The God-Idea of the Ancients Part 13

CHAPTER VIII. THE ORIGINAL G.o.d-IDEA OF THE ISRAELITES.

Not only were religious doctrines veiled beneath allegories and convenient symbols, but names also had a religious significance.

We are given to understand that in Chaldea and a.s.syria every child was named by the oracle or priest, and that no one thought of changing the appellation which had come to him through this heavenly source.(79)

79) Inman, Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 3.

Inman, in his Ancient Faiths, calls attention to the fact that in the Old Testament kings, priests, captains, and other great men have had names bestowed upon them, each of which has some religious signification; that this name was given the individual "at circ.u.mcision, or soon after birth."

In the ancient names of what are designated as the Shemitic races, children were called after the G.o.d alone, and sometimes in connection with an attribute. Especially were these names applied to royalty or to persons of distinction; for instance, names were given signifying, G.o.d the good, G.o.d the just or the merciful, G.o.d the strong, The Warrior G.o.d, etc.

As the higher conception of a Creator was forgotten, and as human beings, or perhaps I should say their power to control circ.u.mstances coupled with the ability to reproduce or create, had become G.o.d, they a.s.sumed the t.i.tles or names of the Deity; hence, it is not perhaps singular that in later times kings and heroes were invested with all the attributes of the G.o.ds.

We have seen that according to various writers Om or Amm was the holy one whose name in India it was sacrilege to p.r.o.nounce. It was the eternal sun, or the Great Mother. As this word stands also for "tribe or people," it seems to mean, too, that which binds, holds, or endures.

As Om or Amm signifies the Great Mother, so An or On means the Great Father. Concerning the word Am-mon, Inman writes as follows:

"The a.s.sociation of the words signifying mother and father indicates that it is to such conjunction we must refer creative power. With such an androgyne element the sun was a.s.sociated by ancient mythologists.

Jupiter was himself sometimes represented as being female; and the word hermaphrodite is in itself a union between Hermes and Aphrodite, the male and female creative powers. We may fairly conclude, from the existence of names like the above, that there was at one time in Western as there was in Eastern Asia a strong feud between the adorers of On and Am, the Lingacitas and the Yonijas, and that they were at length partially united under Ammon, as they were elsewhere under Nebo or the Nabhi of Vishnu."(80)

80) Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i., p. 237.

Inman relates that once when a friend of his was conversing with a very high-caste Hindoo he casually uttered this word Amm or Om, whereupon the man was so awe struck that he could scarcely speak, and, in a voice almost of terror, asked where his friend had learned the word. Of this word Inman says:

"To the Hindoos it was that incommunicable name of the Almighty, which no one ventured to p.r.o.nounce except under the most religious solemnity.

And here let me pause to remark that the Jews were equally reverent with the name belonging to the Most High; and that the third commandment was very literal in its signification."

The same writer remarks that in Thibet, too, where a wors.h.i.+p very nearly identical in ceremony and doctrine with that of the Roman papists exists amongst the Lamas, the name of Om is still sacred.

The Iav of the Jews was equally revered, but in the later ages of their career they seem to have lost sight of its true meaning.

According to Inman's testimony and that of other etymological students, the true signification of the cognomen Jacob is the female principle.

It is believed by various writers that the story of Jacob and Esau as related in Genesis has an esoteric as well as an exoteric meaning--that Jacob has reference to the female creative energy throughout Nature, or, rather, to the great ma.s.s of people who in an early age of the human race believed in the superior importance of the female in the office of reproduction, and that Esau signifies the male. Attention is called to the fact that Esau is represented as a "hairy" man, rough-voiced and easily beguiled, while Jacob, on the other hand, is smooth-faced, soft-voiced, and the favorite of his mother.

