ANCIENT EGYPT THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
NOTES TO BOOK 12
[1] [Herodotus, Histories, bk. 2.43. 'The account which I received of
this Hercules makes him one of the twelve gods. Of the other Hercules, with whom
the Greeks are familiar, I could hear nothing in any part of Egypt. That the
Greeks, however (those I mean who gave the son of Amphitryon that name), took
the name from the Egyptians, and not the Egyptians from the Greeks, is I think
clearly proved, among other arguments, by the fact that both the parents of
Hercules, Amphitryon as well as Alcmêna, were of Egyptian origin. Again, the
Egyptians disclaim all knowledge of the names of Neptune and the Dioscûri, and
do not include them in the number of their gods; but had they adopted the name
of any god from the Greeks, these would have been the likeliest to obtain
notice, since the Egyptians, as I am well convinced, practised navigation at
that time, and the Greeks also were some of them mariners, so that they would
have been more likely to know the names of these gods than that of Hercules. But
the Egyptian Hercules is one of their ancient gods. Seventeen thousand years
before the reign of Amasis, the twelve gods were, they affirm, produced from the
eight: and of these twelve, Hercules is one.' Tr., Rawlinson.
'About Heracles I heard the account given that he was of the number of
the twelve gods; but of the other Heracles whom the Hellenes know I was not able
to hear in any part of Egypt: and moreover to prove that the Egyptians did not
take the name of Heracles from the Hellenes, but rather the Hellenes from the
Egyptians, that is to say those of the Hellenes who gave the name Heracles to
the son of Amphitryon, of that, I say, besides many other evidences there is
chiefly this, namely that the parents of this Heracles, Amphitryon and Alcmene,
were both of Egypt by descent, and also that the Egyptians say that they do not
know the names either of Poseidon or of the Dioscuroi, nor have these been
accepted by them as gods among the other gods; whereas if they had received from
the Hellenes the name of any divinity, they would naturally have preserved the
memory of these most of all, assuming that in those times as now some of the
Hellenes were wont to make voyages and were sea-faring folk, as I suppose and as
my judgment compels me to think; so that the Egyptians would have learnt the
names of these gods even more than that of Heracles. In fact however Heracles is
a very ancient Egyptian god; and (as they say themselves) it is seventeen
thousand years to the beginning of the reign of Amasis from the time when the
twelve gods, of whom they count that Heracles is one, were begotten of the eight
gods.' Tr., Macauley.]
[3] [Rit. chs. 15, 17, etc., vignettes.]
[4] [Higgins, The Names of
the Stars and Constellations, Compiled from the Latin, Greek and Arabic, with
Their Derivations and Meanings, p. 45. 'VI. Virgo = The Virgin.
The Arabs called this, Burj al Sumbalah = Constellation of the spike (sumbulah
Kamh = spike of wheat).
Beta K'avijava
Zavijara
(Terribly bungled)
Name on charts, Latin. Meaning,
Spica
spica a wheat ear.
Alpha | Arabic,
azimech as simak Simak.
(proper name.)
al a'sal unarmed.
(from sallah = To arm)
I and a = privative.
Zavijava i Zawiyat a comer.
(Ideler)
Close to the Angle, at Autumnal Equinox, made by ecliptic and equator.
ariyat A slave girl.
I zara't Agriculture.
Latin, Epsilon Vindemiatrix = vindemia = grape gathering.
= The female vine dresser.
Also called (in Cicero's Aratus) Vindemitor = The male grape gatherer.
And by Greeks, Protrygeter = from Pro = before.
and Trugeter... = The grape gatherer.
That is, Vindemitor, arose just before the time for grape gathering, and thus
gave notice of the proper season.']
[5] [Few works by this writer have come down to us, surviving fragments have been published but none relating to his chronology or theory of astronomy.]
[9] [Bleek, A Brief Account of Bushman Folklore and Other Texts, p. 9. 'The Sun, a man from whose armpit brightness proceeded, lived formerly on earth; but only gave light for a space around his house. Some children belonging to the First Bushmen (who preceded the Flat Bushmen in their country) were therefore sent to throw up the sleeping Sun into the sky; since then, he shines all over the earth.']
[11] [Ambrose, Works, Paris, 1686, vol. 1, col.
1528. 'After the Christian era the influence of the scarab was still felt. St
Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, calls Jesus: "The good Scarabaeus, who rolled up
before him the hitherto unshapen mud of our bodies."'
See Myers,
Scarabs, p. 63. See also BB 1:233, BB 2:317, NG 2:408.]
[12] [Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, 1:10.
'To denote an only begotten, or generation, or a father, or the world, or
a man, they delineate a SCARABÆUS. And they symbolise by this an only
begotten, because the scarabæus is a creature self-produced, being
unconceived by a female; for the propagation of it is unique after this
manner:—when the male is desirous of procreating, he takes dung of an ox, and
shapes it into a spherical form like the world; he then rolls it from the hinder
parts from east to west, looking himself towards the east, that he may impart to
it the figure of the world, (for that is borne from east to west, while the
course of the stars is from west to east): then, having dug a hole, the
scarabæus deposits this ball in the earth for the space of twenty-eight days,
(for in so many days the moon passes through the twelve signs of the zodiac). By
thus remaining under the moon, the race of scarabæi is endued with life; and
upon the nine and twentieth day after having opened the ball, it casts it into
water, for it is aware that upon that day the conjunction of the moon and sun
takes place, as well as the generation of the world. From the ball thus opened
in the water, the animals, that is the scarabæi, issue forth. The scarabæus also
symbolizes generation, for the reason before mentioned—and a father,
because the scarabæus is engendered by a father only—and the world,
because in its generation it is fashioned in the form of the world—and a man,
because there is no female race among them. Moreover there are three species of
scarabæi, the first like a cat, and irradiated, which species they have
consecrated to the sun from this similarity: for they say that the male cat
changes the shape of the pupils of his eyes according to the course of the sun:
for in the morning at the rising of the god, they are dilated, and in the middle
of the day become round, and about sunset appear less brilliant: whence, also,
the statue of the god in the city of the sun is of the form of a cat. Every
scarabæus also has thirty toes, corresponding with the thirty days duration of
the month, during which the rising sun [moon?] performs his course. The second
species is the two horned and bull formed, which is consecrated to the moon;
whence the children of the Egyptians say, that the bull in the heavens is the
exaltation of this goddess. The third species is the one horned and Ibis
formed, which they regard as consecrated to Hermes [Thoth], in like manner as
the bird Ibis.'
See also BB 1:6 for another ref. to this chapter.]
[13] [Maspero, 'Stele of King Har-si-Atef,' RP,
6, 90, left side.
See also AE 1:542.
NG 2:326]
[15] [Petrie, Egyptian Tales, p. 90. Unsure as to what Massey is here referring as neither the first or second series of this work relates to twins, unless of course here is referring to the 'Tale of the Two Brothers,' in the second volume. Here it is known as Anpu and Bata.]
[17] [Bryant, A New System, or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology, vol. 5, p. 384. Unable to trace; there were only 3 vols. pub.]
[18] [Bosio, Roma Sotterana, vol. 2, pl. 16.]
[19] [Ibid., pp. 216-7.]
[20] [Is. 11:1-2. 'And there
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of
his roots:
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the LORD.']
[21] [De Rossi, Roma Sotteranea Christiana, vol. 1.]
[22] [Bosio, Roma Sotterana.]
[23] [Lundy, Monumental Christianity, figs. 169 and 171.]
[25] [Not in Renouf or Birch.]
[26] [Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterana, vol. 2, p. 68., pl. 17.]
[27] [Cited by Lockyer, Dawn of
Astronomy, pp. 284-86. 'In an excellent work of Brugsch, "Three Festival
Calendars from the Temple of Apollinopolis Magna (Edfu) in Upper Egypt," we have
two calendars which we can refer to fixed years, and can date with the greatest
accuracy. In the case of one of these, that of Esne, this is universally
recognised; as to the other, that of Apollinopolis Magna, we are indebted to
the researches of Krall, who points out, however, that "it is only when the
province of Egyptian mythology has been dealt with in all directions that we can
undertake a successful explanation of the festival catalogues. Even externally
they show the greatest eccentricities, which are not diminished, but increased,
on a closer investigation."
About some points, however, there is no question. The Summer Solstice is
attached in the Edfu calendar to the 6th Pachons, according to Krall, while the
beginning of the flood is noted on the 1st of that month. In the Esne calendar
the 26th Payni is New Year's Day. We read: "26th Payni, New
Year's Day, Feast of the Revelation of Kahi in the Temple. To dress the
crocodiles, as in the month of Menchir, day 8."
Peculiar to the Esne calendar, according to Krall, is the mentioning of the
"New Year's Festival of the Ancestors" on the 9th of Thoth; to the Edfu
calendar, publication No. 1 of Brugsch, the festival "of the offering of the
first of the harvested fruits, after the precept of King Amenemha I.," on the
1st Epiphi, and "the celebration of the feast of the Great Conflagration" on the
9th of Menchir. In feast-calendar No. 1, the reference to the peculiar Feast of
Set is also remarkable; this was celebrated twice, first in the first days of
Thoth (? 9th), then, as it appears, in Pachons (10th). This feast is
well known to have been first mentioned under the old Pharaoh Pepi Merinra.
It is a question whether in the new year of the ancestors and the feasts of Set.
all occurring about the 9th Thoth and Pachons, we have not Memphis festivals
which gave way to Theban ones; for, so far as I can make out. the flood takes
about nine days to pass from Thebes to Memphis, so that in Theban time the
arrival of the flood at Memphis would occur on 9th or 10th Thoth. There is no
difficulty about the second dating in Pachons, for as we have seen, this
followed on the reconstruction of the calendar.
It is also worthy of note that the feast of the "Great Conflagration" took place
very near the Spring Equinox.
Let us dwell for a moment on the Edfu inscriptions to see if we can learn from
them whether or not they bear out the views brought forward with regard to this
reconstruction.
As we have seen, it is now acknowledged that the temple inscriptions at Edfu
(which are stated to have been cut between 117 and 81 B.C.) are based upon the
fixed year of Tanis: hence we should expect that the rising of Sirius would be
referred to on 1 Payni, and this is so. But here, as in the other temples, we
get double dates referring to the old calendars, and we find the "wounding of
Set" referred to on the 1st Epiphi and the rising of Sirius referred to under 1
Mesori. Now this means, if the old vague year is referred to, as it most
probably is, that—
5 Epacts
30 Mesori
35 x 4 = 140 years
had elapsed since the beginning of a Sothic cycle, when the calendar
coincidences were determined, which were afterwards inscribed on the temple
walls. We have, then, 140 years to subtract from the beginning of the cycle in
270 b.c. This gives us 130 b.c, and it will be seen that this agrees as closely
as can be expected with my view, whereas the inscription has no meaning at all
if we take the date given by Censorinus.
I quote from Krall another inscription common to Edfu and Esne, which seems to
have astronomical significance.
"1. Phamenoth. Festival of the suspension of the sky by Ptah, by the side of the
god Harschaf, the master of Heracleopolis Magna (Al). Festival of Ptah. Feast of
the suspension of the sky (Es).
Under the 1st Phamenoth, Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, c. 43, li,
notices the [Greek omitted]. These are festivals connected with the celebration
of the Winter Solstice, and the filling of the Uza-eye on the 30th Menchir.
Perhaps the old year, which the Egyptians introduced into the Nile valley at the
time of their immigration, and which had only 360 days, commenced with the
Winter Solstice. Thus we should have in the 'festival of the suspension of the
sky,' by the ancient god Ptah venerated as creator of the world a remnant of the
time when the Winter Solstice marked the beginning of the year, and also the
creation."
The reconstruction of the calendar naturally enhanced the importance of the
month Pachons; this comes out very clearly from the inscriptions translated by
Brugsch. On this point Krall remarks:
"It is, therefore, quite right that the month Pachons, which took the of the old
Thoth by the decree of Tanis, should play a prominent part in the
feast-calendars of the days of the Ptolemies, and the first period of the Empire
in general, but especially in the Edfu calendar, which refers to the Ta-tuti-
year. The first five days of Pachons are dedicated in our calendar to the
celebration of the subjection of the enemies by Horus; we at once remember the
above-mentioned (p. 7) record of Edfu of the nature of a mythological calendar,
describing the advent of the Nile flood. On the 6th of Pachons remember the
great importance of the sixes in the Ptolemaean records the solstice is then
celebrated. The Uza-eye is then filled, a mythical act which we have in another
place referred to the celebration of the solstice, and 'everything is performed
which is ordained' in the book 'on the Divine Birth.'"
Next let us turn to Esne. The inscriptions here are stated to be based on the
Alexandrine year, but we not only find 1st Thoth given as New Years Day, but 26
Payni given as the beginning; of the Nile flood.
Now I have already stated that the Alexandrine year was practically a fixing of
the vague Tanis year that is, a year beginning on 1st Pachons in 239 B.C.
If we assume the date of the calendar coincidences recorded at Esne to have been
15 B.C. (we know it was after 23 B.C. and at the end of the Roman dominion), we
have as before, seeing that, if the vague Tanis year had really continued, it
would have swept forward with regard to the Nile flood,
Pachons 30
Payni 26
56 x 4 = 224 years after 239 b.c.
This double dating, then, proves the continuation of the vague year of Tanis if
the date 15 b.c. of the inscription is about right.
Can we go further and find a trace of the old cycle beginning 270 B.C.? In this
case we should have the rising of Sirius
270
- 15
4)255 years
64 = say, five Epacts and two months.
This would give us 1 Epiphi. Is this mentioned in the Esne calendar? Yes, it
is, "1 Epiphi. To perform the precepts of the book on the second divine birth of
the child Kahi."
Now the 26th Payni, the new New Year's Day, is associated with the "revelation
of Kahi," so it is not impossible that "the second divine birth" may have some
dim reference to the feast.
It is not necessary to pursue this intricate subject further in this place; so
intricate is it that, although the suggestions I have ventured to make on
astronomical grounds seem consistent with the available facts, they are
suggestions only, and a long labour on the part of Egyptologists will be needed
before we can be said to be on firm ground.']
[28] [Source below.]
[29] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 65.]
[30] [BC 238. Birch, 'Decree of Canopus,' RP, 8, 81.]
[31] [Birch, 'Decree of Canopus,' RP, 8, 81. See p. 88.]
[32] [Of Isis and Osiris. Chapter uncertain, but see text.]
[33] [Life in Ancient Egypt, pp. 277-9. 'Thus,
for instance, a feast of ten days was solemnised in the last decade of the month Choiakh to the Memphite god Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris; the temple of Medinet Habu took
part in this festival. .... Yet Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris was only a god of the second
rank at Medinet Habu; at the great festivals of Amon, the offerings were
doubtless far more numerous.
One question forces itself involuntarily upon the reader, what became of all
this extra food after it had fulfilled its purpose of lying on the altar before
the god? We might think that it would be brought into the provision-house and
used gradually for the maintenance of the temple, servants and priests; the
various amounts of the offerings would then merely prove the greater or less
importance of the feast. If however we consider lists such as the above, we
perceive that the matter is not so simple; for if on the different festival
days the number of loaves of bread varies from 50 to 3694, and the jugs of beer
from 15 to 905, the birds from 4 to 206, the different degree of sanctity
between the individual days could not account for so much variation. The 26th of Choiakh, the feast of Sokaris, was evidently the principal day of the whole
festival, but it could not be twenty times more holy than the 30th of Choiakh,
the sacred day, when the pillar of Ded was erected. It is much more likely that
there was a more practical reason for the choice of these numbers: the food
probably supplied different numbers of persons, and these persons were not
divine images, but the priests and the laity who took part in the festival. The
number of the latter probably varied much on the different festival days;
according as the festival was a closed or an open one, the crowd at the feast to
consume the offerings would vary in proportion. This would also explain the
difference in the quality of the food; at one time the people assisting would
belong to the upper classes, and would require roast meat and cake; at another
time the lower classes preponderated, and for. them loaves of bread would
suffice.
The great festivals, of which I have here spoken, were, as far as we know, of
very much the same character, the chief feature being a representation of some
important event in the history of the god whose day was celebrated. Under the
Middle Empire, for instance, on the festival of Osiris of Abydos, the former
battles of this god were represented; the "enemies of Osiris were beaten," and
this god was then carried in procession to his tomb in Peqer, the cemetery of
Abydos, and buried. Afterwards there was a representation of "that day of the
great fight," on which "all his enemies" were beaten at the place "Nedyt." The
festival of Epuat, the god of the dead, celebrated at Siut, must have been very
similar; he was also "conducted by a procession to his tomb," which was situate
in the necropolis there. Indications of this kind are frequent, especially in
the later texts; nevertheless, with our ignorance of the mythology on which
these festivals are founded, we are seldom able to understand them. We are aware
that such a god appears on such a day (i.e. is carried round in procession), and
resorts to the temple of a god his friend, but we know nothing of the legend
which would explain the motive of his visit.
