Topic: part IX

[Prometheus]

The early Christians were charged with being a sect of sun-worshippers.^ The
Emperor Hadrian could see no difference between them and the followers of the
ancient Egyptian god Serapis, who was the Sun. In a letter to the Consul
Servianus, the Emperor says : ^' There are there [in Egypt] Christians who
worship Serapis and devoted to Serapis are those who call themselves ' Bishops
of Christ.' " ^

Mr. King, in speaking of Serapis and his worshippers, says : " There is very
good reason to believe that in the East the worship of Serapis was at first
combined with Christianity, and gradually merged into it, with an entire change
of name, no^ substancey carrying with it many of its ancient notions and
rites." ^

Again he says : *' In the second century the syncretistic sects that had
sprung up in Alexandria, the very hotbed of Gnosticism, found out in Serapis a
prophetic type of Christ, or the Lord and Creator of all." *


In regard to the charge of sun-worship, Mr. Bonwick observes: "There were
many circumstances that gave color to the accusation, since in the second
century they had left the simple teaching of Jesus for a host of assimilations
with surrounding Pagan myths and symbols. Still, the defence made by Ter
tuUian, one of the Fathers of the Church, was, to say the least of it, rather
obscure. ' Others,' wrote he, * believe the sun to be our god. If this be so,
we must not be ranked with the Persians; though we worship not the sun
painted on a piece of linen, because in truth we have him in our own
hemisphere. Lastly, this suspicion arises from hence because it is well known
that we pray toward the quarter of the east.' " ^

The Essenes always turned to the east to pray. They met once a week, and spent
the night in singing hymns, etc., until the rising of the sun. They then
retired to their cells, after saluting one another. Pliny says the Christians
of Bithynia met before it was light, and sang hymns to Christ, as to a God.
After their service they saluted one another. It is just what the Persian Magi,
who were sun-worshippers, were in the habit of doing.

There are not many circumstances more striking than that of Christ being
originally worshipped under the form of a lamb. The worship of the constella
tion Aries was the worship of the sun in his passage through that sign.^ This
constellation was called by the ancients the Lamb, or the Ram. It was also
called '* the Saviour," and was said to save mankind from their sins. It was
always honored with the appellation of DominuSy or " Lord." It was called by
the ancients " the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." The
devotees addressed it in their litany, constantly repeating the words, " O Lamb
of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us ; grant us
thy peace."

On an ancient medal of the Phoenicians, brought by Dr. Clark from Citium (and
described in his " Travels," vol. ii. ch. xi.), this " Lamb of God " is
described with the cross and rosary.

Yearly the sun-god, as the zodiacal horse (Aries), was supposed by the Vedic
Aryans to die to save all flesh. Hence the practice of sacrificing horses. The
" guardian spirits " of the Prince Sakya Buddha sing the following hymn : 

Once, when thou wast the white horse,

In pity for the sufferings of man,

Thou didst fly across heaven to the region of the evil demons,

To serve the happiness of mankind.

Persecutions without end,

Revilings and many prisons,

Death and murder, 

These hast thou suffered with love and patience,

Forgiving thine executioners.^

Although Buddha is said to have expired peacefully at the foot of a tree, he is
nevertheless described a suffering Saviour, who, when his mind was moved with
pity, gave his life for the sake of others.

The oldest representation of Jesus Christ is a figure of a lamb,'-^ to which
sometimes a vase was added, into which the blood of the lamb flowed. A simple
cross, which was the symbol of eternal life among the ancients, was sometimes
placed alongside of the lamb. In the course of time the lamb was put on the
cross, as the ancient Israelites had put the Paschal lamb centuries before.
Jesus was also represented in early art as the "Good Shepherd,"  that is, as
a young man with a lamb on his shoulders, just as the Pagan Apollo, Mercury,
and others were represented centuries before.

Early Christian art, such as the bas-reliefs on sarcophagi, gave but one
solitary incident from the story of Our Lord's Passion, and that utterly
divested of all circumstances of suffering. Our Lord is represented as young
and beautiful, free from bonds, with no " accursed tree " on his shoulders.^

The crucifixion is not one of the subjects of early Christianity. The death of
our Lord was represented by various types, but never in its actual form. The
earliest instances of the crucifixion are found in illustrated manuscripts of
various countries, and in ivory and enamelled images. Some of these are
ascertained, by historical or by internal evidence, to have been executed in
the ninth century. There is one also, of an extraordinarily rude and fantastic
character, in a manuscript in the ancient library of St. Galle, which is
ascertained to be of the eighth century. At all events, there seems to be no
just ground at present for assigning an earlier date.^

Not until the pontificate of Agathon (a. d. 608) was Christ represented as a
man on a cross. During the reign of Constantine Pogonatus, by the Sixth Synod
of Constantinople (Canon 82) it was ordained that instead of the ancient
symbol, which had been the lamb, the figure of a man nailed to a cross should
be represented. All this was confirmed by Pope Adrian I.^

Rev. J. P. Lundy, in speaking of the fact that there are no early
representations of Jesus suffering on the cross, says : " Why should a fact so
well known to the heathen as the crucifixion be concealed ? And yet its actual
realistic representation never once occurs in the monuments of Christianity
for more than six or seven centuries." *

The holy Father Minucius Felix, in his Octavius, written as late as a. d. 211,
indignantly resents the supposition that the sign of the cross should be con
sidered exclusively a Christian symbol ; and represents his advocate of the
Christian argument as retorting on an infidel opponent thus : " As for the
adoration of crosses which you [Pagans] object to against us [Christians], I
must tell you that we neither adore crosses nor desire them ; you it is, ye
Pagans, who worship wooden gods, who are the most likely people to adore wooden
crosses, as being parts of the same substance as your deities. For what else
are your ensigns, flags, and standards, but crosses, gilt and beautified ? Your
victorious trophies not only represent a cross, but a cross with a man upon
it." ^

