HPB-IU v.2 ch.10: Difference between revisions

“And Aaron shall cast lots {{Style S-Italic|upon the two goats;}} one lot for the Lord ({{Style S-Italic|Ihoh}} in the original) and one lot for the scape-goat” ({{Style S-Italic|Azazel}} ).

In connection with the semi-Mithraic sacrament adopted by the Marcosians, another Gnostic sect, utterly kabalistic and {{Style S-Italic|theurgic,}} there is a strange story given by Epiphanius as an illustration of the cleverness of the Devil. In the celebration of their Eucharist, three large vases of the finest and clearest crystal were brought among the congregation and filled with white wine. While the ceremony was going on, in full view of everybody, this wine was instantaneously changed into a blood-red, a purple, and then into an azure-blue color. “Then the magus,” says Epiphanius, “hands one of these vases to a woman in the congregation, and asks her to bless it. When it is done, the magus pours out of it into another vase of much greater capacity with the prayer: “May the grace of God, which is above all, inconceivable, inexplicable, fill thy inner man, and augment the knowledge of Him within thee, sowing the grain of mus-

This god was Herakles, the “Only-Begotten One,” and the Saviour. And it is he who was chosen as a model by the ingenious Fathers. Hercules—called Alexicacos—for he brought round the wicked and converted them to virtue; {{Style S-Italic|Soter,}} or Saviour, also called Neulos Eumelos—the {{Style S-Italic|Good Shepherd;}} Astrochiton, the star-clothed, and the Lord of Fire. “He sought not to subject nations by force but by {{Style S-Italic|divine wisdom}} and persuasion,” says Lucian. “Herakles spread cultivation and a mild religion, and destroyed the {{Style S-Italic|doctrine of eternal punishment}} by dragging Kerberus (the Pagan Devil) from the nether world.” And, as we see, it was Herakles again who liberated Prometheus (the Adam of the pagans), by putting an end to the torture inflicted on him for his transgressions, by descending to the Hades, and going round the Tartarus. Like Christ he appeared as {{Style S-Italic|a substitute for the pangs of humanity,}} by offering himself in a self-sacrifice on a funereal-burning pile. “His voluntary immolation,” says Bart, “betokened the ethereal new birth of men. . . . Through the release of Prometheus, and the erection of altars, we behold in him the mediator between the old and new faiths. . . . He abolished human sacrifice wherever he found it practiced. He descended into the sombre realm of Pluto, as a shade . . . he {{Style S-Italic|ascended as a spirit to his father Zeus in Olympus.”}}

Therefore it is but natural to find his numerous adventures, worldly and religious, mirrored so faithfully in the {{Style S-Italic|Descent into Hell.}} For extraordinary daring of mendacity, and unblushing plagiarism, the {{Style S-Italic|Gospel of Nicodemus,}} only {{Style S-Italic|now}} proclaimed apocryphal, surpasses anything we have read. Let the reader judge.

But “when all the company of the saints . . . (in Hell?) heard this, they spoke with a loud voice of anger to the Prince of Darkness, ‘Open thy gates, that the King of Glory may come in,’” thereby proving that, the prince needed spokesmen.

While he was yet quarrelling the “mighty Lord appeared in the form of {{Style S-Italic|a man”}} (?) upon which “impious {{Style S-Italic|Death}} and her cruel officers are seized with fear.” Then they tremblingly begin to address Christ with various flatteries and compliments in the shape of questions, each of which {{Style S-Italic|is an article of creed.}} For instance: “And who art thou, so powerful and so great who dost release the captives that were {{Style S-Italic|held in chains by original sin?”}} asks one devil. “Perhaps, thou art that Jesus,” submissively says another, “of whom Satan just now spoke, that by the {{Style S-Italic|death of the Cross thou wert about to receive the power over death?”}} etc. Instead of answering, the King of Glory “tramples upon Death, seizes the Prince of Hell, and deprives him of his power.”

The pious author, perhaps through an oversight, omits to complete the cavalcade, by bringing up the rear with the penitent dragon of Simon Stylites and the converted wolf of St. Francis, wagging their tails and shedding tears of joy!

