Jude, the
_latter_ of Peter, the _second_ and _third_ of John, _whether
they were John the Evangelist, or some other of the same
name_."[464:4]
Though Irenæus, in the second century, is the first who mentions the
evangelists, and Origen, in the third century, is the first who gives us
a catalogue of the books contained in the New Testament, Mosheim's
admission still stands before us. We have no grounds of assurance that
the mere mention of the _names_ of the evangelists by Irenæus, or the
arbitrary drawing up of a particular catalogue by Origen, were of any
authority. It is still unknown _by whom_, or _where_, or _when_, the
canon of the New Testament was settled. But in this absence of positive
evidence we have abundance of negative proof. We know when it was _not_
settled. We know it was not settled in the time of the Emperor
Justinian, nor in the time of Cassiodorus; that is, not at any time
_before the middle of the sixth century_, "by any authority that was
decisive and universally acknowledged; but Christian people were at
liberty to judge for themselves concerning the genuineness of writings
proposed to them as apostolical."
We cannot do better than close this chapter with the words of Prof. Max
Müller, who, in speaking of Buddhism, says:
"We have in the history of Buddhism an excellent opportunity
for watching the process by which a canon of sacred books is
called into existence. We see here, _as elsewhere_, that
during the life-time of the teacher, no record of events, no
sacred code containing the sayings of the Master, was wanted.
His presence was enough, and thoughts of the future, and more
particularly, of future greatness, seldom entered the minds of
those who followed him. It was only after Buddha had left the
world to enter into _Nirvâna_, that his disciples attempted to
recall the sayings and doings of their departed friend and
master. At that time, everything that seemed to redound to the
glory of Buddha, however extraordinary and incredible, was
eagerly welcomed, while witnesses who would have ventured to
criticise or reject unsupported statements, or to detract in
any way from the holy character of Buddha, had no chance of
ever being listened to. And when, in spite of all this,
differences of opinion arose, they were not brought to the
test by a careful weighing of evidence, but the names of
'_unbeliever_' and '_heretic_' were quickly invented in India
_as elsewhere_, and bandied backwards and forwards between
contending parties, till at last, when the doctors disagreed,
the help of the secular power had to be invoked, and kings and
emperors assembled councils for the suppression of schism, for
the settlement of an orthodox creed, and for the completion of
a _sacred canon_."[465:1]
That which Prof. Müller describes as taking place in the religion of
Christ Buddha, is exactly what took place in the religion of Christ
Jesus. That the miraculous, and many of the non-miraculous, events
related in the Gospels never happened, is demonstrable from the facts
which we have seen in this work, that nearly all of these events, had
been previously related of the gods and goddesses of heathen nations of
antiquity, more especially of the Hindoo Saviour _Crishna_, and the
Buddhist Saviour _Buddha_, whose religion, with less alterations than
time and translations have made in the Jewish Scriptures, may be traced
in nearly every dogma and every ceremony of the evangelical mythology.
* * * * *
NOTE.--The _Codex Sinaiticus_, referred to on the preceding page,
(_note_ 2,) was found at the Convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai, by
Tischendorf, in 1859. He _supposes_ that it belongs to the 4th cent.;
but Dr. Davidson (in Kitto's Bib. Ency., Art. MSS.) thinks different. He
says: "_Probably_ it is of the 6th _cent._," while he states that the
_Codex Vaticanus_ "is _believed_ to belong to the 4th cent.," and the
_Codex_ Alexandrinus to the 5th cent. McClintock & Strong's Ency. (Art.
MSS.,) relying probably on Tischendorf's conjecture, places the _Codex
Sinaiticus_ first. "It is _probably_ the oldest of the MSS. of the N.
T., and of the 4th cent.," say they. The _Codex Vaticanus_ is considered
the next oldest, and the _Codex Alexandrinus_ is placed third in order,
and "was _probably_ written in the first half of the 5th cent." The
writer of the art. N. T. in Smith's _Bib. Dic._ says: "The _Codex
Sinaiticus_ is probably the oldest of the MSS. of the N. T., and of the
4th cent.;" and that the _Codex Alexandrinus_ "was _probably_ written in
the first half of the 5th cent." Thus we see that in determining the
dates of the MSS. of the N. T., Christian divines are obliged to resort
to _conjecture_; there being no certainty whatever in the matter. But
with all their "suppositions," "probabilities," "beliefs" and
"conjectures," we have the words of the learned Michaelis still before
us, that: "No MSS. of the N. T. now extant are prior to the _sixth
cent._" This remark, however, does not cover the _Codex Sinaiticus_,
which was discovered since Michaelis wrote his work on the N. T.; but,
as we saw above, Dr. Davidson does not agree with Tischendorf in regard
to its antiquity, and places it in the 6th cent.
FOOTNOTES:
[450:1] Williams' Hinduism, p. 19. See also, Prof. Max Müller's Lectures
on the Origin of Religion, pp. 145-158, and p. 67, where he speaks of
"the Hindus, who, thousands of years ago, had reached in Upanishads the
loftiest heights of philosophy."
[450:2] The Ancient City, p. 13.
[451:1] See Monier Williams' Hinduism, pp. 109, 110, and Indian Wisdom,
p. 493.
[451:2] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 576, for the authority of Prof.
Max Müller.
[451:3] "The religion known as Buddhism--from the title of 'The Buddha,'
meaning 'The Wise,' 'The Enlightened'--has now existed for 2400 years,
and may be said to be the prevailing religion of the world." (Chambers's
Encyclo.)
[451:4] This Council was assembled by Asoka in the eighteenth year of
his reign. The name of this king is honored wherever the teachings of
Buddha have spread, and is reverenced from the Volga to Japan, from
Ceylon and Siam to the borders of Mongolia and Siberia. Like his
Christian prototype Constantine, he was converted by a miracle. After
his conversion, which took place in the tenth year of his reign, he
became a very zealous supporter of the new religion. He himself built
many monasteries and dagabas, and provided many _monks_ with the
necessaries of life; and he encouraged those about his court to do the
same. He published edicts throughout his empire, enjoining on all his
subjects morality and justice.
[451:5] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 10.
[451:6] See Chapter VII.
[452:1] Müller: Lectures on the Science of Religion, p. 235.
[452:2] This small tribe of Persians were driven from their native land
by the Mohammedan conquerors under the Khalif Omar, in the seventh
century of our era. Adhering to the ancient religion of Persia, which
resembles that of the _Veda_, and bringing with them the records of
their faith, the _Zend-Avesta_ of their prophet Zoroaster, they settled
down in the neighborhood of Surat, about one thousand one hundred years
ago, and became great merchants and shipbuilders. For two or three
centuries we know little of their history. Their religion prevented them
from making proselytes, and they never multiplied within themselves to
any extent, nor did they amalgamate with the Hindoo population, so that
even now their number only amounts to about seventy thousand.
Nevertheless, from their busy, enterprising habits, in which they
emulate Europeans, they form an important section of the population of
Bombay and Western India.
[452:3] Movers: Quoted in Dunlap's Spirit Hist., p. 261.
[452:4] Prolegomena, p. 417.
[452:5] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 162.
[453:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 163.
[453:2] Ibid. p. 142, and King's Gnostics, p. 71.
[453:3] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, pp. 135, 140, and 143.
[453:4] Quoted in Ibid. p. 186.
[453:5] Ibid.
[453:6] Renouf: Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 81.
[454:1] That is, the Tri-murti Brahmā, Vishnu and Siva, for he tells
us that the three gods, Indra, Agni, and Surya, constitute the _Vedic_
chief triad of Gods. (Hinduism, p. 24.) Again he tells us that the idea
of a Tri-murti was _first_ dimly shadowed forth in the Rig-Veda, where a
triad of principal gods--Agni, Indra and Surya--is recognized. (Ibid. p.
88.) The worship of the three members of the Tri-murti, Brahmā, Vishnu
and Siva, is to be found in the period of the epic poems, from 500 to
308 B. C. (Ibid. pp. 109, 110, 115.)
[454:2] Williams' Hinduism, p. 25.
[454:3] Monumental Christianity, p. 890.
[454:4] See Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi.
[454:5] See Appendix A.
[455:1] The genealogy which traces him back to _Adam_ (Luke iii.) makes
his religion not only a Jewish, but a _Gentile_ one. According to this
Gospel he is not only a Messiah sent to the Jews, but to all nations,
sons of Adam.
[456:1] See The Bible of To-Day, under "_Matthew_."
[456:2] See Ibid. under "_Luke_."
[457:1] See the Bible of To-Day, under "_Mark_."
[457:2] "_Synoptics_;" the Gospels which contain accounts of the same
events--"parallel passages," as they are called--which can be written
side by side, so as to enable us to make a general view or _synopsis_ of
all the three, and at the same time compare them with each other. Bishop
Marsh says: "The most eminent critics are at present decidedly of
opinion that one of the two suppositions must necessarily be adopted,
either that the three Evangelists copied from each other, or that all
the three drew from a common source, and that the notion of an absolute
independence, in respect to the composition of the three first Gospels,
is no longer tenable."
[457:3] "On opening the New Testament and comparing the impression
produced by the Gospel of Matthew or Mark with that by the Gospel of
John, the observant eye is at once struck with as salient a contrast as
that already indicated on turning from the _Macbeth_ or _Othello_ of
Shakespeare to the _Comus_ of Milton or to Spenser's _Faerie Queene_."
(Francis Tiffany.)
"To learn how far we may trust them (the Gospels) we must in the first
place compare them with each other. The moment we do so we notice that
the _fourth_ stands quite alone, while the _first three form a single
group_, not only following the same general course, but sometimes even
showing a verbal agreement which cannot possibly be accidental." (The
Bible for Learners, vol. ii. p. 27.)
[458:1] "Irenæus is the first person who mentions the four Gospels by
name." (Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 328.)
"Irenæus, in the second century, is the first of the fathers who, though
he has nowhere given us a professed catalogue of the books of the New
Testament, intimates that he had received four Gospels, as authentic
Scriptures, the authors of which he describes." (Rev. R. Taylor:
Syntagma, p. 109.)
"The authorship of the _fourth_ Gospel has been the subject of much
learned and anxious controversy among theologians. _The earliest, and
only very important external testimony we have is that of_ IRENÆUS (A.
D. 179.)" (W. R. Grey: _The Creed of Christendom_, p. 159.)
[458:2] Against Heresies, bk. ii. ch. xi. sec. 1.
[459:1] Against Heresies, bk. iii. ch. xi. sec. 8.
[459:2] Mosheim: vol. i. p. 109.
[459:3] Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 59.
[460:1] Genuine Epist. Apost. Fathers, p. 98.
[460:2] See Chadwick's Bible of To-Day, pp. 191, 192.
[460:3] "Nec ab ipso scriptum constat, nec ab ejus apostolis sed longo
post tempore a quibusdam incerti nominis viris, qui ne sibi non
haberetur fides scribentibus quæ nescirent, partim apostolorum, partim
eorum qui apostolos secuti viderentur nomina scriptorum suorum frontibus
indiderunt, asseverantes secundum eos, se scripsisse quæ scripserunt."
(Faust, lib. 2. Quoted by Rev. R. Taylor: Diegesis, p. 114.)
[460:4] "Multa enim a majoribus vestris, eloquiis Domini nostri inserta
verba sunt; quæ nomine signata ipsius, cum ejus fide non congruant,
præsertim, quia, ut jam sæpe probatum a nobis est, nec ab ipso hæc sunt,
nec ab ejus apostolis scripta, sed multo post eorum assumptionem, a
nescio quibus, et ipsis inter se non concordantibus SEMI-JUDÆIS, per
famas opinionesque comperta sunt; qui tamen omnia eadem in apostolorum
Domini conferentes nomina vel eorum qui secuti apostolos viderentur,
errores ac mendacia sua secundum eos se scripsisse mentiti sunt."
(Faust.: lib. 88. Quoted in Ibid. p. 66.)
[461:1] Taylor's Diegesis.
[463:1] Says Prof. Smith upon this point: "All the earliest external
evidence points to the conclusion _that the synoptic gospels are
non-apostolic digests of spoken and written_ apostolic tradition, and
that the arrangement of the earlier material in orderly form took place
only gradually and by many essays."
_Dr. Hooykaas_, speaking of the four "Gospels," and "Acts," says of
them: "Not one of these five books was really written by the person
whose name it bears, and they are all of more recent date than the
heading would lead us to suppose."
"We cannot say that the "Gospels" and book of "Acts" are _unauthentic_,
for not one of them professes to give the name of its author. _They
appeared anonymously._ The titles placed above them in our Bibles owe
their origin to a later ecclesiastical tradition which deserves no
confidence whatever." (Bible for Learners, vol. iii. pp. 24, 25.)
These Gospels "can hardly be said to have had authors at all. _They had
only editors or compilers._ What I mean is, that those who enriched the
old Christian literature with these Gospels did not go to work as
independent writers and compose their own narratives out of the accounts
they had collected, but simply took up the different stories or sets of
stories which they found current in the _oral_ tradition or already
reduced to writing, _adding here_ and _expanding there_, and so sent out
into the world a very artless kind of composition. These works were
then, from time to time, somewhat enriched by _introductory matter or
interpolations_ from the hands of later Christians, and perhaps were
modified a little here and there. Our first two Gospels appear to have
passed through more than one such revision. The third, whose writer says
in his preface, that 'many had undertaken to put together a narrative
(Gospel),' before him, appears to proceed from a single collecting,
arranging, and modifying hand." (Ibid. p. 29.)
[463:2] "Christiani doctores non in vulgus prodebant libros sacros,
licet soleant plerique aliteropinari, erant tantum in manibus
clericorum, priora per sæcula." (Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 48.)
[463:3] Mosheim: vol. i. pt. 2, ch. ii.
[463:4] General Survey of the Canon, p. 459.
[464:1] Credibility of the Gospels.
[464:2] Marsh's Michaelis, vol. ii. p. 160. The Sinaitic MS. is believed
by Tischendorf to belong to the fourth century.
[464:3] Ibid. p. 368.
[464:4] Eusebius: Ecclesiastical Hist. lib. 3, ch. xxii.
[465:1] The Science of Religion, pp. 30, 31.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
EXPLANATION.
After what we have seen concerning the numerous virgin-born, crucified
and resurrected Saviours, believed on in the Pagan world for so many
centuries before the time assigned for the birth of the Christian
Saviour, the questions naturally arise: were they real personages? did
they ever exist in the flesh? whence came these stories concerning them?
have they a foundation in truth, or are they simply creations of the
imagination?
The _historical_ theory--according to which _all_ the persons mentioned
in mythology were once real human beings, and the legends and fabulous
traditions relating to them were merely the additions and embellishments
of later times--which was so popular with scholars of the last century,
has been altogether abandoned.
Under the historical point of view the gods are mere deified mortals,
either heroes who have been deified after their death, or
Pontiff-chieftains who have passed themselves off for gods, and who, it
is gratuitously supposed, found people stupid enough to believe in their
pretended divinity. This was the manner in which, formerly, writers
explained the mythology of nations of antiquity; but a method that
pre-supposed an historical Crishna, an historical Osiris, an historical
Mithra, an historical Hercules, an historical Apollo, or an historical
Thor, was found untenable, and therefore, does not, at the present day,
stand in need of a refutation. As a writer of the early part of the
present century said:
"We shall never have an ancient history worthy of the perusal
of men of common sense, till we cease treating poems as
history, and send back such personages as Hercules, Theseus,
Bacchus, etc., to the heavens, whence their history is taken,
and whence they never descended to the earth."
The historical theory was succeeded by the _allegorical_ theory, which
supposes that all the myths of the ancients were _allegorical_ and
_symbolical_, and contain some moral, religious, or philosophical truth
or historical fact under the form of an allegory, which came in process
of time to be understood literally.
In the preceding pages we have spoken of the several virgin-born,
crucified and resurrected Saviours, as real personages. We have
attributed to these individuals words and acts, and have regarded the
words and acts recorded in the several sacred books from which we have
quoted, as said and done by them. But in doing this, we have simply used
the language of others. These gods and heroes were not real personages;
_they are merely personifications of the_ SUN. As Prof. Max Müller
observes in his Lectures on the Science of Religion:
"One of the earliest objects that would strike and stir the
mind of man, and for which a _sign_ or a _name_ would soon be
wanted, is surely the _Sun_.[467:1] It is very hard for us to
realize the feelings with which the first dwellers on the
earth looked upon the Sun, or to understand fully what they
meant by a morning prayer or a morning sacrifice. Perhaps
there are few people who have watched a sunrise more than once
or twice in their life; few people who have ever known the
meaning of a morning prayer, or a morning sacrifice. But think
of man at the very dawn of time. . . . think of the Sun
awakening the eyes of man from sleep, and his mind from
slumber! Was not the sunrise to him the first wonder, the
first beginning of all reflection, all thought, all
philosophy? Was it not to him the first revelation, the first
beginning of all trust, of all religion? . . . .
"Few nations only have preserved in their ancient poetry some
remnants of the natural awe with which the earlier dwellers on
the earth saw that brilliant being slowly rising from out of
the darkness of the night, raising itself by its own might
higher and higher, till it stood triumphant on the arch of
heaven, and then descended and sank down in its fiery glory
into the dark abyss of the heaving and hissing sea. In the
hymns of the _Veda_, the poet still wonders whether the Sun
will rise again; he asks how he can climb the vault of heaven?
why he does not fall back? why there is no dust on his path?
And when the rays of the morning rouse him from sleep and call
him back to new life, when he sees the Sun, as he says,
stretching out his golden arms to bless the world and rescue
it from the terror of darkness, he exclaims, 'Arise, our life,
our spirit has come back! the darkness is gone, the light
approaches.'"
Many years ago, the learned Sir William Jones said:
"We must not be surprised at finding, on a close examination,
that the characters of all the Pagan deities, male and female,
melt into each other, and at last into one or two; for it
seems as well founded opinion, that the whole crowd of gods
and goddesses of ancient Rome, and modern Varānes, mean only
the powers of nature, and principally those of the SUN,
expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful
names."[467:2]
Since the first learned president of the Royal Asiatic Society paved
the way for the science of _comparative mythology_, much has been
learned on this subject, so that, as the Rev. George W. Cox remarks,
"recent discussions on the subject seem to justify the conviction that
the foundations of the science of _comparative mythology_ have been
firmly laid, and that its method is unassailable."[468:1]
If we wish to find the gods and goddesses of the ancestors of our race,
we must look to the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the earth, the
sea, the dawn, the clouds, the wind, &c., _which they personified and
worshiped_. That these have been the gods and goddesses of all nations
of antiquity, is an established fact.[468:2]
The words which had denoted the sun and moon would denote not merely
living things but living persons. From personification to deification
the steps would be but few; and the process of disintegration would at
once furnish the materials for a vast fabric of mythology. All the
expressions which had attached a living force to natural objects would
remain as the description of personal and anthropomorphous gods. Every
word would become an attribute, and all ideas, once grouped around a
simple object, would branch off into distinct personifications. The sun
had been the lord of light, the driver of the chariot of the day; he had
toiled and labored for the sons of men, and sunk down to rest, after a
hard battle, in the evening. But now the lord of light would be Phoibos
Apollon, while Helios would remain enthroned in his fiery chariot, and
his toils and labors and death-struggles would be transferred to
Hercules. The violet clouds which greet his rising and his setting would
now be represented by herds of cows which feed in earthly pastures.
There would be other expressions which would still remain as floating
phrases, not attached to any definite deities. These would gradually be
converted into incidents in the life of heroes, and be woven at length
into systematic narratives. Finally, these gods or heroes, and the
incidents of their mythical career, would receive each "a local
habitation and a name." _These would remain as genuine history, when the
origin and meaning of the words had been either wholly or in part
forgotten._
For the proofs of these assertions, the Vedic poems furnish indisputable
evidence, that such as this was the origin and growth of Greek and
Teutonic mythology. In these poems, the names of many, perhaps of most,
of the Greek gods, indicate natural objects which, if endued with life,
have not been reduced to human personality. In them Daphne is still
simply the morning twilight ushering in the splendor of the new born
sun; the cattle of Helios there are still the light-colored clouds which
the dawn leads out into the fields of the sky. There the idea of
Hercules has not been separated from the image of the toiling and
struggling sun, and the glory of the life-giving Helios has not been
transferred to the god of Delos and Pytho. In the Vedas the myths of
Endymion, of Kephalos and Prokris, Orpheus and Eurydike, are exhibited
in the form of detached mythical phrases, which furnished for each their
germ. The analysis may be extended indefinitely: but the conclusion can
only be, that in the Vedic language we have the foundation, not only of
the glowing legends of Hellas, but of the dark and sombre mythology of
the Scandinavian and the Teuton. Both alike have grown up chiefly from
names which have been grouped around the sun; but the former has been
grounded on those expressions which describe the recurrence of day and
night, the latter on the great tragedy of nature, in the alternation of
summer and winter.
Of this vast mass of solar myths, some have emerged into independent
legends, others have furnished the groundwork of whole epics, others
have remained simply as floating tales whose intrinsic beauty no poet
has wedded to his verse.[469:1]
"The results obtained from the examination of language in its several
forms leaves no room for doubt that the general system of mythology has
been traced to its fountain head. We can no longer shut our eyes to the
fact that there was a stage in the history of human speech, during which
all the abstract words in constant use among ourselves were utterly
unknown, when men had formed no notions of virtue or prudence, of
thought and intellect, of slavery or freedom, but spoke only of the man
who was strong, who could point the way to others and choose one thing
out of many, of the man who was not bound to any other and able to do as
he pleased.
"That even this stage was not the earliest in the history of language is
now a growing opinion among philologists; but for the _comparison_ of
legends current in different countries it is not necessary to carry the
search further back. Language without words denoting abstract qualities
implies a condition of thought in which men were only awakening to a
sense of the objects which surrounded them, and points to a time when
the world was to them full of strange sights and sounds, some beautiful,
some bewildering, some terrific, when, in short, they knew little of
themselves beyond the vague consciousness of their existence, and
nothing of the phenomena of the world without. _In such a state they
could but attribute to all that they saw or touched or heard, a life
which was like their own in its consciousness, its joys, and its
sufferings._ That power of sympathizing with nature which we are apt to
regard as the peculiar gift of the poet was then shared alike by all.
This sympathy was not the result of any effort, it was inseparably bound
up with the words which rose to their lips. It implied no special purity
of heart or mind; it pointed to no Arcadian paradise where shepherds
knew not how to wrong or oppress or torment each other. We say that the
morning light rests on the mountains; they said that the sun was
greeting his bride, as naturally as our own poet would speak of the
sunlight clasping the earth, or the moonbeams as kissing the sea.
"We have then before us a stage of language corresponding to a stage in
the history of the human mind _in which all sensible objects were
regarded as instinct with a conscious life_. The varying phases of that
life were therefore described as truthfully as they described their own
feelings or sufferings; and hence every phase became a picture. But so
long as the conditions of their life remained unchanged, they knew
perfectly what the picture meant, and ran no risk of confusing one with
another. Thus they had but to describe the things which they saw, felt,
or heard, in order to keep up an inexhaustible store of phrases
faithfully describing the facts of the world from their point of view.
This language was indeed the result of an observation not less keen than
that by which the inductive philosopher extorts the secrets of the
natural world. Nor was its range much narrower. Each object received its
own measure of attention, and no one phenomenon was so treated as to
leave no room for others in their turn. They could not fail to note the
changes of days and years, of growth and decay, of calm and storm; _but
the objects which so changed were to them living things, and the rising
and setting of the sun, the return of winter and summer, became a drama
in which the actors were their enemies or their friends_.
"That this is a strict statement of facts in the history of the human
mind, philology alone would abundantly prove; but not a few of these
phrases have come down to us in their earliest form, and point to the
long-buried stratum of language of which they are the fragments. _These
relics exhibit in their germs the myths which afterwards became the
legends of gods and heroes with human forms, and furnished the
groundwork of the epic poems, whether of the eastern or the western
world._
"The mythical or mythmaking language of mankind had no partialities; and
if the career of the _Sun_ occupies a large extent of the horizon, we
cannot fairly simulate ignorance of the cause. Men so placed would not
fail to put into words the thoughts or emotions roused in them by the
varying phases of that mighty world on which we, not less than they,
feel that our life depends, although we may know something more of its
nature.
"Thus grew up a multitude of expressions which described the sun as the
child of the night, as the destroyer of the darkness, as the lover of
the dawn and the dew--of phrases which would go on to speak of him as
killing the dew with his spears, and of forsaking the dawn as he rose in
the heaven. The feeling that the fruits of the earth were called forth
by his warmth would find utterance in words which spoke of him as the
friend and the benefactor of man; while the constant recurrence of his
work would lead them to describe him as a being constrained to toil for
others, as doomed to travel over many lands, and as finding everywhere
things on which he could bestow his love or which he might destroy by
his power. His journey, again, might be across cloudless skies, or amid
alternations of storm and calm; his light might break fitfully through
the clouds, or be hidden for many a weary hour, to burst forth at last
with dazzling splendor as he sank down in the western sky. He would thus
be described as facing many dangers and many enemies, none of whom,
however, may arrest his course; as sullen, or capricious, or resentful;
as grieving for the loss of the dawn whom he had loved, or as nursing
his great wrath and vowing a pitiless vengeance. Then as the veil was
rent at eventide, they would speak of the chief, who had long remained
still, girding on his armor; or of the wanderer throwing off his
disguise, and seizing his bow or spear to smite his enemies; of the
invincible warrior whose face gleams with the flush of victory when the
fight is over, as he greets the fair-haired Dawn who closes, as she had
begun, the day. To the wealth of images thus lavished on the daily life
and death of the Sun there would be no limit. He was the child of the
morning, or her husband, or her destroyer; he forsook her and he
returned to her, either in calm serenity or only to sink presently in
deeper gloom.
"So with other sights and sounds. The darkness of night brought with it
a feeling of vague horror and dread; the return of daylight cheered them
with a sense of unspeakable gladness; and thus the Sun who scattered
the black shade of night would be the mighty champion doing battle with
the biting snake which lurked in its dreary hiding-place. But as the Sun
accomplishes his journey day by day through the heaven, the character of
the seasons is changed. The buds and blossoms of spring-time expand in
the flowers and fruits of summer, and the leaves fall and wither on the
approach of winter. Thus the daughter of the earth would be spoken of as
dying or as dead, as severed from her mother for five or six weary
months, not to be restored to her again until the time for her return
from the dark land should once more arrive. But as no other power than
that of the Sun can recall vegetation to life, this child of the earth
would be represented as buried in a sleep from which the touch of the
Sun alone could arouse her, when he slays the frost and cold which lie
like snakes around her motionless form.
"_That these phrases would furnish the germs of myths or legends teeming
with human feeling, as soon as the meaning of the phrases were in part
or wholly forgotten, was as inevitable as that in the infancy of our
race men should attribute to all sensible objects the same kind of life
which they were conscious of possessing themselves._"
Let us compare the history of the _Saviour_ which we have already seen,
with that of the _Sun_, as it is found in the _Vedas_.
We can follow in the _Vedic_ hymns, step by step, the development which
changes the _Sun_ from a mere luminary into a "_Creator_,"
"_Preserver_," "_Ruler_," and "_Rewarder of the World_"--in fact, into a
_Divine or Supreme Being_.
The first step leads us from the mere light of the Sun to that light
which in the morning wakes man from sleep, and seems to give new life,
not only to man, but to the whole of nature. He who wakes us in the
morning, who recalls all nature to new life, is soon called "_The Giver
of Daily Life_."
Secondly, by another and bolder step, the Giver of Daily Light and Life
becomes the giver of light and life in general. _He who brings light and
life to-day, is the same who brought light and life on the first of
days._ As light is the beginning of the day, so light was the beginning
of creation, and the Sun, from being a mere light-bringer or life-giver,
becomes a Creator, and, if a Creator, then soon also a Ruler of the
World.
Thirdly, as driving away the dreaded darkness of the night, and likewise
as fertilizing the earth, the Sun is conceived as a "Defender" and kind
"Protector" of all living things.
Fourthly, the Sun sees everything, both that which is good and that
which is evil; and how natural therefore that the evil-doer should be
told that the sun sees what no human eye may have seen, and that the
innocent, when all other help fails him, should appeal to the sun to
attest his guiltlessness!
Let us examine now, says Prof. Müller, from whose work we have quoted
the above, a few passages (from the _Rig-Veda_) illustrating every one
of these perfectly natural transitions.
"In hymn vii. we find the Sun invoked as '_The Protector of
everything that moves or stands, of all that exists_.'"
"Frequent allusion is made to the Sun's power of seeing
everything. The stars flee before the all-seeing Sun, like
thieves (R. V. vii.). He sees the right and the wrong among
men (Ibid.). He who looks upon the world, knows also all the
thoughts in men (Ibid.)."
"As the Sun sees everything and knows everything, he is asked
to forget and forgive what he alone has seen and knows (R. V.
iv.)."
"The Sun is asked to drive away illness and bad dreams (R. V.
x.)."
"Having once, and more than once, been invoked as the
life-bringer, the Sun is also called the breath or life of all
that moves and rests (R. V. i.); and lastly, he becomes _the
maker of all things_, by whom all the worlds have been brought
together (R. V. x.), and . . . Lord of man and of all living
creatures."
"He is the God among gods (R. V. i.); he is the divine leader
of all the gods (R. V. viii.)."
"He alone rules the whole world (R. V. v.). The laws which he
has established are firm (R. V. iv.), and the other gods not
only praise him (R. V. vii.), but have to follow him as their
leader (R. V. v.)."[473:1]
That the history of _Christ_ Jesus, the Christian Saviour,--"the true
_Light_, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,"[473:2]--is
simply the history of the _Sun_--the real Saviour of mankind--is
demonstrated beyond a doubt from the following indisputable facts:
1. _The birth of Christ Jesus_ is said to have taken place at _early
dawn_[473:3] on the 25th day of December. Now, this is the _Sun's
birthday_. At the commencement of the sun's apparent annual revolution
round the earth, he was said to have been born, and, on the first moment
after midnight of the 24th of December, all the heathen nations of the
earth, as if by common consent, celebrated the accouchement of the
"_Queen of Heaven_," of the "_Celestial Virgin of the Sphere_," and the
birth of the god _Sol_. On that day the sun having fully entered the
winter solstice, the _Sign of the Virgin_ was rising on the eastern
horizon. The woman's symbol of this stellar sign was represented first
by ears of corn, then with a new-born male child in her arms. Such was
the picture of the _Persian_ sphere cited by Aben-Ezra:
"The division of the first decan of the Virgin represents a
beautiful virgin with flowing hair, sitting in a chair, with
two ears of corn in her hand, and suckling an infant called
IESUS by some nations, and _Christ_ in Greek."[474:1]
This denotes the _Sun_, which, at the moment of the winter solstice,
precisely when the Persian magi drew the horoscope of the new year, was
placed on the bosom of the Virgin, rising heliacally in the eastern
horizon. On this account he was figured in their astronomical pictures
under the form of a child suckled by a chaste virgin.[474:2]
Thus we see that Christ Jesus was born on the same day as Buddha,
Mithras, Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis and other
_personifications of the_ SUN.[474:3]
2. _Christ Jesus was born of a Virgin._ In this respect he is also the
_Sun_, for 'tis the sun alone who can be born of an immaculate virgin,
who conceived him without carnal intercourse, and who is still, after
the birth of her child, a virgin.
This Virgin, of whom the Sun, the true "Saviour of Mankind," is born, is
either the bright and beautiful _Dawn_,[474:4] or the dark
_Earth_,[474:5] or _Night_.[474:6] Hence we have, as we have already
seen, the _Virgin_, or _Virgo_, as one of the signs of the
zodiac.[474:7]
This Celestial Virgin was feigned to be a mother. She is represented in
the Indian Zodiac of Sir William Jones, with ears of corn in one hand,
and the lotus in the other. In Kircher's Zodiac of Hermes, she has corn
in both hands. In other planispheres of the Egyptian priests she carries
ears of corn in one hand, and the infant Saviour _Horus_ in the other.
In Roman Catholic countries, she is generally represented with the
child in one hand, and the lotus or lily in the other. In Vol. II. of
Montfaucon's work, she is represented as a female nursing a child, with
ears of corn in her hand, and the legend IAO. She is seated on clouds, a
star is at her head. The reading of the Greek letters, from right to
left, show this to be very ancient.
In the Vedic hymns Aditi, _the Dawn_, is called the "_Mother of the
Gods_." "She is the mother with powerful, terrible, with _royal sons_."
She is said to have given birth to the _Sun_.[475:1] "As the _Sun_ and
all the _solar deities_ rise from the _east_," says Prof. Max Müller,
"we can well understand how Aditi (the Dawn) came to be called the
'Mother of the Bright Gods.'"[475:2]
The poets of the Veda indulged freely in theogonic speculations without
being frightened by any contradictions. They knew of Indra as the
greatest of gods, they knew of Agni as the god of gods, they knew of
Varuna as the ruler of all; but they were by no means startled at the
idea that their Indra had a mother, or that Varuna was nursed in the lap
of Aditi. All this was true to nature; for their god was the _Sun_, and
the mother who bore and nursed him was the _Dawn_.[475:3]
We find in the _Vishnu Purana_, that Devaki (the virgin mother of the
Hindoo Saviour Crishna, whose history, as we have seen, corresponds in
most every particular with that of Christ Jesus) _is called
Aditi_,[475:4] which, in the _Rig-Veda_, is the name for the _Dawn_.
Thus we see the legend is complete. Devaki is Aditi, Aditi is the Dawn,
and the Dawn is the Virgin Mother. "The Saviour of Mankind" who is born
of her is the Sun, the Sun is Crishna, and Crishna is Christ.
In the _Mahabharata_, Crishna is also represented as the "Son of
_Aditi_."[475:5] As the hour of his birth grew near, the mother became
more beautiful, and her form more brilliant.[475:6]
_Indra_, the sun, who was worshiped in some parts of India as a
_Crucified God_, is also represented in the Vedic hymns as the _Son of
the Dawn_. He is said to have been born of Dahana, who is Daphne, a
personification of the Dawn.[475:7]
The _humanity_ of this SOLAR GOD-MAN, this demiurge, is strongly
insisted on in the _Rig-Veda_. He is the son of God, but also the son
of Aditi. He is Purusha, the man, the male. Agni is frequently called
the "Son of man." It is expressly explained that the titles Agni, Indra,
Mitra, &c., all refer to _one Sun god_ under "many names." And when we
find the name of a mortal, _Yama_, who once lived upon earth, included
among these names, the humanity of the demiurge becomes still more
accentuated, and we get at the root idea.
_Horus_, the Egyptian Saviour, was the son of the virgin _Isis_. Now,
this Isis, in Egyptian mythology, is the same as the virgin Devaki in
Hindoo mythology. She is the _Dawn_.[476:1] _Isis_, as we have already
seen, is represented suckling the infant Horus, and, in the words of
Prof. Renouf, we may say, "in whose lap can the _Sun_ be nursed more
fitly than in that of the _Dawn_?"[476:2]
Among the goddesses of Egypt, the highest was Neith, who reigned
inseparably with Amun in the upper sphere. She was called "Mother of the
gods," "Mother of the sun." She was the feminine origin of all things,
as Amun was the male origin. She held the same rank at Sais as Amun did
at Thebes. Her temples there are said to have exceeded in colossal
grandeur anything ever seen before. On one of these was the celebrated
inscription thus deciphered by Champollion:
"I am all that has been, all that is, all that will be. No
mortal has ever raised the veil that conceals me. _My
offspring is the Sun._"
She was mother of the _Sun_-god _Ra_, and, says Prof. Renouf, "is
commonly supposed to represent _Heaven_; but some expressions which are
hardly applicable to heaven, render it more probable that she is one of
the many names of the _Dawn_."[476:3]
If we turn from Indian and Egyptian, to Grecian mythology, we shall also
find that their _Sun-gods_ and _solar heroes_ are born of the same
virgin mother. Theseus was said to have been born of Aithra, "_the pure
air_," and Œdipus of Iokaste, "_the violet light of morning_."
Perseus was born of the virgin Danae, and was called the "_Son of the
bright morning_."[476:4] In Iô, the mother of the "sacred bull,"[476:5]
the mother also of Hercules, we see the _violet-tinted morning_ from
which the sun is born; all these gods and heroes being, like _Christ_
Jesus, _personifications of the Sun_.[476:6]
"The Saviour of Mankind" was also represented as being born of the
"_dusky mother_," which accounts for many Pagan, and so-called
Christian, goddesses being represented _black_.[477:1] This is the _dark
night_, who for many weary hours travails with the birth of her child.
The Sun, which scatters the darkness, is also the child of the darkness,
and so the phrase naturally went _that he was born of her_. Of the two
legends related in the poems afterwards combined in the "Hymn to
Apollo," the former relates the birth of Apollo, the _Sun_, from Leto,
the _Darkness_, which is called his mother.[477:2] In this case, Leto
would be _personified_ as a "black virgin," either with or without the
child in her arms.
The _dark earth_ was also represented as being the mother of the god
Sun, who apparently came out of, or was born of her, in the East,[477:3]
as Minos (the sun) was represented to have been born of Ida (the
earth).[477:4]
In Hindoo mythology, the _Earth_, under the name of _Prithivi_, receives
a certain share of honors as one of the primitive goddesses of the Veda,
being thought of as the "_kind mother_." Moreover, various _deities_
were regarded as the progeny resulting from the fancied union of the
Earth with Dyaus (_Heaven_).[477:5]
Our Aryan forefathers looked up to the _heavens_ and they gave it the
name of _Dyaus_, from a root-word which means "_to shine_." And when,
out of the forces and forms of nature, they afterwards fashioned other
gods, this name of Dyaus became _Dyaus pitar_, the _Heaven-father_, or
Lord of All; and in far later times, when the western Aryans had found
their home in Europe, the _Dyaus pitar_ of the central Asian land became
the _Zeupater_ of the Greeks, and the _Jupiter_ of the Romans, and the
first part of his name gave _us_ the word _Deity_.
According to Egyptian mythology, Isis was also the Earth.[477:6] Again,
from the union of Seb and Nut sprung the mild Osiris. Seb is the
_Earth_, Nut is _Heaven_, and Osiris is the _Sun_.[477:7]
Tacitus, the Roman historian, speaking of the Germans in A. D. 98, says:
"There is nothing in these several tribes that merit
attention, except that they all agree in worshiping the
goddess _Earth_, or as they call her, _Herth_, whom they
consider as the common mother of all."[477:8]
These virgin mothers, and virgin goddesses of antiquity, were also, at
times, personifications of the _Moon_, or of Nature.[478:1]
Who is "God the _Father_," who overshadows the maiden? The overshadowing
of the maiden by "God the Father," whether he be called Zeus, Jupiter or
Jehovah, is simply the _Heaven_, the _Sky_, the "_All-father_,"[478:2]
looking down upon with love, and overshadowing the maiden, the broad
flushing light of _Dawn_, or the _Earth_. From this union the _Sun_ is
born without any carnal intercourse. The _mother_ is yet a _virgin_.
This is illustrated in Hindoo mythology by the union of Pritrivi,
"_Mother Earth_," with Dyaus, "Heaven." Various deities were regarded as
their progeny.[478:3] In the Vedic hymns the _Sun_--the Lord and
Saviour, the Redeemer and Preserver of Mankind--is frequently called the
"_Son of the Sky_."[478:4]
According to Egyptian mythology, Seb (the _Earth_) is overshadowed by
Nut (_Heaven_), the result of this union being the beneficent Lord and
Saviour, Osiris.[478:5] The same thing is to be found in ancient Grecian
mythology. Zeus or Jupiter is the _Sky_,[478:6] and Danae, Leto,
Iokaste, Io and others, are the _Dawn_, or _the violet light of
morning_.[478:7]
"The _Sky_ appeared to men (says Plutarch), to perform the
functions of a _Father_, as the _Earth_ those of a _Mother_.
The sky was the father, for it cast seed into the bosom of the
earth, which in receiving them became fruitful, and brought
forth, and was the mother."[479:1]
This union has been sung in the following verses by Virgil:
"Tum pater omnipotens fecundis imbribis æther
Conjugis in grenium lætæ descendit."
(Geor. ii.)
The _Phenician_ theology is founded on the same principles. _Heaven_ and
_Earth_ (called Ouranos and Ghè) are at the head of a genealogy of æons,
whose adventures are conceived in the mythological style of these
physical allegorists.[479:2]
In the Samothracian mysteries, which seem to have been the most
anciently established ceremonies of the kind in Europe, the _Heaven_ and
the _Earth_ were worshiped as a male and female _divinity_, and as the
_parents of all things_.[479:3]
The Supreme God (the _Al-fader_), of the ancient _Scandinavians_ was
_Odin_, a personification of the _Heavens_. The principal goddess among
them was _Frigga_, a personification of the _Earth_. It was the opinion
among these people that this Supreme Being or Celestial God had united
with the Earth (Frigga) to produce "Baldur the Good" (the Sun), who
corresponds to the Apollo of the Greeks and Romans, and the Osiris of
the Egyptians.[479:4]
_Xiuletl_, in the Mexican language, signifies _Blue_, and hence was a
name which the Mexican gave to _Heaven_, from which _Xiuleticutli_ is
derived, an epithet signifying "_the God of Heaven_," which they
bestowed upon _Tezcatlipoca_, who was the "Lord of All," the "Supreme
God." He it was who overshadowed the Virgin of Tula, Chimelman, who
begat the Saviour Quetzalcoatle (the Sun).
3. _His birth was foretold by a star._ This is the bright _morning
star_--
"Fairest of stars, last in the train of Night,
If better, thou belongst not to the Dawn,
Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet"--
which heralds the birth of the god _Sol_, the beneficent Saviour.
A glance at a geography of the heavens will show the "chaste, pure,
immaculate Virgin, suckling an infant," preceded by a _Star_, which
rises immediately preceding the Virgin and her child. This can truly be
called "_his Star_," which informed the "Wise Men," the
"Magi"--_Astrologers and Sun-worshipers_--and "the shepherds who watched
their flocks by night" that the Saviour of Mankind was about to be born.
4. _The Heavenly Host sang praises._ All nature smiles at the birth of
the Heavenly Being. "To him all angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all
the powers therein." "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will towards men." "The quarters of the horizon are irradiate with
joy, as if moonlight was diffused over the whole earth." "The spirits
and nymphs of heaven dance and sing." "Caressing breezes blow, and a
marvelous light is produced." For the Lord and Saviour is born, "to give
joy and peace to men and Devas, _to shed light in the dark places_, and
to give sight to the blind."[480:1]
5. _He was visited by the Magi._ This is very natural, for the Magi were
_Sun-worshipers_, and at early dawn on the 25th of December, the
astrologers of the Arabs, Chaldeans, and other Oriental nations, greeted
the infant Saviour with gold, frankincense and myrrh. They started to
salute their God long before the rising of the Sun, and having ascended
a high mountain, they waited anxiously for his birth, facing the East,
and there hailed his first rays with incense and prayer.[480:2] The
shepherds also, who remained in the open air watching their flocks by
night, were in the habit of prostrating themselves, and paying homage to
their god, the Sun. And, like the poet of the Veda, they said:
"Will the powers of darkness be conquered by the _god of light_?"
And when the Sun rose, they wondered how, just born, he was so mighty.
They greeted him:
"Hail, Orient Conqueror of Gloomy Night."
And the human eye felt that it could not bear the brilliant majesty of
him whom they called, "The Life, the Breath, the Brilliant Lord and
Father." And they said:
"Let us worship again the _Child of Heaven_, the Son of
Strength, Arusha, the Bright Light of the Sacrifice." "He
rises as a mighty flame, he stretches out his wide arms, he is
even like the wind." "His light is powerful, and his (virgin)
mother, the Dawn, gives him the best share, the first worship
among men."[480:3]
6. _He was born in a Cave._ In this respect also, the history of
_Christ_ Jesus corresponds with that of other Sun-gods and Saviours,
for they are nearly all represented as being born in a cave or dungeon.
This is the dark abode from which the wandering _Sun_ starts in the
morning.[481:1] As the Dawn springs fully armed from the forehead of the
cloven Sky, so the eye first discerns the blue of heaven, as the first
faint arch of light is seen in the East. This arch is the cave in which
the infant is nourished until he reaches his full strength--in other
words, until the day is fully come.
As the hour of his birth drew near, the mother became more beautiful,
her form more brilliant, while the dungeon was filled with a heavenly
light as when Zeus came to Danae in a golden shower.[481:2]
At length the child is born, and a halo of serene light encircles his
cradle, just as the Sun appears at early dawn in the East, in all its
splendor. His presence reveals itself there, in the dark cave, by his
first rays, which brightens the countenances of his mother and others
who are present at his birth.[481:3]
6. _He was ordered to be put to death._ All the Sun-gods are fated to
bring ruin upon their parents or the _reigning monarch_.[481:4] For this
reason, they attempt to prevent his birth, and failing in this, seek to
destroy him when born. Who is the dark and wicked Kansa, or his
counterpart Herod? He is _Night_, who reigns supreme, but who must lose
his power when the young prince of glory, the Invincible, is born.
The _Sun_ scatters the _Darkness_; and so the phrase went that the child
was to be the destroyer of the reigning monarch, or his parent, _Night_;
and oracles, and magi, it was said, warned the latter of the doom which
would overtake him. The newly-born babe is therefore ordered to be put
to death by the sword, or exposed on the bare hillside, as the Sun seems
to rest on the Earth (Ida) at its rising.[481:5]
In oriental mythology, the destroying principle is generally
represented as a serpent or dragon.[482:1] Now, the position of the
sphere on Christmas-day, the birthday of the Sun, shows the Serpent all
but touching, and certainly aiming at the woman--that is, the figure of
the constellation _Virgo_--who suckles the child Iessus in her arms.
Thus we have it illustrated in the story of the snake who was sent to
kill Hercules, when an infant in his cradle;[482:2] also in the story of
Typhon, who sought the life of the infant Saviour Horus. Again, it is
illustrated in the story of the virgin mother Astrea, with her babe
beset by Orion, and of Latona, the mother of Apollo, when pursued by the
monster.[482:3] And last, that of the virgin mother Mary, with her babe
beset by Herod. But like Hercules, Horus, Apollo, Theseus, Romulus,
Cyrus and other _solar heroes_, _Christ_ Jesus has yet a long course
before him. Like them, he grows up both wise and strong, and the "old
Serpent" is discomfited by him, just as the sphynx and the dragon are
put to night by others.
