XX. 17.)

Does this look like identifying himself with his Father ? " My Father and^^//r Father, my God and your God," implies, on his part, a desire to be considered on a perfect equality with his brethren — nothing more. Theodoret writes : " The haeretics agree with us respecting the beginning of all things. . . . But they say there is not one Christ (God), but one above, and the other below. And this last formerly dwelt in many ; but the Jesus, they at one time say is from God, at another they call him a Spirit." * This spirit is the Christos, the messenger of life, who is sometimes called the Angel Gabriel (in Hebrew, the mighty one of God), and who took with the Gnostics the place of the Logos, while the Holy Spirit was considered Life, f With the sect of the Nazarenes, though, the Spiritus, or Holy Ghost, had less honor. While nearly every Gnostic sect considered it a Female Power, whether they called it Binah, ns^a, Sophia, the Divine Intellect, with the Naza- rene sect it was the Female Spiritus, the astral light, the genetrix of all things of matter, the chaos in its evil aspect, made turhido by the Demi- urge. At the creation of man, ** it was light on the side of the Father, and it was light (material light) on the side of the mother. And this is the * two-fold man,' " \ says the Sohar. "That day (the last one) will perish the seven badly-disposed stellars, also the sons of man, who have confessed the Spiritus, the Messias (false), the Deus, and the Mother of the Spiritus shall perish." §
• Theodoret : ** Hseret. Fab.," iL, vii. f See »* Irenxus," I., xii., p. 86.
X '* Anszuge aus dem Sohar," p. 12. g " Cod. Naz.," vol. ii., p. 149.
13
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Jesus enforced and illustrated his doctrines with signs and wonders ; and if we lay aside the claims advanced on his behalf by his deifiers, he did but what other kabalists did ; and only they at that epoch, when, for two centuries the sources of prophecy had been conii>letely dried U[), and from this stagnation of public " miracles " had originated the skepticism of the unbelieving sect of the Sadducees. Describing the " heresies " of those days, Theodoret, who has no idea of the hidden meaning of the word Christos, the anointed messenger, complains that they (the Gnostics) assert that this Messenger or Delegatus changes his body from time to time, " and goes into other bodies, and at each time is differently mani- fested. And these (the overshadowed prophets) use incantations and invocations of various demons and baptisms in the confession of their principles. . . . They embrace astrology and magic, and the mathematical error," (?) he says. *
This " mathematical error," of which the pious writer complains, led subsequently to the rediscovery of the heliocentric system, erroneous as it may still be, and forgotten since the days of another " magician " who taught it — Pythagoras. Thus, the wonders of healing and the thaums of Jesus, which he imparted to his followers, show that they were learn- ing, in their daily communication with him, the theory and practice of the new ethics, day by day, and in the familiar intercourse of intimate friendship. Their faith was progressively developed, like that of all neophytes, simultaneously with the increase of knowledge. We must bear in mind that Josephus, who certainly must have been well-informed on the subject, calls the skill of expelling demons *' a science." This growth of faith is conspicuously shown in the case of Peter, who, from having lacked enough faith to support him while he could walk on the water from the boat to his Master, at last became so expert a thaumatur- gist, that Simon Magus is said to have offered him money to teach him the secret of healing, and other wonders. And Philip is shown to have become an -^throbat as good as Abaris of Pythagorean memory, but less expert than Simon Magus.
Neither in the Homilies nor any other early work of the apostles, is there anything to show that either of his friends and followers regarded Jesus as anything more than a prophet. The idea is as clearly established in the Clementines, Except that too much room is afforded to Peter to estab- lish the identity of the Mosaic God with the Father of Jesus, the whole work is devoted to Monotheism. The author seems as bitter against Polytheism as against the claim to the divinity of Christf He seems
♦ Theodoret : " Haeret. Fab.," ii., vii.
t " Homilies," xvi., 15 ff.; ii., 12 ; in., 57-59 ; x., 19. Schliemann :' " Die Clemen- tinem," p. 134 ff; ** Supernatural Religion," vol. il, p. 349.
THE- SOURCE OF CHRIST'S INSPIRATION. 195
to be utterly ignorant of the I^ogos, and his speculation is confined to Sophia, the Gnostic wisdom. There is no trace in it of a hypostatic trinity, but the same overshadowing of the Gnostic " wisdom (Christos and Sophia) is attributed in the case of Jesus as it is in those of Adam, ICnoch, Noah. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. ♦ These personages arf all placed on one level, and called * true prophets,' and the seven pillars of the world." More than that, Peter vehemently denies the fall of Adam, and with him, the doctrine of atonement, as taught by Christian theology, utterly falls to the ground, for he combats it as a blasphemy, f Peter's theory of sin is that of the Jewish kabalists, and even, in a certain way, Platonic. Adam not only never sinned, but, " as a true prophet, possessed of the Spirit of God, which afterwards was in Jesus, could not sin." \ In short, the whole of the work exhibits the. belief of the author in the kabalistic doctrine of permutation. The Kabala teaches the doc- trine of transmigration of the spirit. § " Mosah is the revolutio of Seth and Hebel." [
" Tell me who it is who brings about the re-birth (the revolutio) ? " is asked of the wise Herraes. ** God's Son, the only man, through the will of God," is the answer of the ** heathen." ^
" God's son " is the inmiortal spirit assigned to every human being. It is this divine entity which is the " o/ily man,** for the casket which con- tains our soul, and the soul itself, are but half-entities, and without its overshadowing both body and astral soul, the two are but an animal dtdad. It requires a trinity to form the complete " man," and allow him to re- main immortal at every "re-birth," or reifolutio, throughout the subse- quent and ascending spheres, every one of which brings him nearer to the refulgent realm of eternal and absolute light.
" God's First-born, who is the * holy Veil,* the * Light of Lights,' it is he who sends the revolutio of the Delegatus, for he is the First Po7ver^^ says the kabalist. **
" The pneuma (spirit) and the dunamis (power), which is from the God, it is right to consider nothing else than the Logos, who is also (?) First-begotten to the God," argues a^fhristian. f f
** Angels and powers are in heiveh ! " says Justin, thus bringing forth a purely kabalistic doctrine. The Christians adopted it from the
♦ *' Homilies/* iii., 20 f ; il, 16-18, etc t^hid., iii., 20 flf.
t Schliemann : ** Die Clementinem," pp. 130-176; quoted also in ** Supernatural Religion," p. 342.
§ We will speak of this doctrine further on. I '^Kabbala Denudata," vol. ii, p. 155 ; ** Vallis RcgU.»' t ** Hermes," X., iv., 21-23. ** I^^a MagnA : ** Kabbala Denudata."
ff Justin Martyr: "Apod.," vol ii, p. 74.
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Sohar and the haeretical sects, and if Jesus mentioned them, it was not in the official synagogues that he learned the theory, but directly in the kabalistic teachings. In the Mosaic books, very little mention is made of them, and Moses, who holds direct communications with the " Lord God," troubles himself very little about them. The doctrine was a secret one, and deemed by the orthodox synagogue heretical. Josephus calls the Essenes heretics, saying : " Those admitted among the Essenes must swear to communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he received them himself^ and equally to preserve the books belong- ing to their sect, and the names of the angels, * The Sadducees did not believe in angels, neither did the uninitiated Gentiles, who limited their Olympus to gods and demi-gods, or *' spirits." Alone, the kabalists and Wieurgists hold to that doctrine from time immemorial, and, as a conse- quence, Plato, and Philo Judaeus after him, followed first by the Gnos- tics, and then by the Christians.
Thus, if Josephus never wrote the famous interpolation forged by Eusebius, concerning Jesus, on the other hand, he has described in the Essenes all the principal features that we find prominent in the Naza- rene. When praying, they sought solitude, f " When thou prayest, enter into thy closet . . . and pray to thy Father which is in secret *' {Matthew vi. 6). " Everything spoken by them (Essenes) is stronger than an oath. Swearing is shunned by them " {^Josephus II., viii., 6). •* But I say unto you, swear not at all . . . but let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay" {Matthew w. 34-37).
The Nazarenes, as well as the Essenes and the Therapeutas, believed more in their own interpretations of the ** hidden sense " of the more an- cient Scriptures, than in the later laws of Moses. Jesus, as we have shown before, felt but little veneration for the commandments of his pre- decessor, with whom Irenjeus is so anxious to connect him.
The Essenes "enter into the houses of those whom they never saw previously^ as if they were their intimate friends" (Josephus II., viii., 4). Such was undeniably the custom of Jesus and his disciples.
Epiphanius, who places the Ebionite* " heresy " on one level with that of the Nazarenes, also remarks that the Nazaraioi come next to the Cerinthians,J so much vituperated against by Irenaeus. §
* Josephus: "Wars/* II., chap. 8. sec. 7.
f See Josephus ; Philo ; Munk (35). Eusebius mentions their semneion, where they perform the mysteries of a retired life (** Ecclesiastic History," lib. ii., ch. 17).
X ** Epiphanius," ed. Petau, i., p. 117.
g Cerinthus is the same Gnostic — a contemporary of John the Evangelist — of whom Irenaeus invented the following anecdote : "There are those who heard him (Poiy- carp) say that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving
THE ANCIENT AND MODERN NABATHEANS. 1 9/
Munk, in his work on Palestine^ affirms that there were 4,000 Essenes living in the desert ; that they had their mystical books, and predicted the future. ♦ The Nabatheans, with very little difference indeed, adhered to the same belief as the Nazarenes and the Sabeans, and all of them honored John the Baptist more than his successor Jesus. The Persian lezidi say that they originally came to Syria from Busrah. They use baptism, and believe in seven archangels, though pa)dng at the same time reverence to Satan. Their prophet lezed, who flourished long prior to Mahomet, f taught that God will send a messenger, and that the latter would reveal to him a book which is already written in heaven from the eternity. J The Nabatheans inhabited the Lebanon, as their descendants do to the present day, and their religion was from its origin purely kab- alistic. Maiinonides speaks of them as if he identified them with the Sab- eans. " I will mention to thee the writings . , . respecting the belief and institutions of the Sabeans^* he says. "The most famous is the book The Agriculture of the Nabathceans, which has been translated by Ibn Waho- hijah. This book is full of heathenish foolishness. ... It speaks of the preparations of Talismans, the drawing down of the powers of the Spirits, Magic, Demons, and ghouls, which make their abode in the desert." §
There are traditions among the tribes living scattered about beyond the Jordan, as there are many such also among the descendants of the Samaritans at Damascus, Gaza, and at Naplosa (the ancient Shechem). Many of these tribes have, notwithstanding the persecutions of eighteen centuries, retained the faith of their fathers in its primitive simplicity. It is there that we have to go for traditions based on historical truths, however disfigured by exaggeration and inaccuracy, and compare them with the religious legends of the Fathers, which they call revelation. Euse- bius states that before the siege of Jerusalem the small Christian commu- nity— comprising members of whom many, if not all, knew Jesus and his apostles personally — took refuge in the little town of Pella, on the oppo- site shore of the Jordan. Surely these simple people, separated for centu- ries from the rest of the world, ought to have preserved their traditions fresher than any other nations ! It is in Palestine that we have to search for the clearest waters of Christianity, let alone its source. The first Christians, after the death of Jesus, all joined together for a time, whether
Cerinthus within, rushed forth from the bath-house . . . crying out, ' Let us fly, lest the bath-house fail down, Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, being within it ' '* (Irenaras : •'Adv. Hoer.," iii., 3, §4).
