The Great Red Dragon The Two Babylons - Alexander Hislop Kenneth Sublett, pineycom.com, Hohenwald, Tennessee Chapter VII The Two Developments Historically and Prophetically Considered: Black Text is Alexander Hislop.
The MARK.
Priesthoods as Khana-Baal or Cannibals sent to destroy churches
Further notes on the priesthood as cannibalsHitherto we have considered the history of the Two Babylons chiefly in detail. Now we are to view them as organised systems. The idolatrous system of the ancient Babylon assumed different phases in different periods of its history. In the prophetic description of the modern Babylon, there is evidently also a development of different powers at different times. Do these two developments bear any typical relation to each other? Yes, they do. When we bring the religious history of the ancient Babylonian Paganism to bear on the prophetic symbols that shadow forth the organised working of idolatry in Rome, it will be found that it casts as much light on this view of the subject as on that which has hitherto engaged our attention. The powers of iniquity at work in the modern Babylon are specifically described in chapters 12 and 13 of the Revelation; and they are as follows:--I. The Great Red Dragon;
II. The Beast that comes up out of the sea;
III. The Beast that ascendeth out of the earth; and
IV. The Image of the Beast. In all these respects it will be found, on inquiry, that, in regard to succession and order of development,the Paganism of the Old Testament Babylon was the exact type of the Paganism of the new.
Section I -- The Great Red Dragon See Dr. Rubel Shelly on Baptizing Santa
See Dr. Rubel Shelly on Baptizing the S.U.N.This formidable enemy of the truth is particularly described in Revelation 12:3--"And there appeared another wonder in heaven, a great red dragon."
It is admitted on all hands that this is the first grand enemy that in Gospel times assaulted the Christian Church. If the terms in which it is described, and the deeds attributed to it, are considered, it will be found that there is a great analogy between it and the first enemy of all,
........... that appeared against the ancient Church of God soon after the Flood.See The Sons of God.
Chapter XIII.-Origin of Idolatry. Clement"But when all these things were done, men turned again to impiety; [There is a similar chapter in Homily IX. 7, but in a discourse: on the following day.-R.] and on this account a law was given by God to instruct them in the manner of living.
But in process of time, the worship of God and righteousness were corrupted by the unbelieving and the wicked, as we shall show more fully by and by.
Moreover, perverse and erratic religions were introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselves up,
by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinkings and banquets,
following pipes, and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging themselves in all kinds of drunkenness and luxury.Hence every kind of error took rise; hence they invented groves and altars, fillets and victims, and after drunkenness they were agitated as if with mad emotions.
By this means power was given to the demons to enter into minds of this sort, so that they seemed to lead insane dances and to rave like Bacchanalians; hence were invented the gnashing of teeth, and bellowing from the depth of their bowels; hence a terrible countenance and a fierce aspect in men, so that he whom drunkenness had subverted and a demon had instigated, was believed by the deceived and the erring to be filled with the Deity.
"According to the system which Nimrod was the grand instrument in introducing, men were led to believethat a real spiritual change of heart was unnecessary, and that so far as change was needful, they could be regenerated by mere external means.
"Looking at the subject in the light of the Bacchanalian orgies (Read Ephesus and Corinth), which, as the reader has seen, commemorated the history of Nimrod, it is evident that he led mankind to seek their chief good in sensual enjoyment,
and showed them how they might enjoy the pleasures of sin, without any fear of the wrath of a holy God. (Voodoo, Rock, Boogie Woogie becomes Contemporary Christian Music)
"In his various expeditions he was always accompanied by troops of women; and by music and song, and games (ritual drama) and revelries, and everything that could please the natural hearts, he commended himself to the good graces of mankind." (Hislop, Alexander, The Two Babylons, p. 55, Loizeaux Brothers)
The term dragon, according to the associations currently connected with it, is somewhat apt to mislead the reader, by recalling to his mind the fabulous dragons of the Dark Ages, equipped with wings. At the time this Divine description was given,
the term dragon had no such meaning among either profane or sacred writers. "The dragon of the Greeks," says Pausanias, "was only a large snake"; and the context shows that this is the very case here; for what in the third verse is called a "dragon," in the fourteenth is simply described as a "serpent."
Then the word rendered "Red" properly means "Fiery"; so that the "Red Dragon" signifies the "Fiery Serpent" or "Serpent of Fire." Exactly so does it appear to have been in the first form of idolatry,
that, under the patronage of Nimrod, appeared in the ancient world.
The "Serpent of Fire" in the plains of Shinar seems to have been the grand object of worship.
There is the strongest evidence that apostacy among the sons of Noah began in fire-worship, and that in connection with the symbol of the serpent.We have seen already, on different occasions, that fire was worshipped as the enlightener and the purifier. Now, it was thus at the very beginning; for Nimrod is singled out by the voice of antiquity as commencing this fire-worship. The identity of Nimrod and Ninus has already been proved; and under the name of Ninus, also, he is represented as originating the same practice.
In a fragment of Apollodorus it is said that "Ninus taught the Assyrians to worship fire." The sun, as the great source of light and heat, was worshipped under the name of Baal. Now, the fact that the sun, under that name, was worshipped in the earliest ages of the world, shows the audacious character of these first beginnings of apostacy.
Men have spoken as if the worship of the sun and of the heavenly bodies was a very excusable thing, into which the human race might very readily and very innocently fall. But how stands the fact?
Job, as one of the oldest writings, repudiated sun and moon worship:
If I rejoice because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much; Job 31:25If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; Job 31:26
and my heart has been secretly enticed, and I have worshiped them by kissing my hand to them, Job 31:27
........... This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge:
........... for I should have denied the God that is above. Job 31:28According to the primitive language of mankind, the sun was called "Shemesh"--that is, "the Servant"--that name, no doubt, being divinely given, to keep the world in mind of the great truth that,
........... however glorious was the orb of day, it was, after all,
........... the appointed Minister of the bounty of the great unseen Creator to His creatures upon earth.Men knew this, and yet with the full knowledge of it, they put the servant in the place of the Master; and called the sun Baal--that is, the Lord--and worshipped him accordingly.
Job also understood that living righ and treating others right was just too hard. Therefore, they converted worship in spirit to performing musical fertility rituals.
- Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job 21:7
- Their seed is established in their sight with them,
- and their offspring before their eyes. Job 21: 8
- Their houses are safe from fear,
- neither is the rod of God upon them. Job 21: 9
- Their bull gendereth, and faileth not;
- their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. Job 21: 10
- They send forth their little ones like a flock,
- and their children dance. Job 21: 11
- They take the timbrel and harp,
- and rejoice at the sound of the organ. Job 21: 12
- They spend their days in wealth,
- and in a moment go down to the grave. Job 21: 13
- Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us;
- for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Job 21: 14
- What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
- and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? Job 21: 15
What a meaning, then, in the saying of Paul, that, "when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God"; but "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed for ever."
And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Acts 7:41
Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Acts 7:42
Amos was not bad mouthing a "bad mental attitude" but he was condemning the worship of the host of heaven which began at Mount Sinai as a terminal sin in musical idolatry.
This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. Jer 19:12
Topheth is named after:
Taphaph (h8606) taw-faf'; a prim. root; to drum, i. e. play (as) on the tambourine: - taber, play with timbrels.
The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth--all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'" Jer 19:13
See how all of the nations would be destroyed to the beat of musical instruments.
The beginning, then, of sun-worship, and of the worship of the host of heaven, was a sin against the light--a presumptuous, heaven-daring sin.
- As the sun in the heavens was the great object of worship,
- so fire was worshipped as its earthly representative.
- (and) shall not glorify Shamash (Sun God), the light of the great gods,
- Or shall change the name of Ashurbanipal,
- the exercise of whose kingship Shamash in a vision commanded,
- and then shall name another royal name,
- May his playing on the harp be displeasing to the people;
- may his song of rejoicing be a thorn and a thistle.
To this primeval fire-worship Vitruvius alludes when he says that "men were first formed into states and communities by meeting around fires." And this is exactly in conformity with what we have already seen in regard to Phoroneus, whom we have identified with Nimrod, that while he was said to be the "inventor of fire," he was also regarded as the first that "gathered mankind into communities."
Along with the sun, as the great fire-god, and, in due time, identified with him, was the serpent worshipped.
as the sun was the great enlightener of the physical world
so the serpent was held to have been the great enlightener of the spiritual,
........... by giving mankind the "knowledge of good and evil."Sophia, Eve, Zoe and Mary are identified as the great enlighteners, the Mother of the gods. Zoe taught the minor "jehovahs" how to organize instrumental music bands. She is quite identical to Lucifer, the enlightener and "they called her the Beast." Shophia-Zoe are "the female instructing principle."
This, of course, implies tremendous depravity on the part of the ring-leaders in such a system, considering the period when it began; but such appears to have been the real meaning of the identification. At all events, we have evidence, both Scriptural and profane,
for the fact, that the worship of the serpent began side by side with the worship of fire and the sun. See the Worship of Shamash
Can we Baptize Santa and S.U.N. worship to replace the S.O.N?
The inspired statement of Paul seems decisive on the subject. It was, he says, "when men knew God, but glorified Him not as God," that they changed the glory of God, not only into an image made like to corruptible man, but into the likeness of "creeping things"--that is, of serpents (Rom 1:23).
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Rom 1:18
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. Rom 1: 19
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Rom 1: 20
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Rom 1: 21
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Rom 1: 22
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Rom 1: 23Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Rom 1: 24
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. Rom 1: 25
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: Rom 1: 26
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. Rom 1: 27
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Rom 1: 28
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Rom 1: 29
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Rom 1: 30
........... Without understanding, Rom 1: 31In the Exodus, it happened this way:
Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20: 7
But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 20: 8
But I wrought for my names sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 20: 9
Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. Ezekiel 20:10
And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Ezekiel 20:11
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. Ezekiel 20:12
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted:
then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. Ezekiel 20:13
Pollute means:
Chalal (h2490) khaw-lal'; a prim. root [comp. 2470]; prop. to bore, i. e. (by impl.) to wound, to dissolve; fig. to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to play (the flute): - begin (* men began), defile, * break, defile, * eat (as common things), * first, * gather the grape thereof, * take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self), prostitute, slay (slain), sorrow, stain, wound.
This is why God had the people's "congregation" put outside the gates when the music began for animal sacrifices.
