WHENCE CAME THE MANY GODS AND IDOLS?
The fair humanities of old religion,
The power, the beauty and the majesty.
They had their haunts in dales or piny mountain,
Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring,
Or chasms and watery depths.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.
We have seen that the first worship of the world was of one God. We
have watched the world in its processes of changing as the nations
were separated from each other. We have found that not long after
the settlement of the nations in their new lands the worship of many
gods appeared, and with this worship, or soon after it began, the
worship of idols appeared also. The number of gods and their idols
multiplied rapidly, until they numbered hundreds of millions. There
were gods of every name and shape; gods of heaven, earth, and hell;
gods of occupations and employments; gods of every living creature,
and of many inanimate things. Where did they come from? Where and
when did that great change occur, when man ceased to worship one God
and began to multiply his gods and idols? How did it come about? What
influences produced the change? Why was the world permitted to wander
so far from the truth? All these, and a hundred kindred questions
come to us at this time. Can we answer any of them? The sources of
information are not very numerous. The course of ages has destroyed,
or at least altered, many of the early records. It is like those old
manuscripts from which some economical scribe has rubbed out all the
writing originally there, to make way for his own work. Can these faded
palimpsests be restored? We must look down beneath these uppermost
records, beneath the traditions, legends and sacred writings of later
ages, and we can then discover, but faintly traceable it is true,
but still worthy of trust, some dim outlines of the introductions of
Polytheism. In the last fifty years, wonderful treasures of information
have been brought to light, and scholars skilled in Eastern learning
have been raised up to aid in bringing this information more fully to
the Western world. English, German and American students have given us
the sacred books of Hindus, Parsees and other peoples, and the story of
their work is intensely interesting.
[Illustration: ANCIENT SERPENT IDOL.]
SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
The Vedas, the sacred books of the Hindus, are the oldest existing
sacred writings, excepting those from which Moses compiled the earlier
chapters of Genesis. In these Vedas there is little of the confused
mass of mythological statements, gross superstitions and the hosts of
gods of later Brahminism. Here is presented a picture of the simple
nature-worship of the people of India in their earliest history. Having
been composed so soon after the dispersion of the nations, or rather
the hymns contained in it having been handed down by word of mouth from
generation to generation, it is a very valuable source of information
just here. Before the beginning of this century the Vedas were almost
unknown to European scholars. Since that time great attention has been
devoted to the subject, especially since Max Müller went to England to
seek the aid of Englishmen, and more particularly of the East India
Company, in publishing his translation of the Vedas. At present we can
read them for ourselves in tolerably accurate translations.
Until within a hundred years, there was no direct way of learning
of the faith, and manners, and customs of ancient Persia. It was
known that there was an authoritative record of the earliest Persian
religion, a Bible of the Parsees, but no European had ever read it. In
1754, a young French student of Paris, chanced to see a few lines of
an ancient manuscript in an unknown language. He at once determined to
go to Persia, or India, whence the manuscript had come, and to learn
more about it. As he could not secure the means for the journey, in any
other why, he enlisted as a private soldier to go to India. Just before
sailing, however, he received the means to go, and his discharge from
the army. He traveled through India until he came to the borders of
Persia. From some Parsee priests he learned the language, and gained
some slight knowledge of the Zend-Avesta, the Parsees’ Bible. He
pursued his investigations for four years more, and then published his
translation of the Avesta. But his work was incomplete, and while he
rendered a great service to the world in showing the way to a knowledge
of the Avesta, it was left for later scholars more fully and accurately
to prepare the translation of the book. The ancient Egyptian sacred
books have been almost wholly lost, it is believed. Just enough remains
to give us the outlines of their early worship.
Another source of information is the ancient monuments. It was the
custom of Oriental people to preserve important parts of their history
by engraving and carving descriptions of them on their memorial
stones. When it is remembered that all knowledge of the characters
or letters in which these inscriptions are made had faded away, we
can see how difficult the task of explaining them must have been. By
careful comparisons and patient investigations methods of interpreting
them were devised. These were severally tried; if found not to be
capable of successful application they were rejected; and thus one
plan after another was tried until the right one was found. Some of
the inscriptions were in the form of pictures with combinations of
syllables added, or _hieroglyphics_, as they are called. From these
monuments a great deal has been learned about the early history and
worship of the nations.
From these sacred books, the traditions of the nations, and from
tracing back the development of religions with the aid of monumental
inscriptions, we get a tolerably clear picture of the passing from
the worship of the one God into the worship of many gods and idols.