♦ Munk : «« Palestine," p. 525 ; " Sod, the Son of the Man."
f ** Haxthausen," p. 229.
} " Shahrastaini ; ** Dr. D. Chwolsohn : ** Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus," il, p. 625.
§ Maimonides, quoted in Dr. D. Chwolsohn : *"" Die Ssabier uiid der Ssabismus,** iL, p. 458.
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they were Ebionites, Nazarenes, Gnostics, or others. They had no Chris- tian dogmas in those days, and their Christianity consisted in believing Jesus to be a prophet, this belief varying from seeing in him simply a "just man,*' ♦ or a holy, inspired prophet, a vehicle used by Christos and Sophia to manifest themselves through. These all united together in opposition to the synagogue and the tyrannical technicalities of the Phar- isees, until the primitive group separated in two distinct branches — which, we may correctly term the Christian kabalists of the Jewish Tanaim school, and the Christian kabalists of the Platonic Gnosis, f The former were represented by the party composed of the followers ot Peter, and John, the author of the Apocalypse ; the latter ranged with the Pauline Christianity, blending itself, at the end of the second century, with the Platonic phil- osophy, and engulfing, still later, the Gnostic sects, whose symbols and misunderstood mysticism overflowed the Church of Rome.
Amid this jumble of contradictions, what Christian is secure in confess- ing himself such? In the old Syriac Gospel according to Luke (iii. 22), the Holy Spirit is said to have descended in the likeness of a dove. " Jesua, full of the sacred Spirit, returned from Jordan, and the Spirit led him into the desert " (old Syriac, Luke iv. i, Tremellius), " The diffi- culty," says Dunlap, "was that the Gospels declared that John the Bap- tist saw the Spirit (the Power of God) descend upon Jesus after he had reached manhood, and if the Spirit then first descended upon him, there was some ground for the opinion of the Ebionites and Nazarenes who denied his preceding existence, and refused him the attributes of the I-rOGOS. The Gnostics, on the other hand, objected to the flesh, but con- ceded the Logos." J
John's ApocalypsiSy and the explanations of sincere Christian bish- ops, like Synesius, who, to the last, adhered to the Platonic doctrines, make us think that the wisest and safest way is to hold to that sincere primitive faith which seems to have actuated the above-named bishop. This best, sincerest, and most unfortunate of Christians, addressing the " Unknown," exclaims : " Oh Father of the Worlds . . . Father of the JEons . . . Artificer of the GodSy it is holy to praise ! " But Synesius had Hypatia for instructor, and this is why we find him confessing in all sincerity his opinions and profession of faith. "The rabble desires
♦ " Ye have condemned and killed the just," says James in his epistle to the twelve t tribes.
f Porphyry makes a distinction between what he calls ** the Antique or OriefUaL. pfUhsophy^^^ and the properly Grecian system, that of the Neo-platonists. King say? that all these religions and systems are branches of one antique and common religii the Asiatic or Buddhistic (** Gnostics and their Remains,'* p. i).
X •* Sod, the Son of the Man."
REAL MEANING OF HEROD'S "INFANT-MASSACRE." I99
nothing better than to be deceived. ... As regards myself, therefore, J will always be a philosopher with myself^ but I must be priest with the people."
** Holy is God the Father of all being, holy is God, whose wisdom is carried out into execution by his own Powers ! . . . Holy art Thou, who through the Word had created all I Therefore, I believe in Thee, and bear testimony, and go into the life and light." * Thus speaks Hermes Trismegistus, the heathen divine. What Christian bishop could have said better than that ?
The apparent discrepancy of the four gospels as a whole, does not prevent every narrative given in the New Testament — ^however much dis- figured— having a ground-work of truth. To this, are cunningly adapted details made to fit the later exigencies of the Church. So, propped up partially by indirect evidence, still more by blind faith, they have become, with time, articles of faith. Even the fictitious massacre of the '^ Inno- cents " by King Herod has a certain foundation to it, in its allegorical sense. Apart from the now-discovered fact that the whole story of such a massacre of the Innocents is bodily taken from the Hindu Bagaved- gitta, and Brahmanical traditions, the legend refers, moreover, allegori- cally, to an historical fact King Herod is the type of Kansa, the tyrant of Madura, the maternal uncle of Christna, to whom astrologers pre- dicted that a son of his niece Devaki would deprive him of his throne. Therefore he gives orders to kill the male child that is born to her ; but Christna escapes his fury through the protection of Mahadeva (the great God) who causes the child to be carried away to another city, out of Kansa's reach. After that, in order to be sure and kill the right boy, on whom he failed to lay his murderous hands, Kansa has all the male new- born infants within his kingdom killed. Christna is also worshipped by the gopas (the shepherds) of the land.