Based on the word "pollute," "play," the example of Samson and David and scholarly opinion, the "because of transgression" was musical idolatry:
"The triumphal hymn of Moses had unquestionably a religious character about it; but
the employment of music in religious services, though idolatrous,
is more distinctly marked in the festivities which attended the erection of the golden calf." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Music, p. 589).The Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon notes of serpent worship:
In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals, 11:15 -
........... thou didst send upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them,
........... ........... that they might learn that one is punished
........... ........... by the very things by which he sins. (Revelation 18) 11:16 -Stephen was murdered in part for denying that God lived in houses or was worshiped with the works of men's hands:
And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Acts 7:41
Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Acts 7:42
"Then God turned away from them and gave them up, and let them serve the sun, moon, and stars as their gods! In the book of Amos' prophecies the Lord God asks, 'Was it to me you were sacrificing during those forty years in the desert, Israel? Acts 7:42LIV
With this profane history exactly coincides. Of profane writers, Sanchuniathon, the Phoenician, who is believed to have lived about the time of Joshua, says--
"Thoth first attributed something of the divine nature to the serpent and the serpent tribe, in which he was followed by the Phoenicians and Egyptians. For this animal was esteemed by him to be the most spiritual of all the reptiles, and of a FIERY nature, inasmuch as it exhibits an incredible celerity, moving by its spirit, without either hands or feet...Moreover, it is long-lived, and has the quality of RENEWING ITS YOUTH...as Thoth has laid down in the sacred books; upon which accounts this animal is introduced in the sacred rites and Mysteries."
Now, Thoth, it will be remembered, was the counsellor of Thamus, that is, Nimrod. From this statement, then, we are led to the conclusion that serpent-worship was a part of the primeval apostacy of Nimrod. The "FIERY NATURE" of the serpent, alluded to in the above extract, is continually celebrated by the heathen poets.
See Nimrod and Musical Female Harem of the gods.
Thus Virgil, "availing himself," as the author of Pompeii remarks, "of the divine nature attributed to serpents," describes the sacred serpent that came from the tomb of Anchises, when his son Aeneas had been sacrificing before it, in such terms as illustrate at once the language of the Phoenician, and the "Fiery Serpent" of the passage before us:--
"Scarce had he finished, when, with speckled pride,
A serpent from the tomb began to glide;
His hugy bulk on seven high volumes rolled,
Blue was his breadth of back, but streaked with scaly gold.
Thus, riding on his curls, he seemed to pass
A rolling fire along, and singe the grass."It is not wonderful, then, the fire-worship and serpent-worship should be conjoined.The serpent, also, as "renewing its youth" every year, (A Jubilee)
was plausibly represented to those who wished an excuse for idolatryas a meet emblem of the sun, the great regenerator,
who every year regenerates and renews the face of nature, and who, when deified, was worshipped as the grand Regenerator of the souls of men.In the chapter under consideration, the "great fiery serpent" is represented with all the emblems of royalty. All its heads are encircled with "crowns or diadems"; and so in Egypt, the serpent of fire, or serpent of the sun,
in Greek was called the Basilisk, that is, the "royal serpent," to identify it with Moloch, which name, while it recalls the ideas both of fire and blood, properly signifies "the King."
In the LXX version God asks why people must always go in procession with instruments to the temple. Then, he shows how He will judge Assyria, the "mother" of serpent worship as even Jews burned babies in what had been Solomon's "music grove."
Must ye always rejoice, and go into my holy places continually, as they that keep a feast? and must ye go with a pipe, as those that rejoice into the mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel Isaiah 30:29 LXX
And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. Isaiah 30:30
For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. Isaiah 30: 31
And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. Isaiah 30: 32
And it shall happen to him from every side, that they from whom their hope of assistance was, in which he trusted, themselves shall war against him in turn with drums and with harp. Isaiah 30:32 LXX
God uses that which people LUST AFTER to destroy them. In the Dead Sea Scrolls a Psalm like Psalm 41 is translated to define the idea that Judas will not triumph over Jesus. They attacked Jesus as Beliar, Beelzebub or Satan using instrumental music to panic Him or "melt His heart." In the end, the military weapons will be turned on those who refused to trust in God's Word.
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. Isaiah 30: 33
Of Lucifer, a "Zoe" figure was androgynous. He (she) used the King (queen) of Babylon as her change agent:
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. Isaiah 14:9
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Isaiah 14:10
Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm (maggots) is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. Isaiah 14:11
In the Battle of Baal and Yahm:
- . . . And in Yahm will be the sieve of destruction, And in Yahm will be the breast of [death];
- (in) Judge Nahar will be "gnawers", There "maggots move about. . .
There the sword I will destroy (S).- . . . /the house I will burn (S). To the earth will fall [the strength of us two/
the noble (S)]; and into the dust [the might of us two/ the mighty (S)]."- Scarce have come these words from his/her mouth;
his/her speech and - the utterance of his/her uttered his/her - voice from his/her lips/
And she raises her voice: when/but he groaned/sank/keeps lying in wait (?)/ "May he sink- beside the foot of - the throne of Prince Yahm.
Thereupon answers Kothar wa Khasis: "Truly, indeed, I have been telling you...The Basilisk was always, among the Egyptians, and among many nations besides, regarded as "the very type of majesty and dominion." As such, its image was worn affixed to the head-dress of the Egyptian monarchs; and it was not lawful for any one else to wear it. The sun identified with this serpent was called "P'ouro," which signifies at one "the Fire" and "the King," and from this very name the epithet "Purros," the "Fiery," is given to the "Great seven-crowned serpent" of our text. *
* The word Purros in the text does not exclude the idea of "Red," for the sun-god was painted red to identify him with Moloch, at once the god of fire and god of blood.--(WILKINSON). The primary leading idea, however, is that of Fire.
Britannica: Cockatrice also called Basilisk, in the legends of Hellenistic and Roman times, a small serpent, possibly the Egyptian cobra, known as a basilikos ("kinglet") and credited with powers of destroying all animal and vegetable life by its mere look or breath. Only the weasel, which secreted a venom deadly to the cockatrice, was safe from its powers.
By the beginning of the 17th century more marvels had been added to the legend. The snake was said to be generated from an egg laid by a cock and hatched by a serpent. In addition to the weasel, another enemy was the cock;
if the basilisk heard a cock crow, it would shortly die. Thus travelers in regions allegedly infested by the basilisk took cocks with them.
Thus was the Sun, the Great Fire-god, identified with the Serpent. But he had also a human representative, and that was Tammuz, for whom the daughters of Israel lamented, in other words Nimrod.
We have already seen the identity of Nimrod and Zoroaster. Now, Zoroaster was not only the head of the Chaldean Mysteries, but, as all admit, the head of the fire-worshippers. (see note below) The title given to Nimrod, as the first of the Babylonian kings, by Berosus, indicates the same thing. That title is Alorus, that is, "the god of fire." As Nimrod, "the god of fire," was Molk-Gheber, or, "the Mighty king," inasmuch as he was the first who was called Moloch, or King, and the first who began to be "mighty" (Gheber) on the earth, we see at once how it was that the "passing through the fire to Moloch" originated, and how the god of fire among the Romans came to be called "Mulkiber." *
* Commonly spelled Mulciber (OVID, Art. Am.); but the Roman c was hard. From the epithet "Gheber," the Parsees, or fire-worshippers of India, are still called "Guebres."
It was only after his death, however, that he appears to have been deified.
Then, retrospectively, he was worshipped as the child of the Sun, or the Sun incarnate. In his own life-time, however, he set up no higher pretensions than that of being Bol-Khan, or Priest of Baal, from which the other name of the Roman fire-god Vulcan is evidently derived. Everything in the history of Vulcan exactly agrees with that of Nimrod. Vulcan was "the most ugly and deformed" of all the gods.
Nimrod, over all the world, is represented with the features and complexion of a negro. Though Vulcan was so ugly, that when he sought a wife, "all the beautiful goddesses rejected him with horror"; yet "Destiny, the irrevocable, interposed, and pronounced the decree, by which [Venus] the most beautiful of the goddesses, was united to the most unsightly of the gods."
So, in spite of the black and Cushite features of Nimrod, he had for his queen Semiramis, the most beautiful of women. The wife of Vulcan was noted for her infidelities and licentiousness; the wife of Nimrod was the very same. * Vulcan was the head and chief of the Cyclops, that is, "the kings of flame." **
* Nimrod, as universal king, was Khuk-hold, "King of the world." As such, the emblem of his power was the bull's horns.
Hence the origin of the Cuckhold's horns.
** Kuclops, from Khuk, "king," and Lohb, "flame." The image of the great god was represented with three eyes--one in the forehead; hence the story of the Cyclops with the one eye in the forehead.
Nimrod was the head of the fire-worshippers. Vulcan was the forger of the thunderbolts by which such havoc was made among the enemies of the gods. Ninus, or Nimrod, in his wars with the king of Bactria, seems to have carried on the conflict in a similar way.
From Arnobius 5. we learn, that when the Assyrians under Ninus made war against the Bactrians,
........... the warfare was waged not only by the sword and bodily strength,
........... but by magic and by means derived from the secret instructions (incantations) of the Chaldeans.24. These are your ideas, these are your sentiments, impiously conceived, and more impiously believed. Nay, rather, to speak out more truly, the augurs, the dream interpreters, the soothsayers, the prophets, and the priestlings, ever vain, have devised these fables;
for they, fearing that their own arts be brought to nought, and that they may extort but scanty contributions from the devotees, now few and infrequent, whenever they have found you to be willing that their craft should come into disrepute, cry aloud,
The gods are neglected, and in the temples
there is now a very thin attendance.Former ceremonies are exposed to derision, and the time-honoured rites of institutions once sacred
........... have sunk before the superstitions of new religions.Justly is the human race afflicted by so many pressing calamities, justly is it racked by the hardships of so many toils.
And men-a senseless race-being unable, from their inborn blindness, to see even that which is placed in open light,
dare to assert in their frenzy what you in your sane mind do not blush to believe.
When it is known that the historical Cyclops are, by the historian Castor, traced up to the very time of Saturn or Belus, the first king of Babylon, and when we learn that Jupiter (who was worshipped in the very same character as Ninus, "the child"),
when fighting against the Titans (satans, seitans), "received from the Cyclops aid" by means of "dazzling lightnings and thunders,"
we may have some pretty clear idea of the magic arts derived from the Chaldean Mysteries, which Ninus employed against the Bactrian king.
