The Two Babylons,
Alexander Hislop, Mother and Child
Mother of God: The Mother and Child, and the Original of the Child
Chapter II As the Great Invisible, taking no
immediate concern in human affairs, he was "to be worshipped through silence alone," that is, in point of fact, he was not worshipped by the multitude at all.
The same thing is strikingly illustrated in
India at this day. Though Brahma, according to the
sacred books, is the first person of the Hindoo Triad, and the religiion
of Hindostan is callec by his name, yet he is never worshipped, and
there is scarcely a single Temple in all India now in existence of
those that were formerly erected to his honour. So also is it in those countries of Europe
where the Papal system is most completely developed. In Papal Italy, as travellers universally admit
(except where the Gospel has recently entered), all appearance of worshipping the
King Eternal and Invisible is almost extinct, The Babylonians, in their
popular religion, supremely worshipped a
Goddess Mother and a Son, [Or Mother of God] who was represented in pictures and in images
as an infant or child in his mother's arms. From Babylon, this worship of the
Mother and the Child spread to the ends of the earth. In Egypt,
the Mother and the Child were worshipped under the names of
Isis and
Osiris. *
In India, even to this day, as Isi and Iswara; ** in Asia, as
Cybele and
Deoius; in
Pagan Rome, as Fortuna and Jupiter-puer, or Jupiter,
the boy; in Greece, as Ceres, the Great Mother,
with the babe at her breast, or as Irene, the goddess of
Peace, with the boy Plutus in her arms; and even in Thibet, in China,
and Japan, the Jesuit missionaries were astronished to find the
counterpart of Madonna *** and her child as devoutly worshipped as in Papal
Rome itself; Shing Moo, the Holy
Mother in China, being represented with
a child in her arms, and a glory around her, exactly
as if a Roman Catholic artist had been employed to set her up.
**** * Osiris, as the child
called most frequently Horus. BUNSEN. ** KENNEDY'S Hindoo Mythology. Though
Iswara is the husband of Isi, he is also represnted as an infant at
her breast. *** The very name by which the Italians commonly
designate the Virgin, is just the translation of one of the titles of the
Babylonian goddess. [Mother of
god] As Baal or Belus was the name
of the great male divinity of Babylon, so the female divinity was
called Beltis. (HESYCHIUS, Lexicon) This name has
been found in Nineveh applied to the "Mother of the gods" (VAUX'S
Nineveh and Persepolis); [Mother of
god] and in a speech attributed to Nebuchadnezzar,
preserved in EUSEBII Proeparatio
Evangelii, both titles "Belus and Beltis" are
conjoined as the titles of the great Babylonian god and goddess.
The Greek Belus, as representing the highest
title of the Babylonian god, was undoubtedly Baal, "The Lord."
Beltis,
therefore, as the title of the female divinity, was equivalent to "Baalti," In connection with this, it may be observed,
that the name of Juno, the classical "Queen of
Heaven," which, in Greek, was
Hera, also
signified "The Lady"; and that the peculiar title of Cybele or Rhea
at Rome, was Domina or "The
Lady." (OVID, Fasti) (See the worship
of the air goddess Juno in Corinth) Further, there is strong reason to believe,
that Athena, the well known name of Minerva at Athens, had the very
same meaning. The Hebrew Adon, "The Lord," is, with the
points, pronounced Athon. We have evidence that this name was known to the
Asiatic Greeks, from whom idolatry, in a large measure, came into
European Greece, as a name of God under the form of "Athan."
Eustathius, in a note on the Periergesis of Dionysius, speaking of
local names in the district of Laodicea, says the "Athan is god." The
feminine of Athan, "The Lord," is Athan, "The Lady," which in the
Attic dialect, is Athena. No doubt, Minerva is commonly represented as a virgin;
but, for all that, we learn from Strabo that at Hierapytna in Crete
(the coins of which city, says Muller, Dorians have the Athenian
symbols of Minerva upon them), she was said to be the mother of
the Corybantes (emasculated priests) by Helius, or "The Sun." It is
certain that the Egyptian Minerva, who was
the prototype of the Athenian goddess, was a mother, and was styled
"Goddess Mother," or "Mother of the
Gods." **** CRABB'S Mythology. Gutzlaff
thought that Shing Moo must have been borrowed from a Popish source;
and there can be no doubt, that in the individual case to which he
refers, the Pagan and the Christian stories had been amalgamated. But
Sir. J. F. Davis shows that the Chinese of Canton find such an
analogy between their own Pagan
goddess Kuanyin and the
Popish Madonna, that, in conversing with Europeans, they frequently
call either of them indifferently by the same title. DAVIS'
China. The first Jesuit missionaries to China also wrote home
to Europe, that they found mention in the Chinese sacred books--books
unequivocally Pagan--of a mother and child, very similar to their own
Madonna and child at home. One of the names of the Chinese Holy Mother is
Ma Tsoopo; in regard to which, see note below. Note The name of Shing Moo, applied by the Chinese
to their "Holy Mother," compared with another name of the same goddess in
another province of China, strongly favours the conclusion that Shing
Moo is just a synonym for one of the well known names of the
goddess-mother of Babylon. Gillespie (in his Land of Sinim) states that
the Chinese goddess-mother, or "Queen of Heaven," in the province of
Fuh-kien, is worshipped by seafaring people under the name of Ma
Tsoopo. Now, "Ama Tzupah" signifies the "Gazing Mother"; and there is
much reason to believe that Shing Moo signifies the same; for Mu was
one of the forms in which Mut or Maut, the name of the great mother,
appeared in Egypt (BUNSEN'S Vocabulary); and Shngh, in
Chaldee, signifies "to look" or "gaze." The Egyptian Mu or Maut was
symbolised either by a vulture, or an eye surrounded by a
vulture's wings (WILKINSON). The symbolic meaning of the vulture may
be learned from the Scriptural expression: "There is a path which no
fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen" (Job 28:7).
