https://www.unian.info/world/1992054-factbox-global-number-of-widows-rises-as-war-and-disease-take-toll-media.html

https://snob.ru/profile/29904/blog/101341
God has no religion (Mahatma Gandhi)
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=nl&sl=auto&tl=ar&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsnob.ru%2Fprofile%2F29904%2Fblog%2F101341
God has no religion ... And God has no canons, the five pillars and the rules do not wear colorful clothes. Him all the same whether we eat apples to the Savior, whether the milk and cook the meat on the different plates and accepting food during daylight hours during Ramadan. He does not need to read the prayer, perform circumcision and believe that the world is based on suffering. He does not need our two-week fast, lean face and cut a hole in a sign of mourning for the dead heart area. All these people have come up with themselves: the blind gods, painted icons and applied to a white stone ornaments. For centuries waged religious wars, they destroyed the red-haired women, and those who thought otherwise. Wrote hundreds of books, we developed thousands of rules and restrictions. Condemned all who do not perform "Mikve", do not pray for the dead, in the manner of the Protestants, and does not recognize the liturgy. And nothing in 2000 years has not changed. We have to learn the language, use the Internet, developed a smart chopsticks and store umbilical cord blood, but we continue to kill, rob, lie, and hate it, despite Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, and Mohammed. We fight on the streets and in subway cars. We have hundreds of enemies and half the other. Play hide and seek and forge voice. Wear masks and artificial valves. And completely forgotten for what we live, breathe and express milk. And we do not even guess that came to this earth with only one goal - to find happiness!


The astronomical /astrological base for all religious worship

https://archive.org/details/sunsplaceinnatur00lockuoft  Sun's place in Nature

https://archive.org/details/stonehengeandot00lockgoog Stonhenge and others astronomically

https://archive.org/details/dawnastronomyas00lockgoog Dawn of astronomy (astrology)

https://archive.org/details/originallreligi00dupugoog The Origin of  Religious Worship


Het mannelijke (patriarchy, abramhamisme) is verantwoordelijk voor het ontstaan van oorlog en huiselijk en sexueel geweld!) Voor 3500 BCE, , werd het Vrouwelijke (de levensbrenger!) geeerd naast de natuur, voorouders tot ver in de oudheid (833.000 BCE), de Moeder, moeder aarde, moeder natuur, moeder zon,moeder God..., en toen was er dus geen huiselijk of sexueel geweld en geen oorlog.  According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20)." Origins of War, Violence in Prehistory, 2005, Jean Guilaine and Jean Zammit(Authors) -Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire Kindle Edition by Eric Berkowitz (Author)

Mothers are more important for children then fathers


https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200806/why-are-mothers-better-parents-fathers-part-i   nog
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200806/why-are-mothers-better-parents-fathers-part-ii
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200806/why-are-mothers-better-parents-fathers-part-iii

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dollars-and-sex/201401/why-do-mothers-care-more-about-their-children-fathers

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-evolving-father/201309/what-are-the-effects-children-fathers
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stepmonster/201006/the-dad-effect-how-having-children-changes-men

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23976890
The Evolution of Altruistic Preferences: Mothers versus Fathers.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3746998/

https://www.peacequarters.com/scientists-found-soul-doesnt-die-goes-back-universe/
We all go back to the univere - the/a SUN. Perhaps noone noticed but life-universe is based on the female form. Whether atoms-planets(Earth) -Sun - planet systems- milky way all represent the female egg form from which  all life comes. Thats why the ancient worshipped the Mother Sun-Earth and Nature and there was no domestic/sexual violence and WAR " Origins of War, Violence in Prehistory, 2005, Jean Guilaine and Jean Zammit(Authors) -Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire Kindle Edition by Eric Berkowitz (Author) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K7rjVIQcVA  And for all those patriarchial religious people, even the male chromosome evolved in 4 stages from the female chromosome.http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/991118/chromosomes.shtml Research looks at what drove sex chromosomes apart the paper : http://www.ib.usp.br/biologia/bio230/Artigos/8-Science-1999-Lahn-964-7.pdf So going on let's talk on evolution as science-proven not a theory and religion(s) and Jesus Christ as a myth and theory...

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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua ; that
I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven.”

Then in xxiv., 4. Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh (Anglice
Jehovah), which formed a solemn covenant of obedience. We
have here the first mention of a religious book, this " Book of the
Covenant.” Here, then, was a sacred book before the Bible.
Then we have a few lines in Numbers xxi., 14, which are attributed
to the ” Book of the Wars of Yahweh,” so there was evidently
smother Holy Book, called “ The Wars of Yahweh.” Another
book is cited in Joshua x., 12, under the name of ” The Book of
Jashar.” To this book belongs the lament of David over Saul and
Jonathan.

It is evident, then, that, as in all other religions, there were
many fragmentary writings in existence, and it required a civiliza-
tion of a certain height before some one produced a book which
utilised the best parts of the scattered literature.

The law was made as “ case law ” is made in our courts to-day,
and law was often made without ” cases ” at all, by creating a theo-
retical difficulty, giving an equally imaginary judgment, and so
establishing law on some hitherto undecided circumstance.

Evidently in the time when Deuteronomy was evolved, the Ten
Commandments did not exist in their present severe form, as we
find in Deuteronomy xxiv., 16: ” The fathers shall not be put to
death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death
for the fathers ; every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”
Compare this with the terrible words ” Visit the sins of the fathers
upon the children, even to the third and fourth generation,” a result
which sometimes happens, in the course of nature, in a certain
disease, but which every good Christian is engaged to-day in com-
batting.

We see, then, the gradual evolution of a sort of Bible out of
ancient legends of wars and poems, and continued fresh additions
by various prophets.

In the later Greek age (when Palestine was over-run with Greeks)
to which the composition of the Chronicles must be assigned, the
Mosaic tradition may be regarded as fully formed. ” But it must
be borne in mind,” says Carpenter, ” that the earliest testimony to
Moses as the author of the Pentateuch is thus found to date a
thousand years after the Exodus.” (“Bible in the Nineteenth
Century, p. 33.}'

That the ” Mosaic ” law did not teach any religion, as we under-
stand it, is clear from the result of the life-long researches of Pro-
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

143

feasor Sayce, who says, in his “ Higher Criticism,” p. 279, ” The
Mosaic law maintained a resolute silence on the doctrine of a future
life. Of the doctrine of a resurrection there is not a whisper. The
law of Israel did not look beyond the grave.”

The sacred books of India, China, and other great nations were
taken up with the affairs of heaven, or gods, while the Jewish Bible
is entirely absorbed with the affairs of earth.

The Jewish writers had most of the great thinkers of antiquity
on their side. Gcero had no belief in a soul living after death, and
Horace said, ” Death is the end.” The writer of Ecclesiastes held
the same opinion, Chronicles iii., 19-21.

The most philosophic passages of the Old Testament, which
uphold this view, are also the most beautiful and poetic although
sad in tone and darkened with thoughts of the inevitable tragedy of
the extinction of life by death.

Other texts which occur to me are Job i. 21, Job xiv. 2-14, Psalm
cxv. 17, Eccl. ix. 5-b, Eccl. xii. 5, but as Dr. Sayce so well says,
the Old Testament law has not a whisper of the doctrine of life
beyond the grave and the contrary is everywhere implied.

Having briefly glanced at the mode of production of this book,
let us now see how it has been handed down to us. There is no
authentic copy of the Old Testament earlier than 916 A.D. Accord-
ing to Herzog, a high authority, the oldest MSS. of the Hebrew
Bible dates from 1009—quite close to the Norman Conquest of Eng-
land.

The Westminster revisers, who created, the revised version,
followed a text called the ” Masoretic text,” which was built upon
the Samaritan Bible and the quasi Septuagint version, and they
followed this ” as it has come down in MSS. of no great antiquity—
the earliest being 916 A.D.” (or according to Herzog, 1009 A.D.)

MASORETIC VERSION.

The Masoretic version was produced by the Masoretes, who
were Rabbis of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, and they
finally established a canon and text of Scripture about 550-650
A.D., from a collection of critical and marginal notes to the Old
Testament made by Jewish writers. It is written in Aramaic, and
was printed at Venice in 1525 A.D. The Masoretes were the first
who divided the books into chapters, and the sections of the books
into verses..

The word Masoretes means ” possessors of the tradition.” They
were trained scholars, but relied on tradition.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

Hebrew began to be “pointed" by the early Masoretes, like
our shorthand, with dots and lines to indicate vowels, but the pro-
nunciation was quite indefinite and only known by tradition. Suth
“ points ” began to be used about 370 A.D., and the Masorah was
finally established about 650 A.D. The variation in the spelling of
names in the Greek Septuagint shows there were great differences
of opinion as to the pronunciation of names, and it is clear from
the visible blunders of the Masoretes that the original meaning had
ceased to be intelligible even to these trained scholars.

Scholarship was then at a low ebb and there were no dictionaries,
so that these Rabbis amended the text according to their faith or
opinion and entirely on oral traditions.

They worked, not on the Hebrew Bible, but on the Samaritan
version. The division into verses and chapters was quite arbitrary,
as we see in Genesis ii., and the Samaritans divided the Bible differ-
ently from ours, Genesis having 150 chapters in their version.

Dr. Ginsburg in his (the generally accepted) edition of the
Masorah, relies on that of Jacob Ben Chayim, 1524 A.D.

Recent researches call in question much of the Masoretic com-
pilation.

The known Septuagint has no clear relation to its great proto-
type, as it is only composed from the Greek text of the great uncials
of the 4th and 5th centuries; and the Vatican and Alexandrian
MSS. have considerable differences.

The Greek text is as imperfect as the Hebrew, and was also
often altered for religious purposes, while mistranslations, which
make no sense frequently occur, with other corruptions. (“ Faiths
of Man/’ /., p. 304, Forlong.)

Our translators of the revised version had to be content with a
Hebrew MS., which had drifted from an unknown source to St.
Petersburg, and was dated 916 A.D.

The authorised version was translated and composed from a
copy of Aaron Ben Asher, 1034, belonging to the great Maimonides,
the “Second Moses," 1200 A.D., and that of Jacob Ben Naphtali,
a copy also of about our 11th century, and adopted by Eastern Jews.

Let us attempt to trace as much of its history as has been dis-
covered.

In 2 Kings, xxii., an actual document is called the Torah of
Yahweh, and, as Forlong says (•“ Short Studiesp. 415), was
“ suspiciously produced by the high priest Hilkiah, at a time when
he was pressed for funds to amend and repair the temple." This
was about 625 B.C., in the early part of the reign of the pious young
king Josiah, who ordered Hilkiah (father of Jeremiah) to prove that
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

145

ike writing was “ the law of the Lord ” or “ Book of the Covenant
and this the old priest accomplished by the assistance of a certain
woman, Hulda, the “ weasel,” a sorceress. “Thou shalt not permit
a sorceress to live,” and yet we are dependent on a sorceress for
a decision as to the authenticity of the ” Word of God.”

Loisy holds (p. 10, “Religion of Israel”), as do most critics,
that this ” law ” was composed—not found.

This first discovered “Torah of Yahweh ” evidently did not
cause much stir, because we hear nothing further of it till it was
resuscitated by Ezra and his scribes when he was sent up from
Babylon by the over-lord of Jerusalem to re-start the rites and
services of the new temple.

