moon and stars were living entities possessed of souls was generally
held by the Jews at the beginning of our era."
The same belief was entertained by the Christian Fathers. Origen
says: "As the stars move with so much order and method that under
no circumstances whatever do their course seem to be disturbed,
is it not the extreme of absurdity to suppose that so much order,
so much observance of discipline and method could be demanded from
or fulfilled by irrational beings?"
Out of astral worship grew the so-called science of astrology. Of this
"Chambers's Encyclopedia" says: "Astrology is one of the most ancient
forms of superstition, and is found prevailing among the nations of
the East at the very dawn of history. The Jews became much addicted
to it after the Captivity."
One of the so-called Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament reads:
"There shall come a star out of Jacob" (Num. xxiv, 17). "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 Jerusalem, saying, Where is he
that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east,
... and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them,
till it came and stood over where the young child was" (Matt. ii, 1,
2, 9). This marvelous event at the advent of the Christian Messiah
was a complete "fulfillment" of what had been predicted centuries
before concerning the appearance of the expected Persian Messiah,
the original of the expected Messiah of the Jews.
Graves says that the language of Matthew clearly betrays the
astrological origin of his story: "The practice of calculating
nativities by the stars was in vogue in the era and country of
Christ's birth, and had been for a long time previously in various
countries. 'We have seen his star in the east, and have come to
worship him.' Now mark, here, it was not the star, nor a star, but
'his star'; thus disclosing its unmistakable astrological features"
(Sixteen Crucified Saviors, p. 53).
After referring to the prevalency of astrology at the beginning of,
and anterior to, the Christian era, Strauss says: "When such ideas
were afloat, it was easy to imagine that the birth of the Messiah
must be announced by a star, especially as, according to the common
interpretation of Balaam's prophecy, a star was there made the symbol
of the Messiah. It is certain that the Jewish mind effected this
combination; for it is a rabbinical idea that at the time of the
Messiah's birth a star will appear in the east and remain for a long
time visible.... In the time of Jesus it was the general belief that
stars were always the forerunners of great events."
Jesus in the Apocalypse declares himself to be "the bright and
morning star" (xxii, 16). He "had in his right hand seven stars"
(i, 16). "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches"
(20). His second coming will be heralded by "signs in the sun, and
in the moon, and in the stars" (Luke xxi, 25).
The star of the Magi which pointed so unerringly to the cradle of
Christ points not less unerringly to one of the sources from which
Christ came.
4. Worship of the Elements and Forces of Nature.
The elements and forces of nature, Volney believes, inspired the
first ideas of God and religion:
"Man, reflecting on his condition, began to perceive that he was
subjected to forces superior to his own, and independent of his
will. The sun enlightened and warmed him, fire burned him, thunder
terrified him; the wind beat upon him, and water drowned him."
"Considering the action of the elements on him, he conceived the idea
of weakness and subjection on his part, and of power and domination
on theirs; and this idea of power was the primitive and fundamental
type of every idea of the Divinity."
"The action of these natural existences excited in him sensations of
pleasure and pain, of good or evil; and by a natural effect of his
organization he conceived for them love or aversion; he desired or
dreaded their presence; and fear or hope gave rise to the first idea
of religion."
From this elemental worship Indra, Agni, Zeus, Odin, Jehovah and other
gods were evolved. Jehovah was originally a god of the atmosphere. He
manifested himself in the tempest; he unchained the waves of the sea;
the wind was his breath; the thunder was his voice, the lightning his
messenger. He filled the air with frost; he precipitated the hail;
he blanketed the earth with snow; he deluged the land with rain;
he congealed the water of the stream, and parched the verdure of
the field.
Fire worship overspread Asia, and Jehovah, like Moloch, became a
god of fire. "There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire
out of his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it" (2 Sam. xxii,
9). He appeared to Abram as "a smoking furnace and a burning lamp"
(Gen. xv, 17). He revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. "The
bush burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed" (Ex. iii,
2). When David called to him "he answered him from heaven by fire"
(1 Ch. xxi, 26). To the fleeing Israelites he was a "pillar of fire"
(Ex. xiv, 24). "The Lord descended upon" Sinai "in fire" (xix,
18). When he appeared upon Horeb "the mountain burned with fire
unto the midst of heaven" (Deut. iv, 11), "and the Lord spake out
of the midst of the fire" (12). "The cloud of the Lord was upon the
tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night" (Ex. xl, 38). On the
Jewish altar for centuries the sacred fire was kept burning. When
Aaron, Gideon, Solomon and Elijah made offerings to Jehovah "there
came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed" the offerings
(Lev. ix, 24; Jud. vi, 21; 2 Ch. vii, 1; 1 K. xviii, 38). Elijah was
translated in "a chariot of fire" (2 K. ii, 11). Elisha was surrounded
by "horses and chariots of fire" (vi, 17). With fire he consumed his
enemies. "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire"
(Gen. xix, 24). When Nadab and Abihu "offered strange fire before
the Lord" (Lev. x, 1), "there went out fire from before the Lord and
devoured them" (2). When the Israelites displeased him at Taberah,
"the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them" (Num. xi,
1). When the hosts of Satan encompassed the Christian saints, "fire
came down from God out of heaven and devoured them" (Rev. xx, 9).
"It is now a matter of demonstration," says M. Soury, "that at the
time of the Exodus from Egypt, in the desert, and even in the time
of Judges, light and fire were not to the Israelites mere symbols of
the deity, but were the deity himself."
Christ inherited the fiery nature of his Father. He baptized his
disciples with fire. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost,
and with fire" (Matt. iii, 11). "And there appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them" (Acts ii, 3). He
consigned his enemies to everlasting punishment in the unquenchable
fires of hell. "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they
shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which
do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire" (Matt. xiii,
41, 42). "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire" (xxv,
41). "To be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire"
(Mark ix, 47-49). His disciples were imbued with the same spirit and
belief. "And they (the Samaritans) did not receive him.... And when
his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that
we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Luke ix,
53, 54.)
Some vestiges of ancient fire worship have been transmitted to
our time. John Newton says: "A sacred fire, at first miraculously
kindled, and subsequently kept up by the sedulous care of priests
and priestesses, formed an important part of the religion of Judea,
Babylonia, Persia. Greece and Rome, and the superstition lingers
amongst us still. So late as the advent of the Reformation, a sacred
fire was kept ever burning on a shrine at Kildare, in Ireland,
and attended by virgins of high rank, called 'inghean au dagha,' or
daughters of fire. Every year is the ceremony repeated at Jerusalem
of the miraculous kindling of the Holy Fire at the reputed sepulchre,
and men and women crowd to light tapers at the sacred flame" (The
Assyrian Grove).
5. Worship of Animals and Plants.
In the infancy of the world animals were deified and adored, and
trees and plants were regarded as sentient beings and received the
homage of man.
Nearly every animal has been an object of worship. This worship
flourished for ages in Egypt and India. In Egypt the worship of the
bull (Apis) was associated with that of Osiris (Serapis). The cow is
still worshiped in India. Serpent worship has existed in every part
of the world.
Remnants of animal worship survived in Judaism and Christianity. Satan
was a serpent; Jehovah, like Osiris, was worshiped as a bull; Christ
was the lamb of God, and the Holy Ghost appeared in the form of a dove.
Closely allied to this worship, and to some extent a part of it, is
the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. Some of the Jews believed
in this. So did many of the early Christians, including Origen.
The leek, the lotus, and other plants were held as sacred or
divine. The rose was the divine flower of Greece. Its petals had been
dyed with the blood of her favorite goddess. In many nations the lily
was the sacred emblem of virginity. Christians still attach a sort
of sacredness to it.
"The groves were God's first temples," says Bryant. The groves, too,
were among man's first gods. Volumes have been written on the ancient
worship of trees. Not only the Druids of Britain, but the Greeks,
and the Semitic races of Asia were worshipers of trees. The giant
oaks and the symmetrical evergreens were gods. The rustling of the
aspen and the moaning of the pines were the audible whisperings of
Divinity which the prophets interpreted.
"The worship of trees," says Soury, "only disappeared in Syria at a
very late date.... The largest and tallest trees, and the evergreen
ones, were adored as gods. A great many Semitic myths were connected
with the vegetable world. Thus the pomegranate, famous for the richness
of its fruit, was sacred to Adonis and Aphrodite. The almond, which,
while nature seems inanimate, comes forth first from winter's sleep,
the amygdalis, the 'great mother,' gave birth to a crowd of Semitic
legends" (Religion of Israel, pp. 66, 67).
The tree, like the serpent, was an emblem of immortality. The Garden
of Eden had its Tree of Life. Newton says: "'I am come that they
might have Life, and that they might have it abundantly' (John x,
10). Life is the reward which has been promised under every system,
including that of the founder of Christianity. A Tree of Life stood in
the midst of that Paradise which is described in the book of Genesis;
... and in a second Paradise, which is promised to the blessed by the
author of the book of Revelation, a tree of life shall stand once more
'for the healing of the nations.'"
There still exist in Palestine venerable trees which receive not merely
the reverence, but the worship of Mussulmans and Christians. Some of
these trees they believe possess divine curative powers. Travelers
have observed them covered with strips of cloth or strings, which are
tied to the twigs. This is done to induce the spirit of the tree to
heal or drive away disease.
Sex worship, as we have seen, bequeathed some of its doctrines and
rites to nearly every religion that has existed since its time. It
became associated with tree worship. The Bible abounds with "sacred
groves." In Palestine hundreds of them were consecrated to Aschera,
the favorite goddess of the ancient Jews. These groves were devoted
to sacred prostitution. In some of them the worship of Baal and
Aschera were combined; in others that of Jehovah and Aschera. "These
sanctuaries of Aschera," says M. Soury, "were charming spots, shady
groves of green trees, often watered by running streams, mysterious
retreats where all was silence save the cooing of the doves sacred
to the goddess. The symbol of Aschera, a simple pillar, or the trunk
of a tree, perhaps with its leaves and branches, was the emblem of
generative power." The spots once occupied by these groves are still
deemed holy ground. Many of them are marked by Mohammedan mosques
and Christian chapels.
The sacred groves of Palestine where devout and voluptuous Jews mingled
the worship of Jehovah and Aschera live, too, in the Protestant camp
meetings of our western world, where, in shady bowers, Christians
worship fervently at the altar of Christ, and then, not infrequently,
meet clandestinely and pay their vows to Aschera.
The palm tree, and where the palm did not grow, the pine, both symbols
of the phallus, were worshiped. Newton says: "Palm-branches have
been used in all ages as emblems of life, peace, and victory. They
were strewn before Christ. Palm-Sunday, the feast of palms, is still
kept. Even within the present [19th] century, on this festival, in
many towns of France, women and children carried in procession at
the end of their palm-branches a phallus made of bread, which they
called, undisguisedly, 'la pine,' whence the festival was called
'La Fete des Pinnes.' The 'pine' having been blest by the priest, the
women carefully preserved it during the following year as an amulet"
(The Assyrian Grove).
6. Fetichism.
Closely related to the foregoing worship is fetichism, the worship
of idols and images. This is popularly supposed to be the religion
only of savages and barbarians; but it also prevails to some extent
among people who are considered civilized and enlightened.
While it was opposed by some of the kings, priests, and prophets,
idolatry flourished among the Jews from the earliest ages down
almost to the Christian era. Abraham's father, Terah, was an idolater
(Josh. xxv, 2). Jacob's wives were daughters of an idolater. Rachel
stole and hid her father's images (Gen. xxxi, 30-34). Jacob's family
were, for a time at least, idolaters. "Then Jacob said unto his
household, and all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that
are among you.... And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods that
were in their hands, ... and Jacob hid them under the oak which was
by Shechem" (Gen. xxxv, 2-4). The kingdoms of Israel and Judah were
steeped in idolatry. Israel "set them up images" and "served idols"
(2 Kings xvii, 10, 11), and "did offer sweet savor to their idols"
(Ezek. vi, 13). Judah was "full of idols" (Is. ii, 8).
The fetichism of Christ's ancestors reappeared in the image worship
of his devotees. The Christians of the middle ages, Dr. Draper says,
"were immersed in fetichism." "The worship of images, of fragments of
the cross, or bones, nails and other relics, a true fetich worship,
was cultivated" (Conflict, p. 49). "A chip of the true cross, some
iron filings from the chain of St. Peter, a tooth or bone of a martyr,
were held in adoration; the world was full of the stupendous miracles
which these relics had performed. But especially were painted or
graven images of holy personages supposed to be endowed with such
powers. They had become objects of actual worship" (Intellectual
Development of Europe, vol. i, p. 414).
Concerning the fetichism of the church, "Chambers's Encyclopedia"
says: "It was usual not only to keep lights and burn incense before
the images, to kiss them reverently; and to kneel down and pray before
them, but some went so far as to make the images serve as godfathers
and godmothers in baptism, and even to mingle the dust of the coloring
matter scraped from the images with the Eucharist elements in the
Holy Communion.... In many foreign churches, especially in Italy, in
southern Germany, and in France [at the present time], are to be found
images which are popularly reputed as especially sacred, and to which,
or to prayers offered before which, miraculous effects are ascribed."
Bishop Newton, of England, admits and deplores the existence of
Christian fetichism. He says: "The consecrating and bowing down to
images; the attributing of miraculous powers and virtues to idols;
the setting up of little oratories, altars and statues in the streets
and highways and on the tops of mountains; the carrying of images
and relics in pompous procession, ... all these are equally parts of
pagan and popish superstition."
Greek, Lutheran, and Anglican churches are not free from fetichism, and
even the Evangelical churches of this country make a fetich of a book.
7. Polytheism.
Polytheism, the doctrine of a plurality of gods, has prevailed in
every part of the world. The most interesting pantheons of the gods
were those of India, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The Hebrews, who were
polytheists, borrowed their gods from Assyria and Babylonia. The
pantheon of these nations comprised twelve principal gods and nearly
a thousand minor deities. The chief of these gods was El. His consort
was Elath. The Hebrews worshiped El under the name of El Shaddai and
various other names. Elohim of the Bible, translated God, denotes the
plural and included El and the minor gods who surrounded him. Yahweh,
Iahveh, Jehovah, etc., as he is variously called--for Jews and
Christians cannot spell and do not even know the name of their
principal deity--is a god of Assyro-Babylonian origin. In addition
to their national god, Jehovah, many of the Jews worshiped Baal,
Moloch, and Tammouz, male deities, and Astarte, Aschera, and Istar,
female deities.
That the writers of the Bible recognized a plurality of gods--were
polytheists--is proved by the following: "And the Lord God said,
Behold, the man is become as one of us" (Gen. iii, 22). "Who is like
unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?" (Ex. xv, 11.) "Among the gods,
there is none like unto thee, O Lord" (Ps. lxxxvi, 8). "The Lord is
a great God, and a great king above all gods" (Ps. xcv, 3). "Thou
shalt not revile the gods" (Ex. xxii, 28).
Monotheism, the doctrine of one god, is not merely the worship of
one god, but the belief in the existence of one god only. Many were
monotheistic in worship--worshiped one god, their national deity--while
at the same time they were polytheistic in belief--believed in the
existence of many gods. The Jews who worshiped Jehovah have been called
monotheists. And yet, for a thousand years, they believed in the
existence of Kemosh, Baal, Moloch, Tammouz, and other deities. They
believed that Jehovah was their national god and that they owed
allegiance to him; just as the subjects of an earthly king profess
their loyalty to him without denying the existence of other kings.
While Christians profess Monotheism they are really
polytheists--worship three gods--Father (Jehovah), Son (Christ),
and Holy Ghost; and recognize a god of Evil, Satan. To these must
also be added a female deity, the Virgin Mary, who is to the devout
Catholic as much of a divinity as Isis and Venus were to ancient
polytheists. The canonization and adoration of the saints, too,
are analogous to the worship of the inferior deities of ancient times.
