CHAPTER VIII.
SAMSON AND HIS EXPLOITS.
This Israelite hero is said to have been born at a time when the children of Israel were in the hands of the Philistines. His mother, who had been barren for a number of years, is entertained by an angel, who informs her that she shall conceive, and bear a son,[62:1] and that the child shall be a Nazarite unto God, from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.
According to the prediction of the angel, "the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him."
"And Samson (after he had grown to man's estate), went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore get her for me to wife."
Samson's father and mother preferred that he should take a woman among the daughters of their own tribe, but Samson wished for the maid of the Philistines, "for," said he, "she pleaseth me well."
The parents, after coming to the conclusion that it was the will of the Lord, that he should marry the maid of the Philistines, consented.
"Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath, and, behold, a young lion roared against him (Samson). And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him (the lion) as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand."
This was Samson's first exploit, which he told not to any one, not even his father, or his mother.
He then continued on his way, and went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased him well.
And, after a time, he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, "there was a swarm of bees, and honey, in the carcass of the lion."
Samson made a feast at his wedding, which lasted for seven days. At this feast, there were brought thirty companions to be with him, unto whom he said: "I will now put forth a riddle unto you, if ye can certainly declare it me, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets, and thirty changes of garments. But, if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets, and thirty changes of garments." And they said unto him, "Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it." And he answered them: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."
This riddle the thirty companions could not solve.
"And it came to pass, on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife: 'Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle.'"
She accordingly went to Samson, and told him that he could not love her; if it were so, he would tell her the answer to the riddle. After she had wept and entreated of him, he finally told her, and she gave the answer to the children of her people. "And the men of the city said unto him, on the seventh day, before the sun went down, 'What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?'"
Samson, upon hearing this, suspected how they managed to find out the answer, whereupon he said unto them: "If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle."
Samson was then at a loss to know where to get the thirty sheets, and the thirty changes of garments; but, "the spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle."
This was the hero's second exploit.
His anger being kindled, he went up to his father's house, instead of returning to his wife.[64:1] But it came to pass, that, after a while, Samson repented of his actions, and returned to his wife's house, and wished to go in to his wife in the chamber; but her father would not suffer him to go. And her father said: "I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her, therefore, I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her."
This did not seem to please Samson, even though the younger was fairer than the older, for he "went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned (the foxes) tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives."
This was Samson's third exploit.
When the Philistines found their corn, their vineyards, and their olives burned, they said: "Who hath done this?"
"And they answered, 'Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion.' And the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire. And Samson said unto them: 'Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.' And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, and he went and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam."
This "great slaughter" was Samson's fourth exploit.
"Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said: 'Why are ye come up against us?' And they answered: 'To bind Samson are we come up, and to do to him as he hath done to us.' Then three thousand men of Judah went up to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson: 'Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that thou hast done unto us?' And he said unto them: 'As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.' And they said unto him: 'We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hands of the Philistines.' And Samson said unto them: 'Swear unto me that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.' And they spake unto him, saying, 'No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hands: but surely we will not kill thee.' And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock. And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burned with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men with it."
This was Samson's fifth exploit.
After slaying a thousand men he was "sore athirst," and called unto the Lord. And "God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout, and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived."[65:1]
"Then went Samson to Gaza and saw there a harlot, and went in unto her. And it was told the Gazites, saying, 'Samson is come hither.' And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying: 'In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.' And Samson lay (with the harlot) till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a hill that is in Hebron."
This was Samson's sixth exploit.
"And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Soreck, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her: 'Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him.'"
Delilah then began to entice Samson to tell her wherein his strength lay.
"She pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death. Then he told her all his heart, and said unto her: 'There hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.' And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she went and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying: 'Come up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart.' Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hands (for her).
"And she made him (Samson) sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him."
The Philistines then took him, put out his eyes, and put him in prison. And being gathered together at a great sacrifice in honor of their God, Dagon, they said: "Call for Samson, that he may make us sport." And they called for Samson, and he made them sport.
"And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand. Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.
"Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
"And Samson called unto the Lord, and said: 'O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.'
"And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said: 'Let me die with the Philistines.' And he bowed himself with all his might; and (having regained his strength) the house fell upon the lords, and upon the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death, were more than they which he slew in his life."[66:1]
Thus ended the career of the "strong man" of the Hebrews.
That this story is a copy of the legends related of Hercules, or that they have both been copied from similar legends existing among some other nations,[66:2] is too evident to be disputed. Many churchmen have noticed the similarity between the history of Samson and that of Hercules. In Chambers's Encyclopædia, under "Samson," we read as follows:
"It has been matter of most contradictory speculations, how far his existence is to be taken as a reality, or, in other words, what substratum of historical truth there may be in this supposed circle of popular legends, artistically rounded off, in the four chapters of Judges which treat of him. . . .
"The miraculous deeds he performed have taxed the ingenuity of many commentators, and the text has been twisted and turned in all directions, to explain, rationally, his slaying those prodigious numbers single-handed; his carrying the gates of Gaza, in one night, a distance of about fifty miles, &c., &c."
That this is simply a Solar myth, no one will doubt, we believe, who will take the trouble to investigate it.
Prof. Goldziher, who has made "Comparative Mythology" a special study, says of this story:
"The most complete and rounded-off Solar myth extant in Hebrew, is that of Shimshôn (Samson), a cycle of mythical conceptions fully comparable with the Greek myth of Hercules."[66:3]
We shall now endeavor to ascertain if such is the case, by comparing the exploits of Samson with those of Hercules.
The first wonderful act performed by Samson was, as we have seen, that of slaying a lion. This is said to have happened when he was but a youth. So likewise was it with Hercules. At the age of eighteen, he slew an enormous lion.[66:4]
The valley of Nemea was infested by a terrible lion; Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the skin of this monster. After using in vain his club and arrows against the lion, Hercules strangled the animal with his hands. He returned, carrying the dead lion on his shoulders; but Eurystheus was so frightened at the sight of it, and at this proof of the prodigious strength of the hero, that he ordered him to deliver the accounts of his exploits in the future outside the town.[67:1]
To show the courage of Hercules, it is said that he entered the cave where the lion's lair was, closed the entrance behind him, and at once grappled with the monster.[67:2]
Samson is said to have torn asunder the jaws of the lion, and we find him generally represented slaying the beast in that manner. So likewise, was this the manner in which Hercules disposed of the Nemean lion.[67:3]
The skin of the lion, Hercules tore off with his fingers, and knowing it to be impenetrable, resolved to wear it henceforth.[67:4] The statues and paintings of Hercules either represent him carrying the lion's skin over his arm, or wearing it hanging down his back, the skin of its head fitting to his crown like a cap, and the fore-legs knotted under his chin.[67:5]
Samson's second exploit was when he went down to Ashkelon and slew thirty men.
Hercules, when returning to Thebes from the lion-hunt, and wearing its skin hanging from his shoulders, as a sign of his success, met the heralds of the King of the Minyæ, coming from Orchomenos to claim the annual tribute of a hundred cattle, levied on Thebes. Hercules cut off the ears and noses of the heralds, bound their hands, and sent them home.[67:6]
Samson's third exploit was when he caught three hundred foxes, and took fire-brands, and turned them tail to tail, and put a fire-brand in the midst between two tails, and let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines.
There is no such feature as this in the legends of Hercules, the nearest to it in resemblance is when he encounters and kills the Learnean Hydra.[67:7] During this encounter a fire-brand figures conspicuously, and the neighboring wood is set on fire.[67:8]
We have, however, an explanation of this portion of the legend, in the following from Prof. Steinthal:
At the festival of Ceres, held at Rome, in the month of April, a fox-hunt through the circus was indulged in, in which burning torches were bound to the foxes' tails.
This was intended to be a symbolical reminder of the damage done to the fields by mildew, called the "red fox," which was exorcised in various ways at this momentous season (the last third of April). It is the time of the Dog-Star, at which the mildew was most to be feared; if at that time great solar heat follows too close upon the hoar-frost or dew of the cold nights, this mischief rages like a burning fox through the corn-fields.[68:1]
He also says that:
"This is the sense of the story of the foxes, which Samson caught and sent into the Philistines' fields, with fire-brands fastened to their tails, to burn the crops. Like the lion, the fox is an animal that indicated the solar heat, being well suited for this both by its color and by its long-haired tail."[68:2]
Bouchart, in his "Hierozoicon," observes that:
"At this period (i. e., the last third of April) they cut the corn in Palestine and Lower Egypt, and a few days after the setting of the Hyads arose the Fox, in whose train or tail comes the fires or torches of the dog-days, represented among the Egyptians by red marks painted on the backs of their animals."[68:3]
Count de Volney also tells us that:
"The inhabitants of Carseoles, an ancient city of Latium, every year, in a religious festival, burned a number of foxes with torches tied to their tails. They gave, as the reason for this whimsical ceremony, that their corn had been formerly burnt by a fox to whose tail a young man had fastened a bundle of lighted straw."[68:4]
He concludes his account of this peculiar "religious festival," by saying:
"This is exactly the story of Samson with the Philistines, but it is a Phenician tale. Car-Seol is a compound word in that tongue, signifying town of foxes. The Philistines, originally from Egypt, do not appear to have had any colonies. The Phenicians had a great many; and it can scarcely be admitted that they borrowed this story from the Hebrews, as obscure as the Druses are in our own times, or that a simple adventure gave rise to a religious ceremony; it evidently can only be a mythological and allegorical narration."[68:4]
So much, then, for the foxes and fire-brands.
Samson's fourth exploit was when he smote the Philistines "hip and thigh," "with great slaughter."
It is related of Hercules that he had a combat with an army of Centaurs, who were armed with pine sticks, rocks, axes, &c. They flocked in wild confusion, and surrounded the cave of Pholos, where Hercules was, when a violent fight ensued. Hercules was obliged to contend against this large armed force single-handed, but he came off victorious, and slew a great number of them.[69:1] Hercules also encountered and fought against an army of giants, at the Phlegraean fields, near Cumae.[69:2]
Samson's next wonderful exploit was when "three thousand men of Judah" bound him with cords and brought him up into Lehi, when the Philistines were about to take his life. The cords with which he was bound immediately became as flax, and loosened from off his hands. He then, with the jaw-bone of an ass, slew one thousand Philistines.[69:3]
A very similar feature to this is found in the history of Hercules. He is made prisoner by the Egyptians, who wish to take his life, but while they are preparing to slay him, he breaks loose his bonds—having been tied with cords—and kills Buseris, the leader of the band, and the whole retinue.[69:4]
On another occasion, being refused shelter from a storm at Kos, he was enraged at the inhabitants, and accordingly destroyed the whole town.[69:5]
Samson, after he had slain a thousand Philistines, was "sore athirst," and called upon Jehovah, his father in heaven, to succor him, whereupon, water immediately gushed forth from "a hollow place that was in the jaw-bone."
Hercules, departing from the Indies (or rather Ethiopia), and conducting his army through the desert of Lybia, feels a burning thirst, and conjures Ihou, his father, to succor him in his danger.
Instantly the (celestial) Ram appears. Hercules follows him and arrives at a place where the Ram scrapes with his foot, and there instantly comes forth a spring of water.[70:1]
Samson's sixth exploit happened when he went to Gaza to visit a harlot. The Gazites, who wished to take his life, laid wait for him all night, but Samson left the town at midnight, and took with him the gates of the city, and the two posts, on his shoulders. He carried them to the top of a hill, some fifty miles away, and left them there.
This story very much resembles that of the "Pillars of Hercules," called the "Gates of Cadiz."[70:2]
Count de Volney tells us that:
"Hercules was represented naked, carrying on his shoulders two columns called the Gates of Cadiz."[70:3]
"The Pillars of Hercules" was the name given by the ancients to the two rocks forming the entrance or gate to the Mediterranean at the Strait of Gibraltar.[70:4] Their erection was ascribed by the Greeks to Hercules, on the occasion of his journey to the kingdom of Geryon. According to one version of the story, they had been united, but Hercules tore them asunder.[70:5]
Fig. No. 3 is a representation of Hercules with the two posts or pillars on his shoulders, as alluded to by Count de Volney. We have taken it from Montfaucon's "L'Antiquité Expliquée."[70:6]
J. P. Lundy says of this:
"Hercules carrying his two columns to erect at the Straits of Gibraltar, may have some reference to the Hebrew story."[71:1]
We think there is no doubt of it. By changing the name Hercules into Samson, the legend is complete.
Sir William Drummond tells us, in his "Œdipus Judaicus," that:
"Gaza signifies a Goat, and was the type of the Sun in Capricorn. The Gates of the Sun were feigned by the ancient Astronomers to be in Capricorn and Cancer (that is, in Gaza), from which signs the tropics are named. Samson carried away the gates from Gaza to Hebron, the city of conjunction. Now, Count Gebelin tells us that at Cadiz, where Hercules was anciently worshiped, there was a representation of him, with a gate on his shoulders."[71:2]
The stories of the amours of Samson with Delilah and other females, are simply counterparts of those of Hercules with Omphale and Iole. Montfaucon, speaking of this, says:
"Nothing is better known in the fables (related of Hercules) than his amours with Omphale and Iole."[71:3]
Prof. Steinthal says:
"The circumstance that Samson is so addicted to sexual pleasure, has its origin in the remembrance that the Solar god is the god of fruitfulness and procreation. We have as examples, the amours of Hercules and Omphale; Ninyas, in Assyria, with Semiramis; Samson, in Philistia, with Delila, whilst among the Phenicians, Melkart pursues Dido-Anna."[71:4]
Samson is said to have had long hair. "There hath not come a razor upon my head," says he, "for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb."
