Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane
CHAPTER XXX.
1988 words | Chapter 262
THE EUCHARIST OR LORD'S SUPPER.
We are informed by the _Matthew_ narrator that when Jesus was eating his
last supper with the disciples,
"He took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to
the disciples, and said, Take, eat, _this is my body_. And he
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
drink ye all of it, _for this is my blood_ of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins."[305:1]
According to Christian belief, Jesus _instituted_ this
"_Sacrament_"[305:2]--as it is called--and it was observed by the
primitive Christians, as he had enjoined them; but we shall find that
this breaking of bread, and drinking of wine,--_supposed to be the body
and blood of a god_[305:3]--is simply another piece of Paganism imbibed
by the Christians.
The _Eucharist_ was instituted many hundreds of years before the time
assigned for the birth of Christ Jesus. Cicero, the greatest orator of
Rome, and one of the most illustrious of her statesmen, born in the year
106 B. C., mentions it in his works, and wonders at the strangeness of
the rite. "How can a man be so stupid," says he, "as to imagine that
which he eats to be a God?" There had been an esoteric meaning attached
to it from the first establishment of the _mysteries_ among the Pagans,
and the Eucharistia is one of the oldest rites of antiquity.
The adherents of the Grand Lama in Thibet and Tartary offer to their god
a sacrament of _bread and wine_.[305:4]
P. Andrada La Crozius, a French missionary, and one of the first
Christians who went to Nepaul and Thibet, says in his "History of
India:"
"Their Grand Lama celebrates a species of sacrifice with
_bread_ and _wine_, in which, after taking a small quantity
himself, he distributes the rest among the Lamas present at
this ceremony."[306:1]
In certain rites both in the _Indian_ and the _Parsee_ religions, the
devotees drink the juice of the Soma, or _Haoma_ plant. They consider it
a _god_ as well as a plant, just as the wine of the Christian sacrament
is considered both the juice of the grape, and the blood of the
Redeemer.[306:2] Says Mr. Baring-Gould:
"Among the ancient Hindoos, _Soma_ was a chief deity; he is
called 'the Giver of Life and of health,' the 'Protector,' he
who is 'the Guide to Immortality.' He became incarnate among
men, was taken by them and slain, and brayed in a mortar. But
he rose in flame to heaven, to be the 'Benefactor of the
World,' and the 'Mediator between God and Man.' Through
communion with him in his sacrifice, man, (who partook of this
god), has an assurance of immortality, for by that _sacrament_
he obtains union with his divinity."[306:3]
The ancient _Egyptians_--as we have seen--annually celebrated the
_Resurrection_ of their God and Saviour _Osiris_, at which time they
commemorated his death by the _Eucharist_, eating the sacred cake, or
wafer, _after it had been consecrated by the priest, and become
veritable flesh of his flesh_.[306:4] The bread, after sacerdotal rites,
became mystically the body of _Osiris_, and, in such a manner, _they ate
their god_.[306:5] Bread and wine were brought to the temples by the
worshipers, as offerings.[306:6]
The _Therapeutes_ or _Essenes_, whom we believe to be of Buddhist
origin, and who lived in large numbers in Egypt, also had the ceremony
of the sacrament among them.[306:7] Most of them, however, being
temperate, substituted water for wine, while others drank a mixture of
water and wine.
Pythagoras, the celebrated Grecian philosopher, who was born about the
year 570 B. C., performed this ceremony of the _sacrament_.[306:8] He is
supposed to have visited Egypt, and there availed himself of all such
mysterious lore as the priests could be induced to impart. He and his
followers practiced asceticism, and peculiarities of diet and clothing,
similar to the Essenes, which has led some scholars to believe that he
instituted the order, but this is evidently not the case.
The Kenite "King of Righteousness," _Melchizedek_, "a priest of the Most
High God," brought out BREAD _and_ WINE as a _sign_ or _symbol_ of
worship; as _the mystic elements of Divine presence_. In the visible
symbol of _bread and wine_ they worshiped _the invisible presence of the
Creator of heaven and earth_.[307:1]
To account for this, Christian divines have been much puzzled. The Rev.
Dr. Milner says, in speaking of this passage:
"It was in offering up a sacrifice of bread and wine, instead
of slaughtered animals, that Melchizedek's sacrifice differed
from the generality of those in the old law, and that he
_prefigured_ the sacrifice which Christ was to _institute_ in
the new law from the same elements. No other sense than this
can be elicited from the Scripture as to this matter; and
accordingly the holy fathers unanimously adhere to this
meaning."[307:2]
This style of reasoning is in accord with the TYPE theory concerning the
Virgin-born, Crucified and Resurrected Saviours, but it is not
altogether satisfactory. If it had been said that the religion of
Melchizedek, and the religion of the Persians, were the _same_, there
would be no difficulty in explaining the passage.
