Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 89

[311:10] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 220.

[312:1] Quoted In Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 221.

[312:2] Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii. chs. xiii. and xiv.

[312:3] According to the "_John_" narrator, Jesus ate no Paschal meal, but was captured the evening before Pa.s.sover, and was crucified before the feast opened. According to the _Synoptics_, Jesus partook of the Paschal supper, was captured the first night of the feast, and executed on the first day thereof, which was on a Friday. If the _John_ narrator's account is true, that of the _Synoptics_ is not, or _vice versa_.

[313:1] Mark, xiv. 13-16.

[313:2] Gen. xxiv.

[313:3] I. Kings, xvii. 8.

[313:4] II. Kings, iv. 8.

[313:5] Matt. xxvi. 18, 19.

[313:6] For further observations on this subject, see Dr. Isaac M.

Wise's "Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth," a valuable little work, published at the office of the American Israelite, Cincinnati, Ohio.

[315:1] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. v. pp. 399, 400. Calvin, after quoting _Matt._ xxvi. 26, 27, says: "There is no doubt that as soon as these words are added to the bread and the wine, the bread and the wine become the _true_ body and the _true_ blood of Christ, so that the substance of bread and wine is trans.m.u.ted into the _true_ body and blood of Christ.

He who denies this calls the omnipotence of Christ in question, and charges Christ himself with foolishness." (Calvin's Tracts, p. 214.

Translated by Henry Beveridge, Edinburgh, 1851.) In other parts of his writings, Calvin seems to contradict this statement, and speaks of the bread and wine in the Eucharist as being _symbolical_. Gibbon evidently refers to the pa.s.sage quoted above.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

BAPTISM.

Baptism, or purification from sin by water, is supposed by many to be an exclusive _Christian_ ceremony. The idea is that circ.u.mcision was given up, but _baptism took its place_ as a compulsory form indispensable to salvation, and was declared to have been inst.i.tuted by Jesus himself or by his predecessor John.[316:1] That Jesus was baptized by John may be true, or it may not, but that he never directly enjoined his followers to call the _heathen_ to a share in the privileges of the _Golden Age_ is gospel doctrine;[316:2] and this saying:

"Go out into _all the world_ to preach the gospel to every creature. And whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever believes not shall be d.a.m.ned,"

must therefore be of comparatively late origin, dating from a period at which the mission to the heathen was not only fully recognized, but even declared to have originated with the followers of Jesus.[316:3] When the early Christians received members among them they were _not_ initiated by baptism, but with prayer and laying on of hands. This, says _Eusebius_, was the "_ancient custom_," which was followed until the time of Stephen. During his bishopric controversies arose as to whether members should be received "after the ancient Christian custom" or by baptism,[316:4] after the heathen custom. Rev. J. P. Lundy, who has made ancient religions a special study, and who, being a thorough Christian writer, endeavors to get over the difficulty by saying that:

"John the Baptist simply _adopted_ and practiced the _universal custom_ of sacred bathing _for the remission of sins_. Christ sanctioned it; the church inherited it from his example."[316:5]

When we say that baptism is a _heathen_ rite adopted by the Christians, we come near the truth. Mr. Lundy is a strong advocate of the _type_ theory--of which we shall speak anon--therefore the above mode of reasoning is not to be wondered at.

The facts in the case are that baptism by immersion, or sprinkling in infancy, _for the remission of sin_, was a common rite, to be found in countries the most widely separated on the face of the earth, and the most unconnected in religious genealogy.[317:1]

If we turn to India we shall find that in the vast domain of the Buddhist faith the birth of children is regularly the occasion of a ceremony, at which the priest is present. In Mongolia and Thibet this ceremony a.s.sumes the special form of _baptism_. Candles burn and incense is offered on the domestic altar, the priest reads the prescribed prayers, _dips the child three times in water, and imposes on it a name_.[317:2]

_Brahmanism_, from the very earliest times, had its initiatory rites, similar to what we shall find among the ancient Persians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Mr. Mackenzie, in his "Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia,"

(_sub voce_ "Mysteries of Hindustan,") gives a capital digest of these mysteries from the "Indische Alterthum-Skunde" of La.s.sen. After an invocation to the SUN, an oath was demanded of the aspirant, to the effect of implicit obedience to superiors, purity of body, and inviolable secrecy. _Water was then sprinkled over him_, suitable addresses were made to him, &c. This was supposed to const.i.tute the _regeneration_ of the candidate, and he was now invested with the white robe and the tiara. A peculiar cross was marked on his forehead, and the Tau cross on his breast. Finally, he was given the sacred word, A. U.