Now, strange as it may appear, Hercules is said to have had long hair also, and he was often represented that way. In Montfaucon's "L'Antiquité Expliquée"[71:5] may be seen a representation of Hercules with hair reaching almost to his waist. Almost all Sun-gods are represented thus.[71:6]
Prof. Goldzhier says:
"Long locks of hair and a long beard are mythological attributes of the Sun. The Sun's rays are compared with locks of hair on the face or head of the Sun.
"When the sun sets and leaves his place to the darkness, or when the powerful Summer Sun is succeeded by the weak rays of the Winter Sun, then Samson's long locks, in which alone his strength lies, are cut off through the treachery of his deceitful concubine, Delilah, the 'languishing, languid,' according to the meaning of the name (Delilah). The Beaming Apollo, moreover, is called the Unshaven; and Minos cannot conquer the solar hero Nisos, till the latter loses his golden hair."[72:1]
Through the influence of Delilah, Samson is at last made a prisoner. He tells her the secret of his strength, the seven locks of hair are shaven off, and his strength leaves him. The shearing of the locks of the Sun must be followed by darkness and ruin.
From the shoulders of Phoibos Lykêgênes flow the sacred locks, over which no razor might pass, and on the head of Nisos they become a palladium, invested with a mysterious power.[72:2] The long locks of hair which flow over his shoulders are taken from his head by Skylla, while he is asleep, and, like another Delilah, she thus delivers him and his people into the power of Minos.[72:3]
Prof. Steinthal says of Samson:
"His hair is a figure of increase and luxuriant fullness. In Winter, when nature appears to have lost all strength, the god of growing young life has lost his hair. In the Spring the hair grows again, and nature returns to life again. Of this original conception the Bible story still preserves a trace. Samson's hair, after being cut off, grows again, and his strength comes back with it."[72:4]
Towards the end of his career, Samson's eyes are put out. Even here, the Hebrew writes with a singular fidelity to the old mythical speech. The tender light of evening is blotted out by the dark vapors; the light of the Sun is quenched in gloom. Samson's eyes are put out.
Œdipus, whose history resembles that of Samson and Hercules in many respects, tears out his eyes, towards the end of his career. In other words, the Sun has blinded himself. Clouds and darkness have closed in about him, and the clear light is blotted out of the heaven.[72:5]
The final act, Samson's death, reminds us clearly and decisively of the Phenician Hercules, as Sun-god, who died at the Winter Solstice in the furthest West, where his two pillars are set up to mark the end of his wanderings.
Samson also died at the two pillars, but in his case they are not the Pillars of the World, but are only set up in the middle of a great banqueting-hall. A feast was being held in honor of Dagon, the Fish-god; the Sun was in the sign of the Waterman, Samson, the Sun-god, died.[73:1]
The ethnology of the name of Samson, as well as his adventures, are very closely connected with the Solar Hercules. "Samson" was the name of the Sun.[73:2] In Arabic, "Shams-on" means the Sun.[73:3] Samson had seven locks of hair, the number of the planetary bodies.[73:4]
The author of "The Religion of Israel," speaking of Samson, says:
"The story of Samson and his deeds originated in a Solar myth, which was afterwards transformed by the narrator into a saga about a mighty hero and deliverer of Israel. The very name 'Samson,' is derived from the Hebrew word, and means 'Sun.' The hero's flowing locks were originally the rays of the sun, and other traces of the old myth have been preserved."[73:5]
Prof. Oort says:
"The story of Samson is simply a solar myth. In some of the features of the story the original meaning may be traced quite clearly, but in others the myth can no longer be recognized. The exploits of some Danite hero, such as Shamgar, who 'slew six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad' (Judges iii. 31), have been woven into it; the whole has been remodeled after the ideas of the prophets of later ages, and finally, it has been fitted into the framework of the period of the Judges, as conceived by the writer of the book called after them."[73:6]
Again he says:
"The myth that lies at the foundation of this story is a description of the sun's course during the six winter months. The god is gradually encompassed by his enemies, mist and darkness. At first he easily maintains his freedom, and gives glorious proofs of his strength; but the fetters grow stronger and stronger, until at last he is robbed of his crown of rays, and loses all his power and glory. Such is the Sun in Winter. But he has not lost his splendor forever. Gradually his strength returns, at last he reappears; and though he still seems to allow himself to be mocked, yet the power of avenging himself has returned, and in the end he triumphs over his enemies once more."[73:7]
Other nations beside the Hebrews and Greeks had their "mighty men" and lion-killers. The Hindoos had their Samson. His name was Bala-Rama, the "Strong Rama." He was considered by some an incarnation of Vishnu.[73:8]
Captain Wilford says, in "Asiatic Researches:"
"The Indian Hercules, according to Cicero, was called Belus. He is the same as Bala, the brother of Crishna, and both are conjointly worshiped at Mutra; indeed, they are considered as one Avatar or Incarnation of Vishnou. Bala is represented as a stout man, with a club in his hand. He is also called Bala-rama."[74:1]
There is a Hindoo legend which relates that Sevah had an encounter with a tiger, "whose mouth expanded like a cave, and whose voice resembled thunder." He slew the monster, and, like Hercules, covered himself with the skin.[74:2]
The Assyrians and Lydians, both Semitic nations, worshiped a Sun-god named Sandan or Sandon. He also was believed to be a lion-killer, and frequently figured struggling with the lion, or standing upon the slain lion.[74:3]
Ninevah, too, had her mighty hero and king, who slew a lion and other monsters. Layard, in his excavations, discovered a bas-relief representation of this hero triumphing over the lion and wild bull.[74:4]
The Ancient Babylonians had a hero lion-slayer, Izdubar by name. The destruction of the lion, and other monsters, by Izdubar, is often depicted on the cylinders and engraved gems belonging to the early Babylonian monarchy.[74:5]
Izdubar is represented as a great or mighty man, who, in the early days after the flood, destroyed wild animals, and conquered a number of petty kings.[74:6]
Izdubar resembles the Grecian hero, Hercules, in other respects than as a destroyer of wild animals, &c. We are told that he "wandered to the regions where gigantic composite monsters held and controlled the rising and setting sun, from these learned the road to the region of the blessed, and passing across a great waste of land, he arrived at a region where splendid trees were laden with jewels."[74:7]
He also resembles Hercules, Samson, and other solar-gods, in the particular of long flowing locks of hair. In the Babylonian and Assyrian sculptures he is always represented with a marked physiognomy, and always indicated as a man with masses of curls over his head and a large curly beard.[74:8]
Here, evidently, is the Babylonian legend of Hercules. He too was a wanderer, going from the furthest East to the furthest West. He crossed "a great waste of land" (the desert of Lybia), visited "the region of the blessed," where there were "splendid trees laden with jewels" (golden apples).
The ancient Egyptians had their Hercules. According to Herodotus, he was known several thousand years before the Grecian hero of that name. This the Egyptians affirmed, and that he was born in their country.[75:1]
The story of Hercules was known in the Island of Thasos, by the Phenician colony settled there, five centuries before he was known in Greece.[75:2] Fig. No. 4 is from an ancient representation of Hercules in conflict with the lion, taken from Gorio.
Another mighty hero was the Grecian Bellerophon. The minstrels sang of the beauty and the great deeds of Bellerophon throughout all the land of Argos. His arm was strong in battle; his feet were swift in the chase. None that were poor and weak and wretched feared the might of Bellerophon. To them the sight of his beautiful form brought only joy and gladness; but the proud and boastful, the slanderer and the robber, dreaded the glance of his keen eye. For a long time he fought the Solymi and the Amazons, until all his enemies shrank from the stroke of his mighty arm, and sought for mercy.[75:3]
The second of the principal gods of the Ancient Scandinavians was named Thor, and was no less known than Odin among the Teutonic nations. The Edda calls him expressly the most valiant of the sons of Odin. He was considered the "defender" and "avenger." He always carried a mallet, which, as often as he discharged it, returned to his hand of itself; he grasped it with gauntlets of iron, and was further possessed of a girdle which had the virtue of renewing his strength as often as was needful. It was with these formidable arms that he overthrew to the ground the monsters and giants, when he was sent by the gods to oppose their enemies. He was represented of gigantic size, and as the stoutest and strongest of the gods.[76:1] Thor was simply the Hercules of the Northern nations. He was the Sun personified.[76:2]
Without enumerating them, we can safely say, that there was not a nation of antiquity, from the remotest East to the furthest West, that did not have its mighty hero, and counterpart of Hercules and Samson.[76:3]
FOOTNOTES:
[62:1] The idea of a woman conceiving, and bearing a son in her old age, seems to have been a Hebrew peculiarity, as a number of their remarkable personages were born, so it is said, of parents well advanced in years, or of a woman who was supposed to have been barren. As illustrations, we may mention this case of Samson, and that of Joseph being born of Rachel. The beautiful Rachel, who was so much beloved by Jacob, her husband, was barren, and she bore him no sons. This caused grief and discontent on her part, and anger on the part of her husband. In her old age, however, she bore the wonderful child Joseph. (See Genesis, xxx. 1-29.)
Isaac was born of a woman (Sarah) who had been barren many years. An angel appeared to her when her lord (Abraham) "was ninety years old and nine," and informed her that she would conceive and bear a son. (See Gen. xvi.)
Samuel, the "holy man," was also born of a woman (Hannah) who had been barren many years. In grief, she prayed to the Lord for a child, and was finally comforted by receiving her wish. (See 1 Samuel, i. 1-20.)
John the Baptist was also a miraculously conceived infant. His mother, Elizabeth, bore him in her old age. An angel also informed her and her husband Zachariah, that this event would take place. (See Luke, i. 1-25.)
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born of a woman (Anna) who was "old and stricken in years," and who had been barren all her life. An angel appeared to Anna and her husband (Joachim), and told them what was about to take place. (See "The Gospel of Mary," Apoc.)
Thus we see, that the idea of a wonderful child being born of a woman who had passed the age which nature had destined for her to bear children, and who had been barren all her life, was a favorite one among the Hebrews. The idea that the ancestors of a race lived to a fabulous old age, is also a familiar one among the ancients.
Most ancient nations relate in their fables that their ancestors lived to be very old men. For instance; the Persian patriarch Kaiomaras reigned 560 years; Jemshid reigned 300 years; Jahmurash reigned 700 years; Dahâk reigned 1000 years; Feridun reigned 120 years; Manugeher reigned 500 years; Kaikans reigned 150 years; and Bahaman reigned 112 years. (See Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. 155, note.)
[64:1] Judges, xiv.
[65:1] Judges, xv.
[66:1] Judges, xvi.
[66:2] Perhaps that of Izdubar. See [chapter xi].
[66:3] Hebrew Mythology, p. 248.
[66:4] Manual of Mythology, p. 248. The Age of Fable, p. 200.
[67:1] Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 200.
[67:2] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 249.
[67:3] Roman Antiquities, p. 124; and Montfaucon, vol. i. plate cxxvi.
[67:4] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 249.
[67:5] See Ibid. Greek and Italian Mythology, p. 129, and Montfaucon, vol. i. plate cxxv. and cxxvi.
[67:6] Manual of Mythology, p. 247.
[67:7] "It has many heads, one being immortal, as the storm must constantly supply new clouds while the vapors are driven off by the Sun into space. Hence the story went that although Herakles could burn away its mortal heads, as the Sun burns up the clouds, still he can but hide away the mist or vapor itself, which at its appointed time must again darken the sky." (Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 48.)
[67:8] See Manual of Mytho., p. 250.
[68:1] Steinthal: The Legend of Samson, p. 398. See, also, Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 240, and Volney: Researches in Anc't History, p. 42.
[68:2] Ibid.
[68:3] Quoted by Count de Volney: Researches in Ancient History, p. 42, note.
[68:4] Volney: Researches in Ancient History, p. 42.
[69:1] See Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 251.
"The slaughter of the Centaurs by Hercules is the conquest and dispersion of the vapors by the Sun as he rises in the heaven." (Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 47.)
[69:2] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 257.
[69:3] Shamgar also slew six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. (See Judges, iii. 31.)
"It is scarcely necessary to say that these weapons are the heritage of all the Solar heroes, that they are found in the hands of Phebus and Herakles, of Œdipus, Achilleus, Philoktetes, of Siguard, Rustem, Indra, Isfendujar, of Telephos, Meleagros, Theseus, Kadmos, Bellerophon, and all other slayers of noxious and fearful things." (Rev. Geo. Cox: Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxvii.)