There is evidence that, down to a late period, the priests of the Chaldean Mysteries knew the composition of the formidable Greek fire, which burned under water, and the secret of which has been lost; and there can be little doubt that Nimrod, in erecting his power, availed himself of such or similar scientific secrets, which he and his associates alone possessed.
HADHRAT Abdullah Ibn Abbaas (Radiallaahu Anhu) narrates the following Hadith of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi was sallam):
"Iblis, the accursed one petitioned Allah Ta'ala "O my Rabb! You have sent down Aadam (Alayhi salaam) onto the earth and You know that for him will be sent Revelations and Messengers.
What will be his Books and how will be his Messengers?"
Allah Ta'ala replied: "I will send Angels to them (progeny of Adam) and from them (mankind) will raise Messengers. Their revelations will be the Tauraah, Injeel, Zabur and the Quraan.
Iblis said: "What will be my book?"
The Divine Answer came: "Your writing will be to tattoo; your reciting will be poetry;
- your messengers will be the fortune-tellers and astrologists;
- your food will be that food on which Bismillaah was not recited;
- your drink will be alcohol;
- your truth will be falsehood;
- your home will be the toilets;
- your net (to ensnare) will be women;
- your muezzin will be the musical instruments,
- and your musjid will be the market-place."
Bismillaah. Is the name of Allah. All actions of a Muslim should begin with Bismillaah to ensure good and meritorious conduct.
Muezzin calls out the daily prayer.
In these, and other respects yet to be noticed, there is an exact coincidence between Vulcan, the god of fire of the Romans, and Nimrod, the fire-god of Babylon. In the case of the classic Vulcan, it is only in his character of the fire-god as a physical agent that he is popularly represented.But it was in his spiritual aspects, in cleansing and regenerating the souls of men, that the fire-worship told most effectually on the world.
The power, the popularity, and skill of Nimrod, as well as the seductive nature of the system itself, enabled him to spread the delusive doctrine far and wide, as he was represented under the well-known name of Phaethon, (see note below) as on the point of "setting the whole world on fire," or (without the poetical metaphor) of involving all mankind in the guilt of fire-worship.
The extraordinary prevalence of the worship of the fire-god in the early ages of the world, is proved by legends found over all the earth, and by facts in almost every clime. Thus, in Mexico, the natives relate, that in primeval times, just after the first age, the world was burnt up with fire. As their history, like the Egyptian, was written in Hieroglyphics, it is plain that this must be symbolically understood. In India, they have a legend to the very same effect, though somewhat varied in its form.
See the Naga-Serpent Connection: "The great temple-builders of the famous Ankhor Wat were considered to be the semi-divine Khmers. The avenue leading to the Temple is lined with the seven-headed Naga. And even in Mexico, we find the "Naga" which becomes "Nagal." In China, the Naga is given the form of the Dragon and has a direct association with the Emperor and is known as the "Son of Heaven"...while in Egypt the same association is termed "King-Initiate". The Chinese are even said to have originated with the Serpent demi-gods and even to speak their language, Naga-Krita.
The Brahmins say that, in a very remote period of the past, one of the gods shone with such insufferable splendour,
"inflicting distress on the universe by his effulgent beams, brighter than a thousand worlds," * that, unless another more potent god had interposed and cut off his head, the result would have been most disastrous.
* SKANDA PURAN, and PADMA PURAN, apud KENNEDY'S Hindoo Mythology, p. 275. In the myth, this divinity is represented as the fifth head of Brahma; but as this head is represented as having gained the knowledge that made him so insufferably proud by perusing the Vedas produced by the other four heads of Brahma, that shows that he must have been regarded as having a distinct individuality.
In the Druidic Triads of the old British Bards, there is distinct reference to the same event. They say that in primeval times a "tempest of fire arose, which split the earth asunder to the great deep," from which none escaped but "the select company shut up together in the enclosure with the strong door," with the great "patriarch distinguished for his integrity,"
that is evidently with Shem, the leader of the faithful--who preserved their "integrity" when so many made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.
These stories all point to one and the same period, and they show how powerful had been this form of apostacy. The Papal purgatory and the fires of St. John's Eve, which we have already considered, and many other fables or practices still extant, are just so many relics of the same ancient superstition.
It will be observed, however, that the Great Red Dragon, or Great Fiery Serpent, is represented as
standing before the Woman with the crown of twelve stars,
that is, the true Church of God, "To devour her child as soon as it should be born."
Now, this is in exact accordance with the character of the Great Head of the system of fire-worship.
Nimrod, as the representative of the devouring fire to which human victims, and especially children, were offered in sacrifice, was regarded as the great child-devourer.Though, at his first deification, he was set up himself as Ninus, or the child, yet, as the first of mankind that was deified, he was, of course, the actual father of all the Babylonian gods; and, therefore, in that character he was afterwards universally regarded. *
* Phaethon, though the child of the sun, is also called the Father of the gods. (LACTANTIUS, De Falsa Religione) In Egypt, too, Vulcan was the Father of the gods. (AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS)
Jamison, Fauset and Brown note of the worship God sentenced Israel to as recorded by Paul and Amos:
Molech . . . Chiun--"Molech" means "king" answering to Mars [BENGEL]; the Sun [JABLONSKI]; Saturn, the same as "Chiun" [MAURER]. The Septuagint translates "Chiun" into Remphan, as Stephen quotes it (Ac 7:42,43). The same god often had different names.
Molech is the Ammonite name; Chiun, the Arabic and Persian name, written also Chevan. In an Arabic lexicon Chiun means "austere"; so astrologers represented Saturn as a planet baleful in his influence. Hence the Phoenicians offered human sacrifices to him, children especially; so idolatrous Israel also. Rimmon was the Syrian name (2Ki 5:18); pronounced as Remvan, or "Remphan," just as Chiun was also Chevan. Molech had the form of a king; Chevan, or Chiun, of a star [GROTIUS]. Remphan was the Egyptian name for Saturn: hence the Septuagint translator of Amos gave the Egyptian name for the Hebrew, being an Egyptian. [HODIUS II, De Bibliorum Textibus Originalibus. 4.115].
The same as the Nile, of which the Egyptians made the star Saturn the representative [HARENBERG]. BENGEL considers Remphan or Rephan akin to Teraphim and Remphis, the name of a king of Egypt.
The Hebrews became infected with Sabeanism, the oldest form of idolatry, the worship of the Saba or starry hosts, in their stay in the Arabian desert, where Job notices its prevalence (Job 31:26); in opposition, in Am 5:27, Jehovah declares Himself "the God of hosts."
the star of your god--R. ISAAC CARO says all the astrologers represented Saturn as the star of Israel. Probably there was a figure of a star on the head of the image of the idol, to represent the planet Saturn; hence "images" correspond to "star" in the parallel clause. A star in hieroglyphics represents God (Nu 24:17). "Images" are either a Hebraism for "image," or refer to the many images made to represent Chiun.
27. beyond Damascus--In Ac 7:43 it is "beyond Babylon," which includes beyond Damascus. In Amos time, Damascus was the object of Israel's fear because of the Syrian wars. Babylon was not yet named as the place of their captivity.
Stephen supplies this name. Their place of exile was in fact, as he states, "beyond Babylon," in Halah and Habor by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes (2Ki 17:6; compare here Am 1:5 4:3 6:14). The road to Assyria lay through "Damascus." It is therefore specified, that not merely shall they be carried captives to Damascus, as they had been by Syrian kings (2Ki 10:32,33 13:7),
but, beyond that, to a region whence a return was not so possible as from Damascus.
They were led captive by Satan into idolatry,
therefore God caused them to go captive among idolaters.Compare 2Ki 15:29 16:9 Isa 8:4, whence it appears Tiglath-pileser attacked Israel and Damascus at the same time at Ahaz' request (Am 3:1).
As the Father of the gods, he was, as we have seen, called Kronos (Saturn); and every one knows that the classical story of Kronos was just this, that, "he devoured his sons as soon as they were born." Such is the analogy between type and antitype. This legend has a further and deeper meaning; but, as applied to Nimrod, or
"The Horned One," it just refers to the fact, that, as the representative of Moloch or Baal,
infants were the most acceptable offerings at his altar. We have ample and melancholy evidence on this subject from the records of antiquity."The Phenicians," says Eusebius, "every year sacrificed their beloved and only-begotten children to Kronos or Saturn, and the Rhodians also often did the same." Diodorus Siculus states that the Carthaginians, on one occasion, when besieged by the Sicilians, and sore pressed, in order to rectify, as they supposed, their error in having somewhat departed from the ancient custom of Carthage, in this respect,
hastily "chose out two hundred of the noblest of their children, and publicly sacrificed them" to this god. There is reason to believe that the same practice obtained in our own land in the times of the Druids. We know that they offered human sacrifices to their bloody gods.
We have evidence that they made "their children pass through the fire to Moloch," and that makes it highly probable that they also offered them in sacrifice; for, from Jeremiah 32:35, compared with Jeremiah 19:5, we find that these two things were parts of one and the same system. The god whom the Druids worshipped was Baal, as the blazing Baal-fires show, and the last-cited passage proves that children were offered in sacrifice to Baal.
Click for our notes on Israel's Child Sacrifice. God will repay with music.
When "the fruit of the body" was thus offered, it was "for the sin of the soul." And it was a principle of the Mosaic law, a principle no doubt derived from the patriarchal faith, that the priest must partake of whatever was offered as a sin-offering (Num 18:9,10).
Hence, the priests of Nimrod or Baal were necessarily required to eat of the human sacrifices; and thus it has come to pass that "Cahna-Bal," * the "Priest of Baal," is the established word in our own tongue for a devourer of human flesh. **
* The word Cahna is the emphatic form of Cahn. Cahn is "a priest," Cahna is "the priest."
** From the historian Castor (in Armenian translation of EUSEBIUS) we learn that it was under Bel, or Belus, that is Baal, that the Cyclops lived; and the Scholiast on Aeschylus states that these Cyclops were the brethren of Kronos, who was also Bel or Bal, as we have elsewhere seen.
The eye in their forehead shows that originally this name was a name of the great god; for that eye in India and Greece is found the characteristic of the supreme divinity. The Cyclops, then, had been representatives of that God--in other words, priests, and priests of Bel or Bal. Now, we find that the Cyclops were well-known as cannibals, Referre ritus Cyclopum, "to bring back the rites of the Cyclops," meaning to revive the practice of eating human flesh. (OVID, Metam.)
