Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane
886. Taylor's Diegesis and Reber's Christ of Paul.)
1452 words | Chapter 277
[368:2] That is, the _true_ faith.
[368:3] Dogma Deity Jesus Christ, p. 95.
[369:1] "The notion of a _Triad_ of Supreme Powers is indeed common to
most ancient religions." (Prichard's Egyptian Mytho., p. 285.)
"Nearly all the Pagan nations of antiquity, in their various theological
systems, acknowledged a trinity in the divine nature." (Maurice: Indian
Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 35.)
"The ancients imagined that their _triad_ of gods or persons, only
constituted one god." (Celtic Druids, p. 197.)
[369:2] The three attributes called Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, are
indicated by letters corresponding to our A. U. M., generally pronounced
OM. This mystic word is never uttered except in prayer, and the sign
which represents it in their temples is an object of profound adoration.
[369:3] Monier Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 324.
[369:4] That is, the Lord and Saviour _Crishna_. The Supreme Spirit, in
order to preserve the world, produced Vishnu. Vishnu came upon earth for
this purpose, in the form of Crishna. He was believed to be an
incarnation of the Supreme Being, one of the persons of their holy and
mysterious trinity, to use their language, "The Lord and Savior--three
persons and one god." In the Geita, Crishna is made to say: "I am the
Lord of all created beings." "I am the mystic figure O. M." "I am
Brahma Vishnu, and Siva, three gods in one."
[369:5] See The Heathen Religion, p. 124.
[370:1] Allen's India, pp. 382, 383.
[370:2] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 272.
[371:1] Indian Antiquities, vol. iv. p. 372.
[371:2] Taken from Moore's "Hindoo Pantheon," plate 81.
[371:3] Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. pp. 285, 286. See also, King's
Gnostics, 167.
[372:1] Davis' China, vol. ii. p. 104.
[372:2] Ibid. pp. 103 and 81.
[372:3] Ibid. pp. 105, 106.
[372:4] Ibid. pp. 103, 81.
[372:5] Ibid. 110, 111. Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 36. Dunlap's Spirit
Hist., 150.
[372:6] Indian Antiquities, vol. v. p. 41. Dupuis, p. 285. Dunlap's
Spirit Hist., 150.
[372:7] Indian Antiquities, vol. v. p. 41.
This Taou sect, according to John Francis Davis, and the Rev. Charles
Gutzlaff, both of whom have resided in China--call their trinity "the
three pure ones," or "the three precious ones in heaven." (See Davis'
China, vol. ii. p. 110, and Gutzlaff's Voyages, p. 307.)
[372:8] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 210.
[372:9] Ibid.
[373:1] Indian Antiquities, vol. i. p. 127.
[373:2] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 14.
The following answer is stated by Manetho, an Egyptian priest, to have
been given by an Oracle to Sesostris: "On his return through Africa he
entered the sanctuary of the Oracle, saying: 'Tell me, O thou strong in
fire, who before me could subjugate all things? and who shall after me?'
But the Oracle rebuked him, saying, 'First, _God_; then the _Word_; and
with them, the _Spirit_.'" (Nimrod, vol. i. p. 119, in Ibid. vol. i. p.
805.)
Here we have distinctly enumerated God, the Logos, and the Spirit or
Holy Ghost, in a very early period, long previous to the Christian era.
[373:3] I. John, v. 7. John, i. 1.
[373:4] The _Alexandrian_ theology, of which the celebrated _Plato_ was
the chief representative, taught that the _Logos_ was "_the second
God_;" a being of divine essence, but distinguished from the Supreme
God. It is also called "_the first-born Son of God_."
"The _Platonists_ furnished brilliant recruits to the Christian churches
of Asia Minor and Greece, and brought with them their love for system
and their idealism." "It is in the Platonizing or Alexandrian, branch of
Judaism that we must seek for the antecedents of the Christian doctrine
of the _Logos_." (A. Revillé: Dogma Deity Jesus, p. 29.)
[373:5] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 102. _Mithras_, the Mediator,
and Saviour of the Persians, was called the _Logos_. (See Dunlap's Son
of the Man, p. 20. Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 75.) _Hermes_ was called
the _Logos_. (See Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 39, _marginal note_.)
[373:6] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 402.
[374:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 404.
[374:2] Ibid.
[374:3] Ibid.
[374:4] Ibid. p. 28.
[374:5] Frothingham's Cradle of the Christ, p. 112.
[374:6] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 307.
