BIBLE FOLK LORE

CX LIBRIS
BERTRAM C A WINOLC" K K
. S.6. PR6 F.&A
BIBLE FOLK-LORE.
BIBLE FOLK-LORE
H Stubs in Comparative

BY THE

AUTHOR OF "RABBI JESHUA"

"When we shall be able to bring into Semitic studies the same liberty of
scientific criticism is conceded to Aryan studies, we shall have a
which
Semitic mythology for the present, faith, a natural sense of repugnance to
:

abandon the beloved superstitions of our credulous childhood, and, more than
all, a less honourable sentiment of terror for the opinion of the world, have
restrained men of study from examining Jewish history and tradition with
entire impartiality and severity of judgment." De Gubernatis'
"
Zoological
Mythology" ii. p. 412.

LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., I PATERNOSTER SQUARE

1884

[All rights reserved.'}

JUE INSTITUTC CT KtfclAEVAL S^
10 ELFrti'LEV HiX'CE
TORONTO 5, CANADA,
 PREFACE.

THE present volume is the result of some twelve years of

serious and special study. It is an attempt to apply the
principle of evolution to the history of Hebrew and Chris-
tian belief, and to lay before the public, for its considera-
tion, the results which appear to the author to spring from
the recent researches of Orientalists, whether students of
Semitic or of Aryan antiquities.
Englishmen are as yet little aware, as a rule, of the vast
stores of accurate and detailed information bearing on the

comparative study of the Bible which have, through the

patient labour of many scholars, been slowly accumulated
during the last twenty years. They know, no doubt, that
cuneiform inscriptions, and papyri, have been read, and that
the sacred books of India and of Persia have been trans-
lated, but they do not know how fundamentally this in-
creased knowledge affects the very basis of an examination
of the Bible literature as a whole.
The author's main contention is, then, that the Biblical
literaturecan no longer be considered to stand alone as a
unique production of genius or inspiration, but that its real
origin and meaning can only be understood by the applica-
tion of the comparative method which has as yet been
only very imperfectly utilised in connection with the Bible
traditions. The mythical hypothesis is not, it is true, a new
one. Bryant, and even earlier writers, preceded the
iv PREFACE.

lamented F. Lenormant and Ignaz Goldziher in this mode

of enquiry, but the growth during the last twenty years of
the study of comparative mythology, and the increase of
our information concerning Oriental books, such as the
Veda, the Zendavesta, the Buddhist writings, and the inscrip-
tions ofEgypt and Assyria, has placed at the disposal of
the student materials for comparison which were quite

beyond the reach of the earlier comparative school.

The author has striven, therefore, to apply to Semitic
Folk-lore the same principles that have given such con-
spicuously brilliant results in the case of those Aryan tra-
ditions which have shown us the origin of the Greek and
Roman pantheons, by demonstrating the real and natural
development of myths from the imperfect language and'
imperfect thought of mankind while yet in the infancy of
intellectual growth. The sun and the cloud, the river and
the rain, the wind, the storm, the tree, and the star were to

savage man living beings of wonderful nature. The fire

was a beast, which crept and devoured, and which might

be wounded by a spear. The very stones and woods and
hills had living spirits within them, and the most familiar

acts of animal life, growth, and reproduction were conceived

to account for the phenomena of the heavens and earth.
From such rude thought sprang myths like those which
remain yet so easily comprehensible in the Vedas. From
myths arose popular legends, attaching often to real
historic characters. From the faith and tradition of the
race religions were built up, and these crystallised into

dogmas of which the origin and real meaning was finally

forgotten.
But such religion has, on the other hand, been the vehicle
whereby high moral truths have been taught to man, and
the sanction of mythical creeds has enforced the teaching
 PREFACE. v

of love, of reverence, and of trust in the good to come, which

are our true comforts in trouble and sorrow. When the

great church is built, and its spire points to heaven, we

remove the scaffolding which is no longer needed, and
which would mar the beauty of the solid fane. The mythi-
cal accounts for the marvellous and the supernatural is but

a childlike name for the unstudied every race of

among
mankind ;
but the lessons of love which have been inter-
woven with the marvellous stories of Asiatic sacred books
are real truths resulting from a gradual and unconscious
education of man under the influence of religious systems.
The fable has a moral, though the language of beasts exists
only in the fancy of the fabulist.
With questions of internal evidence as to the date and
authorship of the various books of the Bible, the present
volume is only indirectly concerned. Such criticism has
led to results often far from conclusive, and the views of the
younger school of Germany appear to the author to be
often greatly in need of the controlling influence of a com-

parative system. Even the study of Assyriology is not by

itself sufficient to cast a true light on Hebrew writings.
Asiatic systems, other than Semitic, must be taken into

consideration, and the contact of Jewish and Aryan tribes

should be clearly kept in view.
To those who may agree with the principles on which
the present inquiry is based, it will seem more important to
trace the real origin of the Bible narratives and to examine
their truejneaning, than to determine by whom and at what
precise date the Hebrew versions of those stories were
committed to writing.
The author has not failed to acquaint himself with the

arguments and conclusions of the best English and foreign

critics, but with due deference to their acumen and patient

-BS
vi PREFACE.

labour, he conceives that the comparative method is that

destined finally to supersede exegetic study, and that a new

step is made when we are able to show that Hebrew and

Christian canons form an integral part of the rich and noble

library of sacred books of the East.

But the question thus raised is not merely one of literary
or antiquarian interest. It is a question which we should
ask of our own conscience. How does it arise that the
great dogmas of religion are so hard to explain to the
simple minds of our children ? Is it because only a mature
mind can grasp their significance, or may it not be by
reason of our own confused and ignorant perceptions con-
cerning them ? If we are still to continue to teach as facts

the wonders of the Pentateuch and of the Gospels, what are

we to say in the face of modern research concerning those
which are so clearly observable in the yet earlier
parallels
books of Persia, India, and Egypt? And if, through a
fearless study of such matters, we should be led to conclude
that it isour duty not to cloud the minds of the young by
inculcating as truths dogmas which rest only on human
asseveration, are we, the author would ask, thereby debarred
from teaching still the old truths which echo through all
"
sacred books in every age ? Thou shalt love that which
is true and just and kind ;
thou shalt do that which is for

the good of all, and with an humble and single heart thou
shalt reverence the unknown."
 CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE
I. THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR i

II. LEGENDS OF THE PATRIARCHS 24

III. THE TWELVE TRIBES 43
IV. THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS 57
V. LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES 81

VI. ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH 102

VII. THE PROPHETS 123

VIII. THE PERSIAN PERIOD 137
IX. THE MESSIAH 161

X. IMMORTALITY 179
XL THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS ... 193

XII. THE ESSENES 211

XIII. THE MARTYR OF GALILEE 228

XIV. THE EEIONITES ,

., 246
XV. PAULINE CHRISTIANITY 260

XVI. EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM 282

XVII. THE BOOK OF REVELATION 301

XVIII. THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME 319

APPENDIX A. ON NATURE WORSHIP IN THE BIBLE 339
B. THE EUCHARIST *, , * . .
351
 CHAPTER I.

THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR.

WHEN the last storms of winter have passed away, and the
winds are lulled over the Syrian coasts, and the Mesopo-
tamian plains, the face of nature is suddenly renewed with
a beauty unknown at any other season of the year. The
mountain chains and rich lowlands are still dark with the
wet or gleaming with rain. The higher ridges of Lebanon
&nd Taurus are white with snow, and the Tigris and
Euphrates are rapidly rising, swelled by the melting ice of
Ararat. The white cumulus casts its long shadows over
the landscape, and hill slopes and plateaux are alike

carpeted with that delicate green which is mingled with

pink, purple, or yellow, in the great fields of wildflowers
which thickly cover the untilled soil. The scarlet anemone
the magnificent purple
(red with the blood of Adonis),
lupine, the orange-coloured marigold, the clover, and
St John's wort give their varied tinge to the carpet spread
beneath the feet. The solemn storks begin to wheel and
settle beside the runlets, the hoopoe fans his crest in the

olives, which, dark in the stillness of noon, or silver in the

evening breeze, cover the rocky hillsides. The ground

2 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

beneath teems with life, as the scarabaeus comes forth (fit

image of the Creator) to roll before him his ball of mud.

The cry of the crane and wild goose is heard aloft, and the
great islands of pelicans sun themselves on the glassy sea.
The sun, new born, sails like Horus in his boat through the
blue ocean of the sky, heralded by rosy dawn, and sinking
into the pale sunset beyond the sea. The season, as
throughout the world, is one of new life and hope, and its
Easter feast has been celebrated, since man existed, as
one of joy and gratitude.
Three months pass away and the scene is almost unre-
cognisable. Grey Chills, covered here and there with scanty
crops, or with the brown patches of various thorny shrubs,

replace the dark mountains of spring. The voice of birds

is silent, and the cicala creaks merrily in the olive. The
valleys are yellow with the long fields of barley, the tall
dusty whirlwinds stalk across arid volcanic plains. The
sky above is one hard expanse of blue, or of grey when
the scorching east wind blows. -At dawn the sun, in his
full power, seems to stand like a transfigured king on the
mountains, and drives ihis chariot to the highest heaven.
By night, beneath an electric moon, the heavy dews drop
like rain on the land. a time of labour, but yet of
It is

rejoicing, for the camels are bearing the corn to the rude

threshing floors, where the brown oxen tread it. The

Harvest Festival of the world is held in east and west
alike.

Again we pass on three months to the autumn equinox,

and a third picture presents itself. The earth is utterly
bare, and furrowed with the plough, for the white columns
of the first thunder showers tower from the sea to heaven,
or form a purple curtain against which the gleaming moun-
tains stand out in the sunshine in striking relief. The
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 3

streams, once dry, now pour down at times a turbid flood.

On the terraced hillsides the bright apple green of the
vines, descending in cataracts of foliage, is half hidden by
the morning mists which swell the grape. The sun, paler
and weaker than his wont, now struggles to pierce the
thunder-cloud, now casts long shafts of light between its
rifts. In the windy mornings the red aurora is torn in

pieces and blown about the sky, while in the evening the
great bank of rising cloud, into which the sun sinks down,
glows with gold and red, like a furnace, the hot coals of
which appear between the purple bars. The moon at
night, like a princess flying from her foes, sails through the

stormy clouds, or shows her imprisoned face through their

chinks and crannies. It is a season of joy and mourning

mingled together, for while the vintage is gathered home,

the fear of the coming winter is on man.
The fourth picture is that of winter. The fury of the
north wind is let loose ;
the storm of snow or hail sweeps
mountain and hill. The deluge of a tropical rain floods
the lowlands ;
and the sun is swallowed up by dragon
clouds. Nevertheless in the darkest hour there is hope,
and the birth of a new year at the winter solstice heralds

the coming spring. Bright frosty days show increased

power in the hero's struggles and the Yule feast of
;

light is not less solemnly celebrated in Asia than in the

North.
Not without a purpose have the preceding lines been
penned. Such were the scenes on which the eyes of man
dwelt in those rt mote ages when he loved to wrap up in
dark sayings, and to clothe with poetic forms, the great
acts of nature ever recurring as the seasons rolled on.
To gaze again on the plains of Asia, under each aspect
of "seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and
4 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

winter, day and night," will enable us,

if we will lay aside

for a time the science of to-day and recall the childlike

simplicity of the men of old, to appreciate aright the mean-

ing of quaint and obscure legends, in which lies wrapped a
meaning often hard to extract, and yet when grasped
perhaps such as the modern scholar might deem not un-
worthy his labour.

Mythical stories existed in Egypt at least 3000 years

before Christ. Traces of such legends are to be found

among the Accadians, who preceded the Semitic people

in Mesopotamia. These latter are wonderfully like the
myths of the Brahmins in India, supposed to be derived
from the dark Dravidian tribes, who may prove to be of
one stock with the Cushites of Chaldea. The epic of Uruk
and other fragments, together with the Accadian month-
adopted by the Semitic conquerors, are evidence of
1
titles,

the development of such mythology among the Assyrians

and Babylonians.
Here therefore, in the traditions of nations bordering on
Syria, traditions traced as early or earlier than the Biblical
which we owe the
record, traditions of the Semitic race, to
Old Testament, and of the older Turanian stock, we may
search for parallels to the Hebrew legends, while in the

mythology of Phoenicia and of Persia (although the records

of the first are not preserved by any author earlier than 2OO

B.C., while the latter is mainly not earlier than 400 B.C.), we

may find many valuable hints, and probably survivals of

myths as old as those of which we have earlier evidence.

The Elohistic document (or as we may call it the original

text) of Genesis opens with a cosmogony exactly similar

to that of Assyria, as recovered by George Smith, or of
Persia as preserved in the Visparad. The western Asiatic
1
Records of the Past, vol. i., page 164.
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 5

nations, like the Aryans of the Vedic period, in Central

Asia, believed in the existence of a Being who dwelt alone
before the existence of the universe. 1 The earth and heavens
were created, according to Asiatic cosmogonies, by the
breath or spirit of this Being, giving life to the abyss of
waters which formed the earliest material. Tiamat (the

primeval waters) and Apsu (the abyss) brought forth the

2
god of love in Chaldea, the father of the three creators.
In Phoenicia, Colpiah (" the voice of wind," the spirit of
God), and Bahu (the chaos of Genesis) were the creators of
man. 3 In Persia, the six days saw the heavens and stars ;

the waters and firmament ;

the earth ;
the trees ;
the
animals ; and, finally, man
himself created respectively. 4

Fragments of a similar account of creation are found in

the cuneiform inscriptions, and however unscientific this

cosmogony may be, \{ was (with allowance for poetic

elaboration), common to all the races of Western Asia.
The story of man's first happiness in Eden (" the garden
of delight ") is in like manner widely diffused in the East.
It is told by the Jehovistic Commentator 5 in a manner

which approaches closely to what we know must have been

the Chaldean version of the story, for a cylinder has been
found, and is now in the British Museum, representing a
tree round which a great serpent is coiled, while seated
beneath on opposite sides a woman and a man in Baby-
lonian head dress pluck fruit from its branches. 6 The
belief in a Paradise hidden beneath the earth was early ex-
x., 129.2. Cf, Hibbert Lecture 1878, p. 316. Laws of Manu, 1-9.
1
Rigveda,
2
Cf. Chaldean Account of Genesis (ist tablet). Lenormant Origines de
Histoire, p. 496.
3
Sanchoniathon 1st cosmogony. Origines de 1'Histoire, p. 538.
4
Bundahish, 1-28. Sacred Books of the East, v., p. 10.
6
Gen. ii. 8, iii. 24.
6
Lenormant's Origines de 1'Histoire, p. 90. Lajarde Culte de Mithra,
pi. xvi., fig. 4.
 6 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

pressed in Egypt. Two sacred trees stood in the dreary

regions of Amentu, and from one of these (the sycamore
fig), Nut, the sky goddess, gives the water of life to thirsty

bird-like souls.
In India, two (or four) trees, of good and evil respectively,
stand on the summit of Mount Meru the Hindu Kush
where Kuvera, the god of riches, has his northern paradise; 1
these are called "trees of desire," and are all ambrosial,
resembling the Chaldean thorn-tree sacred to the goddess
of love. 2
In Persia, the paradise of the good King Yima stood, in
the golden age, in the old "Aryan home," north of the
Iranian territory, and it was here that the serpent adversary
slew the King. 3 According to other Median legends the
same serpent seduced the first human couple to eat fruits,
which deprived them of their original happiness, and in the
Bundahish we find two sacred trees described, one "the
"
tree of all seeds standing stream of ocean,in the sacred

the other the white Haoma whence ambrosia distilled. 4

The earliest meaning of this legend of a tree on a
mountain, or in the Paradise beyond the mountains, and
in,or near, a river of sacred water of life is perhaps best
understood by Abenezra, the Jewish Commentator, who
refers the symbolism of the legend to the nature-worship
of the ancients. But it is from the Eastern Paradise that
the sun goes forth, like Adam, to wander over the earth,
and to sink into the western Eden of the Hesperides. The

1
Lenormant's Origines, p. 76. Gubernatis Mythol des Plantes, pp. 33, 198.
Zool. Myth, ii., p. 410.
2
Lenormant Magie, p. 120. Origines de 1'Histoire, p. 86-87.
3
Vendidad, ii. 31-38-46. Ram Yasht, 16. Zamyad Yasht, 31. Sacred
Books of the East, v., pp. 65-67.
4
Bundahish, xviii., Rashn Yasht, Vendidad, xix. 18.
6
See Appendix A.
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. ^

" "
story of the garden of delight is a fit tale for the spring,
and thus stands at the beginning of that Hebrew " Legend
"
of the year which we are about to examine. By the late

Jews, Eden was identified with the dawn or the east as

contrasted with Sheol or Hell, which was .placed in the west,

just as Erebus among the Greeks was but the Semitic name
of the "west." Thus we read that. the sun is red at dawn,
because it reflects the colour of the roses of Eden, and red
at sunset because it reflects the fires, of Gehinnon or Hell. 1
As to the position of a geographical Eden much has
been said but little is. known. If we accept the description
of the Hebrew writer, it. was situated at the sources of the

Euphrates and the uplands of Kurdistan, close

Tigris, or in,

to the sacred mountain, of Ararat, of which more yet re-

mains to be said. The rivers. Pison, and, Gihon. are identi-
fied, by Reland, with the Halys and Araxes, rising in the

same district but the Septuagint translators understood

;

Gihon to be the Nile, and the book of Jeremiah appears to

2
identify it same
in theway while Pison, according to Josephus
was the Ganges, the sacred, river whose springs are in the
head of the god Siva, and in the mouth of the Cow, on the
Brahmin Paradise of Mount Kailasa. The Jewish Eden
was in the east, but: if we regard it as belonging to that
cloudland whence all the great sacred rivers are fed, we

may preserve the traditional explanations, and may also

see in Gihon the Oxus, to which the name Jihun still

applies, or in Phison the modern Indus : for of each it is

equally true that springs are in the living waters of

its

heaven. Geographically also it must not be forgotten that

in early times these eastern rivers were little known. The
Persians thought that the Oxus and Indus were one

3
1
Tal Bab, Baba Bathra, 84a. Jeremiah, ii. 1 8.
 8 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

river,and Herodotus thought Araxes and Oxus were one

and the same. Again in the Vendidad we encounter the
two sacred rivers of east and west which surround the whole
earth descending from Heaven, 1 and one of these is identi-

fied with the Araxes, the other with the Tigris.

The creation of man is variously recorded in the text

and comment of Genesis. Yet the two traditions are not
really discordant. The Elohistic account is understood by
the Rabbinical commentators to mean that man was origi-
2
nally androgynous two bodies being united together, one
male one female. The idea is very ancient, and was firmly
3
credited while in the Persian mythology the
by Plato,

original pair bloomed from a single stalk of the rhubarb

plant, and were at first united together. 4 The Jehovistic
commentator makes woman issue from the " side " of man
" "
(for the Hebrew word rendered rib has properly that
meaning), and from or at the side of .Adam his consort was
" "
built
up by Jehovah.
There remains but one other point to note in this story
of the expulsion of man from Eden because of his dis-
obedience, namely the predicted conflict between the seed
of womankind and the great seducing serpent. In the
Accadian legends Ea, the god of the sea, holds fast the
seven-headed snake. 5 In the Vedas Indra beats down his
head with the foam of water. 6 In Egypt Ra, the midday
sun, fights with the dragon Apap like Apollo with the
Python at Delphi. Krishna, the incarnation of Vishnu, a

1
Vendidad I, 3, and 20. Bundahish, xx., cf. Sacred Books of the East, vol.
iv., p. 3.
'Midrash Rabba, ch. 8. Tal Bab Erubin, i8a. Tal Bab Yebamoth, 63a.
8
Cf. Lenormant Origines, p. 53.
4
Bundahish, xi. Sacred Books of the East, v. p. 53.
5
Lenormant Divination, p. 89. Origines p. 101.
6
Rigveda, viii. 14, 13. Zool Myth, i.
352.
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 9

god of ocean, dances on the seven heads of the Naga. In

Persia the sun hero Thraetona slays in like manner the

dragon Dahak and the endless

x
;
conflict of sun and dark-
ness, summer and winter, repeats itself in all Aryan or
Semitic mythology. We shall find that it was a natural
consequence that later commentators should see in this
passage a prophecy of the Messiah, nor does such an
2

explanation conflict with that which has just been

suggested.
Our attention next directed to the genealogies which
is

follow the first cosmogony of Genesis. The Chaldeans we

know represented the seasons of the year, and the twelve
months by a genealogy of gods. The Phoenicians preserved
the same myths, and it is now proposed to enquire whether
the Hebrew tradition may not present an exact parallel.
Two separate lines of descent are recorded, one in the
Elohistic text, one by the Jehovistic commentator. Both,
as theaccompanying table shows, present twelve patriarchs,
including the first man, while here and there short myths
attach to various names, which, if our main principle be

correct, should correspond with the natural phenomena of

the month represented by the name of the patriarch.
To the Elohistic writer, as to the Iranians his contem-

poraries, and to thelatter Kabbalists and Gnostics, man, as

created by Elohim, was only a prototype, creating in turn

the first individual. The commentator on the other hand
makes Adam the first individual. Thus while the text of
the story places Seth first among the twelve patriarchs, the
name of Adam appears to come first in the version of the
Jehovistic writer.

1
Cf. Vendidad i. 18. Bundahish xxxi. 7. Bahman Yasht iii.
56. Sacred
Books of the East, v. pp. 132, 234.
2
Targum of Jonathan on Gen. iii. 15, cf. chap. ix.
10 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

CO

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CJ
i i

H i

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co
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. II

"
The nameof Seth signifies a pillar," l and is thus equiv-
alent to that of Thoth which some authorities so render.

Josephus speaks of the two pillars of Seth, and Thoth in

Egypt the equivalent of the Greek Hermes, the Sanskrit

is

Saramas, a moon god whose symbol was the pillar. Thus

the Hebrew calendar opens with the same deity the moon
god (in Chaldea the first among the sons of Baal) whose
name is given to the first .month of the Egyptian solar year. 2
Seth or Set was the chief deity of the Hittites, and his
worship was perhaps introduced into Egypt in the sixteenth

century B.C., by the foreign consort of Amenophis III.

The second king of the next dynasty Seti took his name
from Set; but, as generally the fate of foreign gods, Set
is

was degraded from; being. the twin brother of Osiris, repre-

sented with an ass's head (a symbol of the sun by night),
to become the enemy or serpent. 3 He has, however, still

his shrines in Syria,, near that of Noah in Lebanon, and

again in the Philistine plains.

The second patriarch on the Elohistic list is Enos "the

man " whose counterpart in the Jehovistic comment is Cain,
i

"
the smith " or " forger." We
here first encounter the
beautiful myth of the twin brothers (day and night), which
runs through the whole of Asiatic mythology, and is fre-

quently repeated in the Bible.

"
Cain the first born, the great "
forger or
"
workman " of
heaven, is a tiller of the earth the sun, which produces
corn and wine. Abel, his younger brother, is a shepherd,
whose flocks are (if we accept the mythical explanation of
the story), the clouds which float on the horizon his name :

" " "

signifies vapour or mist," and he is thus connected with
the dawn. The Twins, as in the tale of the Phoenician

1 2
Gesenius Lex. Heb. Chabas Voyage d'un Egyptien.
*
Pierret Mythol Egypt, p. 66.
12 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Cabiri, one another, and the red blood of

become foes of

Abel stains the morning sky. Cain has already been

warned by God " if thou doest not well, misfortune lieth
in wait," l and the curse of God makes him a wanderer

towards sunset, and thence, hidden from the face of the

" " "
sky, to Nod the land of exile or wandering," east of
the Paradise of Eden. The mark
or token, placed on his

forehead, is said by the Rabbinical critics to have been a

horn which grew on his head when the curse was pro-
2
nounced, or, according to others, the sign consisted only in
the sun becoming brighter. Both sayings have the same
meaning, for the horns of the sun are his rays, and it is

clear that after the slaughter of the dawn brother, the sun
driven forth to wander over the earth becomes brighter or

stronger as his "horn is exalted."

The tale of the Twins, one mortal and murdered, the
other immortal, is common in Aryan mythology. The
Asvins of the Vedas become the Dioscuroi of Greece, the
twin brethren of Rome. In Egypt they appear in the "tale
"
of the two brothers ;
and in Chaldea the twin heroes
Eabani, the man bull, who is mortal, and Izdubar the sun
hero, who survives, are akin to Shin the moon, and Bel the
sun, his brother, who form the divine pair represented by
the Zodiacal sign of the Twins, which we now know to have
been in use among the Babylonians.
The wanderings of Cain under the curse may be com-
pared to the labours of Hercules, to the journeys of Dionysus,
to the wandering Indra, 3 and to many other sun-heroes,
or to the eternal vagabondage of the terrible wandering

Jew. It is noticeable that the sun is ever represented as a

1
Gen. iv. 7.
8
Bereshith Rabba, sect. 22. Goldziher's Mythol of Heb., p. 120.
3
Rigveda Sanhita. Cox's Aryan Mythol., p. 161.
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 13

one of the highest

hero, half mortal, half divine, never as
gods. This remark applies to the myths of Egypt, and of
the Accadians, of Babylon and of Persia, not less than to
those of Aryan nations in Asia and Europe. The simple
reason of the universal rule is that the sun, as a material

object, was conceived to be no less a living and created

being than man or beast, a body with an indwelling soul,
but yet immortal and celestial, and thus more divine than
man. The wandering Cain is inferior to the supreme

Jehovah, just as Mithra in Persia is but a creation of the

great Ahuramazda.
It is myth, to observe that
interesting, moreover, in this
the heavenly Twins belong to the second month of the

year. This fact gives an important indication of the date

to which the genealogy of this early calendar must be
although it may, like the Vedic writings, have
referred,
been long handed down by oral tradition before it was
committed to writing. The sign of the Twins belongs
now to the third month after the Vernal Equinox, not to
the second. Therethus a difference of a whole sign or
is

month between the equinox of the Chaldean calendar, and

the equinox of the myth, due to the precession which
makes an alteration of one sign in 2152 years. If the
Bull were the sign in the Zodiac of the Jehovistic
.first

writer the calendar must be at least as old as 2500 B.C., the

date of the I3th Dynasty in Egypt, preceding the ordinary
date of Abraham's migration to Canaan by six centuries.
"
The third month, represented by Kenan the workman,"
"
or Seth the pillar," requires no special comment. The
names indicate the power of the summer sun. The fourth
month, that of the summer solstice, when the harvest has
been safely housed, is represented by the Elohistic text by
" " "
the name Praise God (Mehalaleel), while Enoch the
 i 4 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

dedicated," is placed by the Jehovistic text at this period

of the year, but occurs later in the earlier document. The

month following, the fifth of the year, is that in which the
greatest heat is experienced. In the ancient Accadian
Calendar,
1
it was called the month of "fire," or of the
"
descent of the god of fire." In the Elohistic account the
name Jared, or "descent," represents this month, while in
the later Biblical name Irad, or " fleeing," corre-
list the

sponds. The meaning is made clear by the Accadian

version ;
the descent or departure thus made characteristic
of the season may refer to the descent of the sun towards
his winter path after -the solstice, and to the flight of the
summer now past its prime.
The sixth month is represented u
:

by Enoch the
dedicated," or, according to the Jehovist, by Mehujael,
"
struck by God." It was in this month that Ashtoreth

sought in vain the reluctant Dumzi, " the son of life,"

and that the Phoenician women mourned for Adonis
slain by the boar on Lebanon.' 2 Adonis and Dumzi,
or Tammuz, are the same deity, and the myth is one
peculiar apparently to the Semitic people. In Egypt,
the boar, who is among Aryans the sun, was the emblem
of Typhon, the god of darkness and winter, and was thus 1

an enemy of the sun: 3 It is the storm-god who, in some

versions of the myth, becomes the boar to slay the sun
hero Tammuz and in other versions, as in the tale of the
;

Phrygian Atys, or of the Persian Mithra, it is the sun-hero,

who immolates himself only to rise again. Two versions
also seem represented in the Hebrew names above given,
"
for Enoch (the dedicated one ") who was not, because
1
Records of the Past, Vol. I., p. 164.
2
Ezek. viii. I.
3
Renouf, Hibbert Lect., 4; Rigveda, i. 61-7; Zool. Myth.
ii. 7; cf. pp. 14, 15.
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 15

God took who thus disappears in cloud, is the

him, and
self-sacrificing sun at the close of summer while Mehujael ;

(" struck by God ") is the sun-hero slain by the supreme

deity, like Adonis or Dumzi, whose marriage with Ishtar

was celebrated at the solstice, and his descent to hell in the

sixth month.
The equinox of autumn occurs in the seventh month of
the year. Methuselah is a name for which many render-
ings have been suggested ;
the radical meaning is " sent

forth," and it has in one case, at least, the meaning of

"forsaken j" 1 by a slight change it becomes in the later
text Methusael, the "man of God," but this is not impro-

bably a corruption of the pious copyists.

The eighth month bears the name Lamech, in both the
lists under consideration a name Tendered variously as
" " "
young or strong warrior," wedded to the two wives,
Adah, "fair" or "adorned," and Zillah "shadowy" or
"dark." The sun is now a strong warrior amid the autumn
clouds, and the chequered -shade and sunshine of the season
are perhaps reflected in the names of his wives. The myth
is made yet clearer by the song which is put in Lamech's

mouth by the Jehovist, which has proved a stumbling-block

to the Rabbinical commentator, and to the rationalistic critic
"
alike. Lamech has slain a young man to his hurt," and
prophesies that he shall be avenged even more certainly
than Cain. As is the story of the day so the story of is

the year, and the summer sun is slain by the winter sun to
his own hurt, or in the language of Persia he immolates
himself for the good of man, just as in India also the sun
sacrifices himself, 2 or as the old hero Rustem slays his son,
3
thereby wounding himself.
1
Isaiah xxvii. 10 ; Gesenius Lex. Heb.
8
Rigveda, i. 30, 20-22 ; i.
123, 10.
3
Shahname (1000 A.D.) Zool. Mythol. i.
p. 115.
16 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

We may note in passing that the sign corresponding to

" "
Lamech the warrior is the archer, and that the Rabbis

represent have been an archer who shot Cain,

Lamech to
and as being blind and led by his son Tubal Cain. The
blindness is (like Indra's blindness) an indication of the
sun's failing power, and in shooting Cain he was, on the
1
mythical hypothesis, but sacrificing himself.
The original text gives us, in the ninth month, Noah,
" "
rest or " comfort," whose name indicates the period of
rest when, after the autumn ploughing, the sleep of winter
begins. In the Jehovistic comment we find the name
" "
Jabal "flood" or stream corresponding to that of the
ark builder, and he is described as a father of cattle, and of
those that dwell in tents. Cattle the herds and flocks of
heaven are in all ancient mythologies the clouds, and, as
we shall see further on, the black cloud-bank, into which
the sun sinks, is likened to the black tent of the Arab.

Together with Jabal the next hero Jubal is a son of

brightness (Adah), for we have not as yet reached the
depth of winter. Jabal is the shepherd sun, like Indra or
Mithra in the cloudy winter season.
The Solstice month is represented by Shem in the first

list, and by Jubal in the second. Shem signifies "grey,"

2
according to Prof. Sayce, which agrees with the names of
his brothers Ham, the "black;" and Japhet, the "fair."
The three names belong to the months December, January,
and February, Ham being thus equivalent to the depth of
winter, Shem to the beginning, Japhet to the end of the

cloudy season. Jubal like Jabal has the meaning of

"
flooding," and he is described as the father of harps and

organs (or flutes). The music of heaven is. made by the

Cf. Midrash Tanhuma, f. 6. Lenormant Origines, p. 187.

Proceedings Soc. Bib. Arch., June 5, 1883.
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 17

winds and the thunder, and by these the winter season of

the Solstice is aptly characterised. The sign of Aquarius
belongs to this month, and the beautiful myth of the " sons
of God and daughters of men," which must be noticed

immediately. Jubal is equivalent to the Aryan Orpheus

or Rhibus, the sun as a minstrel in the windy season.
The eleventh month (January-February) is called in the
Accadian calendar " the abundance of the rain." In the
Elohistic text it is named Ham or "black," and in the
"
Jehovisticcomment Tubal Cain, the workman of the
inundated land." It is now work of nature begins
that the

again after the Solstice, though the spring flowers and

grass are yet hidden in the earth. Tubal Cain is the son
of darkness (Zillah), and thus equivalent to Ham, while his
1
children, like the Phoenician Telchines, are blacksmiths or
workmen, who labour for the gods beneath the earth.
The twelfth month
that preceding the Spring Equinox.
is

In the Elohistic text it is called Japhet or " fair," and by

the Jehovistic writer Naamah or " pleasant," and it is re-
markable that while Naamah is a woman the name Japhet
"
(from Ippu, white ") is also a feminine form. are in We
fact in the season when the sun is female, as in so many
legends of Samson, of Hercules, and of others a rude
emblem of his yet feeble power. The early promise of
spring time, and the passing away of the winter darkness,
are symbolised in these names and the fishes of Ea, its
;

accompanying sign, are the symbols of production, which

"
is also indicated by the Accadian title, the planting of
seeds."
We have thus traced the two
of patriarchs through-
lists

out the year, and find their attributes to agree with the
seasons which they are supposed to represent. single A
1
Cf. Cox's "Mythol. Aryan Nat," p. 524.
B
18 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

coincidence would not be sufficient to prove our case, but

it is
surely impossible that so many should occur without
design and in the interpretation of the various parts we
;

find evidence of the mythic character of these lists as a whole.

But as the year opens with the beautiful stories of
Creation and Paradise, so it closes with the myths of
giants and deluge ;
and these require our
special attention
as serving to confirm the conclusions already reached.
The legend of the birth of the giants and men of renown

immediately precedes that of the deluge in the Jehovistic

account. It is perhaps fixed as belonging to the eighth

month, by the expression that man's days should be only

1 20 or four months. In the Chaldean account of the
dreary journey of Izdubar across the waters of death to
be healed of his sickness, 1 the giants standing with their
feet in hell and their heads touching heaven, are found in

the ninth month. The giants of mythology are the great

thunder pillars of the autumn, which rise like mountains
piled one on another to heaven. In the Phoenician myths,
the names of various mountains are given to giants. 2 The
great giants are born of heaven and earth, and in all

mythologies the winter is pictured as a time of war and of

the tyranny of evil beings a period of wickedness succeeded

by one of peace and goodness.

The word
Nephilim, used in this passage of Genesis, and
3
again in one other, has without doubt the meaning of giant,
but it bears a curious resemblance to the Greek Nephele or
"
cloud." The giants appear to have been the offspring of
the sons of Elohim and of the daughters of " the Adam."
These sons of heaven and daughters of earth are pro-

1
"Assyrian Discoveries," p. 167, seq.
2 Lenormant's " Origines," p. 539 " First Cosmogony Sanchoniathon."
;

-3
Numbers xiii. 33.
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 19

bably the winds famous in mythology for their love

of fair maidens l
-and the waters over which the nymphs
of earth used to watch. From winds and waters the cloud
giants are born, as among the Greeks from heaven and
earth, and a time of violence and revolt succeeds, as the
winter storms increase in fury, and the flood covers the
face of the earth.

Legends of the Flood have been found in many countries

besides those inhabited by the Semitic ra'ces, but it is

among the latter that the myth is most fully developed.

There is no mention of a flood
Vedas, and the in the
Greeks considered the Deluge to have been confined to
Phoenicia. In Egypt we have no clear flood story, and
the Nile inundation was a blessing, not a curse. The
dead Osiris, in his coffin on the sea, presents some re-
semblance to Noah in his ark but the legend which
;

makes him float to Byblos, is very probably of Phoenician

origin, grafted on the original myth of the journey of
Osiris in Hades. The ancient dark race of Chaldea
appears to have possessed the Flood legend, for the ship of
Ea (God of the Sea) is mentioned on Accadian tablets.
2

The Dravidians in India had also a similar tradition,

Manu, the original man, being towed by the great fish god
(Vishnu) to the mountain of the north, where, as the flood
subsided, his boat was stranded. 3 Among the Persians,
Yima's garden, a square enclosure with a wall, was secure
when all else perished in winter, and a bird sent from
heaven announced safety to the righteous preserved there-
in. This legend is found in the " Vendidad," 4 a work dating
perhaps as early as the Jehovistk narrative.
'" Vendidad," "Ram " Zool.
viii. 80; Yasht."9; Mythol.," ii. p, 365;
"
Atareya Brahmana."
2
Lenormant's " Magie," p. 150.
3 " " Zool.
Satapata Brahmana." Cf. Mythol.," ii. p. 335.
4
"Vendidad," ii. 42.
20 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

In the Assyrian deluge 1 we find, however, art almost

exact parallel with the Biblical account. Berosus states
that this deluge commenced on the 5th of Daisies, or about
1

the Summer Solstice, which is rather later than the time at

which the Tigris and Euphrates are in full flood. The
makes the rains begin in the second month
Elohistic writer

(April-May), the time when the inundation is highest in

Mesopotamia and six months later the ark rests on Ararat,
;

at the time when the rivers of Mesopotamia are at their

lowest. Thus, although Noah is made to issue from the
ark 365 days after the commencement of the deluge, in

May, the deluge myth is referred not to the winter so

much as to the Mesopotamian floods. There can, however,
be little doubt that Noah in his coffer of evergreen wood,
like Yima in his paradise, represents the hope of the coming
spring safely hidden in the earth, while the winter deluge
spreads over the lowlands and thence he emerges in safety
;

in spring with the seeds of all animal and vegetable life.

The Assyrians pictured to themselves the earth as a

hollow hemisphere floating on the abyss, and Noah in his
ark on the waters accompanied by the progenitors of a
future creation is thus but an emblem of the hidden sun
of night and winter in Hades, or the womb of the earth

floating on the primeval ocean, and preserved safely until

the return of day or of spring, when all the inhabitants of
the ark come forth or reappear above ground. The ark
is of evergreen wood (gopher), and thus resembles the tree

Myrrha, whence the young Adonis issues, and which in

other myths is cast into the water. 2 According to the
Rabbis a precious stone gave light in the ark instead of
1
Cf. "Assyrian Discoveries," and Lenormant's "Origines de 1'Histoire,"
p. 601.
2
Cf. chap. x. and Appendix A, and chap. vii.
'
Talmudic Miscel.," p. 296;
" Bereshith ch. 3.
Rabba,"
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 21

daylight, and was found in the river Pison. This gives a

connection with the legend of Jonah, to be considered later.
The messenger birds are mentioned by Berosus in the
third century B.C., and in the great Chaldean Epic of Uruk,
where the deluge myth occurs in the eleventh month that
" " " "
marked as black in the Hebrew, and cursed in the

Accadian calendars. The account of the deluge is clothed

in magnificent language by The rain
the Chaldean writer.
" "
god is the cause of the flood the water of the dawn rises
:

in a black cloud whence Ramman thunders. The two

malefics Mars and Saturn, with Hermes, the god of night
(the winter moon), go before. The spirits of the deep carry
destruction. The gods flee in terror to the highest heaven
of Anu, and on the seventh day, the ship which Hasisatra
has built and stored at the command of Ea, the god of
ocean, is brought to rest on the mountain, which, according
to Berosus, was situated in the Kurdish highlands. It is

just here that Josephus places Ararat ;

l
and the mountain
whence the new creation issues is thus close to the Paradise
of the first myth. Ararat was thought by Gesenius to be
a Sanskrit word (Arjawartah), signifying "holy ground," and
the name applies to the magnificent peak 17,000 feet
still

high north of Lake Van, close to the sources of Euphrates.

The Hebrew Paradise is thus connected with the Holy
Mountain as in other mythologies.

In the Chaldean account, Hasisatra sends forth first a

dove, which comes back again next a swallow, which also ;

returns finally a raven, which flies away.

;
The Jehovistic
author speaks of a raven first, then of a dove which returns
twice, bearing an olive branch the second time finally the ;

dove is let free, and returns no more. In the account of

Deucalion's flood (given by Pindar), the survivors of human
1
I iii.
Antiq. 4.
 22 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

kind are warned by the wolves of the approaching catas-

are told
trophe, and in another Greek legend the nymphs
1
All these bear reference
by the cries of the cranes. symbols
to winter, the wolf and the raven being well-known emblems
of darkness, as we shall find again later. The swallows
return, and the winter raven flies, when the deluge is over.
The grey dove is also in the Vedas a winter emblem, 2 and
the approach of winter is still heralded by the cries of the
cranes, as they wend their way southwards over western
Asia, from the marshes of Anatolia and of Russia.
The
Jehovist adds to this great epical episode another
legend of the violence done by Ham, the dark winter, to
Noah, the patron of the autumn vintage. It is but a varia-
tion of the story of Adonis and the boar, and the explana-
tion of Rabbinical writers makes this interpretation clear,
and connects the myth with the Phoenician legend in which
Cronos treats his father Ouranos in a similar manner, and
with the Assyrian story of the crime of Zu. 3 The death of
Noah is said by the Elohist to occur 350 years after the
deluge a lunar year of twelve months being probably in-

tended. Thus both the solar and the lunar measure seem
perhaps to have been purposely inserted into the story of
the year, while Enoch also lives for 365 years. It is hope-
less, however, to endeavour to extract a certain meaning
from the ages of the patriarchs recorded in Genesis. The
has been tampered with by later scribes, as is evidenced
list

by the discordance between the Hebrew, Greek, and

Samaritan texts and even writers like the Ven. Lord
;

Arthur Hervey have abandoned the scriptural dates as

being the work of a later professed chronologist.
4

1 2
Lenormant's "Origines," p. 435. "Zool. Myth.," ii. p. 296.
3
Appendix A., and Sanchoniathon (Eusebius, "Prasp. Evang.,"
Cf. i.
10).
" Tal Bab
Sanhed," yoa'.
4
Smith's "Bible Diet.," vol. ii.
p. 22.
 THE LEGEND OF THE YEAR. 23

Here moment we may pause before considering the

for a

legends of the Semitic immigration west of Euphrates. It

is clear that as yet the writers of Genesis have drawn from

the traditions of Nineveh and Babylon the whole system of

their cosmogony, and their cycle of legends ending with the

flood. It is
perhaps equally clear that those legends, as
related in the Old Testament, cannot claim to be less

evidently mythical than the originals from which they are

derived.
 CHAPTER II.

LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS.

WITH the Euhemeristic explanation of the Jehovistic

" " "
writer who makes the
mythical grey," black and
"white" the progenitors of the three great Asiatic stocks,
Semitic, Hamitic (or Turanian), and Aryan, we are not now
concerned. His comment includes a rude sketch of the
ethnology of Western Asia at the time when he wrote, and
as this has no mythical value we may proceed to consider
the legend of the great triad which came also in time to be
understood historically, but which presents us originally not
with the ancestors of the Hebrew race, but with the sun
heroes of the three annual seasons.
The Assyrian and Babylonian systems of planetary
divinities present a striking similarity to the genealogy of
the children of Abraham which is well worthy our atten-
tion. The three great gods Anu, Bel, and Ea answer
exactly to the Indian Tri-murti Brahma, Siva, and
Vishnu, and to the Greek Zeus,( Aidoneus, and triad
Poseidon. Whatever the origin of these triads the gods of
Heaven, Earth, and Ocean presided over the three seasons
into which the Accadians (who originated the Assyrian

triad), the Egyptians, and the early Greeks divided the

1
year. Three celestial brethren also represented the sun in
*.hese seasons in Aryan mythology, appearing as the Rhi-

1 " Lenormant's " Divination,"

Dubois' People of India," p. 1 17 ; p. 40.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS. 25

bavas of the Vedas, 1 the Pandavas of the Brahmins, 2 and

the three brethren of the Yasna in Persia. 3 In Egypt
4
they are Kheper, Ra,and Turn, but the myth was elaborated
further by the Assyrian priests, who derived the seven

planets from this great triad, and fitted them to the twelve
months of the year 5 in a system which survived in mediaeval
astrology, as may still be found in the standard work of
Lilly on this curious superstition.

In the later chapters of Genesis we see a similar triad

producing twelve sons, whose names will be found to indi-

cate an astronomical origin. Each of the three great
patriarchs is
accompanied by a twin, whose character
seems to agree with the mythical theory, and to reproduce
the original pair Cain and Abel the sun by day with his
brother of the night.

Taking then the history of each of the three in succession,

let us follow the Elohistic story of the life of Abraham.
From Vr of the Chaldees (Vr signifying " light "), 6 Abram
" " "
the high father," Lot, the hiding one," and Sarah, the
"
come
princess," westwards to Harran, the place of " heat or
dryness. Thence Abram proceeds to the shrine of
"
Shechem (" dawn or "morning "), and to the oak of Moreh
"
(or reverence "). The births of Ishmael, son of the slave
" "
woman (Hagar the wanderer "), and of Isaac, the
" "
laugher," son of the princess Sarah, follow, and another
7
pair of twin brethren thus appears.
The progress of Abraham is next traced to Mamre,
where his oak is again found, together with that mysterious
"
Rigveda," i. 20. 3, i. 161. 7, iv. 36. 7 ; "Zool. MythoL,"
1
i.
p. 20.
2 "
Mahabharatam," i. 4990; "Zool. Mythol.,"i. p. 78.
3 " ix. "Zool. Mythol.,"
Yasna," chap. ; i.
p. 104.
4
"Turin Papyrus," 133, io; Pierret's "Mythol. Egypt," p. 73.
6 "
Lenormant's "Magie," p. 114; Origines de 1'Histoire," p. 264.
" Tal Bab Beracoth
6
Gen. xii. 4, 5, 6. On the names Abram and Sarai, cf.
7
Iza." Gen. xvi. I and 3 ; xvi. 15 ; xvii. 27 ; xxi. 2-5.
26 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

"cave of division," Machpelah, where the Princess Sarah

" l
is first entombed, and where he himself, the Prince God,"
2
finally disappears. This hollow cavern belonged to the
great stag (Ephron), son of the dawn (Zohar), and may be
" "
compared to the Cavern of Dawn which gives its name
to one of the Accadian months, and' to that Mithraic cave
the hollow region beneath the earth from which the
infant sun again emerges in the morning. The gazelle or
stag as an emblem of the dawn occurs in the Psalms and
in the Talmudic writings, and survives
poetry. in Arab
The wide-spreading rays are likened to antlers, and the
aurora flees from the sky with the swiftness of a running
deer. 3 The history of Abraham thus far is but a
record of movement west and south to the Sunset
Cave. We may suspect that Jewish writers had not quite
lost the tradition of this explanation, for the Talmudic

allegorists tell us that Abraham had a precious stone which

healed the sick, and which on his death was placed in the sun. 4
The legends of the Jehovistic document, which form the
commentary on this story of Abraham, are far more
numerous and elaborate. The patriarch first appears east
of Bethel, " the house of God," which forms the local centre
of many of the myths. Thence he goes southwards and
westwards to Egypt, when Sarah is separated from him
for a time by the tyrant. The Jewish allegorists relate
that when she was first revealed her beauty gave light to
the whole of Egypt, 5 and the story of separation and
reunion is thrice repeated in Genesis, once again in the
history of Abraham, and once in that of Isaac.

1 2
Gen. xxiii. 6. Gen. xxiii., xxv. 7-10.
3
Psalm xxii. " Tal Bab "
I ;
Yoma," 2Qa ; Hayat el Haiwan," ii. 219, &c. ;
" Hebrew 4 " Tab Bab Baba
Mythol.," p. 178. Bathra," i6b.
6 " 6
Bereshith Rabba," 40. Gen. xx. i; xxvi. 7.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS. 27

If Abraham be indeed a sun hero (as some of the Rabbis

1
seemed to have thought), then this bright laughing princess,
mother of the laugher, may well represent the full moon ;

while the dark Egyptian wanderer Hagar, mother of the

elder brother, seems to stand for the dark night (as

Nepthys, mother of Set, stands to Isis in Egypt), whom,

with her son, the princess drives away, but who returns to
be again dismissed, as also in the Aryan myth. 2
In the desert to which Hagar wanders she finds the

mythical well which so constantly recurs in all Asiatic

legends. It is from this well that the maiden saves the
3
moon, which she presents to Indra. It is in this well

that the sun himself the good brothers day

is cast, until
and night release him. 4 It appears again in the history of
Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, and is the equivalent of the pit
or cave already noticed the under world with its infernal

stream.
The child of this wanderer in darkness is to be a " wild
" 5
ass-man is generally admitted to be the correct
(for such
literal
meaning of the Hebrew) he becomes an archer and :

dwells in the desert east of Palestine, where his twelve sons

(the correlatives of the sons of Jacob) are mentioned under

the names of twelve Arab tribes :
6
his own name Ishmael or
" "
God heard may be compared with the old Assyrian
"
Isma-Dagon, or "Dagon heard an early and half mythical
7
King of Vr, the city of Abraham.
The description thus given of Ishmael clearly indicates

1
Cf. "Rigveda," i. 92. 6.; "Mythol. Zool.," i.
p. 39; cf. Appendix A,
"
Laughter."
3 "
Rigveda," i. 123. 7, i. 124. 6 ; cf. "Zool. Mythol.," i. 37.
3 "
Rigveda," viii. 80. 1-3; "Zool. Mythol.," i. 18.
4 "
Rigveda," i. 105. 9, and i. 112. 5 ; "Zool. Mythol.," i. 25.
5 6
Gen. xvL 12. Gen. xxv. 13.
7
"Transact. Bib. Arch. Society," vol. i. p. 38.
28 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

his character as the nocturnal twin of the sun the sun in

the night travelling east and sunk in the well. In Egypt
the ass was a symbol of Typhon 1 and Set j
the night
sun had an ass' head. The ass with the sun between its

ears symbolises the sun-god Osiris in Hades. 2 Among the

Aryans the ass-man isa very ancient emblem of the sun

in darkness. He is the Gandharva and his sons are the
;

ancestors of the Centaurs and Onokentors, who are famed

as archers. 3 Indra also -the god of cloud and thunder
has the swift ass for his symbol, 4 and a bow in his hand. 5
Thus in Ishmael we find the oldest of those monsters, half
human half bestial, which represent the sun while in the
earth the twin of the celestial God of Day. The
6
Sphinx Egypt the emblem of Horus on the horizon
in

is a better known instance of such a monster, and the man-

bull, as we shall shortly see, is a yet more favourite symbol.

The idea of the ass-man also survives in Persian legends
derived from older sources. The Gandharva is an enemy
of the sun hero, who lives in the ocean and who has golden
hoofs. In this instance the two brothers appear as in

many others as enemies, but the same fancy of the ass in

the ocean is again found in the Bundahish, where this
wondrous animal has three legs and a horn (like Cain), and
guards the springs of water and light; just as Ishmael is
connected with the magic well which in Moslem legends
springs from his foot, as the fountain Hippocrene springs
from the hoof of the winged Pegasus, another form of the
same strange myth of the Centaur. 7 In Assyria we
1
"Ancient Egyptians," i. 105 Epiphanius' "Adv. Haeret," iii. 1093.
;

2 " Records of the 3

Cox's "Aryan Mythol.," p. 282
Past," x. 130.
* "
Rigveda," iii. 53. 5 ; "Zool. Mythol.," i. 371.
"
Rigveda," i. 121. 9, x. 27. 2 ; "Zool. Mythol," i. 14.
6
Pierret's
"
Mythol Egypt," p. 39.
7 " Aban "
Yasht, 38 ; "Bundahish," xix.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS. 29

recognise the same figure in the archer, who is the sign of

the ninth month the Accadian month of cloud.
The Kabbalists 1 tell us that the soul of Ishmael migrated
into the she-ass of Balaam, thus fully recognising his
bestial character. They further say that the sons of
Abraham's concubines, sent away to the east, inhabited an
iron city, into which the sun never penetrated, and which
'was lighted by a bowl of precious stones 2 that is, into

darkness, only lighted by stars and planets in the vaulted

heaven. We have thus two Jewish allegories which con-
firm the identification of Ishmael with the nocturnal
twin.
The destruction of the cities of the plain forms a distinct
"
story. the hiding one," the twin brother of Abraham,
Lot,
has gone east (the direction of the sun's path by night) to
the Vale of Shidim, or demons, which appears fair to him
afar off, but which is inhabited by five dreadful kings Bera, :

" "
son of evil," King of Sodom, or burning ;" Birsha, " son
of wickedness," King of Gomorrah, or "sinking;" Shinab,
" " "
the cold one," King of Zeboim (the hyenas of night) ;

" "
and the King of Admah, or redness of dawn, who is
"
named Shemeber that is, mounting aloft." The fifth of
"
these kings of darkness and dawn is Bela, the devourer,"
whose city is Zoar,
"
the small." A conflict ensues among
the bitumen pits of the dreadful valley between these kings
and other monarchs of the far East, who fight against
"
giants in Ham, the land of darkness," and in the city of
Ashtoreth Karnaim, the crescent moon. The cave-
" "
dwellers of Seir, the land (which, as
rough we shall soon
"
see, is the land of dawn), are and the " hiding one
slain,

is carried away to Hobah, "the hiding place" in the

northern or dark direction. His friend Abraham pursues,
3
1
Of. Hershon's "Talmudic Miscellany," p. 326. "Sophrim," 2ia.
30 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

like the Persian twin-hero Rustem, 1 and comes back

victorious to the west, where the righteous King of Peace

(Melchisadek of Salem) sacrifices to him in the name of the

highest god, the father of earth and heaven. In this early
sacrifice ofbread and wine we find the ritual of the rising
sun, Mithra, as practised from time immemorial by the
Aryans. Melchisadek, according to the Rabbis, 2 was
identical with Shem, whose name may perhaps be connected
with the Egyptian Sem, 3 the highest order of the priest-
hood. He is thus the typical priest sacrificing to the sun,
and receiving gifts from him in return.

The legend of the night and sunrise thus interpreted is

followed by one of sunset. Abraham is sacrificing to
Jehovah Elohim, when a horror of darkness seizes him, and
a deep sleep "as the sun goes down." A smoking pit
"
(Tannur) and a flaming fire appear, as the sun goes

down," between the pieces of the sacrificed animals, which

probably symbolise the rifted cloud banks amid the sunset
flames. It is on this legend that the Babylonian Talmud

founds another, in which Abraham is cast by the tyrant

Nimrod into a flaming furnace, 4
whence he emerges again
safely.
5
The Tannur, or pit, is famous in Arab folk lore
as the chasm whence the deluge issued, and is no doubt the
cave of sunset, whose other eastern mouth gives birth to the
dawn.
The next episode again refers to Lot, "the hiding one"
(a name given in Egypt to the sun).
6
In the heat of the

day Jehovah Adonai (the Phoenician Adonis, as will be

shown later) appears under the oak-tree of Abraham which,
1 "Zool. Mythol.," i. p. 113.
3
2 "Aboda Hakkodesh," iii. 20. "Ancient Egyptians," i. 319.
" Tal Bab " " Zool.
4
Pesachim," n8a ; cf. Rigveda," and Myth.," i. 33.
5 "
Koran," Sura xi. (Hud), 42.
6 "Hibbert
Pierret's "Mythol. Egypt," p. 19; Renouf's Lect.," 1879, p. 187.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS. 31

like Brahm's oak, symbolises the expanse of heaven l in

the form of three persons, the three Cabiri, already referred
to as symbolising the sun. They predict the birth of the
new sun Isaac, "the laugher," and the overthrow of the
citiesof the Valley of Demons (Shedim), promising the
"
safe escape of the " hiding one from the destruction. By
night they reach this valley, and strike its inhabitants with
the blindness of darkness. The two angels (like the good
Asvinau of Aryan myths 2 ) hasten the Hiding One away,
and as the sun he escapes to the eastern mountains.
rises

His wife presumably the moon is turned to stone and ;

any who have seen her paling as the first rays of dawn
strike the heaven, will understand the myth. The old man
in the cavern on the mountains and his erring daughters
(the dawn maidens) may be paralleled from many myth-
ologies. Nu, the heaven in Egypt, is married to his

daughter ;
Osiris to his sister or mother ; Cyneras is father
of Adonis by daughter Myrrha his in in Phoenicia ;
Adar
Assyria weds his mother Belit and in the Vedas, Praga^; /?

pati, "Lord of Creatures," loves his daughter, the dawn.

3
It

is unnecessary to inquire what may have been the moral

laws of myth-making times, for these strange unions are
but rude expressions of the relationships between the sun
and dawn, which are recognised by all writers on myth-
ology and this relationship explains the preservation of
;

tales which it would otherwise have seemed repugnant to

any nation to relate of its ancestors. It may perhaps be

objected that Lot has two daughters, who cannot both
"
Mythol. des Plantes," pp. 85,
1
"Rigveda," i.
164. 22, x. 18, x. 35. I ;

95, 102.
2 " 112. 8 ; iv. 52. 2 ; "Zool. Mythol.," i. 32.
Rigveda,"
i.

3 " Hibbert
Renoufs
" Lettres "
Lect.," 1879; Assyriologiques, ii.
279;
"Zool. Mythol.," i.
27; "Hibbert Lect," 1878, p. 297; Lenormant's
"Magie," p. 106.
32 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

represent the dawn, but it should be noted that the

offspring of the first is Moab, and that of the younger

Ammon. The sun, as seen from Jerusalem, rises at the
winter solstice over Moab, and at the summer solstice over
Ammon. The " hiding one " thus woos the dawn maiden
alternately on the horizon north or south of the true

east, and the new sun who springs from the dawn-mother
is an Ammonite in summer and a Moabite in the winter.
"
The the hiding one," in this Cavern of the
story of Lot,
Dawn thus given a distinct localisation near the Valley
is

of Jordan. The writer of Deuteronomy saw in the sterile

character of the scenery round the Dead Sea a clear proof
of the actual historical occurrence of the catastrophe, 1 and

probably, like Josephus, he believed the wicked cities to

2

lie beneath the waters of that bitter lake an idea which,

despite the evidences of scientific research, is still fondly
held by many pious persons.
To those who have gazedmany of us have) on
(as so
the long white ridges, the great cliffs with black basalt
streams, the dark flint stones which look like extinct thun-
derbolts strewn over the slopes, the tall Soma plants with
theirashy apples of Sodom, and who have experienced the
stiflingheat and seen the vapour which exhales over the

slimy sea, it will not seem strange that this great chasm
should have been thought by the early Hebrews to be a
region cursed by God, sown with salt, and burnt with fire.

The legend is, perhaps, the most original of all those found
in the Book of Genesis.

The story of the sacrifice of Isaac, localised by the Jews

at Jerusalem, and by the Samaritans at Gerizim, is found
in Phcenicia, and also apparently in India. The myth
presupposes the custom of human sacrifice, which, as there
is abundant evidence to shew, existed to a very late date

1 3
Deut. xxix. 23. Antiq., i., x. I.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS. 33

among the Jews. 1 In Egypt this Semitic cultus was abol-

ished by Amosis, but in Greece, as well as at Tyre, it was
practised very late, and only abolished in Rome in the

year 78 B.C. 2 In India it is probably still in use among

the Khonds, 8 and till about a century ago it was there

common. 4 The Vedas speak of the substitution of the
horse for man, of the bull for the horse, the sheep for the
bull, and the goat for the sheep, but the Puranas give full
5

details of the proper form of sacrifice of a human victim 6

to the infernal goddess Kali.

In the Aitareya Brahmanam 7 a work dating about

700 B.C. the command of Varuna, the dreaded sky-god, is

given to King Hariscandras (sun and moon) to sacrifice
his only son. The Accadian name Dumzi is said by
"
Assyriologists to mean the only son," and in Syria the

only son was annually mourned under the names Tammuz

and Hadad. 8 The deity is in these cases the sun of
summer, autumn, but escaping from his foes in
slain in

spring. Thus the red son of Hariscandras also escapes the

sacrifice, as does his substitute (Cunahcepas, "the self-
who is to be immolated in the evening, but
sacrificer ")

who, aided by the dawn, flies away in a golden chariot. 9

The Phoenician version gives us Israel sacrificing his
"
only son (by Anu-Berith, the Heaven-born ") to Ouranos
or Anu in a time of peril and the Phoenician Israel is ;

identified with Cronos or Saturn. 10 The sacrifice of a son

1
Hosea xiii. 2 Mioah vi.
2 " Hist. Nat.," xxx. 2.
; 7. Pliny,
3 "
Rude Stone Mon.," pp. 460, 465.
Fergusson's
*
Dubois' " People of India," p. 357.
6 " "
Rigveda," i.
162.3; Aitareya Brahmanam," ii. 1,8; "Zool. Mythol.,"
i.
6 " Kalika Purana."
44, 415.
7 8
"Zool. Mythol.," i., p. 70. Ezek. viii. I ; Zech. xii. u.
9
Cf.
"Rigveda," ; "Zool. Mythol.," i., p. 35.
i. 123. 10
10
Cf. Sanchoniathon in Eusebius,
" " Com-
Prsep. Evang.," i. 10 ; Speaker's
"
ment.," vol. i. on Gen. xxii.; and Lenormant's Origines," Appendix, p. 546.
C
34 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

or daughter by the father recurs again and again in Greek

and Semitic legends, but the mythical character of the
story of Genesis is best illustrated by the Phoenician and
Indian versions.
It is to Elohim, the dark sky god, that Isaac is to be
sacrificed. Jehovah, the god of light, who saves him
It is

from his fate, placing a ram in his stead, just as the goat
becomes the human substitute in India. That Isaac is a

prototype of the Messiah will be found true later, for, to

put the idea in other language, the sacrifice of the sun-god
by himself, or by his father, are but variants of one great
myth.
The lists which follow these episodes in the Jehovistic

narrative need not detain us long. The sons of Nahor are

apparently Syrian tribes, though his children by Reumah

1
are "slaughter," "flame," "silencing," and "oppression."
The children of Keturah 2 repeat in some cases the names
of Hamitic races, but in others are apparently Arab tribes.
The sons of Ishmael have already been noticed as belong-
ing to the Eastern desert and thus, as in so many myth-
;

ologies, the tribes of mankind are derived from the mythical

sun heroes, who in turn are offspring of the gods.
The story of Isaac's life is less eventful than that of
Abraham. He
represents the sun in the mid season of
summer, "the laugher" or smiling one a term which the
Persians also applied to the sun and the Aryans to the
"
smiling dawn." In the Elohistic text he marries Rebecca,
"
sister ofLaban, the white one," and daughter of Bethuel.
Her own name and her father's are unfortunately untrans-
"
lated, but her mother the queen." The birth
is Milcah,
of a third pair of twins follows, and, as is often the case in
the myth, a doubt arises which is the elder. The one Esau
1 2
Gen. xxii. 20. Gen. xxv. i.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS, 35

"
is red," and covered with a mantle of hair, the other Jacob,
"
the follower," holds the heel of Esau ;
and a continuity is
thus established between the red elder brother and the

younger, who is to become the elder, the "Prince" or

"
Warrior God."
remarkable that the sun at night is represented as
It is

being red. In Egypt it was the hue of Typhon and Set.

In India the sun in the night forest is called Rohita 1 or
"
red," and many other examples might be cited. The
speak of the sun as red at dawn and
2
Rabbinical writers
sunset (as we have already seen), and they conjectured
that this was the natural colour of the orb which was con-
cealed by day in the brilliance of its rays it was generally :

assumed by the myth makers that as the sun set red and
rose red he remained that colour until he changed to gold

by day. The sun of dawn is also represented as hairy,

from the long rays which surround his face, and we have
perhaps in these circumstances the explanation of the red
Esau's hairy coat
That Jacob or Israel was regarded as a deity in early
times seems to be shown by passages in the Bible itself;
as Jacob he is invoked in the Psalm, 3 and as Israel in the

history of ascension. 4 The Rabbinical writers also

Elijah's
Jacob with the sun in commenting on his history;
identified 5

and his wisdom and final prosperity are characteristics of

that third brother of Aryan mythology, who, at first
poor
and fugitive, becomes finally triumphant, because the third
season of the year first begins in winter and then terminates
in spring.

Turning, however, from the twins, whose history must

1 "
Aitereya Brahmanam," ii. I.
2
"Tal Bab Baba Bathra," 84a. Cf. chap, i., p. 7.
3 4
Psalm xxiv. 6. 2 Kings ii. 12 ; xiii. 15.
5
"Bereshith Rabba," sect. 68.
36 -
BIBLE FOLK LORE.

be continued later, let us consider the legends of Isaac

narrated by the Jehovistic commentator. They are not
numerous, and the longest refers to the fetching of Rebecca
by Isaac's substitute Eleazer ("the help -god"), who, accord-
ing to the Rabbinical writers, was identical with the gigantic

Og, one of the original Nephelim.

1

Going east and north, as the sun always does by night

(though Isaac himself can never go in this direction),
Eleazer reaches the mythical well of which we have before
made mention, where the maiden offers him water, just as
she offers soma (the water of life) to Indra in the Vedas. 2
From Eleazer the sun's substitute she receives gold,
silver,and garments, such as those which deck Istar, the
moon, in Assyria, and Anahita, the dawn, in the hymns of
the Zendavesta 3 and with the consent of Laban, " the
;

white one," who appears later as the male moon, she sets
out westwards. The Rabbinical commentators add to the

story that as Laban endeavoured to oppose this journey,

Eleazer took his camels and placed them in the sky, where
he sat safely a detail which shows that the Jewish alle-

gorists regarded the story as mythical.

On meeting with Isaac, Rebecca is veiled (the moon, in
other words, pales in the sunlight) but in the dark tent of ;

the night she becomes the legitimate successor of the moon

4
princess Sarah. The only other incident in her career is
her separation from Isaac, when she is seized by the
Philistines in the time of famine, as Sarah was twice
separated from Abraham. It is probable that the phases
of the moon as she approaches the sun or recedes from

1
Gen. xxiv. ; cf. xv. 2. "Tal Bab Beracoth, 54b."
2 " 80 1-3 " Zool. Mythol.,"
Rigveda," viii. ; i.
p. 18.
3
"AbanYasht," 126-129; "Zool. Mythol., "i. ico; "Records of the Past,'*
vol. i.
p. 144.
4
Gen. xxiv. 67.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PA TRIARCHS. 3?

him are indicated by this legend of separation, as in the

Vedic myths. 1
In the famine time (for we now approach the autumn at
the end of the second season), Isaac sows corn which is

reaped within a year. He also strives with the Philistines

or enemies of the west for the water which, like the Vedic
2
dragon, they keep back from him. Their leaders are
" "
Abimelech, the father king," Phicol, the swallower or all
"
mouth," and Ahuzzath, rapine," while the wells or springs
" "
are named Esek, strife," and Sitnah, hatred." Finally,
the sun-flocks are watered at the well Rehoboth, which,
like the Rahab of the later Biblical books, seems to in-
"
dicate wide spreading," like the Aryan Usha. 3
the dawn
The contest of Isaac to obtain water for the flocks resembles
the famous battle of Indra with the drought dragon, 4 and
occurs just in the autumn, when the first rain storms begin.
The twin brothers who form the last pair in the great
triad of twins which we are considering, are described in

very remarkable terms by the Jehovistic writer. Esau was

" "
a Sed man, but Jacob was an entire man. 5 Now the
term Sed is name of the great man-bull in Assyria
the the
cherub with human head and bull's body so familiar to us
in the sculptures of Nineveh. 6
We may therefore well enquire whether the author who re-
presents Ishmael as an onokentaur meant us to picture Esau
as a man-bull and when we find later that he is described
;

"
as tossing," and as the father of bulls,
7
and remember
how the Chaldean epic the twin hero Ea-bani is re-
in

presented as a man-bull, as is also the brother who goes

8

1 " 2
Cf. "Zool. Mythol.," ii. 393.
Rigveda," x. 95.
" Hibbert
Lect.," 1878, p. 230; "Zool. Mythol.," i. 5, 6; "Cox's
3
Cf.
"
Aryan Mythol.," p. 51 ; Rigveda," vii. 77.
5
4 "Zool.
Mythol., "i. 12. Gen. xxv. 27. 6 "Lenormant's Magie," p. 112.
7 Gen. xxxvi.
15. A.V. "Dukes," Gen. xxvii. 40.
8 "
Cf. Assyrian Discoveries," p. 167 (Izdubar Legends).
 38 , BIBLE FOLK LORE.

east in the old Egyptian legend,

1
we can hardly doubt
that in Esau we have the Kirub, A lap, or Sed of the
Chaldeans, with a red coat of hair over his bull's body.
The man-bull of Assyria and Egypt brother of the sun
" "
survives also in Persian legends. 2 He is the semi-man
who worships God in the ocean, and is slain and avenged.
He also, no doubt, is connected with the primeval bull who
is slain (and whose seed is preserved in the moon), the

brother of the prototype hero. The bull is the earth, the

man-bull represents Osiris in the bull's mouth, or the sun
swallowed by the earth.
"
The hunger which is ascribed to Esau for that red, that
3
red," is but another indication of his nocturnal character,
and as a hunter he recalls the Red Hunter of India (the

night sun), and the mighty hunter Indra, whose hunger

4
and thirst are equal to his exploits ;
while his habitation
" " "
is in the "red and hairy country (Edom or Seir), where
dwell the Horites or men of the cave.
"
The wives of Esau are three Adah, the beautiful one,"
" " "
daughter of the well Bathshemah, the daughter of
;

"
heaven and daughter of the sky-oak (Elon) and Aholi- ;

bamah, "light on high," who is the daughter of the sky

"
(Anah) and of Zibeon, the many-coloured," who is a
Horite or cave man. These goddesses are apparently all
connected with the dawn, and are fit consorts of the ruddy
man-bull.
The enquiry into the meaning of the genealogical lists of
Esau's descendants might be carried further did space per-
mit. It is well known that such genealogies are often but

1 " Records of the

Past," vol. ii. p. 137.
2 " " Sacred Books of the " Cos
Cf. Bundahish," iv. I ; East," v. p. 20 ;

8 "
Yasht," 1 ; Bundahish," xxxi. 21.
3
Gen. xxv. 30.
4 "
"Rigveda," v. 29, 8; "Zool. MythoL,"
'r
i. 8; Aitereya Brahmanam, ii. i.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS. 39

a mode of expressing the attributes of mythical persons,

but in the present condition of Hebrew philology it is
perhaps unwise to insist too strongly on this point, involv-
ing, as theenquiry of necessity does, a very minute gram-
matical examination.
The story of the blessing stolen by Jacob from Isaac,
the blind old sun approaching his death, is exactly similar
to the Persian story of the blessing of Ahriman and
Ormuzd by their father in the "boundless time." There
is the same confusion as to which is the elder, and there
can be little doubt that the two myths have a common
origin. The flight of Jacob eastwards is taken by night
the time of mourning for Isaac being that in which he fears
his brother, who, like Set in Egypt, is also his greatest foe.
By night he arrives at. a sacred place, a house of God

(Bethel), whence the great steps lead up to heaven. These

steps from the gate of heaven to the zenith are also
mentioned in the Assyrian account of creation, and in

Phoenicia we ambrosial stones (or anointed

find certain

menhirs), called Bethels, or abodes of the deity, and re-

sembling the stone set up and anointed by Jacob.
The myth is localised at the site of Abraham's first

altar in the east; and the Bethel, or stone, becomes the

symbol of Jacob, as the tree is of Abraham, perhaps
because Jacob is throughout a hero of the dark winter
season, when the sun is turned, in the Vedic language,
into stone. needless here to expand on the uni-
It is

versal cultus of the upright stone in India, Arabia, Greece,

Phoenicia, and other countries, as being at once the altar

of the deity, and the body in which he resides.
Possibly
some such rude stone monument existed at the Benjamite

1
Gen. xxvi. 34 ; xxviii. 6 ; xxxvi.
2 Psalm
Gen. xxxvi. 15 ; cf. cxliv. 4.
 40 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
Pales-
Bethel, longer extant, for it is certain that
now no
tine was once covered with the menhirs and dolmens of
as noted
early tribes, some of which still remain standing,
by several recent explorers.
Bethel the wandering Jacob goes yet further east,
From
to the mythic well, where he meets the Moon Maiden, who
becomes his wife. As in the history of Indra, so in the
Biblical history of Eleazer, or of Jacob, or of Moses, the
sun and moon draw water for the flocks by night. The
ambrosia or water thus drawn is very clearly to be
identified with the dew, which was supposed to flow from
the hollow cup of the moon, and of which much remains
to be said later. Jacob, like Indra, removes the stone, and
the water flows for the cloudy flocks.
1
He is then ad-
"
mitted to the household of Laban, the white one,"
whose daughters are Leah (" exhausted ") and Rachel
(" wandering "), whom he weds in turn. These wives, with
theirhandmaids, represent the four phases of the moon ;

and to each as to Leah a week is to be assigned.'2 Leah

was weak eyed, being the eldest, and probably representing
the crescent, which is thus called exhausted or empty,
while her handmaid the full moon is called Zilpah or
" "
dripping that is, with dew. Bilhah (" wasting ") repre-
sents the waning quarter, and Rachel
wandering ") is the ("

successor of the wandering Hagar the dark quarter when

the Queen of Heaven no longer walks the sky. Of these
four, Rachel, the dark night, is best loved by her husband,
as fits his dark and wintry aspect.

The Jacob are the strong dark ones, brown or

flocks of

speckled, while those of Laban are white, for the silvery

moon clouds are here contrasted with the strong dark
clouds of the winter sun ;
and these Jacob tends in his
" 3
1
Cf. Rigveda," iii. 4. 9; "Zool. Mythol.," i. 12. Gen. xxix. 27.
 LEGENDS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS. 41

Laban is " changed," and

eastern exile, until the face of
"
the white one (the male moon, Lunus or Thoth) pales
''

before the coming dawn. 1 The name Laban in its feminine

form is applied, as here be noted, in Hebrew, to the
may
moon as contrasted with the ruddy sun, and the family
and attributes of the changeable Laban alike serve to
identify him with the moon god.
And now the course of Jacob is once more west
and south, through many difficulties, the
to reach,
Gate of Heaven. Rachel steals the Teraphim, or serpent
"
gods, which are the luck" of her father, and the night
god pursues the hero to the eastern mountains, over which
he is Here another stone monument is
about to appear.
erected in the night, and Jacob moves on to the camps
where the messengers of the supreme god meet him. It
is here, just before his rising, that his red brother from the
red country comes to meet him, and that his own appear-
ance is heralded by the long droves of cloud cattle be-
longing to the season for Jacob has now eleven sons,
and the depth of winter is thus indicated. The elaborate

myth continues with wonderful vividness to describe how,

"
when these cloud bands have crossed the river of empty-
ing," Jacob still wrestles with a dark antagonist until the
"
breaking of the day." Then at length he passes over
"
Penuel, and the sun rises as he reaches this manifestation
of God "
(such being the meaning of Penuel), when he
"
becomes suddenly transformed from Jacob, " the follower
of the red dawn, to Israel, the " Warrior God," but never-
2
theless appears halting (like the lame Indra or the

crippled Horus), for Jacob is still the Winter Sun, whose

3
productive power is lessened, and whose symbol is the
1
Gen. xxxi. 2.
2
Lenormant's "Lettres Ass.," ii. 268 " Zool. Mythol.," i.
; 32.
8
Cf. Appendix A, Jacob's
"
thigh."
42 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

pillar of stone. The meeting of the Warrior and his red

brother of dawn occurs immediately on his appearance,
but soon after Esau returns to the red country, and Israel

journeys to the Succoth or booths, which are the dwellings

of his cloudy flocks, or in other words, disappears in the
clouds soon after his stormy rising. Thence again he
"
comes peace to Shechem,
in the early morn," and travels
south to the house of God. It is here that Deborah, "the

.bee," the nourisher of Rebecca, dies, and is buried beneath

the "oak of dropping," while the ornaments of Jacob's
wives are in like manner buried beneath the oak of dawn.
The bee the well-known symbol of the ambrosial dew, 1
is

which dies as the sun rises towards the south. The

ornaments of the moon (such as Rebecca also wore) are
hid in the dawn as soon as the day appears. Such seems
to be explanation of the myth, which concludes
the
"
with the disappearance of Israel at the high place of the
flock," whereby the towering clouds of the zenith may

again be understood.
But while Israel returns to the south and gradually
moves to his death in the west (in Egypt), the red man-
bull his brother, with all his family of bulls and his riches
" "
and flocks, removes from off the face of the earth to
"
the rugged eastern mountains of Seir and Esau," adds ;

"
the Elohistic author, is Edom," that is, the red one.
Thus have we traced the story of the great triad of twins
to the stormy third season represented by the crippled
Warrior god and his red man-bull brother. It remains to
speak of the twelve months born of Israel (as also pro-
ceeding from the great triad of Assyria), and of the
various adventures of Jacob's sons and daughter, includ-

ing the beautiful story of Joseph, where first we trace the

influence of Egypt on the literature of the Hebrews.
1
Gen. xxxv. 8; "Zool. Mythol.," ii., p. 216.
 CHAPTER III.