Castor, Pollux, and the Cyclops all had power to "move the worshipers into the presence of the gods." Homosexuality was primarily the POWER POINTS of connecting the flesh to the spiritual.
Now, the ancient traditions relate that the apostates who joined in the rebellion of Nimrod made war upon the faithful among the sons of Noah.
Click To Read Second Adam and Eve on This Account
Power and numbers were on the side of the fire-worshippers. But on the side of Shem and the faithful was the mighty power of God's Spirit.
Therefore many were convinced of their sin, arrested in their evil career; and victory, as we have already seen, declared for the saints. The power of Nimrod came to an end, * and with that, for a time,
the worship of the sun, and the fiery serpent associated with it.
* The wars of the giants against heaven, referred to in ancient heathen writers, had primary reference to this war against the saints;
........... for men cannot make war upon God except by attacking the people of God.The ancient writer Eupolemus, as quoted by Eusebius (Praeparatio Evang.), states, that the builders of the tower of Babel were these giants; which statement amounts nearly to the same thing as the conclusion to which we have already come, for we have seen that the "mighty ones" of Nimrod were "the giants" of antiquity.
Epiphanius records that Nimrod was a ringleader among these giants, and that "conspiracy, sedition, and tyranny were carried on under him." From the very necessity of the case, the faithful must have suffered most, as being most opposed to his ambitious and sacrilegious schemes. That Nimrod's reign terminated in some very signal catastrophe, we have seen abundant reason already to conclude. The following statement of Syncellus confirms the conclusions to which we have already come as to the nature of that catastrophe; referring to the arresting of the tower-building scheme, Syncellus (Chronographia) proceeds thus:
"But Nimrod would still obstinately stay (when most of the other tower-builders were dispersed), and reside upon the spot; nor could he be withdrawn from the tower,
still having the command over no contemptible body of men. Upon this, we are informed, that the tower,
being beat upon by violent winds, gave way, and by the just judgment of God, crushed him to pieces."Though this could not be literally true, for the tower stood for many ages, yet there is a considerable amount of tradition to the effect that the tower in which Nimrod gloried was overthrown by wind, which gives reason to suspect that this story, when properly understood, had a real meaning in it.
Take it figuratively, and remembering that the same word which signifies the wind signifies also the Spirit of God, it becomes highly probable that the meaning is, that his lofty and ambitious scheme, by which, in Scriptural language,
he was seeking to "mount up to heaven," and "set his nest among the stars," was overthrown for a time by the Spirit of God, as we have already concluded, and that, in that overthrow he himself perished.
The case was exactly as stated here in regard to the antitype (Rev 12:9): "The great dragon," or fiery serpent, was "cast out of heaven to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him"; that is, the Head of the fire-worship, and all his associates and underlings, were cast down from the power and glory to which they had been raised.
Then was the time when the whole gods of the classic Pantheon of Greece were fain to flee and hide themselves from the wrath of their adversaries. Then it was, that, in India, Indra, the king of the gods, Surya, the god of the sun, Agni, the god of fire, and all the rabble rout of the Hindu Olympus, were driven from heaven, wandered over the earth, or hid themselves, in forests, disconsolate, and ready to "perish of hunger."
Remember that at Mount Sinai, as a result of their musical idolatry, God turned them over to worship the starry host. Tammuz was worshiped by the women at the Jerusalem temple while the men bowed to the Sun in the east:
Then it was that Phaethon, while driving the chariot of the sun, when on the point of setting the world on fire, was smitten by the Supreme God, and cast headlong to the earth,
while his sisters, the daughters of the sun, inconsolably lamented him, as, "the women wept for Tammuz." (Ezekiel 14)
Then it was, as the reader must be prepared to see, that Vulcan, or Molk-Gheber, the classic "god of fire," was so ignominiously hurled down from heaven, as he himself relates in Homer, speaking of the wrath of the King of Heaven, which in this instance must mean God Most High:--
"I felt his matchless might,
Hurled headlong downwards from the ethereal height;
Tossed all the day in rapid circles round,
Nor, till the sun descended, touched the ground.
Breathless I fell, in giddy motion lost.
The Sinthians raised me on the Lemnian coast."The lines, in which Milton refers to this same downfall, though he gives it another application, still more beautifully describe the greatness of the overthrow:--"In Ausonian land
Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven, they fabled. Thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and, with the setting sun,
Dropped from the zenith, like a falling star.
On Lemnos, the Aegean isle."
Paradise LostThese words very strikingly show the tremendous fall of Molk-Gheber, or Nimrod, "the Mighty King," when "suddenly he was cast down from the height of his power, and was deprived at once of his kingdom and his life." *(HOMER'S Hymn to Apollo) How exactly does this agree with the story of Nimrod: First he was personally cast down, when, by Divine authority, he was slain. Then he was cast down, in effigy, by Juno, when his image was degraded from the arms of the Queen of Heaven, to make way for the fairer child.
Now, to this overthrow there is very manifest allusion in the prophetic apostrophe of Isaiah to the king of Babylon, exulting over his approaching downfall:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning"!
........... The Babylonian king pretended to be a representative of Nimrod or Phaethon; (Son of Helios or Sun God)
........... and the prophet, in these words, informs him, that, as certainly as the god
........... in whom he gloried had been cast down from his high estate, so certainly should he.All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. Isaiah 14:11
* Though Orpheus was commonly represented as having been torn in pieces, he too was fabled to have been killed by lightning. (PAUSANIAS, Boeotica)
When Zoroaster died, he also is said in the myth to have perished by lightning (SUIDAS); and therefore, in accordance with that myth, he is represented as charging his countrymen to preserve not his body, but his "ashes." The death by lightning, however, is evidently a mere figure.
Such is the language of the prophecy, and so exactly does it correspond with the character, and deeds, and fate of the ancient type. How does it suit the antitype? Could the power of Pagan Imperial Rome--that power that first persecuted the Church of Christ,
that stood by its soldiers around the tomb of the Son of God Himself, to devour Him, if it had been possible, when He should be brought forth, as the first-begotten from the dead, * to rule all nations--be represented by a "Fiery Serpent"?
See how Judas and clergy tried to triumph over Jesus with military music.
* The birth of the Man-child, as given above, is different from that usually given: but let the reader consider if the view which I have taken does not meet all the requirements of the case. I think there will be but few who will assent to the opinion of Mr. Elliot, which in substance amounts to this,
that the Man-child was Constantine the Great, and that when Christianity, in his person sat down on the throne of Imperial Rome, that was the fulfilment of the saying, that the child brought forth by the woman, amid such pangs of travail, was "caught up to God and His throne."
When Constantine came to the empire, the Church indeed, as foretold in Daniel 11:34, "was holpen with a little help"; but that was all.
The Christianity of Constantine was but of a very doubtful kind, the Pagans seeing nothing in it to hinder but that when he died, he should be enrolled among their gods. (EUTROPIUS) But even though it had been better, the description of the woman's child is far too high for Constantine, or any Christian emperor that succeeded him on the imperial throne. "The Man-child, born to rule all nations with a rod of iron," is unequivocally Christ (see Psalms 2:9; Rev 19:15).
The Judas Bag was "for carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments." It was prophesied that he would fail to TRIUMPH OVER Jesus with music but the Levitical warrior musicians under "the king and commanders of the army" would momentarily triumph using musical instruments to panic the people. In art the "Judas Bag" is always attached to the flute case and the MUSICAL WORSHIP TEAM are naked homosexuals.
True believers, as one with Him in a subordinate sense, share in that honour (Rev 2:27); but to Christ alone, properly, does that prerogative belong; and I think it must be evident that it is His birth that is here referred to. But those who have contended for this view have done injustice to their cause by representing this passage as referring to His literal birth in Bethlehem.
When Christ was born in Bethlehem, no doubt Herod endeavoured to cut Him off, and Herod was a subject of the Roman Empire. But it was not from any respect to Caesar that he did so, but simply from fear of danger to his own dignity as King of Judea.
So little did Caesar sympathise with the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem, that it is recorded that Augustus, on hearing of it, remarked that it was "better to be Herod's hog than to be his child." (MACROBIUS, Saturnalia)
Then, even if it were admitted that Herod's bloody attempt to cut off the infant Saviour was symbolised by the Roman dragon, "standing ready to devour the child as soon as it should be born," where was there anything that could correspond to the statement that the child, to save it from that dragon, "was caught up to God and His Throne"?
The flight of Joseph and Mary with the Child into Egypt could never answer to such language. Moreover, it is worthy of special note, that when the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He was born, in a very important sense only as "King of the Jews." "Where is He that is born King of the Jews?" was the inquiry of the wise men that came from the East to seek Him. All His life long, He appeared in no other character; and when He died, the inscription on His cross ran in these terms: "This is the King of the Jews." Now, this was no accidental thing. Paul tells us (Rom 15:8) that "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." Our Lord Himself plainly declared the same thing. "I am not sent," said He to the Syrophoenician woman, "save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel"; and, in sending out His disciples during His personal ministry, this was the charge which He gave them: "Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not." It was only when He was "begotten from the dead," and "declared to be the Son of God with power," by His victory over the grave, that He was revealed as "the Man-child, born to rule all nations." Then said He to His disciples, when He had risen, and was about to ascend on high: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth: go ye therefore, and teach allnations." To this glorious "birth" from the tomb, and to the birth-pangs of His Church that preceded it, our Lord Himself made distinct allusion on the night before He was betrayed (John 16:20-22). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a MAN is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice."
Here the grief of the apostles, and, of course, all the true Church that sympathised with them during the hour and power of darkness, is compared to the pangs of a travailing woman; and their joy, when the Saviour should see them again after His resurrection, to the joy of a mother when safely delivered of a Man-child. Can there be a doubt, then, what the symbol before us means, when the woman is represented as travailing in pain to be delivered of a "Man-child, that was to rule all nations," and when it is said that that "Man-child was caught up to God and His Throne"?
Nothing could more lucidly show it forth. Among the lords many, and the gods many, worshipped in the imperial city, the two grand objects of worship were the "Eternal Fire," kept perpetually burning in the temple of Vesta, and the sacred Epidaurian Serpent.
In Pagan Rome, this fire-worship and serpent-worship were sometimes separate, sometimes conjoined; but both occupied a pre-eminent place in Roman esteem. The fire of Vesta was regarded as one of the grand safeguards of the empire. It was pretended to have been brought from Troy by Aeneas, who had it confided to his care by the shade of Hector, and was kept with the most jealous care by the Vestal virgins, who, for their charge of it, were honoured with the highest honours.
