Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 42

_Apollo_ was born when his mother was away from home. The Ionian legend tells the simple tale that Leto, the mother of the unborn Apollo, could find no place to receive her in her hour of travail until she came to Delos. The child was born like Buddha and Lao-tsze--_under a tree_.[159:5] The mother knew that he was destined to be a being of mighty power, ruling among the undying G.o.ds and mortal men.[159:6]

Thus we see that the stories, one after another, relating to the birth and infancy of Jesus, are simply old myths, and are therefore not historical.

FOOTNOTES:

[154:1] Matthew, ii.

[154:2] Luke, ii.

[154:3] Eusebius's Life of Constantine, lib. 3, chs. xl., xli. and xlii.

[155:1] Protevangelion. Apoc. chs. xii., xiii., and xiv., and Lily of Israel, p. 95.

[155:2] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 98, 99.

[155:3] Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 38, and _note_. See also, Hist.

Hindostan, ii. 311.

[155:4] King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 134.

[155:5] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 95.

[155:6] Some writers have tried to connect these by saying that it was a _cave-stable_, but why should a stable be in a _desert place_, as the narrative states?

[156:1] Aryan Myths, vol. ii. p. 107.

[156:2] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 259.

[156:3] See Amberly's a.n.a.lysis, p. 226.

[156:4] See Calmet's Fragments, art. "Abraham."

[156:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 321. Bell's Pantheon, vol.

i. p. 118, and Dupuis, p. 284.

[156:6] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 150, and Bell's Pantheon under "aesculapius."

[156:7] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 218.

[156:8] See Ibid. vol. i. p. 12.

[156:9] Aryan Mythology, vol. i. pp. 72, 158.

[156:10] See Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 124, and Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 134.

[156:11] Ibid.

[156:12] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, p. 255.

[156:13] See Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 124.

[157:1] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 460.

[157:2] c.o.x: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 133. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 130. See also, Vishnu Purana, p. 502, where it says:

"No person could bear to gaze upon Devaki from the light that invested her."

[157:3] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 43, 46, or Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 34, 35.

[157:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322, and Dupuis: Origin of Relig. Belief, p. 119.

[157:5] Tales of Anct. Greece, p. xviii.

[157:6] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 27. Roman Antiquities, p. 136.

[157:7] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 460. Anacalypsis, vol. i. p.

649.

[157:8] See Hardy: Manual of Buddhism, p. 145.

[158:1] See the chapter on "Christmas."

[158:2] It may be that this verse was added by another hand some time after the narrative was written. We have seen it stated somewhere that, in the ma.n.u.script, this verse is in brackets.

[158:3] See Vishnu Purana, book v. chap. iii.

[158:4] Here is an exact counterpart to the story of Joseph--the foster-father, so-called--of Jesus. He too, had a son in his old age.

[158:5] Vishnu Purana, book v. chap. v.

[159:1] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 34. See also, Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 32, and Lillie: Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 73.

[159:2] Thornton: Hist. China, i. 138.

[159:3] As we saw in Chapter XII.

[159:4] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 150.

[159:5] See Rhys David's Buddhism, p. 25.

[159:6] See c.o.x: Aryan Myths, vol. ii. p. 31.

CHAPTER XVII.