THE TWELVE TRIBES.

THE reader, has perhaps by this time begun to see that-

very close resemblances between the legends of

exist
Genesis and the myths of Chaldea, Egypt, and India. The
the
present chapter brings yet more fully before us
connection between these various systems, and the astro-
nomical character of the twelve descendants of that great
triad which represents the seasons of the year.
The Accadians do not appear to have had any complete
astronomical hierarchy in their pantheon. Local gods,

representing the sun, or pairs symbolising the older nature

worship, existed in various great cities of which they were
the special patrons, and each tribe worshipped its own god
modern Indian sects) without denying the exist-
(like the
ence of others. It was only when Chaldea and Babylon

had been united by Sargon I., that any attempt seems to

have been made to arrange in one system the whole
pantheon, and to collect the classical works religious,
liturgic,and astronomical which represented the philo-
1
sophy and faith of Babylonia. Thus, by about 2000 B.C.,
the various Accadian sun-gods were assigned each to one
of the seven planets, and made subordinate to the great
national triad and this system mainly differed from the
;

Assyrian in the omission of the original pair of love-gods

1
Lenormant's " Origines," p. 264.
 44 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Asshur and Sheruya, whom the Assyrians at their capital

Asshur regarded as the parents of all creation. 1
The seven planets were also connected with the solar
year of twelve months. 2 The sun and moon ruled a month
each to the other five were assigned two months a piece
; ;

"and thus the sacred seven were reconciled with the twelve
zodiacal signs.

system which w6 must keep in view in examin-

It is this

ing the twelve sons of the triad, who, on the mythical

theory, evidently represent the twelve months of the year.

The sun and moon should have each a name, and the five
planets should be twice repeated. The order need not be
symmetrical, for although in later times the planets are

arranged under the sun and moon respectively, in corres-

ponding positions, this is not the case in the early Assyrian
or Babylonian calendars. In the Hebrew all the twelve
tribes spring from one father, but of four mothers ;
while
in theAssyrian system the planets have either of the three
great gods for a father, and these gods themselves are
reckoned among the twelve who preside over the year.
These, however, are but details of systems which appear to
have been elastic, because their true meaning, and the
interchangeability of their symbols, were fully understood
by the priests who constructed them.
3
Reuben, theson of Jacob, answers in position to
first

Shin, the moon-god, who is generally the eldest of the

pantheon, and who stands first, as we have already seen, in
the Egyptian Thoth, and the Hittite Seth. His name is
"
interpreted behold a son," but may perhaps have an
earlier derivation, as yet undiscovered. In the curious and

1
G. Smyth, "Assyria," p. 10 ; Lenormant's
" 101.
Magie," p.
"
2
Lenormant's " Magie," p. 108 ; Origines," p. 242.
*
Gen. xxix., xxx., xlix.
 THE TWELVE TRIBES. 45

valuable song which is known as Jacob's blessing, we find

"
Reuben characterised as being " unstable as water ;
he is

the beginning of Jacob's "light," but is not to "exceed

measure." He marries his own mother (in the form of
Bilhah), just as Shin, the moon-god, marries his mother
Belit in the Assyrian system. The notice of water, and 1

of measurement, agree with the lunar character of this

personage ; and he appears to represent the male moon

Lunus, who is common to all mythologies.
Simeon and Levi come next in all the lists of the twelve
tribes they are brethren of a malefic character, as is men-
:

tioned in the song of Jacob, and as appears in the episode

of the rape of Dinah. Like the Persian devil, they slay
a man and "castrate a bull." 2 The name of Simeon con-
tains the first instance of that termination in on which
occurs so frequently in the deities, as in Dagon, names of
"
Samson, &c., and which appears to mean great." The
" "
famous one would in this case be the meaning of
"
Simeon's name, generally rendered hearing." In character
he resembles Samael of the Talmud, 3 the planet Mars,
which in Assyria was called the warrior Nergal. The
name Levi, as has been elaborately shown by Herr
4

Goldziher, signifies a serpent (though rendered "joined"

by the Jehovistic writer). It is the same word which occurs
in the name of Leviathan the Lui, Tan, or serpent-dragon
5
of Egypt.
These two brethren receive curses rather than blessings
from their father, and his words contrast strangely with the
1
Lenormant's "Magie," p. 122; "Origines," p. 524. ; Cf. Appendix A,
Reuben's Mandrakes.
2 " Sacred Books of the
East," vol. v. pp. 69, 126 vol. xxiii. p. 115. ;

8
Cf. "Lit. Remains of E. Deutch,"p. 142; Lenormant's "Origines," p. 201.
4
Cf. Gesenius' Lexicon.
5 " Hibbert
Tanen. Cf. Lect.," 1879, p. 178; "Origines," p. 545;
" "
Pierret's Myth. Egypt," p. 63 ; Speaker's Comment," vol. i., p. 276.
46 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

sacred character of the tribe of Levi at a late historic

The two malifics of the ancient astrology were
period.
Mars and Saturn. The latter is represented as the serpent

who was the father of the gods l while the warlike

;

character attributed to Simeon fits with his identification

as the planet Mars.

Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob, and own sister of

Reuben, should represent the female moon. Her name
bears a curious resemblance to that of the moon goddess,
" "
Diana, but in Hebrew it
signifies religion or "judgment."

Dinah is in fact a feminine form of Dan or Daian, which

as will be noticed immediately, is the title of more than one

astronomical divinity in Assyria. not impossible that
It is

Diana Dionysus) may

(like be also a name of Semitic
origin and the Din of the Zendavesta, though developing
;

into a female moral personification of wisdom, represents

very probably the outcome of the older mythical character

more than one Semitic word, adopted pro-
of Dinah, 2 for

bably from Assyrian, is known to survive in Zend books.

This goddess appears as oppressed by Shechem, the son of
Hamor, who, as Goldziher points out, seems to be the
dawn god, "early rising, the son of redness," who is in
turn rendered impotent by the malifics, and slain with all

his followers. It is but a myth of the pursuit of the moon

goddess, such as is common in Asia, bearingsome analogy
to the Assyrian tale of the oppression of Shin by the seven
3
wicked spirits.
The fourth tribe in all repetitions of the
Judah occupies
list his proper place as the Solstitial sign. His character-
1
Lenormant's
" Lettres "
Assyr." ii., p. 177; Origines," p. 565.
2
Gen. xxxiv. 1-31 Cf. "DinYasht," "Sacred Books of the East," vol.
xxiii. p. 264.
3 "Records of Past," vol. v. ; "Assyr. Discov.," p. 398; Lenormant's
"Origines," p. 519.
 THE TWELVE TRIBES, 47

istics, as representing the sun in its strength, are very fully

brought out in the song of Jacob ;
and his name, like that
of Mahalaleel, occupying in our earlier calendar the same
position, signifies "praise."
Judah is the lion (symbol of royal power), and if we

suppose the present calendar to be of the same date with

that investigated in our first chapter, the Solstitial month
of Judah has the Zodiacal sign of the lion. Judah is

also symbolised as the ass tied to the vine, and we are thus
reminded of the Semitic sun-god Dionysus, who rides the 1

ass, and is pre-eminently the god of the vine. Judah again

has white teeth and red eyes, like the famous Trojan horse.
The teeth of the sun, in the Arab language, are the first
white rays of dawn, and his red eye is that which closes in
the sunset. The whole description of Judah agrees there-
fore with his eminently solar character, and with the sun-
worship of the tribe which bore his name at the time of the

writing of the Book of Genesis.

2

Like the preceding brothers, Judah has a special myth

devoted to him. He marries, in the western lowlands,
" "
the rich one," daughter of the noble one," and has three
" " "
sons" heat," light," and fatness," or rest," who form
another triad of brethren eminently solar in character. The
two first are married to Tamar (the palm), who in Assyria
was identical with the supreme goddess of the tree of life,
and who Arabia was named Allat, and worshipped under
in
3
the symbol of a date-palm. By Er and Onan the palm
goddess does not obtain fruit, but in the third season, when
Shelah is growing, she encounters the sun-god himself, " at
the opening of eyes on the way towards the south." 4 She
1
Cox's "Aryan Mythol.," p. 504.
2
See Appendix A, Judah's rod and Dan's rod.
8
Lenormant's " Lettres Assyr," ii., p. 103. Cf. Appendix A, the Palm.
k
4 Gen. xxxviii. 14.
 48 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

thus assumes a character akin to that of the dawn goddess,

and as such she is condemned to be burnt (at sunset) ;
but
1
after laying aside the wondrous veil, in which she resembles
a devotee of love like Ushas (the dawn) in presence of her

husband, she becomes the mother of twins, who closely

resemble the famous pair (Esau and Jacob) already dis-
cussed. The elder, marked with red like Esau, is called
" "
Pharez, breaking forth (that is, the break of day) ;
the

younger is Zarah, whose name again and again recurs in

" "
the lists of Genesis as signifying the rising of the sun
or of the moon and the east quarter of heaven. The myth
thus explained appears to indicate that the third season of
"
the year (commencing in November) is that of " rest from
harvest toils or of fatness, and, finally, of fertility.' These

peculiarities of the season are symbolised in Aryan legends

by the history of Trita, the third and most fortunate brother,
who emerges in triumph from his difficulties, and whose
adventures we must shortly consider in detail.
The fifth son of Jacob was Dan, "the judge," who is
described as a serpent or adder, who bites the horseman's

heels, making him fall backwards. We have probably here

a play on the words Dan and Tan, the latter signifying the

great snake in Hebrew, and occurring also in Egypt as

Tanen, the snake-enemy of the sun the winter. Dan

occupies the month immediately succeeding the Solstice,
and the horseman whom he bites is no doubt the divine
horseman (the sun) riding the horse,
1
which is in the Vedas
the mortal brother of the sun. The Dan
the serpent
bite of
makes the horseman fall backwards towards his winter
path, and the serpent character of Dan seems to render
it probable that he is the second representation of the
1 " Cf. Cox's
Rigveda," vii. 77. "Aryan Mythol.," pp. 51-229.
2 "Zool. Mythol.,"
Cf. India's horse, "Rigveda" i., 163. 3-4 ; i. 23.
 THE TWELVE TRIBES. 49

malific Saturn, already symbolised by the serpent

Levi.
The myth Dan
thus the same as that of Bellerophon
of is

or of Indra, the contest of the horseman with the serpent

or dragon.
Dan or Daian is in Assyria a name occurring more than
once as that of a planetary or sidereal deity. Thus Daian
"
Nissi is the sun, judge of men," the Greek Dionysus, and
"
Daian Sami or "judge of heaven is supposed to be the pole
1
star.

The "
sixth month
Naphtali, the iswrestler," who may

probably be identified with Mars. He is a warrior, own

brother of Dan, and the malifics thus again form a pair, as

in their previous identification with Simeon and Levi.
Gad, the seventh month, the well-known patron ofis
"
good fortune," mentioned later as a deity worshipped by
the Israelites, 2 and forming a pair with Asher, who is evi-

dently the Assyrian Asshur, husband of Asherah or Sher-

" "
uyah, the god of erection and fertility. Gad is no doubt
"
the "greater fortune of astrology, the planet Jupiter ; and
Asher is without doubt the male Venus, the god of fer-
tility. The names of this pair indeed form the best argu-
ments for the astronomical character of the whole family,
and they rule over the autumn season of fertility preceding
the Equinox.
Issachar, the ninth month, bears a name which may well
"
be rendered " drunken ;
he is likened to a strong ass, and 3

rules over the vintage season. He is the ass-man or

gand-
harva whom we
have considered in the last chapter, and it
isprobable that in him we see the second impersonification
of the god of fertility, for the connection of the ass and the

1
"Transactions Bib. Arch. Society," vol. ii.
pp. 33, 34.
3
Isaiah Ixv. II. 8
Cf, " Issachar."
Appendix A,
D
50 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

vine has already been noticed. From this identification of

Issachar with the sign of Venus, it follows that Zebulon

("the globe ") must be placed in the calendar as the second

month ruled by Jupiter.
Two figures of special importance remain the sons of
the wanderer Rachel, the dark winter months, whence the
sun issues triumphant at the Equinox. The first of these
is Joseph, whose name has a double meaning of diminution
and addition, which aptly typifies his career. The second
"
is his own brother, called originally Son of Sorrow," but
afterwards Son of the South (or right hand), from the

position of the sun in his winter path.

The symbols
of these brothers, mentioned in the song of

Jacob, are equally distinctive of their position in the winter

season, and of their identity with Hermes or Mercury.
1
Joseph ("addition" or "fertility") is a fruitful tree over
a well (the pit in which his brothers hide him) the archers, :

"
who shot at him and
sorely grieved him," are those
archer clouds which in the Ramayana 2 discharge their
bolts of hail ;
and he himself, like the rain god Indra, has
a strong bow 3
(such being the attribute of all the oldest
heroes), which his strong arms alone can bend. From
Indra's bow the great stone thunderbolt is thrown, and

Joseph resembles the Indian deity in more respects than

one. He (like Mithra) is the great shepherd of Israel 4 ;

for the third season, towhich he belongs (and especially

the dark month which he rules), is rich in cloud-flocks, as
we have seen in Jacob's own history, and is appropriately
marked as the season of the bow in the cloud. Joseph
1
The Hebrew, Gen. xlix. 22, may, however, be rendered, son of the " A
heifer is Joseph, a son of the heifer at the spring. His daughters run over the
2 " v.
" Zool.
bull." Ramayana," 40 ; Mythol.," i. p. 59.
3 " x. 27. 22 "Zool. Mythol.," See Appendix A, "The
Rigveda," ; i. 14.
bow." 4 " Mihir Ya-sht.
Vendidad," xix. 15.
 THE TWELVE TRIBES. 51

also, like his father, is. the "stone" the erect monumental
monolith. Thus every attribute of Joseph agrees with his

wintry character, and with his identification as the stone-

god Hermes the later Mercury as does also the great
story of his life to be forthwith examined.
Benjamin, his brother, is the youngest of the family the
last month of the year. He is born just before reaching

fertility (Ephrath), or close upon the Vernal Equinox. He

is a son of sorrow, and of the south, his mother dies at

his birth,and in Jacob's song he is the wolf (the common

emblem of dark winter) rich with spoil at night, for the
treasures of which, with his brother, he is the guardian, are

yet in the dark earth. His hunger is twice that of all his

brothers, and this mighty craving, as in Indra's story also,

indicates the preparation of future strength. 1
In the long list of Jacob's grandchildren, Benjamin has
no fewer than ten sons. The Talmudic commentators
have noticed 2 that their names form an acrostic, which
they translate might lead us to consider whether
;
and this

the characters of the twelve brethren might not be further

elucidated by the translation of their other sons' names.
In some cases the light thus thrown on our subject is most

striking, but all the acrostics are not equally easy to

understand. We must, however, hasten on to consider
the story of the wintry Joseph. 3
The author of the beautiful legend of Joseph uses
uniformly the name Elohim, but on account of his style
is considered,
by some critics, to be another than the
Eloh;stic writer of the earlier chapters of Genesis. He
is
acquainted with Egypt, and uses Egyptian words,
whereas the earlier writer knows only the traditions of
1 " 8 "
Rigveda," v. 29. ; Zool. Mythol.," i.
p. 8.
2 3
Targ Jer on Gen. xlvi. 21. Gen. xlvi. 8.
52 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Chaldea. His myth bears close affinity to those of the

Egyptian literature, and he may not improbably be the
author of the original story, or text, of Exodus, which
bears equal evidence of Egyptian influence.
The mythology of Egypt will some day be proved to
have a very close affinity to that of the Vedas. Osiris

is the Sanscrit Asuras, the "breathing one;" Isis is Ushas,

"
"
the dawn Horus the Indian Hari, " the golden one,"
;

son of God. Ptah, and Kneph with his ram's head,

resemble Agni and the ram-headed Indra. Thoth is

equivalent to Sarama, and the idea of Ma is exactly

Anubis is the
that of Rita, the straight path of the sun.
nocturnal dog of the moon-god. Apap and Shesh, the

Egyptian dragons, are the Pipon and Sheshna against

which Indra contends and the comparison might be
;

pursued much further. The Vedic mythology may thus

well be used to explain the Egyptian, and to throw light
on the legends derived by the Hebrews from Egyptian
sources. 1
The legend which shows us, in the Vedas, Trita, the
third brother, cast into the well and rescued therefrom
by the Asvinau sun and moon explains that his elder
brothers were jealous of him because of the aurora bride. 2
In the Rigveda also the evening aurora appears as a
who is called a witch, and is finally slain
faithless bride,
3
by the sun-god. In the Egyptian legend, which is even
earlier than the Vedic, and 300 years older than the
4
story of Joseph, we find the shepherd brother, who goes
east like the night sun, tempted by the faithless wife

1 "
Cf. King's "Gnostics," and Zool. Mythol.," ii.
p. 334. Ovid (Met.
i. 13) identifies Isis with lo or Eos, the Sanskrit Ushas.
2 "
Rigveda," i. 158. 8, and i. 105. 9, and i. 112. 5 ; "Zool. Mythol.," i.
24.
3 " " Zool.-
Rigveda," v. 48. I ; Mythol." i. 33.
4 " Records of the
Past," vol. ii. p. 137.
 THE TWELVE TRIBES. 53

of his elder brother, and flying from her, and from her
husband, to whom
she falsely accuses him. 1 The re-
semblance to the tale of Potiphar's wife is so close as
to have already struck the students of Egyptian anti-
quities and other parallels may be found in Greek
;

mythology also.

We have now indications sufficient to explain fully the

story of Joseph's life. His dream was a true one, for the
moon and the eleven stars were in very deed his brethren
and mother. Thejealousy of his elder brothers is roused
by the coat of many colours (the bright tints of the aurora)
in which he is decked ;
for in Joseph we have now the
representative of the autumn and winter season, when the
sunsets are most rich and variegated.
From Shechem, " the morning," the shepherds had re-
moved to Dothan, the "two wells," and here they place
Joseph, like Tritas, in the well, stripping him of his glorious
garment. The sons of Ishmael, the Midianites or children
of strife (the winter clouds), take him away to the dark
western land of Egypt, which his fathers before him had
entered with fear ;
and the sun and moon assist Joseph in
the well, in the persons of Judah and Reuben, as the
Vedic twins assisted Tritas. The red blood on the sunset
garment causes Joseph to be mourned by his father as
slain by the night monster but the scene of his adventures
;

is only shifted, and from a boy he grows into a prosperous

"
man in the house of Potiphar, or Patipa Ra, the devotee
of the mid-day sun," who is the chief executioner and
eunuch of the tyrant Pharaoh. This second epoch, is
terminated by the treachery of Potiphar's wife, who, like
the faithless aurora of the Vedas, causes further dissen-
sion, and, like the elder brother's wife in the Egyptian
1 " Records of the ii.Past," p. 137.
54 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

tale, obtains the disgrace of Joseph, who flees from her,

leaving in her hands his garment, which is no doubt the

same, though not the same, as that of many colours before
noticed.
" "
Joseph is consigned to the tower or round place,
which is but the well over again, and here he remains a
prisoner until the third epoch of his history, when (as he
approaches the Equinox) his prosperity increases to the end
of his days.
In his Egyptian prison he finds the two servants of the
King, who appear to be personifications of corn and wine.
He predicts to the one that the white bread on his head
shall, after three months, cause his death, while the birds
devour his body ;
but to the other that he shall once again
give wine to Pharaoh. The idea may have been taken
from the Egyptian representations of Hades, where the
dead are shown reaping a harvest of gigantic corn l and
drinking red beer. The corn and wine are hidden in the
dark prison of the under world with Joseph, but after three
months they will again appear in light, forgetful of the
winter season, and of their predicted fate, which is never-
theless annually accomplished.
But the blessing of Jacob has still to be fulfilled, the

blessing of Heaven, Ocean, and Hades (the three great

deities), and Joseph is at length brought out to explain
Pharaoh's dream of the He is shaved like an
cattle.

Egyptian priest (or like

Samson), but his name is changed
to Zaphnath Paaneah, " the food of life," or
according to
the Vulgate, the Salvator Mundi the name of Mithra in
Rome; and his wife is Asanath, or "lady Neith," one of
the epithets of Isis, the moon
goddess.
The dream of Pharaoh appears to symbolise summer
1
"Records of the Past," x. p. 117.
 THE TWELVE TRIBES. 55

and winter. In the Zendavesta two brothers, "fat ox"

"
and lean ox," occur, 1 and in Egypt we have the Seven
Cows of Athor. It is not clear why the number seven
should apply to one of the seasons, but it constantly recurs
in ancient mythologies. The clouds are cows which are
lean when the rain or dew is absent, and fat with the
abundance of the heavenly milk or ambrosia the vivifying
moisture. The famine due to drought might thus be
naturally typified by the lean cows which eat up the
fatness of more prosperous harvests, or the winter typified
as devouring the summer riches. The famine period typi-
fied by the lean kine is most probably the winter, and it

is almost at the end of the famine that Benjamin, the last

month of the year, rejoins his brother, who is represented
as giving to his brethren riches, of silver and gold, and of

corn, such as belong to the infernal regions whence he is

restored, for riches are in all mythologies found only in

hell.

, The children of Joseph are "forgetfulness" and "fertility,"

but in the last days of the dying Israel fertility is preferred
above his brother. 2 In this also we have an episode which
agrees perfectly with what has been above said of the
character of Jacob or of Joseph.
One
puzzling episode remains to be noticed, namely, the
discovery of the cup in Benjamin's sack. The sack is but
3

another name for the body, and it thus appears that the
wolf (Benjamin) has possession of the cup or bowl with
which his brother conjured. The cup of silver in the
Vedas is the moon, which is not unnaturally
pictured as
holding the Soma, the dew, or water of life, which she
sheds ceaselessly on earth without ever becoming empty,

1
"Khorda xl. 3. Cf.
" Zool. Mythol.," 108.
Avesta," i.

2 3
Gen. xlviii. 14. Cf. Appendix A, "the sack."
56 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
" "
We say ourselves that the moon holds water when the
crescent appears in a certain position, and this inexhaustible

cup is found in many myths of all ages. If, then, it be the

moon-cup which is swallowed by the wolf, we have in
Benjamin the original of many mythical wolves of dark-
ness but it is not easy to understand what is intended,
;

unlessit be that separation of the moon from her lover and

husband the sun, of which we have already observed

several instances.
"
Such, then, briefly sketched, is the history of the third
brother" Joseph. Local colouring is given to it in such
statements as that the shepherds are abominations to the

Egyptians, and in the notice of Rameses and the use of

Egyptian words. The was written certainly at a time
tale

when the Hyksos or shepherd nomads were not in power,

and probably (from the mention of Rameses), at least, as
late as the fourteenth century B.C. ;
but it is founded, as
we have seen, on much older material. It closes with the
death of Jacob and Joseph, and the entombment of the
"
latter in an ark," which forms a prominent feature in the
great epic of the Exodus which we must next consider.
 CHAPTER IV.

THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS.

THE immigration, before 2000 B.C., of Semitic tribes into

Lower Egypt is a well-known historic fact. The expulsion
of the dynasty which they established isequally certain ;

Zoan was attacked

for their capital at by the great eigh-
teenth dynasty, and the Hyksos kings were expelled by
Thothmes III. about 1600 B.C. The descent of the Hebrew

tribes into the district of Goshen, bordering the Delta on

the east, and their subsequent expulsion by the Egyptians,
are thus not improbably authentic traditions, coinciding
with the history of Egypt as read on her monuments.
In admitting, however, a historic basis for the story of
the Exodus, we do not of necessity imply that the account
of this episode contained in the Pentateuch is historically
reliable. Western migration of the Hebrews is also, per-
haps, a genuine fact, yet the legends of the Patriarchs are
but myths brought from the east by the emigrants of
Chaldea. The original story of Moses was composed at
least six centuries later than the events which it claims to
record, as is shown by internal evidence in the document.
The legend bears, therefore, the same relation to Hebrew
" "
history that is borne by the tale of Troy divine to the

early history of Greece. It may seem

bold to suggest that
the great leader of Israel Moses, the man of God is a
figure far more probably mythical than historical but ;

even if we concede that myths have, in this case, gathered

58 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

round the honoured name of a great leader, as they have

certainly done in later cases, it must be borne in
mind that
the later Rabbinical writers themselves preserved legends,
and short sayings, concerning their national law-giver,
which admit of a simple mythical explanation, and which
form strong indications of an esoteric teaching among the
Rabbis concerning the early heroes of Israel, the key to
which is now lost among the modern Jews.
A new king, who knew
not Joseph perhaps first of the
new unfriendly dynasty of Nubia arose in Egypt. A
child is born to the pair, who are named Amram (possibly
Amun Ra) and Jochebed, the "glory of Jehovah."
1
The
midwives who attend his birth have Egyptian names
" " " 2
Shiphrah or Chepher, fertility," and Puah, or birth ;

and they goddesses of gestation and of birth,

recall the

who attend Isis at the bringing forth of Horus, or the

virgin mother of Amenophis III., at the moment of his

birth. The name of the child is also Egyptian, and occurs
in the literature of the country more than once. 3 It is

probably best translated "water-child," according to its

4
Egyptian meaning, but the writer of Exodus gives a
Semitic derivation, "drawing-out," because Moses was
drawn out of the Nile.
The similarity between Moses in his ark of reeds float-

ing on the waters and the new-born Horus on his lotus

cradle, or Ra in his boat in the sky, has been indicated by
several writers. In India we find in Hari the equivalent of
Horus and : to him, as he floats on the waters on a leaf, the
name Narayana,5 "moving on the water," is given. In
1
As Ashtoreth is the "face of Baal."
2 "
Speaker's "Commentary on Exod. i. 15.
3
Anastasi Papyrus, &c., Nineteenth Dynasty.
4
Speaker's "Commentary," Exod. ii. 10.
6 " Laws of "
Manu," i. 9. Moor's Hindu Pantheon," pi. iii., iv., xiv.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 59

Assyria also the myth was not unknown, for Sargina (who
lived, according to the belief of King Nabonahid, about

3800 B.C.), is said to have been placed as an infant in a

cradle of rushes on the Euphrates by his mother. 1 The
women of Byblos, in Phoenicia, used annually to seek, on
the rough shores by the mouth of the turbid Adonis

river, for that little papyrus ark in which (as represented on

a Phoenician scarabaeus) the baby sun-god lay hid. In the
time of the Ptolemies, the women of Alexandria launched
such vessels into the sea, each containing a figure of Horus;
"
and these " vessels of bulrushes are mentioned also by
Isaiah as sent from Egypt to Syria. 2 The word teb, used
to signify an ark in Egypt, is that which occurs in the
Bible as defining not only Noah's ark but also the rush
cradle of Moses. 3
" "
As
Harpocrates, or the infant Horus (in the Egyptian
pictures) the sun, on the heavenly waters above the firma-
ment, is shown with his finger in or against his mouth.
Hari also, in India, reclines on his leaf with his foot in his
mouth. Moses, according to the Hagada, sustained him-
self in his ark by sucking his thumb in each case the ;

symbolism the same, for the finger or foot in the mouth

is

is still understood in India to signify reproductive power.

It is the great regenerator of the earth who appears as an

infant on the waters, the spirit of God moving on the

primeval deep ;
as the son of Ea also moves in the Accadian
4
myth.
Two female characters watch over the infant of the
waters the one his mother, "glory of Jehovah," the other
the king's daughter, who was named, according to Josephus,
1
"Transactions Bib. Arch. Society," vol. i. p. 271.
z
, Isaiahxviii. 2. Lenormant "Lettres," ii. 267.
3
Speaker's "Commentary," vol. i.

4
Lenormant's "Magie,"p. 21.
60 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
" "
Thermuthis l
a title of Neith, the high mother of all

gods, who
personifies the vault of Heaven.
These two
figures, Athor or Venus, goddess of birth, and Isis, the

mother as a nurse, often accompany the young Horus, for

the two personifications of birth and nourishment are kept

very distinct, and Adonis is given by his mother Venus to

Persephone to nurse while in India the Virgin Mother
;

dieson the birth of her son, leaving him to be brought up

by her sister the nurse-goddess, for the mother, be it re-
membered, is the dawn which fades away as soon as the sun

begins to grow older, while the protecting sky-goddess

(Neith) remains unchangeable.
The infant water child no sooner attains his strength
than he slays an Egyptian and flies away to the " Land of
"
Strife eastwards, from the blood-stained sunset. Again
we find introduced the episode of the well, reached at the
end of his eastern flight ;
and the hero engages the enemies
who keep back the water from the flocks, and assists the
seven daughters of Reuel, " the friend of God," to obtain
the precious draught. The name of Reuel has already
occurred in the list of Esau's gloomy family, and it is
"
probable that this title, lover of God," with the earlier

Laban, and the later Jethro (" the increasing one"), and
Hobab (" the friend "), all refer to the male moon, the twin
brother of the sun, who aids him at night, when, like
Eleazar, Jacob, or Joseph, he arrives at, or is thrown into
the inexhaustible well.
A very striking comment on this theory of the friendship
between the sun and moon, whether symbolised as brethren
or as loving husband and wife, is found in the Yashts, and

may here be quoted as illustrating many repetitions of the

same idea still to be mentioned. They are called in the
1 " and Speaker's " Commentary,"
Antiq." ii. 9.5, vol. i.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 61

"
Avesta the two Mithras or friends," and in the Khorshed
"
Yasht is mentioned, the best of all friendships that reigns
between the moon and the sun." 1

From the house of the moon-god the water child moves

" "
west to the Mount of God to Sinai, which, it is im-
portant to note, isthe birthplace of Osiris according to the

Egyptians.
2
On this sacred mountain grows the
burning
thorn, which is inhabited by the messenger of the god of
life and thus again we find the image of a holy hill with
;

a wondrous tree upon its summit. In Egypt the thorny

acacia was in like manner the habitation of the mother
goddess Neith ;
3 in Assyria we have the thorny tree of light
sacred to Asshur Arabia the sons of Nebaioth
;
4 and in

consecrated the thorny lotus whence a voice was heard to

Baal. In Chaldea a sacred mountain of the east was
contrasted with a second in the west like the western

burning mountain of Varuna and this pair of mountains ;

appears also in Egyptian mythology. The double moun-

tain also occurs in various legends, between which the sun
5
rises and sets, and
Egypt the gorge between two moun-
in

tains forms the western mouth of Hades. In India we

have Meru and Kailasa, the sunrise mountains and there ;

"
are no less than fourteen trees, including the tree of great
which are consecrated to the fire god and summer
light,"
sun Agni. 6 The shining tree on the eastern mountain re-
presents the glory of sunrise, just as the oak represents
the sky and it is introduced to us in this episode with the
;

Egyptian name Seneh, preceded by the definite article.

" Khorshed
1 " Sacred Books of the
Yasht," 5 ; East," vol. xxiii. p. 87.
2 "
Cf. Sharpe's Egyptian Mythol.," p. II.
3 " "
Cf. Sharpe's Egyptian Mythol.," p. 20 ; Lenormant's Magie," p. 155 ;
" " Zool.
Ramayana," iv. 43 ;Mythol.," i. 71.
4
Lenormant's " Lettres Assyr.," ii. p. 144; Lenormant's
"
Origines,"p. 87.
5 "
Records of the Past," x. p. 88.
6
"Mythol. des Plant es," p. 138.
62 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

"The messenger of Jehovah appeared unto him in a flame

of fire out of the thorn."
On this holy ground (a second Ararat) the sun-hero first
"
learns the hidden name, meaning life," of which there is
much to be said later, and thus obtains a life-giving power
wherewith to astonish the dark tyrant of the west the
Pharaoh. Together with his son, whose Egyptian name
"
Gershom signifies the dweller in a strange land," and his
" "
wife Zipporah (" the dancer or circling one "), he sets
forth westwards, but again pursued by is the supreme

deity, who seeks to slay him in

as in the story of Isaac
"
the place of night," when either he or his son (for they
are confused, or identified together, in the myth) becomes
circumcised to appease the nocturnal deity, as did Abraham
or Jacob in the previous cycle.
The elder brother of is Aaron, who now comes to
Moses
meet him at another Mount of God " possibly that of
"

the west. The name Aaron has no good Semitic interpre-

tation, and isprobably also Egyptian. In India, Aruna,
the dawn, is the charioteer of the sun and brother of the
2
sun-bird Garuda ;
and
Moses and Aaron we have again
in

a pair of heroes like these of preceding myths

Cain and
Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Pharez and
Zarah.

Egypt, the land of the west, is a land of bondage and

mourning. The Jews in later times call it the iron furnace
the same furnace which Abraham saw when the sun was
going down. Like the Valley of Sodom it is smitten by
the twin brothers with various plagues, and all of these
bear reference to the darkness or the sunset. The red river

1
" Moses' Rod."
Cf.Appendix A.,
2
"Mahabharatam," i. 1470, 1471. Cf. "Zool. Mythol.," i.
292; ii.
184.
3
Cf. Deut. iv. 20.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 63

first appears. The which love the rain and darkness,

frogs,
come up in clouds. Worms and beetle-swarms. Plague
on man and beast (such as is born of Hell in Accadian
myths). Hail, fire, and thunder, locust clouds and thick
darkness, such are the dreadful symbols of the night which
is about to fall.

The judgment on the land of darkness is the slay-

final

ing of the first born, from which the sun-hero and his hosts
are exempt. It is a myth to which we must again refer,

and it is perhaps here sufficient to say that the children

slain before the infant sun appears are probably the
countless stars, who are swallowed up
by the sky at his rising.
The infant sun is generally born at the Winter Solstice,
and we have traced his course through three months, that
of his birth, that of his increase, that of his rising on the
sacred mountain. We
thus reach the Vernal Equinox, the

period of the Passover. The origin and meaning of that

festival we must consider later.resembles the Yajna
It

sacrifice of India ;
and the Mazzoth or unleavened cakes
are clearly the Egyptian Mest offered to Osiris at the new l

year. It is an evening feast whose victim symbolises the

self-sacrificing sun, and it precedes the long eastern journey
of the sun-hero, who has now like Osiris to lead safely the

redeemed souls through the darkness to the sacred moun-

tain of fire. 2 While still in the dark land they are laden
with Egyptian treasures, appropriate to a sojourn in Hell,
whence all treasures come, and to the vernal season which
succeeds their wintry bondage.
Before them (as in an Egyptian procession) goes the
ark or Tebah, in which are the bones of Joseph, for the dead
sun-hero lies like Osiris in his ccffin in the dark land. On

1
Cf. Speaker's "Commentary," vol. i.
2
Cf.
" Records of the Past," vol. x.
p. 81-134.
64 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the threshold stained with blood, the lamb symbol of the

dying sun is slain, as he enters through the red sunset
into the night ;
but as a pillar of flame he moves before the
host by night It is as such a pillar that the rising sun is
1

shown on the horizon in Egyptian paintings, for in the

"
Vedic language, the purifying all-seeing god goes before
us in all our wars." Behind him come the twelve tribes,
which we have seen to typify the year. Before him the
maidens of coming dawn dance with his sister, "the exalted
one," Miriam.
Pursued by the enemies of the night towards Baal
Zephon and Pihahiroth, (the north and the caves), they pass
" "
safely through the sea of destruction (or of rushes), which
seems to answer to the infernal river of the Egyptian Hades.
No doubt a local colouring is here given to the poem by
the mention of actual localities, but the safe passage through
the ocean or over the river is so common an incident of

Asiatic myths that it seems unnecessary to waste time in

rationalistic explaining of the very definite language
away
of Exodus. The
procession of twelve tribes bearing the
dead god in an ark recalls indeed that of Osiris drawn by
twelve deities from the western gorge to the eastern
mountain, as shown on the sarcophagi of Seti I. and other
kings.
2
They soon reach the bitter waters which the tree
of Marah makes drinkable, and we are reminded of the

Egyptian tree of the water of life in Hades, while the

name recalls the Myrrha or "bitter tree" mentioned
by
the prophet Amos, from which Adonis came forth, and the
3
ambrosial tree in the ocean, in India, which is equivalent
to Manu's ark. Thence by Elim the palm trees and
1
" Pillar Sun."
See Appendix A,
2 " Records of the
Past," vol. x. p. 88.
3 Amos viii. 10 Lenormant's " Lettres Assyr.," ii. p. 250 ; "
j
" Kashn " Mythol. des
Plantes," p. 26. Cf. Yasht," 17 ; Bundahish," xviii.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. -65

"
Rephidim, refreshment," they reach at length the desert
of Sinai, having passed through what is called on Egyptian
"
sarcophagi, the Hades of Egypt and the Desert."
The night is, in mythology, conceived to be the feeding
time of the sun who prepares for his day of toil. The
bread and water of life are mentioned continually in the

Egyptian Hades, and form also a feature in the present

legend. The water is struck from the Rock of Rephidim
"
or refreshments," while food of fatness is prepared in the

quails (whose Hebrew name meant "fat"), and in the

mysterious manna which dropped from heaven. The quail
was sacred to the sun-god of Phoenicia, 1 who was refreshed
by the quail of Kadmos
(the East), after having been
strangled by Typhon (the dark north) in his expedition to
the dark Lybian land. In the Vedas (and in Greek
" "
mythology) the quail or returning one is likewise an

emblem of the dawn, and the sun and moon (Apollo and
"
Artemis) are born in quail land." The quail is swallowed
by the wolf in the Vedas, and delivered by the good
brethren day and night. The word man* is found in
Egyptian also, but in Exodus a punning translation of the
term occurs. The manna falls in round drops like hoar
frost on the desert, and is inexhaustible in its supply, but
"
when the sunwaxed hot it melted." It is unnecessary to
seek for a modern existing equivalent of this mysterious
food, for on the mythical hypothesis the dark clouds of fat

ones and the melting manna are but bold allegories of the

night vapours (for the quail is a bird of night), and of the

dew which is the ambrosial water of life and the word ;

manna may indeed be connected with the name Meni,

1
Cf. Lenormant's
" "Zool. Mythol.,"
Origines," p. 576; ii.
p. 277;
" Selected
Essays," i. p. 565.
'Speaker's "Comment.," Appendix, vol. i.
part \.

E
66 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

signifying the dew of life.

1
The water from the rock is

equally familiar in mythology, and perhaps the oldest

instance is in the famous Vedic contest in which Indra
smites the mountain to set free the water. 2 According to the
Rabbinical commentators the rock of Rephidim followed
Israel throughout their wanderings, and had thirteen mouths,
whence the water issued. 3 If the rock be, as with Indra,
the raincloud, the Rabbinical myth is easily understood.
It is at this stage of the journey also that new enemies
attack the ark-bearing procession of twelve, and the sun-
hero who leads them. Like the great serpent Apap the
Amalekites are however kept at bay, for the mount is
reached, and Moses with the wondrous rod stretched over
him appears between Aaron and Hur (the Sanskrit Aruna
and Hari or Horus), forming the central figure in a group
of three, like the great triads so frequently before mentioned.

During the day while the power of Moses is greatest the

rod is held erect, and the night enemies are driven back
"
until the going down of the sun," and here another stone
pillar is erected, a cromlech altar made of the stone which
"
supported the sun-hero, and called Jehovah Nissi, or the
Lord of my lifting up." Like that of Mount Gilead in
Jacob's story, this erect stone is noticed just before sunrise,
and seems to symbolise the sun in the grey early dawn.
This word may be thought to have some connection with
the Nyssa of ^Ethiopia, which was the birthplace of Osiris, 4
while on the other hand Jehovah Nissi bears a strange
resemblance to the Daian Nisi or "judge of men" the
Assyrian sun-god (although the words are not the same
exactly), while Nisi reappears in Greece at Nysa, the;
1 "
Cf. Appendix A, Manna."
2 " iv. 16.
" Zool. Mythol.,"
Rigveda," 8; ii. 20.
3
Cf. i Cor. x. 4 ; "Tal Bab Pesakhim," 54a.
4 "
Herod," ii. 146.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 67

mountain where Dionysus was born, and in Nyssa, the

name of the nymph who was mother of the sun. 1
This stone of Nissa is probably the Edoth or "monument"
"on
before which, or the face" of which, a cup of the
wondrous manna was laidup and in this connection we
;

have an 'example of the ambrosial stones and living stones

anointed with oil, 2 or situate beside a cup-shaped hollow in
which the libation was poured a custom as old as history,
in India or in Egypt, and connected with the nature worship

of the earliest tribes. At this same Mount of Elohim the

"
moon-god Jethro, the increasing one," meets the sun-hero
once more, bringing another pair of brethren, Gershom, " the
wanderer,"and Eleazar the new representative of Abraham's
servant so called, Isaac's night substitute. His advice to
Moses to put rulers over the tribes may be compared with
the distribution of the planets in the Zodiacal system ex-

plained in the last chapter. Soon after he departs, and the

magnificent description of sunrise follows.

West of the mountain the people stand to witness the

sight, when the fire of Jehovah appears amid thunder and

lightning, the noise of trumpet-winds, and the thick smoke

of the cloud wreaths. It is then that, like the mythical
Zoroaster ascending to heaven from Mount Alburz, 3 the

mythical Moses receives from Elohim the laws which he

inculcates on man. In the stormy season of spring such
a su-ririse may be often witnessed, even long after the
Equinox, in the East, and it is on the burning mountain
that the sun-god, whose special characteristic in Persia is
that of truth or justice, first appears to give laws as he rises.
" Transactions Bib.
1
Cox's " Mythol. Aryan Nations,"
Arch.," ii.
p. 33 ;

pp. 365, 505. See Appendix A.

2 " "
Sanchoniathon (Euseb. Praep. Evang.," i-io) Lenormant's ; Origines,"
" Lettres "
p.544; Lenormant's Ass.," ii. pp. 152, 228; Rigveda," x. 68. 8;
"Zool. Mythol.," ii, 331. 3 "
Vendidad," xix. II xxii. 19.
;
68 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

A cromlech of twelve stones is built under the hill, to

and the cromlech altar and

symbolise the twelve tribes,
the assembled host are red with the blood of dawn.
Moses and his followersascend the mountain, and see the
God of Israel, whose body is the clear heaven, and beneath
his the sapphire blue. 1
feet In spite of the fire, the

thunder, and the smoke, this apparition of the blue heaven-

god is harmless to the heroes, just as the red sunset furnace
also shines without consuming ;
but it is only the sun-
hero, with "Jehovah's help" (or Joshua), who pierces the
thick clouds, leaving his mortal brother Aaron on earth.
The festival of the golden calf is the next episode in
thissecond epoch of the story, which begins with Moses'
second appearance on Sinai his first occurring when the
burning bush was seen in the first epoch. The ear-rings
of the people placed in a bag become apparently by
magic a golden calf, a symbol of the sun in Egypt, and

of the sun-god Jehovah. It isapparently the sixth

month we have now reached the harvest time and
the joyful orgies and dances of the season are celebrated.
Aaron afterwards assures his brother that the gold calf
issued from the fire (as the sun from the dawn) of its own
accord but Moses appears as a malefic in this episode,
;

whose fierceness slays the early sun, typified by the calf

when, bursting forth (like Vishnu from the pillar) from
the broken stone tables of the Edoth or monument, which
he leaves on the mount (and which being two, aptly
represent the double Elohim), he gathers the sons of the
malefic Levi, and by the aid of their serpent swords the

consuming heat being represented by fiery snakes he

slays the people in the fierce solstitial month the height
of summer.
1
Exod. xxiv. 9.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 69

The next episode brings before us the tent in which

Moses, who is once more beneficent a mediator, like the
Accadian and Persian sun-gods, 1 between heaven and man
goes forth to meet Jehovah. It is no doubt another
figure of the nightwhich is embodied in this black habita-
" "
tion, over which the pillar of covering rests, and from
"
which " the help of Jehovah (Joshua) never removes.
The black tent, as an emblem of night, survives indeed in
"
Arab Night spread out its tent," says the poet,
poetry.
"
and there arose thick darkness." 2 The glory of the god
who, like Ra in Egypt, inhabits the pillar, is hidden in the

tent, and seen only by the sun-hero and even to him ;

the full nature of the Living Author of Life is but half

revealed. Two tables of stone, like those before men-
tioned (which were of sapphire, or the heaven blue according
to the Rabbis), are once more hewn on the mount. In the

morning the hill of Sinai is climbed again, and the flocks

of the Israelites are far removed, for we are now in the

dryest season of the year when cloud flocks no longer

touch the mountains. Again the laws are written on the
monumental stones, and again Moses appears with a
shining face, which men feared to see unveiled. It is the

bright glare of the desert sun which is thus symbolised,

and we are able to understand why the Hebrews only came
out of their tents 3
when Moses entered the black tent of

meeting, for the glance of the sun-hero is almost as fatal in

the eighth month as at the Solstice of summer, when he
slew the people.
Wehave thus reached the end of the second epoch in
this great poem, the four episodes of this middle period

1
Cf.Lenormant's " Magie," p. 21,
"
Mihir Yasht," 84.
155, 174;
2 " Romance of "
Antar," v. 170. 17. Cf. Goldziher's Mythol. of Hebrews,
3
p. in. Exod. xxxiii. 10.
70 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

being those of the arrival at Sinai, of the golden calf, of

the slaughter of Israel, and finally of the second erection of
two tables of stone on the mount. We have seen that the
firstseason was separated from the second by a nocturnal
episode, and we are thus prepared for a similar legend of
the night dividing the eighth scene of the solar drama from
the ninth.
" "
Hobab, the friend," now
takes the place of Reuel, the
friend of Elohim," as the guide of Israel wandering east-
wards. Moses entreats him not to forsake them, but to be
" "
to them for eyes by giving them his nocturnal light.

The great procession of the twelve (so like the blessed

twelve Osiris, in Hades and by day,
who accompany
twelve hours, twelve months of the year) is again formed,
round an ark not now containing the bones of the wintry
Joseph who became the summer sun of Sinai, but called
"
the ark of the monument
covenant) of Jehovah." The
(or
" "
fire of the sunset burns behind them, in the extremity of
their black encampment, but it is soon extinguished, and
the quails and the manna once more appear. The power
of Moses as he enters the dark tent is given to the chiefs
"
of Israel apparently the stars while Eldad, the lover
;

" "
god," and Medad, the beloved (who perhaps represent
the friend of god-Hobab), take Moses' place in the camp.
The dispute between Moses and Miriam as to the black
woman whom he has married reminds us of the altercation
between the black and white wives of the Vedic hero.
For seven days (or one quarter) Miriam, the pale white
one, stricken with leprosy, camp and not
is shut out of the
seen. no longer "the exalted one," as her name
She is

means, but the moon in the dark quarter while the dark ;

Ethiopian woman 1
remains the bride of Moses, who in the
1 "
Rigveda," i. 124. 6; "Zool. Mythol.," i.
37.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 71

"
night season -beneath the earth is very humble, more than
any of the men who were on the face of the earth."
" "
From Hazeroth (the stone circles still found in this
" "
desert) the procession moves to the solitude of caverns

(Paran), and the spies are thence sent to view the promised
" "
land. They go up by the way of the south to Hebron,
whence they return to the caverns, where Moses and his
companions remain. The spies are twelve in number (the
hours of night), and they are frightened by the great giants
whom we have already encountered in our first chapter.
"
They are led, however, by the faithful Caleb, the dog,"
" "
son of Kenaz, the hunter of the night, and a new figure
is thus introduced into the myth. The time of year is
symbolised by the cluster of grapes, just as the first season
terminates with the Paschal feast, and the second includes
the harvest festival.
"
In Caleb, the dog," we may
recognise one of the most
curious personifications of the Vedas namely, the dog

Sarama, who has been identified by Kuhn with Hermes,

and thus with the moon. 1 This dog goes before Indra the
night or winter sun, and finds out for him where the cows
have been hid. It acts, like Caleb, as the sun's spy, and
the water in the rock is found by Indra under its guidance.
It is this same moon-dog who appears as Anubis in Egypt.
The procession has not, however, reached its goal while
the moon-dog courses through the sky. In great dread of
"
the coming conflict with giants, it proceeds by the way of
the Sea of Destruction." Thus, with variations, we get also
the repetition of certain features of the first journey. We
have the ark, the sea, the quails, the manna, the pillar of
flame, and, as we shall now see, the enemies, and the rock

t
"Rigveda,"x. 108 ; "Zool. Mythol.,"ii. p. 19; Cox's "Aryan Mythol,"
p. 231.
72 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

smitten to produce water, all twice repeated in this cycle of

legends but, on the other hand, there are details

;
like that

of Caleb peculiar to each of the two episodes of the journey

eastwards.
The enemies are again Amalekites, who drive back the

sun-hero's followers because the ark which contains him is

not with them. This short repetition of a former episode

is followed by the revolt ofDathan (" the well-man "), and
Abiram (father of height), sons of Eliab (god father), son of
Pallu (" separation "), son of the moon-god Reuben. It is

surely a mythical family described in this short list, and

when we find that the contest ends in the earth swallowing
" "
up the lunar group of the well-man,'' and the father of

height," we are reminded of the earth which Osiris curses

as having swallowed him
and we see the moon, as it
up,
descends behind the mountains into the dark mouth of the
under world. It is at the same time also that Miriam, the
"
moon-goddess, dies in the desert of coolness," by Kadesh,
"
the holy place," where the water or dew is again struck
from the cloud rock.
The
land of redness (Edom) is next reached, for we are

again approaching the Holy Mountain, which now bears

the name of Hor or Horus the rising sun. The hero
claims to go by the high road (the straight and narrow

path of the sun called Rita in the Vedas and Ma in Egypt),

and will not drink the water of the well but a contest ;

with the sons of the red one is as usual imminent. Fiery

1
serpents or Seraphim afflict the sun's followers such
serpents as fill the Hades of Egypt but they are healed ;

by the serpent on the staff the good serpent or Uraeus,

which is the symbol of life on the heads of Egyptian deities,
and which contrasts with the evil serpent Apap or Ahi.
1 and Psalm
Cf. chap, viii., Ixxviii. 49, "Evil Angels."
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 73

This good serpent, wearing the double crown and standing

on a T-headed staff, was carried in procession as a standard 1 j

and bronze serpent who heals, we have another

in the

Egyptian solar emblem introduced into this eminently

Egyptian epic.
The long night journey continues by Oboth (the Accadian
"
Ubi, the demon who possesses), by Ije Abarim, the eastern
"
deserts" which are east of Moab towards the rising of the
sun;" and thence by Zared, "brook of willows," by Arnon,
"the rushing," by the well Beer, also a magic well dug by
the staves of princes, and probably issuing from the same
rock, which, as the Rabbis say, followed Israel from Re-
" "
phidim. By Mattanah, the bountiful," by Nahaliel, the
"
Valley of God," they gradually ascend to Bamoth, the high
places," and look from Pisgah over the western valley, and
far away across the promised land. The night journey is

over, the rivers which are enumerated in such numbers,

2
like the hundred rivers crossed by Indra, belong rightly to
and to the dewy autumn dawn.
this third or rainy season,

The sun's mortal brother dies on the sacred Mount of Hor

or Horus, and the sun looks down from the eastern ridge
of Pisgah or Nebo, whence, at Jerusalem itself, the author
of the myth might daily witness his rising.
The giants have now again to be encountered, for we
have approached the autumn Equinox ;
and this is the first
"
episode of the daymyth in the third season. Sihon, he
"
who sweeps away," and Og, he who goes in a circle," are

kings of the mountains and of the sandy soil. The battles

occur first at Jahzah (" trampling"), when Sihon is defeated
from Arnon, "the rushing one," to Jabbok, "the emptying
one" for Moses deprives him of Jaazar, "the help of
Jehovah," and of Heshbon ("weapons of war"), while Og
1 " 2 " Zool. ii.
Sharpe's Egypt. Mythol.," p. 36. Mythol.," p. 332,
74 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

is attacked in his capital Edrei (the strong place) in

Bashan.
Sihon, the one who sweeps before him, appears to
all

symbolise the autumn torrent reduced by the sun-hero

from rushing to emptiness. Og, on the other hand, the
great giant who goes and belongs to the sandy
in a circle,

soil (Bashan), would appear to be the whirlwind which is

so common a gigantic figure in autumn. Thus about the

season of Equinox we find the sun-hero again warring with
wind and rain. Of Og there are many mythical stories in
the Talmud. He with a mountain on his head, like the
Greek giants who piled Pelion on Ossa, comes to attack
the camp of Israel, but the mountain is hollowed out and
falls about his neck, when the giant dies the whirlwind is

swallowed by the cloud. 1

The next episode after the defeat of the giants is that of
Balaam and Balak. It is impossible that either this or the
preceding can be reliable accounts of historic facts, because
it is
physically impossible that the events should all be
crowded into the time mentioned in the Bible. The sites

are known, the distances are measured, and the time

required for Balaam's journeys alone would fill
up the
2
period. This has been fully investigated by Colenso, but
in a mythical story time and distance have no value, and
the whole world stridden over in a single day.
is
"
Balaam, the son of Beor, the devourer, son of burning,"
is also named among the kings of Edom or the Red Land. 3
He rides on the
which has already appeared as Ishmael
ass,

(and was indeed identical with him according to the

Rabbis), and which is the emblem of darkness and of the
dark god Indra, as also of the sun in the autumn season
or in the night.
" Tab Bab
1
Beracoth," 54b.
2 " 3
Gen. xxxvi. 32.
Cf. Colenso, Pentateuch," Part I.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 75

The terrible voice of this ass l

is recognised by mytholo-

gists as the thunder in many Asiatic myths, and the Gand-

harvas or ass-men are the thunder clouds which shoot out
arrows of rain or hail. We may then interpret the de-
vourer, son of burning, borne by the thunder cloud, as the
lightning, which the King Balak (" desert "), whose name
still applies to the district of Mount Nebo (as indeed does
that of Sihon), invokes to strike the companions of Moses,
but who is held back by the power of Jehovah. The story is
connected with three sites, on which stone altars are erected,
and thus localised at the great dolmens still existing near
Nebo. Recent explorers who have described these monu-
ments do not seem to have reflected that far from proving
the historic character of the legends with which they are
connected, they may rather be supposed to have given rise,
among tribes succeeding those who really erected them, to
the myths of the Old Testament. prophecy is intro- A
duced into the story of Balaam, which serves to date the
story as being written not earlier than the time of David.
The identification of Balaam as the thunderer agrees with
his position among the eight deities, which appear to have
a planetary significance. 2 Of these eight, one may be
shown to approach the planet Saturn in name and attri-
butes, and Balaam in this list would fill the place of Rimmon,
the thunderer, who is identified with Jupiter.

The third episode of this interesting season answers to

the month of November. The worship of Baal Peor, by
the Israelites and the daughters of Moab, is localised in
the Valley of Shittim (acacias), where again the great
dolmen altars of the Canaanite nature-worship are still

found. It recalls the loves of the sons of God and the

daughters of men, and answers to the same period of the

1 2
Cf. "Zool. Mythol.," i.
377. Gen. xxxvi. 31.
76 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

year. same time that the flocks of Gad and

It is at the
Reuben and Manasseh linger on the hills of Gilead, for it
is in November that the great cloud flocks gather on these

mountains but although, in the myth, we find this division

;

of the tribes to occur, there is no notice in the historic

books of the Bible of any Hebrew tribes beyond Jordan.
In David's time, and later, the land is still held by the
Ammonites and Moabites, as in the days when the epic of
the Exodus was first composed.
We have now reached the last episode of the third
season, the twelfth of those which compose the history of
Moses' deeds by day. The venerable sun-hero is still
bright his eye;
is not dimmed, nor his natural force abated,
but the time has come for him to die " by the kiss of God,"
to use the Rabbinical expression. 1 For the last time he
ascends the holy mountain, and views the promised land
in its full extent. The desolate peaks and precipices of
the Dead Sea, the far hills of Judah, the great shoulder of
Gerizim, the white valley through which Jordan runs like
a black snake, the dark groves of
Jericho, were all beneath
Yet more, the plains of Judah, the dis-
his all-seeing eye.

tant mountains of Naphtali, sacred Carmel, and

snowy
Hermon, were seen by the water-child, before his death,
as no mortal eye can see them from Nebo. The " utmost
"
sea was not hidden, for him, by
intervening ridges and ;

thus, at the end of wanderings with the twelve, he sinks

his
to rest, and is buried in the dark valley of the " house of
"
opening (Beth Peor), which gapes to let out a new suc-
cessor in the new year of Joshua.
The Rabbinical writers have well said that Moses died
on his birthday, 2 for so the sun must always do at the end

1 " Tal Bab 8a. Deut. xxxiv.

Beracoth," 5.
2 "Tal Bab Sotah," lob.
 THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS. 77

of the year, and the stairs of twelve steps, which, according

to their saying, led to Nebo, are those twelve labours of
the ancient Hercules, through which we have pursued his
1
history.
To take a single feature of the narrative such as the

magic well, or the cradle of rushes would not alone be

sufficient to sanction the supposition that this elaborate
Exodus is
story of the to be treated as a myth but when
;

we have gone through the entire narrative as above, and

have seen how easily each circumstance of the supernatural
occurrences therein recorded lends itself to a mythological

interpretation when we have noted how each finds its

;

proper place as indicative of the season of the year, or of

the day and night ;
when we remember the numerous

proper names which are easily resolved into mythical

sentences or definitions, it seems impossible that the ex-

planation of so many marvels, and their comparison

with mythical equivalents from the folk-lore and litera-
ture of other nations, can be a mere work of fancy and
the delusion of a theorist. The epic is too complete and

homogeneous not to be accepted as a conscious myth.

The difficulties, contradictions, and repetitions, which
puzzle the critic who regards the narrative as historical,
vanish when the mythical explanation is accepted, and
we see before us a beautiful poem, founded on the ex-

pulsion of Hebrew tribes from Egypt, and on their nomadic

life in the desert.

In the early chapters of Genesis we found recorded

the old Accadian legends of Eden and Deluge. In
the history of the three patriarchs and their twelve
descendants we trace the resemblance to the great religious

system of Assyria and Babylon. In the epic of the

1
"Tal BabSotah," isb.
78 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Exodus, we have (when the original story has been separated,

as criticismhas separated it for us, from later additions
of at least two periods) a myth which owes much of its

imagery to the great poem of Egyptian sun adventure ;

and thus, when the spectator wandering in European
museums stops for a moment to gaze on the painted
coffin of Seti or Rameses, let him not forget that in those
strange scenes, with their serpents and arks, their rivers of
flame, and bird-like souls, their asses bearing the sun, and
their long beaked moon-gods, he sees yet older pictures
of the great procession which we have followed, in its
Exodus through the " Hades of Egypt and of the Desert,"
and which yet accompanies the water-child, who rises in
flame behind the holy Sinai, and sinks to his rest in the
west, at Philae or at Sais in Egypt.
THE EPIC OF THE EXODUS.
79
80 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
 CHAPTER V.

LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES.

THE books of Joshua and Judges form parts of what was

originally a single document. The additions of the later
commentators the Deuteronomist and the Levitical

writer, as they are usually called have been so numerous,

in the case of the legend of Joshua, as to have separated
his story entirelyfrom the rest of the legends which form
the fourth and last cycle of Hebrew myths. Our present
attention will be given only to the original chapters for ;

the geographic and religious additions are of much later

origin, and this is especially noticeable in the case of the

geographic account of Palestine, the author of which was

almost entirely ignorant of, or indifferent to, the topography
of Samaria, and only slightly acquainted with that of
Galilee, while his copious information as to the country of

Judah and Benjamin, not less than his long list of Levitical
cities, seems to indicate that he was a Levite of the later

times, when the Samaritan schism had broken out, and

when Samaria formed a physical barrier to the devout in
their travels to and from Galilee.

As regards the historical basis on which the legends of

the Judges may be supposed to rest, it must not be forgotten
that from 1600 B.C. to about 1300 B.C. the Egyptian power
was at its height, and that the countries of Upper and
Lower Ruten (Palestine and Syria) were subject to the
Pharaohs, and paid at times tribute to Thebes. If we
F
 82 A vJ* tf/Z FOLK LORE.
^ ^
>
accept the expulsion of the Hyksos as being the historic
event on which the Exodus legend rests, we find Thothmes
III. sweeping over Palestine while Israel was in the desert.

It is not proved that he ever entered the rugged Judaean

hills, but it is certain that Philistia and Sharon were in

his hands, expedition to Megiddo he con-

and that in his

quered Galilee and Bashan, and attacked the Hittites in

Kadesh and in Aleppo. He even penetrated beyond
Euphrates to Nineveh and into Asia Minor j
1
and his con-

quests were consolidated, three centuries later, by the

proud Rameses Miamun (the second) who conquered the
Hittites at Kadesh, and afterwards made a famous treaty
with this warlike race. appears that Egyptian tax-
It

gatherers travelled, in his days, over Syria, Phoenicia, and

2
Galilee, but that the centre of Palestine the hill country
of Samaria and Judaea was in a less settled state, and
infested by bands of the Shasu, or nomad Arabs, 3 who had
been expelled from Egypt, and who like the Arabs under
Omar no doubt entered Palestine from the south-east,
conquering probably the earlier Turanian and Semitic
agriculturists, but never succeeding in establishing them-
selves in the western lowlands, which were inhabited by
"
the stout Philistines or emigrants," who were apparently
of Egyptian origin, and tributaries of the Theban kings.
These may be gathered from the
significant indications
monuments and papyri of Egypt which relate the history
of the great eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. The
decline of the monarchy commenced with the twenty-first
dynasty, about the time of Saul, when Hebrew history
may be said to commence, and when the Israelite monarchy
arose, between the luxurious Egyptians under their Tanitic
1
Cf. "Records of the Past," vol. ii.
p. 24.
3
Cf. Chabas' "Voyage d'un Egyptien."
3 "Records of the Past," vol. ii. 112.
p.
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 83

kings, and the decaying power of Assyria on the east.

The three centuries of spasmodic rule by occasional judges

(Katzin or Kadis), with intervals of oppression by Moabites,

Canaanites, Midianites, and Philistines, represent no doubt
a period of confusion and war, out of which the Hebrew
monarchy at length emerged.
The judges of Israel were thirteen, not including Joshua,
but of these Othniel, who makes war on Mesopotomia,
appears to be only mentioned by the later Deuteronomical
writer. We are thus again introduced to a cycle of twelve

figures Joshua, Ehud, Shamgar, Barak, Gideon, Abimelech,

Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, while the
myth of Samson, "the great sun," stands alone as a
Phoenician cycle, and closes the mythical part of the Old
Testament in an appropriate manner.
The original text of the Book of Joshua is almost entirely
confined to the ten chapters, which relate the conquest
first

of the country between the Gilgal camp and the dark cave
of Makkedah. The myth belongs to the Passover season,
and we have thus once more the Semitic year, beginning
at the Vernal Equinox, whereas in the history of Moses
the year (probably the Egyptian Solar year of 365 J days,
which was in use at least as early as 1300 B.C.) begins at

the Winter Solstice, when the birth of the infant is still

celebrated in Christian lands.

From the eastern of the acacia valley, Joshua, or
camp
Oshea, "the Saviour" or Salvator Mundi, or rising sun, who
"
is the son of Nun, the fish," just as the old Accadian sun-
2
god was the offspring of the great fish Ea, sends forth his
spies (as Moses sent the dog, son of the hunter) to view
"
the land of Jericho, the city of the "yellow moon of the
"
Passover. They are here entertained by Rahab, the wide-
1 " 2
Lenormant's "Magie,"
George Smith's Assyria," p. 34. p. 21.
84 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

spreading one," whose reputation is not superior to that of

the Vedic dawn goddess the lascivious Usha, who is also
1
called the "wide-spreading one." Rahab is moreover
identified with thedawn by the red thread which dis-
tinguishes her, and it is by her aid that the spies escape
safely to the mountain of the horizon, where they hide
from their foes.

The great procession is once more formed. The ark

goes before, and Jordan like the Red Sea is safely passed,
for it is the peculiar attribute of the sun to stride over
river and ocean* without ever wetting his feet. 2 In the
dark valley a stone monument is erected, exactly corres-
ponding to that of Moses on Sinai a cromlech of twelve
stones called Gilgal, " the circle." It is only of late that

antiquarians have been able to show the connection between

such cromlechs (including our own Stonehenge) and the
worship of the rising sun,
3
whose rays strike the gnomon
stone at certain seasons of the year thus marking the

change of the sun's path, as he crosses the Equinoctial line,

or turns back from the Solstice. The Gilgal was built,

according to the later writer, in the plains of Jericho, but

the earlier text seems to intimate that it stood in Jordan
itself, just as the ambrosial stones were believed to stand
beneath the sea at Tyre. It is perhaps in this same
Gilgal that Joshua first sees the vision of the Lord (Sar) of
Jehovah's hosts, who appears to him, as the angel appears
to Moses in the bush, just at the sunrise time. The his-
tories of Lot, of Jacob, and of Moses, with the later tale of

Samson, give frequent instances of the appearance of these

herald-angels just before the birth of the sun, and they

'
"Rigveda," vii. 77. Cf. Cox's "Aryan Mythol.," p. 229.
2
Cf. "Zool. Mythol.," i.
p. 117.
8 "
Anthropolog. Inst. Journal," Aug. and Nov. 1881, p. 4.
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 85

symbolise no doubt the early rays which shoot like wings

above his disc.

The moon city is first smitten, by the advancing host on

their westward journey. The walls (apparently the cloudy

buildings of the spring moonlight night) fall down, and this

destruction of the ramparts is said to occur when the

trumpets blow. In the Vedas we find just such cloud cities

(the fata Morgana of Asia) destroyed by Indra, and the

trumpets symbolise the winds which blow away the cloud
walls. Thus there is nothing left of the moon city except
the red thread of the wide-spreading Rahab, who escapes
from the general destruction which is stated to have occurred
"
about the dawning of the day."
Internal evidence seems to show that the episode of
"
Achan and of the siege of Ai is a later insertion. Baby-
lonian garments " were probably unknown in Judea at the
time of the original writing of the conquest myth, and no
clear mythical meaning can be deduced from the history of
the first defeat of Israel. We may therefore pass on, leaving
aside also the story of the fraud practised by the Gibeonites
to consider the miracle of the sun standing still.
West of Bethel, on the very back bone of the country,
stood Gibeon a sacred shrine against which Joshua does
not fight any more than against the shrine of Bethel, or
Shechem, or Jerusalem itself. The Kings of the Amorites
or "mountain men" appear as enemies still to be conquered,
but at Gibeon they are defeated, while the sun stands still
above this " mighty hill," in the zenith at mid-day, and the
gibbous moon in the western vale of Ajalon. Thus aided,
by sun and moon, or day and night,
as all solar heroes are,

Joshua passes the zenith, and descends towards the west,

" "
driving the enemy to the House of Caverns (Bethhoron),
and to the cave of Makkedah, which may perhaps be
 86 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

rendered " place of the cleft." The great hailstones with

which the defeated foe is destroyed are appropriate to the
showery Passover season.
It should be noted in passing that the power here attri-

buted to the sun-hero of arresting the course of the sun

(especially at mid-day) is frequently mentioned in the early
Persian scriptures of the Zend Avesta. 1 It may seem

strange that heroes if really representing the sun should be

thus detached from the orb itself; yet this is often the case,
and it is due partly to a long transmission of the myth, and
partly to the distinction between the body and the spirit or
soul of the sun, as is clear from Egyptian hymns.
Fromthe western cave Joshua returns to the eastern
sunrise circle of Gilgal, and here his original history closes ;

for criticshave determined, on entirely independent grounds,

that the later part of the story is an addition of the com-
mentator. We
thus proceed to consider the successive

judges who, with intervals of nocturnal oppression, rule

Israel throughout the rest of the year.
"
Ehud
probably the Phoenician Yehud, the only son,"
is

whose combat is with Eglon King of Moab, whose name

("the great roller") is preserved in the chain of mountains
east of Jordan called Ajlun. Ehud is son of Gera ("the^
bean"), and descended from Yemini, the winter or southern
sun. His battle occurs in the valley of the city of Palms,
or else in the eastern country of Moab. He is "bound (or
helpless) of his right hand," reminding us of the one-handed
2
Indra Savitar ;
and his dagger slays the corpulent Eglon,
" "
who may probably represent the great rolling or coiling
1
Cf. "Pehlevi Bahman Yasht," iii.
33-45; "Shayast la Shayast," vii. 2;
" Sacred Books of the
East," vol. v. pp. 228, 231, 298.
3
One-handed deities. "Rigveda," i. 116. 13; "Zool. Mythol.," ii. 32.
Cox's "Aryan Mythol.," p. 203 ; Forlong's "Rivers," ii. 434; Lenormant on
Hobal, "Lettres Assyr.," ii. p. 333.
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 87

dragon of the night. He escapes safely from the palace,

which he closes behind him, and passes the "graven images,"
which perhaps guarded the exit as in the Egyptian halls of
Hades l and thence he journeys to Seirath, " the rough
;

land," which we have so often seen in previous stories to be

the land of dawn.
Ehud is succeeded by Shamgar, the meaning of whose
name is unknown. He is a son of Anath, the Babylonian
goddess of and is armed with an ox goad, which takes
love,
2

the place of Moses' magic rod, and the spear of Joshua. 3

With this he defeats the Philistines the enemies of the
west who have appeared in Isaac's history and again
represent the dark powers in the myth of Samson.
The Solstitial month appears to be represented by the
famous story of Barak and Sisera. This is localised [at
Mount Tabor, one of the sacred hills of Palestine, the name
signifying the Omphalos, from its belly-shaped summit.
Barak, the glittering one," son of Abinoam, or the " father
"

"
of pleasantness," is assisted by Deborah, the bee," the wife
"
of Lapidoth, or more correctly the woman of flames," for
her husband's name can scarcely have taken the form of a
feminine plural noun. Her symbol is the palm tree near
the House of God, and she is thus akin to Tamar, the female
"
deity who accompanies Judah. Deborah, the bee," 4 has

already appeared as the nourisher of the moon the dew

or honey which distils from the moon at night. The moon

itself, as making this honey, is sometimes symbolised as a

bee, and inDeborah we have perhaps the dewy and flaming
dawn, or perhaps the moon who aids the sun. The sacred
pair have gathered their forces on the holy mountain, coming
1 " Records of the 81.
Past," vol. x. p.
2
Cf.
" Lettres "
&c.
Assyriologiques, ii. p. 178,
3 "
Appendix A, Spears."
4 Cf. " Zool.
Chap, ii.; "Mythol. des Plantes,"p. 211 ; Mythol.,"ii. p. 216.
88 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
"
westward to face the attacking one," whose iron
Sisera,
chariots (intimating an acquaintance with the Egyptian.
and Hittite chariots of the time when this legend was
written) oppress the sons of Israel.
" the
The dark hosts assemble in Harosheth, forests,"
"
and Barak is exhorted by the woman of flame," without
whom he is unable to encounter them, to rise and descend
from the sacred mountain. The forests into which the
defeated foes are driven back remind us of that famous
forest of demons in which the sun wanders, according to
2
Indian mythology.
The final destruction of Sisera is effected by Jael ("the
"
rising one ") wife, of Heber, the friend," who is descended
"
from Hobab, "the friend of the legend of Moses. In these
two we see again the moon in its double character, male
and female, always represented as the friend of the sun and
of man by night. According to the Jews the story is to be
understood as implying that Sisera offered violence to Jael,
and in consequence he is slain with the nail, which reminds
us of the demon's claw, or the thorn, which causes death 2 in
other mythologies. The dark enemies of the forest are
"
thus equally defeated by day and night, while the stars
" " "
in their courses fought against Sisera in aid of the rising
moon.
not clear whether the fine song of Deborah is part
It is

of the myth, or a later addition. Mythical meaning might

attach to such details as the delivery from the archers, who
as before mentioned are the thunder clouds, while the

rising of Jehovah from Seir is compared with Barak's

appearance on Tabor but the general tone of the poem
;

rather suggests late origin. The conclusion is interesting

1
"Zool. Mythol.," 1-14; Cox's " Mythol. Aryan. Nat.," 222.
2 "
Cf. Cox's Mythol. Aryan. Nat.," p. 350.
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 89

and suggestive "Let them that love Thee be as the sun

:

"
when he goeth forth in his might. 1
The next
episode records the history of Gideon, "the
great reaper," the son of Joash, "whom Jehovah gave,"
native of Abiezer, or "father of help." He is secretly
threshing wheat by the oak of the stag (Ophrah), an
2
emblem, as we have
already seen, of the fleeting aurora.
It is to the threshing season that the myth belongs the
fifth month, when the nomad tribes had come up to rob the
harvest. The luck which attends corn threshing is noticed
3
in the Zendavesta, and in many later myths. In this case
the angel of Jehovah greets Gideon, as he greeted Moses
or Joshua, at the dawning of his career, and ascends as in
the story of Samson in the flame, which issues from the
rock on which the sacrifice is made and the libation poured
a custom which can still be traced as having existed on
Gerizim and in other places, where flat bare rock-tables
were used as altars.
The enemies Midianites (or sons of strife) and
Amalekites, children of the East have encamped towards
" "
the north (or dark quarter) in the valley which so often

symbolises the night in these Hebrew myths, and beside

the "hill of fear" (Moreh). Gideon and his men are
"
assembled at the spring of trembling," and the heroism of
his followers is proved by their thirst, inlapping water like
dogs. The leader goes down by night with his servant
" "
the mouse (Phurah), and hears the dream of the great
barley cake which is to destroy the dark camp. The mouse
is an emblem of the night. The Sminthian (or mouse-
slaying) sun-god treads upon it, and the wise god of India
rides on its back. 4 The barley cake like the mest cakes
2 3 '*
Judges v. 31. Cf. Chap. ii.
p. 26. Vendidad," iii. 32.
4 " "
iv.
" yElian. Hist. Animal," xii. 10.
Plutarch, Symposiacs, j
90 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

of Egypt, is one of the oldest sun emblems, the sun being

the lord of the bread-producing harvest. Thus the barley
cake rolling over the black camp is a dream whose inter-
"
pretation is the victory of the great reaper."
very remarkable that Gideon's appearance is from
It is

the east, from Mount Gilead, and yet that the enemies
also flee to the East. When, however, we remember that
the great shadows shorten eastwards as the sun rises the

explanation is easy. The flames or torches, hidden in jars,

seem Egyptian story of the soldiers hidden in
to recall the

jars, which is supposed to be mythical.

1
The appearance
of these flames heralds the approach of Gideon from Gilead,
and the flight of the enemies is to the house of the Acacia,
and thence further east to the Jordan valley, to " the lip of
Abel Meholah," east of the river, the shortening shadows
as they retire towards the eastern hills being symbolised
" "
by this retreat. Oreb, the raven," and Zeeb, the wolf,"
are among the leaders of the sons of strife, emblems of
blackness and winter as we have already seen. The
hunger and thirst of the pursuing host are a second time
recorded, as they pass through the dark booths of Succoth,
and are hid behind the towering mountain of Penuel.
Zebah ("slaughter") and Zalmunnah ("moving shadow")
"
are pursued yet further to Karkor, the " flat land of the
eastern plateau the shades thus gradually disappearing
;

from the steep slopes of the range of Gilead, as Gideon

ascends by the way of the dwellers in tents (or in " shining
places") by Nobah (probably Nebo) and Jogbehah (the
elevated place), where the final defeat occurs. "And
"
Gideon," the story continues, returned from battle at the
"
rising of the Cheres or orb of the sun. 2 The night battle
is thus completed, the stronghqld of Mount Penuel is over-
1 2
Birch's "Egypt," p. 103. Judges viii. 13.
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 91

thrown, as Gideon, like Jacob, surmounts this lofty summit.

The men of Succoth in the valley beneath are " threshed "
" " "
with drought," and with
thorns of Barkanim or
"
glitterings," rendered briars by the English version, but
"
having the meaning also of threshing wains," such as are
use in Palestine, and under which (by a play on the
still in

words) the men of Succoth are said to have been threshed

with the thorns by Gideon, the thresher of the threshing
month.
Gideon enquires of the kings Zebah and Zalmunnah,
"
Where are the men whom ye slew at Tabor ? " and for the
"
sake of his royal brothers thus slain by " slaughter and
"moving shadow," he, like Kai Khosru avenging his

falls on the murderers, whom his eldest son Jether

1
brother,
(the Jethro or "increasing one" of Moses' story the male

moon) has no power to slay. The myth of Gideon is thus

complete, and a more consistent allegory of the chasing of
the dark shadows, over Jordan, to the plateau above the
chain of Gilead, as the sun rises, and surmounting Penuel

pours its heat on the valley beneath, could not well be

imagined.
Theepisode of Abimelech's adventures follows that of
Gideon's, and is connected with the vintage, for we have
now reached the season of grapes in the sixth month.
Each of the legends in this cycle is also connected with
distinct sacred shrines. In Joshua's life we find Gilgal,
Bethel, and Gibeon. In Barak's conflict the centre is Tabor.
"
In Gideon's pursuit the turning point is Penuel, the
"
appearing of God ;
and in Abimelech's history the centre
is at Shechem. The story of Samson has its topography
grouped round Bethshemesh, and in these legends we may
perhaps trace traditions of early conflicts, mingled with the
1
"Zool. Mythol.," i.
p. 117.
92 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

legends of the sun belonging to each of the chief sanctuaries

of Palestine legends systematised into a single cycle, and
eked out by the short notice of the minor judges, by an
author whose love of syncretism resembled that of Sargon
in Assyria.

Abimelech, "the father king," begins by slaying his

brethren like Cain, but Jotham (" the complete living one ")
"
escapes to Beer, the well," being thus driven out, like

Joseph or Jephthah, by his elder brother to the mythical

well so often before described. In his parable of the four
trees Abimelech
likened to the thorn (a tree of light as
is

we have seen), and is called son of the servant. He is thus

contrasted with Jotham, the hero of the more fertile season
of the spring.
Gaal (" the loathly "), son of Ebed (" the slave "), is the
antagonist of the father king, and of his attendant Zebul,
" "
the globe (like Zebulon). Gaal intrigues in favour of
"
Hamor, father of Shechem, redness, the father of early
rising," whom we have already met as the dawn in the
history of Dinah evidently a local personification belong-
ing to the Shechem mythology, from which, but for the late
form of its preservation, might be quoted many stories of

Joshua also, and of the

giants, the mythical arrow-fountain,
the messenger dove, the iron city of darkness, which the
Samaritan book of Joshua preserves. 1
" "
As soon as the sun up Abimelech appears before
is

Shechem. The terrified Gaal sees men approach from the

mountain top, but is assured that they are but the shadows
of the mountains (which Gideon chased). They come
" "
forward to the Tabor or summit of the land, and ap-
" "
proach the enchanter's oak east of the city and ;

then at length the risen Abimelech defeats the partisans,

1
Cf. Juynboll's
" Samaritan Book of
Joshua."
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 93

"
of Hamor, the dawn, and dwells at Arumah, the lofty

place." The episode of the boughs brought from Zalmon,

"
the mountain of shade," follows, reminding us of the

moving wood of Dunsinane, and of those ancient moving

forests and tree clouds which abound in Indian mythology. 1

From the dark forest the fire which consumes the city
breaks forth, and in this alternation of light and shade, no
less than in the joyous vine feast which is mentioned in this

history, we find indications of the early autumn. The

death of Abimelech follows, when this degenerate successor
of the summer sun attacks Thebez, the city of " brightness,"
and endeavours to burn it with the sunset fire. He is slain

by the great millstone placed on his head by a woman a

common incident in Aryan myths, which may be compared
with the Talmudic story of Og and the rock (already
noticed). The rock or stone which falls on the sun-hero is,
like all mythic mountains, a cloud which obscures his face.
The woman who slays the hero is, as in former cases, the
witch of the west or sunset.
Abimelech succeeded by Tola, " the worm," 2 son of
is

Puah (birth), son of Dodo (" loving"), son of Issachar. He

has already appeared in Genesis as eldest son of Issachar,
He lives in the thorn or Shamir the dwelling of Asshur in
Assyria.
"
Jair, light," arises next from Gilead, but like the pre-

ceding only a minor character perhaps because we are

is

now at the season of the sun's affliction before the Solstice.

He has thirty sons (the days of the month), who ride on
ass-colts like the cloudy gandharvas, or onocentaurs, be-
longing to this winter season, and who have thirty cloud
"
cities, dwelling-places of Jair." Thus his entire reign is
cloudy, and he buried in Camon, the very city of night
is

1 " 2 " The Worm."

Mythol. des Plantes," p. 46. Cf. Appendix A,
94 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

in which, according to the Samaritans, the cloud giants

imprisoned Joshua between magic iron walls,- the same
city of darkness which the Rabbis also mention
in the story

of Abraham.
Another story of misfortune belongs to the winter, in the
"
December month, namely that of Jephthah, the cleaver."
Goldziher has shown that the name Jephthah occurs as that
of a Cyrenaic or Semitic deity of agriculture, Aptouchos.
The position of Jephthah 's name in the cycle entirely agrees
with this identification, for his myth belongs to the period of

cleaving the earth with the plough after the vintage has
been gathered, and the first rains have fallen. 2 Jephthah is
driven out by his elder brothers, like Tritas in the Vedas, 3

or like Joseph and Jotham. He flees to the good land

(Tob), for he is the son of a dawn woman, who recalls the

harlot Rahab. wars against the sons of Ammon
He
descendants of the night-god Lot issuing from Mizpeh,
" The
the place of shining." rash vow by which he devotes
whatever first meets him on his return to Jehovah, reminds
us of the sacrifice of Isaac, and of Andromeda, of the
Esthonian tale of the same vow, and of the many children
devoted to the devil, in later mythology, by unconscious
parents. The daughter is offered up in a flaming sacrifice
to the sun-god, like the dawn maiden who is slain by Indra 5
and other sun-heroes, but her weeping on the mountains as
the rainy aurora of the winter is long symbolised by the
mourning women in Israel.

The three other judges who complete the cycle are of

" "
less importance. Ibzan, the white one of mid-winter, is
"
buried in Bethlehem, the house of bread," or under world,
!
Cf. Juynboll's "Samaritan Book of Joshua;" Nutt's "Samaritan
History," p. 120.
* 3
"Mythol. of Heb.," p. 104. See Chap iii. * "Zool. Mythol.,"i. 162.
6
"Rigveda," iv. 30; Cox's "Mythol. Aryan. Nat.," p. 132.
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 95

where the corn is stored for the summer.

Elon, the oak,
or "the strong one,"buried in Aijalon, the "city of strong
is
" "
ones," and Abdon, the great labourer," son of Hillel, the

brilliant,"disappears at Pirathon, the city of the Pharaoh

or tyrant of the west.
The cycle of the judges is thus complete. The legends
of the various sacred cities have been collected into a
national cycle, and possibly connected with the suggestive
names of early tribal leaders. It was thus that just about
the same time of the world's history, Greek poets also were

weaving wondrous tales founded on tribal tradition, and

collecting in the mythic cycle of Iliad and Odyssey, the
Aryan legends of the sun-heroes, whose deeds were attri-
buted to the chiefs of Argos or of Troy. The four seasons
have, in the latest Hebrew cycle, each their representatives
Joshua for the spring, Barak for summer, Abimelech in the

vineyards for autumn, and the miserable Jephthah for

winter. But one legend remains to engage our attention,
and sums up the four cycles of Accadian, Assyrian, Egyptian,
and Palestinian myths, by the great story of Samson, " the
mighty sun," whose labours recall those of the Tyrian
Hercules, and appear to be the last of the conscious myths
of the Hebrews probably borrowed from the Phoenician

priests at the time of David's alliance with Hiram, when,

as we shall see in the next chapter, a new religion, with all

itsmyths and symbolism, was adopted by the nationalized

Hebrews, even earlier than the time when Egyptian mytho-
logy began to become known under Solomon.
The figure of Othniel, " the lion of God," and the history
of the siege of Debir, have been excluded from our enquiry
as having no mythical meaning. They occur in a sort of
introduction, dividing the book of Judges from that of
Joshua, of which it was originally a part and this com-
;
 96 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

mentary bears indications of having been the work probably

of the author of Deuteronomy. Othniel is said to war

against the King Cushan Rishathaim, "the most malicious

"
Cushite in Mesopotamia, whereas all the other episodes
are confined to Palestine.
In the same manner the history of Micah, the story of
the Levite's concubine, and the beautiful idyll of Ruth,
have a religious and historical value respectively, and bear
no evident traces of mythical meaning. The borderland
between the regular cycle of conscious myths, and the
legendary history found in the books of Samuel and of
Kings, in which mythical stories are occasionally inserted
by writers ignorant of their original meaning, is reached
just about the time when the Hebrew tribes, united under
their first kings, and allied to the Hittites and Phoenicians
in the north, emerge from the mists of a chaotic age into
the light of history, forming a new Semitic power between
the decaying empires of Egypt and Assyria.
The legend of Samson is so clearly a myth that it has
been recognised as such, even by writers who look on the
rest of the book of Judges as historical. The occurrence
of twelve episodes in his history has not, however, been

previously demonstrated.
"
. Samson was the son of Manoah or rest," a new repre-
sentative of Noah, the winter sun. His native place is

Zorah, east of Bethshemesh, and here the announcing angel

appears, and ascends in flame (as in Gideon's story) without
telling his name of wonder, which is only to be revealed to
the sun-hero himself.
Samson is a Nazarite. His locks, in which his strength*

resides, like the lock of Nisus, are not to be shorn, for the

glory of the sun is in the golden hair of the rays which

surround his face. In the camp of Dan, or plains of
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 97

northern Philistia, between Zorah and Eshtaol (or Hades),

hispower first begins to be felt the strength of the infant
Hercules strangling the serpent. The meaning of Zorah is
unfortunately unknown, but Hades or Sheol in Semitic
mythology is generally the west or sunset quarter.
In his second adventure, Samson on his way to the south
(Timnath) slays a lion, who, like the Nemean lion of
Hercules represents his first triumph. The lion is an
emblem occasionally of sterility, and as such, perhaps, he
1

is slain by the Phoenician sun-hero in the fertile second

month.
The carcase of the lion produces the bees, and this is an
episode not easily explained in connection with a solar
2
myth. Yet in the Vedas the lion occurs in connection
with honey, 3 and the lion and the bee are connected in the
worship of Mithra.
4 The Semitic Dionysus a sun-god
of the same class with Samson is torn in pieces under the
form of and re-born as a bee, 5 for bees, as Virgil also
a. bull,

tells us, are born in the hide of dead bulls. The bee, as
has been before noted, is an emblem of the ambrosia or
dew distilling from the moon. The honey taken from the
lion's carcase by Samson to feed his parents, may perhaps
represent the fertility which comes forth from the earlier
sterile period, which the sun-god has overcome.

The solstitial month -the height of summer is the

fourth period of Samson's history, symbolised by his
marriage to a daughter of the enemy the moon wedded
to the sun, as Ishtar marries Dumzi in the summer month.
Samson in this month has thirty companions (the days),
1 Lenormant's " Lettres Assyr.," ii. p. 237.
2 " Bees and " Lions."
Cf. Appendix A, Honey," and
8
"Rigveda," ix. 89. 3; "Zool. Mythol.," ii. p. 156.
* "Zool. Mythol., "ii. p. 2 1 8.
"Zool. Mythol.," ii. p. 217. Cf. 4th Georgic.

G
98 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

and the riddles discovered at his marriage by his wife

remind us of the countless riddles connected with marriage

(and with the entry into the dark Hades) in so many
1
mythologies.
The destruction of the wheat harvest by fire follows, and
it is remarkable that this is in the same month named
" "
Descent of Fire in the Accadian calendars. 2 The bride
" "
has ^een given to Samson's friend (the male moon so
often called the friend in preceding myths). Thus the two
friends, like the two Vedic brothers, quarrel for the bride,

who, in the Aryan tale, passes half her time with one, half
with the other ;
and the enraged Samson sends his fiery
messengers, in the hot month of August, to burn the corn
fields which in the dry climate of Palestine are so easily
set on fire in summer. The three hundred jackals with
fiery tails remind us of the foxes, which, according to Ovid,
were let loose in the circus at the festival of the Cerealia,
with torches tied to their tails, in memory of a traditional
fox who burnt the corn of a rustic when wrapped in hay
and straw. 3 We must not forget also the fiery tail of the

god of cloud, son of the wind, represented in the Ramayana

by Hanumant, prince of the monkeys, who therewith sets a
4
city in flames.
The sixth adventure, in the month of August and
September, is that of the hiding of Samson in the cleft of
the rock Etam, "the eagles' nest." The Assyrian myth
of Dumzi also contained this detail of his hiding, and the
name Lot conveys the same idea. The site of Etam has
been found due east of Bethshemesh, on the summit of the
Judaean range as seen from the plains and this direction ;

1
"Rigveda," x. 177. 3; "Zool. Mythol.," i. 29, 143. See Appendix A,
"Riddles."
2
Cf. 3 4 "
Chap. i.
p. 14. Ovid, "Fasti," iv. 705. Ramayana," v. 50.
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. 99

of the rising of Samson from the cavern of the east agrees

with the equinoctial season, and may be due to the local

development of the myth round Bethshemesh, the centre of

Samson worship.
The seventh or equinoctial month gives us Samson
1
driving back his enemies with the jawbone of an ass. It
is with a horse's head that Indra slays his foes, and the

horse is an emblem of death ;

but in the ass' jaw we have
perhaps a relic of Balaam's speaking ass the thunder-cloud
which belongs to the autumnal storm. From the jaw also
the water comes forth, as from the thunder-cloud, to refresh
the thirsty hero at a period of the year (the eighth month)
when the first showers descend on the parched soil of Syria,
and the name En Hakkore, " spring of the cryer," recalls
the Vedic name of the ass, Kharas, "the crier out," and
suggests the thunder peal which follows the lightning.
The slaughter of the Philistines with the jaw, and the
subsequent springing of the magic well from the same jaw,
seem to form two episodes of the autumn occupying the
seventh and eighth months.
The gates of Gaza are next carried away to a mountain
east of Hebron ;
for Samson pursues another of those
faithless mistresses who, like Potiphar's wife or the Vedic
bride, belong to the sunset. The city gates which he
breaks remind us of the pillars of Hercules (the old
2
Egyptian Shu, the wind-god), the great clouds of
pillars of
the winter, appearing on the south-west at sunset, and on
the south-east near Hebron at dawn, for such is the position
of these towns in comparison with Bethshemesh, and the
southern path of the sun, immediately before the Solstice
of winter, is thus rudely symbolised.
l
"Rigveda," i. 84. 13-14, i. 117. 22; "Zool. Mythol.," ii.
p. 303. Cf.
"Ass' Jaw," Appendix A.
2 " Hibbert
Lect." 1879, p. 190; Pierret's "Mythol. Egypt.," pp. 31, 34.
loo BIBLE FOLK LORE.

The marriage of Samson to Delilah ("weakness or

languishing ") follows at the very depth of winter. The

faithless daughter of the enemy, dwelling in the sunset
valley of Sorek or "red," betrays him like the women
who precede her, and his eyes are put out, and the bright
locks, in which lies his strength, are shorn. The effeminacy
of Samson at this period recalls the legend of Hercules
and Omphale, of which it is a variant. Samson's one wife,
let it be noted, is the moon which
separates from him, but
his treacherous loves are goddesses of sunset. The blind
sun-god now begins to grind corn and riches in his western
prison. It is the winter sun like Joseph in Hades. His
hair, however, begins again to grow, for, although he is still
blind like Indra, he is beginning to recover his strength,
the Solstice being past.
The last scene is that of Samson's death at the end of
the year, self-sacrificed like Mithra, or like Hercules on his
sunset pyre. He dies between the pillars at Gaza the
same symbolised by the gates of Gaza the western
pillars

pillars of Hercules but in his death he still defeats the

;

enemy, for as the old sun sinks to rest at the end of the
year, among the dark giants of the sky, they fall after him
before the lad who leads him like the youthful favourite of
Hercules the young sun of the ensuing year.
"
So the dead which he slew at his death were more
"
than they which he slew in his life ;
for the spring time
isabout to follow the end of Samson's cycle. And thus
closes the truly mythical part of the Old Testament
literature, with a stormy sunset of early spring, to begin
once more with the garden of delight, in the East and at
the time of flowers. The labour of tracing the sun-hero,
with his shining and his dark wife, his dawn angels, and
sunset mistresses, his serpent enemies, and weary night
 LEGENDS OF THE JUDGES. loi

journeys, his giant foes, and helpful brother the moon-god,

his ruddy twin of night, his ambrosial food, and dark
prison well, is for a moment finished, only to be resumed
when we encounter fresh influence of Aryan nations in the
Mazdeism of Persia, and in the myths of the New Testa-
ment derived mainly from the religious legends of India.
 CHAPTER VI.

ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH.

" "
THE names rendered in our English version God and
" "
Lord respectively, have already been referred to as
serving to distinguish two documents in Genesis but ;

before proceeding to consider the condition of the Hebrews

from the time of David to the captivity, it is necessary to
investigate more particularly the two distinct divinities
originally understood by these terms, and their relations to
one another before their names came to be used convertibly.
The word Elohim is a plural, but used with a singular
verb or adjective. With the definite article it is used of

Canaanite deities, of angels, and of idols. It is in the

singular the name common to all Semitic tribes, as that of
"
the supreme deity El or Ilu in Assyria, the strong one,"
"
the one and the good," l the heavenly parent and tyrant.
The principal attribute of this deity was his eternity, and
unapproachability in highest heaven.
the As such he
becomes confused with the first member of the great triad
the Heaven God, who is the eldest of the brethren. Thus
in IndiaBrahm, the supreme god, is closely akin to Brahma,
the sky-god, and the same holds good of Ilu and Anu in

Assyria, and of Varuna and Diaush or Ouranos and Zeus.

Of the Hebrew Elohim we have a distinct description,
"
in the Pentateuch, as seated on the firmament and they
saw the Elohim of Israel, and under his feet as it were
1 " "
Compend. de Doctrina Chaldaica." Cf. Lenormant's Origines," p. 528;
Lenormant's "Divination," p. 215.
 ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH. 103

a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body

of heaven in clearness," l a passage which shows this deity
to be the sky-god seated above the firmament in the highest

heaven, the heaven of Anu.

The character of this heaven-god is the same in India,
in Persia, in Assyria, and in Egypt ;
and all these races
may be called monotheistic, in the sense that they all
acknowledged a supreme God, of whom all other gods were
either children or representatives emanations or types.
In Egypt Godrepresented with all the attributes which
is

Hebrew poetry could conceive (as almighty, eternal, in-

"
comprehensible, infinite), by the name Nutar or power,"
"
equivalent to the Semitic El.
2
He is the One of One,"

self-engendered, unbegotten, yet the father of his father and

son of his son. 3 In India we find Varuna also infinite, 4
while the Lord of Creatures (Pragapati) "alone is God
above all Gods." 6 "They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna,
Agni that which is one, the wise call it many ways," says
the Rigveda. 6

Yet, though one originally, this deity of Heaven became

two before creation was possible. In the white Yajur Veda
we read : " He (the primeval) felt no delight as man ;

delights not when he is alone. He wished for the existence

of another, and at once he became such, as male and female

7
embraced. He caused this his own self to fall in twain."

In this we have perhaps one of the earliest poems in which

the idea of an androgynous deity is expressed nor was ;

this a peculiar Aryan conception, for we find the same idea

1
Exod. xxiv. 9.
3
Cf. "Hibbert Ixjct.," 1879, p. 90.
3
Cf. "Records of the Past," vol. x. pp. 94, 141.
4
"Hibbert Lect.," 1878, p. 284; "Rigveda," ii. 28.
8
"Hibbert Lect.," 1878, p. 296; "Rigveda," x. 121. 8.
6
Cox's "Mythol. Aryan Nat." p. 421 ; "Rigveda," i. 146. 46.
" Hindu
Pantheon," p. 226 ; "Laws of Manu," i.
7 &c.
Cf. Moor's 9,
 104 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
l
in the Sidonian theogony and it probably existed also in

Assyria.
The plural form of the name Elohim might easily be
applied to a pair of divinities, or to an androgynous deity.
"
In the first chapter of Genesis we find that Elohim created
man in his own image, in the image (or shadow) of Elohim
created he him, male and female created he them."
2
We
have already seen that Jewish writers understand this
creation to have been androgynous, and that other nations
have a similar theory of the origin of the prototype whence
the first human pair emanated. It would follow from a

literal reading of this passage that the god, or gods, in

whose image the androgyne was created, was himself
biform and at the time when the Hebrew cosmogony was
;

penned such bold anthropomorphic figures were not un-

common. We have the androgynous Typhon, and the
3
two-headed Set in Egypt, while Set we have already
is (as
seen) the equivalent of the Aryan Hermes, who was in like
manner androgynous.
We may now proceed to consider briefly the cultus of
this pair of deities.
original Among the Arabs Allah
and A Hat,
male and female, were the supreme gods of all
the various Pagan tribes, before the preaching of Islam. 4
In Phoenicia the worship of the great El Eliun 5 the Most
High God, was equivalent to that of Elohim. In Assyria
the divine pair were Asshur and Asherah, while Anu often
takes the place of his father Ilu. In Palestine Chiun or
Remphan were but other names of the father god, who

"Damasc. de Prim. Princip.," 125. Cf. Lenormant's "Origines," p. 532.

Gen. i.
27.
Cf. Sharpe's "
p. 9; Pierret's
"Egypt, Mythol.," Mythol. Egypt.," p. 58.
"Herod," Lenormant's " Lettres Ass.," pp. 81-104.
iii. 8. Cf.
Euseb. "Proep. Evang.," i. 10; quoting Philo. of Byblos. Cf. Lenor-
mant's " Origines," p. 542.
 ELOH1M AND JEHOVAH. 105

"
was known Norse invaders as Wodin, the Allfather."
to our
It is an older system than that of the sun myth that we

have here to examine, and in Elohim we find something

more than the dark sky-god Varuna, for the nature
worship
of the great united pair is found among Accadians and
Hittites, Finns and Dravidians, at a period earlier perhaps
than that of the two historic races Aryan and Semitic. 1
In some twenty passages of the Old Testament Elohim
2
is symbolised as the Rock, a term very rarely found in
connection with the name Jehovah. In Jerusalem and on
Gerizim there still exist two rocks which are held in the
greatest veneration. The first is the Talmudic Stone of
3
Foundation of the Earth and of the Temple the latter
is the site (traditionally) of the great Samaritan Temple.
The first symbol of the god of power, preserved in the later

traditions of the country, thus appears to be the hard rock,

or lofty cliff, on whose summit the libation of blood or of
milk was poured, and on which the sacrifice was offered. 4
The next emblem of the deity, mentioned in Genesis, is
the erect stone, or menhir, such as those set up by Jacob
in Gilead or at Bethel. Among the ancient Arabs these
stones, which were at once the emblem and altar of the

divinity, were smeared with the blood of sacrifices. 5 In

"
Phoenicia they were called living stones," and Bethels, or
"
Houses of God," from the supposition that the spirit of
Elohim dwelt in them. 6 They were also ambrosial stones,
being covered with the honey or milk of the libation and ;

the anointed stone of Bethel, mentioned in Genesis, finds

1
Cf. Appendix A, "Elohim."
2
Cf. Deut. xxxii. 4, 18, 30, 31, 37 ; I Sam. n. 2 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 32 ; 2 Sam.
xxii. 3-47 ; 2 Sam. xxiii. 3 ; Ps. xviii. 2, 31-46, xix. 14, xxviii. I, xxxi. 2, Ixi. 2,

Ixii. 2, 6, 7 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 35 ; Ps. xcii. 15 ; Isaiah xxvi. 4, xxx. 29 ; Isaiah

xliv. 8 ; Hab. i. 12.
3 " Mishna 4 20 ; xiii. 19. 5
Herod,
Yoma," v. 2. Cf. Judg. vi. iii. 8.
6 " "
Sanchoniathon," quoted by Eusebius Praep. Evang.," i. 10.
io6 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

its later equivalent in the oiled stones which Clement of

Alexandria condemns in Egypt.
1
The Gileadite menhir
was surrounded by a heap of smaller stones 2 and the ;

worship of a deity by casting stones on a heap is mentioned

in the Book of Proverbs. The deity worshipped by such
lithobolia was the ancient stone-god Hermes, and this

practice of the Eleusinian mysteries still survives not only

in India but also in the valley of Mena at Mecca.

The supreme deities Allah and Allat were worshipped
by Nabatheans and other early Semitic tribes under the
emblem of two stones, that of the male deity being
apparently an erect monolith, while the goddess was sym-
8
bolised by a square stone or foundation for the menhir.
The dolmen or stone table was also known to Semitic
tribes, and is not only the rude altar but also the symbol
of a " habitation " or Bethel, sacred alike to Elohim and
to Athor, trie "habitation of Horus/' who is represented in
Egypt as a house with a of Horus) within. 4
hawk (emblem
" "
The dolmen or Bethel was perhaps the gate of heaven
to which Jacob refers, in the sacred place where he dreams
of the steps leading thence to the sky. 5 The pair of stones
or pillars are in like manner a simple emblem of the double

god ;
and in how-
Assyria they belong to Mercury. Sin,

ever, the moon-god, who is the Assyrian Hermes, was

6
represented as an androgynous deity, as was probably Set
among the Hittites, to whom two monuments, one con-
nected with (Agni), one with water (Indra), are ascribed
fire

the one male the other female. 7 In these twin stones

1
Lenormant's " Lettres Assyr.," ii. p. 228. Cf. "Speaker's Commentary,"
"
vol. i.
p. 167; Clemens Alex., Stromat.," Lib. vii. ; Arnobius "Adv.
2
Gentes," i.
39. Gen. xxxi. 46.
3
Lenormant's "Lettres Assyr.," ii. pp. 122, 151; Forlong's "Rivers of
Life," ii. 482 ; cf. Appendix A "Bethel."
4
Wilkinson's " Handbook to Egypt," p. 328. 5 Gen. xxviii. 17.
6
Lenormant's "Magie," p. 122. 7 "
Josephus's Antiq.," ii. 3.
 ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH. 107

we see the later Jachin and Boaz, the pillars of Hercules,

and the two stones or slabs on which the laws of Elohim
were written.
A
very remarkable passage in Amos (the oldest of the
Prophets) written about 790 B.C., attributes the worship of
"
Saturn and Moloch to the Hebrews in the desert. But
ye bare the booths of your Moloch and Chiun ("the
pillar ") your images, the Star your god, whom ye made for

yourselves."
1
Chiun is the Arab Kiwan or Saturn, and
his emblems thus enumerated are the booth, the pillar, and
the star, to which the serpent may be added. The later

Rabbis who dealt in astrology explain this passage by

saying that Sabbathai or Saturn was the planet presiding
over the destinies of Israel. 2 We are thus introduced to
the analogies between the worship of Elohim and Moloch,
and also to that existing between Elohim and the " ancient
one," who under
names of Cronos, Saturn, Tan, Baal-
the
Haldim, Hobal, Oulam, was adored by various Semitic
a stone, as a tree, as a great dragon, or an andro-
tribes, as

gynous figure. He is the father of all gods, the tyrant of

Heaven, and lord of Hell, worshipped as the oldest deity
3
in Phoenicia under the names Israel and Saturn, with
human sacrifice, and in Assyria honoured by the crowds of
sacred women attached to the service of the Temple of
Anu. 4
The worship of the ancient serpent was early imported
"
intoEgypt by the Semites. Tanen, the Tan or dragon,"
whose name has already occurred as that of Saturn in the
case of Dan, and which forms part of the word Leviathan,
" "
the serpent dragon of the sea, was identified with Nu,

1
Amos 2 " Dr Voort.
v. 25. Worship of Baalim in Israel,"
3 " " 10.
Sanchoniathon," quoted by Eusebius, Praep. Evang." i.

4
Lenormant's "Magie," p. 4.
io8 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the sky, as father of the gods.

1
Set, whom we have
already seen to be the Hittite Elohim, was also re-
presented as a dragon, and becomes the infernal deity of
Egypt.
The worship God
of Heaven, in the rude times
of the

preceding the sun cultus, was thus in all Semitic lands a

religion of fear of human sacrifice of circumcision, and
; ;

female self-devotion ;
of stone monuments and holy trees ;

of serpent worship and lacerations of child immolation, ;

and offerings of hair. As time went on, and a less cruel

religion replaced this older faith, the "ancient dragon,"
who symbolised the great circle of Heaven and of eternity,
"
became degraded to the character of the infernal god, the
"
old serpent who, among the Persians on the one hand,
and the Egyptians on the other, was condemned as un-
worthy of worship, just as the Jehovah worshippers in

Israel persecuted those who adhered, in their own land, to

the bloody rites of Elohim or Moloch.
The substitution of Diaush, or the "shining one," for
Varuna, "the overspreading," and of Jehovah or Mithra,
gods of light, for Elohim or Set, gods of darkness, marks
indeed an immense stride in human conceptions of the
deity. The earliest human religion was the product of
helplessness and fear. Evil, whether sickness, darkness,
winter, or death,was regarded as the infliction of demons
and of a supreme tyrant or evil god. Sacrifice was the
attempt to bribe the cruel deity, and to divert his wrath
and hate. From such fear of devils interfering with normal
conditions of happiness and life, man only very slowly ad-
vanced to the conception of protecting power and almighty
goodness, to the religion of praise and gratitude, celebrating
1
"Hibbert Lect.," "
Cf. 1879, pp. 178, 222; Lenormant's Origines," p.
" Record of the Past," vol. viii. p. 7 ; Pierret's " Mythol. Egypt.," pp.
545 ;

62, 63.
 ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH. 109

in hymns and imploring in prayer the gods of light and of

fertility, the mediator, and the just ruler.
1

Among the Phoenicians the sacrifice of human beings

was a right peculiar to Saturn.
2
The Hebrew Elohim is
in like manner the god who demands the death of Isaac,
just as Varuna the sky-god demands that of Rohita. It
is Jehovah who frees the victim, like the Asvins in the

story of Rohita.
3
There are traces of similar sacrifices to

Jehovah, but as a rule his votaries were opposed to these

bloody rites, although the calves of Bethel, in whose honour
men were immolated as late as the time of Hosea, were
emblems of Jehovah. 4 The sacrifice of children to Moloch
was never entirely stamped out by the Jews in Palestine.
Circumcision and the offering of hair (which among the
Greeks was peculiar to the infernal gods) may be regarded
as modified forms of this most ancient cultus, which devoted
the first-born to God without redemption, as is also
ordained in the oldest laws of the Pentateuch, and which 5

afterwards gave as its noblest offering, the captive enemy

or the domestic slave.
There is, however, another species of sacrifice which
"
belongs to this terrible deity. The Kodeshoth or holy
"
women of the temple of Anu are mentioned in Accadian
tablets. 6 They were devotees of the great female goddess of
Syria, their modern representatives in the Almehs
and have
of Egypt and the temple girls of India. Herodotus speaks
of them as servants of Mylitta in Babylon. 7 In Phoenicia
their service was commuted to an offering of hair. 8 In
9
Carthage they inhabited the Sicca Veneria, and all booths
1 "
Lubbock's "Origin of Civilization," p. 116 Early History of
J
Cf. ; Tylor's
2 iv. Diod. Sic., xx. 14.
Mankind," p. 134. Quintus Curtius, 15 ;

4
3
Cf. Chap. ii.
p. 33. Hosea xiii. 2.
6 6
Exod. xxii. 29. Cf. Chap ii. Lenormant's "Magie," p. 4.
7 Herod, i. 199. 8 " Lucian de Dea
Syr.," vi.
* 2 Kings xvii. 13 ; Val. Max., 2-6 Hosea iv. 14,.
 1 10 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

or Succoth of ancient ritual are connected with their

peculiar rites. They are mentioned without reprobation

Jehovistic writer in the story of Judah, and the
1
by the
Succoth of Chiun 2 may be supposed to indicate a like
ritual as connected with the Hebrew Elohim. In his
double character he received the sacrifices of men and
women alike, the fiery death of the first-born, and the self-

devotion of the maiden.

not improbable also that the sacred tree so in-
It is

timately connected with the serpent was an emblem of

Elohim. The oak of Abraham we have seen to be the
tree of Brahma the heaven itself 3 The primeval god
Asshur in Assyria had a sacred tree, and Allat in Arabia
" "
was symbolised by a palm. The grove or Asherah,
4

which was so prominent an emblem among the Canaanites, 5

was made of wood, and appears to have been either
similar to our English maypole, or else resembled the

Assyrian artificial tree. The Canaanites appear to have

symbolised Ashtoreth or Venus by but the prime-
this tree,

val gods (Asshur or Elohim) being androgynous, included

in themselves the female deity, and her cultus was thus
interwoven with their own.
It is not improbable that the boar and the hare were
sacred also to Elohim. The boar was the emblem of
6
Typhon, of Set, of Indra, and as such was forbidden food
for Egyptian priests.
7
It was the emblem of the dark god,

being a nocturnal animal. The hare was a symbol of the

moon from an early period, 8 and we have seen
in India

that androgynous deities such as Elohim, Sin, or Hermes

are closely akin to the god and goddess of night, the male
1
Gen. xxxviii. 15. 2
Amos v. 25. 3
Cf. Chap. ii. p. 25.
4 Lenormant's " Lettres Assyr.," ii. p. 103. B
Deut. xir. 3, &c.
6 7
Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," i. p. 322.
Cf. Chap. i. p. 14.
8 "Zool. Mythol.," ii. p. 76.
 ELOHIM AND JEHO VAH. 1 1 1

and female moon. The laws which forbade the eating of

the boar and hare among the Hebrews, like those which
made Egypt and India, may perhaps
the bull sacred in
have originated in this early symbolism which consecrated
both to Elohim. Another reason may, however, be given
for the prohibition of hare's flesh. Savage tribes always
imagine that he who eats the body of any animal must
absorb also in some degree the characteristics of the animal
while living. 1 The hare as being a timorous animal may
therefore have been avoided, lest it should make cowards
of those who ate its flesh. The Somal Arabs still forbid
the eating of hare, and among the Hottentots it is eaten
only by women. To regard the swine as being the Jewish
Totem as a learned writer has recently proposed seems
to argue little acquaintance with Asiatic archaeology, and
until this American custom can be shown to have prevailed
in Asia, it may be dismissed as perhaps satirically written.
Far more probably was the Egyptian idea that the wicked
came back to earth in the shape of the Typhonian boar,
the true reason why the Hebrews abstained from eating
swine.
It is now time to turn from the worship of this grim

god of night, of the stone, the serperit, and the tree, of

hell and of heaven, the almighty and eternal, the father of
allgods, and their mother as well, the deity propitiated by
bloody human offerings, and orgies of the night, to the
milder cultus of the beneficent Jehovah, whose attributes
and ritual connect him no less clearly with the sun or the
light than do those of Elohim with the moon, the planet
Saturn, and the blue heavens.
The religion of the Accadians was in the main the
cultus of demons favourable to man, and the exorcism of
1 " Prehistoric Times," p. 190.
Lubbock's "Origin of Civilisation," p. 13 ;
 ii2 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

those who were supposedto harm him. It was the basis

of the Persian dualism and the fear of demons which

;

makes the life of the more superstitious and ignorant in

India a burden, in our own times, must not less have filled
with terror the breast of the old Chaldean worshipper.
Possession, the evil eye, vampires, gnomes, fairies, the
incubus and succubus, witches, and demons of the wind
and the plague, were all familiar to the Accadian, and were

only to be exorcised by magic rites, spells, and the know-

ledge of words, numbers, and other charms. The pro-
tectors of man were the various local sun-gods who dispel
the shades of night, raise the dead, give light to the blind,
and heal the possessed. The power of black demons was
considered to be chiefly formidable at night, and the
mediator between man and the supreme and terrible Anu
was the beneficent son of Ea, the Sun (called Silik-mulu-
khi by the Accadians), who created the world by breathing
on the primeval ocean " Who is like unto Thee," says a
;

Chaldean hymn addressing this divinity, "Olord of battles." 1

The Egyptian cultus was not less a solar faith. The
worship of the evil Set or Typhon was abolished by the
later kings of the 22nd dynasty, when the god of darkness
had become the enemy of the sun, rather than his brother
The whole pantheon of deities who sur-
of the night. 2
round Osiris have, in the opinion of the best authorities, no
other derivation than that from phenomena connected with
the diurnal and annual history of the sun.
The systematic arrangement of deities assigned to various
planets under a triad proceeding from a supreme god, a
system which allowed the old local sun-gods to shine with
diminished light and power under the great deity of the
1
Lenormant's " Magie," p. 175 ; I. W. A., iv. 26. 4.
2
Cf. Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," i.
330-333.
 ELOHIM AND JEHO VAH. 113

conquerors, was a purely Babylonian creation.

1 The week,
although not existing in its modern form, was manu-
first

factured in Babylon, and spread by Semitic tribes among

Aryan races. The names and attributes of the planets

were, in like manner, introduced by the star worshippers

first

of Shinar, and are unknown alike to the Vedic poets and

the Egyptian priests.
The worship of Jehovah is more probably to be derived
from an Egyptian or Accadian, rather than from a purely
Semitic origin. There is scarcely a name in the Penta-
teuch 2 which derived from that of the god who, in later
is

times, was to become the exclusive divinity of Judaism ;

and the author of Exodus declares that the name Jehovah

was unknown to his ancestors before they entered Egypt. 3
Of the antiquity of the name signifying " He is," there can,

however, be no reasonable doubt, for the form belongs to

the older Semitic dialect of Chaldea. In Assyria, Hova
"
Kinu, the existing being," occurs on monuments, and
4
applied, according to Berosus, to a primeval deity. It

appears from the Khorsabad inscriptions that the word

Jehovah was a constituent of the names of Syrian kings,
and on the Moabite stone we find Jehovah represented about
900 B.C. as the Israelite tribe-god defeated by Chemosh.
The existing records of Phoenician religion are unfor-
tunately only preserved in a very late form, but there is
every reason to believe that the lao of the Phoenicians (the
Greek lacchus) was identical with the original Hebrew
He, like the Assyrian Hova Kinu, was a
5
Jehovah.
1
Cf. 2
Colenso's "
Chap. iv. p. 43. Pentateuch," part ii.
p. 142.
3
Exod. vi. 3.
4
"Lettres Assyr.," ii. "Damascius de Princip.," 125.
p. 194;
5
Movers' "Die Phoenizier," pp. 539-558; "Lettres Assyr.," ii.
p. 194.
Cf. Lenormant's "Origines," p. 553 ; Cox's "Mythol. Aryan Nat.," 350;
Colenso's "Lectures," vi. p. 78; Clemens Alex "Strom," v. ; Macrobius,
"
"Sat.,"i. 18; Plutarch, Sympos.," iv.
H
H4 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

primeval deity, son of the abyss and the ocean; while he

is identified according to some with the sun of the winter

season, and according to others with Adonis (or Tammuz,

the Accadian Dumzi, "son of life") as the supreme sun-
"
god of the whole year. The name Zerah, the rising one,"
is common also to
1
Jehovah and Adonis, while the later
Jews through awe of the "secret name" substituted, in
reading, the word Adonai for the letters which form the
tetragrammaton.
Among the Hebrews of David's time, and even two
centuries later, Jehovah was called Baal, "the lord" or
"
master,"
2
and many names compounded with Baal occur
among those of David's followers. 3 Baal with his consort
Ashtoreth was but the Phoenician Adonis (or Lord), with
his wife-mother Aphrodite. Even in later times the con-
nection between Jehovah and Adonis is equally close, for
Amos speaks of the Hebrew feasts in connection with the
annual mourning of the only son, 4 and his birth from the
bitter tree, while Ezekiel finds women mourning for
Tammuz 5
temple of Jehovah, and Zechariah, even
in the

after the captivity, spiritualises this ancient rite of lamenta-

"
tion in autumn, as a of grace and of supplications," 6
spirit
such as was appropriate to the Persian season of atonement,
inculcated among the worshippers of Ahuramazda. 7
The Phoenician Adonis was known in Egypt under the
form Aten or Aden, at least as early as the time of
Kuenaten, in the i6th century B.C. 8 The infant Horus, or

Harpocrates the rising sun was recognised by the Phoeni-

Isa. Ix. I, 2; Adonis Seracos.
2 Sam. v. 20. Cf. Hosea ii. 16.

E.g., Eshbaal, Meribbaal, Baalyadah.

Amos viii. 10. 5
Ezek. viii. 14.
*
Zech. xii. 10.
Cf. Haug's "Notes on Parsees."
"
Lenormant's "Lettres Assyr. ii.
p, 104, seq.; Sharpe's "Egypt. Mytol.,"
p. 70
 ELOHIM AND JEHO VAH. 115

cians as identical with their own

sun-god, and the later
Gnostics represented lao Sabaoth as a Harpocrates on his
lotus-leaf with his finger raised to the lips, like the Indian
Brahma or Vishnu. Adonis or lao was, however, no
doubt an Accadian god, brought eastwards from Assyria,
and related to the ancient mediator of the Accadians
Silik Mulu Khi x born to create the universe from Chaos,
"
the god of gold, merciful among the gods, who raises the
dead, king of heaven and earth, of Babylon and its monu-
ment," who delivers man from sickness and from demons.
The worship of Jehovah seems first to have been intro-
duced among the Hebrews at.the time of the establishment
of the kingdom under Solomon, when Israel was allied with
Phoenicia on the one hand, and Egypt on the other. The
Temple, which appears to have been then erected in
Jerusalem by Phoenician builders, resembled if we accept
the description of a later writer the Egyptian temples of
the period, with their dark interior, their numerous small
chambers, and their pylon pillars. The distinctive ritual of
the deity seems to present the same mixture of Phoenician
and Egyptian rites whichnaturally to be expected, at a
is

time when these two nations were so closely connected by

trade, and had already borrowed mutually so much mytho-

logical imagery and ritual. In the earliest period of the
introduction of Jehovah worship we find no hint of the
intolerance which was exhibited later by its votaries, to-
wards the more ancient cults of the country. Solomon is

said to have established temples of Chemosh, Moloch, and

Ashtoreth, in close proximity to that of Jehovah and the ;

more ancient laws of the Hebrews forbid any man to

"
curse the Elohim," 2 while at the same time encouraging
the worship of Jehovah.
1 3
Lenormant's "Magie," pp. 21, 163, 174. Exod. xxii. 20, 28.
 n6 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
'\
The veneration of the name Jehovah finds its parallel in

many other religions. In Egypt the hidden name Nuk-pu-

Nuk is exactly equivalent to I am that I am. 1 In the
Persian Ormuzd Yasht,
"
I am who I am " is enumerated
among the twenty names of Ahuramazda, and "the supreme
name " was known only to Ea among the Accadians. 2 The
Phoenician lao was also apparently not called by his real
name among the vulgar, 3 and the same spirit of awe and
fear, in addressing supernatural beings by their right names,
is traced in the Egyptian ritual, as well as among almost
all savage tribes, and in the circumlocutions of western
"
folk-lore, which substitute such terms as the "good people
for the real names of elves and goblins.
4

The name Jehovah signifies life, like the Aryan Asura,

which appears as the Egyptian Osiris a title which Hero-
dotus deemed profane it breath, or
to write : and life,

existence was indeed the deepest mystery adored by all

Asiatic races. Whether symbolised by the lingam, the
the sun-disk, or the serpent, it was the mystery of
tree,
which was adored by the rude Accadian or the polished
life

Egyptian alike, by the Dravidian stone worshipper, no less

than by the votaries of Jehovah in Israel. The philo-
sophers of India recognised the true meaning of the
symbolism of a worship which to the vulgar was poly-
theism and the priests of Babylon and of Jerusalem alike
;

knew that one god alone, the spirit which had breathed
life into Chaos, was symbolised by the stern Elohim, or by
the milder sun-god Jehovah, whose spirit dwelt in the

reproductive orb, as Osiris lay hidden in the pupil of his

1
Cf. Speaker's Comm. on Exodus vi. 3.
" Hibbert
; Lect, 1879," p. 244;
"Records of the Past," x. p. 135, seq.
2
Lenormant's " Magie," p. 40.
3 Macrob. "Sat.,"i. 18.
4 "
Cf. Tylor's Early History of Mankind," p. 125.
 ELOHIM AND JEHO VAH. 117

own eye the sun. 1 It was this same truth which, under
the vow of secrecy, was taught in the Dionysiac mysteries,
and symbolised by rude physical emblems. " The gods
are but the phenomena of nature, and there is one living
one alone the creating spirit or life which is in man and
beast, in the tree, the sun, and the wind." The epopt thus
in the end became the sceptic of his day, and cast aside for
ever the trammels of mythology.
It is a common doctrine among Biblical critics that,

while the mass of the Hebrews were mere idolaters, a

true knowledge of the true god was preserved and incul-
cated by the prophets, as opposed to the priests. Of this

antagonism there is no evidence in the Old Testament,

while passages show the harmony which really ex-
many
isted between the priests and poets of Jerusalem. 2 That a
knowledge of the real unity of the gods existed among
3
Egyptians, Assyrians, and Aryans, not less than among
the Hebrews at an early period, has already been shown ;
but the high moral and spiritual knowledge attributed to
Hebrew prophets by Biblical critics exists rather in the
unconscious prepossessions of our own age than in the
writings of the Old Testament. The votaries of Jehovah
were at first sectarians, who admitted the propriety of
other cults, and the establishment of many shrines sacred
to their divinity. 4
About the time of Hezekiah (the
Constantine of Jehovah worship), they became strong enough
to enforce monolatry, and to abolish the bloody rites of

Moloch, and the immorality of the Ashtoreth votaries, but

monotheism was at no time a distinctive feature of Hebrew
faith, for even when in the captivity the Israelites learned
1
Pierret's
" " Great Harris v.
Mythol. Egyptienne," p. 1 8. ; Papyrus,"
2
Jer. xviii. 18
; xxiii. 14 ; xxix. 26 ; xxxi. 14 ; xxxiii. 18.
3
Cf. Lenormant's
"
Divination," p. 215.
4
Cf. Exod. xx. 24 ; xxii. 28.
1 18 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

to identify their Jehovah with the good Ahuramazda of

the Persians, and to attribute to him, as the only true god,

higher moral qualities than it had been possible

for them
to conceive in the rude times of their first great rulers, they
nevertheless imbibed with equal readiness (for Semitic races
are imitative rather than creative by nature) the dualistic

system of the Accadians and of Zarathustra, and brought

back with them to Jerusalem the propitiation of Azazel by
the scape-goat, side by side with the reformed ritual of

Jehovah. Strange indeed is the irony of religious history,

which has led us to consider the idea of monotheism, so
early developed among our own ancestors, and by them
taught to Semitic demon worshippers, as being a truth

specially revealed to a small Semitic tribe, and a great

idea distinctive of the Semitic genius. 1
A
slight examination of the ritual and symbolism
peculiar to Jehovah will serve to make clearer the con-
nection between the Hebrew sun-god and those of Egypt
and Phoenicia. 3
The rude altar of undressed stone or of

earth,with the ever-burning flame (as in the temple of

Hercules at Tyre), were his only symbols, for like Hercules
he had no image in his shrine. The twin pillars (Jachin
and Boaz) standing before his gate were equally known to
the Phoenicians as religious emblems. 3 Women were ex-
cluded from the temple of Hercules (at Gades) as from
the inner courts of Jerusalem. 4 The Merkebeh or chariot
inwhich Jehovah rode (although he is also represented as
mounted on the great man-bull 6 like the Aryan Indra on
his celestial horse) was likewise in Phoenicia the car of
1
Cf. Max Muller on Semitic Monotheism
" Selected
Essays," ii. p. 431.
2
Exod. xx. 24 ; "Mishnah Tamid," i. 4.
3 Kenrick's " " Lucian de Dea
Phoenicia," Syria," &c.
4 Sil.
Ttal., 3, 22 j Cicero, N. D., 3. 16 ; Josephus Ant. viii. 5, 3
, 2 Mace,
;

5
iv. 19, 2O. .
Ps. xviii. 10
 ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH. 119

Jehu or Jehovah, and the throne borne by winged sphinxes

l
supports this deity on Phoenician scarabaei while in ;

Assyria the Accadian Sesah stands erect on his bull-cherub,

as lao Sabaoth among the Gnostics was mounted on a
horse. The bull, indeed, is an emblem of Jehovah, just as
Apis is of the sun in Egypt. Phoenician coin in the A
British Museum shows us a deity seated in a chariot with
the name Yehu or Jehovah. a representation evidently It is

of that Merkebeh or chariot on which Ezekiel pictured the

god of Israel as seated.

The combat of Jehovah with the darkness is mentioned
in one of the late Psalms, in connection with a myth which
has not found its place in the Exodus epic, namely the
feeding of Israel on Leviathan in the desert. In the book
of Job, and in the latter part of Isaiah, Jehovah not only

slays the dragon but breaks in pieces Rahab, just as Indra

"
smites the dawn, for we have seen that Rahab, the

spreading one," is the dawn in the myth of Joshua. 2 The

same struggle was celebrated in Assyria in the combat of
Marduk3 (originally a sun-god) with the dragon of the
4
ocean. The Assyrian sun represented as an archer, with
is

the wings and tail of a bird, and the idea of the sun as a
bird is also found in the Rigveda ;
6
while in the Hebrew
prophets we find
Jehovah pictured hovering like a bird

over Jerusalem, and Malachi speaks of the "sun of righteous-

" "
ness who arises with healing in his wings." 6
The sun which lets no evil thing be hidden where his
rays can penetrate is among all ancient races the king of

1
"Lettres Assyr.," ii.
p. 170.
2
Ps. Ixxiv. 13 Job
; ix. 13 ; Isaiah li. 9. Cf. Amos ix. 3.
3
Lenorraant's
"
Cf. Origines," p. 545.
4
Cf. Layard's "Nineveh," p. 447.
5 '
6 " Zool. Mythol.,"
Rigveda," x. 55. ; ii.
p. 168.
6 Isaiah xxxi. 4 Malachi iv. 2.
;
 120 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

law and right. The Urim and Thummim a rude imple-

ment of the Hebrew diviners was thus consecrated to
"
Jehovah. The words may be rendered lights and lots,"
and the Thummim were used by Saul, and known to the 1

author of Deuteronomy. The proposed Egyptian deriva-

tion of these names is, to say the least, very doubtful,2 but
we know that the Accadians cast lots, as Saul did with the
Thummim, using a precious stone and observing the play
of its lights.
3
The later Jews believed that the Urim oracle
was connected with the lights in the stones of the some-
4
what apocryphal breastplate of the High Priest, but the
original Thummim seems to have been lost at the time of
the captivity ;
it was perhaps a single precious stone used
in divining, and probably akin to the mysterious Mamit of
5
Assyria.
The dualism of Persia had not influenced the Hebrews
before the captivity, and we accordingly find " the evil
" 6 7
spirit sent by Jehovah, as well as his Malach or messenger,
who was afterwards superseded by the hosts of angelic

beings invoked in later psalms, but who resembled the

messenger whom
each Assyrian god possessed, as a means
of communication with mankind. The character of Jehovah
is however generally beneficent and favourable to man,
although as god of light and justice he scatters and con-
sumes the wicked. The prophets at an age previous to
that of the development of the idea of a Messiah speak of
1
i Sam. xiv. 41 ; xxviii. 6 ; Deut. xxxiii. 8.
2
Cf. Smith's "Bible Diet." and "Speaker's
Commentary;" Sharpe's
"
Egypt. Mythol.," p. 31 ; Diodor. Sic., i. 48 and 75.
3 Lenormant's "
Divination," p. 81.
4
Exod. xxviii. 30; Lev. viii. 8 ; Num. xxvii. 21 ; Josephus " Antiq.,"
iii. 8, 9; "Chron. Sam.," 18 and 38; Philo "Vita Moses," iii. Cf.Judg.
xvii. 5 ; Hosea iii. 4.
5
See " Transact. Bib. Arch. Society," vol. ii.
pp. 36, 37, 56.
6
I Sam. xvi. 14.
7
Lenormant's
"
Origines," p. 121.
 ELOHIM AND JEHO VAH. 121

Jehovah as the only Saviour, and Jeremiah claims for his

1
divinity the exclusive power of sending rain on earth.
The sacred Tebah or ark of Jehovah was derived from

Egypt, rather than from Assyria. It was probably intro-

duced by Solomon or David, and brought to the capital

from Kirjath Baal. It probably contained a mystic emblem,
such as is designated by the term Edoth or " monument,"
2
and such as existed Egyptian arks, but, the various
in

authors of the Old Testament differ as to the contents

which were concealed from vulgar gaze.
The mystic fan, which was an emblem of the sun-god
3
Dionysus, is often represented on Assyrian sculptures.
Whatever its original was an appropriate symbol
meaning it

of the harvest god, and may probably have been sacred also
4
to Jehovah, represented as the harvester by the prophets.
Avery curious bit of symbolism may also be noted,
which represents Jehovah as having horns coming from his
hand. 5 We' have already seen that the golden hand is one
of the sun's attributes (as in the Vedic Savitar), and the

rays proceeding from the sun's disk are shown on Egyptian

sculptures of the Adonis worship as having hands at their
extremities. 6The hand (emblem of Siva) is the apt symbol
of labour, and the productive power of the sun is thereby
indicated.
We have thus briefly enumerated the reasons which lead
to the conclusion that the Hebrew Jehovah is to be
identified with the sun-god of Phoenicia, the Adon or Lord,
whose triumph and death were celebrated in Assyrian
hymns and on Egyptian monuments alike, the beloved
1
Hosea xiii. 4 ; Jer. xiv. 22. Cf. I Kings xviii.
2
Cf.
" Rivers of
Life," i. 150-160.
3
Layard's "Nineveh," vol. ii.
p. 471.
4 8
Micah iv. 12. Habak iii. 4.
6
Cf. Sharpe's
" Arm of Osiris," Cf.
" Hibbert
"Egypt. Mythol.," p. 70 ;
"
Lect., 1879," p. 115 ; Savitar's Arm," Cf. chap. v. p. 86.
122 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Tammuz mourned as an only son, not only by the women

of Byblos or of Jerusalem, but even by those of Alexandria
on the west, and Nineveh on the east. That he should
be hymned as the greatest of gods does not by any means
imply that no other deities were worshipped, as his equals
or superiors, by the same races. In the Vedas we find

Varuna, Diaush, Indra, each addressed as supreme.

1
We
find Jehovah identified with Elohim, or sharply dis-
2
tinguished from the old dark god, but the most general
view of the sun-god's character places him in a secondary
rank, as mediator between God and man, the brightest of
immortal creations, but yet not uncreate. It may perhaps
be better to call this deity of day the god of light rather
than of the sun, comparing him with Diaush or the " shining
one," rather than with the orb of day itself. It is thus

that in Persia, Mithra, the god of day and light, was distinct
from the angel of the sun, while in Egypt Osiris is some-
thing more than Horus, and has the sun for his eye, but
these distinctions are too fine to be insisted upon, and the
names of deities are fused together
various ideas and in a

manner which makes it very difficult to draw a hard line

between personifications of one class.

The later development of the worship of Jehovah, after

the captivity, we must trace in a subsequent chapter. By

the Christian era the original character of this deity had
been so entirely lost that we find Tacitus unwilling to
believe that he was originally identical with the bountiful
"
Dionysus. Some have supposed
that they worshipped
father Bacchus, the conqueror of the East, but the rites of
the Jews do not at all agree with those of Bacchus, for he

appointed of a joyful nature, fit for festivals, whereas

rites
3
the practices of the Jews are sordid and grotesque."
1 " Hibbert Lect.
1878," pp. 278, 280, 284.
2 *
Gen. xvi. n, &c. ; I Sam. ii. 25. Tacitus' "Ann.," v. 5.
 CHAPTER VII.

THE PROPHETS.

THE traveller who has met the wandering Dervish, or the

naked Santon by the way, and stared for a moment at the
unkempt locks, the furrowed face, the emaciated form, is

not always aware of the power which, in times of national

excitement, a figure seemingly so pitiable may assume.
The western mind cannot, without long study in eastern
lands, appreciate the veneration which is felt for thosewho,
by their self-torturing penances, are held to have acquired
a power of prayer which can compel the gods themselves.
The course of a campaign, and the fate of a nation, still
hang on the words of a hermit, and the influence
at times
of the Neby or " inspired one," poor and ignorant as he

may have been by origin a herdsman of Tekoa, or a

1
picker of sycomore figs, a ploughman like Elishah, an
illiterate prophet like Mohammed, has from the dawn of
Asiatic history constituted a power in the state recognised

by king and priest alike, and especially venerated by the

common folk of the land.
The Levite or priest of the serpent-god was (when he
first appears on the scene), a wanderer and a mendicant, for
whom the corner of the field was left. It is not until the

time of the latest kings of Judah that he gains a right to

the less valuable parts of the sacrificed victim, and to the
triennial tithe. It is not until the priests of Jerusalem
1
Amos i. I. j vii. 14.
124 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

established a hagiocracy of short duration, and of power

limited apparently to the vicinity of the capital, and to the

pious upper class, that the Levite appears in a position of

settled employment as the assistant of the Priest.
The course of our enquiry now leads us to consider the
condition of Hebrew society in the five centuries which
intervene between the dawn of a traditional history of the
Israelite kingdom, and the captivity of Judah under Baby-
lonian and Persian kings. It is towards the close of this

period, the literature of which is classed by the Jews under

the order of Nebaim or Prophets, that some of the finest

poetry of the Hebrews was written, and that the power of

the prophets of Jehovah was at its height. We
have to
consider two distinct periods included in the age which has
been above indicated, namely the primitive period when
Jehovah worship was one only among other cults, and had
many shrines in various parts of the country, and secondly
the era of intolerance under Hezekiah and Josiah, when
the central Makom or "place" of Jehovah was established
for political reasons, no doubt, as well as from religious
motives at the capital of the Judean kingdom after the

captivity of Israel.
With the establishment of a Hebrew kingdom we seem
to pass from the myth-making to the traditionary ages.
In the time of Jeremiah the meaning of the early myths,
which we have been considering in former chapters, was so
entirely lost that the tales of the Patriarchs had come to
be considered as actual history, and the demi-gods of
Assyria had assumed human form as ancestors of Israel.
Nevertheless fragmentary myths are preserved in many
cases under the form of traditions, and in the history of

Elijah, Elishah, or Jonah, we find the sun-god reappearing

as a Hebrew prophet, just as his story may often be re-
 THE PROPHETS. 125

cognised by the student in the miracles of the modern

Santon.
Many facts connected with the story of David have a
suspiciously mythical aspect. His ruddy face, his victory
over the giant, his love of the fair bather, may be true
history but are equally susceptible of mythical explanation.
The lion and the bear can never have dwelt, in historic
times, in the deserts where David fed his sheep on scanty
grass in spring. The garment of Tamar is the same as
that of Joseph the long hair of Absolom, and his death in
:

the forest, remind us of the Vedic myths the story of the ;

travels of the ark resembles the Egyptian tale of the Ark

of Chonso. 1 But in all these cases the myth is no longer
conscious. The writer may have taken into his history the

popular traditions, which have their origin in myths. David

may, like Alexander, have been the figure round which the
tale of heroic deeds of yore had gathered quickly, but the
kings of Israel are historic personages whose names from
the time of Omri and Ahab at least are found on the sober
tablets of Assyrian chronicles.
With the book of Kings the case is otherwise. The
author confessedly wrote at least three centuries later than
the time of Elijah, and the traditions of this prophet and of
his successor Elishah are clearly mythical, although not
occurring in any regular cycle. But should the reader here
ask, How are the mythical and the historical to be dis-

tinguished ? the answer is not difficult. That chronicle

which is free from all supernatural machinery is to be
regarded as being historic, though, whether traditional or
authentic, must be judged by comparison with other records.
The marvellous is the measure of the mythical, and among
all nations we note a progress from mythical cycles, though

tradition unconsciously preserving mythic fragments (as in

1
Cf. "Records of the Past," vol. iv. p. 53.
126 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the Iliad) to the authentic history of monuments and con-

temporary chronicles.
" "
god Jehovah "), the Tishbite or stranger from
Elijah ("

Gilead, which we have so often seen before to be the land

of sunrise for Hebrew writers, abides by the Brook of
" " "
Cherith, exile or separation," east of Jordan. He is

here fed by the ravens of night, as the sun-child by the

Persian Simurgh on the mountain.
1 "
At the end of days "
the brook dries up the sun-hero nourished by the living
:

water of the torrent, which resembles the mythical well of

2
the earlier tales, wanders westwards to Zarephah (a name
connected with the Phoenician title of Aphrodite), whefe
he abides with the widow woman, of whose inexhaustible
cruze of oil we have already heard, as the silver cup of the
moon whence the ambrosia distils. 3 The dead child raised
to life reminds us that the special attribute of the sun-god
is the restoration of the dead. The sacrifice on Carmel is

a story of the autumn, when the long drought of summer

isbroken by the first thunder showers. Elijah on the
mountain destroying his enemies with fire, again recalls

the Accadian god smites of

in fire who
August, and re-
sembles the fiery Moses descending from Sinai the fire :

which annually from heaven at Aphek on Lebanon,

fell

was the same fire which fell on Carmel.

The beautiful story of Elijah's visit to Horeb is again
but a variant of the Exodus His hunger and thirstepic.
recall the cravings of Indra, and the storm at Sinai is a

second version of that already noticed in the history of

Moses. The hairy mantle of the prophet is perhaps the
same as that of Esau, while the fiery chariot of his final

i
"Zoological Mythology," ii. p. 188.
* "Tal Bab Aboda Zara," lib.
8 " Zool.
Mythol.," i. 125. (Mahabharatam.)
 THE PROPHETS. 127

ascension after his crossing eastwards over the nocturnal

riveris closely connected with the chariot of the Vedas, or

of the Phoenician gems drawn by the two Asvinau horses. 1

Not only does the supernatural character of Elijah thus

imply a mythical origin to his history, but among the
modern Jews he still retains his unearthly attributes. His
presence, though invisible, is credited on all important
" "
occasions, and under the name of the green one he is
devoutly adored by the Moslems of the East as the great
2
regenerator of nature.
Elisha (" God's Salvation ") is the successor, whose ad-
ventures repeat those of his master. He assumes the hairy
garment, and climbs towards Bethel after crossing with dry
foot the river of the nocturnal valley. The children who
" "
mock him, as he appears bald without his hot summer

rays, are perhaps the same numerous children of the night,

whom we have already met in Egypt, and shall meet again
at Elephanta and in Bethlehem the stars who are slain at
sunrise. The
bears from the forest of night can scarcely
have found a habitat in the Desert of Bethaven, as the
Syrian bear is found only on Hermon, at a much greater
altitude and in a colder climate.

Elisha, like Moses, heals the bitter water, and by the

power of his staff raises a child into as Elijah also
life,
"
gives life to the only son."
s
He heals the leper, a

special prerogative of the sun in Persia, and feeds the

multitude with miraculous food for the sun is the great
food-giver in all mythology.
The story of Jehu (or Jehovah) has also its mythical
aspect, although Jehu is noticed as son of Omri in Assyrian
i
"Rigveda," i. 6. 2; "Zool. Mythol.," i. 285.
* "Bible Diet.," ii. p. 727, and Chiarini's "Introduction to
Cf. Smith's

Babylonian Talmud," p. 187.

3
Cf. Appendix A, "Rods."
 128 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

texts, and was no doubt a historic personage. He rides in

his chariot from the East. He destroys the woman
painted
with many colours the evil dawn of the Vedas, crushed
beneath his car ;
and the sequel which relates that her

head and hands were uneaten by the dogs recalls the

left

Turanian tale, in which the wolves of the night are unable

to eat the heart and tongue of the wicked woman, because

their mouths are burned by the bitterness. *

The Phoenician myth

of the sun god, swallowed by the

great has found

fish,a place among the Hebrew writings in
the story of Jonah. Joppa, whence he sets out, is the
scene of the later myth of Perseus and Andromeda. 2 The
sea monster (against whom Jehovah fights) is but a marine
form of the dragon of darkness, the Typhon or Set of

Egypt.
3
The three days during which Jonah remains in
the fish's interior are probably the winter months. The
traditional site of his recovery, near Sidon, seems to indi-

cate a Phoenician origin to the myth ;

and Hercules in like

manner descended fully armed into the belly of a fish, and

emerged again after three days, according to the Phoeni-
cians. The name of Jonah may be compared with that of

Cannes, the Dagon of Assyria and Jonah in the fish's

;

mouth presents a close affinity to the half human, half fish-

like deities who belong to the same class with Vishnu,

Poseidon, or the Carthaginian Tzid. The jewel in the fish

is a very ancient Aryan emblem. 4 The love god, in the

Vishnu Purana, thrown into the sea, is swallowed by a fish,
like the ring of Gyges, of which there are many earlier

!
"Zool. Mythol.,"i. p. 169.
Cf.
2 Diodorus Siculus, iv. 4; Lenormant's "Lettres Assyr.," ii. p, 273.
Cf.

Appendix A, "The Fish ;" "Scholiast on Iliad," v. 145 ; Lenormant's

3 Cf.

"Lettres Assyriologiques," ii. p. 273.

4 Cf. Tal Bab. Sabbath, iipa, Gittin
"Zool. Mythol.," ii. p. 333, 35 2 -

68a.
 THE PROPHETS. 129

versions.The wondrous gourd which springs up and is

gnawed by the worm is equally familiar in mythology,
but the moral tacked to the story seems to indicate that
the writer was unaware of the mythical origin of Jonah's

history, and regarded him as a real personage, much as

many pious people still do, who find hard to compre-
it

hend how Jonah could be swallowed by a whale and yet

uninjured, although they might easily satisfy themselves
that he actually does so enter the fish, and come back again
each day and every year.
The picture presented to us by the books of Samuel and
Kings is that of a nation living by agriculture and by
pastoral pursuits, scarcely as yet to be considered civilised,
although trade was not unknown, and rock -cut inscriptions
were occasionally executed. The rude shepherds wandered
over the low plains, and folded their flocks in the caverns :

the hardy peasantry tilled the less rocky portions of the

soil and the year was gladdened with corn, and wine, and
;

oil. The Midianite nomad swept down occasionally on

the fields, or the Philistinecame up for his tribute. In
laterdays the Assyrian hosts marched forth each spring,
and the Hebrews fled to their strong villages, where the
cabins huddled round a central fort on the summit of a

knoll, or to hamlets hidden in a ravine.

The ragged prophet, the sacred Levite, wandered from
place to place secure of alms, of shelter, and of the glean-
ings of the field. The kings of Shechem and Jerusalem
exacted their taxes, and engaged in petty internecine
struggles but in the capital the art of writing was not
;

unknown, and the rude psalms and denunciations of the

enemy repeated by the peasantry were recorded by the
poet.
"
The law of Moses," that grinding system which still
130 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

oppresses the Jew, had not yet been evolved by the proud
priesthood of later times, and even the intolerance of the
Jehovistic sectaries was only awakened by the zeal of the
later prophets of Hezekiah's time. It was then that the

old epics of Solomon's age were found stored in the

Jerusalem temple the Accadian myths of Genesis, and

the Exodus epic, and the stories of Joshua and the Judges,

composed by early priests under the influence of Egyptian

and Phoenician civilisation. 1 The rude laws of the 2Oth to
the 22d chapter of Exodus were perhaps among these
documents and the poetic and impassioned commentary
;

of Jeremiah, forming the book Deuteronomy, was added to

the old manuscripts when they were thus recovered. The
revival, like all such movements, entailed the destruction
of ancient customs, the overturning of old monuments, the

proscription of other rites and we cannot but confess that

;

the attempt to abolish human sacrifice and sacred prosti-

tution marks an advance in the civilisation of the Jehovistic

zealots, as compared with the stern fanatics who still per-

sisted in offering their children to Moloch, or the volup-
tuaries who celebrated the orgies of Baal Peor, and pre-
2
pared a table for Gad, and a libation for Meni. The great
menhirs of Elohim were then overthrown and broken ;
the
sacred poles of the Asherah were cut down the groves of ;

oaks were burned, the gardens of Adonis destroyed ; 3 and

the feasts of Jehovah, at spring time, harvest, or vintage,
were honoured as in the golden age of Solomon with dance
and song.
The early laws of the Hebrews as contained in Exodus
are those of an almost barbarian people. They may be

compared with the early Accadian laws which have been

1 2
2 Kings xxii. 8. Isaiah Ixv. 1 2.
3
Cf. Isaiah i. 29 ;
" Lettres Assyr.," ii.
p. 245.'
 THE PROPHETS. 131

"
preserved on cuneiform tablets. Thus, for instance, he
that curseth his father or his mother shall
surely be put to
death,"says the Hebrew lawgiver, while the Accadian
condemns the son who will not acknowledge his parents to
death by starvation and the power of divorce and subjec-
;

tion of women are nearly the same in the two codes.1

The early feasts of Israel were equally of Chaldean
origin, though some of the ritual may have been derived
from Egypt. The spring festival of Mazzoth, or cakes of
unleavened bread, is connected with the Egyptian offering
of Mest cakes to Osiris at the beginning of the year. This
feast was later developed into the Pesakh or " hovering
over," which has the same meaning as the Egyptian Pesh,
and was a propitiatory evening feast. The harvest festivals,
and that of the vintage when the maidens danced among
the vines like the later Bacchantes, 2 were the only other

early religious anniversaries for the mourning of Tammuz

:

is not inculcated in the Pentateuch.

The
laws of the earliest period recognise, however, the

power of magic, and the existence of witches.

3
The
seething of a kid in its mother's milk was, according to the
old Karaite commentary, an ancient magical rite trees, ;

fields, and gardens being sprinkled at the time of the

gathering of first fruits with the milk.

4 The witch of Endor
invoked for Saul the shade of the dead prophet, but the
inconsistency of the king's proceedings is somewhat less
marked when we remember that this was merely a cere-
" "
mony white magic
of as contrasted with the black art
of those enchanters who conjured demons, and whom Saul
had persecuted. The distinction of these two arts is very

Lenormant's " Magie," p. 311.

2
1
Judges xxi. 21.
3 Exod. xxii. 18 ; Deut. xviii. II ; Isa. ii. 6, xix. I, xxix. 4 ; Jer. xxvii. 9.
4 "
Cf. Speaker's Comment." on Exod. xxiii. 19.
1 32 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

clear among the Accadians, 1 and the use of the Urim by

2
the Hebrews, and of the arrows of fate by Elisha, are but
other instances of divination practised by the votaries of
Jehovah. Even the reservation of the corner of the field
for the poor may be thought to be a modification of a very

ancient superstitious practice, when we reflect how among

the Celts the "gudeman's croft" is an unreaped corner

originally consecrated to the local genius of the soil the

malevolent earth-spirit in whose honour all early Asiatic
3
peoples were accustomed to consecrate human victims.
The shrines of Jehovah were erected at Bethel, at Nob,
on Gerizim, Tabor, and Carmel, and at
at Gibeon, at Gilgal,
Shiloh where was the temple or Beth Jehovah with its
sacred lamp, ark, and sacrifices and with its orgies con- ;

demned indeed by the more pious, but existing yet as

memories of the older cultus. 4 On
Olivet was the place of
David's worship, and Hermon and the peak of Bashan are
"
also sacred mountains to the psalmist. In all places where
"
I record my name," says the ancient code, I will come
unto thee, and I will bless thee." s
With Hezekiah's reformation the central shrine at Jeru-
salem was established, 6 and the numerous sacred places
above noticed were disallowed. The prophets and priests
of Jehovah whom Saul had not hesitated to extirpate when

they shielded his enemy had formed a school or order 7

(like one of the modern Dervish whose power was orders),
now sufficient to enable them to dictate new laws and to
proscribe the cultus of other sects. Bethel and Dan had
been established for political reasons as rival centres of

Jehovah worship by Israelite kings, and after the captivity

1 2
Lenormant's "Magie," p. 53. 2 Kings xiii. 17.
3 Lev. xix. "
Deut. xxiv. 19 ; 9. Cf. Early Races of Scotland," i.
p. 151.
4 I 5
Sam. ii. 22. Exod. xx. 24.
6 7
Deut. xii. 5. 2 Kings ii. 3.
 THE PROPHETS. 133

of the ten tribes, it was ordained that sacrifices should be

" " "
offered in the place to put
chosen out of all the tribes
His name there," and the Lawgiver adds the significant
"
warning Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy
1
burnt-offerings in every place (or shrine) that thou seest."
The Rabshakeh 2 or chief captain of Sennacherib speaks of
this change as quite recent and as an offence against the

other sacred places of the country. 3 The earlier kings

were apparently quite ignorant of those laws which are
contained in the Book of Deuteronomy, for even monarchs
Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham,
like Asa, Jehosaphat, Joash,

who receive commendation from the historian in other

were guilty of sacrificing in the old high places.
respects,
The new ritual which forbade the worship of Moloch
and Ashtoreth seems never to have taken a great hold on
the people. Monuments might be overturned, groves
burned, idolaters stoned, the sacrifice of the first-born and
the devotion of daughters might be forbidden, but in time
of trouble the common folk turned to the old faith just as the

Tyrians did when they proposed during Alexander's siege

to sacrifice a boy to Saturn. 4
"
We will certainly burn . . .

incense to the Queen of Heaven, ... as we have done, we

and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem for then had we :

plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But

sincewe left off ... we have wanted all things, and been
consumed by the sword and by famine." Such was the
answer of a superstitious populace to the exhortation of the
5
prophet of Jehovah.
The sharp distinction between a spiritual worship incul-
1
Deut. 2
xii. 13. Lenormant's "Origines," p. 221.
3 2 Kings xviii. 22.
4 " 5
Quintus Curtius," 4. 15. Jer. xliv. 17, 18.
 I3 4 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

cated by the prophets and a gross idolatry practised by the

people, exists rather in the imagination of

modern writers
than in the literature of the Hebrews. The prophets and
chroniclers of the period preceding the captivity were not
free from the prejudices of their time. They believed in
witches and soothsayers, in familiar spirits and satyrs, in

magic rites, and in the evil eye, and in auguries drawn

1

from clouds or from serpents. 2 Teraphim and magic gems

formed part of the apparatus of Jehovah's ritual, 3 sacred
dances of the most frenzied description were executed in
his honour, 4 and even the hanging of those who had in- s

sulted his priest "before the Lord" was occasionally sup-

Jehovah was
5
posed to propitiate the incensed sun-god.
still one among many gods, although greater than the rest.
In studying the Hebrew poetic writings of this period,
it

is most interesting to note the survival of those strongly

anthropomorphic expressions which are derived from the

mythic conceptions. Even in Job we find mention
earlier
"
of the brows of the dawn." In the Psalms she spreads
her wings and descends into the sea in Amos she flies in ; ;

Joel her wings stretch over the mountains ; in Job, again,

the thunder roars as a lion, and the dawn is a swift hind or

gazelle, because, as the Rabbis explain, the horns of a deer

branch out just as the rays of dawn are spread abroad. 6
The "fiery flying serpent" which Jehovah slays is
without doubt the mythical dragon connected with Rahab,
" "
or the wide-spreading dawn and;
the darkness bites like
a serpent according to the Psalmist. These instances,
already collected by Goldziher sufficiently indicate the
existence of true mythology among the Hebrews.
1
Sam. xviii. 2
i
9. Deut. xviii. 10 ; Lev. xix. 26.
3
Hosea iii. 4. 2 Sam. vi. 20. B
2 Sam. xxi. 6.
6
Job iii. 9 ; xli. 10 ; Ps. cxxxix. 9 ; Amos iv. 13 j Joel ii. 2 ; Job xxxvii. 4 ;

Ps. xxii. i; "Tal Bab Yoma,"29aj Isa. xiv. 29; xxvii. i; Job. xxvi. 12,
13; Ps. Ixxiv. 12-17; Ixxvi. 4J cxxxix. II.
 THE PROPHETS. 135

It may, however, appear that in thus estimating the

condition of religion and literature among the Hebrews in

the time of Isaiah and the early prophets, we have under-
estimated the grandeur and beauty of the poetic and pro-
phetic writings, and have ignored the highest conceptions
of the age. Let it be granted, however, that such concep-
tions are traceable, and that the earlier Psalms contain
something more than the denunciation of enemies, or the

anathematising of idols. It would be strange indeed if no

such ideas had penetrated the Hebrew mind, surrounded
on all sides by nations whose hymns had many ages for so

previously contained every expression and conception which

exists in Hebrew poetry. It is not for a moment to be

denied that Old Testament many an exclamation is to

in the

be found, and many a poetic outburst, which contains ideas

of a high moral and religious order; all that we are justified
in refusing to believe is that these expressions are peculiar

to Hebrew literature,, or that they mark a Divine inspira-

tion or a national genius among the Jews without parallel
among other races. And, on the other hand, we must not
forget that Hebrew poetry, no less than that of other races,
is disfigured by outbursts of hate, by traces of superstition,

by childish conceits, and anthropomorphic expressions which

linger even in the purer strains composed during the
Persian period.
Let us for a moment glance at the hymns of Assyria,

Egypt, and India, all dating earlier than the earliest

Hebrew Psalm.
"
Who shall escape before thy hail. Thy will is a great
decree which thou hast made in heaven and on the earth.
I looked on the sea and was made smooth. I looked on
it

the grass and it was withered. I looked on the girdle of

Euphrates, the will of Silik-mulu-khi has overthrown its
 136 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
"
bed. Lord, thou art most high, who is like unto Thee ?

Such is the language of Accadian devotion.

"
O God my Lord, who hast made me, and formed me,
give me an eye to see and an ear to hear thy glories." 2
"Giver of food, great Lord of provisions, creator of all

good things, Lord of terrors and of the chiefest joys,

all things are gathered together in him. He maketh grass
for the oxen. He filleth the garners, and maketh rich the
store-houses, he careth for the estate of the poor. He
causeth that which groweth to fill all needs, he never
wearieth thereof. might a buckler. He is
He maketh his
not graven in marble an idol with the double crown. He
is not seen he hath neither minister nor offerings he is
; ;

not worshipped in temples his dwelling is not known.

;

No shrine of his hath painted images. There is no

habitation which may hold him. Unknown is his name
in heaven, and his form is not manifested, for every image
of him is vain."
"
Maker of men, giving them life, hearing the poor in
his distress, kind of heart to him who crieth unto him.
Deliverer of the fearful from the violent, judging the poor,
the poor and the oppressed, Lord of wisdom, whose laws
are wise.
"
"The only one, maker of all that is." Hail to thee for
all these things, the one alone with many hands, waking
while all men sleep, to seek the good of his creatures." 3
Such are the expressions of the Egyptian hymns which
are interspersed among the mystic symbols of a solar faith.
"
Who is the god towhom we may offer our sacrifice,"
says the Veda.
4
"He through whom the heaven is bright
and earth is firm, through whom the heaven was established,
1
Cf. Lenormant's "Magie,"p. 175.
2
"Hibbert Lect., 1879," pp. 216, 223.
3 " Hibbert *
Lect., 1879," P- 226. "Rigveda," x. 121, 5, 6..
 THE PROPHETS. 137

yea the highest heaven. He who measured the space of

the sky. He to whom heaven and earth, established by
his will, look up trembling in their mind. He over whom the
rising sun shines forth."
"
Wise and mighty are the works of him who stemmed
asunder the wide firmaments. He lifted on high the bright
and glorious heaven, he stretched apart the starry sky and
the earth."
"
He who should flee far beyond the sky, even he would
not escape from Varuna, the king. His messengers go from
heaven to earth, with a thousand eyes they look upon this
world. The King Varuna seeth all this, that which is

between heaven and earth, and that which is beyond."

" He who knoweth the path of the bird that flieth through
the sky. He who knoweth the track of the wind, of the
wide, the bright, the mighty, and knoweth those who dwell
on high. He the upholder of right sitteth among his

people. He the wise sitteth there to rule." l

Such we might prolong their quotation for

strains (and

many pages) were sung by the Aryan bards, and the priests
of Assyria and Egypt long before Israel was a nation. They
have been collected and translated for us by the patient
labour of many scholars. We can no longer plead ignorance
of the faiths of the older racesamong whom the Hebrews
dwelt, and we can no longer maintain that alone among
these races the Hebrews possessed a revealed knowledge of
God and an inspired book of praise.
1
Cf. Max Muller's "Selected Essays," ii. p. 149, 151, 153; "Rigveda,"
" Atharva "
vii. 89 : Veda," iv. 46 ; Rigveda," i. 25.
 CHAPTER VIII.

THE PERSIAN PERIOD.

THE conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, the flight of the
Chaldean Nabonahid, and the establishment of a new
Aryan power in Mesopotamia, are facts of which we have
now contemporary monumental evidence. A new period
of Hebrew history thus opens in the year 539 B.C., and the
Jewish captives brought are under Median influence,
whereas as yet we have seen the race only in contact with
Egypt and Phoenicia, Assyria or Babylon.
The study
of that ancient religion 1 which Cyrus brought
with him to his new capital, has of late years made a
progress only surpassed by that of Indian faiths. The
foundation laid by Du Perron, Burnouf, and Haug has
become the basis of the labours of Darmesteter, West, and
other scholars who have added so materially to our know-

ledge of the Avesta, and have corrected so many errors

into which the earlier authorities inevitably fell. The
oldest Parsee books remnants of the original Avesta or
"
Law " are now generally recognised by scholars as being
in the main at least as old as Cyrus, and the hymns now
sung by the Parsee are, generally speaking, no doubt the
same which Herodotus mentions the Magi as reciting from
their books in the 5th century before Christ. 2

The definite 3 conclusions as to date which Haug sought

1
Cf, "Language and Religion of the Parsees," Dr Martin Haug, 1862;
'
Sacred Books of the East," vols, iv. v. xxiii, 2
Herod i, 131.
3
Cf. Darmesteter's
" Introduction to the Zendavesta " Sacred Books of the
j"
East," vol. iv.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 139

to establish do not, it is true, appear to be considered of

great weight by later authorities, but for our present purpose
this is a matter of
little importance. It is sufficient that in

the Vendidad, the Yashts, and even in the Bundahish,

though now known only in Pehlavi translation, we have

remains which substantially represent the religious books
of the Magi at the time of Israel's sojourn in Mesopotamia
under the tolerant rule of the Mede.
Zarathustra Spitama, " the most good High Priest," is
now considered to be no less a traditionary or mythical
person than the Jewish Aaron of Leviticus, who bears so
close an affinity to this prototype Rab-Mag. But though
the prophet born smiling, and ascending to heaven from
the Holy Mountain like Moses, is but a solar hero of
Media, the Magian literature has not less real existence
than the Hebrew scriptures themselves. The Avesta
language commonly but wrongly called Zend has been
shown to be an Aryan tongue which developed side by
side with the ancient Persian of the monuments, but was
not identical with it.Zend was in fact a sacred language
of the Magi just as Hebrew was the sacred language of the
later Jewish priests, not understood by the mass of the
people. The Avesta was not of Persian but of Median
origin, and its practices were at the time of which we are
now speaking not those of the Persian nation but of the
Median priesthood or Magi. Thus modern science^ con-
firms the description of the country given by the Father of
History, and its results agree in a remarkable manner with
" "
the old traditions of the Parsees. The Aryan home
which was a cloudland of the happy dead was localised in
Media just where the old Chaldean Garden of Delight had
already been placed. The national hero Zarathustra was
born in Media ; the sacred lands of the Zendavesta are
140 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

those which extend from Tigris to the Indus, including

Merv, Balkh, Herat, and Samarkand ; and if any value is to
be placed on the Mazdean traditions of a home where
there were ten months of winter, and where the longest day
was twice the length of the night, we have clear indications
of migration from the regions of Central Asia north of the
latitude of the northern end of the Caspian Sea. 1 It has

indeed been shown that Haug was wrong in considering

the Mazdean faith to be a schismatic or reforming doctrine

which opposed itself to the Vedic creed, and that it was in

reality only a distinct development under new circum-

stances of the earlier Aryan faith existing before the days
when Iranians and Indians had diverged from their original
home ;
but the influence under which the Median develop-
ment grew up has perhaps as yet been hardly recognised
by scholars exclusively devoted to Aryan learning.
Herodotus tells us how the Persian Magi received into
their system the Babylonian goddess Anat or Mylitta, 2 and
this assertion is plainly shown to be well founded when we

remark in the Yashts how

person of Anahita the old
in the

Aryan ideas of the dawn goddess and the holy stream are
merged with the Chaldean beliefs in the mother and planet
Anat or Venus. In the same way we may recognise the
dualism of the Zoroastrian system in the black and white
spirits of the Accadians, and the figure of the mediating
Mithra in the older Chaldean sun-god Silik-Mulu-Khi.

The Accadians came from the same home as the Medes, at

least fifteen centuries earlier, and while some of the later
Mazdean doctrines may have been adopted by the
Magian
tribes after the conquest by Cyrus of Mesopotamia, some
of the original tenets of the race may have been much
earlier learned when the Aryans dwelt in the Accadian
native country south-west of the Caspian.
1 " " 2
Vendidad," i.
4-17 ; Bundahish," xxv. 4. "Herod.," i.
131.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 141

Whatever be the exact history of this development there

isno doubt that the Magi were fostered by Cyrus, and that
they taught Mazdean doctrines. They were discounten-
anced by the Persian Darius, but regained power under
Xerxes, and extended their system yet further under
Longimanus. Their scriptures were destroyed, it is said, by
Alexander, and the faith suffered persecution for no less
than five centuries, until the last of the Arsacides began to
collect the scattered fragments of the Avesta. It was not
till 226 A.D. that Mazdeism became once more a state
religion, and only under Shahpur II.,
in the fourth century,
was the collection of its scriptures reduced to a recognised
canon. The Magian ideal was then imposed on the whole
Persian people as a divine law, and only in 642 A.D. did
Islam free them from the tyranny of this ancient creed.
" "
The Avesta or law," and the Zend or comment," have
with time become so confused together that it is not always
easy to distinguish the older from the later portions of the
Median creed. Probably the oldest of the Mazdean scrip-
" "
tures are the five Gathas or songs which are written in a
dialect supposed to be more ancient than that of the other
early books. In these the faithful Iranians are exhorted
" "
to leave the vanity of serving the Devas and the evil
one, in order to accept the service of Ahura, originally the
sky-god, like Varuna, who is held to be the chief of all that
hierarchy of powers which owes its existence in part to the
Vedic imagery of dawn and sunset, storm and sunshinp,
and partly to the Chaldean system of planets ruled by El.
The the earth-soul, the bright, truthful Mithra, are the
fire,

deities of these ancient songs, and we find these same ideas

already appearing in much earlier Accadian hymns.

The Vendidad, or " Law against Demons," is the next
and most important Mazdean book, and dates mainly from
.
142 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

a period at least as old as the reign of Cyrus the Mede. It

contains laws of purity which are of the highest importance
to the student of the Levitical legislation, because although

many of its prescriptions resemble those of the code of

Manu and other Indian scriptures, it is from the Magi that
the captives in Babylon may most naturally be supposed
to have learned all the new dogmas which are not traceable
in Hebrewwritings before the captivity. Tradition says
that the Vendidad was the twentieth of twenty-one Nosks
or divisions of the Avesta destroyed by Alexander. Be
this as may,it its value cannot be over-estimated. The
Bundahish which gives us the Mazdean legends of creation,
the Pehlavi Bahman Yasht which tells us the Iranian
beliefs as to the last day, the Hadhokht Nosk which relates
the fate of the soul, are all believed to be relics of the same
ancient law. Scarcely less important to our present pur-
"
pose are the Yashts or hymns " to the thirty I zeds suc-
cessors of the thirty ruling month- stars of Chaldea. Of
these only eighteen are left, and although they are thought
to date later than the Vendidad there is no reason to doubt

that they belong to the period now under consideration, pre-

ceding the Asiatic conquests of Alexander the Great. The

dualism which is the distinctive feature of the Sassanian
faith had not become as prominent in these early times as

in later days ;
but the superiority of Ahura over his
Council of Seven, and his continual struggle with the evil
spirit Angramainyus, are clearly taught in the^earliest books
of the Avesta. The philosophy
of India, which regarded
matter as non-existent, and evil as inherent in matter, was
only brought to the west by Greek philosophers after
Alexander reached the Indus and the " riddle of the
;

painful earth," which was already vexing the soul of man

in the sixth century before Christ, was supposed to find its
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 143

true solution in the creation of a Devil, who was the old

winter dragon converted into a spiritual power. Such was
the faith of the Medes under whose sway Israel was
destined to rest in peace after their hard captivity under
the Babylonians.
Our enquiry now becomes double : on the one hand a
comparison of ritual and of religious laws ;
on the other, of
the relations of poetic expression and religious dogma.
The first is founded on the contents of Leviticus, and of
those chapters of Exodus and Numbers which are to be
attributed to thesame author. The second depends on
the examination of Hebrew poetry of the Persian period.
The minute account of the high priest's dress must be
considered either as referring to that of pontiffs of the later

period, or else as an ideal of a dress not as yet worn, just as

Ezekiel's temple was an ideal only partly realized by the
Jews under Ezra. The bells and pomegranates of the blue
seamless robe, as well as its own shape and colour, have a
mystic meaning.
1
The mitre was apparently very like that
of the Magi the old fish-head-dress of the Chaldeans. The

ephod was a garment which has also a symbolic meaning

in India, while the materials of the incense
appear to be all
Indian plants brought by the caravans whose trade with

Tyre and the East is so fully described by Ezekiel. 2 The

candlestick with its seven lamps represented the seven

spirits of God the planets who in Persia were developed

into archangels a survival of the old Assyrian system.
The amulets which became later a distinctive mark of

Judaism are not of necessity of Persian origin. Such

with charms against the evil eye were worn
scrolls inscribed

in
3
Egypt and in Assyria, and are common yet throughout

1 " Robes." 2
Ezek. xxvii.
See Appendix A,
3 "Ancient Egyptians," ii. 331 ; "Transact. Bib. Arch. Society," ii.
p. 55.
I44 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the world. The Talith or fringed garment worn beneath

the ordinary dress of the Jew may be connected with the
sadarah or sacred shirt of the Magi.
1
The use of numerous
ablutions and of linen garments is common to the priests
of India, Egypt, Persia, and Judaea, and has nothing re-

markable in its character ;

but the ritual of Leviticus con-

cerning fire is moreThe fire-god of Persia is

suggestive.
not unknown in the Vedas, but the great care bestowed on
the preparation of the sacred altar-fire, and the enumeration
of the various kinds of fire, is peculiarly Persian. 2 The fire
of Jehovah's altar like that of Ahura was never to be ex-

tinguished (an
3
emblem of immortality which we have seen
to be connected with the sun in Phoenicia), and the use of
" "
strange fire led to the death of the priest. Hymns to
fire are common in the Accadian liturgy, and the Magi

claimed to be able to draw fire from heaven, such as fell

on Elijah's sacrifice, or, according to the later Jews, devoured

4
the burnt offering in the and consecrated the
desert,

Temple of Solomon. It was no doubt the lightning which

Phoenicians and Chaldeans originally intended but much ;

study was given in Persia to the character of various fires,

including the electric spark, and various kinds of flame are

6

also enumerated by the Rabbis. The baptism of fire is a

ceremony which is still
actually practised in India.
7

In the law of Moses it is forbidden to lift up any iron

tool on the altar. In this we probably note the survival of
a very early savage idea which regarded fire as a living
being which might be slain with a sword or axe a devour-
"
54; Num.
1
Vendidad," xviii. xv. 38.
2
Cf. "Vendidad Farg.," " "
viii. 73-96; Bundahish, xvii. 1-9"; "Sacred
Books," v. pp. 61-64.
3
Lev. vi. 12, x. I ; "Vendidad," xviii. 19-22.
4
Levit. ix. 24; 2 Chron. vii. i. 6 " Vendidad
Farg.," viii.
6 "
Sopherim," ch. 21 ; "Talmudic Misc.," p. loo.
7 "
Cf. Dubois' People of India," p. 303.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 145

ing but mortal animal. Not to stir the fire with a sword
is said to have been a Pythagorean maxim, and the super-
1
stition yet survives among certain Tartar tribes.

Baptism with water, and the pouring out of libations,

were also Aryan rites of great antiquity. The pious Hindu
performs his ablution thrice a day; and water as the primeval
element, or as the living stream of sacred rivers, was holy
alike to the Chaldean, the Egyptian, the Persian, 2 and the
Indian. The modern Jews believe in the power of running
water to remove sin, and quote a text from Micah as
3
proving their case, while in Leviticus the leper could only
be healed by certain magic rites connected with running
water. 4 Among the later Jews baptism holds a place of

equal importance with circumcision, but we do not trace

5

any such rite of ablution among them earlier than the

captivity,and it was probably from the Persians that this
practice was derived.
The holy oil, with which High Priests and Kings were
anointed, also appears in the later Levitical laws, but
first

we have already seen how ancient is the practice of unction

in Egypt, while in India it survives to our own times.
6
The
washing of brass and the breaking of earthen vessels when
defiled 7 are also ancient Aryan prejudices, which survive
both among the Shiah Moslems, and among the higher
castes in India. The defilement which arises from touching
a corpse is specially marked not only in the Jewish but
also in the ancient Persian ritual, 8 while in India it may be
1
Deut. xxvii. 5; "Diog. Laert.," viii. I. 17; Tylor's "Early Hist.,"
p. 227.
2 " Aban 3
Micah 4
Lev. xiv.
Yasht," &c. vii. 19. 5.
5 "
on Matt., xxiii. 15
" Tal Bab
"Speaker's Commentary ; Yebamoth," 460, ;
" " Tal
Sabbath," I35a ; Jer Kidushim," iii. 14.
6 7
Cf. Appendix A, "Unction." Lev. vi. 27.
8 " Vendidad
Farg.," viii.-xviii. ; Num. xix. 14; "Mishnah Aholoih,"
Shayast La Shayast, ii., ix., x., xii.

K
I 46 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

communicated to a certain degree by a letter even to a

distance of a hundred miles. 1
The laws of female purity
are in like manner common to the Jew, the Persian, and
the Brahmin, and are enumerated in the Vendidad, with a
minuteness which is only excelled by the indecency of the
Talmud. 2
Such laws also appear in the institutes of Manu
several centuries before the Christian era.
It is yet more striking to note that a caste mark was
used by the Jews in the Persian period, although no longer
in observance. of Jehovah was to be put on
The name
the children of Israel, and Ezekiel is commanded to mark
3

the faithful with the Tau or Cross, which is used by the

Brahmins in their ablutions. 4 The idea is found again later
in the book of Revelation, and the pious worshipper of
Vishnu considers it a disgrace to appear in public without

the trident marked on his forehead.

The Levirate marriage with its alternative ceremony of
loosing the shoe (an emblem of great antiquity) is common
to Semitic and
Aryan tribes.
5
The magic ordeal of the
water of jealousy may be compared with the ordeal
mentioned Vendidad, when the suspected Magian
in the
swore " before the brimstoned and golden water," which
according to the commentators also contained a few grains
of incense. 6 An ordeal by sacred libation was also known to
the Hindus.

Leprosy, which becomes so important a subject to the

Dubois' " People of India," p. 82 ; " Laws of Manu," v. 75, 87, &c.
1

2
Lev. xv. 19-33. Cf. "Mishnah Niddah ; " "Vendidad Farg.," xvi. ;
*'
Shayast La Shayast," ii., iii., viii., x. xii.
Dubois' " People of India,"
3
Num. vi. 27 ; Ezek. ix. 4.
4
p. 112.
5 " Laws of *'
Manu," 59-69. Cf.
ix. Speaker's Comment,," vol. i. part i.
p. 212, part ii. p. 888 ; Deut. xxv. ^ ; Colenso,
"
Pent.," 754 ; Burckhardt,
"Notes on Bedouins," i. 112; " Volney, ii. 80 ; Diod. Sic., xii. 18 ; Gen.
"

xxxviii. 8. Cf. " The Foot."

Appendix A,
Num. " " Sacred Books of the
v. 14; Vendidad," iv. 54; East," vol. iv.
" Vishnu " Sacred Books of the
p. 47 ; Sutra," xiv. ; East," vol. vii. p. 61.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 147

Levitical writer, was considered

Persia a special curse
in
from Ahuramazda, and the leper was excluded from the
1
city,while in India the existence of a few white spots is

enough to cause the body of an unfortunate Hindu to be

thrown to the beasts and birds without burial or incre-
mation. 2
The Nazarite's vow was also perhaps a feature of Aryan
devotion adopted by the Jew. The long-haired devotee
contrasted with the priest who was entirely shaven, 3 but
his vow terminated with an offering of his hair to the deity

an ancient form of modified human sacrifice which we

have already noticed as peculiar to infernal gods. The
penitent in India still shaves his head like the Nazarite, as
does the young Brahmin when he assumes the triple cord.
The worn on the summit of the head, appears
single lock,
to be mentioned by Ezekiel, 4 and is common to the Hindu
and the Egyptian, as well as to the Moslem Arab of to-day,
and to the Pagan Arab of Herodotus.
Two great ceremonies also belong to the Levitical legis-
lation, which are not noted in the Book of Deuteronomy or

the earlier parts of the Pentateuch, and which both appear

to have a Magian or Persian origin.
The first of these is the annual sending forth of the scape-

goat as a propitiatory sacrifice to the demon Azazel, whose

5

name survives among certain Arab tribes. This cuitus is

specially described in the Mishnah, and it appears to have

been observed down to the time of the destruction of Jeru-
salem. 6 Azazel was adored as a thorn tree by the Ghata-
1 " "
Herod.," ii. 138 ; Speaker's Commentary" on Lev. xiv.
2
Dubois' " People of India," p. 147.
3
Num. vi., viii. 7 ; " Herod.," vi. 37 ; Judg. xiii. 7 ; 2 Sam. xiv. 26.
4
But see also Ezek. xliv. 18 ; Lev. xix. 27. Ezek. viii. 3.
5 " Reland de
Relig. Muham.," 189, quoted by Gesenius.
6
"Mishnah Yoma," iv.
148 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

fan tribe. 1 In the Book of Enoch he is one of the fallen

angels, and Talmud he

placed among
in the who is those
were seduced by the daughters of men. 2
This demon
appears to be intimately connected with the goat-like
" "
Ashima, the Persian demon of rapine who appears in
3

the story of Tobit as Asmodeus, and is famous in the

Talmud as the deceiver of Solomon. 4 The worship of

demons forbidden by the Levitical writer, 5 and the satyrs
is

and Liliths who haunted the ruins, 6 according to Hebrew

poets, were identified apparently with the old Syrian deities
Moloch and Ashtoreth, gods become demons
for all ancient
to the reformer. Nevertheless the annual propitiation of a
demon belongs to the later Jewish ritual, and seems to find
an echo in the Devil worship of the Yezidis, which is very
similar in its surreptitious character for the goat of Azazel ;

7
carrying (as all propitiatory victims did, in Egypt of old,
or in India in our own times) the sins of the people on his

head, was not regularly offered, but only sent forth to find
itsdeath, or to be devoured by the fiend in the wilderness,
a custom said still to be in existence in Madras. In later
times the goat was, however, rolled from a precipice, to

prevent his return to Jerusalem.

8
The Celts had a similar
practice, and as late as 1812 a bullock was cast to the
Devil over a precipice in Wales to propitiate the evil one,

supposed to be sending a murrain on the cattle an idea

of vicarious sacrifice deriving in this case from Druidical
9
practice.
1
"Lettres Assyr.," ii. p. 144.
2
"Origines," p. 296; "Book of Enoch," vii. 10, xii. 5, xv. 2; Bereshith
Rabba on Gen. vi. 2.
3 "
Tal Bab Sanhed," 6jb ; " Vendidad," x. 13.
4 " Tal Bab
"Origines," p. 326 ; Gittin," 68a b ; Tobit iii. 8, vi. 14.
6

7
Lev. xvii. 17.
"
6
j sa> x m 2l .
xxx i v 1 ^ _
1
l
^
8
Herod.," ii. 39. Mishnah Yoma," vi. 6.
9
"Early Races of Scotland," vol. i.
p. 85.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 149

The idea of atonement, or reconciliation with God

through the blood of victims, is no doubt of great antiquity ;

but it is specially prominent in the Mazdean faith. The

"
Jewish feast of Yoma, or the day," took place on the loth
of the seventh month, or at the Autumnal Equinox. The
annual season of the great sacrifice of expiation, according
to the Zendavesta, fell in the two last months of the Per-
sian year. 1 The sins of the year, both of intention and of
ignorance, were removed by the atonement sacrifice both
in Persia and in Judaea but the Day of Atonement is not
;

2
noticed in the older Hebrew writings.
The ashes of a red heifer 3
formed the means of purifica-
dead among the Jews, and were
tion after contact with the

preserved as a "water of separation." The Persian was

sprinkled in likemanner with holy water, according to the
Vendidad, when haunted by the demon of "destructive
corruption" after touching a dead body. The use of
ashes, among the votaries of Siva in India, continues to
our own day, and the sacred value of all that comes from
the cow has reached extravagance among the Parsees.
It is doubtful whether the great sacrifice of the red heifer
was ever really offered. A
whole tract of the Mishnah is
devoted to the subject, but even the early Rabbis did not
enumerate more than eight occasions on which it was sup-
posed to have been performed, none being previous to
Ezra excepting one attributed to Moses a significant
4
indication of the late origin of this rite. If ever these

ashes were really prepared it was in the Hasmonean times

by the later high priests.
The hyssop bunch which was burned with the heifer

1
Cf.
" Notes on the Parsees."
Visparad. Haug's
2
Num. xxix. 7 ; Lev. xxiii. 1 6 ; Ezek. xlv. 20.
3 " Mishnah Parah." 4 "
Num. xix. 9. Cf. Parah," iii.
5.
 1 5 o BIBLE FOLK LORE
seems to
(and also with the victims which purified the leper)
which was part of
suggest the barsom, or bundle of twigs,
the sacrificial apparatus of Magi, or Mazdean priests, and
also used in the Vedic sacrifices.
The account given in the Mishnah of the Parah or
"
"
heifer sacrifice is very elaborate. The victim was im-

molated on the top of Olivet, in a great pyre of cedar, ash,

cypress, and fig wood,
like a tower. bridge of more than A
400 feet in height is supposed to have stretched from the
1
Temple to the mountain, over which the procession passed.
The ashes were mixed with water from Siloam, drawn by
innocent children, born in the Temple, and riding on cows
to the spring.
2
There is, however, much in this description

that has a very mythical appearance. Not a trace of the

red heifer bridge remains, and the great depth of the valley
renders improbable that it was ever spanned by a
it

viaduct such as would be required by the Rabbinical

account. On the other hand, we must not forget that this
same ravine the Valley of Judgment, 3 where the Jews
is

believed that the Last Judgment would take place, and in

it is to be spanned with the
Moslem tradition bridge Sirat
reaching from the Temple to Olivet. The Mohammedan
"
idea is taken from the old Persian bridge of the gatherer,"
which mentioned in the Gathas or earliest Iranian songs.
is

ThePersians believed in a female spirit called Geus Urvan,

"
the bull's soul," or genius of the earth. The Gos Yasht
is in her honour, a poem which celebrates the praise of this
soul of the world, who watches over the earthly creation of
Ahuramazda, and appears in heaven in the milky way. 4
The earth in Egypt was symbolised as a bull with two
2 " Mishnah 3
1
"Mishnah Parah," iii. 3. Parah," iii. 6. Joel iii. 2.
* " Zool. "Gos Yasht." "
Mythol.," i.
pp. 97, 99; Cf. Bundahish;" "Sacred
Books," v. pp. 20, 69, 126.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 151

heads, swallowing Osiris and letting him out again. In

India the bull Nanda is the same personification the ;

Assyrians also had the same idea,

1
and even the Moslems
retain thesame notion of an earth beast.
In the Vedas the red cow is the dawn itself. 2 The red
cow and the mythic bridge are also intimately connected,
for the bridge iswithout doubt the sun's path, especially
that whereby he safely passes through the infernal
region, just as the Jewish bridge of the red heifer crossed
the Valley of Judgment. The earth cow was never to be
invoked while demons held power, that is by night, 3 but
sacrifices inher honour took place apparently at dawn ;

and the earth cow, like the red cow of dawn in the Vedas,
was the herald of the sun and his guide by night.
It must not be forgotten that purification by the ashes

of a calf was also an Italian rite in late times, associated

with the worship of Vesta (Vasu or " fire "). 4 It was no
doubt from a common origin that the Roman and the
Iranian derived such beliefs.
The which was the only female
sacrifice of the red heifer,

victim of the Levitical code, was thus apparently a copy

of the Persian worship of the dawn, and of the dawn spirit,
who safely conducts the sun through his infernal journey ;

and though the cow was sacred to the Egyptians from

a very early period, the rite of sacrifice was derived pro-

bably from the Magi rather than from the worshippers of

Apis, for whom the cow was too holy to be offered even to

God, as also among the Indian Aryans.

The passover sacrifice attains to great importance in the
later Jewish ritual. The offering of a lamb is thought by
Biblical critics to be a later development of the old feast
1
Lenormant's "Origines," p. 116.
2 " i. 2. 18.
"Zoological Mythol.," i. p. 50; Rigveda,"
8
"Khorda Avesta." Cf. "Zool. Mythol.," i. p. 99.
4
Ovid, "Fasti," iv. 639.
i2 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

of Mazzoth or unleavened bread, and the use of wine at

this festival is unnoticed in the Pentateuch, but regulated
1
in the Mishnah.
The Passover, as distinguished from the feast of Mazzoth,
first appears in history in the eighteenth year of Josiah;
and seems to have been substituted for the offering of the

first-born, ram takes the place of Isaac in the

2
just as the
Jehovistic myth. The victim once boiled and
eaten by the
assembled congregation, was in the later times roasted and
eaten by each family in its own home. The idea of
" "
passing over victims (as David did the Ammonites)

through the fire to Jehovah is in the same way changed

3

in later times into that of Jehovah passing over or hovering

over his people. 4

Turning from ritual to poetry we may next examine
the ideas borrowed by the Jews from the Persian

mythology and the most important book in connection

;

with this subject is that of Job. The exegesis of this book

has led to no definite result, but the Persian tone which
pervades it may serve to guide us where philology fails.

The general idea of the poem the struggle of the good

man, under affliction, to reconcile his misery with a trust in
the goodness of God, is found in Indian literature at least
a century earlier; and
the righteous in this story of
Yudhishthira, his wife Draupadi, like the wife of Job,
accuses God of injustice, but is finally convinced by her
husband. 5 The scene of the Jewish book is laid in the

Syrian desert ;
the actors have names borrowed from
Genesis : the name Jehovah is confined to the narrative
portions, and Elohim comes again into use in episodes
1
"Mishnah Pesakhim," x. 2.
*
Cf. Colenso's "Lectures," p. 266; Exod. xix. ; Num. ix. i; 2 Kings
3
xxiii. 21 ; Exod. xiii. I, 2. 2 Sam. xii. 31.
4
Isa. xxxi. 4. 5 "
Mahabharatam," iii. 1124.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 153

possibly inserted later, and

is used with a higher meaning.

Arab, Egyptian, and Aramaic words occur in the Hebrew

text, and the law and the Messiah are alike ignored.
Some of the Rabbis held that Job was an ideal character, 1
others contended for his actual existence, but this is a

question of little importance to the present enquiry.

It is in the book of Job that the Jewish Satan first
" "
appears, an adversary among the sons of God, a
wandering seeking his prey. He is called the King
spirit
of Terrors (like the Indian Devil, Mara, who is King of
2

Death), and his character and power at once recall the evil
Angramainyus of Persian dualism.
The ancient idea of Sheol is also in this book replaced
by that, of Abaddon, and a hell of torment and
" "
thus takes the place of the old Hades, where
destruction
" "
good and bad alike must go. The saints on the other
hand appear to be the Persian Yezeds, and the Fravashi or
guardian angel of Mazdeism appears as the "witness in
heaven." 3 The Paradise of the righteous, with its rivers of
butter and honey, is contrasted with the serpent who bites
the wicked. The day of judgment, the gathering of the
righteous, the dispersion of wicked souls by the wind,
all these are Persian ideas and the annihilation of sinners
;

in Persia is as certain as the immortality of the righteous,

who are revivedby the brightness of the future resurrection.
4

The later Jewish view agrees exactly with this, for the

Pharisees believed only in the eternal life of the righteous.

There is, however, a trace, in one passage of Job, of the
non-acceptance of Persian dualism and of the affirmation
of the old idea, 5 which attributes both good and evil to one

2
1
"Tal Bab, Baba Bathra," 150. Job xviii. 14.
3 4
Job xvi. 19 ; Psalm Ixxxix. 37. Cf. Chap. x.
5
Job xxxiv. 17.
T54 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

irresponsible God ;
and the same view is fully borne out in

the contemporary writings of the pseudp Isaiah, when he

" make
says, I form the light, and create darkness : I

peace, and create evil : these things." l

I Jehovah do all

Similar illustrations of Persian influence may be taken

" "
from the Psalms. 2 The by day is noarrow that flieth

doubt the Persian "self-moving arrow," which is an emblem

of death. The Son of God, who is to be propitiated when

angry, and whose palace is on the Holy Mountain, is

Mithra, sometimes angry, who comes from his palace on
Alborz. The good man likened to a tree by the waters
reminds us of the sacred tree of Assyria, which reappears in
the Vendidad beside the water of life and again, those ;

"
expressions which extol the Law of the Lord" in the
later Psalms find an almost exact reproduction in the
words of the Vendidad. " Reveal to me the rules of thy
Law," says the Iranian prophet for the law of Ahura :

cleanses from sin, and is the beginning of wisdom, the

"
word or voice of God : as high as heaven is above the
earth which it girds, so high above all other words, is the
law of Mazdao" such sentences at once recall the
phraseology of the Psalter.
Two of the prophetic books of the later period also now
demand special attention, namely, Ezekiel and Zechariah,
for in these also the Persian influence is
strongly marked,
while in the later Psalms and pseudo Isaiah we find the

germs of the Messianic idea which is to be discussed in the

next chapter.
In the British Museum 3 an Assyrian cylinder exists,
representing a human headed boat on the waters (like the
1
Isaiah xlv. 7.
2
Psalm xci. 5; "Vendidad," iv. 49; Psalm ii. 12; " Mihir Yasht,"
" 98;
Vendidad," v. 19, 25, viii. 20, 30, xix. 1 8 ; Psalm i. 3, xix. 7-9, cxix. 18.
3
Lenormant's "
Origines," p. 120.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 155

boat of Osiris), on which stand two cherubs with bulls'

bodies and human heads and wings. They support a

pavement, on which a bearded god sits in his throne, with

long robe, cidaris head-dress, and sceptre and ring in his
hands. A
smaller figure stands by him representing his
Malak or angel. we have
a representation of the
In this
famous Merkebeh or chariot, the description of which by
Ezekiel was thought so bold by the Jews that they forbade
the reading of the passage, and almost excluded their real

lawgiver, Ezekiel, from the canon which owed so much to

his writings. The cherubs of his vision have four heads of

man, bull, lion, and eagle, as had the four kinds of

1
Assyrian genii. They stand on great rings or drums,
which form their pedestals. The sapphire throne on the
crystal floor represents the firmament above which Jehovah
dwells, and whence he sends his angel. The cherubs and
the wheels are alike full of eyes the eyes of Argus with
which the body of Indra is covered in Indian pictures the
stars of heaven. These wheels or drums beneath the
cherubim are akin to the wheel of Fortune, to that of Ixion,
" "
to the excellent wheel which Buddhists converted into
an emblem of the law of righteousness, but which as the
Swastica was immensely older in Assyria as well as in
Cornwall and at Troy. It is the same wheel that is beneath
" "
Mithra's chariot the one golden wheel the disk of the
sun 2 or of the planet. The whole symbolism apparently
represents the supreme God, above the creation and the
firmament the four kinds of genii, like the four beasts of
;

Revelation, representing all animal existence beneath his feet.

At Persepolis we find four Persian Amshashpands or

3
archangels represented with human bodies and six wings
1
Lenormant's "Magie,"p. 112. 2
Cf.
" Mihir
Yasht," xxxii. 136.
8 "
Gesenius, Thesaur," p. 1342; "Speaker's Commentary" on Isaiah vi. 2.
156 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
"
each. These appear to approach the Seraphim or fiery

ones," who Pentateuch 1 are the serpents or "evil

in the
"
angels which afflict the Israelites, but who in the vision
of Isaiah stand above the throne of Jehovah, having six
wings each and human hands if not human figures. The
imagery which is thus found in Hebrew writings of the
period of the captivity is perhaps derived from Assyria
rather than from Persia, but the authors of the Yashts were

subject to the same influences with the Jews, and the name
Seraph seems to be connected with the Sanscrit Sarpa or
serpent.
The symbolism yet more distinctly
of Zechariah is

Persian. Satan, as the adversary, contends with Joshua, the

mediator, before the messenger of Jehovah.

2
The horse-
man on the red horse the horse of Indra or Agni
appears followed by horses red, white, and fiery. Women 3

with storks' wings fly through heaven, bearing a magic cup ;

and from between two copper mountains (the mountains

of Kuvera, the god of copper and of Hades) four chariots
are driven, one with red horses, a second with black, a third
with white, and the fourth with grey and ruddy steeds.
In these we recognise the red-winged horses of the Asvins, 4
the black and white horses of the sun, the pure steeds of
Indra and Mithra which illumine the sky. They are
likened to the four winds of heaven, and belong to the four

quarters in which the sun appears

6
the northern, black by
night the western, red at sunset ; the white east at dawn
;
;

the ruddy steeds of the south at midday. The imagery is

that of the Vedas, but it is through a Persian medium that

1
Deut. viii. 15, xiv. 29, xxx. 6 ; Num. xxi. 6. 3
Zech. iii. I.
3
Zech. " " Zool.
iii. I ; Rigveda," i. 163. 2 ; Mythol.," i.
p. 23,
4 "
Rigveda," i.
117. 14; "Zool. Mythol.," i. pp. 286, 300.
8
Cf.
" Book of
Enoch," Ixxii.
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 157

it must have reached the Jews, and in the Yashts we still

find the sun-god Mithra ("the friend") driving his swift

horses from the eastern mountain. 1 In these two visions of
the bowl and the chariot we have but the sun and moon,
under new and more purely Aryan forms.
We must pause for a moment to glance at two other
symbols which obtain increasing importance. Isaiah speaks
"
of the destruction of the serpent Leviathan, the dragon
that is in the sea." 2
And Job not only describes this
monster, but also the fabulous Behemoth who appears again
in the Psalms. 3
We have already seen that Leviathan is

the primeval dragon against whom the sun-god is ever

warring. The plural form Behemoth is thought by Gesenius

"
to be, like the word Elohim, a plural of majesty," but the
Rabbis made a pair of these huge beasts. It is no doubt
the great Aryan earth-cow which we here encounter (for
the word applies properly to some bovine animal), and
with its pair it is, according to the Talmud, to be slain at
the final feast. 4 In Egypt we have the heaven cow with
5
its belly sewn with stars, and the earth bull Seb, its fellow ;

and the destruction of the universe would thus be implied

in the slaying of the two Leviathans of Ocean and of Hades,

and the Behemoth of earth and heaven. These monsters

willbe further noticed in a later chapter. They have their
prototypes in the bull and the monster fish of the Avesta.
But although the Persian period shows us only a new
symbolism, instead of a new and more spiritual faith, it is
clear from the language of the Psalms that Jehovah has in
this age attained a far higher position as supreme, being
no longer the sun-god but the Ahura or " Lord."
1 2
"Mihir Yasht." Isaiah xxvii. I.
3
Psalm "
Job xl. 15, xli. ; 1. 10. Cf. Bundahish,"xviii. 6, xix. 13, xxx. 24 ;
" Sacred Books of the See Chap.
East," v. pp. 66, 69, 126. xvii.
4
"Tal Bab Baba Bathra,"74b; Targ Jon on Gen. i. 21 ; "BundahUh,"
5 "
xxx. 24. Hibbert Lect., 1879," p. 236.
158 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

The Jews refused to accept the pure dualism of the Mede.

They derived evil as well as good from one irresponsible

" "
deity, the adversary
but nevertheless Satan is opposed
to the advocate or mediator in Zechariah's writings, and
these two figures, the Paraclete and the Kategoros, appear
under their Greek names in the Talmud, 1 and will again
2
appear in Christian mythology. It is the modified dualism
of the later Persians who made
the evil spirit subject to

Ahura, that we see imported into the Hebrew faith, and

forming the foundation of all later systems.

The period thus reached is that in which the final char-
acter of Judaism was stamped on the race, by the writings
of the early Pharisees. The Greek cultus had but a tran-
sient popularity, but the Persian influence was never
effaced. From the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus in 539
B.C. to the era of the Seleucidae 312 B.C., we have two cen-
turies of repose, during which the Jews have scarcely any his-
tory. It was a time of peace and of isolation. The Persian
school sent its doctors to Jerusalem from the Babylonian

synagogues as late as 35 B.C., 3 and the canon of the

Hebrew Scriptures contains at least one book not older

than the first century before our era. The doctrine of the
Messiah, as will be shown, is of Persian origin, but its full
development is not attained until about the Herodian age.
It is the most important period of Hebrew history which is

thus wrapped in silence, and passed over in a few chapters

by Josephus. Before the captivity only half the Penta-

teuch existed, with parts possibly of Joshua and Judges,
the Chronicles of Samuel, a few of the earlier minor
pro-
phets, and the old songs preserved by the pseudo Isaiah.
During the captivity aud the four succeeding centuries we
1 " Pirke
Aboth," iv. n. *
Cf. Chap. xvi.
3 "Tal Bab Yoma," 35b,
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD. 159

get Psalms, and poetic works like Job, historical books, and
Targums or paraphrases (now known respectively as the
Books of Kings and Chronicles), the Levitical half of the
Pentateuch, the nobler prophets, and later legends such as
that of Daniel. The numerous works which, under Greek
and Egyptian influence were produced by Alexandrian
Jews, never found admission into the canon of the Jerusalem
school. Even the heroic acts of the Maccabean brothers
were discarded because written in Greek, yet a work of the
same period (the Book of Daniel) was accepted in Hebrew
and Aramaic. On the basis of a system akin to those of
Assyria, Phoenicia, and Egypt, an Aryan superstructure
was raised by Persian influence. It was at first untouched
by the teaching of Greece or of India (Brahminical and

Buddhist), and developed slowly as an independent

it

system in the schools of Jerusalem and Tiberias. In two

centuries of rest half the Pentateuch was written, and the

greater part of the other Hebrew Scriptures, and on them

was founded the huge bulk of rambling writings which
form the Mishnah, the Gemara (of Jerusalem and of Baby-
lon), the Midrashim and Targums, all deriving their dogmas,
either from the older Scriptures, or from those Persian and
Babylonian teachings which were the real originals of
Hebrew literature. Such the growth and such the
is

sources whence Judaism sprang, and with the death of

Alexander we have the close of all their Scriptures except-
ing Chronicles, perhaps, and the book of Daniel. It is not

a divinely inspired record which we have examined, but a

mythology of Egyptian and Assyrian origin, a ritual based
on the most ancient laws and customs of the Aryans, a
poetry whose most noble thoughts and images may be
matched, if not excelled, by the hymns of the Vedas and
160 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

of Egypt, or even by those of Babylon and Chaldea. One

Judaism alone remains to be considered,
characteristic of

namely the which grew up about the

belief in a Messiah,

second century before Christ into a national hope and to

;

the examination of this question our attention must now

be directed.
 CHAPTER IX.

THE MESSIAH.

THE spectator of a great scene of mountain landscape

beholds both before and behind him the mighty ranges
rising in clear air like shadows on the sky with broad soft
colouring and broken outlines. In the foreground he sees
hard rocks and strewn debris, over which lies his toilsome
path among thorns and briars. The fairy beauty of the
distance, with the glory of the morning on the roseate

peaks, or the purple of sunset against a sky of gold and

crimson, contrasts with the weary ruggedness of the stony
land around him. It is thus also that we look on the past,
the present, and the future, for that which is immediately
near to us appears wearisome and unlovely compared with
the happiness of childhood or the fairy castles of the future.
Yet the rocks and the thorns are as rugged and sharp in the
distant ranges, and the sunrise smites the ground we tread
on with colours which in the distance appear equally
glorious. It is thus that the race of mankind has in every

age looked back to a golden time, a paradise of the past,

and has foretold a future return of the happiness of Eden
and a glorious kingdom of good things yet to come. It is
sad that these bright dreams should give place in our own
times to the hard and colourless conjectures of the practical

philosopher, yet we cannot but confess that the expecta-

tion of a future Messiah by Jew and Christian and Moslem
L
i6 2 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

but the echo of the ancient poetry which heralded

alike, is
the sun and the dawn as glorious beings of the future.
In India the idea of a future universal monarch, and
that of an universal prophet, existed side by side at least
as early as 600 B.C., and the former is connected with the
sun in the following Gatha or song, which, according to

Max Muller, is probably as old as the time of Gautama

Buddha.
" If a mother in her dream behold

The sun-god enter her right side,

That mother shall bear a son
Who shall become an universal monarch." l

The dream of the moon-god .in like manner symbolised

a great king, and that of a white elephant predicted a
Buddha. These appearances were expected at the end of
each Kalpa or age of the world, and the universal monarch
possessed the seven gems, namely, the white elephant, the
horse "thunder cloud," the shining stone, the pearl of
women, the treasurer and the councillor, but above all the
2
treasure of the wheel or law of truth.
In Persia this recognised in the earliest books
dogma is

the Vendidad and the Yashts no less than in others of

which we have now only translations. Soshyant 3 is to be
born in the region of the dawn, and will smite the fiend in
the future. Serosh, the angel of prayer, will teach him the
law of the Lord, and will also teach his two forerunners.
"
Soshyant is the beneficent one," and the victorious who
"
will benefit the whole bodily world," and who makes all
creation rise bodily. His forerunners are called "moon of
happy rule" and "dawn of happiness," and they are his
Deal's "Legend of Buddha," pp. 38 and 17; Max Muller, "Chips,"
vol. i.
p. 301.
2
Hibbert's "Lecture," 1881 ; "Legend of Buddha," p. 51.
3 "Vendidad" Fargard, "
xix. 5; "Serosh Yasht," 14; Yasna," vii. 24;
Fravardin Yasht," 129, 141
"
,' ; Zamyad Yasht," 89.
 THE MESSIAH. 163

elder brothers. Each of the three born of a pure maid

is

who bathes in the Eastern Ocean, but their father (by a

miraculous conception) is the ancient Zarathustra. 1 The
victorious future prophet and his helpers will restore the

world, which henceforth shall "never grow old or die,

never wasting or rotting, ever living and ever increasing."
The evil one and his fiends will perish utterly, and the will
of Ahura shall be performed and his creation flourish alone.
The glory which clave to Yima, to Thraetona, to Keresaspa,
to Mithra to each ancient sun-hero of Iran, who in the
course of ages had been converted by popular belief into a
real personage of antiquity, will also cleave to the future

prophet and to the immortal righteous. It is the glory of

the light of heaven, and in the Median belief we see the
idea of the Messiah yet so intimately connected with the
sun myth that we can have no doubt as to its origin, nor
can we fail to see that it is to-morrow's sun, with a moon
and dawn, that must precede his manifestation which comes
from the east to raise the sleeping creation, and to bring
the light of heaven to men in the shadow of darkness.
The Jews in Babylon no sooner came in contact with
the Aryans than such thoughts began to appear in their

writings, religious and poetic, while the idea develops into

one of the chief tenets of Judaism, during the centuries
immediately preceding and following the Christian Era.
In the third Sibylline book, written in Alexandria about
140 B.C., God is said to be about to send "a king from the
"
sun ;
2 2d book of Ezdras, dating not earlier than
and in the

the first
century of our era, Messiah rises from the sea like
the Persian prophet, and no man can see the Son of God,
"
or those who are with him, but in the daytime." 3
1 " " Bahman
Bundahish," xxxii. 8, xxx. 33. Cf. Yasht," iii., see chap. xvii.
" Sacred Books of the
East," v. pp. 120, 215-235.
2 " iii.
3
2 Ezdr., xiii.
Sibyl," 795. 52.
164 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

The
ingenuity of the Jewish authors of the Targums, in
and after the fourth century of our era, discovered a refer-
ence to the Messiah in no less than seventy-one passages
of the Old Testament, the majority of which seem clearly
never to have been intended to be so understood. Never-
theless the Christian Church has, in the more important
passages, accepted the later Jewish view, although the
references are so obscure that Gesenius thought the allusion
to be inno case intended to imply a future Messiah. It is
probable that the truth lies in the mean between these two
views but the subject of the Jewish Messiah has, as a rule,
;

been studied without any reference to the existence and

origin of similar beliefs among other nations, and the

conclusions are thus often vitiated, especially when it is

assumed that no Jewish works previous to the Christian
era contain the doctrine of a future king or prophet.
The idea of a future prophet might perhaps be recognised
1
in Deuteronomy, although it is
equally possible that the
reference is to Jeremiah
himself, who was probably the
author of the book. In the Hasmonean age such a prophet
was certainly expected, and important questions were left
undecided until he should appear. 2 The idea of a future
King on the other hand, was thought by the later Jews to
be found in the prophecy of Balaam 3 of the star to rise

from Jacob, but it is not unlikely that the reference is

really
to David or Solomon. The "seed of the woman," and the
Shiloh of Jacob's blessing, are in like manner identified
by
the Targums with the Messiah, and the Son of Man in the
Psalms is the same. 4
The famous passage in Isaiah which predicts the con-
ception of a son by the Almeh 5 was certainly regarded by
l

4
Deut.
Psalm
xviii. 18.

Ixxx. 17.
2
x Macc< iy ^ 3

*
Numberg xxiy ^
Isaiah vii. 14.
 THE MESSIAH. 165

the Greek translators as referring to the wondrous birth of

a child without a human father but, even if this were the
;

correct rendering, would not necessarily follow that this

it

ancient Hebrew song is anything more than the birthday

ode of King Hezekiah. The kings of Egypt for many
centuries before were fabled by courtly poets to be born of
virgin mothers, brides of God, 1 and the same idea prevailed
in Babylon, 2 as we may gather from Herodotus and from

Assyrian cylinders. Nor is the belief extinct even yet in

India where it has existed from a very early age.

The earliest part of the Book of Daniel contains a re-
ference to an anointed Prince who is to be cut off after 434
3
years without a successor, but the date seems to point to
the death of Aristobulus, the first Jewish ruler who combined
the offices of king and of high priest, and who was probably
"
anointed as such, and thus became a Prince Messiah."
He was succeeded by Alexander Jannaeus his brother, and
died childless without a direct successor.

Leaving aside for the moment such doubtful references

we may turn to consider the development of similar ex-

pectations in the Persian period, and in the later Jewish

literature; but in so doing we should be careful to remember
that there were divisions of opinion, on this as on other

subjects, the Jews, quite as serious as those which

among
divide modern schools of belief. The mystic expectation
of the Alexandrian refugees was very distinct from the
more material views of the Pharisees, while the fall of
Jerusalem profoundly modified Jewish opinions of the
future, and the Karaites and Sadducees refused, and still

refuse, to believe in the doctrine of the Messiah as an

integral part of their faith.

1
Cf. Sharpe's"Egyptian Mythol.," p. 17.
2 8
Lenormant's "Divination," p. 132; "Herod.," i. 181. Dan. ix. 26.
 166 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
"
The word Messiah simply means anointed," and might
to
apply to the high priest or the king equally, according
the provisions of the law.
1
The practice of anointing kings
and priests is of remote antiquity, while mummies in Egypt,
and stones in Phoenicia, were equally consecrated with oil,
just as the statues of the gods in India
are still always
anointed before sacrifices are offered. 2
The Hebrew kings
"
bore the of the Lord's anointed," and the high priest's
title

garments ran with oil, but it is not to the return of a king

of the House of David, reigning at Jerusalem, that all

Jewish aspirations are confined for we find traces at an

;

early period, of the belief in a Messiah of a supernatural

nature, and in his pre-existence and concealment, while
descriptions of a future age of happiness occur in Isaiah
and Ezekiel, which are not easily explained on rationalistic
principles, but which resemble the Persian hope of a future
golden age on the flat earth, and the Indian expectation
of an universal monarch in whose days the earth will be
made flat (as prophesied by Zechariah, or by the pseudo
3
Isaiah) without valleys or rocks, and the fruits of the earth
shall flourish abundantly, while crime and punishment shall
be unknown.
In one of the earlier chapters of Isaiah the coming of a
"branch" from the stem of Jesse is predicted who smites

the earth with his mouth. The wild beasts are to become
tame; the child on the cobra's den; the Hebrews
is to play
shall be united, and the Gentiles converted and 4
conquered.
This idea of the future age of peace is fully
developed by
1
Exod. xl. 12; i Sam. x. i; " " Maimonides on
Megilla," i. 9; Keritoth," i.
Cf. Appendix A, " Unction."
8
Dubois's "People of India," p. 292.
*
Isaiah xl. 3, 4 ; Zech. xiv. 10 ; Beal's "
11
Legend of Buddha," Cf.p. 17.
Bundahish," xxx. 33 ; "Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 129.
4
Isaiah xi. "
; Philo de Premiis et Poenis," Drummond's "Jewish
15-20;
Messiah," p. 347.
 THE MESSIAH. 167

Philo and the taming of wild animals

;
is noticed in an

early Indian poem as one of the marvellous results of ascetic

"
virtue ;
for round the hermit's cell weasels play with

serpents and tigers with the deer like companions," com-

pelled to unnatural mildness by the austerity of the saint
1
and his consequent marvellous power.
In the book of Ezekiel the reign of peace preceded by is

a conflict against the Scythian hosts, and Jerusalem is to

be miraculously converted into a great city like Babylon,
with a fountain springing beneath the Temple and trees of
2
unfading leaf. This fountain is also an important feature
3
in the prophecy of Zechariah, and in later books it becomes
a river oflife in the new Jerusalem.

In these passages we have the apocalyptic vision of a

future condition of happiness, but the Messiah himself does
""
not as yet appear. The
Sun of Righteousness is Jehovah
"
himself, whose feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives,"

and the prophet Elijah, or some other " messenger of the

4
covenant," is the forerunner and apostle of the new happy
time, like the prophet Hushedar of Persia.
5
There are
many passages which refer to the restoration of David's
line, and to the two " sons of oil " priest and king who are
not of necessity supernatural personages. 6
When, however, we turn to the Psalms of Solomon, a
Jewish work dating about 50 B.C., we find the idea of a

king Messiah already in existence ;

and in the Aramaic
chapters of Daniel, which include the description of the
Roman power, and are probably not older than about the
1
"Mahabharatam," xiii. 651.
2 Ezek. xxxviii. Cf.
" Pehlevi Bahman Yasht," iii.
2, xxxix, xlvii. I. ;

3 Zech.
and see chap. xvii. xiii. I.
4
Isaiah xl. 3 ; Zech. xiv. 4 ;
Malachi iii. I, iv. 5.
5 " Pehlevi Bahman " Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 220.
Yasht," iii. 13 ;

6
Zech. iv. 14.
1 68 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

middle of the first century B.C., we are introduced to a

" 1
" clouds of heaven
mystical son of man coming with the
at the end of time, and establishing an everlasting kingdom
which is given to him by the Ancient of Days the Persian
" "
boundless time or supreme deity. It is to this mysterious

character that Haggai a writer also of the Persian period

" 2
which according to
refers as the desire of all nations,"
the Targum means the Messiah.
The House of David had become extinct at least before
the time of Judas Maccabaeus, who with his brethren
assumed power as temporary leaders until a prophet should
3
arise. Their family was again exterminated by Herod,
and the Jews, under foreign rule, were without a repre-
left

sentative of native royalty. It is probably about this time

that the later idea of a be sent by Jehovah
King Messiah to

began first to develope, although his descent from the old

royal house was to be one of his claims to authority, just
as an universal monarch, or a Buddha in India, was to be a
descendant of some well-known royal family. The idea
of the earlier prophets does not seem to go beyond the
restoration of David's line, in an ideal future but as the ;

hopes of national independence died out the vision of

the golden age, and of the mysterious King Messiah, became
ever more dear to the hearts of the Hebrews.
The time of trouble which was to precede the kingdom
of God is mentioned by Isaiah and Ezekiel, and is vividly
described by the Sibyl and by the earlier Hebrew writer
in Daniel, who as yet knows of no Messiah, but predicts
the delivery of Israel by their guardian angel Michael in
"
a time of trouble such as never was since there was a
4
nation even to that same time." The same idea is to be
1
Dan. vii. 13.
2
Haggai ii. 7.
*
I Mace. iv. 46, xiv. 41.
4
Isaiah viii. 21, ix. 2 Ezek. xxxviii. Dan. xii. I. Cf.
" Pehlevi Bahmaa
; ;

Yasht," iii. See chap. xvii.

 THE MESSIAH. 169

traced in Persia 1 and India, and as suggested above, its

probable origin is found in the sun myth, and in the

expectation of winter and its storms. But this expectation
is quite unconnected with any idea of a suffering and self-
sacrificing Messiah, which formed no part of Jewish orthodox
belief. We may therefore now briefly glance at those
passages the prophets on which the Christians of all
in

ages have mainly relied, as proving the prediction of an

anointed one appointed to death.
The allusion to Messiah the Prince cut off without a
son has been shown to be probably historic, rather than
apocalyptic, and was not supposed by the Jews to have
any reference to their Messiah. The coming of the king
2
to Jerusalem, "lowly and riding on an ass," was an
emblem of the humility of the pious monarch rather than
of his affliction by God but it is otherwise with the servant
;

of the Lord mentioned so frequently by the later writer in

the book of Isaiah, who is called the "chosen one" like
Saul a personage whose attributes are far too suggestive
to allow of his being simply regarded as a representative
of the Israelite race at large.
" "
The servant of 3
is not to
Jehovah turn dim or " be
"
bruised until he has given light to the Gentiles. He is

to give sight to the blind, and liberty to the prisoners, yet

he is himself blind and deaf and dumb. He delivers a

people snared in holes and hid in prisons, and he is

surrounded himself with fire. He is apparently identified
with Jacob or Israel whom we have already considered as
a deity, 4 and may even be thought to be equal with Jehovah
himself. 5
He passes in safety through the river, and walks
unhurt in the fire ; yet we read immediately after that

1 " Pehlevi Bahman Yasht." Cf. chap. xvii. 2

Zech. ix. 9.
3 4 5
Isaiah xlii. Isaiah xliii. I. Cf. chap, ii., p. 35. Isaiah xlii. 8.
1 7o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

there no Saviour except Jehovah, and no God but

is

the King of Israel. 1 Such language is easily interpreted

as referring to the Persian Mithra, but it is not readily ex-

plained on any rationalistic supposition.

Again in another passage equally famous, the servant of

Jehovah appears in affliction.
2
He is exalted very high,
but his visage is marred, he is sorrowful and acquainted
with " sickness," he becomes a sacrifice for sin, and is led
like a lamb to slaughter : he is
oppressed and is buried
with the rich, yet his days are afterwards prolonged, and
he becomes powerful and great because he bore the sins of
many and was an intercessor for men. No words could
more clearly describe the sun-hero who is smitten with

leprosy like Izdubar, and who is raised from death, and

makes intercession for man. We see again the self-sacrific-

ing sun of the Vedas, 3 the blind Indra, 4 who falls into the

waters,
5
and the hero who is burned in the fire yet unhurt. 6
We see the sun-god bearing the sins of men in the gloomy
season of the year when the atonement sacrifice of the
Persians was offered. He sinks into the hell, or prison, or

grave, which is the abode of the rich infernal god the old
Accadian Copper King of Hell, 7 the Indian Kuvera lord
of riches and of hell Plutus and Pluto alike in one.
Yet this persecuted and self-sacrificing servant of God
returns to power. He is the friend and mediator of man,
he opens the eyes of the blind, and heals the sick, and
raises the dead. He brings them out of gloomy night
prisons and frees them from the " hidden one " the enemy
1 a
Isaiah xliii. II ; xliv. 6. Isaiah Hi. 13; liii. 12.
8
"Rigveda," i.
123. 10.
4 " " "
Rigveda, Zool. Mythol.," i. 32.
iv. 30. 19;
5 "
Rigveda," 32, i.

6 " " Zool.

Rigveda," v. 48. Cf. Mythol.," i. 33.
7
Lenormant's " Magie," pp. 161, 162; Moor's '* Hindu Pantheon," p. 235.
 THE MESSIAH. 171

of the night. 1 Let us for a moment reflect on the wording

of the Persian hymn to Mithra, and, without repeating
what has been said of Indra and Savitar, of the Accadian
sun-god and other early sun-heroes, let us consider the
symbolism of the Median bards which celebrated the
praises of the great son of Ahura, the god of light, who is

the child of Heaven.

2
Mithra, the friend, is the "lord of the wide pastures"
of the sky, a good shepherd created by God. He is the
friend of truth and good faith, the enemy of liars and un-
"
faithful persons. He takes out of distress the man who
has not lied unto him," and delivers him from death. He
"
is propitious to man, and is called the incarnate Word."
He gathers the pious into paradise, the "house of hymns,"
but as to the wicked he " confounds their eyesight, he takes
the hearing from their ears, they can no longer move their
feet." His palace is built on the eastern mount where there
is no night, nor darkness, nor cold wind, nor hot blast, nor
death, nor impurity, and which is above the clouds. Mithra
is the exalted god, before whom goes the fire of the
victorious sun, but he is at times angry, he hides his face

retracing his steps with the dark side of his countenance

turned to earth. He rides the white horse : he hears the
"
fool say in his heart, Mithra does not see me." Wisdom
is at his left hand in his chariot with its four horses, and
one golden wheel. His club is the sun, 3 who is the "friend"
of the dewy moon. The companion of Mithra the second
Mithra is the great goddess Anahita, who aids all the sun-
heroes in their distress, when they battle in the sea or in
the dragon's den, and who guides their feet by night.
It is the god of day then who gives sight to the blind,

1 20.
Isaiah xi. 4 J Joel ii.

a " Mihir Yasht." * " Kurshed

Yasht."
r-;l BIBLE FOLK LORE.

but who is in turn buried in the cave of gold in the west,

"
only to rise once more in triumph. He is the king from
only seen by day," and when we
"
the sun," the Messiah,
reflect on his sufferings and triumph we see that Christian

writers were in one sense right when they quoted the words
of the Book of Isaiah as referring to a dying Son of God
who rose again immortal.
It be well before quitting this question, which has
may
so great an importance in reference to Christian literature,
to examine briefly the Jewish views as to the Messiah
included in the Apocryphal and Apocalyptic literature, in
the Talmud and Targums, and existing even to the present

day among Jews of all parts of the world. In so doing we

must remember that different sects held different opinions
and that the interpretations of the Old Testament writings
were not the same among Sadducees and Alexandrians,
Pharisees and Essenes. The five schools mentioned by
Maimonides as representing orthodox variations of doctrine
in his own days form a convenient division for the present
consideration of our subject.
The Sadducees and the early Karaites represented the
conservative party who refused to adopt the Persian
doctrines of angels and of immortality. They were rich
and prosperous, and read the scriptures literally especially
those passages of Deuteronomy which promise long life
and good things of this world to the pious Israelite. The
Messiah had no part in their comfortable creed, and the
existence of heaven or hell were questions of which they

professed ignorance, and concerning which they found

nothing in the law.
The Jews of Egypt,who were strongly recruited by the
soldiers of Alexander when Alexandria was founded, and
among whom the last high priests sought refuge, were far
 THE MESSIAH. 173

removed from Persian and the doctrine of the

influence,
Messiah is accordingly absent from the earlier writings of
this sect, and develops in a distinct form in their later
.

literature. The third Sibylline book was of Alexandrian

origin, and of a golden age succeeding
in this the prediction

a time of trouble is only accompanied by a passing reference

"
to the king from the sun." In the allegories of Philo we
find the future taming of wild beasts, as in the poems of
1
Isaiah, but Israel is led by the mystic Logos, "an
appearance more divine than naturally human, invisible
indeed to others, and manifest only to those who are saved." 2
Thus the kingdom of God is ruled by the Wisdom which
stands beside the throne, 3 rather than by the King Messiah.
The land flowing with fountains of milk and honey (as the
Nile also was fabled to have done in the time of the earliest

kings) is not less graphically described by the Sibyl than

is the previous time of slaughter and darkness but the ;

Persian or Indian universal monarch is not a prominent actor

in this tremendous drama of the future, as described in
Alexandria.
Three Jewish schools remain those who believed earth,
:

heaven, and hell to be imperishable, and the change of the

future to be only a change: of place those who expected ;

Messiah at the end of time, and those who awaited him

after the day of judgement. These last two sects are of

special importance to the present question.

The more ignorant and less imaginative Jews who
retained the old Assyrian ideas of a material heaven with
windows and stairs, and of a real Hades under ground,
pictured the Messianic age as but a reestablishment of the
kingdom of Judah but to the Pharisees this future time
;

* " De Prem. et Isa. xi. 6-9.

Pcen.," 15-20 ;
3 " Philo. De Exsecrationibus," 3
9. Wisdom, x. 10.
 174 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

was one in which the Holy Land was to be converted into

a fairy paradise full of wonders.
The life of the pious
would be lengthened, and Messiah himself would live,
a thousand
according to some, four hundred years, or even
of seven days
according to others, and then after a silence
1

a new age would begin. The Psalms of Solomon still

picture Messiah as an ordinary mortal a righteous king
amid a saintly people.
2
He is called in Ezdras the Son of
God, but so was any pious Jew, or even any righteous
Chaldean. 3 The Gentiles were generally expected to be
Jewish dependents, but
finally delegated to the position of
some of the Rabbis denied that any of them would remain
4
on earth. The land of Israel was to flow with milk and

honey, the corn like that of the Egyptian Elysian fields

was to grow to the height of forest trees, each grain to be
as large as the kidneys of an ox, while a single grape would
be a waggon load and yield thirty pails of wine. 5 Leviathan
and Behemoth would be slain at the great feast, being
reserved for that time, one in the deep, the other in the
desert where it feeds on the grass of a thousand hills. 6 The

prosperity of the Jew, his many children, his glorious

sacred city with its river, its fountain, and its never fading
trees, itsmagnificent temple and continual feasts form a
picture of earthly happiness to last to the end of the world.
The enemies of the Jews and the " Hidden One," who is
the prototype of Antichrist, may attack the Messiah after

l " Tal Bab 2 Ezdr.

Sanhed," 99a ; vii. 28.
8 Ps. Sol. xvii. 23, 35-49; Drummond's "Jewish Messiah," p. 292.
3
2 Ezdr. vii. 27, 29, xiii. 32 ; Enoch cv. 2 ; Psalm ii. 7. Cf. Lenormant's

"Magie,"p. 46.
4
Isaiah Ixi. 5, 6; Ps. Sol. xvii. 27,28; "Tal Bab Aboda Zarah,"
24a ;
" " Mishnah
Yebamoth," 24b ; Sanhed," x. (xi.) 1-4.
5
"TalBabKetuboth," mb.
"Tal Bab Baba Bathra," 74 b " Pirke R.
; Eliezer," xi. ; Targ. Jon on
Gen. 21 Enoch Ix.
"
i. ; 7-11, 24 ; Bundahish," xviii. 6, xix. 13.
 THE MESSIAH. 175

but the triumph of Israel and its king is to be

his appearance,

immediate and final, and, like the Persian Sosiosh, the

Jewish anointed one is to destroy alike the evil power and
all his followers. The Armilaus of the Targum 1
is the
" " "
wicked one slain by the breath of the branch," and
hisname is not improbably a corruption of Angramainyus.
The Talmudists recognising two Messiahs, 2 one a son of
Joseph, the other of Judah, represented the former as slain
by Armilaus, who is in turn destroyed by Ben David.
The Jewish eschatology makes the reign of Messiah
later

no longer a millennium to precede, but an immortal state to

follow, the resurrection and judgment. This view seems
to develop after the of Jerusalem and the scattering of
fall

Israel, although the older millennium above described still

remained the hope of a large party among the Jews.
According to the view Messiah was a supernatural
later

being already existing but concealed for the coming

day. The Talmud represents him sitting at the gate of
Rome healing the sick and binding their wounds one by
one he should be called away suddenly amid his work
lest

of love. 3 It is the special attribute of Messiah from the

earliest period thus to heal the sick, open the eyes of the
4
blind, and raise the dead to life.

Messiah, according to this school of Jewish thought, was

already in existence though unknown, and the Targum
on Micah speaks of his name as known "from of old from
the days of eternity." 5 This also may be considered an
idea of Median origin, for the triumphant monarch of the
" "
future is to come into notice or return to earth though
1
Cf. Joel ii. 20
" Tal Bab
Targ on Isaiah
xi. 4. Succah," 52a.
;

2
"Tal Bab Succah," 52a Cf. Drummond's "Jewish Messiah," p.
; 356.
3
"Tal Bab Sanhed," QSa. Cf. 2 Ezdr. xiii. 26, 32, and vii 8. Cf.

Targ. on Micah, iv. 8.

4 B
Isa. Ixi. i. Cf. xlii. 7 and 22. Targ. on Micah, v. I.
i;6 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

born long before an immortal son of the ancient King

Vistasp.
1
In the 2d Book of Ezdras, Messiah flies upon
the cloud and ascends from the sea. 2 In the Aramaic part
of Daniel he comes with the clouds of heaven and the
;

Jews applied to Messiah Isaiah's description of the branch

of Jesse, who is to smite the earth with the rod of his
3
mouth and slay the wicked one with the breath of his lips
a description which in the Book of Ezdras is amplified
into the sending forth of a flame of fire from the mouth of
the Son of God on the cloud, and which reminds us of the
curious stories which are told by Buddhists of the great
4
length and power of Buddha's tongue; or of the glory of
Khrishna's mouth; or of Zarathustra smiting the evil one
with the Word though with a stone.
as 5

In this immortal kingdom the New Jerusalem also has

its place. In the Book of Enoch the Temple is seen
rolledup and carried away to the desert. The new and
more glorious house replaces it to last to all eternity. 6 The
Holy City, according to the Talmud, is to be lifted three

parasangs above the earth, and hangs in cloudland like

the fata Morgana. 7 The earth will in these happy days be
flat as a plain. 8
Every valley shall be exalted and every
mountain and hill made low. The tree of life will be
planted on earth and its fruit shall be for the elect in
the new paradise of Messiah.
9 It is impossible to follow
in detail the many contradictory accounts of this golden
1
"Pehlevi Bahman Yasht," iii. 50 ; "Bundahish," xii.
32.
2
2 Ezdr. xiii. 2-6 ; "Cos Yasht," 29 j "Vistasp Yasht."
3
Isa. xi. 4 2 Ezdr. xiii. 10.
;
4
Beal's "Legend of Buddha," p. 250.
6 " Vishnu "
Purana and Ashi Yasht, 20.
6
Enoch xc. 28, 29.
7
"Tal Bab Baba Bathra," 75b. Cf. "Jewish Messiah,"
p. 344.
8
Cf.
" " Sacred Books
Bundahish," xxx. 33 j of the East," v. p. 129.
9
Enoch xxiv., xxv.
 THE MESSIAH. 177

age to come, nor is it necessary that all the versions of the

beautiful story should (were it possible) be reconciled in a

single consistent scheme, for we know whence the rich

imagery of these ardent hopes has sprung, and we see

them in our own days fading into the cloudland to which
they belong.
To sum up the results of our inquiry, we have seen that
there is no certain doctrine of the Messiah before the cap-
tivity. That the prophets of the Persian period predict a
future happy age of innocence when a prophet like Elijah
shall be the herald of Jehovah himself appearing to bless
his people. We have observed that in the later Hasmonean

period the figure of Messiah gradually becomes a distinct

personification, at first a great mortal ruler, and afterwards
a supernatural being. We have seen that orthodox Judaism
does not recognise the Messiah as suffering or dying,
though he contends with enemies and comes in a time of
great tribulation but that the servant of God, the elect
;

one of the pseudo Isaiah, is a figure whose origin, in com-

mon with that of Messiah, may be traced back to those
glorious beings with which the imagination of Persian
bards surrounded the throne of God, to the great angel of
daylight who is the prototype of the anointed king. Finally,
we note how the ancient belief in an universal monarch
rose unconsciously from the older mythology of Asia, and
how the struggle of light and darkness, the alternation of
summer and winter, were spiritualised into a contest of

good and evil, of Messiah and the hidden one, the older

purely physical meaning of the myths having long been

lost in passing from a mythopceic age to one of reverent

study of the older scriptures.