I have already given an illustration depicting the public proceedings on
a similar great festival; I will add here the description of another festival,
which I found in a Theban tomb. It is the feast of the "erection of the pillar Ded," at the close of the above-mentioned feast of Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris, in the
month of Choiakh: this special festival was of the greater importance because it
was solemnised on the morning of the royal jubilee. The festivities begin with a
sacrifice offered by the king to Osiris, the "lord of eternity," a mummied
figure, wearing on his head the pillar Ded. The Pharaoh then repairs with his
suite to the place where, lying on the ground, is the "noble pillar," the
erection of which forms the object of the festival. Ropes were placed round it,
and the monarch, with the help of the royal relatives and of a priest, draws it
up. The queen, "who fills the palace with love," looks on at the sacred
proceedings, and her sixteen daughters make music with rattles and with the
jingling sistrum, the usual instrument played by women on sacred occasions. Six
singers join in a song to celebrate the god, and four priests bring in the usual
tables of offerings to place them before the pillar which is now erect.
So far, we can understand the festival; it represents the joyful moment when the
dead Osiris awakes to life again, when his backbone, represented in later
Egyptian theology by the Ded, stands again erect. The farther ceremonies of this
festival however refer to mythological events unknown to us. Four priests, with
their fists raised, rush upon four others, who appear to give way, two others
strike each other, one standing by says of them, "I seize Horus shining in
truth." Then follows a great flogging scene, in which fifteen persons beat each
other mercilessly with their sticks and fists; they are divided into several
groups, two of which, according to the inscription, represent the people of the
town Pe and of the town Dep. This is evidently the representation of a great
mythological fight, in which were engaged the inhabitants of Pe and Dep, i.e. of
the ancient city of Buto, in the north of the Delta. The ceremonies which close
the sacred rite are also quite problematic: four herds of oxen and asses are
seen driven by their herdsmen; in the accompanying text we are told, "four times
they go round the walls on that day when the noble pillar of Ded is erected."']
[35] [See note 33 above.]
[36] [See note 33 above.]
[38] [Birch, 'Decree of Canopus,' RP, 8, 81. See p. 87.]
[40] [Annals, p. 110. 'No honour was left for the gods, when Augustus chose to be himself worshipped with temples and statues, like those of the deities, and with flamens and priests. He had not even adopted Tiberius as his successor out of affection or any regard to the State, but, having thoroughly seen his arrogant and savage temper, he had sought glory for himself by a contrast of extreme wickedness.' Church's and Brodribb's tr.]
[42] [Unable to trace.]
[43] [Cowper, Apocryphal Gospels,
'Gospel of James/Protevangelium,' ch.
18.
'And he found a cave
there and brought her into it, and set his sons by her: and he went forth and
sought for a midwife of the Hebrews in the country of Bethlehem.
Now I Joseph was walking, and I walked not. And I looked up to the air and saw
the air in amazement. And I looked up unto the pole of the heaven and saw it
standing still, and the fowls of the heaven without motion. And I looked upon
the earth and saw a dish set, and workmen lying by it, and their hands were in
the dish: and they that were chewing chewed not, and they that were lifting the
food lifted it not, and they that put it to their mouth put it not thereto, but
the faces of all of them were looking upward. And behold there were sheep being
driven, and they went not forward but stood still; and the shepherd lifted his
hand to smite them with his staff, and his hand remained up. And I looked upon
the stream of the river and saw the mouths of the kids upon the water and they
drank not. And of a sudden all things moved onward in their course.' M. R.
James' tr.
See also Donaldson's full text.]
[44] [See above note.]
[47] [Histoire d'Égypt des les premiers temps?]
[48] [John gives no date.]
[49] [Ep. 15:8-9.
'Finally He saith to them; Your new moons
and your Sabbaths I cannot away with. Ye see what is His meaning; it is not
your present Sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the Sabbath which I
have made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make the
beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world.
Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus
rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended into the heavens.']
[51] [Bingham, Origines Ecclesticae,
bk. 20, ch. 5, vol. 9, p. 95. 'The Paschal Solemnity anciently reckoned fifteen
Days, the whole Week before, and the Week after Easter Sunday.
In speaking of the Paschal solemnity, I shall here only
consider that part of it, which was properly festival. For we are to know, the
Ancients commonly included fifteen days in the whole solemnity of the pasch,
that is, the week before Easter Sunday, and the week following it: the one of
which was called pascha, the pasch of the cross, and the other
pascha, the pasch of the resurrection. Suicerus will furnish the
learned reader with examples of both. The general name pascha, which is
of Hebrew extract from pesach, which signifies the passover, will
comprize both. For the Christian Passover includes as well the passion as the
resurrection of our Saviour, who is the true Paschal Lamb, or Passover, that was
sacrificed for us. And, therefore, though our English word, Easter, be generally
used only to signify the resurrection, yet the ancient word, pascha, was
taken in a large sense, to denote as well the pasch of the crucifixion,
as the pasch of the resurrection. And for this reason the Ancients
commonly speak of the pasch as containing fifteen days in its solemnity,
including the passion-week, together with that of the resurrection. Thus in one
of the laws of Theodosius, where he decrees what days shall be days of vacation
from all business of the law, he reckons into the number of them the holy days
of the pasch, seven going before, and seven following after. And
Gothofred, in his learned commentary upon the place, says, both Papianus in his
body of laws, collected by him out of the Roman for the use of the Burgundians,
and Anianus, in his collection for the use of the Visigoths, keep to the same
phrase of fifteen Paschal days. To which we find also a plain reference made by
St. Austin, in a sermon preached by him on the Dominica in Albis, or Sunday
following Easter day, wherein he thus addresses himself to his audience: "The
days of vacation are now over, and those of convening, exactions, and law-suits
succeed in their room. Take care, my brethren, how ye spend these days. From the
vacation of the foregoing days, ye ought to learn meekness, not to meditate
subtle devices: for some men rest on those days only to plot wickedness, which
they may practice when the festival days are over. We desire you may so live, as
they that are to give account to God, not only of those fifteen days, but of
their whole life." And Scaliger mentions a law of Constantine, wherein the
paschal weeks, the one before, the other after the pasch, are ordered to
he days of vacation from all proceedings at law. But because the former of these
Paschal weeks belongs to the Lent fast, we will consider it under that head, and
here only speak of the Paschal solemnity as it was properly a festival.'
Or vol. 7, p. 69 (1834 ed.).
Gieseler, Catholic Church,
sect. 53, p. 178.]
[52] [Socrates,
Historia
Ecclesiastica, bk. 5, ch. 22. 'I may perhaps be permitted here to make a few
reflections on Easter. It appears to me that neither the ancients nor moderns
who have affected to follow the Jews, have had any rational foundation for
contending so obstinately about it. For they have altogether lost sight of the
fact, that when our religion superseded the Jewish economy, the obligation to
observe the Mosaic law and the ceremonial types ceased. That it is incompatible
with Christian faith to practise Jewish rites, is manifest from the apostle s
expressly forbidding it; and not only rejecting circumcision, but also
deprecating contention about festival days. In his Epistle to the Galatians he
writes, "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?"
And continuing his train of argument, he demonstrates that the Jews were in
bondage as servants, but that Christians are called into the liberty of sons.
More over he exhorts them to disregard days, and months, and years. Again, in
his Epistle to the Colossians he distinctly declares that such observances are
merely shadows: where fore he says, "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink,
or in respect of any holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which
are a shadow of things to come." The same truths are also confirmed by him in
the Epistle to the Hebrews, in these words: "For the priesthood being changed,
there is made of necessity a change also of the law." Neither the apostle
therefore, nor the evangelists, have anywhere imposed the yoke of servitude on
those who have embraced the gospel; but have left Easter and every other feast
to be honoured by the gratitude of the recipients of grace. Men love festivals,
because they afford them cessation from labour; and therefore it is that each
individual in every place, according to his own pleasure, has by a prevalent
custom celebrated the memory of the saving passion. The Saviour and his apostles
have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast; nor in the New Testament are we
threatened with any penalty, punishment, or curse for the neglect of it, as the
Mosaic law does the Jews. It is merely for the sake of historical accuracy, and
for the reproach of the Jews, because they polluted themselves with blood on
their very feasts, that it is recorded in the Gospels that our Saviour suffered
in the days of unleavened bread." The apostles had no thought of appointing
festival days, but of promoting a life of blamelessness and piety. And it seems
to me that the feast of Easter has been introduced into the Church from some old
usage, just as many other customs have been established. In Asia Minor most
people kept the fourteenth day of the moon, disregarding the sabbath: yet they
never separated from those who did other wise, until Victor bishop of Rome,
influenced by too ardent a zeal, fulminated a sentence of excommunication
against the Quartodecimans in Asia. But Irenaeus bishop of Lyons in France,
severely censured Victor by letter for his immoderate heat; telling him that
although the ancients differed in their celebration of Easter, they did not
depart from intercommunion. Also that Polycarp bishop of Smyrna, who afterwards
suffered martyrdom under Gordian, continued to communicate with Anicetus bishop
of Rome, although he himself, according to the usage of his country, kept Easter
on the fourteenth day of the moon, as Eusebius attests in the fifth Book of his
"Ecclesiastical History." While therefore some in Asia Minor observed the day
above-mentioned, others in the East kept that feast on the sabbath indeed, but
not in the same month. The former thought the Jews should be followed, though
they were not exact: the latter kept Easter after the equinox, refusing to be
guided by the Jews; "for," said they, "it ought to be celebrated when the sun is
in Aries, in the month which the Antiochians term Xanthicus, and the Romans
April." In this practice, they averred, they conformed not to the modern Jews,
who are mistaken in almost everything, but to the ancients of that nation, and
what Josephus has written in the third Book of his "Jewish Antiquities." Thus
these people were at issue. But all other Christians in the Western parts, as
far as the ocean itself, are found to have celebrated Easter after the equinox,
from a very ancient tradition, and have never disagreed on this subject. It is
not true, as some have pretended, that the synod under Constantine altered this
festival: for that emperor him self, writing to those who differed respecting
it, recommended them, as few in number, to agree with the majority of their
brethren. His letter is given at length by Eusebius in his third Book of the
Life of that sovereign; but the part relative to Easter runs thus: "It is a
becoming order, which all the Churches in the Western, Southern, and Northern
parts of the world observe, and some places in the East also. Where fore all on
the present occasion have judged it right, and I have pledged myself that it
will have the acquiescence of your prudence, that what is unanimously observed
in the city of Rome, throughout Italy, Africa, and Egypt, in Spain, France,
Britain, Libya, and all Greece, the Asian and Pontic diocese, and Cilicia, your
wisdom also will readily embrace; considering not only that the number of
Churches in the aforesaid places is greater, but also that while there should be
a universal concurrence in what is most reasonable, it becomes us to have
nothing in common with the perfidious Jews." Such is the tenor of the emperor s
letter. Moreover the Quartodecimans affirm that the observance which they
maintain was delivered to them by the apostle John; while the Romans and those
in the Western parts assure us that their usage originated with the apostles
Peter and Paul. Neither of these parties however can produce any written
testimony in confirmation of what they assert. But that the time of keeping
Easter in various places is dependent on usage, I infer from this, that those
who agree in faith, differ among themselves on this question. And it will not
perhaps be unseasonable to notice here the diversity of customs in the Churches.
The fasts before Easter are differently observed. Those at Rome fast three
successive weeks before Easter, excepting Saturdays and Sundays. The Illyrians,
Achaians, and Alexandrians observe a fast of six weeks, which they term "the
forty days fast."
Others commencing their fast from the seventh week before Easter, and fasting
three five days only, and that at intervals, yet call that time "the forty days
fast." It is indeed surprising that, thus differing in the number of days, they
should both give it one common appellation; but some assign one reason for it,
and others another, according to their several fancies. There is also a
disagreement about abstinence from food, as well as the number of days. Some
wholly abstain from things that have life : others feed on fish only of all
living creatures: many, together with fish, eat fowl also, saying that,
according to Moses, these were likewise made out of the waters. Some abstain
from eggs, and all kinds of fruits; others feed on dry bread only; and others
eat not even this ; while others, having fasted till the ninth hour, afterwards
feed on any sort of food without distinction. And among various nations there
are other usages, for which innumerable reasons are assigned. Since however no
one can produce a written command as an authority, it is evident that the
apostles left each one to his own free-will in the matter, to the end that the
performance of what is good might not be the result of constraint and necessity.
Nor is there less variation in the services performed in their religious
assemblies, than there is about fastings. For although almost all Churches
throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every
week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Home, on account of some ancient
tradition, refuse to do this. The Egyptians in the neighbourhood of Alexandria,
and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious meetings on the sabbath,
but do not participate of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in
general: for after having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds,
in the evening, making their oblations, they partake of the mysteries. At
Alexandria again, on the 4th Feria, (i.e. the Wednesday in Passion week,) and
on that termed the Preparation day? the Scriptures are read, and the doctors
expound them; and all the usual services are performed in their assemblies,
except the celebration of the mysteries. This practice in the city is of great
antiquity, for it is well known that Origen most commonly taught in the church
on these days. He being very learned in the sacred books, and perceiving that
the impotency of the Mosaic Law could not be explained literally, gave it a
spiritual interpretation; declaring that there has never been but one true
Passover, which our Saviour celebrated when he hung upon the cross: for that he
then vanquished the adverse powers, and erected this trophy against the devil.
In the same city of Alexandria, readers and chanters are chosen indifferently
from the catechumens and the faithful; whereas in all other churches the
faithful only are promoted to these offices. I myself also, when in Thessaly,
knew another custom. If a clergyman in that country, after taking orders, should
sleep with his wife, whom he had legally married before his ordination, he would
be degraded. In the East indeed all clergymen, and even the bishops themselves,
abstain from their wives: but this they do of their own accord, there being no
law in force to make it necessary; for there have been among them many bishops,
who have had children by their lawful wives during their episcopate. It is said
that the author of the usage which obtains in Thessaly, was Heliodorus bishop of
Triea in that country; under whose name there are love books extant, entitled "Ethiopiei,"
which he composed in his youth. The same custom prevails at Thessalonica, and in
Macedonia, and Achaia. I have also remarked another peculiarity in Thessaly,
which is, that they baptize there on the days of Easter only; in consequence of
which a very great number of them die without having received this rite. At
Antioch in Syria the site of the church is inverted; so that the altar, instead
of looking toward the East, faces the West. In Achaia and Thessaly, and also at
Jerusalem, they go to prayers as soon as the candles are lighted, in the same
manner as the Novatians do at Constantinople. At Caesarea likewise, and in
Cappadocia, and the Isle of Cyprus, the bishops and presbyters expound the
Scriptures in the evening, after the candles are lighted. The Novatians of the
Hellespont do not perform their prayers altogether in the same manner as those
of Constantinople; in most things however their usage is similar to that of the
Catholic Church. In short, you will scarcely find anywhere, among all the sects,
two Churches which agree exactly in their ritual respecting prayers. At
Alexandria no presbyter is allowed to preach: a regulation which was made after
Arius had raised a disturbance in that Church. At Rome they fast every Saturday.