Though this ancient Indian legend bears a very suspicious resem- blance to the more modern biblical romance, Gaffarel and others attribute the origin of the latter to the persecutions during the Herodian reign of the kabalists and the IVise men^ who had not remained strictly orthodpx. The latter, as well as the prophets, were nicknamed the " Innocents," and the *' Babes," on account of their holiness. As in the case of certain degrees of modern Masonry, the adepts reckoned their grade of initia- tion by a symbolic age. Thus Saul who, when chosen king, was "a choice and goodly man," and "from his shoulders upward was higher than any of the people," is described in Catholic versions, as "child oi one year when he began to reign," which, in its literal sense, is a palpa-
♦
Hermes Trismegistus,'* pp. 86, 87, 9a
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ble absurdity. But in i Samuel x., his anointing by Samuel and initia- tion are described ; and at verse 6th, Samuel uses this significant lan- guage : "... the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shalt prophesy with them, ami shalt be turned into another man.'' The phrase above quoted is thus made plain — he had received one degree of initiation and was symbolically described as ''a child one year old." The Catholic Bible^ from which the text is quoted, with charming candor says in a foot-note: "It is extremely difficult to explain " (meaning that Saul was a child of one year). But un- daunted by any difficulty the Editor, nevertheless, does take uiK>n him- self to explain it, and adds : " A child of one year. That is, he was good and like an innocent child" An interpretation as ingenious as it is pious ; and which if it does no good can certainly do no harm. ♦
If the explanation of the kabalists is rejected, then the whole sub- ject falls into confusion ; worse still — for it becomes a direct plagiarism from the Hindu legend. All the commentators have agreed that a lit- teral massacre of young children is nowhere mentioned in history ; and that, moreover, an occurrence like that would have made such a bloody page in Roman annals that the record of it would have been preserved for us by every author of the day. Herod himself was subject to the Roman law ; and undoubtedly he would have paid the penalty of such a mon- strous crime, with his own life. But if, on the one hand, we have not the slightest trace of this fable in history, on the other, we find in the
* It is the correct interpretation of the Bible allegories that makes the Catholic clergy so wrathful with the Protestants who freely scrutinize the Bible. How bitter this feeling has become, we can judge by the following words of the Reverend Father Parker of Hyde Park, New York, who, lecturing in St. Teresa's Catholic Church, on the loth of December, 1876, said: **To whom does the Protestant Church owe its possession of the Bible, which thty wish to place in the hands of every ignorant person and child? To monkish hands, that laboriously transcribed it before the age of printing. Protestantbm has produced dissension in Church, rebellions and outbreaks in State, unsoundness in social life, and will never be satisfied short of the downfall of the Bible ! Protestants must admit that the Roman Church has done mq^e to scatter Christianity and extir{)ate idolatry than all their sects. From one pul- pit it is said that there is no hell, and from another that there is immediate and unmit- igated damnation. One says that Jesus Christ was only a man ; another that you must be plunged bodily into water to be baptized, and refuses the rites to infants. Most of them have no prescribed form of worship, no sacred vestments, and their doctrines are as undefined as their service is informal. The founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, was the worst man in Europe. The advent of the Reformation was the signal for civil war, and from that time to this the world has been in a restless state, uneasy in regard to Governments, and every day becoming more skeptical. The ultimate tendency of Protestantism is clearly nothing less than the destruction of all respect for the Bible, and the disruption of government and society.'* Very ]>lain talk this. The Protestants might easily return the compliment.
THE HEBREW TRADITIONS ABOUT JESUS. 201
official complaints of the Synagogue abundant evidence of the persecu- tion of the initiates. The Talmud also corroborates it.
The Jewish version of the birth of Jesus is recorded in the Sephef' Toldos Jeshu in the following words :
" Mary having become the mother of a Son, named Jehosuah, and the boy growing up, she entrusted him to the care of the Rabbi Elhanan, and the child progressed in knowledge, for he was well gifted with spirit and understanding.
" Rabbi Jehosuah, son of Perachiah, continued the education of Jeho- suah (Jesus) after Elhanan, and initiated him in the secret knowledge ; " but the King, Janneus, having given orders to slay all the initiates, Jeho- suah Ben Perachiah, fled to Alexandria, in Egypt, talcing the boy with him.
While in Alexandria, continues the story, they were received in the house of a rich and learned lady (i)ersonified Egypt). Young Jesus found her beautiful, notwithstanding " a defect in her eyesy' and declared so to his roaster. Upon hearing this, the latter became so angry that his pupil should find in the land of bondage anything good, that " he cursed him and drove the young man from his presence." Then follow a series of adventures told in allegorical language, which show that Jesus supple- mented his initiation in the Jewish Kabala with an additional acquisition of the secret wisdom of Egypt. When the persecution ceased, they both returned to Judea. *
The real grievances against Jesus are stated by the learned author of Tela Ignea Satana (the fiery darts of Satan) to be two in number : ist, that he had discovered the great Mysteries of their Temple, by having been initiated in Egypt ; and 2d, . that he had profaned them by exposing them to the vulgar, who misunderstood and disfigured them. This is what they say : f
" There exists, in the sanctuary of the living God, a cubical stone, on which are sculptured the holy characters, the combination of which gives the explanation of the attributes and powers of the incommunicable name. This explanation is the secret key of all the occult sciences and forces in nature. It is what the Hebrews call the Scham hamphorash. This stone is watched by two lions of gold, who roar as soon as it is approached.J The gates of the temple were never lost sight of, and the
* Eliphas Levi ascribes this narrative to the Talmudist authors of "Sota'*and •*Sanhedrin," p. 19, book of ** Jcrhiel."
