| Cherubim,
the, of Genesis,
page 09;
a dragon, 11, 13 Original Sin, & Epimetheus, pages 3, 10. & Swayambhura, page 13. The first human pair are called by a bell at meal-times, page 10. |
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PART I. THE OLD TESTAMENT. (Page) 10 CHAPTER I. The idea of the Edenic happiness of the first human beings constitutes one of the universal traditions. Among the Egyptians, the terrestial reign of the god Râ, who inaugurated the existence of the world and of human life, was a golden age to which they continually looked back with regret The ancient Greeks boasted of their “ golden age,” when sorrow and trouble were not known. Hesiod, an ancient Grecian poet, describes it thus: “ Men lived like Gods. without vices or passions, vexation or toil. In happy companionship with divine beings, they passed their days in tranquility and joy, living together in perfect equality, united by mutual confidence and abundant variety of fruits. Human beings and animals spoke the same language and conversed with each other. Men were considered mere boys at a hundred years old. They had none of the infirmities of age to trouble them, and when they passed to regions of superior life, it was in a gentle slumber.” In the course of time, however, all the sorrows and troubles came to man. They were caused by inquisitivness. The story is as follows: Epimetheus received a gift from Zeus (God), in the form of a beautiful woman (Pandora). “ She brought with her a vase, the lid of which was (by the command of God), to remain closed. The curiosity of her husband, however, tempted him to open it. and suddenly there escaped from it troubles, weariness and illness from which mankind was never afterwards free. All that remained was hope.” a a Murray’s Mythology, p. 206.Among the Thibetans, the paradisiacal condition was more complete and spiritual. The desire to eat of a certain sweet herb deprived men of their spiritual life. There arose a sense of shame, and the need to clothe themselves. Necessity compelled them to agriculture; the virtues disappeared, and murder, adultery, and other vices, stepped into their place. b b Kalisch’s Commentary, vol i. p. 64.The idea that the Fall of the human race is connected with agriculture is found to be also often represented in the legends of the East African negroes, especially in the Calabar legend of the Creation, which presents many interesting points of comparison with the biblical story of the Fall. The first human pair are called by a bell at meal THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 11 The Fall is denoted by the transgression of both these commands, especially through the use of implements of tillage, to which the woman is tempted by a female friend who is given to her. From that moment man fell and became mortal, so that, as the Bible story has it, he can eat bread only in the sweat of his face. There agriculture is a curse, a fall from a more perfect stage to a lower and imperfect one. c c Ignaz Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, p. 87.Dr. Kalisch, writing of the Garden of Eden, says: “ The Paradise is no exclusive feature of the early history of the Hebrews. Most of the ancient nations have similar narratives about a happy abode, which care does not approach, and which The Persians, supposed that a region of bliss and delight called Heden, more beautiful than all the rest of the world, traversed by a mighty river, was the original abode of the first men, before they were tempted by the evil spirit in the form of a serpent, to partake of the fruit of the forbidden tree Hûm. e Dr. Delitzsch, writing of the Persian legend, observes: “ Innumerable attendants of the Holy One keep watch against the attempts of Ahriman over the tree Hûm, which contains in itself the power of the resurrection.” f d C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. i. p. 70.The ancient Greeks had a tradition concerning the “ Islands of the Blessed,” the “ Elysium,” on the borders of the earth, abounding in every charm of life, and the “Garden of the Hesperides,” the Paradise, in which grew a tree, bearing the golden apples of immortality. It was guarded by three nymphs, and a Serpent, or Dragon, the ever g See Montfaucon: L’Antiquité Expliqueé, vol. i. p. 211, and Pl. cxxxiii.The Rev. Mr. Farber, speaking of Hercules, says: “On the Sphere he is represented in the act of contending with the Serpent, the head of which is placed under his foot; and this Serpent, we are told, is that which guarded the tree with golden fruit in the midst of the garden of the Hesperides. But the garden of the Hesperides was none other than the garden of Paradise; consequently the Serpent of that garden, the head of which is crushed beneath h Faber: Origin Pagan Idolotry, vol. i. p. 443, in Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 237. (Page) 12 BIBLE MYTHS. And Professor Fergusson says: “Hercules’ adventures in the garden of the Hesperides, is the Pagan form of the myth that most resembles the precious serpent-guarded fruit of the garden of Eden, though the moral of the fable is so widely different.” i i Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 18.The ancient Egyptians also had the legend of the “ Tree Among the most ancient traditions of the Hindoos, is that of the “ Tree of Life”— called Soma in