This change took place gradually, not abruptly. It was a result of
the natural degeneration of the race. There were certain depraved
tendencies of the human heart which brought it about. It was a work of
time to develop these and give them full play. We must keep in mind
these facts and the condition of the human race just at this time, if
we would correctly apprehend this change and its slowly-moving but
efficient causes.
THE TRANSITION.
The worship of one God passed into the worship of the powers and
objects of nature. This grew out of a natural awe at the sight of the
mighty forces evidently at work and yet inexplicable to the nations in
their uncultured state. Their habits of life were simple. While they
journeyed, as they tilled their fields, or fed their flocks, their
attention was drawn to the sky, now clear, now cloudy; to the sun,
now shining in beauty, now obscured in the darkness of night; to the
day-dawn and the sunset, to the resurrection of vegetable life in the
spring, the growth of crops through the heat of summer, the ripening
harvests of autumn, and the cold of winter and the barrenness of earth.
They gazed in awe upon the storms; upon the lightning as it glared
in the midst of the dark, black clouds; upon the tall trees bending
beneath the strong winds; upon the mountains shaking in the earthquake
or vomiting their contents with rumblings, and flame, and smoke. They
listened in astonishment to the noise of thunder, to the whistling, and
sighing, and roaring of the wind. With wonder they saw the earth into
which they cast their seed return it to them in the manifold harvest;
they watched the fruits and grains mature and ripen. All about them
mysterious processes were going on, which they could not comprehend.
Were these processes moved by a Strong Arm? were they under the
control of a Mighty Power? or were they self-moved and guided by their
own inner, hidden forces?
Contact with nature kindles the imagination. In early days almost all
of the nations were herdsmen and agriculturists. Their dwellings were
simple and such as each could erect for himself; their food was such as
each could provide for himself by the chase, or from his own flocks or
from his own fields. A few were selected to be the rulers of the rest,
or to pursue some simple mechanical pursuits. But the majority were
brought into the closest contact with nature. Their poetic imaginations
began to see life in nature’s powers and objects, they began to
personify these and then to people them with creatures of their own
minds’ making. They saw reflected their own passions and conditions in
the events of nature. They credited the beings dwelling in the skies,
or storms, or stars, with feelings, passions, quarrels like their own.
When the sky was clear, when the winds were gentle, when the seas
and lakes were unruffled in their calm repose, when the destructive
powers of nature were at rest, they imagined that these beings were
at peace among themselves. But when the skies were overcast, when the
winds arose in fury, when earth and sea were convulsed, these beings
were angry and at war with each other. Finding themselves unable to
contend with these strong powers, unable to resist their overwhelming
influences, they gradually recognized the beings dwelling in them as
superior to themselves, and their awe and mystery led them to give
these superior beings the place of gods. They could not prevent the sun
from taking his departure at the close of day. They could not resist
the strong force of wind or wave. They were mere driven chaff; as
pygmies whom these giants could easily overthrow; as creatures of a
day in the presence of these, seemingly, ever-enduring beings. So man
passed from the worship of God to the worship of the works and forces
which God had made; from reverence for the Creator to reverence for the
created.
THE FIRST HYMNS AND PRAYERS.
Reverence for the gods was not merely a silent observance and
awe-stricken contemplation of the great powers at work in nature. The
observers felt that these beings held some relation to themselves, and
that praises, prayers and offerings would not only be acceptable to the
gods, but that they were really demanded in order to avert the anger
of the gods or secure their favor. Hence the earliest literature of
the race is devoted to singing the praises or invoking the aid of the
gods. Priests were soon selected to represent the people at the seasons
of sacrifice and to give themselves more continually to prayer than
would be possible to men generally. The worship of these early days
was exceedingly simple and the priests possessed no unusual powers. As
Whittier has expressed it:
“The morning twilight of the race
Sends down these matin psalms;
And still with wondering eyes we trace
The simple prayers to Luna’s grace,
That Vedic verse embalms.”
The American Indians, the Aztecs of western South America, the early
Hindoos, the Chinese and the Parsees all exhibit in their sacred
writings this nature-worship. Traces of it are still to be seen in the
Parsees’ worship of the sun, in the worship of heaven and earth among
the Chinese, in the Indians’ reverence for the Great Spirit, in the
Peruvian sun-worship and in many other features of worship among the
heathen nations of to-day.
Let us look at some specimens of early religious poetry. The first is
from Monier Williams’ translations of the Vedas. Varuna is the god of
the “moisting sky,” Agni is the god of fire, Sūrya, the sun-god, Indra
the atmosphere-god.
“The mighty Varuna, who rules above, looks down
Upon these worlds, his kingdom, as if close at hand.
When men imagine they do aught by stealth, he knows it.
No one can stand, or walk, or softly glide along,
Or hide in dark recess, or lurk in secret cell,
But Varuna detects him, and his movements spies.
Two persons may devise some plot, together sitting,
And think themselves alone; but he, the king, is there--
A third--and sees it all. His messengers descend
Countless from his abode, forever traversing
This world, and scanning with a thousand eyes its inmates.
Whate’er exists within this earth, and all within the sky,
Yea, all that is beyond, King Varuna perceives.
The winkings of men’s eyes are numbered all by him:
He wields the universe as gamesters handle dice.
“Indra, twin-brother of the god of fire,
When thou wast born, thy mother Aditi,
Gave thee, her lusty child, the thrilling draught
Of mountain-growing Soma--source of life
And never-dying vigor to thy frame.
Thou art our guardian, advocate and friend,
A brother, father, mother--all combined.
“Most fatherly of fathers, we are thine,
And thou art ours. Oh! let thy pitying soul
Turn to us in compassion when we praise thee,
And slay us not for one sin or for many.
Deliver us to-day, to-morrow, every day.
Vainly the demon dares thy might; in vain
Strives to deprive us of thy watery treasures.
Earth quakes beneath the crashing of thy bolts.
Pierced, shattered lies the foe--his cities crushed,
His armies overthrown, his fortresses
Shivered to fragments; then the pent-up waters,
Released from long imprisonment, descend
In torrents to the earth, and swollen rivers,
Foaming and rolling to their ocean-home,
Proclaim the triumph of the Thunderer.
“Agni, thou art a sage, a priest, a king,
Protector, father of the sacrifice.
Commissioned by us men, thou dost ascend
A messenger, conveying to the sky
Our hymns and offerings. Though thy origin
Be threefold, now from air, and now from water,
Now from the mystic double Arani,
Thou art thyself a mighty god, a lord,
Giver of life and immortality,
One in thy essence, but to mortals three;
Displaying thine eternal triple form,
As fire on earth, as lightning in the air,
As sun in heaven. Thou art the cherished guest
In every household--father, brother, son,
Friend, benefactor, guardian--all in one.
Deliver, mighty lord, thy worshipers,
Purge us from taint of sin, and when we die,
Deal mercifully with us on the pyre,
Burning our bodies with their load of guilt,
But bearing our eternal part on high
To luminous abodes and realms of bliss,
Forever there to dwell with righteous men.
“Behold the rays of Dawn, like heralds, lead on high
The Sun, that men may see the great all-knowing god.
The stars slink off like thieves, in company with night,
Before the all-seeing eye, whose beams reveal his presence,
Gleaming like brilliant flames, to nation after nation.
Sūrya, with flaming locks, clear-sighted god of day,
Thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rushing car.
With these thy self-yoked steeds, seven daughters of thy chariot,
Onward thou dost advance. To thy refulgent orb,
Beyond this lower gloom, and upward to the light
Would we ascend, O Sun, thou god among the gods.”
The Samoyedes thus addressed Jumala, the god of the air:
“Harness now thyself, Jumala,
Ruler of the air, thy horses!
Bring them forth, thy rapid racers,
Drive the sledge with glittering colors,
Passing through our bones, our ankles,
Through our flesh that shakes and trembles,
Through our veins which seem all broken,
Knit the flesh and bones together,
Fasten vein to vein more firmly,
Let our joints be filled with silver,
Let our veins with gold be running!”
The principal Chinese deities are called Tien-Chi, or Heaven and
Earth. Confucius preserved in his writings the ancient worship of
these gods. The Mongolians also worshiped the Teng-Ri, or god of the
sky. The Chinese have for centuries believed in “celestial spirits,”
as they call them, spirits of the sun, and moon, and stars; spirits
of clouds, winds, rain and thunder; spirits of mountains, fields,
rivers, grains and trees. All these were reverenced as gods. So the
Egyptians worshiped natural objects and powers. Indeed, every one
of the religions which existed in antiquity, and of which anything
is known, possessed nature-worship as their primary element. The
ancient religions which continue unto this day, also possess this
characteristic, and though covered with the _débris_ and
overgrowth of centuries of superstitious teachings, still it is to be
distinctly traced.