[69:4] See Volney: Researches in Ancient History, p. 41. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 239; Montfaucon: L'Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i. p. 213, and Murray: Manual of Mythology, pp. 259-262.
It is evident that Herodotus, the Grecian historian, was somewhat of a skeptic, for he says: "The Grecians say that 'When Hercules arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians, having crowned him with a garland, led him in procession, as designing to sacrifice him to Jupiter, and that for some time he remained quiet, but when they began the preparatory ceremonies upon him at the altar, he set about defending himself and slew every one of them.' Now, since Hercules was but one, and, besides, a mere man, as they confess, how is it possible that he should slay many thousands?" (Herodotus, book ii. ch. 45).
[69:5] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 263.
[70:1] Volney: Researches in Anc't History, pp. 41, 42.
In Bell's "Pantheon of the Gods and Demi-Gods of Antiquity," we read, under the head of Ammon or Hammon (the name of the Egyptian Jupiter, worshiped under the figure of a Ram), that: "Bacchus having subdued Asia, and passing with his army through the deserts of Africa, was in great want of water; but Jupiter, his father, assuming the shape of a Ram, led him to a fountain, where he refreshed himself and his army; in requital of which favor, Bacchus built there a temple to Jupiter, under the title of Ammon."
[70:2] Cadiz (ancient Gades), being situated near the mouth of the Mediterranean. The first author who mentions the Pillars of Hercules is Pindar, and he places them there. (Chambers's Encyclo. "Hercules.")
[70:3] Volney's Researches, p. 41. See also Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 357.
[70:4] See Chambers's Encyclopædia, Art. "Hercules." Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 36, note; and Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 201.
[70:5] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Hercules."
[70:6] Vol. i. plate cxxvii.
[71:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 399.
[71:2] Œd. Jud. p. 360, in Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 239.
[71:3] "Rien de plus connu dans la fable que ses amours avec Omphale et Iole."—L'Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i. p. 224.
[71:4] The Legend of Samson, p. 404.
[71:5] Vol. i. plate cxxvii.
[71:6] "Samson was remarkable for his long hair. The meaning of this trait in the original myth is easy to guess, and appears also from representations of the Sun-god amongst other peoples. These long hairs are the rays of the Sun." (Bible for Learners, i. 416.)
"The beauty of the sun's rays is signified by the golden locks of Phoibos, over which no razor has ever passed; by the flowing hair which streams from the head of Kephalos, and falls over the shoulders of Perseus and Bellerophon." (Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. i. p. 107.)
[72:1] Hebrew Mytho., pp. 137, 138.
[72:2] Cox: Aryan Myths, vol. i. p. 84.
[72:3] Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxix.
[72:4] The Legend of Samson, p. 408.
[72:5] Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 72.
[73:1] The Legend of Samson, p. 406.
[73:2] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 237. Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, p. 22. The Religion of Israel, p. 61. The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 418. Volney's Ruins, p. 41, and Stanley: History of the Jewish Church, where he says: "His name, which Josephus interprets in the sense of 'strong,' was still more characteristic. He was 'the Sunny'—the bright and beaming, though wayward, likeness of the great luminary."
[73:3] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 237, and Volney's Researches, p. 43, note.
[73:4] See [chapter ii].
[73:5] The Religion of Israel, p. 61. "The yellow hair of Apollo was a symbol of the solar rays." (Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 679.)
[73:6] Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 414.
[73:7] Ibid. p. 422.
[73:8] Williams' Hinduism, pp. 108 and 167.
[74:1] Vol. v. p. 270.
[74:2] Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 155.
[74:3] Steinthal: The Legend of Samson, p. 386.
[74:4] Buckley: Cities of the World, 41, 42.
[74:5] Smith: Assyrian Discoveries, p. 167, and Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 174.
[74:6] Assyrian Discoveries, p. 205, and Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 174.
[74:7] Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 310.
[74:8] Ibid. pp. 193, 194, 174.
[75:1] See Tacitus: Annals, book ii. ch. lix.
[75:2] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 92.
[75:3] See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 153.
[76:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 94, 417, and 514.
[76:2] See Cox: Aryan Mythology.
[76:3] See vol. i. of Aryan Mythology, by Rev. G. W. Cox.
"Besides the fabulous Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, there was, in ancient times, no warlike nation who did not boast of its own particular Hercules." (Arthur Murphy, Translator of Tacitus.)
CHAPTER IX.
JONAH SWALLOWED BY A BIG FISH.
In the book of Jonah, containing four chapters, we are told the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, saying: "Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up against me."
Instead of obeying this command Jonah sought to flee "from the presence of the Lord," by going to Tarshish. For this purpose he went to Joppa, and there took ship for Tarshish. But the Lord sent a great wind, and there was a mighty tempest, so that the ship was likely to be broken.
The mariners being afraid, they cried every one unto his God; and casting lots—that they might know which of them was the cause of the storm—the lot fell upon Jonah, showing him to be the guilty man.
The mariners then said unto him; "What shall we do unto thee?" Jonah in reply said, "Take me up and cast me forth into the sea, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." So they took up Jonah, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased raging.
And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord out of the fish's belly. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
The Lord again spake unto Jonah and said:
"Go unto Ninevah and preach unto it." So Jonah arose and went unto Ninevah, according to the command of the Lord, and preached unto it.
There is a Hindoo fable, very much resembling this, to be found in the Somadeva Bhatta, of a person by the name of Saktideva who was swallowed by a huge fish, and finally came out unhurt. The story is as follows:
"There was once a king's daughter who would marry no one but the man who had seen the Golden City—of legendary fame—and Saktideva was in love with her; so he went travelling about the world seeking some one who could tell him where this Golden City was. In the course of his journeys he embarked on board a ship bound for the Island of Utsthala, where lived the King of the Fishermen, who, Saktideva hoped, would set him on his way. On the voyage there arose a great storm and the ship went to pieces, and a great fish swallowed Saktideva whole. Then, driven by the force of fate, the fish went to the Island of Utsthala, and there the servants of the King of the Fishermen caught it, and the king, wondering at its size, had it cut open, and Saktideva came out unhurt."[78:1]
In Grecian fable, Hercules is said to have been swallowed by a whale, at a place called Joppa, and to have lain three days in his entrails.
Bernard de Montfaucon, speaking of Jonah being swallowed by a whale, and describing a piece of Grecian sculpture representing Hercules standing by a huge sea monster, says:
"Some ancients relate to the effect that Hercules was also swallowed by the whale that was watching Hesione, that he remained three days in his belly, and that he came out bald-pated after his sojourn there."[78:2]
Bouchet, in his "Hist. d'Animal," tells us that:
"The great fish which swallowed up Jonah, although it be called a whale (Matt. xii. 40), yet it was not a whale, properly so called, but a Dog-fish, called Carcharias. Therefore in the Grecian fable Hercules is said to have been swallowed up of a Dag, and to have lain three days in his entrails."[78:3]
Godfrey Higgins says, on this subject:
"The story of Jonas swallowed up by a whale, is nothing but part of the fiction of Hercules, described in the Heracleid or Labors of Hercules, of whom the same story was told, and who was swallowed up at the very same place, Joppa, and for the same period of time, three days. Lycophron says that Hercules was three nights in the belly of a fish."[78:4]
We have still another similar story in that of "Arion the Musician," who, being thrown overboard, was caught on the back of a Dolphin and landed safe on shore. The story is related in "Tales of Ancient Greece," as follows:
Arion was a Corinthian harper who had travelled in Sicily and
Italy, and had accumulated great wealth. Being desirous of again seeing his native city, he set sail from Taras for Corinth. The sailors in the ship, having seen the large boxes full of money which Arion had brought with him into the ship, made up their minds to kill him and take his gold and silver. So one day when he was sitting on the bow of the ship, and looking down on the dark blue sea, three or four of the sailors came to him and said they were going to kill him. Now Arion knew they said this because they wanted his money; so he promised to give them all he had if they would spare his life. But they would not. Then he asked them to let him jump into the sea. When they had given him leave to do this, Arion took one last look at the bright and sunny sky, and then leaped into the sea, and the sailors saw him no more. But Arion was not drowned in the sea, for a great fish called a dolphin was swimming by the ship when Arion leaped over; and it caught him on its back and swam away with him towards Corinth. So presently the fish came close to the shore and left Arion on the beach, and swam away again into the deep sea.[79:1]
There is also a Persian legend to the effect that Jemshid was devoured by a great monster waiting for him at the bottom of the sea, but afterwards rises again out of the sea, like Jonah in the Hebrew, and Hercules in the Phenician myth.[79:2] This legend was also found in the myths of the New World.[79:3]
It was urged, many years ago, by Rosenmüller—an eminent German divine and professor of theology—and other critics, that the miracle recorded in the book of Jonah is not to be regarded as an historical fact, "but only as an allegory, founded on the Phenician myth of Hercules rescuing Hesione from the sea monster by leaping himself into its jaws, and for three days and three nights continuing to tear its entrails."[79:4]
That the story is an allegory, and that it, as well as that of Saktideva, Hercules and the rest, are simply different versions of the same myth, the significance of which is the alternate swallowing up and casting forth of Day, or the Sun, by Night, is now all but universally admitted by scholars. The Day, or the Sun, is swallowed up by Night, to be set free again at dawn, and from time to time suffers a like but shorter durance in the maw of the eclipse and the storm-cloud.[79:5]
Professor Goldzhier says:
"The most prominent mythical characteristic of the story of Jonah is his celebrated abode in the sea in the belly of a whale. This trait is eminently Solar. . . . As on occasion of the storm the storm-dragon or the storm-serpent swallows the Sun, so when he sets, he (Jonah, as a personification of the Sun) is swallowed by a mighty fish, waiting for him at the bottom of the sea. Then, when he appears again on the horizon, he is spit out on the shore by the sea-monster."[80:1]
The Sun was called Jona, as appears from Gruter's inscriptions, and other sources.[80:2]
In the Vedas—the four sacred books of the Hindoos—when Day and Night, Sun and Darkness, are opposed to each other, the one is designated Red, the other Black.[80:3]
The Red Sun being swallowed up by the Dark Earth at Night—as it apparently is when it sets in the west—to be cast forth again at Day, is also illustrated in like manner. Jonah, Hercules and others personify the Sun, and a huge Fish represents the Earth.[80:4] The Earth represented as a huge Fish is one of the most prominent ideas of the Polynesian mythology.[80:5]
At other times, instead of a Fish, we have a great raving Wolf, who comes to devour its victim and extinguish the Sun-light.[80:6] The Wolf is particularly distinguished in ancient Scandinavian mythology, being employed as an emblem of the Destroying Power, which attempts to destroy the Sun.[80:7] This is illustrated in the story of Little Red Riding-Hood (the Sun)[80:8] who is devoured by the great Black Wolf (Night) and afterwards comes out unhurt.[80:9]
The story of Little Red Riding-Hood is mutilated in the English version. The original story was that the little maid, in her shining Red Cloak, was swallowed by the great Black Wolf, and that she came out safe and sound when the hunters cut open the sleeping beast.[80:10]
In regard to these heroes remaining three days and three nights in the bowels of the Fish, they represent the Sun at the Winter Solstice. From December 22d to the 25th—that is, for three days and three nights—the Sun remains in the Lowest Regions, in the bowels of the Earth, in the belly of the Fish; it is then cast forth and renews its career.
Thus, we see that the story of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish, meant originally the Sun swallowed up by Night, and that it is identical with the well-known nursery-tale. How such legends are transformed from intelligible into unintelligible myths, is very clearly illustrated by Prof. Max Müller, who, in speaking of "the comparison of the different forms of Aryan Religion and Mythology," in India, Persia, Greece, Italy and Germany, says:
"In each of these nations there was a tendency to change the original conception of divine powers; to misunderstand the many names given to these powers, and to misinterpret the praises addressed to them. In this manner some of the divine names were changed into half-divine, half-human heroes, and at last the myths which were true and intelligible as told originally of the Sun, or the Dawn, or the Storms, were turned into legends or fables too marvellous to be believed of common mortals. This process can be watched in India, in Greece, and in Germany. The same story, or nearly the same, is told of gods, of heroes, and of men. The divine myth became an heroic legend, and the heroic legend fades away into a nursery tale. Our nursery tales have well been called the modern patois of the ancient sacred mythology of the Aryan race."[81:1]
How striking are these words; how plainly they illustrate the process by which the story, that was true and intelligible as told originally of the Day being swallowed up by Night, or the Sun being swallowed up by the Earth, was transformed into a legend or fable, too marvellous to be believed by common mortals. How the "divine myth" became an "heroic legend," and how the heroic legend faded away into a "nursery tale."
In regard to Jonah's going to the city of Ninevah, and preaching unto the inhabitants, we believe that the old "Myth of Civilization," so called,[82:1] is partly interwoven here, and that, in this respect, he is nothing more than the Indian Fish Avatar of Vishnou, or the Chaldean Oannes. At his first Avatar, Vishnou is alleged to have appeared to humanity in form like a fish,[82:2] or half-man and half-fish, just as Oannes and Dagon were represented among the Chaldeans and other nations. In the temple of Rama, in India, there is a representation of Vishnou which answers perfectly to that of Dagon.[82:3] Mr. Maurice, in his "Hist. Hindostan," has proved the identity of the Syrian Dagon and the Indian Fish Avatar, and concludes by saying:
"From the foregoing and a variety of parallel circumstances, I am inclined to think that the Chaldean Oannes, the Phenician and Philistian Dagon, and the Pisces of the Syrian and Egyptian Zodiac, were the same deity with the Indian Vishnu."[82:4]
In the old mythological remains of the Chaldeans, compiled by Berosus, Abydenus, and Polyhistor, there is an account of one Oannes, a fish-god, who rendered great service to mankind.[82:5] This being is said to have come out of the Erythraean Sea.[82:6] This is evidently the Sun rising out of the sea, as it apparently does, in the East.[82:7]
Prof. Goldzhier, speaking of Oannes, says:
"That this founder of civilization has a Solar character, like similar heroes in all other nations, is shown . . . in the words of Berosus, who says: 'During the day-time Oannes held intercourse with man, but when the Sun set, Oannes fell into the sea, where he used to pass the night.' Here, evidently, only the Sun can be meant, who, in the evening, dips into the sea, and comes forth again in the morning, and passes the day on the dry land in the company of men."[82:8]
Dagon was sometimes represented as a man emerging from a fish's mouth, and sometimes as half-man and half-fish.[82:9] It was believed that he came in a ship, and taught the people. Ancient history abounds with such mythological personages.[82:10] There was also a Durga, a fish deity, among the Hindoos, represented as a full grown man emerging from a fish's mouth[82:9] The Philistines worshiped Dagon, and in Babylonian Mythology Odakon is applied to a fish-like being, who rose from the waters of the Red Sea as one of the benefactors of men.[83:1]
On the coins of Ascalon, where she was held in great honor, the goddess Derceto or Atergatis is represented as a woman with her lower extremities like a fish. This is Semiramis, who appeared at Joppa as a mermaid. She is simply a personification of the Moon, who follows the course of the Sun. At times she manifests herself to the eyes of men, at others she seeks concealment in the Western flood.[83:2]
The Sun-god Phoibos traverses the sea in the form of a fish, and imparts lessons of wisdom and goodness when he has come forth from the green depths. All these powers or qualities are shared by Proteus in Hellenic story, as well as by the fish-god, Dagon or Oannes.[83:3]
In the Iliad and Odyssey, Atlas is brought into close connection with Helios, the bright god, the Latin Sol, and our Sun. In these poems he rises every morning from a beautiful lake by the deep-flowing stream of Ocean, and having accomplished his journey across the heavens, plunges again into the Western waters.[83:4]
The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians had likewise semi-fish gods.[83:5]
Jonah then, is like these other personages, in so far as they are all personifications of the Sun; they all come out of the sea; they are all represented as a man emerging from a fish's mouth; and they are all benefactors of mankind. We believe, therefore, that it is one and the same myth, whether Oannes, Joannes, or Jonas,[83:6] differing to a certain extent among different nations, just as we find to be the case with other legends. This we have just seen illustrated in the story of "Little Red Riding-Hood," which is considerably mutilated in the English version.
Fig. No. 5 is a representation of Dagon, intended to illustrate a creature half-man and half-fish; or, perhaps, a man emerging from a fish's mouth. It is taken from Layard. Fig. No. 6[84:1] is a representation of the Indian Avatar of Vishnou, coming forth from the fish.[84:2] It would answer just as well for a representation of Jonah, as it does for the Hindoo divinity. It should be noticed that in both of these, the god has a crown on his head, surmounted with a triple ornament, both of which had evidently the same meaning, i. e., an emblem of the trinity.[84:3] The Indian Avatar being represented with four arms, evidently means that he is god of the whole world, his four arms extending to the four corners of the world. The circle, which is seen in one hand, is an emblem of eternal reward. The shell, with its eight convolutions, is intended to show the place in the number of the cycles which he occupied. The book and sword are to show that he ruled both in the right of the book and of the sword.[84:4]
FOOTNOTES:
[78:1] Tylor: Early Hist. Mankind, pp. 344, 345.
[78:2] "En effet, quelques anciens disent qu' Hercule fut aussi devorà par la beleine qui gurdoit Hesione, qu'il demeura trois jours dans son ventre, et qu'il sortit chauve de ce sejour." (L'Antiquité Expliqueé, vol. i. p. 204.)
[78:3] Bouchet: Hist. d'Animal, in Anac., vol. i. p. 240.
[78:4] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 638. See also Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 306, and Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Jonah."
[79:1] Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 296.
[79:2] See Hebrew Mythology, p. 203.
[79:3] See Tylor's Early Hist. Mankind, and Primitive Culture, vol. i.
[79:4] Chambers's Encyclo., art. Jonah.
[79:5] See Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77, and note; and Tylor: Primitive Culture, i. 302.
[80:1] Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 102, 103.
[80:2] This is seen from the following, taken from Pictet: "Du Culte des Carabi," p. 104, and quoted by Higgins: Anac., vol. i. p. 650: "Vallancy dit que Ionn étoit le même que Baal. En Gallois Jon, le Seigneur, Dieu, la cause prémière. En Basque Jawna, Jon, Jona, &c., Dieu, et Seigneur, Maître. Les Scandinaves appeloient le Soleil John. . . . Une des inscriptions de Gruter montre ques les Troyens adoroient le même astre sous le nom de Jona. En Persan le Soleil est appelè Jawnah." Thus we see that the Sun was called Jonah, by different nations of antiquity.
[80:3] See Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, p. 148.
[80:4] See Tylor: Early History of Mankind, p. 845, and Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 102, 103.
[80:5] See Tylor: Early History of Mankind, p. 345.
[80:6] Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77.
[80:7] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 88, 89, and Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
[80:8] In ancient Scandinavian mythology, the Sun is personified in the form of a beautiful maiden. (See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 458.)
[80:9] See Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77. Bunce: Fairy Tales, 161.
[80:10] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 307.
"The story of Little Red Riding-Hood, as we call her, or Little Red-Cap, came from the same (i. e., the ancient Aryan) source, and refers to the Sun and the Night."
"One of the fancies of the most ancient Aryan or Hindoo stories was that there was a great dragon that was trying to devour the Sun, and to prevent him from shining upon the earth and filling it with brightness and life and beauty, and that Indra, the Sun-god, killed the dragon. Now, this is the meaning of Little Red Riding-Hood, as it is told in our nursery tales. Little Red Riding-Hood is the evening Sun, which is always described as red or golden; the old grandmother is the earth, to whom the rays of the Sun bring warmth and comfort. The wolf—which is a well-known figure for the clouds and darkness of night—is the dragon in another form. First he devours the grandmother; that is, he wraps the earth in thick clouds, which the evening Sun is not strong enough to pierce through. Then, with the darkness of night, he swallows up the evening Sun itself, and all is dark and desolate. Then, as in the German tale, the night-thunder and the storm-winds are represented by the loud snoring of the wolf; and then the huntsman, the morning Sun, comes in all his strength and majesty, and chases away the night-clouds and kills the wolf, and revives old Grandmother Earth, and brings Little Red Riding-Hood to life again." (Bunce, Fairy Tales, their Origin and Meaning, p. 161.)
[81:1] Müller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 260.
[82:1] See Goldzhier's Hebrew Mythology, p. 198, et seq.
[82:2] See Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 277.
[82:3] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 259. Also, [Fig. No. 5], next page.
[82:4] Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. pp. 418-419.
[82:5] See Pilchard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 190. Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 87. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 646. Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 57.
[82:6] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 646. Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 39, and Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 57.
[82:7] Civilizing gods, who diffuse intelligence and instruct barbarians, are also Solar Deities. Among these Oannes takes his place, as the Sun-god, giving knowledge and civilization. (Rev. S. Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 367.)
[82:8] Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 214, 215.
[82:9] See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 111.
[82:10] See Chamber's Encyclo., art "Dagon."
[83:1] See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, and Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Dagon" in both.
[83:2] See Baring-Gould's Curious Myths.
[83:3] See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 26.
[83:4] Ibid. p. 38.
[83:5] Curious Myths, p. 372.
[83:6] Since writing the above we find that Mr. Bryant, in his "Analysis of Ancient Mythology" (vol. ii. p. 291), speaking of the mystical nature of the name John, which is the same as Jonah, says: "The prophet who was sent upon an embassy to the Ninevites, is styled Ionas: a title probably bestowed upon him as a messenger of the Deity. The great Patriarch who preached righteousness to the Antediluvians, is styled Oan and Oannes, which is the same as Jonah."
[84:1] From Maurice: Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. p. 495.
[84:2] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 634. See also, Calmet's Fragments, 2d Hundred, p. 78.
[84:3] See the chapter on "[The Trinity]," in part second.
[84:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 640.
CHAPTER X.
CIRCUMCISION.
In the words of the Rev. Dr. Giles:
"The rite of circumcision must not be passed over in any work that concerns the religion and literature of that (the Jewish) people."[85:1]
The first mention of Circumcision, in the Bible, occurs in Genesis,[85:2] where God is said to have commanded the Israelites to perform this rite, and thereby establish a covenant between him and his chosen people:
"This is my covenant (said the Lord), which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; every male child among you shall be circumcised."
"We need not doubt," says the Rev. Dr. Giles, "that a Divine command was given to Abraham that all his posterity should practice the rite of circumcision."[85:3]
Such may be the case. If we believe that the Lord of the Universe communes with man, we need not doubt this; yet, we are compelled to admit that nations other than the Hebrews practiced this rite. The origin of it, however, as practiced among other nations, has never been clearly ascertained. It has been maintained by some scholars that this rite drew its origin from considerations of health and cleanliness, which seems very probable, although doubted by many.[85:4] Whatever may have been its origin, it is certain that it was practiced by many of the ancient Eastern nations, who never came in contact with the Hebrews, in early times, and, therefore, could not have learned it from them.
The Egyptians practiced circumcision at a very early period,[85:5] at least as early as the fourth dynasty—pyramid one—and therefore, long before the time assigned for Joseph's entry into Egypt, from whom some writers have claimed the Egyptians learned it.[86:1]
In the decorative pictures of Egyptian tombs, one frequently meets with persons on whom the denudation of the prepuce is manifested.[86:2]
On a stone found at Thebes, there is a representation of the circumcision of Ramses II. A mother is seen holding her boy's arms back, while the operator kneels in front.[86:3] All Egyptian priests were obliged to be circumcised,[86:4] and Pythagoras had to submit to it before being admitted to the Egyptian sacerdotal mysteries.[86:5]
Herodotus, the Greek historian, says:
"As this practice can be traced both in Egypt and Ethiopia, to the remotest antiquity, it is not possible to say which first introduced it. The Phenicians and Syrians of Palestine acknowledge that they borrowed it from Egypt."[86:6]
It has been recognized among the Kaffirs and other tribes of Africa.[86:7] It was practiced among the Fijians and Samoans of Polynesia, and some races of Australia.[86:8] The Suzees and the Mandingoes circumcise their women.[86:9] The Assyrians, Colchins, Phenicians, and others, practiced it.[86:10] It has been from time immemorial a custom among the Abyssinians, though, at the present time, Christians.[86:11]
The antiquity of the custom may be assured from the fact of the New Hollanders, (never known to civilized nations until a few years ago) having practiced it.[86:12]
The Troglodytes on the shore of the Red Sea, the Idumeans, Ammonites, Moabites and Ishmaelites, had the practice of circumcision.[86:11]
The ancient Mexicans also practiced this rite.[86:13] It was also found among the Amazon tribes of South America.[87:1] These Indians, as well as some African tribes, were in the habit of circumcising their women. Among the Campas, the women circumcised themselves, and a man would not marry a woman who was not circumcised.[87:2] They performed this singular rite upon arriving at the age of puberty.[87:3]
Jesus of Nazareth was circumcised,[87:4] and had he been really the founder of the Christian religion, so-called, it would certainly be incumbent on all Christians to be circumcised as he was, and to observe that Jewish law which he observed, and which he was so far from abrogating, that he declared: "heaven and earth shall pass away" ere "one jot or one tittle" of that law should be dispensed with.[87:5] But the Christians are not followers of the religion of Jesus.[87:6] They are followers of the religion of the Pagans. This, we believe, we shall be able to show in Part Second of this work.
FOOTNOTES:
[85:1] Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. i. p. 249.
[85:2] Genesis, xvii. 10.
[85:3] Giles: Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. i. p. 251.
[85:4] Mr. Herbert Spencer shows (Principles of Sociology, pp. 290, 295) that the sacrificing of a part of the body as a religious offering to their deity, was, and is a common practice among savage tribes. Circumcision may have originated in this way. And Mr. Wake, speaking of it, says: "The origin of this custom has not yet, so far as I am aware, been satisfactorily explained. The idea that, under certain climatic conditions, circumcision is necessary for cleanliness and comfort, does not appear to be well founded, as the custom is not universal even within the tropics." (Phallism in Ancient Religs., p. 36.)