There is indeed much in this myth which seems to indicate that it is an allegory beneath which are veiled certain facts connected with the struggle between two early contending sects regarding the relative importance of the s.e.xes in reproduction. Of this Inman says:

"My own impression is that Esau, or Edom, and Jacob are mystic names for a man and a woman, and that round these, historians wove a web of fancy; that ultimately the cognomen Jacob was recognized, and that to allow the Jewish people to trace their descent from a male rather than a female, the appellation of Israel was subst.i.tuted in later productions."(81)

81) Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 607.

As most of the myths or allegories in Genesis are now traced to a source far more remote than the beginning of legitimate Jewish history, it is not unreasonable to suppose that this story, too, was copied by the Jews from the traditions of earlier races; nor, when we remember the true meaning of the cognomen Jacob, that the entire story should be regarded as an attempt to set forth certain facts connected with the great physiological or religious conflict between the s.e.xes.

The significance of the idols wors.h.i.+pped by Jacob and his family is not for a certainty known, but it is believed by certain writers that the Seraphim and Teraphim were the usual images which were used to represent the male and female energies. "Then Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him: Put away the strange G.o.ds that are among you."

In referring to this pa.s.sage, Inman, in a note, says:

"The critic might fairly say, looking at Genesis x.x.xv., 2, 'Put away the strange G.o.ds that are among you,' that there were images of G.o.d which were not strange, and that in these early times there were orthodoxy and heterodoxy in images as there are now. In ancient times the emblem of life-giving energy was an orthodox emblem; it is now a horror and its place is taken by an image of death. We infer from the context that Laban's G.o.ds were orthodox."

So, also, must have been the stone pillar set up by Jacob at Bethel (place of the sun). From a study of similar stones, examples of which are to be found in nearly every country of the globe, it is known that they represent the male energy, and from all the facts connected with the story of Laban's G.o.ds it is probable that they were emblems of this power. We may suppose then that the "strange G.o.ds," the unorthodox G.o.ds, which Jacob ordered put away, were those representing the female energy.

It seems strange that any person can study the history of the Israelitish Exodus by the light of later developments in biblical research without recognizing the fact that the "Lord" which brought the children of Israel out from the bondage of Egypt was the male power, which by a certain sect had been proclaimed the only actual creative agency, and therefore the "only one and true G.o.d."

Although, at the time at which Abraham is said to have lived, the knowledge of an abstract dual or triune G.o.d still remained, yet, during the five hundred years which elapsed until the time of Moses, the grossest idolatry had come to prevail. Notwithstanding the fact that Moses had learned much from the Egyptians, he seems not to have risen above a very gross conception of a deity. His G.o.d was by turns angry, jealous, revengeful, vacillating, and weak. He was in fact the embodiment of human pa.s.sions and desires. We have seen that the third person in the ancient Trinity had, in Egypt, India, and Persia, come to be recognized in place of the three principles originally wors.h.i.+pped--that, as it really embodied the essence of the other two, little was heard of the Creator and Preserver. Doubtless this G.o.d was the one which Moses intended the Israelites to wors.h.i.+p, but as they were unable to conceive of an abstract principle he invested it with a personality which, as we have seen, was burdened with the frailties and weaknesses common to themselves.

As the Regenerator or Destroyer represented the processes of Nature,--the dying away of the sun's rays at night only to reappear on the following day, and the withdrawal of its warmth in winter only to be renewed in the spring,--so this G.o.d portrayed also the beneficent Creator and Preserver of all things, at the same time that it was the Destroyer. It embodied the fundamental idea in all religions, namely, life and fertility. So also did the "Lord" of the Israelites represent reproductive energy, but as man being spirit had come to be a Creator of offspring, while woman being only matter furnished the body, this "Lord" was male. Connected with it was no hint of the female nature or principle, except the ark or chest in which it was carried about. To those who have acquainted themselves with the significance of ancient religious symbols, the fact is plain that the "Lord" of the Israelites, which in their journeyings toward Canaan they carried in an ark or chest, and which was symbolized by an upright stone, was none other than a "Life-giver" in the most practical sense. It was the emblem of virility, and from the facts at hand, at the present time, there is little doubt but that all the spirituality with which we find this "Lord" invested was an after-thought and comprehended no part of the belief of the Jews until after their contact with the Persians during the Babylonian captivity.

Doubtless the story in which their journeyings toward Canaan are set forth contains an esoteric as well as an exoteric significance for ages known only to the priests, and that within it is embodied not alone something of the true history of this people, but an account also of their struggle against an older religion. At this time the Israelites had practically commenced the elimination of the female principle from their G.o.d-idea, and had begun the wors.h.i.+p of the male element, the female being represented by an ark, chest, or box. This ark, as the receptacle of the G.o.d, was still a holy thing.

Not only among the Israelites, but among other nations of the East, we find the devotees of the male G.o.d beginning to a.s.sume a position quite independent of the beliefs of their fathers. At this time great towers or pillars begin to be erected in honor of this deity, which is figured as the "G.o.d of Life," or as the "Lord of Hosts." Notwithstanding the fact that the story of the Exodus contains much historical truth, it is altogether probable that the priests have used it, as they did that of the flood, to conceal their religious doctrines.

At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites were ignorant tribes without laws or letters, and while in Egypt were menials of the lowest order.

Hence, the laws written on the two tables of stone, and which it is claimed were elaborated during their wanderings in the wilderness of Sinai for the guidance of these unlettered slaves, show the desire of the priests of later times to invest the "chosen people" with the insignia of enlightenment.

Regarding the character of the G.o.d which they wors.h.i.+pped, we have ample proof in the Old Testament. It is plain that at the time of their bondage in Egypt the Jews had become the grossest phallic wors.h.i.+ppers, adoring the emblems of generation, with no thought of their earlier significance as pure symbols of creative force in mortals.

The fact will doubtless be remembered that, among the Jews, to be barren was the greatest curse, and that the princ.i.p.al reward promised to the faithful was fruitfulness of body. The essence of this deity was heat or pa.s.sion, and his emblem was the serpent or an upright stone. It has been observed that when this "Lord" was invested with personality he was subject to all the frailties of his followers. His chief and most emphatic characteristic, however, was jealousy of other G.o.ds, and most of the imprecations thundered against the chosen people were directed against the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds of surrounding nations, those which the Israelites had originally wors.h.i.+pped.

That portion of the Decalogue relating to a jealous G.o.d is seen to belong wholly to the Jews, or to the Israelites, who were descendants of Jacob. The older nations, among which was the ancient family of the Hebrews, knew nothing of a jealous G.o.d. Notwithstanding the fact that the G.o.d of the Jews appeared and talked face to face with Moses, that he exhibited portions of his body to him, and that he thundered his law to this people from Mt. Sinai, still they were constantly lapsing into the wors.h.i.+p of Baal and Ashtaroth, which fact shows how deeply rooted was the belief in a dual or triune G.o.d. It is plain that this "Lord," the fierce anger of whom was kindled because of their digressions, was none other than the jealous male G.o.d which had but recently been elevated to the dignity of a supreme Creator.

Although the angel of the Lord when he came down from Gilgal commanded his followers to "throw down the altars of the people of Bochim," they nevertheless continued to do evil in the sight of the Lord, and

"followed other G.o.ds, of the G.o.ds of the people that were round about them, and bound themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to anger.

"And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel."(82)

82) Judges ii., 12, 13.

"And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange G.o.ds and Ashtaroth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

"Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth and served the Lord only."(83)

83) I Samuel vii., 3,4.

The extreme hatred of the schismatic faction for the opposite wors.h.i.+p, and the punishments which were meted out to those who should dare to rebel against the chosen faith, are indicated by the language which throughout the Old Testament is put into the mouth of their Lord--a Deity which rejoices in the t.i.tle of a jealous G.o.d.

"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other G.o.ds, which thou hast not known thou nor thy fathers: