Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 10

[39:4] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 302.

[40:1] Ibid.

[40:2] See chapter xi.

[41:1] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 368.

[41:2] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 448.

[41:3] See Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii.

CHAPTER V.

JACOB'S VISION OF THE LADDER.

In the 28th chapter of Genesis, we are told that Isaac, after blessing his son Jacob, sent him to Padan-aram, to take a daughter of Laban's (his mother's brother) to wife. Jacob, obeying his father, "went out from Beer-sheba (where he dwelt), and went towards Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took of the stones of the place, and put them for his pillow, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a _ladder_ set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. _And he beheld the angels of G.o.d ascending and descending on it._ And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said: 'I am the Lord G.o.d of Abraham thy father, and the G.o.d of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.' . . . And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and he said: 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I know it not.' And he was afraid, and said: 'How _dreadful_ is this place, _this is none other than the house of G.o.d, and this is the gate of Heaven_.'

And Jacob rose up early in the morning, _and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it_. And he called the name of that place _Beth-el_."

The doctrine of Metempsychosis has evidently something to do with this legend. It means, in the theological acceptation of the term, the supposed transition of the soul after death, into another substance or body than that which it occupied before. The belief in such a transition was common to the most civilized, and the most uncivilized, nations of the earth.[42:1]

It was believed in, and taught by, the _Brahminical Hindoos_,[42:2] the _Buddhists_,[42:3] the natives of _Egypt_,[42:4] several philosophers of ancient _Greece_,[43:1] the ancient _Druids_,[43:2] the natives of _Madagascar_,[43:3] several tribes of _Africa_,[43:4] and _North America_,[43:5] the ancient _Mexicans_,[43:4] and by some _Jewish_ and _Christian_ sects.[43:5]

"It deserves notice, that in both of these religions (_i. e._, _Jewish_ and _Christian_), it found adherents as well in ancient as in modern times. Among the _Jews_, the doctrine of transmigration--the Gilgul Neshamoth--was taught in the mystical system of the _Kabbala_."[43:6]

"All the souls," the spiritual code of this system says, "are subject to the trials of transmigration; and men do not know which are the ways of the Most High in their regard." "The principle, in short, of the _Kabbala_, is the same as that of _Brahmanism_."

"On the ground of this doctrine, which was shared in by Rabbis of the highest renown, it was held, for instance, that the soul of _Adam_ migrated into _David_, and will come in the _Messiah_; that the soul of _j.a.phet_ is the same as that of _Simeon_, and the soul of _Terah_, migrated into _Job_."

"Of all these transmigrations, biblical instances are adduced according to their mode of interpretation--in the writings of Rabbi Mana.s.se ben Israel, Rabbi Naphtali, Rabbi Meyer ben Gabbai, Rabbi Ruben, in the Jalkut Khadash, and other works of a similar character."[43:4]

The doctrine is thus described by Ovid, in the language of Dryden:

"What feels the body when the soul expires, By time corrupted, or consumed by fires?

Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats Into other forms, and only changes seats.

Ev'n I, who these mysterious truths declare, Was once Euphorbus in the Trojan war; My name and lineage I remember well, And how in fight by Spartan's King I fell.

In Argive Juno's fame I late beheld My buckler hung on high, and own'd my former shield Then death, so called, is but old matter dressed In some new figure, and a varied vest.

Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies, And here and there the unbodied spirit flies."

The Jews undoubtedly learned this doctrine after they had been subdued by, and become acquainted with other nations; and the writer of this story, whoever he may have been, was evidently endeavoring to strengthen the belief in this doctrine--he being an advocate of it--by inventing this story, _and making Jacob a witness to the truth of it_. Jacob would have been looked upon at the time the story was written (_i. e._, after the Babylonian captivity), as of great authority. We know that several writers of portions of the Old Testament have written for similar purposes. As an ill.u.s.tration, we may mention the book of _Esther_. This book was written for the purpose of explaining the origin of the festival of _Purim_, and _to encourage the Israelites to adopt it_. The writer, _who was an advocate of the feast_, lived long after the Babylonish captivity, and is quite unknown.[44:1]

The writer of the seventeenth chapter of Matthew has made Jesus a teacher of the doctrine of Transmigration.

