Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane

[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.