f This fragment is translated from the original Hebrew by Eliphas Levi in his '* La Science des Ksprits.*'
{ Those who know anything of the rites of the Hebrews must recognize in these lions the gigantic figures of the Cherubim, whose symbolical monstrosity was well cal«, culated to frighten and put to flight the profane.
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door of the sanctuary opened but once a year, to admit the High Priest alone. But Jesus, who had leanied in Egypt the * great secrets ' at the initiation, forged for himself invisible keys, and thus was enabled to pen- etrate into the sanctuary unseen. . . . He copied the characters on the cubical stone, and hid them in his thigh ; ♦ after which, emerging from the temple, he went abroad and began astounding people with his mira- cles. The dead were raised at his command, the leprous and the obsessed were healed. He forced the stones which lay buried for ages at the bot- tom of the sea to rise to the surface until they formed a mountain, from the top of which he preached." The Sepher Toldos states further that, unable to displace the cubical stone of the sanctuary, Jesus fabricated one of clay, which he showed to the nations and passed it off for the true cubical stone of Israel.
This allegory, like the rest of them in such books, is written '* inside and outside^' — it has its secret meaning, and ought to be read two ways. The kabalistic books explain its mystical meaning. Further, the same Talmudist says, in substance, the following : Jesus was thrown in prison, f and kept there forty days ; then flogged as a seditious rebel ; then stoned as a blasphemer in a place called Lud, and finally allowed to expire upon a cross. " All this," explains Levi, ** because he revealed to the people the truths which they (the Pharisees) wished to bury for their own use. He had divined the occult theology of Israel, had compared it with the wisdom of Egypt, and found thereby the reason for a universal religious synthesis." J
However cautious one ought to be in accepting anything about Jesus from Jewish sources, it must be confessed that in some things they seem to be more correct in their statements (whenever their direct interest in stating facts is not concerned) than our good but too jealous Fathers. One thing is certain, James, the " Brother of the Lord," is silent about the resurrection. He terms Jesus nowhere "Son of God," nor even Christ- God. Once only, speaking of Jesus, he calls him the " Lord of Glory," but so do the Nazarenes when writing about their prophet lohanan bar Zacharia, or John, son of Zachanas (St. John Baptist). Their favo- rite expressions about their prophet are the same as those used by James when speaking of Jesus. A man " of the seed of a man," " Messenger of Life," of light, "my Lord Apostle," " King sprung of Light,'* and so on. ," Have not the faith of our Zvrd Jesus Christ, t/te 2A?rd of Glory^' etc.,
* Arnobius tells the same story of Jesus, and narrates how he Mras accused of having robbed the sanctuary of the secret names of the Holy One, by means of which knowledge he performed all the miracles.
f This is a translation of Eliphas LevL J ** La Science des Esprits," p. 37,
WHAT JESUS' BROTHER SAYS OF HIM. 203
says James in his epistle (iL i), presumably addressing Christ as God. '* Peace to thee, my Zj>rd^ John Abo Sabo, Lord of Glory ! " says the Codex Nazaraus (ii., 19), known to address but a prophet "Ye have condemned and killed the Just" says James (v. 6). " lohanan (John) is the Just one, he comes in the way di jusiice^^ says Matthew (xxi. 32, Syriac text).
James does not even call Jesus Messiah^ in the s'ense given to the title by the Christians, but alludes to the kabalistic "King Messiah," who is Lord of Sabaoth ♦ (v. 4), and repeats several times that the " Lord " will come, but identifies the latter nowhere with Jesus. " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord ... be patient, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh " (v. 7, 8). And he adds : **Take, my brethren, the prophet (Jesus) who has spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience.** Though in the present version the word " prophet " stands in the plural, yet this is a deliberate falsification of the original, the purpose of which is too evident. James, immediately after having cited the ** prophets " as an example, adds : " Behold ... ye have heard of the patience of Job, 2x\^ have seen the end of the Lord" — thus combining the examples of these two admirable characters, and placing them on a perfect etjuality. But we have more to adduce in support of our argument. Did not Jesus himself glorify the prophet of the Jordan ? ** What went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. . . . Verily, I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist."
And of whom was he who spoke thus born ? It is but the Roman Catholics who have changed Mary, the mother of Jesus, into a goddess. In the eyes of all other Christians she was a woman, whether his own birth was immaculate or otherwise. According to strict logic, then, Jesus confessed John greater than himself. Note how completely this matter is disposed of by the language employed by the Angel Gabriel when addressing Mary : " Blessed art thou among women,^^ These words arc unequivocal. He does not adore her as the Mother of God, nor does he call her goddess ; he does not even address her as " Virgin," but he calls her woman^ and only distinguishes her above other women as having had better fortune, through her purity.