7. _He was tempted by the devil._ The temptation by, and victory over
the evil one, whether Mara or Satan, is the victory of the _Sun_ over
the clouds of storm and darkness.[482:4] Growing up in obscurity, the
day comes when he makes himself known, tries himself in his first
battles with his gloomy foes, and _shines_ without a rival. He is rife
for his destined mission, but is met by the demon of storm, who runs to
dispute with him in the duel of the storm. In this struggle against
darkness the beneficent hero remains the conqueror, the gloomy army of
Mara, or Satan, broken and rent, is scattered; the Apearas, daughters of
the demon, the last light vapors which float in the heaven, try in vain
to clasp and retain the vanquisher; he disengages himself from their
embraces, repulses them; they writhe, lose their form, and vanish.
Free from every obstacle, and from every adversary, he sets in motion
across space his disk with a thousand rays, having avenged the attempts
of his eternal foe. He appears then in all his glory, and in his
sovereign splendor; the god has attained the summit of his course, it is
the moment of triumph.
8. _He was put to death on the cross._ The Sun has now reached his
extreme Southern limit, his career is ended, and he is at last overcome
by his enemies. The powers of _darkness_, and of _winter_, which had
sought in vain to wound him, have at length won the victory. The bright
Sun of summer is finally slain, _crucified in the heavens_, and pierced
by the arrow, spear or thorn of winter.[483:1] Before he dies, however,
he sees all his disciples--his retinue of light, and the _twelve_ hours
of the day, or the twelve months of the year--disappear in the
sanguinary mêlée of the clouds of the evening.
Throughout the tale, the _Sun-god_ was but fulfilling his doom. These
things must be. The suffering of a violent death was a necessary part of
the mythos; and, when his hour had come, he must meet his doom, as
surely as the Sun, once risen, must go across the sky, and then sink
down into his bed beneath the earth or sea. It was an iron fate from
which there was no escaping.
Crishna, the crucified Saviour of the Hindoos, is a personification of
the Sun crucified in the heavens. One of the names of the Sun in the
Vedic hymns is _Vishnu_,[483:2] and Crishna is Vishnu in human
form.[483:3]
In the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_ the _Sun_ is spoken of as "_stretching
out his arms_," in the heavens, "to bless the world, _and to rescue it
from the terror of darkness_."
Indra, the crucified Saviour worshiped in Nepal and Tibet,[484:1] is
identical with Crishna, the Sun.[484:2]
The principal Phenician deity, El, which, says Parkhurst, in his Hebrew
Lexicon, "was the very name the heathens gave to their god SOL, their
Lord or Ruler of the Hosts of Heaven," was called "_The Preserver_ (or
_Saviour_) of _the World_," for the benefit of which _he offered a
mystical sacrifice_.[484:3]
The crucified _Iao_ ("Divine Love" personified) is the crucified Adonis,
the Sun. The Lord and Saviour Adonis was called _Iao_.[484:4]
_Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, was crucified in the heavens. To the
Egyptian the cross was the symbol of immortality, an emblem of the
_Sun_, and the god himself was crucified to the tree, which denoted his
fructifying power.[484:5]
_Horus_ was also crucified in the heavens. He was represented, like
Crishna and Christ Jesus, with _outstretched arms in the vault of
heaven_.[484:6]
The story of the crucifixion of _Prometheus_ was allegorical, for
Prometheus was only a title of the SUN, expressing _providence_ or
_foresight_, wherefore his being _crucified_ in the extremities of the
earth, signified originally no more than the restriction of the power of
the SUN during the winter months.[484:7]
Who was _Ixion_, bound on the wheel? He was none other than the god
_Sol_, crucified in the heavens.[484:8] Whatever be the origin of the
name, _Ixion_ is the "_Sun of noonday_," crucified in the heavens, whose
four-spoked wheel, in the words of Pindar, is seen whirling in the
highest heaven.[484:9]
The _wheel_ upon which Ixion and criminals were said to have been
extended _was a cross_, although the name of the thing was dissembled
among Christians; it was a St. Andrew's cross, of which two spokes
confined the arms, and two the legs. (See Fig. No. 35.)
The allegorical tales of the triumphs and misfortunes of the _Sun_-gods
of the ancient Greeks and Romans, signify the alternate exertion of the
generative and destructive attributes.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 35]
_Hercules_ is torn limb from limb; and in this catastrophe we see the
_blood-red sunset_ which closes the career of Hercules.[485:1] The
Sun-god cannot rise to the life of the blessed gods until he has been
slain. The morning cannot come until the Eôs who closed the previous day
has faded away and died in the black abyss of night.
_Achilleus_ and _Meleagros_ represent alike the _short-lived Sun_, whose
course is one of toil for others, ending in an early death, after a
series of wonderful victories alternating with periods of darkness and
gloom.[485:2]
In the tales of the Trojan war, it is related of Achilleus that he
expires at the Skaian, or _western gates of the evening_. He is slain by
Paris, who here appears as the Pani, or dark power, who blots out the
light of the Sun from the heaven.[485:3]
We have also the story of _Adonis_, born of a virgin, and known in the
countries where he was worshiped as "The Saviour of Mankind," killed by
the wild _boar_, afterwards "rose from the dead, and ascended into
heaven." This Adonis, Adonai--in Hebrew "My Lord"--is simply the _Sun_.
He is crucified in the heavens, put to death by the wild boar, _i. e._,
_Winter_. "Babylon called Typhon or Winter _the boar_; they said he
killed Adonis or the fertile _Sun_."[485:4]
The _Crucified Dove_ worshiped by the ancients, was none other than the
crucified Sun. Adonis was called the _Dove_. At the ceremonies in honor
of his resurrection from the dead, the devotees said, "Hail to the Dove!
the Restorer of Light."[485:5] Fig. No. 35 is the "Crucified Dove" as
described by Pindar, the great lyric poet of Greece, born about 522 B.
C.
"We read in Pindar, (says the author of a learned work
entitled "Nimrod,") of the venerable bird Iynx bound to the
wheel, and of the pretended punishment of Ixion. But this
rotation was really no punishment, being, as Pindar saith,
_voluntary_, and prepared _by himself_ and _for himself_; or
if it was, it was appointed in derision of his false
pretensions, whereby he gave himself out as _the crucified
spirit of the world_." "The four spokes represent St. Andrew's
cross, adapted to the four limbs extended, and furnish perhaps
the oldest _profane_ allusion to the crucifixion. The same
cross of St. Andrew was the _Taw_, which Ezekiel commands them
to mark upon the foreheads of the faithful, as appears from
all Israelitish coins whereon that letter is engraved. The
same idea was familiar to Lucian, who calls T _the letter of
crucifixion_. Certainly, the veneration for the cross is very
ancient. Iynx, the bird of Mautic inspiration, bound to the
four-legged wheel, gives the notion of _Divine Love
crucified_. The wheel denotes the world, of which she is the
spirit, and the cross _the sacrifice made for that
world_."[486:1]
This "_Divine Love_," of whom Nimrod speaks, was "_The First-begotten
Son_" of the Platonists. The crucifixion of "_Divine Love_" is often
found among the Greeks. Iönah or Juno, according to the _Iliad_, was
bound with fetters, and _suspended in space_, between heaven and earth.
Ixion, Prometheus, Apollo of Miletus, (anciently the greatest and most
flourishing city of Ionia, in Asia Minor), were all crucified.[486:2]
Semi-Ramis was both a queen of unrivaled celebrity, and also a goddess,
worshiped under the form of a Dove. Her name signifies the _Supreme
Dove_. She is said to have been slain by the last survivor of her sons,
while others say, she flew away as a bird--a Dove. In both Grecian and
Hindoo histories this mystical queen Semiramis is said to have fought a
battle on the banks of the Indus, with a king called Staurobates, in
which she was defeated, and from which she flew away in the form of a
Dove. Of this Nimrod says:
"The name Staurobates, the king by whom Semiramis was finally
overpowered, _alluded to the cross on which she perished_,"
and that, "_the crucifixion was made into a glorious mystery
by her infatuated adorers_."[486:3]
Here again we have the crucified Dove, the _Sun_, for it is well known
that the ancients personified the Sun _female_ as well as male.
We have also the fable of the Crucified Rose, illustrated in the jewel
of the _Rosicrucians_. The jewel of the Rosicrucians is formed of a
transparent red stone, with a red _cross_ on one side, and a red _rose_
on the other--thus it is a _crucified rose_. "The Rossi, or
Rosy-crucians' idea concerning this emblematic red cross," says Hargrave
Jennings, in his _History of the Rosicrucians_, "probably came from the
fable of _Adonis_--_who was the Sun whom we have so often seen
crucified_--being changed into a red rose by Venus."[487:1]
The emblem of the _Templars_ is a red rose on a cross. "When it can be
done, it is surrounded with a glory, and placed on a calvary (Fig. No.
36). This is the Naurutz, Natsir, or Rose of Isuren, of Tamul, or
Sharon, or the Water Rose, the Lily Padma, Pena, Lotus, _crucified in
the heavens for the salvation of man_."[487:2]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 36.]
Christ Jesus was called the ROSE--the Rose of Sharon--of Isuren. He was
the renewed incarnation of _Divine Wisdom_. He was the son of Maia or
Maria. He was the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, which
bloweth in the month of his mother Maia. Thus, when the angel Gabriel
gives the salutation to the Virgin, he presents her with the lotus or
lily; as may be seen in hundreds of old pictures in Italy. We see
therefore that Adonis, "the Lord," "the Virgin-born," "the Crucified,"
"the Resurrected Dove," "the Restorer of Light," is one and the same
with the "Rose of Sharon," the crucified Christ Jesus.
Plato (429 B. C.) in his _Pimæus_, philosophizing about the Son of God,
says:
"The _next power_ to the Supreme God was decussated or figured
_in the shape of a cross on the universe_."
This brings to recollection the doctrine of certain so-called Christian
_heretics_, who maintained that Christ Jesus was crucified in the
heavens.
The _Chrèstos_ was the Logos, the _Sun_ was the manifestation of the
Logos or Wisdom to men; or, as it was held by some, it was his peculiar
habitation. The Sun being crucified at the time of the winter solstice
was represented by the young man slaying the _Bull_ (_an emblem of the
Sun_) in the Mithraic ceremonies, and the slain _lamb_ at the foot of
the cross in the Christian ceremonies. The Chrēst was the Logos, or
Divine Wisdom, or a portion of divine wisdom incarnate; in this sense
he is really the Sun or the solar power incarnate, and to him everything
applicable to the Sun will apply.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 37]
Fig. No. 37, taken from Mr. Lundy's "Monumental Christianity," is
evidently a representation of the Christian Saviour _crucified in the
heavens_. Mr. Lundy calls it "Crucifixion in Space," and believes that
it was intended for the Hindoo Saviour Crishna, who is also represented
crucified in space (See Fig. No. 8, Ch. XX.). This (Fig. 37) is exactly
in the form of a Romish crucifix, _but not fixed to a piece of wood_,
though the legs and feet are put together in the usual way. There is a
glory over it, _coming from above_, not shining _from the figure_, as is
generally seen in a Roman crucifix. It has a pointed _Parthian coronet_
instead of a crown of thorns. All the avatars, or incarnations of
Vishnu, are painted with Ethiopian or Parthian coronets. For these
reasons the Christian author will not own that it is a representation of
the "True Son of Justice," for he _was not_ crucified in space; but
whether it was intended to represent Crishna, Wittoba, or Jesus,[488:1]
it tells a secret: it shows that some one was represented _crucified in
the heavens_, and undoubtedly has something to do with "The next power
to the Supreme God," who, according to Plato, "was decussated or figured
_in the shape of a cross on the universe_."
Who was the crucified god whom the ancient Romans worshiped, and whom
they, according to Justin Martyr, represented as _a man on a cross_? Can
we doubt, after what we have seen, that he was this same _crucified
Sol_, whose birthday they annually celebrated on the 25th of December?
In the poetical tales of the ancient _Scandinavians_, the same legend is
found. Frey, _the Deity of the Sun_, was fabled to have been killed, at
the time of the winter solstice, by the same boar who put the god Adonis
to death, therefore a boar was annually offered to him at the great
feast of Yule.[489:1] "Baldur the Good," son of the supreme god Odin,
and the virgin-goddess Frigga, was also put to death by the sharp thorn
of winter.
The ancient _Mexican_ crucified Saviour, Quetzalcoatle, another
personification of the Sun, was sometimes represented as crucified in
space, _in the heavens_, in a circle of nineteen figures, the number of
the metonic cycle. A _serpent_ (the emblem of evil, darkness, and
winter) is depriving him of the organs of generation.[489:2]
We have seen in Chapter XXXIII. that Christ Jesus, and many of the
heathen saviours, healers, and preserving gods, were represented in the
form of a Serpent. This is owing to the fact that, _in one of its
attributes_, the Serpent was an emblem of the _Sun_. It may, at first,
appear strange that the Serpent should be an emblem of evil, and yet
also an emblem of the beneficent divinity; but, as Prof. Renouf remarks,
in his _Hibbert Lectures_, "The moment we understand the nature of a
myth, all impossibilities, contradictions, and immoralities disappear."
The serpent is an emblem of evil when represented with his _deadly
sting_; he is the emblem of eternity when represented _casting off his
skin_;[489:3] and an emblem of the Sun when represented _with his tail
in his mouth_, thus forming a circle.[489:4] Thus there came to be, not
only good, but also bad, serpents, both of which are referred to in the
narrative of the Hebrew exodus, but still more clearly in the struggle
between the good and the bad serpents of Persian mythology, which
symbolized Ormuzd, or Mithra, and the evil spirit Ahriman.[489:5]
As the Dove and the Rose, emblems of the Sun, were represented on the
cross, so was the Serpent.[489:6] The famous "Brazen Serpent," said to
have been "set up" by Moses in the wilderness, is called in the Targum
(the general term for the Aramaic versions of the Old Testament) the
SAVIOUR. It was probably a serpentine crucifix, as it is called a
_cross_ by Justin Martyr. The crucified serpent (Fig. No. 38) denoted
the _quiescent Phallos_, or the Sun after it had lost its power. It is
the Sun in winter, crucified on the tree, which denoted its fructifying
power.[490:1] As Mr. Wake remarks, "There can be no doubt that both the
Pillar (Phallus) and the Serpent were associated with many of the
_Sun-gods_ of antiquity."[490:2]
This is seen in Fig. No. 39, taken from an ancient medal, which
represents the serpent with rays of glory surrounding his head.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 38]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 39]
The Ophites, who venerated the serpent as an emblem of Christ Jesus, are
said to have maintained that the serpent of Genesis--who brought
_wisdom_ into the world--was Christ Jesus. The brazen serpent was called
the WORD by the Chaldee paraphrast. The Word, or Logos, was _Divine
Wisdom_, which was crucified; thus we have the cross, or Linga, or
Phallus, with the serpent upon it. Besides considering the serpent as
the emblem of Christ Jesus, or of the Logos, the Ophites are said to
have revered it as the cause of all the arts of civilized life. In
Chapter XII. we saw that several illustrious females were believed to
have been selected and impregnated by the Holy Ghost. In some cases, a
serpent was supposed to be the form which it assumed. This was the
incarnation of the Logos.
The serpent was held in great veneration by the ancients, who, as we
have seen, considered it as the symbol of the beneficent Deity, and an
emblem of eternity. As such it has been variously expressed on ancient
sculptures and medals in various parts of the globe.
Although generally, it did not always, symbolize the god _Sun_, or the
power of which the Sun is an emblem; but, invested with various
meanings, it entered widely into the primitive mythologies. As Mr.
Squire observes:
"It typified wisdom, power, duration, the _good_ and _evil_
principles, life, reproduction--in short, in Egypt, Syria,
Greece, India, China, Scandinavia, America, everywhere on the
globe, it has been a prominent emblem."[491:1]
The serpent was the symbol of Vishnu, the preserving god, the Saviour,
the _Sun_.[491:2] It was an emblem of the _Sun_-god Buddha, the
Angel-Messiah.[491:3] The Egyptian _Sun_-god Osiris, the Saviour, is
associated with the snake.[491:4] The Persian Mithra, the Mediator,
Redeemer, and Saviour, was symbolized by the serpent.[491:5] The
Phenicians represented their beneficent _Sun_-god Agathodemon, by a
serpent.[491:6] The serpent was, among the Greeks and Romans, the emblem
of a _beneficent genius_. Antipator of Sidon, calls the god Ammon, the
"Renowned Serpent."[491:7] The Grecian Hercules--the Sun-god--was
symbolized as a serpent; and so was Æsculapius and Apollo. The Hebrews,
who, as we have seen in Chapter XI., worshiped the god Sol, represented
him in the form of a serpent. This is the _seraph_--spoken of above--as
set up by Moses (Num. xxi. 3) and worshiped by the children of Israel.
SE RA PH is the singular of seraphim, meaning _Semilicé_--_splendor_,
_fire_, _light_--emblematic of the fiery disk of the Sun, and which,
under the name of _Nehush-tan_, "Serpent-dragon," was broken up by the
reforming Hezekiah.
The principal god of the _Aztecs_ was _Tonac_-atlcoatl, which means the
_Serpent Sun_.[491:8]
The Mexican virgin-born Lord and Saviour, Quetzalcoatle, was represented
in the form of a serpent. In fact, his name signifies "_Feathered
Serpent_." Quetzalcoatle was a personification of the _Sun_.[491:9]
Under the aspect of the _active principle_, we may rationally connect
the _Serpent_ and the _Sun_, as corresponding symbols of the
_reproductive_ or _creative power_. Figure No. 40 is a symbolical sign,
representing the disk of the _Sun_ encircled by the serpent _Uraeus_,
meaning the "KING SUN," or "ROYAL SUN," as it often surmounts the
persons of Egyptian monarchs, confirmed by the _emblem of_ LIFE
depending from the serpent's neck.[492:1]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 40]
The mysteries of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, in _Egypt_; Atys and Cybele,
in _Phrygia_; Ceres and Proserpine, at _Eleusis_; of Venus and Adonis,
in _Phenicia_; of Bona Dea and Priapus, in _Rome_, are all susceptible
of one explanation. They all set forth and illustrated, by solemn and
impressive rites, and _mystical symbols_, the grand phenomenon of
_nature_, especially as connected with the creation of things and the
perpetuation of life. In all, it is worthy of remark, the SERPENT was
more or less conspicuously introduced, and always as symbolical of the
invigorating or active energy of nature, the SUN.
We have seen (in Chapter XX.) that in early Christian art Christ Jesus
also was represented as a _crucified Lamb_. This crucified lamb is "the
Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world, and slain from the
foundation of the world."[492:2] In other words, the crucified lamb
typifies the _crucified Sun_, for the lamb was another symbol of the
Sun, as we shall presently see.
We find, then, that the stories of the crucifixions of the different
so-called SAVIOURS of mankind _all melt into ONE_, and that they are
_allegorical_, for "_Saviour_" was only a title of the _Sun_,[492:3] and
his being put to death on the cross, signifies no more than the
restriction of the power of the Sun in the winter quarter. With Justin
Martyr, then, we can say:
"There exists not a people, whether Greek or barbarian, or any
other race of men, by whatsoever appellation or manners they
may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture,
whether they dwell under the tents, or wander about in
crowded wagons, among whom prayers are not offered up in the
name of A CRUCIFIED SAVIOUR[493:1] to the Father and creator
of all things."[493:2]
9. "_And many women were there beholding afar off._"[493:3] The tender
mother who had watched over him at his birth, and the fair maidens whom
he has loved, will never forsake him. They yet remain with him, and
while their tears drop on his feet, which they kiss, their voices cheer
him in his last hour. In these we have the _Dawn_, who bore him, and the
fair and beautiful lights which flush the Eastern sky as the Sun sinks
or dies in the West.[493:4] Their tears are the tears of dew, such as
Eôs weeps at the death of her child.
All the Sun-gods forsake their homes and virgin mothers, and wander
through different countries doing marvellous things. Finally, at the end
of their career, the mother, from whom they were parted long ago, is by
their side to cheer them in their last hours.[493:5]
The ever-faithful women were to be found at the last scene in the life
of _Buddha_. Kasyapa having found the departed master's feet soiled and
wet, asked Nanda the cause of it. "He was told that a weeping woman had
embraced Gautama's feet shortly before his death, and that her tears had
fallen on his feet and left the marks on them."[493:6]
In his last hours, _Œdipous_ (the Sun) has been cheered by the
presence of Antigone.[493:7]
At the death of _Hercules_, Iole (_the fair-haired Dawn_) stands by his
side, cheering him to the last. With her gentle hands she sought to
soothe his pain, and with pitying words to cheer him in his woe. Then
once more the face of Hercules flushed with a deep joy, and he said:
"Ah, Iole, brightest of maidens, thy voice shall cheer me as I
sink down in the sleep of death. I saw and loved thee in the
bright _morning time_, and now again thou hast come, _in the
evening_, fair as the soft clouds which gather around the
_dying Sun_."
The _black mists_ were spreading over the sky, but still Hercules sought
to gaze on the fair face of Iole, and to comfort her in her sorrow.
"Weep not, Iole," he said, "my toil is done, and now is the
time for rest. I shall see thee again in the bright land which
is never trodden by the feet of night."
The same story is related in the legend of _Apollo_. The Dawn, from
whom he parted in the early part of his career, comes to his side at
_eventide_, and again meets him when his journey on earth has well nigh
come to an end.[494:1]
When the Lord _Prometheus_ was crucified on Mt. Caucasus, his especially
professed friend, Oceanus, the fisherman, as his name, Petræus,
indicates,[494:2] being unable to prevail on him to make his peace with
Jupiter, by throwing the cause of human redemption out of his
hands,[494:3] "forsook him and fled." None remained to be witnesses of
his dying agonies, but the chorus of ever amiable and ever-faithful
women, which also bewailed and lamented him, but were unable to subdue
his inflexible philanthropy.[494:4]
10. "_There was darkness all over the land._"[494:5] In the same manner
ends the tale of the long toil and sorrows of other Sun-gods. The last
scene exhibits a manifest return to the spirit of the solar myth. He
must not die the common death of all men, for no disease or corruption
can touch the body of the brilliant Sun. After a long struggle against
the dark clouds who are arrayed against him, he is finally overcome, and
dies. Blacker and blacker grow the evening shades, and finally "there is
darkness on the face of the earth," and the din of its thunder clashes
through the air.[494:6]
It is the picture of a sunset in wild confusion, of a sunset more awful,
yet not more sad, than that which is seen in the last hours of many
other _Sun_-gods.[494:7] It is the picture of the loneliness of the
_Sun_, who sinks slowly down, with the ghastly hues of death upon his
face, while none is nigh to cheer him save the ever-faithful women.
11. "_He descended into hell._"[494:8] This is the _Sun's_ descent into
the _lower regions_. It enters the sign Capricornus, or the Goat, and
the astronomical winter begins. The days have reached their shortest
span, and the _Sun_ has reached his extreme southern limit. The winter
solstice reigns, and the Sun seems to stand still in his southern
course. For three days and three nights he remains in hell--the lower
regions.[495:1] In this respect _Christ_ Jesus is like other
Sun-gods.[495:2]
In the ancient sagas of Iceland, the hero who is the Sun personified,
descends into a tomb, where he fights a vampire. After a desperate
struggle, the hero overcomes, and rises to the surface of the earth.
"This, too, represents the Sun in the northern realms, descending into
the tomb of winter, and there overcoming the power of darkness."[495:3]
12. _He rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven._
Resurrections from the dead, and ascensions into heaven, are generally
acknowledged to be _solar_ features, as the history of many solar heroes
agree in this particular.
At the _winter solstice_ the ancients wept and mourned for _Tammuz_, the
fair Adonis, and other Sun-gods, done to death by the boar, or
crucified--slain by the thorn of winter--and on the _third day_ they
rejoiced at the resurrection of their "Lord of Light."[495:4]
With her usual policy, the Church endeavored to give a Christian
significance to the rites which they borrowed from heathenism, and in
this case, the mourning for Tammuz, the fair Adonis, became the mourning
for Christ Jesus, and joy at the rising of the natural Sun became joy at
the rising of the "Sun of Righteousness"--at the resurrection of Christ
Jesus from the grave.
This festival of the Resurrection was generally held by the ancients on
the 25th of March, when the awakening of _Spring_ may be said to be the
result of the return of the Sun from the lower or far-off regions to
which he had departed. At the equinox--say, the vernal--at _Easter_,
the Sun has been below the equator, and suddenly rises above it. It has
been, as it were, dead to us, but now it exhibits a resurrection.[496:1]
The Saviour rises triumphant over the powers of darkness, to life and
immortality, on the 25th of March, when the Sun rises in Aries.
Throughout all the ancient world, _the resurrection of the god Sol_,
under different names, was celebrated on March 25th, with great
rejoicings.[496:2]
In the words of the Rev. Geo. W. Cox:
"The wailing of the Hebrew women at the death of Tammuz, the
crucifixion and resurrection of Osiris, the adoration of the
Babylonian Mylitta, the Sacti ministers of Hindu temples, the
cross and crescent of Isis, the rites of the Jewish altar of
Baal-Peor, wholly preclude all doubt of the real nature of the
great _festivals_ and _mysteries_ of Phenicians, Jews,
Assyrians, Egyptians, and Hindus."[496:3]
All this was _Sun_ and Nature worship, symbolized by the _Linga_ and
_Yoni_. As Mr. Bonwick says:
"The philosophic theist who reflects upon the story, known
from the walls of China, across Asia and Europe, to the
plateau of Mexico, cannot resist the impression that no
_materialistic_ theory of it can be satisfactory."[496:4]
_Allegory_ alone explains it.
"The Church, at an early date, selected the heathen festivals
of _Sun worship_ for its own, ordering the _birth at
Christmas_, a fixed time, and the _resurrection at Easter_, a
varying time, as in all Pagan religions; since, though the Sun
rose directly after the vernal equinox, the festival, to be
correct in a _heathen_ point of view, had to be associated
with the new moon."[496:5]
The Christian, then, may well say:
"When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of winter, thou didst
open the kingdom of heaven (_i. e._, bring on the reign of
summer), to all believers."
13. _Christ Jesus is Creator of all things._ We have seen (in Chapter
XXVI.) that it was not God the Father, who was supposed by the ancients
to have been the _Creator_ of the world, but God the Son, the Redeemer
and Saviour of Mankind. Now, this Redeemer and Saviour was, as we have
seen, the Sun, and Prof. Max Müller tells us that in the _Vedic_
mythology, the Sun is not the bright Deva only, "who performs his daily
task in the sky, but he is supposed to perform much greater work. He is
looked upon, in fact, as the _Ruler_, as the _Establisher_, as the
_Creator of the world_."[496:6]
Having been invoked as the "Life-bringer," the Sun is also called--in
the Rig-Veda--"the Breath or Life of all that move and rest;" and lastly
he becomes "_The Maker of all things_," by whom all the worlds have been
brought together.[497:1]
There is a prayer in the _Vedas_, called _Gayatree_, which consists of
three measured lines, and is considered the holiest and most efficacious
of all their religious forms. Sir William Jones translates it thus:
"Let us adore the supremacy of that spiritual Sun, the
godhead, who illuminates all, who re-creates all, from whom
all proceed, to whom all must return; whom we invoke to direct
our undertakings aright in our progress toward his holy seat."
With Seneca (a Roman philosopher, born at Cordova, Spain, 61 B. C.)
then, we can say:
"You may call the Creator of all things by different names
(Bacchus, Hercules, Mercury, etc.), but they are only
different names of the same divine being, the _Sun_."
14. _He is to be Judge of the quick and the dead._ Who is better able
than the Sun to be the judge of man's deeds, seeing, as he does, from
his throne in heaven, all that is done on earth? The Vedas speak of
Sûrya--the pervading, irresistible luminary--as seeing all things and
hearing all things, _noting the good and evil deeds of men_.[497:2]
According to Hindoo mythology, says Prof. Max Müller:
"The Sun sees everything, both what is good and what is evil;
and how natural therefore that (in the Indian Veda) both the
evil-doer should be told that the sun sees what no human eye
may have seen, and that the innocent, when all other help
fails him, should appeal to the sun to attest his
guiltlessness."
"Frequent allusion is made (in the Rig-Veda), to the sun's
power of seeing everything. The stars flee before the
all-seeing sun, like thieves. He sees the right and the wrong
among men. He who looks upon the world knows also the thoughts
in all men. As the sun sees everything and knows everything,
he is asked to forget and forgive what he alone has seen and
knows."[497:3]
On the most ancient Egyptian monuments, Osiris, the Sun personified, is
represented as Judge of the dead. The Egyptian "Book of the Dead," the
oldest Bible in the world, speaks of Osiris as "seeing all things, and
hearing all things, noting the good and evil deeds of men."
15. _He will come again sitting on a white horse._ The "second coming"
of Vishnu (Crishna), _Christ_ Jesus, and other Sun-gods, are also
_astronomical allegories_. The _white horse_, which figures so
conspicuously in the legend, was the universal symbol of the Sun among
Oriental nations.
Throughout the whole legend, _Christ_ Jesus is the toiling Sun, laboring
for the benefit of others, not his own, and doing hard service for a
mean and cruel generation. Watch his sun-like career of brilliant
conquest, checked with intervals of storm, and declining to a death
clouded with sorrow and derision. He is in constant company with his
_twelve_ apostles, the _twelve signs of the zodiac_.[498:1] During the
course of his life's journey he is called "The God of Earthly Blessing,"
"The Saviour through whom a new life springs," "The Preserver," "The
Redeemer," &c. Almost at his birth the Serpent of darkness attempts to
destroy him. Temptations to sloth and luxury are offered him in vain. He
has his work to do, and nothing can stay him from doing it, as nothing
can arrest the Sun in his journey through the heavens. Like all other
solar heroes, he has his faithful women who love him, and the Marys and
Martha here play the part. Of his toils it is scarcely necessary to
speak in detail. They are but a thousand variations on the story of the
great conflict which all the Sun-gods wage against the demon of
darkness. He astonishes his tutor when sent to school. This we might
expect to be the case, when an incomparable and incommunicable wisdom is
the heritage of the Sun. He also represents the wisdom and beneficence
of the bright Being who brings life and light to men. As the Sun wakens
the earth to life when the winter is done, so Crishna, Buddha, Horus,
Æsculapius, and _Christ_ Jesus were raisers of the dead. When the leaves
fell and withered on the approach of winter, the "daughter of the earth"
would be spoken of as dying or dead, and, as no other power than that of
the Sun can recall vegetation to life, this child of the earth would be
represented as buried in a sleep from which the touch of the Sun alone
could rouse her.
_Christ_ Jesus, then, is the Sun, in his short career and early death.
He is the child of the Dawn, whose soft, violet hues tint the clouds of
early morn; his father being the Sky, the "Heavenly Father," who has
looked down with love upon the Dawn, and overshadowed her. When his
career on earth is ended, and he expires, the loving mother, who parted
from him in the morning of his life, is at his side, looking on the
death of the Son whom she cannot save from the doom which is on him,
while her tears fall on his body like rain at sundown. From her he is
parted at the beginning of his course; to her he is united at its close.
But _Christ_ Jesus, like Crishna, Buddha, Osiris, Horus, Mithras,
Apollo, Atys and others, _rises again_, and thus the myth takes us a
step beyond the legend of Serpedon and others, which stop at the end of
the eastward journey, when the night is done.
According to the Christian calendar, the birthday of John the Baptist is
on the day of the summer solstice, when the sun begins to decrease. How
true to nature then are the words attributed to him in the fourth
Gospel, when he says that he must _decrease_, and Jesus _increase_.
Among the ancient Teutonic nations, fires were lighted, on the tops of
hills, on the 24th of June, in honor of the WENDING SUN. This custom is
still kept up in Southern Germany and the Scotch highlands, and it is
the day selected by the Roman Catholic church to celebrate the nativity
of John the Baptist.[499:1]
Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, speaking of the uncertainty of
the time when _Christ_ Jesus was born, says: "The uncertainty of this
point is of no great consequence. We know that the _Sun of
Righteousness_ has shone upon the world; and although we cannot fix the
precise period in which he arose, this will not preclude us from
enjoying the direction and influence of his vital and salutary beams."
These sacred legends abound with such expressions as can have no
possible or conceivable application to any other than to the "God of
day." He is "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory (or
brightness) of his people."[499:2] He is come "a light into the world,
that whosoever believeth in him should not abide in darkness."[499:3] He
is "the light of the world."[499:4] He "is light, and in him no darkness
is."[499:5]
"Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, Adonai, and by thy
great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this
night."--_Collect, in Evening Service._
God of God, light of light, very God of very God."--_Nicene
Creed._
"Merciful Adonai, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of
light upon thy Church."--_Collect of St. John._
"To thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all the powers
therein."
"Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory" (or
brightness).
"The glorious company of the (_twelve months_, or) apostles
praise thee."
"Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ!"
"When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou passest
through the constellation, or zodiacal sign--the Virgin."
"When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of winter, thou didst
open the kingdom of heaven (_i. e._, bring on the reign of the
summer months) to all believers."
"All are agreed," says Cicero, "that Apollo is none other than the SUN,
because the attributes which are commonly ascribed to Apollo do so
wonderfully agree thereto."
Just so surely as Apollo is the Sun, so is the Lord _Christ_ Jesus the
Sun. That which is so conclusive respecting the Pagan deities, applies
also to the God of the Christians; but, like the Psalmist of old, they
cry, "Touch not MY Christ, and do my prophets no harm."
Many Christian writers have seen that the history of their Lord and
Saviour is simply the history of the Sun, but they either say nothing,
or, like Dr. Parkhurst and the Rev. J. P. Lundy, claim that the Sun is a
type of the true Sun of Righteousness. Mr. Lundy, in his "Monumental
Christianity," says:
"Is there no bright Sun of Righteousness--no _personal_ and
loving Son of God, _of whom the material Sun has been the type
or symbol, in all ages and among all nations_? What power is
it that comes from the Sun to give light and heat to all
created things? If the symbolical Sun leads such a great
earthly and heavenly flock, what must be said to the _true_
and only begotten Son of God? If Apollo was adopted by early
Christian art as a _type_ of the Good Shepherd of the New
Testament, _then this interpretation of the Sun-god among all
nations must be the solution of the universal mythos, or what
other solution can it have_? To what other _historical_
personage but Christ can it apply? _If this mythos has no
spiritual meaning, then all religion becomes mere idolatry, or
the worship of material things._"[500:1]
Mr. Lundy, who seems to adhere to this once-upon-a-time favorite theory,
illustrates it as follows:
"The young _Isaac_ is his (Christ's) Hebrew type, bending
under the wood, as Christ fainted under the cross; _Daniel_ is
his type, stripped of all earthly fame and greatness, and cast
naked into the deepest danger, shame and humiliation." "_Noah_
is his type, in saving men from utter destruction, and
bringing them across the sea of death to a new world and a new
life." "_Orpheus_ is a type of Christ. _Agni_ and _Crishna_ of
India; _Mithra_ of Persia; _Horus_ and _Apollo_ of Egypt, are
all types of Christ." "_Samson_ carrying off the gates of Gaza
and defeating the Philistines by his own death, was considered
as a type of Christ bursting open and carrying away the gates
of Hades, and conquering His and our enemies by his death and
resurrection."[501:1]
According to this theory, the whole Pagan religion was typical of Christ
and Christianity. Why then were not the Pagans the Lord's _chosen_
people instead of the children of Israel?
The early Christians were charged with being a sect of _Sun
worshipers_.[501:2] The ancient Egyptians worshiped the god _Serapis_,
and Serapis was the _Sun_. Fig. No. 11, page 194, shows the manner in
which Serapis was personified. It might easily pass for a representation
of the Sun-god of the Christians. Mr. King says, in his "Gnostics, and
their Remains":
"There can be no doubt that the head of Serapis, marked as the
face is by a grave and pensive majesty, _supplied the first
idea for the conventional portraits of the Saviour_."[501:3]
The Imperial Russian Collection _boasts_ of a head of Christ Jesus which
is said to be very ancient. It is a fine intaglio on emerald. Mr. King
says of it:
"It is in reality a head of _Serapis_, seen in front and
crowned with Persia boughs, easily mistaken for thorns, though
the bushel on the head leaves no doubt as to the real
personage intended."[501:4]
It must not be forgotten, in connection with this, that the worshipers
of Serapis, or the Sun, were called _Christians_.[501:5]
Mrs. Jameson, speaking on this subject, says:
"We search in vain for the lightest evidence of his (Christ's)
human, individual semblance, in the writing of those disciples
who knew him so well. In this instance the instincts of
earthly affection seem to have been mysteriously overruled. He
whom all races of men were to call brother, was not to be too
closely associated with the particular lineaments of any one.
St. John, the beloved disciple, could lie on the breast of
Jesus with all the freedom of fellowship, but not even he has
left a word to indicate what manner of man was the Divine
Master after the flesh. . . . Legend has, in various form,
supplied this natural craving, but it is hardly necessary to
add, that all accounts of pictures of our Lord taken from
Himself are without historical foundation. _We are therefore
left to imagine the expression_ most befitting the character
of him who took upon himself our likeness, and looked at the
woes and sins of mankind through the eyes of our
mortality."[501:6]
The Rev. Mr. Geikie says, in his "Life of Christ":
"No hint is given in the New Testament of Christ's
_appearance_; and the early Church, in the absence of all
guiding facts, had to fall back on imagination."
"In its _first_ years, the Christian church fancied its
Lord's visage and form _marred more than those of other men_;
and that he must have had no attractions of personal beauty.
Justin Martyr (A. D. 150-160) speaks of him as _without beauty
or attractiveness_, and of _mean appearance_. Clement of
Alexandria (A. D. 200), describes him as of an _uninviting
appearance_, and _almost repulsive_. Tertullian (A. D.
200-210) says he had not even _ordinary human beauty_, far
less heavenly. Origen (A. D. 230) went so far as to say that
he was '_small in body and deformed_', as well as low-born,
and that, '_his only beauty was in his soul and
life_.'"[502:1]
One of the favorite ways finally, of depicting him, was, as Mr. Lundy
remarks:
"Under the figure of a beautiful and adorable youth, of about
fifteen or eighteen years of age, beardless, with a sweet
expression of countenance, _and long and abundant hair flowing
in curls over his shoulders_. His brow is sometimes encircled
by a diadem or bandeau, _like a young priest of the Pagan
gods_; that is, in fact, the favorite figure. On sculptured
sarcophagi, in fresco paintings and Mosaics, Christ is thus
represented as a graceful youth, _just as Apollo was figured
by the Pagans_, and as angels are represented by
Christians."[502:2]
Thus we see that the Christians took the paintings and statues of the
Sun-gods Serapis and Apollo _as models_, when they wished to represent
_their_ Saviour. That the former is the favorite at the present day need
not be doubted when we glance at Fig. No. 11, page 194.
Mr. King, speaking of this god, and his worshipers, says:
"There is very good reason to believe that in the _East_ the
worship of _Serapis_ was at first combined with
_Christianity_, and gradually merged into it with an entire
change of name, _not substance_, carrying with it many of its
ancient notions and rites."[502:3]
Again he says:
"In the second century the syncretistic sects that had sprung
up in _Alexandria_, the very hotbed of Gnosticism, found out
in _Serapis_ a prophetic _type_ of Christ, or the Lord and
Creator of all."[502:4]
The early _Christians_, or worshipers of the Sun, under the name of
"_Christ_," had, as all Sun-worshipers, _a peculiar regard to the
East_--the quarter in which their god rose--_to which point they
ordinarily directed their prayers_.[502:5]
The followers of Mithra always turned towards the East, when they
worshiped; the same was done by the Brahmans of the East, and the
Christians of the West. In the ceremony of baptism, the catechumen was
placed with his face to the West, the symbolical representation of the
prince of darkness, in opposition to the East, and made to spit towards
it at the evil one, and renounce his works.
Tertullian says, that Christians were taken for worshipers of the Sun
because they prayed towards the East, after the manner of those who
adored the Sun. The Essenes--whom Eusebius calls Christians--always
turned to the east to pray. The Essenes met once a week, and spent the
night in singing hymns, &c., which lasted till sun-rising. As soon as
dawn appeared, they retired to their cells, after saluting one another.
Pliny says the Christians of Bithynia met before it was light, and sang
hymns to Christ, as to a God. After their service they saluted one
another. Surely the circumstances of the two classes of people meeting
before daylight, is a very remarkable coincidence. It is just what the
Persian Magi, who were Sun worshipers, were in the habit of doing.
When a Manichæan Christian came over to the orthodox Christians, he was
required to curse his former friends in the following terms:
"I curse Zarades (Zoroaster?) who, Manes said, had appeared as
a god before his time among the Indians and Persians, _and
whom he calls the Sun_. I curse those who say _Christ is the
Sun_, and who make prayers to the _Sun_, and who do not pray
to the true God, only towards the East, but who turn
themselves round, following the motions of the Sun with their
innumerable supplications. _I curse those person who say that
Zarades and Budas and Christ and the Sun are all one and the
same._"
There are not many circumstances more striking than that of Christ Jesus
being originally worshiped under the form of a LAMB--the actual "Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sins of the world." As we have already seen
(in Chap. XX.), it was not till the Council of Constantinople, called
_In Trullo_, held so late as the year 707, that pictures of Christ Jesus
were ordered to be drawn in the form of a man. It was ordained that, in
the place of the figure of a LAMB, the symbol used to that time, the
figure of a man nailed to a cross, should in future be used.[503:1] From
this decree, the identity of the worship of the _Celestial Lamb_ and the
Christian Saviour is certified beyond the possibility of doubt, and the
mode by which the ancient superstitions were propagated is
satisfactorily shown. Nothing can more clearly prove the general
practice than the order of a council to regulate it.
The worship of the constellation of _Aries_ was the worship of the Sun
in his passage through that sign. "This constellation was called by the
ancients the _Lamb of God_. He was also called the _Saviour_, and was
said to save mankind from their sins. He was always honored with the
appellation of _Dominus_ or _Lord_. He was called _The Lamb of God which
taketh away the sins of the world_. The devotees addressed him in their
litany, constantly repeating the words, '_O Lamb of God, that taketh
away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Grant us thy peace._'"
On an ancient medal of the _Phenicians_, brought by Dr. Clark from
Citium (and described in his "Travels," vol. ii. ch. xi.) this _Lamb of
God_ is described with the CROSS and the ROSARY, which shows that they
were both used in his worship.
Yearly the SUN-GOD, as the zodiacal horse (Aries) was supposed by the
Vedic Aryans _to die to save all flesh_. Hence the practice of
sacrificing horses. The "guardian spirits" of the prince Sakya Buddha
sing the following hymn:
"Once when thou wast the _white horse_,[504:1]
In pity for the suffering of man,
Thou didst fly across heaven to the region of the evil demons,
_To secure the happiness of mankind_.
Persecutions without end,
Revilings and many prisons,
_Death and murder_;
These hast thou suffered with love and patience,
_Forgiving thine executioners_."[504:2]
We have seen, in Chapter XXXIII., that Christ Jesus was also symbolized
as a _Fish_, and that it is to be seen on all the ancient Christian
monuments. But what has the Christian Saviour to do with a _Fish_? Why
was he called a _Fish_? The answer is, _because the fish was another
emblem of the_ SUN. Abarbanel says:
"The sign of his (Christ's) coming is the junction of Saturn
and Jupiter, _in the Sign Pisces_."[504:3]
Applying the astronomical emblem of _Pisces_ to Jesus, does not seem
more absurd than applying the astronomical emblem of the Lamb. They
applied to him the monogram of the Sun, IHS, the astronomical and
alchemical sign of Aries, or the ram, or Lamb [Symbol: Aries]; and, in
short, what was there that was _Heathenish_ that they have not applied
to him?
The preserving god Vishnu, the Sun, was represented as a fish, and so
was the Syrian Sun-god Dagon, who was also a Preserver or Saviour. The
Fish was sacred among many nations of antiquity, and is to be seen on
their monuments. Thus we see that everything at last centres in the SUN.
Constantine, the first Christian emperor, had on his _coins_ the figure
of the Sun, with the legend: "To the Invincible Sun, my companion and
guardian," as being a representation, says Mr. King, "either of the
ancient Phœbus, _or the_ new _Sun of Righteousness_, equally acceptable
to both Christian and Gentile, from the double interpretation of which
the type was susceptible."[505:1]
The worship of the Sun, under the name of Mithra, "long survived in
Rome, _under the Christian emperors_, and, doubtless, much longer in the
remoter districts of the semi-independent provinces."[505:2]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 41]
_Christ_ Jesus is represented with a halo of glory surrounding his head,
a florid complexion, long golden locks of hair, and a flowing robe. Now,
all _Sun_-gods, from Crishna of India (Fig. No. 41) to Baldur of
Scandinavia, are represented with a halo of glory surrounding their
heads, and the flowing locks of golden hair, and the flowing robe, are
not wanting.[505:3] By a process of metaphor, the rays of the Sun were
changed into golden hair, into spears and lances, and robes of light.
From the shoulders of Phoibus Lykêgenes, the light-born, flow the sacred
locks over which no razor might pass. On the head of Nisos, as on that
of Samson, they became a palladium invested with a mysterious power.