Sanskrit— the juice of which imparted immortality. This most wonderful tree was guarded by spirits. k j L. Maria Child, The Progress of Religious Ideas through Successive Ages, vol. i. p. 159. Still more striking is the Hindoo legend of the “ Elysium” or “ Paradise,” which is as follows: “In the sacred mountain Meru, which is perpetually clothed in the golden rays of the Sun, and whose lofty summit reaches into heaven, no sinful man can exist. It in guarded by a dreadful dragon. It is adorned with many celestial plants and trees, and is watered by/emr rivers, which thence separate and flow to the four chief directions.” l l Right Rev. John William Colenso, D. D., Bishop of Natal, The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically examined, vol. iv. p. 153.The Hindoos, like the philosophers of the Ionic school (Thales, for instance), held water to be the first existing and all “Nothing that is was then, even what is not, did not exist then." "There was no space, no life, and lastly there was no time, no difference between day and night, no solar torch by which morning might have been told from evening." Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled in gloom profound, as ocean without light.” n m Theodore A. Buckley, The Great Cities of the Ancient World, in their Glory and their Desolation, p. 148.The Hindoo legend approaches very nearly to that preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus, it is said that Siva, as the Supreme Being, desired to tempt THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 13 Swayambhura, instigated by his wife, Satarupa, endeavors to obtain this blossom, thinking its possession will render him immortal and divine; but when he has succeeded in doing so, he is cursed by Siva, and doomed to misery o See Wake: Phallism in Ancient Religions, pp. 46, 47; and Maurice: History of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 408.There is no Hindoo legend of the Creation similar to the Persian and Hebrew accounts, and Ceylon was never believed to have been the Paradise or home of our first parents, although such stories are in circulation q The Hindoo religion states— as we have already seen— Mount Meru to be the Paradise, out of which went four rivers. q See Jacolliot’s “ Bible in India,” which John Fisk calls a “ very discreditable performance,” and “ a disgraceful piece of charlatanry ” (John Fiske, Myths and MythWe have noticed that the “Gardens of Paradise” are said to have been guarded by Dragons, and that, according to the Genesis account, it was Cherubim that protected Eden. This apparent difference in the legends is owing to the fact that we have come in our modern times to speak of Cherub as though it were an other name for an Angel. But the Cherub of the writer of Genesis, the Cherub of Assyria, the Cherub of Babylon, the Cherub of the entire Orient, at the time the Eden story was written, was not at all an Angel, but an animal, and a mythological one at that. The Cherub had, in some cases, the body of a lion, with the head of an other animal, or a man, and the wings of a bird. In Ezekiel they have the body of a man, whose head, besides a human countenance, has also that of a lion, an ox and an Eagle. They are provided with four wings, and the whole body is spangled with innumerable eyes. In Assyria and Babylon they appear as winged bulls with human faces, and are placed at the gateways of palaces and temples as guardian genii who watch over the Most Jewish writers and Christian Fathers conceived the Cherubim as Angels. Most theologians also considered them as Angels, until Michaelis showed them to be a mythological animal, a poetic creation. r r See Smith’s Comprehensive Dictionary of the Bible, Article “Cherubim,” and Lenormant’s Beginning of History, ch. 10.(Page) 14 BIBLE MYTHS. We see then, that our Cherub is simply a Dragon. To continue our inquiry regarding the prevalence of the Eden- The Chinese have their Age of Virtue, when nature furnished abundant food, and man lived peacefully, surrounded by all the beasts. In their sacred books there is a story concerning a mysterious garden, where grew a tree bearing " apples of immortality," guarded by a winged serpent, called a Dragon. They describe a primitive age of the world, when the earth yielded abundance of delicious fruits without cultivation, and the seasons were untroubled by wind and storms. There was no calamity, sickness, or death. Men were then good without effort; for the human heart was in harmony with the peacefulness and beauty of nature. The "Golden Age" of the past is much dwelt upon by their ancient commentators. One of them says: “ All places were then equally the native county of every man. Flocks wandered in the fields without any guide; birds lilied tlie air with their melodious voices; and the fruits grew of their own accord. 