The Nazarenes were known as Baptists, Sabians, and John's Chris- tians. Their belief was that the Messiah was not the Son of God, but sim- ply a prophet who would follow John. "Johanan, the Son of the Abo Sabo Zachariah, shall say to himself, * Whoever will believe in my justice
*
Israelite Indeed," vol. iii., p. 6i.
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and my Baptism shall be joined to my association ; he shall share with me the seat which is the abode of life, of the supreme Mano, and of living fire " (Codex NazarauSy ii., p. 115). Origen remarks " there are some who said of John (the Baptist) that he was the anointed (Christus). * The Angel Rasiel of the kabalists is the Angel Gabriel of the Nazarenes, and it is the latter who is chosen of all the celestial hierarchy by the Chris- tians to become the messenger of the * annunciation.' The genius sent by the 'Lord of Celsitude' is -^bel Zivo, whose name is also called Gabriel Legatus." f Paul must have had the sect of the Nazarenes in mind when he said : " And last of all he (Jesus) was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time'* (i Corinth. ^ xv. 8), thus reminding his listen- ers of the expression usual to the Nazarenes, who termed the Jews " the abortions, or born out of time." Paul prides himself of belonging to a haeresy.J
When the metaphysical conceptions of the Gnostics, who saw in Jesus the Logos and the anointed, began to gain ground, the earliest Christians separated from the Nazarenes, who accused Jesus of perverting the doc- trines of John, and changing the baptism of the Jordan. § " Directly," says Milman, "as it (the Gospel) got beyond the borders of Palestine, and the name of 'Christ' had acquired sanctity and veneration in the Eastern cities, he became a kind of metaphysical impersonation^ while the religion lost its purely moral cast and assumed the character of a specula- tive theogony" | The only half-original document that has reached us from the primitive apostolic days, is the Logia of Matthew. The real, genuine doctrine has remained in the hands of the Nazarenes, in this Gospel 0/ Matthew contaAning the "secret doctrine," the "Sayings of Jesus," mentioned by Papias. These sayings were, no doubt, of the same nature as the small manuscripts i)laced in the hands of the neophytes, who were candidates for the Initiations into the Mysteries, and which contained the Aporrheta^ the revelations of some important rites and symbols. For why should Matthew take such precautions to make them " secret " were it otherwise ?
Primitive Christianity had its grip, pass-words, and degrees of initia- tion. The innumerable Gnostic gems and amulets are weighty proofs of it. It is a whole symbolical science. The kabalists were the first to
embellish the universal Logos,^ with such terms as " Light of Light," the •
♦ ** Origen/' vol. ii., p. 150. \ '* Codex Nazarseus,'* voL i, p. 23.
t ** In the way these call heresy I worship " (Acts xxiv. 14).
§ "Codex Nazaraeus," vol. ii., p. 109. * | "Milman," p. 200.
^ Dunlap says in •* Sod, the Son of the Man: " ** Mr. Hall, of India, informs us that he has seen Sanscrit philosophical treatises m which the Logos continually occur," P« 39» foot-note.
VAST ANTIQUITY OF BORROWED CHRISTIAN TERMS. 205
Messenger of Life and Light, ♦ and we find these expressions adopted in toto by the Christians, with the addition of nearly all the Gnostic terms such as Pleroma (fulness), Archons, ^ons, etc. As to the " First- Born," the First, and the ** Only- Begotten," these are as old as the world. Origen shows the word ** Logos " as existing among the Brachmanes. **The Brachmanes say that the God is Lights not such as one sees, nor such as the sun and fire ; but they have the God Logos, not the articu- late, the Logos of the Gnosis, through whom the highest mysteries of the Gnosis are seen by the wise." f The Acts and the fourth Gospel teem with Gnostic expressions. The kabalistic : " God's first-born emanated from the Most High," together with that which is the " Spirit of the Anointing ;'' and again " they called him the anointed of the Highest," \ are reproduced in Spirit and substance by the author of the Gospel according to John. ** That was the true light" and ** the light shineth in darkness." "And the word was made fleshy "And his fulness (pleroma) have all we received," etc. {John i. et seq.).
The " Christ,'* then, and the " Logos" existed ages before Christian- ity ; the Oriental Gnosis was studied long before the days of Moses, and we have to seek for the origin of all these in the archaic periods of the primeval Asiatic philosophy. Peter's second Epistle and Jude's fragment, preserved in the New Testament, show by their phraseology that they belong to the kabalistic Oriental Gnosis, for they use the same expres- sions as did the Christian Gnostics who built a part of their system from the Oriental Kabala, " Presumptuous are they (the Ophites), self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities," says Peter (2d Epistle ii. 10), the original model for the later abusive Tertullian and Irenceus. § " Likewise (even as Sodom and Gomorrah) also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities," says Jude, repeating the very words of Peter, and thereby expressions con- secrated in the Kabala, Dominion is the *' Empire," the tenth of the kabalistic sephiroth.|| The Powers and Dignities are the subordinate
• See John i. f Origen : ** Philosophumena," xxiv.
\ Kleuker : ** Natur und Ursprung dcr Emanationslehre bei den Kabbalisten/* pp. 10, II ; see ** Libri Mysterii."
§ ** These as natural brute beastsV ** The dog has turned to its own vomit again ; and ihe saio that was washed to her wallowing in the mire " (22).
I The types of the creation, or the attributes of the Supreme Being, are through the emanations of Adam Kadmon ; these are : ** The Crown ^ Wisdom^ Prudence^ Magni' ficence, Sei'erity^ Beauty^ Victory^ Glory^ Foundation^ Empire, Wisdom is called Jeh; Prudence, Jehovah; Severity, Elohim ; Magnificence, El ; Victory and Glory, Sabaoth ; Empire or Dominion, Adonai." Thus when the Nazarenes and other Gnostics of the more Platonic tendency twitted the Jews as ^'abortions who worship
206 ISIS UNVEILED.
genii of the Archangels and Angels of the Sohar, * These emana- tions are the very life and soul of the Kabala and Zorosstranism ; and the Talmud itself, in its present state, is all borrowed from the Zend- avesta. Therefore, by adopting the views of Peter, Jude, and other Jew- ish apostles, the Christians have become but a dissenting sect of the Per- sians, for they do not even interpret the meaning of all such Powers as the true kabalists do. Paul's warning his converts against the worship- ping of angels, shows how well he appreciated, even so early as his period, the dangers of borrowing from a metaphysical doctrine the philosophy of which could be rightly interpreted but by its well-learned adherents, the Magi and the Jewish Tanaim. " Let no man beguile you of yoiu- reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels^ intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind," f is a sentence laid right at the door of Peter and his champions. In the Talmud^ Michael is Prince of Water, who has seven inferior spirits sub- ordinate to him. He is the patron, the guardian angel of the Jews, as Daniel informs us (v. 21), and the Gfeek Ophites, who identified him with their Ophiomorphos, the personified creation of the envy and malice of Uda-Baoth, the Demiurgus (Creator of the material world), and under- took to prove that he was also Samuel, the Hebrew prince of the evil spirits, or Persian devs, were naturally regarded by the Jews as blas- phemers. But did Jesus ever sanction this belief in angels except in so far as hinting that they were the messengers and subordinates of God ? And here the origin of the later splits between Christian beliefs is directly traceable to these two early contradictory views.
Paul, believing in all such occult powers in the world " unseen," but ever " present." says : " Ye walked according to the -^on of this world, according \.o \}[\^ Archon (Ilda-Baoth, the Demiurg) that has the domina- tion of the air," and " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the dominations^ the poivers ; the lords of darkness, the mischiev- ousness of spirits in the upper regions." This sentence, '* Ye were dead in sin and error," for " ye walked according to the Archon^'' or Ilda- Daoth, the God and creator of matter of the Ophites, shows unequivocally that : I St, Paul, notwithstanding some dissensions with the more imixjrtant doctrines of the Gnostics, shared more or less their cosmogonical views on the emanations ; and 2d, that he was fully aware that this Demiurge,
their god lurbo, Adunai^'* we need not wonder at the wrath of those who had ac- cepted the old Mosaic system, but at that of Peter and Jude who claim to be followers of Jesus and dissent from the views of him who was also a Nazarene.
* According to the ** Kabala," Empire or Dominion is " the consuming fire, and his wife is the Temple or the Church.'* ■ f Colossians ii. 18.
* r\\wi>c *' *' T\r\\Mr-\Tjm-KTC *'
DIGNITIES," "POWERS/ "DOMINIONS," ETC., EXPLAINED. 20/
whose Jewish name was Jehovah, was not the God preached by Jesus. And now, if we compare the doctrine of Paul with the religious views of Peter and Jude, we find that, not only did they worship Michael, the Archangel, but that also they rei^crenced Satan, because the latter was also, before his fall, an angel ! This they do quite openly, and abuse the Gnostics * for speaking " evil" of him. No one can deny the following : Peter, when denouncing those who are not afraid to speak evil of **///^- ftiiieSj* adds immediately, " Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusations against them (the dignities) before the Lord" (ii. ii). Who are the dignities? Jude, in his general epistle, makes the word as clear as day. The dignities are the devils 1 1 Complaining of the disrespect shown by the Gnostics to the po'vcrs and J'^ninions, Jude argues in the very words of Peter : " And yet, Michael, ilie Archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee " (i. 9). Is this plain enough ? If not, then we have the Kabala to prove who were the dignities.
Considering that Deuteronomy tells us that the ^*' Lord'*' Himself buried Moses in a valley of Moab (xxxiv. 6), " and no man knoweth of his se])ulchre unto this day," this biblical lapsus Ungues of Jude gives a strong coloring to the assertions of some of the Gnostics. They claimed but what was secretly taught by the Jewish kabalists themselves ; to wit : that the highest supreme God was unknown and invisible ; " the King of Light is a closed eye ; " that Ilda-Baoth, the Jewish second Adam, was the real Demiurge ; and that lao, Adonai, Sabaoth, and Eloi were the quaternary emanation which formed the unity of the God of the He- brews— Jehovah. Moreover, the latter was also called Michael and Samael by them, and regarded but as an angel, several removes from the Godhead. In holding to such a belief, the Gnostics countenanced the teachings of the greatest of the Jewish doctors, Hillel, and other Babylo- nian divines. Josephus shows the great deference of the official Synagogue in Jerusalem to the wisdom of the schools of Central Arsia. The colleges of Sora, Pumbiditha, and Nahaidea were considered the headquarters of esoteric and theological learning by all the schools of Palestine. The Chaldean version of the Pentateuch, made by the well-known Babylonian divine, Onkelos, was regarded as the most authoritative of all ; and it is according to this learned Rabbi that Hillel and other Tanaim after him held that the Being who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, on Mount Sinai, and who finally buried him, was the angel of the Lord,
• It is more likely that hoth abused Paul, who preached against this belief; and that the Gnostics were only a pretext. (See Peter^s second Epistle.)
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Memro, and not the Lord Himself ; and that he whom the Hebrews of the Old Testament mistook for lahoh was but His messenger, one of His sons, or emanations. All this establishes but one logical conclusion — namely, that the Gnostics were by far the superiors of the disciples, in point of education and general information ; even in a knowledge of the religious tenets of the Jews themselves. While they were perfectly well-versed in the Chaldean wisdom, the well meaning, pious, but fanatical as well as ignorant disciples, unable to fully understand or grasp the religious spirit of their own system, were driven in their disputations to such convincing logic as the use of " brute beasts," " sows," ** dogs," and other epithets so freely bestowed by Peter,
Since then, the epidemic has reached the apex of the sacerdotal hier- archy. From the day when the founder of Christianity uttered the warn- ing, that he who shall say to his brother, " Thou fool, shall be in danger of "hell- fire," all who have passed as its leaders, beginning with the ragged fishermen of Galilee, and ending with tlie jewelled pontiffs, have seemed to vie with each other in the invention of opprobrious epithets for their opponents. So we find Luther passing a final sentence on the Catholics, and exclaiming that ** The Papists are all asses, put them in whatever form you like ; whether they are boiled, roasted, baked, fried, skinned, hashed, they will be always the same asses." Calvin called the victims he persecuted, and occasionally burned, " malicious barking dogs, full of bestiality and insolence, base corrupters of the sacred writings," etc. Dr. Warburton terms the Popish religion " an impious farce," and Mon- seigneur Dupanloup asserts that the Protestant Sabbath service is the " Devil's mass," and all clergymen are " thieves and ministers of the Devil."
The same spirit of incomplete inquiry and ignorance has led the Christian Church to bestow on its most holy apostles, titles assumed by their most desperate opponents, the " Haeretics " and Gnostics. So we find, for instance, Paul termed the vase of election " Vas Electionisy* a title chosen by Manes, * the greatest heretic of his day in the eyes of the Church, Manes meaning, in the Babylonian language, the chosen vessel or receptacle, f
So with the Virgin Mary. They were so little gifted with originality, that they copied from the Egyptian and Hindu religions their several
* The true name of Manes — who was a Persian by birth — was Cubt-iats. (See Epiph. "Life of Manes," Hieret. Ixv.) He was flayed alive at the instance of the Magi, by the Persian King Varanes I. Plutarch says that Manes or Manis means Masses or anointed. The vessel, or vase of election, is, therefore, the vessel full of that light of God, which he pours on one he has selected for his interpreter.
t See King*s " Gnostics," p. 38.
APOSTROPHES TO THREE VIRGIN-MOTHERS COMPARED. 209
apostrophes to their respective Virgin-mothers. The juxtaposition of a few examples will make this clear.
Hindu.
Litany of our Lady Nari :
Virgin,
{Also Devanaki.)
1. Holy Nari — Mariftraa, Mother of perpetual fe- cundity.
2. Mother of an incarnated God — Vishnu (Devan- aki).
3. Mother of Christna.
4. Eternal Virginity — Kan- yabdva.
5. Mother — Pure Essence, Akasa.
6. Virgin most chaste — Kanya.
7. Mother Taumatra, of the Jive virtues or ele- ments.
8. Virgin Trigana (of the three elements, power or richness, love, and mercy).
9. Mirror of Supreme Con- science— Ahancara.
10. Wise Mother — Saras- wati.
11. Virgin of the white Lotos, Pedma or Kam- ala.
12. Womb of Gold— Hy- rania.
13. Celestial Light — Lak- shmL
14. Ditto.
15. Queen of Heaven, and of the universe — Sakti.
16. Mother soul of all beings — Paramatma.
17. Devanaki is conceived without sin, and immacu- late herself. (According to the Brahman ic fancy.)
14
Egyptian. Roman Catholic.
Litany of our Lady Isis : Litany of our Lady of Virgin, Lorhtto : Virgin.
1. Holy Isis, universal i. Holy Mary, mother of mother — Muth. divine grace.
2. Mother of Gods — 2. Mother of God. Athyr.
3. Mother of Horus.
4. Virgo generatrix— Neith.
5. Mother-soul of the uni- verse—Anouk^.
6. Virgin sacred earth — Isis.
7. Mother of all the vir- tues—Thmei, with the same qualities.
8. Illustrious Isis, most powerful, merciful, just. {Book of the Dead,)
9. Mirror of Justice and Truth — Thmei.
10. Mysterious mother of the world — Buto (secret wisdom).
If. Sacred Lotos.
12. Sistrum of Gold.
13. Astartc (Syrian), As- taroth (Jewish).
14. Argua of the Moon.
15. Queen of Heaven, and of the universe — SatL
16. Model of all mothers — Athor.
17. Isis is a Virgin Mother.
3. Mother of Christ
4. Virgin of Virginsw
5. Mother of Divine Grace.
6. Virgin most chaste.
7. Mother most pure. Mother undefiled. Mother inviolate. Mother most amiable. Mother most admirable.
8. Virgin most powerful. Virgin most mercifuL Virgin most faithfuL
9. Mirror of Justice.
10. Seat of Wisdom.