[85:5] "Other men leave their private parts as they are formed by nature, except those who have learned otherwise from them; but the Egyptians are circumcised. . . . They are circumcised for the sake of cleanliness, thinking it better to be clean than handsome." (Herodotus, Book ii. ch. 36.)
[86:1] We have it also on the authority of Sir J. G. Wilkinson, that: "this custom was established long before the arrival of Joseph in Egypt," and that "this is proved by the ancient monuments."
[86:2] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, pp. 414, 415.
[86:3] Ibid. p. 415.
[86:4] Ibid. and Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 89.
[86:5] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 415.
[86:6] Herodotus: Book ii. ch. 36.
[86:7] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 114. Amberly: Analysis Religious Belief, p. 67, and Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 309.
[86:8] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 414, and Amberly's Analysis, pp. 63, 73.
[86:9] Amberly: Analysis of Relig. Belief, p. 73.
[86:10] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 414: Amberly's Analysis, p. 63; Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 163, and Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 18, 19.
[86:11] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 414.
[86:12] Kendrick's Egypt, quoted by Dunlap; Mysteries of Adoni, p. 146.
[86:13] Amberly's Analysis, p. 63, Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 309, and Acosta, ii. 369.
[87:1] Orton: The Andes and the Amazon, p. 322.
[87:2] This was done by cutting off the clytoris.
[87:3] Orton: The Andes and the Amazon, p. 322. Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. p. 563, and Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 319.
"At the time of the conquest, the Spaniards found circumcised nations in Central America, and on the Amazon, the Tecuna and Manaos tribes still observe this practice. In the South Seas it has been met with among three different races, but it is performed in a somewhat different manner. On the Australian continent, not all, but the majority of tribes, practiced circumcision. Among the Papuans, the inhabitants of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides adhere to this custom. In his third voyage, Captain Cook found it among the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands, in particular at Tongataboo, and the younger Pritchard bears witness to its practice in the Samoa or Fiji groups." (Oscar Peschel: The Races of Man, p. 22.)
[87:4] Luke, ii. 21.
[87:5] Matthew, v. 18.
[87:6] In using the words "the religion of Jesus," we mean simply the religion of Israel. We believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew, in every sense of the word, and that he did not establish a new religion, or preach a new doctrine, in any way, shape, or form. "The preacher from the Mount, the prophet of the Beatitudes, does but repeat with persuasive lips what the law-givers of his race proclaimed in mighty tones of command." (See [chap. xi].)
CHAPTER XI.
CONCLUSION OF PART FIRST.
There are many other legends recorded in the Old Testament which might be treated at length, but, as we have considered the principal and most important, and as we have so much to examine in Part Second, which treats of the New Testament, we shall take but a passing glance at a few others.
In Genesis xli. is to be found the story of
PHARAOH'S TWO DREAMS,
which is to the effect that Pharaoh dreamed that he stood by a river, and saw come up out of it seven fat kine, and seven lean kine, which devoured the fat ones. He then dreamed that he saw seven good ears of corn, on one stalk, spring up out of the ground. This was followed by seven poor ears, which sprang up after them, and devoured the good ears.
Pharaoh, upon awaking from his sleep, and recalling the dreams which he dreamed, was greatly troubled, "and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof, and Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh." Finally, his chief butler tells him of one Joseph, who was skilled in interpreting dreams, and Pharaoh orders him to be brought before his presence. He then repeats his dreams to Joseph, who immediately interprets them to the great satisfaction of the king.
A very similar story is related in the Buddhist Fo-pen-hing—one of their sacred books, which has been translated by Prof. Samuel Beal—which, in substance, is as follows:
Suddhôdana Raja dreamed seven different dreams in one night, when, "awaking from his sleep, and recalling the visions he had seen, was greatly troubled, so that the very hair on his body stood erect, and his limbs trembled." He forthwith summoned to his side, within his palace, all the great ministers of his council, and exhorted them in these words: "Most honorable Sirs! be it known to you that during the present night I have seen in my dreams strange and potent visions—there were seven distinct dreams, which I will now recite (he recites the dreams). I pray you, honorable Sirs! let not these dreams escape your memories, but in the morning, when I am seated in my palace, and surrounded by my attendants, let them be brought to my mind (that they may be interpreted.)"
At morning light, the king, seated in the midst of his attendants, issued his commands to all the Brahmans, interpreters of dreams, within his kingdom, in these terms, "All ye men of wisdom, explain for me by interpretation the meaning of the dreams I have dreamed in my sleep."
Then all the wise Brahmans, interpreters of dreams, began to consider, each one in his own heart, what the meaning of these visions could be; till at last they addressed the king, and said: "Mahâ-raja! be it known to you that we never before have heard such dreams as these, and we cannot interpret their meaning."
On hearing this, Suddhôdana was very troubled in his heart, and exceeding distressed. He thought within himself: "Who is there that can satisfy these doubts of mine?"
Finally a "holy one," called T'so-Ping, being present in the inner palace, and perceiving the sorrow and distress of the king, assumed the appearance of a Brahman, and under this form he stood at the gate of the king's palace, and cried out, saying: "I am able fully to interpret the dreams of Suddhôdana Râja, and with certainty to satisfy all the doubts."
The king ordered him to be brought before his presence, and then related to him his dreams. Upon hearing them, T'so-Ping immediately interpreted them, to the great satisfaction of the king.[89:1]
In the second chapter of Exodus we read of
MOSES THROWN INTO THE NILE,
which is done by command of the king.
There are many counterparts to this in ancient mythology; among them may be mentioned that of the infant Perseus, who was, by command of the king (Acrisius of Argos), shut up in a chest, and cast into the sea. He was found by one Dictys, who took great care of the child, and—as Pharaoh's daughter did with the child Moses—educated him.[89:2]
The infant Bacchus was confined in a chest, by order of Cadmus, King of Thebes, and thrown into the Nile.[90:1] He, like Moses, had two mothers, one by nature, the other by adoption.[90:2] He was also, like Moses, represented horned.[90:3]
Osiris was also confined in a chest, and thrown into the river Nile.[90:4]
When Osiris was shut into the coffer, and cast into the river, he floated to Phenicia, and was there received under the name of Adonis. Isis (his mother, or wife) wandered in quest of him, came to Byblos, and seated herself by a fountain in silence and tears. She was then taken by the servants of the royal palace, and made to attend on the young prince of the land. In like manner, Demeter, after Aidoneus had ravished her daughter, went in pursuit, reached Eleusis, seated herself by a well, conversed with the daughters of the queen, and became nurse to her son.[90:5] So likewise, when Moses was put into the ark made of bulrushes, and cast into the Nile, he was found by the daughters of Pharaoh, and his own mother became his nurse.[90:6] This is simply another version of the same myth.
In the second chapter of the second book of Kings, we read of
ELIJAH ASCENDING TO HEAVEN.
There are many counterparts to this, in heathen mythology.
Hindoo sacred writings relate many such stories—how some of their Holy Ones were taken up alive into heaven—and impressions on rocks are shown, said to be foot-prints, made when they ascended.[90:7]
According to Babylonian mythology, Xisuthrus was translated to heaven.[90:8]
The story of Elijah ascending to heaven in a chariot of fire may also be compared to the fiery, flame-red chariot of Ushas.[90:9] This idea of some Holy One ascending to heaven without dying was found in the ancient mythology of the Chinese.[90:10]
The story of
DAVID KILLING GOLIATH,
by throwing a stone and hitting him in the forehead,[90:11] may be compared to the story of Thor, the Scandinavian hero, throwing a hammer at Hrungnir, and striking him in the forehead.[91:1]
We read in Numbers[91:2] that
BALAAM'S ASS SPOKE
to his master, and reproved him.
In ancient fables or stories in which animals play prominent parts, each creature is endowed with the power of speech. This idea was common in the whole of Western Asia and Egypt. It is found in various Egyptian and Chaldean stories.[91:3] Homer has recorded that the horse of Achilles spoke to him.[91:4]
We have also a very wonderful story in that of
JOSHUA'S COMMAND TO THE SUN.
This story is related in the tenth chapter of the book of Joshua, and is to the effect that the Israelites, who were at battle with the Amorites, wished the day to be lengthened that they might continue their slaughter, whereupon Joshua said: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. . . . And there was no day like that before it or after it."
There are many stories similar to this, to be found among other nations of antiquity. We have, as an example, that which is related of Bacchus in the Orphic hymns, wherein it says that this god-man arrested the course of the sun and the moon.[91:5]
An Indian legend relates that the sun stood still to hear the pious ejaculations of Arjouan after the death of Crishna.[91:6]
A holy Buddhist by the name of Mâtanga prevented the sun, at his command, from rising, and bisected the moon.[91:7] Arresting the course of the sun was a common thing among the disciples of Buddha.[91:8]
The Chinese also, had a legend of the sun standing still,[91:9] and a legend was found among the Ancient Mexicans to the effect that one of their holy persons commanded the sun to stand still, which command was obeyed.[91:10]
We shall now endeavor to answer the question which must naturally arise in the minds of all who see, for the first time, the similarity in the legends of the Hebrews and those of other nations, namely: have the Hebrews copied from other nations, or, have other nations copied from the Hebrews? To answer this question we shall; first, give a brief account or history of the Pentateuch and other books of the Old Testament from which we have taken legends, and show about what time they were written; and, second, show that other nations were possessed of these legends long before that time, and that the Jews copied from them.
The Pentateuch is ascribed, in our modern translations, to Moses, and he is generally supposed to be the author. This is altogether erroneous, as Moses had nothing whatever to do with these five books. Bishop Colenso, speaking of this, says:
"The books of the Pentateuch are never ascribed to Moses in the inscriptions of Hebrew manuscripts, or in printed copies of the Hebrew Bible. Nor are they styled the 'Books of Moses' in the Septuagint[92:1] or Vulgate,[92:2] but only in our modern translations, after the example of many eminent Fathers of the Church, who, with the exception of Jerome, and, perhaps, Origen, were, one and all of them, very little acquainted with the Hebrew language, and still less with its criticism."[92:3]
The author of "The Religion of Israel," referring to this subject, says:
"The Jews who lived after the Babylonish Captivity, and the Christians following their examples, ascribed these books (the Pentateuch) to Moses; and for many centuries the notion was cherished that he had really written them. But strict and impartial investigation has shown that this opinion must be given up; and that nothing in the whole Law really comes from Moses himself except the Ten Commandments. And even these were not delivered by him in the same form as we find them now. If we still call these books by his name, it is only because the Israelites always thought of him as their first and greatest law-giver, and the actual authors grouped all their narratives and laws around his figure, and associated them with his name."[92:4]
As we cannot go into an extended account, and show how this is known, we will simply say that it is principally by internal evidence that these facts are ascertained.[92:5]
Now that we have seen that Moses did not write the books of the Pentateuch, our next endeavor will be to ascertain when they were written, and by whom.
We can say that they were not written by any one person, nor were they written at the same time.
We can trace three principal redactions of the Pentateuch, that is to say, the material was worked over, and re-edited, with modifications and additions, by different people, at three distinct epochs.[93:1]
The two principal writers are generally known as the Jehovistic and the Elohistic. We have—in speaking of the "Eden Myth" and the legend of the "Deluge"—already alluded to this fact, and have illustrated how these writers' narratives conflict with each other.
The Jehovistic writer is supposed to have been a prophet, who, it would seem, was anxious to give Israel a history. He begins at Genesis, ii. 4, with a short account, of the "Creation," and then he carries the story on regularly until the Israelites enter Canaan. It is to him that we are indebted for the charming pictures of the patriarchs. He took these from other writings, or from the popular legends.[93:2]
About 725 B. C. the Israelites were conquered by Salmanassar, King of Assyria, and many of them were carried away captives. Their place was supplied by Assyrian colonists from Babylon, Persia, and other places.[93:3] This fact is of the greatest importance, and should not be forgotten, as we find that the first of the three writers of the Pentateuch, spoken of above, wrote about this time, and the Israelites heard, from the colonists from Babylon, Persia, and other places—for the first time—many of the legends which this writer wove into the fabulous history which he wrote, especially the accounts of the Creation and the Deluge.
The Pentateuch remained in this, its first form, until the year 620 B. C. Then a certain priest of marked prophetic sympathies wrote a book of law which has come down to us in Deuteronomy, iv. 44, to xxvi., and xxviii. Here we find the demands which the Mosaic party at that day were making thrown into the form of laws. It was by King Josiah that this book was first introduced and proclaimed as authoritative.[93:4] It was soon afterwards wove into the work of the first Pentateuchian writer, and at the same time "a few new passages" were added, some of which related to Joshua, the successor of Moses.[94:1]
At this period in Israel's history, Jehovah had become almost forgotten, and "other gods" had taken his place.[94:2] The Mosaic party, so called—who worshiped Jehovah exclusively—were in the minority, but when King Amon—who was a worshiper of Moloch—died, and was succeeded by his son Josiah, a change immediately took place. This young prince, who was only eight years old at the death of his father, the Mosaic party succeeded in winning over to their interests. In the year 621 B. C., Josiah, now in the eighteenth year of his reign, began a thorough reformation which completely answered to the ideas of the Mosaic party.[94:3]
It was during this time that the second Pentateuchian writer wrote, and he makes Moses speak as the law-giver. This writer was probably Hilkiah, who claimed to have found a book, written by Moses, in the temple,[94:4] although it had only just been drawn up.[94:5]
The principal objections which were brought against the claims of Hilkiah, but which are not needed in the present age of inquiry, was that Shaphan and Josiah read it off, not as if it were an old book, but as though it had been recently written, when any person who is acquainted, in the slightest degree, with language, must know that a man could not read off, at once, a book written eight hundred years before. The phraseology would necessarily be so altered by time as to render it comparatively unintelligible.
We must now turn to the third Pentateuchian writer, whose writings were published 444 b. c.
At that time Ezra (or Ezdras) added to the work of his two predecessors a series of laws and narratives which had been drawn up by some of the priests in Babylon.[94:6] This "series of laws and narratives," which was written by "some of the (Israelitish) priests in Babylon," was called "The Book of Origins" (probably containing the Babylonian account of the "Origin of Things," or the "Creation"). Ezra brought the book from Babylon to Jerusalem. He made some modifications in it and constituted it a code of law for Israel, dove-tailing it into those parts of the Pentateuch which existed before. A few alterations and additions were subsequently made, but these are of minor importance, and we may fairly say that Ezra put the Pentateuch into the form in which we have it (about 444 B. C.).
These priestly passages are partly occupied with historical matter, comprising a very free account of things from the creation of the world to the arrival of Israel in Canaan. Everything is here presented from the priestly point of view; some events, elsewhere recorded, are touched up in the priestly spirit, and others are entirely invented.[95:1]
It was the belief of the Jews, asserted by the Pirke Aboth (Sayings of the Fathers), one of the oldest books of the Talmud,[95:2] as well as other Jewish records, that Ezra, acting in accordance with a divine commission, re-wrote the Old Testament, the manuscripts of which were said to have been lost in the destruction of the first temple, when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem.[95:3] This we know could not have been the case. The fact that Ezra wrote—adding to, and taking from the already existing books of the Pentateuch—was probably the foundation for this tradition. The account of it is to be found in the Apocryphal book of Esdras, a book deemed authentic by the Greek Church.
Dr. Knappert, speaking of this, says:
"For many centuries, both the Christians and the Jews supposed that Ezra had brought together the sacred writings of his people, united them in one whole, and introduced them as a book given by the Spirit of God—a Holy Scripture.
"The only authority for this supposition was a very modern and altogether untrustworthy tradition. The historical and critical studies of our times have been emancipated from the influence of this tradition, and the most ancient statements with regard to the subject have been hunted up and compared together. These statements are, indeed, scanty and incomplete, and many a detail is still obscure; but the main facts have been completely ascertained.
"Before the Babylonish captivity, Israel had no sacred writings. There were certain laws, prophetic writings, and a few historical books, but no one had ever thought of ascribing binding and divine authority to these documents.
"Ezra brought the priestly law with him from Babylon, altering it and amalgamating it with the narratives and laws already in existence, and thus produced the Pentateuch in pretty much the same form (though not quite, as we shall show) as we still have it. These books got the name of the 'Law of Moses,' or simply the 'Law.' Ezra introduced them into Israel (B. C. 444), and gave them binding authority, and from that time forward they were considered divine."[95:4]
From the time of Ezra until the year 287 B. C., when the Pentateuch was translated into Greek by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, these books evidently underwent some changes. This the writer quoted above admits, in saying:
"Later still (viz., after the time of Ezra), a few more changes and additions were made, and so the Pentateuch grew into its present form."[96:1]
In answer to those who claim that the Pentateuch was written by one person, Bishop Colenso says:
"It is certainly inconceivable that if the Pentateuch be the production of one and the same hand throughout, it should contain such a number of glaring inconsistencies. . . . No single author could have been guilty of such absurdities; but it is quite possible, and what was almost sure to happen in such a case, that, if the Pentateuch be the work of different authors in different ages, this fact should betray itself by the existence of contradictions in the narrative."[96:2]
Having ascertained the origin of the Pentateuch, or first five books of the Old Testament, it will be unnecessary to refer to the others here, as we have nothing to do with them in our investigations. Suffice it to say then, that: "In the earlier period after Ezra, none of the other books which already existed, enjoyed the same authority as the Pentateuch."[96:3]
It is probable[96:4] that Nehemiah made a collection of historical and prophetic books, songs, and letters from Persian kings, not to form a second collection, but for the purpose of saving them from being lost. The scribes of Jerusalem, followers of Ezra, who were known as "the men of the Great Synagogue," were the collectors of the second and third divisions of the Old Testament. They collected together the historical and prophetic books, songs, &c., which were then in existence, and after altering many of them, they were added to the collection of sacred books. It must not be supposed that any fixed plan was pursued in this work, or that the idea was entertained from the first, that these books would one day stand on the same level with the Pentateuch.[96:5]
In the course of time, however, many of the Jews began to consider some of these books as sacred. The Alexandrian Jews adopted books into the canon which those of Jerusalem did not, and this difference of opinion lasted for a long time, even till the second century after Christ. It was not until this time that all the books of the Old Testament acquired divine authority.[96:6] It is not known, however, just when the canon of the Old Testament was closed. The time and manner in which it was done is altogether obscure.[97:1] Jewish tradition indicates that the full canonicity of several books was not free from doubt till the time of the famous Rabbi Akiba,[97:2] who flourished about the beginning of the second century after Christ.[97:3]
After giving a history of the books of the Old Testament, the author of "The Religion of Israel," whom we have followed in this investigation, says:
"The great majority of the writers of the Old Testament had no other source of information about the past history of Israel than simple tradition. Indeed, it could not have been otherwise, for in primitive times no one used to record anything in writing, and the only way of preserving a knowledge of the past was to hand it down by word of mouth. The father told the son what his elders had told him, and the son handed it on to the next generation.
"Not only did the historian of Israel draw from tradition with perfect freedom, and write down without hesitation anything they heard and what was current in the mouths of the people, but they did not shrink from modifying their representation of the past in any way that they thought would be good and useful. It is difficult for us to look at things from this point of view, because our ideas of historical good faith are so utterly different. When we write history, we know that we ought to be guided solely by a desire to represent facts exactly as they really happened. All that we are concerned with is reality; we want to make the old times live again, and we take all possible pains not to remodel the past from the point of view of to-day. All we want to know is what happened, and how men lived, thought, and worked in those days. The Israelites had a very different notion of the nature of historical composition. When a prophet or a priest related something about bygone times, his object was not to convey knowledge about those times; on the contrary, he used history merely as a vehicle for the conveyance of instruction and exhortation. Not only did he confine his narrative to such matters as he thought would serve his purpose but he never hesitated to modify what he knew of the past, and he did not think twice about touching it up from his own imagination, simply that it might be more conducive to the end he had in view and chime in better with his opinions. All the past became colored through and through with the tinge of his own mind. Our own notions of honor and good faith would never permit all this; but we must not measure ancient writers by our own standard; they considered that they were acting quite within their rights and in strict accordance with duty and conscience."[97:4]
It will be noticed that, in our investigations on the authority of the Pentateuch, we have followed, principally, Dr. Knappert's ideas as set forth in "The Religion of Israel."
This we have done because we could not go into an extended investigation, and because his words are very expressive, and just to the point. To those who may think that his ideas are not the same as those entertained by other Biblical scholars of the present day, we subjoin, in a note below, a list of works to which they are referred.[98:1]
We shall now, after giving a brief history of the Pentateuch, refer to the legends of which we have been treating, and endeavor to show from whence the Hebrews borrowed them. The first of these is "The Creation and Fall of Man."
Egypt, the country out of which the Israelites came, had no story of the Creation and Fall of Man, such as we have found among the Hebrews; they therefore could not have learned it from them. The Chaldeans, however, as we saw in our first chapter, had this legend, and it is from them that the Hebrews borrowed it.
The account which we have given of the Chaldean story of the Creation and Fall of Man, was taken, as we stated, from the writings of Berosus, the Chaldean historian, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great (356-325 B. C.), and as the Jews were acquainted with the story some centuries earlier than this, his works did not prove that these traditions were in Babylonia before the Jewish captivity, and could not afford testimony in favor of the statement that the Jews borrowed this legend from the Babylonians at that time. It was left for Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum, to establish, without a doubt, the fact that this legend was known to the Babylonians at least two thousand years before the time assigned for the birth of Jesus. The cuneiform inscriptions discovered by him, while on an expedition to Assyria, organized by the London "Daily Telegraph," was the means of doing this, and although by far the greatest number of these tablets belong to the age of Assurbanipal, who reigned over Assyria B. C. 670, it is "acknowledged on all hands that these tablets are not the originals, but are only copies from earlier texts." "The Assyrians acknowledge themselves that this literature was borrowed from Babylonian sources, and of course it is to Babylonia we have to look to ascertain the approximate dates of the original documents."[98:2] Mr. Smith then shows, from "fragments of the Cuneiform account of the Creation and Fall" which have been discovered, that, "in the period from b. c. 2000 to 1500, the Babylonians believed in a story similar to that in Genesis." It is probable, however, says Mr. Smith, that this legend existed as traditions in the country long before it was committed to writing, and some of these traditions exhibited great difference in details, showing that they had passed through many changes.[99:1]
Professor James Fergusson, in his celebrated work on "Tree and Serpent Worship," says:
"The two chapters which refer to this (i. e., the Garden, the Tree, and the Serpent), as indeed the whole of the first eight of Genesis, are now generally admitted by scholars to be made up of fragments of earlier books or earlier traditions, belonging, properly speaking, to Mesopotamia rather than to Jewish history, the exact meaning of which the writers of the Pentateuch seem hardly to have appreciated when they transcribed them in the form in which they are now found."[99:2]
John Fiske says:
"The story of the Serpent in Eden is an Aryan story in every particular. The notion of Satan as the author of evil appears only in the later books, composed after the Jews had come into close contact with Persian ideas."[99:3]
Prof. John W. Draper says:
"In the old legends of dualism, the evil spirit was said to have sent a serpent to ruin Paradise. These legends became known to the Jews during their Babylonian captivity."[99:4]
Professor Goldziher also shows, in his "Mythology Among the Hebrews,"[99:5] that the story of the creation was borrowed by the Hebrews from the Babylonians. He also informs us that the notion of the bôrê and yôsêr, "Creator" (the term used in the cosmogony in Genesis) as an integral part of the idea of God, are first brought into use by the prophets of the captivity. "Thus also the story of the Garden of Eden, as a supplement to the history of the Creation, was written down at Babylon."
Strange as it may appear, after the Genesis account, we may pass through the whole Pentateuch, and other books of the Old Testament, clear to the end, and will find that the story of the "Garden of Eden" and "Fall of Man," is hardly alluded to, if at all. Lengkerke says: "One single certain trace of the employment of the story of Adam's fall is entirely wanting in the Hebrew Canon (after the Genesis account). Adam, Eve, the Serpent, the woman's seduction of her husband, &c., are all images, to which the remaining words of the Israelites never again recur."[100:1]
This circumstance can only be explained by the fact that the first chapters of Genesis were not written until after the other portions had been written.
It is worthy of notice, that this story of the Fall of Man, upon which the whole orthodox scheme of a divine Saviour or Redeemer is based, was not considered by the learned Israelites as fact. They simply looked upon it as a story which satisfied the ignorant, but which should be considered as allegory by the learned.[100:2]
Rabbi Maimonides (Moses Ben Maimon), one of the most celebrated of the Rabbis, says on this subject:—
"We must not understand, or take in a literal sense, what is written in the book on the Creation, nor form of it the same ideas which are participated by the generality of mankind; otherwise our ancient sages would not have so much recommended to us, to hide the real meaning of it, and not to lift the allegorical veil, which covers the truth contained therein. When taken in its literal sense, the work gives the most absurd and most extravagant ideas of the Deity. 'Whosoever should divine its true meaning ought to take great care in not divulging it.' This is a maxim repeated to us by all our sages, principally concerning the understanding of the work of the six days."[100:3]
Philo, a Jewish writer contemporary with Jesus, held the same opinion of the character of the sacred books of the Hebrews. He has made two particular treatises, bearing the title of "The Allegories," and he traces back to the allegorical sense the "Tree of Life," the "Rivers of Paradise," and the other fictions of the Genesis.[100:4]
Many of the early Christian Fathers declared that, in the story of the Creation and Fall of Man, there was but an allegorical fiction. Among these may be mentioned St. Augustine, who speaks of it in his "City of God," and also Origen, who says:
"What man of sense will agree with the statement that the first, second, and third days, in which the evening is named and the morning, were without sun, moon and stars? What man is found such an idiot as to suppose that God planted trees in Paradise like an husbandman? I believe that every man must hold these things for images under which a hidden sense is concealed."[100:5]
Origen believed aright, as it is now almost universally admitted, that the stories of the "Garden of Eden," the "Elysian Fields," the "Garden of the Blessed," &c., which were the abode of the blessed, where grief and sorrow could not approach them, where plague and sickness could not touch them, were founded on allegory. These abodes of delight were far away in the West, where the sun goes down beyond the bounds of the earth. They were the "Golden Islands" sailing in a sea of blue—the burnished clouds floating in the pure ether. In a word, the "Elysian Fields" are the clouds at eventide. The picture was suggested by the images drawn from the phenomena of sunset and twilight.[101:1]
Eating of the forbidden fruit was simply a figurative mode of expressing the performance of the act necessary to the perpetuation of the human race. The "Tree of Knowledge" was a Phallic tree, and the fruit which grew upon it was Phallic fruit.[101:2]
In regard to the story of "The Deluge," we have already seen[101:3] that "Egyptian records tell nothing of a cataclysmal deluge," and that, "the land was never visited by other than its annual beneficent overflow of the river Nile." Also, that "the Pharaoh Khoufou-cheops was building his pyramid, according to Egyptian chronicle, when the whole world was under the waters of a universal deluge, according to the Hebrew chronicle." This is sufficient evidence that the Hebrews did not borrow the legend from the Egyptians.