After recounting what he believes to be the salutary influences exerted
by the medieval conception of the Virgin, Lecky says: "But the price,
and perhaps the necessary price, of this was the exaltation of the
Virgin as an omnipresent deity of infinite power as well as infinite
condescension. The legends represented her as performing every kind
of prodigy.... The painters depicted her invested with the divine
aureole, judging men on equal terms with her Son, or even retaining her
ascendancy over him in heaven. In the devotions of the people she was
addressed in terms identical with those employed to the Almighty. A
reverence similar in kind but less in degree was soon bestowed upon
the other saints, who speedily assumed the position of the minor
deities of Paganism" (History of Rationalism, Vol. I, pp. 226, 227).
Regarding the deification and worship of saints Hallam says:
"Every cathedral or monastery had its tutelar saint, and every
saint his legend, fabricated in order to enrich the churches under
his protection, by exaggerating his virtues, his miracles, and
consequently his power of serving those who paid liberally for his
patronage. Many of those saints were imaginary persons; sometimes a
blundered inscription added a name to the calendar; and sometimes,
it is said, a heathen god was surprised at the company to which he
was introduced, and the rites with which he was honored" (Middle Ages,
p. 603).
The church historian Mosheim admits and deplores the truth of this:
"It is, at the same time, as undoubtedly certain, as it is extravagant
and monstrous, that the worship of the martyrs was modeled, by degrees,
according to the religious services that were paid to the gods before
the coming of Christ" (Ecclesiastical History, p. 98).
Bishop Newton says: "The very same temples, the very same images,
which were once consecrated to Jupiter and the other demons [gods],
are now consecrated to the Virgin Mary and the other saints."
Milman says that at an early period "Christianity began to approach to
a polytheistic form, or at least to permit what it is difficult to call
by any other name than polytheistic, habits and feelings of devotion"
(History of Christianity, Vol. III, p. 424).
8. Monotheism.
Monotheism, as previously stated, is the doctrine of one god
only. It has gradually displaced, to a great extent, the fetichism
and polytheism of earlier times.
Comte's law of human development is as follows:
1. Theological, or fictitious,
2. Metaphysical, or abstract,
3. Scientific, or positive.
"In the Theological state, the human mind, seeking the essential
nature of things, the first and final causes (the origin and purpose)
of all effects--in short Absolute knowledge--supposes all phenomena
to be produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings.
"In the Metaphysical state, which is only a modification of the first,
the mind supposes, instead of supernatural beings, abstract forms,
veritable entities (that is, personified abstractions) inherent in
all things, and capable of producing all phenomena.
"In the final, the Positive state, the mind has given over the vain
search after Absolute notions, the origin and destination of the
universe, and the causes of phenomena, and applies itself to the study
of their laws--that is, their invariable relations of succession and
resemblance" (Positive Philosophy, pp. 26, 27).
The lowest state of human development is the theological. Here the
masses of mankind still repose. Only the scholars and thinkers have
advanced beyond this and many of these have only reached the second
or metaphysical state.
The highest point in the theological state is monotheism. To Judaism
Christians ascribe the glory of having been the first religion to
teach a pure monotheism. But monotheism existed long before the Jews
attained to it. Zoroaster and his earliest followers were monotheists,
dualism being a later development of the Persian theology. The adoption
of monotheism by the Jews, which occurred only at a very late period
in their history, was not, however, the result of a divine revelation,
or even of an intellectual superiority, for the Jews were immeasurably
inferior intellectually to the Greeks and Romans, to the Hindus and
Egyptians, and to the Assyrians and Babylonians, who are supposed to
have retained a belief in polytheism. This monotheism of the Jews was
chiefly the result of a religious intolerance never before equaled
and never since surpassed, except in the history of Christianity
and Mohammedanism, the daughters of Judaism. Jehovistic priests and
kings tolerated no rivals of their god and made death the penalty
for disloyalty to him. The Jewish nation became monotheistic for the
same reason that Spain, in the clutches of the Inquisition, became
entirely Christian.
Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples, if they existed, were
probably monotheists, believed that Jehovah was the only God,
and neither believed nor claimed that Jesus was other than the son
of man. As generations passed the man became obscured, his deeds
were magnified until at length he was accepted as the Son of God,
and a God himself. The deification of Jesus, then, together with the
apotheosis of other mortals, cannot be regarded as an evolution from
Jewish monotheism to a higher plane, but rather as a relapse from
monotheism to polytheism.
9. The Mediatorial Idea.
This idea had its origin chiefly in the worship of the elements and
forces of nature by primitive man. He believed that these elements and
forces were intelligent beings. He realized that in their presence he
was in a measure helpless. He therefore sought to win their favor and
appease their wrath. He made offerings to them; he prayed to them;
he worshiped them. But other men, more wise, more cunning, and more
fortunate, appeared to have greater influence with these deities. He
employed them to intercede for him; and thus the priesthood was
established. The priest was the first mediator.
More complex religious systems were in time evolved, and in some of
them mediatorial gods appeared. The mediatorial idea was prominent in
the Persian system. Mithra was the Persian mediator. The worship of
Mithra was carried to Rome and the Romans became acquainted with the
mediatorial idea. In an exposition of Philo's philosophy, Mrs. Evans
says: "The most exalted spirits are able to raise themselves to the
pure essence and find peace and joy which earthly conditions cannot
disturb; but weaker natures need a helper in a Being, who, coming from
above, can dwell below and lift their souls to God. The majority of
mankind, in their passage along the slippery path of life, are sure to
fall, and would perish if it were not for a mediator between themselves
and God.... The power of the Caesars, culminating in Augustus, enabled
them to claim divine honors from the people, already disposed to see
in them chosen agents of celestial sovereignty. Rome, according to
the expression of Valerius Maximus, recognized in the Caesars the
mediators between heaven and earth. And that was before Christianity
introduced its anointed mediator" (The Christ Myth, pp. 90, 92).
The God of the Jews, to quote the words of Jefferson, was "cruel,
vindictive, capricious and unjust." He had cursed his creation; he had
drowned a world; he had imposed the sentence of death--spiritual as
well as physical--upon his children. To placate this monster, to induce
him to remit this sentence, the priests were powerless. Millions of
animals, and even human beings, had been sacrificed to him in vain. At
length his "only begotten son," Jesus Christ, offered himself as
a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. The sacrifice was
accepted, and a reconciliation was effected between God and man. Thus
Christ became the great mediator of Christianity. "There is one
God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"
(1 Tim. ii, 5). "He is the mediator of the new testament" (Heb. ix,
15). From Persia and from Rome this mediatorial God has come.
10. The Messianic Idea.
The desire for a deliverer naturally arises in the minds of a people
who are in subjection and bondage. This desire was the germ of the
Messianic idea. While there are traces of this idea in the earlier
writings of the Hebrews, it reached its highest development during and
immediately following the Captivity, and again in the Maccabean age.
The Messiah of Judaism and the Messiah, or Christ, of Christianity,
were derived from the Persian theology, the adherents of each system
modifying the doctrine to suit their respective notions. In its article
on Zoroaster, "Chambers's Encyclopedia" says: "There is an important
element to be noticed, viz., the Messiah, or Sosiosh, from whom the
Jewish and Christian notions of a Messiah are held by many to have
been derived.... Even a superficial glance at this sketch will show our
readers what very close parallels between Jewish and Christian notions
on the one hand, and the Zoroastrian on the other, are to be drawn."
Christians cite numerous passages from the writings of the Old
Testament which they claim foretold the advent of Jesus. Not one of
these passages, as originally penned, refers in the remotest degree
to him, though many of them do refer to the office he is said to have
filled. The Jews hoped for a deliverer, for a national leader who
would reestablish the kingdom of Israel, and restore to it the glory
of David's reign. They were loyal to the house of David and believed
that this deliverer would be a descendant, a son, of David. Pietists,
too, in the fervor of their religious enthusiasm dreamed of universal
conversion to the Jehovistic theocracy. In the writings of their
prophets and poets these hopes and dreams found expression. "I have
made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David, my servant,
thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all
generations" (Ps. xxxix, 3, 4). "And the kingdom and dominion, and the
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the
people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him" (Dan. vii, 27).
While the Messianic idea was originally a Persian idea, the materials
used in the formation of the Christian Messiah were drawn largely from
the Jewish Scriptures. There are passages in the Old Testament, as we
have seen, which predict the coming of a Messiah. These furnished a
portion of the materials out of which this Messianic deity, Christ,
was formed. There are many more which have no reference whatever to
a Messiah which have been made to serve as Messianic prophecies. The
Old Testament, as we have it, is alleged to be a Jewish work. It is,
rather, a Christian work. It is a Christian version of ancient Jewish
writings, every book of which has been more or less Christianized. Much
of it is scarcely recognizable to a Jewish scholar. This is especially
true of so-called Messianic prophecies.
The Christian Messiah was, on the one hand, modeled, to a considerable
extent, after the Jewish ideal, while the Jewish materials, on the
other hand, were freely altered to fit the new conception. Referring
to the work of the Evangelists, M. Renan says: "Sometimes they
reasoned thus: 'The Messiah ought to do such a thing; now Jesus is
the Messiah, therefore Jesus has done such a thing.' At other times,
by an inverse process, it was said: 'Such a thing has happened to
Jesus; now Jesus is the Messiah; therefore such a thing was to happen
to the Messiah.'" (Jesus, p. 27).
That the so-called Messianic prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures
were the immediate source of the Christ is apparent. That he was,
however, merely a borrowed idea and not a historical realization
of these prophecies is equally apparent. The Jews were expecting
a Messiah. Had Jesus realized these expectations they would have
accepted him. But he did not realize them. These prophecies were not
fulfilled in him. He was not a son of David; he did not deliver his
race from bondage; he did not become a king; the important events
that were to attend and follow Messiah's advent form no part even
of his alleged history. His rejection by the Jews proves him to be
either a false Messiah, or an imaginary being--a historical myth,
or a pure myth--in either case a myth.
The Jewish argument against Jesus as the Messiah is unanswerable:
"We do not find in the present comparatively imperfect stage of human
progress the realization of that blessed condition of mankind which the
prophet Isaiah associates with the era when Messiah is to appear. And
as our Hebrew Scriptures speak of one Messianic advent only, and not
of two advents; and as the inspired Book does not preach Messiah's
kingdom as a matter of faith, but distinctly identifies it with
matters of fact which are to be made evident to the senses, we cling
to the plain inference to be drawn from the text of the Bible, and we
deny that Messiah has yet appeared, and upon the following grounds:
First, because of the three distinctive facts which the inspired seer
of Judah inseparably connects with the advent of the Messiah, viz.,
(1) the cessation of war and the uninterrupted reign of peace, (2)
the prevalence of a perfect concord of opinion on all matters bearing
upon the worship of the one and only God, and (3) the ingathering of
the remnant of Judah and of the dispersed ten tribes of Israel--not one
has, up to the present time, been accomplished. Second, we dissent from
the proposition that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah announced by the
prophets, because the church which he founded, and which his successors
developed, has offered, during a succession of centuries, most singular
contrast to what is described by the Hebrew Scriptures as the immediate
consequence of Messiah's advent, and of his glorious kingdom. The
prophet Isaiah declares that when the Messiah appears, peace, love,
and union will be permanently established; and every candid man must
admit that the world has not realized the accomplishment of this
prophecy. Again, in the days of Messiah, all men, as Scripture saith,
'are to serve God with one accord'; and yet it is very certain that
since the appearance of him whom Christians believe to be Messiah,
mankind has been split into more hostile divisions on the ground of
religious belief, and more antagonistic sects have sprung up, than
in any historic age before Christianity was preached."
With orthodox Jews the belief in a Messiah is a deep rooted
conviction. For 2500 years there has been displayed in front of the
synagogue this sign: "Wanted--a Messiah." During this time many,
including Jesus, Bar-Cocheba, Moses of Candia, and Sabatai Zevi,
have applied for the place, but all applicants have been rejected,
and the Messianic predictions of the Jewish prophets are yet to be
fulfilled. So, too, are those of the Persian prophet. In the meantime
the followers of Jesus--turning from the Jews to the Gentiles--have
from this borrowed idea evolved a deity who divides with Brahma,
Buddha, and Allah, the worship of the world.
11. The Logos (Word).
The exaltation and deification of Jesus is thus described by the Dutch
theologian, Dr. Hooykaas: "When Jesus was gone, those who had known
him personally insensibly surrounded him with a glory that shone at
last with a more than human splendor. The spiritual blessings which
flowed in ever rich measure from his person and his gospel compelled
the Christians to exalt him ever more and more. The title of Son
of God, which his followers had given him as the future Messiah,
was elastic and ambiguous enough to lend itself very readily to this
process. The idea of his being the Messiah now no longer sufficed; he
was something other and something far more than the Jewish Messiah. The
philosophy and theology of the day were laid under contribution;
and nothing could so well indicate his significance for all humanity
and his unapproachable exaltation as the idea that he was the Word"
(Bible for Learners, Vol. III, pp. 670, 671).
The doctrine of the Logos, or Word, as an emanation or essence of
divine wisdom is very old. It is found in the ancient religions of
Egypt and India. It was recognized in the Persian theology, and was
incorporated into the Jewish theology by the Babylonian exiles. It
constitutes an important element in the Platonic philosophy. It
received its highest development and exposition in the writings of
the Jewish philosopher Philo, a contemporary of Jesus.
Concerning the Logos, Dean Milman, in his "History of Christianity,"
says: "This Being was more or less distinctly impersonated, according
to the more popular or more philosophic, the more material or the more
abstract, notions of the age of the people. This was the doctrine from
the Ganges, or even the shores of the Yellow Sea, to the Ilissus: it
was the fundamental principle of the Indian religion and the Indian
philosophy; it was the basis of Zoroastrianism; it was pure Platonism;
it was the Platonic Judaism of the Alexandrian school." Another
English clergyman, Mr. Lake, says: "We can trace its [the Word's]
birthplace in the philosophic speculations of the ancient world;
we can note its gradual development and growth; we can see it in its
early youth passing (through Philo and others), from Grecian philosophy
into the current of Jewish thought" (Philo, Plato, and Paul, p. 71).
The presentation of Jesus as an incarnation of the Logos belongs to
the second century and is prominent in the Fourth Gospel. The ideas
are chiefly those of Plato and Philo. Plato's trinity was Thought,
Word and Deed. The Word occupies the second place in the Platonic
trinity as it does in the Christian trinity. That the author of the
gospel of John, written more than a century after the time of Philo,
borrowed largely from that philosopher, is shown by the following
parallels drawn from their writings:
Philo.--"The Logos is the Son of God" (De Profugis).
John.--"This [the Word] is the Son of God" (i, 34).
Philo.--"The Logos is considered the same as God" (De Somniis).
John.--"The Word was God" (i, 1).
Philo.--"He [the Logos] was before all things" (De Leg. Allegor).
John.--"The same [the Word] was in the beginning with God" (i, 2).
Philo.--"The Logos is the agent by whom the world was made" (De
Leg. Allegor).
John.--"All things were made by him [the Word]" (i, 3).
Philo.--"The Logos is the light of the world" (De Somniis).
John.--"The Word was the true light" (i, 9).
Philo.--"The Logos only can see God" (De Confus. Ling.).
John.--"No man hath seen God.... He [the Word] hath declared him"
(i, 18).
12. The Perfect Man.
The New Testament contains at least five different mythical types
or conceptions of Jesus Christ: 1. The Messiah of the synoptics,
omitting the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke. 2. The Son of God,
or demi-god, introduced in these opening chapters. 3. The incarnate
Logos or God of John. 4. The Christ of Paul. 5. Eliminating these
more or less supernatural types, there remains in these writings, in
addition to the purely natural and purely human Jesus of Nazareth,
a type known as the Ideal or Perfect Alan. This type is not only
mythical, but, in the stricter sense, supernatural and superhuman;
for the perfect man must always remain an ideal rather than a real
type of man.
The last type is believed by many to represent the primal stage in
the deification of Jesus. This conception of Jesus has been held by
many Rationalistic Christians, and by some conservative Rationalists
in all ages. This, too, forms a part of the dualistic conception
of Christ entertained by orthodox Christians, a conception which
supposes him to have combined in his incarnation both a human and a
divine element which made him both man and God. The portrayal of the
vicarious suffering and death of this man has been one of the most
powerful agents in the propagation of Christianity.
The molders of primitive Christianity were greatly influenced by
various philosophical speculations--by the teachings of Pythagoras and
Plato among the earlier, and by the writings of Philo and Seneca among
the later philosophers. To Philo, we have seen, they were indebted
largely for the Logos; to Seneca they were indebted chiefly for the
Ideal or Perfect Man. The following extracts are from "The Christ Myth"
of Mrs. Evans:
"Seneca advises the cherishing of a hope that victory in the form of
a wise man will finally appear, because humanity requires that the
exemplification of perfection should be visible."
"Seneca's conception of perfect humanity was a combination of the
wise man of the Platonists and Stoics and the gentle sufferer who
endures insult and sorrow."
"The Logos of Philo was too ethereal to answer all the demands of
feeble humanity. The God-man must live and suffer and die among and
for the people in order to make the sacrifice complete."
"Philo endowed the Logos of Heraclitus with the authority of a priestly
mediator, who, floating between earth and heaven, brings God and
man together; Seneca places this mediator as a suffering man among
men. Philo, from his Jewish standpoint, made the Logos the priestly
intercessor; Seneca, from the standpoint of his Stoical society,
believed in the possibility of a perfect man as savior and guide of
weaker men."
Cognizant of the striking resemblance between some of the writings
of the New Testament and the writings of the Stoics, particularly
of Seneca, modern Christian apologists affect to believe that
this philosopher was acquainted with the history and the gospel of
Christ. But the Stoical philosophy propounded by Seneca had been
forming ever since the time of Zeno, three centuries before the time
of Christ. Seneca himself was born before the Christian era, and no
part of the New Testament was in existence when he wrote. Relative
to this contention Lecky writes: "It is admitted that the greatest
moralists of the Roman empire either never mentioned Christianity, or
mentioned it with contempt.... The Jews, with whom the Christians were
then identified, he (Seneca) emphatically describes as 'an accursed
race.'" (European Morals, vol. 1, pp. 340, 342). During the second
and third centuries Christian scholars ransacked Pagan literature for
recognitions of Christ and Christianity. Regarding this, Lecky says:
"At the time, when the passion for discovering these connections
was most extravagant, the notion of Seneca and his followers being
inspired by the Christians was unknown" (Ibid, p. 346). Gibbon says:
"The new sect [Christians] is totally unnoticed by Seneca" (Rome,
vol. i, 587, note).
Out of all these various religious systems and doctrines--out of
sex worship and sun worship--out of the worship of the stars and
the worship of the elements--out of the worship of animals and
the worship of idols--out of Polytheism and Monotheism--out of the
Mediatorial and Messianic ideas--out of the Logos and the Ideal Man
of the philosophers--this Christ has come.
CHAPTER XI.
SOURCES OF THE CHRIST MYTH--PAGAN DIVINITIES.
In the preceding chapter I have noticed some of the typical religious
systems and beliefs from which Christ and Christianity were to a
great extent derived. I shall next notice more particularly some
of the so-called divine beings--some of the gods, and some of the
mortals endowed with supernatural gifts, belonging to these systems. I
shall show that there were many sons of gods besides Jehovah's "only
begotten Son"; that each of them possessed some attribute possessed
by him; that all of them lived or existed in the minds of men,
centuries before his time; and that many of them were prototypes
of him, and furnished in a large degree the ideas which suggested
him, or which are associated with him and his religion. My list will
comprise the following, all of whom were believed by their worshipers
or followers to be of divine descent: Krishna, Buddha, Confucius,
Laou-tsze, Zoroaster, Mithra, Sosiosh, Adonis, Osiris, Horus, Zeus,
Apollo, Perseus, Hercules, Dionysos, Prometheus, Esculapius, Plato,
Pythagoras, Bacchus, Saturn, Quirinus, Odin, Thor, and Baldur.
Krishna.
Krishna was the eighth Avatar or incarnation of the god Vishnu,
one of the Hindoo Trinity. In this incarnation Vishnu, it is said,
"appeared in all the fullness of his power and glory." His mother
was Devaki. He is believed to be a historical character, but his real
history, like that of Jesus, is almost entirely obscured by myths. He
lived from 900 to 1,200 years before the Christian era. The story
of his life is to be found in the "Bhagavat," one of the "Puranas,"
while his religious teachings are given in the "Bhagavad-Gita,"
a poem belonging to the "Mahabarata."
The points of resemblance between Krishna and Christ that have
been printed would fill a volume. Some of these are apocryphal,
and not confirmed by the canonical scriptures of India. The limits
of this chapter preclude an extended list even of the undoubtedly
genuine. I shall confine myself chiefly to a presentation of the
most important ones relating to their births. These, according to the
Christian translator of the "Bhagavat Purana," Rev. Thomas Maurice,
are as follows:
1. Both were miraculously conceived.
2. Both were divine incarnations.
3. Both were of royal descent.
4. Devatas or angels sang songs of praise at the birth of each.
5. Both were visited by neighboring shepherds.
6. In both cases the reigning monarch, fearing that he would be
supplanted in his kingdom by the divine child, sought to destroy him.
7. Both were saved by friends who fled with them in the night to
distant countries.
8. Foiled in their attempts to discover the babes both kings issued
decrees that all the infants should be put to death.
Writing of Krishna in the eighteenth century, Sir William Jones says:
"In the Sanscrit dictionary, compiled more than two thousand years ago,
we have the whole history of the incarnate deity, born of a virgin,
and miraculously escaping in infancy from the reigning tyrant of his
country" (Asiatic Researches, Vol. I, p. 273).
The subsequent careers of these deities are analogous in many
respects. Their missions were the same--the salvation of mankind. Both
performed miracles--healed the sick and raised the dead. Both died
for man by man. There is a tradition, though not to be found in the
Hindoo scriptures, that Krishna, like Christ, was crucified.
Various incidents recorded in the life of Christ were doubtless
suggested by similar incidents in the life of Krishna. He washed
the feet of his disciples because Krishna had washed the feet of
the Brahmins. He taught his disciples the possibility of removing a
mountain, because Krishna, to protect his worshipers from the wrath
of Indra, raised Mount Goverdhen above them. His parents in their
flight with him, as related in the Gospel of the Infancy, stopped at
a place called Maturea. Krishna was born at Mathura.
The earliest followers of each were from the lower classes of society,
those of Krishna being herdsmen and milkmaids. Christ's most ardent
worshipers have from the first been women. "Chrishna," to quote the
authority last mentioned, "continues to this hour the darling god of
the women of India."
McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopedia" notes the following events in
the history of Krishna which correspond with those related of Christ:
"That he was miraculously born at midnight of a human mother, and
saluted by a chorus of Devatas [angels]; that he was cradled among
cowherds, during which period of life he was persecuted by the giant
Kansa, and saved by his mother's flight; the miracles with which
his life abounds, among which were the raising of the dead and the
cleansing of the leprous" (Art. Krishna).
The celebrated missionary and traveler, Pere Huc, who made a journey
of several thousand miles through China and Thibet, says: "If we
addressed a Mogul or Thibetan this question, Who is Krishna? the
reply was instantly, 'The savior of men.'" "All that converting
the Hindoos to Christianity does for them," says Robert Cheyne,
"is to change the object of their worship from Krishna to Christ." Of
Krishna's gospel, the "Bhagavad-Gita," "Appleton's Cyclopedia" says:
"Its correspondence with the New Testament is indeed striking."
The parallels between Krishna and Christ to be found in the Hindoo
scriptures and the Christian Gospels are too numerous and too exact to
be accidental. The legends of the one were borrowed from the other. It
is admitted by Christian scholars that Krishna lived many centuries
before Christ. To admit the priority of the Krishna legends is to deny,
to this extent, the originality of the Gospels. To break the force of
the logical conclusion to be drawn from this some argue that while
Krishna himself antedated Christ, the legends concerning him are
of later origin and borrowed from the Evangelists. Regarding this
contention Judge Waite, in his "History of the Christian Religion,"
says: "Here then, we have the older religion and the older god. This,
in the absence of any evidence on the other side, ought to settle
the question. To assume without evidence that the older religion has
been interpolated from the later, and that the legends of the older
hero have been made to conform to the history of a later character,
is worse than illogical--it is absurd."
Sir William Jones, one of the best Christian authorities on Sanscrit
literature, and the translator of the "Bhagavad-Gita," says: "That
the name of Krishna, and the general outline of his history, were
long anterior to the birth of our Savior, and probably to the time
of Homer [950 B. C.], we know very certainly" (Asiatic Researches,
Vol. I, p. 254).
Buddha.
The ninth incarnation of Vishnu was Buddha. The word Buddha, like the
word Christ, is not a name, but a title. It means "the enlightened
one." The name of this religious founder was Siddhartha Gautama. He was
born about 643 B. C., and died 563 B. C. His mother, Mahamaya, was a
virgin. Dean Milman, in his "History of Christianity," says: "Budh,
according to a tradition known in the West, was born of a virgin"
(Vol. I, p. 99, note). Devaki, Mary, and Mahamaya, all gave birth to
their children among strangers. Krishna was born in a prison, Christ
in a stable, and Buddha in a garden. "Werner's Encyclopedia," in its
article on Buddha, speaks of "the marvelous stories which gathered
round the belief in his voluntary incarnation, the miracles at his
birth, the prophecies of the aged saint at his formal presentation
to his father, and how nature altered her course to keep a shadow
over his cradle, whilst the sages from afar came and worshiped him."
The "Tripitaka," the principal Bible of the Buddhists, containing
the history and teachings of Buddha, is a collection of books written
in the centuries immediately following Buddha. The canon was finally
determined at the Council of Pataliputra, held under the auspices of
the Emperor Asoka the Great, 244 B. C., more than 600 years before the
Christian canon was established. The "Lalita Vistara," the sacred book
of the Northern Buddhists, was written long before the Christian era.
Buddha was "about 30 years old" when he began his ministry. He fasted
"seven times seven nights and days." He had a "band of disciples"
who accompanied him. He traveled from place to place and "preached
to large multitudes." Bishop Bigandet calls his first sermon the
"Sermon on the Mount." At his Renunciation "he forsook father and
mother, wife and child." His mission was "to establish the kingdom of
righteousness." "Buddha," says Max Muller, "promised salvation to all;
and he commanded his disciples to preach his doctrine in all places and
to all men." "Self-conquest and universal charity" are the fundamental
principles of his religion. He enjoined humility, and commanded his
followers to conceal their charities. "Return good for evil"; "overcome
anger with love"; "love your enemies," were some of his precepts.
Buddha formulated the following commandments: "Not to kill; not
to steal; not to lie; not to commit adultery; not to use strong
drink." Christ said: "Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit
adultery; do not kill; do not steal; do not bear false witness;
honor thy father and thy mother (Luke xviii, 20). Christ ignored
the Decalogue of Moses and, like Buddha, presented a pentade which,
with the exception of one commandment, is the same as that of Buddha.
Prof. Seydel, of the University of Leipsic, points out fifty analogies
between Christianity and Buddhism. Dr. Schleiden calls attention to
over one hundred. Baron Harden-Hickey says: "Countless analogies exist
between the Buddhistic and Christian legends--analogies so striking
that they forcibly prove to an impartial mind that a common origin
must necessarily be given to the teachings of Sakay-Muni and those
of Jesus."
Concerning the biographical accounts of the two religious teachers
Harden-Hickey says: "One account must necessarily be a copy of the
other, and since the Buddhist biographer, living long before the
birth of Christ, could not have borrowed from the Christian one,
the plain inference is that the early creed-mongers of Alexandria
were guilty of an act of plagiarism." The following are some of the
parallels presented by this writer:
Both have genealogies tracing their descent from ancestral kings.
Both were born of virgin mothers.
The conception of each was announced by a divine messenger.
The hymns uttered at the two annunciations resemble each other.
Both were visited by wise men who brought them gifts.
Both were presented in the temple.
The aged Simeon of the one account corresponds to the aged Asita of
the other.
As "the child (Jesus) grew and waxed strong in spirit," so "the child
(Sakay-Muni) waxed and increased in strength."
Both in childhood discoursed before teachers.
Both fasted in the wilderness.
Both were tempted.
Angels or devatas ministered to each.
Buddha bathed in the Narajana, and Christ was baptized in the Jordan.
The mission of each was proclaimed by a voice from heaven.
Both performed miracles.
Both sent out disciples to propagate their faiths.
In calling their disciples the command of each was, "Follow me."
Buddha preached on the Holy Hill, and Christ delivered his sermon on
the Mount.
The phraseology of the sermons of Buddha and the sermon ascribed to
Christ is, in many instances, the same.
Both Buddha and Christ compare themselves to husbandmen sowing seed.
The story of the prodigal son is found in both Scriptures.
The account of the man born blind is common to both.
In both the mustard seed is used as a simile for littleness.
Christ speaks of "a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand";
Buddha says, "Perishable is the city built of sand."
Both speak of "the rain which falls on the just and on the unjust."
The story of the ruler, Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, has
its parallel in the story of the rich man who came to Buddha by night.
A converted courtezan, Magdalena, followed Jesus, and a converted
courtezan, Ambapali, followed Buddha.
There is a legend of a traitor connected with each.
Both made triumphal entries, Christ into Jerusalem, and Buddha into
Rajagriba.
Both proclaimed kingdoms not of this world.
The eternal life promised by Christ corresponds to the eternal peace,
Nirvana, promised by Buddha.
Both religions recognize a trinity.
"Catholic and Protestant missionaries," to quote Max Muller again,
"vie with each other in their praises of Buddha." Bishop Bigandet,
one of the leading Christian writers on Buddha, says: "In reading
the particulars of the life of Buddha it is impossible not to feel
reminded of many circumstances relating to our Savior's life as
sketched by the evangelists. It may be said in favor of Buddhism
that no philosophic-religious system has ever upheld to an equal
degree the notions of a savior and deliverer, and the necessity of
his mission for procuring the salvation of man." St. Hilaire says:
"He [Buddha] requires humility, disregard of worldly wealth, patience
and resignation in adversity, love to enemies ... non-resistance to
evil, confession of sins and conversion." The bishop of Ramatha says:
"There are many moral precepts equally commanded and enforced in
common by both creeds. It will not be rash to assert that most of
the moral truths prescribed in the gospel are to be met with in the
Buddhistic scriptures." Writing of Buddhism, Mrs. Spier, in her "Life
in Ancient India," says: "Before God planted Christianity upon earth,
he took a branch from the luxuriant tree, and threw it down to India."
The external forms of Christianity, especially of Catholic
Christianity, are modeled in a large degree after those of Buddhism. Of
Northern Buddhism (Lamaism) the "Encyclopedia Britannica" says:
"Lamaism, with its shaven priests, its bells and rosaries, its images
and holy water, its popes and bishops, its abbots and monks of many
grades, its processions and feast days, its confessional and purgatory,
and its worship of the double Virgin, so strongly resembles Romanism
that the first Catholic missionaries thought it must be an imitation
by the devil of the religion of Christ." The central object in every
Buddhist temple is an image of Buddha. The central object in every
Catholic church is an image of Christ. Holy relics and the veneration
of saints are prominent in both.
Buddha commanded his disciples to preach his gospel to all men. Christ
commanded his disciples to do the same. In obedience to these
commands the world was filled with missionaries, and largely as the
result of this the adherents of these religious systems outnumber
those of all others combined. Christian tradition says that Thomas
visited India. Some believe that it was in this way that the early
Christians became acquainted with the history and teachings of Krishna
and Buddha. This may be true, but so far as the Buddhistic element
in Christianity is concerned it is quite as reasonable to suppose
that Buddhist missionaries had previously carried their religion
to Alexandria and Rome, where the molders of the Christian creed
obtained their knowledge of it. "That remarkable missionary movement,
beginning 300 B. C.," says Max Muller, "sent forth a succession of
devoted men who spent their lives in spreading the faith of Buddha
over all parts of Asia." Harden-Hickey says: "It is not doubted at the
present day that Indian religious ideas, and indeed more particularly
those of Buddhism, reached and were even propagated as far as Egypt,
Asia Minor, and Palestine, long before the Christian era."
Connected with the triumphs of these religious faiths there is a
historical analogy deserving mention. Three centuries after the time
of Buddha, Asoka the Great, emperor of India, became a convert to the
Buddhist faith, made it the state religion of the empire, and did
more than any other man to secure its supremacy in the East. Three
centuries after Christ, Constantine the Great, emperor of Rome,
became a convert to the Christian faith, made it the state religion
of his empire, and won for it the supremacy of the West.
Remuset says: "Buddhism has been called the Christianity of the
East." It would be more appropriate to call Christianity the Buddhism
of the West. Buddha, and not Christ, was "The Light of Asia." At
this torch Christians lighted their taper and called it "The Light
of the World."
Confucius.
This great Chinese sage and religious founder was born 551 B. C. His
followers believed him to be divine. His birth was attended by
prodigies. Magi and angels visited him, while celestial music filled
the air. His disciples invented a genealogy for him, giving him
a princely descent from Hoang-ti, a Chinese monarch, just as the
Christian Evangelists at a later period invented genealogies for
Christ, giving him a princely pedigree from David. Concerning his
deification the "International Encyclopedia" says: "By the irony of
fate he was deified after his death, and, like Buddha, Confucius,
who had little belief in the supernatural, became a divinity."
As Boulger states, "His name and his teachings were perpetuated by a
band of devoted disciples, and the book which contained the moral and
philosophical axioms of Confucius passed into the classical literature
of the country and stood in the place of a Bible for the Chinese"
(History of China, p. 16).
Of all the great religious systems which have appeared since the dawn
of history Buddhism and Confucianism, as originally presented, from
a rational standpoint, stand pre-eminent. In both the supernatural
is almost entirely absent. Both are godless religions, and both
have been, for the most part, bloodless religions. The adherents
of both have practiced in the highest degree what the adherents of
their great rival have only professed: "On earth peace, good will
toward men." Both systems, like primitive Christianity, have been
corrupted; but the system of Confucius has suffered less than that of
Buddha. The religious, or rather ethical, system taught by Confucius,
is the religion of the intellectual aristocracy of China, and, to a
great extent, the religion of the most enlightened everywhere.
Christian scholars have been surprised to find in the writings of
Confucius some of the best teachings attributed to Christ. The Golden
Rule has been ascribed to the Christian founder. And yet this rule
is the very essence of Confucianism and was borrowed from it. In a
presentation of the teachings of the Chinese sage, Rev. James Legge
of Oxford University, the highest European authority on China and
Confucius, says: "Foremost among these we must rank his distinct
enunciation of the Golden Rule, deduced by him from his study of man's
mental condition. Several times he gave that rule in express words:
'What you do not like when done to yourself do not to others.'"
To retain for Christ a portion of the credit due Confucius, Christians
assert that the Chinese moralist merely taught the negative form of
this rule, the abstaining from doing to others what we dislike to have
them do to us, while Christ taught the positive form, the doing to
others what we desire them to do to us. Regarding this Mr. Legge says:
"It has been said that he only gave the rule in a negative form; but
he understood it also in its positive and most comprehensive form,
and deplored on one occasion at least, that he had not himself always
attained to taking the initiative in doing to others as he would have
them do to him."
Another analogy may be noticed. The religion of Confucius enjoins
absolute obedience to national rulers. This, too, is a prominent tenet
of the Christian religion. As the result of this, Confucianism became
and has remained the state religion of China, while Christianity
became and has remained the state religion of Europe.
Laou-tsze.
Laou-tsze, the other great religious founder of China, was born 604
B. C. His entry into the world and his exit from it were attended by
miracles. Like Christ he was miraculously conceived; like Christ he
ascended bodily into heaven. He was believed to be an incarnation of
an astral god.
His gospel, the "Tao Teh King," was written by him. "Tao" means "the
way." Christ was called "the Way." Man, according to this gospel, is
both a material and a spiritual being. By the renunciation of riches
and worldly enjoyments the soul attains to immortality. The most divine
of mortals are, like Enoch and Elijah, translated to heaven without
suffering death. Laou-tsze taught that men to be righteous must become
"as little children." Christ said: "Except ye be converted and become
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven"
(Matt. xviii, 3).
The more ignorant followers of Laou-tsze, like the more ignorant
followers of Christ, believe that many diseases are caused by evil
spirits, and their priests, like Christ, practice exorcism to expel
them. Like the Catholics, they have monasteries and convents.
Of Laou-tsze's writings Prof. Montuci, the Italian philologist, says:
"Many things about a triune God are so clearly expressed that no
one who has read this book can doubt that the mystery of the Holy
Trinity was revealed to the Chinese five centuries before the coming
of Christ."
There is one element in Christianity which was not borrowed from
Paganism--religious intolerance. Referring to Buddhism, Confucianism,
and Taouism, a writer on China says: "Between the followers of
the three national religions there is not only a total absence of
persecution and bitter feeling, but a very great indifference as to
which of them a man may belong.... Among the politer classes, when
strangers meet, the question is asked: 'To what sublime religion
do you belong?' and each one pronounces a eulogium, not on his own
religion, but on that professed by the others, and concludes with
the oft-repeated formula: 'Religions are many; reason is one; we are
all brothers.'"
Zoroaster.
The Persian prophet Zoroaster lived and wrote at least 1200 years
before the Christian era. From his teachings some of the most important
doctrines of Christianity, as well as of Judaism, were derived.
According to the Persian theology the universe is ruled by two great
powers, Ormuzd (God) and Ahrimanes (Satan). The one represents light,
the other darkness; the one is good, the other evil. Between these
two powers there is perpetual war. The center of battle is man, each
striving for his soul. God created man with a free will to choose
between good and evil. Those who choose the good are rewarded with
everlasting life in heaven; those who choose the evil are punished
with endless misery in hell; while those in whom the good and evil
are balanced pass into an intermediate state (purgatory), to remain
until the last judgment.
To save mankind God sent a savior in the person of Zoroaster with a
divine revelation, the "Zend Avesta." Like Christ, Zoroaster was of
supernatural origin and endowed with superhuman powers. Like Christ,
he believed that Satan would be dethroned and cast into hell; like
Christ he believed that the end of the world and the kingdom of God
were at hand; like Christ, he taught his followers to worship God;
like Christ he declared that God heard and answered prayer; like
Christ he was tempted by Satan; like Christ he performed miracles;
like Christ he was slain by those whom he had come to save.
McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopedia" gives a summary of the principal
doctrines of Zoroaster among which are the following:
"The principal duty of man in this life is to obey the word and
commandments of God.
"Those who obey the word of God will be free from all defects and
immortal.
"God exercises his rule in the world through the works prompted by
the Divine Spirit, who is working in man and nature.
"Men should pray to God and worship him. He hears the prayers of
the good.
"All men live solely through the bounty of God.
"The soul of the pure will hereafter enjoy everlasting life;
that of the wicked will have to undergo everlasting punishment"
(Art. Zoroaster).
Devils and angels are of Persian origin. Dr. Kalisch, the eminent
Jewish scholar, says: "When the Jews, ever open to foreign influence in
matters of faith, lived under Persian rule, they imbibed, among many
other religious views of their masters, their doctrines of angels and
spirits, which, in the region of the Euphrates and Tigris, were most
luxuriantly developed" (Leviticus, part II, p. 287). "The belief in
spirits and demons was not a concession made by educated men to the
prejudices of the masses, but a concession which all--the educated
as well as the uneducated--made to Pagan polytheism" (Ibid).
Strauss says: "It is in the Maccabean Daniel and in the Apocryphal
Tobit that this doctrine of angels, in the most precise form, first
appears; and it is evidently a product of the influence of the Zend
religion of the Persian on the Jewish mind. We have the testimony of
the Jews themselves that they brought the names of the angels with
them from Babylon" (Leben Jesu, p. 78).
Baptism, communion, and even confirmation, are rites that
were performed in Persia a thousand years before the advent of
Christ. Dr. Hyde, in his "Religion of the Ancient Persians," says:
"They do not use circumcision for their children, but only baptism
or washing for the inward purification of the soul.... After such
washing, or baptism, the priest imposes on the child the name given
by his parents. Afterwards, in the fifteenth year of his age, when
he begins to put on the tunic, the sudra, and the girdle, that he
may enter upon religion, and is engaged in the articles of belief,
the priest bestows upon him confirmation."
The following, from the "Britannica," was written by England's leading
authority on Zoroaster, Professor Gildner: "Like John the Baptist and
the Apostles of Jesus, Zoroaster also believed that the fullness of
time was near, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Through the
whole of the Gathas (the Psalms of Zoroaster) runs the pious hope
that the end of the present world is not far off. He himself hopes
along with his followers to live to see the decisive turn of things,
the dawn of the new and better aeon. Ormuzd will summon together all
his powers for a final struggle and break the power of evil forever;
by his help the faithful will achieve the victory over their detested
enemies, the daeva worshipers, and render them powerless. Thereupon
Ormuzd will hold a judicium universale upon all mankind and judge
strictly according to justice, punish the wicked, and assign to the
good the hoped-for reward. Satan will be cast, along with all those
who have been delivered over to him to suffer the pains of hell,
into the abyss, where he will thenceforward lie powerless. Forthwith
begins the one undivided kingdom of God in heaven and on earth."
Substitute "Christ" for "Zoroaster," "God" for "Ormuzd," and "Gospels"
for "Gathas," in the above, and we have almost an exact exposition
of the teachings of Christ. And Zoroaster taught at least 1200 years
before Christ taught, and wrote his "Gathas" more than 1300 years
before the Gospels were written. The writings of Zoroaster were the
principal source of the most important theological doctrines ascribed
to Christ, as the Buddhistic writings were of his ethical teachings.
Mithra.
This god was the offspring of the Sun, and, next to Ormuzd and
Ahrimanes, held the highest rank among the gods of ancient Persia. He
was represented as a beautiful youth. He is the Mediator. From the
Rev. J. W. Lake I quote the following: "Mithras is spiritual light
contending with spiritual darkness, and through his labors the kingdom
of darkness shall be lit with heaven's own light; the Eternal will
receive all things back into his favor, the world will be redeemed to
God. The impure are to be purified, and the evil made good, through the
mediation of Mithras, the reconciler of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Mithras
is the Good, his name is Love. In relation to the Eternal he is the
source of grace, in relation to man he is the life-giver and mediator"
(Plato, Philo, and Paul, p. 15).
The "International Encyclopedia" says: "Mithras seems to have owed his
prominence to the belief that he was the source of life, and could
also redeem the souls of the dead into the better world.... The
ceremonies included a sort of baptism to remove sins, anointing,
and a sacred meal of bread and water, while a consecrated wine,
believed to possess wonderful power, played a prominent part."
Concerning Mithra "Chambers's Encyclopedia" says: "The most important
of his many festivals was his birthday, celebrated on the 25th of
December, the day subsequently fixed--against all evidence--as the
birthday of Christ. The worship of Mithras early found its way into
Rome, and the mysteries of Mithras, which fell in the spring equinox,
were famous even among the many Roman festivals. The ceremonies
observed in the initiation to these mysteries--symbolical of the
struggle between Ahriman and Ormuzd (the Good and the Evil)--were
of the most extraordinary and to a certain degree even dangerous
character. Baptism and the partaking of a mystical liquid, consisting
of flour and water, to be drunk with the utterance of sacred formulas,
were among the inauguration acts."
In the catacombs at Rome was preserved a relic of the old Mithraic
worship. It was a picture of the infant Mithra seated in the lap of
his virgin mother, while on their knees before him were Persian Magi
adoring him and offering gifts.
Prof. Franz Cumont, of the University of Ghent, writes as follows
concerning the religion of Mithra and the religion of Christ:
"The sectaries of the Persian god, like the Christians', purified
themselves by baptism, received by a species of confirmation the
power necessary to combat the spirit of evil; and expected from a
Lord's supper salvation of body and soul. Like the latter, they also
held Sunday sacred, and celebrated the birth of the Sun on the 25th
of December.... They both preached a categorical system of ethics,
regarded asceticism as meritorious and counted among their principal
virtues abstinence and continence, renunciation and self-control. Their
conceptions of the world and of the destiny of man were similar. They
both admitted the existence of a Heaven inhabited by beatified ones,
situate in the upper regions, and of a Hell, peopled by demons,
situate in the bowels of the earth. They both placed a flood at
the beginning of history; they both assigned as the source of their
condition, a primitive revelation; they both, finally, believed in the
immortality of the soul, in a last judgment, and in a resurrection
of the dead, consequent upon a final conflagration of the universe"
(The Mysteries of Mithras, pp. 190, 191).
The Rev. Charles Biggs, D.D., says: "The disciples of Mithra formed an
organized church, with a developed hierarchy. They possessed the ideas
of Mediation, Atonement, and a Savior, who is human and yet divine,
and not only the idea, but a doctrine of the future life. They had
a Eucharist, and a Baptism, and other curious analogies might be
pointed out between their system and the church of Christ" (The
Christian Platonists, p. 240).
I quote again from McClintock and Strong: "In modern times Christian
writers have been induced to look favorably upon the assertion
that some of our ecclesiastical usages (e. g., the institution of
the Christmas festival) originated in the cultus of Mithraism. Some
writers who refuse to accept the Christian religion as of supernatural
origin, have even gone so far as to institute a close comparison with
the founder of Christianity; and Dupuis and others, going even beyond
this, have not hesitated to pronounce the Gospel simply a branch of
Mithraism" (Art. Mithra).
The Christian Father Manes, founder of the heretical sect known as
Manicheans, believed that Christ and Mithra were one. His teaching,
according to Mosheim, was as follows: "Christ is that glorious
intelligence which the Persians called Mithras.... His residence is
in the sun" (Ecclesiastical History, 3rd century, Part 2, ch. 5).
The Mithraic worship at one time covered a large portion of the ancient
world. It flourished as late as the second century, but finally went
down before its young and invincible rival which appropriated, to a
great extent, its doctrines, rites and customs.
Sosiosh.
The Messianic idea, as we have seen, came from Persia. The expected
Messiah of the Jews and the Christ of Christians are of Persian
origin. Sosiosh, the Messiah of the Persians, is the son of Zoroaster,
"begotten in a supernatural way." He constitutes a part of the
Persian Trinity. He exists, as yet, only in a spiritual form. His
incarnation and advent on earth are yet to be. When he comes he will
bring with him a new revelation. He will awaken the dead and preside
at the last judgment. Zoroaster, it is claimed, predicted his coming,
declaring that he would be born of a virgin, and that a star would
indicate the place of his birth. "As soon, therefore," said Zoroaster,
"as you shall behold the star, follow it whithersoever it shall lead
you and adore that mysterious child, offering your gifts to him with
profound humility." "And, lo, the star, which they saw in the east,
went before them till it came and stood over where the young child
was.... And when they were come into the house, 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"
(Matthew ii, 9, 11).
Adonis.
From Babylonia, including Accadia, Chaldea, and Assyria, much
of Christianity has come. Christ himself was descended from the
Babylonian pantheon; his father, Jehovah, being originally a Babylonian
god. Adonis, Tammouz, Tam-zi, or Du-zi, as he was variously called,
was a Babylonian deity whose worship gradually spread over Syria,
Phoenicia and Greece. He was one of the most ancient of the sons of
gods. His origin may be traced to that fertile, and perhaps earliest,
source of gods and religions, Accadia. His worship was a combination
of sun worship and sex worship. He was the god of light, and life,
and love. Associated with his worship in Babylonia and Syria was the
worship of Istar; and in Phoenicia and Greece the worship of Venus.