The temple where it was kept, says Augustine, "was the most sacred and most reverenced of all the temples of Rome." The fire that was so jealously guarded in that temple, and on which so much was believed to depend, was regarded in the very same light as by the old Babylonian fire-worshippers. It was looked upon as the purifier, and in April every year, at the Palilia, or feast of Pales, both men and cattle, for this purpose, were made to pass through the fire.
The Epidaurian snake, that the Romans worshipped along with the fire, was looked on as the divine representation of Aesculapius, the child of the Sun. Aesculapius, whom that sacred snake represented, was evidently, just another name for the great Babylonian god. His fate was exactly the same as that of Phaethon. He was said to have been smitten with lightning for raising the dead. It is evident that this could never have been the case in a physical sense, nor could it easily have been believed to be so.
See how Lucian of Samosata defines a Seeker Center where with songs and a flute player you could fool the "fatheads and simpletons" and make them believe that you had just hatched this snake from an egg: seeing was believing. Furthermore, he made a snake's head of linen to sell messages from the snake.
But view it in a spiritual sense, and then the statement is just this, that he was believed to raise men who were dead in trespasses and sins to newness of life. Now, this was exactly what Phaethon was pretending to do, when he was smitten for setting the world on fire.
In the Babylonian system there was a symbolical death, that all the initiated had to pass through, before they got the new life which was implied in regeneration, and that just to declare that they had passed from death unto life.
As the passing through the fire was both a purgation from sin and the means of regeneration, so it was also for raising the dead that Phaethon was smitten. Then, as Aesculapius was the child of the Sun, so was Phaethon. *
* The birth of Aesculapius in the myth was just the same as that of Bacchus. His mother was consumed by lightning, and the infant was rescued from the lightning that consumed her, as Bacchus was snatched from the flames that burnt up his mother.--LEMPRIERE
To symbolise this relationship, the head of the image of Aesculapius was generally encircled with rays. The Pope thus encircles the heads of the pretended images of Christ; but the real source of these irradiations is patent to all acquainted either with the literature or the art of Rome. Thus speaks Virgil of Latinus:--
"And now, in pomp, the peaceful kings appear,
Four steeds the chariot of Latinus bear,
Twelve golden beams around his temples play,
To mark his lineage from the god of day."The "golden beams" around the head of Aesculapius were intended to mark the same, to point him out as the child of the Sun, or the Sun incarnate. The "golden beams" around the heads of pictures and images called by the name of Christ, were intended to show the Pagans that they might safely worship them, as the images of their well-known divinities, though called by a different name. Now Aesculapius, in a time of deadly pestilence, had been invited from Epidaurus to Rome.See the modern promotion of the S.U.N. god to replace the S.O.N. God. This idea surfaces in the RE-VISIONING by the feminine professors and pastors restoring Sophia-Zoe worship. Lucifer, the musical enchanter in the garden of Eden is manifest in the feminine form as Sophia-Zoe who force the men to form MUSICAL WORSHIP TEAMS to worship the feminine goddesses.
The god, under the form of a larger serpent, entered the ship that was sent to convey him to Rome, and having safely arrived in the Tiber, was solemnly inaugurated as the guardian god of the Romans. From that time forth, in private as well as in public, the worship of the Epidaurian snake, the serpent that represented the Sun-divinity incarnate, in other words, the "Serpent of Fire," became nearly universal. In almost every house the sacred serpent, which was a harmless sort, was to be found. "These serpents nestled about the domestic altars," says the author of Pompeii, "and came out, like dogs or cats, to be patted by the visitors, and beg for something to eat. Nay, at table, if we may build upon insulated passages, they crept about the cups of the guests, and, in hot weather, ladies would use them as live boas, and twist them round their necks for the sake of coolness...These sacred animals made war on the rats and mice, and thus kept down one species of vermin; but as they bore a charmed life, and no one laid violent hands on them, they multiplied so fast, that, like the monkeys of Benares, they became an intolerable nuisance. The frequent fires at Rome were the only things that kept them under."
* "All the faces in his (MAZOIS') engraving are quite black." (Pompeii) In India, the infant Crishna (emphatically the black god), in the arms of the goddess Devaki, is represented with the woolly hair and marked features of the Negro or African race.
Click to see how the Black Religion has conquered their captors.
As Christianity spread in the Roman Empire, the powers of light and darkness came into collision (Rev 12:7,8): "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;...he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." The "great serpent of fire" was cast out, when, by the decree of Gratian, Paganism throughout the Roman empire was abolished--when the fires of Vesta were extinguished,
and the revenues of the Vestal virgins were confiscated--when the Roman Emperor (who though for more than a century and a half a professor of Christianity, had been "Pontifex Maximus," the very head of the idolatry of Rome, and as such, on high occasions, appearing invested with all the idolatrous insignia of Paganism), through force of conscience abolished his own office.
While Nimrod was personally and literally slain by the sword, it was through the sword of the Spirit that Shem overcame the system of fire-worship, and so bowed the hearts of men, as to cause it for a time to be utterly extinguished. In like manner did the Dragon of fire, in the Roman Empire, receive a deadly wound from a sword, and that the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. There is thus far an exact analogy between the type and the antitype.
But not only is there this analogy. It turns out, when the records of history are searched to the bottom, that when the head of the Pagan idolatry of Rome was slain with the sword by the extinction of the office of Pontifex Maximus,
the last Roman Pontifex Maximus was the ACTUAL, LEGITIMATE, SOLE REPRESENTATIVE OF NIMROD and his idolatrous system then existing.
The Images of S.U.N. god worship in Jerusalem.
To make this clear, a brief glance at the Roman history is necessary. In common with all the earth, Rome at a very early prehistoric period, had drunk deep of Babylon's "golden cup." But above and beyond all other nations, it had had a connection with the idolatry of Babylon that put it in a position peculiar and alone. Long before the days of Romulus, a representative of the Babylonian Messiah, called by his name, had fixed his temple as a god, and his palace as a king, on one of those very heights which came to be included within the walls of that city which Remus and his brother were destined to found.On the Capitoline hill, so famed in after-days as the great high place of Roman worship, Saturnia, or the city of Saturn, the great Chaldean god, had in the days of dim and distant antiquity been erected.
Some revolution had then taken place--the graven images of Babylon had been abolished--the erecting of any idol had been sternly prohibited, * and when the twin founders of the now world-renowned city reared its humble walls, the city and the palace of their Babylonian predecessor had long lain in ruins.
* PLUTARCH (in Hist. Numoe) states, that Numa forbade the making of images, and that for 170 years after the founding of Rome, no images were allowed in the Roman temples.
The ruined state of this sacred city, even in the remote age of Evander, is alluded to by Virgil. Referring to the time when Aeneas is said to have visited that ancient Italian king, thus he speaks:--
"Then saw two heaps of ruins; once they stood
Two stately towns on either side the flood;
Saturnia and Janicula's remains;
And either place the founder's name retains."The deadly wound, however, thus given to the Chaldean system, was destined to be healed. A colony of Etruscans, earnestly attached to the Chaldean idolatry, had migrated, some say from Asia Minor, others from Greece, and settled in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome.They were ultimately incorporated in the Roman state, but long before this political union took place they exercised the most powerful influence on the religion of the Romans.
From the very first their skill in augury, soothsaying, and all science, real or pretended, that the augurs or soothsayers monopolised, made the Romans look up to them with respect.
Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the kings palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Da.1:4
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: 1 Tim 6:20
It is admitted on all hands that the Romans derived their knowledge of augury, which occupied so prominent a place in every public transaction in which they engaged, chiefly from the Tuscans, that is, the people of Etruria, and at first none but natives of that country were permitted to exercise the office of a Haruspex, which had respect to all the rites essentially involved in sacrifice.
Wars and disputes arose between Rome and the Etruscans; but still the highest of the noble youths of Rome were sent to Etruria to be instructed in the sacred science which flourished there. The consequence was, that under the influence of men whose minds were moulded by those who clung to the ancient idol-worship,
the Romans were brought back again to much of that idolatry which they had formerly repudiated and cast off. Though Numa, therefore, in setting up his religious system, so far deferred to the prevailing feeling of his day and forbade image-worship, yet in consequence of the alliance subsisting between Rome and Etruria in sacred things, matters were put in train for the ultimate subversion of that prohibition.
The college of Pontiffs, of which he laid the foundation, in process of time came to be substantially an Etruscan college, and the Sovereign Pontiff that presided over that college, and that controlled all the public and private religious rites of the Roman people in all essential respects, became in spirit and in practice an Etruscan Pontiff.
Still the Sovereign Pontiff of Rome, even after the Etruscan idolatry was absorbed into the Roman system, was only an offshoot from the grand original Babylonian system. He was a devoted worshipper of the Babylonian god; but he was not the legitimate representative of that God. The true legitimate Babylonian Pontiff had his seat beyond the bounds of the Roman empire.
That seat, after the death of Belshazzar,
and the expulsion of the Chaldean priesthood from Babylon by the Medo-Persian kings,
was at Pergamos, where afterwards was one of the seven churches of Asia. * There, in consequence, for many centuries was "Satan's seat" (Rev 2:13).There, under favour of the deified ** kings of Pergamos, was his favourite abode, there was the worship of Aesculapius, under the form of the serpent, celebrated with frantic orgies and excesses, that elsewhere were kept under some measure of restraint.
* BARKER and AINSWORTH'S Lares and Penates of Cilicia. Barker says, "The defeated Chaldeans fled to Asia Minor, and fixed their central college at Pergamos." Phrygia, that was so remarkable for the worship of Cybele and Atys, formed part of the Kingdom of Pergamos. Mysia also was another, and the Mysians, in the Paschal Chronicle, are said to be descended from Nimrod. The words are, "Nebrod, the huntsman and giant--from whence came the Mysians." Lydia, also, from which Livy and Herodotus say the Etrurians came, formed part of the same kingdom. For the fact that Mysia, Lydia, and Phrygia were constituent parts of the kingdom of Pergamos, see SMITH's Classical Dictionary.