Not only were bread and wine brought forth by Melchizedek when he
blessed Abraham, but it was offered to God and eaten before him by
Jethro and the elders of Israel, and some, at least, of the _mourning_
Israelites broke bread and drank "the cup of consolation," in
remembrance of the departed, "to comfort them for the dead."[307:3]
It is in the ancient religion of Persia--the religion of Mithra, the
Mediator, the Redeemer and Saviour--that we find the nearest resemblance
to the sacrament of the Christians, and from which it was evidently
borrowed. Those who were initiated into the mysteries of Mithra, or
became _members_, took the sacrament of bread and wine.[307:4]
M. Renan, speaking of _Mithraicism_, says:
"It had its mysterious meetings: its chapels, which bore a
strong resemblance to little churches. It forged a very
lasting bond of brotherhood between its initiates: it had a
_Eucharist_, a Supper so like the Christian Mysteries, that
good Justin Martyr, the Apologist, can find only one
explanation of the apparent identity, namely, that Satan, in
order to deceive the human race, determined to imitate the
Christian ceremonies, and so stole them."[307:5]
The words of St. Justin, wherein he alludes to this ceremony, are as
follows:
"The apostles, in the commentaries written by themselves,
which we call Gospels, have delivered down to us how that
Jesus thus commanded them: He having taken bread, _after he
had given thanks_,[308:1] said, Do this in commemoration of
me; this is my body. And having taken a cup, and returned
thanks, he said: This is my blood, and delivered it to them
alone. Which thing indeed the evil spirits have taught to be
done out of mimicry in the Mysteries and Initiatory rites of
Mithra.
"For you either know, or can know, that bread and a cup of
water (or wine) are given out, with certain incantations, in
the consecration of the person who is being initiated in the
Mysteries of Mithra."[308:2]
This food they called the Eucharist, of which no one was allowed to
partake but the persons who believed that the things they taught were
true, and who had been washed with the washing that is for the remission
of sin.[308:3] Tertullian, who flourished from 193 to 220 A. D., also
speaks of the Mithraic devotees celebrating the Eucharist.[308:4]
The Eucharist of the Lord and Saviour, as the Magi called Mithra, the
second person in their Trinity, or their Eucharistic sacrifice, was
always made exactly and in every respect the same as that of the
orthodox Christians, for both sometimes used water instead of wine, or a
mixture of the two.[308:5]
The Christian Fathers often liken their rites to those of the Therapeuts
(Essenes) and worshipers of Mithra. Here is Justin Martyr's account of
Christian initiation:
"But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced
and assented to our teachings, bring him to the place where
those who are called _brethren_ are assembled, in order that
we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and the
_illuminated_ person. Having ended our prayers, we salute one
another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of
the brethren _bread and a cup of wine mixed with water_. When
the president has given thanks, and all the people have
expressed their assent, those that are called by us _deacons_
give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine
mixed with water."[308:6]
In the service of Edward the Sixth of England, water is directed to be
mixed with the wine.[309:1] This is a union of the two; not a half
measure, but a double one. If it be correct to take it with wine, then
they were right; if with water, they still were right; as they took
both, they could not be wrong.
The _bread_, used in these Pagan Mysteries, was carried in _baskets_,
which practice was also adopted by the Christians. St. Jerome, speaking
of it, says:
"Nothing can be richer than one who carries _the body of
Christ_ (viz.: _the bread_) in a basket made of twigs."[309:2]
The Persian Magi introduced the worship of Mithra into Rome, and his
mysteries were solemnized in a _cave_. In the process of initiation
there, candidates were also administered the sacrament of _bread and
wine_, and were marked on the forehead with the sign of the
cross.[309:3]
The ancient _Greeks_ also had their "_Mysteries_," wherein they
celebrated the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The Rev. Robert Taylor,
speaking of this, says:
"The _Eleusinian_ Mysteries, or, Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, was the most august of all the Pagan ceremonies
celebrated, more especially by the Athenians, every fifth
year,[309:4] in honor of _Ceres_, the goddess of corn, who, in
allegorical language, _had given us her flesh to eat_; as
_Bacchus_, the god of wine, in like sense, _had given us his
blood to drink_. . . .
"From these ceremonies is derived the very name attached to
our _Christian_ sacrament of the Lord's Supper,--'_those holy
Mysteries_;'--and not one or two, but absolutely all and every
one of the observances used in our Christian solemnity. Very
many of our forms of expression in that solemnity are
precisely the same as those that appertained to the Pagan
rite."[309:5]
Prodicus (a Greek sophist of the 5th century B. C.) says that, the
ancients worshiped _bread_ as Demeter (_Ceres_) and _wine_ as Dionysos
(_Bacchus_);[309:6] therefore, when they ate the bread, and drank the
wine, after it had been consecrated, they were doing as the Romanists
claim to do at the present day, _i. e._, _eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of their god_.[309:7]
Mosheim, the celebrated ecclesiastical historian, acknowledges that:
"The profound respect that was paid to the Greek and Roman
_Mysteries_, and the extraordinary sanctity that was
attributed to them, induced the Christians of the second
century, to give _their_ religion a _mystic_ air, in order to
put it upon an equal footing in point of dignity, with that of
the Pagans. For this purpose they gave the name of _Mysteries_
to the institutions of the Gospels, and decorated particularly
the 'Holy Sacrament' with that title; they used the very terms
employed in the _Heathen Mysteries_, and adopted some of the
rites and ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries
consisted. This imitation began in the eastern provinces; but,
after the time of Adrian, who first introduced the mysteries
among the Latins, it was followed by the Christians who dwelt
in the western part of the empire. A great part, therefore, of
the service of the Church in this--the second--century, had a
certain air of the Heathen Mysteries, and resembled them
considerably in many particulars."[310:1]
_Eleusinian Mysteries_ and _Christian Sacraments Compared_.
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