We have also seen, in the chapter that treated of this legend, that it corresponded in all the principal features with the Chaldean account. We shall now show that it was taken from this.
Mr. Smith discovered, on the site of Ninevah, during the years 1873-4, cylinders belonging to the early Babylonian monarchy, (from 2500 to 1500 B. C.) which contained the legend of the flood,[101:4] and which we gave in [Chapter II]. This was the foundation for the Hebrew legend, and they learned it at the time of the Captivity.[101:5] The myth of Deucalion, the Grecian hero, was also taken from the same source. The Greeks learned it from the Chaldeans.
We read in Chambers's Encyclopædia, that:
"It was at one time extensively believed, even by intelligent scholars, that the myth of Deucalion was a corrupted tradition of the Noachian deluge, but this untenable opinion is now all but universally abandoned."[102:1]
This idea was abandoned after it was found that the Deucalion myth was older than the Hebrew.
What was said in regard to the Eden story not being mentioned in other portions of the Old Testament save in Genesis, also applies to this story of the Deluge. Nowhere in the other books of the Old Testament is found any reference to this story, except in Isaiah, where "the waters of Noah" are mentioned, and in Ezekiel, where simply the name of Noah is mentioned.
We stated in [Chapter II.] that some persons saw in this story an astronomical myth. Although not generally admitted, yet there are very strong reasons for believing this to be the case.
According to the Chaldean account—which is the oldest one known—there were seven persons saved in the ark.[102:2] There were also seven persons saved, according to some of the Hindoo accounts.[102:3] That this referred to the sun, moon, and five planets looks very probable. We have also seen that Noah was the tenth patriarch, and Xisuthrus (who is the Chaldean hero) was the tenth king.[102:4] Now, according to the Babylonian table, their Zodiac contained ten gods called the "Ten Zodiac gods."[102:5] They also believed that whenever all the planets met in the sign of Capricorn, the whole earth was overwhelmed with a deluge of water.[102:6] The Hindoos and other nations had a similar belief.[102:7]
It is well known that the Chaldeans were great astronomers. When Alexander the Great conquered the city of Babylon, the Chaldean priests boasted to the Greek philosophers, who followed his army, that they had continued their astronomical calculations through a period of more than forty thousand years.[102:8] Although this statement cannot be credited, yet the great antiquity of Chaldea cannot be doubted, and its immediate connection with Hindostan, or Egypt, is abundantly proved by the little that is known concerning its religion, and by the few fragments that remain of its former grandeur.
In regard to the story of "The Tower of Babel" little need be said. This, as well as the story of the Creation and Fall of Man, and the Deluge, was borrowed from the Babylonians.[102:9]
"It seems," says George Smith, "from the indications in the (cuneiform) inscriptions, that there happened in the interval between 2000 and 1850 B. C. a general collection of the development of the various traditions of the Creation, Flood, Tower of Babel, and other similar legends." "These legends were, however, traditions before they were committed to writing, and were common in some form to all the country."[103:1]
The Tower of Babel, or the confusion of tongues, is nowhere alluded to in the Old Testament outside of Genesis, where the story is related.
The next story in order is "The Trial of Abraham's Faith."
In this connection we have shown similar legends taken from Grecian mythology, which legends may have given the idea to the writer of the Hebrew story.
It may appear strange that the Hebrews should have been acquainted with Grecian mythology, yet we know this was the case. The fact is accounted for in the following manner:
Many of the Jews taken captive at the Edomite sack of Jerusalem were sold to the Grecians,[103:2] who took them to their country. While there, they became acquainted with Grecian legends, and when they returned from "the Islands of the Sea"—as they called the Western countries—they brought them to Jerusalem.[103:3]
This legend, as we stated in the chapter which treated of it, was written at the time when the Mosaic party in Israel were endeavoring to abolish human sacrifices and other "abominations," and the author of the story invented it to make it appear that the Lord had abolished them in the time of Abraham. The earliest Targum[103:4] knows nothing about the legend, showing that the story was not in the Pentateuch at the time this Targum was written.
We have also seen that a story written by Sanchoniathon (about B. C. 1300) of one Saturn, whom the Phenicians called Israel, bore a resemblance to the Hebrew legend of Abraham. Now, Count de Volney tells us that "a similar tradition prevailed among the Chaldeans," and that they had the history of one Zerban—which means "rich-in-gold"[103:5]—that corresponded in many respects with the history of Abraham.[103:6] It may, then, have been from the Chaldean story that the Hebrew fable writer got his idea.
The next legend which we examined was that of "Jacob's Vision of the Ladder." We claimed that it probably referred to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls from one body into another, and also gave the apparent reason for the invention of the story.
The next story was "The Exodus from Egypt, and Passage through the Red Sea," in which we showed, from Egyptian history, that the Israelites were turned out of the country on account of their uncleanness, and that the wonderful exploits recorded of Moses were simply copies of legends related of the sun-god Bacchus. These legends came from "the Islands of the Sea," and came in very handy for the Hebrew fable writers; they saved them the trouble of inventing.
We now come to the story relating to "The Receiving of the Ten Commandments" by Moses from the Lord, on the top of a mountain, 'mid thunders and lightnings.
All that is likely to be historical in this account, is that Moses assembled, not, indeed, the whole of the people, but the heads of the tribes, and gave them the code which he had prepared.[104:1] The marvellous portion of the story was evidently copied from that related of the law-giver Zoroaster, by the Persians, and the idea that there were two tables of stone with the Law written thereon was evidently taken from the story of Bacchus, the Law-giver, who had his laws written on two tables of stone.[104:2]
The next legend treated was that of "Samson and his Exploits."
Those who, like the learned of the last century, maintain that the Pagans copied from the Hebrews, may say that Samson was the model of all their similar stories, but now that our ideas concerning antiquity are enlarged, and when we know that Hercules is well known to have been the God Sol, whose allegorical history was spread among many nations long before the Hebrews were ever heard of, we are authorized to believe and to say that some Jewish mythologist—for what else are their so-called historians—composed the anecdote of Samson, by partly disfiguring the popular traditions of the Greeks, Phenicians and Chaldeans, and claiming that hero for his own nation.[104:3]
The Babylonian story of Izdubar, the lion-killer, who wandered to the regions of the blessed (the Grecian Elysium), who crossed a great waste of land (the desert of Lybia, according to the Grecian mythos), and arrived at a region where splendid trees were laden with jewels (the Grecian Garden of the Hesperides), is probably the foundation for the Hercules and other corresponding myths. This conclusion is drawn from the fact that, although the story of Hercules was known in the island of Thasus, by the Phenician colony settled there, five centuries before he was known in Greece,[105:1] yet its antiquity among the Babylonians antedates that.
The age of the legends of Izdubar among the Babylonians cannot be placed with certainty, yet, the cuneiform inscriptions relating to this hero, which have been found, may be placed at about 2000 years B. C.[105:2] "As these stories were traditions," says Mr. Smith, the discoverer of the cylinders, "before they were committed to writing, their antiquity as tradition is probably much greater than that."[105:3]
With these legends before them, the Jewish priests in Babylon had no difficulty in arranging the story of Samson, and adding it to their already fabulous history.
As the Rev. Dr. Isaac M. Wise remarks, in speaking of the ancient Hebrews: "They adopted forms, terms, ideas and myths of all nations with whom they came in contact, and, like the Greeks, in their way, cast them all in a peculiar Jewish religious mold."
We have seen, in the chapter which treats of this legend, that it is recorded in the book of Judges. This book was not written till after the first set of Israelites had been carried into captivity, and perhaps still later.[105:4]
After this we have "Jonah swallowed by a Big Fish," which is the last legend treated.
We saw that it was a solar myth, known to many nations of antiquity. The writer of the book—whoever he may have been—lived in the fifth century before Christ—after the Jews had become acquainted and had mixed with other nations. The writer of this wholly fictitious story, taking the prophet Jonah—who was evidently an historical personage—for his hero, was perhaps intending to show the loving-kindness of Jehovah.[105:5]
We have now examined all the principal Old Testament legends, and, after what has been seen, we think that no impartial person can still consider them historical facts. That so great a number of educated persons still do so seems astonishing, in our way of thinking. They have repudiated Greek and Roman mythology with disdain; why then admit with respect the mythology of the Jews? Ought the miracles of Jehovah to impress us more than those of Jupiter? We think not; they should all be looked upon as relics of the past.
That Christian writers are beginning to be aroused to the idea that another tack should be taken, differing from the old, is very evident. This is clearly seen by the words of Prof. Richard A. Armstrong, the translator of Dr. Knappert's "Religion of Israel" into English. In the Preface of this work, he says:
"It appears to me to be profoundly important that the youthful English mind should be faithfully and accurately informed of the results of modern research into the early development of the Israelitish religion. Deplorable and irreparable mischief will be done to the generation, now passing into manhood and womanhood, if their educators leave them ignorant or loosely informed on these topics; for they will then be rudely awakened by the enemies of Christianity from a blind and unreasoning faith in the supernatural inspiration of the Scriptures; and being suddenly and bluntly made aware that Abraham, Moses, David, and the rest did not say, do, or write what has been ascribed to them, they will fling away all care for the venerable religion of Israel and all hope that it can nourish their own religious life. How much happier will those of our children and young people be who learn what is now known of the actual origin of the Pentateuch and the Writings, from the same lips which have taught them that the Prophets indeed prepared the way for Jesus, and that God is indeed our Heavenly Father. For these will, without difficulty, perceive that God's love is none the feebler and that the Bible is no less precious, because Moses knew nothing of the Levitical legislation, or because it was not the warrior monarch on his semi-barbaric throne, but some far later son of Israel, who breathed forth the immortal hymn of faith, 'The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.'"
For the benefit of those who may think that the evidence of plagiarism on the part of the Hebrew writers has not been sufficiently substantiated, we will quote a few words from Prof. Max Müller, who is one of the best English authorities on this subject that can be produced. In speaking of this he says:
"The opinion that the Pagan religions were mere corruptions of the religion of the Old Testament, once supported by men of high authority and great learning, is now as completely surrendered as the attempts of explaining Greek and Latin as the corruptions of Hebrew."[106:1]
Again he says:
"As soon as the ancient language and religion of India became known in Europe it was asserted that Sanskrit, like all other languages, was to be derived from Hebrew, and the ancient religion of the Brahmans from the Old Testament. There was at that time an enthusiasm among Oriental scholars, particularly at Calcutta, and an interest for Oriental antiquities in the public at large, of which we, in these days of apathy for Eastern literature, can hardly form an adequate idea. Everybody wished to be first in the field, and to bring to light some of the treasures which were supposed to be hidden in the sacred literature of the Brahmans. . . . No doubt the temptation was great. No one could look down for a moment into the rich mine of religious and mythological lore that was suddenly opened before the eyes of scholars and theologians, without being struck by a host of similarities, not only in the languages, but also in the ancient traditions of the Hindoos, the Greeks, and the Romans; and if at that time the Greeks and Romans were still supposed to have borrowed their language and their religion from Jewish quarters, the same conclusion could hardly be avoided with regard to the language and the religion of the Brahmans of India. . . .
"The student of Pagan religion as well as Christian missionaries were bent on discovering more striking and more startling coincidences, in order to use them in confirmation of their favorite theory that some rays of a primeval revelation, or some reflection of the Jewish religion, had reached the uttermost ends of the world."[107:1]
The result of all this is summed up by Prof. Müller as follows:
"It was the fate of all (these) pioneers, not only to be left behind in the assault which they had planned, but to find that many of their approaches were made in a false direction, and had to be abandoned."[107:2]
Before closing this chapter, we shall say a few words on the religion of Israel. It is supposed by many—in fact, we have heard it asserted by those who should know better—that the Israelites were always monotheists, that they worshiped One God only—Jehovah.[107:3] This is altogether erroneous; they were not different from their neighbors—the Heathen, so-called—in regard to their religion.