** The kings of Pergamos, in whose dominions the Chaldean Magi found an asylum, were evidently by them, and by the general voice of Paganism that sympathised with them, put into the vacant place which Belshazzar and his predecessors had occupied. They were hailed as the representatives of the old Babylonian god. This is evident from the statements of Pausanias. First, he quotes the following words from the oracle of a prophetess called Phaennis, in reference to the Gauls:
"But divinity will still more seriously afflict those that dwell near the sea. However, in a short time after, Jupiter will send them a defender, the beloved son of a Jove-nourished bull, who will bring destruction on all the Gauls."
Then on this he comments as follows:
"Phaennis, in this oracle, means by the son of a bull, Attalus, king of Pergamos, whom the oracle of Apollo called Taurokeron," or bull-horned.
See Apollo's Oracle at Delphi: a Grand Seeker Center.
This title given by the Delphian god, proves that Attalus, in whose dominions the Magi had their seat, had been set up and recognised in the very character of Bacchus, the Head of the Magi. Thus the vacant seat of Belshazzar was filled, and the broken chain of the Chaldean succession renewed.
As Dionysus apparently represented the sap, juice, or lifeblood element in nature, lavish festal orgia (rites) in his honour were widely instituted. These Dionysia (Bacchanalia,) quickly won converts among the women in the post-Mycenaean world. The men, however, met it with hostility. According to tradition, Pentheus, king of Thebes, was torn to pieces by the bacchantes when he attempted to spy on their activities, while the Athenians were punished with impotence for dishonouring the god's cult.
The women, nevertheless, abandoned their families and took to the hills, wearing fawn skins and crowns of ivy and shouting "Euoi!," (Eve, Zoe) the ritual cry. Forming thyasi (holy bands) and waving thyrsoi (fennel wands bound with vine leaves and tipped with ivy),
they danced by torchlight to the rhythm of the flute and the tympanon (kettledrum).
While they were under the god's inspiration, the bacchantes were believed to possess occult powers, the ability to charm snakes and suckle animals, as well as preternatural strength that enabled them to tear living victims to pieces before indulging in a ritual feast (omophagia). The bacchantes hailed the god by his titles of Bromios (Thunderer), Taurokeros (Bull-Horned), or Tauroprosopos (Bull-Faced), in the belief that he incarnated the sacrificial beast. The worship of Dionysus flourished long in Asia Minor, particularly in Phrygia and Lydia, and his cult was closely associated with that of numerous Asiatic deities.
At first, the Roman Pontiff had no immediate connection with Pergamos and the hierarchy there; yet, in course of time, the Pontificate of Rome and the Pontificate of Pergamos came to be identified.
Pergamos itself became part and parcel of the Roman empire, when Attalus III, the last of its kings, at his death, left by will all his dominions to the Roman people, BC 133.
For some time after the kingdom of Pergamos was merged in the Roman dominions, there was no one who could set himself openly and advisedly to lay claim to all the dignity inherent in the old title of the kings of Pergamos. The original powers even of the Roman Pontiffs seem to have been by that time abridged, but when Julius Caesar, who had previously been elected Pontifex Maximus, became also, as Emperor, the supreme civil ruler of the Romans, then, as head of the Roman state, and head of the Roman religion, all the powers and functions of the true legitimate Babylonian Pontiff were supremely vested in him, and he found himself in a position to assert these powers. Then he seems to have laid claim to the divine dignity of Attalus, as well as the kingdom that Attalus had bequeathed to the Romans, as centering in himself; for his well-known watchword, "Venus Genetrix," which meant that Venus was the mother of the Julian race,
appears to have been intended to make him "The Son" of the great goddess,
........... even as the "Bull-horned" Attalus had been regarded. ** The deification of the emperors that continued in succession from the days of Divus Julius, or the "Deified Julius," can be traced to no cause so likely as their representing the "Bull-horned" Attalus both as Pontiff and Sovereign.
Then, on certain occasions, in the exercise of his high pontifical office, he appeared of course in all the pomp of the Babylonian costume, as Belshazzar himself might have done,
........... in robes of scarlet, with the crosier of Nimrod in his hand,
........... wearing the mitre of Dagon and
........... bearing the keys of Janus and Cybele. *
Janus
* That the key was one of the symbols used in the Mysteries, the reader will find on consulting TAYLOR'S Note on Orphic Hymn to Pluto, where that divinity is spoken of as "keeper of the keys." Now the Pontifex, as "Hierophant," was "arrayed in the habit and adorned with the symbols of the great Creator of the world, of whom in these Mysteries he was supposed to be the substitute." (MAURICE'S Antiquities)The task of Jesus was to take the Keys away from the clergy and give it to Peter. Peter, in turn, would reveal the key and made sure that after his death we would have a record of it:
Woe unto you, lawyers for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. Lu.11:52
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Mt.16:19
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Re.1:18
In opening up the Mysteries, therefore, of this mysterious divinity,
it was natural that the Pontifex should bear the key of both these divinities. Janus himself, however, as well as Pluto, was often represented with more than one key.See The Origin of the World.
See The Hypostasis of the ArchonThus did matter continue, as already stated, even under so-called Christian emperors; who, as a salve to their consciences, appointed a heathen as their substitute in the performance of the more directly idolatrous functions of the pontificate (that substitute, however, acting in their name and by their authority),
until the reign of Gratian, who, as shown by Gibbon, was the first that refused to be arrayed in the idolatrous pontifical attire, or to act as Pontifex.
Now, from all this it is evident that, when Paganism in the Roman empire was abolished, when the office of Pontifex Maximus was suppressed,
and all the dignitaries of paganism were cast down from their seats of influence and of power, which they had still been allowed in some measure to retain,
that was not merely the casting down of the Fiery Dragon of Rome, but the casting down of the Fiery Dragon of Babylon.
It was just the enacting over again, in a symbolical sense, upon the true and sole legitimate successor of Nimrod, what had taken place upon himself, when the greatness of his downfall gave rise to the exclamation,
........... "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning"!
Notes
Zoroaster, the Head of the Fire-Worshippers That Zoroaster was head of the fire-worshippers, the following, among other evidence, may prove. Not to mention that the name Zoroaster is almost a synonym for a fire-worshipper, the testimony of Plutarch is of weight: "Plutarch acknowledges that Zoroaster among the Chaldeans instituted the Magi, in imitation of whom the Persians also had their (Magi). * The Arabian History also relates that Zaradussit, or Zerdusht, did not for the first time institute, but (only) reform the religion of the Persians and Magi, who had been divided into many sects."* The great antiquity of the institution of the Magi is proved from the statement of Aristotle already referred to, as preserved in Theopompus, which makes them to have been "more ancient than the Egyptians," whose antiquity is well known. (Theopompi Fragmenta in MULLER).
The testimony of Agathias is to the same effect. He gives it as his opinion that the worship of fire came from the Chaldeans to the Persians. That the Magi among the Persians were the guardians of "the sacred and eternal fire" may be assumed from Curtius, who says that fire was carried before them "on silver altars"; from the statement of Strabo (Geograph.), that "the Magi kept upon the altar a quantity of ashes and an immortal fire," and of Herodotus, that "without them, no sacrifice could be offered." The fire-worship was an essential part of the system of the Persian Magi (WILSON, Parsee Religion).
This fire-worship the Persian Magi did not pretend to have invented; but their popular story carried the origin of it up to the days of Hoshang, the father of Tahmurs, who founded Babylon (WILSON)--i.e., the time of Nimrod. In confirmation of this, we have seen that a fragment of Apollodorus makes Ninus the head of the fire-worshipper,
Layard, quoting this fragment, supposes Ninus to be different from Zoroaster (Nineveh and its Remains); but it can be proved, that though many others bore the name of Zoroaster,
the lines of evidence all converge, so as to demonstrate that Ninus and Nimrod and Zoroaster were one.
See Layard's Devil Worship With Foreign (Barbarian) Music
The legends of Zoroaster show that he was known not only as a Magus, but as a Warrior (ARNOBIUS). Plato says that Eros Armenius (whom CLERICUS, De Chaldaeis, states to have been the same as the fourth Zoroaster) died and rose again after ten days, having been killed in battle;
........... and that what he pretended to have learned in Hades,
........... he communicated to men in his new life (PLATO, De Republica).We have seen the death of Nimrod, the original Zoroaster, was not that of a warrior slain in battle; but yet this legend of the warrior Zoroaster is entirely in favour of the supposition that the original Zoroaster, the original Head of the Magi, was not a priest merely, but a warrior-king. Everywhere are the Zoroastrians, or fire-worshippers, called Guebres or Gabrs.
Now, Genesis 10:8 proves that Nimrod was the first of the "Gabrs."
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. Genesis 10:8
Gibbowr (h1368) ghib-bore'; intens. from the same as 1397; powerful; by impl. warrior, tyrant: - champion, chief, * excel, giant, man, mighty (man, one), strong (man), valiant man
Geber (h1397) gheh'-ber; from 1396; prop. a valiant man or warrior; gen. a person simply: - every one, man, * mighty.
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4
Nephiyl (h5303) nef-eel'; or nÿphil nef-eel'; from 5307; prop., a feller, i. e. a bully or tyrant: - giant
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Nu.13:33
As Zoroaster was head of the fire-worshippers, so Tammuz was evidently the same. We have seen evidence already that sufficiently proves the identity of Tammuz and Nimrod; but a few words may still more decisively prove it, and cast further light on the primitive fire-worship.
1. In the first place, Tammuz and Adonis are proved to be the same divinity. Jerome, who lived in Palestine when the rites of Tammuz were observed, up to the very time when he wrote, expressly identifies Tammuz and Adonis, in his Commentary on Ezekiel, where the Jewish women are represented as weeping for Tammuz; and the testimony of Jerome on this subject is universally admitted.
Then the mode in which the rites of Tammuz or Adonis were celebrated in Syria
was essentially the same as the rites of Osiris.
The statement of Lucian (De Dea Syria) strikingly shows this, and Bunsen distinctly admits it. The identity of Osiris and Nimrod has been largely proved in the body of this work.The Israelites at Mount Sinai worshiped Osiris under the image of Apis.
When, therefore, Tammuz or Adonis is identified with Osiris, the identification of Tammuz with Nimrod follows of course. And then this entirely agrees with the language of Bion, in his Lament for Adonis, where he represents
Venus (Astarte) as going in a frenzy of grief, like a Bacchant, after the death of Adonis, through the woods and valleys, and "calling upon her Assyrian husband."
It equally agrees with the statement of Maimonides, that when Tammuz was put to death, the grand scene of weeping for that death was in the temple of Babylon.