Ezra was not the only Babylonian priest employed in construct-
ing the Hebrew Scripture. Nehemiah was another. We also see
in 2 Kings xvii., 27, and other parts of the Old Testament, how
natives, chosen by the Babylonian priests, who had been carried
as captives to Babylon, were sent back to teach the Hebrews the
elements of religion, and some of the greatest high priests, such as
Hillel, about the time of Jesus, were Babylonian born and trained,
and sent by the over-lord to regulate the Jews’ religion. The chaos
of religions practised in Palestine is shown in verses 30, 31, of
2 Kings, xvii., mixed with Yahweh worship. Succoth Benoth,
Tents of Venus, came from Babylon, as stated in verse 30.

At Ezra’s time Jerusalem had been totally destroyed, its temples
reduced to ruins, its priests dispersed, and the priestly documents
removed, burnt, or otherwise destroyed.

It was found difficult to rule a country without a priesthood, so
Cyrus (the name used for God in the New Testament), King of
Babylon, ordered Jerusalem to be rebuilt and its temple restored ;
and sent Ezra to re-establish the Jewish religion and Bible.

This is how the cosmogony of the Bible was copied from that
of Babylon. George Smith’s discoveries were the first external
proof that this was the case, and great consternation and surprise
were expressed by Church people, but a careful examination of
the mode of production of the “Books of Moses” by Ezra and
Nehemiah might have shown scholars long ago that Babylonian cos-
mogony was the only cosmogony possible, as being the only one
known to these Babylonian writers of the “ Word of God.”

Hislop’s elaborate proof that the Roman Catholic Church
doctrines and practices were directly derived from Babylon had a
Very true basis, although he did not discover the true fountain from
which th^e Hebrew “ Word of God ” had issued.

Even the wise high priest, Hillel, whose tolerant rule issued in

L
 146

CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

the revival which led to Christianity, was educated in Babylonian
schools under Persian rule, and died in Jerusalem about 10 A.D.,
when Jesus was a boy. Thus we see that the prophets and high
priests of other times were generally foreigners sent by the
Babylonian Conqueror or over-lord to rule Jerusalem, and
Jerusalem, as we shall see, was almost always under a Conqueror.

In respect of the Jews being taught by foreign priests, we should
remember also that it was not Yahweh, but Jethro, a foreigner, the
father-in-law of Moses, who taught Moses how to govern the tribes.
Our own religion is of foreign origin, imposed on us by Rome.

As a preface, Yahweh tells Ezra that he had formerly made a
similar statement to Moses, and had commanded him ; ” Some of
these my words thou shalt declare, some thou shalt hide; some
things thou shalt show secretly to the wise.” Ezra was seated
under a sacred oak or Ale when the Ale-im or Elohim spoke to
him out of a bush (as they did to Moses), ” 1 will reveal again all
that has been lost, the secrets of the times and the end.” Ezra, in
reply, tells Yahweh, “ Thy law is burnt, therefore none can know
the past or future—send thy Holy Ghost unto me and I shall write
what has been done since the beginning.”

The chance of any official Bible surviving the many conquests of
Jerusalem is very slight. At that time the sacred books were
written or painted on ox hides, so the Bible must have occupied a
large space, so that no private person was likely to have a copy.
The official Bibles were often destroyed by the conqueror, and the
conquest of Jerusalem was accomplished so often, and its temples
and Scriptures so frequently destroyed, that it is difficult to see how
any complete authenticated copy escaped destruction. Here is a
short list of the destructions.

We find in Chronicles I. and II. over thirty wars, sackings, and
pillages when there was every chance of the sacking of the temple
and the destruction of the sacred records. Tiglath-Pileser,
Nebuchadnezzar, Siskak of Egypt, the Syrians, the Philistines,
Senacherib, Necho of Egypt, in turn, conquer the land,—besides
internal rebellions over religious matters and Hasmonean and
Maccabi wars.

Many of the Jews taken captives by the Edomites, about
800 B.C., were sold to the Greeks, who took them to their country.
When they returned from the ” Islands of the Sea ” (Greece),
Isaiah ii., they brought the Greek legends with them in a crude form,
and finally they got incorporated in the Scriptures, Hercules as
Samson, and all the Sun Gods as shown to us by Goldzibter, from
Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to Job, and the scraps in Daniel.
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

147

Their earlier captivities are related in Isaiah xi.: “In that day
the Lord shall set His hand the second time to recover the remnant
of His people which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt,
and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from
Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea,” mean-
ing Cyprus, Greece, etc.

There are eight captivities. There were besides the long
Persian occupation of the land when they the Persians made slaves
of the best men and deported them for work in the Euphrates
Valley and Persia. Then the Greek occupation, when they were
again enslaved, then the final destruction of the “Hornets’ Nest” by
the Romans, 70 A.D., when they were again deported to Rome and
employed as slaves to build the coliseum and pyramid of Caius
Sextus, which was built into the Aurelian Wall to imitate Egyptian
ideas (“Rome and its Story,” p. 157). They were never again
allowed to return.

Titus Caesar levelled the Temple at Jerusalem 70 a.d. Hadrian
drew a plough share over the site to make perpetual interdiction
(" Gibbon,” Vol III., p. 61).

The sacred Scriptures were removed to Rome at the request of
Josephus and never again heard of. A few years more saw a
Temple of Venus on the spot where it was supposed the death and
resurrection of Jesus took place, and this stood for nearly 300 years,
when Constantine pulled it down and built a Christian Church, to
which worshippers made pilgrimages, just as they had done to the
Hebrew Temple and to the Venus Tabernacle.

Then we find, in another half century, the Emperor Julian chang-
ing all back by rebuilding the Jewish Temple, to counteract the
mummeries which disgraced the Christian shrine and which had
filled Jerusalem with every kind of debauchery and vice. (“ Rioers
of Life," L. p. 217.)

The destruction or mutilation of Bibles by soldiers is well
illustrated, in our own day, by an incident that recently happened
in Tibet. By our invasion of that country China was compelled
to assert its sovereignty and sent an army of occupation. The army
soon found their boots cut up by the rough roads, and when
quartered on some of the great monasteries the soldiers used the
“badly tanned ox hides and shreds of leather,” on which the
Tibetan scriptuffes are still written (or painted exactly as were the
Jewish), to repair their foot gear, and the Lamma has memorialised
the Chinese Emperor complaining of the destruction and mutilation
of their Scriptures in this way. But when we recollect how often
Jerusalem was invaded and sacked and its population deported we
cannot wonder at the chaotic state of their Scriptures.
 148

129

powers of nature and principally those of the sun expressed in a
variety of ways and by a multitude of fanciful names/*

Max Muller, another extremely broad-minded and safe master,
treats the subject so well and fully that I cannot do better than
refer the reader to his lectures on the " Science of Religion,*' p. 298,
for an intelligent sketch of sun worship.

The ancient religion of China was the same which was universal
over the world—the worship of sun, moon, and stars. One very
direct proof of this lies in the fact that both the Chinese and the
Indian Hindoos named their successive days after the seven
heavenly bodies. These were personified and known by allegorical
names, under which their real connection with the stars was lost,
and they became personal deities.

The Chinese were always practical and scientific, so their
emblems did not wander so widely ; but the terms of reverence
and respect with which the. heavenly bodies are spoken of in the
Shoo-King are too extravagant to bear only an astronomical mean-
ing, and we are driven to the conclusion " that the ancient religion
of China partook of star worship.” (See Thorntons History of
Chinar VI., p. 14, col. 50.)

In India, the sun, moon, stars, and powers of nature, were
personified, and each supposed quality of theirs, mental and
physical, had its separate emblem till its Pantheon became crowded.

The Hindoo Pantheon contained Dyaus—the sky, Indra—the
rain giver and fertility, Surya—the sun, the Maruts—the winds,
Aditi—the dawn, Parvati—the earth, and Siva—the sun, as earth's
husband. Krishna was also the sun ; as is shown by this prayer
addressed to him: ” Be auspicious to my lay, oh Chrishna, thou
only God of the Seven Heavens, who surveyest the Universe through
the immensity of space and matter. Oh, universal and resplendent
Sun.” Krishna is made to say: ” I am the Light in the Sun and
Moon, far, far beyond the darkness.” (William Henderson, p. 213.)

In the Maha Bharata, Chrishna is called the Son of Aditi, the
Dawn, and is also called Vishnu, a name for the sun. *

Moore, in his "Hindu Pantheon,’* says: "Although all the
Hindu deities partake, more or less remotely, of the nature and
character of Surya or the Sun, and all more or less directly radiate
from or merge in him, yet no one is, I think, so intimately identified
with him as Vishnu ; whether considered in his own person or in
the character of his most glorious Avatara Chrishna.”

The sun being the giver of life, is always mixed up with Phallic
lore* and Chrishna, like Jove and all Sun Gods, has numerous love
passages with maidens representing earthly attributes or even

K
 130

CHRISTIANITY: THE. SOURCES

. *

places. Then we have the promiscuous amours of Jupiter, Her-
cules, Indra, Phoibos, Samson, Alpheips, Paris, and all Sun Gods
forming the great Solo-Phallic cult.

In Egypt the same religion held its sway.

Mr. Le Page Renouf, the leading authority on the religion of
ancient Egypt, in his 44 Hibbert *’ lecture (p. 118), says: “ The
lectures on the science of language delivered nearly twenty years
ago by Prof. Max Muller, have, I trust, made us fully understand
how amongst the Indo-European races, names of the sun, of sunrise
and sunset, and of other such phenomena, come to be talked of and
considered as personages, of whom wondrous legends have been
told. Egyptian mythology not merely admits, but imperatively
demands the same explanation.**

The gods and goddesses of the Persians were also personification
of the sun, moon, and stars. Omenga was the God of the Firma*
ment. He was the Great God of the Persians. Mithra, the
Mediator, was the Sun God. The worship of Mithras, the sun,
survived for many centuries. Pope Leo the Great (440-461 A.D.)
adored the sun from lofty heights, and Christians ascending the
steps of St. Paul*s at Rome turned and made obeissance to the
sun as do our High Church clergy to this day. When the Greek
astronomers first declared that the sun was not a god, but a huge,
hot ball, they were accused of being 44 blaspheming atheists.*’

The Teutonic Norse gods were sun and star deities, and the
worship of the Druids in Britain and France was sun worship, as
shown at Stonehenge.

Doane, from whom 1 have gathered many of these quotations,
says, in his 44 Bible Myths ** : 44 The same worship, sun worship, we
have found in the old world from the furthest east to the remotest
west may also be traced in America, from its simplest or least clearly
defined form among the roving hunters and squalid Esquimaux of
the north, through every intermediate stage of development, to
the imposing systems of sun worship of Mexico and Peru, where it
took a form nearly corresponding to that which it at one time
sustained on die banks of the Ganges and on the plains of Assyria.*9
Researches are always in progress to find explanations of the
orientation of ancient temples and of ancient calendars and Zodiacs,
and they are of the utmost interest, as instanced by the masterly
work of Lockyer in his 44 Dawn of Astronomy,** or by the 44 Ancient
Calendars and Constellations44 of the Hon. E. M. Plunket, but
these have only* rendered certain the well-established fact that all
the nations of the world, at one period <*f the evolution of history,
have based their religion and regulated their practices upon a
deification of the heavenly bodies.
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

131

The description handed down of the Sun God, born of a Virgin
the Dawn, Redeemer of the world in Spring from the cold of winter,
Miraculous Healer, and bringer of Joy, born again after death
(resurrection) the annual return of the Sim from the death of winter,
his twelve labours or struggles, and twelve Apostles or Knights
(12 months) became the basis of the redeemer idea in all countries.

