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AuthorTopic: part XI  (Read 1619 times)

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part XI
« on: February 21, 2014, 08:34:25 PM »

When the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, Egypt, was demolished by one of the
Christian Emperors, there was found underneath the foundation a stone on which
was engraven hieroglyphics in the form of a cross. They were said, by some of
the Greeks who had been converted to Christianity, to signify " the Life to
come." ^

Clement of Alexandria assures us in his Siromatis that all those who entered
into the temple of Serapis w'ere obliged to wear on their persons, in a conspic-
uous situation, the name of I-ha-ho or I-ha-hou^ which signifies the God
Eternal, The learned Abbe Bazin tells us that the name esteemed the most sacred
by the Egyptians was that which the Hebrews adopted,

Y-HA-HO

It is said that when the vain Thulis appealed to Serapis, the god replied : "
First God, afterward the Word, and with them the Holy Spirit" ^

Rufinus tells us that the Egyptians are said to have the sign of the Lord's
cross among those letters which are called sacerdotal,  the interpretation
being, "the Life to come."^ They certainly adored the cross with profound
veneration. This sacred symbol is to be found on many of their ancient
monuments, some of which may be seen at the British Museum. In the London
University a cross upon a Calvary is to be seen upon the breast of one of the
Egyptian mummies. Many of the Egyptian images hold a cross in their hand.
There is one now extant of the Egyptian Saviour, Horus, holding a cross in his
hand, and he is represented as an infant on his mother's knee, with a cross on
the back of the seat they occupy.^

The commonest of all the Egyptian crosses, tKe crux ansata^ was adopted by the
Christians. When the Saviour Osiris is represented holding out the crux ansata
to a mortal, it signifies that the person to whom he presents it has put off
mortality and entered on the life to come.^

The Greek cross and the cross of Saint Anthony are also found on Egyptian
monuments. A figure of a Shari from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's book (fig. 14) has
a necklace round his throat, from which depends a pectoral cross. Another
Egyptian cross which is apparently intended for a Latin cross rising out of a
heart, like the mediaeval emblem of cor in cruce^ crux in corde, is the
hieroglyph of goodness.*


The' ancient Egyptians were in the habit of putting a cross on their sacred
cakes, just as Christians of the present day on Good Friday. The plan of the
chamber of some Egyptian sepulchres has the form of a cross. The cross was worn
by Egyptian women as an ornament as it is worn to-day by Christians.

The ensigns and standards carried by the Persians during their wars with
Alexander the Great (b. c. 335) made in the form of a cross.

Sir Robert Ker Porter, in his very valuable work entitled Travels in Georgia^
Persia^ Armenia^ and Ancient Babylonia, gives a representation of a basrelief
of very ancient antiquity, which he found at Nashi-Roustam, or the Mountain of
Sepulchres. It represents a combat between two horsemen  Baharam-Gour, one
of the old Persian kings, and a Tartar prince. Baharam-Gour is in the act of
charging his opponent with a spear, and behind him, scarcely visible, appears
an almost effaced form which must have been his standard-bearer, as the ensign
is very plainly to be seen. This ensign is a cross. There is another
representation of the same subject to be seen in a bas-relief, which shows the
standard-bearer and his cross-ensign very plainly. This bas-relief belongs to a
period when the Arsacedian kings governed Persia, which was within a century
after the time of Alexander, and consequently more than two centuries b. c.^


Sir Robert also found at this place sculptures cut in the solid rock which are
in the form of crosses. These belong to the early race of Persian monarchs,
whose dynasty terminated under the sword of Alexander the Great.^ At the foot
of Mount NakshiRajab he also found bas-reliefs, among which were two figures
carrying a cross-standard. It is coeval with the sculptures found at Nashi-
Roustam, and therefore belongs to a period before Alexander's invasion.

The ancient Babylonians honored the cross as a religious symbol. It is found on
their oldest monuments. Anu, a deity who stood at the head of Babylonian
mythology, had a cross for his sign or symbol. It is also the symbol of the
Babylonian god Bal.^ A cross hangs on the breast of Tiglath Pileser, in the
colossal tablet from Nimrood, now in the British Museum. Another king from the
ruins of Nineveh wears a Maltese cross on his bosom ; and another from the hall
of Nisroch carries an emblematic necklace to which a Maltese cross is
attached.^ The crux ansata was also a sacred symbol among the Babylonians. It
occurs repeatedly on their cylinders, bricks, and gems.

The cross has been honored in India from time immemorial, and was a symbol of
mysterious significance in Brahminical iconography. It was the symbol of the
Hindoo god Agni, the Light of the World.

It is placed by Miiller in his Glauben, Wissen, und Kunst der alien Hindus, in
the hands of Siva, Brahma, Vishnu, Yavashtri, and Jarma. Fra Paolino tells us
it was used by the ancient kings of India as a sceptre.^

Two of the principal pagodas of India  Benares and Mathura  were erected in
the forms of vast crosses.^

In the Jamalgiri remains and other sculptures brought to light by General
Cunningham, near Peshawur, it is stated that a complete set of illustmtions
of the New Testament might be made, such as Mary laying her child in a manger,
near which stands a mare with its foal ; the young Christ disputing with the
doctors in the Temple ; the Saviour healing the man with a withered limb ; the
woman taken in adultery kneeling before Christ, whilst in the background men
hold up stones menacingly. Mr. Fergusson fixes the date of the Jamalgiri
monastery as somewhere between the fifth and seventh centuries, A.D.

