ANALOGY OF THE PERSIAN AND JEWISH RELIGIONS.
Doctor Pocoke says, "Many things taught in the sacred books of the Persians are the same as those taught in the Pentateuch of Moses, and other parts of the Bible. They also contain many of the psalms erroneously called by the Jews and Christians the Psalms of David." Sir William Jones, in his "Asiatic Researches," says, "The primeval religion of Iran (Persia) is called by Newton the oldest, and it may justly be called the noblest, of all religions." It teaches "a firm belief that one supreme God made the world by his power, and governs it by his providence. It inculcates a pious fear, love, and adoration for God; also a due reverence for parents and aged persons, fraternal affection for the whole human species, and a compassionate tenderness even for the brute creation." Can as much as this be said of the Christian religion? Mr. Goodrich, after stating that the ancient Hebrews evidently had no idea of astronomy as a science, says, "The Chaldeans appear to have made observations on eclipses earlier than the commencement of written history" ("History of All Nations," p. 25).
The Chaldeans and Persians have a story of creation essentially the same as that of the Jews. It represents Ormuzd as creating the world through the word in six kappas, or periods of time. Previous to that period, nothing but chaos, or darkness, and water had existed. Ormuzd created, first, the heavens and the earth; second, the firmament; third, the seas and waters; fourth, the sun, moon, and stars; fifth, birds, reptiles, quadrupeds, &c.; sixth, man. The Persians and Chaldeans have also a story of a deluge, in which Xisuthra, being warned in a dream, built an ark, in which he saved himself, his wife and daughter, and the pilot, and a pair of every species of animals, reptiles, and birds. After the rain had ceased, he sent out a pigeon, which, finding no resting place, came back to the ark. The second time, it came with mud in its bill, which was a better evidence that the waters had subsided than the leaf which Noah's dove returned with, as that might have been picked up while floating on the waters. They had a giant in strength (a Gaza) answering to that of Samson. They had a story of a lofty tower designed to reach to heaven, but the gods destroyed it, and confounded the language of the builders. The Persians had their priests, their prophets, their angels, their twelve patriarchs, their holy fires, holy water, and rites of purification, like the Jews; also their ordinance of water-baptism. Their holy mountains, holy rivers, and holy waters, their animal sacrifices, and their sacrament or ceremony of bread and wine, were all similar to those of the Jews. They had a Soleimon and a Soleimon's temple. Their religion was a theocracy, and was violently opposed to idolatry; but, unlike the Jewish religion, it taught the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the lofty idea that the human mind is an emanation from the divine nature. We find the principal elements of the Christian system also mixed up with the doctrines and principles above set forth; such as two primary principles of good and evil (Ormuzd and Ahrimanes), termed by Christians God and the Devil,—two Gods with their two kingdoms, which were always at war with each other, to moderate which stands Mithra the Mediator, who was born, like Christ, of an immaculate virgin. For a further elucidation, see "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors."