The Phallic tree is introduced into the narrative of the book of Genesis: but it is here called a tree, not of life, but of the knowledge of good and evil, that knowledge which dawns in the mind with the first consciousness of difference between man and woman. In contrast with this tree of carnal indulgence, tending to death, is the tree of life, denoting the higher existence for which man was designed, and which would bring with it the happiness and the freedom of the children of God. In the brazen serpent of the Pentateuch, the two emblems of the cross and serpent, the quiescent and energising Phallos, are united. (See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. pp. 113, 116, 118.)
[47:6] See Cox: Aryan Mytho., ii. 112, 113.
CHAPTER VI.
THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT, AND PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA.
The children of Israel, who were in bondage in Egypt, making bricks, and working in the field,[48:1] were looked upon with compassion by the Lord.[48:2] He heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant with Abraham,[48:3] with Isaac, and with Jacob. He, therefore, chose Moses (an Israelite, who had murdered an Egyptian,[48:4] and who, therefore, was obliged to flee from Egypt, as Pharaoh sought to punish him), as his servant, to carry out his plans.
Moses was at this time keeping the flock of Jeruth, his father-in-law, in the land of Midian. The angel of the Lord, or the Lord himself, appeared to him there, and said unto him:
"I am the God of thy Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. . . . I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their tormentors; for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
Then Moses said unto the Lord: