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

everlasting.[385:8] The above is the so-called "_Apostles' Creed_," as it now stands in the book of common prayer of the United Church of England and Ireland, as by law established. It is affirmed by Ambrose, that: "The twelve apostles, as skilled artificers, assembled together, and made a key by their common advice, that is, the Creed, by which the darkness of the devil is disclosed, that the light of Christ may appear." Others fable that every Apostle inserted an article, by which the Creed is divided into twelve articles. The earliest account of its origin we have from Ruffinus, an historical compiler and traditionist of the _fourth_ century, but not in the form in which it is known at present, it having been added to since that time. The most important addition is that which affirms that Jesus descended into hell, which has been added since A. D. 600.[385:9] Beside what we have already seen, the ancient Pagans had many beliefs and ceremonies which are to be found among the Christians. One of these is the story of "_The War in Heaven_." The New Testament version is as follows: "There was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."[386:1] The cause of the revolt, it is said, was that Satan, who was then an angel, desired to be as great as God. The writer of Isaiah, xiv. 13, 14, is supposed to refer to it when he says: "Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the North; I will ascend before the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." The Catholic theory of the fall of the angels is as follows: "In the beginning, before the creation of heaven and earth, God made the angels, free intelligences, and free wills, out of his love He made them, that they might be eternally happy. And that their happiness might be complete, he gave them the perfection of a created nature, that is, he gave them freedom. But happiness is only attained by the free will agreeing in its freedom to accord with the will of God. Some of the angels by an act of free will obeyed the will of God, and in such obedience found perfect happiness. Other angels, by an act of free will, rebelled against the will of God, and in such disobedience found misery."[386:2] They were driven out of heaven, after having a combat with the obedient angels, and cast into hell. The writer of second _Peter_ alludes to it in saying that God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down into hell.[386:3] The writer of _Jude_ also alludes to it in saying: "The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."[386:4] According to the _Talmudists_, Satan, whose proper name is Sammael, was one of the Seraphim of heaven, with six wings. "He was not driven out of heaven until after he had led Adam and Eve into sin; then Sammael and his host were precipitated out of the place of bliss, with God's curse to weigh them down. In the struggle between Michael and Sammael, the falling Seraph caught the wings of Michael, and tried to drag him down with him, but God saved him, when Michael derived his name,--the Rescued."[386:5] Sammael was formerly chief among the angels of God, and now he is prince among devils. His name is derived from Simme, which means, to blind and deceive. He stands on the left side of men. He goes by various names; such as "The Old Serpent," "The Unclean Spirit," "Satan," "Leviathan," and sometimes also "Asael."[387:1] According to _Hindoo_ mythology, there is a legion of evil spirits called _Rakshasas_, who are governed by a prince named _Ravana_. These Rakshasas are continually aiming to do injury to mankind, and are the same who fought desperate battles with _Indra_, and his Spirits of Light. They would have taken his paradise by storm, and subverted the whole order of the universe, if Brahma had not sent _Vishnou_ to circumvent their plans. In the _Aitareya-brahmana_ (Hindoo) written, according to Prof. Monier Williams, seven or eight centuries B. C., we have the following legend: "The gods and demons were engaged in warfare. The evil demons, like to mighty kings, Made these worlds castles; then they formed the earth Into an iron citadel, the air Into a silver fortress, and the sky Into a fort of gold. Whereat the gods Said to each other, 'Frame me other worlds In opposition to these fortresses.' Then they constructed sacrificial places, Where they performed a triple burnt oblation. By the first sacrifice they drove the demons Out of their earthly fortress, by the second Out of the air, and by the third oblation Out of the sky. Thus were the evil spirits Chased by the gods in triumph from the worlds."[387:2] The ancient _Egyptians_ were familiar with the tale of the war in heaven; and the legend of the revolt against the god Ra, the Heavenly Father, and his destruction of the revolters, was discovered by M. Naville in one of the tombs at Biban-el-moluk.[387:3] The same story is to be found among the ancient _Persian_ legends, and is related as follows: "Ahriman, the devil, was not created evil by the eternal one, but he became evil by revolting against his will. This revolt resulted in a 'war in heaven.' In this war the _Iveds_ (good angels) fought against the _Divs_ (rebellious ones) headed by _Ahriman_, and flung the conquered into Douzahk or hell."