worshiped the sun,' the moon,' the stars and all the host of heaven.' They worshiped fire, and kept it burning on an altar, just as the Persians and other nations. They worshiped stones, revered an oak tree," and "bowed down" to images. They worshiped a "Queen of Heaven" called the goddess Astarte or Mylitta, and "burned incense" to her." They worshiped Baal, Moloch," and Chemosh, " and offered up human sacrifices to them," after which in some instances, they ate the victim." It was during the Captivity that idolatry ceased among the Israelites." The Babylonian Captivity is clearly referred to in the book of Deuteronomy, as the close of Israel's idolatry." There is reason to believe that the real genius of the people was first called into full exercise, and put on its career of development at this time; that Babylon was a forcing nursery, not a prison cell; creating instead of stifling a nation. The astonishing outburst of intellectual and moral energy that accompanied the return from the Babylonish Captivity, attests the spiritual activity of that "mysterious and momentous" time. As Prof. Goldziher says: "The intellect of Babylon and Assyria exerced a more than passing influence on that of the Hebrews, not merely touching it, but entering deep into it, and leaving its own impression upon it." 1 See the Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 317, 418; vol. ii. p. 301. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3, and his Spirit Hist., pp. 68 and 182. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 782, 783; and Goldziher: Hebrew Mythol., pp. 227, 240, 242. The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 317. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3; and Spirit Hist., p. 68. Also, Goldziher: Hebrew Mythol., p. 159. The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 26, and 317; vol. ii. p. 301 and 328. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3. Dunlap's Spirit Hist., 68; Mysteries of Adoni, pp. xvii. and 108; and The Religion of Israel, p. 38. Bunsen Keys of St. Peter, pp. 101, 102. The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 175-178. 317, 322, 448. • Ibid. 115. 7 Ibid. i. 23, 321; ii. 102, 103, 109, 264, 274. Dunlap's Spirit Hist., p. 108. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 438; vol. ii. p. 30. The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 88, 318; vol. ii. pp. 102, 113, 300. Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. 3; and Mysteries of Adoni, p. xvii. Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 261. The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 21-25, 105, 391; vol. ii. pp. 102, 136-138. Dunlap: Son of the Man, p. 3. Mysteries of Adoni, pp. 108, 177. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 782, 783. Bunsen: The Keys of St. Peter, p. 91. Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 181. Bal, Bel, or Belus was an idol of the Chal The deans and Phenicians or Canaanites. 10 The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 17, 26; vol. ii. pp. 102, 299, 300. Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 110. Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 285. Moloch was a god of the Ammonites, also worshiped among the Israelites. Solomon built a temple to him, on the Mount of Olives, and human sacrifices were offered to him. (Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. pp. 84, 85.) 11 The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 153; vol. ii. pp. 71, 83, 125. Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. Chemosh." 12 The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 26, 147 148, 319, 320; vol. ii. pp. 16, 17, 299, 300. Dun. lap's Spirit Hist., pp. 108, 222. Inman: An cient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 100, 101. Müller: Science of Religion, p. 261. Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. 113, 114; vol. ii. 84, 85. 13 See note 9 above. 14 See Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, 291. 16 Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 319. This impression we have already partly seen in the legends which they borrowed, and it may also be seen in the religious ideas which they imbibed. The Assyrian colonies which came and occupied the land of the tribes of Israel filled the kingdom of Samaria with the dogma of the Magi, which very soon penetrated into the kingdom of Judah. Afterward, Jerusalem being subjugated, the defenseless country was entered by persons of different nationalities, who introduced their opinions, and in this way, the religion of Israel was doubly mutilated. Besides, the priests and great men, who were transported to Babylon, were educated in the sciences of the Chaldeans, and imbibed, during a residence of fifty years, nearly the whole of their theology. It was not until this time that the dogmas of the hostile genius (Satan), the angels Michael, Uriel, Yar, Nisan, &c., the rebel angels, the battle in heaven, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection, were introduced and naturalized among the Jews.' 1 The Talmud of Jerusalem expressly states that the names of the angels and the months, such as Gabriel, Michael, Yar, Nisan, &c., came from Babylon with the Jews. (Goldziher, p. 319.) "There is no trace of the doctrine of Angels in the Hebrew Scriptures composed or written before the exile." (Bunsen: The Angel Messiah, p. 285.) "The Jews adopted, during the Captivity, the idea of angels, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, Gabriel," &c. (Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 54.) See, for further information on this subject, Dr. Knappert's "Religion of Israel," or Prof. Kuenen's "Religion of Israel." NOTE.