Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 96

A thorough investigation of this subject would require a volume, therefore, as we can devote but a chapter to it, it must necessarily be treated somewhat slightingly.

The first of the Christian Symbols which we shall notice is the CROSS.

Overwhelming historical facts show that the cross was used, _as a religious emblem_, many centuries before the Christian era, by every nation in the world. Bishop Colenso, speaking on this subject, says:--

"From the dawn of organized Paganism in the Eastern world, to the final establishment of Christianity in the West, the cross was undoubtedly one of the commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments. Apart from any distinctions of social or intellectual superiority, of caste, color, nationality, or location in either hemisphere, it appears to have been the aboriginal possession of every people in antiquity.

"Diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or less artistically, according to the progress achieved in civilization at the period, on the ruined walls of temples and palaces, on natural rocks and sepulchral galleries, on the h.o.a.riest monoliths and the rudest statuary; on coins, medals, and vases of every description; and in not a few instances, are preserved in the architectural proportions of subterranean as well as superterranean structures of tumuli, as well as fanes.

"Populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and pursuits--the highly-civilized and the semi-civilized, the settled and the nomadic--vied with each other in their superst.i.tious _adoration_ of it, and in their efforts to extend the knowledge of its exceptional import and virtue amongst their latest posterities.

"Of the several varieties of the cross still in vogue, as national and ecclesiastical emblems, and distinguished by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, the Maltese, the Greek, the Latin, &c., &c., _there is not one amongst them, the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity. They were the common property of the Eastern nations._

"That each known variety has been derived from a common source, and is emblematical of one and the same truth may be inferred from the fact of forms identically the same, whether simple or complex, cropping out in contrary directions, in the Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere."[339:1]

The cross has been adored in _India_ from time immemorial, and was a symbol of mysterious significance in Brahmanical iconography. It was the symbol of the Hindoo G.o.d Agni, the "Light of the World."[340:1]

In the Cave of Elephanta, over the head of the figure represented as destroying the infants, whence the story of Herod and the infants of Bethlehem (which was unknown to all the Jewish, Roman, and Grecian historians) took its origin, may be seen the Mitre, the Crosier, and the Cross.[340:2]

It is placed by Muller in the hand of Siva, Brahma, Vishnu, Crishna, Tvashtri and Jama. To it the wors.h.i.+pers of Vishnu attribute as many virtues as does the devout Catholic to the Christian cross.[340:3] Fra Paolino tells us it was used by the ancient kings of India as a sceptre.[340:4]

Two of the princ.i.p.al paG.o.das of India--Benares and Mathura--were erected in the forms of vast crosses.[340:5] The paG.o.da at Mathura was sacred to the memory of the Virgin-born and crucified Saviour Crishna.[340:6]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 21]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 22]

The cross has been an object of profound veneration among the Buddhists from the earliest times. One is the sacred Swastica (Fig. No. 21). It is seen in the old Buddhist Zodiacs, and is one of the symbols in the Asoka inscriptions. It is the sectarian mark of the Jains, and the distinctive badge of the sect of Xaca j.a.ponicus. The Vaishnavas of India have also the same sacred sign.[340:7] And, according to Arthur Lillie,[340:8]

"_the only Christian cross in the catacombs is this Buddhist Swastica_."

The cross is adored by the followers of the Lama of Thibet.[340:9] Fig.

No. 22 is a representation of the most familiar form of Buddhist cross.

The close resemblance between the ancient religion of Thibet and that of the Christians has been noticed by many European travellers and missionaries, among whom may be mentioned Pere Grebillon, Pere Grueber, Horace de la Paon, D'Orville, and M. L'Abbe Huc. The Buddhists, and indeed all the sects of India, marked their followers on the head with the sign of the cross.[341:1] This was undoubtedly practiced by almost all heathen nations, as we have seen in the chapter on the _Eucharist_ that the initiates into the Heathen mysteries were marked in that manner.

The ancient _Egyptians_ adored the cross with the profoundest veneration. This sacred symbol is to be found on many of their ancient monuments, some of which may be seen at the present day in the British Museum.[341:2] In the museum of the London University, a cross upon a Calvary is to be seen upon the breast of one of the Egyptian mummies.[341:3] Many of the Egyptian images hold a cross in their hand.

