Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane
CHAPTER VII.
1451 words | Chapter 55
RECEIVING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
The receiving of the _Ten Commandments_ by Moses, from the Lord, is
recorded in the following manner:
"In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone
forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into
the wilderness of Sinai, . . . and there Israel camped before
the Mount. . . .
"And it came to pass on the third day that there were thunders
and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the
voice of the tempest exceedingly loud, so that all the people
that was in the camp trembled. . . .
"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord
descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as
the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly.
And when the voice of the tempest sounded long, and waxed
louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a
voice.
"_And the Lord came down upon the Mount_, and called Moses up
to the top of the Mount, and Moses went up."[58:1]
The Lord there communed with him, and "he gave unto Moses . . . . two
tables of testimony, tables of stone, _written with the finger of
God_."[58:2]
When Moses came down from off the Mount, he found the children of Israel
dancing around a golden calf, which his brother Aaron had made, and, as
his "anger waxed hot," he cast the tables of stone on the ground, and
broke them.[58:3] Moses again saw the Lord on the Mount, however, and
received two more tables of stone.[58:4] When he came down this time
from off Mount Sinai, "the skin of his face did shine."[58:5]
These two tables of stone contained the _Ten Commandments_,[59:1] so it
is said, which the Jews and Christians of the present day are supposed
to take for their standard.
They are, in substance, as follows:
1--To have no other God but Jehovah.
2--To make no image for purpose of worship.
3--Not to take Jehovah's name in vain.
4--Not to work on the Sabbath-day.
5--To honor their parents.
6--Not to kill.
7--Not to commit adultery.
8--Not to steal.
9--Not to bear false witness against a neighbor.
10--Not to covet.[59:2]
We have already seen, in the last chapter, that Bacchus was called the
"_Law-giver_," and that his laws were written on _two tables of
stone_.[59:3] This feature in the Hebrew legend was evidently copied
from that related of Bacchus, but, the idea of his (Moses) receiving the
commandments from the Lord on a _mountain_ was obviously taken from the
_Persian_ legend related of Zoroaster.
Prof. Max Müller says:
"What applies to the religion of Moses applies to that of
Zoroaster. It is placed before us as a complete system from
the first, _revealed by Ahuramazda_ (Ormuzd), _proclaimed by
Zoroaster_."[59:4]
The disciples of Zoroaster, in their profusion of legends of the master,
relate that one day, as he prayed _on a high mountain_, in the midst of
thunders and lightnings ("fire from heaven"), the Lord himself appeared
before him, and delivered unto him the "Book of the Law." While the King
of Persia and the people were assembled together, Zoroaster came down
from the mountain unharmed, bringing with him the "Book of the Law,"
which had been revealed to him by Ormuzd. They call this book the
_Zend-Avesta_, which signifies the _Living Word_.[59:5]
According to the religion of the Cretans, Minos, their law-giver,
ascended a _mountain_ (Mount Dicta) and there received from the Supreme
Lord (Zeus) the sacred laws which he brought down with him.[60:1]
Almost all nations of antiquity have legends of their holy men ascending
a _mountain_ to ask counsel of the gods, such places being invested with
peculiar sanctity, and deemed nearer to the deities than other portions
of the earth.[60:2]
According to Egyptian belief, it is Thoth, the Deity itself, that speaks
and reveals to his elect among men the will of God and the arcana of
divine things. Portions of them are expressly stated to have been
written by the very finger of Thoth himself; to have been the work and
composition of the great god.[60:3]
Diodorus, the Grecian historian, says:
The idea promulgated by the ancient Egyptians that their _laws_ were
received direct from the Most High God, _has been adopted with success
by many other law-givers, who have thus insured respect for their
institutions_.[60:4]
The Supreme God of the ancient Mexicans was _Tezcatlipoca_. He occupied
a position corresponding to the Jehovah of the Jews, the Brahma of
India, the Zeus of the Greeks, and the Odin of the Scandinavians. His
name is compounded of Tezcatepec, the name of a _mountain_ (_upon which
he is said to have manifested himself to man_) _tlil_, dark, and _poca_,
smoke. The explanation of this designation is given in the _Codex
Vaticanus_, as follows:
Tezcatlipoca was one of their most potent deities; they say he once
appeared on the top of a mountain. They paid him great reverence and
adoration, and addressed him, in their prayers, as "Lord, whose servant
we are." No man ever saw his face, for he appeared only "as a shade."
Indeed, the Mexican idea of the godhead was similar to that of the Jews.
Like Jehovah, Tezcatlipoca dwelt in the "midst of thick darkness." _When
he descended upon the mount of Tezcatepec, darkness overshadowed the
earth, while fire and water, in mingled streams, flowed from beneath his
feet, from its summit._[61:1]
Thus, we see that other nations, beside the Hebrews, believed that their
laws were actually received from God, that they had legends to that
effect, and that a _mountain_ figures conspicuously in the stories.
Professor Oort, speaking on this subject, says:
"No one who has any knowledge of antiquity will be surprised
at this, for similar beliefs were very common. All peoples who
had issued from a life of barbarism and acquired regular
political institutions, more or less elaborate laws, and
established worship, and maxims of morality, attributed all
this--their birth as a nation, so to speak--to one or more
great men, all of whom, without exception, _were supposed to
have received their knowledge from some deity_.
"Whence did Zoroaster, the prophet of the Persians, derive his
religion? According to the beliefs of his followers, and the
doctrines of their sacred writings, it was from Ahuramazda,
the God of light. Why did the Egyptians represent the god
Thoth with a writing tablet and a pencil in his hand, and
honor him especially as the god of the priests? Because he was
'the Lord of the divine Word,' the foundation of all wisdom,
from whose inspiration the priests, who were the scholars, the
lawyers, and the religious teachers of the people, derived all
their wisdom. Was not Minos, the law-giver of the Cretans, the
friend of Zeus, the highest of the gods? Nay, was he not even
his son, and did he not ascend to the sacred cave on Mount
Dicte to bring down the laws which his god had placed there
for him? From whom did the Spartan law-giver, Lycurgus,
himself say that he had obtained his laws? From no other than
the god Apollo. The Roman legend, too, in honoring Numa
Pompilius as the people's instructor, at the same time
ascribed all his wisdom to his intercourse with the nymph
Egeria. It was the same elsewhere; and to make one more
example,--this from later times--Mohammed not only believed
himself to have been called immediately by God to be the
prophet of the Arabs, but declared that he had received every
page of the Koran from the hand of the angel Gabriel."[61:2]
FOOTNOTES:
[58:1] Exodus xix.
[58:2] Exodus xxxi. 18.
[58:3] Exodus xxii. 19.
[58:4] Exodus xxxiv.
[58:5] Ibid.
It was a common belief among ancient Pagan nations that the gods
appeared and conversed with men. As an illustration we may cite the
following, related by _Herodotus_, the Grecian historian, who, in
speaking of Egypt and the Egyptians, says: "There is a large city called
Chemmis, situated in the Thebaic district, near Neapolis, in which is a
quadrangular temple dedicated to (the god) Perseus, son of (the Virgin)
Danae; palm-trees grow round it, and the portico is of stone, very
spacious, and over it are placed two large stone statues. In this
inclosure is a temple, and in it is placed a statue of Perseus. The
Chemmitæ (or inhabitants of Chemmis), _affirm that Perseus has
frequently appeared to them on earth, and frequently within the
temple_." (Herodotus, bk. ii. ch. 91.)
[59:1] _Buddha_, the founder of Buddhism, had TEN commandments. 1. Not
to kill. 2. Not to steal. 3. To be chaste. 4 Not to bear false witness.
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