3Ien lived pleasantly with the animals, and all creatures were members of the same family. Ignorant of evil, man lived in simplicity and perfect innocence.” Another commentator says: “ In the first age of perfect purity, all was In harmony, and the passions did not occasion the slightest murmur. Man, united to sovereign reason within, conformed his outward actions to sovereign justice. Far from all duplicity and falsehood, his soul received marvelous felicity from heaven, and the purest delights from earth.” Another says: “ A delicious garden refreshed with zephyrs, and planted with odoriferous trees, was situated in the middle of a mountain, which was the avenue of heaven. The waters that moistened it flowed from a source called the ‘Fountain of Immortality ’. He who drinks of it never dies. Thence flowed four rivers. A Golden River, betwixt the South and East, a Red River, between the North and East, the River of the Lamb between the North and West.” The animal Kaiming guards the entrance. Partly by an undue thirst for knowledge, and partly by increasing sensuality, and the seduction of woman, man fell. Then passion and lust ruled in the human mind, and war with the animals began. In one of the Chinese sacred volumes, called the Chi “ All was subject to man at first, but a woman threw us into slavery. The wise husband raised up a bulwark of walls, but the woman, by an ambitious desire of knowledge, demolished them. Our misery did not come from heaven, but from a woman. She lost the human race. Ah, unhappy Poo See! thou kindled the fire that consumes us, and which is every day augmenting. Our misery has lasted many ages. The world is lost. Vice overflows all things like a mortal poison.” s s See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 206 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 15 Thus we see that the Chinese are no strangers to the doctrine of original sin. It is their invariable belief that man is a fallen being; admitted by them from time immemorial. The inhabitants of Madagascar had a legend similar to the Eden story, which is related as follows: “ The first man was created of the dust of the earth, and was placed in a garden, where he was subject to none of the ills which now affect mortality; he was also free from all bodily appetites, and though surrounded by delicious fruit and limpid streams yet felt no desire to taste of the fruit or to quaff the water. The Creator, had, moreover, strictly forbid him either to eat or to drink. The great enemy, however, came to him, and painted to him, in glowing colors, the sweetness of the apple, and the lusciousness of the date, and the succulence of the orange.” After resisting the temptations for a while, he at last ate of the fruit, and consequently fell. t t Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 31.A legend of the Creation, similar to the Hebrew, was found by Mr. Ellis among the Tahitians, and appeared in his “ Polynesian Researches.” It is as follows: After Taarao had formed the world, he created man out of aræa, red earth, which was also the food of man until bread was made. Taarao one day called for the man by name. “ When he came, he caused him to fall asleep, and while he slept, he took out one of his ivi, or bones, and with it made a woman, whom he gave to the man as his wife, and they became the progenitors of mankind. The woman’s name was Ivi, which signifies a bone.” u The prose Edda, of the ancient Scandinavians, speaks of the “Golden Age” when all was pure and harmonious. This age lasted until the arrival of woman out of Jotunheim the region of the giants, a sort of “ land of Nod” who corrupted it. v u Quoted by Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 302.In the annals of the Mexicans, the first woman, whose name was translated by the old Spanish writers, “ the woman of our flesh,” is always represented as accompanied by a great male serpent, who seems to be talking to her. Some writers believe this to be the tempter speaking to the primeval mother, and others that it is intended to represent the father of the human race. This Mexican Eve is represented on their monuments as the mother of twins. w w See Baring Gould’s Legends of the Patriarchs; Squire’s Serpent Symbol, p. 161, and Wake’s Phallism in Ancient Religions, p. 41. (Page) 16 BIBLE MYTHS. Mr. Franklin, in his “ Buddhists and Jeynes,” says: “ A striking instance is recorded by the very intelligent traveler (Wilson), regarding a representation of the Fall of our first parents, sculptured in the magnificent temple of Ipsambul, in Nubia. He says that a very exact representation of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden is to be seen in that cave, and that the Serpent climbing round the tree is especially delineated, and the whole subject of the tempting of our first parents most accurately exhibited.” 1 1 Quoted by Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 406.Nearly the same thing was found by Colonel Coombs in the South of India. Colonel Tod, in his “ Hist. Rajapoutana,” says: “ A drawing, brought by Colonel Coombs from a sculptured column in a cave ‘ ——— his words, replete with guile, Into her heart too easy entrance won: Fixed on the fruit she gazed.’ ” “ This is a curious subject to be engraved on an ancient Pagan temple.” 2 2 Tod’s Hist. Raj., p. 581, quoted by Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 404.So the Colonel thought, no doubt, but it is not so very curious after all. It is the same myth which we have found— with but such small variations only as time and circumstances may be expected to produce — among different nations, in both the Old and New Worlds. |
 |
Fig.
No. 2,
taken from the
work of Montfaucon, 3
represents one of these
ancient Pagan sculptures.
Can any one doubt that
it is allusive to the myth
of which we have been
treating in this chapter?
