Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 125

[446:4] Ibid. lib. 3, ch. lxiii.

[446:5] Ibid. lib. 3, ch. lxiv.

[446:6] Ibid. lib. 4, ch. xv.

[446:7] Ibid. ch. lxiii.

Plato places the ferocious tyrants in the Tartarus, such as Ardiacus of Pamphylia, who had slain his own father, a venerable old man, also an elder brother, and was stained with a great many other crimes.

Constantine, covered with similar crimes, was better treated by the Christians, who have sent him to heaven, and _sainted_ him besides.

[447:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 274.

[447:2] "Theodosius, though a professor of the orthodox Christian faith, was not baptized till 380, and his behavior after that period stamps him as one of the most cruel and vindictive persecutors who ever wore the purple. His arbitrary establishment of the Nicene faith over the whole empire, the deprivation of civil rites of all apostates from Christianity and of the Eunomians, the sentence of death on the Manicheans, and Quarto-decimans all prove this." (Chambers's Encyclo., art. Theodosius.)

[447:3] Quoted in Taylor's Syntagma, p. 54.

[447:4] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 81.

[448:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. pp. 91, 92.

[448:2] All their writings were ordered to be destroyed.

[448:3] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 359.

[448:4] Ibid. note 154.

[449:1] Julian: Epistol. lii. p. 436. Quoted in Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii.

p. 360.

[449:2] "_Thing_"--a general a.s.sembly of the freemen, who gave their a.s.sent to a measure by striking their s.h.i.+elds with their drawn swords.

[449:3] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 180, 351, and 470.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

THE ANTIQUITY OF PAGAN RELIGIONS.

We shall now compare the great antiquity of the sacred books and religions of Paganism with those of the Christian, so that there may be no doubt as to which is the original, and which the copy. Allusions to this subject have already been made throughout this work, we shall therefore devote as little s.p.a.ce to it here as possible.

In speaking of the sacred literature of India, Prof. Monier Williams says:

"Sanskrit literature, embracing as it does nearly every branch of knowledge is entirely deficient in one department. It is wholly dest.i.tute of trustworthy historical records. Hence, little or nothing is known of the lives of ancient Indian authors, and the dates of their most celebrated works cannot be fixed with certainty. A fair conjecture, however, may be arrived at by comparing the most ancient with the more modern compositions, and estimating the period of time required to effect the changes of structure and idiom observable in the language. In this manner we may be justified in a.s.suming that the hymns of the Veda were probably composed by a succession of poets at different dates between 1500 and 1000 years B.

C."[450:1]

Prof. Wm. D. Whitney shows the great antiquity of the Vedic hymns from the fact that,

"The language of the Vedas is an _older_ dialect, varying very considerably, both in its grammatical and lexical character, from the cla.s.sical Sanscrit."

And M. de Coulanges, in his "Ancient City," says:

"We learn from the hymns of the _Vedas_, which are certainly very ancient, and from the laws of Manu," "what the Aryans of the east thought nearly thirty-five centuries ago."[450:2]

That the _Vedas_ are of very high antiquity is unquestionable; but however remote we may place the period when they were written, we must necessarily presuppose that the Hindostanic race had already attained to a comparatively high degree of civilization, otherwise men capable of framing such doctrines could not have been found. Now this state of civilization must necessarily have been preceded by several centuries of barbarism, during which we cannot possibly admit a more refined faith than the popular belief in elementary deities.

We shall see in our next chapter that these very ancient Vedic hymns contain the _origin_ of the legend of the Virgin-born G.o.d and Saviour, the great benefactor of mankind, who is finally put to death, and rises again to life and immortality on the third day.

The _Geetas_ and _Puranas_, although of a comparatively modern date, are, as we have already seen, nevertheless composed of matter to be found in the two great epic poems, the _Ramayana_ and the _Mahabharata_, which were written many centuries before the time a.s.signed as that of the birth of Christ Jesus.[451:1]

The Pali sacred books, which contain the legend of the virgin-born G.o.d and Saviour--Sommona Cadom--are known to have been in existence 316 B.

C.[451:2]

We have already seen that the religion known as Buddhism, and which corresponds in such a striking manner with Christianity, has now existed for upwards of twenty-four hundred years.[451:3]

Prof. Rhys Davids says:

"There is every reason to believe that the _Pitakas_ (the sacred books which contain the legend of 'The Buddha'), now extant in Ceylon, are substantially identical with the books of the Southern Canon, as settled at the Council of Patna about the year 250 B. C.[451:4] As no works would have been received into the Canon which were not _then_ believed to be very old, the _Pitakas_ may be approximately placed in the _fourth century_ B. C., and parts of them possibly reach back very nearly, if not quite, to the time of Gautama himself."[451:5]

The religion of the ancient _Persians_, which corresponds in so very many respects with that of the Christians, was established by Zoroaster--who was undoubtedly a Brahman[451:6]--and is contained in the _Zend-Avesta_, their sacred book or Bible. This book is very ancient. Prof. Max Muller speaks of "the sacred book of the Zoroastrians" as being "older in its language than the cuneiform inscriptions of Cyrus (B. C. 560), Darius (B. C. 520), and Xerxes (B. C.

485) those ancient Kings of Persia, who knew that they were kings by the grace of _Auramazda_, and who placed his sacred image high on the mountain-records of Behistun."[452:1] That ancient book, or its fragments, at least, have survived many dynasties and kingdoms, and is still believed in by a small remnant of the Persian race, now settled at Bombay, and known all over the world by the name of Pa.r.s.ees.[452:2]

"The Babylonian and Phenician sacred books date back to a fabulous antiquity;"[452:3] and so do the sacred books and religion of Egypt.

Prof. Mahaffy, in his "Prolegomena to Ancient History," says:

"There is indeed hardly a great and fruitful idea in the Jewish or Christian systems which has not its a.n.a.logy in the Egyptian faith, and _all these theological conceptions pervade the oldest religion of Egypt_."[452:4]

The wors.h.i.+p of Osiris, the Lord and Saviour, must have been of extremely ancient date, for he is represented as "Judge of the Dead," in sculptures contemporary with the building of the Pyramids, centuries before Abraham is said to have been born. Among the many hieroglyphic t.i.tles which accompany his figure in those sculptures, and in many other places on the walls of temples and tombs, are, "Lord of Life," "The Eternal Ruler," "Manifester of Good," "Revealer of Truth," "Full of Goodness and Truth," etc.

In speaking of the "Myth of Osiris," Mr. Bonwick says:

"This great mystery of the Egyptians demands serious consideration. Its antiquity--its universal hold upon the people for over five thousand years--its identification with the very life of the nation--_and its marvellous likeness to the creed of modern date_, unite in exciting the greatest interest."[452:5]

This myth, and that of Isis and Horus, were known before the Pyramid time.[453:1]

The wors.h.i.+p of the Virgin Mother in Egypt--from which country it was imported into Europe[453:2]--dates back thousands of years B. C. Mr.

Bonwick says:

"In all probability she was wors.h.i.+ped three thousand years before Moses wrote. 'Isis nursing her child Horus, was represented,' says Mariette Bey, 'at least six thousand years ago.' We read the name of Isis on monuments of the fourth dynasty, and she lost none of her popularity to the close of the empire."

"The Egyptian Bible is by far the most ancient of all holy books." "Plato was told that Egypt possessed hymns dating back ten thousand years before his time."[453:3]

Bunsen says:

"The origin of the ancient prayers and hymns of the 'Book of the Dead,' is anterior to Menes; it implies that the system of Osirian wors.h.i.+p and mythology was already formed."[453:4]