In our own days we see the pious Christian still awaiting
the millennium, the Jew still hoping for Messiah, .the Sama-
M
I 78 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
" son of Joseph
ritan expecting his Tahib or restorer," a

who though mortal will live 110 years. 1 We see the Per-

sian Moslem still confident in the coming incarnation of

the Imam, and the Sunnee full of his belief in the Mohdy,
" "
the inspired one or descendant of the prophet, who will

conquer Antichrist, and establish an universal rule of

Islam. Even in India, Vishnu 2
is yet again to become
incarnate, riding the winged horse and establishing a
new age of purity.
And still the evening and the morning bring forth the
new day and night. The feet of Jehovah still stand on
Olivet as the sun rises on Jerusalem. The elect one, blind
and dumb, himself a willing sacrifice, and the
still offers

immortal son of God still dies in the golden west, still

" "
sinks to the depths of hell, and rises again the third day
to ascend once more into heaven. All this goes on from
day to day, from year to year, and man, blinded by the
ignorant repetition of his own words, by the forgotten
riddles of ancient days, looks for a Messiah who is ever
near yet never recognised by his worshippers on earth.

Mill's "Modern Samaritans," p. 217;

1 " Samar. Book of
Juynboll's
" Gesen. De
Joshua," p. 51 ; Sam. Theolog.," 43.
2
Moor's " Hindu Pantheon," p. 115.
 CHAPTER X.

IMMORTALITY.

IN the Bulak Museum at Cairo may be seen a small model

of a sarcophagus in black stone, which represents the corpse

lying as a mummy, while the soul in the form of a bird,

with thin arms, shrivelled legs, and a human head, lays its
hands pathetically on the breast of the bandaged figure
as though seeking admission once more to its mortal
home.
" "
The Ka or double is traced in Egypt as far back as
the twelfth dynasty.
1
The Ba or soul is distinct from the
Ka according to Egyptian belief, and as in Persia seven
such spirits are attributed to God. 2 The builders of
pyramids and stately tombs believed in an immaterial life-
giving individuality, which theyseemto have expected should
return once more to the same body which it quitted at
death and they likewise held the view so fully developed
;

in India and in Persia of the existence of a guardian spirit,

genius, or "idea," belonging to each soul, and this was
called the Ka.
The
doctrine of transmigration was also early known in
3
Egypt, and appears to have resembled the Indian dogma
of Karma, which taught that the final purification of the
soulwas only to be attained by repeated incarnations, the
deeds of former existences leading to reward or punishment
1 2 8
"Hibbert Lecture, 1879," p. 149. Ibid,, p. 164. Ibid., p. 181.
i8o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

in later births, while final bliss was attained when the

individual was merged in the deity, and the soul rested in
Osiris with the cessation of all desire. The wicked soul

was sent back to earth in the form of a pig to dree his

weird for the sins of his human life, and the priesthood

possessed the awful power of refusing burial to those whose

lives were pronounced evil, thus shutting them out from

any hope, if such was felt, of resurrection, in a carefully

preserved body.
The notion of the Ka or spirit may perhaps be thought
to have originated from the reflection of the human form
in water. The idea of refraction not having as yet been
conceived, it must very early have been supposed that the
" "
reflexion was a double or distinct personage always
attending upon the human form, but only visible at times.
The Ka inhabited the statue of the dead man in the
chamber over his tomb, and the custom is thus traced back
to that so common among savage tribes who foster the image
of the dead long after the body has mouldered away an
idea which still survives in Feejee. As regards the hopes
connected with the preservation of the mummy, it should
be here remarked that we have as yet apparently no con-
clusive evidence that the Egyptians believed in
any general
future resurrection. The Indian idea of absorption in deity
was consistent with a belief in transmigration and reincar-
nation, and it seems possible that in Egypt it may have
been believed that each individual soul was destined to
re-enter the body not on one resurrection day, but merely
as an individual to perfect itself by a second human life

before attaining to rest in Osiris. It is again possible that

the preservation of the murnmy marks the popular idea of

Tylor's "Early Hist, of Mankind " p. 109; Lubbock's "Origin of

Civilisation," p. 128.
 IMMORTALITY. 181

resurrection, while the language of hymns and ritual denotes

the philosophic view of the higher or initiated orders as to
future absorption into deity.
The actual ordeal before burial was but a symbol of that
great trial which awaited the soul in the Hall of Osiris,
1

when Horus and Anubis weighed his heart, and the four
intercessors pleaded for him before Osiris and the forty-
two judges, and when Thoth, the recording angel, unrolled
the story of his mortal life. Then if found worthy he joins
the companions of Osiris, and safely passes the twelve

Pylons where the dragons of evil are exorcised by the

words of power which he has learned to repeat. After
such trials he reposes in Elysian fields, where Neith gives
him the waters of life from her sycomore tree, and where
red beer and corn are his drink and food. The cool breeze
blows on his face, and the odour of sweet flowers surrounds
him. 2 He tills the fields of Aalu, where the corn grows
seven cubits high. A wall of steel surrounds his abode,
and throughits gate the sun goes out at dawn.

The
idea of a purgatory of purifying fire was also not
unknown. The souls of the imperfect here lie in pits of
flame, or are guarded by the infernal dogs in the sacred
3
basin of life in the fourth Pylon of the city underground.
The evil are also sent again to earth as ghosts, as animals,
or as wicked men, or they are tormented by the cruel
Typhon with his hippopotamus head, and finally anihilated
"
afterhaving suffered the second death," beheaded by Set
and Horus on the nemma or infernal block. 4
Such then was the Egyptian doctrine of immortality.
1
Cf.Lenormant's "Magie," pp. 75, 219; Sharpe's "Egypt. Mythol.,"p. 49.
2
"Hibbert Lecture 1879," p. 180 ; Sharpe's "Egypt. Mythol.," p. 20 ;
" Records of the vol. x,
Past," pp. 105, 117.
3 " Records of the
Past," vol. x. p. 97.
4
Lenormant's " Magie," pp. 78, 79.
j82 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

as can well be
It was as closely akin to that of the Aryans
of an underworld of
imagined. It supposed the existence
ghosts, the purification
of the soul by suffering and through

birth, immortality of the righteous and their final

the
the wicked, and
absorption into deity, the second death of
the annihilation of their vital principle.
No such distinct doctrine of immortality or of future
resurrection has, as yet, been shown
have existed among to

the dark Accadians or the Semitic Assyrians, and it is not

clearly traceable in the Old Testament

before the Persian

period. The Babylonians pictured the earth to themselves

as a hollow hemisphere floating on the primeval ocean ;

" "
and Sheol, the hollow place or underworld, was that dark
abode which was enclosed between the rounded crust and
"
the dark waters of the abyss. Here is the house of the
departed, without a way of escape, a road without return,
where they long for the light, and eat the dust and drink the
mire." The guardian demon stands at its dust-covered gate.
It is the place of the weak and unfortunate, of faithless
husbands and wives, of disobedient children, of slaves and
captives who are without any hope for the future. The
shades of the dead fill the great dome like birds in the

darkness, and beat their wings against its roof. The prison
house is divided into seven circles, and the
gates are in the
eastern and western mountains of dawn and sunset. Mulge
Moloch and "
or his fierce consort, with Namtar or fate/'
and Nindar, the copper sun-god
rule over this dreary region,
of night, travels through it. 1 Yet even in this Hades of
Chaldea there was a peaceful abode for the righteous,
happy fields under a silver sky, where ancient seers sat

" Records of the

Lenormant's " Divination,"
1
Cf. Past," vol. i.
pp. 147-149 ;

P- 154-
 IMMORTALITY 183

wearing their crowns, and drank of perennial streams ;

and to Ishtar, the moon-goddess, is given the water of life,

whereby she obtains the power to return thence to earth. 2
It has been thought by some that the Assyrians believed
in the rising of the pious dead from this Hades to the heaven

above, which they pictured as being beyond a material

firmament, a sphere including that of the earth, and having
windows opened to send down
the rain, and steps leading
to its zenith. It is, however, only in the story of Eabani
that any such transference is related, and Eabani was but a
mythical sun-hero of night. The dead indeed were held
" "
to be able to return to earth from the eternal sanctuary
"
or " immoveable land as ghosts and vampires, but the

Egyptian doctrine of the reincarnation is not found in

Chaldea. The
highest blessedness of the righteous is to
enjoy the happy feasts, the light, the freedom from care
and grief, the service of the shining altar in a silver region
"
apart from the unhappy souls, who remain in the place

where there is no life nor blessing, and where one cannot see."

Such was the gloomy creed of the Semitic race, and of

the dark Cushites as contrasted with that firm faith in
future good, which is found among even the earliest Aryan
peoples. The dead in their underworld are shades of the
living without a future, and without even the hope of a
second death. It is this belief, with its attendant faith in
ghosts and vampires, in night demons the lilith and the
satyr and apparitions brought from
in familiar spirits
hell by the power of enchanters or the will of the gods,
which is found in the early psalms and historic books of
the Hebrews. " For in death there is no remembrance of
thee. In the grave who shall give thee thanks." 3
1 " " Transactions Bib. Arch.
Assyrian Discoveries," p. 202. Cf. Society,"
vol. i.
p. 107, vol. ii.
p. 29.
2 " Records of the Past," vol. i.
3 Psalm vi. 8.
p. 148.
i84 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

In the original text of Genesis we find it stated that the

"blood is the life" 1 which was breathed into man by Elohim
an idea very much ruder than the Egyptian conception
"
of the soul. In Job we find Sheol described as a land of
darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death
2
without any order, and where the light is darkness." It is

hence that the enchantress of Endor evokes the ghost of

Samuel, and the Elohim who rise out of the ground. It is
here that Saul and his sons must go to meet the seer on
their death. 3 In the earlier part of Isaiah we find a full
account of the descent of a dead Assyrian king into the
gloomy region. "Sheol beneath is moved at thy coming:
it stirreth for thee, even all the he goats of
up the Rephaim
the earth hath raised up from their thrones all the kings
;
it

of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee,
Art thou become weak as we ? art thou become like unto
us?'' 4
The tyrant has aspired to be like the Most High,
"
and he is
brought down to Sheol to the holes of the pit."
In the Psalms, again, the wicked lie in the pit like sheep,
and death gnaws upon them, but the righteous are safe
from the tormenting of such demons. In none of these
passages is there any expectation of a future resurrection
or of a return even to earthly happiness.
With the beliefs of Aryans in India, with their many
hells and heavens, their paradises of Meru or Kailasa, their
infernal Yama and his two dogs, their
savage Durga, a
goddess always thirsting for human blood, with their
heavenly singers and rivers of life, we are not now con-
cerned, but by the Persian ideas of the future life we are
specially interested on account of their recognisable influence
on the later Jewish thought.
^en. ix. 4. 2
Job. x.22.
3
I Sam. xxviii. 14, 19. <
i sa i a h x iv. 9.
 IMMORTALITY. 185

"
The soul of man, wise, young, and ever pure, immortal,
self-existent, good, and perfect," is celebrated in the Atharva
Veda. 1 In the Vendidad and in the Yashts the fate of the
soul after death is discussed ;
and the brightness of im-
mortality attaches, as we have already seen, to the righteous
2
companions of the future prophet in whose days Satan
will be slain, and the world will remain pure to eternity.
" "
Even in the Gathas the life of the future is found as a

hope of the Aryan poets.

When the good man dies his soul, says a writer in the
Yashts,
3
sits at the head of his grave, repeating the words,
"
Blessed is the man to whom
the Lord hath granted his
desires." After the third night at dawn a sweet smelling
breeze touches the soul, waving over the trees, breathing
from the south, and bearing her upwards. fair maiden A
of fifteen years appears to her, and the soul asks whence she
"
comes. I am the good thought, the good word, the good

deed thine own faith which was in thy own body," is the
answer, and the guardian angel of the soul which has thus
sprung from her own goodness (for all being arises from
good or evil action according to the doctrine of Karma)
takes with it the happy spirit to rest beneath the trees of a
luxuriant grove, where she may repeat the prayers and

praises of Ahura Mazda. Thence refreshed and encouraged

the soul steps forward. Her first step brings her to the
paradise of good thought, her second to that of the good
word, her third to that of the good deed, her fourth to the
eternal lights where she beholds the throne of God.

Having thus approached Ahura Mazda she is asked by

"
him, Whence comest thou from the earthly to the spiritual
"
life, from mortality to immortality ? and here, protected by
1
"Atharva Veda," x. 8. a "
44. Zamyad Yasht," 89.
8
"Hadhokht Nosk."
 j 86 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

her own
angel, the creation of her good life, she enjoys the
divine banquet and the shining food.
The soul of the wicked sits also three nights at the head
"
of his grave, saying, Whither shall I go, Lord, and where
"
shall I find refuge ? An evil smelling wind from the north
blows her away on the third night, and through the hells
"
of evil thought, word, and deed she is hurried to eternal
darkness." Satan here judges her, and condemns her to
poisoned meals, and to dwell for ever with himself.
A
more beautiful allegory, inculcating a truer moral, we
could not hope to find in ancient literature. The fate of
the soulis the creation of the mortal life, and its intercessors

with God good thought, word, and deed of the past.

are the
In the Vendidad 1 this story also appears in outline.
"
Good and bad travel along the way made by time," which
leads to the great bridge Kinvad
(" the gatherer "), and
here they meet with the maid who is the angel or conscience
of the soul, with her dogs the Vedic dogs, the dogs of
Yama beside her. She it is who, like Thoth, the recording

angel, sends the wicked soul to darkness, but guides the

righteous over Alborz, and across the narrow bridge to the

great angel Bahman, who rises from his golden throne, and
greets the soul coming from mortalityto immortality. Thence
the good soul flies happily to Ahura Mazda, to immortal
saints, and to golden thrones in Paradise, where the
righteous are "gathered together."
We
have here a distinct belief in the two lives, that of the
body and that of the soul, which forms part of the Persian
creed the " House of Destruction," the old Accadian
;
in

Sheol, and in the garon emanem or " house of hymns,"

which is the Persian
dwelling of angels singing on high.
This Persian doctrine is
distinctly borrowed by the
1
"Vendidad" Farg., xix. 28-34.
 IMMORTALITY. 187

Talmud and the Midrash represents the soul sitting for

;

three days after death on the grave such being the

Rabbinical explanation of the saying, " And his soul above
him shall mourn." The Moslems borrow also from Persia
x

their angels Munker and Nakir, who interrogate the soul

in the graveno less than their idea of the celestial paradise
and of the narrow bridge Sirat. It is, however, more im-

portant to examine the Hebrew literature of the Persian

period in order to trace the growth of similar ideas among
the early Jews.
In the Book of Job the Persian ideas of the gathering of
the righteous and the scattering of the wicked find ex-
"
pression The rich man shall lie down and not be gathered.
A tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind
2
carrieth him away, and he departeth." In the Psalms
thesame conception occurs the ungodly are "like the chaff
;

which the wind driveth away," they shall not " stand up in
"
the judgment nor enter the " gathering of the righteous." 3
" "
They are condemned to suck the poison of asps and to
be by the viper's tongue, and they do not see the
slain
"
brooks of honey and butter " in Paradise 4 the very same
food of which the pious eat, according to the Yashts. The
river of life is also mentioned in the later Psalms a fountain
of light, which makes glad the abode of Elohim, 5 and the day
of wrath and destruction is mentioned in Job as well as by
6
Joel. The final judgment does not, it is true, appear in
the relics of the Avesta still preserved in the old dialect,
but it is a Persian doctrine, and is found clearly explained
in the Bundahish, 7 which is a translation of a lost part of
the Median scriptures. In Joel it terminates the millennium,
1
22. 2 " Hadhokht
Job xiv. Job xxvii. 19-21 ; Nosk," 18.
3 4
Psalm i. 4, 5. Job xx. 16. 6
Psalm xxxvi. 8, xlvi. 4.
6
Jobxxi. 30 ; Joel iii. 12.
7 " " Bahman
Bundahish," xxx. ; Pehlevi Yasht," iii. Cf. Chap. xvii.
1 88 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
"
and the heathen are assembled in the valley of Jehovah's
judgment," and extirpated before the wondrous time when
the mountains are to pour with wine, the hills with milk,
and the spring beneath the House of Jehovah with water
of life.

In the Greek books of the Apocrypha a somewhat

different belief is expressed, and in Ecclesiastes, a work
dating about 200 B.C., the older belief in Sheol is mentioned,
"
There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in
the grave whither thou goest." Man goes to the " House
of Eternity," the Egyptian name for the tomb, and his spirit
returns to God who gave it
l
an echo of the old Egyptian
belief. In the later book of Wisdom the immortality of the

righteous, the glorious kingdom, and the crowns given by

God, are contrasted with the mighty wind which blows
away the wicked. At death the spirit vanishes in thin air,
and the doctrine of reincarnation and of perfection through
successive births, which is absent from the Vedas, but
appears in later Brahmin and Buddhist writings, is most
distinctly taught in the book of Wisdom. The more pious
the soul the sooner will it reach perfection, 2
says the writer ;

and the attainment of wisdom, like the attainment of the

condition of a Buddha or " enlightened one " in India, is
the true method of acquiring this final perfection. 3
The idea of Wisdom is, however, a distinctly Persian
doctrine, as will appear more plainly in a later chapter,
and the divine Wisdom of Alexandrian
Jews probably
approaches nearer to the Persian idea than to the Indian
doctrine of human perfectability. Transmigration was an
ancient Egyptian dogma, and it
may have been from
1
Eccles. ix. 10, xii. 5, 7.
"Wisdom, ii.
3, iv. 19, v. 14, 15. Cf. "Hibbert Lecture, 1881 "
81
" Selected Essays," vol.
p.
ii. 3
p. 154. Wisdom, viii. 20.
 IMMORTALITY. 189

Egyptian rather than Indian priests that the Jewish writers

obtained their idea of metempsychosis.
In the discourse of Josephus to the Greeks on Hades
we find the opinions of the more liberal Pharisees clearly

set forth about the Christian era. He believes in a Hades

of temporary punishment, and an Elysium of light called
Abraham's bpsom. The Messiah Logos (as at
Alexandria)
according to the Jewish historian, to be the judge who will
is,

condemn the wicked to a lake of fire already prepared, but

as yet not used for torture, and willreward the righteous
in the heavenly kingdom. The wicked are to resume their
old bodies unchanged, but the righteous will obtain pure
and immortal forms fashioned from their old bodies which
have been sowed in the ground. The simile of the corn
sown and springing up with a glorified body, is
as seed,
used by Josephus as by St Paul, and it was evidently a
widely known parable, which occurs also in the Talmud,
for is said to have told Cleopatra that as a
Rabbi Meir
grain of wheat buried naked springs forth with many clothes
so will the righteous also. 1
The true meaning of the Pauline simile has indeed been
rather over-looked. The Jews
believed that the corpse

(and especially the bone Luz) was the seed sown in earth,
whence the new body should sprout as corn from the soil
after the impregnation of the ground by a miraculous dew,
and this idea survives among the Moslems who expect a
rain called Menn (Manna, dew or "water of life") to fertilize
the earth, whence the resurrection bodies will grow up like
"
plants, from the seed of the bone 'Ajeb or wonderful."
In Persia the same theory of resuscitation evidently
John xii. 24; I Cor. xv. 36; "Tal Bab Sanhed," pob ; Josephus'
A

"Discourse on Hades;" "Bereshith Kabbah." Cf. " Bundahish," xxx. 5 ;

"Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 122; Sale's "Preliminary Discourse,"
P- 93-
I9o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

existed, for we find in the Bundahish that the new

body is to be built up of elements found in earth, water,

plants, and fire, just as the " corn scattered in the

earth grows again, and returns with increase." In
the future happy age, says Josephus, the judg- after

ment of the wicked, there will be inhabitants of heaven

and of earth, but no more birth, no wild animals, no storms,
no darkness or change. Man will be able to walk across

the sea, and to ascend into heaven ;

he will never grow old
or die, but continue to enjoy a material or semi-material ex-
istence in his spiritual body. Maimonides and the Kabbalists 1
speak of such bodies as already belonging to the Shedim
or genii, who are of four kinds those made of fire and
others of fire and water being invisible and of good dis-

position, while those whose bodies are of fire, air, and

water, or even of these elements mixed with fine earth, are

evil demons who eat, drink, propagate, and die, and are
visible to man, especially the Jemim, who live in the

mountains, while others inhabit the earth, the waters, the

deserts, and the heavens. In these semi-material beings
we recognise the Accadian demons and the Persian
Fravardin. In the Vendidad we find mentioned the "seeds"
of good and pious souls, 2 whence the new worshippers are
to be formed in the future, and the idea of such good and
evil seed is found also in the second book of Ezdras where ;

are noticed the chambers in which pious souls are

preserved
in the womb of the earth, and the elect few who are saved
3
out of all creation.

In the Mishnah* the world to come

mentioned as the
is
"
heritage of all Israel/' but the wicked, the Sadducee, the

1
"Maimonides on Aboda Zarah," xii. n. 2
*
"Vendidad," ii.
27.
2 Ezdr. iv. 30, 35, 41, viii. 3.
4
"Mishnah Sanhed," x. I, seq.
 IMMORTALITY. 191

Epicurean, readers of foreign books, and sorcerers, together

with certain historic personages, are excluded. Some of
these are to be slain by plague in the world to come, and
some are to be scattered. Thus the doctrine of immortality
in the Mishnah is confined to the future resurrection of

pious Israelites. In Daniel also a partial resurrection

only is foretold to follow a
judgment day. The Sibyl 1

believes that the righteous will live again on earth, but the
wicked will remain in Gehenna. 2 The book of Enoch is
full of the same
doctrine. A sealed volume is to be opened
in the last day,and the good will be selected and become
angels, but Azazel and his hosts will be judged, and cast
into a lake of
fire. A
great fire is also to burn up the
present heaven and earth according to the Sibyl, and a
new creation will emerge from the ashes. 3
Such, then, was the development of Jewish eschatology
as compared with that of Egypt, Assyria, and Persia. At
" "
first an eternal house beneath the earth is imagined to
hold for ever the shades of good and evil in appropriate
habitations. Gradually the expectation of a return to
earthly life grows up, and the idea of spiritual and immortal
bodies. These are, however, reserved for the elect few, and
the wicked are condemned either to a second death or to

eternal torment in their former bodies in a hell of flame,

where, according to Isaiah, a fiery worm gnaws upon them.

4

There is as yet scarcely a trace of the more advanced

Indian belief in the gradual purification of the soul, or in
the future state of perfect rest unconnected with the things
of earth, and of the material universe. But yet more, there
is no trace of that noble pity for sin and suffering, that
1
Dan. xii. 2-3.

Sibyl," 178-190; Enoch xxi. I,

2
"IV. Iv. 4, xc. 20-27, &c.
3 "III. Sibyl," 77-91, IV. 178-190.
4
Isaiah Ixvi. 24 ; quoted Mark ix. 44.
 I 92 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

divine love for all mankind, whether good or evil and if

evil than the more tender because of their sorrows and sins

which the keynote first struck by Gautama Buddha,

is

the foundation of the missionary religions, the mainstay of

modern Christianity. To the Jew God was a merciless
judge, rewarding every man according to
his deeds the :

great compassion of the Indian ascetic who first learned

the lesson of unselfish love for his fellow men was not a

among the Pharisees of Jerusalem,

conception likely to arise
and even the word for that far-reaching passion of human
sympathy was not yet coined in the Hebrew tongue. The
barbarous belief in a heaven and hell common to all Asiatic
races has been inherited by the Christians of our own time,
and the light of a wiser philosophy, although it has shone
in. India for thousands of years, seems only as yet to

glimmer dimly in the civilised west. The philosophy of

the Brahmins was eagerly studied by the Greeks of
Alexander's time, but it has still lessons of humility to
teach to the scientific races of Europe, who through Egypt
and Syria have obtained only an imperfect reflexion of its
noble truths, in the pity and love of the gospel of a Jewish
heretic.
 CHAPTER XL
THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS.

THE translation of the Pentateuch into Greek, about the

middle of the third century B.C., marks a distinct epoch in
Jewish history. The Rabbis of Jerusalem afterwards so
greatly regretted an act which they regarded as a lapse of
the nation into paganism, that they established a fast on
the 8th of Tebeth, in memory of the " Law in Greek," and
forbade the writing of gold letters, such as are said to have
been used in the manuscripts of the Seventy translators.

The influence of Greece commenced to be felt at the time

of Alexander's mild and politic conquests, and it continued
to grow strong until 165 years later, when the frantic
intolerance of Antiochus Epiphanes caused a schism among
the Jews, and a revolution of national feeling which grew
into a settled hate of all things Greek, so profound that,
in the second century after Christ, the doctors of the
Mishnah proclaimed that the reader of foreign books had
no more part in eternal life than the Epicurean or the
1
criminal.
The divergence between the two chief developments of

Judaism the Pharisaism of Jerusalem and thePhilhellenism

of Alexandria, has its sources as far back as the time of
Ezra and the Levitical scribes of the fourth century B.C.
The Hasidim or Saints mentioned in the later literature of
i "Mishnah Sanhed," x. I.

N
I94 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the Old Testament 1 were zealots who were the first to join
the revolt of Judas Maccabaeus.
2
The party of the Pharisees
who regarded all foreign knowledge as essentially wicked,
and all communication with foreigners as pollution, rose to
power with the Hasmonean house, and based their self-
righteous exclusiveness on those Aryan prejudices which
had been deeply imbibed during the Persian period, and
had become a second nature to Levitical Judaism. We
may even conjecture that the word Pharisee is but a
Hebrew form of the name of the Parsee or Persian, whose

religion formed so important a factor in the development

of the Hebrew faith the Sadducees or "just ones" were,
;

on the other hand, the representatives of earlier dogma

founded on Assyrian and Phoenician creeds, and opposed
to the later teaching of the Persian period. The Hellenist,
in fact, stood to the Pharisee somewhat in the relation of
the Pharisee to the Sadducee, and of the early Jehovist to
the Moloch worshipper : in each case a new system of
dogmas grew up under the influence of a foreign nation

newly brought into contact with the Hebrews, and was

added to the existing creed ;
while the more conservative
refused, for a time, to its teaching as sanctioned
acknowledge
equally with the older beliefs by the divine revelation of a
former age.
The revolt of Modin was that of an ignorant and fanatical
peasantry against the encroaching civilisation of Antioch,
and was the immediate political result of the impatient
and contemptuous tyranny of Epiphanes. The family of
the high priests, no less than the chiefs of the nation, were

deeply imbued with the Greek spirit. Jewish priests

attended the games of Hercules at Tyre, strove together
1 Psalm xxx. 28
5, xxxi. 24, xxxvii. j Prov. ii. 8, &c.
8 i Mace. ii. 42.
 THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS. 19$

in a gymnasism at Jerusalem, and even wore the western

hat in place of the Oriental turban. 1 But for the violence
of Antiochus, Judaism would perhaps have never been

stamped with its peculiar and exclusive character, and the

growth of the ignorant and self-satisfied Rabbinism of
Jerusalem would not have developed under circumstances
so favourable, in the isolation of a mountain region, among
a race who had learned by sad experience to hate the very
name of Greece.
Such were the political circumstances which determined
the direction of Jewish thought in Palestine. The absolute
isolation of a small country, shut in between broad deserts
and a harbourless and through which no great high-
coast,

way of trade has ever passed, was to the Jewish nation

what a residence in some petty country village, remote
from the active stream of modern civilisation, is to the

individual. Self-opinion, and the restricted study of a

few
old books, must lead to narrow and antiquated views,
and to prejudices which are shocked by any healthier inter-
course with progressive thought. Small local differences
of belief are exaggerated in importance above the deeper

questions which the gradually fossilising mind of the

country bred assumes to be settled beyond dispute and ;

thus in the bitter enmity of Jew and Samaritan, and in

their common hatred of the wisdom and beauty of Greek
we see but a parallel to the petty disputes of
civilisation,
Christian churches, in face of that slowly spreading know-

ledge of the older Asiatic faiths, which by patient labour

is becoming familiar to the better educated among us.

The narrowing influences of the Judaean school were not

so strongly felt at Alexandria, where the Jew found him-
self in the very focus of philosophic discussion. The
1
2 Mace. iv. 12-19.
196 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Platonic and Pythagorean philosophies, based on the older

and equally beautiful conceptions of Egypt and India, were
taught in Alexandria as early asttie times of the Ptolemies.
The attempt to reconcile the doctrines of the Pentateuch
with Greek philosophy led gradually to an allegorical
explanation of the Hebrew scriptures, which we find already
as early as 160 B.C, and which was more fully developed

by Philo, and is found in the writings of Paul, and in the

second book of Ezdras, 1 no less than in the Hagada or
esoteric comment of the Talmud.
entirely the early How
physical interpretation of the myths of Genesis or Exodus
had been forgotten, in the course of some ten centuries, we
may judge from an examination of these spiritualising
The same ignorance of the origin of Greek
interpretations.
myths was shown even by such men as Socrates but we ;

may perhaps suppose that a dim tradition of the original

meaning of the old legends still survived, as shown by the
clearly mythic additions to the histories of Moses and the
Patriarchs, which have been noted in previous chapters as

existing in the Rabbinical literature.

The later Hasmonean
princes fell under the influence of
that very culture against which their ancestors had rebelled.

Hyrcanus quarrelled with the narrowschool of the Pharisees,

and his son Alexander Jannaeus struck coins with the Greek
"
inscription, Alexander the King." Even in the time when
the power of the Pharisees had reached its and
zenith,
when they had succeeded in defeating the Hasmonean
house, and in obtaining absolute control over the nation, they
had to struggle against Greek influence in their midst
;

and numbered among their Rabbis such teachers as

Gamaliel, who were tinged at least with the of a
suspicion
leaning towards the mystic doctrines of foreign religions. 2
1
2 Ezdr. vi. 8-9 ; i Cor. x. 4 Gal. iv. '
Tal Jer Gittin,"
; 24. v. 9.
 THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS. 197

The Mehistanites from Persia, the Kabbalists, and the

Hagadists, were received within the pale of Judaism ;

but their doctrines were not drawn from the Hebrew

scriptures, and form a link between the heresy
their views
of the Essenes and Christians on the one hand, and the
Pharisaic standard of orthodoxy on the other.
Wethus see in the three centuries preceding the
Christian era a double development of Judaism, conservative
and progressive, the one founded on an exegetic study of
existing books, the other on a comparison of Hebrew and
foreign literature ;the one having
centre at Jerusalem,
its

the other its capital in Alexandria.

In the present chapter
we may consider the principal literary productions of the
age, including under the first head the latest books of the
Old Testament Daniel and Esther with the myth of
Tobit and under the other the Apocryphal works of
;

Alexandrian origin, written in Greek, and never accepted

into the Hebrew Canon, such as Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus
and the Sibylline oracles.
The book of Esther is supposed by the critics to date
about 300 B.C., and although the Persian influence is strongly
marked in its pages, there is, nevertheless, an ignorance of
some Persian peculiarities of custom and of Persian history,
and an improbability of plot, which cause it to be generally
regarded as non-historic. Josephus was acquainted with
the Greek translation, which contains important additions,
and he identifies Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes, which may
be thought to remove some historic objections. The name
Ahasuerus is, however, the Hebrew form of Xerxes, and it
is hardly possible to reconcile the account of Vashti's
disgrace, and the marriage of the Persian king to Esther,
with what we know
of the history of Xerxes, or with the
fact that the Persian monarchs only intermarried with the
I 98 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

families. 1 Persian words

daughters of seven noble Persian
occur in the book of Esther, but this is not sufficient to
in Persia. The
prove the book to have been written
Rabbis of Tiberias used Greek, Latin, and Persian words
in the Talmudic books, and the noble Hebrew of the time
of Isaiah was rapidly degraded to the Aramaic of Esther
or Daniel, which forms the link with the yet more barbarous
dialect of the Gemara and Targums, with its numerous
foreign words.
The historic connected with the story of
difficulties

Esther lead us to consider whether it may not have a

mythical origin, even if not, as it is now related,
a conscious
and complete myth. There are many circumstances which
confirm such a conjecture, and the Greek version has a
very remarkable passage to the following effect little :
"
A
fountain became a river, and there was light, and the sun,
and much water. This river is Esther, and the two dragons
are I The Rabbis seem to preserve some
and Haman." 2

tradition of a similar interpretation, when they call Esther

"
the hind of the dawn," 3 and in the Babylonian Talmud
ft is stated that her complexion was the colour of gold. 4
The feast of Purim or of Lots, instituted in connection with
Esther's history, is almost the latest of the Jewish festivals
historically, and its Persian title indicates its origin, while
in the occurs just before the Vernal Equinox,
Calendar it

following the Solstitial feast of lights, also a late institution.

The name Esther is radically identical with the Zendic
5
Stara, a star, and we have
already seen her connected
with light by the Rabbis, as the golden hind of dawn, and
1 "
Cf.Speaker's Commentary," Introduction to Esther.
*
Greek Esther i. 6-7.
3 "Lit. Remains E. Deutch," p. 96. Cf. chap. vii. Ps. ; xxii. I, margin ;
" Tal Bab 4 " Tal Bab
Yoma," 2pa. Megilla," i&.
6
"Gesenius Lexicon."
 THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS. 1 99

with water by the Greek translators. She thus appears to

represent the great goddess Anahita, the queen of heaven
the moon, Venus, the dawn, or the female element of
water, according to her various aspects, originally a
Babylonian goddess Anaitis or Mylitta, afterwards adopted
"
by the Persians as the second Mithra or friend." 1 This
goddess with her veil, crown, bracelets, earrings, and cestus
iscelebrated in the Avesta, as aiding the sun-hero sunk in
the waters she drives four white horses, and is invoked
:

at dawn. She appears coming from the eastern mountain

2

"
a " spotless virgin. She also leaps down as a stream
from heaven, and she was certainly worshipped as early as
the time of Artaxerxes Mnemon.
This great virgin goddess of dawn and of water is the rival
of the forsaken queen Vashti. The name of Xerxes' wife was
Amestris, not Vashti, but the latter word has in Persian the
"
meaning of a beautiful woman," and applies to the goddess
of treasure and piety in the Khorda Avesta, where she is
described as inhabiting a king's palace, or as pursued by
her enemies the cloud dragons. 3 Ashis or Vashti is the
goddess of wealth and truth, sister of the archangels, and
mistress of Wisdom. Jewish tradition as preserved in the
Targums on Esther would have us to understand that
Vashti was commanded to appear naked at the banquet,
shorn of her glory in the king's presence and the indi- ;

cations thus preserved, concerning Esther and Vashti, are

of the greatest value, as they seem clearly to indicate a
connection with the moon goddess who is forsaken, and
the dawn maiden (Esther) whom the king loves, and who
4
gives "light" to the righteous.
1
Herod, i.
105-131, iii. 5.
2 " Khorda Avesta." Cf. "Zool. " Aban Yasht.'
Mythol," i. pp. 99-101 ;
" Khorda " Ashi
3
Avesta," xxxiii. ; Yasht." Cf. " Zool. Mythol.," i. 109.
4
Cf. "Lit. Rem. E. Deutch," p. 96.
200 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

The who is named Ahasuerus, seems, in connection

king,
with the above-mentioned goddesses, to be the sun-king,
whose palace the Persian Ashis inhabits (in the Khorda
"
Avesta) : his palace the lily," reminding
is called Shushan,

us (although such a palace did really exist) of the lotus-

throne of the Indian sun-god Vishnu, or of Horus on his
Nile lily. The palace garden or paradise is hung with
white and blue, with purple, silver, and gold. The floor is
of red, blue, white, and black l and the paradise thus ;

described resembles that of the Aryan hymns the eastern

paradise of the sunrise, with blue sky, red aurora, white,

black, and purple clouds.
The cousin and friend of Esther is Mordecai, whose
name at once suggests the Babylonian Marduk, the god
who fights the dragon. 2 In Esther and Mordecai (regarded
as planets) we have the two fortunes -the star of Venus,
and the Assyrian Jupiter Marduk. The confusion of the
planet Venus with the Aryan dawn-goddess of the Persians
we know to have occurred in the person of Anahita, and
the same fusion of ideas is found in the Hebrew Esther, at
once a river and a star.

The enemy of these two benifics is Haman, son of

Hammedatha, who is in the Greek version symbolised as a
whom Mordecai, another dragon, contends.
dragon against
The name Haman is in Sanskrit that of the planet Mercury, 3
and his parent's name Hammedatha
appears in the book of
Daniel as that of a god or goddess, who is the " desire of
women." 4 Mercury in Persia was apparently a
god of
night and winter akin to the great Dragon against whom
Thraetona fights by aid of Anahita. We have thus four

1
Esther i. 6. Cf. Lenormant's '

3
Origines," p. 545.
"Gesen Lexicon." *
Dan. xi. 37.
6 " Tir Yasht and
Aban Yasht."
 THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS. 201

characters, Vashti, Esther, Mordecai, and Haman, easily

identified mythical, with the moon, the dawn,
as the
benific Jupiter, and the wintry Mercury or Hermes. The
Greek version appears to epitomise the whole story of the
"
struggle between Esther and Haman in these words Lo, :

a day of darkness and obscurity the light and the sun. . .

rose up, and the lowly were exalted." l Thus, whether

consciously mythical or merely an adaptation of an older
myth to the traditions of the Jewish race, the book of
Esther was evidently once regarded as having an esoteric
meaning ;
and its story is that of the return of light and of

spring at the Equinoctial season, following the dark days

of oppression, and the fast of Esther.
Other mythical origin occur in the Aramaic
stories of

chapters of the book of Daniel, and appear also to be

derived, like the legend of Esther, from Persia. The book
of Danielis the latest in the Old Testament, and was never

reckoned by the Jews as of equal authority with the

prophets. The original Hebrew chapters are not earlier
than about 1 68 B.C., and .the ignorance of Persian history
shown by the author is the despair of apologists. Darius,
"the Mede," is confused with Cyrus, 2 with Darius L, and
with Darius Nothus, son of Xerxes, 3 and is, in the Aramaic
chapters, made to take Babylon from Belshazzar, son of
Nebuchadnezzar, whereas we now know that Cyrus when
4

he took Babylon defeated a certain Nabonahid, who

had been made king by the Magi, and that Belshazzar
was a prince not a monach, and son, not of Nebu-
chadnezzar, but of Nabonahid.
in If Daniel lived
the time of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Hebrew text states,
he cannot have been alive in the time of Darius, son
1 2 8
Greek Esther xi. 8. Dan. v. 31, ix. i. Dan. vi. 28, ix. i.
4
Dan. v. 10-31. " Records of
Cf. the Past," vol. v.
202 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

of Xerxes, 178 years later. The author, in short, was not

conversant with Persian history, and his anachronisms
existence
agree with his supposed prophecies, and with the
of an Aramaic commentary, in stamping his work as one

of the political allegories of a late age which abounded in

similar productions. The prophecies of the Hebrew
chapters refer most distinctly to the Hasmonean period,
and those of the Aramaic commentary to the power of
Rome, which is represented, not as in the times of the
early Hasmoneans as the friend and protector of the saints,
but as in the time of Pompey, or of Titus, making war and
prevailing against them.
1
Unless we accept the Book of
Daniel as prophetic we must regard the Aramaic chapters
as not having been written at least before the conquest
of Jerusalem by Pompey in the year 63 B.C.; and this per-

haps accounts for the Jewish admission that Daniel and

Esther, Ezekiel and the minor prophets, were composed by
the men of the great synagogue who succeeded Ezra. 2
Greek words, we may note, are found irr the Aramaic
3
chapters of Daniel, and the Kabbala first appears in his
calculations of sepharim or "numbers," 4 while the Aramaic

chapters contain several stories of mythical origin Daniel

himself appearing in a character similar to that of the
Persian Zarathustra, round whose name the sun myths early
clustered. The very name of Daniel is probably a variation
of Dan-el, " the judge god," the Assyrian Daian Nisi, or
8
"judge of men," already mentioned as being the sun himself.
The three children thrown into the fiery furnace, and
escaping unhurt, are probably the three brethren of the
Persian Yasna, the Vedic three sun-gods. have seen We
how the Rabbis relate the same story of Abraham, 6 and
2
1
Dan. vii. 21. Cf. I Mace. viii. I. "Tal Bab Baba Bathra," I5a.
8 Lenormant's "Divination," p. 174. *
Dan. ix. 2. Cf. Eccles. i. 9.
8 6
Cf. chaps, iii. iv., pp. 46, 66. Cf. chap. ii. p. 30.
 THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS. 203

how, in Aryan myths, the sun is thus thrown into the fire

of sunset. In later Persian legends the Magi are said to

have so thrown Zarathustra into a whence he escaped
fire,
"
unhurt. The three are guarded by their angel, the Son of

God," who is, no doubt, the Zendic Mithra, God

of Light.
The dream of the great tree again very clearly con-
is
"
nected with Persia. The watcher," who decides its fate,
1

isapparently one of the Fravardin or guardian angels which

attached themselves to trees and springs, not less than to
men and beasts. In the Bahman 2
Yasht, Zarathustra sees
a tree of gold, silver, steel, and iron, symbolizing four
ages preceding the coming of the deliverer, just as in
another vision in the Book of Daniel four parts of the
image of and iron symbolize the four
gold, silver, bronze,
kingdoms preceding the Kingdom of God.
The transformationof a king into a cherub, 4 having lion's

claws, eagle's wings, and the body of an ox, might probably

also be paralleled in Persia as it is in India, where the

proud king, Visva-Mitras, wanders as a monster in the

6
forest. The change is indeed the old one of the hero of
day into a man-bull at night, as in Egyptian or Assyrian
myths and it is from
;
this same source that the various
" "
versions of the story of the proud king are derived, in-
cluding the Talmudic tale of Solomon's deposition by
Asmodeus.
Daniel in the lions' den may, in like manner, be com-
pared with Zarathustra delivered to wild animals by the
Magi, and escaping unhurt a story founded on the old
6

myth of the sun's escape from the fierce cloud animals. In

the Greek additions (which, from their puns, seem to have
1 Dan. iv. 13.
2 " Bahman 2 " Sacred Book of the East,"
Yasht," i. ; v. p. 192.
8 *
Dan. ii. 31. Dan. iv. 33. Cf. "Zool. Mythol.," ii. 426.
6 Du Perron's
"
Anquetil Zendavesta," Introduction.
204 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

been originally written in that language and not translated)

we find Daniel warring, like Zarathustra, against the Magi,
and, like Thraetona, he slays a dragon. In such tales we
see no longer conscious and intelligent myths, but merely
the repetition of Persian legends, adapted to traditionary
Hebrew heroes, and in no way superior to those legends of
the Rabbinical literature which relate the adventures of
Solomon or the history of King Og.
The story of Bel and the dragon is, however, a variant of
a much older myth, for on Assyrian tablets we find the
solar hero slaying the dragon in a precisely similar manner
by casting his fiery globe (a sword which pointed to the
four quarters of heaven like that which guarded Eden) into
the very mouth of his foe, as Daniel casts the pitch ball
into the dragon's mouth in the Jewish tale. The later
writer has, however, taken the occasion of this narrative to

expose the trickery of Babylonian priests, and, ignorant of

the origin of the story, uses it only to point a moral. 1
The Book of Tobit
generally supposed to belong to
is

the third century but being written in Greek, was

B.C.,

never admitted into the Hebrew canon. The ignorance of

Persian and Babylonian history is quite equal to that exhi-
bited by the author of the Book of Daniel. Sennacherib
is represented as dying seventeen years earlier than he
2
actually did. Nebuchadnezzar and Xerxes are said to
destroy Nineveh by mistake for Nabopolassar and
3
Cyaxeres. The river Tigris is placed half way between
Nineveh and Ecbatana (Teheran), 4 and the inaccuracies thus
to be detected are those common to all the later
Jewish books,
such as Esther, Daniel, or the yet later Judith, in which

Holophernes, a Persian general, commands the armies of

1
''Bel and the Dragon," 27 " Transactions Bib. Arch. Society," vol. v. p. 2.
;

2 *
Tobit i. 21. Tobit xiv. 15. 4
Tobit vi. i.
 THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS. 205

Nebuchadnezzar. This last-mentioned book is a religious

novel rather than a mythical story, and is supposed by
Renan l to have been written about 75 A.D. It therefore
requires no notice in the present chapter.
The story of Tobit is a pure myth, probably founded
on an Aryan story learned by the Jews in Babylon, and
adapted to Jewish ideas with a Jewish hero. Tobiel, or
" "
the good god," is the good," and his son
father of Tobit,
"
again is Tobiah, the good Jehovah," who is the hero of the
story. These three resemble the three sun-heroes, whom
we have already met so often in previous myths. Tobit is
represented as righteous and merciful, a giver of bread,
who buries the dead and feeds the hungry. He becomes
blind (for a time) like Isaac, but is nourished by Achiach-
"
arus, whose name means simply the younger brother,"
thus recalling the twins of former myths.
We
are next introduced to Sara, daughter of Raguel,
who is possessed by a devil. She is the legitimate de-
"
scendant of Sara, the princess," Abraham's wife and ;

" "
Raguel is that same friendly god who in the myth of
Moses represents the male moon. 2 The demon Asmodeus
"
is the Persian Ashima Daeva, or god of destruction," the

enemy of Serosh, angel of prayer, who is famous in the

Rabbinical stories of Solomon, and is mentioned in the

Book of Kings as worshipped by the men of Hamath. 3

For the rescue of Sara from this demon, and to recover the
"
lost treasure left at Rhagae (Teheran), the third brother,"
Tobiah, sets forth East. Treasure is always sought at

night or in Hades, and found in the East at the rising of

the sun, when gold and silver are brought up from below
the horizon. The traveller is accompanied on his journey
1 " Les Evangiles," p. 29. 2
Cf. iv. p. 60.
Chap.
3
2 Kings xvii. 20 j
" "Tal Bab
Vendidad," x. 13 ; Gittin," 68a, b.
206 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

who proves to be Raphael,

by an unknown companion,
one of the seven archangels, who are but the Persian Am-
This guardian angel is accom-
shashpands in Jewish garb.
an incident of purely Persian character,
panied by his dog,
for the is an outcast among Semitic races, but was
dog
sacred to the Persians ;
and in the Vendidad we find the

soul's guardian angel accompanied by her dog. It is pro-

bably the old Vedic moon-dog,

1
who guides the sun by

night, that has thus become the follower of the Persian

angel and the dog of Raphael, together with the eastern

;

direction of Tobiah's journey, is an indication of the noc-

turnal character of the pilgrimage.
The fish which leaps up at Tobiah is not less familiar in

Aryan mythology. The heart of the fish is eaten by the

princess in many Aryan
stories at the time of her marriage
and before the birth of her children. 2 The demon which
opposes marriage thus conquered by the fish's heart, and
is

the idea of the possession of women by such jealous demons

is very common in Oriental tradition. 3 Asmodeus flees to

Egypt, that is, to the far west, and is bound for a time by
the angel, as Serosh also in Persia defeats Ashima 4 but as ;

the myth refers to ever-recurring phenomena, it is evident

that a new Tobiah must rescue a new Sara continually
while day and night endure. The demon oppresses Sara
on seven nights, when she was to marry seven husbands.
Her marriage is celebrated with Tobiah for fourteen nights,
and again in the west for seven nights. These twenty-
eight nights give us the lunar month, the seven nights of
the demon's power being those of the dark quarter.
The moon-princess being thus set free, and the treasure
found, Tobiah returns west in triumph, and the eyes of Tobit
1 2 "
Cf. Chap. iv. p. 71, Cf. Appendix A, The Fish."
*
Cf. Lenormant's " Origines," p. 323.
4
"Serosh Yasht," II
 THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS. 207

are opened the angel is manifested in glory as one of the

;

seven spirits the Persian Amshashpands (who are seven

in all); and the joy of this return contrasts with the weep-

ing which precedes the eastern journey.

It is almost unnecessary to give a formal explanation of

this myth, which so closely resembles many before noticed.

The sun goes east at night, he marries the moon and brings
back west at dawn the treasure of the aurora he fights
;

the demon and defeats him for a time ;

but he has again
to repeat his journey east, for the command of his father
"
is thus worded Bury me decently
: . . . but tarry no longer
in Nineveh. Remember, my son, how Aman (the enemy of
'

Esther) handled Achiacharus (the younger brother ') . . .

how of light he brought him into darkness, and how he

rewarded him again. Yet Achiacharus was saved, but the
other had he went down into darkness." 3
his reward, for

The last words of the myth thus seem to set a seal on its
solar character, and to connect it with the equally Persian
"
legend of Esther, the hind of dawn."
In treating of Bible myths, we have studiously avoided
any reference to Greek mythology, as the Hellenic tales
grew up side by side with the Hebrew legends, deriving in
many cases from common sources Aryan, Phoenician, and
Egyptian. The Jews probably took none
of their myths
from the Greeks, but the Greeks derived many of theirs
"
from Semitic sources. high Baal ")
Bellerophon (perhaps
isakin in some respects to Joseph Arion recalls Jonah ; ;

Deucalion and Kadmus are Noah and Adam Iphegeneia ;

is but Jephthah's daughter and Euridike resembles Lot's

;

wife. To trace the connection of Greek and Semitic folk-

lore would, however, require a chapter to itself, and the
author may perhaps find occasion in another volume to
3 Tobit xiv. 10.
 2o8 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

consider more fully the legends of Assyria

and Phoenicia,
of the Greeks and the Arabs and the Rabbis, of Semitic
nations in short, and those they influenced other than the

early Hebrews and Christians.

A few words be added to the present chapter con-
may
cerning the Alexandrian literature of the same period.

Of the Sibylline oracles and the Egyptian beliefs concern-

ing the future, we have spoken in preceding chapters. The

idea of the Logos, which becomes so important in connec-
tion with Christianity, is peculiarly Egyptian and although ;

the Greek word probably borrowed from Plato, the idea

is

of the manifestation of God in the Word appears to be in-

"
timately connected with the Indian Buddha or enlightened
one," the final emanation of Vishnu, or the final ideal of
human apotheosis.
In Persia, Wisdom is an attribute of the female
angel
Ashi, who inspires the prophets and the religion of Zara-
;

thustra is in the Din Yasht invoked in language akin to

"
that of Hebrew Rise from thy place, go out of
literature :

thy house, thou wisdom created by Mazda the most just ;

if thou art before tarry for me, if behind return unto me." *

In such language we see the germ of the idea of a Holy

Spirit of religious wisdom emanating from God, which is
to be compared with the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs 2
building a house of seven pillars (the seven Persian spirits
of God), and directing men in the Path of Life the straight

way, which among the Aryans was a spiritualisation of the

old Rita (or Asha) path, whereby the sun travelled un-
erringly by night and day. Wisdom or Vohumanu (good
thought) is indeed the first of the emanations of Ahura,

1
"Din Yasht," 2. Cf. "Bundahish," i.
25; "Sacred Books of East,"
" Mihir
v. p. 9 ; Yasht," 126.
Prov. viii. 22 ; ix. I. Cf. Beal's "
Legend of Buddha," p. 216.
 THE GREEK AND HERODIAN PERIODS. 209

"
and she beside the great Mithra as Kista or religious
sits

knowledge." In the Book of Job this Wisdom is perhaps

by a Hebrew writer of the Persian period ;
l
first mentioned

but in the later Book of Wisdom, written probably at

Alexandria in the second century B.C., it becomes identified

with the Word, which is described as a sword which leaps

down from the throne of God, 2 while in the Wisdom of Sirach
it issues from the mouth of God.
3
The Logos and the figure
of Wisdom are thus identified in the Alexandrian system,
and symbolise the true teaching supposed to have been
revealed by God and taught by prophets. The idea is

quite distinct from that of the Messiah, and in the Wisdom

of Sirach the existence of such a Saviour appears to be
denied. 4 The two
conceptions were confused together at a
later period, but the Alexandrian conception of the Word

of Wisdom is generally characteristic of Egyptian Judaism,

while the doctrine of the Messiah is peculiar to the Judaism
of Palestine.
The Book of Wisdom is perhaps the most interesting
production of the Greek period. The great figure of the
Logos, the power and Holy Spirit standing before the
throne of God, is the central idea of the work. 5 There are
many expressions and doctrines which are exactly similar
to those of the Zendavesta, but others, though very Aryan
in tone, are notfound in Persian writings still existent, and
may be referred to Buddhist influence. Immortality is of
God, says the writer, and death the creation of the devil. 6
7
The soul is purified by transmigration, the good live for
ever, the wicked are blown away by the wind. 8 The Spirit

8
1
Job xxviii. 12. Wisdom xviii. 15, 16.
8 4
Eccles. xxiv. 3. Eccles. xxiv. 24.
6
5
Wisdom vii. 25 ; ix. 4, 17. Wisdom ii.
23, 24.
7
Wisdom iv. 16. 8
Wisdom v. 15, 23. Cf. Job xxvii. 21.

O
210 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
1
of God exists in all things (an approach to Pantheism) ;
the
Old Testament history has an allegorical meaning; the
high priest's garment typifies the world, and his breastplate
the glory of the fathers. 2 From such expressions we learn
how deeply the Jewish mind of Alexandria was imbued
with foreign doctrines of Aryan origin, and how irksome
the old orthodoxy had become to those who, without the

courage necessary to set aside their ancient beliefs,

endeavoured to harmonise Hebrew scriptures with Greek
philosophy, to explain away laws which they were daily
breaking, to discover an inner mystic meaning in the

forgotten myths, and to allegorise the Pentateuch into

accordance with Indian sophistry. It is the same struggle
of the mind against the force of habit and early education

which, in our own times, we see evidenced in the attempt

to reconcile critical exegesis with orthodox belief, and to

explain the cosmogony of Genesis in accordance with the

ascertained facts of modern physical science.

See Appendix A, " Robes."

1
Wisdom xviii. 25. 2
 CHAPTER XII.

THE ESSENES.

IN the year 477 B.C. (according to the calculation of

Professor Max Muller),
1
honoured and surrounded by
disciples, and at a good old age, died the man whose name
forms the central feature of a religion professed by nearly
a third of the human race. Born of the Sakya family, of
the Gautama clan, son of a king of Kapilavastu, at the foot
of the Nepal mountains north of Oude, he left his royal
state, his young wife and child, to become a Muni or Sage,
and was credited with the attainment to the condition of a
Buddha or " enlightened one." His proper name appears
to have been possibly Siddartha 2 (" he whose wish is ful-
filled ") but historically he is better known as the Gautama
;

Buddha, the Sakya-Muni, or Tathagata, "he who should

3
come;" the last title being due to the belief already
mentioned as common in India, of the coming of a religious
teacher who should be universally accepted.
The life of Gautama Buddha has been so overladen with
the tradition and myth of later times that it is almost im-
possible to rely on any of its facts as certain, or to dis-

tinguish the real from the legendary. Even in the old

Gathas, which may perhaps date back almost to his own
times,
4
the supernatural element already appears. The
sun-myth has swallowed up the personality of the greatest
1 " Selected Cf.
" Hibbert
Essays," vol. ii.
p. 191, Lecture, 1881," p. 126.
2 " Selected 3 "
Essays," vol. ii. p. 204. Beal's Legend of Buddha," p. 5.
4
"Chips," vol. i.
p. 301.
212 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

of Indian religious teachers almost as completely as it has

of Cyrus, or
overgrown the figure of Moses, or of Jesus,
Alexander the Great.
In the case of the Buddha, the origin of the myths is
"
easily discovered ;
for Buddha, or the enlightened one,"
was the ninth incarnation of the sun-god Vishnu ;
l and

many of the tales afterwards related of Gautama Buddha

belong to the legendary literature of Brahminism, and were
originally told of Rama, or of Krishna, the most
famous of
the Avatars or incarnations of the mighty Vishnu. The
main outline of the career of Siddartha is, however, clearly
authentic. At an
early age and melancholy
his gentle

mind was oppressed with the great pity for sin and sorrow,
which is the keynote of his teaching, and the ultimate
reason of his success. The sick, the old, and the dead
could not be hidden from the young prince, 2 even when
surrounded by the prosperity of his father's court, in the
strength and glory of his early manhood ; and the contem-
plation of the stern facts of human existence drove him to
the recognition of the vanity of earthly joys and ambitions,
and to the earnest study of the great question, how, for
himself and for others, an escape might be found from
sorrow and suffering.
In his twenty-ninth year he left his sleeping wife Yaso^
dara and his young son Rahula, and, raising the net of his
chamber, he went forth from his palace and fled to the
forests, to assume the yellow garb of the hermit, the shaven
head and the begging bowl. 3 To his followers this first act
"
of his career is known as the great renunciation," but it
was not the most peculiar feature of his life, for the retreat
1
"Hibbert Lecture, 1881," p. 142 ; Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," p. 100.
2
Cf. "Legend of Buddha," pp. 115-120; "Selected Essays," vol. i.
p.
^37, vol. ii., p. 197.
8
Beal's "
Legend of Buddha," p. 132.
 THE ESSENES. 213

to the forest of kings and noble Brahmins, who had fulfilled

their duty to the state by marriage and the birth of a child,
was of common occurrence in much earlier times. 1 The
idea of retreat from the world, of ascetic discipline, and of
the contemplative life, was familiar to the Aryans centuries
before the time of Gautama. The true originality of
Gautama's religion is found in his second renunciation,
when, after long study under several masters, and after
searching in vain for peace and truth in the weaning of his
own self from the world, he suddenly threw aside the

ambition of personal perfection, the selfishness of an aspira-

tion to exclusive salvation, and boldly proclaimed the new

duty of devoting life to the comfort and help of all who

sorrow and sin, without distinction of caste or of race, of
2
age or sex, of good or evil life.
It was not the institution of a new order of hermits : it

was not the preaching of a new system of philosophy, or of

new ideas concerning God and the future, which formed the
essence of his message to mankind. The idea of Karman,
or the physical consequences of action, was older than the

days of Gautama.
3
The desire of Nirvana, or "blowing
out," which, from the original idea of rest, peace, and un-
4
,

changing happiness, has

developed into the gloomy
Nihilism of later philosophy, was not discovered by Sid-
5
dartha. It is found in the Upanishads, where the attain-
"
ment of the condition of Brahman is described When all

desires that dwell in the heart cease, then the mortal

becomes immortal." We may even suppose that the same

1
Cf. "Hibbert Lecture, 1878," p. 354-5; Dubois' "People of India," p.
257.
2
Rhys Davids' "Buddhism;" Beal's "Legend of Buddha," p. 226.
3
"Selected Essays," vol. ii.
p. 494.
4
Ibid., pp. 280-306.
5
"Hibbert Lecture, 1878," p. 336.
2i 4 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

doctrine is indicated by the name of Osiris, given to the

righteous dead in Egypt, and with its attendant dogma of
it is probably one of the oldest of Aryan
transmigration,
beliefs.

The essence of Buddhism is found in none of these

beliefs or practices. The distinctive doctrine which caused
Guatama to be regarded by other teachers as a dangerous

heretic, is that which has obtained the name Maitri,

1

" "
answering to the Charity of the Pauline epistles a love
which includes in its wide sympathy not only self and those

dearest to self, mother and father, sister and brother, wife

and child, but also, and not
those who, in less dearly, all

this transitory world, are in sorrow, sickness, sin, or any

other infirmity. A
passion of pity which renounced the
search of personal happiness, which threw aside all the pre-

judices of caste and custom, to teach to even the most

"
despised and degraded the four sacred truths sorrow, the
reason of sorrow, the cure of sorrow, the way of escape
from sorrow" 2 which, in his own heart, the teacher believed
himself to have comprehended. It is in such a fable as
that of the dead child and the mustard seed 3 that the cause
of Gautama's world-wide fame is to be recognised, and we
cannot but admire genius -of the most divine description,
in the great figure of the man who could thus dare to cast
down all was most prized by the righteous of his time,
that
all that was proclaimed most necessary to salvation, in
order that he might stretch out a helping hand to his fellow-
men, and lessen, if but by a little, the unhappiness of the
poor, the sick, and the sinful.
"
It is for this one reason that the memory of Him who
"
should come is so dear to so many millions twenty-three
1 " Selected Essays," 2 "
a
ii.
p. 209. Rhys Davids' Buddhism."
"Selected Essays," ii.
p. 309.
 THE ESSENES. 215

centuries after his death, and that he is called in the

1
earliest Buddhist writings, "the Great Physician," "the
" 2
Light of the World," the Lion of the tribe of Sakia."
"
Heaven and earth," says the Buddha, " shall pass away,
but my word shall not fail." 3 His religion is called the
4 5
Kingdom of Righteousness ;
the way of life, the Spiritual
6
Kingdom. His antagonists are blind leaders of the blind ;

and the excellent wheel of the law to use a peculiarly

Buddhist expression likened to a precious pearl. 7 The
is

parables of Gautama are the oldest and most widely known

in the world, and the straight path of his teaching is com-

pared with the unerring course of the sun. His birth was
ordained "to give peace and rest to all flesh, and to re-
move all sorrow and grief from the world." 8
But round the figure of Siddartha, so divine in its pity,
so human wonders and myths of
in its pathetic love, the

the older religion soon gathered, in a land where the love

of the marvellous had so strong a fascination for men. The
earliest gathas, which were most probably in existence in

the third century the time of the third great

B.C., at
Buddhist council seventeenth year of Asoka (the
in the

Constantine of Buddhism), contain the germ of those

numerous legends which form the husk enclosing the one
great truth of Maitri. He who " gave up His life for all
" 9
creatures is represented as sitting in heaven, and
willing
as a god to be born once more (the Buddha Avatar of

Vishnu) to teach mankind. He enters the right side of the

" a
Legend of Buddha," p. 138. Ibid., p. 16.
4
Ibid., p. 138. Ibid., p. 142; cf. 348.
348; "Mythol. Des Plantes," p. 83.
Ibid., pp. 143, 175, 250,
"
"Legend of Buddha," p. 106. Cf. Upanishads," quoted in "Hibbert
" Hibbert
Lecture, 1878," p. 335 ; Lecture, 1881," p. 59.
8
"Legend of Buddha, "p. 168. Ibid., p. 33.

Ibid., p. 9.
 21 6 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

virgin mother, heralded by the songs of angels and the

appearance of a great light. He is born under the Palasa

tree,worshipped by the four angel kings of the world, pro-

nounced a future Buddha by the aged saint Asita. He
walks seven steps (like Vishnu's stride), and announces that
he has
"
finished his course."
x
He is wrapped as a child
in swaddling clothes,
2
but in his early childhood he
astonishes his teachers by his knowledge. He
tempted is

in the desert by Mara, the Indian devil, whom

he defeats,

rejecting his offers of food and of universal monarchy on

earth. the sun-gods, he fights with a dragon, and
Like all

he passes with dry feet over the water. He is credited

with knowing the thoughts of his disciples, 3 and feeds them

miraculously with unexpected food. He inculcates on the

order which he founds the duties of poverty, purity, and
love to mankind, and the rites of baptism by fire and water.
He ascends in a chariot to heaven 4
after having descended
to hell. Women minister to him and anoint him, the rich

young man comes to him, and is bidden to sell all that he

has and give to the poor. He receives the child whom his

disciples would drive away he carries the wounded lamb

;

in his arms he restores sight to the blind, while thosejwho

;

touch him are instantly cured. He was believed to have re-

appeared in a luminous form after death, and like Siva or
5

Mitra, he stands with a shining body on the mountain. The

garments of his followers are spread in the way, a glory sur-
rounded his head, and the prints of his sacred feet are still
adored. His ten commandments are among the most per-
fect of moral codes, 6 and his eight-fold pathis a true reli-

1 3
"Legend of Buddha," p. 44. Ibid., p. 42.
8 " Hibbert 1 88 1," 4
Lecture, p. 144. "Legend of Buddha," p. 313.
5 " Selected " Hibbert
Essays," ii. 222. Sutta Nepata. Cf. Lecture, 1881,''
6
P. 173- "Selected Essays," ii. 247.
 THE ESSENES. 217

gion. "Right thought, right feeling, right speech, right

act. Right living, right striving, right remembrance, and
right meditation," these are the things he taught.
1
"To
cease from sin, to attain goodness, to cleanse one's own
"
heart this is the religion of the Buddhas ; and the
golden rule, to do as one would be done by, was known
not only to Gautama, but to the teachers who preceded
him, and who taught the three truths of right thought,
2
word, and deed.
Now, in thus enumerating the maxims of Gautama and
the legends of his life, we cannot fail to be struck, as others
have been, with the close similarity in both to the tone of
the New Testament. The fundamental idea of Buddhism
and of Christianity is the same, and it is found in the
"
words, Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." 3 The question which
demands an answer is, therefore, whether the similarity
arises from an independent development under like circum-
stances of the same ideas in India and in Palestine, or
whether there is a historical connection between the two reli-
gions. Many authorities have adopted the former view; and
had been the case that the two systems agreed in their
it

morality but had no similarity of tradition, or that while their

traditions were identical their moral teaching was different,
then we might
explain the parallelism without supposing
any actual historical connection. It seems, however, im-
possible for the impartial student, in face of the double
parallelism of legend and teaching, to suppose that the
two religions are quite unconnected ; and, instead of striv-
ing to maintain the independence of Christianity, our efforts
should rather be directed to patient study of the historical
1
Rhys Davids' "Buddhism."
2
"Hibbert Lecture, 1878," p. " Tal Bab
354. Cf. Sabbath," 3ia; Levit.
3
xix. 1 8 ;
Yasht xxi. Matt. xi. 28.
2 i8 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

process,whereby the language, no less than the ideas, of

Indian Buddhism became familiar six centuries later in the
mouths of Hebrew writers.
That Buddhism should have borrowed from Christianity
is rapidly becoming an untenable
idea. The legend of
Buddha is traced back on the topes and in the Lalita Vis-

tara possibly to an hundred years before Christ, and the

1

most important ideas of Buddha's teaching are found

already in the earliest Pitakas, about 350 B.C. might We
as well maintain that Christianity had borrowed the mono-
theistic idea from the faith of Islam as argue that Buddhist
doctrines or rites were learned from early Christian teachers.
The differences in the history of Gautama and of Jesus, no
less than the differences in some of their beliefs, are of the

highest value as indicating the actual existence of these two

teachers to have been a historical fact. That which was
borrowed by one teacher from the other must have come
from the elder to the later, and that which is non- Jewish
or anti-Jewish in Christianity must, if not original, have
been derived from some other religion of earlier date.
It is true that much has been written about Buddhism in

the west which entirely and mischievously ignorant and

is

false. Ignorant Because the words Budha, bode, and bud are

confused with the distinct word Buddha, and false as con-

taining glaring anachronisms and unwarranted assumptions.
Nevertheless, there is evidence of the wide and early spread
of Buddhism from its Indian centre, and of the familiarity
of early Christians with Buddhist ideas, while the similari-
1
"Legend of Buddha," vii. ; "Selected Essays," ii.
pp. 195, 258. Cf.
" Hibbert
p. 191. Lecture, 1881," pp. 43, 51.
The date of the Lalita Vistara much disputed, and even placed as late
is as
the sixth century A.D.; but a Buddha was translated from Sanscrit
life of to
Chinese (and still exists) about 190 A.D. (Beal), and a life of Buddha exists in
the Vinaya Pitaka (350 B.C., Rhys Davids). The legends are akin to those of
the Yashts (500-200 B.C.).
 THE ESSENES. 219

ties of ritual which so astonished the Catholic Hue may be

shown to be not merely fortuitous but historical necessities.
The bold march of Alexander across Western Asia to the
Hindu Kush and the Indus led to consequences far more
important than the transitory conquests of his army. The
Greeks became interested in Indian philosophy, and the
hermits of India were treated by the great conqueror with
no less consideration than the priests of Jerusalem claim to
have been. Plato, we learn from Cicero, obtained celestial
knowledge from Egyptian priests, who appear in turn to
1

have owed much in later times of their history to their

Aryan Pythagoras instituted customs
relations in Asia.

distinctly Indian in character, and his name even has been

"
supposed to be the Sanskrit Budha-goru or teacher of

knowledge." The trade of India with Antioch, and through

Arabia with Egypt, was of very ancient origin, and it was
along the trade routes that Alexander travelled, and with
the trading caravans that philosophers and missionaries

journeyed. It was scarcely possible that Brahminism

should materially affect the western nations so long as

the idea of caste forbade the Brahmin to cross the sea or
to eat foreign food ;
but Buddhism was the first mission-

ary religion, and throwing off the prejudices of caste, it

sought to influence the whole world from the first day that
Gautama sent forth his disciples to teach the new laws of love.
It appears probable, indeed, that the development of that
free thought among the Hindus which culminated in the
Buddhist system was in great measure due to increased
acquaintance with the civilisation of Western Asia. The
Indian alphabets were introduced about the time of
Gautama, and the period of the extension of the creed
geographically coincides with that of Greek domination and
1
Cicero " De Finibus," v. 25.
220 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

of the succeeding establishment of rulers who had been in

1
contact with Greek civilisation.

Historically, we know that King Asoka in the third cen-

travel in all
tury B.C. permitted the missionary ascetics to
lands. 2
In 217 B.C. a Buddhist missionary had already
reached China. In 65 A.D. Buddhism was recognised by
the Emperor Ming-ti as the third religion of the Chinese

empire, and eleven years later the Lalita Vistara, contain-

ing Gautama's legendary life, had been translated into
Chinese. 3 Gaotima the heretic is mentioned in the Yashts 4
as an enemy with whom the man loving Wisdom holds con

troversy, and the Buddhist religion, had already obtained a

footing in the western part of Iran as early at least as the
second century before Christ. Clemens of Alexandria in
the third century of our era knew that Buddhist monks and
nuns worshipped the bones of their master in their topes ;

and Porphyry speaks of their dress, their tonsure, and their

monastic rules. Saint John of Damascus in the eighth
century was acquainted with the legend of Buddha and ;

under the name of Josaphat, Gautama has actually become a

Christian saint, to whom the 2/th of November is dedicated
in the Roman Martyrology.
5

Another probable indication of the influence of Buddhism

on the west is to be found in the appearance of monastic
orders in Egypt and Palestine in the second century before
the Christian era. The idea of celibacy is considered by
competent authorities to be a development of the
late
6
Egyptian religion. In the earlier periods of her history
the wives and daughters of priests appear as honourable

1
Cf. Earth's "Religions of India," p. 129; Taylor's "Alphabet," vol. ii.

pp. 308, 313, 316-7.

"Chips," vol. i.
p. 257. Ibid., p. 258.
" Fravardin " Selected
5
Yasht," 16. Essays," i.
544.
15
"Ancient Egyptians," i.
333; Sharpe's "Egyptian Mythol.," p. 29.
 THE ESSENES. 221

personages, but the shaven head, the hard couch, the ascetic
1
life, are found in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies, after

Alexander had familiarized the west with the road to India.

" "
The physicians (of the soul), who placed
Therapeutae, or
the attainment of supreme happiness in the exercise of

contemplation, had long dwelt in Egypt in the time of

Philo. 2 Their asceticism is similar to that of the Indian
gymnosophists, Buddhist and Brahminical
3
and the ;

monastic idea had already found its way into Palestine in

the Hasmonean age, when the Essenes are first mentioned
4
by Josephus, while Pliny speaks of these latter as celibates
living in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, in the desert in
which St Saba and his companions afterwards retired to
caves and precipices. The monastic idea was not an in-
vention of St in the third century of our era, it
Anthony
was an Indian custom of the most remote antiquity and ;

the belief that God's favour could be compelled through

the performance of austerities is familiar in the Brahminical
literature at least a thousand years before Christ.
The history of the Indian alphabet
is a question of no

little
importance connection with
in this inquiry. The
Vedas were composed long before writing was known to
the Aryans, but as it has now been shown that the art was
obtained from Yemen as early as the sixth century B.C.,
and was known to the authors of the Sutras at that time,

there is no objection to assigning a date as early as the life-

time of Buddha to the oldest Gathas in the Lalita Vistara,

and to the original Puranas and parts of the Mahabharata
5
the great epic of India.
"
i
Egypt. Mythol.," p. 30.
2
Philo. "De Vita Contemplat.
3
Strabo "Geog.," xv.
4 18 Ant. i. 5. 2 Wars " Hist.
13 Ant. v. 9. viii. 3-13. Pliny's Nat.,"
v. 17.
5
MaxMuller's "Ancient Sanskrit Literature," p. 502; Taylor's "Alpha-
bet," ii. 316.
222 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

The name of Essenes l or Essees is perhaps the Aramaic

2
Asaya, "physicians," or possibly Hasaya, "the pious."
The sect was not confined to Palestine, but existed also
8
apparently in Asia Minor. They cannot be considered to
have been orthodox Jews since they abstained from sacri-
fice and had a special literature of their own. Yet they
were held in great veneration by the Jewish people, and
credited with powers of healing and of prophecy. They
appear to have possessed various grades in their order, and
while some (like the Brahmin in the fourth stage of his

life) were absolute ascetics, marriage was not forbidden to

others, and the birth of children was not, as among the
more degraded Gnostics, considered an evil. Fleeing frpm
towns to the country, they lived peacefully as agriculturists
and mechanics, inculcating purity of life and love towards
men. Purity of heart took the place of sacrifice gold and ;

silver were not to be covetedwar and ambition were alike

;

hated by these peaceable pietists they had no slaves, and

:

did not engage in trade they forbade swearing, and made

:

moral laws and metaphysics their chief study. In their

monastic establishments they had all things in common
under the care of a treasurer, and their frequent ablutions
and frugal meals remind us of the life of the pious Brahmin
of our own days. The was known by the white
sect

garments which its members wore and the care of the

;

sick, and simple medicine which they so charitably

skill in

employed, endeared them to the poor. They were fatalists

in their teaching,and believed in the immortality of the
soul. Their peculiar books (among which we may
perhaps
reckon the Book of Enoch) are said to have contained the
1
Cf. Josephus, 2 Wars viii.
2
Earnest Bunsen ("Angel Messiah," p. 114)
suggests a derivation from the
Syriac sAa, "to bathe" or "baptize."
3
Cf. King's "Gnostics."
 THE ESSENES. 223

" "
names of the angels and other mysteries, which might
not be revealed, and these were taught in their synagogues
by the old to the young. To the Therapeutae and Essenes
1

an early knowledge of the Kabbala is attributed, 2 and this

esoteric system is based on Indian and Persian beliefs of
remote antiquity, and grew up side by side with the Chris-
tian gnosticism with which it has much in common. Initia-

tion,baptism, and celibacy were perhaps the most pro-

minent dogmas of the Jewish Essenes, as distinguished
from the orthodox Pharisees, and these ideas they held in
common with the earliest Aryans and with the Moslem
dervishes of our own time. Josephus estimates their
number at about four thousand, and his description of their
reverence for "light," of their magic stones, and prayers
before sunrise, shows on the one hand that the sect was not
free from superstitious beliefs, while their ragged dress and
ablutions, not less than their doctrine of the bondage of the
flesh and the freedom of death, connect their teaching with
Indian asceticism.
In the Hebrew scriptures and Jewish Rabbinical literature
we be supposed to have given birth
find nothing that can
to the sect of the Essenes. When, on the other hand, we
turn to the history of Gautama the whole spirit of his

institutions, as shown in the establishment of the rules of

his order, exactly in accordance with the Essene spirit.

is
3
The teaching of the Buddha to his church was the inculca-
tion of charity, wisdom, temperance, and discipline. Like
Essenes they were commanded to shun crowded towns,
and to live in villages in quiet and retirement. They
shaved the head, wore yellow garments, and begged from
house to house as other Rishis and Santons before their
4

"
Quod omnis probus
1
Philo., liber."
2
Cf. Chiarini's
"
Prolegom.," p. 103.
3 "
Legend of Buddha," pp. 285, 340.
224 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

time offerings of meat, drink, clothes,

and received and
;

the charitable.
medicines, as did the wandering Essenes,from
to be a duty of the saint
Celibacy was accounted in India
after he had become a father and had educated his
son a

modification also observable among Essenes. Women

were, after some hesitation,
admitted into Gautama's order,
and his own wife was the first Buddhist nun. Poverty and
chastity were of the essence of the Buddhist life, but that
obedience which forbids the disciple to improve, should he
be so able, on the teaching of his master was not enforced,
1

and was indeed inconsistent with the bold originality of

Buddha's revolt against established belief.
eight-fold The
he claimed as his own discovery, not founded on the
path
Vedas, and holy life, he taught, depended on inner feeling
not on outward acts. Thus though the profession of

poverty and celibacy was conducive (in his belief) to that

" "
self-subjugation by which alone Nirvana or rest might
be attained, the merchant and the father were not excluded
by their lives from that hope of future happiness which he
held out to the poor and humble.
With the later development of Buddhist philosophy
the scepticism which denies the existence of God and of the
soul, and sees in the future annihilation only, we are not
now concerned. Such doctrines could never influence
mankind as Guatama did, in his teaching of a love which
included not only man but even " our brothers the birds
"
and our sisters the swallows nor is the unreality of all
;

which is material an idea which comes home to the poor,

the aged, and the sick. The final degradation of modern
Chinese Buddhism is not of any importance to our present
subject, for it is sufficient to know that the noble truths of
the Buddhist faith were taught five centuries before Christ,
f.
Rhys Davids' "Buddhism."
 THE ESSENES. 225

and the monastic order established with the intent to con-

vert the world, without inquiring how this beautiful system
has been misinterpreted by those Orientals of less under-
standing who have accepted the Aryan gospel.
The close connection which exists between Buddha and
Vishnu, or Buddha and Krishna, the most famous of Vishnu's
manifestations in the flesh, at once a sun-god and an
universal providence, has been already mentioned. Brah-
minical philosophy, of which Buddhism is a further develop-

ment, appears to have also found an echo in Egypt, for

among the Gnostic inscriptions of the second century of
our era various titles of Hindu gods have been recognised
in company with Abraxas and Ildebaoth. Thus Soumarta
is probably Sumitri, wife of Vishnu, in his seventh avatar,
and Nautita possibly Nauthji, who is Krishna himself.
we
Serapis, as shall see later, is also probably the Indian

Yama, and we see that whether through Iran by the great

caravan route, or through the Red Sea by the ships of the
Yemen traders, who for so many centuries had brought
Indian products the west, the philosophy and the
to

superstitions of India had penetrated to the coasts of the

Mediterranean in the early days of the Roman empire.
It is important, therefore, that our studies should not be
confined to Buddhist literature alone. However late the
Puranas in their present form may be, it is the belief of

competent students that they contain much which must be

considered very ancient and although the Indian alphabet
;

isnot older than the time of Guatama, the Brahminical

books represent the influence of the early Dravidian races
on Aryan belief and thought. Buddhist philosophy is but
a logical evolution of the less perfect systems of the
Upanishads and the Gita, and the latter work which from
the archaisms of its style and of its thought, and the
P
2 26 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

freedom of its language concerning the Vedas and the

Brahmins cannot be ascribed to a later period than the

third century B.C., contains much that is of the greatest

importance to our present subject.