From Helios, the Sun, who can scorch as well as warm, comes the robe of
Medeia, which appears in the poisoned garments of Deianeira.[506:1]
We see, then, that _Christ_ Jesus, like _Christ_ Buddha,[506:2] Crishna,
Mithra, Osiris, Horus, Apollo, Hercules and others, is none other than a
personification of the Sun, and that the Christians, like their
predecessors the Pagans, are really Sun worshipers. It must not be
inferred, however, that we advocate the theory that no such person as
_Jesus of Nazareth_ ever lived in the flesh. The _man_ Jesus is
evidently an historical personage, just as the Sakaya prince Buddha,
Cyrus, King of Persia, and Alexander, King of Macedonia, are historical
personages; but the _Christ_ Jesus, the _Christ_ Buddha, the mythical
Cyrus, and the mythical Alexander, _never lived in the flesh_. The
_Sun-myth_ has been added to the histories of these personages, in a
greater or less degree, just as it has been added to the history of many
other real personages. If it be urged that the attribution to Christ
Jesus of qualities or powers belonging to the Pagan deities would hardly
seem reasonable, the answer must be that nothing is done in his case
which has not been done in the case of almost every other member of the
great company of the gods. The tendency of myths to _reproduce
themselves_, with differences only of _names_ and _local coloring_,
becomes especially manifest after perusing the legendary histories of
the gods of antiquity. It is a fact demonstrated by history, that when
one nation of antiquity came in contact with another, _they adopted each
other's myths without hesitation_. After the Jews had been taken
captives to Babylon, around the history of _their King Solomon_
accumulated the fables which were related of _Persian heroes_. When the
fame of Cyrus and Alexander became known over the then known world, the
popular _Sun-myth_ was interwoven with their true history. The mythical
history of Perseus is, in all its essential features, the history of the
Attic hero Theseus, and of the Theban Œdipus, and they all reappear
with heightened colors in the myths of Hercules. We have the same thing
again in the mythical and religious history of Crishna; it is, in nearly
all its essential features, the history of Buddha, and reappears again,
with heightened colors, in the history of _Christ_ Jesus. The myths of
Buddha and Jesus differ from the legends of the other virgin-born
Saviours only in the fact that in their cases it has gathered round
unquestionably historical personages. In other words, an old myth has
been added to names undoubtedly historical. But it cannot be too often
repeated that from the _myth_ we learn nothing of their history. How
much we really know of the man Jesus will be considered in our next, and
last, chapter.[507:1] That his biography, as recorded in the books of
the New Testament, contains some few grains of actual history, is all
that the historian or philosopher can rationally venture to urge. But
the very process which has stripped these legends of all value as a
chronicle of actual events has invested them with a new interest. Less
than ever are they worthless fictions which the historian or philosopher
may afford to despise. These legends of the birth, life, and death of
the Sun, present to us a form of society and a condition of thought
through which all mankind had to pass before the dawn of history. Yet
that state of things was as real as the time in which we live. They who
spoke the language of these early tales were men and women with joys and
sorrows not unlike our own. In the following verses of Martianus
Capella, the universal veneration for the Sun is clearly shown:
"Latium invokes thee, _Sol_, because thou alone art in honor,
_after the Father_, the centre of light; and they affirm that
thy sacred head bears a golden brightness in twelve rays,
because thou formest that number of months and that number of
hours. They say that thou guidest four winged steeds, because
thou alone rulest the chariot of the elements. For, dispelling
the darkness, thou revealest the shining heavens. Hence they
esteem thee, Phœbus, the discoverer of the secrets of the
future; or, because thou preventest nocturnal crimes. Egypt
worships thee as Serapis, and Memphis as Osiris. Thou art
worshiped by different rites as Mithra, Dis, and the cruel
Typhon. Thou art alone the beautiful Atys, and the fostering
son of the bent plough. Thou art the Ammon of arid Libya, and
the Adonis of Byblos. _Thus under a varied appellation the
whole world worship thee._ Hail! thou true image of the gods,
and of thy father's face! thou whose sacred name, surname, and
omen, three letters make to agree with the number 608.[507:2]
Grant us, oh Father, to reach the eternal intercourse of mind,
and to know the starry heaven under this sacred name. May the
great and universally adorable Father increase these his
favors."
FOOTNOTES:
[467:1] "In the _Vedas_, the _Sun_ has twenty different names, not pure
equivalents, but each term descriptive of the Sun in one of its aspects.
It is brilliant (Sûrya), the friend (Mitra), generous (Aryaman),
beneficent (Bhaga), that which nourishes (Pûshna), the Creator
(Tvashtar), the master of the sky (Divaspati), and so on." (Rev. S.
Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 150.)
[467:2] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 267.
[468:1] Preface to "Tales of Anct. Greece."
[468:2] See Appendix B.
[469:1] Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. pp. 51-53.
[473:1] Müller: Origin of Religions, pp. 264-268.
[473:2] John, i. 9.
[473:3] The Christian ceremonies of the Nativity are celebrated in
Bethlehem and Rome, even at the present time, _very early in the
morning_.
[474:1] Quoted by Volney, Ruins, p. 166, and _note_.
[474:2] See Ibid. and Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 236.
[474:3] See Chap. XXXIV.
[474:4] The _Dawn_ was _personified_ by the ancients--a _virgin mother_,
who bore the _Sun_. (See Max Müller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 137. Fiske's
Myths and Mythmakers, p. 156, and Cox: Tales of Ancient Greece, and
Aryan Mytho.)
[474:5] In Sanscrit "Idâ" is the _Earth_, the wife of Dyaus (the Sky),
and so we have before us the mythical phrase, "the _Sun_ at its birth
rests on the earth." In other words, "the Sun at birth is nursed in the
lap of its mother."
[474:6] "The moment we understand the _nature_ of a myth, all
impossibilities, contradictions and immoralities disappear. If a
mythical personage be nothing more than a name of the _Sun_, his birth
may be derived from ever so many different mothers. He may be the son of
the _Sky_ or of the _Dawn_ or of the _Sea_ or of the _Night_." (Renouf's
Hibbert Lectures, p. 108.)
[474:7] "The sign of the _Celestial Virgin_ rises above the horizon at
the moment in which we fix the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ."
(Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 314, and Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p.
147.)
"We have in the first decade the _Sign of the Virgin_, following the
most ancient tradition of the Persians, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians,
Hermes and Æsculapius, a young woman called in the Persian language,
_Seclinidos de Darzama_; in the Arabic, _Aderenedesa_--that is to say, a
chaste, pure, immaculate virgin, suckling an infant, which some nations
call _Jesus_ (_i. e._, Saviour), but which we in Greek call _Christ_."
(Abulmazer.)
"In the first decade of the Virgin, rises a maid, called in Arabic,
'Aderenedesa,' that is: 'pure immaculate virgin,' graceful in person,
charming in countenance, modest in habit, with loosened hair, holding in
her hands two ears of wheat, sitting upon an embroidered throne, nursing
a BOY, and rightly feeding him in the place called _Hebraea_. A boy, I
say, names IESSUS by certain nations, which signifies Issa, whom they
also call _Christ_ in Greek." (Kircher, Œdipus Ægypticus.)
[475:1] Max Müller: Origin of Religions, p. 261.
[475:2] Ibid. p. 230.
[475:3] "With scarcely an exception, all the names by which the _Virgin
goddess_ of the Akropolis was known point to this mythology of the
_Dawn_." (Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. i. p. 228.)
[475:4] We also read in the Vishnu Purana that: "The Sun of Achyuta
(God, the Imperishable) _rose in the dawn of Devaki_, to cause the lotus
petal of the universe (_Crishna_) to expand. On the day of his birth the
quarters of the horizon were irradiate with joy," &c.
[475:5] Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. iii. pp. 105, and 130, vol. ii.
[475:6] Ibid. p. 133. See Legends in Chap. XVI.
[475:7] Fiske: Myths and Mythmakers, p. 113.
[476:1] Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, p. 111 and 161.
[476:2] Ibid. p. 161 and 179.
[476:3] Ibid. pp. 179.
[476:4] See Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. xxxi. and 82.
[476:5] The _Bull_ symbolized the productive force in nature, and hence
it was associated with the SUN-gods. This animal was venerated by nearly
all the peoples of antiquity. (Wake: Phallism in Anct. Religs., p. 45.)
[476:6] See Aryan Myths, vol. i. p. 229.
[477:1] See Chap. XXXII.
[477:2] See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xviii.
[477:3] "The idea entertained by the ancients that these god-begotten
heroes were engendered without any carnal intercourse, and that they
were the sons of Jupiter, is, in plain language, the result of the
ethereal spirit, _i. e._, the Holy Spirit, operating on the virgin
mother _Earth_." (Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 156.)
[477:4] Cox: Aryan Myths, p. 87.
[477:5] See Williams' Hinduism, p. 24, and Müller's Chips, vol. ii. pp.
277 and 290.
[477:6] See Bulfinch, p. 389.
[477:7] See Renouf's Hibbert Lectures, pp. 110, 111.
[477:8] Manners of the Germans, p. xi.
[478:1] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 81, 99, and 166.
The Moon was called by the ancients, "The Queen;" "The Highest
Princess;" "The Queen of Heaven;" "The Princess and Queen of Heaven;"
&c. She was Istar, Ashera, Diana, Artemis, Isis, Juno, Lucina, Astartê.
(Goldzhier, pp. 158. Knight, pp. 99, 100.)
In the beginning of the eleventh book of Apuleius' Metamorphosis, Isis
is represented as addressing him thus: "I am present; I who am _Nature_,
the parent of things, queen of all the elements, &c., &c. The primitive
Phrygians called me _Pressinuntica, the mother of the gods_; the native
Athenians, Ceropian Minerva; the floating Cyprians, Paphian Venus; the
arrow-bearing Cretans, Dictymian Diana; the three-tongued Sicilians,
Stygian Proserpine; and the inhabitants of Eleusis, the ancient goddess
Ceres. Some again have invoked me as _Juno_, others as _Beliona_, others
as Hecate, and others as Rhamnusia: and those who are enlightened by the
emerging rays of the rising _Sun_, the Ethiopians, Ariians and
Egyptians, powerful in ancient learning, who reverence my divinity with
ceremonies perfectly proper, call me by a true appellation, '_Queen
Isis_.'" (Taylor's Mysteries, p. 76.)
[478:2] The "God the Father" of all nations of antiquity was nothing
more than a personification of the _Sky_ or the _Heavens_. "The term
_Heaven_ (pronounced _Thien_) is used everywhere in the Chinese classics
for the _Supreme Power_, ruling and governing all the affairs of men
with an omnipotent and omniscient righteousness and goodness." (James
Legge.)
In one of the Chinese sacred books--the Shu-king--_Heaven_ and _Earth_
are called "Father and Mother of all things." Heaven being the Father,
and Earth the Mother. (Taylor: Primitive Culture, pp. 294-296.)
The "God the Father" of the Indians is _Dyaus_, that is, the _Sky_.
(Williams' Hinduism, p. 24.)
Ormuzd, the god of the ancient Persians, was a personification of the
sky. Herodotus, speaking of the Persians, says: "They are accustomed to
ascend the highest part of the mountains, and offer sacrifice to Jupiter
(Ormuzd), _and they call the whole circle of the heavens by the name of
Jupiter_." (Herodotus, book 1, ch. 131.)
In Greek iconography Zeus is the _Heaven_. As Cicero says: "The
refulgent Heaven above is that which all men call, unanimously, Jove."
The Christian God supreme of the nineteenth century is still _Dyaus_
Pitar, the "Heavenly Father."
[478:3] Williams' Hinduism, p. 24.
[478:4] Müller: Origin of Religions, pp. 261, 290.
[478:5] Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, pp. 110, 111.
[478:6] See Note 2.
[478:7] See Cox: Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. xxxi. and 82, and Aryan
Mythology, vol. i. p. 229.
[479:1] Quoted by Westropp: Phallic Worship, p. 24.
[479:2] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 66. "In Phenician Mythology Ouranos
(Heaven) weds Ghe (the Earth) and by her becomes father of Oceanus,
Hyperon, Iapetus, Cronos, and other gods." (Phallic Worship, p. 26.)
[479:3] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 64.
[479:4] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 80, 93, 94, 406, 510,
511.
[480:1] See Chap. XIV.
[480:2] See Dupuis: Orig. Relig. Belief, p. 234. Higgins' Anacalypsis,
vol. ii. pp. 96, 97, and Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 272.
[480:3] Extracts from the Vedas. Müller's Chips, vol. ii. pp. 96 and
187.
[481:1] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 153.
[481:2] Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 133.
[481:3] When Christ Jesus was born, on a sudden there was a great light
in the cave, so that their eyes could not bear it. (Protevangelion,
Apoc. ch. xiv.)
[481:4] "Perseus, Oidipous, Romulus and Cyrus are doomed to bring ruin
on their parents. They are exposed in their infancy on the hill-side,
and rescued by a shepherd. _All the solar heroes begin life in this
way._ Whether, like Apollo, born of the dark night (Leto), or like
Oidipous, of the violet dawn (Iokaste), they are alike destined to bring
destruction on their parents, as the Night and the Dawn are both
destroyed by the Sun." (Fiske: p. 198.)
[481:5] "The exposure of the child in infancy represents the long rays
of the morning sun resting on the hill-side." (Fiske: Myths and
Mythmakers, p. 198.)
The Sun-hero Paris is exposed on the slopes of Ida, Oidipous on the
slopes of Kithairon, and Æsculapius on that of the mountain of Myrtles.
This is the rays of the newly-born sun resting on the mountain-side.
(Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. i. pp. 64 and 80.)
In Sanscrit _Ida_ is the Earth, and so we have the mythical phrase, the
Sun at its birth is exposed on Ida--the hill-side. The light of the sun
must rest on the hill-side long before it reaches the dells beneath.
(See Cox: vol. i. p. 221, and Fiske: p. 114.)
[482:1] Even as late as the seventeenth century, a German writer would
illustrate a thunder-storm destroying a crop of corn, by a picture of a
dragon devouring the produce of the field with his flaming tongue and
iron teeth. (See Fiske: Myths and Mythmakers, p. 17, and Cox: Aryan
Mythology, vol. ii.)
[482:2] The history of the Saviour Hercules is so similar to that of the
Saviour Christ Jesus, that the learned Dr. Parkhurst was forced to say,
"The labors of Hercules seem to have been originally designed as
emblematic memorials of what the REAL Son of God, the Saviour of the
world, was to do and suffer for our sakes, _bringing a cure for all our
ills_, as the Orphic hymn speaks of Hercules."
[482:3] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, pp. 158, 166, and 168.
[482:4] In ancient mythology, all heroes of light were opposed by the
"Old Serpent," the Devil, symbolized by Serpents, Dragons, Sphinxes and
other monsters. The Serpent was, among the ancient Eastern nations, the
symbol of _Evil_, of _Winter_, of _Darkness_ and of _Death_. It also
symbolized the _dark cloud_, which, by harboring the _rays of the Sun_,
preventing its shining, and therefore, is apparently _attempting to
destroy it_. The Serpent is one of the chief mystic personifications of
the _Rig-Veda_, under the names of _Ahi_, _Suchna_, and others. They
represent the _Cloud_, the enemy of the _Sun_, keeping back the
fructifying rays. Indra struggles victoriously against him, and spreads
life on the earth, with the shining warmth of the Father of Life, the
Creator, _the Sun_.
Buddha, the Lord and Saviour, was described as a superhuman organ of
light, to whom a superhuman organ of darkness, Mara, the Evil Serpent,
was opposed. He, like _Christ_ Jesus, resisted the temptations of this
evil one, and is represented sitting on a serpent, as if its conqueror.
(See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 39.)
Crishna also overcame the evil one, and is represented "bruising the
head of the serpent," and standing upon it. (See vol. i. of Asiatic
Researches, and vol. ii. of Higgins' Anacalypsis.)
In Egyptian Mythology, one of the names of the god-_Sun_ was _Râ_. He
had an adversary who was called _Apap_, represented in the form of a
serpent. (See Renouf's Hibbert Lectures, p. 109.)
Horus, the Egyptian incarnate god, the Mediator, Redeemer and Saviour,
is represented in Egyptian art as overcoming the Evil Serpent, and
standing triumphantly upon him. (See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 158,
and Monumental Christianity, p. 402.)
Osiris, Ormuzd, Mithras, Apollo, Bacchus, Hercules, Indra, Œdipus,
Quetzalcoatle, and many other _Sun-gods_, overcame the Evil One, and are
represented in the above described manner. (See Cox's Tales of Ancient
Greece, p. xxvii. and Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 129. Baring-Gould's
Curious Myths, p. 256. Bulfinch's Age of Fable, p. 34. Bunsen's
Angel-Messiah, p. x., and Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi.
p. 176.)
[483:1] The crucifixion of the Sun-gods is simply the power of Darkness
triumphing over the "Lord of Light," and Winter overpowering the Summer.
It was at the _Winter_ solstice that the ancients wept for Tammuz, the
fair Adonis, and other Sun-gods, who were put to death by the boar,
slain by the thorn of winter. (See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p.
113.)
Other versions of the same myth tell us of Eurydike stung to death by
the hidden serpent, of Sifrit smitten by Hagene (the Thorn), of
Isfendiyar slain by the thorn or arrow of Rustem, of Achilleus
vulnerable only in the heel, of Brynhild enfolded within the dragon's
coils, of Meleagros dying as the torch of doom is burnt out, of Baldur,
the brave and pure, smitten by the fatal mistletoe, and of Crishna and
others being crucified.
In Egyptian mythology, Set, the destroyer, triumphs in the _West_. He is
the personification of _Darkness_ and _Winter_, and the Sun-god whom he
puts to death, is Horus the Saviour. (See Renouf's Hibbert Lectures, pp.
112-115.)
[483:2] "In the _Rig-Veda_ the god _Vishnu_ is often named as a
manifestation of the _Solar_ energy, or rather as a form of the Sun."
(Indian Wisdom, p. 322.)
[483:3] Crishna says: "I am Vishnu, Brahma, _Indra_, and the source as
well as the destruction of things, the creator and the annihilator of
the whole aggregate of existences." (Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p.
131.)
[484:1] See Chap. XX.
[484:2] _Indra_, who was represented as a crucified god, is also the
_Sun_. No sooner is he born than he speaks to his mother. Like Apollo
and all other Sun-gods he has _golden locks_, and like them he is
possessed of an inscrutable wisdom. He is also born of a virgin--the
Dawn. Crishna and Indra are one. (See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. i. pp.
88 and 341; vol. ii. p. 131.)
[484:3] Wake: Phallism, &c., p. 55.
[484:4] See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 113.
[484:5] Ibid. pp. 115 and 125.
[484:6] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 157.
[484:7] Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 88.
A great number of the Solar heroes or Sun-gods are forced to endure
being bound, which indicates the tied-up power of the sun in winter.
(Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, p. 406.)
[484:8] The Sun, as climbing the heights of heaven, is an arrogant
being, given to making exorbitant claims, who must be bound to the fiery
cross. "The phrases which described the Sun as revolving daily on his
four-spoked _cross_, or as doomed to sink in the sky when his orb had
reached the zenith, would give rise to the stories of _Ixion_ on his
flaming wheel." (Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 27.)
[484:9] "So was Ixion bound on the fiery wheel, and the sons of men see
the flaming spokes day by day as it whirls in the high heaven."
[485:1] Cox: Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxxii.
[485:2] Ibid. p. xxxiii.
[485:3] "That the story of the Trojan war is almost wholly mythical, has
been conceded even by the stoutest champions of Homeric unity." (Rev. G.
W. Cox.)
[485:4] See Müller's Science of Religion, p. 186.
[485:5] See Calmet's Fragments, vol. ii. pp. 21, 22.
[486:1] Nimrod: vol. i. p. 278, in Anac., i. p. 503.
[486:2] At Miletus was the crucified Apollo--Apollo, who overcome the
Serpent or evil principle. Thus Callimachus, celebrating this
achievement, in his hymn to Apollo, has these remarkable words:
"Thee thy blest _mother_ bore, and pleased assign'd
The willing SAVIOUR of distressed mankind."
[486:3] These words apply to _Christ_ Jesus, as well as Semiramis,
according to the Christian Father Ignatius. In his Epistle to the Church
at Ephesus, he says: "Now the virginity of Mary, and he who was born of
her, was kept in secret from the prince of this world, as was also the
death of our Lord: _three of the mysteries the most spoken of throughout
the world, yet done in secret by God_."
[487:1] The Rosicrucians, p. 260.
[487:2] Ibid.
[488:1] The Sun-gods Apollo, Indra, Wittoba or Crishna, and Christ
Jesus, are represented as having their feet pierced with nails (See Cox:
Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 23, and Moor's Hindu Pantheon.)
[489:1] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., pp. 87, 88.
[489:2] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 32.
[489:3] "This notion is quite consistent with the ideas entertained by
the Phenicians as to the Serpent, which they supposed to have the
quality of putting off its old age, and assuming a second youth."
Sanchoniathon: (Quoted by Wake: Phallism, &c., p. 43.)
[489:4] Une serpent qui tient sa queue dans sa gueule et dans le circle
qu'il decrit, ces trois lettres Greques ΓΞΕ, qui sont le nombre 365. Le
Serpent, qui est d'ordinaire un emblème de l'eternetè est ici celui de
_Soleil_ et des ses revolutions. (Beausobre: Hist. de Manich. tom. ii.
p. 55. Quoted by Lardner, vol. viii. p. 379.)
"This idea existed even in _America_. The great century of the Aztecs
was encircled by _a serpent grasping its own tail_, and the great
_calendar stone_ is entwined by serpents bearing human heads in their
distended jaws."
"The annual passage of the Sun, through the signs of the zodiac, being
in an oblique path, resembles, or at least the ancients thought so, the
tortuous movements of the Serpent, and the facility possessed by this
reptile of casting off his skin and producing out of itself a new
covering every year, bore some analogy to the termination of the old
year and the commencement of the new one. Accordingly, all the ancient
spheres--the Persian, Indian, Egyptian, Barbaric, and Mexican--were
surrounded by the figure of a serpent _holding its tail in its mouth_."
(Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 249.)
[489:5] Wake: Phallism, p. 42.
[489:6] See Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 128.
[490:1] Being the most intimately connected with the reproduction of
life on earth, the _Linga_ became the symbol under which the _Sun_,
invoked with a thousand names, has been worshiped throughout the world
as the restorer of the powers of nature after the long sleep or death of
Winter. In the brazen _Serpent_ of the Pentateuch, the two emblems of
the _Cross_ and _Serpent_, the quiescent and energizing _Phallos_, are
united. (Cox: Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. pp. 113-118.)
[490:2] Wake: Phallism, &c., p. 60.
[491:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 155.
[491:2] Wake: Phallism in Anct. Religs., p. 72.
[491:3] Ibid. p. 73. Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 195.
[491:4] Faber: Orig. Pagan Idol., in Squire, p. 158.
[491:5] Ibid.
[491:6] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 375.
[491:7] Ibid.
[491:8] Squire: p. 161.
[491:9] Ibid. p. 185.
[492:1] Squire: p. 169.
[492:2] Lundy: Monumental Christianity, p. 185.
[492:3] "SAVIOUR was a common title of the SUN-gods of antiquity."
(Wake: Phallism in Anct. Religs., p. 55.)
The ancient Greek writers speak of the Sun, as the "Generator and
Nourisher of all Things;" the "Ruler of the World;" the "First of the
Gods," and the "Supreme Lord of all Beings." (Knight: Ancient Art and
Mytho., p. 37.)
Pausanias (500 B. C.) speaks of "The Sun having the surname of SAVIOUR."
(Ibid. p. 98, _note_.)
"There is a very remarkable figure copied in Payne Knight's Work, in
which we see on a man's shoulders a _cock's_ head, whilst on the
pediment are placed the words: "THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD." (Inman: Anct.
Faiths, vol. i. p. 537.) This refers to the SUN. The cock being the
natural herald of the day, he was therefore sacred, among the ancients,
to the Sun." (See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 70, and Lardner: vol.
viii. p. 377.)
[493:1] The name _Jesus_ is the same as _Joshua_, and signifies
_Saviour_.
[493:2] Justin Martyr: Dialog. Cum Typho. Quoted in Gibbon's Rome, vol.
i. p. 582.
[493:3] Matt. xxvii. 55.
[493:4] The ever-faithful woman who is always near at the death of the
Sun-god is "the fair and tender light which sheds its soft hue over the
Eastern heaven as the Sun sinks in death beneath the Western waters."
(Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. i. p. 223.)
[493:5] See Ibid. vol. i. p. 80.
[493:6] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 49.
[493:7] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 223.
[494:1] See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxxi.
[494:2] PETRÆUS was an interchangeable synonym of the name Oceanus.
[494:3] "Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far
from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee." (Matt. xvi. 22.)
[494:4] See Potter's Æschylus.
[494:5] Matt. xxvii. 45.
[494:6] As the Sun dies, or sinks in the West, blacker and blacker grows
the evening shades, till there is darkness on the face of the earth.
Then from the high heavens comes down the thick clouds, and the din of
its thunder crashes through the air. (Description of the death of
Hercules, Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. 61, 62.)
[494:7] It Is the battle of the clouds over the dead or dying Sun, which
is to be seen in the legendary history of many Sun-gods. (Cox: Aryan
Mythology, vol. ii. p. 91.)
[494:8] This was one of the latest additions of the Sun-myth to the
history of _Christ_ Jesus. This has been proved not only to have been an
invention after the Apostles' time, but even after the time of Eusebius
(A. D. 325). The doctrine of the descent into hell was not in the
ancient creeds or rules of faith. It is not to be found in the rules of
faith delivered by Irenæus (A. D. 190), by Origen (A. D. 230), or by
Tertullian (A. D. 200-210). It is not expressed in those creeds which
were made by the Councils as larger explications of the Apostles' Creed;
not in the Nicene, or Constantinopolitan; not in those of Ephesus, or
Chalcedon; not in those confessions made at Sardica, Antioch, Selencia,
Sirmium, &c.
[495:1] At the end of his career, the Sun enters the _lowest regions_,
the bowels of the earth, therefore nearly all Sun-gods are made to
"descend into hell," and remain there for three days and three nights,
for the reason that from the 22d to the 25th of December, the Sun
apparently remains in the same place. Thus Jonah, a personification of
the Sun (see Chap. IX.), who remains three days and three nights in the
bowels of the earth--typified by a fish--is made to pay: "Out of the
belly of hell cried I, and thou heardst my voice."
[495:2] See Chapter XXII.
[495:3] Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 260.
"The mighty Lord appeared in the form of a man, and enlightened those
places which had ever before been in darkness; and broke asunder the
fetters which before could not be broken; and with his _invincible
power_ visited those who sat in the deep darkness by iniquity, and the
shadow of death by sin. Then the King of Glory trampled upon Death,
seized the Prince of Hell, and deprived him of all his power."
(Description of _Christ's_ Descent into Hell. Nicodemus: Apoc.)
[495:4] "The women weeping for Tammuz was no more than expressive of the
Sun's loss of power in the winter quarter." (King's Gnostics, p. 102.
See also, Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 113.)
After remaining for three days and three nights in the lowest regions,
the Sun begins to ascend, thus he "rises from the dead," as it were, and
"ascends into heaven."
[496:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 174.
[496:2] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 100.
[496:3] Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 125.
[496:4] Egyptian Belief, p. 182.
[496:5] Ibid.
[496:6] Origin of Religions, p. 264.
[497:1] Origin of Religions, p. 268.
[497:2] Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 384.
[497:3] Origin of Religion, pp. 264-268.
[498:1] The number twelve appears in many of the Sun-myths. It refers to
the twelve hours of the day or night, or the twelve moons of the lunar
year. (Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 165. Bonwick: Egyptian Belief,
p. 175.)
Osiris, the Egyptian Saviour, had twelve apostles. (Bonwick, p. 175.)
In all religions of antiquity the number _twelve_, which applies to the
twelve signs of the zodiac, are reproduced in all kinds and sorts of
forms. For instance: such are the _twelve_ great gods; the _twelve_
apostles of Osiris; the _twelve_ apostles of Jesus; the _twelve_ sons of
Jacob, or the _twelve_ tribes; the _twelve_ altars of James; the
_twelve_ labors of Hercules; the _twelve_ shields of Mars; the _twelve_
brothers Arvaux; the _twelve_ gods Consents; the _twelve_ governors in
the Manichean System; the _adectyas_ of the East Indies; the _twelve_
asses of the Scandinavians; the city of the _twelve_ gates in the
Apocalypse; the _twelve_ wards of the city; the _twelve_ sacred
cushions, on which the Creator sits in the cosmogony of the Japanese;
the _twelve_ precious stones of the _rational_, or the ornament worn by
the high priest of the Jews, &c., &c. (See Dupuis, pp. 39, 40.)
[499:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 505.
[499:2] Luke, ii. 32.
[499:3] John, xii, 46.
[499:4] John, ix. v.
[499:5] I. John, i. 5.
[500:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 117.
[501:1] See Monumental Christianity, pp. 189, 191, 192, 238, and 296.
[501:2] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 283.
[501:3] King's Gnostics, p. 68.
[501:4] Ibid. p. 137.
[501:5] See Chapter XX.
[501:6] Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. i. p. 31.
[502:1] Geikie: Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 151.
[502:2] Monumental Christianity, p. 231.
[502:3] King's Gnostics, p. 48.
[502:4] Ibid. p. 68.
[502:5] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 13.
[503:1] Following are the words of the decree now in the Vatican
library: "In quibusdam sanctorum imaginum picturis agnus exprimitur, &c.
Nos igitur veteres figuras atque umbras, et veritatis notas, et signa
ecclesiæ tradita, complectentes, gratiam, et veritatem anteponimus, quam
ut plenitudinem legis acceptimus. Itaque id quod perfectum est, in
picturis etiam omnium oculis subjiciamus, agnum illum qui mundi peccatum
tollit, Christum Deum nostrum, loco veteris Ayni, humanâ formâ posthæ
exprimendum decrevimus," &c.
[504:1] "The _solar horse_, with two serpents upon his head (the
Buddhist Aries) is Buddha's symbol, and Aries is the symbol of Christ."
(Arthur Lillie: Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 110.)
[504:2] Quoted by Lillie: Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 93.
[504:3] Quoted by King: The Gnostics &c., p. 138.
[505:1] Quoted by King: The Gnostics, &c., p. 49.
[505:2] Ibid. p. 45.
[505:3] _Indra_, the crucified Sun-god of the Hindoos, was represented
with golden locks. (Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. i. p. 341.)
_Mithras_, the Persian Saviour, was represented with long flowing locks.
_Izdubar_, the god and hero of the Chaldeans, was represented with long
flowing locks of hair (Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 193), and
so was his counterpart, the Hebrew Samson.
"The Sâkya-prince (Buddha) is described as an Aryan by Buddhistic
tradition; his face was reddish, his hair of light color and curly, his
general appearance of great beauty." (Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 15.)
"Serapis has, in some instances, long hair formally turned back, and
disposed in ringlets hanging down upon his breast and shoulders like
that of a woman. His whole person, too, is always enveloped in drapery
reaching to his feet." (Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 104.)
"As for _yellow hair_, there is no evidence that Greeks have ever
commonly possessed it; but no other color would do for a solar hero, and
it accordingly characterizes the entire company of them, wherever
found." (Fiske: Myths and Mythmakers, p. 202.)
Helios (the Sun) is called by the Greeks the "yellow-haired."
(Goldzhier: Hebrew Mytho., p. 137.)
The Sun's rays is signified by the flowing golden locks which stream
from the head of Kephalos, and fall over the shoulders of Bellerophon.
(Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. i. p. 107.)
Perseus, son of the virgin Danae, was called the "Golden Child." (Ibid.
vol. ii. p. 58.) "The light of early morning is not more pure than was
the color on his fair cheeks, and the golden locks streamed bright over
his shoulders, like the rays of the sun when they rest on the hills at
midday." (Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 83.)
The Saviour Dionysus wore a long flowing robe, and had long golden hair,
which streamed from his head over his shoulders. (Aryan Mythology, vol.
ii. p. 293.)
Ixion was the "Beautiful and Mighty," with golden hair flashing a glory
from his head, dazzling as the rays which stream from Helios, when he
drives his chariot up the heights of heaven; and his flowing robe
glistened as he moved, like the vesture which the Sun-god gave to the
wise maiden Medeia, who dwelt in Kolchis. (Tales of Ancient Greece, p.
47.)
Theseus enters the city of Athens, as Christ Jesus is said to have
entered Jerusalem, with a long flowing robe, and with his _golden hair_
tied gracefully behind his head. His "soft beauty" excites the mockery
of the populace, who pause in their work to jest with him. (Cox: Aryan
Mythology, vol. ii. p. 63.)
Thus we see that long locks of golden hair, and a flowing robe, are
mythological attributes of the Sun.
[506:1] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 49.
[506:2] We have already seen (in Chapter XX.) that the word "_Christ_"
signifies the "Anointed," or the "Messiah," and that many other
personages beside Jesus of Nazareth had this _title_ affixed to their
names.
[507:1] The theory which has been set forth in this chapter, is also
more fully illustrated in Appendix C.
[507:2] These three letters, _the monogram of the Sun_, are the
celebrated I. H. S., which are to be seen in Roman Catholic churches at
the present day, and which are now the monogram of the Sun-god _Christ_
Jesus. (See Chapter XXXVI.)
CHAPTER XL.
CONCLUSION.
We now come to the last, but certainly not least, question to be
answered; which is, what do we really know of the man Jesus of Nazareth?
How much of the Gospel narratives can we rely upon as fact?
Jesus of Nazareth is so enveloped in the mists of the past, and his
history so obscured by legend, that it may be compared to footprints in
the sand. We know _some one_ has been there, but as to what manner of
man he may have been, we certainly know little as fact. The Gospels,
_the only records we have of him_,[508:1] have been proven, over and
over again, unhistorical and legendary; to state _anything as positive_
about the man is nothing more nor less than _assumption_; we can
therefore _conjecture_ only. Liberal writers philosophize and wax
eloquent to little purpose, when, after demolishing the historical
accuracy of the New Testament, they end their task by eulogizing the man
Jesus, claiming for him the _highest_ praise, and asserting that he was
the _best_ and _grandest_ of our race;[508:2] but this manner of
reasoning (undoubtedly consoling to many) _facts_ do not warrant. We may
consistently revere his name, and place it in the long list of the great
and noble, the reformers and religious teachers of the past, all of whom
have done their part in bringing about the freedom we now enjoy, but to
go beyond this, is, to our thinking, unwarranted.
If the life of Jesus of Nazareth, as related in the books of the New
Testament, be in part the story of a man who really lived and suffered,
that story has been so interwoven with images borrowed from myths of a
bygone age, as to conceal forever any fragments of history which may lie
beneath them. Gautama Buddha was undoubtedly an historical personage,
yet the Sun-god myth has been added to his history to such an extent
that we really know nothing positive about him. Alexander the Great was
an historical personage, yet his history is one mass of legends. So it
is with Julius Cesar, Cyrus, King of Persia, and scores of others. "The
story of Cyrus' perils in infancy belongs to _solar_ mythology as much
as the stories of the magic slipper, of Charlemagne and Barbarossa. His
grandfather, Astyages, is purely a mythical creation, his name being
identical with that of the night demon, Azidahaka, who appears in the
Shah-Nameh as the biting serpent."
The actual Jesus is inaccessible to scientific research. His image
cannot be recovered. He left no memorial in writing of himself; his
followers were illiterate; the mind of his age was confused. Paul
received only traditions of him, how definite we have no means of
knowing, apparently not significant enough to be treasured, nor
consistent enough to oppose a barrier to his own speculations. As M.
Renan says: "The Christ who communicates private revelations to him _is
a phantom of his own making_;" "it is _himself_ he listens to, _while
fancying that he hears Jesus_."[509:1]
In studying the writings of the early advocates of Christianity, and
Fathers of the Christian Church, where we would naturally look for the
language that would indicate the real occurrence of the facts of the
Gospel--if real occurrences they had ever been--we not only find no such
language, but everywhere find every sort of sophistical ambages,
ramblings from the subject, and evasions of the very business before
them, as if on purpose to balk our research, and insult our skepticism.
If we travel to the very sepulchre of Christ Jesus, it is only to
discover that he was never there: _history_ seeks evidence of his
existence as a man, but finds no more trace of it than of the shadow
that flits across the wall. "The Star of Bethlehem" shone not upon _her_
path, and the order of the universe was suspended without _her_
observation.
She asks, with the Magi of the East, "Where is he that is born King of
the Jews?" and, like them, finds no solution of her inquiry, but the
guidance that guides as well to one place as another; descriptions that
apply to Æsculapius, Buddha and Crishna, as well as to Jesus;
prophecies, without evidence that they were ever prophesied; miracles,
which those who are said to have seen, are said also to have denied
seeing; narratives without authorities, facts without dates, and records
without names. In vain do the so-called disciples of Jesus point to the
passages in Josephus and Tacitus;[510:1] in vain do they point to the
spot on which he was crucified; to the fragments of the true cross, or
the nails with which he was pierced, and to the _tomb_ in which he was
laid. Others have done as much for scores of _mythological personages_
who never lived in the flesh. Did not Damus, the beloved disciple of
Apollonius of Tyana, while on his way to India, see, on Mt. Caucasus,
the identical chains with which Prometheus had been bound to the rocks?
Did not the Scythians[510:2] say that Hercules had visited their
country? and did they not show the print of his foot upon a rock to
substantiate their story?[510:3] Was not his _tomb_ to be seen at Cadiz,
where his _bones_ were shown?[510:4] Was not the _tomb_ of Bacchus to be
seen in Greece?[510:5] Was not the _tomb_ of Apollo to be seen at
Delphi?[510:6] Was not the _tomb_ of Achilles to be seen at Dodona,
where Alexander the Great honored it by placing a crown upon it?[510:7]
Was not the _tomb_ of Æsculapius to be seen in Arcadia, in a grove
consecrated to him, near the river Lusius?[510:8] Was not the _tomb_ of
Deucalion--he who was saved from the Deluge--long pointed out near the
sanctuary of Olympian Jove, in Athens?[510:9] Was not the _tomb_ of
Osiris to be seen in Egypt, where, at stated seasons, the priests went
in solemn procession, and covered it with flowers?[510:10] Was not the
tomb of Jonah--he who was "swallowed up by a big fish"--to be seen at
Nebi-Yunus, near Mosul?[510:11] Are not the _tombs_ of Adam, Eve, Cain,
Abel, Seth, Abraham, and other Old Testament characters, to be seen even
at the present day?[510:12] And did not the Emperor Constantine dedicate
a beautiful church over the _tomb_ of St. George, the warrior
saint?[510:13] Of what value, then, is such evidence of the existence of
such an individual as Jesus of Nazareth? The fact is, "the records of
his life are so very scanty, and these have been so shaped and colored
and modified by the hands of ignorance and superstition and party
prejudice and ecclesiastical purpose, that it is hard to be sure of the
original outlines."
In the first two centuries the professors of Christianity were divided
into many sects, but these might be all resolved into two divisions--one
consisting of Nazarenes, Ebionites, and orthodox; the other of
_Gnostics_, under which all the remaining sects arranged themselves. The
former are supposed to have believed in Jesus crucified, in the common,
literal acceptation of the term; the latter--believers in the _Christ_
as an _Æon_--though they admitted the crucifixion, considered it to have
been in some _mystic_ way--perhaps what might be called _spiritualiter_,
as it is called in the Revelation: but notwithstanding the different
opinions they held, they all denied that _the Christ_ did really die, in
the literal acceptation of the term, on the cross.[511:1] The Gnostic,
or Oriental, Christians undoubtedly took their doctrine from the _Indian
crucifixion_[511:2] (of which we have treated in Chapters XX. and
XXXIX.), as well as many other tenets with which we have found the
Christian Church deeply tainted. They held that:
"To deliver the soul, a captive in darkness, the 'Prince of
Light,' the 'Genius of the Sun,' charged with the redemption
of the intellectual world, of which the Sun is the type,
manifested itself among men; that the light appeared in the
darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not; that, in fact,
light could not unite with darkness; it put on only the
appearance of the human body; that at the crucifixion Christ
Jesus only _appeared_ to suffer. His person having
disappeared, the bystanders saw in his place a cross of light,
over which a celestial voice proclaimed these words; 'The
Cross of Light is called Logos, Christos, the Gate, the Joy.'"
Several of the texts of the Gospel histories were quoted with great
plausibility by the Gnostics in support of their doctrine. The story of
Jesus passing through the midst of the Jews when they were about to cast
him headlong from the brow of a hill (Luke iv. 29, 30), and when they
were going to stone him (John iii. 59; x. 31, 39), were examples not
easily refuted.
The Manichean Christian Bishop Faustus expresses himself in the
following manner:
"Do you receive the gospel? (ask ye). Undoubtedly I do! Why
then, you also admit that Christ was born? Not so; for it by
no means follows that in believing the gospel, I should
therefore believe that Christ was born! Do you then think that
he was of the Virgin Mary? Manes hath said, 'Far be it that I
should ever own that Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . . . . .'"
etc.[512:1]
Tertullian's manner of reasoning on the evidences of Christianity is
also in the same vein, as we saw in our last chapter.[512:2]
Mr. King, speaking of the Gnostic Christians, says:
"Their chief doctrines had been held for centuries before
(their time) in many of the cities in _Asia Minor_. There, it
is probable, they first came into existence as _Mystæ_, upon
the establishment of direct intercourse with _India_, under
the Seleucidæ and Ptolemies. The college of _Essenes_ and
_Megabyzæ_ at Ephesus, the _Orphics_ of Thrace, the _Curets_
of Crete, _are all merely branches of one antique and common
religion, and that originally Asiatic_."[512:3]
These early Christian Mystics are alluded to in several instances in the
New Testament. For example:
"Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come _in
the flesh_ is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God."[512:4]
"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh."[512:5]
This is language that could not have been used, if the reality of Christ
Jesus' existence as a man could not have been denied, or, it would
certainly seem, if the apostle himself had been able to give any
evidence whatever of the claim.
The quarrels on this subject lasted for a long time among the early
Christians. _Hermas_, speaking of this, says to the brethren:
"Take heed, my children, that your dissensions deprive you not
of your lives. How will ye instruct the elect of God, when ye
yourselves want correction? Wherefore admonish one another,
and be at peace among yourselves; that I, standing before your
father, may give an account of you unto the Lord."[512:6]
_Ignatius_, in his Epistle to the Smyrnæans, says:[512:7]
"Only in the name of Jesus Christ, I undergo all, to suffer
together with him; he who was made a perfect man strengthening
me. _Whom some, not knowing, do deny_; or rather have been
denied by him, being the advocates of death, rather than of
the truth. Whom neither the prophecies, nor the law of Moses,
have persuaded; _nor the Gospel itself even to this day_, nor
the sufferings of any one of us. _For they think also the
same thing of us_; for what does a man profit me, if he shall
praise me, and blaspheme my Lord; _not confessing that he was
truly made man_?"
In his Epistle to the Philadelphians he says:[513:1]
"I have heard of some who say, _unless I find it written in
the originals_, I will not believe it to be written in the
Gospel. And when I said, It is written, they answered what lay
before them in their corrupted copies."
_Polycarp_, in his Epistle to the Philippians, says:[513:2]
"Whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh, he is Antichrist: _and whosoever does not confess his
sufferings upon the cross_, is from the devil. And whosoever
perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts; and says
that there shall neither be any resurrection, nor judgment, he
is the first-born of Satan."
_Ignatius_ says to the Magnesians:[513:3]
"Be not deceived with strange doctrines; nor with old fables
which are unprofitable. For if we still continue to live
according to the Jewish law, we do confess ourselves _not_ to
have received grace. For even the most holy prophets lived
according to Jesus Christ. . . . Wherefore if they who were
brought up in these ancient laws came nevertheless to the
newness of hope; no longer observing Sabbaths, but keeping the
Lord's Day, in which also our life is sprung up by him, and
through his death, _whom yet some deny_. By which _mystery_
we have been brought to believe, and therefore wait that
we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only
master. . . . . These things, my beloved, I write unto you,
not that I know of any among you _that be under this error_;
but as one of the least among you, I am desirous to forewarn
you that ye fall not into the snares of vain doctrine."
After reading this we can say with the writer of Timothy,[513:4]
"Without controversy, great is the MYSTERY of godliness."
Beside those who denied that Christ Jesus had ever been manifest _in the
flesh_, there were others who denied that _he_ had been
crucified.[513:5] This is seen from the words of Justin Martyr, in his
_Apology_ for the Christian Religion, written A. D. 141, where he says:
"As to the _objection_ to _our_ Jesus's being crucified, I
say, suffering was common to all the Sons of Jove."[513:6]
This is as much as to say: "_You_ Pagans claim that _your_ incarnate
gods and _Saviours_ suffered and died, then why should not _we_ claim
the same for _our_ Saviour?"
The _Koran_, referring to the _Jews_, says:
"They have not believed in Jesus, and have spoken against Mary
a grievous calumny, and have said: 'Verily we have slain
Christ Jesus, the son of Mary' (the apostle of God). _Yet they
slew him not, neither crucified him, but he was represented by
one in his likeness. And verily they who disagreed concerning
him were in a doubt as to this matter, and had no sure
knowledge thereof, but followed only an uncertain
opinion._"[514:1]
This passage alone, from the Mohammedan Bible, is sufficient to show, if
other evidence were wanting, that the early Christians "disagreed
concerning him," and that "they had no sure knowledge thereof, but
followed only an uncertain opinion."
In the books which are _now_ called _Apocryphal_, but which _were_ the
most quoted, and of equal authority with the others, and which were
_voted not_ the word of God--for obvious reasons--and were therefore
cast out of the canon, we find many allusions to the strife among the
early Christians. For instance; in the "First Epistle of Clement to the
Corinthians,"[514:2] we read as follows:
"Wherefore are there strifes, and anger, and divisions, and
schisms, and wars, among us? . . . Why do we rend and tear in
pieces the members of Christ, and raise seditions against our
own body? and are come to such a height of madness, as to
forget that we are members one of another."
In his Epistle to the Trallians, Ignatius says:[514:3]
"I exhort you, or rather not I, but the love of Jesus Christ,
that ye use none but Christian nourishment; abstaining from
pasture which is of another kind. I mean _Heresy_. For they
that are heretics, confound together the doctrine of Jesus
Christ with their own poison; whilst they seem worthy of
belief. . . . Stop your ears, therefore, as often as any one
shall speak contrary to Jesus Christ, who was of the race of
David, of the Virgin Mary. Who was _truly_ born, and did eat
and drink; was _truly_ persecuted under Pontius Pilate; was
_truly_ crucified and dead; both those in heaven and on earth,
and under the earth, being spectators of it. . . . But if, as
some who are atheists, that is to say, infidels, pretend,
_that he only seemed to suffer_, why then am I bound? Why do I
desire to fight with beasts? Therefore do I die in vain."