The vulture was noted for its sharp sight, and hence, the
eye
surrounded by the vulture's wings showed that, for some reason or
other, the great mother of the
gods in Egypt had been known as "The
gazer." But the idea contained in the
Egyptian symbol had evidently been borrowed from Chaldea; for
Rheia, one
of the most noted names of the Babylonian mother of the gods, is
just the Chaldee form of the Hebrew Rhaah, which signifies at
once "a gazing woman" and a "vulture." (Rhea,
Zoe) The Hebrew Rhaah itself is also,
according to a dialectical variation, legitimately pronounced
Rheah; and
hence the name of the great goddess-mother of Assyria
was sometimes Rhea, and sometimes Rheia. In Greece, the same idea was
evidently attached to Athena or Minerva, whom we have seen to have
been by some regarded as the Mother of the children of the sun.
For one of her distinguishing titles was
Ophthalmitis (SMITH'S Classical
Dictionary, "Athena"), thereby pointing
her out as the goddess of "the
eye."
It was no doubt to indicate the same thing that, as the Egyptian
Maut wore
a vulture on her head, so the Athenian Minerva was represented as
wearing a helmet with two eyes, or eye-holes, in the
front of the helmet. (VAUX'S Antiquities) And the great
dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil,
and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and
his angels were cast out with him. Rev 12:9 Ophis
(g3789) of'-is; prob. from 3700 (through the idea of sharpness of
vision); a snake, fig. (as a type of sly cunning) an artful malicious
person, espec. Satan:
- serpent. Optanomai (g3700) op-tan'-om'ahee; a (mid.) prol.
form of the prim. (mid.) optomai , s op'-tam-ahee, which is used for
it in certain tenses; and both as alt. of 3708; to gaze (i.e. with
wide-open eyes, as at something remarkable; and thus differing from
991, which denotes simply voluntary observation; and from 1492, which
expresses merely mechanical, passive or casual vision; while 2300,
and still more emphatically its intens. 2334, signifies an earnest
but more continued inspection; and 4648 a watching from a distance):
- appear, look, see, shew self Having thus traced the gazing mother over the
earth, is it asked, What can have given origin to such a name as
applied to the mother of the gods? A fragment of Sanchuniathon, in regard
to the Phoenician mythology, furnishes us with a satisfactory reply.
There it is said that Rheia conceived by
Kronos, who was her own brother,
and yet was known as the father of the
gods, and in consequence brought forth
a son who was called Muth, that is, as
Philo-Byblius correctly interprets the word, "Death." As
Sanchuniathon expressly distinguishes this "father of the gods" from
"Hypsistos," The Most High, * we naturally recall what Hesiod says in
regard to his Kronos, the father of the gods, who, for a certain wicked
deed, was called Titan, and cast down to hell. (Theogonia) * In reading Sanchuniathon, it is
necessary to bear in mind what Philo-Byblius, his translator, states
at the end of the Phenician
History--viz., that history and
mythology were mingled together in that work. The Kronos to whom Hesiod
refers is evidently at bottom a different Kronos from the human
father of the gods, or Nimrod, whose history
occupies so large a place in this work. He is plainly none other than Satan himself; the
name Titan, or Teitan, as it is sometimes given, being, as we have elsewhere
concluded, only the Chaldee form of
Sheitan, the common name of the grand
Adversary among the Arabs, your home will be
the
toilets; in the very region where the Chaldean Mysteries were
originally concocted,--that Adversary
who was ultimately the real father of all the Pagan
gods,--and who (to make the title of
Kronos (Saturn), "the Horned One," appropriate to him also) was symbolised
by the Kerastes, or Horned
serpent. All "the brethren" of this
father of the gods, who were implicated in his rebellion against his
own father, the "God of Heaven," were equally called by the
"reproachful" name "Titans"; but, inasmuch as
he was the ringleader in the rebellion, he was, of course,
Titan by
way of eminence. In this rebellion of Titan, the goddess of the earth
was concerned, and the result was that (removing the figure under
which Hesiod has hid the fact) it became naturally impossible that
the God of Heaven should have children upon earth--a plain allusion
to the Fall. Now, assuming that this is the "Father of the
gods," by whom Rhea, whose common title is that of the
Mother of the gods, and who is also identified with Ge, or the Earth-goddess,
had the child called Muth, or Death, who could
this "Mother of the gods" be, but just our Mother
Eve? (ZOE). And the name Rhea, or "The Gazer," bestowed on
her, is wondrously significant. and brought forth that
deadly birth, under which the world has hitherto groaned.