M.[317:3]

The Brahmans had also a mode of baptism similar to the Christian sect of Baptists, the ceremony being performed in a river.

The officiating Brahman priest, who was called Gooroo, or Pastor,[318:1] rubbed mud on the candidate, _and then plunged him three times into the water_. During the process the priest said:

"O Supreme Lord, this man is impure, like the mud of this stream; but as water cleanses him from this dirt, _do thou free him from his sin_."[318:2]

Rivers, as sources of fertility and purification, were at an early date invested with a sacred character. Every great river was supposed to be permeated with the divine essence, and its waters held to cleanse from all moral guilt and contamination. And as the Ganges was the most majestic, so it soon became the holiest and most revered of all rivers.

No sin too heinous to be removed, no character too black to be washed clean by its waters. Hence the countless temples, with flights of steps, lining its banks; hence the array of priests, called "Sons of the Ganges," sitting on the edge of its streams, ready to aid the ablutions of conscience-stricken bathers, and stamp them as white-washed when they emerge from its waters. Hence also the constant traffic carried on in transporting Ganges water in small bottles to all parts of the country.[318:3]

The ceremony of baptism was a practice of the followers of _Zoroaster_, both for infants and adults.

M. Beausobre tells us that:

"The ancient _Persians_ carried their infants to the temple a few days after they were born, and presented them to the priest before the sun, and before the fire, which was his symbol. _Then the priest took the child and baptized it for the purification of the soul._ Sometimes he plunged it into a great vase full of water: it was in the same ceremony that the father gave a name to the child."[318:4]

The learned Dr. Hyde also tells us that infants were brought to the temples and baptized by the priests, sometimes by sprinkling and sometimes by immersion, plunging the child into a large vase filled with water. This was to them a regeneration, or a purification of their souls. A name was at the same time imposed upon the child, as indicated by the parents.[318:5]

The rite of baptism was also administered to adults in the _Mithraic_ mysteries during initiation. The foreheads of the initiated being marked at the same time with the "_sacred sign_," which was none other than the sign of the CROSS.[319:1] The Christian Father Tertullian, who believed it to be the work of the devil, says:

"He BAPTIZES his believers and followers; he promises the remission of sins at the _sacred fount_, and thus initiates them into the religion of _Mithra_; he _marks on the forehead_ his own soldiers," &c.[319:2]

"He marks on the forehead," _i. e._, he marks _the sign of the cross_ on their foreheads, just as priests of Christ Jesus do at the present day to those who are initiated into the Christian mysteries.

Again, he says:

"The nations who are strangers to all spiritual powers (the heathens), ascribe to their idols (G.o.ds) the power of impregnating the waters with the same efficacy as in Christian baptism." For, "in certain sacred rites of theirs, the mode of initiation is by baptism," and "whoever had defiled himself with murder, expiation was sought in purifying water."[319:3]

He also says that:

"The devil signed his soldiers in the forehead, in imitation of the Christians."[319:4]

And St. Augustin says:

"The _cross_ and _baptism_ were never parted."[319:5]

The ancient _Egyptians_ performed their rite of baptism, and those who were initiated into the mysteries of Isis were baptized.[319:6]

Apuleius of Madura, in Africa, who was initiated into these mysteries, shows that baptism was used; that the ceremony was performed by the attending priest, and that purification and forgiveness of sin was the result.[319:7]

The custom of baptism in Egypt is known by the hieroglyphic term of "_water of purification_." The water so used in immersion absolutely cleansed the soul, _and the person was said to be regenerated_.[320:1]

They also believed in baptism _after death_, for it was held that the dead were washed from their sins by Osiris, the beneficent saviour, in the land of shades, and the departed are often represented (on the sarcophagi) kneeling before Osiris, who pours over them water from a pitcher.[320:2]

The ancient _Etruscans_ performed the rite of baptism. In _Tab._ clxxii.

Gorius gives two pictures of ancient Etruscan baptism by water. In the first, the youth is held in the arms of one priest, and another is pouring water upon his head. In the second, the young person is going through the same ceremony, kneeling on a kind of altar. At the time of its baptism the child was named, blessed and marked on the forehead with _the sign of the cross_.[320:3]

Baptism, or the application of water, was a rite well known to the Jews before the time of Christ Jesus, and was practiced by them when they admitted proselytes to their religion from heathenism. When children were baptized they received the sign of the cross, were anointed, and fed with milk and honey.[320:4] "It was not customary, however, among them, to baptize those who were converted to the Jewish religion, _until after the Babylonish captivity_."[320:5] This clearly shows that they learned the rite from their heathen oppressors.