Under the name of Tammouz, Adonis was worshiped by the Jews. At the
very gates of the temple, Ezekiel tells us, "There sat women weeping
for Tammouz" ("Adonis" in Catholic ver.) (viii, 14). In the Bible
he is frequently referred to as "the only son." One of the months
of the Hebrew calendar was named in honor of him. The abstaining
from the use of pork by the Jews had its origin in the legend of the
slaying of Adonis by the wild boar. And the eating of fish on Friday
by Christians is doubtless due to the fact that Friday was consecrated
to Venus by her Asiatic worshipers and fish was eaten in her honor.
In a citation of Babylonian and Biblical analogies, the "Encyclopedia
Britannica" says: "The resemblance is still more striking when we
examine the Babylonian mythology. The sacred tree of Babylonia, with
its guardian cherubs--a word, by the way, which seems of Accadian
origin--as well as the flaming sword or thunderbolt of fifty points
and seven heads, recall Biblical analogies, while the Noachian deluge
differs but slightly from the Chaldean one. Indeed, the Jehovistic
version of the flood story in Genesis agrees not only in details, but
even in phraseology with that which forms the eleventh lay of the great
Babylonian epic. The hero of the latter is Tam-zi or Tammuz, 'the sun
of life,' the son of Ubaratutu, 'the glow of sunset,' and denotes the
revivifying luminary of day, who sails upon his 'ark' behind the clouds
of winter to reappear when the rainy season is past. He is called
Sisuthrus by Berosus, that is, Susru 'the founder,' a synonym of Na
'the sky.' The mountain on which his ark rested was placed in Nisir,
southwest of Lake Urumiyeh. Its peak, whereon the first altar was built
after the deluge, was the legendary model after which the zigurats or
towers of the Babylonian temples were erected. Besides the account of
the flood, fragments have been met with of stories resembling those
of the tower of Babel or Babylon, of the creation, of the fall, and
of the sacrifice of Isaac--the latter, by the way, forming the first
lay of the great epic. The sixth lay we possess in full. It describes
the descent of Istar into Hades in pursuit of her dead husband Du-zi,
'the off-spring,' the Babylonian Adonis. Du-zi is but another form
of Tam-zi and denotes the sun when obscured by night and winter."
Concerning the two lays of this Babylonian or Assyrian epic which
pertain to Adonis, Dr. Soury says: "The two important episodes
of this epic hitherto discovered, 'The Deluge,' and 'The Descent
of Istar into Hell,' yield the best commentary on the Biblical
stories of the deluge and hell (sheol). We have henceforth the
epigraphic proof, confirming the valuable testimony of Berosus, that
these legends--like those of the creation, of the Tower of Babel,
etc.--did not originate in Palestine, but were carried thither by
the Hebrews with the civilization and worship of the people of the
valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, amid whom they had sojourned for
centuries.... The Babylonian deluge is also a chastisement from the
deity; it is the consequence of man's corruption (Assyrian poem,
line 22). The details of the building of the Babylonian ark (line
24), into which are introduced the various pairs of male and female
animals (line 80), of the shutting of the doors of the ark (line 89),
of the duration, increase and decrease of the flood (lines 123-129),
of the sending out of a dove, a swallow and a raven (lines 140-144),
etc., leave no doubt as to the origin of the legend of Genesis"
(Religion of Israel, p. 10).
The noted Assyriologist, George Smith, of the British Museum, who
discovered the tablets containing these fragments of the Babylonian
epic, says that the original text of these legends cannot be later
than the 17th century B. C., and may be much earlier, thus antedating
the oldest books of the Bible nearly 1,000 years. From these and
other Babylonian and Persian legends the most of the Old Testament
legends were borrowed. This fact disproves the existence of the
orthodox Christ. If the accounts of the creation, the fall of man,
and the Noachian deluge, as given in the Bible, are not authentic,
but merely borrowed fables, then there remains no foundation for an
atoning Savior.
Describing the worship of Adonis, "Chambers's Encyclopedia" says: "His
festivals were partly the expressions of joy, partly of mourning. In
the latter the women gave themselves up to the most unmitigated grief
over the 'lost Adonis.'... This period was followed by a succession of
festive and joyful days, in honor of the resurrection of Adonis." These
festivals correspond to the Good Friday and Easter of Christians,
commemorating the death and resurrection of Christ.
The most ardent worshipers of Adonis were women. No other character,
real or imaginary, has so stirred the passions and the emotions
of woman as this beautiful young lover of Venus. His tragic death
bathed with immortal sadness the hearts of his devotees, and from the
remotest ages down to a very late period moved to tears the daughters
of men who adored him. Writing of Bethlehem at the close of the fourth
century, St. Jerome says: "The lover of Venus is mourned in the grotto
where Christ wailed as an infant." Along with the "Holy Sepulchre"
of Christ, there still exists the "Tomb of Adonis," where "the women
of the ancient mysteries, in the intoxication of a voluptuous grief,
came to cover with tears and kisses the cenotaph of the beautiful
youth." "Even at the present time," says Renan, "the Syrian hymns
sung in honor of the Virgin are a kind of tearful sigh, a strange sob."
Moved by the same passions and the same emotions that thrilled
the hearts of the female worshipers of Adonis, it is the women of
Christendom, who, more than any other cause, keep alive the memory
and the religion of Christ. Thus writes a Carmelite nun describing
the passionate adoration of her Christian sisters:
"One day they have raised their eyes to an adorable face. A horrible
diadem of interlaced branches binds the august forehead; rubies of
blood roll slowly upon the livid pallor of the cheeks; the mouth has
forgotten how to smile. It is a man of sorrows. They have looked upon
him and found him more beautiful, more noble, more loyal than any
spouse. They have felt a stronger heart-beat in his divine breast;
they have understood that death no more dare touch his emaciated
figure, and that his conjugal fidelity is eternal.
"Captivated, ravished, enamoured, enraptured, they have loved
him. Rendered insensible by love, they have trampled cruelly upon the
broken hearts of fathers and desolate mothers; they have listened,
tearless, to the woeful beseechings of those who desire them for
companions; they have followed to Carmel the unique lover, the
immortal husband."
The ancient adoration of Adonis survives in this modern adoration of
Jesus. We see here the same strange commingling of superstition and
fanaticism, of love and sorrow, of ecstasy and agony, of chastity
and lust. The religion is the same; the worship is the same. The
divine lovers only have been changed. The beautiful Pagan has been
supplanted by the Ideal Man.
Writing of the Protestant women of his day, Thomas Jefferson says:
"In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the
women. They have their night meetings and praying parties, where,
attended by their priests, ... they pour forth their love to Jesus in
terms as amatory and carnal as their modesty would permit to a mere
earthly lover" (Jefferson's Works, Vol. IV, p. 358, Randolph's ed.).
Osiris.
One of the most ancient and one of the most renowned of all the gods
was Osiris, the Savior of Egypt. He was the son of Seb (earth) and Nu
(heaven). He appears in the hieroglyphics of Egypt as early as 3427
B. C. Two thousand years before Christ his worship was universal in
Egypt, and during the succeeding centuries spread over much of Asia
and Europe, including Greece and Rome. Its priests looked confidently
forward to the time when all men would be brought to Osiris, just as
Christian priests today look forward to the time when all men will
be brought to Christ.
Osiris was slain by Typhon (Satan), but rose again and became the
ruler of the dead. He presides at the judgment of the departed where
the good are rewarded with everlasting life, and the wicked are
destroyed. The Osirian Bible is called the "Book of the Dead."
Christians are indebted to this religion largely for their views
concerning immortality and a bodily resurrection. They believe that
through the death and resurrection of Christ they have inherited
eternal life, that when their earthly career is ended they will live
again in him. Regarding the Egyptians' belief, the "International
Encyclopedia" says: "Just as Osiris died and lived again, so the
spiritual personality of the deceased lived again and was merged in
Osiris." Of Osiris the Rev. Dr. Charles Gillett, of Union Theological
Seminary, says: "The belief in him and in the immortality which he
symbolized was the deepest in Egyptian religious thought." Sir John
Gardner Wilkinson, one of the most eminent Egyptologists, says: "The
peculiar character of Osiris, his coming upon earth for the benefit
of mankind, with the titles of 'Manifester of Good' and 'Revealer
of Truth'; his being put to death by the malice of the Evil One;
his burial and resurrection, and his becoming the judge of the dead,
are the most interesting features of the Egyptian religion." John
Stuart Glennie, another English writer, notes the following analogies
between the religion of Osiris and the religion of Christ: "In
ancient Osirianism, as in modern Christianism, we find the worship
of a divine mother and child. In ancient Osirianism as in modern
Christianism, there is a doctrine of atonement. In ancient Osirianism,
as in modern Christianism, we find the vision of a last judgment,
and resurrection of the body. And finally, in ancient Osirianism,
as in modern Christianism, the sanctions of morality are a lake of
fire and torturing demons on the one hand, and on the other, eternal
life in the presence of God" (Christ and Osiris, p. 14).
Referring to Osiris, McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopedia" says: "He
was regarded as the personification of moral good. He is related to
have been on earth instructing mankind in useful arts; to have been
slain by his adversary Typhon by whom he was cut in pieces; to have
been bewailed by his wife and sister Isis; to have been embalmed;
to have risen again, and to have become the judge of the dead, among
whom the righteous were called by his name and received his form--a
wonderful fore-feeling of the Gospel narrative" (Art. Egypt).
Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris, was the greatest of female
divinities. Her worship was coexistent and coextensive with that
of her divine brother and husband. We have the following picture of
her in the Apocalypse: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven;
a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon
her head a crown of twelve stars" (Revelation xii, 1). The worship
of Isis existed in Rome and Alexandria during the formative period
of Christianity and Christians borrowed much from it.
Horus.
This popular Egyptian god was the son of Osiris and Isis. Osiris and
Horus were both solar deities; Osiris was the setting sun, Horus the
rising sun. Christ, it is claimed, existed before his incarnation;
and Horus, it was claimed, existed even before the incarnation of
his father. Christ when an infant was carried into Egypt to escape
the wrath of Herod; Horus when an infant was carried out of Egypt
to escape the wrath of Typhon. To avenge the death of his father he
afterward vanquished Typhon. He was the last of the gods who reigned
in Egypt. Festivals and movable feasts similar to those celebrated
in honor of Christ were held in his honor.
In India and Egypt, ages before the appearance of Christianity,
the doctrine of the Trinity prevailed. Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva
constituted the principal trinity of India, while the most important
Trinity of Egypt was Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Even the Christian
doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, an absurdity which Christianity alone
is supposed to have taught, was an Egyptian doctrine. Samuel Sharp,
in his "Egyptian Mythology" (p. 14), says: "We have a hieroglyphical
inscription in the British Museum as early as the reign of Sevechus of
the eighth century before the Christian era, showing that the doctrine
of Trinity in Unity already formed part of their religion and that *
* * the three gods only made one person."
Dr. Draper says: "For thirty centuries the Egyptians had been familiar
with the conception of a triune God. There was hardly a city of
any note without its particular triads. Here it was Amum, Maut, and
Khonso; there Osiris, Isis, and Horus" (Intellectual Development,
Vol. I, p. 191).
Dr. Inman affirms the Egyptian origin of the Christian trinity:
"The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as surely a
Pagan doctrine as the belief in heaven and hell, the existence of a
devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and virgins,
intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, and other forms of faith
which deface the greater part of modern religions" (Ancient Pagan
and Modern Christian Symbolism, p. 13).
There are two myths connected with Horus analogous to stories found
in the Old Testament, and which were old when these stories were
written. The hiding of Horus in a marsh by his mother undoubtedly
suggested the myth of the hiding of Moses in a marsh by his
mother. When Horus died Isis implored Ra, the sun, to restore him to
life. Ra stopped his ship in mid-heaven and sent down Thoth, the moon,
to bring him back to life. The stopping of the sun and moon by Isis
recalls the myth of the stopping of the sun and moon by Joshua.
The deification and worship of the Virgin had its origin in the worship
of Isis, and the adoration of the Virgin and Child is but the adoration
of Isis and Horus transferred to Mary and Jesus. Describing the
Paganization of Christianity Dr. Draper says: "Views of the Trinity,
in accordance with Egyptian tradition, were established. 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"
(Conflict, p. 48).
That the Virgin Mary of the Roman Catholic church was borrowed
from Egypt is shown by the fact that in the earlier representations
of her, she was, like Isis, veiled. Concerning this Draper, in his
"Intellectual Development" (Vol. I, p. 361), says: "Of the Virgin Mary,
destined in later times to furnish so many beautiful types of female
loveliness, the earliest representations are veiled. The Egyptian
sculptors had thus depicted Isis; the first form of the Virgin and
Child was the counterpart of Isis and Horus."
Dr. G. W. Brown, author of "Researches in Oriental History," writes:
"Mural illustrations of this mother and child are not confined to
Egypt, but are scattered all over Asia Minor, and are numerous in
Italy, while many temples and shrines are yet found which were erected
to their memory. Matthew ii, 15, claims to be a quotation from one
of the prophets: 'Out of Egypt have I called my son.'"
Writing of the ancient Gnostics, C. W. King, a noted English author,
says: "To this period belongs a beautiful sard in my collection,
representing Serapis, * * * whilst before him stands Isis, holding
in one hand the sistrum, in the other a wheatsheaf, with the legend:
'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the very term applied afterwards to
that personage who succeeded to her form, her symbols, rites, and
ceremonies" (Gnostics and Their Remains, p. 71).
Regarding the transference of the attributes of Isis to Mary, Newton,
in his "Assyrian Grove and Other Emblems," says: "When Mary, the
mother of Jesus, took the place in Christendom of 'the great goddess,'
the dogmas which propounded her immaculate conception and perpetual
virginity followed as a matter of course."
"The 'Black Virgins,'" says King, "so highly reverenced in certain
French cathedrals during the middle ages, proved, when critically
examined, basalt figures of Isis."
Mrs. Besant believes that Christianity was derived chiefly from Egypt:
"It grew out of Egypt; its gospels came from thence [Alexandria];
its ceremonies were learned there; its Virgin is Isis; its Christ
Osiris and Horus."
Of the antiquity of Egypt's religion, and the mutability of the
gods, that brilliant young Englishman, Winwood Reade, thus writes:
"Buried cities are beneath our feet; the ground on which we tread is
the pavement of a tomb. See the pyramids towering to the sky, with
men, like insects, crawling round their base; and the Sphinx, couched
in vast repose, with a ruined temple between its paws. Since those
great monuments were raised the very heavens have been changed. When
the architects of Egypt began their work, there was another polar
star in the northern sky, and the southern cross shone upon the
Baltic shores. How glorious are the memories of those ancient men,
whose names are forgotten, for they lived and labored in the distant
and unwritten past. Too great to be known, they sit on the height
of centuries and look down on fame. * * * The men are dead, and the
gods are dead. Naught but their memories remain. Where now is Osiris,
who came down upon earth out of love for man, who was killed by the
malice of the evil one, who rose again from the grave and became
the judge of the dead? Where now is Isis the mother, with the child
Horus in her lap? They are dead; they are gone to the land of the
shades. To-morrow, Jehovah, you and your son shall be with them."
Zeus.
Zeus, Jove, or Jupiter, as he is variously called, was the greatest
of the sons of gods and held the highest place in the pantheons of
Greece and Rome. He was the son of the god Kronos and the goddess Rhea.
The gods of Greece, while mostly pure myths, were yet intensely
human. In these gods human vices sank to the lowest depths and human
virtues rose to the loftiest heights. Zeus was one of the most puerile,
one of the most sublime, one of the most depraved and one of the most
beneficent of deities. In the words of Andrew Lang, "He is the sum of
the religious thought of Hellas, found in the numberless ages between
savagery and complete civilization."
Zeus, like Christ, assumed the form of man. The life of the
infant Pagan deity, like that of the infant Christian deity, was
imperiled. Kronos tried to destroy him, but he was secreted in a
cave and saved. There was a widely accepted tradition among primitive
Christians, before the myth of the shepherd's manger gained credence,
that Christ was cradled in a cave. Concerning these myths, Strauss
says: "The myths of the ancient world more generally ascribed divine
apparitions to countrymen and shepherds; the sons of the gods, and
of great men were frequently brought up among shepherds. In the same
spirit of the ancient legend is the apocryphal invention that Jesus
was born in a cave, and we are at once reminded of the cave of Jupiter
(Zeus) and the other gods" (Leben Jesu, p. 154).