[374:7] Orpheus is said to have been a native of Thracia, the oldest
poet of Greece, and to have written before the time of Homer; but he is
evidently a mythological character.
[375:1] See Indian Antiquities, vol. iv. p. 332, and Taylor's Diegesis,
p. 189.
[375:2] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Orpheus."
[375:3] Ibid., art. "Plato."
[375:4] John, i. 1.
[375:5] The first that we know of this gospel for certain is during the
time of Irenæus, the great Christian forger.
[375:6] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 185.
[375:7] Apol. 1. ch. xx.-xxii.
[376:1] See Fiske: Myths and Myth-makers, p. 205. _Celsus_ charges the
Christians with a _recoinage_ of the misunderstood doctrine of the
Logos.
[376:2] See Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 105.
[376:3] See Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 158.
[376:4] See Indian Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 346. Monumental
Christianity, p. 65, and Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 819.
[376:5] Ibid.
[376:6] Indian Antiquities, vol. iv. p. 259.
[376:7] See Monumental Christianity, p. 65, and Ancient Faiths, vol. ii.
p. 819.
[376:8] Monumental Christianity, p. 923. See also, Maurice's Indian
Antiquities.
[376:9] Idra Suta, Sohar, iii. 288. B. Franck, 138. Son of the Man, p.
78.
[376:10] _Vandals_--a race of European barbarians, either of Germanic or
Slavonic origin.
[377:1] Parkhurst: Hebrew Lexicon, Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 216.
[377:2] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 169. Maurice: Indian
Antiq., vol. v. p. 14, and Gross: The Heathen Religion, p. 210.
[377:3] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
[377:4] Celtic Druids, p. 171; Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 123; and Myths of
the British Druids, p. 448.
[377:5] Indian Antiquities, vol. v. pp. 8, 9.
[378:1] Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 48.
[378:2] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 169.
[378:3] Squire: Serpent Symbol, pp. 179, 180. Mexican Ant., vol. vi. p.
164.
[378:4] Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 164.
[378:5] Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 373. See also, Indian Antiq.,
vol. v. p. 26, and Squire's Serpent Symbol, p. 181.
[378:6] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 181.
[379:1] The ideas entertained concerning the antiquity of the Geeta, at
the time Mr. Maurice wrote his Indian Antiquities, were erroneous. This
work, as we have elsewhere seen, is not as old as he supposed. The
doctrine of the _Trimurti_ in India, however, is to be found in the
_Veda_, and epic poems, which are of an antiquity long anterior to the
rise of Christianity, preceding it by many centuries. (See Monier
Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 324, and Hinduism, pp. 109, 110-115.)
"The grand cavern pagoda of Elephants, the oldest and most magnificent
temple in the world, is neither more nor less than a superb temple of a
Triune God." (Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. ix.)
[379:2] Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 125-127.
[380:1] We have already seen that Plato and his followers taught the
doctrine of the Trinity centuries before the time of Christ Jesus.
[380:2] Israel Worsley's Enquiry, p. 54. Quoted in Higgins' Anacalypsis,
vol. i. p. 116.
[380:3] "The memorable test (I. John v. 7) which asserts the unity of
the three which bear witness in heaven, is condemned by the universal
silence of the orthodox Fathers, ancient versions, and authentic
manuscripts. It was first alleged by the Catholic Bishop whom Hunneric
summoned to the Conference of Carthage (A. D. 254), or, more properly,
by the four bishops who composed and published the profession of faith,
in the name of their brethren." (Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 556, and
note 117.) None of the ancient manuscripts now extant, above four-score
in number, _contain this passage_. (Ibid. note 116.) In the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, the Bible was corrected. Yet, notwithstanding these
corrections, the passage is still wanting in twenty-five Latin
manuscripts. (Ibid. note 116. See also Dr. Giles' Hebrew and Christian
Records, vol. ii. p. 12. Dr. Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 886.
Rev. Robert Taylor's Diegesis, p. 421, and Reber's Christ of Paul.)
[380:4] See Gibbon's Rome, ii. 309.
[380:5] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Trinity."
[381:1] Draper: Religion and Science, pp. 53, 54.
[382:1] Athanasius, tom. i. p. 808. Quoted in Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p.
310.
Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was so much amazed by the
extraordinary composition called "Athanasius' Creed," that he frankly
pronounced it to be the work of a drunken man. (Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii.
p. 555, note 114.)
[382:2] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 87.
[382:3] Ibid. pp. 91, 92.
[383:1] All their writings were ordered to be destroyed, and any one
found to have them in his possession was severely punished.
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