2. Now, if Tammuz was Nimrod, the examination of the meaning of the name confirms the connection of Nimrod with the first fire-worship. After what has already been advanced, there needs no argument to show that, as the Chaldeans were the first who introduced the name and power of kings (SYNCELLUS), and as Nimrod was unquestionably the first of these kings,
and the first, consequently, that bore the title of Moloch, or king, so it was in honour of him that the "children were made to pass through the fire to Moloch." But the intention of that passing through the fire was undoubtedly to purify.
The name Tammuz has evidently reference to this, for it signifies "to perfect," that is, "to purify"
* "by fire"; and if Nimrod was, as the Paschal Chronicle, and the general voice of antiquity, represent him to have been, the originator of fire-worship, this name very exactly expresses his character in that respect. See Isaiah 30 in the LXX
* From tam, "to perfect," and muz, "to burn." To be "pure in heart" in Scripture is just the same as to be "perfect in heart." The well-known name Deucalion, as connected with the flood, seems to be a correlative term of the water-worshippers. Dukh-kaleh signifies "to purify by washing," from Dikh, "to wash" (CLAVIS STOCKII), and Khaleh, "to complete," or "perfect." The noun from the latter verb, found in 2 Chronicles 4:21, shows that the root means "to purify," "perfect gold" being in the Septuagint justly rendered "pure gold." There is a name sometimes applied to the king of the gods that has some bearing on this subject. That name is "Akmon." What is the meaning of it? It is evidently just the Chaldee form of the Hebrew Khmn, "the burner," which becomes Akmon in the same way as the Hebrew Dem, "blood," in Chaldee becomes "Adem."
Hesychius says that Akmon is Kronos, sub voce "Akmon." In Virgil (Aeneid) we find this name compounded so as to be an exact synonym for Tammuz, Pyracmon being the name of one of the three famous Cyclops whom the poet introduces. We have seen that the original Cyclops were Kronos and his brethren, and deriving the name from "Pur," the Chaldee form of Bur, "to purify," and "Akmon," it just signifies "The purifying burner."
This was the worship of Astarte or Ishtar-Tammuz at the Jerusalem temple.
It is evident, however, from the Zoroastrian verse, elsewhere quoted, that fire itself was worshipped as Tammuz, for it is called the "Father that perfected all things." In one respect this represented fire as the Creative god; but in another, there can be no doubt that it had reference to the "perfecting" of men by "purifying" them. And especially it perfected those whom it consumed. This was the very idea that, from time immemorial until very recently, led so many widows in India to immolate themselves on the funeral piles of their husbands, the woman who thus burned herself being counted blessed, because she became Suttee *--i.e., "Pure by burning."
* MOOR'S Pantheon, "Siva." The epithet for a woman that burns herself is spelled "Sati," but is pronounced "Suttee," as above.
And this also, no doubt, reconciled the parents who actually sacrificed their children to Moloch, to the cruel sacrifice, the belief being cherished that the fire that consumed them also "perfected" them, and made them meet for eternal happiness. As both the passing through the fire, and the burning in the fire, were essential rites in the worship of Moloch or Nimrod, this is an argument that Nimrod was Tammuz. As the priest and representative of the perfecting or purifying fire, it was he that carried on the work of perfecting or purifying by fire, and so he was called by its name.
When we turn to the legends of India, we find evidence to the very same effect as that which we have seen with regard to Zoroaster and Tammuz as head of the fire-worshippers. The fifth head of Brahma, that was cut off for inflicting distress on the three worlds, by the "effulgence of its dazzling beams," referred to in the text of this work, identifies itself with Nimrod. The fact that that fifth head was represented as having read the Vedas, or sacred books produced by the other four heads, shows, I think, a succession. *
* The Indian Vedas that now exist do not seem to be of very great antiquity as written documents; but the legend goes much further back than anything that took place in India. The antiquity of writing seems to be very great, but whether or not there was any written religious document in Nimrod's day, a Veda there must have been; for what is the meaning of the word "Veda"? It is evidently just the same as the Anglo-Saxon Edda with the digamma prefixed, and both alike evidently come from "Ed" a "Testimony," a "Religious Record," or "confession of Faith." Such a "Record" or "Confession," either "oral" or "written," must have existed from the beginning.
Now, coming down from Noah, what would that succession be? We have evidence from Berosus, that, in the days of Belus--that is, Nimrod--the custom of making representations like that of two-headed Janus, had begun.
Assume, then, that Noah, as having lived in two worlds, has his two heads. Ham is the third, Cush the fourth, and Nimrod is, of course, the fifth. And this fifth head was cut off for doing the very thing for which Nimrod actually was cut off.
Clement on the origin of idolatry after the flood:
"But when all these things were done, men turned again to impiety; [There is a similar chapter in Homily IX. 7, but in a discourse: on the following day.-R.] and on this account a law was given by God to instruct them in the manner of living.
But in process of time, the worship of God and righteousness were corrupted by the unbelieving and the wicked, as we shall show more fully by and by.
Moreover, perverse and erratic religions were introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselves up,
by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinkings and banquets,
following pipes, and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging themselves in all kinds of drunkenness and luxury.Hence every kind of error took rise; hence they invented groves and altars, fillets and victims, and after drunkenness they were agitated as if with mad emotions.
By this means power was given to the demons to enter into minds of this sort, so that they seemed to lead insane dances and to rave like Bacchanalians; hence were invented the gnashing of teeth, and bellowing from the depth of their bowels; hence a terrible countenance and a fierce aspect in men, so that he whom drunkenness had subverted and a demon had instigated, was believed by the deceived and the erring to be filled with the Deity.
Chapter XXVII.-Ham the First Magician
See Hislop the Story of Nimrod
Clement Chapter XXIX.-Fire-Worship of the Persians. See Austen Layard's Description of Fire Worship with Music.I suspect that this Indian myth is the key to open up the meaning of a statement of Plutarch, which, according to the terms of it, as it stands, is visibly absurd. It is as follows: Plutarch (in the fourth book of his Symposiaca) says that "the Egyptians were of the opinion that darkness was prior to light, and that the latter [viz. light] was produced from mice, in the fifth generation, at the time of the new moon." In India, we find that "a new moon" was produced in a different sense from the ordinary meaning of that term, and that the production of that new moon was not only important in Indian mythology, but evidently agreed in time with the period when the fifth head of Brahma scorched the world with its insufferable splendour.
The account of its production runs thus: that the gods and mankind were entirely discontented with the moon which they had got, "Because it gave no light," and besides the plants were poor and the fruits of no use, and that therefore they churned the White sea [or, as it is commonly expressed, "they churned the ocean"], when all things were mingled--i.e., were thrown into confusion, and that then a new moon, with a new regent, was appointed, which brought in an entirely new system of things (Asiatic Researches). From MAURICE's Indian Antiquities, we learn that at this very time of the churning of the ocean, the earth was set on fire, and a great conflagration was the result. But the name of the moon in India is Soma, or Som (for the final a is only a breathing, and the word is found in the name of the famous temple of Somnaut, which name signifies "Lord of the Moon"), and the moon in India is male. As this transaction is symbolical, the question naturally arises, who could be meant by the moon, or regent of the moon, who was cast off in the fifth generation of the world? The name Som shows at once who he must have been.
Som is just the name of Shem; for Shem's name comes from Shom, "to appoint," and is legitimately represented either by the name Som, or Sem, as it is in Greek; and it was precisely to get rid of Shem (either after his father's death, or when the infirmities of old age were coming upon him) as the great instructor of the world, that is, as the great diffuser of spiritual light, that in the fifth generation the world was thrown into confusion and the earth set on fire.
The propriety of Shem's being compared to the moon will appear if we consider the way in which his father Noah was evidently symbolised.
The head of a family is divinely compared to the sun, as in the dream of Joseph (Gen 37:9), and it may be easily conceived how Noah would, by his posterity in general, be looked up to as occupying the paramount place as the Sun of the world; and accordingly Bryant, Davies, Faber, and others, have agreed in recognising Noah as so symbolised by Paganism.
When, however, his younger son--for Shem was younger than Japhet--(Gen 10:21) was substituted for his father, to whom the world had looked up in comparison of the "greater light," Shem would naturally, especially by those who disliked him and rebelled against him, be compared to "the lesser light," or the moon. *
* "As to the kingdom, the Oriental Oneirocritics, jointly say, that the sun is the symbol of the king, and the moon of the next to him in power." This sentence extracted from DAUBUZ's Symbolical Dictionary, illustrated with judicious notes by my learned friend, the Rev. A. Forbes, London, shows that the conclusion to which I had come before seeing it, in regard to the symbolical meaning of the moon, is entirely in harmony with Oriental modes of thinking.
Now, the production of light by mice at this period, comes in exactly to confirm this deduction. A mouse in Chaldee is "Aakbar"; and Gheber, or Kheber, in Arabic, Turkish, and some of the other eastern dialects, becomes "Akbar," as in the well-known Moslem saying, "Allar Akbar," "God is Great."
So that the whole statement of Plutarch, when stripped of its nonsensical garb, just amounts to this, that light was produced by the Guebres or fire-worshippers,
when Nimrod was set up in opposition to Shem,
as the representative of Noah, and the great enlightener of the world.
____________________ The Story of Phaethon The identity of Phaethon and Nimrod has much to support it besides the prima facie evidence arising from the statement that Phaethon was an Ethiopian or Cushite, and the resemblance of his fate, in being cast down from heaven while driving the chariot of the sun, as "the child of the Sun," to the casting down of Molk-Gheber, whose very name, as the god of fire, identifies him with Nimrod.1. Phaethon is said by Apollodorus to have been the son of Tithonus; but if the meaning of the name Tithonus be examined, it will be evident that he was Tithonus himself. Tithonus was the husband of Aurora (DYMOCK). In the physical sense, as we have already seen, Aurora signifies "The awakener of the light"; to correspond with this Tithonus signifies "The kindler of light," or "setter on fire." *
* From Tzet or Tzit, "to kindle," or "set on fire," which in Chaldee becomes Tit, and Thon, "to give."
Now "Phaethon, the son of Tithonus," is in Chaldee "Phaethon Bar Tithon." But this also signifies "Phaethon, the son that set on fire." Assuming, then, the identity of Phaethon and Tithonus, this goes far to identify Phaethon with Nimrod; for Homer, as we have seen (Odyssey), mentions the marriage of Aurora with Orion, the mighty Hunter, whose identity with Nimrod is established. Then the name of the celebrated son that sprang from the union between Aurora and Tithonus, shows that Tithonus, in his original character, must have been indeed the same as "the mighty hunter" of Scripture, for the name of that son was Memnon (MARTIAL and OVID, Metam.), which signifies "The son of the spotted one," * thereby identifying the father with Nimrod, whose emblem was the spotted leopard's skin.
* From Mem or Mom, "spotted," and Non, "a son."
As Ninus or Nimrod, was worshipped as the son of his own wife, and that wife Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, we see how exact is the reference to Phaethon, when Isaiah, speaking of the King of Babylon, who was his representative, says, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning" (Isa 14:12). The marriage of Orion with Aurora; in other words, his setting up as "The kindler of light," or becoming the "author of fire-worship," is said by Homer to have been the cause of his death, he having in consequence perished under the wrath of the gods.
2. That Phaethon was currently represented as the son of Aurora, the common story, as related by Ovid, sufficiently proves. While Phaethon claimed to be the son of Phoebus (Apollo), or the sun, he was reproached with being only the son of Merops--i.e., of the mortal husband of his mother Clymene (OVID, Metam.).
See the king/queen of Tyre and of Babylon above.
The story implies that that mother gave herself out to be Aurora, not in the physical sense of that term, but in its mystical sense; as "The woman pregnant with light"; and,
consequently, her son was held up as the great "Light-bringer" who was to enlighten the world,--
"Lucifer, the son of the morning," who was the pretended enlightener of the souls of men. The name Lucifer, in Isaiah,
is the very word from which Eleleus, one of the names of Bacchus, evidently comes. It comes from "Helel," which signifies "to irradiate" or "to bring light," and is equivalent to the name Tithon. Now we have evidence that Lucifer, the son of Aurora, or the morning, was worshipped in the very same character as Nimrod, when he appeared in his new character as a little child.
Eliyl (h457) el-eel'; appar. from 4089 (al-nothing); good for nothing, by anal. vain or vanity; spec. an idol: - idol, no value, thing of nought.
Alalê ( [alalai] ) loud cry, maniai t' alalai t' orinomenôn Pi.Fr.208 ; alalai aiagmatôn (v.l. alalagai) E.Ph.337 :-- esp. war-cry, Pi.N.3.60; battle, Id.I.7(6).10: comically, a. "muron cheite" Phoen.3.3 :--Alala personified, kluth', Alala, polemou thugater, Pi.Fr.78, cf. Plu.2.349c.
Pi.N.3.60 Pindar, Odes
Greek with similar definition:
Eleleu , doubled eleleu eleleu, a cry of pain, A.Pr.877 (anap.); also an exclamation used at the ceremony of the ôschophoria, Plu.Thes. 22:--in form eleleleu, a war-cry, Ar.Av.364, cf. Sch.ad loc.
Bschophoria [pherô] one day of the Athen. festival Skira, on which boys, carrying vine-branches loaded with grapes (v. oschos ), went in procession from the temple of Bacchus to that of Athêna Skiras, Plut.
Alal-azo, fut. -axomai v.l. in E.Ba.593, -axô LXX Ez. 27.30 : aor. êlalaxa E.HF981 , X. (v. infr.), poet. alalaxa Pi.O.7.37 :--Med., S.Fr.534, Arr.An.5.10.3: (formed from the cry alalai): --raise the war-cry, tôi Enualiôi êlalaxan (as v.l. for êlelixan) X.An.5.2.14, cf.6.5.27; Med., Arr.l.c.: c.acc. cogn., nikên alalazein shout the shout of victory, S.Ant.133.
Heylel (h1966) hay-lale'; from 1984 (in the sense of brightness); the morning-star: - lucifer.
Halal (h1984) haw-lal'; a prim. root; to be clear (orig. of sound, but usually of color); to shine; hence to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causat. to celebrate; also to stultify: - (make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool (- ish, -ly), glory, give [light], be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage, [sing, be worthy of] praise, rage, renowned, shine.
Chalal (h2490) khaw-lal'; a prim. root [comp. 2470]; prop. to bore, i. e. (by impl.) to wound, to dissolve; fig. to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to play (the flute): - begin (* men began), defile, * break, defile, * eat (as common things), * first, * gather the grape thereof, * take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self), prostitute, slay (slain), sorrow, stain, wound.
This Phaethon (son of Helios), or Lucifer, who was cast down is further proved to be Janus; for Janus is called "Pater Matutinus" (HORACE); and the meaning of this name will appear in one of its aspects when the meaning of the name of the Dea Matuta is ascertained.
Dea Matuta signifies "The kindling or Light-bringing goddess," * and accordingly, by Priscian, she is identified with Aurora.
* Matuta comes from the same word as Tithonus--i.e., Tzet, Tzit, or Tzut, which in Chaldee becomes Tet, Tit, or Tut, "to light" or "set on fire." From Tit, "to set on fire," comes the Latin Titio, "a firebrand"; and from Tut, with the formative M prefixed, comes Matuta--just as from Nasseh, "to forget," with the same formative prefixed, comes Manasseh, "forgetting," the name of the eldest son of Joseph (Gen 41:51). The root of this verb is commonly given as "Itzt"; but see BAKER'S Lexicon, where it is also given as "Tzt." It is evidently from this root that the Sanscrit "Suttee" already referred to comes.
Matutinus is evidently just the correlate of Matuta, goddess of the morning; Janus, therefore, as Matutinus, is "Lucifer, son of the morning." But further, Matuta is identified with Ino, after she had plunged into the sea, and had, along with her son Melikerta, been changed into a sea-divinity. Consequently her son Melikerta, "king of the walled city," is the same as Janus Matutinus, or Lucifer, Phaethon, or Nimrod.
There is still another link by which Melikerta, the sea-divinity, or Janus Matutinus, is identified with the primitive god of the fire-worshippers. The most common name of Ino, or Matuta, after she had passed through the waters, was Leukothoe (OVID, Metam.). Now, Leukothoe or Leukothea has a double meaning, as it is derived either from "Lukhoth," which signifies "to light," or "set on fire," or from Lukoth "to glean." In the Maltese medal, the ear of corn, at the side of the goddess, which is more commonly held in her hand, while really referring in its hidden meaning to her being the Mother of Bar, "the son," to the uninitiated exhibits her as Spicilega, or "The Gleaner,"--"the popular name," says Hyde, "for the female with the ear of wheat represented in the constellation Virgo." In Bryant, Cybele is represented with two or three ears of corn in her hand; for as there were three peculiarly distinguished Bacchuses, there were consequently as many "Bars," and she might therefore be represented with one, two, or three ears in her hand. But to revert to the Maltese medal just referred to, the flames coming out of the head of Lukothea, the "Gleaner," show that, though she has passed through the waters, she is still Lukhothea, "the Burner," or "Light-giver." And the rays around the mitre of the god on the reverse entirely agree with the character of that god as Eleleus, or Phaethon--in other words, as "The Shining Bar." Now, this "Shining Bar," as Melikerta, "king of the walled city," occupies the very place of "Ala-Mahozim," whose representative the Pope is elsewhere proved to be. But he is equally the sea-divinity, who in that capacity wears the mitre of Dagon.
The fish-head mitre which the Pope wears shows that, in this character also, as the "Beast from the sea," he is the unquestionable representative of Melikerta.
____________________ The Roman Imperial Standard of the Dragon a Symbol of Fire- worship The passage of Ammianus Marcellinus, that speaks of that standard, calls it "purpureum signum draconis." On this may be raised the question, Has the epithet purpureum, as describing the colour of the dragon, any reference to fire? The following extract from Salverte may cast some light upon it:"The dragon figured among the military ensigns of the Assyrians. Cyrus caused it to be adopted by the Persians and Medes.
Under the Roman emperors, and under the emperors of Byzantium, each cohort or centuria bore for an ensign a dragon."There is no doubt that the dragon or serpent standard of the Assyrians and Persians had reference to fire-worship, the worship of fire and the serpent being mixed up together in both these countries.
As the Romans, therefore, borrowed these standards evidently from these sources, it is to be presumed that they viewed them in the very same light as those from whom they borrowed them, especially as that light was so exactly in harmony with their own system of fire-worship. The epithet purpureus or "purple" does not indeed naturally convey the idea of fire-colour to us. But it does convey the idea of red; and red in one shade or another, among idolatrous nations, has almost with one consent been used to represent fire. The Egyptians (BUNSEN), the Hindoos (MOOR'S Pantheon, "Brahma"), the Assyrians (LAYARD'S Nineveh), all represented fire by red. The Persians evidently did the same, for when Quintus Curtius describes the Magi as following "the sacred and eternal fire," he describes the 365 youths, who formed the train of these Magi, as clad in "scarlet garments," the colour of these garments, no doubt, having reference to the fire whose ministers they were. Puniceus is equivalent to purpureus, for it was in Phenicia [six] that the purpura, or purple-fish, was originally found. The colour derived from that purple-fish was scarlet, and it is the very name of that Phoenician purple-fish, "arguna," that is used in Daniel 5:16 and 19, where it is said that he that should interpret the handwriting on the wall should "be clothed in scarlet."
The Tyrians had the art of making true purples, as well as scarlet; and there seems no doubt that purpureus is frequently used in the ordinary sense attached to our word purple. But the original meaning of the epithet is scarlet; and as bright scarlet colour is a natural colour to represent fire, so we have reason to believe that that colour, when used for robes of state among the Tyrians, had special reference to fire;
for the Tyrian Hercules, who was regarded as the inventor of purple (BRYANT), was regarded as "King of Fire," (NONNUS, Dionysiaca).
The king/queen of Tyre was a personification of Lucifer:
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Is.23:15
"Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. Is.23:16
Now, when we find that the purpura of Tyre produced the scarlet colour which naturally represented fire, and that puniceus, which is equivalent to purpureus, is evidently used for scarlet, there is nothing that forbids us to understand purpureus in the same sense here, but rather requires it. But even though it were admitted that the tinge was deeper, and purpureus meant the true purple, as red, of which it is a shade, is the established colour of fire, and as the serpent was the universally acknowledged symbol of fire-worship, the probability is strong that the use of a red dragon as the Imperial standard of Rome was designed as an emblem of that system of fire-worship on which the safety of the empire was believed so vitally to hinge.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Rev 7:3
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: Rev 17:4
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