We find St. Paul, the very first Apostle of the Gentiles, expressly
avowing that _he was made a minister of the gospel, which had already
been preached to every creature under heaven_,[514:4] and preaching _a
God manifest in the flesh_, who had been _believed on in the
world_,[514:5] therefore, _before the commencement of his ministry_; and
who could not have been the man of Nazareth, who had certainly not been
preached, _at that time_, nor generally believed on in the world, till
ages after that time.[514:6] We find also that:
1. This Paul owns himself a _deacon_, the lowest ecclesiastical grade
of the _Therapeutan_ church.
2. The Gospel of which these Epistles speak, had been extensively
preached and fully established before the time of Jesus, by the
Therapeuts or Essenes, who believed in the doctrine of the
Angel-Messiah, the Æon from heaven.[515:1]
Leo the Great, so-called (A. D. 440-461), writes thus:
"Let those who with impious murmurings find fault with the
Divine dispensations, and who complain about the _lateness_ of
our Lord's nativity, cease from their grievances, as if what
was _carried out_ in later ages of the world, had not been
impending _in time past_. . . .
"What the Apostles preached, the prophets (in Israel) had
announced before, and what has _always been (universally)
believed_, cannot be said to have been _fulfilled_ too late.
By this delay of his work of salvation, the wisdom and love of
God have only made us more fitted for his call; so that, _what
had been announced before by many Signs and Words and
Mysteries during so many centuries_, should not be doubtful or
uncertain in the days of the gospel. . . God has not provided
for the interests of men by a _new council_ or by a _late
compassion_; but he had instituted from the beginning for all
men, _one and the same path of salvation_."[515:2]
This is equivalent to saying that, "God, in his '_late compassion_,' has
sent his Son, Christ Jesus, to save _us_, therefore do not complain or
'murmur' about 'the lateness of his coming,' for the Lord has already
provided for those who _preceded us_; he has given them '_the same path
of salvation_' by sending to _them_, as he has sent to _us_, a
_Redeemer_ and a _Saviour_."
Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Typho,[515:3] makes a similar
confession (as we have already seen in our last chapter), wherein he
says that there exists not a people, civilized or semi-civilized, who
have not offered up prayers in the name of a _crucified Saviour_ to the
Father and Creator of all things.
Add to this medley the fact that St. Irenæus (A. D. 192), one of the
most celebrated, most respected, and most quoted of the early Christian
Fathers, tells us on the authority of his master, Polycarp, who had it
from St. John himself, and from all the old people of Asia, that Jesus
was not crucified at the time stated in the Gospels, but that he lived
to be nearly _fifty_ years old. The passage which, most fortunately, has
escaped the destroyers of all such evidence, is to be found in Irenæus'
second book against heresies,[515:4] of which the following is a
portion:
"As the chief part of thirty years belongs to youth, and
every one will confess him to be such till the fortieth year:
but from the fortieth year to the fiftieth he declines into
old age, _which our Lord (Jesus) having attained he taught us
the Gospel, and all the elders who, in Asia, assembled with
John, the disciple of the Lord, testify; and as John himself
had taught them_. And he (John?) remained with them till the
time of Trajan. And some of them saw not only John but other
Apostles, _and heard the same thing from them, and bear the
same testimony to this revelation_."
The escape of this passage from the destroyers can be accounted for only
in the same way as the passage of Minucius Felix (quoted in Chapter XX.)
concerning the Pagans worshiping a crucifix. These two passages escaped
from among, probably, hundreds destroyed, of which we know nothing,
under the decrees of the emperors, yet remaining, by which they were
ordered to be destroyed.
In John viii. 56, Jesus is made to say to the Jews: "Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad." Then said the Jews
unto him: "Thou art not yet _fifty_ years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham?"
If Jesus was then but about _thirty_ years of age, the Jews would
evidently have said: "thou art not yet _forty_ years old," and would not
have been likely to say: "thou art not yet _fifty_ years old," unless he
was past forty.
There was a tradition current among the early Christians, that _Annas_
was high-priest when Jesus was crucified. This is evident from the
_Acts_.[516:1] Now, Annas, or Ananias, _was not high-priest until about
the year 48 A. D._;[516:2] therefore, if Jesus was crucified at that
time he must have been about _fifty_ years of age;[516:3] but, as we
remarked elsewhere, there exists, outside of the New Testament, no
evidence whatever, in book, inscription, or monument, that Jesus of
Nazareth was either scourged or crucified under Pontius Pilate.
Josephus, Tacitus, Plinius, Philo, nor any of their contemporaries, ever
refer to the fact of this crucifixion, or express any belief
thereon.[516:4] In the Talmud--the book containing Jewish
traditions--Jesus is not referred to as the "crucified one," but as the
"hanged one,"[516:5] while elsewhere it is narrated he was _stoned_ to
death; so that it is evident they were ignorant of the manner of death
which he suffered.[516:6]
In _Sanhedr. 43 a_, Jesus it said to have had five disciples, among
whom were Mattheaus and Thaddeus. He is called "That Man," "The
Nazarine," "The Fool," and "The Hung." Thus Aben Ezra says that
Constantine put on his _labarum_ "a figure of the hung;" and, according
to R. Bechai, the Christians were called "Worshipers of the Hung."
Little is said about Jesus in the _Talmud_, except that he was a scholar
of Joshua Ben Perachiah (who lived a century before the time assigned by
the Christians for the birth of Jesus), accompanied him into Egypt,
there learned magic, and was a seducer of the people, and was finally
put to death by being stoned, and then hung as a blasphemer.
"The conclusion is, that no clearly defined traces of the personal Jesus
remain on the surface, or beneath the surface, of Christendom. The
silence of Josephus and other secular historians may be accounted for
without falling back on a theory of hostility or contempt.[517:1] The
_Christ_-idea cannot be spared from Christian development, but the
personal Jesus, in some measure, can be."
"The person of Jesus, though it may have been immense, is indistinct.
That a great character was there may be conceded; but precisely wherein
the character was great, is left to our _conjecture_. Of the eminent
persons who have swayed the spiritual destinies of mankind, none has
more completely disappeared from the critical view. The ideal image
which Christians have, for nearly two thousand years, worshiped under
the name of Jesus, has no authentic, distinctly visible, counterpart in
history."
"His followers have gone on with the process of idealization, placing
him higher and higher; making his personal existence more and more
essential; insisting more and more urgently on the necessity of private
intercourse with him; letting the Father subside into the background, as
an 'effluence,' and the Holy Ghost lapse from individual identity into
impersonal influence, in order that he might be all in all as
Regenerator and Saviour. From age to age the personal Jesus has been
made the object of an extreme adoration, till now _faith_ in the living
Christ is the heart of the Gospel; philosophy, science, culture,
humanity are thrust resolutely aside, and the great teachers of the age
are extinguished in order that _his_ light may shine." But, as Mr.
Frothingham remarks, in "The Cradle of the Christ": "In the order of
experience, historical and biographical truth is discovered by stripping
off layer after layer of exaggeration, and going back to the statements
of contemporaries. As a rule, figures are _reduced_, not enlarged, by
criticism. The influence of admiration is recognized as distorting and
falsifying, while exalting. The process of legend-making begins
immediately, goes on rapidly and with accelerating speed, and must be
liberally allowed for by the seeker after truth. In scores of instances
the historical individual turns out to be very much smaller than he was
painted by his terrified or loving worshipers. In no single case has it
been established that he was greater, or as great. It is, no doubt,
conceivable that such a case should occur, but it never has occurred, in
known instances, and cannot be presumed to have occurred in any
particular instance. The presumptions are against the correctness of the
glorified image. The disposition to exaggerate is so much stronger than
the disposition to underrate, that even really great men are placed
higher than they belong oftener than lower. The historical method works
backwards. Knowledge shrinks the man."[518:1]
As we are allowed to _conjecture_ as to what is true in the Gospel
history, we shall now do so.
The death of Herod, which occurred a few years before the time assigned
for the birth of Jesus, was followed by frightful social and political
convulsions in Judea. For two or three years all the elements of
disorder were abroad. Between pretenders to the vacant throne of Herod,
_and aspirants to the Messianic throne of David_, Judea was torn and
devastated. Revolt assumed the wildest form, the higher enthusiasm of
faith yielded to the lower fury of _fanaticism_; the celestial visions
of a kingdom of heaven were completely banished by the smoke and flame
of political hate. _Claimant after claimant of the dangerous supremacy
of the Messiah appeared, pitched a camp in the wilderness, raised the
banner, gathered a force, was attacked, defeated, banished or
crucified_; but _the frenzy did not abate_.
The popular aspect of the Messianic hope was _political_, not religious
or moral. The name _Messiah_ was synonymous with _King of the Jews_; it
suggested _political designs and aspirations_. The assumption of that
character by any individual drew on him the vigilance of the police.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 42]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 43]
That Jesus of Nazareth assumed the character of "_Messiah_," as did many
before and after him, and that his crucifixion[520:1] was simply an act
of the law on _political grounds_, just as it was in the case of other
so-called _Messiahs_, we believe to be the truth of the matter.[520:2]
"He is represented as being a native of _Galilee_, the _insurgent
district of the country_; nurtured, if not born, in Nazareth, one of its
chief cities; reared as a youth amid traditions of patriotic devotion,
and amid scenes associated with heroic dreams and endeavors. The
Galileans were restless, excitable people, beyond the reach of
conventionalities, remote from the centre of power, ecclesiastical and
secular, simple in their lives, bold of speech, independent in thought,
thoroughgoing in the sort of radicalism that is common among people who
live 'out of the world,' who have leisure to discuss the exciting topics
of the day, but too little knowledge, culture, or sense of social
responsibility to discuss them soundly. Their mental discontent and
moral intractability were proverbial. They were belligerents. The Romans
had more trouble with them than with the natives of any other province.
_The Messiahs all started out from Galilee, and never failed to collect
followers round their standard._ The Galileans, more than others, lived
in the anticipation of the Deliverer. The reference of the Messiah to
Galilee is therefore already an indication of the character he is to
assume."
To show the state the country must have been in at that time, we will
quote an incident or two from Josephus.
A religious enthusiast called the Samaritans together upon Mount
Gerizim, and assured them that he would work a miracle. "So they came
thither _armed_, and thought the discourse of the man probable; and as
they abode at a certain village, which was called Tirathaba, they got
the rest together of them, and desired to go up the mountain in a great
multitude together: but Pilate prevented their going up, by seizing upon
the roads by a great band of horsemen and footmen, who fell upon those
who were gotten together in the village; and when it came to an action,
some of them they slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took
a great many alive, the principal of whom, and also the most potent of
those that fled away, Pilate ordered to be slain."[521:1]
Not long before this Pilate pillaged the temple treasury, and used the
"sacred money" to bring a current of water to Jerusalem. The _Jews_ were
displeased with this, "and many ten thousands of the people got together
and made a clamor against him. Some of them used reproaches, and abused
the man, as crowds of such people usually do. So he habited a great
number of his soldiers in their habits, who carried daggers under their
garments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them. So he
bade the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting reproaches upon
him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed
on; who laid upon them with much greater blows than Pilate had commanded
them, and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that
were not; nor did they spare them in the least: and since the people
were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about,
there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others ran
away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition."[522:1]
It was such deeds as these, inflicted upon the Jews by their oppressors,
that made them think of the promised Messiah who was to deliver them
from bondage, and which made many zealous fanatics imagine themselves to
be "He who should come."[522:2]
There is reason to believe, as we have said, that Jesus of Nazareth
assumed the title of "_Messiah_." His age was throbbing and bursting
with suppressed energy. The pressure of the Roman Empire was required to
keep it down. "The Messianic hope had such vitality that it condensed
into moments the moral result of ages. The common people were watching
to see the heavens open, interpreted peals of thunder as angel voices,
and saw divine potents in the flight of birds. Mothers dreamed their
boys would be Messiah. The wildest preacher drew a crowd. The heart of
the nation swelled big with the conviction that the hour of destiny was
about to strike, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. _The crown was
ready for any kingly head that might assume it._"[522:3]
The actions of this man, throughout his public career, we believe to be
those of a zealot whose zeal overrode considerations of wisdom; in fact,
a Galilean fanatic. Pilate condemns him reluctantly, feeling that he is
a harmless visionary, but is obliged to condemn him as one of the many
who persistently claimed to be the "_Messiah_," or "_King of the Jews_,"
an enemy of Cæsar, an instrument against the empire, a pretender to the
throne, a bold inciter to rebellion. The death he undergoes is the death
of the traitor and mutineer,[522:4] the death that was inflicted on many
such claimants, the death that would have been decreed to Judas the
Galilean,[522:5] had he been captured, and that was inflicted on
thousands of his deluded followers. _It was the Romans, then, who
crucified the man Jesus, and not the Jews._
"In the Roman law the _State_ is the main object, for which the
individual must live and die, with or against his will. In Jewish law,
the _person_ is made the main object, for which the State must live and
die; because the fundamental idea of the Roman law is power, and the
fundamental idea of Jewish law is justice."[523:1] _Therefore Caiaphas
and his conspirators did not act from the Jewish standpoint._ They
represented _Rome_, her principles, interest, and barbarous
caprices.[523:2] Not one point in the whole trial agrees with Jewish
laws and custom.[523:3] It is impossible to save it; it must be given up
as a transparent and unskilled invention of a _Gentile Christian_, who
knew nothing of Jewish law and custom, and was ignorant of the state of
civilization in Palestine, in the time of Jesus.
Jesus had been proclaimed the "_Messiah_," the "_Ruler of the Jews_,"
and the restorer of the kingdom of heaven. No Roman ear could understand
these pretensions, otherwise than in their rebellious sense. That
Pontius Pilate certainly understood under the title, "_Messiah_," the
king (the political chief of the nation), is evident from the
subscription of the cross, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," which
he did not remove in spite of all protestations of the Jews. There is
only one point in which the _four_ Gospels agree, and that is, that
early in the morning Jesus was delivered over to the _Roman governor_,
Pilate; that he was accused of high-treason against _Rome_--having been
proclaimed King of the Jews--and that in consequence thereof he was
condemned first to be scourged, and then to be crucified; all of which
was done in hot haste. _In all other points the narratives of the
Evangelists differ widely_, and so essentially that one story cannot be
made of the four accounts; nor can any particular points stand the test
of historical criticism, and vindicate its substantiality as a fact.
The Jews could not have crucified Jesus, _according to their laws_, if
they had inflicted on him the highest penalty of the law, since
crucifixion was _exclusively Roman_.[524:1] If the priests, elders,
Pharisees, Jews, or all of them wanted Jesus out of the way so badly,
why did they not have him quietly put to death while he was in their
power, and done at once. The writer of the fourth Gospel seems to have
understood this difficulty, and informs us that they could not kill him,
_because he had prophesied what death he should die_; so he could die no
other. It was dire necessity, that the heathen symbol of life and
immortality--the cross[524:2]--should be brought to honor among the
early Christians, and Jesus had to die on the cross (the Roman Gibbet),
_according to John_[524:3] simply because it was so _prophesied_. The
fact is, the crucifixion story, like the symbol of the crucifix itself,
_came from abroad_.[524:4] It was told with the avowed intention of
exonerating the Romans, and criminating the Jews, so they make the Roman
governor take water, "and wash his hands before the multitude, saying,
_I_ am innocent of the blood of this _just person_: see _ye_ to it." To
be sure of their case, they make the Jews say: "_His blood be on us, and
on our children._"[524:5]
"Another fact is this. Just at the period of time when misfortune and
ruination befell the Jews most severely, in the first post-apostolic
generation, the Christians were most active in making proselytes among
Gentiles. To have then preached that _a crucified Jewish Rabbi of
Galilee_ was their Saviour, would have sounded supremely ridiculous to
those heathens. To have added thereto, that the said Rabbi was crucified
by command of a Roman Governor, because he had been proclaimed 'King of
the Jews,' would have been fatal to the whole scheme. In the opinion of
the vulgar heathen, where the Roman Governor and Jewish Rabbi came in
conflict, the former must unquestionably be right, and the latter
decidedly wrong. To have preached a Saviour who was justly condemned to
die the death of a slave and villain, would certainly have proved fatal
to the whole enterprise. Therefore it was necessary to exonerate Pilate
and the Romans, and to throw the whole burden upon the Jews, in order to
establish the innocence and martyrdom of Jesus in the heathen mind."
That the crucifixion story, as related in the synoptic Gospels, was
written _abroad_, and _not_ in the Hebrew, or in the dialect spoken by
the Hebrews of Palestine, is evident from the following particular
points, noticed by Dr. Isaac M. Wise, a learned Hebrew scholar:
The _Mark_ and _Matthew_ narrators call the place of crucifixion
"_Golgotha_," to which the Mark narrator adds, "which is, being
interpreted, _the place of skulls_." The Matthew narrator adds the same
interpretation, which the John narrator copies without the word
"_Golgotha_," and adds, _it was a place near Jerusalem_. The Luke
narrator calls the place of crucifixion "_Calvary_," which is the LATIN
_Calvaria_, viz., "_the place of bare skulls_." Therefore the name does
not refer to the form of the hill, _but to the bare skulls upon
it_.[525:1] Now "_there is no such word as GOLGOTHA anywhere in Jewish
literature, and there is no such place mentioned anywhere near Jerusalem
or in Palestine by any writer_; and, in fact, there was no such place;
there could have been none near Jerusalem. The Jews buried their dead
carefully. Also the executed convict had to be buried before night. No
bare skulls, bleaching in the sun, could be found in Palestine,
especially not near Jerusalem. _It was law, that a bare skull, the bare
spinal column, and also the imperfect skeleton of any human being, make
man unclean by contact, and also by having either in the house._ Man,
thus made unclean, could not eat of any sacrificial meal, or of the
sacred tithe, before he had gone through the ceremonies of purification;
and whatever he touched was also unclean (Maimonides, Hil. Tumath Meth.,
iii. 1). Any impartial reader can see that the object of this law was to
prevent the barbarous practice of heathens of having human skulls and
skeletons lie about exposed to the decomposing influences of the
atmosphere, as the Romans did in Palestine after the fall of Bethar,
when for a long time they would give no permission to bury the dead
patriots. This law was certainly enforced most rigidly in the vicinity
of Jerusalem, of which they maintained "Jerusalem is more holy than all
other cities surrounded with walls," so that it was not permitted to
keep a dead body over night in the city, or to transport through it
human bones. Jerusalem was the place of the sacrificial meals and the
consumption of the sacred tithe, which was considered very holy
(Maimonides, Hil. Beth Habchirah, vii. 14); there, and in the
surroundings, skulls and skeletons were certainly never seen on the
surface of the earth, and consequently there was no place called
"_Golgotha_," and there was no such word in the Hebrew dialect. It is a
word coined by the Mark narrator to translate the Latin term
"_Calvaria_," which, together with the crucifixion story, _came from
Rome_. But after the Syrian word was made, nobody understood it, and the
Mark narrator was obliged to expound it."[526:1]
In the face of the arguments produced, the crucifixion story, as related
in the Gospels, cannot be upheld as an historical fact. There exists,
certainly, no rational ground whatever for the belief that the affair
took place _in the manner the Evangelists describe it_. All that can be
saved of the whole story is, that after Jesus had answered the first
question before Pilate, viz., "Art thou the King of the Jews?" which it
is natural to suppose he was asked, and also this can be supposed only,
he was given over to the Roman soldiers to be disposed of as soon as
possible, before his admirers and followers could come to his rescue, or
any demonstration in his favor be made. He was captured in the night, as
quietly as possible, and guarded in some place, probably in the
high-priest's court, completely secluded from the eyes of the populace;
and early in the morning he was brought before Pilate as cautiously and
quietly as it could be done, and at _his_ command, disposed of by the
soldiers as quickly as practicable, and in a manner not known to the
mass of the people. All this was done, most likely, while the multitude
worshiped on Mount Moriah, and nobody had an intimation of the tragical
end of the Man of Nazareth.
The bitter cry of Jesus, as he hung on the tree, "My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?" disclosed the hope of deliverance that till the
last moment sustained his heart, and betrayed the anguish felt when the
hope was blighted; the sneers and hooting of the Roman soldiers
expressed their conviction that he had pretended to be what he was not.
The miracles ascribed to him, and the moral precepts put into his mouth,
in after years, are what might be expected; history was simply repeating
itself; the same thing had been done for others. "The preacher of the
Mount, the prophet of the Beatitudes, does but repeat, with persuasive
lips, what the law-givers of his race proclaimed in mighty tones of
command."[527:1]
The martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth has been gratefully acknowledged by
his disciples, whose lives he saved by the sacrifice of his own, and by
their friends, who would have fallen by the score had he not prevented
the rebellion ripe at Jerusalem.[527:2] Posterity, infatuated with Pagan
apotheoses, made of that simple martyrdom an interesting legend, colored
with the myths of resurrection and ascension to that very heaven which
the telescope has put out of man's way. It is a novel myth, made to suit
the gross conceptions of ex-heathens. Modern theology, understanding
well enough that the myth cannot be saved, seeks refuge in the greatness
and self-denial of the man who died for an idea, as though Jesus had
been the only man who had died for an idea. Thousands, tens of thousands
of Jews, Christians, Mohammedans and Heathens, have died for ideas, and
some of them were very foolish. But Jesus did not die for an idea. He
never advanced anything new, that we know of, to die for. He was not
accused of saying or teaching anything _original_. Nobody has ever been
able to discover anything new and original in the Gospels. He evidently
died to save the lives of his friends, and this is much more meritorious
than if he had died for a questionable idea. But then the whole fabric
of vicarious atonement is demolished, and modern theology cannot get
over the absurdity that the Almighty Lord of the Universe, the infinite
and eternal cause of all causes, had to kill some innocent person in
order to be reconciled to the human race. However abstractly they
speculate and subtilize, there is always an undigested bone of man-god,
god-man, and vicarious atonement in the theological stomach. Therefore
theology appears so ridiculous in the eyes of modern philosophy. The
theological speculation cannot go far enough to hold pace with modern
astronomy. However nicely the idea may be dressed, the great God of the
immense universe looks too small upon the cross of Calvary; and the
human family is too large, has too numerous virtues and vices, to be
perfectly represented by, and dependent on, one Rabbi of Galilee.
Speculate as they may, one way or another, they must connect the Eternal
and the fate of the human family with the person and fate of Jesus. That
is the very thing which deprives Jesus of his crown of martyrdom, and
brings religion in perpetual conflict with philosophy. It was not the
religious idea which was crucified in Jesus and resurrected with him, as
with all its martyrs; although his belief in immortality may have
strengthened him in the agony of death. It was the idea of duty to his
disciples and friends which led him to the realms of death. This
deserves admiration, but no more. It demonstrates the nobility of human
nature, but proves nothing in regard to providence, or the providential
scheme of government.
The Christian story, _as the Gospels narrate it_, cannot stand the test
of criticism. You approach it critically and it falls. _Dogmatic
Christology_ built upon it, has, therefore, a very frail foundation.
Most so-called lives of Christ, or biographies of Jesus, are works of
fiction, erected by imagination on the shifting foundation of meagre and
unreliable records. There are very few passages in the Gospels which can
stand the rigid application of honest criticism. In modern science and
philosophy, orthodox _Christology_ is out of the question.
"This 'sacred tradition' has in itself a glorious vitality, which
Christians may unblameably entitle immortal. But it certainly will not
lose in beauty, grandeur, or truth, if all the details concerning Jesus
which are current in the Gospels, and all the mythology of his person,
be forgotten or discredited. Christianity will remain without Christ.
"This formula has in it nothing paradoxical. Rightly interpreted, it
simply means: _All that is best in Judæo-Christian sentiment, moral or
spiritual, will survive, without Rabbinical fancies, cultured by
perverse logic; without huge piles of fable built upon them: without the
Oriental Satan, a formidable rival to the throne of God; without the
Pagan invention of Hell and Devils_."
In modern criticism, the Gospel sources become so utterly worthless and
unreliable, that it takes more than ordinary faith to believe a large
portion thereof to be true. The _Eucharist_ was not established by
Jesus, and cannot be called a sacrament. The trials of Jesus are
positively not true: they are pure inventions.[528:1] The crucifixion
story, _as narrated_, is certainly not true, and it is extremely
difficult to save the bare fact that Jesus was crucified. What can the
critic do with books in which a few facts must be ingeniously guessed
from under the mountain of ghost stories,[528:2] childish
miracles,[529:1] and dogmatic tendencies?[529:2] It is absurd to expect
of him to regard them as sources of religious instruction, in preference
to any other mythologies and legends. That is the point at which modern
critics have arrived, therefore, the Gospels have become books for the
museum and archæologist, for students of mythology and ancient
literature.
The spirit of dogmatic Christology hovers still over a portion of
civilized society, in antic organizations, disciplines, and hereditary
forms of faith and worship; in science and philosophy, in the realm of
criticism, its day is past. The universal, religious, and ethical
element of Christianity has no connection whatever with Jesus or his
apostles, with the Gospel, or the Gospel story; _it exists independent
of any person or story_. Therefore it needs neither the Gospel story nor
its heroes. If we profit by the example, by the teachings, or the
discoveries of men of past ages, to these men we are indebted, and are
in duty bound to acknowledge our indebtedness; but why should we give to
_one_ individual, Jesus of Nazareth, the credit of it _all_? It is true,
that by selecting from the Gospels whatever portions one may choose, a
_common practice among Christian writers_, a noble and grand character
may be depicted, _but who was the original of this character_? We may
find the same individual outside of the Gospels, and before the time of
Jesus. The moral precepts of the Gospels, also, were in existence before
the Gospels themselves were in existence.[529:3] Why, then, extol the
hero of the Gospels, and forget all others?
As it was at the end of Roman Paganism, so is it now: the masses are
deceived and fooled, or do it for themselves, and persons of vivacious
fantasies prefer the masquerade of delusion, to the simple sublimity of
naked but majestic truth. The decline of the church as a political power
proves beyond a doubt the decline of Christian faith. The conflicts of
Church and State all over the European continent, and the hostility
between intelligence and _dogmatic Christianity_, demonstrates the death
of _Christology_ in the consciousness of modern culture. It is useless
to shut our eyes to these facts. Like rabbinical Judaism, dogmatic
Christianity was the product of ages without typography, telescopes,
microscopes, telegraphs, and power of steam. "These right arms of
intelligence have fought the titanic battles, conquered and demolished
the ancient castles, and remove now the débris, preparing the ground
upon which there shall be the gorgeous temple of humanity, one universal
republic, one universal religion of intelligence, and one great
universal brotherhood. This is the new covenant, the gospel of humanity
and reason."
"----Hoaryheaded selfishness has felt
Its death-blow, and is tottering to the grave:
A brighter morn awaits the human day;
War with its million horrors, and fierce hell,
Shall live but in the memory of time,
Who, like a penitent libertine, shall start,
Look back, and shudder at his younger years."
FOOTNOTES:
[508:1] "For knowledge of the man Jesus, of his idea and his aims, and
of the outward form of his career, the _New Testament_ is our only hope.
If this hope fails, the pillared firmament of his starry fame is
rottenness; the base of Christianity, so far as it was personal and
individual, is built on stubble." (John W. Chadwick.)
[508:2] M. Renan, after declaring Jesus to be a "_fanatic_," and
admitting that, "his friends thought him, at moments, beside himself;"
and that, "his enemies declared him possessed by a devil," says: "The
man here delineated merits a place at the summit of human grandeur."
"This is the Supreme man, a sublime personage;" "to call him divine is
no exaggeration." Other liberal writers have written in the same strain.
[509:1] "The Christ of Paul was not a person, but an _idea_; he took no
pains to learn the facts about the individual Jesus. He actually boasted
that the Apostles had taught him nothing. _His_ Christ was an ideal
conception, evolved from his own feeling and imagination, and taking on
new powers and attributes from year to year to suit each new emergency."
(John W. Chadwick.)
[510:1] This subject is considered in Appendix D.
[510:2] _Scythia_ was a name employed in ancient times, to denote a
vast, indefinite, and almost unknown territory north and east of the
Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Sea of Aral.
[510:3] See Herodotus, book 4, ch. 82.
[510:4] See Dupuis, p. 264.
[510:5] See Knight's Anct. Art and Mythology, p. 96, and Mysteries of
Adoni, p. 90.
[510:6] See Dupuis, p. 264.
[510:7] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 7.
[510:8] See Ibid. vol. i. p. 27.
[510:9] Ibid.
[510:10] Ibid. vol. i. p. 2, and Bonwick, p. 155.
[510:11] See Chambers, art. "Jonah."
[510:12] See Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 152, and Goldzhier, p. 280.
[510:13] See Curious Myths, p. 264.
[511:1] "Whilst, in one part of the Christian world, the chief objects
of interest were the _human_ nature and _human_ life of Jesus, in
another part of the Christian world the views taken of his person
because so _idealistic_, that his humanity _was reduced to a phantom
without reality_. The various _Gnostic_ systems generally agreed in
saying that the Christ was an _Æon_, the redeemer of the _spirits_ of
men, and that he had little or no contact with their corporeal nature."
(A. Réville: Hist. of the Dogma of the Deity of Jesus.)
[511:2] Epiphanius says that there were TWENTY heresies BEFORE CHRIST,
and there can be no doubt that there is much truth in the observation,
for most of the rites and doctrines of the Christians of all sects
existed before the time of Jesus of Nazareth.
[512:1] "Accipis avengelium? et maxime. Proinde ergo et natum accipis
Christum. Non ita est. Neque enim sequitur ut si evangelium accipio,
idcirco et natum accipiam Christum. Ergo non putas cum ex Maria Virgine
esse? Manes dixit, Absit ut Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum per naturalia
pudenda mulieris de scendisse confitear." (Lardner's Works, vol. iv. p.
20.)
[512:2] "I maintain," says he, "that the Son of God was _born_: why am I
not ashamed of maintaining such a thing? Why! because it is itself a
shameful thing--I maintain that the Son of God _died_: well, _that_ is
wholly credible because it is monstrously absurd. I maintain that after
having been buried, _he rose again_: and _that_ I take to be absolutely
true, _because it was manifestly impossible_."
[512:3] King's Gnostics, p. 1.
[512:4] I. John, iv. 2, 3.
[512:5] II. John, 7.
[512:6] 1st Book Hermas: Apoc., ch. iii.
[512:7] Chapter II.
[513:1] Chapter II.
[513:2] Chapter III.
[513:3] Chapter III.
[513:4] I. Timothy, iii. 16.
[513:5] Irenæus, speaking of them, says: "They hold that men ought not
to confess him who _was crucified_, but him who came in the form of man,
_and was supposed to be crucified_, and was called Jesus." (See Lardner:
vol. viii. p. 353.) They could not conceive of "the first-begotten Son
of God" being put to death on a cross, and suffering like an ordinary
being, so they thought Simon of Cyrene must have been substituted for
him, as the ram was substituted in the place of Isaac. (See Ibid. p.
857.)
[513:6] Apol. 1, ch. xxi.
[514:1] Koran, ch. iv.
[514:2] Chapter XX.
[514:3] Chapter II.
[514:4] Col. i. 23.
[514:5] I. Timothy, iii. 16.
[514:6] The authenticity of these Epistles has been freely questioned,
even by the most conservative critics.
[515:1] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, and Chapter XXXVII., this work.
[515:2] Quoted by Max Müller: The Science of Relig., p. 228.
[515:3] Ch. cxvii.
[515:4] Ch. xxii.
[516:1] Ch. iv. 5.
[516:2] Josephus: Antiq., b. xx. ch. v. 2.
[516:3] It is true there was another Annas high-priest at Jerusalem, but
this was when _Gratus_ was procurator of Judea, some twelve or fifteen
years before Pontius Pilate held the same office. (See Josephus: Antiq.,
book xviii. ch. ii. 3.)
[516:4] See Appendix D.
[516:5] See the Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 100.
[516:6] According to Dio Cassius, Plutarch, Strabo and others, there
existed, in the time of Herod, among the Roman Syrian heathens, a
wide-spread and deep sympathy for a "_Crucified King of the Jews_." This
was the youngest son of Aristobul, the heroic Maccabee. In the year 43
B. C., we find this young man--_Antigonus_--in Palestine claiming the
crown, his cause having been declared just by Julius Cæsar. Allied with
the Parthians, he maintained himself in his royal position for six years
against Herod and Mark Antony. At last, after a heroic life and reign,
he fell in the hands of this Roman. "_Antony now gave the kingdom to a
certain Herod, and, having stretched Antigonus on a cross and scourged
him, a thing never done before to any other king by the Romans, he put
him to death._" (Dio Cassius, book xlix. p. 405.)
The fact that all prominent historians of those days mention this
extraordinary occurrence, and the manner they did it, show that it was
considered one of Mark Antony's worst crimes: and that the sympathy with
the "Crucified King" was wide-spread and profound. (See The Martyrdom of
Jesus of Nazareth, p. 106.)
Some writers think that there is a connection between this and the
Gospel story; that they, in a certain measure, put Jesus in the place of
Antigonus, just as they put Herod in the place of Kansa. (See Chapter
XVIII.)
[517:1] Canon Farrar thinks that Josephus' silence on the subject of
Jesus and Christianity, was as deliberate as it was dishonest. (See his
Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 63.)
[518:1] Many examples might be cited to confirm this view, but the case
of _Joseph Smith_, in our own time and country, will suffice.
The Mormons regard him very much as Christians regard Jesus; as the
Mohammedans do Mohammed; or as the Buddhists do Buddha. A coarse sort of
religious feeling and fervor appears to have been in Smith's nature. He
seems, from all accounts, to have been cracked on theology, as so many
zealots have been, and cracked to such an extent that his early
acquaintances regarded him as a downright fanatic.
The common view that he was an impostor is not sustained by what is
known of him. He was, in all probability, of unbalanced mind, a
monomaniac, as most prophets have been; but there is no reason to think
that he did not believe in himself, and substantially in what he taught.
He has declared that, when he was about fifteen, he began to reflect on
the importance of being prepared for a future state. He went from one
church to another without finding anything to satisfy the hunger of his
soul, consequently, he retired into himself; he sought solitude; he
spent hours and days in meditation and prayer, after the true manner of
all accredited saints, and was soon repaid by the visits of angels. One
of these came to him when he was but eighteen years old, and the house
in which he was seemed filled with consuming fire. The presence--he
styles it a personage--had a pace like lightning, and proclaimed himself
to be an angel of the Lord. He vouchsafed to Smith a vast deal of highly
important information of a celestial order. He told him that his
(Smith's) prayers had been heard, and his sins forgiven; that the
covenant which the Almighty had made with the old Jews was to be
fulfilled; that the introductory work for the second coming of Christ
was now to begin; that the hour for the preaching of the gospel in its
purity to all peoples was at hand, and that Smith was to be an
instrument in the hands of God, to further the divine purpose in the new
dispensation. The celestial stranger also furnished him with a sketch of
the origin, progress, laws and civilization of the American aboriginals,
and declared that the blessing of heaven had finally been withdrawn from
them. To Smith was communicated the momentous circumstance that certain
plates containing an abridgment of the records of the aboriginals and
ancient prophets, who had lived on this continent, were hidden in a hill
near Palmyra. The prophet was counseled to go there and look at them,
and did so. Not being holy enough to possess them as yet, he passed some
months in spiritual probation, after which the records were put into his
keeping. These had been prepared, it is claimed, by a prophet called
Mormon, who had been ordained by God for the purpose, and to conceal
them until he should produce them for the benefit of the faithful, and
unite them with the Bible for the achievement of his will. They form the
celebrated Book of Mormon--whence the name Mormon--and are esteemed by
the Latter-Day Saints as of equal authority with the Old and New
Testaments, and as an indispensable supplement thereto, because they
include God's disclosures to the Mormon world. These precious records
were sealed up and deposited A. D. 420 in the place where Smith had
viewed them by the direction of the angel.
The records were, it is held, in the reformed Egyptian tongue, and Smith
translated them through the inspiration of the angel, and one Oliver
Cowdrey wrote down the translation as reported by the God-possessed
Joseph. This translation was published in 1830, and its divine origin
was attested by a dozen persons--all relatives and friends of Smith.
Only these have ever pretended to see the original plates, which have
already become traditional. The plates have been frequently called for
by skeptics, but all in vain. Naturally, warm controversy arose
concerning the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and disbelievers have
asserted that they have indubitable evidence that it is, with the
exception of various unlettered interpolations, principally borrowed
from a queer, rhapsodical romance written by an eccentric ex-clergyman
named Solomon Spalding.
Smith and his disciples were ridiculed and socially persecuted; but they
seemed to be ardently earnest, and continued to preach their creed,
which was to the effect that the millennium was at hand; that our
aboriginals were to be converted, and that the New Jerusalem--the last
residence and home of the saints--was to be near the centre of this
continent. The Vermont prophet, later on, was repeatedly mobbed, even
shot at. His narrow escapes were construed as interpositions of divine
providence, but he displayed perfect coolness and intrepidity through
all his trials. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was
first established in the spring of 1830 at Manchester, N. Y.; but it
awoke such fierce opposition, particularly from the orthodox, many of
them preachers, that Smith and his associates deemed it prudent to move
farther west. They established themselves at Kirtland, O., and won there
many converts. Hostility to them still continued, and grew so fierce
that the body transferred itself to Missouri, and next to Illinois,
settling in the latter state near the village of Commerce, which was
renamed Nauvoo.
The Governor and Legislature of Illinois favored the Mormons, but the
anti-Mormons made war on them in every way, and the custom of "sealing
wives," which is yet mysterious to the Gentiles, caused serious
outbreaks, and resulted in the incarceration of the prophet and his
brother Hiram at Carthage. Fearing that the two might be released by the
authorities, a band of ruffians broke into the jail, in the summer of
1844, and murdered them in cold blood. This was most fortunate for the
memory of Smith and for his doctrines. It placed him in the light of a
holy martyr, and lent to them a dignity and vitality they had never
before enjoyed.
[520:1] When we speak of Jesus being _crucified_, we do not intend to
convey the idea that he was put to death on a cross of the _form_
adopted by Christians. This cross was the symbol of _life_ and
_immortality_ among our heathen ancestors (see Chapter XXXIII.), and in
adopting _Pagan religious symbols_, and baptizing them anew, the
Christians took this along with others. The crucifixion was not a symbol
of the _earliest_ church; no trace of it can be found in the Catacombs.
Some of the earliest that did appear, however, are similar to figures
No. 42 and No. 43, above, which represent two of the modes in which the
Romans crucified their slaves and criminals. (See Chapter XX., on the
Crucifixion of Jesus.)
[520:2] According to the Matthew and Mark narrators, Jesus' head was
_anointed_ while sitting at table in the house of Simon the leper. Now,
this practice was common among the kings of Israel. It was the sign and
symbol of royalty. The word "_Messiah_" signifies the "Anointed One,"
and none of the kings of Israel were styled the Messiah unless anointed.
(See The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 42.)
[521:1] Josephus: Antiquities, book xviii. ch. iv. 1.
[522:1] Josephus: Antiquities, book xviii. chap. iii. 2.
[522:2] "From the death of Herod, 4 B. C., to the death of Bar-Cochba,
132 A. D., no less than _fifty_ different enthusiasts set up as the
Messiah, and obtained more or less following." (John W. Chadwick.)
[522:3] "There was, at _this time_, a prevalent expectation that some
remarkable personage was about to appear in Judea. The Jews were
anxiously looking for the coming of the MESSIAH. This personage, they
supposed, would be a _temporal prince_, and they were expecting that he
would deliver them from Roman bondage." (Albert Barnes: Notes, vol. i.
p. 7.)
"The central and dominant characteristic of the teaching of the Rabbis,
was the certain advent of a great national Deliverer--the MESSIAH. . . .
The national mind had become so inflammable, by constant brooding on
this one theme, _that any bold spirit rising in revolt against the Roman
power, could find an army of fierce disciples who trusted that it should
be he who would redeem Israel_." (Geikie: The Life of Christ, vol. i. p.
79.)
[522:4] "The penalty of _crucifixion_, according to Roman law and
custom, was inflicted on slaves, and in the provinces _on rebels only_."
(The Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 96.)
[522:5] Judas, the _Gaulonite_ or _Galilean_, as Josephus calls him,
declared, when Cyrenius came to tax the Jewish people, that "this
taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery," and exhorted
the nation to assert their liberty. He therefore prevailed upon his
countrymen to revolt. (See Josephus: Antiq., b. xviii. ch. i. 1, and
Wars of the Jews, b. ii. ch. viii. 1.)
[523:1] The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 30.
[523:2] "That the High Council did accuse Jesus, I suppose no one will
doubt; and since they could neither wish or expect the Roman Governor to
make himself judge of _their sacred law_, it becomes certain that their
accusation was _purely political_, and took such a form as this: 'He has
accepted tumultuous shouts that he is the legitimate and predicted _King
of Israel_, and in this character has ridden into Jerusalem with the
forms of state understood to be _royal_ and _sacred_; with what purpose,
we ask, if not to overturn _our_ institutions, and _your_ dominion?' If
Jesus spoke, at the crisis which Matthew represents, the virulent speech
attributed to him (Matt. xxiii.), we may well believe that this gave a
new incentive to the rulers; for it is such as no government in Europe
would overlook or forgive: _but they are not likely to have expected
Pilate to care for any conduct which might be called an ecclesiastical
broil_. The assumption of _royalty_ was clearly the point of their
attack. Even the mildest man among them may have thought his conduct
dangerous and needing repression." (Francis W. Newman, "What is
Christianity without Christ?")
_According to the Synoptic Gospels_, Jesus was completely innocent of
the charge which has sometimes been brought against him, _that he wished
to be considered as a God come down to earth_. His enemies certainly
would not have failed to make such a pretension the basis and the
continual theme of their accusations, if it had been possible to do so.
_The two grounds upon which he was brought before the Sanhedrim were,
first, the bold words he was supposed to have spoken about the temple;
and, secondly and chiefly, the fact that he claimed to be the Messiah_,
i. e., "_The King of the Jews_." (Albert Réville: "The Doctrine of the
Dogma of the Deity of Jesus," p. 7.)
[523:3] See The Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 30.
[524:1] See _note_ 4, p. 522.
[524:2] See Matt. xx. 19.
[524:3] John xviii. 31, 32.
[524:4] That is, the crucifixion story _as related in the Gospels_. See
_note_ 1, p. 520.
[524:5] Matthew xxvii. 24, 25.
[525:1] Commentators, in endeavoring to get over this difficulty, say
that, "it _may_ come from the look or form of the spot itself, bald,
round, and skull-like, and therefore a mound or hillock," but, if it
means "_the place of bare skulls_," no such construction as the above
can be put to the word.
[526:1] The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 109-111.
[527:1] O. B. Frothingham: The Cradle of the Christ, p. 11.
The reader is referred to "Judaism: Its Doctrines and Precepts," by Dr.
Isaac M. Wise. Printed at the office of the "American Israelite,"
Cincinnati, Ohio.
[527:2] If Jesus, instead of giving himself up quietly, had _resisted_
against being arrested, there certainly would have been bloodshed, as
there was on many other similar occasions.
[528:1] If what is recorded In the Gospels on the subject was true, no
historian of that day could fail to have noticed it, but instead of this
there is _nothing_.
[528:2] See Matthew, xxvii. 51-53.
[529:1] See Matt. xiv. 15-22: Mark, iv. 1-3, and xi. 14; and Luke, vii.
26-37.
[529:2] See Mark, xvi. 16.
[529:3] This fact has at last been admitted by the most orthodox among
the Christians. The Rev. George Matheson, D. D., Minister of the Parish
of Innellan, and a member of the Scotch Kirk, speaking of the precept
uttered by Confucius, five hundred years before the time assigned for
the birth of Jesus of Nazareth ("Whatsoever ye would not that others
should do unto you, do not ye unto them"), says: "That Confucius is the
_author_ of this precept is undisputed, _and therefore it is
indisputable that Christianity has incorporated an article of Chinese
morality_. It has appeared to some as if this were to the disparagement
of Christianity--as if the originality of its Divine Founder were
impaired by consenting to borrow a precept from a heathen source. _But
in what sense does Christianity set up the claim of moral originality?_
When we speak of the religion of Christ as having introduced into the
world a purer life and a surer guide to conduct, what do we mean? Do we
mean to suggest that Christianity has, _for the first time_, revealed to
the world the existence of a set of self-sacrificing precepts--that
here, _for the first time_, man has learned that he ought to be meek,
merciful, humble, forgiving, sorrowful for sin, peaceable, and pure in
heart? The proof of such a statement would destroy Christianity itself,
for an _absolute original code of precepts_ would be equivalent to a
foreign language. _The glory of Christian morality is that it is_ NOT
ORIGINAL--that its words appeal to something which _already exists
within the human heart_, and on that account have a meaning to the human
ear: _no new revelation can be made except through the medium of an old
one_. When we attribute originality to the ethics of the Gospel, we do
so on the ground, _not that it has given new precepts_, but that it has
given us a new impulse to obey the moral instincts of the soul.
Christianity itself claims on the field of morals this originality, _and
this alone_--'A new commandment give I unto you, that you love one
another." (St. Giles Lectures, Second Series: The Faiths of the World.
Religion of China, by the Rev. George Matheson, D. D., Minister of the
Parish of Innellan. Wm. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh, 1882.)
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX A.
Among the ancient Mexicans, Peruvians, and some of the Indian tribes of
North and South America, were found fragments of the _Eden Myth_. The
Mexicans said that the primeval mother was made out of a _man's bone_,
and that she was the mother of _twins_.[533:1]
The Cherokees supposed that heavenly beings _came down_ and made the
world, after which they made a man and woman of _clay_.[533:2] The
intention of the creators was that men should live always. But the Sun,
when he passed over, told them that there was not land enough, and that
people had better die. At length, _the daughter of the Sun_ was bitten
by a _Snake_, and died. The Sun, however--whom they worshiped as a
god--consented that human beings might live always. He intrusted to
their care a _box_, charging them that they should not open it. However,
impelled by curiosity, they opened it, contrary to the injunction of the
Sun, and the _spirit_ it contained escaped, _and then the fate of all
men was decided, that they must die_.[533:3]
The inhabitants of the New World had a legend of a _Deluge_, which
destroyed the human race, excepting a few who were saved in a boat,
which landed on a _mountain_.[533:4] They also related that _birds_ were
sent out of the ark, for the purpose of ascertaining if the flood was
abating.[533:5]
The ancient Mexicans had the legend of the _confusion of tongues_, and
related the whole story as to how the gods destroyed the tower which
mankind was building so as to reach unto heaven.[533:6]
The Mexicans, and several of the Indian tribes of North America, believe
in the doctrine of _Metempsychosis_, or the transmigration of souls from
one body into another.[533:7] This, as we have already seen,[533:8] was
universally believed in the Old World.