[387:4] An extract from the Persian _Zend-avesta_ reads as follows: "_Ahriman_ interrupted the order of the universe, raised an army against _Ormuzd_, and having maintained a fight against him during ninety days, was at length vanquished by Honover, the divine Word."[388:1] The _Assyrians_ had an account of a war in heaven, which was like that described in the book of Enoch and the Revelation.[388:2] This legend was also to be found among the ancient Greeks, in the struggle of the _Titans_ against _Jupiter_. Titan and all his rebellious host were cast out of heaven, and imprisoned in the dark abyss.[388:3] Among the legends of the ancient _Mexicans_ was found this same story of the war in heaven, and the downfall of the rebellious angels.[388:4] "The natives of the _Caroline Islands_ (in the North Pacific Ocean), related that one of the inferior gods, named _Merogrog_, was driven by the other gods out of heaven."[388:5] We see, therefore, that this also was an almost universal legend. The belief in _a future life_ was almost universal among nations of antiquity. The _Hindoos_ have believed from time immemorial that man has an invisible body within the material body; that is, a soul. Among the ancient _Egyptians_ the same belief was to be found. All the dead, both men and women, were spoken of as "_Osiriana_;" by which they intended to signify "gone to Osiris." Their belief in One Supreme Being, and the immortality of the soul, must have been very ancient; for on a monument, which dates ages before Abraham is said to have lived, is found this epitaph: "May thy soul attain to the Creator of all mankind." Sculptures and paintings in these grand receptacles of the dead, as translated by Champollion, represent the deceased ushered into the world of spirits by funeral deities, who announce, "A soul arrived in Amenti."[388:6] The Hindoo idea of a subtile invisible body within the material body, reappeared in the description of Greek poets. They represented the constitution of man as consisting of three principles: the soul, the invisible body, and the material body. The invisible body they called the ghost or shade, and considered it as the material portion of the soul. At death, the soul, clothed in this subtile body, went to enjoy paradise for a season, or suffer in hell till its sins were expiated. This paradise was called the "Elysian Fields," and the hell was called Tartarus. The paradise, some supposed to be a part of the lower world, some placed them in a middle zone in the air, some in the moon, and others in far-off isles in the ocean. There shone more glorious sun and stars than illuminated this world. The day was always serene, the air forever pure, and a soft, celestial light clothed all things in transfigured beauty. Majestic groves, verdant meadows, and blooming gardens varied the landscape. The river Eridanus flowed through winding banks fringed with laurel. On its borders lived heroes who had died for their country, priests who had led a pure life, artists who had embodied genuine beauty in their work, and poets who had never degraded their muse with subjects unworthy of Apollo. There each one renewed the pleasures in which he formerly delighted. Orpheus, in long white robes, made enrapturing music on his lyre, while others danced and sang. The husband rejoined his beloved wife; old friendships were renewed, the poet repeated his verses, and the charioteer managed his horses. Some souls wandered in vast forests between Tartarus and Elysium, not good enough for one, or bad enough for the other. Some were purified from their sins by exposure to searching winds, others by being submerged in deep waters, others by passing through intense fires. After a long period of probation and suffering, many of them gained the Elysian Fields. This belief is handed down to our day in the Roman Catholic idea of _Purgatory_. A belief in the existence of the soul after death was indicated in all periods of history of the world, by the fact that man was always accustomed to address prayers to the spirits of their ancestors.[389:1] These _heavens_ and _hells_ where men abode after death, vary, in different countries, according to the likes and dislikes of each nation. All the Teutonic nations held to a fixed Elysium and a hell, where the valiant and the just were rewarded, and where the cowardly and the wicked suffered punishment. As all nations have made a god, and that god has resembled the persons who made it, so have all nations made a heaven, and that heaven corresponds to the fancies of the people who have created it. In the prose Edda there is a description of the joys of _Valhalla_ (the Hall of the Chosen), which states that: "All men who have fallen in fight since the beginning of the world are gone to Odin (the Supreme God), in Valhalla." A mighty band of men are there, "and every day, as soon as they have dressed themselves, they ride out into the court (or field), and there fight until they cut each other into pieces. This is their pastime, but when the meal-tide approaches, they remount their steeds, and return to drink in _Valhalla_. As it is said (in Vafthrudnis-mal): 'The Einherjar all On Odin's plain Hew daily each other, While chosen the slain are. From the frey they then ride, And drink ale with the Æsir.'"