The orientation of churches to the east, where the Redeemer
is daily born, used to be very strictly carried out; but there were
always three methods of orientation, all, however, based on sun-
rise, and having the earliest rays of the sunshine on the sacred
altar. Our own rude temple at Stonehenge was, as we all know,
carefully oriented to the rising of the sun in the Summer Solstice;
and annually we see such paragraphs in the newspapers as I quote
here from one in 1905 :—“ To-morrow, the longest day, the annual
pilgrimage will be made to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise over
the historical circle of Giant Monoliths. It is only on a cloudless
morning that it is possible to see the first rays of the sun glimmer
on the huge stone known as the Friars “ Heel ” (a Phallic, or
masculine pillar), on the outside of the circle, and from thence to
the altar stone (feminine) within. The last time this sight was
witnessed was in 1903." That is a solstitial orientation, as the
temple is placed so that the desired shining of the Sun on the altar
takes place at the Summer Solstice, or longest day, called solstice
or " sun standing," because, having reached the most northern
part of its annual north and south motion, it is supposed to pause or
stand still before it commences its southern journey.

The very word orientation, which is now universally used as
meaning merely the " compass direction " of any building, or the
" lie ” of any rocks, in fact, the “ compass direction " of every-
thing, originally applied only to the " Easting " of a church. Here
we have a sample of the innumerable instances of an ecclesiastical
idea being grafted into the secular language of a nation.

The stone circles like Stonehenge gave us our English word
Church, and the Scotch or Teutonic Kirk. The letter C was K
originally, so circle is kirkle or kirk, and then it became as Ch (as
it is in Italy to-day), hence, circle is chirchle or church. Chaucei
spells it Chirche.

The Churches of St. John (being the mid-summer Saint) are
oriented like Stonehenge, to the north-east.

The second method £s equinoctial orientation, or turning the
churches’to the point at which the sun rises on the 22nd of March (or
nearly identical on 22nd of September), when day and night (as re-
gards the sun) are equal. This is the method of orientation of nearly
 132

CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

*

all great churches, as St. Peter’s at Rome, Milan Cathedral, Notre
Dame de Paris, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and
nearly all the parish churches of England ; and we know that this
Sun worship, or “ Eastern Position,” is bitterly fought for as a
sacred part of the ritual by the extreme ritualists in England.

The old Basilica at Rome, like the present structure, was oriented
to this Equinox, or East and West, so that, on 22nd March, the
sun at the Equinox shone through the great doors right on to the
high altar. The English Churches are the reverse of this, the)
great window over the high altar is East, so that the worshippers
face the East, and the priests turn their backs to the audience and
bow to the East when necessary.

A third and, at first sight, very puzzling method of orientation,
is that of orienting the Church to the point of sunrise on the day
sacred to the Saint to whom the Church is dedicated. This gives
all sorts of orientation or Easting from the extreme North-East of
St. John to the due East of the Equinoctial Easting, and without the
key to the problem merely looks like careless orientation as there
seems to be no fixed system.

This was the cause of the hopelessness of those who, under
Napoleon I., mapped out the orientation of Egyptian temples, but
all has now been made clear, by showing that the chaos of orienta-
tion was caused by turning the line of the centre of the temple or
church to that point of the horizon where a certain sun god or
goddess rose in conjunction with the sun at a critical date, or even
to the point of rising to the star alone. A clear instance is given
by Lockyer in his ” Dawn of Astronomy as to the orientation of
a Temple of Isis, or Hathor, or Venus, Goddess of Love, which
is clearly announced in one of the inscriptions which Marriette
translates as saying: “She (Isis) shines into her temple on New
Year’s Day, and she mingles her light with that of her father Ra
(the Sun) on the horizon.”

Hathor was called Sothis by the Greeks, and we know from
contemporary astronomers that that is the name for the Star Sirius,
whose Egyptian name was Sept, but in Greek Sothis. Now this
conjunction of Sirius or Sothis with the sun took place about 700
B.C., and Biot, the astronomer, proved that 700 B.C. is the date
of the construction of the great Zodiac in the Temple of Osiris.
Sirius rose at 700 B.C. with the sun on New Year’s Day (which for
strong reasons was Midsummer in Egypt), and she mingled her
rays with that of her father Ra on the great day of the year, New
Year, 20th June, so that such an important event was celebrated
by the building of a temple oriented to the great event.
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

133

TKe precession of the Equinoxes, or the slow movement of the
fixed stars, gradually destroyed this combination which will not
again be true for 25,867 years.

Lockyer tells us that the most important temple in China is
oriented to the Winter instead of Summer Solstice, a rare instance.
Babylonian Temples are mostly oriented to the Solstices, there-
fore, at the latitude of Ninevah and Khorsabad, in a North-Easterly
and South-Westerly direction.

I shall have occasion to show that this was also the case with
the Jewish Tabernacle (p. 244, et seq.). The Temple of Amen Ra
is as perfectly oriented as is St. Peter’s at Rome.

Lockyer shows that temples were oriented to the rising of stars,
and were situated in relation to other temples so as to express the
worship of the host of heaven. The same practice holds with
English Churches, where the stars, however, are called Saints,
though really godlets, or children of God, just as they were in
Egypt, Greece, or Rome.

One disturbing factor, which upsets all this orientation of sun
worship in cities, is that the streets grew up out of mere country
lanes and are not oriented or scientifically placed, and when a new
church is desired, or required, a site cannot always be found per-
mitting of proper orientation, so the church must be ** oriented ”
to the line of the street, as we see in the new Roman Catholic
Cathedral at Westminster, which lies nearly North and South.

The architect sacrificed the orientation of this important ecclesi-
astical edifice to the exigencies of land and street.

The Sphinx sits ever watching for the sunrise at the Equinox,
as the Colossi at Thebes watched for the sunrise in the Winter
Solstice. Thus, as Lockyer says, the evidence of the existence of
Solar Temples is absolutely overwhelming, and even when oriented
to stars, the orientation is to the star in conjunction with the sun
at sunrise. Temples built in positions where, owing to the height
of the walls of other temples, the sun was not visible, were still
accurately oriented. The Sphynx Temple had a line of sight
directly along the South face of the second pyramid, or towards
the land of Amend, or the dead, as the sun passed into that land on
setting in the West.

In ‘‘Ancient Calendars and Constellations,** we have a most
successful clearing up of the great muddle caused by the attempt
to base the calendar and Zodiac on a lunar basis, but we are not
interested here in these intricate details; it is sufficient to indicate
 134

CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

them, and to see the instances of universal sun worship. In these
books, however, we get glimpses of mythology useful in illustrating
Hebrew mythology. For instance, Indra, the earliest Indian God,
produced creation by overcoming a great water snake, just as the
Hebrew God in the Bible overcame Tehom or Tiamat, a great
water snake, no doubt derived from India through Babylon (p. II,
" Ancient Calendars,” also pp. 190-193 this volume).

We learn also that in the Chinese account of creation, as illus-
trated in their Zodiac, their Constellation Hiu means Vacuum or
void, the same word used in Genesis i., 2.   (Sayce, Trans. Soc.

Bib. Arch., February, 1874.)

The Chinese dating being based on the lunar motions, like the
dating of Easter by the Christians, as derived from Hebrew, we
find a table produced by the Astronomical Board of China exactly
the same in form as the table in an English Book of Common
Prayer,—“ Tables to find Easter,” from the present time to such
and such a date, showing that similar diseases (the faulty lunar
reckoning) require similar remedies. This is a relic of Babylonian
worship in Christianity.

I have dealt with this subject somewhat fully to show that there
is no shadow of doubt that sun worship was universal, and that such
irregularities as were produced by the introduction of the subsidiary
luminaries in their relation to sun and sunrise can be explained
by careful research.

A curious position arose out of this annual birth of the sun in the
Roman mythology. All nations have at first a single creative god,
and are at heart monotheists, and the Romans had their “Sky
Father,” Jupiter, who was too grand to die ; so the annual birth of
the sun had gradually come to be represented as the appearance
of ” Sons of Jove.” The great lonely God of the Deists has never
been able to stand alone, such a religion is too cold for imaginative
humanity, so this ” Awful Presence,” or great abstraction, gradually
retires into an ” ancient of days,” as shown so well in Rubens’s
picture in the frontispiece. The Son of God, a young sun, then
becomes the important one, and marries the earth in Spring, and
they bring forth fruit, flowers, and all life, and they have themselves
a child, as conceived by Rubens. Now this is all very well as a
working theory for one generation, but when annually repeated it
becomes embarrassing. Either the last year's son goes on living,
and we get a grqpt list of Sun Gods, as did the Romans, or we get
die fine metaphysical idea of Christianity, that die Son of God (the
young sun) after having performed the passover, or been crucified
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

116

CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

v >*<?».

representation of the Sun. God was the * Winged Globe,* or
‘Winged Solar Disc,’ types of which are well preserved on the
lintels of an ancient Egyptian shrine of granite in the Temple of
Edfu.

** In the Holy Scriptures are repeated allusions to the protecting
wings of the Deity, referring to this frequently recurring sculptural
design; and we know that if his life-giving rays were withheld
from the earth every form of human activity would speedily come
to an end.

“ The sun is important and magnificent beyond all other objects
in the Universe. The more primitive the civilization the more
apparent is the dependence of man upon the sun.”

That sun worship is still practised in India is shown by Dr.
Oman to be the case, not only with the pure Hindus, but also by
the Sikhs. He described a visit to that most beautifully-placed
temple, the Golden Temple of Amritsar, and says: ” Proceeding
along the North side of the pool ” (the Temple is artistically situated
in an artificial lake) ” we encountered at one place a Brahman
worshipping tiny images of Ganesh and Krishna ” (the Phallic God),
” at another a representative of the same hereditary priesthood
engaged in adoration of the sun.” Note also the combination of
Solo-Phallic worship, Ganesh and Krishna. Dr. Oman goes on to
say: “At the north-east comer of the tank in the umbrageous
shelter of a fine Banyan tree we came upon a temple of Siva repre-
sented, as usual, by a Lingam, which in this instance was about four
inches high with a brass bell over it ” (the bell being a Yoni, the
two gave the “ eternal life,” Lingam-Yoni combination). (” Cults,
Customs, and Superstitions of India,” p. 97.)

Dr. Oman calls this the ” Most sacred spot on earth. It is the
great temple of the Buddhists, believed by five hundred millions to
be built on the exact spot on which, seated in the shade of a spread-
ing Bo-tree, Gautama Buddha, known also as Prince Siddartha, the
Sakya Muni, attained enlightenment some four hundred years before
the Christian era.” It is situated at Gaya, near Bankipore.

Describing this famous shrine, the Mecca of all Buddhists, Dr.
Oman says: ” It is built in the form of a pyramid of nine storeys,
embellished on the outer side with niches and mouldings. Facing
the rising sun is the entrance door way, and above it, at an elevation
greater than the roof of the porch which over adorned the temple
there is a triangular opening to admit the morning glory to faU upon
the image in the sanctuary,” exactly as is described by Josephus
m die case of the Hebrew Tabernacle. (“ Cults, Customs, and
Superstitions of India,” p. 38.) The triangular form of the opening
is derived from the lotus seed-pod, th esymbol of fertility (p. 55).
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

117

We shall see this arrangement carried out equally by the most
ignorant savages, and the most civilised priesthood, all over the
world. In a rapid survey ending with the worship of the sun's
disc on Roman Catholic altars of the present day, Hislop says,
" The Two Babylons,” p. 162 :—" Let the reader peruse the follow-
ing extract from Hind, in which he describes the embellishments of
the Romish altar, on which the sacrament or consecrated wafer is
deposited, and then he will be able to judge :—A plate of silver in
die form of a sun is fixed opposite to the sacrament on the altar,
which, with the lights of tapers, make a most brilliant appearance."
(Hind's 44Rites and Ceremonies, p. 196, col. 1.) “ What has that
brilliant sun to do there on the altar, over against the sacrament or
round wafer? In Egypt the disc of the sun was represented in
the temples, and the sovereign and his wife and children were
represented as adoring it. Near the small town of Babain, in Upper
Egypt, there still exists in a grotto a representation of a sacrifice to
the sun, where the priests are seen worshipping the sun's image as
in the accompanying woodcut.”   (From Maurice's 44 Indian

Antiquities,'' Vol. III., p. 309 ; 1792.)   [1 give here the more lately

discovered example of Khu-en-Aten.]