"
The Bhagavad Gita, then, or divine lay," which forms

part of the Indian epic called Mahabharata, represents

Krishna as the universal providence describing his own
"
mysterious being. If I should not work," says the deity,

"these worlds would be destroyed." "I am the light."

" "
am the life." " I am quickening
I love." But me no
"
man knows." " I am the sacrifice." I am the end, the

upholder, the Lord, the ruler, the abode, the refuge, the
friend, the source." "They who drink the soma juice
(or sacramental drink), whose sins are washed away, sacri-
"
fice and pray to me for admission to heaven." They
"
dwell in me and I too in them." I am
the beginning of
"
all that moves." To those who worship with love I give
"
the knowledge whereby they attain to me." I am the
"
beginning, the middle, and the end." I am the letter A."
" "
In me ye shall surely dwell hereafter." Be not troubled
I will release you from all sin." l
To whom among us does not such language ring with a
familiar sound. Here in India five hundred years or more
before the book of Revelation and the fourth gospel were

penned, we read the words of the Incarnate Deity, who,

born of a virgin mother, was hid among shepherds, and
nailed to a cross.His name is Krishna and not Christos,
but his attributes are the same. His faithful ones after
being purified bymany births are finally to rest in him,
and worship is to be a religion of love. If, as apologists
his

would have us believe, such language was borrowed at a

1
See "Sacred Books of the East," vol. viii. (the Gita) pp. 7-34,
55, 74, 76,
83-91, 100, 129; John v. 17, xv. 7, 19, xvi. 7; Rev. i.
17.
 THE ESSENES. 227

late date from Christianity, why is India not a Christian

land,and why are the legends of the Old Testament not

holy to the Hindu as they are to the Moslem and the
Christian faithful.

Considering, then, the missionary character of Buddhism,

and the history of its diffusion in Asia, so far as it is at

present known ;
the period at which
considering also
monasticism becomes prominent along the eastern shores
of the Mediterranean, in Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor,
within two centuries of the great Council of Asoka ;

remembering the close resemblance between Essene

doctrine and custom, and the teaching and rules of
Guatama, not less than the similarity of Buddhist and Chris-
tian legends, it seems not extravagant to suppose that the
ascetic life in Palestine resulted, directly or indirectly, from
the influence of Buddhist missionaries, and that the teaching
of Guatama forms one of the principal elements in the pecu-
liar development of Judaean pietism which gave birth to
Christianity. The evidence of this connection may not

perhaps as yet be complete, and it is sincerely to be hoped

that it may hereafter be made more clear ;
but it is probably
safe to predict that the tendency of future discovery and
study be to show more and more convincingly a
will

historical sequence and growth, in which Christianity must

take only a secondary place, as a result of original
Buddhism.
On this basis the chapters which follow
be founded, will

and a detailed comparison of legends on *he one hand and

teaching on the other will, it is hoped, render more evident
the connection of the two faiths.
 CHAPTER XIII.

THE MARTYR OF GALILEE.

WE have already remarked in former chapters that the

existence of myths connected with an individual name does
not prove the mythical character of any personage, any
more than the historical fact of the existence of any person
of the myths which may have
proves the actual occurrence
of the more
gathered round him. It is a common tendency
wondrous legends to the
superstitious in all lands to attach
names of venerated teachers or famous rulers. We have
such legends in connection with Muhammed, Aly, and
other well-known historical characters, no less than with
Guatama Buddha, or Jesus of Galilee. Cyrus, Alexander,
Caesar, Augustus, Vespasian, Attila, Theodoric, Charlemagne,
and Frederic Barbarossa, 1 are historic characters yet myths ;

are well known to have overgrown their histories. Even of

Napoleon, mythical tales are told in Russia, while Crom-
well has become a legendary hero in England. The
Nibelungen legend is much older than the fifth century;
yet it has swallowed up the German heroes of that age in its

narrative. 2 Wherever, in fact, a hero's name may be found

which has no distinct mythical explanation, the existence
of a cycle of popular legends, connected with his history,

may be said to prove the fact that a personage so named

once lived, and was famous, rather than to condemn his
existence as fabulous and incredible.
1
"Zool. Mythol.," *
i.
350. Selected Essays," i. 418.
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 229

We have seen that about the time of the Christian Era

the foundation on which Christianity might rise, had already
been laid. It needed but the genius which could gather

up the many sentiments and ideas which were floating in

the minds of his contemporaries, and the martyr who
might seal his faith by his blood, to make the appearance
of a new religion possible. Muhammed, in like manner,
six centuries later, did but express thoughts which were

growing in the minds of many of his countrymen and the ;

religious genius stamps his name on the new faith, not

because he isthe original creator of its teachings, but
because, like the poet, he clothes in language, and reduces
to order the vague unuttered thoughts of his fellow-men.
The history of the great martyr, whose name is to the
west what that of Guatama is to the east, is overgrown by

legendary narratives not less mythical than those of

Buddhist tradition. It is as difficult to separate the true

incidents and actual teaching of Jesus from the popular

folk-lore connected with his career, and from the teaching

of his later disciples, as it is to distinguish Buddha from

Buddhism, and to divide sharply the teaching of Guatama
from that of his followers.
Those circumstances in which all the New Testament
books agree are more probably reliable than are the inci-
dents related by only one witness. The agreement of the
three synoptic Gospels may be taken to show a common
source of tradition earlier than existing literature, and the

Gospel of Mark, which is the true nucleus of the Palestinian

version, probably the nearest approach to the original
is

documents (whether Hebrew or Greek) that we can now

hope to Nevertheless, the supernatural has already
possess.
invaded the history of Jesus even in the earliest accounts ;

and his resurrection was credited probably within thirty

23 o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

years of his death. All that we

can gather as really authentic
of his history is his appearance in Galilee as the disciple of
his entry into in the character
John the Baptist ; Jerusalem
of Messiah; his trial by the Sanhedrin, and execution by the
Roman governor. The earliest gospel leaves his sad dis-
empty tomb, whence his body had disappeared,
ciples at the
and, without any allusion to the resurrection, concludes
"
with the suggestive words Neither said they any thing
:

*
to any man, for they were afraid."

That a Galilean teacher, believing himself to be, the

Messiah, should have thus failed the moment he came in

collision with established orthodoxy at Jerusalem, far from

life, and from the friends of
the scene of his loving his

country province, is historically so probable that we can

have no hesitation accepting the story as true.
in Many
such Messiahs arose in the same century, and all of them
failed equally. In our own days we see a Moslem Mahdy

spring up from time to time, in Syria, Arabia, or Egypt,

and gather disciples and then disappear. The Jews of the
present century are not less ready to believe in the Messiahs
who arise in Jerusalem than they were in the middle ages,
when such enthusiasts or impostors so often appeared.
We must seek therefore for some reason why, in spite of
failure, or ratherby reason of a shameful death, the fame
of Jesus of Galilee has so far exceeded that of any other

supposed Messiah, and of any Semitic teacher save perhaps

Muhammed. The belief in his resurrection may have been
one great reason, but other more important causes are to
be found. In the first place, his teaching was true and
tender, and his life like that of Guatama was devoted to his
fellow men. In the second place he possessed the divine
spark of genius, which lifts its possessor above the crowd.
1
Mark xvi. 8.
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 231

In the third he sealed his testimony with his blood, and it

is with the blood of the
martyr that the seed of the Church
is watered.
That Jesus of Galilee was an Essene, a mystic and an
ascetic, who mingled Jewish beliefs with the practice and

teaching derived, by Egyptian and Syrian hermits^ from

those of India, we have many strong indications. He was
never married, though the pious Jew considered this almost
his first duty. 1 He never recorded to have attended any
is

sacrifice, though this is of the essence of Jewish orthodoxy.

He received baptism, and his disciples also baptised, and
such lustrations were distinctive of the Essenes. He
wandered from village to village,doing good, preach-
ing the
coming Messiah, living poor and meek on
the charity of the pious ;
and such a wandering life was
common among the Essenes, and was commanded by
Guatama to his order. Jesus was moreover a disciple of

John the Baptist, whose hermit life and baptism with water,
no less than his ascetic abstinence, and the girdle which,
like the Persian Kosti or the Buddhist girdle the triple
cord of the Brahmin distinguished his scanty dress, recall
the practice at once of the Indian Bikshu, and of the
Essene monk.
The teaching of Jesus, so far as it can be distinguished
from that of his disciples, ismanner closely connected
in like

with that of the Essenes; so that Josephus has by some

been thought to describe the early Christians under the
latter name. The Essenes had all things in common, they
had no abiding city, they advocated celibacy, they were
conspicuous for their love towards one another, and by
their peaceful habits. forbade swearing, they foretold
They
the future, and they believed in the coming Messiah and
1
"Pirke Aboth," v. 21.
232 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

in his great forerunner. All these ideas are common also

to the teaching of Jesus and his immediate followers, and
are often more or less antagonistic to the principles of
Judaism. The beliefs of Jesus on the other hand, when
founded on the Hebrew scriptures, are never opposed to
the Essene spirit or custom, for the peculiarity of the
Essenes consisted in their combination of Jewish and

Indian ideas in their teaching, which not unnaturally

resulted from their residence in Palestine. The Essene
order was probably a development which grew up only
in the course of centuries out of the missionary zeal

of the early Buddhists, and which may have been only

indirectly connected with India through the Egyptian

Therapeutae.
The teaching of Jesus as set forth in the synoptics is

very differently represented by Matthew and Luke, while

but little of it found
in the older narrative of Mark.
is

Such questions as those of the Sabbath, of divorce, of

tribute, or of washing hands, though raised to factitious

importance in the controversies of the time, are singularly

uninteresting in our own days, and cannot be considered
important features of Christianity. Almost any Pharisee
or Essene might have answered the somewhat
puerile
paradox of the Sadducees as Jesus did, and even the
famous epitome of the law in the golden rule, was as
familiar to Jesus, and
Hillel was indeed only a
as' to 1

repetition of expressions in Leviticus,Deuteronomy, and

the prophecy of Micah. The new teacher announced him-
self to be sent to the lost
sheep, but this was a special
attribute of the Messiah, 2 and we are astonished on

analysing the second gospel to find how little there is of

1
"Tal Bab Sabbath, " 3ia Levit. xix. 7 Deut.
2
; ; vi. 4; Micah vi. 6, 7, 8.
Isaiah liii.
5, 6.
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 233

the essential spirit of modern Christianity in this story of

the Christ Perhaps the most important religious ex-
pression of Mark's gospel is that of the episode in which
the disciples are taught to become as little children, 1 yet
on the other hand the trace of a stern fanaticism, which
even now in India leads to self-torture and to mutilation,
is same chapter of the gospel to be recognised in the
in the

command of Jesus " If thy hand offend thee cut it off." 2

The whole argument
of the second gospel seems indeed
to be rather the demonstration that Jesus of Galilee fulfilled
all the requirements of a genuine Messiah than any attempt
to epitomise a new doctrine which he originated. It is perhaps
for this reason that the healing of the sick, the raising of

the dead, and other wonders, are considered so important

by the author, for they were signs and attributes of the

Messiah ;
and the descent from David is for a similar
reason explained away, because it could not be reconciled
with the Galilean origin of Jesus. 3
The institution of a special prayer, or of a special rite
like the Lord's Supper, be thought more distinctive of
may
the new religion. But as regards the former it contains
nothing which an orthodox Jew might not join, 4 and the
in

germ only of the Pater-Noster is found in Mark. As

regards the latter there is little to show that the Last
Supper differed in any way from the passover as celebrated
by the later Jews, unless it be in the mystic meaning said
"
to have been given to the ceremony in the words This is
my blood of the New Testament." 5
The connection which
exists between the later development of this rite and the
old Aryan Soma worship, or the ritual of Isis, may be

1 2
Mark ix 36. Mark ix. 43.
3
Mark xii. 35 ;
Psalm ex. I. Cf. Isaiah xi. I, liii. 8.
4
Cf.
" Tal Bab 5
Mark xiv. 24.
Beracoth," 2gb.
234 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

afterwards discussed ;
l
but the paschal lamb had a real
and ancient connection with the suffering Messiah, as an
emblem of the night, with which Jesus could not fail to be
at least exoterically acquainted, in studying the book of
Isaiah.
The general conclusion which seems indicated by the
above_considerations is the Essene character of the historical
Jesus. The Ebionites, or early Christians, differed, in

fact, from the Essenes only one dogma, namely in their

in

belief that Jesus of Galilee was the true Messiah, who

though dead must come again and the schism was thus
;

exactly parallel to that between the Druzes and the earlier

Ismaileh Moslems, concerning the divine incarnation which
the Druzes recognised in the Fatemite Khalif Hakem.
The original legend of Jesus appears to have grown up
very rapidly after his execution ; and this is not difficult to
understand, seeing that the elements of such tradition were
already existent. A
second generation easily transferred
to the new Messiah the attributes which had so long been

peculiar to this mystic future hero. The legends of Tndia

had come to Palestine with the teaching of Guatama, and
the occurrence of divergent versions of the birth and resur-
rection of Jesus, in various gospels, is by no means a proof
of late origin in these documents. We
may, however, for
the moment, confine our attention to those supernatural
incidents which are related by all the
evangelists, or at
least by all the synoptics, and defer the consideration of
the other stories until we come to trace the three
principal
developments of early Christianity.
The gospel of Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus
in Jordan, when the
inspiring spirit is said to have appeared
as a dove. It is curious to observe how and Jesus John
Cf. Appendix B. "The Eucharist."
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 235

appear in this narrative in a relation not unlike that of the

old Vedic Asvinau. John baptises with water; Jesus with

fire ; John decreases as Jesus increases ; John is the fore-
runner Jesus ;
is likeJacob the follower, and holds the
mystic fan of lao. The idea of a herald prophet was not
only a common Jewish belief, but it is traceable also in the

legend of Buddha, where the heavenly Brahmin Sakra (or

1

"
Mercury) runs before the infant, crying, friends, pre- My
pare the way ;
clear the road."
herald deity is also The
recognizable in Assyria as Nebo the "prophet," or pro-
claimer of the sun, who is the planet Mercury. In Greek
and Latin tradition Mercury still retains this character, and
the Indian Sakra, like the rest of the Hindu astronomical
system, appears to have been originally derived from a
Chaldean source. 2 In the Indian tradition there are many
indications of a derivation from the old Vedic myths, and
the adventures of Buddha are founded on those of Indra or
of Krishna. In India the dove is the messenger of Siva,
the god Agni, who carries the water of life, and is an
emblem of fire and of self-sacrifice. 3 The dove of Venus
thus became a not unnatural emblem of the Holy Spirit,
which, the Ebionites, was confused with the virgin
among
mother of Christ and Jesus may be said to be represented
;

also as baptized with fire, in the descent of the dove sacred

to Agni, the fire spirit. The Temptation in the desert is not
mentioned in the fourth gospel, but is briefly recorded by
Mark, and greatly elaborated by the other two evangelists.
We may note, in the first place, that similar temptations
are recorded of Zarathustra Spitama and of Guatama
Buddha and in the second place, that a sojourn among
;

1 " of
Legend Buddha," p. 52.
a
"Transactions Society Bib. Arch.," vol. iii. p. 167.
3
"Rigveda," x. 165, 2. Cf. Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," p. 37; "Zool.
Mythol.," ii. 297. Cf. Appendix A., "The Dove."
236 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
wild beasts, who do him no harm (as related of Jesus and
of Zarathustra), and a temptation by the demon at the
commencement of his career, are legends which owe their

original creation to the myth which represents the

sun-hero
as warring with the wild cloud beasts and with the dark

dragon of the night.

In the Vendidad the remains of an old Iranian epic are

preserved, relating the struggle of the prophet with Angra-

mainyus, the Persian devil.
"Evil-doing Angramainyus," says Zarathustra, "I will
smite the creation of the Daeva death. I will smite the
sorceress till the fiend-smiter Sosiosh shall be born out of
the water Kasoya, from the region of the dawn. To him

replied the Tempter, the Creator of Evil Do not destroy :

my creation, pious Zarathustra, Pourshapa's son, new-born

of thy mother. Curse the good belief in Ahuramazda ;
then shalt thou obtain such a boon as did Zohak the king.
To him replied Zarathustra Spitama : I will not curse the
good belief in Ahuramazda ; no, not if my life should
perish, andmy body and soul be divided." Thus, in 1

"
Persia, the devil shows to the prophet all the kingdoms of

the world and the glory of them, and saith unto him, All
these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and
worship me. Then saith Jesus (or Zarathustra) unto him,
Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." 2
The temptation of the Buddha under the Bo tree is
elaborated into a great poem in the Lalita Vistara, founded
on the older gathas. Like Saint Antony, Buddha resists
the allurements of voluptuous female enticement. The
devil tempts him to break his lengthy fast, and after-
first

wards to take the office of an earthly king; but in the

1
"Vendidad," xix. 5.7. Matt. iv. 8-10.
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 237

dawn, after the terrible struggle of the night, the Buddha

obtains perfect enlightenment, and the nocturnal tempta-
tion ceases while the career of Guatama immediately
;

opens in"declaring the tidings of his most excellent

doctrine." 1 Nor are the angel comforters wanting to en-
courage the Saint, after his trial is past.
A few disciples gathered round the Buddha as soon as
he began to preach the Spiritual Kingdom, and a boatman
was among the first to be converted. 2 The new doctrine
was taught like of Jesus "with authority;" 3 for
that
Guatama claimed to have found more than existed in the
Vedas. The healing of the sick, the crippled, the blind,
and the possessed, was a sign of power which is credited to
Zarathustra and Buddha, 4 not less than to the Messiah ;

and we have already seen how the idea arose from the
language of the old physical myths of the Zendavesta and
Vedas, in which the Sun is hymned as opening the closed
eyes, raising those who sleep, and restoring strength to the
cripple, while the demons of the night lose their power
entirely as his first rays strike above the horizon. 5
Among the wonders recorded of Jesus is the power of

walking on water, which Josephus believed all men to be

destined to possess after the Judgment Day. Zarathustra
was in the same way believed to have crossed a river dry-
shod, and Guatama flew across the Ganges in the sight of
many witnesses. 6 In India it was believed that the Rishis,
or saints, by long-continued austerities, obtained the power
of not only treading on water, but even of raising their
mortal bodies to heaven, so that the poor santon, who
wandered begging for food might, a few hours previously,
1
"Legend of Buddha," pp. 190, 211-215, 22 4 22 6-
8 " s
Mark i. 22.
Legend of Buddha," pp. 255, 289.
4 " of *
Kurshed Yasht. Mihir Yasht.
Legend Buddha," p. 366.
"Legend of Buddha," p. 247.
238 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

have been standing in the heavens and hearing the conver-

sation of angels. A spiritualist might argue that this

general belief was founded

on experience; but we must
not forget the language of the old sun-myths, which repre-
sent the without a foot travelling on the dustless
shepherd
road, and crossing the hundred rivers dry-shod.

unction of Jesus by a woman

The is perhaps connected
with his claim to be the Messiah. It is said that Krishna,

the Indian Apollo, was in like manner anointed by a

woman but the date of the legend is uncertain.
; Holy
women ministered continually to Buddha, and brought him
butter and oil to anoint his body 1 but the parallel in this
j

case not very exact.

is It should be noticed, however, that

the washing of a guest's feet is not known to be a Semitic

custom, whereas in India such self-humiliation is a common
courtesy. In the case of the woman who washes the feet
of Jesus, and in the episode of washing the apostles' feet,
we seem to see (as also in the Parable of the Virgins) the
reflex of an Indian rather than of any Jewish custom. 2 The
story of the devils driven into a herd of swine kept appar-
ently by Greeks seems, on the other hand, without any special
parallel in India, and is very Jewish in feeling, reminding us
"
of the Talmudic denunciation : Cursed be he that rears
swine, and he that teaches his son the wisdom of the Greeks." 3
The renunciation of all who were bound to himself by
earthly ties, which recorded of Jesus, exactly reproduces
is

the ascetic spirit of Buddha's " great renunciation," a feature

of his career which is strangely pathetic. The
sending out
of the twelve to preach the coming of the Kingdom of God
also recalls the decision of Guatama, 4 to "send his followers

1
"Legend of Buddha," p. 191. Cf. Matt. xxvi. 7; Mark xiv. 3.
9
Luke vii. 38 John xiii. 5. Cf. Chap. xiv.
;

" Tal Bab * " "

Sotah," 490. Legend of Buddha, p. 285.
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 239

through the different towns and villages to teach

districts,
and explain his system of doctrine, and so prepare the way
for theirbecoming disciples." It was, in fact, the birth of
the missionary idea, which in the days of Guatama was a

novelty far more alarming to established orthodoxy than

it could have been, in Palestine, in the days of Jesus.

The
use of parables, although not a distinctive feature of

Christianity, is a well-marked element of the Gospel litera-

ture. Parables, or fables with a moral, are found in the
Old Testament and in the Talmud ;
but the fables of
Buddha are at once the most ancient and the most numer-
ous in existence. The Parable of the Sower is found among
"
them. Faith is the seed I sow, good works are the rain
which makes it fruitful, wisdom and meekness are parts of
the plough, the mind is the rein, and diligence is the patient
" "
ox." The weeds are the delusion (of earthly things), and
"
the harvest is Nirvana or rest." The agricultural similes
are as numerous in the fables of Guatama as in those of

Jesus, and often almost identical ;

and the careless who
will not hear the Word are likened in Buddha's parable to
the man who and was washed away by the
slept flood,
1

for the sea is specially connected with Guatama, as is the

Galilean lake with the story of Jesus and Buddha ; is the
"
master of the ship," who has crossed the floods of life and
death and reached the further shore of Nirvana and this ;

symbolism probably derived from the old ideas which

is

make Vishnu (whose Avatar is Buddha) the lord of ocean,

sleeping in the depths like the Assyrian Ea, who is also the
"
master of the ship." 2

The miracle of feeding the five thousand, which in all

1
Cf. Rhys Davids' "Buddhism."
9 " Hindu
"Legend 136, 226; Moor's
of Buddha," p. Pantheon," plates
Lenormant's " " Tal Bab.
III., IV., XIV.; Magie," p. 145, 149. Cf. Baba
Bathra," 9ib.
24o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the gospels is related of Jesus, also finds a parallel in the

history of Buddha, for whom

five hundred dishes of food

were miraculously provided when his disciples had nothing

to eat. 1 In the Old Testament a similar wonder is related
of Elisha ;
and here again we may probably trace back the
idea to the older sun myth, for in all ancient hymns the
sun is celebrated as the wondrous food giver, and the
feast of Messiah is a favourite subject of Rabbinical
writers.

The young man who came to Jesus to learn wherein

rich
he had fallen short of perfection, was perhaps one of those
Pharisees to whom the custom of such inquiries is ascribed, 2
but the story is found also in the legend of Guatama, where
Devadatta comes to see the Buddha in fine robes and a
sumptuous chariot, and is bid " return home again and
bestow his wealth in charity so as to fit himself for the con-
dition of a Bikshu" (or hermit disciple).
The next incident of interest is that of the Transfigura-
tion, when Jesus appears on a mountain with Moses and

Elijah. According to the old gospel of the Hebrews this

hill was Mount Tabor, but the synoptics seem rather to
indicate Hermon. The three figures form a group which
reminds us of the three Egyptian suns, Horus, Ra, and
Turn, the three brothers who, as we have so often had
occasion to notice before, represent the three watches of the

day, or seasons of the year. In India this triad consists of

Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, who represent the rising, the
3
mid-day, and the setting sun and the Indian picture;

which represents Siva as Mahadeva ("the high god")

standing on the summit of Mount Kailasa (the Himalaya),

1 "
Legend of Buddha," p. 383.
2 " Tal Bab "
Sotah," 22b ; Legend of Buddha," p. 378.
*
Dubois' "People of India," p. 117.
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 241

flanked by Brahma and Vishnu, bears a most remarkable

resemblance to Christian paintings of the Transfiguration. 1
Siva is sometimes represented in this group as a pillar of
fire, and the incident is connected with a bonfire festival
early in November the fire feast of St John's Day or
Hallow Eve. indeed but a repetition of the old myth
It is

of Moses, who comes from

the mountain with a shining
face, or of Zarathustra returning from his sojourn in heaven
to the mountain Alburz. The healing of one
eastern

possessed with a devil follows immediately on the descent

of the glorified Christ from the mountain, just as the
demons fly before the Persian Mithra as he appears from

Alburz, when the " day breaks and the (demon) shadows flee

away."
The
episode of Transfiguration is not wanting in the
story of Buddha. It was supposed to be a property of the
Rishis or saints to be able to ascend into space, and cause
"
their bodies to emit all sorts of brilliant appearances," for
the original seven Rishis were the stars of the great bear. 2
It is related of Gautama that he retreated to Mount Pan-

dava (" the yellow mountain ") and there sat beneath a tree,

his body golden image. The crowd which

shining like a
"
gathered on the mountain side beheld him as the bright-
"
ness of the sun and the moon and, according to the old
;

"
gatha or ballad, referring to this event, he shone as the
"
sun in his early strength ;
and this luminous appearance
is attributed to the contemplation of the future Nirvana
which he was about to attain. 3 The origin of the legend
is no doubt mythical, but in the Buddhist version it is, like
so many other wonders, repeated in apparent ignorance of
1
See Appendix A, "Pillars."
2
"Legend of Buddha," p. 25 ; Dubois* "People of India," p. 28; Qox's
"Mythol. Aryan Nations," pp. 26, 226, 230,
*
"Legend of Buddha," pp. 177-181.
Q
242 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the physical interpretation which may be so easily under-

stood.

entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was probably a his-

The
toric event, to which a mystic value was attached later. It
"
is curious, however, to note that countless multitudes of

people spread their priceless garments in the way for the

Buddha to walk upon." The custom x

said still to sur- is

vive in the East, and is in accordance with oriental ideas of

self-humiliation. Yet
strange that even this incident
it is

does not escape from the suspicion of having been origin-

ally borrowed by the Essenes from Buddhist legends.
The agony in Gethsemane is but another instance of
connection with Buddhist tradition, for we learn from the
Nirvana Sutra that so deep was the grief of those who saw
Buddha die, that " all the minute pores of their bodies gave
forth blood, which was sprinkled on the ground."
The account of the Crucifixion is in like manner con-
nected with Aryan tradition. Krishna, who through
Vishnu "
is intimately connected with Buddha, is called the
" " "
good shepherd and the saviour in the Puranas, and on
the walls of the Mathura temple he is represented as cruci-
fied. In Christian legend the cross becomes identified with
the "tree oflife," and springs from the skull of the first man

on the of the skull. The place where it grew is tradition-

hill

ally shown in that valley where the winter sun seems to set
as seen from Jerusalem and although all this
; symbolism
is of comparatively late origin, it is certain 2
that the cross,
though only used in Christian worship about 300 A.D., was
yet a religious emblem long before Christian times. In
Egypt it is the symbol of In Assyria"
life. it
hangs from
the neck of Assur-Nizir-pal nine centuries before
Christ,
1
"Legend of Buddha, "p. 11..
2
Colenso's "Lectures," p. 435. Cf. "Mythol. des Plantes," pp. 8-18.
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 243

and ismarked on Babylonian seals in 1 500 B.C. In Thibet

it is worn as an amulet by girls, and in Mexico the first
Spanish missionaries, to their great astonishment, found it

already in use as symbolizing a tree of life. Nevertheless

the crucifixion of Jesus was no doubt an historic event, and
the stauros was probably used by the Romans for symbolic

reasons, the execution of malefactors being intimately con-

nected with human sacrifice.
The darkness which accompanied the death of Jesus, the

purple robe and the thorny crown, are all emblems of the
sunset and the winter. The seamless garment which was
rent, is, as can be shown by numerous references, an emblem
of the body itself. The
temple has the same
1
veil of the

signification, for thetemple which is ever building is an

emblem of human life. All these popular traditions the
folk-lore of Christianity gathered round the sad fact of
the Crucifixion, until the death of the Galilean ascetic
became a myth of the winter sunset, a necessary prelude to
the joyful resurrection.
The grave of malefactors, according to Jewish law, 2 was
a pit, into which their bodies were thrown indiscriminately.
The piety of a rich man seems to have rescued the body of
Jesus from this fate, and the prophecy was thus fulfilled :

"
He made his grave with the wealthy and with the rich in
his death." 3
The
angel seen in the tomb was no doubt the
guardian angel, or spiritual body, which was believed to

belong to the righteous but the two angels of the later

;

account, seated at the head and foot of the corpse, remind

"
us of Isis and Nephtys, the beginning and the end," who
stand in such relation to the mummy of Osiris in Egypt,
and of the two Moslem angels, Munker and Nakir, who
1 2
Cf. Appendix A. "Mishnah Sanhed," vi. 5.
3
Isaiah liii. 9.
244 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

visitthe soul in the grave. The idea that Jesus, during the
three days of his entombment, visited hell, and took
thence the pious patriarchs, though absent from the four
creeds. 1
gospels, is an old tradition preserved in Christian
It is indeed during the three watches of the night that the

sun (Osiris in Egypt, Nindar in Assyria) travels through

the unseen under world, and safely guides the pious dead
to the eastern paradise of dawn.

Jonah in the fish's belly is, in the gospels, a type of the

Christ who is to rise have already
on the third day. We
seen that his history is a Phoenician myth of the winter and
the night, 2 and it is but a variant of the sun legend which
has gathered round the of Jesus. Buddha appeared
name
to his disciples after death, and Zarathustra Spitama came
back from the Mithraic cavern in the eastern mountain,
just as Adonis, mourned for three days by the Syrian
women, is born again, and Tammuz reappears after the
Kisti Samsi, or commemoration of the " hiding of the sun-
god."
3
The legend of Buddha diverges from that of Jesus
when the historic facts of their life require the variation, for
Buddha died peaceably at the age of seventy-seven years,
and Jesus was crucified by the Romans but the stories of ;

Krishna, which were soon mingled with the tale of

Gautama's seem in some instances to form a connect-
life,

ing link between his legendary history and that of the

Galilean Messiah.
In all these legends we have had occasion to remark a
parallelism which, though often very close, never amounts
to identity. A
Jewish tone pervades the gospels, while an
Indian colouring is distinctive of the Buddhist stories.
There is
evidently no direct literary derivation of the evan-
1 "
Cf. Gospel of Nicodemus," part. ii.
*
Cf. chap. viL p. 128, and Appendix A, "Fish." 3
Cf. chap. v. p. 98.
 THE MARTYR OF GALILEE. 2\$

gelical episodes from the tales of the Lalita Vistara, written

at least two centuries earlier; but there is on the other

hand just that amount of similarity which would occur if
the two traditions had a common origin, and if the Indian

legends had gradually migrated in the form of oral tradi-

tions, related by travelling missionaries, and handed down
by several generations, thus gradually assuming, as they

passed from mouth to mouth, a local Jewish colouring, and

finally attaching themselves to a Hebrew hero.
 CHAPTER XIV.

THE EBIONITES.

IN the preceding chapter we have considered what may be

called the original legend of Jesus of Galilee, namely, all
those traditions which are common to at least three of the
four gospels. With the spread of Christianity in Asia

Minor, in Egypt, and finally in Rome, began a series of

developments, of which the germs are already recognisable

In Matthew
in the peculiarities of the three fuller gospels.

we have the narrowest and most exclusively Jewish view of

the character and mission of the Christ, and in Luke a
more liberal doctrine as exemplified in the parables of
the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan in accordance
with that less severe Judaism which we should naturally
expect to recognise in a pupil of the liberal Gamaliel. In
the fourth gospel the anti- Jewish spirit, which was so dis-
tinctive ofEgyptian gnosticism, breathes in every chapter ;

and we have thus three main schools of tradition and

teaching, which must each in turn demand a separate study.
Of these, the oldest and probably the nearest to the doc-
trine of Jesus is represented in the Gospel of Matthew, and
in the peculiar teaching of the Ebionites and of other Syrian
sects.

The Gospel of Matthew opens with an apocryphal pedi-

gree of Joseph, husband of Mary, which is irreconcilable

with that given by Luke, and curiously inconsistent with
the next chapter relating the virgin birth of Jesus. Christ,
 THE EBIONITES. 247

like the Buddha, was to be of royal descent; but it is

curious that the Evangelist does not trace the family of

Mary rather than that of Joseph (who was only nominally

father of Jesus according to the tradition) back to the sons
of David. The gospel, however, bears evidence of having
been composed at two periods, or combined from two
documents * and the human genealogy is the production
;

perhaps of another author than the one who wrote the

account of the birth. The Syrian Christians who dwelt
beyond Jordan were early divided into two sects the one
recognising in Jesus only a human being inspired by the
spirit of God at the baptism, the other believing in His
2
supernatural birth the former supposed that his mission
;

"
terminated, and that the spirit left him when, crucified
"
through weakness," he uttered the cry God, why :
My
"
hast thou forsaken me ; the later sect, crediting the sub-

sequent resurrection, explained the crucifixion as a fulfil-

ment of prophecy; 3 and the words uttered on the Cross
were differently represented in accordance with their differ-
ence of belief.

Considering that Zarathustra, Krishna, and Buddha, with

"
the older Karnas, the sun-child," 4 and the three future
5
prophets of the Iranians, were all born of pure virgins,
equally with Jesus, and that in Egypt the early kings and
the Apis were in like manner represented as having no
human father,
6
we may well pause to enquire the origin of
this idea before crediting its historical truth. The fact that
the new sun same which had sunk into
of the east was the
his western grave the night before, was symbolised in
1
Cf. Baring Gould's
" Lost and Hostile
Gospels."
2 " Contra
Epiphanius, Haeret," xxix. 9 ; xxx. 13, 14.
3 Isaiah liii. 8 ; Psalm xxii. 1 6.
4 " Mahabharatam." Cf. " Zool.
Mythol.," i. 254.
" Fravardin 6 "
Yasht," 142. Sharpe's Egypt. Mythol.," p. 17.
248 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
husband of his
Egypt by making Horus, son of Osiris, the
mother Isis l
but in
;
Persia and India a far more beautiful
symbol was adopted, and the sun-child,
who rises on the
mountain or is reared among the cloud flocks by shepherds
and milkmaids, is said to have been born without a father
of the pure virgin Aurora, 2 who in some versions dies
before he has passed his infancy. This mythical phrase

grew into a fixed belief, just as the expectation of the

universal king was credited long after its origin had been
forgotten ;
and thus we find in the legend of Buddha that

the holy child, willing to endure mortal life once more, to

save man from his sins by teaching him the way of life,
"
enters the right side of the beautiful Maya (or delusion,"
an impersonification of matter, who is also mother of
3
Krishna), and sitting for a period in her womb, at the time
when a marvellous light (the dawn) became visible to those
"
who had been darkness and the shadow of death," was
in

born at length from her right side under the Palasa tree.
The legends which survive in the Koran, 4 in the
Apocryphal gospels, and in the teaching of the Eastern

churches, are even closer to the Buddhist version of this

wondrous birth than is the narrative of the gospels. The
Moslems believe that Christ was born under a tree, and
spoke and walked at birth. Apocryphal gospels relate
how the tree bowed to Mary just as the Palasa tree did
to Maya, 5 and the Armenians still believe that Christ's
manhood was divine, and not derived from the substance
of his mother, and that he issued from her side. The name
Mary might be thought to be connected with the Phoenician
1 Cf. Harris's
" " "
Records of the Past," vol. x. p.
Magic Papyrus ; 146.
* " Vishnu &c. "
Purana," Cf. Cox's Mythol. Aryan Nat.," p. 368.
8
"Legend of Buddha," p. 37.
4
Sura, xix. 1-33 j "Pseudo Matthew," xx.
6 "
Legend of Buddha," p. 43.
 THE EBION1TES. 249

"
Myrrha, the bitter tree," whence Adonis was born, but it
1

is on the other hand a common Jewish name, and as such

may have been that of the mother of the historical Jesus.

The birth of Jesus at Bethlehem agrees, in a suspicious
manner, with the contemporary expectation of the Pharisees,
and is represented as occurring in a stable, among the
beasts with which the sun-god is so constantly connected.
In the time of Justin and of Origen this stable was already
shown in a cave, and Jerome found the cavern converted

into a Mithraeum, where the birth of Tammuz or Adonis

was yearly celebrated. 2
It is thus to the original cavern
of the dawn, 3 the cave in which Krishna was born according
to Indian tradition, 4 that we are brought back by the
Bethlehem manger; and the earliest Christian church
that of the Nativity still stands in Bethlehem over the
Mithraic cave, just as the oldest church in Rome that of
St Clemens also stands upon an ancient Mithraeum.*
The magi who came from the East to adore the infant
" "
remind us of those four Kings of the World who came to
worship the infant Buddha. 6 Their gifts of gold, incense,
and myrrh, according to Christian tradition, symbolise the
King and God who is to taste the bitterness of death.
The massacre of innocents by the tyrant reminds us not

only of the Old Testament tales of the first-born slain in

Egypt, or of the children killed by the bears in Elisha's
history, but also of the children who were slain by the
cruel tyrant when Zarathustra escaped as an infant, and of
1
Cf. chap. iv. p. 64.
2
"Epist ad Paul," xlix Justin, "Trypho," 78;
; Origen, lib. i.,
" Contra Celsum." See Robinson's " Bib.
Researches," vol. i. p. 416.
8
Cf. chap. ii. p. 26. 4
Cox's " Mythol. Aryan Nat.," p. 368.
6 Cf.
Renan, "Evangiles,"p. 337.
6
"Legend of Buddha," p. 51. The names of the magi according to
tradition were Caspar, "White"; Melchior, "King of Light;" Belthazar,
" Lord of Treasure," representing the three seasons of snow, heat, and fruit.
Cf. page 25.
250 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

those slain, from two years old and under, by the persecutor
of Krishna, when he himself was sent away by his royal
mother to the cowherd Nanda an episode which is cele-

brated in sculpture in the caverns of Elephanta. It seems 1

probable that the innocents so sacrificed after the birth of

the sun-child are the countless stars swallowed up by the

heaven of Varuna, and the recurrence of the episode in
the histories of Zarathustra and Buddha appears to
indicate the great antiquity of the story.
The descent into Egypt, an episode which is not easily
reconcilable with the narrative of Luke's Gospel in which
not mentioned, appears to be founded on a prophetic
it is

2
passage applied by the later Jews to the Messiah. The
1

return to Nazareth in likemanner gives a punning fulfilment

of the old prediction of the Netzer or branch which the
writer, following the Septuagint, connects with the name
Netzeri or Nazarene, which has become the distinctive
name of Eastern Christians. 3
The cycle of legends thus related of the birth and
infancy of Jesus are quite different from those in Luke's
Gospel. Not one incident is common to the two accounts,
and these traditions seem to mark a late development of
the folk-lore of the Nazarenes. The distinctive teaching
of the first
Gospel equally indicative of Ebionite origin,
is

and bears a close affinity to Talmudic maxims.

Much of the doctrine which occurs in the so-called
Sermon of the Mount is common to Matthew and Luke,
though tinged in either version by the peculiar views of
the writer. The
poor, the sad, the meek, the earnest, the
pure, and the peaceful are promised comfort and joy, and
a share in the Kingdom of God. Such doctrine is purely
1
Cox's " 2
Mythol. Aryan Nat.," 369. Hosea xi. i.
3
Isaiah xi. I, following Ixx.
 THE EB1ONITES. 251

Buddhist and agrees exactly with the teaching of

in tone,
"
the Jewish Essenes and of the early Ebionites or " poor
who long survived in eastern and northern Syria. Anger,
strife, lust,and swearing are forbidden by Jesus,
hatred,
and the endeavour to be perfect, to love his
disciple is to
enemies, to turn his cheek to the smiter, to forgive and to

pray, to lead, in short, the humble life of the Buddhist

Bikshu, renouncing the riches, ambitions, joys, and sorrows
of the world, and striving for peace and union with God.
The straight gate, the narrow way, are symbols familiar to
"
the Buddhist as to ourselves. Lay not up treasure on
earth," "Take no thought for the morrow," "Judge not,"
are maxims which might issue from the lips of Guatama. 1
The parable of the sower has its parallel in those of
Buddha, and the law which he taught is likened as Jesus
likened the Kingdom of God to a priceless pearl.
2
The
wedding garment for the feast reminds us of the Essene
punctiliousness of dress at their meals, no less than of the
clean robes in which the Brahmin sits down to eat. The
fish who holds money in his mouth is a very ancient
Aryan symbol, which has found its way into the Gospel of

Matthew, and is also to be found in the Talmud, not less

than in Indian tradition. 3

It is perhaps worthy of notice in passing that the title of

Saddik, or "just one," which the later Jews applied to the

famous Rabbis, appears in the very Jewish Gospel of
Matthew to be given to Jesus. He is called the "just

person," and the same term is applied to his father and

his brother. 4 The Essenes, indeed, were regarded by the
1
Cf.
" Pirke Aboth," " Tal Bab Baba n a
" Sotah,
ii. 4 ; Bathra," ; 4$b ;

"Ketuboth," io5b.
2
"Legend of Buddha," p. 168.
3
Cf. chap. vii. p. 128, note 4., and " Fish."
Appendix A,
4
Matt. i. 19 j xxvii. 19.
252 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Jews, much as the Rishis and Santons of India are

venerated

by the Hindus for their superior holiness, as exhibited in

ascetic austerity ;
and here perhaps we have the origin of
"
the term Galilean Saddikim," which seems to denote the
Christians in Talmudic literature.

A comparison of the first gospel with the Talmud is

interesting as illustrating the Jewish element in the teaching

of the Evangelist. This comparison has become a favourite
subject with orthodox writers, and has been carried to an
extravagant length by the less scholarly but it can never ;

be more than an illustration, for the spirit of Christianity

is not found in the Rabbinical books, and much that the

Jews fondly believed to be original in the sayings of Hillel

may be traced back much earlier, and to an Aryan origin.
The parable of the royal supper prepared for the king's
servants, when some were ready in their best garments and
some unprepared the tree with roots which cannot be
;

blown down, and the tree without roots, symbolizing the

wise and foolish l the simile of the mote and the beam, 2 of
;

the plentiful harvest, 3 of the old bottles, 4 all these may be

found in the Mishnah or the Gemara of the Talmud, 5 and it
is impossible to suppose that they were derived from
Christian teaching. The petitions of the Lord's prayer all
exist in Rabbinical sayings, 6 as does the maxim that the
humble be exalted, and the proud abased. 7 Rabbi
shall
Simeon had a stalk of mustard seed in his garden, which
grew into a great tree, as the mustard seed in the
gospel
(emblem of the Kingdom of God) also grows into a mighty
1
"Literary Rem." E. Deutch, p. 56.
2
"Tal Bab Eracin," I 5 b. Pirke Aboth," ii.
15.
" Pirke " Pirke
Aboth," iv. 20. Cf. Aboth," i. 3.
6
Cf. "Pirke Aboth," ii.
4, v. 20; "Tal Bab Beracoth," 2gb ; "Tal Bab
Sabbath," 31 a.
7 "
Lit. Remains," E.
Deutch, p. 58.
 THE EBIONITES. 253

tree ;
but we must not forget that mustard seed is used as
an emblem of the smallest vegetable production in the old
Buddhist ballad, which contrasts it with Mount Meru. 1 The
parable of the labourers in the vineyard, who toiled only in
the eleventh hour, may be compared with the saying of
"
Rab, One wins eternal life after the struggle of years,
"
another finds it in an hour ;
2
but we must not forget that
a similar disparity in the length of time necessary to attain
Nirvana was -an essential part of the dogma of Karma.
The disciples of Christ are likened in the simile of the
" "
candle to the light of the world (a purely Buddhist ex-

pression
3
),
and to the salt, which Rashi explains to be an
emblem of the soul inspiring the body, as salt preserves the
"
sacrifice. Shake off the salt and throw the flesh to the
dogs," isa proverb of R. Pappas, signifying the dissolution
of the body after death.
The parable of the wise and foolish virgins has its
parallel in the Rabbinical writings, but we must also re-
member that the coming forth of the virgins to meet the
bridegroom is a custom still extant in India, while so far
as has yet been observed, it is not one found among Semitic
nations, either among the Syrian peasantry or the modern
"x
Jews.
4
The parable of Dives and Lazarus is fully in accord with

Jewish belief in a hell and an elysium, called respectively

Abaddon and Abraham's bosom. It also recalls the fable
concerning the mistake made when the poor pious Rabbi
was buried with dishonour, and the rich publican with much
pomp, while the Rabbi's soul was placed in paradise, and
1 " " Tal Bab Abodah 2
Legend of Buddha," p. 329. Zara," i;a.
3
Matt, v. 15 Mark iv. 21. Cf. "Legend of Buddha," p. 246; "Hibbert
;

Lect., 1878," p. 331 ; Clemens Alex. "Protrept.," ii. 14 Brown's "Dionysiac ;

" Salt = life or =

Myth.," ii. p. 66. generation, also in Egypt soul, and among
4
Montanists. Cf. Appendix B. Luke xvi. 19-31.
254 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
1
the publican's became the hinge of the door of hell j
but this
in dishonour to one sin
story attributes the Rabbi's burial
which he had committed, and this is exactly similar to the
Indian Buddhist doctrine of Karma, in which each sin and
every good deed brings its inevitable
reward while the figure ;

of the wretched Lazarus, glorified in heaven, reminds us of

the miserable santons, who have the first place in paradise.
To sum up the results of this brief comparison, we may
note that the connection between Talmudic doctrine and
fable and the dogmas and legends of the Gospel is not
co-extensive with the whole spirit and symbolism of the
two religions, which would never have become so separate
had their difference hinged only on the question whether
Jesus of Galilee was the true Messiah. There is an Aryan
element in Christianity which is wanting in Judaism, 2 and
there is an older source of fable and allegory to be found
in the Buddhist Jatakas than that which exists in Talmudic
parables or in the traditionary maxims of Hillel and Akiba,
recorded long after their death by other hands.

Jesus of Galilee was not a Sadducee, for he believed in

immortality ;
not a Pharisee, for he denounced their

sophistry and hypocrisy. He was a pietist of the Essene

sect,and a worthy successor of Gautama, who was not so
much a revolutionary antagonist of the Brahmins as the

genius who set free the spirit of Indian love toward man
from the bondage of religious custom and prejudice which
had at length, in his days, became intolerable. 3
In conclusion of the present chapter, we may glance for
a moment at the history of Christianity as it developed, in

Palestine, itself among the early followers of Peter, who

1
"Tal Bab Sanhed," 44b.
2
Contrast "Pirke Aboth," i. 7, ii. 5, and Mark vi. 34.
3
See "Sacred Books of the East," vol. viii.
p. 27; "Hibbert Lecture*
1878," p. 137 ; Rhys Davids' "Buddhism," pp. 83, 151.
 THE EBIONITES. 255

became the enemies and opponents of the Pauline sect.

The differences which originally separated sects condemned
by the western fathers as heretical from the doctrines of
the Roman Church, great as they appeared in the eyes of
controversialists, are often small indeed when compared
with such questions as those we are now discussing but ;

the growth of the Palestinian school gradually diverged

from the Pauline doctrine of the west until, in the fourth
century, the sect which was really nearest to original ortho-
doxy was persecuted for heresy.
"
The Ebionites or poor," whose centre was in Bashan,
accepted the Gospel of Matthew, or one closely resembling
it.
1
The Aramaic gospel of the Hebrews, which they used,
differed in some respects from any now extant. It repre-

sented the Jordan as changed into fire at the baptism of

Christ, and the Holy Spirit as the mother of Christ, who,
before the Transfiguration, carried Him by a lock of his
hair to Mount Tabor. does not appear to have con-
It

tained the account of the Virgin birth, for the Ebionites

regarded Jesus as a mortal man, son of Joseph and Mary,

and inspired as Messiah at his baptism.
The sect was not distinguished by the Jews from the
Christians, and it bore a close affinity to the original
Essenes, whose name survived as late as the fifth century. 2

The Ebionites were distinguished by their adherence to the

law of Moses and to Jewish customs, and by their hatred
of the " enemy," Paul of Tarsus. 3 Indian ideas were never-
theless familiar to these ascetics, for they represented
Christ as arriving at the dignity of Messiah by successive
Epiphanius, "Contra Hseret," xxix. 7-9, xxx. 2-18; Eusebius, "Hist.
1

' ' "

Eccles.,"i.
7 ; Onomasticon, s. v. Choba ; "Irenaeus," i. 26. Cf. Mansell's
" Gnostic Heresies
;" Renan, "Les Evangiles," pp. 48, 104.
2
Cf. authorities quoted
"
by Renan, Evangiles,'' p. 450.
3
Ibid., pp. 52, 100.
256 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

They forbade also the use of

steps towards perfection.
flesh,
1
but on the other hand they were circumcised like
the Jews, and accepted all Jewish scriptures. They
claimed to number among them
the relatives of Jesus,

and they specially venerated his brother James. The

Ebionites held, no doubt, the same doctrine regarding

celibacy, which ispeculiar to Matthew's Gospel, that it is

not good to marry, but that such virtue is not possible to

all men. 2 The Christians of Pella and of Kokaba in Bashan

were, in short, distinguishable from the original Essenes
only by one cardinal difference, namely, by their accept-
ance of Jesus of Galilee as the true Messiah.
Out of this rigidly Jewish Christianity, the Petrine doc-
trine,which probably most nearly resembled the teaching
of Jesus, arose the Nazarene school, which accepted the
traditions of virgin birth and resurrection, and regarded

Jesus as one of the great archangels.

3
New teachers arose
in Syria in the second century after Christ, and new sects

followed as the Ebionite church gradually split into various

heretical schools. Cerinthus, who was an adversary alike
of Paul and of the Egyptian gnostics, agreed with the
Ebionites in his reverence for the law and his belief in
Messiah. Saturninus of Antioch taught that Christ was a

phantom descending from heaven, and never actually cruci-

fied that matter was evil, and that marriage and procreation
:

were sin : that Jehovah was but one of the seven angels to
whom God had committed creation, and that Satan was the
lord of this world. Saturninus forbade animal food to his
followers, and his disciple Tatian, with the Encratites or
t( "
abstainers in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor,
interdicted marriage, wine, and meat, looking for the ap-
1
"Epiphanius," xviii. I, xxx. 15, 18.
8 *
Matt. xix. 10. "Epiphanius," xxx. 3-6.
 THE EBIONITES. 257

preaching end of the world and the return of Messiah. Bar-

desanes, the enemy of Marcion, taught like doctrines in
Mesopotamia, believing the birth and sufferings of Christ
to be only apparent a view which was founded on the
"
Buddhist dogma of Maya or delusion," which denied the
existence of all matter. 1 Thus from the intensely material-
istic view of the Ebionites, who denied the divinity of Jesus,
the Christian sects of Western Asia gradually gravitated
to the opposite extreme, and denied him even a glorified
human body.
2

According to Cerinthus, the man Jesus was inspired at

his baptism by a divine soul which left him at his cruci-

fixion, and hence gradually arose the Nestorian belief in a

Christ distinct from, but somehow joined to, the human

Jesus. The Arabs converted in Bashan, and from whom
the modern Melchites are descended, were taught similar
"
doctrines and we find the ideas of the Docetse or phan-
;

"
tomists yet surviving in Armenian Christianity and
among the Monophysite Jacobites and Persian Nestorians.
who regarded water as the source of
In the Elkaisites, 3
life, and who believed in many Christs, we find sectarians

who approached yet nearer to Indian ideas. They never-

theless maintained the Law of Moses, the Sabbath, circum-
cision,and the holiness of Jerusalem, while mingling with
such doctrines the Persian belief in guardian genii and in
the great female spirit of Wisdom. Hating St Paul,
abstaining from flesh, condemning sacrifices, extolling celi-
bacy, they claimed prophetic gifts and the power of healing
the sick, and thus present again all the peculiar features of
Essene doctrine under the name of a new teacher.

1
Cf. ManselFs " Gnostic Heresies ;" Renan, " Evangiles, pp. 418-422.
''

2
Cf. i
John iv. 2.
3 "
Cf. Renan, "Les Evangiles," p. 458; Epiphanius," xix., &c.
R
258 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
"
The Sabeans or baptisers," who were known in the

middle ages as Christians of the girdle from the sacred

cord which they wore, still lingered on the banks of
Euphrates in the time of Muhammed.
The Samseans,
the Mendaites, the Peratae, the Masbotheans, Meristae,
Genistae, and other sects, represent the same spirit of syn-
cretism which combined Persian, Indian, and Jewish ideas
in different proportions, or mingled Christianity with ser-
pent-worship and with the orgies of Cybele and the Diony-
siac initiation.
1
The great blow dealt to Judaism by the
destruction of Jerusalem seems to have shattered the East
into innumerable sects, which each obtained followers for a

time; and thus in the third century even the Persian Manes
obtained a temporary success, claiming to be an incarna-
tion of the Holy Ghost and a disciple of a Buddha from India,
while at the same time accepting the non-Judaic gospels
and the dualism of light and matter from the Mazdean
teaching. The process of syncretism which had formed
2

the Essene system was thus carried to extravagance

throughout the East, and though Manes is said to have

been flayed alive by the Magi in 275 A.D., and the Mon-
tanists had been almost stamped out in Phrygia a century
3
the latter were not extinct in the sixth century,
earlier,
and the Manichseans of Justinian's time again combined
Paul and Zarathustra, converted the Bulgarians in the
eighth century, and reappear in the French Albigenses
and in other heretics of Sicily, Rome, and Milan. 4
Considering how numerous these sects of ascetic Chris-
tians became throughout the East, it is not surprising to
find Christianity so important a religion in the time of

1
"Tertullian on the Valentinians."
2
Cf. King's "Gnostics;" Epiphan., "Vita Manes Hseret," Ixv.
* 4
Cf. Kenan's "Marc Aurele,"p. 220. King's "Gnostics."
 THE EBIONITES. 259

Constantine, and the rapidity of its growth is easily under-

stood when we remember that the main ideas and legends
of the faith had long been in existence before the occurrence
of two great events the crucifixion of Jesus and the de-
struction of Jerusalem, which prepared the way for a new
syncretic religion. The Jewish Kabbala,the Neoplatonic

teaching, the Gnosis of Egypt, the orthodoxy of Rome, all

grew and developed side by side in an age when, as in our
own, the knowledge of Eastern lands was brought west-
wards by traders and soldiers, by hermits and missionaries,
in a period of material prosperity and of wide commerce, and
at a time when
purity of morals and belief in the ancient
mythologies were alike profoundly shaken, and when the

gods of Greece and of Rome were scorned by sceptical

philosophy and neglected by the luxurious society of a
prosperous empire.
 CHAPTER XV.

PAULINE CHRISTIANITY.

GAMALIEL the Elder, 1 grandson of the famous Hillel, born

probably about 30 B.C., was president of the Jerusalem

Sanhedrin, and a student of the Greek tongue. He con-
sidered it lawful to relieve the poor of pagan nations, to
salute the heathen with courtesy, and to render the last
offices to their dead. He
belonged, in short, to the more
liberal party of the Pharisees who inherited the teaching

of the mild and broad-minded Hillel, and we may thus

well be prepared to find in his disciple born at Tarsus, a
Roman citizen, and educated "at the feet of Gamaliel,"
a preacher whose ideas would be far more liberal and more

clearly influenced by foreign philosophy, than those of the

Petrine school of rigidly fanatical ascetics, who hid
themselves in the Syrian deserts far away from
civilisation.

It is to the energy and conviction of Paul, after his

sudden conversion to the sect of Jesus of Galilee, that we

owe the rise of Roman Christianity. What
acquaintance
he may have had with the facts of his Master's career it
almost impossible to judge. He claims to have received
truth by supernatural on returning from
revelation, and,
the Arabian desert, to have preached Christ before he
became acquainted with the Apostles of Jerusalem. 2 But
" Pirke " Tal Bab
Metzia," v. 8; Aboth," i. 16; Sotah," 49b
" Baba
Kama," 83a; "Tal Jer Gittin," v. 9; "Tal Bab Gittin," 56b, 6ia.
2
Gal. i. II, 16, 17 ; ii. I.
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 261

his doctrine contained very little that could be considered

new in Asia, save his belief in the resurrection of Jesus,

(of which he had at least no ocular evidence) in ;

the Messiahship of his Master, and in his imminent

return. It was for this reason, perhaps, that the Athenians,
when they had once heard him, were no longer interested
in his teaching, and that his influence was in great measure
confined to the Asiatic and Italian Jews ;
but although
the immediate results of his missionary efforts may have
been far less important than we often suppose, there can
be no doubt that his followers and disciples were the first
to found Christianity as a new religion in Rome. With
the later growth of this system we are not yet concerned,
for it is proposed in the present chapter to examine briefly

the Pauline Gospel now attributed to Luke, and to show

the connection which exists between the Pauline writings
in the Epistles and the contemporary beliefs of the Jews

and the early Gnostics.

The Gospel of Luke, like the traditionary history of the

Apostles, is remarkable for the inaccuracies of its historical

statements no less than for the confident tone of its narra-
tive. This inaccuracy is peculiarly Oriental, and arises
from that superficial self-sufficiency which is so remarkable
in the writings of Josephus, and in the Talmudic literature.

The third Evangelist repeats the mistake of the other

synoptics concerning Herodias, who married not Philip,
1

but her uncle Herod, son of Mariamne. He makes a

famous anachronism in attributing the taxing of Cyrenius

to the year of the nativity, supposing Josephus to be

correct in stating that the event occurred after the deposi-
tion of Archelaus a difficulty which has never been met
even although it might be granted that Cyrenius was
1
Matt. xiv. 3 Mark vi. Luke iii.
" xviii. 5.
5 17 ; 19 ; Antiq.,"
262 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

governor of Syria in the year 4 B.C.

1
The third Evangelist
also represents Lysanias as Tetrarch of Abilene in the
had long been
reign of Tiberius, though this tetrarchy
abolished, and the historic Lysanias had died thirty-six
Herod the
before Great, his dominions being
years
governed by Herod and by his successor Agrippa.
2
And
again, the third Gospel speaks
of the Galileans slain by

Pilate,apparently by mistake for those followers of Judas

of Galilee who were killed by Cyrenius, but this passage is

3
omitted in Marcion's version of the Gospel.
In the Acts of the Apostles, generally supposed to be
the work of the same author who wrote the third Gospel,
similar anachronisms occur ;
Theudas arose not before
Judas of Galilee, but thirty-four years later, if we accept
4

6
the version of Josephus James was not killed by Antipas,
;

who was banished in 39 A.D., but,according to Josephus,

suffered martyrdom in 62 A.D., while the account of Paul's

early history in the Book of Acts is not in agreement with

the statements of the Pauline epistles; 6 and it is also

difficult to understand how Paul can have been born a

Roman subject if Tarsus was not a Roman colony till
7

the time of Caracalla, who reigned from 211 to 217 A.D.

It is not, however, to the third Gospel or the Acts alone

that such anachronisms are confined, for Zacharias is noticed

in Matthew, as well as in an early codex (D) of Luke as
son of Barachias, in a speech attributed to Jesus, whereas,
according to Josephus, he perished in 65 A.D. all of these ;

1
Luke ii. 2. Cf. " Antiq.,'' xvii. 13, 5 ; xviii. i.i ; and ii. I. Cf, Matt. ii.
I ;Luke i. 5.
2
Luke iii. I. Cf. 20 "Antiq.," vii. i; 15 " Antiq.," x. 3 ; 2 " Wars,"
xi. 5; i "Wars," xx. 4.

Acts v. 35 20 " Antiq.," v. I.

8
Luke xiii. i. *
;
5
Acts xii. i 18 "Antiq.," i. 6 ; 20 ix. I 2 "Wars," vii. I.
;
"Antiq.," ;
6
Cf. Acts ix. 19-26 ; Gal. i. 17, 18.
*
Acts xxii. 28.
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 263

anachronisms point to a late date, as that of the received

text of the canonical gospels. 1
Such inaccuracies would not unnaturally arise in the
narrative of an Oriental historian not able to avail himself
of documentary evidence, and writing some time after
the events which he relates had occurred. The importance
of the errors is very small, if we regard the Pauline
from the same stand-point with other Jewish or
literature

Oriental writings, and is only of great interest to those

who regard the New Testament as divinely inspired, and
without error. The ordinary apologetic answers to
these difficulties serve, however, only to show the
weakness of the case. A
second taxing, another Ly-
sanias, a second Herodias, a new Zacharias, are sug-
gested on the same principle which is supposed to recon-
cile the various versions of events as recorded by each
Evangelist, by doubling the character whenever a dis-

crepancy occurs. The anachronisms,

together with a very
special reference to the last siege of Jerusalem, have,
however, some value as serving to date the original
document of the third gospel as not earlier than 70 A.D. 2
The same conclusion may perhaps be deduced from the
"
expression, Your house is unto you desolate," 3 while
left

from another passage it would seem that some of the con-

4
temporaries of Jesus were yet alive when the author wrote.
The tendency of the sect known in Antioch as Chris-
tians,,, as shown in the peculiar episodes and parables of
Luke's Gospel, was far more liberal than that of the
Petrine schools of Jerusalem. The antagonism is still more
clearly marked in Marcion's recension of the third gospel,

1
Matt, Luke "
xxiii. 35 ; xi. 51 ; 4 Wars," v. 4.
2 8
Luke xix. 43 ; xxi. 20. Acts xi. 26.
*
4
Luke ix. 27 ;
cf. John xxi. 23. Luke xiii. 36.
 264 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

in which the baptism of Christ, which was so important in

the opinion of the Ebionites, is altogether suppressed, and

the name Capernaum substituted for Nazareth, probably
to distinguish Jesus from His Nazarene followers. In the
third gospel the call of Peter and Andrew is omitted, as
well as the denunciation of the Pharisees, and the legends
which in Matthew attach to Peter are not found in Luke.
The teaching as to the Samaritans, exemplified in the
parable of the Good Samaritan, and in the visit of Christ
to Samaritan territory, 1 is exactly contradictory to the

injunction found in the first gospel not to enter a city

of the Samaritans, but agrees with the liberal views of
Gamaliel above mentioned. Many beautiful parables
are peculiar to Luke, and breathe the spirit of the noble
Hillel. The story of the infancy of Jesus is also entirely
different from that to be found in Matthew, and in some

incidents appears irreconciliable with the Ebionite version.

The whole spirit of
the Pauline gospel, in short, is liberal
and Gentile, while the earlier apostles are to a certain
extent shorn of the lustre of their appearance in the
Jerusalem tradition.
The early chapters of the Gospel of Luke are devoted to
an account, which aimed at superseding previous narratives,
of all the incidents of the birth and infancy of the Christ.
The author endeavours to explain why Joseph and Mary
visited Bethlehem, but his theory leads him into an
anachronism concerning the taxing. The annunciation at
Nazareth (not admitted by Marcion in the second century
A.D.) reminds us of that old Egyptian painting in which
the angel Thoth announces to ^virgin queen the
approaching
birth of her son, 2 and we have
already discussed such
.
52-56; x. 25; xvii. 11-19; contrast Matt. xix. i; Mark x.
cf. Matt. x. 5. 2 "
Sharpe's Egyptian Mythol.," p. 17.
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 265

annunciations in the case of Samson. The herald angels

again recallFleet-goer, who

proclaims the approaching
birth of the Buddha to the inhabitants of Hell, while
the angels are singing upon the earth, and when the
Devas in the temples acknowledge the infant as their
master. 1
"
At and growth the waters and plants rejoiced.
his birth
At and growth they grew. All creatures of the
his birth

good creation cried out Hail."

2
Such is the legend of the
nativity of the Iranian prophet.
"
On
the day of his birth," says the legend of Krishna,
"
the quarters of the horison were irradiate with joy as if
more light were poured on the earth. The good felt new
delight, the strong winds were hushed, and the rivers glided
peacefully when Janarddana was about to be born. The
seas with their melodious murmurings made music while
the spirits and angels of heaven danced and sang." 3 We
cannot but be reminded of Milton's Christmas hymn by
such words, and the heavenly choirs celebrate each great
act of Buddha's life, just as they heralded the birth of the
Christ. The shepherds who in the third gospel take the
place of the Magian astrologers, remind us again of the
constant connection between the sun-god and the flocks ;

of Krishna the good shepherd, reared, like Cyrus, by

shepherds of the crook of Osiris, and of Ahuramazda
; ;
of
Mithra the shepherd, of Buddha carrying the lamb, of the
Vedic shepherd of the clouds, 4 and of Joseph, the great
shepherd of Israel. The sun as the shepherd of heaven is
common to all mythologies, and hence no doubt the legend
1
"Legend of Buddha," pp. 40, 52.
2 " Fravardin Cf.
'*
Yasht," 93. Protevangelium," xviii.
3
"Vishnu Purana." Cf.Cox's "Mythol. Aryan Nat.," p. 365.
4
"Zool. Mythol.," "
i.
pp. 29, 102 j "Rigveda," x. 177. 3; Vendidad,"
xix. 15.
266 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

which makes the sun-child in his cavern an object of worship

to shepherds.
Instead of a sudden flight to Egypt the third gospel
makes Jesus fulfil the law of circumcision on the eighth
day (though Marcion denied this with the preceding
incidents), on that occasion proclaimed to be
and he is

Messiah by Simeon, who appears to be intended as the

historical son of Hillel. In Buddha's history a parallel
incident is found in his presentation before the aged saint
Asita,
1
who on seeing the child shining as the sun, as is

also related of the child Christ in Simeon's arms, 2 recites a

hymn of praise, and announces that he will become not an

universal monarch but a holy Buddha. 3
The early wisdom of Jesus, and his answers to the
doctors in the Temple, may also be compared with the

astonishing knowledge exhibited by Krishna and Buddha

when sent to school 4 but here the legend of the infancy
;

of Jesus comes to an end, and, unlike Gautama, he was

never married, and was apparently of humble origin. The
preliminary account thus contained in the first two chapters
of Luke, together with the story of the baptism, was
unknown or omitted in Marcion's gospel, which commences
with the temptation. The final incident of the ascension
is peculiar to the Pauline
legend, in Luke and Acts, but it
occurs also in the history of the Buddha, who like Elijah
ascended in a chariot of fire to heaven, where also he

sojourned for a time before his birth. 5 We have already

seen that it was a common belief in India that by the
practice of austerities a saint might obtain power to annul
physical law, and to raise his mortal body to heaven. We
1 "
Legend of Buddha," p. 57.
2 " Arabic '
Gospel of Infancy," vi. Legend of Buddha," p. 61.
4 c
Ibid., p. 67. Ibid., pp. 24, 313.
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 267

have also seen that the ascension of Enoch or of Elijah is

founded on the old myths, which represent the sun as rising

from the mountain, or driving his golden chariot to the
highest heaven.
The author of the third gospel is conspicuous for the
strongly superstitious tone of his writings, whenever any
allusion to the supernatural occurs, 1 not less than for the
tolerance of his teaching when speaking of the poor or

sinful, of the Gentiles, and the lost sheep of Israel. Thus

the disciples, like Indian saints or Moslem dervishes, are
"
to have power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and all
the power of the enemy" (Satan 2 ); they are to move even
3
by the power of faith
fast-rooted trees and these ideas, ;

although we now regard them as merely bold symbolisms,

were no doubt actually credited in the time of Jesus, for
the power of prayer and of austerity was then considered
inAsia to be so tremendous as to abrogate every physical
law and it is related of Buddha that when his unwilling
;

disciple Nanda (afterwards one of his chief converts),

endeavouring to flee back from the monastery to the arms
of his mistress hid behind a tree, "the lord by his power
caused the tree to rise straight up in the air, so that Nanda
was discovered sitting in his place of concealment."
4

The answer of Jesus to the woman who blessed his

mother is
yet another instance of parallelism between the

Gospel stories and those of the Buddhist scriptures, which

relate how the virgin Kisa Gotami blessed the Buddha's

parents, but how he

himself regarded the happiness of
these as derived solely from the attainment of the law
he preached. 5
1 " Les *
Luke x. 19.
Renan, Evangiles," p. 277.
3
Luke xvii. 6. Cf. Matt. xvii. 20, xxi. 21 ;
Mark ix. 23, xi. 23.
4 "
Legend of Buddha," p. 373.
5
Luke xi. 27 ; "Buddhist Birth " Hibbert
Stories," pp. 79, 80; Lecture,
i88i,"p. 1 60,
268 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the Pharisee l may well

The parable of the publican and
"
be contrasted with the Rabbi's prayer in the Talmud I :

thank thee, O everlasting one, my God, that I have

attended the teaching instead of doing as those who fre-
quent the market-place. I rise like them, but
it is to study

thy law, not for vain thoughts. I labour as they, but I

shall reap a reward. We
both run, but I have eternal life

before me, while they will only reach the pit of destruction."
"
But the publican smote upon his breast saying, God be
merciful to me a sinner."
The stories of the lost sheep, of the prodigal son, of the

great supper, of the good Samaritan, all teach this same

doctrine that though Jesus may have taught in the
streets of Jerusalem, "they shall come from the east and

the west, from the north and from the south, and -shall sit
down in the Kingdom of God." 2
It is the expression not
exactly of that bitter hate of the Jew which we shall find
later to have existed in Egypt, but of that tolerant Judaism

natural to a Jew not born in Palestine, and regarding the

Gentile as destined for final conversion to a belief in
Messiah rather than for the annihilation which the fol-

lowers of Shammai foretold of all men but themselves.

That the third gospel (whoever its author may have
been) existed as early as 130 A.D. seems to be shown by
itsacceptance with certain reservations by Marcion, the
adversary of Tertullian, whose belief in a Demiurge was, as
we removed from the teaching of Paul
shall see, not far ;

and the contention of Renan that it was written in Rome

about the close of the first century A.D. may probably be
accepted as sound.
3
The Romans play a more prominent
part in the third gospel than in the other synoptics, and are
1
Luke xviii. 9-14. Cf. "Tal BabBeracoth," 28b Renan, " Evangiles," p. 67.
;

8
Luke xiii. 3
Cf.
" 1' "Les
25-29. Antichrist," p. 60; Evangiles," p. 253.
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 269

favourably regarded by the author of the Acts, whose style

and Greek idioms so closely resemble those of the third
gospel.
1
The original gospel, which so closely approached
that of Mark, seems to have been the basis on which the
Pauline version was founded, and the additions taken pro-

bably from oral traditions recall, when they refer to special

teaching, the tolerant spirit of Hillel and Gamaliel. About
a third of Luke's Gospel may be called original, while many
expressions
2
seem to argue an author writing either not in
Palestine or for readers not familiar with the country and
with Jewish custom. The seventy disciples added to the
twelve by this author 3 are no doubt intended to represent
the Gentile nations, to whom
he extended his missionary
enthusiasm. The primacy of Peter no longer finds a place
in the Pauline legend, though so distinctly emphasised in

Ebionite tradition. 4 The whole tendency of the third

gospel may thus be recognised as in accord with the tra-

dition which attributes its origin to the Pauline school, and

we may judge from its contents the aspect of Christian

teaching when first its missionaries began to preach in

Rome. Hillel, the grandfather of Paul's master, had incul-
cated peace, humility, and love of mankind, and had
"
summed up the law in the words, Thou shalt love thy
5
neighbour as thyself," before Jesus of Galilee was born;
and the conversion of Paul was thus but a natural develop-
ment of the liberal Judaism of the broad and better educated
section of the Pharisees.
The passage of Tacitus, which speaks of Christians in
Rome about 64 A.D. 6 is pronounced by Gibbon to be in
the true style of that author, and exists in the oldest
1
"Les Evangiles," pp. 436, 444.
2 8 4
Luke iv. 31, xix. 20, xxii. i. Luke x. i. Matt. xvi. 18.
5 " Pirke " Tal Bab
Aboth.," I, 12, 13, 14; Sabbath," 3ia.
6 " " Sueton in
Tacitus, Annales," xv. 44 ; Nerone," c. 16.
27o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

manuscripts of his works. The famous letter of Pliny,

which would imply the spread of Pauline teaching to the
shores of the Black Sea early in the second century, is held
to be clearly authentic by the critical Renan ;
l
and the
celebration of Jesus as a deity in hymns, together with the
love-feast or social meal of the Essenes of Pontus, were
thus apparently established within the lifetime of those
who had witnessed the crucifixion. But the rapid growth of

martyr no longer surprises

tradition concerning the Galilean
us when we are able to trace its origin, and the great
number of the Christians of Pontus in Pliny's time 2 agrees
with the power of Christianity in the age of Constantine.
In order, however, to form an opinion as to the nature
of the original Christianity of the West it is necessary to

glance for a moment at the gnosticism of the Pauline

Epistles, and to compare it with the teaching of Cerinthus
and Valentinus, those great masters of allegory, who based
their systems on the Neo Platonism of Alexandria, which
was affecting the Jews, as shewn in their Kabbala, and in
the writings of the venerated Philo. In using the word
Kabbala it may be necessary to say that the Book Sohar
(thirteenth century A.D.) and the Book Jetzirah (ninth
century A.D.) are not intended. There is, however, good
reason to suppose that these works represent a survival of
earlier Jewish gnosticism and mystic dogma, founded on

Neoplatonic and Persian teaching. Simeon Bar lochai

most probably taught such dogmas, though his works (if
he wrote at all) have perished. The dogma of emanation 3

from a central .light, in ten Sephiroth or ^Eons (which

is found also in Persia), together with the hypothesis of an

1
"Evangiles," p. 476.
2 " Les
Pliny's letter to Trajan. Cf. Evangiles," p. 479.
3 " Maimonides More " " Sacred Books
Nebuhim," i. 7Bundahish," i. 25 ;
;

of the East," v. p. 9; Ginsburgh's "Kabbalah," pp. 76, 85-94.