[390:1] This description of the palace of Odin is a natural picture of the manners of the ancient Scandinavians and Germans. Prompted by the wants of their climate, and the impulse of their own temperament, they formed to themselves a delicious paradise in their own way; where they were to eat and drink, and fight. The women, to whom they assigned a place there, were introduced for no other purpose but to fill their cups. The Mohammedan paradise differs from this. Women _there_, are for man's pleasure. The day is always serene, the air forever pure, and a soft celestial light clothes all things in transfigured beauty. Majestic groves, verdant meadows, and blooming gardens vary the landscape. There, in radiant halls, dwell the departed, ever blooming and beautiful, ever laughing and gay. The American Indian calculates upon finding successful chases after wild animals, verdant plains, and no winter, as the characteristics of his "future life." The red Indian, when told by a missionary that in the "promised land" they would neither eat, drink, hunt, nor marry a wife, contemptuously replied, that instead of wishing to go there, he should deem his residence in such a place as the greatest possible calamity. Many not only rejected such a destiny for themselves, but were indignant at the attempt to decoy their children into such a comfortless region. All nations of the earth have had their heavens. As Moore observes: "A heaven, too, ye must have, ye lords of dust-- A splendid paradise, poor souls, ye must: That prophet ill sustains his holy call Who finds not heavens to suit the tastes of all. Vain things! as lust or _vanity_ inspires, The heaven of each is but what each desires." _Heaven_ was born of the sky,[391:1] and nurtured by cunning priests, who made man a coward and a slave. _Hell_ was built by priests, and nurtured by the fears and servile fancies of man during the ages when dungeons of torture were a recognized part of every government, and when God was supposed to be an infinite tyrant, with infinite resources of vengeance. _The devil_ is an imaginary being, invented by primitive man to account for the existence of evil, and relieve God of his responsibility. The famous Hindoo _Rakshasas_ of our Aryan ancestors--the dark and evil _clouds_ personified--are the originals of all devils. The cloudy shape has assumed a thousand different forms, horrible or grotesque and ludicrous, to suit the changing fancies of the ages. But strange as it may appear, the god of one nation became the devil of another. The rock of Behistun, the sculptured chronicle of the glories of Darius, king of Persia, situated on the western frontier of Media, on the high-road from Babylon to the eastward, was used as a "holy of holies." It was named _Bagistane_--"the place of the _Baga_"--referring to Ormuzd, chief of the Bagas. When examined with the lenses of linguistic science, the "_Bogie_" or "_Bug-a-boo_" or "_Bugbear_" of nursery lore, turns out to be identical with the Slavonic "_Bog_" and the "_Baga_" of the cuneiform inscriptions, both of which are names of the _Supreme Being_. It is found also in the old Aryan "_Bhaga_," who is described in a commentary of the _Rig-Veda_ as the lord of life, the giver of bread, and the bringer of happiness. Thus, the same name which, to the _Vedic_ poet, to the Persian of the time of Xerxes, and to the modern Russian, suggests the supreme majesty of deity, is in English associated with an ugly and ludicrous fiend. Another striking illustration is to be found in the word _devil_ itself. When traced back to its primitive source, it is found to be a name of the Supreme Being.[391:2] The ancients had a great number of festival days, many of which are handed down to the present time, and are to be found in Christianity. We have already seen that the 25th of December was almost a universal festival among the ancients; so it is the same with the _spring_ festivals, when days of fasting are observed. The _Hindoos_ hold a festival, called _Siva-ratri_, in honor of _Siva_, about the middle or end of February. _A strict fast is observed during the day._ They have also a festival in April, when a strict fast is kept by some.[392:1] At the _spring equinox_ most nations of antiquity set apart a day to implore the blessings of their god, or gods, on the fruits of the earth. At the autumnal equinox, they offered the fruits of the harvest, and returned thanks. In China, these religious solemnities are called "Festivals of gratitude to Tien."[392:2] The last named corresponds to _our_ "Thanksgiving" celebration. One of the most considerable festivals held by the ancient _Scandinavians_ was the _spring_ celebration. This was held in honor of Odin, at the beginning of spring, in order to welcome in that pleasant season, and to obtain of their god happy success in their projected expeditions. Another festival was held toward the autumn equinox, when they were accustomed to kill all their cattle in good condition, and lay in a store of provision for the winter. This festival was also attended with religious ceremonies, when Odin, the supreme god, was thanked for what he had given them, by having his altar loaded with the fruits of their crops, and the choicest products of the earth.[392:3] There was a grand celebration in Egypt, called the "Feast of Lamps," held at Sais, in honor of the goddess Neith. Those who did not attend the ceremony, as well as those who did, burned lamps before their houses all night, filled with oil and salt: thus all Egypt was illuminated. It was deemed a great irreverence to the goddess for any one to omit this ceremony.