It was through her eyes that the fatal
connection was first formed between her and the
grand Adversary, under the form of a serpent, whose name,
Nahash, or
Nachash,
as it stands in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, also signifies "to view attentively," or "to
gaze" (Gen
3:6) "And when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and pleasant to the
eyes," &c., "she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat;
and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."
Nachash, the serpent, is intimately identified
with musical
worship which,
according to many myths, was that which led the holy people away from
God's Word. See Serpent
or Devil Worship. Here, then, we have the pedigree of sin and
death; "Lust, when it had conceived, brought forth
sin; and
sin, when it was finished, brought forth death" (James 1:15).
Though Muth, or Death, was the
son of Rhea, this progeny of hers came to be regarded, therefore, says Philo-Byblius, Muth was interpreted not
only as death, but as Pluto. King Seti I offering a figure of
ma'at to
Osiris, Isis, and Horus; relief in the temple of King Seti I, Abydos,
early 13th century BC. According to the
Britannica, the female Mut in
Egyptian religion, a sky goddess and great divine mother. Mut may have originated either in the
Nile River delta or in Middle Egypt. During the 18th dynasty
(1539-1292 BC), she became the companion of the god Amon at Thebes, forming the Theban triad with him and with the youthful god Khons (Saturn), who was said to be Mut's son. The name Mut means "mother," and her role was that of an older woman among the
gods. She was
associated with the uraeus (rearing cobra) [She was mother of god] More Britannica: In the
New Kingdom, religious speculation among Amon's priests led to the
concept of Amon as part of a triad (with Ptah and Re) or as a single
god of whom all the other gods, even Ptah (see photograph ) and Re,
were manifestations. Under the sacerdotal state ruled by the priests
of Amon at Thebes (c. 1075&endash; c. 950 BC), Amon evolved into a
universal god who intervened through oracles in many affairs of
state (SANCHUN) In the Roman mythology,
Pluto was
regarded as on a level, for honour, with Jupiter (OVID,
Fasti);
and in Egypt, we have evidence that Osiris, "the seed of the
woman," was the "Lord of
heaven," and king of hell, or "Pluto"
(WILKINSON; BUNSEN); and it can be shown by a large induction of
particulars (and the reader has somewhat of the evidence presented in
this volume), that he was none other than the Devil himself, supposed to have become incarnate; who, though
through the first transgression, and his connection with the woman,
he had brought sin and death into the world, had, nevertheless, by means of them,
brought innumerable benefits to mankind. See
the Egyptian triad of Osiris, Isis and Horus and the Musical Idolatry
at Mount Sinai. As the name Pluto has the very same
meaning as Saturn, "The hidden one" so, whatever other aspect this name
had, as applied to the father of the
gods, it is to Satan, the Hidden Lord of hell,
ultimately that all came at last to be traced back; for the different
myths about Saturn, when carefully examined, show that he was at once the Devil, the father
of all sin
and idolatry, who hid himself under the
disguise of the serpent,--and Adam, who hid himself among the
trees of the garden,--and Noah, who lay hid for a whole year in
the ark,- and Nimrod, who was hid in the secrecy of
the Babylonian Mysteries. It was to glorify
Nimrod that the whole Chaldean system
of iniquity was formed. He was known as Nin, "the son," and his wife as
Rhea, who
was called Ammas, "The Mother." The name Rhea, as applied to
Semiramis,
had another meaning from what it had when applied to her, who was
really the primeval goddess, the "mother
of gods and men." But yet, to make out
the full majesty of her character, it was necessary that she should
be identified with that primeval goddess; and, therefore, although
the son she bore in her arms was represented as he who was born to
destroy death, yet she was often represented with the very symbols of
her who brought death into the world. And so was it also in the
different countries where the Babylonian system spread. Counter added 4.25.05 8p
Section II
while the Mother and the
Child are the grand objects of
worship.
Exactly so, in this latter respect, also was it in ancient Babylon.
which, in English, is "My
Lady,"
in Latin, "Mea Domina,"
and, in Italina, is corrupted into the well known "Madonna."
your net (to ensnare) will be women;
your muezzin
will be the musical
instruments,
and your musjid will be
the market-place."
It was as "the gazer" that the mother of
mankind conceived by Satan,