This god, like Jehovah, became the ruler of heaven and earth. Like
Jehovah he became dissatisfied with the human race, and with the aid
of Pandora, who brought death into the world, tried to destroy it
that he might create a new race.
Seneca refers to Zeus as "the guardian and ruler of the universe,
the soul and spirit, the lord and master of this mundane sphere * *
* from whom all things proceed, by whose spirit we live." Lecky says:
"The language in which the first Greek dramatists asserted the supreme
authority and universal providence of Zeus was so emphatic that the
Christian fathers commonly attributed it either to direct inspiration
or to a knowledge of the Jewish writings" (European Morals, Vol. I,
p. 161).
One of the daughters of Zeus was Persephone, Life. Her mother was
Demeter, the Earth. Hades seized Persephone and carried her to his
regions in the lower world where she became his wife. Then Earth became
disconsolate and could not be consoled. To assuage the grief of the
sorrowing mother Hades agreed to give her back to Earth for half the
year. While Life dwells with her mother, Earth, we have summer, and
flowers, and fruits, and joy. When Life returns to her husband, Hades,
winter and desolation return to Earth. Of this goddess Ridpath says:
"Persephone is close to Eve. Eve means Life, and should have been so
rendered, and would have been but for the blundering of the English
translators" (History of the World, Vol. II, p. 501).
The realm of Hades was called by his name. The term was borrowed by the
writers of the New Testament but has been translated "hell." Christians
took possession of Hades' kingdom; but Hades was dethroned to make
room for the Oriental Satan, and the sad yet peaceful abode of
departed spirits was transformed into a lake of fire, the habitation
of the damned.
The inhabitants of Crete, who believed in the incarnation and death
of Zeus, guarded for centuries with zealous care what they alleged
to be the tomb of their god.
Apollo.
This god, one of the principal solar deities, was the son of Zeus. His
mother was Leto. Like Mary, Leto had no hospitable place for her
accouchement, and brought her child forth on the barren isle of Delos,
where female divinities ministered to them. The isle was illuminated by
a flood of light, the prototype of a later scene where "the glory of
the Lord shone round about" the shepherds in the field at Bethlehem;
while sacred swans, like the celestial visitants of Luke, made joyous
gyrations in the air above them.
Apollo was the best beloved god of Greece, and was represented as
one of the most perfect types of manly beauty. Like Christ he led
on earth a lowly life, following for a time the humble avocation of
a herdsman. Like Christ he came to reveal the will of his father. He
chose for his disciples a crew of sailors or fishermen. These, like the
disciples of Christ, were endowed with miraculous powers. Apollo was
regarded as a savior. He rescued the people from the deadly python,
which was desolating the land. Numerous festivals, similar to those
held in honor of Christ, were held in honor of Apollo.
In its article on this god McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopedia" says:
"Towards the later period of the supremacy of paganism in the Roman
Empire, Apollo, as the deity of the sun, had assumed the chief place
in heathen worship. As indicating that Christ was the true 'light of
the world,' the 'Sun of righteousness'--the most favorite figure used
in speaking of the Savior in the early centuries--this very figure
of Apollo was often introduced as indicating Christ."
Leto, the mother of Apollo, was believed to be, like Mary, the mother
of Christ, a mortal raised to divinity. Her worship, like that of Mary,
was widespread and lasted for centuries.
Perseus.
The Virgin myth, the Holy Ghost myth, and the Herodian myth all have
their prototypes in Perseus. Long before his birth it was prophesied
that he would be born of the virgin Danae, and that he would supplant
Acrisius in his kingdom. To prevent this Acrisius confined Danae in
a tower. Here she was overshadowed by Zeus in "a shower of gold,"
and Perseus was born. To destroy him Acrisius placed him with his
mother in a chest and cast them into the sea. They drifted to an
island and the child was saved. He grew to manhood, performed many
wonderful works, vanquished his enemy and ascended the throne.
Hercules.
This god was the son of Zeus and the virgin Alcmeni. His mother,
like the mother of Jesus, retained her virginity after the birth of
her child. The Greek babe, like the Jewish babe, had an enemy. Hera
attempted to destroy the former, just as Herod afterward attempted
to destroy the latter. Like Christ he died a death of agony. When
his labors were finished, he closed his earthly career by mounting
a funeral pyre from which, surrounded by a dark cloud, amid thunder
and lightning, he ascended to heaven.
The Tyrian Hercules was worshiped by the Jews, and Jason, the Jewish
high-priest, sent a religious embassy with an offering of 300 drachms
of silver to this god.
Prof. Meinhold, of the University of Bonn, says: "The transfiguration
and ascension of Christ may be compared to the heathen apotheosis of
such heroes as Hercules, while the story of the descent into Hades
is modeled after such narratives as those describing the visit of
Hercules and Theseus to the lower world."
Max Muller pronounces Hercules a solar god. His twelve labors, like
the twelve apostles of Christ, correspond to the twelve signs of
the Zodiac. Christians have admitted the resemblance of this god to
Christ. Parkhurst's "Hebrew Lexicon" says: "The labors of Hercules
seem to have had a still higher view and to have been originally
designed as emblematical memorials of what the real son of God and
savior of the world was to do and suffer for our sakes."
The Rev. Heinrich Rower says: "We are all acquainted with the fact
that in their mythological legends the Greeks and the Romans and
other nations of antiquity speak of certain persons as the sons of the
gods. An example of this is Hercules, the Greek hero, who is the son
of Jupiter, and an earthly mother. * * * All those men who performed
greater deeds than those which human beings usually do are regarded
by antiquity as of divine origin. This Greek and heathen notion has
been applied to the New Testament and churchly conception of the
person of Jesus. We must remember that at the time when Christianity
sprang into evidence, Greek culture and Greek religion spread over the
whole world. It is accordingly nothing remarkable that the Christians
took from the heathens the highest religious conceptions that they
possessed, and transferred them to Jesus. They accordingly called
him the son of God, and declared that he had been supernaturally
born of a virgin. This is the Greek and heathen influence which has
determined the character of the account given by Matthew and Luke
concerning the birth of Jesus."
Dionysos.
Zagreus was the son of Zeus. He was slain by the Titans, buried at
the foot of Mount Parnassus, and rose from the dead as Dionysos. He
was the god of fruit and wine. Like those of Christ his most devoted
followers were women. He is the beloved son and occupies a throne at
the right hand of his father, Zeus. His empty tomb at Delphi was long
preserved by his devotees as proof of his death and resurrection.
The stories of the resurrection of Adonis in Phoenicia, of Osiris
in Egypt and of Dionysos in Greece were old when Christ was born,
and paved the way for the origin and acceptance of the story of his
resurrection.
Justin Martyr recognized the analogies between Christianity and
Paganism. Addressing the Pagans, he writes: "When we say that the
Word, who is the first born of God, was produced without sexual union,
and that he, Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and
rose again, and ascended into heaven; we propound nothing different
from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter
(Zeus)" (First Apology, ch. xxi).
Festivals, called Lenaea and the Greater Dionysia, corresponding in
a measure to the Christmas and Easter of Christians, were celebrated
in honor of this god. Prof. Gulick, professor of Greek in Harvard
University, describing these festivals, says: "In the winter came
various celebrations in honor of Dionysos, god of nature and the vine,
the object of which was to wake the sleeping spirit of generation
and render him propitious for the coming of spring and the sowing
of crops * * * The wine-casks were opened, and all, even slaves,
were allowed perfect holiday and liberty to drink in honor of the
god. The last day of the festival was a sort of All Souls' Day, being
devoted to the gods of the underworld and the spirits of the dead"
(Life of the Ancient Greeks, pp. 274, 275). "The Great Dionysia,"
says Prof. Gulick, "held in the spring, was the occasion of display
and magnificence" (Ibid, p. 113).
So-called Christian burial is identical with Greek burial. Ancient
Greek sepulture is thus described by Ridpath: "To the dead were due
the sacred rites of sepulture * * * When a Greek fell into his last
slumber, the friends immediately composed the body * * * The corse
was clad in white and laid upon a bier. Flowers were brought by the
mourning friends, who put on badges of sorrow * * * Cemeteries were
arranged outside the city walls * * * Over each [grave] was raised
a mound of earth, and on this were planted ivy and roses. * * * Over
the grave was erected a memorial stone or monument, and on this was
an inscription giving the name of the dead, an effigy perhaps of his
person, a word of praise for his virtues, and an epigram composed
for his memory" (History of the Word, Vol. II, p. 497).
Prometheus.
The Titan god, Prometheus, was the son of Iapetus and Asia. He is one
of the most sublime creations of the human imagination. When Zeus,
like Jehovah, became enraged at mankind and sought to destroy it,
Prometheus, like Christ, came on earth to intercede and suffer for
the race. Hurled to Tartarus by the thunderbolts of Zeus he came
again to endure, if need be, eternal agony for man.
For centuries Greeks and Romans believed the story of this vicarious
god to be historical. Grote, the historian, says: "So long and
so firmly did this belief continue, that the Roman general Pompey,
when in command of an army in Kolchis, made with his companion, the
literary Greek Theophanes, a special march to view the spot in Caucasus
where Prometheus had been transfixed" (Greek Mythology, pp. 92, 93).
Referring to the Greeks and their great tragedy, "Prometheus Bound,"
A. L. Rawson says: "Its hero was their friend, benefactor, creator,
and savior, whose wrongs were incurred in their behalf, and whose
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" (Isaiah
liii, 5), (Evolution of Israel's God, p. 30). Alluding to this subject,
Dr. Westbrook writes: "The New Testament description of the crucifixion
and the attending circumstances, even to the earthquake and darkness,
was thus anticipated by five centuries" (Bible: Whence and What?).
The dying Christ shares with the dying Prometheus the sympathies
of men. But how trivial the crucifixion, how light the suffering,
and how weak the courage of the Christian god appear compared with
the cruel crucifixion, the infinite suffering, and the deathless
courage of the immortal Pagan! Transfixed to the rock on Caucasus,
the Golgotha of Greek mythology, with the devouring eagle feeding
forever on his vitals, there falls from his lips no murmur of pain,
no Sabachthani of despair. What lofty heroism, what enduring patience,
what unselfish love, this tragic story has inspired!
"To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy power which seems omnipotent;
To love and bear; to hope till hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, to falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great, and joyous, beautiful and free."
--Shelley.
Esculapius.
Esculapius was the illegitimate son of the nymph Coronis, by
Apollo. The mother, at the instigation of Apollo, was slain by Diana;
but the child was spared. He became noted for his wonderful curative
powers. He healed all diseases, and even restored the dead to life. He
was called "The Good Physician." He was struck by a thunderbolt and
ascended to heaven. The Greeks worshiped him.
The miraculous cures ascribed to Christ, many of them, doubtless,
had their origin in the legends of Esculapius. Justin Martyr says:
"In that we say he [Christ] made whole the lame, the paralytic, and
those born blind, we seem to say what is very similar to the deeds
said to have been done by Esculapius" (First Apology, ch. xxi).
Plato.
One of the most gifted of mortals was Plato. His followers believed
him to be of divine descent. Concerning his parentage, Dr. Draper says:
"Antiquity has often delighted to cast a halo of mythical glory around
its illustrious names. The immortal works of this great philosopher
seemed to entitle him to more than mortal honors. A legend into
the authenticity of which we will abstain from inquiring, asserted
that his mother, Perictione, a pure virgin, suffered an immaculate
conception through the influence of Apollo. The god declared to
Ariston, to whom she was about to be married, the parentage of the
child" (Intellectual Development, Vol. I, p. 151).
Concerning this myth, McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopedia" says:
"Legend, which is traced back to Spensipus, the nephew of Plato,
ascribed the paternity of Plato to the god Apollo; and, in the form in
which the story is told by Olympiodorus, closely imitates the record
in regard to the nativity of Christ" (Art. Plato).
Immaculate conceptions were common in Greece. "The furtive pregnancy
of young women, often by a god," says Grote, "is one of the most
frequently recurring incidents in the legendary narratives of the
country." The Christian story of the miraculous conception has not
even the merit of originality. With the Platonic legend before him,
all that the Evangelist had to do was to substitute Jehovah for Apollo,
Joseph for Ariston, Mary for Perictione, and Jesus for Plato.
The philosophy of Plato is a strange compound of profound wisdom
concerning the known and of vague speculations respecting the
unknown. The latter form no inconsiderable portion of the religion
ascribed to Christ. The Christian religion is supposed to be of
Semitic origin; but its doctrines are, many of them, the work of
Greek theologians; its incarnate God bears a Greek name, and its
early literature was mostly Greek. Draper recognizes three primitive
modifications of Christianity: 1. Judaic Christianity; 2. Gnostic
Christianity; 3. Platonic Christianity. Platonic Christianity, he says,
endured and is essentially the Christianity of to-day.
The following are some of the principles of Plato's philosophy:
There is but one God, and we ought to love and serve him.
The Word formed the world and rendered it visible.
A knowledge of the Word will make us happy.
The soul is immortal, and the dead will rise again.
There will be a final judgment; the righteous will be rewarded,
and the wicked punished.
The design argument, the chief argument relied upon by Christians to
prove the divine origin of the universe, is a Platonic argument.
In a letter to the author twenty-five years ago, James Parton wrote:
"Read carefully over the dialogue, Phaedo. You will see what you
will see: the whole Christian system and the entire dream of the
contemplative monk."
Phaedo deals chiefly with the soul--its nature and destiny. The
following quotations are from the translation of Henry Cary, M.A.,
of Oxford:
Death is defined by Plato as "the separation of the soul from the
body."
"Can the soul, which is invisible, and which goes to another place
like itself, excellent, pure, and invisible, and therefore truly called
the invisible world, to the presence of a good and wise God, (whither
if God will, my soul also must shortly go), can this soul of ours, I
ask, being such and of such a nature, when separated from the body, be
immediately dispersed and destroyed, as most men assert? Far from it."
"If that which is immortal is imperishable, it is impossible for the
soul to perish, when death approaches it."
"When, therefore, death approaches a man, the mortal part of him, as
it appears, dies, but the immortal part departs safe and uncorrupted,
having withdrawn itself from death."
After death, Plato says, the souls are conducted to a place where they
"receive sentence and then proceed to Hades."
If the soul "arrives at the place where the others are, impure,
... every one shuns it, and will neither be its fellow traveler
or guide, but it wanders about oppressed with every kind of
helplessness.... But the soul which has passed through life with
purity and moderation, having obtained the gods for its fellow
travelers and guides, settles each in the place suited to it."
"If the soul is immortal, it requires our care not only for the present
time, which we call life, but for all time; and the danger would now
appear to be dreadful, if one should neglect it. For if death were a
deliverance from everything, it would be a great gain for the wicked,
when they die, to be delivered at the same time from the body, and
from their vices together with the soul; but now, since it appears
to be immortal, it can have no other refuge from evils, nor safety,
except by becoming as good and wise as possible."
Christ, it is claimed, "brought immortality to light." Yet Phaedo
was written nearly four centuries before Christ came.
McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopedia" concedes Plato's "near
approximation to the doctrines of Christianity--some of
which," it says, "he announces almost in the language of the
Apostles." Continuing, this authority says: "We know no more
terrible and sublime picture than the passage in which he depicts
the dead presenting themselves for judgment in the other world,
scarred and blotched and branded with the ineradicable marks of their
earthly sins. Yet this is but one of many analogous passages. This
approximation to revealed truth is among the most insoluble problems
bequeathed to us by antiquity.... We offer no solution of the enigma,
which awaits its Oedipus. We only note the existence of the riddle"
(Plato).
Prof. Gunkel, of Berlin, says: "'Christianity is a syncretistic
religion. It is providential that it passed safely over from the Orient
into the Greek world. It imbibed both influences, and acquired many
features that were foreign to the original gospel.'"