In the {{Style S-Italic|Codex}} of the Nazarenes it is {{Style S-Italic|Tobo}} who is “the {{Style S-Italic|liberator of the soul of Adam,”}} to bear it from Orcus (Hades) to the place of Life. Tobo is Tob-Adonijah, one of the twelve disciples (Levites) sent by Jehosaphat to preach to the cities of Judah the {{Style S-Italic|Book of the Law}} (2 {{Style S-Italic|Chron.}} xvii.). In the kabalistic books these were “wise men,” Magi. They drew down the rays of the sun to enlighten the sheol (Hades) Orcus, and thus show the way out of the {{Style S-Italic|Tenebræ,}} the darkness of ignorance, to the soul of Adam, which represents collectively all the “souls of mankind.” Adam (Athamas) is Tamuz or Adonis, and Adonis is the sun Helios. In the {{Style S-Italic|Book of the Dead}} (vi. 231) Osiris is made to say: “I shine like the sun in the star-house at the feast of the sun.” Christ is called the “Sun of Righteousness,” “Helios of Justice” (Euseb.: {{Style S-Italic|Demons. Ev}}., v. 29), simply a revamping of the old heathen allegories; nevertheless, to have made it serve for such a use is no less blasphemous on the part of men who pretended to be describing a true episode of the earth-pilgrimage of their God!

Feared. . . . Thee not even Typhon frightened. . . .

Shaking them in thy hand, Iacche,

It does not prevent the holy man, however, from delivering prophecies about the young Buddha, which, with a very slight difference, are of the same substance as those of Simeon about Jesus. While the latter calls the young Jesus “a light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel,” the Buddhist prophet promises that the young prince will find himself clothed with the perfect and complete {{Style S-Italic|enlightenment}} or “light” of Buddha, and will turn the wheel {{Style S-Italic|of law}} as no one {{Style S-Italic|ever did before him.}} “Rgya Tcher Rol Pa;” translated from the Thibetan text and revised on the original Sanscrit, {{Style S-Italic|Lalitavistara,}} by P. E. Foncaux. 1847. Vol. ii., pp. 106, 107.

After Simeon had delivered his message to the distinguished company in hell, “there came forth one like a little hermit (?), who proved to be John the Baptist.” The idea is suggestive and shows that even the “Precursor” and “the Prophet of the Most High,” had not been exempted from drying up in hell to the most diminutive proportions, and that to the extent of affecting his brains and memory. Forgetting that ({{Style S-Italic|Matthew}} xi.) he had manifested the most evident doubts as to the Messiahship of Jesus, the Baptist also claims his right to be recognized as a prophet. “And I, John,” he says, “when I saw Jesus coming to me, being moved by the Holy Ghost, I said: ‘Behold the Lamb of God,

There is a tradition among the Greek ecclesiastical writers that the “Hæretics” (perhaps Celsus) had sorely twitted the Christians on this delicate point. They held that if Jesus were not a simple mortal, who was often forsaken by the Spirit of Christos, he could not have complained in such expressions as are attributed to him; neither would he have cried out with a loud voice: “My {{Style S-Italic|god,}} My {{Style S-Italic|god!}} why hast thou for-

He begins by arguing with Satan like a true metaphysician. “Who is that so powerful prince,” he sneeringly inquires, “who is he so powerful, and yet a man who is afraid of death? . . . I affirm to thee that when, therefore, he said he was afraid of death, {{Style S-Italic|he designed to ensnare thee,}} and unhappy it will be to thee for everlasting ages!”

Here ends the {{Style S-Italic|post-mortem}} evidence of the two ghosts. Charinus (ghost No. 1) gives what he wrote to Annas, Caïaphas, and Gamaliel, and Lenthius (ghost No. 2) his to Joseph and Nicodemus, having done which, both change into “exceedingly white forms and were seen no more.”

This news spread in all the synagogues, the Gospel goes on to state, that Pilate went to the temple as advised by Nicodemus, and assembled the Jews together. At this historical interview, Caïaphas and Annas are made to declare that their Scriptures testify “{{Style S-Italic|that He}} ({{Style S-Italic|Jesus}}) {{Style S-Italic|is the Son of God and the Lord and King of Israel”}} (!) and close the confession with the following memorable words:

And so we are perfectly warranted in repeating the amended {{Style S-Italic|Credo}} of Robert Taylor, which is substantially that of the Christians.

And in his son, Iasios Christ our Lord,

Who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, }}

523 ROBERT TAYLOR’S CREDO.

Smitten with a thunderbolt,

Dead and buried,