3 L’Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i.That man was originally created a perfect being, and is now only a fallen and broken remnant of what he once was, we have seen to be a piece of mythology, not only unfounded in fact, but, beyond intelligent question, proved untrue. What, then, is the significance of the exposure of this myth? What does its loss as a scientific fact, and as a portion of Christian dogma, imply? It implies that with it— although many Christian divines who admit this to be a legend, do not, or do not profess, to see it— must fall the whole Orthodox scheme, for upon this MYTH the theology of Christendom is built. THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 17 The doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures, the Fall of man, his total depravity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the devil, hell, in fact, the entire theology of the Christian Church, falls to pieces with the historical inaccuracy of this story, for upon it is it built; ’tis the foundation of the whole structure. 4 4 Sir William Jones, the first president of the Royal Asiatic Society, saw this when he said: “ Either the first eleven chapters of Genesis, all due allowance being made for a figurative Eastern style, are true, or the whole fabric of our religion is false.” (In Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 225.) And so also did the learned Thomas Maurice, for he says: “ If the Mosaic History be indeed a fable, the whole fabric of the national religion is false, since the main pillar of Christianity rests upon that important original promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent.” Maurice: History of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 29.According to Christian dogma, the Incarnation of Christ Jesus had become necessary, merely because he had to redeem the evil introduced into the world by the Fall of man. These two dogmas cannot be separated from each other. If there was no Fall, there is no need of an atonement, and no Redeemer is required. Those, then, who consent in recognizing in Christ Jesus a God and Redeemer, and who, notwithstanding, cannot resolve upon admitting the story of the Fall of man to be historical, should exculpate themselves from the reproach of inconsistency. There are a great number, however, in this position at the present day. Although, as we have said, many Christian divines do not, or do not profess to, see the force of the above argument, there are many who do; and they, regardless of their scientific learning, cling to these old myths, professing to believe them, well knowing what must follow with their fall. The following, though written some years ago, will serve to illustrate this style of reasoning. The Bishop of Manchester (England) writing in the “ Manchester Examiner and Times,” said: “ The very foundation of our faith, the very basis of our hopes, the very nearest and dearest of our consolations are taken from us, when one line of that sacred volume, on which we base everything, is declared to be untruthful and untrustworthy.” The “ English Churchman,” speaking of clergymen who have “doubts,” said, that any who are not thoroughly persuaded “that the Scriptures cannot in any particular be untrue,” should leave the Church. The Rev. E. Garbett, M. A., in a sermon preached before the University of Oxford, speaking of the “ historical truth ” of the Bible, said: (Page) 18 BIBLE MYTHS. “ It is the clear teaching of these doctrinal formularies, to which we of the church of England have expressed our solemn assent, and no honest interpretation of her language can get rid of it.” And That: “ In all consistent reason, we must accept the whole of the inspired autographs, or reject the whole.”. Dr. Baylee, Principal of a theological university— St. Aiden’s College— at Birkenhead, England, and author of a “ Manual,” called Baylee’s “ Verbal Inspiration,” written “chiefly for the youths of St. Aiden’s College,” makes use of the following words, in that work: “The whole Bible, as a revelation, is a declaration of the mind of God towards his creatures on the subjects of which the Bible treats.” “The Bible is God’s word, in the same sense as if he had made use of no human agent, but had Himself spoken it.” “ Every scientific statement is infallably correct, all its history and narrations of every kind, are without any inaccuracy.” 5 5 The above extracts are quoted by Bishop Colenso, in The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 10A whole volume might be filled with such quotations, not only from religious works and journals published in England, but from those published in the United States of America. 6 6 “ Cosmogony ” is the title of a volume lately written [Nov., 1882, Bible Myths publication date] by Prof. Thomas Mitchell, and published by the American News Co., in which the author attacks all the modern scientists in regard to the geological antiquity of the world, evolution, atheism, pantheism, &c. He believes— and rightly too— that, “ if the account of Creation in Genesis falls, Christ and the apostles follow: if the book of Genesis is erroneous, so also are the Gospels.” Doane, Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions, CHAPTER TWO, pages 19—32. Doane, Bible Myths, CH. ONE, pp. 01—09. Martian Visitor: Quoted excerpts and Footnotes to: Bible Myths. INDEX of Subjects. Martian Visitor ( Home ) Metaphysics: The Pagan origins of Easter THE WORLD’S SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS or Christianity Before Christ CONTAINING New, Startling and Extraordinary Revelations In Religious History, Which Disclose The Oriental Origin of All The Doctrines, Principles, Precepts, And Miracles Of The CHRISTIAN NEW TESTAMENT And Furnishing A Key For Unlocking Many Of It’s Sacred Mysteries, Besides comprising the History Of 16 HEATHEN CRUCIFIED GODS BY KERSEY GRAVES Copyright, 1875 |