Pythagoras.
This religio-philosophical teacher lived in the sixth century B. C.,
the century in which flourished Buddha, Laou-tsze, and Confucius, three
of the world's greatest religious founders. Greece was his native,
and Italy his adopted, country. His history is largely obscured by
myths. He was claimed to be, like Plato, the son of Apollo. He was
said to have performed miracles and to have been endowed with the gift
of prophecy. He traveled in Egypt and India, and his system contains
some elements of the Egyptian and Buddhist religions.
There was a small Jewish sect, known as the Essenes, which adopted
to a large extent the teachings of Pythagoras. Jesus is believed to
have belonged to this sect. There is an Essene element in the New
Testament which is especially prominent in the teachings ascribed
to Christ. Josephus, in his "Wars of the Jews," describes at length
the doctrines and customs of this sect. From Josephus and the New
Testament I cite a few of the parallels between the religion of the
Essenes and the religion of Christ.
"These men are despisers of "A rich man shall hardly enter into
riches" (Wars, B. II, ch. viii, the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xix,
sec. 3). 23).
"It is a law among them, that "Neither said any of them that
those who come to them must let aught of the things which he
what they have be common to the possessed was his own; but they had
whole order" (Ibid). all things common" (Acts iv, 32).
"They carry nothing at all with "Provide neither gold, nor silver,
them when they travel into remote nor brass in your purses, nor scrip
parts" (Sec. 4). for your journey" (Matt. x, 9, 10).
"Every one of them gives what he "Give to him that asketh thee"
hath to him that wanteth it" (Matt. v, 42.)
(Ib).
"And he took bread, and gave
"A priest says grace before meat" thanks" (Luke xxii, 19).
(Sec. 5).
"Blessed are the peace-makers"
"They ... are the ministers of (Matt. v, 9).
peace" (Sec. 6).
"But I say unto you, Swear not at
"Whatsoever they say also is all; ... but let your communication
firmer than an oath; but swearing be, yea, yea; nay, nay" (Matt. v,
is avoided by them" (Sec. 6). 34, 37).
Closely allied to the Essenes and the primitive Christians is another
Pythagorian sect, known as the Therapeuts of Egypt. Regarding this
sect, four different theories are held: 1. That they were a Jewish
sect. 2. That they were a Jewish Christian sect. 3. That they were
Pagans, many of whose teachings were incorporated into the Christian
creed. 4. That they are a myth, that the "De Vita Contemplativa"
of Philo, which contains the only account of them, is a Christian
forgery, written for the purpose of extolling the monastic life,
the celibacy, and the asceticism of the church.
Bacchus.
Bacchus was a Roman god, or rather a Roman modification of the
Greek god, Dionysos. He was the god of wine. He cultivated the vine,
made wine, and encouraged its use. His worship extended over nearly
the whole of the ancient world. It consisted largely of protracted
festivals, where wine flowed freely, and joyous and noisy ceremonies
were indulged in.
This god and his worship have survived in Christ and
Christianity. Christ was called a "winebibber" (Luke vii, 34); he
made wine--his first miracle was the conversion of water into wine
(John ii, 1-10); he blessed the winecup, and commanded his disciples
to drink in remembrance of him (Luke xxii, 17), just as the devotees
of Bacchus drank in remembrance of their god. Christianity, more
than all other religions combined, has contributed to keep alive the
Bacchanalian feasts and revelries.
"Bacchus," says Volney, "in the history of his whole life, and even
of his death, brings to mind the history of the god of Christians"
(Ruins, p. 169). The cabalistic names of Bacchus and Jesus, Volney
says, were the same.
United with the worship of Bacchus, and similar to it, was the
worship of the goddess Ceres (Demeter). Her rites were known as the
Eleusinian mysteries. Cakes were eaten in her honor. And thus in the
bread of Ceres and the wine of Bacchus we have the bread and wine
of the Christian Eucharist. "It is well known," says Dr. Westbrook,
"that the Athenians celebrated the allegorical giving of the flesh to
eat of Ceres, the goddess of corn, and in like manner the giving his
blood to drink by Bacchus, the god of wine." This worship, like the
Mithraic worship, which also included the communion, had its origin
in the East, and was one of the first, as well as one of the last,
of the religions of ancient Greece and Rome.
Another rite connected with the mysteries was the use of holy
water. Lempriere, in his "Classical Dictionary," describing the
Eleusinian mysteries as they existed in Greece centuries before the
Christian era, says: "As the candidates for initiation entered the
temple, they purified themselves by washing their hands in holy water."
The mysteries comprehended the origin of life, and nature worship was
included in the ceremonies. At the festivals women carried the phallus
in their processions. Regarding the worship of Bacchus and Ceres at
Rome, "Chambers' Encyclopedia" says: "These rites degenerated, and came
to be celebrated with a licentiousness that threatened the destruction
of morality and of society itself. They were made the occasion of
the most unnatural excesses. At first, only women took part in these
mysterious Bacchic rites, but latterly men also were admitted."
The Roman government suppressed the later Bacchanalian and Eleusinian
feasts, together with the Christian Agapae, because of their
debaucheries, obscenities, and supposed infant sacrifices. Meredith,
in "The Prophet of Nazareth" (pp. 225-231), institutes an examination
to ascertain "how far the Eleusinian and Bacchanalian feasts resembled
the Christian Agapae." His conclusion is that the facts "show clearly
that the Christian Agapae were of pagan origin--were identically the
same as the pagan feasts." Gibbon says: "The language of that great
historian [Tacitus, in his allusion to Christians] is almost similar
to the style employed by Livy, when he relates the introduction and
the suppression of the rites of Bacchus" (Rome, vol. 1, P. 579).
Referring to the Agapae, Dr. Cave says it was commonly charged
that Christians "exercised lust and filthiness under a pretense of
religion, promiscuously calling themselves brothers and sisters, that
by the help of so sacred a name their common adulteries might become
incestuous" (Primitive Christianity, Part II, chap. v). Describing
the Carpocratians, an early Christian sect, Dr. Cave says: "Both men
and women used to meet at supper (which was called their love-feast),
when after they had loaded themselves with a plentiful meal, to prevent
all shame, if they had any remaining, they put out the lights, and
then promiscuously mixed in filthiness with one another" (Ibid).
The "International Cyclopedia" says: "With the increase of wealth and
the decay of religious earnestness and purity in the Christian church,
the Agapae became occasions of great riotousness and debaucheries."
The Agapae, with their excesses eliminated, survive in the love-feasts
of modern Christians. Webster defines "love-feast" as "a religious
festival, held quarterly by the Methodists, in imitation of the Agapae
of the early Christians."
That these mysteries of Bacchus and Ceres were adopted by the
early Christians is largely admitted by the great church historian
himself. Writing of the second century, Mosheim says: "The profound
respect paid to the Greek and Roman mysteries, and the extraordinary
sanctity that was attributed to them, was a further circumstance
that induced the Christians to give their religion a mystic air, in
order to put it upon an equal foot, 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 these renowned mysteries
consisted." (Ecclesiastical History, p. 56.)
England's highest authority on early Christian history, Dean Milman,
says: "Christianity disdained that its God and its Redeemer should be
less magnificently honored than the demons (gods) of Paganism. In the
service it delighted to breathe, as it were, a sublimer sense into the
common appellations of the Pagan worship, whether from the ordinary
ceremonial or the more secret mysteries. The church became a temple;
the table of the communion an altar; the celebration of the Eucharist,
the appalling, or unbloody sacrifice.... The incense, the garlands,
the lamps, all were gradually adopted by zealous rivalry, or seized
as the lawful spoils of vanquished Paganism and consecrated to the
service of Christ.
"The church rivaled the old heathen mysteries in expanding by slow
degrees its higher privileges.... Its preparatory ceremonial of
abstinence, personal purity, ablution, secrecy, closely resembled
that of the Pagan mysteries (perhaps each may have contributed to
the other)" (History of Christianity, Vol. III, pp. 312, 313).
Smith's "Dictionary of Antiquities" says: "The mysteries occupied a
place among the ancients analogous to that of the holy sacraments
in the Christian church." The "Encyclopedia Britannica" makes the
same statement.
James Anthony Froude, in a letter to Prof. Johnson, of England, says:
"I have long been convinced that the Christian Eucharist is but a
continuation of the Eleusinian mysteries. St. Paul, in using the word
teleiois, almost confirms this."
Saturn.
One of the oldest and most renowned of the European gods was Saturn,
whose name was given by the ancients to one of the planets and to
one of the days of the week. He was worshiped by the inhabitants of
Italy more than a thousand years before Christ came, and centuries
before Rome took her place among the nations of the earth. His temples
were located in various parts of Italy, the latest and the principal
one being at Rome. His chief festival, and the greatest of all the
Roman festivals, was the Saturnalia celebrated at the time of the
winter solstice. This festival survives in the Christian festival
of Christmas.
The following description of the Saturnalia is from the pen of
Ridpath: "The most elaborate of all the celebrations of Rome was
that of Saturn, held at the winter solstice, and afterwards extended
so as to include the twenty-fifth of December.... The festival was
called the Saturnalia. Labor ceased, public business was at an end,
the courts were closed, the schools had holiday. Tables, laden with
bounties, were spread on every hand, and at these all classes for the
nonce sat down together. The master and the slave for the day were
equals. It was a time of gift-giving and innocent abandonment. In
the public shops every variety of the present, from the simplest
to the most costly, could be found. Fathers, mothers, kinspeople,
friends, all hurried thither to purchase, according to their fancy,
what things soever seemed most tasteful and appropriate as presents"
(History of the World, Vol. III, p. 97).
Concerning this festival the "Encyclopedia Britannica" says: "All
classes exchanged gifts, the commonest being wax tapers and clay
dolls. These dolls were especially given to children, and the makers
of them held a regular fair at this time." One of the principal rites,
the "Britannica" says, was the burning of many candles. "The modern
Italian carnival," says "Chambers' Encyclopedia," "would seem to be
only the old pagan Saturnalia baptized into Christianity."
Quirinus.
Nearly every reader is familiar with the story of the founding of
Rome. Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin, bears twins by the god Mars. As
they are heirs to the throne which Amulius has usurped, he attempts to
destroy them by drowning. They are miraculously preserved and finally
rescued by a shepherd. One of them, Romulus, becomes the founder
and king of Rome. After a reign of 37 years he is translated by his
father, and eventually becomes the tutelary god of the Romans, under
the name of Quirinus. The following account of his translation is from
"Chambers' Encyclopedia": "While he was standing near the 'Goat's Pool'
in the Campus Martius, reviewing his militia, the sun was eclipsed,
and a dark storm swept over the plain and hills. When it had passed,
the people looked round for their king, but he was gone. His father,
Mars, had carried him up to heaven (like the prophet Elijah) in a
chariot of fire. Some time after he reappeared in a glorified form to
Proculus Julius, announced the future greatness of the Roman people,
and told him that henceforth he would watch over them as their guardian
god, under the name of Quirinus" (Art. Romulus).
Next to the Saturnalia, the most important religious festival of Pagan
Rome was the Quirinalia, which celebrated the ascension of Quirinus. It
corresponds to Ascension Day, one of the principal religious festivals
of the Christian church, which celebrates the ascension of Christ.
The supernatural darkness of the Roman myth, it is believed, suggested
the supernatural darkness of the crucifixion myth. The reappearance
of Quirinus in a glorified form is also believed by some to have
suggested the transfiguration.
Odin.
Odin, the All-Father, held the highest rank in the Northern
pantheon. He was the son of Boer and Bestla. Freya was his queen. His
religion prevailed among the Scandinavians and among the Goths, the
Saxons, and other ancient German tribes. Some believe that he was
an ancient hero who with a horde of Goths or Scythians conquered the
North a thousand years or more before the Christian era. The prevailing
opinion, however, is that the Norse mythology had its birth in Asia--in
India, Persia, or Accadia--and was carried by the Aryans to northern
Europe, where it underwent many modifications.
This mythology recognized as existing in the beginning, two worlds--one
the warm South, the other the icy North. The entrance to the Southland
was guarded by a flaming sword. Between heat and cold, as between
good and evil, there was perpetual strife. From heat Ymir (Chaos),
the father of giants, was evolved. Odin and his brothers slew Ymir
and from his body created the earth, his flesh forming the land, his
blood the sea. Out of two trees Odin made man and woman, and breathed
into them the breath of life. For the abode of man a fruitful garden
was planted in the center of the earth and called Midgard. Beneath
the earth dwells Hel, the goddess of the dead.
Loki is the god of evil. He will be chained for a time and then
released. A bloody war will follow. On one side, led by Loki, will
fight the hosts of Hel; on the other Odin and his followers. Loki
will triumph for a while, mankind will be destroyed, and heaven and
earth will be consumed by fire. But Odin will be victorious in the
end. He will create a new heaven and a new earth. He will be the
ruler of all things, and will dwell in heaven, where the best and
bravest of his followers are to be received after death.
The Norse, the Persian, and the Christian doctrines, regarding the
destruction of the world by fire, all had a common origin.
Thor.
Thor was the son of Odin and the virgin Earth. He was called the first
born son of God. His worship was more widespread than that of any other
Northern god. In the temple at Upsala he occupied the same place in the
Scandinavian Trinity that Christ does in the Christian Trinity. Like
Christ he died for man and was worshiped as a Savior. Midgard had a
serpent, more formidable if not more wily than that of Eden, which
threatened to destroy the human race. Thor attacked and slew the
monster, but was himself killed by the venom which was exhaled from
it. The slaying of the serpent of Midgard by Thor, the slaying of the
python by the Greek god, and the bruising of the head of the serpent
of Hebrew mythology by Christ, are analogous myths.
Thor dwells in a mansion in the clouds. The thunder we hear in the sky
is the noise of his chariot wheels, and the flashes of lightning are
from his hammer which he dashes against the mountains. The "Britannica"
says: "Some of the monks of a later period endeavored to persuade
the Northmen that in Thor their forefathers had worshiped Christ, the
strong and mighty Savior of the oppressed, and that his mallet was the
rude form of the cross." "The sign of the hammer," says "Chambers,"
"was analogous to that of the cross among Christians."
Baldur.
One of the purest, one of the gentlest, and one of the best beloved of
all the gods was Baldur, the beautiful son of Odin and Freya. In him
were combined all things good and noble. The envious gods, inspired
by Loki, shot their arrows at him in vain until the blind god Hoder
pierced his body with an arrow of mistletoe and he passed into the
power of Hel, the pallid goddess of death. Sometime--when the old
order of things has passed away--in another and better world, where
envy, and hatred, and war are unknown, Baldur will live again.
"The death of Baldur," says Prof. Rasmus B. Anderson, the highest
authority on Norse mythology, "forms the turning point in the great
drama.... While he lived the power of the asas (gods) was secure,
but when Baldur, at the instigation of Loki, was slain, the fall of
creation could not be prevented."
Writing of Norse mythology, Andrew Lang says: "There is, almost
undoubtedly, a touch of Christian dawn on the figure and myth of the
pure and beloved and ill-fated god Baldur, and his descent into hell."
Odin, and Thor, and Baldur, and their divine companions are
worshiped no longer; but their religion has left a deep impress on
the religion that supplanted it. The Christianity of Scandinavia, of
northern Germany, of England, and of America, the whole of Protestant
Christianity, in short, and to some extent Catholicism itself, has been
modified by this strange and fascinating faith. Regarding this subject
"Chambers' Encyclopedia" says: "So deep-rooted was the adhesion to
the faith of Odin in the North, that the early Christian teachers,
unable to eradicate the old ideas, were driven to the expedient of
trying to give them a coloring of Christianity."
The selection of December 25th as the date of the Nativity was
doubtless suggested by the Mithraic or some other solar worship of the
East, but the Protestant Christmas came from the North. The mistletoe
with which Baldur was slain reappears in this festival. The fire
wheel, a remnant of the old Norse sun worship, existed among German
Christians until the nineteenth century. The burning of the Yule log
still survives. In some provinces of Germany the festival is still
called by its Pagan name.