The Lord had promised that he would send Elijah (Elias) the prophet, "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord,"[44:2] and Jesus is made to say that he had already come, or, _that his soul had transmigrated unto the body of John the Baptist_, and they knew it not.[44:3]

And in Mark (viii. 27) we are told that Jesus asked his disciples, saying unto them; "Whom do men say that _I_ am?" whereupon they answer: "Some say Elias; and others, one of the prophets;" or, in other words, that the soul of Elias, or one of the prophets, had transmigrated into the body of Jesus. In John (ix. 1, 2), we are told that Jesus and his disciples seeing a man "_which was blind from his birth_," the disciples asked him, saying; "Master, who did sin, _this man_ (in some former state) or his parents." Being _born_ blind, how else could he sin, _unless in some former state_? These pa.s.sages result from the fact, which we have already noticed, that some of the Jewish and Christian sects believed in the doctrine of Metempsychosis.

According to some Jewish authors, _Adam_ was re-produced in _Noah_, _Elijah_, and other Bible celebrities.[44:4]

The Rev. Mr. Faber says:

"Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, might in outward appearance be _different_ men, but they were really the _self-same_ divine persons who had been promised as the seed of the woman, successively animating various human bodies."[44:5]

We have stated as our belief that the vision which the writer of the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis has made Jacob to witness, was intended to strengthen the belief in the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, that he was simply seeing the souls of men ascending and descending from heaven _on a ladder_, during their transmigrations.

We will now give our reasons for thinking so.

The learned Thomas Maurice tells us that:

The _Indians_ had, in remote ages, in their system of theology, _the sidereal ladder of seven gates_, which described, in a symbolical manner, the _ascending and descending of the souls of men_.[45:1]

We are also informed by Origen that:

This descent (_i. e._, the descent of souls from heaven to enter into some body), was described in a symbolical manner, _by a ladder which was represented as reaching from heaven to earth_, and divided into _seven_ stages, at each of which was figured a gate; the eighth gate was at the top of the ladder, which belonged to the sphere of the celestial firmament.[45:2]

That souls dwell in the _Galaxy_ was a thought familiar to the _Pythagoreans_, who gave it on their master's word, that the souls that crowd there, _descend and appear to men as dreams_.[45:3]

The fancy of the _Manicheans_ also transferred pure souls to this column of light, _whence they could come down to earth and again return_.[45:4]

Paintings representing a scene of this kind may be seen in works of art ill.u.s.trative of _Indian Mythology_.

Maurice speaks of one, in which he says:

"The souls of men are represented as ascending and descending (on a ladder), according to the received opinion of the sidereal Metempsychosis in Asia."[45:5]

Mons. Dupuis tells us that:

"Among the mysterious pictures of the _Initiation_, in the cave of the Persian G.o.d Mithras, there was exposed to the view _the descent of the souls to the earth, and their return to heaven_, through the seven planetary spheres."[45:6]

And Count de Volney says:

"In the cave of Mithra _was a ladder with seven steps_, representing the seven spheres of the planets by means of which _souls ascended and descended_. This is precisely the ladder of Jacob's vision. There is in the Royal Library (of France) a superb volume of pictures of the Indian G.o.ds, in which the ladder is represented with the souls of men ascending it."[45:7]

In several of the Egyptian sculptures also, the Transmigration of Souls is represented by the ascending and descending of souls from heaven to earth, _on a flight of steps_, and, as the souls of wicked men were supposed to enter pigs and other animals, therefore pigs, monkeys, &c., are to be seen on the steps, descending from heaven.[45:8]

"And he dreamed, _and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of G.o.d ascending and descending on it_."

These are the words of the sacred text. Can anything be more convincing? It continues thus:

"And Jacob awoke out of his sleep . . . and he was afraid, and said . . . this is none other but the house of G.o.d, _and this is the gate of heaven_."

Here we have "the gate of heaven," mentioned by Origen in describing the _Metempsychosis_.

According to the ancients, the _top_ of this ladder was supposed to reach _the throne_ of _the most high G.o.d_. This corresponds exactly with the vision of Jacob. The ladder which he is made to see reached unto heaven, _and the Lord stood above it._[46:1]