WHERE DID IDOL-WORSHIP COME FROM?
Thus far we have no trace of any other than the direct worship either
of God; or of the invisible spirits, or _gods_, that were supposed to
dwell in the objects of nature; or of those objects themselves. As
yet no attempt had been made to represent them by images or idols.
When, where and how did the worship of idols take its rise? These
are questions difficult to answer. In the Bible the first distinct
traces of idolatry are found in Genesis xxxi, 19, where we read
that “Rachel had stolen the _images_ that were her father’s.” These
images, or _idols_, or _gods_, as both Jacob and Laban term them, were
the teraphim or luck-givers. They had a human head and were used in
divination or fortune-telling. They were consulted as oracles. But
these could hardly have been the first idols, for their idea was too
well developed. There must have been a gradual introduction of idols
and of the idea of making representations of the gods. The account in
Genesis, just referred to, speaks as though it were no unusual thing
to have gods; there is no expression of strangeness at the occurrence,
nor anything that would indicate that these were the first known
idols. What follows is suggested as the probable line of development
in the idea of idols, but so far as is now known, there is no way of
definitely determining the question.
[Illustration: TERAPHIM.]
Finding it difficult to fasten their thoughts on invisible, intangible
beings, men, at the beginning, probably sought to aid their worship by
selecting some object to represent the being worshiped. This object
was not to be worshiped in and for itself, but, simply, as an aid to
devotion, _representing_ the being worshiped. Then, gradually,
the worship was transferred to the object and withdrawn from the being
represented. Or, it may be that the being worshiped was supposed in
some manner to dwell in the idol, and was worshiped thus. Or, it may
be that meteoric stones were regarded as images of the gods sent down
from the heavens. Or, it may have been in several of these ways, or in
all combined. The æsthetic tastes of men would soon lead them to give a
more shapely appearance to the meteoric masses of stone, and then, as
these must of necessity be scarce, copies of them were sculptured. As
men became more and more accustomed to these idols and less and less
spiritual in their worship they would venture to give expression to
their ideas of the unseen gods. Other materials were used and, as might
be required by the materials, other shapes were of necessity given.
At first, it would seem, that only representations of animals were
attempted, then, as in the teraphim, the head of man was attached to
various animal forms, as also in Dagon, the fish-god, which was a human
figure, terminating in a fish.
[Illustration: DAGON, THE FISH-GOD.]
When this introduction of idols occurred, we cannot tell; probably,
not long after the worship of nature had become established, and the
worship of one God had been generally forgotten. Not very much more
than one hundred and fifty years elapsed between the death of Noah and
the birth of Jacob, so that in all probability idols had not long been
in use when this incident of Jacob and Laban took place. Not long after
this time the full human figure was used in idol representations, and
in a short period a collection of idols would have represented almost
every conceivable object, and being, and creature of the wild fancy
of man. These were made of all manner of materials, of all shapes and
sizes. The highest conceptions of art were lavished on some of these
idols, and at the same time the rudest notions of the most barbarous
nations were also expressed in them. The word _idol_ originally
meant simply an _image_, and only in after ages was an idol
regarded as itself a divine thing or being, rather than merely an image
of it.
[Illustration: ANCIENT SERPENT IDOL.]
Thus we have traced the worship of the world down through the ages of
antiquity. We have had to rely upon other than merely historic sources
of information. We have seen the gradual introduction of Polytheism
(many gods’ worship), and of idolatry (the worship of visible forms).
For the rest of our way the light shines more and more clearly.
Historic times are now reached, and we shall find much less difficulty
in tracing the stories of religions: and we shall also find data from
which we may reason back, and so find confirmation of what has thus far
been of necessity somewhat shadowy.
[Illustration: GROUP OF ALTARS.
ROMAN. ASSYRIAN. EGYPTIAN. EGYPTIAN. ASSYRIAN.
BABYLONIAN. GRECIAN. GRECIAN. PERSIAN.]
Before passing to these, however, we shall turn aside for a little to
consider the testimony which ancient heathen records and traditions
furnish on the genuineness of the Bible history, and also to notice the
singular system of Hebrew worship, standing alone like a green oasis in
the weary wastes of heathenism.
[Illustration: IDOL FROM HINDUSTAN.]