“ In the great temple of Babylon the golden image of the sun
was exhibited for the worship of Babylonians.

" In the temple of Curzco, Peru, the disc of the sun was fixed up
in flaming gold upon the wall that all who entered might bow down
before it. (Prescot’s ‘‘Peru*** Vol. I, p. 4.)

; " The Paeonians of Thrace were sun-worshippers, and in tbeir
worship they adored an image of die sun in the form of a disc at
the tip of a long pole.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

“ In the worship of Baal, as practised by the idolatrous Israelites,
the worship of the sun’s image was equally observed, and it is
striking to find that the image of the sun was erected above the.altar,

“ When the good King Josiah set about the work of reformation
we read that his servants in carrying out the work of reformation
proceeded thus (2 Chron. xxxiv., 4): And they take down the
altars of Baalim in his presence, and the sun images that were on
high above them he cut down.”

Benjamin, of Tudela, the great Jewish traveller, gives a striking
account of sun worship even in comparatively modern times as
subsisting among the Cushites of the East:—“ They worship the
sun as a god, and the whole country for half-a-mile round the town
is filled with great altars dedicated to him. They worship the rising
sun on altars provided with a consecrated image, and everybody,
men and women, hold censers in their hands, and all burn incense
therein.” From all this it is manifest that the image of the
sun above or on the altar was one of the recognised
symbols of those who worshipped Baal or the sun. “And
here,” says Hislop, “in a so-called Christian Church, a
brilliant plate of silver in the form of a sun is so placed
on the altar that every one who adores at that altar must bow
down in lowly reverence before that image of the sun ; and when
the wafer is so placed that the silver sun fronting the ‘ round'
wafer—whose ’ roundness ’ is so important an element in the
Romish mystery, what can be the meaning of it but just to show
that the wafer itself is only another symbol of the sun!”

The naming of the groups of stars through which the sun
wandered is lost in antiquity, but no doubt there was a good reason
for the names, either the season of the year, the planting of crops,
or they may have been totem names of tribal chiefs with Phallic
symbols. The latter seems probable, as the names are mostly those
of animals, and this band of stars was called the Zodiac, which
means belt of animals or belt of life.

Our Zodiac has Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Libra,
Scorpion, Archer, Goat, Aquarius, Fishes.

The Chinese is Mouse, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Serpent,
Horse, Ram, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, and Pig.

Both have Ram, Bull or Cow, Serpent or Scorpion, and Lion or
Tiger, all Phallic, and Libra or Ballance was actually the Phallus
ip: 79).   .

The mapping out of the entire heavens for both Hemispheres into
constellations has only been done systematically in comparatively
modern times, although all the brighter stars and groups had names
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

119

and legends from very early times. When the early astronomers
tried to get a systematic classification of the motions and changes
in the relation of the heavenly bodies to the earth and the seasons,
they found, no doubt, an almost impossible task before them; in
fact, the problem was insoluble till the time of Bruno, Galileo and
European astronomers, who gave the true explanation of the
observed phenomena.

The Greeks in Egypt, of the time of Ptolemy Soter, had been
driven, by a consideration of astronomical facts, to a true solution,
and placed the sun in the centre of the system and made the earth
subordinate to it, and, as they had measured an arc of latitude in
Egypt, they knew that the earth was round, and calculated a fair
approximation to its size.

The overwhelming of all knowledge by the advent of ” Spiritual **
religion, and the rejection of all knowledge not ” miraculously re-
vealed,** quickly crushed out the spirit of science begun so well at
Alexandria, and brought in the true dark ages.

The Alexandrians (notably Hero) and Archimedes had com-
menced the study of steam and electricity, and, had such a spirit
prevailed, the world might have been civilised 1800 years ago, but
the spirit which gained power was one which put the wildest visions
of faith before the evidence of the senses, and declared that instead
of close reasoning and scientific investigation, one only required
faith to arrive at the truth. And, in fact, it declared that the most
meritorious individual was he who could bring himself to believe
the most incredible statements or miracles. The more incredible,
the greater the merit. The Alexandrian Greeks stood out for
knowledge, but the world went mad on Mirolatry, which led to
the dark ages.

Of the Roman Catholic Church, in the 19th Century, the
” Encyclopaedia Britannica,’* 1911, Vol. XXIII., p. 494, says :—** If
it was a merit to believe without evidence, it was a shining virtue
to believe in the teeth of evidence,” so Paul's dictum still rules
the Catholic world.

All the great nations, however, had gradually created an
astronomical science for themselves by observation.

The Babylonians had organised their astronomical science so
well that it was famous throughout the ancient world. Lenses have
been found in the ruins, but they are small and do not prove that
the Babylonians had telescopes.

The science began in Accad. The Zenith was fixed above
Elam. Observations were made in Ur, Chaldea, Assur, Ninevah,
and Arbela, and the Astronomers Royal had to send on their reports
to the king twice a month. Here are some of their results.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

Stan named and numbered.

Calendar formed and kept.

Division of heavens into degrees.

Twelve months of 30 days. Zodiacal signs about 2200 B.C.

Year of 360 days, with intercalary month added every six years.

Week of seven days date from very early period.

Constellation names can be traced to Babylon.

Seventh day was day of rest, “ Saturn.”

The day was scientifically divided into 12 ” Casbu ” of two
hours each, thus agreeing with the monthly motion in the annual
Zodiac; one day was thus recognised as the same revolution as
one year, as the same constellations were passed over. This
division of the day was more scientific than ours. All eclipses were
carefully observed.

The ignorant Hebrews could not understand and appreciate, as
other nations did, the wonderful science of the Babylonian
astronomers, and looked on all their elaborate studies for date
keeping as mere necromancy. They were afraid of this power, and
cried out against the ” Astrologers, star gazers, and monthly prog*
nosticators ” (Isaiah xlvii, 13).

They had a very poor or debased art, their pottery being
described in ” Underground Jerusalem,” 1912, as ” the dreariest of
all Ceramic series.”

The Chinese still have the Babylonian hour of 12 in the 24 hour
cycle.

The English have a relic of sun worship in their Spherical
Christmas Plum Pudding with its spirituous flames representing the
sun.

It is the remains of a feast or Eucharist such as is described
on the next page, promising that although the sun is dead at the
winter solstice, yet it will return in all its flaming glory of summer,
with its rich treasure of food and fruit to the joy of mankind.
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

121

BABYLONIAN RELIGION IN EUROPE.

SUN WORSHIP.

IT is marvellous how, in prehistoric times, the religion of Babylon
dominated not only Western Asia, but all Europe, even into remote
Scotland and Scandinavia (pp. 104-109).

We have seen their Sabbato, Holy day, or day of rest, domin-
ating the week all over Europe from prehistoric times.

In Scotland the last day of the year is called Hogmanay, and
there is a celebration in the morning, now only held by children,
connected with the eating of " bun," a rich cake, made almost
entirely from fruits, such as raisins, almonds, and currants.

The children come joyously to their parents' room, very early,
and with rude symbols for music, poker and tongs for a violin, a
metal tray for a drum, etc., make a great noise, and sing, without
showing much reverence for their mother :

"Get up old wife and shake your feathers.

And dinna think that we are beggars,

For we are bairns come out to play,

Get up and gi'e us our Hogmanay.”

This is not intended disrespectfully, but is the Scotch peasant's
expression of humour.

In Babylon, the last day of the year was called " Hogmanay,"—
the Festival of the Numberer (moon), when he had completed the
computation of the year ; and there was a sort of sacrament or
service held, in which " buns ” were eaten. Notice the wonderful
duration of these words. These buns were baked of dried fruits,
and were a promise that, although the sun was dead, and all
nature still in the dread grasp of winter, these fruit cakes were
a Eucharist, sacrament, or hopeful reminder that summer and fruit
would come again. Here we see old religion reduced to children’s
games.

Again, all over Scotland, up till recently, on the 22nd of June
(die summer solstice), when the sun is in his greatest glory, fires
were kindled, just as they were in Babylon, and the children, and
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

also grown-up people, rushed or jumped through or over these fires,
“ an old remnant of the human sacrifices to the Sun God.” Now
these fires were called Beltane fires, or fires of Bel in Babylon, and
are so called still in Scotland. The practice still exists in Ireland
(see Ellis’s ” History of Ireland ”). The persistence of the word is
striking, and would have been impossible in any advanced nation.
The very isolation and ignorance of the early Scots has resulted in
the preservation of the word.

In Scandinavia and Germany an error of translation reveals the
Babylonian source of their God Heimdal, who, they said, was born
of nine Virgins (Virgin birth with a vengeance). In Chaldea the
phrase “Son of the Virgin of Salvation” is Ben-Almet-lsha, the
Almet being the Virgin, Uma our Alma Mater, ” Virgin Mother ”
of learning, the University. But Ben-Almat-Teshaah sounds
exactly the same, but means “Son of nine Virgins,” so the mistake
arose, but it shows to us the origin of the Scandinavian God.

The God Adon of Babylon seems to have gone round the world,
as he is the Odin and Woden of Scandinavia and Britain, as well
as the Adonis of Greece, and even reached Mexico as Wodan.
The Mexicans had a Wodan’s day, as we have a Wednesday.

The Chinese and Hindu people had their Zodiacs. The Arabs,
owing to their constantly cloudless skies, were earnest students of
astronomy, and had a Zodiac, as also had the Egyptians. This
was improved by the Greeks, and we have the Greek Zodiac as the
basis of our astronomy.

The star names in use in astronomy are in great part Arabian,
and the Arabs or Moors kept the lamp of science alight in
astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, and botany, when Europe was
plunged into darkness with its mirodoxes.

Although we have no proof of the reasons for which the names
were given to the star groups of the Zodiac [Zoo, or Belt of Life],
it is probable that most of the signs were originally Phallic. Ram,
Bull, Lion, Goat, Twins, Ballance, Scorpion, and Fishes are all
widely used symbols of fertility, while other signs in the neighbour-
hood of the Zodiac, such as Virgo, Bootes (Adam) and Serpent
refer to the Phallic story of Eden. The virgin, the joy of man's
life is placed in the happy spring time, but to connect these earthly
matters with the heavens in the way they have been connected is
a matter requiring much study. The constellation of Virgo, to take
an instance, is not visible in Spring, having been lost in the sun's
rays. The sun always, or nearly always, masculine, and his rays
were looked upon (as they are) as the cause of the fructification of
the earth, or in other words, the sun marries the earth in Spring,
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

She is represented as Diana’s hare (opposite to her lord as
the Solar Cdck), each of which is inclosed in a circular nimbus,
showing its supreme importance. There is a censer of sacTed
fire on her right, and vial of the gods on her left, while die male
emblem, from Wales (p. 93) to Japan,—the sword,—is held aloft.
She has also the distaff of womanhood and other emblems. Finally
she has the Christian cross twice repeated, hung round her neck.