There is one now extant of the Egyptian Saviour Horus holding a cross in his hand,[341:4] and he is represented as an infant sitting on his mother's knee, with a cross on the back of the seat they occupy.[341:5]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 23]

The commonest of all the Egyptian crosses, the CRUX ANSATA (Fig. No. 23) was adopted by the Christians. Thus, beside one of the Christian inscriptions at Phile (a celebrated island lying in the midst of the Nile) is seen both a _Maltese cross_ and a _crux ansata_.[341:6] In a painting covering the end of a church in the cemetery of El Khargeh, in the Great Oasis, are three of these crosses round the princ.i.p.al subject, which seems to have been a figure of a saint.[341:7] In an inscription in a Christian church to the east of the Nile, in the desert, these crosses are also to be seen. Beside, or in the hand of, the Egyptian G.o.ds, this symbol is generally to be seen. When the Saviour Osiris is represented holding out the _crux ansata_ to a mortal, it signifies that the person to whom he presents it has put off mortality, and entered on the life to come.[341:8]

The Greek cross, and the cross of St. Anthony, are also found on Egyptian monuments. A figure of a Shari (Fig. No. 24), from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's book, has a necklace round his throat, from which depends a pectoral cross. A third Egyptian cross is that represented in Fig. No.

25, which is apparently intended for a Latin cross rising out of a heart, like the mediaeval emblem of "_Cor in Cruce, Crux in Corde_:" it is the hieroglyph of goodness.[342:1]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 24]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 25]

It is related by the ecclesiastical historians Socrates and Sozomon, that when the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, in Egypt, was demolished by one of the Christian emperors, beneath the foundation was discovered a cross. The words of Socrates are as follows:

"In the temple of Serapis, now overthrown and rifled throughout, there were found engraven in the stones certain letters . . . resembling the form of the cross. The which when both Christians and Ethnics beheld, every one applied to his proper religion. The Christians affirmed that the cross was a sign or token of the pa.s.sion of Christ, and the proper cognizance of their profession. _The Ethnics avouched that therein was contained something in common, belonging as well to Serapis as to Christ._"[342:2]

It should be remembered, in connection with this, that the Emperor Hadrian saw no difference between the wors.h.i.+pers of Serapis and the wors.h.i.+pers of Christ Jesus. In a letter to the Consul Serva.n.u.s he says:

"There are there (in Egypt) _Christians_ who wors.h.i.+p _Serapis_, and devoted to Serapis are those who call themselves '_Bishops of Christ_.'"[342:3]

The ancient Egyptians were in the habit of putting a cross on their sacred cakes, just as the Christians of the present day do on Good Friday.[342:4] The plan of the chamber of some Egyptian sepulchres has the form of a cross,[342:5] and the cross was worn by Egyptian ladies as an ornament, in precisely the same manner as Christian ladies wear it at the present day.[342:6]

The ancient Babylonians honored the cross as a religious symbol. It is to be found on their oldest monuments. Anu, a deity who stood at the head of the Babylonian mythology, had a cross for his sign or symbol.[343:1] It is also the symbol of the Babylonian G.o.d Bal.[343:2] A cross hangs on the breast of Tiglath Pileser, in the colossal tablet from Nimroud, now in the British Museum. Another king, from the ruins of Ninevah, wears a Maltese cross on his bosom. And another, from the hall of Nisroch, carries an emblematic necklace, to which a Maltese cross is attached.[343:3] The most common of crosses, the _crux ansata_ (Fig. No.

21) was also a sacred symbol among the Babylonians. It occurs repeatedly on their cylinders, bricks and gems.[343:4]

The ensigns and standards carried by the Persians during their wars with Alexander the Great (B. C. 335), were made in the form of a cross--as we shall presently see was the style of the ancient _Roman_ standards--and representations of these cross-standards have been handed down to the present day.

Sir Robert Ker Porter, in his very valuable work ent.i.tled: "Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia,"[343:5] shows the representation of a _bas-relief_, of very ancient antiquity, which he found at Nas.h.i.+-Roustam, or the Mountain of Sepulchres. It represents a combat between two hors.e.m.e.n--Baharam-Gour, one of the old Persian kings, and a Tartar prince. Baharam-Gour is in the act of charging his opponent with a spear, and behind him, scarcely visible, appears an almost effaced form, which must have been his standard-bearer, as the _ensign_ is very plainly to be seen. _This ensign is a cross._ There is another representation of the same subject to be seen in a _bas-relief_, which shows the standard-bearer and his _cross_ ensign very plainly.[343:6]

This _bas-relief_ belongs to a period when the Arsacedian kings governed Persia,[343:7] which was within a century after the time of Alexander, and consequently more than two centuries B. C.

Sir Robert also found at this place, sculptures cut in the solid rock, which are in the form of crosses. These belong to the early race of Persian monarchs, whose dynasty terminated under the sword of Alexander the Great.[343:8] At the foot of Mount Naks.h.i.+-Rajab, he also found _bas-reliefs_, among which were two figures carrying a cross-standard.

Fig. No. 26 is a representation of this.[343:9] It is coeval with the sculptures found at Nas.h.i.+-Roustam,[343:10] and therefore belongs to a period before the time of Alexander's invasion.

The cross is represented frequently and prominently on the coins of Asia Minor. Several have a ram or lamb on one side, and a cross on the other.[344:1] On some of the early coins of the Phenicians, the cross is found attached to a chaplet of beads placed in a circle, so as to form a complete rosary, such as the Lamas of Thibet and China, the Hindoos, and the Roman Catholics, now tell over while they pray.[344:2] On a Phenician medal, found in the ruins of Citium, in Cyprus, and printed in Dr. Clark's "Travels" (vol. ii. c. xi.), are engraved a cross, a rosary, and a lamb.[344:3] This is the "Lamb of G.o.d who taketh away the sins of the world."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 26]

The ancient Etruscans revered the cross as a religious emblem. This sacred sign, accompanied with the heart, is to be seen on their monuments. Fig. No. 27, taken from the work of Gorrio (Tab. x.x.xv.), shows an ancient tomb with angels and the cross thereon. It would answer perfectly for a Christian cemetery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 27]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 28]

The cross was adored by the ancient Greeks and Romans for centuries before the Augustan era. An ancient inscription in Thessaly is accompanied by a Calvary cross (Fig. No. 28); and Greek crosses of equal arms adorn the tomb of Midas (one of the ancient kings), in Phrygia.[344:4]

The adoration of the cross by the Romans is spoken of by the Christian Father Minucius Felix, when denying the charge of idolatry which was made against his sect.

"As for the adoration of cross," (says he to the Romans), "which you object against us, I must tell you that we neither adore crosses nor desire them. You it is, ye Pagans, who wors.h.i.+p wooden G.o.ds, who are the most likely people to adore wooden crosses, as being part of the same substance with your deities. For what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards, but crosses, gilt and beautiful. Your victorious trophies not only represent a cross, but a cross with a man upon it."[345:1]

The princ.i.p.al silver coin among the Romans, called the _denarius_, had on one side a personification of Rome as a warrior with a helmet, and on the reverse, a chariot drawn by four horses. The driver had a cross-standard in one hand. This is a representation of a denarius of the earliest kind, which was first coined 296 B. C.[345:2] The cross was used on the roll of the Roman soldiery as the sign of _life_.[345:3]

But, long before the Romans, long before the Etruscans, there lived in the plains of Northern Italy a people to whom the cross was a religious symbol, the sign beneath which they laid their dead to rest; a people of whom history tells nothing, knowing not their name; but of whom antiquarian research has learned this, that they lived in ignorance of the arts of civilization, that they dwelt in villages built on platforms over lakes, and that they trusted to the cross to guard, and may be to revive, their loved ones whom they committed to the dust.

The examination of the tombs of Golasecca proves, in a most convincing, positive, and precise manner that which the terramares of Emilia had only indicated, but which had been confirmed by the cemetery of Villanova, that above a thousand years B. C., the cross was already a religious emblem of frequent employment.[345:4]

"It is more than a coincidence," (says the Rev. S.

Baring-Gould), "that Osiris by the cross should give life eternal to the spirits of the just; that with the cross Thor should smite the head of the great Serpent, and bring to life those who were slain; that beneath the cross the Muysca mothers should lay their babes, trusting to that sign to secure them from the power of evil spirits; that with that symbol to protect them, the ancient people of Northern Italy should lay them down in the dust."[345:5]

The cross was also found among the ruins of Pompeii.[345:6]

It was a sacred emblem among the ancient Scandinavians.

"It occurs" (says Mr. R. Payne Knight), "on many Runic monuments found in Sweden and Denmark, which are of an age long anterior to the approach of Christianity to those countries, and, probably, to its appearance in the world."[346:1]