 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 271

"
eternal nothing," an immaterial sourceof existence,
Ayin or
is very nearly akin to the old Indian philosophy, which even

earlier than the days of Gautama made its chief study the
"
search for the Atman or which was the only real
self,"

existence. 1
It may have been from Pythagoras and Plato
that such dogmas were received by Jewish philosophers,
but these great men owed the sources of their learning to
Egypt and to India, at least as much as to their own
meditation and the philosophy of the Brahmins was
;

occupied with deep speculations, which to the mind of the

Rabbi were as yet scarcely recognised as conceivable.
The language of gnosticism is recognisable in the Pauline

epistles in the special terms of the original Greek, to which

there seems no reason to doubt somewhat the same mean-

ing was attached, by the author, which belonged to these

words when used by Plato or Philo or Valentinus.
Cerinthus believed mankind to be divided into two
classes, those destined for eternal life having in them a
divine spark of fire which the others did not possess. It

was an echo of the old Persian belief in the " brightness "
2
of those destined to immortality, and it became the
foundation of that teaching which divided the elect from
the world as if of distinct physical nature which changed ;

the old order of the hermit Ebionites into a secret society

of Gnosticoi or initiated, who grafted Platonic philosophy
on to the simple morality of Jesus of Galilee.
The term Gnosis the Indian idea of Buddha or " the
"
enlightened one Bathos the Phoenician and Hebrew
:

Bahu or abyss : Dunamis the Brahminical Sakti or

" 3
power," are frequently used by Paul.
all Like the son of
the gnostic Carpocrates, the author of the Epistle to the

1 " Hibbert 2
Cf. chapter x. p. 185.
Lecture, 1878," p. 314.
3
Cf. Romans iii. 20, viii. 38, 39; I Cor. iv. 20, viii. I.
272 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Romans believed the Law of Moses to be a Gnosis of sin. 1

He speaks of the Adam Kadmon or original prototype,
which in the latter Kabbala is the third emanation from

God. 2 Gnosis superior

He claims for himself an initiation in

to the eloquence which was so important a gift to the

missionary of Tarsus.
3 The licence of morals, which was
so general a charge against the gnostics and against the
first Christians of Rome, is early reproved in the Pauline

Epistles.
4
The Archai or governors of the world origi-

nally the Persian Amshashpands who were classified by

Basilides, were not unknown to Paul 5 and the Demiurge
"
or God of the ^Eons," 6 whom the gnostics identified with
Jehovah and made be the father of Satan, ignorant of
to.

or opposed to the Supreme Deity, is contrasted in one of

"
the most genuine Pauline Epistles with Christ, the image
of God," who
the original emanation. 7 Such teaching is
is

couched in words which were intended only to be under-

stood by the initiated the wise who were also the elect,
8

but it is difficult to see in what respect it differed from

that of the Kabbalists or of the gnostic teachers con-
demned by the early fathers. Vicarious baptism for the
9
dead, which is distinctly admitted in the Pauline writings,
was a practice of the followers of Cerinthus, who thus
claimed to save those they had loved and lost from the
power of the Demiurge. The first prototype (Adam
Kadmon) is distinguished from the first emanation
10
Christos by Paul, just as Saturninus of Antioch taught
1
Romans iii. 20, v. 20.
2
Rom. vi. 6; i Cor. xv. 47. " "
Cf. Bundahish, iii. 19, xv. ij "Sacred
3
Books," v. 1 8, 52. 2 Cor. xi. 6.
4
Rom. iii. 8; I Cor. ii. 21, v. i; Justin Martyr, "Apol.," I, 35, ii. 14;
"
Tertullian, ApoL," vii., viii., ix. ; "Minucius Felix," ix., x., xxx., xxxi.
5 6
Rom. viii. 38. 2 Cor. iv. 5. 7
Rom. xi. 36.
8 I 9 i
Cor. ii. 6, x. 15. Cor. xv. 20 ; Epiphanius xxviii. 6.
10
I Cor. xv. 47.
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 273

that the shining emanation called Adam Kadmon, created

by the angels, was unable to stand up until quickened by

the divine spark from the Supreme Diety an idea probably
connected with the old Phoenician story of the Kadmon or
Cadmus the Protogonos or ancient man and of the
"
Zophesamin or heaven gazers," who were the primeval
prototypes whence man was created.
1
The " Heavenly
"
man among the Kabbalists was the first Sephira, standing
in the same relation to the earthly or old Adam that is
2
noted in Paul's epistle.
The yons so famous in the gnostic systems, which are
the Kabbalistic Sephiroth, are also found in the Pauline

Epistles, and seem to be identified with the Persian emana-

3

tions or spirits of God. But underneath all this quaint

phraseology and pedantic philosophy lies the great doctrine

of charity, 4 the echo of the Buddhist Maitri and none of ;

the fantastic creations of the Gnosis can separate the faithful

from the love of Christ and man. 6 It is for this reason that
Brahmins or the Roman philosophers, Paul
like the Indian

allows to his followers a licence of outward behaviour

6
regarding idols and meats which was the germ of the
Nicolaitan doctrine, which in the third century cast aside"
all the trammels of ordinary morality, and led the Cainites

and the Ophites to scandalous extravagance.

The gnostic language of the genuine epistles develops
in the later writings of the Pauline school yet more dis-
"
tinctly. Pleroma or fulness," which in the gnostic systems

appears to have been the final attainment of Nirvana or

rest by all the ^Eons and emanations, an absorption into
deity of all the individual creations, is mentioned in the
1 "
Cf. Lenormant's "
"
Sanchoniathon Cosmogony." Origines, p. 336.
2 "
Ginsburgh's Kabbala," 8, 12, 15, 16.
3 4
Gal. i. 4 ; 2 Cor. iv. 5. I Cor. xiii.
6 6
Rom. viii. 38. i Cor. viii.

S
274 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
" "
Epistle to the Ephesians ;
l
and the fulness of the deity
is said to have dwelt in the Christ ;
an idea which recalls the
Indian dogma of the Avatars, some of which were only par-
tial, while others, like Krishna or Buddha, were incarnations
of the entire divine nature. The yons and the Demiurge
"
again appear, with the Adam
2
or Ruler of the dark ^Eon,"
Kadmon of the Kabbala ;
3 and the idea of a central light,
the approach towards which is a progress to perfection, is
"
found in the preaching of peace to those afar off and those
who were nigh."
4 The worship of angels 5 condemned in
the Colossian Epistle is connected with the belief in that
grotesque hierarchy of "principalities and powers," which
was elaborated by the great masters of the Gnosis, as a link
between the Supreme Deity and the material universe ;

and the endless genealogies over which Timothy 6 is warned

not to pore, when active benevolence demands his time,
were the Kabbalistic cosmogonies of the Sephiroth or
emanations, which Buddhist philosophy elaborates also in
endless succession. How little even Paul had risen above
the superstitions of his age, we may judge from the fact
that he recommends women to cover their hair " because
of the angels." Like later Rabbis, he thus evidently be-
lieved in Shedim or spirits sitting in the tangles of a
beautiful uncovered head of hair. 7

Recognising, then, the Kabbalistic or gnostic philosophy

as apparent in the Pauline writings, let us enquire what was
the practical tendency of the teaching of this sect, and what
were the views which they held as to the office and nature
of the Christ, from whom they were named, and concerning
the immediate future of the world in which they lived.
1
Ephes. i. 23, iii. 19 ; Colos. ii. 9.
2 12 ; Colos.
Ephes. ii. 2, vi. ii.
15.
8 4 5
Colos. i.
15. Ephes. ii. 17. Colos n , 8>
6 7
i Tim. i. 4, vi. 20. I Cor. xi. 10; "Tal Bab Beracoth," 6a.
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 275

There is a not unnatural tendency in modern thought to

attach a deeper and more spiritual meaning to the expres-
sions of ancient writers than any which was originally
intended in a more superstitious age, when miracles were
more generally credited, and when human thought was less

subtle. Thus, although there are yet among us many who

take the New
Testament language literally to refer to a
future millennium, and a reign of Christ on earth, the

majority of Christians suppose such predictions to have

only a spiritual sense. There can be little doubt that the
more literal interpretation is that nearest to the beliefs of
the Apostolic age, but the change of belief is the same
which, in older times, gave a spiritual interpretation to the
old physical myths, and changed darkness into Satan, and
the sun into the Messiah. It is the same tendency which
credits the prophets of Israel with a spiritual teaching, and
ignores their superstitious belief in demons and magic rites.
In the gospels we have the writings of men who believed
that a human body could ascend into heaven, and that
disease was the result of demoniacal action ;
who credited
the incarnation of deity born of a virgin, and saw the bright
forms of angels and archangels ever guiding human affairs.
It is from this point of view that of wonder-loving and
materialistic faith in the constant occurrence of miracles
that we ought to study the writings of Paul. We cannot
truly understand the epistles without seeing that the
author believed the deity to have been incarnate in Jesus
of Galilee. The Kabbala taught that the Ancient of Days
was manifested in three successive emanations the

wisdom, which was but an impersonification of the

" " "
thought of God, whence in turn proceeded the mes-
"
senger," who was the "appearance of a man seen by
Ezekiel, while this word or speech of God produced the
276 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Adam Kadmon, or prototype of Creation, from whom

sprang (as from the prototypes of Phoenician, Persian, or

Indian mythology) the ten Sephiroth or qualities generat-

ing a Creation, whence proceeded angels and souls, who

in turn produced the material universe.
In the Laws of Manu the student will find a very similar

theory of the evolution of all creation from God and His

Spirit which moved on the waters, and the account of
1

the emanations which produced creation is much the same

in Persian books.

This Jewish system of metaphysical Kabbala could not

"
but be familiar to Paul and it is with the Image of
;

" " "

God the Metatron or messenger that he identifies
2
Jesus of Galilee. Discarding the Alexandrian idea of the
word or Logos, he states that Christ is the " power " of
God, 3 a gnostic expression which derives probably from
the Indian belief in a Sakti, or "power," which executed
the conceptions of each great deity. The same language ;

4
is repeated in the Epistle of the
Hebrews, which Luther
believed to have been written by the talented Alexandrian

Jew Apollos, in which Christ is the Son who made the

5
worlds, "the first-born of every creature." The idea that
deity could thus assume a human form is certainly no
part of original Judaism but it is the basis of the Indian
;

belief in Avatars, and the Kabbalists certainly held that

the pre-existent Messiah would have such a
supernatural
character.

Jesus of Nazareth being then the Angel Incarnate, and

suffering as Isaiah had foretold he must suffer, had
returned on high in his mortal body,
ascending to an
1 " Laws of "
Manu," i.
9-19, 76 ; iii. 201 ; Bundahish," i.
23.
2 *
2 Cor. iv. 4. i Cor. iv. 20.
* *
Heb. ii. 2, 6. Colos< ^ I5
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 277

actualheaven above the sapphire firmament, until the

time when his return to earth (which Paul held to be
imminent) should have been prepared by the annunciation
of his coming to all the elect. 1 The writer of Luke's
Gospel believed in an actual Hell and Heaven, no less
than in visible angels and an incarnate deity and, if we ;

are to give the plainmeaning to Paul's words, he believed

that Jesus of Galilee was sitting beside the throne of a

personal God, and watching the actions of his apostle's

life.

Thereason and object of such an incarnation is quite as

explicitly set forth in the Pauline writings. Christ was

like the Persian Mithra, a Mediator atoning by His
sufferings for the sins of have already traced men. We
the Jewish idea of atonement to a Persian origin, and seen
that Isaiah believed in a self-sacrificing deity who should
bear the sins of man. The Christ was sent to save
2
sinners and reconcile the world to God, for the blood
of sacrifice, as the Kabbalists now (in their advanced
scepticism) began to perceive, could not have the desired
effect of purifying from sin.

To endeavour to explain away such teaching, or to

suppose that Paul regarded Jesus as only a human teacher,
is to twist the evident meaning of the language of the
epistles. There was nothing very original in such views
of emanation and atonement, for they had sprung into
existence many ages previously in India, and they were
familiar beliefs among Kabbalistic metaphysicians.
Let us for a moment turn once more to Buddhist writings,
in which such doctrines are taught at least two centuries

1
Rom. iv. 25 ; I Cor. vii. 29, x. II, xv. 24; Colos. iii. I ; I Thes. iv.

1 6 ;
2 Thes. i. 7, &c.
2
Rom. viii. 3 ;
2 Cor. v. 19 ; Heb. ix. 14, x. 4.
 278 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

before Paul wrote. Buddha, in the first place, points out

the inadequacy of sacrifice to secure peace and happiness

"
for man. It is but a confused and illogical belief," he
1
says, and his opponent had no answer to give. Buddha
" " "
also was incarnate through his love for man to give
" "
rest and peace to all flesh ;
to establish a kingdom of
righteousness by declaring the sublime doctrines of
" "
religion ;
to save man from the recurrence of birth and
death, and to remove from the world all sources of sorrow
and pain." 2 Charity, morality, patience were his teaching
no less than that of Paul. Righteousness he defined as
meditation on the true law, self-discipline, purity, and
doing good to men, ministering to the worthy, doing
harm to none. "This, indeed, is the wisdom of a true
disciple," and these also are the fruits of the spirit against
which there is no law. 3
Diversity of doctrine had certainly commenced within a
4
century of the crucifixion, the original Ebionite teaching
that Jesus was but a man, and that the old laws were
yet
removed from Paul's belief that the law
binding, being far
of Moses was only intended to last until the appearance of
the Christ and it is also clear that Paul believed his own
;

sectarian views to be inspired ; 6 but the cardinal doctrine

of love to man was proclaimed by sect. Yet new as
every
it may have been in the west did not originate in Judea.
it

There is, no doubt, a difference of tone between the belief in

a physical millennium and the sad
philosophy of Buddhism,
but the reason is to be sought in the infiltration of Buddhist
ideas through the medium of Jewish eschatology; and
Christianity is noblest in all those elements which it borrows

1
"Legend of Buddha," p. 159. a
Ibid., pp. 33, 142, 143, 255.
8
Ibid., pp. 217, 279 : Gal. v. 22. 2 Cor. xi. 4; Gal. i.
6, ii. 14.
6
Rom. v. 20; Gal. iii. 19.
6
Q^ ^ ,2
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 279

from the teaching of Gautama. The key-note of Buddhism

"
is a melancholy cry :
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," all
things pass away ;
God and heaven are as fleeting as the

things of this world ;

the loved ones on earth are but fellow-

passengers whom we shall see no more after our paths have

separated ;
the beauty of woman is but transient the love ;

of power is delusion the only hope of rest is in the escape

;

from sorrow and from individuality, to be born no more and

to strive no more for any joy. 1 Even these doctrines are
not without a parallel in the Christianity of monks and
hermits, of saints and nuns, however little they may be
traceable, in the conviction of Paul that the angel Messiah
was about to come back to gather his elect.
The explanation afforded by Paul concerning the cruci-

have a Kabbalistic meaning. 2 Christ

fixion appears also to
was "crucified through weakness," just as the Rabbi men-
tioned in the preceding chapter was buried in dishonour
because of a single sin. It is the dogma of Karma, or the
result of action, which
is thus indicated the idea that some

single imperfection was punished by a painful death.

Christ, though sinless, was not above a sympathy, by his
own weakness, for the sins of others 3 and the final ;

triumph was delayed for a moment until perfection had

been obtained through suffering, and until the elect or
spiritual had been gathered out of the great crowd of
earthly men who were to have no share in the celestial
future. 4

Within his own lifetime the zealous missionary hoped

that the great catastrophe would arrive. The Christ pre-
ceded by the Antichrist would appear, descending from
above the firmament; the pious dead would rise in spiritual
1 2 3
"Legend of Buddha," p. 253. 2 Cor. xiii. 4. Heb. iv. 15.
4
Rom. viii. 19-30 I Cor.
; xv. 39-48.
2 8o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

bodies, springing from their corpses sown in earth. The

living righteous would be caught up to meet the saints

coming in the clouds, and those long before predestined to

immortality, freed from the bondage of the flesh, would rise
1
in the air, and so be ever with the Lord.

Comforting one another with such words, the disciples

were enjoined to live as those who expected the end to be
imminent. Celibacy was recommended if not absolutely

enjoined,
2
and all were to remain in expectant readiness,
"for the fashion of this world passeth away," and the
advent of Jesus was a sign of the approach of Messiah,
just as the coming of Buddha was a sign of the approach-
ing end of a Kalpa, when heaven and earth should be
burnt up and a new and happier cycle commence.
There is but one other feature of the Pauline writings
which demands notice in the present inquiry, namely, the

allegorical interpretationof the Old Testament and the

Antinomian spirit which denied the efficacy of the law to
save mankind. 3 In these peculiarities, which contrast so
strongly with the Ebionite doctrine that not a Yod nor a
dot of the Torah should fail, and that Jesus came not to

destroy but to fulfil, we may perhaps trace the influence

4

of Philo, and the germ of that free thought

concerning
Judaism, which found utterance in the teaching of the Jew-
hating Egyptian Gnostics who condemned the Old Testa-
ment as inspired
by the Demiurge, or rejected it altogether
as obsolete or untrue, superseded or contradicted
by the
knowledge of Christ.

strange indeed to find nineteen centuries later the

It is

productions of such various schools bound in one venerated

1
Rom. ii. 7 ; 2 Cor. v. I ; i Thess. iv. 16 2 Thess. ii.
; 4.
8
I Cor. vii. 31.
8
I Cor. x. 4; Gal. iv. 25 ; Rom. v. 20. 4
Matt. v. 17.
 PAULINE CHRISTIANITY. 281

volume, and forming the study of painstaking apologists,

who strive to show that teachers who hated and cursed
each other, as did the disciples of Peter and Paul, were
inspired to preach one gospel of infallible truth. It is yet

more strange to find in our sceptical age, the old eschatology

of Persia influencing the actions of Englishmen, and the
Rabbinical belief in a supernatural Messiah leading enthu-
siasts from all parts of Europe to congregate at Jerusalem,

expecting to see a human form descending from the clouds

to tread in the footprints which priests of Rome still show
on the summit of Olivet, as the Buddhist shows the foot-
mark of his Saviour in China. Yet it is but a part of the
same human history which has given a common folk-lore
to the German and the Italian, the Persian and the Celt.
Red Riding Hood or Bo Peep are sisters of Esther and of
Mary. The beanstalk is but Jonah's gourd, the Christmas
tree or Yule, log is only the burning bush, and the clever
brother Boots is Joseph or Tobit. Moses in his ark is the
"
luck child in his cradle," and David becomes a prototype
"
of Jack the Giant Killer. Elijah's cloak is the magic
"
towel German fairy tale, and the widow's cruze is
of the
"
the magic pipkin." The old woman gathering sticks is
found not only in the Bible but in many a western house
tale, and the despised Hagar is the humble Cinderella,
while Jephtah's daughter is slain by many an Aryan father.
In the childhood of mankind the fairy tales of the ancient
mythology diverted his yet infant mind, and sprang from
his imperfect power of speech. In his youth the stern
problem of evil tormented his intellect, and Christian folk-
lore has become the whereby the greatest moral
vehicle

discovery of the east has been carried to the west, and the
love of fellowman has been proclaimed to the world.
 CHAPTER XVI.

EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM.
"
YE are of your father the devil ... for he is a liar and his
father." *
Such are the words placed in the of Jesus mouth
by the author of the fourth gospel with reference to the

Jews. It is hardly credible that such language should have

been used by a Jew even in Alexandria, and it is as widely
separated from the tone of the Pauline Epistles, or of that
"
writer to the Jews who terms them a royal priesthood, a
2
holy nation, a peculiar people," as it is well possible to
conceive. We know on the other hand that Valentinus of
Alexandria taught that the Jewish Jehovah was a Demiurge
or Creator who begat Satan from the grief of Achamoth

(the female personification of Wisdom), and made him

prince of this world and of the " power of the air." We
know that Carpocrates, whom Irenaeus calls the first

gnostic, hated the Jews, and believed that although Jesus

3

was brought up in their law he despised its precepts. We

know that the Ophites in the second century revised all
the Old Testament, and taught that the serpent in Genesis
was instructed by Sophia (or Wisdom) to withstand
Jehovah, whom they called Ildebaoth ("born of Chaos"),
and that Sophia was herself the brazen serpent which the
fourth gospel makes a type of Christ.
It is by the light of such knowledge that the gospel after
1
John viii. 44. Cf. xii. 31 xiv. 30 xvi. 11. Cf. 2.
; ;
Ephes. ii.
2 3
I Peter ii. 9. "Irenaeus," i.
25-6.
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 283

1
John should be read. Its whole tendency as shown by at
least one passage in each of the first eleven chapters is

anti-Jewish. The author speaks

of the Jews as though of a

foreign nation, and represents Jesus not as contending with

the Sadducees or denouncing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees,
but as bitterly antagonistic to the whole race. There is no
descent from David, no baptism, no presentation in the

Temple, no eating of the paschal lamb, recorded of the

Christ in this version of his legend while his visit to ;

Samaria was directly contrary to Jewish custom and it ;

seems even to be hinted that Jesus may have come origi-

nally from the detested Samaritan province, for he is not

born at Bethlehem of Judea, but appears mysteriously from
some unknown direction. 2
Before examining so entirely distinct a development of
the Essene system, it may be well to glance for a moment
at the contemporary doctrines of Egyptian philosophers
and metaphysicians. So much has been written concerning
the discrepancies which exist between the fourth gospel
and the synoptics, that it is hardly necessary to say more
on so well known a controversy. It is sufficient to note
that there hardly an incident, or a maxim connected with
is

Jesus, which, if mentioned, is not represented in an entirely

new shape in the fourth gospel, while nearly all the teach-
ing and many of the acts of the Christ recorded in its pages
have no parallel in the synoptic accounts.

The philosophy of Plato was the main subject of study

among the wise men of Alexandria, both Jews and Gentiles.
The Sophia, Nous, and Psyche of his writings became
the Hocmah (wisdom), Ruch (wind or spirit), and Adam
Kadmon (or soul of the world) of the Kabbalists. The
John ii. 6, 13 ; vi. 4 ; vii. II ; x. 7 ; xi. 55.
1
John i. 44 ; vii. 27 ; viii. 48 ; ix. 29.
284 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
"
Logos or Word," which Plato makes to be the Demiurge
"
or Creator, divine above all other beings," became a dis-
tinct personification among the Neoplatonists,
and was
"
identified by than by the author of the Book
Philo, no less
"
of Wisdom about a century before Christ, with the great

angel of Wisdom, which, as we have seen in a former

1

chapter, was an idea borrowed from the Mazdean hierarchy

by the Jews of the Greek age. Writing about 40 A.D., Philo,

the Alexandrian Jew, speaks thus of the Logos: "The

deity has for his abode his own word. The word which is
more ancient than all things which were the objects of
creation, and by means of which the Ruler of the universe,

holding it as a rudder, guides everything and when He ;

was fashioning the world, he used it as an instrument for

the perfect ordering of all things which he finished." 2
This word of God, proceeding like a two-edged sword
from his mouth, as the wisdom of Ahuramazda or the
wondrous tongue of the Buddha, or the glory of Krishna
seen when he opened his mouth, is, according to Philo, the
" 3 "
first begotten of God," the most ancient of all beings," 4
"the image and likeness of God," 5 "superior to the angels," 6
"
the light of the world." 7 The Logos was eternal, 8 uniting
9 10
all things by its power, free from sin, the fountain of life

1
Wisdom xviii. 14, &c. Cf. chap. xi.
2
Philo on the " Migration of Abraham." Cf.
" De "
"De
Leg. Allegor. ;

Mundi Cf.
" The Rudder."
Opificio." Appendix A,
3 " De "
and " De Somniis "
Philo, Profugiis j John i. 34.
4
Philo, "De Confus. Ling. ;" Colos. 15. i.

5
Philo, "De Monarch V John 14; Col. 15 Heb.
; i. i. ; i.
3.
6
Philo, "De Profugiis;" Heb. 4-6. i.

7
Philo, "De Allegor.;" "De Somniis." Cf. John viii. 12; "Legend of
Buddha," pp. 138, 246.
8 " De Plant Noe "
Philo, John xii. 34.
;

9
Philo, "De Profugiis;" John i. IO ; Col. i. 17 Heb. ; i.
3.
10 " De "
Philo, Profugiis Heb. ix. 14 ; i Peter ii. 22.
;
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 285

and wisdom, 1 the shepherd of the sacred the creative flock,

2

3 4 6 " 5
power, the physician, the seal, the great high priest, and
hence his head (that of the Logos) is anointed with oil." 7
All these expressions are used in the voluminous writings
of Philo, and were familiar apparently to Josephus. 8 It is
remarkable that such symbolism is not found connected
with the word Logos in the Pauline Epistles, where a
heavenly Messiah takes the place of the creative word but ;

in the fourth gospel we are familiar with similar phraseo-

"
logy, especially in the first chapter concerning the word
that was with God, and the word was God." The idea of an
incarnate word of God is not, however, solely Indian or
Greek. It is equally recognisable also in Persia. Mithra,
the god of light, and Serosh, the angel of worship, are each
"
the " incarnate word of the Lord, and it is with Honover
" "
or the word that Zarathustra smites the devil as with a
stone. This voice of God was in the earliest age the
thunder, but it became a distinct divinity, even incarnate
in certain historical heroes of the faith (the germ of the
Imam idea), so that Vistaspa, King of Bactria, is also said to
have been the incarnate word. 9
The comparison between Philo and John is a very old

one, and early in the century, works were written to show

that Philo and Josephus must have been Christians. This
was a contention similar to that of Abb& Hue, who derives
Buddhist ritual from Roman rites and the exact reversal ;

"
1
Philo,
'
De Profugiis ; John iv.
14.
"
2
Philo,
'
De Agricult. ; John x. 14 ; Heb. xiii, 20 ; I Peter ii.
25.
3 '
De " " De Somniis "
Philo, Profugiis ; John i. 3.
;

4
Philo, 'De Leg. Allegor." Cf. "Legend of Buddha," p. 138.
5
Philo,
'
De Plant Noe ; " " De Profugiis " Ephes. i. 13. j
"
6
Philo,
'
De Profugiis ; Heb. iv. 14.
"
7
Philo,
'
De Profugiis ; I John ii. 20.
8
"Josephus on Hades," 6.
9
"Mihir Yasht; ""Serosh Yasht;" " Ashi Yasht," 20 ;
"
Fravardin
Yasht," 99.
2 86 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

of the process would probably be more nearly truthful.

Philo was a Jewish ambassador to Rome in 40 A.D., and

was then an elderly man. The fourth gospel cannot be
shown to have existed before the latter half of the second

century, and there is

no trace of the Logos, or of other
Alexandrian terms in the earlier Gospel of Mark.
peculiar
to
Although the writings which were afterwards attributed
John may have been those of an author
who had not read
Philo, there can be no question that they belong to the
Alexandrian school, and a comparison of the contents of
this book with the teaching of the contemporary gnostic
masters of Alexandria, is therefore of the highest interest
in connection with our subject.
It is not with the immoral doctrines and practices of

the Ophites and Cainites, of the followers of Carpocrates and

Prodicus, that we are now concerned, for no such stigma
attaches to the great gnostics Basilides and Valentinus.
The former, a Syrian by birth, was disciple of the Samari-
1

tan Menander, fellow student with Saturninus of Antioch of

the Greek philosophy in Alexandria and died about 138 A.D.
He professed to found his teaching on an esoteric instruction
received from the first followers of Jesus ;
and the idea of
secret initiation of the wise to doctrines concealed from
the vulgar, became a marked feature of gnosticism. In
India the young Brahmin still receives such secret teaching
2
and Dionysiac Epopts, from
at the time of his initiation,
whom the gnostics may have borrowed, like the later

Templars, the Rosicrucians or the Masons of the west,

were thus under an oath of secrecy admitted into the circle
of the philosophically sceptical, whose disbelief in the doc-
1
Mansell's "Gnostic Heresies;" Epiphanius, "Hseret," xxii. I,
Cf.
7;
"Irenaeus," i. 24; Eusebius, "Hist. Eccles." iv. 7; " Hippolytus," vii. 14,
"
20; Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom," vii. 17.
2
Cf. Dubois' "People of India."
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 287

trines outwardly proclaimed, recalls the Indian infidelity

respecting the Hindu pantheon. 1
The supreme "
deity, according to Basilides, was non-
"
existence (the Kabbalistic Ayin or nothing), an idea
similar to that of the Indian, impalpable Brahman. 2 From
the central light (also a Kabbalistic and Buddhist idea) a
succession of emanations produced the Archons, who re-
semble the Persian Archangels. An Ogdoate, or group of
eight powers ruled by Abraxas the sun-god, generated in
turn a Hebdomad powers, whose chief was
of seven
Jehovah, the god of the Jews, a deity unable, as was also
Abraxas, to ascend above the firmament, and ignorantly
supposing himself to be supreme, the highest original deity
being unknown to him. The Hebdomad was first con-
nected with the planets, and Basilides interpreted the first
chapters of Genesis as having an astronomical meaning ;

but a great son proceeding from the first Archon at last

illumined his father, and the light spread to the second
Archon and to Jesus, son of Mary.
The Gnostics distinguished the Pneumaticoi or spiritual
from other men not born of the spirit. 3 The spiritual were
imprisoned in mortal bodies, but finally set free by the
Supercosmic Gnosis, a gospel which thus gave glorious
liberty to the sons of God ; but they were left on earth to
teach the earthly souls of the rest of mankind.
Two periods of the world's history were supposed to have
passed one when governed by the first Archon sin reigned
from Adam to Moses, 4 in the second the second Archon
Jehovah inspired the prophets, and unwittingly fulfilled the
commands of the supreme deity. In the third, the sons of

1
Cf. Dubois' "People of India," p. 135.
2 "Hibbert Lecture, 1878," p. 337.
4
John iii. 5 ; Rom. viii. 19-22. Rom. v. 14.
288 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

God began to be enlightened previous to their future ascen-

sion or Anastasis, which replaced the old idea of an earthly

resurrection, just as with Philo the Anastasis was but the

of the body, 1 and its
escape of the soul from the prison
"upstanding" after death. This idea is clearly connected
with the Brahminic and Buddhist theory of the punishment
of sin by reincarnation in a mortal body, one of the oldest
probably of Aryan beliefs as to the soul. In India also we
find noticed the successive ages of the world, and in Persia
2

the sheep period succeeds that of the wolf.

Basilides believed in the sufferings of Jesus, but held that
his body was finally dissolved, and that his three imma-
terial qualities went to the three deities ;
his psyche to the

first Archon, his nous to the upper region, his divinity to

the supreme deity. He regarded evil, as did the Kabbal-
ists, not as a positive but as a negative fact, as the absence
of goodness and of light. He denied the resurrection of
the body, and believed in transmigration as purificatory.
He allowed his followers (as Paul seems to have done) to
worship idols and to conceal their faith under persecution.
He added certain books of Eastern theosophy to the scrip-
tures which he accepted, and he regarded matter not as
absolutely evil but as being an imperfection to be removed
in the future. There is so clear an Oriental ring in his
doctrines that we can hardly but believe that he
possessed
works of Buddhist philosophy, which he thus combined in
his system with Jewish and Essene writings.
3
Valentinus, the most famous of all the Gnostic doctors,
visited Rome in 140 A.D., retired to Cyprus in 157 A.D.,
and died in 160 A.D. He was probably educated in Alex-
1
Rom. viii. 21. Cf. Josephus 2; Wars, viii. n.
2 " Laws of " Bahman
Manu," i. 8l ; Yasht," iii. 40.
3
Mansell's
" Gnostic "
Heresies;" Epiphanius, Hseret.," xxxi., &c.
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 289

andria, and
philosophy has been called Platonic, because
his

he believed an idea attached to every earthly shadow or

in

phenomenon. This is, however, only the Indian doctrine

of Maya or "delusion," which makes all matter consist
merely of apparent phenomena matched to immutable
ideas. 1 Valentinus was one of the first to use the word
^Eon in the plural, and these qualities enumerated in

he made the prototypes of all creation. In

fifteen pairs

Buddhist philosophy the Sankharas or ideas are fifty-three

in reason being the last but Valentinus seems merely
all, ;

to record his views of the history, past and future, of the

world in his genealogy of ^Eons an acrostic like those we
have considered in the first chapters of this book. 2 From
silence and the abyss sprang mind and truth, reason and
life, the man and the Church, comfort and faith, fatherly
hope, motherly love, eternal intelligence, light and happi-
ness. From Eucharistic wisdom proceeded depth and
mingling, unfading union, self-born temperance, only-be-
gotten unity, and immovable pleasure. Such were the
thirty ideas contained in the thirty barbarous Syriac names
Ampsu, Bucana, and the rest which are the titles of the
yEons, only to be explained to the initiated.
The disciples of Valentinus allegorised even the original
gospels, and their language is closely similar to that of
the fourth gospel. The title Pleroma, which was the sum
total of the ^Eons,was a word used by Philo, and by the
Septuagint translators of the Old Testament, as well as
by the Pauline school.
3
The conception of final rest, due
to the absorption into deity of all ^Eons, seems to suggest
the Indian Nirvana ; but it is unnecessary further to pur-

1 " Laws of -
Cf. King's
" Gnostics "
Manu," i. 19. (^Eons).
s
LXX. Ps. xxiii.
" De Prsem
(xxiv.); Philo, et'Pcen," 217; Ephes. i.
23,
iii. 19 ; Colos ii. 9.

T
29 o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

sue into detail the system of Valentinus, the bold allegory

of the troubles of Sophia, or the clumsier system of the
Ophites, who flourished in the second century of our era,
for enough has perhaps been said to show the probability
that the Gnostic doctors were not unacquainted with Indian

philosophy.
Nor was it among heretics alone that such acquaintance
with Buddhism was to be found. Clemens of Alexandria,
who died in 220 A.D., is reckoned among the fathers of the
Christian Church. He was probably an Athenian, and
was head of a Christian seminary in Egypt. He regarded
Greek philosophy as a preparation for the Gospel, and he
taught that morality and true Gnosis were derived from the
Logos. He considered the highest state of perfection to
be one of apathy or contemplation, and he thus reproduced
one of the cardinal ideas of Indian philosophy, the attain-
ment of perfect indifference to all worldly things, which is
the Nirvana of Victory or prelude to a condition of Pari
Nirvana the rest, freedom, and disillusion of eternity.
There is no doubt much that is grotesque or even

foolish, from a modern point of view, in the Gnostic

nomenclature, in such quaint titles as Abraxas Ildebaoth,

or Emphibochiband ;
barbarous and foreign
but these
names were intended more spiritual teaching,
to hide a

which, though the letter was often most ignorantly repeated

by the disciples of the great doctors, has in the hands of
a master like Valentinus attained to great beauty in the
form of poetic allegory. Persian, Phoenician, Jewish, and
Indian ideas and symbols were melted down in one
crucible withGreek philosophy the Eleusinian mysteries,
;

serpent worship, the orgies of Cybele, the Mithraic

initiation were, by a widely syncretic system, united with
the Platonic cosmogony and the Buddhist metaphysics.
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 291

The result was the Gnosticism of the second century after

Christ, which left a rich legacy to the mystic sects of

Europe in all subsequent ages.
Having thusbriefly glanced at the contemporary ideas
of the age in which the fourth gospel was written, as they

developed in Alexandria where probably it was penned ;

at the Neoplatonic school, the allegories of Philo, the

Kabbala and the Gnostic doctrines, we are enabled to
understand the atmosphere which surrounded the author
of the an ti- Jewish legend of Christ, and may be able to
attach a definite meaning to many of his expressions.

First, then, we learn that the Logos was with God a

central light not enveloped by darkness, but expanding
in infinite tenuity, 1 was incarnate in Jesus of
and that it

Galilee, as the Buddha became an Avatar in Guatama.

The Evangelist inveighs strongly against the ideas of the
Docetic school, that Christ was an immaterial phantom,
and seeks to prove his material existence on earth. 2 Philo
3
says that only the Logos can see God, John that only
the Logos can ascend to heaven. Jesus, like Buddha, is
4
represented as knowing the thoughts of man. John the
Baptist becomes the witness of the inspiration of Jesus by the
Holy Spirit (Pneuma Agia), and not His actual baptiser
a doctrine which even Irenaeus considered to be directed
against the Ebionites and the scene of John's ministry
;

is laid (probably through hate of the

Jews) no longer in
Judea but in Bashan beyond Jordan.
5

The call of the disciples is very differently described in

the first and fourth gospels. Nathaniel is a new char-
acter in the story, and seen under the fig tree, he recalls
1 2
John i.
5. John i. 14, xix. 34, 35, I John iv. 2.

Philo " De Confus. Ling.

3 "
John i. 1 8, iii. 13, vi. 46.
;

4
Luke ix. 47 John i. 25 ; " Legend of Buddha," p. 298, 372.
;

John i. 28-33. Cf. Mark i. 5.

5
292 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the story of Nanda behind the tree mentioned in the last

chapter. The miracle of Cana is also a new one, and the
episode is probably introduced in contradiction to the

celibate views of the Ebionites, as showing that Jesus

countenanced marriage by his presence and miracle at a
wedding.
Nicodemus the Pharisee seems possibly to be mentioned
in the Talmud, and in one passage is identified with Bunai,

a disciple of Jesus, possibly the Banu of Josephus, a

Jewish ascetic.
1
The ignorance which he represented as
is

showing concerning second birth is intended, probably, to

indicate Jewish want of acquaintance with the philosophy
of Alexandria. The Brahmin still calls himself twice
born, and still believes in the purifying effects of reincar-
nation. In the Laws of Manu, 2 which date at latest some
four centuries before this gospel, we find, most clearly

defined, the character of the second or spiritual birth of

the Brahmin, which occurs when he assumes the triple
cord. Both this priestly caste and that of warriors were
called "twice born," and the Gnostic
initiation was without
doubt that second and non-carnal birth to which allusion
is intended in the third chapter of the so-called Gospel
after John. In this chapter also the Gnostic idea of the
Pneumaticoi or spiritually minded, who, though outwardly
the same as other men, were " born of the spirit," is fully
enunciated and the Ophite symbol of the serpent repre-
;

3
senting Christos also appears. Jesus considers Nico-
demus unfitted for initiation into deeper mysteries, since
he has failed to grasp the "
very familiar idea of being born
again." The final verses show Christos as the divine

ijohn Cf. " Tal Bab

iii, i. Josephus, "Vita," 2; Taanith," 2ca ;
" "
"Gittin," 56a; Ketuboth," 66b ; Sanhed," 43a.
2 " Laws of 3
Manu," ii. 147. j ohn {ii I4
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 293

the pair to Ecclesia, the Church, or to Sophia, Wisdom :

"
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom," and he is
above all.
1

The episode of the Samaritan

woman, so bitterly anti-
Jewish in conception, is compared by Prof. Beal with the
story of Buddha and the Matangi woman. The meaning
of the episode is clear, for as Buddha neglected the restric-
tions of caste, so also the Christ is shown to have neglected
2
Jewish prejudices as to the Samaritans. Jesus is in this
chapter symbolised as the fountain of living water and of
wisdom, just as Philo symbolises the Logos.
The great of the Logos-son, who is God, is
dogma
farther insisted upon in the next chapter. Christ is equal
with God and is the judge of the world, as Philo or
3
Josephus equally believed of the Logos, and the Jewish
Lawgiver here represented as the adversary or accuser, 4
is

who will stand up against the Jews in the last day, as

Satan (called also by the same Greek title Kategoros)

accuses the just. Moses is thus contrasted with the
Paraclete or advocate, who is to be sent from God to assist
the elect. 5 We have seen in a previous chapter that these
two terms were used with a special significance, and are
to be found in the Talmud transliterated into Hebrew
letters.

To the miracle of feeding the five thousand a moral or

esoteric meaning is attached in the fourth gospel. The
topography of the episode is confused in such a manner as
to indicate a writer not familiar with Palestine and Jesus
;

" "
is symbolised as the bread of life and the wine or water
1 2
Cf.
" Water of Life."
John iii. 29, 31. Appendix A,
3
John v. 18-30, ix. 39, x, 30, xii. 48. "Josephus on Hades," 6; Philo,
" De Somniis."
4
John v. 45. Cf. i John ii. I ; Rev. xii. 10 ; and chap. viii. p. 158.
5
John xvi. 7.
 294 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

of life, with evident reference to the Eucharistic sacrifice,

concerning which much remains to be said later. It is

sufficient here to note that the mystic feast has an Aryan

pedigree easily traceable, and that it was celebrated by all

the Gnostic sects and by the worshippers of Isis and
Mithra. Jesus represented as giving his body and
is

blood for the life of the world, as Buddha also suffered

reincarnation to give life to men, and to show them the

"way of life." The self-sacrificing God is found in the

Vedas, and the blood of God gives life to the world in the
Phoenician myths and in the Brahmin poetry. are We
thus carried back to the old physical legends of the sun
and the dew, the corn and the wine, and to yet earlier
ideas of nature worship in the East 1
The Ebionites claimed to number in their ranks the
brethren of Jesus. The author of the fourth gospel, on
the other hand, says that these brethren were not believers
in the Christ 2 Like other Jews they are supposed
incapable of penetrating any mystery, and attach only an
exoteric meaning to such expressions as eating the flesh of
the Son of man or being born again. Throughout the

gospel the Jews are represented as utterly puzzled by the

3
language of Jesus, and the reason of their ignorance is
given in the first Epistle of John "Ye have (like the
Logos of Philo) an unction from the Holy One, and ye
know all things." 4 The Jews had no initiation into the
Gnosis, and hence attached a material meaning to expres-
sions only understood by the initiated.
The terms Light of the World and
Good Shepherd we
have seen to be applied to Krishna and Buddha and derived
from the older sun myth. The of Christ as the
symbolising
1
Cf. " The Eucharist"
Appendix B, john yi ^
*
Cf. John iii. 4 ; vii. 52 ; vii. 35, 36 ; viii. *
33, 57. i John ii. 20.
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 295

Lamb (which is also found as an emblem of Krishna) and

as the door, or way to the fold, has a similar connection ;

and the fold is to contain not only the elect of the Jewish
1
nation, but also those of other nations, sheep of other folds.
All this symbolism is easily understood but the expressions ;

relating to the Prince (or Archon) of this world have a

more peculiarly Gnostic value. After long hesitation Dr
Davidson admits in his introduction to a new version of
the New Testament that the Devil's father is mentioned in
the fourth gospel. The Prince of this World is Satan, and
his father according to the Gnostics is Jehovah, the God of
the Jews, the Demiurge from whose power the JEon Christos
sets free the elect. Satan thus indicated in four passages
of the gospel is to be judged by the Paraclete, and is the
"
same evil power called by the Pauline writers, prince of
2
the power of the air."
In the account of the blind man healed on the Sabbath
we have an echo of a Buddhist legend, but the incident is
made to turn specially against the Jews, for Christ is re-

presented as deliberately breaking the law which forbade

3
any manual labour on the Sabbath. The doctrine of
Karma is also distinctly taught in the words, " Who did sin ?
this man or his parents that he was born blind." 4
There are not many instances of raising the dead in the
gospels. The daughter of Jairus, who was asleep and not
dead according to Mark, and the son of the widow of Nain
are noticed in the Synoptics, but the long legend of Lazarus
is peculiar to John's gospel. The two sisters of Bethany,
one of whom is identified with the sinner Mary of Magdala,
remind us of the two sisters Nandi and Bali, daughters of
1
John x. 1 6, xi. 52.
a
John viii. 44, xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. n ; Ephes. ii. 2.
* "
John ix. 14 ; cf. v. 18. Cf. Legend of Buddha," p. 366.
*
John ix. 2.
296 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

a soldier chief, 1 who are among the first disciples of the

Buddha, and who minister (as all pious women in India
were bound to do) to his bodily wants. Another peculiar
episode of the gospel (the washing of the disciples' feet) is

also peculiarly Indian. Krishna deigned in like manner to

wash the feet of his followers, and a very curious custom
survives among the Hindus at marriages, when the father-
in-law washes the bridegroom's feet. The foot of Buddha
was specially sacred,
2
an idea derived from the older

legends concerning Vishnu's foot, which was washed by his

consort, as may be seen in Hindu pictures of Narayana.
In the synoptics this ceremony is left unnoticed, nor is

any similar rite known to have existed among the

Jews.
The Logos as judge of the world was an idea known to
Philo and Josephus as well as to the author of the fourth

gospel, but the new commandment of love is not Jewish in

3
origin. Here again in the Gnostic gospel we find the
Buddhist Maitri, and as Buddha claimed originality for
this dogma so does Jesus proclaim this to be a new law for
his disciples. The whole tone of the address beginning
" "
Let not your hearts be troubled has been recognised by
students of Buddhism as recalling, in a most remarkable man-
ner, the last word of Guatama to Ananda and his other dis-

ciples, beginning with the exhortation not to betroubled by his

death. The "many mansions" of the Father's house are those
"chambers ofsouls" mentioned in the second Book of Ezdras 4
the graduated divisions of the Indian
Swarga, in which the
departed enjoy varying degrees of happiness. The Paraclete
sent from God in the name of the Christos to inspire the
1 "
Legend of Buddha," p. 287.
2 " " Hindu
Cf. Legend of Buddha," p. 4 Moor's ; Pantheon," Plates iii. iv.
8
John xiii. 34. Cf. chap, xiv., xv.
Cf. Dubois' "
4
2 Ezdr. iv. 35. 41. of People India," p. 398.
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 297

elect is but the third emanation of the Gnosis ;

and the
trinity of the ascension of Thoth in light, splendour, and

logos, or the Gnostic Triad, are both but spiritualised

developments of the Indian Trimurti, and the three brothers

of the Vedas.
The
question as to the day of the crucifixion is one too
lengthy for the present inquiry. Apologists believe that
the fourth gospel, in speaking of the Passover as following
the crucifixion, refers to the second Hagigah, 1 or supple-

mentary feast but such an explanation seems contradicted

;

by the direct assertion that the day of the death of Jesus

was not the preparation for the Sabbath, as stated by the
Synoptics, but the preparation for the Passover.
2
The
Paschal supper is clearly identified with the Lord's Supper

by the Synoptics, and those who have approved the com-

parisons of the preceding pages will at once admit the
probability that the author of the fourth gospel would
desire to disconnect the sacrifice of Christ from the Pass-
over festival, whereas to the Ebionites, or even to the
Pauline Christians, Christ was but the perfect Passover

typified for so many centuries by the Lamb slain at Easter

time.
The very hour of the crucifixion is also changed by the
Gnostic gospel either following a distinct tradition or from
some motive not now traceable 3 while the pierced side, ;

though perhaps intended to give evidence of the spiritual

and the earthly nature of Christ's body the water and
blood representing and matter yet reminds us that
spirit
Krishna is
represented not only with the stigmata in hands
and feet, but also, it is said, with a wound in his side. The
Christ, according to the teaching of this writer of the fourth
1 "
Pesakhim,"
vi. 4.
2
John xix. 14 ;
cf. xviii. 28 ;
Mark xv. 42 ; Matt, xxvii. 62.
3
John xix. 4 ; cf. Mark xv. 33.
298 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

gospel, had an actual and mortal body he was born not ;

1
only of water and of the spirit, but also of flesh and blood.
The same teaching is inculcated in the unique episode of
the doubting Thomas, and in the long account of the re-

appearance of Jesus in Galilee, both of which seem to be

developments of the Christian tradition more briefly noticed
2
in the Gospel of Luke.
It should be noted that there are many legends which
represent Buddha as appearing after his death in luminous
form to disciples and to pilgrims who visit sacred spots,
such as the cave where Hiouen-thsang in the seventh cen-
3
tury saw the luminous shadow of the master, or in the
case where Pingiya " saw once more, and with his bodily

eyes, as it were, the Blessed One standing before him,"

surrounded by a golden light. 4
In the fourth gospel the miraculous draught of fishes is
recorded not before the death of Jesus, as in Luke, but
after his resurrection, and thus becomes evidence of his
actual return to mortal life. It is curious to note how
closely both Jesus and Buddha are connected with the sea
and its belongings in their legends and the reason is pro- ;

bably to be found in the fact that myths of Vishnu were

attached to his Avatar Buddha; for Vishnu was lord
of the ocean, creator of the fish, himself like Ea at times
a mighty fish, and creating from the primeval material
(which was water) all the prototypes of the material
universe.
From such a brief review of the peculiar doctrines and
legends of the gospel now called after John, we may perhaps
1
I
John v. 6 ; John xix. 34, xx. 25.
2
Luke xxiv. 36, 43.
3 << "
Selected Essays, vol. ii.
pp. 222, 273.
Hibbert Lecture, 1881," "
p. 173 ; Sutta Nipata."
 EGYPTIAN GNOSTICISM. 299

safely conclude that it isthe production not of a Jew but

of a Greek Gnostic. The Saviour performs a special
miracle for the Greeks in this version of his history, which
is not mentioned in the Synoptics. The Pauline teaching
extended the gospel promises, not only to the elect of
Palestine, but also to the dispersion in other lands, and

perhaps even to the Gentiles. The fourth gospel distinctly

speaks of other nations and other sheep as gathered in the
one fold ;
and although it admits that the first disciples
were Galileans, places Christ in strong antagonism to the
it

nation of the Jews. The law, the customs, the country of

the Jews, are spoken of as though by a foreigner in another
land, and the holy race is condemned as children of Satan.
It is surely by a Greek rather than by a Jew that such words

were penned, and the difference between the Greek Gnosis

and the Alexandrian Kabbala, or the allegories of Philo, is
very clearly marked in comparing the symbolism of the
fourth gospel with that of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
We have dogmas of the one gnostic
seen, then, that the
gospel finally received into the canon represent the least
extreme or extravagant views of the Egyptian Christians.
The Ebionite beliefs in a human Jesus, or in a phantom
Christ, in baptism, celibacy, and the Jewish Law, are con-
troverted on the one hand while the barbarous language
;

and endless genealogies of Valentinus are ignored on the

other. The doctrine of love to man is put forward as the
chief element of the new and the expectancy of the
faith,

coming of Messiah finds no echo in the writings of an

author who believed death to be the only anastasis and the
Paraclete to be the only legacy of the Christ. belief in A
the coming end of the world, and in many Anti-Christs

teaching false doctrines (among whom Peter and Paul were

no doubt included), is found in the epistle attributed to
300 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
1
John, but there is no recapitulation of the Jewish expecta-
tion of a material millennium or of a Messiah on earth.

Thus, then, by the middle of the second century, we find

three schools of Christianity in existence : The Syrian
sect, which differed only from the Essenes in its belief in

Jesus as the true Messiah; the broader school of the

western Christians, which held the law to be abrogated by
the coming of the Messiah, and attributed to Jesus a divine
nature as the angel of the presence of Jehovah; finally,
the Egyptian Gnosis, more purely Buddhist in its teaching
and traditions than either of the preceding, hating the
Jews and all their works, and considering Jehovah to be
the father of Satan. We may now for a moment glance at
the Apocalyptic literature of the age before briefly sketch-

ing the rise of Roman orthodoxy in the third and fourth

centuries after Christ.
1
John ii. 18, 22.
 CHAPTER XVII.

THE BOOK OF REVELATION.

SOME forty miles west of the mainland of Asia, and south

of the grand gulf of Smyrna, a long low island lies in the
^Egean Sea. Bare and rocky, with a peak crowned by a
monastery, its inhospitable shores extend in the midst of
the archipelago of larger islands, which are sown in the sea
on all sides. The great cliff of Samos towers on the north ;

Naxos and Paros rise likegreat beasts of the ocean on the

western horizon. The salt sea wind sweeps over them,

leaving the hard yellow limestone bare of all but thorny

shrubs, and the snowy ranges of Asia Minor form the
eastern limits of the scene. It is in this wild solitude of

stony desert and rolling waters that tradition loves to pic-

ture the venerable figure of John the divine gazing at the

great vision of the monsters rising from the deep, as he

stands on "the sand of the sea," 1 or seeing the door open
in heaven, the riders on horses, and the strong angels who
hold the winds.
The Apocalypse of John is the only work of its kind and
age which has won a place in the New Testament canon,
and even this was not without a struggle. The Council of
Laodicea, in 362 A.D., rejected it, and Dionysius of Alex-
andria, in265 A.D., pronounced apocryphal, for it belongs
it

not to the gnostic school of Egypt, but to the Christian

1
Rev. xiii. I.
302 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

church of Anatolia ;
and it is influenced not by Alexandrian
or Indian ideas, but by the eschatology of Persia.
This Apocalypse is not, however, the only Jewish or
Christian work of the kind which became popular in the
East. The second Book of Ezdras, belonging to about the
same date, still holds its place in our Apocrypha, and the
Book of Enoch, which was probably written in the century

preceding our era, is quoted in the so-called Epistles of

Peter and Jude. 1 The latter book borrows also (according
2
to Origen )
from the apocryphal Assumption of Moses,
which dates about 100 A.D., and the Apocalypse of Baruch
is a non-Christian work of the same period. Of these the
threemost important are Enoch, the second of Ezdras, and
the Apocalypse of John, to the consideration of which
the present chapter is devoted.
We have refrained
former chapters from making any
in

extensive use of the Pehlevi Scriptures belonging to the

Mazdean because in their present form they belong
religion,
to the period of the Moslem conquest of Persia. There
can, however, be little doubt that the Bundahish is a work
of very ancient origin, probably a translation into Pehlevi
of the Damdad Nosk of the original Zendavesta,
dating
3
long before the Christian while the prophecy of the
era,
Bahman Yasht, although a later editor has connected its
vague eschatological predictions with the Moslem conquest,
appears also to be a translation or a paraphrase from an
older Zend book. 4 These two books are of
great impor-
tance to our present subject, and a
slight sketch of their
contents may therefore precede our consideration of the
later Jewish Apocalyptic literature.
1
2 Peter ii. 4 ; Enoch x. 15, xii. 5 ; Jude 14 ; Enoch ii.
2 " De
Origen, Principiis," iii. 2. I ; Jude 9.
3 " Sacred Books of the
East," v., Introduction, p. xxiv.
4
Ibid., p. liv.
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION. 303

The Bundahish, or "original creation," treats first of

the creation of the world, and the struggle of Angramain-

yus with Ahuramazda, and afterwards of the predestined

future.
" "
The nature of the resurrection and future life forms
the second subject of the book, and the waking of the dead
is likened (as in Hebrew writings) to the growth of corn

from the sown seed. The bones of the primeval man, and
the original pair are first roused, and the dead rise in their
bodies. The righteous are then divided from the wicked.
The great comet falls to earth. The hills run with molten
metal, and the dead are purified in the stream. All
creatures then praise aloud the seven spirits of Ahuramazda,
and the primeval ox is slaughtered for the faithful, while
families are reunited on earth, though no more children
are born. The evil spirits are condemned to the molten

river, and the serpent is burned in it ; but Angramainyus

and Az (the demon
of greed) remain at large until Ahura-
mazda himself defeats them on earth, holding the sacred

girdle in his hand. The earth is finally made flat, and a

new age of endless immortality commences in a new
material universe.
The similarity of this account to those which we have
considered in a previous chapter, will strike the reader on

comparison. The parallel is rendered yet more perfect by

the details given in the pretended prophecy of the Bahman
Yasht.
In this work (a translation or epitome of the Zend of the
Vohuman Yasno) Zarathustra is first represented praying
for immortality, and his dream of the tree (already noticed
in connection with the Book of Daniel) is related. He is
denied his wish, but given water of wisdom to drink, and
becomes omniscient for seven days and nights, and beholds
3 o4
BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the seven regions of earth and all the wonders of the

universe.
The to come is then fully described
great age of trouble
books of
in language which recalls that of the Sibylline
Alexandria or of the Jewish prophets. The race of wrath
(childrenof the demon Asmodeus), with dishevelled hair
and small stature, will invade the land of the Iranians, all
men become evil, the
will father and son, mother and

daughter, sister and brother, will be disunited. The sun

will be unseen, the earth barren, men will be born of less
will usurp the position of
strength and skill, and slaves
the noble. The wicked the high-born
will become rich,

beg their bread, the Turk, the Karm, and the Greek with
red banners will war against the faithful. At length a
son of Zarathustra is born in an Eastern lake, and a star

falling from heaven is the sign of his nativity. A woman

becomes ruler (as also in Hebrew
writings concerning the
last days ), but at the appointed
1 time the prince begins to

reign. The children of wrath with demon leaders wage

three battles, and the slaughter is so great that only one
man is left to a thousand women. But angels assist the
"
faithful, and the new monarch establishes the throne of

sovereignty of the faith." Ahuramazda comes with his

archangels to the lofty mountain, and commands them to
go forth to The sun is adjured to
aid the pious.
stand heaven,
still but
insmites the demon Aeshmo
Deva, and the defeated devils flee while the idol temples
are overthrown. The "wolf cycle" thus ends, and the
" "
sheep cycle begins, for the older language of the sun
myth is still retained, and the winter wolf yields to the
lamb of spring.
Hushedar, son of Zarathustra, who has power to make
1
"Sibyl.," iii. 77. Cf. Drummond's "Jewish Messiah," p. 371.
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION. 305

the sun stand still move on, 2

or is accompanied by Peshyo-
tanu, the holy priest, who is revealed at the end of a
thousand years and at the end of all things Angra-
;

mainyus rises up, and Azi Dahak the serpent is unchained,

and swallows the apostate and- a third of mankind, until
the old hero Thraetona is again awakened to slay them,
"
when Sosiosh, the final deliverer, makes all creatures pure,
and the resurrection and future life begin."
Such, then, were the Persian beliefs, as preserved in
translations of old Zend works belonging to the times of

Cyrus. It is from such Apocalyptic expectations that the

Jews derived their doctrine of the Messiah, and their

expectation of a millennium of earthly happiness. Let us

turn then to the Book of Enoch to compare the Hebrew
Mazdean myth.
version of the old
The Book of Enoch was known to the Christian fathers,
and finally recovered by Bruce
Abyssinia in I/73.
in 2

Tertullian defended its orthodoxy, but Origen states that

3
it was not held as an authority among the Hebrews. The
date variously given by different critics between 120 and
is

50 B.C., but the limits are near enough for our purpose, and
many critical arguments fail before a comparison with
Persian literature. The work consists of five parts with a

general introduction. begins with the fall of the angels

It

led by Azazel (perhaps the Azi of the Mazdean writings),

who take wives on earth, but are defeated by the arch-
angels and buried under mountains, Azazel being bound
in the desert until the day of judgment, after which a
1
The standing still of the sun (see back p. 85) is best illustrated by
Callimachus' account of Apollo staying his chariot to gaze on the ploughing
(Hymn to Artemis, 180). It is the lengthening of the days in spring, which
is intended by the myth of the sun which " hasted not to go down."
2
Drummond's "Jewish Messiah," p. 18.
3 " De Cultu " Horn in
!?
Tertullian, Fceminarum," i. 3 ; Origen, Numeros,"
xxviii. 2.

U
3 o6 BIBLE FOLK LORE.
" "
millennium will begin, and the plant of righteousness
will appear in a marvellously fruitful earth. The journey
of Enoch led by angels through the underworld, reminds
us of the Divina Comedia. He sees the gate of heaven

and the twelve doors winds in the four quarters,

for the

the abodes of the righteous, and the four angels of God.

The planets and stars, sun and moon, are next described,
with the path whereby the sun travels from east to west,
and back by the north to the east. The old Assyrian
idea of a firmament with gates and windows, is thus repro-
duced much as it appears in the Bundahish, and the aper-
tures in the horizon by which the sun rises are mentioned
in both books. In the fifth division of the Book of Enoch
Noah is born and the flood predicted, while the burning
is

abyss is seen by Enoch, the place where the wicked must

finally be cast.

There is thus a remarkable family likeness between the

Bundahish and the Book of Enoch. They have no doubt
a common origin in the older Avesta, with its curious
mixture of rude science and myth and Enoch or Noah ;

take the place in the Hebrew version of Zarathustra and

Tistar.

Turning next to the second Book of Ezdras, we therein

recognise other details of Persian eschatology. Isaiah and
Jeremiah replace the two Persian prophets who precede
Sosiosh, and the latter appears in the Jewish book as the
1
shepherd and saviour. Twelve trees with various fruits,
fountains of milk and honey, seven mountains of lilies and

roses, areamong the joys of the future. Ezdras receives a

charge from God on Horeb, like Moses on Sinai, or Zara-
thustra on Alburz. The time of trouble and dissension,
with all its terrors, is once more described ;
and men are
1
2 Ezdras ii. 18, 34, 36 ; vii. 28.
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION. 307

said to have decreased in stature, as in the Bahman Yasht. 1

The Old Testament narrative is allegorised as by Philo,
and the seven regions of the earth are mentioned as in the

Bundahish. (a mighty beast to whom a thousand

Enoch
hills aregiven) and Leviathan, ruling the seventh or moist
part of the world, appear, like the monsters of the Bun-
dahish as prototypes of animal life and the whole story ;

of creation, though perhaps founded on Genesis, is closely

similar to the description of the Bundahish. The bride
concealed but to be revealed with Messiah is apparently
the heavenly city ; and the rule of the Son of God is to be
for four hundred years on earth, after which, as in the
Bahman Yasht, a resurrection follows. The doctrine that
man is saved by his good works is also common to the
'
2
Apocalypse of Ezdras, and to the Persian eschatology ;

and the field Ardath, in which Ezdras fasts, is no doubt

the region Arzah of the Bundahish ; 3 fasting is also in the
latter work a prelude to the coming of Sosiosh.
4
The
dream of Ezdras concerning the great eagle reminds us of
the enormous Simurgh of Persia, the later Rukh of the
thousand and one nights but the vision has, no doubt, like
;

those of the Aramaic chapters of Daniel, a political mean-

ing. The Messiah, who comes on a cloud (as also in

Daniel) with a flaming mouth, we have already seen to be
connected with Mazdean symbolism the ten tribes, who ;

wander to the region Arsareth (probably Arzah of the

Bundahish), cross dry-shod over Euphrates, as Zarathustra
and his followers crossed the Araxes, travelling (like
Moses and Israel) to the holy mountain, which he ascended
1
2 Ezdras
" Bahman Cf.
" Sacred Books of the
v. 54; Yasht," ii. 32.
East," v. p. 204.
'
2 "
2 Ezdr. ix. 7 ;Shayast La Shayast," vi. 6.
3 " " Sacred Books of the
East," v. p. 33.
Bundahish," xl. 4 ;
4 "
Bundahish," xxx. 3 ; "Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 121.
3 o8 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

to talk with God. Finally, the dragons of Arabia, and the

Caramanians raging like wild boars, exactly reproduce the
last enemies of the Bahman Yasht, among whom the Arabs

and the Karmans are likewise enumerated. 1

Such, then, a brief review of the principal and most
is

ancient eschatological books of Persia and Palestine. To

these the Book of Daniel may be added (but has already
been more particularly discussed) and the five works thus
;

enumerated serve to illustrate in a very remarkable manner

the real nature of the wondrous visions detailed in the
so-called revelation of John the Divine.
The revelation opens with the figure of a man with a
golden girdle (the Kosti worn by Ahuramazda), and white
hair and flaming eyes, holding the seven stars, while a
sword issues from his mouth, and his feet stand on the

seven-branched candlestick. This mystic figure is the

Ancient of Days, whom the Kabbalists borrowed from the
Persian personification of " boundless time." In the Book
of Enoch he is also mentioned as having a head " white as

wool,"
2
while the seven stars are the seven spirits of God :

faith, wisdom, patience, mercy, judgment, peace, good

will, according to the Book of Enoch : or thought, act,
justice, power, devotion, health, and immortality, according
to the Zendavesta. 3
The address to the seven churches of Asia Minor which
follows contains many traces of Gnosticism founded on
Persian faith. The Nicolaitans, who are specially con-
demned in this chapter, are said to have been remarkable
for their teaching that all morality was indifferent, because
the elect could not sin, and they are mentioned as early as
1
2 Ezdr. xv. 30; " Bahman " Sacred Books
Yasht," in. 6; of the East," v.
p. 217.
2
Enoch xlv. 3-xlvi. 5 ; Drummond's "Jewish Messiah," p. 50.
3 Enoch Ix. 13-16 ; " Bundahish," i. 26 ; " Sacred Books of the East," v. 10.
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION. 309

the time of Irenaeus. Some ancient authorities refer the

book we are examining to the Ebionite Gnostic Cerinthus,
and the praise of celibacy contained in the Revelation l cer-
tainly agrees with his doctrines ;
but whoever the author
may have been, seems probable that the book was
it

already in existence about the year 100 A.D.

The frequent allusion to "him that overcometh" recalls
the Mithraic ordeal for the initiated, and is illustrated in
the second of Ezdras by the reference to the struggles of
man on earth. The Gnostic gems were often marked
Baino, or prize, and indicated that the candidate had passed
the initial trial. It is to such a gem, marked with an un-

name (such as Abraxas or Ildebaoth), that the

intelligible
Book of Revelation refers in describing the " white stone,
and in the stone a new name written, which no man
knoweth save he who receiveth it." 2 The tree of life in
the paradise of God, the second death, the book of life,
the symbolic pillar, are all borrowed from Persian sym-
bolism and we have already had occasion in other chap-
;

ters to discuss the origin and meaning of such ideas.

The
fourth chapter of the Apocalypse begins with the

opening of a door in heaven such a door as we have

already seen to be noticed in the Bundahish and the Book
of Enoch, the idea deriving from the old Assyrian firma-
ment with its windows, gates, and stairs. The deity seated
on a throne is the Ahuramazda of Persia, and the elders
resemble the Izeds or angels of the Mazdean heavenly
court. The 3
crystal sea, the seven lamps, the white raiment
we have already seen mentioned by Hebrew writers, and
the four beasts exactly answer to the four species of genii

among the Accadians the bull-like Sed, the lion-faced

1
Rev. xiv. 4. Cf.
"
Renan, Evangiles," pp. 417, 418.
2
Rev. ii. Cf. King's
" Gnostics." 3
Exod. xxxvii. 23.
17.
3 io BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Lamas, the human Ustur, the eagle-headed Natig ; while

their many eyes like those of Indra or of Argus are
1
originally derived from the starry eyes of heaven.
The book of life sealed with seven seals is not peculiar
to the Apocalypse. It is the book which Zarathustra

receives from God, the sealed book which is opened by the

Ancient of Days in the vision of Enoch and in the prophecy
of Daniel. Indian Veda, the Persian Zendavesta,
It is the

the old Egyptian inspired ritual. The lion of the tribe of

Judah who opens the seals is in the second of Ezdras the

3
lion Messiah, he is the Buddhist lion of the tribe of Sakia,
the emblem of the future king of righteousness. The lamb
with seven horns and eyes reminds us of the lamb with a
notable horn in the Book of Enoch, and of the sheep which
Bundahish the new age of purity succeeding
typifies in the
the cycle of the wolf. The Lamb of God is the future
Messiah, the Sosiosh of Persia, and he receives the book of
lifefrom the deity just as Sosiosh was expected by the
Persians to bring a new Nosk of the Zendavesta. The
songs which greet the event remind us of the universal

praise which celebrates the justice of Ahuramazda at the

final resurrection. No critic will dispute that the lamb
slain and afterwards triumphant is an emblem of Christ,
and connected with the symbol of the Paschal lamb. It
is interesting, however, to note how Krishna in the Gita

speaks in similar terms of himself. "I am the Yajna,"

he says, and the word signifies that victim of which no
bone must be broken which is sacrificed yearly by pious
Brahmins. It is this same Krishna who is the " letter A,"
the slayer of death, and the lord of light and of love. 4
1 "
Lenormant's Magie," p. 112 ; Ezek. i. 10, x. 14.
2 Enoch Ixxxix. 71 Dan. vii. 10.
;

3 of
2 Ezdr. xii. 31, 32 ; "Legend Buddha," p. 16.
4
"Bhaghavadgita," ix. 18, x. 30; "Sacred Books of the East," viii.

PP- 83, 89, 90.

 THE BOOK OF RE VELA TION. 31 1

In the sixth chapter the horses with their supernatural

riders arementioned in succession, white and red, black
and pale. We
have already had occasion to speak of this
symbol of the four horses connected with the four seasons
and the quarters of heaven, 1 but the original mythical
meaning seems lost in the later Jewish book. The bow-
man, the swordsman, the man with the balances are old
mythical figures, but death on the pale horse followed by
Hades (though perhaps originally connected with winter)
belongs to Apocalyptic symbolism rather than to the sun-
myth.
2
We have seen how Tistar and Angramainyus
contend as white and black horses, and how Sosiosh is to
3
slay death, and conquer the king of Hell, but the vision
of the Apocalypse seems to be only an unmeaning repetition
of the older legends, and its figures intended merely to
add terrors to the general description. The souls of the
saints under the altar remind us of the spirits who complain
in the Book of Enoch, 4 and of the lamentation of the earth-
soul in the Bundahish. The day of wrath and the time of
trouble also occur in the present chapter of the Apocalypse,
like the evil cycle and the children of wrath in the Pehlevi

Bahman Yasht.
In the seventh chapter of Revelation four angels with
5
trumpets hold the four winds, and the righteous are sealed
from every tribe of Israel. This sealing on the forehead
already mentioned by Ezekiel was part of the Mithraic
initiation, and the caste mark on the forehead is
universally
used among pious Hindus. The mark of the beast on the

1
Chap. viii. p. 155.
2
In the Avesta Mithra is called "the warrior on the white horse."
" Mihir " Sacred Books of the
Yasht," xxvi. ; East," vol. xxiii. p. 145.
3 xiii. p.
Chap. 236.
4
Enoch xxii.
" " Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 20.
; Bundahish," iv. I ;

5
Cf. 2 Ezdr. v. 4, vi. 23.
 3 i2 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

other hand evidently placed in contrast to the seal of

is

God as stamping those who, to use a Zendic expression,

have chosen the vanity of the service of Angramainyus
instead of pronouncing the pious declaration of a choice of
the religion of Mazda. The promise that the sealed ones
shall not hunger or any more is evidently connected
thirst

with the statement of the Bundahish that before the end of

the world the faithful are to acquire the power of living
without food or drink.
The opening
of the seventh seal in the eighth chapter is
the signal for a terrible series of phenomena, which are
1
described much as in the Bundahish. Hail and fire burn
a third of the earth, and a burning mountain is cast into
the sea. This is accompanied by the fall of the star worm-
wood, which poisons the moist third of the world, and the
stars fall from heaven as the fourth angel sounds. So, in
the Pehlevi account (and in the older Avesta), the moun-
tains run withmolten lead, the great comet or meteor falls
from the moon, and the prince is shown to be already born

by the fall of a star.

The ninth chapter describes the scorpion horsemen, led

on by Abaddon, ascending from the bottomless pit
they ;

recall the demon hosts which the

angel of wrath leads
against the faithful in the Bahman Yasht, and resemble
some of the strange monsters of Assyrian sculpture, with
human heads and scorpion tails. The idolaters are plagued
by these hosts, just as in the same Yasht the last conflict
iswaged against the worshippers of idol temples.
In the tenth chapter an angel, who resembles Mithra,
gives to the seer a roll to eat, and announces the end of
time. The earlier Ezekiel is in like manner made to eat a
roll, and in the Egyptian tale of Setnau the scribe swallows
1
"Bundahish," xxx. 17 ;" Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 125.
 THE BOOK OF RE VELA TION. 313

the water in which a papyrus had been washed. So also

Zarathustra swallows the water of wisdom, and becomes for
a while omniscient, 1 as John becomes able to understand
the voice of the seven thunders (or seven spirits of God)

relating mysteries not to be revealed.

The two prophets who, the eleventh chapter, are
in
identified with Zechariah's two "sons of oil," 2 may be com-

pared with the two Persian prophets who precede Sosiosh,

and they rise from the dead to form a triad with the Christ,

being thus the two Asvin brethren who become three, and
are together the three suns which are but one.
The twelfth chapter shows us the woman with the moon
beneath her feet tormented by the dragon. A similar

legend exists of the persecution of Zarathustra's virgin

mother by the dragon, and she is represented as continually
3
oppressed by demons before his birth. The seven heads
and ten horns remind us of the seven-headed snake against
which all the sun-heroes contend, and of the ten horns of
Daniel's beast. 4 The fire-god Agni has two heads, four
horns, and seven hands in the Vedas. The star cows have
also many horns. The seven-headed snake is mentioned in
Chaldean hymns floating like Vishnu's seven-headed naga
in the ocean. 5 It is the nocturnal dragon who thus awaits
the birth of the sun-child, but is disappointed of his prey.
In the Avesta, Ashis is represented as a virgin hiding
from her pursuers, and finding no rest on earth or in
heaven until a place is prepared for her by God. 6 Thus
1
Ezek. Hi. 2 ; " Records of the Past," iv. p. 138 ; "Bahman Yasht," ii.4 ;

"Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 196.