In the cave of Elephanta, over the head of the figure represented as destroying
the infants, may be seen the mitre, the crosier, and the cross.'^



Mr. Doane, in his Bible Myths (p. i86, fig. 7), gives a representation of a pre-
Christian crucifix of Asiatic origin, which is evidently intended to rep
resent the Hindoo crucified Saviour, Crishna, the "Pardoner of Sins" and
"Liberator from the Serpent of Death." ^ Plate number viii., same page, is with-
out doubt Crishna crucified. Instead of the crown of thorns usually put on the
head of the Christian Saviour it has the turreted coronet of the Ephesian
Diana.

In the earlier copies of Moor's Hindu Pantheon are to be seen representations
of Crishna (as Wittoba) with marks of holes in both feet, and in others of
holes in the hands. Figure vi. has a round hole in the side. To the collar
hangs the emblem of a heart.

The monk Georgius, in his Tibetinum Alphabetum (p. 203), has given plates of a
crucified god worshipped at Nepal. These crucifixes were to be seen at the
corners of roads and on eminences. He calls it the god Indra.

No sooner is Indra born than he speaks to his mother. Like Apollo and all other
sun-gods, he has golden locks, and, like them, he is possessed of an in
scrutable wisdom. He is also born of a virgin,  the Dawn. Crishna and Indra
are one.^


The sun-gods were generally said to speak to their mothers as soon as they were
born. This myth was woven into the. life of Buddha, and the Apocryphal New
Testament makes the same statement in regard to Christ.^

P. Andrada la Crozius, one of the first Europeans who went to Nepal and Thibet,
in speaking of the god whom they worshipped there, Indra, tells us that they
said he spilt his blood for the salvation of the human race, and that he was
pierced through the body with nails. He further says that, although they do not
say he suffered the penalty of the cross, yet they find, nevertheless, figures
of it in their books.^

Monsieur Guigniaut, in his Religion de VAntiquite, tells us that the death of
Crishna is very differently related. One tradition makes him perish on a tree,
to which he was nailed by the stroke of an arrow.^

Dr. Inman says : " Crishna, whose history so closely resembles our Lord's, was
also like him in his being crucified." ^

On the promontory of India, in the South at Tanjore, and in the North at Oude
or Ayoudia, was found the worship of the crucified god Ballaji or Wittoba. This
god, who was beheved to have been an incarnation of Vishnu, was represented
with holes in his hands and side.^

The cross has been an object of profound veneration among the Buddhists from
the earliest times. One is the sacred swastica. It is seen on Buddhist zodiacs,
and is one of the symbols in the Asoka inscriptions.^ It is the sectarian
mark of the Jains, and the distinctive badge of the sect of Xaca Japonieus. The
Vaishnaves of India have also the same sacred sign.^ According to Arthur
Lillie, the only Christian cross in the Catacombs is this Buddhist swastica.^

The cross is adored by the followers of the Lama of Thibet. The Buddhists, and
indeed all of the sects of India, marked their followers on the head with the
sign of the cross. This ceremony was undoubtedly practiced by almost all
heathen nations. The resemblance between the ancient religion of Thibet and
that of the Christians has been noticed by many European travellers and
missionaries, among whom may be mentioned Pere Grebillon, Pere Grueber,
Horace de la Paon, D'Orville, and M. I'Abb^ Hue.

Mr. Doane gives us a representation of the Crucified Dove worshipped by the
ancients,*  the sun of noonday crucified in the heavens, who, in the words of
Pindar (522 B.C.), " is seen writhing on his winged wheel in the highest
heaven."^

Says the author of a learned work, entitled Nimrod:

We read in Pindar of the venerable bird lynx bound to the wheel, and of the
pretended punishment of Ixion. But this rotation was really no punishment,
being, as Pindar saith, voluntary, and prepared by hhnself, and for himself ;
or if it was, it was appointed in derision of his false pretension, whereby
he gave himself out as the crucified spirit of the world. The four spokes
represent Saint Andrew's cross, adapted to the four limbs extended, and
furnish perhaps the oldest profane allusion to the crucifixion. The same
cross of Saint Andrew was the Taw which Ezekiel commands them to mark upon the
foreheads of the faithful, as appears from all Israelitish coins whereon that
letter is engraved. The same idea was familiar to Lucian, who calls T the
letter of crucifixion. Certainly the veneration for the cross is very ancient.
lynx, the bird of Maustic inspiration, bound to the four-legged wheel, gives
the idea of Divine Love crucified. The wheel denotes the world, of which she is
the spirit, and the cross the sacrifice made for that world. ^

The " Divine Love," of whom Nimrod speaks, was " The First-begotten Son " of
the Platonists. Plato (429 B. c), in his Timceus, in philosophizing about the
Son of God, says : " The next power to the Supreme God was decussated or
figured in the shape of a cross on the universe."