[392:4] The _Hindoos_ also held a festival in honor of the goddesses Lakshmi and Bhavanti, called "_The feast of Lamps_."[392:5] This festival has been handed down to the present time in what is called "Candlemas day," or the purification of the Virgin Mary. The most celebrated Pagan festival held by modern Christians is that known as "_Sunday_," or the "Lord's day." All the principal nations of antiquity kept the _seventh_ day of the week as a "holy day," just as the ancient Israelites did. This was owing to the fact that they consecrated the days of the week to the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. _The seventh day was sacred to Saturn from time immemorial._ Homer and Hesiod call it the "Holy Day."[393:1] The people generally visited the temples of the gods, on that day, and offered up their prayers and supplications.[393:2] The Acadians, thousands of years ago, kept holy the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of each month as _Salum_ (rest), on which certain works were forbidden.[393:3] The _Arabs_ anciently worshiped Saturn under the name of Hobal. In his hands he held _seven_ arrows, symbols of the planets that preside over the seven days of the week.[393:4] The _Egyptians_ assigned a day of the week to the sun, moon, and five planets, and the number _seven_ was held there in great reverence.[393:5] The planet _Saturn_ very early became the chief deity of Semitic religion. Moses consecrated the number seven to him.[393:6] In the _old_ conception, which finds expression in the Decalogue in Deuteronomy (v. 15), the Sabbath has a purely theocratic significance, and is intended to remind the Hebrews of their miraculous deliverance from the land of Egypt and bondage. When the story of _Creation_ was borrowed from the _Babylonians_, the celebration of the Sabbath was established on entirely new grounds (Ex. xx. 11), for we find it is because the "Creator," after his six days of work, rested on the seventh, that the day should be kept holy. The Assyrians kept this day holy. Mr. George Smith says: "In the year 1869, I discovered among other things a curious religious calendar of the Assyrians, in which every month is divided into four weeks, and the _seventh_ days or '_Sabbaths_,' are marked out as days on which no work should be undertaken."[393:7] The ancient _Scandinavians_ consecrated one day in the week to their Supreme God, _Odin_ or _Wodin_.[393:8] Even at the present time we call this day _Odin's-day_.[393:9] The question now arises, how was the great festival day changed from the _seventh_--Saturn's day--to the _first_--_Sun_-day--among the Christians? "If we go back to the founding of the church, we find that the most marked feature of that age, so far as the church itself is concerned, is the grand division between the 'Jewish faction,' as it was called, and the followers of Paul. This division was so deep, so marked, so characteristic, that it has left its traces all through the New Testament itself. It was one of the grand aspects of the time, and the point on which they were divided was simply this: the followers of Peter, those who adhered to the teachings of the central church in Jerusalem, held that all Christians, both converted Jews and Gentiles, were under obligation to keep the Mosaic law, ordinances, and traditions. That is, a Christian, according to their definition, was first a Jew; Christianity was something _added to_ that, not something taking the place of it. "We find this controversy raging violently all through the early churches, and splitting them into factions, so that they were the occasion of prayer and counsel. Paul took the ground distinctly that Christianity, while it might be spiritually the lineal successor of Judaism, was not Judaism; and that he who became a Christian, whether a converted Jew or Gentile, was under no obligation whatever to keep the Jewish law, so far as it was separate from practical matters of life and character. We find this intimated in the writings of Paul; for we have to go to the New Testament for the origin of that which, we find, existed immediately after the New Testament was written. Paul says: 'One man esteemeth one day above another: another man esteemeth every day alike' (Rom. xiv. 5-9). He leaves it an open question; they can do as they please. Then: 'Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain' (Gal. iv. 10, 11). And if you will note this Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, you will find that the whole purpose of his writing it was to protest against what he believed to be the viciousness of the Judaizing influences. That is, he says: 'I have come to preach to you the perfect truth, that Christ hath made us free; and you are going back and taking upon yourselves this yoke of bondage. My labor is being thrown away; my efforts have been in vain.' Then he says, in his celebrated Epistle to the Colossians, that has never yet been explained away or met: 'Let no man therefore judge you any more in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days' (Col. ii. 16, 17), distinctly abrogating the binding authority of the Sabbath on the Christian church. So that, if Paul's word anywhere means anything--if his authority is to be taken as of binding force on any point whatever--then Paul is to be regarded as authoritatively and distinctly abrogating the Sabbath, and declaring that it is no longer binding on the Christian church."