The legend of _the man being swallowed by a fish_, and, after a three
days' sojourn in his belly, coming out safe and sound, was found among
the Mexicans and Peruvians.[534:1]
The ancient Mexicans, and some Indian tribes, practiced _Circumcision_,
which was common among all Eastern nations of the Old World.[534:2]
They also had a legend to the effect that one of their holy persons
commanded _the sun to stand still_.[534:3] This, as we have already
seen,[534:4] was a familiar legend among the inhabitants of the Old
World.
The ancient Mexicans were _fire-worshipers_; so were the ancient
Peruvians. They kept a fire continually burning on an altar, just as the
fire-worshipers of the Old World were in the habit of doing.[534:5] They
were also _Sun-worshipers_, and had "temples of the Sun."[534:6]
The _Tortoise-myth_ was found in the New World.[534:7] Now, in the Old
World, the Tortoise-myth belongs especially to _India_, and the idea is
developed there in a variety of forms. The tortoise that holds the world
is called in Sanscrit Kura-mraja, "King of the Tortoises," and many
Hindoos believe to this day that the world rests on its back. "The
striking analogy between the Tortoise-myth of North America and India,"
says Mr. Tyler, "is by no means a matter of new observation; it was
indeed remarked upon by Father Lafitau nearly a century and a half ago.
Three great features of the Asiatic stories are found among the North
American Indians, in the fullest and clearest development. The earth is
supported on the back of a huge floating tortoise, the tortoise sinks
under the water and causes a deluge, and the tortoise is conceived as
being itself the earth, floating upon the face of the deep."[534:8]
We have also found among them the belief in an Incarnate God born of a
virgin;[534:9] the One God worshiped in the form of a Trinity;[534:10]
the crucified _Black_ god;[534:11] the descent into hell;[534:12] the
resurrection and ascension into heaven,[534:13] all of which is to be
found in the oldest Asiatic religions. We also found monastic
habits--friars and nuns.[534:14]
The Mexicans denominated their high-places, sacred houses, or "_Houses
of God_." The corresponding sacred structures of the Hindoos are called
"_God's House_."[535:1]
Many nations of the _East_ entertained the notion that there were _nine
heavens_, and so did the ancient Mexicans.[535:2]
There are few things connected with the ancient mythology of _America_
more certain than that there existed in that country before its
discovery by Columbus, extreme veneration for the _Serpent_.[535:3] Now,
the Serpent was venerated and worshiped throughout the East.[535:4]
The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, and many of the Indian tribes,
believed the Sun and Moon not only to be brother and sister, but man and
wife; so, likewise, among many nations of the Old World was this belief
prevalent.[535:5] The belief in were-wolves, or man-wolves, man-tigers,
man-hyenas, and the like, which was almost universal among the nations
of Europe, Asia and Africa, was also found to be the case among South
American tribes.[535:6] The idea of calling the earth "mother," was
common among the inhabitants of both the Old and New Worlds.[535:7] In
the mythology of Finns, Lapps, and Esths, Earth-Mother is a divinely
honored personage. It appears in China, where _Heaven_ and _Earth_ are
called in the _Shuking_--one of their sacred books--"Father and Mother
of all things."
Among the native races of _America_ the Earth-Mother is one of the great
personages of mythology. The Peruvians worshiped her as _Mama-Phacha_,
or Earth-Mother. The Caribs, when there was an earthquake, said it was
their mother-earth dancing, and signifying to them to dance and make
merry likewise, which they accordingly did.[535:8]
It is well-known that the natives of Africa, when there is an eclipse of
the sun or moon, believe that it is being devoured by some great
monster, and that they, in order to frighten and drive it away, beat
drums and make noises in other ways. So, too, the rude Moguls make a
clamor of rough music to drive the attacking Arachs (Râhu) from Sun or
Moon.[535:9]
The Chinese, when there is an eclipse of the Sun or Moon, proceed to
encounter the ominous monster with gongs and bells.[535:10]
The ancient Romans flung firebrands into the air, and blew trumpets, and
clanged brazen pots and pans.[535:11] Even as late as the seventeenth
century, the Irish or Welsh, during eclipses, ran about beating kettles
and pans.[536:1] Among the native races of America was to be found the
same superstition. The Indians would raise a frightful howl, and shoot
arrows into the sky to drive the monsters off.[536:2] The Caribs,
thinking that the demon Maboya, hater of all light, was seeking to
devour the Sun and Moon, would dance and howl in concert all night long
to scare him away. The Peruvians, imagining such an evil spirit in the
shape of a monstrous beast, raised the like frightful din when the Moon
was eclipsed, shouting, sounding musical instruments, and beating the
dogs to join their howl to the hideous chorus.[536:3]
The starry band that lies like a road across the sky, known as the
_milky way_, is called by the Basutos (a South African tribe of
savages), "The Way of the Gods;" the Ojis (another African tribe of
savages), say it is the "Way of Spirits," which souls go up to heaven
by. North American tribes know it as "the Path of the Master of Life,"
the "Path of Spirits," "the Road of Souls," where they travel to the
land beyond the grave.[536:4]
It is almost a general belief among the inhabitants of Africa, and was
so among the inhabitants of Europe and Asia, that monkeys were once men
and women, and that they can even now really speak, but judiciously hold
their tongues, lest they should be made to work. This idea was found as
a serious matter of belief, in Central and South America.[536:5] "The
Bridge of the Dead," which is one of the marked myths of the Old World,
was found in the New.[536:6]
It is well known that the natives of South America told the Spaniards
that inland there was to be found a fountain, the waters of which turned
old men back into youths, and how Juan Ponce de Leon fitted out two
caravels, and went to seek for this "Fountain of Youth." Now, the
"Fountain of Youth" is known to the mythology of India.[536:7]
The myth of foot-prints stamped into the rocks by gods or mighty men, is
to be found among the inhabitants of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Egyptians, Greeks, Brahmans, Buddhists, Moslems, and Christians, have
adopted it as relics each from their own point of view, and _Mexican_
eyes could discern in the solid rock at Tlanepantla the mark of hand and
foot left by the mighty Quetzalcoatle.[536:8]
The Incas, in order to preserve purity of race, married their own
sisters, as did the Kings of Persia, and other Oriental nations.[537:1]
The Peruvian embalming of the royal dead takes us back to _Egypt_; the
burning of the wives of the deceased Incas reveals _India_; the
singularly patriarchical character of the whole Peruvian policy is like
that of _China_ in the olden time; while the system of espionage, of
tranquillity, of physical well-being, and the iron-like immovability in
which their whole social frame was cast, bring before us _Japan_--as it
was a very few years ago. In fact, there is something strangely Japanese
in the entire cultus of Peru as described by all writers.[537:2]
The dress and costume of the Mexicans, and their sandals, resemble the
apparel and sandals worn in early ages in the East.[537:3]
Mexican priests were represented with a Serpent twined around their
heads, so were Oriental kings.[537:4] The Mexicans had the head of a
rhinoceros among their paintings,[537:5] and also the head of an
elephant on the body of a man.[537:6] Now, these animals were unknown in
America, but well known in Asia; and what is more striking still is the
fact that the man with the elephant's head is none other than the Ganesa
of India; the God of Wisdom. Humboldt, who copied a Mexican painting of
a man with an elephant's head, remarks that "it presents some remarkable
and apparently _not accidental_ resemblances with the Hindoo Ganesa."
The horse and the ass, although natives of America,[537:7] became
extinct on the Western Continent in an early period of the earth's
history, yet the Mexicans had, among their hieroglyphics,
representations of both these animals, which show that it must have been
seen in the old world by the author of the hieroglyph. When the Mexicans
saw the horses which the Spaniards brought over, they were greatly
astonished, and when they saw the Spaniards on horseback, they imagined
man and horse to be _one_.
Certain of the temples of _India_ abound with sculptural representations
of the symbols of _Phallic Worship_. Turning now to the temples of
_Central America_, which in many respects exhibit a strict
correspondence with those in India, _we find precisely the same symbols,
separate and in combination_.[537:8]
We have seen that many of the religious conceptions of _America_ are
identical with those of the _Old World_, and that they are embodied or
symbolized under the same or cognate forms; and it is confidently
asserted that a comparison and analysis of her primitive systems, in
connection with those of other parts of the globe, philosophically
conducted, would establish the grand fact, that in ALL their leading
elements, and in many of their details, they are essentially the
same.[538:1]
The _architecture_ of many of the most ancient buildings in South
America resembles the Asiatic. Around Lake Titicaca are massive
monuments, which speak of a very ancient and civilized nation.[538:2]
E. Spence Hardy, says:
"The ancient edifices of Chi Chen, in Central America, bear a
striking resemblance to the topes of India. The shape of one
of the domes, its apparent size, the small tower on the
summit, the trees growing on the sides, the appearance of
masonry here and there, the style of the ornaments, and the
small doorway at the base, are so exactly similar to what I
had seen at Anurádhapura, _that when my eye first fell upon
the engravings of these remarkable ruins, I supposed that they
were presented in illustration of the dágobas of
Ceylon_."[538:3]
E. G. Squire, speaking of this, says:
"The Bud'hist temples of Southern India, and of the islands of
the Indian Archipelago, as described to us by the learned
members of the Asiatic Society, and the numerous writers on
the religion and antiquities of the Hindoos, correspond, with
great exactness, in all their essential and in many of their
minor features, with those of _Central America_."[538:4]
Structures of a _pyramidal_ style, which are common in India, were also
discovered in Mexico. The pyramid tower of Cholula was one of
these.[538:5]
Sir R. Kir Porter writes as follows:
"What striking analogies exist between the monuments of the
old continents and those of the Toltecs, who, arriving on
Mexican soil, built several of these colossal structures,
truncated pyramids, divided by layers, like the temple of
Belus at Babylon. _Whence did they take the model of these
edifices? Were they of the Mongolian race? Did they descend
from a common stock with the Chinese, the Hiong-nu, and the
Japanese?_"[538:6]
The similarity in _features_ of the Asiatic and the American race is
very striking. Alexander de Humboldt, speaking of this, says:
"There are striking contrasts between the Mongol and American
races."[538:7] "Over a million and a half of square leagues,
from the Terra del Fuego islands to the River St. Lawrence and
Behring's Straits, we are struck at the first glance with the
general resemblance in the features of the inhabitants. _We
think we perceive that they all descended from the same
stock_, notwithstanding the enormous diversity of language
which separates them from one another."[538:8]
"This analogy is particularly evident in the color of the
skin and hair, in the defective beard, high cheek-bones, and
in the direction of the eyes."[539:1]
Dr. Morton says:
"In reflecting on the aboriginal races of America, we are at
once met by the striking fact, that their physical characters
are wholly independent of all climatic or known physical
influences. Notwithstanding their immense geographical
distribution, embracing every variety of climate, it is
acknowledged by all travellers, that there is among this
people a prevailing type, around which all the tribes--north,
south, east and west--cluster, though varying within
prescribed limits. With trifling exceptions, all our American
Indians bear to each other some degree of family resemblance,
quite as strong, for example, as that seen at the present day
among full-blooded Jews."[539:2]
James Orton, the traveler, was also struck with the likeness of the
American Indians to the Chinese, including the flatted nose. Speaking of
the Zaparos of the Napo River, he says:
"The Zaparos in physiognomy somewhat resemble the Chinese,
having a middle stature, round face, small eyes set angularly,
and a broad, flat nose."[539:3]
Oscar Paschel says:
"The obliquely-set eyes and prominent cheek-bones of the
inhabitants of Veragua were noticed by Monitz Wagner, and
according to his description, out of four Bayano Indians from
Darien, three had thoroughly Mongolian features, including the
flatted nose."
In 1866, an officer of the Sharpshooter, the first English man-of-war
which entered the Paraná River in Brazil, remarks in almost the same
words of the Indians of that district, that their features vividly
reminded him of the Chinese. Burton describes the Brazilian natives at
the falls of Cachauhy as having thick, round Kalmuck heads, flat Mongol
faces, wide, very prominent cheek bones, oblique and sometimes
narrow-slit Chinese eyes, and slight mustaches.
Another traveler, J. J. Von Tschudi, declares in so many words that he
has seen Chinese whom at the first glance he mistook for Botocudos, and
that since then he has been convinced that the American race ought not
to be separated from the Mongolian. His predecessor, St. Hilaire,
noticed narrow, obliquely-set eyes and broad noses among the Malali of
Brazil. Reinhold Hensel says of the Coroados, that their features are of
Mongoloid type, due especially to the prominence of the cheek-bones, but
that the oblique position of the eyes is not perceptible. Yet the
oblique opening of the eye, which forms a good though not an essential
characteristic of the Mongolian nations, is said to be characteristic of
all the Guarani tribes in Brazil. Even in the extreme south, among the
Hiullitches of Patagonia, King saw a great many with obliquely set
eyes. Those writers who separate the Americans as a peculiar race fail
to give distinctive characters, common to them all, which distinguish
them from the Asiatic Mongols. All the tribes have stiff, long hair,
cylindrical in section. The beard and hair of the body is always scanty
or totally absent. The color of the skin varies considerably, as might
be expected in a district of 110° of latitude; it ranges from a light
South European darkness of complexion among the Botocudos, of the
deepest dye among the Aymara, or to copper red in the Sonor tribes. But
no one has tried to draw limits between races on account of these shades
of color, especially as they are of every conceivable gradation.[540:1]
Charles G. Leland says:
"The Tunguse, Mongolians, and a great part of the Turkish race
formed originally, according to all external organic tokens,
as well as the elements of their language, but one people,
closely allied with the Esquimaux, the _Skräling_, or dwarf of
the Norseman, and the races of the New World. This is the
irrefutable result to which all the more recent inquiries in
anatomy and physiology, as well as comparative philology and
history, have conduced. All the aboriginal Americans have
those distinctive tokens which forcibly recall their neighbors
dwelling on the other side of Behring's Straits. They have the
four-cornered head, high cheek-bones, heavy jaws, large
angular eye-cavities, and a retreating forehead. The skulls of
the oldest Peruvian graves exhibit the same tokens as the
heads of the nomadic tribes of Oregon and California."[540:2]
"It is very certain that thousands of American Indians,
especially those of small stature or of dwarfish tribes, bear
a most extraordinary likeness to Mongols."[540:3]
John D. Baldwin, in his "_Ancient America_," says:
"I find myself more and more inclined to believe that the wild
Indians of the North came originally from _Asia_, where the
race to which they belong seems still represented by the
_Koraks_ and _Cookchees_, found in that part of Asia which
extends to Behring's Straits."[540:4]
Hon. Charles D. Poston, late commissioner of the United States of
America in Asia, in a work entitled, "_The Parsees_," speaking of an
incident which took place "beyond the Great Wall," says:
"A Mongolian came riding up on a little black pony, followed
by a servant on a camel, rocking like a windmill. He stopped a
moment to exchange pantomimic salutations. He was full of
electricity, and alive with motion; the blood was warm in his
veins, and the fire was bright in his eye. I could have sworn
that he was an _Apache;_ every action, motion and look
reminded me of my old enemies and neighbors in _Arizona_. They
are the true descendants of the nomadic Tartars of Asia and
preserve every instinct of the race. He shook hands friendlily
but timidly, keeping all the time in motion like an
Apache."[540:5]
That the continents of Asia and America were at one time joined
together by an isthmus, at the place where the channel of Behring's
straits is now found, is a well known fact. That the severance of Asia
from America was, geologically speaking, very recent, is shown by the
fact that not only the straits, but the sea which bears the name of
Behring, is extraordinarily shallow, so much so, indeed, that whalers
lie at anchor in the middle of it.[541:1] This is evidently the manner
in which America was peopled.[541:2]
During the _Champlain_ period in the earth's history the climate of the
northern portion of the American continent, instead of being frigid, and
the country covered with sheets of ice, was more like the climate of the
Middle States of the present day. Tropical animals went North, and
during the Terrace period--which followed the Champlain--the climate
changed to frigid, and many of these tropical animals were frozen in the
ice, and some of their remains were discovered centuries after.
It was probably during the time when the climate in those northern
regions was warm, that the aborigines crossed over, and even if they did
not do so at that time, we must not be startled at the idea that Asiatic
tribes crossed over from Asia to America, when the country was covered
with ice. There have been nations who lived in a state of nudity among
ice-fields, and, even at the present day, a naked nation of fishermen
still exist in Terra del Fuego, where the glaciers stretch down to the
sea, and even into it.[541:3]
Chas. Darwin, during his voyage round the world in H. M. S. Beagle, was
particularly struck with the hardiness of the Fuegians, who go in a
state of nudity, or almost entirely so. He says:
"Among these central tribes the men generally have an
otter-skin, or some small scrap, about as large as a
pocket-handkerchief, to cover their nakedness, which is barely
sufficient to cover their backs as low down as their
loins."[541:4]
One day while going on shore near Wollaston Island, Mr. Darwin's party
pulled alongside a canoe which contained six Fuegians, who were, he
says, "quite naked, and even one full-grown woman was absolutely so. It
was raining heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray,
trickled down her body. In another harbor not far distant, a woman, who
was suckling a recently-born child, came one day alongside the vessel,
and remained there out of mere curiosity, whilst the sleet fell and
thawed on her naked bosom, and on the skin of her naked baby!"[542:1]
This was during the winter season.
A few pages farther on Mr. Darwin says that on the night of the 22d
December, a small family of Fuegians--who were living in a cove near the
quarters--"soon joined our party round a blazing fire. We were well
clothed, and though sitting close to the fire were far from too warm;
yet these naked savages, though further off, were observed, to our great
surprise, to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing such a
scorching. They seemed, however, very well pleased, and all joined in
the chorus of the seamen's songs; but the manner in which they were
invariably a little behind was quite ludicrous."[542:2]
The Asiatics who first crossed over to the American continent were
evidently in a very barbarous stage, although they may have known how to
produce fire, and use bows and arrows.[542:3] The tribe who inhabited
Mexico at the time it was discovered by the Spaniards was not the first
to settle there; they had driven out a people, and had taken the country
from them.[542:4]
That Mexico was visited by Orientals, who brought and planted their
religion there, in a comparatively recent period, is very probable. Mr.
Chas. G. Leland, who has made this subject a special study, says:
"While the proofs of the existence or residence of Orientals
in America are extremely vague and uncertain, and while they
are supported only by coincidences, the antecedent probability
of their having come hither, or having been able to come, is
stronger than the Norse discovery of the New World, or even
than that of Columbus himself would appear to be. Let the
reader take a map of the Northern Pacific; let him ascertain
for himself the fact that from Kamtschatka, which was well
known to the old Chinese, to Alaska the journey is far less
arduous than from China proper, and it will be seen that there
was in all probability intercourse of some kind between the
continents. In early times the Chinese were bold and skillful
navigators, to whom the chain of the Aleutian Islands would
have been simply like stepping-stones over a shallow brook to
a child. For it is a well ascertained fact, that a sailor in
an open boat might cross from Asia to America by the Aleutian
Islands in summer-time, and hardly ever be out of sight of
land, and this in a part of the sea generally abounding in
fish, as is proved by the fishermen who inhabit many of these
islands, on which fresh water is always to be found."[543:1]
Colonel Barclay Kennon, formerly of the U. S. North Pacific surveying
expedition, says:
"From the result of the most accurate scientific observation,
it is evident that the voyage from China to America can be
made without being out of sight of land more than a few hours
at any one time. To a landsman, unfamiliar with long voyages,
the mere idea of being 'alone on the wide, wide sea,' with
nothing but water visible, even for an hour, conveys a strange
sense of desolation, of daring, and of adventure. But in truth
it is regarded as a mere trifle, not only by regular seafaring
men, but even by the rudest races in all parts of the world;
and I have no doubt that from the remotest ages, and on all
shores, fishermen in open boats, canoes, or even coracles,
guided simply by the stars and currents, have not hesitated to
go far out of sight of land. At the present day, natives of
many of the South Pacific Islands undertake, without a
compass, and successfully, long voyages which astonish even a
regular Jack-tar, who is not often astonished at anything. If
this can be done by savages, it hardly seems possible that the
Asiatic-American voyage was not successfully performed by
people of advanced scientific culture, who had, it is
generally believed, the compass, and who from an early age
were proficient in astronomy."[543:2]
Prof. Max Müller, it would seem, entertains similar ideas to our own,
expressed as follows:
"In their (the American Indians') languages, as well as in
their religions, traces may possibly still be found, before it
is too late, _of pre-historic migrations of men from the
primitive Asiatic to the American Continent, either across the
stepping-stones of the Aleutic bridge in the North, or lower
South, by drifting with favorable winds from island to island,
till the hardy canoe was landed or wrecked on the American
coast, never to return again to the Asiatic home from which it
had started_."[543:3]
It is very evident then, that the religion and mythology of the Old and
New Worlds, have, in part, at least, a common origin. Lord Kingsborough
informs us that the Spanish historians of the 16th century were not
disposed to admit that America had ever been colonized from the West,
"chiefly on account of the state in which religion was found in the new
continent."[543:4]
And Mr. Tylor says:
"Among the mass of Central American traditions . . . there
occur certain passages in the story of an early emigration of
the Quiché race, which have much the appearance of vague and
broken stories derived in some way from high Northern
latitudes."[543:5]
Mr. McCulloh, in his "Researches," observes that:
"In analyzing many parts of their (the ancient Americans')
institutions, especially those belonging to their cosmogonal
history, their religious superstitions, and astronomical
computations, we have, in these abstract matters, found
abundant proof to assert that there has been formerly a
connection between the people of the two continents. Their
communications, however, have taken place at a very remote
period of time; for those matters in which they more decidedly
coincide, are undoubtedly those which belong to the earliest
history of mankind."
It is unquestionably from _India_ that we have derived, partly through
the Persians and other nations, most of our metaphysical and theological
doctrines, as well as our nursery tales. Who then can deny that these
same doctrines and legends have been handed down by oral tradition to
the chief of the Indian tribes, and in this way have been preserved,
although perhaps in an obscure and imperfect manner, in some instances
at least, until the present day? The facts which we have before us, with
many others like them which are to be had, point with the greatest
likelihood to a common fatherland, the cradle of all nations, from which
they came, taking these traditions with them.
FOOTNOTES:
[533:1] Baring-Gould's Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 46.
[533:2] Squire's Serpent Symbol, p. 67.
[533:3] Ibid. Here we see the parallel to the _Grecian_ fable of
Epimetheus and Pandora.
[533:4] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 203. Higgins: Anacalypsis,
vol. ii. p. 27.
[533:5] Ibid.
[533:6] Brinton: Myths of the New World, p. 204.
[533:7] See Chapter V.
[533:8] See Ibid. and Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Transmigration."
[534:1] See Chapter XI.
[534:2] See Chapter X.
[534:3] See Chapter XI.
[534:4] Ibid.
[534:5] See Early Hist. Mankind, p. 252; Squire's Serpent Symbol; and
Prescott: Con. Peru.
[534:6] See Ibid., and the Andes and the Amazon, p. 454.
[534:7] See Early Hist. Mankind, p. 842.
[534:8] Ibid.
[534:9] See Chapter XII.
[534:10] See Chapter XXV.
[534:11] See Chapter XX.
Mr. Prescott, speaking of the Pyramid of Cholula, in his Mexican
History, says: "On the summit stood a sumptuous temple, in which was the
image of the mystic deity (_Quetzalcoatle_), with _ebon_ features,
unlike the fair complexion which he bore upon earth." And Kenneth R. H.
Mackenzie says (in Cities of the Ancient World, p. 180): "From the
woolly texture of the hair, I am inclined to assign to the Buddha of
India, the Fuhi of China, the Sommonacom of the Siamese, the Xaha of the
Japanese, and the Quetzalcoatle of the Mexicans, the same, and indeed an
African, or rather Nubian, origin."
[534:12] See Chapter XXII.
[534:13] See Chapter XXIII.
[534:14] See Chapter XXVI.
[535:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 77.
[535:2] Ibid. p. 109.
[535:3] See Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, and Squire's Serpent
Symbol.
[535:4] See Ibid.
[535:5] See Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 361, and Squire's
Serpent Symbol.
[535:6] Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 280, and Squire's Serpent Symbol.
[535:7] Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 294, and Squire's Serpent Symbol.
[535:8] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. pp. 295, 296.
[535:9] Ibid. p. 300.
[535:10] Ibid.
[535:11] Ibid. p. 301.
[536:1] Tylor; Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 101.
[536:2] Ibid. p. 291.
[536:3] Ibid.
[536:4] Ibid. p. 234.
[536:5] Ibid. p. 240 and 243.
[536:6] Early Hist. Mankind, pp. 357 and 361.
[536:7] Ibid. p. 361.
The legend of the "Elixir of Life" of the Western World, was well-known
in _China_. (Buckley: Cities of the Ancient World, p. 167.)
[536:8] Ibid. p. 118, and Squire's Serpent Symbol.
[537:1] Fusang, p. 56.
[537:2] Ibid. p. 55.
[537:3] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 181.
[537:4] Ibid., and Squire's Serpent Symbol.
[537:5] Mexican Antiq., vol. vi. p. 180.
[537:6] Early Hist. Mankind, p. 311.
[537:7] The traveler, James Orton, found fossil bones of an extinct
species of the horse, the mastodon, and other animals, near Punin, in
South America, all of which had passed away before the arrival of the
human species. This native American horse was succeeded, in after ages,
by the countless herds descended from a few introduced with the Spanish
colonists. (See the Andes and the Amazon, pp. 154, 155.)
[537:8] Serpent Symbol, p. 47.
[538:1] Serpent Symbol, p. 193.
[538:2] The Andes and the Amazon, p. 454.
[538:3] Eastern Monachism, p. 222.
[538:4] Serpent Symbol, p. 43.
[538:5] See Ibid.
[538:6] Travels in Persia, vol. ii. p. 284.
[538:7] New Spain, vol. i. p. 136.
[538:8] Ibid. p. 141.
[539:1] New Spain, vol. i. p. 153.
[539:2] Types of Mankind, p. 275.
[539:3] The Andes and the Amazon, p. 170.
[540:1] Paschel: Races of Man, pp. 402-404.
[540:2] Fusang, p. 7.
[540:3] Ibid. 118.
[540:4] Quoted in Ibid.
[540:5] Quoted In Ibid. p. 94.
[541:1] Paschel: Races of Man, pp. 400, 401.
[541:2] To those who may think that the Old World might have been
peopled from the new, we refer to Oscar Paschel's "Races of Man," p. 32.
The author, in speaking on this subject, says: "There at one time
existed a great continent, to which belonged Madagascar and perhaps
portions of Eastern Africa, the Maldives and Laccadives, and also the
Island of Ceylon, which was never attached to India, perhaps even the
island of Celebes in the far East, which possesses a perplexing fauna,
with semi-African features." On this continent, which was situated in
the now Indian Ocean, must we look for the _cradle of humanity_.
[541:3] Paschal: Races of Man, p. 31.
[541:4] Darwin's Journal, p. 213.
[542:1] Darwin's Journal, p. 213.
[542:2] Ibid. pp. 220, 221.
[542:3] This is seen from the fact that they did not know the use of
iron. Had they known the use of this metal, they would surely have gone
to work and dug into their mountains, which are abundantly filled with
ore, and made use of it.
[542:4] The Aztecs were preceded by the Toltecs, Chichimecks, and the
Nahualtecs. (Humboldt's New Spain, p. 133, vol. i.)
"The races of barbarians which successively followed each other from the
north to the south always murdered, hunted down, and subdued the
previous inhabitants, and formed in course of time a new social and
political life upon the ruins of the old system, to be again destroyed
and renewed in a few centuries, by a new invasion of barbarians. The
later native conquerors in the New World can, of course, no more be
considered in the light of original inhabitants than the present races
of men in the Old World."
[543:1] Fusang, p. 56.
[543:2] Quoted in Fusang, p. 71.
[543:3] Science of Religion, p. 121.
[543:4] Mexican Antiq., vol. vi. p. 161.
[543:5] Early Hist. Mankind, p. 307.
APPENDIX B.
Commencing at the farthest East we shall find the ancient religion of
_China_ the same as that which was universal in all quarters of the
globe, viz., an adoration of the Sun, Moon, Stars and elements.[544:1]
That the Chinese religion was in one respect the same as that of India,
is seen from the fact that they named successive days for the same seven
planets that the Hindoos did.[544:2] The ancient books of the Chinese
show that astronomy was not only understood by them at a very early
period, but that it formed an important branch of state policy, and the
basis of public ceremonies. Eclipses are accurately recorded which
occurred twenty centuries before Jesus; and the Confucian books refer
continually to observations of the heavenly bodies and the rectification
of the calendar. The ancient Chinese astronomers seem to have known
precisely the excess of the solar year beyond 365 days. The _religion_
of China, under the emperors who preceded the first dynasty, is an
enigma. The notices in the only authentic works, the _King_, are on this
point scanty, vague, and obscure. It is difficult to separate what is
spoken with reference to the science of _astronomy_ from that which may
relate to _religion_, properly so called. The terms of reverence and
respect, with which the _heavenly bodies_ are spoken of in the
_Shoo-King_, seem to warrant the inference that those terms have more
than a mere astronomical meaning, _and that the ancient religion_ of
_China partook_ of _star-worship, one of the oldest heresies in the
world_.[545:1]
In _India_ the Sun, Moon, Stars and the powers of Nature were worshiped
and personified, and each quality, mental and physical, had its emblem,
which the Brahmans taught the ignorant to regard as realities, till the
Pantheon became crowded.
"Our Aryan ancestors learned to look up to the sky, the Sun, and the
dawn, and there to see the presence of a living power, half-revealed,
and half-hidden from their senses, those senses which were always
postulating something beyond what they could grasp. They went further
still. In the bright sky they perceived an _Illuminator_, in the
all-encircling firmament an _Embracer_, in the roar of the thunder or in
the voice of the storm they felt the presence of a _Shouter_ and of
furious _Strikers_, and out of the rain they created an _Indra_, or
giver of rain."[545:2]
Prof. Monier Williams, speaking of "the hymns of the _Veda_," says:
"To what deities, it will be asked, were the prayers and hymns
of these collections addressed? The answer is: They worshiped
_those physical forces_ before which _all nations_, if guided
solely by the light of nature, have in the early period of
their life, instinctively bowed down, and before which even
the most civilized and enlightened have always been compelled
to bend in awe and reverence, if not in adoration."[545:3]
The following sublime description of _Night_ is an extract from the
_Vedas_, made by Sir William Jones:
"Night approaches, illumined with stars and planets, and,
looking on all sides with numberless eyes, overpowers all
meaner lights. The immortal goddess pervades the firmament,
covering the low valleys and shrubs, the lofty mountains and
trees, but soon she disturbs the gloom with celestial
effulgence. Advancing with brightness, at length she recalls
her sister _Morning_; and the nightly shade gradually melts
away. May she at this time be propitious! She, in whose early
watch we may calmly recline in our mansions, as birds repose
upon the trees. Mankind now sleep in their towns; now herds
and flocks peacefully slumber, and the winged creatures, swift
falcons, and vultures. O Night! avert from us the she-wolf
and the wolf; and, oh! suffer us to pass thee in soothing
rest! Oh, morn! remove in due time this black, yet visible
overwhelming darkness, which at present enfolds me, as thou
enablest me to remove the cloud of their dells. _Daughter of
Heaven_, I approach thee with praise, as the cow approaches
her milker; accept, O Night! not the hymn only, but the
oblation of thy suppliant, who prays that his foes may be
subdued."
Some of the principal gods of the Hindoo Pantheon are, Dyaus (the Sky),
Indra (the Rain-giver), Sûrya (the Sun), the Maruts (Winds), Aditi, (the
Dawn), Parvati (the Earth),[546:1] and Siva, her consort. The worship of
the SUN is expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of
fanciful names. One of the principal of these is _Crishna_. The
following is a prayer addressed to him:
"Be auspicious to my lay, O Chrishna, thou only God of the
seven heavens, who swayest the universe through the immensity
of space and matter. O universal and resplendent Sun! Thou
mighty governor of the heavens; thou sovereign regulator of
the connected whole; thou sole and universal deity of mankind;
thou gracious and Supreme Spirit; my noblest and most happy
inspiration is thy praise and glory. Thy power I will praise,
for thou art my sovereign Lord, whose bright image continually
forces itself on my attention, eager imagination. Thou art the
Being to whom heroes pray in perils of war; nor are their
supplications vain, when thus they pray; whether it be when
thou illuminest the eastern region with thy orient light, when
in thy meridian splendor, or when thou majestically descendest
in the West."
Crishna is made to say:
"I am the light in the Sun and Moon, far, far beyond the
darkness. I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance in all
that's radiant, and the light of lights."[546:2]
In the _Maha-bharata_, Crishna, who having become the son of Aditi (the
Dawn), is called _Vishnu_, another name for the Sun.[546:3] The demon
_Putana_ assaults the child Crishna, which identifies him with Hercules,
the Sun-god of the Greeks.[546:4] In his Solar character he must again
be the slayer of the Dragon or Black-snake _Kulnika_, the "Old Serpent"
with the thousand heads.[546:5] Crishna's amours with the maidens makes
him like Indra, Phoibus, Hercules, Samson, Alpheios, Paris and other
Sun-gods. This is the hot and fiery Sun greeting the moon and the dew,
or the Sun with his brides the _Stars_.[546:6]
Moore, in his Hindu Pantheon, observes:
"Although all the Hindu deities partake more or less remotely
of the nature and character of Surya, or the SUN, and all more
or less directly radiate from, or merge in, him, yet no one
is, I think, so intimately identified with him as Vishnu;
whether considered in his own person, or _in the character of
his most glorious Avatara of_ CRISHNA."
The ancient religion of EGYPT, like that of Hindostan, was founded on
astronomy, and eminently metaphysical in its character. The Egyptian
priests were far advanced in the science of astronomy. They made
astronomy their peculiar study. They knew the figure of the earth, and
how to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. From very ancient time, they
had observed the order and movement of the stars, and recorded them with
the utmost care. Ramses the Great, generally called Sesostris, is
supposed to have reigned one thousand five hundred years before the
Christian era, about coeval with Moses, or a century later. In the tomb
of this monarch was found a large massive circle of wrought gold,
divided into three hundred and sixty-five degrees, and each division
marked the rising and setting of the stars for each day.[547:1] This
fact proves how early they were advanced in astronomy. In their great
theories of mutual dependence between all things in the universe was
included a belief in some mysterious relation between the Spirits of the
Stars and human souls, so that the destiny of mortals was regulated by
the motions of the heavenly bodies. This was the origin of the famous
system of Astrology. From the conjunction of planets at the hour of
birth, they prophesied what would be the temperament of an infant, what
life he would live, and what death he would die. Diodorus, who wrote in
the century preceding Christ Jesus, says:
"They frequently foretell with the greatest accuracy what is
about to happen to mankind; showing the failure or abundance
of crops, and the epidemic diseases about to befall men or
cattle. Earthquakes, deluges, rising of comets, and all those
phenomena, the knowledge of which appears impossible to common
comprehensions, they foresee by means of their long continued
observation."
P. Le Page Renouf, who is probably the best authority on the religion of
ancient Egypt which can be produced, says, in his Hibbert
Lectures:[547:2]
"The Lectures on the Science of Language, delivered nearly
twenty years ago by Prof. Max Müller, have, I trust, made us
fully understand how, among the _Indo-European_ races, the
names of the _Sun_, of _Sunrise_ and _Sunset_, and of other
such phenomena, come to be talked of and considered as
_personages_, of whom wondrous legends have been told.
_Egyptian_ mythology not merely admits, but imperatively
_demands, the same explanation_. And this becomes the more
evident when we consider the question how these mythical
personages came to be invested with the attributes of divinity
by men who, like the Egyptians, had so lively a sense of the
divine."
Kenrick, in his "History of Egypt," says:
"We have abundant evidence that the Egyptian theology had its
origin in the personification of the powers of nature, under
male and female attributes, and that this conception took a
sensible form, such as the mental state of the people
required, by the identification of these powers with the
elements and the heavenly bodies, fire, earth, water, the sun
and moon, and the Nile. Such appears _everywhere_ to be the
origin of the objective form of polytheism; and it is equally
evident among the nations most closely allied to the Egyptians
by position and general character--the Phenicians, the
Babylonians, and in remote connection, the Indians on the one
side and the Greeks on the other."
The gods and goddesses of the ancient PERSIANS were also
personifications of the Sun, Moon, Stars, the elements, &c.
_Ormuzd_, "The King of Light," was god of the _Firmament_, and the
"Principle of Goodness" and of Truth. He was called "The Eternal Source
of Sunshine and Light," "The Centre of all that exists," "The First-born
of the Eternal One," "The Creator," "The Sovereign Intelligence," "The
All-seeing," "The Just Judge." He was described as "sitting on the
throne of the good and the perfect, in regions of pure light," crowned
with rays, and with a ring on his finger--a circle being an emblem of
infinity; sometimes as a venerable, majestic man, seated on a Bull,
their emblem of creation.
"_Mithras the Mediator_" was the god-Sun. Their most splendid
ceremonials were in honor of Mithras. They kept his birth-day, with many
rejoicings, on the twenty-fifth of December, when the Sun perceptibly
begins to return northward, after his long winter journey; and they had
another festival in his honor, at the vernal equinox. Perhaps no
religious festival was ever more splendid than the "_Annual Salutation
of Mithras_," during which _forty days_ were set apart for thanksgiving
and sacrifice. The procession to salute the god was formed long before
the rising of the Sun. The High Priest was followed by a long train of
the Magi, in spotless white robes, chanting hymns, and carrying the
sacred fire on silver censers. Then came three hundred and sixty-five
youths in scarlet, to represent the days of the year and the color of
fire. These were followed by the Chariot of the Sun, empty, decorated
with garlands, and drawn by superb _white horses_ harnessed with pure
gold. Then came a white horse of magnificent size, his forehead blazing
with gems, in honor of Mithras. Close behind him rode the king, in a
chariot of ivory inlaid with gold, followed by his royal kindred in
embroidered garments, and a long train of nobles riding on camels richly
caparisoned. This gorgeous retinue, facing the East, slowly ascended
Mount Orontes. Arrived at the summit, the High Priest assumed his tiara
wreathed with myrtle, and hailed the first rays of the rising Sun with
incense and prayer. The other Magi gradually joined him in singing hymns
to Ormuzd, the source of all blessing, by whom the radiant Mithras had
been sent to gladden the earth and preserve the principle of life.
Finally, they all joined in one universal chorus of praise, while king,
princes and nobles, prostrated themselves before the orb of day.
The HEBREWS worshiped the Sun, Moon, Stars, and "all the host of
heaven."[549:1] _El-Shaddai_ was one of the names given to the god Sun.
Parkhurst, in his "Hebrew Lexicon," says, "_El_ was the very name the
heathens gave to their god _Sol_, their Lord or Ruler of the hosts of
heaven." _El_, which means "the strong one in heaven"--the Sun, was
invoked by the ancestors of all the Semitic nations, before there were
Babylonians in Babylon, Phenicians in Sydon and Tyrus, before there were
Jews in Mesopotamia or Jerusalem.[549:2]
The Sun was worshiped by the Hebrews under the names of Baal, Moloch,
Chemosh, &c.; the Moon was Ashtoreth, the "Queen of Heaven."[549:3]
The gods of the ancient GREEKS and ROMANS were the same as the gods of
the Indian epic poems. We have, for example: Zeupiter (Jupiter),
corresponding to Dyaus-pitar (the Heaven-father), Juno, corresponding to
Parvati (the Mother Goddess), and Apollo, corresponding to Crishna (the
Sun, the Saviour).[549:4] Another name for the Sun among those people
was _Bacchus_. An Orphic verse, referring to the Sun, says, "he is
called Dionysos (a name of Bacchus) because he is carried with a
circular motion through the immensely extended heavens."[549:5]
Dr. Prichard, in his "Analysis of Egyptian Mythology,"[549:6] speaking
of the ancient Greeks and Romans, says:
"That the worship of the _powers of nature_, mitigated,
indeed, and embellished, constituted the foundation of the
Greek and Roman religion, will not be disputed by any person
who surveys the fables of the Olympian Gods with a more
penetrating eye than that of a mere antiquarian."
M. De Coulanges, speaking of them, says:
"The _Sun_, which gives fecundity; the _Earth_, which
nourishes; the _Clouds_, by turns beneficent and
destructive,--_such were the different powers of which they
could make gods_. But from each one of these elements
thousands of gods were created; because the same physical
agent, _viewed under different aspects_, received from men
different names. The Sun, for example, was called in one place
_Hercules_ (the glorious); in another, _Phœbus_ (the shining);
and still again, _Apollo_ (he who drives away night or evil);
one called him _Hyperion_ (the elevated being); another,
_Alexicacos_ (the beneficent); and in the course of time
groups of men, who had given these various names to the
brilliant luminary, _no longer saw that they had the same
god_."[549:7]
Richard Payne Knight says:
"The primitive religion of the _Greeks_, like that of all
other nations not enlightened by _Revelation_, appears to have
been _elementary_, and to have consisted in an indistinct
worship of the SUN, the MOON, the STARS, the EARTH, and the
WATERS, or rather, the spirits supposed to preside over these
bodies, and to direct their motions, and regulate their modes
of existence. Every river, spring or mountain had its local
genius, or peculiar deity; and as men naturally endeavored to
obtain the favor of their gods by such means as they feel best
adapted to win their own, the first worship consisted in
offering to them certain portions of whatever they held to be
most valuable. At the same time, the regular motions of the
heavenly bodies, the stated returns of summer and winter, of
day and night, with all the admirable order of the universe,
taught them to believe in the existence and agency of such
superior powers; the irregular and destructive efforts of
nature, such as lightnings and tempests, inundations and
earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had
passions and affections similar to their own, and only
differed in possessing greater strength, power, and
intelligence."[550:1]
When the Grecian astronomers first declared that the Sun was not a
person, but a huge hot ball, instantly an outcry arose against them.
They were called "_blaspheming atheists_," and from that time to the
present, when any new discovery is made which seems to take away from
man his god, the cry of "_Atheist_" is instantly raised.
If we turn from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and take a look still
farther West and North, we shall find that the gods of all the TEUTONIC
nations were the same as we have seen elsewhere. They had Odin or
Woden--from whom we have our _Wednesday_--the Al-fader (the Sky),
Frigga, the Mother Goddess (the Earth), "Baldur the Good," and
Thor--from whom we have our Thursday (personifications of the Sun),
besides innumerable other _genii_, among them Freyja--from whom we have
our Friday--and as she was the "Goddess of Love," we eat _fish_ on that
day.[550:2]
The gods of the ancient inhabitants of what are now called the "British
Islands" were identically the same. The _Sun_-god worshiped by the
Ancient Druids was called _Hu_, _Beli_, _Budd_ and _Buddu-gre_.[550:3]
The same worship which we have found in the Old World, from the farthest
East to the remotest West, may also be traced in AMERICA, from its
simplest or least clearly defined form, among the roving hunters and
squalid Esquimaux of the North, through every intermediate stage of
development, to the imposing systems of Mexico and Peru, where it took a
form nearly corresponding that which it at one time sustained on the
banks of the Ganges, and on the plains of Assyria.[550:4]
Father Acosta, speaking of the Mexicans, says:
"Next to Viracocha, or their Supreme God, that which most
commonly they have, and do adore, is the _Sun_; and after,
those things which are most remarkable in the celestial or
elementary nature, as the Moon, Stars, Sea, and Land.
"Whoso shall merely look into it, shall find this manner which
the Devil hath used to deceive the Indians, to be the same
wherewith he hath deceived the Greeks and Romans, and other
ancient Gentiles, giving them to understand that these notable
creatures, the Sun, Moon, Stars, and elements, had power or
authority to do good or harm to men."[551:1]
We see, then, that the gods and heroes of antiquity were originally
personifications of certain elements of Nature, and that the legends of
adventures ascribed to them are merely mythical forms of describing the
phenomena of these elements.
These legends relating to the elements of Nature, whether they had
reference to the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, or a certain natural
phenomenon, became, in the course of time, to be regarded as accounts of
men of a high order, who had once inhabited the earth. Sanctuaries and
temples were erected to these heroes, their bones were searched for, and
when found--which was always the case--were regarded as a great source
of strength to the town that possessed them; all relics of their stay on
earth were hallowed, and a form of worship was specially adapted to
them.
The idea that heavenly luminaries were inhabited by spirits, of a nature
intermediate between God and men, first led mortals to address prayers
to the orbs over which they were supposed to preside. In order to
supplicate these deities, when Sun, Moon, and Stars were not visible,
_they made images of them_, which the priests consecrated with many
ceremonies. Then they pronounced solemn invocations to draw down the
spirits into the statues provided for their reception. By this process
it was supposed that a mysterious connection was established between the
spirit and the image, so that prayers addressed to one were thenceforth
heard by the other. This was probably the origin of image worship
everywhere.
The _motive_ of this worship was the same among all nations of
antiquity, _i. e._, _fear_. They supposed that these deities were
irritated by the sins of men, but, at the same time, were merciful, and
capable of being appeased by prayer and repentance; for this reason men
offered to these deities sacrifices and prayers. How natural that such
should have been the case, for, as Abbé Dubois observes: "To the rude,
untutored eye, the 'Host of Heaven,' clothed in that calm beauty which
distinguishes an Oriental night, might well appear to be instinct with
some divine principle, endowed with consciousness, and the power to
influence, from its throne of unchanging splendor on high, the fortunes
of transitory mortals."
FOOTNOTES:
[544:1] "All Paganism is at bottom _a worship of nature_ in some form or
other, and in all Pagan religions the deepest and most awe-inspiring
attribute of _nature_ was its power of reproduction." (Encyclo. Brit.,
art. "Christianity.")