This form of Venus is still the most worshipped deity of China
and Japan, and her name is Legion, sometimes represented as
Diana, “ Multi mammae,” sometimes as a mass of babies growing
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

103

out of her fingers* toes* and whole body, sometimes as a fish goddess
moving in a Phallic sea holding a Lingam* as we see here [Fig. 91J.

” Kyoto* the Japanese capital* rejoices*’* says Miss Bird* ” in
33*333 representations of the Goddess Kwan-Yoni, described as
pre-eminently the hearer and answerer of prayer or mediatrix* like
the Virgin Mary.” (Miss Bird's “ Japan," p. 64. Forlong, ” Rivers
of LifeU., p. 537.)

Three of the most widely used symbols of Phallic worship are
used as signatures.

The Plough is used by Indian Princes,

The Triform Leaf by Buddhists, and

The Cross by Christian Bishops.

Every nation considered itself the most important, and was the
” Navel ” of the world.—At Dublin, the Irish navel was placed
where five Provinces met, and was called Uis Neach ; and here
the first sacred fire had been lighted. On this hill stood their Phallic

stone* Ail-na miream, that is ” The stone of the Parts.” The
Arran Islanders have still a black stone they take out now and
again and worship, especially during storms, as they are fishermen.

Finally* we find serpent worship, Virgin worship, and all Phallic
emblems all over the Malay Peninsula and in Central America*
Mexico, Peru, etc., showing the cult to be universal, but I have
given sufficient for my purpose, which is to illustrate the effect of
the great nations in building up the ideas embodied in the practice
of the Jews, as described in the Old Testament.

These practices were entirely Phallic, but are sometimes so
disguised by euphemism* and deliberate alteration of texts caused
by Milton’s ” insulse rule ” (p. 41) that, without the knowledge of
the practices of other surrounding nations from which the Jews
got their religious idea* we should have great difficulty in making
any sense out of the involved and contradictory text of the Holy
Writ.
 CHAPTER IV

SUN WORSHIP.

The worship of the Sun and all the heavenly host, gradually
absorbed, and sometimes replaced, the Phallic worship—not,
perhaps, in the affections of the people, but, as the priestly and
official religion of the great countries.

We have only to look at our naming of the days of the week,
and to the fact that we worship our God on Sunday, the day of the
Sun. God’s day is the Sun’s day. The days are named from Sun,
Moon, and Planets.

But so completely did astronomic mythology govern chronology,
that not only were the days named from the host of heaven, but
the hours also.

In Egypt, as in Babylon, the order of the heavenly bodies began
with the most remote, and followed the order: Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Each hour of the
twenty-four was consecrated to one of the heavenly bodies. The
first hour being that of Saturn, it follows that the eighth, fifteenth,
and twenty-second hours would also be Saturn’s. Then the
twenty-third would fall to Jupiter, the twenty-fourth to Mars, and
the first hour of the second day would fall to the Sun. In this
way the first hour of the third day would fall to the Moon, the first
of the fourth day to Mars, of the fifth to Mercury, of the sixth to
Jupiter, and of the seventh to Venus, our Friday.

The cycle having been completed, the first hour of the eighth
day would return to Saturn, and so begin a new week. Thus was
our present rotation of god names said to have been created. The
week was thus fixed at seven days, but whether or not, this was
the first method of reckoning it, is not known. No doubt the
quarters of the moon*gave the week roughly; then the .five planets
smd sun and moon fixed the seven days and possibly the above
complicated system was only inaugurated later, as the ancients
were always searching for *' cycles/*
 CHRISTIANITY

105

The day of the worship of the principal god, generally the Sun,
lias, at one time or another, occupied a position in every day of the
week.

Sunday by   the   Christian.
Monday ,,   ft   Greeks.
Tuesday ,,   t *   Persians.
Wednesday   s t   Assyrians.
Thursday „   I*   Egyptians.
Friday ,,   1 9   Turks.
Saturday ,,   99   Jews.

The English names are derived from those of the Saxon gods.

The Saxons derived their week from the Babylonians, whose
mythology over-ran all Europe, but they substituted the native
names of their gods or heavenly host for those of the Babylonians.
The Latin names, founded on the Babylonian, are still used in Justi-
ciary Acts in Britain, and are still quite legal.

LATIN.   ENGLISH.   SAXON.   
Diet Solis   Sunday   Sun's day   
„ Lunae   Monday   Moon's „   
,, Marti*   Tuesday   Tiw’s # „   God of War, Mars.
,, Mercurii   Wednesday   Woden's ,,   Messenger of the Gods, Mercury.
i. Jovis   Thursday   Thor's „   God of Thunder, Jupiter.
,, Veneris   Friday   Frigga's „   Goddess of Beauty, Venus, Frcya. Father of the Gods, Ancient of Days.
„ Saturni   Saturday   Setern's ,,   

Jn countries where the Roman Catholic Church rules, the
prelates have managed to get the pagan Sun’s day renamed. The
day of the Sun was fixed as a day of rest for Christendom, by the
Code of Justinian, about 530 A.D., where it is laid down:—“ Let
all the people rest, and all the various trades be suspended, on the
venerable day of the Sun.” The Roman Church finally changed
the Christian Holy Day from Saturday to Sunday.

At what date the Church managed to oust the Sun and intro-
duce ” Dies Dominicus,” the Lord’s Day, I have not been able
to ascertain, but probably it was a gradual process, the priests
using the ” Lord’s day ” term (as they all do in Britain now) until it
titered down to the people. The change won no favour amongst
 106

CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

the people in Britain, but to the Latin peoples the alteration was
not so great, as the Sun is, after all. Lord, or Dominicus, of the
heavens. How completely the Church has done its work is shown
by the following:—

English. French & Belgian. Italian. Spanish. Portuguese. Roumanian.

Sunday   Dimanch (Dies dom- inicus) Lundi (Moon)   Domenica   Domingo   Domingo   1st Dominica
Monday      Lunedi   Lunes   Segundo   2nd Luni
Tuesday   Mardi (Mars) Mercredi (Mercury)   Martedi   Martes   Terca   3rd Marti
Wednesday      Meicoledi   Miercoles   Quatra  Quinta  Sesta   4th Miercuri
Thursday   Yeudi (Jupiter) Vendredi (Venus)   Giovedi   Yueves      5th Yoi 6th Vineri
Friday      Venerdi   Viernes      
Saturday   Samedi (Saturn or Sabbatto)   Sabato   Sabado   Subado   7th Sambata

Here the Sun is blotted out, as all these nations had their Sun’s
day before the interference of the Church. It should be noticed
also that they have all kept the old Babylonian Sabato, Saturn’s
day, Sabbath, or “ day of no work.” Although Christianity, in
order to kill paganism, changed the day from that of the venerable
Saturn to their new ” Lord,” the Sun, many nations still considered
the old Saturday, or Sabato, sacred, and it was held as a ” half-
holiday,” in semi-recognition of its holy character.

In Scotland the ” rigidly righteous ” looked askance at any one
who in my young days said “Sunday.” They felt there was a
pagan taint about the idea of worshipping God on the Sun’s day.
In austerity of sentiment, however, the Scotch were more allied to
the Jews than to the Christians, so there was a struggle as to how
Sunday should be named.

Some people, especially the ” Highland Host,” spoke with
bated breath of the “Sabbath,” while the Lowland parsons and
“evangelical” churchmen hung out the “Lord’s day” banner.
Happily, neither gained the victory, and we can still take our rest
and recreation on the day of the glorious Sun. The Saxon nations
refused to accept the Roman gods, as witness the English, German,
and other Northern nations.

English.   German.   Dano-  Norwegian.
Sunday   Sountag Sun   Sondag
Monday  Tuesday  Wednesday  Thursday  Friday  Saturday   Montag * Moon Dienstag Serve Mittwocn Mid-week Donnerstag Thunder Freitag Freia Samstag Saturn   Mandag  Tisdag  Onadag  Tovsdag  Frida*  L&rdag

Dutch. Magyar or Hungarian

Zondag   Vasarnap Sun's day

or market
of Sun

Maandag Hetfo
Dinsdag Kedd
Woensoag Szerda Middle
Donnerdag Caotorok
. Vrijdag   Pentek

Zaterdag Szombat
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

107

Here we see the Sun ruling die week, and it is the Holy day.
The Germans leave out the war god's name, but, practical as ever,
they call it ** Service ’* day. We know what being in the “ Service "
means. The use of Sonnabend (Sun Eve) for Saturday, like our
Christmas Eve, shows that the Germans held their Sun as sacred
as we do our Christ.

The Dano-Norwegian Saxons show traces of their ancient
worship of Saturn by calling his day Baptism day.

The Magyar shows a flavour of Turkish in the word market in
Sunday.

The Greeks follow the Babylonian nomenclature for all the
days, except Sunday, when they substitute their Kurios, Sun or
Spirit, for the Sun. This is the word used in the New Testament,
and translated Lord or God in our Bible, so, with the early Christians,
Sun and God were the same. The Armenians follow both Greek
and Turkish methods.

   CREEK.      ARMENIAN.
Sunday   Kuriake      Kurake Sun
Monday   Selene   (Moon)   Second day  of week Here they follow the Greek
Tuesday   Are*   War   Third day .. .. Turks.
Wednesday   Hermes   Mercury   Fourth ii M ii ii
Thursday   Zeus   Jupiter   Fifth i» •• ii m ti
Friday   Aphrodite   Venus   Urpat .. •» .. .1
Saturday   Sabbaton   Saturn   Shapat from Sa batum.

Here, again, we see Babylonian influence, as Urpat, Friday, of
which the etymology is unknown, is also called by the Armenians
“ Shapatamad,” preparation for the Sabbath. This shows that
their Holy day was, in early times, the Babylonian Sabbath, our
Saturday.

There are two nations which have a very disturbed nomen-
clature, and these are Russia and Poland. They seem to have
started with the usual Babylonian nomenclature, for they both
retain die Sabbath, or Day of Rest, day, called here *' no work ’*
day. Long before Christianity, the Sun began to replace Saturn
as the principal deity, and the Sun’s day became the Holy day and
the first day of the week. It was at first called Nedelya, or " no
work ” day, in die native tongue, so they had two names as days
of rest, Saturday and Sunday. As I have pointed out, this is dimly
reflected in Scotland and elsewhere with its half-holiday Saturday
and “ no work.” Sunday. This, however, did not satisfy the
Russian Popes, whose religion lays more stress on the Resurrection
 106

CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES

of Jesus than on His Divine birth, so they changed their Sunday
to Resurrection day, as here shown

English.  Sunday   Russian.  Vosseressenye Resurrection      Polish.  Niedziela   Not doing or do
Monday   Ponedelnik   Day  Day after   Poniedzialek   nothing day Day after not
Tuesday   Vtornik   Nedelia or after ** no^ work day." Second day Middle of   Wtorek   doing day Second
Wednesday   Sreda      Sroda   Middle
Thursday   Tchetverg   week) Fourth day   Czwartek   Fourth
Friday   Piatnitsa   Fifth day   Piatek   Fifth
Saturday   Subbotta   Sabbath   Sobota   Sabbath

The Monday name still shows the old name of Sunday, but
the striking point is that the Romans, with all their force, never
got Dies Saturnii accepted in place of the Babylonian Sabato, even
in the most Romanised countries. In Russia, the Resurrection idea
comes out strongly at Easter, where everyone is greeted on Easter
Sunday with 44 Christ is risen,4’ and replies, “ Christ is risen indeed.”
Hence, Resurrection Day.