-It is not generally known that the Jews were removed from their own land until the time of the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar, but there is evidence that Jerusalem was plundered by the Edomites about 800 B. C., who sold some of the captive Jews to the Greeks (Joel. iii. 6). When the captives returned to their country from "the Islands which are beyond the sea" (Jer. xxv. 18, 22), they would naturally bring back with them much of the Hellenic lore of their conquerors. In Isaiah (xi. 11), we find a reference to this first captivity in the following words: "In that day the Lord shali set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the Islands of the sea; i. e., GREECE. PART II. THE NEW TESTAMENT. CHAPTER XII. THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH OF CHRIST JESUS. ACCORDING to the dogma of the deity of Jesus, he who is said to have lived on earth some eighteen centuries ago, as Jesus of Nazareth, is second of the three persons in the Trinity, the Son, God as absolutely as the Father and the Holy Spirit, except as eternally deriving his existence from the Father. What, however, especially characterizes the Son, and distinguishes him from the two other persons united with him in the unity of the Deity, is this, that the Son, at a given moment of time, became incarnate, and that, without losing anything of his divine nature, he thus became possessed of a complete human nature; so that he is at the same time, without injury to the unity of his person, "truly man and truly God." The story of the miraculous birth of Jesus is told by the Matthew narrator as follows :' "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." 1 Matthew, i. 18–25. The Luke narrator tells the story in a different manner. His account is more like that recorded in the KORAN, which says that Gabriel appeared unto Mary in the shape of a perfect man, that Mary, upon seeing him, and seoming A Deliverer was hoped for, expected, prophesied, in the time of Jewish misery' (and Cyrus was perhaps the first referred to); but as no one appeared who did what the Messiah, according to prophecy, should do, they went on degrading each successive conqueror and hero from the Messianic dignity, and are still expecting the true Deliverer. Hebrew and Christian divines both start from the same assumed unproven premises, viz.: that a Messiah, having been foretold, must appear; but there they diverge, and the Jews show themselves to be the sounder logicians of the two: the Christians assuming that Jesus was the Messiah intended (though not the one expected), wrest the obvious meaning of the prophecies to show that they were fufilled in him; while the Jews, assuming the ob vious meaning of the prophecies to be their real meaning, argue that they were not fulfilled in Christ Jesus, and therefore that the Messiah is yet to come. We shall now see, in the words of Bishop Hawes: "that God should, in some extraordinary manner, visit and dwell with man, is an idea which, as we read the writings of the ancient Heathens, meets us in a thousand different forms." Immaculate conceptions and celestial descents were so currently received among the ancients, that whoever had greatly distinguished himself in the affairs of men was thought to be of supernatural. lineage. Gods descended from heaven and were made incarnate in men, and men ascended from earth, and took their seat among the gods, so that these incarnations and apotheosises were fast filling Olympus with divinities. In our inquiries on this subject we shall turn first to Asia, where, as the learned Thomas Maurice remarks in his Indian Antiquities, "in every age, and in almost every region of the Asiatic world, there seems uniformly to have flourished an immemorial tradition that one god had, from all eternity, begotten another god." In India, there have been several Avatars, or incarnations of Vishnu,' the most important of which is Heri Crishna, or Crishna the Saviour. to understand his intentions, said: "If thou 1 Instead, however, of the benevolent Jesus, the "Prince of Peace "-as Christian writers make him out to be-the Jews were expecting a daring and irresistible warrior and conqueror, who, armed with greater power than Cæsar, was to come upon earth to rend the fetters in which their hapless nation had so long groaned, Moor, in his "Pantheon," tells us that a learned Pandit once observed to him that the English were a new people, and had only the record of one Avatara, but the Hindoos were an ancient people, and had accounts of a great many. ♦ This name has been spelled in many dif |