[395:1] This breach in the early church, this controversy, resulted at last in Paul's going up to Jerusalem "to meet James and the representatives of the Jerusalem church, to see if they could find any common platform of agreement--if they could come together so that they could work with mutual respect and without any further bickering. What is the platform that they met upon? It was distinctly understood that those who wished to keep up the observance of Judaism should do so; and the church at Jerusalem gave Paul this grand freedom, substantially saying to him: 'Go back to your missionary work, found churches, and teach them that they are perfectly free in regard to all Mosaic and Jewish observances, save only these four: Abstain from pollutions of idols, from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood."[395:2] The point to which our attention is forcibly drawn is, that the question of Sabbath-keeping is one of those that is left out. The point that Paul had been fighting for was conceded by the central church at Jerusalem, and he was to go out thenceforth free, so far as that was concerned, in his teaching of the churches that he should found. There is no mention of the Sabbath, or the Lord's day, as binding in the New Testament. What, then, was the actual condition of affairs? What did the churches do in the first three hundred years of their existence? Why, they did just what Paul and the Jerusalem church had agreed upon. Those who wished to keep the Jewish Sabbath did so; and those who did not wish to, did not do so. This is seen from the fact that Justin Martyr, a Christian Father who flourished about A. D. 140, did not observe the day. In his "Dialogue" with Typho, the Jew reproaches the Christians for not keeping the "Sabbath." Justin admits the charge by saying: "Do you not see that the Elements keep no Sabbaths and are never idle? Continue as you were created. If there was no need of circumcision before Abraham's time, and no need of the Sabbath, of festivals and oblations, before the time of Moses, _neither of them are necessary after the coming of Christ_. If any among you is guilty of perjury, fraud, or other crimes, let him cease from them and repent, and he will have kept _the_ kind of Sabbath pleasing to God." There was no binding authority then, among the Christians, as to whether they should keep the first or the seventh day of the week holy, or not, until the time of the first Christian Roman Emperor. "_Constantine, a Sun worshiper, who had, as other Heathen, kept the Sun-day, publicly ordered this to supplant the Jewish Sabbath._"[396:1] He commanded that this day should be kept holy, throughout the whole Roman empire, and sent an edict to all governors of provinces to this effect.[396:2] _Thus we see how the great Pagan festival, in honor of Sol the invincible, was transformed into a Christian holy-day._ Not only were Pagan festival days changed into Christian holy-days, but Pagan idols were converted into Christian saints, and Pagan temples into Christian churches. A Pagan temple at Rome, formerly sacred to the "_Bona Dea_" (the "Good Goddess"), was Christianized and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In a place formerly sacred to Apollo, there now stands the church of Saint Apollinaris. Where there anciently stood the temple of Mars, may now be seen the church of Saint Martine.[396:3] A Pagan temple, originally dedicated to "_Cælestis Dea_" (the "Heavenly Goddess"), by one Aurelius, a Pagan high-priest, was converted into a Christian church by another Aurelius, created Bishop of Carthage in the year 390 of Christ. He placed his episcopal chair in the very place where the statue of the Heavenly Goddess had stood.[396:4] The noblest heathen temple now remaining in the world, is the _Pantheon_ or _Rotunda_, which, as the inscription over the portico informs us, having been _impiously_ dedicated of old by Agrippa to "Jove and all the gods," was _piously_ reconsecrated by Pope Boniface the Fourth, to "The Mother of God and all the Saints."[396:5] The church of Saint Reparatae, at Florence, was formerly a Pagan temple. An inscription was found in the foundation of this church, of these words: "To the Great Goddess Nutria."[396:6] The church of St. Stephen, at Bologna, was formed from heathen temples, one of which was a temple of Isis.[396:7] At the southern extremity of the present Forum at Rome, and just under the Palatine hill--where the noble babes, who, miraculously preserved, became the founders of a state that was to command the world, were exposed--stands the church of St. Theodore. This temple was built in honor of Romulus, and the brazen wolf--commemorating the curious manner in which the founders of Rome were nurtured--occupied a place here till the sixteenth century. And, as the Roman matrons of old used to carry their children, when ill, to the temple of Romulus, so too, the women still carry their children to St. Theodore on the same occasions. In _Christianizing_ these Pagan temples, free use was made of the sculptured and painted stones of heathen monuments. In some cases they evidently painted over one name, and inserted another. This may be seen from the following INSCRIPTIONS FORMERLY IN PAGAN TEMPLES.