In the first place, we know that they revered and worshiped a Bull, called Apis,[107:4] just as the ancient Egyptians did. They worshiped the sun,[108:1] the moon,[108:2] the stars and all the host of heaven.[108:3]
They worshiped fire, and kept it burning on an altar, just as the Persians and other nations.[108:4] They worshiped stones,[108:5] revered an oak tree,[108:6] and "bowed down" to images.[108:7] They worshiped a "Queen of Heaven" called the goddess Astarte or Mylitta, and "burned incense" to her.[108:8] They worshiped Baal,[108:9] Moloch,[108:10] and Chemosh,[108:11] and offered up human sacrifices to them,[108:12] after which in some instances, they ate the victim.[108:13]
It was during the Captivity that idolatry ceased among the Israelites.[108:14] The Babylonian Captivity is clearly referred to in the book of Deuteronomy, as the close of Israel's idolatry.[108:15]
There is reason to believe that the real genius of the people was first called into full exercise, and put on its career of development at this time; that Babylon was a forcing nursery, not a prison cell; creating instead of stifling a nation. The astonishing outburst of intellectual and moral energy that accompanied the return from the Babylonish Captivity, attests the spiritual activity of that "mysterious and momentous" time. As Prof. Goldziher says: "The intellect of Babylon and Assyria exerted a more than passing influence on that of the Hebrews, not merely touching it, but entering deep into it, and leaving its own impression upon it."[108:16]
This impression we have already partly seen in the legends which they borrowed, and it may also be seen in the religious ideas which they imbibed.
The Assyrian colonies which came and occupied the land of the tribes of Israel filled the kingdom of Samaria with the dogma of the Magi, which very soon penetrated into the kingdom of Judah. Afterward, Jerusalem being subjugated, the defenseless country was entered by persons of different nationalities, who introduced their opinions, and in this way, the religion of Israel was doubly mutilated. Besides, the priests and great men, who were transported to Babylon, were educated in the sciences of the Chaldeans, and imbibed, during a residence of fifty years, nearly the whole of their theology. It was not until this time that the dogmas of the hostile genius (Satan), the angels Michael, Uriel, Yar, Nisan, &c., the rebel angels, the battle in heaven, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection, were introduced and naturalized among the Jews.[109:1]
Note.—It is not generally known that the Jews were removed from their own land until the time of the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar, but there is evidence that Jerusalem was plundered by the Edomites about 800 B. C., who sold some of the captive Jews to the Greeks (Joel, iii. 6). When the captives returned to their country from "the Islands which are beyond the sea" (Jer. xxv. 18, 22), they would naturally bring back with them much of the Hellenic lore of their conquerors. In Isaiah (xi. 11), we find a reference to this first captivity in the following words: "In that day the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the Islands of the sea;" i. e., Greece.
FOOTNOTES:
[89:1] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 111, et seq.
[89:2] Bell's Pantheon, under "Perseus;" Knight: Ancient Art and Mytho., p. 178, and Bulfinch: Age of Fables, p. 161.
[90:1] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 118. Taylor's Diegesis, p. 190. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.
[90:2] Ibid.
[90:3] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122. Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 174. Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 179. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.
[90:4] Bell's Pantheon, art. "Osiris;" and Bulfinch: Age of Fable, p. 391
[90:5] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, i. 159.
[90:6] Exodus, ii.
[90:7] See Child: Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 6, and most any work on Buddhism.
[90:8] See Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis.
[90:9] See Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 128, note.
[90:10] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 213, 214.
[90:11] I. Samuel, xvii.
[91:1] See Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, p. 430, and Bulfinch: Age of Fable, 440.
[91:2] Chapter xxii.
[91:3] See Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 188, et seq.
[91:4] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 323.
[91:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.
[91:6] Ibid. i. 191, and ii. 241; Franklin: Bud. & Jeynes, 174.
[91:7] Hardy: Buddhist Legends, pp. 50, 53, and 140.
[91:8] See Ibid.
[91:9] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 191.
[91:10] Ibid. p. 39.
[92:1] "Septuagint."—The Old Greek version of the Old Testament.
[92:2] "Vulgate."—The Latin version of the Old Testament.
[92:3] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 186, 187.
[92:4] The Religion of Israel, p. 9.
[92:5] Besides the many other facts which show that the Pentateuch was not composed until long after the time of Moses and Joshua, the following may be mentioned as examples: Gilgal, mentioned in Deut. xi. 30, was not given as the name of that place till after the entrance into Canaan. Dan, mentioned in Genesis xiv. 14, was not so called till long after the time of Moses. In Gen. xxxvi. 31, the beginning of the reign of the kings over Israel is spoken of historically, an event which did not occur before the time of Samuel. (See, for further information, Bishop Colenso's Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. ch. v. and vi.)
[93:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 9.
[93:2] Ibid. p. 10.
[93:3] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Jews."
[93:4] The Religion of Israel, pp. 10, 11.
[94:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 11.
[94:2] See Ibid. pp. 120, 122.
[94:3] See Ibid. p. 122.
[94:4] The account of the finding of this book by Hilkiah is to be found in II. Chronicles, ch. xxxiv.
[94:5] See Religion of Israel, pp. 124, 125.
[94:6] Ibid. p. 11.
[95:1] The Religion of Israel, pp. 186, 187.
[95:2] "Talmud."—The books containing the Jewish traditions.
[95:3] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Bible."
[95:4] The Religion of Israel, pp. 240, 241.
[96:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 11.
[96:2] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. p. 178.
[96:3] The Religion of Israel, p. 241.
[96:4] On the strength of II. Maccabees, ii. 12.
[96:5] The Religion of Israel, p. 242.
[96:6] Ibid. p. 243.
[97:1] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Bible."
[97:2] Ibid.
[97:3] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Akiba."
[97:4] The Religion of Israel, pp. 19, 23.
[98:1] "What is the Bible," by J. T. Sunderland. "The Bible of To-day," by J. W. Chadwick. "Hebrew and Christian Records," by the Rev. Dr. Giles, 2 vols. Prof. W. R. Smith's article on "The Bible," in the last edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. "Introduction to the Old Testament," by Davidson. "The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Examined," by Bishop Colenso. Prof. F. W. Newman's "Hebrew Monarchy." "The Bible for Learners" (vols. i. and ii.), by Prof. Oort and others. "The Old Testament in the Jewish Church," by Prof. Robertson Smith, and Kuenen's "Religion of Israel."
[98:2] Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 22, 29.
[99:1] Ibid. pp. 29, 100. Also, Assyrian Discoveries, p. 397.
[99:2] Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 6, 7.
[99:3] Myths and Myth-Makers, p. 112.
[99:4] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 62.
[99:5] Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 328, et seq.
[100:1] Quoted by Bishop Colenso: The Pentateuch Examined, iv. 283.
[100:2] "Much of the Old Testament which Christian divines, in their ignorance of Jewish lore, have insisted on receiving and interpreting literally, the informed Rabbis never dreamed of regarding as anything but allegorical. The 'literalists' they called fools. The account of the Creation was one of the portions which the unlearned were specially forbidden to meddle with." (Greg: The Creed of Christendom, p. 80.)
[100:3] Quoted by Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 226.
[100:4] See Ibid. p. 227.
[100:5] Quoted by Dunlap: Mysteries of Adoni, p. 176. See also, Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 406.
[101:1] See [Appendix, c].
[101:2] See Westropp & Wakes, "Phallic Worship."
[101:3] In [chap. ii].
[101:4] See Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 167, 168, and Chaldean Account of Genesis.
[101:5] "Upon the carrying away of the Jews to Babylon, they were brought into contact with a flood of Iranian as well as Chaldean myths, and adopted them without hesitation." (S. Baring-Gould; Curious Myths, p. 316.)
[102:1] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Deucalion."
[102:2] See [chapter ii].
[102:3] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 185, and Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 277.
[102:5] See Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 153, note.
[102:6] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 254.
[102:7] See Ibid. p. 367.
[102:8] See Ibid. p. 252.
[102:9] Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 130-135, and Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis.
[103:1] Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 27, 28.
[103:2] See [Note, p. 109].
[103:3] See Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 685.
[103:4] "Targum."—The general term for the Aramaic versions of the Old Testament.
[103:5] In Genesis xxiii. 2, Abraham is called rich in gold and in silver.
[103:6] See Volney's Researches in Ancient History, pp. 144-147.
[104:1] The Religion of Israel, p. 49.
[104:2] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122. Higgins: vol. ii. p. 19.
[104:3] In claiming the "mighty man" and "lion-killer" as one of their own race, the Jews were simply doing what other nations had done before them. The Greeks claimed Hercules as their countryman; stated where he was born, and showed his tomb. The Egyptians affirmed that he was born in their country (see Tacitus, Annals, b. ii. ch. lix.), and so did many other nations.
[105:1] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 92, 93.
[105:2] Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 168 and 174; and Assyrian Discoveries, p. 167.
[105:3] Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 168.
[105:4] See The Religion of Israel, p. 12; and Chadwick's Bible of To-Day, p. 55.
[105:5] See The Religion of Israel, p. 41, and Chadwick's Bible of To-Day, p. 24.
[106:1] The Science of Religion, p. 48.
[107:1] They even claimed that one of the "lost tribes of Israel" had found their way to America, and had taught the natives Hebrew.
[107:2] The Science of Religion, pp. 285, 292.
[107:3] "It is an assumption of the popular theology, and an almost universal belief in the popular mind, that the Jewish nation was selected by the Almighty to preserve and carry down to later ages a knowledge of the One and true God—that the Patriarchs possessed this knowledge—that Moses delivered and enforced this doctrine as the fundamental tenet of the national creed; and that it was, in fact, the received and distinctive dogma of the Hebrew people. This alleged possession of the true faith by one only people, while all surrounding tribes were lost in Polytheism, or something worse, has been adduced by divines in general as a proof of the truth of the sacred history, and of the divine origin of the Mosaic dispensation." (Greg: The Creed of Christendom, p. 145.)
Even such authorities as Paley and Milman have written in this strain. (See quotations from Paley's "Evidences of Christianity," and Dean Milman's "History of the Jews," made by Mr. Greg in his "Creed of Christendom," p. 145.)
[107:4] See the Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 321, vol. ii. p. 102; and Dunlap: Mysteries of Adoni, p. 108.
[108:1] See the Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 317, 418; vol. ii. p. 301. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3, and his Spirit Hist., pp. 68 and 182. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 782, 783; and Goldziher: Hebrew Mythol., pp. 227, 240, 242.
[108:2] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 317. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3; and Spirit Hist., p. 68. Also, Goldziher: Hebrew Mythol., p. 159.
[108:3] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 26, and 317; vol. ii. p. 301 and 328. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3. Dunlap's Spirit Hist., 68; Mysteries of Adoni, pp. xvii. and 108; and The Religion of Israel, p. 38.
[108:4] Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, pp. 101, 102.
[108:5] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 175-178, 317, 322, 448.
[108:6] Ibid. 115.
[108:7] Ibid. i. 23, 321; ii. 102, 103, 109, 264, 274. Dunlap's Spirit Hist., p. 108. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 438; vol. ii. p. 30.
[108:8] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 88, 318; vol. ii. pp. 102, 113, 300. Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. 3; and Mysteries of Adoni, p. xvii. Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 261.
[108:9] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 21-25, 105, 391; vol. ii. pp. 102, 136-138. Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. 3. Mysteries of Adoni, pp. 106, 177. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 782, 783. Bunsen: The Keys of St. Peter, p. 91. Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 181. Bal, Bel or Belus was an idol of the Chaldeans and Phenicians or Canaanites. The word Bal, in the Punic language, signifies Lord or Master. The name Bal is often joined with some other, as Bal-berith, Bal-peor, Bal-zephon, &c. "The Israelites made him their god, and erected altars to him on which they offered human sacrifices," and "what is still more unnatural, they ate of the victims they offered." (Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. pp. 113, 114.)
[108:10] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 17, 26; vol. ii. pp. 102, 299, 300. Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 110. Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 285. Moloch was a god of the Ammonites, also worshiped among the Israelites. Solomon built a temple to him, on the Mount of Olives, and human sacrifices were offered to him. (Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. pp. 84, 85.)
[108:11] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 153; vol. ii. pp. 71, 83, 125. Smith's Bible Dictionary art. "Chemosh."
[108:12] The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 26, 117, 148, 319, 320; vol. ii. pp. 16, 17, 299, 300. Dunlap's Spirit Hist., pp. 108, 222. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 100, 101. Müller: Science of Religion, p. 261. Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. 113, 114; vol. ii. 84, 85.
[108:14] See Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, 291.
[108:15] Ibid. p. 27.
[108:16] Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 319
[109:1] The Talmud of Jerusalem expressly states that the names of the angels and the months, such as Gabriel, Michael, Yar, Nisan, &c., came from Babylon with the Jews. (Goldziher, p. 319.) "There is no trace of the doctrine of Angels in the Hebrew Scriptures composed or written before the exile." (Bunsen: The Angel Messiah, p. 285) "The Jews adopted, during the Captivity, the idea of angels, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, Gabriel," &c. (Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 54.) See, for further information on this subject, Dr. Knappert's "Religion of Israel," or Prof. Kuenen's "Religion of Israel."