[544:2] In Montfaucon's L'Antiquité Expliquée (vol. i.), may be seen a
representation of the seven planets _personified_. It was by such
personifications that the real objects worshiped became unknown. At
first the real Sun, Moon, Stars, &c., would be worshiped, but as soon as
man personified them, other terms would be introduced, and peculiar
rites appropriated to each, so that in time they came to be considered
as so many different deities.
[545:1] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. pp. 14, 49 and 50.
[545:2] Max Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 298.
[545:3] Indian Wisdom, p. 10.
[546:1] The emblem of Parvati, the "Mother Goddess," was the YONI, and
that of her consort Siva, the LINGHAM.
[546:2] Williams' Hinduism, p. 213.
[546:3] See Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. pp. 105 and 130.
[546:4] Ibid. p. 135.
[546:5] Ibid. p. 137.
[546:6] See Ibid. p. 88, and Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 63.
[547:1] "According to Champollion, the tomb of Ramses V. at Thebes,
contains tables of the constellations and of their influence (on human
beings) for every hour of every month of the year." (Kenrick's Egypt,
vol. i. p. 456.)
[547:2] P. 118.
[549:1] See Chapter XI.
[549:2] Müller: The Science of Relig., p. 190.
[549:3] See Chapter XI.
[549:4] See Indian Wisdom, p. 426.
[549:5] Taylor's Mysteries, p. 163.
[549:6] Page 239.
[549:7] The Ancient City, p. 162.
[550:1] Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 1.
[550:2] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Though spoken of in Northern
mythology as distinct, Frigga and Freyja are _originally_ ONE.
[550:3] See Myths of the British Druids, p. 116.
[550:4] See Squire's Serpent Symbol.
[551:1] Acosta: vol. ii. pp. 303-305.
APPENDIX C.
All the chief stories that we know so well are to be found in all times,
and in almost all countries. _Cinderella_, for one, is told in the
language of every country in Europe, and the same legend is found in the
fanciful tales related by the Greek poets; and still further back, it
appears in very ancient Hindoo legends. So, again, does _Beauty and the
Beast_; so does our familiar tale of _Jack, the Giant-Killer_; so also
do a great number of other fairy stories, each being told in different
countries and in different periods, with so much likeness as to show
that all the versions came from the same source, and yet with enough
difference to show that none of the versions are directly copied from
each other. "Indeed, when we compare the myths and legends of one
country with another, and of one period with another, we find out how
they have come to be so much alike, and yet in some things so different.
We see that there must have been _one origin_ for all these stories,
that they must have been invented by _one people_, that this people must
have been afterwards divided, and that each part or division of it must
have brought into its new home the legends once common to them all, and
must have shaped and altered these according to the kind of place in
which they came to live; those of the North being sterner and more
terrible, those of the South softer and fuller of light and color, and
adorned with touches of more delicate fancy." And this, indeed, is
really the case. All the chief stories and legends are alike, because
they were first made by _one people_; and all the nations in which they
are now told in one form or another tell them because they are all
descended from this one common stock, the _Aryan_.
From researches made by Prof. Max Müller, the Rev. George W. Cox, and
others, in England and Germany, in the science of _Comparative
Mythology_, we begin to see something of these ancient forefathers of
ours; to understand what kind of people they were, and to find that _our
fairy stories_ are really made out of _their religion_.
The mind of the Aryan peoples in their ancient home was full of
imagination. They never ceased to wonder at what they saw and heard in
the sky and upon the earth. Their language was highly figurative, and so
the things which struck them with wonder, and which they could not
explain, were described under forms and names which were familiar to
them. "Thus, the thunder was to them the bellowing of a mighty beast, or
the rolling of a great chariot. In the lightning they saw a brilliant
serpent, or a spear shot across the sky, or a great fish darting swiftly
through the sea of cloud. The clouds were heavenly cows, who shed milk
upon the earth and refreshed it; or they were webs woven by heavenly
women who drew water from the fountains on high and poured it down as
rain." Analogies which are but fancy to us, were realities to these men
of past ages. They could see in the waterspout a huge serpent who
elevated himself out of the ocean and reached his head to the skies.
They could feel, in the pangs of hunger, a live creature gnawing within
their bodies, and they heard the voices of the hill-dwarfs answering in
the echo. The _Sun_, the first object which struck them with wonder,
was, to them, the child of Night; the Dawn came before he was born, and
died as he rose in the heavens. He strangled the serpents of the night;
he went forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber, and like a giant, to
run his course.[553:1] He had to do battle with clouds and
storms.[553:2] Sometimes his light grew dim under their gloomy veil, and
the children of men shuddered at the wrath of the hidden Sun.[553:3]
Sometimes his ray broke forth, only, after brief splendor, to sink
beneath a deeper darkness; sometimes he burst forth at the end of his
course, trampling on the clouds which had dimmed his brilliancy, and
bathing his pathway with blood.[553:4] Sometimes, beneath mountains of
clouds and vapors, he plunged into the leaden sea.[553:5] Sometimes he
looked benignly on the face of his mother or his bride who came to greet
him at his journey's end.[553:6] Sometimes he was the lord of heaven and
of light, irresistible in his divine strength; sometimes he toiled for
others, not for himself, in a hard, unwilling servitude.[553:7] His
light and heat might give light and destroy it.[553:8] His chariot might
scorch the regions over which it passed, his flaming fire might burn up
all who dared to look with prying eyes into his dazzling
treasure-house.[553:9] He might be the child destined to slay his
parents, or to be united at the last in an unspeakable peace, to the
bright Dawn who for a brief space had gladdened his path in the
morning.[553:10] He might be the friend of the children of men, and the
remorseless foe of those powers of darkness who had stolen away his
bride.[553:11] He might be a warrior whose eye strikes terror into his
enemies, or a wise chieftain skilled in deep and hidden
knowledge.[554:1] Sometimes he might appear as a glorious being doomed
to an early death, which no power could avert or delay.[554:2] Sometimes
grievous hardships and desperate conflicts might be followed by a long
season of serene repose.[554:3] Wherever he went, men might welcome him
in love, or shrink from him in fear and anguish.[554:4] He would have
many brides in many lands, and his offspring would assume aspects
beautiful, strange or horrible.[554:5] His course might be brilliant and
beneficent; or gloomy, sullen, and capricious.[554:6] As compelled to
toil for others, he would be said to fight in quarrels not his own; or
he might for a time withhold the aid of an arm which no enemy could
withstand.[554:7] He might be the destroyer of all whom he loved, he
might slay the Dawn with his kindling rays, he might scorch the Fruits,
who were his children; he might woo the deep blue sky, the bride of
heaven itself, and an inevitable doom might bind his limbs on the
blazing wheel for ever and ever.[554:8] Nor in this crowd of phrases,
all of which have borne their part in the formation of mythology, is
there one which could not be used naturally by ourselves to describe the
phenomena of the outward world, and there is scarcely one, perhaps,
which has not been used by our own poets. There is a beauty in them,
which can never grow old or lose its charm. Poets of all ages recur to
them instinctively in times of the deepest grief or the greatest joy;
but, in the words of Professor Max Müller, "it is impossible to enter
fully into the thoughts and feelings which passed through the minds of
the early poets when they formed names for that far East from whence
even the early Dawn, the Sun, the Day, their own life seemed to spring.
A new life flashed up every morning before their eyes, and the fresh
breezes of the Dawn reached them like greetings wafted across the golden
threshold of the sky from the distant lands beyond the mountains, beyond
the clouds, beyond the dawn, beyond the immortal sea which brought us
hither! The Dawn seemed to them to open golden gates for the Sun to pass
in triumph; and while those gates were open, their eyes and their minds
strove, in their childish way, to pierce beyond the limits of this
finite world. That silent aspect wakened in the human mind the
conception of the Infinite, the Immortal, the Divine; and the names of
the Dawn became naturally the names of higher powers.[554:9]
"This imagery of the Aryans was applied by them to all they saw in the
sky. Sometimes, as we have said, the clouds were cows; they were also
dragons, which sought to slay the Sun; or great ships floating across
the sky, and casting anchor upon earth; or rocks, or mountains, or deep
caverns, in which evil deities hid the golden light. Then, also, they
were shaped by fancy into animals of various kinds--the bear, the wolf,
the dog, the ox; and into giant birds, and into monsters which were both
bird and beast.
"The winds, again, in their fancy, were the companions or ministers of
India, the sky-god. The spirits of the winds gathered into their host
the souls of the dead--thus giving birth to the Scandinavian and
Teutonic legend of the Wild Horseman, who rides at midnight through the
stormy sky, with his long train of dead behind him, and his weird hounds
before.[555:1] The Ribhus, or Arbhus, again, were the sunbeams or the
lightning, who forged the armor of the gods, and made their
thunderbolts, and turned old people young, and restored out of the hides
alone the slaughtered cow on which the gods had feasted."[555:2]
Aryan myths, then, were no more than poetic fancies about light and
darkness, cloud and rain, night and day, storm and wind; and when they
moved westward and southward, _the Aryan race brought these legends with
it_; and out of these were shaped by degrees innumerable gods and demons
of the Hindoos, the devs and jinns of the Persians; the great gods, the
minor deities, and nymphs, and fauns, and satyrs of Greek mythology and
poetry; the stormy divinities, the giants, and trolls of the cold and
rugged North; the dwarfs of the German forests; the elves who dance
merrily in the moonlight of an English summer; and the "good people" who
play mischievous tricks upon stray peasants among the Irish hills.
_Almost all, indeed, that we have of a legendary kind comes to us from
our Aryan forefathers_--sometimes scarcely changed, sometimes so altered
that we have to puzzle out the links between the old and the new; but
all these myths and traditions, and old-world stories, when we come to
know the meaning of them, take us back to the time when the Aryan race
dwelt together in the high lands of central Asia, and they all mean the
same things--that is, the relation between the Sun and the earth, the
succession of night and day, of winter and summer, of storm and calm, of
cloud and tempest, and golden sunshine, and bright blue sky. And this is
the source from which we get our fairy stories, and tales of gods and
heroes; for underneath all of them there are the same fanciful meanings,
only changed and altered in the way of putting them by the lapse of ages
of time, by the circumstances of different countries, and by the fancy
of those who kept the wonderful tales alive without knowing what they
meant.
Thousands of years ago, the Aryan people began their march out of their
old country in mid-Asia. From the remains of their language, and the
likeness of their legends to those among other nations, we know that
ages and ages ago their country grew too small for them, so they were
obliged to move away from it. Some of them turned southward into India
and Persia, and some of them went westward into Europe--the time,
perhaps, when the land of Europe stretched from the borders of Asia to
the islands of Great Britain, and when there was no sea between them and
the main land. How they made their long and toilsome march we know not.
But, as Kingsley writes of such a movement of an ancient tribe, so we
may fancy these old Aryans marching westward--"the tall, bare-limbed
men, with stone axes on their shoulders and horn bows at their backs,
with herds of gray cattle, guarded by huge lap-eared mastiffs, with
shaggy white horses, heavy-horned sheep, and silky goats, moving always
westward through the boundless steppes, whither or why we know not, but
that the Al-Father had sent them forth. And behind us (he makes them
say) the rosy snow-peaks died into ghastly gray, lower and lower, as
every evening came; and before us the plains spread infinite, with
gleaming salt-lakes, and ever fresh tribes of gaudy flowers. Behind us,
dark lines of living beings streamed down the mountain slopes; around
us, dark lines crawled along the plains--all westward, westward ever.
Who could stand against us? We met the wild asses on the steppe, and
tamed them, and made them our slaves. We slew the bison herds, and swam
broad rivers on their skins. The python snake lay across our path; the
wolves and wild dogs snarled at us out of their coverts; we slew them
and went on. Strange giant tribes met us, and eagle visaged hordes,
fierce and foolish; we smote them, hip and thigh, and went on, westward
ever."[556:1] And so they went on, straight toward the West, or, as they
turned North and South, and thus overspread new lands, _they brought
with them their old ways of thought and forms of belief_, and the
stories in which these had taken form; _and on these were built up the
gods and heroes_, and all wonder-working creatures and things, and the
poetical fables and fancies which have come down to us, and which still
linger in our customs and our fairy tales; bright and sunny and
many-colored in the warm regions of the South, sterner and wilder and
rougher in the North, more homelike in the middle and western countries;
but always alike in their main features, and always having the same
meaning when we come to dig it out, and these forms and their meaning
being the same in the lands of the West Aryans as in those still peopled
by the Aryans of the East.
The story of _Cinderella_ is one of the many fairy tales which help us
to find out their meaning, and take us straight back to the far-off land
where fairy legends began, and to the people who made them. This
well-known fairy tale has been found among the myths of our Aryan
ancestors, and from this we know that it is the story of the _Sun_ and
the _Dawn_. Cinderella, gray and dark and dull, is all neglected when
she is away from the Sun, obscured by the envious clouds, her sisters,
and by her step-mother, the Night. So she is Aurora, the Dawn, and the
Fairy Prince is the Morning Sun, ever pursuing her, to claim her for his
bride. This is the legend as it is found in the ancient Hindoo books;
and this explains at once the _source_ and the _meaning_ of the fairy
tale.[557:1]
Another tale which helps us in our task is that of _Jack the
Giant-Killer_, who is really one of the very oldest and most widely
known characters in wonder-land. Now, who is this wonderful little
fellow? He is none other than the hero who, in all countries and ages,
fights with monsters and overcomes them; like Indra, the ancient Hindoo
Sun-god, whose thunderbolts slew the demons of drought in the far East;
or Perseus, who, in Greek story, delivers the maiden from the
sea-monster; or Odysseus, who tricks the giant Polyphemus, and causes
him to throw himself into the sea; or Thor, whose hammer beats down the
frost giants of the North. "The gifts bestowed upon Jack are found in
Tartar stories, Hindoo tales, in German legends, and in the fables of
Scandinavia."
Still another is that of _Little Red Riding-Hood_. The story of Little
Red Riding Hood, as we call her, or Little Red-Cap, as she is called in
the German tales, also comes from the same source, and (as we have seen
in Chapter IX.), refers to the _Sun_ and _Night_.
"One of the fancies in the most ancient Aryan or Hindoo stories was that
there was a great dragon that was trying to devour the Sun, to prevent
him from shining upon the earth, and filling it with brightness and life
and beauty, and that Indra, the Sun-god, killed the dragon. Now, this is
the meaning of Little Red Riding-Hood, as it is told in our nursery
tales. Little Red Riding-Hood is the Evening _Sun_, which is always
described as red or golden; the old grandmother is the _Earth_, to whom
the rays of the Sun bring warmth and comfort. The wolf--which is a
well-known figure for the _Clouds_ and blackness of _Night_ (in
Teutonic mythology)[558:1]--is the dragon in another form. First, he
devours the grandmother; that is, he wraps the earth in thick clouds,
which the Evening Sun is not strong enough to pierce through. Then, with
the darkness of Night, he swallows up the Evening Sun itself, and all is
dark and desolate. Then, as in the German tale, the night-thunder and
the storm winds are represented by the loud snoring of the wolf; and
then the huntsman, the _Morning Sun_, comes in all his strength and
majesty, and chases away the night clouds and kills the wolf, and
revives old grandmother Earth and Little Red Riding Hood to life again."
Nor is it in these stories alone that we can trace the ancient Hindoo
legends, and the Sun-myth. There is, as Mr. Bunce observes in his "Fairy
Tales, their Origin and Meaning," scarcely a tale of Greek or Roman
mythology, no legend of Teutonic or Celtic or Scandinavian growth, no
great romance of what we call the middle ages, no fairy story taken down
from the lips of ancient folk, and dressed for us in modern shape and
tongue, that we do not find, in some form or another, in these Eastern
poems, _which are composed of allegorical tales of gods and heroes_.
When, in the Vedic hymns, Kephalos, Prokris, Hermes, Daphne, Zeus,
Ouranos, stand forth as simple names for the Sun, the Dew, the Wind, the
Dawn, the Heaven and the Sky, each recognized as such, yet each endowed
with the most perfect consciousness, we feel that the great riddle of
mythology is solved, and that we no longer lack the key which shall
disclose its most hidden treasures. When we hear the people saying, "Our
friend the Sun is dead. Will he rise? Will the Dawn come back again?" we
see the death of Hercules, and the weary waiting while Leto struggles
with the birth of Phoibos. When on the return of day we hear the cry--
"Rise! our life, our spirit has come back, the darkness is
gone, the light draws near!"
--we are carried at once to the Homeric hymn, and we hear the joyous
shout of all the gods when Phoibos springs to life and light on
Delos.[558:2]
That the peasant folk-lore of modern Europe still displays episodes of
nature-myth, may be seen in the following story of _Vassalissa, the
Beautiful_.
Vassalissa's stepmother and two sisters, plotting against her life, send
her to get a light at the house of _Bàba Yagà_, the witch, and her
journey contains the following history of the _Day_, told, as Mr. Tylor
says, in truest mythic fashion:
"Vassalissa goes and wanders, wanders in the forest. She goes,
and she shudders. Suddenly before her bounds a rider, he
himself white, and clad in white, and the trappings white.
_And Day began to dawn._ She goes farther, when a second rider
bounds forth, himself red, clad in red, and on a red horse.
_The Sun began to rise._ She goes on all day, and towards
evening arrives at the witch's house. Suddenly there comes
again a rider, himself black, clad in all black, and on a
black horse; he bounded to the gates of the _Bàba Yagà_, and
disappeared _as if he had sunk through the earth_. _Night
fell._ After this, when Vassalissa asks the witch, 'Who was
the white rider?' she answered, 'That is my clear _Day_;' 'Who
was the red rider?' 'That is my red _Sun_;' 'Who was the black
rider?' 'That is my black _Night_. They are all my trusty
friends.'"[559:1]
We have another illustration of allegorical mythology in the Grecian
story of Hephæstos splitting open with his axe the head of Zeus, and
Athene springing from it, full armed; for we perceive behind this savage
imagery Zeus as the bright _Sky_, his forehead the _East_, Hephæstos as
the young, not yet risen _Sun_, and Athene as the _Dawn_, the daughter
of the Sky, stepping forth from the fountain-head of light,--with eyes
like an owl, pure as a virgin; the golden; lighting up the tops of the
mountains, and her own glorious Parthenon in her own favorite town of
Athens; whirling the shafts of light; the genial warmth of the morning;
the foremost champion in the battle between night and day; in full
armor, in her panoply of light, driving away the darkness of night, and
awakening men to a bright life, to bright thoughts, to bright
endeavors.[559:2]
Another story of the same sort is that of Kronos. Every one is familiar
with the story of Kronos, who devoured his own children. Now, Kronos is
a mere creation from the older and misunderstood epithet Kronides or
Kronion, the ancient of days. When these days or time had come to be
regarded as a person the myth would certainly follow that he devoured
his own children, as Time is the devourer of the Dawns.[559:3] Saturn,
who devours his own children, is the same power whom the Greeks called
Kronos (Time), which may truly be said to destroy whatever it has
brought into existence.
The idea of a _Heaven_, the "Elysian fields," is also born of the sky.
The "_Elysian plain_" is far away in the _West_, where the sun goes
down beyond the bonds of the earth, when Eos gladdens the close of day
as she sheds her violet tints over the sky. The "Abodes of the Blessed"
are golden islands sailing in a sea of blue,--_the burnished clouds
floating in the pure ether_. Grief and sorrow cannot approach them;
plague and sickness cannot touch them. The blissful company gathered
together in that far _Western land_ inherits a tearless eternity.
Of the other details in the picture the greater number would be
suggested directly by these images drawn from the phenomena of sunset
and twilight. What spot or stain can be seen on the deep blue ocean in
which the "Islands of the Blessed" repose forever? What unseemly forms
can mar the beauty of that golden home, lighted by the radiance of a
_Sun_ which can never set? Who then but the pure in heart, the truthful
and the generous, can be suffered to tread the violet fields? And how
shall they be tested save by judges who can weigh the thoughts and the
interests of the heart? Thus every soul, as it drew near that joyous
land, was brought before the august tribunal of Minos, Rhadamanthys, and
Aiakos; and they whose faith was in truth a quickening power, might draw
from the ordeals those golden lessons which Plato has put into the mouth
of Socrates, and some unknown persons into the mouths of Buddha and
Jesus. The belief of earlier ages pictured to itself the meetings in
that blissful land, the forgiveness of old wrongs, and the
reconciliation of deadly feuds,[560:1] just as the belief of the present
day pictures these things to itself.
The story of a _War in Heaven_, which was known to all nations of
antiquity, is allegorical, and refers to the battle between light and
darkness, sunshine and storm cloud.[560:2]
As examples of the prevalence of the legend relating to the struggle
between the co-ordinate powers of good and evil, light and darkness, the
Sun and the clouds, we have that of Phoibos and Python, Indra and
Vritra, Sigurd and Fafuir, Achilleus and Paris, Oidipous and the Sphinx,
Ormuzd and Ahriman, and from the character of the struggle between Indra
and Vritra, and again between Ormuzd and Ahriman, we infer that a myth,
purely _physical_, in the land of the Five Streams, assumed a moral and
spiritual meaning in Persia, and the fight between the co-ordinate
powers of good and evil, _gave birth to the dualism which from that time
to the present has exercised so mighty an influence through the East and
West_.
The Apocalypse exhibits Satan with the physical attributes of Ahriman;
he is called the "dragon," the "old serpent," who fights against God and
his angels. The _Vedic myth_, transformed and exaggerated in the Iranian
books, _finds its way through this channel_ into Christianity. The idea
thus introduced was that of the struggle between Satan and Michael,
which ended in the overthrow of the former, and the casting forth of all
his hosts out of heaven, but it coincides too nearly with a myth spread
in countries held by all the Aryan nations to avoid further
modification. Local tradition substituted St. George or St. Theodore for
Jupiter, Apollo, Hercules, or Perseus. It is under this disguise that
the Vedic myth has come down to our own times, and has still its
festivals and its monuments. Art has consecrated it in a thousand ways.
St. Michael, lance in hand, treading on the dragon, is an image as
familiar now as, _thirty centuries ago_, that of Indra treading under
foot the demon Vritra could possibly have been to the Hindoo.[561:1]
The very ancient doctrine of a TRINITY, three gods in one, can be
explained, rationally, by allegory only. We have seen that the Sun, in
early times, was believed to be the _Creator_, and became the first
object of adoration. After some time it would be observed that this
powerful and beneficent agent, the solar fire, was the most potent
_Destroyer_, and hence would arise the first idea of a Creator and
Destroyer united in the same person. But much time would not elapse
before it must have been observed, that the destruction caused by this
powerful being was destruction only in appearance, that destruction was
only reproduction in another form--_regeneration_; that if he appeared
sometimes to destroy, he constantly repaired the injury which he seemed
to occasion--and that, without his light and heat, everything would
dwindle away into a cold, inert, unprolific mass. Thus, at once, in the
same being, became concentrated, the creating, the preserving, and the
destroying powers--the latter of the three being at the same time both
the _Destroyer_ and _Regenerator_. Hence, by a very natural and obvious
train of reasoning, arose the _Creator_, the _Preserver_, and the
_Destroyer_--in India _Brahmā_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_; in Persia
_Oromasdes_, _Mithra_, and _Arimanius_; in Egypt _Osiris_, _Horus_, and
_Typhon_: in each case THREE PERSONS AND ONE GOD. And thus undoubtedly
arose the TRIMURTI, or the celebrated Trinity.
Traces of a similar refinement may be found in the Greek mythology, in
the Orphic _Phanes_, _Ericapeus_ and _Metis_, who were all identified
with the _Sun_, and yet embraced in the first person, _Phanes_, or
Protogones, the Creator and Generator.[562:1] The invocation to the Sun,
in the Mysteries, according to Macrobius, was as follows: "O all-ruling
_Sun_! _Spirit_ of the world! _Power_ of the world! _Light_ of the
world!"[562:2]
We have seen in Chap. XXXV, that the _Peruvian_ Triad was represented by
three statues, called, respectively, "Apuinti, Churiinti, and
Intihoaoque," which is, "Lord and Father _Sun_; Son _Sun_; and Air or
Spirit, Brother _Sun_."[562:3]
Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," says:
"The peculiar mode in which the Hindoos identify their _three
great gods_ with the _solar orb_, is a curious specimen of the
physical refinements of ancient mythology. At night, in the
west, the Sun is _Vishnu_; he is _Brahmā_ in the east and in
the morning; and from noon to evening he is _Siva_."[562:4]
Mr. Moor, in his "Hindu Pantheon," says:
"Most, if not all, of the gods of the Hindoo Pantheon will, on
close investigation, resolve themselves into the _three
powers_ (Brahmā, Vishnu, and Siva), and those powers into _one
Deity_, Brahm, _typified by the Sun_."[562:5]
Mr. Squire, in his "Serpent Symbol," observes:
"It is highly probable that the triple divinity of the Hindoos
was originally no more than a personification of the _Sun_,
whom they called _Three-bodied_, in the triple capacity of
_producing_ forms by his general _heat_, _preserving_ them by
his _light_, or _destroying_ them by the counteracting force
of his _igneous_ matter. _Brahmá_, the _Creator_, was
indicated by the _heat of the Sun_; _Vishnu_, the _Preserver_,
by the _light of the Sun_, and _Siva_, the _Reproducer_, by
the _orb of the Sun_. In the morning the Sun was _Brahmā_, at
noon _Vishnu_, at evening _Siva_."[562:6]
"He is at once," says Mr. Cox, in speaking of the Sun, "the 'Comforter'
and 'Healer,' the 'Saviour' and 'Destroyer,' who can slay and make alive
at will, and from whose piercing glance no secret can be kept
hid."[562:7]
Sir William Jones was also of the opinion that the whole Triad of the
Hindoos were identical with the Sun, expressed under the mythical term
O. M.
The idea of a _Tri-murti_, or triple personification, was developed
gradually, and as it grew, received numerous accretions. It was first
dimly shadowed forth and vaguely expressed in the _Rig-Veda_, where a
triad of principal gods, _Agni_, _Indra_, and _Surya_ is recognized. And
these three gods are _One_, the SUN.[562:8]
We see then that the religious myths of antiquity and the fireside
legends of ancient and modern times, have a common root in the mental
habits of primeval humanity, and that they are the earliest recorded
utterances of men concerning the visible phenomena of the world into
which they were born. At first, thoroughly understood, the _meaning_ in
time became unknown. How stories originally told of the Sun, the Moon,
the Stars, &c., became believed in as facts, is plainly illustrated in
the following story told by Mrs. Jameson in her "History of Our Lord in
Art:" "I once tried to explain," says she, "to a good old woman, the
meaning of the word _parable_, and that the story of the _Prodigal Son_
was not a fact; she was scandalized--she was quite sure that Jesus would
never have told anything to his disciples that was not true. Thus she
settled the matter in her own mind, and I thought it best to leave it
there undisturbed."
Prof. Max Müller, in speaking of "the comparison of the different forms
of Aryan religion and mythology in India, Persia, Greece, Italy and
Germany," clearly illustrates how such legends are transformed from
intelligible into unintelligible myths. He says:
"In each of these nations there was a tendency to change the original
conception of divine powers, to misunderstand the many names given to
these powers, and to misinterpret the praises addressed to them. In this
manner some of the divine names were changed into half-divine,
half-human heroes, and at last the myths which were true and
intelligible as told originally of the _Sun_, or the _Dawn_, or the
_Storms_, were turned into legends or fables too marvelous to be
believed of common mortals. This process can be watched in India, in
Greece, and in Germany. The same story, or nearly the same, is told of
gods, of heroes, and of men. The divine myth became an heroic legend,
and the heroic legend fades away into a nursery tale. Our nursery tales
have well been called the modern _patois_ of the ancient mythology of
the Aryan race."[563:1]
In the words of this learned author, "we never lose, we always gain,
when we discover the most ancient intention of sacred traditions,
instead of being satisfied with their later aspect, and their modern
misinterpretations."
FOOTNOTES:
[553:1] This picture would give us the story of Hercules, who strangled
the serpent in his cradle, and who, in after years, in the form of a
giant, ran his course.
[553:2] This would give us St. George killing the Dragon.
[553:3] This would give us the story of the monster who attempted to
devour the Sun, and whom the "untutored savage" tried to frighten away
by making loud cries.
[553:4] This would give us the story of Samson, whose strength was
renewed at the end of his career, and who slew the Philistines--who had
dimmed his brilliance--and bathed his path with blood.
[553:5] This would give us the story of Oannes or Dagon, who, beneath
the clouds of the evening sky, plunged into the sea.
[553:6] This would give us the story of Hercules and his bride Iôle, or
that of Christ Jesus and his mother Mary, who were at their side at the
end of their career.
[553:7] This would give us the story of the labors of Hercules.
[553:8] This is the Sun as _Seva_.
[553:9] Here again we have the Sun as Siva the _Destroyer_.
[553:10] Here we have Apollo, Achilleus, Bellerophon and Odysseus.
[553:11] This would give us the story of Samson, who was "the friend of
the children of men, and the remorseless foe of those powers of
darkness" (the Philistines), who had stolen away his bride. (See Judges,
ch. xv.)
[554:1] This would give us the stories of _Thor_, the mighty warrior,
the terror of his enemies, and those of Cadmus, Romulus or Odin, the
wise chieftains, who founded nations, and taught their people knowledge.
[554:2] This would give us the story of Christ Jesus, and other
Angel-Messiahs; Saviours of men.
[554:3] This would give us the stories of spellbound maidens, who sleep
for years.
[554:4] This is Hercules and his counterparts.
[554:5] This again is Hercules.
[554:6] This would depend upon whether his light was obscured by clouds,
or not.
[554:7] This again is Hercules.
[554:8] This is Apollo, Siva and Ixion.
[554:9] Rev. G. W. Cox.
[555:1] Who has not heard it said that the howling or whining of a dog
forebodes death?
[555:2] Bunce: Fairy Tales, Origin and Meaning.
[556:1] Quoted by Bunce: Fairy Tales.
[557:1] See Bunce: Fairy Tales, p. 34.
[558:1] "The _Sun_," said _Gaugler_, "speeds at such a rate as if _she_
feared that some one was pursuing her for her destruction." "And well
she may," replied _Har_, "for he that seeks her is not far behind, and
she has no way to escape but to run before him." "And who is he," asked
_Gaugler_, "that causes her this anxiety?" "It is the _Wolf_ Sköll,"
answered _Har_, "who pursues the Sun, and it is he that she fears, for
he shall one day overtake and devour her." (Scandinavian _Prose Edda_.
See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 407). This Wolf is, as we have
said, a personification of _Night_ and _Clouds_, we therefore have the
almost universal practice among savage nations of making noises at the
time of eclipses, to frighten away the monsters who would otherwise
devour the Sun.
[558:2] Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 103.
[559:1] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 308.
[559:2] Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 65.
[559:3] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 1.
[560:1] As the hand of Hector is clasped in the hand of the hero who
slew him. There, as the story ran, the lovely Helen "pardoned and
purified," became the bride of the short-lived, yet long-suffering
Achilleus, even as Iole comforted the dying Hercules on earth, and Hebe
became his solace in Olympus. But what is the meeting of Helen and
Achilleus, of Iole and Hebe and Hercules, but the return of the violet
tints to greet the Sun in the _West_, which had greeted him in the East
in the morning? The idea was purely physical, yet it suggested the
thoughts of trial, atonement, and purification; and it is unnecessary to
say that the human mind, having advanced thus far, must make its way
still farther. (Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 822.)
[560:2] The black storm-cloud, with the flames of lightning issuing from
it, was the original of the dragon with tongues of fire. Even as late as
A. D. 1600, a German writer would illustrate a thunder-storm destroying
a crop of corn by a picture of a dragon devouring the produce of the
field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth. (Baring-Gould: Curious
Myths, p. 342.)
[561:1] M. Bréal, and G. W. Cox.
[562:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 59.
[562:2] Ibid.
[562:3] Ibid. p. 181.
[562:4] Book iv. ch. i. in Anac., vol. i. p. 137.
[562:5] P. 6.
[562:6] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 33.
[562:7] Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 33.
[562:8] Williams' Hinduism, p. 88.
[563:1] Müller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 260.
APPENDIX D.
We maintain that not so much as one single passage purporting to be
written, _as history_, within the first hundred years of the Christian
era, can be produced to show the existence _at_ or before that time of
such a person as Jesus of Nazareth, called the Christ, or of such a set
of men as could be accounted his disciples or followers. Those who would
be likely to refer to Jesus or his disciples, but who have not done so,
wrote about:
A. D. 40 Philo.[564:1]
40 Josephus.
79 C. Plinius Second, the Elder.[564:2] }
69 L. Ann. Seneca. } Philosophers.
79 Diogenes Laertius. }
79 Pausanias. } Geographers.
79 Pompon Mela. }
79 Q. Curtius Ruf. }
79 Luc. Flor. }
110 Cornel Tacitus. } Historians.
123 Appianus. }
140 Justinus. }
141 Ælianus. }
Out of this number it has been claimed that one (Josephus) spoke of
Jesus, and another (Tacitus) of the Christians. Of the former it is
almost needless to speak, as that has been given up by Christian divines
many years ago. However, for the sake of those who still cling to it we
shall state the following:
Dr. Lardner, who wrote about A. D. 1760, says:
1. It was never quoted by any of our Christian ancestors
before _Eusebius_.
2. Josephus has nowhere else mentioned the name or word
_Christ_, in any of his works, except the testimony above
mentioned,[564:3] and the passage concerning James, the Lord's
brother.[564:4]
3. It interrupts the narrative.
4. The language is quite Christian.
5. It is _not_ quoted by Chrysostom,[564:5] though he often
refers to Josephus, and could not have omitted quoting it, had
it been _then_, in the text.
6. It is _not_ quoted by Photius, though he has three articles
concerning Josephus.
7. Under the article _Justus of Tiberius_, this author
(Photius) expressly states that this historian (Josephus),
being a Jew, _has not taken the least notice of Christ_.
8. Neither Justin, in his dialogue with Typho the Jew, nor
Clemens Alexandrinus, who made so many extracts from ancient
authors, nor Origen against Celsus, _have even mentioned this
testimony_.
9. But, on the contrary, Origen openly affirms (ch. xxxv., bk.
i., against Celsus), that Josephus, who had mentioned John the
Baptist, _did not acknowledge Christ_.[565:1]
In the "Bible for Learners," we read as follows:
"Flavius Josephus, the well-known historian of the Jewish
people, was born in A. D. 37, only two years after the death
of Jesus; but though his work is of inestimable value as our
chief authority for the circumstances of the times in which
Jesus and his Apostles came forward, yet he does not seem to
have ever mentioned Jesus himself. At any rate, the passage in
his '_Jewish Antiquities_' that refers to him is certainly
spurious, and was inserted by a later and a _Christian hand_.
The _Talmud_ compresses the history of Jesus into a single
sentence, and later Jewish writers concoct mere slanderous
anecdotes. The ecclesiastical fathers mention a few sayings or
events, the knowledge of which they drew from oral tradition
or from writings that have since been lost. The Latin and
Greek historians just mention his name. This meager harvest is
all we reap from sources outside the Gospels."[565:2]
Canon Farrar, who finds himself _compelled_ to admit that this passage
in Josephus is an interpolation, consoles himself by saying:
"The single passage in which he (Josephus) alludes to Him
(Christ) is interpolated, if not wholly spurious, and no one
can doubt that his silence on the subject of Christianity was
as deliberate as it was dishonest."[565:3]
The Rev. Dr. Giles, after commenting on this subject, concludes by
saying:
"_Eusebius_ is the first who quotes the passage, and our
reliance on the judgment, _or even the honesty_, of this
writer _is not so great as to allow of our considering
everything found in his works as undoubtedly genuine_."[565:4]
Eusebius, then, is the first person who refers to these passages.[565:5]
Eusebius, "_whose honesty is not so great as to allow of our considering
everything found in his works as undoubtedly genuine_." Eusebius, who
says that _it is lawful to lie and cheat for the cause of
Christ_.[565:6] This Eusebius is the sheet-anchor of reliance for most
we know of the first three centuries of the Christian history. What then
must we think of the _history_ of the first three centuries of the
Christian era?
The celebrated passage in Tacitus which Christian divines--and even
some liberal writers--attempt to support, is to be found in his
_Annals_. In this work he is made to speak of _Christians_, who "had
their denomination from _Christus_, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was
put to death as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate."
In answer to this we have the following:
1. This passage, which would have served the purpose of Christian
quotation better than any other in all the writings of Tacitus, or of
any Pagan writer whatever, _is not quoted by any of the Christian
Fathers_.
2. It is not quoted by Tertullian, though he had read and largely quotes
the works of Tacitus.
3. And though his argument immediately called for the use of this
quotation with so loud a voice (Apol. ch. v.), that his omission of it,
if it had really existed, amounts to a _violent improbability_.
4. This Father has spoken of Tacitus in a way that it is absolutely
impossible that he should have spoken of him, had his writings contained
such a passage.
5. It is not quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus, _who set himself entirely
to the work of adducing and bringing together all the admissions and
recognitions which Pagan authors had made of the existence of Christ
Jesus or Christians before his time_.
6. It has been nowhere stumbled upon by the laborious and all-seeking
Eusebius, who could by no possibility have overlooked it, and whom it
would have saved from the labor of forging the passage in Josephus; of
adducing the correspondence of Christ Jesus and Abgarus, and the
Sibylline verses; of forging a divine revelation from the god Apollo, in
attestation of Christ Jesus' ascension into heaven; and innumerable
other of his pious and holy cheats.
7. Tacitus has in no other part of his writings made the least allusion
to "_Christ_" or "_Christians_."
8. The use of this passage as part of the evidences of the Christian
religion, is absolutely modern.
9. There is no vestige nor trace of its existence anywhere in the world
before the 15th century.[566:1]
10. No reference whatever is made to this passage by any writer or
historian, monkish or otherwise, before that time,[567:1] which, to say
the least, is very singular, considering that after that time it is
quoted, or referred to, in an endless list of works, which by itself is
all but conclusive that it was not in existence till the fifteenth
century, which was an age of imposture and of credulity so immoderate
that people were easily imposed upon, believing, as they did, without
sufficient evidence, whatever was foisted upon them.
11. The interpolator of the passage makes Tacitus speak of "_Christ_,"
not of Jesus _the_ Christ, showing that--like the passage in
Josephus--it is, comparatively, a modern interpolation, for
12. The word "_Christ_" is _not a name_, but a TITLE;[567:2] it being
simply the Greek for the Hebrew word "_Messiah_." Therefore,
13. When Tacitus is made to speak of Jesus as "Christ," it is equivalent
to my speaking of Tacitus as "Historian," of George Washington as
"General," or of any individual as "Mister," without adding a _name_ by
which either could be distinguished. And therefore,
14. It has no sense or meaning as he is said to have used it.
15. Tacitus is also made to say that the _Christians_ had their
denomination from _Christ_, which would apply to any other of the
so-called _Christs_ who were put to death in Judea, as well as to Christ
Jesus. And
16. "The disciples were _called_ Christians first at Antioch" (Acts xi.
26), not because they were followers of a certain Jesus who claimed to
be the Christ, but because "Christian" or "Chrēstian," was a name
applied, at that time, to any good man.[567:3] And,
17. The worshipers of the Sun-god, _Serapis_, were also called
"Christians," and his disciples "Bishops of Christ."[568:1]
So much, then, for the celebrated passage in Tacitus.
* * * * *
NOTE.--Tacitus says--according to the passage attributed to him--that
"those who confessed [to be Christians] were first seized, and then on
their evidence _a huge multitude_ (_Ingens Multitudo_) were convicted,
not so much on the charge of incendiarism as for _their hatred to
mankind_." Although M. Renan may say (_Hibbert Lectures_, p. 70) that
the authenticity of this passage "cannot be disputed," yet the absurdity
of "a huge multitude" of Christians being in Rome, in the days of Nero,
A. D. 64--about thirty years' after the time assigned for the
crucifixion of Jesus--has not escaped the eye of thoughtful scholars.
Gibbon--who saw how ridiculous the statement is--attempts to reconcile
it with common sense by supposing that Tacitus knew so little about the
Christians that he confounded them with the Jews, and that the hatred
universally felt for the latter fell upon the former. In this way he
believes Tacitus gets his "huge multitude," as the Jews established
themselves in Rome as early as 60 years B. C., where they multiplied
rapidly, living together in the Traslevere--the most abject portion of
the city, where all kinds of rubbish was put to rot--where they became
"old clothes" men, the porters and hucksters, bartering tapers for
broken glass, hated by the mass and pitied by the few. Other scholars,
among whom may be mentioned Schwegler (_Nachap Zeit._, ii. 229); Köstlin
(_Johann-Lehrbegr._, 472); and Baur (_First Three Centuries_, i. 133);
also being struck with the absurdity of the statement made by some of
the early Christian writers concerning the wholesale prosecution of
Christians, said to have happened at that time, suppose it must have
taken place during the persecution of Trajan, A. D. 101. It is strange
we hear of no Jewish martyrdoms or Jewish persecutions till we come to
the times of the Jewish war, and then chiefly in Palestine! But fables
must be made realities, so we have the ridiculous story of a "huge
multitude" of Christians being put to death in Rome, in A. D. 64,
evidently for the purpose of bringing Peter there, making him the first
Pope, and having him crucified head downwards. This absurd story is made
more evident when we find that it was not until about A. D. 50--only 14
years before the alleged persecution--that the first Christians--a mere
handful--entered the capitol of the Empire. (See Renan's _Hibbert
Lectures_, p. 55.) They were a poor dirty set, without manners, clad in
filthy gaberdines, and smelling strong of garlic. From these, then, with
others who came from Syria, we get our "huge multitude" in the space of
14 years. The statement attributed to Tacitus is, however, outdone by
Orosius, who asserts that the persecution extended "through all the
provinces." (Orosius, ii. 11.) That it was a very easy matter for some
Christian writer to interpolate or alter a passage in the _Annals_ of
Tacitus may be seen from the fact that the MS. was not known to the
world before the 15th century, and from information which is to be
derived from reading Daillé _On the Right Use of the Fathers_, who shows
that they were accustomed to doing such business, and that these
writings are, to a large extent, unreliable.
FOOTNOTES:
[564:1] The Rev. Dr. Giles says: "Great is our disappointment at finding
nothing in the works of Philo about the Christians, their doctrines, or
their sacred books. About the _books_ indeed we need not expect any
notice of these works, but about the Christians and their doctrines his
silence is more remarkable, seeing that he was about sixty years old at
the time of the crucifixion, and living mostly in Alexandria, so closely
connected with Judea, and the Jews, could hardly have failed to know
something of the _wonderful events_ that had taken place in the city of
Jerusalem." (Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 61.)
The Rev. Dr. assumes that these "wonderful events" really took place,
but, if they did not take place, of course Philo's silence on the
subject is accounted for.
[564:2] Both these philosophers were living, and must have experienced
the immediate effects, or received the earliest information of the
existence of Christ Jesus, had such a person as the Gospels make him out
to be ever existed. Their ignorance or their willful silence on the the
subject, is not less than _improbable_.
[564:3] Antiquities, bk. xviii. ch. iii. 3.
[564:4] Ibid. bk. xx. ch. ix. 1.
[564:5] John, Bishop of Constantinople, who died....
[565:1] Lardner: vol. vi. ch. iii.
[565:2] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 27.
[565:3] Life of Christ, vol. I. p. 63.
[565:4] Hebrew and Christ. Rec. vol. ii. p. 62.
[565:5] In his Eccl. Hist. lib. 2. ch. xii.
[565:6] Ch. 31, bk. xii. of Eusebius _Præ paratio Evangelica_ is
entitled: "How far it may be proper to use falsehood as a medium for the
benefit of those who require to be deceived;" and he closes his work
with these words: "I have repeated whatever may rebound to the glory,
and suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace of our religion."
[566:1] The original MSS. containing the "Annals of Tacitus" were
"discovered" in the fifteenth century. Their existence cannot be traced
back further than that time. And as it was an age of imposture, some
persons are disposed to believe that not only portions of the _Annals_,
but the whole work, was forged at that time. Mr. J. W. Ross, in an
elaborate work published in London some years ago, contended that the
_Annals_ were forged by Poggio Bracciolini, their professed discoverer.
At the time of Bracciolini the temptation was great to palm off literary
forgeries, especially of the chief writers of antiquity, on account of
the Popes, in their efforts to revive learning, giving money rewards and
indulgences to those who should procure MS. copies of any of the ancient
Greek or Roman authors. Manuscripts turned up as if by magic, in every
direction; from libraries of monasteries, obscure as well as famous; the
most out-of-the-way places,--the bottom of exhausted wells, besmeared by
snails, as the History of Velleius Paterculus, or from garrets, where
they had been contending with cobwebs and dust, as the poems of
Catullus.
[567:1] A portion of the passage--that relating to the manner in which
the Christians were put to death--is found in the _Historia Sacra_ of
Sulpicius Severus, a Christian Father, who died A. D. 420; but it is
evident that this writer did not take it from the _Annals_. On the
contrary, the passage was taken--as Mr. Ross shows--from the _Historia
Sacra_, and bears traces of having been so appropriated. (See Tacitus &
Bracciolini, the Annals forged in the XVth century, by J. W. Ross.)
[567:2] "_Christ_ is a name having no spiritual signification, _and
importing nothing more than an ordinary surname_." (Dr. Giles: Hebrew
and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 64.)
"The name of _Jesus_ and _Christ_ was both known and honored among the
ancients." (Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. iv.)
"The name _Jesus_ is of Hebrew origin, and signifies _Deliverer_, and
_Savior_. It is the same as that translated in the Old Testament
_Joshua_. The word _Christ_, of Greek origin, is properly _not a name_
but _a title_, signifying _The Anointed_. The whole name is therefore,
_Jesus the Anointed_ or _Jesus the Messiah_." (Abbott and Conant; Dic.
of Relig. Knowledge, art. "_Jesus Christ_.")
In the oldest Gospel extant, that attributed to Matthew, we read that
Jesus said unto his disciples, "Whom say ye that I am?" whereupon Simon
Peter answers and says: "Thou art THE CHRIST, the Son of the living God.
. . . Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he
was Jesus THE Christ." (Matt. xvi. 15-20.)
This clearly shows that "_the Christ_" was simply a _title_ applied to
the man Jesus, therefore, if a _title_, it cannot be a _name_. All
passages in the New Testament which speak of _Christ_ as a _name_,
betray their modern date.
[567:3] "This name (Christian) occurs but three times in the New
Testament, and is never used by Christians of themselves, only as spoken
by or coming from those without the Church. The general names by which
the early Christians called themselves were 'brethren,' 'disciples,'
'believers,' and 'saints.' The presumption is that the name _Christian_
was originated by the _Heathen_." (Abbott and Conant: Dic. of Relig.
Knowledge, art. "Christian.")
"We are called Christians (_not_, we call ourselves Christians). So,
then, _we are the best of men_ (Chrēstians), and it can never be just
to hate what is (Chrēst) _good and kind_;" [or, "therefore to hate what
is _Chrestian_ is unjust."] (Justin Martyr: _Apol._ 1. c. iv.)
"Some of the ancient writers of the Church have not scrupled expressly
to call the Athenian _Socrates_, and some others of the _best_ of the
heathen moralists, by the name of _Christians_." (Clark: Evidences of
Revealed Relig., p. 284. Quoted in Ibid. p. 41.)
"Those who lived according to the Logos, (_i. e._, the _Platonists_),
were really _Christians_." (Clemens Alexandrinus, in _Ibid._)
"Undoubtedly we are called _Christians_, for this reason, _and none
other_, than because _we are anointed with the oil of God_." (Theophilus
of Antioch, in Ibid. p. 399.)
"Christ is the Sovereign Reason of whom the whole human race
participates. _All those who have lived comformably to a right reason,
have been Christians_, notwithstanding that they have always been looked
upon as Atheists." (Justin Martyr: _Apol._ 1. c. xlvi.)
Lucian makes a person called Triephon answer the question, whether the
affairs of the _Christians_ were recorded in heaven. "All nations are
there recorded, since Chrēstus exists even among the Gentiles."
[568:1] "Egypt, which you commended to me, my dearest Servianus, I have
found to be wholly fickle and inconsistent, and continually wafted about
by every breath of fame. The worshipers of SERAPIS (here) are called
_Christians_, and those who are _devoted_ to the god Serapis (I find),
call themselves _Bishops of Christ_." (The Emperor _Adrian_ to
Servianus, written A. D. 134. Quoted by Dr. Giles, vol. ii. p. 86.)
INDEX.
A.
_Abraham_, story of, 38;
Hindoo parallel, 39;
other parallels, 39, 40;
the foundation of, 103;
his birth announced by a star, 144;
supposed to have had the same soul as Adam, David, and the
Messiah, 504.
_Absolution_ from sin by sacrifice of ancient origin, 181;
by baptism, 316;
refused to Constantine by Pagan priests, 444.
_Abury_, the temple at, 180.
_Achilleus_, a personification of the Sun, 485.
_Adam_, was reproduced in Noah, Elijah, and other Bible
celebrities, 44;
no trace of the story of the fall of, in the Hebrew Canon, after
the Genesis account, 99.
_Aditi_, "Mother of the Gods," 475;
a personification of the Dawn, 475;
is identified with Devaki, 475.
_Adonis_, is born of a Virgin, 191;
has title of "Saviour," 191, 217;
is slain, 191;
rises from the dead, 218;
is creator of the world, 249;
his temple at Bethlehem, 220;
his birth on December 25th, 364;
a personification of the Sun, 484;
in Hebrew "My Lord," 485.
_Æolus_, son of Jupiter, 125.
_Æon_, Christ Jesus an, 427;
there have been several, 427;
the Gnostics believed Christ Jesus to have been an, 511;
the Essenes believed in the doctrine of an, 515.
_Æschylus'_ Prometheus Bound, 192.
_Æsculapius_, a son of Jove, 128;
worshiped as a God, 128;
is called the "Saviour," 194;
the "Logos," 374;
Death and Resurrection of, 217.
_Agni_, represented with seven arms, 32;
a Hindoo God, 32;
the Cross a symbol of, 340.
_Agnus Dei_, the, succeeded the Bulla, 405;
worn by children, 405.
_Agony_, the, on Good Friday, is the weeping for Tammuz, the fair
Adonis, 226.
_Akiba_, Rabbi, believed Bar-Cochaba to be the Messiah, 433.
_Alcmena_, mother of Hercules, 124.
_Alexander_, divides the Pamphylian Sea, 61;
believed to be a divine incarnation, 127;
visits the temple of Jupiter Ammon, 127;
and styles himself "Son of Jupiter Ammon," 127.
_Alexandria_, the library of, 438;
the great intellectual centre, 440;
and the cradle of Christianity, 219, 442.
_Allegorical_, the, interpretation of the Scriptures practiced by
Rabbis, 100;
the historical theory succeeded by, 466, 552, 563.
_Allegory_, the story of the "Fall of Man" an, 100.
_All-father_, the, of all nations, a personification of the Sky, 478.
_Alpha and Omega_, Jesus believed to be, 250;
Crishna, 250;
Buddha, 250;
Lao-Kiun, 250;
Ormuzd, 251;
Zeus, 251;
Bacchus, 251.
_Ambrose, St._, affirms that the Apostles made a creed, 385.
_America_, populated from Asia, 540;
was at one time joined to Asia, 541.
_American Trinity_, the, 378.
_Americans_, their connection with the old world, 533.
_Ammon_, Jupiter, his temple visited by Alexander, 127.
_Amphion_, son of Jove, 124.
_Amulets_ and Charms, worn by the Christians, 405;
are relics of Paganism, 405.
_Ananda_, and the Matangi Girl, 294.
_Andrew's, St._, Cross, of Pagan origin, 339.
_Angel Messiah_, Buddha an, 116;
Crishna an, 196;
Christ an, 196;
the Essenes applied the legend of, to Jesus, 442.
_Angels_, the fallen, 386;
believed in by all nations of antiquity, 386-388.
_Animals_, none sacrificed in early times, 182.
_Antiquity_, the, of Pagan religions, compared with Christianity, 451.
_Apis_, or the Bull, worshiped by the children of Israel, 107;
symbolized the productive power in Nature, 476, _note_ 5.
_Apollo_, a lawgiver, 61;
son of Jove, 125;
has the title of "Saviour," 194;
is put to death, 191;
resurrection of, 218;
a type of Christ, 500;
is a personification of the Sun, 500-506.
_Apostles_, the, 500.
_Apostles' Creed_, the, not written by them, 385.
_Apotheosis_, the, of Pagans, 126.
_Apollonius_, considered divine, 126;
cured diseases, 261;
raised a dead maiden to life, 262;
his life written by Flavius Philostratus, 264.
_Arabia_, "wise men" came from, 150, _note_ 1.
_Arabs_, the, anciently worshiped Saturn, 393;
celebrated the birth of the Sun on December 25th, with offerings
of gold, frankincense and myrrh, 480.
_Ararat_, Mount, Noah's ark landed on, 21.
_Arcas_, a son of Jove, 125.
_Architecture_, the, of India same as Mexico, 538.
_Aries_, the sign of a symbol of Christ, 503;
personified and called the "Lamb of God," 504;
the worship of, the worship of the Sun, 504.
_Arimanes_, the evil spirit, according to Persian legend, 3.
_Arion_, a Corinthian harper, 78.
_Arjoon or Arjuna_, the cousin and beloved disciple of Crishna, 247.
_Ark_, the, of Noah, 20;
and others, 22-27.
_Armenian_, the, tradition of "Confusion of Tongues," 35.
_Aroclus_, son of Jove, 125.
_Artemon_, denied the divinity of Jesus, 135.
_Ascension_, of Jesus, 215;
of Crishna, 215;
of Rama, 216;
of Buddha, 216;
of Lao-Kiun, 216;
of Zoroaster, 216;
of Æsculapius, 217;
of Osiris, 222;
Atys, 222;
Mithras, 222.
_Asceticism_, as practiced among the Christians, of great
antiquity, 400.
_Ashera_, the, or upright emblem, stood in the Temple at Jerusalem,
47.
_Asia_, the continent of, at one time joined to America, 541;
America inhabited from, 454, 533.
_Asia Minor_, the people persecuted in by orders of Constantius, 448.
_Asita_, the holy Rishi, visits Buddha at his birth, 151.
_Asoka_, the council of, 303.
_Assyrian Dove_, the, a symbol of the Holy Ghost, 400.
_Assyrians_, the, worshiped a sun-god called Sandon, 74;
had an account of a war in Heaven, 388;
kept the seventh day holy, 393.
_Astaroth_, the goddess, saved the life of a Grecian maiden, 39.
_Astarte_, or Mylitta, worshiped by the Hebrews, 108.
_Astrology_, practiced by the ancients, 141, 142.
_Astronomers_, the ancient Egyptians great, 547.
_Astronomy_, understood by the ancient Chinese, 544.
_Athanasian Creed_, the, 381.
_Athens_, the Parthenon of, 333.
_Atlas_, a personification of the sun, 83.
_Atonement_, the doctrine of, taught before the time of Christ
Jesus, 181.
_Atys_, the Crucified, 190;
is called the "Only-begotten Son," and "Saviour," 190;
rose from the dead, 223.
_Augustine, St._, saw men and women without heads, 437.
_Aurora placida_, made into St. Aura and St. Placida, 399.
_Avatar_, Jesus considered an, 111;
a star at birth of every, 143, 479;
an "Angel-Messiah," a "Christ," 196;
an, expected about every 600 years, 426.
B.
_Baal_, and Moloch, worshiped by the children of Israel, 108.
_Baal-peor_, the Priapos of the Jews, 47.
_Babel_, the tower of, 33;
literally "the Gate of God," 34;
built at Babylon, 34;
a parallel to in other countries, 35;
built for astronomical purposes, 35.
_Babylonian Captivity_, the, put an end to Israel's idolatry, 108.
_Bacab_, the Son, in the Mexican Trinity, 378.
_Bacchus_, performed miracles, 50;
passed through the Red Sea dry-shod, 51;
divided the waters of the rivers Orontes and Hydaspus, 51;
drew water from a rock, 51;
was a law-giver, 52;
the son of Jupiter, 124;
was born in a cave, 156;
torn to pieces, 193, 209;
was called the "Saviour," 193;
"Only-begotten Son," 193;
"Redeemer," 193;
the sun darkened at his death, 208;
ascended into heaven, 208;
rose from the dead, 228;
a personification of the sun, 492.
_Baga_, the, of the cuneiform inscriptions a name of the Supreme
Being, 391;
is in English associated with an ugly fiend, 391.
_Balaam_, his ass speaks, 91;
parallels to in Egypt, Chaldea and Greece, 91.
_Bala-rama_, the brother of Crishna, 74;
the Indian Hercules, 74.
_Baldur_, called "The Good," 129;
"The Beneficent Saviour," 129;
Son of the Supreme God Odin, 129;
is put to death and rises again, 224;
a personification of the sun, 479.
_Bambino_, the, at Rome is black, 336.
_Baptism_, a heathen rite adopted by the Christians, 317;
practiced in Mongolia and Thibet, 317;
by the Brahmins, 317;
by the followers of Zoroaster, 318;
administered in the Mithraic mysteries, 319;
performed by the ancient Egyptians, 319.
_Baptismal fonts_, used by the Pagans, 406.
_Bar-Cochba_, the "Son of a Star," 144;
believed to be the Messiah, 432.
_Beads_ (see Rosary).
_Beatitudes_, the, the prophet of, 527.
_Belief_, or faith, salvation by, existed in the earliest times, 184.
_Bellerophon_, a mighty Grecian hero, 75.
_Belus_, the tower of, 34.
_Benares_, the Hindoo Jerusalem, 296.
_Berosus_, on the flood, 22.
_Bible_, the Egyptian, the oldest in the world, 24.
_Birth_, the Miraculous, of Jesus, 111;
Crishna, 113;
Buddha, 115;
Codom, 118;
Fuh-he, 119;
Lao-Kiun, 120;
Yu, Hau-Ki, 120;
Confucius, 121;
Horus, 122;
Zoroaster, 123;
and others, 123-131.
_Birth-day_, the, of the gods, on December 25th, 364.
_Birth-place_, the, of Christ Jesus, in a cave, 154;
the, of other saviours, in a cave, 155-158.
_Black God_, the, crucified, 201.
_Black Mother_, the, and child, 336.
_Bochia_, of the Persians, performed miracles, 256.
_Bochica_, a god of the Muyscas, 130.
_Bodhisatwa_, a name of Buddha, 115.
_Books, sacred_, among heathen nations, 61.
_Brahma_, the first person in Hindoo Trinity, 369.
_Brahmins_, the, perform the rite of baptism, 317.
_Bread and Wine_, a sacrifice with, celebrated by the Grand Lama of
Thibet, 306;
by the Essenes, 306;
by Melchizedek, 307;
by those who were initiated into the mysteries of Mithras, 307.
_Blind Man_, cured by Jesus, 268;
by the Emperor Vespasian at Alexandria, 268.
_Brechin_, the fire tower of, 199;
a crucifix cut upon, 198.
_Buddha_, born of the Virgin Maya, 115;
his birth announced by a star, 143;
demonstrations of delight at his birth, 147;
is visited by Asita, 151;
was of royal descent, 163;
a dangerous child, 168;
tempted by the devil, 176;
fasted, 176;
died and rose again to life, 216;
ascended into heaven, 216;
compared with Jesus, 289.
_Buddhism_, the established religion of Burmah, Siam, Laos, Pega,
Cambodia, Thibet, Japan, Tartary, Ceylon, and Loo-Choo, 297.
_Buddhist religion_, the, compared with Christianity, 302.
_Buddhists_, the monastic system among, 401.
_Bull_, the, an emblem of the sun, 476.
_Bulla_, the, worn by Roman children, 405;
and now a lamb, the Agnus Dei, 405.
C.
_Cabala_, the, had its Trinity, 376.
_Cadiz_, the gates of, 70.
_Cæsar_ (Augustus), was believed to be divine, 126.
_Cæsar_ (Julius), was likened to the divine, 126.
_Calabrian Shepherds_, the, a few weeks before Winter solstice,
came into Rome to play on the pipes, 365.
_Cam-Deo_, the God of Love, 216.
_Capricorn_, when the planets met in, the world was deluged with
water, 102.
_Cardinals_, the, of Rome, wear the robes once worn by Roman
senators, 400.
_Carmelites_, the, and Essenes the same, 422.
_Canon_, the, of the New Testament, when settled, 463.
_Carne-vale_, a farewell to animal food, 227.
_Carnutes_, the, of Gaul, 198;
the Lamb of, 199.
_Castles_, Lord, a ring found on his estate, 199.
_Catholic_ rites and ceremonies are imitations of those of the
Pagans, 384.
_Catholic theory_, the, of the fall of the angels, 386.
_Cave_, Jesus born in a, 154;
Crishna born in a, 156;
Abraham born in a, 156;
Apollo born in a, 156;
Mithras born in a, 156;
Hermes born in a, 156.
_Caves_, all the oldest temples were in, 286.
_Celibacy_, among Pagan priests, 400-404.
_Celts_, the, Legend of the Deluge found among, 27.
_Cerinthus_, denied the divinity of Jesus, 136.
_Ceylon_, never believed to have been the Paradise, 13.
_Chaldean_, the, account of the Deluge, 22.
_Chaldeans_, the, Legend of the Deluge borrowed from, 101;
worshiped the Sun, 480.
_Champlain period_, the, 28.
_Chandragupta_, a dangerous child, 171.
_Chastity_, among Mexican priests, 404.
_Charlemagne_, the Messiah of medieval Teutondom, 239.
_Cherokees_, the, had a priest and law-giver called Wasi, 130.
_Cherubim_, the, of Genesis, a dragon, 14.
_Child_, the dangerous, 165.
_Chiliasm_, the thousand years when Satan is bound, 242.
_Chimalman_, the Mexican virgin, 334.
_Chinese_, the, have their Age of Virtue, 14;
have a legend of a deluge, 25;
worship a Virgin-born God, 119;
worship a "Queen of Heaven," 327;
worship a Trinity, 371;
have "Festivals of gratitude to Tien," 392;
have monasteries for priests, friars and nuns, 401;
identified with the American race, 539.
_Cholula_, the tower of, 36.
_Chrēst_, the, 568.
_Christ_ (Buddha), compared with Jesus, 289.
_Christ_ (Crishna), compared with Jesus, 278.
_Christ_ (Jesus), born of a Virgin, 111;
a star heralds his birth, 140;
is visited by shepherds and wise men, 150;
is born in a cave, 154;
is of royal descent, 160;
is tempted by the devil, 175;
fasts for forty days, 175;
is put to death, 181;
no early representations of, on the cross, 201;
descends into hell, 211;
rises from the dead, 215;
ascends into heaven, 215;
will come again, 233;
will be judge of the dead, 245;
as creator, 246;
performs miracles, 252;
compared with Crishna, 278;
compared with Buddha, 289;
his birth-day not known, 359;
a personification of the Sun, 498;
not identical with the historical Jesus, 506.
_Christian_, the name, originated by Heathens, 567, _note_ 3.
_Christianity_, identical with Paganism, 384;
why it prospered, 419.
_Christians_, the disciples first called, at Antioch, 567;
the worshipers of Serapis called, 568;
heathen moralists called by the name of, 568.
_Christian Symbols_, of Pagan origin, 339.
_Christening_, a Pagan rite, 320.
_Circumcision_, the universal practice of, 85.
_Claudius_, Roman Emperor, 126;
considered divine, 126.
_Cobra_, the, or hooded snake, held sacred in India, 199.
_Codom_, the Siamese Virgin-born Saviour, 118.
The legend of, contained in the Pali books, 316 B. C., 451.
_Comets_, superstitions concerning, 144, 210.
_Coming_, the second, of Christ Jesus, 233;
of Vishnu, 236;
of Buddha, 237;
of Bacchus, 238;
of Arthur, 238;
of Charlemagne, 239;
of Quetzalcoatle, 239.
_Commandments_, the ten, of Moses, and of Buddha, 59.
_Conception_, the immaculate, of Jesus, 111;
of Crishna, 113;
of Buddha, 115;
of Codom, 118;
of Salivahana, 119;
of Fuh-he, 119;
of Fo-hi, 119;
of Xaca, 119;
of Lao-kiun, 120;
of Yu, 120;
of Hau-ki, 120;
of Confucius, 121;
of Horus, 122;
of Raam-ses, 123;
of Zoroaster, 123;
of Hercules, 124;
of Bacchus, 125;
of Perseus, 125;
of Mercury, 126;
Apollo, 126;
of Quetzalcoatle, 129.
_Confession_, the, of sins, of Pagan origin, 403.
_Confirmation_, the, of children, of Pagan origin, 319.
_Confucius_, was of supernatural origin, 121;
had seventy-two disciples, 121;
author of the "Golden Rule," 415.
_Confusion of Tongues_, the "Scripture" account of, 33;
the Armenian tradition, 35;
the Hindoo legend of, 35;
the Mexican legend of, 36.
_Constantine_ (Saint), the first Roman emperor to check free
thought, 444;
accepts the Christian faith, 444;
commits murders, 444;
baptized on his death-bed, 445;
the first Roman emperor who embraced the Christian faith, 446;
his edicts against heretics, 446;
his effigies engraved on Roman coins, 446;
conferred dignities on the Christians, 446.
_Coronis_, the mother of Æsculapius, 128;
impregnated by a god, 128.
_Creation_, the, Hebrew legend of, 1;
two different and contradictory accounts of, 5;
Bishop Colenso on, 5;
Persian legend of, 7;
Etruscan legend of, 7;
Hebrew legend of, borrowed from Chaldeans, 98.
_Creator_, the, Jesus considered, 247;
Crishna, according to the Hindoos, 247;
Lauther, according to the Chinese, 248;
Iao, according to the Chaldeans, 248;
Ormuzd, according to the Persians, 249;
Narduk, according to the Assyrians, 249;
Adonis and Prometheus believed to be, 249.
_Creed_, the Apostles', 385;
compared with the Pagan, 385;
not known before the fourth century, 385;
additions to since A. D. 600, 385.
_Crescent_, the, an emblem of the female generative principle, 328.
_Crèstos_, the, was the Logos, 487.
_Crishna_, born of the Virgin Devaki, 113;
the greatest of all the Avatars, 113;
is "Vishnu himself in human form," 113;
his birth announced in the heavens by a star, 278;
spoke to his mother shortly after birth, 279;
adored by cowherds, 279;
presented with gifts, 279;
was of royal descent, 280;
performed miracles, 281;
was crucified, 280;
descended into hell, 282;
rose from the dead, 282;
a personification of the sun, 483.
_Cross_, the, used as a religious symbol before the Christian era,
338;
adored in India, 340;
adored by the Buddhists of Thibet, 340;
found on Egyptian monuments, 342;
found under the temple of Serapis, 342;
universally adored before the Christian era, 339-347.
_Crucifixes_, the earliest Christian, described, 203-205.
_Crucifixion_, the, of Jesus, 180;
of "Saviours" before the Christian era, 181-193;
of all the gods, explained, 484, 485.
_Crux Ansata_, the, of Egypt, 341.
_Cuneiform Inscriptions_, the, of Babylonians, relate the legends
of creation and fall of man, 9, 98.
_Cybele_, the goddess, called "Mother of God," 333.
_Cyril, St._, caused the death of Hypatia, 440.
_Cyrus_, king of Persia, 127;
considered divine, 127;
called the "Christ," 127, 196;
believed to be the Messiah, 433;
sun myth added to the history of, 506.
D.
_Dag_, a, Hercules swallowed up by, 78.
_Dagon_, a fish-god of the Philistines, 82;
identical with the Indian fish Avatar of Vishnu, 82.
_Danae_, a "Virgin Mother," 124.
_Dangerous_ Child, the, myth of, 165.
_Daphne_, a personification of the morning, 469.
_Darkness_, at crucifixion of Jesus, 206;
parallels to, 206-210;
the, explained, 494.
_David_, killed Goliath, 90;
compared with Thor, 91.
_Dawn_, the, personified, and called Aditi, the "Mother of the
Gods," 475.
_Day_, the, swallowed up by night, 79.
_December_ 25th, birth-day of the gods, 359.
_Delphi_, Apollo's tomb at, 510.
_Deluge_, the, Hebrew legend of, 19;
parallels to, 20-30.
_Demi-gods_, the, of antiquity not real personages, 467.
_Demons_, cast out, by Jews and Gentiles, 269.
_Denis, St._, is Dionysus, 399.
_Deo Soli_, pictures of the Virgin inscribed with the words, 338.
_Derceto_, the goddess, represented as a mermaid, 83.
_Deucalion_, the legend of, 26;
derived from Chaldean sources, 101.
_Devaki_, a virgin mother, 326.
_Devil_, the, counterfeits the religion of Christ, 124;
formerly a name of the Supreme Being, 391.
_Diana_, called "Mother," yet famed for her virginity, 333.
_Dionysus_, a name of Bacchus, 51.
_Divine incarnation_, the idea of redemption by a, was general and
popular among the Heathen, 183.
_Divine incarnations_, common before the time of Jesus, 112.
_Divine Love_, crucified, 484;
the sun, 487.
_Divus_, the title of, given to Roman emperors, 125.
_Docetes_, Asiatic Christians who invented the phantastic system, 136.
_Dove_, the, a symbol of the Holy Ghost among all nations of
antiquity, 357;
the, crucified, 485.
_Dragon_, a, protected the garden of the Hesperides, 11;
the cherub of Genesis, 14.
_Drama_ of Life, the, 29.
_Druids_, the, of Gaul, worshiped the Virgo-Paritura as the Mother
of God, 333.
_Durga_, a fish deity among the Hindoos, 82.
_Dyaus_, the Heavenly Father, 478;
a personification of the sky, 478.
E.
_East_, turning to in worship, practiced by Christians, 503.
_Easter_, origin of, 226;
observed in China, 227;
controversies about, 227;
dyed eggs on, of Pagan origin, 228;
the primitive was celebrated on March 25th, 335.
_Eating_, the forbidden fruit, the story of, figurative, 101.
_Ebionites_, the first Christians called, 134.
_Ecclesiastics_, the Essenes called, 424.
_Eclectics_, the Essenes called, 424.
_Eclipse_, an, of the Sun, occurred at the death of Jesus, 206;
of Romulus, 207;
of Julius Cæsar, 207;
of Æsculapius, 208;
of Hercules, 208;
of Quirinius, 208.
_Edda_, the, of the Scandinavians speaks of the "Golden" Age, 15;
describes the deluge, 27.
_Egypt_, legend of the Deluge not known in, 23;
the Exodus from, 48;
circumcision practiced in, 85;
virgin-born gods worshiped in, 122;
kings of considered gods, 123;
Virgin Mother worshiped in, 329, 330;
the cross adored in, 341.
_Egyptian faith_, hardly an idea in the Christian system which has
not its analogy in the, 414.
_Egyptian kings_ considered gods, 123.
_Egyptians_, the, had a legend of the "Tree of Life," 12;
received their laws direct from God, 60;
practiced circumcision at an early period, 85;
were great astrologers, 142;
were familiar with the war in heaven, 387.
_El_, the Phenician deity, 484;
called the "Saviour," 484.
_Elephant_, the, a symbol of power and wisdom, 117;
cut on the fire tower at Brechin, in Scotland, 198;
in America, 537.
_Eleusinian_, the, Mysteries, 310.
_Eleusis_, the ceremonies at, 310.
_Elijah_ ascends to heaven, 90;
its parallel, 90.
_Elohistic_, the, narrative of the Creation and Deluge differs from
the Jehovistic, 93.
_Elysium_, the, of the Greeks, 11;
meaning of, 101.
_Emperors_, the, of Rome considered divine, 126.
_Eocene period_, the, 29.
_Eostre_, or _Oster_, the Saxon Goddess, 226, 227.
_Epimetheus_, the first man, brother of Prometheus, 10.
_Equinox_, at the Spring, most nations set apart a day to implore
the blessings of their gods, 492.
_Esdras_, the apocryphal book of, 95.
_Essenes_, the, and the Therapeutæ the same, 419;
the origin of not known, 419;
compared with the primitive Christians, 420;
their principal rites connected with the East, 423;
the "Scriptures" of, 443.
_Etruscan_, baptism, 320;
Goddess, 330.
_Etruscans_, the, had a legend of creation similar to Hebrew, 75;
performed the rite of baptism, 320;
worshiped a "Virgin Mother," 330.
_Eucharist_, the, or Lord's Supper, 305;
instituted before the Christian era, 305;
performed by various ancient nations, 305-312.
_Eudes_, the, of California, worshiped a mediating deity, 131.
_Eusebius_, speaks of the Ebionites, 134;
of Easter, 226;
of Simon Magus, 265;
of Menander the "Wonder Worker," 266;
of an "ancient custom" among the Christians, 316;
the birth of Jesus, 361;
calls the Essenes Christians, 422.
_Eve_, the first woman, 3.
_Evil_, origin of, 4.
_Exorcism_, practiced by the Jews before the time of Jesus, 268.
_Explanation_, the, of the Universal Mythos, 466.
_Ezra_, added to the Pentateuch, 94.
F.
_Faith_, salvation by, taught before the Christian era, 184.
_Fall of Man_, the, Hebrew account of, 4;
parallels to, 7-16;
hardly alluded to outside of Genesis, 99;
allegorical meaning of, 101.
_Fall of the Angels_, the, 386.
_Fasting_, for forty days, a common occurrence, 179;
at certain periods, practiced by the ancients, 177, 392.
_Father, Son and Holy Ghost_, the, of Pagan origin, 369.
_Females_, the, of the Orinoco tribes, fasted forty days before
marriage, 179.
_Festivals_, held by the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Egyptians, and
others, 392.
_Fifty_, Jesus said to have lived to the age of, 515.
_Fig-tree_, the, sacred, 13.
_Fijians_, the, practiced circumcision, 86.
_Fire_, worshiped by the Mexicans and Peruvians, 532.
_Fire Tower_, the, of Brechin, 199.
_Firmicius_ (Julius), says the Devil has his Christs, 183.
_Fish_, the, a symbol of Christ Jesus, 355;
meaning of, 504.
_Fleur de Lis_, or Lotus, a sacred plant, 329.
_Flood_, the, Hebrew legend of, 19;
parallels to, 22-27.
_Flower_, Jesus called a, 487.
_Fo-hi_, of China, born of a Virgin, 119.
_Forty_, a sacred number, 179.
_Fraud_, practiced by the early Christians, 434.
_Frey_, the deity of the Sun, 488;
killed at the time of the winter solstice, 488.
_Freyga_, the goddess, of the Scandinavians, transformed into the
Virgin Mary, 399;
a personification of the earth, 479.
_Friday_, fish day, why, 354.
_Frigga_ (see Freyga).
_Fuh-he_, Chinese sage, 119;
considered divine, 119.
_Future Life_, the doctrine of, taught by nearly all nations of
antiquity, 388.
G.
_Gabriel_, the angel, salutes the Virgin Mary, 111.
_Galaxy_, the, souls dwell in, 45.
_Galilee_, Jesus a native of, 520;
the insurgent district of the country, 520;
the Messiahs all started out from, 521.
_Galli_, the, now sung in Christian churches, was once sung by the
priests of Cybele, 333.
_Ganesa_, the Indian God of Wisdom, 117.
_Ganges_, the, a sacred river, 318.
_Garden_, the, of Eden, 2;
of the Hesperides, 11;
identical, 11;
hardly alluded to outside of Genesis, 99.
_Gaul_, the worship of the Virgo-Paritura in, 334.
_Gautama_, a name of Buddha, 297.
_Geetas_, the, antiquity of, 451.
_Genealogy_, the, of Jesus, 160;
of Crishna, 163;
of Buddha, 163;
of Rama, 163;
of Fo-hi, 163;
of Confucius, 163;
of Horus, 163;
of Hercules, 163;
of Bacchus, 164.
_Genesis_, two contradictory accounts of the Creation in, 2.
_Gentiles_, the, religion of, adopted by Christians, 384;
celebrate the birth of god Sol on December 25th, 363.
_Germans_, the ancient, worshiped a Virgin-goddess under the name
of Hertha, 334, 477.
_Germany_, the practice of baptism found in, by Boniface, 322.
_Ghost_, the Holy, impregnates the Virgin Mary, 111;
and the Virgin Maya, 117;
is one with the Father and the Son, 368;
is symbolized by the Dove among Heathen and Christian nations, 357.
_Giants_, fossil remains of animals supposed to have been those of,
19;
the Rakshasas of the Hindoos the origin of all, 19.
_Glacial period_, the, 24.
_Gnostic_, the, heresy, 135.
_Gnostics_, the, maintained that Jesus was a mere man, 135;
the Essenes the same as, 422;
their doctrine, 511.
_God_, a, believed in by nearly all nations of antiquity, 384.
_Godhead_, the, a belief in the Trinitarian nature of, before the
Christian era, 368.
_God of Israel_, the, same as the Gentiles, 87-88.
_Gods_, the, created the heaven and earth, 4, _note_ 1;
descended from heaven and were made incarnate in men, 112.
_God's first-born_, applied to Heathen Virgin-born gods, 195.
_God the Father_, the, of all nations, a personification of the
sky, 478.
_Golden Age_, the, of the past, believed in by all nations of
antiquity, 8-16.
_Goliath_, killed by David, 90.
_Good Friday_, the, "Agonie" at Rome on, same as the weeping for
Adonis, 226.
_Gospel_, the, of the Egyptians, 443.
_Gospels_, the, were not written by the persons whose names they
bear, 454;
full of interpolations and errors, 454.
_Greece_, the gods and goddesses of, personifications of natural
objects, 467.
_Greeks_, the ancient, boasted of their "Golden Age," 10;
had a tradition of the "Islands of the Blessed," and the "Garden
of the Hesperides," 11;
had records of a Deluge, 26;
considered that the births of great men were announced by
celestial signs, 207;
had the rite of baptism, 320;
worshiped the virgin mother, and child, 342;
adored the cross, 344;
celebrated the birth of their gods on December 25th, 364;
worshiped a trinity, 374.
"_Grove_," the, of the Old Testament, is the "Ashera" of the
Pagans, 47.
_Gruter_ (inscriptions of), 397.
_Gymnosophists_, the, and the Essenes, the same, 423.
H.
_Hair_, long, attributes of the sun, 71;
worn by all sun-gods, 71, 72.
_Hâu-Ki_, Chinese sage, of supernatural origin, 120.
_Heathen_, the, the religion of, same as Christian, 384.
_Heaven_, all nations believed in a, 389;
is born of the sky, 391, 559.
_Heavenly host_, the, sang praises at the birth of Jesus, 146;
parallels to, 146-149.
_Hebrew people_, the, history of, commences with the Exodus, 52-55.
_Hebrews_, the gospel of the, 455.
_Hell_, Christ Jesus descended into, 211;
Crishna descended into, 213;
Zoroaster descended into, 213;
Osiris, Horus, Adonis, Bacchus, Hercules, Mercury, all descended
into, 213;
built by priests, 391.
_Hercules_, compared with Samson, 66-72;
a personification of the Sun, 73, 485;
all nations had their, 76;
was the son of Jupiter, 124;
was exposed when an infant, 170;
was called the "Saviour," 193;
the "Only begotten," 193;
is put to death, 485;
is comforted by Iole, 493.
_Heretics_, the first, 134;
denied the crucifixion of "the Christ," 511;
denied that "the Christ" ever came in the flesh, 512.
_Heri_, means "Saviour," 112;
Crishna so called, 112.
_Hermes_, or Mercury, the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, 125;
is born in a cave, 156;
was called the "Saviour," 195;
the "Logos" and "Messenger of God," 195.
_Herod_, orders all the children in Bethlehem to be slain, 166;
the Hindoo parallel to, 166-167;
a personification of Night, 481.
_Herodotus_, speaks of Hercules, 69;
speaks of circumcision, 86;
relates a wonderful miracle, 261.
_Hesione_, rescued from the sea monster, 78.
_Hesperides_, the apples of, the tree of knowledge, 11-12.
_Hieroglyphics_, the Mexican, describe the crucifixion of
Quetzalcoatle, 199.
_Hilkiah_, claimed to have found the "Book of the Law," 94.
_Himalayas_, the, the Hindoo ark rested on, 27.
_Hindoos_, the, had no legend of the creation similar to the
Hebrew, 13;
believe Mount Meru to have been the Paradise, 13;
had a legend of the Deluge, 24;
had a legend of the "Confusion of Tongues," 35;
had their Samson or Strong Man, 73;
worshiped a virgin-born god, 113;
adored a trinity, 371;
have believed in a soul from time immemorial, 388.
_Historical_ theory, the, succeeded by the allegorical, 466.
_Histories_, the, of the gods are fabulous, 466.
_Holy Ghost_, the, impregnates the Virgin Mary, 111;
and the Virgin Maya, 117;
is one with the Father and the Son, 368;
is symbolized by the dove among Heathen nations, 357.
_Holy One_, the, of the Chinese, 190.
_Holy Trinity_, the, of the Christians, the same as that of the
Pagans, 370.
_Homa_, or Haoma, a god of the Hindoos, called the "Benefactor of
the World," 306.
_Horus_, the Egyptian Saviour, 122;
born of the Virgin Isis, 122;
is put to death, 190;
descended into hell, 213;
rose from the dead, 222;
performed miracles, 256;
raised the dead to life, 256;
is represented as an infant on the lap of his virgin mother, 327;
is born on December 25th, 363;
a personification of the sun, 476;
crucified in the heavens, 484.
_Hydaspus_, the river, divided by Bacchus, 51.
_Hypatia_, put to death by a Christian mob, 440.
I.
_Iamos_, left to die among the bushes and violets, 170;
received from Zeus the gift of prophecy, 171.
_Iao_, a name sacred in Egypt, 49;
probably the same as Jehovah, 49;
the crucified, 484.
_Ida_, the earth, 481.
_Idolatry_, practiced by the Hebrews, 107;
adopted by the Christians, 384.
_Idols_, the worship of, among Christians, 397.
_I. H. S._, formerly a monogram of the god Bacchus, and now the
monogram of Christ Jesus, 351.
_Images_, the worship of, among Christians, 397.
_Immaculate Conception_, the, of Jesus, 111;
Crishna, 113;
Buddha, 115;
Codom, 118;
Fo-hi, 119;
and others, 119-130.
_Immortality of the Soul_, the, believed in by all nations of
antiquity, 385.
_Incas_, the, of Peru, married their own sisters, 537.
_India_, a virgin-born god worshiped in, 113;
the story of Herod and the infants of Bethlehem from, 166;
the crucified god in, 186;
the Trinity in, 370;
our religion and nursery tales from, 544.
_Indians_, the, no strangers to the doctrine of original sin, 189;
they believe man to be a fallen being, 189.
_Indra_, worshiped as a crucified god in Nepaul, 187;
his festival days in August, 187;
is identical with Crishna, 484;
a personification of the sun, 484.
_Infant Baptism_, practiced by the Persians, 318;
by the Etruscans, 320;
by the Greeks and Romans, 321;
by the Scandinavians, 321;
by the New Zealanders, 322;
by the Mexicans, 322;
by the Christians, 323;
all identical, 323.
_Innocents_, the, slain at the time of birth of Jesus, 165;
at the birth of Crishna, 166;
at the birth of Abraham, 169.
_Inscriptions_, formerly in Pagan temples, and inscriptions in
Christian churches compared, 397.
_Incense_, burned before idols or images in Pagan temples, 406.
_Iona_, or Yoni, an emblem of the female generative powers, 199.
_Iönah_, or Juno, suspended in space, 486.
_Irenæus_, the fourth gospel not known until the time of, 458;
reasons given by, for there being four gospels, 458.
_Iroquois_, the, worshiped a god-man called Tarengawagan, 131.
_Isaac_, offered as a sacrifice by Abraham, 38;
parallels to, 39-41.
_Isis_, mother of Horus, 122;
a virgin mother, 327;
represented on Egyptian monuments with an infant in her arms, 327;
she is styled "Our Lady," "Queen of Heaven," "Mother of God,"
&c., 327.
_Islands of the Blessed_, 11;
meaning of, 101, 559, 560.
_Islands of the Sea_, Western countries called the, by the Hebrews,
103.
_Israel_, the religion of, same as the Heathen, 107, 108.
_Italy_, effigies of a black crucified man, in, 197;
the cross adored in, before Christian era, 345.
_Ixion_, bound on the wheel, is the crucified Sun, 484.
_Izdubar_, the Lion-killer of the Babylonians, 74;
the foundation for the Samson and the Hercules myths, 105;
the cuneiform inscriptions speak of, 105.
J.
_Jacob_, his vision of the ladder, 42;
explained, 42, 104.
_Janus_, the keys of, transferred to Peter, 399.
_Japanese_, the American race descended from the same stock as the,
538.
_Jason_, a dangerous child, 171;
brought up by Cheiron, 171;
the same name as Jesus, 196.
_Jehovah_, the name, esteemed sacred among the Egyptians, 48;
the same as Y-ha-ho, 48;
well known to the Heathens, 49.
_Jehovistic writer_, the, of the Pentateuch, 93.
_Jemshid_, devoured by a great monster, 18.
_Jerusalem_, Jews taken at the Ebionite sack of, were sold to the
Grecians, 103.
_Jesuits_, the, in China, appalled at finding, in that country, a
counterpart to the Virgin of Judea, 119.
_Jesus_, not born of a Virgin according to the Ebionites or
Nazarenes, 134;
the day, month or year of his birth not known, 359;
was an historical personage, 506;
no clearly defined traces of, in history, 517;
his person indistinct, 517;
assumed the character of "Messiah," 520;
a native of Galilee, 520;
a zealot, 522;
is put to death by the Romans, 522;
not crucified by the Jews, 524;
the martyrdom of, has been gratefully acknowledged, 527;
nothing original in the teachings of, 529.
_Jews_, the, where their history begins, 54;
driven out of Egypt, 52;
worshiped Baal and Moloch, 108;
their religion the same as other nations, 108;
did not crucify Jesus, 524.
_John_, the same name as Jonah, 83;
the gospel according to, 457;
Irenæus the author of, 458.
_John the Baptist_, his birth-day is on the day of the Summer
Solstice, 499.
_Jonah_, swallowed by a big fish, 77;
parallels to, 78, 79;
the meaning of, 79;
the Sun called, 80;
identified with Dagon and Oannes, 82, 83;
the same as John, 84;
the myth of, explained, 105.
_Jordan_, the river, considered sacred, 318.
_Josephus_, does not speak of Jesus, 564.
_Joshua_, arrests the course of the Sun, 91;
parallel to, 91.
_Jove_, the Sons of, numerous, 125;
the Supreme God, 125.
_Judea_, the Virgin of, 111;
a counterpart to, found by the first Christian missionaries in
China, 119.
_Judaism_, its doctrine and precepts, by I. M. Wise, referred to, 527.
_Judge of the Dead_, Jesus, 244;
Sons of God, 244;
Buddha, 244;
Crishna, 245;
Osiris, 245;
Aeacus, 245;
no examples of Jesus as, in early Christian art, 246.
_Julius Cæsar_ (see Cæsar).
_Juno_, the "Queen of Heaven," 333;
was represented standing on the crescent moon, 333;
considered the protectress of woman, 333;
often represented with a dove on her head, 357;
suspended in space, 486.
_Jupiter_, the Supreme God of the Pagans, 125;
a statue of, in St. Peter's, Rome, 397.
_Justin Martyr_, on the work of the Devil, 124, 265.
K.
_Kadmus_, king of Thebes, 124.
_Kaffirs_, the, practice circumcision, 86.
_Kama_, attempts the life of Crishna, 166;
is a personification of Night, 481.
_Ke-lin_, the, appeared at the birth of Confucius, 121.
_Key_, the, which unlocks the door to the mystery, 441.
_Knichahan_, the Supreme God of the Mayas of Yucatan, 130.
_Kings_, the, of Egypt considered divine, 122.
_Kronos_, the myth of, explained, 559.
_Kung-foo-tsze_ (see Confucius).
L.
_Labarum_, the, of Constantine, inscribed with the monogram of
Osiris, 350.
_Ladder_, the, of Jacob, 42;
explained, 42-47.
_Lama_, the, of Thibet, considered divine, 118;
the high priest of the Tartars, 118;
the Pope of Buddhism, 118.
_Lamb_, the, of God, a personification of the Sun, 492.
_Lamb_, the oldest representation of Christ Jesus was the figure of
a, 202, 503.
_Lamps_, feast of, 392.
_Lanthu_, born of a pure spotless Virgin, 248;
the creator of the world, 248.
_Lao-Kiun_, born of a Virgin, 120;
believed in one God, 120;
formed the Tao-tsze, or sect of reason, 120.
_Lao-tse_ (see Lao-Kiun).
_Latona_, the mother of Apollo, 125.
_Law-giver_, Moses a, 59;
Bacchus a, 59;
Zoroaster a, 59;
Minos a, 60;
Thoth a, 60;
Lycurgus a, 61;
Apollo a, 61.
_Lazarus_, raised from the grave, 273.
_Leto_, a personification of darkness, 477.
_Libations_, common among all nations of antiquity, 317.
_Library_, the, of Alexandria, 438.
_Lights_, are kept burning before images in Pagan temples, 406.
_Lily_, the, or Lotus, sacred among all Eastern nations, 529;
put into the hands of all "Virgin Mothers," 329.
_Linga_, the, and Yoni, adored by the Jews, 47;
the symbol under which the sun was worshiped, 47, 496.
_Logos_, the, an Egyptian feature, 373;
Apollo called, 373;
Marduk of the Assyrians, called, 374;
the, of Philo, 374;
the, of John, 374;
identical, 374.
_Loretto_, the Virgin of, 338;
black as an Ethiopian, 338.
_Lotus_, the, or Lily, sacred among all Eastern nations, 329.
_Luke_, the Gospel "according" to, 456.
_Lycophron_, says that Hercules was three nights in the belly of a
fish, 78.
M.
_Madonna_, the, and child, worshiped by all nations of Antiquity, 326.
_Magi_, the religion of, adopted by the Jews, 109.
_Magic_, Jesus learned, in Egypt, 272.
_Magician_, Jesus accused of being a, 273.
_Mahabharata_, the, quotations from, 415-417.
_Mahomet_, the miracles of, 269.
_Maia_, the mother of Mercury, 125;
the same name as Mary, 332.
_Man_, the Fall of, 4;
parallels to, 4-16;
the antiquity of, 29.
_Manco_ Capac, a god of the Peruvians, 130.
_Manes_, believed himself to be the "Christ," 429;
the word, has the meaning of "Comforter" or "Saviour," 429.
_Manetho_, an Egyptian priest, gives an account of the sojourn of
the Israelites in Egypt, 53.
_Manicheans_, the, transferred pure souls to the Galaxy, 45;
their doctrine of the divinity of Christ Jesus, 511.
_Manu_, quotations from, 415.
_March_ 25th, the primitive Easter solemnized on, 225, 495;
celebrated throughout the ancient world in honor of the "Mother
of God," 335;
appointed to the honor of the Christian Virgin, 335.
_Maria_, the name, same as Mary, 332.
_Mark_, the Gospel according to, 456.
_Matangi girl_, the, and Ananda, the disciple of Buddha, 294.
_Martianus Capella_, his ode to the Sun, 507.
_Martyr_ (Justin), compares Christianity with Paganism, 124.
_Mary_, the mother of Jesus, 111;
same name as Maya, Maria, &c., 332;
called the "Mother of God," 398.
_Masons' Marks_, conspicuous among Christian symbols, 358.
_Mass_, the, of Good Friday, of Pagan origin, 226.
_Mastodon_, the remains of, found in America, 19.
_Mathura_, the birth-place of Crishna, 113.
_Matthew_, the "Gospel according to," 455.
_May_, the month of, dedicated to the Heathen Virgin Mothers, 335;
is now the month of Mary, 335.
_Maya_, the same name as Mary, 332.
_Mayus_, the, of Yucatan, worship a Virgin-born god, 130.
_May-pole_, the, of moderns, is the "Ashera" of the ancients, 47;
an emblem of the male organ of generation, 47;
the Linga of the Hindoos, 47.
_Mecca_, the Mohammedans' Jerusalem, 296.
_Mediator_, the title of, applied to Virgin-born gods before the
time of Jesus, 195.