The fury of Mahomet swept away the old day-names from the
Arabic, Persian, and Turkish nations, and all the poetry of their
nomenclature has disappeared. They are mere lists.

English.

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Arabic.
First day

Second ,,

Third M
Fourth ,,
Fifth „
Juma(h)

Sebt (Sabbat)

Persian.
Yekshambih or
Day one
two

„ three
M four
,, five

iuma(h)

so Adma Venus's
day

Shamba or Shambi
(Sabbat)

Turkish.

Market day

The day after Market
day
Sale

The day j°U'penUn
m t» nve
Juma(h) Day of

gathering

The day after
Juma(h)

The week in these tongues is Usbu (Arabic), Hefte (Persian), and
Hafta (Turkish), all meaning a period of seven days.

The one fact which stands out prominently is the wonderful
influence of the old Babylonian Sabbath, which remains in every
language of importance, except the severely Mohammedan Turkish.
But they still retain the Indian Friday, Juma or Venus.

When we go to the East, to the great Empire of India, we find
the sun still triurnphant. The day names are as follows:—

English.   Indian.

Sunday   Ravi (Sun)

Rabi-bar

Yak-Shamba (Sun)

Hindustani.   Sanskrit.

Aditya (Sun) or   Like Roman

Aitwar, or Ithar, God of Sun
from Adit, sun,
and bar, day
 OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM

109

English.  Monday   Indian.   Hin dustani.   Sanskrit
   Soma (Moon) Som-bar   Pir, Indu-bar Chandar-bar   Moon
Tuesday   Mangala (Mars)   Mangal   Mars
Wednesday   Budha   Budh-(bar)   Mercury  Tupiter
Thursday   Vrihaspati  Suka-(bar)   Juma(h)rat   
Friday      Juma(h)war Shamba or Yauma-s-sabt, or   Venus
Saturday   Sani-bar   Sanichar   Saturn

Bar, Var, or War, mean day, and may be added to or omitted
from the name of the day. Each day has three or four vernacular
names, for instance, Saturday has Sanichar, Sanibar, Yauma-s-saht,
Shamba, Bar (day), Hafta (week), and Awwal-i-Hafta.

Going still further East we find the Chinese and Japanese still
staunch sun-worshippers.

English.

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Chinese.

Sing—Sun or Star
Yuek—Moon
Hwo—Fire
Shui—Water
Muh—Plant
Kin—Metal
Tu—Mineral

Japanese.

Nichiyo-~Sun
Getsuyou—Moon
Kayo—-Fire
Suiyo—Water
Mokuyo—Tree
Kinyo—Metal
Doyo—Earth

A glimpse of the adoption of Saturn's day as the Holy day in
the East is obtained in the account of the creation of life in the
Hindu legends.

Life was brought forth by Siva by a great churning of the White
Sea. It was churned for 10,784 days, 12 hours, and 18 minutes,
the time of revolution of Saturn, as computed, perhaps, 10,000
years ago, as against 10,759 as computed by modern astronomers,—
a fair approximation.

But Saturn's period may have shortened since the Hindus fixed
their legend.

Saturn's day was, therefore, the day rendered holy by the bring-
ing forth of life, as Saturn was the father of the gods, and it spread
westward, from India, the world's religious mother.

The death of Saturn, on Thursday, Thor's, or Jupiter, the King
of the gods' day, and his resurrection on Saturday, Saturn's day, is
still celebrated, in the name of Jesus, in Holy Week at Rome (see
p. 333).

The Babylonians carried out this worship of the host of heaven
in the construction of their temples of seven stories, each story being
dedicated to a planet or sun or moon, and coloured the sacred
colour of this heavenly body. The Chinese continue this worship
to the present day (pp. 129, 352).
 HO

83

zeal would crush us? and by this inspiration the tyrants
of the provinces hold their evil rule.” 9

We ask, do the professed Christians of the present day
copy, in the Eucharist, this ancient Homa usage? It
was in the world as a thanksgiving feast, long centuries
before the Lord’s Supper was instituted. Did Jesus and
his followers copy this old Aryan custom?

9   Yasma, 48:10. The Karpans or Kavi, we have seen,
were unbelievers in Zoroaster’s gospel. They were his
bitter enemies all his life; and one of them finally slew
him. Dinkard, B. 8, ch. 35, note 3.
 CHAPTER VIII.

VISTASPA—ZOROASTER IN PRISON.

§ i. As we shall hereafter see Vistaspa’s name fre-
quently mentioned in connection with Zoroaster’s, it may
be well to here notice some of the foolish legends con-
cerning him. In the Persian Bible, Vistaspa is frequently
called a king; but he was not a king of any noted prov-
ince or realm. He was at most only a petty chief, or king
of a small tribe or clan. This is all that can be rightly
claimed for him; and even this rests upon sandy founda-
tions, unless we believe Lactantius, who makes him an
ancient king of Media, centuries before the founding of
Rome.

Persian history does not mention him. Median history
is silent about him; and it is only the colossal figure of
Zoroaster that rescues him from oblivion.

Now, if we allow that the Prophet’s time was coeval
with the Rig-Veda, we must place Vistaspa and Frashos-
tra, and others mentioned in the Gathas there also. If
Vistaspa lived in Seistan, down on the borders of Af-
ghanistan, or at Bactria or Media, then Frashostra, and
Gamaspa, and the Prophet were there also.

Tradition tells us that when the Prophet presented
himself at the court of Vistaspa, he encountered every
possible kind of opposition. First, he had a long debate,
lasting two or three days, with the most learned of the
realm, about his new religion. They propounded thirty-

84
 STILL IN PRISON

85

three questions to him; and he, having come off vic-
torious, his antagonists scheme and plot against him until
he is thrown into prison and left to starve. This part of
the story has many duplicates and counterparts, even
down to a late period; for innovators, upon old creeds
and beliefs, have always found the Karpans and Tetzels
arrayed against them. The seer had now been at Vis-
taspa’s court two years; laboring zealously for his con-
version, but evil influences had overborne him vastly.
He was condemned and in prison, for righteousness’ sake.
But no angel came at night, as in Peter’s case,1 to loose
his bands and lead him forth. Even Vohu-Mano seems
to have neglected him. His sufferings in prison, in heavy
fetters, and from starvation, are so great that his hearing
grows dull, his vision becomes impaired, his legs refuse
to bear up his wasted body, he is so tortured with hunger
and thirst that he is ready to collapse.1 2

It would look as though the end were not far off; but
now comes a miracle by which he is released. Vistaspa
owns a beautiful horse, whose legs, at this time, are so
drawn up to his body that it is impossible for him to
move. In some way the Prophet, in his cell, learns of
this and sends word to the King that he will, on four
certain conditions, restore his charger. The King, anx-
ious about his favorite, inquires the terms, which are:
that one fore-leg will be released, if he will accept the
new faith. This agreed to, Zoroaster fervently prays for
the restoration of the horse, and the fore-leg immediately
comes down. The next stipulation is that Isfander, the

1   Acts, 12.

2   Dinkard 7, ch. 4, § 67.
 86

RELEASED—SUPPOSED MIRACLE

King’s son, shall do battle for the new religion. This
agreed to, one of the hind legs is healed. For another
leg, the prisoner stipulates the conversion of Hutaosa, the
Queen. Lastly, the Prophet demands the names of his
false accusers, and that they be punished; which, being
done, the horse is instantly restored.

This story, which may be one for casuists to consider,
and probably reject, hath, at least, as much semblance of
truth about it as that concerning Peter, when he was
escaping from prison; that the gates thereof “opened of
their own accord” and let him out.3 Either the imagina-
tions of the poets, who detailed these adventures, had
much to do with the escapes of Peter and Zoroaster, or
angels, truly, must have assisted them. The reader,
learned or unlearned, will have no difficulty in deciding.

§ 2. Immediately after Zoroaster’s release from pris-
on, we are told, that Mazda, the Lord, sent three Arch-
angels, Vohuman, Asha-Vahista and Burzhim-Mitro (the
angel of fire) to Vistapa to encourage him, or as it were,
to brace him up in the new faith. The radiance or efful-
gence of these angels is so astounding that the king and
all his court are shaken with fear. Seeing his trepida-
tion, Burzhim-Mitro bespoke his assurance that the an-
gelic envoys were not sent to do him ill; but to promise
him a long life and a prosperous reign on condition that
he shall push forward the faith preached by Zoroaster.
“But,” added the angel, “thou must chant the Ahunavair;
thou must not worship demons; thy reliance must be
upon the new religion. We promise thee an immortal

3   Acts,12, io.
 ANGELS' VISITS

87

son, Peshyton, who shall be hungerless and thirstless;
predominant both here, and with the Spirits. We will
give unto thee a long sovereignty of one hundred and fifty
years. But if thou wilt not praise the good and pure
religion, of the righteous Zaratust, we will not convey
thee up on high. Vultures will devour thy body; the
earth shall drink thy blood.”

Now, these angels either finding that the prince spread
an elaborate table, or that he must be further admonished,
conclude to take up their abode with him.4

Ormazd, knowing that this acceptance of the religion,
by Vistaspa, will provoke an invasion of his realm by
Arjasp, and the Khyons, sends the angel Neryosang to
draw aside the veil of the future, and allow the prince to
catch a glimpse of his own glory and the discomfiture of
his enemies. This oriental picture is not yet complete.
Marzda sends Asha Vahista, the foremost angel in holi-
ness, who bears a most beautiful saucer, the finest that
can be made for royalty, and this is filled with a magical
nectar, fit for the Gods, which Vistaspa quaffs. His vis-
ion thereby is instantly so amplified that he is enabled to
see the rapturous spot set apart for him in Paradise.
Nor are his family and court overlooked. They are either
endowed with universal wisdom or they are made in-
vulnerable to the assaults of their enemies.

§ 3. One of these pledges, we know, did not come
true; for Isfander, Vistasps’ son, at this princely and
angelic gathering, sought to have his body made invulner-
able to the shafts of the enemy, that he might do battle

4   Dinkard 8, 11, 3. Dk. 7, 4, 76 to 86.
 88

DEFICIENT CHRONOLOGY

more effectively for the new religion. For that purpose
he was given a drink of Pomegranate. But the angelic
promise, and the Pomegranate, both failed him in dire
time of need; for he was afterward slain, as we shall see,
while doing valiant battle for the new religion, which he
had so heartily espoused.

If asked the dates of these supposed angelic visits, I
am totally unable to make answer. For the Avesta, and
in fact all ancient Iranian writings, are lamentably defi-
cient in chronology. It is difficult to account for this,
except on the theory that the people of Iran were, as were
the authors of Veda, deficient in their organs of eventual-
ity.5 Or it may have been that no great event or epoch
in their history furnished a starting point from which to
date their records. In fact, the ancient Persians kept no
dates; even their Holy Book, the Avesta, their Bible, is
silent as to when and where it was composed. Nor does
it mention the birthplace of Zoroaster, its great and
world-famous apostle.

The Jews, more considerate of Abraham, their own

5   The Rig-Veda is an old record, having an established
antiquity of 4,100 to 4,300 years, and perhaps even be-
yond that. It is, in short, the Hindu Bible. The word
Veda means knowledge, and the Hindus claim that their
prophets, or seers, heard (Sruti) the words there written
as uttered by Brahma (their God). It dates back beyond
the flood. In fact, when Noah was gathering the animals
into the Ark ( ?), the Hindu priests were composing their
Bible. The Hindus being a religious people, there was
no occasion to drown them; for they were worshipping
God the best they knew. The flood, therefore, did not
reach India, nor did it touch Egypt.
 LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF ZOROASTER

89

first great teacher, tell us of his birthplace; they mention
his ancestry, and they follow him with considerable par-
ticularity from Ur of the Chaldees, to the closing scene
in the field of Ephron. Zoroaster was not so fortunate,
hence the interminable disputes, as to when and whence
he came.
 CHAPTER IX.