Tertullian, a Christian Father of the second and third centuries, in writing to
the Pagans, says : 

The origin of your gods is derived from figures moulded on a cross. All those
rows of images on your standards are the appendages of crosses ; those hangings
on your standards and banners are the robes of crosses.^

It would appear that the crucifixion was not commonly believed in among early
Christians. It is contradicted three times in the Acts of the Apostles. ''Whom
ye slew and hanged on a tree" (Acts v. 30), says Peter of Jesus. He states
again (x. 39) *• Whom they slew and hanged on a tree ; " and repeats (xiii.
29), "They took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre." There is
no crucifixion, as commonly understood, in these statements.


Outside of the New Testament, there is no evidence whatever in book,
inscription, or monument, that Jesus was either scourged or crucified under
Pontius Pilate. Josephus, Tacitus, Plinius, Philo, nor any of their
contemporaries, have referred to the fact of this crucifixion, or express any
belief thereon. In the Jewish Talmud, Jesus is not referred to as the crucified
one, but as the "hanged one."^ Elsewhere it is narrated that he was stoned to
death.^

Saint Irenaeus (a.d. 192), one of the most celebrated, most respected, and
most quoted of the Christian Fathers, tells us on the authority of his master,
Polycarp, who had it from Saint John himself, and from others, that Jesus was
not crucified at the time stated in the Gospels, but that he lived to be nearly
fifty years old.

The following is a portion of the passage : 

As the chief part of thirty years belongs to youth, and every one will confess
him to be such till the fortieth year ; but from the fortieth he declines into
old age, which our Lord [Jesus] having attained, he taught us the Gospel, and
all the elders who, in Asia assembled with John, the disciples of the Lord tes
tify; and as John himself had taught them. And he [John ?] remained with them
till the time of Trajan. And some of them saw not only John but other Apostles,
and heard the same thing from them, and bear the same testimony to this
revelation.^

In John viii. 56, Jesus is made to say to the Jews : " Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day ; and he saw it and was glad." Then said the Jews unto
him : " Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ? " If
Jesus was then only thirty or thereabouts, the Jews would naturally have said,
" Thou art not yet forty years of age."

There was a tradition among the early Christians that Annas was high priest
when Jesus was crucified. This is evident from the Acts (iv. 5). Now, Annas, or
Annias, was not high-priest until the year 48 a. d.^ Therefore, if Jesus was
crucified at that time, he must have been about fifty years of age. It is true
there was another Annas, high-priest at Jerusalem ; but that was when Gratus
was procurator of Judaea, some twelve or fifteen years before Pontius Pilate
held the same office.^

According to Dio Cassius, Plutarch, Strabo, and others, there existed in the
time of Herod among the Roman-Syrian heathen a widespread and deep sympathy
for a "crucified King of the Jews." This was the youngest son of Aristobulus,
the heroic Maccabee. In the year 43 b. c. we find this young man  Antigonus
 in Palestine claiming the crown, his cause having been declared just by
Julius Caesar. Allied with the Parthians, he maintained himself in his royal
position for six years against Herod and Mark Antony. At last, after an heroic
life and reign, he fell into the hands of this Roman. '* Antony now gave the
kingdom to a certain Herod, and having stretched Antigonus on a cross and
scourged him,  a thing never done before to any other king by the Romans,  he
put him to death." ^

The fact that all prominent historians of those days mention this extraordinary
occurrence, and the manner in which it was done, shows that it was considered
one of Mark Antony's worst crimes, and that the sympathy with the " Crucified
King " was widespread and profound.^ Some writers think that there is a
connection between this and the Gospel story ; that Jesus was in a certain
measure put in the place of Antigonus, just as Herod was put in the place of
King Kansa, who sought to destroy Crishna.

In the first two centuries the professors of Christianity were divided into
many sects ; but these might all be resolved into two divisions,  one
consisting of Nazarines, Ebionites, and orthodox ; the other of Gnostics, under
which all the remaining sects arranged themselves. The former are supposed to
have believed in Jesus crucified, in the common literal acceptation of the
term ; the latter,  believers in Christ as an ^on,  though they admitted the
crucifixion, considered it to have been in some mystic way, perhaps what might
have been called spirituaiiter, as it is regarded in the Revelation ; but,
notwithstanding the different opinions they held, they all denied that the
Christ did really die, in the literal acceptation of the term, on the cross.
Mr. King, in speaking of the Gnostic Christians, says : 

Their chief doctrines had been held for centuries before in many of the cities
in Asia Minor. There, it is probable, they first came into existence, as
MysfcBf upon the establishment of direct intercourse with India, under the
Seleucidae and Ptolemies. The college of Essenes and Megabyzae at Ephesus, the
Ophites of Thrace, the Cretans of Crete, are all merely branches of one antique
and common religion, and that originally Asiatic*

Several of the texts of the Gospel histories were quoted with great
plausibility by the Gnostics in support of their doctrines. The story of Jesus
passing through the midst of the Jews when they were about to cast him headlong
from the brow of a hill (Luke iv. 29, 30), and when they were going to stone
him (John iii. 59 ; x. 31, 39), were not easily refuted.

There are those who consider Jesus Christ, not as a person, but as a spiritual
principle, personified by the Essenes, as the ancients personified the sun, and
gave to it an experience similar to their own.