At Caesarea they exclude from communion those who have sinned after baptism, as
the Novatians do. The same discipline was practised by the Macedonians in the
Hellespont, and by the Quartodecimani in Asia. The Novatians in Phrygia do not
admit such as have twice married; but those of Constantinople neither admit nor
reject them openly, while in the Western parts they are openly received. This
diversity was occasioned, as I imagine, by the bishops who in their respective
eras governed the Churches; and those who received these several rites and
usages, transmitted them
as laws to posterity. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to give a
complete catalogue of all the various customs and ceremonial observances in use
throughout every city and country; but the instances we have adduced are
sufficient to show that the Easter Festival was from some remote precedent
differently celebrated in every particular province. They talk at random
therefore who assert that the time of keeping Easter was altered in the Nicene
synod; for the bishops there convened earnestly laboured to reduce the first
dissident minority to uniformity of practice with the rest of the people. Now
that differences of this kind existed in the first ages of the Church, was not
unknown even to the apostles themselves, as the Book of The Acts testifies. For
when they understood that the peace of the believers was disturbed by a
dissension of the Gentiles, having all met together, they promulgated a divine
law, giving it the form of a letter. By this sanction they liberated Christians
from the bondage of formal observances, and all vain contention about these
things; teaching them the path of true piety, and only prescribing such things
as were conducive to its attainment. The epistle itself, which I shall here
transcribe, is recorded in The Acts of the Apostles. "The apostles and elders
and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in
Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which
went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye
must be circumcised, and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment: it
seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto
you, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who
shall also tell you the same thing by mouth. For it seemed good to the
Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary
things: that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from
things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye
shall do well. Fare ye well." These things indeed pleased God: for the letter
expressly says, "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost to lay upon you no greater
burden than these necessary things." There are nevertheless some who,
disregarding these precepts, suppose all fornication to be an indifferent matter
; but contend about holy-days as if their lives were at stake. Such persons
contravene the commands of God, and legislate for themselves, not respecting the
decree of the apostles: neither do they perceive that they are themselves
practising the contrary to those things which God approved. We might easily have
extended our discourse respecting Easter, and have demonstrated that the Jews
observe no exact rule either in the time or manner of celebrating the paschal
solemnity: and that the Samaritans, who are a schism of the Jews, always
celebrate this festival after the equinox. But this subject would require a
distinct and copious treatise: I shall therefore merely add, that those who
affect so much to imitate the Jews, and are so very anxious about an accurate
observance of types, ought to depart from them in no particular. For if they
have resolved on being so correct, they must not only observe days and months,
but all other things also, which Christ (who was "made under the law") did in
the manner of the Jews; or which he unjustly suffered from them; or wrought
typically for the good of all men. Thus when he entered into a ship and taught:
when he ordered the Passover to be made ready in an upper room: when he
commanded an ass that was tied to be loosed: when he proposed a man bearing a
pitcher of water as a sign to them for hastening their preparations for the
Passover. To be consistent, they must observe all these things, with an infinite
number of others of this nature which are recorded in the Gospels. And yet those
who suppose themselves to be justified by keeping this feast, would think it
absurd to observe any of these things in a bodily manner. No doctor, for
instance, ever dreams of going to preach from a ship no person imagines it
necessary to go up into an upper room, and celebrate the Passover there they
never tie, and then loose an ass again and finally, no one enjoins another to
carry a pitcher of water, in order that the symbols might be fulfilled. They
have justly regarded such things as savouring rather of Judaism than
Christianity: for the Jews are more solicitous about outward solemnities, than
the obedience of the heart; and therefore are they under the curse, not
discerning the spiritual bearing of the Mosaic law, but resting in its types and
shadows. Those who favour the Jews admit the allegorical meaning of these
things; and yet they pertinaciously contend about days and months, without
applying to them a similar sense: thus do they necessarily involve themselves in
a common condemnation with the Jews. But enough has been said concerning these
things. Let us now return to the subject we were previously treating of, the
subdivisions that arose on the most trivial grounds among the schismatics, after
their separation from the Church. The Novatians, as I have stated, were divided
among themselves on account of the feast of Easter, the controversy not being
restricted to one point only. For in the different provinces some took one view
of the question, and some another, disagreeing not only about the month, but the
days of the week also, and other unimportant matters; in some places holding
separate assemblies because of it, in others uniting in mutual communion.'
ANCL.]
[53] [Source.]
[54] [Matt. 2:15. 'And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.']
[56] [Should be tat pillar.]
[57] [Petrie, Medum, p. 15. 'The ka chamber seems to have been designed after that of Nefermat, as the cross-passage, which was a mere accident of development there, has here become an intended feature, embodied in the masonry, and covered with carving. Within this chamber stood the statues of Rahotep and Nefert, now in the Ghizeh Museum; and the doorway was entirely blocked with masonry cemented into place when Mariette's workmen found it, the chamber being intact. After cutting out the blocking, and removing the statues, and apparently taking wet squeezes from the coloured walls—thus ruining them—the doorway was earthed over by the discoverers. Never being inspected, some traveller chose to unearth it, soon before 1887, which date is written in the tomb; and it has stood open since then, with the result that every face within reach is mutilated, most of the figures spoiled, and all the edges of the stone broken away.']
[58] [Pistis Sophia. Bk. 1, 1-3.]
[59] [Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. The Second Series, vol. 3, pl. 25.]
[62] [Moor, Hindu Pantheon.]
[63] [Christian Iconography, vol. 1, p. 367. 'The cross is more than a mere figure of Christ; it is in Iconography either Christ himself or his symbol.']
[64] [As in the Papyrus Billing Rhind, 2. 4, line 8, ed. Birch, plate 8.]
[65] [Lundy, Monumental Christianity, 'Lapidarian Gallery of the Vatican,' p. 92, fig. 28.]
[66] [Ibid., 'Called Christ as a Fisherman,' fig. 54.]
[67] [Ibid., 'Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus,' fig. 41.]
[68] [Ibid., fig. 42; Didron, Christian Iconography, figs. 18 and 66.]
[69] [Lefebure, 'Book of Hades,' RP, 10, 79. See p. 130.]
[70] [Ibid., RP, 10, 79. See p. 131.]
[71] [Ciampini, Romani
Vetera Monumenti, vol. 1, ch. 3, p.
35.
See also NG 2:454.]
[72] [See Ean Begg's book The Black Madonna on this subject.]
[74] [Grenfell & Hunt, New Sayings of Jesus., p. 14. 'He who seeks shall not cease until he finds, and when he finds he shall be astonished, and being astonished he shall reach the kingdom, and having reached the kingdom he shall rest.']
[75] [Gospel of the Hebrews, 'He that
seeks will not rest until he finds; and he that has found shall marvel; and he
that has marvelled shall reign; and he that has reigned shall rest.' From
Clement, Stromata, bk. 5.14.96.3.
Clement II,
Epis. v. 5. 'And ye know, brethren, that the sojourning of our flesh in
this world is but short and for a little while, but the promise of Christ is
great and wonderful, even the rest of the kingdom which is to come, and of
eternal life.' See Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 10, p. 252.]
[76] [Acts of Thomas, 136. 'Unto whom saith Tertia: May I become a partaker of this life which thou promisest that all they shall receive who come together unto the assembly of God. And the apostle said: The treasury of the holy king is opened wide, and they which worthily partake of the good things that are therein do rest, and resting do reign : but first, no man cometh unto him that is unclean and vile: for he knoweth our inmost hearts and the depths of our thought, and it is not possible for any to escape him.' M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, p. 423.]
[77] [Grenfell & Hunt, New Sayings of Jesus, p. 11. 'These are the (wonderful?) words which Jesus the living (Lord) spake to ... and Thomas, and he said unto (them), Every one that hearkens to these words shall never taste of death.']
[78] [Ibid.]
[80] [Budge,
Gods
of the Egyptians, vol. 1, p. 523. 'Under the Ptolemies a small temple was
built in honour of I-em-hetep on the Island of Philae; the hieroglyphic
inscriptions are those of Ptolemy IV., Philopator, but the Greek text over the
door was placed there by the command of Ptolemy V., Epiphanes. From one of the
former we learn that the god was entitled, "Great one, son of Ptah, the creative
god, made by Thenen, begotten by him and beloved by him, the god of divine forms
in the temples, who giveth life to all men, the mighty one of wonders, the maker
of times (?), who cometh unto him that calleth upon him wheresoever he may be,
who giveth sons to the childless, the chief I-her-heh (i.e., the wisest and most
learned one), the image and likeness of Thoth the Wise.
I-em-hetep was the god who sent sleep to those who were
suffering and in pain, and those who were afflicted with any kind of disease
formed his special charge; he was the good physician both of gods and men, and
he healed the bodies of mortals during life, and superintended the arrangements
for the preservation of the same after death.']
[81] [Letter to Servianus. I give a sample of the Latin of
this short epistle first, followed by the translation:
'Hadrianus Augustus Serviano Consuli salutem.
Aegyptum quam mihi laudabas, Serviane carissime, totam didici levem pendulam et
ad omnia famae momenta volitantem. Illic qui Serapem colunt Christiani sunt, et
devoti sunt Serapi qui Christi se episcopos dicunt. Nemo illic archisynagogus
Judaeorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum presbyter, non mathematicus, non
haruspex, non aliptes. Ipse ille patriarcha, cum Aegyptum venerit, ab aliis
Serapidem adorare, ab aliis cogitur Christum ... Unus illis deus nummus est.
Hunc Christiani, hunc Judaei, hunc omnes venerantur et gentes ... Denique ut
primum inde discessi, et in filium meum Verum multa dixerunt, et de Antinoo quae
dixerint, comperisse te credo, etc.'
'From Hadrian Augustus to Servianus, the
consul, greeting. The land of Egypt, the praises of which you have been
recounting to me, my dear Servianus, I have found to be wholly light-minded,
unstable, and blown about by every breath of rumour. There those who worship
Serapis are, in fact, Christians, and those who call themselves bishops of
Christ are, in fact, devotees of Serapis. There is no chief of the Jewish
synagogue, no Samaritan, no Christian presbyter, who is not an astrologer, a
soothsayer, or an anointer. Even the Patriarch himself, when he comes to Egypt,
is forced by some to worship Serapis, by others to worship Christ. They are a
folk most seditious, most deceitful, most given to injury; but their city is
prosperous, rich, and fruitful, and in it no one is idle. Some are blowers of
glass, others makers of paper, all are at least weavers of linen or seem to
belong to one craft or another; the lame have their occupations, the eunuchs
have theirs, the blind have theirs, and not even those whose hands are crippled
are idle. Their only god is money, and this the Christians, the Jews, and, in
fact, all nations adore. And would that this city had a better character, for
indeed it is worthy by reason of its richness and by reason of its size to hold
the chief place in the whole of Egypt. I granted it every favour, I restored to
it all its ancient rights and bestowed on it new ones besides, so that the
people gave thanks to me while I was present among them. Then, no sooner had I
departed thence than they said many things against my son Verus, and what they
said about Antinous I believe you have learned. I can only wish for them that
they may live on their own chickens, which they breed in a fashion I am ashamed
to describe [i.e. by incubating the eggs in dung-heaps]. I am sending you over
some cups, changing colour and variegated, presented to me by the priest of a
temple and now dedicated particularly to you and my sister. I should like you to
use them at banquets on feast-days. Take good care, however, that our dear
Africanus does not use them too freely.'
'This letter is preserved by Vopiscus Vita Saturtiini. Vopiscus is speaking of
the Egyptians, and prefaces the letter with these words; "Sunt Christiani,
Samaritae, et quibus praesentia semper tempora cum enormi libertate displiceant.
Ac ne quis mihi Aegyptiorum irascatur et meum esse credat quod in litteras
rettuli, Hadriani epistolam ponam ex libris Phlegontis liberti ejus proditam, ex
qua penitus Aegyptiorum vita detegitur."
The genuineness of this letter has been generally, though not universally,
allowed. It comes to us on excellent authority, and the difficulties in the way
of accepting it are not serious. The 'patriarch' mentioned is clearly the Jewish
patriarch of Tiberias. If it were applied to the bishop of Alexandria, as
Casaubon and other older commentators assume, it would be a gross anachronism.
But the words 'cum Aegyptum venerit' and 'cogitur Christum adorare' show plainly
that the person so designated did not live in Egypt and did not profess to be a
Christian. The real difficulty which remains is the description of Verus as 'filium meum.' Servianus was consul for the third time in A.D. 134; but Verus
did not receive the title of Caesar till 136. It is clear however from the
language of Spartianus Helius that some sort of adoption, or at least some
intimation of the intention, preceded this event by a considerable period; 'Adoptatus
autem Aelius Verus ab Hadriano ... statimque praetor factus et Pannoniis dux ac
rector impositus; mox consul creatus [Kal. Jan. a.d. 136]; et quia erat
deputatus imperio, iterum consul designatus est [Kal. Jan. A.D. 137].' From
Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 480-1.]
[82] [Tiberias, head of the Jewish religion. See above note.]
[83] [The Library of Diodorus, bk. 1. 25.
'In memory, therefore, of Osiris's good deeds, being incited thereunto by the
commands of the queen, and in expectation of their own profit and advantage, the
priests exactly performed every thing that Isis enjoined them; and therefore
every order of the priests at this day are of opinion that Osiris is buried
among them. And they have those beasts in great veneration, that were so long
since thus consecrated; and renew their mournings for Osiris over the graves of
those beasts. There are two sacred bulls especially, the one called Apis, and
the other Mnevis, that are consecrated to Osiris, and reputed as gods generally
by all the Egyptians. For this creature of all others was extraordinarily
serviceable to the first inventors of husbandry, both as to the sowing corn, and
other advantages concerning tillage, of which all reaped the benefit. Lastly,
they say, that after the death of Osiris, Isis made a vow never to marry any
other man, and spent the rest of her days in an exact administration of justice
among her subjects, excelling all other princes in her acts of grace and bounty
towards her own people; and therefore, after her death, she was numbered among
the gods, and, as such, had divine honour and veneration, and was buried at
Memphis, where they shew her sepulchre at this day in the grove of Vulcan.'
Booth's tr., who in his work gives this chapter as 7, not 25, and it is the
closest I can find to Massey's ref.
See The Historical Library of Diodorus
the Sicilian, vol. 1, p. 26, the 1804 ed., and full text of
bk. 1.]
[85] [The scenes were copied by Sharpe
from the temple at Luxor.
The illustration is taken from Sharpe, History of Egypt, vol. 1,
p. 68, fig. 61. 'On the walls
of the palace at Luxor we have a sculpture representing the miraculous birth of
this son (see Fig. 61). In the first place, Queen Mautmes is receiving a message
from heaven through the god Thoth, that she is to give birth to a child. Then
the god Kneph, takes her by the hand, and with the goddess Athor puts into her,
through her mouth, life for the child that is to be born. She is then placed
upon a stool, after the custom of the Egyptian mothers, as mentioned in the book
of Exodus. While seated there, two nurses chafe her hands to support her against
the pains of child-birth; and the new-born child is held up beside her by a
third nurse. In another place the priests and nobles are saluting their future
king. In this way the sculpture declares that the young king had no earthly
father; and it explains what was meant by the royal title of Son of Amun-Ra, and
also how the Greeks came to be afterwards told that the Egyptian queens were
Jupiter's concubines.'
See also NG 2:398
and ML 5.]
[86] [Stern, 'Foundation of the Temple,' RP, 12, 53-54.]
[87] [Griffith, Stories of the High Priests, 'The Tale of Khamuas.']
[88] [Ibid., p. 43. 'The fragments would quite well admit of this restoration which would also agree with the style of Egyptian tales; but there is no certainty. The end of the story in which it is shown that Si-Osiri is really Hor son of Paneshe, who had obtained from Osiris leave to revisit earth, sufficiently accounts for the name given to the child. As for the words heard in the vision, they may have been an inspiration from Hor son of I'ineshe, himself, and need not have been communicated by any definite personage.']
[89] [Ibid., p. 43. '"The child that shall be born, he [shall be named] Si-Osiri; many [are the marvels that he shall do in the land of Egypt (?)." Setme awoke] from the [dream], having seen these things. [His heart was glad] exceedingly.']
[90] [Ibid., p. 43. '"[It shall
be to thee (?)] for medicine, and thou shalt give [of it to Setme thine husband
(?) Thou shalt lie with him and thou shalt conceive seed] of him the same
[night]."
Meh-wesekht awoke [from] the dream, this being what she had seen; she did
according to all things [that had been told her by dream. She lay down by] the
side of [Setme] her husband, and she conceived seed of him.
There came her [time of making purification, she made] the sign [of women who
are pregnant. Setme made announcement of it before Pharaoh, his] heart [being
glad] because of [it] exceedingly. He bound [on her] amulets, he read to her
magic writing.
Setme laid [him] down one night [and dreamed a dream, they speaking] with him
saying, "Meh-wesekht thy wife hath con[ceived seed in the night (?)]"']
[91] [Ibid., The Tale of Khamuas, pp. 43-65.]
[92] [Ibid., above note.]
[93] [Luke 2:40. 'And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.']
[94] [Griffith, Stories of the High Priests, The Tale of Khamuas, p. 44.]
[95] [Source.]
[97] [Didron, Christian Iconography, p. 125. Note; there are only six doves, not seven.]
[98] [Mead, Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 13.]
[99] [Luke 1:35. 'And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.']
[100] [Chabas, 'The Magic Papyrus,' RP, 10, 135. See p. 141.]
[101] [Shakespeare, Othello,
act 3, sc. 3. 'If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
On horror’s head horrors accumulate;
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.']
[102] [Matt. 1:18-20. 'Now the
birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to
Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public
example, was minded to put her away privily.
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto
thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.']
[103] [Source.]
[105] ['From the following extract from the Dublin Catholic Layman, a very able Protestant paper, describing a Popish picture of the Trinity, recently published in that city, it will be seen that something akin to this mode of representing the Godhead is appearing nearer home: "At the top of the picture is a representation of the Holy Trinity. We beg to speak of it with due reverence. God the Father and God the Son are represented as a MAN with two heads, one body, and two arms. One of the heads is like the ordinary pictures of our Saviour. The other is the head of an old man, surmounted by a triangle. Out of the middle of this figure is proceeding the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove. We think it must be painful to any Christian mind, and repugnant to Christian feeling, to look at this figure."' From Hislop, The Two Babylons, p. 17.]
[106] [Didron, Christian Iconography, fig. 124.]
[107] [Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 18.]
[108] [Lundy, Monumental Christianity, fig. 139.]
[109] [Didron, Christian Iconography, vol. 1, p. 439. 'Cyprien Robert ('Cours d'Hieroglyphique Chretienne,' in l'Universite Catholique, vol. vi., p. 266) says: "The first Basilicas, placed generally upon eminences, were called Domus Columbae, dwellings of the dove, that is, of the Holy Ghost. They caught the first rays of the dawn, and the last beams of the setting sun." I have not been able to verify this fact, nor to discover on what the idea is founded.']
[111] [Matt. 3:16-17. 'And
Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a
dove, and lighting upon him:
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.']
[112] [Gospel According to the Hebrews. 'And if any accept the Gospel of the Hebrews—here the Saviour says: Even so did my mother, the Holy Spirit, take me by one of my hairs and carry me away on to the great mountain Tabor.' From Origen, Commentary on John 2.12.87.]
[115] [Petrie, Egyptian Tales, p.
114. 'Now, therefore, that thou hast thought on this matter which has come to
thy mind, let thy heart not change again; for this thy Heaven (queen), who is
in the palace is fixed, she is flourishing, she is enjoying the best in the
kingdom of the land, and her children are in the chambers of the palace.
"Leave all the riches that thou hast, and that are with thee, altogether. When
thou shalt come into Egypt behold the palace, and when thou shalt enter the
palace, bow thy face to the ground before the Great House; thou shalt be chief
among the companions. And day by day behold thou growest old; thy vigour is
lost, and thou thinkest on the day of burial. Thou shalt see thyself come to the
blessed state, they shall give thee the bandages from the hand of Tait, the
night of applying the oil of embalming."']
[116] [Luke 2:13. 'And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying.']
[118] [Naville, 'The Litany of Ra,' RP, 8, 103. See p. 125.]
[119] [Luke 2:43-50. 'And when
they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in
Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.
But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and
they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.
And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting
in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why
hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee
sorrowing.
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be
about my Father's business?
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.']
[120] [Matt. 2:13-16. 'And
when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a
dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into
Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young
child to destroy him.
When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed
into Egypt:
And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth,
and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the
coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had
diligently inquired of the wise men.']
[121] [Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2, ch. 14, 'The Sorrows of Isis,' p. 222-40—all quotes are from this.]
[123] [Cowper,
The Apocryphal Gospels and other Documents, 'Gospel of
James/Protevangelium,' ch.
22.
'But Elizabeth when she heard that they sought for
John. took him and went up into the hill-country and looked about her where she
should hide him: and there was no hiding-place. Am! Elizabeth groaned and said
with a loud voice: O mountain of God, receive thou a mother with a child. For
Elizabeth was not able to go up. And immediately the mountain clave asunder and
took her in. And there was a light shining for them: for an angel of the Lord
was with them, keeping watch over them.' M. R. James, Apocryphal New
Testament, p. 48.
See Donaldson tr. here.]
[124] [Ibid., ch.
18.
'They came to
a cave and wished to rest there, Mary dismounted and sat with Jesus in her lap.
There were three boys with Joseph and a girl with Mary. Suddenly a number of
dragons came out of the cave, and all cried out fn fear. Jesus got down from his
mother's lap and stood before the dragons which worshipped him. Thus was
fulfilled the word, 'Praise the Lord out of the earth, ye dragons and all
deeps.' Jesus walked before them and bade them hurt no one. Mary was alarmed for
him, but he said, 'Fear not, neither conceive that I am a child, for I always
was and am a perfect man, and it is necessary that all the beasts of the forest
should grow tame before me.'' M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, p.
75.]
[131] [Gospel of pseudo-Matthew,
ch. 19
('In like manner lions and leopards adored him and accompanied them, showed them
the way, and bowed their heads to Jesus,') and 35 ('Jesus, eight years old, went
from Jericho to Jordan. On the way there was a vault (crypta), where was a
lioness with whelps. He went in and sat there, and the whelps played about him:
the older lions stood at a distance and adored him, wagging their tails,').
See
full text, ANCL
version.
See also M.
R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 76-8.]
[132] [Source.]
[133] [Rev. 12:16. 'And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.']
[135] [The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy,
ch. 25, in Cowper,
The Apocryphal
Gospels, p. 191. 'Thence they went down to Memphis, and having seen Pharaoh,
they staid three years in Egypt; and the Lord Jesus wrought very many miracles
in Egypt, which are not found written either in the Gospel of the Infancy or in
the Perfect Gospel.'
Ibid., ch. 25. 'They lived three years at Misr (Cairo)
and saw Pharaoh. Many miracles were done which are not written in the Gospel of
the Infancy or in the complete Gospel (probably the Canonical Gospels are
meant). These chapters are an Egyptian interpolation not earlier than the
twelfth century.' M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, p. 81.
See ch. 25 of
ANCL version.]
[136] [Wiedemann. Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, pp. 76-7. 'This legend as given above is translated for the most part literally from the original. It is interesting in various aspects. It strikingly exemplifies what is already noticeable in the Legend of the Destruction of Mankind: the characteristic impulse of the Egyptians to explain the origin of certain designations by plays upon words. Because a god pronounced a word at a given juncture, therefore this word is said to have become the name of some thing connected with the occasion. This was of course an exact reversal of the real process by which these very trivial sayings were invented; for they were attempts to account for designations already existing by attributing to the gods utterances phonetically suggestive of the terms in question. Little respect was paid to grammar in the matter: as an instance, the group of signs signifying "Great Protection" is used to explain the name "Great One of Protection," i.e. Greatest Protector. Still less regard was given to the meaning, and of this we have a flagrant instance in a Ptolemaic inscription of Philae, where the name of Isis is explained as follows: "When Isis was born, her mother Nut said on seeing her, 'Behold! (as), that is I' (i.e. it is my image), and therefore the name of Isis (As.t) was given to the goddess." Obviously such plays upon words have no more mythological significance than the etymologies advanced by the Greeks and Romans to account for the names of their divinities. But the prominence of such punning in these myths is a good indication of the comparative lateness of their origin, since it implies that it was thereby sought to explain the existence of sacred nomes which had already ceased to be comprehensible. The myths are also striking examples of the audacity of Egyptian conclusions in linguistic mythology, while yet their thoroughly prosaic form betrays a want of imagination and the absence of any sense of poetical construction. In the latter respect they present a marked contrast to the beautiful and imaginative explanations given by Greek and Roman poets in their day as to archaic terms of which the original significance had been lost. This suggested comparison of national genius is the more applicable since the Legend of the Winged Sun Disk was an essentially popular one. It outlived the fall of paganism and affected a series of Coptic texts which, in making use of the well known apocryphal account of Christ's journey through Egypt as a child, describe the triumphal march of the Saviour along the Valley of the Nile, and relate how He drove His foes from place to place, destroying them as He went.']
[137] [Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, ch. 22. See also M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, p. 75.]
[140] [Deveria, Catalogue des Manuscrits Egptien du Louvre,
p. 171. 'He is like Set, the asp,
the malevolent serpent whose venom burns. He who comes to enjoy the light, may
he be hidden! He who dwells in Thebes approaches the, yield, remain in his home!
I am Isis, the widow broken with sorrow. Thou wilt rise against Osiris; he is
lying down in the midst of the waters where the fish eat, where the birds drink,
where the nets take their prize, while Osiris is lying down in pain.' From Lenormant, Chaldean Magic,
p. 95.
See also
BB 2:324.]
[141] [Demotic Papyrus of Leyden and London (1904). Published by F. Ll. Griffith and H. Thompson.]
[142] [Apology, par. 12.
'The Egyptians, moreover, because they are more base and stupid than every
people that is on the earth, have themselves erred more than all. For the
deities (or religion) of the Barbarians and the Greeks did not suffice for them,
but they introduced some also of the nature of the animals, and said thereof
that they were gods, and likewise of creeping things which are found on the dry
land and in the waters. And of plants and herbs they said that some of them were
gods. And they were corrupted by every kind of delusion and defilement more than
every people that is on the earth. For from ancient times they worshipped Isis,
and they say that she is a goddess whose husband was Osiris her brother. And
when Osiris was killed by Typhon his brother, Isis fled with Horos her son to
Byblus in Syria, and was there for a certain time till her son was grown. And he
contended with Typhon his uncle, and killed him. And then Isis returned and went
about with Horos her son and sought for the dead body of Osiris her lord,
bitterly lamenting his death. If then Isis be a goddess, and could not help
Osiris her brother and lord, how can she help another? But it is impossible that
a divine nature should be afraid, and flee for safety, or should weep and wail;
or else it is very miserable.
And of Osiris also they say that he is a serviceable god. And he was killed by
Typhon and was unable to help himself. But it is well known that this cannot be
asserted of divinity. And further, they say of his brother Typhon that he is a
god, who killed his brother and was killed by his brother's son and by his
bride, being unable to help himself. And how, pray, is he a god who does not
save himself?
As the Egyptians, then, were more stupid than the rest of the nations, these and
such like gods did not suffice for them. Nay, but they even apply the name of
gods to animals in which there is no soul at all. For some of them worship the
sheep and others the calf; and some the pig and others the shad fish; and some
the crocodile and the hawk and the fish and the ibis and the vulture and the
eagle and the raven. Some of them worship the cat, and others the turbot-fish,
some the dog, some the adder, and some the asp, and others the lion; and others
the garlic and onions and thorns, and others the tiger and other such things.
And the poor creatures do not see that all these things are nothing, although
they daily witness their gods being eaten and consumed by men and also by their
fellows; while some of them are cremated, and some die and decay and become
dust, without their observing that they perish in many ways. So the Egyptians
have not observed that such things which are not equal to their own deliverance,
are not gods. And if, forsooth, they are weak in the case of their own
deliverance, whence have they power to help in the case of deliverance of their
worshippers? Great then is the error into which the Egyptians wandered;—greater,
indeed, than that of any people which is upon the face of the earth.' Ante-Nicene Fathers,
vol. 10, p. 273.]
[143] [Offord, 'The Myth of Isis and Osiris,' PSBA, 14, 372. See full text.]
[144] [Wiedemann, 'On the Legends Concerning the Youth of Moses,' PSBA, 11. See full text.]
[148] [See Mead's introduction to Pistis Sophia.]
[149] [I.e. Grenfell's and Hunt's published version, New Sayings of Our Lord, 1900.]
[150] [Mead, Pistis Sophia. See p. 333.]
[151] [See note 149 above.]
[153] [Mead, Pistis Sophia, whose version is the only one in English.]
[155] [Mead, Pistis Sophia, p. 394.]
[156] [Pistis Sophia.]
[158] [Pistis Sophia.]
[159] [Pistis Sophia, pp. 16-19.]
[160] [Pistis Sophia., bk. 2, 192, 193.]
[161] [Pistis Sophia, 'Books of the Saviour,' p. 394.]
[162] [Pistis Sophia, 'Books of the Saviour,' p. 358.]
[163] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 320.]
[164] [Lefebure, 'Book of Hades,' RP, 10, 79.]
[165] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 322.]
[167] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 255-256.]
[168] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 335.]
[170] [Source.]
[171] [Pistis Sophia.]
[172] [Pistis Sophia.]
[173] [Pistis Sophia, pp. 4-5.]
[174] [Luke 3:1. 'Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene.']
[175] [Pistis Sophia.]
[176] [Griffith, Stories of the High Priests, The Tale of Khamuas.]
[177] [See above note.]
[178] [Pistis Sophia.]
[179] [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk. 2 ch. 22. 5. 'They, however, that they may establish their false opinion regarding that which is written, "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," maintain that He preached for one year only, and then suffered in the twelfth month. [In speaking thus], they are forgetful to their own disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that age which is both more necessary and more honourable than any other; that more advanced age, I mean, during which also as a teacher He excelled all others. For how could He have had disciples, if He did not teach? And how could He have taught, unless He had reached the age of a Master? For when He came to be baptized. He had not yet completed His thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty years of age (for thus Luke, who has mentioned His years, has expressed it: "Now Jesus was, as it were, beginning to be thirty years old," when He came to receive baptism); and, [according to these men,] He preached only one year reckoning from His baptism. On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age. Now, that the first stage of early life embraces thirty years, and that this extends onwards to the fortieth year, every one will admit; but from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline towards old age, which our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the gospel and all the elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, [affirming] that John conveyed to them that information. And he remained among them up to the times of Trajan." Some of them, moreover, saw not only John, but the other apostles also, and heard the very same account from them, and bear testimony as to the [validity of] the statement. Whom then should we rather believe? Whether such men as these, or Ptolemaeus, who never saw the apostles and who never even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an apostle?' ANCL, 5, 200-2.]
[181] [Latin Gospel of Thomas, bk. 3, ch. 1. 'When there was a tumult because search was made by Herod for our Lord Jesus Christ, that he might slay him, then said an angel unto Joseph: Take Mary and her child and flee into Egypt from the face of them that seek to slay him. Now Jesus was two years old when he entered into Egypt. And as he walked through a sown field he put forth his hand and took of the ears and put them upon the fire and ground them and began to eat. [And he gave such favour unto that field that year by year when it was sown it yielded unto the lord of it so many measures of wheat as the number of the grains which he had taken from it.] Now when they had entered into Egypt they took lodging in the house of a certain widow, and abode in the same place one year. And Jesus became three years old. And seeing boys playing he began to play with them. And he took a dried fish and put it into a basin and commanded it to move to and fro, and it began to move. And again he said to the fish: Cast out thy salt that is in thee and go into the water. And it came to pass. But when the neighbours saw what was done they told it to the widow woman in whose house his mother Mary dwelt. And she when she heard it hasted and cast them out of her house.' M. R. James' tr.]
[182] [Ibid., bk. 2, ch. 2. 'And as Jesus walked with Mary his mother through the midst of the marketplace of the city, he looked about and saw a master teaching his pupils. And behold twelve sparrows which were quarrelling one with another fell from the wall into the lap of the master who taught the boys. And when Jesus saw it he laughed and stood still. Now when that teacher saw him laughing, he said to his pupils in great anger: Go, bring him hither unto me. And when they had brought him, the master took hold on his ear and said: What sawest thou that thou didst laugh? And he said unto him: Master, see, my hand is full of corn, and I shewed it unto them, and scattered the corn, which they are carrying away in danger: for this cause they fought with one another that they might partake of the corn. 3 And Jesus left not the place until it was accomplished. And for this cause the master laboured to cast him out of the city together with his mother.' Ibid.]
[184] [Pistis Sophia.]
[185] [Luke 2:13. 'And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying.']
[186] [Mead, Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, p. 6.]
[187] [Not in Renouf or Birch.]
[188] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 4.]
[189] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 65.]
[190] [Pistis Sophia, bk, 1, 5.]
[192] [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk. 2, ch. 21, 1. 'If, again, they maintain that the twelve apostles were a type only of that group of twelve Æons which Anthropos in conjunction with Ecclesia produced, then let them produce ten other apostles as a type of those ten remaining Æons, who, as they declare, were produced by Logos and Zoe. For it is unreasonable to suppose that the junior, and for that reason inferior Æons, were set forth by the Saviour through the election of the apostles, while their seniors, and on this account their superiors, were not thus: foreshown; since the Saviour (if, that is to say. He chose the apostles with this view, that by means of them He might show forth the Æons who are in the Pleroma) might have chosen other ten apostles also, and likewise other eight before these, that thus He might set forth the original and primary Ogdoad. He could not, in regard to the second [Duo] Decad, show forth [any emblem of it] through the number of the apostles being [already] constituted a type. For [He made choice of no such other number of disciples; but] after the twelve apostles, our Lord is found to have sent forth seventy others before Him. Now seventy cannot possibly be the type either of an Ogdoad, a Decad, or a Triacontad. What is the reason, then, that the inferior Æons are, as I have said, represented by means of the apostles; but the superior, from whom, too, the former derived their being, are not prefigured at all? But if the twelve apostles were chosen with this object, that the number of the twelve Æons might be indicated by means of them, then the seventy also ought to have been chosen to be the type of seventy Æons; and in that case, they must affirm that the Æons are no longer thirty, but eighty-two in number. For He who made choice of the apostles, that they might be a type of those Æons existing in the Pleroma, would never have constituted them types of some and not of others; but by means of the apostles He would have tried to preserve an image and to exhibit a type of those Æons that exist in the Pleroma.' ANCL, 5.]
[193] [Pistis Sophia. See p. 10.]
[195] [Num. 1:44. 'These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men: each one was for the house of his fathers.']
[196] [Matt. 19:28. 'And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.']
[197] [Luke 22:14. 'And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.']
[198] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 10.]
[199] [Pistis Sophia. See p. 14.]
[200] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 14, 18, 19.]
[201] [Pistis Sophia,bk. 1, 17-19.]
[203] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 2, 3.]
[204] [Pistis Sophia.bk. 1, 3, 1, 8, 9.]
[205] [Pistis Sophia. bk. 2, 246.]
[206] [Pistis Sophia. bk. 2, 219-226.]
[207] [Pistis Sophia. bk. 2, 201.]
[208] [Mead, 'Books of the Saviour' in Pistis Sophia, pp. 366-72.]
[209] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, pp. 230-1.]
[210] [Rit. ch.
112, 11, 12.
Rit, ch. 13,
8.]
[212] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 226.]
[213] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2.]
[214] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 1.]
[215] [Matt. 13:34. 'All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them.']
[216] [John 16:25. 'These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.']
[217] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 8, 9.]
[218] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 230.]
[219] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 341.]
[220] [Matt. 19:29.
'And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an
hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.'
Mark 10:29. 'And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is
no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or
wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's.']
[221] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 249.]
[222] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 279.]
[223] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 189.]
[224] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 3 and 18, bk. 2, 191, 196.]
[225] ['Books of the Saviour' in Pistis Sophia, pp. 359-71.]
[226] [Pistis Sophia, p. 390.]
[227] [Pistis Sophia, p. 358.]
[228] [Unable to trace.]
[230] [Birch, 'Inscription of Haremhebi,' RP, 10, 29. See p. 34.]
[233] [Naville, 'Litany of Ra,' RP, 8, 103. See p. 111, line 61.]
[234] [Renouf, 'Inscription of Queen Hatasu,' RP, 12, 127. See p. 134.]
[238] [See note below.]
[239] [Luke 2:40. 'And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.']
[244] [Unable to trace. Neither biblical, nor gnostic.]
[245] [Phil.
3:20-21. 'For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto
himself.']
[246] [See note below.]
[247] [Mead, Pistis Sophia, bk. 1, 120.]
[251] [John 1:14. 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.']
[252] [Mead, Pistis Sophia, p. 333.]
[253] [John 5:27. 'And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.']
[254] [John 3:13. 'And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.']
[255] [Matt. 25:31. 'When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.']
[258] [Eph. 2:14-15. 'For he
is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of
partition between us;
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.']
[259] [Matt.
3:16-17. 'And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water:
and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.']
[260] [See note below.]
[261] [Naville, Texts; Budge, Book of the Dead, ch. 145.]
[267] [Matt. 3:14-15. 'But
John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to
me?
And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh
us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.']
[268] [Luke 4:1-2. 'And Jesus
being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness,
Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and
when they were ended, he afterward hungered.']
[269] [Luke 4:14. 'And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.']
[270] [Luke 4:18-21. 'The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to
the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that
are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And
the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your
ears.']
[271]
[Luke 2:48-49. 'And when they saw him, they were amazed: and
his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy
father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be
about my Father's business?']
[273] [Chabas, 'Hymn to Osiris,' RP, 4, 97. See pp. 101-2.]
[280] [Chabas, 'Hymn to Osiris,' RP, 4, 97. See pp. 102.]
[281] [John 2:7-9. 'Jesus saith
unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.
And they bare it.
When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew
not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of
the feast called the bridegroom.']
[282] [John
2:14-17. 'And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and
the changers of money sitting:
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the
temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and
overthrew the tables;
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my
Father's house an house of merchandise.
And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up.']
[283] [Matt.
21:12-13. 'And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that
sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers,
and the seats of them that sold doves,
And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer;
but ye have made it a den of thieves.'
See also
Rit. ch. 138.]
[284] [John
2:13-17. 'And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the
changers of money sitting:
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the
temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and
overthrew the tables;
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my
Father's house an house of merchandise.
And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up.']
[285] [Matt. 21:19. 'And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.']
[287] [Col. 2:10-12. 'And ye
are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in
putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith
of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.']
[288] [John
20:21-22. 'And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side.
Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me,
even so send I you.']
[290] [Renouf, 'Egyptian Mythology, Particularly with Reference to Mist and Cloud,' TSBA, 8, 218. See full text.]
[291] [John 1:48-49. 'Nathanael
saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before
that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art
the King of Israel.']
[292] [John 1:41-49. 'He first
findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias,
which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon
the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A
stone.
The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and
saith unto him, Follow me.
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses
in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile!
Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw
thee.
Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art
the King of Israel.']
[293] [Bosio, Roma Sotterana.]
[294] [Papyrus Busca. Unable to trace this title anywhere.]
[295] [Mariette, Monuments Divers Recueillis en Égypte et en Nubie, tom. 4, pl. 39.]
[298] [Luke
2:14. 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'
John 16:27. 'For the Father himself
loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from
God.']
[299] [Luke 12:51. 'Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.']
[300] [Matt. 10:34. 'Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.']
[301] [Matt. 5:17-18. 'Think
not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfil.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.']
[302] [Luke 8:10. 'And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.']
[304] [Luke 10:21. 'In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.']
[305] [Pistis Sophia, p. 390.]
[306] [John 16:25. 'These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.']
[307] [1 Cor. 4:20. 'For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.']
[309] [Gospel of Thomas, ch. 4. 'And after certain days, as Jesus passed through the midst of the city, a certain child cast a stone at him and smote his shoulder. And Jesus said unto him: Thou shalt not finish thy course. And straightway he also fell down and died. And they that were there were amazed, saying: From whence is this child, that every word which he speaketh becometh a perfect work? But they also departed and accused Joseph, saying: Thou wilt not be able to dwell with us in this city: but if thou wilt, teach thy child to bless and not to curse: for verily he slayeth our children: and every thing that he saith becometh a perfect work.' M. R. James' tr.]
[311] [See above note 309.]
[312] [Col. 1:6. 'Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.']
[313] [In the vignettes to the Ritual.]
[314] [Papyrus of Ani, ch. 30B.]
[315] [Matt.
13:24-26. 'Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went
his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the
tares also.'
Matt. 13:37-39. 'He answered and said
unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the
tares are the children of the wicked one;
The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and
the reapers are the angels.']
[316] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 279.]
[317] [Matt.
10:5-8. 'These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into
the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye
have received, freely give.']
[318] [Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, line 270.]
[321] ['God & the Bible,' in The Works of Matthew Arnold, vol. 8, p. 50. 'Neander supposes that the water at the marriage-feast at Cana was not changed by Jesus into wine, but was only endued by him with wine's brisk taste and exhilarating effects. This has all the difficulties of the miracle, and only gets rid of the poetry. It is as if we were startled by the extravagance of supposing Cinderella's fairy godmother to have actually changed the pumpkin into a coach and six, but suggested that she did really change it into a one-horse brougham. Many persons, again, feel now an insurmountable suspicion (and no wonder) of Peter's fish with the tribute-money in its mouth, and they suggest that what really happened was that Peter caught a fish, sold it, and paid the tribute with the money he thus got.']
[324] [Source.]
[325] [Matt.
14:17-21. 'And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
He said, Bring them hither to me.
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five
loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and
gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that
remained twelve baskets full.
And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and
children.']
[326] [Matt. 15:36. 'And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.']
[330] [John 6:9. 'There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?']
[334] [Matt.
15:29-32. 'And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of
Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.
And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame,
blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he
healed them:
Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the
maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified
the God of Israel.
Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the
multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to
eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.']
[338] [Pistis Sophia,
p. 279.
Cf. Matt. 15:31. 'Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw
the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to
see: and they glorified the God of Israel.']
[339] [Matt. 15:29-31. 'And
Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up
into a mountain, and sat down there.
And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame,
blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he
healed them:
Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the
maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified
the God of Israel.']
[341] [Pistis Sophia, bk. 2, 279.]
[342] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 13.]
[345] [Matt. 4:16. 'The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.']
[347] [Rit. ch. 18, as Har-Khent-anmaati.]
[348] [John 9:5. 'As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.']
[349] [John 9:6. 'When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.']
[351] [Birch, 'Tale of the Possessed Princess,' RP, 4, 53.]
[352] [Planisphere of Denderah.]
[358] [Clement Alexander,
Stromata, bk. 3. 9. 64. 'Whence it is with reason that after the Word had told
about the End, Salome saith: Until when shall men continue to die? (Now,
the Scripture speaks of man in two senses, the one that is seen, and the soul:
and again, of him that is in a state of salvation, and him that is not: and sin
is called the death of the soul) and it is advisedly that the Lord makes an
answer: So long as women bear children.'
Ibid., bk. 3. 9. 66. 'And why do not they who walk by anything rather than
the true rule of the Gospel go on to quote the rest of that which was said to
Salome: for when she had said, 'I have done well, then, in not bearing
children?' (as if childbearing were not the right thing to accept) the Lord
answers and says: Every plant eat thou, but that which hath bitterness eat not.'
Ibid., bk. 3. 13. 92. 'When Salome inquired when the things concerning
which she asked should be known, the Lord said: When ye have trampled on the
garment of shame, and when the two become one and the male with the female is
neither male nor female. In the first place, then, we have not this saying in
the four Gospels that have been delivered to us, but in that according to the
Egyptians.'
Clement of Rome, Second Epistle of Clement, c. 12. 2: 'For the Lord
himself being asked by some one when his kingdom should come, said: When the two
shall be one, and the outside (that which is without) as the inside (that which
is within), and the male with the female neither male nor female.' M. R. James, The
Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 10-12.
See all fragments of this text.]
[359] [Clement of Rome. See note 358 above.]
[360] [Clement Alexander. See note 358 above.]
[361] [Matt. 22:30. 'For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.']
[363] [Grenfell and Hunt, New Sayings of Jesus, p. 42. '(Take no thought) from morning until even nor from evening until morning, either for your food what ye shall eat or for your raiment what ye shall put on. Ye are far better than the lilies which grow but spin not. Having one garment, what do ye (lack?) ... Who could add to your stature? He himself will give you your garment. His disciples say unto him, When wilt thou be manifest to us, and when shall we see thee? He saith, When ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed ... ']
[364] [Gen. 3:7. 'And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.']
[366] [Luke 7:14. 'And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.']
[368] [Matt. 28:16. 'Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.']
[369] [Luke 6:17. 'And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases.']
[370] [Matt. 15:30. 'And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them.']
[371] [Didron, Christian Iconography, fig. 86.]
[372] [Matt. 4:1. 'Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.']
[373] [Divine Pymander ch. 7.]
[374] [John
3:1-14. 'There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the
second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of
the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not
these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we
have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if
I tell you of heavenly things?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even
the Son of man which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
man be lifted up.']
[375] [Divine Pymander, bk. 7.]
[377] [The fragments, ironically,
that we have of the opponents of the Church are preserved by the church fathers
themselves, and are our only means to investigating what they actually believed
in, and have to rest content with the fact that Eusebius, for example, was not
inclined to paint a true picture of them. How ever this state of affairs may be,
we are thankful that at least these writings have not been obliterated entirely.
It was only forty-odd years after Massey's death that other
fragments of the Gnostics, Essenes, etc., were discovered in the caves by the
Dead Sea, Qumran, and at Nag-Hammadi; now that many of these fragmentary texts
have been published we can examine them more critically.]
[378] [Matt.
17:1-5. 'And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and
bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his
raiment was white as the light.
And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if
thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses,
and one for Elias.
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice
out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;
hear ye him.']
[379] [Matt. 17:9. 'And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.']
[380] [Matt. 17:2. 'And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.']
[386] [Matt. 24:3. 'And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?']
[387] [Matt. 17:1. 'And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart.']
[389] [Matt. 5:2. 'And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying.']
[390] [Matt. 17:1-2. 'And
after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth
them up into an high mountain apart,
And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his
raiment was white as the light.']
[391] [Matt. 24:3. 'And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?']
[392] [Luke 6:12. 'And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.']
[393] [Luke 6:13. 'And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles.']
[394] [Referred to elsewhere. See AE 1:241, 268 and AE 2:825. A phrase used by Kenneth Grant in his book The Nightside of Eden.]
[395] [Lushington, 'Hymn to Ra-Harmachis,' RP, 8, 129. See p. 133. ]
[396] [Luke 21:37-38. 'And in the
day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in
the mount that is called the mount of Olives.
And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear
him.']
[399] [Matt. 14:23. 'And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.']
[400] [Luke 6:12. 'And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.']
[402] [Not in Birch, Renouf, or Budge.]
[403] [Not in Birch, Renouf, or Budge.]
[404] [Matt. 16:18. 'And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.']
[405] [Luke 5:3-4. 'And he
entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would
thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of
the ship.
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and
let down your nets for a draught.']
[406] [John
6:15-21. 'When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by
force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea,
And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now
dark, and Jesus was not come to them.
And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus
walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.
Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at
the land whither they went.']
[410] [Roma Sotteranea.]
[411] [Lundy, Monumental Christianity, fig. 56.]
[412] [Matt. 13:2-3. 'And
great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship,
and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went
forth to sow.']
[413] [Matt. 13:13. 'Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.']
[414] [Luke 8:10. 'And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.']
[417] [Luke 5:4. 'Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.']
[418] [Matt. 8:24. 'And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.']
[422] [Maspero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, Pepi I, 332, and Merira 635.]
[426] [Matt.
14:22-33. 'And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship,
and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.
And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to
pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind
was contrary.
And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying,
It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not
afraid.
And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on
the water.
And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on
the water, to go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he
cried, saying, Lord, save me.
And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto
him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou
art the Son of God.']
[429] [Cf. Mark 13:35. 'Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning.']
[430] [Luke 8:33. 'And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.']
[436] [Gospel of pseudo-Matthew ch. 29.]
[437] [Gospel of Thomas, ch. 4.]
[438] [Gospel of Thomas, bk. 2, ch. 4.]
[439] [Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, ch. 35.]
[441] [Budge, Vocabulary, p. 268.]
[443] [John 19:28. 'After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.']
[452] [Matt.
9:20-21. 'And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve
years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment.
For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.']
[453] [Read & Bryant, 'A Mythological Text from Memphis,', PSBA, 23, 173, line 42. See full text.]
[455] [Rit. ch. 138, lines 3 and 4.]
[460] [Matt. 19:28. 'And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.']
[461] [Luke 22:4-30. 'And he
went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might
betray him unto them.
And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.
And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence
of the multitude.
Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed.
And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may
eat.
And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare?
And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a
man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he
entereth in.
And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee,
Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
And he shall show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.
And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the
passover.
And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.
And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you
before I suffer:
For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in
the kingdom of God.
And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among
yourselves:
For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom
of God shall come.
And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying,
This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my
blood, which is shed for you.
But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.
And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by
whom he is betrayed!
And they began to inquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do
this thing.
And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the
greatest.
And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them;
and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the
younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he
that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.
Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging
the twelve tribes of Israel.']
[462] [Harris, Newly Recovered Gospel of Peter, p. 29. '"Now it was the last day of the unleavened bread, and many went forth returning to their homes, as the feast was ended. But we, the twelve disciples of the Lord, mourned and were grieved: and each one grieving for that which was come to pass departed to his home.']
[463] [Divine Institutes, bk. 2, ch.
9. 'Of the
Devil, the World, God, Providence, Man, and His Wisdom.
I will therefore set forth the method of all these things, that difficult
and obscure subjects may be more easily understood; and I will bring to light
all these deceptions of the pretended deity, led by which men have departed very
far from the way of truth. But I will retrace the matter far back from its
source; that if any, unacquainted with the truth and ignorant, shall apply
himself to the reading of this book, he may be instructed, and may
understand what can in truth be "the source and origin of these evils; "and
having received light, may perceive his own errors and those of the whole human
race.
Since God was possessed of the greatest foresight for planning, and of the
greatest skill for carrying out in action, before He commenced this business of
the world,-inasmuch as there was in Him, and always is, the fountain of full and
most complete goodness,-in order that goodness might spring as a stream from
Him, and might flow forth afar, He produced a Spirit like to Himself, who might
be endowed with the perfections of God the Father. But how He willed that, I
will endeavour to show in the fourth book. Then He made another being, in whom
the disposition of the divine origin did not remain. Therefore he was infected
with his own envy as with poison, and passed from good to evil; and at his own
will, which had been given to him by God unfettered, he acquired for himself a
contrary name. From which it appears that the source of all evils is envy. For
he envied his predecessor, who through his stedfastness is acceptable and dear
to God the Father. This being, who from good became evil by his own act, is
called by the Greeks diabolus: we call him
accuser, because he reports to God the faults to which he himself entices us.
God, therefore, when He began the fabric of the world, set over the whole work
that first and greatest Son, and used Him at the same time as a counsellor and
artificer, in planning, arranging, and accomplishing, since He is complete both
in knowledge, and judgment, and power; concerning whom I now speak more
sparingly, because in another place both His excellence, and His name, and His
nature must be related by us. Let no one inquire of what materials God made
these works so great and wonderful: for He made all things out of nothing.
Nor are the poets to be listened to, who say that in the beginning was a chaos,
that is, a confusion of matter and the elements; but that God afterwards divided
all that mass, and having separated each object from the confused heap, and
arranged them in order, He constructed and adorned the world. Now it is easy to
reply to these persons, who do not understand the power of God: for they believe
that He can produce nothing, except out of materials already existing and
prepared; in which error philosophers also were involved. For Cicero, while
discussing the nature of the gods, thus speaks: "First of all, therefore, it is
not probable that the matter from which all things arose was made by divine
providence, but that it has, and has had, a force and nature of its own. As
therefore the builder, when he is about to erect any building, does not himself
make the materials, but uses those which are already prepared, and the statuary
also uses the wax; so that divine providence ought to have had materials
at hand, not of its own production, but already prepared for use. But if matter
was not made by God, then neither was the earth, and water, and air, and fire,
made by God." Oh, how many faults there are in these ten lines First, that he
who in almost all his other disputations and books was a maintainer of the
divine providence, and who used very acute arguments in assailing those who
denied the existence of a providence, now himself, as a traitor or deserter,
endeavoured to take away providence; in whose case, if you wish to oppose him,
neither consideration nor labour is required: it is only necessary to remind him
of his own words. For it will be impossible for Cicero to be more strongly
refuted by any one than by Cicero himself. But let us make this concession to
the custom and practice of the Academics, that men are permitted to speak with
great freedom, and to entertain what sentiments they may wish. Let us examine
the sentiments themselves. It is not probable, he says, that matter was made by
God. By what arguments do you prove this? For you gave no reason for its being
improbable. Therefore, on the contrary, it appears to me exceedingly probable;
nor does it appear so without reason, when I reflect that there is something
more in God, whom you verily reduce to the weakness of man, to whom you allow
nothing else but the mere workmanship. In what respect, then, will that divine
power differ from man, if God also, as man does, stands in need of the
assistance of another? But He does stand in need of it, if He can construct
nothing unless He is furnished with materials by another. But if this is the
case, it is plain that His power is imperfect, and he who prepared the material
must be judged more powerful. By what name, therefore, shall he be called who
excels God in power?-since it is greater to make that which is one's own, than
to arrange those things which are another's. But if it is impossible that
anything should be more powerful than God, who must necessarily be of perfect
strength, power, and intelligence, it follows that He who made the things which
are composed of matter, made matter also. For it was neither possible nor
befitting that anything should exist without the exercise of God's power, or
against His will. But it is probable, he says, that matter has, and always has
had, a force and nature of its own. What force could it have, without any one to
give it? what nature, without any one to produce it? If it had force, it took
that force from some one.But from whom could it take it, unless it were from
God? Moreover, if it had a nature, which plainly is so called from being
produced, it must have been produced. But from whom could it have derived its
existence, except God? For nature, from which you say that all things had their
origin, if it has no understanding, can make nothing. But if it has the power of
producing and making, then it has understanding, and must be God. For that force
can be called by no other name, in which there is both the foresight to plan,
and the skill and power to carry into effect. Therefore Seneca, the most
intelligent of all the Stoics, says better, who saw "that nature was nothing
else but God." Therefore he says, "Shall we not praise God, who possesses
natural excellence? "For He did not learn it from any one. Yes, truly, we will
praise Him; for although it is natural to Him, He gave it to Himself, since God
Himself is nature. When, therefore, you assign the origin of all things to
nature, and take it from God, you are in the same difficulty: "You pay your debt
by borrowing, Geta."
For while simply changing the name, you clearly admit that it was made by the
same person by whom you deny that it was made.
There follows a most senseless comparison. "As the builder," he says, "when he
is about to erect any building, does not himself make the materials, but uses
those which are already prepared, and the statuary also the wax; so that divine
providence ought to have had materials at hand, not of its own production, but
already prepared for use." Nay rather it ought not; for God will have less power
if He makes from materials already provided, which is the part of man. The
builder will erect nothing without wood, for he cannot make the wood itself; and
not to be able to do this is the part of human weakness. But God Himself makes
the materials for Himself, because He has the power. For to have the power is
the property of God; for if He is not able, He is not God. Man produces his
works out of that which already exists, because through his mortality he is
weak, and through his weakness his power is limited and moderate; but God
produces His works out of that which has no existence, because through His
eternity He is strong, and through His strength His power is immense, which has
no end or limit, like the life of the Maker Himself. What wonder, then, if God,
when He was about to make the world, first prepared the material from which to
make it, and prepared it out of that which had no existence? Because it is
impossible for God to borrow anything from another source, inasmuch as all
things are in Himself and from Himself. For if there is anything before Him, and
if anything has been made, but not by Him, He will therefore lose both
the power and the name of God. But it may be said matter was never made, like
God, who out of matter made this world. In that case, it follows that two
eternal principles are established, and those indeed opposed to one
another, which cannot happen without discord and destruction. For those things
which have a contrary force and method must of necessity come into collision. In
this manner it will be impossible that both should be eternal, if they are
opposed to one another, because one must overpower the other. Therefore the
nature of that which is eternal cannot be otherwise than simple, so that all
things descended from that source as from a fountain. Therefore either God
proceeded from matter, or matter from God. Which of these is more true, is
easily understood. For of these two, one is endued with sensibility, the other
is insensible. The power of making anything cannot exist, except in that which
has sensibility, intelligence, reflection, and the power of motion. Nor can
anything be begun, or made, or completed, unless it shall have been foreseen by
reason how it shall be made before it exists, and how it shall endure after it
has been made. In short, he only makes anything who has the will to make
it, and hands to complete that which he has willed. But that which is insensible
always lies inactive and torpid; nothing can originate in that source where
there is no voluntary motion. For if every animal is possessed of reason, it is
certain that it cannot be produced from that which is destitute of reason, nor
can that which is not present in the original source be received from any other
quarter. Nor, however, let it disturb any one, that certain animals appear to be
born from the earth. For the earth does not give birth to these of itself, but
the Spirit of God, without which nothing is produced. Therefore God did not
arise from matter, because a being endued with sensibility can never spring from
one that is insensible, a wise one from one that is irrational, one that is
incapable of suffering from one that can suffer, an incorporeal being from a
corporeal one; but matter is rather from God. For whatever consists of a body
solid, and capable of being handled, admits of an external force. That which
admits of force is capable of dissolution; that which is dissolved perishes;
that which perishes must necessarily have had an origin; that which had an
origin had a source from which it originated, that is, some maker, who is
intelligent, foreseeing, and skilled in making. There is one assuredly, and that
no other than God. And since He is possessed of sensibility, intelligence,
providence, power, and vigour, He is able to create and make both animated and
inanimate objects, because He has the means of making everything. But matter
cannot always have existed, for if it had existed it would be incapable of
change. For that which always was, does not cease always to be; and that which
had no beginning must of necessity be without an end. Moreover, it is easier for
that which had a beginning to be without an end, than for that which had no
beginning to have an end. Therefore if matter was not made, nothing can be made
from it. But if nothing can be made from it, then matter itself can have no
existence. For matter is that out of which something is made. But everything out
of which anything is made, inasmuch as it has received the hand of the
artificer, is destroyed, and begins to be some other thing. Therefore, since
matter had an end, at the time when the world was made out of it, it also had a
beginning. For that which is destroyed was previously built up; that
which is loosened was previously bound up; that which is brought to an
end was begun. If, then, it is inferred from its change and end, that matter had
a beginning, from whom could that beginning have been, except from God? God,
therefore, is the only being who was not made; and therefore He can destroy
other things, but He Himself cannot be destroyed. That which was in Him will
always be permanent, because He has not been produced or sprung from any other
source; nor does His birth depend on any other object, which being changed may
cause His dissolution. He is of Himself, as we said in the first book; and
therefore He is such as He willed that He should be, incapable of suffering,
unchangeable, incorruptible, blessed, and eternal.
But now the conclusion, with which Tully finished the sentiment, is much more
absurd. "But if matter," he says, "was not made by God, the earth indeed, and
water, and air, and fire, were not made by God." How skilfully he avoided the
danger! For he stated the former point as though it required no proof, whereas
it was much more uncertain than that on account of which the statement was made.
If matter, he says, was not made by God, the world was not made by God. He
preferred to draw a false inference from that which is false, than a true one
from that which is true. And though uncertain things ought to be proved from
those which are certain, he drew a proof from an uncertainty, to overthrow that
which was certain. For, that the world was made by divine providence (not to
mention Trismegistus, who proclaims this; not to mention the verses of the
Sibyls, who make the same announcement; not to mention the prophets, who with
one impulse and with harmonious voice. bear witness that the world was made, and
that it was the workmanship of God), even the philosophers almost universally
agree; for this is the opinion of the Pythagoreans, the Stoics, and the
Peripatetics, who are the chief of every sect. In short, from those first seven
wise men, even to Socrates and Plato, it was held as an acknowledged and
undoubted fact; until many ages afterwards the crazy Epicurus lived, who alone
ventured to deny that which is most evident, doubtless through the desire of
discovering novelties, that he might found a sect in his own name. And because
he could find out nothing new, that he might still appear to disagree with the
others, he wished to overthrow old opinions. But in this all the philosophers
who snarled around him, refuted him. It is more certain, therefore, that the
world was arranged by providence, than that matter was collected by providence.
Wherefore he ought not to have supposed that the world was not made by divine
providence, because its matter was not made by divine providence; but because
the world was made by divine providence, he ought to have concluded that
matter also was made by the Deity. For it is more credible that matter was made
by God, because He is all-powerful, than that the world was not made by God,
because nothing can be made without mind, intelligence, and design. But this is
not the fault of Cicero, but of the sect. For when he had undertaken a
disputation, by which he might take away the nature of the gods, respecting
which philosophers prated, in his ignorance of the truth he imagined that the
Deity must altogether be taken away. He was able therefore to take away the
gods, for they had no existence. But when he attempted to overthrow the divine
providence, which is in the one God, because he had begun to strive against the
truth, his arguments failed, and he necessarily fell into this pitfall, from
which he was unable to withdraw himself. Here, then, I hold him firmly fixed; I
hold him fastened to the spot, since Lucilius, who disputed on the other side,
was silent. Here, then, is the turning-point; on this everything depends. Let
Cotta disentangle himself, if he can, from this difficulty; let him bring
forward arguments by which he may prove that matter has always existed, which no
providence made. Let him show how anything ponderous and heavy either could
exist without an author or could be changed, and how that which always was
ceased to be, so that that which never was might begin to be. And if he shall
prove these things, then, and not till then, will I admit that the world itself
was not established by divine providence, and yet in making this admission I
shall hold him fast by another snare. For he will turn round again to the same
point, to which he will be unwilling to return, so as to say that both
the matter of which the world consists, and the world which consists of matter,
existed by nature; though I contend that nature itself is God. For no one can
make wonderful things, that is, things existing with the greatest order, except
one who has intelligence, foresight, and power. And thus it will come to be seen
that God made all things, and that nothing at all can exist which did not derive
its origin from God.
But the same, as often as he follows the Epicureans, and does not admit that the
world was made by God, is wont to inquire by what hands by what machines, by
what levers, by what contrivance, He made this work of such magnitude. He might
see, if he could have lived at that time in which God made it. But, that
man might not look into the works of God, He was unwilling to bring him into
this world until all things were completed. But he could not be brought in: for
how could he exist while the heaven above was being built, and the foundations
of the earth beneath were being laid; when humid things, perchance, either
benumbed with excessive stiffness were becoming congealed, or seethed with fiery
heat and rendered solid were growing hard? Or how could he live when the sun was
not yet established, and neither corn nor animals were produced? Therefore it
was necessary that man should be last made, when the finishing hand had now been
applied to the world and to all other things. Finally, the sacred writings teach
that man was the last work of God, and that he was brought into this world as
into a house prepared and made ready; for all things were made on his account.
The poets also acknowledge the same. Ovid, having described the completion of
the world, and the formation of the other animals, added:
"An animal more sacred than these, and more capacious of a lofty mind, was yet
wanting, and which might exercise dominion over the rest. Man was produced."
So impious must we think it to search into those things which God wished to be
kept secret! But his inquiries were not made through a desire of hearing or
learning, but of refuting; for he was confident that no one could assert that.
As though, in truth, it were to be supposed that these things were not made by
God, because it cannot be plainly seen in what manner they were created! If you
had been brought up in a well-built and ornamented house, and had never seen a
workshop, would you have supposed that that house was not built by man, because
you did not know how it was built? You would assuredly ask the same question
about the house which you now ask about the world-by what hands, with what
implements, man had contrived such great works; and especially if you should see
large stones, immense blocks, vast columns, the whole work lofty and elevated,
would not these things appear to you to exceed the measure of human strength,
because you would not know that these things were made not so much by strength
as by skill and ingenuity?
But if man, in whom nothing is perfect, nevertheless effects more by skill than
his feeble strength would permit, what reason is there why it should appear to
you incredible, when it is alleged that the world was made by God, in whom,
since He is perfect, wisdom can have no limit, and strength no measure? His
works are seen by the eyes; but how He made them is not seen even by the mind,
because, as Hermes says, the mortal cannot draw nigh to (that is, approach
nearer, and follow up with the understanding) the immortal, the temporal to the
eternal, the corruptible to the incorruptible. And on this account the earthly
animal is as yet incapable of perceiving heavenly things, because it is shut in
and held as it were in custody by the body, so that it cannot discern all things
with free and unrestrained perception. Let him know, therefore, how foolishly he
acts, who inquires into things which are indescribable. For this is to pass the
limits of one's own condition, and not to understand how far it is permitted man
to approach. In short, when God revealed the truth to man, He wished us only to
know those things which it concerned man to know for the attainment of life; but
as to the things which related to a profane and eager curiosity He was silent,
that they might be secret. Why, then, do you inquire into things which you
cannot know, and if you knew them you would not be happier. It is perfect wisdom
in man, if he knows that there is but one God, and that all things were made by
Him.' Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, pp. 52-3.]
[464] [Luke 8:12. 'Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.']
[465] [John 14:30. 'Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.']
[466] [Matt. 13:19. 'When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.']
[467] [Matt.
13:36-39. 'Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his
disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the
field.
He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the
tares are the children of the wicked one;
The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and
the reapers are the angels.']
[468] [John
12:31-32. 'Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world
be cast out.
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.']
[469] [John
18:6-7. 'As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and
fell to the ground.
Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.']
[471] [Matt. 22:1-14. 'And Jesus
answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his
son,
And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and
they would not come.
Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold,
I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things
are ready: come unto the marriage.
But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his
merchandise:
And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and
destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden
were not worthy.
Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the
marriage.
So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many
as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on
a wedding garment:
And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding
garment? And he was speechless.
Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away,
and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are called, but few are chosen.']
[473] [Drummond, Œdipus Judaicus, pl. 13.]
[474] [Ibid., pl. 1, Hermean Zodiac.]
[475] [Luke
10:17-20. 'And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the
devils are subject unto us through thy name.
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all
the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but
rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.']
[476] [Pistis Sophia.]
[477] [Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris, chs. 30, 31.]
[478] [Massey is here stating that the Jews have rejected the New Testament in favour of the Old. But that is a generalisation. Not all Jews reject Christianity, and a majority of them still believe in a coming Messiah, not necessarily manifested in Christ, but a God-son still to come.]
[479] [John 11:38. 'Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.']
[487] [Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 146. 'The Oil River deceased chief is clearly kept as a sort of pensioner. The chief who succeeds him in his headship of the House is given to "making his father" annually. It is not necessarily his real father that he makes, but his predecessor in the headmanship—a slave succeeding to a free man would "make his father" to the dead free man, and so on. This function undoubtedly consists in sending his predecessor a big subsidy for his support, and consolation in the shape of slaves and goods. I may as well own I have long had a dark suspicion regarding this matter—a suspicion as to where those goods went. Their proper destination, of course, should be the underworld. Thither undoubtedly on the Gold Coast they would go; but when sent in the Rivers I do not think they go so far. In fact, to make a clean breast of it, I do not believe big chiefs are properly buried in the Oil Rivers at all. I think they are, for political purposes, kept hanging about outside life, but not inside death, by their diplomatic successors. I feel emboldened to say this by what my friend. Major Leonard, Vice-Consul of the Niger Coast Protectorate, recently told me. When he was appointed Vice-Consul, and was introducing himself to his chiefs in this capacity, one chief he visited went aside to a deserted house, opened the door, and talked to somebody inside; there was not any one in material form inside, only the spirit of his deceased predecessor, and all the things left just as they were when he died; the live chief was telling the dead chief that the new Consul was come, &c.']
[489] [John 11:29-33. 'As soon
as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.
Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met
him.
The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw
Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth
unto the grave to weep there.
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet,
saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with
her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.']
[490] [John. 11:43. 'And when
he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his
face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let
him go.']
[491] [Naville, 'Addresses of Horus,' RP, 10, 159. See p. 163.]
[492] [Cf. John 1:28 ('These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing,') with John 10:40-41 ('And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode. And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true.').]
[499] [Rit. ch. 1, lines 23-4.]
[500] [John
12:1-2. 'Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus
was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them
that sat at the table with him.']
[501] [John 12:2-3. 'There
they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat
at the table with him.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the
feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with
the odour of the ointment.']
[502] [Rit. ch. 17, 138, 139.]
[508] [John 11:11. 'These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.']
[509] [John 11:35. 'Jesus wept.']
[510] [Naville, 'The Litany of Ra,' RP, 8, 103. See p. 107.]
[512] [Naville, 'The Litany of
Ra,' RP, 8, 103. See p. 112
Rit. ch. 17.]
[513] [John 11:43-44. 'And
when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his
face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let
him go.']
[519] [John 12:2. 'There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.']
[529] [John 11:25-26. 'Jesus
said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?']
[530] [Luke
10:38-42. 'Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain
village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his
word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord,
dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore
that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and
troubled about many things:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not
be taken away from her.']
[531] [John 11:5. 'Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.']
[532] [John
11:4-11. 'When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but
for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the
same place where he was.
Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and
goest thou thither again?
Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the
day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.']
[534] [John 11:45. 'Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.']
[535] [John 11:39. 'Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.']
[537] [John
11:20-21. 'Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met
him: but Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not
died.']
[538] [John 11:21. 'hen said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.']
[540] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 40.]
[541] [Inscription of Carpentras. It is a poem written in Old Aramaic that has parallels to texts of the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Is is named after a small town near Avignon, where it is preserved in a local museum. It is a funeral stele of one Ta-bai, a priest of Osiris and is dated circa 3rd century. I can find no published version of the text available in Massey's time,]
[543] [Budge,
The Mummy, pp. 184. 'The bodies of the poor were preserved by two very
cheap methods; one method consisted of soaking in salt and hot bitumen, and the
other in salt only. In the first process every cavity was filled with bitumen,
and the hair disappeared; clearly it is to the bodies which were preserved in
this way that the name "mummy" or bitumen was first applied. The salted and
dried body is easily distinguishable. The skin is like paper, the features and
hair have disappeared, and the bones are very white and brittle.
The oldest mummy in the world about the date of which there is no doubt, is that
of Seker-em-sa-f, son of Pepi I. and elder brother of Pepi II., B.C. 3200, which
was found at Sakkarah in 1881, and which is now at Gizeh. The lower jaw is
wanting, and one of the legs has been dislocated in transport; the features are
well preserved, and on the right side of the head is the lock of hair emblematic
of youth. An examination of the body shows that Seker-em-sa-f died very young. A
number of bandages found in the chamber of his pyramid at Sakkarah are similar
to those in use at a later date, and the mummy proves that the art of embalming
had arrived at a very high pitch of perfection already in the Ancient Empire.
The fragments of a body which were found by Colonel Howard Vyse in the pyramid
of Mycerinus at Gizeh, are thought by some to belong to a much later period than
that of this king; there appears to be, however, no evidence for this belief,
and as they belong to a man, and not to a woman, as Vyse thought, they may quite
easily be the remains of the mummy of Mycerinus. The skeletons found in
sarcophagi belonging to the first six dynasties fall to dust when air is
admitted to them, and they emit a slight smell of bitumen.']
[544] [Luke 16:19. 'There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.']
[545] [Griffith, Tales of the High Priests, 'Second Tale of Khamuas.']
[547] [Lines 15-21. See note 545 above.]
[548] [Griffith, ibid, 'Second Tale of Khamuas,' pp. 149, 158.]
[551] [Matt.
4:16. 'The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat
in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.'
Also
Gospel of Nicodemus 2:2. 'I Karinus. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living
God, permit me to speak of Thy wonders which Thou hast done in the lower world.
When, therefore, we were kept in darkness and the shadow of death in the lower
world, suddenly there shone upon us a great light, and Hades and the gates of
death trembled. And then was heard the voice of the Son of the Father most high,
as if the voice of a great thunder; and loudly proclaiming. He thus charged
them: Lift up your gates, ye princes; lift up the everlasting gates; the King of
glory, Christ the Lord, will come up to enter in.
Then Satan, the leader of death, came up, fleeing in terror, saying to his
officers and the powers below: My officers, and all the powers below, run
together, shut your gates, put up the iron bars, and fight bravely, and resist,
lest they lay hold of us, and keep us captive in chains. Then all his impious
officers were perplexed, and began to shut the gates of death with all
diligence, and by little and little to fasten the locks and the iron bars, and
to hold all their weapons grasped in their hands, and to utter howlings in a
direful and most hideous voice.'
Massey used Tischendorf's tr.; I have used the tr. of the Latin version in
ANCL, 16, 216.]
[552] [Not in Birch, Budge or Renouf.]
[555] [Rit. ch. 31, Birch's tr.]
[557] [Luke 1:80. 'And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.']
[558] [Matt. 3:16-17. 'And
Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a
dove, and lighting upon him:
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.']
[559] [Matt.11:11. 'Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.']
[560] [John 21:22-23. 'Jesus saith
unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou
me.
Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should
not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he
tarry till I come, what is that to thee?']
[563] [Maspero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, Teta 270.]
[564] [Matt. 10:8. 'Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.']
[576] [John 21:5. 'Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.']
[577] [Matt. 16:10. 'Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?']
[578] [Budge, Vocabulary, p. 122.]
[581] [Lundy, Monumental Christianity, fig. 54.]
[589] [John 21:14. 'This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.']
[590] [Rit. chs. 97 and 153A.]
[591] [Lefebure, 'Book of Hades,' RP, 10, 79, or 12, 1.]
[592] [John
21:16-18. 'He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith
unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was
grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said
unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus
saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself,
and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither
thou wouldest not.']
[593] [John 16:12. 'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.']
[594] [John 16:25. 'These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.']
[595] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 68.]
[596] [Pistis Sophia, p. 1, bk. I, I.]
[597] [John 20:22. 'And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.']
[598] [John 7:39. '(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)']
[600] [John 21:5. 'Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.']
[601] [Matt.
4:18-21. 'And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon
called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were
fishers.
And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee,
and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets;
and he called them.']
[602] [Matt.
10:1-5. 'And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them
power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of
sickness and all manner of disease.
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called
Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of
Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way
of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not.']
[603] [Lefebure, 'Book of Hades,' RP, 10, 79. See p. 119.]
[604] [Ibid., RP, 10, 79. See p. 118.]
[605] [John
6:40-44. 'And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth
the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him
up at the last day.
The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down
from heaven.
And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we
know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will
raise him up at the last day.']
[607] [Est. 1:13. 'Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment.']
[608] [Matt.
24:31-46. 'And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and
they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven
to the other.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth
forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even
at the doors.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be
fulfilled.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my
Father only.
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the
coming of the Son of man be.
Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other
left.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the
thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house
to be broken up.
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man
cometh.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his
household, to give them meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.']
[610] [Matt. 13:39. 'The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.']
[611] [1 Peter 4:7. 'But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.']
[612] [1 John 2:18. 'Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.']
[613] [Matt.
3:2. 'And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
Matt. 4:17. 'From that time Jesus
began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
Matt. 10:7. 'And as ye go, preach,
saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.']
[614] [2
Thess. 2:1-3. 'Now we beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together
unto him,
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by
word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of
perdition.']
[615] [Unable to trace. But see also Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Paul, 1975, for her discussion of Tertullian's view of Paul.]
[616] [2 Thess. 2:11. 'And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.']
[617] [Matt. 10:23. 'But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.']
[618] [Matt. 16:28. 'Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.']
[619] [Source below.]
[620] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 13.]
[623] [Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt,
Eng. tr., pp. 277-9. 'Yet Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris was only a god of the second rank
at Medinet Habu; at the great festivals of Amon, the offerings were doubtless
far more numerous.
One question forces itself involuntarily upon the reader, what became of all
this extra food after it had fulfilled its purpose of lying on the altar before
the god? We might think that it would be brought into the provision-house and
used gradually for the maintenance of the temple, servants and priests; the
various amounts of the offerings would then merely prove the greater or less
importance of the feast. If however we consider lists such as the above, we
perceive that the matter is not so simple; for if on the different festival days
the number of loaves of bread varies from 50 to 3694, and the jugs of beer from
15 to 905, the birds from 4 to 206, the different degree of sanctity between the
individual days could not account for so much variation. The 26th of Choiakh,
the feast of Sokaris, was evidently the principal day of the whole festival, but
it could not be twenty times more holy than the 30th of Choiakh, the sacred day,
when the pillar of Ded was erected. It is much more likely that there was a more
practical reason for the choice of these numbers: the food probably supplied
different numbers of persons, and these persons were not divine images, but the
priests and the laity who took part in the festival. The number of the latter
probably varied much on the different festival days; according as the festival
was a closed or an open one, the crowd at the feast to consume the offerings
would vary in proportion. This would also explain the difference in the quality
of the food; at one time the people assisting would belong to the upper classes,
and would require roast meat and cake; at another time the lower classes
preponderated, and for them loaves of bread would suffice.
The great festivals, of which I have here spoken, were, as far as we know, of
very much the same character, the chief feature being a representation of some
important event in the history of the god whose day was celebrated. Under the
Middle Empire, for instance, on the festival of Osiris of Abydos, the former
battles of this god were represented; the "enemies of Osiris were beaten," and
this god was then carried in procession to his tomb in Peqer, the cemetery of
Abydos, and buried. Afterwards there was a representation of "that day of the
great fight," on which "all his enemies" were beaten at the place "Nedyt." The
festival of 'Epuat, the god of the dead, celebrated at Siut, must have been very
similar; he was also "conducted by a procession to his tomb," which was situate
in the necropolis there.' Indications of this kind are frequent, especially in
the later texts; nevertheless, with our ignorance of the mythology on which
these festivals are founded, we are seldom able to understand them. We are aware
that such a god appears on such a day (i.e. is carried round in procession), and
resorts to the temple of a god his friend, but we know nothing of the legend
which would explain the motive of his visit.
I have already given an illustration depicting the public proceedings on
a similar great festival; I will add here the description of another festival,
which I found in a Theban tomb. It is the feast of the "erection of the pillar Ded," at the close of the above-mentioned feast of Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris, in the
month of Choiakh: this special festival was of the greater importance because it
was solemnised on the morning of the royal jubilee. The festivities begin with a
sacrifice offered by the king to Osiris, the "lord of eternity," a mummied
figure, wearing on his head the pillar Ded. The Pharaoh then repairs with his
suite to the place where, lying on the ground, is the "noble pillar," the
erection of which forms the object of the festival. Ropes were placed round it,
and the monarch, with the help of the royal relatives and of a priest, draws it
up. The queen, "who fills the palace with love," looks on at the sacred
proceedings, and her sixteen daughters make music with rattles and with the
jingling sistrum, the usual instrument played by women on sacred occasions. Six
singers join in a song to celebrate the god, and four priests bring in the usual
tables of offerings to place them before the pillar which is now erect.
So far, we can understand the festival; it represents the joyful moment when the
dead Osiris awakes to life again, when his backbone, represented in later
Egyptian theology by the Ded, stands again erect. The farther ceremonies of this
festival however refer to mythological events unknown to us. Four priests, with
their fists raised, rush upon four others, who appear to give way, two others
strike each other, one standing by says of them, "I seize Horus shining in
truth." Then follows a great flogging scene, in which fifteen persons beat each
other mercilessly with their sticks and fists ; they are divided into several
groups, two of which, according to the inscription, represent the people of the
town Pe and of the town Dep. This is evidently the representation of a great
mythological fight, in which were engaged the inhabitants of Pe and Dep, i.e. of
the ancient city of Buto, in the north of the Delta. The ceremonies which close
the sacred rite are also quite problematic: four herds of oxen and asses are
seen driven by their herdsmen; in the accompanying text we are told, "four times
they go round the walls on that day when the noble pillar of Ded is erected."']
[626] [Luke 10:17. 'And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.']
[627] [John. 13:27. 'And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.']
[630] [John
13:4-5. 'He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel,
and girded himself.
After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet,
and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.']
[632] [Luke 7:38. 'And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.']
[634] [Matt. 26:50. 'And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.']
[638] [John 17:1. 'These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.']
[639] [Luke
22:53-54. 'When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands
against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.
Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest's house.
And Peter followed afar off.']
[643] [Morris, Legends of the Holy Rood, pp. 178 & 179.]
[644] [Matt. 26:68. 'Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?']
[645] [Didron, Christian Iconography, vol. 1, p. 246. 'A manuscript already cited, which dates from the close of the fourteenth century, contains a miniature of the priest Eleazar sacrificing a red cow, without the camp of the Hebrews, to avert the wrath of God. Opposite to this miniature is one of Christ on the cross; "Jesus is entirely naked," says the commentary, "and his skin is ugly and discoloured, because he bore our sins in his own body: Christ is here not only bearded, but entirely naked, and the colour of his skin is red; he is human, poor and ugly."']
[647] [Matt. 27:28. 'And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.']
[649] [Matt.
27:27-30. 'Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall,
and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a
reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him,
saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.']
[650] [Matt. 27:29. 'And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!']
[652] [John 18:38. 'Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.']
[653] [John
18:37-38. 'Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered,
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I
into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of
the truth heareth my voice.
Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out
again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.']
[658] [John 19:38-41. 'And
after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for
fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and
Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and
brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices,
as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a
new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.']
[659] [Matt. 27:60. 'And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.']
[660] [Matt. 27:66. 'So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.']
[663] [Matt. 27:54. 'Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.']
[664] [John 19:23. 'Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.']
[665] [Matt. 27:51. 'And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.']
[666] [Matt. 27:50. 'Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.']
[667] [Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. 1, p. 231. 'In Upper Egypt on the first day of the solar year by Coptic reckoning, that is on 10th September, when the Nile has generally reached its highest point, the regular government is suspended for three days and every town chooses its own ruler. This temporary lord wears a sort of tall fool's cap and a long flaxen beard, and is enveloped in a strange mantle. With a wand of office in his hand and attended by men disguised as scribes, executioners, etc., he proceeds to the Governor's house. The latter allows himself to be deposed; and the mock king, mounting the throne, holds a tribunal, to the decisions of which even the governor and his officials must bow. After three days the mock king is condemned to death; the envelope or shell in which he was encased is committed to the flames, and from its ashes the Fellah creeps forth.']
[668] [Ps. 34:20. 'He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.']
[669] [Matt. 27:6. 'And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.']
[673] [John
20:14-17. 'And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus
standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing
him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell
me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni;
which is to say, Master.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but
go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father;
and to my God, and your God.']
[674] [Luke
24:13-32. 'And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called
Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus
himself drew near, and went with them.
But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one
to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou
only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to
pass there in these days?
And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of
Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the
people:
And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death,
and have crucified him.
But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside
all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early
at the sepulchre;
And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a
vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even
so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets have spoken:
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the
scriptures the things concerning himself.
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he
would have gone further.
But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and
the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it,
and brake, and gave to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their
sight.
And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked
with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?']
[675] [Matt. 28:16. 'Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.']
[676] [Budge, The Mummy, p. 163. '"O Osiris (i.e., the deceased), the thick oil which comes upon thee furnishes thy mouth with life, and thine eye looketh into the lower heaven, as Ra looketh upon the upper heaven. It giveth thee thy two ears to hear that which thou wishest, just as Shu in Hebit (?) heard that which he wished to hear. It giveth thee thy nose to smell a beautiful perfume like Seb. It giveth to thee thy mouth well furnished by its passage (into the throat), like the mouth of Thoth, when he weigheth Maat. It giveth thee Maat (Law) in Hebit. O worshipper in Hetbenben, the cries of thy mouth are in Siut, Osiris of Siut comes to thee, thy mouth is the mouth of Ap-uat in the mountain of the west."']
[677] [Matt. 26:12. 'For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.']
[678] [John
19:39-40. 'And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by
night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices,
as the manner of the Jews is to bury.']
[680] [Luke 7:38. 'And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.']
[681] [Matt. 26:7. 'There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.']
[682] [Luke
7:45-46. 'Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath
not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet
with ointment.']
[683] [Naville, Totdenbuch, vol. 1, ch. 17, A. g. and B. b.]
[684] [Book of Common Prayer, 'Of the Churching of Women.' 'The final rubric of 1549 was, "The woman that is purified must offer her chrism and other accustomed offerings; and if there be a Communion, it is convenient that she receive the holy Communion." This was altered to the present form in 1552, when the putting of "the white vesture, commonly called the chrism," upon the newly baptized was abandoned. The Baptismal Office of 1549 has the rubric, "The minister shall command that the chrisms be brought to the church, and delivered to the priests after the accustomed manner, at the purification of the mother of every child."']
[685] [Luke 24:39. 'Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.']
[686] [Rit. chs.: 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59.]
[688] [Matt. 28:1-8. 'In the
end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye
seek Jesus, which was crucified.
He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord
lay.
And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and,
behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have
told you.
And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did
run to bring his disciples word.']
[689] [John 20:1-2. 'The first
day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the
sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom
Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the
sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.']
[690] [Luke 24:10. 'It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.']
[691] [See above note.]
[693] [Rit. ch. 137, vignette to Papyrus of Nebseni.]
[695] [Matt. 27:61. 'And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.']
[697] [Horrack, 'Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys,' RP, 2, 117. See pp. 121-26.]
[700] [Luke 24:10. 'It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.']
[701] [Luke 24:22. 'Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre.']
[702] [Matt. 28:2-3. 'And,
behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from
heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.']
[706] [Naville, 'The Litany of Ra,' RP, 8, 103. See p. 111, line 58.]
[708] [Birch 'On the Egyptian Belief Concerning the Shade or Shadow of the Dead,' PSBA, 7, 45. See full text.]
[709] [John 20:17. 'Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.']
[710] [Mark 16:5. 'And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.']
[711] [Luke 24:5. 'And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?']
[712] [John 20:12. 'And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.']
[713] [Harris, Gospel of Peter, p. 24. '"And early in the morning as the sabbath was drawing on there came a multitude from Jerusalem and the region round about, that they might see the sepulchre that was sealed. And in the night in which the Lord s day was drawing on, as the soldiers kept watch two by two on guard, there was a great voice in the heaven; and they saw the heavens opened, and two men descending thence with great light and approaching the tomb. And that stone which was put at the door rolled away of itself and departed to one side; and the tomb was opened and both the young men entered in.']
[715] [Hooker, Ecclesistical Lawes of Polity, bk. 5, ch. lvi. 9. 'For doth any man doubt but that even from the flesh of Christ our very bodies do receive that life which shall make them glorious at the latter day, and for which they are already accounted parts of his blessed body? Our corruptible bodies could never live the life they shall live, were it not that here they are joined with his body which is incorruptible, and that his is in ours as a cause of immortality, a cause by removing through the death and merit of his own flesh that which hindered the life of ours.' Vol. 1, p.. 627 of Works, 1850 ed.]
[716] [John 20:19. 'Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.']
[718] [Mark 14:51. 'And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him.']
[719] [Acts
1:13-14. 'And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where
abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas,
Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and
Judas the brother of James.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.']
[720] ['Cubiculum superius ad confrequentandum memoriam quiescentium.' De Rossi, Roma Sotterannea, vol. 3, p. 474.]
[721] [John 20:26. 'And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.']
[722] [Acts
1:9-11. 'And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken
up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel;
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven.']
[724] [Rit. ch. 1 in the older MSS.]
[726] [Acts
1:10-11. 'And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold,
two men stood by them in white apparel;
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven.']
[733] [Mead, Pistis Sophia, 'Books of the Saviour,' p. 390.]
[734] [Refutations, bk. 5.7. 'There is also unquestionably a certain other [head of the hydra, namely, the
heresy] of the Peratse, whose blasphemy against Christ has for many years
escaped notice. And the present is a fitting opportunity for bringing to light
the secret mysteries of such [heretics]. These allege that the world is one,
triply divided. And of the triple division with them, one portion is a certain
single originating principle, just as it were a huge fountain, which can be
divided mentally into infinite segments. Now the first segment, and that which,
according to them, is [a segment] in preference [to others], is a triad, and it
is called a Perfect Good, [and] a Paternal Magnitude. And the second portion of
the triad of these is, as it were, a certain infinite crowd of potentialities
that are generated from themselves, [while] the third is formal. And the first,
which is good, is unbegotten, and the second is a self-producing good, and the
third is created; and hence it is that they expressly declare that there are
three Gods, three Logoi, three Minds, three Men. For to each portion of the
world, after the division has been made, they assign both Gods, and Logoi, and
blinds, and Men, and the rest; but that from unorigination and the first segment
of the world, when afterwards the world had attained unto its completion, there
came down from above, for causes that we shall afterwards declare, in the time
of Herod a certain man called Christ, with a threefold nature, and a threefold
body, and a threefold power, [and] having in himself all [species of]
concretions and potentialities [derivable] from
the three divisions of the world; and that this, says [the Peratic], is what is
spoken: "It pleased him that in him should dwell all fulness bodily," and in Him
the entire Divinity resides of the triad as thus divided. For, he says, that
from the two superjacent worlds—namely, from that [portion of the triad] which
is unbegotten, and from that which is self-producing—there have been conveyed
down into this world in which we are, seeds of all sorts of potentialities.
What, however, the mode of the descent is, we shall afterwards declare.
[The Peratic] then says that Christ descended from above from unorigination,
that by his descent all things triply divided might be saved. For some things,
he says, being borne down from above, will ascend through Him, whereas whatever
[beings] form plots against those which are carried down from above are cast
off, and being placed in a state of punishment, are renounced. This, he says, is
what is spoken: "For the Son of man came not into the world to destroy the
world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
The world, he says, he denominates those two parts that are situated above, viz.
both the unbegotten [portion of the triad], and the self-produced one. And when
Scripture, he says, uses the words, "that we may not be condemned with the
world," it alludes to the third portion of [the triad, that is], the formal
world. For the third portion, which he styles the world [in which we are], must
perish; but the two [remaining portions], which are situated above, must be
rescued from corruption.' Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, p. 50.]
[738] [Pyramid Texts, Teta, 270.]
[750] ['Thomas,' in Calmet, Great Dictionary of the Holy Bible, 1832 ed., p. 887. 'There are Christians in the East Indies, which bear the name of St. Thomas, because they report that this apostle preached the gospel there. They dwell in a peninsula of the Indus, on this side the gulf There are also many in the kingdom of Cranganor, and in neighbouring places; as also at Negapatam, Meliapur, Engamar, beyond Cochin, where their archbishop resides, who acknowledges the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Babylon. It is said that the first Christians of the Indies, converted by Thomas, relapsed into their former infidelity, and so far forgot the instructions they had received from the apostle, that they did not remember there had ever been any Christians in their country. They believe that a certain holy man, called Mar-Thome, a Syrian, brought them the light of the gospel, and converted a great number of the people, with the assistance of some priests from Syria and Egypt, whom he invited thither. Calmet inclines to believe, that they derived the name of Christians of St. Thomas only from Mar-Thome; but Mr. Taylor remarks, that the uniform tradition and testimony of their writers, as collected by Asseman, forms a body of evidence on this subject which it is very difficult to resist. Thomas travelled very far east; and it can hardly be supposed that the Syrians would introduce into their public worship, commemorations of him, with thanksgivings to God for his zeal and example, unless their ecclesiastics, who composed such ancient ritual, thought themselves warranted by facts. There remains, however, the question, what countries the Syrian writers intended by the terms they use.']
[751] [Matt. 11:28. 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.']
[753] [Matt. 7:29. 'For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.']
[757] [Mark 10:18. 'And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.']
[758] [Matt. 12:32. 'And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.']
[781] [John 7:33. 'Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.']
[782] [John 8:14. 'Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.']
[783] [John 14:6. 'Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.']
[784] [John 14:12. 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.']
[786] [Heb. 1:2. 'Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.']
[787] [Not in Birch, Budge, Renouf, or Sharpe.]
[788] [John 8:59. 'Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.']
[789] [John 12:36. 'While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.']
[790] [Luke
24:13-17. 'And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called
Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus
himself drew near, and went with them.
But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one
to another, as ye walk, and are sad?']
[793] [John 13:1. 'There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.']
[797] [John 17:11-24. 'And now
I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may
be one, as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou
gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that
the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might
have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not
of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou
shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the
world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word;
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even
as we are one:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved
me.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am;
that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me
before the foundation of the world.']
[799] [John 17:5-12.
'And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I
had with thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me.
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given
me; for they are thine.
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to
thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one, as we are
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou
gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that
the scripture might be fulfilled.']
[800] [John 12:45. 'And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.']
[803] [John 6:35. 'And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.']
[804] [John 8:12. 'Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.']
[805] [John 10:7. 'Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.']
[806] [John 10:11. 'I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.']
[807] [John 11:25. 'Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.']
[808] [John 14:6. 'Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.']
[809] [John 14:1. 'Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.']
[814] [John
12:32-33. 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
This he said, signifying what death he should die.']
[817] [John
12:49-50. 'For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he
gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak
therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.']
[818] [John 14:24. 'He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.']
[820] [John 8:28. 'Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.']
[821] [John 15:15. 'Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.']
[827] [John
6:48-51. 'I am that bread of life.
Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and
not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread,
he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will
give for the life of the world.']
[828] [John
6:53-58. 'Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will
raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me.
This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat
manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.']
[831] [John
6:3-35. 'And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.
And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.
When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he
saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?
And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.
Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them,
that every one of them may take a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him,
There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but
what are they among so many?
And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So
the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the
disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the
fishes as much as they would.
When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that
remain, that nothing be lost.
Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the
fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them
that had eaten.
Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of
a truth that prophet that should come into the world.
When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to
make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea,
And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now
dark, and Jesus was not come to them.
And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus
walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.
Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at
the land whither they went.
The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw
that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were
entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his
disciples were gone away alone;
(Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did
eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)
When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples,
they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.
And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him,
Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not
because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were
filled.
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the
Father sealed.
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on
him whom he hath sent.
They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see, and
believe thee? what dost thou work?
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread
from heaven to eat.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto
the world.
Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall
never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.']
[832] [John
4:10. 'Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and
who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water.'
John 7:37. 'In the last day, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink.']
[833] [John
7:37-38. 'In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water.']
[834] [John 4:10-15. 'Jesus
answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that
saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank
thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither
come hither to draw.']
[835] [John 8:58. 'Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.']
[838] [Renouf, 'Inscription of Queen Hatasti on base of Great Obelisk of Karnak,' RP, 12, 127. See p. 131.]
[839] [Ibid., RP, 12, 127. See p. 131.]
[840] [John 1:1. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.']
[841] [John 1:14. 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.']
[842] [Matt. 17:5. 'While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.']
[846] [Ecclesiasticus, Prologue. This phrase does not exist in the NEB version.]
[849] [I give both quotes as they
appear in Clement's Stromata. 'Matthew exhorting in the Traditions,
says, "Wonder at what is before you;" laying this down first as the foundation
of further knowledge.' ANCL 12, 28.
'They say in the Traditions that Matthew the apostle constantly
said, that "if the neighbour of an elect man sin, the elect man has sinned. For
had he conducted himself as the Word prescribes, his neighbour also would have
been filled with such reverence for the life he led as not to sin."' ANCL
12, 466.]
[850] [Clement Alexander. Unable to
trace.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History,
bk. 2,
1. 'The course pursued by the Apostles after the ascension of Christ.
First then, in the place of Judas the traitor, Matthias was chosen by lot, who,
as was shown above, was also one of the disciples of the Lord. There were
appointed also, with prayer and the imposition of hands, by the apostles,
approved men, unto the office of deacons, for the public service; these were
those seven of whom Stephen was one. He was the first, also, after our Lord, who
at the time of ordination, as if ordained to this very purpose, was stoned to
death by the murderers of the Lord And thus he first received the crown
answering to his name, of the victorious martyrs of Christ. Then also James,
called the brother of our Lord, because he is also called the son of Joseph.
For Joseph was esteemed the father of Christ, because the Virgin being betrothed
to him, "she was found with child by the Holy Ghost before they came together,"
as the narrative of the holy gospels shews. This James, therefore, whom the
ancients, on account of the excellence of his virtue, surnamed the Just, was the
first that received the episcopate of the church at Jerusalem. But Clement, in
the sixth book of his Institutions, represents it thus: "Peter, and James, and
John, after the ascension of our Saviour, though they had been preferred by our
Lord, did not contend for the honour, but chose James the Just as bishop of
Jerusalem." And the same author, in the seventh book of the same work, writes
also thus: "The Lord imparted the gift of knowledge to James the Just, to John
and Peter after his resurrection, these delivered it to the rest of the
apostles, and they to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one. There were,
however, two Jameses; one called the Just, who was thrown from a wing of the
temple, and beaten to death with a fuller s club, and another, who was beheaded.
Paul also makes mention of the Just in his epistles. "But other of the
apostles," says he, "saw I none, save James the brother of our Lord." About this
time also, the circumstances of our Saviours promise, in reference to the king
of the Osrhoenians, took place. For Thomas, under a divine impulse, sent
Thaddeus as herald and evangelist, to proclaim the doctrine of Christ, as we
have shown from the public documents found there.
When he came to these places, he both healed Agbarus by the word of Christ, and
astonished all there with the extraordinary miracles he performed. After having
sufficiently disposed them by his works, and led them to adore the power of
Christ, he made them disciples of the Saviour s doctrine. And even to this day,
the whole city of Edessa is devoted to the name of Christ; exhibiting no common
evidence of the beneficence of our Saviour likewise to them. And let this
suffice, as taken from the accounts given in ancient documents. But let us pass
again to the Holy Scriptures. As the first and greatest persecution arose among
the Jews after the martyrdom of Stephen, against the church of Jerusalem, and
all the disciples except the twelve were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria;
some, as the Holy Scriptures say, coming as far as Phoenice, and Cyprus, and
Antioch, they were not yet in a situation to venture to impart the faith to the
nations, and there fore only announced it to the Jews. During this time, Paul
also was yet laying waste the church, entering the houses of the believers,
dragging away men and women, and delivering them over to prison? Philip,
also, one of those who had been ordained to the office of deacons, being among
those scattered abroad, went down to Samaria. Filled with divine power, he first
proclaimed the divine word to the inhabitants of that place. But so greatly did
the divine grace co-operate with him, that even Simon Magus, with a great number
of other men, were attracted by his discourses. But Simon had become so
celebrated at that time, and had such influence with those that were deceived by
his impostures, that they considered him the great power of God. This same
Simon, also, astonished at the extraordinary miracles performed by Philip
through the power of God, artfully assumed, and even pretended faith in Christ,
so far as to be baptized; and what is surprising, the same thing is done even to
this day, by those who adopt his most foul heresy. These, after the manner of
their founder, insinuating themselves into the church, like a pestilential and
leprous disease, infected those with the greatest corruption, into whom they
were able to infuse their secret, irremediable, and destructive poison. Many of
these, indeed, have already been expelled, when they were caught in their
wickedness; as Simon himself, when detected by Peter, suffered his deserved
punishment. For as the annunciation of the Saviour s gospel was daily advancing,
by a certain divine providence, a prince of the queen of the Ethiopians, as it
is a custom that still prevails there to be governed by a female, was brought
thither, and was the first of the Gentiles that received of the mysteries of the
divine word from Philip. The apostle, led by a vision, thus instructed him; and
he, becoming the first fruits of believers throughout the world, is said to have
been the first, on returning to his country, that proclaimed the knowledge of
God and the salutary abode of our Saviour among men. So that, in fact, the
prophecy obtained its fulfilment through him: "Ethiopia stretcheth forth her
hands unto God." After this, Paul, that chosen vessel, not of men, nor through
men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ himself, and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead, is appointed an apostle, being honoured with the call
by a vision and voice of revelation from heaven.' Cruse's tr.]
[851] [The Manifestation of Truth, cited in Irenaeus' Against all Heresies. See also the Marcion's Gospel, and Valentinus' Gospel of Truth.]
[852] [The Word of Truth (or The True Word or A True Discourse), quoted in Origen's Against Celsus.]
[853] [Adverses Haeres, (or
Panarion), 26, 2. 'Their whole deceit (error) and the strength of it they
draw from some apocryphal books, especially from what is called the Egyptian
Gospel, to which some have given that name. For in it many such like things are
recorded (or attributed) as from the person of the Saviour, said in a corner,
purporting that he showed his disciples that the same person was Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.'
I have used the quote in M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, p. 11.]
[854] [King, The Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 156-7. 'So it came to pass that I fell in with men full of pride, dotards, too carnal, and great talkers, in whose mouth is a snare of the Devil, and bird-lime made up with a mixture of the syllables of Thy Name, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Paraclete s, our Comforter the Holy Ghost. All these names did not proceed out of their mouth except as far as the sound and echo of the tongue go, but their heart was utterly void of truth. And they used to repeat Truth and Truth, and so did they repeat her name to me, but she was nowhere amongst them, but they spoke false things, not only concerning thee who art the Truth in truth, but even concerning the elements of this world of ours, thy creation ; concerning which even the philosophers, who declared what is true, I ought to have slighted for the love of Thee, my Father, the Supreme Good, the Beauty of all things beautiful. Truth! Truth! how inwardly did the marrow of my soul sigh after thee even then, whilst they were perpetually dinning thy name into my ears, and after various fashions with the mere voice, and with many and huge books of theirs. And these were the dishes upon which were served up to me who was hungering after thee, nothing but the Sun and the Moon, thy fair works indeed, but not thyself, and not even the first amongst thy works. For thy spiritual works are before those corporeal works, however splendid and heavenly they may be. But even for those, thy higher works, I hungered and thirsted not, but for thee only, Truth! wherein there is no change, neither shadow of turning. And again there were set before me, in those same dishes, splendid phantoms, than which it were even better to love the Sun himself, for he was true as far as regards one's eyes, rather than to love those fictions whereby the soul was deceived through the eyes. And yet because I believed them to be Thee, I ate thereof though not greedily, because Thou didst not taste in my mouth as thou really art, for thou wert not those empty fictions; neither was I nourished thereby, but rather weakened. Food in dreams is like to the food of one awake, yet the sleepers are not fed by the same, for they sleep on : but those dishes were not in any wise like unto Thee as thou now hast spoken to me, &c."']
[855] [Goodwin, 'Festal Dirge of the Egyptians,' RP, 4, 115.]