ZOROASTER READS THE AVESTA TO VISTASPA. SOSHYANS TO
BE BORN OF A VIRGIN, AND TO BRING ON THE RESSUR-
RECTION OF THE DEAD. THE FOOD OF THE RESURRECTED.

§ i. In the preceding chapter many marvelous and
questionable things are related about the conversion of
Vistasp. But, shall we call it marvelous, if Persian rec-
ords mention Zoroaster in the same manner that the
Pentateuch speaks of Moses? Now, the Persians say
that God taught their Holy Book, the Avesta, to their
Prophet. They insist that God said to Zoroaster: “Go
and read to Vistasp this Sacred Book, that he may come
unto the faith. Keep all my counsel, and repeat it word
by word to him.”

In obedience to this command Zoroaster went to the
court of Vistasp, where he called down a blessing upon
him. He said: “I bless thee, O, Man ! Lord of the coun-
try, I pray thee to live a good life, an exalted life, that
thou mayest live long. May sons be bom unto thee!
Mayest thou have a son as wise as Gamaspa;1 may he
bless thee! Mayest thou be glorious and strong, like
Keresaspa, wise without fault; rich in cattle, and rich in
horses. Mayest thou be holy, beloved by Mazda, and
reverenced by men. Mayest thou follow the law of truth,

1   Gamaspa was Prime Minister, and had early em-
braced the new religion.

90
 HEAVEN PROMISED

91

conquer thy foes, have fulness of welfare, and be freed
from death, like King Khosrav, who went alive into the
blissful abode of the Holy Ones.” 2

The Prophet then read to him the Avesta, and said:
“Learn its truths, and walk therein. If thy desire is
towards its laws, thy abode shall be in the Paradise of
heaven. But if thou turnest away from its command-
ments, thou wilt bring down thy crowned head to the dust.
God will be displeased with thee, and thou wilt surely be
overthrown, and at the last thou shalt descend into hell.
Listen, then, O King, to the counsel of the Almighty.” 3
Thereupon, Zoroaster offered up a sacrifice by the river
Daitu, with Homa and meat, and baresma4 and liba-
tions; and “with words rightly spoken,” that he might
bring the Kavi (King) Vistaspa to think and speak and

2   King Khosrav, like Enoch and Elijah, got into heaven
without dying. Three very fortunate ones. But, did
they? If so, then we take our bodies to heaven.

3   Vol. 23, S. B. E., Vistasp-Yast.

4   The Baresma ceremony of purification, when a man
or woman had become unclean, through contact with
the dead, or other defilement, differs, somewhat, from
the purification ceremony in Leviticus; but the object is
the same. The Persian priest cut a handful of twigs,
from a dry clean part of the earth, and while holding
them in his hand, recited parts of the liturgy; during
which he washed the twigs and tied them together with
the Kusti or girdle. The unclean person was then
sprinkled on the head and jaws; then the right ear, then
the left, etc. It was a silly ceremony, and on a par with
the foolish cleanings in Leviticus. There the tip of the
right ear was touched with the blood of the slain lamb
(Leviticus, ch. 14) ; then the thumb of the right hand;
 92

ZOROASTER, A MAN OF SORROWS

act according to the law of the Lord.5 He offered a
similar sacrifice for the conversion of Hutaosa, Vistasp’s
queen, and prayed that she might spread the Holy Maz-
dean law throughout all the world. These sacrifices
were most probably offered before Zoroaster visited
Vistaspa; or about the time he set out on that dangerous
and trying mission. One thing is certain; that he faced
a long and arduous struggle in establishing his creed.

We have seen that he encountered such fierce opposi-
tion, that it was ten years before he secured Medyomah,
his cousin, as a follower. One convert in ten years was
surely a severe test of his courage, his zeal, and his
patience. That he was a “Man of sorrows and acquaint-
ed with grief,” none who will ponder his words, will
dispute. Listen to his mournful plaint. It is the voice
of one crying in the wilderness:   “To what land shall

I   turn? aye, turning, whither shall I go? On the part of
kinsman, prince or peer6 none to give offerings; none
to help my cause; nor yet the throngs of labor; still less
the evil tyrants of the provinces. How, then, O Lord,
shall I establish the faith? My following is scant, there-
fore, I cry unto Thee, O Lord, desiring helpful grace.

then the great toe of the right foot But the Jewish
priest got a dinner from the meat offering (Leviticus,
ch. X, 12). Which of these foolish ceremonies preceded
the other? Will the reader answer?

5   Was the river Daitu in Bactria ? If so, it helps to
fix the birthplace of the prophet. Abah-Yast, § 105;
Gos-Yast, § 25; S. B. E., Vol. 23.

6   He had married Frashostra’s daughter, and Fra-
shostra was a peer of the realm; but had not yet em-
braced the faith.
 SONS TO BE BORN OF VIRGINS

93

When is the Savior, Soshyans, with his lofty revelations,
and plans for the renovation of the universe, to appear ?”
These are words of gloom and waning hope; but in a
moment the spirit of resistance comes; for the Prophet
was a man of courage, and did not scruple to use force,
to overthrow or destroy those hostile to him. He lived
in perilous and warfare times. The authorities were
against him and his creeds; and he exclaims: '"Whoever
will hurl the evil governor from power or from life,
makes for the general good.”

§ 2. As to this Soshyans, mentioned above, a word
must be said. According to the later Avesta, the Din-
kard, the Bundahis, Zad-Sparam and other works; Husa-
dar, Husadar-Mah, and Soshans, are three unborn sons
of Zoroaster; and a myriad of angels are protecting his
seed. Wonderful fictions are told of what these sons are
to do and perform. They are to be born of virgins; and
Husedar and Husedar-mah are to appear at different
times, or millenniums, to renovate and restore the earth.
But in the fullness of time, Soshans is to appear. He
will be born of a virgin, the same as Jesus. Her name
is Eredat-Fedhri.7 She bathes in the sea of Zara, in
Seistan, conceives, and Soshans is born.

“He will make glad the whole world. He will be called
Astvat-Erata; for he will make bodily creature rise up.
He will restore the world, which will, thereafter, never
grow old and never die, but ever increasing. Creation
shall grow deathless; the Drug (the devil), though he
may rush on every side to kill the holy beings, yet he

7   Yast 13, § 62, and note 2.
 94

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

and his evil brood shall perish. It is the will of the
Lord.” 8

§ 3. The resurrection of the dead is of such stupen-
dous importance that it eclipses all other questions. It
demands, therefore, from every one the most serious con-
sideration.

Zoroaster taught that all good thoughts, good words
and deeds, will reach Paradise;9 that all evil thoughts,
words and deeds drag the soul toward the abode of the
demons. And he prayed: “O Mazda! Most beneficent
Spirit! Maker of the Universe! How shall I free the
world from the Drug, that evil doer? How shall I drive
away defilement? And the answer came: “Invoke my
Fravashi (Spirit), whose soul is the Holy Word.” 10 11

The final happiness of the just, and the discomfiture
of the wicked, is repeated again and again, all through
Zoroaster’s writings; but he does not, in direct and un-
equivocal language, teach the resurrection of the body.
That senseless and fallacious doctrine is a plant of later
growth. But the resurrection of the body is plainly and
distinctly taught by later Persian priests. “The dead,”
they say, “shall rise up, and life shall come to the bodies;
and they shall keep the breath.” All the bodily world
shall become free from old age and death, from corrup-
tion and rot, forever and forever.11 Soshans, by order
of Ormazd, will give to every man the reward and
recompense of his deeds.12

8   Farvadin Yast, § 129, S. B. E., Vol. 23, p. 220; Zam-
yad Yt., § 89.

9   Westengard fragments, p. 247, Vol. 4, S. B. E.

10   Vend. Fargard, 19, §§37 and 38.

11   Zend, fragments, p. 253, Vend.

12   Bund., ch. 30, § 27

64

HIS FAITH TESTED

abdomen, in a vital part, with a knife, so that the blood
gushed forth; but the supposed mortal wound was in-
stantly healed by rubbing the hand lightly over it.

Shall we inquire whether these startling, marvelous
and incredible statements precede, or are they faint re-
flections from those other marvelous sayings in the book
of Daniel (ch. 3) where Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-
nego are bound, in their coats and hats, and flung into a
fiery furnace, heated seven times hotter than it was wont
to be heated? And, did those three persons really come
forth from that furnace with not a hair of their heads
singed, or their garments burned?

Respecting these extreme tests mentioned in the Iranian
scriptures I will add that they are set forth to prove that
the religion of Ormazd is the true one. So, also, was the
furnace-story of Meshach written to prove that the God
of the Hebrews was the only true God. For the same
reason St. Mark (ch. 16) states that a believer in Jesus
may drink any deadly thing, and he shall not be harmed.3

The careful reader will at once detect contradictions in
this Iranian legend; for let it be borne in mind that
Vohumano told Zoroaster to lay aside his body4 so that
he might confer with the Lord. While at that conference
the angels tested the Prophet by pouring hot metal on his
chest, and by wounding him with a knife, until the blood
gushed forth. That writer overlooked the fact that a
disembodied spirit hath neither flesh nor blood.

3   But the test in Mark seems never to have been made.
It is too dangerous to be attempted.

4   The Dinkard says, Vol. 47, S. B. E., p. 49. Deposit
this one garment, meaning the body, the vesture of the
soul.
 A VISION OF ANGELS

65*

Of course, no sane mind will believe that Zoroaster
actually obtained a personal audience with Ormazd, and
received by word of mouth from him directions and in-
structions as to establishing his religion. Did he, like St.
John on the Isle of Patmos, in the spirit see these mar-
vels above mentioned? St. John says he saw a throne,
and one that sat thereon; and he saw four and twenty
seats, and four and twenty elders, clothed in white, sit-
ting upon those seats. He saw, also, seven angels. Now
the Iranian Bible has seven amshaspands (angels). Per-
haps St. John saw the amshaspands themselves.

§ 3. The earlier Gathas, those believed to have been
actually composed by the Prophet, do not go to the ex-
travagant length of St. John in Patmos, or the writers
of the Dinkard. Those Gathas are exhortations and
prayers, in meter, repeated again and again, of a strug-
gling Saint, who seeks to know how he may approach the
Good Mind more devoutly. And the nearest approach to a
conference found in them is where the Prophet speaks of
the Herald sent to him by Ormazd, and the Herald asks
what he most desires?5 But if we turn our backs upon
the Dinkard, the Bundahis, Zad-Sparam, and other like
records, we shall have an imperfect picture of early Ira-
nian times, and perhaps of the Prophet himself. If we
take the middle ground between an actual conference with
Ormazd, and a vision, or trance, whereby the mind sees,
or seems to see, objects intangible and invisible to the
natural eye, we may well suppose that the Prophet’s

5   Yasna, 43, § 9.
 TUR, THE SCANTY GIVER

elysian of joy came to an abrupt end when his enraptured
soul returned to his body. For he found that the real
battle of life was now to begin.

He was, it must be remembered, thirty years of age,
and with great earnestness 6 he began inviting all man-
kind to the religion of Ormazd. His methods are aggres-
sive; and he boldly announces that he declares doctrines
‘'till then unheard7 and he prays for a “Mighty King-
dom, by whose force he may smite the Lie-demon.” He
called unto all the world to extol righteousness, and to
resist the demons. The demons here mentioned are the
Kigs and Karpans, unbelievers and heretics. But when
he invited them and the nobles of the realm to the reli-
gion of Ormazd, they clamored for his death.