Rev. Samuel M. Jackson, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Church History,
New York University, says: "The Romans had, like other Pagan nations,
a nature festival, called by them Saturnalia, and the Northern peoples
had Yule; both celebrated the turn of the year from the death of
winter to the life of spring--the winter solstice. As this was an
auspicious change the festival was a very joyous one.... The giving
of presents and the burning of candles characterized it. Among the
northern people the lighting of a huge log in the houses of the great
and with appropriate ceremonies was a feature. The Roman church finding
this festival deeply intrenched in popular esteem, wisely adopted it"
(Universal Cyclopedia).
The festival of Easter belongs to this religion. It was observed in
honor of the Saxon goddess Eastre, or Ostara, the goddess of Spring. It
celebrated, not the resurrection of Christ, but the resurrection of
Spring and flowers. It still retains the name of this goddess. Nearly
every festival of the church--and the Catholic and English churches
have many--are of Pagan origin. Every day of the week bears a Pagan
name--four of them the names of Scandinavian gods--Tuesday the name
of Tiu (Tyr), Wednesday the name of Woden (Odin), Thursday the name
of Thor, and Friday that of Freya. Even the Christian "hell" was
derived from "Hel," the name of the Norse goddess of the lower world.
CHAPTER XII.
SOURCES OF THE CHRIST MYTH--CONCLUSION.
In each of these divinities we find some element or lineament of
Christ. And all of them existed, either as myths or mortals, long
anterior to his time. Plato, the latest of them to appear, was born
in the fifth century B. C. These Pagan divinities and deified sages,
together with the religious systems and doctrines previously noticed,
were the sources from which Christ and Christianity were, for the
most part, derived.
The following religious elements and ideas, nearly all of which
Christians believe to have been divinely revealed, and to belong
exclusively to their religion, are of Pagan origin:
Son of God,
Messiah,
Mediator,
The Word,
The Ideal Man,
Annunciation,
Immaculate conception,
Divine incarnation,
Genealogies showing royal descent,
Virgin mother,
Angelic visitants,
Celestial music,
Visit of shepherds,
Visit of Magi,
Star of Magi,
Slaughter of innocents,
Temptation,
Transfiguration,
Crucified Redeemer,
Supernatural darkness,
Resurrection,
Ascension,
Descent into Hell,
Second advent,
Unity of God,
Trinity in Unity,
Holy Ghost (Spirit),
Devil,
Angels,
Immortality of the soul,
Last judgment,
Future rewards and punishments,
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory,
Fatherhood of God,
Brotherhood of man,
Freedom of the will,
Fall of man,
Vicarious atonement,
Kingdom of God,
Binding of Satan,
Miracles,
Prophecies,
Obsession,
Exorcism,
The priesthood,
Pope and bishops,
Monks and nuns,
Worship of Virgin,
Adoration of Virgin and Child,
Worship of saints,
Worship of relics,
Image worship,
Inspired Scriptures,
The cross as a religious symbol,
Crucifix,
Rosary,
Holy water,
Lord's Day (Sunday),
Christmas,
Easter,
Baptism,
Eucharist,
Washing of feet,
Anointing,
Confirmation,
Masses for the dead,
Fasting,
Prayer,
Auricular confession,
Penance,
Absolution,
Celibacy,
Poverty,
Asceticism,
Tithes,
Community of goods,
Golden Rule and other precepts.
The Old Testament consists largely of borrowed myths. Nearly everything
in Genesis, and much of the so-called history which follows, are but a
recital of Assyrian, Babylonian, Chaldean and other legends. Dr. Draper
says: "From such Assyrian sources, the legends of the creation of the
earth and heaven, the garden of Eden, the making of man from clay,
and of woman from one of his ribs, the temptation by the serpent,
the naming of animals, the cherubim and flaming sword, the Deluge and
the ark, the drying up of the waters by the wind, the building of the
Tower of Babel, and the confusion of tongues, were obtained by Ezra"
(Conflict, p. 223).
The ten antediluvian patriarchs, Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel,
Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah, whom Luke presents as the
first ten progenitors of Christ, are now known to have been a dynasty
of Babylonian kings. Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah, whom both Matthew
and Luke declare to have been ancestors of Christ, and whom Matthew
places at the head of his genealogy, were not persons at all, but
merely tribes of people. In regard to this Rev. Dr. Oort, professor
of Oriental languages at Amsterdam, says: "They do not signify men,
so much as groups of nations or single tribes. Abram, for instance,
represents a great part of the Terachites; Lot, the Moabites and
Ammonites, whose ancestor he is called; Ishmael, certain tribes
of Arabia; Isaac, Israel and Edom together; Jacob, Israel alone;
while his twelve sons stand for the twelve tribes of Israel. * * *
Here and there the writers of the old legend themselves point out,
as it were, that the patriarchs whom they bring upon the scene as
men are personifications of tribes" (Bible for Learners, Vol. I,
pp. 100-102). Moses, the reputed founder of Judaism and archetype of
Christ, doubtless existed; but nearly all the Bible stories concerning
him are myths. David and Solomon, from whose house Christ is said
to have been descended, are historical characters; but the accounts
respecting the greatness of their kingdom and the splendor of their
reigns are fabulous.
Christ and Christianity are partly creations and partly
evolutions. While the elements composing them were mostly derived
from preexisting and contemporary beliefs, they were not formed as a
novelist creates a hero and a convention frames a constitution. Their
growth was gradual. Jesus, if he existed, was a Jew, and his religion,
with a few innovations, was Judaism. With his death, probably, his
apotheosis began. During the first century the transformation was slow;
but during the succeeding centuries rapid. The Judaic elements of his
religion were, in time, nearly all eliminated, and the Pagan elements,
one by one, were incorporated into the new faith.
Regarding the establishment of this religion Lecky says: "Christianity
had become the central intellectual power of the world, but it
triumphed not so much by superseding rival faiths as by absorbing and
transforming them. Old systems, old rites, old images were grafted
into the new belief, retaining much of their ancient character but
assuming new names and a new complexion" (Rationalism, Vol. I. p. 223).
Its origin is thus traced by Mrs. Besant: "From the later Jews comes
the Unity of God; from India and Egypt the Trinity in Unity; from
India and Egypt the crucified Redeemer; from India, Egypt, Greece, and
Rome, the virgin mother and the divine son; from Egypt its priests and
its ritual; from the Essenes and the Therapeuts its asceticism; from
Persia, India, and Egypt, its sacraments; from Persia and Babylonia
its angels and devils; from Alexandria the blending into one of many
lines of thought." (Freethinkers' Text Book, p. 392.)
Concerning this, Judge Strange, another English writer, says: "The
Jewish Scriptures and the traditionary teachings of their doctors,
the Essenes and Therapeuts, the Greek philosophers, the Neo-Platonism
of Alexandria and the Buddhism of the East, gave ample supplies
for the composition of the doctrinal portion of the new faith; the
divinely procreated personages of the Grecian and Roman pantheons,
the tales of the Egyptian Osiris, and of the Indian Rama, Krishna,
and Buddha, furnished the materials for the image of the new Savior
of mankind." (Portraiture and Mission of Jesus, p. 27.)
Dr. G. W. Brown, previously quoted, says: "The Eclectics formed
the nucleus into which were merged all the various religions of
the Orient. Mithra, of the Zoroastrians; Krishna and Buddha, of the
Brahmans; Osiris, of the Egyptians, and Bacchus, of the Greeks and
Romans, all disappeared and were lost in the new God Jesus, each of
the predecessors contributing to the conglomerate religion known as
Christian, Buddha and probably Bacchus contributing the most."
Dr. John W. Draper, recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as one
of the most erudite, one of the most philosophic, and one of the most
impartial of historians, in the following paragraphs tells the story
of the rise and triumph of this ever-changing faith:
"In a political sense, Christianity is the bequest of the Roman Empire
to the world."
"Not only as a token of the conquest she had made, but also as a
gratification to her pride, the conquering republic brought the gods
of the vanquished peoples to Rome. With disdainful toleration, she
permitted the worship of them all. That paramount authority exercised
by each divinity in his original seat disappeared at once in the
crowd of gods and goddesses among whom he had been brought. Already,
as we have seen, through geographical discoveries and philosophical
criticism, faith in the religion of the old days had been profoundly
shaken. It was, by this policy of Rome, brought to an end."
"In one of the Eastern provinces, Syria, some persons in very humble
life had associated themselves together for benevolent and religious
purposes. The doctrines they held were in harmony with that sentiment
of universal brotherhood arising from the coalescence of the conquered
kingdoms. They were doctrines inculcated by Jesus."
"From this germ was developed a new, and as the events proved,
all-powerful society--the Church; new, for nothing of the kind had
existed in antiquity; powerful, for the local churches, at first
isolated, soon began to confederate for their common interest. Through
this organization Christianity achieved all her political triumphs."
"After the abdication of Diocletian (A. D., 305), Constantine, one of
the competitors for the purple, perceiving the advantages that would
accrue to him from such a policy, put himself forth as the head of
the Christian party. This gave him, in every part of the empire,
men and women ready to encounter fire and sword in his behalf; it
gave him unwavering adherents in every legion of the armies. In
a decisive battle, near the Milvian bridge, victory crowned his
schemes. The death of Maximian, and subsequently that of Licinius,
removed all obstacles. He ascended the throne of the Caesars--the
first Christian emperor."
"Place, profit, power--these were in view of whoever now joined the
conquering sect. Crowds of worldly persons, who cared nothing about
its religious ideas, became its warmest supporters. Pagans at heart,
their influence was soon manifested in the paganization of Christianity
that forthwith ensued."
"As years passed on, the faith described by Tertullian was transmuted
into one more fashionable and more debased. It was incorporated with
the old Greek mythology. Olympus was restored, but the divinities
passed under other names. The more powerful provinces insisted on
the adoption of their time-honored conceptions. Views of the Trinity,
in accordance with Egyptian traditions, were established."
"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 Roman lituns, the chief
ensign of the augurs, became the crozier. Churches were built over
the tombs of martyrs, and consecrated with rites borrowed from the
ancient laws of the Roman pontiffs. Festivals and commemorations
of martyrs multiplied with the numberless fictitious discoveries of
their remains. Fasting became the grand means of repelling the devil
and appeasing God; celibacy the greatest of the virtues. Pilgrimages
were made to Palestine and the tombs of the martyrs. Quantities of
dust and earth were brought from the Holy Land and sold at enormous
prices, as antidotes against devils. The virtues of consecrated water
were upheld. Images and relics were introduced into the churches,
and worshiped after the fashion of the heathen gods.... The apotheosis
of the old Roman times was replaced by canonization; tutelary saints
succeeded to local mythological divinities."
"As centuries passed, the paganization became more and more complete."
"The maxim holds good in the social as well as the mechanical world,
that, when two bodies strike, the form of both is changed. Paganism
was modified by Christianity; Christianity by Paganism" (Conflict,
pp. 34-52).
While affirming the divine origin of Christianity, the church
historian Mosheim admits its early paganization. He says: "The rites
and institutions, by which the Greeks, Romans, and other nations had
formerly testified their religious veneration for fictitious deities,
were now adopted, with some slight alterations, by Christian bishops,
and employed in the service of the true God.... Hence it happened that
in these times the religion of the Greeks and Romans differed very
little in its external appearance from that of the Christians. They
had both a most pompous and splendid ritual. Gorgeous robes, mitres,
tiaras, wax-tapers, crosiers, processions, lustrations, images,
gold and silver vases, and many such circumstances of pageantry, were
equally to be seen in the heathen temples and the Christian churches"
(Ecclesiastical History, p. 105).
The Rev. Dr. R. Heber Newton, in an article which appeared in the
North American Review, says: "There is, in fact, as we now see,
nothing in the externals of the Christian church which is not a
survival from the churches of paganism.... The sacramental use of
water and bread and wine, the very sign of the cross--all are ancient
human institutions, rites and symbols. Scratch a Christian and you come
upon a Pagan. Christianity is a rebaptized paganism." "Christendom,"
says Dr. Lyman Abbott, "is only an imperfectly Christianized paganism."
The creeds of old are dead or dying, and the celestial kings, who
seemed so real to their worshipers, are mostly crownless phantoms
now. Buddha, Laou-tsze, and Confucius, the wise men of the East,
command the reverence of nearly half the world, and the Persian
prophet has a few followers; but from these faiths the supernatural
is vanishing. Millions yet believe that Krishna, the Christ of India,
is the son of God; but this faith, too, is waning. The intellectual
offspring of Plato's brilliant brain survive, but all that remains
of his divine father is a mutilated effigy. The genial Sun still
warms and lights the earth, but centuries have flown since Mithra,
his beloved, received the adoration of mankind. The fire still glows
upon the hearth, but the great Titan who brought it down from Heaven
lives only in a poet's dream. The crimson nectar of the vine moves men
to mirth and madness now as when the swan of Teos sang its praise,
but Bacchus and the ancient mysteries are dead. Above storm-wrapped
Olympus, as of old, is heard the thunder's awful peal, but it is not
the voice of Zeus. The voice of this, the mightiest of all the gods,
is hushed forever. The populous and ever-growing empire of the dead
still flourishes, but in its solemn court Osiris no longer sits as
judge. The mother, as of yore, presses to her loving heart her dimpled
babe and fondly gazes into its azure eyes to woo its artless smile;
but Egypt's star-crowned virgin and her royal child, who once received
the homage of a world, are now but mythic dust. Manly beauty thrills
our daughters' hearts with love's strange ecstasy, and the feigned
suffering of the dying hero on the mimic stage moistens their eyes
with tears; but Adonis sleeps in his Phoenician tomb, his slumbers
undisturbed by woman's sobs. The purple flower, substance of his
dear self, which Venus carried in her bosom, withered long ago. When,
at eve, the summer shower bathes with its cooling drops the verdure
of the fields, across the sun-kissed cloud which veils the Orient
sky may still be seen the gorgeous bridge of Bifrost; but over its
majestic arch the dauntless Odin rides no more.
"The fair humanities of old religions,
The power, the beauty, and the majesty,
That had their haunts in dale, or piny mountain,
Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring,
Or chasms and watery depths; all these have vanished;
They live no longer in the faith of reason."
--Schiller.
What has been the fate of the Pagan gods will be the fate of the
Christian deity. Christianity, which supplanted the ancient faiths,
will, in turn, be supplanted by other religions. On two continents
already the cross has gone down before the crescent. The belief
in Christ as a divine being is passing away. The creeds, as of old,
affirm his divinity, but in the minds of his more enlightened followers
the divine elements are disappearing. What was formerly believed to be
supernatural is now known to be natural. What were once living verities
are now dead formalities. Slowly and painfully, but surely and clearly,
men are becoming convinced that there are no divine beings and no
supernatural religions--that all the gods, including Christ, are myths,
and all the religions, including Christianity, human productions. In
the words of Jules Soury, "Time, which condenses nebulae, lights up
suns, brings life and thought upon planets theretofore steeped in
death, and gives back ephemeral worlds to dissolution and the fertile
chaos of the everlasting universe--time knows nought of gods nor of
the dim and fallacious hopes of ignorant mortals."
With these sublime pictures--a retrospect and a prophecy--from the
gallery of the great master, I close this long-drawn subject:
"When India is supreme, Brahma sits upon the world's throne. When
the sceptre passes to Egypt, Isis and Osiris receive the homage
of mankind. Greece, with her fierce valor, sweeps to empire, and
Zeus puts on the purple of authority. The earth trembles with the
tread of Rome's intrepid sons, and Jove grasps with mailed hand the
thunderbolts of Heaven. Rome falls, and Christians, from her territory,
with the red sword of war, carve out the ruling nations of the world,
and now Christ sits upon the old throne. Who will be his successor?"
"I look again. The popes and priests are gone. The altars and the
thrones have mingled with the dust. The aristocracy of land and
cloud have perished from the earth and air. The gods are dead. A new
religion sheds its glory on mankind.... And as I look Life lengthens,
Joy deepens, Love intensifies, Fear dies--Liberty at last is God,
and Heaven is here."