2
Cf. chap. ix. p. 167.
3 "
Cf. Shayast La Shayast," x,
4 ; "Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 317.
4
Dan. vii. 7.
5
Cf. "Zool. Mythol.," i. 9 and 17 ; Lenormant's "Origines," p. 101 ;

"Rigveda," i. 33. 10; i. 154. 6; vii. 55. 7.

e "Zool.
Mythol.,"i. 109: "Ashi Yasht, "60.
3 r4 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

the dragon (identified with the accuser Satan) endeavours

to drown the woman of the Apocalypse with a flood (the
old flood of Tistar or of Noah, the winter deluge), but her
son born and concealed for a time, and is evidently in-
is

tended to represent the future Messiah the Sosiosh of the

Zendic eschatology.
The chapter opens with the description of
thirteenth
another seven-headed monster, but it is easy to elaborate
such descriptions, and the great Solar Ass of the Bun-
dahish, with his three legs, six eyes, and nine mouths,
exceeds in extravagance even the Jewish creations. The
chapter contains political allusions after the manner of
other Jewish books, though the labour of deciphering the

meaning is hardly recompensed by the result. The Jews

and Christians hating the Roman power, but yet afraid to
speak against it, inveighed safely but bitterly against
Babylon and Edom, by which names the initiated under-
stood Rome to be indicated.

Perhaps the best solution of the riddle is that suggested

by Ewald and by others, which makes the number 666
equivalent to the name Neron Kesar in Hebrew, and
which makes the seven kings to be the Emperors
Augustus, Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, and
Titus Vespasian being on this theory the second beast
which rises from the earth, and Nero the terrible monster
from the sea.

In the fourteenth chapter the final conflict between the

Lamb of God and the evil one begins. The Gospel or
book of life is preached by an angel, and the wicked are
cast into the fire. The Son of man appears (as in the
second of Ezdras) on a cloud holding the reaper's sickle,
which is also an emblem of Ahuramazda. The earth is
reaped (of its inhabitants), the pure stand in or on the fiery
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION. 315

sea of glass as the pious in the Bundahish pass through

the molten river, and rejoice as the faithful in the Persian
version rejoice in their final safety. 1
In the sixteenth chapter seven angels appear who
reproduce the seven planetary spirits of the Avesta.
They have power over the earth, the sea, rivers, the sun,
Euphrates, and the air, just as the old Assyrian planets
ruled the various elements. The winepress of blood,
trodden by the wicked, reminds us of the connection
between blood and wine in the Bundahish and the three ;

frogs from the beast's mouth the toad (or lizard)

recall
made by the evil spirit in the Bundahish and the general
creation of all loathly reptiles attributed to Angramainyus. 2
The gathering at Armageddon, which is introduced in
an extremely disconnected manner at this point of the
vision, is evidently founded on the older Hebrew prophecy;
but the plagues which fall on man are those belonging to
the time of trouble in Persian eschatology.
The seventeenth and eighteenth chapters are devoted to
a fierce invective against the Roman harlot, who may be
likened to the female devil Geh of the Bundahish, and it

recalls the language of Ezekiel concerning Tyre. The

triumphant tone of malediction, in which the author pre-
dicts the downfall of the great civilising power, was perhaps

justifiedby the awful profligacy of the time of Nero, but

the prophecy was certainly not at once fulfilled, for the

glories of the Antonine age and the victories of Trajan

succeeded the destruction of Jerusalem and the reign of
Titus, the seventh king of the Revelation.
Ten kings are yet to come, says the prophet, who will
war against the Lamb, but the final ruin of Babylon the
1 "
Bundahish," xxx. 12 ; "Sacred Books of the East," v. p. 124.
3 " " Sacred Books of
Bundahish," iii. 9 and 12 ; East," v. pp. 16, 17.
316 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

whore is contrasted with the glory of the Bride, the

Lamb's wife, the spiritual Jerusalem. In the second Book
of Ezdras the same symbolism of a city represented as a
woman is also found, 1 as likewise in the coins which repre-
sent Greek cities as female with the tower crown on
their heads. The same idea is recognisable in the title
"habitation of Horus," which is given to the goddess
Athor.
The marriage of the Lamb is followed in the nineteenth

chapter by the vision of the Messiah on his white steed

(like Mithra), with bloody robes and a secret name the
same figure with ruddy garments whom the earlier Hebrew
prophet saw rising from the red land.
The
great serpent is bound in the pit for a thousand
years of the terrestrial millennium, while only the pious
live with Christ. Then, again, Satan is loosed, as is Dahak
in the Yasht, 2 and the final conflict is waged when Gog
and Magog appear (as in Ezekiel), like the last enemies
of other versions. The throne is set, the judgment of all

mankind is accomplished after the millennium, as also in

the Bahman Yasht, and death and hell are cast with Satan
into the pit before the new heaven and earth are created.
The twenty-first chapter describes the Bride, the New
Jerusalem, descending from heaven. This spiritual city we
have already seen to be described by the Jews as floating
above the earth. The wicked, who are excluded, comprise
"
among their number all liars," a detail which recalls the
Persian hatred of falsehood, expressed so often in their alle-

gories, much more readily than any Semitic protest against

this most Oriental vice. The heavenly city of Ahura-

1
2 Ezdra Cf.
"
26, x. 27.
vii. Rigveda," iii. 12. 6.
2 " "Bahman
Bundahish," xxix. 7; Yasht," iii. 56; "Sacred Books of
East," pp. 119-234.
 THE BOOK OF RE VELA TION. 317

mazda, with its' ramparts guarded by angels, is no doubt

the original of the New Jerusalem, but in India we have
such jewelled cities also described, while the cloud cities,
which are the wives of the demons, are already mentioned
in the Vedas. 1
The
river of life and the tree of life are together the

subject of the final chapter, and thus with the last page of the
New Testament we return to the Paradise of the first
"
chapters of Genesis. The " tree of all seeds standing in
the ocean, and the white ambrosial Homa tree we have

already described as they appear in the Bundahish and in

earlierZendic books. 2 The sacred river appears in the
same connection, and in the Book of Enoch the tree of
life and the fountain of righteousness are again de-
scribed. 3 The fountain of living water is said in the
Yashts to fall from heaven, and its springs, with those of
the light, are hid from men. 4
Such, then, is the true meaning of that famous
Apocalyptic vision. It is not a revelation unique in
character and divine in symbolism. It is a Jewish
copy of older Mazdean eschatological predictions.
The apologist who would attempt to defend its propheti-
cal character ought, if he would be consistent, to ex-

press his faith in the inspiration of the Bahman Yasht,

for it is impossible to draw a real distinction between
Persian and Jewish Apocalyptic literature. We have
examined each episode of the Apocalypse of John in turn,
and we find an easily understood explanation for it all.
The time of trouble precedes the birth of a Messiah,
1 " " Sacred Books of the East," v. "
of
Bundahish," ; vi. i p. 25 ; Legend
Buddha," p. 343; "Zool. Mythol.," i. p. 13; "Rigveda," iii. 12. 6.
2 " Rashn Yasht "
"Bundahish," xviii. i. 9, 10, xxvii. 4 ; "Sacred Books
;

of the East," v. pp. 65, 66, 67, 89, 100.

3 4 " Aban Yasht,"
Enoch xxiv. 9-11, xlviii. i.
318 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

who reigns a thousand years. Satan is then loosed, and

a final conflict precedes a final judgment, after which an

age of immortality begins. There is nothing new in the

Patmos version of the legend, nor any intelligible predic-
tion in the vague expectation of future woes. It is the

old struggle of Indra and the serpent, the old myth of

summer and winter, day and night, which we must recog-
nise in the last as in the first book of the Bible. The
writer who describes the tree ofwas, perhaps not
life

aware what was originally intended by this emblem, and

he did not of necessity know what was meant by the early
Asiatics when they spoke of the wine or water of life; but in
the symbolism of Christianity and the language of
hymns
still sung in our churches we unconsciously repeat the
expressions, which in the nature worship of the old Cushite
or Dravidian tribes carried a very different to the
meaning
minds of the initiated.
 CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME.

HAVING now traced the system known as Christianity in

its three developments, in Syria, in Egypt, and in Rome,
as far as the latter half of the second century of our era,
we may in conclusion glance at the gradual rise of the
Roman ritual, which appears so rapidly to assume all its

most characteristic features in the third century after Christ.

The orthodox account of the ten persecutions seems

hardly to agree with Origen's statement, that the number

of those who had suffered for the faith was small. 1 Tertul-
lian asserts that Tiberius and Marcus Antoninus were
favourable to the faith and Renan calculates that nearly
;

half of Constan tine's subjects in the Eastmust have been

Christians,
2
although in Rome they were still a small

minority. At Carthage, the population was one-tenth

Christian in 212 A.D., 3 and Pliny already speaks of the

great number of the Christians, in writing from Pontus to

Trajan about 112 A.D. The Markosians, with their trinity
of Father, Mother, and Son the various Ophite sects, with
;

their gospels of Eve, of perfection, and of Philip ; the im-

moral Prodicians and the Cainites, who venerated Judas
Iscariot these various Gnostic heresies spread over Syria
all

and Persia in the second century, and such are the sources
whence some of the peculiar dogmas of the Melchite, the
2 "
Origen, "Ad Celsum," Marc Aurele," p. 621.
1
iii.

3 " Marc Aurele." D.

" Ad
.

414 ; Tertullian, Scap.," 5.

3 2o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Armenian, the Nestorian, and the Jacobite churches

originate. The Elkaisites at the same time were repre-

sentatives of the old Essenes, and their views seem to find

expression in the West, about

160 A.D., in the Clementine

Recognitions and Homilies, while Christianity at Smyrna is

represented by such fragments of the Ignatian Epistles, as

1
can be considered genuine.
With the close of the second century, Roman orthodoxy
begins to be distinguishable in the Creed of Tertullian
(resembling our Apostles' Creed) and in the writings of
Origen and Christianity had by this time spread to Spain,
;

to Germany, and to the Celts, and from Egypt to Lybia,

where the modern Coptic Church was founded on Gnostic
teaching. The Muratorian Canon gives us four accepted
gospels in Rome as early as 180 A.D., and the old Versio
Itala at the close of the second century is that sanctioned

by Irenaeus and Tertullian. Irenaeus died in 189, and his

teaching as bishop of Lyons spread Pauline Christianity in

Gaul, while his creed resembled the Nicene, and his beliefs
included the inspiration of the four canonical gospels.
Those who would wish calmly to estimate the condition of
society which existed in the second, third, and fourth
centuries in Italy, at thetime of the spread of Christianity,
while recalling the fearful corruption of the age of Nero,
should also bear in mind the almost unbelievable credulity
of Roman and Oriental, of the civilised and the barbarous
alike at this period. They should recall the enchanters,

who exorcised the ghost of Agrippina ; the belief of Horace

and Virgil in magic and in love philtres ; the wonders
credited by Pliny in his Natural History ; the degraded
rites of Flora and of Fatua recorded by Ovid. They should
not forget how eagerly the miracles of Apollonius were
1
Cf. Renan, "Evangiles," p. xxxii.
 THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME. 321

repeated, nor again how many popular superstitions were

credited by Clement of Alexandria, and by other fathers
of the church. They should read of the imps and dragons
which the great Jerome believed to have assaulted the
hermits, Paul Hilarion or Antony, in the wilderness ;
of
the fiends who attacked his beloved Paula on her visit to
" "
Samaria. Even those," says Servianus, who style them-
selves Bishops of Christ, are devoted to Serapis. The very
patriarch himself when he comes to Egypt is forced by
some to adore Serapis, and by others to adore Christ."
We
must not then forget that other forces were in ex-
istence in Rome, besides that of Pauline teaching. In the
New Testament there is neither ritual nor ecclesiastical
organisation, unless the Lord's Supper, and the sketch of
an ideal bishop's character in the so-called Epistle to
Timothy, be held to represent an unrecorded development
of rites and dignities. We
have to seek therefore beyond
the pale of the Pauline writings for the sources of that

organisation which converted a small society of pietists,

daily expecting the end of the world, into a powerful sect,
with a hierarchy of proud and luxurious priests, and a
ritual with well-defined symbolism and gorgeous rites.

Almost as soon as the Greek city of Alexandria was

founded, a foreign worship was imported and Serapis ;

from Sinope in Pontus became the greatest of Alexandrian

deities. Accompanied by his three-headed dog, and
having on his head the modius or polos, or even a small
bust, he is evidently the Indian Siva or Yama, called

Sri-pa, "the blood drinker," who

is represented with the

goddess Gunga the patroness of the holy river springing

from his curling locks, as Athene sprang from the head
of Zeus, or Ushas from the head of Diu. 1 His holy name
1
Cf. Cox's "Mythol. Aryan Nations," p. 248.

X
322 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

was secret, and his titles are connected with glory, light,
and the dayspring, as Siva also was not merely the god
of destruction and death, but likewise the mid-day sun. 1
In the second century after Christ, the worship of
Serapis was transported to Rome and although this ;

cultus was condemned with that of Isis by the earlier

emperors, it became popular among the Italians, and

could not be stamped out. After the conquest of Egypt

by Augustus, the worship of Isis in like manner was

carried, with the treasures and antiquities of the new
province, to the capital, and the influence of Egyptian

religion became so strong in the second century, that

Origen believed all neighbouring nations to have borrowed
religious rites and ceremonies from Egypt. 2
" "
Our pure Lady Isis attains, indeed, in the later

Egyptian age to a dignity which eclipses that of her Lord

and of her Son and although Horace tells us that the
;

Roman beggar besought chanty in the name of the Holy

Osiris, it was by painting pictures of Isis that the Italian
artists, according to Juvenal, almost entirely made their
livelihood. The head of Harpocrates, " the infant Horus,"
with his finger to his lips like the Indian Vishnu, was a
favourite subject on the engraved finger rings of the
Roman senator, and the great Virgin Mother goddess held
often in her arms the holy infant Horus.
The Indian Venus Parvati has a singular family
likeness to Isis. The caste mark of her devotees is similar
to the Sistrum, which was sacred to the great mother
goddess of Egypt. As Kali, she is represented like the
Ephesian Diana with the stag (emblem of the moon) in
her hands. The many-breasted Isis, again, consort of
1
Cf. King's
" Gnostics "
(Serapis).
2 " ad Rom."
Origen, Epist. ii.
 THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME. 3*23

Serapis, is closely connected with the many-breasted

Diana, and with the Magna Mater Cybele Cabira of
Asia Minor. Parvati, like Isis, was a Virgin-mother and ;

the same deification of virgin maternity is recognisable in

Devaki, the mother of the holy child Krishna, whom in
Indian paintings she is represented as suckling, while an
aureole surrounds her head and another the head of her
infant, so that the general effect exactly resembles that of
an Italian Madonna and child. 1
We
have already seen
how old and widely spread is the beautiful myth of the
maiden mother, and how all such goddesses trace back to
the blushing dawn. To the Romans the idea was already
familiar in the instance of the birth of Mars as recorded
2
by Ovid ;
but the cultus of the mother and child attains
to special importance in Egypt in the second century of
our era, and the black virgins of Rome have been pro-
nounced by infidel archaeologists to be ancient statues of
Isis imported from Egypt.
The of Isis are described by an initiated contem-
rites

porary writer. In Pompeian frescoes her beardless and

tonsured priests appear wearing a kind of alb. The
worshippers in Rome were sprinkled in her temples with
holy water from the Nile. The evening salutation of Isis
when her sacred feet were kissed suggests the Italian
vesper hymn to the Virgin-mother.

Gorgeous processions, shaven heads, begging in a peculiar

costume, baptisms, confessions, bloody penances, prayers,

hymns, incense, and exhortations belonged to her ritual as
described by Ovid or Juvenal. Her statues were robed as
those of the Madonna still are. Her female devotees took
the title of Nun, an Egyptian word which survives in the
1
Cf. Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," Plate xxxv.
2 "
Ovid, Fasti," v. 257.
3 24 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

nomenclature of Christian asceticism, and women held eccle-

siastical rank in her cultus. The dead and risen Osiris was
celebrated in her rites, and was symbolised in her sacred cup. 1
The Egyptian hierarchy, as described by Clement of
Alexandria, included no less than five grades, who were
initiated into successive books of the ritual. The singer,
the diviner, the scribe, the robed priest carrying the sceptre
and the holy vase, were all inferior to the prophet or preacher
president of the Temple, who bore the holy water, and
studied all the hieratic books. Apuleius in the second
century describes a procession of Isis with veiled women
and shaven men, all dressed in pure white linen. The
lamp, the altar, the palm branch, the caduceus, 2nd the
great vase for libations were carried in this procession, and
the winnowing fan piled with gold (the mystic fan of
lacchus in Phoenicia) accompanied the wine cup. Anubis
and the sacred cow, with the ark containing mysteries and
the statue of Isis herself, were also borne in procession. The
fan is an emblem of the mother goddess, and, piled with
fruits, it was placed on the bride's head in Greek marriage
rites, as the rice plate is placed in India an emblem of
future fertility. The vase of Isis, with three corn ears

growing from it and serpent handles, was marked with the

cross and plough, emblems of synonymous meaning, and
both found in India, where the plough is the caste-mark of
the Sakti worshipper, and the cross is daily used by the
Brahmin as a sacred sign during his ablutions.
Such, then, were the which celebrated the Virgin-
rites

mother in Egypt and in Rome; nor was Osiris forgotten as

the risen Saviour of the world. Fasts, austerities, and
celibacy belong to the same cultus, and Commodus, the
successor of Aurelius, carried the statue of Anubis in pro-
1
Cf. King's
" Gnostics " Kenan's " Marc
; Aurele," p. 570.
 THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME. 325

cession, shaving his an Egyptian priest. The

head like
laws of Augustus and Tiberius were thus set aside by their
successors, and Domitian built temples to Serapis and Isis
in Rome, when holy water was brought to the Campus
Martius from the Nile.
This development of the Isis cultuswas not purely
Egyptian. The mysteries of the Magna Mater had been
introduced into Alexandria from Eleusis. In Rome the
brotherhoods of the Cultores Deorum celebrated the

mysteries of the second century, and

Magna Mater in the

endeavoured to resuscitate her cultus towards the close of

the fourth. The old Roman orthodoxy had gradually
yielded to the innovations of such mysterious ceremonies,
and had on the one hand lost its hold on the philosophic
sceptics who concealed their disbelief in all gods under the

profession of a general tolerance, and on the other hand it

appeared eold and formal to the enthusiasts, who sought
by gorgeous ritual and deep mystery to excite the religious
emotions of the ignorant classes. The cold stoicism of the
sages who surrounded Aurelius could never stir the passions
of the populace as did the lover-like worship of the Virgin-
mother Isis or the terrors of the Mithraic ordeal and the ;

patriotism of the first great emperors had no echo in the

minds of Philip or Elagabalus.
The worship of Jove must indeed have been thrown into

obscurity when
the priest of the sun from Emesa, in the

flowing robes of an Oriental, was recognised as the Roman

Emperor, and when he bore in procession, accompanied by
dancing girls, the black conical stone which, like the old
Phoenician Bethel, was the emblem and dwelling of the

Syrian sun-god. The Phoenician ^Esculapius, "the good

1

saviour," born of the virgin Coronis, and Priapus, "the

1
Cf. Gibbon (ed. 1837), p. 55,
326 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

saviour of the world," had had

day four centuries
their
earlier with Picus and Faunus, Sanco, Fatua, and Matuta,
and these deities paled before the fashionable cultus of Isis
and of Mithra.
Another religious system which at the same period
attained to great importance in Rome was the worship of
the Persian Mithra, who, originally an inferior deity already

existing in the Vedic age, gradually assumed importance

in later Mazdeism, and at length was transported to Rome
by Pompey without his accompanying consort Anahita, or
Ahura Mazda.
his superior ruler
1
Mithra, recognised as another form of the Semitic Diony-
sius, was symbolised as the youth who slays the bull an
emblem apparently of self-sacrifice, though understood by
others as indicating the solar heat acting on the earth.

Mithra, like the Indian Sumitri or Nautiji, was known to

the Gnostics and identified with their solar Abraxas or
"
Adonis. The the birthday of the uncon-
feast of Mithra,

quered sun," was the 8th of the Kalends of January the

25th of December. The Mithraic cavern (the old Accadian
dawn cave) was the scene of the rites of initiation, and
these subterranean chapels are found in Germany and in

England not less than in Rome. A

Mithraic cave at Ostia
dates back to 180 A.D. The church of St Clement the
oldest in Rome stands over a second, and the Mithraea of
the fourth century are yet more numerous. The initiated
were baptised in the " holy fount," which, like the Ganges
or the Indus, washed away their sins ;
but they had a yet
more impressive rite of atonement in the baptism of blood,
the blood of God, which cleansed their souls.The Tauro-
which were so popular in the second century, and
boloi,
which continued even later, are described
by Prudentius,
1
Cf. King's "Gnostics;" Renan, "Marc Aurele," p. 576, &c.
 THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME. 327

and are connected with the Mithraic sacrifice of the bull.

The penitent was placed in a pit covered with perforated
boards. The bull was and its blood drenched
slain above,
the person thus seeking absolution from sin a true bap-
tism of blood, the memory of which finds an echo in the

phraseology of Christian hymns eighteen centuries later.

It is but a development of the old sacrifice of the red

heifer, whose blood and ashes atoned for sin a rite which
we have already seen to have been imported by the Jews
from Persia at least seven centuries before the Roman
Mithra-worship had become so popular.
The purification of sinners by the ashes of a heifer was
known to the Romans in the Augustan age, for at the
festivalof Pales in April, the vestal virgins were wont
to sprinkle the Roman worshippers with the blood of a
horse and the ashes of calves. 1
The
Mithraic rites of initiation lasted forty days, and
twelve trials or tortures awaited the candidate, three by
each of the four elements. 2 Jerome in the fourth century
speaks of this ordeal as practised with all its frightful
still

forms intended to terrify the timid. Corax, the raven,

Neptus or Kneph, the lion, the warrior, the youthful
Mithra, the sun in his chariot, and Indra, "the roarer,"
were among the emblems and images of the sect; and
these forms are repeated also on the Gnostic gems, which
combine so many emblems of Persian, Egyptian, and
Indian origin.
The Mithraic initiated were marked like Indian Brahmins
on the forehead. They partook of an Eucharistic feast of
loaves and wine. 3 The victor in the ordeal received a

1
Ovid, "Fasti," iv. 639.
2 " " ad Lseta."
Justin Martyr, ii.; Jerome,
Apol.," Epist.
3
Epiphanius, "Contra Hoeret," xxxiv.
 328 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

wreath on a sword, but was instructed to refuse it, saying,

"My only wreath is Mithra." It was thus a spiritual
rather than an earthly crown to which he aspired. Not
only baptism and the Eucharist, but unction, expiation,
and penitence belonged to this ritual,and fasts and
flagellations. The tonsure, the mitre, and other symbolic
robes were used by Mithraic priests, and an oath of secrecy
bound the initiated, as did the Gnostic oath of which the
secret sign was the emblem.
The early fathers regarded the Mithraic ceremonies as a
Satanic parody of their own ; l being either ignorant of the
fact that both systems had a common origin, or else pur-

posely ignoring it. Such, nevertheless, was the origin of

Christian rites, borrowing from Egypt and from Persia the
ritualwhich was unknown and unnecessary to the hermit
Essenes. The sacred cup was but the Aryan Soma cup.
The monstrance with its wafer is the old Mest cake of
Osiris, whence the mass -takes its name. The host in the
Luna resembles the old symbol of the sun's disc placed
within the crescent cup (as found in Phoenicia or Egypt),
an emblem of reproductive power for the name Luna, like
;

the Indian Soma, is that of the moon. The host raised at

mid-day the sun rising to the zenith and the mystic
is
;

feast does but celebrate the annual

blessings of corn and
wine, the creative power of the sun, and the fertile dews
distilling from the moon. Tonsure and white robes, the
alb and the chasuble, the sacred cord, the
dove, the fish,
the cross, incense and holy water,
processions and baptisms,
unction, confession, and monastic vows of chastity and
poverty, images of the Virgin-mother and her son, glories
surrounding saintly heads, are all much older than Chris-
tianity, and were all absorbed by a widely syncretic cultus.
1
Tertullian, "Prescript.
 THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME. 329

Christianity succeeded, not because it was opposed to

Paganism, but because it offered to popular love of mystery

and to popular emotion, even more than could be found in
the adoration of the Virgin Isis, or in the hidden cultus of
Mithra. The philosophy which rose above popular super-
stition could never influence the masses as did the new
ritual. The
great doctrine of Maitri or charity, which the
Christians had derived from Guatama, presented an attrac-
which no other teaching could offer
tion for the simple, ;

and thus from the great crucible of the second century

Roman orthodoxy gradually emerged, uniting the ritual of
Persia and Egypt with the Brahmin trinity and the Budd-
hist morality, and including in the Jewish and Persian

apocalyptic expectation, a further element of wonder and

fear, not possessed by the Italian and Egyptian religions,
which became incorporated with Roman Christianity.
With the commencement of the third century we find
the Christians gathering in the catacombs, and possessed
of a symbolism already well developed. The dove, the

palm, the fish, the anchor, Alpha and Omega, the phcenix
and the tau, are already among emblems, and Christ
their

appears figured as the good shepherd. The Labarum, an

old Mithraic sign, seems already to be used by the Chris-
tians, and their earliest church stands above a Mithrseum.
The great Gregory at a later period counselled his mis-
sionaries not to endeavour to destroy old holy sites, but
to reconsecrate them to Christian rites. And thus the
dolmen found beside the church in England, and old
is still

superstitious practices are even tolerated in some of our

cathedrals.
The Christians who had chosen the first day of the week
as sacred to Jesus had no doubt a perfect acquaintance
with the title Dies Soils, which it continues to retain even
330 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

in the inscriptions of the Christian Constantine. The

change of the sacred day from the seventh (the Jewish
Sabbath) to the first (or Sunday) seems to have taken
place at least as early as 100 A.D., and is recognised in the
Apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas.
1
Christmas Day, on the
other hand, appears to have been only recently fixed on
the 25th December (the birthday of Mithra), in the latter
half of the fourth century, when Chrysostom wrote his
2
homilies. The connection between the worship of Mithra
and Gnostic Christianity is, however, traced much earlier,
in the white stone which marks the victor, 3 in the Labarum,

and in the holy grotto which Justin already mentions as

the place of Jesus' birth.
The worship of relics is said to date back to the second
century, and became conspicuous in the fourth and fifth.

Many of these brought from Egypt, and

relics were
Clement of Alexandria was well aware that similar

practises existed among the Buddhists. The sudden

revival of monasticism in the Theban desert in the third

century would almost seem to indicate a fresh impulse of

Buddhist missionary zeal but the old Therapeutae were
;

perhaps never quite extinct before the time when Antony

first gathered a numerous school of disciples in the
Egyptian wilderness.
That the Christians were persecuted in 64 A.D., and
again by Decius in 294 A.D., are facts resting on the
testimony of Pagan authors. It appears, however, that
they were often confused with the Jews their master ;

being to Quintilian the "author of Judaic superstition,"

while Suetonius represents them as "leading the Jewish

1
Barnab 15. Cf. Renan, "Evangiles," p. 376.
2
Chrysostom, Horn. 31.
3
Rev. ii. 17.
 THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME. 331

life." *
thus suffered from that Jew-hate, common to
They
all Western races, from the days of Antiochus to our own,
which has its root in the predatory and parasitic character
of the Jewish nation and in the Pharisaic contempt for
other men. The fact that early Christians worshipped in
the catacombs does not of necessity imply continued

persecution. The
were a secret society at first,
elect
bound by oaths of initiation and having a secret sign, but
the freemen of the Eleusinian or Mithraic brotherhoods
were equally secret and exclusive, yet we have never heard
that they also were persecuted.
Amid all this extraordinary growth of ritual and dogma
the most curious question is, perhaps, that of the worship
of the ass, attributed to Christians and Jews alike. A
Syrian bas relief in terra cotta belonging to the second
century represents a personage in long robes, with a cloven
foot and long ears, and the inscription in Latin makes
this figure represent the God of the Christians. 2 Tacitus
and Plutarch believed the Jews to worship an ass, and
Minucius Felix says the same of the Christians. The
sketch in a cell, on the Palatine, showing the crucified
figure with an ass's head, and with the inscription,
"Alexamenos worships his God/' while above is the mystic

phrase Ixthu ("Jesus Christ Son of God"), may be a

caricature but in early days man had, perhaps, not yet
;

acquired our modern habit of ridiculing what others hold

sacred, and it is at least possible that the symbol is

sincere. The worship of the ass maintained, indeed, its

connection with Christianity as late even as the sixteenth

1 "
vii. 21 ; Sueton.,
Quintillian, III. Dom," 12 ; Dion Cassius, Ixvii. 14.
Cf.
" Les
Evangiles," pp. 230, 231.
a " Marc " Gnostics." Cf. "
Renan, Aurele," p. 64 ; and King's Josephus
" "
against Apion," ii. 7 ; Tacitus Hist.," v. 3 ; Plutarch, Quastiones," IV.
" Minucius "
v. 2 ; Felix," ix. 28 ; Tertullian, ApoL," 16.
332 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

century at Verona. In France the feast of the ass was

celebrated in the middle ages on the I4th of January in
commemoration of the into Egypt.
flight The hymn
" "
beginning Orientis partibus adventavit asinus was then
sung with the refrain Hez sire asnes. The priest at the
end of the mass brayed thrice instead of saying Ite Missa
Est, and the congregation responded. Incredible as this

sounds, the facts are well ascertained and the hymn known.
In Egypt the Kadriyeh dervishes still preserve a similar
annual ceremony of driving an ass into the mosque, and in
Persia the festival of asses yet heralds the return of
spring.
We must not forget that the ass in the Gospels and in
Christian art is
intimately connected with the life of
Jesus. Petronius Arbiter may have only shown his
ignorance when he said the Jews adored the ass and the
pig ; but we have already seen the ass as an emblem of
l

the sun in Egypt, while Indra, who rides the swift ass, is

represented with a cloven foot 2 and the ass in Persia is a

;

nocturnal guardian of holy springs. 3 The ridicule now

heaped on this patient animal is unknown to the early
Asiatic poets, and there can be no doubt that the ass as
well as the bull, the ram, the
goat, and the horse is among
the sun-beasts of the Aryans.
The Abbe Hue 4 when he visited Tartary was astonished
to find a ritual almost
exactly reproducing that of the
Roman Church. The cross, the mitre, the dalmatic, the
cope, the chaplet, were emblems of the Buddhist faith ;

'Cf. Voltaire's "Philosophic Diet.," s. v.,

Ane, and "Zool. Mythol." i.,
p. 361-3 ; Lane's "Modern Egyptians," vol. i. p. 307 ; "Petronius Arbiter,"
p. 224, Edit. Berlin 1842. Cf. Renouf's " Hibbert Lect., 1879," p. 5.
2
Cf. "Zool. Mythol," i.
pp. 371-420;"Rigveda," iii. 53. 5, x. 65. 13.
"Yasna,"xli. 28; "Zool. Mythol," i. p. 379; " Bundahish," xviii.
4
Hue and Gabet, "Travels in Thibet," ii. p. 1 10.
 THE SUN-MYTH /// ROME. 333

censers, double choirs, the right hand extended in blessing

over the congregation, celibacy of priests, saints, fasts, pro-
cessions, litanies, and holy water, were all recognised by
the astonished missionary as common to the two religions.

Ignorant of the history of his own faith, as well as of that of

Buddhism, he supposed that missionary saints had brought

suchrites with them from the west. The Pope placed his
book of travels on the index in spite of this explanation ;

but the Spanish priests who landed in Mexico some

centuries earlier had already experienced a like astonish-

ment in rinding the cross in use among benighted pagans

1
as a symbol of the tree of life.
There is no wonder in these facts to those who have
studied the growth of existing religions and Christian ;

ritual and Christian dogma have a common origin with

modern Buddhist rites and doctrines. Christianity is the

product of all the older Asiatic systems, embracing Brah-

and Jewish elements
minical, Persian, Egyptian, Phoenician,
with the great and original Buddhist doctrine of love to
fellow-men. It was not a sudden revelation, not a victory

of truth over error which secured (as her early advocates

would have us believe) the triumph of Christianity, but
rather the syncretic absorption of elements from all exist-

ing creeds, and an eclectic reproduction of all that was

most impressive and emotional, and best fitted for the
wants and understanding of the age.
Nor was this triumph either rapid or unchecked. A
gradual growth of new systems had long been superseding
Italian paganism. The edict of Milan in 313 A.D.
was only
one of universal toleration, and though the Council of
Nicsea in Asia Minor recognised Christianity as a system
recommended by the Emperor, because it was already held
1
Colenso's "Lectures," Appendix, last page.
334 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

by half his Eastern subjects to be the truth, it is none the

less certain that Constantine was only baptised just before
his death in 337 A.D. Julian, a philosopher and a spiritu-
alist initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, did not follow

out the policy of his predecessor; and it was not until

380 A.D. that the edict of persecution against the old Pagan
systems was issued, while in 390 Paganism was finally pro-
hibited and its beautiful temples wrecked by monkish
fanatics. Nevertheless, the traveller in Rome and
Naples
will not find Italian Paganism to be extinct even now.
In the middle of the third century the Roman Church,
according to Eusebius, numbered forty-six priests, seven
deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, fifty-two
exorcists and readers. It supported 1500 poor and widows,
and perhaps included a congregation of some 40,000
souls. 1

But the soon gained the ear of the Roman

priests
matrons, and the rich legacies which they bequeathed
to the Church were the foundation of her proud and
luxurious supremacy. In 341 A.D. Rome began to be
invaded by the army of monks who followed the example
of the venerable Antony. By the year 380 the pride and
luxury of Damasus, the bishop of Rome, had become a
public scandal and Jerome, born of a noble Roman
;

family, and nursed in the lap of prosperity, left Italy dis-

gusted with the vice and greed of its clergy, to atone for
the sins of his impetuous youth in the damp grottoes of
Bethlehem.
Constantine, a cruel and illiterate soldier, was probably
much influenced in his choice of a creed by the wishes of
his devotee mother, for although the politic Eusebius gives
1
Cf. Kenan's " Marc Aurele," p. 414.
 THE SUN-MYTH IN ROME. 335

him the credit of converting his parent, it is far more

natural to suppose that Constantine had received (as
another historian relates) 1 a Christian education from
Helena. He professed Paganism until he was at least
forty, and at such an age the opinions of men do not
readily change. Nor is it clear that to the day of his death
he was more than a sun worshipper at heart. The Labarum,
which became his emblem, was a Mithraic symbol, and is
found even on the coins of Herod. 2 The sun was still

Constantine's guardian spirit at the time of the Italian war,

and on his coins the initials of Christ occur on one side,
and the legend Sol Invictus on the other, 3 with a figure of
Apollo. The Council of Nicea was made necessary by the
dissensions of the two parties who aimed at settling the

dignity of the Son a question which earlier teachers

more conversant with the meaning of their own language
had left vague. The defeat of Arius was the last blow to
the old Syrian orthodoxy, and the doctrines of Roman
Christianity excluded the original teaching of the Essene
pietists while the Gnostics, the Manicheans, and other
;

believers in older forms of Christian and Persian dogmas

were persecuted equally as heretics and schismatics with
the Sabellians, the Arians, the Tritheists, and Patripassians,
who had impiously dared to dispute the ipsedixit of the
majority of bishops in council, when they pronounced that
Jesus of Galilee was neither a human teacher nor an
eternal god, but an incredible combination of the nature of
both.
It is left to the judgment of the patient reader to decide

whether, considering the antecedents of Christianity as

Theodoret, i. 18. Cf. Eusebius, "Vita Const., "iii. 42-47.

1

~
See Madden's "Jewish Coinage," p. 88.
3 " Eastern
Stanley's Church," p. 193.
336 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

sketched in these pages, it is sufficient that a bare majority

of politic bishops in an age of ignorance and intrigue should
have made Roman orthodoxy the standard of Christian

belief, in order that we should receive without question the

infallible and revealed nature of the Christian faith as it is

now taught throughout Europe.

If Origen who credited the pretensions of Magi and
Brahmins to magic powers, or Clement who believed in
the Phcenix, or Irenaeus who thought Lot's wife still half
alive by the Dead Sea, or the Manichcean Augustin, or
Justin who was convinced of the power of witches over
the dead, or Pope Felix who held that the Virgin con-
ceived through her ear before giving birth to the Holy
Ghost through the " golden gate," are to be our real guides
and teachersin this nineteenth century, then have Galileo

and Newton and countless others thought and written for

us in vain and the superstition of yesterday will remain
;

stronger than the knowledge of to-day.

 CONCLUSION.
OUR task is ended. We have examined the books bound
from Genesis to Revelation, and have
in the English Bible,

found them to be but part of the great library of Sacred

Books of the East. A word in conclusion may be addressed
to the reader, who, having followed the argument to the

end, exclaim with the dismay which is so commonly

may
"
expressed among us of late You have taken our Bible
:

from us, and you give us nothing in its place."

Yes. Nothing. It is not for one man, nor has it ever

been within the power of one man to construct a religion.
Systems, however philosophical, will fail surely, and artifi-

crumble with the deaths of their authors.

cial creeds Not
the less religion a necessity to civilised man, and an
is

emotion which is true and natural, because, like music, or

any other noble sentiment, it is founded on a physical
basis. As we trace the history of our kind, from the first

rude barbarism to the present, we see religion growing and

improving, according to the measure of human intelligence,
and growth the hope of the future is firmly
in this natural

fixed. Creeds may perish, Churches may be swept away,

but the truths which they have taught remain unshaken.
There are among the wards of our hospitals, or among
us, in
the dens of our poor, simple souls who have understood
Buddha better than the most accomplished Sanskrit scholar,
and who have followed the martyr of Galilee more faith-

fully than the keenest Biblical critic. Nevertheless the

lessons which the old religions inculcated are but half
Y
338 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

learned by the masses of mankind, and these must still be

taught for centuries to come, long after the myths which

now surround and disfigure them have ceased to be believed.
Do we then leave you nothing, even if we offer nothing
new ? From crumbling forms of dead faiths, fair flowers of
truth are growing up ever stronger and more luxuriant.
Are right and justice, mercy and love, nothing to leave
you ? To keep himself unspotted from the world to ;

withstand the temptations of ambition or selfishness, and

with clean hands and a pure heart, steadfastly to pursue
good and noble aims is this nothing for the disbeliever
;

in the old myths to set before him ? Surely in the man

who, when his eyes close on this world, and the unknown
future begins, can truly say that without fear of the punish-
ment of Hell, without hope of the reward of Heaven, he
has done right for the sake of right, has loved truth because
it was true, has
wrought kindly deeds for the love of his
kind, we havea higher type than that of the selfish striver
for individual future happiness, or the coward restrained

only by the fear of future woe. If any great question did

remain to be asked in the future, it is not " what hast thou
"
believed," but rather what hast thou done," and in this
we have a faith which
may be preached for endless ages to
mankind, without fear of conflict between its tenets and
the outcome of ever increasing knowledge. In the words
of the poet's poet we may then conclude
"
And all for love, and nothing for reward."
 APPENDIX A.

ON "NATURE WORSHIP" IN THE BIBLE.

ALL students of oriental archaeology must become aware of the

realityand antiquity of the worship of the organs of reproduction ;
or rather of the symbolic representation, by these emblems, of the
great mystery of life, the adoration of which was the basis of all
the oldest Asiatic religions. This worship is still that of many
millionsof human beings, 13 per cent, of the population of
the world being devotees of Vishnu and Siva, the two great
Brahmin gods who represent the Yoni or womb, and the Lingam
or phallus, respectively. The Hindus alone number 140 millions
in India; and in China the older Shinto-worship has been so
mixed with Buddhism as to produce a system almost entirely
distinctfrom the original teaching of Guatama. The phallic
symbolism is not merely understood through comparison of
ancient emblems, but is explained by living Brahmins. When,
on the other hand, we turn to the Vedas, there is comparatively
littleprominence of phallic worship observable among the
Aryans ;
for it would seem that the Hindus derived this cultus

(with its occasionally attendant immoralities) from the older

Dravidian tribes whom they conquered.
1

Of the existence of phallic worship among the Egyptians there

2
can be no dispute and it appears also among the Assyrians,
;

although its emblems have not been understood by many

authorities. The short sceptre and the ring held by some
Assyrian gods, or the hollow disc called Littu, in the hand of
Marduk, are emblems of the phallus and the yoni. The sword
3

piercing a ring, held by Mylitta (" the childbearer ") on the rock
tablet of Pterium and her cup-shaped sceptre are phallic. 4 The
1 " "
Cf. Zool. Mythol." i. 44. note I ; Earth's Religions of India," p. xv.
43, 61, 261.
2 Pierret's
"Mythol. Egyptien," p. 38; "Hibbert Lecture," 1879, p. 232,
233 ; "Ancient Egyptians II." p. 368, i. 325 ; " Apuleius," Met. xi.
3 " Lenormant 4 "
Origines," pp. 135-138. Layard's Nineveh," ii.
456.
340 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Littu appears in India as the Shakra, a well known female

emblem. 1 It would thus appear that this cultus is common to
Semitic and Aryan tribes, while we know it to have been also
greatly developed among the Turanians.
It is probable, there-

fore, that it is a very ancient religion, derived from the 'dark

Cushite, Dravidian, and Accadian race ; and its symbolism pre-
ceded that of the sun-myth, and was sometimes adopted in
connection with the Solar mythology a natural result of the
conception of the heavenly bodies as living beings.
There is not much in the Bible which can be said to be
distinctly phallic, for the sun-worship of the historic age appears
to have been a reformed religion, which condemned the older

phallic cultus as obscene or immoral. No doubt the rites of the

temples were often licentious, but the worshippers of Vishnu and

Siva are severe ascetics, and it is only on occasion of certain
honour of the Saktis) that any immorality
orgies (especially those in
resultsfrom Indian phallic worship. The mystery of life is held
by the Brahmins to have nothing repugnant in its nature ; and
the evident organs of creation are most sacred to them as the
outward symbols of thisgreat and hidden marvel. The late
Hebrew writers in like manner point to the conception and birth
of a child as one of those great mysteries which pass human
2
understanding. Nor has the ultimate cause of life been any
the more clearly penetrated in our own age, when science has
done so much towards the explanation of the processes whereby
creation is accomplished. The following notes are referred to in
the text of this work, and comprise all that is supposed to be of
phallic significance in the Bible.
CHAPTER I. p. 6. Tree and Serpent. It has been recog-
nised by many serious students that the tree of life symbolised
the phallus, and that the serpent which coils round it is an
emblem of passion or desire. 3 The sacred stream or river,
"
flowing from the tree, is the water of life," which is the origin
of fertility. Thus in India it flows from the head of Siva 4 the

1
"Moor's Hindu Pantheon," p. 17.
2
Psalm cxxxix. 13-16 Prov. xxx. 19 ; 2 Ezdr. ii. 40.
;

* Gubernatis "
"ZooL.Mythol.," ii. 339; Mythologie des Plantes," pp. 25,
48, 288 Cox's "Mythol. Aryan Nations," pp. 283, &c., &c.
;

4
Cf. Hindu Pantheon Plates, vii. xi.
 APPENDIX A. 341

phallus and the sacred tree is always near or in a fountain or

lake of ambrosia or water. The tree of Neith, in Egypt, drops
with ambrosia, and the Persian Homa tree is ambrosial. 1 Aben
Ezra is thus right in understanding the story of the Garden of
Eden to mean generation ; and the later Christian or Talmudic
legends concerning the tree of the Cross, the tree of life, the
entrance into Paradise, have all a phallic significance. 2 The
bi-sexual prototype which nearly all Asiatic cosmogonies make to
be the immediate origin of Creation has the same meaning. 3 The
sacred garden is the Yoni ; and the name of Aphrodite, the love-

goddess, indeed the Sanskrit Paradesa or garden. The " Red

is

one," Adam, who tills it is the Lingam or phallus. The hollow

disc of fire or Litu, which is placed at the entrance of the garden 4
is the Argha or Kteis, which is represented on Assyrian cylinders ;
and thus the eating of the fruit of the tree of life, followed by the
fall of Adam and his expulsion from the garden, has originally a

purely physical meaning.

The Semitic name (Haiyeh) for the serpent who was more
" naked " than other beasts "
signifies life," and is akin to the
name of Eve. The coats of skins or of fig leaves given to the
"
^red one " and the " living one should also be remembered in
the same connection.
In the Avesta legend we mark the same symbolism in connec-
tion with Yima's garden, which contained the seeds of creation.
Yima (a sort of Demiurge of the Medes) was given two imple-
ments, a ring, and a dagger, wherewith to produce men, beasts,
and other riches. The ring, be it observed, was the door or
5
entrance to the garden containing all the seeds.
The Yoni or womb is intimately connected also with the dark
hollow Sheol or Hades, the "womb of the earth," whence the
vegetable creation is born. The riches of the Yoni are compared
to the gold and silver which issue from Hades at dawn, and the
hero who goes to hell to get riches and wisdom is the phallus ;
for the idea of sexual acts and knowledge is intimately con-

1
Cf. chap. i.
p. 6.
"Tal Bab Hagigah," " "
VCf. ^b ; Ketuboth," 7;b ; Mythologie des
Plantes," p. 10-18.
3 "Tal Bab Erubin," i8a "
Cf. chap. i. ; ; Yebamoth," 63a.
4 and Gen. 8 " 18.
Cf. chap. i. iii. 24. Vendidad," ii. 7, 10,
 342 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

nected Adam "knows" his wife not only in the English but in
:

the original Hebrew, and hence it arises that the reading of

riddles is connected with marriage in so many myths, and that
the hero learns secret knowledge in hell.
CHAPTER I. p. 19. The Ark. This emblem, used in Egypt
and among the wildest Indian tribes, becomes in Assyria the
Boat of Ea. It is an emblem of the Yoni the sacred store-
house or temple of the Lingam and of all creation. The ark
on the waters is the earth on primeval ocean, holding in its
womb the creation of the coming spring. There is thus a close
connection between the older idea of the womb, and the later
idea of the Hades whence the sun-hero (symbolised in Egypt as
a phallus) brings out riches at dawn or in spring. The sun tills
the earth as the phallus tills the Yoni, and hence Mithra piercing
"
the bull has a phallic meaning, while the old Cavern of the
Dawn " is also the Yoni.
The
sacred ark of Isis contained an image of the phallus, and
not only Noah's ark, but the ark of Moses, or of Sargina, and of
the Covenant, the coffin of Osiris and the ship of Manu repre-
sent the same sacred store-house. 1 The ark on the peak of a
mountain, like Manu's ship on the top of the northern mountain,
isan emblem of the phallus and yoni combined ; and the coming
forth of a new creation from the ark or ship follows naturally.

Every mother, in short, places her infant in an ark ; and water (the
primeval element, according to all Asiatic myths), is connected
with the female parent, as is fire with the male.
CHAPTER I. p. 22. Noah and Ham. According to the
2
Hagada, Noah was emasculated by Ham. This is a frequent
symbol in sun-myths. The sun loses his phallus in winter.
Thus Atys emasculates himself, as does the younger brother in
3
Egypt, and Ouranus in Phoenicia is emasculated, like Noah, by
his son. The blood of the emasculated Ouranos, or of Adonis,
fertilises the earth like the sacred river from the head of the

phallic Siva, and we have here the origin of the idea of the blood
of a god saving the world.
CHAPTER II. p. ^.Jacob's Thigh. The word so rendered 4

1
Cf.
"
Cox, Mythol. Aryan Nations," pp. 351, 352, 361, 362.
1 " Tal Bab * "
Records of the Past,"
Sanhed," yoa. ii.
p. 143.
4
Gen. xxxii. 25-31.
 APPENDIX A. 343

has also the meaning of phallus. Jacob, like Noah, was emascu-
lated at his rising over Penuel, because he is the sun of the winter
season. In another passage, Abraham makes his servant swear

by his phallus, 1 and, again, Jacob worships his staff or phallus. 2

The " fear of Isaac " 3 may also be rendered the " phallus of Isaac;"
and these passages we have evidence of a reverence for the
in

phallus among the early Semitic people. The phallus was not to
be laid bare by the worshipper of Jehovah, 4 and a like regard for
decency is very observable in the worship of Siva.
CHAPTER II. p. 27. Laughter has a phallic significance. The
princess who never laughs until she weds the prince (a character
5
in so many Aryan folk tales) is the maiden princess. The laughter
of Sarah before the birth of Isaac is the Gaudium Veneris, and
this explanation is well known
to students of Aryan mythology.
CHAPTER Mandrakes or Dudaim> i.e. " love apples,"
III. p. 45.
have phallic meaning. The root and berries of the plant repre-
sent the Trimurti or phallus and its belongings. The apple of
love among the ancients (like the pomegranate) was a well-known
phallic emblem. Hence the incident of Reuben's mandrakes 6 is
probably connected with the story of his marriage to his father's
wife,a legend peculiar to the male moon in Assyria.
CHAPTER III. p. 47. Rods, sceptres, and spears are emblems of
the phallus in all lands. Thus the rods which Jacob peeled in
order to make the ewes conceive were the rods of the rams. 7 The
sceptres of Judah and of Dan are emblems of virile power Judah
8
:

is the sun the celestial phallus which tills the womb of the earth
and Dan is a serpent, and thus connected with the Lingam.
The magic rod of Moses, which turns into a serpent, and which
produces a spring of living water, is the same solar phallus ; and
the staff of Elisha, which raises up a child, has the same meaning.
The spear of Joshua is but the rod of Moses, and the rod of Aaron,
which buds like the lily held by St Joseph, has a phallic meaning.
In Egypt the lotus was the sceptre of Isis, an emblem of the yoni
opening and closing. This became the lily in the Virgin's hand,
and in India all goddesses have such floral emblems. The lily of

1 2 * Gen. xxxi.
Gen. xxiv. 2. Gen. xlviii. 31. 42-53.
4 6
Exod. xx. 26. "Zool. Mythol.," i. pp. 248, 249.
7 "
Gen. xxx. 14. Gen. xxx. 37. Cf. Mythol. des PI.," p. 52.
8 Gen. xlix. 10-16.
344 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

Harpocrates, of Vishnu, or of Brahma is a similar emblem of birth

from the yoni.
CHAPTER III. p. 47. is the tree of life, and the palm
The palm
and shell on emblems of the Lingam and Yoni
classic coins are

(the Indian shell Shank or Buccinum being so understood,

like the

shell of Venus among Greeks). The palmers, who wore shells and
carried palms, were thus, like the modern Masonic order of palm
and shell, only unconscious disciples of the Indian Brahmins.
There are many phallic stories in the Talmud, and among these
the palm plays its part as the emblem of the phallus. 1 The whole
story of Solomon and Asmodeus is clearly phallic, and the palm is
connected with demon in the legend.
this phallic

CHAPTER Issachar, a strong ass between two bur-

III. p. 49.

dens, has also possibly a phallic meaning, for the ass is a well-
known phallic emblem. 2
CHAPTER III. p. 49. Asher, "the straight one" the rod or
erect one has also, like the Assyrian Asshur or the Canaanite
Asherah, a phallic connection. The word means, also, blessed or
fortunate,but and the sons of Asher are "
originally upright ; pro-
sperity,""uprightness," "erection," "excellence," "the joined
one" (or extended one), and the "king-god," with their sister
"
abundance," all emblematic of phallic good fortune.
CHAPTER III. p. 49. The Worm Tola is a son of Issachar who
precedes the second brother named "birth." He is also one
of the judges, and is probably only a form of the Serpent
which stands for the Phallus in Phoenician symbolism.
CHAPTER III. p. 50. The Bow is the weapon of Cupid and of
the Indian love-god Kama Deva. 3 It shoots arrows of love, and is
strung with bees who are the producers of ambrosia, and emblems
of the stings of desire. The sun-heros (like Rama, Buddha,
Ulysses, Apollo, &c.) are famous for their power of stringing the
bow. The bow of Joseph which " abode in strength " is probably
the phallus.
CHAPTER III. p. 55. The Sack, like the wonderful bowl, or
basket, or box, with its inexhaustible treasures, is sometimes an
emblem of the Yoni. When Joseph's brethren obtained sacks full

1
Cf. "Tal Bab Gittin," 68a, b; "Pesakhim," ma.
*
"Zool. Mythol.,"i. p. 373.
a
Cf. Moor's
" Hindu
Pantheon," Plate 1.
 APPENDIX A. 345

of riches was the coveted wealth of the magical pipkin the

it

blessing of many descendants which they may be supposed to

have attained. Benjamin's sack contained the magic bowl itself,
the inexhaustible supply of ambrosia, by the possession of which
his brother Joseph attained to wisdom, as the hero who searches
for treasure in hell also attains to the
knowledge of secret things.
CHAPTER IV. p. 64. The Pillar is often an emblem of the
phallus, while symbolise the Yoni or entrance to the
two pillars
world. The sun
Egypt is shown as a phallic pillar rising from
in
the eastern horizon, and the pillar of fire which preceded the
Israelites is apparently the celestial phallus, just as in India
Mahadeva (the Lingam) appears as a pillar of fire on a mountain,
flanked by Brahma and Vishnu (the sources of male and female
seeds) and identified also with the mid-day sun.
CHAPTER IV. p. 66. Manna may also be supposed to have a
phallic derivation. The ambrosia or water of life springs from
the head of the Lingam-Siva. Manna may derive its name from
"
Meni, desire," and Meni is a goddess connected with Venus,
after whom
the Jews called Christians and other heretics Minim. 1
It has been suggested in the text that the manna was dew ; and
the dew and the Soma, or ambrosia of the moon, are connected
just as manna is connected, in the New Testament, with the
Eucharist also a phallic rite.
CHAPTER The sacred symbols of Lingam
IV. p. 67.
Oaths.
and Yoni have (as observed above in speaking of Abraham's
"
thigh ") always been used in Asia as objects connected with the
administration of inviolable oaths. This practice still holds in
India, and in Assyria the Mamit appears to have been such an
emblem. This also is the true rendering of the words Yadal Kiss
in Exodus (xvii. 16) rendered "the Lord hath sworn," but
"
literally for by the hand upon the Argha," as is clear from a

comparison of the Arabic vernacular and the Greek translation of

the LXX. " with the hand on the hidden thing."
CHAPTER Circumcision has probably a phallic origin.
IV. p. 62.
It is an
offering of the emblem consecrated to phallic deities ;
and a modified form of emasculation. The offering of foreskins
of the Philistines (like the offering of tongues of the slain)
1
Isaiah Ixv. 12. Cf. "Gesen. Lex.," s. v. Cf. Buxtorffs "Lex. Tal,"
p. 1082; "Midrash Koheleth," i. 8.
34 6 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

to believe
symbolises the destruction of their power. It is difficult

that this was an actual occurrence, although it

may have been a
1
practice of barbarous times.
CHAPTER IV. p. 75. Baal Peor and Asherah. There is no
"
doubt that the Canaanite worship was phallic. Baal, the opener,"
" idol in a
is by Jerome connected with Priapus; and the grove"
2
should according to him be the Kteis on the Asherah, the com-
bination of Lingam and Yoni. The Asherah was a wooden pole,
apparently like the English May-pole, whose ring and streamers
" "
have phallic meaning ; and the hangings of the grove 3 were
similar streamers representing the serpent.
CHAPTER The Brazen Serpent on his pole, or twisting
IV. p. 72.
round the or round the cross, is equally phallic.
tree of life, He
is the Agathodaemon or Uraeus ; the serpent of life and desire.
CHAPTER VI. p. 109. The Kodeshoth^ and Kodashim^ girls and
men devoted to sacred prostitution, in India, Phoenicia, &c.,
and among the Hebrews and Canaanites, were equally indica-
tive of the phallic cultus. They existed among the Accadians ;
and the Eleusinian mysteries, the orgies of Cybele and Bacchus,
" " 6
the Gnostic Perfect Passover with its immoral debauch, and
the Indian Sakti festivals have a common origin. Such rites still
survive not only in India but also among the Nuseireh in Northern

Syria.
CHAPTER V. p. 97. The Lion and Honey a Mithraic em-
blem appears to be phallic in meaning. Siva sits on the tiger-
skin ; Parvati, the Indian Venus rides on the lion; 7 and Mylitta
8
in Assyria, no less than Ariadne, has the lion beneath her feet, as
9
also Egypt Athor stands on the lion.
in The wild beast is
an emblem of passion, like the cat. the dog, or the serpent, and
sacred to the mother goddess. The bees, which we have seen to
be the string of Kama Deva's bow, are born when this lion has
been tamed by the hero, and he thus eats the ambrosia in the
interior of the lion, or of the bull. The meaning is clearly

1 2 3
I Sam. xviii. 25. 2 Kings
i
Kings xv. 13. xxiii. 7.
4
Gen. xxxviii. 15 ; Hosea iv. 14. 5
2 Kings xxiii. 7, &c.
6 " Minucius
Felix," ix. x. xxx. xxxi.
7
Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," PI. xix.
1 "
Layard's Nineveh," ii. p. 456.
9 "
Sharpe's Egyptian Mythol.," p. 62.
 APPENDIX A. 347

phallic, life, as has already been

for the ambrosia, or water of

noticed, has this special significance.

CHAPTER V. p. 98. Riddles read at marriages, as in the case
of Samson's wedding, have phallic meaning. 1 The mysteries are
then made known
to the hero, and Samson's riddle has a phallic
which was made known by his wife. The emblem
significance,
of ploughing is also of the same derivation, as may be seen from
the maxims of Theognis. The jaw of the ass, whence a living
stream issues, may also be compared with the horse's head of
Aryan myths, which is a frequent emblem of the phallus. 2
CHAPTER VI. p. 103. Elohim. The double deity was, as we
have seen in the text, connected with Baal, and symbolised the
original pair, which in India are represented by the Lingam in
Yoni. The name Jehovah is from the same root, signifying " to
live," whence come the names of Eve and of Hea or Ea, the

Babylonian god as well as the Semitic name of the serpent

(Haiyeh) .the emblem of life, activity, or passion. In the Greek
lacchos or lao, and in the Bacchic cry of Evoe, we have but
other forms of the same word, and other indications of the adora-
tion of the principle of life. 3
The Bethel or
"
House of God " is also, like every ark, cradle, or

temple, an emblem of the Yoni. At or in this Bethel the erect

stone anointed with oil (or ambrosia) is set up by the patriarch.
In Egypt, Hat-hor is the " house of Horus," the love goddess,
who is thus a Bethel, and the pair of pillars which stood dolmen-
like before the entrance of Phoenician temples, formed a similar
" "
gate of heaven to that which Jacob visited.
CHAPTERS VII. and III., pp. 55, 126. The Magic Cup is
an emblem of the Yoni, which possesses inexhaustible treasure,
and ambrosia or oil ; it is the cup which Parvati or Venus, offers
to the phallic Siva. 4 The moon full of Soma is connected in-
timately with this sacred cup of water, wine, or ambrosia, and
thus the moon becomes the magic cup ; but the widow's cruise is
originally the Yoni, and it reappears in the magic pipkin of
European folk-lore, or the basket of Greek and Indian rites.
1
"Zool. Mythol.,"i., 143.
2
Cf. Forlong's
"
Rivers,"
i. 72.
3
Cf. Brown's "Dionysiac Myth.," ii. pp. 56; Rawlinson on Herod., i.
493.
*
Cf. Moor's " Hindu Pantheon," PI. xi.
348 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

CHAPTERS VII. and XI., pp. 128, 206. The fish is a well-
known emblem of the Lingam, and also of the Yoni. Thus the
fishwhich laughs and swallows the gold ring, or the shining sun-
god, and again gives back the treasure, is the Yoni, and thus also
represents Hades. The fish of Vishnu is the same, and Jonah's
whale, Peter's fish, or the fish of Tobit, all derive from the
Yoni. In India, Kama, the Love-god, is swallowed by the fish,
which plays a conspicuously phallic part in Western folk-lore.
The early Christians were perhaps not aware of this meaning
when they made the "Divine fish" an emblem of the Saviour;
but Priapus or JEsculapius is the physician "the Saviour of the
x
world," as is the Gnostic Cock with a phallus for his beak ; and
the self-sacrificing deity is also theLingam in India.
CHAPTER VII. p. 129. The gourd which springs up suddenly,
and again is an emblem of the phallus.
withers, It is the bean-
stalk or Igdrasil of the West, the everlasting ambrosial plant.

Thus, the whole story of Jonah has a phallic meaning. In

r
Phoenicia, whence the stories of Samson and Jonah seem to have
reached the Jews, the real original meaning of the myth may
perhaps have been known.
CHAPTER IX. Unction is phallic. Oil typifies the ambrosia
or Soma, and the Indian Lingam is anointed, just as the Stone
of Bethel, or the living stones called ambrosial in Phoenicia.
The unction of the head of kings and priests was connected with
the unction of the top of the Lingam ; and as the ambrosia was
the water of life, it is easy to understand the origin of unction
for the sick, which is mentioned in the epistle; 2 and why the
celibate Essenes condemned oil. 3
CHAPTERS I,, XII., and XVIII. The Dove is a phallic em-
blem. In India, the dove carries the seed of Siva. The Greek
Aphrodite had the dove for her emblem, and the unction of the
Holy Spirit is typified by the descent of the dove. The dove enter-
ing the ark with an olive branch (emblematic of oil), is Siva's
dove entering the Yoni.
CHAPTER XL The Foot often replaces the phallus in India,
and the shoe is the female emblem, 4 Thus, in the Talmud there.

1
Cf. "Marc Aurele," p. 64.
2 3 "
James v. 14.
Josephus," 2 Wars, viii. 3.
4
Cf. Forlong's
" Rivers of Life "
v.
(Index s. Foot).
 APPENDIX A. 349

1
are phallic stories of shoes, and the worship of footprints has
the same origin. The sacred foot of Vishnu 2 stands for the
phallus adored by his consort, and Ruth when she seized the foot
of Boaz, 3 like Lakhsmi holding Vishnu's foot, indicated a desire for

marriage. The ceremony of loosing the shoe 4 was in like manner

indicative of the dissolution of marriage.
The Song of Songs, like the Egyptian tale of the garden of
flowers, seems to have much that isphallic in its language. The
lily or lotus is the Yoni, The apple tree is the tree of life. The
pomegranate is the fruitful Yoni ; the mandrake is also the Lin-
gam, as before noted ; and the honey in a reed, like riches in a
staff,has a phallic meaning.
Robes have also sometimes a phallic meaning." Thus, the high-
5
priest's dress, with a hole for his head (the Ephod) like the dress of
Brahmins, or the Scapular of the Carmelites, symbolises the union
of Lingam and Argha, and typifies, like the cord round the body,
a new incarnation. The mitre of the Magi ; the fish head-dress
of the Assyrian Ea ; the double crown of Egypt, all symbolise the
phallus. The bell is also a common phallic emblem in India,
and the alternation of bells and pomegranates symbolises succes-
sive fertilisations of the Yoni.
The Rudder is identified by Philo with the Logos. This is a
very ancient Egyptian emblem, for Amen is called the Rudder of
the Truth. In the Vedas, Indra's rudder is the phallus. 6
The Cross is wellknown to be an emblem of the phallus. It is
the tree of life, and is made of some evergreen wood, or of the
olive emblem of the ambrosial unction.
Water of This idea, which we have traced in almost
Life.
every chapter, and which survives in the German tale of the
magic fountain, is also without doubt connected with the phallic
idea of the sacred river which springs from Siva's head. It is the
Soma or life-giving fluid connected also with the dew and rain,
but yet earlier with the Lingam. In the fourth gospel it is

1
Cf. "Tal Bab Pesakhim," H3a. b; Ibid. "Gittin," 68a,
8
Moor's " Hindu Pantheon," Plates ii., iii.
3 Ruth 8. Cf.
" " held "
for
"
iii.
Speaker's Commentary," lay at."
4
Deut. xxv. 9 ; Ruth iv. 7 ; Burckhardt, "Notes on Bedouins," i.
113.
6
Exod. xxxviii. 4.
6
Cf. "Philo De Migrat Abraham"; 2nd Anast, p. 9, line 2; "Transact.
Bib. Arch.," vol. ii., p. 354; "Rigveda," viii. 80 j "Zool. Mythol.," ii.,
PP- 3> 45-
 35 o BIBLE FOLK LORE.

mentioned as given by God to men, and springing within them

eternally. however, contended in saying this that the
It is not,

Gnostic writer of necessity understood the original meaning of the

1
mystic language which he employs.
Vestments and Symbols used by the Christian Church have un-
consciously a phallical meaning. Thus, the Holy Dove entering
the ark with the olive branch (an emblem of oil), or the dove with
the oil or the lamp in its mouth is the same dove of Agnis which,
in India, carries Soma, or the seed of Siva. It is the dove

which enters the Vescica Piscis worn by the Virgin Mary. The mitre
and the chasuble, the Cross and the sacred cup (whence in some
the fish and the sacred cord, are em-
pictures the serpent rises)
blems of the Lingam and Yoni respectively. Sacred footprints
and the Virgin's lily belong to the same category. The Luna
of the host is the Soma cup. The Vescica Piscis is the old caste
mark 'of Parvati the Sistrum of Isis emblematic of the Yoni. 2
The and mitre appear among the emblems of Krishna at
crozier

Elephanta, and though the crook of Osiris and of Ahuramazda

" Good often like
may be but the crook of the Shepherd," it is

other staves and rods, converted into a serpent. In India, the

3
crozier belongs to the phallic Siva.
Tertullian distinctly charges the Ophite Gnostics with phallic

worship, and Plutarch connects it with the worship of Isis, and

4
many early writers with the Eleusinian mysteries.
It is no doubt possible to discover a phallic meaning where it

was not originally The steeple with its cock, the

intended.
pillars of the stylite hermits, the everburning candle, may have
no phallic origin, but the extravagance of some writers does not
prevent the reality and antiquity of phallic worship from being a
well proven fact.
The wonderful garment without seam given to the child at
6
birth (as in the cases of Samuel and Buddha) is that garment of
6
skin (the skin of the serpent according to the Rabbis
)
in which
Adam was clothed, and which descended from generation to
generation among his sons. It is the human body which clothes

the soul. The miraculous oil found in the Temple is the

1
John iv. 14.
2
Cf. King's Gnostics. 3
Moor's " Hindu Pantheon," Plate xxi.
4 " Tertullian on Valentinians " " Isis and Osiris." "
; Cf. Payne Knight,"
6 Tal Bab
p. 12. Yoma," 350.
* " Tal Bab Abodah Zarah," nb.
Targ. Jonathan on Gen. iii. 21 ;
 APPENDIX B. 35i

same oil which was in the widow's cruise the Soma. 1 The
Temple ever building and never finished is the continual course
of natural reproduction.
These notes have been placed in an appendix because the
subject is repugnant to modern false delicacy, but there was

nothing obscene in such symbolism in the eyes of those who first

invented phallic emblems. It was the worship of the great

mystery of life which was thus inculcated ;

and the sacred womb or
the life-giving lingam were and still are adored as the mani-
festations of that divine creative power which is the source of all
life in the universe a mystery as insoluble in our own times as
in the earliest ages of the dark Accadians' nature worship.

APPENDIX B.

THE EUCHARIST.
THE ninth book of the Rigveda is entirely devoted to the praise
of Soma, the Amrita, or Ambrosia, the drink of immortality.
The Soma plant, Asclepias Acida or Sarcostemma Viminalis was
used in the preparation of a sacred intoxicating drink which the
old Aryan bards imbibed before preceding the warrior hosts to
battle, like the Mead which, among the Scandinavians, was the
drink of gods and heroes. The greenish or gold-coloured sap
was beaten out of the stalks between two stones until a pulp
was made, and the juice was strained into a vessel called the
"Yoni" or "womb." 2
Among the Brahmins the Soma is con-
nected with Vishnu, the god of the primeval water, whence all
matter originated, and is said to form the soul of Mahadeva the
phallic deity Siva. In the older Vedic system Soma is intimately
connected with the moon, and is, indeed, one of the most sacred
names of the moon-god. It is also connected with Indu sap or
drop, and becomes an offering to Indra the "rainer." It is

spoken of as a god superior even to Varuna, giver of the cow, the

3
horse, and the strong son. The drinking of Soma juice gave
light and happiness and immortality, and Soma is called the
1 " Tal Bab 2 "
Sabbath," 2ib. Cf. Haug's Notes on the Parsees."
3
"Rigveda," i.
152, 5; ii. 14; ix. 113,7; x. 3,3; Cf. "Selected
Essays," i.
441, 490; ii. 156.
352 BIBLE FOLK LORE,
" bruised "
god (like Bacchus) born mortal, self-sacrificed, strained
into the womb and ;
his divine seed is the origin of all creation.

Among the emblems of the god Soma are the bull and the stallion.
There is only one explanation which reconciles
all these expres-

sions. the dew, the liquor of immortality, have all been

The rain,
"
regarded as the water of life," and supposed to produce fruitful-
ness as the sacred sperm or sap which fertilises the seeds of created
objects. Thus the dew from the moon or the winter rain gave life
to vegetable creation, and the dew of life received into the ark the
sacred house or Yoni is the fertilising agent of animal reproduc-
tion. The self-sacrificer in the oldest sense is the Lingam, " the
"
high god (Purusha), who dies and is revived, and his strength lies
in the Soma.
1
There is no doubt at all that such was the original
idea connected with the rite, although the high repute of the Soma
juice asan intoxicant, giving temporary strength and joy, may
have been the reason why this special plant became so much
venerated by the Aryans.
The old Soma was the same as the Persian Homa, 2 a brilliant
god who gives sons to heroes and husbands to maidens. The juice
of the plant pounded in an iron mortar is greenish in colour and
is strained through a cloth and mixed with the sap of a pome-

granate branch (the pomegranate being a well-known phallic

emblem of fertility) ; the yellow juice is then strained through a
vessel with nine holes. Among the Parsees it is drunk, not as by
the Brahmins, in large quantities by sixteen priests, but in small
quantities by the two chief priests, and is thus not intoxicating.
A libation is also thrown from the bowl into a sacred well, another

piece of phallic symbolism.

We
have thus among the Aryans and the Iranians a very early
origin, in the language of Vedic and Mazdean hymns, of the idea
of transubstantiation. The symbol is confused with the deity, as
is so often the case among savage tribes, 3 and Soma is at once the
life-giving spirit of the juice of immortality and the juice itself.
With the worship of Mithra the Soma ritual was brought to
Rome. A
species of eucharistic sacrifice is attributed by the
fathers to this cultus, which they term a satanic
parody of Chris-
1
Cf. Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," 55, 226 ; Yagur Veda.
* "
Vendidad," v, 39, &c.
3 "
Tylor, Early Hist, of Mankind," p. 148.
 APPENDIX B. 353

tian rites. 1 The sacred cup was still used, and bread in the shape
of the sun's disc was its
accompanying symbol.
In Egypt we trace the same rites in other forms. A round, flat
cake called Mest was offered to Osiris at the beginning of the year,
and was the emblem of the sun. The same word is found in the
Hebrew Mazzoth, 2 the unleavened cakes of the Passover, which
were no doubt (like the unleavened bread of the East in our own
time) of a round form, like the sun's disc. The rites of Isis are
known to have had a phallic significance, and the wine poured
into a great receiving vessel was one of her principal mysteries,
while the death and resurrection of Osiris was continually cele-
brated by her votaries. The idea was again that of the reception
into the Yoni of the wine of life.
The symbolism and ritual of the old Soma worship thus spread
all over Asia and Egypt, though wine or water were substituted

where the Soma juice was not obtainable, and it was connected
with the ceremonial of the " bread of life
"
the cake emblematic
of the sun, as the vessel of Ambrosia was typical of the moon
the two representing together the male and female elements of
creation.
" blood of
The God," which in western Asia is symbolised by
the juice of the grape, is distinctly identified in pre-Christian
Hindu writings with the Soma juice. In the Bhagavad Gita the
supreme deity is at the same time the Yajna or sacrificed lamb,
and the god to whom sacrifice is due. The faithful who drink
the Soma and perform the sacrifice are washed clean from
juice
sin and received into heaven. Such language is found in works
which represent Krishna as lord of love and of light, " in whom
there neither beginning, nor middle, nor end."
is It recalls the

expression of the Apocalypse, where the faithful are said to have

been washed in the blood of the Lamb the incarnate form of
" which
that deity was, and is, and is to come," and who is the light
of the heavenly city. It is as certain as any historic fact can well
be that the Indian literature in which such expressions are found
is many centuries older than any Christian writing, and the doc-
trine of evolution teaches us that where features are found common

"Marc Epiphanius, "Contra Haeret,"

1
Cf. Renan, Aurele," p. 576;
8
xxxiv. Cf. Chap. vii. p. 131.
Z
354 BIBLE FOLK LORE.

to two developments, they are generally due to a direct connection

1
of growth between the two.
Among the Jews some trace of the same ceremony may perhaps
be in the paschal supper of Mazzoth cakes and wine,
recognised
and among the Essenes the mystic meaning of this feast seems to
have been understood. It thus became emblematic of the incar-
nation of the Christ who, like Soma, gave life, and was bruised
and rose immortal, and who as the Messiah was connected with
the sun and with the solar emblem of the disc of bread.
Among the Gnostics there were many varieties of Eucharistic
practice. The Ophites kept serpents in a sacred ark (like the
snakes in the baskets borne in the mystic procession at Eleusis),
" "
and the cake of the Eucharist (resembling the buns of Eleusis)
2
was consecrated by the twining of the snake around it. The
serpent is a well-known phallic emblem of life and passion, and
the power of the Lingam depends on the presence of the serpent,
which twines round it, and which is often the Lingam itself. It
is probable that initiated Gnostics, like the initiated of the Eleu-
sinian mysteries or of those of the Magna Mater and of Isis, were
conversant with the phallic meaning of such symbolism. In the
Clementine Homilies, 3 Peter is represented as using salt with the
Eucharistic cake, and we have already seen that salt, like the
serpent, an emblem of the life or soul of the body.
is

The Marcosians claimed in the second century to be able to

convert water into blood in their Eucharist, the cup being held in
the hands of a woman. 4 This, no doubt, like the theory of tran-
substantiation connected with the wafer, symbolised incarnation,
the water of life being converted by the woman into the blood
which we have already seen to symbolise the mortal body. The
whole idea is thus resolved to a phallic original.
Among the Montanists, about 170 A.D., the holy supper con-
sisted of bread, salt, cheese, and water, 5 which reminds us of the

Dionysiac cultus, and also that milk and other produce of the cow
was offered with the Soma, as mentioned in the Vedas. The
1
See Vishnu Sutra, " Sacred Books of the East," vii. p. 292; Bhagavad Gita,
" Sacred Books of the East," viii. pp. 83, 84; Rev. iv. 8, vii. 14, xxii.
5.
2 " Marc " Gnostics."
Cf. Aurele," p. 132, and King's
5
"Clem. Hom.,"xiv. I.
4 " Marc
Aurele," p. 128 ; Philos. vi. 40.
5 " Marc
Aurele/' pp. 128, 237.
 APPENDIX B. 355

feast or sacrifice of bread and wine is very early mentioned in

Genesis among the Hebrews. 1
Such, the origin and the primary meaning of the
then, is

Eucharist. not a merely Christian rite derived from the

It is

Hebrew Passover with a mystic meaning newly attached. It is

an ancient Aryan ceremonial, which was common to Persia and
Egypt, and which came with Mithra to Rome. The idea of tran-
substantiation can be traced in the Vedas at least 1000 B.C., and
the raising of the Mest cake, whence the Missa or mass derives
its name, at or before noon, is an emblem of the sun-god ascend-
ing to the zenith.
1
Gen. xiv. 18.

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8
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] INSTITUTE OF MEDIAEVAL SI
JO ELM ,^CE
TORONTO 6, CANADA,