But Tur, called the scanty giver, the ruler of the Prov-
ince, would not allow the Prophet to be harmed; though
neither the “scanty-giver” nor any of his nobles or follow-
ers would lend an ear to the hew religion.

Zoroaster, in rebuke of his treatment, exclaims on go-
ing forth: “I tell thee, thou Tur, and scanty-giver, that
thou art a stricken and smitten supplicant for righteous-
ness ; a producer of lamentation, worthy of death.” 8

§ 4. He had made the mistake of commencing the ref-
ormation of the Iranian religion, by preaching to princes
and nobles; they spurned him and thrust him out. Jesus,
walking by the sea of Galilee, and seeing two fishermen,
Simon and Andrew, casting their nets, said:   “Follow

me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And straight-

6   “With a loud voice.” Dink., 7, ch. 4, § 2.

7   Yasma, 31, § § 1 and 4.

8   Dinkard, 7, ch. 4, § 20.
 HIS FIRST CONVERTS ARE THE POOR

67

way they followed him. The common people, the poor
and the humble are the first to embrace any new-born
faith. The nobles and the rich patrician Jews held to
Saduceeism long after the masses had changed their faith
and become Pharisees. Methodism started in an obscure
corner, neither princes nor plutocrats were there. It was
born among the poor.

Patrician Romans persistently clung to Paganism gen-
erations after the lower classes had become Catholic.
Luther, on foot, and on his way to Augsberg to combat
Tetzel, and his indulgences, and later leaving by stealth
to escape capture and imprisonment, is but a picture
made some thousands of years later of Zoroaster escap-
ing with his life from Tur, the scanty-giver. From Tur,
the Prophet trudges wearily towards Vadevost, a rich old
Karap, who clings to his wealth with all the tenacity of a
Morgan or a Rockefeller. Vadevost is living in luxurious
splendor, and is the owner of vast herds of cattle and
horses. Slaves come and go at his bidding; streams of
wealth, from various sources, are pouring in upon him.
His rent roll is no doubt large. He is the prototype of
the Goulds and the Vanderbilts, of a later period. Zar-
tust asks a gift of some of this wealth for Ormazd; and
promises Vadevost further splendor and glory if he com-
plies. With the arrogance of a newly-fledged American
Nabob the Karap shouted back, “there is no opulence
for me in that. Besides my flocks and herds I have
many droves of a thousand swine;9 I am more opulent
than Ormazd himself.” For this insolence a retribution,

9   He would, to-day, say “there is no money in that.,,
Vol. 47, S. B. E., ch. 4, §§ 24 and 25.
 68

KARP AN S WOULD DESTROY HIM

which was to be meted to him after death, was pro-
nounced against him, and he was left for the present with
his vanity and his riches.

Thence Zoroaster journeyed to Seistan, on the borders
of Afghanistan, and presented himself before Parshad,
another provincial chief, and besought him to praise
righteousness and resist the demons. To this he con-
sented, but by no insistence would he accept the religion
of Mazda. Here, again, the Karpans sought the Prophet’s
destruction, but he saved himself by chanting the Ahun-
avair.10

10   Yatha-ahuna Vairyo (Ahunavair), “The will of the
Lord is the law of righteousness. The gifts of Vohu-
Mano, to the deeds done in the world for Mazda, etc.”
This prayer was thought to possess great efficiency in
thwarting evil-doers.
 CHAPTER VI.

MORE VISIONS, CONFERENCES AND TEMPTATIONS.

All religions deal in the marvelous. It is a marvel if
God talked to Moses and Abraham. It is marvelous that
the Angels ate Abraham’s calf.1 It is amazing if Elijah
could smite the waters of Jordan with his mantle and
compel them to roll back hither and thither, so that he
could pass. It is a marvel that Jesus could walk upon
the waters, and another marvel that after his crucifixion
his body could rise up into the sky; that is, if it did ?

It is as great a marvel that Zoroaster talked with Or-
mazd as that Adam and Moses and Abraham talked with
God. But preternatural things and preternatural beings
make up the volume of all religions. Now, if we brush
these all aside, do we not make a great rent in the world ?
If angels really did appear, and lend a helping hand to
the Hebrews, is there any reason why they should with-
hold their good offices from Zoroaster and his people?
It would seem that the Karpans and heretics of Iran
needed reformation, as well as the idolatrous Jews. The
Iranian Scriptures tell us that Zoroaster had six other

1   They not only ate his calf, but they ate his milk and
butter. Gen., ch. 18, v. 7 and 8. The angels did not
come away without their dinner, for it was in the heat of
the day when Abraham sat in his tent; so it must have
been noon when they approached him.

69
 70

ANGELS DIRECT HIM

conferences with the angels, besides the one already men-
tioned. The first was with Vohumano, who instructed
him as to the care and protection of animals. The next
conference was with the angel Asha-Vahista, who en-
joined him to guard the sacred fires and places of wor-
ship. Then came the angel Shatvar, who directed him as
to the preservation of metals, that he might have domin-
ion over them. Spendarmad, the female Archangel, who
is also called “Bountiful Devotion” and has charge of
the earth, and virtuous women, advised him as to their
care.

In the sixth conference, the Spirits of the Seas and
Rivers came to instruct him. Lastly, the Spirits of Plants
came to him and told him of their care.

These several conferences were held when the Prophet
was between thirty and forty years of age. They ended
when he was forty, and the places of meeting, of the
last ones, were near the southern extremity of the Cas-
pian.2

These archangels admonished and warned Zoroaster
that the idolaters, the Kavi, Karpans, and skeptics, deaf
and blind to the truths he was about to proclaim, would
beset his path, and that at every turn the demons would
seek his ruin. But the angels gave him assurance that
whenever the demons made their assaults he could in-
stantly shatter their schemes and put them to flight by
chanting aloud the Ahunavair.3

2   The Daraga river is mentioned, but the locality of
that stream is uncertain.

3   See note at foot of preceding chapter.
 REFORMS ALWAYS OPPOSED

71

§ 2. People to-day, and all along the centuries, as to
their religion, are, and have been, very much like the
Kavis and Karpans in that far-off period. Any innova-
tion upon established methods was objected to and was
fought to the bitter end. Luther met a similar opposi-
tion. Jesus undertook a great reform, and was nailed
to a tree. Wyckliffe (B. 1320 A. D.), for preaching and
teaching ecclesiastical reforms, died before he could be
executed. But after he had lain in his grave thirty years
a Catholic council ordered his bones dug up and burned.
John Huss, the great Bohemian reformer, for the same
reason, as late as 1415 A. D., was publicly burned at the
stake, and his ashes were thrown into the Rhine. John
Calvin, that blood-thirsty old Presbyterian, about three
hundred and fifty years ago, caused Servetus to be cre-
mated on a pile of faggots because he disbelieved in the
Trinity.4 Even up to this hour schismatics are punished
by the churches; but the stake and the faggot are super-
seded by censure and expulsion. Need we, therefore,
wonder that Iran’s great teacher, in those earlier and
more savage times, encountered a fierce and deadly oppo-
sition ?

§ 3. If we may believe the Vendidad, the Archangers
premonition and promise were soon put to the test; for we
are told 5 that Angra-Mainyu (an actual personal devil)
sent Biuti, one of his demons, to kill the Prophet, and that
the Prophet, to save himself, chanted the Ahunavair.

4   If that old bigot were alive to-day, and was to engage
in that line of business, he would be obliged to have
numerous bonfires.

5   Ch. 19, Vendidad.
 72

ANGRA-MAINYU TEMPTS HIM

Biuti, on hearing of this, rushed, dismayed away, and
reported to Angra-Mainyu, the superior arch-fiend, that
the glory of Zartust was so great that it was impossible
to kill him.

The same chapter (19) is a riddle of perplexities; for it
tells us that the Prophet went forward, swinging stones
in his hand, as big as a house, which Ahura-Mazda gave
him. Whereat, the devil asked him, “Why dost thou
swing those stones? The Prophet answered: “To smite
the creations of the devil; to smite idolatry; and I will
smite it until the victorious Soshyant shall come up to
life.” 6 When this threat is made the Devil replies: “By
thy mother I was invoked,” 7 and he begs Zoroaster not
to destroy his creatures and promises him that if he will
renounce the good religion of Mazda he will make him
the ruler of nations for a thousand years.8

This intended bribe is spurned by Zoroaster, who de-
clares, “That not for my life, even should my body be
torn, will I renounce the good religion.” The Devil is
not yet satisfied, and asks, “By whose word and with
what weapons wilt thou smite my creatures ?” The Saint
replies, “O, Angra-Mainyu, evil-doer, the good spirit

6   Soshyant is the unborn son of Zoroaster, who is to
come bringing resurrection and the restoration of the
world.

7   This sentence plainly implies that Zoroaster’s reli-
gion was different from his mother’s. His was a re-
formed belief.

8   That is, he should gain such a boon as Vadhagnd
gained, who ruled one thousand years. Vend., 19, § 6.
(20) This temptation of the Devil precedes Jesus by a
thousand of years.
 OTHER TEMPTATIONS

73

made the creation. He made it in the boundless time.
The sacred cups; the Haoma; the Word; these are my
weapons. By these will I strike and repel thee.” 9 10

§ 4. It must be borne in mind that the Vendidad was
composed after Zoroaster’s period. Our Gospels were
likewise composed long after Jesus’ death, and they are
supposed to reflect what happened to their great actor.1®
Now, as to Zoroaster, if anything is certain, it is that
he speaks in the Gathas; and they bear the same stem
impress of what is said in the Vendidad. However, these
lines from the Iranian source must not be passed lightly
by. That temptation there set forth is the great proto-
type and pattern of others that have followed. These
others are believed to be copies, dressed up a little, to
meet changed times and conditions; yet they are written
in books, and hundreds of millions of people believe and
trust in the copies, but not the original.

Let us see as to this. About five hundred years B. C.
Gautama, the Buddha, who lived centuries later than
Zoroaster, started out to lead a life of penance, fasting
and prayer. He had not gone far when suddenly Mara,
the evil one, appeared, hovering over him, in the sky.
This devil, seeming to know the purpose of Gautama,
called out to him, saying, “You are a prince of earth;

9   The followers of Jesus use the sacred cup, with wine,
for their Homa; and St. John’s mention of the Word
finds its antecedent here in the Parsee religion, long be-
fore Galilee, and the crucifixion were heard of.

10   The first Gospel composed after the death of Jesus
was written A. D. 90, and one hundred years elapsed
before we had any such Gospels. The truth is three of
the Gospels were written in the second century.

hierology

The comparative and historical study of religions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred


In this will come the "familytree" of ALL religions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_religions


Besides China, ALL other religions were plagerised or annexed (Jews - Israeli's - Judaism) from Sumer.

So Palestine is NOT the Holy Land of Jews - Israeli's, THEY are not the chosen ones. And no SUMER is not Israel!


http://sacred-texts.com/time/timeline.htm

http://sacred-texts.com/time/origtime.htm

The links sofar on this page (above here) depict the dates, from the believers itself, and are most UNTRUE.

Most religions, esp. Judaism started between 900-700 BCE,  and all "forgot" the root of their religions in Mesopotamia:

 SUMER _Akkad- Assyria- Babylonia....the last also gave us our time based on 60, 24 hour day, 7 day week and calender
as we know it today , SUMER dates back at least 4500 BCE , and before that like Gobleki Tepi even 12.000 years.