_Melchizedek_, the Kenite King of Righteousness, brought out _bread_
and _wine_ as a sign or symbol of worship, 307.
_Menander_, called the "Wonder Worker," performed miracles, 266;
believed himself to be the Christ, 429.
_Mendicants_, among the Buddhists in China, 400-403.
_Menes_, the first king of Egypt, 122;
considered divine, 122.
_Menu_, Satyavrata the Seventh, 25.
_Mercury_, the Son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, 125;
called "God's Messenger," 195.
_Meru_ (Mount), the Hindoo Paradise, out of which went four rivers,
13.
_Messiahs_, many, before the time of Jesus, 196, 519, 521, 522.
_Metempsychosis_, or transmigration of souls, 42;
the doctrine taught by all the Heathen nations of antiquity, 43;
by the Jews and Christians, 43.
_Mexicans_, the, had their semi-fish gods, 83;
practiced circumcision, 86;
compared with the inhabitants of the old world, 533.
_Mexico_, the architecture of, compared with that of the old world,
538.
_Michabou_, a god of the Algonquins, 131.
_Michael_, the angel, the story of, borrowed from Chaldean sources,
109;
fought with his angels against the dragon, 386.
_Miletus_, the crucified god of, 191.
_Millennium_, doctrine of the, 239.
_Minos_, the Lawgiver of the Cretans, 60;
receives the Laws from Zeus, 60.
_Minutius Felix_, on the crucified man, 197.
_Miracles_, the, of Jesus, 252;
of Crishna, 253;
of Buddha, 254, 255;
of Zoroaster, 256;
Bochia, 256;
Horus, 256;
Osiris, 256;
Serapis, 257;
Marduk, 257;
Bacchus, 257;
Æsculapius, 257;
Apollonius, 261;
Simon Magus, 264;
Menander, 266;
Vespasian, 268.
_Miraculous Conception_, the, of, Jesus, 111;
parallels to, 112-131.
_Mithras_, a "Mediator between God and Man," 194;
called the "Saviour," and the "Logos," 194;
is put to death, and rises again to life, 223;
a personification of the Sun, 507.
_Mohammed_ (see Mahomet).
_Molech_, the god, worshiped by the Heathen nations, and the
children of Israel, 108.
_Monad_, a, in the Egyptian Trinity, 373.
_Monasteries_, among Heathen nations, 400.
_Monasticism_, a vast and powerful institution in Buddhist
countries, 403.
_Monks_, were common among Heathen nations before the Christian
era, 400-404.
_Montanus_, believed himself an Angel-Messiah, 428.
_Months_, the twelve, compared with the Apostles, 500.
_Moon_, the, was personified among ancient nations, and called the
"Queen of Heaven," 478.
_Moral Sentiments_, the, of the New Testament, compared with those
from Heathen Bibles, 415.
_Mosaic_ history, the so-called, a myth, 17.
_Moses_, divides the Red Sea, 50;
is thrown into the Nile, 89.
_Mother_, the, of God, worshiped among the ancients, 326.
_Mother Night_, the 24th of December called, 365.
_Mother of the Gods_, the, Aditi called, 475.
_Mount Meru_, the Hindoo paradise on, 13.
_Mummy_, a cross on the breast of an Egyptian, in the British
Museum, 341.
_Muscovites_, the, worshiped a virgin and child, 333;
worshiped a Trinity, 378.
_Mylitta_, the goddess, worshiped by the Hebrews, 108.
_Myrrha_, the mother of Bacchus, 332;
same as Mary, 332.
_Myth_, a, the theology of Christendom built upon, 17.
_Mythology_, all religions founded upon, 563.
_Mythos_, the universal, 505.
N.
_Nganu_, the Africans of Lake, had a similar story to the "Confusion
of Tongues," 36.
_Nakshatias_, the, of the Indian Zodiac, are regarded as deities, 142.
_Nanda_, the foster-father of Crishna, 158.
_Nared_, a great prophet and astrologer, 143;
pointed out Crishna's stars, 143.
_Nazarenes_, the, saw in Jesus nothing more than a mere man, 135.
_Nebuchadnezzar_, repaired the tower of Babel, 85.
_Necromancer_, Jesus represented as a, 273.
_Nehush-tan_, the Sun worshiped under the name of, 491.
_Neith_, the mother of Osiris, 364;
called the "Holy Virgin," 364;
the "Mother of the Gods," and "Mother of the Sun," 476;
a personification of the dawn, 476.
_Nepaul_, the crucified God found in, 187.
_Nicaragua_, the inhabitants of, called their principal God
Thomathoyo, 130.
_Nice_, the Council of, 381;
anathematized those who say that there was a time when the Son of
God was not, 381.
_Nile_, the temples on the north bank of the river dedicated to the
kings of Egypt, 122;
a sacred river, 318.
_Nimrod_, built the tower of Babel, 34.
_Ninevah_, Jonah goes to, 81;
cylinders discovered on the site of, contained the legend of the
flood, 101.
_Niparaga_, the Supreme Creator of the Endes of California, 131.
_Nisan_, the angel, borrowed from the Chaldeans, 109.
_Noah_, the ark of, 119.
_Noel_, Christmas in French called, 365.
_Nut_, a personification of Heaven, 477.
_Nutar Nutra_, the, of the Egyptians, corresponds to the Hebrew
El-Shaddai, 49.
O.
_Oannes_, Chaldean fish-god, 82;
the same as Jonah, 83.
_Odin_, the Supreme God of the Scandinavians, 479;
a personification of the Heavens, 479.
_Œdipus_, the history of, resembles that of Samson and Hercules,
72;
tears out his eyes, 72;
is a dangerous child, 170;
cheered in his last hours by Antigone, 493;
a personification of the Sun, 493.
_Offerings_ (Votive) made to the Heathen deities, 259.
_Olympus_, the, of the Pagans, restored, 398.
_O. M._, or _A. U. M._, a sacred name among the Hindoos, 372;
an emblem of the Trinity, 352.
_Omphale_, the amours of Hercules with, 71.
_One_, the myths of the crucified gods melt into, 492.
_One God_, worshiped by the ancestors of our race, 384.
_Only Begotten Son_, common before the Christian era, 193.
_Oort, Prof._, on the sacred laws of ancient nations, 61.
_Ophites_, the, worshiped serpents as emblems of Christ, 355.
_Orders_, religious among all nations of antiquity, 400-404.
_Origen_, declared the story of creation and fall of man to be
allegorical, 100.
_Original_ Sin, the doctrine of, of great antiquity, 184;
the Indians no strangers to, 189.
_Ormuzd_, the Supreme God of the Persians, 7;
divided the work of creation into six parts, 7.
_Orontes_, the river, divided by Bacchus, 81.
_Osiris_, confined in a chest and thrown into the Nile, 90;
a Virgin-born God, 190;
suffers death, 190;
rose from the dead, 222;
the judge of the dead, 245;
performed miracles, 256;
the worship of, of great antiquity, 452;
a personification of the Sun, 484.
_Oude_, the crucified God Bal-li worshiped at, 188.
_Ovid_, describes the doctrine of Metempsychosis, 43.
P.
_Pagan Religion_, the, adopted by the Christians, 384;
was typical of Christianity, 501.
_Pan_, had a flute of seven pipes, 81.
_Pandora_, the first woman, in Grecian mythology, 10.
_Pantheon_, the, a niche always ready in, of the ancients, for a
new divinity, 123.
_Paraclete_, Simon Magus claimed to be the, 164.
_Paradise_, all nations believed in a, 389, 390.
_Parsees_, the, direct descendants of the Persians, 25;
say that man was once destroyed by a deluge, 25.
_Parnassus_, Mount, the ark of Deucalion rested on, 26.
_Parthenon_, the, at Athens, sacred to Minerva, 333.
_Passover_, the, celebrated by the Jews on the same day that the
Heathens celebrated the resurrections of their Gods, 226;
the Jews used eggs in the feast of, 228.
_Patriarchs_, the, all stories of, unhistorical, 54.
_Paul, St._, a minister of the Gospel which had been preached to
every creature under heaven, 514.
_Pentateuch_, the, never ascribed to Moses in the inscriptions of
Hebrew manuscripts, 92;
ascribed to Moses after the Babylonian captivity, 92;
origin of, 93, 96.
_Perictione_, a Virgin mother, 127.
_Perseus_, shut up in a chest, and cast into the sea, 89;
the son of Jupiter by the Virgin Danae, 124;
a temple erected to him in Athens, 124;
a dangerous child, 169.
_Persia_, pre-Christian crosses found in, 343, 344.
_Persians_, the, denominate the first man Adama, 7;
had a legend of creation corresponding with the Hebrew, 8;
had a legend of the war in heaven, 387.
_Peru_, crosses found in, 349;
worship of a Trinity found in, 378.
_Peruvians_, the, adored the cross, 349;
worshiped a Trinity, 378.
_Peter, St._, has the keys of Janus, 399.
_Phallic tree_, the, is introduced into the narrative in Genesis, 47.
_Phallic worship_, the story of Jacob setting up a pillar alludes
to, 46;
practiced by the nations of antiquity, 46, 47.
_Phallic Emblems_, in Christian churches, 358.
_Phallus_, the, a "Hermes," set up on the road-side, was the symbol
of, 46.
_Pamphylian Sea_, the, divided by Alexander, 55.
_Pharaoh_, his dreams, 88;
parallel to, 89.
_Phenician deity_, the principal, was El, 484.
_Philo_, considered the fictions of Genesis allegories, 100;
says nothing about Jesus, or the Christians, 564.
_Philosophers_, the, of ancient Greece, called Christians, 409.
_Philosophy_, the Christian religion called a, 567.
_Phœdrus_, the river, dried up by Isis, 55.
_Phœnicians_, the, offered the fairest of their children to the
gods, 41.
_Phœnix_, the, lived 600 years, 426.
_Phrygians_, the, worshiped the god Atys, 190.
_Pilate_, pillaged the temple treasury, 521;
crucified Jesus, 526.
_Pillars_ of Hercules, the, 79.
_Pious Frauds_, 231.
_Pisces_, the sign of, applied to Christ Jesus, 355-504.
_Plato_, believed to have been the son of a pure virgin, 127.
_Platonists_, the, believed in a Trinity, 375.
_Pole, or Pillar_, a, worshiped by the ancients, 46, 47.
_Polynesian Mythology_, in, a fish is emblematic of the earth, 80.
_Pontius Pilate_ (see Pilate).
_Poo-ta-la_, the name of a Buddhist monastery found in China, 401.
_Pope_, the, thrusts out his foot to be kissed as the Roman Emperors
were in the habit of doing, 400.
_Portuguese_, the, call the mountain in Ceylon, Pico d' Adama, 13.
_Porus_, the troops of, carried on their standards the figure of a
man, 198.
_Prayers_, for the dead, made by Buddhist priests, 401.
_Priests_, the Buddhist, have fasting, prayers for the dead, holy
water, rosaries of beads, the worship of relics, and a monastic
habit resembling the Franciscans, 401.
_Priestesses_, among the ancients, similar to the modern nuns, 403,
404.
_Primeval male_, the, offered himself a sacrifice for the gods, 181.
_Prithivi_, the Earth worshiped under the name of, by the Hindoos,
477.
_Prometheus_, a deity who united the divine and human nature in one
person, 124;
a crucified Saviour, 192;
an earthquake happened at the time of the death of, 207;
the story of the crucifixion of, allegorical, 484;
a title of the Sun, 484.
_Prophet_, the, of the Beatitudes, does but repeat the words of
others, 526.
_Protogenia_, mother of Aethlius, 125.
_Ptolemy_ (Soter), believed to have been of divine origin, 127.
_Puranas_, the, 451.
_Purgatory_, the doctrine of, of pre-Christian origin, 389.
_Purim_, the feast of, 44;
the book of Esther written for the purpose of describing, 44.
_Pyrrha_, the wife of Deucalion, 26;
was saved from the Deluge by entering an ark with her husband, 26.
_Pythagoras_, taught that souls dwelt in the Galaxy, 45;
had divine honors paid to him, 128;
his mother impregnated through a spectre, 128.
Q.
_Quetzalcoatle_, the Virgin-born Saviour, 129;
was tempted and fasted, 178;
was crucified, 199;
rose from the dead, 225;
will come again, 239;
is a personification of the Sun, 489.
_Queen of Heaven_, the, was worshiped by all nations of antiquity
before the Christian era, 326-336.
_Quirinius_, a name of Romulus, 126;
educated among shepherds, 208;
torn to pieces at his death, 208;
ascended into heaven, 208;
the Sun darkened at his death, 208.
R.
_Râ_, the Egyptian God, born from the side of his mother, 122.
_Raam-ses_, king of Egypt, 123;
means "Son of the Sun," 123.
_Rabbis_, the, taught the allegorical interpretation of Scripture,
100;
performed miracles, 267;
taught the mystery of the Trinity, 376.
_Rakshasas_, the, of our Aryan ancestors, the originals of all
giants, ogres or demons, 19;
are personifications of the dark clouds, 19;
fought desperate battles with Indrea, and his spirits of light, 387.
_Ram_ or _Lamb_, the, used as a symbol of Christ Jesus, 202;
a symbol of the Sun, 503, 504.
_Rama_, an incarnation of Vishnu, 143;
a star at his birth, 143;
is hailed by aged saints, 152.
_Rayme_, a Mexican festival held in the month of, answering to our
Christmas celebration, 366.
_Rays_ of glory, surround the heads of all the Gods, 505.
_Real Presence_, the, in the Eucharist, borrowed from Paganism,
305-312.
_Red Riding-Hood_, the story of, explained, 80.
_Red Sea_, the, divided by Moses, 50;
divided by Bacchus, 51.
_Religion_, the, of Paganism, compared with Christianity, 384.
_Religions_, the, of all nations, formerly a worship of the sun,
moon, stars and elements, 544.
_Resurrection_, the, of Jesus, 215;
parallels to, 216, 226.
_Rhea-Sylvia_, the Virgin mother of Romulus, 126.
_Rivers_, divided by the command of Bacchus, 51.
_Rivers_ (sacred), 318.
_Romans_, the, deified their emperors, 125.
_Rome_, the Pantheon of, dedicated to "Jove and all the Gods," and
reconsecrated to "the Mother of God and all the Saints," 396.
_Romulus_, son of the Virgin Rhea-Sylvia, 126;
called Quirinius, 126;
a dangerous child, 172;
put to death, 308;
the sun darkened at time of his death, 208.
_Rosary_, the Buddhist priests count their prayers with a, 401;
found on an ancient medal of the Phenicians, 504.
_Rose_, the, of Sharon, Jesus called, 487.
_Rosicrucians_, the, jewel of, a crucified rose, 487.
_Ruffinus_, the "Apostles' creed" first known in the days of, 385.
_Russia_, adherents of the old religion of, persecuted, 444.
S.
_Sabbath_, the, kept holy by the ancients, 392, 393.
_Sacrament_, the, of the Lord's Supper instituted many centuries
before the Christian era, 305-312.
_Sacred Books_, among heathen nations, 61.
_Sacred Heart_, the, a great mystery among the ancients, 404.
_Sacrifices_, or offerings to the Gods, at one time, almost
universal, 40, 41;
human, for atonement, was general, 182.
_Saints_, the, of the Christians, are Pagan Gods worshiped under
other names, 398, 399.
_Sais_, the "Feast of Lamps," held at, 392.
_Saktideva_, swallowed by a fish and came out unhurt, 77.
_Sakya-Muni_, a name of Buddha, 300.
_Salivahana_, the ancient inhabitants of Cape Comorin worshiped a
Virgin-born Saviour called, 118, 119.
_Salvation_, from the death of another, of great antiquity, 181;
by faith, existed among the Hindoos, 184.
_Sammael_, the proper name of Satan according to the Talmud, 386.
_Samothracian_ mysteries, in the Heaven and Earth were worshiped, 479.
_Samson_, his exploits, 62-66;
compared with Hercules, 60-70;
a solar god, 71-73.
_Satan_, the proper name of, is Sammael, 386;
a personification of storm-clouds and darkness, 482.
_Saturday_, or the seventh day, kept holy by the ancients, 393.
_Saturn_, worshiped by the ancients, 393.
_Saturnalia_, the, of the ancient Romans, 365.
_Satyavrata_, saved from the deluge in an ark, according to the
Hindoo legend, 24,25.
_Scandinavians_, the, worshiped a "Beneficent Saviour," called
Baldur, 129;
the heaven of, described, 390;
consecrated one day in the week to Odin, 393;
worshiped Frey, the deity of the Sun, 489.
_Scriptures_, the, of the Essenes, the ground work of the gospels,
443-460.
_Seb_, a personification of the Earth, 477.
_Second Coming_, the, of Jesus, 233;
of Vishnu, 236;
of Buddha, 237;
of Bacchus, 238;
of Kalewipoeg, 238;
of Arthur, 238;
of Quetzalcoatle, 239.
_Seed of the Woman_, the, bruised the head of the Serpent, according
to the mythology of all nations, 482.
_Semele_, the mother of Bacchus, 124
_Semi-ramis_, the Supreme Dove crucified, 486.
_Senators_, the Cardinals of Roman Christianity wear the robes once
worn by Romans, 400.
_Serapis_, the god, worshiped in Alexandria in Egypt, 342;
a cross found in the temple of, 342.
_Serpent_, the, seduced the first woman, 3;
in Eden, an Aryan story, 99;
an emblem of Christ Jesus, 355;
Moses set up, as an object of worship, 355;
worshiped by the Christians, 355;
symbolized the Sun, 490;
called the Word, or Divine Wisdom, 490.
_Seven_, the number, sacred among all nations of antiquity, 31.
_Seventh-day_, the, kept sacred by the ancients, 392, 393.
_Seventy-two_, Confucius had, disciples, 121.
"_Shams-on_," the Sun in Arabic, 73.
_Sharon_, the Rose of, Jesus called, 486.
_Shepherds_, the infant Jesus worshiped by, 150.
_Shoo-king_, the, a sacred book of the Chinese, 25;
speaks of the deluge, 25.
_Siamese_, the, had a virgin-born god, 118.
_Simon Magus_, believed to be a god, 129;
his picture placed among the gods in Rome, 129;
professed to be the "Word of God," the "Paraclete," or
"Comforter," 164;
performed great miracles, 125.
_Sin-Bearer_, the, Bacchus called, 193.
_Sin, Original_, the doctrine of, believed in by Heathen nations,
181, 184.
_Siva_, the third god in the Hindoo Trinity, 369;
the Hindoos held a festival in honor of, 392.
_Skylla delivers_ Nisos into the power of his enemies, 72;
a Solar Myth, 72.
_Slaughter_, the, of the innocents at the time of Jesus, 165;
parallels to, 166-172.
_Sochiquetzal_, mother of Quetzalcoatle, 129;
a Virgin Mother, 129;
called the "Queen of Heaven," 129.
_Socrates_, visited at his birth by Wise Men, and presented with
gifts, 152.
_Sol_, crucified in the heavens, 484.
_Soma_, a god of the Hindoos, 306;
gave his body and blood to man, 306.
_Sommona Codom_ (see Codom).
_Son of a Star_ (see Bar-Cochba).
_Son of God_, the Heathen worshiped a mediating deity who had the
title of, 111-129.
_Son of the Sun_, the name Raam-ses means, 123.
"_Sons of Heaven_," the virgin-born men of China called, 122.
_Song_, the, of the Heavenly Host, 147;
parallels to, 148-150.
_Soul_, the, immortality of, believed in by nations of antiquity, 385.
_Sosiosh_, the virgin-born Messiah, 146;
yet to come, 146.
_Space_, crucifixion in, 488.
_Spanish monks_, the first, who went to Mexico were surprised to
find the crucifix there, 199.
_Spirit_, the Hebrew word for, of feminine gender, 134.
_Standards_, the, of the ancient Romans, wore crosses gilt and
beautiful, 345.
_Star_, the, of Bethlehem, 140;
parallels to, 142-145.
_Staurobates_, the King by whom Semiramis was overpowered, 486.
_Stone pillars_, set up by the Hebrews were emblems of the Phallus,
46.
"_Strong Rama_," the, of the Hindoos, a counterpart of Samson, 73.
_Suddho-dana_, the dreams of, compared with Pharaoh's two dreams, 88.
_Sun_, the, nearly all the Pagan deities were personifications of,
467;
Christ Jesus said to have been born on the birth-day of, 473;
Christ Jesus a personification of, 500;
universally worshiped, 507.
_Sun-day_, a pagan holiday adopted by the Christians, 394-396.
_Sun-gods_, Samson and Hercules are, 71-73.
_Sun-myth_, the, added to the histories of Jesus of Nazareth,
Buddha, Cyrus, Alexandria and others, 506.
_Sweden_, the famous temple at Upsal in, dedicated to a triune
deity, 377.
_Symbolical_, the history of the gods, 466.
_Synoptic Gospels_, the discrepancies between the fourth and the,
numerous, 457.
T.
_Tacitus_, the allusion to Jesus in, a forgery, 566-568.
_Tables of Stone_, the, of Moses, 58;
of Bacchus, 59.
_Talmud_, the books containing Jewish tradition, 95;
in the, Jesus is called the "hanged one," 516.
_Tammuz_, the Saviour, after being put to death, rose from the
dead, 217;
worshiped in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, 222.
_Tanga-tanga_, the "Three in One, and One in Three," or the Trinity
of the ancient Peruvians, 378.
_Tao_, the "one god" supreme, worshiped by Lao-Kiun, the Chinese
sage, 120.
_Tao-tse_, the, or "Sect of Reason," formed by Lao-Kiun, 120.
_Tau_, the cross, worshiped by the Egyptians, 341.
_Temples_, all the oldest were in caves, 286.
_Temptation_, the, of Jesus, 175;
of Buddha, 176;
of Zoroaster, 177;
of Quetzalcoatle, 177;
meaning of, 482.
_Temples_, Pagan, changed into Christian churches, 396, 397.
_Ten Commandments_, the, of Moses, 59;
of Buddha, 59.
_Ten_, the, Zodiac gods of the Chaldeans, 102.
_Tenth_, the, Xisuthrus, King of the Chaldeans, 23;
Noah, patriarch, 23.
_Tezcatlipoca_, the Supreme God of the Mexicans, 60.
_Testament_, the New, written many years later than generally
supposed, 454.
_Therapeutæ_, the, and Essenes the same, 423.
_Thor_, a Scandinavian god, 75;
considered the "Defender" and "Avenger," 75;
the Hercules of the Northern nations, 76;
the Sun personified, 76;
compared with David, 90, 91;
the son of Odin, 129.
_Thoth_, the deity itself, speaks and reveals to his elect among
men the will of God, 60.
_Thibet_, the religion of, similar to Christianity, 400.
_Three_, a sacred number among all nations of antiquity, 368-378.
_Thursday_, sacred to the Scandinavian god, Thor, 32.
_Tibet_, the religion of, similar to Roman Christianity, 400.
_Tien_, the name of the Supreme Power among the Chinese, 476.
_Titans_, the, struggled against Jupiter, 388.
_Tombs_, the, of persons who never lived in the flesh were to be
seen at different places, 510.
_Tower_, the, of Babel, 33;
parallels to, 35-37;
story of, borrowed from Chaldean sources, 102;
nowhere alluded to outside of Genesis, 103.
_Transmigration of Souls_, the, represented on Egyptian sculptures,
45;
taught by all nations of antiquity, 42-45.
_Transubstantiation_, the Heathen doctrine of, became a tenet of
the Christian faith, 313, 314.
_Tree_, the, of Knowledge, 2, 3;
parallels to, 3-16;
a Phallic tree, 101;
Zoroaster hung upon the, 195.
_Trefoil_, the, a sacred plant among the Druids of Britain, 353.
_Trimurti_, the, of the Hindoos, 369;
the same as the Christian Trinity, 369, 370.
_Trinity_, the, doctrine of, the most mysterious of the Christian
church, 368;
adored by the Brahmins of India, 369;
the inhabitants of China and Japan, 371;
the Egyptians, 373;
and many other nations of antiquity, 373-378;
can be explained by allegory only, 561.
_Twelve_, the number which applies to the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, to be found in all religions of antiquity, 498.
_Twins_, the Mexican Eve the mother of, 15.
_Types_ of Christ Jesus, Crishna, Buddha, Bacchus, Hercules,
Adonis, Osiris, Horus, &c., all of them were, 408;
all the sun-gods of Paganism were, 500.
_Typhon_, the destroying principle in the Egyptian Trinity,
corresponding to the Siva of the Hindoos, 561.
U.
_Upright Emblem_, the, or the "Ashera," stood in the temple at
Jerusalem, 47.
_Uriel_, the angel, borrowed from Chaldean sources, 109.
_Ushas_, the flame-red chariot of, compared to the fiery chariot of
Elijah, 90.
_Utsthala_, the island of, 78.
V.
_Valentine, St._, formerly the Scandinavian god Vila, 399.
_Valhalla_, the Scandinavian Paradise, 390.
_Vasudeva_, a name of Crishna, 114.
_Vedas_, the, antiquity of, 450.
_Vedic Poems_, the, show the origin and growth of Greek and
Teutonic mythology, 468.
_Venus_, the Dove was sacred to the goddess, 357.
_Vernal equinox_, the, festivals held at the time of, by the
nations of antiquity, 392.
_Vespasian_, the Miracles of, 268, 269.
_Vestal Virgins_, the, were bound by a solemn vow to preserve their
chastity for a space of thirty years, 403.
_Vicar_ of God on Earth, the Grand Lama of the Tartars considered
to be the, 118.
_Vila_, the god, of the Scandinavians, changed to St. Valentine, 399.
_Virgin_, the worship of a, before the Christian era, 326.
_Virgo_, the, of the Zodiac personified as a Virgin Mother.
_Vishnu_, appeared as a fish, at the time of the Deluge, 25;
the mediating or preserving God in the Hindoo Trinity, 369.
_Votan_, of Guatemala, 130.
_Votive_ offerings, given by the Heathen to their gods, and now
practiced by the Christians, 258, 259.
_Vows of Chastity_, taken by the males and females who entered
Pagan monasteries, 402, 403.
W.
_War in Heaven_, the, believed in by the principal nations of
antiquity, 368.
_Wasi_, the priest and law-giver of the Cherokees, 130.
_Water_, purification from sin by, a Pagan ceremony, 317-323.
_Wednesday_, Woden's or Odin's day, 393.
_Welsh_, the, as late as the seventeenth century, during eclipses,
ran about beating kettles and pans, 536.
_West_, the sun-gods die in the, 493.
_Wisdom_, Ganesa the god of, 117.
_Wise Men_, worshiped the infant Jesus, 150;
worshiped the infant Crishna, 151;
worshiped the infant Buddha, 151;
and others, 151, 152.
_Wittoba_, the god, crucified, 185.
_Wodin_, or Odin, the supreme god of the Scandinavians, 393.
_Wolf_, the, an emblem of the Destroying power, 80.
_Word_, or Logos, the, of John's Gospel, of Pagan origin, 374.
_World_, the, destroy by a deluge, whenever all the planets met in
the sign of Capricorn, 103.
X.
_Xaca_, born of a Virgin, 119.
_Xelhua_, one of the seven giants rescued from the flood, 37.
_Xerxes_, the god of, is the _devil_ of to-day, 391;
the Zend-avesta older than the inscriptions of, 452.
_Xisuthrus_, the deluge happened in the days of, 22;
was the tenth King of the Chaldeans, 23;
had three sons, 23;
was translated to heaven, 90.
_X-P_, the, was formerly a monogram of the Egyptian Saviour Osiris,
but now the monogram of Christ Jesus, 350.
Y.
_Yadu_, Vishnu became incarnate in the House of, 113.
_Yao_, or Jao, a sacred name, 49.
_Yan_-hwuy, the favorite disciples of Confucius, 121.
_Yar_, the angel, borrowed from Chaldean sources, 109.
_Yen-she_, the mother of Confucius, 121.
_Y-ha-ho_, a name esteemed sacred among the Egyptians, 48;
the same as Jehovah, 48.
_Yezua_, the name Jesus is pronounced in Hebrew, 196.
_Yoni_, the, attached to the head of the crucified Crishna, 185;
symbolized nature, 496.
_Yôsêr_, the term (Creator) first brought into use by the prophets
of the Captivity, 99.
_Yu_, a virgin-born Chinese sage, 120.
_Yucatan_, the Mayas of, worshiped a virgin-born god, 130;
crosses found in, 201.
_Yule_, the old name for Christmas, 365.
_Yumna_, the river, divided by Crishna, 57.
Z.
_Zama_, the only-begotten Son of the Supreme God, according to the
Mayas of Yucatan, 130.
_Zarathustra_ (see Zoroaster).
_Zend-Avesta_, the sacred writings of the Parsees, 7;
signifies the "Living Word," 59;
older than the cuneiform inscriptions of Cyrus, 452.
_Zephyrinus_, the truth corrupted by, 135.
_Zeru-akerene_, the Supreme God of the Persians, 245.
_Zerubabel_, supposed to be the Messiah, 432.
_Zeupater_, the Dyaus-pitar of Asia, became the, of the Greeks, 477.
_Zeus_, the Supreme God of the Greeks, 477;
visited Danae in a golden shower, 481.
_Zome_, a supernatural being worshiped in Brazil, 130.
_Zoroaster_, the Law giver of the Persians, 59;
receives the "Book of the Law" from Ormuzd, 59;
the Son of Ormuzd, 123;
a dangerous child, 169;
a "Divine Messenger," 194;
the "First-born of the Eternal One," 195;
performed miracles, 256;
the religion of the Persians established by, 451.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
The abbreviations B. C. and A. D. have been spaced throughout the text
for consistency.
The anchors for footnotes [44:3] and [112:2] are missing in the original
and have been added by the Transcriber.
Footnote [288:5] reads as follows: "Williams' Hinduism, pp. 119-110."
The page references are in error, but Transcriber has left the note as
printed.
Some of the words in Footnote [560:2] are cut off in the page scan.
Unclear words have been extrapolated from context.
Footnote [564:5] is printed "John, Bishop of Constantinople, who died".
Whatever text is intended to follow is missing from the original.
Transcriber has added an ellipsis to indicate missing text.
In Chapter XXXIX., there are two consecutive sections numbered 6. They
have been left as in the original.
6. _He was born in a Cave._
6. _He was ordered to be put to death._
The following corrections have been made to the text:
Page xii, under Bell (J.): in 2 vols. London: J. Bell,
1790.[period missing in original]
Page xii, under Blavatsky (H. P.): by H. P.
Blavatsky,[original has period] in 2 vols.
Page xv, under Hardy (R. S.): A Manual of Buddhism in its
Modern Development.[period missing in original]
Page xvi, under Higgins (Godfrey): London: Longman,
Rees,[comma missing in original] Orne, Brown & Longman.
Page xviii, under Lillie (Arthur): London: Trübner[original
has Trubner] & Co.
Pave xviii, under Mary (Apoc.): The Gospel of the Birth of
Mary, attributed to St. Matthew.[original has comma]
Page xviii, under Maurice (Thomas): compared with those of
Persia, Egypt[original has Egyp-]
Page xviii, under Montfaucon (B.): Second edit.[period missing
in original] Paris: 1722.
Page xxii, under Taylor (Robert): Evidences, and Early History
of Christianity[original has Chiristianity]
Page xxii, under Taylor (Robert): Boston:[original has
semi-colon] J. P. Mendum
Page xxiii: Beausobre's[original has Beausobres'] _Histoire
Critique de Manichée et du Manicheisme_
Page xxiii: Sir John Malcolm's[original has Malcom's] _History
of Persia_
Page 3: closed up the flesh instead thereof."[closing
quotation mark missing in original]
Page 10: it was in a gentle slumber."[closing quotation mark
missing in original]
Page 11: the power of the resurrection."[closing quotation
mark missing in original]
Page 23: in his "Ancient Fragments," the[original has "The]
history
Page 32: Agni, the[original has the the] Hindoo god
Page 52: "[quotation mark missing in original]The whole
multitude of the people
Page 55: Chambers's Encyclopædia[original has Encylopædia]
Page 82: this founder of civilization[original has
cizilization] has a _Solar character_
Page 89: as Pharaoh's[original has Pharoah's] daughter did
with the child
Page 107: "[original has single quote]The student of Pagan
religion
Page 109: (Joel,[original has period] iii. 6)
Page 136: Xisuthrus[original has Xisthrus] (who is the
Chaldean hero)
Page 141: birth of great men[original has greatmen], such as
Abraham
Page 146: mankind by persuading[original has pursuading] them
to eat
Page 149: apocryphal Gospel called "[quotation mark missing in
original]_Protevangelion_"
Page 176: applied himself to practice asceticism[original has
ascetcism]
Page 181: folly it is to expect salvation[original has
savlation]
Page 182: temple of the Laphystian[original has Laphystan]
Jupiter
Page 245: who appear before him as the judge.[original has
extraneous quotation mark]
Page 247: _all things were created by him_."[original has
single quote]
Page 282: Jesus was pierced with a spear.[282:4][period and
footnote anchor missing in original]
Page 283: 36. "[quotation mark missing in original]And after
six days
Page 284: fix his heart and thoughts on God alone."[closing
quotation mark missing in original]
Page 287: Aristotle[original has Aristote] a picker-up of
ethics
Page 298: [original has extraneous quotation mark]Well
authenticated records establish
Page 299: "[quotation mark missing in original]When the time
came
Page 300: Gautama Buddha taught that all men are
brothers;[semi-colon missing in original]
Page 301: before the practice of shaving the head[original has
dead]
Page 302: "[quotation mark missing in original]_We know_ that
the _Fo-pen-hing_ was translated
Page 302: "[quotation mark missing in original]These Gâthas
were evidently composed
Page 302: "[quotation mark missing in original]It would be a
natural inference
Page 303: around the idea of a _Chakravarti_[original has
Chakrawarti]
Page 308: "[quotation mark missing in original]For you either
know, or can know
Page 312: the flesh and bones of _Vitziliputzli_[original has
Vitzilipuzlti]
Page 313: It suggests itself to our mind that[original has
that that] this style
Page 321: he saw some one undergoing baptism by
aspersion.[original has extraneous colon]
Page 322: blessing from the _Saviour_ Quetzalcoatle[original
has Quetzacoatle]
Page 330: worshiped a Virgin Mother and Son,[original has
period] who was represented
Page 334: title of "Queen of Heaven."[closing quotation mark
missing in original]
Page 340: It is placed by Müller[original has Muller]
Page 342: it is the hieroglyph[original has hierogylph] of
goodness
Page 343: also the symbol[original has symobl] of the
Babylonian god Bal
Page 351: I. E. E. S.[period missing in original], was a
monogram of Bacchus
Page 393: no work should be undertaken."[quotation mark
missing in original]
Page 399: Thames River god officiates[original has officates]
at the baptism
Page 405: Cardinal Baronius[original has Baronias]
Page 405: emblems of either the Linga[original has Lingha] or
Yoni
Page 407: "[quotation mark missing in original]To the
emperor,--a mere worldling
Page 416: unruly evil, full of deadly poison."[quotation mark
missing in original]
Page 443: Whose judgment stronger grows, acts always
right."[closing quotation mark missing in original]
Page 447: crowds which usually[original has unsually] fill the
apartments
Page 449: doubt was that SOPATER the philosopher[original has
philospher]
Page 459: for there[original has their] being _four_ Gospels
Page 460: may be found to-day[original has to day] in our
canonical New Testament
Page 464: concerning the genuineness[original has genuiness]
of writings
Page 467: the light approaches.'[single quote missing in
original]"
Page 479: birth of the god _Sol_, the beneficent[original has
benificent] Saviour
Page 487: _crucified in the heavens for the salvation of
man_."[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 507: Thus under a varied appellation[original has
appelation]
Page 510: Did not Damus[original has Damis], the beloved
disciple of Apollonius
Page 512: "[quotation mark missing in original]For many
deceivers are entered
Page 535: [original has extraneous quotation mark]In the
mythology of Finns
Page 538: the Hiong-nu, and the Japanese?"[quotation mark
missing in original]
Page 540: "[quotation mark missing in original]The Tunguse,
Mongolians, and a great part
Page 540: "[quotation mark missing in original]It is very
certain that thousands
Page 552: Max Müller, the[original has The] Rev. George W. Cox
Page 557: most widely known[original has extraneous comma]
characters
Page 559: Hephæstos[original has Hesphæstos] as the young, not
yet risen _Sun_
Page 564: our Christian ancestors before _Eusebius_[original
has Esuebius]
Page 569: Æolus[original has Æolis]
Page 570, under Ascension: of Zoroaster, 216[comma and page
number missing in original]
Page 570, Atonement: the doctrine of,[comma missing in
original] taught before the time
Page 571, under Black God: the, crucified, 201.[original has
comma]
Page 572, under Carnutes: the, of Gaul, 198;[original has
comma] the Lamb of, 199.
Page 572, under Christ (Jesus): not identical with the
historical Jesus, 506.[period missing in original]
Page 573, under Claudius: Roman Emperor, 126;[original has
comma] considered divine, 126.
Page 573, under Conception: of Fo-hi[hyphen missing in
original], 119
Page 575, under Eclipse: of Julius Cæsar,[comma missing in
original] 207
Page 575, under Essenes: and the Therapeutæ[original has
Therapeute]
Page 575, under Females: fasted forty days before marriage,
179.[original has semi-colon]
Page 576, under Germans: under the name of Hertha,
334,[original has hyphen] 477
Page 577: Hâu-Ki[original has Han-Ki]
Page 578, under Iönah: Juno[original has Juna], suspended in
space
Page 579, under John the Baptist: the day of the
Summer[original has Sumner] Solstice
Page 579: under Judge of the Dead, Aeacus[original has Æeacus]
Page 580, under March 25th: honor of the Christian[original
has Christain] Virgin
Page 581, under Messiahs: time of Jesus, 196,[original has
semi-colon] 519
Page 582: Nebuchadnezzar[original has Nebuchadonazar]
Page 582: Nutar[original has Nuter] Nutra
Page 583, under Parthenon, the, at Athens[original has Atheas]
Page 584, under Portuguese: mountain in Ceylon, Pico[original
has Peco] d' Adama
Page 584: under Protogenia, mother of Aethlius[original has
Æthlius]
Page 584, under Râ: born from the side of his mother[original
has mothe.]
Page 584: Raam-ses[original has Raam-sees]
Page 585: Rosicrucians[original has Rosi-crucians]
Page 585, under Scandinavians, Beneficent[original has
Benificent] Saviour
Page 585, under Second Coming: of Kalewipoeg[original has
Kalewipeog]
Page 586, under Simon Magus: professed to be the "Word of
God,[original has semi-colon]" the "Paraclete," or
"Comforter," 164
Page 586, under Tacitus, the allusion to Jesus in, a forgery,
566-568.[page number references missing in original]
Page 587, under Tao-tse: formed by Lao-Kiun[original has
Lao-Kuin]
Page 588: under Yadu: Vishnu[original has Vishna] became
incarnate in the House of, 113
Page 589: _Zarathustra_[original has Zarathrustra] (see
Zoroaster).
Page 589, under Zend-Avesta, signifies the "Living
Word,[original has semi-colon]" 59
Page 589: Zerubabel[original has Zeru-babel]
Page 589, under Zeupater[original has Zeu-pater]: the
Dyaus-pitar[original has Dyans-pitar] of Asia
Footnote [23:6] Bhat, Maha and Thamaz.[original has extraneous
quotation mark]
Footnote [28:1] the Deluge of Noah and Xisuthrus[original has
Xisuthus]
Footnote [45:5] Indian Antiquities[original has Antiqities]
Footnote [45:8] See Child's Prog.[period missing in original]
Relig. Ideas
Footnote [46:4] vol.[original has extraneous comma] i. pp. 175,
276.
Footnote [70:4] See Chambers's Encyclopædia, Art.[period
missing in original] "Hercules."
Footnote [80:2] En Gallois _Jon_, le Seigneur[original has
Seignenr], Dieu, la cause prémière.
Footnote [82:7] (Rev. S. Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p.
367.)[closing parenthesis missing in original]
Footnote [92:5] vol. ii. ch. v. and vi.)[closing parenthesis
missing in original]
Footnote [98:1] by the Rev. Dr. Giles, 2[original has
extraneous period] vols.
Footnote [98:1] "The Bible for Learners" (vols. i. and ii.),
by Prof. Oort[original has Oot]
Footnote [101:2] See Westropp[original has Westopp] & Wakes,
"Phallic Worship."
Footnote [119:1] See Asiatic[original has Asiastic] Res., vol.
x.
Footnote [134:3] to which[original has Which] the reader is
referred.
Footnote [167:2] Anacalypsis, vol. i. 130, 13-,[dash represents
a digit missing in original--original also has period instead
of comma]
Footnote [177:2] Chambers's Encyclo.[original has Enclyclo.]
art. "Zoroaster."
Footnote [183:2] redeeming love, _pays it all_."[original has
single quote]
Footnote [192:3] See Æschylus' "Prometheus Chained.[original
has comma]"
Footnote [195:2] Malcolm[original has Malcom]: Hist. Persia,
vol. i.
Footnote [199:3] Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship.)[closing
parenthesis missing in original]
Footnote [229:1] receive the reward (_of heaven_)."[quotation
mark missing in original]
Footnote [249:1] "[quotation mark missing in original]In the
beginning was the WORD
Footnote [251:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas,[original has period] ii.
p. 267.
Footnote [271:2] Contra Celsus[original has Celus], bk. 1, ch.
lxviii.[period missing in original]
Footnote [281:11] Matt. xxvi. 6-7[hyphen missing in original].
Footnote [283:13] the second member of the Tri-mūrti[original
has Tri-mūtri]
Footnote [284:17] Quoted from Williams' Hinduism,[comma missing
in original] pp. 217-219.
Footnote [293:2] See Bunsen's[original has Bünsen's]
Angel-Messiah
Footnote [308:5] "[quotation mark missing in original]De
Tinctione, de oblatione panis
Footnote [319:5] (Aug.[original has comma] Temp. Ser. ci.)
Footnote [319:7] stipatum me religiosa cohorte,[original has
period] deducit ad proximas balucas
Footnote [321:4] De-là-vint[original has De-la-vint]
de l'Ilissus[original has l'ilissus] le candidat
et l'eau de la[original has lar] mer
le couronnoit[original has couronoit] de fleurs
le plongeoit[original has pongeoit] dans le fleuve
[original has fleure]
Footnote [328:4] pp. 47, 48,[comma missing in original] and
Higgins' Anacalypsis
Footnote [332:6] Fergusson's[original has Ferguson's] Tree and
Serpent Worship
Footnote [332:9] Stuckley: Pal. Sac. No. 1,[comma missing in
original] p. 34
Footnote [338:2] In Montfaucon[original has Montefaucon], vol.
i. plate xcv.
Footnote [342:4] See Colenso's Pentateuch Examined,[comma
missing in original] vol.
Footnote [349:9] See Basnage[original has Basuage] (lib. iii.
c. xxxiii.)
Footnote [362:5] (Encyclopædia Brit., art.
"Christmas.")[closing parenthesis missing in original]
Footnote [373:3] I. John, v. 7. John,[comma missing in
original] i. 1.
Footnote [376:4] Monumental Christianity, p. 65,[original has
period] and Ancient
Footnote [392:2] See Prog.[period missing in original] Relig.
Ideas, vol. i. p. 216.
Footnote [393:1] (Dunlap's Spirit Hist., pp. 35, 36.)[closing
parenthesis missing in original]
Footnote [410:3] (Mosheim, vol. i. cent. 2, p. 202.)[closing
parenthesis missing in original]
Footnote [419:1] (Smith's Bible Dictionary, art.
"_Alexandria_.")[closing parenthesis missing in original]
Footnote [420:4] John, xii.[original has comma] 6; xiii. 29.
Footnote [423:4] indolent fraternities' of India."[original has
single quote]
Footnote [425:1] (Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch.
xvii.)[closing parenthesis missing in original]
Footnote [435:2] non-seulement[original has non-sulement] ne
disent pas ce qu'ils pensent
mais disent[original has desent] tout le contraire
sachent bien[original has bein] que ce sont des
fables
ont fait brûler[original has bruler] de saints
personnages
que ce n'est[original has cen'est]
morceau de pain."[original has single quote]
Footnote [435:6] Giles' Hebrew and Christian Records,[comma
missing in original] vol. ii.
Footnote [478:1] (Goldzhier, pp. 158[original has 158, 158].
Knight, pp. 99, 100.)
Footnote [483:3] whole aggregate of existences."[quotation mark
missing in original]
Footnote [486:3] three of[original has o] the mysteries
Footnote [489:3] ([parenthesis missing in original]Quoted by
Wake: Phallism, &c., p. 43.)
Footnote [505:3] over the shoulders of Bellerophon[original has
Bellerphon]
Footnote [507:2] are the celebrated I. H. S.[original has I. S.
H.]
Footnote [517:1] thinks that Josephus'[apostrophe missing in
original] silence on the subject
Footnote [529:3] in what sense does[original has dose]
Christianity
Footnote [535:3] See Fergusson's[original has Ferguson's] Tree
and Serpent Worship
Footnote [546:2] Williams'[apostrophe missing in original]
Hinduism
Footnote [547:2] P.[original has p.] 118.
Footnote [562:4] Book iv.[period missing in original] ch. i. in
Anac.
Footnote [562:5] P.[original has p.] 6.
Footnote [563:1] Müller's[original has Mûller's] Chips, vol.
ii. p. 260.
Footnote [566:1] writers of antiquity, on account[original has
acount] of
Either a period has been added or a comma has been changed to
a period after the word "Ibid" in the following footnotes:
[36:9], [73:7], [74:8], [91:6], [91:10], [94:2], [94:3],
[94:6], [96:6], [99:1], [170:5], and [193:11].
Either a period has been added or a comma has been changed to
a period after the word "vol" in the following footnotes:
[145:1], [215:6], [403:10], [435:6], [469:1], and [505:3].
Either a period has been added or a comma has been changed to
a period after "p" or "pp" in the following footnotes: [12:1],
[145:1], and [478:1].
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions - Being a Comparison of the Old and New Testament Myths and - Miracles with those of the Heathen Nations of Antiquity - Considering also their Origin and Meaning" ***
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